>> standards and poors estimated the shutdown has taken about $24 billion out of the u.s. economy. some members of congress tweeted their thoughts and remarks about the shutdown. congressman michael mccaul said the president must negotiate in good faith.

>> also congressman robert pittenger says -- a real crisis is a failure to live within our means. republican and democratic leaders met for breakfast this morning as they began talks at solving the budget problems. here's what they had to say after the meeting. >> we just want to say that the four of us, the ranking member of the senate budget committee, the ranking member of the house budget committee, chairman of the senate budget committee, and myself, we had a very good conversation. we decided how we are going to proceed over breakfast. we want to look for ways to find common ground, to get a budget

agreement. our goal is for the good of the american people. to get the debt under control. to do smart deficit reduction. and to do things that we think the economy needs to get people back to work. those are our shared goals. we are going to try to find how we can reach common ground and create a budget process that achieves that. that's what we are beginning to talk about. >> chairman ryan is right. good conversation over breakfast this morning as we begin the challenge that has been handed to us over the coming few short weeks. we believe there is common ground and showing the american people that as a congress we can work and make sure that our economy is growing and that people are back to work and we can do the job we were sent here to do is to find common ground between our two brukeses -- budget resolutions and a path forward for congress to work on. >> some people ask why this time will be different, what i would say is not talking guaranteed failure.

talking doesn't guarantee success, but if you don't get together, obviously you can't move forward. nobody can guarantee success, but what we can say is if we don't make the effort and get the other talk, that would guarantee death. america online chairman murray is very knowledgeable about these issues and a strong leader. talked to deam of the democrat senators last night. they were excited about being on the conference committee and look forward to participate. there are a number of things i know we can agree on and i hope .e could agree on we don't want to raise expectations above our reality, but i think there's some things we could do. paul ryan as most of you know has dedicated himself for many years to mastering the failings of this budget so i think his

leadership puts us in a position where we can come with something good. i hope so. certainly the conference will be helpful. >> some you were on the supercommittee, is there an amount in deficit reduction you are aiming for? >> let me answer that in terms of supercommittee. the supercommittee's goals were much broader, much larger. we have a challenge that's been handed us to have a reconciliation between the senate budget and house budget. and those issues are on the table. we'll be talking about all of them. and our job is to make sure that we have put forward a spending cap and a budget cap for this congress in the next year or two or further if we can. >> it's too literal to get into numbers. we are just starting discussions. we are going back to regular order. this is the budget process. the house passes a budget. the senate passes a budget. you come together to try to reconcile the differences.

that's the way we are supposed to do things. that's the way the budget law is supposed to work. this is how the founders envisioned the constitution working. we want to get back to that. we haven't had a budget conference since 2009. we think it's high time we start talking together to reconcile our differences and it's premature to get into how we'll do that. we are just beginning these conversations. o yes or no questions. [inaudible] >> our job over the next eight weeks is to find out what we can agree on. we have agreed that we are going to look at everything in front of us and know it's going to be a challenge, but we believe we can find common ground. >> what expectations can you get to the americans you guys keep negotiating. >> we want smart deficit reduction, build the economy, we think the budget process is the way to do that. my concerns speak for itself. i want to have a budget agreement that works for the contry.

i want to have a budget agreement that gets this debt and deficit under control and helps us grow the economy. we'll see if we can find an agreement to do that. >> chairman ryan knows i'm not going to vote for his budget. i know that he's not going to vote for mine. we are going to find the two common -- the common ground between our two budgets that we both can vote on and that's our oal. > you don't. >> negotiators met earlier today. president obama is scheduled to make a statement about the economy and the way forward after the 16-day government shutdown. his remarks live this morning here on c-span beginning at 10:35 eastern. the house is not in session

today, but we will also hear from house democratic leader nancy pelosi. she holds her weekly legislative briefing at noon eastern. we'll likely hear more about the ending of the government shutdown and return to work for federal employees. that begins live here on c-span again at noon eastern. also today, today's white house briefing with spokesman jay carney. that will start at about 1:30 eastern. we'll have it here for you on c-span. earlier today we spoke with a capitol hill reporter about some of the details in the deal reached to end the government shutdown. from today's "washington journal." >> to start off with the house and senate, can you cast what's expected over the next couple of months specifically with these talks? >> they begin at least with a photo-op this morning, the four leaders of the two budget committees, mr. ryan for the house republicans, senator murray for the senate democrats, senator sessions for the senate republicans, and chris van

hollen for the house democrats are going to meet for breakfast and the cameras will be allowed in to take a picture of that. that will signal the beginning. we think after that mr. ryan and senator murray may actually have some serious discussions to see where they can go. now, i should note from the outset that the two democrats voted last night for the bill. and the two republicans voted against it. there you go. that should be as much of a signal as any that there has been no magic fairy dust poured down on congress in the last 24 hours to make them agree on any of the things that they have for so long disagreed about. of course revenue is the number one word in the budget negotiations ahead. the republicans have foresworn any consideration of raising additional revenue as part of a budget deal, and the democrats

in turn have really foresworn consideration of any of the restraints to so-called entitlement spending, the mandatory programs that are the real drivers of the annual deficits and therefore the debt. medicare, medicaid, sths. they have foresworn much discussion of that unless the republicans put revenue on the table. host: also weave into this discussion about the see quester levels and how much of those levels will become part of the ongoing discussions because i'm sure there are those who still want to see those levels of spending held to. guest: that's right. you're walking perfectly into where i was going which is i think it will become relatively clear pretty early on that they are not going to get any sort of grand bargain. in the trillions of dollars of budget savings. that's just not going to be possible. and the discussions will relatively quickly go to the sequester and whether to mend it

or end it or turn it off altogether. and that that really might be the best they can do by december 13, which is their stated deadline for getting a budget resolution. the -- almost all democrats and many republicans want to turn off the sequester. i think minimumly they want to allow more flexibility for the agencies. there is no flexibility under this deal. there is no additional flexibility for the agencies to spend money differently than the across-the-board fiat dictates over the next few months. probably it would take about $50 billion in additional spending, discretionary spending a year to make the -- to make the people who are anxious about the sequester happy. in the good news is that all these past budget negotiations there's probably a roster of about $500 billion in

ther cuts that exist that both sides are open to. so in theory they could come up with that list. they could all agree to settle on that list of $500 billion over 10 years in spending cuts to pay for easing the discretionary spending burden of sequester. host: using your piece about this posted last night on "roll call" you say it would also raise the likelihood soon after lawmakers return from their midterm election year they would defight odds again by enacting a pack and of policy changes. talk a little how 2014 influences this. guest: 2014 influences it by -- you read the line right before i said, yeah, probably none of that will ever happen. 2014 influences this because the midterm election, midterm primaries start early as you

have heard mentioned many times again. most members of congress if they face any re-election trouble at all, they face it from their own side. this is true especially of republicans who if they face re-election trouble it's from a challenge from their right. so that also argues against any magic formula in which the republicans would agree to raise taxes or the democrats would agree to cut deeply into entitlements. it's just not in their best interest. in the short-term political interest to do so, and right in the piece of their re-owe lection races. host: david hawkings joining us, the most interesting thing you have seen over the last couple of weeks. what would that be? guest: i think the most interesting things i have seen would be something i was told that i heard, which was that the republicans saying -- sang amazing grace two mornings ago before the meeting at which they

took one final -- house republicans took one pine 7 -- final run to win something out of this. probably the most misguided choice of a hymn, song ever, ever in the history of congressional politics. because it's a song about funerals. a song most often sung at funerals. a song most often sung by people who feel they need to repent. and by people who feel they have found something that has eluded them. in all three cases probably not the best choice of optics or at least spherics for the house republicans. host: david hawkings with "roll call." thank you as always. >> you should know that president obama will make a statement about the economy and the way forward following the government shutdown. we'll have his remarks live this morning here on c-span starting at 10:35 eastern. the u.s. house is not in session today. house democratic leader, nancy

pelosi, will hold a legislative briefing starting at noon eastern. we do expect to get more about the ending of the government shutdown and to getting federal employees back to work today. live coverage here on c-span again. that starts at noon eastern. and today's white house briefing with spokesman jay carney starts at 1:30 eastern. we'll have that live here on c-span. more congressional reaction this morning via tweets. oklahoma senator, tomko burn says we don't need -- tom coburn says we don't need short budget extensions. >> more reaction to the house and senate votes to end the shutdown.

