Transcripts For CSPAN Public Affairs 20121029

President obama the last four years has made a lot of decisions. Some of them like the stimulus package he said would result in all kinds of new jobs. That has not happened. He said he was going to cut the deficit in half. That has not happened. The good news that we have somebody who is running for president that has the knowhow. He has the experience. He has got the experience, the record, and he knows how to work with democrats, republicans cannot independents alike to address the challenges we face as a country, and that is why we need mitt romney in washington to fix what is broken and bring back the American Dream. I see a uaw member here economy. Autos. Talk what go said barack obama that said were a few wars. One was about the Auto Industry. He said, you want to take those companies to bankruptcy. I supported a rescue package for the autos, but what obama said was not true. It was barack obama who took gm and chrysler through bankruptcy, ok . Right . Second, it was mitt romney who absolutely did provide for loan guarantees to ensure the warranties were backed up. That is what every fact checker who has looked at what obama said said he was wrong, he was not telling the truth. Now, this is what is most important to this guy here and the other uaw workers that are here. It is the policies that mitt romney and paul ryan want to put in place that will make the Auto Industry strong [indiscernbile] he wants sensible regulations. He wants tax reform that will ensure we can get the Auto Companies back on their feet. He wants to make sure that trade is fair. He wants workers trained to work better for them. He wants their energy costs now. That is what will keep energy otter jobs here in ohio. That is what mitt romney is going to. Balks, we are in the fourth quarter. The score is tied. Were in the red zone. We got the momentum on our side. Are we going to be sure that we take mitt romney over the goal line in the next eight days . Ladies and gentlemen, the next president of the United States, mitt romney. B thank you. What an avon lake welcome. Thank you so very much. Thank you, senator portman, and the Lieutenant Governor has been going with us all over the state. Her support means everything in the world. The senator was my sparring partner. He was really strong. I finally it is nice not to argue with him all the time. Withs good to have withhim me on the campaign trail. We have got to reelect him as the next congressman from the district, and we have other folks you may know. Chairman reince priebus, and the former Cleveland Browns great gary baxter is here. We appreciate his support in the campaign. I have been heartened by the support that our campaign is receiving across the nation. The attention that is being focused on this race is because people recognize how much is at stake. It is critical time for the country. We face or rumors we face enormous challenges, an economy that is not putting people to work. The people coming out of college cannot find work half of them cannot find work. Around the world we face at china which is going to be a Major Economic power. Already is and will be a stronger power down the road. Has been taking a lot of jobs from people here in ohio. The also face radical violent jihadists. I am proud of the fact that our team has focused on what we will do to bring real change, big change to a country that badly needs it. We have a precedent today president today who has a different view. His view is we are on the right track, no need for major change. My view is this track is the wrong force for america, this is a turning point, and as a result as people in this country who want real change from day one are going to vote for paul bryan and myself. Paul ryan and myself. As i go across the country i recognize people do not want 23 million americans to be out of work or looking for a good job. And what people have good jobs. They do not want an administration that is comfortable with trilliondollar deficits each year. They do not like the gridlock in washington. Our campaign is about real change from day one of the coming days, i will talk to people across the country about what those changes will look like. I want to mention one to date that is a key to help topic, but let me put this in perspective. The ability of america to create jobs for americas workers depends on whether entrepreneurs are willing to start businesses and heart businesses people and other Big Companies that been around for a long time are willing to build factories and expand and hire more people. If you want good jobs when you are out of school, but if you want good jobs in their 40s, 50s, and 60s, you have to see entrepreneurs started businesses. But you have seen of the last few years is the opposite of that. You have seen Big Companies going elsewhere. You have seen entrepreneurs pull back. Were in a 30year low in the number of new businesses that are starting up. One of the reasons that businesses have not been investing in america and adding jobs is as they look around the world and see how much they are have to pay to governments, they see in this country we pay more to government if youre a business that any other major country in the world. In the europe their Corporate Tax rate which is to be higher than ours is now down to 25 . Ours is 35 . Businesses that are thinking of investing are interested in going elsewhere. Kanaka brought their tax rate down to canada brought their tax rate down to 15 . I will propose sweeping our Corporate Tax rate from 35 down to 25 . At the same time we will have to get rid of deductions and exemptions and loopholes so we keep getting the revenue we need, but we want to bring the tax rate down to make america an ohio and more interesting place to invest. Small businesses, because Small Businesses do not a bit difficult tax rate. They pay the individual tax rate. I want to bring it down. I want to bring down the individual rate house well. As well. I will make this proposal through our congress on day one. We will get real change in place from day one. There are other things i will do. I will make shall we finally get america on track to have a balanced budget. We cannot keep spending more money than [indiscernbile] what we are talking about these topics that sound like Big Government policies, balancing budgets, they affect the lives of individual americans. This is about you and about your life. I say that because lets say you are a senior and i see a senior here waiting i met senior by age, not senior in high school. I am sorry. Thats say you are a 65year old or older and when you get a medical condition that requires the care of a specialist, if you call the specialists us and ask for a limit, if we install obamacare, 50 of doctors say they will say no to any new medicare patients. The rates have been brought down so much. He has cut medicare 716 barron dollars trip at the time in your life when Health Care Matters so much, people will find less ability to choose the doctor they want. That is why when i am elected i will not cut medicare 760 billion. I will restore medicare and make sure seniors are given the promise [indiscernbile] if you are college student, and i know we have a lot of High School Students here today, when you graduate, you will find that you have a lot of student debt. 10,000, 20,000, maybe more. You will be paying the interest on that for a long time. I have some news that is not very good news for our College Bound the people. When they graduate under the president s administration, half will not be able to find a good job. I want to make sure that people coming out of college are able to get a good job and one more thing, besides that student debt, because the president has been spending massively more than he has been taking in, where passing on debts to your generation. You guys do not know it, but there is about 50,000 of debt that you arent have to pay to wrap your life, so when you get your first pyrrole stuff and you see taxes been withdrawn, that is money that is being paid not for what was given to you, of what was given to my generation. In my view is not just bad economics, spending what we do not have. If you are a 40yearold, in the prime working years of your life, it may not feel like you are able to put away what you thought you would be able to put white bread and, because the expectation was that you could put away something for retirement or helping kids college. Lot of people who are employed are finding it hard to make ends meet. I spoke to a guy from wisconsin he said who said he used to get 25 an hour plus benefits. Now he can only find a job at 8 an hour without benefits. Then there are another 22 million americans struggle to find a good job. People in this country are having a hard time under this president s economic policies. When asked what he will do to get the economy going, we have that for debates, four debates, there has not been an agenda. He said we will stay the course and continued down the same road. He calls it 4. I call it forwarned. We know where this road heads. I have a plan that will create 12 million new jobs. If have thought if has five parts. Number one, we will take advantage of our oil, coal, natural gas [indiscernbile] number2, we will open more trade, particularly with latin america. Latin america is an enormous economy. I want to open up that market. We have to label those who are cheating for what they are and make sure we protect our jobs and our industries. Number three, i want to make sure our Training Programs work for the workers of the day and we have schools better from the job for the kids so they have the skills they need for tomorrow. Number four, i mentioned balancing the budget. Number five, we Will Champion Small Business and help Small Business [indiscernbile] all this is going to happen because we will do something that has been spoken about in campaign and after campaign, but not done. That is i will reach across the aisle and work with democrats. I will find Common Ground. We have to find a way to work with people in the opposition party. Democrats love america, republicans love america. I was governor of the state with a legislature that was 85 democrat. I knew from the beginning to get anything done i had to reach across the aisle. I did. We were able to cut state spending, not just lower the rate of growth, but cut it. We cut taxes as well. We balance our budget. We created a 2 billion rainy day fund. We worked together. I will meet regularly but democrats in washington with their leaders and my party boss leaders, at the together to find ways to help the American People. It is high time for us to put the interest of the American People about the interests of politics. And i am confident in the future. I am convinced that americas greatest days are ahead. In this time of great challenge there are great opportunities. Have seen the heart of the American People to write my life. I recognize the great qualities of the human spirit in the american heart. I was a boy scout leader some years ago we got some boy scouters here. I was at a court of honor. This voiced doubt knows what that means. It is where eagle awards are given, and i was at the end at a table next to an american attack flag. The scout leader who was speaking with the scout master from monument, colorado. He said his Boy Scout Troop wanted to have a special american flat, said it bought one with gold tassels and had it flown above the capitol. Asked if it would be flown on the space shuttle. He said the boys were so proud as they were looking from their own rooms as they watched the challenger launch, and then they saw it explode on the tv screen. He said he contacted nasa a couple of weeks later and asked if they found a remnant of their flag, and they had not. He called every week, week after week, and so nothing. After several months of trying, he gave up until one day he was reading an article in the newspaper about the challenger disaster and the debris that had been recovered, and they mentioned something about a flag. He called nasa and said have you found our flat, and they said as a matter of fact we have a presentation to make your voice. As it came together with their troop and presented them with a contender. We open the plastic container and inside was our flag in perfect condition. Sits next on the flagpole next to mr. Romney, and electricity ran through my arms because i thought about men and women of our Space Program who have lived their lives for something bigger than americ themselves. Think of women who have served in the arm for first, their willingness to walk in the way of danger for us, for liberty. It is part of the american character to give of oneself to something bigger than oneself. It is who we are. Is true in the patriots of the Space Program, the patrons who serve in our military, who served in the homes. My sister is in her 70s. She has eight children. They are all married with kids of their own, except the untest. The youngest, jeffrey, was born with downs syndrome. He is about 43 right now. Her husband pass away a few years ago. She is at home with jeffrey, and she has devoted the last 43 years of her life to making sure that jeffreys life is as full and complete as can possibly be. And he wrote to me. A hero to me. I think of the single moms across the country who are scrimping and saving right now. So they can have a good meal on the table at the end of the day for their children. I think of the men and women who are working two jobs right now and perhaps an mom working the day shift and a dad working the night shifts so they rarely see each other. Why . So their kids will be able to have that close that other kids at school have. I think of a number of couples across america that are not want to have christmas this year by exchanging gifts with each other, but will say so they can get their kids a better christmas. That is who we are as a people. We are a generous people. We are known for our large hearts, our willingness to give to others, and to improve their lives. This is that kind of time in america. We face real challenges. It is a time when the people of ohio are given to have cleared by street you can see what needs to be done. I am counting on you to be able to see the importance of this race and to make the right choice. I know as americans you have full hearts. There was a Fictional Football Team on tv a few years ago called friday night lights, and at the end of the show the athletes, as they would go off on the Playing Field, then attach a sign that said clear eyes, full arts, cannot lose. I am convinced that on november 6 the people of ohio with their clear eyes and full hearts will make sure that america cannot lose. We are taking back this country. [indiscernbile] now, one more thing. You with full hearts and clear eyes can see what is happening across the country right now. On the eastern coast of our nation a lot of people are enduring some very difficult times. Our hearts and our prayers go to them as we think about how tough it will be there. I do not think there has been a hurricane in ohio in a long time. There have been some hurricanes that have caused damage across this country and hurt a lot of families. And families will be hurt in their possessions or maybe something more severe. I would like to ask you here today to think about making a contribution to the red cross or to another Relief Agency to be of help, if you possibly can, to help those who are in harms way. We have faced these challenges before. As we have, as is interesting to see how americans come together, and this looks like a time when we need to come together across the country, even in ohio, and make sure we get of our support to the people who need it. Our Victory Centers are making collections of items and cash that we can send along to the red cross. Whether you come to our Victory Center or you just do it from your email, or internet account, do your very best to help. Where counting on ohio. The people of the Atlantic Coast are counting on ohio and the rest of our states, but i think the people of the entire nation ohio. My guess is if a high of its plea in as president i will be the next president of the United States. Thank you. Arms. Open one nation under go under god its america rightt always get it with a change its a farm cutting hay its the High School Prom its the welcome home parage its the man on the moon its kids selling lemonade one nation under god its america its america oh, whoa, yeah i want my labes to say made in the use american jobs the factorys gone the friends are soldiers unemployed when they get back home thank god for the uso in the usa we got just let them be keep your regulations up in dc i want my food to say made in the usa gold drill black and pay our minor to dig our coal solar energy everwhere we need more jobs today in the usa want my hammper to drop a i want to go work with craftsmen i want my label to say made in the usa a level Playing Field we will build the best damn farms working with you and working with me we can make the land what it needs to be i want my american jobs to say remind me that is what i say it is going to be better than for sure it is going to be made by my neighbor next door i want my label to say made in the usa usa american jobs in the usa american jobs in the usa wrapping up here with mitt romney at avon lake high school, the first of three stops for mitt romney today. Two stops scheduled in davenport, iowa, and one in wisconsin later today. The Associated Press reported that mitt romney has canceled appearances because of Hurricane Sandy. The campaign also reconsidering whether or not to send him to new jersey next week. Because of the storm, president obama has also campaigned all Campaign Event today and tomorrow. The president was in orlando today for a rally but came back this morning to monitor the hurricane as it makes its way up and down the east coast. The president is set to make a statement about the federal response to the storm. He is getting the latest currently in the situation room. We will have that address live when it gets underway. Also planning coverage of a federal armored to management Emergency Management Association Meeting administrator craig fugate. More road to the white house coverage this afternoon. We are planning to bring you a rally for president obama in youngstown, ohio. Of course, the president will not be there. He is in washington. Joe biden will be there. Live coverage starting at 3 30 p. M. Eastern. The president s statement expected at 12 45 eastern. Right now, a discussion on the cost of campaign 2012 from this mornings washington journal. That is the last comprehensive report we would get from the campaign, party committees, other groups. When they spend money, especially these outside organizations, they have to report every 24 hours but they have spent. The big picture is pretty well defined. Host the romney and Obama Campaigns are expected to raise 1 billion each. What does this say about the election . Guest is very hours but they have competitive and close. People are engaged and interested. The president s campaign in 2008 also got to about 1 billion, but altogether with the parties donations. For both of them to be there is extraordinary. Host walk us through what youre looking at in terms of money raised. There are other groups attracting wealthy. The campaigns are fairly different. The Obama Campaign has been very successful in fund raising, raised 630 million so far. The Romney Campaign is somewhat less, under 400 million. So there would be a disparity if it were left to their own devices but the political parties, rnc, has be there is extraordinary. Host walk us through what youre looking raised 20 million more than the Democratic National committee. You can see that we have teamed blue and team read, which represents the campaigns, plus the parties, plus the new feature this year, these outside spending organizations. That played an important role, especially for the Romney Campaign. If you click the link that says seymour, you can see how that breaks down for those organizations. For the Romney Campaign, outside groups, they have outspend obamas outside groups by three one q that has equalize the financial part of the process. Almost a billion dollars already with a week to go. Host we are looking at the website opensecrets. Org. If you want to join the conversation, here are the numbers to call. We are talking with a senior fellow at the center for responsive politics. Other organizations, the Washington Post among them, tracking the money and falling where it is coming from, how it is being spent. A break it down by the campaign and the committees, dnc, rnc, super pacs, but also undercut undisclosed money. Talk about these groups. These are primarily social welfare organizations. They registered under the tax code of 501 c 4. It will also hear that nomenclature. They educate people about issues, policy options, things like that, but they are a lot to do some political action. It cannot be primarily what they are about, but with these Court Decisions in 2010, they are able to be much more aggressive and specific in the way they are involved in politics. They can run advertising on television and do other things that advocate an election or the defeat of a candidate. Because they are mainly about educating people and not mainly about elections, they have been able to do that without disclosing the sources of the money they have got. Hundreds of millions of dollars being spent this year without us knowing very much about where it came from. Host eric is with us from cedar town, georgia. Caller what i would like to say about this money, it is basically generations of money that a lot of elderly what people have built up over time. Now they have come out and decided to buy an election. It is not taxed or nothing. They need to start taxing this money. If the rich people do not want to pay more taxes, the one to take the tax money they are saving because taxes are lower, in order to influence the elections, this should