with spec to the uss universal fund, do you see more funds going towards broadband am currently going towards land lines? >> guest: inevitably that has to happen. at the present time, the federal universal service fund can be used only to support traditional telephone service. by law it is limited just to that use. now the high cost fund is $4.5 billion every year and it is fully subscribed at the present time and is being used by a local exchange carriers in order to support their telephone service offerings. candidly, they are also using it in order to deploy fiber optics and two communities over which they do carry local telephone service, but they're also carrying over that i've are type one citizens solved high-speed internet access and it becomes for their dsl services. so without question, they are today even beginning to make broadband more available to the utilization of universal service funding although it's generally under the guise of enhancing the capability to offer traditional local television service. our legislation would take two steps in this critical direction. first, we would enable the guys to be removed. we would say that immediately to the extent that

-- the federal universal service fund from supporting solely telephone service to also supporting broadbandployment. the commission's recommendation closely tracks the provision in the comprehensive universal service reform legislation that for the last four years i have been working with our committee colleague in order to vance. we've been preparing discussion draft, the most recent of which was the subject of a legislative hearing in the subcommittee. today, universal service monies may not be spent for broadband. our legislation will immediately allow carriers to use their usf monies for broadcast and -- for broadband deployment. those receiving universal service money must provide broadband throughout their service territories within five years of the measure becoming law. the carriers could no longer receive usf monies if they failed to meet this broadband build out mandate. the commission's recommendation also targets using the high cost fund for broadband, and i commend the compatibility of the broadband plan and the legislation we have placed before the committee. secondly, i was p

-- the federal universal service fund from supporting solely telephone service to also supporting broadbandloyment. the commission's recommendation closely tracks the provision in the comprehensive universal service reform legislation that for the last four years i have been working with our committee colleague in order to vance. we've been preparing discussion draft, the most recent of which was the subject of a legislative hearing in the subcommittee. today, universal service monies may not be spent for broadband. our legislation will immediately allow carriers to use their usf monies for broadcast and -- for broadband deployment. those receiving universal service money must provide broadband throughout their service territories within five years of the measure becoming law. the carriers could no longer receive usf monies if they failed to meet this broadband build out mandate. the commission's recommendation also targets using the high cost fund for broadband, and i commend the compatibility of the broadband plan and the legislation we have placed before the committee. secondly, i was pl

the university of tennessee earlier this week. this is the university of which i used to be president. the university of tennessee has 30,000 students. 37% of them or 11,251 have federal private loans today. the average student debt is about $20,000. after july 1, all 11,000 students at the university of tennessee, with these federal private loans are going to have to switch to the government loans, and the government is going to overcharge 11,000 students who go to the university of tennessee at knoxville and use that overcharge money to pay for new government programs, including the health care bill. they're going to do the same thing to the university of tennessee at martin. there they choose to use the private loan program. they like it better than the government loan program. they think it's more convenient for the students. they've chosen it. 3,600 students at u.t. martin have federal private loans. they're going to be out of those loans by july 1. they're going to have government loans, and the government is going to overcharge them to help pay for the health care program. a college at which i'll be saturday, they'll switch from private loans to government loan

the -- type of university. i like to do that. >> destro to take federal funds? >> -- does trinity take federal funds? >> our students receive federal financial. >> go back to that $19,000 figure on tuition. how much does the average student pay herself or himself. >> the average full-time student pays no more than once thousand dollars or $2,000 out-of-pocket without some sort of subsidy. the trend to grant comes out to about $8,000 for many students. pell grants can be as much as $5,000. local students get different brands. the federal loan can go anywhere from $2,500 to $20,000 a year. >> explain the washington d.c. tuition grants. >> it came to be in the year 2000. it is a program that the founders wanted to be able to provide support for families in the district of columbia who did not have the same kind of collegiate public opportunities like other states. there is one public university here, but a family that lives in virginia would have george mason, james madison, you vuva d others. what mrs. norton and congressman davis created was a program that would pay a student up to $10,000 a year to go