this morning's "washington journal." host: steve from the "wall street journal" to talk about the events from yesterday and moving forward. thanks for joining us. i guess -- we start, lessons learned over the last two weeks from your perspective. guest: one of the lessons for republicans is, you can't win this kind of fight against the president when you're not unified. the truth is the republicans were never kind of unified behind the strategy of defending obamacare. editorial page said from the beginning that there's no one american it more than we do. this president was very unlikely what happened yesterday was this was a story that was not going to have a happy ending. i agree with -- i was listening to the show earlier. in general i would agree with a

lot of your callers. you can play the political game because he forced republicans to back down, the truth is we passed a huge new extension of our debt and we didn't do anything about it. the band plays on. we keep whizling dixie as our debt continues to mount. as an economist i'm worried about. host: now we have this house-senate conference about to take place, talk about the budget, do you find any comfort or at least see any -- viable way forward. guest: do you know how many commissions i have seen in the last 20 years? i think it's laughable they created that. i want to make sure your viewers understand one important point. they only extended the debt ceiling by six weeks. they only extended the budget for 60's weeks. it's possible you and i could be sitting in this chair six weeks from now talking about the ex-- exactly the same thing.

i'm not sure the republicans have a stomach for a big shutdown fight. don't think it's likely we'll see another government shutdown. we could very possibly see another big fight over the debt ceiling come january or early february. host: holding on, not raising. guest: who knows? the one thing that republicans -- one thing that's been forgotten about this whole debate is republicans have been playing with a weak end. they do have one thing that the democrats want to get rid off. the ace under the sleeve for the republicans is the sequester and the budget caps. democrats want to spend more money. very eagletory get rid of that or suspend it. so you could -- very eager to get rid of that or suspend it. so you could see a negotiation, frame, president obama might say, look, we have known from the debacle of the exchanges for the last 12 days this isn't ready to go. not ready for prime time. i have heard the statistics.

.3% of people went on the website and got through. possibly one year delay in the mandate for individuals and the penalties in exchange for say one year suspension of the budget caps. just throwing that out this one kind of possible idea. the other question is whether they'll get serious about some of these other big entitlements like medicare and social security and medicaid. host: taxes will be a sticking point? guest: taxes are not going to go up. i can guarantee that. republicans are not going to agree to raise taxes because they'll make the case, president obama just had his giant tax increase in january of this year. host: steve moore with the "wall street journal." again joining us for -- until 8:30 to talk about event from this week and going forward. the numbers will be on your screen, 202-585-3881 for republicans. 202-585-3880 for defments 202-558-3882 for independents. federal workers give your thoughts, 202-585-3883.

joseph, albany, new york, republican line. go ahead. caller: i had an idea. i was sitting here and thinking myself, since i cash my paychecks. stick a gum or whatever it might be. people have a tendency to sleep on the masses. i'm thinking to myself if you could take $52 a year times 280 million people for five years, that's a lot of money. i'm sure it's not enough to pay the whole deficit, but it's a good start. i would take it from everybody. welfare, social security, paychecks. and i would recommend, take it probably once. if you take $52 out of somebody's welfare check one time out of the month. they have 11 months to make up that $52. host: you could find sources anywhere to get money from, is that what you're saying?

caller: i remember in 1992, 90 million cars went through the freeway. it cost 20 cents. they probably got a quarter and wait for that nickel. you charge that 25 cents, that five lousy extra cents. host: anything from that? guest: i'm not in favor of nickeling and diming americans to death, but i do think actually this gentleman raises an interest point. if you were to cut government spending by one penny out of every dollar it spend this year, then another penny next year, and a penny the year after that, you would go a long, long way to dramatically reducing this budget deficit. the good news is we are going to get this deficit down to somewhere between $600 and $700. that's still a huge number, but it's digressed from the $1.2 trillion we had. if we could get america back to work, and we could get the 20 million people who don't have full-time jobs or no job at all into work, that would do a lot.

when you ask about raising taxes, you don't have to raise taxes, you have to get people working so they are paying taxes. host: clint. clint is from texas. he's on our democrats line, hi. caller: hi. how are you this morning? host: fine thank you. go ahead, please. caller: i just wanted to make a few comments. i noticed during this fiasco i used to be a republican, i have changed it. i'm going to democrat. after i have seen what they did in the house. one, they changed the rules in the house i believe to where the speaker of the house was the only one that could bring a bill to the floor, which i think is wrong. that's close to being a dictatorship to me. but what really bothered me was, the president told people up front, i will not negotiate on the health care bill. grant you there's some problems with it as far as people trying

to enroll in it. however, the hits they had on there show that people do want to get into that program. grant you they should have had a but i don't know. testimony some of them are just -- it was ill planned in the first place, but -- host: thanks, caller. guest: couple things. the one is it's interesting i remember when the democrats ran the house and republicans used to complain about the same thing, that they couldn't get anything to the house floor when tip o'neill and nancy pelosi ran the house. actually it's not new that you get speakers that really run the show. that's the way it works. the senate by the way is very different. any senator can bring up any amendment at any time. although harry reid's prevented that from happening. i think both sides are to blame.

i think republicans shouldn't have gotten us into this crisis in the first place. and i think the president has incredibly irresponsible in not negotiating and contributing to bring us right up to the brink of this potential financial fiasco. fortunately we have gotten out of this, but as i said, i'm not so sure we resolved any of the issues here. we still have obamacare, which is not just a really -- all the problems with the exchanges and how it's going to increase our deficit, but also what i worry so much about is what it's going to do to employment. i talk to employers all over the country, i travel to lot and talk to business men and women. they tell me they are not going to hire more than 50 workers. they are not. some have 65 workers say they are going to cut back. i also talked to a lot of employers, for example in the fast food restaurant. the fast food industry is the biggest employer in america, five million or six million people. they say they are cutting back their hours to 28 hours a week. for people who are lower income, who need a full-time job, that's

a real hardship. that's because of the obamacare mandates. host: you're a member of the editorial board. you are editorial deals with ted cruz. what is that about? guest: i know ted cruz very well. i like him. he came to town and made a big, big difference in his first six months here. i would also say and i told senator cruz this, i think your strategy probably was flawed. when you didn't have the senate republicans behind you, it was just going to lead to a division within the republican party. i think he is -- his goal was absolutely admirable. i'm not so sure the tactical way was carried out was smart. >> the "washington post" picks up on ted cruz in a larger sense, smaller sense in its editorial this morning. here's what they read about going forward. that won't be easy in part because well funded apparatus headed by outside groups such as club for growth and heritage action stand behind the cruz faction. to any house member or senator

who does not toe its line. >> that's the way the political system works. when i started the club for growth 12, 13 years ago, the idea was to create more competitive primaries and try to get a change in the bloodstream in congress. by the way i think 90% of americans would agree we need to just totally change the composition of congress. democrat and republican. these guys did not serve the american people. that they are serving special interests. and maybe if we have -- the one thing i have been passionate for the last 20 years, what happened the last couple weeks is such a monument for this, is term limits. they should serve six years in the house and be gone, 12 years in the senate and be gone. let more representative group of people who aren't just lawyers be in congress. host: the tea party a help or hindrance to speaker baner? guest: i think right now it's a huge hindrance. the tea party, it's interesting, the leadership of the tea party i think has made some tactical mistakes here.

and i think it's given the tea party movement a black eye. you know this, you meet the people in the tea party movement, they come here to washington, they are on the mall, these are people from all walks of life. black, white, hispanic. people who just care about the future of our country. we may disagree -- it does trouble me when people say, these are just jihadists and terrible people. with a bomb strapped to their backs. you may disagree with what they want to do, but they want to balance the budget, get back to constitutional government, get rid of this health care law, and they want a prosperous economy. i think we all want that. host: do you think it will be as much of an influence going forward? guest: good question. i'm not sure about that. i think there are a lot of republicans who say, wait a minute, you are the ones who led us down this path that didn't work out so well. i think their influence in the short term has been diminished because of this. host: back to calls. pat from philadelphia, pennsylvania, independent line.

also identifies as a federal worker worker -- federal worker. go ahead. caller: ok. really happen -- happy to hear mr. moore say most people think our representatives are working for special interests. that's pretty obvious. but then he also talks about the entitlement cut for the small people when big business pays very little taxes or none. i'd really like to know what mr. moore's thoughts on that -- on trying to get some more revenue fromlike g.e. who make $5 billion and pay nothing in 2010. i understand there's about 40% of corporations who pay nothing. what's up on that? guest: great question. again this is another one of my passions i have been working for 25 years for tax reform. i think everyone, even president obama, agrees corporate tax system is complete nuts. i would call it head start program for every other country

that competes against the united states because we have the highest statutory tax rate in an industrialized country. that's not good for american business and jobs. and as this woman was saying, you get some companies that pay nothing. that's completely unjust. i would favor a much lower rate system that gets rid of all the loopholes. all the loopholes. all the credits and deductions. i would do the same thing on the individual side. my goodness we could get our tax rate down to 17%, 18% if we got rid of the special interest loopholes to housing, charities, state and local governments, and on and on. host: maverick, contrast this shutdown with prior shutdowns and tell me how republicans could have won. guest:ing it -- interesting question, i remember in 1995, 1996 i was working for the republicans in the house. a similar situation.

