Transcripts For CSPAN Question Time 20150112

Interviews are available online. Here are some others you might like. Scott berg on woodrow wilson. And amity shlaes on calvin coolidge. Www. Cspan. Org you can watch them atwww. Cspan. Org. Here are a few of the comments we have recently received on the 114th congress. The thing that really needs to happen is going back to what the incoming majority said, they need to get back to regular order. If they go back impact of 13 bills it would take to fund the government, everybody can see who voted for it. To put what amendment up, and let the president passed it or veto it. I hope it is a more mature and responsible congress we will see emerging in the next two years. I think emblematic of this situation is this john boehner challenge today. It is time for both parties to put aside the bitter partisan battles and get on to the task they are constitutionally required to do, to govern, to legislate. I think what the American People said in november of both parties is it is time to see that finally start to happen. I think the congress, what can we expect of them . With Citizens United all the politicians are bought and sold really. First thing on their agenda is the keystone pipeline. Frankly, the American People are prepared to get past the polished language, the false promise. We need you to understand that you work for us. We have seen nothing but foreclosures, people in the street. And frankly, we are tired of these silly games being played. And we do not believe anything we are hearing any longer to create jobs. That is so worn out. Continue to let us know what you think about the programs you are watching. Email us at comments at www. Cspan. Org. Or send us a tweet. Join the cspan conversation. Like us on facebook. Follow us on twitter. Next, Prime Minister David Cameron at the house of commons. Then a discussion of how Congress Might deal with the federal budget. After that, senators and representatives talk about their efforts to stop sex trafficking. Back from the holiday recess, members returned to the british house of commons to question the Prime Minister on domestic and international issues. David cameron called the paris terror attack barbaric, and says the u. K. Stands with the french people. Proposed changes to the Health Service dominated most of question time this week, with questions on patient waiting times and hiring more staff. This is just under 35 minutes. Question to the Prime Minister. Thank you, mr. Speaker. I am sure the whole house will want to join me in condemning the barbaric attack this morning on an office of a magazine in paris, in which it is reported that 10 or more people may have been killed. While details are still unclear, i know that this house and this country stand united with the french people in our opposition to all forms of terrorism, and we stand squarely for free speech and democracy. These people will never be able to take us off those values. This morning i had meetings with ministerial colleagues and others, and in addition to my duties in this house i shall have further such meetings later today. I saw the problems at Gloucestershire Hospitals last week at first hand after an elderly relative phoned 111 and we ended up waiting more than four hours for her to see a doctor in cheltenham a and e. Then she was promptly discharged. The local trust seems to be blaming patients for making bad choices, but will the Prime Minister find out why so many 111 calls end in a and e, why trusts such as ours route so many unplanned admissions through a and e and why emergency doctors cannot be provided at night in cheltenham, all of which seems calculated to make normal winter pressures worse . He makes an important point. In the last quarter, the nhs has faced some unprecedented challenges. There have been more than 5. 5 Million People going to accident and emergency units, which is an increase of a quarter of a million on the previous year. Gloucestershire has had £3. 6 million of the £700 million of winter pressure money that we have produced, and it should use that money to make sure it provides the best possible service it can. On the nhs 111 service, it is important to see what is actually happening. The number of people using it has almost doubled over the last year. Of those who use it, 27 say that had it not been there, they would have gone to accident and emergency, but in the event of using 111 only 7 are going. So i think it is a good service, but i am sure it can be further improved. Recognizing the pressure on the nhs, i am sure everyone in this house will want to say a thank you to our hardworking doctors and nurses and other hospital staff for all the work they do this winter. I join the Prime Minister in expressing horror and outrage about the unfolding events in paris. We stand in solidarity with the people of france against this evil terrorist attack by people intent on attacking our democratic way of life and freedom of speech. We are united in our determination to defeat them. Doctors, nurses and other nhs staff are doing a valiant job, but over 90,000 people in the last quarter waited on trolleys for more than four hours, at least 10 hospitals have declared Major Incident status in recent days, and one had to resort to twitter to appeal for medical staff. Does he agree with me that our nhs is facing a crisis . Our nhs is facing huge pressure this winter particularly on its a and e units, but the point that it is important to make is this. The nhs is facing this winter with more doctors, more nurses and more money than it has ever had in its history. What is important is that we recognize