welcome to the national press club. it is my pleasure to host this morning. i hope it will be a robust conversation with a and national security in an area of difficult austerity. there's the question that the department of defense and public security as well as the intelligence community are facing tough decisions as they seek to balance the needs with but a reality. today's panel of government officials are on how they can balance this well insuring national security.

. >> good evening and welcome to the national press club. my name is larry aarp is running for state news, member of the book and author committee and former president of the national press club. our book tonight is transfer, the war against nazi germany. the author is timothy gay am excited to be doing this but because i just finished and he burnt his my war. before we turn to tonight's book, let me mention some upcoming books at the press club. june 14, this wednesday, comedienne, political satirist and cocreator of "the daily show" will discuss her book, this free or die. june 28, commander curt l'ecole commanding officer of the uss cole at the time of the attack will discuss his book on the front runner, al qaeda is attack. on july 12, john germ on a, vice president of the republic will discuss his book, my first cook at the another true stories from the last decades of africa. but [laughter] on july 24, tonya, not with the national court will address the renegades by september 19, jeffrey toobin, legal analyst for cnn and the new york a

welcome to the national press club. we hope this will be a robust situation looking at national security in an era of austerity. there's no question the u.s. department of defense and homeland security as well as the intelligence community, are facing tough decisions, as they seek to balance national security needs with budget realities. today's panel of government, private sector and military experts will discuss evolving and unpredictable press, how the defense industry can build more capable, agile systems for less, and how the nation can balance budget requirements while ensuring national security. before we get to our guests' opening remarks, there will be time for questions and answers it is a national press club tradition to give priority during the question and answer session to working journalists, so i ask that you allow those with deadlines to go first. if you would, please, identify yourself by both name and organization. joining us today, representing his private sector perspective, is david langstaff, pres

. >> we take you to the national press club for a discussion on how to balance national security interests with the need to cut federal spending. senate armed services committee chair carl levin and general james cartwright will talk about the impact of sequestration and automatic cuts to defense agreed to by congress last summer as part of the deal to raise the debt limit. this is just getting under way at the press club. >> there's no question that the u.s. departments of defense and homeland security as well as the intelligence community are facing tough decisions as they seek to balance national security needs with budget realities. today's panel of government, private sector and military experts will discuss evolving and unpredictable threats, how the defense industry can build more capable agile systems for less, and how the nation can balance budget requirements while ensuring national security. before we get to our guests' opening remarks, i would like to let you know that there will be time for questions and answers. it is a national press club tradition to give priority during th

. >> good evening and welcome to the national press club. i am the aarp bulletin executive better for state news, member of the book and author committee and former president of the national press club. are booked tonight is "assignment to hel," the war against nazi germany with correspondents walter cronkite, andy rooney, homer bigart, and hal boyle. the authors timothy gay. excited to be doing this book because that just finished reading andy rooney's my war. before we turn to tonight's book but me mention some upcoming books. june 14th, liz quince said the persian look media and satirist will discuss her book is free or die. june 28th, a commanding officer of the uss cole at the time of the attack will discuss his book front burner:al qaeda's attack on the uss cole. on june 12th, the vice president and the republic of donna will discuss --ghana will discuss the last decades of africa. on july 24th, tom young, member of the national guard will discuss the renegades and on september 19th, jeffrey toobin of cnn will discuss his book the obam

as a final reminder, you can find out more information about the national press club at press.org. thank you all. we are journ adjourned. adjourne. we are journ adjourned. adjourne. . . >>> coming up this afternoon on c-span 3, a hearing on railroad and highway security. that's followed by a discussion of this month's presidential elections in europe. the runoff is june 16th and 17th. a look at nuclear nonproliferation between the united states and russia. on the other c-span networks, the atlantic council holds a hearing on europe's financial crisis and how to get out of it. the ceo of deutsch bank will share his thoughts at 5:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. president obama is getting a little help from former president bill clinton at fund-raisers in new york. they will speak at a private home and then headline a gala at the wall dor if historical hotel. the two will end the night at an event dubbed barack on broadway. wisconsin voters go to the polls tomorrow to decide whether to remove scott walker from office. he's facing a recall election two years into his term and he's being cha

