republican national committee chairman michael steele says his party is committed to stopping healthation making its way through congress. he spoke with reporters for 20 minutes. >> good afternoon. i thank you all for coming out this afternoon. i want to take a moment to bring you up to speed on how we see the debate right now on health care in the country. and to share with you if you thought of actions we are hoping to take at the grass-roots level to more involved the american people and their voice that i think has been lost in translation over the last few months, especially. we will go to that and we will share a radio spot that we're launching today. i want to thank the leadership in the house and the senate, senator mcconnell and senator behner in their efforts under some difficult circumstances to get in front of the leadership, nancy pelosi, harry reid, and certainly the president, a series of proposals that we thought would go a long way to addressing some of the concerns that individuals and communities and business owners have. respect to health care. they have made seve

the chairman of the republican national committee, michael steele talks about his decision to the senate health care legislation. >> this week on "the communicators," an insider's perspective on the wireless industry with ralph de la vega of at&t mobility. >> host: this week on "the communicators" our guest is ralph de la vega, who is the president and ceo of at&t's mobile and consumer markets. mr. de la vega joins us from our studios in new york. thank you for being with us mr. de la vega. in a recent speech you called for a fact-based dialogue with the sec when it comes to potential regulation of the wireless industry. why did to emphasize fact-based, and what issues were you referring to specifically? >> guest: actually i think that chairman genachowski said when he was going to conduct his study was going to be that they said i think that is absolutely the way to approach it, so when the chairman and his staff visited with us that ctia in san diego, we kind of put forth what i think are very compelling facts about the state of the wireless industry in this country and importantly how

. -- about michael steele. is charging for a species that he gives -- for speeches that he gives when egos are raising money. do you agree with that? that he should be getting a speaking fee on top of his salary? i think guest: is worth writing about to the public -- a a guest: i think it is worth writing about a bookend for their own opinions, but i am a former prosecutor and the former chairman of the rnc among other posts. i think as long as it does not conflict with the work he is doing as national chairman, and a long as the committee is aware of his activities, than it is of to the committee to make those decisions. but it is not uncommon for people to have some outside employment. host: and what do you think of the jobs that michael steele is doing? guest: he seems to be very vocal, fighting the good fight on behalf of the republican party. but what i want the congress to do is to -- what i want the free congress foundation to do is to continue its mission as a 501-c3 and support good ideas. host: first

. >> republican national committee chairman michael steele said his party is committed to stopping health care legislation making its way through congress. mr. steele also announced a new effort to oust health care related events outside washington. this is about 25 minutes. >> good afternoon. i thank you all for coming out this afternoon. i wanted to take a moment to bring you up to speed on how we see the debate right now on health care in the country. and to share with you a few thoughts of some actions that we are hoping to take at the grassroots level to more involved the american people in their voice that i think has been sort of lost in translation over the last few months especially. and so, we'll go through that and then we'll share with you also a little radio spots that we are going to be launching today. first i want to thank the leadership in the house and senate, senator mcconnell and the leader for their extraordinary effort to understand difficult circumstances to get in front of the leadership, nancy pelosi and harry reid and certainly the president, a series of proposal

it was a good question to michael steele this morning. >> with the president encouraging more lendingbanks are concerned about the creditworthiness of these small businesses or individuals, considering the loose lending practices -- >> the president was clear in the statement after the meeting and in the meeting -- the solution to this problem is not to give of loans to people who cannot pay them back. that is in many ways what got us into the problem that we're dealing with, certainly on the home side. and on credit cards as well. but the president gets -- what the president gets in talking to people and in the letters that he reads each day are millions -- not millions -- dozens and dozens of letters that i assume represent millions of people, small businesses telling the president that they'll always been able to get a loan, that they are creditworthy, and that they ought to be able to not get it out as the economy starts to make progress. -- that ought to be able to get a loan as the economy starts to make progress. he wants to make sure that the bankers heard that message, on beh

a few hours ago, michael steele accused democrats and i'm quoting him, flooding the bird at the american people -- flipping the bird at the american people. >> i'm more worried about an example set by a party leader with something so obscene. i think that's something people should be worried about. if you look at the warning polls today there's some that show just as a result of our passing this, the support of this bill is about 10% just over 90. the american people, once the have the information, will be totally supportive of this bill. think that the examples i gave on the floor last. one boy and nevada was [inaudible] the insurance company will not give him prosthetics. that is what this is about, it's about physicians like dr. wilson being able to take care of people like kaleb. i'm disappointed that someone with a title like mr. steele would be so crass and said such a terrible example for the youth of this country. >> could you address concerns that the bill is chock full of hid projects for even some of you standing up there that would designed to benefit your states and also per

the next time there's a "today show" exclusive with michael steele like this morning, it's a good question to pose to him. (laughter. ) >> but the president could set an example. >> he did. he doesn't take money from lobbyists. he doesn't take money from pacs. >> okay, the last thing. is there something inconsistent or incongruous at all about the fact that the president is encouraging more lending, banks are reluctant, not -- they're concerned about the creditworthiness of these small businesses or these individuals, considering the loose lending practices that led us to this crisis? >> look, the president i think was clear in the statement that he made after the meeting and he was clear in the meeting. we're not looking for -- the solution to this problem is not to give out loans to people that can't pay them back. that's in many ways what got us into the problem that we're dealing with, certainly on the home side, and on credit cards as well. what the president gets in talking with people and in the letters that he reads each day are millions -- not millions -- dozens and dozens of lett

major-general robert steele, general admiral james -- major- general robert williams, united states army, but that you were college. colonel michaeld states marine corps director at the marine corps war college. we will put the timer on you gentlemen. çyour witness statements will e made part of the record. when you see the red light go on, we are not going to shoot you. you should feel free to continue your statement if you needi] to. the challenge that we have with six of you come with decided we wanted to have allç of you together here. we thought that would be good for all of us. if you go 10 minutes instead of five minutes, it will be an hour before we get to any questions. admiral, we will begin with you. thank you all for being here. the staff already has that. thank you all. >> good morning, chairman skelton, mr. chairman, dr. snyder, mr. whitman. thank you for the opportunity to be here today. based on your opening statements, i know that you really get it and what we're trying to accomplish that our schools. çi have observed two classes 60 students are fellows, worked with just under 100 faculty members. i am extremel

and then the current inspiration of the republican senate party, michael steele, the republican national committee chairman, a man that i'm sure the senator from tennessee holds in the highest esteem, recently shared with us the following in a memo memo -- quote, chairman steele wrote -- i urge everyone to use every bit of energy you have to stop this health care reform. the democrats accuse us of trying to delay, stall, slow down and stop this bill. they are right, chairman steele says. his words: delay, stall, slow down and stop. for eight months that has been the republican strategy. unfortunately that strategy now applies to the department of defense appropriations bill which we'll vote on this morning. 100 senators will trek through the snow and come in early this morning to vote on a bill which we should all support unanimously. they'll try parliamentary efforts to stop the bill, derail the bill, even though the continuing resolution expired last night. i hope that we can gather enough bipartisan support for our troops to pass this this morning, have a cup of coffee and go home to