Transcripts For CSPAN2 Key Capitol Hill Hearings 20240622

And weve got to fight for decency. And im an optimist. On the glass halffull guy on most things, and we are going to be fine. America is going to be fine and ill do my best i can promise you that. But you have to do yours, too. Because again this whole thing is a bill from a peer down. It is build from there to the top. We work for you. You dont work for us. Thats kind of my [applause] we will call her up like a lady. Hi. My name is brenda. Ive been a caregiver for nearly 10 years. My husband has younger onset alzheimers disease. Might 89 yearold mother lives with me. She is alzheimers as well. Im one of 65000 alzheimers caregivers in the state of New Hampshire. One in five medicare dollars is spent on caring for someone with alzheimers disease. The projections are by 2050 thank you. [applause] by 2050, the projections are by 2050 28 million baby boomers will have alzheimers. I know firsthand the pain of seeing these people slip away. I know firsthand the financial burden this carries with it to families, to care for people as well as our country so my question to you is what will you do to make sure this devastating disease gets the attention it deserves . And also the potential to bankruptcy medicare and medicaid that they get the attention they deserve . First of all when i was in congress and we were balancing budgets, because i dont think about the budget you just go and slash everything. Youve got to figure out how to make things work better. Some things had to go because its like a garage sale. You clean out your house i dont know why this is here. Most of what you have just needs to be shined up. So Newt Gingrich has just written an oped piece, and i am close to him and im very happy with what he had to say. John and i were there when we doubled the funding for the National Institutes of health. There are some organizations i wouldnt double. I would be doing it the other way, but we need to do this research. This basic research at the National Institutes of health is absolutely critical. I think its bipartisan and i think support for this is growing and we need to do that, number one. Number two, i really think we need to some real incentives so that people begin to buy longterm care. Right now its really, really expensive. I have it. My wife and i have the. We bought it years ago but theres very little incentive for us to buy longterm care and i think we need to think about the way in which people can afford this. Because in your case it would be a situation where you would have somebody there. Youre a caregiver yourself and you know what difference it makes to have somebody in the house, but right now you know what it costs. It cost too much and i think we need to think about a way to incentivize the purchase of the longterm care. I guess the other thing that i would tell you in my state at least, we said that if you need to go in a nursing home thats fine but if you want to stay in your own home he should be able to do that as well. And was also treated they caregivers very, very fairly. When i came in they were almost a part of ohio and people wonder be to dump them the edited want them to be Government Employees but it did want them to lose their health care. The recently since they can get on the exchange they now can get their health care and their protected because you do not want to hurt they caregivers. Its a gift. Lord gave you a gift to be able to care for people. And so i think its research. I think its a longterm care. I think its these breakthroughs that we need to in madison, to make sure that our caregivers are respected in our society. But i dont know how to cure alzheimers. But you know what . Their somebody, some kid right now who may not be getting a good education, could be ben carson. Ben carson again. Somebody can rise because thomas aquinas, the old catholic theologian said signed and faith are connected. Weve got to explore. Weve given the brain to fix these things and thats what we have to do. I gave you a little hug because its really hard. It really really hard. So the quicker we can get to it the better, okay . Ill do what i can do. Thank you. [applause] doug, let me say one more thing. I want you all to get us. I did criticize because i took money, ohio money from washington to ohio to treat the mentally ill, the drug addicted and the working poor. Somebody says stop moralizing. Im not economic, im not going to hoist myself. Im a fallen guy. I just did the best i can. The reason why brought the money back its called expanding medicaid. Let me explain it to you. Because of this now, we can treat the drug addicted work in our prisons and we treat them and then we turned him over to the community and the recidivism rate for the drug addicted is 10 . The national recidivism rate is almost 50 . Now why would i not want to treat them . If i dont have the money i dont have the resources to do it. Bipolar and schizophrenics sit in our prisons. 20 of my prison population are bipolar or schizophrenic. We are supposed to lock them up . We treat them. You can be bipolar and function almost normally. The way we function, if thats normal right . Function as well as you possibly can. So i do believe, in these programs dont have to be exploded in order to deliver good services. Its made a difference in our state. And people going to criticize me for it. God bless them if you know what . Im really glad i did is because there are peoples lives who have been saved as a result of it. So im sorry. I wanted to tell you that. [applause] hi. Im a volunteer with league of conservation voters, question is what are your plans for addressing im a change in the state of New Hampshire . How about for like the world . [laughter] first of all i believe were supposed to be good stewards of the environment and i appreciate the fact that youre involved in something. But no, we dont want to worship the environment. We live here and maybe manage it. You just asked the speaker asked stella. They have a beautiful farm. They care about the land as much as anybody does, okay . Sometimes people come up with radical ideas about the environment and it lends itself to worshiping the embargo. I dont worship the environment but i respect them protected. In my state we spent a lot of money on lake erie. Because we dont want that to be destroyed. I also have fought with some people in my own party over the issue of renewables. I assume you like wind and you like solar, as long as that wind farm is a where you are you kind of like wind, i did it, okay . I understand. The kennedys like wind but they didnt like that thing out in the ocean, you know . [applause] so anyway i think its mixable. When it comes to call when we dig it we ought to clean it and then berger. That has to be a lot of Different Things and we have to be respectful of that young lady, because if we dont go the extra mile then we may be doing something they cant be improved. I dont want to the crazy. I do what you not to get a job because weve done things that are extreme. Its like many other things in life. Respected protected dont worship it come to some things to move forward. One of the most exciting things that will happen in your lifetime, i dont know when battery technology. What is a car called . A tesla. I have a friend who has a tesla. Have you ever been in one . Youre a young woman, and make sure it you get your friends and you go far right in a tesla. Its all battery operated. No images. Technology is moving where we wanted to move and so my view is im not, im not sure whos right im going to be careful about it. [applause] im a male democrat, believe it or not. Question i have is something that takes a lot of parents and baby boomer generation, student loan forgiveness for our offspring. We have a son that is paying off his Student Loans and on his first job. Back in the day when we were younger the National Defense alone that a lot of us took advantage of do you have any proposals in your plans if you become president to of us are not looking for free lunch. Im talking about some kind of forgiveness and maybe Community Service to help offset this. I dont know yet what we do about those first of all lets talk about my kids are 15. So heres what weve done in the state. And what i think we should be thinking about nationally. Number one we do not give any a need to a college or university and less a student completes a course or graduates. No more getting money out of peoples kids walk around and never graduate and never complete a course. That creates an incentive for our universities to guide our students through in a shorter time. Secondly we do have a Great Community College System now which allows you to be in a position of where you cut your costs for the first couple of years before you go to the university. Thirdly, we have a program that ought to be aggressively expanded nationally and you should start it in New Hampshire right now and that is called College Credit plus. Some students can take College Courses now in high school and get credit for High School Graduation and for higher education, and some didnt come close to cutting off an entire year from going to college. Theyre going to shorten their ability to get a degree. Now what ive done is ive gotten a handful of business people. I did not select them for their affability. I selected them for their capability. And they are part of a small group that is looking at all the cost drivers inside of our universities and community colleges. Ohio State University had a parking, a bunch of parking lots and parking garages. Ohio state least of those to a private company and they got a half a billion dollars. This happened like two years ago. Why is ohio state running parking garages . We have to look at the nonacademic aspects and the problem is many of the leaders at these institutions my guys and women are saying go into it will ever but what you come up with. But its tough to be a president. And to get everybody together but this is vital. Out to you why. Nobody is going to pay this kind of money. I met a girl the other day with her dad. She is ringing up to 200,000 worth of debt and just two years worth of scholarship. It was 100,000 because the school cost 60,000 a year so thats 120 240,000 aftertax dollars. Part of it is controlling those costs. And on top of it i told the universities they dont get your act together Online Education is going to take you down. People are not going passionate i dont need to set would talk to people from harvard. Or mit. So i think thats part of it. In our budget we had some loan forgiveness in their Company Think it ultimately got stripped out. What we would do with this debt, i can make you you a promise that all of a sudden we are going to write it off i think what we have to do Going Forward is to reduce these costs. Maybe you just said something that makes some sense. Maybe he did. Community service. Thats an interesting idea. I have to think about it. I dont want to make a promise them will take care of it all, dont worry. And we will balance the budget and there will be a chicken in every pot. I think its a good suggestion. What do you think, john . An interesting idea. He said to be asking me when youre up here talking. I dont know if that works for you but look we are doing as much as we can to get up to be concerned about what we have right now. One of areare you related to marry to speak with my brother. [laughter] spent one of my biggest concerns is the direction of this country and wasteful spending and the free handouts. I think the people on food stamps has almost doubled since 2008 and i just heard a stat yesterday that the number of children will present on from 18 to 22 im 100 hoping people who need help at the issue i have is with people who can work and dont want to enter just stand there with their hands out. I would like to know what you plan to do about that. My mother used to say its a sin not to people who need to but its equally a sin to continue to people who need to learn how to help themselves. But let me also suggest to you we have like 1,125,000,000 in ohio. The last time i checked i think we had a total of about 11. 