[applause] that is what the affordable care act is all about. at that is its promise. and i intend to deliver on that promise. thank you very much, everybody. todd bless you. >> attempting to enroll in the

nation's health care problem. we plan to take your phone calls this morning. we have tried to take your phone calls. thank you to all of you that have called in. if you missed any of what the president has to say, it will re-air tonight. we will take your questions

about your health care exchanges. facebook.com/cspan where you can weigh in.

>> xers of the health secretary, kathleen sebelius. >> he worked for duke energy for quite a few years. an event withg to kathleen civilians. >> all of these things do a very good job of preparing someone to be the governor of the 10th largest state in the country. welcome, governor.

[applause] >> thank you very much. great to see so many people. it is great. have ae are going to great conversation and there are so many things on my list. tell us a little bit, if you governingt your principles. what do you think about when you think about governing a state as large and diverse as north carolina? lex one principle may surprise you in one that i bring from the private sector that i do not think you talk about enough in the state capital or washington dc, and that is operations. one thing people forget about is the executive of the 10 largest of the united states of america. not enough focus but on operational issues. everyone tends to talk about policy and politics, but i think one of the major challenges of

this country and many states is how do you get the work done in an efficient and effective way cap go we're seeing that with obamacare right now. the debate about obamacare was largely about policy. that there was very little discussion about how will it be implemented, and what are the details of implementation? what are the ramifications? i see that in state government also. when i came into office january of this year, 80% of my cabinet meetings were about operational issues. some of the civil protections for state workers and how do you reward good state workers and deal with state workers that might not be doing a good job? how do you deal with transportation issues? is the policy based upon where do we need the roads or the politics of road building? therefore we have to think about the operational issues.

we have budget issues from an operational standpoint. we have many budget issues. are we really dealing with the the day?et issues of are we doing a true accounting of what the unfunded liabilities off thehe books and books? those are operational issues executives are dealing with every day. at the heritage foundation and us government need to talk about operational issues. the other two or three basic things required for my cabinet is a six. that was my first requirement, we must do what is right. requirement is we have to work at a team -- work as a team. inhave to work as one team the most effective and efficient operation as possible. the third is to initiate policies that have a long-term impact on the state.

>> we should be thinking like business people, but realize we are in a tough political environment. a lot of times we do not think about operational issues, especially the young old to put operational skills into place into thinking. we're doing a review of dmv right now. what that her area to think about a retail customer when you walk in, what is your first impression as you wait an hour

and 45 minutes to get a simple renewal of the driver's license? the first impression of government. doing hopefully making it customer-friendly experience. >> you were also at the cusp of a historic time in north carolina where for the first time in over 100 years you have a republican governor and republican majority in the state house, the delegates and senators. that changed the outlook about how your party and administration go about doing business? >> i still have the same answer whether it is republican or democrat. i still have the parameters of ethics and long-term solutions

and breaking down carriers and political turf. whether you are in one party or not, you will still have those issues you will have to deal with. great working with a teen. i would say in my first nine months in office, we got 80% of what we wanted them the republican house and senate, a pretty good track record. there were some things that i disagreed. the most dynamic tax reform we saw in the nation in the past four or five years. the only state in the nation that did tax reform, but it was not easy. i had some people on the one side who wanted to institute tax reform, and i did not think the numbers added up. as a conservative tom i want to make sure the numbers add up and do true accounting and make sure we have a balanced budget in the long run and trying to stimulate the economy. i have required them to compromise and i had to

compromise some, but in doing so ,e came up with the magmatic reasonable tax reform that frankly stepped on the toes of everyone a little bit but we knew we had to change to become not only competitive with the nation and world, but i have to beat nikki haley and bill mcdonald next door to me. we have good republican governors that are my friends and competitors. we are fighting for jobs against each other. in doing so, i will respect what virginia and tennessee are doing , but as i have told nikki, we will beat you for jobs. she thinks the same way. we act as though we are private sector are competitors. also partners and energy. >> it sounds to me. -- it sounds to me as though you up deeply engaged in coming with legislation working with andlegislative branch

having the view that principles cannot be compromised but preferences are where we can work out differences. i asked her with my legislature, i asked her on pre-areas. frankly, everything outside of that area. i wanted to focus on the economy and government and deficiencies. and in doing so, i asked for tax reform and we help resent a major tax reform plan. we asked for transportation reform. --implemented the first in since 1988. we asked for major reform in

commerce. confusion in my commerce department in dealing with customers, new customers and existing customers. we had all of these middle p all involved and need to streamline it. we will privatize part of my commerce department. this is what some would call for radical change. i think it is pragmatic change. pre-k's that sounds exciting. tell us about the commerce department reform. >> what was happening is we had a lot of different compartments -- departments that were set up many years ago for good reason. charlotte regional partnership. we had all of these different groups working for commerce, but efficientoordinated, and effective manner. it also had a lot of overhead. the customer was confused, who do we talk to if we're

interested in investing in north carolina? we have to talk to all of these different groups that no one person is in charge. we are putting these people under one umbrella and privatizing the marking of north carolina. >> let me turn about economic growth, tourism and things like that tom a to transportation. we thought about what they should do well. and the infrastructure to do those in goods and services to move not only the commonwealth.

tell us about transportation reform? >> i am an infrastructure fan. government has a major role in infrastructure. i consider myself an eisenhower republican. i do not think we as republicans talk about the white david thousand -- eisenhower enough. he was an american hero and a great president for two terms. what he did was bring up out -- bring about a vision for the future. he connected the east with the west with the highway system, which we are still enjoying today. to me i'm a well-spent federal money but with a vision enacting the economy and commerce with government responsibility for infrastructure. 1950s, we still see the results of that.

i took that same philosophy as mayor charlotte -- mayor of charlotte. i introduced in 1956 in a structural -- infrastructure plan. they are now on the 18th or 19th year of the plan. it is showing results. what we did is we show the taxpayers exactly what the plan was before the taxpayers were asked to invest in it. resent the to do is 25 year and even fifty-year infrastructure plan in four areas. transportation, energy, water him and communications. always dangerous to say i have three or four ideas. you are afraid to forget one these days. i think we as republicans, , need to present a vision for the next generation. a vision of where transportation will take us and how it will come back -- connect commerce and trade to jobs and show the plan in 3-d.