i think what was different then was bill clinton was negotiating. the republicans negotiated with bill clinton. bill clinton got most of what he want, but republicans got some concessions from the president. we moved on. what was different about this one is the president said i'm not negotiating. act like a spoiled child. he always thought he had the political upper hand, which he probably did in the end given the fact that republicans caved in. i'm not so sure the republican -- president is a big winner here. i think a lot of people just see disgust with republicans, but also with the way the president behaved and not coming up with some kind of negotiated settlement that would have made sure that as we write another $1 trillion of higher debt allowances that we are going to do something to get the budget under control. this is one of the first times in a long time we raise the debt ceiling with no conditions attached. host: how much that have also factored into the continuing

roll out of the president's health care plan and its success? guest: i'm not sure i understand. host: how much of the president's, i guess the people think of the president time will depend -- guest: i think he certainly staked his presidency on the success of obamacare. that's one of the reasons he was not going to cave in on anything that would roll it back. i was always of the opinion, look, if obamacare is going to fail, which i think it will, let it proceed. let the thing -- let the american people see how it works. if within a year or two they like it it will be the law of the land. if they don't, i don't know if you remember this, back in late 1980's, we had this medicare expansion bill, we think it was catastrophic care. and the seniors hated it. it was one of the few times the american -- in american history a new entitlement program was repealed because people said we don't like this. i think there's a good probability as this moves on,

people see how many jobs are being destroyed. how their costs are going to increase. i can't tell you how many people who -- 90% of americans already have health insurance. their big worry is wait a minute i'm going to get something worse out of obamacare than i have now. host: roy from new castle, pennsylvania, democrats line. go ahead, roy. caller: yes. on -- everybody you listen to they tell you that 40% on every dollar spent by the government is borrowed. but what that tells me, being an american, is that every government check coming through is 40% coming through as being borrowed. if the president makes over $400,000, $160,000 of his pay could come from china. and every state representative that gets $174,000, over $60,000 of their pay could come from china. the worst part of this is, i

have been working since i have been 15, and i have been paying into social security, and i finally going to get there, and i'm going to apply for it tend this year, and over $600 of my moon money that i paid in and earned all my life could be borrowed from china. and they cannot even take 3% on a sequester? they got to go -- cut that back at least 40%. host: thank you, caller. guest: sounds like more a republican than democrat. first of all one of the interesting things that's happened over the last year we have had this sequester cut. 5% cut. you know what? it actually worked pretty well. there were some hardships at the beginning. the president tried to shut down the air traffic control system and so on. the american people know, 20, 30, 40 cents of every dollar spent in this town is wasted. when we do a 5% cut, which we are coming to the end of this year, it will probably be a 2%,

3% cut next year, that's not a bad way to cut spending. when you talk to private businesses and private households, what they did in this recession which is still going on, people cut back on their expenditures. they have . to businesses retooled. they got rid -- they sweated out the waste in their programs. that's what government has to do. i agree with this the gentleman. there is more room for that. and the military by the way has taken a big part of the cut here, there's a lot of waste-dirnl' nor a strong defense, but there's a lot of waste in the military, too. host: the discussions over the budget coming up deal with replacing sequester. guest: i'm not in favor of that. the democrats -- lot of these programs they care about. education programs, energy programs, national public radio, those kind of programs. they are getting hit by the sequester. this is the potential negotiation of maybe suspending the sequester for a year to get

real entitlement reforms. whether that happens or not -- one thing you got to realize, these -- this is like the hatfield and mccoys right now in washington. the republicans and democrats are -- they hate each other right now. and this is one of the unfortunate fallouts of this. this president said he was going to unify everyone and bring everybody together. i don't know about you, you have been here a long time, too, i have never seen it so divided. it's become personal. host: the president even said yesterday, the democrats are saying the next thing on the agenda is immigration reform. guest: i'm strongly in favor of immigration reform. for those watching the show who are immigrants, i think they are great assets to our country. i would love to see this get done. we have a lot of people here who are illegal, who if we could find a way for them to earn citizenship or at least earn a green card i would be in favor of that if they are working and contributing to our society. we need a lot, because of this entitlement crisis.

social security and medicare. we are going to need a lot of new, young, hardworking workers in this country who are smart. the great thing about america is they want to come here and contribute. why would we turn them back? host: the vitriol from the past 2 1/2 weeks could that affect what's going forward? guest: it's a poisonous atmosphere out there right now. across the street from where we are sitting, it's pretty toxic. it will be interesting to see how long that lasts. host: sean from west virginia, independent line. caller: how you doing this morning? i wanted to make a comment then i have a couple questions. last night on the senate vote, 80-some senators voted no. ted cruz waving his flag, leading the party. the country is about to go off the clip. what kind of american does that? what kind much american would let his country literally go off the cliff and face the trouble that we were facing?

now i have a question i guess for you guys. i'm a coal miner. i'm a coal miner. two years ago, three years ago my wife hurt herself. she got her disability. ok. now, her health is worsened to where i had to leave work. i take care of my wife. we get no help but her social security disability. i take care of my sister's two kids. she's deceased. i get no help for those kids except for a little bit of food stamps. i never had to go on any kind of assistance in my life. i have worked since i was 17 years old. 17 years old. these damn republicans need to get the head of their -- and straighten this country out. guest: one interesting thing this gentleman is a coal miner i'm not so sure he wants to support democrats. the e.p.a. and president obama want to put coal mining out of business. they want to get rid of the

entire coal industry because they hate fossil fuels. that's a major employer in this country as is our energy industry. one thing the gentleman was saying was, i thought he said there were 80 people in the senate who voted against this. i think the vote was about 80 to 20. host: 18 nays. guest: passed by a big margin. these were principal votes. ladies and gentlemen, if you were concerned about our national debt and the fact that we now are very close to $17 trillion, i mean this is an honorable thing to keep voting to raise the debt ceiling. that's really the question that was being posed yesterday. and i think these 18 people voted no. i don't know how i would have voted if i was in the senate, but they basically took a principled position we have to start now not tomorrow, now to do something about this debt. host: terry. she's from arlington, virginia, on our republican line, hi.

caller: how are you? i had written my notes out to be a could he epgent. i used to be a journalist and continue to write. my point is things have not been discussed all the time i have been listening to your show. first of all, one third of workers in this country are freelance. not counting the numbers of small businesses. the economy is not going to get better. everybody's blaming the republicans. blame technology. everybody loves the free access. it's costing us the jobs. it's costing the businesses that we know that used to be brick businesses. the technological companies as we are now hearing over the news are the ones that are responsible for a lot of tax dollars going out of the country . a lot of this money is being thrown at start-ups in the tech industry that we are learning that what we thought was a free ride is actually a very expensive one. we have been paying with our privacy.

and a lot of these tech companies, and i'm looking at the big ones, do not -- their home states like california and washington, but they are in dell war and nevada. nevada is a state where it does not cooperate with the i.r.s. and i have done research which is -- has shown me how many thousands of companies are home stated in harry reid's state. host: a question for our guest, please. caller: my thing is. why isn't the "wall street journal" addressing this? and why isn't the "wall street journal" educating people that where the economy is is not because of the parties but because of the choices that we innocently made but are continuing to make. host: thanks, caller. guest: good subject to end on. i think that -- i'm actually somewhat bullish about the u.s. economy. this woman vite.

this economy has been lousy for five straight years. incomes are lower today than they were before the recession. we are still some three million, four million jobs below where we were back in 2007. it's been a paltry recovery. there are some things to be optimistic about. the energy industry. the biggest oil and gas boom in this country is going on right now. it's a wonderful thing to see. our front page last week i heard you guys talk about this. the united states is now the number one energy producing country in the world. fantastic. those are high-paying jobs, $75,000, $80,000 a year. technology industries are doing very well. and that's the future. the digital age. that's fantastic. number three, american corporations and companies, small and large, they have really become lean, mean fighting machines. and i believe if you want to look at the best run companies in the world, they are here in the united states. and that used to not be the case. ladies and gentlemen, there is some reason for optimism. we got to keep our fingers

crossed the number one issue for all americans including myself is jobs. let's get america back to work and hopefully now that we have got this kind of crisis behind us, we can get back to creath the kind of good jobs americans want. host: "wall street journal," serves on the editorial board, thanks. >> live now to the white house this morning for president obama. he is about to make a statement on yesterday's party agreement to reopen the government and raise the debt ceiling. last night the house and senate passed a measure that would fund the government through january 15. and raise the debt limit through february 7. the president expected in just a moment. live coverage here on c-span.