5 million. Thats a lot of people by 130,000 out of 11. 5 million creates the full perspective. Heres what they ought to be doing with welfare. This is an amazing thing. You how confusing it is when you go to get medical care . You go to doctor and then they take this and that he got to go to the next one and you dont know what that is going on. The best procedure for help in future, maybe i should talk about it, is that we can have a shepherd at the latest theres a we get quality care at lower prices. But if you go to the well for department, youre you on food stamps are generally or this or that, you can have as many as five cases workers. So i told the welfare departments across ohio and will be implemented within the next year she will have one caseworker. They wouldve a comprehensive work for someone who comes in who is on welfare. And if you as a county department will not do what i say, im just going to take a month away and i might privatize or give to someone else because we are going to do this. Then we want to do and were working on is to get the business is actually in the welfare office. So in this locality outside of columbus, we have businesses located in the welfare office. Is what they do is between the people on relief for a job that actually exist and they have like 90 retention. Theyve hired a lot of people. Theres a lot of things you have to do is have the skills education. Plus you have to have k12 that works. Do you hear what im saying . We all think we live in not like when the sake. We live in lake will be gone. Everybodys doing great. My kids are doing great come and they are not. In many cases, too many cases so we got to give them the skills of fun. Change education to get people excited. Heres what i want to tell you. The president can be a cheerleader. The president can hold people accountable but the fixing of this education in those welfare systems must be done where we live. Its got reflect our values, not somebody down there in washington what they dont even know what the time zone is here. One of the things things id like to do is i would like to move more of this authority and empower people like you here in New Hampshire to design your own program rather than it being decided there. Now, i also think doug frankly, speaker, every county is different, too. So it seems to me as though we should design our own Welfare Program to hold people accountable, to give them the skills they need. But you cant train them for underwater basket weaving. There is no jobs in that. So another thing weve done in ohio is we know what the in demand jobs are. We can determine what are the current job and future job need for people. So then you start moving them into it. We have so many programs. Let me give you one more. So youre imam, a poor mom. Your husband ran out on you and get a couple of kids and youre working at walmart. Line, thats okay but you want to do better. We are asking some of the businesses to come together and put online a curriculum that you can take at your own speed. And when you complete that curriculum you are guaranteed an interview in the state of iowa give you a credential which gives you value because you now have a skill. If you become a medical coder, i am told you can make 41,000 a year. We want hope and opportunity for these folks but i want to you whats amazing thing do you know that most of of the people who are unsure believe in ohio, its limited to you can only be on for three years i think was most of them dont stay on that long. I dont even know where they go. They go into the underground economy summer. Its complicated companies in a . Ive given you a big long number of things to think about but its not a simple answer. But in our state we want you to be trained and we want you to be trained for jobs that exist and will hold you accountable. Thats what we are going right now, okay . [applause] him governor, i am a newlywed millennial, so i care deeply about our nations fiscal issues so im glad to the budget is one of our top priorities. I know youre a huge advocate of a balanced budget and so i was curious how youre going to get us there. So youre president , whats your first budget look like him what kind of changes do you make . You know how you eat an elephant . One bite at a time okay . First of all we need a balanced budget amendment. We need it because congress will never live up to their responsibility we dont force them. I was in congress and ive been a governor. If we didnt have a balanced budget by the end of how you didnt have a balanced budget requirement in dementia, people would figure out a way to avoid responsibility or in congress beauties come home and blame somebody else. I was there for 18 years i know how you do it. The way that you do this is you plot it over time. And you figure out how thats all we need to do to get the economy moving. We dont need to have it done tomorrow but everything undergoes the scrutiny with no favoritism. You can start to play games, i like this guy or this person help me therefore they will be exempt. You have to go through it systematically. In which he did is he figure it personal do you need a program . Number two, should in washington or should be sent back to the states come upon the state . Number three if we need a program can we fix it so we can make it work . And number four for the big entitlement programs, how do you do in such a way that you bring the country together rather than everybody within each other apart and being demagogue . You put that together and to include people any other part because if you dont its not going to work. Youve heard of obamacare. Because they shoved it through people are bitter. Doesnt work that way so we have to build a team. Ive written 16 budget in my lifetime. I thought im done with writing all these budget but i think ill be writing budgets until they put me into ground. Thats kind of the road you go on. Then theres another litmus test and ill tell you what it is to if its in the yellow pages why is government doing to . Because you dont have to do these things. Thats kind of the way you do. Gradual, creative, send things back and tried to innovate. In always. Youre a millennial, you understand the 21st century. Does a thing called the kindle and it costs a lot of money. Now i think they pay you to take one. Okay . [laughter] one last thing i wanted to tell you. If we can reduce the overhang that sits out there on businesses, this economy i saw it happen. And many republicans won a majority in 1995 things started to get better. Because there was a sense that this mess is going to get figured out. And it did until they went back to their spending ways. I hate to tell you this but it was the republicans in charge blew a 5 trillion surplus. If im president , inc. Going to happen. [applause] governor kasich, thanks to come to speak to us today. Im also a a millennium who is considered by the budget and im concerned about the carbon budget because we been burning fossil fuels for over 30 years ended the continue on the road we are going on will reach two degrees celsius by is august 2050 and to be catastrophic for people around the globe and also for americans. Jobs and climate are opposed is no way to cut fossil fuels drastically cheaper jobs but already entered Renewable Energy economy we are employing more people in the fossil fuels industry. It will create many more jobs and put us on a safe path to the future with a can of going over the budget. He said your grandfather was a cold weather. I totally respect. People need to work for the families but at the same time we need to cut carbon. We can do that and create new jobs in the green tech sector. We commit to doing this for my future . Well, first of all thats a really smart young woman isnt it . Give her a great round of applause, okay . Very articulate. [applause] i think ive already told you i think its a balance. In ohio over the last 10 years weve cut emissions by 30 a thats pretty good, isnt it . I told you about renewables. I think theyre very important by think that power america and, frankly, devour the world, all of these resources need to be used. I just talking about the battery technology. What is going to do is its going to get this district a topic youre going to co2 is being inflicted different than they are today. But if you take the development of wind and solar and geothermal and you clean coal and you continue with natural gas, and i get nothing issues but we have dealt with the methane issues. Making sure that our water is clean protected another very important part. In fact, one of the first things that i did dont tell the speaker this every republican voted for this bill on lake erie and i vetoed it because i said it was going to damage the streams and tributaries. So i think were back to what i said come which is the issue of balancing this. But folks, i want to tell you weve got a handful of these young people. She left, but these young people, they want to change things. I welcome it. It may not be everything that i want them to do. Ive got to teenagers and a wife. Im for gender equity that i have little say. I dont know when its going to come, but i respect what you were saying and let me say one thing to you. You know how you are a believer in this and your idealistic, so am i. Dont ever become cynical or lost. Fight for the things you believe in. Be respectful. And state and all. You are the next leader, okay . [inaudible] spill im going to do best aikido the best i can to become so youve got this guy recording and building i can say is this. Im going to do the best i can. Balance, Economic Growth and a good environment. [applause] all right, what else . How about this young man right here . One more . Okay. Yes, young man. Old man. In 2018 the obamacare plan imposes an excise tax on some health plans. How we deal with that . I think the obamacare should go, okay . [applause] and people will say because you were for Medicaid Expansion your for obama to. First of all, reagan expected medicare but that is neither here nor there. The problem with obama is a dozen federal health care costs. It drives up the cost of health care and it doesnt get to enough of the problem. So my view is what the ought to be doing is incentivizing, for example, our primary care doctors and we should have our Insurance