Reports or goods. A lot of us have been to singapore and we see how these city states are also becoming magnets for a lot of the production, not necessarily the innovation work. And deborah mentioned the p3s. My companies headquartered abroad are familiar with publicprivate partnerships. England went there about three decades ago. Deborah mentioned brazil and chile. China. Oh, china. I am also mentioning chile, who have built a really good private sector with public involvement. The u. S. Is not set up as well to accept some of that investment. It is interesting. I am going to bring this up because i am an enormous nerd. You watch a company like elon musks tesla. Elon musk came out with the idea for the hyperloop, an entirely new type of transportation infrastructure that would lower the time between San Francisco to l. A. To about 30 minutes. What was fascinating to me is how people said that will never work, you cannot do that in this country, we cannot build anything this big. The politics would be too complicated. The reaction to that idea, whether you think it is crazy or not, was fascinating to me. There seems to be this attitude in the United States that we cannot do the big, new things. And this is the country that invented the big, new thing. As you look at all of this infrastructure investment, to what extent has the United States lost its ability to do those really large, important things . Out in the you went street and asked the American People who is the biggest manufacturer in the world, oh, china. Really . No, we are. Who is the most efficient manufacturer in the world with a few specific exceptions . We are. Where are people coming to do more manufacturing . Us. There are all sorts of big, new things going on all the time. We have been fracking for 69 years. The ability to do horizontal fracking and all of that kind of stuff has made the cost of energy in the United States compared to europe which, by the way, is critical to the United States. Europe is our largest import market. Look at what we have done to drive the energy here down to a quarter of what it is. Look at what we have done by the way, there is one bad thing. We have taken 45 of the jobs out of the manufacturing business. Supply rid of chain management, now we are a with people without jobs and we have jobs without people because we need really skilled folks to do this. We are a sophisticated we are the most reductive economy in the world. A lot of our big ideas are going on right under our nose. But i do absolutely agree that people look at the United States and wonder now, can we do it or will we do it . And is a fundamental issue that problem is not all about government or people around the world. It is all about our own citizens, who have gotten comfortable, do not like conflict. Do not like risk. Do not like to work too hard. I think we need to stop and think with our children and our grandchildren, what are their futures . Talk about the energy side of this. I read a rarities of good news that the United States could become one of if not the leading oil producer in the world in the coming decades. That is a conversation that i cannot imagine us having 20 years ago. It was very doom and gloom about energy in this country. Now the Energy Picture is changing. How does that change the and whatcture piece you are going to do . Five years ago, we would be hardpressed to find that cover station, that the United States could become the world leader when it comes to energy production. That to your previous question. What we have been able to is an example of those big ideas that the private sector has been producing in this country. Thereen to believe that is no limit to what americans are willing to try to achieve. I want to add one little note. I think it does factor into our ability to maintain this edge or this leadership position on energy production. It is the government role. Complacency and conventional wisdom that americas best days are i should not say conventional wisdom, but some would say that americas best days are behind us. That is ridiculous. One of the reasons that that is ridiculous is because, at some point, the American People are going to rebel against the government that is taxing too much, regulating too much, that is saying that we cannot do things that we could not do in the past. I think energy is a perfect example of that. So what we have been able to achieve on the energy front will ourw us to maintain economic leadership. But it is in doubt as well. You are starting to see new rules coming out on fracking or an effort to centralize the rulemaking process. The states are doing a great job when it comes to maintaining Public Safety and health and ensuring that fracking is done in a responsible manner. We have politics at play when it comes to permitting lng exports. We have got to move past that. I think several people have indicated that this is not just a problem that has occurred, this competitiveness issue is not something that happened in the last five years. For manufacturers, we have been lastated to death over the 30 years. That has been in administrations republican and democrat. Upt is why every one of us here are talking about Regulatory Reform, competitiveness. And the importance of Regulatory Reform when it comes to ensuring a 21stcentury infrastructure program. Energy is definitely a key. It can lead the way and show us the path forward to breaking through these political barriers in washington. That andd jump in on say that we should be also thinking, and we do, of our regulatory capital cost system as an infrastructure. Unfortunately, we have allowed ourselves to be competing globally with other competitors who do not want to compete on that. They want to compete on the higher value products and services they provide. We are being toppled by that. An example, we are talking about the energy and the potential of for theergy