that was going to create a lot of pain to the economy that was not going to be avoided. you cannot manufacture -- a must for going to put a lot more people into homeownership, continue along those lines, that are sustainable in the long run, you were going to be a vote to avoid a major adjustment for the imbalances that have been created during rebuttal. now at the same time, certainly there is -- there are moves going on in washington today to begin to work off the stock of distressed area, the project we have in place to begin to finance investors more in a bigger way than has been in the past. i may come in the housing market is one where homeowners are no longer getting finance. let me just start off that if you're going to have principal write-downs, if you're going to have -- allow people to foreclose come you are going to have to find some way of financing this. government funds will have to be put in the picture. then you get into the fiscal problems were dealing with. so i agree things can be done to ease the problem, but there are costs. >> why wasn't this done

access to to try to figure out what can be done to improve the program for the future, and to this end, we issued several audits over the past few years with recommendations for corrective actions. we have been working with fns, our partners as usda to address these issues, and in particular, we recommend that retailer applicants need to have clean backgrounds with no history of criminal or illegal activity. there needs to be a way to do that. we also believe usda should make better use of suspension and debarment appropriately to ensure disqualified retailers do not participate in government programs in the future. to conclude, we strongly believe that retailer integrity is a critical component of ensuring an effective snap program that delivers nutritious food to people who need it. in our experience, unscrupulous retailers are at the heart of most of the trafficking schemes that we have seen, and so we look forward to continuing our work with fns, state and local partners to address this fraud where it occurs and improve integrity of the very important program. thank you for your in

had to go to another meeting, but i hope we have the possibility to go to another hearing before thisis over. anopheles hunter mccain believes that we should do this on her own. i hope you can help organize something. but i gather saudis to countries are not actually thinking about the supplying some weapons to the searing opposition. let me move to another area. this also goes to iran. i have heard reports that the reigning regime is now involved in more actively in the linux chickadees in other countries in the region and in a way that pose as some threat to our forces in the region. and i wanted to ask you to talk about that. beyond syrian, their theories we feel iran is beginning to threaten our forces. i would like to hear about it. >> well senator, they are fighting basically a shadow war every day. they have nuclear weapons into sudan and sending them into emm. they are trying to make inroads there by passing out on me an ordinance to various backs to yemen as they take their first steps toward some kind of a democracy in their future having come under the very good election. w

they want to go back to this. they want to go back to this. we've made too much progress in prevention and wellness to go back to the, back to the old ways of just treating people after they get sick. again, we've been able to promote a lot of activities around the country to promote health and wellness. for example, in illinois, the state made improvements to its sidewalks and marked crossings to increase student activity levels. you might say well, big deal. well, it is a big deal. because of these improvements, the number of students who are walking to school has doubled. doubled. and it's expected to save the school system about $67,000 a year just on bus costs. kids are healthier. you save money. in alabama, mobile county is using funds from this prevention fund to support tobacco quit lines, to help residents live tobacco-free. again, under the tobacco ses ation program. -- cessation program. officials enacted a comprehensive smoke-free policy expected to protect 13,000 of their residents. this is in mobile county, alabama. from being ex

we had to be prepared to use fairly overwhelming force to make possible the ends that we wanted to achieve on the ground. and we have to be clear in syria. but at the moment it's political pressure, sanction pressure, diplomatic pressure, u.n. pressure, it's all those pressures we should be building. i don't think we should rule out forever corridors, pauses, safe zones, we should examine all these things. but as we examine them we have to make sure we're prepared to will the means to achieve them rather than just declare them. >> when assad goes, he could be replaced by an extremist theocracy with sympathies toward al qaeda. >> i think it's very difficult to pause at what the future for syria will be. but when we have discussions in the national security council, i think the view coming as much from the expert community as anyone else it's actually hard to think of an alternative that would be much worse than assad himself. >> bring about change -- >> two questions as they are. one is is there one worse than the current one? it's quite difficult to think of that when you think of butcheri

department doing to help iget al to liquid to play a vital role? >> the unitedtates has great resources. we are looking at the potential for coal-to-liquid and gas-to- liquid. the issue is the high capital cost. the plants are very complex. when i talk to the oil companies, they say that the very high capital cost is a probm. having said that, we also want to do this in a way that does it even without capturing the carbon. it is less marginal. we would like to capture the carbon. ultimately, we need to capture the carbon. >> absolutely. these bil that the president put it in our a loan guarantee progra i am wondering if any of the loan guarantees helped any of the capital cost >> i think the one i know of, there are a few still going forward. there is gassification and the use of carbon dioxide. there is a project going forward on that. >> that brings me to solyndra. what was happening in the chinese market, you have incated that what was happening was not anticipated in 2009. one of the questions i have always had was, that was known based on the