Companies and providers come together to provide quality medicine, not quantity medicine. You go into a to the hospital and 52 contest, you only need to. So why are they giving you 10 bucks because someone else is paying. We are driving change in our state that can be taken actually. Everything im talking about in ohio can be done nationally. But what we say is we want the Insurance Companies, hospitals and or managed Care Companies and a primary care doctor working together so that as prices come down, they both win and the patient is healthier. Let me explain specifically what i mean by this. Our Childrens Hospital in columbus has been made an agreement with an Insurance Company. Around the issue of asthma. A lot of kids have asthma. The issue with asthma is how can you be healthy without having to be hospitalized . They have significantly cut the number of hospital admissions which means the hospitals make less money which means the Insurance Company has more money because they dont pay claims. Guess what. They are sharing the benefit of those kids being healthier and having fewer visits to the hospital. Thats the way it ought to work. Treat us for Quality Drive lower prices and let everybody share in it and we end up healthier. That is fundamentally the way i think we should do it and obamacare doesnt touch any of that. She had one last one, speaker. You have been persistent. This better be easy. Just a quick question. Probably long answer but what is your position on Citizens United ad outrageous amount of money being spent on political campaigns . Look, i think its not a great system and a handful of billionaires can decide who should be president at every we all agree but every time we change the system we have a worse system. Weve got to figure out what to do on this. If i lived i will blame the system and if i went i would think it would be good. No, i think we need to really be careful about what we do. And adequate into Campaign Finance reform now. My buddy john mccain was in it, but there will be a time to address that issue. I have some thoughts i want to make sure theyre accurate. Let me tell you why i say all this. One of my friends said last night sometimes john kasich know so much about so make things go why does he said sometimes he doesnt know. Ill tell you. Because i dont want to give you some answers that is is not legitimate. Had the upper knows when people run for president they never keep their word . Thats because all the things they promised they cant do. Although you what i can do and what am certain of doing at the things im not sure of im going to tell you that and we will get to them later. Ill tell you what we will do. Ill just have to down at the white house like when i was 18 and we can discuss it. Thank you all very much. [applause] [inaudible conversations] we have that and, of course we have whats amazing about huber, its like a google. Its a work in our dictionary. People will say ill take and huber, amazing. Good luck. Good luck to you. Thank you. Thank you. Who is that . My wife stephanie. Hi. Who argue three . Have i seen you before . Okay. Spent your refusal to commit to cutting carbon is due to the influence of no, no. Know. Spirit how are you . Good. How are you . Everything good a . Doing great. Thank you. Im a teacher and im just wondering, im doing a special on the primary. Can i get a picture for my students . Thank you. Mine are all girls. Its an all girls school. What do you teach . History and government. Let them know the process. Spent we are excited about it. Thank you so much. Thank you for being here. Im trying to figure out how i can [inaudible] i have followed your career. Thank you. Spent nice to meet you. My husband is in cincinnati and he also grew up in the pittsburgh area the key sport. But you say tis tis rock. Thank you very much. All right, thank you. Thank you. See you, guys. Part of the problem is school over become because you can get the loan without a problem, this goal can keep thats another thing. Thats another thing i should mention. Because people get the loans and they use it for things beyond somebody told me i forget the number, it was extraordinarily high, they use it to buy cars or do the right rent and all that stuff spent a lot of them do. Thats what im told, i dont know. Universities keep raising their rates. I know that you. I said with president of one of our schools that why dont you lower your price what he said if we lower our prize people will not come near thank you we are not very good. That mentality needs to change. Its the tax preparer is. If i dont check and make sure youre entitled to this, i did find an outrageous amount. Spent there are two things. Thats interesting. The other thing is so so Security Disability needs to be reviewed. We are not managing it right. Weve got to manage it. Of that too. Dont be afraid to fire somebody okay . Im no fan of the other gentlemen. Im just saying though sometimes if you give people, you have to explain the purpose to them, they would do a lot better than they had been doing. And luck. Thanks. Great talk, thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. [inaudible] im so glad i didnt go there. Thank you. Thank you. How all you . Are doing great. Good luck to you. Think of the shipyard. I hear you, i hear you. We have friends in ohio. Thank you. Thats all i can do. Governor, will you secure the border of . Yeah, we have to do it. Immigration didnt come up. Thats interesting that it didnt come up. The era of salafis. Selfies. You guys are going to have to be the front cavalry to make sure that we get it done. A lot of people like oh we dont want to do that. Spent when you become president , called for. Call her. Spin i have been to johnstown many times. You can speak can i get a picture with you . Thank you. My grandparents live in murrays bill. There you go. Did you get it . Thank you very much. How do you break through this troubled noise . Trump noise . People either like it or they dont. I dont worry about anybody else. Thats what i got in the race because i felt i could win. And look, cuba, i think theres a lot of excitement since i announced. As mayor koch once said, that aint bad. Is campaigning in New Hampshire a lot like thats a really good question. Yes, its a block by block. You dont do this from the top down. This is block by block peoples homes, town hall meeting take your questions and all those things. And if you connect, you cant ask the people. I think is pretty good connection but we will see. I speak i dont have some narrow group that i focus on. Its just they ask questions to answer them. A lot of experience ive had that i think has been such an important part. When you have National Security experts can when you one of the chief architects of balancing the federal budget would you turn a giant state around was based on its back and to bring about, its so big and so unique and i think on top of that you put altogether spent how do you feel like the fact that you will not be on the stage for the debates because its too early. Im not going to worry about it. Talk about your record, something [inaudible] its not unique. It to me. I have nothing to say about that then we will see what people have to [inaudible] im not going to set was going to look for others. Im not a fortune teller. Im just going to do best i can do and be pleased and happy about it. And look in life sometimes its about drawing, and am i confident that i can when . Yet, if i wasnt confident i wouldnt be running. You know, im also governor of ohio. I had a record is unique among everybody so we will see what happens. The things youve done in the past, i havent heard you articulate much but what you want to do Going Forward if elected. What are you looking for on that front . Have you been to any of these town halls . I think ive been talking about health care and nih and the department of defense and balancing the budget what else is there . I guess we talk about, i dont know what else they would be but we will take a lot of what we do in ohio to washington, and if youre really kind of want to know its they who should attend tells you what you can do. But i dont find the people are saying wait a minute, you didnt tell me about what you want to do. I met hearing that out of anybody. But if you are i need to pay attention. I need to solicit as if im not connecting, okay well if im not, then why not . But with a priority before you . Youve and a lot of balance the budget and rebuilding the defenses and send a clear signal that everybody is part of the American Dream. Those three things are what really matters to me. Look at the reason why the record is important because anybody can promise anything. Its about who delivers, who has a record who can we believe. Because people now dont believe politicians. They dont really like politicians very much but i think you can talk about what you have done, and some of what you intended i think it creates credibility. Weve had two or three town hall meetings. They have been terrific. Weve had people signing up and im really pleased with where we are at this point. I just had to spend a lot more time here. Time for one more. [inaudible] i dont think authority said this. [inaudible] i like john mccain. Hes a great war hero. He was the president of our congressional freshman class. I think its a great guy and maybe someday he will be for me. [inaudible] next week cspan is part of with the New Hampshire union leader or the newspapers first foreign. Also looking for are likely republican president ial candidates have been invited to participate. It takes place next monday at 7 p. M. Eastern at san anselmo college in manchester. Republican president ial candidate ben carson setup or compensate with famine leadership summit. He is an author and retired neurosurgeon. This is 25 minutes. Welcome back and welcome to iowa at the 2015 family leadership summit neurosurgeon dr. Ben carson. [applause] before we begin there will be three of the people that will be walking up the rose and the panting out a sheet. Today, in essence never inspected you want to participate in those focus groups that you seem and cbs or fox news, this is your chance to do it so i urge you as the sheets get past outcome sent them down and make sure when you head out to lunch that you sent them all the way back over here. This is your chance to be heard by an america. Not just today but for the next eight months. Ladies and gentlemen, dr. Ben carson. [cheers and applause] spin we always begin with an audience question and the audience question from you all is this, and you have three choices. This time of what you do it by applause because your applause is going to determine what is first question is. We face many threats to the across the globe. But which is the number one threat . Is that iran . Visit russia . Or is it isis . Iran, russia our isis. Who believes it is iran . Please applaud. [applause] who believes it is russia . [applause] and to believes it is isis . [applause] so i preface this so i preface this okay. Who believes it is a china . [applause] returning to isis [laughter] me know of your expertise on health care and i would be there we expect i would go. But leadership requires you to a lot more issues than just the