tell us how you're doing. any great ideas you have about speaking money, tweet us at christine romans and ali velshi. we'll do our best to rerespond to each of you. >> you can christine on your bottom line and of course every saturday at 1:00 p.m. and sunday at 3:00 eastern. have a great weekend. hello, everyone thanks for joining us. i'm fredricka whitfield. first an update on some of today's top stories. >> three, two, one, happy new year! >> it's already 2012 in some parts of the world. this is sidney, australia where

a million people watched a massive fireworks display. in new zealand revelers turned out in auckland but heavy rain forced other cities to cancel outdoor celebrations. in syria, huge crowds are turning out across the country again today, an activist network based in syria says at least nine protesters died today killed in clashing with security forces. two opposition groups there reached a deal a few hours ago making a plan that charts a course for democracy in case syria's president steps down. back in this country, customer complaints pushed verizon to drop its plan to start charging that $2 fee to pay bills. the nation's largest wireless company wanted to charge the extra couple bucks for one time payments online or by phone, but customers raised a stink and it didn't take long for verizon to listen up and drop the idea. we're going to be following the republican contenders, live

in iowa today as they crisscross that state, the contenders, 2012 starts right now. >> reporter: good afternoon and welcome from des moines, iowa this is the contenders 2012. i'm candy crowley. today you are going to hear from the republican candidates at their live events as they make their cases to the iowa voters. why should they be the next president of the united states? we have for you all of these contenders that are here in the state now. we also have joe johns who has been following newt gingrich and jim acosta who has been with rick santorum this week. almost all the candidates are here in iowa making the most of those three days remaining before the iowa caucuses. this hour rick santorum is meeting voters, bachmann is making phone calls to voters along with her volunteers and newt gingrich is holding a town

hall meeting. only ron paul and john huntsman are elsewhere. we want to start with the surprises this week. mitt romney in the lead. rick santorum up. and newt down. in the latest cnn/timerc polling. jim acosta you have been with rick santorum. he's been the guy this week. >> reporter: that's right. we're covering the surging rick santorum here in knoxville, iowa. let me tell you where we're at. we're inside the national sprint car hall of fame museum here in knoxville and that's where rick santorum will be in about an hour from now. he's in indianaola, and he's the "it" candidate. couple of polls show him moving up to third place. so he's certainly a candidate to be taken seriously right now and it's interesting that he's

coming to a sprint car museum because it's bean marathon for rick santorum. he's been the "iron man" of the iowa caucuses. it will be interesting to see if it pays off for him. >> joe, it to bring in joe johns. joe, you had another candidate who was in the headlines probably not for reasons he would like and that's newt gingrich, who has fallen in the polls from the time when he started the climb, he looked like a real challenger to mitt romney and is now way down, there languishing in these iowa polls. >> reporter: that's for sure, candy. we're in atlantic, iowa. actually inside a soft drink distribution plant and, you know, i just heard jim talking about the significance of the location. in some ways newt gingrich was just about a month ago the flair of the month if you will and now apparently no longer. really in a competition for

third place, he was leading just not very long ago. he got hit by a number of really harsh campaign ad, huge money in fact spent by a political super political action committee that basically does things in the interest of mitt romney and all these ads came flooding on the air waves, newt gingrich's polling numbers went down. now, he's under pressure from the inside and also some of the supporters on the outside saying you need to run some negative ads in order to catch up here. so far newt gingrich has really resisted all of that. he's just down the street, we're expecting to hear from him in a little while and hopefully we'll hear from him on the issue of when newt gingrich might decide to go negative, candy. >> joe johns, many correspondents out there for us today. the candidates across iowa, rick perry is busy here. he started the day in fort dodge. now he's in boone.