[applause] >> to the president, to the dean, to be how work-family. i am pleased to be here. -- to be how word -- howard family. i am pleased to be here. my thoughts are with congressman payne. he was one of my bosses on the house education committee. we have a great legacy going forward. thank you for your leadership. why do we say education is the civil rights issue of our generation? no other issue holds greater promise of equality and opportunity for our nation. as the data we are releasing today shows, are too many students and schools have an equity as a reality. we issued the first round of south reported data ever collected from 72 -- round of data ever collected. it showed that schools serving minorities had less rigorous high school classes and were more likely to be taught by teachers with one or two years of experience. the second round of data confirmed these discrepancies. if we are serious about not just talking about this gap, but doing something about it, we have to close the opportunity gap. there are three parts. teachers, access to

the right to worship who you want to worship and to go to church. you imagine if this government, if this administration decided to mandate. you not some have to go to church, but they're going to tell you where you have to go to church and i have a feeling that we're going to go to jeremiah right's church and calling him pastor. audience: boo! >> but this could get a little bit fun if we want to think about this for a moment. what if conservatives got in charge but we still had obama care? and so when you've got standard -- you've got sandra fluke and she wants her $3,000 worth of birth control. well, how about this? how about if we decide that sandra fluke gets to try a different kind of birth control? and it's going to be mandated by you? how about a little abstinence, miss fluke? [applause] don't need a law degree to figure out this out, do we? so this week, how many of you, anybody out here, loves somebody with downs syndrome? congratulations to every one of you. you know what i'm talking about. this was national downs syndrome association awar

sew we're delighted to welcome chairman gruenberg to speak to us today. i suspect he will be telling us something about the fdic's new responsibility under dodd-frank and how those are being implement the. very kindly agreed to take a few questions after his prepared remarks. join me in welcoming, chairman gruenberg. [applause] >> all right. thank you very much for that kind introduction. art's an old friend. he served as a valued advisor to us on any number of bills that we considered on the senate, on the senate banking committee while i was there. this is a bit of an old home week. i know steve harris was here earlier. gary gensler just left. professor goldschmidt is here, all who played central roles in the formulation of the sarbanes-oxley certainly and then, and in its implementation as well. so it's a pleasure for me to be here. you made reference to former fdic chairman sheila bair, who i think was really an outstanding leader of the fddic. sheila told me two things before she left. she said one, being chairman of the fdic is very tough job and i

the market will force our competitors to want to catch up or for me to catch up to somebody else. that is the right balance between all of us. but between government and industry, i think the information sharing should be more free. >> thank you. >> @ metropcs, besides our internal controls, we also have server security partners. firmscurity monitoring form that monitor us 24 hours a day. but there is not a central clearing house for that of permission for the folks there outside of the security companies to easily share information. so if he recognizes a threat or is told about a threat in his network, there is not a central place where he could notify other companies or other carriers even in this industry that this threat is out there and we should respond to it. >> and is there an incentive -- if you have done the research and detective the threat in protective gear comforters -- protected your customers -- >> if you tell them, you're telling the bad guys, too, right? so it would be strange to be to open with with your concern with. i kind of like the existing model. i think t

to prison pipeline to credit to the workforce, cradle to college. we have found that once they get into college or once they get on the job, the crime rate plummets. so their goal is to get a comprehensive evidence-based trajectory from all the way up until they get to college. the format of the plan, comprehensive. then you find out if it's going to save money. because after you're going to fund the plan, you don't want it to come back to the government next year or the after that to say you have to find it again or have it collapse. you will find out who saving money, and as we mentioned the medical college of virginia may be saving hundreds of thousands of dollars in uncompensated medical care. the prison system will be saving lots of money for fewer people going to prison. medicaid, social service will be saving money because fewer girls will be getting pregnant. on and on, figuring out who saving money. and we found that you don't have to get all of them. in pennsylvania, they have funded about 100 programs, $60 million. then he went back a cou

we'll have to get the candidates to agree to leave. i want to say what a pleasure it's been to have all of our candidates here and you just have to realize how tough it is to rearrange schedules in order to be at something like this and i hope you appreciate the efforts they've made. let me present rick santorum. >> thank you very much, governor. it's great to be here with you and it's great to be here in the state of ohio. governor romney just said, it's important that we're in a place like here in wilmington where we've seen the economic devastation that has been caused by a very rapidly and dynamically changing economy and we need someone who is out there who understands what it means to grown up as at this in a steel town and lose jobs and understand what it means to have folks that you grew up with being left behind. we see a lot of that going on in this country today. a lot of folks feeling like they're paddling alone and not having the opportunities to be able to rise in society. that's why i put together a very bold economic pl