world's economies were often more dependent on the federal reserve's decisions than their own central banks'. in short, we were the glorious center of the universeand you had to invest accordingly. all of that has now changed. we're no longer the center of the universe. and if you don't acknowledge the change, you'll get burned over and over again. we've been displaced. we've been displaced by communist china. home to the best capitalists in the world. and this is just the beginning. china is now far more important to the global economy and therefore many parts of the american economy, not to mention our stock and bond markets. and that's what's happening inside the u.s. it's a simple fact of life. you've got to start owning this. no one wants to say it because it's depressing. but you've got to get used to it. i don't care if it's depressing. i'm not out here to make you feel better. i'm out here to try to make you money. until you acknowledge the supremacy of china, there's no way you can make sense of this market anymore. it will seem even more crazy and senseless than it was when i wrote "jim cramer's real money: sane investing in an insane

the united states. they needed federal precedents. and they found it in missouri two years later. boyd gaines, a very going promising and apply to the university of missouri law school. he applied to the university of missouri and they denied his application of his race and said missouri has a policy where we will contribute to your tuition at an out-of-state school because we don't allow missouri black citizens to go to the university of missouri taught school. lloyd gaines, charles houston and thurgood marshall took on lloyd gaines's case and it made its way to the supreme court of the united states. they could finally put their strategy to the justices. there is no law school for black students. so there is no separate but equal. we don't even reach the question of equality because there is no separate. there is nothing there. there's nowhere for them to go. because this is a personal right, the 14th amendment is a personal right that each individual, each american citizen enjoys. you have to remedy it immediately. and the only way to remedy that is to allow our client, mr. gaines, to attend the university of missouri law school. the justic

the engineering education. these funds have been matched first by the university and then by corporate dough neighses and then by the federal government. utah's governor also prioritized qut by the college of engining. while the utah science, technology, and research initiative provides salaries and start-up packages. faculty members grew by 46% since the initiative began. tenure-track faculty members grew by 46% since utah's engineering initiative began frvment 2002 to 2009, engineering research, research expenditures went from 25 million to $56.9 million. the number of engineering degrees granded by the university of utah rose 76% in the last decade. and roughly 80% of those undergraduates accept engineerinengineering jobs righn utah. what is more, the college of engineering spun out 35 companies in the past three years. i know how much our presiding officer cares about that. getting in the private sector. the college of engineering at utah increased engineering degrees by 76%, and the college of engineering spun up 35 companies in just the past five years. the university of unfortunate as a whole ranked second only to m.

but because we believe the law is you be constitutional, virginia's law should stand and federal law should fall. >> the constitutional question seems to be universal is in the lawsuit that you have filed or the ones that the other states have filed. will you approach that aspect of it the same way as far as what you believe is unconstitutional about this? >> we are focused narrowly on the commerce clause part of the constitutional debate here. and the reason is that is the basis aaccording to congress for their legislation and we are saying that they have gone beyond what the commerce clause allows. if you buy health insurance, that is an act in commerce. but if do you nothing, don't buy health insurance, there is no commerce. there is no effect on commerce and it is beyond the scope of the commerce clause. that is the narrow focus of our case. if buying health insurance and not buying health insurancare both covered by the commerce clause, then there are no limits vier clail to the commerce clause power and surely the founding fathers wanted the constitution to impose some limit. >> is there a fear because of that and that commerce clause, do you

the federal government don't sfart until 214. four years from now that puts a tremendous amount of byrned on the private sector which will be hit with fys it's not a universal syst system as a consequence it will be a long time before it to come to some degree of workable effect. thinked. g gerring democrats have to recognize that's what they are required to defend on the campaign trail the next few months. it ain't to go to be perfect overnight. >>> as we look live at the east room we should point out in this reconciliation bill is a massive student lo own ove -- loan over charles we don't talk about that a lot this is a big deal if this becomes the law of the land. >> it is a good deal. it hasn't been discussed or negotiated debated in the second they are going to have radical change in the relationship between the government and student loans since it is a change of what has been in place since 1965. it happened overnight slid into reconciliation bill on a complete ry sifrnt subject. peedz, hants, we had to take over the auto stli? we have a charge federal intrusion into healthcare. what this is washington taking over all stew dint loans. all of a sudden