the pressures that are there and put in place plans for the short term, the medium term and the long term, and that with the massive increase in the number of people going to a and e, any Health System in the world would struggle to cope with some of this pressure. In june 2011, this was the Prime Ministers solemn promise. I refuse to go back to the days when people had to wait for hours on end to be seen in a and e. So let me be absolutely clear we wont. Will he now apologize to patients across the country for having broken that promise . I deeply regret it when any patient does not get a good service, but let us be absolutely clear about the numbers of people accessing a and e. Today, compared with four years ago, over 2,500 more patients are seen within four years. That is what is happening. We knew there was pressure on our nhs, and that is why, over the last year, we have seen 1,800 more doctors in our hospitals, 4,700 more nurses in our hospitals and 2,500 more beds in our hospitals. There is more that we need to do, but let us recognize that the Health Service in every part of our United Kingdom faces these challenges. We must go on giving it the money, the resources and the people so that it goes on providing a great service. As far as i can see, the Prime Minister is not apologizing to patients. He is blaming the patients. The pressures on a and e are not just happening on his watch, but are a direct result of decisions he has taken. When he decided to close almost a quarter of walkin centers was it not blindingly obvious that if people could not go to a walk in center, it would have a big impact on a and e . We have 1,000 more doctors in a and e, and we are spending £13 billion more on the nhs, when four years ago the Shadow Health secretary said that it would be irresponsible to spend more money. What is interesting is that here we are question nmber 3 and he has no solutions to put forward. That only says to me that while the government are interested in improving the nhs, he simply wants to use it as a political football. This is about politics. They have failed. No answer on walkin centers, so let us try him on another decision he has made that has been a cause of the crisis. When he decided to reduce the availability of social care services, so that 300,000 fewer older people are getting the help they need, was it not blindingly obvious that if people could not get the care they needed at home, it would have a big impact on a and e . Again, absolutely no solutions. Presumably, if he had any solutions, he would have implemented them in wales. He raises the importance of social care, and i agree. That is why, from the first of april, we are putting £5 billion more into social care via the Better Care Fund. Up until now, the labour party has told us not to introduce the Better Care Fund. I assume they now support this important investment. There is one very simple solution. Get rid of this useless Prime Minister. No answer on care for the elderly, so let us consider the next thing he did. When he decided to ignore the pleas of doctors, nurses and patients, and plough ahead with his damaging topdown reorganization, was it not blindingly obvious that if £3 billion is diverted out of patient care, it will have a big impact on a and e . Our changes have cut bureaucracy and saved £4. 9 billion. That is why there are 9,000 more doctors, 3,000 more nurses, and 6 million more people getting inpatient appointments. Order. There is too much noise in the chamber from both sides of the house. The Prime Ministers answers must be heard. You can see this as plain as you like. The leader of the opposition apparently said to the Political Editor of the bbc, i want to weaponize the nhs. That is what he said, and i think that is disgraceful. The nhs is not a weapon, it is a way we care for our families, it is a way we care for the elderly, it is a way we look after the frail. Perhaps when he gets to his feet he will deny that he said he wanted to weaponize the nhs, a disgusting thing to say. I will tell him what is disgusting. Order. I said a moment ago that the Prime Ministers answers must be heard. The leader of the oppositions questions must be heard as well. It is very simple. I will tell him what is disgusting. A Prime Minister who said that people could put their trust in him on the nhs. He has betrayed that trust. He is in denial about the crisis in the nhs. This is a crisis on his watch as a result of his decisions. That is why people know that if they want to get rid of the crisis in the nhs, they have to get rid of this Prime Minister. If ever we wanted proof that they want to use this issue as a political football, we have just seen it. If labour has an answer to the nhs, can it explain why it cut the budget in wales by 8 . That is where labour is in charge. All parts of the United Kingdom face a health challenge, but the real risk to the nhs is the risk of unfunded spending commitments bringing chaos to our economy, which would wreck our nhs. That is the risk and that is why the choice at the election will be to stick with the people with a longterm plan, not a labour party that would wreck our economy and wreck our nhs. Does the Prime Minister agree with my constituent, who contacted me at the weekend asking to join us, who said that the only people fit to run our economy are the Prime Minister and the chancellor . The surprise was that the gentleman was the exchairman of ilford north labour party. I am sure that that is the first of 4 million conversations he will be having at the coming election. There is no strong nhs without a strong economy. With our economy, we can see the deficit cut in half, 1. 