Transcripts For CSPAN3 Politics Public Policy Today 20140909

The second is that each of them found their own road to impact. I want to take this opportunity this morning to share some thoughts with you as you look to find your own way. To that impact. I have been at hhs for about three months now. It is the chance of a lifetime to lead and be a part of this department at such a unique moment in our history. In fact, i should mention, we have 2 1 2 years to go. There are openings and were hiring. I was honored to accept president obamas invitation to lead hhs, because there is so much potential to deliver impact that touches so many lives. I cant imagine another place where you could have quite the same opportunity to work at the intersection of policy, management, leadership, impact and some very big challenges. Since i joined this team a year ago, i found that the president obama emphasizes results, partnerships, accountability and sound management. This is the way ive always tried to work, and its how were going to work at hhs. We believe in building bridges, relationships and strong teams that have the talent and focus necessary to deliver results. We believe in managing well. We believe in transparency. And we believe in impact. Impact on behalf of the American People we serve. They are our bosses, these hard working americans who rely on the work of our department as they look to obtain the Building Blocks of healthy and productive lives. Whether you are talking about the Affordable Care act, Early Childhood education or the fight to stop ebola, i believe the best path to progress and impact are through this sort of leadership and management. Whats central to all this is not politics. Its progress. Setting aside the back and forth and instead choosing to move forward. Im a parent. And when i think about the moms and dads sitting around their Kitchen Tables trying to make Big Decisions for their children, they dont care whose idea something was. You dont have time for that when you are trying to figure out how to pay the electric bill or how to pay next years tuition or how to get the kids to get the homework done. You just want results. You expect folks in washington to look for the Common Ground necessary to deliver. This is the approach we bring to big challenges that we face at hhs. Each of us finds our own leadership and management philosophy in our own way. I learned fundamentally about the importance of relationships growing up in a place where my mom knew the one day i was tardy for school because i was late for the 9 00 a. M. Class she was teaching. The values i learned growing up np in a beautiful place in West Virginia anger how i manage, how i work and even what i work on. You might think about what values and experiences got you here to gw and are going to take you beyond. Hinton is the kind of place where relationships and trust matter. Its the sort of community where neighbors tend to look for the best in each other and everyone feels a personal stake in contributing to the common good. As have i gone on in my career to manage budgets, including the federal budget, i have often thought about how in our Small Community every dime counted. People worked so hard for the money they brought home. I watched the parents of many of my friends commute to difficult often back breaking work in mines. I saw my grandfather get up to open his restaurant at 6 00 a. M. He was a greek immigrant and taught my to be grateful for the gifts this country gave to our family. His restaurant was called den dennys but not that dennys. I learned about Customer Service and delivering results at kirks home of the hungry smile. If you were the person who got stuck dipping the hard serve ice cream after sunday church services, you just smiled and keep on dipping until every last cone was dipped. It was Pretty Simple to measure results. If you were asked to deliver two scoops of maple walnut and you gave someone a scoop of strawberry, you didnt deliver the maple walnut result that customer wanted. Service in the community was also an important to my mom and dad. I think thats why its so important to me today. Mom was the president of the church women. She was a member of the business and professional women. She was a member of the service club and she was on the state board of education. Dad was in the lions club, the elks club and was the education director. We had a rule had you to trick or treat for un i receive before you could trick or treat for candy. Fast forand i still draw upon these values and experiences. Whether its putting the customer first, valuing service or looking to find the best in others, even when you dont agree on everything, i have been fortunate to be a part of organizations that are very good at strategy. Ive also been parts of organizations that are very good at execution. I believe in leadingship and management that are good at both strategy and execution. Because this is the difference between great ideas that change lives and those that dont. My management philosophy is built on three principals. Impact, prioritization and relationships. Now, i have said the word impact a lot already. Its why i do what i do. When we tackle a problem at hhs, i make sure that we set out a clear definition of impact from the beginning. What do we hope to accomplish and who do we hope to accomplish it for . I think a lot about those moms and dads at the Kitchen Table and how the actions we take will impact them. They are our boss. So are young women like Savannah Goodland who had to wait tables on a broken ankle that she wrapped herself until they got length insurance. So are our neighbors beating adisc and so are children who are attending headstart. All these people are our bosses at hhs. Our boss is also the taxpayer, people like those miners work hard for their paycheck and deserve a government that works and is strategic and efficient in spending their hard earned tax dollars. Thats one of the republicans that prioritization is so important to me. Because setting priorities and staying focused are how you get to efficiency and impact. Determining what options are available, what policy levers are there, what will they do . What you are good at and what your partners are good at. All these things are the things that make government work. In order to deliver which levers and initiatives are most effective, were data driven. Im a believer many met trix, benchmarks and an littics. If you are serious about looking out for the taxpayer, you need to know whether what you are doing is working. All these things have something in common. They need great people to make them happen. That starts with building teams with talent and focus necessary to deliver the impact that the American People expect and deserve. My very first days at the department, i have been working to retain the great talent that was already in place and to recruit more of the best and the brightest to join us. As far as our extenrnal relations, im a believer in relationships are build on trust. Transparency builds trust. Its something that we take very seriously. Even if the numbers arent quite where we want them to be, were going to tell you about it. Take, for example, our recent announcements about the numbers of consumers and the Health Insurance marketplaces who have citizenshipbased data matching issues. It may always make for the best and most attractive press release, but we believe that you build trust by sharing the news both good and bad. We also believe in the power of good ideas. We understand that nobody has a monopoly on them. Thats why active listening and being responsive are so important. Hearing ideas, input and feedback and putting them into action wherever possible. Ive told my staff we should work toward the goal of returning letters we receive from congress within 30 days. No matter who they are from. Many of the best ideas come from all different sectors of our sew sigh if i. I have been blessed with the opportunity to work across a number of different sectors doing everything from scooping ice cream to leading walmarts efforts to feed needy families. To leading the efforts at the office of management and budget. Along the way, i have learned to have respect for every sector of our society and to believe strongly that there are really more things that we have in common as americans than we have that are different. Thats why when we hear good ideas from the other side of the aisle, we want to listen. So when republican congressmen fred upton asked me to join him for a discussion on 21st century cured later this week, i said, sign me up. One of my first meetings was with the governors of both parties. I said to them, if you are finding our department isnt being responsive, i want to know about t. I also told them that i hoped to work with them regardless of party to bring more states into the fold on medicaid expansion. Recently, we were able to do that with pennsylvania that has a republican governor. Lund hundreds of thousands of people cannot get the heltth Care Coverage they deserve as a result. The fact of the matter is, there are always places where we can Work Together. Theres nothing ideological about curing cancer. There isnt a democrat or a republican way to solve ebola. There isnt a liberal or conservative approach to preventing suicide. We have the opportunities to Work Together across the aisle on issues ranges from medical research to Global Health security to Early Education for our children. The American People are sending a clear signal that they want us to Work Together on healthcare, too. When you start a job like mine, you end up taking a lot of time in the first few months to listen. I was once told that god gave us two ears and one mouth for a reason. I can tell you that what i have been hearing over and over, whether