tankers. the news came on thursday from michael donnelly. >> today, based on all of the available criteria, and the results of a well-documented process, we announced that the air for has selted the proposal provided by the boeing company. >> boeing was a clear winner. >> boeing has a significant corporate presence here in washington. sean mccormack is a vice- governmentf boeing's operations. you have seen it here. a lot of people were surprised. describe the moment over a boeing when the announcement came. >> we were thrilled. there was a big cheer that went out when the secretary announced that boeing had won the contract. we had heard a few minutes earlier -- >> by law, you said it has to go on the website first. >> yes. there is an official public announcement. there was a lot of emotions that been going on for about 10 years. i think the predominant emotion was pride. >> shock on wall street and threw out a lot of corporate american businesses. why so little nfidence in the bid? why were so many people convinced that this contract was going -- >> certainly within boeing, we were well awa of theistory of the competition and what a tough competitor we were up against. they had a good airplane there were going to be bidding. we really sharpen our pencils. we were concerned that they are subsidized company, so we were concerned about what level they werere goioing to bid at in thts process. >> they are the european association, the parent company of airbus that did on this contract. there was a lot made over whether these were jobs being paid for with an air force contract. yohad a massive campaign saying this wld account for 50,000 jobs here in the u.s. leaves says they are going to have 48,000 jobs in alabama. why the push from going to suggest this was all about american jobs? >> first of all, we d did not think it was all about american jobs. we still think we have the best jet in the best oer for the air force for our men and women in uniform. >> your radio ad did not say we have the best jet. >> it was not all about the jobs -- admittedly, there was some discussion about jobs. a big part of this was this campaignas been going on for 10 years. a long time ago, politics started to surrounded this campaign. we would have like to have a discussion with the air force without any public relations or advertisingg. that was not the reality. we thought it was important to react to a lot of what we saw coming out of eaves about their job claims. it was only after that we put out what we thought was the right record of. >> at a pentagon official saying by all measures and they think boeing won fair and square. >> i think that we have a proven platform that is been proved over the years in terms of a commercial aircraftlatfm.. >> and let the people said your competitive tatanker was bigr. >> again, knocking down into the weeds, but we thought hours was more efficient, more effective, and lower costo operate in the long term. it incorporated newer technology frorom our newt commercial aircraft as well as some real innovations in boom technology. this is a modern airircraf their response to theesires of the war fighter. we answered their requirements. >> a lot of people very upset and crying foul as well as erse. le me read a quote. if youollow the political back and forth, you are left with a bitter aftftertaste. people were taking stock of which aircraft was the most american, which is a new category in this type of competition. do you expect them to appeal this decision? >> iannot comment on that. that is going to be up to them. everybody wishes politics never entetered into this. we feel as though we competed fair and honorably. ultimately, the air fce decided to go with our jet and we are very happy about that. >> $20 millilion, here is where the jobs were. a fraction othat spent -- what does $20 million in lobbying by you? >> first of all, we were competing against northrop grumman for a big part of this. there was a lot of money spent. it is not entirely devoted to the tanker contract. none of this, actually, get you anything more than somebody liening to your argument. people on n capitol hill -- thee are smart people and they are going to make up their own minds about things. >> the p pentagon says you won s fair and square. now, iis back to work. sean mccormack, thank you for joining us. cocoming up, business leaders worry if the government shutdown couldlow ththe recery in the washshington regioion. host: could switching to geico really save you 15% or more on car insurance? host: does it take two to tango? ♪ ♪ anncr: geico. 