the furthest was the university of pennsylvania. larry klein got a nobel prize. a mentor of mine designed the federalre creating the sound bites. that does not mean that we think it hurt growth last year, or that we know precisely that the stimulus was a failure and made things wose. it does mean we should have a great deal of skepticism that we know what the right thing to do is. going forward, we have seen the success of some programs i highlight in my testimony. we should trust evidence more than models and the skeptical about what the model say, especially when the model predictions are so at odds with what we see in the literature. >> my gut feel is that the economy has changed, but those models are not as reflective. stimulus is almost always arrive after the recession has peaked and is slow. i think today that we downplay the economic boost from lowering the after-tax cost of capital on a permanent basis, where businesses can count on that rate of return and the ability to invest. your thoughts? >> i think you are right, mr. brady. the way i like to think about it is not that the stimulus, aga

there's hardly a university in the country-- be it public or private-- that doesn't take some federal money. and just to say that you would kick out some schools... kick some schools out of the tournament who don't meet whatever standards you meet for a graduation rate i think is pretty short-sighted. if government wants to get involved in this, they can start to threaten schools with losing their federal funding if, in fact, they're not living up to whatever standard they're going to set. so disagree with arne duncan on that, they can do more. >> woodruff: do you think that's likely to happen? >> i don't think that's likely to happen but at least he's raised the conversation within the cabinet and maybe people can start talking about in the a serious light. >> woodruff: kevin blackistone, we thank you for talking with us. >> thank you. >> lehrer: again, the major developments of the day: house democrats laid out a final health care bill, costing $940 billion over 10 years. they pointed toward a vote on sunday. a chicago man-- david headley-- pleaded guilty to helping plan the 2008 at

the university student is behind bars after being charged withhe was one of 10 men that forced university dorm room and and 15 area pawnbrokers have been indicted in a money-laundering scheme. federaleral law enforcement officers at several locations. the arrest followed a one-year investigation. bp solar has announced the closing of its manufacturing plants and eliminating more than 300 jobs. all eligible employees will consent -- continued to receive full pay for three months as low as a severance package and other help. stay with u >> a nice morning this morning. plenty of sunshine. it is a nice bright day out there. it is a little bit cooler. try to stay in the sunshine today. tamara, a different story. clouds will be approaching -- tomorrow, a different story. cloud will be approaching. rain will be moving in by the end of the day tomorrow. temperature's only around 50 degrees for the high. tomorrow morning, it will be around the 30 degree range for the lows. we will pick up more clouds and rain shower activity later on in the day. a high of 53 degrees. the rain pulls out of the area tuesday morning. then we get into the 60's and into the 70 degree area by the end of the week.

well, the prospect of massive federal spending is hurting jobs an growth. stanford university economic said -- quote -- "in "the wall street journal," "the explosion of spenting, deficits and debt foreshadows higher taxes on work saving investment and employment. that not only will damage our economic future, but is harming jobs and growth now." china and other countries may not be able to keep financing our debt in the future, even if they'd like to. professor allen meltzer, a well-known scholar on the federal reserve and monetary policy noted in a column in "the journal" that our current and projected deficits are too large relative to current and perspective world saving to rely on other countries being able to finance them for the next 10 years. in other words, there may not be enough surplus money in the world to buy these -- these debt instruments that we're going to be having to issue. in fact, a recent "washington times" editorial entitled "spending to a depression" notes that since china and other countries are trying to reduce their holdings of dollars, we will have