its from friends that i talk to back in West Virginia, to Business Leaders, to elected leaders and to my must colleagues at hhs, enough already with the back and forth. We just want to move forward. What that mom and dad want to know is, what kind of coverage is available to me and my family. Can i afford it . Is it any good . What i hear from Business Leaders is that they are in the same place. They want to Work Together on solutions while making our care better and investing dollars wisely. They want a better Healthcare System and so do we. What i have told my team at hhs is that were not here to fight last years battles. We are here to deliver on afford built, access and quality. Surely, these are goals we can all agree on no matter where you happen to live, whether its West Virginia, washington or wyoming wyoming or washington state. By these metrics, the Affordable Care act is working. Healthcare is more affordable for families, businesses and for our economy as a whole. Coverage and services are more widely available for more people. Doctors and hospitals are delivering better care to their patients. As we have said all along, we can do more and we can do better. The Affordable Care act is not about making a point. Its about making progress. Its about leadership and management defining our goals, putting the right teams in place, setting right priorities and building relationships with anyone who wants in. Consumers, issuers, providers, elected officials, faith leaders, civic organizations. We want to work with people across our country and across our sectors on priorities we can all get behind. Helping more americans get covered and stay covered. Making healthcare more affordable for working families. Making sure that healthcare. Gov meets the standards the American People expect and demand. Expanding medicaid. Working with doctors and hospitals to deliver quality and Affordable Care. Working with Insurance Companies to offer more choices to more people in more regions of our country. So what you will be seeing from us in the days and months ahead is an open invitation for partnership and a call for good ideas no matter where they come from. We will be looking to build and strengthen relationships with anyone and everyone who shares our passion for helping americans obtain the Building Blocks of healthy and product if i have lives. We will insist that the actions we take are managed well with an eye on protecting the taxpayer and delivering impact for the boss. Lets move beyond the back and forth. Lets move forward together. Thank you. [ applause ] ladies and gentlemen, the secretary will now answer a few questions by George Washington university students. Would you please welcome to our stage, seth gold, class of 2016, from the Milken Institute school of Public Health. Good morning, madam secretary. On behalf of the student body, i would like to congratulate you on your new role of secretary of health and Human Services and thank you for being here this morning. I would like to kick off our q and a with a personal question. You mentioned you are a mom. Do you have any tips on how to achieve the ideal Work Life Balance . I think ideal is something im not sure any of us hit. In terms of an approach to this, one of the things that i think is important harkins back to something i said in the speech about prioritization. The prioritization that one does in the work so that you understand the key things that you are focused on. That prioritization for the work, i think, is one of the things that helps put the work in the order that this t should be and contain it in the way. Theres the other part which is making sure that people know that your family is a priority. And being clear about that articulation of these are the parameters and this is how i work. The other thing that i would add is that im very fortunate to have a great partner in my Work Life Balance in my husband and my children in terms of how they support that effort. The last thing i would just add is, i talked a little bit about people in my remarks and how one wants to build great teams. Because, actually, i have held four jobs in the last four years, you might think i cant hold a job. That means i have started and built teams a number of times, actually, in the near term. One of the things that i have found is that actually valuing this, this question of respect for family and respect for those things is an incredibly important part of recruiting high quality people. Often some of the people best that you want are people who care about these issues as well. So it is something that i am seeing as i continue to do recruiting, that keeping that as a priority for me and articulating it and manage teams in that way is something that helps with recruiting. Wonderful. This question was submitted by stewart portman, a graduate student. Its a little long. As a graduate student working towards an mph in health policy, i am learning to blend policy development and political fees built to best address the concerns of the population. In the current environment, much has been said by partisan divides and the inability to find Common Ground. I reject that as the status quo. Here is the question. How does improving communication between yourself and congress, something you discussed during your confirmation hearings, work to better the relationship between you and hhs and legislators . Do you believe that improved communication about policy goals can correct many of the misunderstandings in todays Health Environment . Thank you, stewart. I think i spoke a little bit to this issue and the importance of relationship as i talked a little bit about one of the biggest priorities that i believe, that as a manager i need to have. The issue of relationship, i think is important for a number of reasons. I will admit, when i was younger, the idea that i would put relationship as one of the core goals was something that would be foreign. It was a means, not an end. So an litically, i wanted ends in goals. This is one thats important enough that i believe is incredibly important. The issue of are having relationships is about how you share and move information. Can we all start with the same fact base . Often we are not doing that. We may have different ways of interpreting the facts. If you are on the same fact base and if you have a relationship enough that you can have are a conversation, that you actually know where the two of you disagree, thats how one brings one together. That relationship is also about trust. Often its about negotiating. Some say deals. If you think about what ms. Murray and mr. Ryan did it had to do with building a relationship of trust. They were carrying on both side s. Having the relationship and trust is important to finding places are where one side is not going to get everything and the other side is not getting everything. We can find a path that gets us to move forward. Wonderful. The next question comes from angela rick. She asks, your background and previous experience are different from those of hhs secretaries before you. How did this make you approach the job different . What do you see as your biggest challenge. I am a bit different from previous most recent previous secretaries. Probably a little more similar to secretary shalayla from a number of years ago in terms of my background not being an elected official. I have spoken to that in terms of the things i spoke about today in terms of the priorities and how i think about managing, running, leading the department. Also one of the oh things thats important and this gets to challenges. One of the first things i did was to call all of the other former secretaries. So i can make sure i could learn from them and understand the things in places where they think my background might have spaces that listening to them and learning from them is important. Whether thats my direct predecessor who i spent an enormous amount of oh time and im grateful for her support, secretary sebelius. Also secretary levitt, thompson and others. Going back to secretary sullivan from years ago. So thats how im approaching the issue of challenges. If the question was about challenged more broadly, i would just say having been at the department about a hundred days or getting close to one of the Biggest Challenges is how to make sure in a short period of time, two years, four months and a few days that we take advantage of the potential opportunities of the department and how do you create an organization that can maximize for that. Thats one of the Biggest Challenges. Wonderful. A Health Administrative student from the millkin school says from a Public Health perspective prevention of disease is less expensive than treating illness or disease. What barriers prevent us from using resources to tackle the social determinants of health that are the key means of preventing diseases. How do we overcome the barriers. The issue of prevention is important. We are thinking of changing to more impact based because we know the importance, the prevention plays in that in terms of how well save money and how well get better results. One of the questions is it is not always easy on the prevention side. My experience through a number of oh experiences is when you think about prevention, the first thing is people have to have the knowledge. Lets take Healthy Eating for instance. They need to know what Healthy Eating is. They need to understand how its defined and what it would mean eating. The second thing is they need tools. The tools come in various forms. Sol people dont know how to fix fresh vegetables or havent used them before. If you had never cut a pineapple or a pomegranate. Even the day to day things. Tools also come in the form of affordability. Many of the things we are trying to teach communities about prevention