anywhere in the country, once upon a time, the child stops and pauses. now, you better cash the check. you better have more to say after that. that phrase is still magical. >> every week, "afterwords." >> my father, his job had been to be press attaché in belgrade. my mother wanted me to be born in prague where her mother was. i was born in prague. then we moved back to belgrade. then my father was recalled in 1938. dowas in czechoslovakia when not seize marched in on march 15, 1939. has shown998, book tv over 40,000 hours of programming, and it is the only national television network devoted exclusively to nonfiction books. throughout the fall, we are marking 15 years of book tv on c-span 2.

the bipartisan policy center commission on political reform is traveling around the country this year, engaging citizens on national unity in public service. in july, they stopped at the national constitution center in philadelphia. we will hear from pnc bank chairman jim rohr and commission members including former senators trent lott and olympia snowe, as well as susan eisenhower, vicki kennedy, and others. on the constitution center, this is an hour and 50 minutes -- from the constitution center, this is an hour and 50 minutes. [applause] good afternoon. i am former senator olympia snowe and a senior fellow at the bipartisan succotash bipartisan policy center. -- the bipartisan policy center. i want to welcome you to a national conversation on national unity. what a true pleasure it is to gather here in the great city of

philadelphia, not only the birth of america, but the genesis of what became an unprecedented experiment in governance that forever changed the face of our planet and humankind. just to think about it, the two most seminal political documents were just across the attendance mall from here. think about the fact that if we could bottle that atmospheric in that room and ship it off to congress, we would be onto something, right? [applause] rosen to thank jeffrey for his visionary and exceptional leadership. let us allow the awesome surroundings and the spirit of the founding fathers to serve as toinspiration as we convene explore americans attitudes

towards public and government service, and as well, what we moreo to ensure that americans are actively engaged in their democracy, their community, and their government. i would like to express my theound appreciation to bipartisan policy center today, and susan page, who is going to be moderating this discussion, as she did at the reagan library. today" has been invaluable partners with the bipartisan policy center and the commission on political reform in organizing these crucial forums. to be ableery proud to cochair the commission on political reform with two former senate majority leaders, trent lott, who will be here today, and tom daschle. as the former

congressman dan lipton, who you will be hearing from shortly, and former governor and senator and former secretary of interior dirk kempthorne, who will be in a subsequent panel. this really has been a truly important initiative as we move forward in engaging the american people. i am also grateful to all of the commissioners and distinguished guests who represent a wide ranging array of perspectives, backgrounds, and experiences in both the public and private sector. i am also delighted to be able to welcome pennsylvania's own former u.s. united states senator, senator harrah crawford. we are delighted to have you here. [applause] i certainly can't tell you that --represented the essence can it tell you that he represented the essence of public service. we are delighted that you are

with us today. the bipartisan policy center created the commission on political reform, and what makes it unique is that we are engaging all of you as a public in this discussion about the causes and the consequences of america's political partisan to , and-- partisan divide what we can do about it. we are a can-do people. we are a can-do country. we will be issuing a specific electoralorms both and congressional and political, as well as today's emphasis on encouraging public service and what we can do about it. we will be issuing a set of recommendations at the conclusion of all of these national town meetings. we kicked off the first town meeting, as i said earlier, at the reagan library in march. following today's event, there will be two other events. one will occur in october in

columbus, ohio, at ohio state university, and then in 2014 at the edward kennedy institute at the jfk library in boston. today, you will be hearing from ways ins, exploring which we can encourage more involvement in public service and the various aspects to public service, many dimensions to public service. tot especially, it is encourage and broaden and widen the pool of quality individuals who are willing to run for office, to work in government, but most especially, to apply their talents at all levels of government. public service, derived from the promise that it would produce results and solutions -- that has been dulled over the years, which is

probably an understatement, because of the explosive rise in hyper partisanship in overallon and the clinical system. unfortunately, as a consequence, too many successful, talented young men and women i have talked to on so many college campuses across this .ountry in thinking about running for office, they are skeptical. they do not believe they can be effective or have an impact on the world around them. therefore, they do not see attaining public office as a desirable or a viable option for their future. you will hear today about the polling that "usa today" did that underscores that unfortunate fact as well. it is a national travesty. it is one we must change.

these conversations today and the subsequent ones are really important. we have to determine how we can only the poisonous also how, inbut attaining public office, working in government, really has to be restored and regarded as a means for which we meet monumental challenges and forge great achievements. obviously, the realm of public service also encapsulates more than just running for office or serving in government. that fact is illustrated perfectly by our keynote speaker here this afternoon, who we are very fortunate to have, the former ceo and current executive chair of pnc financial services, jim rohr.

jim rohr really does example five the best and highest ideals -- exemplify the best and highest ideals. building public and private partnerships. nots a story that deserves only to be told but to be replicated. a veryr really forged strong example through pnc programs entitled "grow up great." , $350 milliony initiative that started in 2004 to implement early childhood education. jim was not content enough just to initiate the idea. he also championed the importance and significance of it to organizations across this country and even testified before the congress. that is true commitment. great," he has

been involved in so many other spheres of his life. he is the president of the federal advisory council in the federal reserve system. he has been involved and engaged in numerous cultural, educational, and a civic organizations -- civic organizations where he has gained distinguished awards, the woodrow wilson for good citizenry award. pnc has been awarded excellence in corporate philanthropy because of commitment -- their commitment to early childhood education. ceo, he wasenure as named-- his company was the great workplace award and working mothers 100 best companies. it doesn't get better than that. jim rohr exemplifies and personifies the notion of public

service at its finest, at its brightest. his contributions truly do shine a spotlight on how one person can make a difference, because jim rohr has. please give a very well -- very warm welcome to jim rohr. [applause] >> this is my best day! what a wonderful introduction. i would love to can that one. there are probably a lot of people who disagree with that. [laughter] thank you very much, senator. it is a great honor and privilege. with your unbelievable career in the senate, we have to thank you for that. we more importantly want to congratulate you for what you're

continuing to do, bringing the bipartisan nature of your office to the country and continuing to do that. thank you very much. can we have a run of applause for senator snowe? -- round of applause for senator snowe? [applause] it is great to be here at a time when bipartisanship is so important. there are a number of things i think we have to think about ourselves. in order to make sure that our country gets back on track. i want to thank the people that are here. this is a commitment to america. you are committing to bipartisanship. that is the nature of the country. one you stop and think about's -- think about what senator snowe said, what took place here 100 years ago, with the characters that rode their horses to town here to negotiate with the government would be, can you imagine what it would be like if you wrote your horse all the way from virginia? [laughter] you've got other people coming from boston and elsewhere. these people were not of common

belief. they were the most disparate group of people you could ever imagine coming from different countries, different backgrounds. different reasons for being here. yet they came together here in philadelphia and met in a forged whatay and is our constitution, the beginning of our country. it is amazing that these people worked together like that. frankly, they created something very special. to remindwe have ourselves how that was done. it was not done easily. it took some great leadership, a great deal of compromising, in order to get it right for the majority of the people in this country. you are here for this bipartisan program, probably shedding light where there is no darkness. [laughter] you people have already bought in. we all have worked together on teams. we have all partnered.

we know the teams and partnerships. i pulled some comments that came out of the congress lately that i thought were great teambuilding comments. you've probably heard these. "i thought of that already." [laughter] "i don't need your help." [laughter] "stand back and let me show you how to do this." [laughter] that always brings the team together. "if i needed your help, i would have asked for it." those are all quotes from the last two weeks. i want to make sure we are not using old things. there is no question that the divisiveness of politics has been an inhibitor to constructive dialogue, which i think is quickly important for the future of this country, and we will not get to where we need to be without actually setting aside some of our partisanship

in order to seek the solutions for a common agenda on the things that really matter. there are a lot of things that we talked about -- talk about. there are a whole series of issues. a lot of things we talk about everyday. a lot of discussion about a lot of things. we seem to miss our focus sometimes on things that are really, really important. athe trends. pessimistic we will talk about a couple of those things. i am a pretty positive guy. i am a person that really is a result of the american dream. a number of years ago, my grandfather came over on a boat from france and spoke french grid i don't know why he came. i never met him. he went to cleveland for some reason. no idea. still don't know why. [laughter] he got a job as a cook in a hotel. met,andmother, who i never him over from ireland.