this is the plan for the next 50 years, your kids and grandkids. then we need to do the same thing with communications, especially rural areas. rural america is turning right now. the unemployment rate is 15-25%. in northal towns carolina and throughout the united states. we have to connect them to the economic centers of the world and one way to do that is through communications and infrastructure. same thing with energy. if we did not have cheap and reliable energy in our country in the future, we will suffer. that is what help to build manufacturing and our nation. right now i have no idea what the energy plan is for our nation but part of my job is to present an energy plan for the state of north carolina. it is very exciting because in all of our areas there is much the private sector can do

to governmentide ideas like this. >> absolutely. the prospect for trucking firms to infrastructure firms, they want to be at the table. i think they -- there are incredible opportunities for public-partnerships for the building of new roads. should not be all government. should be incentives to build a quicker, faster and even have hot lanes where money is paid in certain ways. most companies know if you do not have the infrastructure for the future, they will not move here. you have to have the ports,

highways, and rail. this is what stays for generations. the biggest mistake i think this administration made, and i said this in an editorial when i was with the stimulus money, almost $1 trillion in stimulus money, most people think it was spent on infrastructure, when in fact very little was spent on infrastructure. they spent money on infrastructure that is still with us today. six we did during the past years is we put money on short- term infrastructure, repaving roads or widening the road a little bit. the money is gone. that is borrowed money, which your kids and grandkids will pay on for many years to come. that would have been an excellent opportunity to show a vision for the future, which would stay while you pay the debt.

now you pay the debts of potholes that have to be refilled again. that is basically what i said in the wall street journal article six or seven years ago, and sadly that has come to fruition. pre-k's as we talk about infrastructure being important for economic element, so too is an educated citizenry. >> one of the first policies i talked about when i ran in 2008 in a i lost the governorship 2008 during the eight presidential election time, but he stressed there is not enough emphasis on vocational training and technical training in math and science training. right now i think one of the biggest dangers to the united states of america is there is no one to replace the baby boomers that are engineers or

technicians. even with a high unemployment rate in our country, there are job openings for mechanics, electricians. they pay a lot more money than a lot of four-year college degrees at this point. i think we as a country have misled young people in saying the only way to success is to have a four year college degree. i think that is a great way to success, but i think another to get a two technical degree or certification. very similar to what you see in germany the past 20-20 five years. well respected, seen as prestigious. i think we need to do the same thing in america, and our economy has to have it. companies have to have the next how toion understand and fix things in innovate something. we are not talking about that

enough area i think we got caught up in a little academic elitism thinking everyone had to have a masters degree. the economy does not even -- need everyone to have a masters degree. >> we need the master plumbers and master electricians. >> i used to tell a story where i had a person put new wooden floors down in my house. he was working his tail off. have you ever seen someone put down wooden floors? you have to understand geometry and algebra. it is a science. he deserved it. he had a scale of which the market needed at this point.

that is an area of education reform. the first bill i signed as governor was a vocational career path degree for high school students, a curriculum for high school students in which they or vocational curriculum. by the way, you can change your mind. one curriculum is not easier than the other, just different. we should respect each one. >> i think it is an important point to underscore here, not only are you emphasizing the option, but students and their differentn make choices as students mature and change ideas in mind. that is huge. >> a lot of people start locational training and end up starting a business. they might get a college degree and masters degree in business to help them run a business that they started.

ng's happened in different orders. i have seen a lot of four-year college students go back to a two-year school. i have a nice bike ride to a did from east to reline at university and went back to get her nursing degree at the vocational school. does not have to always happen in the order that we seem to think the institutions require. the market might demand the order. you have also done some things to help students who might be in failing schools. >> no doubt about it. we have to start measuring results. one of the first things we did not paychool, we ought government funds to a school based upon how many students the have, but what are results? what are the result of reading and math and basic schools and graduation records

but also the results of getting the kids jobs? so what we did for example with the two-year community colleges, we change the formula where we reward those classes that cost more, that have a smaller volume of kids in those classes, but job have about 100% placement rate. we should not punish them because it costs more. in technical training funds for smaller classes that have high your job placement. we ought to think about higher job outcome. we are thinking long-term. >> how about the tuition tax credit scholarship fund? >> we are doing several things. i am a big promoter of charter schools.

most people do not know that these are public schools. are a lot of mischaracterizations of charter schools. they are public schools. we also have a voucher system. i call it a scholarship system. met cannot get their needs due to the public school maybe not having what they need. so we're doing a lot of different things. we also want to do pay for performance for our teachers. we're are instituting a system whichwe will get feedback will help the government come up with ideas on how to reward teachers. all of us go to school and the principals and teachers know who the good students are. everyone knows who is a good teacher, bad teacher, easy teacher. we all knew it. we need to start rewarding good teachers.

we want to do, pay for performance systems. startk we also need to paying math and science teachers more money based upon the market because they have a higher attrition rate. that can change year in and year out. i was a recruiter or duke power company. more basedou pay upon what the marketplace is. sometimes you pay a business major more than a liberal arts major. i think we need to adjust the pace standards to education also. it varies year-by-year. isone of the area's heritage deeply involved is the issue of common core. i know in north carolina the legislation or passed legislation putting common core in place. as we understand from some of our allies around the state, review getting critical

and perhaps re-examination. is that something you're education team is taking a look at? actually an advocate as -- of common core as an emphasis on math and science. if we do not get at her in math and science, basic reading, we will not be competitive with the rest of the world. i think our standards should be worldwide. the problem is in the implementation and testing. there are over 100 tests that are given by teachers and are aw only testing teaching by test. i think that is far too many tests. i think 13 more were added due to a race for federal grants that were extended. one reason they got that was because the test of common core. you cannot just ask teachers to do only tests. i think the problem is not

common core, the problem off and is in the implementation of common core and thinking this way in terms of -- instead of bigger picture. >> i am or virginian. we are competitive and we think our standards are better than the national standards. we maye to be careful, be competing with you. >> the states should determine their standards. every state standards should be a worldwide standard that that are get better in math, science, and basic reading. that is what is hurting our country. no -- it is not heritage takes lightly. we watched the district of columbia education system. firsthand that so many young children are forced to go to schools failing and not faith.

>> you had a superintendent and the mayor pushing for higher standards and demanding results of teachers and principals and kicked them out, which is a sad commentary i think. >> competition is the best thing for education. youhe way, i will tell another thing that will change competition right here. or any type ofad device. this will connect the rich with the poor. the poorest person can get the best education if we can connect them. you will be able to take chemistry classes on your ipad, which you can actually pour chemicals from one to another through a simulation on your ipad. i think education will change in the future where it will not be about bricks and mortar. it will be about operating expense.

using technology. that means we do not depend upon technology itself. we need to facilitate technology. if the president -- public education does not recognize this quick enough, the private sector will. georgia tech for example now offering courses for half the price through technology than they offer on campus. believe me that kids will do that if they can savor student debt. the marketplace will look at technology and much more aggressive ways within a very short amount of time. lex let me shift years and talk a little bit about medicaid expansions. been active in research . i know some of the research you might have had in south carolina would provide lessons that one

can learn at the state level. >> medicaid expansion is part of the obamacare legislation. in fact, the supreme court ruling that came out of was 4-1.n the one fourth -- vote was really chief justice roberts that gave the state a choice on whether or not they would do medicaid expansion or not. that was the one vote. it -- at least he did that in the one for -- vote. what is erotic is i've made a decision a state governor and decided not to do medicaid expansion. they do not realize that his obamacare. we could not deal with the death of existing medicaid for women,

elderly and disabled. i could argue for good reasons. the dilemma i have is this, in a very short amount of time i would have had to put a brand- new of bureaucracy together in a time that i could not meet it. my state ended up being over $500 million overproduction. over $500 million. it was a pretty big hit. there want all my teacher raises right there.