one issue greatest expertise. Its 3 a. M. And that phone call comes, and its about a challenge to American Safety and security and the threat is isis. What does the next president need to do now so that, that phone call never comes . Thats a very good question because what in fact is going on in the world right now is quite different than what was going on before. In 2003 for instance, when we invaded iraq and alqaeda was a big deal there were many people who are not totally on board with it because they didnt see what that was a significant threat to our National Security. And i could be one of those people because i wasnt very enthusiastic about that. However, we are facing now a completely different situation. We have radical islamic jihadists who want to destroy us and they want to destroy our way of life. And their existence is a threat to us. And we cannot be in that mindset that says we made a mistake and we spent a bunch of money and we caused a lot of strife so therefore, lets just get into our little cocoon and thats a problem for someone else. Thats not going to work. The fact of the matter is they want to destroy us and we have two choices. We can sit here, ignore them bomb the desert and think that we are doing something, i we can destroy them first. And i choose the latter. And what i would do [applause] what i would do is use every resource available to us. You know, i think that our offensive capabilities and defensive capabilities militarily are good. They have integrated because theyve been neglected by they are still extant a good. [inaudible] i would send Ground Troops if i needed Ground Troops in order to take the land speed do you have an idea what the threat is and you defined it. The threats are is the likelihood that Ground Troops would be necessary to succeed . I think it is a strong likelihood. The reason being in order for them to develop their caliphate they need land, and if we really want to break their backs we take the land. Youre not going to take the land without troops. We made this mistake in vietnam. We would go in, clear out the vietcong, declare victory, leave and they would come right back. Doesnt is any good. Of course, the reason that isis arose is because we vacated iraq after we had secured the victory there. Spinning the people who are signing up today for the military, the next president should, under disco should tell them that you may be sent to the middle east and the on the ground, american troops on the ground to fight isis . I think they should know that. They should also note will use every other mechanism available to us including economic sanctions that were going to take land him including their oil wells and including anything that they use to finance themselves. [applause] and when that person is enlisting we also ought to tell them that were going to have resources in place to take care of them. Because 2223 veterans commit suicide every day in america. Thats the tip of the iceberg. We are giving them some aid but i should start when they enlist. We should have a support system as they go through and to you before their discharge we should have placement people ready to transition them into society. [applause] i had not thought of asking this question and i dont know how to do it in a way and youve been asked this before and i want to do it in a way that is not only respectful but appreciative. Its very easy for many of the people in this room to call themselves conservative, but if you look around this room the art many people of color. If you look around the realm of conservatives in the northeast of california, the art many people of color there are not many people of color. Why are you here . I do mean that in the deepest spiritual way. Why did you choose to be in this room and not in cedar rapids last night . Well, i can tell you. I grew up in detroit strong democratic stronghold, went to yale university, very liberal place, came back, baltimore, maryland, one of the blues states possible. But early on during my career i started noticing that the a lot of people, particularly a lot of people of color, who are coming in with social services. Their lives were going nowhere and they were perfectly capable individuals. Recognizing what the system was doing to doing to them. Then i started listening to Ronald Reagan, as id always been told republicans were horrible mean racist people, and they shouldnt have anything to do with them. And i started listening to him and i said, he doesnt sound like a. It actually sounds like somebody with common sense. And that really you know, started the transition. [applause] and there are a lot of people who have been fed the propaganda just the way i was that the propaganda. So i dont blame them for being there because they havent had the experience that ive had. But i think theres a lot of people who are waking up. I met with a group of black pastors yesterday. People are waking up in droves and recognizing what [applause] i think they are starting to recognize whats been happening here. Because, you know, you start out in the 1960s, Lyndon Johnsons war on poverty and the great new society and how we are going to eradicate poverty. Have we done it . Weve spent 19 trillion since then but we have 10 times more people on food stamps. More people on welfare more out of wedlock births, or incarceration come everything that was supposed to be better, its not only worse, its much worse. So dont want to demonize the people who started those programs, but we do have brains and brains tell you that when something isnt working, you look at the giveaway to get it done. [applause] if youve got a question for ben carson from lineup because of going to go do that. One last question. Im someone who focuses on language. You call them black pastors not africanamerican pastors. Did you use the word black rather than africanamerican . I dont have any problem with anyone using africanamerican but, you know, when you go to the museum on ellis island and you look at all those pictures on the welcome people who came here from every place in the world, many of them with only the things that they could carry, people to work not eight hours a day but 10 12 hours a day, people who worked not five days a week for six or seven days a week. Not for themselves but for their sons and daughters grandsons and granddaughters so that they may have freedom and prosperity in the fun. Hundreds of years before that other immigrants came here in the bottom of slave ships work even longer even harder for less but they had a dream. That the great granddaughters and grandsons may pursue. Present at all place in the world this one the United States of america was the only one big enough and great enough to allow all those people from all those background to realize their dreams. That means that every single one of us is relevant to every single one of us. There is something known as america and the American Dream and the american psyche, and it is not all over the world, and it has nothing to do with where your ancestors came from. It has everything to do with who we are today. [applause] were going to go to the back microphone 4 please. New york representative Michael Graham recently was sent to prison for tax evasion, not representative, or i guess al sharpton is still walking free spin welcome thank god hes not a representative. Exactly, thank you. What would a president do to address the issue of corruption and fraud going on in washington, d. C. . Okay. Well, you know, it is a very corrupt place, and i lifted the hood of the engine that runs washington to take a look, and your Immediate Response is to shut it back down. [laughter] [applause] its pretty horrible, but theres a lot of interrelationships and historical things that are going on in there. It is amazing to me the relationships that exist between different people. Some people said to me, you couldnt possibly function in that environment because you dont know all the intricacies of washington, d. C. Ill tell you what i do know. I do know the constitution of the United States and i know how things are supposed to run. [applause] and what i would, what i would do is obviously did some people who do understand all of that garbage so that so that they can help disassemble it. I spent decades in the private sector, in Corporate America sitting on boards, national, international corporations, and finding out and figuring out and learning how things that work efficiently work. The United States government is not one of those things. However, we can change that and we can make it run like a business. I think that is very important because the American People deserve to have their money spent the right way. [applause] weve got the role of a journalist sitting right in front of you. What would be the two of the programs you would cut . Im going to rephrase that. Spent what would a person cut who was in such a situation. [laughter] [applause] im not going to get myself pursued when this is done. Spent im a surgeon so i know how to cut. [applause]. In every single program. [applause] lets go to microphone two please. Good afternoon, dr. Carson. Hi. Do you believe all active members of our military should be armed in order to defend themselves . Okay. Well certainly considering what happened in chattanooga this week but even long before that of course they should be around. Are you kidding me . [cheers and applause] you know, it brings up a large or issue the military. You know, what is going on . You know, our navy has the smallest number of vessels that weve had since 1917, you know . And recent congressional testimony, the commandant of the marine corps said half of the nondeployed units are not ready. The air force look at the size of how thats. Shrunk, how we only have one Carrier Group in the persian gulf. We had to move it from where it was supporting the iraqi efforts over to yemen not long ago because we dont have the kind of support that we used to have, and soon thats being removed for several months. What kind of message is that sending to iran right now at this time . I mean all of this is absolute craziness. Our military is shrinking while our enemies are growing and metastasizing. It seems like were trying to destroy ourselves. What is going on . Weve got to do better than that. [applause] ive got to ask a followup question, because you said it seems like were trying to destroy ourselves. Then why is this happening in washington . What is who is responsible . Well, i believe what has happened in washington is symptomatic of whats happened in our country and that is weve become republicans and democrats instead of americans. And, therefore [applause] therefore, when stupid things are proposed [laughter] you know we get behind the stupid person based on what our party is rather than looking at whats happening to our nation. [cheers and applause] im not ask you whether you think hes stupid [laughter] but is what president obama is doing with iran and with our military is what he is doing stupid . Well, lets not even talk about him. [laughter] but lets talk lets talk aboutprinciples. P about general principles. When you go into some type of a negotiation like that, there are certain things that have to be done. You have to be able