[applause] >> martin anderson was formerly an economic policy adviser in the reagan adminstration isrently a fellow at the hoover institution and co-author with annelise anderson of "reagan's path to victory," reagan in his own hand in "reagan, a life in letters." annelise anderson was a senior policy adviser to the reagan presidential campaign and a cizik director of president reagan's office of management and budget. she is currently a fellow at the hoover institution. the ronald reagan presidential library in simi valley california hosted this event. for more information visit reagan library.com. >> this summer booktv is asking, what are you reading? >> i and several books, that i am reading and i intend to read over the next several weeks. but, right now i am just about completed with with wings of eagles i michael korda, which is the battle of britain actually from both sides of the english channel, the raf on one hand and the german lufafa on the other en

we finally have the food and drug adminstration to be able to regulate, to promote legislation or rather regulations in the area of the sale, the production as well as in the market of tobacco products particularly to children, and mike enzi was there as well for the bill signing ceremony. in fact, it is in many ways stronger than the advocates of the bill because it goes further in many ways, and what we have done with this. again, a good example of that kind of work that can come together and i think the people like tom davis and mike dine, the republicans did a great job. i appreciate the fact, we have got to do something to help but. is not their fault and their economies going to suffer as a result of this and what we can do to help them. i don't know anyone who wants to see their kids take on health hazard and if we can do things to make a difference in that, that is going to really get to the prevention issue. so, it was the moment of some import and again i think the combination of incentivizing behavior for individuals to assume responsibility for their own health condition as w

they are going to see some scrutiny, probably not like they have had in the previous adminstration. >> host: several articles describe him as a pro-consumer. what does that mean? >> guest: i am not sure that there's anything in the hearing besides his own words that indicated he was broke consumer. he is really, there's so much talk about this guy and i will say in the nicest possible way but we know nothing really about him other than his resume. whether not he is broken simard, all we really know is he would like to make the fcc web site better and that is really the only thing that we know. so, what they are not he is pro-consumer i think that, we will see after he is confirmed. >> guest: let's keep in mind that everybody is pro-consumer in this business. all of the big telco companies will use consumers as their excuse for almost anything, so and a way, it is a word that we are not quite sure what it means yet and we will find out. >> host: in the hearing this week one of the issues all of the senators to question him talked about was the national broadband strategy and the dollar

geithner as their treasury secretary so i think there is the pity that this adminstration is continuingon in the mold and continues with the bailout and that is why a number of us thought it was wrong then and continue to fight now with our legislation and what we will rollout later on. with the history not clarified, mr. alvarez i see in your testimony you say employees expose a firm to see that the risk and importantly improperly designed compensation programs may inside a wide range of employee behavior. you also say we should adjust compensation so employees bear some of the risk associated with their activities and employees looks likely to take an important risk incentive payments are reduced or limited. i agree. how does that occur and the fed right now with the activities the employees take that have their risk not only on themselves the the entire economy? or they can do anything they want without any risk? >> there is no one at the fed that can do anything they want without taking risks. >> as far as their compensation. >> no, no, no as far as their actions as well. so, there

i guess the argument that the obama adminstration is making is that the top marginal rates went up on bill clinton and all he wants to do is bring the top marginal breaks back. >> yeah, your point is completely correct. the higher taxes are the more likely increases will lose revenues. they are both sides of the curb. it depends on what taxes you are talking about. it depends upon how high they are, how broad the tax base is. that me give you one that is really focused on politics today. it is the highest tax rates. and i will go on that one that i can. and i want to take you back to john look and of the. we go to the very heavily in the book. when jack kennedy took office the highest marginal increase tax was 91%. andel lowest tax rate other than zero was 20%. that is when he came into office. now, when you look at this kennedy cut the highest rate from 91% to 70% and cut the lowest rate from 20% to 14%. cut them all in the middle too but those of the two extremes. if you look to the percentage cut in the tax rate on the highest bracket it went from 91 to 70 so that is the 21 percent

one of the goals of this adminstration is energy independence and of course i am an old german. i am an economist. i worry about how things get put together, the capitol resources and how people get them so in comes-- i am braded bachman dang, boring stuff and i'm just an old journeymen. when i hear someone talk about energy independence, that is almost a rope-a-dope mistake. let me if i can just describe this because this is david ricardo. i don't know of any of you have heard that the gains from trade in david ricardo. if i look at the world i see the middle east has tons and tons of oil and they don't know what to do with it. i look at the u.s., we know what to do with that and we can always use more. the simple thing is we and they are both better off by them selling us oil and we using it. and independence is one of the dumbest idea as i have heard my life. it denies all the gains from trade. it is just plain in economic terms, stupid. if i look at this thing, every president since eisenhower, so does not just obama, every presidents as espoused the idea of energy independe