are not encouraging access. that is not accurate at all because we have seen people switch from the right to the left all the time, based upon all these situations. good access is important to both political parties. >> we found republicans were much more likely to say that voter fraud is a big problem. four out of 10 republicans said it that noncitizens freakily vote. republicans are a suspicious bunch, governor taft. >> apparently. i think a major problem is motivating people to vote and providing them information so they are informed when they vote. that is the major problem in the country. i do not think fraud is a issue. in terms of being able to -- one out of three people said voted earlier one way or another. ballots to every voter in the state. if you want to vote, you could vote, and you should be able to

vote. it is not a big issue. of the people0% want to vote. >> the suspicion exists because in the last generations somehow must have even lived through some areas. i represented a huge part of the mexican border, and there are some history there of people making phone calls on election day to my saying, how many for me and how many for the other guy, and the answer might be, well, how many do you need? -- asd stories of well well for sin of this occurring in the last generations in some of the southern states. it is not having any more, but those memories still linger and those stores are still out there that make people's assistance. -- suspicious. >> you're are much better study a ballot box. >> i have seen -- >> i am not saying. >> people have their hands on.

>> i do not know of any credible sourceh data from any that indicate that voter fraud is a major problem in this country. i just -- i mean, if someone has a -- [applause] i do not know that it exists. >> that was the third question we pose to our online audience. are you concerned more about election fraud and the ability for eligible voters to vote, and only 14% were more concerned about voter fraud. 86% more concerned about access to the polls for qualified voters. very overwhelming margin there. here's a comment we got from robert williams, who wrote us from new york. he said, is there any real energy behind campaign finance reform -- you'll laugh. >> we had a discussion earlier,

where dan and i were talking about the majority of times for any member of congress in this day and age has spent fundraising, and something has to be done -- dan and i were talking about, he used to spend time on the floor listening to debate. they do not have time for that before. >> it would be malpractice to listen to debate. >> you had to run committee, you had your national party, you had even if youhip, and are a freshman and have a campaign committees for the house and senate, it is endless. >> my e-mail boxes filled with candidates and officeholders iriting about whatever there' campaign finance report was today. whatever date was in here. if you look back last year, the obama and romney campaigns and their associations spent a billion dollars each on the

presidential campaign. is the sustainable? can we continue to go in this direction? >> this is a discouraging part of the whole situation for me, because i do not know how we get out of this. then someonepeech, with a whole lot of money is going to have much more speech than a lot of people who do not have money. but i do not know what the answer is. if there is a member of the panel that has an answer, i would like to hear. get oure an answer -- politicians to spend less money, but that is not practical. they are not going to volunteer to do that. this is the elephant in the room with respect to a lot of issues we are talking about. the unrestricted flow of money, particularly in developed legislative branches. i am not worried about the executive branch, because quite frankly, like in the last election, they are going to be

competitive no matter how much money they raise. if the legislative branches -- now i see it in state legislative races, people do not give you money because they like the color of your hair. it just does not work that way. the system is seriously -- >> i think it is a huge to turn for the country for people to run for congress. i had a former congressman indicating he would never consider running again for congress because he had to spend so much of his time raising money, and he did not want to do that. that is not a good situation. >> to question our list or post was is there any energy behind campaign finance? shoulds much as there be, because the public has not become engaged in this issue, because the public has not seen the relationship between the money spent and their quality of life and their government's

ability to appeal to the common good. until they see that link, it is going to be really difficult to get public engagement, but we will have to continue to work on it. soone reason the energy is fast as you have a broad coalition of campaign-finance yearstes that have for 40 been passing successive rounds of legislation, and their are always unintended consequences. one was the weakening of the political parties. one problem is the impulses, we need to do something. the trouble is when you do something and you do not have a coherent theory as to how it will interact with laws that have already been passed in house the system works, and you wind up getting a system that is very difficult for new entrants to navigate. it creates -- you have to have toy expensive bureaucracies successfully navigate these laws, and the problems that keep arising, the things that people keep bringing up, the fact

that people have to spend enormous amounts of time not legislating, not thinking about issues, but rather raising money -- if you think about all those problems, it seems that he the stronger political partners that were able to engage in work or knitted spending with her running can -- candidates, it would make it easier for parties to recruit talented chandlers, make our political system more competitive. stronger parties are a big part of this. >> political parties are now so i'm trusted. americans tend not to approve of either party, particularly the republican party at the moment. how do you go about strengthening the parties if that is a way to make money less powerful? >> i do not think you are making money less powerful. one study point -- one starting point is in a society like ours, a very diverse society you will

have lots of people spending money on politics. it is either good to be on erect note donation -- donation, to shape the playing field, the sensibilities of the american public. that education, that entertainment, any number of things. where is the money going? ,s it going toward accountable transparent organizations that you can get your hands around, or is it going to other organizations? by allowing parties to play more a central role, then you have a the incentive to spend the money with them, even if you get more corrugated party sunday, it is more effective. it would be more attractive. that is the way to do it. has been involved in politics a long time. money is important for politics for a long time. is it different now? >> without a question.

it costs more and more to run a campaign. of running with media, for example, is astronomical. about, a member is spending 70% of his or her time raising money -- that is outrageous. there's is no time to do anything else. sometimes it is a committee assignment that means you will get more money because people want to influence that particular committee. that is wrong. of there are all sorts ethics rules for so many things. you cannot have someone by you give yout they can this enormous amount of money at a campaign contribution, when there is a decision pending before your committee. there is a disconnect. it does not make sense. it is kind of ridiculous, really. all this, andh

maybe there is a law of unintended consequences, as we are talking, with all of these things. we have a mishmash of a system right out. questionsn looking at that people are asking. somebody said, what about public financing? i always thought that was great, do the check off, and have a shortened campaign season or let the tv stations give free time for ads. after a while, he gets to be like wallpaper. do you pay attention to what is you see so many of the different hats. >> does anybody -- is there an idea -- >> is there a totally different way to do it? >> i think when you answer the question, you're serious consideration of campaign- finance reform, reform is in the eye of the beholder, and when the problems. we have tried everything. we have tried limiting what you can spend on a particular campaign. we used to do that. he have constitutional issues

that are involved in campaign finance reform. some of the experts on that in other states and other universes have suggested that campaign money is like water. it will find a way to get where it wants to go. but you better not have research at all, but the out there,ntability the ability of people to know the information where it is going, because every time we try to solve it legislatively cannot we just create another problem. the party gets weaker. said money is the mother's milk of politics. he said that 80 years ago. not yogurt,y, it is cottage cheese, cream cheese. otic to the system. onmoney is usually given for a purpose. i also learned that backing congress at the university of teachersam sure the

here, political theory is the rationalization of economic self-interest. economic self-interest is what is plugged into the money coming in. it is not this is early ballot itself out. a lot of people do not participate in that kind of system and are not benefited by it. finally, the public needs to get more engaged in this issue. that is alternately a fundamental decision and changes will occur. if the public speaks out on the issue. to date, they have not been that active speaking out. >> other countries have placed limits on funding of campaigns and time limits. other countries do not have the first amendment. the way the courts interpret the first amendment, unless you change that, it is difficult to come up with a scheme that will be sustainable. >> one of the things i think perhaps we can do under the law is require total transparency, and we have talked about where the money goes and where the money comes from, who is giving it.

