Transcripts For CSPAN3 Politics Public Policy Today 20131118

To donate, please visit press. Org institute. On behalf of members worldwide, i would like to welcome our speaker today and those of you in our audience. Our head table includes guests of our speaker as well as working journalists who are club members. And if you hear applause in our audience, i would note that members of the general public are also attending so its not necessarily evidence of a lack of journalistic objectivity. I would also like to welcome our cspan and public radio audiences. You can follow the hash tag on twitter today using the hash tag npclunch. Ill ask as many questions as time permits. Now its time to introduce our head table guest. I would ask each to stand briefly as your name is announced. From your right, richard strauss, former white house radio director. Barbara cochran, head of the National Press Club Journalism institutes. Yolanda is ceo and former deputy chair of the Democratic National committee. Kathy spiller executive editor of ms magazine. Elle president of feminist Majority Foundation and publisher of ms magazine. Allison fitzgerald, finance and Investigative Reporter at the center for Public Integrity and chairwoman of the National Press club Speakers Committee. Skipping our speaker for just a moment, Senior Vice President of msl group and Speakers Committee member who organized todays lunch. Thank you for that. Beverly, ph. D. From Spelman College and founding director of womens research and Resource Center and professor of womens studies. Nicky schaub, associate editor of washington whispers at u. S. News and world report. Jennifer sergeant, a freelance magazine writer and deborah, executive Vice President of hager sharp incorporated. [ applause ] its not often that one person can define an era. Our guest today had already made it as a high powered woman in a mans world when she discovered that world was far too narrow to accommodate her. Gloria steinem is the face of the feminist movement and was doubled the leading icon of american feminism in time magazine. She cofounded ms magazine in 1972. More than 40 years later, shes still a consulting editor to the magazine published by the it feminist foundation. Ms. Steinem celebrated the 40th anniversary of the magazine last year at the press club. She said it was the right place to do it since she was the first woman to appear as a National Press club speaker after women were admitted to the clubs membership in 1971. [ applause ] she received a mens tie as a thank you. Shes in town this week to receive the president ial medal of freedom from president obama. [ applause ] ms. Steinem worked as a journalist in the 1960s after living here in washington during high school and heading to Smith College from after college she spent two years in india where she wrote for indian publications and was influenced by gandhi and activism. In 1968, she was a columnist and wrote feature articles. As a Young Journalist she wrote for esquire and once hired on as a stunt for a playboy bunny and helped fund the National Womens caucus and most recently the Womens Media Center. [ applause ] along the way, ms. Steinem has been criticized as a threat to male privilege and knocked by fellow feminists when she wrote a selfhelp book and by some when she got married. Today shes a documentary producer and author as well as a regular on the speaking circuit and says the fight for equal rights for women is hardly won not only here in the u. S. But especially in developing countries. Today shell talk to us about big things left undone in a speech titled still to come the unfinished and unimagined. Help me give a welcome to glory steinem. [ applause ] first i have to say what an amazing collection of talents and great minds and great har hearts. It drives on organizers crazy that may not know each other. As you have already heard, i get a big sense of history when i come back here including my own history, and i can just say as the first woman speaker i remember so clearly my knees knocking and my voice quaking and losing all of my saliva. Does that happen to you . Each tooth gets a little angora sweater. I was so aware of the responsibility. However, when they gave me a tie i felt completely free to say outrageous things. And since then, i mean, its so great that weve had 11 female president s of this institution and so many great women have joined great men in speaking here and we did gather last year to celebrate the 40th anniversary of ms. Magazine. Thank you for carrying this forward and weve got here the great you heard weve got the great beverly who is a great troublemaker. [ applause ] and Jeanetta Cole who is educator and now whats your proper title at the museum of african art . Director. Okay. And Allison Bernstein who insists on calling herself bernstein who is a Great International activist and there are so many of you here. I just want to tantalize you to make sure you look around and see three or four people you dont know and you introduce yourself. And it is a celebration of my inclusion among 15 people i greatly admire who are being presented with the medal of freedom by president obama. Theres no president in history from whose hand i would be more honored to receive this medal. And it gives me a chance to say here im especially grateful for this lunch because when we get the medal, we cant talk it turns out. Im grateful to have the opportunity to say here that i would be crazy if i didnt understand that this was a medal for the entire Womens Movement. [ applause ] it belongs to Shirley Chism and patsy and in the future it would be great for robin morgan im lobbying a little bit here. Barbara smith. And so many more. And it has already honored rosa parks and Rachel Carson and dorothy and my dear friend chief of the Cherokee Nation who i accompanied when she received her medal. Now, of course with all of that company i get uppity, i can remember dick cheney received as did henry hyde whose selfnamed amendment has hurt lowincome women for the last 37 years and were counting. The power of this honor may be even more evident in the withholding than in the giving. I was reminded by ellen that president Lyndon Johnson even as he signs the First Federal and International Family planning acts into law refused to bestow the medal of freedom on sanger and feared reprisal from the catholic church. Ellen told me when she looked at sangers private history papers at Smith College, im proud to say the biggest archive of womens history, she found a poignant handwritten note from sanger asking that her body be buried here next to her husband but that her heart be removed to japan, the only country in the world that had ever bestowed a public honor on her. So i hope this is retroactive in honoring the work of margaret sanger. I hope she would celebrate this recognition that reproductive freedom is a human right at least as crucial as freedom of speech. And that no government should dictate whether or when we have children. [ applause ] whether we are male or female, the power of the state must stop at our skins. She might also say the backlash against reproductive freedom by a right wing extremist minority especially in state legislators they unfairly control by redistricting is proof of panic of their racist and immigrant fearing efforts to keep this country from becoming as it is about to be no longer a majority European American nation. It is becoming one that looks more like the world and better understands the world. So sanger might say as i do that there is no president of the United States who is more responsible for understanding that reproductive freedom is a basic human right than president obama. However, there may be a movement problem with me as a recipient because of my age. Im trying to absorb the fact that ill be 80 next year. [ applause ] i plan to reach at least 100, but i am really worried about mortality but im also worried that my age contributes to the current form of obstructionism. All of the people who say that movements are over and use ridiculous terms like postracist and postfeminist. Excuse me . Right. I can testify personally that the very same people who were saying 40 years ago that feminism was unnatural and unnecessary are now saying it used to be necessary but its not anymore. Just to name one parallel to show how ridiculous this is, if it took more than a century to gain legal and social identity as human beings for all women and men of color, now that we need legal and social equality and no power based on race or sex or ethnicity or class or sexuality, thats likely to take at least a century, too, dont you think . And were only 40 years into it. Also as original cultures say, it takes four generationses to heal one act of violence. So truly we are just beginning. So i would like to contribute a few examples of the adventures before us and unlike david letterman, im not going to try to put them in any kind of order because each one is crucial. And any way, theyre all just reminders for people in this room. One, womens issues arent separate from Economic Issues or vice versa. Paying women equally for comparable work done by men would be the biggest economic stimulus this country would possibly have. The institute for womens policy Research Tells Us that paying women of all races equally to white men would put 200 billion more into the economy every year and would be way more effective than propping up banks and wall street because this money would get spent not put into swiss bank accounts. It would create jobs and help the poorest kids who are those that depend on a mothers income. Do we hear economic stimulus and equal pay in the same sentence . No. I dont think so. And after we do that, we also need to value care giving work which is a third of the Productive Work in this nation at replacement value and make that tax deductible if we pay taxes and tax refundable if we dont. We could do that. Two, a womans ability to decide when or whether to have a child is not a social issue. It is a human right. It is the biggest indicator of whether she is educated or not, can work outside the home or not, is healthy or not and how long she lives. This country has the highest rate of unplanned pregnancies, teenage pregnancies and medically complicated births in the developed world and the least Sex Education which allows web pornography pretend to be Sex Education though the truth is present in the word. We have shown as a movement that rape is not sex, its violence. We havent yet been successful in showing that pornography is very far from nurotica. Women with children are less likely to get hire order paid well while men with children are more likely to get hired and paid well. This is the tip of the iceberg. Nothing else is going to work in a deep sense until men raise children as much as women do. Deep. Children will keep on liabling men by thinking they cant be loving and nurturing and they can just as well as women and liabling women by thinking they have to be loving and nurturing. This is huge. Read a book long before its time and were finally ready for her. Four, the u. S. Is the only modern democracy without some National System of child care and now the average cost of child care has surpassed the average cost of a college education. Five, were also the only advanced country that endentures