first page of the agreement we signed says "deficit reduction and continuing to ensure economic recovery is the most urgent issue facing britain." of course, the question i get asked already already -- already all the time is where is the growth would come from course a mark of was asked this question in my very first press conference as chancellor birds certainly we can no longer rely on an ever increasing public expenditure or dead-fuelled consumption to drive growth. over the past decade, over half of all jobs created were associated in some way with public spending. over the past decade, business investment grew at about 1% each year, only a quarter of what it was in the 1990's. of course we were not the only country affected by the financial crisis. but our consumers became the most indebted, our banks became the most leverage, and our government borrowed more of a portion of its economy than any other country of a similar size. so britain does need a whole new model of economic growth, where we save and invest for the future, where we seek to export instead of building our economy on debt, an economy where we sell our goods and services to china and the rest of asia, instead of simply borrowing from them in order to make -- in order to buy the things that they make for us. but let's be clear -- when you ask the chancellor of the exchequer the question, where is the growth going to cooe from, there is not some sort of a lever in my office that i can pull to automatically give you the answer. because the real answer is that the growth will come from you, the businesses of britain. so this evening i want to explain briefly how this government will make the case for enterprise and how we will help you to succeed. and i want to explain how we will do that while building a fairer society and an economy that works for everyone. i believe that enterprise needs three things above all. first, the sunlight of confidence and stability, instead of living in the shadow of debt and uncertainty. you need to know that the government is controlling spending, dealing with its debts, so that you are not hit by ever higher taxes and ever higher interest rates. second, the freedom to compete. you might have the best product in the world, but how can you win that order when the taxes you pay and the regulation you face price you out of the market? and third, the raw materials to succeed. i don't just mean the iron ore, copper, an oil -- important as our heavy industry is. i mean the raw materials of new industries, like an educated workforce, a welfare system that rewards work, modern energy, digital and transport networks. tackling the deep underlying problems in our economy and our society that have been holding britain back for too long. let me take you through each in turn. first, controlling public spending and delivering economic stability. the situation we inherit is the worse any modern government has bequeathed to his successor. the british state is borrowing 1 pound for every four that it spends. sitting in my first ecofin council meeting is today -- yesterday, i was very conscious that i represented the country with the biggest budget deficit of any of the 27 sitting around that table, including greece and ireland. that is a heavy responsibility, but it is a challenge that we are determined to meet. and having mentioned it and as helen mentioned it as well, let me tell you my approach to europe -- engage, understand, seek agreement, do not be afraid to disagree, and never forget that i am there to do what is right for our country. i hope people note that at my first ecofin, i arrived early, i stayed to the end of like some of my predecessors, and people noted that david cameron's first trip abroad is tomorrow to berlin. we will engage with europe but we should also pay heed to what is happening in the year rose on, not just because it is our largest trading partner, but because it is a vivid demonstration of the threat our public finances pose to the recovery. this is the reason that we must tackle our record deficit, because otherwise there will be no recovery at all. it will be undermined by rising interest rates, falling confidence, and the fear of ever higher taxes. we simply have to do this. and let me be blunt -- do not rely on me to make this argument alone. we need to do it together so that we can take the whole country with us. we need to explain why what seems like the easier option in the short term will actually lead to rising unemployment and decline. the case for early and accelerated action is already supported by the conservative party, by the liberal democrats, by the governor of the bank of england, and by the analysis of the treasury. but i want the business community to join us in actively making that case -- not for my benefit, but for the national interest. you can explain how a higher budget deficit will mean higher interest rates and rising business insolvencies. you can explain how out of control debt will mean ever higher taxes. let's make the argument together against all the vested interests that exist to defend every single line item of government spending. now we have already started to take action. let me tell you what we have done already in the space of just one week. we've launched a program to identify 6 billion pounds of end-year savings, while protecting the honorable on the quality of key front line services. we will do what you have all done over the last two years -- renegotiate contracts, cut out discretionary spending, control recruitment, reduce overhead. 