a picture of malia inside, me giving her a hug. i love this case and the first prototype was made at a techshop and now you've got a whole bunch of people who have a business and who are employed there and they're manufacturing and selling all across the country. so, we have the opportunity to grow ideas here in the united states, create businesses, create opportunities and all of this is happening in part because state, local and federal governments are also taking an interest in how can we promote manufacturing more effectively. we've got some people here who have done a great job doing that. you've got your own mayor, bill padudo, the mayor of pittsburgh who's here. we've got county executive gerald who's here as well. and we've got one of your outstanding senators, bob casey who's here as well. all of these guys are great champions for what we're trying to do, and a lot of my agenda for economic development in the next couple of years revolves around how do we spur more manufacturing, more home grown ideas, more research and development? already we've been able to get 80 cities to commit to working in a public/private partnership to generate more manufacturing efforts in their respective cities. we've created four high tech advanced manufacturing hubs, and we have budgeted to create a whole lot more around the country. and some of it has to do with advanced materials, some of it has to do with 3d printing. the idea is to build an ecosystem, a network of companies, universities, researchers, entrepreneurs all of whom start really focusing and becoming experts on a particular facet of industry for the future. that's how we're going to build more and more niches that allow us to dominate the market and sell more products made in america, not just here in the united states but overseas. so, we've got a lot of possibilities, but we're going to have to continue to make some important investments and i'm here to tell you that as long as i'm president at least one of my top priorities is going to be to continue to build up manufacturing because i want to make sure that if you work hard in this country, if you've got a good idea, if you're willing to put in some sweat equity, that you can make it here in america and live out your american dream because when we have an economy that works, not just from the top down but from the bottom up, and everybody's got a stake and everybody's doing well, everybody's pulling in the same direction, that's when our economy grows best. our economy does not grow as well when it just works for a few at the very top and ordinary workers or small business people get squeezed. and i think this is an enormous opportunity for us to take advantage of. so that's what i wanted to say at the top. now what i want to do is just hear from you, questions, comments, ideas. we've got about 45 minutes. i'll try to keep my answers short if your questions are short. and i'm going to start off with mark. >> thank you, mr. president, for the opportunity to host you here. first as a former green beret, thank you for going in and getting that guy and letting our folks do their job. >> absolutely. >> it's a big deal. you're hosting the white house maker fair tomorrow and so i want to bridge the advanced manufacturing to makers. i'm just curious now that you've been through this phase, you've heard some of the stories, how do you see the maker movement playing into your objective of helping manufacturing in the u.s.? >> great question. tomorrow i'm going to be hosting the first white house maker fair, and for those of you who are less familiar, there is an entire movement across the country of people who are recognizing that with new technology, that the tinkerers, the people who are working in their garage who are coming up with an idea, that the barriers to entry, the capitol they have to put in to work up the ideas are drastically reduced. what we decided is let's invite a whole bunch of folks who come up with wonderful stuff some products that they're selling, some that they've made for themselves, students, entrepreneurs, let's bring them to the white house to share ideas and network a little bit and so we can highlight some of the tremendous work that's already being done out there. and, you know, part of my goal has been to use the power of the presidency to highlight some great stuff that's already going on throughout the country. we've now had several science fairs because i'm trying to encourage young people to look at science, math, technology, engineering as a critical profession if we're going to maintain our innovative edge in this global economy. the maker's fair is the next iteration of that. in order for us to stay ahead in regards to innovation, and we remain the most innovative country by far, we've got to have basic research, we've got to have skills like math and science and engineering that are developed, but we also have to provide platforms for people once they have these ideas to go out there and actually make stuff and so the maker fair is an extension of this broader effort that we've been trying to make, including significant investments. we've seen an increase in federal funding of basic research around manufacturing, for example. we've boosted by about 30% because we want more people to remember what it is that made us an economic super power in the first place. it wasn't just the financial sector and a lot of the parts of the economy that become dominant today. it was folks like thomas edison, it was the guys at hp in their garage coming up