Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 20140528

On the president s announcement and how it is playing on the editorial pages of major newspapers around the country. Our phone lines are open. Democrats can call in at 2025853881. Independents host you can also catch up with us on your favorite social media pages. A very good wednesday morning to you. That announcement by the president yesterday in the rose garden, playing on the front pages of most every major newspaper around the country today here. The president s hometown newspaper, the washington to remain after the war, the goal is largely what the military requested, is what the Washington Post writes. In usa today, obama u. S. Allout by end of 2016. The picture of u. S. Troops there in cavesistan, living with weapons caches, that is the picture there. Want to show you now a little bit more from the president s speech in which he explains how he is going from 9800 troops at the beginning of next year to essentially zero troops at the end of 2016. Here is what he had to say. At the beginning of 2015 we will [video clip] of 2015 weeginning will have approximately 9800 u. S. It Service Members in different parts of the country together with nato allies and other partners. By the end of 2015, we will have reduced that presence by roughly half. We will have consolidated our troops. Of year later, by the end 2016, our military will draw down to a normal Embassy Residence in kabul, with a security assisted component just as we have done in iraq. We will get to your calls in just a second to get your response. We want to bring in now on the greg,nk ella very thank you for joining us this morning. I want to start with where that 9800 number that is going to be there at the beginning of next year, where did that number come from . The president has asked the military to provide options. The options did range from several thousand, i think senator in half, the Ranking Member on the Senate Armed Services Committee Said he was told by some military commanders were talking around 13,000 troops. The 9800 is roughly where people have been talking about it eating. The numbers that have been bandied about are about 10,000 over the last year or so as people have contemplated the amount. Thathat number within number the force has the ability to protect itself, one of the key components the military wanted to have there. If they were going to have u. S. Troops at a low number, they wanted a force they could protect itself. Anyas this announcement kind of surprise . Did it represent any kind of change in policy from what the Obama Administration has been talking about . I dont think so. I think the only thing that people were surprised by was the end date. 2016, you know, we will have a force there that will be an embassy, tied to a military office that is there to acquisition for the Afghan Government. We are talking about something very similar to what we have in a rack. That contingent could be of 1000 troops or so. Does Congress Need to approve this plan . Be perfectly honest, no. Congress could try to act, but i doubt that it would. I doubt that there is consensus enough to change this. Plus you have to remember that when you look at the polls, afghanistan, there is great ambivalence in the united dates about u. S. Forces in afghanistan. There are very few lawmakers out there who are arguing for Larger Forces to remain longer. As i said, senator in half about theconcern number being less than 13,000, but you had the chairman of the house Armed Services in california, yesterday he seemed to support the number the president was talking about. He was concerned with setting a time, and end date, so to speak. There were others on the republican side who were upset that the president would provide an end date, thinking it gives the taliban some kind of upper hand. The president laid out some kind of caveat to this number. I want to show viewers a bit about what the president had to say about the signing of a bilateral Security Agreement and then come back to you. We will only sit sustain this presence if the Afghan Government signs the bilateral Security Agreement that our governments have already negotiated. This agreement is essential to give troops the authorities they need to fulfill their mission while respecting afghan sovereignty. Final afghan candidates in the Runoff Election for president have each indicated that they would sign this agreement promptly after taking office. I am hopeful we can get this done. The president said he is hopeful because the afghan candidates have said that they would sign it. Is there any chance that they could still not signed that agreement . We are talking about afghanistan. President karzai, the sitting president of afghanistan actually negotiated this treaty. He was encouraged by a council of leaders across afghanistan to sign it. President karzai at the 11th hour reneged. Take anythingver for granted in afghanistan. Obviously all the candidates had committed to signing on. On its face it appears to be in the interest of afghanistan to sign it. They still need u. S. And allied assistance there for training. And also just the Financial Support that comes with it. They will have a force of 300 52,000 that largely has to be financed by the u. S. And its allies. So, they do need it. But there is always a chance, you know, that there may become a domestic political issue that drives them to not sign it. They are cautious, they are see the they want to signatures, they have a limited amount of time in which to get things done. If it gets too late we have to get our troops out by the end of the year. If they dont sign, we will pull out. Let you go, the president is headed up to west point to give a commencement address. What do we know about what the president is expected to say . Caller he is going to lay out his plans for roughly how you use the tens of thousands of troops that we are pulling out of afghanistan. Troopsow we have 32,000 in afghanistan. They will be taking 22,000 up by the end of this year. Ok that is missed metastasizing and other places in the world. Particularly around syria and in locations throughout africa. As a result, you know, he is going to talk about a Broader National Security plan and how this drawdown fits into that and what the United States will perhaps you doing to counter al qaeda growth in other areas. Frank, appreciate you getting up with us this morning. Caller my pleasure. For we are asking viewers reaction to the president s speech yesterday. What did you think . We will start with patrick calling in from carnegie, pennsylvania. Patrick, good morning. Caller how are you . Host good, patrick. Go ahead. This is astonishing. The president of the United States travels to saudi arabia, no sooner does he return than announcement,his a de facto announcement that we ,re going to turn around contravention being the will of the American People, making it clear that we do not support military action in syria. He turns around and announces the we are in fact going to provide weapons and now it has stepped up to advanced weapons. We find out that the saudi the interior,er, the director of the intelligence has been terminated consequently in the same timeframe of what took place on the president s visit to saudi arabia. Stick to afghanistan for moment and tell me what you think of the president s announcement. Disastrous. S the United States of america is now completely broke. What do you have to do . You have to manufacture wars. This is where america is going. The direction we are now in, particularly with regards to afghanistan, we have turned around and made warlords billionaires. The me ask you this from our twitter page caller your thought host your thoughts on that comment . Already killing americans. When we use White Phosphorus weapons, deleted uranium shells, there are entire villages in these countries that have had to the mostzed over using horrific weapons imaginable. My father was the director of the osi for the air force. He said that the direction we are going in the disastrous for the United States and if the American People dont put a stop to this we will be looking at not only an internal implosion, but a social implosion as well. Patrick from pennsylvania with comments on our facebook page. Donald wrightson donald writes in below that, Melissa Griffith powell writes host we are taking your comments. Our phone lines are open. For democrats host some oft to show you the editorial pages from around the country in this topic this morning. The wall street journal. The Editorial Board, obama sets another arbitrary and risky deadline. Host that is the Editorial Board of the wall street journal. Times, writing trapped in afghanistan. There to derek, calling in from pensacola. Morning. Caller yes, good morning. I think, you know, people are talking about staying in afghanistan, not to lose what we gained . What are we trying to gain . We were supposed to go there to get rid of the bad people, they are gone, so why are we still there . Dont know why i we want to keep staying in places. We talk about invasions, but we do the same thing in a different way. It is time to come home and take care of home. Host moses, good morning. Caller good morning. My comments here are mostly for republicans. Withdrawalthere is a , there are comments from like why is graham is saying this not the time . Are to be clear, you concerned about announcing a timetable . Caller right. I think it is the right thing to do. Scared that ifre they leave there will be a return of taliban or whatever you call them. We have work we need to be doing in that country. This is not the america from everywhere in the world. All right. Criticism from a trio of republican senators on the president s statement yesterday. In their joint release they noted that the president s decision to set an arbitrary date for the full withdrawal of troops in afghanistan is a monumental mistake, they note, and the triumph of politics over strategy, they call it a shortsighted decision. That statement from three republican senators, a different tone from the one coming out of the house office john boehner, who writes i welcome the president s announcement that he will support a troop presence in afghanistan next year that will have a counterterrorism mission. Nd a train and assist mission i had said that i hope that washington and kabul would be worthy of the shared sacrifice of the people in afghanistan, the biggest take away from my visit is that of all the afghanistan,cing the most potentially damaging and completely avoidable is quitting short of the goal line. That it has been his longstanding position that input from commanders on the ,round should input decisions not arbitrary numbers from washington, and i am pleased that this supports the request for forces. That is the statement coming from john but rainers office. From the minority leader, nancy pelosi, the president strategy will enhance security and and the Afghanistan War responsibly, the longest war in american. Story is coming to an end we have a special line this morning for veterans of the war in afghanistan. On that line waiting is summer, calling in from hawaii. Good morning. Summer, are you there . Yes, caller yes, sir. Host go ahead. Got back fromt hawaii. 30 years and seven months, retired. This we are going to expand and all of that, when the government is laying off more and more military people and finding reasons to weed them out of the military. Some of the kids were really good. He is narrowing down the military bigtime and taking away money, actually. Someone it has been done to is us. Got a raise, turned around and had to pretty much pay. Host is your concern that the president and the u. S. Government will not be able to support more veterans with two and a half more years of commitment to afghanistan there . Caller no, i dont think they will be able to. Host what years were you afghanistan . It is not me, it is my husband. Host ok, what years did he serve . Caller he retired this past july. Host summer, thank you for calling in all the way from hawaii this morning. We are getting our viewers thoughts as we talk about the president s announcement from somerday, also showing you of the editorials from around the country. Again, here is the president s retreatn paper, continues. Once again the president embraces the zero option. Host concern being expressed by the Editorial Board. One other tweet from democratic senator about the plan the president laid out. He writes that congress should debate this ongoing deployment plan. We want to hear from our viewers this morning. Tricia, libertyville, illinois, good morning. Good morning. I am a veteran advocate. I conducted a desert storm think tank. I am in total opposition of continued occupation in afghanistan. Not a move that is popular amongst the afghani people. It is totally disrespectful to ignore the wishes of the leader of afghanistan. I am concerned that we are unable to care for our veterans on a continued occupation of today 10,000 troops, tomorrow 20,000 troops in afghanistan. When allegedly our goal was to remove out data. The fact is as we continue on in afghanistan, in a Muslim Country , we continue to breed to the people who have reasons, they think, to aim terroristic acts against us. I do agree that we should be voting on this. American people should have the option to vote on this and congress should be voting on this. Patricia, talking about the reaction she sees overseas. Ronald neumann, todays usa today question and answer is with him. One of the questions put to him impact of this war on americans . He says former u. S. Ambassador, ronald neumann, there in usa today. Forn is waiting on the line republicans in baltimore, maryland. Go ahead. Caller yeah, sorry. I think that obama is getting for a fabricated into overush drove us that. D bs like was a war of money. It was just built off of money and for cheney republicans. Think the u. S. t was justified to go into afghanistan after the attacks of 2001 . 