as far as covering economic issues, it is a great question. again, i come back to a lot of today -- a lot of today has been sent -- spent in a hair pulling a fire in brimstone demotion or mood. this is a time we're getting information about a candidate and about a platform is far easier than it ever has been be. -- has ever been. you can go online and with two clicks, be getting as much of mitt romney's tax plan as you care to read. or as much of the -- of newt gingrich's plans. it is difficult when you talk about the media in a broad perspective. at the "denver post" level, we do not -- our reporters are focused on state government. on city hall. we have a reporter in d.c. who is in charge of keeping up with the congressional delegation. the nine officials we have out there. the parts of the massive federal government that affect the western states. we do not often have the luxury to cover presidential politics. in the way that you are asking about. when barack obama comes to town, if -- as he is done quite a bit because we are a swing state, we try very hard on our team to find out what his message is going to be with his speeches. we try to figure out whether he is pitching to high school students for college students who are dealing with debt and a down economy when they are taking out loans so that they can get a job and then it is hard to get a job once they are done with school. we try not to just do the horse race. we tried to cover it in a way that if he did not get to go to the event, you feel like you were there with a video offering and or blogging in tweeting. we also tried to -- we tried to have the reporters deal with that particular topic is part of their deal and say, this is the politics of it. this is what it is intended to accomplish. if you strip away, you're the realities, challenges. here is what he's up against. your student loans explained in a way that you can understand. guest: let us have the -- >> let us have the obvious attempt in -- the audience jump in peoria >>. >> i am an engineer and i got into the old business because years ago i had this naive idea that it getting value from the ground was something that did not offend anybody else. that was not at someone else's expense. i have been involved in the lobbying and in various activities for many, many years. i was involved in the sagebrush rebellion in the 70's. one thing you learn out of that is what a messy, messy group they are. they're all going in 17 different ways. that is what i like about the tea party movement. they are missing movement. [laughter] they not have an idealism they can stay with the. whenever you look at occupy wall street, i get the impression that what ever else you say, they are basically saying the same thing, which means that it is not a true movement. but it is a force fed propaganda. and you look at things different ways. >> a question for the panel? [laughter] >> in 98 -- 1990, i debated with exxon mobile flat tax versus the income tax system we have. i took a position that we were better off with an income tax system we had rather than flat tax for all the evil potential that was in the flat tax. the problem has come to this day something entirely different. the tax base in this country is less than 30% of its members. only 30% of us are not net pay years. how are we going to address the fact that we are about to the road our entire tax base for this country? -- erode our entire tax base for this country? >> i am going to give the panel a minute so they can address that. >> i am glad you brought out the flat tax because in 1986 when reagan enacted the reduction of 50% to 28%, that would have created a windfall of revenue for the state of colorado. the legislature came to the independent institute at that time and janitors was president and they said, we are interested in a flat tax. would you come up with a neutral flat tax for colorado? john came to me and i came up with the best number i could -- 440%. we met with leadership and they said, we are not sure about 4%. we will set it at 5%. john, bless his heart, said no. he does the higher. we do not need another tax increase. we will defend pork -- 4.2%. we were proven right. the effect of that 5% was colorado did capture the windfall. i know that economics is boring. economics is a dismal science, right? [laughter] this is important stuff. you need to understand what happens. essentially, and colorado, we created one of the best tax climate in that country. we created one of the highest rates of economic growth in the 1990's. a lot of that was a result of a more efficient tax system and by the way, more equitable. that also shifted the tax burden to the upper income group because we broadband the base -- broaden the base. >> have been the media cover taxes in a way that is not dismal? -- how can the media cover taxes in a way that is not dismal? [laughter] we will leave it there. >> i would like to see our media at -- this will never happen, but in a perfect world, the media could tell some great stories about rich people. and the phenomenal things they do. we have a man coming into scrapes the river in southern colorado. he is paying $50 million out of his own pocket to do this. the opponents want the $50 million to go to poor people and send people's kids through school. if we can tell a story of this guy coming in and how many jobs he is going to create for people who can really use them right now and we could tell the stories of immigrants who are here illegally for producing 10 or 20 times with the consent, then we can imitate the way things are seen in this country. >> are those the stories you would like to see? >> i would love to. i would love to hear the stories of the values of the investments and what it means to people to have a robust public education allowing them to go on to be more productive. i would love to hear those stories because i think that all of this is in the middle. we are neither a right or left that is right. we have a system that is a system, not an individually- driven enterprise. we have got to have the story so that we can figure out how it is that we all work together for the better of all of us, not for the better or the detriment of one group or another. >> you are in a story telling business. >> we love to tell good stories. you know, we endeavor to do that day in and day of. and as we get it right and some is we right boring stories. -- some days we get it right and some days we bright bowring stores. certain folks who used to be considered entrepreneurs, do they find themselves in the hot seat? that is a