we want to listen to him talking to the folks. >> the laws i've signed into law. i want to be the anti-establishment candidate that want goes to washington, d.c. and represents your values. i want to go and be there with a sense of purpose. and that purpose will be to make washington, d.c. as inconsequential in your life as i can make it every day. [ applause ] and i happen to think that the key to making washington, d.c. as inconsequential in your life is putting in place, installing with a constitutional amendment a part time congress, where they spend less time in washington, they make less money, they have half the staff that they got at least, they spend their time back home in a real job back in the district living under the laws that they passed. that's a powerful message that we need to send during this election and this opportunity

that we have. our country is calling us. our children are waiting for us to answer that call. i think about the prophet isaiah as god was asking whom shall i send and who will go for us? and isaiah said here am i, send me. this is your country. taking her back is our challenge. taking her back is our chore. [ applause ] i hope you'll join me in answering that call as well. and say here am i, send me. and on the 3rd oil make a pact with you. if you all will go and have my back this coming tuesday, i'll have your back for the next four years in washington, d.c. god bless you all and thank you for coming out and being with us

today. >> once again you've been listening to rick perry. he's in boone, iowa along with our correspondent peter hams the by. i was sitting here listening to perry here's a guy who in august came in and almost immediately was the front-runner. he had a lot of money. he had a lot of mainstream support. then he had a couple of really bad debates. now he's struggling to kind of even stay alive in this race. what's the feeling inside the perry camp? >> reporter: what's interesting about the perry campaign in iowa is he's getting very big crowds and there's a lot of sort of staff feuding and infighting, a lot of disappointment about the campaign. i can tell you his team here in iowa is confident, candy, about caucus night, the fight for third place according to public and internal polling shows that fight for thoird be very fluid and aside from mitt romney and ron paul the candidate with the best ground game in iowa is rick

perry. if he can get his volunteers to sign people up at these big events and get them out on caucus night which they are saying they can and he has a very good staff here in iowa, you know, he can move from, you know, fourth or fifth in the polls and try to slip into that third place finish. we keep saying you need a top three finish in iowa, if he does that expect him to skip new hampshire and move to south carolina and plant himself down there. iowa ground staff is confident. you know, they know it's going to be a tough fight. in the end organization can only do so much as you know against momentum and the three candidates in iowa right now are mitt romney, ron paul and rick santorum. so, you know, there's a lot that can happen in the next few days but expect the perry campaign to get their people in vance, speak up at caucus sites. you'll see a lot of perry people on the ground here tuesday night, candy. >> you're right, peter.

in real estate it maybe location, loirks, location, in the iowa cause cusses, it's organization, organization, organization, which is why you're never totally sure what will happen on caucus night. coming up next you'll hear an interview i did earlier with candidate rick santorum. he's been in this state longer than anybody else and is beginning the reap some rewards from that. before we go to break, we want to look at how beijing is welcoming the new year. the big celebration in the u.s. is just hours away. our anderson cooper will be among the crowds in new york times square along with comedian kathy griffin. together they will host cnn's special new year's eve coverage beginning tonight at 11:00 p.m. eastern. [ child ] it's so cool!

you can put a force field on him and be invisible! is is it because taking a step represents hope? or triumph? at genworth, we believe in taking small steps every day to keep your promises, protect what matters, and prepare for a secure financial future. no matter where you want to go, one step at a time is the only way to get there.

go to genworth.com/promises. aspercreme breaks the grip, with maximum-strength medicine and no embarrassing odor. break the grip of pain with aspercreme. welcome back to this special

hour of cnn newsroom. we're taking time this a to let you hear from the 2012 presidential contenders, unfiltered, uninterrupted in their own words. let's look at the poll numbers. rick santorum is third behind romney and ron paul. i talked to rick santorum this week about the importance of these polls and about electability. senator, what are the other things in our poll was on that very important issue of electability. you know, we talk a lot about how campaigns, voters they sort of have a candidate of the heart and then their head tells them i want somebody who can beat the other guy. when we ask likely republican caucus goers who has the best chance to beat president obama in november, romney was at 41%

and you were at 4%. while you clearly have grabbed the hearts of some of these folks here in washington enough to boost you into the top tier, only 4% of likely caucus goers believe that you actually could beat president obama. >> well that's because most of the media says that mitt romney is the guy that can beat president obama. what history does mitt romney have of beating anybody. you realize that polling, polls change. convictions don't change. what we sneed a conviction politician that the american people can trust. that's what we need in this election somebody who traus a clear contrast. someone who has experience on national security and has a track record of confronting radical islam and being right on tissues when it comes to the security of our country and state of israel. we need someone who understands the intrinsic value of the role of family who thought those issues when it wasn't popular. i'm the candidate that actually was able to win in states as a

