Like every country, we have adult siblings and adult parents. We put quotas by country. That result is, we dont have an immigration system that is strategic as it relates to possibilities of economic growth. We have a noble immigration system that is legal, that is fine. But i think we should narrow it down to what other countries have. We should create the first 500,000 first round draft picks, if you will. The people that will create Economic Opportunity for less. We will not get there until we are confident that the borders are enforced and that the rule of law is applied consistently. Governor, i am a veteran and work at the va in a venture. Last year, we heard about veterans not getting proper care. What is your mission to ensure that veterans get better care . Jeb bush do you have the same issue in manchester . We have never had a secret waitlist or anything. Im not saying it is a perfect facility, but we get positive remarks. Jeb bush know, it has been a serious problem. You know you have bipartisan support when you have john mccain and Bernie Sanders agreeing on a bill. [laughter] one of the few laws and bills that turned to a lot in the last 45 years. It was an effort to begin the process of reforming, i dont think it is the full comprehensive reform that is necessary. One of the things that they did, and you may not agree with us since you are working at the va hospital, but i think it is essential given the uniqueness of people to customize the Health Care Service for veterans. You have Health Challenges longterm disability issues, you have issues of iraq and afghanistan where they are different from vietnam. All of that leads me to believe that we should empower veterans to make these decisions. Where they have the chance to pick the place and the Health Care Provider that they want. In this law that passed last year, it allows for i have to call it a voucher. I am all for the voucher thing. Say that you dont want to go to manchester, why would you have to travel to manchester to get medical care . You are getting someone at the choice to go themselves. They can go to the veterans hospital, no one is suggesting we shut down the va system. The number of people taking advantage of this is very low. I think there should be much more outreach to give people a chance to go to private hospitals if necessary if they want to see their own doctor. This has to be a longterm commitment, for sure. There is no argument in terms of budget. There have been a dramatic increases in the budget. It has probably flatlined now given the sequester. But i totally agree that this needs to be a high priority. For the record, whoever can get the most efficient and timely treatment, regardless of where they can go. Any ideas about how to reduce costs in obamacare . Jeb bush the obvious way to reduce utilization is to have people be healthy. The system we have preobamacare is not a health care system, it is a sick care system, in effect. Ultimately, i think we need to move to a plan that has hhas high deductible premium coverage, where coverage is on catastrophic coverage. Sometimes you have services that are preventitive, and sometimes you dont. If you added the economic incentive to this, which is keeping the money that rolls over taxfree so that you are building up an ethic to deal with harder, more costly health care needs, you are going to bend the cost curve of the system. I think we need to have tort reform. In florida, we fought hard for this. I dont know how it is here. It is obviously a driver, the uncertainty of lawsuits create a lot of defensive medicine that we dont need. There is a whole range of things. But the insurance part needs to be focused on moving back to a high deductible, lower premium hsa attached plan. I have this, this is prehistoric this is a pebble. [laughter] i can do my strides, my pulls, i can know how long i am sleeping, but these devices apple Just Announced their device this week these devices and many others, much more sophisticated than this thing, will allow us to monitor our own health care. We will be able to wirelessly send messages to your Health Care Provider because you didnt ingest a pill at the right time. 40 of all research and drugs are taken in the wrong way. Of all prescription drugs are taken into runway. We need to recognize that the best system is where everyone is engaged in their own health care decisions. That is the american way. As we have moved away from that, our Health Care Costs have gone up and Health Care Outcomes have been worse. Technology gives us a chance to move back where we are engaged in all this. Mayor . I am a Small Business owner with my two brothers. I pooled my employees to see what they wanted me to ask q. To ask you. One question with two parts. The first one will be on the Affordable Care act. We want to know where you stand are you on a full repeal, or do you want to take it with parts . The second question, where do you stand on minimum wage . Jeb bush is the question is minimum wage, i dont think we need to raise the minimum wage at the federal level. As it relates to the Affordable Care act, i would like to repeal and replace. It may end up in the same place where some of your employees would want, where you would have the preexisting conditions of any plan. Is a small number, but for young people to stay on their parents plans until they are 26, i dont have an argument against that. I am not passionate one way or the other. There are things you can have in a new plan. The idea that the federal government, through these massive subsidies, is going to be and exchanges where there are all sorts of employer mandated services that increase the cost of insurance, if it is going to work over the long haul, i find it flawed to the core. What i describe as a better plan is the replacement plan. Thank you. Governor, i find the most chilling parts of the United States is our indebtedness. Do you have a plan to control that indebtedness . Jeb bush the debt is not a problem in the here and now of washington dc. Dont take that out of context. [laughter] that is a comma. Because we have lowered Interest Rates to zero and we have shortened the maturity of the doubling of debt. Under the president , we have doubled the debt and shrunk the maturity so that Something Like 60 of all debt comes due in 3 years. As you shrink the maturities there is no interest. The debt Service Today is lower than it was 12 years ago. It is like passing the bottle of bourbon and giving the keys to the maserati to a 14yearold. [laughter] there is no real efforts to change this. What happens if Interest Rates go up after historic levels . You have to renew the debt if you can, Interest Rates will grow exponentially. It will crowd out all of the Things National security, Veterans Affairs infrastructure. Everything else will be squeezed out. We should restructure our debt to make it longterm rather than shortterm. Secondly, we ought to create a highgrowth strategy above all else. The idea that we will grow at 2 per year over the next decade will make it harder and harder for us to truly service the debt. If we grew at 4 , which is historically where america has grown, and there are discrete, important things to make that work. More importantly, our regulatory system needs to be brought into the 21st century. Our tax code is creating investment incentive for investment overseas. Embracing the energy revolution. All of those ends will help us grow at 4 . If you workout the 2 difference , i wasnt a big math guy, but take 1. 02 times 18, in the 10th year, we would create an additional germany of additional activity. An additional germany creates 1 trillion of revenue at the state, local, and federal level based on the current level of taxation. That is a far better idea than any exotic form of taxation barack obama would like to impose on us. High growth is the first step to dealing with this fiscal structural problem. And it is structural. Secondly, we have to go to sound budgeting practices. The Federal Reserve, because of the legislative environment, it provides the treasury something about 70 billion of profits. That is not revenue that will stick around. There will be losses, and when those losses take place, it becomes part of the deficit. Whether it is freddie and fannie, the load processes, all of these things related to the Federal Reserve and accounting problems we have, it all benefits the government. Let us be real about it. You will begin to see pressure for people to spend less, which is ultimately what we need to do. Spending less will be a huge problem if we dont fix our entitlement problems. You can talk about how Efficient Government is its not but the entitlement challenge will overwhelm everything else. The deficits we have today will pale by comparison at one we get to the baby boomers are being retired receiving Social Security and receiving medicare. The expansion of our medicaid population is explosive for our debt. We have to do with that issue while creating a highgrowth strategy. Thank