9 11 was a farce, it was a total for farce. It was not it was fabricated. Ok. we will go to monti on twitter, who writes said, we have a special line this morning for veterans of the war in afghanistan. We certainly want to hear your thoughts on the president s proposal. Brett is on that line, calling in from guam. Thank you for calling. Good morning. Good morning, thank you for having me. I must agree with erins first , in the sense that we need to go out. I disagree with the republican the speakers with regards to the president making a mistake. Unfortunately, after 12 years, we have done what we can do. It is a special Operations Mission at this point. The original mission has been met and then some. The afghani is are quite capable and the afghanis will run their country as they see fit. With or without our support. At this point enough is enough and we need to refocus our , onrts, in my opinion things other than afghanistan. Host where did you serve in afghanistan . Rc east,n the capital, rc north, and rc south. Most recently last year. Thank you. Brett calling in their from kuan. On our twitter page host this topic was brought up by michael hanlon, from politico. Coauthor of a book, Strategic Reserve and strategic resurgence and resolve. He writes in his piece we are getting your thoughts and comments for the next 15 or 20 minutes or so. Frederick, good morning. Caller how you doing today . Host go ahead and turn on your tv and give us your comment. Are looking at this war and this whole situation in the wrong way. I understand that everyone comments, i respect their comments and thoughts on the situation, but this war is bigger than us, bigger than afghanistan, bigger than america , bigger than anything most people comment about. The spirits are at war. We are not recognizing that. This war is going to continue no matter what. It is not going to stop in afghanistan, it is not going to stop in whatever other country we go to. We are not invading these countries, we are assisting these countries. These are sovereign countries that need assistance. The way we are going about it maybe wrong. It,ver you want to speak not being good little about it it is not going to stop until the prophecy is fulfilled. Cedric, calling in from florida. Talking about the president s recent visit to afghanistan, what will happen with the cia cia chief ousted by the white house outed by the white house . The probe was set in a leak by spies, their to determine how the identity of top spies were engaged in afghanistan during the president s surprise visit to afghanistan on sunday. The story notes that Denis Mcdonough has instructed chief counsel to examine how the name. Sh d up on a list we are talking about the president s plan from yesterday. More comments from a few members of congress here. Here is congresswoman barbara lee from california, who writes in on her twitter page after 13 that there is no military solution. Senatorr tweet, from. Ob corker and it is my strong desire that we revisit conditions on the ground to determine if a full withdraw is warranted. We we want to bring the bureau chief from the Washington Post. We want to get your thoughts on this announcement was received in afghanistan, specifically by government officials. Caller for a long time there has been a sense that host are you still with us . We will work on getting him back. O talk to him dave, good morning. I want to agree with a large majority of the comments made by the caller. After 9 11, both sides of the aisle were pretty much in lockstep agreement with what had to be done. Only monday morning quarterbacking that after the fact they have all broken their ankles jumping off the ship. That these to say people that say we should not have fought these wars . Quite often in my daily life. I talk to them and i say ok, i will take your argument at face value and say that we should not have. Well, what we should what should we have done . They get a blank stare and cannot answer the question. They say i know what we should not have done. Would youmment is rather do what Ronald Reagan did . Spend the money to build a force you dont have to use and no one wants to trifle with . Or would you rather spend that same money, which we have done, sending people, equipment, and resources, and bringing those boys and girls home in bags . I say spend the money, build it so that we dont have to use it. Then we dont have to go to arlington and visit more bodies and other places around the world. So, lets be smart about this. Kevin,ets go back to the washing the Washington Post bureau chief. Kevin, good morning. Caller in yet . Host you were talking about how this announcement was received by afghani officials and the government there. The general perception was that if the u. S. Caller the general perception was that if the u. S. Was going to stay , it would be for many more than two years. It comes as somewhat to somewhat of a shock to people outside the government. The people who took it the hardest are the people doing the fighting. The people on the front lines in a dangerous war. They have got to years of some although 5000 troops at the end of 2015 is not that much. They see that as something approximating abandonment. They think they are very much in need of what the u. S. Military can do in afghanistan. The idea of going alone and not in a year or two is right frightening to the guys who are still fighting the insurgency. Is there any difference with how those troops youre talking about feel that the u. S. Troop presence there and afghan civilians, in your experience . Afghans are often very critical of what the American Military continues to do in afghanistan. There are still many gripes within the government and outside about civilian casualties. But there is also the realization that without the u. S. Military here it would be a much harder war for the Afghan Military and police to fight alone. I think that those sentiments articulate it simultaneously. I think that overall there is a sense that even though the u. S. Military has what the afghan calls problems here, it is still an institution that is very much needed and you hear that sentiment across the board. We have you, can you talk about the role of hamid karzai in the role of what is going on right now and the roles he continues to play as we talk about potential u. S. Troop presence down the road . Host i think that you could probably pick out any american official and listen to a long list of complaints about the role of hamid karzai in the last several years. If he had signed the bilateral peace agreement, it would have solved this question of enduring troop presence many months ago. That was a huge setback, not only for the americans in charge, but also for the afghans who were eager to figure out what was going to come next for them. In part what he didnt, creating this level of uncertainty, has no doubts made it much more difficult for afghans, again, from the afghan soldier in the fight to the afghan civilian trying to operate a small business, that has made it difficult for all of them to succeed in their everyday endeavors. One last question for you, seeing reports this morning on an attack in western afghanistan , this is from late last night our time. Anything you have learned on that . To be honest, i have been at a u. S. Military base all day meetings. I heard those reports, but i cant confirm them. I will say that it is no surprise to me that there is an attack on miller American Military or diplomatic personnel the day after obamas announcement. The taliban recently just a few statementreleased a saying that the american intention of keeping troops here beyond what you 14 just underscores the ongoing need for. Ihad i think that the statement referred to the fact that even if it is only one american troop in afghanistan, it is one too many. Worth thinkingis about for those interested in thoughry is that even there is this contradiction on one hand the american troops are needed here to sort of bolster security, but on the other hand they do infuriate the very people we are hoping to reconcile with. In some ways these two missions, the effort to reconcile with the insurgency and the effort to secure afghanistan are at odds with each other. That is something that the u. S. Has been trying to deal with for a long time. Obviously, as we see today and will see over the next few days, an announcement like this will continue to infuriate the people who still have the resources to wage a serious fight against the u. S. And its allies. Kevin, thank you so much for joining us over the phone this morning. Caller no problem. We want to get to a few more of your calls, but also keep you updated on the other stories going on around the country today, shifting from Foreign Policy to domestic politics. Yesterday marked the runoff in run in texas, texas the first primary of the season back in march. The story from the runoff, the first incumbent of the 2014 has lost. Ralph hall was sent into early retirement, ending the career of the oldest man ever to serve in the u. S. House. That is according to dallas John Radcliffe ousted the republican congressman in a runoff, bringing fresh energy to washington. Hall was one of only two world war ii veterans left in congress. One other story from the runoff yesterday in texas. One former congressman has fallen short in his comeback, losing his bid in his primary to a former cia agent running as a republican according to the hill. He won the heavily hispanic district in 2010 before losing it to republican congressman pete gallico. Are still hoping to target that seat in the 2014 cycle. From politics this morning to the tragedy out in california, here is usa today. The story of the shootings that took place over the weekend at uc santa barbara. Several stories this morning, this, from the opinion pages of usa today. The Editorial Board on the subject of what might be done in the wake of that shooting and other recent mass shootings. They talk about giving authorities more tools to keep guns from madmen. What might have made it different . They call that an afterthought in the gun debate, giving authorities greater abilities to do not think access to firearms to the mentally disturbed. They say that there was a huge missed opportunity after the shooting shooters parents alert alerted authorities. They say that family members often know better than anyone when someones mental state is concernsting, their mean more than a psychopath psychopaths glib denials. Getting a fresh look at their in atgress after the massacre uc santa barbara. Specifically talking to republican congressman, tim murphy, there he is in the picture there from roll call and one of the bills he is helping to put together, if you want to read more on that it is that roll call. Theuple of more things from president s announcement yesterday, 90 800 troops to remain in afghanistan at the beginning of next year. Alexs calling in from the bronx. What is your take on the president s announcement . Good morning. As you know, this gentleman was suffering from economic problems. They should have returned the soldiers from abroad. It is one of those countries where there has been a lot. As you remember, president obama, one of his personals was on the returns, decreeing the number of soldiers. He still wants to keep the soldiers in the countries. I think that this is the real problem a blanket community. It is for him and his government. Other foreigners are going to talk about this. Obama went to afghanistan. He asks president karzai to come to the airfield. To that. A final insult going to another country and asking a president to come . As we saw it from president karzai, it was not purely insulting to the relations. The things that stood out for , topresident in the region show what it is in terms of power and furthering his goals, he talks about us. If president obama in afghanistan was just visiting the army or was online for those in afghanistan . Short. Not too some of our relatives are soldiers there for the military. The president needs to be there more. They need to do that and they need to show that the real faceoff is in the community. Thank you, alex. This is a tweet from public and senator, roy blunt host todd is in davenport, iowa, good morning. Good morning. Thank you for having me on. What is the dialogue regarding the opium fields in afghanistan . If your listeners search the and search the internet and type in u. S. Military poppy fields, theres lots of information there, lots of mainstream and nonmainstream articles on the internet. I dont hear a lot of dialogue about that. This is definitely a resource that is part of the dynamic and it is not discussed at all. There are allegations that they regard the fields of poppy as becoming heroine and there is a major heroin problem in america. I would like to see more discussion about that as part of the dynamic of why we are there and what is going on in afghanistan. Beverly, hartford, good morning. Caller good morning. Thank you for taking my call. I have been listening to this all morning. Some gentleman called and said that we should have gone in there but he does not know why we would have problems about going into afghanistan, i guess . I dont know. Bushthe very beginning said that we would be there only for four months. Very quick. Right in, write out. First of all, i am not a military person, but i knew that bin laden and the leader of hated each other. I knew that there were new met there were no enemies of ours that we are looking for now anorak. Yes, i did not know why we went into iraq, but we did. I think that when obama got rid that weaden i know still have enemies, but it is time to come home. Not going to stop this mess. Might as well come home. We have enough soldiers over here all messed up because of a lies. At was caused by it is time to come home. Beverly, north carolina. This is from the Editorial Board of the los angeles times. A responsible way to draw down the presence in the country, as was ignored, the original justification was to end the use there as a staging ground for attacks on americans by al qaeda , not to engage in nationbuilding. They likely saw it as their responsibility to undo the effect of a fanatical regime. It could play an Important Role in consolidating the progress already achieved and engaging in limited counterterrorism operations. That is all the time we have in this segment of the washington journal. Up next we will talk to him on the shore, of environment and energy news about how Climate Change is becoming a growing issue in the 2014 election cycle and we will break down new funding announced by the white house yesterday to support