[applause] when you are elected to congress and your vulnerable from a vulnerable district, they tend to look to put you on a certain committee where there is a lot of interest on the part of special interests. i mean, we are fooling ourselves if we are pretending this is not happening. it is happening. so, dan, what are we going to do about it? >> we will get together afterward. in new york city, to use a system of donor matching edge is an idea that has attracted interest. have one theory is that restrict getting the money amount of money coming into the system. another theory is amplifying the money, but seeing that some voices that have traditionally been excluded our epiphytes. in new york, if you make a small donation, that the nation receives a match from the new york city campaign finance support. what happened it has led to a

dramatic change in how politicians in new york city raise their money. we have fundraisers happening in different boroughs. we do not know a tremendous amount, but it seems to change the system in a meaningful way. i do not endorse that as the right approach, but it seems like a more creative and thoughtful way to approach the problem that many others have -- >> i wonder if the internet is possible, because we have seen with the example of the obama campaign him and the ability to raise huge sums of money in small doses from an awful lot of people. i wonder if that is a way to offset the power of special interests. what do you think? >> this is a there, located issue, and i think that's certainly the obama campaign has shown you can do a very grassroots, both fundraising and energizing, and particularly of young people, because i think we have to go back to this void

percent -- this 40% who feel is enfranchised enough not to vote, partly because they do not have the civic education, they do not care about our political system. i believe are the reason is that they think that politics is just controlled i those with money and it has nothing to you with their lives. i am not sureow, how we engage this 40%, but i think it does get back to that very central question. i also think this problem of raising so much money and the fact we have not talked about this, but negative campaigning has become the norm rather than what sort of was the abnormal thing to do back 50 years ago. today if you do not negatively campaign, you do not usually when the race. a lot of the money goes into that, and i think rick that -- i

think that really discourages a lot of good quality candidates from running. >> we talked about the difficulty of getting everyone to vote, but a special issue with john voters on -- with young voters on college campuses, we have gotten a series of questions. elaine in the audience writes how could we improve -- use voter turnout? mary ann johnson asks, if used were actively inspired to learn civics, how can we make politics fun? , do run off the -- renata you worry that the current political climate from the lack of relationships across the aisle to the shutdown to the renter expressed in election -- rancor expressed will turn young people away from public service? what do you think about the idea of engaging the people to run for office or at least to vote? >> involving young people in

service, national service, is a good way of getting people engaged in their communities and out of that the evidence shows they will become engaged in the political system if they are engaging in nonprofit behavior. i happen to believe some form of mandatory public service is a good idea. i do not think we will have that in the short-term, but i would say that somehow we have to get young people, and many of them are doing it. generation, engaging people in a variety of public service activity, and coupled with civics, learning how the government works and that values of good government, not just how works, but what good can come out of it -- people have to know the system of government will produce for them. if they do not think it will do anything good, they will not want to be engaged. >> i cannot wait until i turned 18 the front, and i cannot understand why every young american that turns to the age of voting does not feel the

same way in. ownme a victim of our materialistic success, and now it is more important to watch television for over five hours a day, to be more concerned about what kind of cell phone plan you have, or to be more concerned about what kind of -- you are an expert at what kind of cable tv service you have. somehow people do not -- i guess they feel maybe immersed in all these other materialistic issues, and i do not -- i know we go sometimes up and down economically, but in neighborhoods like mine, i cannot wait to vote. the problem, oftentimes people look to the government, whether local or federal, that is going to severely more interest. it has got to come from homes and parents who make a commitment within their own homes to get the kids interested in a very young age. sometimes we look for solutions as elected officials that that we are going to solve his

problems, and i feel if it does not start at that grassroots level inside homes it will not start. >> thinking about engaging people in public service, if somebody were 21 now and they were watching this congress, and see the government shut down and no attention paid to issues like tax reform, immigration reform, climate change, all attention is focused on can we get past the debt deadline of thursday -- what in the world -- >> we have had rough times historically. we had the civil war. we had vietnam. we had major issues that froze our government for a wild. we will get through this as well at some point. will they not say that is occur i want to pursue? >> government has to produce. producing can be a lot of thing -- going roads, sewers and highways, education systems that work. it is why state or local governments have greater

connections with people than that national governments, but if they see government bickering and not producing anything, if i were somebody, 19, i would not sure i have would have ever run for office. >> it is about a sense of community, about being part of something about being part of this country. we talked about this a little bit in philadelphia, when benjamin franklin came out of the constitutional convention, he was asked, what do we have, a monarchy or republic, and he said republican, and we can keep it. he said, the greatest question anyone can ask in the world is what good can i do in it. it is that sense that i belong, i have -- i have skin in the game. that i matter, that what i do matters. so you talk about service. service is such an important thing, and this young generation, getting them involved in giving back politically, that is the sense

of community. if we can show that throughout history men and women of goodwill have come together and they have come together in the congress, in the senate, they have addressed the great challenges facing our nation, the not-too-distant past, and this is hopefully something we will get through, but we need young people to be willing to be part of the dialogue, to be willing to be part of the political process, because it is young people who will lead the way and get us out of this mess. of people who are going to change this dialogue, run for office, and show us the way to heal. that is what i believe. byhave got to start expanding on this sense of community that already exists with the service that everybody is doing. >> we need to challenge our system of education all the way through. the colleges and universities are getting more concentration ,n suggesting community service

recognizing committee service, even sometimes giving credit for community service. we need to have a much more active engagement on civic education than we have in the k- 12. that is where you can make the impression, and that is where you can get them to put their toe in the water to know what it means to provide that kind of public service. maybe we haveink all been guilty. of being such a hypercritical of government that we find ourselves where how long has it been someone say i really love my government, or government is good, government is us? i feel that way about teachers, too. i think we tend to look for ways ourxpress or understand anxieties and express our anger, so to speak. has a bad name

now, but we have given it a bad name because we do not stress the positive aspects of government. government is the people. it is us. and we need to love it, appreciate it, and cheerlead for it >>, occasionally, at least. who said that to me last week, and he said, what do you think of those firefighters out west who are fighting fires in sequoia national park? those are government employees. he kind of thought, and i hoped i changed a mind there. obligated to say this. the idea that government is us -- or many other institutions that reflect people working in commit as well. if the government is to celebrate government in its many guises, i do not think we will build a consensus on that. there are ideological disturbance about that. thething i will say, given

thoughts about people who do not vote, i have not voted in many elections. i am not a young person. on the younger side. i think -- >> and why do not vote sometimes? >> i voted in the last two election cycles, earlier in the 2000's that i did not participate in, for variety of reasons. i live in the district -- >> it is symbolic to vote. >> voting has an expressive purpose. later in life i have come to feel rooted in my community and my self-expression mattered more to me. the people who do not vote contribute to their communities in other ways. that is not necessarily case. i'm someone who thinks of myself as very patriotic and very invested in the success of this country. but the political process is not the only way for us to reflect those values, and it is important to recognize that

people have lots of government and reasons for not wanting to vote, and one of the reasons is they have very constrained options that are not very attractive options. that goes to larger questions about competitive this. >> one last thing i would like the y, when you hear is ar of this moment, it time when resources are constrained, that is when you will get real ferocity, because you are involved, you have real difficult choices to make, and it is reasonable that in a time of difficult choices, there will be a real clash of views. young people, you see high levels of engagement. people are not turning away from it because they are not nice to each other. it is understandable because we're debating really serious questions. i teach political science students at the university of dayton, and i like to remind them and thank them about the

fact that they are paying for with my medicare and social security when they go to work in the summer. as the baby boom exploded onto the scene here, medicare, social security, and young people wake up and realize how much they are supporting the older generation and not getting benefits yet themselves, and may not even have benefits unless we can solve financial problems of the system, maybe that will motivate them to vote. some criticism of the media the comments we have gotten. [applause] i do not understand it. here are two comments. the deeply divided country is a drug result of the news media becoming advocates of partisan positions. until we get rid of partisan news coverage on the front pages, we will continue to have decompressed government. that is from roger, who posted that on a website, from the osu class of 1972. steve said how much of the test devices this

is driven by talk radio and television, and what can be done? is this a factor in the disruption the federal government now? >> some. >> be brave. is, because there's a lot of people that watch particular programs during the day and whatever is set on a particularprogram, newspaper, whatever said on the front page, that is what they believe, and that is what they espouse other people. you can tell when a popular talk radio host is off on a particular issue. you can see it in what is happening out there and people expressing their opinions. you can also see it when a popular television personality is doing the same thing. basically say that there's that have influence would be incorrect. >> i think they have some impact, but i do not think it is material, the majority, and most people know what they are watching and that tends to reinforce their own views. the worst part is people,