>> again, waiting for president obama this morning to talk about the bipartisan agreement to reopen the government and raise the debt ceiling. that agreement reached last night between the house and the senate. while we wait for the president, republican and democratic leaders of the joint house-senate committee met for breakfast this morning as they began talks aimed at solving the nation's budget problems. here's what they had to say after the meeting.

>> we'll have that for you a little later. we are working to fix the audio on that. again we are standing by live in the white house waiting for president obama to talk about yesterday's agreement to reopen the government and raise the debt ceiling. the president expected in just a moment. live on c-span.

>> wrating for president obama this morning while we wait, remarks now from republican and democratic leaders who met this morning to begin talks aimed at solving the nation's budget problems. here is what they had to say after the meeting.

>> hello, everybody. we just want to say that the four of us, the ranking member of the senate budget committee, the ranking member of the house budget committee, the chairman of the senate budget committee, and myself we had a very good conversation. we decided to discuss how we are going to proceed over breakfast. we want to look for ways to find common ground, to get a budget agreement. our goal is for the good for the american people. to get this debt under control. to do smart deficit reduction. to do things we think the economy will get people back to work. those are our shared goals. we are going to find how we can reach common ground and create a budget process that achieves that. that's what we are beginning to talk about. >> chairman ryan is exactly right. good conversation over breakfast this morning as we begin the challenge that has been handed to us over the coming few short weeks. we believe there is common ground in showing the american people that as a congress we can work and make sure that our

economy is growing and that people are back to work and that we can do the job that we were sent here to do is to find common ground between our two budget resolutions and set a path forward for congress to work on. >> some people ask why this time will be different, and what i would say is not talking guarantees failure. talking doesn't guarantee success, but if you don't get together, obviously you can't move forward. nobody can guarantee success. but what by can say is if we don't make the effort and get the other talk, that would guarantee death. >> chairman murray is very knowledgeable about these issues and a strong leader. talked to a number of the democratic senators last night. they were excited about being on the conference committee and look forward to participating. there's a lot we can do.

there are a number of things i know we can agree on and i hope we could agree on. we don't want to raise expectations above our reality, but i think there's some things we could do. paul ryan as most of you know has dedicated himself for many years to mastering the tails of this budget. so i think this leadership puts us in a position where we may be able to come up with something good. i hope so. >> some you were on the supercommittee. is there a specific dollar amount in deficit reduction you're aiming for? >> let me answer that in terms of supercommittee. the supercommittee's goals were much broader, much larger. we have a challenge that's been handed us to have a reconciliation between the senate budget and the house budget and those issues are on the table. we'll be talking about all of

them. our job is to make sure we have put forward a spending cap and a budget path for this congress in the next year or two or further if we can. >> it's too early to get into numbers. we are just starting our discussions. let's understand what we are doing here. we are going back to regular order. this is the budget process. the house passes a budget. the senate passes a budget. you come together to try to reconcile the differences. that's the way we are supposed to do things. that's the way the budget law is supposed to work. this is how the founders envisioned the constitution working. we want to get back to that. we haven't had a budget conference since 2009. we think it's high time we start talking together to try to reconcile our differences. and it's premature to get into how we are going to do that. we are just beginning these conversations. o yes or no questions. >> our job over the next eight weeks is to find out what we can agree on. we have agreed that we are going to look at everything in front

of us. and know that it's going to be a challenge. we believe we can find common ground. >> what assurances can you give that you guys keep negotiating. >> we want to have smart deficit reduction, build the economy, we think the budget process is the way to do that. i put out a statement explaining my concerns. that speaks for itself. i want to have a budget agreement that works for the contry. i want to have a budget agreement that gets this debt and deficit under control and does right by future generations and the economy. >> chairman ryan knows i'm not going to vote for his budget. i know that he's not going to vote for mine. we are going to find the two -- the common ground between our two budgets that we both can vote on and that's our goal. >> we'll let you know.

that's what we'll be discussing. >> congressional budget negotiators this morning after their meeting. we are live once again in the white house. we are waiting remarks from president obama. he's about to make a statement on yesterday's deal to end the government shutdown and to reopen the government, raise the debt ceiling. last night of course the house and senate passed a measure that would fund the government through january 15 and raise the debt limit through february 7. the president expected shortly.

>> again, waiting for the president. apoorg in just a couple moments to talk about the deal reached last night between the house and senate on overcoming the government shutdown. while we wait for the president, this morning we talked with a capitol hill reporter about the impact of the government shutdown and debt ceiling deal on federal employees. from this morning's "washington journal".

host: you have been around washington a little while. what are the challenges these two sides meet? guest: from the perspective i cover, the executive branch, inside workings of the government is exactly what one of the questioners put to the four budget leaders there. and that is, how do you get the federal government to be confident that this time you are going to negotiate this deal out that will keep them at work, first of all, after january 15, and will give them the guidance and framework that they need to be able to plan how they are going to operate their executive branch agencies. host: they both have already said it's too early to talk. though know where they stand as far as their opinions are concerned. i guess that probably will play into those discussions going forward. guest: that's right. the executive branch leaders i talked to, both the career employees and political pennsylvania pointees, say, listen, they missed the january deadline for sequestration. they missed a march deadline for sequestration. and put something together at

the last minute. now they missed this one. there is not a lot of optimism in the federal agencies they'll be able to get something done by january 15 this time around. host: now the shut down ends, what does that mean for government workers? what happens today? guest: what happens today is everybody's supposed to be back at work already. if today is your normal workday, the discussions that i was having with people yesterday afternoon, even as we expected that the house and senate were going to pass this and president obama would sign it last night, were that it was going to happen into late in the day for anything official to happen. but the office of management the and budget and office of personnel management surprised everybody, i think, a little bit last night by saying, today, thursday, would be the first day back after the government shutdown. if today is your normal day, you're supposed to be back at work o.p.m. and o.m.b. encouraging people to give flexibility if they need it if they are in situation that is don't permit them to drop

everything and come back to work. i think it took a lot of people by quite a bit of surprise, pedro. host: for executives that means as fast as possible getting things running back to normal. guest: that's the discussion we have had a lot in the last couple weeks is what's the difference between back to work and back to normal? back to work obviously is today or the next workday on your schedule. but back to normal in some cases may be days, weeks, months because of the nature of the disruption of the shutdown. host: talk a little bit about the issue of pay, because there's a lot of some of the questions that came out from other callers this morning, how long before we see back pay? guest: the federal employees, according to the continuing resolution, will get their back pay in their next paycheck. some folks who got either a smaller paycheck or some very few cases no paycheck this time around, by the end of october should be back to normal. but the disconnect inside the executive branch in some cases was from employees who were

saying, wait a minute, i was supposed to work during the shutdown, and i'm going to get paid my normal rate, and if they make everybody whole when they come back, there will be some folks who wond up with a 2 1/2 weeks vacation that was paid. how fair is that? it's not anybody mad at the other person. it's just another element of frustration with the situation that is going on inside the agencies. host: that means the executives have to handle those issues. guest: yeah. and h.r. leaders are telling me people should be ready for all kinds of workplace morale -- not problems because people are going to be happy to get back to work. by and large everybody i talked to who works in the government has been chomping at the bit to get back to work and get back to doing the job that they were assigned to do. but there are going to be these kinds of issues. as i said before, that thing that's kind of hanging over everybody's head, that black cloud, we could be back in this same spot january 15 and the track record indicates that the odds are better that will happen than it won't.

host: what about the benefits? were they affected at all? guest: no. that money was already paid. so those benefits stayed in full force the entire time during the government shutdown. host: tell our viewers what you learned over the last couple weeks talking to executives, talking to workers. what are. so things you have heard that maybe haven't been played out in the papers as far as the federal worker perspective in all this? guest: it's a lot of frustration that they consider themselves just to be people for the most part who are just regular folks, not doing anything outstanding. one of my favorite stories during the shutdown was an award ceremony for the service to america medals done by the partnership for public service about three days after the shutdown, and one of the executives that leads the nasa curiousity rover project got an award and told everybody how proud he was of the fact that any taxpayer who wanted to see what curiousity was seeing could

do it from his smart phone. he held up his smart phone as an example. he said except for me because i'm on furlough. he wasn't allowed to use his smart phone issued by the government during the shutdown. those kinds of things where people wanted to be connected to their work and they wanted to get back to the business of the country, weren't able to do it. and they were frustrated because it was no fault of theirs. they didn't think, and that's probably, i think, the biggest untold story in all this. host: federal news radio, the host of in-depth with francis rose. you can find out more about the organization, federalnewsradio.com. thanks for the time. >> we are live at the white house this morning. president obama expected in mere moments to read a statement on the deal to reopen government after being closed for 16 days. and addressing the increase in the nation's debt ceiling.

