recognizes the gentleman from to lower the debt and follow the presidential candidates as

they continue to campaign across the country its all available on television, radio, online and on social media sites. search, watch and share of our programs any time with c-span video library and we are on the road with our c-span digital bus and local content vehicles bringing resources to local communities and showing events around the country. it's washington your way. the c-span networks, created by cable, provided as a public service. funding for federal programs in this at the end of the month. today the senate spending bill that passed the house last night. democrats talked about their alternative spending proposal that the senate will take up next week. we will hear first from senate majority leader harry reid. this is 20 minutes. >> she should be here any minute now. >> the bill we have on the floor is very reasonable. why do we say it's reasonable?

the government at the levels we agreed upon in july, totally agree on that, and in addition to that, we've taken the money that the house said and we put it in their. swedes compromised in one of those shelves a bill that we've passed on the bipartisan basis. what we've done with the government shut down and we will make sure hundreds of thousands of americans who are suffering floods, wildfires and hurricanes get what they deserve. but it also means our position we shouldn't have to kill jobs to get the disaster relief needed. i'm aware of the speeches given in the house bill by my colleagues here and others who spoke out is it really fair that

to fund the disaster hit relief we take american jobs funding all kinds of things on paid for now around the world in iraq and afghanistan we shouldn't have to take american jobs from the disaster relief that we've never done before like that. so our bill does that. it's the way government should work. when the two sides can't do everything they want the meat in the middle with common ground. that's what we've tried to do. that's exactly what this legislation does on the senate floor now. unfortunately colleagues took the opposite approach. when they didn't do what they wanted the tea party set towards the middle. mostly running high this week because these important issues. that's why i'm calling on my colleagues. senator mcconnell, speaker boehner to take the weekend,

work with us to cool off and let us work together to find common ground. so i am directly calling on speaker boehner, leader mcconnell to take any time to meet. the senate will be here next week to make sure we resolve these issues and i hope the house republican colleagues will join with us. i'm confident if we work together we can find a solution. the solution is there. if people would stop and read the legislation it's their. it funds government at the levels we agreed on in july, and it gives the belief that they need. these americans who are suffering from natural disasters across the country are to do just that if. all americans want to see their government work together and afford a bipartisan compromises for counting on us to do this. speaker pelosi?

>> thank you very much, leader read. for your great leadership and trying to address this challenge. we haven't seen this before where we've come to the place of the natural disaster of one party or other in the congress have said that it must be paid for. now let me say that i associate myself with all of the remarks that he made in the just add speaking of the families i've met and many of our colleagues have met on the natural disaster by the fact that on wednesday fema may be running dry in addition to the fact that we are facing the september 38 deadline. this is really not the time to say we are going to balance the budget on the back of those who have been affected by natural disasters. you never know where the next one is. we have five years that have

been out of control in texas and jobs in misery and earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, tornadoes from the east coast. you don't know what is next. we need more. i fully supported what we've proposed in the senate bill. i think it is a good compromise to support the funding that is in the house bill, but on the other side of that to move the need for the pay for. that seems to be a very excellent compromise especially when it is a job killing pay for, one that increases the deficit destroying good paying jobs so i salute what you are doing and again we stand ready to meet whenever to come together to the agreement and the american people expect no less and they deserve much more. with that i am pleased to yield

back. >> thank you very much. we shouldn't play politics with disasters. each one of us that this end of the room have been through this. we've had disasters in our own states and we know what it means to read a lot of people are facing the worst experience of their lives. losing their homes, losing their businesses, wondering if they will have a roof over their head. each and every time that's happened in my service in congress we have rallied behind those victims of disasters. we haven't said we are going to go down to the congressional budget office and to accounting to see if we can help our fellow americans. we stood behind them and provided the funds and we were proud to do it because we were a part of the american family. when it comes to our efforts overseas we know in iraq and afghanistan for years the disasters in those countries were not paid for all and were provided for by the american tax payers and there was no payment made. that's why the strategy of the

house republicans on this is just wrong. we've got to maintain the tradition of keeping this american family intact in the midst of a disaster. if speaker boehner thought he could just send us this bill, which killed jobs, good manufacturing jobs in order to pay for disasters and leave town i think we ought to take a look at the local we just have to be only 36 members supported that position. seven republicans joined in the table the bill but was sent to us by speaker boehner. that tells me that it's time for us to sit down and work out an agreement which keeps our word and the people in the country to the victims of disasters that we've tried to put together on the senate side, senator schumer and myself is a legitimate reasonable compromise. funding this government at the level we all agree to in reaching a level of disaster aid that is consistent with speaker boehner's request. so we have gone have way. i think that's a true compromise

come true bipartisan effort and i hope that we can now bring the senate republicans around to not only defeat the approach but to stand with us in a bipartisan fashion monday to form the government and to fund fema. >> senator schumer leadership -- >> thank you, senator schumer. >> i am pleased to join the senator reid and senator durbin and senator schumer in urging our republican colleagues to reach common ground, to reach a compromise. last night we had a debate on the house floor. republicans and democrats rose in particular some very compelling statements from a republican from pennsylvania and from mississippi talking about people who have been ravaged by

floods and tornadoes in particular and people ravaged by hurricanes and fire in the drought as well, and the stories were ranging and the debate was we need to help, and we need to help now. we suggested last night what the house is going to pass would not enjoy a majority support in the united states senate. we were correct. notwithstanding that, the house determined to send that bill, knowing full well that it wouldn't enjoy majority support. i'd like to read two statements that were made by mr. boehner and mr. kantor within the last 12 days. mr. boehner said we know the two parties aren't going to agree on everything. but the american people want us to find common ground, and i'll

be looking for it, said mr. boehner on a september 8, 2011, just a few days ago. on the same day, mr. kantor, the majority leader said this, we have to focus on areas of commonality and to transcend differences here. faugh today she offered a unanimous consent, which essentially adopted the agreement that we made in very tough negotiations regarding the debt limit, and in numbers appropriations and an agreement that emerged in the natural disasters needed additional headroom. so there was an agreement that we would have additional spending if we were faced with a disaster. in the house debate clearly everyone understood we are faced with disasters.

so i would urge our republican friends in the senate and speaker boehner and majority leader cantor to do exactly what they suggested 12 days ago to do, to seek common ground. and our view, we wanted a higher level of funding which the administration and fema says is necessary but because the republicans do not agree on that figure we would come to their figures and leader read's proposals and we have suggested we move forward on the number we have agreed to fund the government. everybody said yesterday on the house floor and on the senate floor we do not want to shut down the government and in a time of crisis in our economy, shutting down the government would be a job destroyer. so i want to commend senator reid and senator durbin and senator schumer for their leadership and urge our republican colleagues on both the house side, mr. boehner and

mr. kantor to reach common ground, this is common ground, let's do it so that our people can have the confidence that their government is there and they are confronted with a disaster that puts them at risk and i thank the senate for allowing us to join in this very important statement. >> as well as speaker pelosi and senator durbin. today we have a bipartisan vote to defeat the house bill 5936 wasn't close to earth. to work towards a reasonable and fair solution to fund disaster relief and of late an unnecessary and destructive government shut down. the majority leader has said he is willing to meet with house and senate leadership this weekend. we hope speaker boehner and senator mcconnell will take him up on the offer to negotiate a solution. our position is let's talk over

the weekend. their position is you take-it-or-leave-it. their approach failed on the senate floor this morning, and it's time for them to change their strategy. we have a failed measure that will receive a vote on the senate monday. it is a reasonable bill. it's a bill that will keep the government from the debt levels the house and senate democrats and republicans negotiated as part of the debt ceiling agreement, and in a good faith compromise eight contains the same exact amount of the disaster relief funding that the house republicans supported. the last thing we want to do is underfunded fema in a year of record disasters especially after passing a bipartisan bill in the senate to fund last week. but we are willing to adopt the house on the level and work additional emergency funds at a later time. the only difference is that our bill doesn't require the job

killing trust the chamber of commerce opposes and that our fragile economy cannot afford right now. but we are hopeful that diverse in the job cuts in this bill will not result in republicans opposing it on monday night. we trust the republicans agree that now is not the time to be cutting a good paying american jobs and certainly not as a precondition for helping disaster victims across the country put their lives back together after the wave of tornadoes, floods and hurricanes we have experienced in recent months. i met with all kinds of people who suffered and suffered and suffered throughout upstate new york and the political agenda on their backs as they struggle to regain their lives is unfair and wrong. a number of republicans have come up to me and said they want to do the right thing and fund disaster relief. many of them are from states that are suffering and they know that fema will run out of money