there's not a diversity of media that people are watching. they do not give different views. they tend to watch the same thing, same angst that reinforce their interests. this is unfortunate. other parts of the media to a very good job. i am not patronizing you, but your national newspaper does a very good job. most newspapers to the extent they exist any longer continue to be a job. reading is a better way to absorb and take about information than watching face. that is the nation of the telecommunications revolution. >> people need to remember there's an on and off switch on televisions and radios, and they do not have to listen to that. the sensational discussions that you hear every day. why do people allow themselves to be affected by that? dan, and not patronizing either, but your publication does a good job of doing a nice cross-section of

america. but that is not always the case. to target that as a major factor is not valid. i think, as ben mentioned, it is a factor, but minimal. tend toee that people listen to things and watch things that reinforce their own views or their own slant on things. i also think we ought to consider the potential generational change that is peoplen, that younger more and more -- and we have got a lot of college students here -- are getting their news on the internet, they are getting it from twitter feeds, from facebook, from different ways, and i think we are going to see people get the input in a different way than they have in impacts, and we may see than on traditional media and how people are reacting to those. >> i work in partisan media, and i think it is a healthy development. if you think it is important to understand, the most ideological

voters tend to be the most educated and engaged. another thing we have seen from recent studies is the most ideological voters actually do consume media that does not share their ideological proclivities. because they want to see something that is going to get them agitated or because they want to test their views. yes, it ise data, surprising. it is certainly counterintuitive. this is one reason why if you go to my website you will see a lot of hostile comments from people who do not share our worldview. true that youis who certain personalities exert a tremendous amount of political influence but i think this reflects a vacuum of leadership. when you have a president of your party, you tend to have a more unified political party.

when you do not, you tend to have division. i think a lot of what we see, these are technological innovations that have made the more reflect its audience closely. not just in united states but around the world. society that is more robustly democratic, in other ways less so. we do not always like the way the change looks. i think there is a learning process. eventually it could be we are going to get better out this. but i think there is a lot of good that has come out as well. if i should give a final word since you're the cochair. here.m glad you are i want you to know that. it is important to hear your perspective. i agree with some of it. not all of it. [laughter] one of the things i worry about the media is the loss of the local media. i looked at your local

newspaper, i used to be one of the big, great newspapers. i look at my paper in wichita, kansas. we went to the same high school, susan. >> that was my first job. >> it is a shell of itself. local media used to be that ofat and richer -- enricher people's lives. the local media, that is where you lose the sense of community. if you do not have a good, vocal newspaper. for government, let's close with a tweet we got from someone who wrote perhaps we should take a page from silicon valley and reboot. [laughter] i want to thank you all for being with us. i want to thank the cochairs and members of the commission on political reform.

the ohio state university for their hospitality and our wonderful audience in columbus and online. thank you for being with us. [applause] hope you will join us again on march 26 for our next town hall at the kennedy library. join me in welcoming jason to the stage for some closing thoughts. [applause] >> hi, folks. president of the bipartisan polys center, it is a as thege to tank -- president of the bipartisan policy center, it is a privilege to thank everyone. i am sure the dialogue will be reflected in our recommendations. to the extent those of you have heard the comments about engagement and enjoying this conversation, i would invite you to go to our website and check

out citizens for political reform. it is a populist analog to what we're doing on the commission. i think it is important because ultimately we get the government we demand. many of us, most of us have been disgusted with the last few weeks in washington. it is unfortunate we can't actually suggest these people are acting irrationally because we have a system that rewards the ideological extremes. so if we want government to be different, we have to create some incentives to reward collaboration. that is the goal of this effort. we would encourage everyone to check it out and join us and tried to demand a better outcome. as we just mentioned, we are going to have our last discussion in march at the kennedy library. we are going to do some serious to liberation -- the liberation -- deliberations and then we

will be looking to all of you because we have come to learn that publishing reports is the beginning, but not the end, of social change. again, thank you for joining us. [applause] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2013] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] >> join us later tonight for more coverage with senator ted cruz, he is speaking at the annual reagan dinner. it is his third stop in the month in the state in three months. we'll have coverage for you at eight :00 p.m. eastern. also a pair of profile interviews. we spoke with senator joe manchin and republican representative cathy mcmorris rodgers. those conversations will air back-to-back starting at 8:00 p.m. eastern. and the obama administration

continues to work on the healthcare.gov website. overseeing the repairs spoke to reporters today. beingbcontractor is promoted to general contractor with overall responsibility for fixing healthcare.gov. whichuild the data hub, is working relatively well. administration officials are vowing to have obamacare's enrollment website repaired by november 30. of care.com would be working in time to buy coverage that takes effect in january. the house and senate dabbled in for legislation. the house will debate two bills. the senate is debating a nomination for the general counselor. mr. griffin is a former lawyer who was a recess appointment to the board.

he was removed after about a year and a half. follow the house here on c-span and the senate on c-span 2. >> i saw firsthand the tragedies children face when they are not cared for by loving parents. it was in the sheriffs office where i first witnessed the horrors of child sex trafficking. and it convinced me we needed to do more to protect our youth at risk of abuse. others, weand many become accustomed to being isolated by adapting to multiple moves from home to home. this allows us to easily adapt to when traffickers move us multiple times from hotel to hotel, and state to state. go withoutploiters

fear of punishment due to the lack of attention when these people go missing. no one looks for us. no one looks for us. >> on the hear the term sex trafficking, most think it only happens in other countries or that foreign children are brought here to be sold in cities. in fact, we have learned most of the victims are american kids who are trafficked in small towns and large urban areas. if people are not aware of this, they are not looking for it. atthis weekend, looking changing foster care systems to prevent sex trafficking. saturday morning at 10:00 eastern. at the texaslive book festival with panels commemorating the assassination of jfk. in a country3, divided, how did abraham lincoln

solve the issue of slavery? sunday evening at 7:30. just hours after the japanese attack on pearl harbor and before her husband addressed the nation, eleanor roosevelt was on the radio talking with america. >> good evening, ladies and gentlemen. i am speaking you tonight at a very serious moment in our history. the cabinet is convening in the leaders in congress are meeting with the president. the state department and army officials have been with the president all afternoon. the japanese ambassador was talking to the president at the weretime japan's airships bombing our citizens in hawaii in the philippines and sinking one of our transports loaded with lumber on its way to hawaii. by tomorrow morning, members of congress will have a full report can be ready for action.

in the meantime, the people are prepared for action. for months the knowledge that something of this kind might happen has been hanging over our heads and yet it seemed in possible to believe, impossible to feel there was only one thing that was important, preparation to meet an enemy no matter where he struck. that is all over now. there is no more uncertainty. we know what we have to face. we know that we are ready to face it. >> watch the program at her website, c-span.org. or see it saturday at seven: -- 7:00 p.m. eastern. >> al gore yesterday called the xl pipeline and "tri-city -- atrocity" and a threat to the

future. the center for american progress's 10th anniversary conference centered on climate change and ways to move the progressive you forward. this is about 40 minutes. >> is this a great conference or white? -- or what? [laughter] [applause] now it is my pleasure to introduce a global leader, a colleague, and our truest champion in the fight against climate change, vice president al gore. as we sit today, climate change has gone from objection to reality for many americans. our fires are hotter, the droughts are drier, our storms are fiercer. just over one year ago, superstorm sandy crippled new york city causing some $65 billion in damage. last month, record floods swamped almost 200 miles of roads,o, washing away

damaging thousands of homes, and killing at least eight people. for too long, our political leaders found reasons to drag their feet. some of them dismissed the signs. others thought the dangers would only become real long after they were dead. they thought they could leave it to another government or another generation to make the hard choice and to take the tough of votes. al gore saw it differently. he decided somebody needed to say the difficult thing, the courageous thing. he told us the truth. climate change is real and it is dangerous and it is happening right now. we need to act today, not tomorrow, we should have begun to address these habits long ago. advocacy didntal not begin when he taught the world about an inconvenient truth. by the time we were together in the clinton administration, as a

congressman and is a senator, al gore was already the leading experts on environmental policy, serving in government. as vice president he was an early advocate of climate action and worked alongside president clinton to improve the air and the water and our public health and fight global warming. he was a champion of science and a champion of openness. today it is climate change more than any other cause, i think, that defines a vice president gore. and for good reason. he is a tireless advocate. he knows climate science backward and forward. he won a nobel prize and starred in an oscar-winning documentary. hoursday he stayed up 24 going around the world, making that clarion call to do something to affect our future. vice president gore is not a man who sees any problem as

intractable. he is a man of vision, a man who has never lost his fervent belief that solutions exist, but extreme weather forts and save our planet future generations. please join me in welcoming my good friend, vice president al gore. [applause] >> thank you very much. thank you. thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. i am happy to be here. for yournk you generous words. i am really here for one reason and that is because of you, john, and because of your colleagues here at the center for american progress. i want to congratulate you on this 10th anniversary celebration in gathering.