>> ladies and gentlemen, the president of the united states. >> good morning, everybody.

please have a seat. last night i signed legislation to reopen our government and pay america's bills. because democrats and responsible republicans came together, the first government shutdown in 17 years is now over. the first default in more than 200 years will not happen. these twin threats to our economy have now been lifted, and i want to thank those democrats and republicans for getting together and ultimately getting this job done. now, there's been a lot of discussion lately of the politics of this shutdown, but let's be clear. there are no winners here. these last few weeks have inflicted completely unnecessary damage on our economy. we don't know yet the full scope of the damage, but every analyst out there believes it's slowed our growth. we know that families have gone without paychecks or services

they depend on. we know that potential homebuyers have gotten fewer mortgages and small business loans have been put on hold. we know that consumers have cut back on spending and that half of all c.e.o.'s say that the shutdown and the threat of shutdown set back their plans to hire over the next six months. we know that just the threat of default of america not paying all the bills that we owe on time increased our borrowing costs which adds to our deficit , and of course we know that the american people's frustration with what goes on in this town has never been higher. that's not a surprise, that the american people are completely fed up with washington. at a moment when our economic recovery demands more jobs,

more momentum, we got yet another self-inflicted crisis that set our economy back. and for what? there was no economic rationale for all of this. over the past four years, our economy's been growing, our businesses have been creating jobs and our deficits have been cut in approximate half. we -- have been cut in half. we hear some members say they were doing it to save the american economy, but nothing has done more to undermine this economy in the past three years than the kind of tactics that create these manufactured crises. and you don't have to take my word for it. the agency that put america's credit rating on watch the other day explicitly cited all of this, saying that our

economy remains more dynamic and resilient than other advanced economies and that the only thing putting us at risk is -- and i'm quoting here -- repeated brinksmanship. that's what the credit rating agency said. that wasn't a political statement. that was an analysis of what's hurting our economy, by people whose job it is to analyze these things. that has -- that also has to be the view of the diplomats who have been hearing this internationally. some those who pushed for shutdown claimed their actions were needed to get america back on the right track, to make sure we're strong. but probably nothing has done more damage to america's credibility in the world, our standing with other countries than the spectacle that we've seen these past several weeks.

it's encouraged our enemies. it's emboldened our competitors and it's depressed our friends who look to us for steady leadership. now, the good news is we'll bounce back from this. we always do. america is the bedrock of the global economy for a good reason. we are the indispensible nation that the rest of the world looks to as the most safest and reliable place to invest. something that's made it easier for generations of americans to invest in their own futures. we have earned that responsibility over more than two centuries because of the dynamism of our economy and our entrepreneurs, the productivity of our workers, but also because we keep our word and we meet our obligations. that's what full faith and credit means.

you can count on us. and today i want our people and our businesses and the rest of the world to know that the full faith and credit of the united states remains unquestioned. but all my friends in congress understand that how business is done in this town has to change. because we've all got a lot of work to do on behalf of the american people and that includes the hard work of regaining their trust. our system of self-government doesn't function without it. and now that the government has reopened and this threat to our economy is removed, all of us need to stop focusing on the lobbyists and the bloggers and the talking heads on radio and the professional activists who profit from conflict and focus on what the majority of americans sent us here to do and that's grow this economy,

create good jobs, strengthen the middle class, educate our kids, lay the foundation for broad-based prosperity and get our fiscal house in order for the long haul. that's why we're here. that should be our focus. now, that won't be ease tee. we all know that we have divided government right now. there's a lot of noise out there, and the pressure from the exfour-seams -- extremes affect how a lot of members of congress see the day-to-day work that's supposed to be done here. and let's face it, the american people don't see every issue the same way. that doesn't mean we can't make progress. and when we disagree we don't have to suggest that the other side doesn't love this country or believe in free enterprise or all the other rhetoric that

seems to get worse every single year. if we disagree on something, we can move on and focus on the hings we agree on and get some stuff done. let me be specific about three places where i believe we can make progress right now. first, in the coming days and weeks, we should sit down and pursue a balanced approach to a responsible budget. the budget that grows our economy faster and shrinks our long-term deficits further. at the beginning of this year, that's what both democrats and republicans committed to doing. the senate passed a budget. the house passed a budget. they're supposed to come together and negotiate. and had one side not decided to pursue a strategy of

brinksmanship, each side could have gotten together and figured out, how do we shape a budget that provides certainty to businesses and people who rely on government, provide certainty to the investors and our economy and we'd be growing faster right now. now, the good news is the legislation i signed yesterday now requires congress to do exactly that. what it could have been doing all along. and we shouldn't abroach this process of -- approach this process of creating a budget as an ideological exercise, just cutting for the sake of cutting. the issue is not growth versus fiscal responsibility. we need both. we need a budget that deals with the issues that most americans are focused on, creating more good jobs that pay better wages. and remember, the deficit is getting smaller, not bigger.

it's going down faster than it has in the last 50 years. the challenge we have right now are not short-term deficits. it's the long-term obligations that we have around things like medicare and social security. we want to make sure those are there for future generations. so the key now is a budget that cuts out the things that we on't need, close the corporate tax loopholes that don't create jobs and freeze up resources for the things that do help us grow, like education and infrastructure and research and these things historically have not been partisan. and this shouldn't be as difficult as it's been in past years because we already spend less than we did a few years ago. our deficits are half what they were a few years ago.

the debt problems we have now are long term, and we can address them without shortchanging our kids or shortchanging our grandkids or weakening the security that current generations have earned from their hard work. so that's number one. number two, we should finish fixing the job of our -- let me say that again. number two, we should finish the job of fixing our broken immigration system. there's already a broad coalition across america that's behind this effort of comprehensive immigration reform. from business leaders to faith leaders to law enforcement. in fact, the senate has already passed a bill with strong bipartisan support that would make the biggest commitment to border security in our history, would modernize our legal

immigration system, make sure everyone plays by the same rules, make sure that folks who came here illegally have to pay a fine, pay back taxes, meet their responsibilities. that bill's already passed the senate. and economists estimate if that bill becomes law, our economy would be 5% larger two decades from now. that's $1.4 trillion in new economic growth. the majority of americans think this is the right thing to do. and it's sitting there waiting for the house to pass it. now, if the house has ideas on how to improve the senate bill, let's hear them. let's start the negotiations. but let's not leave this problem to keep festering for another year or two years or three years. this can and should get done by he end of this year.

number three, we should pass a farm bill, one that american farmers and ranchers can depend on, one that protects vulnerable children and adults in time of need, one that gives rural communities the opportunities to grow. again, the senate has passed a solid bipartisan bill. it's got support from democrats and republicans. it's sitting in the house waiting for passage. if house republicans have ideas that they think would improve the farm bill, let's see them. let's negotiate. what are we waiting for? let's get this done. so passing a budget, immigration reform, farm bill, those are three specific things that would make a huge difference in our economy right

now and we could get them done by the end of the year. if our focus is on what's good for the american people. and that's just the big stuff. there are all kinds of other things we could be doing that don't get as much attention. i understand, we will not suddenly agree on everything now that the cloud of crisis has passed. democrats and republicans are far apart on a lot of issues, and i recognize there are folks on the other side who think that my policies are misguided. hat's putting it mildly. that's ok. that's democracy. that's how it works. we can debate those differences vigorously, passionately, in good faith through the normal democratic process.

and sometimes we'll be just too far apart to forge an agreement, but that should not hold back our efforts in areas where we do agree. we shouldn't fail to act on areas that we do agree or could agree just because we don't think it's good politics. just because the extremes in our party don't like the word compromise. i will look for willing partners wherever i can to get important work done. and there's no good reason why we can't govern responsibly. despite our differences. without lurching from manufactured crisis to manufactured crisis. in fact, one of the things that

i hope all of us have learned these past few weeks is that it turns out smart, effective government is important, it matters. i think the american people during this shutdown had a chance to get some idea of all the things, large and small, that government does that make a difference in people's lives. we hear all the time about how government is the problem. well, it turns out we rely on it in a whole lot of ways. ot only does it keep us strong through our military and our law enforcement, it plays a vital role in carrying for our seniors and our veterans. educating our kids. making sure our workers are trained for the jobs in a are being created. arming our businesses with the best science and technology so they can compete with companies

from other countries. it plays a key role in keeping our food and our toys and our workplaces safe. it helps folks rebuild after a storm. it conserves our natural resources, it finances startups. it helps sell our products overseas. it provides security to our diplomats abroad. so let's work together to make government work better. instead of treating it like an enemy or purposely making it work worse. that's not what the founders of this nation envisioned when they gave us the gift of self-government. you don't like a particular policy or a particular president, then argue for your position. go out there and win an election.