science, technology, engineering , and math education. We will be right back. [video clip] one of the stories that resonated with me was the moment when their dithering about they need tot inject seawater into unit one. It is a matter of the clock is ticking, they are just about down to the wire. The plant superintendent, who in the end would have to make the final call, knows that things are desperate, that they need to get the water in there quickly. Meanwhile, Everyone Wants to say. The pepco officials and japanese government officials are hemming and hawing. From oneets an order of his supervisors at pepco that the government has not signed off on this yet, he has to hold off. Well . He has already started. Calls one of his staff people over and says i am going to give in order, but ignore it. He very loudly proclaims so that everyone in tokyo can hear halt the seawater injection. To me that was a Human Element in that story in which in japan, where ignoring the rules and kind of acting on your own is not rewarded, here was a moment where a guy knew that if he did not act, things would go even worse than they were going. The tsunami and resulting meltdown at the foot afterwards, on this weekend on cspan two. Washington journal continues. Host we welcome back to our , ofe elana schor environmental news. This issue has good personalities involved with Big Bank Accounts trying to drive the discussion. At headline from a recent l. A. Mes headline on this topic, the Koch Brothers, the 2014. Dical political bogeyman who is tom stier . A former hedge fund manager. Very successful, at one time one of the Worlds Largest Hedge Fund Hedge funds. He left that company in 20 12 because gradually he became interested and engaged in Climate Change and took it as a cause. He said he did not want to leave money on the table and it was his new goal for life. Now he has a super pac, what we would call a Political Action committee that can raise and spend unlimited funds called next to jen. They have a Nonprofit Group called next generation. He is effectively working as a liberal counterweight to the interests of the Koch Brothers interests of the Koch Brothers. Made the his pack announcement last week . Guest it will be the biggest spend of an Environmental Group in history, if he can carry it through. He is looking to raise 50 million from his own money and 50 million from other sources. He looking to play . Governors races and senate races . Guest this is where he becomes politically controversial. He made his name as an opponent of keystone xl. The critics ofll keystone xl to get involved in their races, but he is not ruling out getting involved in other races. Races whereng in climate is a factor, where he feels that there is a wedge to talk about this issue, not necessarily the biggest or hottest races, but there are a few in there, like the calm Colorado Senate race, for example. You dont have to agree with a certain set of principles to get in on that super pac . Yout he has three boxes must check. His people are very to the point about how they get involved. Climate has to be a wedge issue. In florida they want to talk about Sea Level Rise. There has to be an opponent who climate denier. An example of this would be in the Michigan Senate race. In colorado, cory gardner has expressed skepticism that this is contributing to the climate changing. The third issue is where might there be a community where it is on tap . Farmers in iowa where a drought is decimating their crops, they feel that there is possibility to reorient. Republican reaction to his announcement last week, this advertisement came out from terri lynn land, who you mentioned was targeting congressman gary peters, amongst other criticisms, for having support from tom stier. We will play that and come back to your thoughts. [video clip] on american jobs and paychecks waged by gary peters. He supported carbon taxes that would raise gas prices by . 20 per gallon, killing up to 96,000 michigan jobs, causing the largest tax increase in American History, gary peters voted for it. Fill it up,it on, flipped the switch, plug it in, gary peters will leave you in shock. Why is he waging a war on michigan jobs and paychecks . He supports the obama job killing agenda and is bankrolled by billionaire radical tom stier. He also supports the call to kill the chat kill the cap and trade scheme. Under my plan, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket. Terry peters, waging war on michigan jobs and paychecks. Just one of the reactions from republicans to the work that he is already doing this cycle. Tom stier doest not believe he is the same as the Koch Brothers, he sees them as crafting a political message in line with business interests. He sayss he is concern that this is personal, not business. But the truth is on the campaign trail . A are playing the same in ads like this. They will continue to do so. The roles talk about of the Koch Brothers and how they play when it comes to energy and Climate Change issues. As we do that, abc had a chart breaking down the Koch Brothers versus tom stier, noting their net worth. The Koch Brothers were worth about 81. 2 billion manufacturing textiles and paper goods, tom stier making his. Oney in hedge funds we talked about next to jen climate action. Talk to us about americans for prosperity. It is very well connected to the Koch Brothers. They played a role in founding it and it is their libertarian believe that guides the spending. They are also focused on obamacare and general budgetary issues. They are different and looking forward to climate energy. James writes host we are taking your tweets forcomments and questions elana schor in this segment for the next 35 or 40 minutes or so. You can also send us an email. We are talking about the Koch Brothers. The two Koch Brothers have been the subject of several comments over the recent weeks and months Senate Majority leader harry reid. I should say criticisms, not comments. [video clip] their bid to takeover american democracy is calculated to make themselves even richer. Yet they continue to assert that these hundreds of millions of dollars are freespeech. That may pose a question to everyone, including my friend, the republican leader. If this is freespeech, where does that leave our middleclass constituents . The poor . It leaves them out in the cold. Workingevery day American Families make their voices heard if money equals free speech . Should voters continued to worry about Climate Change if they are worried about their childrens education . Should they accept credit cards . Is our involvement in government completely dependent on financial resource as . Answer should be a resounding no. The shadowy Koch Brothers, in attempting to buy america, if they succeed the answer to that question will be yes. Host elana schor, are democrats defending tom stier . Harry reid himself defended tom stier soon after that speech. Myself and other reporters asked him about tom stier afterwards. He basically offered what tom stier has offered, that he and the democrats want to see Campaign Spending limits and is about to call up a constitutional amendment to do so but that in the meantime, democrats should not disarm or refuse money from guys like tom stier. For republicans, that is highly debatable. Your we are here to take questions and comments. Mike . You are on with elana schor. Caller good morning, thank you for taking my call. The big earthquake that we had, if you spin and rotate over the this, it isrs like going to change the requirements. Lot inrter inch being a your measurement, you take the and we haveearth seen changes in our son. We get up when the sun rises in the east. Years ago my my cousins and friend lost a son. At the end of the school year, it was directly in line with route 30. Coming into the 2014 election is Climate Change a top issue for you . In low income, we are forced to watch our electric bill. What i am saying is the sun is left of where it should be. Host mike brings up watching spending on energy department. Some of the arguments here are that some of the Climate Change proposals go through, it will increase energy prices. Mike lives in pennsylvania where the governors race will hinge in part on whether pennsylvania should join a regional Climate Change tact. Packed. There are rules that will push states in that direction. The democratic nominee says i would get in a compact to apply to epa. Is this sort of a statelevel cap and trade system . Yes, that is essentially what they are. Regional versions of the that failed in congress in 2009. Ron in vermont on our democrats line. Caller good morning. Through hundreds of years, it is always been the same. Give me your first one, give me your prettiest girls in the village, you know. Plague when you had a solar eclipse, give me all these things or the sun will not come back. Is the kind of thing being perpetrated on the people today. Usingare people who are fake i will say it is to gain the system. I do not buy into it at all. By now, 2000 13, water would be in miami. I think it is just a way of control. Richard rogers on the same subject. Is the earth warming and our humans contributing . Scientists at this andt agree earth is warming humans Greenhouse Gas emissions are playing a role. The degree to which they are primarily or secondarily driving this is the subject for much of the political brouhaha. Stop but it will get more intense next week after the epa unveils its proposal. People feel very strongly that Climate Change being a generational as opposed to an Immediate Impact means they will just have to pay out of their pocket books for an uncertain impact 20 or 30 or 40 years in years from now. It will probably run into a lot of headwinds. States is in , the former secretary of state, we showed you the ad earlier. Southfield on our line for republicans. Good morning. It is fun how the argument is more from global warming. Now all of a sudden it is from global Climate Change. The climate has changed for billions of years before people were even here. Also, guess what, if you are a hedge fund guy, you will make a lot of money if there is cap and trade when they start buying and selling these credits. He definitely has a hidden agenda. He is not just looking out for everybody. Your work, doing know about toms investments. Could he benefit from these systems . Republicans plan to use this against him. When he left his hedge fund, it was clear he wanted to wind down financial stake and be free of investments in oil. Xl and in coal, all of which are uniquely dirty fuels. Oil and gas, however, were not addressed. Republicans are already addressing the media on whether he was involved. They feel it would be hypocritical. Green Energy Investments, they were always very small. According there is very little chance he would be able to benefit on the cap and trade programs. Host we heard from a caller earlier skeptical of the Climate Change issue. Calling for action on Climate Change and noticing the powerful quotes by the commencement speakers, they note Martin Omalley had a jab at Climate Change. Those who say it is not caused by human activity, lets encourage them to go to college and study physics and economics. For the rest of us, lets get to work. Noting bill nye the science guy, his address at the university of massachusetts, called up to years he eras delaying action on Climate Change. They are for lazy people who do not want to get down to the business at hand. Instead of doing less, we have to find ways to do more with less. That is the key to the future. Those are quotes compiled by the leftwing center for american progress. Connecticut on our independents line. Caller i would like to ask what she and her global friends will do about solar flares causing Climate Change and not man. I want to know what they will do about that. Guest we are neither liberal nor conservative. Just journalism. We cover solar flares. As far as Scientific Research is concerned, we do not propose solutions. New york on our line for republicans. Think she already answered the question. My original question was to have experts really have a handle on how they come up with a number, a percentage, of the earths ,arming is due to human events human contributions to global warming. Assuming they do not know, is it possible for a solution to bring the economy to the from the 20th First Century to the 20th century or 18th century . If we reduce the economy, we reduce all the impact on the planet. Is that a possible solution . Thank you. Host in a shrinking of the economy . Rapt we saw our greatest in National Greenhouse emissions during the global recession. He has a point in that lower gdp hurts americans but it also kills omissions because were growing them. Is ae really thinks that solution, however. We talked about the Koch Brothers. Tom was on our newspaper Newsmakers Program here on cspan. We talked about some of the comparisons made with him in the Koch Brothers. There are real the stations between the Koch Brothers and us. Their policies line up perfectly with their pocket berks pocketbooks. That is not true with us. Ideas and principles we think are incredibly important but have nothing to do with incomes and assets. That is a distinct difference. In as tying to do this sparing a way as possible. We are trying to be completely open in why were doing it and what we are doing, documenting what we are doing so there is no question about something going on here in secret. There have not been huge embraces of transparency. Brothers, to their credit, are successful. Prosecuting business at the highest possible level and they are funding levels in politics. At 6 00not getting up to work in politics, but to work in the refining and chemical businesses. I quit my job in the private sector, which was, by all standards, age or every job. For me and the people i work with. That is true, but the way we are approaching it is very different. If you want to see that full interview with tom, you can check it out online. Inant to get your take away that interview. Tom is pushing that line. Coke brothers want to benefit their bottom line with political spending. The scope others disagree with that. They are bringing Energy Subsidies of all stripes that might hurt our Energy Investment because they are in line with conservatism and not necessarily our