got a job working, doing the laundry in the hotel. i have seen pictures of these people. relatively ordinary people. my grandmother was not quite so ordinary could she was about four for 11 -- so ordinary. she was about four foot 11 -- '' 1" in diameter. [laughter] they had one child. never spoke gaelic or french. that child was going to go to school, that child was going to go to college. he did go to college. that was my father. he was a very hard-working person. he built a restaurant. he passed away when i was 10. he gave me the opportunity to work on a farm or restaurant. it was the culture of the family, working hard. i was fortunate enough to go to notre dame and work my way through ohio state. and then, i got interviewed at

the campus of ohio state, and 40 years later, i'm still at the bank -- i was still at the bank. there are a lot of reasons to be positive. i am probably the american dream in many ways. one of the things that you get to learn about in building a company and working with the company is how important that education is and how important it is to build a team. how important it is to have a diverse group of people around you in order to have diverse ideas and have them forged together to work the team together. you have to really be able to forge that team. a speech made many years ago here, which was celebrated recently, abraham lincoln made -- when heful speech put his cabinet together, it was a team of rivals. these were very accomplished people. remarkably diverse and opinion.

in many cases, they were his opponents. he put together what he thought was the best cabinet. somehow, the team of rivals can together at a very important time in our countries history -- country's history. it is about working together as a team and having people discuss things from a bar partisan point of view -- a bipartisan point of view. you have to be honest as a team. you have to take a hard look at the issues that are really important. you have to use facts. sometimes, we do not like to use fax. -- use facts. we want to put them aside and hope it gets better. it is politically incorrect to discuss this in this way. it is easier to deal with it that way. the fact of the matter is, when you put your big challenges aside, they do not get fixed. they actually get worse. -- whyu end up having

does it always take to have -- take a crisis to fix things? leadership allows you to not have to do that, if you have some foresight and you have people who actually talk about the facts and the issues and deal with them in advance. ist is what this event about, dealing with things in advance, but i would like to talk about too big challenges where i think we are dropping the ball. -- can actually become cap become pessimistic about these things. friendly, with leadership and the kind of program we have today, i think we can get out of ahead of this and fix it, which will have far-reaching effects for our country. let's start with the hard truth. i will give you a tough one. we are failing our children. we are failing the next generation. ? why do i say that? we are going to give the next generation somewhere between $17 trillion and $20 trillion worth

of debt. we do not inherit that. the debt has doubled in six years. we did not inherit that. that is going to be a burden on the next generation. we are running deficits and it says -- in excess of $1 trillion a year. the federal reserve has bought -- has grown their balance sheet from $600 billion to over $3 trillion in order to keep interest rates low, down below 1%. if you assume that interest rates go back up to where they would normally be given this inflation, that would be 4%. that move would be another $500 billion a year in interest payments. on our debt. it is a fact. it is just a fact. it is numeric. we do not want to deal with it. we do not want to discuss it. it is a very difficult issue. that continues to grow right now.

every child that is born inherits what is the equivalent of $50,000 of the national debt. it is very, very difficult. these are things that we can deal with. i think these are things that will be a burden for the next generation. but we have to get out in front of them. buying down the interest rate was good for coming out of the recession. i think the fed did the right thing. government spending, we can argue about how much money was spent by the government, but frankly, you could not cut public spending at that time. the spending was a good thing. you can argue about whether it was too much or not, but we have to stop it now. we have to come together in order to deal with this. our debt to gdp ratio is at 75% today. five years ago, it was half of that. we have issues with baby boomers coming along with medicare and

social security and entitlements that will make it more difficult . this, as they say in washington, kick the can down the road, the issue will get bigger rather than smaller. the debt will get larger rather than smaller. it will be more difficult to deal with. i think this is a critical area where we have to come together, and we have to come together in a way that we haven't come together in the past and look at our expenses. i learned it as a banker many years ago. this is a believe it or not question. when i was first at the bank, there was a fellow who could not pay his lungs. he was a doctor making $1 million a year in 1973. that is impossible in steubenville, ohio. how could that be possible? i found out he was spending more than $1 million a year could that is why. -- a year. that is why. it is not how much you make. it is how much you spend. we have to come together and

deal with this. i think it will help the next generation. secondly, education. in 1979, we created a large federal agency to oversee the education policy for the nation to ensure "the preeminence of america's students against global competition for the foreseeable future." we funded it. laster, the budget for the department of education was $70 billion. test results tell us that the u.s. still lags behind in reading, math, and science. high school graduation rates are not improving. they are somewhere in the low 70s. that is ok with us. ok, that 25%ndards , 27% of our students do not

graduate high school? it is a very difficult burden on the future of the country. when you look at urban areas and among minorities, the rate plummets. a study of couple of years ago found that the graduation rate in the nation's 50 largest cities was closer to 50%. the city i grew up in, cleveland, less than 55% of the students graduated high school, and only 40% of the students in the city limits graduated. 60% of those kids don't graduate from high school. what are there opportunities? the numbers shift a bit from region to region, but the country. how do we expect our children and grandchildren to succeed in life with that kind of a burden that they are inheriting from us? the fundamental idea of what it means to be american and the

thought that any child who can dream will have the opportunity to pursue that dream and perhaps achieve it if they are fortunate , here in philadelphia and across the country, there are too many children born into families who no longer believe in the american dream. it,burden, as they define is to difficult. the distance is too great. but we know frankly now from studies that came out about 12 years ago that it takes 30 years to do these studies -- the surest and most effective way to provide children with the opportunity to rise above the circumstances is early childhood education. successful children grow up to be successful adults. it starts with school readiness. overreadiness translates years to higher educational attainment, better qualified workers, increased earnings. it all makes sense. children who are not prepared when the come to kindergarten are in a very difficult shape.

they are 40% less likely to need special education or to be held back a grade, and they are 70% less likely to commit a violent crime by the age of 18. they are also more likely to graduate high school and going to college. imagine what pittsburgh and philadelphia and detroit would look like if all the children were ready for school when they came to kindergarten. instead, we are throwing billions of dollars at a system that just tries to work with children who are unprepared to go to school. of the topand, one economists in the country at the university of chicago, did a number of studies, and he recently revealed some hard truths. the fact of the matter is, children without access, underserved children without access to early childhood education show up at kindergarten 18 months less prepared than their counterpart. have 25%-ords, they