College Students by saddling them with debt at the time they should be able to explore and women pay the same tuition as men and get paid a Million Dollars less over lifetime to repay those loans. That reminds me much of the fact has been made that women outnumber men on College Campuses but many are trying to get out of pink collar ghetto and into the white collar ghetto. Meanwhile, women in Blue Collar Union jobs earn more than the average College Educated woman so no wonder men are choosing not to run up all that college debt. Six, the Digital Divide is pretty good proxy for power. For instance, more than 80 of Internet Users are in industrialized countries and the fewest on any continent are in africa. It tells us something here at home. Though men and women are only about 2 apart in computer use, 67 of white nonhispanic households use the internet while only 45 of black households have access. It is about power and it is serious and it is polarizing. So lets hear it for the librarians who are only ones i know of fighting to democratize computer use. While were celebrating Marriage Equality victories, great, lets not forget that 51 of us in the United States say homosexuality should be accepted by society. That was the question in the Public Opinion poll. 69 of people in canada do. Are we not comparable at least to canada . And 83 , 83 of people in germany do. On campuses, students still ask me why the same groups oppose lesbians and birth control. I think many of us dont yet understand that the same groups oppose all forms of sexual expression that cannot end in conception. Sometimes i fear that our opposition understands our shared interest better than we do. Nine, do enough people understand that racism and sexism are intertwined and can only be uprooted together. To maintain racial differences in the long run, you have to control reproduction which means controlling the bodies of women. Those of the socalled superior group are often restricted and those of the socalled inferior group are also exploited . But both suffer. This is true for sex in india just as it is true for sex and race here. It is a universal, global truth that these two things can only be uprooted together. And still i think our common adversaries sometimes know our common interests better than we do. 10, heres a final shocker just for anybody who says its post anything. Violence against females in the world has reached such a peak due to preference which produces son surplus and daughter deficit to such practices as sex trafficking, to sexualize violence in war zone, to Child Marriage and pregnancy which is the biggest cause of teenage female deaths in the world. That for what may be the first time in Human History, females are no longer half the human race. On this space ship earth, there are 101. 3 men per 100 women so before we think of causes as distant, that cause as distant, let me also remind you that even by fbi statistics, if you add up all of the women in the United States who have been murdered by their husbands or boyfriends since 9 11, and then you add up all of the americans killed in 9 11 and in iraq and in afghanistan, and you combine all of those numbers, more women have been killed by their husbands and boyfriends since 9 11 than all of those americans who were murdered in 9 11, in afghanistan and in iraq. We pay a lot of attention to foreign terrorism but what about domestic terrorism . What about crimes in our houses, schools and movie theaters that are 99 committed by white, nonpoor men with nothing to gain from their crimes. Nothing to gain from their crimes. But who are addicted to what they got born into. They did not invent it but they became addicted to the idea of masculinity and control. Those crimes, i think, we might refer to as supremacy crimes which is their motive and really think about the why of it and the cost of the falsely created ideas of gender. But heres the good news. Thanks to a Landmark Book ive been talking to some of you about for a year at least called sex and world peace by Valerie Hudson, we can prove with 100 countries that the biggest indicator of whether a country is violent within itself or will use military violence against another country. The biggest cause is not poverty or lack of religion, its violence against females. It is that that is experienced first and that that normalizes all other subject object dominated, dominator, concurring superior, inferior relationships and in my list i havent included everything you know. Equal rights amendment would be nice if we had the constitution, dont you think . [ applause ] the fact that threequarters of all immigrants fighting a great battle in this town are women and children. You know all of those things. But those are ten. I just picked arbitrarily so i dare anyone to say this revolution is over because now we are onto the ways of denormalizing violence and dominance. Were understanding that well never have democratic countries unless we have democratic families. Were understanding that the idea of concurring nature and women is the problem and not the solution. Were returning to the original and natural paradigm of 95 of Human History which was the circle, not the pyramid, not the hierarchy. Our movement came from a period of dependence. We were dependent. So we naturally had to get up there and become independent and selfidentified and now were ready for a declaration of interdependance among our movements and within each other. We are discovering that we in this room and everywhere else and we in nature and we human beings are linked. We are not ranked. So moving forward, if we just do it every day, is not rocket science. Its actually fun. It is infin italy interesting. Those with less power may need to learn to talk as much as we listen, right . In both cases it is all about balance and understand the end doesnt justify the means. The means are the ends. The means become the ends. If we want, at the end of our revolution, not that there is an end but in our imaginable future progress, if we want dancing and friendship and laughter and work we love in the future, we have to be sure to have some dancing and friendship and work that we love and laughter along the way. This is the small and big of it. We have just begun. [ applause ] thank you. Were here at the National Press club so well start with the media question. How do you think the representation of women in the media has changed since you first got involved in the industry and where do we still need to go . How long do we have . We have a while. Well, it has changed. I mean, because there are smart, competent journalists and all kinds of specialists on television that we didnt see before, i remember that just it show you how bad it was. Only one woman did the weather and she was rising from her bed in a satin night gown saying, well, its going to be stormy tomorrow. You cant make this stuff up. All right. So we have progressed but obviously women are still Something Like 15 years younger in order to be on camera so just as you get experience, youre gone. And there are fewer and were more diverse than we were but not diverse enough and think how important it is. Think how important it is. Who would have thought that a little girl named oprah in the south, you know, would have looked at Barbara Walters and thought, i can do that. We need to see people who look like us. So i would say we have token victories. Weve realized the problem and as the Womens Media Center always points out, part of it is not on camera but a big part is who is making the decision about what story gets covered and more like 3 women in the clout positions so i would say weve made symbolic victories and we know its wrong but were not even halfway there. Given how far we have to go, does calling attention to disparities both of women in the media as well as women sources create change and if not, how do you create change . It does. Consciousness as we all know in every social change and revolution on earth, consciousness comes first. The understanding of whats wrong and what could be and we and i know other people here, the Womens Media Center there are endless lists of experts if you want to find somebody who is an expert who is a female human being, you know, we need those sources and we need to not just accuse the media but help the media find other folks. And we ourselves need to do it. You know, sometimes i think that men get up in the morning not the men here exempt from everything i say but get up in the morning and say i see a public intellectual. Women dont usually do that. We need to go to each other. Youre an authority on this. Get training at the Womens Media Center or somewhere so you are comfortable on camera. I can tell you from calling people to get on camera, its harder to get women to do it because of our selfimage and because we think we have to do our hair and all of those guys have a blue suit hanging in a closet and put it on and go racing off. There are both internal and external barriers. Is it incumbent on journalists to seek out more women sources or incumbent on women to empower themselves to be sources . The only thing that is two choices is wrong. I think it comes from falsely dividing human nature into masculine and feminine and so we need both. It gets to be ridiculous when you survey all of the people who are writing about reproductive issues and 80 of them are guys without the organs theyre writing about. So this is not something youre supposed to say the o word here. So the answer is both of responsible. I think that when we are looking at a story that arguably has more female experience or more experience from a particular racial or ethnic group, sexuality experience, we ought to understand that at least half of our sources, at least half of our sources ought to have that kind of experience. This questioner says they saw you speak at the university of utah in 1965. The questioner asks if you could go back to tell yourself to chill out about one issue what would it be and what one issue would you tell yourself to get more fired up about . Hi hi well, i think that the issues that i was chilled out and should have been more chilled out about had to do with selfcriticism and it is still a problem for a lot of us because i walk around after i have spoken in utah thinking, you know, and another thing i should have done so i wish i didnt do that so much to what i should have been more in an uproar about is religion. I mean, religion is too often politics youre not supposed to talk about. Spirituality is democratic and in each of us its a different story. Institutionalized religion, if god looks like the ruling class, the ruling class is god. Lets face it. So we have refrained from speaking about it in spite of all of the history of colonialism. Thats what conquered you have to take away peoples feeling that there is something sacred within themselves. That theres authority within themselves and get them to submit to other authority and not only for reward in this lifetime but for life after death. Excuse me. I mean, unprovable. So very useful. I am much madder about that and wish i that i had talked about it there. I do remember at the universities in utah there was an enormously high rate of suicide because of the strictness about sexual expression and so on. Probably in my memory, i dont think i was