pocketbooks. However, he is also unable to comparisons in the press between them and the Koch Brothers. Some of democrats are concerned but a lot of them welcome our is welcome him. Host your calls for the next 15 minutes or so on. Good morning. Myquestion is, part of isment is, the Supreme Court turning us into a nation of oligarchs. Lets voice for the poor and the middle class and more for the billionaires. Will be thelet total amount that will be split spent politically on both sides in 2014 and what is the estimate there . In 2016, it is impossible to tell. We know if he follows through on his plans, he will have on hundred 50,000 to spend. I would suspect if this number reaches 100 million the coast can be reasonably various in their groups. On all of that will be environmental issues. Environmental groups tied to the clintons in the runup to 2016. Is very true. Hillary clinton is a blank face on the environment. Cap and trade on the environment but she famously inclined told be improve keystone xl, a major out of the environmental movement. They made her feel part of the conservation world, pushing her to the left on this. What will happen in the 2014 elections when it comes to the ongoing approval process . Guest not much. The court case in nebraska over whether it is legal. The Nebraska State Court will hear arguments on that case probably in the fall but it will not rule until 2015. Barring a lastminute turnaround, we will not know until 2015. Host we are talking about a lot of energy news. A reporter has covered the keystone xl pipeline extensively. We are talking about Climate Change and issues in 2014. Missouri on our lines for independents. Caller i get my news from you. And iment is, my wife have been farmers in missouri for about 14 years and we are surrounded i generations of. Armers, cattle, vegetables it is obvious things have changed. Our planning zone has moved up by ones own as far as knowing when to put seeds in. It may affects my politics. Watch and see who is just running to run for office and who is actually caring about our concerns. The comment, the question is, are you familiar with the banks, the International Seed banks, where they are preserving seeds . There are three or four of them. I have been curious to wonder whose money is backing those up and if the Koch Brothers maybe have enough money to be on the proverbial both sides of the bank of the river. I thank you once again. A topic you have looked into at all . Class i cannot staff have. I have looked into microtargeting data these groups have on farmers, like our caller. Sweethe suites part spot he hopes to use. They are already seeing impacts of weather on their crops and saying, here is how you can vote on candidates who will hopefully shield generations for more than this. The Koch Brothers versus tom steyer debate . Hopes it is today. Would not hold your breath. Least the or at spokesman has told the press, that they do not feel they should talk about scientific issues publicly. They do not have the expertise. That plays right into mr. Steyer s hand. He has launched a Grassroots Campaign calling attention to their not debating him. What will carbon limitations due to the Steel Industry . I do not believe they will be much of an impact. Manufacturing itself will probably be hit by any kind of epa program. There is no steel versus other areas, however. Gary in sterling, virginia, on our line for republicans. Caller three things i would. Ike to say about co2 the first is an Elementary School experiment where you take a piece of bread, two pieces of red and two jars. You what you put one piece of bread in a jar, close it up, and breathe on it three or four times and then close it up. Long story short, in a year, the one you briefed on has three percent more co2 will be dust. The other one will be a shriveled up shrunken piece of bread. It will still have Structural Integrity that you can tell was a piece of bread. That is one of the effects of co2. Will get moreou moss, mold, and mildew. A lot of things will grow better , but they will not have as much sugar in them. You need to do that experiment. I know a 300yearold forest that 50 years ago, the moss was two feet high on the trunk. 1968, i saw it again and the moss was four or five feet high. Then i did not see it for 40 years. In 2007, i saw it. The moss was 100 feet up in the air. It tells me one of the effects of moss mold and mildew, more co2. I appreciate the suggestion. Albuquerque, new mexico, on our line for democrats. Caller good morning and thank you for your presence this morning. Wonderful topic. I am curious. Any of the listeners out there seen the documents the documentary, chasing ice. The canadian lady, the world passes is foremost authority on water conditions . Tributaries, rivers, oceans . Her productions for 2030 are extremely dire. By 2030, it is predicted the worlds demand for water will 40 . D the supply by it could mean millions and millions of people dying as a result of no water resources. There is so much information out there and americans in should be highly embarrassed that we represent only 34 of the worlds population and yet, we utilized 25 of the worlds energy. It is time to make very serious changes. Is nothing political about it. These are facts. These are things jimmy carter stated in radically in a 70s when he put solar panels on the white house, only to have them removed by republicans. Is aestion is, there scientist out there, guy mcpherson, who has predicted consequences for us over the next 24, 25 years regarding whether civilization whether we will even have civilization. Wondering if she is familiar with them and if she has any comments about what he had to wait. Out and concluded the world has utilized over 50 of the oceans plankton, something he claims is your reversible and that is my question. I cannot say i am specifically familiar with his work, but i am a millionaire if the intergovernmental body that produces reports on the state of Climate Change. In the next 20or 80 years, as the caller suggested, it will not bring these kinds of apocalyptic type weather scenarios folks are predicting. We scientist say it is more of a gradual thing. Plus inbout 100 years terms of coastal flooding. These are predictions based on the best available data. No one knows for sure. In florida, Sea Level Rise is seen as a threat to miami in the next 60 years, whether that means one or two floods, or a constant. A flooding events. No one can really predict. A couple of tweets coming in this morning as we are talking about Climate Change. One other tweet this morning we are talking about campaign the issuehe impact of of Climate Change. We have been talking about tom steyer. Guest in massachusetts, he helped to let senator murphy for democrat and later as a republican. As beta tests, 2014 push. , for the a more competitive playing field. Host did they say what they learn from those data tests . They were shaping those conditions as i mentioned earlier. In virginia, he spoke favorably of coal. He does not necessarily seem like the biggest candidate to benefit, but his opponent famously prosecuted a professor who spoke out about Climate Change. He was effectively public enemy number one for the proclimate meeting. He was right in the sweet spot we talked about earlier. Kevin waiting in virginia on our line for independents. I get every morning when up in the morning, i look at the beautiful sky and the all the plants. My question is, sometimes i look in the air and i see four or five lining up to spread these chemicals that nobody wants to speak about. Anything. Saying you look up and once these planes finished playing, the sky looks like a tic tac toe board and we see all of these long, white chemicals. The next thing you know, the sky turns another color. Figure out, does that have anything to do with the changes in the weather . About airern traffics contributions here. Is that something you have looked into at all . Guest no. The callers concerns are a good emblem of Public Communications issues on Climate Change. All we can do is observe our environment. On a vigorous kale, science is saying different name and the epa is doing different ring than what you are seeing in your community. Brandon is in the lucky on our line for independent. Caller back in the 1990s, a lot of debate in schools was focused around the ozone layer and how that was a big issue. Layer orx the ozone did it change . What exactly happened . , the evolutionor of the issue . Guest we have made strides closing or helping the ozone layer become more fortified against the harmful rays of the sun. A lot of that had to do with limitations on toxics emissions. A republican president helped close the ozone layer. We see that as a strong case or carbon emissions. The politics have changed. You could not see a republican president get behind it at the moment. Host set to unveil action as soon as monday. They also released a regulatory agenda where [indiscernible] regulations, the pipeline. What sort of Energy Regulations to come out of that in 2014 . Guest to come out of that in 2014 . Safety for oil trains, been severale have incidents, some of them fatal in the last year. Oil production, these regions in rich inkota and tax, oil. Railways are carrying the crude oil without updated safety standards. To make sure weles can do with these derailments. Peter in maine on our line for republicans. Caller i wanted to talk to the woman worried about water. To 1970. D go back i have a couple of questions. The poll you cited 97 of scientists agree. Can you send us a link . So we can see what the poll questions were . Did you see the emails cherry picking data . A couple of questions from the caller. Feel free to take them in whatever order you want. Guest it was not really a poll. The caller misunderstood. 97 , the overwhelming majority. That said, there are members of the scientific immunity who dispute the degree to which human activity is fueling Climate Change. It has helped republicans make the case against any action. This is real. You can call at three percent, five percent. They are vocal, but right now, they are taking action on the weather issue. Water seeing observe environmental change. The community of scientists who want to open more debate on this are talking about the connection between weather events and Climate Change. It is true you could not connect any single weather event to Climate Change. It is a huge issue for republicans who want to say democrats are connecting every single flood to Climate Change. Reallyow, we are getting into rocky and controversial territory. A storm, water issues, and this will not stop. Host a question from twitter guest i have never interviewed them personally. I am not necessarily an arbiter of truth. It is a fact that these few dissenters are becoming more prominent thanks in part to republicans. Clarence waiting in West Virginia on our line for democrats. Caller you know about 10 years ago, coming out in the newspapers, we had five whether machines and they said to raise the bill on those but they thought was causing some of the bad weather we have. There,ng to a newspaper they are supposed to have five machines. Know [indiscernible] so they can control us . We are seeing a trend in these callers expressing serious concern that there is a conspiracy element, highlevel theirtrying to manipulate own livelihoods. It is a real undercurrent. We saw the same kind turning the Health Care Debate here at a lot programrn the obamacare was going to somehow impinge or take away from people. That will be a major obstacle for action. Guest a call from michigan on our line from democrats. Caller good morning. Know thatt to let you in 2014 2016, you run on Climate Change, you will lose. Hollywood, people have the luxury of thinking about this stuff. Most people i know do not care about Climate Change. They care that their groceries have doubled. They care that they cannot afford to put gas in their car. They care that they do not have jobs. You need to run on practical things that affect people today. Not 25 years from now. Im telling you, people do not care. Host elana schor on the politics of running on Climate Change . Guest that will be a real issue. You are essentially asking folks to take a broader view voting for this. We will see how effective that will be. Reporter withhor environmental news. You joining us this morning. Look at we will take a yesterdays push at the white house to support science, technology, engineering, and math education. , we willour spotlight based onchallenges General Motors. First, a news update from cspan radio. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2014] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] international news. The Police Organization says there were fewer terrorist attacks across the 28 nation bloc, but the threat remains acute and diverse. An annual report on internati. The Police Organization says there were terrorism says radicals who travel alongside militants in conflicts like the syrian civil war, are posing an increased threat to all eu Member States upon their return. John kerry speaking earlier morning says the United States will begin a 5 billion Terrorism Partnership fund to help other countries push back against radical extremists. He added the plan will allow the u. S. To divert resources to the antiterrorism fight in other parts of the world. President obama will announce at the u. S. Military academy in west point. Officials the king on conditions of anonymity say the white house will approve a project to train and equip moderate syrian rebel forces, trying to oust president , something rebels have been seeking for years. The president is weighing sending a limited number of troops to jordan. Today hear more on this when president obama speaks at west points commencement. You can hear live coverage of the event on cspan radio. Those are some of the latest headlines on cspan radio. The problem now is future peace. That is your job in germany. By your conduct and attitude while on guard in germany, you can lay the groundwork for a piece that can last forever, or just the opposite. You could lay the groundwork for a new war to come. Just as american soldiers had to do this job 26 years ago, other american soldiers, your sons, might have to do it again another 20 years from now. Today, germany appears to be beaten. Hitler out. Swastikas, gone. Not the propaganda, off the air. Concentration camps, empty. You will see ruins. You will see flowers. Mighty prettyill see some stories. Do not let it fool you. You are an enemy country. The alert. Suspicious of everyone. Take no chances. Something against more than taurus scenery. You are up against german history. It is not good. In the first of a five part features anmerica Academy Awardwinning director and commentary from an author and journalist sunday at 4 00 p. M. Eastern as part of American History tv this weekend on cspan three. Washington journal continues. Host the white house announced several new efforts to promote Science Technology education and math. Executive director of the Stem Education coalition, mr. Brown. Why does the white house believe a new push is needed and how do u. S. Kids stack up when it comes to Stem Education in other countries . Thank you for letting me be on the show. A great pleasure. The president talks passionately about Stem Education. We have been working on getting them to college. Math and science at first, that leaves of the engineers and scientists. That is where the people feel the economy is going as far as skill sets. Often times, they are talking about stem skills. President talks about this issue a great deal in his public speaking about the future of the economy. The reason the white house is talking about is the same reason we are. Heres a picture from the white house science fair yesterday. What was announced yesterday at the white house . Click several different things. The president made announcements like this in the past and they are all different times during the year. It is sometimes about graduation and sometimes back to school. The biggest part of the president posses announcement was a new Grant Initiative under the existing program where they would make available 35 million to support teacher Training Programs at the University Level to train new teachers in the field. How does that stack up to the rest of the budget for 2013 . It looks like a drop in the in the bucket. 100 and 2. 9 billion in the overall budget, 150 Million Dollars for effective teaching 110 million for innovation networks. Was this just a drop in the bucket . 35 million is not nothing. The 2. 9 Million Dollars is spread out over 200 programs. Most of it is quite small. Especially given this is the only program at the department of education that is specifically focused on expanding capabilities for teacher preparation within the Higher Education. It is meaningful. There are about 40 Grant Programs already. On stem focused education outcomes. It is an example of the administration trying to use existing programs and existing money appropriated by congress for the purpose of advancing stem. Some of the things you talk that have not yet been advised. Iraq e effort announced yesterday at the white house, the president does not have to go to congress to get approval for this. Is right. T they propose using 35 million to train stem teachers. We are talking to james brown. We are talking about Stem Education funding for issues surrounding Stem Education. Segment ofes in this the washington journal, parents can call host explain what the Stem Education coalition is. We are an alliance of business and professional organizations and education groups. Employers large to small. That employies thousands of workers. Employers of different levels, small businesses, and the education community, the chair of our board, the math teachers, different groups in the university spectrum. Sat, one of our members. And we have a wide variety of different science engineering and different scientific professional organizations. Physicists, they are all members. What holds us together as a Broad Coalition is the notion of promoting Stem Education as a priority. Host what originally brought your group back together in the 1990s . Guest stem has only been used as a term for 10 years. Before that, we talked about math and science. When we talked about math and science, we were most of the time thinking about the research pipeline, the idea of a student who is exceptional in math and phd. Ce, getting his almost every form worker in the Economy Today is a stem worker. That is where the interest is. What new jobs are being created and what new yields that require stem skills that schools are not traditionally prepared to give . Click statistics on Stem Education. The United States ranks 25th in mathematics and 17th in science according to their numbers from doe. 16 of u. S. High School Seniors are proficient in math and interested in a stem career. We are taking your comments and questions as we talk to james brown. Lets go to our line for educators. Waiting in pennsylvania. Good morning. As a retired english professor, i am wondering what kind of value you see in the importance of language education . Guest a great question. One of the things about stem essay topic is that somehow stem is displacing the need for other fields. Is clearly an important element of a wellrounded education, but that does not mean we do not need students who are literate, good communicators, good at teamwork, and good at a lot of other fields. Employers are calling for students and future workers who have wellrounded gills, but they also want to make sure they have stem skills. Term i have heard the steam as well as stem. Will a lot of employers talk about design, creativity, the ability to integrate a lot of different perspectives and you need only look at the most popular products, technology. Your iphones, your smart computers, wearable technology, design. He interface of we have a broad definition of Stem Education. One that integrates some of the soft skills like arts and design. Education has a lot of resonance when you talk about the workers you need. To theills are Pacific Education system. A is for arts. Our line for parents in michigan. Go to grace calling in from pennsylvania. Calling. Nk you for why would any parent encourage their child to go into stem fields . Know why. H1b has something to play in that. Toond of all, i would like know why they continually push stem fields when you cannot get a job in it because of h1b program. Guest thank you for the question. There was Something Like 30 million new jobs created in the before 2000, but since then, there were only 4 million new jobs created in the United States. We have a challenge in terms of creating jobs generally. The good news in that story is if youre in the stem fields, you doing better than the rest of the economy in the aggregate. If you look at unemployment, you find lower unemployment rates and higher salaries than the rest of the economy. I appreciate people are out there looking for jobs in every area. In some of the stem fields, unemployment has gone up by a factor of two. If your field went from two percent to four percent unemployment, i will not tell you that does not feel like it is harder to get a job here in if you have a good set of stem skills, you will do better in the economy. Host on twitter guest there is certainly a debate and we should have the debate about what role Foreign Workers play in the education field. We had some of that debate last year and a senate. Not playoalition does a role directly in immigration policy but we appreciate the implications for the stem field of the workforce. If you look at the foreign workforce, predominately, there are large numbers of stem workers. We have to ask ourselves a fundamental question. We all agree we want the smartest people in science and Technology Working in the United States. That is how we improve our lives. We can debate how to best handle our Foreign Workers. Host jean, good morning. Educators line. Caller i would like to jump in for a minute here and second the discussion. When i worked for the great blue oval in virginia, i went looking for an engineer and was flat out told by my hr people i had to hire an engineer because they are worth between nine and 4000 cheaper. The other thing i would like to mention is now that i am in academia, i essentially counsel my young engineers that your future is not in technology, that, while getting an engineer degree and being a trained Problem Solver will serve you for the rest of your life, i when i was. David doing my graduate work and he described engineers as the Migrant Workers of the mind because your life really is going from project to project, one layoff to the next layoff, because the people who actually run our companies are actually business and finance people who have no understanding of the technology. You look at the auto industry, how it got run by finance people and we ended up with the problems. Look at gm. Host let me give james brown a chance to jump in. Speaking to what is the future of the economy. There are industries in decline and industries on the rise. Technology is important in all of those. One of the things that gets lost is that it is not necessarily a bad thing for people to get a degree in engineering and work in another area. I have a degree in engineering. I think the skills i learned as an engineer are important to the other things i have done for the same reasons the caller raised. Problem solving skills are valuable everywhere in the economy. 100ou want to talk numbers, students who starred in college, 19 choose to major in a stem field. A fraction of those graduate and only six out of those 10 go into stem fields to work in the economy. The rest of the workforce that started or graduated in stem or work in another field, they had stem skills but are working in a bureau of labour statistics does not categorize as a stem job. It does not mean when we are talking about the Stem Education pipeline, we are not just training them to be engineers, we are training them to be good citizens. Caller when you have one of the problems with getting kids to go into engineering is that here you are, your son and daughter of an engineer who spent your life watching mom or dad go from layoff to layoff, and here are your choices. Do i go to the university and take very hard science courses and get called a geek and spend my life being laid off, or do i go get a business degree, take courses that are probably less difficult, and i will be the ones to lay these geeks off. Like the term geek. It is a badge of honor in this economy. The president talked about this yesterday. Hey have a program they do but i would say the economy is changing in every part of the economy. You look at nationwide unemployment at 6. 5 right now. As i said, i think everybody is struggling in the economy as we sort out the future of america you will do. Better. That is not to say you will feel comfortable. Everybody is looking at the changing nature of their fields. We have special lines set up in this segment for parents and teachers. We want to hear from you. Calling in from maine this morning. Thank you for calling. Good morning. To basically call in before the previous caller and amplify what you said. I first heard about the problem of getting students to go into the stem field in 2004. From a Panel Discussion senator schumer was having. Donahue was the chamber of commerce. Any economist worked at the time for the cato institute. Not exactly a liberal outfit but he has told them he is going around giving talks to High School Kids and kids were coming home from College Looking for careers and stem was not on the felt theyse the kids researched it and after 10 or 15 years, there were going to have to be promoted out of engineering into a management job, or leave the field. That was their take on it. Verywere going to take expensive courses in college for a 10 year career. What business are you in . Caller right now, i am an engineer who got laid off four over 15 years and im picking up my network of friends who were laid off and we are just doing one short job in engineering. I coordinate that and we design and do stuff. That is only part time. One thing you can do about the low unemployment rate, it is a low unemployment rate, but one reason is they are very intelligent. A lot of engineers both chainsses in hamburger and hair salons. That is what theyre doing now. If you went and did a study, a statistical distribution on how many engineers in the field who are 50 years old are doing Engineering Work, you will not find many. They will do other things and i do not consider being a manager of five engineering departments doing Engineering Work anymore. It is interesting to have this debate and whether or not we should be steering kids into the fields. Isther thing that gets lost it is not just a debate about whether we want more or less students to go into stem fields. What we want for kids looking at career choices, whether it is going into college or the military or a career in technicians areas, something we called bluecollar workforce when i was growing up, we want them to make informed choices. We look at the amount of money parents will spend on college. We look at the time it may take to get a degree. A lot of options were not there before in terms of careers in the technology area. A lot of jobs in that economy do degree anymore. That is changing. I love to see people talk about bill gates or steve jobs or other entrepreneurs who are famous who did not finish college. They will say, for my children, i want to make sure they go to college but i like the idea of trading things and not going that route. The you are thinking about economy, the notion that somebody will go to college and get a degree not to kill her field and spend their entire career working in that same field in the same organization is an idea that does not often apply in our economy. Tois not like you can go other countries and have that experience. What is underlying this is making sure kids and parents are making informed decisions about the future of their career path. Field,e in the stem there is no guarantee you will stay in that field. So many people who start out in engineering and up in other areas. If you look at the economy workforce, 1980, the how you count that, it was about six percent of the entire workforce. I do not think people are arguing there is a massive aches tension of what they need when we talk about stem workforce. The growth in the area is in the fact stem skills are present pervasive in so many other areas of the economy than they were