what i tend to have to deal with a lot -- i react to stories. by and large on channel 9 -- channel 9 is not a content creators. i am taking content that is out there and try to add value to it with the colorado connection to it. stories are given to me and they often are being driven by the washington orientation from the talking heads. that is that mitt romney is to which, rick santorum is to religious. today the spin is that obama cannot lose. i typically sort of go against the tide. i sound like an accountant. and that is what i noted for and have a reputation of trying to be objective and give the opposite position while still understanding there is a view out there and try to play against it. if you are not careful, when you're commenting on the daily news, you can be quickly swept along with the powerful tide that come out of washington. i like the fact that cnn and fox are out there because i look at them both when i get up -- i look at a couple of blogs and read tehe news. -- i look at the averages and the model out there to see what is

to get iran moved to categories in the obama administration from a general threat to one specific to the united states perhaps in hopes that would change the way the u.s. dealt with the issue. i don't think that will succeed but it is interesting and i think general cartwright said one of the concerns is a weapon that comes here unconventionally. this is why we sought declaratory policy against north korea where president bush after the first nuclear test, admiral fallon said it wasn't the most successful tests we have ever seen come issued a declaratory policy that said we find your material anyplace around the world we are going to, we are going to treated as a direct attack. you have not seen that kind of policy yet with iran. >> let's take some questions from the audience. right here. right there. the firsthand up. >> wouldn't a change of regime in syria sort of be a better policy because syria, if iran lost syria we would have to secure the wmd. there is wmd in syria. wouldn't that be a loss of face with where i'm i'm at in a job and a loss of conduit in the middle east? >> who

getg legislation done what they try to do is get to to enter the 18 and to my kids and republicans yid hope a speaker won't sr justfa try to get the surface transportation bill done with r. republicans but the democrats at to what should have been. passing the bipartisan bill thei president can sign a victory for both parties in the country.hats bill passed overwhelmingly by the house and supported by president obama and i had a conversation on the floor publicly here last night with tt senator kyl of arizona, and we talked about the need to get this done and in order to movehs forward on this expeditiously.ne there are bumps in the road and i hope they will be very few bumps inhe the road.der, but i i had an opportunity to talk toe my friend, the republican leader but i was told that the ranking member of the banking committee, my friend from alabama indicated he wants to make improvements from the house. i suggest we work with senator b johnson to do something on all y bipartisan basis and do it quickly i'd be happy to look at. it. we need to move forward. i think we can get the me

he could not get to him. just from here to there it was too dangerous to get to him.and realizing this could be it. and more importantly a tough guy a, wildcat to, the father and grandfather and he thinks he will die, he starts to think about his grandfather. to the days today that helped to keep him alive. a lot of will keep fighting and fighting that is what you get from hours and hours. because i want to know what they felt. a toll was taken. not only those who have the same thoughts of their mentality -- mortality. and he said god come 81 to need to lose, give me a sign. then they said you will wake up. but it goes back to the hours of intimacy. >> what is the mission in afghanistan? >> that is a tough question. right now? what i am told now when i anders stand now is assist the afghan government into being of legitimate government to build up the forces. >> honestly? it does to a normal soldier i don't think he gets up to think i will get after it. but what is important is he thinks about his unit, his job. to make sure it not know they get a back to base safely

lead to rationing, and how it's going to to lead to rationing.demonizing doctors and health-care providers. demonizing a health care system in order to pass this health care law. the reason that offended me is a personal story that has to do with my daughter who was joined with the serious congenital heart defect. the president obama said would cut out a set of tonsils for a few extra dollars, doctors saved her life with and the first few hours of flight. and incredibly dedicated and skilled team of medical professionals totally reconstructed the upper chamber of the hard. her heart operates backwards now. she is 28 years old and is a nurse herself in that neonatal intensive care unit taking care of those little babies. when they passed patient protection affordable care act i knew the health care system to save my daughter was at risk. i also knew that this health care law was in no way, shape or form was going to reduce the federal deficit. it is not possible. how can you expect to add twenty-five million people to government run health care an

they have to be able to talk to each other. and if they have to community through homeland security or with the permission of homeland security, you tweeted the whole purpose of making them nimble. >> congressman terri, what about critical infrastructure? what is your approach in including that with any regulatory bill? >> i'll have to see how our working group deals with that. right now we seem to have a consensus that we're going to create all industries alike, make sure they have access to information. and the industries themselves can choose which one is more critical than another. for example, electric generation is probably more important to financial services, to wall street, than to a pass you're in western nebraska. so obviously one is critical or not, but they all have to start with getting information, receiving information from the n.s.a. or others of a relevant threat to them. >> and the development of those standards of what is included and what is not, who is responsible for that? >> that would be within the indu

i also want to say to all of the asian-americans and pacific islanders to help to get this program off the ground. my roots back in hawaii and the incredible visit we made to india a year ago. it was a little discouraging. opened up the papers and there to headlines. president obama visit india and michelle obama rocks india. so, this is my life. it keeps me humble. i am here today not because i need your help, although i do. i am here because your country need your help. there was a reason why so many of you work your heart out in 2008. i see some friends who were active in that campaign. you got involved because you thought it would be easy. think about it. he supported a candidate named barack hussain obama for president of the united states. you do not need a poll to know that is not going to be sure thing. you did not join the campaign because a me. it was not about one person. it was a shared vision of america. and is not a vision of america where everybody is left to fend for themselves. it is a vision of america where everybody works together and everybody who works are has a c