the medicaid expansion is one of the most difficult issues on the governor's plate right now. let me tell you the other issues we're having, and that is that were not and standards written. even in the past four or five weeks the administration has sent us new regulations on state medicaid and no one is talking about it. we just got a new regulation to doight force us medicaid expansion whether we want to or not because a new regulation came out five or 67 weeks ago that says if a person goes to the hospital and says they cannot pay for it and they might not even qualify for medicaid, they can still sign up, even if they are not under one of the four or five characteristics of a medicaid recipient. it a do that, the hospital bed ad, and that person can build state of north carolina for two months, and after two months at the state finds out they did not

qualify for medicaid, they will be taken off medicaid but state still has to pay for two months. that is two months of tests and services that we did not have budgeted. so it is almost around the administration that says the state has to take 100% of the responsibility. -- i have to make the race the choice that the fed says it will give me this forward three years but after the third years we have to pay 10%. one reason i did not do that is because i did not know 10% of what? no idea what the future cost would be. now that the new regulation has come in, i am in a very difficult position of a decision to make. we have checked the constitutionality of it. our lawyer says they have every right to make this. comes as a surprise to be.

the difficult parameters of obamacare right now that are still being rolled out. all of the hopeless city has been on the computer system. >> i must say, you have some really outstanding members of your house congressional reallyt who have been trying to point out some of the

challenges. >> the speaker of the house has done an outstanding job. running for the u.s. senate right now. he is on the campaign trail him up and he comes from ibm and understands operations. wereof the discussions about ias issues. -- i.s. issues. they were underfunding basic maintenance of buildings. sooner or later that catches up to you. it is easy to build a new building and worry about operations later, but sooner or letter -- later your roof breaks. >> those things wear out, that is for sure. >> you rest -- mess around with capital and operating an mixup costs between the two, accounting no nose. one of the big constituencies in

a north carolina is a constituency that is important to all americans. us about the challenges you faced with such a large number of people in the military. we will have a lot of people with industry and leadership skills. town is a bigm in meeting with the u.s. army. we will be setting up job training programs. when the returning veterans come back to him that we can use them as recruitment tools for industry, both existing and new industry to return back to the private sector. we have to donow is some of them are ready know- how to fix a car or truck or computer system or do welding but they do not have the

certification. what we're trying to do is can -- jumpthrough a few through the hoops of a barack christie and -- instead of signing up for courses was much they can easily do in their sleep. why do they have to go through we arethese courses? looking at ways we can test this out. doing is beat up certification for truck drivers that are returning from the military and can place them immediately into jobs that are open and north carolina. we have heardlace an area of interest is in teaching. some of these veterans are excellent teachers and could move into a classroom. >> absolutely. not only to veterans but we think in the private sector. i actually have my teaching degree. my goal was to be a teacher.

right now for me to go back into teaching, i would have to go through a lot of different hoops and recertify my teaching degree. >> that has been wonderful. i was wondering if you would mind taking a couple of questions from folks in our audience? >> i would be honored. please identify yourself and where you're from. >> i am a reporter or a website called talking points memo.

i was wondering if you could talk a little bit about the voter id law getting a lot of attention right now and what your take on the lawsuit is. it seems like this is a second in a number of lawsuits that the obama administration wants to put on the clearance standards. was wondering if you could respond to that, maybe address how your administration plans to address this. maury cooper is a democrat and says he wants to follow your lead on this. i think eric holder's lawsuit is both political and without merit. our laws have been greatly exaggerated, especially by the new york times. very common sense laws, which require which we government id to vote, which over 32 states do in the united

states of america, and i noticed he did not sue any of the other states. we still have the exact number of early voting places open, which the national media does not talk about. we are just trying to take the politics of where you place the early voting, which was extremely political. not havenew york is early voting. north carolina does. i noticed they are not suing the state of new york. we have even more transparency in our voting rules. we are prohibiting lobbyists from bundling money, which you were allowed to do in the past. we have stricter rules for lobbyists. that is often not mentioned. the list goes on and on. a require a voter id to get tattoo, sudafed, food stamps, get on an airplane, almost any government service in north carolina right now you have to

have an id. our legislation is actually -- offeringe ids free ids. the first election you have to have them in place if the 2016 election. he bought three years. we still have early voting and voting by mail, which you can do and do not even need an id on. someone could do it from a nursing home through the mail at this point. i think the early voting has been greatly exaggerated and common sense reform, which protects the integrity of the ballot box. regarding the attorney general, my only have hiss he can personal opinion that as a lawyer he should not publicize your personal opinion if you are going to be defending people who are promoting this commonsense law.

good lawyers do not do that. >> very good. >> grace, governor. marie turner with the galen institute. i want to ask you about tax policy. i am very interested in your ideas about tax reform in north carolina. heritage --e worked worked at heritage or with heritage over the years have a piece about the difficulty of tax reform reform at the federal level and primarily because of the complexities of how it will scoring., flat static i am interested in north carolina how you intend to get through the barriers to show the incredible economic growth that can come from lowering tax rates, even though with static scoring that is hard for budget people? never met a liberal or

conservative who is against tax reform, until it hits the one tax break they might get. liberals and conservatives can --hipper critical hypocritical on this. everyone is for tax reform until it is their loophole that we might close. now we reduce the corporate tax rate and the income tax rate which i think are the two acts -- tax rates that hindrance the competitive way to retain and recruit new businesses. but come i had to step on the toes of some people. when you go to a movie now, you have to pay a sales tax to buy

popcorn. we now have a sales tax on movie theater tickets. this is to make up the income tax that we reduce. by the way, we have a tax on .ewspaper maybe that is one reason they are mad at me. we have a tax on newspapers, more of a consumption tax as opposed to punishing productivity. i am an advocate of reporting productivity. that is the type of tax philosophy i have. you have to sell that. conservative most is nuts man saying i am all for that but cannot believe you close the tax loophole all my law firm. i say we did because you will not have clients if you do not have businesses in north carolina.

our country has to be making things, growing things, producing things. agriculture is still huge in our country and need to talk about it more. and energy. we have to have an energy policy and i am a big advocate of drilling offshore and inland drilling. i encourage government mcdonald's and myself and allowing us to begin the lease process off the atlantic coast for natural gas and for oil. >> so many things we did not get to. me say well, let would love to have you come back and do another agenda. let me ask you a couple of quick questions as we wrap up. you have economic growth in north carolina.

things have turned around a bit. >> our unemployment rate has gone down 16%. we were the third highest unemployment rate in the country. we're the sixth highest now. that is not good enough. i want to be the six lowest. that would be the visionary goal. carolina, we have to unleash the resources. our talent, universities, agriculture. treating ourart people as customers, not adversaries. >> this sounds like a good trend line. one final question, nascar? >> i am a big nascar fan. and towerd one rack data. >> nascar is big in north carolina. -- one wreck.

they never really get to the understanding. me say why i'm a big fan of nascar, jimmie johnson, dale gordon. brian vickers. hope he gets well with the blood clots as soon as possible. let me tell you what the nascar industry does. the private sector jobs. go to rick hendrix machine shop. you can eat off the floor. you have metal engineers, aerodynamic engineers. i am using that workforce to recruit the industry because they can repair things quickly. notice how quick the repair after a wreck? that is what the automobile and defense industry does. talent of the people who work on these crews is high-tech.

tourism for travel and that i support the great races newave, but also to recruit industry. ofome a hub of that type manufacturing talent in north carolina. >> creative, innovative, dynamic governor. inc. him for coming to heritage today. [applause] thank you very much. thanks very much.

