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.

>> hi, can you hear me? >> yes, i can. please introduce yourself. >> i am susan and i work for reuters. concerning the conference, i think it was yesterday or the day before, syrian prime ministers said that it was their understanding that the next conference would be the geneva conference on november 23 and 24th. i wondered if you had been informed that that would be the day? i also think that the syrian national council said recently that the council would not be going. do you think that people from the coalition will attend? are the americans pressuring you

to go? thank you. >> the first part of the question, the 24th and 25th? i think i saw something like that. i do not think that has been agreed upon. we have not received the letter of invitation yet. that will be the first step. there was a discussion or talk of a tentative date of november 15. even then, it may be too soon. the second part of the question -- we are in a coalition. you are right on one component.

the coalition came out and said they will not take part in geneva. this is based on their understanding of the balance of power on the ground. they feel that there really is not enough support coming from our friends. that is a perspective that you have to understand and respect. this may be an opportunity to bring a question of chemical weapons. i want to address this and say a few words. when aside used chemical weapons to kill more than 1500 people, including children, a lot of serious felt that this was an opportunity for the international community to present a credible and swift response to that act. we know how obama reacted. there was the case that the u.n.

commission could provide support. the president put the credible threat on the table and took it to congress. it was not going to pass. the deal with russia came to dismantle assad of chemical weapons. there was a strong sense of disappointment among syrians. the source of that has to do with two points. number one, they felt there was no accountability. the u.n. called it a war crime and a crime against to manatee. -- against humanity. this was expressed in so many ways. there was a group of brigades saying that they do not recognize the coalition. that is how bad the situation was. the second element, which we felt, was that the opportunity should have been used by the a mock cash by the obama administration, -- by the obama administration, put the heavy weapons on the table. let's not forget that the majority of serious, 98%, were killed by conventional weapons. we did not solve the bigger issue. that is where the sense of frustration is expressed. to go back here question, we

have not made a decision in the coalition about whether to go or not. we agreed on a certain determinant of what is acceptable for us to go to geneva. this includes our understanding that assad is not part of the problem. it is really in the language. we will be discussing this. it will be difficult. we may need to persuade within

the coalition itself. in general, i think many of us believe that this could be an opportunity -- especially if it is framed in the right way. if the conditions to make it successful are there, we should go and we will go. we want to end the killing and move into a transition. that is in our best interest. not now. they see this as an opportunity. we see it the same way. we have a lot of discussions with them, but i would not call it pressure. not yet. >> if i may add a word. judging from experience in the american diplomatic corps, the notion that this is a two-day event surprises me. the notion that longer than two days would be convenient -- convening a few days before thanksgiving is even more surprising.

some of you will remember that the date and talks ended when they did he come for thanksgiving. >> thank you. i would like to return to the challenges that you mentioned. radicalization and governance are related. if the councils can provide services, then the extremists move in. they will impose sharia law. there have been discussions of providing training to local moderates and councils with no response. at least as far as i know. as i understand it, the administration is not interested in undertaking any kind of training or equipping syrians for fear of ending assad. i would like to know what you would like to see happen.

you have mentioned mediating that or assisting you through the body that you're trying to form. is there any prospect that it would be acted upon before there is a peace agreement? in other words, we will leave the vacuum open until there's an agreement with assad? that is not a good way forward. >> i agree with your question about the difficulties. we should provide training. again, governance is necessary for those areas. i believe that there must be pressure. that is my point about putting the question of pressure on the regime to stop using heavy

weapons. this has been one of the main problems. i would mention that 10 days ago, they used the air force against a city. they are still doing that. unless the countries, including the u.s. and maybe russia, apply the kind of pressure, it will be difficult. one of the areas that the u.s. can provide training -- so far there are limited trainings in jordan. this is kind of a secret operation. it should be made open. it should be given to the

pentagon and i think this is needed not only for transitional periods, but for post assad. this is one of the ways that the u.s. can be a factor in shaping the post assad order. this is what we want and need. most syrians would like the u.s. to pick -- to play that role. the good news is that there are a lot of countries willing to do more. i think that if you read the reports that came out, there are good recommendations. they mentioned details affecting the coalition and we agree with many of them. they say that our allies need to get their act together. they need to have better coordination. for that to happen, you need leadership that has been lacking. this has been one of the weaknesses. the other side had fewer friends. those friends are more effective. they provide everything that assad needs.

weapons, money, political support. we have all of these countries that recognize the coalition. we had a meeting in new york with the u.n. with all of these friends. they say the right gains. -- the right things. the core group of this country must really come together. we need training and intelligence sharing. there are many ways to do this. once this decision is made, this is the end of the conflict. >> hello, i am kelly. i was wondering how you would provide the popular support? how would you describe that? >> she knows more about the armed groups than anybody else i know. she wrote a good paper about it.

>> she is asking about the popular support. it is really hard to gauge that popular support. i think, again, i mentioned the international crisis. when the syrian national council was formed, it was formed by mostly some of us living abroad. the regime never allowed indigenous leaders to emerge. this is the nature of repressive regimes. eventually, many of our colleagues had to leave and fled the country. we became more representative and the coalition was more representative. when people inside syria peacefully demonstrated, they

carried signs saying that the coalition represents me. again, this is like any governing body. it includes democratic countries. if you are able to provide, you will get support. if you have a failed government, like what happened here, you will see progress. same situation. the popularity of the coalition has to do with its ability to address the challenges i mentioned. they need to provide governors. they must improve the unity of the free syrian army. they need to deliver on the stated objective, which is to overthrow the regime. that could go up and down.

i they able to deliver? i would say yes, you have support. something, why should i support you? i don't think anyone is calling for the creation of an alternative institution. the current structure can be reformed and improved. it can be made more effective and efficient. that is where we are interested in going. i would say that if we are able to improve the question of governance in liberated areas, that should reflect on the popularity. >> my name is valerie and i want to touch on something related to that that you alluded to earlier. i wondered if you could dig deeper into the concrete measures that you might be taking? there has been a wave of public enunciation of their rejections,

including some that are currently affiliated. i was wondering what steps have been taken to address concerns? >> since the announcement of that communique, the leaders of the smc were in paris and decided to go back to address the situation. the 13 groups i remember -- three of them were part of the smc. there was the problematic group which has been acting on its own. there were others in between. this is the same for the political leadership of the coalition. since this happened, they went back and they have been meeting with a lot of the leaders on the ground. there are more serious efforts

to restructure the whole smc. maybe there are discussions to create a more professional national army. this would include a lot of these groups. to my knowledge, i do not have a lot of details here, there are discussions underway. it will be just -- addressed at the next meeting, set for the 31st or november 1 in istanbul. there was a sign that there was some disunity among these brigades. since the frustration, this is the context -- there's a feeling that we need to rely more on our own resources. there is mistrust of this old deal between the u.s. and russia. will it rehabilitate a saturn not?

that is the background. going back to address these questions of whether the u.s. is serious about taking steps to end the killing, that it -- that really does not have a place for assad. that would give more trust and credibility for a lot of these groups to be a part of a mainstream free syria. >> hello there. my name is edward. congratulations on your hard work. i would like to ask you if you could, put your show -- put yourself in the shoes of your adversaries. first, the vision that you have put forward for the solution

that president assad should step down -- why do you think you would do this? that is my first western you. -- question to you. have you heard the possibility that assad himself may organize elections? that would give them legitimacy. the second part of the question is more wide. imagine this room was filled with worried members of the community. you referred in an earlier question to your website. could you make it real to the community? what is your vision that syria, after so much bloodletting, that this community would be safe. looks next door at iraq. would it egypt. after all of this bloodletting, how could you get them to i into your vision?

thank you very much. >> thank you. those are important questions. let me address the first part. it is easy. we're talking about elections and assad's term expires next spring. he is not a legitimately elected president. he came to power -- we know how he came to power. there is no aces for that. -- basis for that. this is a nonstarter for most syrians. i can assure you of that. to request him to step down, when people say that he should

step down, we live in a world today where if you have a responsible leader -- the government would resign. this president has cost the killing of more than 100,000. he has displaced more than 8 million syrians. there has been destruction of the infrastructure of the country. you wanted to continue? on what basis? on what logic? on what idea? he has already served 14 years. we have had enough of this. serious -- syria was involved in the spring. the head of the state department, one way or the other. we were appealing to assad to lead the process. we were willing to i wld say ise

made a lot of appeals to the community. we have a presentation and credible leaders. you are not responsible for crimes committed by anyone. there are sunnis who committed crimes and christians who have committed crimes. we have a program that transitional justice. i would say, do not take my word for it. there should be measures. this includes the idea of peacekeeping forces who can come and be a part of the transitional. period. they can protect the communities. one of the reasons that we felt good about the strike was that we felt it would encourage the community to force him out of power. they could be our negotiating partners. they could build the future of syria. this is the good news. even though he committed so many sectarian crimes and genocide,

maybe massacres, the response has been -- has not been a mass response. we have one report of extremism. they're committing crisis -- crimes on a sectarian basis. the free syrian army can bombard whole villages. to me, that is an encouraging sign. it is an indicator that we do not want to move in mr. action. only those who commit crimes should be held accountable. we do not speak a sectarian language. that is very encouraging so far. there is so much to be done. i agree that there are a lot of fears and concerns. the good news is that they are really serious and questioning the communities. there was a lot of killing among

the young people. they are part of the killing machine. a lot of them are saying that they have had enough. i do see an opportunity, again, to say that from our point of view, civil war does not have winners. i am concerned about the killing from the other side. the regime is not concerned about killings from our side. we are similar to the regime. going back and taking a few individuals, to call them the criminal elite, out of the equation, you can create the conditions for national reconciliation. >> thank you. >> good morning. can you talk more and the microphone? >> assuming all goes well and

geneva 2 takes place, there are those extremists who would try to sabotage in any way they could. they will use any tactic to sabotage the conference. how does the coalition foresee this? how can you overcome this problem? you know the regime's dubious way of handling political issues. it is starting to surface that he is asking for a two-year extension. would you agree to do that? how would that apply to this

kind of question? >> we will not agree to a two- year extension or any of that. the purpose of the conference's transition to democracy. we want to create a transitional government with full executive authority. if that is the purpose, that is what we will do. otherwise, i think we will not move on with this. i agree with you that the presence of extremist groups is a challenge for both sides. especially for the international and regional players. we must be acting now to isolate these groups. we need to freeze their funding. we must start to engage. there is a difference between them. you can take away some of the base, many join because they had money. find ways to work with the neighboring countries to be more responsible and not allow

insiders into the country. it is going to be a challenge. not only for the coalition, but for the whole region. this is part of the terrorism problem that is facing these countries. it requires comprehensive strategies, not just one thing. we are addressing that. we are trying to strengthen the moderates and make all of the sources of funding come through a vetting process. eventually, we will start funding incentives for those to go back. speaking of terrorist groups, i should mention to others. hezbollah and they are ronnie and revolutionary forest -- iranian revolutionary forces. they need to be addressed. if iran would like to be invited, they should withdraw

and leave. there are foreign entities that are much more organized and larger in numbers. they have done more killing in syria than some of these syrians themselves. that adds to the difficulties. this is a regional and international issue. >> they may take my diploma way when i ask this question. i am focusing on syria. i studied here 13 years ago. i was very interested because assad was still in power, but we knew he was on the way out. i thought there was a window of opportunity because they were very open to the west. they brought the internet to syria.

there was an open mind for the country. am i wrong? was there a missed opportunity? >> please be closer to the microphone. >> have you not heard my question? did we miss a window of opportunity to welcome syria? i thought that they were very open to the west and very open to the internet and many things that we are now seeing that they are very close to. did we miss that opportunity because of 9/11? >> it really does not matter anymore.

if i were to say a few words, when he came -- when he became the president, i remember an op- ed that i wrote. i said that he was a legitimate president. he inherited the president against republican principles. let's give him a chance. he needs to free political prisoners and in and -- and end the law. we gave him an opportunity. our activist's were leaders and they formed forums and were willing to take him on his promises. he was going to reform the country and introduce it to the modern world. there was a crackdown and they spent six months on that. there was another moment after

the assassinations. early on, i remember this very well. we were accepting the argument that they for his date -- they present -- they prevented him from performing. he began fully in charge and the system was highly centralized and personalized. he reverted to his father's way of addressing challenges of domestic reforms. they would not introduce political reforms. they talked about the chinese model. nothing was meaningfully introduced to gain legitimacy. by the time he came to his second term, they wanted to introduce a slogan for his

campaign. he could not find anything, so they came up with a word meaning i love you. we elect to because we love you. you are a young man and you studied in the west and you like the internet. what did he introduce here? when the arab spring started, we appealed to him. before things happen in syria, why do you not take the lead? his response was very frustrating and it showed the mentality that he had and an interview with the wall street journal. he said that those who have not introduced reform are in trouble. i am different because i am young and i am not part of the western world. i am closer to the poles of my people.

i defend palestinian rights. i will introduce reform. he said he will introduce new magazines and more measures for local elections. he said he would legalize ngos. now is the vision that he had. he was calling for regime change and compromises. he really lost it when the people took to the streets and peacefully protested to demand the release of their young children who were arrested. they opened fire on them. he totally lost the support of people when he gave his first speech. he did not show remorse for the killing. everyone had high expectations that he would announce reform and he did nothing. i know a lot of syrians that that was the moment for them. he lost every opportunity to be something acceptable. with more killing, the guy is a war criminal. they committed crimes against amenity. i gave a long answer to show you that we gave every opportunity. he limited himself through so many reasons.

it is time for him to go. do you have a question? please. >> my name is james adams. i could describe myself as a professional field officer and recent graduate of george mason's conflict resolution program. i would be interested to hear what considerations there might be by your group or syrians on two factors. one, in bosnia, they are still dealing with very serious consequences from a frozen constitution. it is highly flawed and discriminatory. this is resulting from accords -- it was not cast as a transitional constitution, which was the fundamental flaw.

18 years later, that is still a serious issue. that is holding bosnia back. that factor, in terms of your group, how does this affect their thinking? the other factor has to do with negative piece. this is what is put forth as negative piece, where an outside force or outside forces are needed to suppress internal conflict. in some ways, this keeps the lid on things. it gives more time to figure out how to proceed. >> i do not understand the second part.

what do you mean by that? >> negative peace in literature and among scholars is a frozen peace. this is where a conflict is put on hold. it is checked. the violence is put in check. the operation is there. diplomatic, political, structural work is being done, all that to try to put a lid on excessive expression of whatever the various groups are trying to gain. in other words, the lack of violence, trying to perceive it as a functional early ship.

that makes me think of the second factor, the factor of the other side of the positive piece, the positive peace, and that is addressing the underlying causes and conditions of the conflict, whether they be long, this circle type or something more recent. and in track two terms, scholarly tunes, that addresses more elation shiftwork as opposed to reconstruction or structural factors such as the constitution. i am interested in how your group or the syrians or the u.s. governments, other governments, might address that come of those two factors, and to try to make the transition and beyond the day after, as you say, less troublesome. >> thank you.

well, i think on the first question, the first part of the question, i personally attended a seminar in sarajevo about the bosnian conflict, and lessons for syria. and i think -- i remember you raised the point that many bosnians warned us of not going through any peace arrangements without having a vision. they said they made that mistake and it was imposed on them and there was the constitution which created a paralyzed political institutions, the presidency. i think it is a well taken point, and that is why you always feel we have to think about -- and that is only the general objectives, of a democracy, but what kind of democracy, what kind of system, all those details. we have given those issues a lot of thought. syria is different from bosnia in the sense that in bosnia

there were these three communities in a way, and they had to create the kind of system that may be close to what happened in iraqi, in divided societies. in syria we have the question of minorities, and there is a clear sense of a majority in syria. if you take the divided syria in terms of the ethnic if i'd, the only question we have -- ef make divide, the only question we have is arabs versus the kurds. most of them are part of the opposition, and they would find a solution within a unified syria, which is good. that is helpful. the other divide is the sectarian divide. religious and sectarian. we have five percent christians, 11% of the white -- alouite.

both communities are arab, and they have more in common in terms of their cultural identity. i do not think you -- maybe solutions like federalism are viable in syria, that may be a decentralized system would address the local concerts of these communities. what prevents syria from having a paralyzed political system is that it creates a safe based on citizenship, rule of law, you create equal opportunity. those are all missing from the authoritarian, oppressive regime of the assads. they have a clear idea, everything but the assad regime, and in that sense, the composition of serious, -- of serious, it is easier to avoid the problems you had in bosnia. in syria, the essence of this conflict is that people rose up demanding their basic freedom

and freedom and rights. they were deprived for decades, but we were talking early on, there is an idea we should go back to the constitution, because syria had a viable democratic experience. there was that historical memory, the idea that we can live together, and we should. and so to avoid the negative peace and addressing, moving to a more pontiffs -- positive peace is to create the political system which is responsive, gives everyone their rights, it's everyone there since again that they have a place, a stake in it, and you avoid dealing with the symptoms of file its and trying to find solutions to the fighting. i do not know if i addressed the second one. >> the second one is the more

difficult 1 -- >> thank you, i would like to follow-up on sasha's question. >> you wanted to ask a question? if you will go to the mike. i need you at the microphone. pass the mike. >> back here? thank you. on the two previous questions, sasha asked did we miss an opening with bashir, the one of the things that struck me, if he had wanted to, that power structure he inherited from his father had no stake in opening up, and the issue of negative peace. that power structure will remain in place, the security apparatus, even if assad -- your demand is that he has to depart. the power structure will remain.

how will you deal with that, and what needs to be done? i presume in whatever negotiation, whatever agreement you it achieved, how do you dismantle that power structure with is -- which is antithetical to democracy? >> i wanted to follow up on the idea that syria could establish rule of law, regular courts that would not be corrupt, a constitution, a democratic state, rule of law, meaning everybody abides or is brought -- sentenced. i do not see how that is possible. i would be interested in your thoughts. for us, we had a thousand years

of british history and the development of a parliament chipping away at the king's powers and balancing with the monarch. you have any thoughts on that? >> both questions are about what the realistic possibilities are. >> i also had a follow-up. it is related to baby the first all a question. most people when they think of a peace conference a think of the two thoughts -- two sides have been fighting. i sought on one side and the other side the rebels. i am asking about your concept of this geneva conference . if assad is not there, who should be on that side of the table? if assad is there, if no one from the coalition will go.

>> ok. the first question about the structure that exists today. i think, no, we believe that these institutions of repression, particularly the intelligence agencies, must be reformed drastically. this could take time. i think we had in the day after project the whole section on security reform, in which we envisioned like all normal countries having two maybe intelligence agencies instead of the 16 that exist under assad today. also re-envision the role for the police, which is very important and should be charged

to carry out the mystic order. and the same -- the armed forces need to be reformed in a way that unfortunately -- over the years, and i think part of the reason why we have the situation we have today is that since this goes back to the french mandate, when this french first came to the country and created the first troops to carry out order in the country, they recruited heavily from minorities. this was a divide and rule policy. after independence, the country continued with that. many of the mainstream, majority would avoid serving in the army, and that explained the overrepresentation of certain minorities in the army. you need to correct that.

second, you need to create a truly professional army in the sense that it protects the country, not connected to a regime or a family or a person. that is a problem in syria. if you look at the fighting force that is doing most of the fighting with assad, it comes from the elite force of that enjoys privileges that has been equipped, trained the most, while the rest of the armed forces is almost dismantle. it is not functional. in order to move toward again democratic order, you have to reform the structure. for the security agencies and for the armed forces, and we looked in the experience of many countries and we have good relationships there. the second question about the question of being skeptical about syria moving for democracy. like any country, there are

forces favorable and forces that are unfavorable to for democracy. in today's world, the thing we learn from each other, we are not going to go through 200 years in order to become democratic. what is happening in the world today, look at the arab countries, and i teach about the transitions in the arab countries, and you look at different models of transition. some of them have been much more successful than others, like tunisia and egypt. in tunisia they created a model that works for them and created a coalition in parliament from the three major parties that is leading tunisian forward. in egypt, the prioritization between islamic factors and others, led to a step accords. today we could learn, we do not need to go to the same time to achieve democracy. i can assure you, people who

lived under authoritarian rule and suffered from that, they yearn for those basic rights and freedoms we take for granted. once they are giving the opportunity and create the right structure -- and i believe there is an aliment of luck in doing this. you look at the american experience and the french experience. in this country, the second time we had it right. in france, they had it more than five times. with people now provided at high cost to achieve that democratic system, i'm optimistic about that. especially if you neutralize those external influences in the case of syria, the influence of iran, hezbollah, and becomes a much more responsible country, that finally decides to act responsibly, that could help as well. if syrians get to the other, they can find solutions to their robbins. geneva has built a process of mutual consent that we could veto somebody from the

other side and they could veto somebody from our site. our main criteria is people who committed crimes against humanity should not be part of that debate. we do not want a very notorious head of the air force intelligence agency to be present at the table. in regime, they linked to russia some names that would be acceptable. the point is they have to be able to go back and will be reporting to some of those guides, who have blood on their hand. there can be creative ideas to reconcile. we believe the coalition and the opposition delegation, but we are open to include others. those who are not necessarily included in the coalition, but share our goals of the revolution. >> let's take one last question.

>> thank you very much. did you speak on the difficulties of the eight court nation unit in providing for councils and what s isnc doing to facilitate that? >> the acu and the local councils, they see they are one of the first organizations coordinated by the coalition. it has been doing he simply, a good job, but there have been some issues of coordination. at the local councils, the challenge with them, those are not councils that have been democratically selected, elected. in many cases the activists in this area who have been active were able to do it. in some cases like aleppo, they managed to have an election. they brought in people from the different neighborhoods, towns, and they selected the council.

part of the work that has been done with the local councils is to train them to improve, to reach out, and number two, to improve the quality of that outreach. the more some of them were able to do it, they became more representative. some of these local councils are challenged by other groups. in the coalition we are open to the idea of making these councils or responsive, more representative, and then it would be easier to provide through these individuals. the experience has been mixed. some areas been a better than others. we want to always -- we believe it is one of the sources of becoming more legitimate, to be able to provide and rule through these councils. >> at me conclude by noting that i studied arabic in domestic in 2008.

i have never been in a place that seemed riper for change in a democratic direction. ordinary people would tell you very bluntly that they wanted more freedom. i think it is very sad -- that they have had to go through what they have gone through. at the same time, i think the people i remember in damascus would be very proud to have you representing them here in the united states, and we are very pleased that you took the time with us to explicate the coalition. thank you very much. [applause] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2013] [captioning performed by national captioning institute]

>> earlier today, president obama spoke in the white house rose garden about the health care law and the rollout of the insurance exchanges. we will show you those remarks several times today, including tonight in prime time and eight eastern. your next opportunity will be this afternoon at 4:00. after which we will open up phone lines to get your reaction. on the insurance exchanges, it is being reported that health and human services secretary will be on capitol hill as early as next week to testify about some of the problems with the website. be sure to follow c-span for our coverage and. we have a facebook question up for you. we want to know about your experiences with the health care

exchange. >> it was on this typewriter that eleanor roosevelt wrote her "my day" column. we have some of the original drafts of the column i want to share. this first one is her first my day,. -- my day column. she talks about the feelings in the white house as they get back to their regular schedule after the holiday season. this clipping from november 6, 1940, election day. a largerd about how than normal crowd came into the park. they would come to the park, gather family around, and await results. when they were announced, the folks would march down and the president would greet them.

>> eleanor roosevelt, tonight at nine eastern on c-span and c- span three, also on c-span radio and c-span.org. >> one thing that was industry -- that was interesting was the certifications of mobile devices. theof these devices, devices that literally hundreds ,f millions of americans have we have to have the fcc stamp on them so we can make sure they don't interfere with each other. back in 95 there were not that many mobile phones going through the process. we now have a huge battle between samsung and apple and motorola. they need the certification. they have literally billions of dollars in advertising. suddenly the plans are delayed by a number of days. >> we have had several budget disputes.

i think they stand from the control act of 1974. this occurs almost every year, there is some crisis that goes on. and yet after four years of this we still aren't very good -- after 40 years of this we still aren't very good in figuring out how to operate the government. >> tonight on the communicators at eight eastern on c-span 2. >> marissa mayer is the ceo of yahoo!, previously she let the pot management and engineering development at google, including google maps, google maps for mobile, google earth, street view, latitude, and more. she was the ms member of the tech community. -- the youngest member of google's tech community.

this event contains language that some viewers may find offensive. >> did you see that? i did. i saw you get it wrong. >> amazing what they are doing these days. first of all, before we talk about the logo, i would like to get your autograph on this whole thing. look at this book. >> it is a huge book. >> there is no table of contents. my friend spent the five minutes going through each page. it,st want you to sign would you autograph this for me so i could have it forever? >> sure, why not. >> on the part where you're laying upside down on the chair there.

the back story is that they saw me for two minutes sitting upright. the photographer basically said, the article is about leadership being unconditional. -- unconventional. would you please move upside down? i said sure. that is the back story of what went on there. >> that is awesome. we are going to talk about this every time i interview you for the rest of our lives. coulded to get it so you -- maybe both of us could be in the upside down position during the interview but we won't do that. logos, what the fuck happened here? >> i like teh way the logo turned out and i liked the way

we did it. we pat ourselves as beeing the eing the world's largest startup. our attitude is to be really scrappy. we did not have an external or consulting firm. we do not spend millions of dollars. us, with the brand, it is about the product and having the best products my best user experience. we are happy with the logo. for us, the focus is really on the contents. >> fair enough. how long before you change it to my do you think? [laughter] causesother thing that this to happen -- most logos get changed all the time. yahoo! did not change for 18

years. 18 years of pent-up changes, changes you do not even see. now we are going to do small iterations over time. we basically got into a place 87% of employees wanted something different. our users were mailing and saying our products were beautiful, but the logo was clunky. point,u get to that where the brand, the logo does not match the products, that is a problem. >> all right. i am going to drop that. you were honest about it. i thought you were going to start talking about maps, that even though we can't see it, it is actually beautiful, but no. >> [laughter] here is something nice. you have been a ceo for a year and two months?