50% lower vocabulary than the average child. from that point forward, the gap grows. it doesn't narrow. the gap grows. think about it. lessu understand 25%-50% than the kid next to, you are going to learn at a slower rate. shows that children who turn 18 -- these are the kids that actually go all the way through high school -- the gap is still the same or greater. we have improved a lot of things, like tell grants. $40 billion laster for pell grants, which is terrific. -- last year for pell grants, which is terrific. those grants cannot help the nearly 60% of disadvantage shall drink to fall behind and do not disadvantaged children who fall behind in do not even

graduate high school. the study showed that for every one dollar we spend on our early childhood education, we get $16 plus back in return as a society , lower incarceration, lower welfare rates. it is factual. the other fact is that many states in the country use fourth-grade literacy as the single best predictor of the need for jail cells 20 years later. , and a major issue for us it is an issue we now know how to fix. ago,c, a number of years -- the community was always a part of the culture of the company -- we asked ourselves, if we focus on something, can we do a little better? we thought we could if we focused. we asked our employees what it is that they thought was important. and said, children

education. we were fortunate at that time that these thirty-year studies were coming out, talking about how important early childhood education was for the underserved. we created what is called "grow up great." we have had a wonderful experience with it. it was a $350 million initiative. we emphasized the importance of the first five years and provided innovative opportunities to assist families, educators, and partners to aid children's learning and development. we are not in the education business. we partnered with mister roger'' neighborhood. we partnered with sesame street. we partnered with headstart. money to early childhood centers, because we are not in that business. we partner with different community organizations who work with those early childhood centers. then our employees volunteer. -- morenk a lot of it

than 27% of our 56,000 employees volunteer time at early childhood centers and they have contributed more than 350,000 hours and donated more than half a million items to the centers themselves. they feel really great about being part of that. today, the program has served approximately 2 million children. we have evidence in philadelphia of significant improvements in a kids learning up -- learning ability from year-to-year. the challenge is more than one company can reasonably tackle. we have to face it and saw that as a nation. in the state of the union address, the president echoed the call in number of us have been making for some time, you never saw access for early childhood education programs. universal access for early childhood education programs.

each community is different. i think we need to make tough decisions about how we fund these programs. they have to be funded locally and differently. most states do not require that all children be offered preschool. i handful do. -- a handful do. a handful have no preschool whatsoever. low to moderate income families have trouble affording it and need assistance to cover the cost. when we talk about a widening gap the between the achievements of the rich and poor, this is where it begins. it begins with early childhood education. it is the on ramp to social mobility in america. we have to make it accessible to everybody. we need to find ways to make the necessary investments. the study showed that this dollar we give to early childhood education -- it is not

an expense, but an investment in our future, and our kids future. we have to look at the least costly way. there are a number of ways to do it. it is not really a liberal or conservative debate. it is a matter of right and wrong. we know that the current system struggles to deal with children who come in who are underserved and haven't had that early education. it has been tried and failed. i think, frankly, when you look at the different programs around the country that are starting to build up, you see that there is some real hope. ohioans, there are a number of subsidized childhood education programs. it cost $10,500. if you do a home care center, $3000 per child. in indiana, a trust has offered

a plan to provide pre-k for all four-year-olds. is ais required, but it step towards closing the early childhood learning cap among students in the district. -- gap among students in the district. there are lots of programs that work across the country. we have to really step forward on a bipartisan basis to recognize how important this is. in pennsylvania, evan arendt dell put it in his body -- governor rendell put it in his budget. a number of governors across the states have done this. it really has to go to a national mandate. how we do it is another question. i think we can do it locally, but it has to be recognized as something we have to do nationally to solve this graduation rate problem.

being involved in this and knowing we are making a difference is one of the very best things that ever happened to me in my career. the idea that 2 million children are a little bit better off because of what we did is very important. i would encourage you to see how you can get engaged in the early stage, to restore the achieved ability of the american dream for every american child. s, speak to businesses and leaders about the importance, and partner with different people and team with different people. that is where we are much more effective. organizations like the committee for economic development, a great deal of publications that really focus on this issue. i think sometimes we sit back and say, these problems are very large, and they are very difficult to solve, but i think there is no question in our

country, we have the resources to deal with these issues. we have had a much tougher issues in the past. i think we have to look at the next generation. we have to say to ourselves, we cannot give them $20 trillion worth of debt. it would not be appropriate. burdenot give them the of such a significant number of children who are not going to graduate from high school and not ever be able to compete in the global economy. we can deal with those issues. the people that came here to philadelphia had bigger issues than those. they came together in a bipartisan way. cordially,sed it just as we have to discuss our debt and entitlements and our tax position and our early childhood education policy and work it out. i am an optimist could i do not think there is any question that leadership in this country can come together on these two major issues. if we do not solve these two issues, the rest of our issues

do not matter. the country is bankrupt. the rest of the issues do not matter. we will have a crisis that will be almost impossible to deal with. i think the leadership can come together and focus on these two big issues and make sure that every young child can pursue their american dream. thank you very much. [applause] please join me in welcoming your moderator. she's the washington bureau chief for "usa today," susan page. [applause] >> good afternoon. what a privilege it is to be at this historic place at this important moment in our nation's history. today" is delighted to be working with a bipartisan policy

center and its commission on clinical reform on the big challenges -- on political reform on the big challenges facing our country. let me introduce our impressive group of panelists. members of the bipartisan policy commission on political reform. john brittle and, former director of the white house domestic policy center and usa freedom corps. mark deguerin, former director of the peace corps and president of hobart and williams colleges. [applause] eric motley, the vice president of the aspen institute and former head of the white house personnel office. [applause] todd bernstein, president of global citizen. [applause] margaret spellings, former secretary of education. [applause]

trent lott, former u.s. senate majority leader and cochair of the commission on political reform. [applause] vicki kennedy, cofounder of the edward m kennedy institute for the united states senate. [applause] karen hughes, former undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs. [applause] morvan, u.s. army retired and managing director of got your six campaign. [applause] you can read more complete biographies in the programs for our panelists. we invite everybody here at the national constitution center, our people watching on our webcast, to join our conversation. if you are physically here, you can select one of these cards at your seat with your comment or question, and if you are digitally here, send us an e- mail or a tweet. bpc_bipartisan.

#engageusa. before we begin, here is a quick video of our colleagues at "usa today." it features some faces you are likely to recognize. [video clip] ♪ >> i am susan page, washington bureau chief of "usa today." it has long been a truism for proud parents -- their child can grow up to be president. is that really something americans still aspire to? for many, attitudes towards politicians and political office from the local school board to the lot have -- to the white house have soured. dan goodman should know pretty he served for nine terms as the congressman from kansas and then as agriculture secretary in president clinton's cabinet. he now cochairs the commission on political reform for the bipartisan policy center. >> i first ran for congress in 1976. to me, it was the glory job. it was the greatest job in the world. being a congressman or senator.

prestigious people in those positions. they were well thought of. they were put on pedestals. whether it was always justified or not, that was a secondary question. the media was generally more predisposed towards reporting positive stories. the attitude by the opposition was not a kill at all costs. at worst, politicians were viewed neutrally. at best, they were viewed positively. that is so much different than today. -- in a new national poll a new national poll, the overwhelming majority of americans say they have never seriously considered running for public office at any level. they say they are not that interested in running for politics, that politics is too vicious, and that it would be a waste of time it is politicians cannot get anything done. americans are not particularly interested in other forms of civic involvement either, like serving on a jury, being involved in government --

jury. being involved in government was never easy. these days, it is harder. obviously the deep concern about raising so much money. there is so much money in the political system, which obviously has to change could i know many people have raised the money, and also the negative ads and negative campaigns, exposing themselves and their families. >> i tell some of my colleagues and candidates -- what you say in your district 2000 miles away is 144 characters and the speed of light away from everyone of us. it is called twitter. that did not exist. my dad ran for the legislature in 1970. we watched watergate. there were riots in chicago at the democratic convention in 1968. it was a rough-and-tumble business. is now, everything immediate. everything is very open and transparent.

your time to really think through things has shrunk down. >> running for office is not the only way to help your community. more than four in 10 of the people we surveyed say they are very interested in volunteering at their place of worship, at a school, or at a homeless shelter. by more than two to one, they say the best way to make changes in our society is through local charities and faith-based operations, not through government. if in the statehouse or capital they can get things done. they wonder if it is worth trying. >> i do not blame people for being frustrated. i do not blame them for being sour on public service. >> when mitt romney was governor, massachusetts lost 40,000 manufacturing jobs. >> obama, failing to stop cheating, failing american workers. >> the mailbox is the most dangerous place in america. does that become a real disincentive for running? of course it does. who would want to put themselves through that kind of life.