to verify, verification is very important. And you look at this agreement where is it . Accountability how can you be able to have accountability if you cant verify . And you must be able to enforce. Well, if the first two dont happen, you cant do the last one, you know . Which means that, basically, in terms of international negotiation, its a waste lan. Its not waste lan. Its not going wasteland. Its not going to work. You have to understand the basic principles of negotiation in order to come up with something that actually works. We have not disassembled their nuclear infrastructure. Were lifting the economic sanctions which will pump tens of billions of dollars into the worlds number one exporter of terrorism, and, you know theres yes, we can demand inspections 24 7, but all that does is starts the process with this fourtier panel that includes iranians and russians. And by the time they say, okay, you can go inspect they will have moved anything that needs to be moved. I mean i think a third grader could come up with a better negotiation. [laughter] [cheers and applause] were going again to the back. Microphone four. I was told i couldnt ask whether or not he had read either your, any of your books or steve days books, but aside there that i would like to ask when somebodys running for arguably the most important job in the entire world what deep down motivates somebody to take on that challenge . Well, i can only answer that question for myself. Obviously, i cant answer that for anybody else. Is that permissible in this setting . [laughter] but youre still speaking of what a president should have or should be thinking about. Right. First of all, it was not something that was that would be on my bucket list, you know . I had a long, arduous career in neurosurgery 15,000 cases and i was really looking forward to retirement, i must say. [laughter] [applause] but that whole career surrounded children and saving their lives and improving the quality of their lives. And when you look out there right now and you see a nation that is being divided on every level, a war on women, racial wars, income wars, age wars, religious wars, a house divided against itself cannot stand. Jesus christ himself said that. [applause] were leaving that to the next generations. That motivates me. It motivates me to see what were doing to their financial future. We all hear about the 18. 4 trillion national debt, and that is a problem. I mean, if you try to pay that back at a rate of 10 million a day, it would take you over 5,000 years, and were putting that on their backs. But its worse than that. Its the fiscal gap, the amount of unfunded liabilities, Social Security medicare medicaid, all the departmental programs, all that we owe Going Forward projecting versus what we can expect to come in in terms of revenues from taxes and other sources. Those two things should be close together. Theyre not. Far apart. The big gap right now sits at about 211 trillion, you know . I mentioned that in my announcement speech, and the next day a bunch of liberal media came out and said see we told you he was crazy. We told you he doesnt know anything about economics. And then the very next day forbes came out and said 17 Nobel Laureates in economics and 1200 professors of economics agree with carson. [cheers and applause] that that settled them down a little bit. But the fact of the matter is this can destroy us, and the only reason we can do it is because were the reserve currency of the world. We have the ability to print money. Were doing it inappropriately. Our money is not tied to anything. We decoupled it from the Gold Standard in 1971. It doesnt have to be the Gold Standard but we need to put personal responsibility back into our government as well as in our own leaves. [applause] our own lives. [applause] so what final thought would you like to leave them with . Final thought i would like to leave people with is that we, the American People, are not each others enemies. The real enemies are those people who are trying to make us into enemies. If somebody doesnt agree with you, theyre your mortal p enemy. You can call them names, try to destroy their livelihood, try to destroy their life. Where did that thinking come from . As far as im concerned, that is pure unadulterated evil, and we should not tolerate that in our society. [cheers and applause] ladies and gentlemen, dr. Ben carson [cheers and applause] cabinet officials return to capitol hill today to testify on the iran nuclear agreement. The House Foreign Affairs Committee Hears from secretary of state kerry Energy Secretary err ens moniz and treasury secretary jack lew. Thats live at 10 a. M. Eastern on cspan3. Up next, a forum on strengthening federal investments in Scientific Research as a way to help grow the economy and create jobs. Well hear from former House Speaker Newt Gingrich as well as a panel of researchers and academics. Its part of whats called the middle class prosperity project launched by senator Elizabeth Warren of massachusetts and representative i lie ya Elijiah Cummings of maryland. [inaudible conversations] start the middle class prosperity project forum. Is so why is the middle class prosperity project holding a hearing on the importance of federal funding for research . The reasons are three, and they are all deeply interrelated and related to the future of americas middle class. Investments in research produce good jobs right here in america. Breakthroughs in research are our best chance to keep from bankrupting our country and from bankrupting the entire middle class. Keeping us from going broke over alzheimers, diabetes and all of the other costs of medical care. And research will give us a chance to live better lives. American innovation has changed the world. Scientific advances like supercomputers the internet e sequencing the human e genome and treatments for polio cancer and hiv have saved lives and created good jobs for middle class america. Economists agree that advances in science and technology have been quote, the predominant driver of gdp growth over the past half century. Today 2. 7 million americans work in jobs focused on Scientific Research and many, many more are employed by the companies built from new discoveries and Technological Innovations Companies Like google and facebook. For every dollar invested in the National Institutes of health, for example, we get about 2. 20 back in immediate economic activity. You know, private industry is great at generating new inventions based on scientific developments that have a clear application. But basic research, the kind whose applications arent clear yet, doesnt get so much investment and thats where we need government. Government provides patient capital, the kind that can wait for longterm results. An american president once said that quote, although basic research does not begin with a particular practical goal, when you look at the results over the years, it turns out being one of the most practical things government does. That president was Ronald Reagan a fiscal conservative who understood the value of investing in american innovation. For decades investments in science has been a bipartisan priority, but todays washington has lost sight of that priority. Everyone, republicans and democrats, say that investing in science and innovation is a good idea. But talk is cheap. We need action and we havent had any in a very long time. One proposal moving through congress is the 21st century cures act which includes about 1. 9 billion a year for five years in new funding for nih. Now, that sounds like a good start, and it is. But its not nearly enough. Todays nih budget adjusted for inflation is 12. 5 billion less than it was in 2003. That is a 25 reduction in our federal investment in nih alone. Even worse the bill doesnt include a maintenance of effort provision which means theres nothing to stop congress from cutting the nihs base budget at the same time that it adds new money on top. If that happened instead of expanding our investment in the nih under this bill could actually shrink. Now, earlier this year i introduced the medical innovation act which would help rebuild the nih budget. It could boost nih funding by about 20 and it achieves that increase without raising taxes without gutting vital programs and without adding to the deficit. Dozens of doctor organizations, of patient groups and scientific associations have supported it and theres no reason that every republican every democrat and every independent in congress couldnt support it too. Now, members of congress are responsible for deciding whether we make these investments in our future or whether we just talk, talk, talk about them. The American People deserve better from congress, and thats why were holding this forum today, to have a real discussion about what we can and should do to get more money into research. I am very pleased that we have speaker gingrich here to talk about his work to increase federal investments in Health Science research and to talk about what it takes to make real effective bipartisan progress. There are many things that the speaker and i disagree on, but we strongly agree that investment in research is a fundamental responsibility of our elected leaders and that it is long past time to meet that responsibility. We also have a distinguished panel of researchers, economists and innovators who will talk about how increased funding creates jobs and strengthens the economy. And how congress can do a better job of prioritizing federal investment in science. Dr. S. B. Wilson, thank you, i am very glad that you are here, and i look forward to todays conversation. Congressman cummings, would you like to make a few remarks . Thank you very much, senator warren. Its an honor to join for this, the sixth forum weve convened as part of the middle class prosperity project. Today we will examine how our nations investments in research and development have charted the path of progress for our economy. Over seven decades since the end of world war ii, creating millions of middle class jobs in the process. We will also examine how cuts to these investments and unpredictability in funding for research and development threaten our future progress. American ingenuity is unmatched in the history of the world. The United States harnessed creativity, and we help new discoveries leap from the lab to the marketplace in a way that is thennen i have of countries all over the envy of countries all over the globe. According to the Congressional Research service the federal government is the nations largest supporter of basic research. It funded more than half of basic research in the United States in 2012. As a result of funding appropriated by congress to the National Science foundation, the National Institutes of health, the department of energy and the department of defense and other agencies award tens of thousands of Research Grants every year. Federal funding through programs like the Small Business Innovation Research program have been critical to help researchers and entrepreneurs convert to promising results of basic Scientific Research into new products and technologies that improve the lives of millions of people while creating entirely new industries and the jobs that come with them. In 1961 president kennedy called on americans to make a Major National commitment of scientific and technical manpower material and facilities. As a result of that commitment, the United States became the first and only nation to put astronauts on the moon. We reap the benefits of the discoveries that were made through the Space Program in the form of technologies and products that were never imagined when we began the Lunar Exploration effort. Similarly, our nations leading role in the 13year effort to decode the human genome has led to new treatments for some of our most devastating diseases. This advancement also created enormous benefits. According to memorial institute, our governments investment is 3. 