saying this at the time. What keeps you going . What keeps the fire burning . Have you ever wanted to just hang it up and why didnt you . Where would i hang it . I mean, first of all, people say to me arent you interested in something other than feminism . I always try to think if there is anything that wouldnt be transformed if anything matter and so far i havent been able to find anything and its so interesting. You figure out what could be and its just constantly interesting. As to what keeps me going, its you. I mean, its our friends. Were communal animals. We cannot do it by ourselves. Im so lucky that because of the magazine and the movement and many other groups, i have a community. When i am feeling crazy and alone, i have people to turn to and we cannot, we cannot keep going without that. Actually, sometimes people ask me what one thing would you like for the movement . I always think a global aa. Thats what i would like. So that wherever he went, you know, any place in the world by a river, in the school basement, wherever, we would know that we could find a group that however different, shared values and was free and leaderless and sat in a circle and spoke their own stories and listened to each others stories and figured out that we are not crazy, the system is crazy. And supported each other. As you reflect back on the Womens Movement so far, what would you design as the seminole moment . It would be an ovarian moment. [ applause ] think each of us has a different one probably. Each of us had a first or maybe several memorable thats why. I was a journalist and worked freelancing in new york and even after we started the magazine i was the girl writer. They were very nice guys. Tom wolfe, these guys would say you write like a man. Thank you. And it wasnt until the experiences in my case maybe yours too had to pile up before i saw the pattern. I had an epiphany related to my own experience which is maybe true for each of us that i covered a speak out about abortion and i realized that i had not told the truth about having an abortion myself at 22 and why not and why . If one in three american women approximately has needed an abortion at time in their life, why not . What was secret about it. And then as soon as i started to speak about it, you know, then i discovered that it was often part of other peoples experience or familys experience. I remember sitting in a taxi in boston with flo kennedy. The great flo kennedy. Flo had written a book called abortion wrap. The old irish woman taxi driver, very rare probably as a taxi driver, turned to us and said, honey, if men could get pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament. Thats where that came from. I didnt make that up. So its that experience, i think, of telling our own stories of truth telling. A question was asked if 40 years after roe v. Wade if we are making progress or moving forward. We are moving backward not in Public Opinion. If you look at properly phrased who should make this decision, the government or the individual . Overwhelming majority say it shouldnt be the government. It should be the individual and the physician. Were not moving backward in Public Opinion. But we are moving backward in as we can see, the antichoice forces have not been too successful in washington so they have moved to state legislatures though they murdered abortion doctors and firebombed clinics, thats proven not to be as successful as what theyre doing now which is getting state legislature make impossible to fulfill rules for local clinics. The only way we can change this is to Pay Attention to our state legislatures. I believe that president clinton said this last week. If we dont want a divided washington, we have to vote as much in offyear elections and for state legislatures as with he do in president ial elections because as long as some many state legislatures can be in control of the Insurance Companies and people who build prisons and then put people in them who dont deserve to be in prison, and then they redistrict in order to make that control permanent, which is why the house of representatives is as it is and senate is not. You cant redistrict a whole state. You can only so our response has to be organizing and knowing who most americans dont know who their state legislators are and thats why they are able to an antichoice right wing minority is able to do this state by state. It is very much about backlash against the changes in this country. They are very clear. White women are not having enough children they say to me. And its why the issues all go together. So, you know, antiimmigration, antibirth control, antiabortion and so on. We have to take back our state legislatures. Citing the example of working moms versus stay at home moms, a questioner asked what are your thoughts on the way women treat each other . If we were ever asked a question that included men, we might give a better answer. I mean, do we ever ask men can you have it all . You know, we need work patterns that allow everybody to work and also have a life and have kids if they want to. Men too. The whole idea of stay at home moms and moms who i mean, the language is bananas. Women who work at homework harder than any other class of worker in the United States, longer hours, no pay. [ applause ] so lets just never again say women who dont work. Its women who work at home and lets always ask all of those questions of men too. Its just deviivisive can you h it all . Not everybody wants it all. If you have to do it all, you cant have it all obviously whether youre a man or a woman. You recently commented on miley cyrus recent hypersexual public appearance. Can you expand on the issue of women using their sexuality to get ahead. If you have a game in which okay. I believe that the miss america contest if you count up the contests in each state and the National Contest is still the single biggest source of scholarship money for women in the United States. This is crazy. But if a handsomeness contest was the biggest source of scholarship money for guys, you can bet they would be there. So we play the game by the rules that exist but we need to change the rules obviously. So its not that were not responsible for our actions, we are. If feminism stands for anything, its that we are responsible for our actions but we also need to look at the context. As wilma always said, context is everything. What choices are there . If this is the game that exist, thats the game people will play. Miley included or excluded, what is your message for todays young women . My big serious message is dont listen to me. Listen to yourself. Thats the whole idea. The best thing i can do for young women is listen to them. You dont know you have something to say until someone listens to you and each of us has authority and unique talents inside us so people sometimes, often ask me at this age, who am i passing the torch to. I always say, first of all, im not giving up my torch thank you very much. [ applause ] but also im using my torch to light other peoples torches because the idea that theres one torch passer is part of the bonkers idea and if we each have a torch, theres a lot more light. Lighting a young womans torch often means listening to her and supporting what it is that she wants to do and encouraging her. Do kids today know enough about the feminist movement and lets include boys in those kids. Should they know more or is it a victory that it does not occur to many kids that things may not be equal for girls . It would be nice if they learned history, dont you think . They dont learn the history of the Womens Movement, Civil Rights Movement, you know, i mean, you can seek it out. Thats a step forward. You can find those areas of study. But the textbooks of texas are pretty good example of eliminating the history of social Justice Movements because we learn how it was done before, we might learn it again. So again i think its the context that we need to look at rather than blaming the individual. However, having said that, if you gave me a choice between knowing history and getting mad about the present, i would say get mad about the present even if you dont know history. Just keep going. I didnt walk around saying thank you for the vote. I dont know about you. I got mad because of what was happening to me. And i dont think gratitude ever radicalized anybody. You know, i hope i dont have to choose between knowing history and looking at unfairness in the present. If i had to choose, i would choose getting mad about the present. Is there any effort in the groups youre involved with to include more of the womens right history in School Curriculum . Any effort to include about womens rights rihistory in the School Curriculums . Absolutely. The press was a pioneer in integrating womens history into textbooks and creating those textbooks and there are a lot of schools and a lot of devoted teachers and a lot of school systems, a lot of educators probably in this audience, right, who are trying to do this. But the average textbook is still pretty slender. You still you know, its the politics of studying history. You still learn more about europe than about africa in general. You still it is profoundly political the way we study history and now we have pioneers and reformers and at least we know there is such a thing as womens history. The most cheerful thing that happens to me on campus when im complaining about my education where it was one sentence that said women were given the vote and someone will stand up and say why didnt you take womens studies . Its so great. So it is Getting Better but its still not the norm. You touched on care givers a couple times. This questioner asked women raising families get the least spoils in terms of Political Capital in the u. S. What must happen to women and children they are raising are able to make gains politically . Well, you know, it has to be said that the voting booth is the one place on earth where the single mom and the Corporate Executive are equal, where the very richest and very poorest are equal. So it does have to do with knowing what the issues are on our School Boards or in our state legislatures and getting ourselves out there however difficult that may be and it usually in my, you know. Do you have a group with shared experience with whom you can talk and discover that its not fair and that if you do x and y and start this particular campaign in your neighborhood or campaign for your school board, you know, you need, i think, to have that shared experience. And i traveling around the country all the time as i do, i see mainly womens groups, sometimes men are part of it too. But they have been together for ten years, 20 years, 25 years, theyre alternate families, they have seen each other through unequal education of their kids, through single mother hood, through divorce. I mean, we need these alternate these kinds of alternate families. Women now make up 60 of college goers. Should this surpassing be celebrated or is it a problem . Well, as i was saying, no, its not necessarily a problem but i think we ought to be able to look at all the alternatives. You know, we maybe were, you know, frustrated programmers. And if we learn to code, we wouldnt have to go to college in quite the same way. Maybe, you know, i think were still a bit of a prisoner of the idea that