implementation of the plan's recommendations made federal tribal the and initiative and task force and tribal affairs, data gathering, universalvice reforms among others would give native american communities the visibility they deserve day in and day out and will build on the trust relationship the bill did so much to promote u.s. chairman of the fcc proposed other important focus is ensuring accessibility for persons with disabilities. i have had a wonderful experience dealing with people with disabilities beginning with my very first speech as commissioner. and for me to begin to understand the challenges they most are likely to overcome every day. they have so much talent and skill and dedication and a genuine desire and all they ask is an equal shot at being productive members of society. we cannot countenance there further exclusion friday broadband hearing i chaired to solicit employ it we saw a new technology can change lives and great opportunities for people who want to be in need to be full participating mainstream citizens. we made progress, no question but there is still so much to do, implementation of the recomm

financial literacy and make federal loan repayments more affordable for graduates paying off their loans. the legislation invests $2 billion in historic black colleges and universitiesserving institutions to help support those students and the bill invests $2 billion in community colleges to develop and improve educational career training programs. we will make these investments by ending wasteful subsidies given to big banks in our current student loan programs. this notion is far from radical. these subsidies have been identified as wasteful by president clinton and george w. bush. president obama has the courage to stop investing in corporate welfare for banks and invest in students and families. by switching to the more reliable cost-effective loan program will save taxpayers $61 billion and cut the deficit by $10 billion. this reform will preserve a strong role for private lenders and allow them to service 100% of the loans which will insure customer service for barbers and protect jobs in the community. this will keep jobs in american soil. unlike loans by banks loans went to the government cannot be outsourced. the leading servicer of these repatriated 2,000

the country? why can we not agree on doing something viable and bowled to -- and bold to confront such a universally acknowledged problem? it remains an unmitigated outrage, frankly, that the federal reserves' in a junior and senior loan officer survey found that banks easing credit terms for small businesses was an astonishing zero percent. zero percent. the same is true in october, the last time they conducted this survey. so if you wanted to not just freeze credit, but phos aislize it -- fossilize it this would be the way to do it. lend something critical. it is the lifeline to our economy. it is the lifeblood and it's certainly a lifeline for small businesses if they're going to be able to add jobs, to preserve jobs or to make investments in the future. but here again is another area which we could take immediate action, right here and now, that aid can turn this deplorable trend around beginning with boofght the s.b. a.'s compass for facilitating access to. my provision includes key lending provisions from a bill i introduced in the small business committee with chair landrieu which was reported out of our committee by a vote of 17-1, 17-1, so overwhelmingly b. bipartisan, to

the money was going to our benefits. i started that in 1972. i am still a professor at georgetown university. host: dr. feder, two questions. y changes have been made to the 1969 medicare program by then? guest: my recollection is not much had changed by 1972. it was shortly after the end -- 71973, 1974 -- when seniors with disabilities started to become eligible. some medicare provisions were also enacted at the same time. there was a concern from the beginning about controlling health-care costs. if anything, medicare has been more effective in controlling costs compared to the private sector. host: second question, what kind of media attention was given to health care passage in 1965? guest: the debate was comparable in that the charges were that socialized medicine would destroy life as we knew it. in return the u.s. into russia, which was a communist country back then. of course, we know how incredibly successful medicare has been granting access to seniors and disabled beneficiaries. the same kinds of nonsense, and- of-the world claims were also made. we need this just as badly now. medicare was meant to be the next st

anthony's, proof of concept labs, where we can accelerate the commercialization of research coming out of our universities are out of our federalbs. there is an infrastructure that is essential to the innovation economy, that we certainly play a role in and hope to continue to play an even larger role in at the eda. and i include him on infrastructure a critical issue that we have to address today and that is access to capital. particularly when you look at the deployment of early-stage funding for seed capital, there's a huge, you know, lack of availability of funds. and when we look at how those funds typically get dispersed across the country, there's a tremendous, you know, magnet that drives a lot of the innovation to the area flight osten or maybe the west coast silicon valley. as i travel around the country, there are pockets all over america where you have tremendous innovation. you have strong entrepreneurs, but you have an incredibly difficult time pulling those funders to bring that early-stage capital into the heartland or into other parts of the country. so we think there's an opportunity with eda through our revol