and Healthy Eating, are they in a food desert . Even if they are not, are they in a place where they can afford fresh fruits and vegetables we want to encourage as part of Healthy Eating. The third thing is culture. Behavior change. Probably if we did a survey here, did everybody get up this morning and exercise . Did everyone eat a serving of fruits and a low fat you know, we could go through it. Most of the people in this room are good on one and two. Even those of us who have those things. So it is about behavior change. To get improvement, i think we all have to as a nation. Not just as the government but communities and individuals, we have to work against all three. You made me feel bad. I didnt work out. I hope everybody had breakfast at least. The final question comes from me. Whats the Biggest Surprise thus far from your career as secretary . The question of the big surprise in the first hundred day s, there is a recognition of the volume. Thats not a surprise. Its whether its unaccompanied children. We have had 12,000 children in the care of the department of health and Human Services. Many of you are probably familiar with ebola. That wasnt a surprise. Its been a positive one. I have been fortunate to have the chance to work in organizations are where people have passion for their work, whether its the gates foundation, working on hunger at walmart. Working in the government the two times i have been there. Whats surprising is the extent of the passion for their work at the department of health and Human Services. As i meet with each of the operating divisions, the fda, our organization that does Substance Abuse and Mental Health and all the organizations, to a person. Every person i talk to tells me their work is the most important work in the department. I welcome that. That kind of passion, including a note from a librarian who wanted to make sure i understood what she and her library had to offer within the hhs system. Its that passion. I knew people would care. I am surprised by the level of passion and intensity that i meet everywhere i go in terms of the staff. Wonderful. Thank you so much, madam secretary. On behalf of the George Washington university community, i want to congratulate you on your new role as secretary of health and Human Services. I especially want to thank you for bringing your message to gw giving the students of the university an opportunity to directly engage with you. As we are shaping our own Public Service futures and developing a deeper understanding of the challenges we face nationally and globally well look to leaders like you not just as role models but as teachers. We learn from your actions. We learned from your leadership. We learned from participating in events like this today. Being able to ask you questions directly has been an extraordinary opportunity for the students at the George Washington university this morning. I know i speak on behalf of all of the g. W. Community when i say we hope this mornings event and q a session with you is the first of many ongoing direct conversations between you and students here at the George Washington university. Madam secretary, thank you so much again. [ applause ] thank you, seth, very much. Thank you all for having me today. It was a pleasure to be here. Thank you so much. Here on cspan 2 we were planning to show remarks from Vice President biden live from the National Archives in washington, d. C. To commemorate the 20th an verse ary of the violence against women act. We will be taping his remarks and showing them later in our programming schedule. Next a look at military options in combatting isis ahead of president obamas address to the nation tomorrow night and his strategy in iraq and syria. Steve bucci served three decades as an Army Special Forces issue and top official at the pentagon. Now director of the Heritage Foundations Allison Center for policy studies. He joins us to discuss the threat posed by the Islamic State. You wrote about the ways in which the danger posed by isis is more dangerous than that posed by al qaeda. Talk about that, please. Al qaeda, as we remember actually was a relatively small organize ohzation. It was off in afghanistan. There is not a lot of infrastructure there. They were still able to exfultrat the e their people around the worldment isis, much bigger organization now as far as number of fighters. It controls territory. It has an independent funding stream based on either money they have stolen from different banks and their oil revenues selling oil illegally on the black market from areas they have captured. They have a leader who proclaimed himself the khalif and established the caliphate in that area of oh Eastern Syria and western iraq. All of these things together make them potentially much more dangerous than al qaeda was. Do you mean specifically against the u. S. Homeland or dangerous to the World Community . Both. They are definitely a danger in iraq and syria. They are a danger in the wider middle east region to regimes friendly to us like jordan, israel, iraq, saudi arabia, turkey. They have made open threats to the United States. They have executed two of our citizens on the internet. They have promised that they would come here and conduct acts of terror against the American People. That makes them a viable threat. We cant discount the threats. We have already seen over 140 strikes conducted against the Islamic State. Can you talk about the legal landscape as it stands today for the president conducting those strikes and what the congressional role is or what it may be this week as hes talking to members of congress. The president of the United States always, in his role as commander in chief, always has the responsibility to take action to protect the United States and to protect our interests. There is lots of legal debates. Im not a lawyer. I wont get into those aspects of it. We feel it is wise when the president can have the time to consult with congress, to inform congress, to help build support from congress and from the American People for military actions its wise to do that. I dont think that necessarily restrains the president or restricts actions, its not a good thing to go alone when you can get the American People along. After the two executions of the american journalists, the American People are ready to support action as are the legislators. The president should probably at least consult with them. But consult and get as many on board as possible. White House Press Secretary josh ernest was asked what the white house is looking for from congress. Heres a bit of what he had to say. I would say that the level of consultation this administration has demonstrated a commitment to indicates our genuine interest in a dialogue with members of congress about our policy in iraq and syria. And our policy more broadly for consulting isil. Evidenced by the fact we are having conversations, some before the president made important decisions. Regular consultation from the department of defense, the department of state, other senior members of the team at the white house. There has been intensive consultation. There is evidence of our general are win interest in members of congre congress. As we develop a policy to degrade and destroy isil and protect american citizens in iraq. If you were to develop a policy to degrade and destroy isil in iraq what would your recommendation s be . I have stated those at other times. Right now i dont think options at the end of the spectrum, to do nothing is a nonstarter. We have to address the problem. Its a big enough threat that just leaving it alone, hoping it will go away just is not useful. At the other end, i dont think its useful to contemplate a major invasion or oh reinvasion of iraq. I dont think its useful nor would it be supported by the American People. In the middle there is a lot of room. You need boots on the ground to address a threat like this. They dont have to be american boots. To make the local military. To make those units reach their maximum effectiveness we need to deploy more of the special Operations Forces, embed them with the forces much like we did at the beginning of the Afghanistan War where we had American Special forces units together with the Northern Alliance fighting against the taliban. Then use the special operators to advise, train, guide those local forces and to control american air power and perhaps allied air powerment we can maximi maximize. The commitment you are talking about, how long of a commitment would it be. We are talking years, it seems. Im not sure if it would take years. It wont be over in a week. Some say he did it for political reasons. It would be outside his term of office. I think thats a really long estimate. I think it could be less than that. Not a week, not a month. It will take time to take down a number of military forces that isis has. Thoughts as to whether members of congress are. Two have worked on bills authorizing force against isis. It would give authority to have air strikes but limit it is authority to three years according to the hill newspaper. It state that is the authority would not allow the president to deploy Ground Troops as part of the effort. Frank wolfs bill would allow the president to use necessary and appropriate force against terrorist groups including isis. The republicans bill doesnt for bid the use of Ground Troops. It includes no time element. Steve bucci is the National Policy director at the Heritage Foundations Center for foreign and National Security policy. Hes here to answer your questions, take your comments for about the next half hour or so here on the washington journal. Well start with fee befrom pennsylvania on the line for democrats. Good morning. Good morning to you. I think we have to look out for the people, the terrorists this