and those states will be high and dry and now and there has been a bipartisan vote to defeat the house bill and the trust that these republicans will join us monday night and do the right thing to date and provide the resources they need to help disaster victims before they run out of funding. people across the country will be reaching out to those republicans this weekend particularly people in their states to support what we are doing in the good faith effort to make sure we all do the right thing for our country, put politics aside, help disaster victims and avoid an unnecessary and harmful government shut down. >> question. have you contacted. >> and made the invitation on the floor and i talked to senator mcconnell on the floor. i had a brief conversation that

speaker boehner today. it is not as if we are going to have to work our way through the budget deficit reduction stuff again. we did that. it's a simple thing. in the house we have agreed with their members with fema and the one the government to shut down? to they want fema to close? the will go monday or tuesday if we are fortunate. >> including today you talk about the need for the funding now immediately. why wait? what has changed? >> first of all, the government

funding goes to the first of month. fema is a more desperate shape and that's what we talked about making sure that we finish this on monday so i don't think anything has changed. >> to go to the brink -- >> the only alternative is the jobs bill at the house to get 36 votes to do. 46 votes. this is not a close call. >> century. >> senator mcconnell said they do not have the votes for this bill. why don't they dispose of it and move on to the actual agreement? >> that's really quite simple. we believe that after that bill passed by no chance of passing and 36 votes we believe people

need the opportunity to look at this. they are going to be hearing from -- we got some unusual allies on this like the chamber of commerce we don't usually the chamber of commerce on our side. we have republican mayors, republican governors, governor christie, governor mcdonald farseeing don't play games with funding emergencies. these are desperate people and not only are they trying to resist the trend coming from the perspective of the new jobs as many as 50,000 but in addition to that, fema provides jobs also so i think we are where we need to be. >> [inaudible] >> listened, i think that should be a question that speaker boehner and senator mcconnell would have, not us. we have passed, listen, a bipartisan bill funding fema. it passed by a heavy majority as

we have seen over here and went to the house. we have shown what the world the building pass in the house was by a very low margin was overwhelmingly defeated here so we don't understand how anyone could suggest that anyone is at fault other than the republicans in the house, and the republicans here in the senate the somber thinking about what this is going to do with fema and our government i think to pick a significant -- >> is this an area you can [inaudible] >> nope. >> is the white house involved in these negotiations for [inaudible] appropriate or helpful -- >> the president will do that if necessary and i don't think it

will be necessary. i have to think that the vote monday including the speaker and leader kantor this is a vote that we know what went on in the house yesterday. they were trolling for votes to try to get enough votes to satisfy the t party and did they make a bargain. what a bargain they made. i don't know the exact figure but i think it's about 28 billion. that 28,000,000,053 of them are to the speaker and they said we aren't going to vote for this. so the grand bargain that the maid instead of $28 billion to get 110 million. that was the bargain. >> one-tenth of 1%. >> i think if i were a gambler, if i were to gamble, but i'm not i would think these are pretty bad odds.

okay, thanks everyone. >> [inaudible] >> i am. i think that that is the bill that comes back to the house as i hope it will come and it wouldn't even have necessitate in my view the calling of the house that we could pass that by a unanimous consent and hopefully the speaker and mr. kantor what degree. the reason i made other statements made 12 days ago was this clearly is common ground. agreement on a number, overall spending, agreement on the house number that was voted on. the only disagreement would be not having an offset, and of course there are eight bills i have listed that republicans bolted for under george bush to meet disasters.

fema the staff tells me never had an offset obviously but not fema, but in either event certainly if the senate is willing to go to the house number, and the number for funding has already been agreed upon, then it seems to me that is indeed the common ground both speaker boehner impleader kantor talked about just 12 days ago. thank you. >> is their anything that can be negotiated over?

the white house today announced a new education policy allowing states to opt out of provisions in the note child left behind act. president obama made the announcement of the white house east room along with education secretary arne duncan. the president is introduced by tennessee governor bill house lawn. this is 20 minutes. [applause]

>> good morning. please come have a seat. good morning. let me begin by thanking secretary duncan. all of us are grateful for your commitment to higher standards, setting the expectation that every child can learn and for being committed to shrinking the achievement gap. we in tennessee i know with a lot of other states appreciate the working relationship we have with you and the department of education. as a republican governor, i might not always agree with this administration on some policy issues or even the role of the federal government but when there are things we can work together on, we should, and this is one of those issues we can work together on. in tennessee we have restore standards. we linked teacher evaluation to student performance and we are holding ourselves accountable. we believe we are most qualified to make our own decision how to

continue our progress making certain every child is a career in your college ready. i look forward to the federal government in narrowing its role in education and allowing tennessee the flexibility to abide by its own rigorous standards. education decisions are best. please join me in mulken in the president of the united states. [applause] >> thank you. thank you, everybody. thank you very much. thank you. thank you. thank you. thank you so much, everybody. please come have a seat. welcome to the white house, everybody i see a whole bunch of people who are interested in education, and we are grateful for all the work that you do each and every day. i want to recognize the person to my right, somebody who i

think will end up being considered one of the finest secretaries of education that we've ever had, arne duncan. [applause] the >> in addition to his passion, probably the finest basketball player ever in the cabinet. [laughter] >> i also want to thank governor bill haslam of tennessee for taking the time to be here today and the great work that he's doing in tennessee. i am especially appreciative because i found that his daughter is getting married, and he is doing this ceremony tomorrow, so we've got to get him back on time. [laughter] [applause] but we really appreciate his presence. thank you. and a good friend, somebody who i have the pleasure of serving with during the time that i was in the united states senate.

he's now the governor of rhode island, lincoln chafee. it's wonderful. thank you for coming. [applause] and i do want to abolish the two guys who just worked tirelessly on behalf of education issues who happen to be in the front row here. from the house come out standing, this man, george miller. [applause] and from the senate, the pride of iowa, tom harkin. [applause] now, it is an undeniable fact that countries who out educate us today are going to out compete us tomorrow. but today, our students are sliding against their peers and around the globe. today, our kids the trail to many other countries in neff, in the science and in reading. and that's true, by the way, not just an inner-city schools, not just among the poor kids, even

among what are considered a were better off suburban schools we are lagging behind where we need to be. today, as many as a quarter of our students aren't finishing high school. we have fallen to 16th in the proportion of young people with a college degree, even though we know that 60% of new jobs in the coming decade will require more than a high school diploma. and what this means is if we're serious about building an economy that lasts, and economy in which hard work pays off with the opportunity for solid middle class jobs, we've got to get serious about education. we are going to have to pick up hour games and raise our standards. we are in the midst of a on going enormous economic challenge. and i spend a lot of my time thinking immediately about how we can put folks back to work

and how we can stabilize the world financial markets. and those things are all important. the economic challenges we face now or economic challenges that have been building for decades now, and the most important thing we can do is to make sure that our kids are prepared for this new economy. that's the single most important thing we can do. [applause] so even as we focus on the near term and what we've got to do to put folks back to work, we've got to be thinking a little bit ahead and start making the tough decisions now to make sure there were schools are working the way they need to work. ñw, we all know that schoolsñ can't do it alone. as parents, the task begins at

home. it begins by turning off the tv and helping with homework, and encouraging a love of learning from the very start of a rich children's lives. and i am speaking from experience now. [laughter] malia and sasha would often rather be watching american idol or sponge off, but michelle and i know that our first job, our first responsibility, is instilling a sense of learning, a sense of love of learning in our kids. and so there is no short cut there. we have to do the job. and we can't just blame teachers and schools of we are not instilling that commitment, that dedication to learning in our kids. but as a nation, we also have an obligation to make sure that all of our children have the

resources they need to learn, because they are spending a lot of time outside of the household. they are spending the bulk of their waking hours in school. and that means that we've got to make sure we've got all the schools, good teachers, the latest textbooks, the right technology, and that, by the way, is something we can do something about right away. that's why i said the jobs bill to congress that would put thousands of teachers back to work across the country and modernized at least 45,000 schools. [applause] congress should pass the bill right now. we've got too many schools that are under resource common to many teachers who want to be in the classroom who aren't because of budget constraints, not because they can't do the job. so parents have a role and schools need more resources.