you make a tremendous difference and i want to congratulate the cap and say to all of you who are your supporters, thank you for providing tangible support for an organization that is right in the center of things, is making a tremendous gettingce and really things done. thank you and please continue supporting cap. bless you.od you have so much energy and drive. your values are right. i really appreciate what you do. i have enjoyed working with you in the white house and other ways. i admire what you're doing. hasn't he been doing a great job of secretary of state? fantastic. [applause] not ongina mccarthy was the panel. did she speak to you earlier? ok, i think she is doing a turf

job as the head -- a terrific job of the head of the epa. i came down too late to hear the entire panel but of course carol brown and two others are three amazing individuals. it is an honor for me to share this podium with them. mentioned i just came back from 24 hours, is the microphone picking up ok? row was the third year in a the climate reality project went all the way around the world, originating content from every time zone. dr. kim from the world bank came in. he updated his economic report. we had individuals who have been

paying the cost of carbon. they have been suffering the consequences of these extreme weather events. p monitors between the border of somalia where we had some stories reflecting the hardship endured by those who used to make their livelihoods around the lake. we had individuals from bangladesh who had to move back from the coastal areas and world,ia's, all over the and it was a very moving 24-hour telecast. we had 20 million viewers. 220 million twitter messages and impressions. we have not gotten account on facebook and pinterest and the social media. is a very big change that is underway. part of what i am going to tell why i am today is

optimistic. i use the phrase the cost of carbon. john mentioned, governor o'malley, a great admirer of your work, governor. john mentioned the superstorm sandy and the other even set have captured attention recently. when davis guggenheim's movie came out a few years ago, the , more thancked on anything, as seen in the movie that featured an animation that showed the ocean water from the atlantic going into the world trade center memorial site as a result of continuing sea level rising. surges, and they pointed to that and said how ridiculous.

that is demagogic and cynical. that could never happen. tragically, it happened in october 2009. of course the impact of that $65 billion,llion, they called it a once in a thousand year storm. year, 14 just one months to the day before superstorm sandy was hurricane irene. which caused $15 billion of damage with the biggest impact little bit farther north of new york city and vermont by the brunt of it. we are seeing one -- and these events on a regular basis. boulder, colorado was a once in a multi-thousand year event. yosemite park with the fires. they are projecting with just a one degree increase in global

temperatures, which is pretty much locked in at this point, there is, in many areas a sixfold increase of the areas burned by forest fires. just in the last 30 years. the fire season has expanded 78 days. my home city of nashville three years ago, we had a once in a thousand year rainfall. thousands of my neighbors lost their homes. a did not have insurance because it had never flooded. pakistan, 20 million people displaced from their homes by the biggest flood in the living memory, caused by one of these downpours. this is part of the cost of carbon. it is not included on the balance sheets. way weot included in the calculate profit and loss and productivity and growth, which

is the holy grail, only it is defined in an insane way. it excludes the so-called negative externalities like pollution and the extreme weather events connected to the climate. it also excludes when we measure whether we make it progress or not, which is the keyword for this meeting on the set of values you all and we all share. when we measure progress, we exclude not only the negative externalities but also the positive externalities. investments in education, mental health care, immunity services, family services, benefits that come rolling back in to enrich our lives. they are not measured. they are not reflected in the mathematics we use to define what we mean by progress. it is totally nuts. that is one reason why so many people feel like we can cut investments in public goods with

absolute impunity. but we are hurting what progress ,ould mean to any sensible rational person. what else is excluded? natural resources. so when we overuse the groundwater or threatened it pipelinewith this xl -- the xl pipeline. let me diverge for a moment. [laughter] ridiculous. it is an atrocity. [applause] --nderstand president obama i am a fan of president obama. i appreciate his peaches on climate. what he has allowed gina mccarthy to do one regulating co2. fantastic. i think he means it. but i hope he gets down to the decision on this xl pipeline

that he really understands very clearly what is at stake. this should be vetoed. it is an atrocity. it is a threat to our future. our addiction to these high- intensity, dirty carbon-based fuels, junkies find veins in their toes when the ones in their arms and legs give out. point where wehe are going after these ridiculously dirty and dangerous carbon-based fuels. and we have to stop. in any case, we are excluding all of that from the calculation. we are threatening the groundwater. we are depleting the topsoil. what else is excluded from the way we think about progress? distribution of income. that is not calling for redistribution. although i am in favor of regressive tax rates. i will lay that on the line.

our times of greatest ryegrass -- of progress in our country have coincided with less inequality. this is an issue those who believe in progress have to grab. people when the american see that our gdp is going up, and we have had progress, we are doing great. they do not feel it. of all of is that 95% the additional national income we have experienced in this hastry since the recovery gone to the top one percent. occupier wall street slogan, that is a fact. it is demonstrable. it is not in dispute. so when you have the 400 wealthiest individuals in the united aides having more assets all the bottom 50%, we have of this debate about

quantitative easing. what is that about? more money ining circulation so we have more aggregate demand so the hydraulics of the economy will operate. velocity fromeve the forces are pulling us back down toward the great recession. doesn'ted more oomph, it matter if 50% of the income goes to the wealthiest 400 people? that takes it out of circulation. the idea they are job creators. they are not going to create jobs if they do not have money in their pockets able to buy the things the factories are going to make they're going to invest in. this business of income distribution and net worth inequality is one that we have to grab a hold of. the united states is more unequal than tunisia or egypt. the social wearability in our country, many of you are aware of this, is now far less than in

virtually any european country and in many other countries around the world. so when people use the phrase the american dream, no wonder there are too many americans who roll their eyes now. but weeam is still alive have not had policies and oftiatives that are capable bringing that dream to life. recession, the great what ignited it? the credit crisis. the subprime mortgage fiasco. if you gave 7.5 million mortgages to people who could not make a down payment or make a monthly payment, there was some risk associated with that? when i made my first mortgage in tennessee as a young man after he came back from vietnam, i sat across the desk from a banker, the head of citizens bank, and

he asked me a long series of questions i had to answer in writing. to answers were all intended boost his confidence i could make the monthly payments. ,nd then i had to write a check down payment. that is right. i missed the memo when those requirements were eliminated. a stripper in las vegas got seven homes from subprime mortgages. it was a profit center. rolling lot of income into some businesses as a result, but it was a deadly risk to the economy. and when the valuation that was based on such an absurd set of thenptions was challenged, the value collapsed. all of those mortgages were repriced. that is what triggered the credit crisis. now we have on the books of the

large public multinational trillion ofnies, $7 subprime carbon assets. valuation is based on an assumption that is even more ridiculous and absurd than the assumption these people that could not make a down payment or a home mortgage. those $7ption is trillion can be sold and burned. they will not be sold and burned. they cannot be sold and burned. we are putting 90 million tons of global warming pollution into every 24 hours as if it is an open sewer. it is not an open sewer. in the 19th century they had a cholera epidemic in london. a doctor put a. every place there was a -- a dot every place

there was an out break he was able to find one single malfunctioning pump on broad of thewas the cause cholera epidemic. a few years later, louis pasteur found out the real cause of cholera and it is no longer the terrible scourge it once was. still a problem, for millions, but not what it was. we have to connect the dots. these 90 million tons we put up every day of global warming pollution, it adds up. 20% of it will be warming the earth and thousand years from now. the accumulated dilution now traps as much extra heat every day as would be released by 400,000 atomic bombs going off every 24 hours. that is a conservative estimate. made.alk in english

others have confirmed it and say it is on the low side. 400,000 atomic bombs is a lot of energy. that is what is heating up the oceans and the atmosphere. putting more water vapor into the sky. four percent more worldwide than 30 years ago. the day superstorm sandy moved into the coast, it was nine degrees fahrenheit above average in the atlantic ocean in the areas from whence the storm came. coincidence? it is not a coincidence. it is what the scientist have been predicting for decades in ever more strident terms. why are we failing to act? why are we failing to act on a lot of things? denial is part of it. the facte also seeing our democracy has been hacked.