6 billion pounds represents less than one in every hundred pounds that the government spends. show me the business that has not cut its costs by more than that in the last two years. in addition, we've started a review of all spending decisions taken since the beginning of the year. it is increasingly clear that the last government embarked on a reckless and irresponsible spending spree in the run-up to the election. their attitude was summed up in that letter that the former labour chief secretary liam byrne left on the desk for his successor. dear secretary, i am afraid there is no money. let that letter stand as the handwritten testament to their period in office. i've already announced a complete change to the way budgets are made, by giving away the power to make forecasts to an independent office for responsibility. we're going to do something completely radical. we need to fix the budget to fit the figures, not fix the figures to fit the budget. and i have said ambitious timetable for an emergency budget on the 22nd of june, because we need to get on with it. their 6 billion pounds in cuts to be announced next budget -- next monday. that budget will set the fiscal path for the coming years, and the mandate for the public finances against which the independent office of budget responsibility will judge us and hold us to account. over the summer we will conduct a far-reaching spending review to allocate spending to the departments within the overall envelope set out in the budget. britain will then have what it has been lacking -- a comprehensive and credible plan to deal with our debts and live within our means. by turning the tide of debt threatening our economy, we will businesses up and down this country. creating the space for the independent bank of england to keep interest rates lower for longer while maintaining low and stable inflation, safeguarding britain's credit rating, boosting confidence, promoting stability, and attracting foreign investment into our country -- that is our first and most urgent task. the second thing that enterprise needs to succeed is the ability to compete. and this presents us with a huge agenda. reducing the burden of inappropriate regulation and red tape, ensuring that businesses have a sufficient supply of affordable credit -- something that vince cable and myself will be making a priority. we will also be working together to reform our banking system, a subject or turn to in my mansion house speech next month. but in particular, i believe that we have an opportunity to boost our economy and improve our society with radical tax reform. i believe that we can make our tax system both more competitive and more fair. the tax system has become hugely complex over the last 13 years. since 1997, the tax legislation handbook has more than doubled in length. it is now over 11,000 pages long. and the spider web of tax rules is holding back people who want to set up a business. and our corporate tax rates are increasingly uncompetitive. a world economic forum report ranks the uk 84 out of 133 countries in terms of the competitiveness of our tax system. so we need wholesale reform. i particularly want to focus on corporate taxes. i want corporate tax reform to be a priority for this government, and i can confirm that the final coalition agreement that we will publish tomorrow will commit us to lower and simpler corporate tax rates. let me give you advance notice of what it will say. "we will reform the corporate tax system by simplifying beliefs and allowances, and tackling avoidance in order to reduce headline rates. our aim is to create the most competitive corporate tax regime in the g-20, while protecting manufacturing industries." i want to set of five-year road map for big reform of corporation tax. as well as lower rates and a simpler system, i want to reform the complex controlled foreign companies rules that have driven businesses overseas. i want multinationals coming to the uk, not leading. and i am none -- under no illusions. achieving all of this will be hard and it will not happen overnight. but let us work together for the long term, because ultimately all of britain's businesses will be winners if we succeed in this agenda. of course reforming corporation tax is not the only goal. i want britain to be the easiest place in the world to start a business. i want to do everything we can to support small companies. and i want to help new businesses by abolishing employers national insurance contributions on the first 10 jobs they create. but as well as making the tax system more competitive, we need to make it fairer. when times are difficult, we want to give people more of a stake in this economy. i believe it is right that people on low and middle incomes should be helped through the tax system. that is why the budget i will be announcing has a substantial increase in the personal income tax allowance. our longer-term goal is to raise the allowance to 10,000 pounds, with real terms steps in that direction each year. this will ensure that millions of people pay less tax. it will send a message that if you put the effort and, you get a job and earn yourself an income, you will keep more of your money. i also believe that the same principle must apply to those who invest in new businesses and create jobs. so why we will increase the rates of capital gains tax for non-business assets, there will be generous relief -- and i mean generous -- for entrepreneurial investment in businesses, as has been made in the coalition agreement. third and finally, this coalition government understands that enterprise needs much more than just the freedom to compete. whenever radical program to tackle the underlying structural problems that have been holding britain back for far too long. we want to be far more than just deficit cutters. we want to lay the foundations of a more prosperous and fairer economy that works for everyone. so we will launch of problem -- a program of radical education reform under michael gove. david willits and vince cable will ensure our universities are among the best in the world for decades to come. iain duncan smith and david freud will reform our where for system so that we reward work and support those who need help. and others will insure that we attract the right mix of public and private investment in britain's creaking energy, broadband and transport and to pressure -- infrastructure. next week in the queen's speech, you will see a truly ambitious agenda, the scale of which i do not believe the most people yet appreciate. and at its heart is the understanding that it is not government ministers who create the jobs we need, you will create those jobs. let me finish that -- by saying that, despite the challenges we face, i am profoundly optimistic about our future. as a country half -- as a country we have spectacular opportunities ahead of us. we of reasons to be cheerful. there is a prize out there for the taking. because every day around the world in places like china, india, brazil, indonesia and vietnam, people leave the grinding poverty that has trapped their families for centuries and they have them -- they have become connected to today's global economy. they go to work for the low wages in factories. and i know the massive challenge that presents to our businesses here. and asia to america, from eastern europe to southern africa, nations of manufacturers are taking their first step in their journey to prosperity. and as they become richer, they will become nations of consumers, just as we did after our industrial revolution. the middle classes or merging and in developing countries they are expected to treble by 2033 that as 1200 million people who will want to buy the things that we can sell to them. modern medicines and branded goods. aircraft engines, high-tech machinery, green vehicles, and renewable energy. computer software, television programs, oil and gas expertise. pensions insurance advertising, accountancy, and legal services. british goods and services, made in britain, exported around the world. the whole world must be our marketplace. our whole future depends on it. so let us tell the world loud and clear that britain is once again open for business. thank you very much. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010] >> just weeks after the british elections which produced a new prime minister and a coalition government, queen elizabeth ii will announce the new legislative agenda. she will travel from buckingham palace into the house of lords for one of britain's most celebrated occasions, the state opening of parliament, live on c-span2. >> and now capitol hill reporter looks at what is ahead for congress this week. >> john shaw, a couple of timely spending bills coming up in congress next week. once commonly referred to as the tax extenders' legislation. what is in that? >> for much of the year congress has been focused on health care and financial services reform. it is now finally getting to the meat and potatoes of what it is supposed to do, including both tax measures and spending third on the house side, but what taking out a $200 billion package of tax cuts and benefit extensions, including extending about a dozen tax cuts that expired at the end of last year, extending unemployment insurance, extending health insurance subsidies for unemployed worker, and providing state medicaid funds for states that much need them. it will also allow states to avert a 20% cut in medicare reimbursement for doctors. it will hit the house floor next week. there will be some controversy because only about $50 billion of this package is actually paid for with some revenue enhancements. they're going to be a lot of people who are going raise questions about whether this affordable in the nation's present fiscal such wisdom. >> over in the senate, they are dealing with the war spending bill. what are the key issues in play and that debate? >>, $45 billion, most of it for the funding of the expansion of the war in afghanistan, including the president's surge of 30,000 additional troops, and the reconstruction and security measures in iraq. that is the bulk of the $45 billion. there are more smaller items including the president's request of about $125 million for the gulf of mexico oil spill. and will be some relief money for haiti, and it allocates about $5 million to fema to do with natural disasters. >> there are some of the opponents to this war spending bill? >> >> not too many direct opponents, but people will try to add to it. tom harkin has said he wants to add about $23 billion in state aid. these funds can be used to help teachers and to avoid layoffs of teachers. some republicans say that they want to have a good chunk of this bill offset. certainly anything that extend beyond the funding of the wars of iraq and afghanistan. this bill will have a lot of discussion about the nation's fiscal situation and whether any of these spending measures and tax measures on the house side should be paid for. >> under the sense of timelessness >> u.s. a lot of tax cuts that have expired already, and they need to get moving because they are about to begin the memorial day recess. mr. gates has gone to congressional leaders and said that he needs this money very soon. the majority leader harry reid has said it is very important for the senate to pass this emergency bill next week. >> a look go head to the weekend congress. john shaw, thank you for the injured -- for the information. >> of next, an inside look at though west wing with the deputy chief of staff monica sutphen. after that, "q&a," with terence samuel. after that, john burke out. >> people can just do simple things already available to them. >> preparing for cyber attacks. california congressman dan lundgren on how the federal government works toward preventing -- protecting private security net worth. >> and now deputy white house chief of staff mona sutphen looks at an inside look on west wing operation to reid's from the robert dole institute of politics in kansas, this is just over an hour. >> good afternoon and welcome to the last program of the spring term programming. i think you will see that this year we may have saved the best for last and i thank you all for your patience. it is hard to participate when you are in a separate room. we historians are terrible predictors of the future. i cannot tell you how many people in my profession will write positively about the current administration and five years or 10 years or 15 years for it but i do know that the circumstances under which president obama and his staff took office for extraordinary and truly historic by any measure. 3 falling entitlement, two wars, the legacy of a generation of deregulation of industry, let's compare that to how either bush into the white house, or even president clinton who inherited an economy already emerging from recession. you have to go back to president truman who had to grapple with ending the world war and starting a cold one, or president roosevelt who took the helm of the economy and the country at the top of the destruction -- depression. the decisions that they have made range from historic and inconsequential, from popular to not so popular and what strikes me as an admittedly supported observer is the scope of the powers of his office. at the center of this administration is the belief that public service and government can and must help people. from its core idea comes many of the big decisions that we have witnessed over the breathtaking 1.5 years. how'd you alter the course of a nation? how did they make their mark on foreign and domestic policy? how we solve the real problems facing the countrr when there are powerful forces working to make us fail? these are the questions facing our guest on a daily basis. mona sutphen is as close to the white house -- the oval office in more