but money alone won't solve our education problems. white said this before, i will repeat it. money alone is not enough. every classroom is a place of high expectations and high performance. and that's been our vision since taking office. that's why instead of just pouring money into the system that's not working, we launched a competition called race to the top. and to all 50 states, to governors come to schools, districts, we said show was the most innovative plans to improve teacher quality and student achievement and we will show you the money. we want to provide you more resources, but there's also got to be a commitment on your part to make the changes that are necessary so that we can see actual results. after less than 1% of what we spend on education each year, race to the top, under arne

duncan's leadership, has led states across the country to raise their standards for teaching and learning. and, by the way, these standards that we are talking about -- these high standards that we are talking about were not developed here in washington. they were developed by republican and democratic governors throughout the country, essentially as a peer group, a peer review system where everybody treated best practices and said here's what seems to work, and let's hold all of our schools to these high standards. and since that race to the top has been launched we've seen what's possible when reform isn't just a top-down mandate, but the work of local teachers and principals and school boards and committees working together to develop better standards. >> this is why in my state of the union address this year i

said that congress should reform the note child left behind a wall based on the principles that have guided race to the top. and i want to say the goals behind no child left behind were admiral boyle, the president bush deserves credit for that. higher standards are the right goal. accountability is the right goal. closing the achievement gap is the right goal. and we've got to stay focused on these goals. but experience has taught us that, in its implementation, no child left behind has some serious flaws that are hurting our children instead of helping them. teachers too often are being forced to teach to the test. subjects like history and science have been squeezed out. and in order to avoid having their schools label us feel years, some states, perversely, have actually had to lower their standards in a race to the bottom instead of a race to the top. they don't want to get

penalized. let's make sure that the standards are so low that we are not going to be seen as failing to meet them. that makes no sense. and these problems have been obvious to parents and educators all over the country for years now. despite the good intentions of some, two of them are sitting right here, tom and george, congress has not been able to fix these tools so far. i urge congress for a while now let's get a bipartisan effort, let's fix this. congress hasn't been able to do it. so i will. our kids only get one shot at a

decent education. they cannot afford to wait any longer. so, given that congress cannot act, i am acting. [applause] starting today -- [applause] starting today we will be giving states more flexibility to meet high standards. keep in mind, the change we are making is not lowering standards. we are saying we are going to give you more flexibility to meet high standards. we are going to let states, schools and teachers come up with innovative ways to give our children the skills they need to compete for the jobs of the future. because what works in rhode island may not be the same thing that works in tennessee, but every student should have the same opportunity to learn and

grow, no matter what state they live in. let me repeat, this does not mean that states will be able to lower their standards or to escape accountability. in fact, the way we've structured this, if states want more flexibility, they're going to have to set higher standards, more honest standards, that prove they are serious about meeting them. and already, 44 states, led by some of the people on the stage, have set higher standards and proposed new ways to get there, because that is what is critical. they know what is at stake here. ricky hall was the principal of a charter school in the dorchester massachusetts. where is ricky? ricky is not here. [laughter] there he is. i wasn't sure if he was behind me. [applause]

thank you. every single student who graduated from ricky's school in the last three years went on to college. every single one. [applause] his school ranks in the top quarter of all schools in massachusetts, and as you know, massachusetts' schools rank very high among the 50 states. but because ricky's school did not meet all the technical standards of no child left behind, his school was labeled as a failure last year. that's not right. that needs to change. what we are doing today will encourage the progress at schools like ricky's. is john becker here? izzie? [cheering] all right, here's john. laughter collided and think you were john. [laughter]

john teaches at one of the highest performing middle schools in d.c., and now with these changes we are making, he's going to be able to focus on teaching his fourth graders math in a way that improves their performance instead of just teaching to the test. [applause] we have superintendents like david smith estrop from springfield, ohio. right here. [applause] david will be able to focus on improving teaching and learning in his district instead of spending all his time on bureaucratic mandates from washington that don't actually produce results. so this isn't just the right thing to do for our kids, it's the right thing to do for our country. we can't afford to wait for an education system that is not doing everything it needs to do for our kids. we can't let another generation of young people fall behind because we didn't have the

courage to recognize what doesn't work, admitted, and replace it with something that does. we've got to act now. [applause] we've got to act now and harness all the good ideas coming out of our states come out of our schools. we can't be tied up with i ideology. we can't be worrying about partisanship. we just have to make sure that we figure out what works, and we hold ourselves to those high standards. because now is the time to give our children the skills they need to compete in this global economy. we've got a couple of students up on the stage for doing outstanding work because somebody in their schools is dedicated and committed every single day to making sure that they've got a chance to succeed. but i don't want them to be the exception. i want them to be the rule. now is the time to make an education system in the best in the world, the entry of the world. [applause]

it used to be. it is going to be again, thanks to the people in this room. god bless you. god bless the united states of america. thank you. [applause] [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] [laughter] [applause] [inaudible conversations]

republican candidates running for president were in orlando florida today to speak

at the conservative political action conference hosted by the american conservative union. we will hear from mitt romney, new gingrich, rick perry, gary johnson, ryckman santorum, ron paul and herman cain. first, congresswoman michele bachman. [applause] >> hello, how large. it is my pleasure to introduce to you our first speaker who is aspiring to the highest office in the land. somebody that has been a true champion for us conservatives fighting the good fight, one of the tough to fight it and the lower voices but she's always been there with us and ladies and gentlemen, there's such a thing as walking the walk. one of the things it inspires me the most is not just the rhetoric of the process, but people who live with the talk about. and this mother of five children and foster parent to 20 some children has put endless hours on the line to make america a better place where it counts and

that's starting at home. she is an accomplished tax attorney, a great legislative leader and frankly, the only presidential candidate who has won a contest the date in iowa. so please come join me in giving a warm, warm welcome to one of our agenda and some of the great michele bachmann. [applause] >> good morning! good morning! [applause] it is wonderful when you are a minnesota girl to wake up in florida. you can't have a bad day. good morning. can't you feel it? barack obama is going to be a one-term president! [applause] and that road to the white house goes straight through the state of florida, and i know we can count on floridians to make him

a one-term and keep the country back, right? my name is michele bachmann and i am running for the republican presidential nomination for 2012 because i know that we have the vision to turn the economy around, create millions of jobs, and you have my guarantee i will not rest until we have repealed obamacare. [applause] we can do better. ronald reagan had a vision of limited government. that's what our father gave to us. we are a constitutional republic and we are proud of our constitutional republic. because of his vision, he was able to do the impossible. after jimmy carter did a number on our economy, ronald reagan

came in with a completely different vision. there are two editions of the constitution. one is the real version of the constitution, which is a limited government with enumerated power. the other is an expansive view of the man who served longer for president than any other was a democrat named franklin delano roosevelt. and he said this. he said to live under the united states constitution, he said the united states constitution is the most marvelously elastic, solution of government ever written. is that what our constitution is? not at all. what we have is a limited view and calvin coolidge had a very different view. he said it's the greatest political privilege that has ever been accorded to the human race to live under the american constitution. that's my view, too.