i will tell you, people who are willing to take its, even though they are unfair, solve america's problems. evil who are willing to put up and endure that kind of behavior , because they know there is a greater goal of achieving. >> the only way that you're going to get people to believe the system works is if you can work on substantive problems. the process issues are interesting, how congress works, issues like the filibuster, issues like reform on the hill, but to make the american people believe that the system is on the level, you've got to get these problems resolved. you've got to do things. especially doing big things. daniel burnham, the famous architect who once said, make no little plans for they do not have the power to stir men's souls, we've got to stir people's souls. [applause] we heard dan glickman say in

the interview for this video that many no longer see public service as an honorable profession. i would like to say that is not true for us here today. let me start by thanking everyone on our panel for their service to the u.s. senate, the white house, the state department, the education department, the military, the peace corps, and the world of nonprofit urbanization. --nk you for your service nonprofit organizations. thank you for your service. [applause] i'm going to pose some questions. i would invite us to feel free to jump in with own comments and questions. i could stop you if you want to do it anyway. let me start with the other end with mark and john could we found -- john. we found changing attitudes towards the value of politics and government service. you each had long careers in public service. have you seen changing attitudes yourself, especially among younger people? >> i will begin. thank you for this panel and the

wonderful video. i will make it a habit across the country when i speak with students on college campuses to ask them a number of questions, and the first question i ask is, many of you want to run for public office? i get this wonderful woman from iran who raised her hand. most of the young people do not raise their hands. i say, how many of you would like to be appointed to some office in the white house, and then maybe you get a few hands? then i asked, how many of you would like to work for a nonprofit or start your own enterprise? every hand in the room goes up. i think this millennial generation, which is showing a civic path that is on path -- on par with the greatest generation, their willingness to they are and serve, very impatient for impact. when jim outlined the three issues that are most serious, addressing our national debt, closing the achievement gap, and

boosting economic mobility, government has to play a role in each one of those issues to affect change at scale. i think the issue is, how do we ensure that we take this energy and aptitude of millennials who , andto serve the country their interest in national service is off the charts -- how do we awaken in them the fact that through government service they can work together across party, race, ethnicity, income, people of different backgrounds to affect change? >> i would agree with him. i offer my perspective as a college president, a former director of the peace corps, during the board of the corporation for national community service. i think the millennial generation is the most cynically engaged in service oriented since the greatest generation. you see it in the numbers of students volunteering on other campuses, wanting to join the peace corps, teach for america,

americorps. millennials are very interesting generation. the genius of this effort with the bipartisan policy center and our commission is, how do we think about pathways for service to capture that sense of idealism? my own observation is it is a very pragmatic sense of idealism. very direct. that is why habitat for humanity is popular, or americorps or peace corps. direct impact locally in their communities where they can really make a difference. the good news is this is a generation with highly idealistic aspirations, a commitment to our country, but they want to see reality-based programs and solutions to do it. how we organize for that and prepare this generation is an important part of our task. >> karen? >> young people want to make a tangible difference. i spent the spring at harvard's

institute of politics. a lot of young people are interested in public service. have questions about running for office and whether you really can bring about change. i was sharing with my colleagues earlier today that in my service in government, at the state department, i had the opportunity to meet some wonderful career civil servants and foreign service officers who skype their entire career and done amazing things. i do not think those stories are heard as loudly could imagine watching the iron curtain fall and helping democracy be established in countries. imagine a friend of john bridge lane who heard about eradicating polio in a country. the opportunities that people have to serve and to make an impact and to make a tangible difference can be very great in government, and i think we need to do a better job of sharing that more broadly with a wider group of american citizens could >> chris, ash citizens. -- citizens. >> chris, you are a veteran.

here is a question we got on our website from patrick. he identifies himself as a u.s. army veteran good he asks, should -- a veteran. he asks, should military or some other sort of public service the required for public office? you wrote an article that argued if we have more military veterans in congress, we would have fewer of these nuclear option showdowns. why do you think that would be the case? >> disney, thank you for the question. susan, thank you for the question. at honored to represent us -- the city of philadelphia. thank you for coming out to watch us today. it is a good question. patrick's question makes sense. this idea that veterans in allow congressmen

and women to act in a more bipartisan manner. veterans have been trained to be leaders and team builders and problem solvers, and when they make it to capitol hill, that is precisely what they do. 35 years ago, 75% of congress had served in the military. today, only 20%. part of that is a numbers aim and demographics. we have a larger group of veterans. but part of it is that veterans are not being elected to congress even right now. losing races or retiring. we had a net loss i think of 11 veterans in congress last november, and then we had two of our most long serving veterans in the senate has to weigh after the election, so we are right about 100 veterans in congress right now. those people are the ones we should look to or this leadership.

there was a comment or a quote, where we said there was what you would not teach your children to cooperate in kindergarten, but would it not be amazing if we had a place to send future leaders to learn how to be good team players? learn how to solve problem? and to teach them about leadership? well, we do, and it is called the united states military, and we graduate people from that every year. i think it is really important to think about not only getting more veterans into congress for more bipartisanship, but even today, looking to the veterans who are in congress for some of these solutions. we have 12 amazing new veterans who just joined the house, and we have some of the first female combat veterans to serve in congress. we have purple heart winners,

aviators, and these are people who have seen military service, and it is important to be part of something bigger than yourself and to serve a purpose, and they carry that forward. it is very useful in our national leadership. we have a question we want to post to our online audience. do you believe there are adequate opportunities for people to serve in their communities? and if you would like to vote, go to the website, and we will have the responses in a few minutes, and you can always tweak or ask your question or make a comment, just use the #. there has been a comment submitted on twitter, and here is what it says. women are vastly under representative. how do we make it a safer place

for women? we founded the nation on an enormous gender gap when it came to office. everyone knows men should be in charge, right? a smaller percentage of women have said they have kids that are running. is that something we should be concerned about, and what can we do about it? >> i think we need to do everything we can to see women more broadly represented. we are more than 51st at of the population, but we are a very much smaller percentage represented in office, both at the national level and the local level. you see cabinet officials. we still have so few in the history, women who have been in the cabinet. we are so lucky to have margaret

spelling, who was our secretary of education with president bush, but women are rosalie underrepresented, and i think there are a lot of reasons. there is raising money. the life dial of having to be on the road, away, raising money. i go back to raising money, raising money, raising money. the money raised is enormous, but if you had more women whose voices were there, and i look at olympia snowe and how much the senate misses her voice, we are so lucky you are still on the road and giving your message, olympia, and so happy to be a part of this commission with you. we need women to temper the dialogue. i think women understand the teamwork that we were just talking about. i think you need as many diverse points of view as possible.

we need to have a conversation, and women tend to be pretty good at talking and having that conversation. i do not think there are easy answers to it. to call it a safer space, i would welcome the other women to talk about it. >> i am just going to say this. women, the opportunities in government for women are amazing. in fact, when i think about my own career, people ask me, how do we get ahead in government? how do we get ahead in our careers? i have found that women as sent to very senior leadership responsibility and management roles in the government that may not have been available in the private sector, so it is a great place to build and nurture and foster a very significant and impact full career, and so i think we need to advertise, if you will, to women, around young

and old alike, young and middle- aged alike, the opportunities and government are terrific and a great place to have a very successful, very impact full, very interesting career. what i think about what we have learned from problem -- programs like teach for america, the female workforce, we have learned that when you pick excellent people and send them together to a place, when teach for america started, they would send one excellent teacher into a disparate school, and that poor person would wash out after a short period of time. when you started to have three or four teachers, it grew in the school. involved in education. they became excellent, and they went on to become principals and superintendents, and they made big careers because of this public service experience with teach for america.

