my parents taught me an american dream where our best days were ahead of us, not behind us, where we are a forever young country, and i want to talk to you today how we have to fight to preserve that american dream for our children and grandchildren. i want to start by sharing with you why that american dream is so important to me. my parents, my dad especially, he has lived the american dream. my dad is one of nine kids, first and only one of his family that got past the fifth grade. grew up in a house without electricity and without running water. i know because we heard these stories every single day growing up. maybe you've got a parent or grandparent like that who is the first in your family, and what's amazing is nearly 50 years ago, my mom and dad came from halfway across the world -- they came

from america because they were in search of the american dream. i want you to think about something -- there was no there was no internet back then. it was not easy to get on a plane back then. parents had never been to louisiana. they had unshakable conviction. they had an unshakable faith that if you get there and work hard and get a great education, you can provide your children with a better quality of life. they knew the american dream was alive and well. they came nearly 50 years ago so that my mom could study at lsu. my dad -- he did not know anybody. he opened up the phone book, went through the yellow pages and started calling company after company after company looking for a job.

i don't know how many people turned him down or how many people laughed in his face or slammed the phone down, but after hours, days -- i don't know, maybe even after weeks of making phone calls, he finally convinced a guy to take a chance on him. there was a guy at a railroad company that said, "you can start on monday." what i love about the rest of the story is you have to meet my dad to understand it. he had not even met his new job. he tells his boss who he has never met, "that's great. i'll start monday. i don't have a car. i don't have a drivers license. you have to pick me up on the way to work monday." his boss was so taken by his enthusiasm and energy he did that. six months later, i was born in baton rouge, same hospital where my -- a couple of my kids were born.

by the way, when i was born, i was what you would likely call -- politely call a pre-existing condition. there was no obama care or anything like that back then. my dad did something that was pretty simple and pretty common back then. he went to the doctor and shook hands with the doctor and said, "i will send you a check every month until i pay this bill in full." no obamacare, no government programs, no paperwork, two guys in a hospital shaking hands, and that's just what you did. when my kids were born, we had great insurance. it took us hours to fill out the paperwork. it wasn't nearly that simple, but i don't know if that would work today. i asked my dad -- it was a simpler time back then. i said, "how do you pay for a baby on lay away? if you skip a payment, do they take the baby back?" he said, "don't worry. you are paid in full. no one is going to take you back."

the reason i tell you back is my -- the reason i tell you that is my parents have lived the american dream. my dad would always tell my brother and me growing up that he was not leaving us an inheritance or a famous last name, but he said every single day we should get on our knees and thank god we were blessed to be born in the greatest country in the history of the world, the united states of america. [applause] my dad said what is so great is that if you are willing to work hard, if you get a great education, there's no limit on what you can do in this great country. there's so many things i could talk about that we have done.

i just signed a couple of bills on thursday helping to make sure louisiana continues to be the most pro-life state in the country. [applause] we put our own version of the second amendment into our state constitution, but the thing i want to talk to you about today, and one of the things i think is the most -- one of the most important things we have done is we have fought to preserve the american dream for all church in -- for our children, and impart that means making sure every child has the chance to get a great education. if you say it's not fair to tell a child you have the chance to pursue the american dream if you are trapped in a failing school -- we have done several things. one of the most important things we have done is said we are going to let the dollars follow the child instead of making the child follow the dollars. [applause] 90% of our kids in new orleans are in charter schools. we have doubled the percentage

between reading a graph on -- a reading and math on grade level in five years. we have got one of the countries most expansive, ambitious, comprehensive, school chores -- choice programs so the parents can decide because every child learns differently. some children are better homeschooled. some children do better in public schools. some children do better in christian schools, parochial schools, online schools, dual enrollment programs. we trust our parents. unions did not like this much. one of them got up and said, "parents don't have a clue when it comes to making choices for their kids." i cannot summarize the debate at her between the left and the right. you see, they don't think we are smart enough to the size -- to decide what size soda we drink. they don't think we are smart enough to exercise our second amendment rights.

they don't think we are smart enough to buy our own health insurance product and decide what we want to buy. they don't think we're smart enough to pick the schools for our children or to exercise our first amendment rights. they took us to the state supreme court. we picketed. we won those fights. we have a program where we are saving taxpayers tens of millions of dollars. 93% of the taxpayers are happy with the program. it's growing by double digits. who could be opposed to giving children better education and more choices? eric holder, that's who. the department of justice, eric holder actually took us to federal court to stop these children from having a chance to get a great education. i went to d.c. and called the administration's attempts cynical, hypocritical, and immoral. [applause] i don't think i'm on president

obama's christmas card list anymore, but that's ok. i said that these kids only have one chance to grow up. i said it's immoral almost 50 years to the day of martin luther king's famous "i have a dream" speech to trap the children in failing schools, but it is also that the critical. i say it's hypocritical because you know and i know there's not a chance in the world eric holder or president obama would send their children to these failing schools they are trying to force louisiana kids to attend. [applause] and i'm glad they have the ability to send their kids to great schools. i just want the same ability for kids in the louisiana, iowa, and every state of this great country. you may wonder how we get to a point where our federal government is trying to trap kids in failing schools. i would argue this goes back to something president clinton said

in the 1990's. remember, he said the era of big government is over. never before has somebody been so wrong about something so important in our modern political history. david axelrod actually said something i was agree with -- i agree with. he was trying to defend president obama in the middle of one of the scandals. there have been so many it's hard to keep track, but this is what he said -- he said the federal government is so vast, so expansive, the president could not possibly be responsible. you know, he is exactly right. that is the problem -- the government is too fast and too expansive. -- vast and too expansive. we have seen things that i never would have believed would have happened in the united states of america. if i can build a time machine and go back in time, if i were

standing in front of you years ago before president obama had taken office, if you really believed that the federal government would run up a $17 trillion debt, would you have believed me? no. if i had gone back in time and asked if you really believe the federal government was going to use the irs to go after conservative groups because of their beliefs, would you have believed me? no. if i had gone back in time and asked if you would really believe the department of justice would try to take away guns from law-abiding citizens while they provide guns to mexican drug cartels and fast and furious, would you have believed me? no. if i had gone back in time and asked if you really believe that they would create a new, expensive entitlement program putting bureaucrats between our doctors and patients when we cannot afford the government we got, would you have believed me? no. if i had gone back in time and asked would you really believe when our ambassador was killed in libya, they would blame it on a youtube video, would you have believed me? no. if i had gone back in time and said that our secretary of state would get so exasperated with the congress, with the senate for asking her about this she would actually say "what difference does it make," would

you have believed me? if i had gone back in time and said the department of justice would be spying on ap reporters in the press, would you have believed me? >> no. and here is perhaps one of the most dangerous overreach is a federal government power -- time and time again, we think we have seen the worst. we have the federal government intruding into our religious liberties, one of the most dangerous assaults on constitutional freedoms by our founding fathers, can you believe that the obama administration found the supreme court threatening the green family and hobby lobby with fines of up to $1.3 million a day simply because they don't want to use their money to buy abortions for their employees? one of the most important fights we face as a country is to stand up for our first amendment religious liberty -- religious rights. [applause]

i knew the president did not like our second amendment rights. i thought he was ok with the first amendment. i guess he does not like those either. this president has the wrong idea about religion -- he thinks it starts and ends on sunday. the united states of america did not create religious liberty. religious liberty created the united states of america. it is the reason we live in this great country. [applause]

you may have noticed there was a controversy over the "dynasty" family a while ago -- "duck dynasty" family and while ago. >> [inaudible] >> the guy is right. one of the first defenders was the governor of louisiana. you may have thought i defended them simply because the family is from louisiana. you may have thought i defended them simply because they are friends of mine. you may have thought i defended them because my little boys are big fans. you may have thought i defended him because i think it's great to have a tv show you can actually watch with your family, you don't have to worry about the language and the images and all that other nonsense that comes up. [applause] the reason i defended them is this -- i am tired of the left. i'm tired of their hypocrisy, tired of them saying they