be taxed at 90 . Host i was going to ask him if he had donated money to a campaign. We will be asking a number of other callers about that. Talk about small money compared to large money. The obamas campaign, beginning in 2008, has relied much more on small contributions from individuals. It is easier to do that this year as the technology changes, internet develops, pretty straightforward to go to a website to donate, put in a credit card number. We are all familiar with that. So the campaigns top of that. That was very successful in the obamas campaign, and it continues to be, even though as an incumbent you can raise a lot of big contributions. Direct contribution to the candidates are still limited. Only 2,500 per election. There are also still prohibitions on who can give money to the candidates, corporations, unions, other associations, not permitted to make contributions. That has been the law for more than 40 years. They are allowed to spend their own money independently of the campaign if they want to put cannot make such a patient. Typically, president ial candidates raise money at the maximum level, they are well known nationally, lots of wealthy individuals and groups that want to support them. The Obama Campaign stands out in that respect of it. It is also importantthan 40 yea. They are allowed to spend their own to note, the caller is making another race has been more focused in many respects on a small number of individual people. These people have contributed hundreds of millions of dollars to the process. I think the number that get you into a majority of the money, about 60 of the outside money, has been raised from about 200 individuals. The number of people you could fit on an airplane have respecta small number of individual people. These people have contributed hundreds of millions of dollars to the process. I think the number that get you into a majority of the money, about 60 of the outside money, has been raised from about 200 individuals. The number of people you could fit on an airplane have been really important in terms of funding these outside efforts this year. And that is different here that is something that we need to watch, whether or not those and enter resources can become more informed than elections. It is an open question. Whether or not this has been affected or when a way for citizens in the battleground states. I live in virginia, and it is unrelenting, the Television Advertising. That is true in ohio and nevada and other places. Point, which is that the money in thiswhether in makes a diffen the election is another question. Certainly, they have played a prominent role this year. Host the top contributor donating 2 million or more to super pacs. Of those 16, 6 are for obama, 10 are for romney. You can see their names and the amount of money they have thrown into super pacs. We are also seeing some questions about what kind of a game changer supertax work. The New York Times has the story. Obama is even in a tv ad race despite the super pacs. Maybe they were not so super after all. Despite repeated warnings from president obama and other that a flood of unrestricted donations from conservative groups would swap them, the white house and its allies are holding their own. Guest as we can see, is the grouping of the campaigns and the partisan these out bribes outside groups that matter. The obamas campaign has been very clever in taking the advantage of one aspect of this that candidates are favored as opposed to other groups, which is stations around the country can only charge campaigns the lowest unit rate for a Television Advertising appear that means they have to charge them the rate that they give to their best regular customer, the grocery stores, car dealers, those who advertise rego early. Campaign get a better price than the outside groups and even Party Organization when they are buying ad time. That translates into this ticket between the number of ads you see in the amount of money spent. That is helping the issue. Caller good morning. I have understood the democrats, when they have a credit card, they do not require a three digit code on the back. A large amount of money is coming from overseas to the Obama Campaign. Boy, you know, somebody must have caught that, because it made the news. Do you have any knowledge on that . Guest forced of all, foreign nationals are not permitted to make contributions to any american election. So it would be illegal if this was happening. The campaign themselves are responsible for making sure the donations they get are from all levels forces, in this case, american citizens. And they have lots of different processes for doing that. The way in which they check credit card contributions, and other contributions, is up to them. There is no federal law that dictates how that has to happen. At the end of the day, it is their responsibility to make sure they are not getting foreign money. All i can tell you is, in 2008, this question came up before for the Obama Campaign. They have procedures in place to monitor that. The federal Election Commission audited the campaign in 2008 and did not find a problem. Different organizations have different strategies, but they must all make sure that no foreign nationals make contributions. Host pat in indiana. Good morning. Caller i am calling because we have spending gaps in major sports, we make everything so transparent with everything in the country, but how can we allow foreign entities to all contribute to president ial elections . I do not feel that any outside power, or corporation for that matter, should be able to buy the election. It should not be based on who has the most money, but the person most qualified. Guest that is a good point. Because this money we all understand these are big, precise numbers. It feels like, intuitively, that the money and the votes are really closely related. That person with the most money must always win. They usually do, but probably for other reasons. Money cannot buy you love. In a straightforward way, i will give the 50 for a vote. That is not so way it works. It is not true here. Live now to the White House Briefing room for a statement from president obama. I received a full briefing from our Emergency Response teams, including fema, and other agencies helpful in the recovery in response efforts, the part of energy, transportation, department of homeland security, department of health and human services. Obviously, everyone is aware, at this point, that this will be a big and powerful storm. All across the eastern seaboard, everybody is taking the appropriate preparations. I have spoken to the governors in the states. They have issued emergency declarations. Those have been turned to run quickly. We have prepositioned assets so that fema personnel are working closely with state and local governments. We are making sure that food and water and emergency generation is available for those communities that will be hardest hit. We anticipate that the center of the storm will hit landfall sometime this evening, but because of the nature of this storm, we are certain that this will be a slowmoving process through a wide swath of the country. Millions of people will be affected. The most Important Message i have for the public right now is, please listen to what your state and local officials are saying. When they tell you to evacuate, you need to evacuate. Do not delay. Do not pause, do not question the instructions been given because this is a serious storm and it could potentially have fatal consequences if people have not acted quickly. The good news is, the governors and local officials have had a few days of preparation. There has been extraordinarily close coordination between state, federal, and local governments. We are confident the assets are prepositioned for an Effective Response in the aftermath of the storm. Keep in mind, for folks not following instructions, if you are not evacuating when you have been asked to evacuate, you are putting First Responders in danger. We need to have search and rescue teams in and around multiple states all at the same time. Although we have coast guard and the department of defense position, if the public is not following instructions, that makes it more dangerous for people, and it makes the dutch of four fatalities that could of been avoided. Transportation will be tied up for a long time. Perhaps the most of the impact, aside from flooding, will be putting the power back on. We anticipate a lot of trees down, a lot of water. Despite the fact that the Power Companies are working very closely with their various state officials and local officials to make sure they are bringing in as many assets as possible and getting those ready in preparation for the storm, the fact is, many of these emergency crews will not be able to get in position to begin restoring power until the wind had died down. Because of the nature of most o, aside from flooding, will be putting the power back on. We anticipate a lot of trees down, a lot of water. The storm, that may take several days. The public should anticipate that there will be a lot of power outages, and it may take time for that power to get back on. The same is true for transportation. There will be a lot of backlog. Even after the storm has cleared, it will take a considerable amount of time for airline, subways, trains, and so forth, to potentially get back on schedule, depending on the amount of damage that has occurred. Let me summarize just by saying i am extraordinarily grateful for the corporation of our state and local officials. The conversations i have had with all the governors indicate at this point there are no unmet needs. Everybody is taking this very seriously. We have prepositioned all the resources we need. Right now the key is to make sure the public is following instructions. For those of you that need Additional Information about how to respond, you can go to ready. Gov. That website will provide you and your family with the information you need to prepare for the storm. Our thoughts go out to everyone potentially affected. We are extraordinarily grateful for our First Responders because they will be working around the clock nonstop. I want to make sure that our thoughts and prayers go out to all those that may end up deal with a very difficult situation over the next several days. The last point i will make. This will be a big storm, it will be a difficult storm. The great thing about america is, when we go through tough times like this, we all pull together. We look out for our friends, we look out for our neighbors. We set aside whatever issues we have otherwise to make sure that we respond appropriately, and with swiftness. The great thingthat is what i ae anticipate will happen here. I want to thank all the federal teams, state, local teams in place. I am confident we are ready but i think the public need to prepare for the fact that this may take a long time to clean up. The good news is, we will clean up and get through this. [inaudible] i am not worried about the impact on the election. I am worried about the impact on families and the impact on our First Responders. Item word about the impact on our economy and transportation. The election will take care of itself next week. Right now, our number one priority is to make sure that we are saving lives, that our search and rescue teams will be in place, that people can get the food, water, following instructions. For shelter they need in case of an emergency, and that we respond as quickly as possible to get the economy back on track. President obama on the latest on the fedor response to Hurricane Sandy. The president warning citizens to take proper precautions and listen to the direction given by state and local officials as the government is the best position to help those communities that need it. Also, urging an level of cooperation between state and federal officials. Also saying that election will take care of itself, right now focused on the storm. President obama did come back to the white house this morning from florida, canceling all Campaign Events today and tomorrow because of the storm. We are planning a live coverage of a federal Emergency Management Association Meeting with administrator craig fugate this afternoon. Live coverage of that here on c span at 2 30 p. M. Eastern. More road to the white house coverage this afternoon. We were planning to bring you a rally in youngstown, ohio. Obviously, the president will not be there. Vicepresident biden will be joined by bill clinton. Live coverage begins at 3 30 p. M. Eastern. On friday, mary shapiro spoke about the ongoing implementation of the 2010 doddfrank finance regulations law. Chairman and shapiro delivered the keynote address, the conference hosted by George Washington university. This is about 45 minutes. Good morning. I am the dean of the law school. I want to welcome you to this conference, and obviously, welcome mary shapiro, the chairman of the u. S. Securities and exchange commission. One of the things that i think makes this law school, the George Washington law school distinctive, and different from other top law schools, is the degree to which we are integrated into the real world of law and policy practice in this country. One of the things we are always striving to do is not be an ivory tower, Academic Institution solely, but also one that is always trying to engage the practicing bar, people from corporations, people who are not lawyers, in the educational enterprise, and also in Public Policy discussions. Obviously, we have a great and vantage being in washington, d. C. And having so much access to the world of policy. In addition, it is not just the location. It has to be your orientation at the law school. It is something i have emphasized since i arrived, but at long predates me. This school wants to always be the place to convene Public Policy discussions, create a forum for actionable information, to create an opportunity for nonpartisan and bipartisan discussion. As i like to say, in d. C. , but outside the glare of the sea, thisnot and a congressional heag room floor, not in an interagency process, but in an Academic Institution, where policy discussions can be had, and maybe we can move the ball forward on in foreign issues of leadership. In that regard, we are thrilled to be able to host this conference. This is part of a series of conferences that we have held over the last few years on the important Regulatory Reforms doddfrank, and to welcome back to law school mary schapiro. Mary is not only a graduate of the law school but has been a great friend of the law school for many years. She has spoken here on numerous occasions and we are always thrilled to have the opportunity to welcome her. I am really grateful that she has figured out a way to fit this into her unbelievably busy schedule so that she can be here to speak and give us her upto theminute news from the sec. Please join me in welcoming mary schapiro. [applause] good morning. Thank you for that kind introduction. And thank you for hosting this financial Regulatory Reform symposium. It is always good to be back at my alma mater. Four years ago this month, this nation was suffering from a nearcollapse of our Financial System. While there are differences of opinion as to what was the most significant trigger, a bi partisan Senate Committee report known as the levin coburn report asserted that the crisis was the result of high risk, complex Financial Products, undisclosed conflicts of interest, and the failure of regulators, the Credit Rating agencies, and the market itself to rein in the excesses of wall street. While this period of our history will be written and re written over and over again, congress and the administration knew that the status quo was unacceptable. So together they passed landmark legislation to address many of the issues that were highlighted by that tumultuous period. The doddfrank wall street reform and Consumer Protection act is a vital and comprehensive response to the financial crisis an event that devastated the american economy, cost the American People trillions of dollars and millions of jobs, and undermined the confidence that our Financial System requires if it is to thrive and support a growing economy. The sweeping scope of this financial reform legislation sometimes obscures the fact that, despite its breadth, it is rooted in a handful of sound principles that should have been more firmly in place before the crisis, and whose embrace serves to make markets more stable and efficient. Simple principles like markets should be transparent, regulation should be consistent, without gaps that can be exploited by those who wish to indulge in risky, destabilizing or illegal behavior, Market Participants, not taxpayers, should bear the risks of their market activities, and regulators should have the willingness and the tools they need to apply these principles to the daytoday workings of the Financial Markets, the doddfrank act translated these principles into law that is the foundation for effective regulation. Interestingly, the title of this historic legislation may seem to suggest that there are two parts to the bill wall street reform on the one hand, and Consumer Protection on the other. Yet, a closer examination of the law reveals that both portions are rooted in those same important fundamentals. That is because opacity, flaws and regulatory gaps make the system less able to perform its vital Capital Allocation function, more likely to collapse and more likely to subject investors to unnecessary harm. When i was invited to join you today, dean berman offered me a broad variety of topics on which to speak, largely but not entirely focused on the doddfrank act. As someone who has lived and breathed doddfrank since well before its passage in july, 2010, im sure i could speak for hours on even the most arcane aspects of that legislation. After all, when i arrived as chairman of the sec in january 2009, there were some calling for the agency to be abolished or split up and divided among other entities so when the financial reform legislation was being drafted i took a particularly active role in advocating for the importance of the secs mission a mission to protect investors and ensure the efficient operation of our markets and formation of capital. And i impressed upon policymakers that the sec could step up and fulfill its mission. In the process, i worked with those on the hill and in the administration to ensure the sec would have its authority bolstered, not weakened and i am pleased that occurred. It was a sign that congress appreciated the need for a strong sec. At the same time, i am also proud that Congress Gave us the tools in dodd frank that i sought, to create a new Whistleblower Program that is resulting in highquality tips from insiders at financial firms, to require Hedge Fund Advisers for the first time to register and be subject to our rules, to proceed with additional clarity in establishing a uniform standard governing the conduct of Investment Advisers and brokerdealers, and to develop a comprehensive Regulatory Regime for overthecounter derivatives, among many other things. Today i want to focus on a few specific provisions of the act, tying them back to the fundamentals i mentioned a moment ago, in hopes that, should the students who are with us today ever put your impressive educations to use as public servants, you will look at potential regulation in this light. Title vii. Let me start with title vii of doddfrank the part of the act that for the first time creates a comprehensive Regulatory Regime for the overthecounter Derivatives Market. Title vii illustrates the importance of Financial Fundamentals on a vast scale, addressing a Derivatives Market with a global notional value of some 650 trillion. Derivatives are Financial Products that derive their value from some underlying thing. One common type of derivative is a swap, which is a financial contract in which two counterparties agree to exchange or swap payments with each other as a result of such things as changes in a stock price, Interest Rate or commodity price. Back in the early 90s, when i served as a commissioner at the sec, and later as chairman of the cftc, it was difficult to imagine the sheer size or potential impact of this emerging market. At that time, the notional value of the Derivatives Market hovered around 10 trillion and much of that was comprised of hedging by end users against the risk of currency or commodity price fluctuations. That is, companies were essentially using these transactions as insurance against an adverse event. While some regulators appreciated the need to get a better handle on what was going on behind the curtain, industry strenuously objected to any regulation. And, with the commodity futures modernization act of 2000, congress created a huge gap in the regulatory structure by specifically excluding most otc derivatives transactions from Regulatory Oversight. The result was a vast market operating behind an opaque curtain, whose transactions were not visible to regulators or other Market Participants. The gap in regulation allowed a fundamental tenet of thriving markets namely, transparency not only to be ignored, but to be actively rejected. Unfortunately, as we found during the financial crisis, firms that entered into otc derivative transactions to reduce their market risk had simply swapped one risk for another market risk for counterparty risk. Opacity in the markets made it such that firms could not be sure that the counterparties to their swaps would be able to make good on their transactions if circumstances demanded. In fact, as more and more otc derivatives were transacted across the system, an elaborate network of risk was built up. Firms were not only subject to the risk that their own counterparties could not make good on a transaction, but that their counterparties counterparties might fail to live up to the terms of a transaction, increasing risk to the original counterparties and thereby transmitting it back to the original firm. This type of crossfirm connectivity