it's no longer operates on behalf of the public interest. and you know that. we have this majestic, wonderful constitution that has worked extremely well for most of american history. corporations are not people. donors should not be anonymous. apathy is not irony. we have to become involved. at the end of world war ii, a po the best lack conviction and the worst are full of intensity. koch othersthers -- are full of intensity. other deniers -- exxon mobil. quote fromerbatim the ceo of exxon mobil. "what good is it to save the planet if humanity suffers?"

[laughter] me, you do are like not know where to start. their business model and the other large carbon areuters business model based on extending this artificial in evaluation of their subprime assets for as long as they possibly can. americans is to work for the formation of public policy they stun reality. based on logic. based on region. in support of the public interest, not special interest here it because they have achieved so much control over the operations of our democracy does not mean we can't take it back. you think i am passionate about this? you are damn right i am passionate about this. almostl hear people say

like it is a throwaway, i love this country. i love this country, dammit. and our country is in trouble. this dysfunction on capitol hill is pathetic. it is absolutely pitiful. it is not enough just to throw an epithet. there are good people trapped in a bad system. when i went to congress in the 1970's, i felt like it was such a thrill and a privilege. i could almost -- at the risk of sounding corny -- i could almost hear the battle hymn of the republic in the background when i would go to these town hall meetings and take people's ideas and go back and work for them. every vote i cast, every speech i made, foremost in my mind was how this was going to affect my constituents. here is the hack.

today members of congress are put in a situation where they are forced to spend 4-5 hours every day begging rich people and special-interest for many so they can meet their daily quota and pile up this war chest so they can buy the 32nd tv ads. you think that does not have an impact on them? however good they are. it has to. they voters think, boy, these telephone calls are going to be tough tomorrow. the fundraising teams will naturally, because of the way things are, line up a series of in concert with what the legislative agenda is. it is all one big mess. and you know it and i know it. but when we talk about the progressive agenda, whether it

is having a say in energy policy, fighting against the climate crisis, health care, education, anything else, it is no accident every group that is devoted to reform and the promotion of the public interest is on the back foot backpedaling, playing defense, trying to raise and scrounge as much as cash as they can to do something to fight back. but this special-interest funding comes rolling down constantly. when the climate bill was before the congress, there were quite sure anti-climate lobbyists for every member of congress. michael jordan was my favorite basketball player but if he had four defensive players guarding him man on man every step he took, he would not have scored many points. that is exactly the situation so many of our champions are in right now. so we should take a careful look and insist that

long-term investors do something. let me tell you why, in spite of all of this, i am hopeful. i'm serious about this. back in 1980, one of my closest friends in the house of representatives was tom downey. wife was up here, as i mentioned. i used to have dinner with tom up on capitol hill. i would call and make sure it is ok. of one ofarly adopter these as cell phones, one of these things. i thought it looked so cool. my goodness. i go back in the conveyed picture, it looks ridiculous. but then, my goodness. up, ready toim have dinner? when can you come? knock.

t, was like the old "snl" ski wild and crazy guys. whoa, you have a phone you can walk around with? that same year, that same year, tot spent a lot of money make a market projection based on an enormous amount of research and data to figure out how many people around the world would buy those things by the year 2000. they confidently predicted 900,000 people would have these mobile phones. that many? that prediction was not only wrong, it was way wrong. 120 times over.

back 10, 15 years ago, people looked at solar panels on the roofs of a few early adopters. a lot of the energy companies and others and department of energy made these careful calculations, how many of these things are going to be built and purchased around the world by the year 2010? those projections were not only wrong, they were way wrong, by 22 times over. 17 times over. multiple of times in every category. in the case of these mobile phones and the case of solar panels and windmills, they did not count on the fact that cost down curve, like we saw in the computer chip industry, was going to bring the cost down every single year in a germanic

way. dramatic way. and that the quality would go up. nor did they take into account the decision to purchase the mobile phone was not going to be centralizedities or institutions. it was going to be made by individuals and business owners and they did not count on the fact that in the poor countries, where they did not have all of these wooden poles with power alls and telephone lines over the landscape, those folks could leapfrog the old technology and go straight to the new one. let me tell you, today there are billions of people in the world. there is a dispute about how many billions, one research organization says 4.2 billion already have the availability to

have electricity at a rate that is equal to or less than the great price. that estimate is probably too least 2 it it is at billion. the more we use, the more the cost goes down, get scaling benefit. the more they squeeze money out of the capital structure and the levelized cost goes to down and becomes more competitive. it is inevitable the majority of the world within the next 3-4 years will be able to buy renewable electricity at rate that are equal to or below the cost of electricity from other sources like coal and oil. we have the wind on our back, literally. you can make this work. , we need toto stop fix this dysfunctional democracy. deniersdown, the same wed we won't default if

exceed the debt. no problem. we will just pay the chinese bondholders and not pay the social security checks. paychecks to the soldiers fighting in afghanistan. it will be fine. really? denial is in the extreme. the same people that set our president was born in kenya, wherever they thought he was born. and now physics can't be relied upon. cause warming does not pollution. when our country began, we prided ourselves on having a well-educated citizenry with the freedom to assemble and the freedom to speak and to work with one another to come up with good, sensible policies. that is the reason why the united states became the preeminent nation because we made better decisions together than the people of any other

country on the face of the earth. craziness this embodied in caucuses and the congress and in special-interest group have the arrogance to believe they can create an alternate version of reality and repeat it enough times with enough force and volume and enough tv ads in the lobbyists that it can substitute for what we know is the real situation that we face. we have to take back our country. we have to win the conversation on carbon. i will close with this. spoke in nashville last weekend with john lewis. john lewis came up to nashville as a young man to go to the american baptist seminary. i was 11 years old in 1959 when john lewis and his friends went

to a lunch counter in downtown nashville. the first to sit in anywhere in the country. he was brave enough, he got his head begin. three months later they were desegregated. then they moved on to the movie theaters. 50 miles away in tennessee, one of my friends made a racist comment and another one of my friend said we don't talk like that. we won that conversation. in millions of conversations from the south and this country. we still have a long way to go. it is so thrilling to see the progress we have made. earlier i saw a news story about gay men waiting in line for a pizza. a homophobic jerk came walking by and saw them holding hands and made an insulting comment. literally every other person turned and said shut up. we don't accept that.

we are winning that conversation. what about the conversation on the climate crisis? too often it takes place in echo chambers or in rooms where the conversation is sort of like family the dysfunctional where the alcoholic family -- the alcoholic family flies into a rage so everybody else learns to keep the peace by never talking about the elephant in the room. we are going to win this. we are not winning it yet. because we are still putting all of this up there. progress is on the way. iny will be joy prevailing. prevailing is still ahead of us. when the con -- carbon conversation comes up, please speak up. when that conversation. that conversation. and when you have conversations congressman, we could pay

the full salary of every coal miner, that is what i proposed. pickup every bit of their salary, it is so small compared to the enormous cost we are paying on this. we have to accelerate this transition and move with the tides that are already carrying us in the right direction. one i was a boy, i remember other set of conversations. president kennedy issues that challenge to land a person on the moon and bring him back safely, i remember people saying, that is ridiculous. that will never happen. eight years and two months later, neil armstrong set foot on the moon. the moment he did so, there was a great cheer that went up in control.ost mission the average age of the engineers was 26.