tolerate debate and dissent. the reality is this -- they do tolerate debate and dissent for everybody except for those that have the temerity to disagree with them. [applause] by the way, i don't think it's any coincidence the assault on religious liberty happened to be focused on evangelical christians in our society. i'm not generally in favor of lawsuits, but there is one lawsuit i would endorse -- we like to say that president obama is a smart man. we like to call him a constitutional scholar. i know he spent three years at harvard law school. i would encourage and recommend to him that he sues harvard law school to get his tuition money back. i'm not sure what he learned while he was there. [applause] i thought it was pretty ironic a few months ago at the national

prayer breakfast, the president spoke eloquently about the war on religious liberty, on christians being persecuted overseas -- and let's be clear -- there's a silent war on religious liberty at home in america. there's a shooting war overseas. there are men and women being killed, executed, tortured for their beliefs overseas, and i'm not trying to compare the two, but it was disjointed to hear the president get up and speak so eloquently about the need to protect the rights of religious liberty, the freedoms, the ability of christians to worship on an international basis. i don't think he realized the irony that once again there was a grand canyon sized gap between what he says and what he does right here at home. president obama basically said if you like your religious liberty, you can keep your religious liberty. [applause]

as i close, i just want to focus on the latest piece of insanity that now defines our foreign policy -- apparently, the president has adopted a catch and release program when it comes to terrorists. as i wrap up, i've got just three questions i want to ask, and i want to make sure i understand, want to make sure we are on the same page. the first question i got for you is this -- do you think the president of the united states should set the precedent that we now negotiate with terrorists? do you think the president of the united states should just unilaterally decide when and how he wants to obey or break united states laws and constitution? do you think the president of the united states should release five terrorists who oppose not only the united states of america but our way of life so they can go back and rejoin the fight against americans?

as i think about this, it leads me to one inescapable just difficult question. i want your opinion on this as well -- are we witnessing the most liberal, ideological extreme administration we have seen in our lifetime right here in the united eighth of america? or are we witnessing the most incompetent administration we have witnessed in our lifetime right here in these united states of america? [applause] i've thought about this long and hard. this is a tough question like which came first -- the chicken or the egg? the only answer i've been able to come up with, the best answer, actually comes from secretary clinton herself.

to quote our secretary, "what difference does it make?" [applause] i am here to tell you there's a revolution brewing. i am a complete optimist about the future of these united states of america. our founding fathers, our founding fathers trusted not in the brilliance of our federal government, not in the beautiful buildings and monuments of washington, d.c. -- they trusted in the brilliance of a free people. they knew if you got the government out of the way, if you freed the entrepreneurial spirit and the everyday love in hard work of moms and dads, that truly, the american dream would be alive and well. they knew and we know that we will leave more opportunities

for our children than we inherited from our parents. i know this -- there's a rebellion brewing in these united states of america. people don't want incremental change. we want a hostile takeover of washington, d.c. our best days are ahead of us. god bless the united states of america. thank you very much for allowing me to speak with you today, and god bless the great state of iowa. thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you very much. it is so great to be back in iowa. i am actually on vacation, and when i was asked to speak your today, i talked to my wife, and she said, "it's right in the middle of our two-week vacation," and i said that chuck grassley has always told me i should vacation in iowa more

often, so here i am. i am honored and happy to be here. [applause] i will admit, i will not be here long. i have a book i will be signing which you will be hearing about in a minute because -- because i want to talk to you about what is in that book. if you cannot make the book signing, i will be at my friend's reception later this afternoon. hope i get a chance to see everybody. i feel like i'm coming back home in many respects. had a wonderful experience a couple of years ago. i can tell you that it changed me. it changed our family. we have a very special place in our heart for the people of the state of iowa.

last time i was talking to a group anywhere near this side was just down the road at stony creek inn on caucus night. that night, i got up and talked about my grandfather, and i talked about my grandfather's funeral. when i was a young man, the first person i had ever seen who had died was my funeral. -- my grandfather. i knelt next to his casket. he was a coal miner, worked until he was 72 years old. i remember looking at his hands, these enormous hands of a coal miner who literally as an immigrant dug his way for freedom and opportunity for me and my family. the reason i talked about that that night and i continue to talk about it was because to me, he -- even though he was not a republican, he was a dang democrat, but that hard work, responsibility, take

responsibility for yourself and create a better life for the next generation, that the great -- immigrant experience, that blue-collar experience -- to me, that is the republican party. years ago when i was growing up, the republican party was the country club set. it was the corporate set. it was the 1%. if you look at the surveys right now, those folks are voting -- aren't voting republican anymore. the 1% aren't republicans, by and large. the areas we use to win, rich suburban areas -- they are not republican anymore. as i crisscross iowa, you know the republicans i met were hard working people, folks who were not corporate executives, people who work for a living on -- earn wages, small business people trying to piece things together, who believed in the american

dream, who believed in work and responsibility. that's the republican party. that's who we are, but let's be honest -- that's not how we talk as republicans. that's not our message, as the republican establishment would have us dictate. our message is all about corporatism and business. i remember at the convention, i spoke on a tuesday night at the national convention, and i walked into the arena, and there were placards on all the seats. do you know what the placards read? "we built that." we spent an entire night at a convention bringing out small

business person after large business person talking about how they built their business. not one time did we bring out a business owner and a worker to talk about how they built their business. we can win every business person's vote and still lose elections by landslides. we need workers if we are going to win. we need to start talking to workers if we are going to win. but that is who we are. that is who the workers in the republican party are. that's who the base of the republican party are. look at any of the surveys. as far as a lot of workers in america are concerned, we don't care about them because we don't talk about them. if our message is -- which it has been for quite some time, cut taxes, particularly focused on higher income individuals to create growth and opportunity, balance the budget, and cut benefits, if you are part of the

80% of americans who do not get welfare benefits and are not the top income earners, where are you in this picture? you see, what is the most favorite word of every single person in america? their own name. republicans get up and deliver a message and paint this beautiful picture of growth and economic prosperity, but as we paint that picture, they do not see themselves in this picture. we are not going to win elections then. i wrote this book "blue collar conservatives." i'm traveling the country talking to candidates, and painting for candidates, and encouraging them.

start talking about average working americans. stop talking about corporations and wall street and business. yes, we want to be the party of growth, but we also want to be the party that is pro-worker as well as progrowth. [applause] you say, "well, how do we do this?" it's very simple. one of the reasons we did as well as we did not just here in iowa but in 10 other states is we went out and talked about the core things that connect to average working americans. energy, and toin create manufacturing jobs because lower energy costs result in better opportunity for

manufacturers to be profitable. i went out with a whole plan on manufacturing and how we have to bring jobs made in america back in the lexicon of the republican party. we need not just the rhetoric to say things we want made in america, we need policies that make that possible. americans can compete with higher wages because we have better talent, better patent , butctions, cheaper energy we have higher litigation costs. that is something government can do something about. [applause] talk about manufacturing, energy, construction, rebuilding the infrastructure of america.

we can do that by shifting from the waste and excess of this bloated federal budgets, andave start putting people back to work. you start talking about jobs. 70% of americans do not have college degrees. all do,d assume that we because that's the jobs we are talking about. good payingave jobs, family sustaining jobs, and areas where folks who don't go to college can also raise a family. i will give you a little statistic during the campaign. i had a meeting with governor romney's people shortly after the campaign. they shared a survey with me. all the exit polls were always wrong, and they would come out about 6:00 and underestimate how well i did.

