Nothing translates to an economy with more aggressiveness we are not just talking about oil and gas. We are talking about everything in the economy being impacted in a positive way by a lower cost of energy. We discovered massive capabilities in energy and this will translate into a huge Economic Opportunity for us as a country. The second thing we have going for us is that we are still the place where great ideas come from. Whether it is twitter or facebook or tesla or, in my part of the country, biomedicine, we are the creative people and we are creating these ideas. The third thing we have going for us is that there is a massive amount of capital waiting on the sidelines to invest in these ideas. So you have a lot of people who are willing to fall and take risks with their money through Pension Funds and whatever else on people who have these ideas. And the force they the fourth thing we have going for us is that we are inherently entrepreneurial people. We are still the best place to come if you have an idea and you are willing to risk and put your sweat into it and grow your opportunities. That is just our culture. What is holding us back . The only Thing Holding us back is our fiscal policy, the fact that we are running these deficits and debts that put us at risk on the fiscal side. I happen to think we will straighten those out. Incrementally, we will get to it. We will get tax reform and we will get medicare reform which is really all that there is left to do. So i am pretty positive about americas future and our capacity for economic growth. A lot of it is coming. 90 of it is coming because washington is not involved. One more question. Right over there, this gentleman here. I am very stern i am barry stern. My concern worldwide, we talked about a big economic stimulus. Throughout most of the world, there are too many babies. The demographic your meds are very different demographic. Meds are very different demographic pyramids are very different. The numbers are enormous. Do you see any kind of geopolitical threat of lots of young men unemployed in primarily developing countries . Are there any u. S. Foreignpolicy initiatives and Defense Initiatives that take these things into account . Well, that is a very legitimate concern but it is not one that we as a nation or our government can do a heck of a lot about. Their is no question that a lot of the radicalism in this world is jurgen by the fact that there are large numbers of young people who dont have much else to do but be radical. And that is especially true in some of your countries which are feeding the islamic fundamentalist movements. What can we do about that . Probably very little. We cannot solve the worlds problems of unemployment. But we can have a vibrant National Economy and make sure that our economy is vibrant. That does help the world. I saw some statistics somewhere about the locations of walmart to the rest of the world employment is massive. The economy is growing. We bring a lot of people with us. The best way to make our economy grow is to highlight our strengths and our strengths are in numeral. We are so wellpositioned as a country, it is staggering to me. I dont see any way that we arent going to grow and be extra nearly prosperous. The only thing that will stand in our way is our government. And our government will not stand in our way that long because it is full of people who are wanting to do what is right. It just takes them a while and they have to get a few mistakes in. Democracies will get things right after they have tried everything that is wrong. We are in the process of trying a few wrong things but we are still moving in the right in my opinion. We are still of the biggest and most prosperous nation in the world and the best place to live. And as we grow, the world will benefit. Thank you very much, senator. [applause] of the weekpreview ahead in congress. The map of the world literally changed since they went on the resource on the recess. The new bipartisan sanctions bill attempts to get the house whatenate on the same page is ahead when Congress Returns on monday in terms of the ukraine legislation . Thousand and seven are going to try to get on the same page, as you say, since they left russia formally annexed crimea. The two chambers have different approaches to a bill that would both levy sanctions on those they feel what are responsible for the bios, and would assure that ukraine gets loan guarantees and direct economic assistance. Introducedll was friday, as we do this interview on friday, and ahead in the house, how does this bill of the house will take up any different from what has been in the past . They will try to move things and little bit closer between the changers chambers. What is essentially happening is that the senate bill, which the chamber will take a boat to also has a restructuring of aid to the International Monetary fund that could help ukraine. Republicans in that chamber and House Republicans disagree. They think it is an extraneous provision that can be done another time. They are backing in error over version. Props not the same thing that the house passed before recess, but something that the house chairman and his Ranking Member rolled out this bill today that could provide a point of compromise. That is good be marked up on tuesday. Whatould this fit in with the white house is passed of the past week . They anticipate adding some names. The thinking here is to go after the people who are financing tin and her pu relieve in the eyes of congress. It would be in addition to what they already done administratively. Congress is getting in the game