regulations for safety, for environment, for certain reasons but it's gone so crazy, it's gotten so excessive. but they would take that over taxes. so we're going to unleash a tremendous number of jobs coming in, plus growth, cutting waste, fraud, and abuse. think of that word waste. if the penny plan, just a penny out of every dollar. i know you can do that. but we have to appoint people to head these massive agencies. if they were companies, they would be very large companies and some would be bigger than any other companies. but you you take a penny, a penny off the dollar and do that for a number of years and all of a sudden, great things start to happen. in addition to that, we spend a tremendous amount of military, which we are going to increase. but we also defend other countries. and those countries are not

paying us nearly what they should be paying us. we are losing billions and billions of dollars on defending owe and many of them don't pay us. if they don't pay us, i say why? hey don't ask. so those countries i'm sure will start to pay for the defense, but it's a fantastic number. it's a very, very large -- it's a shocking number. i will just finish with this. i have great respect for japan, but we defend japan, germany, saudi arabia, south korea, 28,000 soldiers right now in south korea. these are wealthy countries. nd when i say they have to pay more, a general came to refute

my statement and said, doesn't mr. trump know that japan pays 50% of the cost of its defense? and i said, why don't they pay 100%? the numbers you are talking about are massive. and when you add it all together, a lot of good things are going to happen. [applause] >> on the corporate tax rate, the corner stone of your economic policy is reducing the corporate tax rate to 15%. secretary of the treasury lew proposed a 28% rate. the u.k. is at 20%. ireland is at 12.5%. how did you settle on 15% of the target for the u.s.? >> a lot of that has to do with the cutting because we are going to be cutting costs also. i think we are going to unleash something that is so amazing and a lot of it is competition. ireland is the lowest.

right now we are the highest in the world of the industrialized countries. and we set it from a competitive standpoint and added to that and very importantly to that the cost cutting. and there's tremendous -- when all of us in the room did this, when we buy companies, we like to buy companies that are poorly run because we have so much run to cut. we don't want to run a perfectly running machine where we can't do too much. we have tremendous waste, fraud and abuse. our military orders equipment that is ordered politically motivated because they will buy equipment that isn't what they want and the equipment that the generals want are better and less expensive. my whole thing has been make america great again. we are going to make america great again.

> now it's time for morton who is on our board and chirme of the department of economics at harvard. part of the issue in reducing tax rates is the impact on the deficit. what offsets would you propose to compensate for the reduced revenue? you mentioned in your speech that you believe over time your economic policy can be revenue neutral. >> we think and hopefully beyond that. evently with time this is going to work out. but the big things in terms of neutrality is going to be the amount of business that we generate, the fact that companies are no longer going to be leaving. you have to look at the list of companies. ford motor company, all small cars going to make them in mexico.

it's like a story in the newspaper, but devastating for michigan and areas of the country that have to go through this. we are going to keep our companies here. our companies are leaving because our taxes so high and they can't bring money back in and. the regulation is so massive that our companies are leaving us. number one, we are going to keep companies and won't be leaving because they will have a better deal. and importantly, we are cutting costs, cutting budgetary costs and lots of costs. many costs that we are going to be cutting and enhanced by certain things like -- with the military and the defense of other countries which other people didn't know. in this room, until i spoke about it a year ago, we defend, as an example, germany or japan. pretty much knew south korea and we are defending south korea. but saudi arabia as an

example. saudi arabia we know. lots of wealth. lots of money. they don't pay us very much for what we do. and you could ask yourself how long would saudi arabia even be there if we weren't defending hem. and i think we should defend them, but we have to be compensated properly for that defense. i'm sure they will be thrilled to on hear that. [laughter] >> one issue that came up previously was the potential for efault on the u.s. debt. the u.s. has a perfect credit history. is there any scenario you would consider defaulting on the u.s. debt? mr. trump: no. there are some areas where you could buy back debt. i said buy back debt. this isn't like building a real

estate project and the market crashes and you have a shot at a bank. i loved those days. someone said i'm one of the great in the world. i love buying debt and negotiating debt. with the united states you are talking about something beyond the gold standard. the answer is no. but you can buy back. we are not talking discounts. you can discount and do things. the debt of this country is absolutely sacred. absolutely 100% sacred. [applause] >> regarding regulation, you said that we have too much regulation and that excess regulation impedes growth. what would be your strategy for reducing excessive regulation? mr. trump: i go back to the heads of the various groups, agencies, all of the parcels of government and i would be

putting very, very top people into negotiate. we put political people in to negotiate and people who gave contributions, we put people that work the system. we put people that shouldn't be there. and when you say can you cut 1% off your budget and they say that's impossible. a know some of the people in this room are total killers. they said i can get it down 25% in one year, maybe more. i said take it easy, relax. there are people in this room who would say that. 1% a year for 10 years, it's a massive difference. 1% a year for 10 years. so i would really have it done at the level of the group running whatever individual thing within government they are running and they would be able to do if we have the right people. we don't have the right eople.

we have people who shouldn't be doing what they are doing. they have people under them that are far, far more competent than they are. and those people lose respect for the system when they see what's coming. and i can't tell you how strongly i believe this and the trade deals are so bad. nafta has destroyed our country. nafta has destroyed the manufacturing leg of our country. look in upstate new york and lost 40% of their manufacturing and going to lose a lot more. hillary clinton said she was going to bring jobs back to new york. upstate new york, long island, you look at things that are happening. building after building is empty. they all left. so when we negotiate great trade deals -- and we aren't including that to a large extent in the numbers we are giving you. when you take nafta and make it

a two-lane highway and not one lane, we have a lot of catching up to do. they have absolutely stripped this country of its manufacturing jobs and jobs. and companies that destroyed companies. thousands and thousands of companies. millions of jobs, we are going to get that back. we are going to get that back. when i talk about tax cutting and balancing, a big part of it is we are going to have great trade deals. i think this man will be in charge of china. we will do very well. but seriously, we have the greatest negotiators in the world. when china enters that negotiation, they come in with 20 people that are the toughest, smartest, meanest, they don't say good morning, isn't it a lovely day? how did the yankees do last night?

there's no talk. we get down to business, boom. no games. we put people in there who don't know what they are doing because this is why we have deficits of $500 billion with one country. we built china. and i say that with great respect for china. they -- i have many friends from china. the biggest people, the richest people, they cannot believe what china gets away with. and when i announced i was running for president, well, i didn't mean that. they didn't know this was going to happen. but in the good ole days, they would say we don't believe. your government is stupid and now they deny they ever said hat.

[applause] >> on staffing, how would you run a government to make it more effective? what would be your criteria in choosing the senior dministrators? mr. trump: track record, great competence, love of what they're doing, how they're getting along with people, references. no different when you are owning a company, how you hire top people. people with heart also is probably the one thing you need in government. there's some there, but not a lot. but you need people that are truly, truly capable and you need -- and i think so much has to do with past history, how is it done, how is it worked out. you understand that perhaps better than anybody. and we have to get the best people. we can no longer be so politically correct. we do things today, people are

afraid to walk, afraid to talk. they can't speak. they afraid they are going to say a wrong word and shunned from society. that only lasts for a week if that happens. but we have to stop being politically correct. we need to get the best and finest and if we don't, we will be in trouble for a long period of time and maybe never come out of it. i'm not saying it because it's myself, this is going to be the last election we have a chance to make this country great again, make it wealthy and strong again. make it all of the things we want to see. but i believe this is the most important election that we have been involved in for many, many, many years. many decades, because it's going down. the supreme court justices that i told you about before, if they put certain people onto the

supreme court, our country is going to be a whole different country. large-scale version of venezuela, a totally different deal. and this is the last chance that in my opinion our country has to really get better, to get well. and i just think this election is so important, not because of me, but because the ideas, the ideas that we have, the ideas that we need to do what we have to do. but i think it's going to be a very, very important election and that's why we are seeing such enthusiasm. we have people showing up, 25,000 people show up and 30,000 eople. [applause] mr. trump: we announced one day, we had one in the pensacola the other day, we had tens of thousands of people that showed up a day and-a-half before the speech on twitter. people want to see great things

happen to this country. people really love this country. the people of this country really love this country and other countries want to see great things happen because it's so important. i think this is going to be the most important election we have had for many, many decades and i'm not sure you are going to have a second chance at it. [applause] >> donald, on jobs, what industries do you expect would benefit from your economic plan to create high-paying jobs going forward? mr. trump: i think h and r block would be a disaster. how about people -- it's so complicated. and people that frankly are making a small amount of money. they have to go and have their tax returns done by people.