push to change it but don't break it. don't break what our predecessors spent over two enturies building. that's not being faithful to what this country's about. and that brings me to one last point. i've got a simple message for all the dedicated and patriotic federal workers who worked without pay or been forced off the job without pay, including most of my own staff. thank you. thanks for your service. welcome back. what you do is important. it matters. you defend our country overseas. you deliver benefits to our troops who've earned them when they come home. you guard our borders. you protect our civil rights.

you help businesses grow and gain foot holds in overseas markets. you protect the air we breathe and the water our children drink and you push the boundaries of science and space and you guide hundreds of thousands of people each day through the glories of this country. thank you. what you do is important. don't let anybody else tell you different. especially the young people who ome to this city to serve. believe that it matters. well, you know what, it does. and those of us who have the privilege to serve this country have an obligation to do our job as best we can. and we come from different parties, but we are americans first. that's why disagreement cannot mean dysfunction.

t can't degenerate into hatred . the american people's hopes and dreams are what matters, not ours. .ur obligations are to them our regard for them compels us all, democrats and republicans, o cooperate and compromise and act in the best interests of ur nation. one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. thanks very much. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national able satellite corp. 2013] >> and president obama wrapping up his thoughts on the 16 days of government shutdown and the way forward. if you missed what he had to

say, you can see ton our website at c-span.org. from the associated press this morning, congress' four top budget writers met over breakfast today to begin two months of budget talkts in order to avert another standoff. house committee chair paul ryan said the group's goals was to get them under control, to do smart deficit reductions and to grow the economy and get back to work. "we believe there is common ground," senate chair patty murray said afterwards. the government would be funded through january 15 with the debt limit increased through february 7. and as federal employees return to work this morning, our cameras caught white house chief of staff greeting returning workers, including burwell.rector sylvia

>> again, white house chief of aff greeting returning workers and on the left, o.m.b. director sylvia burwell. we welcome your reaction. use the #cspanchat. here's what some capitol hill reporters were tweeting today.

>> here's what defense secretary chuck hagel had to say about the government shutdown. "today, we will be welcoming all of the civilians back to duty." >> defense secretary hagel will be talking about the impact of the government shutdown on the nation's military. live coverage from the pentagon here on c-span starts at 12:50 eastern. but before that, though, house minority leader nancy pelosi will hold her weekly briefing with reporters this afternoon. we will have live coverage of that beginning at noon eastern here on c-span. and then a little bit later this afternoon, jay carney will answer reporters' question at 1:30 eastern. we'll bring that to you here on c-span. former defense secretary leon panetta and former budget

director for george w. bush, jim nussle, call on congress to address the national debt and also comment on the government shutdown. both are former chairs of the house budget committee and they're part of an event being hosted by the campaign to fix the debt. they joined -- they are joined by the heads of the hispanic chamber of commerce and the national small business association. >> president of the committee for responsible federal budget and the president of fix the debt. >> thank you. thanks so much, everybody, for joining us today. this turns out to be an incredibly well-timed conference. but on behalf of fix the debt, fix the debt is a nationwide diverse coalition made up of citizens, business leaders, civic leaders with the purpose of trying to in a bipartisan way focus national attention on the need and push for a comprehensive debt deal that would help deal with the nation's fiscal challenges. today is obviously an important day. it appears we have a real plan put in place that would deal with opening the government and

lifting the debt ceiling and putting in place a budget process to help focus on those discussions. we have today with us an incredible gathering of people who are going to talk about sort of the current crisis that we've been in. the state of play where we are. importantly, the kind of things we want to focus on going forward from a really diverse group of people with diverse perspectives. because, again, i think the importance is talk about how people with different opinions can come together and work on these issues. and i think what's clear is that what we've seen so far the model in this country is we've been lurching from crisis to crisis and we can't continue to do that. i think going forward in the coming weeks it's going to be critically important. we know what we need to focus on. the issues of reforming our entitlement systems, our tax code, replacing the sequester with smarter cuts and finding a plan to put our debt on a downward path. so we think it's critical that it's time to stop the matness of the -- madness fert way

we've been governing, start negotiations and solve the problem. i'm thrilled today to be able to introduce secretary panetta who has held so many important roles in all of this. most recently as secretary of defense. but has also played instrumental roles in budget negotiations in the past. and he's going to kick off this whole discussion and talk to us from his perspective about all these issues. we're incredibly lucky to have him. thank you for joining us, secretary panetta. >> thank you very much, maya and thank you for your great work. ladies and gentlemen, thank you for participating in this effort to try to put this country back on the right track. our hope is that later today with actions both by the house and the senate that they can bring what i think has been a very shameful and tragic period

in our country -- history to an end. his is -- it's hard to believe that what has happened has been not the result of an economic crisis, not the result of war but the result of a self-inflicted wound by people who frankly swear to make sure that they will do everything to protect and defend the constitution of this country and this country. 17 years ago we went through a similar shutdown when i was chief of staff to president clinton. thought that i there were, you know, two lessons that were learned by that experience. you as that you don't -- don't take a step that hurts the american people.

innocent american people by shutting the government down. it makes no sense to use that weapon against your very constituents, against the people who elected you to office. and secondly that ultimately the lesson that came out of that, it was better to govern than to create gridlock and to shut the government down. better to govern. and that was the case. 17 years later i think those lessons still apply. it makes no sense to shut the government down and to hurt this country, to hurt innocent need kids, women who nutrition assistance, families that are trying to meet their debts at the end of the month, putting people out of work, putting people out of jobs,

threatening individuals in terms of their quality of life, it makes no sense to do that. to take a step that threatens our economy, hurts our economy, hurts our growth levels. an economy that's been through some rough times and is liking like it may be on the right track, why would you take a step that would deliberately hurt our economy? and hurting our national defense. let me tell you in a -- that from my own experience -- i just had the opportunity to come from the pentagon, combination of sequester and this shutdown has hurt our national defense. not only some very important elements of our defense being put on hold -- we have 12 air force squadrons, combat squadrons been grounded, half of our combat planes not ready for combat. we have ships that are not being deployed. we have maintenance that's not

being done. we are virtually hallowing out our military. at a very important time when we face all kinds of threats abroad in this country, this is still a dangerous world that we live in. and then the shutdown on top of that and the furloughs and the impact this is having on the men and women in the defense department is inexcusable, inexcusable in terms of protecting this country. so it hurts america and americans when these shutdowns take place. my hope is that everyone learns the second lesson which is that it's time to govern, to roll up their sleeves and to get to work. and the place they should be and they should have been weeks ago is in a budget conference, working on the key issues that they need to address if we're serious about reducing the deficit, getting rid of sequester and trying to put

this country on the right path for the future. so a budget conference that deals with entitlements, look at all the entitlement programs and determines what reforms and savings can be achieved there, a conference that focuses on looking at the whole issue of discretionary spending, what kind of -- what caps should we put on it but what should be the next five-year direction for discretionary? we need to establish some stability here rather than this kind of kick the can down the road mentality in a we've been involved with. so what's our discretionary spending going to look like over this next period? and looking at elements of tax reform, where can we implement tax reform? what are some steps we can do to try to provide the balance and fairness that this country is all about? all of those things ought to be viewed, looked at, and this is the opportunity to do it. so my hope is that they will

take advantage of this opportunity to govern this country. we -- i believe we're at a turning point in the united states of america and it's a critical turning point. can either be an america in renaissance with the strong -- with a strong economic recovery, with opportunity for everyone, strong middle class, the opportunity to be creative and innovative, the opportunity to provide good education to our kids, to be able to have a strong work force as we do. i mean, this country could be in a renaissance in the 21st century, or we could be a country in decline, an america in decline in terms of how we function this country and if we continue to operate by crisis after crisis after crisis. that is no way to govern the country. so what f.t.a. we take is largely going -- so what path we take is largely going to be how we determine how to govern ourselves. in recent years, unfortunately,

as i tell my students, we govern in democracy either through leadership or through crisis. if leadership is there we can avoid cry vis but they got to be willing to take the risks associated with leadership. if leadership is not there, then make no mistake about it, we will operate by crisis. and crisis will drive policy. you can do that. you could do that, but there is a price to be paid, and the price that's paid is you lose the trust of the american people in our system of governing. o the time has now come to exercise leadership on all sides. the american people are obably the best example that all of us who were in elected office drew our strength from because the american people, like my immigrant parents, had some fundamental principles and values that they believed in. common sense, doing what's right, hard work, sacrifice and a willingness to do what they believe was necessary in order to give their children a better life.

