i believe i can fly. i believe i can soar. i never thought i could be so free, but i believe on flying away on a wing and a prayer, and who could it be? believe it or not, it is just me. believe it or not, the fish that we got and the bread i just said is all that we got, is all that we need for us to get fed and for us to feed a whole lot of folks in need. thank you. [applause] >> let me ask the audience to thank our two guests on stage. [applause] and then, i'm going to invite awele to come up. thank you for your questions today and your participation. >> you are very welcome. >> before we go, i have one announcement and thank you, and then, we want to acknowledge the sponsorship for today's program. i want to give a big thank-you to linda brooks burton. [applause] because linda brooks britain last march invited me to plan this program, and i want to thank helen, who i work with in san francisco unified because she introduced me to bryonn bain, and she always introduces me to the various artists that come in to work in the s

and i believe i think -- i'm not saying this because i'm part of that. the people in the leadership they are very close to each other. it's all sometimes they are very close together. and as you see for example what happened in oman, you can see they take the action and start working, kick almost everybody in the government and correct the act immediately, wisely. >> charlie: would you say the same thing about jarrod. >jarrod-- jordan. >> jordan, m morocco. jordan is in the process to take the same, i don'know what they will do but they are looking forward to see. so i believe the monarchy, let's put it this way. they are, they know they want to stay and they know that they are there to sell the people. >> charlie: and they know if they don't change they cannot stay. >> exactly. and for that reason, they want not to please the people but to try to be more close to the people, to try to see what the people want and try to act in their direction. i am not worried from that aspect because i know all the leadership in our region, they are working very hard n

but i guess i'm an american first, that i believe in america for americans. i don't believe that we've got a business-like relationship that is going to allow us to continue to work in space. you have to have a set of ground rules that are operational in nature, technology in nature. can you not set a game plan that's totally political in nature. it isn't going to make sense to the participating countries, whether it be russia or america. i believe the problem that we have with the international space station is that nobody in america is really understanding what is going on there, why we are doing this, we have done a very poor job of selling this program and i believe it is going to go the way of the lunar program. it is going to go the way of sky lab. but the problem is, you can't just walk out after the mission's over because you have this massive device up in earth orbit that has to be brought down in a controlled fashion. and it is again, a horrible waste of financial resources within the united states, within russia, within the participating countries.

can i believe that. on the other hand i can tell you when people put it out on the press, if it's read, people believe it sometimes even if there's no validity. let me just suggest that if we're going to hold you or a state deq or industry group responsible for the validity of their science, these groups should be as well. they are certainly influencing the debate as much as a major employer with with an emissions issue. do you think that's fair? >> i think it's fair if there's claims being made someone could ask epa whether or not we agree with that data. in general i see your point. >> thank you. secondly the president in his state of the union speech spoke as natural gas being used as a transportation fuel and hopes to encourage such. i'm not aware of any initiative he proposed, certainly not legislatively. do you know of such an initiative? >> i don't believe there's a legislative initiative right now. >> is there an administrative initiative? >> i seem to recall he talked about a corridor in californ

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that's my position, i believe it and very frankly i think the american people believes it. i will yield to my friend if he wants to comment on that. then we can leave this subject and go to the infrastructure bill which i know you like to talk about as well. mr. cantor: yes, mr. speaker. i thank the gentleman. i just, just wrap it up saying, i don't think that there was anybody, any working american that did not benefit from the 2001, 2003 tax relief. so, again, the gentleman's attempt to divide this country, saying that some benefit from this and others benefit from that, that's not the way i think most americans look at it. we're all in this together. ok? and so, again, we're trying to make sure taxes don't go up on anybody. we're trying to do it responsibly. and the gentleman does and acknowledges that the payroll tax holiday involves a tax that is dedicated to the viability of the social security trust fund and the gentleman knows that if we pass that bill because of his insistence and the insistence of the leader on the democratic side of the aisle in the senate, the ma