has the ability to greatly magnify the systemic shocks of a significant default by any single firm. According to the financial crisis inquiry commission, during the crisis there was a real possibility that the default of a single large counterparty could set off a Chain Reaction that would spread through many interconnected institutions. Traders, in the commissions words, rushed for the exits, asset values fell, Risk Management in the absence of liquid Derivatives Market became vastly more complicated and credit dried up. Title vii of doddfrank addresses challenges in the otc Derivatives Market by closing the gap created by the commodity futures modernization act and bringing the otc Derivatives Market into the daylight. And, working with the commodity futures trading commission, we have been writing rules that fill out an entirely new Regulatory Regime one that strengthens the stability of our Financial System. These rules do this by improving transparency and facilitating the centralized clearing of securitybased swaps, helping, among other things, to reduce counterparty risk, enhancing Investor Protection through increased disclosure regarding securitybased swap transactions, and mitigating conflicts of interest of dealers and other major participants involved in securitybased swaps. By promoting transparency, efficiency, and stability, this framework is intended to foster a more nimble and competitive market and enhance Regulatory Oversight and monitoring by facilitating improved access to comprehensive data on the securitybased swap market. A report released by a major Market Participant last year underscores the benefits of bringing Financial Fundamentals into this market, it predicts that the market for Interest Rate and credit default swaps will grow by more than 10 percent by 2013. Notional values in derivativesare expected to rise, due to increased transparency and counterparty risk mitigation, reads the report. Instead of transacting business behind closed doors, this new system will require certain transactions to be conducted on a public trading platform. Once a transaction has occurred, the rules will require information about the trade to be reported to a data repository, and in turn that information will be shared with the public. And, many of the trades will be handled by a Clearing House essentially a middle man that steps in the place of the original counterparties and effectively assumes the risk should there be a default. Despite being handed the lions share of the rulemaking under doddfrank, i am pleased that the sec has now proposed substantially all of the rules that create this new Regulatory Regime for derivatives within our jurisdiction, and in some cases has adopted the final rules. This spring and summer, jointly with the cftc, the sec adopted key definitional rules and interpretations on which this new Derivatives Trading system will be built. The sec has also recently adopted rules regarding our clearing infrastructure, that group of middle men that are critical for achieving the goals of title vii. In june of this year, we adopted rules specifying how clearing agencies are to submit information to the sec so we can decide which types of securitybased swap transactions must be cleared and, just this week, we adopted rules outlining standards for the Risk Management and operations of clearing agencies. Even without the Regulatory Regime fully in place, more and more swaps are already being cleareda trend that reduces risk and should accelerate as the rules come online. To help ensure the system comes on line in an orderly fashion, we have drawn a road map setting forth the anticipated sequencing of compliance dates for when the various rules will take effect. The goal is to avoid the cost and disruption that could result if compliance with all of the rules were required simultaneously or haphazardly. Market participants have provided comments on this road map, and we look forward to completing the adoption process for rules already proposed but not yet final. Building a comprehensive Regulatory Regime from the ground up, in close coordination with the cftc and in consultation with numerous other domestic and overseas regulators is an immense task, involving uncounted actions and details not to mention hundreds of meetings with, and thousands of comment letters from, stakeholders. But we will not lose sight of the big picture, if the new marketplace is truly transparent it will work better and more efficiently for all parties, if we close the regulatory gaps, Financial Markets will be safer for investors and for economies around the world. Title ix. The Market Participants focused on title vii are generally speaking large players, airlines that want to hedge the price of a years worth of jet fuel, hedge funds that want to place a billion dollar bet on the direction of the euro. But the provisions of title ix, unlike title vii, are much more likely to directly touch the lives of you and me. Designated the Consumer Protection section, it is in fact full of systemic safeguards, designed to limit practices which at first seem only to affect individual investors or specific kinds of participants in the Financial System. But these practices, cumulatively, shook the Financial System to its foundation. And despite the difference in the size and nature of the players engaged by title ix, the need to have the Playing Field defined by the same sort of fundamentals remains. Assetbacked securities. Take home mortgages. Persuading potential homebuyers to assume a mortgage they have no ability to repay sounds like a classic Consumer Protection problem. But when millions of bad mortgages were written, bundled and chopped into securities, the Financial System shuddered. Its impossible, of course, to pinpoint the exact moment the financial crisis began. But, clearly, a major turning point was when bear stearns collapsed in march, 2008, dragged down by the billions of dollars in toxic mortgagebacked securities two of its affiliated hedge funds had acquired. But the problems with the mortgages underlying these securities began long before they found their way into the portfolios of the highgrade structured credit fund and the highgrade structured credit enhanced leveraged fund. Again, a fundamental principle of Financial Regulation was being circumvented, institutions which profited from the origination and bundling of subprime mortgages had found a way to do so with little or no risk to themselves. During the housing bubble, Companies Found that they could write mortgages and then sell them off pocketing the origination fee and passing the risk down the securitization chain. Since originators bore no risk, they had every incentive to let underwriting standards slide. In the era of interest only, optionarm and liar loans, Mortgage Originators pushed loans out the door with little or no consideration of whether mortgagees would be able to pay. Even before the dodd frank act passed, the sec had proposed regulation to bring reform to this market, by requiring that securitizers of these abs provide investors with the data and time needed to analyze independently the soundness or risk offered by the assets underlying the securities bringing, as we are working to do in title vii Greater Transparency to an important financial product. This sort of regulation would have given investors insight into the quality of the subprime loans underlying the securities they purchased, giving them the opportunity to discover just how much risk they were assuming, and would have required some Risk Retention. Title ix attacks the problem even more broadly. This provision attempts to incentivize high quality origination by requiring that securitizers retain at least five percent of the credit risk of any asset it sells. It also prohibits a securitizer from directly or indirectly hedging or otherwise transferring that credit risk. Using Risk Retention to align the interests of originators and securitizers with investors, minimizes the moral hazard that contributed to the mortgage crisis. The commission, jointly with the banking agencies, has proposed rules that are designed to improve the quality of underwriting and research by originators and securitizers and it does so as much by ensuring that Market Forces are in place as it does through regulatory prescription. It protects investors and the Financial System as a whole. The commission has also adopted other rules for assetbacked securities pursuant to title ix. In january of 2011, the Commission Adopted rules that require securitizers to conduct Due Diligence on the assets they are securitizing and that require them to disclose asset representation demand, repurchase and replacement history. Again, this will help to protect investors and the Financial System as a whole. Credit rating agencies. But thats just a start. The negligence and sometimes outright fraud that too often marked bubbleera mortgage underwriting was compounded by excessive investor reliance on fatally flawed ratings of securities built on top of those loans. As late as january, 2008, 64,000 assetbacked securities were rated triple a. Unfortunately, as the Senate Investigations subcommittee stated, analysts have found that over 90 of the aaa ratings given to subprime securities] originated in 2006 and 2007, were later downgraded by the Credit Rating agencies to junk status. As i mentioned a moment ago, the sec had begun rulemakings designed to lessen investors dependence on rating agencies in the abs market by dramatically increasing visibility into the underlying assets. The doddfrank act furthered that effort. For instance, in january, 2011, the Commission Adopted the first of approximately a dozen required rulemakings related to Nationally Recognized Statistical Rating Organizations known as nrsros. And in may 2011, the Commission Published for Public Comment a series of proposed rules that would further strengthen the integrity of Credit Ratings, including by improving their transparency. Additionally, the sec is acting to end regulator reliance and reduce investor reliance on Credit Ratings, and to ensure that ratings are produced independently of client influence, yielding more accurate data for investors to analyze. For instance, weve removed references to Credit Ratings in 18 of our rules and about half of those were removed before the doddfrank act was even passed. And, earlier this year, as required by the doddfrank act, we established the office of Credit Ratings within the sec, which will play a key role as we move to finalize rules including, among other things, proposals designed to prevent sales and Marketing Activities from influencing the production of ratings, proposals to make the actual performance of nrsro ratings visible to investors, proposals that would require certification by third parties retained for the purpose of conducting Due Diligence related to assetbacked securities, proposals that would establish standards for rating analysts training, experience and competence, as well as putting in place a testing program, and proposals to require nrsros to report on their internal controls. In addition, we are also considering proposing regulations that would require nrsros to among other things, be required to protect against any conflicts of interest more effectively, provide along with the publication of any Credit Rating enhanced disclosure about the Credit Rating and the methodology used to determine it, and remove yet further references to Credit Ratings from our rules. Executive compensation. The commitment to fundamentals as the basis of reform carries into areas where the connection may seem less obvious. Socalled say on pay regulations, which give shareholders regular, nonbinding upordown votes on executive compensation packages and golden parachutes is one such case. The sec expresses no opinion regarding the level of executive compensation. Rather, our interest is in ensuring that in this matter as in other areas of Corporate Governance the shareholders who own a company receive the information they need to make an informed judgment, and that they have a vehicle through which they can express their judgment to the board. Today, it appears that the sayonpay regulation effectuated through sec regulation under doddfrank is leading to improvements in communication in both directions. It has given shareholders a Clear Channel to communicate to their boards, satisfaction or lack of satisfaction with executive compensation practices. And it is giving boards a powerful incentive to clarify disclosure to shareholders, and to make a clear, coherent case for the compensation plans they have approved. The outcomes of these votes are not binding on the company or its board of directors, and they do not affect the validity of executive officer compensation arrangements. The advisory vote does, however, let boards know what shareholders think of compensation arrangements. And companies now have to disclose in proxy statements, in the year following the vote, how they have responded to the most recent sayonpay vote. Few compensation packages have actually been rejected. But even in many cases in which shareholders approved the boards compensation strategy, a significant percentage of shareholders have often voted no. It is our expectation that no votes or even a significant vote against a companys executive compensation practices will force boards to ask themselves some very tough questions about their compensation policies and about whether they are communicating effectively with shareholders about those policies. The say on pay regulations also require companies to provide shareholders with an advisory vote on the frequency of sayonpay votes at least once every six years. I understand that most companies, consistent with the preferences of shareholders, have determined to hold sayonpay votes every year. This demonstrates that shareholders want boards to maintain a focus on executive compensation. I am hopeful that these sayonpay votes will focus boards on the incentives they are creating through their executive compensation policies. In this respect, sayonpay builds on regulations the sec adopted in 2009 that Ask Companies to detail the relationship between risk and compensation, and to more fully discuss their approach to managing risk. Regulation that broadly facilitates boardshareholder communications on the subject of Risk Management whether through disclosure or sayonpay deliberations will result in greater board attention to risk taking incentives and companies that are more resistant to the kind financial epidemic that spread so rapidly from firm to firm in 2007 and 2008. Conclusion. The financial world is full of zerosum games. If one party to a currency swap wins, the other party loses. If you short a stock, your profit or loss is exactly the same as the loss or profit incurred by the entity that bought your shares. But financial reform isnt like that. Of course, in individual cases, investors and consumers of Financial Products may have different priorities than brokers and banks. But broadly speaking, good regulation, rooted in fundamentals that are frankly no secret transparency, Risk Management, fairness broadly benefits all stakeholders. Transparent markets more efficiently distribute capital. Fair markets bring investors and their capital into the game. Properly allocated and managed risk curbs irrational behavior that can have devastating consequences. Its not hard to figure out. Unfortunately, there are powerful individuals and entities which profit at least in the short run from inefficiencies and opacity, from differentials in information and power and from taking irrational risks, knowing that profits and compensation will accrue to them, while losses are often assumed by consumers, shareholders and the economy at large. Doddfrank recognizes this, and builds a comprehensive structure on strong principles that protect investors and make wall street work better. Thank you. Mary schapiro has tuferede take a few questions so if you wish to ask a question raise your hand and we will bring a mike to you. Yes, right over here. Thank you for your opening remarks. I was wondering if the s. E. C. Was willing to adopt the Financial Stability boards guidelines on executive Compensation Reform than what europeans vo adopted . Its an ongoing conversation at the s. E. C. One is we have jointly proposed as doddfrank requires with the banking regulatory agencies executive compensation Disclosure Rules including hold backs and delayed pay youts and so forth which and weve gotten a lot of comments on that and those rules arent finalized yet. Were working with other regulators to do that. The s. E. C. s approach has been a disclosure based other proach. If you look at the history of rule making in this area you can see ever greater requirements on puck lick companies to disclose their policies and practices including rules we did shortly after i arrived including the boards to explain how their compensation practices my intent vise risk taging and what the board is doing to manage that risk so that the franchise and shareholders money is not undually put at risk through the compensation practices. We have schedules that are contained in cralt filings, detailed disclosure about not just base pay and incentive bonuses but other componentses of compensation. But we have tended at the s. E. C. With the work were doing to make a more disclosure based approach. Thank you very much. Other questions . Thank you. And again thank you very much for your remarks and its an awesome task that the regulators have been put into to develop this Regulatory Framework over over the counter drivevatives contracts which were not delinked from multilateral influence and it concerns me that the s. E. C. And our panking regulators are worried about other multilateral issues that are kind of put on us by way of g 20. And u. S. Compliance with g 20 isnt repealed. So one issue is where our Regulatory Framework especially for the banks and the big Financial Institutions is influenced and you may not be able to speak to it but the complications of what our big Financial Institutions under the power can get away with because they say that were in these other jurisdictions and so it has some kind of a leverage in a way against the s. E. C. How do you handle that . And what about fair value . The over the counter contracts have been able to enjoy Balance Sheet accounts so to speak. And so under a fair value reporting regime the markets needed to be stable. 2,000 sathe saved off by quan dative easing. So were not doing Regulatory Reform unless we get of power accounting and what is ifth nature of an over the counter derivevatives act . Let me tack it will first part. Its a fair question. It is very complicated and it is very challenging to regulate in a world where nothing stops at our physical borders in the United States and its so true in Financial Markets where the velocity with which money and transactions pass around the world is extraordinary. And so we cant sume that we can do only what we think works in the u. S. Markets although clearly the u. S. Markets are our primary concern and focus. The way we go through these issues we have doddfrank. Lets start with g20. There is broad agreement with what needs to be done with the markets. And its been reemphasized ds by the United States over and over again. Its the value of clearing and transparency in trade reporting margining positions and so forth. So given that high level agreement then we work down through every countrys individual Regulatory Regimes and legislative processes. And one of the challenge Social Security the mismatch in timing. Doddfrank was passed before legislation anywhere else in the world. The japanese are probably the closest behind us. And weve set about as congress directed us to do to implement this regime. We are working together nationally extremely well. Its a huge component of our jobs to coordinate and collaborate to the greatest extent possible. Understanding we have different legal regimes and different underlying processes. But to give you an example chairman and i have cohosted two very detailed working sessions with principle regulators of drivevative markets around the world. Well have our next session in november. Were trying to work through the details of what our regular tear regime looks like in compare to european agencies as well. Our goal continues to be to create as colab rative and coordinated a Regulatory Regime as we possibly can understanding that we wont be able to be identical. The goal is to not have transactions go to the jurisdiction with the lowest standards, nobody wants to see that happen. The goal is also to not have multilateral institutions subject to conflicting rules and requirements in different jurisdictions so that it becomes impossible or unbearably costly to do business. So its a major reason why its taken as long as it has to get the derivevatives in place. But continue to be optimistic we will work through with our colleagues around the world reasonable framework that will serve the role of closing gaps and not creating opportunities for regulatory arbatradge. The s. E. C. Has announced a goal of reducing reliance on the large rating agencies. But youve also raised the cost of regulation to those agencies because theyre more disclose yures. Youve described the Greater Transparency. How would small new rating agencies be able to shoulder those kinds of regulatory expenses and be able to compete with the big three rating agencies . Isnt there a problem there . Its a great question and you one of the goals of the regulation weve done has been to try to encourage more entrance into the space so we dont have three rating agencies doing north of 90 of the ratings work. It is really important for regulators to reduce their reliance on ratings given that investors have relied on them as we saw through the financial crisis without doing sufficient of their own Due Diligence to ensure that the ratings werent problematic. And frankly, the model of rating agencies, the issue pay model where i pay