conservative in getting democrats and independents to vote for us when, you know, when i was out there fighting all these battles. romney has no track history of downing that. in fact he's only run as a moderate or liberal. when he ran as a conservative in the primary last time he lost. >> so just to sum up you don't think that mitt romney could beat president obama? >> i think i'm the best candidate not just to beat president obama, but to do what is necessary to get this country going. conviction, conservative republican who can rally the american people around a common set of values. this is very much the 1980 election all over again. this is, do we go with someone who the pundits say can win or do we go with someone who we know is the best person to govern this country? i hope like we did in 1980 we choose the latter and it made all the difference. look i think initiative republicans have a decent chance of beating barack obama. that's not the question. the question is who is the best

person who lead the country. we want a victory to do the things that make our country free, safe and prosperous. >> in that same cnn poll mitt romney was far and away the candidate that led when the question was who do you think is best able and best qualified to beat president obama. so, electability seems to be moving the needle. rick santorum was out today with another ad. >> who has the best chance to beat obama? rick santorum. a full spectrum conservative rick santorum is rock solid on values issues. a favorite of the tea party for fighting corruption and taxpayer abuse. more foreign policy credentials than any candidate and rick's made in the usa jobs plan will make america an economic superpower again. rick santorum a trusted conservative who gives us the

best chance to take back america. >> i'm rick santorum and i approve this message. >> and in the end electability is almost everything when people go to those caucus or new hampshire go to vote in the primary, key on the minds of republicans who can best beat barack obama. it used to be candidates spouse who sit in a chair and clap when their husbands said something applause worthy, smile at him. that time is well gone. we now see the spouses becoming an integral part of their husband or their wives campaign. coming up next the spouses speak out. nyquil (stuffy): hey, tylenol. you know we're kinda like twins.

tylenol: we are? nyquil (stuffy): yeah, we both relieve coughs, sneezing, aches, fevers. tylenol: and i relieve nasal congestion. nyquil (stuffy): overachiever. anncr vo: tylenol cold multi-symptom nighttime relieves nasal congestion... nyquil cold & flu doesn't.

welcome back to the contenders 2012. the republican candidates for president have three days to convince iowa caucus goers that they should be president. we're listening to them this afternoon as they make their cases. candidates wives haven't been speaking out that much on the campaign trial but there were two notable exceptions. gingrich's wife introduced newt and mitt romney's wife took the mic and told stories in clinton, iowa. let's begin with mrs. gingrich. >> as some of you, this is a very special place for me. i went to luther college and graduated from luther in 1988. [ applause ] one little known fact is i actually lived upstairs above

pete's pizza as a senior so it's very special to me. a lot of people ask me why newt would be a good president. and i really think that newt has been preparing for this challenge his entire life. he has a proven record of national leadership, a thorough understanding of our nation's history and a genuine love for our country and i believe he's the best person to lead our country. >> the crowd was waiting to hear mitt romney in clinton, iowa when his wife ann stepped up and took the mic. >> i tell the longer story about our life and the personal side sway whole lot more fun by the way than talk about politics. so this is fun for me. and we'll just, i'll just keep on talking until mitt gets here. i'll tell the personal stories and the side of mitt that some of you have not heard about or

seen and that is how he, what he's like as a husband and a father. we've been married for 42 years. we met in high school. we're high school sweethearts and still are sweethearts which is awfully nice. we have five wonderful sons. we have 16 grandchildren. i think some of you know the other sadder tougher part of my life and some cho, i see some women especially are shaking their heads yes right now. i was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1988 and it was a devastating thing in my life. it was very tough. i went from being a very active, involved and hands on mom to hardly being able to take care of myself. couldn't get to the store, couldn't cook food, couldn't do anything, was in bed most of the time. during this time mitt was helping me out. and recognizing that i had sort of given up on life in many ways

and thought my life was over. i so appreciate how he stood by me in my darkest hour. and rallied me to the point of saying, look, a dinner is on the table everying night, i'm happy with period astronaut butter sandwiches. i love you, it's not that i love you make dinner. i love you. we'll be okay. i appreciated that. he gave me the courage to start fighting the disease and to struggle on. i did. it was a struggle. and, you know, i have to say one thing about having gone through this where my life -- i was in a pretty dark hole. pretty bleak. and one thing that has done for me, it's tempered my heart. recognizing that all of us have struggles. mine happened to be physical.