i believe we're doing a good job today. >> all right. i look at these -- i have a chart here that says that you all have about a thousand less employees now than you had then. and i'm wondering if there was ever a study done to show where -- as it happens in many cases -- a diminishing return on investment? or at some point, you just get too many folks and you can't be as efficient. i wonder if any study has been done at the epa of exactly how many employees you need to be most efficient in accomplishing your tasks. >> there have been workload studies done in the past, sir. and we can certainly get those to you. >> okay. if you could get those to me. because, you know, look. i know you can go to absurd day. you can't go down to one employee and be more efficient than you are with a certain number of employees. but it appears that you're doing a lot more with a lot less already. we're trying to find money. and i hope you appreciate that. and then, i -- my time is up. i yield back. >> at this time, i recognize mr. engle of new york for five

i do not believe that hr 24.71 has found that appropriate ball. i support a comprehensive online privacy plan that will address and mitigate the unintended consequences of third party sharing. in that regard, i believe that justice olito got it right when he said, in issues involving dramatic technological change the best solution to privacy concerns may be legislative. a legislative body is well situated to gauge changing public attitudes and draw detailed lines and to balance privacy and public safety in a comprehensive way. this hearing is an important step toward to finding the right balance and it is more critically important because the house failed to give the matters the kind of attention they required. i thank the chairman for this opportunity and look forward to working across the capitol to move forward. thank you so much. >> thank you, representative watt and that is the purpose of this, is to give a hearing to all these matter and the issues. your complete written testimony will be made part of the record and we have -- we are fortunat

it is an excuse now and i believe they can remain excuse. i would like to echo shot about the planning, my one regret on the task force is that i did not fight hard enough for some of the biggest employer that was concerning the development an more stringent rules and regulations. some of it made it, some of it didn't. i would love to hear, for example, across from slim's, there is a big purple building. even if it wasn' there, with 24 units were there that weren't built correctly, they would still have problems. there would be problems for sure, so what ever we can do and have smarter planning, smarter definitely try. shoul i am sure we'll be talking about that tomorrow. >> hello, commissioners, i represent the task force. i have had the honor of learning a tremendous amount on the background of the neighborhood and what has gone on in city planning. i believe most of us are satisfied with the plan. we're trying to have a few of the problems go ironed out. when it came to the issue of entertainment, i believe we reached an impasse where it w

looking at this, i believe this is a budget hearing. i know we talked about many other things and things are here and glad to have you here, too, miss bennett as we look at the figures. these are difficult times, as you know. and as we look at this and i know you discussed tough choices and things that have to be done. but we look at the overall budget on this, it's difficult for people across the country to say that we've done all that we can on tough choices when the je overall budget cut is 1.2%. is that the correct figure? i'm showing that budget for this year is $8.344 billion which is $105 million below the 2012 figure. i want to make sure i'm using the correct figures. is that right? >> yes, sir. but i'd be remiss -- we took a 13% cut in 2011, 2.6 in 2012. >> 1.2%. have we had -- i know we have approximately 17,000 employees. has there been a reduction or increase in the epa workforce since -- >> it's essentially ecstatic. we have had small increases the but we've had no -- excuse me. my cfo tells me that we are down this year fro

i believe -- we should engage and talk to them and see if we can reach a solution and i think a solution is possible with them. >> let me get your take on oil supply in the world today. saudi arabia is in a wonderful position. how much does it take to produce in your country, $3, $2. >> average is 5 to $6. >> here we are at $97 a barrel. do you believe that price would be appropriate given the supply in the world today? >> well, there's an element of fear. we have seen the world economies are diminishing in growth. demand went down but the price is still high. what may happen with iran and closing the hormuz strait. in the vicinity of $100, both consumer and producers are at that price. >> have you been investing your none the united states last year. >> most of our deals are announced -- we are always looking for opportunities in the united states. they are down but not out. having said that, the united states has to keep their house in order. republican democrats, president and congress have to put the house in order and meet together and come to a solution for the united states. >> le

i believe in lower rates. i believe in simplification. when it comes to the corporate tax, corporate taxes as of april will be the highest in the world. i cut that corporate tax in our plan to 17.5%, make it basically a net profits tax. simple, a flat tax with one exception, i still believe we need to encourage innovations in the knowledge-based economy so we have a 20% permanent tax credit for research and development in the corporate tax. secondly, dividends, interests, capital gains, a 20% cut from 15% to 12%. we abolish the amt. abolish the death tax. i take the corporate tax, again, simplification, lower rates. we have a 10% lower rate and we expand that lower rate and take all the other rates, consolidate it to one rate. 28% top rate. a 20% reduction from the 35% rate down to 28% which was ronald reagan's top rate. my feeling is, if it's good enough for ronald reagan, it's good enough for me. so we have a top rate of 28% and we have a simplified tax code, a simplified tax code which i'll discuss in a minute which is not completely fl