a woman should be able to go to work in nice clothing and clean and so on and shouldnt be under the sink fixing the plumbing that would make them three times more money. So its not that its wrong, its just that college has been so oversold. So oversold as a lifechanging mechanism. And especially when you end up in such huge debt. I think people need to be able to look at a wider range of alternatives. Without life crushing debt. Would you please share some resources. How long do we have . Actually, you know, maybe we should do this as a group exercise. Everybody should pop up. Ive already given you sex and world peace by Valerie Hudson as a great resource, right . Theres dark at the end of the street, which is a great retelling of the Civil Rights Movement with more women stories added. There who lets tell our favorite books. Julie . Well, makers, oh, yes, thank you, makers, yes. Makers three Hour Television special on pbs now is also a website with about 200 interviews which is a huge, wonderful resource, a very, very important present and historical resource. What other favorite books do we have here . Pardon . Words of fire. Words of fire. Absolutely. Yes, words of fire. We happen to have the fiery people right here. Great, yes. Very, very, very important. Stephanie koontz the way we never were. And i mentioned the mermaid and the min or the which i think is from the 70s. It shows the changeover into societies in which men were separated from children and didnt develop those parts of their humanity that comes from raising children. It was part of creating the kind of hierarchy were dealing with now. Women leave the home and leave child rearing and develop the rest of themselves but not enough men enter child rearing in the home and develop the rest of themselves. Yes, belle hooks, feminism is for everybody. The great belle hooks. Yes . Ms. Magazine in the classroom. And very important resource. And it also is in womens prisons and a very important resource. Betty fridan, right, absolutely. The classic obviously especially for women who are in a traditional role, you know. Im in the Junior League and thats fine. But id like to be more like minded women. Id like to be involved in more things. What organizations . What kind of Community Building . Mmhmm. Well, tell us where you live and well find you. Theres no shortage. And the Junior League also has become much more an agent of social change than it ever was when i was growing up. Im going to pardon . Im going to cut in for one more political question before we wrap it up. Yes, we have to say that wrote a wonderful, wonderful book in which she interviewed about 15 women from Indian Country. And, you know, thank you allison for saying that because what you glimpse as you do in various works by women from Indian Country is a crucial fact that we big time are not learning even in womens history, which is that the Suffrage Movement like the underground railway and so many others was mainly a function of Indian Country. And native women had we would say equal power. But we didnt they got to be called a petticoat government. For instance, female elders had to sign the treaties or they werent legal. Women controlled their own fertility. And they the native women referred to european women as those who die in childbirth. They were appalled at these women who would come from the worst stage and couldnt decide when to have children and couldnt have them under their own conditions. So were Walking Around on a history we dont know. And there are many brave women in Indian Country who are trying to bring it back. And theres a friend named Sally Roche Wagner whose work you should look up, as well. Who has written a book called everything we want once was here. And thats not only true of native cultures in this country but also of south africa, or Southern Africa who will take you out to the desert with a digging stick and show you what they used for contraceptives and headaches and migraine headaches and so on. Its true of india, its true of the original cultures of 95 of Human History. So dont let anybody tell you that its human nature that we live this way. No, no. It once was different and it still could be. And the native women are very funny about it. You have to have a sense of humor, you know, given what theyve gone through. What did columbus call primitive . Equal women. We are almost out of time. Well have one more question. Before that, just a couple of housekeeping matters. First of all, id like to remind you about our upcoming speakers. On december 3rd, we have the president of columbia. On december 16th, dan ackerson, the chairman and ceo of general motors. On december 19th, rickey skaggs, and on january 15th, Christine Legard head of the International Monetary fund. And before the last question, im very pleased to present our guest with the long time now traditional National Press coffee mug. I dont know when we have ended the ties, but im pleased to give you a mug. Thank you. Thank you. And the last question, what did you do with that tie . I havent the faintest idea and i dont care. Wait, i just have one more book. There is a wonderful small, wellwritten, wellresearched wonderful book called exterminate all the brutes by sven linquist. And its about the invention of racism. It is a brilliant, brilliant book. Exactly why it was that europeans having become overpopulated because they suppressed women and made women have babies and so on. He doesnt quite say that part as he should. Then in order to take over other peoples land, invented the idea that those people were inferior. Its a brilliant, brilliant book. And, you know, lets keep this going. At your table, keep doing it. Keep handing around ideas. Thank you. Thank you for coming today. Thank you also. Thank you to our National Press club staff including our Journalism Institute and Broadcast Center for helping organize todays event. Finally, heres a reminder. You can find more information about the National Press club online www. Press. Org. Thank you, we are adjourned. The Senate Homeland Security Committee will examine the impact of Digital Currencies that allow people to Exchange Goods and Services Without using real money. Witnesses include patrick merck, bit Coin Foundation general council. Here on cspan 3. Well take another look at Digital Currencies this wednesday on washington journal with a wired Magazine Article by contributing editor david wolman. Hes also the storm damage. Indiana governor mike pence will visit several of the hardest hit communities today, including kokomo, lafayette, and washington. And wisconsin where it all got started. Strong winds knocked out power to thousands in the milwaukee area. Damaged buildings and downed trees in dodge county. Sending sunday church goers scrambling into basements for safety. No tornadoes have been officially confirmed in the state. Thankfully, no injuries either immediately reported. Lets have a look at the day ahead here and we have that system into the northeast. Showers moving through quickly, though, temperatures are going to be in the 10 to 15 degrees in the northeast as we head to the next couple of days. Lake effect snow popping for you. Into the south, that front is bringing us showers and we are seeing a little bit of rain here into georgia. As we head throughout the day today, again, our temperatures will be mild through the day today. But that is going to change as we head over the next couple with the colder air coming in. And a quick look at the northwest. The next storm system coming in. Showers are making their way throughout the northwest. But they will be making their way into Southern California and, of course, november, the specifically are being killed at catastrophic levels. Now, somebody who is smarter than me will immediately say, youre not so smart. They used to be 20,000 deaths every year now theyre 13, arent we doing well . Well, last year worldwide, there were 12,000, 13,000 deaths as a result of terrorism in the United States alone. It was deaths on the street of america. Since 1980, 16 611,000 people or so have been killed. Thats more people that were killed, all americans. And why theyre getting killed in a culture of violence that has developed that is about guns. Not just about guns, its about jobs, but not just about jobs. Theres Something Else going on thats much more complicated to understand that were trying to get to that would take a kid like this who is smart, by the way. A smart child who is making rational decisions about his safety. And to that point, you have your five pillars that you talk about. And, again, specifically focusing on not just as you say, its not just guns, not just poverty. Why dont you talk about the five pillars and the idea. I know theres programs on each of those. Well, i will, but theres a simple principle here. And the principle is that its not okay. For young africanamerican men to be killed at this level. Now, not many people have said that before in this country. You just have to say thats not okay. If it is okay, then we dont have the discussion about how we fix it. If its not okay, then we have to ask ourselves, well, whats causing it . And one of the things we got wrapped up in was the conversation about guns. When we found out in new orleans, for example. Was that in 1980, something changed about the dynamic of young men taking each others lives. Basically, what we know from our data dive is that its usually africanamerican kids, men between 16 and 25, theyve dropped out of school, theyve had some interactions with the criminal Justice System. They dont have a job, and they do have access to a gun and they know each other. And so now, when you dig into this and the reason we went after it was because we think it takes us a lot of other places. Takes us to health care, takes us to education, all over the place. So as a consequence, we had to figure out what to do. And because we didnt know what to do, we went around the country and figured out what other folks were doing piecemeal. And we put together a plan. And the first pillar is stop the shooting. Heres the thing, you just got to stop shooting. We can talk about all the other stuff, but if youre laying on an emergency room bed and youre having a heart attack and dying, the first thing you do is resuscitate and dont talk about how you got there, you fix the problem we started on that. How did you stop the shooting . Well, were we didnt yet. One of the things we are thinking what were doing is saying, look, what are the aggressive constitutionally protected Law Enforcement techniques that work. We know that were not getting any more money from the federal government. 