the fed to allow us to make a loan to provide the liquidity to stay afloat so to prevent the collapse of aig, we used aig assets as collateral and loaned aig $85 billion. obviously, a fairly serious amount of money. later the treasury provided additional assistance to keep aig afloat. and, again, while it was highly controversial it was both, we thought, legitimate in terms of lender of last resort theory because it was a collateralized loan and the fed is, in fact, fully paid back and secondly because it was a critical element in the global financial system. over time as i said aig has stabilized. it has repaid the fed with interest. the treasure still owners a majority share of its stock but it has -- aig has been paying back the treasury as well. it's been in the process of doing that. now, i'd like to emphasize that what we had to do with bear stearns and aig is obviously not a recipe for future crisis management. first of all, it was a very difficult and in many ways distasteful intervention that we had to do on the grounds that we needed to do that to prevent the system from col

we have to be able to do it. it is not that easy to deal with some of the concerns out there. >> watch this week's hearings and news conferences whenever you want online at the c-span video library. search events from this year and earlier with over a quarter century of american politics and public affairs on your computer at c-span.org/videolibrary. >> in a few moments, fred barnes of the 2012 campaign. in 45 minutes, attorney general eric holder's testimony on capitol hill about the 2013 justice department budget request. we will repair the budget here terry -- budget hearing with energy secretary steven chu. on "washington journal close-" tomorrow morning, u.s. options in syria with former undersecretary of state for arms control aelle tauscher. jim towey will discuss the administration's coverage of a control. we'll answer your questions about u.s. international trade with steve landefeld and ryan avent. "washington journal" is live every day on c-span at 7:00 a.m. eastern. >> i do not think the president cou

we need to figure out a way to get these people to stay, to stay anywhere in our states. but don't leave, especially if we've educated you in our universities. we want these people to stay and innovate in the united states. and then the final point is women. and this is really near and dear to my heart. i was an investment banker for jpmorgan, i honestly believe that women are the undervalued asset class, that means women can be entrepreneurs and we don't see them right now very much in this segment, especially not in the high growth segment. and that's a real question mark. there's some statistics that i think are in some ways troubling and in some ways cool. women are 46% of the workforce, 50% of college students. 51% of our ph.d.s and last year, 70% of the valedictorians. like girls are smart. and so -- for those you who have not figured that out yet. why do we not see them starting up companies? i'll be honest and say, it's really hard to find examples of companies that have scaled over 100 million in revenue in less than five years that have women as founders. and in

i have to go to my notes. but you can see the netherlands is top in europe as it comes tobacco ownership. we have more -- to bicycle ownership. we have more bicycles than people. so you can imagine how many bikes there are. you can find them on every street, every street corner. denmark is very good. second. and then you see it all the way down to spain. oops, now i see a mistake in my slide. uh, where -- if you compare the netherlands with other cities, we have 27% bike share. so this is the use. we own many bikes but we use them a lot as well. we use -- 27% of our trims are made by bicycle, average in the netherlands. denmark, 18%, germany, 10%. and in the u.s., average in your country is 1%. the latest figures i've got. and as i've told you it's the average, 27%. but if you have a closer look and you look at short-distance trips then it's 34% on the bike and 15% of trims up to 10 miles we also use the bicycle. still a great share. and we have two cities that are top of our bike use. the city of gronig and t

to our panelists, we are going to shorten the questions because i want to be sensitive to you want to speak. the commission has asked that we set aside public speaking time. to our panelists, after hearing the testimony from the individuals that are here tonight, which put to the human face on cir, what strikes you the most about what you have heard, and under cir, how can negative practices, including criminal conviction, be dealt with differently? i will start with mary. >> thank you. i thought all this testimony from the community speakers was incredibly moving and shows a wide range of issues that really has to be addressed. i guess i slipped into my pragmatic mode at some point and try to figure out what the calculation is, basically in terms of what the market will bear. it is clear, political pressure from around the country is often what helps to determine that, but we can also tell by watching how things develop, that there are forces impinging on what will actually get accomplished. i think the critical thing is to remember there are two ways that we can influence what the g

we are in a public-private partnership to rebuild america, to promote commerce, to move people, it to increase broadband -- all of the things that you would do in the infrastructure bill. this little package is, i think, viewed positively. it is not a substitute for the jobs bill that we need. >> do you see any areas of common ground with republicans on energy policy or something to bring them gas prices? >> we can address the issue of speculation. >> that is not the issue. i am saying something of common ground. >> they should be able to find common ground with the american people want that. they're getting completely zapped in that regard. one thing that is interesting is that the republicans keep saying if only we could drill more. we are drilling more, four times more than when the president took office. more it risks of oil and gas combined then the rest of the world combined -- more rigs of oil and gas combine than the rest of the world combined. we have to stipulate through fax what it is -- through facts what can be done. some refer to cutting edge technologies for energy, as