. >> now a national press club discussion of the election and the economy. panelists include three journalists who cover the economy. this forum looks at the role of the federal reserve, the europe yan debt crisis. >> tell kal difficulties, again, welcome. i'm thrilled to see a filled room. please keep watch on press.org for other events. i want to thank you for braving the weather this morning. i kind of think that the next five months will be interesting. as we see how obama and romney duke it out. and i think our panelists will agree as well. the cover has a sinking ship entitled, the world economy. spending cuts, and then perha perhaps -- for me, the most telling element that economics matters to economic tv is that politico is writing. we have news makers coming our way this week and next week and we'll touch on those. we have data coming out today. i'm sure that big clinton will continue to -- president obama. i would like to start out with brief introductions. to my left we have ben white. it is a good way to get a round up on the news. ben is based i

four joining us here at the national press club. national security on a shoestring, do we dare? thank you. >>> president obama's nominee to head the nuclear regulatory commission testified on capitol hill today and was asked about nuclear waste storage. that's next on c-span3. >>> then, the u.s. chamber of commerce holds a jobs summit. >>> later a senate hearing on a bill that tries to prohibit employment discrimination because of sexual orientation. >>> on tomorrow's washington journal, we'll get different perspectives on jobs, the economy and the november elections. we'll talk to former michigan republican governor john engler, and then former labor secretary in the clinton administration, professor robert reich joins us. later, the former head of the financial market sheila bair. >>> president obama's nominee to head the nuclear regulatory commission, alison mcfarland said she would work to create a positive working relationship with her fellow commissioners. if confirmed she will replace the current chairman, who resigned after complaints about his management style. californ

today of the national press club or tomorrow at the race. >> the nice thing about getting early is you get to work out out of the way. [laughter] >> i spent two hours with tony today. >> a lot of photographs and time lapse. >> i will forgo the time lapse today. boring, no clouds in the sky. these.ve >> look at that. >> that's amazing. >> this is on wjla.com/weather. it is world ocean day. a photographer takes these wonderful pictures of rain. clark is a surfer and his wife that she like some great waves.s of >> he is in hawaii. >> yes. so he said that he thought he better than another picture. more lovely pictures a photo gallery on our website. cast. the beach beautiful this weekend, high '80s, a goodin the amount of sunshine. water temperature of 71 degrees off ocean city. cape hatteras, 76 degrees for the water temperature. getting more comfortable in water temperature. air temperature in the '80s with sunshine through the weekend even locally. we will have mostly sunny skies. collins, 77. degrees in the district, 79 in culpeper. the '70s or the most part of. it to about 85 for the

. >> i would like to thank our guests for joining us here at the national press club for this news maker session. national security on a shoe string. do we dare. thank you. [ applause ] >> we will hear more about defense spending during a hearing tomorrow looking into the department's 2013 budget request to congress. defense secretary leon panetta and joint chiefs of staff chair general martin dempsey will testify. you can watch live coverage here on c-span3 getting under way at 10:00 a.m. eastern. >>> also tomorrow, jpmorgan ceo jamie dimon is testifying about his bank's multibillion dollar trading loss and implications it should have on dodd-frank. c-span3 plans live coverage. >>> nancy pelosi began her career in the u.s. house in 1987. >> mr. speaker, as you know, eight years ago this month the soviet union invaded afghanistan. to no one's surprise, the occupation of afghanistan has turned into a bloody war with no victors. a group of human rights lawyers from the united states, britain, swed sweden, documents countless acts of terror perpetrated against the afghan people. >> 25 years