[captioning performed by national captioning institute] [video clip] http://twitter.com/cspanwj will probably get more of this during the white house briefing. jay carney expected in just a moment. live coverage on c-span. >> good afternoon, ladies and

gentlemen. thank you for being here. on friday president obama will travel to new york to visit pathway and technology early college high school. in brooklyn where he will discuss the importance of ensuring the next generation of middle-class american workers and entrepreneurs has the skill they need to compete and win in the global economy. in his state of the union address earlier this year the president said" now with schools ke ptech, students will graduate with a high school diploma and associate degrees in engineering. we need to give every american an opportunity like this. further details will be made

available in the coming days. later that evening the president attendliver remarks and a dnc event before turning to the white house that evening. i have an appointment, but that gives us plenty of time. >> breaking news at a school shooting in nevada. can you tell us whether the president has been reached on that? >> i can only tell you the president is regularly read on this. i do not know that he has specifically been briefed on this yet. i suspect he has. we will find that out after the briefing. we are aware of the shooting and limited information available at this time. was there any explanation about what went wrong, what happened

to cause all of these problems? >> i will tell you a couple of things. we are focused on providing access to affordable health insurance to millions of americans. millions of americans who hire to now have not had the access. as the president made clear in his remarks to affordable care act is much more than a website. the website is a piece of a process that will provide access to the marketplace is. important part of the affordable care act that has launched this month. provided 50 different options as -- for consumers who have not had access to affordable care insurance or access to the kind of variety that drives down prices and provides insurance of the price points they can afford.

is,he fact of the matter the president is frustrated and made that clear today by the problems we have seen with the website, but already, because of the efforts underway in the tech surge that they have launched, we are seeing changes to the site that make it more clear to consumers about the variety of ways they can get information about the health plans out there. shop around, if you will. they can now, if you look at the website today, different than yesterday, you can easily comparison shop by entering your zip code. there is a direct -- direct link that will help you estimate the tax credit you might be eligible for as part of the insurance thing -- purchasing insurance. there is also a pathway to allow you to enroll through call centers. as the president has said and others have said, we have beefed up staffing of call centers to

the obvious high number of americans who are interested in finding out about insurance options have ways to do that and ways to enroll. there are four ways, not just online. by phone, in person or by mail in addition to online to register and enroll in the insurance options. >> without any further explanation of what went wrong, can you say it was misleading, and issue a volume? >> i think it is absolutely accurate to say the volumes far exceeded expectation and volume has driven the problems we have seen and exposed some of the problems we now know about. so no one would argue with the assertion that there was an underestimation of the kind of volume that we were going to see. obviously that demonstrates the very important and real fact

that millions of americans are very interested in affordable insurance that had not existed before, and also the case for models in place that tested the website did not account for this kind of volume in the volume we saw instantly on the first day to ther since has led problems and exposed some of the glitches and kinks the president talked about today, which is why we are taking the actions we are taking to improve the consumer experience. , even with theer are signing up, registering. people are enrolling and people are being able to explore the options available to them. as you have seen all over the country, there is huge demand. that is why the president is so fixing the problems

that have arisen and ones that arise and not on monday morning quarterbacking. we're interested in providing a very valuable commodity to americans who so barely won to buy affordable health care insurance. >> the president mentioned bringing in tech people from outside the government. who are some of these people? are you getting any names or companies that the public would recognize? this was something that was announced that hhs. they are bringing in top experts from inside and outside the government to scrub in with their team and improve the website. these are additional contractors and experts that are part of the presidential innovation fellows program started by the president in his first term. it pairs the top innovators from the private sector with top

innovators within government to who theyte in terms of are individually and contractors , the questions that you should address to hhs and cms. they have discussed implementation, and i am sure the department, i know the department has made clear they are willing to testify and will be willing in the future. requestspecifics about to individual departments. >> from a messaging standpoint this would be taken over by the white house.

>> i think you heard the president speak today. i think kathleen civilians and many others will continue to speak about implementation of the affordable care act going forward. whether or not it is a messaging challenge is a worthy discussion of analysis. a challenge that is far more important -- important has to do get making sure americans affordable health care insurance that they so clearly want. hhs is taking the steps announced and you can see clearly on the website. we are focused on making sure the obvious and demonstrated desire for information about the marketplaces and information about the tax credit available to so many americans that will make insurance affordable for the first time is available to them and know how they can get

that information and that 24-7 experts are working on fixing the problems. and making the experience>> [in] unexpectedlyuse of high demand. how is it unexpected that millions of people would try to sign on? >> there is no question the volume has caused some of the problems, but it has also asked -- exposed some of the problems. the fact is that the number of access the healthcare.gov website on the first day and every day since have far exceeded expectations. early ont we noted that it exceeded within a few

days but southwest airlines gets in a month. there is no question that the , evenwho made guesses educated guesses about the , and that theff tests that preceded the launch were based on a volume that turned out to be way below what we saw. no one is making excuses for that. what we are focused on this fixing the problems so that the consumer experience is improved and making it clear to americans that they can enroll, that they can shop, and that they can purchase insurance that will be available to them on january 1. at prices that they could not before now envision getting with the kind of quality coverage that they could not get. >> to follow as well on that question, you are saying that a structural problem with the website unrelated to volume is not part of the issue?

i dorst let me say that not have a degree in computer science or level of expertise that would allow me to answer in-depth questions about the architecture of a program like this. what i can say is that volume -- notould someone within hhs have communicated that to the white house at this point e >> i can tell you that volume exceeded expectations dramatically and that volume both caused and exposed problems. clear that hemade is frustrated. that he is not satisfied with the consumer experience that a lot of folks out there have had. that is why hhs is taking the action they have, they have already introduced improvements to the website and have made clear to americans across the country that there are ways to enroll through the toll-free number in person, as well as by

mail. getting theed on americans interested in getting affordable health insurance because they do not already have it through their employer the information that they need so that they can shop and make choices. this is a problem and that is -- >> structural problem. to computerefer experts on those kinds of details. what i can tell you is that as the president and hhs have said, they are working 24/seven to deal with the website issues. i would note that the family of four out there that has enrolled to purchase insurance at prices that they could not previously enjoy, even if they had to struggle through the website or call the 800 number are getting something that is very valuable to them, and that is what this

is about. providing the security that millions of americans need, affordable quality health insurance, that they did not have before. the problems that exist within a piece of this, we have to focus and we are focused on making sure that those people for whom the affordable care act arewritten and conceived getting the services and benefits that they deserve. they wanted this up and running on day one. as these problems persist and not resolved, are they delaying the penalty for not signing up for insurance? earlier, we are two or three weeks into a six- month enrollment. . american to have access to affordable insurance would need to have insurance by march 31.