and by the way, when they're done, you'll have 10 different tax people. the whole thing is crazy. so that would be one industry that wouldn't do well. i can tell you an industry that will do well and industry we can use and prices are low now. but when prices go up is the energy industry. we have amazing people in that industry and they are being decimated. they are being absolutely decimated. and energy is so important. and we found out because of new technology, whether fracking and many other things. we have more than just about anybody in the world. our land is so valuable because of what is underneath it. we have to be careful and environmentally sound. that's very important. it's incredible when you look at what's happened in the last five

years, we can be self-sufficient otherwise we will be stuck in the middle east. we have to knock out isis. i didn't want to be in that war, but i wasn't a politician and nobody cared. i didn't want to be in the war. the way they got out was bad, so quickly. isis developed. we have to knock out isis. you see the atrocities. yesterday, 22 people were hung from racks in a slaughter house and then throats cut. can you imagine, nobody has heard of things like this before and we talk about waterboard hing. it's an incredible thing. not playing on the same playing field. if you look at the atrocities, just yesterday with the meat hooks, we have no choice but to totally decimate isis. we have to do it and do it rapidly. we have no choice. [applause]

mr. trump: and we have to get to rebuilding our country and rebuild the infrastructure and rebuild our country because it's mess. >> last question. if you were to advise the fed, what would you advise them to do regarding interest rate policy? mr. trump: lower interest rates, of course. you are going to have them until january 1, because obama wants to go and play golf and wants to leave and no stock market disruption. and i said, i think the fed is being totally controlled politically and not raising rates and being controlled politically. i think they are going to below until -- i don't know if they're going to have a raise. but they will be low to the end of the year.

shouldn't be discussing it. i just think it's a terrible thing that's happening because we are doing it for political -- i believe the fed is very political and has become very political, like many other groups in this country. beyond anything i would have ever thought possible. so i think you are going to have low interest rates until the end of the year. maybe no interest at all. and the market will stay artificially high and then have to see what happens after hat. they are not doing the right job. with all of that being said, all my life i liked low interest rates. because i'm doing this, i can't take advantage of it. but that's ok. i will say it's become in my opinion, the fed has become extremely political. i don't think they would do -- i believe if it was a political decision or the right decision, they wog go with the political decision every single time. [applause]

>> that concludes our fireside chat. once again on behalf of myself and everyone here, thank you very much for joining us today. mr. trump: thank you very much everybody. thank you. [applause] >> we would ask everyone to stay in place so that mr. trump and governor pence and their security detail can leave. the next meeting of the economic

club will be a breakfast on onday where we will be hosting quebec premier and the president of the environmental defense fund. that same day, monday, september 19, we are hosting a luncheon featuring paul ryan, speaker of the house, where he will share his economic and tax reform plans. on tuesday, the 20th, we're hosting premier lee of china. and there are still a few seats remaining for both of those vents. and we hope you might be able to join us. thank you for joining us today, ladies and gentlemen. thank you. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2016] [captioning performed by national captioning institute]

it would cost less than $10 trial i don't know. hillary clinton made her first campaign appearance since announcing she was diagnosed with pneumonia and she has a second campaign speech today. she and president obama will be making remarks in washington. you can see that live at 7:50 p.m. eastern here or crmp span. >> for campaign 2016, c-span continues on the road to the white house. >> we are going to get big things done. >> we will have one great american future, our potential

is unlimited. live coverage of the presidential and vice presidential debates. monday, september 26 is the first presidential debate live in new york. tuesday october 4, vice presidential candidates, governor pence and senator kaine debate. on sunday, october 9, washington university in st. louis hosts the second presidential debate leading up to the third debate between hillary clinton and donald trump taking at the university of nevada, las vegas. live coverage on c-span. listen live on the app or watch ive on demand at c-span.org.

>> and now folks, it is my distinct pleasure to introduce our guest speaker and our moderator. the honorable gary johnson was elected governor of new mexico in 1994 as the republican in an overwhelming democratic state. and reelected to a second term by a wide margin four years later. despite his two terms of governor, you hear gary johnson still prefers to call himself an entrepreneur. to pay for college, he started a door to door handyman business. 20 years later, the one-man shop had grown into one of the largest construction companies in new mexico with more than 1000 employees. i would call that entrepreneurship. as a businessman, he ran for

governor with no prior political resume other than his political science degree from the university of new mexico and his passion for helping people. and although gary considers himself to be libertarian minded, he has always believed that good public policy should be based on practical, cost-benefit analysis rather than just direct ideology. johnson is best known for resisting the temptation to solve every problem with government spending and regulation having vetoed more than 750 bills during his time in office. he also cut taxes, 14 times without ever raising them. he balanced the state budget and left new mexico with a billion dollars surplus. during his two terms, despite cutting taxes, and the size of government, he improved new mexico's schools and executed a major infrastructure

overhaul. in the 2012 presidential election, johnson participated in the republican party primaries. as an avid skier, adventurer, ironman, and bicyclist, he has scaled the highest peak on each of the seven continents including mount everest. folks, please join me in welcoming the honorable gary johnson.

>> ok, abdul-hakim shabazz, he lives in indianapolis. you know this man from television, radio, and print media. he is an award-winning political writer and commentator. he has been writing about local government for 20 years. he hosts the -- and writes opinions for the indianapolis star. and the indianapolis ecorder. he is a frequent panelist and contributor to channel six this week and inside indiana business. e is also editor and publisher of indiepolitics.com, work which has beenrecognized by the washington post two years in a row as one of the best political blogs in the nation. you are a busy man. he is an attorney and holds adjunct teaching positions at the university of indianapolis and a community tech college. ladies and gentlemen, please join me in welcoming abdul-hakim shabazz.

>> and with that, take it away. mr. shabazz: first of all, i want to extend a hearty thank you to you at the detroit economic club for having me here to play moderator for this forum discussion today. i was in west lafayette last night when the governor had a forum with indiana governor mitch daniels. this morning, i got up at 5:00 a.m. getting home at 5:00 was much more fun than getting up at 5:00. it is our pleasure to be here. and as governor johnson will tell you, you can ask him anything and everything because he is that kind of person. here is the first question, governor. this came up in the car this morning. the last two times we had a president whose last name was johnson, one was impeached and the other got us in vietnam. what is different about gary johnson?

mr. johnson: let us start with the impeachment side. i have done a couple of things in my life or believe in several things but one of them is if you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything. and another is i think the unforgivable in life is saying one thing and doing another. i am not a hypocrite. and then with regard to lyndon johnson, and getting involved in vietnam. i do blame him. my first vote was for mcgovern against nixon because of the vietnam war. i don't think we should be involved in supporting regime change. i cannot think of one single example in my lifetime that that has worked out positively.