75 million more people in work and the fastest growth of any major economy in the west. That is the record, and that is what will enable us to fund our nhs, to fund our schools and to provide the Public Services our country needs. With patients being told to pretend that they are camping, the symbol of the Prime Ministers nhs is of patients being treated in tents outside accident and emergency. When he promised a bareknuckle fight against accident and Emergency Service closures, did he intend to mislead the electorate . All our Health Services right across the United Kingdom face a challenge. Actually, the english nhs that i am responsible for is performing better than the welsh nhs, the scottish nhs and the nhs in northern ireland, but the facts are these. Compared with four years ago there are 2,500 more people every day seeing a doctor or a nurse within four hours. Why is that happening . Because we put the money in. And when we put the money in the Shadow Health secretary said it was irresponsible. Presumably that is why labour cut the nhs in wales. I call sir david amess. I thank the house for that reception, which more than compensates for my having been made neither a duke nor an earl. [laughter] later today, the second edition of the booklet, the party of opportunity will be launched. Does my right honorable friend agree with what the former conservative Prime Minister, sir john major, has written in the booklet, which is that National Wealth eases poverty, pays for social care and creates jobs . That is exactly what this conservativeled government have been doing. He is absolutely right. The first duty of a government is to produce a stable, strong and growing economy that can fund the defense and the Public Services we need. On this side of the house, we understand that. They have learnt absolutely nothing in the past four years. They would borrow and spend and tax, and put us back exactly in the position of crisis and chaos in which we found the country in 2010. The one thing that was clear about the referendum in scotland was the amount of young people getting involved, not just in voting but getting out there campaigning and being part of it. Is it not time that we got the rest of the country on board and got votes for 16 and 17yearolds . The Referendum Campaign in scotland did switch a whole lot of people on to politics and political issues, because the question being asked was so important. We have said that we should respect the views of the Scottish Parliament and the welsh parliament, and we will devolve powers on voting age. In this house, i am very happy for us to have a vote. Personally, i think the right age is 18, but i am very happy to listen to the debate, to listen to the arguments and to put them forward. For more than 50 years, thalidomiders have been campaigning for justice, particularly from the german manufacturers grunenthal. Now that more than 150 mps have signed an open letter to the german chancellor, would the Prime Minister add this to his busy agenda today so that we might get a decent and fair settlement for all concerned . I have raised this issue on behalf of a constituent, not only through the European Parliament but with the german authorities, and i shall certainly reflect on what the right honorable gentleman says. The price of oil has now fallen to 50 a barrel. While this is good news for motorists, it is bad news for Scotlands Oil industry and thousands of workers. It comes just weeks after Nicola Sturgeon said we were on the verge of a Second Oil Boom and after the independence white paper said the price would be 113 a barrel. This is a serious issue. Jobs depend on it. So will the Prime Minister agree to meet with Industry Leaders and workers to see what support can be provided . First, north sea oil is a vital industry for the uk and one of the biggest investors in our country, so we should do everything we can to help it. Secondly, and for that reason, we took steps in the autumn statement to improve the taxation regime for north sea oil. Thirdly, as we said during the Referendum Campaign, it makes the case that north sea oil is better off with the broad shoulders of the uk standing behind it, because we never know when the oil price is going to be more than 100 a barrel or, as it is today, around 50. It makes the case for the strength of the uk and the utterly misguided nature of the snp, which thought it could base its entire budget on such a high oil price. The latest o. N. S. Figures show that youth unemployment in crawley is at its lowest level since records began, but of course we need to do a lot more. What further policies are the government pursuing to ensure that businesses in crawley and across the country generate even more employment as part of our longterm economic plan . I am delighted to agree with my honorable friend. The youth claimant count in crawley has fallen by 42 in the last year alone, and the longterm youth claimant count longterm young Unemployed People is down by 71 . He asks what more we can do. We are cutting the jobs tax on Small Businesses and charities by £2,000. We are abolishing National Insurance contributions for those who employ under21s; we are extending the doubling of Small Business rate relief; we have cut Corporation Tax including for small firms. And startup loans are being offered right around the country, including to those in crawley, who are taking them up. Throughout the christmas period, nhs staff worked tirelessly to see as many patients as they could, but increased waiting times at gp surgeries have forced more and more people to use a and e. Why does the