great question. certain organizations in the media will handle it different ways. we understand that on some basic level, well as opposed to create wealth. i do not think we have redefined ideals as we approach stories rick -- is we approach stories. >> another question? wait for the microphone. >> my question is going to something that you said, carol. we should be investing more to public works. i am studying economics right now. how can -- government cannot produce anything. that is not israel. -- its role. how can we invest in public works to grow at the economy? can you explain why we should invest more into public works? >> i would be happy to. i think there is a point and i am not a phd economist. when i sat with one, i am nervous. -- sit with one, i am nervous to talk about the design of the system. structure, market there are efficiencies that are achieved not by individual producers, but by collector production. transportation, education, national defense are some of the places that we have found, historic plea -- historical, that is the case. those investments we are not making right now. i think that the debate is that, what are the choices? what we invested together as opposed to individual pursuit? you cannot deny that the designer says there are places where the market fails. we need to have the response. the political discussion is, how big is that? what are those areas? how do we support that? that is the conversation i want to have, not the one about taxes and government being bad or that rich people are dead. that is what -- rich people are being dead. that is what our political conflict is. how do we balance these things? how do we make it so that transportation is not the responsibility of the individual business. because it is a collective in share value that we are -- all benefit from and productivity results. >> we will take one more question. in the front. >> hello. i am a student here at ccu. effort occupy wall street mention a couple of times and i have a friend who is a reporter who has talked to me about that. everything i have seen as far as the media goes towards them is not portrayed about how i talk to him about that because he kind of supports that movement, but the media, whether it be in a wall street and new york city, the local here, everything i see, whether on the newspaper war on tv, is not representative of how -- id is not an intelligent kind of representation of what the real people. everybody is jumping on the bandwagon. the media is portraying like a difference in on that. how can we not -- a different spin on that. how can we not -- i do not think the media is giving inaccurate portrayal of -- giving an accurate portrayal. i am skeptical. >> both the left and the right to object to the media coverage. one more question. >> we had our own version in occupy, denver. that was vigorous. they still come out of there -- ert defections appear people who are not in the movement that are still sleeping on the sidewalk. there are people organized and to beat irregularly into certain kind of organized protests. but, i have been in the occupied denver camp and we have had several reporters spend huge amounts of time in their effort over there during that time it was at its peak. if you talk to 70 different people, you have 27 different positions. -- 17 different people, you 27 different positions. that was very difficult. people want to restore lands to the indians. some people wanted to do with the environment. some people want to screw the rich man. some people wanted to redistribute the wealth. what have you. as a newspaper with only some in the column inches, we spent a lot of ink and money on that protest. it is difficult to sum that up. so, again, i urge folks when i talk to them about discussions like this to realize this discussion gets overly simple but sometimes when you mentioned the idea that media -- the idea of media. there post a comment and those who report. we try to report the what about -- we tried to report what people are doing. it is up to other people in the opinion section of the media universe to talk about what it all means be. i think because it was so amorphous, it landed itself to commentaries on both sides. this is an attack against the rich or the poor. anyway, that is my two since. >> we will leave it it there. two-by-four occupied the space. [laughter] -- thank you for occupying the space. [laughter] [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] >> live to washington, d.c., this is a georgetown university law center were the justice department will be hosting a summit this afternoon on consumer protection issues. the event will start with remarks by attorney general eric holder and other senior officials. they will have three panels following focusing on the elderly, tax scams, and business opportunity scams. the obama administration has estimated this week as national consumer protection week. we expect that attorney general eric holder will be along shortly. we understand he is about five minutes or -- or so away. president obama head to texas this afternoon. he has three vans. one of which you will see online at c-span.org at 6:15 p.m. eastern. \ the documentary about the president to attack campaign about the term in office we did president's campaign about his term in office is going to be released next week. we will show you a preview right now. >> how do we understand as president and his time in office? do we look at the day's headlines? do we remember what we as a country have been through? >> president has named the members of the economic team and they fly in for the first big briefing on the economy. >> what was described in that meeting was an economic crisis beyond anything anybody had imagined it. >> hard time of standing -- our time of putting off the decision has surely past. -- passed. >> people ask where to begin. which need would he put >> greater than greater than which is one, two, three, four, five. >> if we do not do this now, and we will be a generation before 30 million people have health insurance. >> if the auto industry goes down, what happens to american manufacturing? jobs in america? what happens to the whole midwest? >> entire national security apparatus was in that room. we had to make a decision. go or not go. >> as he walked out of the room, he is all alone. this is his decision. nobody is standing there with him. ♪ >> again, that film being released next week. we are back live at any event hosted by the justice department looking at consumer protection issues. three panels this afternoon. they will