and i believe that i have seen that in our men and women in uniform, secretary of defense. our men and women serving this country are willing to put their lives on the line in order to protect this country. they're willing to fight and to die in order to protect the united states of america. and i believe if they are willing to fight and die to protect this country, then surely those that we elect to office ought to be willing to take the risks associated with governing in order to protect this country. our hope is that they will do that, that they'll engage in this conference and they will do everything necessary to protect the government of, by and for people. >> thank you so much. next, i'd like to introduce former congressman, former chairman of the budget committee, former head of office of management and budget, jim nussle. >> thank you, maya. wow.

leon, that is impossible to follow. and maybe i shouldn't even try, but i -- i've followed you a few times, so -- both as chairman of the budget committee and as o.m.b., i'm proud of the tenure that you -- the experience and the dedication and example of public service and, again, you showed it here today. and i thank you for joining us at this important moment this is not a proud moment for our country. even with the good news of an agreement, we can all look forward and see a couple different paths that could easily develop. one that is just as negative as the one that we've recently been on that could by january 15 or february 7 devolve in yet another crisis, stalemate, another juncture that would prove just as damaging as we've been through or a path where cooler heads can prevail, some

experience, some judgment, some leadership, people who want to govern, as secretary panetta said, people who want to step up and realize that the hole is getter than the sum of its parts, that our country is more important than all of the little petty things that go on all the time. we've all participated in them. i don't stand here with clean hands today, and i see former members of congress and, of course, leon as well, all of us from time to time, the rhetoric has gone up a little bit too hot. maybe we've said something or done something. but at most junctures we were able to put all that aside, come together and say, ok, we said that. we did that. we've been there. let's come and figure out what the right path forward should be. what we've seen recently has been reckless or incompetent. pick your poison. it's based on debates that are important, the role of government, certainly, is an important national debate that

we have now. we will continue to have. waste, fraud and abuse, tax reform, entitlement reform. even defunding or delaying programs that maybe popular on one side and unpopular on another are certainly worthy of debate. but anyone who has watched saturday morning cartoons and has watched how a bill becomes a law by schoolhouse rock, i'm just a bill, only a bill on capitol hill. no. and knew what was going to happen. this didn't take anybody other than a kid watching saturday morning cartoons to understand that when the president and the senate say no the house isn't going to go. that's just the way it works. that's the way our system has been developed. and instead of educating our constituents, instead of taking this as an opportunity to inform people and to explain exactly how we're going to govern ourselves in a

self-governing society, people have taken this to forward their own personal or their own personal political agendas which has been an abomination to, in my view, and very reckless and incompetent to our system of self-governing. so we have an opportunity. today cooler heads did prevail. we had an opportunity to look forward over these next couple of months and say we can put this process back together. both secretary panetta, as chairman of the budget committee and myself have participated in these conference committees between the house and the senate where budget negotiators come together and plot a path forward. they are messy. they can be ugly. they can be just as difficult as what we've seen, but if people are committed to the end result and if they will listen to organizations and campaigns such as what we've assembled here today, we can give them some tools for that toolbox as

me go in to try and build that consensus. and there are many good examples of that here today. fix the debt was put together as an organization or as a campaign that believes that tax reform ought to be on the table, certainly. entitlement reform needs to be there. sequester is a crazy, dumb way to run the government, so looking at both annual as well as automatic spending needs to be put on the table. the focus needs to be on the long term, not february 7, not january 15, but how about 2020 and 2025 and when our kids and our grandkids have to look at some of this debt into our eye? that's the reason we focused on the debt, because most in a bipartisan way can say, fixing the debt is -- has got to be the ultimate goal. everything else, yeah, we'll have those fights, we'll have

those disagreements. no one, even in this fix the debt campaign is going to agree 100% of the time. but we have partners here today that i want to invite forward to give a little bit of their perspective on this. as an example, we've had a group of former members, some of them that are here today, that in a bipartisan way have met on the outside on a regular basis to talk about ways in a they can influence our former colleagues on a path forward. we've had a wednesday morning -- what we call -- debt fest where we get together over breakfast and talk about ways that our organizations can work together and stay together and focusing attention on this very important mission. so we've invited a couple of those partners to come here today and to give us some of those thoughts and so i'd like to invite a few of them forward here today. first of all, i'd like to invite javier palmeras, the president and c.e.o. of the hispanic chamber of congress to come forward and provide his

perspective. javier. >> thank you. good afternoon. on behalf of the united states hispanic chamber of commerce, i'd like to thank the people at fix the debt for organizing this press conference. the u.s. h.h.y. represents 3.2 hispanic-owned businesses that together contribute more than $468 billion to the american economy every year. we also advocate on behalf of 206 major american corporations, and we do this through our network of 200 local chambers and business associations throughout the nation. and while the h.h.c. represents the interests of business men and women who happen to be of hispanic descent, we must never forget that we are first and foremost american businesses and every tax bill we pay, every job we create, every product we manufacture and every single service we provide goes to benefit our american economy. as one of the nation's largest business organizations, our

membership's primary concern is the health and prosperity of our economy. all businesses are directly influenced by a stable political climate and the state of any economy. our american people understand that we must work together to sustain the growth of our businesses, the security of our jobs and the full faith and credit of the united states. everyone, from main street to wall street, knows that the weight of the american economy rests on the shoulders of our elected officials, and we're asking them to put the common good of our country before political partisanship and self-interest. how deeply has our nation sunk into the trenches of partisan politics that not only has the government of the strongest democracy in the world been shut down but is now facing the threat of an unprecedented default which will jeopardize our standing as a global economic leader?

for the past years, our congress has been plagued by divisive politics that have reversed the recovery of our economy. this environment of brinksmanship has reached its boiling point, and the current threats of default are already resonating and creating signs of uncertainty in national and international markets. consumer confidence is now at an all year low while interest rates continue to climb and the ongoing gridlock is estimated to cost taxpayers almost $19 billion in extra interest. even foreign debt holders are demanding more collateral due to the uncertainty on whether america can even meet its financial obligations. a substantial segment of the u.s. h.h.c. membership does business abroad and is impacted by both the health of our national and the international economy. it is no secret that if

congress allows the united states to default on its debt, the economic consequences would be nothing short of catastrophic. what happens in the united states doesn't only affect our nation. it impacts all of the countries that rely on the stability and the well-being of our american economy. recently, mexico and brazil, the two largest economies in latin america and two very important trading partners, saw their currencies lose value simply because of america's threat of a default. chinese officials have urged the u.s. to avoid a debt crisis for the sake of the global economy. and just last week, the international monetary fund warned of a worldwide shock that would result from the united states defaulting and stated that it is critical for our country, especially its elected officials to prevent a looming crisis that would put the global economy at risk. the american people, our economy and quite frankly the world is hoping for better news

from washington. the u.s. h.c.c. stands with our friends at fix the debt, with secretary panetta, with former o.m.b. director jim nussle, and all of the other organizations assembled here and we all call on congress to raise our nation's debt ceiling and avoid this default. we urge congress to put the end -- put an end to this hostile climate of uncertainty and brinksmanship. it is time to move our country forward, not jeopardize the hard work and the progress we've all made together. at the end of the day, elected officials like our business community, have a stake in preserving our free market economy and our american way of life. negotiations, whether they're motivated by profit or politics, achieve their highest possible success when we recognize that cooperation works much better than conflict and that solidarity will always outlast isolation and that our

differences do not outweigh our common interests. thank you very much. >> next, we'll hear from ian kramer, and ian is the executive leader of -- director of leaders on alzheimer's change. >> thank you. thank you for the opportunity to be here today. this is not a happy day. this is a day where we all sigh in relief that the circular firing squad said ready, aim and then held its breath. and this crisis is not over. all it is delayed so the guns are still pointed. and the real tragedy is the harm that could be done by the default, the harm that has been done by the shutdown and the harm that continues to be done by sequester is not suffered by those who impose it upon us. it's suffered by those that they victimize and that's the american people, as has been stated before. and while we're relieved that we have not defaulted and while we're relieved that the

shutdown appears to end, hopefully not to resurface, sequester continues to be a weight on our economy and more important, around the next of the american people who need their government to function and for a long-term solution to be found that keeps them out of this day-to-day jeopardy about whether the programs and services they depend and for which they pay will or will not be there in their time of need. so i'm going to focus primarily on sequestration, but we know that sequestration is 10 annual doses of bad medicine. it's not only what has happened so far, it's what could happen over the next nine budget cycles if we don't fix it, fix it now and fix it once and for all. so if you want to understand what sequestration means for pursuing our own clearly identified and carefully planned national agenda, i would offer you just one example of many and that is the crisis around alzheimer's. for five million americans who have the disease, there are 1,500 caregivers and if we

don't proceed with the science we need 13 million americans will have alzheimer's and well over 40 million americans will be their caregivers within less than two generations. currently, dementia costs the american people over $200 billion with a b, billion dollars a year just for caregiving. and we invest a paltry roughly $500 million with an m in trying to arrest that disease or reverse its tide. so it's a ridiculously small investment and it's an investment that sequestration erodes. so who agrees that we have to make more dramatic steps to fight alzheimer's to invest in the science that will provide us a catalyst to reverse the trajectory of this disease? well, i'll tell you. it's president obama and it's n.i.h. director frances collins but it's also house majority leader eric cantor, tea party founder, michele bachmann and newt gingrich.