you. Governor, our Foreign Policy well, i dont think we have a Foreign Policy. Jeb bush we do. Thats the problem our foreign policies one of retrenchment, disengagement, one that thinks americas presence and powers in the world is not a force for good. I love reading books about history particularly. If you take a pause at our own history, we have been a force for good consistently. The idea that we are not is quite dangerous. Two things that matter in Foreign Policy is that our friends know that we have their back. And that our enemies fear us a little bit not a lot, but just enough to know that the consequence, if they behave in a way that is dangerous for the region or the world, that will be consequences. Our consistent friends dont believe america is reliable. This is a test i am do this all the time. Youre going to go first. [laughter] name a country where the american relationship is better today than when barack obama came into office. Cant do it. Cuba. Jeb bush congratulations. I dont know about north korea. Myanmar perhaps. But not canada, absolutely not. Not latin america. Not israel. Not egypt. Not jordan, not turkey, not saudi arabia, not the entire middle east, not the african countries either. The simple thing is that disengagement creates so much uncertainty and doubt that people do not know where we stand. Restoring americas presence in the world would be a powerful first step to be creating more security in the world. We have to reengage in a way to deal with the threats that are amongst us, isis being one of those. Russia now moving with Great Authority into eastern europe, and perhaps the baltics. Challenging whether article five of nato is a viable treaty. People began to have doubts about that. The emergence of china aggressively pursuing their agenda in asia. All of these things are serious threats. Then instead of negotiating with iran to legitimize the regime, we should have kept the sanctions on them. They would have come to the table. 45 a barrel for oil over a year in iran would have changed the dynamic. Instead of negotiating downward to a deal that will create permanency for the regime, we could have created a policy that would have weakened iran in their support of surrogates in the region and prohibited them from gaining power. Yes, sir . I would like your opinion on whether the house and senate should have only funded Homeland Security without dealing with the president s, i believe illegal order dealing with immigration. Jeb bush i think you are correct, the president have doesnt have authority in either case. He used this concept of prosecutorial discretion. Which i read in tradition, by and large says that you take these casebycase. There are a lot of unique cases in immigration. He used it for 3 Million People. I dont think he has the authority, nor does the federal judge. My guess is that this will ultimately be ruled unconstitutional. My hope, to be honest and clear, i think Congress Needs to pass a budget. Put the priorities, conservative priorities on the table. Get consensus among republicans first, if you need to do that, get the 50 votes to pass the budget, use the power of the budget, pass a budget for crying out loud. This is the fifth year we havent had one. There are a lot of things in language and things that shouldnt be done that continue because of the resolution approach. In that budget, there are ways show the opposition the use of executive orders. I would fully fund the Homeland Security. How else are we going to secure the border . This is the only way we can do it. There is a time for making a principled opposition to the president. Then there is a time to govern and lead. Republicans need to start showing that we can govern and lead. Im totally convinced that we can. Democrats had control of the congress. And no budget passed, a stimulus passed, beyond that no budget. It happened through the sequester rather than a normal way of putting priorities on the table. We need to increase spending on defense and Homeland Security and reduce costs in other areas. Maybe other members have a different view. Let the process work again, that is was missing. Every State Government sometimes ugly, sometimes clean, has a balanced budget requirement. As crazy as it is, at the end of the day, those states pass a balanced budget. Washington needs to do the same thing. I think you will have plenty more opportunities to take questions. I certainly hope that will be the case. Think you for being here tonight. We did a great job. [applause] maybe well get you over to kenny but part kenny but inunkport. Are we all invited . We have been there, you know. Thank you. [indiscernible] [indiscernible] jeb bush where are we looking at . This guy . Jeb bush thank you for what you do. Keep teaching. Jeb bush you look just like someone i know in fort meyers. We should take this picture and ill send it to her. It is striking how you look just like her. That is a good thing, by the way, just for the record. Thank you, ill send that to her. You have him taking the picture. Hello governor. Did you get it . Thank you so much governor. Do you think people understand what you are saying now . Jeb bush yes, i think it just takes time. People understand where youre coming from, but they dont understand common core. Jeb bush i think it should be a combination of both. But with common core youre breaking it down and giving people a different way to look at. Jeb bush reauthorization of the k12 would take the federal governments role off the table which i think would be good. What did you think . We loved it. Jeb bush this is how you get your nourishment. I get a lot of Energy Learning from people. You talked about what is the downside . I dont know. I dont feel compelled to have a specific policy proposal. You can repeal obama care and take elements of it that have broad i partisan support. For those that are concerned that if you kill obamacare and take elements of it that are appropriate with bipartisan support for the new one. For those that are concerned if you kill obamacare, you can just put parts that you like and a new law. I think that is something that makes sense if you are trying to create a Robust Exchange for insurance market. The definition of preexisting condition needs to be looked at. These are obtuse conversations for a friday night. Where are you in your decisionmaking process . Jeb bush just wandering around, learning a lot and having fun doing it. How did your visit here help you . Jeb bush i got a sense, if i was to go forward, how would this be for the next year. People are skeptical of political dynasties how will you separate yourself from your brother . You said you do not support the minimum wage . Jeb bush it makes it harder for businesses to automate and harder for people to find jobs. We want more social economic mobility, not less. Something democrats are arguing that you decided jeb bush i didnt decide. The governors office, the general counsel was part of that. This was based on the law itself. We complied with the law. During this time, we have complied with the law, even in my post governorship. Do you think House Republicans should push forward with the reauthorization . Jeb bush i think so, yeah. Any chance on a policy initiative where the house can pass their version and the senate can get 60 votes and go to conference and present it to the president , as many items as possible to show that democracy works. Let the president decide if he wants to participate or veto it. But this has been delayed partly because of conservative members of the house. Jeb bush what i suggested is the proper thing to do. If you are concerned about the proverbial federal districts then put in a law on what the federal government can do. An Interest Group in washington this week says that they said this week they would Like Congress to take a look at it. Jeb bush how would they reform it . The president said that they would like a legislative thing. Jeb bush if the epa doesnt do what the law requires them to do, then congress should change it . I have no clue. Governor, on the Affordable Care how do we get things done . Jeb bush leadership. We had a pretty good run here. We have had more difficult time s in our countrys history than wars, the great depression. Consensus seems to be forged during difficult times. We can do it again. It does not to be a perpetual food fight. If im going beyond the possibility of running, this is a Campaign Issue to say that i understand why people are angry. I think Going Forward we have to understand why theyre angry. With to forge consensus to solve these problems so people arent as angry. That has been missing in the political discourse. It may be beginning in a campaign. Certainly this president doesnt consider it his priority. The next president , whoever he or she is, needs to make it that. Who is your running mate . Thats a wrap, we have to get out of here. This week, cspan is in New Hampshire or road to the white house coverage. Live on cspan, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker at a room and Party Grassroots workshop grid and sunday night, 9 35, or 10 crews senator ted cruz. Road to the white house on cspan. Rand paul talked about the criminal Justice System and billy State University in maryland. He is a possible president ial candidate. Cory booker and he have joined on a bill that aims to keep nonviolent offenders out of prison. His remarks were about three minutes. 