the Heritage Foundation. Whos going to protect us from you guys and your war mongering. Thats my comment. Do you want to talk about your work at the Heritage Foundation and your background . I do. I have to tell you, as a career soldier who fought, led special Operations Forces in combat, im not a fan of war. I dont lightly recommend we use military forces. To be honest we have been reticent to do that. In this case isis is a big enough threat to the homeland, to america that we do need to take some action. I would like to see it be as circumscribed as possible. No, maam. I do not champion war in any way, shape or form unless it is absolutely necessary. Unfortunately in the case of isis, i think it is actually necessary. Can you talk about who is necessary in terms of International Support for the defeat of isis . We showed a clip. Secretary kerry headed to the middle east to try to bring in other regional players here. Who are the key nations . We need to have the nations right around the area that isis now controls so the jordanians, turks, iraqi government. The new one which is much more broadly based than the al maliki government. We need support from the gulf states, saudi arabia and the emirates there who in the past have actually supported some of the more radical elements in the syrian resistance that eventually gave rise to isis as it stands now. We also need help from the western countries. The brits, french, other allies that have already said, yeah, well help. The administration is working to build the coalition. Its kind of small now. About Nine Countries or so. Hopefully the secretary of state will get more countries on board. We dont need every country in the world though one would think as evil as isis proved itself every sieve rised country in the world would be willing to at least give us a vote of confidence and affirmation in dealing with them. As the administration works to build the International Coalition efforts under way at home. Here is a new poll from the Washington Post noting more than 7 in ten americans support it up from 45 when the threat of the Islamic State became apparent in june. That question also asked respondents were amenable to expanding strikes in syria. 65 were. Also asked about the u. S. Arming Kurdish Forces who opposed the insurgence. 64 were this favor of that. What does the president need to say to the American Public tomorrow night . He needs to make the case. There are people like the most recent caller who think any kind of war is bad. War is bad in the absolute moral sense. But civilized nations have to support to it to protect innocent people and their own citizens. The president needs to convince American People that this is the right thing to do to articulate the threat, not the hype but the real threat isis poses and lay out at least the outline of the actions he feels we should take. Im not a fan of the president delineating what we are not going to do. Its nice to keep your enemy off balance militarily. Telling him, we are not going to do x, y, and z gives an advantage to the bad guys. We want want that. The president needs to say what he wants to do but leave room for flexibility as the situation goes forward. Steve bucci is here for the next half hour. We are taking your questions and calls. Dan is next in georgetown, massachusetts on the line for independents. Good morning. Good morning. Thanks for having me on. Yeah. I have been following our actions here since 2000. When everything seemed to be put in the american citizens face. We were given a decision. You are either with us or youre with the terrorists. Thats when i drew a big question mark. That seems to be about the most antiamerican thing i have heard as far as who we are labeling terrorists. So we seem to not go for the root cause of things. We need to react to Current Conditions irrespective of whats happened in the past. Whats the root cause here . The root cause of the isis group, its intervening in the middle east. You know, we went into iraq. Under false pretenses, sold to the American People. Because they were going to send drones with nuclear stuff on it, blow us up over here. So there is a scare tactic that happens to get the American People to cower down, do as we are told and listen to authority. Steve . Al qaeda, as you recall attacked us on september 11, 2001, which is well before anything we did in iraq. Isis originated as al qaeda in iraq. So they were an affiliate of al qaeda. They did come to iraq because our soldiers were there. Thats a different debate, i think. The fact that isis is there and declared war on the United States, its hard to blame it on us. Watching journalists have their heads cut off with a hunting knife, they are evil people who want to do ill to american interests and americas allies around the world. The fact that he wants to respond to it, i would hope it would give folks a little credibility that this is not a continuation of oh past policies. A question on oh twitter about the terminology being thrown around here about boots on the ground. Please explain why special forces arent included within this term boots on the ground. This is a point of debate. Some people when you say no boots on the ground they think you wont have any americans touching sand anywhere. We are talking about conventional military forces. The 82nd airborne division, first marine. Those kind of conventional infant infantrytype forces. Special Operations Forces are sent to a lot of places under different authorities than our conventional military are because of special capabilities and what they can bring to a fight like this. So the questioner is right. We make a distinction between deploying special Operations Forces in small numbers than just standard formations. A follow up from an individual on the same topic. We have a thousand troops on the ground in iraq. Yet obama says we have none. Dont they count . They are prime areally advisers and special operations types. Support people or additional security to protect our civilian assets in iraq. Its a distinction that maybe a washington only kind of question, but we do make a distinction between deploying big forces to go fight actively in combat in these adviser and security folks. We dont count those as boots on the ground. Indiana is next. Robert is calling on the line for democrats. Robert, good morning. Good morning. Im having difficulty in understanding where your guests expertise lies. It seems to me given he was part of the george bush administration, his department of defense. His only expertise would be leading the country into a disastrous war and causing so much grief and pain. Human suffering. Loss of treasury. I dont know why these people are brought before us on television to explain what we should be doing now. Mr. Bucci, if you want to talk about it for the viewer, some of your background kmapders of the battalion led deployments in south asia and the persian gulf including operation desert thunder in 1998. Served in response to saddam that hussein. As well as the fifth and seventh special forces. I will let you talk about your background if you want. I spent 28 years of active service as a military officer serving the country in a lot of places that were frankly unpleasant and difficult, doing the bidding of administrations of both parties. The military officer doesnt swear allegiance to one particular leader but to the constitution. I have lived my life that way. Yes, i did serve under president bush. I served under secretary rumsfeld and gates. I spent a good deal of time not just doing the combat part but helping the American People with floods, wildfires, hurricanes. And that sort of thing. I accept that you dont necessarily think my time under president bush was credible. Because you disagreed with the policies there. I have to tell you that we all tried to do what we thought was right in that situation, not to deceive the American People, to do what was right facing the threats that we saw there. After the that will sis that we applied to it. And i think now im trying to give you my honest opinion of how we should go forward. Strangely, im kind of agree in. Trying to lead us down a path. Doc is on the line for independents. Good morning, doc. Good morning. Thanks to cspan. The first few calls goes to prove we need to bring back a poll and people need to understand history and politics before they are able to vote. If you want to stop whats going on over there right now, just tell the president that we made a mistake, these isis folks arent muslims. They are actually christians. He would be bombing the hell out of them tomorrow. The way we stop that. All sorts of military weapons. Just let them go. Those folks have been fighting before people got out of caves over there. We have heard the frustration about the history of fighting in the region. This is a difficult situation. Our world is too interconnected now to do that sort of thing. Just let them go and deal with whos left. Thats okay if you want to accept the kind of genocidal responses that isis and groups like it are perpetrating. America is not responsible for policing the entire world. We dont have that burden. We do are have a responsibility in the community of nations to try and do something to help. There is a response there not just to the region. We need to protect our interests there. We need to protect it by force of arms. Can you talk about the threat posed by u. S. Citizens who choose to go otherseas and join isis. This is a difficult problem. In isis our intel folks feel there is at least up to 200 american citizens that either have fought or are fighting with isis in syria or now in western iraq. There are also potentially up to nearly 2,000 europeans, western europeans primarily. Some of them of arab descent. Some who have blond hair and blue