they started noticing that too, state after state, that we did better than what the exit polls show. we did not have money to do polling. they started asking the question , when are you planning to vote? what happened startled me. if you are going to vote before 6:00, governor romney and i were tied. if you are going to vote after 5:00, i was ahead by 21 points. over 6 million workers stayed home and did not vote in the 2012 election. they would not vote for barack obama, but they did not think that we cared. because we don't talk about them and their lives. economics.st about

the folks struggling in america, the people whose wages are stagnant and inflation is creeping away, there are other things doing in their lives to. you know what the democrats will hit us with this fall? income inequality. what is our answer? what will we do, say cut capital gains taxes? what is our answer. let's look at their studies. they actually did studies. their studies show all the liberal colleges and think tanks on income inequality, they found out two major things. inequality has not increased in america in the last 50 years. that does not mean that is good. income had a lot of inequality, and we should be concerned about that.

what they found was the number one factor, the number one factor to determine whether people rise in society or not is not education. marriage and family. [applause] if you were raised in a two parent family, you do better. if you live in a two-parent family with a husband and wife and family ,you do better. i'm not talking about fighting the battle of redefining marriage. i'm talking about the battle of reclaiming marriage as an institution that we should be promoting in america. [applause] we have lost the marriage debate in america for one reason.

during our watch, marriage has been redefined. people'sis now by most calibration simply a romantic relationship between two people that the government of firms. ladies and gentlemen, if that is all marriage is, as far as i'm concerned, everybody should be able to get married. that's what marriage is. at least that's not what marriage used to be. marriage is to be a union between and man and woman for the purpose of coming together to raise children to give every child their birthright to be raised by their natural mother and natural father. why can't we reclaim marriage? why can't we do what we do with lots of other things? everyone knows we should not text and drive. everybody in society says, don't do it. you know you are not supposed to

smoke. you are not supposed to drink beverages. none of those things have the health impact on children, on adults that marriage does. we need to be [no audio] on the public good of marriage, and we need to have policies that promote the two things i just talked about. work and marriage. [applause] there's a study i talked about all the time. if you do three things in america, if you do these three things, you are almost guaranteed to percent chance you will ever be in poverty in america. one, work. two, graduate from high school. three, get married before you have children. you do those three things, and america will never be in poverty.

[applause] now, look at what the obama administration is doing on work and marriage. was campaigning wisconsin and the state senator told me that in wisconsin, if you are married and have two children -- if you are unmarried and have two children, and you make $15,000 a year, you receive $38,000 in government benefits. if you marry, you lose them all. understand -- it is not just wisconsin, it is every state. do you know what that means? the government prohibits -- makes it economically infeasible for single moms to marry. it makes it a bridge too far, because it is economically impossible. the same thing with work.

you heard all the talk about obamacare and how it is a disincentive to work. look at all the welfare programs. every single one of them. the more you work, the lower your benefits get. we have a government right now that is fixated on keeping people unmarried and not working. we have to be the party of work and marriage if we want to be successful, and if america is to be successful. [applause] i think we will have a great 2014 here in iowa. i think we have great candidates. a great governor. great senate candidate. great congressional candidates. i have no doubt 2014 will be a good year. simply because of how bad the president and his party is doing right now. why candidates and all of you want to go out and

just [indiscernible] it is getting easier every day. look what is going on in iraq right now. his major foreign-policy accomplishment, al qaeda has been decimated. yeah, right. this president is a failure on every front. ,f we want to transform america not the way he's talking about it, but back to the values that made this country the greatest country in the history of the world, the reason why people , we have tome here have a positive agenda. we don't have to do with the establishment says we have to do. we don't have to be more like them. we have to be true to the principles that made our country great, which are the principles of the republican platform and our conservative principles. [applause]

we don't have to compromise in my opinion on anything. is simplyrvatism is this, what has worked. what we want is what we know has worked to create a great america. don't have to go out and appeal to different interest groups because for diversity sake. you want to appeal to recent almost all recent immigrants are working their way up the economic ladder. almost all of them are in blue or service related jobs. you go out and start talking to them not about immigration -- we don't have to talk about immigration. if we do, we should talk about how immigration is suppressing their wages and keeping their wages down and not allowing them and their family opportunity to rise in america. that's the message that has some say, we have to bring in 2.5 million people a year and give amnesty to 13 million people.

it is a message that we as republicans care about you as have your wages be family sustaining wages and undermining those as the democrats want to do well put you more on the government payroll, which makes you want to vote more like democrats. that is not what anybody wants. ladies and gentlemen, we have a message for average working americans. we are the party of average working americans. we need to be that party, not theory, but we need to talk about it, we need to campaign on it. i had a meeting this week with the prime minister of australia, tony abbott. do know what he told me? he campaigned and the reason he was able to win as a conservative in australia is because he campaigned on

blue-collar values, on working people values. ladies and gentlemen, the people of america, the workers of america know that president obama's policies have let them down. they just have to know the we care. 20 threest election, percent of people in the exit polls answered this question -- they were asked the question, what's the most important issue in the election for president for you. 23% said, does he care about people like me. those people were all lower and middle income people. all lower and middle income people. a quarter of the electorate. our candidate got 19% of those votes. i know you care about working americans because you are working americans.

you need to demand your leaders to stop listening to the voices tothe big cities who want talk about capital gains and cuts for higher income individual's taxes and start talking about creating growth and opportunity for all working americans. then we will be a majority party, not just in iowa, but across this country for a long time to come. thank you very much, and god bless you. [applause] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014] and some news on the situation and iraq. a u.s.ports that aircraft carrier and 50 other attack aircraft were headed to the persian gulf after recent violence by sunni militants there. the pentagon confirmed that the aircraft were in the region and available to launch attacks if president obama should choose

that course of action. in a statement yesterday, the president talked about the situation in iraq. he said his administration was looking at all of the options available short of boots on the ground. for over 35 years, c-span brings public affairs events from washington directly to you, putting you in the room at 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. we are c-span, created by the cable tv industry 35 years ago and brought to you as a public service by your local cable or satellite provider. like us on hd, facebook and follow us on twitter. president0 years ago, lyndon johnson gave a speech at the dedication ceremony for the university of california at irvine. this is archival footage from

that time. the ceremony attended by about 12,000 people, at a time when the u.s. was dealing with the vietnam war, civil rights movement, assassination of president kennedy. today,s from here president obama will be at uc irvine to deliver the commencement address to the graduating class. we will bring that to you live starting at 3:00 eastern time. week the president signed an executive order on student loan debt that allows partners to cap their monthly payments at 10% of their income and allows for unpaid debt to be forgiven after 20 years. we will take a closer look at the president plus -- presi dent's plan now. >> joining us from california is natalia abrams. she is the cofounder and executive director here to talk about the topic of student loans. good morning. guest: good morning. host: could you tell our

audience about your organization and its background? guest: two years ago studentd ebtcrisis.org was made. this was based on my colleagues who wrote a petition to forgive student loan debt. it was quite similar to the president's plan. it was a ten-year repayment program at 10%. we received over a million signatures. at that point we realized we had a real crisis on our hands, and it was the time to organize and organize a nonprofit so we could really attack the single issue. the issue itself has so many facets. we felt we needed something dedicated to the debt crisis. host: who are your supporters, and how are you funded? guest: we are not really funded. we operate online. we don't have any money. this is a labor of love -- labor of love for the cofounders and a labor of love. for sign on to

accessing our member list. we work with a higher ed not debt campaign. that is a coalition of think tanks and policy groups, grassroots organizers like organizations.it through that they help fund some of the great ideas we want to do to attack this crisis. host: were you in washington when the president announced taking looks at student loan actions -- what did the president do, and what is your take on this? this past monday the president announced he was expanding his pay as you earn initiative. it allows borrowers to pay 10% of their income for 20 years, and the rest would be forgiven. that would be taxable, that remaining balance. we feel it is a very good step.