>> a year and two months. >> these stock price has doubled-ish. that's good. that is really good. is that something you think you deserve? how did you earn that? there are certainly smart investments i owe to my predecessors. notably jerry yang investing in alibaba. japan, i joint venture for us. whatl say when i look at we are doing, it will take multiple years, three or more, company in thehe direction we want and the growth rate to be where we wanted to be. for me, it is really a chain reaction of four things. hiring the right people.

building the right product. right traffic, because that leads to revenue online -- >> four things. >> people products traffic, revenue -- people, products, traffic, revenue. >> right. >> you have to get everyone there. the products have to be good. once you have usage, you can bring in advertising. we want to attract more advertisers and grow revenue. 2012 -- we started growth, all growth start somewhere. this year we had a nice year so far. on people, we are seeing really exciting things. we are averaging a lot of acquisitions. that has brought a lot of talent to the company. but even from the acquisition

strategy, we now get 12,000 resumes a week. so basically for every job we have, we get a resume each week, which is up dramatically, by a i was of five before there, before july 2012. our attrition is down. three or four on attrition. we have got great evil there. with howally happy tremendous the people are. yahoo!ers have you rehired? >> we call them boomerangs. q1, 20% of new hires were boomerangs. we have a lot of college rads

that cannot be boomerangs by definition. over the course of the year it has been about 10% of all new hires have been boomerangs. we have a revamped product called yahoo! stream. we have saturday night live, all comedy central clips. you can watch all of those on yahoo!. in terms of traffic, the one i am happy to announce today, we 100 million global users in the yahoo! audience. that growth represents 20% -- include -- oes >> it does not. >> where are these people coming from? >> we are seeing a lot of usage on mobile. and we are seeing a

lot of usage on homepage, e- mail. our strategy has been to focus on daily habits. search, mail, news, sports, finance, etc. tofind people are responding the way we are strengthening and redesigning those products. >> can i apologize. there are 40 people taking pictures. they follow me around all the time. they are taking lots of pictures of me, and i know that is annoying. here for you.re interesting family. i did not mean that in a weird way. you are a little more photogenic, i think. we talked about product a little bit. your profits are way up for an unknown reason. i mean, the core profit -- [laughter] see, everyone thinks i mean that in a mean way, but it's

exciting. the logo yahoo! for thing, and i remembered. i have an e-mail account. i will see how that works out. >> we appreciate it. >> it has to be hard though, right? you came from google. you were there from the beginning. google almost effortlessly gets companyise, and go to a that really had hard years. you have to fight harder than ever to get any attention on these products. that must not be fun sometimes. >> i like hard work. i love google. i was there for 13 years. if you told me i was going to be that happy anywhere else, i probably would have doubted it. i am as happy at yahoo! it is a phenomenal experience. it is hard work. i love hard work. i love big challenges.

-- the bigallenge challenge of the people that were there already -- they are really rising to the challenge. >> ok. all right. do you think this crowd is a crowd you can get back to your product? will you start with mobile on that? mobile, pc,unt football,antasy everything -- am a people have been to yahoo! in the past month? >> yes. >> it has grown by a little bit more than a half. i would argue in many cases we have not lost users. we just need more time and attention to give them great tools. our core competency has always been helping people figure out how to spend their time. some of the things we are working on now -- for example, news stream, with new stores on the homepage.

we have one with a sophisticated personalization algorithm, and i'm really proud. we are just getting started. i think at its core, yahoo! has always been an advertising company and we are really a personalization company. we are about prioritizing the right content for our users. there is a lot we can do for those users who happen on the site once a month, once a week and give the more reason to come back and spend more time on our site because they find great news there. mail now?reach out in i assume you're not using it much when you are at google. maybe you were. did you find, oh, god, this is awful, we have to change some things? or was it actually, this is pretty good? >> overall i think it is a really strong rabbits. -- product.

me, i like really basic e- mail. i like it to be fast. i'd like it to be efficient, simple. that is what mine is, like a command terminal program. yeah, that is what i love about yahoo! mail. it knows fast. lot atlooking a efficiency and speed improvement. it is just e-mail and it really does not have video chat, a lot of these other things that we may experiment with, but i think it also get in the way of using mail every single day and not being extremely fast and efficient with that. productare the biggest polls and problems you are trying to fix right now? the thing that make you the maddest right now that you want to change? >> there are lots of different

bugs we try to squash as they come up. that i ame big piece focused on is mobile. teens -- it was really subsidized in terms of what it needed to be when i got there. on mobile.at sap we have a great team designing the products and engineering. mobile has grown tremendously. looking at what you need to do? what are your daily habits on the phone? when you look at what yahoo! has always been strong at, it is games,ews, stock quotes, communication. that is what people do on their phones. so, it is a great opportunity to take the contents and functionality we have always

d on the web and making sure it meets not only the same use cases as on the pc, but mobile is really the key thing. random thing -- you were at the apple event. the fingerprint scanner on the phone. why would you be in favor of anything like that? >> i did not realize that was a reporter. >> oh. >> the thing i liked about it, and it is sort of funny --we were backstage at techcrunch. they were laughing at me because i did not have a passcode on my phone. they were laughing and said, are you crazy? ofaid, i can't do the task

being 15 times a day -- the passcode thing the team times a day. now i don't have to. the smart sensor -- it is the i joined the board of java and i'm really excited about what they are doing. >> all right. so, fingerprint sensors are good. [laughter] >> to unlock your phone, yes. [laughter] far as microsoft has not .nnounced a new ceo are you happy that steve ballmer is leaving? [laughter] and who do you want to be the next ceo? it is your biggest partner. >> from my 15 years in the industry, obviously bill gates and steve ballmer have been -- inhuge fixtures and me

the industry. i admire steve and microsoft in terms of what they have built. i think it is an interesting time for microsoft. i do not know what their board is considering, but when i look at their product line, i see a lot of technique -- windows, office. in terms of what these products look like. one of the things i appreciate, i think consumer executives, enterprise executives have different trades and different things. i hope they are looking for people who are really strong on the enterprise side. a strong microsoft is good for the industry overall. >> would you like to see gates come back? >> i think he is a phenomenal leader. there is nothing quite like the passion of a founder in terms of leadership. into a realurning diplomat. i will tell you that. being ceo means you have to say

things more carefully than you sometimes used to. what is your biggest weakness as a ceo? what do you suck at the most? things thatearly are great about you that people understand. what are you terrible act? >> i think i've been really lucky. there is a community i know -- rangeeo's feel like they from startups to big companies. they are really a community of ceo's and i have had been really lucky to have some of these great people from silicon valley reach out over the past year. that shocks people about sco overall is how many decisions you have to make and some 80 ceo of role at decisions you have to make and you have to make them exactly purposely. at the end of the day, there is

no decision you really need to make. but every now and then, there is a decision that really, really matters. . think i would hold myself up i probably should be making fewer decisions. i do not think i have missed any yet, i don't think. but it is hard to say, ok, what are the really big decisions that need to be made absolutely correctly. do not think you have made any bad decisions over the past year? >> i'm sure i have, but i don't think those are make or break for the company. my goal is to get the company growing again. from that perspective -- there are very few decisions you need to make and make them perfectly. >> ok. all right.

each day not getting into the fray of a lot of decisions is something i could get better at. >> what are you doing to protect us from taranto government -- to radical government -- tyrannical government? >> i have been watching the coverage. he is a board member and a good friends. i'm not going to repeat that. i am proud to be part of an organization that from the very beginning in 2007 with the nsa prism hasnd resume -- been skeptical of and scrutinizing those requests. against the lawsuit

patriot act and fisa. we fought that. we spoke to a lot of vendors about the case. >> you lost. and then you caved. not you. you were not there. >> when you lose -- and we lost -- if you do not comply, it is treason. >> treason. now you are going through the process of suing the government -- >> now with each request, we review it. we push back on the law. we push back on a lot of local decisions. we push back in terms of the nsa. >> why? >> so, i mean -- >> let's just say if right now you were to tell us the truth about what is going on about stuff that is classified, what do you think would happen to you? is treason.

>> what would happen? >> you would be incarcerated. so, i think when you look at -- we actually think it makes more sense in terms of scrutinizing requests, analyzing them, doing our best to protect our users. it makes sense to work within the system. onhave the government again monday, asking to be more transparent with the numbers of the nsa request. taken charge with a lot of companies as well, pushing back on additional request, pushing back on what we requests that may not be reasonable. we had to release, for example, the documents about the 2007 case. we are going to keep doing those things. users understand what is happening on our side. ours is why we

released our first transparency report on friday. >> i want to thank you. person thisy single question except for mike who was on a big lawn a mob -- big monologue about steve jobs. and i haven't gotten an answer yet. except you. it is great. >> classified information -- it can be treason. so, you know, that is our defense. the best way think to serve your shareholders and users is from jail. i'm happy to put words in your mouth. or is smarter, larry page mark zuckerberg? [laughter] >> that's not really a fair themion, because i know

different amounts. i have a huge amount of respect for larry page. he is really broadly talented, intellectual, curious he, wanting to challenge. i think they are both brilliant. in different dimensions. i think larry looks at the world all the time and goes why not? but i never interacted that much with mark zuckerberg. when i have met him, i've been blown away by his insight into people. he is incredibly insightful. he's a great technologist, but he is also incredibly insightful. i do think he is really insightful into people, their psychology, what drives them. >> hmm. i do not get the sense that larry is insightful into people. am i wrong? i get the sense that he is so

smart he is in another world. larry's superpower is challenging the status quo and what is possible and i think mark zuckerberg's superpower is knowing people and technology. >> what is your superpower? >> i don't know that i have went. >> that is sad. [laughter] everybody should have a superpower. i think one that i would like to-- i think i am able empathize. i think coming into yahoo! last year, the company had been through a lot of turmoil and turbulence. really getting to empathize with the employees, understanding the space the company is in, realizing that we all had to get there as a team and that was not going to happen if i couldn't

empathize and be part of what had happened with them before i got there. >> all right. if i had a know, superpower, it is probably empathy. >> thank you so much. always do the finalist -- doing what you always do. the finalist. thank you so much. ♪ [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2013] >> and we have more now from the techcrunch disrupt san francisco event with facebook's mark zuckerberg. this is about 35 minutes. [applause] ♪

>> and all the photographers attacked me again. they were here for marissa, too. they love me. so, marissa was in vogue. what have you done lately? >> not vote. vogue. >> we had a great interview last year. it was one of your first since the ipo. how has the last year been going in general? year.has been interesting a lot of things change around you when you're running a company. it is my job to keep a centered on what matters. different companies vocus on different things. assessed companies with ways of doing stuff. you hear stories from hp, the hp way of doing things.

we are really focused on this mission. we want to connect to everyone in the world and give them tools to share what ever they want. that has been the unifying theme for us as long as we have been around. i remember when we were first getting started back in my harvard dorm. used to get people -- what are my friends, he is actually the head of engineering at facebook now. we were talking about how we were building this little site to help the bowl share and connect women -- within a small immunity, but one day someone would surely hold something like this for the whole world. at the time we got there was no way it was going to be us because we are a couple kids in a college dorm room. who are we to do this? this is going to be microsoft and google and the companies who build on a larger scale. beentory of facebook has we started at one college and we spread and kept growing.

i think the reason we are here today is we care more about the mission than anyone else has. for a while, getting the company to one billion people became a rallying cry. wewe got closer, no one said want to get won seven of the people in the world to do something. number.ound one billion is a nice little number. though, now as we approached that and passed it, now the focus is retooling and you will see three tooling the company in a lot of ways to go take on a lot of harder problem to fulfill the mission. -- reaching 5 billion people. it will be a lot harder because they do not have internet access. to addot just want

incrementally. we want to over the next five or 10 years take on a roadmap to understand everything in the world, just want to map out everything. that is what we will try to do over the next five or 10 years. >> so to sum it up, you want all the people? [laughter] i'm getting. >> i think most people do use social tools for different things. i think most of the design patterns and the work that we do helps weave that part of the industry and we're really proud of the work we did there. >> ok. you said a lot and i'm going to try to unpack some of that. -- that'swhat ice what you said last year.

>> your brain works faster than mine. as you expand to all the people from 1.3 billion today? 1.5. are >> how many a day? >> the last quarterly report was 689 million daily active users. >> that's pretty cool. so, what you think about the yahoo! logo? [laughter] >> to think of all the follow-up questions you could have asked -- know marissa is backstage watching, so you can just look right into the camera and let her know what you think of that awful, awful thing. you don't want to answer that question, do you?

you can confide in me. we have had the same logo for almost 10 years. >> ok. [laughter] twitter is going to go public. you have gone through the whole thing. you had some pretty rough times. everything is great now. what is your advice to them as they consider this process? >> it's funny. i am kind of the person you would want to ask last how to make a smooth ipo. [laughter] seriously. it is actually a valuable process. having gone through what i think most people would characterize as an extremely turbulent first year as a company, i don't think it's that bad. i would really be heartened by people would leave

the company and get really demoralized when the stock price was down, but people really focused on the mission and really believed on the product they were working on and we have not seen a lot of that. i think it has made our product a lot stronger. you have to know everything about your company. sort of insight out have everything -- not to say that we aren't a data driven company, but the work the crew did to take us public really took us to the next level. we run our company better now. in retrospect, i was too afraid of going public, and i've been very outspoken about staying private as long as possible. i don't think it's necessary to do that. is doing the right stuff. sometimes it takes me market a little while to catch up. i remove or last year when we were here, i was laying out what we were planning on doing on

mobile. everyone thought that mobile was a disaster thing for facebook. last year, we had no revenue on mobile. year later, more than 40% of our revenue is mobile. people think there is more competition, more great apps. top, -- ond on desk desktop, 1/7 of their time on the web. mobile, it's more. it's one in five. 20%. the next biggest active is instagram. we focused on doing what we think are the right things. we're growing. people are engaging more. sharing more content. all of the stuff that we come in and get excited about every day. ofnchor's twitter and all these private companies, if they focus on what they're doing,

it's wonderful. it's great. >> to be fair, your mobile products a year ago stopped. oh, they did. >> than they got really, really good really fast. i think you deserve to have more revenue from a year ago. part of it is whether you agree or not, there is been a lot of work in that area. >> absolutely. our legacy as the company was building this big website and focusing on being able to develop for the web, so naturally we tried to look at things and see if we could told system and we realized ready quickly we would not get the quality level he needed. we took the year. it was painful. the retooled that. making money on mobile. i was focused on making the user experience first and i think we did it in the right order.

it is better to go from awful to really good man really good to awful, so i would agree on from awful to really good then really good to awful, so i would agree on the order part. areold facebook platform -- you so focused on mobile, that the old platform is just dead? click so, for me, when i think about our mission -- and connecting people, you made this joke that we want to get everybody to use facebook, and of course we do, right? i don't think that's realistic. what is more likely is that people will be using tools they can use to connecting different ways. when i was getting started with facebook, i felt this void in the way we develop technology.

as people -- our brains are wired to communicating with people. parts of our brain are focused expressions,g micro- processing emotions from other people. the way we built software and services does not reflect that at all. that seems equally wrong to me. there were all these tools if you wanted to get access to different kinds of information. early social networks try to do everything themselves. i think one of the things we realized is that no one company can do everything. instead we should focus on doing a few of the core things and build a platform that would enable companies to build great social platforms. there is a version of that. it essentially people building games inside of facebook area that has evolved until -- into

almost a billion dollar a year is this for us. that was never going to be the vision. was we can enable people to login, import friends, distribution out to other services and that is what we are focused on. we have three dollars of the platform strategy -- old, grow, and monetize. side, we want to login, make it easier to build apps with identity. we have services that make it easier to golden apple. you do not have to worry about the afghans. you do not have to -- you do not have to worry about the back e nd. is more than 100,000 apps. about the facebook platform as distribution, and that is true.

we have been an important part of helping people grow their apps. organically, one of the things we are doing -- a lot of developers are starting to rely on us as the primary way they spread their apps, and monetize as well. a lot of users use us for payments for their services. thee can make it so industry overall can build better social apps that are more human and better monetize, then i feel really good. >> ok. i'm going to go with a personal question, if you don't mind. i don't know how many people realize every year you have a personal challenge or challenge yourself to do something crazy, interesting, hard. in the past, you have learned chinese -- >> tried to. >> was one code every day?

>> no. up. made that one you had the kill everything he year. you did. do you have won this year? i don't know what it is if you do have one. do.o, i do, i the point of these -- i think you get perspective for building things by living in different worlds. to do something for a year, you have all of these interesting unintended time the glances of making decisions. the other thing for me is about willpower. i think a lot of holding things is seeing things through and the kinds of things that will be hard to do. like learning mandarin for example -- i was always really terrible at languages. when i tried to learn french in high school, i could not do it. when people would say something to me, it was really hard to understand what people were

saying. so, i went to latin. which is better because you do not have to speak latin. up one of theick hardest languages for people whose only speak english to learn. one of the unintended side effects was i set up the sessions where mandarin speaking facebook employee is would come and talk to me about parts of the country they were working on. it was great. i would learn mandarin and i met a bunch of april and more about our company and it was awesome. end, i was complaining to my wife one day i was never that good at listening in mandarin and she said, mark, you're not that good at listening in english either. [laughter] realized the i level to become fluent in mandarin was really hard. it so i table that for a while.

a newllenge is to meet person outside of facebook every day. i think it is valuable to -- >> and person. >> -- in person? that has turned out to be really neat. i sandbagged this one. it turns out that on average i meet more than one person already. underestimated that. when i was planning this out, i had a set of things to get more involved in the community. i started teaching a class at a local middle school. i got involved in different organizations to meet people, do different things. it has been really interesting. -- thatmittal global middle school class is what led to -- right? and i have done a lot of education work. her career is kids. when she graduated from harvard,

she went to become a teacher and now she is up to the attrition resident. -- she is a pediatrician resident. so, she decided one day we were going to do a bunch of educational projects, that i could not be that guy that gives money to education projects. which i think is a reasonable perspective. class, i started thinking about going to college, students inhe top the class raised his hand and said you know i don't know if i'll be able to go to college because i'm undocumented. my mind was blown. i had not taught about that. talented.as so i cannot tell the difference. there was no perceptible difference between him and other students. i asked how many of you were born outside of the u.s. and a bunch of them put their hands up . one of them said i hope our

government does something about this. i kind of went home that night and i talked to priscilla and my friend joe who is one of the smartest people i know both in technologies and politics. we agreed, we ought to do something. how can we do this? we decided we would try to build an industry coalition. so i called a bunch of my friends who run companies. others whow and had minute facebook. lot of people i would expect to be like, i care about getting high school folks from my company, but we made it up clear up front, these are not just high skilled people. we are not going to compromise. we are going to push for some friends of immigration reform. people in the tech sector are realistic.

it is not hard to get people on board. i have never been prouder of my peers in the community. >> du think anything will happen without this year or next year? or ever? tough, i bet, to mess around with washington, d.c., right? >> i'm an optimist. i think you have to be to be an entrepreneur. these things are not without risk, but there are a lot of people who want to do the right thing. people talk about how washington is so polarized. but the conversations i have had, a lot of people really want to do the right thing and agree and are looking for a path forward. >>, zero chance of anything happening this year then? >> i don't know. it's not my job to get it done. it is my job to provide support for the people going to do it. quick the culture at microsoft

, microsoft. speaking of microsoft, could you think should be the next ceo of microsoft? and thanks for bringing that up by the way. [laughter] you.m not going to tell there are probably a lot of people who can run microsoft into reasonable job. when i was going up, bill gates was my hero. >> oh, come on. luke skywalker. >> he is the bad guy. of the gates ran one most mission driven companies i can think of. right now microsoft is less mission driven than it used to be, but when i thought about what i wanted to be when i grew up, like a soft had a great mission. put a computer on every desktop in every office. there are companies that define themselves by a way of doing

things, right? was talking about. there are companies that define themselves by making a concrete change in the world. microsoft did that. respect huge amount of for him doing that. he pushed to them. it was in incredibly inspiring company. i think they are still doing a lot of things. they lost some focus. i don't know. i think he is one of the greatest visionaries the industry ever had. do you think he will come back? >> you would have to ask him. >> to you know? >> i don't know. lie ton't think he would me. >> i'm not a very good liar. >> actually, no. remind me to ask you a couple of other things later. [laughter] the culture of moving back to facebook -- is this a good thing

or will this get you in trouble? >> yeah, whatever you want to cover. yeah, it gets me in times of trouble. the belief that values are only useful when they are controversial. writeare companies that value statements that i think are meaningless. of course you going to be honest. that is not about you have to be honest. you are home if you are not honest. it is good if there is something you can not agree with. there are companies that do not move fast and succeed. what i mean by move fast, i want to empower people at the company and i do not demand every iteration of what we release is perfect. what i optimize for is learning and having the best product 3, 5, 7 years now, right? would you can do by quickly

getting feedback, learning, and going from there. there are different approaches from that. i think apple would never launch anything that did not meet their profession mark and it has served them. well. -- it has served them very well. doing, iof what we are think it is incredibly powerful for the company. it enables us to build a ton of infrastructure. at any given time we have a testing framework where there are thousands of different versions of facebook running and any engineer is empowered to try give thisout and report on all the metrics, the sharing and time spent, engagement, and come out of friends people have, the amount of money people make. that ask people how happy they are and how much they like that version of facebook.

that is really empowering. you do not have to get approval of layers of management. you try something and go, here, this works. turn it on for everyone. what i amnot know looking at right now. explain the sign on facebook. i do not know for sure it is -- this does not say "move fast." >> slow down and fix it your -- and fix your shit? >> do you see the sign? is it up there? so, this does not mean anything official? >> i definitely want us to fix our stuff. >> your stuff? >> these things are valuable when they are controversial. it does not mean we always need to do it. it is not like any company wakes up in the morning and has we

want to move super slowly. what it means is we want to move faster thanlicks another company. if we move too fast and mess up a bunch of stuff, we have to fix it. that is cool. >> would you consider home so far a failure? >> a ton of things determine when something is going to work versus not worked yet. i definitely think home is slower. we have a bunch of positive feedback. s.ey love chat head people want more content than just facebook content on the lock screen. update where you can get instagram content, other

content. that will make it more valuable. i think in its early development, it is a bit slower than i probably would have thought. but i still fully believe this is going to be something a lot of people want over time. getting content delivered to your home screen, being ambiently aware of what is going on is important. the current formula we need to work on, but were going to do that. clicks ok. -- >> ok.something someone referred to this as a shit show, but you're saying you would disagree with that? it is almost a testing ground, right? >> there are parts that will ick, and parts that we don't, they will slow down. in terms of the goal, we really have first person and home as a separate app. we intentionally didsparcy.

we have seen the lawsuit. we have seen those efforts. i do not mean to repeat them, although i'm happy to talk about that if you want. what i want to know is what mark zuckerberg thinks about these issues, right to privacy versus the government? so, we take our role really seriously. i think it is my job and our job to protect everyone who uses facebook and all the information they share about it. it is our government's job to protect all of us and our freedoms and the economy. do not think they have done a bad job of balancing those things here. the governmentk blew it. they blew it on communicating the balance of what they were going for here with this. -- the morning after the start of breaking, a bunch of

people, ask them what they thought in the government said, don't worry. we are not spying on any americans. oh, wonderful. yeah, that is really helpful to companies trying to serve people around the world, inspiring confidence in american internet companies. thanks for going out there and being really clear about what you're doing. i think that was really bad number right? get moreeen pushing to transparency. i actually think it made a big difference. the big question you get from all the coverage -- what is the volume, the total number of requests going on? is it closer to 1000 request's or 100 million requests? from the coverage that the government has said, you would not know the difference. we work a leotard with the government behind the scenes to get -- we worked really hard with the government behind the

scenes to get to the point where we could release the aggregate number of requests. 900 inning last year. is that everything we want? no. that is when the conversation got to the point where we were not going to make progress, we had to sue them. but the reality is, because of the transparency that we pushed for, now people can no and they deserve to know, mean number of requests that the government is 1000 and closer to definitely not 10 million. >> it's not direct. they are not grabbing data direct. >> i wish the government would be more proactive about communicating. deserve toe people know this. we just take this really seriously.

