In a timely fashion. All right . Thank you, everybody. Thank you, guys. On the next washington journal, the results of the New Hampshire primary. Then we look ahead to the South Carolina republican primary on february 20th and the Nevada Democratic caucuses the same day. You can join the conversation with your calls and comments on facebook and twitter. Road to the white house began in iowa. The caucuses which date back to 1972. Then we move to New Hampshire, that first in the nation primary which has a long and rich history. Now we begin to test the candidates and their message. We move south to South Carolina, the First Southern primary. Then to the Party Caucuses in nevada for the democrats and republicans. More than likely we will see a number of candidates probably drop out of the race. The field will then narrow. And then we move into early march. Super tuesday, the start of winner take all primaries which means the delegate count is critical. As we watch that continue, we will get a better sense of whose message is resonating and who is on the path to the nomination. Every election cycle we are reminded how important it is for citizens to be informed. To me, cspan is a home for political junkies and a way to track the government. I think its a great way for us to stay informed. There are a lot of cspan fans on the hill. My colleagues, they will say i saw you on cspan. Theres so much more that cspan does to make sure people outside the beltway know whats going on inside it. President obama released his 2017 budget request today. The 165page budget includes a plan for a new transportation system, a plan to increase clean energy and investments to cure cancer. The budget director and other Administration Officials outlined the proposal at a press conference earlier today. This is about an hour and 15 minutes. Good afternoon, everybody. Nice to see you. In a totally different environment than we are used to. Obviously, today is the day that many of you have been waiting for for a long, long time. The president has released his fiscal year 2017 budget. Were going to have some presentations at the start before we get to your questions. Theres one point that i wanted to make before i turn it over. Its simply this, budgets are important because they enumerate priorities. When you have something this detailed, theres no fudging. It becomes quite clear when you look at the numbers what you believe rates. And thats the importance of this exercise. I acknowledge as i have on many occasions that there are some priorities that we have that are deeply held that republicans in congress do not share. And there will be differences of opinion about the priorities that are laid out in here. However, there are a number of areas where there should be bipartisan agreement. There are a number of priorities that are held by republicans according to what they say. One good example of that is Cyber Security. There is a robust proposal in here that many of you have reported on that includes a stepped up investment in protecting the country, protecting Government Systems from cyberattacks and cyber intrui intrusi intrusions. Its critical to National Security and to our economy. Thats all the more reason its unfortunate that republicans in the Budget Committee wont even have a conversation with us about it. Here is the thing i guarantee you. I guarantee you that at some point over the next year, were all going to file into the Briefing Room and i will walk in and find many of you on the edge of your seats eager to ask the white house about the latest cyber intrusion. It may be the government agency. It may be at a private sector company. That is wellknown. It may even be a media organization. When you do, i will discuss the efforts that we have made over the first seven years of this president of the presidency to strengthen our cyber defenses. I will certainly make detailed note of the significant investments we are proposing to enhance our nations Cyber Security. You can be certain that i will point out that when we put forth this proposal, republicans on the Budget Committee refused to even discuss it. And i think you rightfully and the American People rightfully will have lots of questions about republicans commitment to confronting this issue, that is critical to both our nations economy and our National Security. With that, let me turn it over for a more details overview of what is included in the budget and then we will start taking some questions from all of you. Thank you, josh. Also thank you to jason, cecelia and jeff for today. I think as we begin the discussion of the budget, its useful to take a moment and take stock of our progress. Under the president s leadership, we have turned our economy around and created 14 million jobs. Our Unemployment Rate is below 5 for the first time in almost eight years. Nearly 18 Million People have gained Health Coverage as the Affordable Care act has taken affect. We have sddramatically cut our deficits by almost threequarters and set our nation on a more sustainable fiscal path. Its important to take stock of our progress. But this budget is not about looking back. It is about looking forward. Its about choosing investments as josh said that not only make us stronger today but enable us to make progress towards the kind of country that we aspire to be. The president is absolutely committed to using every minute of this last year to make