13 billion was spent between 2010 and 2011 in iraq, afghanistan and colombia helping build Police Departments in those countries. Here in the United States of america, weve cut funding by 88 since 1996. So one of the things we started doing was telling people if you want to be strong at home, youve got to continue to invest in local Law Enforcement. Now, the federal government has a role they have gotten lost on because theyre focused on terrorism post september 11th. Its a serious problem. With less money coming down, we said what can we do to help make the federal government, the State Government and the local governments work Better Together on Law Enforcement . We created something called the multiagency gang unit. Dea, atf, fbi, et cetera, on the state level, the state probation officers and the Police Department operate out of one room. And what we found from our data dive, again, was that about 600 individuals in new orleans were the ones that were committing most of the crime. We identified them. Then we changed the way that we went after them. We used to go after them in what we called one offs. If there was a shooting, wed go after the shooter, arrest him, try to prosecute him and hope the jury convicted him. Now what were doing is attacking this as though there were its part of a group of conspirators. Because most of these young guys hang out in groups. Some people would call them gangs. Right . And so now what were trying to figure out is who knows each other, where theyve been and we know its a pattern of retaliation. And so now the d. A. S are prosecuting differently and now they know were coming. And where they know theres going to be a consequence to an action you actually reduce. Its called hot spot policing. So thats what we did on were going to get you side. We know who you are, we know where you live, know whoa you hang out with, were going to get better at what we do because were coordinating all of our activities. But then we realized if these guys are unemployed, youve got to get them back in the game. And it couldnt be just antagonistic. We have the Group Violence reduction strategy where we actually call these guys in. Some of them are in jail and we pull them out of jail and put them in a courtroom, some of them are probation, we pull them in and say, we know who you are. Behind me are all of the social Service Providers and the Law Enforcement. You can make a choice in your life. If you make a bad act, these guys are going to be on you like gravy on rice. These people will put you in the front of the line. What you find is a group of young men who people call thugs, but they werent born thugs. Right. And they werent always this way. And so these young men if given the right, you know, formation can form into lawabiding citizens and we try to give them a chance to do that. I want to talk about that for a moment because i think one of the things that came out around Trayvon Martin, this idea, for fruit vale station. These are multidimensional kids. And a lot of times people dont realize these kids dont have the opportunity to make good choices. Youre trying to give them an opportunity to make a different choice and yet we have such a cultural stereotype of these young men. Thats part of why we dont talk about it. Its a domestic terrorism and were not talking about it. Well, let me make a couple of comments. We dont have enough. This is an issue that requires a lot of time and a lot of investment. Ill try to give you the 40,000, 30 and 10. First of all, kids killing kids on the streets is not what happened in the Trayvon Martin case. Trayvon martin was about injustice. It was disparaged treatment of africanamericans and whites in the judicial system which is why in my opinion we paid attention to that for a long period of time. But you might want to ask youre, if we pay that much attention to the trayvon issue, why didnt you Pay Attention last night to the kid that got killed in your neighborhood. I dont know whos in this room, but if you go back and read the back section of your paper, a young africanamerican kid in your neighborhood was shot probably by another africanamerican in your neighborhood. But the interesting question about what upsets us and why. Its an interesting question. I dont know the answer to it, but i can tell you this, as it relates to africanamerican kids killing africanamerican kids, it evidently is not on the top of the nations agenda. Let me quote my friend Michael Nutter who is an africanamerican man from philadelphia. If the ku klux klan killed 190 black kids on the streets of philadelphia, youd have a problem. And people would be aroused by it and we would talk a lot about it. If an africanamerican kid killed 100 white kids but when you have young men killing each other because we dont think theyre important or valuable or we dont think their lives have any relevance to us, you would be wrong about all of those things. That is the sum and substance of what we as a country think about it. And if we get stuck on the issue of the second amendment. Should you have guns . Should you not have guns . You never get down to the essence of all of the things that have formed the kind of communities that have created and allowed the culture of violence that has existed. And we dont have to have a historical fight about whose fault it is. We dont have to. We can wash that away. Its everybodys fault or nobodys fault, but heres the one thing, everybody now is responsible for fixing the problem and it is a problem that has got to be fixed and you have to get it from the top, the middle, the bottom, the backside, the front side, any which way you can but the first thing you have to say is its an intolerable set of circumstances in the 21st century. If we cant get there, were not going to find the time, resources or assets to fix the problem. Going back to what youre doing in new orleans. Youre talking about in terms of the cops program and police, how is that working in communities. The other issue, i its an issue in new orleans, new york city, urban centers, stop and frisk and sort of i mean, how are you dealing with communities such that they understand what youre trying to do is get the quote, unquote bad guys but not without targeting kids who have nothing to do with what those 600 people are doing. Well, what you do is target people based on behavior and not race. Theres a major distinction between those two things. Stop and frisk and throwing people on the ground. That has not been proved in many instances to work. Constitutional stops for people that you have reasonable suspicion are involved in criminal activity or about to be involved in criminal activity and a way thats respectful is a process that works. The community has to do this themselves. This is not crime is not going to get stopped by Police Departments. That is not whats going to happen. You have to have a strong Police Department. You have to have a criminal Justice System that works. There has to be consequences to actions. But this starts very, very early in childrens lives. And there is a point and i dont know exactly where it is. I think i saw it happen when i sat at a lunch table during a Summer Program when i was asking them, what are you going to be when you grow up . One of them said the president , one of them said an astronaut. But when you go to a group of 9yearolds, their odds are a little dimmer, when does the light go off . When does the sense of hope and possibility go away . What are the structures that created the situation where that occurs all over the United States of america . The only quarrel i have with the young man who made the quote he said down here. And people say thats just because the people in the south dont know how to read or write and dont have shoes and not as smart as the rest of the country. Listen to me, all right, the city of new orleans is this nations canary in the coal mine. Everything thats happening in our city good and bad is a reflection of whats happening in the United States of america. And do not be smug enough to think whats going on down there you cant have in your city, you actually have it. If you look in the right neighborhoods and right places, youve got everything bad we had. You might have a little bit more of it or a little bit less of it, but the city of new orleans has become a good mirror for this nation as it looks into its soul about what works and what doesnt work. And this problem, you see it rising in some of the new Political Races about inequality now versus the metrics and efficiency. You saw that debate transpire in new york. That has deep, deep roots in this sense of where were going as a country and are we really strong as a people which goes to the issue of National Security that ambassador rice was talking about. It really is critically important even though were talking about it in the narrower sense. Lets talk about what youre trying to do in terms of prevention and job creation and opportunity. I want to talk about that and also knowing youre also still dealing with the aftermath of katrina and areas with extreme poverty. So youre trying to create opportunities for a group of young people at the same time the city is well, the citys trying to do everything all at once. Were trying to rebuild the very fabric of our lives by rebuilding the infrastructure of health care, education, criminal Justice System. And while were doing that. So were retro fitting the plane while were flying it hoping it doesnt crash, making sure everybody gets on board and lands safely where theyre all supposed to be. And i think were meeting with tremendous success. Its hard. As it relates to specific children, remember, we said weve got to get on the front end. If kids had something to do, there would be less prone to violence or they would be formed into different kids. Anybody thats played basketball, baseball, soccer, whatever, team sports, learning how to resolve differences peacefully. Our Recreations Department is important to us, weve doubled the funding, expanded the number of pools we have, increased the number of hours they go that really worked hard on making sure that every one of the kids in the neighborhood has access to that. In terms of jobs. Remember, i told you 88 of these kids were unemployed. Youve got to connect the person to the job. So washington has the macro discussion about what creates jobs or what doesnt, Mitchell Andrews in the business of taking a kid and taking him to the building and putting him in the room with 30 employers that have 350 jobs so we did this the other day. Its called a jobs fair and actually take the kids and introduce them to the people and say now tell me that you cant find employees or you cant find a way to give back to your community and then we bring the community college, a Technical College and said if youre not structured in a way to take this kid and get him prepared to take that job, you need to be because theres a kid and theres a job and you have to connect him. So were in the micro design of the how to, not just the what. And thats what most mayors are struggling with in the country and one of the things were trying to do. If we create a model that works thats sustainable, obviously were happy to share with the rest of the country. What would be the one or two things that the federal government of the state level that they could do to help make you more successful. And the second piece i want to ask you is what are they doing thats impeding your ability to be more successful . Theres a long answer to that question. In the short time we have left. Well, first of all, i would say generally, after september 11th because we were so traumatized by the awful events, the country in our fear or need to protect ourselves and feel secure did two things. We created the department of Homeland Security out of thin air and money was not an issue. We have 60,000 tsa agents, money was not an issue. We went to war, we spent 1 trillion, we spent i mean thats what happens when you get focused on getting something done. Moneys