>> all right. thanks. last question. what are you excited about product wise that would surprise us? >> what would surprise you? i mean, we have not spent much time talking about internet.org which i think is not surprising because it was announced. i think it is a very underestimated problem. we live in a world where everyone around us has high- speed internet access, so it's unfathomable to think only about a third of the people in the thed have access to internet. for something so early in its development, it actually is moving really slowly. the internet is growing less than 10% a year, which is kind of startling when you think about how few people in the world have access to this. when you think that the internet is the backbone of the modern knowledge economy and all the freetunities we have and a

society and education and all the stuff -- it is not happening by itself. it is not growing at a fast rate. there are 5 billion phones in the world. there are about 1.5 billion smartphones. smartphones are getting cheaper and cheaper. as they get cheaper, all 5 billion feature phones are going to be smartphones. i think that's probably true in the next five to 10 years. but the key to misinterpreting that, the expensive part of ownership of a phone is not the phone. it is the data. if you have an iphone for two years, you are talking $2000. $500 is the phone. $1600 is the data. unless the data price comes down, we will never be a point where the vast majority of the world will be on the internet. that is where we are trying to

work with other companies to enable the infrastructure, make the internet cheaper so the biggest and most frequently used apps require less data, and also trying to create new business model so more people can get on the internet. that is a big vocus for us. focus for us.ig that's probably not much of a surprise. quick so you want to do the rest of the world online. >> this is why we are here. question was what has changed, and my answer was all the tactics change all the time. but commission does not change. that is who we are. we are on earth to connect everybody and help people share more of what they want. and we will do this. not.ether they want to or i am just kidding. >> who doesn't want to be connected? it's a very fundamental thing.

person in the world might want to use a specific service, but the internet is a big place. this is what we're going to focus on. >> all right, mark. thank you so much. [applause] ♪ >> president obama came to the white house rose garden today to talk about the health care law and the rollout of the insurance exchanges. we will have the president's remarks for you from earlier today in just a couple minutes. that will be followed by your phone calls, your experience logging onto healthcare.gov. tonight we will re-air the

president beginning at 8:00 p.m. eastern. kathleensays that sebelius will testify next week about problems with healthcare .gov. we have a facebook question on today. we would like to know your experience with the health care exchanges. /cspan andacebook.com leave your thoughts. >> this is where mrs. roosevelt wrote her "my day" column. these are drafts i would like to share. this one sets the tone for the columns to follow. she is talking about adding back to the regular schedule after the holiday season. fromclipping is a clipping november 6, 1940, election day. she talks about how at midnight a larger crowd than usual came

in from hyde park with wonderful placards. the president went out to greet them. this was a tradition on election night. the roosevelts would meet the folks at hyde park. the president would come out and greet them. >> first lady eleanor roosevelt, tonight at 9:00 p.m. eastern on c-span and c-span3. >> one thing that is interesting is the certification of mobile devices, because all of these devices, that hundreds of millions of americans have, they can cd fcc stamp because we need to make sure they do not interfere with each other. not that manywere mobile phones going to the process, but now it is important. he have a huge battle between

apple, samsung, and others. they have put billions of dollars in advertising, and suddenly the plans get the laid -- get delay. >> we have had several budget disputes. this stems from the budget impoundment and control act of 1974. there are is some crisis the goes on, and yet after 40 years of this, we are not good at figuring out how to operate the government. >> the effect of the government shutdown on the fcc, tonight at 8:00 eastern on c-span2. >> now president obama talked about challenges people are facing as they attempt to enroll for health care at the website healthcare.gov. this is just under a half an

hour. afterward, we will open up phone lines to get your reaction. >> everybody, have a seat. >> hello, my name is janice baker. i have the privilege to say i am the first person in the state of delaware to enroll for health insurance through the new marketplace. [applause] like many consumers out there, it took a number of frustrating attempts before i could apply. i kept trying because i needed access to the new health care options. i had applied to three private insurance companies only to be rejected due to pre-existing health conditions. i am too young for medicare, but i'm too old not to have some health issues.

i found a policy i'm thrilled with, saving $150 a month and a much lower deductible but i held previously through my small business. i'm here to encourage other people like me who need access to quality affordable insurance and to tell them to have patience with such a new system. without this ability to get insurance, i know a single hospital say could have bankrupted me and my business. thank you all, and now i am honored to introduce the president of the united states. >> thank you. thank you, everybody. thank you, janice. and thanks to everybody here for coming on this beautiful day. welcome to the white house. about three weeks ago, the federal government shut down, and the affordable care act's

health insurance marketplaces opened up across the country. we now have the government back open for the american people and i want to talk about how we will get the marketplaces running at full steam as well. i am joined by folks who either already benefited from the affordable care act or are helping their fellow citizens learn what this law means for them and how they can get covered. you've probably heard healthcare.gov, the new website that helps consumers buy affordable health insurance, has not work as smoothly as it is supposed to work. the number of people who have visited the site has been overwhelming, which has aggravated underlying problems. despite all that, thousands of people are signing up and saving money as we speak. many americans with pre-existing conditions, like janice, discovering they can finally get

health insurance like everybody else. so today i want to speak to every american who is looking to get affordable health insurance. i want you to know what is available to you and why it may be a good deal for you. and for those who have had some problems with the website, i want to tell you what we are doing to make it work better and how you can sign up to get coverage and other ways. before i do that, let me remind everybody that the affordable care act is not just a website. it is much more. for the vast majority of americans, for 85% of americans who already have health insurance through your employer or medicare or medicaid, you do not need to sign up for coverage through website at all. you've already got coverage. what the affordable care act does for you is to provide you with new benefits and protections that have been in place for some time. you may not

know it, but you are already benefiting from these provisions in the law. for example, because of the affordable care act, young like jasmine jennings have been able to stay on their parents' plans until they are 26. millions of young people are currently benefiting from that part of the law. another part of the affordable care act is providing seniors with deeper discounts on their prescription medicine. billions of dollars have been saved by seniors already. that is part of the law. it is already in place. it is happening right now. already because of the affordable care act, preventative care like mammograms and birth control are free through your employer. that is part of the law. there are a wide range of consumer rejections and benefits

that you already have if you've got health insurance. here's another thing the affordable care act does. in states where governors and legislatures have wisely allowed it, the affordable care act provides the opportunity for many americans to get coverage under medicaid for the first time. in oregon, for example, that has helped cut the number of uninsured people by 10% just in the last three weeks. think about that. that is 56,000 more americans who now have health care. that does not depend on the website. now, if you are one of the 15% of americans who do not have

health insurance, either because you can't afford it or because your employer does not offer it or because you are a small businessperson, you have to go on the individual market and buy it on your own and it is too expensive -- october 1 was an important date. that is when we opened the new marketplaces where people without health insurance or who can't afford health insurance or who are not part of a group plan can finally start getting affordable coverage. the idea is simple. by enrolling in what we are calling these marketplaces, you become part of a big group plan. as if you were working for a big employer. a statewide group plan that spreads risk between sick people and healthy people, the between young and old, and then bargains on your behalf for the best deal on health care.

what we have done is essentially create a competition where there was not competition before. we created these big group plans and now insurers are really interested in getting your business. insurers have created new health care plans with more choices to be made available through these marketplaces. as a result of this choice and this competition, prices have come down. when you add the new tax credits that many people are eligible for through the law, the prices come down even further. one study shows that three new options created by the affordable care act, nearly six in 10 uninsured americans will find they can get covered for less than $100 a month. think about that. through the marketplaces, you can get health insurance for

what may be the equivalent of your cell phone bill. or your cable bill. and that is a good deal. so, the fact is the product of the affordable care act for people without health insurance is quality health insurance that is affordable. and that product is working. it's really good. and it turns out there's a massive demand for it. so far, the national website, healthcare.gov, has been visited nearly 20 million times. 20 million. there are a bunch of states running their own marketplaces. we know that nearly 1/3 of the people applying in connecticut and maryland, for example, are under 35 years old.

they understand they can get a good deal at low cost, have the security of health care, and this is not just for old folks me. it is for everybody. all told, more than half a million consumers across the country have successfully submitted applications through federal and state marketplaces, and many of those applications aren't just for individuals. they are for their entire families. so even more people are looking to take advantage of the high quality affordable insurance provided through the affordable care act. so let me just recap here. the product is good. the health insurance being provided is good. it is high quality and it is affordable.

people can save money, significant money, by getting insurance provided through these marketplaces. and we know the demand is there. people are rushing to see what is available. and those who have already had a chance to enroll are thrilled with the results. every day, people who were stuck with sky high premiums because of pre-existing conditions are getting affordable health insurance for the first time or finding they are saving a lot of money. every day, women are finally buying coverage that does not charge them higher premiums than men for the same care. every day, people are discovering that new health insurance plans have to cover maternity care, mental health care, preventative care. you just heard janice's story. she owns her own small business. she recently became the first

woman to enroll in delaware's exchange. it is true. it took her a few tries. but it was worth it after being turned down for insurance three times due to minor pre-existing conditions. now she is covered. she will save 150 bucks a month and she will not have to worry that one illness or accident will cost her her business she has worked so hard to build. janice is not alone. i recently received a letter from a woman named jessica sanford in washington state. here is what she wrote -- "i am a single mom. no child support. self-employed. and i haven't had insurance for 15 years because it is too expensive. my son has adhd and requires regular doctors visits, and his meds alone cost $250 per month. i have had an ongoing tendinitis

problem due to my line of work, that i haven't had treated. now finally, we get to have coverage because of the aca for $169 a month. i was crying the other day when i signed up. so much stress lifted." now, that is not untypical for folks like jessica. that is what the affordable care act is all about. the essence of the law is working just fine. in some cases, actually, it is exceeding expectations. the prices are lower than we expected. the choice is greater than we expected. but the problem is been that the website that is supposed to make it easy to apply for and purchase the insurance is not working the way it should for everybody.

available to them, just like janice is. second, i want everybody to remember we are only three weeks into a six-month open enrollment period when you can buy these new plans. keep in mind, the insurance does not start until january 1. that is the earliest the insurance can kick in. no one who decides to purchase a plan has to pay the first premium until december 15. unlike day after thanksgiving day sales for the latest playstation or flatscreen tv's, the plans do not sell out. they will be available through the market waste throughout the open enrollment period. the prices will not change. everyone who wants insurance through the marketplace will get

insurance, period. everybody who wants insurance or the marketplace will get insurance. third, we are doing everything we can possibly do to get the websites working better, faster, sooner. we got people working overtime, 24/7 to boost capacity and address the problems. experts from some of america's top private sector tech companies, who by the way have seen and liked this happened before, we have some of the best i.t. talent in the country turning the team. we are confident we will get all the problems fixed. number four, while the website will ultimately be the easiest way to buy insurance through the marketplace, it is not the only way.

i want to emphasize that. even as we redouble our efforts to get the website working as well as it is opposed to, you can still buy the same quality insurance plans available on the marketplace the old-fashioned way, offline, either over the phone or in person. by the way, there are a lot of people who want to take advantage of this you are more comfortable working on the phone anyway or in person. so let me go through the specifics as to how you can do that if you are having problems with the website or you just prefer dealing with a person. yesterday we updated the website home page with options to enroll. you will finciist who can help you apply over the phone or to receive a

downloadable application you can fill out yourself and mail in. we have also added more staff to the call centers where you can apply for insurance over the phone. those have already -- they have been working, but a lot of people have decided to go to the website. keep in mind these call centers are already up and running. you can get your questions answered by real people 24 hours a day in 150 different languages. the phone number for these call centers is 1-800-318-2596. 1-800-318-2596. wait times have averaged less than one minute for the call centers. although the wait time may go up now that i've read out the number on national television.

you can talk to someone and they can walk you through the application process. and i guarantee you, if one thing is worth the wait, it is the safety of the security of the health care you can afford or the money you can save by buying health insurance through the marketplaces. once you get on the phone with a trained representative, it takes about 25 minutes for an individual, 45 minutes for a family. you will be contacted by e-mail or postal mail about your coverage status, but you don't have to go through the phone. you can also apply in person with the help of local navigators. these are people specially trained to help you sign up for health care, and they exist all across the country. or you can go to community health centers and hospitals. just visit

localhelp.healthcare.gov to find out where in your area you can apply for health insurance in person. finally, if you have gone to the website and then got stuck somewhere along the way, do not worry. in the coming weeks, we will contact you directly him up or slowing, with a concrete recommendation -- we will contact you directly, personally, with a concrete recommendation on a plan that meets your needs and get you covered once and for all. here is the bottom line. the product, the health insurance, is good. the prices are good. it is a good deal. people do not just want it. they are showing up to buy it. nobody is madder than me about the fact that the website is not

working as well as it should, which means it is going to get fixed. and in the meantime, you can bypass the website and apply by phone or in person. so don't let problems with the website deter you from signing up for signing your family up, showing your friends how to sign up. it is worth it. if you have a pre-existing condition, it will save you money and give you the security your family needs. in fact, even with the website issues, we have actually made the overall process of buying insurance through the marketplace a lot smoother and easier than the old way of buying insurance on your own. part of the challenge here is a lot of people may not remember what it is like to buy insurance the old way.

there are no absurdly long forms. there is no medical history questionnaire that goes on for pages and pages. there is no more getting denied because you had a pre-existing condition. instead of contacting a bunch of different insurers one at a time, which is what janice and what a lot of people shopping on the individual market had to do, there is one single place you can go and shop, compare plans that have to compete for your business. there is one single phone number to call for help. and once the kinks in the website have been ironed out, it will be even smoother and even easier. in the meantime, we will help you sign up. because consumers want to buy this product and insurance companies want to sell it to you. let me close by addressing some

of the politics that have swirled around the affordable care act. i recognize the republican party has made blocking the affordable care act its signature policy idea. it seems to be the one thing that unifies the party these days. [laughter] in fact, they were willing to shut down the government and potentially harm the global economy to try to get it repealed. and i'm sure that given the problems with the website so far, they are going to be looking to go after it even harder. let's admit it, with the website not working as well as it needs to work, that makes a lot of supporters nervous, because they know how it has been subject to so much attack, the affordable care act generally. but i just want to remind everybody. we did not wage this contentious

battle just around a website. that is not what this was about. we waged this battle to make sure that millions of americans in the wealthiest nation on earth finally have the same chance to get the same security of affordable, quality health care as everybody else. that is what this is about. and the affordable care act has done that. people can now get good insurance. people with pre-existing conditions can now afford insurance. the launch of this website proves that people do not just need that security. they want that security. they want it. in the meantime, i have said

many times, i am willing to work with anyone on any idea that makes this law perform even better. but it is time for folks to stop rooting for its failure, because hard-working middle-class families are rooting for its success. if the product is good, they are willing to be patient. i got a letter last week from a self-employed man named john mayer in pennsylvania. he used the new marketplace to get himself and his wife covered and save a lot of money. here is what he said. this pretty much sums up my message here. "yes, the website really stank for the first week. but instead of paying $1600 per month for a group insurance

plan, we've a plan that will only cost us $692 a month, a savings of $900 per month." john said that when he saw what they would be paying, he turned to his wife and told her, "we might just pull through." we can afford this. john eventually predicted the website will work like a champ. john -- he was frustrated by the website. but he feels a little less frustrated when he found out he was saving 900 bucks a month on his health insurance. and john is right. the website is going to get fixed. and the law works. that is why we fought so hard to

pass this law, to save folks like john money. to give people who do not have health insurance the chance to get it for the first time, to lift from the american people the crushing burden of unaffordable health care, to free families from the pervasive fear that one illness i got you. no, you're ok. this happens when i talk too long. [applause] good catch, by the way. whoever was here. [laughter]

that has always been our goal, to free families from the pervasive fear that one illness or one injury might cost you of everything you have worked all your life to build. health care is not for a fortunate few. it is a right for all to enjoy. that is what the affordable care act is all about. that is its promise. and i intend to deliver on that promise. thank you very much, everybody. god bless you. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2013] [captioning performed by national captioning institute]

>> whoo! [applause] whoo! >> president obama earlier today

saying the website to sign up for the health insurance exchanges is slow, has problems, and no one is more frustrated than he is about that. gn up? iftried to si your experienceis good, 585-5885.- -585-5886.ad, call 202 on facebook, we have the same question. the first call is from washington state. thanks for taking my call. i noticed when i went to the andite, i am unemployed

looking for work, and it does not give you that choice. , but they give you the state of washington -- the state of washington is the exchange. there was the bronze, silver, and gold. i have medicine that costs $2300 a month and that makes it unaffordable. $400 tothey have are on the bronze. %-20%.ld is an 80 that is 20% of that medicine plus the premiums would be between $150 to $650 a month. it would probably be closer to the $650, so based on those figures with the premium alone,

$6,500 toe about $12,500. host: what we are hearing it was not technical, it was about what has been offered. caller: they do not have an option to collect for unemployed. it is not an option. i could not continue. host: kathy is next from wisconsin. what happened? caller: i have been trying to note, and i keep getting a that says i need to verify my identity, which i did. i went through the whole process. i answered all their questions. , whichrified my identity was no problem, and i went back online to continue the application, and they still said your identity has not been identified.

so i let it go for a week or so, thought i needed to transmit the data over the to them, but filled out the application again, three or four times now, and the same thing it says that my identity has not been verified. i'm having a problem with that. i called them back and they said, no, it has been verified. i thought i would let you guys know about that. it is a real problem. host: the next caller is patricia who has not tried it yet. she is from west virginia. go ahead. are you there? caller: yes. i have not tried the health but i wasout yet, waiting to see if the government would open back up. i know the health insurance would help a great deal. gone thereaven't you

if you think it is going to help? money, i will have more to pay on extra bills and stuff like that. caller: do you plan to go to the website? what do you think you will do? caller: i will go by the website and try that way. host: taking your comments on facebook.com/cspan. i did not have a hard time with that, but i am used to navigating through a lot of things because of research. pageswere way too many and that slowed things down considerably. yeah the thing i noticed was comparing lands. when you compare plan a with plan c, that is where i got sucked.

kevin is next, a good experience from florida. missouri. theer: i wanted to make comment about the website. i have been told by i.t. search that one of the problems with the website is there is this form you have to fill out before you can compare plans. most insurance websites, all you have to do is enter your age and your zip code, and you can browse plans and shot. i would like to make one little note about myself. i have been canceled under the affordable care act. i got a letter from my insurance. it is now going up from $572 a month to $991 a month. where is the savings? i do not understand how that is more affordable for me. host: next is kevin.

he had a good x bearings in florida. -- experience in florida. caller: this is in regard to my brother who has had a pre- existing condition. he could not informed -- afford insurance. we went on the website, and it went smoothly, there were no issues, and we do not know what is going on with him. my hede of his body to cannot sit straight, and we are going to find out what is going on with my brother, and i think for three years we could not get excerpts -- insurance. , theore people that get on younger people, it will drop the rates, so i understand the issue with higher rates. he had an issue with [indiscernible]

it was very affordable. we could not get on because he had a pre-existing condition. host: how old are you and your brother? caller: my brother is 33. host: how old are you? caller: 39. host: go ahead, frank. onler: i was going to go with pure curiosity, because i have insurance from medicare, but i saw a news seven on pbs that that that that website was geared toward 60,000 people all trying to access it at exactly the same time, and one of the problems they are having is 250,000 people are trying to access it at exactly the same time. one of the problems is overloaded. i do not want to add to the problem because i would just go on out of curiosity to see what

the bronze, silver, gold, and platinum plans looked like. i will wait until everybody really needs health insurance gets on there and finds a plan to their liking, and then when the big crowd subsides, then out of curiosity i may know on and just check it out. post""the washington announced that nearly 2 million people have visited the website since the beginning of the month, although the administration has revised that figure. our next caller in maryland. had a bad experience, joseph? what happened? are you there? why did you have a bad experience? caller: i had a bad experience at the beginning. i'm a 100% disabled veteran that was called up by the people that

, whoin charge of medicare informed me i would be better tricare.ng i would just like to encourage who hesitate that they would save hundreds of thousands of dollars by going to tricare. host: have you gone online to find out what your options would be at all? caller: i did at the beginning when i was transferring to tricare. host: thanks for calling in. goodmeone who has had a experience from north carolina. what you have to say? caller: i had a question on health care itself.

i have medicaid and medicare right now. what i want to know is with my son, would he be covered? you to turnd your television down. i cannot answer any questions about the exchanges. the president is urging people to call the toll-free number two ask questions. next is david from california. hi, david. what is your comment? i just wenthing is through a bunch of surgeries with cancer, colon cancer, and my question is, i am on social security, and yet some of these prices i am looking at online, how does a person in my shoes afford when you are only making

month insand -- $800 a medical payments? host: did you get that information from going to the website? caller: yes. host: did you have options there? caller: on the different amount you want to pay. host: you are saying none of the options are possible for you? was $250, butone then you have a $5,000 deductible. pencils out stuff for able in the shoes i am in. host: belmont, texas, hi. what is your comment? caller: i had a very bad experience with this. in my business, lots of people get hurt, diseases. it just does not work out, too

much money. host: what business are you in? dancing.ale exotic host: the next caller had a good experience. what is your comment? ago i: a couple of years transitioned from one job to another, and after i had my 90 sign up for the insurance. i was told by human resources held off until open enrollment in january. this was in november. until january, and then we will switch companies, and then you can sign up then. and they had not had the meeting or whatever. but they had the meeting about two weeks later or something

like that, and then they said we have not decided on an insurance company, which company we are going to go with yet. you guys will have to still way. the beginning of march i had a stroke, and i did not have any insurance. work, in i came back to was not able to get insurance because of a pre-existing condition. host: did you sign up? caller: yes, i tried to sign up, and it was just out rages, the amount that they wanted, because of the pre-existing condition, because i just had a stroke and doctors told me statistically you are more likely to have another one. host: tracy had a good experience on the health insurers exchanges. reports" is urging people to stay away from healt

hcare.gov until the problems are fixed. ronald is the next caller from arlington, virginia. you have not tried it yet, ronald? do haveno, and i insurance, i am a government worker, and my son is 20 years old and an employee of the giant supermarket chain. would be covered, but we are not sharing too much that with employers because he was just informed yesterday by his management that his hours will be lowered, and all the workers, just not him, they will be cut to 20 and 15 hours a week now, and it just seems that we knew need -- we need some fixes. we cannot have the government,

be it the executive or congressional, say they will not negotiate changes. this is hurting people, and my other comment would be people think that the government designed these websites, but actually we contracted for private corporations to build these websites, and we expend about $350 billion a year for contracting, and that is maybe where we should be cutting so we could do a better job. i appreciate c-span. have a great day. host: thanks for calling in, ronald. he appreciate all your calls. -- we appreciate all your calls. this is eleanor's typewriter. this is where she wrote her "my " column. this is her first column, and it

sets the tone of the columns to follow. she is talking about the comings and goings of the white house as they get back to the regular schedule after the holiday season. this is a clipping from 1940, after the election day, how at may died a larger crowd than usual came in with a band and torches and a wonderful placard. the president went out to greet them. the residents would gather thely around and -- roosevelts would gather family around and wait the election results. tonight live at 9:00 eastern, also on c-span radio and c- span.org. >> one thing that is interesting, it was not that important in 1995, the certification of mobile devices because all these devices that

hundreds of millions of americans have, they can see that fcc stamp on it because we have to ensure that they do not interfere with each other. back in 1995 there were not that many mobile phones going through the process. now it is really important. we have a huge battle between apple and samsung and mortar roll up and others that need that certification and they make these plans, have literally billions of dollars in advertising, and suddenly the plants get delayed by a number of days. that is a real cost. >> we have had several budget disputes. they stem from the budget impoundment and control act of 1974. this occurs almost every year, the crisis that goes on, and yet after 40 years of this we still are not very good figuring out how to operate the government. >> the effects of the government shutdown on the fcc tonight on "the communicators," 8:00

eastern on c-span [applause] . -- c-span2. morning'sis ."ashington journal host: the line shows the budget was cut from sequestration. what has that meant for agents on the field? guest: what the director is telling people is there is a whole issue where they think

they will have to furlough ofple, give roughly 10 days furlough days to agents up and down the entire bureau. that includes last year they had a similar issue with sequester and they were able to look in the couch coaches and's -- couch cushions and find enough money to move around. this year we will have to put people out of their job for some days of the year. host: some other impacts that have been announced, a hiring 2270e and vacate about five positions by the end of the year. also the reduced services such as gun that ground checks. i want to go through some of these things starting with the gun background checks. why is that going to impact -- why is that being impacted by these cuts because there is a specific timeline that the

checks have to take place in? caller: they have to be done quickly, because a normal customer can buy a gun in the normal course of his us, and the reason that is affected is essentially every part of the bureau is affected by these cuts. the gun background check is an area where they have a specific task they have to perform very have to perform it all the time. of delaysee some form in that system. now that they are on a clock a have to get it done in a certain time. what we are told is everything will take a hit. host: where learning of the impacts of sequestration from a report issued last month by the fbi agent association. it is their voices from the field report. here is the front page of that report. agents how they see

the impact, from not having enough gas in their cars to not being able to provide money for to pay for informants. talk about the things that were surprising in that report. guest: the gas is interesting because it speaks to one of the most asic functions of work, -- the most basic functions of work, since they drive around to get to witnesses. what the agents say is that the bosses are tightening up so much the gas money that they are having to rethink, this particular witness, do i need to see them, or can i just call them? a lot of investigators will tell you nothing is more valuable than a face-to-face interview. what aair to the bureau, bunch of the folks at the headquarters tell me is our directions are not to stop

investigating or do less investigating, but you are going to have to carpool more when going to and from the job, that sort of thing, where we explicitly tell able to not cut corners on investigations. you have as that if field office, the boss in the field office has to hit a budget number, and if the only way he can think to hit that number is to cut the gas, asked will get cut. host: here's one of the quotes from the report. here's how the sequester will affect my slice of the bureau. cases do not get worked. nothing is close to anything on the reservation. witnesses and victims do not have phones. we have to drive to then. they're too poor to drive to us. this is a cruel truth. real people will not get justice.