mr. shabazz: let us start out with a big issue which is jobs and the economy. i did some research last night. in michigan, the latest unemployment figures shows michigan is 4.5%, nationally it is 4.9%. detroit itself is 5.1%. what should the role of the president be in job creation? mr. johnson: when i ran in the 2012 cycle, rick perry was beating his chest over the fact that he had created more jobs in texas than anyone else running for president. well, they did an analysis and it was actually me. and my response to that was the same as when i was governor of new mexico and that was that i did not create one single job as governor of new mexico. the private sector creates the jobs. the government does not. but what i did do and would do

as president is create certainty, certainty that taxes were only going to go down. certainly that certainty that rules and regulations were only going to get better from a common sense standpoint and i did run state government. i will run federal government. i will appoint everyone to head these agencies. and the roles and regulations will not get any worse, they will get better. with certainty, i will sign on to any proposal that simplifies taxes. i will sign onto any proposal that reduces taxes. and as governor of new mexico, over an eight year period, not one penny of tax went up anywhere. given that kind of certainty, and yes, it would be wonderful to sign on to reduction in taxes, but in an environment of certainty, i suggest that

business does have confidence and jobs do grow. mr. shabazz: how do we restore at least -- the data shows the economy has turned around but there are a lot of americans that do not feel that. they do not feel like they are making more money. how do you make that emotional connection with the american voter which is also crucial in leadership? mr. johnson: having been governor of new mexico running for president, i do think rony capitalism is alive and well. i do believe that pay to play exists and that is when government takes winners and losers. i will tell you, having been governor of new mexico, you can bring an end to that. i had a supporter after i left office talking about pay to play. and i said to my supporter, jerry, i did not do any of that. zero of that. and he said, gary, we know

that. it has never happened before and it will never happen again. i will just tell you that good government is easy. it is easy to bring all of that to an end. what i think people are really looking for in this country is equal opportunity. it is a system right now that is game. and i also believe that. and i also believe that overnight with whom you elect, you can bring that to an end. mr. shabazz: and the issue of trade and trade deals. whether it is nafta, or the transpacific trade partnership. what is your opinion on trade? are you a free trader? are you for tariffs? mr. johnson: i am free trade. donald trump is talking about a 30% tariff on imported goods. currently that is 1.4%.

who will pay for the 35%? i make the pledge that as president, i will sign onto anything that makes things better. nothing is perfect. i would sign tpp. i believe that it benefits the united states. that we are all about high-tech, high wage jobs and in fact it would do that. mr. shabazz: what about the criticism that these trade deals will undermine american businesses, particularly american manufacturing. when donald trump talks about american jobs going overseas and he intends to bring them back. have we negotiated bad trade deals? mr. johnson: i pledge to you as president, and i love this aspect of having been governor of new mexico. i immersed myself in these issues. i am or is myself from the standpoint of making things better.

always, an analysis of anything that came on my desk in the context of -- will this make things better? saying that, i may have vetoed more legislation than the other 49 governors in the country combined. i vetoed 750 bills. only two were overturned. i took line item veto to a new art form. i saw a lot of legislation that benefited those that had money and influence giving them more money and influence. i saw a lot of legislation that politically was spending money that was not going to have any impact whatsoever on the issue itself. but, i was also completely transparent. writing veto messages, going before the new mexico people and explaining my side on all of this. i just think it is significant that in a state that was two to one democrat, me being fiscally

conservative over the top, i was voted in by a larger margin the second time that the first time. people appreciate good stewardship of tax dollars. mr. shabazz: we are in detroit. the automobile bailout. in the last decade. would you have supported it? mr. johnson: free trade. that is about letting the market rule. i would not have bailed out the auto industry. i would not have bailed out wall street. and i am not doing this in a vacuum. jeff meyer is my economic advisor. no one on that staff believed that there would have been a catastrophic, financial failure would we do not have bailed out wall street. they made horrible choices. they should have been rewarded by making those horrible choices by going bankrupt.

we do have a mechanism for reef -- restructuring and it is bankruptcy. i do not think that michigan, the auto industry would have died at all but the government interjecting itself in business does in fact pick winners and osers. mr. shabazz: let us change topics. to the issue of immigration. what is your position? do you support passive citizenship? do you round up 11 million people? do you build a wall? and as governor of a border state, you have a unique perspective. mr. johnson: we should embrace immigration. we are a country of immigrants. immigrants is a good thing. a wharton school of business study in -- three weeks ago, that is donald trump's alma mater, it came out with an analysis restricting immigration and it would have a negative

impact on our economy allowing for more high skilled workers, immigrants, to come into our country would having minimal positive impact on this country. increasing immigration, there a positive impact on the economy. 11 million undocumented workers. the deportation of 11 million undocumented workers is grounded in untruth, and in this information. these are hard-working people who have come across the border and they have done so undocumented because the u.s. has made it impossible for them to get a work visa. we should make it as easy as possible for anyone that wants to come into this country and work to get a work visa. that should entail a background check and a social security card so applicable taxes get paid. building a fence across the

border is just crazy. they are taking jobs that u.s. citizens do not want. they are the cream of the crop when it comes to workers. if you talk about the deportation of 11 million undocumented workers in new mexico where 50% of the population is hispanic. i tell you what, that will be going door to door, kicking people out of homes they have owned for decades. 20 years ago, the undocumented worker was not the issue it is today. 20 years ago, it was that you could not get a work visa, you came over, got a job, and had children. we would be deporting leading citizens in new mexico, deporting them back to exico. it is just wrong. mr. shabazz: do we do citizenship, or permanent residency? mr. johnson: for the 11 million that are here, we should make it as easy as possible to get a work visa.

comprehensive immigration reform needs to lay out a pathway to citizenship. no undocumented worker in this country currently should be able to jump the line when it comes to citizenship but we need to establish citizenship. we are a country of immigrants. if you look at our medicare, if you look at social security, if you look at our economy, if you look at housing, i think we are -- we greatly benefit by increasing immigration in this country. mr. shabazz: another issue, since we are in michigan, i was listening to this program coming in today. donald trump is scheduled to make a visit to flint, michigan. the mayor of michigan -- the mayor of detroit held a press conference to draw attention to the environmental crisis. is that a situation that the

government should be involved in? mr. johnson: it is a situation the government should be involved in. government has a fundamental responsibility to protect those f us -- i support the epa. when the whole flint thing broke, as governor of new mexico, i had a program that no one else had in the country and i did it for a years. it was called open door after four where anyone in new mexico could come and see me on the third thursday of the month starting at 4:00 in the afternoon until 10:00 on five minute increments. flint, michigan, would have come to me at open door after 4:00 if other avenues had failed. and i guarantee you that had i not done something at the first

meeting, the second meeting, everyone from flint would have been in that meeting and i would have been in the middle of that. i do not want to point fingers, i do not know what has happened in michigan other than this really is a catastrophic failure of government and the inability to communicate and the communication was not open. as president, i am going to actually have an open door after four policy as president. obviously, there are some logistics to go along with that but i think it is a way to stay connected and it was one of the most valuable things that i did. mr. shabazz: where do you find that medium between overregulation versus legitimate health and safety concerns? mr. johnson: and that is what i love about the job. that line --what is overt egulation?

and where is common sense in this? i come back to open door after 4:00. the state closed and underpass in northern new mexico saying big trucks but not fit under the underpass. causing trucks to have a six hour detour every time they took that route. a trucker comes in and says -- hey, they closed this. and i said, they closed it because your truck will not fit nder this. i go under that bridge. there is nothing wrong with that bridge. and i said -- i will get that bridge opened up tomorrow. i called the secretary of that department and he laughed at me. and i said -- they do fit under that bridge. and we opened it up. my point is that government does go awry and there should be mechanisms to differentiate between what is good and what is not so good.

and what is capricious behavior on the part is oftentimes singular bureaucrats within the system. but it should be that vigilant. good government was easy. mr. shabazz: let us talk national security and foreign policy. on sunday, we marked the 15th anniversary of 9/11. since then, we have been involved in conflicts in fghanistan and iraq. mr. johnson: after 9/11, i supported going into afghanistan. we were attacked. we attacked back. al qaeda. but after being in afghanistan for seven months, we wiped out al qaeda. we did not get osama bin laden but we should have gotten out of afghanistan after seven months and left our options open for coming back in to get osama bin

laden. i believe we should get out of afghanistan tomorrow and for all of the horrible consequences, which i believe can be completely mitigated. but for all of the harmful consequences that will exist tomorrow for getting out tomorrow, is anyone here kidding themselves that the same circumstances will not exist 20 years from now if that is when we finally decide to get out or for some, forever? when it came to iraq, that was regime change. that was supporting regime change. at that time, i said, look, let us not do this. we have the military surveillance capability to see what someone is having for lunch if that is what we want to train our satellites on. we will be able to see them roll out any weapons of mass destruction, and if they do that, we can have all sorts of options at that time.

