unfiltered coverage of congress, the supremeuse, court, and public policy events in washington, d.c. and around the country. c-span is brought to you by your cable or satellite provider. >> bill gates at them with politico and talked about the importance of foreign aid ahead of a meeting with president trump. mr. gates is the cochair of the bill and melinda gates foundation. he has been critical of mr. trump's policies in recent months. [applause] >> thanks, so much. mr. gates: thank you. for beingou so much here today. we are excited to kick off the conversation. why don't we just take a step back about what you're doing here, what your message is. >> why are you here? [laughter]

>> what is the message you are bringing to washington on this trip. mr. gates: my full-time work at the gates foundation, we have two big things we focus on. one is u.s. education. the other is global health. keyu.s. government is a partner in both of those activities. in the case of health work for , the nih isases either the biggest funder or the second-biggest funder. making sure that research helps us understand how to work together better. and in terms of foreign aid, the overall foreign aid, the u.s. is the biggest single country. as a percentage of the economy, it's lower than some others.

some above 2% like norway and sweden. but it is a huge pool of resources. we need to partner up with all the daughters to go after things like polio eradication. the program on hiv is absolutely miraculous in terms of holding that disease in check for us to get a vaccine. aboutof the discussion is the money allocated to these things or with the executive branch on the -- branch on the execution of these things. >> when the white house daily guidance came out last night, we learned that you are visiting the president today. talk about your experience with the president and what your message is going into the white house.

>> this is a fairly interesting time. >> budget wise, it is interesting, because since there was a demand to get the defense budget up and they other defense not being too far behind, overall, it will be making a 12% increase assuming the omnibus passes without some big change. and that is pretty unusual. >> more spending than almost any time in the last decade. >> and more likely than to be in future decades. of thatiscussion about 12% increase, what are the problems? this is a serious amount of money.

year ision dollars in 30 times greater than what the foundation gets. so the idea, where should that go? and hearing how people are thinking about that, where does the decision to break down, where does that get me? the best ideas from various political groups. area, theews for the greatest concern for us, the foreign aid budget means that for two years here, the normal discussion about where does this really go, and isn't this some of this not spent perfectly? councilmen else do this for us? lesschallenge would be far

. often when i come here is because i get to go and see new work. we are measuring this. here's how we improve it. a huge benefit to the u.s. in terms of having a stable africa. talking about the measurement way that we make sure the money that we are spending together on the u.s. government, we make sure that is as it can be. >> you alluded to this. in one week, the budget needs to be passed of the government will shut down. it that if you could wave a wand and get one or two things done or get congress to do one or two things, what would it be? mr. gates: it is important to

remember you can't way they want. it makes policies. and sciencesector to liver most of the miracles. and those need to go together. the department of defense that it. most of the biological advances that have been made because of the u.s. taxpayers so generous. if you compare globally, way over half the money is discovering how to cure cancer, spent here in the united states. and it is win-win. people go and build the products , andhe real benefits immensely, from that. if i had a wand, i would mostly waive it to create magic and clean energy source.

taking the work on malnutrition and it is a great problem. let's understand and get rid of malnutrition. congress is super important. the miracles require the hands-on private sector piece as well. >> when you think about your meeting with the president, what is the best case scenario coming out of it. mr. gates: two clear messages. one is about foreign aid. we are partnered with the government. even if you just look at the benefit to america, stability and disease being the most likely to come here, this is very beneficial.

having those relationships, maintaining that commitment, continuing to tune it. these are things coming out of that. because of this budget increase, the second message would be that there is an opportunity to take on some tough unsolved problems. i would highlight the preparedness we have for the pandemic, a bioterrorism intention called pandemic, we don't have the tools, the preparedness, the capacity to deal with that. pointe science is at a for a very small portion of that increase, say, if you percent a year. you can do something quite barak in terms of security. there is a specific way that

this one is a little complicated. there is the civil side of the defense side that needs to work together to achieve that. to see if you can get excited about that as something to prioritize. >> the president has said, has tweeted and said in other settings that foreign aid is the cause of our budget deficit and the country spends way too much on helping other countries. it is time to start helping our country. it is a message the president has said multiple times. how do you get a president that is allergic, it seems, to some of these ideas. it is so skier and people bring it up even in a negative sense, at least they are bringing it up. and then have a chance to explain to people that it is less than 1% the u.s. budget.