with new ideas, willing to take risks, willing to experiment. in the past that kind of innovation and entrepreneurship has been a driver of our economy, but there are a lot of people with good ideas who have difficulty getting started because getting the equipment they needed in order to get started was often cost prohibitive. technology allows us to lower those costs. now we've got to make sure that we are taking advantage of these new opportunities. who else? don't be shy. this looks like a pretty -- pretty knowledgeable group here. yes. what's your name? introduce yourself before you ask a question. >> i'm the vice provost of design at carnegie melon. welcome. i have an additional question for you. all of the maker paradigms that you are mentioning, because they accommodate many different learning styles, we also have the ability to enhance and diversify the stem pipeline. how do you think we go about increasing the access to learning through making in the k-12 line especially in underserved areas? >> it is a great question and this is not a plant, but the -- part of what i'm working with around a arnie duncan, our secretary of education, is how do we start reforming and reimagining how the k-12 process works, but particularly high school? there are basic skills that our kids need. they need to write, they need to read, they need basic numeracy, but too often what happens in high school is kids are just sitting in a classroom and they're being lectured to. now there are great teachers out there, and in some cases, you know, subjects like organic chemistry, you just need to focus, you need to hit the books and there aren't a lot of shortcuts, but young people have different learning styles and not everybody is going to necessarily go to a four-year college or university. not everybody is going to be interested in french literature. there are some folks who they just want to -- they're going to learn by doing and so what we've been trying to encourage is are there ways for us to introduce apprenticeships, models for high school in which kids are working at the same time as they're going to school. you know, so if you want to be a graphic designer, you've still got to take the basic classes but are there ways of designing those classes around you also working with a graphic designer who's already on the job and you can get a concrete sense of what's possible? i did -- i do usually three commencements a year, one is a high school commencement. i just did a commencement at worcester tech in -- right outside of boston and the principal there is amazing. young woman. she was voted national principal of the year, but they have boosted their math scores by 100%, their reading scores by 200% and they have in house in the university by partnering with businesses, they've got a veterinary clinic, they have a car detailing shop, they've got a computer design program and so kids actually participate and are running businesses even as they are learning, and that kind of hands-on approach oftentimes is going to be a lot more effective and a lot more relevant to these young people. a whole bunch of them are going to go on to community colleges, some of them are going to go to four-year universities, some of them may work for a while, for five years, and then be once they have a better sense of the skills they need in the occupation that they're interested in, they'll go back to school. but giving kids a bunch of different pathways to suit their interests, i think you're going to end up producing better outcomes. one last point as far as stem education, we're trying to focus on not only how do we get best practices spread among teachers to teach math and science so that it's not just classroom learning and kids are less intimidated, we're really focusing on girls and minority students who are often under represented in stem education. that's been a major focus of our education reform efforts. yeah? do we have a mic up here? here we go. >> on a similar note, my name is ashvol. i'm a painter. i print my paintings. i'm a new mom. i have an 8-month-old at home. i'm curious in your experience, are you finding that entrepreneurs, people that are members of the techshop across the country, are you finding that this is becoming more conducive for women and for mothers? because it's very hard for me to juggle child care and i find oftentimes men don't struggle as much as i do with balancing that. i'm hoping it's changing in our favor. i know you mentioned that you hope you're finding more girls becoming interested in this as a career path, but it's certainly -- i'm one out of every ten that's here in the techshop. i'm hoping that you're finding that's changing. >> well, i will tell you the challenges of women in the workplace exist whether you're an entrepreneur or you are taking a more conventional route, which is part of the reason why next week we will be having an all day summit on working families. and part of our focus here is how do we make sure that families in general but women in particular are able to achieve and succeed in the marketplace without being penalized for also doing their most important job, which is making sure that our kids turn out well. and that means equal pay for equal work, that means increasing the minimum wage because women are disproportionately represented in low income occupations. it means making sure that we've got a credible child care network. we probably have as bad a child care safety net as any developed country and we need to be doing a lot better on that