i see in this country right now people are struggling. people are afraid. people are out of work. we all have our struggles. so, we are -- we are all going to learn from these experiences and it looks like there's more hub bub and commotion coming from across the street. i so appreciate that he stood by me during my darkest hour. i'll tell you how great he was as a young father and when i was a young mom. five boys was not easy. they were not easy. aaron how many in your family? four. just two boys. but you know what five boys was not easy. and they were rambunctious and naughty. i love it now, acgrandmother is the greatest thing in the world. when my grandchildren misbehave greatest day in my life. i love it. i look at my boys and i go oh, boy do you boys deserve it.

you deserve it. but mitt was great during those early years too because he would remind me when i was exas ppirad that my job was more important than his job. and he was big hot shot consultant in those days and well paid and everybody thought he was the smartiest guy in the room. but when he came in the door he knew that it ruled. >> some very personal reflections along the campaign trail. coming up back to hardball politics that big defects in the bachmann camp. we'll get michele bachmann's reaction to her iowa campaign chairman endorsing ron paul. what do you got? restrained driver in a motor vehicle.

sir, can you hear me? two, three. just hold the bag. we need a portable x-ray, please! [ nurse ] i'm a nurse. i believe in the power of science and medicine. but i'm also human. and i believe in stacking the deck. [ female announcer ] to nurses everywhere, thank you, from johnson & johnson. [ female announcer ] to nurses everywhere, what is it about taking a first step that we find so compelling? is it because taking a step represents hope? or triumph? at genworth, we believe in taking small steps every day to keep your promises, protect what matters, and prepare for a secure financial future.

no matter where you want to go, one step at a time is the only way to get there. go to genworth.com/promises.

. welcome back to cnn. we continue with the contenders 2012. we're taking the republican candidates live as they move across iowa talking to voters. right now you're look at rick santorum. his poll numbers bouncing upward. that's what you want to do three days before the caucuses. we want to listen into rick santorum. he's in indianaola, iowa. >> my daughter elizabeth, i see her headband in the back she's being interviewed too. brought the family out for the straw poll. we've just worked very hard and we've made ourselves available to the people of iowa. in groups as big as 300 to

groups as small as well not a group. one. and that's what we've done. and we've laid out a very clear vision. i would have to say that the people of iowa have made me a better candidate. it's been an amazing experience. as i said to chuck when i was driving from, to sax city to crescent the other day about 12:00 at night, i'll miss what the state of iowa, i won't be able to come back here until the fall. [ laughter ] [ applause ] and so, you know, i really have had a wonderful experience here and i will forever be a fan and a defender of the iowa caucuses because it does make you a better candidate. i think it makes you think about not just what you're saying and how you're saying it but think about why you're saying it. you know, the tough questions

and they are tough questions. and from a variety of different topics. it's been an incredible experience and i would say to any candidate who is going run for president again don't pass up that experience. don't pass up the opportunity. it will make you not only a better candidate, i think it will make you a better president and certainly made me an our family better people. so i just want to say first and foremost thank to you the people of iowa for what you provide forward me. you've been welcoming. you've been tough. you've been obstinate and seven or eight times, nine times i have people at town hall come and say yes they are for me but you made us go out and earn the vote and i appreciate that very, very much. i have two things i want to leave with you. and that is, number one, don't pay attention to what the national pundits are saying as to, you know, who we need to vote for to win the race. i understand, you know, they are saying who can win and who cannot.

