Dedicated staff here at George Washington university, to our media partners, cbs news and sirius xm, at our incredible production team. Thanks for helping the Bipartisan Policy Center sponsor this wonderful debate. Its the fourth in in a seriy the senate project. Tonight promises to be an interesting and informative discussion on some of the most Critical Issues facing our country and our world. We are honored that senator chris coons and senator marco rubio agree to participate in this important program. Thanks to both of them. As you saw in those two mccready is the genesis of the senate project came from to make u. S. Senators who had very different points of view but look for Common Ground. You will be hearing from store tom daschle in just a moment, with more on the relationship and what it meant for the senate as ann institution and for our country and all of us. I also had the privilege of calamity with senators kennedy and hats during my time as education secretary during the george w. Bush administration hatch if they set a standard for bipartisanship. There are few people i would like t to recognize. After leaving the Senate Earlier this year, the team at the Bipartisan Policy Center had the good sense to reach out to senator roy blunt. During his time in congress, he became a leader in looking for ways to work across the aisle. Senator blunt is not an executive fellow at theth bpc, d we honored to have his expertise. Bruce personally is the chairman of the edward m. Kennedy institute for the u. S. Senate, joined by hiske executive direcr adam hines. Met sandra and is executive director of the orrin g Hatch Foundation. Matt spent 15 years as senator hatches chief of staff. I also want to welcome frank, the culture of the commission on president ial debates. He knows a thing or two about debates and we are pleased he could be with us. Thank you, frank. This is my first day as president and ceo of the bipartisanic policy center. In addition to serving as a cabinet secretary my career has taken me to the College Campus as president off the university of North Carolina system, and until just a few weeks ago president and ceo of texas 2036, an organization addressing the most important issues for texas in advance of its bicentennial. My new challenge is here as we nd mission of the ppc. I will be the first to admit that bipartisanship may not appeal to the most extreme voices in either party. We are all familiar with the noise in todays political climate, evident on both ends of pennsylvania avenue, on Cable Television and on social media. And if we can get be beyond f that noise there are lawmakers who can and do Work Together to accomplish big things. The only way to create lasting change is to have that debate, discuss the differences and find Common Ground. So if you are starving g policymakers who are, together, then i ask you to join us collectively as we work to find solutions instead of soundbites. Im looking forward to todays event and what will come next. Both senator coons and senator rubio s have agreed to write a joint oped based on what comes out of their exchange this evening. We look forward to sharing that with you and it will be posted on our website as bipartisanpolicy. Org, and, of course, on the hatch and kennedy website. It is now my great pleasure to introduce the former Senate Democratic leader tom daschle. He faced more than his fair share of political battles during his two decades in congress and after leaving the senate he collaborated with three other former party leaders. Senator bob dole, et cetera howard and foxman George Mitchell to create an organization fosters fierce debate and c common grantor we e here tonight in large part because of his vision and his tireless effort to make our political process were just a little better. The bpc is one of his greatest achievements and a Lasting Legacy to toms distinguished career in public service. Please join me in welcoming senator daschle. [applause] thank you market for that very kind introduction. And congratulations. I can imagine a better way to launch your career with the bpc. Then meeting like tonight. Market i i had a chance to wok together when she served as, as secretary of education with the george w. Bush administration. I must say, served in just a remarkable way. So its a good to have her back int. Washington tonight. I couldnt be more thrilled to welcome her on her very first day here at. The bpc. And thank her for the leadership and the work that she is the over again over and in her public and private careers these manyma years. And kelly, let me thank you for your leadership this past year at the helm of the bpc. Its not easy and you have done it well. It was a little over three years agoo when i comment to my fellow Board Members at the edward m. Kennedy institute that at times i didnt recognize the senate the way it was operating today. Often called the worlds greatest deliberative body, today polarization is generating our politics and media impact the way that oftentimes is repulsive. That is why i am so pleased tonight to see three great organizations working collectively on a single goal, to create a forum in which we can watch the passion debate that we expect in the senate, a hallmark of our democracy, and thenen when possible look for areas of Common Ground. Tonight, we have two people i have admired a great deal, two distinguished lawmakers who represent two a different parties and oftentimes two different points of view. But like each of us, they are americans first. Senator coons and senator rubio will debate some of the leading issues facing our country, including threats from our foreign adversaries, Climate Change, facing the planet, and just like our founders who argued, who discussed