front. and so the interesting thing is what we're finding is a lot of companies are realizing that family friendly policies end up being good business, not just the right thing to do. people are more productive. you know, michelle talks about how when she worked at the university of chicago hospital, her first interview she actually brought sasha into the meeting with the ceo. she just wanted to see, all right, how's he going to respond? sasha was still in the bassinet, the car seat thing, and -- because her point to her employer was this is who i am. i think i can do a really good job, but it means that if i have to take her to a pediatrician, i don't want to have to argue about whether or not i can do that. and if you are supportive of my efforts with my family, then you're going to get 110% out of me but you've got to have some flexibility in terms of time and so forth. a lot of employers i think are starting to realize that. it's harder for smaller businesses because if you only have four or five employees, it's harder to build in that flexibility. that's where federal policies, tax policies, child care policies, that can make a difference. it's not just to help the individual, it's also to help the small business who may not have the resources that a google or a ford motor company might have in terms of creating a more family friendly workplace. but this is an area that we're going to have to spend more time on. and, by the way, i just want to emphasize this, this is not a women's issue, this is a family issue. women now bring in close to half of all income and there are a whole lot of families out there where the woman is the primary bread winner. you know, if michelle is not being paid fairly, then that's not helping me. i want her to get what -- you know, what she rightfully deserves. i want her being paid the same as a man doing the same job because that is helping our family. i will say the first lady is kind of a bad example because the first lady doesn't get paid and she works pretty hard. obviously we're okay. so -- but the truth is, this is a family issue and also, by the way, more men, fathers, we just had father's day a couple of days ago, more men want to be involved in their kids' childhood as well and so, you know, flexibility, family leave, those are all policies that are critically important to all of us. yeah? >> hi, mr. president. my name is jayon way. i lead our efforts at life shell, a pittsburgh startup that uses smartphone cases to prevent sexual assault. >> that's excellent. it's good to know sidwell graduates are doing something with their lives. my kids go to sidwell. >> my questions are the white house and the various task forces, what can young startups do to aid the white house in its task forces and how can we participate in these movements and make sure our efforts are best utilized. >> we find out what you're thinking of with technology more efficiently. obviously the issue of sexual assault is something all of us should be alarmed by. i think you've seen an increase in awareness, an increase in reporting, but it is still way too pervasive. and, you know, recently we have been taking on not only sexual assault on college campuses but also in our military where, you know, as commander in chief i've said to our top brass, you will be measured in part, your performance, in how well you do in changing a culture here in which sexual assault is still way too common. so we've got an ongoing task force. what we'll do is get in contact with you and find out the kind of work that you're doing. i'm assuming if you're talking about smart phones, part of the tool here is the ability for people to alert using a smartphone, friends, family, law enforcement quickly if they find themselves in a tough situation and they can press a button and they don't have to be fumbling around and dialing, which i think is a great idea. let's see if we can highlight it and find out more about it. i'd love, by the way, my team, if we have my tea somewhere. i have a cup of tea somewhere. i know it's out there somewhere. have somebody bring it up for me. yes. right there. >> hello, mr. president. i'm jean fry. i'm originally from detroit. i'm living in pittsburgh. have been here for 30 years. you obviously know the history of manufacturing and i understand the situation with families and such. i have a little bit of a unique situation. i'm going to be 60 in february and i am -- have been a stay-at-home mom and now going through a divorce. i've been placed in a job through techshop or the maker program. i'm grateful for that. i'm wondering what's going to happen in my life getting kind of a late start in the work force again, you know, as far as am i ever going to be able to retire? things like that. >> well, there are a couple questions involved there. first of all, i don't want to sugar coat it. it is tougher to lose your job when you're in your 50s or early 60s because employers oftentimes -- it may be unspoken and they may not even be conscious of the bias, oftentimes they're thinking let me hire the 20 something or 30 something year old if i'm going to make an investment in them, then they'll potentially be working for a long time. one thing that's helped, by the way, is the affordable care act because in the past a lot of employers thought to themselves, if i have an older worker, that means that i may have higher health care costs. we have seen over the last three years the slowest increase in health care costs in 50 years for small employers, oftentimes their employees