not really an issue. We had to be secure and whatever the price was, we were willing to pay it. The second thing we did was we took our focus off of assisting state and local governments on fighting street crime and making the streets of new orleans safe while simultaneously sending money to cities overseas so their streets could be safe. So the first thing the federal government has to do is get its head straight and get its priorities in order and say that helping make the streets safe is important to the National Economy and to our International Interests as the other things were doing. It can be a both and. The second thing they have to do is get out of the way and not impose Unfunded Mandates on local governments and take away their ability to pay for them. And thats the states have to continue to give us freedom. And finally, the thing we can all do together is we need to show up, coordinate our efforts, make sure were focused on the outcome, make sure we have clear command and control, clear coordination and well start moving the needle. And so are you saying you dont feel like you have that at this point from the state . I think that we dont have it nearly as well as we should and were very far behind and i think we have a long way to go. But i do think this is a problem that can be solved. But this nation has got to first say as a matter of principle, it is not okay for this set of affairs to exist and were going to do whatever is necessary to change it. I know were out of time but i wanted to give you an opportunity because i wanted to mention that the statistics in new orleans have actually been improving. Not good enough but certainly on the right track. I wanted to get to mention that before well, we have a murder rate, murder rate and the number of murders, theyre different numbers have both gone down. New orleans this year in the first ten months has a lower number of murders than weve had since 1971. Were down about 22 . Thats really good news. The bad news is even on our best day, were 7 to 10 times higher than the national average. And notwithstanding both of those numbers, the same thing happening in new orleans is happening in every major city in america in specific neighborhoods. So if you dont look at it on the per capita, right, or the number and you look at certain neighborhoods, you have young africanamerican men in my opinion in a very high risk, in a place where they should not be in a place they need not be. Thank you, mayor. Thank you, youre welcome. North dakota senator john hoven and joe manchin discuss domestic policy recently including the Health Care Law and immigration. It was part of the Washington Ideas Forum thats hosted by the museum, Aspen Institute and the atlantic magazine. They spoke for just over 20 minutes. Senator manchin, it is im always thrilled to hear from anybody in congress who is actually getting anything done, its an honor and privilege to be sharing the couch with you. We in the news industry got off a Conference Call with the white house where they were announcing the enrollment numbers for the Affordable Care act. As someone who has been sort of putting forward alternatives, patches, if you will, i wonder what your reaction is today. Well, there are people who are opposed and want to repeal it. I wasnt here when it was passed. At that time, i was just going into chairman of the National Governors association. John hoven and i very good friends, worked together, and myself a democrat from West Virginia. I just think we can do better as a nation and having people facing their one illness away from being bankrupt. Person was born, they were born with a defect or god forbid theyve had a serious ailment. And now because of preexisting condition, theyre uninsurable or hard Economic Times and children couldnt stay when it was very low cost to Insurance Companies. Theres so many good things we can all sit and agree on. But people who want to repeal. I said, well, we cant even agree on what time of day it is anymore. Do you think we can fix a few things, why cant we keep the few things we have the basis . I went through this when i was governor, we rolled out a plan to pay our vendors for medicaid. Big john. Welcome senator hoven. Good to see you. They said you were saving gas and didnt want a carbon footprint. Actually been in the building. We were just on the wrong side. You were just taking a tour of the museum. Okay. So anyway, what i have said is that the delay im not asking for a delay of implementation. Im asking, dont put a crime or a fine for this piece of legislation until january 1, 2015 so we can work a transitional year. If youre truly wanting to be constructive and wanting to try to find it, you have to have theres a working period of time. Mmhmm. Well get through all of this. We might not have the program we intended. Might not be able to afford certain aspects of it, but we can do a lot better than weve done. Im more in a constructive positive mode trying to fix things. And really as a governor, thats what we were expected to do every day. Right. Senator hoven, we were talking about the enrollment numbers and theyre lower than, i think, initially had been hoped for. And i was getting senator manchins reaction. And i know you were hoping to repeal various pieces of legislation lately. I guess i wonder on the republican side of the aisle, we know there is great its good to see comradery. We know there the great i think indignation is probably the best word around the aca. But there used to be a call to repeal and replace. And i guess the question is do you feel theres any Real Movement on the right to formulate a viable alternative for the aca . Well, first, i want to say it is great to be here. It is great to see you, as well. Joe and i are great friends. We worked together for more than six years as governor. We crossed over at least six years as governors, worked together on many issues. And we worked together in the senate. And hes a good guy to work with and i enjoy it. In response to your question, no, i think that, you know, from the viewpoint of certainly our side of the aisle and i think most conservatives, its that this really is a law that doesnt work and so it does need to be repealed and replaced because it takes us to government run health care. And, you know, we just believe that individuals should choose their own health care, their own health care providers, own health care insurance. And it shouldnt be a system where everything is funneled through the government and government exchanges. So its just its a fundamental disagreement in how health care should work in this country. But do you think theres momentum actually to develop whatever that alternative is . I do. I think its based on competition and choice. I think it goes to things like expanded Health Savings accounts combined with high deductible policies, tort reform, more competition across state lines, reforming medicare to create the right incentives. Right now you have a Medicare Program that pays more for higher cost operations regardless of outcome rather than incentivizing lower costs, Better Outcomes and preventive care. Medicaid that where you increase flexibility by giving states the ability to run those medicaid programs. I know joe agrees with me on that one. And also for situations where you have preexisting conditions, really empowering the state High Risk Health care pools in north dakota. We have comprehensive Health Assurance of north dakota. 35 states have these kind of pools. I think West Virginia probably has one. How about the federal Government Works with those state pools to do more for people with preexisting conditions. I think a step by step comprehensive approach like that is what we advocate. And we have legislation that were putting forward to do it. I guess on that note, about federal governments and State Governments working together as former governors. Heres where john and i have total agreement. The 10th amendment of the constitution gives states rights. Its not democrat or republican. Its basically as we are the laboratories of experiment. I mean, thats who we are. And our Founding Fathers gave us that power on the 10th amendment. And so certain things that states can do are more flexible. Give an example, we have a mandate for balanced budget. So every tuesday, i dont know what day, but i can tell you every governor in the country sits down once a week with their budget people and all their economists and they say heres where we are. Our revenue estimates on track, above, were below, youve got to make adjustments and you better will willing to be that quick to make the adjustments to stay within the balance. And youve got to make decisions. You better get your financial house in order. The whole thing with health care. What i when we were governors, when they were putting this together, they said were going to go to 133 , i believe, of the poverty guidelines of medicaid. That means everybody gets it free. I simply said at that time, i was just going in the chair, i said do you all understand that probably 48 states out of 50 dont even cover 50 of the people that qualify. We only cover families with dependent children we dont cover individuals because we cant balance our budgets. We want to do more, were trying to do more, but massachusetts, they did and it worked and god bless them. We were all looking for ways to expand and cover more people. Then all of a sudden this comes down, they jump to 133. And ive said this. I said i dont im not worried about the computer glitch, the rollout, theyll fix that, thats mechanical. Theyve got a product, theyve got a product problem. And the product problem is this. If we want to give the best care we can, right, medicaid and all that. But if im at 135 and youre at 132 and might be 400 between the cutoff, you might have more access than i have to something im being forced to buy and being penalized if i dont buy. Thats a product problem. And well fix it. How do we give a young person the incentive to say i want to buy that insurance because when im 40, ill have a good healthy track record and get discounts. If i dont get in, i can. I mean, the thing that strikes me about both of you guys, youre talking substantively about trying to fix things or enact things. And a huge part of the narrative is break it, repeal it, were done with it. And i would ask you, senator hoven, theres been a lot of questioning about what are the Lessons Learned after the Government Shutdown and nearly breaching the debt ceiling some folks say the tea party fire has been quelled or put, you know, extinguished to some degree. And other people say, you have ted cruz as popular as ever in certain parts of the country. People in the tea party that feel as fired up and ready to go next year as at any time in american political history. And as a republican who is not necessarily does not seem to necessarily have the zeal for repeal and was skeptical of the merits of a Government Shutdown, where do you think moderates are in terms of power and the Republican Party these days . Well, look, i think we agree on the end goal. And thats why i talk in terms of a marketbased approach to health care that really focuses on competition and choice and empowers individuals and families to make their health care decisions, both as providers and as to insurance. So i think the