[applause] in fact, george washington said in his farewell address the person who occupies the white house is given a trust. he didn't even call that necessarily presidency -- that's what you get to choose here in florida you get to choose who you are going to trust. the highest office in the land to take hold of this treasure given to us 235 years ago. we are a tremendous nation unlike any nation that has ever been in the history of mankind no other nation has given the depth and breadth of freedom of this nation and there is an unparalleled vision. successfully forged -- ups and

downs every generation has faithfully transferred that torch and he has been given this magnificent nation. but do you know for the first time in the history of the united states parents are not sure if their children will have the same opportunities that they had. almost three out of four americans today say that. for the first time in american history, that is the level of pessimism that's unparalleled in our nation's history and it is no wonder when you look at what barack obama has done, his signature issue being obamacare, obamacare has been the greatest ticker of the freedom of any legislation out there because obamacare offers us from cradle

to grave. the government has mandates and dictates our life from cradle to grave. that is why the first member of congress to introduce the full-scale repeal of obamacare. [applause] and that's why i am committed as the nominee of the republican party. i won't rest until i can elect 13 more like-minded united states senators so we have a filibuster proof majority in the senate, and i am thinking on the pattern of a senator marco rubio. what do you think? that's what i want to do. [applause] i am committed to see this done. that's what we have to have in our nominee. someone who has the five-year and the will and the vision to do this.

someone who sees with the problem of the nation is but also sees the potential beauty, the challenge of what we can be. ronald reagan told us, he reminded us of what john said that in 1640 that we are that shining city on the hill. that is who we are. greatness is what we were created to be. a majestic nation as what we were meant to be a majestic magnificent nation is again what we can embrace if we have that leadership. i know we can. [applause] and it isn't just obamacare it is also the issue of immigration, because what we have seen with president obama is that he's opened up our borders, not closed the borders. as president of the united states, i will build a fence on our southern border against illegal immigration. [applause]

and we will not have tax payers subsidized benefits for illegal immigrants or for their children. [applause] with president obama we have seen him subject to crony capitalism most recently in the example cylindroid. how many of you have heard about this? this is one of the great benefits of the stimulus program , to $45 million to go to a political donor of president obama, and you can always count on vice president joe biden to tell you the truth. [laughter] and vice president joe biden says this about the loan guarantee program. he says the stimulus program is exactly what the stimulus program was all about.

greed and corruption. and now president obama is proposing a son of stimulus to read the stimulus one was bad enough. we don't need the sequel. [applause] president obama wants to pay for this by taking away the mortgage tax deduction, taking away the charitable deduction and the deduction for taxes we pay on state and local governments. i'm a former federal tax litigation attorney. i have seen how devastating high taxes are on job creation. i'm a job creator. my husband and i started a successful company from scratch. small business is a miracle job creation agent of this country and profit is a good thing. [applause] you see, there is a difference in how we view the role of the

government, and that's why in this particular election we have to understand something that's extremely important as conservative. every four years when we look at the presidential race, we are repeatedly told as conservatives that we have to stand next to the wall or stand in the back of the room because in that election we are told we have to give the nomination to a moderate or to a safe candidate. in other words, we are told that we have to settle. i am here to say to you i have no doubt in my mind president obama has one of the lowest job approval ratings of any president in modern times and he hasn't reached the basement get to relive his approval ratings are going to lower. i have no doubt that president obama will be a one-term

president. [applause] [cheering] no doubt. as a matter of fact, i think get ready, florida, you need to approve candidates in every one of the dogcatcher to the city council to the school board to the state assembly to the senate. every candidate all the way it to the president of the united states. find the candidate that most reflects your values who you believe will actually go to washington and change washington and fight for what you believe. if there was any election when we conservatives don't settle it is in this election. this is the election we can have it all. [applause] don't settle. have a candidate who is right on obamacare who has fought against obamacare and gets that it is a job killer and gets that it stole than $500 billion out of medicare and who gets the job

telling aspect. they said this week the number one reason we are not seeing employers hire people is because of obamacare. i get that. we can't get rid of it with an executive order or with a waiver. it will never happen. you have to pull it out root and branch otherwise we will have socialized medicine in this nation forever. you see 2012 is eight. this is our only chance to get rid of this bill or otherwise it will also metastasizing to fund united states fabric and we will never get rid of it again. so our nominee has to get how you get rid of obamacare. you have to understand obamacare, how you get rid of it and the political will and the backbone and the courage to do, and behind this little blue jackets you need to know that there is a titanium spine.

[applause] so don't settle. don't settle. we need a constitutional conservatives for our nominee, someone that isn't ashamed to be a national security peace for strength pro-military conservative. i am. we need to have a strong no-nonsense fiscal conservative who will stand up against getting barack obama to $.4 trillion blank check and say have at it. i did. that's what we need in our nominee coming and we need a true social conservative who is not ashamed to stand for marriage, who is not ashamed to stand for life, who's not ashamed to stand for religious liberty and has demonstrated that. that's what we need in this election come and we need a nominee who is not ashamed of the tea party who is willing to stand up for our team party and tea party values who believes we

are past enough already, who believe the government should not spend more money than they take in and is not ashamed to say the government should ask within the constitution. you see, we don't settle this time. .. you all.

god bless you. god bless the united states of america. you're beautiful. thank you, florida. god bless you. what a wonderful gathering. ♪ >> god bless you! ♪ >> boy, that was better than coffee. [laughter] >> thank you very much. well, it's my pleasure to be here again to introduce to you someone who i've had the pleasure to get to know very well, both he and his wife are

just great americans. and i first -- i first got to know him really well as he was traveling the country as chair of the republican governors' association, raising money and trying to get some of your guys elected as governors and they did a great job. the rga raised a lot of money and they did get a lot of conservatives elected to do that which is typical of what i think his purpose in life has been after he did so well in the private sector and that's to help america be great. from taking over a failed team to the olympics and bringing glory to america and the winter olympics to taking over as governor as the most complex liberal democrat in the country to taking on these challenges and offering himself for public service. he's probably been to florida more than anyone i can remember running for president. he's already been here a lot. will be here a lot more. you saw him at center stage last

night. and he's doing a great job in taking the fight to the president and that's what we need to do. ladies and gentlemen, one of the leading contenders for this nomination, someone i'm proud to call a friend, governor mitt romney. ♪ >> good morning, good morning. i don't know if i got a chance to look at him but i had a few of things i wanted to say. thanks to al cardenas. floridans are lucky to have a man like al leading florida. al, thank you. david and al's family is here too and i appreciate your work. congratulations by the way to the legislators and leadership, the governor and leadership of

florida. you have in this state men and women who have decided that you're going to balance the budget, not raise taxes, turn down federal money that has heavy strings on it and by doing so, by the way, you had your evaluation by the rating agencies upgraded. the outlook for florida upgraded at the time the nation was down graded, florida was upgraded. congratulations on that courage and good work to the people down here in florida. [applause] >> now, i thought this morning -- i talk a bit about what it's like going from the business world into government. what's similar and what's different. i'm asked all the time is it harder being in government than it is being in business. and i'm sure you presume it is. it's harder doing what you do in the private sector than it is being in government because what you do -- if you make a mistake, if you make a serious mistake in your job, you might lose your

job. and then you might end up losing your house and if you run an enterprise that loses other people you could lose the money and your money and your investor's money. it's very forgiving in your enterprises. in government the four years i spent there i was surprised when some people messed up they just blamed the opposition party. that's what you're seeing in washington today. you're seeing a president who doesn't know how to govern, who doesn't know how to lead, who doesn't know how to balance the balance sheet but he sure knows how to campaign and blame and we need to have a president that knows how to lead. [applause] >> now, i found some other differences between the of private sector and the business world and government. one is, use of data. in the real world, in the private sector you look at numbers and try and figure out how those numbers inform what you're going to do. in government, they have tons and tons of data. i mean, they produce mounds of

information and data. they thi they just don't look at it. they say the best thing you can build your school is reduce the school size and i said does the data support that. they looked at me like i was a speaking a foreign language. we test our kids every year to see how they're doing so i could find out from every one of our school districts the average class size and how well the kids were doing. i plotted one side against the other against student performance and guess what, there was no relationship at all. as a matter of fact, the district that had the smallest classrooms and spent the most money per pupil cambridge, massachusetts, scored in the bottom 10% of how the kids were doing. so the data is used in the private sector. by the way, what was the answer to improving schools? school choice. recruiting the best teachers in

the world. making sure that we evaluated how our kids were doing and we also put in place something called the john and abgal adams scholarship program. if you take our graduation exam and pass it and you pass it in the top quarter of those that take the exam you're entitled to four years at our state university and you have to be a legal resident of the united states of america to get that. [applause] >> other differences. there's competition that goes in -- that goes on in the real world, in the business world. a lot of people in government don't understand that. they don't understand, for instance, that right now we are in a competitive battle with other nations around the world. of course, we trade with other nations. we're the most productive and inventive nation in the world. and so we must trade to have a strong economy. and to have the highest incomes in the world. trade is a good thing for us. but don't forget we're in

competition. and so when politicians work together to put trade agreements in place, they have to understand that we have to make those agreements for us, not just for the other guy. we're competing right now in particular with china. you may have noticed. and china isn't playing by the rules. a lot of people would cheat if they could get away with it and we've been letting them get away with it for over a decade. they manipulate their currency and what does that mean? they make their currency seem like it's worth much less than it actually is. by pegging it to the dollar at a very low level and as a result, their products sell at about 30% lower than they would if they were fairly marketed. and as a result of that, our businesses have a hard time competing. time for us to recognize cheaters for what they are on my first day in office, i will issue an executive order identifying china as a currency manipulator and allowing us to

apply tariffs on their goods where they're cheating on american jobs. mra[applause] >> there's another difference between the government and the business sector. they don't understand the power of incentives. they think if you raise taxes a whole lot, it won't make any difference in the way people behave. they just calculate what they did in the past and they add up the new numbers that they think government is going to get and it doesn't work that way. i remember -- i was looking at the budget in our state. there was a line in there for homeless shelters and i said what's this subaccount here for a hotel under homeless shelters. oh, governor, you have to understand if someone comes to a homeless shelter and we're full, we tell them go to a hotel and we'll pick up the bill. i said i bet the word gets around, you know? so i changed the incentive.