and i believe a solution is not impossible with them. because they want recognition. i think dialogue is the best way to do. >> do you worry if iran has a nuclear weapon, do you worry for the world? >> well, sure, we want all our region to be nuclear free, not only irran. i remind you even israel has some nuclear weapons. i think the whole region in the middle east should be nuclear free, beginning from israel and going to iran and any other country in the region. >> and you have said you believe the u.s. should be engaging with iran. tell me how the u.s. should engage. >> i think opening a dialogue discussion with them, meeting with them one-to-one or part of the countries like they do with north korea, north korea have a team of six countries working together. clearly didn't get us anywhere yet, but at least a dialogue. but i believe iran should be engaging with them, should talk with them, try to ignite some of the inspirations having some nuclear energy but for sure, no nuclear weapons. >> we have been watching the price of oil, of course, it is quite strong today,

i really believe in public service. could be in the private sector and make a lot of money, but i believe i have a duty to try to make things better for other people and to pay back the country that has given me so much. >> looking back to your campaign for supervisor, what lesson did you walk away with after that experience? did anything surprise you? supervisor campos: the first lesson is how lucky we are to live in san francisco how lucky i am to represent district 9. as you indicated, it includes bernal heights, and it also includes the portola. it is such a rich district. getting to know people of the district through the campaign, doing the job of a supervisor has been the most rewarding super rigid experience. -- the most rewarding experience. it is amazing how the people are. it has been a great experience. i do not know that i fully understood the richness of this district until i was actually talking to so many people on the campaign trail. now as a supervisor i see it every day. i see that. and there are chall

i don't believe in this case that the criteria were met. i don't believe you should grant a broad waiver in the way that's being proposed. i don't believe that you have enough facts for a specific waiver and so i would recommend, following further discussion, that you not act on this tonight but lay out some conditions perhaps for this to come back to you and if it's so warranted, the usual practice is that the individual leaves city service, lines up some other opportunity, either starts with that without communicating to city folks that that person is at that time unable to communicate with and then seeks the waiver and, if granted, is able to communicate. that's been the normal course of events. and i see no reason for that to be different in this case and finally to reiterate a point i've made several times before, where an individual is leaving city service in a compensated position, is obtaining employment in another compensated position, i believe that individual should have to pay some fee for the deliberation that you're now going t

and that worries me because case-by-case consent, i believe is a really good thing. it's a really good thing that people can easily tell their video company, sure go ahead and tell people i watched "the godfather," but, no, don't tell them i watched "yoga for health," depression and gastrointestinal problems. for the record, that is a real title in the netflix catalog. by the way, it's an excellent film. so i'm worried that hr-2471 will eliminate our ability to give case-by-case consent. but i'm also worried that this bill will make these changes without confirming that streaming is covered or doing anything else to strengthen the law for consumers. finally, i want to know how this bill will affect the video privacy protections acts, protections against government snooping into our video records. but i'm here to listen and to learn more about this. and this is a hearing on all proposals to update the video privacy protection act, not just hr-2471. and we have two great panels for that. but before i introduce them -- you want me to go to the chairman first? >> i tell y

i do not believe that. i used to be in the closet about believing in these things. i was afraid. l, believing in jesus. i was always in the closet about it. i do not want to go out shopping what i believe down people's throats. it does not exclude all the others. tavis: how to explain to someone that you're protests about the catholic church are not telling them what they should think? >> in my feeling, i am someone who really does believe very strongly in the holy spirit. i was engaged in a very strong relationship with the holy spirit. there were times in my life i was asked by that spirit to do particular things as an artist. not terribly often. i felt it was something that i was asked to do. it was not required of me to make anybody else understand it. what was required is that i would do what i was told. tavis: for what purpose do you think you were asked to do that? >> as an irish female survivors of child abuse, we knew what was going on in the church. in 1987, the church in ireland took out insurance policies in every diocese in the country against claims. i understood by