which means their average age when they heard the challenge was 18. we can do this. today's 18 years old are counting on us to do it. on 10ongratulations years. thank you for including the climate crisis and the solutions in the center of your agenda. thank you for making that agenda possible. let's win this. political will is a renewable resource. thank you very much. [applause] join us later tonight for more for the road to the white house with ted cruz. he is speaking at the annual republican party dinner, it is his third stop in the state in three months. watch that starting at 8:00 p.m. eastern. and a pair of profile interviews, we spoke to senator joe manchin and republican

representative cathy mcmorris rodgers. those conversations starting at 8:00 eastern on c-span2. here is a preview. >> the campaign changed our family because of john kaneb -- john kennedy. we are catholic. knowing that was going to be a big part of the selection, could he break that religious barrier? i never thought there was a barrier. in my town, everybody worked in the coal mine. my grandfather and father had a grocery store and furniture store. everyone made about the same amount of money. there was no classes i knew of or could recall. religion was a problem. my methodist friends, bath just -- baptist, whatever, we were all the same. was the big thing. so it got me interested. i will never forget, we were

watching the news or something. they were talking about if john kennedy got elected, the pope would run the country. i looked at my mom and said, i don't think they know the cap extreme now. -- the catholics we know. >> for me, the best thing that has happened since i was a like -- was elected was becoming married and becoming a wife and a mom and our oldest was born with down syndrome. it is not what you expect and it is not what you dream, but i sit here today and i am a better person because of cole and what he has taught me. i am a better legislator. he has given me a new passion for what i do on capitol hill. >> how so? get the when you first news, it is some of the most difficult news you receive as a parent.

now, iook back on and was immediately welcomed by the disabilities community. people all across the country who had been through similar experiences and first of all reached out and said, it is going to be ok. >> both of those interviews airing tonight starting at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span2. >> i saw firsthand the tragedies children face when they are not cared for by loving parents. sheriff's office where he witnessed the horrors of child sex trafficking and he convinced me we needed to do more to protect our youth at risk of abuse. >> like me and many other youth in care, we become accustomed to being isolated, much like the victims of domestic violence, i

adapting to moves from home to home. this allows us to adapt to when traffickers move us multiple times from hotel to hotel, city to city and state to state. many go without fear of punishment due to the lack of attention when young people go missing. no one looks for us. i want to make that clear. no one looks for us. onlyst americans think it happens in other countries, or that foreign children are brought here to be sold. have learned most of the victims of child sex trafficking are american kids who are trafficked in small towns and large urban areas. of it,le are not aware they are not looking for it. weekend, looking at changing foster care systems to prevent sex trafficking. saturday morning at 10:00 eastern.

days in austin, live at the texas book festival with panels commemorating the anniversary of jfk's assassination. saturday and sunday on book tv. and on american history tv, in a country divided, how did solve the dilemmas created by the issues of slavery? span, we bring events from washington directly to you, putting you in the room in congressional hearings, white house events, briefings and conferences, and offering complete coverage of the u.s. house, all as a public service of private industry. cable tvreated by the industry, and funded by your local cable or satellite provider. and now you can watch us in hd. we have 10 days to election day in virginia. jeanette leen to

and terry mcauliffe met last night. this is one hour. >> we have republican and attorney general, mr. ken cuccinelli and democrat terry mcauliffe. thank you for being here tonight. our panel, dr. harry wilson, the director of policy at roanoke college and political analyst, and by co-anchor, chris, will be asking questions that came from you, the viewers from across the state. and from right here in our audience tonight. each candidate will have one minute 30 seconds to answer each question followed by a one minute rebuttal by the first candidate. on viewer questions, each candidate will have 30 seconds to answer. i asked the candidates to remain in the allotted time.

we have timers to keep track. first, we began with opening statements. determined by a coin toss, terry mcauliffe goes first. you have 90 seconds. >> thank you to virginia tech for hosting us this evening. it is great to be back. there has been a lot of back and forth over the last 11 months. there is a simple question that virginians must answer over the next 11 days. who will work with both parties to focus on jobs and education? i have been honored to earn the support of an historic number of republicans, many of whom have never supported a democrat for governor. it is the same kind of coalition i will assemble in richmond, with responsible leaders who will put jobs first and partisanship behind, focus on mainstream issues of job

creation and maintaining fiscal responsibility. as the campaign has gone on, my opponent has become increasingly desperate. that includes false attacks on me and false attacks about his own record. during this debate, just like his previous campaign, my opponent will claim he will focus on jobs. even the conservative richmond times dispatch said he "pursues his divisive agenda with stridency." he intimidated scientists at our universities and tried to derail the transportation bill. this week, he refused to say whether he supported reopening the government. >> mr. mcauliffe, that is your time for an opening statement. >> thank you. i want to thank my wife for being here as well. unlike my record of service, terry mcauliffe did nothing for

virginia or virginians before deciding to run for governor. nothing. some people run to be something and some people run to do something. i am the only one with a plan to cut taxes by $700 and create 58,000 new jobs, improve education at all levels and protect our energy jobs. my opponent's plans has been to attack me and to speak in platitudes without telling you he will pay for all of the empty promises he has made. his extremist big government spending promises add up to new taxes. the obamacare plan is unfolding with failing websites and sky high premiums. including for the poor. and congressmen who do not have to obey the same law we do.

i was the first to fight obamacare. my opponent did not think it went far enough. he wanted the federal government providing your health insurance. look how badly they are doing with the health care exchanges. now he insists obama care has to be expanded in virginia. why would we expand failure? vote for me on november 5. creating jobs and fighting off washington overreach is what i will do as your governor. >> let's go right to our first panelists with a question for terry mcauliffe. >> both of your proposed budgets suggest billions of additional spending. mr. cuccinelli, you have suggested covering loopholes, but there is not enough to cover suggested spending. mr. mcauliffe, you suggest the expansion of medicaid, but that is not guaranteed. where is the money coming from?

will you raise taxes on virginians or cut programs? if it is the latter, be specific and tell us what you would cut. >> first of all, no new taxes. i have talked about the medicaid expansion, which would free up $500 million from the general fund. the medicaid expansion, bipartisan, the virginia chamber commerce, what we need to do is first figure out what efficiencies we can have in the government, the money we could save from medicaid expansion. once we know how much money we have, we can put the priorities i talked about, early childhood development, reform, teacher pay, investing in committee colleges, financial aid in higher ed. make decisions based on priorities. my opponent has proposed a 1.4 billion dollar tax cut.

he does not say how he will pay for it. the former chair of the house appropriations committee says it will bring fiscal disaster to virginia if his plan actually went through. e.w. jackson said he and ken cuccinelli want to eliminate the corporate income tax in virginia. point $4 billion a year. not saying how you are paying for it. get rid of the corporate income tax. he did not work the governor's tax package. he actually worked against it. he does not want the medicaid expansion. his plan is a fiscal disaster for the commonwealth of virginia. we cannot grow and diversify when we cut public education and much-needed money we need to grow our economy. >> that is time. mr. cuccinelli, you have 90 seconds. >> "the washington post" said a lot of what you just heard from terry mcauliffe was not true. my tax cut plan would grow 58,000 jobs and raise the business income tax.

i am the only candidate with an actual plan with details to grow new jobs. we pay for that because, unlike washington, we reduced the growth of government spending to just under 3.5% and cut out 1/6 of our tax credits and loopholes to pay for the cost of the tax cut, which was designed around job creation. the only major spending program i have proposed is in the area of mental health. i have said how i would pay for that. it is to move dollars that are used for non-healthcare services , andto treat children others as well, for mental health needs. i have explained how i will pay for my proposals. terry mcauliffe has proposed spending.