i told them immediately put in place this new rule, which is someone comes to a homeless shelter and it's full, you tell them you'll make room and the person who's been there the longest three, four, five months they get to go to the hotel. now, before that change in incentive went in place guess how many nights we were renting a night in massachusetts, 599 rooms a night on average. in the tens of millions of dollars of costs. after we changed that incentive, do you know how many rooms we rent a night? zero. zero. incentives make a difference. mra[applause] >> now, i hope the folks that care about immigration understand that as well. i love legal immigration. this is a land of opportunity and freedom. i want people all over the world to come to this country legally. there are 4.7 million people in line hoping to come here legally.

i want the best and the brightest and the freedom lovers of the world to get in line and to ultimately become legal residents of the united states of america. but for that to happen, we have to stop illegal immigration. because illegal immigration is an enemy of legal immigration. [applause] >> i was at the border in san diego with border patrol agents, big fences there. they said about 100 people are able to get through even with the fences there. and i said what do we have to do? they said well, number 1, you got to have a fence. you can't have places that are just open and there were places even in san diego where people could virtually walk through without even to go over a fence. number 1, you got to have a fence and enough border patrol agents to patrol it. number 2, they said you have to have in this country turn off the magnet.

i said what do you mean the magnet? he said you're drawing people in with employers that hire illegals. you're drawing people in to get benefits in this country. they can't get in their own country and the things you have to do, for instance, is you have to have an e-verify system and then crack down on employers that hire illegals. [applause] >> and you heard us last night in that debate. one of the things i still can't get over is the idea that a state would decide to give a $100,000 discount to illegals to go to school in their state. it is simply wrong to create that kind of magnet. it cannot be sustained. [applause] >> my friend governor perry says if you don't agree with his position on giving that in-state tuition to illegals, that you don't have a heart.

i think if you're opposed to illegal immigration, it doesn't mean that you don't have a heart. it means you have a heart and a brain. [laughter] [applause] >> legal immigration good for america, illegal immigration is something that i will stop if i'm president. let me mention one more thing that's a big difference between the private sector. business and government. and that is if you spend your life in the private sector, you fundamentally understand how the economy works. what it is that motivates an individual to say you know what? i'm going to take everything i've saved over 30 years of my life, 30 of my career, rather, and i'm going to take all that i've saved and i'm going to invest it in this new franchise that i've signed up for. and my family and their going to work in this thing and see if we can't get it to grow. that's not an easy decision to

make. i'm going to go to my parents and my friends and ask for some of their money, too, so we can buy this franchise and we can get the equipment and open this place up. that is a difficult decision to make. people who have been in the private sector understand how the economy works, at the level of job creation, which is employers, entrepreneurs, innovators innovatorses, taking a risk. people in government all their life just don't understand it. the president spoke to a jobs summit. and he said to them you all have lots of cash on your balance sheet. how come you're not using that cash to hire people? i'm glad you laughed because that's just exactly -- that's just exactly what a number of the executives is. i'm told they looked down at their shoes. that was the dumbest question i've ever heard. they said we don't hire people because we have cash. we hire people because we have

customers. [applause] >> and the key -- don't be jealous of enterprises with cash. encourage the economy. i remember time and time again just being distressed at the fact that people inside government don't understand how the economy works. and that's why when this economy was in a slide, as the president came in, he did everything wrong because he doesn't have a clue how the economy works. he put in place -- [applause] >> he put in place a stimulus that didn't stimulate the private sector and said it added over $100,000 in jobs. and he put in what entrepreneurs can't deal with, uncertainty. in health care, uncertainty, in financial services, uncertainty. in labor relations, uncertainty. in energy policy, uncertainty. and so businesses pulled back.

look, i can't wait to get america right again. not by throwing little cups of stimulus gasoline at a fire. that doesn't do it. the right answer is to rebuild that fire fundamentally to make america strong and i know how to do it because i've done it time and time again. you heard me say last night and i'll say it again, and you know this, all across america at kitchen tables there are people sitting with their calculators and their checkbooks wondering if they can make ends meet. all across america, sitting across kitchen tables there are people filling out job applications recognizing that there are at least 100 or 200 people applying for the very same job they're applying for. right now people are scared. they're worried. they don't need to be. this is the greatest nation in the history of the earth for a lot of reasons.

one of those reasons is that our economy is robust and powerful and inventive and has always been a job-creating machine. i know how to make that happen again i've put together 59 things that i do. not just to put a little stimulus on the flame but to really rebuild the economic engine that's america. and make sure that we can compete with anyone in the world. i'm convinced that given the patriotism and the innovation of the american people, that despite our challenges, iran about to become nuclear, israel under extraordinary stress, russians resurgent, trying to become a great power, 14 trillion plus in debt, 62 trillion in unfunded liabilities, 62 trillion. that works out according to "usa today" to $532,000 per household. think of that. we've got challenges and an economy in the doldrums despite all those challenges, given the strength of the american people, our love of freedom, our love of

this land -- if we have leaders that will tell the truth and live with integrity and who by virtue of their life experience know how to lead and where to lead our economy, we will remain the engine of economic vitality we've always been. the strongest nation on earth and the hope of the earth and i intend to be one of those leaders with your help. thank you so much. it's good to be with you this morning. thank you. ♪ [applause] ♪

[applause] >> well, thank you all very much for inviting me to come and join you and thank you, al cardenas. al is doing a great job and i'm just thrilled with his continued leadership. and he's a neighbor of my daughter cathy lubber so we've known al for a long time. i'm delighted to be here. i want to just chat with you for a couple minutes about what we need to get done. and i want to start by saying i'm not going to ask any of you to be for me for president. because if you're for me, you're going to vote, go home and say i sure hope he fixes it. and i want to report to you -- this is my serious conclusion having studied margaret thatcher, having worked with ronald reagan, having led the contract with america and then having watched the last 10

years. i believe we are in so much trouble. i believe the scale of what we have to change is so much bigger than barack obama. yes, we need to defeat barack obama and that would be a good thing. but it's not by itself sufficient. we're faced with an academic system which refuses to teach american history and refuses to recognize american values. [applause] >> we're faced with the news media dominated with the language and views of the left. we're faced with federal judges who do not have a clue what the constitution is all about and have lost all proprietary. [applause] >> and we're faced with entrenched bureaucracies who believe that we are no longer citizens but rather our subjects and instead of being our servants, they believe that we should serve them. and all of that is reinforced by

public employee unions whose number 1 question is, give me more. now, let me just be clear. i think this is the heart of why i'm running and the conversation that calista and i had for months with our family before i decided to run. i'm running because the scale of change that we need is so deep, and so serious, that i have come to ask you to be with me for eight years, not just for me. i'd ask you to take on the responsibility of deciding that you're going to help every day, convince your members of congress and if you can't convince them, you're going to work every day to replace them. [applause] >> i came to say -- i need your help, frankly, because on the scale of change that i'm going to describe, we're not going to get it all right. abraham lincoln in december of