40 minutes. [applause] rand paul thank you. Sometimes people ask, can one people make any difference at all . Sometimes i wonder that even in washington. One of the reasons im here is because of eugene, who just introduced me. I was scanning online and found a article he had written that covers what we are trying to do. I had my staff call him up and see if we could be a bowie state. This was the same month that i was born 1963. The reason clyde went to prison is that his crime was kind to he was trying to get enrolled in mississippi southern. At that time, it was difficult for a black man to enroll. They planted liquor on him. One thing led to another. He declared bankruptcy. He tried to unroll a third time, but was bullied by the police. When he tried the third time, he declared bankruptcy and went to his farm to pick up chicken feed. 25 of chicken feed. You know what happened to him . He was arrested. Seven years in prison for 25 of chicken feed. Which really was his. It was on his land that the bank was repossessing. Peoples lives can spiral out of control from a 600 fine. Thomas wolfe talks about this in his book. A young guy goes in and has to pay 100 to get his car out, and they close the door, he is fifth in line. His life spirals out of control when he tries to get his car back. Those of us who have jobs and have lived fairly privileged lives do not know what it is like to have to pay fines, penalties on top of fines, and how someones life can spiral out of control because of this. Even though this was 1963, and a lot of things have improved since then, we have gotten rid of segregation by law, but we still have a problem in this country that is somewhat like segregation, but also somewhat like there are two systems. As Martin Luther king junior said, there are two americas. There is one america that believes in life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness, but there is another america is witness to a daily disgrace, a lack of hope and despair. Like clyde, there are still people in the society who are hounded. Several cities in missouri, a third of their budget is gotten by fines. In ferguson, 21,000 people. 31,000 arrests. It isnt just about what happened this year. It is about this building up. It is about this gradual increase. I call it an undercurrent of unease. There are still two americas. Most people here are part of the america that does believe in life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Those who get an education, no matter the color of your skin, youre part of america and can live the American Dream. Many are not. Its the lack of education, but also the criminal Justice System. As i have learned more about the criminal Justice System, i have come to believe that it is something that will keep these two americas separate. There are so many things, one after the other, they are unjust. If you look at new york city 500 million of fines. About the third of the budget is funded by fines. What reason do we have to take someone down for selling cigarettes without tax. Couldnt we have given him a ticket . Are there a lot of other ways than and i dont blame the police. I blame the politicians. We can change the rules at any minute. Ive said i want to be part of changing some of those rules. I was at the white house and met with the president. He and i dont agree on a lot of stuff but on criminal justice we do. One of the laws that bothers me the most is called civil forfeiture. Civil forfeiture is when the government can take your stuff whether they have convicted you of a crime or not. I think this turns justice on its head. Most of our judicial system is you are innocent until Proven Guilty. [applause] civil forfeiture is the opposite. If theres one thing that i can change, i want to reinforce that in the judicial system, you are innocent until Proven Guilty. The problem is civil forfeiture is the opposite. I will give you a couple of examples. A family in philadelphia, their teenage son sold 40 worth of a Illegal Drugs off the back porch. The government took their house. How are we making anything better when we take the house . Maybe it is grandmas house. Why would we take grandmas house . Why would we take the familys house based on not even a conviction an accusation of a child to does not own the house . It is way out of control. Is happening in various venues. If you look at it, the Washington Post has done a great series over the last six or so. It is predominantly africanamerican, and hispanic or one common denominator, predominantly people who live in poverty. Its got to stop. I think we can stop it. This is something that the president and i completely agree on. We have legislation that changes the presumption that you will be innocent until Proven Guilty and they cannot take your stuff until you are Proven Guilty. Giving you some examples of things we have had a problem with. In civil forfeiture they took a 1. 5 Million Motel in new jersey. Why . About 10 people had stayed there over about 14 years that have been caught selling drugs. 10 people out of 200,000 people, and they took the hotel. When they look at it, theres a program where those who take your stuff get to keep it. They get to keep the proceeds. It is a perverse incentive for the government to want to take your stuff. Other hotels in the area, they did not take them. They had liens against them. This hotel happen to be paid for. The government looks for things they can confiscate that are already paid for. Can they increase your volume . Governor paul i think i lost my volume. We will have someone look into it. I think thats all ive got naturally to give you. Other than civil forfeiture its coming back. Other than civil forfeiture, there are a lot of things that we need to fix in our society. One of them is something called mandatory minimums. Mandatory minimums say that if you committed an infraction, you have to serve a minimum sentence. A 24yearold kid sold 300 worth of marijuana, he got a sentence of 50 years. Thats outrageous. 55 years in prison for selling 300 worth of marijuana. You can kill someone in kentucky and be eligible for parole and 12 years. Something is wrong here. To compound this, there is a racial outcome to this. I dont think there is a racial intention, i tell people, i think they are looking if they dont think that incarceration problem in our country is not skewed towards one race. I dont think its purposeful but i think it is actual and real and we must do something about it. 55 years in prison for selling marijuana. Timothy tyler was a guy, 23 years ago, he was 23 years old. He was a dead head, doing lsd, things you shouldnt do. The thing is for that crime of sending some lsd through the mail and using lsd, he got life in prison. He is now 46 years old. He has been in jail for 23 years. This is out of control and insane. Jill lockwood is 31 years old. She was writing a false prescription for herself for lortab. It is 95 tylenol. They put her in jail based on the weight of the entire drug. She is in jail for 15 years. She was an addict. Let her have treatment, punish her, but dont put people in jail for 15 years. This is all done through mandatory minimums. I think judges should get more discretion. Democrats and republicans are saying give us discretion, another means to incarceration. In 1980, there were 300,000 kids in our america who did not have a father because their father was in prison. There are now 2 million kids with no father because the father was in prison. We need to be fixing the criminal Justice System. If we look at mandatory minimums, civil forfeiture, and other problems we have in our society, one of the problems his employment. As republicans, were big on saying we dont want people permanently on welfare. We want people to transition from welfare to a job. How am i supposed to find a job, i am a convicted felon. There has to be a way to figure out how to get people back to work. [applause] a friend of mines brother grew Marijuana Plants of the worst at the university of kentucky 30 years ago. He is a convicted felon. He also check the box every time he goes to look for a job. And, he cant vote. If we really want to get people back integrated into society not permanently unable to work and permanently on welfare, we have to figure out how to expunge their records. Booker and i put together a bill, called the redeem act. It takes these minor felonies, mostly drug possession and says, if you have been punished, out of jail, he paid your debts to society, and a certain amount of time, you should be able to get rid of your records. We are talking about nonviolent crimes. In the bill