trust your own heart, trust your head, trust your gut as to who you believe is the best. you fight to be the first in the nation. how many people here have seen one of the other presidential candidates through the course of this time? just about everybody in the room. and you know these candidates now better than the pundits who basically talk to themselves in washington and new york. they are not out here listening to the candidates and we've had a few embeds who do follow us around and have fold us around but by and large most of the press and most folks haven't been hurricane irene haven't been listening. you have been. you've been measuring these candidates. trust your judgments and lead. that's what you get an opportunity to do. you get an opportunity on tuesday to lead. to let this country know who you believe is the best person, the person with the boldest ideas because we've got a big mess in

washington, d.c. right now and someone who can lead this country, someone who that's conviction, courage to do it, someone who has the world view and understanding of how we'll tackle this and paint a vision for the american public as to what america will look like and get folks to follow. that is what you have to determine here in the next couple of days. the second thing i would say is don't settle for less than what this country needs in new leadership. don't settle for someone, we may get this guy and he may win. but have a victory but the person may not do what is necessary to make the changes that we need. and so lead and be bold. isn't that what you're asking from your next president? lead and be bold. and that's what i ask of you. lead and be bold. and if you do, you will change

the tenor of this race. you'll bring in a whole new relative humidity of issues and a way of dealing with problems and energize this debate on the republican party and as a result of that you will have done your role as iowans. you'll have done your role in putting your state -- chuck always says and i'll finish up and then i want to get a chance to say hi to folks and then maybe take a few pictures and the like. chuck always says that the first vote in the iowa caucus is a vote for president. and then you'll do a whole bunch of other things. at the end of the day, the end of that caucus you're going to pass planks about what your platform is going to be. and i would just suggest to you that the iowa platform is rock solid conservative. up and down the line, across the

board. and i would ask that you make your first vote in sync with your last vote. let the iowa platform be reflected in the vote that you cast at the beginning of the evening. if you do, you will send that message all across this country about what iowa wants, what the heartland of america wants. and you will make a great contribution to this process and i believe you will help elect the next conservative president of the united states. i ask for your help and support. there are folks here that are signed up, would love you to be a thoips as a caucus captain. we have well over 1,000 caucus captains. >> information pennsylvania senator rick santorum wrapping it up in indianaola, iowa asking folks to come you and sign up and pledge to go caucus for him.

two important points near and dear to the hearts of iowan, conservative iowa juans. number one he defended the iowa caucus every four years there's a huge outcry about why iowa which is not really representative of the rest of the united states. why they get an important say so. he says i'll defend iowa the right to be first because it's such a great place. second he made the argument don't look at all these polls that say the only electable person is so-and-so. vote for a bold plan, vote for me, don't worry about electability. two important issues which he'll be making across the state for the next three days five hours plus. now when we come back, newt gingrich moves to atlantic, iowa. he was in counsel bluffs earlier today trying to stop his falling poll numbers. first, however, one of the world's most colorful new year's

celebrations. you're looking at vikings. that's right. they are about to burn a viking ship in front of thousands. that's how they do it in scotland, folks. >> three, two, one, happy new year. >> this is sydney, australia usa. their clock struck midnight about seven hours ago. we'll be right back. let's go to vegas. alright, let's do it. let's do it, let's go to vegas. vegas baby! maybe we should head back to the dealership first? vegas! no, this is a test drive. vegas! [ male announcer ] it's practically yours. but we still need your signature. volkswagen sign then drive is back. and it's never been easier to get a jetta. that's the power of german engineering. get zero first month's payment, zero down, zero security deposit

and zero due at signing on any new volkswagen. visit vwdealer.com. and zero due at signing on any new volkswagen. what is it about taking a first step that we find so compelling? is it because taking a step represents hope? or triumph? at genworth, we believe in taking small steps every day to keep your promises, protect what matters, and prepare for a secure financial future. no matter where you want to go, one step at a time is the only way to get there. go to genworth.com/promises.