may be able to get health care through the affordable care act where the employer him or herself can't provide health care so that's helped. so, i would argue that oftentimes older workers are the best workers. they've got experience. they know how to work with others. they are -- they've gone through a lot of the things that younger workers have to go through to settle down a little bit. i won't mention specifics but they are less likely to go out late at night after work, for example. so in terms of reliability, skill, conscientiousness, i think that older workers are a great investment, particularly because people are healthier now and they're living longer and they're taking care of themselves more, but older workers who lose their jobs have to recognize that they are probably going to have to adapt and retool in order to get an opportunity. you know, if you lose your job at 55, you may not be able to be in the same industry that you were in before and you may have to spend a little bit of time at school. you may have to make a pitch to an employer, give me a chance for a short time and let me show you what i can do. it's not always fair but that may be what's required. >> i went to school, too, at my age. i'm straddled with $30,000 worth of debt and it feels i can't get a job. there's that added. >> well, look, the whole issue of student debt is something that all of us have to address in a serious way, and we're spending a lot of time focusing on universities that -- and colleges to keep their costs down. and we've gotten legislation that got voted down by republicans in congress most recently to allow people to refinance their student debt. that's got to be a priority as well. but the good news is that the economy now has produced more than 9 million jobs over the last 4 1/2 years and so although the economy is still healing, generally the employment outlook now is better than it's been since the great recession since i came into office. that then means that as there are more job openings, it's a little bit more of a -- applicants are going to have a little bit more leverage in terms of possibly getting hired and that means that some folks who had been discouraged from getting into the workplace over the last several years are going to start finding that their skills are a little more appreciated than they are in the past. yeah. >> hi, mr. president. my name is john naples. i'm he a journey man union sheet metal worker. i take part in the makership project at techshop which helps people develop skills to place them in solid middle class jobs. i run a volunteer welding focus group on thursdays. anyway, my ultimate goal is to start my own business and i prefer to use organized labor because i know the level of our training and the pride that we take in our work and i want to know how you think becoming a union contractor and using union labor can help an upstart business or entrepreneur be successful and how can we make it easier for people like me to make the transition from union un worker to business owner? >> pittsburgh historically has been a union town. america was built by workers who over time through a lot of struggle got the right to bargain collectively. i don't think it's an exaggeration to say the middle class was built in part because unions were able to negotiate weekends and overtime and benefits, things that now non-union workers take for granted. well, you got those because unions were out there fighting for you for a very long time. now it's no secret that unions have been back on their heels for the past couple of decades. part of that is the globalization of the economy. companies say we can move anywhere now that supply chains are dictated more by technology, you know, cost of transportation has dropped, and that has given unions less leverage. and so only a small percentage of private sector jobs now are unioniz unionized. i would continue to argue that we should do everything we can to strengthen unions in this country. unions have to be flexible. unions have to recognize that if you are working for a company, that that company has to have a bottom line. they're competing against non-union labor as well. the good news though is that typically union workers know how to do the job and so what you can -- what you may lose incrementally because you're paying slightly higher wages or higher benefits you're gaining in skills, reliability, productivity. and if you can create a culture where employers and workers feel both invested, those are the companies that succeed over time and can thrive. now if you're an entrepreneur, if you're starting off and you are a skilled tradesman, i think the challenges in terms of that transition are the same as for everybody who wants to start a business. typically the issue is, can you get capital to start it up? are you able to market what you do in a way that gets you customers? are you able to run your business efficiently enough that you actually get in the black at some point? are you willing to put in a whole lot of extra hours because if you're used to getting paid overtime but you now own the business, it doesn't really matter if you're paying yourself overtime because it's coming out of your pocket anyway. and so, you know, sometimes that transition i think is going to be tough, but i don't think the transition is going to b coming of a trade as anybody who's starting a business. it's hard starting a small business, and the majority of small business startups fail. the interesting thing is, the united states