also, that i have with cory booker, and gets rid of solitary confinement for teenagers. Why were putting teenagers in solitary confinement, i dont know. I can tell you one story that horrified me, in the new york times, a few weeks ago. A black man, teenager from the bronx, he was picked up for doing a crime. I dont know if you did the crime are not, but it was a crime that he was sent to writers for three years, he was sent to rikers for three years in solitary confinement. Three years in prison and he was never tried. These people not heard about the six amendment . A speedy trial. He tried to commit suicide three times. I dont know what happened to him and rikers, but it certainly wasnt good, fair. It wasnt fair. It wasnt fair to have a man locked up for three years. We ought to change it. [applause] in the bill that i have with cory booker, we take some of the records and let them be expunged. So that they wont show up when you go to work. We also get rid of solitary confinement for juveniles. I also think that part of the problem with losing your ability to vote is that we have a lot of felonies that we can make misdemeanors. I have another bill called the reset bill. We take minor felonies nonviolent crimes, and we make the misdemeanors. Were not saying they are ok, but they are misdemeanor, and you will never lose your right to vote or your right to work. These are things that if we do we can radically transform our country. We have something on civil forfeiture, mandatory minimums expungement, and resetting your record. All of these things, i think will help with criminal justice. Will help for people who live in the two americas and people who think they arent open to life liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, or that undercurrent of unease. Maybe those people will start to feel part of the American Dream and will be ambitious and tried to succeed like the rest of us. One of the final things is we have had a lot of discussion in our country about Voting Rights. Whether people are excluded or not excluded, and what we need to do to make it better. I think the good thing is, more minorities voted at a higher percentage in mississippi and other states last time around. We have come a long way. The one thing precluding people from voting is the felony conviction. I have a bill with harry reid to get your Voting Rights back. I think its hard for people to feel part of america of a cannot vote. We want people to go to work. We want people to be able to vote. How do we protect all these things and make it a better, more united, america . I think we need to pay more attention to the bill of rights. The bill of rights is there to protect all of us. It is not necessarily for the prom queen. Its not necessarily for the high school or not, the college quarterback. Those who are popular among you will always do fine. Its for the least popular among you. Its for those with unorthodox ideas. It is precisely for minorities. You can be minorities because of the shade of your skin, or a minority because of the shade of your ideology. You can be a minority because you are african or hispanic. But you can also be a minority because you are an evangelical christian. We have instances, and the last year or two, where we have let down our guard. I will give you a couple of examples. We have something now in america called indefinite detention. This means someone can be sent to Guantanamo Bay forever. I said, this begs the question. Who gets to decide who is dangerous and who is not dangerous . Who should be afraid of this . Anybody think that you may want to be afraid if you are jewish. Has anyone ever seen animus towards jewish people. Everybody ever think theres been animus towards africanamericans in our country . The answer is, even from this president , i dont think this president will round up people based on their race. I dont think he will do that. Thats what he said when he signed the legislation. He said, im a good man, i will not do this. Im not questioning whether or not the president is a good man, but the law on the book. There have been times in our history when we have let down our guard. Madison wrote about this when he said, if government were comprised of angels, we would not need these laws. If government were comprised of angels, it would not matter if there were potential for bias. Remember the times you did not get due process. Remember the times that groups in our country, like japaneseamericans during world war ii who did not get due process and were incarcerated without trial. Thats why we have these rules. Its not because of this president , but the next president , or the president thereafter. We are also doing something that i think goes against justice and the ideas of justice. We are collecting your phone records. Every one of your phone records is being collected and stored. They wont tell us, but in all likelihood, the vast majority of phone records are being collected. If you look at the worn, it does not have your name on it. The Fourth Amendment says it must specify your name, what you did, and they have to go to a judge to ask for probable cause. You look at your phone records and it says verizon on it. I dont think you can write one single warrior and get 1500 records. It is supposed to be individualized. You had to specify the person. Specify the crime. Probable cause. You should be worried about this. What does the government say . Trust us. We are good people. We will never look at your records. They have already been a couple of intelligence folks looking at their wife the boyfriends records. People are tempted to look at your records. People are not perfect. Can we still get terrorists and we do not collect records . Yes. Get a warrant. If there is a rapist in d. C. And you do not see him running towards the house, the police do not break the door down. It is 3 00 in the morning, they call the judge and they get a permit. We need these constitutional protections. Think about the 1960s. Think about how Martin Luther kings phone was tapped. Think about many people who protested the war. Had their phone tap. You have to have these protections. Not because theres one particular bad person in government, but there is potential. Criminal justice, or the lack of criminal justice, it is not a black or white problem. It is not a black or brown problem. What it is is a poverty problem. We have to be careful to make sure the bill of rights applies to every individual. If there is one thing that i want to get across it is that we have to defend the bill of rights. [applause] i think there are two other areas in which there are two america still. And where we need to find out how to unite the two americas. One is education. If youre here at bowie state or youre visiting and you went to school or college and working, you succeeded. You are part of the america that will go after the American Dream, life, liberty, pursue of happiness. Like, if you did not go to school or you went to a crummy high school, you are living in one of the other americas. The statistics are startling. If you look at the graphs, those who went to school, those who waited and had kids and got married after going to school, it is night and day. There are two different americas. How do we equalize education . Education is the equalizer. There is still a lack of equality in the school. The best way to put it. I went to public schools, they had at kilis, physics, biology two, anatomy and physiology, i had a great school. My kids have gone to public schools. Tablet schools are not all created equal. There is still a problem. A lot of the problem can be fixed if we allowed for more animation, competition. Allow kids to choose what school they go to. If theres a school in the suburbs, allow them to drive to that school. Schools choice will allow them to be equal. Right now, the concern is that those making decisions are the education establishment, not be parents. Parents are doing anything they can to win the lottery to get their kid to go to a good school. We have to figure out how to make education equal across the board. Finally, what we have to do is get economic equality. Im not talking about some kind of equality of outcome. Im talking about equality of opportunity. I think that we have to do something new. Weve tried passing money out. Look in my state. Appalachia has gotten money for 60 years. We tax everybody in the country, and then it to appalachia. Appalachia is bill as poor as it ever was. The problem is, if you give me the money and asked me to give it someone, people and government dont know who to give it to. We give it to john smith and say, open a business. We dont know if john smith or mary smith are good at making business. The market does though. Every day you are going out and spending money, you are voting on which businesses will succeed. I think we should stimulate detroit. Detroit has 20 unemployment and thousands of abandoned factories. If we want to do thumbing for detroit, why dont we cut the taxes for detroit . [applause] jack kemp was the first person to talk about this. I call these we take tax cuts to areas of high incidence of poverty, and we dramatically cut the taxes. Not a little bit. We almost completely wipe out federal taxes so they can have more money. A detroit, it would be a 1. 