eyes who have passports that dont register that they are fighting in syria. Any of those people, both the american citizens and try to get a terrorist attack. We dont think there are people lined up at the border trying to sneak in now. But the threat is there. Our Law Enforcement, our Homeland Security forces are really working overtime to identify people and to catch them on screening as they try to come into the country. If they are able to be identified of u. S. Citizenship. There is a precedent for that. When people fought as mercy theirs in other conflicts there is a legal basis for going after them as far as their citizenship. They at least need to be stopped, questioned, and let our intelligence guys try to figure out if they are a threat or not. But its difficult to find them and catch them. Heres senator ted cruz of texas talking about just that. His legislation to strip those individuals of their u. S. Citizenship when he introduced a bill to that effect on the floor of the senate. Mr. President , thats why i have today filed legislation. The expatriot terrorist act of 2014 which would amend the existing statute governing renunciation of the United States citizen ship to designate fighting for a hostile Foreign Government or Foreign Terrorist Organization as an affirmative renunciation of citizenship. By fighting for isis, u. S. Citizens have expressed their desire to become citizens of the Islamic State. That cannot and will not peacefully coexist with remaining american citizens. Senator ted cruz on the senate floor. We have 15 minutes left with steven bucci of the center for foreign and foreign. Anybody who stick as gun in the air, rolls a mask, blow them up. Send troops over there and get it done hard, fast and now. Whack them off the planet. That is an option. The difficulty there is there is a lot of innocent people mixed in with them. It becomes tough when the bad guys are ready to hide. Isis operated in the open doing what we would consider almost conventional mobile warfare. As soon as we start ed its tf. I hear you. These are evil people that need to be addressed and probably need to be addressed with violence. Regional forces helped by our guys rather than having them do the whole thing. Pete is on the line for republicans. Good morning. Good morning. I heard you refer to isis as a terrorist group. I havent heard you mention that their goal is to create an Islamic State and they are fundamentalist muslims. This seem it is to me to be a problem of the region. Not our problem. Beheadings is a way of oh life over there. The saudis beheaded something of 40someplus people this year for nonviolent crimes. If you dont understand that this is a group that wants to govern we missed the point entirely. Youre absolutely right. Al qaeda had this goal that eventually they would have a govern role are. They saw it in the distant future. Isis made the declaration now. Invited in doctors, lawyers, politicians to help them govern in those areas. At least made that public statement. But they are radical muslims of the most they have repudiated their tactics against other muslims. The beheadin ining crucifixion corpses, killing christian children. These are bad people. They need to be addressed not just by the west or the United States but by the muslim world. They are anathema to them as well. What do you make of efforts by the arab league and some of their announcements recently on how to deal with isis. Here is a story from the Associated Press that the arab league greed on monday to take urgent measures to combat extremists like the Islamic State. A resolution issued after late night meetings of arab hinsteres. That doesnt back from a comprehensive statement dealing with arab affairs. A new sense of urgency among 22 member. Large swaths of iraq syria. Its heartening they made the declaration. I would like it back ped up with action with the provision of troops or funding of the operations. To be frank they are the first targets. The regime around the areas isis controls have been the declared regimes by isis. They can be taken out and treated like infidels like the west. Isis is coming after them. Those muslim countries, the arab league in particular have a responsibility to fight this threat probably as much if not more than we do. Richard on the line for independents. Good morning. I notice you guys hang up on people when they start telling the truth. I wish you would let me tell the truth. Go ahead, richard. 99 of people on the show are republicans. Thats the bottom line right there. The Heritage Foundation i i think you will find thats wrong if you go back and check the archives. Go ahead with your statement. The Heritage Foundation, when you buy stocks in the stock market they send a letter to join the organization. Thats one thing. I watched the christian channel where there was a book on how to cut food stamps, cut Social Security. This is a Nonprofit Group thats got ben carson on there whos on fox news all the time. They are brainwashing the christians. We do not have any religious affiliation. We are conservatives. We believe in conservatives, smaller government, less intervention in our private lives. We are not a libertarian organization. We are a conservative one. I realize some people dont like those positions. We try and defend them intellectually as well as ideologically into things we write. My guidance when i joined the organization was its about policy, not politics. The president does something well, we are going to congratulate and support him. If he does something poorly, we are going to try to point it out. We do the same thing to republican legislators. If we get a republican president well do the same thing to that person. We try to defend the positions we take. And do the best we can. We are very open to dialogue and debate with people who disagree with us. Maybe well hear from you and see if we cant learn from each other. What do you think president obama has done well in his dealing with isis so far. We have taken action. We havent sat back. There are people on both sides of the political spectrum who say its not our problem. Let them handle it. Hes taken steps to address it. Im not sure hes doing quite enough yet. Well see what he says on wednesday night to determine whether the policy goes forward. If he has a robust policy that we think is the right one well champion it. If its not what we think it should be well point out deficiencies and applaud the good parts. Dell, good morning. Good morning. How are you . Good. Go ahead. I just wanted to address steven. You said less government. You said the privacy of your are lives. When your privacy affect it is rest of society its held accountable as government is also held accountable. The next question the question i wanted to ask you is this isis thing is affecting africanamericans in our communities. Right now we are considered the isis of america. By the numbers that we are being locked up. We are finding people are retreating and they are joining groups like isis because we lost africanamerican heals in isis. So what do you suggest as a conservative so that we dont lose and make victims of the people in our community. Well, first, i wont attempt to speak for the republican party. I will give you my opinion as an analyst for heritage. I dont are do domestic policy. I do the foreign and Security Policy stuff. As a citizen, i have to tell you we need to treat all of oh our citizens equally. The differentiation that goes up in some communities is problematic. When Law Enforcement steps out of line they should be held to task. And should be prosecuted if they have broken the law. The same with any citizen. They should all be treated equally. We have been moving in that direction at least in my lifetime. Clearly we are not there yet. We need to keep moving in that direction. Be honest with one another as to where the weak spots are and how we can improve them. Keep moving in that direction. Clay pool, indiana, is next. Good morning. Good morning. I was wondering if a strong economic preventative could be implemented before september 11 which is rapidly approaching. That would be to clearly make the point that any from world war ii that if there is an attack on the homeland all muslim owned, arabic owned businesses would be nationalized. End of message. The problem you have there is there are a huge number of muslim owned, arab own ohhed businesses in america who are just regular citizens like you and i. I dont think that would have any positive effect on isis. They dont like the muslims that live in the United States any more than they like nonmuslims that live in the United States. They would consider them apostates and would execute them if given the chance. I dont advocate going after our own citizens to try to influence isis. It wouldnt work, number one. Number two, its not consistent with our constitution or society. Baldwinville, massachusetts. Bob is on the line for republicans. Good morning. Good morning. Im on the independents line. Last year we had 12 muslim individuals break into the carbon reservoir. I dont know what they were doing there. They werent charged with anything. 