mr. michael duke, presidency of the walmart, the largest retail employer of about 2.1 million people. falk, chairman and ceo of kimberly clark, maker of paper products. next is gregory lang, the present ceo of semimanufacturing conductor company, and finally, larry merlo, ceo of the leading drugstore chain and provider. gentleman, you probably know the rules, custom practice here. statements automatically included in the record and encourage you to summarize your statements, about five to six minutes and encourage you to be candid. you know, life's short. [laughter] okay. [laughter] all right, richard duke, why don't you begin. >> i appreciate the opportunity to testify today. we urgently need to modernize our tax code, and i thank you for taking on this issue. the ultimate outcome must be a strong vibrant job creating u.s. economy. i hope all of you know your local wal-mart store back in your home state, but let me start with a few words about the company that we run out of bentonville, arkansas. every week, we serve 106 million unique customers, about one-third of the u.s. populatio