we are here to talk to you about what is important to our country. what is important to our country is to try to get this economy back on the right track. trying to stand up to the radical forces and who have been in charge in washington for the last 3.5 years. [applause] we need to make sure we have leaders who can stand up to bullies, not just here in this country, but around the world. we need a president who does not apologize to anybody anywhere in this world for the united states. ladies and gentlemen, we are at a critical time in history. you see how this country has been divided by a president who simply wants to pit one side against the other. trying to rally forces of folks who do not believe in the founding principles of our country. who do not believe that this country is a great country. it was built on a foundation in the declaration of independence. we hold these truths to be self- evident. all men are created equal. it is interesting. when you hear folks call for equality, they call for equality. let me ask, do you see equality in the

we'll have to get the candidates to agree to leave. want to say what a pleasure it's been to have all of our candidates here and you just have to realize how tough it is to rearrange schedules in order to be at something like this and i hope you appreciate the efforts they've made. let me present rick santorum. >> thank you very much, governor. it's great to be here with you and it's great to be here in the state of ohio. governor romney just said, it's important that we're in a place like here in wilmington where we've seen the economic devastation that has been caused by a very rapidly and dynamically changing economy and we need someone who is out there who understands what it means to grown up as at this in a steel town and lose jobs and understand what it means to have folks that you grew up with being left behind. we see a lot of that going on in this country today. a lot of folks feeling like they're paddling alone and not having the opportunities to be able to rise in society. that's why i put together a very bold economic plan

achieve a chance to be able to have a better life and to be able to govern themselves. we have seen these dramatic changes. i think the important thing is to try to do what we can to make sure these changes move by the right direction. when that kind of literal revolution takes place, there are all kinds of forces that come into play. there are those that would like to take advantage of those changes that often times represent extremism, that represent the views we do not concur with. those begin to come into play as well. i think the greatest challenge for the united states and the international community is to do what we can to make sure these countries as they go through these changes can develop the institutions of government, can develop the reforms that are important to developing eight country truly represent greater freedom and greater opportunity to govern themselves for the future. that is not easy. it is a tough challenge, but i believe we have a chance to be able to guide these countries in that direction. as this happens, my view is that, in fact, it furthe

to provide core services to tribes? >> we are very concerned budgety is protected in that automatically decrease which would be less. it still would be 2%. 2% for our budget equates to around $88 million. that would have to be applied to both of our accounts and services and facilities. we already know that our system has had to absorb a lot of costs including high medical costs and inflation and so on. having another $88 million to try to absorb and our budget would be very painful. it would be very difficult for our health care facilities and would certainly impact services. we are following the progress of this in congress. i have been talking with tribes that if this occurs, what is your preference on where we might absorb these costs. the tribes are very reluctant to have that conversation because they don't want this to happen. they told me this will have a very significant impact on the services in their communities. we're following this very closely and it will have a great impact even though indian health servi

is to say, try to arm. these are people, you know, the courage of the syrian people, they kept us up for over 11 months. they go out and demonstrate on fridays, leaving the mosque, knowing that on any friday several dozen of them will be killed. this is enormous courage. and the moral claim to arm them i think is becoming strong. we've got to arm them in a smart way. does not encourage sectarianism and can hopefully build a political base for a cross sectarian solution. but it is very, very difficult. >> let me ask you a question. how do you arm them? they are all in turkey. you can do it without the turks. and the turks are not going to be applying the tools of american policy. so the only way we can do it is if the turks are prepared to take the lead, but still with the saudis will have to pay for some of it. >> i think that's the way then perhaps to respond. >> i agree with it. and i think turkey is key, and they are not, i think they need to be our partner. >> and they cannot be alone. >> and it's been

but i want to go to trying to find ways to help you. we can do, the kind of tools we can do it give you so you can have the authority to say we are not going to process return. it doesn't have the proper information on their period and social security numbers seems like an easy thing for me. not sending it to a prison with him like an easy thing as well as making sure that they attended the classes or at least attended a college and perhaps may be a balance will yet again number would help to make sure that when credits are being processed that you have all the information to verify that surely they qualify for those. so can you help me out that? sure. thankthank you for bringing thap but i appreciate the offer. we can always use help. a couple of things. one is the have significantly stepped up our effort to crack down on fraud. last year we stopped $14 billion in potentially fraudulent or mistaking credits from going out the door. the specific report that she reference i just want to point out a couple of things. there is a reporter c