i do believe going into iraq has resulted in the syrian civil war, raqa, isis, and it was saddam's henchmen that fled to the raqa area. there are, we are supporting the kurds against isis but the kurds are sideways with turkey who is our ally but not such a good allied inns we invaded iraq. it just goes on and on. you cannot make this up. when we invaded syria, iraq -- looking as syria, we supported the free syrian army against president assad. and this happened in aleppo for those of you that followed my story.

mr. shabazz: which i was just about to ask you about. mr. johnson: we supported the free syrian army against the president assad administration but they are allied with the islamists. and we are not in support of the islamists. and they are fighting against president assad. bush paid the islamists to fight assad. arms and up in the islamists hands. mr. shabazz: aleppo. you got a little bit of flak about aleppo doing an interview. 90% of the public has probably got no idea where aleppo is on the map but 90% of the public are not running for president. did that hurt your campaign? mr. johnson: was i expecting and aleppo day on this campaign? i was expecting it with 100% certainty. i am expecting at least one more aleppo day. and however many more of those

days there are, it is what it s. 90% of americans are not running for president. i am. i should have known that. and there is no excuse for having spaced on aleppo somehow thinking it was an acronym. but such is life. but also, it is indicative of all of our lives. all of our lives encompass mistakes and it is really how we deal with mistakes that ultimately determine success. every single day, each and every one of us, are confronted with adversity. we can crawl up into a ball. declare ourselves a victim and give up or put a smile on your face, and keep on. i am a smile on your face, keep n going.

mr. shabazz: the culture. we have always had a bit of a brash society, when it comes to american discourse, somehow it seems even more rockets. there is a school of thought that attributes this to social media. there are so many news choices that individuals go immediately to the news choice that justifies their worldview. as a presidential candidate, what can you do or should you do anything to break down those silos so we can have more civil, intelligent discourse?

mr. johnson: this is a sales pitch. let me offer three scenarios for the upcoming election. and the third scenario, myself and bill weld, we are the only third-party candidates in all 50 states. that is it. we are it. if you elect donald trump or clinton, is the only are they in congress going to get any better? does anybody believe they are going to get along when all they want to do right now is kill each other? no way. no one believes that. third scenario, bill weld, gary johnson, former governors, right down the middle. fiscally conservative. socially inclusive. skeptical when it comes to military intervention. free traders. right down the middle. hiring democrats, republicans, libertarians. everyone would be libertarian leaning. standing back and calling both sides to come to the table and deal with the issues of the day. being able to decide with old sides on individual issues. really able to come together in a big way.

the third scenario is the only one that has possibilities. mr. shabazz: both hillary clinton and donald trump have high disapproval ratings. this is clinton is in the mid-50's. mr. trump, mid-60's on unfavorably. with that said, why is gary johnson having trouble cracking 15%? mr. johnson: my name has never appeared on the top line of any poll. if mickey mouse were on the top line of a national poll right now, mickey would be at 30 does mickey is a known commodity. but mickey is not on the ballot n all 50 states. 70% of america does not even know that i exist.

and unique today, 50% of americans that are going to register to vote, are registering as independents. where is that representation? currently, it is bill weld and myself. it is the libertarian party. right and the middle on all of his. mr. shabazz: what you say to this individual in the audience right now who is listening to this conversation, that says, i really like this year he johnson guy. he makes a lot of sense. but you know, third-party -- i don't know. i feel like the guy cannot win and i am wasting a vote. what you tell that person? mr. johnson: that is key to all of this. the notion that you might be able to win. to win, and we still believe that we will run the table on this but to win, we have to be in the presidential debate. expected to garner more

viewership than the super bowl. cannot win unless you are in the presidential debate. you cannot be in the presidential debate unless you are at 50% and you cannot be at 15% unless you are on the top line of the polls. 100% of the media start off by reporting the top line. 70% of america do not know that we are in the race. what i say to those that would say -- that is a wasted vote. a wasted vote is voting for someone you do not believe in. nothing will change if you keep voting one of the two major policies into office again. they have become so polarizing -- they have done this to hemselves. mr. shabazz: marijuana. what do you think? mr. johnson: well, in 1999, i was the highest elected official

in the u.s. to call for the legalization of marijuana. mr. shabazz: highest as in -? just want to make sure -- i have been waiting for three days to use that line. you were saying -- mr. johnson: tens of millions of americans in this country are felons that but for our drug laws would otherwise be taxpaying, law-abiding citizens. we had the highest incarceration rate in and -- in any country in the world, and i refuse to believe that we are less law-abiding in this country than other countries in the world and that has its roots in the drug war. i do believe we will lag -- legalize marijuana and when we

do that, this country will take a quantum leap of understanding when it comes to other drugs and recognize that the drug issue is a health problem as opposed to a criminal justice problem. and let me say, indulging in any sort of marijuana, alcohol, any substance whatsoever, becoming impaired, getting behind the wheel of a car, that will always be illegal and government has to play a role in that. when it comes to the legalization of marijuana, that will be a state issue. not a federal government issue. just like alcohol. there are still dry counties in his country. i would reclassify marijuana as a class one. to allow for the research.

for example, impairment needs to be established. it currently does not exist. the banking issues that exist in half of the states that have legal, medicinal marijuana, four states have it recreationally, would resolve those banking issues. mr. shabazz: coming down to the last five minutes of the conversation up her with governor johnson. if you have questions you would like to ask, feel free to start texting those right away. we have questions about the health concerns of our elected officials of late. mrs. clinton with her pneumonia. and donald trump was supposed to come onto dr. oz to discuss his health. that has changed. with everyone running for president over 60, how are you feeling?

mr. johnson: if i am not elected president of the u.s., i will be skiing 120 days this upcoming season because i have built my dream home in taos. next june, i am planning to ride the divide with a 3000 mile like right -- i could raise -- like race. that is my plan and june. i will have a physical tomorrow because of this issue. and may be it is not such a high bar, and i hate to embellish, so i do not want this to be an embellishment, but i will be the fittest president of the united states ever.

mr. shabazz: we are almost done with our conversation before questions from the audience. when you look around at america today, what would you say is our greatest challenge and also our greatest opportunity? mr. johnson: i don't think life in this country has ever been better. we get along with one another the end -- better than ever. our kids are smarter than ever. we have issues, let me point out one of those issues. let me say this -- all lives matter. but black lives matter and here is why. they are being shot six times more often than whites. if you are arrested for a crime and you are of color, it is four times more likely that you will end up behind bars. and if you are white, you're not

taken out of your car and roughed up to where -- if i were subject to the same kind of treatment, i would probably have the cuffs on me also. but i am not subject to that treatment. discrimination does exist and we have our heads in the sand. i have had my head in the sand on this issue. but we will come to grips with this. faster, more accurately. we will put things in place. as president, i will be in control of the department of justice, having appointed the head, and best practices in communities, worst practices in communities.

so that we can overcome the problems we are facing. but this is america today. this is a wonderful place. we all know that. we all know that. mr. shabazz: ladies and gentlemen, gary johnson, libertarian candidate of the united states. [applause] >> ok, thank you. we have more than a few questions from the audience. i am going to start with -- we had several different questions n taxes. we had a student asked -- what are your views on the simplification of our tax olicy? we have several people that want to know how you lower the budget and provide more services? had we keep it a robust -- how do we keep a robust military? mr. johnson: with certainty,

taxes will not go up under a johnson presidency. i will say the same thing about bill weld. he cut taxes 21 times. i cut taxes 14 times. will weld for load state employees the first day in office. he was a republican that served in a state that is 4-1 democrat. certainty that government will get smaller. taxes simplified. taxes lowered. in that kind of environment, i think that creates onfidence. i think the economy grows with that. reducing spending, which we have not talked about is so

important in this equation. look, bill weld and i are pledging to submit a balanced budget to congress, a template for how you balance the budget in 100 days. what is the significance of a balanced legit? - balanced budget? it is for the kids i spoke with this morning. my generation will get health care and retirement -- and they have to pay for this? no. and you do nothing about the entitlements of social security, medicaid -- reforms are needed to reduce or make them actual warily sound. military. our pledge is invincible ational defense.

that does not mean that the defense department is not 20% overblown. the pentagon itself in the mid-1990's, requisitioned the black commission. many of you probably remember that. that commission said 25% more u.s. bases could be closed but here was not the political will to ever accomplish that. my pledge to you is that i will bring that political will to make that happen. this job is about doing what is right and what needs to be done in this country and that is why i am seeking it. from a personal standpoint, there was nothing more intellectually stimulating as overnor of new mexico then being at the heart of all of these issues and looking at all of them from the standpoint of will it make it better? we are heading to a fiscal cliff. we are heading towards insolvency. bankruptcy. whatever you want to call t. we're going to print money to cover the deficit. what will the effect of printing money to cover it have? it will have whiplash inflation on all of us.