what senator, you heard chris talk about the impact of veterans in congress, and more women, do you think men act differently than women? 20 women in the u.s. senate. that is a record. are women more likely to cooperate, or is that not nothing you think really happens? greg first of all, we just witnessed an unusual event. it is obvious that i am a former senator, because i have been here 20 minutes and have not tried to dominate or filibuster the conversation. i could not help but inc. as i listened to the question, thinking about the situation before we came here today and even the answer is. even though i am out of congress now, i was a house number and eighth editor for 19 and worked

with olympia snowe. olympia know was my chief deputy whip, the highest ranking woman in the republican leadership up to that point. the question is, are there enough opportunities in public service or elected office? absolutely. if you want to take advantage of them, they are there. and we need to do a better job of helping young people than how do you prepare, be involved, making them aware of what you can do in federal government or elect to office. yes, sure. for women? yes. if you're going to be in congress, you need to be in washington, and quite often, you have got family back home. maybe you have another job. it is not something that pays all whole lot of money.

even though i was in on the high times in congress when we got eggs done, and i was there during some of the load times, and i worry about where we are now, but as solomon would say, this, too, shall pass, if people get involved and try to do more, so thank you for being here, and one other thing. i am excited to be here. this is hallowed ground, philadelphia, what it has meant to this country, and to be here with the bipartisan policy center, this is really great, beautiful, a wonderful place, and we need to all come here and think about what happened here and what we are going to do to preserve this republic. women do bring a difference, and i think that is good. i remember when i was majority leader, there was a group that would quite often make a decision that we were going in a particular direction, and we were prepared to go off in that direction, when somebody, or

olympia, would say, are you sure about that? would you like to think about that a little bit more? and i made a point of reaching out to the women in the senate, and i think olympia will tell you that. diane feinstein will tell you that. so i do not have any problems. in fact, i would like to see more women involved. most of the time, they have amylase. they have children. they have responsibilities. we have some women now in congress who are having children, and we have got one who is pregnant right now. i feel sorry for her in many respects because she is trying to do about four or five different tasks, and i think it is good, but i do not think we should presume that they are instantly going to bring great

common sense to the institution, but what is going on in washington now and what you hear in the media and about bipartisanship, i got very frustrated mice off with how difficult it got to get things done and negativity. if you make a mistake, you get it for days. but, you know, we are talking about that, thinking about that, and i believe in the future, we will see a different attitude. members of congress know the american people are not happy. they know that. we will make changes. so i could go on and give a filibuster, but i will stop with that. >> no issue we have in discussing today has gotten more activity on twitter than this one with the disparity between men and women and their willingness to run for public office. one says new jersey sent zero women to congress.

we should know that new hampshire no longer elects men to the state office. and another that only eight percent of women have seriously considered running for office. one writes in, i am the eight percent. and from the democratic women's club, step up. the only thing is to be part of the process, and finally, chris writes that women are clearly smarter than men. [laughter] what about the role of education? one of the pollsters in our survey said that his first job was teaching civics to ninth and 10th graders. he does not do that anymore. does anyone do that anymore? do we teach civics the way we should? >> no, i do not think we do.

if you take philadelphia, where i grew up and do my work, there is the good news/bad news dichotomy. the school district in philadelphia did a groundbreaking thing, making civics and service learning a requirement for all students, and there are many students in the city of philadelphia who come from underserved communities, who are struggling, and who do not have a sense of purpose, self-esteem, and a sense that there are opportunities for them, and what we have seen at global citizens, ongoing civic engagement, is that this is a time for discovery.

we have seen young people doing service and finding something from within themselves, so there are wonderful initiatives, including the 18 to 25-year-olds , and others are working on this exciting initiative to allow greater capacity for americans to serve either in the military or the peace corps or americorps, but i am more concerned about how we are doing with young people, and when i say young people, i mean eight years old, nine years old, and right now in philadelphia, we are facing a terrible, terrible dilemma. we came out of this school year with a deficit of 304 million dollars, and in order to bridge that gap, we got some money from the commonwealth and from the city, but as a result of that, down to about $150 million right now, there are going to be no assistant principals. there are going to be no art teachers, no music teachers, and there will be no sports programs. how many of you can think of the days, the sense of teamwork we had from having those opportunities, and the situation

in the philadelphia school district which now sees service learning eroding. 15 years ago, great possibilities, and now it does not exist. we are concerned about young people wanting to go into government or the nonprofits, and i think we need to start engaging them and challenging them to do the things for us at the earliest of age, but, of course, the great surprise is the transformation that young people feel and the possibilities for discovery. >> robert, do you want to weigh in on this as a former education secretary? more mathematics and science. eating and exercise. should this be part of it? >> absolutely, and while there is no federal mandate, and

obviously those issues are decided by states, i think most states have some sort of civic education, civic engagement tricky when that speaks to this. one of the things i am encouraged by is in the last education report card results, we started to see some increases in levels of civic literacy and engagement, so it is encouraging. i think the other thing that happens, there are tons of resources available, things that you are doing, joseph o'connor, and tools available to our teachers to teach civics and social studies and the like, but they are not very well harnessed together. maybe that is a role at the bipartisan policy commission, we can create some toolkits to allow teachers to access some of these resources more readily, and we have to start with the teachers. we have to have our teachers embed this in the preparation

program so they think it is important there, as well. >> going back to civics education. go ahead. >> it is also sort of how we talk about it, because there is something when you say civics that people tune out and do not think about it in terms of being active citizens, and when we think about it in terms of citizenship, understanding what our government is, here we are in philadelphia, where we had our constitutional convention, and i cannot help but think about that famous line of benjamin franklin, that he was leaving the constitutional convention and was asked, what do you have, a monarchy or republic? and he said, a republic, if you can keep it, and the only way you can keep it is if you understand what your government is and what your responsibilities are to your government.

and he believed that citizens had an obligation to give back tonight, and this goes back to the service you are talking about, that you all care so passionately about. it goes back to service learning in the earliest years, incorporating service into the curriculum, from the earliest years. teamwork. building teams through service, whether it is in the military, whether it is in civilian service, and that just filters up, really, into this whole notion of not worrying about the parties, not worrying about those labels, so when hopefully you do run for the office and get to congress, you are able to build that kind of teamwork, and you become active citizens. maybe this is just my dream world of what we can have, but it all goes back to that early citizenship and understanding. >> it is absolutely true.

you really do not think when you are serving someone at a homeless station if they are a republican or democrat. you are doing something that brings them together. we have lost some of the things that unite us as a people, as a country, and we need to reclaim that national unity, a shared purpose. >> you are a special assistant for george w. bush, which means you were an extremely popular man in washington for a while. >> yes. [laughter] >> what about people the president wanted in key jobs? what made them reluctant? what are the obstacles to getting the best people into government? >> i think most of the obstacles, and i should say that i had a boss who said to me with all of the staff, there were two things he said that really stuck with me, and one is that you are

not important, the work you are doing is in port and, and they were talking about when you leave the white house, be sure to get a dog, because you will want someone to love you and care for you. the invitations will stop. you will be less popular. get a dog. because men and women want to serve, and we saw them across the country. there were tens of thousands that came in every day, from college students to citizens in montgomery, alabama, two retired federalists. there are 1.9 million jobs in the federal government. 4005 hundred of those are politically appointed. there are 250 submissions. these are part-time jobs, where men and women can serve free of charge without any compensation all across the country on our boards, science boards, river and fishery boards, sewage boards, you name it. there is a board for you out there.