you the Rating Agency to give me a rating and you can all see clearly what the conflict of interest is there. And it is a very strong conflict of entrance. Weve had twn past kwleer weve had two new sbrants. So Smaller Companies are finding a niche. They dont rate the full range of corporate products but they might specialize in particular areas which i think is a less expensive way to enter the space. Were also looking at as were required under doddfrank whether there is another Business Model we can be supportive of. Weve got the issue of pays models. There is also subscriber pays model where the investor that uses a rating actually pays for the raiding. But d. O. D. Frapping asked us to look at whether there ought to be a selfregulatory organization or Government Agency that select it is Rating Agency for each structured product transaction so you break some of that bond between thisher who pays for the rating and the selection of the Rating Agency and the agency itself. So were producing a report to congress that will weigh the cost and benefits and the Practical Implications of some of these alternative mod tols see if some of them might make any sense. But i do think that we have had no entrants into this space and i think well continue to see it be an appealing place for it to be. We have time for one more question. Just quickly, the s. E. C. With the c. F. D. C. The front line regulators of our Financial Markets, the most important markets in the world, but i think generally agreed and yet what we have trying to implement financial reform before that are basically undefined regulatory agencies going up against massive markets just shy of 716 notional never mind the advances in tech and weve got the s. E. C. With slightly more than 1 billion budget. We have a problem with the defubbeding the agencies. You havent got the resources and i know political appoint tee you cant say that so im not asking you to comment on that. Although i do think anybody who cares about our Capital Markets whether you care about them like jamie dimed or a man on the street should advocate for more money for the agencies. You cant do that. In your view just theoretically if the s. E. C. Had the bument to do its job what would that budget be . And your term is coming to an end. But i think it would put in context the battle youre against and what you really need and what people who care about what you do should be focused on. Every year we submit a budget which is the amount of money we think we need to do the job. And we frequently dont get that number as i point out because of the budget process. So were pretty open and honest in our budget submissions what we need to do and if we dont get that amount of money what we will not be able to do. In my four years at the s. E. C. We have invested heavily in technology because the agencys technology was in dismal state when i arrived which and we now have tools and capabilities the agency has never had before. People think thats great you dont need as many people because youre using technology. Technology allows you to work smarter and better and more efficiently buzz it does not diminish the need for people because you find more things to look for insider trading, to look for market manipulation to analyze c. D. O. s and how theyve been structured and what the flaws are. While we put an emphasis on technology we need to invest in our people which and weve been able to grow a little bit in the last couple of years, not enough, but a little bit. I cant really give you a number. I will say that were an agency of just under 4,000 people with exthe record narrowly broad responsibilities, everything from accounting setting oversight to money market funds and mutual funds to Market Structure and we all read every day about Market Structure issues to broker dealers and how they interact with customers to rating agencies and transfer agents. This is an exthe record narrowly broad scope of and hedge funds have been added to our plate. We have an exthe record narrowly broad scope at the s. E. C. And we need sufficient funding to both keep up and keep even with whats going on in the industry so we can evolve as quickly as the industry can to respond to issues that are both system i can in nature and which really impact individual invest erls and their confidence and integrity of the marketplace. So i will continue to fight like crazy for additional funding. I have for four years. We got close to selffunding. They create a budget and they live with it. Were not funded by the taxpayer and in fact were match funding which means cutting the s. E. C. s budget doesnt mean that money can go anywhere else. Were funded by wall street fees. We think have that is a great step toward selffunding. But the real answer is over sight of congress which we have lost to be able to establish what it needs and fund itself to get the job done. Thank you all very much. Mary schapiro thank you very much for being here today and sharing your views on the very important work of doddfrank. We appreciate your long service to the law school as well as your distinguished Public Service. Wed like to give you a small token of our appreciation. We hope you will come back again. Thank you. We have a Pretty Simple proposition here. You can embrace the kind of approach that congresswoman wilson has embraced. She supports cut balance program. It has no new revenues even for the wealthiest of americans. And it would require deep cuts in Social Security and medicare over time. Or we can embrace a balanced approach. Thats what i support. I think we can go back to the kind of tax rates we had under the Clinton Administration when those upper income earners were doing well and the entire economy was growing. Were going to have to take some tough choices and a balanced approach is the only one that will get us there. It is amazing to me that you can stand here having voted for trillion dollar deficits for the last four years, the largest debt increase in American History and say that we have to control spending. Youve done nothing to control spending over the last four years. And with respect to cut cap and balance, its maizing to me also that the idea of cutting wasteful spending, capping the ability of congress to spend money we dont have to balancing the sbudget extreme. I think it would force congress to set priority ts and stop funding things like so lynn dra and priority ties things like it is and education. Thats why i support a balanced amendment to the constitution. The race in new mexico is just one of the key races you can follow on cspan, cspan radio and cspan. Org campaign 2012. Its a picture of Union Station right now. A major transportation hub for the city and nation. Amtrak trains stop here. Amtrak trains not running today neither is the met tro because of Hurricane Sandy. Flights cancelled across the country and businesses and schools shut down. Federal government shut down today and early voting shut down all of this due to effects of the hurricane. President obama held a briefing about the sevty of the storm. We will have that for you a little bit later t. President cancelled his political appearances today and tomorrow. Mitt romney has cancelled campaigning for tonight and tomorrow. Well have live coverage of a federal Emergency Management agency briefing. That is expected to happen at about 2 30 eastern. We do have more road to the white house coverage coming up this average which we have a rally for president obama. The president will not be there but Vice President biden will be there. Well have coverage on of that event on cspan at 3 30 this afternoon. A look next at debate between candidates in the 10th district in illinois. This is courtesy of wtto in chicago. Its about 35 minutes. Illinois 10th Congressional District as democrats try to take control for the first time in more than 30 years. Theyre aided by the remap that is held by a republican. The knewly drawn 10th Congressional District runs along like michigan and up to the border and a couple of quick notes before we begin. This is being streamed live on our website and there you can join a live chalt. If you have a question for the candidates you can skit on our website and we may use it on the air. Also a note. This is not a formal debate. The candidates will not give opening or closing statements. Their answers will not be timed. I will use fairness as my guide to move the discussion along which and we ask the candidates to stay on topic and not give campaign speeches. Now we have brad insider. Hes a democrat from deerfield. He founded his own firm in 2008. And dole who was elected to the house of representatives in 20 106789 before that he was mpt oh f a Pest Control Company and was on the over sight and government reform committee. Welcome. Gentlemen youre on the record saying youd be open to raising revenue as a plan to balance the budget. As a general proposition he support 70 in cuts versus 30 in new revenues. What percentage breakdown would you support . Im not sure i have a percentage breakdown. What i done is worked with my colleagues on the other side to the aisle on the only bipartisan budget thats come to the floor in a generation. We need to get republicans and democrats together. Running an organization i know the only successful ones are those that come together and solve problems and compromise. While we do accept the 1 for 10 in tax cuts and you said yes. Sure. Somewhere between and and 70 30 just as a general proposition. I took this framework and we laid out a broad framework that would revenues on the table and also spending cuts. I dont want to say its got to be this or that because we dont know what the proposals are going to be. I do know we have to face the fiscal cliff by coming together and working together as ive done in the last 22 months. How did you come up with the 70 30 split . I think you look at a reasonable ratio. I dont think theres an absolute number. If you look at the congress you have a ryan plan that not once but twice my opponent voted for that continues to give benefits and cuts to the most fortunate americans, subsidies to Oil Companies and companies shipping jobs overseas and to pay for that its asking seniors to turn medicare into a voucher. Its taking students and asking them to pay more for student loans. Its taking middle class families and putting an average increase on their taxes of at least 1300. What im hearing you say is a fairness on this 70 30 you came up with. Governor you signed a pledge with drover nor quist to never raise taxes but now youre saying you would consider . What it talks about if youre going to lower rates you have to race them in another. I sexd me opponent youre open to increase revenue and two years ago you said, why the change . Because when i got to washington things were worst than i anticipated. What i am looking to do is solve these big problems. So ive come forth with an idea and plan. Certainly i want to focus on my mainstreet jobs agenda with 23 million americans out of work or unemployed. Yet my opponent has yet come up with a plan. Hes been running for 17 months and no plan. We have a plan to criticize me for coming up with a plan. I guess one of the subtexts i was asking is it part of the attacking the center that is reasonable in terms of just particularly representing a district like the 10th . Thats where ive been so every independent analysis has ranked me as one of the most independent bipartisan members in the United States congress. Thats where i think weve had leadership in the 10th district for the last 30 years. Thats what i told the 10th district i would be is that thoughtful independent leader and thats what ive done. Youve been on the show twice before and you said you were a progressive. Lately youre describing yourself as a moderate. When i described myself im pragmatic on social issues that women should have a right to make their own choice. Rights of equality. I support marriage quality. I support the opportunity for everyone to be able to have security in their appointment whether theyre straight or gay or lesbian. I believe we should have dont ask dont tell and these are differences between me and my oh ponet who is not prochoice who voted to wanted to delay the repeal dont ask dont tell. A real quick response. First of all, i am prochoice and was the only republican to speak out on the floor of planned parenthood. To say anything but that is disingenuous. He voted for a bill that would penllies Small Businesses that provided Women Healthcare plans that your response to those two, is that right . Actually its wrong. Its disingenuous to paint it that way. I did vote to fund the government. So if you remember early on in this term we had to fund the government to keep the doors open. So i wanted to make sure seniors got their checks and men and women putting their life on the line for us were able to feed their familiarries. To make sure gove ran. I was the only republican to speak out to say we need to make sure planned parenthood keeps its funding. To suggest otherwise. [inaudible] if you take a look at the daily herald they said these attemptes to blatantly misrepresent my record are troubling at the least. Im not misrepresenting your record. You voted for the bill that would defund plant parenthood. It didnt become law and the government didnt shut down. Let me jump ahead to a topic later. Your opponent says on the 20 most important post you didnt break with your leaders once and that led the Tea Party Congress to the fringe. What is your response to that . My response is that was 24 votes. 20 of those votes passed with the democratic majority. You know what is interesting about these votes not a single one talked about womens healthcare or the environment, not a single one talked about the votes education or a single one on gun control. All things that i think are important to the 10th district and i think are critical votes. If we look at the record of this congress which is the most ineffective congress weve had in our life times. He voted twice on the ryan plan and voucher program. He voted with this congress over 200 times against our environment. Over 28 times genls obamacare. Hes voted with them on issue after issue. You raced an important one. Congressman dole your votes on obama care you voted against it is why . The Affordable Care ak act, there are things positive. You call it the Affordable Care act as opposed to obamacare . We need to call it by its name. We have 2 new taxes on this. The estimates on the new set of 10 years doubled so this is going to be troubling. It didnt double. It did. After two years it is doubling so i think this is troubling because Small Businesses are looking at how can i pay the penalty and tell people theyre on their own for Health Insurance. As someone who runs a business. To tell them theyre going to be on their own for Health Insurance. I can think of few things to tell them decpwhre we had to make a choice do we put more burden on our employees or ourself. It is not perfect but it takes us in the right direction takes us from a system that was based on volume, Emergency Care and moves us to a system that is much better based on quality and outcomes. Were spending one and a half times per capita in this country than other countries and not Getting Better out comes. I want to have one comment then go to a question from our viewers. We can agree we dont want to denie someone with a preexisting condition access to insurance. It doesnt allow individuals the same tax breaks as businesses. It doesnt allow a family to purchase a plan thats better anywhere in the country. It doesnt it has an emphasis on Preventive Care takes ullsling us in the right direction. Its not perfect. We need to work it takes 716 billion out of medicare to afford it. The question is last week the defense of marriage act was struck down by the courts. Do you believe marriage is only between a man and a woman . I believe two people having a career and partner to do that together rkts having someone to be standing by your times in tough times and good tismse. If two people want to commit god bless them it should be marriage. What i would say is i dont want to prevent two loving individuals from having a life together. One reason i supported legislation that would allow part ners to be on health benefits. And i believe civil unions should be acceptable so they should have these rights. But this is between a man and woman. I believe two people that want to make that commitment it should be marriage. Thats why the Human Rights Campaign gave me their endorsement do you think its a moderate district . It is a moderate district. I think its more fiscally conservative and socially moderate. I know the majority of my district supports marriage quality and employment nondiscrimination act yet mr. Dole opposes that. Lets go to another question and the question is for mr. Insider. Why vnlt you released your tax return . The voters want to know what ive owned even our kids savings accounts are included with the report i filed. What do you pay in terms of tax rates . Thats been reported in the papers as well. My wife has her own career. She has employees and clients and competitors. Shes not running for congress. I believe my wife has a certain degree of privacy. Everything voters want to know about my finances is in the report. Theyre entitled to transparency of a candidate. And its in the house of representatives. Ive released my returns, my wife is on there as well. I think the volters do have a right to some transparency here and the fact that we dont know what was paid in those taxes or what deductions were taken or if taxes were paid on domestic employees. We dont know any of that and we know from past history these are things voters wanted to know and have tripped up potential candidates in the past. Those are all legitimate. Let me follow up with that question. Having said that do you think mitt romney should release his tax record . I do. I think this is an issue of trying to avoid the challenges we have as a country. We need to focus on getting our Education Systems back to leading the world. These are issues we are talking about. Lets talk about that conversation with this question and congressman dole i begin with you. Do you believe that tax cuts for the wealthy stimulate the economy . I believe that keeping tax rates low are certainly going to be helpful. President obama said in 2010 in a fradge jill economy we should not be raising rates. Thats when the economy was growing at 3 and they had to adjust it down to 1. . I asked my opponent how raising taxes was going to help people get employed and help the Small Businesses that are struggling right now, how is it going to help them hire that next individual and there was no answer. Do you believe tax cuts stipulate the economy. I think we should keep them where they are. Which of these policies which i look like to keep them. And with it to keep it, but the quick have a fire higher income tax. How about Capital Gains . I would like to keep the Capital Gains and we would like to keep investing. Having said that, that is something that could be on the table. I think it is one of those things that has to stay. It will make us stronger as a nation. I will keep it. Named one Corporate Tax loophole you would like closed. One of the things they passed out of the house is one of the most unproductive bills. Just this last week we were in session we pass this with overwhelming support. We need to get more americans back to work. Something i am passionate about. I do not want to raise the debt ceiling. Were not burdening with amount of debt. With a mountain of debt. The partisan plan. The idea that first of all medicare as we know it right now has to remain. That option would be available. I think this is important as we get seniors and options and choice. Brad snyder, should the private sector have a role to play . No, do not believe in a plan that would be about your plan. Cbo said it would cost senior 600 more. The reason is it is indexed at a rate, slower than a rate that Health Care Inflation as growth in the past and is projected to grow in the future. We cannot take the cost of health care and transfer it to seniors. We need to move from a system of volume to a system of quality. What aspects of Social Security would you change or fix given that the quickly depleting trust fund . I will let you into the first. With regard to medicare, my point has no plan. He has been running for seven months and has no plan. Medicare is going bankrupt and we have an obligation to strengthen the social safety net, which is why i am working across the aisle to make sure it is going to happen. That is absolutely incorrect. To say so, i will take a patriot from the page in the daily herald that says you should demand more from the campaign. My vision Going Forward is to my socialre Safety Net Program is secure and needs to be there for future generations. One of the things we have to do is work in a bipartisan fashion in order to deal with this. When Social Security passed in 1995 half were living below the poverty line. We brought that down to 10 percent. We need to make sure its so security is there not just for my generation and their generation but my children and their children. We need to continue to drive down the numbers of seniors were in the party line. We cannot do it in a way that forces them to choose between friend and medicine to push them down and have them choose between planning for a future and saving for everything for the entire life. Can you name something that israel has done that you think has not been helpful to peace in the middle east . Honestly i cannot right now think of something that they have done in recent memory that i think has been detrimental. What i do know is the one true out like, we need to make sure that we as an era commissioner stan bates shoulder to shoulder. A good friend is able to look at a friend and say here are things you should do differently. Is there nothing that comes to mind that you think has been unhelpful . Certainly if it is going to be