welcome back to this special hour of cnn newsroom. we're taking this time-out this afternoon to let you hear from the 2012 presidential contenders, unfiltered, uninterrupted and in their own words. here's a live look at two campaign events that's under way right now. michele bachmann's campaign is in urbandale, iowa. that event is scheduled to get under way momentarily. one of the big stories out of iowa this week, michele bachmann's iowa campaign chairman defects and endorses ron paul. bachmann reacted by saying it was all about money. >> he quit and we've had the

former campaign manager come out and say kent flat out told me he was getting money opinion he also said eric wolson, he told a lot of people. a people a mile long that he told he was getting money and all of those people are coming out of the wood work making themselves available. so kent sorenson and i had the conversation on phone. kent came out the our stop in indianaola, iowa and left with me yesterday. he left our event and went to the ron paul event. this is about money. this is about money. is this about the ron paul campaign seeing the floor is coming out. >> in fact, kent sorenson just attended a bachmann event four hours before announcing his departure to a crowd of ron paul supporters. >> tonight is four me. i've been serving as michele

bachmann's state chair over the last year and while michele has fought tremendously for my conservative values i believe we're in a turning point in this campaign. when the republican establishment is going to be coming against him in the next few days i thought it was my duty to come to his aid. >> sorenson also said he feels loyalty to paul because paul campaigned for him in a contentious senate bid. bachmann is working to drum up support in urbandale, iowa. she's second to last in iowa drawing just 9% support. only jon huntsman polls lower. shannon travis is trailing bachmann. shannon. >> reporter: hey there, candy. the congresswoman just showed up. we were told she was en route but just moments ago the crowd of supporters here erupted started applauding and she's

right behind me. just a little bit more about what you talked about earlier that bombshell allegation, kent sore jone going over to the ron paul campaign, michele bachmann accusing him basically of accepting money to governor there. he denies that. it's not the kind of thing that any campaign days before a critical contest like the iowa caucus wants to focus on again with the polls with her being tloin polls. not the kinds of things she wants to focus on or the campaign. the kpaun here in urbandale is update. supporters asking will you go caucus to michele bachmann. will you be a caucus leader. they feel there's a positive mood, festive mood. part phone bank, part. he rally. they feel they have momentum. a lot of people here feel like they have energy and momentum on their side.

candy? >> shannon travis. we'll go back there when michele bachmann begins to speak. newt gingrich is campaigning in atlantic, iowa. he just arrived there. he's now in fourth place in the polls. he dropped 20 points in the latest cnn poll. joe johns is following gingrich in atlantic. you know, joe, i think this was even while we watched herman cain take a slide, michele bachmann take a slide, rick perry take a slide, the downfall of newt gingrich in these polls was in less than three weeks, pretty astonishing. were they taken by surprise? >> well, i don't know if you can call it by surprise. i think he was pretty much prepared to see these kind of attack ads. i want to listen to him while he's talk, by the way. if i can get out of the way you can look at him here. >> this is maggie our

granddaughter and this is georgia who is her friend from georgia. and behind them are my two favorite daughters, kathy and jackie. [ applause ] and we're all thrilled to be here. i was here back i think in june. you're nodding. some of you were here back then. a long six months. i am thrilled to be back, and to be in the closing phases of the campaign in terms of iowa, which is the beginning of the campaign in terms of the whole country and i appreciate you taking a few minutes out on new year's eve both on a saturday and on new year's eve all wrapped up together. we just came from the farmer's restaurant, farmer's station which may have the largest slices of pie in the country. [ laughter ] unbelievable.

great food. a lot of fun. i think this is going to be a very interesting tuesday night. i do hope all of you will go to the caucus. i think there's a chance that iowa could send a very interesting signal to the country because we've learned over the last few days that 45% of the ads that have been run in iowa this year have been negative ads attacking me and it will be interesting to see whether, in fact, the people of iowa decide that they don't like the people who run negative ads because you could send a tremendous signal to the country that the era of nasty and negative 30 second campaigns is over. [ applause ] and in that sense you have a very, very big impact. i've been focusing as all of you know in a very positive campaign. i was positive in the debates. i've been positive in our