Prime Minister not accept that labours plan to employ 8,000 additional gps is desperately needed and would make a real difference to the lives of my constituents . From what i have read over the past 24 hours, labours plan is to tax people in london and spend all the money in scotland. I look forward to hearing how he explains that to his constituents in ealing. There is a serious point to the honorable gentlemans question. The Health Service has changed in ealing. Hammersmith and central Middlesex Hospitals both have gpled Urgent Care Centers that are open 24 hours a day and are seeing more than 400 patients a day, 99 of whom are seen within four hours. And we also have the expansion of the a and e unit at Northwick Park hospital. We need to ensure that the 111 service is helping to spread the information so that people who need care know where they can best get it. The government has repeatedly highlighted the importance of northern lincolnshire and the wider humber area to the offshore renewables sector. Does my right honorable friend agree that the recent announcement of the establishment of a National College for wind energy, a University Technical college in scunthorpe and further expansion of existing local Training Facilities cement the opportunities for local people to benefit from the industry boost the local economy and highlight the importance of northern lincolnshire to the Northern Powerhouse . We are determined that this recovery is going to be different from previous recoveries and that we are going to see growth in jobs and investment right across our country. That is why he and others with me have been working hard to bring investment to the humber including of course the vital siemens plant, and why we have seen employment go up and unemployment come down. Because of the local growth deals agreed in july, the Humber Local Enterprise Partnership has over £100 million for local projects, which should create up to 9,000 jobs and allow more than 5,000 homes to be built, so we are determined to see recovery embedded right across the country. I am proud of the nhs in the northeast, but not one Hospital Trust is meeting the governments own scaled back targets for treatment in a and e not one. Yet the Prime Minister prefers to focus on a topdown reorganization of the nhs, breaking it up for the benefit of his buddies and putting competition before care and profit before people. Does he really imagine we will trust him with our nhs . Let me tell her what is actually happening in the nhs in newcastle. Since 2010, there are 191 more doctors and 698 more nurses. Last week over 3,000 patients went to a and e, and all but 190 were seen within four hours. If getting rid of the bureaucracy in the nhs, which we did in england, was such a bad idea, why is the nhs in england performing better than other parts of the country that did not take those steps . The recent final report of the Alderley Park taskforce highlights how around 300 jobs have been brought to the site in the last 18 months, with a healthy pipeline of new businesses looking to locate there. Does my right honorable friend agree that this helps to highlight why the government are right to put in extra growth deal funding to help further strengthen the Life Sciences sector in the northwest, which is vital . My honorable friend has been a real champion for Life Sciences in general and for Life Sciences investment in the northwest of england, which is an absolutely crucial part of the improvement and expansion of that part of our countrys economy, and that obviously includes Alderley Park. The local growth deal announced last july is going to establish a £40 million joint Life Sciences fund across greater manchester, cheshire and warrington, which will support the sector right across the northwest. That will include Alderley Park. This is the first government to have a proper Life Sciences strategy, because this is a vital industry for our countrys future. Those of us who opposed the iraq war, for very good reason and many, many other people outside this place are very concerned about the inordinate delay in publishing the findings of the chilcot report. Can i asked the Prime Minister where did this bizarre notion that if it is not published before the end of february, we cannot see it until after the election come from . What about the month of march . In many ways i share his frustration. I would love the report to have come out already. Indeed, he and i voted together against the last Labour Government over and over again saying, please can you get on and set up the independent inquiry thats needed . if they had got on and set up the independent inquiry, it would have been published, debated and dealt with by now, so i find it immensely frustrating, but it is not a matter for me. I am not able to order the publication of the report. It is independent. It is up to sir john chilcot when he publishes his report. He will make the decision, not me. Youth unemployment in skipton is down by over 70 since 2010. City growth deal funding for the skipton flood alleviation scheme will unlock a further 500 jobs. Is there anything the Prime Minister can do to make that happen . I will look very carefully at this, because, as he says, not only the claimant count but the longterm youth claimant count has fallen. It has fallen by 50 in his constituency in the last year alone. I know how much his constituents want to see work on the skipton flood defense project, which is a very high priority for york, North Yorkshire and the east riding local enterprise proposal. We will make an announcement about this in the coming weeks. In wigan