ways than one. she is also part of the inner circle the visors on policy matters 3 chia's work alongside the most influential members of the foreign-policy establishment as a respected foreign-policy thinkers in the world coordinating to domestic policy, or a sub and embodies the way that the administration blurs the line between the two. i think that this is significant. with the experiences she brings to these table, met close to here in the early 1960's when intermarriage was still illegal. her jewish mother and african- american father drove across the state line for clandestine wedding ceremony. [applause] later the family moved where she was a secretary in the district attorney's office. she went to mount holyoke office -- school and she was a research assistanct. after college she headed for thailand where she served with one of our great friends, ambassador david lambert some. thank you for helping us put that program together. she went to burma and helped end the war in bosnia. they did a stint in the klan demonstration -- in the clinton administration under sandy berger. after her work at the white house, she worked in new york city for the clinton foundation. she is also author of an influential book, "the next american century." recognizes that nafta security begins at home with education, health care, and infrastructure parent -- infrastructure. that sounds a lot like what we heard from a young senator from illinois. she joined the obama campaign early. she was a member of the transition and she later joined in her current post, her previous white house experience gives her a deal of interagency politics. i cannot imagine a better moderator. i had one other boss at this place, we received a member from him earlier. i really a parade -- let her know that i will try to be as helpful as a cantor you heard it here first. please welcome the dole institute chief of staff. [applause] >> we know how busy you are and we appreciate your time again. what attracted you to public service? what got you started in the first place? >> i don't know that i ever consciously thought i would go in the public service growing up, or even necessarily in college. but when i look like, -- back, my parents were able to work for government but were -- they were very involved in community organizations and involved in training workers, and they were always involved in local politics, helping with alderman elections and local judges and that kind of thing. we always had this family that was involved in activities in the community. i think this subtext continued on. the issues that interested me in college fairly early. i wanted to see the world and i had this defining moment when i got through with college and worked for advertising agency in college -- in chicago. i thought to myself, it is 2:00 in the morning and i'm worried about the sales of shampoo. maybe it should be for something related to world peace or something like that. that was a defining shift in my thinking though i had already dabbled, i thought about going into government, the next chance i thought, i took it. >> will talk about her car roll mourn a few minutes. what it been your most satisfying job? >> my most satisfying job up until this one, before that, was when i worked right after the war. there was a moment after they had signed a date and peace accord, and in the spring time we were working on a variety of issues dealing with prisoners of war, and we ended up in a deep negotiations with the parties, people who had been held, picked up during the war and held for ransom, basically, during the war. . it is there range of different issues. sometimes it is legislation we are trying to move. this is a diverse mix of issues. i work a lot on issues related to other agencies. these are eager complicated and messy or there is a big dispute. we are trying to resolve them. we are working through the challenges. a lot of it is dealing with unforeseen issues and to the agenda we are going to pursue. >> how did you get involved with the president? >> i first heard of him from a friend of mine in the clinton administration. he called me out of this blue dodge added the blue who is running for senate. i said, i'm going to quit my job to work for him. i ask, is he the one that lost by a lot of points? he said, yes. he said he is compelling. he went on and quit his job and work for him for a while. that was the first time i had met him. i met him after he had won and he was doing a series of getting to know you defensevents. we knew a lot of people in common. a couple of things people would have in the living room of people's houses. he wanted people to understood where he was coming from. i knew that he was very smart and thoughtful and i thought that he is speaking to the issues that on my mind and i had not really consider that when i was talking to politicians up until that point. there was nothing particularly serious. >> what was your role? i ended up getting involved on a foreign-policy core group which was made b-12 less and when we first heard that he was thinking about running, i thought i could not believe this. many people thought that i would support hillary. i was definitely torn, here is the guy to is compelling people to go into public service. we have people who are willing to go through the experience to serve the country. the least i could do was to take some time to volunteer and help out whenever i can with the assumption that we still have issues that we can explore. we knew that hillary clinton had similarities when it came to foreign policy. at the beginning, we put together a team of people. there was something that happened in career -- korea. we dealt with everything that came our way. we would take up work and that helped to build his full complement of issues. the group grew and grew and we had about a hundred 50 people working on different subgroups and different issues. a lot of people who are foreign- policy judges started getting on the phone. it became less a foreign-policy and more just support of the candidate. >> you had a really interesting challenge, your husband work for senator clinton while you are running on the president's campaign. >> yes. >> how do you balance that? >> very hard. even during the transition, i knew that i wanted to help out. with two young children, i don't think i could manage this. i felt that the country was really at a crossroads and the country that my children will inherit, it was important for me