use the sanctions long just to bring iran to the table which seems to be having some success, but to induce iran to understand that its nonnuclear future in the weapons sense is the best and the most useful posture in the days to come. i suspect i'm almost over my time. it's been terrific to be with you and i think you very much for giving me this opportunity to share some ideas and views and i wish you all good luck in the panel's ahead. thank you. >> thank you, ambassador for that. it's very interesting. we are going to convene now on our first panel in full attendance, and i think perhaps should we start at the end with ambassador gray and if you can give five minutes of the introduction then we will start with our q&a. >> agreed. thank you very much and thanks to all of you for coming this afternoon and i want to thank our hosts and particularly david even though he couldn't be with us today to previous commitments overseas. - gordon gray, the u.s. ambassador to tunisia and obviously 2011 was the year for the sound political change in tunisia and in addition to the changes came t

we've never had to try to work that hard to find drinking water. we don't have to choose between drinking dirty water and going thirsty. for many of us, fresh water is so safe, abundant. it's hard to even imagine life without it, but on this world water day we should reflect that every 20 seconds a child dies needlessly from water-borne disease. today and every day women will spend 200 million hours collecting water. this week three million students will miss school because they lack access to clean water or sanitation. indeed, half the people who are sick around the world today are sick needlessly from water-borne disease. there is a vision, there is a knowledge to do something about it, but sadly we don't have the resources and we actually don't have the plan. the united states is not only having an obligation, i think, to do the right thing and save lives, but it's also in our self-interest to provide access to safe water. united states security experts testified before this congress that water problems will contribute to the instability in stat

to lead. to make decisions. to budget. i want to start off by saying to the gentleman from maryland how much i appreciate to the adherence of the long-standing protocol on the budget committee on how we clearly to disagree on a lot of the big fundamental issues how we've been able to conduct this debate in a civil manner, and i'm pleased that that tradition from the budget committee is continuing to this day, and i want to simply say how grateful i am for that. last year, mr. chairman, we passed the boldest budget in recent history. a comprehensive plan to lift the debt and free the nation from the constraints of an ever-expanding federal government. we changed the debate in washington. suddenly, we're having a debate how much spending we should cut instead of how much more to spend. how to create jobs the right way by getting the federal government off our backs, by eliminating the debt and by reforming the tack code so that american families and small businesses can create a true economic recovery. this week we're prepar

ultimately it's going to be up to the afghans to work together, to try to arrive to a path to peace andn a steady, responsible transition process which is what we've designed, put them in a position where they can deal with their own security and we're also underscoring through what we anticipate to be a strategic partnership that has been signed before we get to chicago that the united states will sustain a relationship with afghan but we will be working with them, both to ensure their security and to ensure that their economy and i don't anticipate at this stage that we're going to be making any sudden additional changes to the plan that we currently have. we have already taken out 10,000 of our troops. we're slated to draw down an additional 23,000 by this summer. there will be a robust coalition presence inside of afghanistan during this fighting season to make sure that the taliban understand that they are not going to be able to gain momentum after the fighting season in conjunction with all of our allies. we will continue to look at how do we effect ate this transition in a way t

it is time for us all to get to work elected leaders and the american people, to put an end to empty promises and at the end of the day, we have a basic choice that we're going to make. what kind of country do we want? what kind of people do we want to be? our budget is our answer to this question. we want a country that is prosperous, strong, secure, and free. and most of all, we want our people to fulfill our founding vision. a free people with the opportunity to achieve happiness for ourselves and our children. with that, i'll reserve and yield to mr. van hollen for his opening statement. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i think we all understand that we gather today to consider a long-term budget plan and an especially consequential moment for our country. unfortunately, this republican budget makes the wrong choices for america. i'd like to put up a slide now that shows the current job situation where we've come from and where we are, and what this slide shows is that as a result of the extraordinary actions, that have been taken over the last few years, and many difficult decisions

we have to understand, we have to ask 67 questions to get it true. we need a medicare to the sound of social security, so, much to my democrats we have to change the entitlements. we have to reform the system, we have to make the common sense changes that take into account we are living longer, there are all sorts of things and democrats would react reflexively and say we can't change anything that's wrong. president obama in the health care bill took half a trillion dollars every ten years out of the bill by changing medicare in this case the relationship to pharmaceutical companies so it didn't have any impact on the beneficiaries but we have a whole lot of that stuff. we have to do all that stuff and be reasonable and we've got to understand, and we have i believe a five month window after the november election and the middle of march if we don't get things done in the country that means tax reform and raising revenue and cutting entitlements, it means an investment strategy. if we don't do that in those five months, we are cooked. now to go back

i'm happy to provide the justification to you, mr. burgess. >> well, i've been waiting on some of those questions that we've submitted last time. i will resubmit some today and i am looking forward to that. since we have the cfo with you today -- >> i'm sorry, we have authority for 30 positions so we do have a cap. i'm sorry. so we're using 17 out of the 30, which is our cap. >> are you going to adhere to the fact that those are to be temporary or time-limited positions? >> i will look into the issue, sir.ll n concede it here. >> clearly, mr. chairman, this is a reason why this authorization committee needs to take a greater role in the oversight of the money spent bit environmental protection agency. let's go -- miss bennett was kind enough to be here and talk to some of the issues as to the epa suspending last year. i'm so glad she's here today. last october i think we had a hearing here and there was concern because of unobligated funds that were sitting in the epa's bank account. just purely as an example we had i think -- i think