recently, my local nurses granted a dying grandmas fairly remarkable last wish when they wheeled her hospital bed into the car park so she could be reunited for one last time with her much loved horse, just hours before she died from cancer. Those brilliant nurses sum up everything that is great about our national Health Service, but in a recent poll only 4 of them said they thought the Prime Minister was doing a good job. Can he tell us why . I am full of praise for nurses in wigan. I think they work extremely hard to provide a good service. I particularly applaud the nurse in wigan who chased the Health Secretary down the corridor and told him a thing or two about how to run the Health Service. If you judge us on our record, there are 9,000 more doctors and 3,300 more nurses in our nhs because we made the decision to protect the funding of the nhs which labour told us was irresponsible. Will my right honorable friend join me in supporting the Perpetuus Tidal Energy centre, a Publicprivate Partnership that will, from the isle of wight give the world its first gridconnected tidal array Test Facility . This will put the uk at the forefront of tidal energy technology, protect existing jobs and create several hundred new ones. My honorable friend makes a very good point, because the uk is now the most attractive market in the world for investment in offshore wind and marine renewables. We want to maintain that worldleading position, harness the economic and environmental benefits it brings and see local centers of expertise. From what i can see, the Perpetuus Tidal Energy center sounds exactly the sort of Exciting Initiative we should support. Nearly half of all London Ambulances called out to critical cases do not arrive within their target eightminute response time. Is that what the Prime Minister had in mind when he told us that the nhs would be safe in his hands . The nhs would not have been safe if we had followed labours proposal to cut the nhs. We rejected that advice and put more money into it. The London Ambulance service has launched a national and International Recruitment campaign and has already hired 400 new members of staff. We are providing £15 million of extra money for the nhs Ambulance Service in london. That is why it met its target in 201314, attending over 460,000 patients with lifethreatening illnesses. That is what is happening in our nhs because we made the decisions to reform the nhs, cut its bureaucracy and put the money in, decisions opposed by the labour party. Reverting to the subject of the chilcot report, about which i have questioned the Prime Minister in the past, did my enote that our colleague lord hurd said in the house of lords yesterday said that it was an absolute disgrace that it had not been published a view that i certainly hold . Since it is absolutely well known by the cognoscenti that the report was completed many months ago, who, if the Prime Minister is helpless on this subject, is blocking it . Is it the cabinet secretary or sir john chilcot, or is it the white house . I say to the father of the house that i understand that the report is largely finished, but with every report such as this there is a process. We have to write to the people who are criticized and give them an opportunity to respond. This is now the process for all these reports, whatever government they are launched under. It is known as the salmondization process. although i am not quite sure why, as i do not think it has anything to do with the former first minister of scotland. It is not within my power to grant the publication of this report. It is independent and under sir john chilcot, and the process has to be finished. Then the report will be published. I asked him once again. Will he apologize to all those who have suffered and continue to suffer in a and e departments across the country, due to his mismanagement of the national Health Service . I could not have been clearer. I regret it when every Single Person who goes to hospital does not get the treatment they deserve, but our responsibility is to put in the money, which we are doing, to have a proper plan for joining up health and social care, which we are doing. And then to fund the Simon Stevens plan, which is the right longterm answer for our Health Service. People around the country will have been able to see that there is one part of this house of commons working to improve our nhs for all its users, but that another part wants to weaponize the nhs, the most disgusting phrase i think i have heard in politics, and treat it like a political football. I know that they will reach the right conclusion. Home care workers do a fantastic job in caring for some of the most frail people in our society, yet more than 200,000 of them are not even paid the National Minimum wage. Will the Prime Minister talk to the chancellor about ensuring that hmrc properly pursues and prosecutes the cowboy care agencies that are exploiting those people . He is absolutely right. There is far more that we can do to prosecute and chase down organizations that do not pay their staff properly. That is why we are bringing into the home Office Organizations that can help to make that happen. Whether it is the Gangmasters Licensing Authority or, indeed the National Crime agency, all the powers are there to enable us to go after those who do not pay the minimum wage when they should. On monday i listened to residents of mendell court, an extra care facility in bromborough in my constituency as they told me of their serious worries about social care. For the good of all who need care and all nhs patients, will the Prime Minister go further to