> thank you. one of the questions that was most popular is all about the affordable care act, obamacare. if elected to office, what would be your approach? mr. johnson: that is another one of those affordable care act's. i do agree with chief justice roberts that the affordable ealth care act is a tax. my health insurance premiums have quadrupled. i have not been to see a doctor for a three years. that will change tomorrow. but count -- with certainty, we will sign legislation that makes health care more affordable. we will sign onto legislation that makes it better. what are the components that would make it more affordable and better?

it would be opening up health care to the free market. by the way, health care is as far removed from the free market as it possibly can be currently. if you add a free market economy when it came to health care, none of us would have health insurance to cover ourselves for ongoing medical needs. we would have insurance to cover ourselves for catastrophic injury and illness nd we would pay as you go in a system that i would guess would cost 1/5 what it currently costs. we would have gallbladders are us. we would have x-rays are as. we would have advertised pricing with advertised utcomes. we go to the doctor today and we have no idea how much it will cost. the person at the desk has no idea how much it would cost. when you get the bill, you know no one is actually paying that. that is what we have today. if we could have a genuine free-market approaches to health care, we would also address health from the start

s opposed to the result of poor health care. so diet, exercise, lifestyle would be such a huge component n the front end. it should be market driven. it should be free market riven. [applause] >> ok, this is another one that a lot of people have on their minds. goldman sachs recently announced its top employees are banned from contributing to certain campaigns. what would you do as president to stop corporations from influencing elections and further can -- and further contributing to the erosion of our civil liberty? mr. johnson: the reform that is needed when it comes to campaign finance. or should be unlimited campaign contribution but there should e 100% transparency.

something that does not exist today. contrary to popular belief, limiting campaign contribution is an incumbency protection act. the number one factor is name familiarity. and if you have held an office, ou have an upper hand over anyone that is trying to gain the same office. the super pacs today, zero transparency with the zero packs. make it unlimited campaign contribution but make it 100% transparent. i would sign legislation where candidates would have to wear nascar jackets and have logos n the nascar jackets commensurate with the size of he contribution from general motors, intel, coca-cola, microsoft, google, whatever. >> ok. that was serious also but in

light of -- this is a student question. in light of the recent shootings in orlando and san bernardino, what would you do to stop domestic mass shooting? mr. johnson: first of all, what do you do to stop the mystic shootings? we should absolutely -- what should you do to stop domestic shootings? we should be open to discussion on how to give -- how to keep guns out of the hands of the mentally ill or would-be terrorists? as president, i would love to know what transpired between the fbi and the shooter in orlando. the system fell through the cracks. i bet the fbi has some really good ideas about moving forward. bill weld has said we should instigate a task force, to take these calls in and start to develop -- i don't want to call it a program, but a strategy for how to deal with the would-be terrorists which i

think makes a lot of sense. >> absolutely. now, we will switch to education. i will combine two questions. in your opinion, what are some eys to restoring educational excellence in the u.s. and on top of that, and this is a student question, your can -- our campaign wants to reform

education, would school vouchers be a part of that? mr. johnson: as governor of new mexico, i was the most outspoken governor regarding school choice. i made a plot -- a pledge as governor that i would increase educational funding as a percentage of the budget for each year i was in office and i did that. what i did every year was to put more money in education which gave me the freedom to say what i said in new mexico which is that we need to bring competition to public education. for six straight years in new mexico, i proposed a full-blown voucher system that would in fact have brought competition to public education. i do believe that education should be a state issue period. i do believe that if we had 50 laboratory of innovation, we would have fabulous success that would be emulated by other tates. as president, as what should the federal role be in education -- i propose abolishing the federal

department of education. it is strictly dollars and cents. michigan gives washington .13. then michigan get it's back 11 cents. how do you like that transaction? and then washington says, to get your 11 cents, you have to do a, b, c and d and it costs michigan another four cents, it costs michigan 15 cents to get the 11 cents. why not leave the money in michigan's hands and allow michigan to compete with other states. i will predict that best practice will be bringing competition to public education. why are we still doing works nd mortar? the model for the future is the con academy -- the khan academy. and many of you are familiar with that.

many people think the department of education was established under george washington. it was established under jimmy carter. i have to tell you -- has there been anything added since it has been in existence? i don't think so. > ok, thank you very much. we have two quick questions left. what impact will millennials ave on this presidential election and what is your plan to attract millennials? mr. johnson: in the polling they have done, i have leading

in millennials, 18-24. and there are probably some cringing in terms of defining millennial. the things i am saying not only attract millennials that the things i and saying encompass what 60% of americans believe. that is my opinion. and i think that if i were allowed on the debate stage, i think my name familiarity would go from 30% to 100% and i think that would bode well for actually becoming the next president of the united states. but with regard to millennials, we are leading in that 18-24 age group. i would also like to point out and if i mentioned it earlier, it is a result of doing this earlier and i do enjoy being here. but there have been two polls done on active military personnel.

and who they favor to be president. in both of those polls, i and the overwhelming choice to be the next commander in chief. >> ok, so, last question. you and governor weld are requently photographed playing chess while on the campaign trail. who would you say is the superior player? mr. johnson: so -- >> i left you speechless. mr. johnson: when we got together, i reread his wikipedia page. nd bill plays three guys blindfolded simultaneously. and when we got together, i said that i am looking forward to playing chess.

and he was excited. i don't want to say i am good but i really enjoy playing the game. bill weld is the smartest guy in the room. he is. anyway, we played game number one finely. and i beat him. and then we played game number two, and he said -- you know, i underestimated you. and i will not let that happen on game two. and bill weld is a classy guy. he is saying this in front of national media. game two, i beat him again. so game three is looking grim. >> i thought you were going to say one and done. thank you so much for traveling to our fair city and being with s. and mr. shabazz you did such a great job moderating. thank you governor johnson. we really appreciate it. and ladies and gentlemen, thank you to you all. and with that, this meeting is adjourned. thank you.

[captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2016] hillary clinton today made her first campaign appearance since announcing she'd been diagnosed with pneumonia and the democratic presidential nominee has a second campaign speech today. she and president obama will be making remarks at the congressional hispanic caucus gala in washington, d.c. you can see that live here on c-span starting at 7:50 p.m.

eastern. >> for campaign 2016, c-span continues on the road to the white house. >> we are going to get things done. big things. that's who we are as americans. >> we will have one great american future. our potential is unlimited. >> ahead, live coverage of the presidential and vice presidential debates on c-span. the c-span radio app and cspan.org. monday, september 26, is the first presidential debate. live from hofstra university in ham steady, new york. then on tuesday, october 4, vice presidential candidates, governor mike pence and senator tim kaine, debate at longwood university in farmville, virginia. and on sunday, october 9, washington university in st. louis hosts the second presidential debate. leading up to the third and final debate between hillary clinton and donald trump. taking place at the university of nevada-las vegas on october