before. If you work in a manufacturing facility, you are a software engineer. If you work in the facility that repairs those automobiles, you have to plug the car into a Computer System to do the maintenance for that vehicle. Areasare a lot of skill where we have not traditionally thought of them as stem jobs, but now they are. People in training academies for automotive technicians are now learning math and science at levels they have not learned before. Those are just a couple of fields where the growth is going on. It is growing incredibly fast in the cyber field. I want to talk about the gender disparity. Here is a bit of president obama yesterday at the white house science fair talking about efforts to get more girls involved in science and technology in school. Than one in five bachelor degrees in engineering and Computer Science are earned by women. Fewer than three in 10 workers in science and engineering are women. We have got half the field half our team, we are not even putting on the field. Change those numbers. These are the fields of the future. These are where the good jobs will be and i want america to be a home for those jobs. Three years ago, i called for a National Effort to train 100,000 over the stem teachers next decade. We are making progress on that front. Announcing a new 35 million competition to train our teachers,and science even when School District cannot afford a lot of fancy equipment. Stem americorps to provide opportunities for 18,000 low income students this summer. [applause] and, companies, nonprofits, cities, they are doing their part. Dozens of them are stepping up with new commitments to inspire and help more students learn. Host james brown on the gender disparity the president brought up at the beginning of those remarks . Guest the diversity is definitely an area we need to focus on. We find women and also minorities are underrepresented in stem field. Africanamericans are 11 or 12 of the stem population. Only three percent of the stem workforce. Stem education is the latter of upward mobility in the economy and an opportunity for people to do better than the rest of the workforce, then there is clearly a need to make sure were making those opportunities to study in stem fields, to be the next scientist or next inventor available to more students in the economy. In thelly good schools United States stack up great compared to the rest of the world. Look at the top 10 are sent if you look at the schools and the inner cities, you find lower rates of student being able to take courses in calculus. If there are some states where nobody has taken the ap exam in Computer Science. If you make of those opportunities are available all across the country. Ly of are particular interest. Essential that we make sure we do but we cant make of those opportunities are available to everybody and break down those barriers. On your work with thewit Stem Education coalition, michael on twitter asks, how was the Stem Education coalition have 500guest we members across the country. They are representative of a larger membership. The businesses and professional groups in the education groups and their supporters through dues that they pay a cheer. Host lets go to chris in newport news, virginia. Good morning. Caller good morning. I had a question for you in a comment. I used to be a teacher in virginia. I worked in the classroom. The technology in the math classroom. One of the problems i dealt with was my administrators could not with the technology i was using. Whether i was using calculators, computers or ipass. I ended up leaving the classroom and got a job as a math consultant. Withld hold the training the teachers to teach them technology in the classroom. My biggest challenge was to get traditional teachers to embrace the technology. You arewonder how giving money to teachers how are you going to get a traditional teacher to embrace technology . Guest my first job was in newport news. Its a great community. It death only one that understands the value of building things. One thattely understands the value of building things. When i was growing up, freedom for me meant getting a car at 16. Now, kids or 11 and 12 are making powerpoint presentations to their parents. When everybody has a cell phone in high school, we can use those devices in the classroom to help augment learning. That is one of many examples of the difficulties of bringing technology into the modern classroom. Most schools, the ecology the Technology Buying decisions about which software to use or what to use in the classrooms to concede the same computer screen come a those are enormously complicated Technology Buying decisions for schools and they are poorly equipped to deal with those types of decisions. Thats an example of a challenge in terms of aligning how schools work with the availability of technology and capabilities of the modern age. Aur experience is fairly common one. One of the things the president was trying to get with this announcement of the resources dedicated to teacher training was, when we look at what keeps but prepares a teacher to teach in this environment is the notion that their preparation begins with integrating technology. It begins with an indepth understanding of what the teaching environment is what the challenges are in preparation to ensure that the teachers are prepared to meet the challenges. That is the biggest challenge we have. Making sure the teachers are stemred to teach in the subjects. You use technology in a science classroom in the ways you dont use it any other way in the School System. The School System is now everywhere. If im a student or im a parent of a kid who is trying to learn science, im not just looking at the classroom environment as the only opportunity to get the skills. Im looking at afterschool programs, videos on youtube that i can access that will help me compare my child to study in those fields and be successful and the teachers are dealing with the same challenge. They go home at night and they do their professional work online or look at resources they can bring into the classroom. Being able to do that is an absolute necessity. Sent an email question. Doesnt this end up being a lot apparent there a lot of hot air . It sounds good, but it is so general that i dont know i dont see how it gives a direction. Guest stem is certainly a buzzword that people in the education establishment are hearing about. Every school is a stem school right now. We are all dealing with the challenge of preparing kids with the skills they need in the new economy. At the stem subjects are very concrete things you can learn. Stem skills are required to graduate in every school. To take a mistreatment physics and biology. People are debating whether you have to take peter science. Chemistry, physics and biology. One of the interesting points was this notion of, i did not feel like i was getting support from administrators. When 25 states county science science. Tates count that is driven by the fact that science is no longer included in the schools accountability forms. Host thats good to edward in maryland. Good morning. Lets go to edward in maryland. Caller good morning. Job. Ave done a very good i have called in once before. Physicist who studied in germany. The german industry requires that when students take a break haveg summertime, they academic standards and they require that the university. The students that the University Pay the students a starting salary. Opportunities. Ss we will have that same we dont do that in the United States. We dont support the students enough. We have thee we have a congress that turns their back on science. Nasa and you had the right wing people if we dont do something about that, we will lose ground. The hardcore scientists we have to do something about that. I would like you to talk about that indepth. That. D to work on guest the point you make about the rest of the world in germany prioritizing these fields is that is very true and there is lots we can learn from what other countries are going. Has a National Focus on it the Education System. They focus on training technicians. I love the analogy in the United States when you see something walking sunday walking down the street in scrubs, its a badge of pride to be involved in that field. We dont look at technicians the same way. Yet, the person who works in the auto mechanic repression might more than the person who works in the hospital. Technology is a part of every profession in the United States. As much as we limit our Education System, we talked about how we need to improve our rankings in science and technology, if you look at our university system, its universally acknowledged as still being the best in the world. The best and brightest want to study in the United States and get degrees from u. S. Universities. I wonder how long we can sustain that leadership when the rest of our Education System is struggling to keep up with the rest of the world. If you look at the International Rankings im not sure they are the only and best estimate of where we are doing in the world. We are down and all of these rankings. We are not headed back up. If we dont do something about more peoplethat study in the stem fields and that we make access to these important subjects available to more corners of our economy, we will continue to fall behind. Say tohat would you the concern about congress . Guest they are not leading on a lot of issues with regard to education policy. The administration to get at this larger point, the Obama Administration has made a clear point about when what can with Administrative Authority to make changes that they think are the right changes. Area, mosteducation of those rules are set by congress and administration does not have a lot of leeway in terms of changing education policy. Frankly, i dont think that you do it on their own. Congress needs to reauthorize the no child left behind law. 12 years in the making now. Five years overdue for reauthorization. The Higher Education act is overdue for reauthorization. 13 other education policy bills that are overdue for reauthorization. Only a handful of santos there are only a handful of scientists in congress. You can hear lots of members of Congress Talking about Agricultural Economics or other ifas in excruciating detail its relevant to their states. Questionk them a about science ecology, they say they defer to others. It would be welcome in our system. Many we will try to get as of your calls and as we can. Chris is in rockville, maryland. Caller good morning. Thanks for taking my call. Im 50 years old. I have two kids that are six. Im concerned about a couple of things. How does core curriculum intersect with stem . For someone like myself in the Energy Management field, which , how can im related or someone in my position or 40 years of age access stem curriculum to retrain . Im of the mindset that there is no better teacher than experience. But there are a lot of people who are 48 or older that are unemployed, but there is not any retraining or certifications out there that are stem related that is where the jobs are. Can tapn my age group into that. Guest thanks for the question. Let me take the last part first. One of the notions that we have to all embrace is the fact that now we have to be lifelong learners. This notion that we go through the Education System once and we start a career and that is where the learning stops is a very 20th century notion. Workerson valley, embrace the notion that they will have 1215 jobs over the course of their life read for young people, Labor Participation rates are at the same level they were in 1970. We are all struggling in terms the economy. Ing in it is not unique to the stem fields. Your point about the need for training, one of the weakest areas in the federal portfolio when it comes to shove for policy when it comes to social policy is jobtraining. Education laws are not nimble. There are aspects of technology that are not allowed to be used in training environments. It Online Education is not treated with the same set of rules as the school as. Have veterans use their g. I. Bill benefits dont line up very well to opportunities in modern educational settings today. There are ways in which we can improve federal policy and state policies to deal with the fact that our workforce is getting very modern. On the common standards. There are two sets of standards that apply in the stem fields. Common core and academics and next generational science standards. What they are doing, they are collective activities of all the different states that have gotten together and agreed to what the learning targets are in different grade levels for students in math and science. The states set their own curriculum and develop their own tools to teach in the classroom. The idea behind that is that we will raise the bar across the board so that a student who gets an education in the eighth grade in Washington State is learning the same things that somebody maryland in case they move between maryland and Washington State. Technology that they use in the classroom is indexed to the same grade levels. There are lots of advantages of allowing states to borrow what they think works in other states in the stem field. Host diana from livingston, new jersey. Good morning. Caller good morning. Im also a technology student. I went through school for Health Information technology. At education is not always the answer because the barriers to getting a job is that these employers want you to have 35 years of experience or specific vendor experience but are not providing the tools. You see that china protects their nation by ordering a study of ibm servers. Here, our American Technologies outsource our jobs. They are currently negotiating tbttpd agreement agreement. Here we are getting into debt. I have three children in college. They are getting into debt. All thee Jobs Education in the world are not going to do any good unless these American Companies step up and start hiring. Are using College Students as unpaid interns. They have these offshore subsidiaries and they use inversion and transfer pricing. Its not the governments fault. Everybody is blaming the government. Its all the business owners. The leaders. They get together with the government to provide exactly what they need and step up and microsoft some build