along with the white house. We heard from the majority leader that this will be the first thing they take up the comeback monday. We also heard a word about a deal that has been done on the engine of unemployment uninsured insurance benefits. There has been multiple attempts to renew this jobless aid that expired in december. This latest deal has the support of finest Senate Republicans meaning that if you get 55 members of the Democratic Caucus you might be able to advance it. What i would do is essentially renew the Unemployment Insurance and it would require longterm recipients to get job training and other steps. The problem is that the House Republicans are quite hostile to this approach. John boehner says after a threemonth interaction that it would be a minimum administrative nightmare. Getting the eligibility figured out, they say they would rather focus on measures that create jobs rather than renewing what not very goodwas economic assistance. On unemployment is just part of the democrats effort to revive the economic agenda. What did he mean by that your progress theres affirmative right of steps of the democrats were hoping to showcase this a to highlight incoming income inequality. It seems that the kind of stumbled after the gate and theyre pushing the back further and further and now of Course International events may be overtaking that as well. The stones from opposition to a lot of these measures because of forwarde of a ford k. There has to be offsetting cuts in the budget and that is hard to get everyone to agree on. Thousand senator facing a deadline in two weeks on the medicare payments to doctors. Is there another shortterm measure ahead of and is there a possibility that they will get a longterm measure passed . It is increasingly looking like another shortterm patch, perhaps a short as one month. Tois medicare reimbursement position, a exercise here washington. They would like to replace the formula that the date these cuts, but they have had little success in figuring out a way to offset the cost of doing so. Ist they would like to do maybe do a ninemonth patch that takes this issue off the table that the election. But then you have to find a way of paying for that cabinet is easy to pay for maybe a oneman kick the can down the road measure. That is increasingly looking like it what it is what they will do. You can follow him on attter, also read his report cq rollcall. Com. Thank you for joining us. The senate is in tomorrow, 2 00 p. M. Eastern time. They will be voting at 5 30 p. M. On that ukraine legislation and the house is a not monday this is in on monday at 2 00 p. M. Votes on that after 6 30 p. M. We will have live coverage of the house here on cspan in the senate on cspan two. Also tomorrow, dutch politician and European Parliament member will talk about Irans Nuclear program prevent her visit to iran last year. She will be live at the Atlantic Council of and we will take you there at 10 00 a. M. Eastern on cspan. Just two weeks ago, in the midst of a terrible budget on the potomac we saw again the spirit of american heroism at its finest. Savinged rescue workers Crash Victims from icy waters. We saw the heroism of one of our Government Employees, who would theaw a woman gripped in helicopter line dived into the water and dragged her to safety. [applause] find more highlights from 35 years of house floor covered on our facebook page. Cspan, created by americas Cable Companies are the five years ago. Rocky today is a Public Service by your television provider. Next an update on afghanistan with the special or general who oversaw reconstruction. This is from the Atlantic Council. It is about an hour and a half. Good morning, everyone. Im the director of the south asia center at the Atlantic Council and behalf of my colleague and our president , id like to welcome all of you to this very important session with special Inspector General for afghanistan restriction, john f. Sopko. As we all know the political and military transition has begun in afghanistan. This is going to be a very critical year. The issue of afghanistan, the issue of costs, the issue of the use of taxpayers monies has been alive in this town and other capitals around the world that have contributed to the actions in iraq and then in afghanistan. And there are in calculations out there on the number of dollars that are being spent simply by the u. S. Theres one particular site that has these meters that run regularly every second updating the cost, and that estimates the cost at about 10 million an hour for the war in afghanistan. Of course there are different figures out there. There is the famous Brown University study that calculated a cost of 3 to 4 billion roughly. Theres been an updated overall cost estimate looking at opportunity costs as well as complimentary costs of the u. S. In these wars that go as high as 6 trillion. Theres no end to the numbers. But Inspector General john sopko deals with real numbers. He deals with the amount of assistance thats going to afghanistan and how it is used. And so over the 12 years weve been talking about 102 billion figure for the reconstruction effort. So we will hear from him on how he sees this proceeding, how he sees afghanistan preparing itself for life after the u. S. And allied military presence in the country, and what he sees as the prognosis for the future in the areas of security, elections, governance, narcotics, construction, corruption, the economy as well as the guardianship of the International Assistance funds. Its a pretty tall order but i cant think of a better person to do it. He has a great deal of experience that