Thank you very much, and thank you very much for everyone showing up this afternoon. Those were very generous comments and i am honored to be here today. At the stimson center, an institution named for and inspired by a man who helps guide the nation through some of the most difficult challenges that we have ever faced. And an organization that i remember calling upon for guidance and assistance on many occasions particularly when i was working for sam nun who i had the pleasure to work with for about 17 years. And i remember spending at the old office north of Dupont Circle many a day talking to bury and mike and the team of experts on proliferation issues, loose nukes, chemical and biological warfare issues. So its a Great Institution and its an honor to come back here. Little did i know two months ago, approximately two months ago when we got together and talked about this, how good stimson was and it really is today i realized how good they are. Two months ago when we picked this d
They clearly tell you what theyre going to do. But families can more often and better than the government decide what they want in their insurance policy than the government can decide what they want in their insurancepologies. The stacks of letters that m evy member of my staff got, about people who dont understand why they need policies that cover a half a dozen things had a they couldnt ever possibly use and who dont understand why now those policies are so expensive that they can no longer afford to have the policy that they had, who dont understand why cutting medicare to start a new Government Program makes sense because, mr. President , it didnt make sense and it doesnt make sense to cut a program that clearly is facing challenges as our society gets older to cut funding for that program by 600 billion or 700 billion over ten years so you could start a new program that the costs are clearly going to be so much more than anybody anticipated. Im pleased to join my friends today wh
A lesson in school. That will also help the process move faster. Ok. Thank you. Ok. Thank you. I think we have worked extensively with community groups, all of that, but one of the things on the other side of this is, from all the voter Interest Groups, political parties, media outlets, blogosphere bloggers now before we get to the next round of elections, tried to work out something so we can get the Accurate Information out to your voters. That is the goal of the Election Officials, get them all the information they need. One of the most significant problems was unusual reports that were inaccurate that had this Ripple Effect throughout the county that caused huge problems throughout the election. I urge everyone to start working those relationships out now. Get out the information. We have less and less and less information for voters, for media, for everyone. Build this relationship now. Ok. I want to take all little personal liberty here. I hope when i get back to work i will not
House republicans agreeing to suspend the debt ceiling in exchange for Senate Democrats agreeing to pass a budget. All this comes as deputy as defense secretary leon panetta prepares to retire and former nebraska senator chuck hagel awaits Senate Confirmation to take his place. Carter served for more than two years as the defense acquisition chief where he drove acquisition logistics and efficiency reforms becoming deputy secretary in october 2011. Dr. Carter great to have you back. Thanks, good to be here with you vago. Something thats been making headlines is secretary panetta changing the guidance to allow women to serve in combat roles that had been closed to them at one point on a standards based sort of way. But physical Fitness Standards arent the same for both sections. Are you guys sexes. Are you guys going to have to establish new standards to make sure they are up for the task . Were not going to change standards that matter for war fighting capability. And 237,000 now posit
Were talking about rock em sock em robots. Youre way older than me so you probably dont remember that. That is true. That was before my time. Or the hook. Pull him off stage. Give him the hook. Well, that i remember. I still fear that, by the way. You do . Let me ask you something. You can ask me whatever you want. If you and i meet on the phone and we discuss business i heard that. Its not a meeting. Unless you say its a meeting. Maybe okay come on. Come on. I just had a thought, maybe in this environment its a meeting. But a phone call is not necessarily a meeting. Its a conversation. When you say meet, that means what . You meet. Semantics. Either youve been talking with them about this same problem or you havent. And were in this same pickle. The fed says the states should do testing. The testing in the states. They say they cant get up to capacity. Then they have a meeting. They say they make progress and were still not ready anywhere. I just dont get it. I dont get why we cant ge