the schools in india so they can train those citizens. What about our citizens . You touched on an area that i dont think is often times thought of as a stem field, the health and Life Sciences area. We argue about these distinctions of what a stem field and whats not. I embrace the idea of the Life Sciences. In the, if youre healthcare sector, that is an area that is growing. We need or the people going in to we need more people going into health. You touched on something that is that we should say out loud. Its taking people a lot longer to find a job after college than they have in the past. The Georgetown Center for education did a study last year that showed that it takes four years longer to get to median earnings in the United States. A long time for somebody who is 22 and says itll take you eight years to get to the same point that somebody might do in four years one generation ago. You touched on something that people are talking about and thinking about. Better ways to deal with. Retiringntegrate scientists and engineers are the biggest source of new opportunities in those fields. They are retiring it very fast rates. Faster than the number of graduates being produced by american universities. They are leaving jobs open that were for highly skilled workers. Employers are working at, how do i replace the experience and the skill set . Theyre looking at employer directed mentorship opportunities. What is the best way to ask and to expand internship opportunities . There were three parts of the president s announcement. More, mentorship kids from the inner city can get exposure to science and the 30sy careers was companies that have stepped up and heeded the call, the need for an all hands on deck strategy. It Companies Need to be doing more. When they talk about not being able to hire workers, we ask, what is your Internship Program . Companies are starting to make limits because they are feeling this in their own bottom line. Its one thing to say. Its another thing to feel it. Brown is the executive Director Director of the Stem Education coalition. Ou can follow them on twitter we appreciate you joining us this morning. Up next in our weekly spotlight, we focus on the ongoing faced by General Motors over its highprofile safety recalls. First come in here is a news update from cspan radio. Bushrmer george w. Underwent a partial Knee Replacement surgery in chicago this weekend. His Communications Director tells politico that it was an outpatient procedure and he was able to walk up and down a flight of stairs just a couple of hours after the surgery. He went back to dallas yesterday where he is recovering quickly at home. Former president bush had a torn meniscus in his right knee which doctors called a typical case of runners knee. An update on the nsa leaker. John kerry says National Security agency leaker Edward Snowden should man up and come back to the United States. The secretary was asked about mr. Snowden in a nationally broadcasted interview. In the session comes to and says he never intended to end up in russia that was forced to go there because washington decided to revoke my passport. When asked about this on nbc today, secretary kerry replied, well, for a smart guy, thats a pretty dumb answer. Cspans new book, sundays at eight, includes author welcome gladwell. You dont write with you cant write in a calculating way. You cant sit down to write about film. You should think about that issue at all when you sit down to write. What you should sit down what you should do when you sit down to write is to write about what you find interesting and follow your own curiosity. When i wrote tipping point, i never tried to imagine how the book would sell. I just wanted to write something cool. I was interested in this. I wanted to write something that my friends would read and that my mother would like. Read more of our conversation and other featured interviews from our book notes and q a sundays atcspans eight. For over 35 years, cspan brings Public Affairs events from washington directly to you. Putting you in the room at congressional hearings, white house amends, briefings and conferences. Gaveltogavelte coverage of the u. S. House, all as a Public Service of private industry. We are cspan, greeted by the tv industry 35 years ago and brought to you as a Public Service by your local cable or satellite provider. Watches in hd, like us on facebook and follow us on twitter. Washington journal continues. Each week, we put a spotlight on a recent magazine piece. This weeks piece comes from Bloomberg Businessweek. Why gm keeps swerving from apology to aggression in recall crisis. Thathas the headline on story and joins us now from new york. General motors is currently on recall number 30 at this point. The ignition switch recall is the one you focus on in your piece. About us what that was and how my cars were impacted here. We are talking so far about something in the neighborhood of 2 million cars that have been recalled in connection with the ignition switches. The problem is, with the ignition switch, gm has found that under certain conditions, the ignition and turned the power in the car off avid striving. You can be driving down the highway at 60 miles an hour and then find that your power is cut off and that is a situation that is potentially very dangerous. These ignition switch failures have been linked to several dozen crashes and at least 13 deaths. At the core of gms problem. Its far from the entire problem. Gm is already announced the recall of some 14 million cars. Bloomberg news is reporting as of this morning that federal regulatory records show that the regulators are looking at yet thater 2 million gm cars could potentially be recalled. This is turning out to be quite a bad year for General Motors. Host here is the headline from todays Washington Post. You talk about how deadly this could be. The defect killed 13 or perhaps more. Statements about that faulty ignition switch. Can you tell us where we are in terms of gms liability here and the investigations that are taking place . Agenciesltiple federal are looking at this situation. Criminal investigators in the Justice Department are looking at the question of whether gm covered up its knowledge of the extent of the ignition switch problem. You have investigators from the department of transportation. The congressional investigators. You have a swarm of federal officials were looking at various problems. Ofthe most likely outcome that network of investigations will ultimately be a settlement with the federal government. Large Companies Like gm dont go to war with the federal government over these things. You look at a very substantial sediment settlement that will result in civil complaints against the company and possibly criminal applications. Thats only a piece of the picture as far as General Motors and its shareholders are concerned. The new have the whole question of private civil liability. You have a high level also spent of already been filed under various theories. Gm has made broad statements saying that they will do the right thing. At the same time, the company has indicated that it plans to fight many of the tens of thousands of claims of car owners who are saying that the value of my vehicle was reduced as a result of the general existence of the defect, even if i wasnt physically harmed in any way. That takes you into a very raising gmsealm bankruptcy in 2009. Story talkingyour about this being a teachable moment for gm. As they are looking to navigate the legal issues and the pr issues, what is the teachable moment here . Least severale at lessons to be drawn. The first having to do with the fact that gm engineers and about people inhouse new the ignition switch problem years ago. Maybe as long as a decade ago. It was only in the winter of this year that the company came forward and conceded the problem and began making these large recalls. His first big lesson is, Companies Like gm have to move very swiftly in the interest of their consumers and their own reputation when they discover they have a problem of this sort. The second lesson goes to the question of Quality Control overall. Gm historically has had a problem with reputation for a lack of reliability. Had the reputation for producing clunkers. Had ahe company neardeath experience in 2009 in the midst of the great recession. Builders stepped in and the company out to the tune of some 50 billion. The company went through a swift a group c restructuring swift bankruptcy restructuring and became the new gm. As thenounced mary barra new gm. She said this is a new company with a new attitude and quality is back and that is the new standard. Recalls isf these now obviously bringing those promises and to those declarations into question. It is far from clear that gm will really be able to establish itself as a new am opposed new,uptcy company as a postbankruptcy company. We are talking with paul barrett of Bloomberg Businessweek in this weeks spotlight on magazine piece. The article is why gm keeps swerving from apology to aggression in recall crisis. Our phone lines are open. Democrats can call 202 5853880. Republicans, 202 5853881. Independents, 202 5853882. A special line for gm car owners, 202 5853883. Barras rolemary in this. I want to talk about how she has handled herself in front of congress. Heres a bit from her testimony last month when she testified about some of the safety issues here. I cannot tell you why it took so long for a safety defect to be announced for the program. I can tell you that we will find out. His is an extra near situation it involves vehicles we no longer make. It came to light on my watch, so i am responsible for resolving them. When we have answers, we will be fully transparent with you, regulators and our customers. While i cannot turn back the clock, as soon as i learned about the problem, we acted without hesitation. We told the world we had a problem that needed to be fixed. We did so because whatever mistakes were made in the past, from ourot shy away response abilities. Todays gm will do the right thing. That begins with my sincere apologies to everyone who has been affected by this recall. Especially the families and friends who lost their lives or were injured. I am deeply sorry. Part this is the apology of the swerve that is your headline. Guest yes. Those words, certainly if you heard them and sell them, would sound fair enough. I apologize. She sounds very sincere. On the other hand, they are delivered in a fairly flat, unemotional way. Listeners and viewers can make with a will of that. Nownd that, while she says everything is different and we are going to do the right thing from this point going forward, of course, what did the right thing is is a subject of debate. What she thinks is the right thing might not strike the typical gm consumer who thought they had a highquality car but now it turns out has to bring the car back to the dealer, get repairs made and when they go to sell that used car in a year or two is going to have to confess to the potential buyer that this was a car that was recalled and value may have been diminished. Minimum, she said that the right words. Its far from clear that gm plus apology gms apology is going to solve these problems. Host the headline and the story we are focusing on in this weeks spotlight on magazine. On our waiting in ohio line for republicans. Caller good morning. The government had control of gm they try tor hang a lot of this on mary barra who was a lower ranking official. What about the guy from the government who was running gm . Guest i think that is a fair question. On the other hand, i would be a little more hesitant to give gm pass. Ives a mary barra has been at the company for 30 years. Before she was the ceo, she was not some junior flunky. She was a quite senior person. The Company Nearly collapsed in 2009. That is not a secret. By president s made obama and is a ministration to save this company. Rather than to allow to collapse and have millions of people, the employees of Many Companies who supply this huge organization with parts and services they decided to keep it going and keep people employed and not exacerbate what was already a terrible recession, especially in the midwest. I dont think the federal administrators who came in and temporarily ran the company for 18 months would be held responsible for these longstanding safety and quality problems. By any sensible analyst of the situation. Which is not to say that we should keep it a secret. What it is those federal overseers knew. What the executives of the company told them and so forth. We will find out a lot about this as these investigations unfold. Asks, is from twitter there any reason to believe that the link the recall until after the 2012 election was politically motivated . Guest im not even sure i would understand what the premise is behind that question. That the recall would be delayed to protect whom . Host he does not mention that on his week. On his tweet. John is waiting in michigan. We have a special line for gm owners. John is on that line. Good morning. Caller good morning, cspan. Im not only a General Motors car owner. In 1978 andrk at gm retired out of their in 1990 and then went to drive a truck. Ive got a gm car. In 1980 camaro z 28. That is a car. 19 841986, they started taking our plant apart and shifted over to mexico. Now you have all this junk. That is why they are yelling about key switches. We were yelling on the production line that they were making junk and they wanted to keep right on going. You couldnt tell the engineer is nothing. Dummy in brought dr. There to help rebuild japan. He came into General Motors and he said, you have to think about a different way of doing things. How are we supposed to do that when the product and the process is set in stone . We can change anything. Now you are seeing the results of the hierarchy coming out of their office and saying, we want money and we can make keep the shareholders happy and they were cranking out junk. What you are going to see, mary barra has been around their 34 years. She is not stupid. She knows what was going on out there on the line. , if you are going to see they are going to have a new General Motors, you have to have somebody step up to the plate and start making Something Like a mustang. Theyre making a new corvette. That is