weak and, first time, being energy strong, geopoliticale security implications. Obviously, what is happening in russia and other parts of the world. For every study that has ever been done, says that our product huge,ity laws are a hostile set of behaviors for innovation. And talk about where a lot of the next generation asks us where we put we have known examples of companies who will not be put here because of our product. One thing i wanted to say in referencing the fracking and all of that, this gets back to the publicprivate partnerships and the appropriate role for the government. The Actual Research and development that enabled horizontal drilling and fracking really started 30 years ago. With investments in the department of energy. Is exciting thing about that if we look at the next iteration of that, there is work underway in our National Laboratories to develop new processes to move into this fracking area, not having to use as much water, not having to use chemicals that give concern to the environmentalists. Also, related to energy and manufacturing, to begin to develop synthetic rare earth materials, which will have huge implications for everything we are talking about here, manufacturing, competitiveness, the whole industry. I want everyone to start thinking of questions because i know your questions are going to be better than mine. We will go to some q a as well. One last point about energy. In the cfo survey we did of over 100 cfos of foreignbased companies in the United States, energy ranked as one of the most positive reasons that these companies are investing here, manufacturing here, using the u. S. As an export platform. What was interesting, if we did some cross tags and looked at the Energy Companies themselves, they are the most pessimistic because they are worried about regulation. They are worried about standardization and rules coming down the road that might interrupt their Business Plan that they know that they can be successful. So energy is one of our top competitive advantages. The Energy Companies themselves within my membership are concerned about the future. Tom, you had a point too. I think it is absolutely appropriate to get around to energy, but i want to make one point about energy. There is only one absolutely major crisis facing the United States that we all know is there and nobody wants to talk about. Thes the ugly elephant in room and everybody turns their back to pretend it is not there. 10 years from now, we will be in a situation where the federal government will have grown its 6get from 3. 8 trillion to trillion. 66 for entitlements. On the debt. Est when we get finished, like 22 or the military and Everything Else that our government does at home and abroad. Including infrastructure. Everything has got to be in that. Basically, the number gets huge and most of the money goes to two things. , medicare,itlements medicaid, social security, military entitlements and so on. Around for ang long time and the reason we would not look at the elephant is we did not know what to do. People living longer and longer. By the way, i like that. [laughter] longer and longer and the costs are getting greater and greater. What are we going to do . We found some things that we can do to help. , ifears from now, we will we do it right, if we do not let people stick their heads in the sand and pretend it is not something we have to deal with, we will develop the American Energy system to the point where we can take a big bite out of that entitlement deal. And if we do not, we are really in trouble. I have to jump in and say that if you look at two sectors of our economy that do not have theuctivity, they are Education System and the healthcare system. That tells you something right there. That we are not having systems that have productivity growth and all of that as well. The solution to the entitlements, you can look around the world. A country like israel, very innovative in what they are doing. They decided they were going to increase the age before people could get their social security. We are already doing that. But we are still working on 1930 models of actuary tables, for the most part. That could immediately have a huge impact if we could get bipartisan agreement to increase that. I want to ask you all about congress, bipartisan agreements, and what this particular congress is capable of. I also want to make sure that we have a chance for people to ask westerns. I know we have some folks roaming the halls with microphones. I cannot see all of the folks over there, so if anybody is raising their hand, let me know if there are questions in the back. I do want to get everybody involved here as well. Talk a little bit about this congress. Completelyems to be pessimistic about it. It is the ability to do anything, even the mustpass , because of the gridlock on capitol hill. Listening to you all, or you get the sense that this is a pressing problem, has to be dealt with, crucial for the future of the u. S. Economy . What faith do you have that congress can rise to the occasion and do something this year even the gridlock and the political mess that we have seen and given the fact that there is an election coming up . I will put you on the hot seat. No problem. The perfect issue for the election coming up, because the public supports modernizing our infrastructure. I am an optimist. I know a lot of people are betting against Congress Taking any action this year. But the timing of the highway now,running out for right these are great issues that i think the public can get behind with strong leadership. What is your sense of this congress . Can do a congress that stuff or is this a congress that will want to get home and campaign and stay in the trenches . Particular point, i am not as optimistic that they are going to do anything big. I think they will do some incremental things around the margin. I do think that we