and disagreed, they are goingng to look for areas of Common Ground as well. Yesterday as some ofu you may recall we marked the anniversary of our constitution. And im often reminded of that scene and a final day of the Constitutional Convention in 1787. Its a story that im actually certain most of you have already heard. But on this day, the day after the inverse of the constitution i think it bears repeating. As you recall residents in philadelphia gathered on the steps of Independence Hall to await the news of government from our founders and what they had crafted. One of them asked the oldest founding father Benjamin Franklin who stood at the steps as it were walking out, mr. Franklin, what do we have . A monarchy or a republic . Franklin replied, a republic, if you can keep it. Thats our responsibility. Now nearly 250 years later, can we keep it . After all weve gone through these past years, those words actually rang louder than ever. Tonight we are going to have a chance to hear those differences but in in a forum that giveso u. S. Senators the space to share your point of view here and guess at agree to disagree, but with a level of mutual respect. I had the great privilege to work sidebyside with ted and orrin hatch they were not only colleagues but they became very close friends. Weve traveled together if we actually hung out on weekends together. Ted and orrin were of two different parties, two different ideologies, from opposite ends of the country, but despite those differences they really respected each others point of view. They didnt agree on everything. But in areas where there was agreement they went all in to get things done to make this country better place. They believed as iced so strongly believed that compromise, compromise is the oxygen of democracy. As a result, their names are on some of the most important pieces of legislation from the 20th and 21st century. From the americans with disabilities act, the ryan care act for aids, to the Childrens Health insurance program, known as chips. And, of course, secretary spellings know so well, major education reform with no child left behind. Consider that for just a moment and impact that each of these bipartisan bills continue tonight to have on the country. We need a lot more like them in congress if you want to tackle the big issues facing our country now. I only wish they couldld be here tonight. They would be soni proud of the work that these three highly respected institutions are doing to carry on their legacy. To the bpc, to the dmk as if to come to the Hatch Foundation thank you for bringing us together tonight and for f all e work that you do to ensure that we can find that Common Ground. And in the bipartisan spirit of the evening i please welcome one of the newest members of the senate alone society, the former republican senator from missouri and now an executive fellow at the Bipartisan Policy Center, my friend, and truly my friend, roy blunt. [applause] thank you, tom. Tom is a good friend actually are accomplished wives are really good friends which makes it easier for us to be really good friends. But we have been and tom certainly has been a great advisor of mine after i announced a couple offr years ao i was goingng to run for another term. The Unitedd States senate is probably the only place in one of the few places at least in the world where at my age after 26 years in the caucus evil would ask you why you were leaving so early . But but i had a lot of good ae from tom as i did. I want to join him and certainly in welcoming margaret. What a big first day. That anybody has a first date like this, and im sure it will be one of a lot of great days. Thanks to kelly who, during the year that took to convince margaret she should do this job and for her to get it or im glad to be an executive fellow, one of the two executive fellows at the Bipartisan Policy Center with my friend val demings from florida. We found new ways to Work Together. We had an oped published not too long ago and i was glad to be part of that. As margaret pointed out, one of the reasons were here is tom daschle determined leadership that you have to find solutions. Now,e i point out that the Bipartisan Policy Center is not nonpartisan. Its bipartisan and thats different. When tom daschle and i first had a chance to Work Together i was republican whip in the house and he was the democratic leader in the senate. Those are clearly not nonpartisan jobs. I think we both felt then and still feel that the best solutions are found in the middle. They last the longest. They have the most resilience. They serve as the best. A couple of congresses ago there were 52 republicans in that senate and 48 democrats. My staff came to be windy and said, you do so many things with other members to find one thing you can agree on. We thought we could just check and see how many of the 48 democrats you had been the principal sponsor of the a bill with, not just a cosponsor but the principal sponsor, and the answer was 44. I thought that that was a pretty good answer. In my last speech on the senate floor i said come to get something done. You dont have to find something that you agree on everything with. You just have to find somebody you agree on one thing with and that leads ton getting things done. Senator rubio, senator coons and i all came to the senate at the same time and workk unless the things together. Senator coons and i worked on the victims of child abuse act every time it needed to be extended. And a quart every time it needed to be extended. Senator rubio and i were sat sidebyside on the Senate Intelligence committee for several of the years that we served there, and everything from dealing with those intel issues to daylight savings time, fulltime