and every day, people were coming by our office, wanting to serve, but one of the great in pediments of the appointments process, the process of going through the paperwork, the process of being confirmed with appointment, the multitude of disclosure forms that you had to submit, and there have been many attempts to reform that process. there are a number of people, margaret spelling on a commission looking to see that we can reform the political appointments process to make it less laborious, but even though we had a very laborious process, people still want to serve. i am not convinced that if you discourage people wanting to serve -- i think we have been talking about this service. there are countless jobs and fellowship programs in the federal government, management fellowship programs, white house

fellowship programs, fellowship programs at nih, the national endowment for the arts. you name it, you can do it, and i think there are so many people who are just unaware of what great opportunities there are and how diverse those opportunities are in federal government. we need a campaign to say this is your country, these are great opportunities to serve. serving in the arts and humanities in the federal government. did you know that you can serve as a research assistant at nah -- nih? do you know you can help with the fisheries? that is part of our challenge. that is part of our opportunity to help people appreciate how great it is to serve and what opportunities there are to serve. >> there are nine people on this panel. how many of you have dealt with the confirmation? so we have had three. on a scale of one to 10, how onerous was that? >> i do not think we are

necessarily discouraging people from surfing, but it is interrupting an effective operation of government and agencies. i was concerned. the director of the peace corps, and i also served on a community service board. it is rigorous. i think there has to be transparency. but the process is laborious. the paperwork could be streamlined, which your commission has done wonderful work, but i do not know that it is about retarding service. the execution of effective government service, that is what i would be concerned about, and as a college president, they will send the fbi to your office to ask questions, and they asked me, well, we would like to speak if your neighbor is.

i live next to a fraternity. [laughter] fine. go knock on the door. >> wake them up. >> as a peace corps director, with a commission meeting read times a year, does it require those types of levels of inquiry that are appropriate? >> i think at the cabinet level, i worked at the white house for f or years -- 44 years. ---- for four years. in terms of the paperwork and back laws. to get the confirmation.

>> in the same way, i served at the white house previous the, so the fbi had already investigated me and talk to the neighbor is. but it can be a lengthy process. i was fortunate also that vice president biden was there, and i had ipod is report. there were opportunities to sit down with members of this then it -- members of the senate. they had spent years working on the issue and were able to share a lot of knowledge with the. i saw how difficult it can sometimes be to bring people in, and the lengthy waiting period, so when i left the state department, i think it took eight months for another appointee to be named and put them in the process and confirmed, so you end up with big gaps of time where these important jobs are sometimes not

filled, and i do not think that is the most effective way to govern. >> let's report the results of our first online polling. the opportunity for public service, here is what you told us. 64% yes, and we are going to ask the second question. do you favor programs that pay for education costs in exchange for public service, like the peace corps or americorps? you can vote on our website. karen, you did work for the state department. you saw politics in other countries. our american attitudes towards public service different than in other countries? >> i think the american attitude toward service is different and in a very positive way. one of the things that struck me across the country, not just in the campaign but across the world as the undersecretary of state, everywhere i went, there

were americans engaged and involved in giving to themselves to help other people, whether it was church congregations, individual americans -- i remember seeing a young american holding the hand of a man dying of aids in africa. there are people that go around the world with disasters to serve, hospital ships with volunteers, nurses and doctors, reviving health care in latin america. it really was a powerful testimony, and one of the things we wanted to do was to share that american sense of service and giving back, and to teach that in the communities around the world, we would try to get local people involved in volunteer efforts that are so much a part of the fabric of american life. it made me proud to be an american, to see the good and the way americans across the world were working to expand opportunity, whether it was with the government or the private sector or with religious congregations.

>> having lunch today with some young people from philadelphia, and also in our audience, and joseph who is with the young democrats of america asks about faith and religion forming our priorities, but contributing to this whole organization that is dividing the nation? what do you think? >> i do not think it has to. there is the interfaith youth core, and they bring people together, christian, muslim, different faiths, a common purpose, and they do not begin by talking about faith create they begin serving side-by-side to solve problems in local communities, and then they come together to talk about what was it about your faith, your christian faith, that brought you here, or the five pillars of islam that brought you here? and there are all of the world's great religions that have charity and service and compassion and a willingness to give back to one another as

fundamental tenants, and when you look back around the world, these hotspots, where people are literally warring in the names of faith that have at their core, and tenants, you see the power of not only interfaith dialogue but interfaith action, and president bush started the office of community faith-based initiative, because when we looked across the country and talk about the young people, you see these individual citizens stepping forward to tackle great things. more often than not, we saw people were working through faith-based institutions, so he tried to harness that power, and fortunately, president obama continued that, but because he saw them helping the needy and the poor. >> across the world, i think a lot of people took our american freedom of religion to mean freedom from religion. they do not understand that for many, it is an important part of their lives. to engage in this dialogue, it

was a wonderful conversation opener, to say that i am a religious person, and other people are of different faiths or of no faith at all. you talk about what we did have in common, almost every faith, they say the highest priority in my faith is to love god and love my neighbor, and there are others in the world that believe that is their priority, as well, so it opens the door to a lot of wonderful conversations. >> it should not be a problem. it should be part of the solution unless it is used to oppress or prevent a free and open society. i always had my greatest respect of men and women of all faiths, whether it was joe lieberman that i admired greatly, because he would not campaign on a saturday. that was his holy day, and i admired that. i would fly into washington, and seeing his plane sitting on the runway because he was not going

to campaign on saturday. a mormon from oregon, one of the finest americans i have ever known, and he felt very strongly about his faith. i was southern baptist, but i was always raised to be respectful of other people's faith. that is part of religious faith, i think, to have an open attitude. we know that in the world and now, it is used to abuse and mistreat people, but it should not be that way. >> i am very encouraged by people of faith and people of all backgrounds wanting to serve together and, frankly, not having the same kinds of concerns that we older folks have had, and we look back to the 2008 presidential election, and we saw -- and after, people putting these kinds of judgments on high, so i think we are very

encouraged by that. after september 11, 2001, in philadelphia, we went and met with members of the largest mosque in the city, and if you remember back to that time, there was a great deal of violence and ridicule of muslims, but also, violence against people who were not even muslims. sikhs and others who were not muslim. there were people who did not have the same kinds of aspirations. they came together. they worked at a food bank for two hours and served side-by- side. maybe we were a little nervous, because they did not know one another, but they came together in fellowship and talked and

found out that service can break down barriers. it can build relationships, and it can help us realize how much more we have in common, and as a result of that, these students from the mosque and from the jewish day school have served together 11 straight years. they have programs between the schools that go back and forth, and so i am very optimistic that if we promote public service and service at the youngest of ages, it is a wonderful way of getting away from the kinds of considerations that we sometimes have, whether it is in religion or arguing about public hollis e. >> enormous enthusiasm for the idea of mandatory public service for 18 to 25-year-old, except among 18 to 25-year-olds. [laughter] most americans over 30 thought

that was a great idea, but under 30, they thought it was not. ideas about public transit, that it was a good idea for somebody else to do. so, chris, what do you think about a year of mandatory service? it could be in the peace corps, americorps, or habitat for humanity. >> one of the things we get to do, we pay taxes, we vote, we have to serve on juries. if you are male, you have to register for selective service. i do not know if that would change soon because of females in combat, but this idea that you volunteer in a way for service, we have that to a degree already. we are not compelling people. we are not constricting people -- conscripting people into the military. an all volunteer force.

just like anyone who volunteers for americorps, who volunteers for the peace corps, everyone who serves in the military today volunteers to serve. and i think that is important, because military service inspires other types of service. in terms of making it compulsory and mandated by law, that is a tough proposition. maybe an easier proposition is to make it a cultural expectation. this idea that everybody has an opportunity to serve, and i want to interject that i was surprised as a whole that most people looked at opportunities to serve and thought they were ample because there is half a million people who did not get into americorps last year that would disagree with that. 580,000 people applied. about 80,000 people served.

so if we had a cultural expectation that everyone had a you or some short term of service, whether it was in the military, americorps, the ease score, whether it was opportunities that are certified as bona fide national service opportunities, we would create a country where everybody serves, and as john often says, you can walk up to someone in a café and say, so where did you serve? where did you spend your year of service? maybe not everybody has an answer, but most people would, and that could lead to a better cultural view of service and that people want to do something bigger than themselves, and that would elevate it, the understanding that just like you can serve in philadelphia, someone else chose to do their service on capitol hill or elsewhere.