integrate health and social care . Through the Better Care Fund we are producing £5 billion, which is money that Health Authorities and local authorities can spend together. Up to now, the labour party has opposed that fund and said that it should not be established but i am afraid it is worse than that. The shadow secretary of state for health has been wandering around the Television Studios today, telling anyone who is prepared to listen that he would increase funding for social care. There is only one slight problem with that. The shadow chancellor said on the fifth of january, there will be no additional funding for local government unless we can find money from somewhere else. If they had waited until the end of the quotation, they would have heard this. We have not been able to do that in the case of local government. Total and utter chaos. One of them saying there will be extra money, another is saying that there will not be any extra money, and there are £20 billion of unfunded commitments that would lead to total chaos in our economy and a total breakdown in our Health Service. Will the Prime Minister update the house on the future arrangements for the upkeep of the Royal Air Force Memorial Chapel at biggin hill, the iconic former battle of britain airfield . I can absolutely confirm to the house that that chapel will be preserved for future generations, as we have always recognized its importance and its rich heritage. In all the great moments of british history, it is possibly the case of the battle of britain, 1940, stands out as one of the most important times that there have been. So we will protect the chapel, and will do all that we can to protect it for future generations. Will the Prime Minister take action immediately to clear up the shambles at the home office . A constituent of mine who applied for a fasttrack passport before christmas was promised that it would be delivered to him by courier on new year s eve, but has still not received it. As a result, he has had to cancel a trip that he was due to make yesterday, at great personal cost and great damage to his personal life. Well he make sure that man is able to travel this week, and will he clear up this mess . I shall be happy to look at the individual case that the right honorable gentleman raises. However, i think that we have made huge strides in dealing with potential passport backlogs, and i think that the home secretary is doing a fantastic job. You have been watching Prime Ministers questions. Question time airs live every tuesday at 7 p. M. Eastern. Watch anytime at www. Cspan. Org where you can find video of past Prime Ministers questions and other British Public affairs programs. Monday night on the communicators, Martin Cooper inventor of the cell phone on the effort of federal agencies to provide for the growing needs of mobile phone service providers. The ultimate in spectruminefficient technology is called spectrum access. That includes radio. I know you have heard a lot about that. It includes new Technology Just starting to become laboratoryavailable, where we can use satellite to actually create a model of the world so when somebody transmits, they will know if they are going to interfere with some of the else. You put all these things together. I hesitate to tell you how much more efficient we are going to be. You would let me out of this room. We are talking not about tens of times of improvement or thousands, but millions. That is not as crazy as it sounds. From the time of marconi until now, we are a trillion times more spectrally efficient than we were during his time. The thought of being a million times more efficient in the next 20 or 30 years is not as crazy as it sounds. Monday night at 8 00 eastern on the communicators. Next, a discussion on how Congress Might deal with the federal budget. After that, senators and representatives talk about their efforts to stop child sex trafficking. And they preview of the argument over Campaign Contributions for judicial candidates. The Washington Center recently hosted a discussion on the federal budget and u. S. Debt. A former Clinton Administration budget official and former advisor to will frisk took part. This is about an hour and 35 minutes. [applause] thank you for having yesterday. We are going to invite bill oakland up to the phrase. We are waiting on joe minerich. Bill works at the bipartisan center. I am going to be fairly brief but he has served in a number of different government offices ranging from the staff director on the Senate Budget committee where he served for 17 years. He was also one of the first employees at the Congressional Budget Office when it was first founded in the 1970s. And also served as the administrator of the federal food and nutrition service. And now hes Senior Vice President of the bipartisan policy center. He oversees a number of project, including the one i work on. The project on Financial Regulation and health care. All things that have to do with the federal budget and spending. Thanks very much. Kind of easy to be bipartisan when there is no one up here. [laughter] we are going to jump around a little bit today. The title of the panel is financing the american dream, which is a broad topic. I want to start with some overarching topics. The federal government takes in about 3. 