by no means does it solve the whole crisis. one legislator will not do that or it it will help 5 million more borrowers and is a step in the right direction. host: as far as the debt forgiveness portion, does that ultimately go to the taxpayer if that is forgiven? guest: yes, you are probably right on that. dominosay that the effect in the economy by having such high student loan debt, $1.2 trillion, that is going to affect the taxpayer an american citizen may be more than the slight tax increase that will happen in student loan forgiveness. host: you highlighted the $1.2 trillion in a piece in the "wall street journal." how many of those loans are in default currently? guest: roughly about 7 million people that are in default, out of the 40 million borrowers out there. we feel this is a real problem,

specifically at studentdebtc risis.org, we are fighting for the default of barware. you cannot enroll in that program unless you're loan is a good standing. we need to figure out a program to help the people who are suffering the very most in that crisis, and so far that does not exist. to goe not allowed bankrupt on your student loans. host: when it comes to the plan itself, is this a negotiation between the person who receives how don and the bank -- you think they will respond to what the president is proposing? guest: this is for federal student loans only. i would say we have seen that the department of education has made to the tune of 50 plus million dollars. as senator elizabeth warren says, that is quite obscene. helping these borrowers, i've

got to go back to that domino effect. i'm so worried about this being the next big bubble to burst. the great people at the consumer financial protection bureau have i highly suggest anyone check really highlighted this issue. out the testimony this past week on just how much this is affecting our overall economy. host: $50 billion was because of previous action restructuring how student loans are done? guest: correct. we decided to federally back all student loans. for federal loans, we made the department of education the main servicer. there is a profit due to the high interest. the banks borrow at point 75%. student loan rates are at an average of 3.9%. for graduates and parents, it is 6.8%. host: you hear directly from people affected by this. what is it like to have student loans over your head? what is it like for a person trying to get a job and do the

things they do every day? an articlee" wrote about how it is affecting people's health. they don't see a light at the end of the tunnel. we see bankruptcy with credit card debt, foreclosure with mortgage debt. if you get into real trouble and fall behind. default happens after nine months, 270 days a failure to pay your loans. at that point, it gets really bad. all of a sudden your wages can be garnished, your social security can be garnished. if you are of social security age, you cannot apply for a reverse mortgage. in montana, they take your drivers license away. in many states, they take away your professional license. host: a fact from the "wall street journal" this morning saying that the average loan amount for undergraduates is $33,000.

why is that price going up? guest: we feel it is two factors. one of the biggest factors is state disinvestment. right after the financial crash of 2008 we saw a lot of states pull back their funding and spending for students. , they pulled back to the tune of 40%. there is also this fact that so many people are going to college . people feel this is their only option. i believe and student debt higherbelieves that education is a right, and people who want to go should be able to afford it right-- it. we need to encourage community colleges and trade certificates and other programs. the thalia abrams, our guest with studentdebtcrisis.org .

going tohat website by its address. we're here to talk about student loans and student loan reforms. we have divided the lines differently. if you are a student and want to give a first-hand account of -- you can going to call the numbers on your screen. send us your thoughts on twitter and by e-mail. first call for you is from ed. ed is from new york and he is a parent. my daughter recently graduated here in may. she has $33,000 in debt. i just talked with her recently and she's telling me that as an , she isry educator

facing one job per 600 applicants. what can happen to change that in the future? she has to cope with it by getting other jobs in the meantime. i'm concerned that she got all this training and then she is left with a one in 600 chance of in the areae job where she got her education. can you comment on that? guest: congratulations on having your daughter graduate from college. that is a huge achievement. unfortunately, it does come with this huge weight of debt strapped to it. did i hear you mention she's trying to be an educator? there's a great program called public service loan forgiveness. once she is able to get into a job and get past that threshold,

public service loan forgiveness, especially doubled with the president's program pay as you earn, will allow her to pay for 10 years and have the rest of the loan forgiven. jobeed to increase availability in this country. some of my great partners are working at that. keep trying. definitely pay off those loans and if they are federal loans, this is where the president's program is helping 5 million more people. i would say enroll immediately and pay as you aren't. the great part about pay as you earn, if your daughter is making zero or a low amount, she will only pay 10% on that. a really great stopgap before she can find a job that she belongs in. host: that extends the life ultimately of what they will pay for the loan. as we talkeds, but about what happens when you go into default, it is much better than default.

i would say for those who are underemployed or unemployed, this is a way to save yourself from going into default. it does extend the life and the interest. right now it is one of the better programs out there. that's why we exist. we want to keep fighting for better, more comprehensive reaffirm that allows borrowers to get out of this within 10 years. --t: from twitter you can put whatever parameters on that as you wish. guest: i don't think that has changed. i know as many people working full-time jobs. it is not our parents' student loan debt situation anymore. it was around the mid-70's that covered about 70%

of the cost of college. you could work a part-time or full-time job and take very little debt and be paid off in a year or two. now that we're seeing the cost of even a state school -- my alma mater is about $14,000 per year. private schools go up to $40,000. when you are accumulating debt amounts to the tune of $150,000 -- it is not that these young people are not working. the amount is so high that there is no way even with a full-time job in grants that they can pay off their loans right away. host: teddy is on our other line in fairmont, georgia. i'm a world war ii veteran and i went to college under the g.i. bill. me.se bear with i live near tennessee. now ised that tennessee going to have free tuition at

community colleges. this is a republican state. why can't other states have free tuition at community colleges? guest: thank you so much for your service. with you. i am a product of a community college as well. it was quite affordable when i went. i think i paid $13 per unit. now that is about $30 per unit. we see that outside of the washington beltway, this is not really a left or right issue. the two states that did not have state disinvestment after the crash were texas and montana. we need to stop politicizing this issue, making it a left-right issue. this is a human rights and civil rights issue. education, especially at the community college level and people are trying to learn a

trade, should be free or virtually no cost. huffington post talked about interest rates, saying that congress recently briefly allowed the interest rates of undergraduate student loans to double. they did not last long. the new deal reached this past summer did not do better. student loans will have variable interest rates, which can only go up. guest: that's right. they tied it to the treasury note. as senator warren said, when the banks are borrowing at .75%, why are we making students who want to better their lives pay such a high interest rate and have it be variable? --tain things in our country i am a capitalist and i believe in our democracy, cap the list, republics system. i don't think everything should be for profit great we don't

have interest rates on our health care debt. we don't have high interest rates on our irs tax debt. the irs is an easier agency to deal with than a student loan servicer, we have a problem. host: tom is a parent. i say what we have here is a right-left issue, the conservatives or republicans want to cast out students or people who are trying to seek at her positions -- better positions. debt situations to say it will cost the government more money if these people do not pay higher interest rates. they wanted to send troops into iraq and spend billions of dollars to kill people in iraq.

but to help american students, people who are trying to help themselves and build the country up i having educated people, they -- by having educated people, they hate that. guest: we had student debt -- we at student debt crisis believe this is a national security issue. we joke, why don't we put higher education into the defense bill? it was under eisenhower that it was part of defense for our country. the smarter we are, the less debt we have, the safer we are as a country. we need to start changing the nature of the debate. it's really important to remember this is not just a use issue. this is not college students drinking and partying with their money. we have 60% of people over the age of 30 that hold that 1.2 trillion dollars in debt, and roughly 13% to 15% of people over the age of 50. it is an intergenerational

issue. host: a viewer disagrees with you. on twitter -- guest: they are completely entitled to their opinion, but that is something we strongly believe that student debt crisis. our: from colorado, on others line. i have some real quick, it's. -- comments. i am seeing a lot of jobs being canceled. a good welder can get over $100,000 a year. in the 1970's, you went to college for $18 a credit. like everything else the government touches, the more the government gets into it, the more expensive it is.