extension, which we are both for for an almost y in this room before and about six weeks or so wondering why we didnt get that done even though i will point there was one day when our daylight savings bill passed unanimously in the senate,er though i have never bn quite sure how many senators were there. The day it passed unanimously. We are here for an oxford style debate where two people stand on the stage and Exchange Ideas about issues we have to find a solution to. Lucky to have ed okeefe from cbs news here as the person to see that this debate answer some of those questions. Also lucky tonight to welcome not heal the skewed to come and sing the national anthem. And ior would like for all of yu to stand as she comes to do that. Period oh, say, can you see by the dawns early light what so proudly we hailed at the twilights last gleaming . Whose broad stripes and bright stars thro the perilous fight oer the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming and the rockets red glare the bombs bursting in air gave proof through the night that our flag was still there oh, say, does that starspangled banner yet wave oer the land of the free and the home of the brave . [applause] please welcome tonight moderator, cbs news senior white house and Political Correspondent and okies. [applause] ed okeefe. All right. Well, good evening. I am ed okeefe, senior white house and Political Correspondent for cbs news. Welcome to the Senate Project Debate taking place here on the campus of George Washington university in washington, d. C. Washington, d. C. To those of you watching on cbs news or through sirius xm, thank you for tuning in. This is a partnership between edward m. Kennedy institute for the u. S. Senate, the orangey Hatch Foundation, and the Bipartisan Policy Center. These organizations joined together to create a form in which elected officials can discuss some of the most important issuess of our time while also looking for areas of Common Ground. Delaware democrat senator chris coons lets do that again. Democratic senator chris coons and Florida Republican senator marco rubio have agreed to join us on the stage and the rules are simple. Senator rubio selected the topics of china and u. S. Global leadership. Senator coons chose energy and thee environment. And third topic will focus on use senate as an institution and the state of our politics today. Each senator will present opening arguments filed by rebuttals. My job is to give him the time and space to have that debate and leave it to them primarily to have that conversation. The audience behind me has assured me, assured me, theyre going to remain quiet for the next hour except n right now ase welcome senators coons and rubio to the stage. [applause] i i didnt realize working sh a hollywood opening. But thank you, gentlemen, senators, for being here. As we said senator rubio opted to go with the issue of china and u. S. Global policy, so senator rubio confers with your opening argument and then will hear from senator coons. Thank you. Its an honor to be here. Ive done a lot of debate over the last few years but usually have like ten of the people on stage calling each other names so thisll be interesting and productive. Look, i picked the topic of china. Several about china. Its about us. 80 years from now, seven use someone will write books about the 21st century most of us in this room for the most part may not be around. What would that be about . A couple chapters make about vladimir putin, some the of the things that are covered by the book the story of the 21st century will be but what happened to them the United States and china. What happened . Did one overcome the other . One become you, and a case of china, was able to find a coexistent and balance and relationship . Whatever the outcome i think willll determine and define the 21st century. Weve made some very bad mistakes over the last 30 30s and i say we because neither of us were inne the thin at the tie but i think policymakers we did have pipers and consensus in the country in the vipers consensus was of this. The cold war was over, the free world had one. We could now it did matter anymore where the market sent jobs because all these jobs would lead but dont worry, better jobs workplace in and it will pay you more. Once china get rich and got prosperous even if they cheated their way, they would become just like us. That sound salute when i say it now but that was a bipartisan consensus and benefited wall street. Benefit of silicon valley. Benefited the chamber of commerce and other industries and, frankly, it influence our Public Policy and it was a terrible mistake. In fact, does matter. It does matter the ability to make things better. It did matter that those jobs are leaving. They were not replaced by better paying jobs for the people who lost them. Maybe for others. Thehe result is not as heavy impact on American Pickers have been after having an effect that every single industrialized country in a plant. Everyone is going to an upheaval because of this. At the core of it is china. Make no mistake china is an expansionist power, and expansionist power. Just think about over the last 100 years as a west has decolonize basically walked away from colonization, they have annexed ingo a monthly, tibet, took over hong kong, taken of the portions of northern india. They claimed thent entire south genesee to make it very clear that they intend to take over taiwan one day. This is an expansionist power. They also economically cheat. They steal 600 billion a year of intellectual property. There are companies can do whatever they want in america but our companies can do whatever we want over there. Capitalism did not change china. China changeng capitalism. They used it against