we'll be continuing to work with them to try to implement that the way we can to make sense but we as to part with the organizing committee which served as a leading role in sustainability and tried to pivot them around to things we are hearing excitement like do a hack-a-thon or do new apps that help people learn about the neighborhoods and learn about san francisco and get people away thinking we're a one-trick pony and here's our great waterfront. i would be happy to work with you and the office and the fillmore to understand how that works. commissioner olague: in district 5 alone we have several neighborhood commercial corridors, lower haight, inner sunset, so i think there's a lot of potential if we can start to educate people through the aps about all the unique neighborhoods we have. >> another piece i'd like to hiled, -- highlight, also, we'll have tourists coming to the event with information using a clipper car instead of renting a car from the airport and that's a good communication for a lot of things, saying this is what san francisco brings to you, can we teach you what

to get to job interviews or to shelter beds, we should try to be more creative and what we can do with that mta to see if it had a more unlimited supply of tokens because they do not think they're going to undeserving people. our case workers are overworked workers having to decide who is qualified to get a token and who isn't. i think we should figure out a better system with an eta. so are individuals who need to get to bed and -- with the mta. so that individuals need to get to bed and to job interviews can do that. at the last shelter monitoring committee report, i did ask that our department could see the committee reports in advance so they could respond to some of the questions. i want to be clear, it's not that i want the report to go through the apartments, i just want a copy in advance because the last meeting, it was problematic there is no response because people were seeing it for the first time a committee meeting. so i wanted to give an opportunity to come up if you would like to -- if you would like to speak, please come up. >> thank you for letting me join my dear frie

to be everything to everyone. i believe one of the most valuable things can you do as a business owner is decide what it is you want to be, and just stay focused on it. >>> as we just saw in that piece, narrowing in on who your customers are is very important. let's welcome our guests. kimberly is editor at large at ink.com, and you just started a company, too. >> i did. it's called one thing new. it's a news letter for professional women. we have interviews -- >> awesome. >> we will check that out. congratulations to you on your company, on the sale. fantastic news. >> i want to start with you. both of you guys are focusing in on a particular customer. how important is it and how hard was it to narrow in on exactly? >> our core customer ended up being 25 to 45, and what i recommend is do what i did and come up with the cohesive brand, logo, packaging, and allow the customers to self select and figure out what customer segment you are going after and then use specific marketing channels to reach those customers. >

and to bring it to u.s. fully formulated and ask for your -- bring it to you as fully formulated and ask for your -- >> it is difficult when we do not know the terms. i don't know. maybe something needs to be changed in releasing policy in order for staff and the commission to be able to discuss or staff to be able to talk to current or potential tenants about lease deals, because it is really hard to give you approval for a sole- source when we don't know what we are giving approval for. >> i appreciate that. that is one reason why we are here having this discussion. >> that is why i said i appreciated your doing the informational presentation. >> i think on the timeline, when he thought he would be back with the final lease. i suspect that we would be seeing you for negotiating guidelines as we do other projects as needed. you're staring at me blankly. >> we want to get her some of the steps. we need to get through the architectural review, the design review, community outreach. we need to get through thos

you're going to have to pass it to find out what's in it. that's what had you to say to get a majority vote even of her own party to get it through the house of representatives. but in a sense, she is right. you can read every -- you can understand every letter of this law, but it has 1,693 delegations of authority for the secretary to write regulations, and until they are written, you aren't really going to know what's in it. and you remember the accountable care organization rules that came out. six pages out of 2,700 in the bill dealt with accountable care organizations, but the first regulations that were written were 350 pages long. so we really don't know what -- how bad this legislation is maybe for a few years down the road, and hopefully we never get that far down the road. mr. barrasso: and my understanding from the accountable care organization component of this is that the very health programs that the accountable care organizations were referred to, the ones that the president held up as the models across the country -- and one

so she literally had to put down cardboard to get to her bed at night. and for all of that work, she earned less than $3 per hour. and so there are just incredible violations. and not every domestic worker is in that situation. but every worker is vulnerable. these exclusions have made it such that every single worker is vulnerable. and you never know what you're going to get. >> what happened to maria? >> maria picked up a spanish-language newspaper that had an article about another worker, who had been in an abusive situation and had sought help at an organization called domestic workers united, our new york affiliate here. and so she called and she came to the office. and the organization helped her pursue her unpaid wages. in addition, she became one of the spokespeople for the new york domestic workers bill of rights campaign. where hundreds and hundreds of workers took days off from work, like maria, went up to albany time and time again. we had one member, angelica, who said, when the governor finally signed the legislation, she said, "wow, i thin