advertising. callista released a music educational video which is totally positive because of her background as piano player and french horn player and singer. she believes music education helps young people develop skills and habits that are useful. so we're going to stay positive. we just opened a pets with newt page, where if you have a pet, your pet can be with me. part of the reason we did it is because pets do matter to people and when i was speaker we actually helped change the law so that people in public housing could retain their pets. up until 1988 if you went into public housing, if air pressure senior citizen, for example, you couldn't take your pets. yet we know that people with pets live longer. and that actually is part of life. so, these are not the normal things. i will continue fess i'm different than most politicians. and that i think we're faced

with huge, huge issues. and this is a moment when trying to get america back on the right track is an enormous undertaking. let me just ask you, how many you agree that america is on the wrong track? [ applause ] now, here's where it gets trickier. how many of you agree even if we win the election that the people who have us on the right track will fight very hard to stop us from putting it back on the right track. so, this is really a struggle in which the election is the beginning not the end. and that's why i always tell audiences that i'm going ask you -- i'm not going ask you to be for me. i'm going ask you to be with me. and the reason is really simple. if you're for me, you vote, you go home, you say sure i hope newt can fix it. the truth is no one person, not teen president can get this country back on the right track.

but if you agree to be with me, then if we stand shoulder to shoulder, reminding the congress of what we want them to do, governor, the state legislature, the city council, the county commission, we can have a huge impact. advertisingally if you're with me, we're going make mistakes. you can't have this scale of change in perfection. when we make mistakes we need your help and your advice in order to learn what's going on in the real world. 537 elected officials in washington aren't smart enough to move this country back in the right track by themselves and that's why we need a citizen movement. but there's one other reason. if we shrink washington government by applying the 10th amendment and getting to a smaller government, we have to grow citizenship back home. we're transferring responsibility from the washington bureaucrat back to you and that's why i ask you to be with me.

now probably the most important area that people need to focus on right now is the economy. because if you look at the world market and you look at the dangers in the middle east, you look at the dangers in europe, the fact is unless we're very, very careful we can slide into a deeper recession and be in even more trouble by next sum alternative engine that pulls the world's economy is the u.s. we're still about one fourth of the entire world economy in this country. and so when we're not growing, when we're stagnant, we really provide, make it almost impossible for the world economy to fix itself. so, i've been to discussion on jobs and our economic growth and i can tell you that i was very pleased to have art laffer come in to iowa to endorse me. he was "the economist" to help ronald reagan develop his job creation in 1980. it's a very simple program. cut taxes, cut regulations,

develop american energy and favor praise, be proud of the people who create jobs. obama has followed the opposite model where reagan cut taxes obama raises them. where reagan cut regulations, obama increases them. where reagan favors american energy, obama opposes energy. where reagan praised people who created jobs obama engages in class warfare against people who create jobs. now, we know historically that reagan succeeded because we began creating jobs under his program. in fact, in august of 1983 we created 1,300,000 new jobs in one month. if you take the reagan recovery and you lay it over our current population it would create 25 million new jobs. that's how big the dynamic was.

the fact is that after reagan left office we had two increase. the economy began to stagnate. i won election as speaker. we went back to the reagan playbook, cut tax, cut regulations, focus on american energy and be positive towards job creators. we reformed welfare, we pushed very hard and had the first tax cut in 16 years including the largest capital gains tax cut one history and as a result unemployment dropped to 4.2%. now imagine how we would feel today if we were at 4.2%? finally, we were able because when you have a big decline in unemployment you take people off of food stamps, off of welfare, off of unemployment, off of medicaid, off of public housing, they are back earning living for their family, paying taxes, so

revenue goes up. and costs go down. as a result, we were able to balance the budget for four straight years and pay off $405 billion in debt. the only time in our lifetime we had four consecutive years of a balanced budget paying off the debt. in that setting we know how to do this. we know how to cut taxes. we know how to fix regulations. we know how to develop energy. the problem is not knowledge. the problem sue have people in power who don't believe in it. their policies are so wrong i use the analogy that is it's as though how you make a hard egg you freeze it. it's technically true you can do that. it's not what people think they are organized in the morning when they ask for a hard boiled egg. and so obama really is sort of a classic radical whose basic ideas are the opposite of what we need to create jobs which is why in the fall if i'm your