have a huge opportunity to be setting the stage for the next election. And to make the case that, ultimately, and tom alluded to this and i think jay did as well, we are talking about fundamental Security Issues as well. You talk about Homeland Security challenge. Know this,appen, we our transportation, our water. If we do not have water, we are going to have a week before people start dying without water. Also presenting this is much to National Security is very critical. I am not as optimistic. My colleagues are. Are you still optimistic . I am optimistic. If you look at eight period of time from now until the elections, there are some things we have to do or are getting set to do. Everybody talks about lameduck deals. Every now and then, every three decades or something, we will have one that does a lot of stuff. Believe that there that wee or four things will have a shot before they are finished. Deals we will get a tax done. Taking those away would be another huge tax increase on american industry, which would affect jobs. I do believe that we are absolutely crazy if we do not take advantage of having passed out of theion bill senate. Going back to do it again might be harder. And do something rational in the house and put it together. Lets get the three or four things we really need there. And we have a lot of heat on that. And we are going to put a lot more. You think immigration is doable this year . Yes. Really . Yes. You are more optimistic than i am. Lex i will give you three reasons. If the republicans do not do it, they should not bother to run a candidate in 2016. I mean, think about that. Think about who the voters are. I just did that to get everybodys attention. Everybody should immediately t, by that, tweet tha the way. I want that to get out there. We are a nation without jobs and jobs without people. You need all of these people that we are training in the universities. The best universities in the world and we tell them to go home. When you do that, you send the work to where the people are. The third reason we need to do this, and i will have another one, the bottom level of work is people who are seasoned workers. People in agriculture, you talked about health care. I will tell you a line of business we know something about. We just did a big thing last week and that is the retired people in Nursing Homes and Retirement Homes and all of that. A lot ofen giving speeches and saying, if you do not want to do this immigration thing, you are going to go to the nursing home and pick up your mother in law and bring her home. Right. If you do not have a labor force working and generating these entitlements, you do not have the ability to take care of america could sit down for a minute, put a chalkboard up and say, look, we have five or six things that are really a challenge. He have immigration because we have all of the issues we just talked about. We talked about entitlements, energy, infrastructure. Four or five of those things and put them together and reasonable people can look at it and say, you know, we can do that. All we have to do is decide to do it. If you look at what has gone on in the primaries, where people are now getting focused on trying to elect people of both parties that are going to go to washington and get something done. Jay, where do you stand . For those in the audience who is committed to this, this is a unified position in the business community. I do think that Immigration Reform does give you an idea of what can be accomplished. Think it will get done this year. I think it will happen in the lameduck session, the final piece of legislation. Maybe i think that, too, but i am not what you think and what you say that would be the fallback. For manufacturers, Immigration Reform is imperative. Tom mentioned the workforce issue that we are all experiencing. There are 600,000 jobs in manufacturing today. This immigration bill can go a long way towards helping us fill those positions. More importantly than that, the pathway is essential to manufacturers because we work very hard to build communities. Thatu take our present law is current to its natural conclusion, we would be ripping apart communities and the fabric of this nation. Manufacturers are committed to that. You are also committed to getting things done. We need to see some Movement Forward on trade. Something every president since Franklin Roosevelt has had. It is essential to increasing our economic footprint on the world. Get to infrastructure and you have a different issue. If this thing goes belly up in july, even before the september expiration of the current bill i used to work for a governor. George allen in virginia. Effective whenas it came to talking to members of congress about how structured funding was impacting our ability, as a state, to do our jobs. There were 50 governors, but the republicans and democrats were pounding on the doors of congress. When the American People are saying, look, you cannot hold up our states ability to fix roads, to build new roads, to provide easier ways for us to by thework and back and, way, we really do care because we work for a living. We care about getting the goods that we are producing to our customers. The American People want to send a strong message and i never doubt the ability of congress of governors to force congress to get things done. Let me open it up to questions. We have a lot of people who want to jump in here. Let me start to my left and then we will go to my right. Right here in the middle. Go ahead. If you could give us your name and organization as well. I am bob hirschi. I am a consultant. To what extent can you use the internet to try to get people together and get an economic consensus and get the money together to get things done . Can you use the internet . I also throw into that social media in terms of mobilizing support for what it is you want to do. Does that give you an ad