the face of the sequester is a molested not hope kid or a beaten apache woman, neither of whom will see justice. what is the reaction? guest: i do not know if management will agree with specifics of that example. i think what is interesting about the sequester fight within the bureau it is one of those instances where management and labor are pretty much in agreement on the issue, which is they think they need to do whatever they can to stop or at least diminished the effects of sequester because they think that the cumulative effect will hurt cases and their work. ast: we are talking to reporter, devlin barrett. if you want to talk on this subject, our --

host: a question for you on the subject of possible furloughs in this next fiscal year. he said there will be 10 furlough days. how does an agency like the fbi scheduled days when they do not know when the crimes or actions will take place? guest: you have heard a number of solutions. no one thinks that will be the way they do this. what is more likely is they will implement a situation where on a friday or monday a bunch of people will be gone from the bureau and they will be some dead space just before or just after a weekend. if it comes says down to it, if there is an

attack and some of our people are furloughed, these people are coming in and they will work. i think that is a situation that nobody wants, and no one wants isattack where the bureau scrambling to get up and running. host: are there congress members who are trying to affect the effects of sequester? wheree seen some agencies members of congress have changed the impact of sequestration. is the fbi one of those agencies? guest: yes, but it gets complemented -- complicated, because some of their budget comes out of unexpected chunks. there are arguments going on on the hill, do we protect, do we try to restore some of the civilian agency cuts or protect some of the defense and national security agency cuts?

astride of that. they are not sure in their own mind that sega lawmakers come up with a plan to save dollars, they are not sure what their piece of that would be. the short answer is yes, there are a lot of lawmakers who want to make changes, softening the blow of sequester, but if you to look to the events of the last month, there's no reason that congress will your this out. host: who are the members leaving that push? some sympathy expressed by barbara mikulski, a democratic senator from maryland, and i think patrick they has been open to it, head of the senate judiciary committee as well. mass of andcritical without critical mass, what congress is very good at is stopping things from being implemented. congress is not nearly as good at undoing things that have been

implemented, and that is what they would have to do. sequestration's impact on the fbi. devlin barrett is a reporter from "the wall street journal. coro good morning to you. caller: thank you for calling. [indiscernible] it was unprecedented. is do you foresee a bipartisan solution to any sequestration? guest: it is difficult. looks right now like a heavy lift. what you see is a lot of agencies getting their voices heard on the hill and lawmakers are starting to pay attention to

this out of the shutdown is over. what you saw from the shutdown is there is not a lot of agreement on much of anything related to budget issues. it is hard for me to see exactly what the big solution politically might be on sequestration. call, robert from indiana, on lines for independents. morning, and i have watched c-span for a long time and appreciate it. go ahead, robert, we are here. caller: i have watched c-span for a long time and really appreciate it. the whole government agencies have been incentivized for years and years to spend all of their they had a fear of the budgets being cut for next year. problem ind to a big the deficit and the debt and this is what we are facing now.

guest: robert makes an excellent point, but i would characterize it differently. one thing you see among agencies and really is at the end of a budget year there's money sitting around and what tends to happen is that people find ways to use that money at the end of the year because they know it might not exist after that. and so i think that is one of the sort of institutional human behavior polls -- polls on budget that goes on, but i think that in terms of the sequester, sequester sets out a pretty intense cut for basically everyone. the whole idea of the sequester was if you make these cuts so painful that everyone am of the congress will have to come up with a better solution. what actually happened was they did not come up with a better solution, they just make painful cuts everyone. now we are seeing the results of that decision or lack of decision. host: some stats on those proposed cuts for fiscal 2014.

billion.budget is $8.3 7.6 billionget was dollars. if those cuts are implemented in 2014, it would bring that $8.3 billion number down to about $7.6 billion. guest: it is an $800 million hit a will be taking, and what the director has said is that is tough for us because what they did last year is deal with the sequester cuts, which were they move money around from different programs, technology and other things, but they say this year 60% of our costs are personnel. if you are going to give up what amounts to a 10% cut in our entire budget, there is no way to accommodate that and that's where they are now. they're at the point where they

have to take it out to some degree on their people. and a lot of them both in the senior management and in the lower ranks, resent that. >> in the past year, director comby has replaced former director mueller at the f.b.i. have they taken different approaches to sequestration and sounding the alarm? guest: no. when director muller left, he was asked specifically what is the biggest problem you're leaving? and this is a guy who oversaw the response to nine letch and a lot of terrorism issues. he said the biggest problem is the sequester. because i don't see how to make the numbers work to keep the agency fully effective. and so on this they seem to be very much in agreement. he basically said this is a nightmare. i had no idea it was going to be this -- the sequester itself is going to be this difficult. so now he's faced with i've got

this job. the first thing we have to do is not a thing new managers like to do very much, which is probably hurt his own people. host: let's go to grace now on our line for republicans. here in washington, d.c. good morning to you. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. my name is grace washington. my view is that we need our f.b.i., we need our c.i.a., and we need our military strengthened. we need our borders to be prepared for anything. i say we need to send our children to military school and demand that the immigrants and foreigners who want to come in our country to do a select service, the military, which would prove their loyalty to our country. host: the f.b.i., talk about their efforts along the borders here. and is that being impacted by

some of the sequester cuts? guest: the f.b.i. isn't a primary law enforcement agency on border issues. but they certainly contribute to the general enforcement of the laws and investigations in that area. i think one of the pieces you actually read out earlier from the agent, although we don't know where that agent is based, points to sort of what the bureau does in other parts of the country specifically on indian ress vasions. they are the law enforcement officers on indian ress vasions and that has always been a very difficult task. what you'll probably see from sequester cuts is the more sparsely populated the smaller your f.b.i. offices they have things called a regional office which can be pretty small shops and along the border, those places will be hit hard because you'll end up with one or two agents suddenly responsible for the work of what used to be handled by three or four people.

that's going to be a much harder thing for those people. host: when comy talks about joint task forces, is some of the that border work? guest: right. the one that people know most commonly is the joint terrorism task force because major cities have this where you have the f.b.i. runs it and a lot of other law enforcement agencies, local police, all work together to investigate terrorism cases. there are a lot of other thing that is address guns, gangs, violent crimes. and the bureau works on a lot of those as well. those sort of second or third tier task forces, say bank robbery, although the bureau still cares quite a bit about bank rob riss. those are going to be hol ofed out may be too strong but the expectations will be weakened by this. and that means less interagency

cooperation. what agencies love to talk about is how that makes cases and what they are arguing as a result of the sequester is you're going to see less cooperation in general. >> bob obour line for democrats. caller: thanks for taking my call. i think the sequester is just another example of the tea party willing to compromise national security for political reasons. i think that the majority of e people voted for certain politicians so that it would probably protect social give us and it would the affordable health care act. and the tea party is willing to overturn the will of the

people, the majority of the people, to get their own way. and any way they can. i think they're willing to put our country at risk. i'm wondering what you think it is going to take to stop this. guest: well, in terms of the f.b.i. i think what you hear sort of whipsrd in quietly as they discuss this is god forbid something happens while this is going on. are we going to engage in a degree of finger pointing about did budget cuts make it harder to stop this. that's a pretty severe scenario, frankly. but there is finger pointing after almost every attack that the f.b.i. failed to stop. so it is not that inconceiveable that there is another situation like boston marathon bombing that part of the after process of that attack would be trying to figure out did we miss something because we had less people up and looking? i think that is an unknowable.

and it may eventually be a form of crying wolf at this point because we're trying to guess the future. >> we showed stats earlier about what a hiring freeze would mean for the f.b.i. by the end of the year, would vacate over 2,000 positions by the end of the year. here's a story by the huffington post. shutting down training at quantico. talk about the future of the f.b.i. is the pipeline being filled with agents right now? >> that's a really interesting part because there is arguably a very unmeasurable loss from sequester, which is what kind of people are you pulling in? and what kind of people are you losing? i was at a function this weekend and someone in a government agency said to me the problem with sequester is that what you're basically telling agencies is you're going to lose a lot of your best people and we're not going to replace those people. so whatever programic things you think you're accomplishing, all you're doing is make

everything work a little less well because you will have a talent drain from people going out the door because they don't want to deal with things like not getting paid x many days in a year and you have the problem you spoke of which is the issue of training the fact that there's no training going on. and during the shutdown, for example, there was a big class of law enforcement personnel from all around the country and around the world that showed up, unfortunately for them, on the monday of the beginning of the shutdown and showed up ready for a 10-week famous course, kind of a status thing to be trained and build those relationships. a lieutenant from the san francisco police department, for example, an investigator from the saudi arabia police let's say and they come together and take this 10-week course. because they happened to arrive they showed up and sat around for three days.

when it became clear that the shutdown was going to keep going they all got sent home on different flights much ahead of schedule and trying to fig yur out do we have capability to restart this? i think that doesn't show up in a balance sheet anywhere. but what law enforcement agencies will argue is that definitely shows up in the long run in terms of their effectiveness. host: in a recent piece, the headline.

he goes on to say the new report from the f.b.i. agents association is a reminder of the smaller less visible effects that cuts have across the country. any large organization can endure budgets like that in the short run. people work a little harder less urgent projects are shifted empty positions go unfilled and so on. the longer it goes on the less those tricks can fill the gap. e're talking with den devlin baret and we'll bring in james from massachusetts. caller: good morning. thank you very much for your programs. i was employed by the f.b.i. identification division for a year back when i was in college down in washington, d.c. and i know that timing is everything particularly in that field. one day can mean the difference between somebody that's on a

wanted list getting away or eing put back in prison. i was in massachusetts at a time when we had to cut budgets and one of the things suggested with sequestration. i did a study on the different departments in government of the town that i was in and found that you can't do it across the board. some people are heavy in employees, other people are heavy in operational costs and some would just simply be effectively shut down. i think sequestration is an irresponsible thing to suggest and i guess as equally irresponsible to let it go ahead. something has to be done to have a more rational basis for cutting costs, which we did in our town. host: what would be your recommendation on the national level?

caller: complete discretion if you're going to cut a certain amount from a department it should be based upon something other than their total budget. it has got to reflect the impact both on employees, which is very significant particularly i listened to the thing on training and on those departments that are heavy in operations. and you've got to look at it that way and you've got to have different percentages for these different departments depending on how important they are to the day-to-day life for the people in this country. guest: i think james raises a very interesting point and points to the political difficulty. a lot of the people are saying look we do pretty important work here. we're protecting the country and american lives, and that shouldn't just be meat cleavered like this. the problem becomes politically once you open the door for one

agency or one mission within the government, do you have some obligation to open the door for a whole bunch of others? and i think it's difficult for the political elements the way they are right now to come up with consensus on if you're going to do budget cuts who should take the hit and who should take less of a hit. that's frankly why we have sequestration in the first place. so i think the political difficulty that james is talking about is just that lacking a plan of what to cut, the answer has been just cut everything. and what bureau officials say is we're going to start to see the effects of that. host: talk about some of the history. guest: right. and look, a lot of this stuff is completely arguable and measurable. but i would say if you look back to the 90's, one of the things the bureau suffered from

by any rational measure is their technology was horribly outdated. when 9/11 happened there were still a lot of field offices who had virtually no ability to communicate electronically effectively the way normal person in the normal company would understand that phrase. and they spent -- one of the things the last director bob mueller spent years working on was just getting their computer systems up to snuff. one of the things they worry about is as sequester goes into place and they start for lack of a better word, robbing peter to pay paul, that their technology is going to slip and get very slow again. now, the caller is absolutely right. the twitter person is absolutely right. you could not make a correlation between the hiring freeze in the 90s and cases being missed or lost or just not made during that same

period. but i don't think you can make that correlation -- i think it would be very hard to make that for anything. host: in recent months lots of folks concerned about the revelations about monitoring efforts by the government. guest: it's an interesting phrased question. i think if the question is will it slow the f.b.i.'s ability to track, do large-scale tracking or in-depth tracking? i think it probably will. what i'm being told by people is look if these go into effect the way they seem to be the simple act of putting that many people out of a job a certain number of days a year will slow it. the technology effect of not updating or improving the technology, that will slow it. now, you can make the argument, if you hate those programs,

that's a good thing, because there will be less surveillance of americans. i think people in the bureau would certainly argue that they are not breaking the rules and that all their programs are designed to protect people. host: back to the phones. rick in indiana on our line for republicans. caller: thank you very much. and thanks for the information. i hear obama talking about how sequestration is hurting the country. he's the one who came up with this idea. can you you please explain how this got put into effect? guest: sure. it goes back to what happened as a result of the 2010 congressional elections and the sort of renewed i want rest in getting the budget under control and cutting the budget. and what happened was they created this weird sort of creature because they couldn't get a deal out of congress where they were going to have a super committee of people that

would come up with the smartest and best ways to cut the budget. and to give them a stick to make them make the tough choices, they said -- and if the super committee fails to reach an agreement, we're going to have something called sequestration, which is years of just broad, meat cleaver type cuts across the board on both defense spending and discretionary spending and interestingly enough not touching entitlement spending. so sequestration was always meant to be the alternative that was so worse they'll come up with something better. but in the political environment we have, the two sides couldn't come up with an agreement and now we have sequester. host: and we have a question on this. guest: it's fair to say it's a little bit of both. what congress has been going on

for a long time is called a continuing resolution, which are not big growth but usually some degree of growth or holding to the past spending amounts. so what congress has generally been doing is some version of cr's for a while. what you see in the sequester is not just reduction of the rate of growth, which is budget hawks always complain about. it's not a cut if all you're doing is reducing the rate of growth. but with sequester you're seeing both. you're seeing an actual cut in spending. that's what has the people who work at these agencies concerned. host: charles from dallas texas. caller: i feel like a lot could be done by cutting wasteful spending, period, probably with the f.b.i., with the military, and the cuts being taken right now to people who need it.

talking about nutrition programs, meals on wheels. why would you cut something like that? it's the same as you having financial problems but you have the trip to hawaii every year and a trip to switzerland every year. you are still doing that but then you can't eat and your power is cut off. it doesn't make any sense. cut the things that you are wasting money on. not $1 billion missing over in iraq war. what happened to that? guest: and charles' point gets to the core argument here and why this is so difficult is one person's waste is another person's necessity. there's a lot of good reasons to argue you should not cut nutrition programs especially for children. and there's a lot of good reason to say you should not cut counter terrorism programs. that's the argument and that's the issue that no one seems to be able to resolve.

host: if we're talking about waste versus necessity, where do you think spending on drones for the f.b.i. fits in? here's a recent associated press story. f.b.i. spending on drones tops $3 million. guest: in the greater scheme it's basically a drop in the bucket but it's an incredibly interesting issue how is the bureau going to use this new technology in law enforcement and in counter terrorism? that's why it gets so much attention. host: how are they using the drones? guest: mostly been using them, a lot we don't know the specific instances. or example, there was a fairly widely reported situation of a boy in the south a year ago and they used a drone to keep an eye in the sky on the area around that scene as they were working in that hostage situation. host: that bunker in alabama?

guest: exactly. so that's the type of scenario where they have been starting to deploy drones. but one of the things that f.b.i. officials admit is they don't have a terrific legal framework to explain the do's and don'ts of using drones. and just so we're clear these are unmanned essentially eyes in the sky drones, things with cameras. don't shoot anything or take any action other than to take pictures. but a lot of people still find it very alarming and worrisome especially for the reason that there's not what a lot of people will say any real legal framework to how and when these things should be used. host: that story notes that the f.b.i. since 2006 has spent more than 3 million on unmanned aircraft.

i want to go back to the phones. roger from iowa on our line for independents. aller: good morning. i just want to bring up what somebody did, that this was the president's sequester. and number two, is i'm an independent but the republicans offered the president a deal that would give him discretion n what is to be cut instead of everybody using the cleaver use a scalpel. well, the president was offered that. and he turned it down. as far as what the f.b.i. is -- look at the private sector. we used to have 63% of people employed in this country. we now have 58%. private industry for the last 5

years have cut people still maintain a profit, still are getting sales, and it isn't how many people you have. it's how good a job are the people doing that are working. guest: roger raises what i think is an interesting dynamic that it has shifted in the last few years of all the budget conversations in washington. it used to be that government work is nice and stable and it doesn't pay as well as the private sector generally but it's stable and you have job security and you'll have a decent pension when you leaf. it's a nice safe job to have. private sector was viewed as well you get paid well but there's more uncertainty. you never know what could happen. what's interesting about the last five years is that a little bit of that insecurity of the private sector has bled into the government sector where it didn't really show

itself very often. i think a lot of the sort of political argument becomes why should government workers be more safe or secure than your average silingtssn who works in the private sector? i think that affects people's political interpretation of whether sequester is good or bad. i don't know if it has any real impact on how the agencies themselves operate under the sequester. host: talk about it from the standpoint of the agent. how is their morale being impacted from these 2013 sequester cuts and then looking ahead to possibly 10 furlough days and more cuts in 2014? guest: and remember, the way it's written goes on for years. it's not just a one or two-year issue. i think it's very worrisome. one of the things you see in the agencies given what just happened with the shutdown and other things is that among government workers, whether it is the f.b.i. or other places, a lot of them throw their hands up and say who knows what congress is going to do next

month let alone next year or beyond. i think the issue of morale will really only become truly knowable as this year plays out and how bad or not bad the situation becomes inside the bureau. but i do think it introduces a level of uncertainty the government to some of these people in government work and those who -- i think the danger becomes from the f.b.i.'s point of view those folks on the fence about staying or going might go. and you're not getting new people in. that is always a concern. host: the justice department reporter also spent eight years at the associated press before that? guest: i worked in new york and washington. host: taking a call now from bill from wood stork, georgia. guest: good morning. thank you for your show. i was calling about the --

excuse me. anything that the democrats are for, they're against. they are bound to make them look bad on everything that he suggests, even the health care system these computers that's being sabtanled by the right wing republicans and the coke brothers and the insurance companies. host: we're talking about the sequester cuts and how they're impacting the f.b.i. are you concerned about that? caller: yes. ooshslule. host: go ahead. caller: that's what it's designed to do is to make the president look bad. so he can't protect the country. and that's all i've got to say. guest: and that speaks to the whole political split on this issue that there's a view that says two sides are so politicized on even issues of how the government and whether the government should function that they just can't see beyond

the fight of the moment or the fight of the week. and that's i take it the caller certainly feels that way about the republicans. host: on the republican line william is waiting from texas. hello. host: can you hear us? caller: i barely can hear you. the only comment i want to say did the sequester, senate pass it? does that make it law? guest: it is law. absolutely. host: terry is waiting from indiana on our line for independents. ood morning.

caller: i'm turning the tv down. i don't know why the world hasn't figured out if they get into like the government -- really not the government but all the governors and mayors start becoming landlords they can get that money that they're giving away back and using that for after they got it going to make sure it's good everywhere, the f.b.i., police and all that. because you figure most people are getting help, paying rent $400 a month to use that as basics. and if people were getting it back they can work it wherever hey need it. host: we've talked about

possible impacts on joipt terrorism task force and some crime. what about white collar crime? how are we seeing impacts from this shutdown and sequestration on the f.b.i.'s white collar efforts? guest: it's hard to pesure yet. and part of the challenge is nobody in the bureau wants to say well, we had to let joe smith go because we just didn't have the budget to pursue him. but i think with white collar crimes, the thing to remember is most of those cases are fairly labor intensive, usually require a lot of document work and a lot of sort of forensic accounting work. and that sort of thing is the danger is always the more complex the case is the more difficult it is to do a complex case with more limited resources. host: appreciate you coming in this morning. guest: thank you. >> tomorrow morning's "washington journal" william

galston of the brookings institution argues that tea party said americans should be sufishes of federal power. former congressman steve lat rhett, a group of moderate republicans. and a look at the jerry mannedering of congressional districts. "washington journal" is live every morning at c-span at 7:00 a.m. eastern. >> this is her typewriter. it was on this typewriter that mrs. roosevelt wrote her my day column. what i have here are some of the original drafts of the my day column. this first one is her first my day column and sets the tone for the columns to follow. what she's talking about here are the comings and goings of the white house after getting back from the holiday season. this is a my day clipping from november 6, 1940 election day.

she talks about how at midnight a larger group than usual came in. the president went out to greet them. this was a tradition on election night. the roosevelt would come to hide park gather family around and await the election results. the president would come out and greet them. >> tonight live at 9:00 eastern. >> one thing that's interesting, was not important in 95, i think it's critical now is the certification of mobile devices because all these devices that literally hundreds of millions of americans have can see that stamp on it because we have to ensure that they don't interfere with each other. and back in 95, there weren't that many mobile phones going through the process. but now it's really important.

you have a huge battle between apple and samsung and moat rolea and others. they need that certification, they have these plans, they have billions of dollars in advertising and suddenly the plans get delayed. that's a real cost. >> we've had several budget disputes. i think they stem from the budget control act of 1974. this occurs almost every year. this crisis that goes on. and yet after 40 years of this we still aren't very good at figuring out how to operate the got. >> the effects of the government shutdown on the f.c.c. tonight on communicators at 8:00 eastern.

>> earlier today the chamber of commerce ceo said his organization has not made any decisions about challenging incumbent republicans in 2014. he did say that the chamber does not want democrats to win back the house. speaking at the christian science monitor breakfast in washington, d.c. this is about an hour and 10 minutes.