people who do not have access due to a state not expanding medicaid, for example, or other factors, will not be penalized. that is part of the existing law. in terms of the february 15 date that you just mentioned, hhs will provide more information and there is no can -- there is no question that there is a difference between individual and roman and responsible time frames in the first year, and they will be addressed, but the oft is that in the beginning the fourth week, beginning of the third week of this process we are focused on making sure that americans out there understand that there are a variety of ways to get information about the health care plans available to them, to the tax credits available to them and a variety of ways to enroll and purchase. >> are you indicating that there is flexibility e >> i would refer to hhs -- flexibility e i would refer to hhs for more

details -- flexibility? i would refer to hhs. for to hhs.d john? >> i want to make sure i got that last part. have all the problems we seen with people trying to enroll tom a is the white house going to be delaying the allate? >> that is not at what i was saying. >> well why not? why not delay? you are going to charge people a fine for not enrolling. >> there is no reason to with a six-month enrollment. itself as the law written makes clear that americans with access to affordable insurance would need to have insurance by march 31. the people that do not have access to affordable care to to a state not expanding medicaid, and there are states out there ofriving their own residence

access to expanded medicaid because they made that choice, or due to other factors, will not be penalized. that is number one. when it comes to the issue i was just talking about with the february 15 marker, i would refer to hhs for more details, but they are looking to align the policies with the disconnect andeen the open enrollment individual responsibility time frames, which exist in the first year only. the point i am trying to make in addressing the question at the areof your question, we focused on providing quality health insurance to millions of americans. we are three weeks into a six- month enrollment. week ornrolled last next week, your insurance does .ot kick in until january 1 ample prior experience shows that in programs like these, most people do not enroll until towards the end. if you are able to shop for an extended.

of time before you have to buy, you are likely to shop. example,husetts, for where similar health-care initiatives were passed into law, the average consumer explored his or her options six i believe the, figure was, before actually making a decision. we are clearly acknowledging the problems that have existed on the website. they are not acceptable. we are focused on making the consumer experience better, providing clear information to americans about the variety of ways they can get the information about plans, as well as the variety of ways that they can enroll to those plans. our focus is on making the affordable care act work and making sure that americans have access to these plans. not on figuring out who is to blame for a problem that clearly exists and needs to be fixed. i believe the

>> basic line jumping, you cannot really charge people a fine for not getting health insurance for not fixing this mess, can you? >> i appreciate what you're saying and i have answered now and will answer again. website is not fixed, will people still have to pay the fine? all, we are way still early in the process. is october 21 today. let's be clear about that. we are three weeks into this. that is number one. number two, as written it is clear that people without access to affordable care will not be penalized. >> could those factors be this website? >> we are focused on implementing the law and ensuring that people have the information that they need. what i think is important to remember is that even through this, people are enrolling.

people are submitting applications successfully. we are to make sure that doing everything we can because the interest and demand is so ish, the consumer experience as good as possible and every american out there interested in getting affordable health insurance out there is getting the information that they need and getting it in a way that allows them to make the educated choices about the variety of plans available to them. >> the main contractor that helped to build this website were fired by ontario, canada, for problems. did the administration choose the wrong people for this website? hhs forld refer you to information about contractors. that is not something the white house overseas. the president has made clear that he has not been satisfied with the consumer experience the the website and administration, hhs, cms, are working 24/seven to improve the

experience. starting at $93 million, where is that money coming from? >> i would refer you to hhs for questions about hhs contracts. saying, when you mentioned other factors that this website issue could fall into that category sometime in the future? you am simply explaining to what the law says. >> it would seem you need flexibility to address this problem. >> let's put it this way. if you do not have access to affordable insurance, you will not be penalized for not buying affordable insurance. ok? so, if you live in a state where a governor or legislature has chosen not to expand medicaid for which you would otherwise have qualified, well, no, the

affordable care act mandates and expansion or attempted expansion of medicaid, the supreme court decision made it a decision that the states would make, and many have, including states with republican governors, and others have not, leaving out many americans from having access to medicaid. no, no, no. the affordable care act is not a website. the issue is do you have access to affordable health insurance. the individual responsibility provision is there for those individuals who, even though they have access to affordable health insurance, do not purchase it and are therefore held responsible for that. the law addresses that as written. in terms of the deadlines that were being discussed, i was a technology in to disconnect between the two deadlines in the first year only and that hhs is looking at that and will be issuing guidelines soon. that thecorrect to say administration is looking into flexibility as far as the

individual mandate? because the enrollment. has become more complicated? drawatever conclusions you , i think you can draw them. it is clear that if people do not have access to affordable health insurance, then you will not be asked to pay a penalty because you have not purchased it. making sureed on that millions of americans in every state across the country do have access. >> that is your focus? >> has the president established a new deadline in which you would want certain service quality assurance standards met? has he set forth a timetable or means by which hhs can report to him and everyone can hear about the progress being made? and you tell the country when this is going to be resolved? clear,t of all, let's be there are problems with the website. people have been submitting

applications. people are being enrolled across the country. >> [inaudible] like let me get to that part of the question, but it is important to note that the issue of the question is not the marketplaces do not open or that americans have not been able to submit applications, the issue is that the website component has not functioned as effectively as it should have and the president made clear that he is not satisfied with that. his deadline, his insistence is that every minute of every hour of every day going forward, this problem has to be addressed, isolated, and fixed. as with any website, new issues arise that are addressed and fixed so that consumer experience is as efficient and effective as possible going forward. >> there is no timeline that has been set internally echo >> he wants and is seeing action being

taken right away. efforts are being made right away to make improvements to the website and to make, more importantly, make it more clear broadly to the american people who have a keen interest in getting affordable health insurance that there are a variety of ways for them to get information. tothe president apologized the country about the default. does the white house of the country and apology for this? >> the president is frustrated and he made that clear. what the president made clear today is that every american out there who has demonstrated such clear interest in affordable health insurance should be awarded by the best possible consumer experience and that is what we are insisting on. what the experience has told us is that demand for quality affordable health insurance is exceedingly high and we need to

step up our game to ensure that the demand is met in a way that allows consumers to examine the options available to them, examine the credits available to them, to make the site more affordable for them and their families and purchase that insurance so that they are covered, in many cases for the first time. i think the president expressed his frustration today in the rose garden. >> how do you answer criticism from folks who say that the problems with the website suggest that there may be problems elsewhere down the road to be at tax subsidies or reimbursements. that they should have gotten the website sign-up right? >> i would say this, there is no question that we have seen, for many months and years now, a concentrated concerted effort i critics of obamacare to undermine it. they have tried more than 40 times to repeal it or through