people who not affiliated have up to 3 minutes to speak. members of the public who wish to speak are asked not required to present a speaker cards or business card when you come up to speak. speaker cards and pens are available. the board also welcomes comments and suggestions. there are customer satisfaction forms as well. if you have questions about requesting a rehearing, please into board staff during the break or after the meeting or call the office tomorrow morning aboard office is located at 1650 mission street. this is broadcast live on san francisco government television, cable channel 78, and the bees are available for purchase directly from sfgtv. we will conduct our swearing in process. if you intend to testify and wish to have the board give your testimony wait, please stand and raise your right hand, and say i do. please note any member of the public may speak without taking this oath pursuant to the rights of the sunshine ordinance under the codes. the solomon swear the testimony you are about to give -- do you solemnly swear

the way we did it when it came to the schools was we talked to your principles and tried to get you involved. during those years, we got the saturday clean it teams, where a lot of your cohorts are getting credit for working with us. they are planting trees, like getting the environment going. i hate going to other schools. when the school is well kept, clean, when the neighbors feel that the students are in and out of the school and respecting everybody's right to have a nice place to go to, you feel a lot better. we did that with you as students, with your principals, and many of your teachers. you got credit for it as well. we even painted some of the benches red for those eagles. a lot of the other school sports areas. we are working hard to make sure you have jobs when you come out of school. that is what i have been working on. [applause] thank you. one of the things when i was running for mayor last year, i had to go to all these different meetings in the community. a lot of your parents were engaged in telling me what they thought they needed to happen. the number one thing i heard a

we are here to appeal to you. it is a less heavy lift to see to it that things do not happen.ot awesome to see piers fall into the bay. in fact, it is awesome to make things happen. that is the heavy lift. the america's cup is going to be great, but it is no longer going to be awesome. we have lost tons of hours of work. we have lost thousands of paychecks. all we ask you to do in the future is try to be awesome. thank you. president chiu: of any other members of the public who wish to speak in general public comment? seeing none, public comment is closed. if we could go back first to supervisor of the los's item, -- to supervisor avalos's item, item 18, which has already been called. supervisor avalos: i ask for your support of this resolution to establish the balboa park station advisory committee. one of the first things i had done in coming to office was to go to the work of the previous supervisor in the community that was around balboa park station, that created the station area plan. that included funds from various districts, including district 11. since that time, the

to the 75,000 and where a lot of people are going to have to decide who they are going to side with, okay? robert e. lee, the guy in the bottom left-hand corner of the slide, hopefully most of y'all recognize him, he's got a big decision. he's one of the most well-respected commanders in the entire u.s. army. he's a graduate of west point. he's been superintendent of west point. he is a a hero of the mexican war. you guys know arlington national cemetery. that was his wife's family's home, all right? she is tied by family to martha washington. robert e. lee's father rode under george washington during the american revolution. huge ties in his family to the founders of the country. and lee's kind of split. there's this very famous quote that i wanted y'all to see where he talks about how ica not raise my hand against my home, my children, all right? ana lot of folks have argued that lee by nature was a virginian. more than anything else, americans during this time period tend to identify themselves more as mississippi ans, more as new yorkers, more as virginians than americans. they d

have to come back to ohio. you can't pivot too sharply. this tuesday mitt romney has to win. if he is going to retain the last shred of inevitability he has lests. for romney, ohio is the superest of all super tuesday states. and ohio is pretty much up for grabs with only four points separating romney and rick santorum in the quinnipiac poll released on friday. so if you were a candidate like romney, what do you do with a problem like ohio? do you talk about the economy and try to argue that the recovery isn't really much of a recovery, that, yeah, things are better but not as good as they should be? or maybe you try to revive a culture war, one that just might have worked eight years ago. remember in 2004 had when ballot initiatives to boon same-sex marriage in states including ohio were supposed to drive up conservative turnout. the former manager of george w. bush's former election campaign is now reflecting on the wedge issue. and this is what he told salon.com on friday. quote, at a personal level, i wish

there, to talk to millions of americans across a multi-network platform, to deliver their message to set up the race ahead. we've seen these candidates have some good nights where they've hit the mark on these speeches and other nights where they've been out of it. every tuesday is a big night. we'll see how he does tonight. >> steve, thank you. you and john, if you could both stick with us, i'd love to get your comments when he's done. we're about to hear mitt romney having been projected the winner of the illinois primary. >> so many friends in this room and across illinois, what a night. thank you, illinois. what a night! [ applause ] >> and, of course, i'd like to congratulate my fellow candidates on a hard fought contest here. i'd like to thank in particular the volunteers and our friends across the state, and frankly, in other states who have been working hard. i appreciate their unwavering support through good times and bad, and tonight we thank the people of illinois for their vote and for this extraordinary victory. thank you so much. [ applause ] >> and, you know, elections