>> mr. done hue has led the chamber since 1997. before that he served for 1 years with the american trucking association prior to his tour he was vice president for eight years. in an earlier chapter he was deputy assistant post master general and vice president of connecticut fairfield university. he is a new york native and has a master's degree from st. johns and mba. bruce johnson is the political affairs executive started in the chambers' new york office in 1974. came to the organization well equipped for rapid rise with a degree from harvard. he oversees six major divisions within the chamber. now on to the thrilling process portion. we're on the record here.

please no live blogging or tweeting in short no filing of any kind while the breakfast is under way. there's no embargo when the session ends except that our friends at c-span have agreed not to air the session until one hour after the breakfast ends to give reporters in the room time to file. we would like to ask a question? please do the traditional thing and send me a subtle nonthreatening signal. offer our guest a chance to make opening commepts. >> thank you very much. good morning ladies and gentlemen. thanks for getting up on an early monday morning for this and i will be brief and you can then have at it. thank you. we always enjoy coming here. it is one place you can have a conversation. joining me as you saw is bruce and also tom who handles all of our communications issues wh become more complicated every

day. i know the buzz is still all about the cr and the debt deal, who won, who lost, who is up, who is down, what's going to happen next. but i would like to open today's breakfast by looking a minute to the future. and cause the business community overall is glad the immediate crisis has been resolved although we are all planning now for the next three rounds of this go. however, temporary and imperfect the current agreement is, it gives us a chance to think our way through this and get ready for what is next. the fact is we have got a lot of work to do in this country and we need to get back to it now. we need to fire up our economy and speed up the recovery. we need to get our fiscal house in order and clearly if you don't hear anything else from me we have got to reform our entitlement system before it eats us alive.

we need to modernize our health, retirement, immigration, regulatory systems so that we can continue to ramp up our productivity and reclaim and what i would say accelerate our competitive edge. we need to get busy seizing the extraordinary opportunities we have in this country today to create jobs, drive growth, and generate government revenues. how? by developing all kinds of energy, more on that in a minute. and by rapidly expanding our commercial relationships within the two biggest trading blocks in the world, europe and the asian pacific. until we act on these challenges and opportunities the kind of spending and debt standoff we endured over the past few weeks will repeat itself over and over again. and our debt will pile higher and higher. so the chamber is going to focus itself on a few key

opportunities and a few key challenges. first, the opportunities. immigration. we are in a good position. there's still an appetite to get comprehensive immigration reform done this year. we're not sure, maybe we'll extend this year a few months but we're really hot after it and there's still strong support amongst the public and lawmakers in our nation, economy, businesses, and workers need it more than ever. the chamber is keeping up the push for reform. it's an opportunity to show the world we can get a big thing done that we can all benefit from. energy is another major tupet. you want more jobs, faster growth, revenues pouring in to government coffers, manufacturing renaissance, stronger national security, then take advantage of the vast energy resources this nation has been blessed with. we have got to tear down barriers to exploration and

development, and put energy to work for the good of our country and then there are still some challenges overregulation is a big one. no -- we've got to move on this very quickly before it consumes us. by the way, we need regulation in this country and an orderly society does. but when the regulation becomes bigger than the thing we are trying to regulate it gets really worrisome. we have a threefold approach to dealing with this. work with the congress to advance legislation that will restore balance and sanity to the process, work with the agencies to improve the regulations that are being drafted, and when all else fails sue them. the chamber will not hesitate to take the fight to the courts as many of you know our track record there is something to write home about. before i conclude, i ought to say a word about obamacare. it is a prime example of

regulation run amuck. the intention of what people set out to do was right. what we ended up with was more than we thought. we're finding ways to fix the obvious flaws in the law and i suspect the administration will join in some of those. and while continuing to search for general reform that will lower costs, improve care, and expand access. let me end where i started. in addition to these key priorities that i have just highlighted the chamber will of course be very focused on the budget talks established by last week's agreement to reopen the government and e lift the debt ceiling. who knows if those talks will succeed but they damned well better. but at the very least it's another opportunity for some serious truth telling. to our elected officials and to the public. the truth is that unsustainable entitlements are the root cause of our deficits and debt.

and by the way, please note that is no administration's fault. it is a demographic reality. we're all living longer. there are more of us. let me give you one number. 10,000 people will retire every day this year and every -- that comes to 65. and every day for the next 17 years until there are 77 million of them figure it out. the truth is we don't have a revenue problem. we have a spending problem. we have a growth problem. and the fundamental entitlement reform and comprehensive reform are the way to address them. until we face up to these hard truths and take an even harder step of acting on them, any future negotiation on the budget and the sequestration and the debt limit will be basically disconnected from the actual needs of the country. i know a lot of you are

anchinges is to hear what we think about 2014 and how it is going to impact the chamber's political engagement in the next cycle. i will do my best to answer those questions as fully as possible while avoiding the ones i don't want to answer. with that let me take your questions. >> let me start with one. the "wall street journal" reported last week that the chamber is considering taking sides in the republican primaries next year in hopes of replacing tea party conservatives with more business friendly pragmatists. added that having given tens of millions of dollars to republican candidates you're researching what candidates might be viable next year. where does that effort stand? >> a quick look at the history of the chamber's political efforts show us engaged in rimaries on a regular basis. we have no idea what we're going to have on table. we still have to see who is

running. we still have to see what happens in the next activity on the deficit. we still have to see what the circumstances are. we have a formal process for doing this. we will pursue that process. we will do whatever seems to be the best thing for the country and for the american business community. this is not about party. this is about how this country is going to be run, how this economy is going to be driven, and what role we can play in that. >> i assume it's a safe assumption that you were disappointed with the tea party faction. there was a key chamber vote alert from mr. jost lynn last week saying that groups calling for default are clearly less interested in the main street concerns of businesses large and small. do you feel badly used by some of the people you supported in 2012? >> no. we are not a single issuer or a

single vote organization. we work very hard for as long as i've been here and as long as bruce has been here to go after the issues of concern to the business community without crippling the country. i can't stress enough what a default on our foreign debt -- not on the debt on our private debt. not on the debt to the federal reserve or any of that but a real default would put us in a position that changed our position around the world that increased our interest costs and put us in a very, very challengeed issue of creating jobs and running our economy. we continue to say that. we fundamentally believe it. and we at the same time think the members of various different other groups -- i don't like to say tea party. we have all sorts of people that are weighing in on these

issues that come from all types of groups. i'm not sure they're all tea party. i'm not really sure what that is. but maybe that's what republicans and democrats are like. they're not all the same. and we think many of the issues that some of these folks have raised are really important issues. what are we spending? what is our revenue stream? what are we doing about health care? what is going on in this country? but we do believe to advance those interests by putting the country's whole financial system at risk is not a good idea. >> we're going to start with the following speakers. the ant to ask you about [inaudible] you were the biggest organization. [inaudible] driving members.

>> seriously, i'm glad that a lot of people are trying to get into this issue and getting serious about it. hopefully we will be able to bring them to a consensus not on the issues people have a lot of agreement on issues but on the best way to move forward. the chamber continues to do well. we have had an extraordinary continuation of our success in the courts go back to the end of last year when we had the last one of these debt and deficit issues. i looked at what happened on the tag side, i've looked at what happened on the sequestration side. i looked all of that and i came away and said we copt to do well -- continue to do well. the most important thing to understand about your question

is the two things that we actually do. we're advocates, and we build coalitions of people. and groups to try and get something done. no one organization makes anything happen in this city. and bruce and his team are probably the best people in this city on building coalitions, bringing large groups of people who differ on other issues together on specific issues to achieve some consensus. i still think we're doing very well. and i welcome more people to come in and row in the boat. but if you're rowing, then ou've got to be playing. >> inaudible]

>> let me back into that question. my own background lets me have a particularly clear look at infrastructure and the nation's ability to move its goods and its people and its information. and we have for the longest time avoided taking steps that we need to take to strengthen our infrastructure. steps that would not be driven by incremental expenditures by the broad population but would be paid for by user fees. and until we get smart, to

understand that if our infrastructure is not working well, no matter what part of it is, then it drives down our productivity, increases our accidents, and it has a very negative effect on our society. and by the way, this is one issue that none of us should lose sight of. we drive on the streets in this town. this is the world's capitol. and any day now we're going to fall into a sink hole. that should remind us that we need to go forward. i would make one other point. i've been in this town a long time. if it's important, it's contentious. if it's important and it's xpensive or it's demands difficult decisions it's contentious. contention comes for three reasons. if it's hard you're going to have disagreement. if it's hard and you're going to have disagreement you'd better get out there.

if you're in congress it's a great opportunity to run fund raisers and things like that. it's a reason some of these things take longer. and finally and very importantly sometimes these decisions are not easy. you have to debate them, you have to sort them out, and you have to figure out what the body politics will stand and what the politicians will vote for and that's what we do. if there's no contention we're not looking at the right issues. >> i would add two things. one, with respect to the club and heritage, they've always felt the way you articulated about xm. that's not new as you know historically. with infrastructure, the problem is far far bigger than how your question related it. everybody in town, the administration, the republican party, and the democratic party, refuses to belly up to the reality that you need to fund the -- to tom's point --

infrastructure. we in the unions and others have been calling for more than a decade to raise the user fee and to inflation index it. but as even ray lahood said last week, the former transportation secretary to this administration, once freed and able to speak openly, he called again for the vehicle mile tax chefs chastised on when he was transportation secretary. so everybody is against how to deal with that issue. it's far greater than the tea party. every member of every party and the entire administration refuses to fund it. they all call for funding and they all call for spending but they all refuse to pay for it. >> one fact. 20 years, 20 years since we had an increase in the federal fuel tax. what kind of a car were you around the table driving 20 years ago? what were the miles per gallon? we're collecting almost half

the revenues we were and haven't increased it in 20 years. >> to go back to the shutdown as well. i'm wondering how much it will factor into your activities going forward. guest: if you're interested -- >> if you're rintested in what we're going to do we're going to continue to talk to the members and our members around the country, and to the leaders in the cities and states where we are very, very active about a rational settlement on the issue of budgets and debt. we will obviously start and end with the question that there is a gorilla, an elephant in this room that nobody wants to look at and it is the entitlement expenditures over the long run. and by the way, there is

nothing -- nothing as big and as compelling and as challenging as it. and what we simply want to do is tell the truth. let's start by telling the truth here. and then when you look at all the rest of it it's a small problem. if you look what's going to happen in the next 10 years we are going to increase our government outlays by a minimum of 2.5 trillion dollars. that's the government's numbers, not the chambers. those numbers when we get there you will find to be about 21 or 22% net available out of what will be a $6 trillion expenditure. there will be about 20% available to run everything in the government except entitlements and payments on the debt. that is challenging. >> peter. prepared to pursue chained

cpi [inaudible] >> in fairness to the administration, as we listened over the weekend, and sort of get going a little more energy today is this pressure on the administration not to touch any entitlements. by the way, that's an interesting approach. we could just leave it awhile until it craterd and then we would have the next american revolution. have you ever talked to your parents and grandparents about what they think about social security, medicare, and in some instances medicaid? they say they owe it to me. they must pay this. well, they don't must pay it. and we have a moral responsibility to get on this and i hope that the administration in spite of the pressure on them begins to understand that.

>> there's a great deal of outreach in the business community stepping up in the second term. have you noticed that or believe that? >> i think there are a couple of reasons for that. i think fromen who is now the trade rep, and we've got three or four hot trade deals going, he's all over the business community in a constructive way. i think the new secretary of commerce has been in business for a long time and she's everywhere. and i think the chief of staff has -- with his background on the hill is bringing more people in to visit and sending the president out to visit. but more important, i think there are more quiet gatherings and pulse taking and i think we're in better shape than we were. >> on immigration, you said there's an opportunity. but with the speaker being as

weak as he is and with -- crats where they are inaudible -- why do you think it's an opportunity? >> that's a great question. and it's pretty simple. number one we already have a bill out of the senate and remember we've got another whole year plus of this congress. second, all of the arguments in budget e have been on issues, on issues dealing with debt and sequestration and health care. generally, there's good feeling about the efforts that have been made in immigration. and by the way, we're doing this together with the aflcio. and if you put the business community and the aflcio together or the labor unions,

guess what it is a significant interest group. but there's a lot of support and not as much opposition. look, we've got to get a few things done in the house. i don't think they'll pass a great big comprehensive bill but i think they will do three or four more thing that is have to be in that bill and then we'll have an opportunity to go to conference. but the best thing about it, just think about it. pass the bill in the senate, pass a bill in the house, go to conference, get a result. and have the president sign it. government still works. >> i would suggest that the speaker may be stronger today than he was four weeks ago number one he got a standing ovation last week. conservatives who were fighting him for a month said no one would challenge him now. so i think he is a better position by letic the air out of the baloob that he had to do. the chairman of the judiciary committee like the speaker has said all year he doesn't tend

to move an immigration bill as a former immigration attorney. and he has been very positive discussing pathways to legal status going forward. i think the other concern we have is a committee with a pretty crowded agenda, from immigration to marketplace fairness to control legislation in a tight time frame while we have the first, i'm going to guess, clear the decks of these three new cliff hanger deadlines. because again, they're not going to be here that much in the fall. >> you know what's great about the chamber? bruce and i agree on all the important things and we argue about the things along the margin and i keep saying i think you're probably right, bruce, but forget the february-march stuff bring it back closer and closer. everything is looking for something positive to take home.

>> another issue that's been , t of brewing in congress especially on the democratic side is a push to raise the minimum wage. you're also seeing walkouts by fast food workers. i'm wondering about how the chamber stands on that. we've raised the wage periodically over the years. is this something you're going to be fighting? is it something you're taking a position on now or will in the future? >> well, one, we didn't support raising the wage here in the district. tom had an op ed in the papers. as you know the mayor vetoed it, saving some important jobs. what i could read, several thousand people showed up for 300 or 400 jobs. we have historicically not supported raising the minimum wage and we have done so for all the economic reasons. it is the first step on the rung in the ladder. it does have some displacement effect particularly for the least skilled people in society.

so i would imagine we will again engage it. i don't see that being a hot issue moving through congress any time in the near future. >> is what do you make of the fact that certain tech fix will not be ruled out? what do you find a credible threat? >> i do not know senator gettingd we are all to watch him. i think about him as a tennis player. if you're going to rush the net all the time, you that are have motions to the left and right, and he has not proved that to me yet. he has his right as a member of the senate to push things he thingss or resists the he does not support, and we will try to work with him wherever we

can. remember the issue, it is not the substance, it is what is the result and how are you trying to get it done him a and b will see where it goes. people are assuming the business community would like him to shut up. >> that might be one thing we could work on. [laughter] >> what sort of leverage do you have over him? >> i don't know. timee not spent a lot of thinking about it. we're looking at this thing in a broader context than one person. there are a lot of democrats in the house who are worried -- in the senate, excuse me, that are worried about the upcoming election. to come on into the in a veryd be there i

short time. he still has a lot of relationships to make and it my view is he has not got the votes to do what he wants to do. so then what does history show? after a while he will start talking to people how to get to him what he wants to get done instead of telling everybody how he is going to get it done. >> we will next go to anthony and then john and how x. anthony? >> i was wondering how the chamber would like to advance the energy agenda, and also your thoughts on the president cost climate -- the president's climate change plan. >> we will split that. the way we want to advance our energy agenda is a matter as education. we were5 years ago saying where are we going to get our energy? get itgoing to have to

from nigeria, the far reaches of the world, we have a real problem, and what we know now, the have across-the-board, we have more energy than anybody else. it is accessible. we have proven in the last few years, we have created a couple of million jobs, we have paid just in the last year in the fracking business, the states in income taxlion and royalties and individuals that were part of that, with very little stuff coming off of federal lands. about we keep talking are going to open up these lands, but you do not see the permits. what we have to do is continue the effort to explain to the american people that without hydrocarbons, we are not going to have any jobs. we are all for green energy. we have supported 300 separate green energy types of those and

projects, any of which did not get done, but we supported them. the fundamental issue is you think you're going to back away from using hydrocarbons, it is not going to happen. look at what is happening in europe. a turned off their nuclear power after what happened in japan, and now they are increasing the amount of coal they are buying. we want to sell it to them, while we are using natural asked, trying to clean the way we use coal. this is an education, and it is a happy education. they're not doing what we are trying to do in entitlements and we tell them we have to turn the child actor little. we asked to tell them we have to turn the dial up because it is going to attract all sorts of manufacturing to the united states. it is going to create all sorts of jobs. it will help us clean the air, and i really think this is a phenomenal opportunity for us, and bruce will tell you about the few bills. you're knowing,

we are suing on the greenhouse gas deal with the epl. the courts have withheld the decision on tailpipes. we think the epa officials took some latitude in making their decision to go after them. argument process legally, which the supreme court obviously agreed with, at least in context, in accepting the protection -- the petition. we are not the only ones involved in that. i suspect going forward that judges will ask that all of them be consolidated into one brief, will be my guest. that is where that is. every disagreement legally with how we are approaching it. having said that, we have supported supported energy efficiency types of legislation, including the one stalled in the senate right now. we would like to see this get

out as well. we will continue to do that. it is important to recognize the united states set the largest single reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from all other countries that were ready to go back to that kyoto protocol. we are ahead of that. we have achieved that through technological innovation. on the one hand with respect to fracking, and on the other hand, it reduced the cost of energy per unit output manufacturing a close to 50%. we will >> continue to do that. >>we are doing the same thing on mobile source. we have driven up miles per gallon, cleaned up the output from cars. we have done what everybody else is talking about and has not done. >> you alluded to the [indiscernible] could you give us the priorities as far as that agreement, and also the authority given the current environment.

>> let's go to the trade promotion authority first. i think there is a growing and positive sense in both houses theyboth parties, saying know we needed, they know we have to have that. we have to find a place on the calendar. if tomorrow we had one of these deals coming down the pike and ready to go and we did not have trade promotion authority, we would get a right away. although everybody else wants to doctor up the bills, they know that nobody will sign a bill on the other side if they think it is going in for a three-year haircut in the house or senate. .u.the bill with the e and europe, this is an interesting issue, and the reason we are intense about it, ourpe, as an area, is

largest export partner. canada and mexico are our largest individual countries, but europe is a huge export for us.r us -- partner there are economy is flat or worse. according to a lot of the economists there, it will not get much better soon. it happens to be china's largest export partner, and if their economy is down, that will help us -- or hurt us because we are expanding and exploring more to china. this is an important thing to everybody to do, and there is genuinely would feeling in both parties, and, by the way, it will be hard for the unions to oppose a bill with the european region because they have been telling us for years and years and years that is the way we ought to be running our economy. they are not going to have work role and labor issues that they would have with someone else. we really think we are making

progress. in a perfect world -- and you cannot find any, bring them -- we may have done this in stages and done something on export issues, including tariffs and trade facilitation and so on, and then got into these things later. but when you are doing a trade bill when everybody wants to run on, we have new finance, some new services, and so i think we are moving very much in the right direction. remember, there is the transpacific ardor ship which is going. there's a big deal on services was 50-some countries. there is a facilitation agreement. all of those come it seems in some ways, will get easier as we start resolving issues to one that can apply to other. this along with energy is a great opportunity for this economy. when do you think the

entitlement problem really comes home to roost? you guys seem to think there is a possibility of a deal year but notdeal this year, really. when did the hand of washington get forced on this issue? >> bruce just mentioned the social security disability system goes bankrupt in 2016 or 2015. veryhe real issue gets difficult after another four years or five years, because then you have to use your attorney and methods. right now we can do a lot of stuff to make this work better. and we are not talking about getting rid of programs. we are talking about changes along the margin which make a huge difference. nobody is talking about going in and changing everything for somebody who is regarding to

retire next thursday. he have to find a way to do it going forward. if we fail to do it and get down to 8, 9, 10 years, i cannot see difficultut really times for all of us, and by the way, remember where the numbers come from. they come from the government of the united states. if only problem with them, you talk to the medicare overseers and others, they will tell you some of the government numbers are little squishy, and probably it is worse than we are looking at. >> to follow-up, what do you think the likelihood of getting a fix in the next four or five years is? maybe in this administration? find out, because the president spent the weekend saying he is now open them as he did before the shutdown, once the shutdown is done, to negotiating everything on the table, including entitlements

and budget. ryan's protest vote was more of a statement vote against the deal because it did not address the long-term problem. i think we will find out in the next months whether or not a framework involves out of that negotiation. we have about 20 minutes. we will go to alex, mark shields, and susan page to close. neil? >> [indiscernible] saidor rubio [indiscernible] they all say the same thing -- [indiscernible] is there any concern on your site that this distrust will make the immigration deal less likely? >> i got serious concerns about trust all around in town right

now i'm a which is just to me the way you get out of that problem is with serious leadership, not with a lot of talk him and we need leadership in the business community, in the house, in the senate, in the white house. the president after the deal was comments werest that he wanted to get on with a number of issues. the first thing he said was an immigration bill, and if he wants to do it, he will advance it in part by supporting it, but he will also advance it in part by helping us, by getting involved in helping us come to a satisfactory and a progressive, meaning moving forward, set of solutions on tax and spend and on entitlements. if he does get there not do what he said he is going now get involved and negotiate on these issues of high significance.

deale day after the [indiscernible] the president is not playing a central role in the budget talks. >> [indiscernible] do that, don't they? if he plans to get a budget deal -- history is very clear. the most successful administrations -- i will not even say presidents -- are the people who get intimately involved in leading and working with the other leaders in town to get these things done. there are lots of things on the agenda, and the president would benefit in my opinion from becoming more active in this issue, because i think it would give him a better chance to get a good result, and it would send only in thesenot areas, but in others, here and

around the world, he will be more active, and i think that is in the interests of the united states of america. >> at the same time, the president has public he stated , my proposaleeting proposal to deal with immigration are still on the table with republicans. it cannot be both ways. will getr you guys involved more aggressively in primaries next year, do you worry there's nothing you can do? a lot of conservative groups have pointed that out. it does not tend to work out very well. do you worry about that, that there is nothing you can do? >> no. >> would you like to elaborate on that? >> no. >> ok. >> but i do not worry about it.

we will see what cards are dealt and we will react in the best way to much in the best interests of the american business community and the american country and our fellow citizens. >> mark? >> taking note of your corporation with the afl-cio on immigration, it reminds us that 50 years ago this country dealt and thatoriginal sin, was racial segregation. the leadership of that movement, as you and i both know, because we came to our political maturity at that time, was underwritten by organized labor. atonsider all -- considerable costs to themselves. there were a lot of italian affix an irish catholics that were opposed to desegregation. can you give us an example of where the chamber has

taken an unselfish national position comparable to what labor did on the civil rights movement? first, just to continue on the history lesson, we have been very actively engaged in two ways with labor. we fight with them on a whole lot of things. they are the latter raiders for one group, we are the collaborators for another group, but we work with them a great deal. he had huge activities going on as we discussed a few minutes ago on the infrastructure in the country, and many of labor unions are significant supporters of that coalition. work on a host of other issues, sometimes quieter than publicly, and we have worked on of thetion with many labor unions, and we find ways to work with people on both sides.

the question of whether we have in mind a great move forward like this country found itself in for a series of reasons -- and i was thinking about this myself, mark -- you and i are getting old, thinking about for the 50th anniversary on the martin luther king issue -- and i have thought about two things. i thought whent, martin luther king gave that speech, the title of that speech was about jobs. second, i have thought if there is one place we have not at thed that objective great sector fries that he offered is we really have hurt k --community in terms of 12 education. if you do not have a fundamental kate-12 education.

if you do not have that kind of a fundamental education, it is hard to compete, and it is much harder to debate now with all the mans of the manufacturing sector and technology and global economy. and so i think if there is a place where we can achieve some historic movement, it has got to be in education. unions,ns, the teachers are at odds with many other unions about education, and certainly with union members who, in many communities, are frustrated about the education their children are getting, while other communities are ortting in the public sect getting phenomenal education. some coalition between unions and business -- and we are working together between democrats and republicans, between every group in this country, has got the

fundamentally say every child should have an opportunity to get a quality education. they cannot compete without it. and this could be the next big thing. >> another question on 2014. you heard member supporting the bill last week to avoid the default and and the shutdown. was this in your view a lie in the -- a line in the sand as you look forward to next year, rather the primaries and who to support, and secondarily, in two weeks voters in new jersey and virginia go to the polls to choose governors. i am wondering if you think those races tell you anything about the state of the republican party right now and if there are any lessons for next year cost midterms -- next year's midterms? >> the first one i want to make, when you look at the votes, how many people voted for and

against in the house, it was a free vote. everybody knew they were going to get as many democratic votes they need to get it there, and a good number of those who voted were either making a statement, as ryan was, or they were voting to avoid an unnecessary primary. when we get down to the serious is us at hand of voting on the critical issues for this country, i think you will see a more attractive ratio of votes for and against. second, let me take the issue of the states. generally -- we are involved in the states, supreme court's, attorney general, and every now and then a governor's race that we believe is fundamental to the national interests of the country and of the business community.

i do not know what is going to happen in those races. there is a lot of money coming from around the country into those races, because people are trying to position themselves, not for 2014, before 2016. what wee question of are going to do really comes down to this -- we are not looking -- remember, we do not do anybody, we do not do presidential politics. we cannot be all the way around the world, away we are, talking to heads of states can and be playing in presidential politics. we do not do it. we do the house, senate, the state supreme courts, state attorney general's, and occasionally odds and ends that run across our major issues. believe -- we really believe that it is in our interest to be vigorous in those

ises, and our first deal sequential is 2014 is the house. let me be saying we do not do presidential politics. let me say something that sounds presidential politics. on behalf of the american business community, even a choice, i would not like to see this administration with the white house, the senate, and the house. i think it will be a long two years. you can be sure that we will be very vigorous in the house. we will also participate in the senate. we will support, to some people's discomfort, and number of democrats in both houses. the bottom line is this is all about the economy, and so for us, all about the american business community and all about country. we were founded 101 the years ago for two things -- to help

and support the american business community and help our country when it is in trouble. >> kathy? note, could on that you give me a sense of the timeline, what a valuation of the landscape are you expecting, when, and when will you pull the trickle on saying this is the depth we are going to go, this is how vigorous we are going to go, and finally, what is the funding level you're saying that you need? two times come a few times, what we have had in the past? >> the honest answer is sometime next year. >> [indiscernible] >> we will start in quarter one. task forces that will make recommendations that will make those recommendations to the chamber's board. the board meeting is not until the end of february, early march. to the earlier point, we are

doing internal research here and on the ground. we are obviously going to share that information with the task forces as well as game their own, and that process will start in the first quarter. he have not had an endorsement meeting yet. >> [indiscernible] >> we have expanded our regional three, up from about 14, and we have three more pending that we plan to hire shortly. >> we will approach these races based on the experience we gained last time around, which we do regularly. as brucepanding, indicated. we will further expand our staff on the ground. we will continue our effort of engaging state and local chambers at a much more aggressive level than in past years.

we will hire consultants where needed, and we will spend what it takes. susan? >> the business community [indiscernible] the republican party can be ever ready reliable partner in the comes to economic issues. is that no longer the case? -- letbusiness community me if you a fact. we have all kinds of members. we have 300,000 little members. we have all the big companies, almost all of them, and there are democrats and republicans all through the business community. as there are democrats and are publicans all through the chamber. so while we -- the press in particular has always built this relationship between business and republicans. i spend as much of my time talking to democratic leaders, because we have traditionally known where some of the votes were going to be and we were

always looking for how we could -- if i did not spend a lot of time talking to the union leaders, how would we have ever made a deal in the senate on immigration? i would not worry so much about labels. what we need to do is talk to or portendre leaders or want to be leaders in going forward, and it is our business to do with everybody who has a role in that, from the white house to the leaders in the senate on both sides and the leaders on the house on both sides, and i'm not particularly worried about some great failure of our relationships. it seems to me they are hitting baker. >> [indiscernible] francine?k you -- yes, >> you mentioned obamacare in your opening remarks. -- where we go now should we go now? clear. is fairly

with any huge piece of legislation, we should take it very clear look at what is working, what is not working, what needs fixing them a what needs timetable change, what needs reconsideration. i have said all along, and bruce has said all along, there is no way you're going to get rid of that will. i mean, suppose somebody could get the votes to defund it in the house. i do not think you can get those votes in the senate, and sure as hell you could not override a veto. so whether you thought that was a good idea or a bad idea, you probably ought not to spend a lot of time on it. instead, we believe there is lots to be done to make this bill moore what it was originally -- this bill more what it was originally meant to be in set of what happened when the people that got in to start writing this bill took a good idea and just continued to write and write and write, so we have

now got to bring it back to a reality. >> and the timeframe for starting to make those changes? >> i think some of it will work -- i'm doing a little smart about this -- i think some of it will work if we leave it alone for a walk, because they now have to face up to the fundamental questions, will they do it on time, will it work, and what the hell is going to happen with the computer system? >> last question. eleanor? >> you said a minute ago you would spend what it takes. you did not want unified government. i assume that means you want to keep the house republican, and, secondly, the president has put suggestions about and how to perform out there, but he seems to want revenue in return. simpson-bowles or commissions that have looked at this said you have to have increased revenue. with the chamber, the business immunity, support closing loopholes or some sort of way of getting revenue to get a deal?