unhelpful, you have that behind closed doors. Going back to high school in the 1970s, i have watched as israel has sat at the negotiating table looking for partner. I am not saying israel is perfect, but to get a partner that wants peace, the policy makers need to come to the table and have negotiations. The United States has a role in providing is a forum to sit down and find the place where they can or they can find Common Ground but we need to of a two state solution. Would they recognize israel as a jewish state, secure and safe within its own border, then we will have peace. Lets talk about 70 charges, some of them per personal. There have been charges you have embellish your business regiment. I am proud of my business resume. I have helped plan for a future, bringing in the next generation, helping to expand and grow the business. It is that experience that i think gives me the perspective. I understand why we have to simplify the tax code. I understand what it will mean for Business Owners to look to the future with confidence. Is that a substantive record correctly . As i made a decision to enter the race, i devoted 100 of my time to this race. I got in the race because of the experience i bring. The value you saw and that was the value i kept in the Checking Account to keep it open. All of my energies have gone to running for congress in the past year and a half. That will help me how we can help Small Businesses look to the future and grow. It will that experience that will help meet of lightweight policy in washington. We cannot continue to add complexity to add complexity and make it more difficult difficult for Small Businesses and this economy. We need to add highquality jobs. Small businesses will lead the way. You are as on record for a federal ban on weapons. Why not . To come upon it as i have a Business Record because he was running for congress. In 2010, i was running for congress. Are a management consultant. You are trying to avoid the real reality. Jobsould be focusing on and the economy. Frankly, you are passing yourself off as this businessman that meets the budget and apparel, and youve done either. I have run businesses. Take your both major point. Thank you. We need to get neighbors and friends back to work. This is what it is about. Jobs in the economy. One of them is done laws. You say you support reasonable gun laws. How about a federal ban on assault weapons . To go this ended and was not renewed because there was a thought it was not working. Certainly we have to look at other ways to reduce gun violence. I work with mayor bloomberg and mayors against illegal guns. We look at the gun violence in new york city and what they have been able to do. Certainly i support trying to make sure we close the gun the whole loop loss. Look at back round checks to make sure that happen more efficiently and effectively. I am pleased to say the Illinois Council on gun violence will be giving the award in september. In december. We are seeing too much violence happening in our cities, communities. We need to reinstate the weapons ban that expired in 2004. We need to be and largescale magazines that allows someone to go into a theater in pilaf 30 rounds in a minute. You talk about it but are not willing to put action behind it. This is what youve done in congress. When you vote against the environment. I did not vote against womens rights. I stood up for gun control. These are the things that are important. I stood up for planned parenthood. I think this is important to note that i do stand up and go across the aisle and work with colleagues on the other side of the aisle. I have worked with sandy davis, barney frank and lend more and senator durban and so many others on down the line. Henry waxman. To go your reaction. Your reaction. I understand the discussion you had, but a look of the votes to have taken. Other people in your party had the courage to stand up to leadership and say this ryan plan is not good for the middle class, students and they voted against it. See the online question. Will you support comprehensive Immigration Reform, the dream act, a drivers license for undocumented immigrants . Your reaction to that question. What i will say is that our nation we generally try to judge someone on what they have done. When i said is i do think the dream act as a step in the right direction. We need to provide students and young people that know no other country besides our own the opportunity to serve our country, step up and go to school and be able to stay here. We need to provide them off we need to provide them that opportunity. I think comprehensive Immigration Reform is something we need to do. I would break it up to smaller bills so it has a greater possibility of passing. To go the Republican Party has blocked it over and over again. George bush put forward a bill that the Republican Party would not even consider. We of 11 Million People live living in the shadows were working hard. We need to provide them a path to citizenship without putting a disadvantage to people of waited in line. For young people who were brought here as little children, we need to make sure their dreams and aspirations of a realistic chance of being rely so they can contribute in the communities again. One minute left. Just a 42nd recap you like to leave the voters with. I been ranked as one of the most independent congressman in the United States. Take a look at the chicago tribune. They have said dole is the clear choice. Frankly i am able to bridge the political divide and reach across the aisle. I have done that for the past 22 months. It being on front on israel issues, being a leader. I am a social moderate. Certainly my record stand up for that. Stands up for that. Weve seen this past two years of congress that has put fighting ahead of comprehensive collaboration. We need someone who was going to go to congress and work for the people of the district, but the middleclass first. They looked at my position and both gave me the endorsement. I have the endorsement of the Human Rights Campaign. The internal order of police, firefighters. All of these group in the past gave their endorsement to my occurred. They gave me their endorsement. Thank you both for being here. Great to be here with you. For this is for the city club of chicago for their support. I especially watching gavel togavel coverage. It is only the only place to get the real deal. I also enjoy newsmakers and book programs. I like the commentary is only intended to let you know what is going on. There is not too much analysis. There certainly is not the opinion. I appreciate how i can really see through and understand the programming itself. I can get my analysis elsewhere. If you want to see how your Government Works directly, then cspan is about the only place to go. Watches cspan on comcast. Cspan brought to you as a Public Service by your television provider. If you consider a while ago no one would ever agree. Right now a lot of us use gmail and the emails are stored on a server. It is interesting we of given our information out. We were looking into cyber in Cyber Security and cyber war. The pentagon declared cyberspace the environment of people and machines and at work as a new domain of war, and we realize one in 1000 people really understood what cyberspace was and the degree and depth of the vulnerabilities. What were trying to do in zero days series is to take pieces of it and explain the fundamentals and a platonic idea is that everyone from my mom and dad to congress and people around the country can understand, so maybe start the process of coming up ways to defend it cyberspace better. Cyberspace bomber abilities tonight on cspan to. As we approach election day, c span as asking middle and High School Students to send a message to the president. Students will answer the question, what is the vote most important issue the president should consider in 2013 for a chance to win 5000 in total prices. This did it the cspan student video camera competition is open to students grade 812. We are getting more on the federal response to the storm this afternoon. We will have live coverage of the federal Emergency Management meeting with craig fugate about 10 minutes from now here on cspan. Numerous campaigns Campaign Events have been canceled, including debates in massachusetts and maine, even as we were planning to cover. The president has canceled events for today and tomorrow. We will cover as bundled scheduled rally for president obama in youngstown, ohio. Vicepresident joe biden will take his place. He will be joined by bill clinton. Live coverage starting at 3 00 eastern here on cspan. Pictures of the Nations Capital here, and the storm had shut down the federal government today, as many schools have been shut down. Millions of businesses have been shut down. We are watching Campaign Events, and also watching out for events that may happen tomorrow. We will update you as they have been here on the cspan networks. The president canceled Campaign Appearances today and tomorrow. He did have a briefing to let us know about the federal response to the storm. Hello, everybody. I received a full briefing from our Emergency Response teams, including fema, and other agencies helping in the Recovery Department of energy, homeland security, department of health and human services. Obviously, everyone is aware, at this point, that this will be a big and powerful storm. All across the eastern seaboard, everybody is taking the appropriate preparations. I have spoken to the governors in the states. Quickly. Governments. Is available for those hit. The storm will hit landfall sometime this evening, but storm, we are certain that this will be a slowmoving process affected. State and local officials are saying. When they tell you to evacuate, you need to evacuate. Do not pause, do not question the instructions been given because this is a serious storm fatal consequences if peoplethe good news is, the governors and local officials have had a few days of preparation. There has been extraordinarily state, federal, and local governments. We are confident the assets are prepositioned for an Effective Response in the aftermath of the storm. Are not evacuating when you have been asked to evacuate, you are putting First Responders in we need to have search and rescue teams in and around multiple states all at the same time. The department of defense position, if the public is not following instructions, that makes it more dangerous for people, and it makes the potential for fatalities that transportation will be tied up for a long time. Perhaps the most of the impact, aside from flooding, will be putting the power back on. We anticipate a lot of trees down, a lot of water. Despite the fact that the Power Companies are working very closely with their various state officials and local officials to make sure they are bringing in as many assets as possible and getting those ready in preparation for the storm, the fact is, many of these emergency crews will not be able to get in position to begin restoring power until the wind had died down. Storm, that may take severalthe public should anticipate that there will be a lot of power outages, and it may take time for that power to get back on. The same is true for transportation. There will be a lot of backlog. The amount of damage that has occurred. Let me summarize just by saying i am extraordinarily grateful for the corporation of our state and local officials. The conversations i have had with all the governors indicate needs. Everybody is taking this very seriously. We have prepositioned all the sure the public is following instructions. For those of you that need Additional Information about how to respond, you can go to ready. Gov. That website will provide you and your family with the information you need to prepare for the storm. Our thoughts go out to everyone potentially affected. We are extraordinarily grateful for our First Responders because they will be working around the clock nonstop. Thoughts and prayers go out to all those that may end up deal with a very difficult situation over the next several days. The last point i will make. This will be a big storm, it will be a difficult storm. Times like this, we all pull together. We look out for our friends, we we set aside whatever issues we have otherwise to make sure that with swiftness. Happen here. I want to thank all the federal place. I am confident we are ready but i think the public need to prepare for the fact that this may take a long time to clean up. Up and get through this. [inaudible] i am not worried about thei am worried about the impact on families and the impact on our First Responders. Item word about the impact on our economy and transportation. The election will take care of itself next week. Priority is to make sure that we are saving lives, that our in place, that people can get the food, water, shelter they and that we respond as quickly as possible to get the economy back on track. Shortly we will go live to fema headquarters with an update on the storm. The Conference Call will happen at about 2 30 eastern. Earlier today mitt romney took time to talk about the effects of Hurricane Sandy. [applause] one more thing i want to mention to you, you with all parts and clear eyes can see what is happening across the country right now. On the eastern coast of our nation a lot of people are in during difficult times. Our thoughts and prayers go to them about as we think about how hard it will be there. I do not think there has been a hurricane in ohio and a long time. There are families in harms way that will be hurt either in their professions or for to release something more severe. I would like to ask you to think about making the contribution today to the red cross or Relief Agency to be of help in any way possible to help those that are in harms way. [applause] we have faced these kinds of challenges before. It is great to see how americans come together. And this looks like another time when we need to come together, all across the country, even here in ohio, and make sure we give support to the people who need it. I am asking you to look for a way to do that. I know Victory Centers are looking for items in cash to send along to the red cross. Whether you go to the Victory Center or do it from your e mail, internet account, do it do your very best to help. The remark from it wrongly earlier today. Were going live to fema headquarters for an update. The Conference Call about to get under way. Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for dialing in today. Two main administrators, craig fugate and dr. Rick knab. Each of them will have opening comments and then we will take questions. Please limit yourself to one question and no followups. With that, let me turkish turned over to the administrator. Good afternoon. As Hurricane Sandy keeps approaching and moving closer to the coast, we are going to be rapidly moving from preparing to support response operations. We have been moving commodities, bottled waters, meals, blankets, agenciesnd volunteer moving their supplies in. Today we have been looking at generator needs. We already had a pretty considerable number of generators and route to the area. These are the larger generators, the type you need to run critical facilities, as well as high water generators you need for water generation or hospitals. We have been looking at additional generators that are going to be leased and brought in and coordinating this with the u. S. Army of engineers to respond to generator call requests. As the storm comes ashore, we will move into response, as soon as weather conditions permit. This will slow down, and there will be the time where the storm is still impacting areas, and that will have an impact on how quickly we can begin Response Recovery operations. Think you. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you. Landfall expected some time tonight. It is a little bit difficult in situations where a system is tilted and cheered and in the process of beginning to lose its tropical characteristics, but to get a handle on the Forward Motion of the lowlevel center. It does appear based on the Aircraft Data and satellite imagery the system is speeding up as a move towards the coast. Thats speed up has been the overall scheme of things temporary because were still forecasting that the system will slow down, especially by tomorrow over the midatlantic area and the inland with the circulation center, but still this huge overall storage system will continue to bring strong winds, elevated water levels, both before as weve seen during the day today, and after the circulation comes ashore. We are still anticipating it will make the transition to a postcyclical cyclone later tonight. It is hard to pinpoint at this time. In any event, we still think it is the overall best course of action to have used these a local wfo units from start to finish so we do not ever have to deal with the switch over from what would have been hurricane and Tropical Storm warnings to the wfo warnings midstream because it will be awhile before these warnings, coastal and inland, will be able to come down. It will be a Long Duration event, and we are expecting windwise, Hurricane Force gusts over a good portion of the coastline. This will be up through the massachusetts coast line and everywhere in between. The Tropical Storm force ordeal force winds will occur at the coast and happen and penetrate inland and last in some areas of to as long as tuesday night and wednesday morning. The storm surge still going with the same general picture. For8 feet above ground level in many places from the northern the large but to connecticut long island sound. We still have the area in the middle here, long island sound, new york city where we could see 6eleven be combined surge in tied in some spots. The storm surge unit has been watching the water values all day and everything seems to be coming up in the areas we generally anticipated. It appears to be on its way to coming to fruition generally in the way we had envisioned. The rainfall could be measured in terms of feet. Hopefully not more than 1 foot, but certainly could be more than a foot in some places. Several inches in many spots. That could lead that will be coastal areas the and inland over the next few to several days that could lead to the flash flooding on shorttime skills and potentially river flooding. There is also the snow component. Up to 23 feet of snow in the mountain areas. Virginia along the appalachian chain between kentucky, virginia, tennessee, and north carolina. Will the hazard event. Time is running out for preparation and many areas, especially coastal as conditions deteriorate before landfall later tonight. That is a summary of what i have. Back to you. With that, we will moving to questions. Please limit yourself to one question with no followups. We want to get through as many questions as we can. To ask a question, please press start then one. Star then one. For dr. Knabb, given the storm has bred up quite a bit and looking at early evening, 6 00, 7 00 landfall, what does that mean in terms of the storm surge specifically in long island sound, new york harbor area, and in general, will it change the overall impacts of the next several days of the storm . Will it mean it will leave a little earlier are not really . In terms of the localized details of the timing of peak surge relative to high tide, the time of passage for landfall of the low level center could have some positive results in some areas where it takes the peaks surged out and another area that might make it more aligned. Because the circulation is so large and these large systems so capable of pushing so much water, it is not like a hurricane with a tight court type of situation where the timing of landfall is really correlated highly but the timing of the peak surge. I would not let their guard down anywhere along the coast line in thinking a couple or few hours difference of landfall will change the overall difference. It will be a long term erasion event. The magnitude of this we would not want to pinpoint any change just get. We will stay the course of what we think the pink but we think the peak volumes will be. Thank you. Bloomberg news. If you could talk a little bit about i know in 2004 due experienced for hurricanes within six weeks. Just before, roughly similar situation before another president ial election. Could you compare and contrast what you faced would you please now compared to what you faced then . We were anticipating based on the storms there could be impacts that will linger into next week and have impacts on the federal election. We have been working on making sure we have their proper support any actions that may be required and in the areas that may be declared. We are going through policy to make sure that is all in place. This really goes back to the overall thing you need to have. It needs to be safe and secure. Focus on power restoration, infrastructure back up, but we do look at the support states. This will be led by the states. So we will be in a support role, but from the experience of 2004 and other disasters that occurred during federal elections, we are providing the information needed to picture we are responsive to states request. Thank you. Next question. A minister, this question is for you. The seven states and District Of Columbia that have received emergency declarations, what will they get . Right now direct federal assistance. Meaning they can start releasing the distribution of commodities, generators or other products that are there. We are ready to support additional request for assistance, which would be more financial reimbursing for the cost of the response or damages occurred. The first step really is to make sure we can release product to them and they are requesting them. We have right now in the northeast 600,000 liters of water. We have roughly 490,000 meals. We a more stop coming in. This is what the met has, but were working with red cross and others that have moved supplies in the in working with the supply