to contribute what i could. we are at a pivotal moment. that meant more to the quality of my children's life than being there 100% of the time. now, i would say that my husband is incredible. he is a huge supporter of the job and everything it takes. he fills in a lot with family and friends. when i am home, one thing that we are quite good about is that we spend time with our families, particularly when people are getting close to burn out. many people have children, many people understand that if you need to leave. people are understanding of a parent teacher conference. it is a challenge. >> you spoke -- and i found something fascinating. you get some advised to all of the young women and it you said, "the people, not the jobs. >> what i found is that a lot of young people get excited about the title of the job also that you learned an incredible amount by a working with someone who is really good. working with the government is not where you will make the most but you end up learning an incredible amount from the people and it is worth the risk. you will end up learning an incredible amount that you need tons of people and you see what great leadership is all about if you work with people like that. a lot of young people attracted to this salary and title and they find themselves miserable >> let's talk about the problems that the president has to deal with. there is a lot of talk about tension with the afghanistan president. are they making some progress? >> yes, i think it was productive. it is a complex relationship. there is a lot of important differences. we share a strategic objective. this is helpful because we can have people spend sometime with the president but also the teams together. >> is the administration confident that we can achieve our objectives? >> yes. when the challenges that we inherited is that our very strong opinion that before we can into office this was a neglected and underfunded and undermanned effort and really truly central to u.s. national security. that is what the president has made the decisions that he has. i think with some important tests coming ahead. what we have laid out in terms of the plants, we feel confident that we can prevail and we can do this along a timetable that he has talked about. there will be absent down along the way. we are spending and not more time of the national party. >> the president has nominated kagan for the supreme court. >> he was looking for someone who was brilliant which she is. she has proven in her job she is a thoughtful person. she is looking for some -- he is looking for someone who can shape the direction of the court, someone was pragmatic and a consensus builder. someone that can help shape and lead at the direction of the court. that was a compelling fact. so far, she started her visits to the hilt. she has done 92 office visits -- sonia sotomayor did 92 of his visits, i'm not sure if this is possible in this case. we will have the hearings into the august recess. people will question her quite directly and we are expecting that and that's the way it should be. >> the headlines today are focusing on the crisis in greece, on the challenges that britain faces with huge debt. what is the president's attitude about the growing federal deficit? >> we are concerned in the european situation of course. the direct relationship between greece and the u.s. is somewhat distant. the economic recovery here is quite fragile. as the grease situations flows european growth, that is something to be seen. this is why we launched a bipartisan commission to look at deficits. we have a profound issue to deal with is that everyone wants to cut the deficit and spending until it comes to bear issues that they just don't want. we are in a situation where the media party to avoid an economic meltdown, we had to throw a lot at that to keep us from going over the brink. we felt that this was something that we had to do. there are really profound that happened to spending and entitlement, issues that we will have to work through. we are hoping that the deficit commission will come up with some issues and dialogue and we can have the debate. what do we want our government to do, how effectively want to pay for it. what do we want to cut? >> that is quite a daunting task. >> there are many things going on in politics right now. it looks like senator specter could lose this week. you had senator bennett. how do you read all of this? >> well, i think that the mood is anti-incumbent. people feel but they don't have the same priorities that the american people would like them to focus on. i'm not sure that it is the same kind of parallel to 94. it is hard to know exactly how things will work out. there is a moot because people will have been serving in congress for a long time. the things that make people vote. officially the things that people like about their elected officials, there is bridge building and compromise. you are able to bring home the bacon for districts. some are really against that. that has become -. i think it will become a tumultuous time. the economy will have a lot to do with it as well. we hope the economy will be headed in the right direction. that kid have a lot to do with how the mood shifts. there is a stirring out there but you can see it. this is in the primary races. i think that this is much deeper than the economy. there is a strong anti incumbent opinion out there. >> does he have an opportunity to change the arc of history like reagan? >> i think that he has accomplished a fair amount. this is a historic time. we have taken some historic action beyond health care. we are on the cusp as profound reform. we have done a children's health care, lee ledbettethe ledbetter legislation. the start treaty. history will be the judge. to the extent that reagan had a vision of how we saw the country, what he wanted for the country, and really pursued that. he does have a promise of what this is and the potential is. this is really optimistic. >> you mentioned that the president is disciplined. tell us about that. >> he is disciplined in that he is a very thoughtful decision maker. he is disciplined about how he uses his time, personally. he is very conscience about what kind of decisions impacted the situation. he is thoughtful about how he gets the input. he is a collaborative thinker. if he feels like a conversation comes into a meeting, on the one hand he wants to have a collaborative discussion but it becomes clear that the issue