>> good. you go first, i will go second. >> we all along made it clear we are not an opponent to increased revenues. there's a lot of ways to get increased revenues. the report, the president has said that. i would say his chances of getting another tax rate increase on top of the $620 billion that occurred in january is a journey equivalent to the republicans trying to defund obamacare. it will not happen. >> there are couple of elements -- >> you cannot get new revenues -- we should dynamically restore tax reform, and energy, which sum has mentioned, is a huge opportunity to generate revenue. immigration bill is a an opportunity to generate revenue. >> it is important to understand in the upper income tax brackets opportunities.

people in the higher incomes, over $250,000, they pay on every dollar of revenue they make all the way to the top in medicare. and so many of them have added 5% to their overall rate. if you look at obamacare, there's another point in there, plus another 25% negative effect on the capital gains tax. lazy hidden all over the him in addition to the ones we recognize. the bottom line here is we are willing to sit down and talk about ways to continue to nation's economy. we have just had a little problem finding somebody to sit down and talk to. real quickly, are you open to the possibility of more revenue? >> we have always been open to

the possibility of ways to expand revenue, including, as bruce said, all the things you can do if you move in a sensible way on energy, and the things you can do if you are going to look at some ways to alter the tax collection system that makes it better for companies by giving up some eduction's to get some benefit -- some deductions to get some benefit. about wide open to talk fixing this country. harry reid said we will talk to anybody unless we get a billion dollars for the new income taxes. good luck, harry. it ain't happening. records,bout the top -- the top records, the studies incomeow the growing diversity. do you think there is a certain point where it might be bad for business if the middle class is out and there is

increased wealth all on one end? >> i was listening to your question carefully, and then you got to the right question. am i concerned about the middle class? hell, yes. that is why mark and i were exchanging about the education issue. there are great opportunities for people. 45% of theen away jobs in manufacturing. they are gone, never coming back , information technology, process engineering, robotics, supply chain management. what would could still hire a million and a half people today to go in to the manufacturing business if they had education. some additional people we get through infrastructure. my view there is a lot we ought to do about the middle class, the one thing we should never do . we should never say we are going to do what lenin thought was a

good idea, which is redundant people who make the money and pay the bills to make everybody feel good while you kill the news that laid the golden egg, and thank you very much. >> thank you, bruce. appreciate it. >> [indiscernible] is eleanor's typewriter, where she wrote her column. what i have here are the original drafts of some of the columns i want share. the first one is her first column, and it sets the tone for the column to follow. what she is talking about are the comings and goings of the white house as they are getting back to the regular schedule after the holiday season. ,his clipping from november 6

1940, election day, she talks about how at midnight a larger crowd came in from hyde park with a band and wonderful package. the president greeted them. this was a tradition on election night. they would come to hyde park, gather family, and await the election results. when they were pronounced, the folks who marched down and the president would come out and greet them. >> first lady eleanor roosevelt, tonight at 9:00 eastern on c- span and c-span three, and also on c-span radio and www.c- span.org. tomorrow, william galston, on tea party supporters. he said americans should be suspicious of federal power. and the head of the republican mainstream earner ship. and a look at the gerrymandering of congressional districts.

journal"ee "washington every morning live on c-span at 7:00 eastern. after "washington journal," at 10:00, a conversation on employer-sponsored health insurance. then at 11:00, pakistani prime f in washington for president obama and speaks to the u.s. institute of peace. that is at 11:00 a.m. eastern tomorrow, live on c-span2. >> c-span, we bring public affairs events from washington correctly to you, putting you in the room at congressional hearings, and house events, briefings and conferences, and offering complete apple to gavel coverage of the u.s. house among all as a public service of private industry. we are c-span, created by the cable industry 30 years ago and funded by your local cable or satellite provider, and now you

can watch us in hd. >> obama said this morning there is no excuse for the problems with the online health insurance marketplaces. the website's problems are being fixed. >> hello. my name is janice baker. i have the privilege to say i am the first person in the state of delaware to enroll for health insurance through the new marketplace. [applause] [laughter] like many consumers out there, it took a number of frustrating attempts before i could apply. i kept trying because i needed access to the new health care options. i had applied to three private insurance companies only to be rejected due to pre-existing health conditions. i am too young for medicare, but i'm too old not to have some health issues. i found a policy i'm thrilled with, saving $150 a month and a

much lower deductible than i held previously through my small business. i'm here to encourage other people like me who need access to quality affordable insurance and to tell them to have patience with such a new system. without this ability to get insurance, i know a single hospital say could have bankrupted me and my business. thank you all, and now i am honored to introduce the president of the united states. [applause] >> thank you. thank you, everybody. thank you, janice. and thanks to everybody here for coming on this beautiful day. welcome to the white house. about three weeks ago, the federal government shut down, and the affordable care act's health insurance marketplaces opened up across the country. we now have the government back

and i want to talk about how we ketplaces up mark a to steam already. i am joined by folks who either already benefited from the affordable care act or are helping their fellow citizens learn what this law means for them and how they can get covered. you've probably heard healthcare.gov, the new website that helps consumers buy affordable health insurance, has not work as smoothly as it is supposed to work. the number of people who have visited the site has been overwhelming, which has aggravated underlying problems. despite all that, thousands of people are signing up and saving money as we speak. many americans with pre-existing conditions, like janice, are discovering they can finally get health insurance like everybody else. so today i want to speak to every american who is looking to

get affordable health insurance. i want you to know what is available to you and why it may be a good deal for you. and for those who have had some problems with the website, i want to tell you what we are doing to make it work better and how you can sign up to get covered in other ways. before i do that, let me remind everybody that the affordable care act is not just a website. it is much more. for the vast majority of americans, for 85% of americans who already have health insurance through your employer or medicare or medicaid, you do not need to sign up for coverage through a website at all. you've already got coverage. what the affordable care act does for you is to provide you with new benefits and protections that have been in place for some time. you may not know it, but you are already benefiting from these provisions in the law.

for example, because of the affordable care act, young people like jasmine jennings have been able to stay on their parents' plans until they are 26. millions of young people are currently benefiting from that part of the law. [applause] another part of the affordable care act is providing seniors with deeper discounts on their prescription medicines. billions of dollars have been saved by seniors already. that is part of the law. it is already in place. it is happening right now. already because of the affordable care act, preventative care like mammograms and birth control are free through your employer. that is part of the law. [applause] there are a wide range of consumer rejections and benefits that you already have if you've

got health insurance. they are not dependent on the website. here's another thing the affordable care act does. in states where governors and legislatures have wisely allowed it, the affordable care act provides the opportunity for many americans to get covered under medicaid for the first time. in oregon, for example, that has helped cut the number of uninsured people by 10% just in the last three weeks. think about that. that is 56,000 more americans who now have health care. [applause] that does not depend on the website. now, if you are one of the 15% of americans who do not have health insurance, either because you can't afford it or because your employer does not offer it

or because you are a small businessperson, you have to go on the individual market and buy it on your own and it is too expensive -- october 1 was an important date. that is when we opened the new marketplaces where people without health insurance or who can't afford health insurance or who are not part of a group plan can finally start getting affordable coverage. the idea is simple. by enrolling in what we are calling these marketplaces, you become part of a big group plan. as if you were working for a big employer. a statewide group plan that spreads risk between sick people and healthy people, the between young and old, and then bargains on your behalf for the best deal on health care. what we have done is essentially create a competition where there

was not competition before. we created these big group plans and now insurers are really interested in getting your business. insurers have created new health care plans with more choices to be made available through these marketplaces. as a result of this choice and this competition, prices have come down. when you add the new tax credits that many people are eligible for through the law, the prices come down even further. one study shows that through new options created by the affordable care act, nearly six in 10 uninsured americans will find they can get covered for less than $100 a month. think about that. [applause] through the marketplaces, you can get health insurance for what may be the equivalent of

your cell phone bill. or your cable bill. and that is a good deal. so, the fact is the product of the affordable care act for people without health insurance is quality health insurance that is affordable. and that product is working. it's really good. and it turns out there's a massive demand for it. so far, the national website, healthcare.gov, has been visited nearly 20 million times. 20 million. [applause] there are a bunch of states running their own marketplaces. we know that nearly 1/3 of the people applying in connecticut and maryland, for example, are under 35 years old. they understand they can get a

good deal at low cost, have the security of health care, and this is not just for old folks like me. everybody needs good quality health insurance. all told, more than half a million consumers across the country have successfully submitted applications through federal and state marketplaces, and many of those applications aren't just for individuals. it's for their entire families. so even more people are looking to take advantage of the high quality affordable insurance provided through the affordable care act. so let me just recap here. the product is good. the health insurance being provided is good. it is high quality and it is affordable. people can save money, significant money, by getting insurance provided through these marketplaces.

and we know the demand is there. people are rushing to see what is available. and those who have already had a chance to enroll are thrilled with the results. every day, people who were stuck with sky-high premiums because of pre-existing conditions are getting affordable health insurance for the first time or finding they are saving a lot of money. every day, women are finally buying coverage that does not charge them higher premiums than men for the same care. [applause] every day, people are discovering that new health insurance plans have to cover maternity care, mental health care, preventative care. you just heard janice's story. she owns her own small business. she recently became the first woman to enroll in delaware's exchange.

it is true. it took her a few tries. but it was worth it after being turned down for insurance three times due to minor pre-existing conditions. now she is covered. she will save 150 bucks a month and she will not have to worry that one illness or accident will cost her her business she has worked so hard to build. janice is not alone. i recently received a letter from a woman named jessica sanford in washington state. here is what she wrote -- "i am a single mom. no child support. self-employed. and i haven't had insurance for 15 years because it is too expensive. my son has adhd and requires regular doctors visits, and his meds alone cost $250 per month. i have had an ongoing tendinitis problem due to my line of work, that i haven't had treated.

now finally, we get to have coverage because of the aca for $169 a month. i was crying the other day when i signed up. so much stress lifted." now, that is not untypical for folks like jessica. that is what the affordable care act is all about. the essence of the law is working just fine. in some cases, actually, it is exceeding expectations. the prices are lower than we expected. the choice is greater than we expected. but the problem has been that the website that is supposed to make it easy to apply for and purchase the insurance is not working the way it should for everybody. there is no sugarcoating it. the website has been too slow.

people have been getting stuck during the application process. i think it is fair to say no one is more frustrated by that than i am. because the product is good, i want the cash registers to work, the checkout line to be smooth, so i want people to be able to get this great product. there is no excuse for the problems. and these problems are getting fixed. but while we are working out the kinks in the system, i want everybody to understand the nature of the problem. first of all, even with all the problems at healthcare.gov, the website is still working for a lot of people. it is not as quick or efficient or consistent as we want. although many of these folks have found they had to wait longer than they wanted, once they complete the process, they are very happy with the deal available to them, just like janice is.

second, i want everybody to remember we are only three weeks into a six-month open enrollment period when you can buy these new plans. [applause] keep in mind, the insurance does not start until january 1. that is the earliest the insurance can kick in. no one who decides to purchase a plan has to pay the first premium until december 15. and unlike day after thanksgiving day sales for the latest playstation or flatscreen tv's, the insurance plans do not run out. they will be available through the market waste throughout the open enrollment period. the prices will not change. everyone who wants insurance through the marketplace will get insurance, period.

everybody who wants insurance or the marketplace will get insurance. third, we are doing everything we can possibly do to get the websites working better, faster, sooner. we got people working overtime, 24/7, to boost capacity and address the problems. experts from some of america's top private sector tech companies, who by the way have seen things like this happened before, we have some of the best i.t. talent in the country joining the team. we are confident we will get all the problems fixed. number four, while the website will ultimately be the easiest way to buy insurance through the marketplace, it is not the only way.

i want to emphasize that. even as we redouble our efforts to get the website working as well as it is opposed to, you can still buy the same quality insurance plans available on the marketplace the old-fashioned way, offline, either over the phone or in person. by the way, there are a lot of people who want to take advantage of this you are more comfortable working on the phone anyway or in person. so let me go through the specifics as to how you can do that if you are having problems with the website or you just prefer dealing with a person. yesterday we updated the website home page with options to enroll. you will find information about how to talk to a specialist who can help you apply over the phone or to receive a downloadable application you can

fill out yourself and mail in. we have also added more staff to the call centers where you can apply for insurance over the phone. those have already -- they have been working, but a lot of people have decided to go to the website. keep in mind these call centers are already up and running. you can get your questions answered by real people 24 hours a day in 150 different languages. the phone number for these call centers is 1-800-318-2596. 1-800-318-2596. wait times have averaged less than one minute for the call centers. although the wait time may go up now that i've read out the number on national television. [laughter] you can talk to someone and they can walk you through the application process.

and i guarantee you, if one thing is worth the wait, it is the safety of the security of the health care you can afford or the money you can save by buying health insurance through the marketplaces. [applause] once you get on the phone with a trained representative, it takes about 25 minutes for an individual, 45 minutes for a family. you will be contacted by e-mail or postal mail about your coverage status, but you don't have to go through the phone. you can also apply in person with the help of local navigators. these are people specially trained to help you sign up for health care, and they exist all across the country. or you can go to community health centers and hospitals. just visit localhelp.healthcare.gov to find out where in your area you can apply for health insurance in person.

finally, if you have gone to the website and then got stuck somewhere along the way, do not worry. in the coming weeks, we will contact you directly, with a concrete recommendation on a plan that meets your needs and get you covered once and for all. here is the bottom line. the product, the health insurance, is good. the prices are good. it is a good deal. people do not just want it. they are showing up to buy it. nobody is madder than me about the fact that the website is not working as well as it should, which means it is going to get fixed. [laughter] [applause]

and in the meantime, you can bypass the website and apply by phone or in person. so don't let problems with the website deter you from signing up or signing your family up, or signing your family up, or showing your friends how to sign up, because it is worth it. if you have a pre-existing condition, it will save you money and give you the security your family needs. in fact, even with the website issues, we have actually made the overall process of buying insurance through the marketplace a lot smoother and easier than the old way of buying insurance on your own. part of the challenge here is a lot of people may not remember what it is like to buy insurance the old way.

there are no absurdly long application forms. there is no medical history questionnaire that goes on for pages and pages. there is no more getting denied because you had a pre-existing condition. instead of contacting a bunch of different insurers one at a time, which is what janice and what a lot of people shopping on the individual market had to do, there is one single place you can go and shop, compare plans that have to compete for your business. there is one single phone number to call for help. and once the kinks in the website have been ironed out, it will be even smoother and even easier. in the meantime, we will help you sign up. because consumers want to buy this product and insurance companies want to sell it to you. let me close by addressing some of the politics that have swirled around the affordable care act.

i recognize the republican party has made blocking the affordable care act its signature policy idea. it seems to be the one thing that unifies the party these days. in fact, they were willing to shut down the government and potentially harm the global economy to try to get it repealed. and i'm sure that given the problems with the website so far, they are going to be looking to go after it even harder. let's admit it, with the website not working as well as it needs to, that makes a lot of supporters nervous, because they know how it has been subject to so much attack, the affordable care act generally. but i just want to remind everybody. we did not wage this contentious battle around the website. that is not what this was about.

[applause] we wage this battle to make sure that millions of americans in the wealthiest nation on earth finally have the same chance to get the same security from affordable, quality health care as everybody else. that is what this is about. and the affordable care act has done that. people can now get good insurance -- people with pre- existing conditions can now afford insurance. the launch of this website proves that people do not just need that security. they want that security. they want it. [applause] in the meantime, i have said many times, i am prepared to work with anyone on any idea that makes this law even better.

but it is time for folks to stop rooting for its failure, because hard-working middle-class families are rooting for its success. [applause] if the product is good, they are willing to be patient. i got a letter last week from a self-employed man named john mayer in pennsylvania. he used the new marketplace to get himself and his wife coverage to save a lot of money. here is what he said. this pretty much sums up my message here. "yes, the website really stinks for the first week. but instead of paying $1600 per month for a group insurance plan, we've a plan that will

only cost us 692 dollars a month, a savings of $900 per month." [applause] john said that when he saw what they would be paying he turned to his wife and told her "we might just pull through." we can afford this. john eventually predicted the website will work like a champ. john -- he was frustrated by the website. but he feels a little less frustrated when he found out he was saving 900 bucks a month on his health insurance. and john is right. the website is going to get fixed. and the law works. that is why we fought so hard to pass this law, to save folks like john money.

to give people who do not have health insurance a chance to get it for the first time. to lift from the american people the crushing burden of unaffordable health care. to free families from the pervasive fear that one health crisis -- i got you. no, you're ok. this happens when i talk too long. [laughter] [applause] good catch, by the way. whoever was here. [laughter] that has always been my goal, to free families from the pervasive fear that one illness or one injury might rob you of

everything you have worked all your life to build. health care is not for a fortunate few. it is a right for all to enjoy. [applause] that is what the affordable care act is all about. that is its promise. and i intend to deliver on that promise. thank you very much, everybody. god bless you. [applause] >> whoo!

[applause] >> [indiscernible] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2013] >> and on facebook, we are asking about your experience with the online health

marketplaces. theing ahead to thursday, commerce committee will be talking about implementing the law. ed is on thursday morning. -- that is on thursday morning. tv --pan2 poshard book "book tv" -- >> if there were more women around the world, that would change. >> all of us in the working class are subjected to putative , being ignored by the elite media, not getting any kind of special interest help like the fat cats get. that is the real problem.

>> we are the only television network devoted to non-fiction books. we are marking 15 years of book tv on c-span two. thomas donahue talk to reporters this morning. if he wanted ted cruz to sit down and shut up, he said it was something he might be able to work on. here is part of that exchange. >> i don't know senator cruz. him.e all getting to watch think of thank him -- about him as a tennis player. if you're going to rush the net all the time, you have got to have a lot of motion to the left and right area he has not proved to me that yet. of the as a member senate, has tried to push the things he supports and resist

the things he doesn't support and we will try to work with him wherever we can. what ever the issue, it is not the substance but what is the result and how you're going to get it done. we will see where it goes. what kind of -- the business community would like him to sit down and shut up. >> have might be one thing we can work on. [laughter] >> [indiscernible] >> i don't know. we are trying to look at this than a broader context of just one person. you know a lot of democrats in the senate's -- senate that are worried about the upcoming election. i think he has been in the

senate a short. of time. he still has a lot of relationships to make. my view is that he hasn't got the votes to do what he wants to do. what does history show? after a while, he will start talking to people about what he wants to get done into it -- instead of telling how it will get it done. >> a 200-year-old clock stops ticking. in ohio clock is an easy metaphor for the government shutdown. >> we're standing a few steps away from the north extension of the apple. the clock here is the oldest clock in the united states capital. commissioned in 1815, ordered from a philadelphia clockmaker named thomas lloyd. >> it is one of many reasons that the c-span video archives are amazing. >> they are amazing. you can view and share

programming at any time. it is easy. here is how. span.org, go to the video library, click on what you want to watch, and hit way. you can search for a topic or keyword, or a person. just type in their name, hit search, and go to people. you can also share what you are watching and make a clip. used the handle tools. at a title and description, then click share. you can set up by facebook, twitter, or google plus. it is free. it is created by the cable tv industry and funded by your local satellite provider. carolina governor pat decided against the medicated spansion -- medicaid

expansion. he made comments at the heritage foundation today. >> good morning. welcome to the heritage foundation. would you all please join me in welcoming our special guest, a governor of north carolina, cap .- pat mccoury ladies and gentlemen -- [applause]

hopefully, microphones are working and we will start. test them out. >> you'll give us the high sign? ok. well, welcome, welcome, welcome to the heritage foundation. one of the things that we love to do here is ring reformers -- bring reformers to the auditorium. it is a great thing to be a reformer and use conservative principles,founders to do those reforms. today we have brought to our stage a reformer, the governor of north carolina. pat mcclure he is the 74th governor of that great state. he has also served as the mayor have everte. if you visited charlotte, you know he is very proud of that city. he has also served on the city

council. he also has a great record in the private area. energy andng at duke sales consulting for a private sector company. all of these do a good job of preparing someone to be a governor. thank you for joining us. >> thank you for having us. good to see the young people, too. >> governor, we are going to have a conversation here today. there are so many things on my list -- i will keep an eye on the clock so we have time for the questions. tell us about your governing principles. what do you think about when you think about governing a state as large and diverse as north carolina? >> one principle may surprise you, and it is a principle that i bring from the private sector

that i don't think we talk about enough in state capitals or washington d.c., and that is operations. one of the people -- one of the things that people forget about, not enough focus is placed on operational issues. everyone, including the media, and 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 quick way? we are seeing that with obamacare right now. the debate was primarily about policy, which is a good debate on one side of the issue, but there was very little discussion about how it would be implemented and the details of implementation. what are the costs? what are the ramifications? i see that instinct government also. when i came into government, about 80% of my meetings were

about operational issues. workers?u reward state how do you 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 we need the and roads, or is it based upon the politics of road- building? we have to look at the operational issues. we have budget issues from an operational standpoint. my budget director is in the audience. we had many issues. are we doing a true accounting of what the unfunded liabilities are on the books and off the books? those are operational issues that executives are dealing with in fortune 500 companies every day and, frankly, i think we need to be talking about operational issues. the other two or three basic things -- one is, ethics.

that was the first requirement. we must do what is right. the second requirement is we have to work as a team. among myt the any -- cabinet team. we have to work as efficiently and -- as possible. aird, policies that have long-term impact on the state, not just the next election cycle. they should not put in dates on short-term fixes, what our long- term solutions to complex problems that all of us are dealing with in this competitive world. >> that sounds like a lecture given in a business school. >> we should be thinking like business people but also realize that we are in a tough political environment. we don't think about the ierational issues, and

encourage everyone, especially the young people here, what your operational skills in place in some of your thinking. especially the shareholders and taxpayers. >> not only that. they are customers. what better area then the tmz to think about as a retail customer? when you walk in, daschle when in walk in -- when you walk to the dmv, what is your first thought? --are doing a total re-at retail assessment of the dmv. we are going to restructure how you get a driver's license in north carolina. >> that sounds exciting. au are also at the cusp of historic time in north carolina. for the first time in a hundred republicanhave a

governor and republican majorities in the statehouse, the delicate -- delegates and the senate doors. -- senators. how does that change your outlook about doing business? >> i still have the same parameters. whether republican or democrat, i still have the same parameters of ethics and breaking down barriers. whether you're one party or not, you will still have issues that you have to deal with. it has been great working with 18. i first nine months in office, we got 80% of what we wanted from the republican house and senate which is a good track record. there were some things where i disagreed. tax reform, for example. we saw the most dynamic tax reform in the nation in the last four or five years. you are the only state in the nation that did it.

but i had some people on one side, in the senate, who wanted to issue tax reform and i did not think the numbers added up. as a conservative, i want to make sure that the numbers add up or it -- up. we are trying to stimulate the economy. i required them to compromise. i had to compromise as well. up with ao, we came pragmatic, reasonable tax reform which stepped on the tomes -- toes of everyone a little bit for it -- bit. we have good republican governors that are my friends and my competitors. we are fighting for jobs against each other. in doing so, i am going to do what -- respect what virginia, tennessee, and south carolina are doing.

but we're are going to be you for jobs. she thinks the same way. she ask is if we are private- sector competitors. >> correct me but -- if i am mistaken, but it sounds if you are personally, deeply engaged in coming up with solutions in coming up with the legislative brad -- legislative branch. you also think that principle cannot be compromised that preferences are where we can work out our differences. >> absolutely. you can work with the philosophy, but you have to give and take. onthe legislature, i focused the economy, education, and government efficiency. wrinkly, everything outside of that, i did not pay much attention to. i want to focus as the executive

ranch on the economy, education, and government efficiency. in doing so, i asked for tax helped set the plan. we asked forecast for tatian reform. transportation reform. we asked for state personnel reform. i got about 30% of what we needed to read we asked for major reform in commerce. there is so much confusion in my commerce department and dealing with customers, new and existing. we had all of these middle people involved and we needed to streamline -- in fact, we are going to privatize part of our commerce department. this is what radical -- this is what some people call radical change. i call it pragmatic. >> tell us about this reform. >> we had a lot of different departments that were set up many years ago for good reasons.