3 billion dollars tax cut. For baltimore, about 90 million per year. [applause] why does this work better than a government stimulus . We tried a government stimulus. We gave a bunch of money, about 800 billion that we gave out. We did not know who to give it to you. When they divided up, it was about 400 thousand dollars per job. If you give it back to the people think about baltimore, there are pockets of poverty but there are businesses that are succeeding. You dont want to give it to the brandnew person, given to the old business. They will hire new people. Give them back more of their money but in a dramatic fashion to stimulate the cities and get the cities growing again. What im saying is think outside of the box. What we have been doing is not working. I think there are ways we can of criminal justice in our country, ways of having quality education, and also ways of having Economic Opportunity. If we do things over and over again, that is the definition of insanity is your acted different result. I truly think that the two americas that Martin Luther king talked about can come back together. I think it is imperative for us to do it. I have seen and felt the undercurrent of unease. I have been to ferguson, chicago, detroit. Some of this is government. The government has done the wrong ring sometimes. Politicians. Police are trying to do their job for the most part. Politicians have done our bad job of creating criminal justice. But, we cant just think that things will change. Finally, we have to have the debate about who best been money. Are the politicians smart enough to know how to spend it, or should we send it back to baltimore . Should be having if we want baltimore to be richer . Leave more money and baltimore. Can we make more jobs by not sending it to washington in the first place . I am a big believer in freedom human ingenuity, i say if we give our back to the people, we will see success like we havent in a long time. [applause] i would like to use our moderator for the q and a. Thank you. Thank you for having me. I love the way stay bowie state. We are going to go ahead and do a q a with senator rand paul. I thought was refreshing to hear and talk on so many different topics, obviously thats around and involve our life here and elsewhere. First question, senator paul could the federal government provide incentives for businesses to hire as offenders . Senator paul the best way to have an incentive is to get rid of the record. Expunging the record is one of the best way to get ex offenders back to work. I think, particularly, we are trying out millions of people, as many as 5 Million People who lost the fight to vote, but theyre also people who are having difficulty getting employment. There has to be some exceptions, obviously. If you are a sex offender, child molester, things like that dont go away. Finally crime stay on your record, that is used oak some pot, through some Marijuana Plants and college, you ought to get a second chance. Absolutely. Speaking of smoking some pot second question, please explain your federal medical Marijuana Bill and the role of federal government in drug policy. Senator paul this is another bill that we introduce this week. What we do and that is we tried a the federal government will interfere with aids who want to have a medical marijuana. One of the things we have done is there are schedules for drugs. Schedule 1, 2, 3. Three is just about everything. Two is a little more restrictive. Schedule one is most restrictive. Marijuana is schedule one. Most doctors cap prescribe it. A couple examples of people who use marijuana for medical benefit. My political directors father used to use drugs. They were first drive jobs, he had a lot of pain from ms. He tried marijuana, he felt like it helped him. He didnt like the feel from it. He tried medical marijuana should he felt it help to deal with his disease. There are reasons to allow doctors to prescribe it more easily. Allow more research to happen. Some kids have so many seizures, its uncontrollable. 100 or 200 seizures per day. Their brain does not develop and they remain stumped. Airtight not cannabis oil they are now talking about the cannabis oil without the thc. Thc is the part that makes people get high. They take it out and they give oil to these did. Some of them are showing benefits. A needs to be studied. I think parents ought to have a chance. I think theres a great deal of popularity in the public. I dont know if youre congress is ready to pass it. The public is ready. [applause] senator paul, if you were president , how would you support u. S. Gas and oil instead of importing it from other countries . Senator paul i like the question. One way to be independent and have a growing Energy Industry in our country is we have to compete with everyone around the world. One of the ways we are not competing very well is that our taxes are higher and a Regulatory Burden is higher. For example, the Corporate Income tax in this country is 35 . And ireland, its 12 . In england, its 20 . Most of europe has a lower business tax that we do. Then, you bring in the Regulatory Burden of what we have on our energy. We have greater Regulatory Burden. Our tax burden is higher, our regulatory identifier. Even with that, our Energy Production is doing pretty well. Were at the point where we should say, should we get rid of the laws that say we cannot export. There was a lot of miss everything we were allowed to. Thank you. What are your thoughts on the progress of africanamericans in this country . What would you do as president to continue that progress . Senator paul sometimes we think we have not gone very far, when i think we have come along way. I say we, collectively obviously it is not me. We got rid of most of the legal problems of separation, in the 60s. Its in the wild to take effect and transmit to the schools. I think really, the problems are not legal separation. We have the fact of. There is de jure, of the law and de facto. I do get is a Economic Opportunity and criminal justice. The one thing the government can do is we need to make criminal justice more fair. One thing that i did not mention, which is also a problem many people cannot keep up with her Child Support payments. Instead of working out a schedule, we send them to prison. We have that is prison debtors prison. Could you make the correlation, obviously with criminal justice reform, and Economic Opportunity. You talked about, and if you could expand on our little more, the Economic Freedom zones that you have proposed. What will it take to make that a reality, if you will . If you could speak a little clearer on the benefit for individuals, Small Businesses, and municipalities. Senator paul i think if you look at the practical politics of this, and see, what is anyone offering detroit. Zero. You might need some democrats that say, lets just give them a billion dollars. We would have to borrow from china. We borrow 1 million per minute. I have a proposal for detroit, baltimore, louisville, all of our big cities. Wager likely lower the tax rates, you dont affect the infrastructure. Your police, fire, rose, all that you pay for with local taxes. If you live outside detroit in your president of the bank, and i say, i will give you a 5 income tax versus at 39 income tax if you moved to detroit, my guess is that you might consider doing it. We also have hiring incentives in that to get those tax rates you have to hire i think sway 5 of your people have to live in the neighborhood. Excellent. Any other questions, followup questions . [indiscernible] senator paul it is true of everything on the margin. We dont have money for most things. Yesterday, i had people come and wanting more money for diabetes. Her are a lot of good cause is out there, but they want more money. I told them what you tell everyone else, if you have a cause that you believe in, you have to figure out where the money comes from. You have to cut spending. Im willing to do that also. I have said repeatedly, before i touch any penny for a safety net, i will cut every penny of corporate welfare. That is how you save money. [applause] i think, senator paul, when you first came to the senate you talked about looking at eliminating spending, cutting it by 500 billion. Could you speak a little more about that. Senator paul this is a good point. He will say, republicans are for no government. Cutting everything, leaving nothing for the poor. That is not true. We are mostly for not spending money that does not come in. I am for 3 trillion worth of government. Thats how much comes in. There is this huge disparity of what comes in and what goes out. Within the 3 trillion, you have to make some this the winch some distinctions on what you do. I think the