sector. The initial assistance, the federal assistance directly provided to the stage. Additional assistance will be provided by the governors request and the impact each state will occur during the storm. Thank you. Wall street journal. For line is open. Could you give us an update as to how much money isnt the Disaster Relief fund presently, and given everything about the size and strength of the storm, do you believe in that is there . We went in with almost 1 billion in the balance. So weve seen the limiting factors for response activities. Nor do we see in the limiting factors for the existing disasters we are responding to. The concern will be recovery rebuilding efforts, that that would require any additional funding. As it is right now, the amount of money going into the fiscal year, the continuing resolution means we have enough funds for the response to the disaster. Think you. Nicole kill agalion. Thank you. Do you foresee anything that might impact next tuesday, whether it is linked ring clean up, another storm system out there . This from a forecasting standpoint. It is really too early to say what will be the impact of the storm. That is why it is important we will be here to support the Governors Team in the supervisor of elections or secretaries of state as they determine what impact and assistance they may need. Right now until we know what the impacts are, hard to say what that may be. Abc news. Your line is open. If you can doctor this, please. Answer this, please. Were trying to figure out how far inland the surge will go and three different places. New york city, atlantic city, and long island. Thats hazard is the one that is handled particularly at the local level for very good reasons. It is such a result of depth of the water just offshore, the shape of the coastline, the terrain adjacent to the water, and that is handled at a very local level. Now, if you look at new york city, and indeed the administrator will want to comment, the evacuated zone for theacuated zone a reason that the storm surge was not want to penetrate beyond areas in the zone. And it gives you an idea of the use of information regarding storm surge that are then taken by the local Emergency Management to figure out how far inland the water would penetrate. Every little specific area is handled differently. You can go 3 miles down the road and it goes just over the road. 3 miles further down the road in canada several blocks inland. It depends on the local effects. I think dr. Knabb really cover that. What were planning for based on the estimate of storm surge and then in real time is where were at in the tide cycles. The Emergency Managers will base the evacuation decisions based on that impact. The actual forecast for what the estimates are will be done in conjunction with the Weather Services offices and they can give you a better idea of what is happening in the tide cycles. Thank you for taking my question. This is to the director. I have been hearing conflicting things about the movement of this storm. Some people say it is pretty typical for an atlantic Tropical Storm hurricane. Others say it is pretty unusual. I was wondering what the record and science say about the but secular course this storm is taking. What makes every storm unique is a combination of things, the time of year, strength of the structure in magnitude and size. Sandy is unique in a number of ways. It is certainly not common for a system to come in at this strength. But if you look back in history, Tropical Cyclones have come up the east coast many times in the past. The whole east coast is vulnerable to storm surges and hurricanes. Look at isabel in 2003 that came in a little bit further south and had all the storm surge. It has taken a different path, going it in a different direction than this one is. Every storm is unique. This is not 100 percent unprecedented, but certainly not common to have a system of this magnitude coming from this direction at this time of year, and what makes this nearly unprecedented and very unusual is the transition to oppose best Tropical Cyclone and all the different hazards you have in one time. I think this is the only time i know of with the hurricane as strong and getting snow and west virginia. The combination of the winter process upstream with the Tropical Storm is certainly unprecedented to get the amount of snow were still expecting and west virginia. Take a think you, sir. Thank you, sir. Mr. Fugate. Or i know you a put teams in place and commodities in place, but in terms of the mutt response, what are the things that worry you . People that did not evacuate and coast guard having to go out to rescue them. And also, the overall impacts of the storm surge, particularly in the more populated areas. A monitoring very closely new york city in the subway system and the overall impacts for the power system and how widespread that is. Thank you. Congressional quarterly, your line is open. Question for the administrator. I was hoping to look collaborate on whether youre been able to send out more alerts and any problems with that or any successes . With these types of storms, you get a lot of this that will be carried out through the traditional media. Using a lot more traditional media and facebook and twitter. There is a higher degree of awareness for what the impact will be. The real success would be after words if we would see a change in the outcome. Did more people he the official evacuation orders and protective measures that local officials have been measuring . Operator, and a question. Next question. Given the amount of time it will take for the storm to one fall, how soon do you see being able to transition to this disaster aid status, and given the size of the storm, are you confident you have the assets you need from one virginia to new england . I think the conditions will probably start dissipating on the Southern Side of the track. They have a window that is probably able to deal with more extreme weather than utility crews. Coast guard did a hit or did a heroic rescue at sea. They are really prepared to go out of the adverse weather. Power restoration, that will really depend upon the wins. And some of the areas, it could be later wednesday or thursday before conditions improve. As far as overall supply, we of debasing upon this is not just the map but a total effort to of family. A big part of that is private sector. We are participating with our National Business operation center. A lot of the leading retailers and Distribution Systems to look at where they are at. I think were in a good position based upon the initial response, but we still have more things in route, and dissipating date to accommodate three, and day for as we get a better idea of the things we need to bring resources and and not go with what we averted prestage. We have prestaged. Hello, and then you for taking my question. We essentially have a noreaster meeting a cyclone. On top of that, a full moon. How you need is this, and how much does the fact that we are going to have a full moon affect the storm surge . Good question. The moon effects that astronomical tides, and the timing of this event relative to that is adding it may be a foot or two to the astronomical tide, depending on what place your talking about. So at the overall water level, combined surge in tide would be a little bit less of a different time of month, but this is overwhelmingly going to be a water wise rise as a result of the storm itself. Take a big year. Next question. You mentioned that you were having a general, sir council look over things regarding the election. Having gone through this with the elections when i was in florida, one of the challenges was a lot of the polling stations had been severely damaged. We were having to do temporary facilities. It was not that the mets did it but whether or not we would reimbursed for it. In 2004 much of the things that were extraordinary for, the met was able to provide reimbursement. Those are the big things we wanted to make sure that everyone have the guidance out there, and if there were questions coming up, to get those out quickly so we could be responsive. Thank you. Eli lake, newsweek magazine. It has been recorded george w. Bush tapped you or once you to be the fema director when you were in florida after mike brown. Is that true, and to you write your own do you write your own tweets . Yes, that is why there is this pipings. As far as the rest of this that goes, i work for the present right now, and that is my focus. What happened previously, we can talk about that later offline. Thank you. Next question. Wall street journal, your line is open. I wanted to ask whether there is a consolidated effort on how many people are being told to evacuate or have evaporated, and a number of states that would involve. The second question on the coastal storm surges. If you could share more perspective on how long this could last, and a bit of Historical Perspective on whether when was the last time we have those kinds of potential storm surges over such a large swath of scocoast line . I do not have that in front of me. Each state has been doing their own evacuations. We have been looking at what they would need to support that. We will have Public Affairs get with the states to see if theres a rough idea of the total number of people that were ordered to evacuate. As far as who is actually of actuated, that is something that is more difficult. We may look at this after the storm. I will turn it over to dr. Knabb. Regarding the region overall as overrated water level, a couple days or maybe even more than that, maybe into wednesday for many areas. The water level started coming up earlier today and could take into wednesday, wednesday night for the southerly flow behind the system to completely shut down to allow the water levels to go completely back to normal. But the peak surge where the search and tied will combine to get near the values that were talking about in public advisory, that is going to be increased tonight and overnight and into tomorrow and then maybe start coming down a little bit, but it will take a while for water levels to come back to normal. The east coast of the u. S. And variety of events in the past, last year irene resell the surge on the kinetic coast and elsewhere. Irene last year and elsewhere. Time for one last question. Your line is open. This storm already is proving to be a major flood event. I was hoping you could speak to what you will be doing in terms of immediate air Emergency Response and then speak to the coast guard about people having to evacuate people and what youre doing to help communities that have been flooded in the coming weeks. Take a safety first. Not only are we dealing with coastal flooding, but inland flooding. Safety first. First thing is search and rescue. The assistance will be based upon the needs. The first question is, are they going to need Housing Assistance . We have already looked at the availability of housing stock, rental properties if we have the housing commission. We are anticipating what the needs are, though we will not know exactly until we see the impact. We are preparing with flight safety, immediate needs, housing, and then moving to recovery. I just want to close we focus a lot as the storm is coming ashore on the impacts. In the aftermath of the storm, a lot of people lose their lives after the storm. Just because the storm has passed, does that leave the storm is safe. Unfortunately accidents have been a leading cause of death in the aftermath of the storm, so we want people to keep that message going. 3. 6 billion is the total for the relief fund, that includes money carried over from last year and apportionment of the continuing resolution. We have the funds to respond and continue response and recovery and previous disasters, and we will assess the impacts to determine any additional funding needs based on the impact of Hurricane Sandy. Thank you everyone for joining us. To call to get the latest updates, please go to www. Weather. Gov. Fema. Gov. For readiness tips and post disaster tips, ready. Gov. Thank you so much. Conference is concluded, thank you for your pet dissipation. Thank you for your participation. We will keep you updated with the updates as we get them. A picture Union Station. The federal government is shut down today. Tomorrow the house and senate will hope radical brief pro forma sessions. A little bit earlier. Unique to embrace this. She signed as a pledge to support all rican embrace a balanced approach. These upper income earners were doing well in the entire economy was moving. A balanced approach is the only approach i believe will get us there. It is amazing to me that you can stand here on voting record deficits. This is the fastest thadebt increased in American History. It is amazing to me that the idea of cutting wasteful spending, the ability of congress to extend money we do not have been balancing the budget is extreme. I think it would force them to ize things. The race to succeed Jeff Bingaman is just one of the key governors race is a follow on cspan, cspan radio and c span. Org campaign2012. Coming up at 3 30, we will have a Campaign Rally with Vice President of finance and former president clinton. Right now, a look of the cost of a president ial debate. Looking at the money of campaigns, thank you for being here. Do we know all were going to know about how much money has been raised tax we got reports this past week that covered the first seven days of october. Then they spend money. They will have to report every 24 hours what they spent. We will see more as the time goes on. They are expected to raise 1 billion. What does that say about the election . Their competitive. They are close. People arent engaged in interested. Alsoresidents campaign got the dollars. It is not unprecedented. What does through what you are looking at in terms of money raised. It is interesting. The campaigns are very difference didifferent. The Romney Campaign is somewhat less. The Republican National committee has raised about 20 million more than the Democratic National committee. We have teamed live and team read which represents the campaign parties. It really plays an important role, especially for the romney camp. If you click the link, if you can see how this breaks. The outside groups have outspent the obama supporting groups by 31. That is what has equalized this. It is about a Million Dollars already. Join the conversation looking at the influence of money. Here are the new members to call. We are talking with their fellow at the center for responsive policy. Other organizations are tracking the money and following where it is coming from and how it is being spent. They break it down by the campaigns. They are allowed to do some political action. They are permitted to be involved in politics. Toause of this, theyre able be much more aggressive and specific in the way they are involved. The other things that advocate the election is this. De because there are about educating people have been able to do that without sources of the money. I was like to see about this money. They come not and decide the election. They need to start taxing this money. If the rich people do not want to pay for, if they want to takes take this. Are you still with the us . C guest the Bombing Campaign is continuing. It relies much more on small the barack Obama Campaign is continuing. If it relies much more on small contributions. You click to donate are put in a credit card number. The campaign follows that. It continues to be this year. As in a company can raise a lot. Direct contributions to the candidates are still limited. Only 2500 for each. Theyre so prohibitions on you can get money to the candidates. Theyre not that it to make contributions. They are allowed to spend their own money independently. It cannot make contributions. Typically president ial candidates raise money at the national level. You want to support them. The money this year has been better in many respects. As the spinning was really focused on this. They have contributed hundreds of millions of dollars. I think the number that gets you to a majority of the money, at 50 is being raised from to lennar 50 individuals. The number people you can fit are really important. That is something we need to watch to see whether they can become more important. I was in virginia. It is unrelenting. That is true in ohio and colorado. How effective it is, i do not know. The small number people have been very planning prominent roles. Host well get a few of these names. Donated 10 million. The can see their names here in the amount of money they have given. We also are seen some questions about what kind of a game changer is they were. You can see the rest of this discussion on our website. Were going to a Campaign Stop would joe biden. It is just is a under way. It is great to be back in youngstown. I want to thank the mayor for welcoming me here. I want to thank the congressman for his remarks and service. Former congressman john, i want to the thank you for being here. This was a day that the president and i had planned not working . Can you turn it up . Is that better . This is a day that the president and i had to travel from florida to ohio to virginia. The weather has other things in mind. The couple of days ago we canceled the virginia stop this we did not to imperil any lives. Then we went to florida last night. He got up this morning in said i have to go back right now the storm is getting out of hand. I have to handle it. I said that is the right call. I spoke in orlando and got on a plane to come here and be with vicepresident and joe biden. I will bring him on in a minute. I want to thank him for all he has done for our country. Let me just a few words about this election in of ohio. I like youngstown a lot. [applause] aplaceit because it is that Still Believes in manufacturing. It is one of the one of the mentioned i in my book that has done a wonderful job of selling american a products around the world. I like it because your largest employer is just down states. The community can figure how to create jobs from their university. I want to say a few words about what this election means to me. You know, i cant run for president anymore. Or only stuck with me because [inaudible] 4 when you reach a certain point in your life, you realize Elections Come and go but the only thing that really matters is whether people are better off than when you start it, whether our children have a brighter future, and whether things are coming together or apart. I know when there is a lot of anxiety and concern that be a part deal often works in politics. I saw the reports of governor romneys latest ad saying that the president had allowed jeep to move to china. He went back to washington and said of all the things he had said, probably her is my feeling is the most. And never had any money when i was a kid. The first new car i ever owned i was 30 years old was a jeep. I would never move the jobs. It turns out that jeep is reopening in china because they made so much money. They can afford to do it. Though never consider shutting down the american operation. They are roaring in America Thanks to people like the people of ohio. In keeping with that, here is what i want to say that this election is about. I support barack obama because i think he has got better jobs plan, and better record, and a better budget plan, a better Education Plan, at a Better Health care plan than governor romney. If you listen to all the debates, the republican arguments come down to the. We left him a terrible mess and in 4 years he did not fix it. We have finally discovered that middleclass people are having a hard time. Put us back again. We will do the same thing we did before. That is basically the argument. Look at this. I hope i have earned some credibility with you. Applause]nd on jobs and budgets. Do you believe our country works better when we are all together or when your on your own . Do you believe our economy works better when we share prosperity in response ability or whether we just keep the money at the top and help it trickles down . Do you believe our policies are better when we make them based on evidence or extremist ideology . Do you believe our budget are better women for them based on an arithmetic or illusion . That is what this election is about. Lets start with the facts. Barack obama as a senator ran for president for nearly two years along with a few other people including the secretary of state joe biden. They all got what they were doing is offering specific solutions to change the course of a very weak economy. We only had 2. 6 million jobs before. Then all of a sudden six days before the election we have the biggest financial crisis before the great depression. Throughout all this make shifting in the debates, or what the president calls romnesia, the central argument is that if governor romney was elected everything would be hunky dory. Nothing can be done in four years. For this is not just my opinion. The most important authorities in the world of financial crisis are two professors at harvard. 11 the nobel prize and a belief is a moderate republican. Hes one of this evidence based guys. Not very popular in the Republican Party. Toaid youre kind enough send me a copy of your book. This time it is different. I read it. I want to ask you. Is there any way anybody could have prepared all of the damage that barack obama bounce on the day he took office when were losing 800,000 jobs a month . Lease and no way. He said most countries that have these kind of damage to extend to any years to get over. We do not go back. He said we can beat that. In america we can beat that. Because of our energy and productivity of our workers, our research and development. Maybe we could beat that. We could do seven or eight years and do better. Nobody could have done it in four years. What has happened in four years . The president stopped the slide into a depression. You have been paid back for every nickel that was put into the financial industry plus interest. You got your money back. Our banks are in the best shape they have been in 20 years thanks to those new rules on wall street that prohibit use for bailouts and protect against them goes to governor romney want to weaken. We have 5. 