to government ought out-of-the-way and let the free enterprise really do their thing. then people could really afford college. thank you very much. guest: there are a lot of people that agree with you, sir, however we have seen where the private industry has taken over. a lot of people used to go to community college to get their trade certificates and now they are going to university of evry at very high costs to attend. the default rate we mentioned at around seven dollars million, 50% of people went to those for-profit colleges. do not think the private industry is doing much better than the government. i tend to think the government is doing all it can to alleviate the burden on students. host: why do you think there has been a shift from community colleges to for-profit institutions? guest: we have seen more of

them. i do not quite know that, sir. i will have to look into that. from here is the president earlier this week. here is president obama from monday laying out part of his proposal. [video clip] >> i made it clear i wanted to work with congress on this issue. generation of a young people cannot afford to wait for congress to get going. the members of congress who are here are working very hard and putting forth legislation to try to make the stuff happen, but they have not gotten some of the support they need. action,year of wherever i have seen ways i can act on my own to expand opportunities to more americans i have. today, i will take three actions to help young people pay off their student loan debt. i directing arne duncan to give more americans who are already making their loan payments a chance to cap those pavements at 10% of their income. we call it pay as you earn.

we know it works because we have already offered it to millions of young people. statementlso have the from representative john klein, chairman of the educational workforce committee saying that nothing the president announced will make the cost or affordable. upping the president promised will help graduates find jobs and opportunities they desperately need. ultimately the president did talk about working on congress on this. do you think this issue of resolving debt as far as congress is concerned is it a nonstarter? guest: well, we have seen senator elizabeth moran introduce her bank on -- senator elizabeth warren introducer bill. we did see three senate republicans vote for it. we're see more people come to power on this issue. the dial has to turn somewhere. i have been working in the time for five years, full-time for the last three years, and i've never seen so many of our legislators talk about this

issue. we have heard from senators warren and franken, that they will keep pushing the issue. we did not hear senator klein insult the program. he said it would not make college less affordable. there is some truth to that but the program will help 5 million more people. host: as far as how you got started, what made you get into this field? u.c. system09, the raised tuition 32%. i myself had just graduated that i had many of my friends that could not finish their four year college degree because they could not afford their senior year. think about that -- 32% from one year to the next. we believe there should be a single price per degree. cap it at five years. what other large consumer purchase that you purchase that changes the price on new year per year. you do not purchase a car at

$15,000 in the next year they say, the car is $22,000 now. 20 to create a single price per degree so those four or five years you take to do your degree stays at one price. host: are you still doing with student debt? guest: i have a little bit of debt left myself. i had initially $15,000. that is only from two years at ucla, because i was able to go to community college at a low price. i am doing pretty well. i pay 6.8%. i am not one of those that is struggling the way so many 40 million and are country -- in our country. host: can the student refinance? guest: no. at this point, there is limited refinancing. if you have a federal subsidized loan, your somewhere between 3.9% to 6.8%. if you are a graduate student or parent plus loans.

private student loans are at 12%. apply for any of the new programs the president has introduced. and elizabeth warren's refinancing bill would have saved 25 million borrowers. that would've helped those with private loans and those who have parent plus loans. host: next call for our guest is david from ohio. he is apparent. hi. caller: good morning c-span and the c-span audience. miss abrams, i appreciated your comments about bankruptcy. it is sort of ironic. i believe it was president bush who disallow the bankruptcy option. what is ironic about it is before he was president and he was involved with companies that did go bankrupt. these so-calledl

captains of industry on all the business shows, and i heard one of them -- i will not mention their names but they are all on cnbc and fox -- but one of them says he uses bankruptcy as a business tactic. that option is being discriminated against with these students. they should be allowed the option. believe me, not all of them will take it. probably a smaller portion than can be imagined. and those people within a year or two will be allowed to get mortgages, credit cards. rs.y will be pure borrowe4rs i think the bankruptcy option should be on the table basically in terms of the great american spirit of fairness. thank you so much for your wonderful comments. guest: yes. we agree that not everyone would

take advantage of bankruptcy. even former republican chair -- ,f the rnc michael steele said borrowers are not looking to bankruptcy to get out of their debt. a few -- will a few people take advantage of the system? that happens everywhere. are looking to bankruptcy for student loan debt, it is due to medical issues, unemployment due to the downturn in the economy. we believe that the bankruptcy, especially on these private student loans should exist in the should exist for everyone. we have heard people critique that there's no real asset behind that. and they cannot take your education away. i would say i could use my credit card and travel through europe. eat my way through europe as well and you cannot take that back, either, but yet i would be able to go bankrupt and foreclose on my home.

i do not know why student loan thisis scrutinized in negatively different debt that we take that in this country that you can go bankrupt. you cannot refinance. it has many negative implications that other types of loans do not have. host: do you think that students need to make better choices about their majors? guest: i don't. i think we need to remember what the university is about. it is about learning. it is about critical thinking. i was a gender studies major and i really value my education. i valued the conversations i had with my professors and my peers. i learned how to be an adult. i know that is not true for everyone. you should think hard and long about her college choice. this is not something you should rush into lightly. purchase should you rush into lightly but i do think you should pursue the degree you want to pursue because that is when you will be most engaged and most likely to complete your education. host: what is the private

scholarship feels like? do students have resources on that front, or are those collapsing as well because of the economy? guest: no. i think there still are a lot of scholarships out there and there are a lot of untouched scholarships. we have done a few lectures at community colleges and we really try to stress that looking for scholarships is your full-time job. if you're looking to go to school soon, check out all of your loan options. try to exhaust as much special subsidized loan debt as you can. also, look at scholarships. start with google. they have scholarships for everything. i'm a six foot tall woman. they have scholarships for that. they have scholarships for first-generation students. exhaust yourself with the amount of scholarships and grants and federal subsidized loans you can get. mont. cole chester, ver t.j, go ahead. caller: i also recently just

finished paying back all of my student loans and it was to the tune of $43,000. state university, the university of vermont, and i have to say i chuckled -- >> we will leave this conversation and take you live to the university of california-irvine for the commencement speech by president obama. gentlemendies and please welcome to the podium the president of united states. [applause] >> thank you. anteaters! [cheering] that is something i never thought i would say. [laughter] please take a seat.

polygon,--t the napolitano which is a nice step up from secretary, to fred ruiz, vice chair of the university of california regents, chancellor drake, representatives sanchez, to the trustees and faculty, thank you for this honor and congratulations to the class of 2014! [cheering] now, let me begin by saying all of you had the inside track in getting me here. because my personal assistant is a proud anteater. [cheering] today, i did not understand why she greets me every morning by shouting "zoot

zoot zoot." it's been weird. but she explained it to me on the way here this morning because she is very proud to see her brother graduate today as well. graduates, obviously we are proud of you but let's give it up for your proud family and friends and professors because this is their day, too. [applause] even though he is on the road this weekend, i wanted thank mike trout for letting recover his turf for a while. -- to cover his turf. he signed a bat for me which is part of my retirement plan. i will be keeping that. this is a cool place to hold the commencement. uc-irvine's

baseball team opens up college play in omaha now. let's get this speech underway. if the hot dog guy comes by, get me one. >> so awesome! theow, in in addition to graduates, i am here for a simple reason -- you asked. for those who don't know the uc-irvine community sent 10,000 postcards to the white house asking me to speak today. me intoed to guilt coming. i got one that said "i went to your first inauguration. can you these come to my graduation?" some tried bribery. "i'll support the chicago bulls." another set today would be your

birthday, so happy birthday whoever you are. my puzzle favorite -- my pers onal favorite. somebody wrote, "we are super underrated." i'm sure she was talking about the school. but keep in mind you're not only the number one university in america younger than 50 years old, you also hold the guinness world record for the guest wat -- for biggest water pistol fight. you are excited about that. super underrated. this young lady could have just as well been talking about this generation. i think this generation of young people is super underrated. lives, you have seen dizzying change. fomr rom terror attacks, to ecoc

turmoil, from twitter to tumblr. some of your families have known tough times during the course of the worst economic crisis since the great depression. you ra graduatingr into a healing job market. and some of you are carrying you areloan debt concerned about. and yet your generation, the most educated, the most diverse, the most tolerant, the most politically and dependent in the most digitally fluent in our history is also on record as being the most optimistic about our future. and i'm here to tell you that you are right to be optimistic. you raare right to be optimistic. consider this -- since the time most of you graduated from high school, fewer americans are at war. more have health insurance, more