the smallest city in the commonwealth of massachusetts was being featured in the national press. it was a story about how state government and local government and the private sector formed a partnership which lead to an old factory complex being converted to the largest museum of contemporary art in the country. one democrat and two republican governors made it happen. what did mitt romney think? in his four years as governor, mitt romney never stepped one foot in the city of north adams. in fairness to governor romney, he did visit one other city. he visited pitsfield on two occasions. in his opening remark, he said, it was great to be in the city of springfield. three other times during that speech he peted, it was great to be in the city of springfield. with the loss of hundreds of jobs while he was talking about improving the state's economy, he didn't even know what city he was in. like he all promised a better economy, he also promised there would be no taxes. i guess like beauty it's in the eye of the beholder. look closely and you'll see as governor, romney increased tax

last night on the ed show, the national press secretary for the obama campaign rejected claims by republican candidate mitt romney that president obama has no plan to create jobs and boost the economy. he said it's mitt romney who doesn't have a real plan. >> he's been telling voters he has a 59-point economic plan but it's just filled with warmed-over republican rhetoric and things that we've tried before and haven't spurred job creation. things like $5 trillion tax cuts for the wealthiest. repealing wall street reform and leaving the middle class held hostage to the sorts of risky financial deals that put our entire economy at risk. the president's had this plan to create over 1 million jobs on the table since last fall. it would address specific weaknesses that we saw in last month's jobs report. it would put public sector workers back to work. teachers and classrooms, cops on the street. it's got an infrastructure plan in there that would get construction workers to work so we know what we need to do right now. >> each night veteran talk host ed schulz tackles the issues that matter most

national press club here in washington. >>> good morning. if we could all please take our seats. well, thank you very much. very good morning to everybody here. i'm sure other people will be coming in throughout the day. we have over 700 people who have registered for the conference today, and they'll be coming in and out. so we want to extend a very warm welcome to all of the first comers. this is the middle east institute's third annual turkish conference, and i'd like to say, i'm putting an emphasis on the third annual conference because actually we've been looking through some old files and have discovered that the middle east institute has been celebrating turkey for many years. in fact, we found an article that reported a banquet that we had hosted in honor of turkey's 30th anniversary as a republic back in 1953. but turkey today is playing a very crucial role in the world stage. it is -- and the way it is dealing with asserttivelily some of the issues that confront us on the world stage has captured the world's attention, the u.s. and, indeed, throughout the world. whether

involved interpretation for potentially millions of visitors and received attention from the national press. in the 1990s the park service began moving toward interpretive plans that would try to include more context within which each of these battles unfolded. congressman jesse jackson, junior of illinois, presided over a conference that looked at that question in 2000 in washington, d.c., a conference that made the argument very strongly that the park service needed to do a lot more with the nonmilitary, the nontactical especially dimensions of what was going on in the battlefields. he said they do a good job in talking about generals and movements. they don't do a similarly good job of documenting describing the historical, social, economic, legal and social events that led to the war and which manifested themselves in specific battles. he said that slavery's role in the coming of the war was especially left out. defenders of more purely military interpretation on battlefields mounted a strong counterattack. a cover story in "u.s. news & world report" quoted jerry russell, an opponent of

his research has been cited numerous times in the national press. we thank you all for being here. all of your testimony will be made part of the record in its entirety, and i would ask you to summarize it within five minutes. and we'll begin with dr. sherman. dr. sherman. >> chairman reid, thank you for inviting me to testify today. my research has been primarily on ipo methods in various countries with different methods. one of the points i want to make today is that the u.s. method called book building is the most common method in the planet. and it wasn't always that way. if you go back to the early 1990s, it was used really only in the u.s. and sometimes canada. by the end of the 1990s, it was the dominant method, and it's become even more popular since then. now, the difference between book building and the other methods is that with book building, the underwriter gets feedback from investors before setting the offer price. and it's not always easy to get people to honestly tell you they like an offering if you know that you're going to use that information to raise the price