and when you hear that word, you don't connect with saving lives with hiv medicine. you add the malaria piece to it. a very big part of the 30 billion is that specific disease work. you explain that to them. should we continue to save those lives, we can see if that gets out of control. and until we get a vaccine that will enable us to and the hiv epidemic. positively.nd very if people could go on trips with -- [d see these things talking over each other]

and absolutely toting members of congress go see this work. people like lindsey graham are very active at encouraging his colleagues to go out and see. i think that is why many continueof foreign aid to have this very strong response. it did not stop a budget proposal from having potential cuts. they did not have the commitment to it. >> are you concerned about the america first rhetoric? it's what your whole mission in the world is these days. mr. gates: i don't agree with the american first rhetoric.

countryt we provide the , starting with the marshall plan, in supporting the united nations and the bilateral things we do, we have made the world a more stable place. and i think that's a good just from a pure humanitarian point of view. i think foreign-made, because the budget is so small, we pick things that are so effective it benefits americans, and don't want to have to send soldiers off to create stability in africa. and we spend over 600 billion a and 30 billion a year on the foreign aid budget. countries, the ratio is actually pretty close.

we are very much a hard power country. thinking he will exercise that power and they make sure that soft power piece was made stronger as well. general mattis. if you cut it, you have to give him more money for weapons. i'm a huge believer that that say that wees not should cut the money. >> when donald trump ran for the presidency, he talked about being a businessman. in your experience running , do you feel like there's a good sense of how he's inks?

and has everybody you met in and your career prepared you to deal with somebody like him? in business, you meet a lot of different kinds of people. and you have to be good at adapting to different styles of working. i wasn't in the new york real estate business or the new jersey casino business. it is a whole different you know, you find things in common. president trump would like to take some of this new money and have something that's new and makes a big difference that he is personally exercising leadership against that. everyone should be creative about what can be taken to him

that would fit that and serve the country's interest, and really resonate. and even at leadership would be important to make it happen. >> one of the questions, we want to take a step back. take a step back. walk us through a day in the life of bill gates. well, the foundation shapes most of my time. it's been about 10% of my time over at microsoft, a board meeting on monday and tuesday. i will shape some of the .trategies

something's outside the foundation in terms of the science. a ton of work on clean energy. a bunch of energy related things. the lives of dollars that people pull together. most of my time is at the foundation. you do malaria, hiv, tb. it happens a lot. i will be in chad and nigeria the entire week.

it is a quarter of the population in sub-saharan africa. and all that there. the other donor countries, the u.k. in germany give more than half the u.s. does because even though the population economy is dramatically smaller, we are talking to them about joint work. biggest project, in a very critical phase or we got three countries, nigeria, afghanistan, and pakistan. well, thiswe execute will be the last year. gets paralyzed with

polio ever. [applause] >> we asked some of our readers to send us questions. we won't give you all of them. how do you decide what areas to fund? saidis from a reader who malaria, tb, and polio are three things you have worked a radical -- to eradicate. i am not as familiar with some of these diseases that you might be. you take us through your thought process? we pick the two areas we are going to work in, just based on our values.

so u.s. education and global health. once we pick global health, then within that, we are extremely rational about saying, ok, of this money, what can have the highest impact. for lessn save a life than $1000 a life saved. becaused work on cancer you can do something. the companies with the r&d budget 20 times bigger than ours , they are working hard on that. the incremental benefit of any is theance there $400,000 per life saved regime. going out and getting more meaningful vaccines is more $1000 per life saved.