has not been thought through very well and it is not even clear what it is we are talking about, he will say this is the ready for me to make a decision. why don't you come back to me when you are ready to have a more focused conversation about what the issue is at hand? i think that it is under important quality because you can get swamped on every single issue if you really wanted to. -- i think that it is an important quality. you have to be focused on how you use your time every day so you are getting the maximum bang for the buck. the information you're getting is getting to him in a way that he can adjust. give guidance back and have it be crisp and clear and make it clear what it is that needs to be done. he is very clear about what he would like. he is very flexible. he is flexible about being presented with new information and shifting course. i think that it is a good mix of qualities for someone who have to oversee such a vast array of issues. >> how many hours of work are you doing a week? when do you go win? when you get home? >>-- when do you go in? >> i am in fact that meetings from 7:00 in the morning. this goes on until about 8:00 at night. then i go home and i.e. to and they put the kids lunches together and i put out there close and then i worked for about an hour at about 10:00. that is monday through friday. on saturday, we have a planning meeting for two or three hours which is looking further ahead down the calendar to see what is coming several months ahead. i've not even counted how many hours that is but it is a lot. the hardest part is not the time because you get used to that, the issues that are difficult is at least the colleagues that we come with, we are working on such a sheer range of issues and you have to get deep in those issues to understand what you are dealing with. we go from questions of nasa < rocket design question, how that affects the long-term budget, how that might mean for the workforce and the technologies. we can leap from that into the counter narcotics mission within the department of homeland security, the city cartel violence, fees of the mexico. -- vis a vis, cartel violence, also mexico. you have to jump from one thing to the other which is complicated and difficult. that is what is hard and difficult. by the end of the week, i am quite exhausted. 7:30 meeting, that is to us. >> i will open it up to questions and answers and technically we can pull this off. we will take some questions from hanson hall as well. we are in finals week and many students could join us. what advice do you have for our students here who want to go out and make a difference and who in 20 years want to be where you are? >> don't hesitate to jump into the fray. there are so many young people who are interested in public service and interested in serving and maybe even interested in politics. i always say, go work on a campaign, get your hands dirty. if you want to work overseas, joined the peace corps. sometimes you think you are really interested in african public health issues and maybe you go to africa and you realize that you are not interested. you get to learn early on and you spend your whole career thinking that and then you realize, maybe not. these days, it is hard because young people are so focused on what they will do next to really take the time when you have the ability to do it before you have families and things that you are tethered to to get out there and do what is interesting to you. but your life lead you on the path that you think it will lead you. >> terrific. we are ready for some questions. we have one. >> it is a great honor to have you here at the university of kansas. i have been following the financial package and i want to know more about the process going on. for the conflict about derivatives and how the negotiation is going on that. >> i was wondering about this. what is going on right now is one of the most intensive lobbying efforts that i have seen which we have witnessed which is going on behind the scenes kind of behind, there are various elements of wall street that are desperately trying to weaken this bill. at the same time, you have many people who are trying to strengthen the bill. it is everywhere. generally, the architecture of the bill is set. the question is really people are attempting to carve people out or two things where it looks like it is a strong commitment or underneath the way it is written, it takes out a bunch of people or undermines the regulatory system. we are watching every move that people are trying to make and assessing all of the amendments coming up. a big issue for us is that we want to make sure that if the financial industry, wherever they are active, wherever it is, it does not matter who you are, it matters what you're doing. if you are controlling and managing a significant chunk of change in an area hundreds of billions of dollars that is not regulated, we want to get all of that into the shadow. that is what this is all about, whether or not the current package in fact pushes a lot of the derivatives trading back into the shadows or whether it brings it fully under regulatory scrutiny because we don't want to leave lots of elements of the industry outside of the regulatory umbrella because that is what got us into trouble in the first place. the current language, whether it pushes things out of the regulatory oversight or pushes it back again. there has been an lot of back- and-forth on that and there will be a bunch of other amendments. for the next two weeks, for the next several days, you will see a lot of activity. >> thank you. >> i am interested in the oil spill in the gulf. it breaks my heart to see an entire industry pretty much wiped out. it looks like on the news that british petroleum cannot be held liable for as much as maybe they should be. is there anything going on behind the scenes that you can talk about that we don't know to mitigate the damage that is being done down there? >> yes, i am one of many people in the white house who is touched by the oil spill. of all of the issues, this is really touching the most pieces of the white house because you have everyone from our science team focusing on how to stop the leak and people who work on the environmental types of issues. we have our domestic policy people working on the impact on fishermen. we also have them working on the markets. we have the legal counsel, national security, the coast guard. this is touching areas of the