we had a rules center, we had a biotech center. we had all these different groups working for commerce, but not in a coordinated, effective, and efficient manner. we also had a lot of overhead. a customer was confused when they came to north carolina. would we talk to if we are interested in investing? talk to out they had to many groups and no one person was in charge. i don't think that is good customer service. we are putting everyone under one umbrella and we're privatizing the marketing of north carolina and making it more responsive to the customer. those in the private sector of the department will be rewarded. it will be paid for that. notill be based on results, a stop on a civil service mentality. >> that sounds very exciting. since you're

talking about tourism and economic growth, to transportation. thatink, as conservatives, government has very few responsibilities but what they do have they should do well. the infrastructure to allow the people to move around not only the commonwealth or the state, but the nation, is a responsibility. tell us about your transportation reform. >> i am in infrastructure fan. -- a infrastructure fan. i think the government has a major issue in that. i consider myself an eisenhower republican. i don't think we talk about him enough. not only was he a great supper income and are during world war hero, he wasrican a great president for term -- two terms. connected rural with urban areas with the interstate highways.

he connected east with the west. we still enjoy it today. to me, that was well spent federal money. it connected economy and commerce with the government's responsibility for infrastructure. 1950's, wefter the are still seeing the results of that. i took that same philosophy as mayor of charlotte. i introduced, in 1996, a 25 year infrastructural plan. they are now in the 18th year or 19th year of that plan and it is showing results. exactlyd the taxpayers what the plan was before the taxpayers were asked to invest in it. what i want to do for the state of north carolina is present a 25 year and a 50 year infrastructural plan in four areas -- transportation, energy, water, and communications. it is always dangerous to say i

have three or four ideas area you're afraid you'll forget one these days. we as republicans, as conservatives, need to present a .ision to the next generation a vision of where our transportation is going to take us and how it will connect commerce and trade to jobs. show that plan in 3-d. this is the land for the next 50 years, for your kids and grandkids. we need to do the same things with communications, especially in role areas. rural america is hurting right now. 15% tomployment rate is 25%.. theeed to connect them to centers. we do that through infrastructure. thesame thing through --

same thing with energy. if we do not have cheap and reliable energy in the future, we will suffer. that is what helped build manufacturing in our country. right now, i have no idea what the energy plan is for the nation, but i think one of my jobs is to present a plan for the state of north carolina. >> in all of these areas there is much that the private sector can do to come alongside government ideas like this, to provide the goods and services that people need. you envision the private sector playing a role in any of your transportation ideas? >> absolutely. the private sector, from trucking served -- trucking firms to infrastructure firms, they want to be at the table. i think there are incredible opportunities. it should not be all government.

there should be incentives for the private sector to open faster. you can have hot lanes where money is paid in certain ways. governor daniels did this with indiana. ofare looking to share ways public-private sector risk. theou do not have infrastructure for the future, they will not move here. you need the ports, the highways, the rail. this is what stays for generations. the biggest mistake this administration made, and i said this in "the wall street --rnal" editorial i had was had when i was mayor. money, theystimulus thought it was spent on it -- on infrastructure. very little was spent on infrastructure. what we did during the last six

years was we put money on short- repavingastructure -- roads or widening the road a little bit. the money is gone. that was borrowed money, which your kids and grandkids will be paying for for many years to come. that would have been an excellent opportunity to show ages and -- show a vision for the future. andyou are paying the debt potholes that need to be refilled again. that is what i said in the article six or seven years ago. sadly, that has come to fruition. aboutwe talk transportation being important, so is being education -- educated. talk to me about the educational reforms you have put in place and some of the challenges ahead. i one of the first policies talked about -- i lost the

-- inatorial race in 2008 stress then that there was not enough emphasis on vocational training, on technical training, on math and science training. i think one of the dangers to the united states of america is that there are no people to replace the baby boomers who are technicians and engineers at this point in time. high unemployment rate, there are openings for mechanics, electricians. they pay more money than a lot of for your degrees -- four year degrees. i think we have missed -- misled people by saying the only way to success is a four-year degree. tohink that is a way success, but i think another pathway to success is to get a tech cold agree -- technical agree or vocational

certification. asis effective, it is seen prestigious, and i think we need to the same thing in america. our economy has to have it. companies have to under how to fix and repair something and innovate. we got caught up in a little , thinkinglitism everybody had to have a masters degree. the economy does not need everybody to have a masters degree. you have to have the occasional training. aused to tell a story when person put down new force in his house, working his tail off, and it is a science. you have to understand geometry and algebra. it is a science. day, herking on a hot

put it down, and i was saying, why don't you stay over for dinner? to eat dinneroing at my house at lake norman. that is a nice place to live. house ate has a nice lake norman. he deserves it. that is one area of education reform. the first bill i signed was a career path for high school students, a curriculum in which they had a choice, four- year college or a vocational curriculum, and you can change her mind. one curriculum is not easier than the other. they're just different. we should respect each one. toit is an important point underscore that not only are you

emphasizing the options, but students and their parents can dunes matures as and change their ideas. that is huge. >> a lot of people start training and and up starting a business, and they might end up getting a masters degree or a law degree to help them run a business they started. differentpen in orders. i have seen a lot of college students go back to a two-year school. i denise that graduated from niece thatave a graduated from eastern carolina that went back to school for a vocational degree. it does not have to happen in the order that institutions require. we need to follow the markets. >> you have done some things to help students who might be in failing schools. >> no doubt about it.

we have got to start measuring results. one of the first things we did in our budget is that even in our universities and community ought to schools aced on just how many students they have. what what are the results? what are the result of reading, math, basic skills in their graduation records, and also the results of getting those kids jobs, not just debt, but jobs. what we did with their two-year community colleges is change the formula where we reward those classes that cost more, you have a smaller volume of kids in those classes, but they have 100% job placement rate. we should not punish them for that, because it costs more. we put in technical training that for smaller classes

have higher job placement. we ought to think the same outcomes for our elementary, middle, and high schools. so we are thinking long term. >> how about the tuition tax credit scholarship fund that has gone in place? things. doing several i'm a big promoter of charter schools. most people do not know our public schools. i think there is a lot of mischaracterization of charter schools. charter schools are public schools. ive a voucher system where call it a scholarship system among for those kids who cannot get their needs met due to the public school maybe not having what they need. we are doing a lot of different things, and we also want to do a per performance work for our teachers. we're going to get feedback. in the last two weeks i am putting together a teachers committee which will help me

come up, government,, the idf how do we reward the teachers. all this go to school, and the and teachers know who the good students are. teacher, who is the bad teacher. we knew it in high school and in college. we need to start rewarding the good teachers. that is what we want to do. system forerformance high school and elementary schools. paying our math and science teachers more money based on the market, because they tend to have a higher attrition rate. that can change year in and year out. i was a recruiter for duke power company, and some pay you pay a electrical engineers more, and some year civil engineers more. sometimes you will pay a business major more than a liberal arts major. we need to adjust the marketplace pay standards to education also.

and it varies year-by-year. weree of the heritage heritage is involved in education reform is the issue of common core. in north carolina the legislature passed legislation putting a common core in place, but as we understand that, from some of our allies around the state, that is getting some critical review, and perhaps some re-examination. is that something you're education team is looking at? >> i'm an advocate of common core as a concept, especially with the emphasis on math and science. if we do not get that are in math and science, basic reading in our nation, we will not be competitive with the rest of the world. i think our standards should be worldwide standards. problem is in its implementation. in its testing. i think right now north carolina -- there are over 100 tests to be given by teachers, and they

are now only testing teaching by a test. i think that is far too many tests. to the were added due race to the top federal grants that were extended, and one of north carolina. that is because of the new tests of common core. i am an advocate of common core. you cannot just ask teachers to do only tests. i think the problem is not common core. the problem is often in the implementation of common core and thinking this way instead of a bigger picture. >> i am a fan of virginia's, so we think our standards in virginia are better than these national standards. be careful -- >> i have no problem with national standards, but the states should determine their standards. every state standards should be worldwide standards that better get better in math and science and basic reading. that is what is hurting our

country, i think eric that we as challenge to our country. >> is not something that , and we takes lightly watch the district of columbia education system, and we see firsthand here that so many young children are forced to go to schools that are failing and not -- >> and you had a superintendent and a mayor who was pushing for higher standards and demanding results of the teachers and the , and they kicked him out. it is a sad commentary. >> competition is good, and -- >> it is the best thing for education. another thing that will change in competition, this right here, this and the ipad among or any type of device. this will connect the rich with the poor. the poorest risen can get the best education. we can connect them with communication.

now you can take chemistry classes on your ipad or you can pour chemicals from one to another three simulation on your ipad. i think education will change in the future where it will not be about bricks and mortar. capital expenses that have been put in education. it will be more about operating expense, and that does not mean we depend on technology by itself. we need to facilitate technology. if the public education does not recognize this quick enough, the private sector will, and it will go around the public-sector. georgia tech is now offering courses for half the price through technology than they offer on-campus. ifs are going to do that they can save their student debt. the marketplace is going to look at technology and a much more aggressive way and a very short

time. >> let me shift gears once again and talk about medicaid expansion. a challenge,usly and heritage has been active in researching in this area, and some of the experiences you have had in north carolina by have provided some lessons that one can learn at the state-level about all these expansions and reforms. >> medicaid expansion is a part of the obamacare legislation. the supreme court ruling that came out of washington was and the one vote was chief justice roberts which gave the states a choice on whether or not they would do medicaid expansion or not area that was the one vote. one of the most unique supreme court rulings in our history, and at least he did that, that one vote. ratic is i made a

decision as a governor, we decided not to do it again expansion. it is almost -- the media almost says you are not doing aid expansion, was first of all, we could not deal with the debt of our existing medicaid, which is for women, the elderly, children, and the disabled. what medicaid expansion does is ournd that to much more of population. i could argue for good reasons, because they are being served in the emergency room and so forth. the dilemma i have is this area in a very short time, i would have had to put a brand-new bureaucracy together at a time when i could not meet it, when my current bureaucracy could not handle medicaid cost overruns that were happening. in my state, and ended up being over $500 million over

projections set forth by my previous legislature and previous governor. over $500 million over projections. that is out of a $20 billion budget. a pretty big hit. there went all my teacher raises for infrastructure money. is one ofid expansion the most difficult issues on the governors'plates right now. the other issue we are having, and that is that the rules and standards were not written. in the last four or five weeks, the administration has sent us new regulations on medicaid, and no one is talking about it. we got a new reg that might force us to do medicaid expansion whether we want to do it or not, because the new reg came out that basically says if a person goes to the hospital,

and they say they cannot pay for it, and they might not even qualify for medicaid, they can still sign up for medicaid even if they are not under one of the four or five characteristics of medicaid recipients. that, the hospital then, and that person can bi ll the state of north carolina for two months, and after two months the state lines they did not qualify for medicaid, they will be taken off of medicaid, but the state still has to pay for that two months. that is two months of tests and services that we did not have a budget for. aroundlmost an end that vote by the administration that says the state has to take 100% of responsibility. now i have to make a decision, the fed says to not give it to me, but after the third year we have to pay 10%. one of the reasons i did not do that is

because i did not know 10% of what? 10% of what? we have no idea what the future cost would be. now that the new reg has come in i'm in a difficult position of what decision to make. you check the constitutionality of it and the administration says they have every right to do, even based upon the supreme court ruling. i'm surprised. these are the difficult parameters of obamacare right now that are still being rolled out that frank we have not been discussed enough publicly -- that frankly have not been discussed enough publicly. --t of the bliss of bully most of the publicity was on the computer system. i'm having a heck of a time with the rollout of a statewide i.s. system for health care, and the minute we looked at that, my first two or three weeks, i said

there is no way the federal government can roll this out. , behind-the-kly scenes, everybody knew there was going to be an operational breakdown. >> you have some really outstanding members of your house congressional district who have been really trying to point out some of these challenges -- >> the speaker of the house has done an outstanding job. he is running for the u.s. senate now. he is on the campaign trail. he comes from ibm and understand operations. much of our discussions was issues.s. another basic operational issue was that previous ,dministrations, the democrats they were underfunding basic maintenance of buildings, i.s. systems, and sooner or later that catches up to you. it is easy to build a new building, worry about operations later, but sooner or later

you're roof needs to be replaced -- your roof needs to be replaced. >> those things were out. >> you worry with transfer costs between the two, which are basic accounting no-no's, they catch up to you sooner or later. >> one of your big constituency's is the constituency that is important to all americans, and that is the military. talk to us about them of the challenges you face with such a large number of people serving in the military and the challenges that brings to a state. >> it is an opportunity, because as we withdraw from both afghanistan and iraq, you'll have military with technical leadership skills that industry will seek. we are setting up -- one of the reasons i'm in town today is i will meet with the u.s. army and we will be setting up job training programs, so when these

returning veterans come back, we recruitment as tools for industry, both existing and new industry, to return back to the private sector. one of the things we know we have to do is some of them already know how to fix a truck or fix a computer system or do welding, but they have not got the certification. what we are trying to do is can we jump through the hoops of pure argosy and have some of these military people test out that have gone through the process of having to sign up for courses which they can easily do when they are sick because they have been doing it under fire in iraq or afghanistan. why do they have to go through all these courses? we are looking at ways we can test them out. we have tested it out already with truck drivers, a suite of certification from truck themrs, and we can place

immediately in jobs that are open in north carolina. >> one of the places we have heard that is of interest is in teaching, that some of these veterans are excellent teachers, and could actually move into a classroom. it is that something you are thinking about? >> absolutely, not only for veterans, par for the private sector. my goal was to be a teacher. in the private sector i was a manager of training for the utility company. i did teach. for me to go back into teaching, i would have to go through a lot of different hoops to recertify my teaching degree. i think i'm pretty qualify. and aics, at least, a little bit of history. we need to make it easier for engineers in math and algebra, people coming from the private sector, return to teaching or to get into teaching, not put them through what we typically

require of a college graduate. >> this is been wonderful. i wonder if you would mind taking a couple questions from the audience. have a couple microphones, and, andrew, i will let you identify a questioner for us. please identify yourselves. >> hi. i am reporter for a websites for talking points them. the votertalk about id law, which is gaining a lot of attention, and what your take on the lawsuit is. it seems like a number of lawsuits that the obama administration wants to put on states related to the preclearance standards. i was wondering if you could respond to that, maybe addressed how your administration plans to approach it, especially with roy cooper who is planning to run for governor, but he said he wants to follow your lead on this. the eric holder

lawsuit is both political and without merit. as our laws have been greatly exaggerated, especially by "the new york times," they are commonsense laws which require government-issued ids to vote, which over 32 states do in the united states of america, and he did not sue any of those other 32 states. he still have the exact number of early voting hours open, which the national media does not talk about, as we did before . we are trying to take some of the politics out of where you place the early voting, which was extremely political. in fact, new york does not have early voting. north carolina does, and i noticed eric holder is not suing new york. we have more transparency in our voting rolls. we actually are prohibiting lobbyists from bundling money

that you are allowed to do and be the bumpers of money, and we have stricter rules for lobbyists. the list goes on and on. we require a voter id to get a , to getto get sudafed food stamps, to get on an airplane, to get any government service in north carolina right out. you have to have an id. our legislation actually is 's, and theee id first election in which you have to have these ids in place is the 2016 election. he will have three years to get an id. we still have early voting and voting by mail, which you can do early voting, which he did not need an id on. someone could do it from a nursing home, through the mail, at this point. id laws by voting the national media and by the local media has been greatly

exaggerated and is commonsense reform which protects the integrity of our ballot box. regarding the attorney general, my only comment regarding him is he can have his personal opinion, but as a lawyer you should not of a size your personal opinion if you are going to ash you should not publicize your personal opinion dealinge going to be with people and a public law. good lawyers do not do that. >> thank you, governor. yes. i want to ask you about tax policy because i am interested in your ideas about tax reform in north carolina. n, whohodge and steve ebso have worked with heritage, have a piece today about the difficulty of tax reform at the federal level, primarily because of the complexities of how it is going to be scored, flat, static

scoring. >> i have been through. >> hi know it. i'm interested in north carolina height you intend to get through this to show the incredible economic growth that can come from lowering tax rates, even though with static scoring that is harder for budget people. >> i have never met a liberal or conservative who is against tax reform until it hits the one tax break that they might get. i will say this, both liberals and conservatives can be catechetical on this because some of my opposition in tax reform came from both sides of the aisle which went i am for tax form, but you better not touch that one because it might be an issue -- and interest group that you would be close to , so everyone is for tax reform until it is their loophole that we might close. reduced the

corporate tax rate and the income tax rate, which are the two tax rates which hinder our competitive way to both retain and recruit new businesses. but i had to step on the toes of some people. and you go to a movie you have to pay a sales tax. to buy popcorn, anyway. we now have a sales tax on movie theater tickets. to make up for the income tax that we reduced. we now have a tax on newspapers. maybe that is one reason newspapers are mad at me. i do not know. have not brought up that conflict. newspapers.n it is more a consumption tax as opposed to a tax pushing productivity. i am an advocate of rewarding productivity, and that is the type of tax philosophy i have. you have to sell that. my most conservative

businessmen say i am for that, but i cannot believe you just close that tax loophole on my law firm. we did, because you're not going to have any clients if you do not have any businesses in north carolina. that is just to let you know you have got to sell the long-term impact, not the short-term. >> we like that idea of encouraging people to become producers. advocate,ll a strong we have got to be a country, and mike state has to be a country state has to be a state that produces things. ag is still huge and our country, and energy, we have to have an energy policy, and i'm a big advocate of drilling offshore and inland drilling. i encourage and support governor mcdonnell and myself to allow us to begin the lease process off

the atlantic coast for natural gas and for oil. >> there are so many things we did not get to. we would love to have you come back and do another agenda. let me ask you a couple quick questions as we wrap up. you have economic growth in north carolina. things have turned around a bit. are you feeling good? we were the third highest unemployment rate in the country. we are the sixth highest now. that is not good enough. i'm not about to go brag about that. i want to be the sixth lowest. that would be the visionary goal. --th your line a -- we can north carolina -- we can unleash the resources. we have to start treating our people as customers, not adversaries. >> this sounds like a good trend

line. one final question -- nascar. >> i'm a big nascar fan. we only had one wreck -- >> nascar is big in north carolina. >> you have been to the nascar hall of fame? >> i have been. in charlotte, because most people know what they see on television or read on the headlines of the sports page, and they never it to the understanding -- >> let me tell you from a business perspective i am a big fan of nascar and i am big with jimmie johnson and jeff gordon -- thelet me tell you what nascar industry does. the private sector jobs. go to rick hendricks'machine shops, you have metallurgy engineer's, engine builders, and what is happening, as mayor and

governor, i am using that workforce to recruit the automobile industry and the defense industry, because they can repair things quickly. you notice how quickly they repair after a wreck? that is what the automobile and the defense industry knows. the talent of the people who is high-hese crews tech. it is not just for travel and twirlers him -- and for his and that i support the great races, but also to recruit new industry, become a hub of that kind of manufacturing talent in north carolina. >> we have creative, innovative, dynamic governor. let's thank him for coming here today. >> thank you very much. >> thank you very much. appreciate it. >> thanks very much. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2013] [captioning performed by national captioning institute]

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as a public service of private industry. we are c-span, created by the cable tv industry 34 years ago and funded by your local cable or satellite provider, and now you can watch us in hd. >> coming up, president obama talks about the problems with the implementation of the health care law. then they look at how the law is affecting insurance coverage. .hen, eleanor roosevelt president obama said there is no sugar coating the fact that the health care website has had glitches. the fixes are being made. if obama spoke about the aca limitation from the rose garden on monday. this is 25 minutes. >> everybody have a seat.

>> hello. my name is janice baker. i have the privilege to say i am the first person in the state of delaware to enroll for health insurance through the new marketplace. [applause] [laughter] like many consumers out there, it took a number of frustrating attempts before i could apply. i kept trying because i needed access to the new health care options. i had applied to three private insurance companies only to be rejected due to pre-existing health conditions. i am too young for medicare, but i'm too old not to have some health issues. i found a policy i'm thrilled with, saving $150 a month and a much lower deductible than i held previously through my small business. i'm here to encourage other people like me who need access to quality affordable insurance

and to tell them to have patience with such a new system. without this ability to get insurance, i know a single hospital stay could have bankrupted me and my business. thank you all, and now i am honored to introduce the president of the united states. [applause] >> thank you. thank you, everybody. thank you, janice. and thanks to everybody here for coming on this beautiful day. welcome to the white house. about three weeks ago, as the federal government shut down, and the affordable care act's health insurance marketplaces opened up across the country. we now have the government back open for the american people, and i want to talk about how we will get the marketplaces running at full steam as well.

i am joined by folks who have either already benefited from the affordable care act or are helping their fellow citizens learn what this law means for them and how they can get covered. you've probably heard healthcare.gov, the new website that helps consumers buy affordable health insurance, has not worked as smoothly as it is supposed to work. the number of people who have visited the site has been overwhelming, which has aggravated underlying problems. despite all that, thousands of people are signing up and saving money as we speak. many americans with pre-existing conditions, like janice, are discovering they can finally get health insurance like everybody else. so today i want to speak to every american who is looking to get affordable health insurance. i want you to know what is available to you and why it may be a good deal for you. and for those who have had some

problems with the website, i want to tell you what we are doing to make it work better and how you can sign up to get covered in other ways. before i do that, let me remind everybody that the affordable care act is not just a website. it is much more. for the vast majority of americans, for 85% of americans who already have health insurance through your employer or medicare or medicaid, you do not need to sign up for coverage through a website at all. you've already got coverage. what the affordable care act does for you is to provide you with new benefits and protections that have been in place for some time. you may not know it, but you are already benefiting from these provisions in the law. for example, because of the affordable care act, young people like jasmine jennings

have been able to stay on their parents' plans until they are 26. millions of young people are currently benefiting from that part of the law. [applause] another part of the affordable care act is providing seniors with deeper discounts on their prescription medicines. billions of dollars have been saved by seniors already. that is part of the law. it is already in place. it is happening right now. already because of the affordable care act, preventative care like mammograms and birth control are free through your employer. that is part of the law. [applause] there are a wide range of consumer protections and benefits that you already have if you've got health insurance. they are not dependent on the website.

here's another thing the affordable care act does. in states where governors and legislatures have wisely allowed it, the affordable care act provides the opportunity for many americans to get covered under medicaid for the first time. in oregon, for example, that has helped cut the number of uninsured people by 10% just in the last three weeks. think about that. that is 56,000 more americans who now have health care. [applause] that does not depend on the website. now, if you are one of the 15% of americans who do not have health insurance, either because you can't afford it or because your employer does not offer it or because you are a small businessperson, you have to go on the individual market and buy

it on your own and it is too expensive -- october 1 was an important date. that is when we opened the new marketplaces where people without health insurance or who can't afford health insurance or who are not part of a group plan can finally start getting affordable coverage. the idea is simple. by enrolling in what we are calling these marketplaces, you become part of a big group plan. as if you were working for a big employer. a statewide group plan that spreads risk between sick people and healthy people, the between young and old, and then bargains on your behalf for the best deal on health care. what we have done is essentially create a competition where there was not competition before. we created these big group plans and now insurers are really interested in getting your business.

insurers have created new health care plans with more choices to be made available through these marketplaces. as a result of this choice and this competition, prices have come down. when you add the new tax credits that many people are eligible for through the law, the prices come down even further. one study shows that through new options created by the affordable care act, nearly six in 10 uninsured americans will find they can get covered for less than $100 a month. think about that. [applause] through the marketplaces, you can get health insurance for what may be the equivalent of your cell phone bill. or your cable bill. and that is a good deal.

so, the fact is the product of the affordable care act for people without health insurance is quality health insurance that is affordable. and that product is working. it's really good. and it turns out there's a massive demand for it. so far, the national website, healthcare.gov, has been visited nearly 20 million times. 20 million. [applause] there are a bunch of states running their own marketplaces. we know that nearly 1/3 of the people applying in connecticut and maryland, for example, are under 35 years old. they understand they can get a good deal at low cost, have the security of health care, and this is not just for old folks like me.

everybody needs good quality health insurance. all told, more than half a million consumers across the country have successfully submitted applications through federal and state marketplaces, and many of those applications aren't just for individuals. it's for their entire families. so even more people are looking to take advantage of the high quality affordable insurance provided through the affordable care act. so let me just recap here. the product is good. the health insurance being provided is good. it is high quality and it is affordable. people can save money, significant money, by getting insurance provided through these marketplaces. and we know the demand is there. people are rushing to see what is available.