$3.5 billion and counting. he pretends to get $500 million out of a medicaid expansion. he calls it a jobs program. it is welfare. it is welfare. you cannot make magic money out of the federal government like he would like to. that is going to cost every family a $1700 tax increase. >> terry mcauliffe, dr. bob has said where the money will come from. what programs would you turn down? >> we can always bring efficiency to government. there is a study. my opponent talks about staving staving -- saving money from tax incentives. it is not billions of dollars. his plan has been attacked by democrats and republicans. the former chairman of the house appropriations committee said it would bring fiscal disaster to virginia. senator mark warner just commented on it, as have so many

local elected officials. the idea that you can do $1.4 billion in tax cuts per year and not say how you will pay for it it -- it is fiscally irresponsible. his plan would see thousands of teachers laid off. we are facing cuts with sequestration. we need to be growing and diversifying our economy. >> mr. mcauliffe, that will do it. i do not know if you answered what we asked. we will go to question number two from dr. harry wilson. this question is for ken cuccinelli. >> both of you have acknowledged that it can be a problem with teachers teaching to the test. what are your alternatives to the s.o.l.'s?

please be specific. >> i do not want to get rid of them. i want to improve them. that reform of 20 years ago was a great addition to our educational system. it gave us accountability for taxpayers and teachers. i do not think it is working quite as well as we all envisioned. we are teaching to the test too much. i believe we can go to more generalized tests. we are still testing children for their progress, but allow us to be more flexible so schools can test at different times. they do not all operate on the same school schedule. that is important, and we will involve teachers, parents, academics in putting together a commission to review the s.o.l. tests so they better evaluate our children and so we can better -- more fairly evaluate

our teachers. i have talked about the need to make sure parents have control over their children's education, particularly where they are in failing schools. we have great schools in virginia. we are blessed in that regard, but every school is not a success. parents need to be able to move their children out of that school to another public school or to a private school. >> mr. mcauliffe, your alternative to the s.o.l.? >> shorter, more essay tests. they do not work for our parents or for our teachers. we want accountability. they are judged on whether students pass an s.o.l. when i am on the campaign trail, i talk about reform.

teachers said, i was teaching to the test. students are being forced to learn how to memorize. we want critical reasoning going on with our students so we can build those jobs of the 21st century. it is great we've memorized the date a man landed on the moon. but how can virginia become a world leader in space exploration? we can understand how that child is thinking. let's collaboratively come together and work for our students. education is important. that is how you build a 21st- century economy. my opponent has proposed a constitutional amendment that would allow public school funds to be taken out for private schools. i do not support that. as governor, i do not want to see a penny being taken out of

our public schools. we need to make virginia a model in america and the globe for our k-12 system. >> mr. cuccinelli, your opponent has criticize you saying you want to cut funding for education. your response to that? >> it is important to note i want the strongest possible public school system we can have. it is more important to make sure every child in virginia has the best opportunity to be educated as possible. he has made that charge before. i have told you how we would pay for our tax cuts. it is not like washington where terry comes from. we have to pay for the things we want. i will give you my last 30 seconds. you did not tell us how you are paying for any of your pet -- plans.

>> let me say it again. we need to look at government efficiencies. i am not committing money until i know exactly how much money we are going to have. i am not going to have fiscally irresponsible budgeting like ken cuccinelli. if we can get the money from the medicaid expansion and we can bring efficiency, that is what we will have. >> that is time. this comes from my co-anchor. this comes from a viewer. >> on the issue of gun control, we got a lot of tweets from our viewers.

do you support or oppose universal background checks on every gun sale, even on private sales where neither seller nor purchaser has a firearms license. and do you support a ban on high-capacity magazines and assault rifles? >> let me first speak as a parent, as a spouse. it is important to understand that when we drop our children off at school or our loved ones off at work, we want to make sure our children and loved ones are safe. i am a strong supporter of the second amendment. i am a hunter, but i support universal background checks. my opponent and i differ on that. i am wearing my pen today in memory of all of those folks at virginia tech that went through that tragedy. the other day a young man came to see me. he was in one of the classrooms.

he was shot 4 times. he still has three bullets in his body. i think it is critical, imperative for every community and every elected official to do the best thing we can. some people should not own guns. >> that is 60 seconds. mr. cuccinelli. >> what happened here at virginia tech is a tragedy that affects every virginian. none of the things you asked about would have affected that tragedy. i have spent more than 15 years working to help people suffering from mental illness. we need to do more in that direction to make sure less of those tragedies happen because they are all tied in one way or another to mental health failures. i also would note that i am a

strong advocate of enforcing our gun laws. virginia is one of the best states in the country for doing that. i am an a-rated candidate and i am running against the only f- rated candidate running statewide. he is running an ad that says the only way we can be safe is to have restrictions on law- abiding citizens. >> we have a panel question from dr. bob. this is directed at mr. cuccinelli. >> southwest virginia has been hit hard. losing jobs. what in your job plan would specifically help the hard-hit areas here in the commonwealth of virginia, particularly south side and southwest virginia?

>> i agree with you that they have had the hardest time economically over a number of years. my jobs program was designed to maximize the number of job creation in the private sector without the government picking winners and losers. that is what we started the whole campaign with. it is what we still advance as one of the most important things i am campaigning on. that matters most in the parts of for junior that are struggling the most like southside, where we have the longest term unemployment. they are also suffering from a lot of the regulatory onslaught out of washington. my opponent said when he was running last time that he never wanted another coal plant in west virginia.

i have fought that kind of onslaught from washington that kills jobs and kills opportunity in the parts of virginia we need it the most. you look over in southside virginia where an enormous proportion of electricity is from coal-fired electricity generation. it is critically related to job creation for manufacturing, which we would like to see coming back to that part of virginia. it will not happen if we do not have reliable low-cost electricity, and i have been fighting for. >> thank you. mr. mcauliffe, 90 seconds. >> we have to focus on these communities and open these communities up to new business opportunities. the medicaid expansion would help tremendously. millions of dollars would be invested with quality, life- saving care. a lot of people get forced into poverty by their health care costs.

i supported the governor's transportation plan. my opponent sided with the tea party. if you want to open up communities, we have to get trucks off of 81. i support the coalfield expressway. my opponent doesn't. i also talked about what we need to do. broadband, cell phone access. i talk about the work being done here at virginia tech. carbon captures, storage, in fact i just met with a professor here. the idea that we can create all of these new jobs is really spectacular. it is there in front of us. we need to invest in that research. i commend virginia tech for the outstanding work they have done. you cannot grow the economy and bring in new professor.

-- new professors. scientists.you cannot grow an economy by suing scientists. >> mr. mcauliffe. >> we have an area of some agreement here. the state has a role to play in energy research. where we part ways is terry mcauliffe wants to have one quarter of our electricity coming from solar, wind, and geothermal by 2025. that would cost over 40% higher electricity rates. they estimate they are going to lose 10,000 jobs by 2020 and they are less than half our size. that is 20,000 lost jobs for virginia. that is not the way to ensure the southwest can continue on.

you hear again, the medicaid expansion. the magic money tree that funds everything terry mcauliffe talks about. the $300 million in new spending spending -- the $3.5 billion that will cost every family $1700 more in new taxes every year. >> dr. harry wilson, your question for terry mcauliffe. >> many citizens say they want elected officials that will compromise to get eggs done. -- compromise to get things done. how can you know when to compromise and when to fight for principles? can you give an example form your own experience when it was right to compromise and an example of when it was right to stick to your principal? >> the transportation package. i spoke to both democratic caucuses twice.

i thought it was important for how we grow our economy. i want every woman to know that i trust women to make their own decisions about their own health care decisions. compromise is not a bad word. my opponent will not compromise. he has a rigid ideological agenda. my opponent would make the pill illegal. it is my opponent who threatened and bullied the board of health that could result in 20 women's health centers being shut down. thousands of women use the centers for cancer screening and affordable birth control. my opponent has referred to gay virginians as selfless and soulless human beings. who talks like that? you cannot grow and diversify our economy with its mean- spirited language. he sponsored legislation to tell virginians when they can and cannot get out of a marriage.