working on infectious diseases, things like very cheap drugs and where vaccines can be invented and gotten out to people. , when i gotmetric started, over 10 million children under the age of five died per year. that number has been cut in half. we and because of what our partners have done with vaccines and improving the primary health care system. and by 2030, we will cut that in half again. it will go from $5 million a year to $2.5 million a year. in a dramaticss way. rare,seases that are very

we won't respond. we have made so much progress on the big ones that we just funded to go look at heart disease and high blood pressure. we're talking sickle cell. not a focus for us. it might be if we figure out the right treatment or new inventions. it is specifically due to sickle cell. in the interest of washington, the understanding of what people todayom, 100 times better than when we got started. we don't have to do things that are hard.

no autopsies are done for these children. we created a thing called a minimally invasive autopsy were andan take a few samples have it analyzed. ?hat do we need to do >> we should kick it out one of our reporters. >> one of the reasons the trump administration gives in wanting to cut foreign aid budget is they feel like other countries are not doing their fair share. pays more thans. it should end it is making other countries dependent on us.

some countries have smaller populations and give a significant amount. is this argument an original one? forhis kind of shock countries to step up, give more and be less dependent on usaid? the figure of merit is what percent of gdp do you give as foreign aid? norway is 1.1%, sweden is 1%, the u.k. is .7%. germany is .7%. we are .22%. we are substantially less generous than those countries are. withdraw, that if you not getting hiv drugs is a form of shock. it you die.

those people no longer need foreign aid because they will be dead. , don't totally get the logic and realize it would be a smart thing to do. countries to lift themselves up so that they become self-sufficient. when the u.s. started giving eight after world war ii, a lot of that went to redevelop europe , some to develop japan. you have a very much a bifurcated world you have rich countries and poor countries and almost nothing in the middle. because of science and economic development, a miracle to place. today, most people live in middle income countries. mexico, and fairly soon india, china.

the book of the 7 billion people live in those middle income countries that are not substantial sources of aid and -- and the low income countries and those countries in order to get stability, help, education, so they can have their own domestic tax collection. they need foreign aid. when you have malaria, and hiv epidemic. there is no source of revenue that will help you by the hiv medicines. forin particular, research the malaria vaccine. who should do that? the resources and the expertise are not in those four countries. we became the biggest malaria vaccine funder. and so the market is not going to provide it. and in terms of humanity, it is

still killing. we've made a lot of progress but it still kills 500,000 kids a year. if i told you there are kids dying in this audience could save those two kids, i think people would respond. we managed to come up with $28 and help those two kids, but those two kids would be dependent on us. they wouldn't die of malaria, they would be dependent on us. it is hard for me to understand the notion that helping people poorer than we are is a bad thing. it's kind of in the bible. [laughter] >> in terms of finding partners, i wanted to ask you a question. you were butting heads with the government. and now so much of your time is spent moving leaders trying to

get countries. this diplomacy effort. have you had to reshape your framework of where government should be involved? mr. gates: government is a necessary thing. and it is true that microsoft had this long doj lawsuit. always driving by the district court right would go onto the sidewalk and say, have a good day in court. even when it wasn't, sometimes. these days you probably don't miss those days. mr. gates: the doj loss was not the most positive thing, but i loved my time at microsoft. and it is true, people treat

government, they treat me nicer as a philanthropist then as a capitalist. but that's understandable. >> you have to be a capitalist before you become a philanthropist. mr. gates: it helps. or you will not be a particularly large philanthropist. that affects the impact. you can say it's a tiny bit ironic. and we started the foundation, i thought the primary world would be the invention of the new tools. that is a little over half of what we do. the hiv vaccine, the tb vaccine. the idea that we would have to get involved in the delivery to go when and improve the primary health care system and partner with the government of ethiopia to look at where you put your health clinics, how do you train those people and measure their work? i did not know that this was going to be necessary.