1862, at a time when the civil war was going very badly wrote a message to congress. and he said, i'm paraphrasing, as what we are facing is new, we must think anew. and if we can disenthrall ourselves from the past, we will save the nation. now, he was saying it not on behalf of abandoning america but on behalf of saving america. and more than any person, abraham lincoln resurrected the declaration of independence as the core of our beliefs. because he believes that the declaration was exactly right. that we are endowed by our creator with certain unalienable rights among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. [applause] >> now, this is central to

defining america. the only country in the world -- this is what american exceptionalism is all about. we're the only country in the world that says, our rights come from god and god says to each one of you, personally, dear sovereign, you're the center of the power. and you loan power to the government which is where our constitution begins, we the people. this is the opposite of barack obama and the european socialist model in which government is the center of power and government -- this is why it makes perfect sense for obama to say, i think you're making too much money. the key question to ask him is, who are you to define for americans what they're allowed to make. [applause] >> the arrogance of this administration makes perfect sense that many of you understand that this is not an american administration.

it is a european socialist administration transplanted in the united states. [applause] >> the arrogance in the environmental protection agency makes perfect sense to understand that the bureaucrats there no longer understand america. they are a transplant of the brussels bureaucracy which believes it can dictate to europe because there's no european tradition of the citizen being sovereign. we are citizens. we are not subjects. and i'm asking you to be with me to re-establish citizenship in america. [applause] >> i'm also going to ask you to be -- [inaudible] >> this will jar some republicans and conservatives. they always talk about outreach. outreach is when five white guys have a meeting and then call their friends. inclusion is when everybody is in the meeting.

let me tell you, one of the key definers between newt gingrich and barack obama next year is going to be very simple. he is the best food stamp president in american history. [applause] >> i want to be the best paycheck president in american history. [applause] >> there is not a precinct in florida, there's not a neighborhood in florida, there's not an ethnic group, there's not an ideological group that wants their children to spend their life on food stamps instead of paychecks and we have to have the courage to include every american who wants to have paychecks in our coalition. and we will be the largest majority in modern history if we have the courage to include everyone. now, it will be tumultuous. you get the other 60, to 70% people in the country.

if you invite 100 million americans to a family picnic it's going to be a really weird get-together and so we have to learn to be happy and casual about the fact we have a lot more arguments internally because we're going to be so big. it's inevitable we're going to argue occasionally. that's fine. that's what government is in a free society. now next thursday in des moines i'm going to outline a 21st century contact with america. it's going to be bigger. it's going to be deeper and more profound. we are in greater trouble than we were in 1980 when i campaigned for ronald reagan. we are in greater trouble than we were in 1994 when we unveiled the first contract with america. so this approach which i'm going to outline in des moines will be more fundamental and profound and will rely on citizenship and citizens being with me in actually implementing it. it will gradually grow over the next year. one of the key components will

be action immediately. when i'm sworn in immediately after the inaugural address, we'll take an hour and we will sign between 50 and 200 executive orders that will decisively reshape the government as of that day operating within the law by using a power that goes all the way back to george washington. [applause] >> in the next few weeks you'll be able to go to newt.org. we know what a few of them will be. we'll have all of them published by october 1st next year so that they'll all be available to the entire country for the last month of the campaign and as i debate the president, if he says well, i'm really for that too, we'll pull out the executive order and let him sign it right there during the debate. [applause] >> now, i don't know what all the executive orders are but i

know what the first one is going to be. sometime around 3:30 or 3:45 on the 21st century of january, 2013, i will sign the executive order number 1 which will abolish all of the white house guards effective as of that moment. [applause] >> executive order number 2 will reinstate ronald reagan's mexico city policy that no u.s. taxpayer money is spent on abortions anywhere in the world. [applause] >> and we will have an executive order that day which will instruct the state department to move the u.s. embassy from tel-aviv to jerusalem because we should honor and recognize israel. [applause] >> there's two things i do know how to do because i've actually helped do them. i do know how to liberate the

american people so they can create jobs. no politician creates jobs. but they can create circumstances to kill jobs which is called the obama model. [laughter] >> or they can have programs to create jobs. this is called the reagan model. this month, 1983, september, third year of his presidency, the american people created 1,100,000 new jobs because ronald reagan had the right ideas. last month the american people created zero net new jobs because barack obama has totally wrong ideas about class warfare, bureaucratic socialism. so i will have and the contract will have a very powerful job creation model based on lower taxes, less regulation and american energy plan and praising the people who create jobs as opposed to attacking it. we know it works. when i was speaker we brought unemployment down from 5.6 to 4.2%. when i worked with reagan in the

'80s, we had a dramatic increase. the reagan recovery laid on our current population would create 25 million new jobs in seven years. that's why i can talk about a food stamp president versus a paycheck president. we know how to create jobs. we also know how to balance the budget. when i took office, we were committed to a balanced budget constitutional amendment and we were committed to balancing the budget. people thought it was impossible. we reformed government, we reformed welfare we reformed medicare. we reformed spending. we had the first tax cut. the biggest capital gains tax the best thing is take people off the of food stamps, off of welfare and give them a job so that they're paying taxes. [applause] >> the best social program is a job. and americans only work when americans are working because to be a citizen you have to be

self-sufficient and you have to be capable on taking care of yourself and not being dependent on the politician. it's that straightforward. we'll have a program for balancing the budget. we'll have a program for creating jobs but i'll pick up on ronald reagan's farewell address where he spoke specifically about his concern about american history. as all of you know, i'm a historian by training. i believe deeply in history and my wife calista is here and i'm very proud. she has a book coming out this weekend called "sweetland of liberty" it's aimed at 4 to 8 years old. it introduces them to american history and has ellis the elephant take them through american history. i recently wrote a book called "a nation like no other" to deal with american history and let you actually know i actually believe all the words that i wrote that are in my books. [applause] >> and we recently made a movie called "a city upon a hill." the reason i'm giving you this is it seems to confuse some political reporters and some

political consultants. i think we're in a cultural conflict with the left in which knowledge of history is a key part of this. we've tried for two generations to create amnesia. they've tried for two generations to make sure young americans didn't learn about being american. i believe we should go in the opposite direction. i believe that every first generation immigrant should have to learn american history to become a citizen and i believe every young person should have to learn american history. [applause] >> because this is cpac, because i think you played such an important role in the conservative movement for a generation, let me just close with one new issue that nobody's talked about and i don't have time to go into detail but i'm going to give you several major speeches on. the time has come to rebalance the constitution. there is no provision for judicial supremacy in the constitution. in fact, the exact opposite is

true. [applause] >> alexander hamilton wrote the federalist papers, the judicial branch would by definition be the weakest of the three branches and it would always lose a fight with the executive and legislative branches. i want to promise you that a key part of my campaign is to ensure that we implement what hamilton said. that we rebalance the constitution. that we teach the judges that they are, in fact, our servants, not our dictators, that they, in fact, should obey american history and the american constitution. with your help, i want you to be with me for the next eight years. thank you. good luck and god bless you. ♪ [applause] ♪ [applause]

♪ >> ladies and gentlemen, a great chairman. thank you all. it is great to be back in florida and an honor, obviously, to be back at cpac. it's a place where the seeds of conservative ideas are sown and tended, invigorating our party and i might add in doing so, the health of our country as well. and it's good to be with friends. let me share that with you. you know, when i had the last privilege of being in your company this last february i was just one of many governors, millions of americans who were deeply concerned about the federal government.

that it's grown too big and too brazen. that willfully neglected its constitutional duties and i might add was assuming some that was never supposed to have to begin with. struggling for stability. this country that was struggling for stability on the seeds of an economic storm, like a ship without a rudder. in the intervening months little has changed to right america's course. millions of people remain unemployed. the number of americans on food stamps reached all time high. american credit rating was downgraded for the first time in the history of this country. washington's insatiable desire to spend our children's inheritance on these failed stimulus plans and other misguided theories that have given us record debt and have left far too many unemployed.

