from first battalion scots guards, and sergeant david walker. these men of exceptional bravery are great courage and skill whose loss is deeply felt. we send our profound condolences to their families and loved ones. meeting with others in addition to my duties in the house i thought of such duties today. >> i am sure everyone will want to associate themselves with the prime minister's comments. my prime ministers never shared -- they paid for the bailout. what will my friend give me when they give their money back that threatens our services and we will not ever squander this investment on a halfback public share offer. >> we have imposed a 50% national insurance tax on bank bonuses which has to be paid by everybody paying cash bonuses over the next year and we insisted on the application of the g 20 rules which means cash bonuses cannot be paid and can only be paid at a later date. we are also working for global banking levee whether we are in discussions with other countries and making progress on how that could be administered. at the same t

and david walker is the president of the peter g. peterson foundation, and prior to joining that, pot for just a second. prior to joining the peter g. peterson foundation, he was of course a couple general of the united states and ahead of the u.s. government accountability office. he's also a member of the peterson-pew commission on budget reform and a committee for a responsible federal budget, and he has recently written a book that i hope he will talk about. he is one of the leading spokespeople in the country who has been putting this issue on the map. is not only talked about it from the platform of his position. he goes around the country and speaks to this and all sorts of different forms. so he talks with leading experts and he talks with people on the credits was a great sense of the issue that he has done an incredible amount to push this on the national agenda and so we thank him for the. i will ask you to come up to the podium and talk. [applause] >> thank you, maya. is a pleasure to be here and thank you for all coming

we're here to talk about a splendid new book by david walker, "comeback america." i'm going to say a little bit more about david and the book in a moment. but first of all, i just wanted to declare a bias in this. i mean, i will make no bones about it. i am a tremendous fan of david and have been for years. i followed his work. i find it very difficult to disagree with much of what he says. i gave up on that when i started reading the book. that wasn't going to happen. so some of the dissent might have to come with you. and the way we're going to organize this is that david and i will talk about the book for perhaps a half hour or so. and then we'll leave plenty of time for questions and quarrelsome interventions from the audience. so if i see you vibrating during the course of the discussion, you're thinking why don't you ask him this, why don't you ask him that, that will be your job in due course. i promise to give you plenty of time to do it. with that, i would say a word of welcome to our c-span viewers who are avidly tuning into this event. good to have them

[applause] >> thank you for coming and we're here to talk that a splendid to book by david walker, come back america. i will say it more in a moment but first i want to declare a bias. i will make no bones about it, i major but the span of david and has been four years. i find it difficult to disagree with much of what he says but i gave up on that when i started to read the book. some of the descent might have to come from new. the way to organize this, we have been talking the past half an hour and will leave plenty of time for questions and interventions from the audience. by the course of the discussion if you think why hard to ask you this? hall that is your job. with that i will promise to say a word of welcome to the c-span2 viewers to our tuning in and good to have them with us as well. a former comptroller general of the united states, former head of the gao and currently the president and ceo of the foundation which has a variety of things with them the most important to evade the country back to a greater sense of fiscal responsibility. this book, come back america is about t

david walker, he's absolutely right.have to look very carefully at both -- all the entitlement programs, and all the other programs to make sure they're affordable and sustainable over the long term. i agree 100% with david walk other that. >> you don't like the bill the way it's propose add right now. he thinks it's putting the cart before the horse. >> i didn't say i gree with him 100% on that. i said i agree with him 100% on the proposition and have worked very closely with david walker. he would tell you that. and he would, i think, tell you that steny hoyer is one of the leading add vovocates in congre. >> do you -- leader, do you -- >> he's right on that. >> do you want both sides to play nice today on tv or do you want fireworks? >> well-bei, i think both sides the american public wants to see, correctly, civil discussion and debate. and both sides putting forth their proposition so the american people will get a chance to see what they're talking about, what each side believes will be the effect of what they're p

