We are now going to hear a piece, the final for romeo and juliet. Thank you so much. s. Should okay mexico [applause] [applause] good evening, good evening. Lets give the members of the National Washington opera another round of applause. [applause] my name is jon samuels i had the distinct privilege of introducing the director of this smithsonian natural portrait gallery. The first woman to serve as a director of this missoni at National Portrait gallery has been exploring new ways to place personal experience and creativity at the center of learning and awareness. Ladies and gentlemen i present to some been introduced to others the director of the smithsonian National Portrait gallery. [applause] good evening. I want to welcome you to the smithsonian at the National Portrait gallery. When congress founded the museum it was with the understanding that we would select comic display tell the stories of individuals who have made a major contribution to the u. S. History and culture. As w
Give taken a particular interest. You go there lots a what draws you up there . A couple of things. Canada as in northern nation. That is what, one of the things that makes us distinct from the United States. Whereas in canada, the United States, you say go west to find your identity. In this country, it has always been go north. That is the part of the country that defines our identity and has so much promise in terms of its abundant resources. I do want to say this one of the things we tried to do as a government, with some success, is we come to office with two views but too often in the past, were seeing. One is that this government is extremely proamerican. The valiant the relationship with the United States. We could not be in a better situation than to have the United States as our only real labor, closest economic partner and oldham of the allied. And ally. At the same time, were Strong Canadian nationalists and think in our own modest way. We see no incompatibility with that.
Will i and and of the security council. The colonization of that land continues. Well, i think that it is important to make that case and it is a very powerful and powerfully felt case among the palestinians. Their flights will only be alleviated if there is a successful negotiation between the parties. It is not possible they would not be wise to disregard all israeli concerns. Those concerns have to be made known as well. Israel has to know that they can live in peace and security, just as palestinians need to know they can live in a viable state. It is very important to understand both sides of the argument and i dont think that is where very good example of that. [inaudible] and the government over the past two years, it has been rejected by the Palestinian Authority. Yet it does require bilateral talks. I think that there is, as i was indicating a few minutes ago, faults on both sides when it comes to efforts to have negotiations of the last few years. Israel has been wanting to n
Concerned today than i was a day or two ago. In the sense at the moment policymakers are moving in opposite directions. In part thats the ways of washington and i think well see a few collapses before we ultimately get together somewhere in the days before christmas on a compromise. We have been talking about marginal tax rates, which i think are a key part not only of the budget question, but a key part of the broader economic question in terms of Economic Growth. And im hopeful that any solution that comes together is going to think a lot about Economic Growth and not just budgets. Host ethan . Guest i think i may be a little more hopeful than alex is. I think that theres a general agreement that the sequester will happen. Republicans and democrats and the president are all opposed to it happening. Theres also a consensus right and left it would be bad for the economy. So i think that when we are just looking at the tax component, there are certain things that we kev knitly definitel
Today. And the order of business will be that i will start with an Opening Statement, provide some background, and will yield to mr. Cummings this morning, and other members who wish to be heard, then well turn to our witnesses. Well hear from all of them and then go to questions. Pleased to welcome, again, everyone this morning. Now, this is one of a number, we have actually held fourth in a series of full Committee Oversight hearings on amtrak and u. S. Passenger rail policy in the United States. We actually have two more scheduled. One will be on thursday, december 3, and that will focus on high speed and inner city Passenger Rail grant program. And then well have the final hearing on this important subject. Thursday, the 13th of december, and that will be on the northeast corridor. Ironically yesterday i was back in new york city actually looking at some of the flood and storm damage. Many of the transportation infrastructure facilities were adversely impacted, huge amount of damag