department of congress is mostly going to bridge corporations. There are 20 billion dollars worth of rich welfare to corporations. On average, there are about 200 million to 40 or 50 big corporations. You can eliminate that. Theres quite a bit of different departments that could go. Im not sure you would notice the difference. Weve had the department of education for i dont know 30 oh 40 years the vast majority that can go back to the state level and not be done on washington. [applause] i believe the importexport bank would be a part of that as well. Senator paul i would call the corporate welfare as well. Thank you very much, senator paul. Its an honor. [applause] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2015] tonight beginning at 745 east stern, we take you to house party with former Florida Governor jeb bush. Just before noon, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker at a republican Party Grassroots workshop in concord. Senator ted cruz at the annual Lincoln Reagan center. Wrote to the white house 2016 on cspan. This sunday on q a the director at the Georgetown UniversityMedical Center watchdog project and how pharmaceutical companies lobby on what medications to describe. The promotion of a drug cubs 710 years before it is on the market. It is not illegal to market a disease. Drug companies have sometimes invented diseases or exaggerated the importance of certain conditions or exaggerated the importance of a particular mechanism of a drug and then blanketed medical journals and medical meetings and other venues with these messages that are meant to prepare the minds of clinicians to expect a particular drug and to prepare the minds of consumers to accept a particular condition. Sunday night on cspan q a. Cia director john brennan spoke with the council on Foreign Relations in new york city but the Agency Strategy to strengthen intelligence gathering capabilities and enhance global security. Pbs host charlie rose moderated the discussion. It is just over an hour. [applause] director brennan thank you very much, charlie. Good afternoon. I want to thank the council of Foreign Relations and especially richard for inviting me to be here today. Over the past many months, cia has been in the news for a variety of reasons, most of them unrelated to the many challenges as well as the opportunities that lie ahead of us on the global stage. So i would like to begin with a snapshot of some of the International Developments and trends that are of greatest concern to the cia and talk to you about how we are tackling these challenges. I thought i would take some time today to focus in particular on the importance of our work with foreign partners in enhancing global security. These relationships are founded on discretion, so we dont talk about them much, but they play an essential role in our efforts to collect relevant and impactful intelligence, to provide insightful analysis, and to conduct effective covert action as directed by the president. Last month, an extremist gunned down a film director at a cafe in copenhagen, made his way across town, and then shot and killed a Security Guard at a synagogue. Later the same day, the terrorist group isil released a video showing the horrific execution of Coptic Christians on a beach in libya. The previous month, in a span of less than 24 hours, we saw a savage attack on the staff of the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in france, we saw a car bomb kill dozens at a Police Academy in human, and we received reports that the Extremist Group boko haram had carried out yet another massacre in nigeria claiming an untold number of innocent lives. And in december, gunmen in pakistan opened fire on School Children in an attack that, even by the appalling standards of the pakistani taliban, was shocking in its moral depravity. These attacks underscore a disturbing trend that we have been monitoring for some time. The emergence of a terrorist threat that is increasingly decentralized, difficult to track, and difficult to thwart. While it is true that the United States and its allies have had considerable success degrading the capabilities of core al qaeda, various al qaeda affiliates and other terrorist organizations have surged in other countries. Countries such as libya, egypt somalia, nigeria, and especially yemen, where al qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has demonstrated a capability to plot attacks well beyond yemens borders, including in our homeland. But no region has gained more of the worlds attention than syria and iraq, where isil is waging a campaign of unspeakable brutality against the local population, and indeed against anyone who does not share its ideology. Isil is wellarmed and wellfinanced. Its fighters are disciplined committed, and battlehardened. Left unchecked, the group would pose a serious danger not only to syria and iraq, but to the wider region and beyond, including the threat of attacks in the homelands of the United States and our partners. This will be a longterm struggle. Isil will not be rolled back overnight. If there is one thing we have learned over the years, it is that success against terrorism requires patience and determination. Clearly, our country will be dealing with terrorism in one form or another for many years to come. What makes terrorism so difficult to fight is not just the ideology that fuels it, or the tactics that enable it. The power of modern communications also plays a role. New technologies can help groups like isil coordinate operations, attract new recruits disseminate propaganda, and inspire sympathizers across the globe to act in their name. The overall threat of terrorism is greatly amplified by todays interconnected world, where an incident in one corner of the globe can instantly spark a reaction thousands of miles away; and where a lone extremist can go online and learn how to carry out an attack without ever leaving home. Indeed, for all its advantages the Information Age brings with it an array of new challenges that have profound implications for cias Mission Implications that go beyond counterterrorism. The most obvious example, of course, is the tremendous growth of activities in the Digital Domain, which is full of tremendous opportunity for good but also serious challenges and vulnerabilities that can be exploited to harm our National Security. Threats in the cyber realm are an urgent nationalsecurity priority, as america has no equivalent to the two wide oceans that have helped safeguard our countrys physical, maritime, and aviation domains for centuries. Every day, state actors, criminals, terrorist organizations, and hackers of all stripes try to penetrate our nations digital networks. Government institutions are under constant assault, and private companies are spending enormous sums of money to defend against hacking attempts, denial of service attacks, and other efforts to disrupt their networks. The attack on sony late last year was a reminder of just how serious the threat is and how quickly it can take place. Cia is working with our partners across the federal government to strengthen cyber defenses, to share expertise, and to collaborate with the private sector to mitigate these threats. Together, we have advanced our understanding of threats in the cyber realm. But just as we have improved our knowledge as well as our capabilities, so too have our adversaries. They are skilled, agile, and determined, and matching them will require focus and imagination not just from government, but from private industry as well. In addition to counterterrorism and cyber security, developments in a host of countries across the globe are raising strategic and tactical challenges for policymakers and our agency. Countries like iraq, syria yemen, libya, afghanistan, pakistan, ukraine, somalia nigeria, venezuela, and north korea. In addition to monitoring developments in these hotspots our analysts track overall trends in global stability. Their findings for 2014 confirm the sense we all get from monitoring daily events that the Current International environment is extraordinarily complex. Developments last year continued a threeyear trend of rising instability marked by severe conflict and the erosion of state capacity worldwide. We saw more outbreaks of instability than at any point since just after the collapse of the soviet union, matching the rate we saw during the period of decolonization in the 1960s. The implications of this trend are well known to this audience. Rising instability leads to a growth in ungoverned spaces; a spike in humanitarian crises; a surge of refugees, weapons, and fighters across borders, and an emphasis on security over democratic principles among conflictweary publics. As cia tackles these challenges, we benefit greatly from the network of relationships we maintain with Intelligence Services throughout the world. This is a critically important and lesserknown aspect of our efforts. I cannot overstate the value of these relationships to the agencys mission and to