15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance. paul ? oh, hey, charlene. what are you doing ? this is to help me with my online investing. i'm so overwhelmed by jargon and trading tools and data that i need to get as much blood to my brain as possible, just to make sense of it all. touch the ball. whoa ! get sharebuilder from ing direct. hey, my headache's gone. >> welcome back. by this time next week, we will know if congress finds a way to give the govovernment running pt iday. also, the thousands of businesses in our regions that count on federal contracts. we have two guests. gigi godwin, president and ceo of the montgomery county chamber of commerce. and jy s stephenson with officepro. ladies, welcome. gigi, the greater washington board of trade is worried enough about the possibility that they have anmergcy symposium on tuesday to try to tell their members what to expect because of legalal ramifications. it is also open to non-members. what do you telling your members to prepare for? >> our members are talking to their own customers. we are advising them with the best information that we can get hold of it. what does it mea what will the shutdown actually look like? it is very unlikely that it will look like the last onen 1995. i think there is a big question aboutt what it will look like. >> your base is i in gaithersbu. i was surprised to learn that montgomery county is the second largest county in the nation when it comes to federal procurement contracts. >> we took an analysis of our upcoming contracts, indicating we could lose up to 50% of our business if the governmenshut down. >> explain to me what happens, gig. congress was able to decide to pay governmement employees retroactively. they got their pay checks back. how does it work for contractors? is there any recourse? >> basically, it is a situation t of the control of our clients. there will be class's better cancel that will not be restructured. >>ou will not be paid or reimbursed. you cannot get insurance to cove for government shutdowns so you must make other contingency plans. what do you advise your members? >> diversify. and they have done that a long time ago. i think for the federal contractors -- they have kwn what do the nose, which is that you should not have all your eggs in one basket. it is about having a relationship with the agency that you work with, or agencies, and having commercial clients so you can weather the unexpected. i think that you mentioned something very interesting. the lack of productivity that is never able to be reimbursed, but also losing it from our federal employees who are spending time trying to figure out how they are going to manage a possible shutdn and what that means. >> there are a lot of talk that there may not be the money and the will to get that retroactive pay. judy, you can diversify, the federal government wants and needs businesses like yours to exist. it saveshem money to contract it out. how frustrated are you? >> the thing is if if i ran my business that w, we would be out of business. there is uncertainty, the loss of revenue -- >> there would be a lawsuit that you would face if you suddenly canceled on a contract. >> reputation. as a business owner, your reputation is important. if you to give your clients the way, he would notot be in business. there is also a trickle-down effect. my vendors lose money. everybody sits idle. i have employeyees who are not being productive and cannot develop new business because what i spendinmy time on is managing existing business. >> we have state department offices and others, but there are other privatete-sector employees. you have owners in montgomery county, dry cleaners that have relocated, but there is nothing else. if those employees do not show up -- >> restaurant, cleaning services, security agencncies, o many kinds of companies that are affected by this. federal employees are not able to work as well as all the small businesses that depend on those contracts. >> it is a ripple effect through the whole economy. >> i think the other on into the consequence is the loss of confidence. a business could never do that and stay in business because of the ss of confidence on the part of the customer would be devastating. i think the customer in this case is the american people. i think there will b be a real concern. it did not go well last time. there were lot of unhappy people that showed up that did not have any -- >> it really had an impact on the economy. we are trying to recover now. a cannot be worse timing. hope for the best, plan for the worst. ladies, thank you for joining us. recent years have been brutal for the housing market. some figures show it is been a little less brutal for those of us in the washington market, but there was still plenty of painn to be felt here. new reresults show a home is woh 20% less today than it was in 2006. take comfort -- other cities have been far worse. lifornia has seen home prices loses 49%. washington homes have appreciated 124% on average since 1991. we will be back with our reporter roundtable. stay with us. with fios, when you're watching the picture, it just jumps out at you. -it was like, "wow!" -bam! 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[ male announcer ] get fios tv, internet and phone for this great price, plus $100 back. call 1.866.699.fios. call the verizon center for customers with disabilities that's 1.866.699.3467. at 800-974-6006 tty/v. fios. a network k ead. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> welcome back. as barack oba's team tries to prepare foror their next presidt will campaig, of their creed has become employment. it is at least a week for the rereporter roundtable. joining us, jennifer nycz-conner fr the "washington business journal" and kate andersen brower. "i am trying to come up with all these ideas to create new jobs." what did he ask of them? >> he said he has had pnty of meetings talking about jobs and the economy. he wants them to go out and have meetings and discuss ways to stimulate the economy. he also heard from a lot of the ceo's about the problems they are seeing. the american express ceo says a lot of people are not using their credit cards as often as that is a big concern because people are holding back because of the uncertainty in the economy. the president says he wants to go ahead and give people the confidence. >> you also went to cleveland this week where h met with small business leaders, promising to put a focus on small business. it is not going to be a jobless recovery, a lot of those jobs will have to come from small businesses. >> it was his 12th trip to ohio since boming presisident one analyst says ohio is the new michigan because they have lost so many jobsbs. his message was i am here to listen to your problems. a a lot of what he heard where e was talking to the small business figures was problems access to capital, to grow, problems with education, finding workers that are skilled to do these jobs. it was an interesting back-and- forth. it was a different break out session with different cabinet officials. treasury secretary tim geithner was among them. his message is he wants the states to work together, talking about forming another silicon valley and having governors work together across borders to find areas where states can create and innovavate new products. >> jennifer, you have been hearing it all along. there was real concerned about the possibility of a government shututdown into washington area and a stopgap measure to get a temporary funding bill. it is unlikely, i still think, but there is a real possibility. what do you see? > what is interesting, we are different than a lot of other cities around the country because the federal government is right here. if the shutdown happens, it is the restaurants, the hotels, the smithsonian. tourism is a big industry here. >> we s the impact last time when that happene, almost a month o government shut down. >> for a couple of days, tourists could go to different locations, but that whole trip set got messed up. a lot of jobs here are federally-based. >> what are you hearing behind closed doors? >> j kearney has said this could impact on social security checks getting to people. there has been discussion about air traffic controllers, food inspectors. the white house has been very quiet about this. they say they are hopeful there will be a resolution and say there will b be contingency plas in place but they are not releasing the specifics about how many people could show up if there is a shutdown. they say they are prepared but i think the goal is to try to get democrats and republicans to come to some kind of understanding. >> the gl, n the reality. it sounds like there is not an appetite on either side for a shutdown. >> speaker john boehner bj his spokesman i spoke with earlier and said they do not want to pass a continuing resolution without any cuts. it is unclear what kind of appetite there is for that among democrats. >> a huge surprise over the boeing award. one of your writers said do not pop the champagne just yet, boeing. they did last night. they were shocked. they did not expect to get this award. boeing plans and saying nothing. everyone had to scramble. what do you see coming out of this? >> there are still all kinds of things thahat could happen. my colleague was the one who noted do not pop the champagne jsut yet. >> yet the pentagon saying they cannot wait. even if there is an appeal, our executive producer did the math. the youngest of thehe tankers wl qualify for aarp membership in three years. the pentag say they will not wait this long. we will see if the taxpayers -- we will see if the bill gets overturned. there is something in that in the economy somewhere. [laughter] ladies, thank you so much for joining us a protest with us, we will explant theumber of the ek wn we come back. it iss 6.7 million. [music playing] america's beverage companies are working gegether to put more information right up front... ng new calorie labels to every single can, bote,e, and pack they produce... so you can make the choice that's right for you. forty years ago, he wasn't worried about retirement. he'd yet to hear of mutual funds, iras, or annuities. back then, he had something more important to do. he wasn't focused on his future but fortunately, somebody else was. at usaa we provide retirement solutions for our military, veterans and their families. from investments... to life insurance... to health care options. learn more with our free usaa retirement guide. call 877-242sasaa. >> welcome back. our number for this week is $6.7 million. that is how much the two sides battling over the tanker contracts spentn print advertising alone. boeing spendnd $5 million. a those figures do not include the tens of millions dollars spent on post sides by lobbying plus all those radio ads that you probably heard it. well, that is all for us of this week. we hope to have you next week for "washinington business repot ." you cann go to our website to watch the show. thank you for curtis: welcome back to geico radio, it's savings, on the radio. gecko: kate from mill valley, it's all yours. kate: well, i'm shopping for my first car. gecko: nice! i do hope you'll choose geico and save a good bit of cash... curtis: what color is the car? i bet you'd look great in a blue car. kate: no...actually, i'm torn between a fuel-injected inline-6 and a higher torque turbo diesel.