the budget here at the university of baltimore. we will see what come from that. joel d smith, fox 45 morning news. >>> coming up federal help for the unemployed is over today. what is holding up the extension of the program. >>> it gave us the platform and the reasons for them to come. >> will that be enough to payoff the billions of dollars how about over here? hmm... let's go back to the left. uh... waffling is back at dunkin' donuts with the return of the waffle breakfast sandwich. two oven-toasted waffles with a hint of maple, complete with fluffy egg, a slice of melted cheese, and now with delicious sausage. so hurry in today because it's only around for a short time. america runs on dunkin'. try our oven-toasted waffle breakfast sandwich today, only at dunkin' donuts. >>> sting the olympics is an honor for a city and its country, but in past olympics some cities lost money and raised taxes after the world event. in this winter's olympics, there are reports that vancouver is expected to lose millions of dollars. >> reporter: as vancouver says goodbye to 300,000 foreign visitors, it's time to count the money both w

university. can you speak a little bit -- you did just touch on it a little bit. the connection with on the one hand ownership of the federal reserve and the connection with this and the fight over the federal reserve, and as well as john perkins in his book, talks a lot about the military industrial complex in connection with private industry, and traces quite a continuity from world war ii onward so if you could weave those into your story. >> going backwards, the military industrial complex, it became a lot more powerful in 1993. just after the end over the cold war and this is one of the works of the clinton administration. and what happened is that there was a secretary of defense perry brought in all the different people who were running the defense corporations at that time. they said you guys have to merge. there's just to many of you. it's confusing us. it's creates waste in our offices. of merge. so they went from more than 100 companies down to about five really big ones. and those five really big ones obviously were going to end up with a lot more control over the government than if you got 100 of them. so, it's

the federal bench. he rose up from humble roots in the small town of rice lake, wisconsin, to graduate with distinction from the university of wisconsin. he went on to the law school at u.w., graduating cum laude and order of the coithe. following law school, he clerked in the seventh circuit court of appeals for judge fairchild. bill conley's career has prepared him well to be a federal judge. he has practiced law for 25 years at the venerable madison firm of foley and lardner. throughout his career, he has earned a reputation as a skillful lawyer and top-notch litigator. he has represented a variety of national and international companies before state and federal courts and has served as a mediator and arbitrator to help parties resolve their disputes outside of court. one of bill conley's greatest strengths is his frequent representation of clients before the court to which he has been nominated. from this experience, he has gained a keen understanding of the court, as well as the fairness and impartiality that the administration of justice requires. while managing a busy legal practice, bill conley has remained comm

are protesting in california about the 34% increase in tuition at the university of california probably didn't even imagine that the reason for that is because the federal government is causing medicaid costs to continue to rise and governors therefore make cuts, and tuition goes up and this bill will make that work. then on top of that, you have the last-minute take overof the federal student loan program. suddenly, 19 million students -- well, 15 million of those 19 million will go to the federal government to get their loan beginning in july instead of 2000 lenders across the country. and the government is saying well, we're going to spend money. well, that may be true but guess what the government is going to do with its money. they're not going to say because the government can borrow the money at 2.8%, it's going to cost us less to operate the program, therefore we'll give the students the savings. they're going to spend the savings. they will borrow it at 2.8% and lend it to the students at 6.8%. that's overcharging america's students to help pay for the health care programs. now, these students aren't wall street financiers. they are working peo

the federal deposit insurance corporation. ms. bair has held that position for the past four years, a period which i believe about tested the mail of any mere mortal. ms. bair holds her law degree from the university of kansas and has broad ideas and financial issues. she has worked in academia at the new york stock change, on the hill with the senate, to treasury, and victimized future trading exchange. choose received numerous awards, including awards for her various publications. some of you know she also has written a number of children's books. in fact, her first book was published in 2006 and it was called, rock on the rock in the saving shock. and i was thinking last night is more of us had read this book, we might have avoided all the financial drama. chairman bair has agreed to answer a few questions after furball remark. although for those of you in the media because the media because the session is very short, we would ask you to contact editor gray who was with her this morning for additional questions after the session. so with that, please join me in welcoming chairman sheila bair of the federal deposit insurance corporation. sheila? [applause] >> thank you, lynn. i was a very nice i