National Security indeed, to the collective security of america and its allies. By sharing intelligence, analysis, and knowhow with these Partner Services, we open windows on regions and issues that might otherwise be closed to us. And, when necessary, we act in concert to mitigate a common threat. By collaborating with our partners, we are much better able to close key intelligence gaps on our toughest targets, as well as fulfill cias mission to provide Global Coverage and to prevent surprises for our nations leaders. There is no way we could be successful in carrying out a mission of such scope and complexity on our own. Naturally, these are sensitive relationships built on mutual trust and confidentiality. Unauthorized disclosures in recent years by individuals who betrayed our country have created difficulties with Liaison Services that we have had to overcome. But it is testament to the strength and effectiveness of these relationships that our partners remain eager to work with us. With the stakes so high for our peoples safety, these alliances are simply too crucial to be allowed to fail. From the largest services with global reach to those of smaller nations focused more on local and regional issues, cia has developed a range of working relationships with our counterparts overseas. No issue highlights the importance of our International Partnerships more right now than the challenge of foreign fighters entering and leaving the conflict in syria and iraq. We roughly estimate that at least 20,000 fighters from more than 90 countries have gone to fight several thousand of them from western nations, including the United States. Blunting the danger these fighters pose upon their return is a top priority for the Us Intelligence community as well as our liaison partners. We Exchange Information with our counterparts around the world to identify and track down men and women believed to be violent extremists. And because we have the wherewithal to maintain ties with so Many National services we act as a central repository of data and trends to advance the overall effort. On this and innumerable other challenges, our cooperation with foreign liaison quietly achieves significant results. Working together, we have disrupted terrorist attacks and rolled back groups that plot them, intercepted transfers of dangerous weapons and technology, Brought International criminals to justice, and shared vital intelligence and expertise on everything from the use of chemical armaments in syria to the downing of a malaysian airliner over ukraine. These relationships are an essential adjunct to diplomacy. And by working with some of these services in building their capabilities, we have helped them become better prepared to tackle the challenges that threaten us all. Cias role in enhancing the capacity of our foreign partners is part of a team effort across our government. Just as the Defense Department helps train foreign militaries and the Justice Department assists in developing criminal Justice Systems, cia works with many of our Liaison Services to build their skills, tradecraft and technology. To be sure, if we are to work with a broad range of services around the globe, we must also focus on enhancing professionalism and commitment to the ethics of intelligence. We advocate Core Principles and practices that are indispensable to any intelligence agency, like shunning involvement in the political process, maintaining strict independence and objectivity, and adhering to international norms. With cias support, i have seen counterparts develop into sophisticated and effective partners. Over time, our engagement with Partner Services fosters a deeper, more candid giveandtake, a more Robust Exchange of information and assessments, and a better understanding of the world that often ultimately encourages better alignment on policy. Another advantage of building and maintaining strong bilateral and multilateral intelligence relationships is that they can remain albeit not entirely insulated from the ups and downs of diplomatic ties. These links can provide an important conduit for dispassionate dialogue during periods of tension, and for conveying the us perspective on contentious issues. In recognition of the importance of our liaison relationships, i recently reestablished a senior position at the agency dedicated to ensuring that we are managing relationships in an integrated fashion, to developing a Strategic Vision and corporate goals for our key partnerships and to helping me carry out my statutory responsibility to coordinate the Intelligence Communitys foreign intelligence relationships. This position is one of a number of changes underway at cia designed to maximize our capabilities for the future. As you have read, last september i asked a group of very experienced officers from across cia to take a fresh look at our organization and to make recommendations on how we can ensure that our agency remains highly capable of carrying out our Global Mission in the years ahead. The result is the Major Initiative we announced last week. That initiative stems from the two shifts in the National Security landscape that i opened my remarks with today the marked increase in the range diversity, complexity, and immediacy of issues confronting policymakers, and the unprecedented pace and impact of technological developments. Media attention has focused on our efforts to embrace and leverage the digital revolution by, among others things, creating a new directorate of digital innovation. This step does not, as some have suggested, signify a marked change in cias core mission. Rather, it an organizational response to the simple reality that, in todays interconnected world, we must place our activities and operations in the Digital Domain at the very center of all our longstanding mission endeavors. You also have read about the formation of mission centers. These are designed to better integrate our great strengths in collection, analysis technology, and support, and apply them more efficiently and effectively to the nations most pressing Security Issues and interests. And finally, we are pushing ahead on two other strategic goals doing a better job of attracting and developing a diverse and highly talented workforce, and modernizing the way we do business. We seek to build a culture in which our people are Intelligence Officers first, regardless of whether they practice the discipline of analysis, collection, science and technology, digital innovation, or support. And we want a Business Model that improves our capacity to make the sound Strategic Decisions needed to build a Better Agency and run it efficiently, even as we respond to urgent external requirements. We are determined to push decisionmaking down deeper into the hierarchy, which is one reason we created the mission centers, the heads of which will hold considerable responsibility for taking initiative and further enhancing the agility that has always been crucial to our agencys success. Before we begin our conversation, i would like to once again thank the council for inviting me to speak here today. I look for to the questions today. Thank you. [applause] thank you. Let me begin with one saying you emphasized more than once the relationship with others and agencies around the world. Is that in any way a fallout from the snowden disclosures, or a sense that you want to assure us and the rest of the world that whatever damage had been repaired, and our relationship with other intelligence agencies was good and functioning. Director brennan two points. It reflects mostly just how complex this world is and how we cia have to rely not only on our u. S. Intelligence community partners, but we have to rely on these partners overseas. The world is a big place. We have to make sure we are able to work with those Intelligence Community services that have eyes and years on the ground and ears on the ground and have the ability to stop terrorists. That is a critically important component of this new world, which is interconnected, we have to be able to rely on other partners, and it reflects that despite the damage caused by the disclosures, i have found that over the past two years since i have been at the cia, i have a steady stream of foreign partners who emphasized how much they want to be will to continue and build upon the relationships with the cia. They see it as critical. We blink we bring to bear the technology, the capabilities the approaches they need to be able to address the many challenges they face in their area. I do see the world being more interconnected for a variety of reasons, but also in terms of intelligence, law enforcement. Charlie i want to turn to threat assessment. When you look at the threat of terrorism today, what is it that scares you the most about it . The fact that there is a real effort to try to monitor the people who are going to syria, who have passports back to europe, back to the United States. Director brennan i have worked terrorism for a good part of my career. I think we see an