5 trillion and spends closer to 4 trillion at this point. Right now, there is an annual budget deficit of about 400 billion. Under this about 4 trillion of government spending, there are about 15 departments, dozens of agencies and bureaus, and under those, hundreds of different programs, if not thousands. It is interesting, when you some all these up, that about five of those, three of the programs, and another line item in the budget constitute more than two thirds of all that spending out of those hundreds and maybe thousands of programs. I just wanted to give it everyone about 30 seconds to jot down what you think that department, three programs, and one light item line item are. Go ahead and write those down. We will ask a couple of you. Anyone want to take a stab . [inaudible] absolutely. Social security is one of them. That is made up of Disability Insurance and the old age part, which is probably more wellknown. That is a big chunk of the federal budget. [inaudible] medicare and medicaid. Those are the other two programs. [inaudible] defense is the department. Who can guess the line item . That is the toughest one. It is the Interest Payments we make on the debt. Even though those are fairly low because we have record low Interest Rates the rate on tenyear bonds is under 2 . At normal, that is 4 or 5 . But it is one of the five biggest that we have in the federal budget. That goes to show that, out of all the priorities we funded through the federal government, a big majority of them is in those five pieces. A lot of that goes to retirees. Medicare and Social Security go almost entirely to the older generation. Then you have defense, which obviously goes to protecting the entire country, and medicaid, which is to low income populations. I just want to get your thoughts as to when we are prioritizing our spending and how good a job we do with those 4 trillion that taxpayers largely contribute to funding our priorities as a nation, what do you see when you think about those five items . First of all, good afternoon everyone. It is good to be here. I want to check something out really quickly. Someone from purdue is here . A boilermaker . Penn state . I am out of luck completely. Merchant Marine Academy . [laughter] let me just pick up where he is headed here. Those are the major spending programs. I like to say you can go back and impress your fellow students and parents and professors by saying you can count the federal budget on one hand. It is Social Security, medicare, medicaid, defense, and paying interest on public debt. You add up those things, defense being in there, that is about the total amount of revenue that we take in for those five programs. Something like 207 accounts in the federal budget. A figure i share back home, i think of the government as transportation, education, research, science. The National Academy of science and health. The department of commerce tsa. If you think about all those activities the federal government is involved in, and yet almost all our revenues that come in just go for those five programs. You can do away with the department of agriculture, the department of congress. You could do away with the white house. You would not be able to come to closure bit of a mismatch between revenues and those five programs. Going forward here, over the next 10 years 85 of the growth in spending will be in three areas. Social security, the health care programs, and interest on the public debt. That is where the growth in spending goes. To me, they are what we call entitlements. Personally, i guess you are the millennials. Ive heard you consider yourself the entitlement generation. I am a postwar baby boomer. I am the entitlement generation. I get Social Security, medicare, medicaid. And you do not get it as currently projected. I am going to guess you are a little off on this. Lets say early 20s, most of you in the room here, right . I assume that is close. I was just doing some quick calculations. I assume that in your studies, you have identified that Social Security is what we call a trust funded program. I do not like that term, because i do not trust the government and it is not funded. [laughter] but the program itself will exhaust all of its assets by 2033. Just doing quick calculation. If there is anybody that should be concerned, it is you guys. Because you are coming right at the time i guess most of you would be in your 40s, mid 40s that is when the program can only pay out that which comes in in the way of payroll taxes. You will go to as a pay as you go. Meaning the projected benefits will be reduced by nearly 20 to 30 . That is you guys. Not me, you. You should be concerned about that particular program as it relates to your retirement. Shy mentioned, and i am filling in by filibustering. By the way, i am the republican. All cards on the table. I work for republicans. My friend joe is the democratic colleague who has chosen to abandon us right now. I would simply say in terms of Going Forward, we have to find a way, first of all, to address that issue of we are not going to reduce expenditures for those in retirement today. Or close to retirement. I presume you have been meeting with some of your representatives and some of your senators, some of your staff. The one thing that i have discovered from my years in this town is you do not take away those benefits when they are paid out. You may try to to them, but that is pretty politically charged. What it means is it means changing the benefits before they are paid out. And that means what you would think you would be getting in the future has to be modified in other words, to make the problemsolving Going Forward. However, in terms of priorities i will just simply say medicare, medicaid. There are harvard people here, right . You saw yesterdays new york times. The story about health care for the faculty at harvard who had advised on health care. Health care fixes backed by harvard experts. The faculty at