8 billion in the human genome project which helped generate an Economic Impact of 796 billion between 1998 and 2010. This is a massive return on investment of 14 to 1. The question before our nation now is what story will we write in the 21st century . Will it be one of studying new accomplishments, scientific progress and continued Economic Growth . Or will it be one which we decide we can no longer afford the next big discovery . Will we remain the worlds leader in Scientific Research and development or will we succumb to a culture of mediocrity and watch as other nations outpace our investments, our discoveries and our progress . In 2009 the american recovery and reinvestment act contributed more than 20 billion to the existing federal research and Development Budget. In 2013 however, sequestration intensified a series of speed cuts that began shortly after the recovery act was passed. According to the American Association for the advancement of science, our nations federal are research and Development Budget declined by more than 26 billion from 2010 to 2015. Thats a drop of 16 . These cuts and the up certainty our research uncertainty our Research Institutions face have had devastating impact on research initiatives. These cuts are shrinking the pipeline from which discoveries and inventions will emerge 10 or even 20 years from now. The decisions we are making from the shortterm perspective of the annual budget cycle are shaping the nation and the economy we will leave to our children. We need to make sure that they inherit a country that continues to lead in scientific innovation that creates a better world and a stronger economy and that promotes a broad and prosperous middle class. I am pleased to join senator warren in welcoming speaker gingrich to todays forum. I served with speaker gingrich during my first terms in congress, and i thank him for his leadership on the issue of investing in vital medical research. I also welcome our distinguished members of the second panel. We have an Extraordinary Group of experts assembled and it is an honor to have this opportunity to hear from each of you. I yield back. Thank you, congressman. We are honored to welcome the former speaker of the house of representatives, Newt Gingrich, to todays forum. Please come down. [applause] congressman gingrich [applause] good to see you here. Congressman gingrich represented georgias sixth Congressional District from 19791999, from 1995 to 1999 he was the 58th speaker of the house of representatives. Madam i just want to make one note. I join you senator warren, in welcoming senator speaker gingrich to todays forum. Not only did i serve with speaker gingrich, but i failed to say that he gave my parents one of the greatest thrills of their life, both of my parents having less than a sixth grade education, having been former sharecroppers from manning south carolina. You, speaker gingrich, swore me in in a special election. And you took a moment after the swearing in to speak to my parents, and i will, shall forever, forever be grateful. Thank you. And welcome. Would you like to start . No, hes going to start. [laughter] oh, hes going to start. Good. Speaker gingrich. Well, let me thank both of you, and let me say as a former member of the to house congressman cummings, that im delighted to have had that opportunity, and i appreciate your bringing your participants. I think its one of those magic moments, the first time you get sworn in and the whole familys there. It means a lot. Thank you, senator warren, and thank you for rushing back. I can appreciate how hectic your schedule is, so when you first called me, i was frankly both surprised and delighted and im glad to be here. Im really delighted to be here to discuss federal funding for research and development, a topic that has the potential to transform the lives of millions of americans of all backgrounds and, clearly to bring together liberal democrats and conservative republicans. Before i offer a few general principles for how to think about federal research and Development Funding let me start with an example that is close to my heart, and that is finding cures for the most common and Serious Health problems. This is a challenge that is important, it is urgent, and now there is great hope that its doable. Its important because every one of us has been touched by the devastating effects of problems like alzheimers disease dementia cancer, Kidney Disease and par kin softens. We know parkinsons. We know how debilitating they can be how they absorb energies of Family Members and caretakers, how they strain the finances of even welloff families. From a fiscal as well as a human perspective, funding finding cures to these diseases is urgent. Former senator bob kerrey and i chaired the alzheimers study group for three years. We learned that over the next four decades americans will spend 20 trillion on alzheimers and other dementias. That is more than a full years gross domestic product. So imagine all the must be the country all the money in the country for an entire year would go just to this. The taxpayers are on the hook for much of it including an estimated 420 increase in costs to medicare and 330 increase in costs to medicaid. And these, of course are just two out of many programs. The federal funding for research to cure alzheimers is only a tiny fraction of the money the government is already spending to treat alzheimers every year. The nih spent 731 million on Dementia Research this year, less than onehalf of 1 of the 154 billion medicare and medicaid are spending to treat it in the same period. Participant of the reason for the imbalance is that National Institutes of Health Funding has been cut more than 20 in real terms since 2003 the end of the fiveyear doubling of the nih budget which we achieved on a bipartisan basis in the 1990s. Given the cuts we know are coming boosting funding may be the most fiscally responsible steps we can take. Its probably one of the places i do bring a unique background. We balanced the federal budget for four straight years. The good news is, curing alzheimers and other major diseases appears more doable today than at any time in history. Thanks in no small part to basic research and development funded by the federal government. Breakthroughs in biology genetics, competition and materials. National institute of health in general and, frankly, has shown great leadership with the brain issue. Nih financed the development of things like immunotherapies which are spurring patients immune system to attack diseases like cancer rather than relying on surgery, chemotherapy or radiation. To allow Research Funding to language at a time of historic opportunity when we could be saving lives and saving money takes a special kind of out of reserve for the city. I should notice an exception of this criticism the great work of chairman upton, congresswoman degette and their colleagues the 21st centuries to his initiatives is one of the most important and bipartisan interest in congress in recent years and i know in addition to senator warns initiative senators Lamar Alexander and ron johnson are working hard in the same direction. In addition to drastic increase in Research Funding call for doubling the budget and i would also includes a potential increase in the National Science foundation which i think was the one mistake we made in Research Funding. We should have tripled it. Let me quickly offer to bold big ideas about research and development at the federal level. The first is research bonds. For large very expensive projects with the potential to generate huge savings if they work it is worth exploring issuing bonds to finance the research which would then pay out some fractional savings. This wouldve the benefit of taking important projects off budget and raising much larger sums of money than the federal government is likely to appropriate. We are developing this idea for Brain Research bonds as well as professor steve hyman at the Broad Institute of mit and harvard. Congressman michael burgess, have proposed this idea what the mind act for alzheimers research. Similar models could apply to large Infrastructure Investments as governor Mitch Daniels john kasich, p. Wilson, Arnold Schweizer and others have demonstrated with Innovative Strategies for financing major roadways in their states. If we simply rationalize the absurdity of bureaucratic review process, we could create 3 million more jobs with the same appropriation. Finally, for research and development their returns less obvious but may nonetheless be worthwhile. Im a supporter of prizes. Prices are good. First taxpayers to pay a thing unless and until the goal is actually achieved and to never pay more than the prize amount. Second, you get lots of competing strategies for solving the problem we have multiple groups working independently to get the price. This competition means you get better results that are far more efficient than costplus contract in engine end up with several working designs. I would reorient many of our efforts in space and transportation and procurement around prices prices to accelerate the competition and development. With that sort of sweeping overview i look forward to your questions. Speaker gingrich, i want to thank you for your insightful presentation. You know you argued and i quote it is irresponsible and shortsighted, not prudent to let financing for basic research and window. What do you think are the main reasons we need to financing for basic Research Going to . I think there are probably two or three big reasons. One is that the past has lobbyists and the future as publicists. And in the city lobbyists often be the publicist. When you look at resource allocation some programs it may not be as noted as important and have a lot better lobbying and they survive. Thats an objective fact. Second i think that there are those fiscal conservatives who are sort of antigovern in a way that makes no sense. Its like the woman who once quit trying to go to the moon, stay home and watch television the way god intended. People have no notion of the power of the government whether its a jet airplane ride as a passenger or the computer youre using or its the internet or is a thousand Different Things. Government investment from the very beginning, the only country in the world that create a Patent Office in its constitution to we were found by google believe in the future and theres a branch third i think weve allowed well for state spending and a bureaucratic