susan collins and jerry moran, democratic senators tom harkin and bill nelson, in fact, the entire congress, ever every last member of congress that voted unanimously about two years ago to adopt the national alzheimer's act and create the first-ever national plan to address alzheimer's disease, which has in its most recent update, the 2013 update, a consensus plan, a business plan to stop and effectively prevent alzheimer's by the year 2025. but that plan depends on scientific investment that the sequester not only prevents from being increased but erodes the slight investment we already have. so who else is for that are increased investment? i'd argue the entire american people. the five million who live with this disease today, the 15 million who are caregivers today and all the rest of the american population that live in fear of their family being struck next. so who's against n.i.h. having the tools it needs to stop alzheimer's? no one. no one will come forward and no

one should come forward to say that they oppose those kind of investments but actions speak louder than words. so your commitment is shown by what you do or what you choose not to do. and sequestration is no accident. sequestration is a choice. it was a choice from the first day it began. it remains a choice until we stop its 10-year run of bad medicine. so what stands in the way? what stands in the way of getting rid of sequestration? it's exactly what the secretary and the congressman and javier spoke about. it's the will to do the work of the people rather than engage in political brinksmanship for self--- hopefully, in mayor minds, self-serving political gain. and even that fails. what they can do is succeed in the fight against alzheimer's and so many other challenges before this country if they are brave enough to put politics aside, get rid of the sequester and engage in long-term serious budget planning that reduces the burdens of costs from care

and invests in innovation which is the driver of our economy. so i would say, do not isolate hals as the reason to get rid -- alzheimer's disease as the reason to get rid of sequestration. look at all the good that members of these congressmen vote for and say are they undermining their good intentions and their choices to allow sequestration to remain in place? thank you. >> thank you, ian. next, we'll hear from todd mccrackin, the president of the national small business association. >> thank you, congressman. i can't add a great deal i think to the excellent opening statements of secretary panetta and congressman nussle. i associate myself with their remarks. but i -- as i said before, i represent the small business community. for us, all of this creates a crisis of confidence. that is the fundamental issue. whether it's the shutdown, the threat of reaching the debt

limit and the ongoing brinksmanship. i mean, you have to ask yourself, and i ask folks this all the time. if you were about to make an investment, open a business, start a business, grow a business that requires you to risk your economic future, your home, your life savings, is this the moment in time you would choose to do that? would you have enough confidence that our leaders will put in place the framework for you to do that? i submit to you the answer is no in most cases. that's why this is so crucially important. small businesses and startups are the place we're going to grow our way out of this mess and our leaders in washington need to give those folks a reason to believe in the future of this country. and that means putting aside the petty disagreements and getting into some long-term deals. these short-term issues are just that, short-term issues. the real issues of this country are the long-term debt. and we hope that our leaders will grab this opportunity in the coming couple of months to sit down and talk seriously about how they can put these

differences aside and get this country on the right framework where we all, who are invested in our economic future, can have confidence and move forward. thank you. >> let me invite former hunter rollins, the -- rawlings, the president of american universities. >> thank you and thank you to fix the debt and to secretary panetta for this occasion which i any is particularly important, given the late hour that we find in our congress. i want to be very brief which for an academic is always a challenge but i will succeed in that. we have the best research universities in the world by a wide margin and we have the best innovation system in the world, but those are now jeopardized. those universities and that innovation system are jeopardized by the continuing problems here in washington. this is not food's problem.

it's not this week's problem, it's not the sequester's problem, it's the budget problem overall. as was just said, members of congress did not vote against research. they just let cuts in research happen because of what is now in place. a budget that is constantly taking money away from research and innovation and putting it in the hands of old people, like me, who frankly should not be getting the percentage of revenue that is now coming to our generation. the reason we have the best research universities in the world is that for some 70 years now the federal government has invested heavily in research. competitively awarded research grants which go to faculty members at the university of michigan, the university of virginia, harvard, stanford and all the great universities in this country that carry out research. what's the result of that research? a great innovation system, and economists now acknowledge in a

60% or more of u.s. economic growth over the past few decades is based on innovation. and a huge percentage of that innovation is done in research labs at our universities because business for the most part has stopped doing fundamental research. it has to be focused on the bottom line and so it no longer invests, as in the days of bell labs in fundamental research. fundamental research is instead carried out in our nation's universities. well, china has noticed that and is now investing heavily in creating great research universities. we're disinvesting at the same time, and so we're rapidly creating an innovation deficit. the innovation deficit to me long term is just as important as the budget deficit because what it says is, over the long term we're going to lose our advantage in innovation and someone else is going to get it. and that will then determine

economic success in the future. we just won a bunch of nobel prizes again this week and last. most of those prizes, as has been the case for sometime now, are awarded to american researchers and frankly to researchers born in other countries who now work, where? at our universities. well, how much longer is that going to go on if we continue the innovation deficit and disinvesting in research when other countries have seen that as their long-term goal? we need to fix this problem and we need to fix it quickly and stop the crisis management and get on to thinking about the long-term investment. the only thing that's going to lead to long-term success for this country. thank you, for an academic, that's brief. >> thank you, hunter. our last speaker before we take your press questions is mary woolly, the president and c.e.o. of research america. mary. >> well, thank you, maya, and

fix the debt colleagues and everyone who has spoken already. research america is an alliance of patient groups, academic institutions, business and industry and scientific and clinical societies. well over 100 million americans represent it. and we all believe that research for health in the entire research and innovation ecosystem should return to being a number one american priority. sequestration and this shutdown have truly wreaked havoc on american science overall and that includes medical research and the nation's public health capacity. research projects, including clinical trials, have been canceled or stalled out indefinitely. researchers have been furloughed or laid off. young scientists are not receiving grants for innovative

studies and are rethinking their career options. suppliers and other businesses that rely on discovery from basic research are downsizing. the c.d.c. is blindsided by food borne illnesses outbreaks that they are not staffed at this point to control. and the department of defense is hampered in its conduct of medical research to benefit our wounded warriors and protect our men and women overseas. and that list goes on. that's today's list. but i really shutter to think about the long-term risk, the risk of deprioritizing research and innovation. as hunter mentioned, our nations are not just sitting idly by. they're actively exploiting our failure to prioritize research and innovation. and in addition to china, i'm talking about singapore, india, sweden, germany and the u.k., to name a few.

national public opinion polls commissioned by research america show that more than half of americans do not believe the u.s. will be world leader in science and technology by the year 2020. that's just over six years from now. and unfortunately americans might be right about that loss of leadership, but they don't like it. for instance, an overwhelming majority, 90%, say it's important that the united states maintains its world leadership in medical research and science overall, but our elected officials listening to their constituents, are they listening to the concerns of americans? i would argue that in this recent period of time they have not. yes, we must reduce the deficit. we must fix the budget. cutting funding for medical and health research and our domestic discretionary

priorities is counterproductive to solving the problems we talk about all the time and wring our hands about, like controlling health care costs. diseases and disabilities are not diseases are not going to cure themselves or be prevented overnight. it's research that is a deficit reduction strategy. public health readiness is a deficit reduction strategy. so why are we squandering those solutions? i know, you know, the president knows, congress knows, there is a way to fix the budget and it involves tax and entitlement reform and we need smart tax and entitlement reform that doesn't undermine public or private sector medical innovations. to give you one example, cuts to scription drug reimbursement -- to prescription drug reimbursement would undermine