ladies and gentlemen, please join me in welcoming chris matthews to the national press club.[applause] >> thank you. it's great to be here for tip, and for jerry, and for the friendship. and i want to talk about that today. and by the way, congratulations. i couldn't believe you are a little nervous picking your and i can't think him i never get nervous speaking. but going to afghanistan is what really gets to me. [laughter] and scott, you're great. you are great. i really come every time i got on the bus coming campaigns, and i watched the people with a newspaper and they've would sit around and i've watched about a few things and check a few things. and i pick up the paper, beautifully turned a factual piece. i was always blown away by the straight reporters, commentary is easy. it's very easy to say what you think. but reporting is work. you guys are good. i want to talk about what's going on today and the way is to be. i always tell kids what to write about like i did on jack kennedy, elusive hero, was not mentioned but that's a good book -- [laughter] it's still availabl

bit later on, there's something about the argumentative aub stin at traditions of the british national press which grinds out a form of truth every bit as effectively as supposedly the more objective newspapers found in mainland europe and north america. again, i suppose, that sentiment you would agree with as well, would you? >> yes, absolutely. in fact better than most of the papers in mainland europe. >> their real point is about the messenger, which, again, we all come to later. we've already touched on it. the financial times speech, piece, on the 13th of june, again, it's the point it's the wrong messenger. i'd just like you to comment on that. >> except that it would underline my point that for me to have taken this issue on would have been extremely difficult. i mean you can see -- this was a speech made shortly before i left office. you can imagine the reaction if i made the speech two years into being prime minister. >> move on to a slightly different topic. that probably is still related. paragraph 14 of your statement, mr. blair, 05576. >> yeah. >> you make the point and others h

the organization's ceo, anna marie chavez, spoke recently at the national press club in washington. she talks about how the girl scouts have changed and where they go from here. we begin after the introduction. >> thank you. thank you, theresa, for that wonderful introduction. my mother appreciates the fact you used the official bio. she does take credit. i want to thank the head table. deborah, thank you so much for making this happen. to lydia, who is my colleague. i am really grateful to lead a national organization, but in partnership with 112 girl scout councils across the country. and lydia leads the nation's capital here, and thank you for being here. to our national board represented by lisa gable to cony lindsey, our president. i bring her good wishes, as well. to those of you in the audience today to support us, and also girl scouts who, by the way, we work for every day, and we're so proud of you. you know, i wanted to start my remarks talking about a girl. a girl, a very special girl, a girl that grew up in china. and a little about this girl if you imagine her hand -- s

"the >> we go live to the national press club in washington. chris matthews is the featured speaker at this year is gerald ford foundation journalism award. among the winners is scott wilson and coreen wiley. >> more information about the national press club, visit our website at www.press.org. to donate to programs offered to the public, please visit press.org/institute. on behalf of our members worldwide, would like to welcome our speaker and those attending today's events. our head table includes guests of our speaker as well as working journalists who are club members. if you hear applause in our audience, we note that members of the general public are attending so it is not necessarily a lack of journalistic of gentility. i would also like to welcome our cspan and public radio audiences. our luncheons are also featured on our member-produced weekly podcast from the national podcast -- for national press club available on itunes engine and follow the action on twitter. after our guests speech, we will have a question and answer segment and

. >> you and i are coasting for the national press club on saturday morning. >> we will start with a -- warm-up. >> we had a little trouble with that shot. we will get back to them. that's this weekend, the big 5k. around the nation, the teenager accused in february posted deadly shooting spree at chardon high school in ohio will be arraigned today. an indictment returned tuesday against t.j. lane, charged with three counts of aggravated murder. he killed three students and wounded three others. a judge ruled last month that he must be tried as an adult. if convicted he could face life in prison. penn state university instituting new rules in the wake of the child sex abuse scandal surrounding the school. penn state now requiring all employees to report suspected child abuse to authorities. officials say it's part of an effort to become a leader in protecting children. the new rules come days before opening statements begin in the trial of former assistant football coach jerry sandusky, accused of molesting 10 boys. the wife of former major-league baseball player roger clemens will b