other means sabotage the affordable care act. they shut down the government because of their opposition to affordable health insurance for millions of americans. is some joy being taken in some quarters by the experiences that some americans have had, frustrating experiences they have had in trying to get information about affordable health insurance, and my only question to them is -- how can you possibly take pleasure in that frustration when it is born out of a desire for health insurance that the very same critics have never provided a plan to provide, never developed a plan to provide to those same americans. the critics you are talking about have opposed health care reform at every step. they have tried to undermine it at every step. they shut down the government over their opposition to it erie it it is hardly surprising that they would be critical of the

real problems we have seen in the website part of the affordable care act, but let's remember what this is about, it is about getting insurance to americans who have not had access to affordable insurance, that 15% or 20% of the population for whom these marketplaces are designed. what we have never seen from the critics is an alternative. i do not think there should be celebration around the fact that americans, real people have experienced these troubles. than they have had in getting access to this information so that they can purchase affordable health care. >> i am not talking about people who welcomed problem, i am talking about people who say that a simple thing like setting up a website is much less dealing with reimbursements. if you did not get the first one right, why should we be confident that you would get the second one right?

>> i think the idea that setting up a website is simple would be challenged by many in silicon valley and especially one of this nature, which provides so much information to so many millions of americans. if you're going to ask me a specific question about a specific element of the affordable care act i am happy to try to answer that, but to say how you answer the critics in america is to say what we already know. >> you went from dealing with this on the web to buy phone, in person, by mail. theof our reporters called number now on the website and was told, essentially, we will send you paperwork a couple of weeks. so? >> i do not know what the fox reporter discovered when he or she called, but it is true that wait times have been fairly short on the one 800 number.

>> they basically said they would send the paperwork. >> again, i do not know what experience you guys had. you can enroll over the phone, in person, you can be provided an application to sign up and register and to enroll. what we are making clear today and what the website makes clear today is that there are these other avenues to both learn about the affordable care act and that health insurance options available to you in your state and to be able to sign up and enroll. curious, five days before the launch the president said that you would compare this to the same what you would shop kayak.lane ticket on who misled him? are you telling me that five days before somebody let the president go out to the american public and give this speech and say this and make this promise

-- the line is -- i promise you, this is a lot easier, it is like booking a hotel or plane ticket. by the president is frustrated. he made that clear today. we are focused on making improvements so that the millions of americans who want affordable health insurance are getting the best consumer experience possible, as opposed to monday morning quarterbacking. i will tell you what i mentioned earlier, there is no question volumes exceeded substantially expectations and that the testing that was done was based on -- >> adding a server would have fixed it in a heart week, right? wax i am pretty confident you are not a computer science guy. >> but if this was simple traffic issues, that is the fact . >> i will tell you what i said earlier, volume far exceeded expectation and it created problems because of how large it was and exposed other problems,

glitches, and kinks in the system that are being addressed. you wilma get an argument from here that this is not been frustrating, the president himself made that clear, but he is focused on making the experience better for americans. even through this process nearly 20 million folks -- there have been nearly more than 20 million businesses associated with healthcare.gov, demonstrating a sustained interest in the array of health care options to the millions of americans who have not had these options available in the past. >> why should we assume that they brought in people from the outside? that seems to send the message that they do not know what the problem is. >> i think you should assume that they have identified problems and glitches that need to be fixed and if they brought in a team to continue the effort and put the tools and processes in place to monitor and identify

parts of the website where individuals are examining -- >> would you not be screaming up and down? >> we are finding problems and atking on solutions erie it any major technology operation you are constantly monitoring your operation, finding glitches, problems, fixing them. >> are you open to extending open enrollment? this is separate from the question, concerning that this could be a lost month in open enrollment, are you open to expanding it? >> one, i am not sure how you can call three weeks or even a month a lost month when hundreds of thousands of people have submitted applications. that is not just your name and your e-mail address. that is the application that much of you discussed and we talked about here that was initially 21 pages but is now down to three pages to make it

an easier experience for consumers, that is still a substantial piece of business and it is one of the biggest pieces of this process. again, half of a million people have done that. these are people who have often done it on behalf of their family members -- >> not a lost month? >> is far from where we wanted to be, as the president made clear, but the answer to that question would be like writing off those people, which we would never do, because that demonstrates the absolute interest -- >> [indiscernible] >> i am not going to speculate on where we are going to be in a few months, we are focused on fixing the information now. one of the things the president said on that they remains true, type in your zip code and you can comparison shop, look at the options available to you. you can access the tax calculator to estimate for you

and your family what your subsidies would the that could be under the affordable care act. through the website or through other means, there is a capacity to enroll and purchase other insurance. >> is this based on whether kathleen sebelius testifies on thursday echo >> i would refer you to the department as to how to respond for specific requests for officials to appear. i would say that the department has consistently engaged with and worked with congress and i am sure that the department will continue to do that. [inaudible] flex i would refer you to the departments when the officials are asked to testify. >> a question not about the website, you talk about the individual responsibility. is it accurate to say that other than someone literally sitting down and volunteer early writing a check --

>> -- voluntarily writing a check -- >> it depends on how it is submitted to hhs. >> it has been said that the penalty is almost impossible to enforce because other than someone filing for a refund, there is no other way to collect it. >> i would again refer you to hhs and cms for that. so, do you know whether the website was beta tested before the actual launch? >> i happen to know what beta tested means. i can tell you this -- >> [laughter] i'm old, but not that old.

what i can tell you is that there is no question that the website has not performed up to expectations or performed as well as we believed it would based on the testing that was done. testing of the types of , i would not want to pretend to be an expert. the system has not worked as effectively and efficiently, obviously, as we wanted it to. that is why people are working as hard as their working. people are being brought into work as hard as they can to address these problems. have people tested it and thought it was going to work obviously, again, for details i would refer you to hhs , but obviously the system was

tested and based on the expectations we had, we were confident that it was going to work more effectively than it has been working. as you will recall, even before we acknowledge that with the launch of any major web operation like this, there will be kinks. but i am not soft-pedaling what is happening. we completely acknowledge that this has been frustrating and that is why the president spoke the way he did in the rose garden and why so many people are busting rocks on this right now. >> the president from pakistan will be here on wednesday. how important is that meaning given the last couple of years? >> the president looks forward to welcoming the prime minister to the white house on wednesday. his official visit comes as we are strengthening u.s. pakistan

relations. added the meeting the prime minister will see the state department, department of defense, treasury, and trade representatives. these meetings provide an opportunity to oncuss concrete cooperation issues of mutual concern, like energy, trade, economic development, and countering violent extremists. we want to invest our shared interest in a stable and prosperous pakistan that contributes to international security and prosperity. we want to find ways for our countries to cooperate even as we have differences on some issues. i want to make sure the trajectory is a positive thing. to president looks forward to this, it is obviously a very one that relationship, has a lot of complexity to it. it is obviously valuable when it comes to the safety and security