and those who have already had a chance to enroll are thrilled with the results. every day, people who were stuck with sky-high premiums because of pre-existing conditions are getting affordable health insurance for the first time or finding they are saving a lot of money. every day, women are finally buying coverage that does not charge them higher premiums than men for the same care. [applause] every day, people are discovering that new health insurance plans have to cover maternity care, mental health care, preventative care. you just heard janice's story. she owns her own small business. she recently became the first woman to enroll in delaware's exchange. it is true. it took her a few tries. but it was worth it after being turned down for insurance three times due to minor pre-existing

conditions. now she will be covered. she will save 150 bucks a month and she will not have to worry that one illness or accident will cost her her business she has worked so hard to build. janice is not alone. i recently received a letter from a woman named jessica sanford in washington state. here is what she wrote -- "i am a single mom. no child support. self-employed. and i haven't had insurance for 15 years because it is too expensive. my son has adhd and requires regular doctors visits, and his meds alone cost $250 per month. i have had an ongoing tendinitis problem due to my line of work, that i haven't had treated. now finally, we get to have coverage because of the aca for $169 a month. i was crying the other day when

i signed up. so much stress lifted." now, that is not untypical for folks like jessica. that is what the affordable care act is all about. the essence of the law is working just fine. in some cases, actually, it is exceeding expectations. the prices are lower than we expected. the choice is greater than we expected. but the problem has been that the website that is supposed to make it easy to apply for and purchase the insurance is not working the way it should for everybody. there is no sugarcoating it. the website has been too slow. people have been getting stuck during the application process. i think it is fair to say no one is more frustrated by that than i am.

because the product is good, i want the cash registers to work, the checkout line to be smooth, so i want people to be able to get this great product. there is no excuse for the problems. and these problems are getting fixed. but while we are working out the kinks in the system, i want everybody to understand the nature of the problem. first of all, even with all the problems at healthcare.gov, the website is still working for a lot of people. it is not as quick or efficient or consistent as we want. although many of these folks have found they had to wait longer than they wanted, once they complete the process, they are very happy with the deal available to them, just like janice is. second, i want everybody to remember we are only three weeks into a six-month open enrollment period when you can buy these new plans. [applause]

keep in mind, the insurance does not start until january 1. that is the earliest the insurance can kick in. no one who decides to purchase a plan has to pay the first premium until december 15. and unlike the day after thanksgiving day sales for the latest playstation or flatscreen tv's, the insurance plans do not run out. they will be available through the marketplace throughout the open enrollment period. the prices will not change. everybody who wants insurance through the marketplace will get insurance, period. everybody who wants insurance

through the marketplace will get insurance. third, we are doing everything we can possibly do to get the websites working better, faster, sooner. we got people working overtime, 24/7, to boost capacity and address the problems. experts from some of america's top private sector tech companies, who, by the way, have seen things like this happened before, they are offering help. we have some of the best i.t. talent in the country joining the team. we are confident we will get all the problems fixed. number four, while the website will ultimately be the easiest way to buy insurance through the marketplace, it is not the only way. i want to emphasize that. even as we redouble our efforts to get the site working as well as it is opposed to, you can still buy the same quality

insurance plans available on the marketplace the old-fashioned way, offline, either over the phone or in person. by the way, there are a lot of people who want to take advantage of this who are more comfortable working on the phone anyway or in person. so let me go through the specifics as to how you can do that if you are having problems with the website or you just prefer dealing with a person. yesterday we updated the website home page with options to enroll. you will find information about how to talk to a specialist who can help you apply over the phone or to receive a downloadable application you can fill out yourself and mail in. we have also added more staff to the call centers where you can apply for insurance over the phone. those have already -- they have

been working, but a lot of people have decided to go to the website. keep in mind these call centers are already up and running. you can get your questions answered by real people 24 hours a day in 150 different languages. the phone number for these call centers is 1-800-318-2596. 1-800-318-2596. wait times have averaged less than one minute for the call centers. although the wait time may go up now that i've read out the number on national television. [laughter] you can talk to someone and they can walk you through the application process. and i guarantee you, if one thing is worth the wait, it is the safety of the security of the health care you can afford

or the money you can save by buying health insurance through the marketplaces. [applause] once you get on the phone with a trained representative, it takes about 25 minutes for an individual, 45 minutes for a family. once you apply, you will be contacted by e-mail or postal mail about your coverage status, but you don't have to go through the phone. you can also apply in person with the help of local navigators. these are people specially trained to help you sign up for health care, and they exist all across the country. or you can go to community health centers and hospitals. just visit localhelp.healthcare.gov to find out where in your area you can apply for health insurance in person. finally, if you have gone to the website and then got stuck

somewhere along the way, do not worry. in the coming weeks, we will contact you directly, with a concrete recommendation on a plan that meets your needs and get you covered once and for all. here is the bottom line. the product, the health insurance, is good. the prices are good. it is a good deal. people do not just want it. they are showing up to buy it. nobody is madder than me about the fact that the website is not working as well as it should, which means it is going to get fixed. [laughter] [applause] and in the meantime, you can bypass the website and apply by phone or in person.

so don't let problems with the website deter you from signing up or signing your family up, or showing your friends how to sign up, because it is worth it. if you have a pre-existing condition, it will save you money and give you the security your family needs. in fact, even with the website issues, we have actually made the overall process of buying insurance through the marketplace a lot smoother and easier than the old way of buying insurance on your own. part of the challenge here is a lot of people may not remember what it is like to buy insurance the old way. there are no absurdly long application forms. there is no medical history questionnaire that goes on for pages and pages.

there is no more getting denied because you had a pre-existing condition. instead of contacting a bunch of different insurers one at a time, which is what janice and what a lot of people shopping on the individual market had to do, there is one single place you can go and shop, compare plans that have to compete for your business. there is one single phone number to call for help. and once the kinks in the website have been ironed out, it will be even smoother and even easier. in the meantime, we will help you sign up. because consumers want to buy this product and insurance companies want to sell it to you. let me close by addressing some of the politics that have swirled around the affordable care act. i recognize the republican party has made blocking the affordable care act its signature policy idea. it seems to be the one thing that unifies the party these

days. in fact, they were willing to shut down the government and potentially harm the global economy to try to get it repealed. and i'm sure that given the problems with the website so far, they are going to be looking to go after it even harder. let's admit it, with the website not working as well as it needs to work, that makes a lot of supporters nervous, because they know how it has been subject to so much attack, the affordable care act generally. but i just want to remind everybody. we did not wage this contentious battle just around a website. that is not what this was about. [applause] we waged this battle to make sure that millions of americans

in the wealthiest nation on earth finally have the same chance to get the same security of affordable, quality health care as everybody else. that is what this is about. and the affordable care act has done that. people can now get good insurance. people with pre-existing conditions can now afford insurance. the launch of this website proves that people do not just need that security. they want that security. they want it. [applause] in the meantime, i have said many times, i am willing to work with anyone on any idea that makes this law perform even better. but it is time for folks to stop rooting for its failure, because hard-working middle-class families are rooting for its

success. [applause] if the product is good, they are willing to be patient. i got a letter last week from a self-employed man named john mayer in pennsylvania. he used the new marketplace to get himself and his wife covered and save a lot of money. here is what he said. this pretty much sums up my message here. "yes, the website really stank for the first week. [laughter] but instead of paying $1600 per month for a group insurance plan, we've a plan that will only cost us $692 a month, a savings of $900 per month." [applause]

john said that when he saw what they would be paying, he turned to his wife and told her, "we might just pull through." "we can afford this." john eventually predicted the website will work like a champ. john -- he was frustrated by the website. but he feels a little less frustrated when he found out he was saving 900 bucks a month on his health insurance. and john is right. the website is going to get fixed. and the law works. that is why we fought so hard to pass this law, to save folks like john money. to give people who do not have health insurance the chance to get it for the first time, to lift from the american people the crushing burden of

unaffordable health care, to free families from the pervasive fear that one illness i got you. no, you're ok. this happens when i talk too long. [laughter] [applause] [applause] good catch, by the way. whoever was here. [laughter] that has always been our goal, to free families from the pervasive fear that one illness or one injury might cost you of everything you have worked all your life to build.

our goal is health care is not for a fortunate few. it is a right for all to enjoy. [applause] that is what the affordable care act is all about. that is its promise. and i intend to deliver on that promise. thank you very much, everybody. god bless you. >> whoo! [applause] whoo!

>> on the next "washington journal," tea party supporters reflect the philosophy of andrew jackson. tte, the headtoure of the republican main street

partnership. and then the chair and -- and then that gerrymandering of political districts with david wasserman. is eleanor roosevelt's type printer -- typewriter. what i have here are the original drafts of the column. this one are some of the original drafts that i want to share. this is a winner roosevelt's first "my day" column. she is talking about the comings and goings in the white house as they get back to the regular season after the holiday season. this clipping from november 6, 19 40, election day -- she says that at midnight, a larger cloud -- crowd than usual came in with remarkable records. the president went out to greet them, a tradition on election night to gather family around

and await the election results. the president would come out and greet them. >> tonight, live at 9:00 eastern. >> a look at the effect of the health care law on insurance coverage provided through the exchanges. jenny gold was a guest on "washington journal" for a half- hour. host: we have been taking a look at the implementation of the affordable care act with reporters from kaiser health news. we are joined by jenny gold. we have been talking this morning about the president's speech from the rose garden. bring us up to us be -- up to speed on what we are expected to hear. theo far, the rollout of government health care exchanges

has not been smooth. the president is going to talk about that. people will talk about something they are calling the tech surge, people from inside and outside government to try to fix some of the technical problems and get people enrolled. some folks say they have been able to enroll in the exchanges. we will talk about the potential successes of the affordable care act as well. -- host: you think he will say, i am sorry? guest: he sort of already has. he owns this thing. the fact that the rollout has not been going smoothly is not good for him, and i think he knows that. host: we were talking about the speech today. is it foronsibility

these glitches, or whatever you are going to call them, what is going on with healthcare.gov. how much is the federal government, and how much is the contractors employed by the admiral government? host: the federal government needs to be careful about who they award the contracts. , and their efforts to get the structural, technical things going. to be fair, just because the websites are not working right now does not mean the premise of the affordable care act is flawed. this is the first year of open enrollment. there are six months people have to do it in. we do not know exactly what it is going to look like at the end of the six-months.

>> the white house has been counting 19 million visitors. for those folks who might have trouble getting in, talk about what they are actually going to find. what is the insurance policies that they find on those exchanges? what will they include? guest: what you find is going to differ completely based on your states. in some areas, you might see policies offered by only one insurer. in others, you might have a range. people know they are going to get these essential health benefits, which are required to be provided in all of the plants. inpatient care, outpatient care, maternity care, mental health and substance abuse, preventative care. all of these things, they know will be provided. the rule also be a range of options from cheaper plans, colby braun's plans, through silver, gold, and all the way through platinum. if you pay more, you will have

less cost-sharing. a cheaper plan, you may end up paying more out of pocket if you have a lot of health care expenses in the coming year. for the will be talking next 35, 40 minutes or so about what is actually in those insurance plans. we want to hear from you this morning. we are splitting our lines a little bit differently. those who are insured and have questions can call in on one line. if you are uninsured, call in on the other line. i want to answer your questions about how those exchanges actually work. i also want to hear your stories if you have tried to get on to beenhcare.gov, if you have successful or not. we want to hear your stories. map earlier on federally run exchanges and state-run exchanges, and the blue are federally run exchanges. the yellowish are state run exchanges.

green is a federal and state run joint exchange. there are essential items in every plan. does that apply to state and federal plans, or only federal plans? >> that is all plans. you are going to be getting essentially the same thing. it is all about the marketing, what the website looks like, and how much money the state or federal government has to implement it. host: how did states choose whether they were going to go to a federally run plan or do their own? congress and the president expected every state to run their own exchange. that was the way the law was written. or 16 statesnly 14 decided to run their own exchange. others are doing a partnership or defaulting to the federal government. the states that are running their own exchanges, for the most part, have had fewer technical dishes -- glitches. enrolling in california and washington. it is the federal sites that

have been having the level of technical problems that have so frustrated consumers so far. host: what do we know about state enrollment numbers? are there certain states doing better than others? guest: absolutely. washington state are doing quite well. host: the white house released statistics that 19 million folks have visited healthcare.gov. we do not know actual enrollment numbers on federal exchanges. guest: the government has said they will not release enrollment numbers until november. that is a bit of a problem. i think they are trying to hedge what has been a lack of enrollment so far. it is not because people are not trying. i have had a lot of unique visitors to the site. they said over the weekend they applications000 filed. before we get excited, that does not mean those people have enrolled in coverage. it just means they have gone through the early part of the

process, where they have said their income and their social security number. it does not mean they are enrolled in coverage. host: if you have questions about what you are going to find in insurance plans, and stories about going on to healthcare.gov, we are taking your calls and comments this morning, with jennie gold of kaiser health news. travis is up first from south carolina, on our line for folks who are uninsured. good morning. like itthey are acting is a success because so many forle have tried to apply this insurance on the web. .e are being forced we had to pay a fine or do it. we are going to have to get on it. so it is going to look like a success even if it is not a success. we say we live in a democratic society. but this is putting a gun to your head. i am self-employed. i made $17,000 last year.

i feel like the system is broke. on top of that, everybody is thinking of refunds. pay for thisgot to insurance. host: the color brings up the penalties that one could be hit with if one does not sign up for insurance. guest: in the first year, the penalties are quite low. it is $95 for an individual. in later years, it goes up to about 2.5% of your income. the man who called said he makes $17,000 a year. he is going to qualify for a large subsidy to buy coverage. he may find that his plan and that being quite cheap for him. host: let us go to bob from falls church, virginia. for folks who are uninsured. good morning. father of twohe children, 29 or 27. i have been doing a background

look at it. studying it. what we have not done anything yet to get started. it seems like there is plenty of time yet. it seems like a great eel. it is time for people to step up and be responsible. i cannot imagine my children walking around without health insurance. it is just ridiculous. the studies, the information i have looked at, it seems like with their income levels, a dancer and a musician, that they will get a better deal. what they are pushed into with their situation -- i had employer-provided insurance, and i got income subsidies from the government, as it was not included in my income. my employer contribution. that is really all i have to say. host: jenny gold, the caller says finding insurance for his children, specific groups and what is offered on the exchange.

what can young adults find on the exchanges? guest: these kids sound a little too old to stay on the parent's plan. you can only stay on until 26. if they make under four times the federal poverty level -- $46,000, and eventually, they will get a subsidy. if they are very low income and have lived in the state that chose to expand medicaid, they will get more. could be eligible for free coverage. young people are going to end up paying less than older people. there is something called age rating. older people will pay less than they have any past compared to young people but young people will still end up paying less. they may pay more than what they are paying currently for the catastrophic plan, because that tends to be pretty little. but they should be able to get coverage that is much more robust. while they may pay more, they can rest assured that they will

be covered for things like emergency visits for preventative care and other things they would likely need. host: antioch, illinois on the line for those who are insured. good morning. caller: thank you to c-span for this opportunity. my question real quick is we have a $500 deductible on our present insurance. what we are paying is pretty high for that quality of insurance. with this plan give us the opportunity to have savings? it is pretty high to get quality insurance. guest: it sounds like you have a fairly low deductible plan and are paying a high premium. you will be able to select what plan you want to buy. if you want to stick with that,

the lower deductible and higher premium, you can go with one of the gold or platinum plans. if you think that you will not have a lot of health expenses in the coming year, you might want to look at the bronze or silver lands. you will have a slew of options, probably. you will have to look at which one that is going to work for you. if you have a doctor or hospital you like to visit, make sure the plan you select has those providers in the network. host: does that answer your question question mark caller: yes, it does. thank you. host: we are speaking with jenny gold from the kaiser health foundation. kaiser health have been helping us during the implementation of the affordable care act. they are here to take your questions about the act and answer any questions you have about the implementation.

gabriel up next from kennesaw, georgia on our life are uninsured. gabriel, good morning. caller: good morning. i have a couple questions to ask ms. gold. i am very interested in the obamacare health-care law. it is going to lower the number of uninsured in the entire u.s. my first question is since the law was signed in spring of 2010, there has been a decline in the total number of uninsured. i was wondering how much of that decline can be attributed to the obamacare health-care law? my second question is, there is a lot of talk on obamacare's effect on the upcoming 2014 midterms. coincidentally, 2014 will be the year when we are scheduled to have some of the biggest

reductions in the total number of uninsured. are we going to have any kind of reports coming out before the election either from the government or from private sector about how many of the uninsured has actually gone down in the year 2014? and i will hang up and see what i can hear. host: jenny gold. guest: we have seen 3 million young people stay on their parents' plans. that is the only part that has really kicked in. new insurance coverage does not even start under the health care exchanges and the medicaid expansion until january. we do not know how many people are going to enroll and what the uninsured numbers are going to look like. the obama administration hopes that 7 million people will enroll in the first year. you might see a decline in the number of uninsured from them. we should know more down the

line. in november, the government says they are going to put out numbers for how many people have been able to enroll on the exchange. that is when we will start to see what impact there will be on the number of i short. in the 2014 election, hopefully we will have those numbers. democrats are going to have to own this. if it is not working, they may suffer the consequences. they voted for it, so this is their legislation in addition to the president's. host: you said november we will start seeing numbers. will that be a monthly reports that will be watched going into the 24 election? -- the 2014 election? sort of like the jobs numbers leading into the 2012 election? guest: it could be. i'm sure there will be a lot of scrutiny. it is likely the november numbers are not going to be particularly high. with as many problems we have seen, consumers actually enrolling -- it is hard to believe that many people have

successfully gone through the process on the federal exchanges. you are seeing more success on the statewide exchanges. i have a colleague who had to try 63 times to set up an account on healthcare.gov. that gives you a sense of how difficult it has been. host: some concern in our first segment today about who has access into controls the information the would-be consumers put into healthcare.gov. how successful can these exchanges be if they do not even have enough expertise to get them to run right? is id theft the worry? guest: there could be some anonymous hack or something like that. who knows? the government has promised to that people's information will be secure, but when you have one million hackers out there, who really knows hypothetically? host: who has access to the information hoax put in.

-- that folks put in? there was some concern the irs would have access to this. guest: the irs is part of verifying your income. they do not have access to your health care information. that did not turn out to be the case. host: kerry from oregon on our line for the insured. caller: good morning. i am in the state of oregon. i am already insured through my employer, but i was able to logon through the state website. so, i am not tying my employer to my health insurance. it gives me more options as far as my job search goes. i would like to mention -- if we take the politics out of this, because politically it is very difficult to ask the american people to contribute what they can for the overall health of their country.

and politics is hurting us. i ask republicans to stick with their individual responsibility mandate or beliefs -- i have to go. host: terry had to go from myrtle creek, oregon. he was talking about looking around on the exchanges to see if something might be better. are the exchanges offering something different than what employers can offer? guest: for the most part people with employer coverage are not going to be affected by the exchanges. they will not be looking to buy there unless the plan that their employer is offering is really skimpy or really expensive. in those two cases, they might be able to enter that information about the employer plan on the exchange websites and find out that maybe they can qualify for a subsidy. otherwise, if the employer is

making a contribution, they may be better off sticking with that plan and buying on the exchange where they will not qualify for a subsidy if they already get employer coverage. one thing this gentleman mentioned was it made him feel less tied to his employer. that is something the administration really talented -- touted when they were selling the affordable care act. -- really touted when they were selling the affordable care act. if this man wants to start his own company, this might give him a chance to still get affordable coverage, but go out on his own. host: you talked earlier about the essential parts of her on the strain. -- of every plan offered on the exchange. if one of the employer plans might be skimpy, will employers have to change their plans down the road to meet the qualifications of other plans on the exchanges? guest: right now many of those

plans are what is called grandfathered. that means they get to stick with the set of benefits they have. if they want to make any change whatsoever in that plan, they need -- they lose their grandfather status and they have to meet the requirements for obamacare. host: eric on our line for the uninsured. good morning. caller: yes, i was reading about the oklahoma federal court decision. it appears as though the attorney general in oklahoma was successful. any place where there is a federal exchange, there would be no subsidies provided to anybody. it deals with the fact that the affordable care act stated these subsidies would only be provided to state created exchanges and they are challenging the irs the

regulation that tried to correct that is lacking statutory authority and they actually passed the first hurdle. the obama administration tried to get the case dismissed, and the federal judge said no. the case may be granted if they prove the facts. i was wondering if you were aware of that, the potential that in 33 states there may not be any subsidies. host: jenny gold? guest: there will be no end of the lawsuits that are going to come. this has already been judged by the supreme court. i think what we see is what we are going to get. yes, i do know there is a federal lawsuit there. my sense is it will not be the case that that goes through and the subsidies will stay. we see them being enacted as we speak. this thing is moving forward. it is happening. whether the obama administration needs to release some new regulation for the irs, it is possible. i'm not sure about that. but i have a feeling that at

some point this will get smoothed over. we will still see the affordable care act looking a lot like it looks right now. host: the wall street journal talking about that case, the new health-care law facing new challenges. a federal district judge will consider locking the irs regulation while it is under review and that they will consider the justice department from motion to dismiss the case. the hearing is scheduled for october 31 in richmond. california, on our line for the uninsured, dave, good morning. caller: good morning. i was curious who the contractor is responsible for the federal website? host: the contractor is called cgi. they got the largest amount for the federal website. believe me, they're taking a lot of heat about it. the code is pretty sloppy and is not working so well.

caller: they are not associated with a well-known defense contractor, are they? guest: not that i know of. but i am not sure. host: how much did they get? guest: i think something like $90 million. out of a total $400 million website. host: good morning. caller: i myself am uninsured. i am 35 years old. my income falls in a level where most people suggest this is a great man for you. i have zero interest in getting this affordable care act, obamacare. i do not feel it is appropriate or justified to be fined for choosing not to purchase a product. it does not make any sense to me how we are in america and we are being forced to -- guest: i'm curious. why don't you want health

insurance? caller: i am 35. a very healthy. i have life insurance if anything goes catastrophically. a few years down the road, i can look at insurance, but right now with the medicare -- so to say part b portion in my state being supported him and not being extended, the plan is actually going to cost quite a bit more money than the other plans would have, so even if i had considered insurance at this point, now the fine is going to be way easier to pay even at three years for my given situation. and i'm not the only one. there are a lot of people in several states he will have the same issue. guest: this young man sounds like art of that group who everyone loves to call the young invincibles. they are young and healthy. you never know what will happen

to you. you may be healthy today. most people, including republicans have been a proponent of the idea of health insurance. the young invincibles -- we do not know how many of these folks are out there. according to polls, most young people who do not have coverage do not have it cause they do not want it, but it does it is too expensive. i agree, the fine is quite low the first year in particular. $95. that is probably less than you'll end up paying in coverage. i think it really is going to come down to when you think about your health and what risks you are willing to take, do you want to buy coverage or not? and your mother or girlfriend or whoever else may want you to have coverage. i think what people are saying about mothers, spouses a be the ones to convince young men in particular to have coverage. host: an e-mail on the hurdles once we are signed up and the exchanges.

how many new doctors are needed and how long will it take before we have them in place? who will be there to help us locate doctors that take the new patients? who will be there to explain what is now free and what strings are attached? and what happens if i have insurance but cannot afford co- pays or deductibles? guest: if you need help, probably the one who will help you is the insurance company. once you buy that product, they can help you locate a doctor taking their coverage. there is certainly a question about whether there is going to be enough providers to handle the new load of insured patients. we are not sure what that is going to look like. you have nurse practitioners and lower-level providers stepping up into some of those roles. in terms of what the doctor shortage is going to look like, it remains to be seen. i would point out that this man

raises an important issue, which is that many of the plans being offered on the exchanges look like they have quite narrow networks. that means there are not actually that many doctors or hospitals except in that plan. so they may have to really look on their insurer's website to find out who is still taking new patients. host: another e-mail. i live in new jersey. i make $25,000 a year. my health through my employer costs about $4000 a year. my deductible is $4000 a calendar year. will the health exchanges offer me a better alternative? guest: very likely. that is quite a high deductible. lower one, he may want to pick a plan with a higher premium. i did not catch that -- did he have employer coverage? host: is deductible is $4000 counter year.

guest: if he has employer coverage, it may be good enough at this point that he will not qualify for a subsidy. in that case, you may want to stick with what his employer is giving him. host: jerry on our line for the -- >> on the next "washington journal," a man from the brookings institution, who quotes andrew jackson to say americans should be suspicious power. and steve latourette is the head of a group of moderate republicans. and a look at the gerrymandering of political districts. onshington journal" is live c-span everyday day at 7:00 a.m. eastern. up, our series, first ladies, influence and image, featuring elenor roosevelt.

donohue of thomas the chamber of commerce. >> good evening. atm speaking to you tonight a very serious moment in our history. the cabinet as convening and the leaders are meeting with the president. the state department and navy officials are meeting with the president all afternoon. and fact, the japanese ambassador was talking to the president at the third time that citizensas bombing our in the philippines and sinking one of our transports. the membersmorning, of congress will have a report and be ready for action. ♪