are graduating from college, our businesses have added 9 million new jobs. the number of states where marry who you love has more than doubled. [applause] that's just some of the progress you have seen while you have been studying at uc irvine. real-- but we do face challenges. rebuilding the middle class and reversing inequalities. rating in college costs, protecting voting rights. welcoming immigrants and young dreamers who keep this country vibrant. of violence tide and guns inflict on our schools. got some big challenges. if you are fed a steady diet of ys nobody isat sa trustworthy and there is no way we can address these problems, then the temptation is to just go it alone, to look after

inrself and not participate the larger project of achieving our best vision of america. i'm here to tell you do not believe the cynicism. do not buy into it. today i want to use one case study to show you the progress is possible and perseverance is critical. i want to show you how badly we need you, both your individual voices and your collective efforts. to give you the chance you seek to change the world and maybe it. save i'm going to talk about one of the most significant long-term challenges our country and planet faces. the growing threat of a rapidly changing climate. this is not a policy speech. i understand it as a commencement and i delivered along climate address last summer. i remember because it was 95 degrees. my staff had me do it outside

sweatwas pouring with as a visual aid. since this is a very educated group, you already know the science. burning fossil fuels releases carbon dioxide. carbon dioxide traps heat. levels of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere are higher than they have been an 800,000 years. we know the trends. the 18 warmest years on record have all happened since you graduates were born. we know what we see with our own eyes. firefighters braved longer and harsher wildfire seasons. states have to budget for that. mountain towns worry about what smaller snowpacks mean for tourists. farmers and families at the bottom worry about what it will mean for their water.

in cities like norfolk and miami, streets flood at high tide. shrinking ice caps have national --national geographic making the biggest change in its applets since the soviet union broke apart. so the question is not whether we need to act. the overwhelming judgment of science accumulated and measured and reviewed over decades has put the question to rest. the question is whether we have the will to act before it is too late or if we fail to protect the world we leave not just to my children but to your children and your children's children, we will fail one of our primary reasons for being on this world in the first place. that is to leave the world a little bit better for the next generation. the good news is you already know all this. the firstset up

earth sciences system department in america. [applause] wonrvine team the nobel prize for discovering that cfc's destroy the ozone later. work led to one of last month's report showing one of the world's major ice sheets in retreat. students and professors are in predictd working to changing weather patterns, fire seasons and water tables. working to understand how shifting seasons affect global ecosystems. to get zero emission vehicles on the road faster, to help coastal communities adapt to rising seas. and when i challenges colleges to reduce their energy use 20% by 2020, uc irvine did it lester. done. -- uc irvine did it last

year. done. [applause] so uc irvine is ahead of the curve. all of you are had of the curve. -- ahead of the curve. regeneration reminds me of president wilson. he said, "some people call me an idealist. well, that is the way i know i am. i'm american. that is who we are. if you need a reason to be optimistic about our future, then look around the stadium because today in america, the largest single age group is 22 years old. and you are going to do great things. and i want you to know that i have got your back, because one of the reasons i ran for this office was because i believed to dangerous addiction foreign oil left our economy at risk and our planet in peril. so when i took office we set out

to use more clean energy and less dirty energy and waste less energy overall. since then we have doubled the distance our cars won't go on a gallon of gas by the middle of the next decade. -- will go on a gallon of gas. wind powerd enough to power every home in california. we multiplied the electricity we generate from the sun 10 times. california is so far ahead of the rest of the country and solar that earlier this year solar power met 18% of your total power demands -- one day. the bottom line is america produces more renewable energy than other. more natural gas than anyone. and for the first time in two decades we produce more oil at home then we buy from other countries. and these advances have created jobs and growing our economy and helped cut our carbon produce --carbon pollution. no country on earth

has reduced its total carbon pollution by as much as the united states of america. [applause] all reason for optimism. here's the challenge. we've got to do more. what we're doing is not enough. that is why a couple weeks ago america proposed new gators to limit the amount of harmful carbon pollution that power plants can dump into the air. asalso have to realize hundreds of scientists declared last month that climate change is no longer a distant threat but have moved into the present. that is a quote. in some parts of the country, weather-related disasters like droughts and fires and storms and floods are going to get harsher and costlier. that is why today i am announcing a new competitive fund to help communities prepare

for the impacts of climate change and build more infrastructure across the country. [applause] so it is a big problem. no matter how big the problem, is possible. that is important to remember because no matter what you do in life you are going to run up against big problems in your own personal life and in your communities and in your country. there is going to be a stubborn status quo. there will be people determined to stymie your effort to bring about change. there are going to be people who say you cannot do something. they are going to be people who say you should not bother. i've got some experience in this myself. part of what is unique about climate change is the nature of some of the opposition to action. it is pretty rare that you will

encounter somebody who says the problem you're trying to sell simply does not exist. -- trying to solve does not exist. when president kennedy set us on a course for the moon there were a number of people that made a case that it would not be worth it. it was going to be too expensive, too hard, it would take too long, but nobody ignored the science. i don't remember anybody saying the moon was not there or that it was made of cheese. today's congress is full of folks who stubbornly and automatically reject the science about on a change. they will tell you it is a hoax or fad. one member of congress actually says the world is cooling. one member who mentioned the theory involving dinosaur flatulence which i will not get into -- but wrong and aay be

fairly silly stat to everybody's future, but at least they have the breath to say what they think. there are some who ducked the question. when they are asked, they say, look, i am not a scientist. i will translate that for you. what that means is, i know that man-made climate change is happening but if i admitted i will be run out of town by a radical friends that rings climate change is a liberal plot so i am not going to admit it. scientist, either. but we have got some really good ones at nasa. the overwhelming majority of scientists who work on climate change, including some who once disputed the data, have put that debate to rest. thomas friedman put it to me this way. he said, your kid is sick. you consult 100 doctors. 97 of them tell you to do this.

3 tell you to do that. and you want to go with the three? the fact is this should not be a partisan issue. after all, it was the public if he used to lead the way i new ideas to protect our environment. -- it was republicans who used to be the way. it was teddy roosevelt who pushed for national parks and richard nixon who opened the epa. george h.w. bush, a wonderful man who at 90 just jumped out of a plane in a parachute, said that human activities are changing the atmosphere in unprecedented ways. republican, another publicly supported free-market based cap and trade to slow carbon pollution a few years ago before the tea party decided it was a threat to liberty. these days, on forcefully,

nothing has happened. even minor energy efficiency bills are killed on the senate floor. the reason is because people are thinking apologize instead of thinking about what is good for the next generation. politicsinking about instead of thinking about what is good for the next generation. good ofgood th-- the public office if you're not going to use it to solve problems? the media does not spend a lot of time covering climate change and letting average americans know how it could impact their futures. networks nightly newscasts spent a few minutes a month covering climate issues. on cable, the debate is between political pundits and not scientists. new we introduce those anti-pollutions and it's a couple weeks ago, the incident thehe instant reaction from

political press was not about what it would mean for our planet. mean for anit will election six months from now. that misses the point. of course, they are not scientists, either. i want to tell you all this, not to discourage you -- i am telling you this because i want to light a fire under you. as the generation getting shortchanged by inaction on this issue, i want all of you to understand you cannot accept that this is the way it has to be. the climate change deniers suggest there is still a debate over the science. there is not. publicking heads suggest opinion is deadlocked. it is not. seven in 10 americans say global warming is a problem. they say the federal government should limit pollution from power plants. of all the recent polls, protecting the environment came out on top. so we have got public opinion

potentially on our side. we can do this. we can make a difference. you can make a difference. and the sooner you do, the better. not just for our climate before our not just for our climate but for our economy. there's a reason businesses like apple and microsoft and gm, nike, intel, starbucks had declared tackling climate change is one of america's latest economic opportunities in the 21st century. the country that seizes this opportunity first will lead the way. a low carbon clean energy economy can be an energy for growth and jobs for decades to come, and i want america to build that engine because if we do, others will follow. i want those jobs, those opportunities, those businesses right here in the united dates of america. -- united states of america. [applause] developing countries are using