such progress. To deliver for the American People and in particular to address many of the challenges he highlighted in the state of the union. The budget is a path toward meeting those challenges. It accelerates the pace of innovation to tacking climate change, find new treatments and cures for cancer, transfer our infrastructure and grow our economy. It makes investment to give everyone a fair shot at opportunity and Economic Security, including investment in job training, support for working families and modernization of our benefits structure to reflect our evolving economy. Others will talk about that in a moment. It advances our National Security and Global Leadership with funding for our effort to destroy isil. As you heard, more than onethird increase in Cyber Security across the federal government. A range of other investments to protect the American People and advance development and democracy around the world. The budget shows that these investments in growth, opportunity and security are compatible with putting the nations finances on a strong and sustainable path. It makes critical investments in our domestic and National Security priorities while adhering to the bipartisan budget agreement that was signed into law last fall. As you may recall, that fully paid for agreement allowed us to avoid harmful sequestration cuts the second Time Congress came together on a bipartisan basis and provided dollar for dollar funding increases for defense and nondefense priorities for 2016 and 2017. The budget also puts forward paid for mandatory investments that are critical to building durable Economic Growth and maintaining americas edge as the leader in innovation and cutting edge science, support jobs in Economic Growth and expand opportunity. The budget finishes the jobs started by the past two bipartisan agreements and prevents the return of harmful sequestration funding levels in 2018 and beyond. It replaces those savings by closing tax loopholes and with smart spending reforms. And it also drives down deficits keeping them below 3 of gdp through the entire tenyear period and it maintains our fiscal progress through 2. 9 trillion in smart savings from healthcare, immigration, tax reforms and other proposals. 375 billion in Health Savings grow over time and build on the Affordable Care act with further incentives to improve quality and control healthcare cost growth. And critically important, those proposals in the budget would exten the life of medicare for more than 15 years. It also contains 955 billion of revenue from curbing inefficient tax breaks for the wealthy and closing loopholes for high income households. It includes Immigration Reforms along the lines of the 2013 bill which the administration supported which would reduce the deficit by about 170 billion over the first ten years and by almost 1 trillion over two decades. As a result of all these changes, the budget stabilizes federal debt as a share of the economy and then puts it on a declining path through 2025. A key measure of fiscal progress. Lastly, let me just build on something that josh said before i turn it over to jason. I want to take a moment to talk about the importance of this budget as we move forward with the debate this year. Its tempting to adopt the wisdom that a president s final budget isnt relevant. But i think the conventional wisdom is wrong. With many final year budgets you see an administration trim its sales and dial back on ambition or you see a budget thats a vision document with little thats relevant to the debate. This budget falls in neither of those camps. The budget offers a range of proposals where there is bipartisan support for taking action. Josh talked about Cyber Security. To name a few others, theres a significant bipartisan interest in investing in cancer research, ensuring everyone struggling with opioid addiction can get help and reduce poverty to workers without kids. In other cases, we may not get bipartisan support. The president isnt going to shy away from proposing solutions that are both good for our economy and address major challenges that we face. Those proposals may not be enacted this year, but they lay the groundwork for reaching solutions in the longrun. The bottom line is that in the final year in a season full of political distractions, the president and the administration remain focused on meeting our greatest challenges and delivering for the American People. We will spend every day of this last year doing just that. With this budget as our road map. With that, i will turn it over to jason. Thank you to all of you. The u. S. Economy continued to strengthen in the last year as the Unemployment Rate fell below 5 in the face of significant global headwinds that have weighed on the economy. Looking ahead, the administration expects that the economy will grow at a rate of 2 2. 5 over the next three years. This finalized this past november to give agencies time to prepare their budget forecasts is in line with contemporaneous forecasts from the Congressional Budget Office, the blue chip consensus of private Sector Economists and the International Monetary fund. Starting in 2019, the budget assumes a gdp growth rate of 2. 