remains the place where people are most willing to try and start something up and take those risks. and, you know, part of what we should be doing is encouraging that culture. when it comes to small businesses, for example, they were the hardest hit during the recession. what we did was we significantly increased the amount of small business loans that we were willing to give, and we cut down some of the red tape to help people access that financing more quickly. we cut taxes about 18 times for small businesses to incentivize them to hire new workers, invest in new equipment, et cetera. i'm constantly looking for ways that we can encourage small business formation, but having said all that, if you're the guy who is actually starting something up, it doesn't matter whether it's a restaurant, you're trying to become a contractor, or you're trying to start a high tech manufacturing firm, you're going to be putting in a lot of hours and your odds of success are still, you know, going to be challenging. on the other hand, that's what america's all about, taking some risks. good luck. yeah? >> thank you for taking my question. my name is gordon kirkwood and i'm working out of techshop here with a smart startup called whimsey engineering. i've previously been in graduate school and not felt the access with places like techshop to operate cutting edge equipment, to cut metal, plastic, machines that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. so personally i found this to be a great enabler, but i'm thinking about what could facilitate this sort of enabling for people in other cities and, you know, i can only imagine an incredible revival in american manufacturing and invention if more people had access to this sort of cheap -- for the cost of a smartphone or a gym membership to be able to have access to lasers that will cut, you know -- or water jets that will cut through plate steel and welding and making anything. so in the context of other costs that other cities incur, like roads, for instance, and i understand that, you know, for a mile of highway road, you know, or for city road, you know, it's a couple hundred thousand dollars. for a city road according to our guy in highway construction, i understand it's up to a million or two for a mile. when you start looking in terms of that cost, i wonder if we can promote this sort of access to take those risks at lower risk to your pocket better by promoting these in more cities and -- >> well, look, the -- one of the things that we're already doing as part of our overall effort is to find ways that we can make the resources of the federal government more available to the general public. so, for example, the department of energy, which has some cutting-edge technology and laboratories, if, in fact, they are not being utilized 100% are there ways in which in a controlled way we can give more access to these assets for companies that are trying to start something up? you know, one of the things that we're looking at is nasa which has incredible equipment. you know, are they able to work with companies in their areas so that there may be certain hours or certain periods of time where folks with proper training are able to use some of these assets? i mean, in some ways part of what technology has enabled is the same thing that's driving something like uber or, you know, air b and b, this concept of share economy. well, the federal government has a lot of assets. can we figure out ways in which when those assets are being under utilized, somebody who might be able to utilize them could use them? and so i think we're thinking more creatively about that. another example is the federal government possesses incredible amounts of data, and one of the things that we've been doing a lot with the high tech community is thinking about with proper restrictions to protect privacy and so forth, are there ways for us to generate some of this big data that then ends up being the platform by which we can come up with applications on a smartphone? essentially all the weather apps that you have on your phone are all based on data that the government collected, national weather service and -- which is why, by the way, when there's a government shutdown, people should remember the government does a lot of things you just don't notice and that a lot of businesses rely on. but there are whole hosts of other bits of data that are embedded. you know, google maps in part started with the fact that there's a whole bunch of maps out there that are already part of the public record and data has already been collected, and if you can make that accessible, that then suddenly becomes an opportunity for somebody creaa e creatively to look at that data in new ways and create useful services and products. this is an area i think we're going to continue to explore. obviously we've got to -- and i can't have -- i can't rent out the space shuttle to you or whatever. i mean, there are going to be some, you know -- some particle collider that's worth a billion dollar that i don't want you messing around with. i want physicists in there doing the work, but what we know is that there are areas where we can, in fact, enhance what's already being done by companies like techshop. universities, by the way, are in the same situation. universities have a lot of access or generally have the capital to make large investments, particularly big research universities. obviously their first and primary mission is to educate, but the more we can encourage partnerships with universities