more and more energy, and tens of millions of people are entering the global middle class, and they want to buy cars and refrigerators. if we do not deal with this problem soon, we will be overwhelmed. these nations have some of the fasting rises -- fastest rising levels of carbon pollution. they will have to take action to meet this challenge. they are more vulnerable to the effect than we are. they have more to lose, but they are waiting to see what we do. that is what the world does -- it waits to watch us act, and when they -- when we do, they move. i'm convinced that on this issue, when america proves what is possible, then they will join meet thiserica cannot threat alone. meet it without america. this is a fight that the world must lead. i'm going to keep doing my part for as long as i hold this office, as long as i am a once i'm out of office,

but we are going to need you as a generation to finish the job. we need scientists to design new fuels. we need engineers to invent new technologies. we need entrepreneurs to sell those technologies. we need workers to operate assembly lines with high-tech zero carbon components. we need builders to hammer into place the foundations for a clean energy age. we need diplomats and businessmen and women in peace corps volunteers to help a developing nation skip past the dirty phase of development and transition to sustainable sources of energy. in other words, we need you. [applause] .e need you if you believe like i do that something has to be done on this, then you have to speak out . you have to learn more about these issues. are not an expert, you have to work on this. you have to push those of us in

power to do what this american moment demands. you have to educate your classmates and colleagues and family members and fellow citizens. you have to push back against the misinformation and speak out for facts and organize others around your vision for the future. you need to invest in what helps and divest from what harms. you have to remind everyone who represents you at every level of government that doing something about climate change is a prerequisite for your vote. it is no accident that when president kennedy needed to convince the nation that sending americans into space was a worthy goal, he went to a university. that's where he started. as big as that, as costly as that, as difficult as that requires a spirit of youth. it requires a spirit of adventure. a willingness to take risks. it requires optimism. .t requires hope

that day, a man told us we would go to the moon within a decade. despite all the naysayers, somehow, we knew as a nation that we would build a spaceship and meet at goal. that's because we are americans, and that's what we do. even when our political system is consumed by small things, we are a people called to do big eggs. targets on climate change is -- progress on climate change is a big thing. progress will not always be flashy. it will be measured in disasters averted, lives saved, and days just like this 120 years from ,ow and it he years from now but can you imagine a more worthy goal, a more worthy legacy than protecting the world we leave to our children? i ask your generation to help leave us that legacy. i ask you to believe in yourselves and one another and

above all, when life gets you down or someone tells you you cannot do something, to do .omething better there are people here who know what it means to dream. when he came to america, he discovered a passion for engineering, so he became it ioan generic -- biomedical engineer to study the human brain. he said he had never come to the "had i never -- come to the united states, i would never have had the ability to do the work that i am doing." he is now going to caltech to keep doing that work. cynthia florez is the daughter of a single mother who works as a seamstress and housekeeper, the first in her family to graduate from high school, the first in her family to graduate from college, and in college,

she said she learned about herself, that she was good or advocating for others, and that she was argumentative, so maybe she should go to law school. today, cynthia is the first in her family to graduate from law school, and she plans to advocate or the rights of workers like her mom. she says she has the great privilege and opportunity to answer the call of her community. is bottom line, she says, being of service. on 9/11, aaron anderson was a sophomore in college. several months later, he was in training for army special forces. onfought in afghanistan and february 28, 2006, he was nearly killed by an ied. he endured dozens of surgeries to save his life. months of recovery at walter reed. when he could not physically return to active duty, he devoted his time to his brothers

in arms, starting to businesses with fellow veterans and a foundation to help fellow wounded green beret soldiers. then he went back to school. last december, he graduated summa cum laude from uc irvine, and he is here today along with four soon commissioned rotc cadets and 65 other graduating veterans, and i would ask them to stand and be recognized for their service. [applause] the point is you know how to dream, and you know how to work for your dreams. and, yes, sometimes you may be but, you know,d,

usually, it's the underrated, the underdogs, the dreamers, the idealists, the fighters, the argumentative -- those are the folks who do the biggest things, and this 9/11 generation of soldiers, this new generation of scientists and advocates and entrepreneurs, and altruistic -- you are the antidote to cynicism . does not mean you are not going to get down sometimes. you will. you will no dissolution meant. you will experience doubt. people will disappoint you by their actions, but that cannot discourage you. cynicism has never won a war or cured a disease or started a business or fed a young mind or sent men into space. cynicism is a choice. hope is a better choice. what gave young soldiers

the courage to storm a beach and liberate people they never met. hope is what gave young students the string to sit in and stand up in march for women's rights and civil rights and voting andts and gay rights immigration rights. hope is the belief against all evidence to the contrary that there are better days ahead and that together we can build up a middle class and reshape our immigration system and shield our children from gun violence and shelter future generations from the ravages of climate change. hope is the fact that today, the single largest age group in america is 22-year-olds who are all just itching to reshape the country and reshape the world, and i cannot wait to see what you do tomorrow. congratulations. thank you, class of 2014. god bless you. god bless the united states of america. [applause]

>> the president at uc irvine. he will be in california over the weekend with the first lady, returning monday to the white house. if you missed any of his speech, we will have it up online at www.c-span.org. in his speech, he talked about climate change. we will hear more from secretary of state john kerry during an ocean conservation conference with government officials and scientists talking about possible action to protect ocean ecosystems. we will have that live monday morning at 9:30 eastern time on our companion network, c-span2. "sundays atnew book eight," includes huffington post's senior military correspondent. >> there is something that drives them to this idea of .ervice it's like so many people i know who served in war. the intensity of the experience,

the intensity of the relationships they had with their combat buddies are so thatg and so pure and true they look back on those times with morning -- mourning. i have always asked them if they wish it had never happened, and they are like, "i would do it again in a heart eight -- heartbeat." i think there is something else that goes on there, too, and it's that going through a near-death experience somehow seems to give them so much strength encourage -- and strengthnd optimism -- and kurdish and optimism that i think that's why they would do it again. encourage -- st rength and courage and

optimism that i think that's why they would do it again. >> the wilson center looked at trade between the u.s. and mexico. according to one of the reports, goods and services bought and sold between the u.s. and mexico reached about half $1 trillion in 20 11, making the us-mexico's top trading partner. the speak -- the featured figure is roberta jackson. the state department assistant secretary of state for the western hemisphere affairs, and this conversation is about 45 minutes. >> ladies and gentlemen. gentlemen, sorry to anl in your ears with authoritative english accent calling you to attention. please.

hate to interrupt your conversations. always seems to be a very lively group. i was just saying to somebody the sign of a successful conference is when at the lunch hour if like a reunion and everybody is catching up. people remember is that dynamic presentation, but in fact, the ink -- what makes a successful is when people are talking to each other. we had a conversation this morning all about infrastructure or much of it about infrastructure. we suffer some of this infrastructure challenges here at the wilson center. we do not have enough space to accommodate all the people who want to do something good for the border. have people out, give us money so we can build it -- a better building for you next time. thank you so much. as the director of an institute, you have to sort of get that out there. anyway, i am very pleased to be able to introduce to you our speaker for the lunch today, assistant secretary of state roberta jacobson, a very dear friend of the wilson center in

general, a woman who is much loved on both sides of the a name which everybody recognizes in mexico and always, whenever you talk about roberta, you get the same response from mexicans -- a big smile develops anyway, it'ss, and a testament to the incredible job you have done. i'm going to read her bio very quickly just as she feels old. she was sworn in as assistant secretary of state for western hemisphere affairs on march 30, 2012. previously, she was acting assistant to secretary, and she says his principal assistant secretary for western hemisphere the responsibility for regional, political, economic issues, management of personnel, and security issues. in addition to all of these roles, she has had a long-term interest in north america covering canada, mexico, and

nafta issues in the bureau. was a coordinator for cuban affairs, and that is one of the issues which is so fascinating to talk about in washington, and very often, we are not allowed to talk about it, but at what point do we include cuba in the discussion of north america, but anyway, i will leave that out there. >> [inaudible] >> not today. she graduated from the fletcher school of law and diplomacy, and for those of you who have come in contact with anyone from fletcher, you know they are a complete mafia. i was at a wedding, and there were at least 30 people from fletcher, and they all think and talk alike. i swear there is some kind of global network of these people. anyway, they are also incredibly talented. ladies and gentlemen, please welcome roberta jacobson.