>> you are running the franklin project, aimed at a similar idea. tell us about this. >> yes, it was named for a wacky inventor, benjamin franklin, who not only believed in a constitutional government but also started an apron society, the volunteer fire department, and the hospital. in fact, he did so much to promote citizenship and interface relationships. it was said that we should offer him a pulpit. there are people of the great world faith that supported him to his grave because he had a great vision of an acumen ago society and citizenship, so our commander in afghanistan, general stanley mcchrystal, he comes back to america, and he says for the first time in a war, less than one % of americans are serving. there was the assumption that defending the country and serving the country is someone

else's job, and he went on to call for large-scale civilian service. i love the way you framed it. when you said the way we frame it to every 18-year-old, we make it a rite of passage to serve in the army or serve in habitat for humanity. you can serve in the navy, or you can join the peace corps. you can join your service effort with your faith-based institution, and we are working with millennial's all across the country. along with dan glickman and others, these wonderful americans, condoleezza rice, and in addition to growing americorps and some of these other efforts in partnership with the private sector, creating the national service certification system, so any college and university, any nonprofit, any enterprise could create full-time national service divisions, because,

150,000 people want to serve in the peace corps, and that is like a generation of talent and idealism being needlessly lost. what? >> where i am from, if you tell me it is mandatory, you are probably not going to do it. i believe in freedom and encouraging to do things, but i must confess that i am very attracted by what you said, and i would like to encourage more participation. i like that year of participation. one thing we have talked a lot about, and we have ignored something else, the keynote speaker talked about it, one of the realities we have to deal with is our government is in a lot of debt. we have got a lot of fiscal problems. a lot of these ideas are fantastic, but the question always has to be, ok, how are we going to pay for it? and i do think that is part of our civic responsibility, too,

not leaving our grandchildren with an overbearing debt that could destroy our country, so that is a little bit of rain on the parade here. this is all well and good, but one reason we do not have a whole lot more of these positions is there is a cost factor involved, and we have to keep that in mind. >> susan, one of the powerful components, and i agree with you 100 are sent, the fema core is mobilizing national service participants and saving the taxpayers of $60 million per year, and all of these agencies are looking. how do we put people at in the national service and reduce the cost to government? >> i lost my home and community to katrina. what i saw at katrina, i will always be appreciative of and indebted, faith-based people, the eagles that came. let me

tell you, it changed the attitude of people of illegal aliens, immigrants, because we would still be in debris down there, and there were volunteers, and they came from all over the country. they paid their expenses. it was muslims and everybody, and i have never seen anything quite like it in my life, and that is the american spirit. it is there more than you realize. it sometimes takes leadership or an event to inspire it to come forward. >> the national chamber foundation, the effort, i think we need to herald some of the things we heard this morning from john, and that is what corporate america does to harness their employee core, and these are outside of the mandatory year of public service for our 18-year-olds. it is a culture of contributing to your community, and corporate america has stepped up to the

plate in amazing, amazing ways, from early childhood to the dropout issue, to the environment, disaster relief, and on and on and on, and that is part of the culture. what i worry about is we are going to chattel, like israel, our young people into something, that we are missing something in the bathwater if we just do that. >> let's take a look at the results from our second audience question. a popular idea among people watching us online, 75% yes, and we will pose our third and final audience question -- would you personally consider serving at the local, state, or federal level, if given the opportunity? here is another question from

our audience. this question is, how can we say we have great civic engagement if we have one of the lowest voter turnouts in the world? what do you think? [laughter] >> i am beginning to think. i think a great challenge and great opportunity for us is to remind citizens that we have a responsibility to the preservation of this republic. and that responsibility is engagement. we go back to education and a lack of civics that is being taught. how can you appreciate the power of your government to be transformative in the lives of its citizens if you do not understand how the government works? an emphasis on the importance of civics education, a greater campaign to waken people's appreciation for the role that

government really plays in their lives and the difference they can make. i grew up in a small community in alabama, very poor, and there was a woman who took dignity in the fact that she was a poll watcher. if you asked her anything about herself, she would work it in -- "well, i work at the pharmacy, but also a poll watcher." she appreciated the role she was playing in the community, and it was an important role. we have to encourage the imagination that whatever you do, teach america, through your church, civic organizations in your town, to service in the military that you are playing an important role in helping to preserve this great republic. >> and i think to build on eric's good points, part of what is being done with the franklin project -- there was this expectation of service, a real expectation of service.

we have seen it about military and congress, about returning peace corps volunteers -- their level of civic engagement is significant. it will develop now with teach for america alums. their level of engagement will be that much more substantive, to greater and heightened level of citizenship with voting, i would argue. >> i have people say to me, they are all the same, either one of them, it is the system. my response to them is every election involves a choice. you which one is closer to your point of view? we also, those of us in public life, have a responsibility of

recognizing the effect that nastiness, vitriol, the dysfunction of our political system now is turning off a lot of our fellow americans, and i do not blame them. >> in 1994 i served as an observer in south africa when mandela was elected. i watched people who never voted before stand patiently in line for 10 hours -- a very informed electorate who had never voted before. then i came back, primary election day in philadelphia, throughout the commonwealth, 25% of the people eligible to vote showed up. this past primary election, it was 9%.

i think it is one a combination of changing culture, working on these great initiatives to encourage people to serve and create more opportunities to serve, but also it involves a breaking down the barriers to voting. we have a controversial voter id law before the courts in pennsylvania. and it is very partisan. i would like to see opportunities for people to vote which makes it easier, online voting, where there are very few cases of fraud not to be making it onerous for people to vote. i think it is a process of harnessing all these different things. >> i was going to say the same thing about breaking down barriers to vote. if we can do secure banking online, i think we can do secure voting online. if you see you have more than

one day of voting, where you have increased voter participation, extended voting in that way, make it easier for people to get to the polls, easier to exercise the franchise, i think you will get increased participation. >> how about voting on saturday like in louisiana? i thought that was great. it is one of many things we could do to make it easier for people. i am from a shipbuilding community. it was very difficult for the shipyard workers to get to vote, and if on saturday, it would be easier, and that is one of many things we could do to make voting easier and more understandable. >> consolidating election day and school board election on some off cycle -- let's get up with primary or general elections -- there are many things we could do to encourage participation.

>> between of the skepticism is a fundamental american trait and that is what we found. almost 2/3 say they trust the federal government to do the right thing only some of the time. we did not give the option none of the time. 13% volunteered none of the time. this attitude, it does not matter, why bother, and i wonder if the panelists think that is one of the reasons we see people not wanting to vote, but not only wanting to run and work in a campaign -- does that have an effect? who would like to speak? >> sure, a loaded question here. i think karen discussed this earlier that people do not get proper education in the schools about the problems of democracy

and what we can do in government to solve them. they think of government bureaucrats, and holding up examples -- we saved a million lives over the last decade from malaria in africa. that was largely because the government went from a $35 million investment to a $1.2 billion investment and brought to world together around saving all these young mothers and children. jim mentioned high school graduation rates. the good news is after four presidents set a goal of 90% high school graduation rate, for the first time last year we were able to report that the nation was on pace to make that graduation rate. i asked cokie roberts, good news is not news.