and local businesses, the possibilities of collaboration and economies of scale, the possibilities of us saving money and creating more entrepreneurship opportunities are going to grow. and, look, a city -- you mentioned earlier about moving from detroit to pittsburgh. if you think about the contrast between pittsburgh and detroit, and there are obviously a lot of reasons why some cities were able to bounce back when manufacturing started taking a beating, part of it was pittsburgh had these incredible anchor universities that created the ability to diversify their economies, your economy in a way that was a little tougher for detroit to do. but every city that is succeeding today in this global marketplace has to have some mechanism where the private sector is collaborating with the public sector with universities because nobody can do it alone. okay. yeah. right there. right in front of you. yeah. >> hi. i'm ann lopez and i'm the founder and ceo of a company called romeo delivers. >> i'm sorry, what's it called? >> romeo delivers. >> tell me about romeo delivers. >> we're on a mission to help strengthen relationships. >> i see. okay. so -- so what exactly is romeo delivering? >> it's -- >> that's -- this is a family friendly show. >> it is. we're a family friendly business as well. and we just really believe that there are ways that couples can be communicating and interacting on a more fun and romantic way, that i think because of the digital age that we've been texting and things doesn't replace that physical interaction, like writing notes to each other, doing things like that. so we design and manufacture products that inspire that. >> right. >> i would love to ask you for some examples of things that you have found that are important in your relationship and that maybe you do as an example for your kids that really show that you're caring because you're traveling so much and some examples of someone who's busy. >> yeah. yeah. you know, without getting too personal, i will say this, that some of this is generational, but i do find that malia and sasha's generation, they're so -- they live so much on their phones that it's harder for them to create, maintain keepsakes and objects that show attachment, relationships, et cetera. i think it's a great idea. now to her credit, malia, for example, wrote me a letter for father's day which obviously was a lot more important to me than if she had just texted a little emoji or whatever those things are. and, you know, i am a big believer in our kids making stuff and, you know, when i think about the gifts that have been most precious to me and the things that i think have been most precious to them, it's something that i did as opposed to something that i bought. so, i probably could have used your service. you could have given me some even better ideas. my craftsmanship has not always been excellent, but -- but i do think that, you know, part of what is -- part of what's interesting in this moment in our economy is also what's scary about it. very few people are going to live and work in one company for 30 years. that -- that -- that model doesn't exist. there's just too much disruption because technology moves too quickly and globalization moves too quickly. and so the skill dsets that we want to pass on to our kids are the basics, communications, numeracy, things like that, but it's also the ability to create, to adapt, to get an idea, execute that idea. and what's exciting is is that people have more tools than they've ever had in their hands to do that. that's true whether it's manufacturing, that's true whether it's managing relationships, that's true whether you want to start a business. so individuals have been empowered, that's an exciting moment, because it gives us an opportunity to tap into more creativity than ever before. the flip side of it is that you are going to have to adapt and retool and get new skills and be able to understand new technologies much more rapidly than the previous generation did. and so there's that adaptability that has to be built in to everything we do and we have to be able to pass that on to our kids. but i'll look up on your website. i'll see if i can get some new ideas for michelle. thanks. last question. gentleman right here. go ahead. >> good afternoon, sir. my name is larry lesniack. we have a family business. we build weaving looms for fiber artists over the u.s. we use techshops as part of our capability. using some of your examples, children being creative, people being able to access these technologies. one of the things we did in public/private partnerships, we donated a 3d printer to our local library. it has been hugely successful. we'd like to continue with that by adding small laser, small cnc. that idea of making it publicly available, we have one of the smallest libraries that has the technology available. that's another means of putting these tools in the hands of the public and in fact to people across all age spectrums. we focus very appropriately on formal education up through community colleges and stuff, but having that available to anybody who wants to take the small training course and come in and create something they've designed is a powerful concept. we can leverage the local libraries to accomplish that. >> that's a great idea. i'm a big library guy anyway. i love librarians. a shout out to all librarians out there. but you're absolutely right that what you're seeing around the country is libraries having to adapt and retool. i still love books and i still