the writers guild of america appeared dr. mark cooper, director of research at consumer federation of america. ms. colleen abdoulah, president, ceo of a while internet cable and phone spirit and mr. christopher, you professor at the universityn we have order please and everybody take their seats rapidly? senator dorgan -- senator dorgan is going to chair. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> why don't begin. first of all, apologies to you. we have the essay builds that this committee has written on the floor of the senate and so a number of a further in other hearings as well. but i appreciate very much the witnesses on this panel coming to the committee to testify. but mr. brian roberts ceo of comcast. i believe senator rockefeller has identified although some channel so i will not do that again. why don't we begin, mr. roberts, which you and has been the case with all witnesses, the full statement will be made a part of the permanent record and would ask the witnesses to summarize. mr. roberts, you may proceed. >> thank you, mr. chairman. it's a privilege to come here today and talk about contest planned joint venture with ge re: nbc universal. my father, ralph, seated behind me

number of federal agencies including the food and a drug administration, nist, look up the standards the manufacture certifies in terms of health and safety. we also asked johns hopkins university applied physics lab to take an independent but the technology and give independent assessment of its safety. and in essence, for the two different types of technology it is equivalent to less than two minutes of airtime in an airplane at flout to your exposure or less than 10,000 times your radiation or exposure when you are on your cell phone so it is very minimal. dewitt have to fly i believe the standards 15,000 times a year to be exposed to anything that would reache safety standards. >> thank you. that's very helpful testimony to have. mr. aguilar, i want to first tell you and thank you for the extraordinary service we have had from the agency. he has really added to the knowledge of cbp and we appreciate it. i want to talk to you about the screening computer program that is known as the automated targeting system. this is intended to identify travelers for additional screening even if they are not on the terrorist watch list. so again, it's part of this leered approach to securi

implementation of the plan's recommendations, a federal tribal broadband initiative, an fcc tribal task force and fcc office of tribal affairs, data-gathering on tribal lands, universal service reforms among others will give native american communities the visibility they deserve, day in and day out at the fcc. and will build upon the trust relationship that bill kinard did so much to promote while he was chairman of the fcc. another important focus of the plan is ensuring accessibility for persons with disabilities. in my time at the commission, i've had the wonderful and totally inspiring experience of working with numerous communities beginning with my very first speech as a commissioner which was to the deaf and hard of hearing audience. i've come to see and appreciate the talents these folks have and to begin understanding the challenges they must constantly overcome every day, all day. these are individuals with so much talent, so many skills such dedication and genuine desire and all they ask is an equal shot at being productive members of society. we just cannot discount their further exclusion. at a broadband hearing i chaired to solicit their plan we saw ho

but as the first in my family who actually had a chance to go to a university and get the college degree. when i attended stanford, i relied on the grants that i received from the federal government, the low-cost student listens along with the work that i did and the little that my parents could contribute at that time. i don't believe today i would be able to attend the same university without the increase and support that i could get from the student loans. we cannot allow the american families who are going through the toughest times to believe we are not going to stand with them. we don't do what's within the grasp. give their kids a chance to do what we are all going to do. graduate from a good college and get to work. get to work. 17,000 students in my congressional district. most of whom living families with an income of less than 35,000 a year are going to receive pell grants this year. they need that assistance to be able to finish their education. we need to finish the job that we have started and passing this legislation and now get it through the reconciliation process to get it up or down vote for american's kids who wish to go to college. we owe it to the