3 million private sector jobs, twice as many as in the previous years under the republicans before the meltdown. As everyone knows, there are 250,000 more. I have heard governor romney pose a explanation for why he denied that any type himself more than a boy scouts not tying contest knot tying contest. Ohio is an old school state. That is the best dance he had when you are back against the wall. Look at where we are going. His jobs plan is based on investments in education so everybody can do the jobs of the future for people who are in school in people who are out of school. Ohio in cleveland is getting new training so people can get decent jobs. Invest in technology and research. That is a better economic plan. This is a loser. It is bad for america. Obama is economic plan is better for the future of america. Obama Education Plan is better for the future of america. He is committed to hiring 100 and thousand new science and Technology Teachers in our schools. Committed to cutting the rate of andalfon cut and pasin committed to the student loan program. The old student loan system works like this. The federal government pay the bank a fee to make loans and the guaranteed 90 worth of loans. The new system works like this. Under that old system, we dropped to 16 in the world with our young people with college degrees. It is a recipe for disaster. We cannot afford to be 16th in the world. What do the president and do . Gress dudac the past lot to change the system. The government sets aside a loan reserve saying these are the ones eagle for loans. Starting next year, everyone in the country gets one of these loans will have the absolute right to pay back as a low fixed percent of their income. Think about this. What that means is nobody ever has to worry whether they cannot pay their loans. If he get out of college and you want to go teach in a small town in ohio or the salaries are low, you can do it anyway for a few years because what you have to pay will be determined by what you are making, not the other way around. [cheers and applause] believe it or not, over 10 years this cost you 6 billion less t ystem. E old s the president and congress allocated at 60 million to increasing the pell grants every year for a decade to keep up with inflation and maintaining the tuition tax credits for middleclass families to help pay their kids way through college. This is unbelievable. Here is what you need to know. Even the more moderate image of governor romney cannot obscure the fact that he has committed to repeal that law. They want to give the money back to the bankers, raise the cost of student loans, and make them harder to repay, it keeps the drop out rates going up. On that ground alone you should reelected barack obama for president of the United States. He has a Better Health care position in governor romney than governor romney. They talk about how terrible obamacare is. How it robs medicare. Let me tell you what the worst thing we can do is, stay with the status quo. Last week the big headline on the front page saying a big reason that working people in this country have not got a rate is because so many paying health care premiums. 6 of our National Income is a 1 trillion a year. It was killing us. What happened since obamacare past . We just past two years in a rolw at the lows and a decade fr the first time in 51 years. We have 1. 3 billion in refunds, including 11 million to 143,000 people in ohio. Why . Because the law says 80 to 85 of your interest premium has a Good Health Care not to profits. 3 million and people have Health Insurance for the first time in their lives. Starting next year, over 30 million americans will be able to afford health care for the first time. For them or their children with preexisting conditions. The president did do exactly what congressman ryan did in his budget. He budgeted less than originally estimated to pay for medicare over 10 years for a good reason. Medical professionals and the aarp. Governor romney is saying the aarp is the worst enemy of seniors. The aarp is trying to plunder Seniors Health care. Why would they do that . They do not need the money. When you do not finish much, at the Medicare Trust fund last longer. President obama link in the life of medicare by eight years, close the doughnut hole, and were helping these people buy insurance. Repeal its. The head with the people with preexisting conditions. Reopen the doughnut hole and bring the brink of see here for the Medicare Trust fund down to 2016. He says i have to do this because these Insurance Companies will not cover anybody with Medicare Advantage. Really . If that is true we ought to know because that law is in effect for right now. What happened last year that he had a number of Companies Providing Medicare Advantage to 17 of people who are paying 16 less. President obama strengthened healthcare. I want to Say Something about energy. Ohio is not just about gas and coal purity also have people working in the solar and wind gas and coal. You also people working in the solar and wind industry. Mitt romneys policy is all of the above except nothing for wind and nothing for solar. We have 100,000 americans working in the Solar Industry today. The prices are dropping. We rank first set it in the world and the ability to generate electricity from the sun. All of the above is the right position. The last thing i want to say is i am for president obama because his budget adds up. In the last 50 years there have been five surpluses. When republicans talk a, lets not forget we never had a structural debt in this country in times of Economic Growth before 1981. And wen little deficits were already investing more with a longterm payoff. We tripled the debt in the first and thenrs of 1980s increased it 150 again. Then i brought it down for you. In a doubled it again when i left office. Lets not forget this. How did they do it that promising yet we just cut taxes on upper income people there be so much for all be well. Now were doing this again. The president is giving a budget. Hes already agreed to 1 trillion with the spending cuts already in action. It reduce the debt by 4 trillion our next 10years. The higher income groups who got lost to the tax cuts and virtually all of the economic gaze of the last decade based our fair share by paying more when i was president. That is all they do. . Hat does that do ta the first thing they do is to say we need to spend 2 trillion more than we are going to spend on defense and more than the pentagon says we need. 25 trillion tax cuts would make president george w. Bush look like a banker. He must have been asleep at the switch. You said like Jerry Mcguire show me the money. You are the business guy. See me back after the election. Who can take you seriously . Here is my budget although it is not. San about after the election. See me about after the election. The reason is there are only three options. If you want to repeal Tax Exemptions you have to cut the Tax Exemptions on the middle class and governor romney says he will raise those taxes. Or you can do what they have always done in just let the deficit explode again. When the economy goes itll be a problem. Or you could just get the federal budget. Gut funding for education. Gut the student loan program. I spent 3 billion of your money to separate the human genome. He know how much Economic Activity it has generated . 790 billion. Barack obama wants to raise its. They want to cut its. One thing they have not to disavowed is they intend to cut medicaid by 33 over 10 years and get back to the state of ohio. Medicaid provides medical coverage to lower income kids, most of them have working families. Some of them are african american. Some are latino. Some are asian or middle eastern background. Most of them are white folks. This is not a racial deal. This is an equal opportunity hosing. It is not right. Most medicaid money goes to to other groups. First, elderly people on medicare who spent all their money and cannot afford to be in a nursing home except medicaid pays for its. To the senate to ohio and is blamed the state and say your mother can stay in yours cannot . Maybe worst of all, medicare provides health care to help for disabled children in homes that [inaudible] even uppermiddleclass homes because this party take care of a child with autism or a developmental disability. You want to cut this ta . It is wrong. It is wrong. There is still will not be enough money to balance the budget. Barack obama has a better education and health care plan. It Better Energy plan. We are all in this together. You are not on your own. It is consistent with good economics. Shared responsibility in prosperity, not trickled down. It is consistent with the policy making. It consisted, do it on arithmetic. I have been honored to work in this campaign. I get support from republicans and democrats and independents. At the time i do not know who is what. We are working for a practical goal. That is how america ought to work again. It will only do that if you re elect president obama. I want you to remember this. I know we are preaching to the savior. I want you to be here in go vote and dry out people for early bolting. I want you to be here and talk to people who may still be and decided. You know what the truth is. You know what the facts are. Value to fight every last College Students i want you to find every last didnt to fight for the student loan program. I am especially grateful to Vice President joe biden for a number of things. When i served as president , thanks to him we passed 100,000 Police Officers on the street in gave us eight years of declining crime. We passed a violence against women act thanks to him. After he became Vice President , he became president obamas ambassador to middleclass america to make sure nobody in washington ever forgot what it was like to get up every day and work all day and worry about how youre going to pay those bills and raise those kids and how the American Dream could be made real. Im telling you again. The argument being made against president obama that somehow this could have been fixed in four years is wrong. The argument that is right is he did a lot more fixing them would have been done if they had bid for the last four years. I want you to join me in giving a a warm welcome to joe biden, the Vice President of the United States. Applauze]nd hello, a youngstown. I tell you what. This is a switch. President clinton introducing me. I spent eight years introducing statesn hei was united center. What a great pleasure it was working for this president. What a pleasure it is that he still works. I know you are expecting the real president. He asked me to expresses regret for not being able to be here. Hes still doing the job a president should be doing. I want to thank all the First Responders to route this country. Throughout this country. There are a whole lot of folks all over the country. It is further evidence that when america stands together we are all better off. When america stand together everybody is better off. President clinton and sherrod brown, here is a man with a heart and courage. Never worry about him changing his mind. Thank you for allowing us to get out. A guy that i love working with and i mean this truly, i served in the congress and senate a long time. I did not find anyone better than congressman tim ryan. Where are you . That is a standup guy. We need jobs back. It is great to see you. You are here. Where are you . Now you have seen the debate. The president has three and i have one with congressman ryan. If there was any wonder left or there were historic differences, i do not know where you have been. Governor romney and congressman ryan cannot run from their record or positions. The last Foreign Policy debate, i was not sure whether president goingor romney was to endorse president obama. We Roman Catholic say that boy had an epiphany. Governor romney went from sank it was a mistake we did not leave 30,000 troops in iraq. He sounded like he was against the war from the beginning. I was amazed. He went from labeling russia last year as the single greatest geopolitical threats to the United States and even opposed the new gun control treaty that every republican said to push that, he said he would not have supported it. All of a sudden we can work with russia. You know that. Did you hear that . I thought, turn that tv up. 10putins best friend. Putins best friend. When as in the second debate what would you commit to, he said it depends. With these guys it depends on everything. It always depends who theyre talking to or where they are. It depends on what the vote is. Pends. Ays defe i am from pennsylvania. The grandfather always said be ists. Of the convert tes one issue they cannot bring themselves to say they now agreed with us on was issues relating to women. Think about it now. They are ready to jettison foreignpolicy to win this election. They still cannot bring themselves, and i am being earnest, if they cannot bring themselves to move into the 21st century on women. They have used step in the 50s 4 reappeared 4vias views that are stuck in the 50s for real. For the refusal is stunning. It says an awful lot about these guys. When governor romney was asked direct questions about whether or not our daughters, spouses, women of this country are entitled to equal pay, what did he say . He started talking about binders. His staff made a binder full of women who were qualified. Whoa. All yet to do is not anyone in our doors. It was not hard. Think about what it says. He never did answer the question. He never did answer the question equal pay for equal work. Does not come as a surprise for a guy who says he would not have supported bill Lee Ledbetter act. Think of that. The Lily Ledbetter act. It is 2012. The differences are stark. I want to make sure you understand that they still think speaking of our health care proposal, and they still think mr. President. They still being that insurers should be able to charge women but now the charge an average of 50 more for the taxing policy man gets for a woman. We changed the law that comes into effect next year. Right now they can literally label pregnancy as a pre existing condition. It sounds like im making this up. I am not. We made it against it. They want to repeal its. Just imagine 40 hard years according women have made to gain equality, imagine what would happen a romney appointed Supreme Court will look like. I want to make something absolutely clear. The basic premise which will look at these issues, we believe our doctors and children daughters and children are entitled to every single rights my son and grandson have a. No exception. It is astounding. Romney and ryan are running away from the elements of the economic plan they have been boasting on in talking about for years. The first one is a trite trillion dollar tax plan that the president spoke about. It provides an additional one. Dollars trillion for people makes a minimum of 1 million a year. The cost is 200,000 a year for middleclass families with a child. That is how you pay for it. No wonder theyre walking away from it. He said were going to pay for this. When asked to name me one, he said no. The map this too complicated. Math is too complicated. Romney was able to name what little he will not close, the one he was asked about 60 minutes. He was asked, do you believe you are paying only 14 tax rate and all its 20 million and the guy making 50,000 a year has a . Igher tax rate that h he said i sure do. This is deadly earnest. These guys and mean it. As president obama said the day after the second debate, he said the governor plans are awful sketchy. Well president clinton, i just like correcting president obama but im going to do it appeared his plans are not sketchy. Tchasketchy. Their run the way from their own shadows. Just like a shadow, you cannot our run its. Out run it. The 2 tax cut that is due to expire in january. That tax cut will cause another 1 trillion and 500,000 billion of it goes to 120,000 families, 500 billion to 120,000 families with an average income of 8 million a year. I come from the delaware. Wealthy folks are not even asking for this tax cut and theyre holding your tax cuts. I said we want to make it permanent tax cut for 98 of the American People. All you have to do is let us vote on it. They said we cannot get a tax cuts for 98 of the American People. Youre going to have to pay more a year if we do not extend the tax cuts. They say not unless the 120,000 families have half a trillion dollars. It is outrageous. The other candidates are running away from this. It is the ryan budget. It is already past the United States congress. Whenwhen it passed, it was refed to as the most extreme budget plan passed by house and congress in modern times. Newt gingrich, a member in the debates, refer to it as right wing social engineering. Now all of a sudden, congressman ryan, our good friend, and you fought against all the way, too. [applause] the other congressman ryan. Other congressman ryan. He is all the sudden, you did this thing about romnesia, its contagious. I find this amazing. It is amazing. Here is what he said. He said my budgets does not cut this programs. It just slows their grit. Look, that is like governor romney telling the guy on the unemployment line i did not outsource your job, but i just offshore your job. The result is a job in . The result is iran budget said it makes medicare 8 voucher. Edessa make education. Hit number 19 Million People off of medicaid. And million seniors. The vast majority of seniors in a nursing home arent there because in many states they had to sell everything they had. They had to liquidate the value of their home. And then on it because they had medicaid could be a but when we speak of outsourcing which has crushed the state of ohio over the last 10 years, delaware, my home state of pennsylvania. Outsourcing, bromley is now running ads. I had been this in my 24th or 25th event. The only part about it i did not like its staying overnight and turned on the television. I have seen more romney ads about how he is god to get tough on china. To use president clintons phrase in another context, that takes a lot of brass for it from a get tough on china approved the same man postcode . Rezko in saving thousands of american jobs and the rubber industry. That creates 800,000 new jobs according to the experts. All overseas. All overseas. By the way, remember when governor romney at the convention said the first and i will do when elected is to take jobs to work. It is gonna have to be a foreign trip. [applause] when you hear the governor romney say he protects american jobs by being tough on china, a word for you, malarkey. Absolute malarkey. Look, he is saying he would get tough on china is only outdone by his bizarre claims about the automobile industry. A week ago, remember what he was saying with the president. Mr. President , i supported the rescue of the automobile industry. I said exactly what you gain. I said we will get them to bankruptcy, etc. The problem is he did not. He did not say there he would not allow a penny of federal money to help them out. There was nobody including bain capital willing to come in and help them out. I have never seen this in public. I have served with eight president s. Within two weeks he is running an ad in the state saying that president obama made the companies go bankrupt, is now gave the industry the italians who are selling it to the chinese. Whoa. Bless me, father, for i have sinned. What are you talking about. I have never seen anything like that. It is an absolutely patently false assertion. It is such an outrageous assertion one of the few times in my memory and major american corporation, chrysler, has felt obliged to go public and say that is the truth in this. They said jeep has no intention of selling out to china. Chrysler corp. , which is highly unusual, said and done a careful and unbiased reading would have saved unnecessary fantasies and extravagant comments. Ladies and gentlemen, have they no shame . Romney will say anything, absolutely anything to win it, it seems. But he cannot run from the truth. He said in an article entitled that he wrote, let the try to go bankrupt. Only the head of bain capital could think of liquidating an industry as the same thing as saving it. That is what he did at bain capital. Look, we did not take governor romneys advice. Godid not let detroit bankrupt. We saved 1 million jobs and created 250,000 good middle class jobs in the United States of america. I guess romney may have romnesi a, but he is counting on america having amnesia. They will not forget so soon. The single best example of this mans philosophy is not what he at bain. It is a different job. The president s job is to create jobs for america, bring jobs back to america, not send jobs overseas. They said, look, that was just his business philosophy. , when he wasou th governor of the state of massachusetts this is a fact as governor, his administration signed 160,000 a month contracts out of the taxes of the people of mathis chooses to send a call service that poor people called to see if they qualified for Unemployment Insurance or food stamps. He paid 160,000 bucks a month to send that call service overseas. The Massachusetts Legislature passed all saying you could not do that, and he vetoed that law. Did not tell me this is just his business philosophy. This is his philosophy. We have seen this movie before. We know how it ends when you have massive tax tax cuts for the wealthy, and let banks make the judgments again. We know how events 9 million lost jobs, 16 trillion in home equity and in retirement plans evaporated for the middle class, and the Great Recession of 2008. That is how it ended. The American People will not go back. We will not go back. Folks, instead of romney and ryan running their pledge to a guy named Grover Norquist to cut taxes for the very wealthy, they should be signing a pledge to the middle class people of america that they will level the Playing Field, that they will do right by the American People, they will give them a fair shot again. That is the pledge we have signed from the beginning. We have a different way forward. We will focus the second term on the continuation of what we have done to create secure middle class jobs because we believe the only way america 60s is when middleclass succeeds. That is the only ladder up with a workingclass people have, and the wealthy do very well when the middle class is doing well. And as president clinton has pointed out, we think the Foundation Upon which you build a middle class is to continue to support and grow education in america. We will continue to provide access to higher education. We will continue to help these folks struggle to stay and get into college, and will create we will generate 100,000 new math and science teachers in america to make sure we remain number one in the world. We are going to double exports accreting 1 million new manufacturing jobs. We will change the tax code so we reward companies that come home, not those that go overseas. We are going to train 2 million more americans over the next three years. We are right to cut oil imports by half by 2020 as the president said with clean coal, oil, natural gas, as well as for nobles. Over the objections of governor romney, we will still focus on conservation. We will double the mileage of american light trucks, automobiles, which will save you 1. 