nearly 2.5 million of our citizens have lost jobs under this administration. $4 trillion in debt has been added to our children's burden. 1 in 6 work-eligible americans cannot even find a job. in washington they call this a recovery, the rest of america, we call it a failure. [applause] >> our president the great promiser of hope and change, he has delivered neither. what he's delivered, the americans don't want. his latest idea is one of the most offensive to date. this week, president obama had the audacity to propose to veterans that they should be

required to pay $200 when they turn 65 years old in order to get their medicaid benefits. that they should pay higher prescription drugs. the president and the men and women of our military who have served our country with courage every single day have already sacrificed enough. [applause] >> the at least you could do, mr. president is to have the courage to cut the government bureaucracy instead of cutting their benefit. this president says it takes shared sacrifice to get our economy moving but i want to say it again, mr. president, our veterans have already sacrificed

enough for this country. leave them alone. [applause] >> you know what's especially bothersome to me consider the waste we know in government today. there was a report revealed this week that bureaucrats in washington were spending money on $16 muffins. yeah, go figure that one. and you want to be in the muffin business, don't you? don't tell me there's not waste to be cut. don't ask us for more of our money, mr. president. [applause] >> we can't afford four more years of the high unemployment. of the failed stimulus, of the record debt, the misplaced

priorities. it's time for a change. when i say change, i'm not talking about the rhetoric of change. i'm talking about the record of change. as conservatives, we know that values and visions matter. not who is the slickest candidate or the smoothest debater that we need to elect. we need to elect the candidate with the best record and the best vision for this country. [applause] >> the current occupant of the white house can sure talk a good game, but he doesn't deliver. as a matter of fact, remember president clinton? man, he could sell ice cubes to eskimos and the next day be against ice cubes. the alternative candidates stand their ground because they believe in something. our shared conservative values are worth fighting for. we don't need to back down.

we need to push through to that shining city on a hill. as president reagan said, we need bold colors, not pale pastels. [applause] >> as governor, i have led based on a few guiding principles. number 1 is don't spend all the money. have some fiscal restraint. keep your taxes low. a regulatory climate that is fair and predictable and reform the legal system to create jobs. [applause] >> we passed reform that attracted 20,000 new doctors to texas. and i might add a loser pay law to level the legal paying field.

[applause] >> i cut taxes that equal better than $14 billion worth of tax relief since becoming governor. and one of the ways that i will revive the economy of this country when i'm president is by scraping that thing called obamacare. [applause] >> see, the model for socialized medicine has already been tried. and it failed. not just in western europe but in massachusetts. and i'm not alone in that thought. mr. romney's top economic advisor published a study last year that said that the massachusetts plan, quote, was the main component are the same as obamacare. in fact, he said what's happening in massachusetts gives

us is window into this country's future. last week we got that glimpse of america's future under obamacare. according to a study by the beacon hill institute, governor romney's misguided health care mandate -- it slowed income growth and cost massachusetts 18,000 jobs. romneycare cost massachusetts 18,000 jobs. just think what it will do to the rest of this country if it were obamacare was applied to this country. romneycare drove up cost $3.5 billion in massachusetts. it cost taxpayers in florida and across this nation another $4 billion in medicaid and medicare costs. obamacare is expected to cost

$27 billion more in my state over the next decade. government-mandated, government-run health care costs too much. and it kills too many jobs. it gets in between you and your doctor, whether it's passed in massachusetts or washington, d.c. and as president, i will oppose any big government health care plan that costs jobs and raising the tab on taxpayers. [applause] >> as your president i want to make washington, d.c., as inconsequential in your life as i can make it. [applause] >> we have tried -- we have tried 2.5 years of government trying to stimulate the economy. it's time to let the private sector grow the economy. we need a flatter, broader, or fair federal tax code. we need to restore investor

confidence by eliminating federal regulation from those activist agencies like the epa. we need to cut the spending, reduce the debt so that our children inherit a country as promising as the one that our parents gave us. see, i grew up, as al shared with you, a small farming community, west of fort worth, texas. we didn't spend a lot of time looking around for government to help us out. a neighbor was sick, we all pitched together to gather their crops, managed their livestock. in my case, we didn't even have indoor plumbing until i was 5 years old. [inaudible] >> i'll promise you one thing, i

wasn't born with four aces in my hand. like a lot of you, i viewed the pathway of success as the product of hard work. and we continue to reject the idea that washington is our caretaker. the nanny state was not needed for our forefathers who carved out of this wilderness, this greatest nation that the earth has ever known. the nanny state didn't groom our greatest generation, my father's generation, who freed millions of people from oppression during world war ii. the nanny state didn't inspire innovation and technology, the creation of wealth or the entrepreneurial spirit in this country. if we want to get america working again, we need washington to get out of the way. [applause] >> and with your help and people like you all across this great country, that is exactly what we will do. we will get america working

again and take this country back to the great values and the principles that have made america wonderful. god bless you. thank you all for coming out and being with us today. [applause] ♪ ♪

>> all right, my fellow americans, here we are. great to be with you. well, it's my pleasure to introduce to you our next guest. our former republican two-term governor of new mexico. i like that second term. it means folks thought highly of you the second time around. and he's admitted to lowering taxes and winning the war of drug abuse, protecting civil rights and revitalizing our economy. a little bit about his track record for those of you who may not be familiar with it. he was known for his commonsense business approach to governor. he eliminated new mexico's budget deficit, they cut the rate of growth in state government in half, privatized state prisons, left office with a billion dollars surplus. more importantly, he reduced 1,000 state employees with no firings. he experienced 14 tax reductions in 8 years, the longest period

without a tax increase in the state's history. ladies and gentlemen, help me give a warm welcome to one of our gladiators for this job, governor gary johnson. ♪ >> very nice. thank thanks. so i'm going to take advantage of this and kind of treat this as a job interview. i am running for president of the united states. i'd like to get the republican nomination to do that. so i want to let you know that i think i'm unique in the field in that i'm the entrepreneur. i've been an entrepreneur my entire life. i started -- i started working construction jobs when i was 17 'cause they were the highest paid. i've paid for everything that i've had since i've been 17, but

anyway, i started a one-man handiman business in albuquerque in 1974. and in 1994, had 1,000 employees. i was the largest construction employer in the state of new mexico. [applause] >> i sold that business in 1999. no one lost their job. and go figure, they're doing better than ever. i'm also an athlete. i think you want an athlete in this job. i think you'll want somebody who sets goals and has the determination and the willpower to go out and make things happen. i climbed and summited mount everest in 2003. and i want to tell you -- i want to tell you that i did that having broken my leg a couple of months before i left for nepal.

i had a full fracture of the tibia. and as is life, things go wrong. and you can take what goes wrong and you can quit. or you can take what goes wrong and just expect that's going to happen and move forward and that's what i did. and i was fortunate enough to stand on top of the planet. i have run for two political offices in my life, governor of new mexico and re-election as governor of new mexico. i promised to bring a commonsense business approach to state government and i would like to think i delivered on that in spades. i vetoed 750 billions while i was governor of new mexico. [applause] >> putting that into perspective, that was like more vetos than the other 49 governors in the country combined. it really made a difference.

i'm promising as president of the united states to submit a balanced budget to economy in the year 2013. i am promising to veto legislation where expenses exceed revenue. i'm going to argue to you that if i'm elected president of the united states, promising to do those two things, that even if congress overrides that budget, that will become closer to being balanced than if you're going to elect a president that's promising to do that over a 15 or 20-year period because that's the only prudent thing to do. it's not going to happen. that's going to be business as usual. i'm also advocating throwing out the entire federal tax system.

