. >> joanne, could you comment, the key element to this plan is most of us agree the biggest controversy is the issue of what is called the government option, the issue of having a government-sponsored plan which would compete with the four and not for profit health care plans. can you give us your thoughts on that? >> will, to answer that i think i need to back up a little bit. we come to the debate with a goal of bringing down costs and making coverage more affordable and available to more people. you might ask why unions see the need for health reform. most of our members have good benefits that we have seen year after year contract negotiations, this is the most difficult issue to solve. we've tried, you know, we've had more than 10 years out partnering with health plans and other purchasers to improve quality and get better value for our spending. we have tried pilot programs, purchasing cooperatives with unions, but we can't solve it at the bargaining table, we can't solve it on her own. a national solution is what we need. and our folks get that in order to lower their costs, we n

mistake to tell thomas jefferson, a man you must admire is julius caesar, which hamilton did once, joanne freeman argues he was pulling jefferson's leg and i think he was right, big mistake. thomas jefferson had no humor and he thought the plot is real. this is something, i just got an e-mail from a friend of mine who is considering a political biography of bill. the parallel he came up with, this was fascinating, was frederick douglass. frederick douglass was also a private man, in a voice held office but he was a journalist, an eloquent organizer, and that worker, he was obviously an outsider for obvious reasons. i am eager to see how he worked this out. it is interesting. there are people you can find some resemblance to, we just have -- we can't produce the next one, we'd just have to be sure the opportunities are there and when they knock on the door, the doors will open. >> at the moment that we speak, we have 2 book very much on hand, chris buckley's book has been on the best-seller list for weeks. >> i haven't looked. >> seriously, in each case, we have 2 brilliant writers writing

all for coming and also like to thank national press club staff members melinda cook, pat nelson, joanne booth and howard rossman for organizing the lunch and also to the npc library for its research. video archive of today's luncheon is provided by the national press club's broadcast operation center. our events are available for free download on itunes as well as o

joann freeman said she was pulling jefferson's leg. big mistake because thomas jefferson nod humor and he thought the plot is revealed. [laughter] >> federalism tipped its hand. i just got an email from a friend of mine, a historian named al felzenberg and he's considering a political biography of bill and the parallel he came up with -- and this was fascinating was frederick douglass. and frederick douglass was also a private man. he never held office. but he was a journalist. he was an eloquent orator. he was an organizer. he was a networker. he was a wire-puller. he was, obviously, an outsider for the obvious reason that he was, you know, a black man in pre-bellum america. i'm excited to see al work this out 'cause i thought, gee, this is interesting. there are people that you can find some resemblances to and we just have to -- you know, we can't produce the next one. we just have to be sure that the opportunities are there and that when they knock on the door those doors will open. yes. [inaudible] >> at the moment that we speak,

and finally dawned on me because my wife's name is joanne, she has never been happy with that name given that she is largely a tomboy when she looks of or not, joe would be a better name but she doesn't go for that. to tell me one day when i first met her that she really only wanted to be named quintana. i thought that is a great name and i love that the two. to love the name kean, which existed in mexico, old mexico. i said that as a great name, so she became for a time can, but then shirley q. to becomes q in the book for this reason. when a husband decides he's going to write about a spouse or a wife decides she's going to read about a spouse and if that spouse is an attorney and if that's spouses train to understand and libel and invasion of privacy, that writer had better know what he is doing. [laughter] i am a fellow who writes not knowing what i'm doing, that is the purpose of writing to find out how i am doing so i said i'm going to make assertions in here how many of these might be liable and privacy invasion but if she goes by another name that could change things so for a whi

those listening out like to think national press club is staff members of melinda cook, pat nelson, joannehoward rothman for helping to organize today's lunch, and things to the npc library. bill video archive is provided by the press club of broadcast operations center, events available for free download on itunes as well as the website and non-members may purchase transcripts and videotapes by calling 20262 -- 7598 or archives@press.org. and for more information about the press club you can go to the website www.press.org. that is it for today, thank you so much. we are adjourned. [applause] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] how is c-span funded? >> private donations. >> i don't really know. >> from public television. >> donations. >> i don't know where the money comes from. >> beverly. >> contributions from donors. >> how c-span fonted? 30 years ago america's cable companies created c-span as a public service, a private business initiative w

applause] i'd like to thank you all for coming today, i'd also like to thank melinda cook, pat nelson, joann booze and howard rothman. also thanks to the npc library for its research. the video archive is provided by the national press club's broadcast operations center. our events are available for free download on itunes as well as on our web site. nonmembers may purchase transcripts, audios and videotapes by calling 202-662-7598 or e-mailing us at archives at press.org. for more information about the national press club, please go to our web site at www.press.org. thank you very much, and we are adjourned. >> the supreme court begin to wind down its term with several decisions ruling today narrowly in the a challenge to the voting rights act exempting a key provision of the civil rights law. the court with only one justice in partial dissent avoided the major constitutional questions raised by the case. they also upheld a federal government permit to dump waste from an alaskan gold mine into a nearby lake even though all the fish would be killed by a 6-3 vote today. the justices said a fe

. >> next is joanne emerson from missouri. >> thank you for being here today. i echo the comments of all of my colleagues. let me also mention the cost issue and we have to balance cost with access. there are a lot of cost containment ideas that we have had individually and collectively. that has to be part of the process because we have all seen how expensive the senate bills are and they will only get more expensive as they keep adding parts to it. so, we believe that we all need to be involved in this discussion and it shouldn't just -- what comes up shouldn't just be written by those people who sit on committees but, rather, you should pull expertise of all of us. there has to be balance. >> unfortunately as you see we only have two minutes and 40 seconds left before we have to go downstairs and vote so that is the remaining time. >> are there particular things that you as a group are concerned about that you think are bogging down the process? >> we are really not here to discuss the particular bill or even provisions. we are here to discuss the target we