3 annually. The gdp forecast reflects growth in Consumer Spending which grew over the last year reflecting savings from the recent drop of energy prices, the ongoing improvement in Household Finances and increased consumer sentiment. More over, both residential investment and r and d grew in 2015 with it reaching its highest level of the share of the economy on record. Both have continued room for growth in 2016. Thanks to the budget agreement at the end of last year, fiscal policy has shifted to a moder e moderately accommodating stance as compared to the fiscal drag that had been faced in previous years. The same time our economy will continue to face significant headwinds on a number of dimensions as foreign demand continues to slow, the oil industry continues to adjust to lower prices and the associated transmission of the events through recent Financial Market developments. The other notable change in the forecast is a reduction in projected Interest Rates with the tenyear treasury note expected to eventually settle at 4. 2 . This projection is slightly more conservative than the blue chip Interest Rate projections. These lower expected Interest Rates also have important implications for broader Macro Economic and fiscal questions. Overall, some of our assumptions are more conservative than the assumptions made bit the cbo. They average out for a similar outlook for the deficit. With that, let me turn it over to jeff. I want to do a minute or two on innovation, which is a cornerstone of the president s budget. Innovation has been at the center of the job recovery. You see this in manufacturing, for example, where theres been a revitalization in advanced manufacturing and investment in manufacturing have created 900,000 manufacturing jobs over the last six years. You also see it in clean energy. We have kick started a transformation in how the u. S. Produces energy with Solar Energy Production up 30 fold since the 2008. This has supported good job growth of good jobs in the solar industry. In fact, solar jobs are growing at 12 times faster than the economy. All of this is consistent with u. S. As number one in the world in innovation. But its a hypercompetitive marketplace. The competition is intense. China and other countries are investing in research and development. Theyre doing everything they can to eat into our lead. So we need to accelerate the pace of innovation to build the economy of the future and continue to create high quality jobs. Thats exactly what the president s budget does. It proposed investments that will ensure the u. S. Continues to set pace in technology and innovation. Let me highlight three areas very quickly. The first is a 21st century clean transportation system. Its a bold plan thats proposed to increase investment in surface transportation by 50 , including transformative investments in rail and transit. Also supports importantly supports the development of break through technologies like autonomous vehicles. Upgrading our infrastructure helps businesses move goods faster to market. This proposal is fully paid for by 10 a barrel fee on oil paid for by Oil Companies. It would support hundreds of thousands of Good American jobs and helps the environment by reducing carbon pollution. More broadly, the president s budget doubles Clean Energy Research and development. It calls for a 7. 7 billion investment in early stage r and d on clean energy. Thats a 20 increase. This will keep us at the vanguard of the clean energy revolution. Final Innovation Initiative is cancer. The president s budget invests more than 750 million in the Vice President s cancer shot. This builds on progress we made in last years budget or the current years budget to invest about 200 million new money in cancer research. To bring together the private sector and the federal government to push the frontier of data and technologies with the goal of doubling the rate of progress in Cancer Treatment and research. So the president s budget sets out a clear plan to enhance americas position as the number one country in the world in innovation. By investing in what we do best, building the next musthave made in america product, making the next clean Energy Breakthrough and finding the next life saving cure. Thank you. So as you heard the president express in the state of the Union Address last month, one of our key challenges as a nation is to make sure that were finding a way to give everyone a fair shot at opportunity and Economic Security. Our competitiveness depends on tapping the full potential of all americans. So this budget makes very particular investments in accomplishing those goals. In particular by supporting education and training opportunities, supporting workers and their families, providing access to healthcare and other investments to ensure that were all able to contribute to our Maximum Capacity in our countrys Economic Growth. So this includes continuing investments in the educational system from the earliest years all the way through higher education. Expansions in high quality Early Childhood education, cutting taxes for families that are paying for childcare, building out the most effective head start programs, including very importantly making sure that students in head start can attend for a full day and for a full year. And investing in prek for all 4yearolds in the country. The president s budget also includes funding for his new Computer Science for all initiative which is a 4 billion investment to states and another 100 million that couwould go t districts to create access to Computer Science education from prek through high school. In addition to that, the budget inc