evolution from the terrorist phenomenon. Dealing with palestinian terrorism over the years, a lot of these organizations were discrete structures. They tried to migrate their philosophies and jettison others. They were contained organizations. Weve made progress against them. Isil demonstrates the worst and developments because it has basically been a phenomenon that has snowballed in terms of its appeal, so they were able to make Great Strides within iraq and syria, and then they established what they referred to as the they have had to give a fair amount of success using the technologies on the internet to present their narrative in ways that romanticize what is going on there. It is conflicting with reality. But this phenomenon now house has generated a lot of appeal. We see boko haram pledging allegiance to isil. We see different franchises, in libya or south asia. In egypt, they are trying to get on the bandwagon of this phenomenon. This worrisome, Global Movement that really requires us to work with this broad array of Partner Services throughout the world. Charlie is what is happening in tikrit the beginning of rolling back isil and iraq . Director brennan there have been a number of things that have helped to contain the rapid spread and growth of isil oath in iraq and syria. They were on march toward baghdad and the iraq charlie how close were they . Director brennan they were within a couple thousand miles. They had sent out the courses to see if they get toughen up the iraqi forces. Thankfully the iraqis were able to coalesce in the area and bring to bear the capability they needed. The pushes against trying to dislodge isil from the areas of iraq they have not been able to take over. We see a combination of forces right now. Some of the shia militant groups, including sunni tribal elements that have brought to bear the resources to push isil out of a good part of it. For a couple of months isil was pummeling that area. They are not invincible. They can be stopped. Charlie can this be accomplished . There certainly brought to bear capabilities. They have been able to amass a large enough force to push back against isil inroads. The Coalition Strikes really has off and up a lot of isil forces. Although it is looked at reno it is an iranian shia effort efforts made by the charlie and in the iraqi army, are they fighting any better . Director brennan i think they have been able to regroup. There are training elements going on right now. A number of iraqi forces have been able to augment the forces already there. The coalition is engaged in trying to strengthen those forces with the training and advice. These will take time. We expect things not to turn around immediately. This is going to be a long tough fight. We know isil has a lot of material. They also have shown they are willing to kill the cells in certain areas. This has been a long and bloody assignment. Charlie the help that they are getting from iran, is that enough to get the job done on the ground . With Coalition Air support . Director brennan i think there will be a deliberate effort on part of the iraqis and their partners, whether it be the coalition or iranians, to move into those areas that isil has overrun. I think what needs to be done is a very careful, strategic push so that they do not go into battle unprepared. I think it is important, both from a military perspective, and from a psychological perspective, that you need to have those victories against isil. I said if are not invincible but you need possibilities that are decisive. Charlie it is also been said it you cannot seriously diminish their power unless you are prepared to do something about isil in syria. Director brennan there is a combined effort with the government right now in akkad in bagdhad, trying to get them to do the right thing. Getting the Sunni Community involved in the fight against isil. We do have a government that is problematic. One of the reasons that there is an attraction into the reason is that the idea that assad is not part of syrias future. Charlie but we need assad in power as an opposition to isil as well. Director brennan it will not be resolved on the battlefield, in my mind. We need to support the elements in syria dedicated to moving assad and his folks out. But there has to be some kind of political pathway to achieve that. Charlie do you think russia wants to be a part of that . Director brennan i think russia is looking at the problems created by a situation in syria. There are a lot of russian nationals that of travel to chechnya and other areas. I think they realize that assad is problematic. None of us want to see the collapse of the government in damascus. What we do want is for there to be a future in damascus to bring into power eight Representative Government that will address the grievances, a multiconfessional country that really deserves a government that represents the people are. The people there. Charlie do you fear what might replace an Assad Government . Director brennan i think that is a legitimate concern. The last thing we want to do it is important to bolster those forces within the Syrian Opposition that are not extremists. Charlie do you worry about iran and iraq in terms of what happens if iranians would like to have a stronger presence in . In iraq . Director brennan the iranians have clear interest because they share a border with iraq, they share a history with it as well. There are coreligionists from iran and iraq. We recognize that iran has legitimate interests there. We need to make sure it will not be the type of iranian invasion that will create an internal political situation that will not allow the iraqi people to live in a country that has more stability than it has right now. Charlie using coordination on the ground as iraqis as a middle person . Director brennan clearly, in terms of what isil has done there, we work closely with the Iraqi Government. Iranians were closely with the Iraqi Government as well. We trying to advance our common objective. Charlie speaking of iranians and negotiations. What is it for you, a central requirement in terms of a Nuclear Agreement with iran . The kind of notice you would need, im thinking of those kinds of issues. Director brennan clearly there are aspects of Irans Nuclear program that needs to be addressed. The United States, as well as countries in the region, need comfort that they are not on the march to eight Nuclear Capability to a Nuclear Capability. We need to determine the type of enrichment they will be able to contain. Also cutting up pathways to nuclear weapons. Making sure you have the opportunity to inspect facilities, verification readings, to make sure there is not a breakout. These are the arrangements. It is a multidimensional package of things that these negotiations are looking at currently. There has been a very intense effort to try and understand the different dimensions of the Iranian Program as well as to address all of the barriers and all the areas of concern. This is not something done in a haphazard way. Looking at what the u. S. Government is doing with our partners and how this has proceeded, i think this has been the most careful and lebron negotiation the most careful and deliberate negotiation. It will help the complex in the region. Charlie in other words, you are comfortable with the agreement they are working on now. Director brennan i think the u. S. Side will have minimum requirements that we will not reduce. We have to have the confidence and comfort with the arrangement, not with just what iran has agreed to, but allowing the agreements to have confidence that the terms are being upheld. Charlie turning to ukraine. What is your sense of what putin is up to . Did he get in over his head, as some have suggested, and is in fact looking for a way out . Or do you believe this is part of a larger idea of expanding russian influence . Director brennan i think russia and putin clearly have Strategic Ambitions in terms of the area along the western border of russia. They are concerned about what is perceived as a nato influence in the area. Putin has gotten himself to the point where there is an International Consensus about not allowing russia to continue to march in this direction. Thankfully, over the last several weeks, we have had a reduction in the amount of violence there. I would look to mr. Putin to see how he will actually get himself out of this predicament where the russian economy is facing serious challenges as the result of sanctions and how the International Community are united in pursuing this i think it is always in our interests to find a dramatic and peaceful way out of the problem. It is incumbent on the u. S. As the leader of the western and free world to help us shape this. The countries in that area who have very serious concerns about other types of russian activity in that region need to have a very strong voice. We see our partners, the germans and others, are taking a look at this as well. Charlie someone in the administration once said to me