spending to crowd out investment. Go back and look at the percent of the size of government overspending on investment and Research Investment and infrastructure 30 or 40 years ago, medically big enough. All this has to be changed in one of the reasons i do Something Like alzheimers bonds is i dont think were going to win the fight. Well make some incremental progress, but compared to the tidal wave of illness thats coming down the road as people age we are not going to get ahead of it. Within the traditional metal appropriations process and thats what i look for some way to break out as i suggested we taking it off budget and issuing bonds that would be retired as we gain the status of people not getting sick. I want to come back to alzheimers in a minute but didnt some of the things you just stated exist back then when you are able to double the budget with regard to research to . I mean is there some significant changes . Im trying to forget how we can get back to where you want us to get to. Look, i think something sort of magic happened when were in the first stages of trying to balance the federal budget and john kasich as chairman of the lead in the project. That was a huge, huge project. And congressman john porter that spent his entire career on nih problems and senator connie mack you have a very familybased concerned with cancer throughout his entire Family History both campuses and they brought with them every Vice President for research at every pharmaceutical in the country. And we had a meeting about 70 people and they said look, this is a function of jobs and senator warren said. You want highvalue american jobs . Invest in basic research. You want a really have the most competitive economy on the planet once you invest in basic research. You want the best National Security in the world . You invest in basic research. Those things that carried us for 150 years and it is a period of utter foolishness to walk away from the things that work. That also means candidly those of us who are conservatives as i am have to win the argument about the conservatives about the centrality of government investment. I always point out to people at transcontinental the Transcontinental Railroad was built with the senate. It didnt happen randomly. I would argue the heirs viewing are talking about are a part of that but i gave john porter in connie mack a great deal of credit for having made it possible for us to build the momentum to double nih is budget spent federal funding has dwindled im curious has private sector funding increased to fill the gap . Sometimes youre the argument that private sector should be doing more . Look, there some areas of private sector activity that you can see where theres been an investment but there are two things that operate against the. The first is that wall street is very, very one quarter at a time miner to the endless dont look at the great age of bell labs, for example. The analyst would not look at a 20 or Investment Strategy and give you a very good market. So most ceos are really driven by the Financial System towards shortterm optimization in a way that undermines the kind of investment. Theres a second part. Most economists agree with it. I dont think theres much doubt. When youre talking about fundamental breakthroughs everybody has an incentive to of someone else will pay for it. Thats just an objective. If its a big breakthrough come a jet engine is probably as good example as any. Jet engines were really complicated and really experimental in 193945. You were not going to get those without massive government investment. Investment. Once we build good enough jet engines would be 47 and the b52 it was easy to build the boeing 707. But without the air force investment and the kind of engine capability you couldnt have the transfer into commercial activities. I think you have to be honest about what would the private sector will invest in. Longterm things, by the way we had a wonderful history of lead to be. Im a big fan of the American Museum of Natural History which was founded by private citizens funded by private citizens, still largely funded by private citizens. Thats terrific but if youre talking about the scale of science that we need particularly National Security and in dealing with health and youre not going to get that either from philanthropy or from forprofit companies. Just one more question. I was stunned to read in the mit report that over just the past two years, the fda has approved 19 new cancer drugs, but over the past decade, and i quote not a single new drug for alzheimers disease has been approved. And i guess, based on what you just said i guess it would be almost impossible for the private sector to make that breakthrough with regard to alzheimers without a lot of government help. Is that thats partially true. The other thing i would take him go out on a limb for a second, it would be to really, really rethink how the fda works. Example, when youre dealing with a lifetime condition, you cant afford to test a drug that takes 20 to figure whether or not youre going to legalize it. You another raise the capital to invest in a drug that has a 20 or 30 year time horizon of getting approved. When you get into Brain Science the fda is not today scientifically prepared to deal with the complexities, this is also true for Regenerative Medicine to. There are whole zones happening inside so we are not bureaucratically prepared to understand. I was its a dual think the government has to make the investment but candidly we could dramatically accelerated investment into drugs and we could dramatically accelerate getting, particularly for example, alzheimers related things. Many of which will have to be conditional. If you did it with a 20 or 30 or process, you have to say we dont see any immediate safety problem, those of you who want to informed consent do it because the truth is we will not know for generations whether or not it works. Thank you very much. Senator warren. Thank you. Thank you, speaker gingrich, for being here. Thank you for your remarks. I could have given your test went on a board of public support for basic research. Im delighted to talk about tripling the nsf budget. I strongly agree. I want to focus on the National Institutes of health. This is the crown jewel of medical research, supporting the work of more than 300,000 researchers including 145 nobel Prize Winners at more than 2500 institutions. This work expand our understanding of biomedical science and leads to new drugs new technology, saves money and save lives. For Decades Congress increased the nih budget year over year over year. Been in the late 1990s both parties worked together to double the budget. You were the architect of that historic achievement. Now, i think shed be a lesson for States Congress got a lot of people think that we are far too partisan to get much of anything done by they dont think anyone would describe the late 1990s as the golden age of nonpartisanship. This bike that, you successfully build Bipartisan Coalition is but despite that bipartisanship funding to you got it done so thats what i want to ask about. Despite the deep divide why was it that members of both parties decided that nih funding was so important in the late 1990s . I think there were three things involved. Partially, its a very good question. The first is as Hillary Clinton has said going out on the campaign trail, her husband and i had a technique where we could fight all morning and negotiate all evening. I think its important. Its not that you get to a nonpartisan Perfect World but you have to place the country above whatever your fight or engine to say okay, and reagan and oneill did this really. You have to say okay, now that weve both gotten out of our system, what can we do . Lets not talk about what we are not going to do. I think president clinton and i had a fever of finding solutions. Second, we did have remarkably strong corporate support. That allowed us to overcome a lot of the conservative biased against government because you people who were Vice President. You can imagine today if he took the biological companies in the san diego area of the biological companies about mit and harvard and is one of those ceos up showed up that is its own political budget of so many hundred ceos almost all of them with ph. D or m. D. Is saying look you asked a good job and wants to build to solve go to solve problems but weve got to do the. Wewere able to bring a private Sector Energy are getting more money for the private sector. We were able to engage a lot of the constituency groups who have a direct and immediate interest. I remember when bob kerrey and i spent three years on a bipartisan basis on the alzheimers study prepared we were here in the senate. We had a 15 or 18 senators come to a hearing. And i think all but two of them had a personal relationship with alzheimers. Well, suddenly we people say let me get this straight come its going to create jobs, its the right thing to do for disease, its the only possible strategy to balance the federal budget. And some of that conversation broke through. Im frankly cant figure out we get into the president ial Campaign Next year because i would love to the candidates have to answer the question, are you prepared, going to cut it to dollars budget by bureaucratically depriving people of goods and services, or are you going to try to invest in the research that lets us break free . The truth is it will not take him if you postpone alzheimers onset by five years, you cut the projection in half. Now, thats 10 trillion. Theres not many places you can turn a deaf think i can take 10 trillion out of the spending stream in a positive way by keeping healthier. Let me follow up on this now. Speaker gingrich youre a conservative and as result you may have more credibility than i do in some circles on the question of role of government here. Why is it enough to count on private industry to do that . Why do we have to have a substantial investment from the federal government . Its a question about american history. We are currently developing a project in why George Washington matters. People dont often notice that the Founding Fathers wrote into the constitution a Patent Office. Because they so deeply believed in the future. She made investments. The First Federal highway was built during washingtons lifetime. They believed in improving things. They talked about them as improvements. Jefferson launches an exhibition to the west, which by the way there was a Childrens Book on this called from sea to shining sea, supposed across the 2800 ended up costing 35,000. Theres certain patterns that dont seem to ever change. But the idea in jeffersons era of taking a group of people and sent them all the way to the pacific is comparable to going to mars today. And get jefferson understood we needed the knowledge. Most of which is now still stored up at the academy of Natural Sciences in philadelphia. So i think that a very long history of investment. That Congress Passed the money to enable the first telegraph to be built between the capital and baltimore. That was a congressional investment. I think we have to recognize, lincoln by the way is a president to hold a patent and lincoln was totally