entire complex. what british petroleum has said and we believe we are holding this is that they will pay all legitimate claims. after the exxon valdez, we made it sure that they're responsible for the cleanup. there is no question and that is unlimited amount of damages. after the coast guard is done ranting trawlers, we will hand them a bill and whenever that is, that is what they will pay. the question of liability tested the economic damages which is the fisherman and any other industries. so far, the ceo -- of ceo's of bp said that they will pay all legitimate claims. they said it and we are expecting that is the case. i think that people will hold them accountable to that. we hope that there is the reason that they are not being honest. -- we don't think that there's a reason that they're not being honest. >> thank you so much for coming today. it is air real honor to debt. my question is about what inspired you to go into the foreign service. do you feel that your work and embassies abroad help you with the issues that you work on now? >> well, i studied international relations and i studied chinese and i went abroad my junior year to learn chinese. when i came back, i'm torn between advertising and foreign policy which is kind of a weird mix. i work for a guy who was a professor and he was a national security person for clinton. we have the civil war in el salvador going on at the time. i took the exam at the behest of him and other professors. i did not want to do this because i did not agree with our policies and al salvador. >> he said, then don't go to el salvador. i have always been interested in international issues. when the opportunity arose, i was surprised that i passed the exam. i was serious about it and not serious about it. i decided to do it for two years and i want to see how it went. i did it for two years, then four years, then it was a decade. i love to learn different issues all the time and work on a range of different topics such as human-rights, east africa policies, the balkans, the white house. for me, it was great because i could dabble but it was in and organize construct of a career. one of the central issues that we do at the white house is navigate the equities of the government. everyone usually goes in the same direction. in government, you realize that there are legitimate equities that everyone has on an issue and there is no perfect answer. you are always stressing the down sides. nowhere is that more clear than in foreign policy. nowhere is the interagency process and all the different interests across the government as strong and palpable as in the foreign-policy arena. i think that it really shaped my opinion on how the government works and gave me access to a wide range of issues. i could understand the issues, the work flow. that early experience was very instrumental because otherwise it would definitely be a daunting task. >> thank you for coming. i am glad to have you here. i am retired. i have drawn full social security, medicare. the thing that the obama administration has done that will cost me a lot of money, you have taken my medicare away from me in this health care bill and i think that that is the wrong tack because you will cost me a lot more money for the medicare. you are cost to me more money than what i was pain before. >> -- was paying before. >> they are working to make sure that the medicare advantage is in and we'd tell have an increase the amount going to seniors to help offset the increased cost that are there. -- so that we don't have an increase in the amount going to seniors to help offset the increased cost that will be there. we are focusing on some areas that are inefficient. we are trying to even out those expenses. people will be paying more in certain kinds of things but saving money elsewhere. i think you need to wait and see how it is implemented because there is a lot of misinformation about how it will affect individually and how individual states will set up various polls and how people will participate in them. they will get rolled out in the next six-seven years. i encourage you to have an open mind as we work through the implementation. this is a medical system overall, this is 1/6 of the entire economy and this is on a track that is not sustainable. we needed to deal with that underlined problem because of our fiscal reasons but also because we have a sustainable system -- a system that was not sustainable. people are paying for lots of procedures they don't need. expenses were out of control. we really feel that the health- care bill will help stabilize the entire system, bring down costs. the implementation will take many many months. i don't want you to judge. we are near the end of that. >> thank you for coming. do you think that there are any viable alternatives to the military or sanctions package that the obama administration has been working on for the past year? they have been unresponsive to any kind of outside influence and they have pushed ahead to get a nuclear weapon. do americans need to prepare themselves for a world in which they have nuclear weapons? >> this is a top priority to make sure this is not the case. i think it was unclear, we are getting a lot more cooperation from the other countries now which we needed to have a long- term solution. there is a huge risks to the stability of the region and all of our interests in the middle east. people are spending an incredible amount of time. they are not totally impervious to outside influence. we will make sure that everyone imposes it together. obviously this has a limited impact. >> in his state of the union speech, he said that america is second to none. what is his concrete plan for this? congratulations to his election as president. this is a great move that the american people made. personally, i did not support him. i watched him dumped his old friends at reverend wright and bill ayer. why is the reluctant to deal with eta in south america? -- the free trade agreement in south america? >> he is working on various pieces of the package. we want to get those ready, the question is whether or not if we are in an ongoing situation with the koreans as well. we have been trying to deal with the issues. the trade negotiations take a long time. various countries are more enthusiastic. >> do you think that to the passage of health care will hurt or help? >> i think that it will help. people were worried that they would lose their doctor or that everything would come crashing down it was a very intense time in the lead up to the bill. there are many issues that are on people's minds such as the economy getting better. some things have to do with factors that are different. the conversation will be different by the time that this comes around. people are worried about things that are happening right now like a recession or a small business credit or those kinds of things. those are the issues that will be on people's minds. >> the economic recovery act or stimulus bill has gotten a bad rap. we have politicians say that it has created no jobs or even reduce the number of jobs. i guess they don't count policemen, firemen. there are people on this campus to people don't realize that are the result of this bill including a new engineering building. 