of the american people. >> [inaudible] to give youno more beyond what i just gave you. -- >> you are talking about the lawmakers trying to undermine the affordable care act, can you say one other current about their refusal to in thee funding implementation phase in any way passing what we have seen as interest problems? related to that, can you imagine the president coming back to ask funding.ional >> i do not know the answer to the first question. right now we are focused on correcting the problems that exist, making sure that millions of americans have the ,nformation available to them that they can shop for affordable health care, that they can hope to purchase affordable health care for the

first time. for questions around funding stream, i would direct you to hhs. clarify, if the president was willing to extend open enrollment, is that something he could do? >> we are getting way ahead of ourselves. we are three weeks into the process. the website portion of the affordable care act, the rollout into the marketplace has been filled with challenges. but we are three weeks in. going to the broader issue of the six months, regardless of the number of or scarcity of challenges that there will be with rolling out a website like this, the fact would always have been, based on all the examples that we know of, the early. here would have been one in

which we saw a great deal of shopping around and accessing of information. the bulk of actual submissions of applications and enrollment would take place later. that has always been the case and that is what we expect here. speculate.ing to if that is what you mean by leaving it open. i am simply saying -- >> [inaudible] >> there is a lot of stuff that i know i am asked about that i would not want to speculate about. we have a six-month enrollment, six months, which is substantial for anyone who, as i suspect most people here are, enrolled in a health care or health insurance through their own openyer, the annual enrollment is a lot shorter than six months and i think that the ,uration of that was by design providing an ample amount of time for americans to acquaint

themselves with this new opportunity and the benefits available to them, making choices according to their family's needs and their finances. i will make this the last one, i have got to run. >> [indiscernible] >> the prime minister said he was shocked. what kind of donation is the u.s. willing to give [indiscernible] behavior? anone, we obviously have important and valuable relationship between the united states and france, one of our closest allies, certainly our longest ally. , responding tore questions about other countries,

we address issues like this related to alleged intelligence activities to diplomatic channel -- diplomatic channels. every not comment on alleged public activity and the united states, as with knowledge, gathers activity on all nations. we have begun to review the way that we gather intelligence so that we can properly balance the legitimate can -- legitimate concerns of our citizens and allies that the private -- with the privacy concerns that all people share. the national security agency is a foreign intelligence agency, i would remind you, focused on developing information about valid targets. the activities are directed against these targets in response to u.s. leaders hoping to protect the nation from threats like terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. thank you all very much. have a great day.

[captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2013] >> this is eleanor roosevelt's typewriter. this is where she wrote her column. here i have the original drafts of some of the columns. i wanted to share them. this one is her first, it sets the tone for the columns to follow. what she is talking about here are the comings and goings in the white house as they get back to the regular schedule after

the holiday season. this is a clipping from november 6, 1940, election day, talking about how it midnight a larger crowd than usual came from hide torches, andnd, wonderful placards. a tradition on election night, the roosevelts would come here, gather the family, and wait for the election results. when they were announced, the president would go out to greet the folks. >> first lady eleanor roosevelt, tonight at 9 p.m. eastern. >> one thing that was interesting that was not that important in 1995 but is critical now was the certification of mobile devices. these devices that millions hundreds of millions of americans can have, it has an fcc stamp on it because we have to make sure that they do not interfere with each other. back in 1995 there were not that

many mobile phones going through the process. but now it is really important, really big. apple, samsung, motorola, others, they need these certifications, they have plans, billions in advertising, suddenly the plans get delayed by a number of days. >> we have had several budget disputes before that stem from the budget control act of 1974. this occurs almost every year, this crisis that goes on. and yet after four years of this we are still not good at figuring out how to operate the government. >> the effects of the government shutdown on the sec, tonight on "the communicators." span, we bring public affairs events from washington directly to you, putting you in

the room at congressional hearings, white house events, briefings, conferences, offering complete gavel-to-gavel coverage of the u.s. house, all as a public service of private industry. c-span, created by the cable tv industry 34 years ago, funded by her local cable or satellite provider. now you can watch us in high definition. of the syrian opposition says that his side needs more help in the syrian civil war he spoke friday here in washington. he said radicalization among fighters is a serious concern. from the center for strategic studies, this is one hour and 15 minutes. >> good morning, let me ask everyone to take seats, maybe

close the doors in the back. welcome to johns hopkins, my , professoriel server of conflict and management here. it is a particular pleasure to najab this morning ghadbian. he comes with an incredible pedigree for support in syria, a pedigree that comes from france, emigration to the united states to avoid his own imprisonment, getting his masters and --

masters and phd, becoming a visiting professor and associate university ofhe arkansas, teaching middle east politics, but also engagement with each and every one of the syrian efforts to transition the country from what has been a brutal and long- lasting dictatorship to thething more worthy of syrian citizenry. particularith pleasure that i welcome him. he will speak for 15 minutes. then we will go to q&a. >> good morning, thank you so much for the opportunity to about one of the

most important political issues of our time, syria. again, i will try to take about 15 minutes to present some points and use them for an opportunity to engage in discussion. let me start maybe by introducing the syrian coalition to some of you who are not familiar with it, and then we can talk about challenges facing the coalition, highlighting maybe three specific challenges, concluding with how to end this conflict. the syrian coalition was created in november of 2012. it was the second wave of organization by the syrian opposition to create a voice for the syrian revolution.

it was to create an institution that can, in fact, speak for the syrians who want change in syria. as you get from the name, the coalition itself is made of several groups. some of them are political groups with long histories, like the muslim other head. others were homegrown movements. most of the individuals were arrested and spent years in prison. many of them had to leave the country after the revolution. there were individual activists like myself. we decided to have a better connection with the inside. the situation was developing in syria.

we included local groups like the council was created before. they were trying to provide services and government to those who were liberated. the coalition is now in the second and third phase. the first president was a very charismatic figure who served his first term. the second president was elected last summer. we went through an expansion of the coalition. the idea was supposed to be kind of like a legislative body. it could create an executive branch which would handle the challenges of the revolution. it can, in fact, provide a governing body for the liberated areas. the coalition envisioned improving the coordination with the army by creating new bodies known as the supreme military council, or smc. it would become the head of the moderate forces within the free syrian army.

the free syrian army was represented with a 15 member panel. this is just a brief history of the coalition in terms of its structure and vision. it is similar to all of the previous creations of the opposition, like the syrian national council. they want to move syria from one party to a multiparty system. they want a state ruled by law. it will be an inclusive, free, democratic syria. in addition, it is a good idea, as we were talking, since the revolution began -- we thought

very hard about the issue of transition. how should we deal with law and order in the post assad era? we have two projects, in fact. one of them i was personally involved in, called the day after. it provides a detailed vision in all areas. all of the programs have been endorsed and embraced. i will mention specific challenges facing the coalition. then i will and with how the coalition envisions the end to the conflict. one of the first challenges facing the coalition is the humanitarian catastrophe in syria. this is something we are faced with with the cap -- the syrian national council.

many of us are activist and we find ourselves spending a lot of time and energy healing with the humanitarian situation. if you have not followed the latest figures, we have more than 2.5 million refugees since the beginning of this conflict. the most serious figure is the internally displaced syrian. they have passed the 5 million mark. with all of the assistance that we're getting from the international community and neighboring countries, from syrian communities everywhere, those efforts have not been able to match the needs associated. this is one point that i have heard. only 11% of those have been addressed by this assistance. this will continue to be a serious challenge facing us. i know that the money we received has gone to humanitarian assistance.