harvard. They are all upset about the changes to health care at harvard. My daughter worked for the kennedy school, so i have to be careful about this. Very good benefits. What was proposed in Health Care Reform by harvard professors now they are mad at it because it is being implement. It is the biggest problem i see Going Forward in terms of spending. Still remains health care. Even with the Affordable Care act. The fastestgrowing component of expenditures over the next 10 years will be in the federal exchanges for subsidies for those that participate. Do sort of lined out with the health care growing and baby boomers and Social Security essentially the Interest Payments we talked about earlier growing. According to you, this is crowding out the future. What do you think that means in terms of other investments and education, Scientific Research infrastructure . Setaside defense. About one third of the federal budget is in what we call the discretionary component of the budget. About 70 or 18 in nondefense discretionary. It is what i consider, being a farm boy from indiana, the seed corn of the future. That is research, education, science. That is investment in the infrastructure and growth in transportation. Science and technology. That is capped right now and will remain cap until those other programs are as soft in their take on the federal taxpayer. Now, listen, all this can be handled easily by just increasing taxes. Well, i think you are here. Welcome to washington. Not a popular subject. I do think tax reform is necessary. I do think there are ways to make the tax code more efficient. But we are already taking in about 20 of our gdp in federal taxes, not to speak of state local taxes. It is tough. But at the end of the day, i will have to say, i think it is an my democratic colleagues will challenge me on this. I will just say we cannot increase taxes. [laughter] what a warm up. So, joe just came back from vacation. You cannot blame him for being late. I threw this panel last minute and he agreed to participate. Joe i consider my utilityman because he is the person you go to when you have a question on the budget. The only way i paid him for all these favors over the years is free cups of coffee at our office. I assume he has a mediocre supply at his office as well. You have a pretty good supply. You can pass on that. Joe has had a number of different positions, ranging from committees in the house, to the office of management and budget and the administration. He served as staff to after in a variety of those positions and served with bill on the bipartisan centers Debt Reduction task force, which came out of the plan to reduce the debt. Some of the proposals bill has been talking about. I know youre jumping in in the middle. The question was in terms of priorities in the federal budget and growth in the Entitlement Program and Interest Payments and how that is crowding out some of the other pieces, what do you think of the federal budget in terms of how it addresses our priorities of the country . I assume that bill probably use this word already three times. The budget is not sustainable. That is the first time. I was getting ready to use that term. There you go. I beat you to it. The budget as it stands is not sustainable. Visit meeting our needs . I think by definition, no. We had to make changes so we are not piling up debt to the extent Going Forward that people like you are not going to be able to pay enough taxes to service that debt and also do the things that the country needs to do. So, that having been said, you look at what the budget does. And you come to the conclusion that there have got to be some changes. Now, among those changes, we will need to pay more taxes. There is no doubt about that. Right before he walked in, bill made the point that we could do without taxes. I do not know that he is recommending that. Bill probably also got into this too, and i apologize for being late. It is mostly down to me. I should have been watching emails instead of playing with my granddaughter. Among the problems that we have on the spending side of the budget is an unsustainably rapid growth of Health Care Costs. And i know that there are folks who are saying hosanna and we have not felt that problem. I believe we have. Two or three years down the road, we will see that what we have seen is a little blip in the growth curve. Even with the most optimistic forecast, Health Care Costs are growing unsustainably. We have to do several things. Because of the growth of old folks like me, relative to the population, even if we produce the rate of growth of Health Care Services per person, the number of persons is growing rapidly enough that Health Care Costs will begin to rise. So we pay more taxes. We face the reality of a growing population of people dependent upon health care particularly through healthcare services, particularly through medicare. And that means that we will need to make adjustments in the other direction. Elsewhere on the spending side of the budget. So, my usual onesentence answer is we are going to have to take every dollar that is not nailed down and some that are, if were going to get out of this mess. Why dont i stop there . A component both of you have touched on, and we have a room full of this is a millennial issue. I am a millennial too. A different millennium. [laughter] a millennium what do you think that discrepancy and how that can be adjusted . Im sorry. Youre asking me . Go ahead. I would say the following. We have a lot of problems in terms of the performance of our economy. If a talk about the problem of the growing inequality. That is a reality