19. live coverage of the presidential and vice presidential debates on c-span. listen live on the free c-span radio app. or watch live or any time n-demand at cspan.org. >> npr reports today that former house speaker john boehner has, quote, parlayed one of his favorite pastimes into a lucrative new gig. he's joining the board of the nation's second largest tobacco company, reynolds american, npr says the ohio republican was the nation's highest ranking smoker before he left office last october. and he currently smokes camel cigarettes. the current house speaker, paul ryan, briefed reporters this morning. the house finished up work for the week today. voting to prohibit the defense department from releasing or transferring guantanamo bay detainees. up next here on c-span, it's house minority leader nancy pelosi's news briefing from this morning followed by speaker ryan.

ms. pelosi: good morning, good morning. good morning it is. 2015 know, yesterday the census bureau report found that last year families saw the largest percentage increase in household income in almost 50 years. $3 -- 3.a million americans climbed out of poverty and the uninsured health insurance rate continued to reach historic lows. the census bureau report is like the mother of all indicators. this is a very big deal. and very good news. we must build on that progress, build an economy that works for everyone, not just the privileged few. and in keeping with that, democrats pledged to secure our future as part of a stronger

america agenda, which i'm sure you're familiar with. a new american security agenda that includes securing our future, we need a budget that will move the economy forward by creating secure financial future for all americans. so they can educate their children, own a home and retire with dignity. related to that is the secure our democracy by removing barriers to voting and overturning citizens united, getting rid of the poisonous swamp of secret money in our politics. it's directly related to our policy. and secure our nation, including -- keep the american people safe in every way. globally, domestically, at home, in our neighborhoods and ersonally. so personally we can act to address the public health emergency of zika, of

opioids. what's happening in flint. public health in our country -- part of public health in our country is also gun violence. zika, almost 19,000 americans, including 1,800 now pregnant women have been diagnosed with see chasm the number has grown since last we spoke. the president submitted an urgent request for emergency resources in february. and now we're in the middle of september. flint, thousands of lead poisoned children in flint are still waiting for help one year later. opioids, dozens of americans are dying of opioid overdoses every day and we pass bills but we fail to provide funding. gun violence. again, a serious part of the public health crisis in our country. 91 americans lose their live it is gun violence every day. serious public health emergency. yesterday, once more, democrats brought photos of gun violence

victims to the floor, highlighting the cost of congress' indefensible refusal to act. how could it be that we have adjourned at 10:30 on thursday? we had plenty of time to bring a gun violence prevention bill to the floor new york fly no, buy. expanding background checks to include internet sales and gun shows. and yet we're going home at 10:30 on thursday. we can't afford the squandering of the legislative alendar. we've done nothing. we were going to impeach the director of the i.r.s. and new that's put off until next week. and instead we talk about guantanamo and and the financial security of the american people. so as we go into this discussion on the resolution,

the c.r. to keep government open, i think we should be addressing these under emergency title which means no ffset. any questions? oh, let me just say, right now, on the floor of the house, they're having a special order for our colleague, mark takai who passed away in july, 49 years old, 18 months into his term in congress. you probably saw yesterday, beautiful ceremony, the speaker presided over it in statuary all. the vice president of the united states was there. the family spoke so eloquently as did our colleague about him. it was a great -- he was a great member. his passing is a tragedy personally for his family first and foremost, but a great loss to the congress and to the country and he served our country in the military and as a state legislator, member of

congress, just pointing out the need for research, he was diagnosed with a cancer in october gone in july. the vice president was there. he talked about this as part of what we need to do for me american people. that's a budget issue. i'll be leaving you shortly to go join my colleagues on the floor to honor mark takai. >> to go back to what you said about emergency dez egg nation, is it your position that we either -- that neither zika funding nor, say, louisiana flood funding, should be offset, should be treated as miranda warning spending? ms. pelosi: i'm certain the louisiana money won't be offset, it's considered a natural disaster and it is.

let's go back a year. we had a budget agreement last year with what the investments would be and did not take into consideration zika, $1.9 billion. or opioids, $1.1 million. it did not allow for any funding for flint. and we certainly did not know about louisiana. so there's no way that that money can come out of the existing budget. i don't think there would be any doubt that we would say that in terms of louisiana that is an emergency and it should not be offset. even though some of the louisiana members were not on board to support sandy funding on that -- when that emergency occurred. but that was then, this is now, we go forward. we wouldn't think of denying them the help they need and i do not think it should be offset. the zika is a national emergency as well. and that should fall under --

we're in our -- where in our budget of last year would that money come from except to cannibalize the rest of the budget. but we'll see, in other words, i don't think louisiana, hopefully it will be in the c.r. i'm not even sure it will be in the c.r. but it will have to be in the .r. or omnibus or some kind of supplemental that might happen in between. other questions? >> you mentioned the impeachment effort of the i.r.s. commissioner. when you get down to the numbers of whether they tried to do this in committee or if they do report out a resolution that goes to the flooring your members will pretty much vote unanimously no. there's certainly consternation on their side of the aisle that there would be a block. it seems like even though in one respect this is going forward, short circuited on the floor today that it would be very hard when it gets to the math to impeach the i.r.s. commissioner and there are your

position an the democrat's position would win. ms. pelosi: we will see. i have no idea what the republicans would do. it's so totally irresponsible that even some of them know they should not be impeaching the i.r.s. commissioner. that's probably why they kicked the can down the road this week. but to even continue the conversation in committee is something that, if we were going to do it, we should have voted to do it. the options on the floor would have been to table, to send it back to committee or to just move it into the future for another day. so they sent it to committee without a vote. i don't know if they would have passed a vote to send toyota committee. >> based on now, it seems like the math would be harder. ms. pelosi: let's hope that that's the case. i can't speak to you about the number thopes republican side

but you can probably well imagine. >> i'm curious your thoughts on donald trump's proposal that we -- this week for six weeks of mandatory paid family leave. do you welcome such a proposal? is this along the lines of democrats? ms. pelosi: let me correct the record, as you know, when women succeed, america succeeds agenda includes the issue that relates to child care. affordable child care. to help workers take care of ur children. what clinton put forward was 12 weeks of paid parental leave for men and women, twice the time, men and women. and something that has support among the democrats in the congress. something we've been advocating for a long time.

but it was resisted by the republicans. even the republicans have said they're not supporting donald trump's proposal. i don't know why, it's a cultural thing maybe, but they just are not. now, to get to his point, what he's proposing benefits higher nd people. and so i think that, you know, maybe he just doesn't know the issue that well as to what really makes a difference. for the history as to how long this debate has been going on and the resistance of his own party to it. going back as far as richard nixon, it was on his desk, people thought he was going to sign it. but then he vetoed it. again, this isn't just about something you put out there, but is it sustainable, could he get the votes from his own party who announced they weren't for it this isn't eal.

clinton's is and she has the full support of the democrats. >> i'm wonderling if you can go back to the c.r. -- wondering if you can go back to the c.r. do you think at this point in the negotiation it makes sense for the senate to go first, and if they do pass the c.r., does it make it easier to pass it in the house? ms. pelosi: i never like to give up the prerogative of the house that says finance bills must start in the house. we all like to be able to weigh n more fully on our side rather than receiving what the senate will pass. having said that, the bill they re writing is a shell that came from the house so that legitimizes, validates its constitutionality. i'd rather it start over ere.