goal we all share the goal, like i say among the Republican Party and conservatives. Now, some of the tactics that you referred to, in other words how we get there. Obviously theres differences of opinion there. But i think it really is a fundamental belief in a marketbased system that emphasizes choice and competition and empowers individuals rather than a governmentbased system which is where obama care goes. So in answer to the question about moderates versus the tea party. You guys think you feel like youre on the same hes a coffee drinker. What im saying is for all of us on the conservative side of the equation, we share the same goal. Youre talking about a difference in tactics not in the end goal. Senator manchin, as someone as a red state democrat, theres talk right now of real frustration among democrats, specifically on the aca with the white house and a feeling that the white house has put democrats in an untenable position. Some house members which has been fairly lock step on a lot of things. Youre seeing tensions there. And from your vantage point, should the administration be doing more for the party . First of all, whether youre democrat or republican, no matter who the president , thats your president , thats my president. I want my administration to do well. I came here to be constructive. Im going to help. Ive never been against something unless i thought there was a better way of doing it and i had a right and responsibility to express that. And usually it kind of reflected on where i come from, how i was raised. My daughter who was just here, shell tell you, good, bad, indifferent. Thank god she was kind today. She loves you, joe. I love her too. But i was a little bit concerned when she started talking. As my father usually is when i start talking. You know, i just this is a great country. And you want us to do well. The president right now had said some things im sure he wished he hadnt said. You got it, you keep it. If you like your doctor, keep it. Well, i joined with mary landrieu, and not because im a democrat or republican, im just saying thats fine. Let me grandfather in. If youre wanting to get all the people with no insurance at all, dont you think you ought to try to cure that first . If i had insurance, whether you thought i had good enough, dont you think you ought to let me keep it . From the Health Care Policy experts, a lot of people said could endanger the solvency of the Affordable Care act. They keep talking about that. Do you think a 95 fine is going to make all of these people join and pay monthly . You think were not going to have insolvency there. Weve got to get products that are attractive. Products that are competitive. Give me an incentive to want to be healthy. Give me a reason. Dont tell me youre going to find me. Ive got to pay for your grandmother, aunt or your uncle. Right. Theres got to be a way to fix it. Thats all im asking for. Dont get hunkered down, try to fix a problem thats fixable. To the politics of congress, as you guys mentioned, youre both former governors and you have, i think there are 10 or 11 former governors. Well, the good old days. Exactly. I wonder, how governors get things done. Its where the rubber meets the road as governor ed rendell is always telling me. How frustrating is it to be in congress and especially the senate where you guys work your tails off to get a bipartisan Immigration Reform bill done and john boehner says were not going to go to conference with it. Just tell me, if you will, your experience in terms of that. Both joe and i would tell you it is frustrating. But as governors, we really bring, i think, a problem solving approach. Thats what drives us. And i hope we add that element to the debate and to the process. But weve got a big, wonderful country, 300 million plus people with many diverse ideas. And to get everybody on board with a solution that actually works is tough. But thats the very point as were talking about with health care or even as we approach this very challenging budget battle and debt ceiling agreement. Weve got to find a way to create bipartisan support. If one party or the other tries to do something unilaterally or pretty much unilaterally, i dont think its going to generate the support it needs to be successful, particularly when were talking about such important things, Like Health Care which is about 1 6, 1 5 of our economy. Or the fact that we have to address our mandatory spending programs and our entitlement programs. Weve got to do it. Weve got to address the deficit and the debt. And were at that point now with the budget and with the debt ceiling agreement where we recognize we have to come together. So we need to figure out not just in the senate but the house, senate, and the administration. The president must join and lead on these issues. If were going to get the kind of solution that the American Public supports and its not going to work unless we have broad based american republican support. Now theyre saying, you know, this will be a success if we manage to keep the government open. That is the bar has dropped so low. Its in the basement. And going from the Governors Mansion, doing real things for real people. Joes assured me hes going to fix that. Let me tell you. Our good friend chris christie. And we all serve with chris and everything. Chris said if he had to be in congress, hed kill himself. Right. I called him up and said, hey, buddy, we havent gone that far. But we havent gone that far and that desperate. But let me tell you that the challenges are unbelievable. John said the frustration is the highest level ive ever seen. But every now and then you see a glimmer of hope where you can make a difference in the world. You can definitely make a difference in our country. I didnt have that opportunity as governor. Ive got to look at the opportunities we have now to be able to work across. We have a caucus, the governors caucus. Can you imagine . Theres 11 of us almost evenly split ds and rs. Can you imagine if we come to an agreement on what when he think the fix should be . The deal should be . And we hang together and have leadership on both sides of the white house trying to go . Can you imagine the difference ten former governors can make saying that doesnt work that way. Weve tried it. That wont work well go with this. And, you know, every problem we have in this country, we created it and we can fix it. We definitely can fix it. I think were also optimistic i feel like you guys deserve cakes at the end of this. I get the skepticism and understand that. I believe were going to fix it. Its not easy, not everybodys going to be happy, but i think were going to get there. And i think if you dont have that attitude, what are you doing here . Right. Let me ask you both a question. What has been your proudest moment in the senate thus far . Getting to work, getting through the traffic. See, thats the answer i can tell you when i got here, Prescription Drug abuse in this country was epidemic proportion. Its the biggest killer in my state right now, Prescription Drugs and ive been trying to get the fda for three years to reclassify schedule through to schedule two. And i did everything. I went to their advisory committee, they all agreed and fda wouldnt move. Wouldnt move. And finally tom harkin and some of my republican friends, i said, guys, listen. And we had a bill going through, tom needed help on that bill. And i said let me tell you the problems and i needed help. He said ill help you, we both got on the phone and called everybody from the president s office to Kathleen Sebelius down to the fda and they finally agreed. Now, i know were going to save hundreds and hundreds of thousands of lives throughout america and i know. And thats a proud moment when you know you can make a difference such as that. I was proud of that. Senator hoeven . Thats the work ive done to support our men and women in uniform and our military and the great work theyve done. And joe and i worked together on veterans and some of those things. So the work ive been able to do on behalf of the military, families and some of the vets that come back disabled and then trying to hire a vet. Those kind of things. We worked on student loans. Yeah. Working that problem. It was governors, former governors that sit down, work together. We can tell you we made all the mistakes you can make. Give you some of our experience. Thats what weve asked for, but very few people what do you mean weve made all the mistakes you can make now . Made a few. But weve learned from them. Were growing and this countrys got to come together. The thing that bothers me more than anything, ill tell all of you this, i see sometimes politics more than not trumping whats good for our government, whats good for our country. And when politics trumps country, when the democrat and republican is more important than being an american, weve got a problem. We werent sent here. I think weve come we had to work with democrats and republicans. You had to work across the aisle. Bring people together and it wasnt basically, oh, this will be good for your party, good for our party, this is a party line vote. This is good for our state, good for our country. Well play politics another day, but we need this vote and as governors we never allow the legislature to set the agenda. Right. Thats the only difference i cant figure out. This administration has allowed the legislature whether its the health care, Affordable Health care act or many things, right whens the last time the legislature set your governors agenda . Well, thats right. And, again, thats why i emphasized earlier as we approached the debt and deficit. You know, the administrations got a very Important Role to play there and it has to be part of the solution. It has to lead, it has to level with the American People we need to make these changes for the good of our country. And for the longterm solvency of programs like medicare and social security. Do you think the president can make that case to the republican can make any case to the Republican Party at this point and have them listen, though . Absolutely. I think he has to. Lets go back to what joe was saying about our governors group. Thats not going to be devoid of leadership in the house or senate or the administration. Were not going to be effective in getting something done unless we convince our leaders were on the right track. You still have to work through the leadership of the senate, the house and with the administration. You know, cicero said to err is human. Were going to make mistakes and you say, im sorry, i was trying to fix things. And we can fix it. He tried it. He wants to make health care. Thats fine, thats a goal. We can fix it. And i know what youre saying. Theres somebody hunkered down wants you to fail. Well, i think theres more good and bad and i think some of us have been through the trials of fire. And we can help. But were human. Were going to make mistakes but were going to fix things because were here for the right reason. You know, the other thing to recognize is theres a divide in the country about how we approach these challenges. More government, less government. And somehow weve got to work with the American People so they become part of figuring out what compromise it is. Whether were talking the debt, the deficit, health care, whether