look at consumer protection for the elderly, tax scams, and also a business opportunity scams. a number of justice department officials, federal trade commission officials, and others will speak as will the attorney general, eric holder, a look at the whole thing started in a few minutes. h >> this event is just about to start. the obama administration has designated this week as consumer protection week. this is a summit on consumer protection issues. the attorney general will speak first. he will have three panels on the elderly, tax scams, and business opportunity scams. the folks from the justice department and also federal trade commission, as well as a number of officials from state attorney general offices -- marilyn, california, and indiana to name a few. >> thank you, ladies and judgment. it good afternoon. thank you for being here. my name is michael. i want to thank georgetown university law center for hosting this very specially event that we have had and are having here today. hensarling sahlin influential leaders throughout the department of justice -- and for allowing influential leaders throughout the department of justice and other agencies and offices as well as nine different consumer protection groups to gather together under one roof and to talk about critical issues that affect millions of americans all across the country, every day. four weeks ago today, united states attorney general eric holder announced the creation of the consumer protection group, punctuating his commitment to preventing and prosecuting fraud against some of our most vulnerable citizens. during his time as attorney general, he has charged civil attorneys and criminal prosecutors to use all the resources in their arsenal to enhance their enforcement of consumer fraud. these efforts have been met with tremendous success. under attorney general holder's leadership and years resolve to protect consumers, we have forged partnerships with the consumer advocates here today and we will continue to do so through the consumer protection working group and defense like this one. ladies and gentlemen, it is with great honor for me to introduce this afternoon's for speaker, the attorney general, eric holder. [applause] >> good afternoon. >> that afternoon. >> good afternoon. >> afternoon. thank you for that introduction and a leader as the fraught -- of up fraud enforcement tax forced -- task force. it is a pleasure to join with you and so many dedicated colleagues and partners as we begin today's important conversation. i want to thank you all, especially our panelists for being a part of what i think is truly a historic summit. i cannot think of a better way to commemorate and raise awareness of consumer protection week then for this group of stakeholders, experts, and advocates to join forces in examining the challenges we face in identifying the solutions that the american people deserve. in this conversation, i am especially grateful for the commitment and engagement of the members of the consumer protection working group. it is a newly formed initiative opening as part of the financial fraud enforcement task force. i would like to recognize director michael blume and all of the co-chairs. tony west, who listen to the our associate attorney general. lanny breuer of the criminal division. andr birotte, of the central district of california. director david vladeck of the bureau of consumer protection and kent markus, the head of the enforcement. today is the work -- today as the working group gathers for the second time since its inaugural meeting, i want to express my gratitude for your leadership and for your dedication and protecting the safety and economic security of consumers across the country. these are goals and these are responsibilities that we all share. each one of us has a role in fulfilling them. for me, and for today's department of justice, protecting american consumers is a top priority. as we have rededicate ourselves to this work in recent years, we have also learned some lessons. primarily, fully understanding the threats that consumers face and protecting their interests in a comprehensive way is not something the justice department can achieve on its own. we cannot simply prosecute our way out of this problem. so, we need your help. uighur perspective. we need your expertise. uighur talents. -- we need your talents. that is what this day is all about. earlier, this afternoon, we kicked off an important and unprecedented conversation between this working group's leaders and the consumer advocates. we talked about strategy. to enhance consumer fraud -- awareness about fraud crimes and ways to report them. ordinary citizens will have the knowledge they need to fight back. building on the momentum established in the fight against consumer fraud. as a result of this discussion, we formed partnerships with federal law enforcement officials, regulatory agencies, and key state and local authorities. we have been able to gain access to the white away of tools -- wide array of tools we will need to continue the work that is underway and to bring this fight to the next level. especially in these times of great economic challenges, i recognize the need to move aggressively to combat these crimes. that has never been more important. the department of justice and so many of the consumer groups represented here have responded to these threats, now with the spare, but with resolve. -- despair, but with resolve. during the last year, we achieved a 95% conviction rate. they recovered over $900 million for criminal and civil fines. they obtain sentences totaling over 125 years of imprisonment against more than 30 individuals. these achievements build on the remarkable success of the financial fraud enforcement task force, which is helping to secure convictions against those responsible for a wide variety of consumer scams. including telemarketing schemes, fraudulent job- training, and referral services, and even enterprise is generated over $75 million in loss and victimize a 350,000 small businesses by placing unauthorized charges on its people -- on people's phone bills. since april when i established a new part known as the oil and gas price from a working group, we have been focused on identifying a civil -- criminal violations in the oil and gas markets and insuring that american consumers are not harmed by it -- unlawful conduct. conduct. this working group's latest meeting was held at the justice department this morning, and members discussed a variety of topics, including the role of speculators in the market. recent