i thought the right things were invented and other people would make sure they got out there. but it turned out that it wasn't realistic. there were some fairly good tools that hadn't been invented. rotavirus -- it was being given to exactly the kids that didn't need it. rich kids never die of rotavirus. kids were dying of rotavirus. and those poor kids were not getting the vaccine. guarantees the right , it's about three dollars for a full dose of that vaccine. our great of achievements. virtually every child in the world is getting the rotavirus vaccine. that is an element from how he from 125 million a year

million a year. >> it has been very effective in your view and in many people's view. since it passed congress and a very bipartisan way. i wonder now, when you encounter new alliesy to build on capitol hill. you want to shake shack and took a selfie. >> the shake shack summit. >> tell us what you encounter in do you sense resistance? had you pick your allies? >> the next generation, if you will. >> lindsey graham and john mccain are champions of some of these causes, but they are veteran lawmakers. how do you go about finding these folks and convincing them foreign aid and global health are important priorities? our team led by rob

neighbors, reaching out. his foreign aid something you like to learn about. and even people that come in with a fairly negative attitude, the more you learn about this, the more you realize, wow, this is real. us is pretty important stuff. come, a melinda and i fair portion of the time is sitting down and talking about the progress and hearing what concerns they might have. peopleably more focus on on state and foreign ops. we don't limit ourselves to that these simple ideas about foreign aid, we want to rebut those. even the press coverage of foreign aid, it is a scandal

which is awful. the good news doesn't travel quite as fast as the bad news. trying to make sure people have an overall picture, some things are not managed that well. but overall, whether it is health, education, agriculture, sanitation. this time has been the best ever in helping poor countries. >> we have a question from a reporter in the audience. >> facebook, twitter, and google have faced harsh criticism for what is seen as allowing their platforms for getting out of control. to influencerts american domestic policy -- politics. the you think the government needs to step in? if not, why not? if so, what would it look like?

the interest in do these platforms polarize people exacerbatest polarization that is already taking place? do they allow foreign in foot -- influence that shouldn't be allowed for roles and hate speech to come on and attract -- affect people's views. those are super interesting questions in a democracy. media, thereof have always been government rules about how media is used politically. it even if people have a desire to say that these platforms need to do something the specific recommendations i find fairly vague. of, is there an exact

line where free speech stops and hate speech starts? and what is it that foreigners are allowed to say. foreigners can go on to these forms and talk. you will probably not have u.s. citizens talking to each other and when does it become a form of lyrical influence? -- political influence? there were draft bills that would've created huge transparency of who is buying ads on these platforms if they did not choose to move those particular bills forward. there is something that needs to be looked at. the actual solutions are a little less clear. >> what do you hear from foreign states?about the united

>> the way the world has benefited is hard to overstate. most of their policies, they say what did the u.s. do? headed the u.s. get great universities? had they organize research? even on an issue like what do we do to prepare for a pandemic? the cdc is by far the best in the world at what they do. the u.n. system has benefited not only from resources but the personnel that go there. people from cdc are working at world health organization's, really professionalizing it. there is an expectation that the u.s. cares about world stability and world progress.

if we surprised people and start to pull back from those things are we say our role in those things will have a short of -- on our short-term focus sole benefit in those activities benefited to long-term for all of the different members , that is potentially a problem. it creates a vacuum of leadership. if you pull them about the you knighted states, they say no, there is a dominant country that doesn't do everything well. it picks things to get involved in that they shouldn't and they don't get involved in things that they should. everyone has an opinion about how the world's leader goes about exercising leadership. down,engagement has gone and a lot of these forms, i

think people are very much missing it. >> there is new leadership at the state department with mike pompeo coming in as head of the agency. it do you work with him? way forhave a stable this country? mr. gates: we always work with the secretary of state. we have mark green, the administrator over at usaid. there is an aids court nader but a lot of that money is coming out to usaid. and there is a deep collaboration there. if the hiring of good people and morale at the state department can be improved under new leadership, that will be a good thing. and certainly we will meet the new secretary and talk about the partnerships we've had, and how we can manage those.