9 11 is coming up. We should put boots on the ground. Nobody in america wants to get im 53 years old, sir. I served in the u. S. Military. I will put my boots back on tomorrow to go fight these animals that kill children. Its not just the reporters. They kill children. Little babies. Thats got to be the lowest form of life on this planet. There are a lot of americans out there who would be comfortable with stronger action. Thats the role of the president and the administration to make the call. I know this administration looks out for public feedback. So i would say let them know what you feel. These are patently evil people that need to be dealt with. Hopefully not just by the United States but by a Wider Community of people also threatened by them. They have to minimize the risk to the United States and our citizens, one would hope. Im looking forward to hearing what the president has to say. Youre right. We are approach iing september , always an anniversary we all hold our breath a little bit to make sure nothing happens. I can tell you the security forces, Law Enforcement, Homeland Security people, our military and Intelligence Community overseas. They are working overtime, watching for this, trying to catch anything that might happen. Its a herculean task. But they really do the best they can. Hopefully they will keep us safe. Lets get paul from missouri on the line for republicans. Paul, good morning. Good morning. I would like to ask a question. Why couldnt we block isis from recruiting u. S. Citizens. By the media and the internet. Is there a way of doing that . Its difficult. We do have intelligence fbi intelligence domestically. Other intelligence Assets Overseas watching the internet, looking for those kind of indicators that someone is stepping over the line of radicalization and recruitment. Its difficult to do. The internet has been a huge boon for recruitment and radicalization. Do you ever go face to face to close the deal . That was where the good guys could catch him. You can fw on a different continent and close the deal and end up with nidal hassan, the or hi psychologist who shot the guys in ft. Hood. He never had physical contact with the people that recruited and radicalized him. But he was led to do an act of terrorism based on the internet connectivity. Its tough to do but folks try within the boundaries of the constitution. John is in los angeles, california, on the line for democrats. We just have a minute or two left here. I wanted to ask seeing that the Affordable Care act was the brain child of the Heritage Foundation, how he feels about republicans calling it socialism. I dont know if the Affordable Care act came out of the Heritage Foundation. They had some writings that people picked pieces from. I think as it was passed the Affordable Care act is a problem for me as a citizen. Im not the domestic policy guy. I wont comment on the specifics of it. I dont particularly like the plan. But i recommend you go to our website and read some of the stuff written by our Health Care Policy folks. I think you will find it enlightening and educational. Wand to end on foreign policy. The president used the term degrade and destroy isis. At what point is isis destroyed . How do you know when the job is done . Thats a tough one. When isis was al qaeda in iraq we thought we had gotten him down to a point where they were destroyed and they managed to e regenerate. If there is one person out there who can read something that the group has put out in the past they can become them again. We have to remove their military ability to oppress people in the region. If we can do it well be successful. Steve bucc are i is director of the center for Security Policy. Appreciate your time. Thanks for having me. The president is set to address the nation tomorrow night with his plans to confront the threat from isis. The Washington Post is reporting that the president will speak from the state floor at the white house. How the u. S. Will, degrade and destroy the Islamic State. The president is presenting his plan to congressional leaders at the white house this afternoon. That meeting is set for a little more than 30 minutes from now. 3 15 eastern. It will include House Speaker john boehner, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and harry reid are and rich mcconnell. Well bring you new prs the meeting and have the president s address to the nation tomorrow night live on the cspan networks. With congress back in session, a mess sang from a cspan student cam competition winner. Water. It makes up 75 of our bodies. Take water away and humanity would perish within a week. Water is the most vital substance to a human body, yet it is because of us humans that nearly 50 of all streams, lakes, bays and es shares are unsuitable for use due to pollution. In the u. S. , we have learned to take water for granted. Faucets, bottled water, and flush toilets reinforce the same idea. Water is an unlimited resource. But step outside to our local waterways and their diminishing condition tells a different story. Water pollution kills marine life, destroys ecosystems and disrupts a fragile food chain. Animals arent the only ones that the negative effects of water pollution. Congress, in 2014, you must provide federal funding to waste Water Treatment agencies across the country. The life blood of our nation is tainted with the negligence of generations. It must stop here. Join us wednesday during washington journal for the theme of the 2015 cspan student cam documentary competition. Senator Bernie Sanders, independent from vermont, said the u. S. Needs an economic plan that benefits all americans, not just the super rich. His statement came during an aflcio breakfast hosted in manchester, New Hampshire. They also spoke about u. S. Trade policies and raising the minimum wage. He is considering a president ial run in 2016 seasoned a traveling to iowa in mid september to host a series of town hall meetings. This is about 35 minutes. [ applause ] all right. So youre starting to loosen up a little bit. Youre up and down, on your feet. Well give you another opportunity. Get up and down on your feet. I do want to just say hello to senator shaheen who just walked in, by the way. We are going to hear from her shortly. Now at this point let me welcome a friend of working men and women. The friend of the values that we embrace as a labor movement. Senator Bernie Sanders was born in brooklyn. The younger of two sons. After graduation from the university of chicago we moved from vermont. He was elected and i was talking to the justice who was elected mayor of burlington by ten votes in 1981. Imagine the difference ten votes can make. If you dont think getting to the polls in november or 2014 isnt important this was ten votes that put this political career into action. Hes been a champion on all kinds of issues. Most importantly, hes been a champion on fairness. On equity on making sure that people get a fair shake. He will take on anybody and fight against anybody who tries to under mine the middle class in this country. Keep hope alive. Bernie sanders. Senator Bernie Sanders. [ applause ] brothers and sisters, thank you very much for inviting me to be with you this morning as we celebrate labor day. I want to thank mark, curt, jan and all of the folks at the New Hampshire aflcio. More importantly, let me thank each and every member here and trade unionists all over this country. Who today, who yesterday and decades past have put their lives on the line, have stood up and fought for the rights of working people. I want to thank you very much for that. [ applause ] it is no secret right now that the billionaire class and the big money interests are targeting organized labor. The reason for that is they understand when workers come together and bargain collectively, they could earn decent wages. They can have a voice in our democracy. And the billionaires see you as their strongest opposition and thank you very much for being just that. Our job is to not only fight back against all of those people who want to destroy the trade Union Movement. Our job is to grow the trade Union Movement and make sure every worker in the country who wants to be in the union can be in a union. I also want to thank all of you in this room for sending gene shaheen to the United States senate. I am proud and honored to be the chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs. There are few people this the congress. [ applause ] i want to wish with annie custer and governor hassen the best of luck in their reelection efforts. [ cheers and applause ] the main point i want to make this morning being as honest and straightforward as i can with you is to tell you that this country faces enormously difficult problems. I would be dishonest to try to push these problems underneath the rug. And i would be dishonest if i did not tell you that in my view the problems that we face today are probably more serious than at any time since the great depression, and if you throw in the international planetary crisis of climate change, they may be even more serious. Thats the reality. If this country is going to go forward, we have got to have the courage to look these problems straightforwardly, analyze them, and bring people together to solve them. From the bottom of my heart, i believe that these problems, in fact, are solvable. But they will not be solved unless working people come together and have the courage to take on the greed and the selfishness that we are seeing all over this country. Let me briefly just review where we are economically and all of you know in a nut shell, the great middle class of this country, once the envy of the entire world is disappearing. And our job is to rebuild that disappearing middle class. My family has the same story that millions of families have in this country. My dad came to the country at the age of 17 without a nickel in his pocket. He never made a lot of money, but he worked his entire life and was able to send two kids to college. Our vision today is that every kid in this country should have the right to go to college. Regardless of the income of his or her family. The people who work hard are entitled to earn decent wages. The wealth should be not just going to the top 1 . Today we have more People Living in poverty than at any time in history. Wie have the highest rate of any poverty of any on earth. We still have 40 Million People without Health Insurance and we remain the