fascinated with technology and brought a lot of it into the civil war to the benefit of the union. So i think theres a long history of america being the country of technological advance, been willing to invest in the future and recognize government had a significant role. Let me ask that with a little more shortness to the point right now on health care in particular. Given that the taxpayers are on the hook for medicare, for the veterans administration, for other health care costs, if we fail to make the investments in nih and discover the cures that we need who ultimately is going to pay for this . Well, let me try to paint a picture for a second because its worse than your question. Anybody who goes out and talks to knows that we are right at the edge of breakthroughs now that are so extraordinary. Inl of an age where i have several friends who have unique difficult problems. When i can help them find the best two or three people in the country, their lives are suddenly transformed because the best two or three people in the country are 20 years ahead and are doing things in laboratories and doing things and hospitals that are like magic. We are having breakthroughs in every single level of health. To know that that fixes, to know that were this close in Regenerative Medicine, within a generation we should be able to have, to help you regrow your own liver rather than a transplant, to help you we grow your kidney so you dont have to have insulin injected for the rest of your life, to help you regrow to be able to regrow your nervous system which we now have experimented with. You see these things in the lab and then you look at whats happening to a Wounded Warrior because the science we are applying is 20 years behind the science thats in the laboratory. And then you look at the failure to fund this, and frankly its probably the thing which comes closest to driving me nuts because, and i say this to all my fiscal conservative friends. Youve got trillions of dollars of guaranteed expensed sitting on the table. Are never going to get away from it and you will never have enough bureaucracy opposite to my liberal friends. Because it and you will have to cut services. Thats what happens. If you dont want to cut off services to people who have very long problems like alzheimers or parkinsons or autism for a lifetime, you want to breakthroughs, youve got to be able to be are solving is being created an honest i think what gives the federal balanced budget almost in perpetuity to breakthroughs. There is no other strategy with the baby boomers aging that will get you to a sustainable balance the budget. So speed is one of the thing. And by the way, while were doing it to save ourselves trillions of dollars we will create hundreds of thousands of very highpaying american jobs and we will dramatically strengthen our balanced payment. So if congress boosted nih funding they can come if we can come together and get an agreement to do that, how would you recommend that we structure this funding . Well, first of all without putting absurdly on the spot, i would try to get Francis Collins to really reflect on lessons from the human genome project. I am not a big fan of the peerreviewed small grant model. I think it leads to incrementalism. I think leads to extraordinary caution come, anything that actually has not made progress on the scale, and this is one of the challenges in selling nih come when you double that you want to see, which the rhythm, the excitement was similar problems nasa has. Boredom is not a good device for getting people be involved in the human genome project was stunningly exciting. It was also done outside the traditional pattern. I would look carefully at three areas. One is to what degree can we design much larger grant projects that are very driven towards goals the way the human genome project was. This second is to what degree can a modest amount of money be put into price of a variety of forms. If you look at the issue of Aviation Companies is amazing how much activity was stimulated by very modest prices. Lindbergh flew the atlantic are 25,000. And lots of people are trying similar things. Third i would say we need to find a way to guarantee that a significant part of that money goes to younger researchers so that they have a chance to become principal researchers, not just serves working for i hesitate to do this because you represent the state that is by the most effective, but i would love to see some have the courage to question the skill of money we give to universities for administering this stuff. You look at the percent that harper gives a Johns Hopkins get. I would love to see that. I would say come on cant more that go straight into research . Let me just ask you the question to on the funding part of this. Should we be doing this . Should we be doing capital budgeting as a way to increase the funding substantially for nih . In order to find nih do we have to shortterm spending in other areas of . I would take off budget and issue alzheimers bonds because i think the longterm tidal wave is coming so enormous that the most fiscally prudent thing you could do is find a way to undercut that the research. Im happy to defend that notion anywhere in the country in terms of conservative. There is no other alternative that works. Works. Second that you think you look at the navy build aircraft carriers. They technically cant put the money in because of the nature of federal appropriations process so it cant buy the whole character but they can sign a contract which makes it prohibitive to not complete the carrier. Its a very interesting clubber i do think we have to find ways to fund fairly large projects over at least a four or five or six year period so that people i understand, again on a constitutional conservative. I believe congress to real control over things but also think there are practicalities. The Transcontinental Railroad never have been built on an annual budget. So they had to design an Incentive Plan that enabled them to go get to the capital over a multiyear period. Added you think, i would challenge though, and is put so my Close Friends in a bind because theyve got to get this through omb and the white house and the white house the other challenge in the age to come back inside give us some projects a large and so exciting that they justify capital budget. Then lets go fight for the capital budget. Thank you very much. Mr. Speaker, i feel like i am standing here teaching low and slow over the plate but i am very pleased to hear your answers. We have a gaping hole in the nih budget. Right now it is 12. 5 billion. We need a series plan to fix. If we really want to dream big about what we can create, then we need to get out here and fight for more funding for nih. I proposed a bill called medical innovation act which would increase nih funding by 20 without raising taxes, without cutting critical programs. It doesnt have to go off budget. If there are other ideas, then folks should put him on the table what it is time to get this done. I think that it goes without saying that you and i fundamental disagreements in some areas, but it is clear that one thing we agree on this what Congress Must do. And i hope that we will be able to follow your example double the funding for nih as you did in 1990s and bring them some of the promises of medical research in this country right now. Thank you. Another . Just one. Speaker gingrich i didnt want to thank you, going back to come as we were making before we started today, im hoping to use your influence to help us achieve the things that to achieve. As i was listening i do want something to go unnoticed. You talked about key people who played significant roles in making sure that we had appropriate funding for research. Particularly medical research. I often say that out of our pain comes our passion to do our purpose. I think that the people that you talk about obviously had pains that they experienced in their families and are able to take it to the halls of congress and make a difference, not only perhaps for the families also for many others all around the world. Then i thought about what you said about how important center born, how important this is researchers. I have a Family Member 10 years ago, they said, they thought she had terminal type cancer but because of work at nih it is now fine. Those are the things that we dont necessarily talk about when people are looking at dollars and cents and austerity but those are the things that mean so much to so many people. And so i want to thank you again for being with us and im hoping that you will join us on our crusade to lift up all americans so that they can live the very best lives that they can. Thank you. Speed and let me just thank both of you for your leadership in doing this. These are the kind of conversations that ultimately anyina free society allow it to talk to itself and define dramatically highvalue solutions. I think what you two are doing is a very britain and get my commitment to anything i could get help in this project, you can call in and i will do everything i can to thank thank you very much. Thank you. Let this be the start of a new allies. Thank you, speaker gingrich. [applause] i like to ask our folks is set for second in every bite the members of the second fail to take their places. Invited the members of the second panel to take their places. [inaudible] our first panelist is doctor gary s. The doctor carol espywilson. University of marylands clark school of engineering. Doctor s. B. Wilson received her ph. D from the Massachusetts Institute of technology. An expert in speech communication. Doctor s. B. Wilson is a member of the National Advisory board of medical rehabilitation at the National Institutes of health. Shes also the founder of the omnispeech a company that is commercializing for use in cell phones, a Software Technology that separates speech from background noise it was created through dr. Espywilsons research. Welcome. Spent and im very proud to have a chance to introduce eyewitness from massachusetts, Aaron Kesselheim associate professor of medicine at harvard medical school. And a faculty member in the i was do this, pharmacotherapy genealogy. And pharmacokinetic at the Womens Hospital where he directs program on regulation therapeutics and law. Dr. Kesselheim received his degree from harvard, medical law degrees from university of pennsylvania. He also earned his masters in Public Health and the Harvard School of Public Health. He is certified in internal medicine and he served as a primary care physician at the center for primary care at brigham and center we are very pleased to have you today and thank you for letting the expertise to this panel. And also i am honored to welcome dr. Mariana mazzucato who is the chair in economics of innovation at a Science Policy Research unit at the university of sussex. Dr. Mazzucato received her degree in new york. She is the author of the entrepreneurial state debunking public versus private sector myths, which was included in the 2013 book of the year list issued by the financial times. So thanks each of you for being here and for being here and you could each provide some opening remarks and then we will get started with questions