what its going to take to get gm back on track. Host what do you make of his observations . Guest i dont think im qualified to weigh in on whether or camaro is an ideal car the corvette is the answer to chevrolets future. General attitude , thate is giving voice to sometime in the 1980s, gm and all of the detroit got very far off track this is a problem that traces back to the 1970s with a lack of innovation, deteriorating reliability, a failure to adjust to the changing tastes of the consumer all those problems made the American Auto industry very vulnerable to foreign competitors from japan, germany and elsewhere. We saw the result of that with foreign competitors eating the lunch of the troy. Later, these companies are far smaller. Theyre supposedly much more efficient. A lot of people lost their jobs and that efficiency move. Theyre prepared to make better cars. The question is, is the color correct that they are still making junk or is mary barra correct that we have learned our lesson and we are now putting out a how quality product a highquality product . Having to recall 14 million cars in the first half of this year would tend to raise questions about her claims that they have solved their quality problems. Host were showing our viewers a headline. Are there any gm cars c to recall . Why doesnt gm just lift the cars that are not being recalled . It would be a shorter list. You talk about the pr aspects of those kinds of comments . Avoidingere is no real the pr calamity that recalls on this scale create for a company like gm. There is nothing good to say about recalls beyond the apology and the pledge that now we are taking stock and we are going to do right in the future. Saying the right things. At the same time, they are going to be fighting in court to try to limit their liability to all of these millions of car owners who are going to be making claims about the value of their car being reduced by some ofdreds or thousands dollars. How gm deals with that situation, do they end up using every legal technicality to try todefend those claims off defend those claims off or do they come up with a way to settle those claims and move on . That is we are interesting issues cross wire with legal issues and attitudes of lawyers and judges. All of that is yet to be determined. There are many . Questionare many marks. Host we briefly covered her commitment address at the university of michigan back on may the third when she talked bu about crisis management. Lets go to the phones. George is in new york on our line for independents. Caller good morning. I have a question and a comment. Our country has been building 1898. Ince ignition switch is not rocket science. Its usually on, off or accessory. You have to explain what the problem is with the switch. An inherent ball bearing or a spring inside or is it something hanging off the switch like on your keychain that is affecting it . Most cars still have the ignition switch on a column. Not on the. Dash. On the guest the main problem that has been diagnosed is that the to simplyre prone switch off if they are gerard. If the car were to hit a significant pothole or if the iver had a bunch of other keys or other doodads that created weight on their keychain. That collection of things hanging off the key ring was jarred, that by itself would cause the ignition switch to switch from on to off. It is not a problem of rocket science. It is not a particularly hightech or computerrelated problem. It is a basic flaw in the design of the switch. It does not work under circumstances that most people would think are easily foreseeable. Such as the carping drug. Youre not driving across a silk surface. Jarred. As the car being that is the core of the problem. Host we have 15 minutes left with paul barrett. His piece, gmat keeps swerving from apology to aggression in recall crisis. Mike is waiting on our special line for gm car owners. Dayton, ohio. Good morning. Caller the morning. Even if you dont have a vehicle specifically threatened by this doesnt lower the value of your gm vehicle . Affect theng to is car . Value of th what a car is worth or what a used car is worth on the market is not something that is scientifically determined. It is determined by what consumers and what other people are willing to pay for it. I cant see that the value of gm in anould be improved environment in which gm is recalling millions of cars. Certainly, the owner who wants to go to sell that cadillac after using it for one year or two and decides he now wants to write a bicycle and wants to nobody has raised any questions about my particular model or my particular car that is sitting here in my driveway. Like a reasonable argument. On the other hand, the potential consumer is coming to take a look at it. If they are an individual buyer or some type of wholesaler who wouldsed cars in bulk say, look, i understand it from your perspective. From my perspective, ive got questions about gm in general and therefore im going to discount what i offer you by 10 . I was going to offer you 25,000 for your used cadillac. Off thatll not be 500 price. Take it or leave it. The marketplace will determine that. I can see how this is good news for any owners of any gm cars. Host david in magnolia, texas. Our line for independents. Caller good morning. General motors better be careful. They are in china. You had aned earlier caller. That is what allamerican car dealers cut into. Thats why General Motors went broke a few years ago. They started selling junk. You keep buying junk. That is what you should be looking into. When they went into the finance business. Host any thoughts on his theory . Certainly, auto finance has not worked out well for some of the big auto companies. Gm included. Thatt think the cycle that caller was referring to, the idea that the company, in order to get people to buy cars more frequently would intentionally make the cars of lesser quality, is something that would not be easy to prove. The larger trends, leaving aside conspiracy theories, the larger trend that detroit moved toward trying to persuade people to turn cars over and buy a new car more frequently and finance that , those trends did coincide. Use of Consumer Debt and the rise of these reliability issues. He is correct in what he observes. Aside the notion that it was all intentional. I think it was a problem of people in positions of authority within these Companies Taking their eye off the ball in terms of their core response ability to make a good product that will last a long time. Usmade cars only improve after foreign automakers obtained a foothold in the u. S. Market. Allen is waiting on our line for gm car owners. Calling from michigan. Good morning. Caller good morning. I have a question regarding the 500 gift General Motors will give you towards a purchase of a used vehicle. I took advantage of that on friday. They also gave me a one year, 12,000 mile bumpertobumper, 100 parts and labor on ear items. Since i have done that, do i way my future rights in classaction . Host im not in a position to give anybody the glib vice. Im not in a position to give anybody legal advice. The question indicates some of the anxiety that we have been talking about. Its not only a question of whether the car is going to run off the road as a result of the ignition switch going off. Theres also the question in the mind of consumers as to whether the value of their car is going to be diminished because of this larger cloud of questions about reliability. Mannot going to offer this direct advice as to whether to sign away his rights to file a lawsuit. Many of these lawsuits have been filed. Host can you speak to what gm has been doing twin ties buyers back doing to entice buyers back . What gms bottom line is looking like these days. Gm has been making the standard kinds of offers for free repairs if you bring the car in. Auto companies are continually offering financial incentives of a wide variety. If you watch television in the evening or look at the internet, areknow that car dealers constantly shooting all kinds of offers at you. That is nothing new and nothing really specific to this recall situation. Consumers have to carefully sort through whether those enticements are really worth anything. Gm is still selling a lot of automobiles at this point. They do have substantial revenue. So far, the anticipated cost of is notole recall crisis something that will cripple the company. The company is taking charges amounting to some 1. 7 billion for this year. It is not going to stop gm in its tracks. The question is, to what degree does that figure proliferate and how big does that figure get . Its not going to be the legal legalnts or the fines settlements or the fines that is devastating. What is devastating is damage to its reputation in the marketplace. If millions of people shied away from buying gm cars and went to other manufacturers as a result of all the questions that are being raised this morning. Host we have a few minutes left with paul barrett of Bloomberg Businessweek. Talking to him. Mickey is waiting on our line for independents. From new jersey. Good morning. Caller good morning. Im concerned that people are worried more about signing then they are fixing the problems. The thing i see with Car Manufacturers and everybody else now, they are relying on left her cold signals that are electrical signals. Anytime you have a frequency transmitted through the air, it can receive frequency from another source. Critical systems such as carburetors, breaks, ignition should not be transmitted. They should be hardwired. This goes not only to cars. Generatingoes to plants and everything else. Critical systems should not be transmitted over the air. Host your thoughts on the technology or the liability posturing . Guest right. Well, as the caller seeking legal advice, im not an engineer either. I want make any broad pronouncements about the advancing state of technology and whether things need to be hardwired. Many of the problems with these gm cars to not have to do with the super sophisticated signaling. They have to do with basic mechanical issues. Whether you put the car together a right way on the a similar line, not whether you are using a technology that is questionable. As to whether we are spending too much time pointing fingers of blame as opposed to fixing the problems, that is a perennial tension. Have a bigawyers who personal financial interest in generating a lot of litigation in this area and not necessarily getting to the bottom of the problem. I think that is a fair question to raise. I would take the attention back to the ordinary consumer. The owner of the gm car. Of your callers said i own a gm car and this is what i think. I sympathies would be with those people and if they bought a car thinking it would last a certain amount of time and they would have a certain value in the used car market and now they are finding questions arising areuse of what gm admits these failings on the part of the corporation. Ors people are not whiners distracted by liability questions. Theyre saying, hey, i thought i bought something that had a i thoughtlue and made in america meant something. Its not inappropriate. Host robert is waiting in los angeles, california. What do you think . Caller good morning. I think gm is a big scam. I have a 2011 acadia. To theime i go back dealer, they give me excuses. I have been called three times it has been recalled three times. Transmission. My it rolls backwards. Guy who test drove it said, that is how they made the car. Its like driving a stick. And theyned about it keep telling me there is nothing wrong with the truck. I dont know what to do now. Host how concerned should gm be about sentiment from people like robert who are frustrated by multiple recalls . Guest they should be terrified. Are a growing number of their faith in the company and are losing faith , not only are they going to be frustrated when they call in and talk to cspan, theyre going to be frustrated the next time they go out in the marketplace and say, where am i going to place my hardearned dollars . Which manufacturer has earned my faith . The huge main question that jim has to focus on is, will they persuade people that the problems that exist now have somehow been changed . If they cant make that sale or s minds, they will be in terrific difficulties. Host they also have to navigate the lawsuits. The aggression side of your headline here. Correct . Guest that is exactly right. They have to figure out they dont want to hand many out hand money out to anybody who. Ys, i want money from gm on the other hand, if gm is going to spend years fighting claims in court or if they are going to say that the terms of our 2009 bankruptcy , when thetion taxpayers of the United States stepped forward and build the company out and the court system was used to set aside socalled old gm and leave liabilities there so the new gm could move forward and produce new, highquality cars come if they are going to rely on the intricacies of that banker to process to try to tell people response dont have ability, that has a potential for alienating a lot of people allers this morning. Gm has a delicate balance. A wayy dont figure out to air on the side of conciliation, they will exacerbate the hostility we have heard this my. Host a couple minutes left with paul barrett of Bloomberg Businessweek in this segment. Its good to sam in chesapeake, virginia on her life for democrats. Good morning. Caller good morning. , youreem is concentrating on gm. There are other Car Companies that are issuing recalls. Host on some of the other recalls another companies. In other companies. Cart gm is not the only company recalling cars in great numbers this year. There have been some 23 million recalls so far this year by u. S. Automakers. Gm is the one that has the biggest, most acute problem. Gm is the one that is under scrutiny by the federal government for allegedly covering up safety problems that may have caused crashes and cost people their lives. I dont think any fairminded person is going to begrudge manufacturers for putting out and selling some defective products if they are going to manufacture and sell millions of complex products a year. Every single that car that runs up the Assembly Line is going to be flawless. That is not a fair standard. Are the vast majority of your ca