national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] >> the national press club will have national security and the federal budget subject. speakers include the chairman of the armed services committee and retired general james cartwright, a former vice chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. that is on c-span 3 at 10:00 a.m. eastern. in a few moments, today's headlines and your calls live on [video clip] "washington journal." buerkle testified for the senate judiciary committee. in about 45 and it's, we will look at politics and the economy with national review senior editor. at 8:30 eastern, we will at 8:30 eastern, we will discus

. >> i like to thank our guests for joining us at the national press club for this session of. national security on a shoestring. thank you. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] >> next, senior director of the white house national security staff, bryant kamoir. kamoie. arizona senator john mccain discusses his views on syria on an event hosted by the american enterprise institute. we'll have live beginning at 1:00 p.m. eastern today on c- span 3. >> brian kamoie, what is the best thing that happened to you in your life to prepare you for government service? >> in number of things. i had influential teachers who instilled public service. i had wonderful opportunities to come to washington to learn a little bit about how our government works. i think their education, learning to work in teams of people to solve co

[laughter and applause] we actually have a lot of national press back there. i see them, they're salivating. "we are going to get trump." who cares? but we really have to do something. we have to do something soon. north carolina is one of the most, if not the most, important to stay in terms of who will choose the next president. [applause] we need a president who is smart and tough and gets it. we need a president who has business acumen. we need a president who has business ability. we also need a president who has heart. mitt romney has a lot of heart. the reason i decided not to run is i got to know him, and i heard him in one of the debates saying, about china, that china will not continue to manipulate their currency. they will not continue to destroy this country. [applause] and if they do, we are going to the world court, and we will do other things like, excuse me, we will tax your product 25%. they will come to the table because they will have a depression in china the likes of which you have never seen. by the way, is not only us. europe is doing u

this was held at the national press club. and four were friends. the gerald r. ford presidential foundation will be honoring that friendship with an award in o'neill's honor at the annual dinner tonight. o'neill was speaker of the house in 1996 -- in 1977 until his retirement. chris matthews was born in philadelphia and graduated from the college of holy cross. he served in the peace corps in africa from 1968-1970. after coming to washington, a districtked as policeman. he worked for o'neal for six years during the speakers epic legislative and political battles with president ronald reagan. he started his talk show, hardball with chris matthews, in 1997. in 2002, he started a syndicated weekly political talk show, the chris matthews show. he is the author of six books. please join me in welcoming chris matthews to the national press club. [applause] >> thank you. it is great to be here for gerry abd tip and their friendship. by the way, congratulations, corinne. i couldn't believe your nervous here but i am never nervous you're going to have a dentist and get t

. >> i would like to thank our guests for joining us at the national press club. thank you. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] >> the story behind "the star spangled banner" this weekend on "american history tv" marked the start of the war on 18 12th. -- war of 1812. live saturday at 11:00 a.m. eastern also, more from our series on key political figures who ran for president and lost but changed history. sunday at 7:30 p.m. this week with three-time democratic candidate william jennings bryan. this weekend on c-span3. >> nancy pelosi began her career in the house in 1987. >> mr. speaker, 8 years ago, the soviet union invaded afghanistan. the occupation of afghanistan has turned into a bloody war with no victors. a group of human rights lawyers from the u.s., britain, sweden, and motel. the document acts of terror perpetrated against the african people. >> the current house minority leader and former speaker was honored on the house floor by republican and democratic leaders. watch everyt