93% of that money went to assistance. that was urgent. i will tell you the latest that we have. the same area where the regime used chemical weapons has 1.8 million syrians trapped. they do not have access to food or medicine. they have been appealing to us, to the international community, to do something. they are eating leaves. i saw somewhere that there was a religious ruling fatwah that people could eat dogs and cats.

it is a terrible situation. we have been contacting the international community and our friends. we're asking them to allow access to those areas. this has been going on for the last two or three weeks. that is the first challenge. the second challenge is the challenge of radicalization in syria. there is a rise of an extremist groups. this is receiving more attention in the media than what it really is. it is a serious concern to us. it is a serious challenge. to understand the context of this issue, i think we need to remind everyone that the solution begins peacefully, similar to egypt and tunisia. that will take six to seven months. what led to the militarization of the revolution was the fact that the regime never stopped killing. first, they used snipers. it was assassination. they tried to keep it low 20.

there was defection of officers and soldiers from the army. young people had enough and decided to carry weapons in self-defense to defend their communities. it led to militarization. most of this was a byproduct of the syrian army and the syrian state. they were supporting the idea of a revolution and the democratic inclusive syria. there was a missed opportunity in the revolution. the international community did not step up their support of the moderate force. this created a vacuum in which we started to see inflow of extremist. they came from neighboring countries and everywhere. if you remember, last year, one

year ago, there were not many extremists. now, they are growing in number. that has to do with the perception that the international community is not supportive of the moderates. it is unbelievable. the regime escalated oppression from artillery to takes to scud missiles to air force. they are using barrel bombs from world war ii to bomb civilian areas. this is the environment that creates extremism. a lot of people turn to religiosity. i think what led to to the radicalization is the fact that some of those groups came and were well organized and affect if. -- effective. they attracted young syrians. now we have new groups. they are close to al qaeda. the good news about what is happening is that local communities are turning against these extremists. they are trying to impose their

vision on communities. the threat is very serious and we take it very seriously. this is why but we believe -- why we believe two things can stop this trend. waited a quick political solution and also to move on to the strengthening of the moderate forces. the third challenge, where i will end, has to do with providing government for the liberated areas. as you know, a large part of the territories outside of control of the regime. the coalition and the syrian national council could not

provide services. the vacuum was filled by the free syrian army to provide some security. in some cases, it was provided by activists. they created local councils. their ability to reach these communities from one area to another helped them to fill that vacuum. we felt that the creation of an interim government, not to be confused with a transitional government, is necessary. we went through nominating someone for that job. that has been worked through. lately, another person was nominated from the inside. he was part of the domestic -- damascus movement. he wants to create service oriented, small, executive bodies or ministries. in order to do that, in the next meeting of the coalition, that

will be presented. we hope that these individuals will move into liberated areas. they can provide basic services. the last point, i will end here. how do we envision in a to this conflict? -- an end to this conflict? the initiative that was introduced was mentioned early on. they called for a yemeni like a solution. they would give power to the vice president and lead to a transitional government. this would lead to a democratic system. we endorsed those ideas at one point when the arab league sent

of servers. when the u.n. sent observers, we supported that. they are oblique solution was presented to the u.n. and vetoed by russia, unfortunately. the political solutions continue to try to present a transition. that is where geneva came in. we believed at the time that geneva had positive elements. when they met last may and decided to hold a geneva to conference, we thought that this could present an opportunity to in the conflict. a couple of points. from our point of view, number one, they should be -- there should be clarity about the outcome of this process. there should be a transition to democracy.

we will not talk about power- sharing or rehabilitating the regime. we are talking about a democratic transition. we're talking about the creation of a government with full executive authority, including military security. those powers exist in the presidency currently. this will lead to a democratic transitional government and election. second, from our point of view, we need the support of key countries in the region. we want their endorsement. that is why, during the meetings, we met with the international community. we insisted that countries like turkey, saudi arabia, uae, would

support our going to geneva. we wanted the u.n. to provide some kind of guarantee that there will be implementation of any arrangement. this includes the need for peacekeeping forces. i think, from our point of view, we have an understanding. when we say that assad should not be part of the process, that is not a precondition. that is our understanding of the literal wording of geneva. we believe that it must begin with him stepping down. this is how the conflict can and and ends soon. that will open the door. it will open the door for serious to move into a democracy -- syria to move into a democracy. i will open up for questions. thank you very much. >> i am tempted to not ask anything. you have asked all of my questions. i guess, from a conflict management point of view, if you

went to geneva -- if you even got what you were asking for, which is a democratic transition, would you be able to deliver on what you would need to deliver on? do you have the kind of control over the situation that would enable you to be what the regime is looking for? that is an interlocutor who can in the fight. >> this is definitely difficult. it is a difficult task. we know the structure of the free syrian army.

i think what we're doing, even before going to geneva, is to consolidate. we are restructuring and away -- in a way to create a proficient institution that believes in protecting the country, rather than being loyal to one entity. the inability to control the extremists is an issue. those groups are not recognized. all of the effort should be between now and then to weaken and isolate these groups. that is what we have been doing and coordination with the smc. we believe that it is difficult because those guys have been engaged in a war against the free syrian army. they have assassinated leaders and taken over the area. we do not believe that this is isolated from the regime. many of those individuals were trained to kill americans and a rock. this is the genesis. i think it would require a regional effort and an international effort. some factions of the free syrian army would require support from neighboring countries. then it can happen.

it will not be 100%, full control. i think if we can control most, then we can deliver. then it can be isolated. >> question? please stand up. i do not see a microphone. the problem is for the recording. if you could go to the microphone, thank you. i should have noted that before. if you can go to the microphone to ask questions. please do introduce yourself. >> you said you have a detailed vision of the current state of

law. what is that vision and where can i obtain a copy of that vision? thank you. >> it is a project called the day after and it is available online. if you search, you can find the whole document. a few words about it -- it is a project that lasted eight or nine months. there was a participation of 50 or 60 syrians. they were divided into working groups and addressed areas like lawns order, transitional justice, constitutional design, and justice. we provided recommendations for now and after the transition. we created an ngo that is trying to implement those transitions. please.