he wants to define when you can get divorce. there is an important bill to increase child support payments to rise with inflation. not all that controversial. a 39-1 vote. guess who voted against it? ken cuccinelli. compromise is not a bad word. >> time. mr. cuccinelli. >> i am the only person with experience working on a bipartisan basis to do anything. terry mcauliffe did not do anything for the transportation bill. i have compromised on a previous transportation bill when i was actually involved in it. in 2007 when i was in the state senate, we got 21 votes for a compromised transportation bill. governor tim kaine proceeded to make it unconstitutional and it collapsed. i did not compromise when it

came to getting property rights passed in virginia. it took eight years of hard fighting. you know who the key vote was, the last democrat. it took many years of fighting with the leadership of both parties. there is a time to fight in a time to compromise. he mentioned abortion clinic regulations. i have long sought to compromise and they rejected. what he said was flat out false and i believe terry knows it. that personhood bill was a bipartisan bill. he is treating you falsely and you have to be careful not to believe what he is saying. >> mr. mcauliffe, do you want to address that?

we are talking about compromise. someone said, having the experience to work with government. how would you work with richmond? >> the day after the election, i will meet with ever republican in the house of delegates. sequestration is going to be in for another year. you have got to learn to work together. that is why 12 former public and legislators, many of whom worked with ken cuccinelli, have endorsed my candidacy. the mayor of virginia beach. the fairfax chamber of commerce supports me. look at the endorsements i have received. the washington post, the virginian-pilot, the daily post, which endorsed mitt romney. they say, terry mcauliffe will

bring people together. pragmatism over ideology. in order to move forward, we have to do it in a bipartisan way. that is why so many republican business leaders and leaders -- officials have endorsed me. >> chris with a question from the viewers. robert sarvas, the libertarian candidate for governor has been denied the opportunity to take place -- take part in this debate. how do you feel about the decision not to allow him to participate in this debate? jessie from alexandria says, was his exclusion from the debate in the commonwealth's best interests and why? >> i was an invited candidate here and i am happy to participate. wdvj set the rules and i abide by the rules.

i expect to be participating in an event with him on saturday. the race is not over yet. i am proud to have congressman ron paul's endorsement. in my lifetime in virginia, i am the strongest pro-liberty candidate ever elected. i have fought for the smallest, one person, who served 27 years for a crime he did not commit. i defended his liberty to get him exonerated. i worked with democrats in the senate to make that possible. next month, i will argue another one of those cases to exonerate another man was convicted falsely. >> thank you, mr. cuccinelli. mr. mcauliffe, what do you think of his exclusion from the debate?

>> we were happy to have him. we made that clear to the television and everybody else. a lot of the issues that he campaigns on, he and i have talked on different issues. we are about bringing folks together to move the, well forward. -- the commonwealth forward. my opponent always attacks the federal government. he was quiet on one big issue. when the violence against women issue came up for reauthorization, 47 attorneys general signed a letter asking that that be reauthorized. only three attorneys general did not do it. one of them was ken cuccinelli. we have got to stop this attack on women. we have got to stop this attack on gay virginians. we cannot put walls up in virginia if we are to grow. >> thank you, mr. mcauliffe.

now we go to dr. bob with a question for terry mcauliffe. >> the two of you have raised over $40 million for this election. the libertarian candidate has raised less than $100,000. polls suggest he is drawing support from both parties and across the ideological spectrum. can you explain how you have not been more effective at keeping your natural constituents more loyal to your campaign? what message are you hearing from the voters? >> i hope on election day they will be loyal. let's wait until everybody actually goes and votes. from the beginning of this campaign, december 4, when i got into this race, i talked about the issues that are important. in northern virginia, where dorothy and i have raised our

five children, i can tell you as a parent, we have serious issues on transportation. we are stuck in traffic 67 hours a year. been more effective at keeping hampton road is gridlock. we have to preserve our tourism business. we have to make sure we are protecting our military assets. and i talk transportation, bipartisan, it is important. i talk about education reform. i talk about pre-k, early childhood development. if you take the average teacher pay, we ranked 50th out of 50 states. this is a great nation. we need to be bringing everybody together. i talk about what we need to do with the community colleges. i have visited every single one of them. how do we build upon that? that is what i have talked about from the beginning of this campaign. we have a difference on the medicaid expansion. i want to make sure the

commonwealth of virginia is the best of the 50. the way to do it is do a bipartisan way. i hope the voters will show they will listen. >> thank you, mr. mcauliffe. mr. cuccinelli. >> a lot of platitudes and no details. this is one thing terry mcauliffe is the best in the history of the country at. that is raising political money. in his book, he says, i like governor's race the best. race the best. they have stuff to give away. when he was asked about a teamsters case in which he was an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1990's, he said, you help me, i help you. that is politics.

that is not my politics. i believe good policy is good politics. i passed a piece of electricity legislation. i had donors on both sides of that. virginia got lower electricity bills by about $1 billion between now and 2025. i am the only candidate in this race who has ever proposed a solution. the gas companies did not like it. but it was my solution. if you elect me your next governor, we will move ahead with a mandate from you to implement that solution whether those companies like it or not. you get you help me, i help you. that is politics from terry mcauliffe. or you get good policy from ken cuccinelli. >> mr. mcauliffe, you talk about the medicaid expansion.

what if it doesn't come through? how will you pay for the things in your budget? >> you do not get them until you pay for them. he called social security and medicare -- he said these were government programs created by dependent on government. my mother is 91 years old. she has paid into this her entire life. she is not dependent on the government and it was not created by ad politicians. that was in his book. he talks about the own nations. -- about donations. ken cuccinelli got a $100,000 contribution from counsel energy. they were siding against thousands of people who were due money and the attorney general's office was providing data,

hurting thousands of virginians. >> mr. mcauliffe, thank you. dr. harry wilson for ken cuccinelli. >> governor serves only 14-year term. -- only 1 four-year term. assuming you are the next governor of virginia, at the conclusion of your term, what do you hope journalists and pundits identify as your signature issue? please limit yourself to one issue. >> i believe getting the economy moving as fast as possible and more diverse as we watch the damage we are taking in virginia from sequestration, from a federal government we all know has to shrink. we have such a big part of our economy tied to those federal dollars. we need diversification in those areas. you have already asked about the needs in southside and southwest where we have longer-term and more difficult circumstances. the single most important thing i can get accomplished is my

jobs plan. it will create 58,000 new jobs by reducing personal income tax. that is where small businesses pay their taxes. when they are growing, they hire faster than any other business. also, we will lower the business income tax to 4%, which will make us most competitive state in the country, paid for by reducing the growth of government spending. as well as getting rid of about 1/6 of our tax credits and loopholes. if there is one thing i can get done, that is the one. more people are dying for the dignity of work and i mean full time work, not obamacare part- time work. >> mr. mcauliffe. >> obviously, growing and diversifying the economy is the

huge challenge we face. sequestration will most likely be here for another year. it will have a dramatic impact on the virginia economy. we are the number number one recipient of dod funds. how do you grow and how do you diversify? that is why i talk about education. that is how you grow. the great work being done here at virginia tech. old dominion university. new-wave technologies. i talk about doubling the r&d tax credit. doubling the angel investor tax credit. we need to be doing a better job of taking the great research we have and helping to take that out to market, to commercialize it. that is how you grow and diversify an economy. got to have to have an effective health care delivery system.

>> what one issue do you want to be remembered for? you still have a little more time. you have 20 more seconds. >> i will say it again. creating jobs and diversifying the economy. dorothy, who is with me tonight, we want our five children to stay here. i have 2 in college. they will be getting out soon. we want to make sure they stay here. you have to have those jobs in the future. >> mr. cuccinelli. more platitudes -- >> more platitudes. no plan. he has made clear he does not like my plan. saying the words education and research, that is all great. those are goals. those are platitudes, what they are not plants. i like education.