[applause] >> thank you, duncan. that was great. i thought i could eat the rest of my lunch if he was starting on my bio. it could take the rest of the afternoon. it is now very long, unfortunately. which just shows my age. but it is really a pleasure to be back here at the wilson center. i have actually never been in this room. now i know why. because as lovely as it is to look at, it's not the easiest to see all of you. i apologize. i will try to speak to the room without looking like i am calling a tennis match. it is particularly nice to be here. it is a reunion, of course, with so many people i know from before this, trips to the border.

trips to mexico. so much of the work we have all done together to work on border infrastructure, border issues, all sorts of things that so many of you in this room and i have done over the years. with the exception of the cohorts in this room that weren't born when i started working on mexican issues. there are more of those than i would like to admit. i am delighted to be here and talk to this conference. the caveat i will make before i launch into remarks is that it is with some trepidation that i address you all. one of the mixed blessings about moving up into the position that i got a little over two years ago is that from having worked on things mexican for about 10 years, along with things in other parts of north america, i

now have everything from canada to argentina and don't get to spend nearly as much time as i would like focusing on the us-mexico relationship and the border. i will warn you in advance that some of the questions you ask i will not have the answers to. it's not that there are not answers to those question, i won't have them today. i apologize in advance. i want to thank the congressman for the introduction. he and the other congressional participants are on the hill voting. that is good news for everything that we need to move forward in our congress. i will think the mexico institute here and the border trade alliance and so much of the work they do every day. as well as from mexico and everything that has come

together in this conference which reflects what we all want to do at the border and see move forward. i know that we have congresspeople from mexico. we are really proud that we have the kind of participation today and the interest that is reflected in this crowd. i think what that reflects is not just an abiding interest that so many of you have had in this vital region, a region that i have always felt is not like mexico city or washington. but very much its own region. it reflects, also, a growing recognition by forces outside the border of the importance of the region to all of the rest of us. to the rest of us in the united states and mexico and really beyond in north america and the western hemisphere.

you know the statistics better than i do but i will roll off a couple of them because i find them reticular really impressive to us. in the united states, we sell more to mexico then result, russia, india, china combined. it is not a statistic that most americans realize. more than $1.5 billion in trade daily with mexico to support millions in jobs in the united states and throughout the two countries. when we think about that from another perspective, it is about $1 million in trade crossing the border each minute. we will be in this room or we will from the start of the program for about an hour and during that time, the u.s. and mexico will have traded about $60 million worth of goods and services. there is no other economic relationship more important than our border regions.

our governments are to governments recognizing the importance of the shared border. they have renewed that commitment to making it stronger, easier to get across for facilitating trade and travel and the strains in the security cooperation that we have. we see that in renewed partnerships, renewed energy in partnerships and new partnerships that have taken place. but me tell you about a couple of them and we will talk more about what you are interested in as we have some time. the high-level economic dialogue has gotten a lot of attention over the last year or so. it was announced when the president went to mexico. it really was an important part to discuss with president obama as rebalancing, what most people

call it. rebalancing the relationship. i call it balancing the relationship. what there was was a sense that while the relationship was till taking place on the economic and security terms, the public face of that relationship was too often focused entirely on the security. therefore, what we needed to do together was bring the economic and commercial side of the relationship back into the public view and make sure that we were giving it as much attention, as much profile, as much oomf as we could. a high-profile economic dialogue was launched to improve conductivity, foster economic growth, productivity, entrepreneurship, innovation, and focus on partnering with leadership both in the region of the western hemisphere and growing.

when the vice president went to mexico, they will be meeting again, i am optimistic, this fall. there are particular areas of the high economic dialogue i think are relevant to the border. the innovation council is fostering cross-border entrepreneurship. i know that you have seen the meetings that have taken place on that in the border region. that has lauched two economic development -- launched to economic development strategies. the plans being developed, the launching of these new economic strategies are designed to make sure that we continue to focus on technology, innovation hubs, entrepreneurship as engines of growth in the southeast united states and the border region.

in april, the united states and mexico agreed to conduct the small business development center with similar u.s. centers so that we can make sure that small business owners and entrepreneurs in both countries have the resources that they need to be able to talk to each other, get advice from each other, and tap into each other's network to do the exporting that they need. one of the reasons that i think it is so critical is, when the president launched the small business summit in 2012, mexico was one of the areas in which the centers took off the fastest. there are more small business development centers located in mexico than any other country in the western hemisphere. small businesses really are the engines of growth and in particular, the engines of job creation in our economy. those small businesses in each of our countries don't export.

even in the united states, less than two percent of small businesses export. when small businesses think about exporting, the first step they are going to take is likely with neighbors. it is more comfortable. it will be either with canada or mexico. that is what the small business center, when linked together, can help entrepreneurs do. it can help them take the first step toward exporting which can make them take a big step in their own businesses the on just their local community. we completed five of six border master plans to talk about infrastructure development. the last one is on track for completion by mid-2015. we have. changes for traffic and freight models to cordon a binational strategic freight plan. -- to coordinate binational strategic freight plans.

promoting trusted traveler programs. you know how critical it is to promote those trusted traveler programs and make sure we can merge our trusted traveler programs to the greatest extent possible all throughout north america, making it easier for our trusted travelers to travel freely throughout the north american continent. and we talked a lot as part of the high-level economic dialogue and the whole rebalancing. we will continue to talk aggressively about education. this is a passion of mine in this job that i think this mexican government shares. it is representative of the competitive border and to competitive -- two competitive countries. the environment has to have

different skills than my generation did, certainly. it doesn't yet, necessarily. president obama launched 100,000 strong in 2011 to increase the flow of university level exchange students between the united states and latin america and the caribbean. this program was modeled on the 100,000 strong program in china that was hoping to bring 100,000 u.s. students to china. it wasn't necessary to create a two-way program because we had no trouble attracting more than 100,000 chinese students to the united states. between the united states and the countries of latin america and the caribbean, we only have 100,000 students total on educational exchanges right now. 60,000 from the region to the u.s. and 40,000 the other way. the numbers from mexico to the united states right now and the

numbers from the u.s. to mexico are artificially low. they are not what they should be based on our population, proximity, and the quality of our educational institutions. and so we have to help get those numbers up. the exchanges in themselves are not going to make the difference in creating the workforce we all need, but they do help us what the global workforce looks like is what i like to call global learners. they are people who have had experience in more than one culture, they speak more than one language, people who can operate in the multinational environment, whether in government, the private sector, or academia. we are going to have to be able to operate in that environment. i think there is a huge amount

we can do with mexico and happily, there was a real desire to move aggressively on education and so in a complementary way to the 100,000 strong in the americas, the mexican government has sought to create binational structures that really go further to do things together with united states and we created a forum on education to be able to expand opportunities between our countries and in particular to expand the research and the innovation opportunities with technology, with incubators, so that we can do more to develop that workforce in these countries. and i know that you understand why that is important. the university of texas at our

-- at el paso explored the specific potential of the border region in increasing the bilateral collaboration in this area. this is an area where the border will be able to help us and show us how this kind of interaction exchange is possible. on infrastructure, i'm going to speak briefly because i think you have had a conversation about that and no more than i do. but i do think one of the things i hear when we talk at meetings like this over and over again is that government does not get it on infrastructure. we are not doing enough and we do not understand as well as we should. the infrastructure deficit we have had the border. all of the efforts we have been