were talking Immigration Reform, any of these issues, we somehow have to bring the American People in and away where we start to bridge that divide in the country. Thats not just to divide this in the congress. It reflects the difference of opinion in the country. So weve got to make sure that we have that dialogue with the public where they say, okay, this is the kind of compromise we want. And will support. Public officials elected officials will respond to that. Wed better get our financial house in order. Thats all im going to say. Were sitting here and this timers gone to zero twice. Yeah, i think we actually are. The congressional timer. Yeah, exactly. Anyway, if we dont fix the finances of the country, you can forget about everything else. Get your financial house in order, thats where we come from, balanced budgets, work within your limits, pick your priorities based on values. That we agree on. You guys are a good dog and pony show. Good call in response. No, thank you for your service, in the Governors Mansion and on capitol hill, we wish you both the best of luck. I cant wait myself to be a former governor to join your club. Thanks for your time. More now from the Washington Ideas Forum with the ceo of the car service uuber. Hes talks about the politics of setting up a business. Thank you very much, ma margaret. I think for a crowd like this in d. C. , travis is an extremely interesting case because as a tech story, were interested in a business story were all interested in, its a product many people have used and theres a political story too. You have, first, how many people here in the audience have used d uuber . How many people like it . How many people have complaints or qualms . Hands down. Ive got discounts for people who dont raise their hands. Tell us briefly the basic idea when you decided to found this kind of company. I mean, this is what i call the hand to forehead moment or palm to forehead moment. I live in san francisco, from l. A. Originally and its hard to get a ride in san francisco. Me and my cofounder wanted to push a button and get a ride. So obvious, why didnt we think of that . Where youre operating all around the world, where has this worked best . And where is it not working . I mean, were 3 1 2 years old and we didnt go to a second city until two years ago. And that was new york. What is probably one of the most remarkable things about this rollout and the launches in cities around the world is that its working everywhere. I mean, theres certainly political situations that are more interesting than others phoenix is awesome, d. C. Is a real pain in my butt. But but fundamentally works and its because there is theres been protectionism ingrained into cities around the world that has limited peoples choices for getting around the city. In new york there are 13,250 cabs or thereabout today. In the early 1950s, there were 13,250 cabs. Yeah. So the city has changed, its grown, its a dynamic city but the taxis stayed the same. And so when we go into a city, its like its like an injection of oxygen. And people just breathe it. And what happens is the growth weve seen with twitter, facebook or some of these others, were seeing now happen with technology that touches the real world. And i think a really interesting issue for policy makers especially on the local level is how technology is gettingregula it. So because were here in d. C. Now, i want to explore implications of your work here. How many involved in this social Media Campaign about uber regulation in d. C. I know i received emails. Was the political struggle typical around the u. S. Or aberration. What happened here, this is the first place it happened. Just to give you a little context, started with a guy named ron linton, taxi commissioner here in d. C. The laws here at the time were incredibly clear uber was illegal. That didnt stop him from starting to impound peoples cars. Okay. But the law supported us so he couldnt really do it because court cases would go against him, et cetera. So then they created a law basically called the uber amendment, the law in black and white, we cannot let sedan Companies Compete with the taxi industry. The specifics of the law were were going to make the minimum fair for a sedan in d. C. Five times the minimum fare of appear taxi, rolled out at 11 00 a. M. For a vote on tuesday. Wroi in an email between the hours of 4 00 p. M. And 6 00 p. M. And sent it to all of our riders in d. C. In the 18 hours after that, there are 50,000 emails sent to City Council People on behalf our customers sent emails. 30,000 tweets and 104 million social media impressions. The uber amendment was rescinded. [ applause ] i think it was because there was one powerful blog entry on the site. Thats what started the whole thing. What happened is what we did here in d. C. , what we had to do multiple times in d. C. Because ron lenten loves him some taxi guys, we created a playbook that now is something we do when we have problems like that in other cities. D. C. Was the first place, almost ironic, first place. Now weve done it in milan and paris and stockholm, many cities in the u. S. We did dallas recently where they try to slip in language last minute that tries to put us out of business. Every time i take an uber ride or normal taxi ride i ask the drivers about the effect of uber. A d. C. Resident is the class war overtones on both sides of that. People against uber think its a tool for yuppies. The class of drivers are different. They are mainly younger, different ethnicity, immigrant groups than taxi drivers. Theres resentment among established taxi drivers. How do you view this class specification. Theres a lot packed into that question. First thing uber when we roll out into the city high end. We didnt want to just push a button and get a ride but a classy ride. Our motto was everyones driver. Lower cost. In the district its 20 cheaper than a taxi, Something Like this. So thats further than taxi in terms of the market. Point is even when its for the high end, what people may realize, 80 of that fare is going to the drive. Theres a job story here. Youre talking about thousands of jobs in every city we roll into that are basically created because were there. Because of the market, this becomes a transportation option not just for rich people but people who couldnt get transportation before because they couldnt afford it. More affordable transportation. Both sides of it, it becomes a nonstory. The last part of this shoot, i forgot what i was going to say. The drivers. The drivers. Especially when you start providing multiple options at multiple price points, the story around drivers are different in taxis than ubers. Thats not my experience. I see it across a lot of cities. We see a lot of taxi drivers moving a cross. They make a better living. A lot of drivers scrappy with one car has grown to 15, 20. Hes running a milti Million Dollar business, six kids and putting his eldest daughter through school at stanford. Couldnt do that otherwise. Definitely couldnt have done that driving a taxi. San Francisco Bay area, onto apprehend yours like you, not like you, youre more successful than nearly any of them. Most of them in my experience are uninterested or naive about politics. Its striking they have had a technological, marketing, political sophistication. War healing politics at the same time transportation. I wouldnt call myself sophisticated, i would call myself naive about politics, but its because of that we win. When i go and talk to anybody, anybody, a governor, mayor, city council person, regulator, i stand up for what we believe in, our principles. Because we have general managers in all these cities that really run the show day to day, i have to basically teach them what i call principle confrontation. Its very unsophisticated, and is not politics as usual. Here are our principles. Were willing to compromise but only when we agree with your principles. Principles are reduce options because they cant get around the city. Reduce options for drivers so they are impoverished and make the city a worst place, not a lot to compromise on. An example, miami, right now if you were not operating in miami because were not legal in miami, the laws dont allow us, outlaw competition. If i call miami, a town car, and comes in five minutes, i have to stair at it for 50 more minutes. If i get into that car before an hour is passed, im committing a crime. So you know, this is they can say why dont we split the difference and make it 30 minutes. Thats not how we roll. We have our own approach to things. Its an approach that comes more and more to local governments as Technology Works into these places that are highly regulated. The high regulation created environments where theres been stagnation for decades like i described in new york with the taxis. So it comes right for disruption. The tech comes in, moves faster than regulatory regions can move or control it, lets say. And then now youve got a situation where people are scrambling. Theres a really fascinating middle ground uber occupies. On the one hand youre trying to be more innovative than regulated organizations like former taxi monopolies. On the other hand youre subject to regulations at the ride sharing companies, like, for example, lift occupies. How do you see your extension of this model into other fields. Do you imagine the uber model of this intermediatiating and disrupting, this go into urban transportation. Ubers model is not inherently lets mess with city governments. Okay . Thats just a side benefit. Thats the icing on the cake. Ubers model is at the highest level is lifestyle crossed with logistics. Lifestyle is give me what i want and give me right now. You saw on the internet, i click, get a video, whatever. Logistics is delivering it. So now were bringing that lifestyle, bring it right now, were bringing it to the real world. Thats what we do. Were in the business of delivering cars in five minutes. Once youre delivering cars in five minutes, theres a lot of things we can deliver in five minutes. Have you thought consciously about what some things might be. Valentines day we did on demand roses. Youre a guy, pretty forgetful about valentines day, i get it. Open up uber app, in five minutes a dozen roses comes and youre a freakin herbo. I call that scaling romance. We did on demand ice cream in july. You push a button, the Ice Cream Truck comes and all of you sudden youre an 8yearold boy. Theres things like that we do for marketing purposes but it captures the imagination and in so many ways is what uber is about. You had kittens also. On demand kittens. Five minutes of cuddles. The problem is scaling kitten delivery. The supply chain is messed up. What happens is in a year those kittens become cats. Its really problematic. Here is a fine grain point about the Rating System. The driver has to give passengers four, five star ratings and vice versa. Obvious systems become corrupted because if its not five stars its nothing. How does the Rating System work, what have you observed about how it operates . The bottom line of the ratings system its highly predictive in large numbers. People get worried about the specific rating they give on a particular driver but its not what that is about. Its about thousands of people rating that particular driver. If you get in the car with