only nation in the industrialized world that does not guarantee health care as a right and we have got to change that. There a lot of angry people out there and you will see them on tv a lot of the times. Many of them are angry at the wrong people for the wrong reason. When you are in the wall Street Movement or whether you are in the tea party and you are conservative, you have a right to be angry given whats happening in the economy today. Today despite a revolution in technology that made every worker in america more productive, the fact of the matter is that the standard of living for working people continues to decline. Since 1999, the typical american family, the family right in the middle has seen a decline in income by over 5,000. Incredibly that family today earns less than 25 years ago. Do you want to know why people are angry . They are out there working long hours for low wages, women are working and men are working. You go to the high school and you find kids are working. They are working desperately hard and getting nowhere in a hurry and that is not where america should be. Yes, clearly not enough people know this. We are a lot better off than we were when george w. Bush left office and 700,000 people a month were losing their jobs. The system was on the verge of collapse. Yes, we are better off because we are creating talks. Nobody in this room believes we are anywhere near where we ought to be. Most of the new jobs created since the recession are parttime jobs and in fact they pay 23 less than the jobs lot of during the wall street collapse era. Heres something that i think all of you know. When you pick up the papers in the morning, they tell you that unemployment in america, official unemployment is 6. 1 . Thats official unemployment. Real unemployment including those people who have given up looking for work or those people who are working parttime is 12 . Youth unemployment, we dont talk about this at all. The kids were graduating and kids who dropped out are 20 . What went on in ferguson, missouri. What you dont know is that africanamerican youth unemployment is 35 . In the st. Louis area its higher than that. We have got to put the American People back to work. The federal government has to step up to the plate with a federal jobs program rebuilding the infrastructure. Im glad to see New Hampshire is doing something i know vermont is. Unless im mistaken, you can use more federal help. She right. I want to touch on another issue and i have to tell you. This is not an issue he discussed too much. You dont see a lot of people talking about it. Since 2001 we have seen the loss of over 60,000 factories. 60,000 factories. Millions of decent paying jobs. In my view, one, not the only, but one of the only reasons for that is a disasterous trade policy. A trade policy that said to Corporate America, here it is. You shut down things in america and you dont have to pay workers 15 or 20 an hour. You can hire people for 1 or 2 an hour in china. I am proud to you i have never voted for one of these trade agreements and i was right. Not so many years ago, not so many, the largest private sector employer in the United States was a Company Called general motors. They produced real products. They worked with good unions like the uaw. They paid their workers good wages and good benefits. That was the American Economy then. Today the largest private sector in america is walmart. Walmart pays wages that are so low that the people in the room end up subsidizing because many of the workers cant make it on the wages they receive and have to go on medicaid and food stamps. The owner of walmart is the walton family. The largest and most wealthy family in america. In my view, the wealthiest family in america does not need welfare from the middle class. Let them pay their workers a living wage. In terms of education in a highly competitive economy where we need the best i educated workforce in the world, right now as the governor indicated, we have the bright young people who have so much to add. They cant afford to go to college. Others are leaving school 40 and 50,000. She has 300,000 in debt. We need to make certain that every person and not just young people who need a Higher Education should be able to get that education regardless of the income of his or her family. The fact of the matter is in america that tens of millions of families are struggling hard to put food on the table. They are worried whether or not they would have the money to put gas in their car. If they dont get to work or lose their jobs, you know whats going to happen. While the middle class shrinks and so many people are living in poverty, the people on top are doing phenomenally well and the largest corporations are enjoying record breaking profits. Let me tell you something that you dont hear much about. When you talk about description of wealth, what do you have . What do you own . In terms of distribution of wealth, our country has the most unequal description of wealth and worse today than at any time since 1928. Today the top 1 owns about 37 of all wealth in america. Who wants to guess what the bottom 60 of the American People own . Whats your guess . The answer is 1. 7 . Let me say that again. The top 1 owns 37 of the wealth in america, the bottom 60 , everybody in this room together owns 1. 7 of the wealth. The top 1 10 of 1 , 13,000 families own over 23 of the wealth in america. That, brothers and sisters, is not what america is supposed to be about. We are a democracy, not an olegarchy. Today the walton family, family owns more wealth than the bottom 40 of the American People. In terms of income, that is what we make every single year. That 95 of all new england all income generated, yes, we have. For the middle class, it doesnt matter where the growth is 2 , 3 , 4 . 95 of all new income generated goes to the top 1 . Brothers and sisters, we have got to do better than that. Working families deserve a piece of the action. Everybody is concerned about education and we are concerned that teachers have been laid off. Local School Districts dont have the money to pay them. The 24 most lucrative Hedge Fund Managers made more income than 425,000 Public School teachers. That makes sense to neeb i know. I laid out some of the problems and let me tell you what i think we have to do. If we had a congress that has the guts to represent working families and not just them, the first thing we have to do and i think gene knows something about this. We have to overturn the Citizens United Supreme Court decision. No matter what you are concerned with, womens rights . You are interested in health care and education and job creation, you must be concerned. Now are capable of spending and are spending hundreds of millions of dollars. Men and women fought and died for. We have to overturn Citizens United and in my view move towards public funding of elections so everybody has a chance to run for office. As we mention a moment ago, if we are serious about creating jobs. What these guys tell us is we need to invest 3 trillion in roads, bridges and wastewater plants and the older schools. When we make that investment and transform the system away from them and deal with the crisis, you know what else we do, we create millions of decentpaying jobs. That should be a top priority for a congress that cares about working people. When we talk about the economy, clearly we all understand that the federal minimum wage of 7. 25 an hour is not a minimum wage. Its a starvation wage. We have to raise that to a living wage. One of the current phenomenon, i do not understand it. One would think that if you were the Koch Brothers and you had 80 billion in wealth and you just saw your wealth increase by 12 billion in the last year. In one year under the regime of barack obama. Think of what they would do if they had a republican. They did see a 12 billion increase. You ask yourself and the psychologists have got to deal with this, isnt 80 billion enough . How much more do you need to take care of your family . Thats right. It would seem to me that if these guys had any sense of decency, they would not be spending huge amounts of money on candidates whose job it is to cut Social Security, medicare, and medicaid. You can imagine having so much wealth, more money than anyone can dream of and spending their money not to improve the quality of life of our people, but to attack working people and the middle class. One of the goals of the Koch Brothers and others is to lower taxes for the wealthiest people in the country and largest corporations. You should all know that back in 1952, corporations contributed about 32 of the revenue coming into the federal government. Today the number is less than 10 . One out of four corporations in the country pays zero in taxes. We are losing 100 billion every year because these guys are stashing their money in the Cayman Islands and other tax havens. I say to the billionaire class, you cant run away from america to avoid paying taxes. We are going to demand you start paying your fair share of taxes this this country. I want to say a word about Social Security. The importance of Social Security. The fact that fleebl is the most Successful Development in the modern history of this country. A couple of years ago, there was a virtually United Republican Party and democrats who wanted to cut Social Security. What many of us do is reach out to veteranss organization. We rally millions and millions of people who made it clear did not have a balanced budget. And right now we have pushed them back and the goal right now is not to cut is how we expand to get Better Benefits out to the working people who need them. Let me conclude my remarks by telling you what we are up against in this election right now. People are unhappy about anybody and no matter what