>> something we haven't talked about is a new interest, new priority. work is a broad, so it doesn't touch the u.s. as and perhapsoes sub-saharan africa. but talk about what you're doing on alzheimer's and how you can have a big impact. mr. gates: a big part is our work and education. it's a super important area. alzheimer's is unusual because there is a gigantic market. who ever created drug pictures alzheimer's will make billion's of dollars. and yet, if the target that proves to be very difficult. these are very expensive because the gold standard is improving

behavior on a cognition test. in some cases, it takes 60 years. to have the benefit and the disease where even getting the , that isn the brain very difficult. costuman cost and economic , it is absolutely a gigantic thing. even though we are very generous compared to any other country, our investment in solving this problem at a research level hasn't done enough.

taking a budget from five years dropped ultimate's work from about 400 million and under the proposed budget is likely to get all the way up to about 2 billion. growth as fast as they had at the beginning of the war on cancer. a lot of different actors come in. people foron funding a biomarker. it getting the data organized. there's a lot of international data, army data. they can learn about disease progression. and that is something we done in the foundation. how a lot of young children grow and when they fall. it doing that type of database,

it goes back to my microsoft background. how you empower researchers. including few things, in how to invest in early-stage and high risk companies. when you clear the lax, those are the drug trials that so far have not worked out. to ask about education because that is a big focus of years. secretary betsy devos has made a lot of changes not in line with where your priorities are. what is your reaction to that? how concerned are you? >> did you watch her on 60 minutes? mr. gates: no, i read articles about it. the truth is, the federal government under the obama administration and bush administration was active in trying to say, how do we manage

teachers? are we getting feedback to them? the school failing, the federal government has ideas about what can be going on to change that. reauthorization, the role of the federal government was greatly reduced. is that the counts state or even the district 12 -- district levels. there have been slight tweaks here and there. the title i money and the overall emblem of money. even in the areas they've talked about, the idea of school choice , there is quite a bit of that

and that can be very positive. more never going to have than a few kids in charter. lab.earning there are a lot of states partnering to find new things. very little progress in. up 5%. that to build our confidence. every school where we've gotten

involved whether it is public school or charter, great things have happened. but when it comes to taking that and scaling it up, getting other schools to adopt it or even the school that we are in, say it is three years after we've been there, does it persist or does that mentoring program or teacher collaboration program go away? so we feel good about the direct intervention, but as a it is $600y in k-12, billion a year being spent in that market. what you're doing is the r&d pilot program type thing. if you want to move the macro statistic, you have to figure out not only good ideas that work, but good ideas that get massive adoption. and there the field including ourselves does not have this huge success.

the one thing we did that the best as we got people really talking about the dropout rate in an honest way. up until then, people talked about the entering senior last. and most of the dropout takes place over those three years. people have paid attention to that and that dropout number has gone down some. but it is nothing like what we have achieved in global health. >> we are just about out of time and it is a fascinating conversation. we do expect you can move president trump off of his america first rhetoric? i will take his framework and explain why things like health security and continued foreign aid, even in that narrow framework where you give no credit for saving lives in africa, kind of a church humanitarian thing -- even without that, this is money well spent.

>> tell him we say hello. >> thank you for the great conversation. [applause] special think you to gallup. thank you so much, have a great day. [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. 2018] u.s. supreme court will look at a california state law which requires pro-life pregnancy centers to notify patients of state subsidized abortion options. you will get a preview of next week's court case. i've coverage beginning friday at 10 a.m. eastern here on c-span. and in the afternoon, a

discussion on ways to deter russian cyber attacks. and what tools the u.s. government can use. at 1:30 p.m. eastern also here on c-span. senator dianne feinstein in the upcoming june primary. it they discussed the primary and the future of the democratic party in california. this washington journal interview as part of c-span's 50 capitals tour. he is talking out of both sides of his mouth. host: we are going to have to leave it there and want to introduce you to the chair of the california democratic party. mr. bauman, i am sure you heard that call. i do not think lynn is one of your constituents. but how would you respond to her? guest: i would start off by saying of course she is one of my constituents. the california democratic party carer