he brings to the job. He came from an International Law firm in d. C. Hes worked for more than 20 years on capitol hill and also as a Trial Attorney with the u. S. Department of justice. So a lawyer with a keen eye and an ear to listen to people when hes in the field. Id like to welcome him and ask him to come and speak. And i also welcome our audience at home courtesy of cspan. Inspector general. Thank you very much. Thank you very much for that generous introduction. And good morning to all of you. Its the first day of spring and it doesnt look like its snowing. And i think its appropriate that it is the first day of spring because what ill be talking about is really the possibility of a new spring in afghanistan, particularly with the new elections. Its a real privilege to be here at the Atlantic Council. For more than six decades the Atlantic Council has provided an important bipartisan forum to discuss the most challenging issues confronting the United States and its european allies. Nothing in recent memory has been more challenging or more costly than the military and civilian mission undertaken by the United States. Nato allies and other Coalition Partners to secure and stabilize afghanistan. I just returned from two weeks in afghanistan. I have traveled there six times since president obama appointed me as the special Inspector General for afgan stran reconstruction in 2012. As always i visited reconstruction sites and met with afgans and u. S. Military civilian and state Department Employees implements programs in what has become the largest reconstruction effort of a single country in u. S. History. Reconstruction has been and continues to be a critical component of the overall u. S. Strategy in afghanistan. It is also extremely difficult and dangerous to our colleagues and usa i. D. , the state department, military, the many contractors and ngo employees who are tirelessly attempting to carry out the effort. Over the last 10 Years Congress has provided more than 102 billion to build Afgan Security forces, establish governing institutions, foster economic department. And our mail tear and civilian leaders have been committed to the ideas that a stable afghanistan with a government able to defend itself as well as provide essential services and Economic Opportunities to its citizens would be an inhospitable terrain for terrorists. At the end of this year americas longest war will come to an end with the ongoing drawdown of u. S. Troops. At most only a few thousand for training and Quick Response groups will remain. We still dont know the number. The Reconstruction Mission however is far from over. The United States and its allies agree that afghanistan will require significant International Assistance for years and years to come. And it is clear from recent conversations ive had with senior officials in our embassy, as well as icef headquarters that the United States and the International Coalition do not plan to abandon the afgan people. Its my agencys job to provide vigorous oversight of those reconstruction funds. Congress created cgar in 2008. Unfortunately six hours after the funds had already started. But congress empowered them with a cross can Agency Jurisdiction to conduct audits and investigation to detect and deter waste, fraud and abuse of this increased funding for reconstruction. We have a staff of nearly 200 auditors, inspectors, investigators and support staff dedicated protecting the enormous u. S. Investment by quickly identifying problems and making recommendations to improve program effectiveness. Now we all know that 2014 is a pivotal year in afghanistan. The uncertainties and risks have never been greater. The security, political and economic transition is underway. But they boil down, all of this boils down to basically three serious and important questions. Will the Afgan Security forces stand firm against a resilient and persistent insurgency without the assistant of u. S. Troops and coalition troops. Will the afgan government hold sufficiently open and honest elections to facilitate peaceful transition . Simply put, can the state hold together after the elections . And lastly, will the afgan and u. S. Government reach a bilateral Security Agreement paving the way for the International Community to continue provided needed assistance. However what i really want to talk about is the issue that underlies all three of those questions. And that is the nagging issue of corruption. The consensus among everyone i spoke with in afghanistan over the last two weeks is simply this. Allowing corruption to continue unabated will likely jeopardize every gain we have made over the last 12 years. In other words, rampant corruption may be the spoiler for 2014 and beyond. Now, corruption in afghanistan is not new or is it unique. Cgar has been highlighting concerns about corruption for a very long time. Every one of our quarterly reports to congress has highlighted its threat, from the lewding of the kabul bank and the failures of the attorney general to prosecute senior official to the depravation caused by land seizures, extortion of the people and the loss of support for the government accordingly. Since 2009 theyve conducted a number of audits of u. S. Efforts to combat corruption. Weve also pointed out that the United States still does not have a unified anticorruption strategy for afghanistan. Cgar has been sounding the alarm for quite some time about a problem that has only grown worse over each passing year. Just how bad is corruption in afghanistan . Well last year the general told president obama that quote unquote, corruption is the external strategi