candidate, one of our major themes will be food stamps versus paychecks. and the fact that obama is the best food stamp president in history i would like to be the best paycheck president in history and i think that contrast let's us draw correctly what the choice is for the american people. let me just say very briefly, i believe on taxes that we taught have zero capital gains tax so hundreds of billions of dollars will flow into the country. we should have a low corporate tax rate. today at 35% taxes we can't get general electric to pay any. at 12.5% they would fire half of their lawyers and write a check and pay taxes. we should also have 100% expensing which means any new equipment you buy whether you're a farmer, factory, business, doctor, you buy new equipment, you write it off in one year.

our purpose is to have american workers have the most modern, most productive equipment in the world so they can be the most competitive, so we can compete with china and india while having high value swrobs. if we modernize the equipment we need to modernize the workforce. in the future in order to get unemployment compensation you have to sign up for a business training program so you're learning something while we help you but no longer pay people 99 weeks to do nothing. [ applause ] we also have a proposal to abolish the death tax permanently because it's a profoundly wrong tax which punishes people who worked all their life, saved all their life and then some politician can take half their lifetime work away from them. finally we go information taxes we offer an optional 15% flat tax. based on a model in hong kong

where you either keep the current system with all the deductions and paper work or a single page this is what i earned, these are my dependents, this is what i'm paying and people should have the right to chose. on regulations i want to start by repealing obamacare. [ applause ] then we want to repeal dodd-frank which is a bill that's killing small banks, killing small businesses and driving down the price of housing. then we want to repeal sarbanes-oxley which is a bill that added a lot of paper work for no new net information. so people would be better off if we eliminate those. i would ask congress when they come in to session on january 3rd next year, not 2012 since we're almost in it, the year after next as of today, next year as of tomorrow, i would ask the congress to stay in session

and to repeal all three before the presidential inaugural so the day after the inaugural i could sign them and we would have begun to clear out the clutter as of that moment. i would also on the day of the inaugural sign a series of executive orders all of which will be posted on october 1st so it will be part of the last move campaign and the first executive order i'll sign will abolish all of the white house czars as of that moment. [ applause ] on longer perm regulatory reform we need to replace the epa with a environmental solutions agency. the current spae a bureaucracy totally out of touch with reality, and very destructive of local governments and destructive of both agriculture and industry and people of you have followed senator grassley's fight over the dust regulations.

the epa has technically has ability to regulate particulate matter which i don't think any congressman thought it meant dust. some bureaucrat in washington came up with the conclusion that if you were to plow on a windy day and some of the dirt from your field was to be carried by the wind into your neighbor's field that you would be polluting your neighbor's field with your dirt. now since your neighbor's field is exactly the same geologic dirt as your field it's implausible you're hurting it but this is the kind of thinking they get. i was in arizona and describing what senator grassley was fighting. they said it's worse than that. they had an epa official come down for a meeting and trying to explain to him because jose baez desert you have natural occurring dust storms.

and after they talked, he said well have you considered wetting down the desert. [ laughter ] and they looked at him and said, you know, the reason we call it a desert -- [ laughter ] -- is we don't have any water. [ laughter ] so i think we should replace the epa with a brand new agency with brand new people. [ applause ] and the first requirement to be hired by the new agency is you have to have common sense. [ applause ] we should also modernize the federal drug administration so it is in the laboratory and accelerate new immediate sides to the patient. our goal should be the fastest and finest producer of new

health solutions in the world, health will be the largest single sector of the world economy. as countries get wealthier they like living longer. if united states was consistently the gold standard in health products we would have created hundreds of thousands of new value jobs in the health industry which creates huge amount of profit selling every where in the world whether you're china, india, europe, you name it. less taxes regulation. let's talk about energy. if you've been watching the news you know that the iranians have been practicing closing the straits of hormuz. one out of every six barrels of oil in the world comes through that strait. and we run a very real risk of disaster if the strait gets messed up. we were out at the reagan library for ronald reagan's 100th birthday and we had