their point of view is, spending hundreds of millions of dollars in the campaign. We all recognize what more than democracy is about. There has been little discussion about why are the Koch Brothers spending so much money. What do they want . Interestingly enough back in 1980, he ran for Vice President of the United States on the Libertarian Party. They didnt get a lot of votes, but the Libertarian Party established their platform. I want to read to you just some of the what was in that platform. I believe they have not changed their views. It is important for you and the American People to understand what it means and why these guys are throwing money against him and other decent candidates. What do they want . What is their goal . What is their vision for a new america . Let me quote word for word from the Libertarian Party platform in 1980. We favor the abolition this is not the cut, we favor the abolition of medicare and medicaid programs. We favor the repeal of the fraudulent, virtually bankrupt and increasingly oppressive Social Security system. They are not talking about cut Social Security, but eliminating Social Security. We urge the repeal of federal Campaign Finance laws and the immediate abolition of the federal election commission. Do you know what that means . They are not content with Citizens United and having to do with independent expenditures. I want to give someone a check directly. Heres 50 million and this is what you say. That is now, by the way, the leadership of the republican party. All of you who work in the postal service, we propose the abolition of the governmental postal service. Right now gene and i and members of the house are fighting to raise the minimum wage. What many of you should understand, that republicans, many, not all, but many republicans in congress are not only opposing raising the minimum wage, they believe in a polishing the concept of the minimum wage. This is what the Koch Brothers said in 1980. That impedes the ability of any person to find employment such as minimum wage laws. Do you know what that means . If you were in a high unemployment area and they had 3 an hour. Thats it. No more job protection and no more safety regulations. This is the last point i want to are the to you. This is the last one. We oppose all government elite projects and aid to the poor programs. All these Government Programs are invading and inefficient. The proper source of such persons is the voluntary efforts for individuals. You know what that means . Goodbye head start and goodbye unemployment compensation. Goodbye pell grants and federal aid. Those are all gone. Their vision of america is where Corporate America and the billionaires have it all. If you are old and sick, maybe somebody will give you charity to deal with your cancer, but you wont have medicare. If you are poor, maybe a church or private charity will help you a little bit, but you wont have medicaid. That is their vision of america. What this campaign really is about, its not just fighting for security or decent wages or education. And there is a deeper meaning. The real issue and debating and whether or not we whether working people have rights and benefits. Whether we moved towards a form of society in which the economic and political life of the country. They were controlled by the millionaires. That is what this struggle is about. I believe from the bottom of my heart that while these guys have more money than you can dream of and they are prepared to spend hadnts of millions of dollars, the decandidates from working families, i believe when we stand together, we win because there a hell of a lot more of us than of them. Thank you very much. Voters are heading to the polls in states. Former massachusetts senator scott brown is vying for the republican nomination in New Hampshire senate race. The winner will face off this fall. Others are happening in new york, rhode island, and massachusetts. You can see the results from the races after the polls close and online at cspan. Org. Live tomorrow night, they were left vacant by tim johnson. The former senator Larry Pressler and gordon howie will participate in the first debate. The republican candidate in the race declined to participate. Here are a few of the comments recently received. I wanted to comment on the author for his book and it was an excellent conversation. He was good to listen to and he backed them up and i so appreciate that. We can change the feeling so that people can keep on ascending to the system. Your changes of your font at the bottom of the screen a couple of weeks ago and they had the election returns. They had a stretch all the way across the bottom results. You can read it and its so small and you cant read it. Appreciate with a different font or something where people can read it. The news agency are not doing nearly enough. We appreciate cspan and providing this information. On so many important issues. Let us know what you think about the programs you are watching. Call us and email us. You can send us a tweet at cspan comments. Veterans Affairs Secretary robert mcdonalds and acting Affairs Inspector general testified before the Senate Affairs commission and discussed the overall state of health care and detailed the findings into the va medical center. Senator Bernie Sanders of vermont shares the Veterans Affairs committee at north carolinas richard burr. This is 2 1 2 hours. Welcome to an important and productive hearing. We will be discussing some of the very serious issues facing the department of Veterans Affairs on the heels of the findings related to long wait times and poor patient care at the va. The report provides troubling details about a facility that failed to meet our nations obligation and to provide timely high quality care to veterans. What happened in phoenix is inexcusable and must never happen again in any va facility. I was did disappointed to learn the spex that they knew about inappropriate scheduling practices. In a telling exchange, when asked by a physician in hawaii to share best practices about how the phoenix va had presumably been able to reduce the patient wait time from 238 days down to days, quite a feat, the chief of primary care emailed a colleague and stated wonderful, not sure how to consider this. Can i just say smoke and mirrors. It was all smoke and mirrors. That individual is no longer with the va. The people who acted dishonorably in phoenix and elsewhere must be held accountable. Theimature of this problem is identified by the report and cannot be tolerated. They detailed numerous cases of poor patient care. In fact several of the cases raised serious concerns about two of phoenixs clinics. Reviews of patient files found problems with continuity of health care and delays in assignment to the psychiatrists or Mental Health Nurse Practitioner and limited access to psycho therapy. They discovered the Urology Service struggled to provide timely care and launched a separate investigation. A report will be released in due course. While the results of the report participates a troublesome picture, the ig was unable to conclusively assert the patientss died as the news media reports have speculated. I understand as a result of the attention focused on phoenix, they opened additional investigations at 93 sites of care as a result of receiving 445 allegations. Regarding manipulated wait time for the facilities. They will monitor the results of the investigations and use this information to use the oversight efforts in the future. Like most americans, i have concerns about the inability of veterans in various locations across the country to access care in a renal period of time. I wont go through all of the data, but the bottom line is the reports worked on by the va and they told us that tens and tens of thousands of veterans were unable to get the care they needed in a timely manner. What i hope we will learn today from the secretary and the ideas of the Inspector General, its in fact how that problem developed. How do we get rid of the tools and we will find out how he is utilizing that. Most importantly we want to learn how we go forward into the future to make sure these problems never occur again. They will bring them so we dont have the wait times again. I look forward to implementing that. There is a lot to go over in the hearing. We thank the Inspector General for being with us again. And i thank them for being here as well as the other witnesses. They are holding another hearing on the state of health care within the va focusing on the final report as it relates to the release last month as it relates to phoenix. When i say final, i realize that there many more yet to come. This will be crucial to the agencys ability to continue to get a handle on the problems. Since the last hearing on the state of health care, congress moved forward with ledge sligz stees health care and again, it was signed into law in august. This is the ability to choose the care. If va is unable to provide care within a timely manner outside of 40 miles from the va facility, this is an essential first step in the issues, there is still much more to be done. The work of this committee has just begun. As we move forward, it will be crucial for this committee to conduct aggressive overtight to ensure that the veterans are able to get the health care they need and deserve. The report demonstrates break downs in the system that allow systemic issues to take root not only in phoenix, but throughout the entire va system. I would like to highlight two issues that were identified in the final report. First the report describes the veterans who face either clinically significant delays or questionable care from the phoenix facility. They received sfefb suicides that occurred between january of 2012 and found veterans and five experienced b