80% of the money is coming from the stimulus bill and it was not mentioned by anyone in the paper. this bill, there is a tremendous amount of good for our economy. the narrative that the republicans have pursued is problematic. >> one of the challenges is that americans generally do not know what was in the stimulus and realizing that a third of the stimulus was in tax cuts. there was making work pay which effected everyone in the room because ready for -- wi-fi% of americans got a tax cut. a third if it was for firefighters and helping people that had been laid off, food stamps, unemployment insurance the last third are the infrastructure and construction projects. we see this notion where lawmakers were vehemently opposed for the stimulus bill will show up for the ribbon cutting of the projects that have opened. it has been and messaging challenge because people think of the recovery act in many ways, no one would like to write a huge check like that to keep the economy from going over a cliff. many economists say that the reason that we are bouncing back and others are struggling is that we move quickly in a strong way so that the market could see that it would not be falling apart right in front of us. over time and granted that people are already and will continue to see the benefits of the recovery act both small and large and already we have seen coverage about how some of the investment has surely transform the entire industry's. over time, we made a good decision and we did the right thing and we leapfrogged another dodge a budget industries that were otherwise lacking. >> on a similar note to the whole british petroleum debacle, what are the clear plans for climate change legislation? >> yesterday, senator kerry and lieberman introduced a comprehensive bill which creates a carbon credit trading regime and also has a bunch of different elements. we are very supportive of the legislation. unfortunately, linsey graham dropped out the bill at the last minute. this remains a top priority. we believe fundamentally that our energy independence and transforming our use of energy is essential to our national security but also to our long- term economy. i'm hoping that it can get past this year. >> it seems like this administration has taken on more big issues in such a short amount of time than any other administration that i am aware of. how many more big issues can we handle? how many more can congress joggle at the same time? a fair number that we had to tackle one not of our choosing. we have a big agenda because these countries have a lot of the issues that we are grappling with. some of this cannot wait to be dealt with. things like afghanistan in which we felt really needed to be a central focused, we are spending a lot of time and attention on that. the economy is first and foremost. the country has a lot of challenges and some of them cannot wait and some of them are by our own choosing. whether it is the oil spill or we have the coal mine disaster, things just happen. i think the president feels strongly that yes, you have to manage all of the issues but it is also to try to move the country forward and not be in a reactive mode and also be in a situation where our children and grandchildren inherit a better economy. we have waited a long time to deal with these problems. the time has come to try to solve them. >> one last question. quark>> i am very interested ine reauthorization of the free- trade agreement. why has there been a delay of that very important work? >> this includes the new child left behind and the core education funding. i have to say that one thing that we feel really lucky about is that we have a great amount of really talented people who are incredibly focused, they have great leadership skills, they can really drive elements of the agenda. one of the things i have enjoyed about the time in government is how collaborative everyone is. people are working with each other in ways which are not the norm in the executive branch. we rely on them a lot to keep moving the ball forward on issues when people get overtaken by event. the central challenges of governing at this level is that there is always a urgency and the challenges are that you cannot allow the argent to outweigh the important every single time. managing that balances the essential quality of what we do every day. just because it is not on the front page doesn't mean that it is not an urgent and pressing issue for the country. we have to focus and solve this or to try to solve this or to figure out who should solve it and that is a very important part of our job. sometimes it is overwhelming and we don't like thinking about how many issues on our plate. i don't know how the president deals with it every day. we literally cannot get a break but that is life and you hope that you can navigate through. that is just the top. you manage it. -- that is just the job. >> i want to thank you so much for coming in [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010] >> tomorrow, a financial reporter talks about the rate of foreclosures and delinquency. 82009 afghan presidential candidate discuss is the political and military situation in this country and the visitation of president karzai. we then have a look at the u.s. welfare system and the emergency fund for needy families. >> sonia sotomayor on the confirmation process. >> questions over three days. you have to look at their life work. that will be a clear reflection of who they are and how they think and what they will do. >> with a new supreme court nominee heading into the process, learn more about the nation's highest court in c- span's latest book, "the supreme court." >>