i truly believe that is the proper way to do it and they will receive their hearings in due time. as to the staff report and planning staff, i was also pleased to see because it falls right in line with what has happened and other legislation that has come from the board to the department and the commission that there is basic agreement. there are three or four items partially in agreement and everything else is in agreement and nothing was actually disputed that has not been severed. that pleases me and shows we are pretty much on the same path. i regret the timing on this. i have expressed that as i did at the beginning of the hearing today. there will, however, be continuous hearings that the board itself for individuals. this is not legislation over which we have basic control. the planning commission only is an advisory board in effect to the board of supervisors. the majority of our advice has come through the previous areas. other than the direct severance, i don't think there has been much change from the advice we have had given the before. i'm willing to take a vote on it

do you believe the american decline is over blown? >> i definitely believe that the american -- the so-called american decline, american decline is greatly exaggerated. i think the united states, is way ahead of everybody else. look at renovation, look at what is the concept -- the united states. look what happened when the united states debt was down graduated gras, downgraded, so that is the confidence. the united states is can do -- i mean if the political bickering stops in both parties and is unified, i could also what happened between reagan and the republicans and democrats, between can clinton and gingrich and now able to consolidate and work together, i think there is no way but for republicans and tells to work together, even in election years. >> rose: how do you see china? >> in china everything is controlled and managed by the government, as you know. >> rose: yes. >> and. >> rose: they can create a stimulus overnight. >> sure. and look at china, you have the economic system is very much capital-lific capitalistic. >> so these

>> i believe they do. >> thank you. obviously pakistan's relations with india plays a role in their defense plans and operations. there has been some small good news in terms of the potential for a thaw in that relationship in the last year or so. can you talk about how you assess the potential for improved ties between the two countries and how that might effect stability in that region? >> obviously from pakistan's standpoint, they view india as a threat. there has been some encouraging breaks here in light of the context of the dialogue between the two countries. i know from having traveled and dialogued with indians, it would be interested as well in relaxing tensions, but there are long-standing fundamental issues there that will be hard to overcome. obviously, if they did reach some agreement, it would be huge, but there are lots of count countervailing factors that are left for closed session that will make that difficult. >> when we were there last summer, i was there with chairman levin. this issue came up. the

that's why i believe it is so important we extend, as i said before, the payroll tax cut and emergency unemployment benefits and put together a build america plan to invest in infrastructure. by the way, chairman bernancke has made clear that he believes we ought to be thinking seriously about additional investments in infrastructure at this time. it's a two-fer. not only do you get increased demand at a time of weak demand, but you can get very good prices and it improves the competitive position of the united states. we have had report after report that our infrastructure will not allow us to be fully competitive. if you doubt that, go to china and see what they are doing with infrastructure. with that, we'll now turn to senator toomey. he is here filling in for senator sessions. senator sessions could not be with us early this morning. senator toomey is filling in for him. welcome. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. i apologize for getting here a little bit late. i was reminded of how challenging it can be to extracate oneself from the prayer breakfast. it was a terrific event. i

and i could believe that. on the other hand, i will tell you that when people put things out in the press, if it is read, people believe it sometimes even if there's no validity. let me just suggest. that if we're going to hold you, or a state deq or an industry group responsible for validity of their science, these groups should be, as well. i mean, they're certainly influencing the debate as much as a major employer would who happens to have an omissions issue. would you agree with that? >> i think it's fair if there are claims being made that someone could ask epa whether or not we agree with that data. in general, i see your point, sir. >> secondly, the president and the state of the union speech with transportation fuel and has hoped to encourage such. i'm not aware of any initiative that he has so proposed. certainly nothing legislatively. do you know of a -- of such an initiative? >> i don't believe there's a legislative initiative right now. >> and is there an administrative initiative? >> i seem to rec

i believe that fairly strongly. i also think in terms of procedure, where the ethics commission takes a vote on a matter, they should communicate in writing to the board of supervisors with their vote is and not have that merely be reflected by a line in the city's attorneys digest of legislation. they should communicate formally to that and. -- to that end. i'm not concerned with the particulars, i tend to favor the soft cap at i would have eased slightly different numbers, but i think this goes a distance to fixing the thing and making it work. i can live with all that. i want to focus on the municipal election code and the potential change any they want to follow- up on this, moving back the deadline date 58 days, almost two months to early june has the effect of commingling aspects of a june and november elections that do not exist. now the june election is done and put to bed, the best can't settle at least for with the november election. this moves the deadline so close as to require the department of elections