love, you know, the feel of turning a page and going into a library, but the truth of the matter is is that the amount of space you need for storage in a library has changed, reading patterns have changed, people are a lot more tech savvy, visual than they used to be, and what that means is is that the library as a central repository for information, that needs to be adapted to the 21st century. and the idea of using libraries as a center point or as a focal point along with universities, along with public schools, along with certain government agencies where people can access the tools to make things i think is a great idea. and so hopefully some librarians are out there listening. generally the federal government doesn't manage libraries so this -- you know, talk to the mayor here. i'll bet he's got some pull maybe with the libraries here in pittsburgh, but i think it's a wonderful idea. let me just close by saying this. i want to repeat. manufacturing is doing better than it's done in the last -- any time in the last 20 years. we're seeing more entrepreneurship in manufacturing than we've seen in the last 20 years, more manufacturing startups. large manufacturers who had moved overseas are starting to bring manufacturing back in part because our workers are so productive. we remain the largest and most prosperous market in the world and because of things like energy costs that are a lot lower here in the united states than they are in a lot of other places in the country. so we've got a lot of things going for us. the one thing that's inhibiting us is we are not maximizing government policies that would give an extra boost to manufacturing. you were mentioning roads earlier. we've got $2 trillion worth of deferred maintenance, roads, bridges, water systems, a smart grid that can transmit energy more efficiently, an air traffic control system that could cut airline emissions by 30%, fuel costs by 30% which would actually potentially lower airline ticket prices and reduce delays. all of that would be a huge boost to manufacturing and those jobs can't be exported because they've got to be -- you know, by definition, if you're rebuilding infrastructure, it's got to be done here. the fact that congress has not been willing to take me up so far on my proposal to aggressively fund infrastructure right now makes no sense. we would reduce our unemployment rate, put hardhats back to work right now and the spinoffs would be enormous. we know that if we changed our tax code so that instead of giving tax loopholes to things that aren't producing economic value and instead are incentivizing and reducing the tax burden on small startups and folks who are doing manufacturing, that would give a boost to our economy right now. so there are just certain steps that we can be taking to accelerate the great work that's already being done around the country, building off what the private sector does but leveraging it, investing more in research and development. that always has big payoffs. making sure that we're investing in our community colleges so that our workers are trained for the jobs that are actually created. you know, this is a challenging and competitive time, but as i told you before, if you ask companies where is the best place to do business, they say the united states of america. that's where we want to invest in. that's the first time they've said that in over a decade. people think we've got the best cards, but we've got to use them, and that requires congress breaking out of this mentality that says if i propose it, they're opposed to it. i'm talking obviously about the republicans. and we're not going to agree on everything, but we can agree on some basic steps that historically weren't partisan. infrastructure didn't used to be partisan. eisenhower worked with the democrats building their state highway system. research and development didn't used to be partisan. that was something everybody agreed was important to make and government had to make those investments in some cases because private sector just couldn't justify the costs of true basic research. making sure that our -- we had the best university system in the world and that it was accessible. when i went to school the amount of debt that i took out for my entire undergraduate education, and i got some grants and i worked while i was there, but i basically paid off my entire my entire student debt my first year out of school. i had to take a job i didn't like that much to do it, but i knocked it out. kids these days are just as hard working if not more hard working and conscientious as i am. they're still coming out with $25,000, $30,000 worth of debt. we can do something about that. so i don't -- i want everybody to feel optimistic and hopeful about the future of manufacturing and the future of s entrepreneurship and the future of the american economy and our huge advantage in innovation, but i want also everybody to be paying attention to the debates that are taking place in washington and don't just take for granted that somehow gridlock is inevitable or that we don't have good policies that we could be pursuing right now. we do. the reason we don't pursue them is because of politics. and we got one party that just decides, you know, they want to say no to everything because they're looking at the next election instead of what's good for the next generation. all of you inspire confidence in me. and if that's reflected in how we operate in washington, i think we're going to do just fine. all right? thanks, everybody. ♪ two house sub kmit tees examine the sergeant bowe bergdahl prisoner exchange today on capitol hill. members will hear from a former commander of special forces in afghanistan and an army specialist who served with sergeant bergdahl. live coverage at 2:00 p.m. eastern here on c-span 3. the thesis of the book is that there's a whole group of people in america, in fact a big swath of america, that is being ignored, left behind, not included in the discussion, i think, for either party. particularly, though, i would argue the republican party. and that's -- i call them blue collar conservatives. you know, the folks out there that are working people. most of them don't have college degrees. folks that -- that really still understand the value of work and the importance of work and responsibility. and people of -- who understand the importance of family and faith, believe in freedom and limited government. so you would say, well, wow, those are conservative republican voters. and in many cases, they're not. in fact, a lot of them aren't voting at all because they don't really see either party talking to them about the concerns they have in trying to create an opportunity for them to live the american dream zpl former pennsylvania senator and presidential candidate rick santorum argues that working americans have been abandoned by both political parties and offers conservative answers to their problems. saturday night at 10:00 eastern on "after words." part of book tv this weekend on c-span 2. this month on our online book club we're discussing "amity shlaes' "the forgotten man." book tv. television for serious readers. so the idea behind 250 & 250 is instead of trying to tell the entire history of st. louis as a timeline or sort of era by era we would absolutely miss vitally important things. instead of trying to do that and failing we decided what if we just gave snapshots of st. louis' history that would give people a glimpse of all the diverse things that have happened here and they could use their imaginations to kind of fill in the rest. so we chose 50 people, 50 places, 50 moments, 50 images and 50 objects and tried to choose the most diverse selection we possibly could. we're standing in the 50 objects section of the 250 & 250 exhibit right now. this is what most people would call the real history. this is where the object is right in front of you. brewing is such a huge part of st. louis's history. it's an amazing story with lots of different breweries. and, of course, the most famous became anheuser busch when they were the largest in the world. in the era of anheuser-busch talking about millions of barrels produced each year, we think they're producing so much beer, this is from an era when things were a little bit simpler. and it's fun to show people this object and kind of gauge their response. in the days before they had cans or bottle caps, they put corks in the top of bottles. and somebody had to sit on this thing and do it by hand. you can see it's got foot pedals on the bottom. that's where the operator would push down with his feet to give the cork enough force to go into the bottle. it's got three holes for three different size bottles. >> this weekend, the history and literary life of st. louis. the gateway to the west. on c-span 2's book tv and c-span 3's american history tv. we take you live now to capitol hill where general motors ceo may barra is testifying this morning, will be testifying before a house subcommittee about gm's internal investigation relating to the company's ignition switch recall. in april ms. barra declined to answer many of the questions posed by lawmakers during hearings saying that she wanted to wait for findings of that internal investigation. that report released earlier this month cleared ms. barra and her executive team of any wrong doing, but criticized the bureaucracy in which senior managers shirk responsibility and lower level engineers either concealed or overlooked vital information. this is the subcommittee of the house energy on oversight -- oversight subcommittee of house energy. and throughout the day, throughout the hearing we are interested in what you think. we're asking you the question, how much do you trust gm? we'll let you weigh in on facebook. also on twitter. #c-spanchat. if we get a chance later today, too, we'll take your phone calls as well. this goes back to february when "the washington post" writes the automaker began recalling 2.6 million chevrolet cobalts and other models equipped with the defective ignition switch. that recall has been followed by dozens of others. on monday the automaker recalled 3.16 million cars in the united states to fix an ignition problem similar to the one in the cobalts and other small cars, prompting concern about membering of congress. fred upton is the chairman of the overall committee. he was quoted in the "washington post" saying this latest recall raises even more questions about just how persuasive -- pervasive, rather, safety problems are at gm. so we will stay here live with the hearing expected to get under way shortly here on c-span 3. in the center of the screen, top of the dais is diana degette. you saw some of the audience gathered. some of that audience will include families of victims and victims affected by issues with gm cars. they held a news conference on capitol hill that was attended by joan clayburk who used to head the national highway traffic safety administration. this hearing set to get under way with general motors ceo mary barra scheduled to testify.