but i think the speaker had enough of a challenge to go from six months to three months and that -- considers that, i think, his contribution to the cause and senator mcconnell will bring something forward but it looks like it's going to be next week rather than this week because we haven't reached agreement. unless the speaker can produce votes on his side for a bill that the president will sign, we have to have input into what the makeup of that legislation is if they accept democratic votes. >> more on the c.r., huh involved are house democrats in negotiations compared to your senate cournt parts? are democrats on this side willing to lend votes to support senate-passed c.r. as house -- if house republicans can't? ms. pelosi: depends on what it s. but we are led by nita lowey, our rarninging memberer of the appropriations committee, she's in close communication with

senator mccull i ask, the ranking democrat on the senate side, i with senator reid. but when you're writing a bill in one house, then that house dominates the framework. but we feel very much that the essage is clear. i don't believe there needs to be offset, there probably will be. i do believe flint should be ncluded in it. that we have no poison bill pills, no poison pills in the bill and that we should act quickly to remove all doubts that we will meet our deadline of september 30. yes, sir. >> looking ahead to the lame

duck, assuming you do push spending to september 9, speaker ryan left the white house meeting on monday and immediately put out a statement that he opposes an omnibus and made that clear in the meeting. i'm wondering what you think of that, do you care what the bills look like or just want to get it over to the senate side or what's your preference? ms. pelosi: any mini buses, i don't know what the point is of doing mini bus unless they add up to an omnibus. you can't say we're doing mini buses which means we're only doing certain bits, not the whole package. so if the mini buses add to up tissue add up to an omnibus, everything is included, that we can vote on something like that and receive the whole package but we can't say, go with one bill, use up all the money and say there's nothing left for the others. do you know what i mean? >> in the last week or so there's been discussion about hillary clinton's transparency , he campaign's handling of nformation about her health,

and polls are tightening and trump is pulling ahead in key states. are you concerned about issues surrounding her transparency and how worried are you since those are going to translate into the caucus for the house because you've been saying you think there's a real shot that ou could see that. ms. pelosi: i think your question is how concerned are you. i'm not concerned. i think hillary clinton when she comes out today with her usual exuberance and her values ill campaign in a very important way. the way that shows hillary clinton will show her vision for america and how she intends to address the future. so her knowledge and judgment as she's facing the country, show her strategic thinking on how to get something tone and do so in a way that identifies with the concerns of america's working families.

the deference between the two parties, one is trickle down economic the other is middle class economic, an economy for everyone, and i think we couldn't have a more articulate spokesperson to make that distinction. she's devoted her life to america's children and families. she'll be emphasizing that today, at least that's what i heard in the news. it has been her lifetime commitment. a lifetime of public service. so -- for america's families. o i'm not concerned. i want hillary clinton to have the biggest possible mandate but if the republicans want to believe that this race is tighten, let them believe that. because the more our own people ee that it's important to vote in a tight race, speaks to that urgency, then more of them will

turn out. that's to our advantage. >> you stand by your prediction that the house is in play? ms. pelosi: definitely. >> how many seats are you going to net? ms. pelosi: as i said yesterday, to one of your competitors -- i mean, maybe you don't compete, i don't know. i think that the gift that keeps on giving, that would be the republican nominee, has helped us mobilize voters at the grass roots level, increasing our registration and urgency for turnout, helps us raise money, so they have organization and money and the third thing, message. makes a clear distinction between us and him. i wish it wouldn't have to be that way, i wish it would be just about all of us. but he's -- he's a gift that keeps on giving, as they say.

so as i said on that, i think it comes down to like single digits, they'll be ahead by single digits or we'll be ahead by single digits. >> you mean the house race? ms. pelosi: that's house races. i think hillary will win. it's going to be very exciting. she's so talented, so accomplished and she go into that oval office she will do so with more experience than most of our recent presidents, with all due respect to all of them, including her husband, for her life of public service. and she happens to be a woman and that's wonderful, but that's not why people should vote for her. they should vote for her because she's the best. thank you all very much.

ms. pelosi: it's not over yet. that's how we won in 2013. inaudible] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2016]

speaker ryan: first, i want to start on a serious note. every 109 seconds, another american becomes a victim of sexual assault. every 109 seconds. the survivors of these heinous crimes should be afforded the full protection of the law. too often, however, that's just not the case these days. evidence is not properly collected or preserved, the laws tend to vary from state to state. it's all a complicated patchwork. after all these survivors have endured, the last thing they should have to deal with is a broken system. that is why the house just recently passed the survivors' bill of rights act. it will provide for the first time a clear set of protections for survivors of sexual assault. this came together in the house thanks to mimi walters and zoe lofgren. chuck grassley is taking the ead in the senate.

we hope to get a final bill to the president's desk very soon. second, earlier this week, i met with leaders of korea, a delegation led by their speaker of their assembly, to reaffirm our strategic alliance which is particularly important in light of the north korea launching its second nuclear test of the year. in february we enacted new sanctions to cut the kim regime off from the global financial system. unfortunately, the president has failed to make use of these new authorities. i do support the announced overflight exercises with south korea, but the president must enforce these sanction to isolate north korea. this administration's continued policy of strategic patience clearly is not working. we need concrete action and we need concrete action soon. last, this has been another good work for our better way agenda. we have approved glenn thompson's bill for education. we passed martha mcsally's bill to protect seniors from another obamacare tax increase. we passed tim walberg's bill to make agencies post online about pending legislation. the white house call this is idea burdensome.

and we passed jeff miller's bill to boost accountability at the v.a. and overhaul the disability appeals process, something those of nuss congress work a lot on. it's been extremely frustrating for our veterans. i could go on and on. for now i'll just encourage everyone to learn more about these ideas by going to better.gop and look at the concrete solutions we're offering. questions? >> mr. speaker, your thoughts on the proposal from donald trump this week for six weeks of paid mandatory family leave? is that something that would get any -- speaker ryan: i have been busy with zika and all the rest, i haven't had a chance to look at it. >> mr. speaker, four years ago, you released your tax return. mike pence released his tax returns last week. do you think it's a good idea for donald trump to release his tax returns. speaker ryan: i'll leave it to donald trump to decide when to release his returns. he is under awe did.

-- audit. >> do you think it's a good idea? speaker ryan: i think it is but i leave it to him to decide when. >> now that the bill is bogged down in the senate, was it a mistake to let the senate go first? mr. ryan: it's always a mistake to let the senate go first, don't you think? i wouldn't say they're bogged down, they're just taking time because it's pain staking. it's complicated. and i think they're just going to continue on. so i typically think we're a little more efficient an faster when the house goes first but the senate chose to do that and i think they're going to work their way through it. >> are you going to let them go first? speaker ryan: i don't know the answer to that question. we don't have an answer to that question. >> question on the senate about to pass their version of the wrrda bill is this something the house takes up in the next few weeks or in the lame duck? speaker ryan: we would like to get the wrrda bill done. that's within the rem of

possibilities. >> mr. speaker, with regard to the impeachment proceedings we were expecting today, it's not happening. were you involved in the negotiations that led to this outcome? is this a good outcome? speaker ryan: what occurred are the members worked the differences out with themselves, with the committee of jurisdiction. i back our committee and our chairs. the chair worked this out with the members involved. that's how i like things getting handled here, instead of going to leadership, members work these things out. among themselves. and so this is something that the chairman of the judiciary committee worked out with the concerned members and he's going to have a hearing which is what the concerned members were looking for. so i think this agreement they reached, that we were obviously notified about it, this agreement they reached was a good way to work things

out. that's how i want to see things get done around here, members work things out among themselves. >> one followup to the i.r.s. question. tim huelskamp told a bunch of reporters he still plans to go to the floor next week and call a vote on impeachment shortly after the hearing. are you concerned about any impeachment vote? speaker ryan: my understanding of the agreement reached is that in lieu of the vote, they're going to have the hearing. in lieu of the vote before november is the hearing. nobody else? oh. >> you talk about this being bogged down, move manager slowly over there. speaker ryan: it is the senate. >> that said, you had folks from the republican study committee and other say, if they take too much time the house should go ahead and try to initiate this.

i guess that's the first part of the question. the second part is, was it a kind of dirty secret around here to let the senate jam the house. speaker ryan: i don't think it's that. the senate -- these things always work out in these kinds of ways. everyone is keeping each other apprised of what's going on. we're just trying to make sure we get this done right. i don't think it's bogged down. they're still talking. it takes a while to do some of these things. >> the other week, steny hoyer, running down his list of thing he is didn't like about trump, said he was not qualified -- said he was not qualified. speaker ryan: he's for democrats, he's not for republicans. what else are you going to say? >> do you believe trump is qualified to be president? speaker ryan: he won the nomination. having a business guy as president is not the worst idea in the world. thank you very much. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2016]

