i'm the senior vice president and chief tax officer for time warner cable, mark schictel. i'll tell you about the tax policy on time warner cable and i'll explain why we believe that less complexity and a lower rate will benefit our investors, employees and customers, as well as the overall economy and americans at large. spun off from time warner cable nearly three years ago, time warner cable is a fortune 150 capital-intensive domestic company that provides high-speed data, video and voice services to over 14.5 million customers. we have over 48,000 employees in 29 states. we offer our workers secure jobs and wages and benefit packages that are competitive and that support families, dreams and retirements. last year we hired over 7300 people including hundreds of veterans. we're part of our nation's communication's backbone that enables domestic companies to compete rooij naturally, nationally and globally. we help small and medium-sized businesses grow and thrive. time warner cable spends about $3 billion a year on capital improvements a third of which goes to wages. in