let's turn to ben, national press secretary for the obama campaign. ben, good to have you with us tonight. >> nice to be with you. >> to be fair obviously these republican governors are saying, hey, what i'm doing in my state is why we have better numbers than anybody else. they're very nervous via the romney campaign when romney is saying tone it down a little bit? which is it? >> some have been honest that the president's policies has helped their state economically. governor mcdonald talked about how it benefitted his state. governor kay sick in heez is rushes for the auto that obamamented it and he posed. he opposed many of the same policy that is have led to a boost in the recovery since the economic crisis in these states. this comes on the heels of the report in the "wall street journal" that congressional republicans will hold up legislation it to help the economy until after the election because they believe it would benefit mitt romney politically. now we see mitt romney putting a gag order on republican governors in these states from talkin

you can find more information about the national press club on our website at press.org. thank you. we are adjourned. [applause] [inaudible conversations] >> over the past for years, pulitzer prize-winning author has been researching and writing his 10th book, barack obama the story. research included traveling the globe and speaking with the relatives in kenya and discovering his african ancestry on the shores of lake victoria. he toured family home since i think typing campus to find the origins of his mother's family. barack obama the story comes out in bookstores on june 9th team. booktv will give you an early look with explicit pictures and video including our trip to kenya as he traveled with the author in january of 2010. so join us sunday, june 17 at 6:00 p.m. eastern time and later 7:30 the same night. your phone calls, e-mails and tweets for david maraniss on booktv. >> on a personal note, michelle and i are grateful to the entire bush family for their guidance, for their example during own train station. george, always remember those kind words of encouragement

thank you to the national press club staff. find more information about the national press club on our website. thank you. we are adjourned. >> scott walker faces a recall election against milwaukee mayor tom barrett. tomorrow night, we will have live election coverage of the recall results. a discussion on the 2012 presidential race and the role that domestic policy will play. we will hear from a campaign adviser for mitt romney and a pollster for the obama reelection campaign. this is 40 minutes. >> they have to win the election in november. we're going to explore how the issue today will affect the election campaign. we have a stellar group. >> as a campaign -- [inaudible] he is the former price -- former press secretary for john boehner. peter brown is the assistant director of the university polling institute. it is the most unlikely of household words in the world. he is also a former journalist with experience covering the white house and campaigns. welcome. as we have heard over the last hour, there are very substantial

joining me tonight is ben labolt, national press secretary for the obama campaign 2012. very basic, ben. how can romney go out there and the republicans go out there and get away, after day saying, you know, the president has no plan. it's easy to pick up the research here of what we just did. it's very easy to see what was introduced, when it was introduced, what it was targeted for, and what it would have done. but your opponent is out there saying, hasn't done anything. how do you not let him get away with it? >> that's a good question. there is a candidate in this race who doesn't have a plan to create jobs, and it's mitt romney. he's been telling voters he has a 50-point economic plan, but it's just filled with warmed-over republican rhetoric and things we've tried before and haven't spurred job creation. things like $5 trillion tax cuts for the wealthiest, repealing wall street reform and leaving the middle class held hostage to the sorts of risky financial deals that put our entire economy at risk. the president's had this plan to create over a million jobs on the

i think it's across the board and i think it's particularly true in the national press.now, in the reviews that have criticized them primarily have said, oh, it's so -- it's like a high school speech when they say we are here to serve democracy. well, maybe it is like a high school speech, but that's why we're here. if we remember that, if we remember that, almost everything else makes sense. and today almost nothing makes sense to most people. >> you need a television series. maureen, is there anything to the notion that it's basically journalists reviewing this and journalists are maybe a little offended by the which cable news is den graded on the show? >> i completely reject the idea that people are reviewing this negatively because it's striking too close to home. are you telling me a guy who won an oscar for a movie i really liked or made a tv show i really liked, i had it out for him. i don't think it works as drama. >> thank you, everyone. still to come on this program, msnbs manningals a tape of mit. a new yorker writer engages in plagiarism of himself. the medi