here now >> i'm sorry i'm not identifying myself because it's not all about me, it's about you, david walker. thank you for coming today. i was just wondering -- >> she's not related just -- >> auroa of mystery is irresistible. [laughter] >> i was wondering if you could let osnos be 652 quick questions. this toward reform deserve a free look, and also, since we are cheaply bound by the decisions of our elected leaders and you are unfortunately not one of them, i wish you were, can you get an idea of who you would be willing to support as a paray zandt -- horizon meter? i love your advice. [laughter] >> he's a great guy but [inaudible] [laughter] know, a case study american dream come true and model statesman. no question about that the answer to your question is first port reform yes we need tort reform but we need something more fundamental. we need alternative ports for health care i believe like we have for bankruptcy and in addition to that we need national practice standards that would help physicians decide how to allocate what they would make the decision on how to allocate limited re

we'll hear from former comptroller david walker.eed key national outcome based indicators, economic, security, social and environmental to help understand how we are doing on a basis and getting better or worse and very importantly, how do we compare to our peer group, because when we look at our peer group comparisons in private finance, in health out comes, education outcomes, investments on critical infrastructure, we are below average. a great nation does not stay great by being a debtor nation and by being below average on a number of a key leading indicators that help determine whether the future is going to be better than the past. we are at a critical crossroads in the history of the united states and the decisions that are made or failed to be made within less than five years will largely determine whether the future for this country and our families will be better than the past. the ones that are made and the ones that are failed to be made within the next five years will determine our history in large part. the problem is

lance sergeant david walker, lieutenant douglas, miller's, kingston dawson, rifleman mark marshall, lance sergeant david greene hall and lance corporal darren hicks. we are paying a high price for the operations we are undertaking and helmand province but it is an essential issue and our forces and their families need to know they have the support of the whole house and the whole country in the work that they are doing. while the report into the stafford hospital has only just been published i want to ask a couple of question to for turning to other subjects. hundreds of people went into that hospital, some with straightforward ailments and ended up dying because of the way they were mistreated. talking to the relatives as many of us have done, is absolutely heartbreaking. does the prime minister understand that these victims will never be content with an inquiry that was conducted in private behind closed doors without any public hearings? does he understand? >> let me say first of all, that we understand both the sadness and the sorrow of all the relatives who lost their loved ones in t

when you listen to the panelists and to david walker, it is very funny to think that u.s. that you would go, since we are looking at these enormous deficits. uld go. since we're looking at these enormous deficits, we have a relatively broken political framework. so it's an odd paradox that interest rates are so low. why is it? and what does it indicate about this tipping point that we've heard so much about? i think it's probably because however bad the situation looks in the u.s., it probably looks better in some respects than many of the overseas economies. china, of course, is a different story but china is not a place where you would necessarily go to buy their debt. they're a capital market that's more restricted. so i think markets are expecting a recovery in the u.s. an economic recovery that's probably going to be stronger than in europe. i think there also may be greater room to resolve the problem in the u.s. we start with lower tax rates than europe has. we could have the potential to institute a value-added tax or a gas tax or something like that. so i think ma

look at former comptroller david walker -- all the studies have been done.ave a horrible, horrible future, with our entitlement programs and they have to be fixed now. there is no better time to fix it than when you have one party complete control like we have right now. and the people who created these great society, social security, they championed these programs, they should fix them and not start new programs. i have three small children and i think that governor palin was correct when she said this is generational theft going on. it is horrible. it is child abuse. host: a twitter message -- i want washington out of the way. the make it worse no matter what it is. donald from tallahassee. donald is on our democrats line. caller:w3 i would just like to say, all of the republicans who don't want the government involved -- if you don't want the government -- stop asking for jobs and find your own jobs. i think the deficit would go down if all the republicans get together and they get together and they find their own solutions to this deficit and let other p

you know, look at the former comptroller david walker. they have done all the studies have been done. we know we have a horrible, horrible future coming with our entitlement programs. and they have to be fixed now. there's no better time to fix it than when you have one party in control, complete control like we have right now. and the people who created these great societies, social security, it's their party. they championed these programs. they should fix them, not start new programs. i mean, i'm just appalled. i have three small children and i think governor payton was correct when she said this is generational theft going on. it's horrible. it is child abuse. >> host: banks. i want washington to get out of the way. they just make it worse no matter what it is. next comment comes from donald and tallahassee. on is on our democrats line. you are on the air, donald. >> caller: good morning. >> host: convoy, sir. >> caller: i just wanted to come all the republicans don't want government involved in every morning, if you don't want the go