corporations and the federal government's balance sheet forever changed, subsidized by the american taxpayers. freddie and fannie, the secondary mortgage purchasers, were the center of the university for the financial meltdown. foolishly they pursued a policy of purchasing substandard loans, then repackaging those loans into mortgage-backed securities. freddie and manny greedly spread their economic cancer throughout the financial world, exposing america's taxpayers to potentially trillions of dollars of losses. freddie and fannie should have been shuttered. they should have been placed into receivership, but uncle sam, ever the chump, couldn't resist and now uncle sam owns 50% of america's home mortgages. eager for more, the obama administration consumes the student loan industry and they completed that transaction today with the signature of a pen. a breathtaking 33% of the private economy was either outright purchased or controlled by the federal government in a span of 10 months' time. but the brass ring of government control health care still taunted this administration. 18% of the private economy, the finest health care the world has ever known, was a long sought-after prize

number of federal agencies, including the food and drug administration, look at the standards that the manufacturer certifies to in terms of health and safety. we also asked johns-hopkins university, their applied physics lab, to take an independent look at the technology and give us their independent assessment of its safety. in essence, for the two different types of technology, it is equivalent to less than two minutes of air time in an airplane at full altitude, your exposure or less than 10,000 times your exposure when you are on your cell phone. so it is very, very minimal. you would have to fly 15,000 times a year to be exposed to anything that would reach the very baseline of a question in terms of the health and safety standards. >> thank you. that is very helpful testimony for us to have. mr. ago larry -- aguilar, i want to thank you for the extraordinary service we have had from a detailee, matt hannah from your agency, he has added to our knowledge of c.b.m., and we appreciate it. i want to talk to you about the screening computer program that is known as the automated targeting system. that is intended to identify travelers for additional screening if they are not on

at harvard university, principal analyst of the cbo, senior economist at the council of economic advisers, deputy assistant secretary for economic policy at the treasury, and then at the federaleserve board, assistant director of the research and statistics division. he earned his b.a. summa cum laude at princeton in his master's and ph.d. at harvard. i first met him when he was a graduate student working on his dissertation. his decision committee included larry summers. all top rate economists and good friends. it is a distinct pleasure to present him to you. the topic today is fiscal policy changes. the timing is prodigious -- propitious. under the president's budget, that would grow from $7.50 trillion at the end of 2009 to $20.30 trillion by the end of 2020. difficult choices lie ahead. there is no one better to navigate as through this then douglas elmendorf. -- ban douglas elmendorf -- than douglas elmendorf. [applause] >> thank you very much. it is great to be here. i appreciate the invitation to talk with all of you. i am going to talk about fiscal policy choices. i will try to go to the beginning. as you know, the cbo does not make policy recommendations. we do not

the 2010 year, earmarks, it directed spending to for-profit companies. they could still select foundations and universities, and other non-profits as part of this spending. it is a discussion about how to control federal spending. we would like to hear from you about whether this tactic makes sense. it is about $16 billion in earmarks in the current fiscal year's budget. does this matter to you? or do think it is about politics? here is a view from john on twitter. next is a call from arizona, doug on the independent line. caller: the house bringing up the attempt to block the marks and all the money that floods us is good, but you must remember that congress is run pretty much by millionaires. i honestly do not believe they really care about the people. they are very quick to make sure that they get theirs while the people's business is not being attended to. in the meantime, we're going broke and money is being wasted. i just kind of wonder what will happen when congressional budget office was talking about reaching an impasse, as far as the impasse and there will have to cut social welfare programs and social security -- do you think that they will miss that deadline? they will not fail to make the

federal local partnership. >> if you go to wisconsin, you have to come to kansas. we will feed you bread and stakes, really good. one thing i would like to invite you to see is the university of kansas' farm's school. it is rated as one of the top two or three in the country. they have developed a through-put model. they are starting to work more and more in second and third world disease categories as well. i think it would be interesting to you to see how they are doing this now on trying to review these at a much faster pace, the process that they are using. they are also at a point of being able to get a national cancer institute designation with the pharmacy school being one of the key aspects of it. so it is drug delivery on cancers they are working on, and i think that would be an interesting thing for you to look at and see as you think of ways to get more drugs to market safely and efficaciously, but trying to get the cost down, which is so important for us to be able to get some more of these categories covered. i hope you can come out and take a look at that. >> i would love to. what you are describing i think fits very much with our strong new focus on advancin