>> this news from capitol hill. congressman jerrod huffman has introduced a bill that would require republican presidential nominee donald trump to prove he's being audited. "the hill" reports the bill from the california democratic congressman would require that presidential candidates' financial disclosure reports include a statement from the treasury secretary confirming whether or not the i.r.s. is auditing their income tax returns. currently federal privacy regulations prevent the i.r.s. from stating publicly whether someone's tax returns are being audited. coming up at a little over an hour here on c-span, president obama and democratic presidential nominee hillary clinton will be speaking at the congressional hispanic caucus gala in washington. the president's speech is scheduled to begin at 7:50 p.m. eastern and hillary clinton will be speaking after that. you can watch it all here on

c-span. right now, though, it's today's white house briefing with press secretary josh ernest. mr. earnest: they were installed prior to our trip to asia. we are going to put them to good work before we get started. [laughter] [inaudible]mr. earnest: he will not be part of today's briefing. ood to see you guys. eight years ago today, lehman brothers filed for bankruptcy. and the financial shock has

been described by students of history as possibly the worst in modern times. next slide. when president obama took office in 2009, wall street's financial crisis was dragging main street into an economic crisis. 750,000 americans were losing jobs each month. shortly after president obama took office, we were told that the economy contracted nearly 4% in the last quarter of 2008. it was terrible news. but only later when all the data came in that we learned it was twice as bad. economic output declined at 8.2% at the end of 2008. yet, driven by the aggressive policies that president obama put in place, our economy began growing just six months later and has grown steadily since. we have grown faster than every other advanced major economy. the united states exceeded pre-crisis g.d.p. levels in

2013 well ahead of countries who experienced similar financial crises in the past and other countries who faced the same financial global risis that we did. housing prices, stock markets, retirement savings and household wealth in the united states have rebounded. each plummeting in 2008 and early 2009, each dramatically up since. next slide. foreclosure rates which soared have come back down to pre-crisis levels. next slide, we lost nearly nine million private sector jobs during the crisis but got private sector job growth growing again. we were told bypassing wall street reform would kill jobs but we created 14 million private sector jobs. the unemployment rate has been cut to less than 5% today.

and been holding at its lowest levels since before lehman ailed and the u.s. economy reached 5% about four years ahead of when economists and some republican candidates for president predicted just a few years ago. next slide. we just learned earlier this week that the united states had the strongest wage growth on record in 2015. the typical household income was up $2,800 or 5.2%. in fact, in 2015, we saw wages grow fastest for low and iddle-income families. we saw poverty decline fastest for african-americans and hispanic americans whose poverty rates had been elevated relative to other groups of americans. so we've shown that with wall street reform we can create an economy that works better as a whole and works better for individual americans.

next slide. 2015 also saw the fastest decline in poverty rates since 1968 with 3.5 million americans and one million kids being lifted out of poverty. so the assertion that we're building a safer, stronger financial system -- so the assertion that building a safer, stronger financial system is inconsistent with healthy sustainable growth that benefits working families and the middle class has shown to e false. in 2009, credible sources estimated that the direct cost of our financial crisis response to taxpayers would be nearly $2 trillion. every day we saw headlines about a $182 bailout of a.i.g. or $700 billion price tag on the tarp program. yet, what wasn't focused on was that those were loans or investments that were paid back over time with interest to the taxpayers. the u.s. government got all of the taxpayer money back we put

into the financial system, and then some. so these investments generated a positive return for taxpayers across all of our financial crisis programs. we were told that deficits would skyrocket, but under president obama's leadership they've come back down by nearly three quarters from around 10% of g.d.p. to 3%. even the consumer financial protection bureau that's been such a strong watchdog to protect consumers from harmful practices is under assault by republicans despite having returned nearly $12 billion through enforcement actions to more than 25 million consumers who had been harmed. the other day speaker ryan sent tweet about the cfpb. right after if had shown why it was so needed. by announcing a $185 million

fine against a bank for setting up two million credit card and bank accounts the customers didn't ask for. this is just another example shown by the broader economic trends of republicans not letting facts get in the way of their attacks on policies like wall street reform that actually help build a stronger economy here in the united states and better support that middle class and working families that president obama s determined to fight for. so after that long intro on this anniversary day we'll go to questions. darlene, do you want to start? darlene: yeah. i want to ask about the u.n. envoy said there was a problem inaudible] getting humanitarian aid to feakt areas. -- affected areas. [inaudible] is the u.s. doing anything to try to help get it going? given that syria has not yet granted these permits, does the hite house think

syria's living up to its end of the ceasefire agreement? josh: well, darlene, you have identified something that the united states continues to be deeply concerned about. i mentioned yesterday that despite the progress that we'd seen with regard to the ecurity situation on the ground in syria, we haven't seen the corresponding improvement in the flow of humanitarian assistance. and the chief obstacle to that has been the assad regime. i can't speak to the bureaucratic impediments that appear to be preventing this badly needed flow of humanitarian assistance, but what i can speak to is the responsibility that the russians have to use their influence with the assad regime to get the humanitarian assistance moving. there are hundreds of thousands if not millions of syrians who

re in a desperate situation, and right now the trucks that could bring them lifesaving assistance are idling on the wrong side of the border. and that's the direct responsibility of the assad regime and their benefactors in oscow. reporter: [inaudible] mr. earnest: the crux of this agreement has always been about russia demonstrating the capacity and the willingness to use their influence with the assad regime, to reduce violence and allow for humanitarian assistance to be provided. most reports indicate that the violence has been significantly reduced since this arrangement went into effect, but we have not seen the kind of humanitarian assistance deliveries that we need to see.

darlene: on another subject. hillary clinton is returning to north carolina this afternoon. -- the twain trail this afternoon -- the campaign trail this afternoon. the question which was asked earlier this week, do you know if the president has spoken with her or otherwise communicated with her during the time she was recuperating? josh: i am not aware of any phone calls that president obama has placed to secretary clinton in the last few days. darlene: lastly, the president is addressing the congressional hispanic caucus. can you give us a little since? -- sense of what he's going to say there? josh: well, i think the president will spend some time talking about how committed he's been to fighting for the kinds of policies that benefit middle-class families all across the country and benefit hispanic families all across the country. some of the statistics that i reviewed at the top are a clear indication of the success of that strategy.

and i think the president will make a reference to his view that it's incredibly important this strategy continue to be pursued under the next president. jeff. jeff: just going back briefly to syria. france became one of the first u.s. allies to be critical of that u.s.russia agreement. said they'd like to see more details of it. is the united states sharing details of this agreement with allies like france? if not, why not? josh: jeff, i didn't see the specific comments, but the united states has certainly been in touch with our other allies and partners to help them understand exactly what we are trying to achieve, and i think countries like france hat are as committed as we are

to degrading and ultimately destroying isil understand how important it is for us to try to address the root cause of he violence and chaos that's allowed isil to spread in syria. so we'll continue to communicate with our allies and partners, but the terms of this agreement and with the aims of this agreement. and with the aims of this agreement. reporter: do you think the criticism is legitimate? mr. earnest: i haven't seen the precise details of it so it's hard for me to evaluate how credible it is, but i can certainly assure you and assure anybody in france that's watching if they have questions about this arrangement we can certainly have a conversation with them bout what the arrangements entail and what exactly our aims are. jeff: on another topic. a hitman testifying in manila today saying that when a mayor

-- that when the president was a mayor of the city where killings are taking place that he ordered those killings to happen. does the white house have a reaction to that and will that be brought up with the philippines foreign minister? josh: well, i've seen the reports of that testimony. i think what i would remind you, jeff, is the president had the opportunity to talk about this when he was traveling in asia. obviously did not meet with president duerte in any formal setting. when asked to the degree to which human rights impacts our relationship with the philippines, the president i think was quite clear about how important it is for those universal rights to be protected. and the united states has worked closely with the philippines to address the security situation inside the

philippines. some of that is driven by extremism and terrorists, but the drug trade in the philippines has also contributed to violence in that country. . the united states has strongly supported efforts by the government in the philippines to toerdict the drug trade and try to shut it down. important, however, as those kinds of operations are undertaken, that universal rights are protected. engaging in that kind of law enforcement activity consistent with our commitment to human rights is important. we certainly encourage countries around the world, particularly our allies, to do just that.