it has to be cynical and divisive and partisan. i think there is his effort called the partnership for public service. they hold up people in government and look at exhibit a olympia snowe, dan glickman, harris walker -- if you do not think voting or leadership matters, think about what they have been able to accomplish. we need to resurrect that in people. >> i have faith in the government only some of the time. i know there are a lot of good people doing their best in trying to make it better, and they have to answer to the superiors, but i have to remind people we are still healing with human beings. people have preferences, prejudices, abilities, lack of abilities, but i spent a number of years in the house and senate as the whip, majority and minority. i analyzed the demographics of

every member who i was trying to influence. it was obvious to me, people talk about their congressman or senator, they put them there, and most of the time they reflected the makeup of the demographics of the congressional district they were from. that was true in my own case. i was born in a rural area. we lived on the coast. i was involved in the fishing industry. district after district, while there are exceptions, most of the time what you get from government is what you put in to government and who you elect. >> i think it is going to the senator's comment, and there is a disconnect in the way people think about their service in their communities and the

service of those who represent them. at the lunch today, i met a lot of young people serving in a lot of capacities, and governor granholm, she spoke and said to them that their service was not about that, it was about something there, it was not about you, it is about everybody. they figured and shook their heads yes. i wondered and i did not ask, i wondered, what if we asked them about service at the federal level, about service in congress? is that not about you? many of them had the perception that the people who run for office, who take the federal positions, it is many times about themselves, and it is a larger question among with lots of factors involved. i do not know if the perception is right, but it involves the electoral process, it involves

campaign finance, it involves the way the processes occur on capitol hill, and i want to table this for later, because that is the next stop on this tour, to talk about electoral reform -- and the public service perception at the ground level and the way people look at their service in congress or at the federal level. it was interesting, enlightening what these young people who are dedicated to service were thinking. >> we asked would you currently consider serving in the local, state or federal level? here is what you told us. by three to one, people would be willing to service. that in encouraging.

a couple more comments. one, public service means stepping up on your own and not waiting for the government to do it. from cindy, i believe public service should be requisite for most persons receiving public assistance. is that feasible? and here is one, how is it so many public servants get rich from public service? and a tweet from ted -- has washington become a modern day politburo, leaders who can no longer serve the people? anyone say yes? >> want to take the mike?

>> have congress people become a modern day politburo, out of touch with the people, that federal officials, members of congress, others in washington are really disconnected? >> i want to quote a great political leader, trent lott, who just said five seconds ago you get the government you deserve. i want to echo something and experience that eric had -- whether you want hank paulson to serve as secretary of the treasury or fill in the blank, some wonderful person, people will serve when tapped on the shoulder. sometimes you have to say we need you. if i had a nickel for every person who served as the bush who said when the president asked you to serve, you served. i am sure that is true on your side of the aisle, vicky. i think americans have that in their dna.

we got to go find them, too. >> i do not think we have become a group of elitists. have you looked at the house lately? they are very reflective, and i do not mean that in a negative way. most of them are not wealthy. most of them make a sacrifice. when you talk about the amount of travel, going back and forth, the time away from family, the fund-raising, and what you are paid when you have to maintain some living arrangement in washington and some living arrangement back home, because if you don't, people will say he has gone off to washington and he is not one of us anymore. it was a great honor to serve in the congress, and i appreciate every moment i was able to represent the people of my district and my state. but one of the reasons why left when i did, when i retired, was because i got to the end of my line. with hurricane katrina, i cannot pay my bills. you may find that hard to believe, but one of the things i

did not like, i got tired of raising money around the clock. senate races in went from costing 2 million bucks if you ran statewide to $40 million in a state like south dakota. the fund-raising chase is a real problem. you might say, what is your solution? i have not figured that out yet. i do not want government to pay for it. i do not want the taxpayers to pay for it unless they choose. there is that other side. i do not think it is a politburo. i do not think they are a bunch of elitists. you know what the one word that describes what is not right about washington now? leadership. men and women that are willing to say we are going to get the results on a farm bill, on immigration reform, on the budget, on water resources, on infrastructure.

we are going to get it done. it takes leadership to say we have to have tax reform by november 1 because it is going to the floor of the house. that is what it takes. if your leaders take that kind of position, they could lose their leadership position. but why are you there if you are not willing to take a little risk and try to do what is necessary for the country? i think that is something we need to think about. i think right across the board we need women and men will say we are going to deal with this. i am from a state where i got three democrats because i tried to pass immigration reform in 2007. i felt like we needed it for our country, not just because of illegals, because our legal system is a disaster. if you have a talent and ability, something you could offer, a physicist from sweden, you can almost not get into

america if you try to do it legally. we need immigration reform so we need immigration reform so the people that are here can live a life of dignity and so we can control it in the future and we can encourage people who want to come to this the can of freedom -- this begin of freedom, can get here in a sensible way. we need people willing to put their neck on the line. this is a little partisan -- i am a fan of marco rubio. i talked to marco about his effort on immigration reform. i said, you need to do this. if you do it, it is going to show courage of leadership. know this, no matter what happens, pass or fail, you are going to get hammered from the left and right. so be it. i think people are hungry for leaders that will say, this is right for the country. i'm going to do it. follow me. [applause]

>> why should i follow that? [laughter] when i left the white house working on political appointments, i had the good fortune of going to the state department and working for ambassador hughes, running fulbright programs. it was there that i discovered who really makes the government work. it is all the countless men and women who work as careerists and work in the foreign service. he also have to be reminded that there are thousands of men and women who accept the challenge to serve who are not elected officials, who added enormous value, and that gave me great confidence in our government and great confidence in the citizens not giving up and really investing in this great american enterprise. great -- these are great words to close with. i want to thank our panelists for being with us today.

[applause] please let me also thank the bipartisan policy center, the cochairs of the commission on political reform, the national constitution senator chuck provided this wonderful venue for us. our audience here in philadelphia, and online, thank you all. he hoped to see you this fall for our next town hall at ohio state university on october 15. now we are going to take a short break and we will be back with a great panel of former governors. stay with us. thank you. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2013] >> in his weekly address, president obama discusses his proposal for military strikes against syria. senator john barrasso from wyoming gives the republican address.

he criticizes the health care law and its impact on jobs and the economy. >> almost three weeks ago in syria, more than 1,000 innocent people -- including hundreds of children -- were murdered in the worst chemical weapons attack of the 21st century. and the united states has presented a powerful case to the world that the syrian government was responsible for this horrific attack on its own people. this was not only a direct attack on human dignity; it is a serious threat to our national security. there's a reason governments representing 98 percent of the world's people have agreed to ban the use of chemical weapons. not only because they cause death and destruction in the most indiscriminate and inhumane way possible -- but because they can also fall into the hands of terrorist groups who wish to do us harm. that's why, last weekend, i announced that, as commander in chief, i decided that the united states should take military action against the syrian regime. this is not a decision i made

lightly. deciding to use military force is the most solemn decision we can make as a nation. as the leader of the world's oldest constitutional democracy, i also know that our country will be stronger if we act together, and our actions will be more effective. that's why i asked members of congress to debate this issue and vote on authorizing the use of force. what we're talking about is not an open-ended intervention. this would not be another iraq or afghanistan. there would be no american boots on the ground. any action we take would be limited, both in time and scope designed to deter the syrian government from gassing its own people again and degrade its ability to do so. i know that the american people are weary after a decade of war, even as the war in iraq has ended, and the war in afghanistan is winding down. that's why we're not putting our troops in the middle of somebody else's war. but we are the united states of america. we cannot turn a blind eye to

images like the ones we've seen out of syria. failing to respond to this outrageous attack would increase the risk that chemical weapons could be used again; that they would fall into the hands of terrorists who might use them against us, and it would send a horrible signal to other nations that there would be no consequences for their use of these weapons. all of which would pose a serious threat to our national security. that's why we can't ignore chemical weapons attacks like this one -- even if they happen halfway around the world. and that's why i call on members of congress, from both parties, to come together and stand up for the kind of world we want to live in; the kind of world we want to leave our children and future generations. thank you. >> hi. i'm dr. john barrasso, united states senator for wyoming. as a doctor who took care of patients for 25 years, i saw the problems with america's health care system every day. there's no question we needed real reform -- reform so that people could get the care they ne,