we began the lower mekong initiative to work with countries that are dependent upon the mekong. we've got great deal of work going on with indonesia and the philippines. we have the major trade agreement with korea. we came to the aid of our good ally japan after their disast s disasters. we're having this opening to berma. we are actively involved in what's going on in the asia-pacific because we think it's very much in america's interest to be so. and that includes being able to project both civilian and military power. and as we looked at where we had forces operating, we saw some, you know, gaps. and that's what the president addressed on his recent trip to australia. we think that there is a great deal for america to gain by, you know, being very much involved in and supporting the incredible growth of the region. so that's what we're positioned to do. >> thank you. i just returned to several weeks ago from india, and we had an excellent trip and one of the things that was remarkable was seeing the activity out in the villages and seeing the cooking and seeing the pollution

the city on the mekong is the gathering place for young buddhists in communist laos.dle of a busy street is a real culinary institution: sing's soup kitchen, which serves lao noodle soup starting at six o'clock in the morning. sing opened her stand almost 3 decades ago. she cooks up soup with and without coconut milk. the other ingredients vary according to her customers' wishes. a bowl of soup here costs anywhere from 1 to 6 euros. >> the basic ingredients in my soup are things like shredded banana blossoms, cabbage, spring onions, seaweed and bamboo shoots." +++ >> little baskets filled with limes, chilies, green beans and different herbs allow guests to season their soup to taste. they can take their meal away or eat it here. the most important ingredients in sing's soup are pork innards and pre-cooked rice noodles. >> i buy the meat at the local market. here you can get liver, heart, tongue, stomach and kidneys. they all go into my soup. >> a traditional lao breakfast. >> i always have to eat a real meal in the morning. this place has been here forever and serves

than it should given the needs of the the enemies, and laos, and others to use the mekong river. we should not live in the world. we should live in a world where every year there is more and more are shared prosperity and more and more shared responsibility. but we cannot help to create that world if we continue to allow too much of america's human capital to steny because we do not have enough people in the charitable sector -- to stagnate, because we do not have enough people in the tradeable sector. this is a huge issue. so, and to me, reauthorize in the -- reauthorizing the ex-im bank will not only help to send a clear signal that we are back in the future business, we will do things that will help our neighbors. i will give you one example of that. our neighbors and the caribbean have the highest electric rates in the world. in the world. haiti, where i spend a lot of my life, and the dominican republic, where i have done a lot of work for more than a decade, have probably the highest rates. he has the highest electric rates and the caribbean, the poorest country. virtually

than it should given the needs the enemies, and laos, and others to use the mekong river. we should not live in the world. we should live in a world where every year there is more and more are shared prosperity and more and more shared responsibility. but we cannot help to create that world if we continue to allow too much of america's human capital to steny because we do not have enough people in the charitable sector -- to stagnate, because we do not have enough people in the tradeable sector. this is a huge issue. so, and to me, reauthorize in the -- reauthorize thiing the em bank will not only help to send a clear signal that we are back in the future business, we will do things that will help our neighbors. i will give you one example of that. our neighbors and the caribbean have the highest electric rates in the world. in the world. haiti, where i spend a lot of my life, and the dominican republic, where i have done a lot of work for more than a decade, have probably the highest rates. he has the highest electric rates and the caribbean, the poorest country. virtuall

expiring, and that includes, by the way, not just the bush tax cuts, the amt tax cuts, it seems to mekong focusing laser like on this right now to assure people and remove the uncertainty. >> yeah, that's right. they won't do that. they can't even give us a budget. three points about tax -mageddo. it is 100% president obama's fault. they did extend the tax cuts, but they are now expiring. they could have extended them longer. the uncertainty is likely to be bag negative in the second half of the year. there is a new study out of the university of chicago that finds that last year, we lost maybe about a percent and a half of growth because of all of the tax policy uncertainty. worse this year. and final thought, it's a great opportunity to do something right. all of these things are expiring and we could go in there and have a fundamental reform. time to fix our big problems and stop ignoring them. >> howard dean, you probably don't agree, but since president obama signed off on extending all of the bush tax cuts, almost two years ago, he owns the issue now. when kevin haslet says we lay i

neighbors in southeast asia because it will press the chinese to consider taking out more of the mekong then it should given the needs of the vietnamese, and others in this system. you shouldn't want that to happen. we need to live in a world where every year, step-by-step, there is more shared prosperity. and more shared responsibility for our common problems. but we cannot help to create this world if we continue to allow too much of america's human capital to stagnate because we do not have enough people in the sector, not enough growth, not shared because they are not working in areas with good wages and a growing income. this is a huge issue. so, and to me, reauthorize in the -- reauthorizing the ex-im bank will not only help to send -- will not only create a stronger american economy and help create a a clear signal that we are back in the future business, we will do things that will help our neighbors. i will give you one example of that. our neighbors and the caribbean have the highest electric rates in the world. in the world. haiti, where i spend a lot of my life, and the domi

it seems to mekong can handle this and do something about it -- it seems to me that congress can handle this and do something about it. recent graduates from college are unemployed or underemployed. i received an email from a high school sdent today encouraging to do a commonsense thing to put the student loan rate at 3.4%. why don't we do that? student loan debt has reached $1 trillion. why would you want to strap students going into college with more debt by increasing the student loan rate in this current economic climate? you can get a car or home loan rate very low. in fact you can get some car los with zero%, but not so with students. why is that? we should maintain low interest rates for student loans. cars and homes are iortant, but students going to college on investment in our future. education is important tool for our young people to be ae to contribute to america's competitiveness worldwide. also the bill is paid for and some of the money that's coming out of this unconstitutional health care mandate will go to deficit reduction. we need to support our students and encourag

out more of the macon than it should given the needs of vietnam and loose -- laos and others in the mekong river system. you shouldn't want that to happen. we need to live in a world where every year step by step there is more shared prosperity. and more shared responsibility for our common problems. but we cannot help to create that world if we continue to allow too much of america's human capital to stagnate because we don't have enough people in the tradeable sector, we don't have enough growth, it's not broadly enough shared because they're not working in areas with good wages and growing income. this is a huge issue. so, to me, reauthorizing the xm bank will not only create a stronger american economy and help to send a clear signal that we are back in the future business, will help us to do things that will help our neighbors. i'll just give you one example of that. our neighbors in the caribbean have the highest electric rates in the world. in the world. haiti, where i spend a lot of my life and the dominican republic where i've done a lot of work for more than a decade, have probab

it seems to mekong can handle this and do something about it -- it seems to me that congress can handle this and do something about it. recent graduates from college are unemployed or underemployed. i received an email from a high school student today encouraging to do a commonsense thing to put the student loan rate at 3.4%. why don't we do that? student loan debt has reached $1 trillion. why would you want to strap students going into college with more debt by increasing the student loan rate in this current economic climate? you can get a car or home loan rate very low. in fact you can get some car loans with zero%, but not so with students. why is that? we should maintain low interest rates for student loans. cars and homes are important, but students going to college on investment in our future. education is important tool for our young people to be able to contribute to america's competitiveness worldwide. also the bill is paid for and some of the money that's coming out of this unconstitutional health care mandate will go to deficit reduction. we need to support our students and