>> i believe that as well. and just one special question, we are on the committee talking about how you can go to the supermarket and there can be apples from all over the world. none of them from california. you know, if we could coordinate such that we could bring local products to market, that. any thoughts on that. >> i love that. anything that can demonstrate the power, and also, namt, we can play hardball. there is the shelter crisis. and why not use these laws to declare an emergency when you have shelters overflowing. i just did research because we'll be covering this causatively athe steng us boxes in school school. if a sick number of comes up, you can declare a still live in -- but really we're thought -- he would care. i profoundly believe that. look when happens. we were obsessed for days. here's the arctic boy. i have an idea. what about if we construct a big balloon. and we don't have to put a the point is that we need to use all the means at all, which is becoming like a reality show with anothe

i don't believe you come to the meetings with your mind made up and you do your research very well. i am actually very proud that it is the advocacy of myself and other commissioners for a strong commissioner to sit in your seat that brought you to the commission. i am very proud to nominate you because this commission worked very hard to put you here. thank you very much. president o'brien: i would like to say that being the president this year, steve has been on my side all the way as the vice president . we tried very hard to be very proactive with the director and a staff, discussing the agendas for the meetings. and to be heavily involved in the issues, especially those that are very important. it was appreciated that steve was always there for the discussions were we had a conference call which we did more than once. i have absolutely no hesitation in banking on him to be a fine president of the small business commission. that concludes my comment. commissioner riley? commissioner riley: i will also support you as the president, i think that you have done a lot of good work for

together, i believe, they think they're going to form a province. i don't know. apparently the guy wrote a master's dissertation on the daily show. he just wanted his parents to know he's not a loser. but i've got to tell you, i don't know, i don't know. ( cheers and applause ) seriously he wrote his dissertation on the daily show. my guess is they're not letting him back into canada. he's stuck here. let's begin tonight with tomorrow. the republican presidential florida primary two weeks ago the winner seemed clear. >> latest poll in florida shows mitt romney leading with 36% followed by newt gingrich with 24. >> jon: romney in a landslide. a rom-slide. the republicans are building a bridge to handsome town. but then unexpectedly, a troll living under that bridge... ( cheers and applause ) ... unleashed his patented dick-fu in south carolina. >> governor romney, as governor raised tax. massachusetts was 47th in job creation. romney-care does pay for tax- paid abortions. governor romney's super pac, over which he apparently has no influence which makes you wonder

lightning is an -- >> 30 more seconds. >> i really believe lightning is an issue. what i would like to say quickly is and we all thought what ever we are paying for employees, we were all imposed -- opposed to it. it works. i think this worlulsd work for parking lots. >> next speaker. >> my name is steven lee. i am the 12-year owner of the glass capt. there is a starbucks, a wells fargo bank parking lot but is open. i have been dealing with this for 12 years. i am going to give you a couple of things. we have 30 employees. 15 our security. our patrons park close to an a block away. going back to finding out if there are incidents, you can check with the sfpd. we have been sued for having confrontations' because our security is trying to keep the neighborhood quiet because we have a condo on all four sides. they are coming across the bay. they cruised into the lot. they wait until our patrons finely go to the parking lot, and and they end up parking themselves there and start making noise. we have to send security to try to mitigate the problem and keep the n

and i believe -- and i will quote my friend president carter, we should engage them and talk to them. believe a solution is not possible with them. >> let me get your take on the supply of oil in the world today. i know saudi arabia is in a wonderful position. how much does it take to produce oil in your country? >> i think the average cost for a barrel is somewhere between 5 $5-6 a barrel. >> do you believe that price would be appropriate given the supply today? >> there's an element of fear. right now, we've seen that the world economies are diminishing in growth. yet, the price of oil did not go down. and demand, although it went down, yet the price is still high. i think there's a fear element here because of what may happen with iran and closing the hormuz strait. both the con soumers and the producers are setting that price. >> you've been increasing your money invested in the united states in the last year? >> well, you know, most of our deals are announced like steel, for example. we're always looking for opportunity ins the united states. the united states is down, but not ou