70 trillion upon and 12 billion barrels of oil. Late and. We have been pushing to allow people to refinance and renegotiate their mortgages. We have a plan that will not cost the taxpayers a penny, allowing 14 Million People in america who have never missed a mortgage payment, but are paying at up to 7 , refinanced at up to 4 , saving than 3,000 a year. Were going to keep our commitments as we did in iraq. We are going to end this war in afghanistan. Saving hundreds of billions of dollars and investing in america, and american growth, american bridges, american undertakings, creating millions of new goodpaying jobs. Folks, i ask myself the president and i have been friends for a long time. I and want to Say Something that tim can concur with, but the press will cover this trip i have spent a lot of time in the senate. I got an awful lot done because i was viewed as a rank partisan. Many republicans have worked with me, as have democrats. For real. That is how we passe a lawd of these things. Ladies and gentleman, i try to be fair. Im frustrated, but i try to be fair, and i ask myself, how could these guys continue as president clinton says last administrations program on steroids . How could they do that in good conscience . Because i think they are both honorable man. How can they do it . Here is my conclusion i have reached. You can reach your own. I mean this sincerely. It is because how they feel about the American People. We flatly reject the notion that 47 of the American People are unwilling to take response here is the part that offended me. It offended me when he said 47 of the American People are unwilling to take responsibility for their own lives. He was talking about my mom and dad. He was talking about the people i grew up in with scranton. He was talking about the people i was raised with in delaware. These are hardworking people. These are people who have done everything by the numbers. They have worked hard, they pay their payroll taxes, they are seniors who are now paying taxes. They are those 68,000 warriors who are marching through those got awful mountains of debt and the state. I have been in and out of iraq and afghanistan over 20 times. These folks, these warriors, they are not paying any tax on their salaries. Nor should they pay any tax on their salaries. Folks, speaking of those warriors, we owed them and their families. How many of you know someone whose son, daughter, husband or wife went to afghanistan or iraq . Raise your hands . My son was in iraq appeared to be tell you something. We owe them, and here is the deal mr. President , every single morning i get up i have my staff contact the pentagon, because i want to know exactly how many sacrifices have been made. Just in the last five days, the number of what they called fallen angels, when we lose a warrior in iraq and afghanistan the military has a freeze for it. I was making my fourth or fifth trip out of baghdad, and i do not know if it was a colonel or a major who said they said, senator, permission to board a fallen angel. Then in the back of that cargo plane came a flagdraped coffin. My colleagues with me on that trip, all we could think of was the family weighty in dover, delaware, for that angel to return. It matters. That is what i never generally say how many, the exact number. 6500 to fallen angels as of today. 50,060 wounded. Over 17,000 with multiple wounds, and those of you out there who are of the vietnam cogeneration the president and i are from, 50 of them would have died if they received the same injury in vietnam but for the fact that they called the tree ash capability of the military. They are going to need extensive medical care for the rest of their lives, and that does not even count the unseen wounds of posttraumatic stress, traumatic brain injury. Atvs sentiment, understand one thing about the president and me. We only have one sacred obligation. We have a lot of obligations, to the children, to the elderly, to the needy. We have only one sacred obligation, and that is to afford them that is to care for them when they come home from war. When that street are renamed, this obligation will last for another 30 years, and ladies and gentlemen, bothers me the most is their attitude about not taking responsibility. The American People are so much better, so much stronger, takes a much more responsibility and these guys give them credit for. I have never seen two candidate in my lifetime for the highest office who are more negative about the state of our country. About americas prospects for the future, about the willingness of the American People to take responsibility for their own lives. Governor romney constantly talks about america in decline. America is not in decline. We are better positioned than any nation in the world to lead the 21st century. America is not in decline. 5. 3 million new jobs after losing 800,000 jobs a month, creating 160,0007000 amount. American is not in decline. America is not in decline. Exports are up 41 . Creaking 500,000 new manufacturing jobs since 2000 time be since 2010. Housing starts are at the highest level since 2008. What do they say, america is in decline. America is not in decline. Americans know it. For the first time in five years the polling data shows more americans are optimistic and pessimistic about their future. Theres much more to be done. But america is not in decline. Governor romney and congressman bryant are in denial. That is what it is. Look, the entire history of the journey of this country could be summarized in one word forward. Always forward. That is the history of america. I got news for these guys gentlemen, it has never been a good bet to bet against the American Peoplem never, never, never, never. We need you, ohio. Together we can win, and if we win ohio, wed win this election. God bless you all. And may god protect our troops. mon, ohio, go [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2012] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] joe biden wrapping up the rally in ohio. Finishing greeting some of the supporters that. The president canceled all his appearances because of hurricane santee. Here is how it looks in washington right now. The federal government and the federal courts have announced they will be closed tomorrow, along with the dc metro. The house and senate will go ahead with their short sessions tomorrow, but no legislative business scheduled. Mitt romney also canceled his remaining events today and tomorrow, but before that he spoke to supporters in avon lake, a high today, and was introduced by ohio senator rob portman. Heres a look. It is a about a half an hour. [applause] avon lake [cheers and applause] i would say avon lake is fired up today. [cheers] thank you all for being here. And i want to thank mary taylor. She is doing a great job as Lieutenant Governor, along with john kasich. But they cannot do it on their own. They have to have a partner in the oval office they can work with, and that is mitt romney. [cheers and applause] folks, eight more days. [cheers] 3 days ago i was at the avon lake Victory Center with some of you that are here today. The place was packed. People were energized. Do you know why . Because they could see that help is on the way. Mitt romney and paul ryan. [cheers and applause] , let me ask you today, are you going to do everything you can possibly do in the next eight days to ensure that we can bring back americas promise . Are you going to do it . [cheers] put up your hand if youre going to put another sign for him, go doortodoor, commit and the next eight days. Let me see your hands. [cheers] commit to mitt. This year in ohio, you can do that early. Im going to have it ready to go down to the 1985 northridge road and vote early. It opened at 8 00 in the morning. Then on election day we can find five people who we know to get to the polls to ensure they commit to mitt, too. How about that . [cheers and applause] we got to help the republican team, so we got to be sure did jim it is also reelected. He is doing a great job in washington. Jim jordan, bob gibbs are here. We need josh mandel in washington. We need him now. President obama the last four decisions. Some of them like the stimulus package he said would result in all kinds of new jobs. That has not happened. He said he was going to cut the deficit in half. That has not happened. The good news that we have somebody who is running for president that has the knowhow. He has the experience. He has got the experience, the record, and he knows how to work with democrats, republicans, independents alike to address the challenges we face as a country, and that is why we need mitt romney in washington to fix what is broken and bring back the American Dream. I see a uaw member here. I will talk autos, the Auto Industry. Obama said, you want to take those companies to bankruptcy. I supported a rescue package for the autos, but what obama said was not true. It was barack obama who took gm and chrysler through bankruptcy, ok . Right . Second, it was mitt romney who absolutely did provide for loan guarantees to ensure the warranties were backed up. That is what every fact checker who has looked at what obama said said he was wrong, he was not telling the truth. Now, this is what is most important to this guy here and the other uaw workers that are here. It is the policies that mitt romney and paul ryan want to put in place that will make the Auto Industry strong [indiscernbile] he wants sensible regulations. He wants tax reform that will ensure we can get the Auto Companies back on their feet. He wants to make sure that trade is fair. He wants workers trained to work better for them. He wants their energy costs now. That is what will keep auto jobs here in ohio. That is what mitt romney is going to do. Folks, we are in the fourth quarter. The score is tied. Were in the red zone. We got the momentum on our side. Are we going to be sure that we take mitt romney over the goal line in the next eight days . Ladies and gentlemen, the next president of the United States, mitt romney. Thank you. What an avon lake welcome. Thank you so very much. Thank you, senator portman, and the Lieutenant Governor has been going with us all over the state. Her support means everything in the world. The senator was my sparring partner. He was really strong. It is nice not to argue with him all the time. It is good to have him with me on the campaign trail. We have got to reelect him as the next congressman from the district, and we have other folks you may know. Chairman reince priebus, and the former Cleveland Browns great gary baxter is here. We appreciate his support in the campaign. I have been heartened by the support that our campaign is receiving across the nation. The attention that is being focused on this race is because people recognize how much is at stake. It is critical time for the country. We face enormous challenges, an economy that is not putting people to work. The people coming out of college cannot find work half of them cannot find work. Around the world we face a china which is going to be a Major Economic power. Already is and will be a stronger power down the road. It has been taking a lot of jobs from people here in ohio. We also face radical violent jihadists. I am proud of the fact that our team has focused on what we will do to bring real change, big change to a country that badly needs it. We have a president today who has a different view. His view is we are on the right track, no need for major change. My view is this track is the wrong force for america, this is a turning point, and as a result as people in this country who want real change from day one are going to vote for paul ryan and myself. As i go across the country i recognize people do not want 23 million americans to be out of work or looking for a good job and want people to have good jobs. They do not want an administration that is comfortable with trillion dollar deficits each year. They do not like the gridlock in washington. Our campaign is about real change from day one of the coming days. I will talk to people across the country about what those changes will look like. I want to mention one today that is a key topic, but let me put this in perspective. The ability of america to create jobs for americas workers depends on whether entrepreneurs are willing to start businesses people, and other Big Companies that been around for a long time are willing to build factories and expand and hire more people. If you want good jobs when you are out of school, but if you want good jobs in their 40s, 50s, and 60s, you have to see entrepreneurs start businesses. What you have seen of the last few years is the opposite of that. You have seen Big Companies going elsewhere. You have seen entrepreneurs pull back. Were in a 30year low in the number of new businesses that are starting up. One of the reasons that businesses have not been investing in america and adding jobs is as they look around the world and see how much they are going to have to pay to governments, they see in this country we pay more to government if youre a business that any other major country in the world. In the europe their Corporate Tax rate which is to be higher than ours is now down to 25 . Ours is 35 . Businesses that are thinking of investing are interested in going elsewhere. Canada brought their tax rate down to 15 . I will propose sweeping our Corporate Tax rate from 35 down to 25 . At the same time we will have to get rid of deductions and exemptions and loopholes so we keep getting the revenue we need, but we want to bring the tax rate down to make america an ohio and more interesting place to invest. Small businesses, because Small Businesses do not pay a Corporate Tax rate. They pay the individual tax rate. I want to bring it down. I want to bring down the individual rate as well. I will make this proposal through our congress on day one. We will get real change in place from day one. There are other things i will do. I will make shall we finally get america on track to have a balanced budget. We cannot keep spending more money than [indiscernbile] what we are talking about these topics that sound like Big Government policies, balancing budgets, they affect the lives of individual americans. This is about you and about your life. I say that because lets say you are a senior and i see a senior here waving i meant senior by age, not senior in high school. I am sorry. Thats say you are a 65year old or older and when you get a medical condition that requires the care of a specialist, if you call the specialists us and ask for a limit, if we install obamacare, 50 of doctors say they will say no to any new medicare patients. The rates have been brought down so much. He has cut medicare 716 billion. At the time in your life when Health Care Matters so much, people will find less ability to choose the doctor they want. That is why when i am elected i will not cut medicare 716 billion. I will restore medicare and make sure seniors are given the promise [indiscernbile] if you are college student, and i know we have a lot of High School Students here today, when you graduate, you will find that you have a lot of student debt. 10,000, 20,000, maybe more. You will be paying the interest on that for a long time. I have some news that is not very good news for our College Bound the people. When they graduate under the president s administration, half will not be able to find a good job. I want to make sure that people coming out of college are able to get a good job and one more thing, besides that student debt, because the president has been spending massively more than he has been taking in, we are passing on debts to your generation. You guys do not know it, but there is about 50,000 of debt that you are going to have to pay the rest of your life, so when you get your first payroll stub and you see taxes been withdrawn, that is money that is being paid not for what was given to you, but what was given to my generation. In my view is not just bad economics, spending what we do not have. If you are a 40yearold, in the prime working years of your life, you may not feel like you are able to put away what you thought you would be able to put away for retirement, and because the expectation was that you could put away something for retirement or helping kids college. Lot of people who are employed are finding it hard to make ends meet. I spoke to a guy from wisconsin who said he used to get 25 an hour plus benefits. Now he can only find a job at 8 an hour without benefits. Then there are another 2e million americans who struggle to find a good job. People in this country are having a hard time under this president s economic policies. When asked what he will do to get the economy going, we have had four debates, there has not been an agenda. He said we will stay the course and continued down the same road. He calls it forward. I call it forewarned. We know where this road heads. I have a plan that will create 12 million new jobs. It has five parts. Number one, we will take advantage of our oil, coal, natural gas [indiscernbile] number two, we will open more trade, particularly with latin america. Latin america is an enormous economy. I want to open up that market. We have to label those who are cheating for what they are and make sure we protect our jobs and our industries. Number three, i want to make sure our Training Programs work for the workers of the day and we have schools for the kids so they have the skills they need for tomorrow. Number four, i mentioned balancing the budget. Number five, we Will Champion Small Business and help Small Business [indiscernbile] all this is going to happen because we will do something that has been spoken about in campaign and after campaign, but not done. That is i will reach across the aisle and work with democrats. I will find Common Ground. We have to find a way to work with people in the opposition party. Democrats love america, republicans love america. I was governor of the state with a legislature that was 85 democrat. I knew from the beginning to get anything done i had to reach across the aisle. I did. We were able to cut state spending, not just lower the rate of growth, but cut it. We cut taxes as well. We balance our budget. We created a 2 billion rainy day fund. We worked together. I will meet regularly with democrats in washington with their leaders and my partys leaders and together to find ways to help the American People. It is high time for us to put the interests of the American People ahead of the interests of politics. And i am confident in the future. I am convinced that americas greatest days are ahead. In this time of great challenge there are great opportunities. I have seen the heart of the American People throughout my life. I recognize the great qualities of the human spirit in the american heart. I was a boy scout leader some years ago we got some boy scouters here. I was at a court of honor. This person no doubt knows what that means. It is where eagle awards are given, and i was at the end at a table next to an american flag. The scout leader who was speaking with the scout master from monument, colorado. He said his Boy Scout Troop wanted to have a special american flag, so it bought one with gold tassels and had it flown above the capitol. He asked if it would be flown on the space shuttle. He said the boys were so proud as they were looking from their own rooms as they watched the challenger launch, and then they saw it explode on the tv screen. He contacted nasa a couple of weeks later and asked if they found a remnant of their flag, and they had not. He called every week, week after week, and nothing. After several months of trying, he gave up until one day he was reading an article in the newspaper about the challenger disaster and the debris that had been recovered, and they mentioned something about a flag. He called nasa and said have you found our flag, and they said as a matter of fact we have a presentation to make your boys. Nasa came together with their troop and presented them with a container. We opened the plastic container and inside was our flag in perfect condition. He said that sits next on the flagpole next to mr. Romney, and electricity ran through my arms because i thought about men and women of our Space Program who have lived their lives for something bigger than themselves. Think of women who have served in the army first, their willingness to walk in the way of danger for us, for liberty. Of danger for us, for liberty