fees by $750 million a year, exceeding his tax cuts and yesterday i spoke with alice stewart, national pressick santorum's presidential campaign and here's what she had to say about romney's record. >> governor romney brought the state from 50th to 30th, and when he left office, the unemployment rate in massachusetts was near 4.5% been compare that to 8. % with president obama and he also closed a $3 billion budget shortfall and left a $2 billion rainy day fund for the people of mass mass. >> i'm joined by glenn johnson, politics editor for "the boston globe." great to have you back on. alice said massachusetts was 30th in job creation under mitt romney, bringing the unemployment rate down to 4.5%. it was 4.7. 4.5 closer to that sounds better. the obama campaign and everybody else on the left is saying that it was 47th. your colleaguing at "the globe" found there's truth to both of these claims. so break down the new math that everyone's using here. >> well, first of all it's funny to hear alice say that, where she spent the whole winter trashing mitt romney's record, now she's a supporter o

obviously this is a story that's big in the national press and magnotta's photo has been all over theman in the cafe said he was sure he recognized him from somewhere. then he went and tried to flag down a police convoy. he said they went past all the time generally. and he just hoped that he could stop a police car and bring them in, which is what happened. and he said that he was observing magnotta for about an hour. he was an hour in that internet cafe. as you said, he was looking at news stories about himself online, without apparently a care in the world as to whether anyone sort of had him under observation, which this internet cafe employee actually did, erin. >> that's pretty amazing. as we said, he only said three words, "you got me. " he appeared on a canadian tv show talking about his career choice, why he became a porn star. this is just to give everyone a sense of this guy and his voice. here he is. >> yeah, you know, i really do enjoy my work. i get to meet new people all the time and, you know, i'm a people person. >> diana, do you know, has he said anything to police s

industry for a good number of years, i've worked closely with tom in the chamber on some of our nation's most pressing priorities, particularly the rebuilding of america's oar cairk and crumbling transportation infrastructure. under tom's leadership the u.s. chamber is the nation's greatest champion of free enterprise, american competitiveness, and market capitalism. you can't miss the huge jobs banner on the face of this building as you come up the front steps. jobs and lots of them are what result when the chamber's growth and competitiveness agenda becomes policy. that agenda focuses on expanding trade, strengthening capital markets, driving the energy revolution, reforming our regulatory and legal systems, protecting intellectual property rights, and controlling government spending. among his many accomplishments, tom has spearheaded the creation of the american free enterprise campaign. it's a visionary, long-term program to defend, protect, and advance a free enterprise system based on individual initiative, hard work, incentives and rewards, and personal responsibility. tom's also transformed t

welcome to the national press club. it is my pleasure to host this morning. i hope it will be a robust conversation with a and national security in an area of difficult austerity. there's the question that the department of defense and public security as well as the intelligence community are facing tough decisions as they seek to balance the needs with but a reality. today's panel of government officials are on how they can balance this well insuring national security. target to the opening remarks, there will be time for questions and answers. it is a national press club tradition to give priority to working journalists. if he would please identify yourself. joining us today representing his private sector perspective is the ceo of task. general james scott wright. welcome. with some thoughts on a government point of view is senator carl levin. let's start with you, david. >> good morning. do we dare? the problem with the question is that it suggests we have no choice. one of the greatest threats to national security is our national debt. as a country we ha

ben labolt is the national press secretary for the obama campaign. he joins us this morning.d morning, ben. >> morning, luke. >> romney was asked whether he would repeal the obama executive order on immigration. let's take a listen. >> my anticipation is, i would come into office and say we need to get this done. on a long-term basis, not this kind of a stopgap measure. what the president did, he should have worked on this years ago. if he felt seriously about this, he should have taken action when he had a democrat house and senate. but he didn't. >> i'll pose the question to you there, ben labolt. president obama had huge margins in the house, a filibuster approved senate for the first two years of his presidency. why not push the dream act through in the first 100 days? why was it done just -- or some variation of it done this past friday? and by executive order? >> well, it came up for a vote. look, the president for a long time has been committed to comprehensive immigration reform, and he's been committed to the dream act. the fact is, it came up for a vote in congress.