[applause] >> and replacing it with the fair tax which is a consumption tax, which will absolutely set the stage for tens of millions of jobs to be created in this country because it replaces -- it does away with all federal tax, income tax, the department -- the internal revenue service, corporate tax, business tax. it is as the name implies. it's fair. you make more money. you'll pay more fair tax. nobody will avoid paying fair tax. it will promote saving. look, no corporate income tax, why as a business person would you start up, grow, nurture a business other than in the world other than united states given that as a business environment? come on! let's release the private sector just to do just that. and that includes balancing the

federal budget. that means reducing federal by 32%. i'm going to reduce the federal budget. that means medicaid and medicare. i reformed medicaid in the state of new mexico. we had a better health care network. we saved a whole bunch of money. if the federal government would have block-granted the state of new mexico a fixed amount of money, 43% less than what we were currently spending, done away with all the strings in the mandates, i would have overseen the delivery of health care to the poor in new mexico. i believe the same would hold true for medicare. give this back to the states. 50 laboratories of innovation, 50 laboratories of best practice. that's exactly what would happen and that's what we need to see happen. washington top-down has us in

the state that we're in right now which i believe will be a monetary collapse unless we fix this. social security, it's not cutting social security. social security is a problem that is all relative to medicare but we fix social security simply by making it a system that takes in more money that what it pays out. and without raising taxes, here's how we do that. we raise -- we raise the eligiblity age. we have a means-testing. and a means-testing can entail very simply if you pay in "x" amount of social security, then you're only going to get "x" amount back if you have a certain level of income. ..

i was opposed to iraq from the get go. i thought there was not a military threat from iraq. i thought we had the surveillance capability to monitor that if they were to have cash rolled out weapons of mass destruction i felt we could of dealt with that. i thought if we went into iraq but could find ourselves in a civil war to which there would be no end. afghanistan i think this is a great example of what we should be using our military for.

we attacked back and after having been in afghanistan for six months we wiped out al qaeda. that was ten years ago. we are building roads, schools, bridges, highways and hospitals in iraq and afghanistan and other countries in the bold and don't we have the same needs here in this country. [applause] reducing by 43% depends on strong military allies. we have to share this responsibility with our allies. we are a strong ally of israel and will remain a strong military ally with israel i've talked to netanyahu. they don't want, they don't want foreign aid and support which will always be there and deliver that support. our european allies, so much has been made of these wanted

infrastructure projects, transportation infrastructure projects in europe, health care in europe. they've been able to afford that because we've picked up the tab. they haven't had to. this needs to be shared world why the coming and we need to have a vigilance against the war on terror on terrorism, and we will have that vigilant. we can have a strong military defense and we can cut the military budget. the military budget, the biggest threat to our national security is the fact that we continue to spend more money than we take an. when it comes to this country and the solutions, i am a free market guy. i am not a terrific guy. i think that there is a magic to free market when it comes to education, when it comes to --

>> [inaudible] >> we do, we do. [laughter] when it comes to health care, when it comes to energy, free-market solutions, when it comes to these categories i would never established the department of homeland security i would never have done it. it's duplicative i would never established, i would have left that to the airlines and i dare say today that airline security would be as safe and less intrusive. right now i am the most googled name on the planet because i came up with a witty sentence on dog poop. [applause] [laughter] i was really grateful to be on stage last night to be able to talk about what does it need to

take place in this country. i appreciate this opportunity. i appreciate this opportunity right now to be in front of you telling you what is we need to do in this country. we need to balance the federal budget now. i'm promising to do that. i'm promising to veto where expenses exceed revenue. i'm promising to do that. i'm promising to advocate on behalf of a fair tax throughout the entire federal tax system and replace it with the fair tax and rebuild the american economy to real growth opportunity moving forward in this country thank you very, very much. [applause]

♪ ♪ okay. here we are again. i want to put my book in the right order. well, ladies and gentlemen it is my pleasure to introduce to you someone who got elected in 1991 to congress and at the time he got elected i thought he was like 15-years-old and of course reminded we have to be at least 25 but he still has those youthful good looks. he went to be one of the youngest senator is we have had and served from 95 to 2007. from 2001 to 2007 he had the

republican senate conference and was the third highest ranking republican at his young age in the senate and well deserving of the honor. the only thing i've got to tell you is that he got an undergraduate degree from penn state. ul how we floridians feel about penn state and football but it's a great school anyway, and he went to get an m.b.a. from the university of pittsburgh and dickinson law school. he's a bright, talented ranking conservative and join me welcoming a great former senator, rick santorum. ♪ >> thank you. thank you. thank you very much. i appreciate the introduction

even though it was not preceded since the university of florida kicked our rears in nova bowl game this year. it's been a tough year living with them. thanks so much for giving me the upper to need to be here. it was a great night last night at the debate we got a chance to see some differences between the candidates and folks who say we shouldn't have these disputes on the debate. i disagree. i disagree. these debates are about trying to find out who has the mettle to be able to go up against the barack obama and national media machine that is going to take them apart piece by piece and stand up, fight back and deliver the principles that are the conservative party is believe in. that's what this race is about is finding the right person who can stand up and when times are tough and the heat is on, the liver.

the reason i'm running for president is because i think i've been that candidate over the course of my career who has stood up, taken the heat in a tough state and been able to win the elections. when i was first elected in 1990, iran and a 60% democratic district against the 14 year democratic incumbent who was given absolutely no chance to win the race. in fact the head of the congressional committee wouldn't even meet with me because he said there was no point in meeting because i had no chance of winning. i sort of felt that way a few months ago when i was in this race. but you know what? i believe someone had to go out and fight for the principles that made this country the greatest country in the history of the world. [applause] so i went out undeterred and we just got married that you're went out and knocked on 20,000 doors and we had some debates

and let's just say the local press report that no longer exists, the reporter said he picked him up, threw him down, stomped on him and put him out for good measure and we were able to turn that around and in two weeks' time we went from the single digit recognition to winning the race because i was able to stand up and articulate the vision the conservative vision for this country and mobilize people to go out and win any election in a 60% democratic district in that election year of 1990 those of you that haven't followed my career, you've got to remember i haven't just stood up and fought for conservative principles, i stood up and fought against corruption and against insults our politics of washington, d.c. and i want to but i worked with john maynard and a group called the gang of seven and we felt corruption with members of congress actually having the

wolves at the house bank and it had been going on for decades, it had been reported for decades. no one decided they wanted to do it but i did. we went up and exposed and members of our own party were threatening me. both parties were coming out you can't do this you're going to ruin our political career and you know what, we did. [applause] [cheering] and republicans lost seats, democrats lost seats and we went after the chairman of the ways and means committee in the congress of the time by the name of dan and he went to jail because we stood up and fought for the right principles. trust me because i will fight, i will fight. fighting is great. winning is better. right? [applause]

how did i get reelected? they took my district, we lost two seats, probably to florida in the 1990's. one of them was mine and they put me in with a democratic incumbent and gave me no chance to win in a 72% democratic district. two-thirds of it was a brand new district to me. election day came and george bush was running for reelection of 92, got 29% in my district, i got 21 and was reelected by the largest and anyone in that area had ever seen. [applause] why? i stood up for what i believed then and i worked hard to make sure the people represented by was accountable to. i then ran for the united states senate and while i was running i did something on the ways and means committee and i drafted a bill called welfare reform and it became part of the contract with america and i ran for the

united states senate against an incumbent whose campaign was managed by james carville and paul. you want to talk about going up against the best the democrats have to offer? i did it in a state with a million more registered democrats and republicans who haven't voted for a president since 1988 and i took the mahmoud was the issue? speed because the man was the author in the senate of hillarycare. you want someone who has won a national election on the swing state they have to win the presidency against the best the democrats have to offer you are looking at the guy did it in style and one. [applause] >> i didn't go to washington, d.c. and become someone who just thought i'd better to get reelected. i took the lead on welfare reform and federal entitlement, something we are going to have to do a little bit and and this

after the selection i did it and we need to do it again with food stamps, housing programs, education programs, medicaid and, all those things. i did it. i fought the fight and able to go to the american public bill clinton we did that twice but why do the eventually signed it? off because they wanted to but because i was on the floor battling ted kennedy and daniel patrick moynihan and talking to the american public and the public got behind us with the vision that we laid out and he was first to sign it. i win the election victories and victories on the floor of the senate as president because i am able to go to the american public and get them behind us. the duty of reagan wasn't a good policy it was the ability to get the policies, the american people behind those policies and get them passed and that's what we need in a leader in this country and that's what i deliver not just for the welfare reform but also a moral cultural issues.

there's nobody in this race who has a record of standing up for life like i did. the partial birth abortion ban act, i did. [applause] for six years we fought and clinton would veto the bill and you know what? we kept coming back even after the supreme court struck it down. this is another important difference between me and everybody in this race. i don't take the idea that the supreme court or the courts are somehow a superior branch of the government. they are not. [applause] i'm the only one in this race that has done something to show i would just answer the question what are you going to do about judges? support judges like scalia and thomas and alito i will do that, that's not enough, folks because the next president will put folks like ginsberg and breyer back on the bench. we have to break the mold and i did.

they struck down the partial birth abortion bill and you know what i said when george bush got into office? i went to the great floridian and we were able to work together and guess what we did? we drafted a bill that said the supreme court, you are wrong. you are wrong. it is constitutional and we wrote a bill in the first two sections of those e legal briefs telling the supreme court why they were wrong and saying we have as much say as to what is constitutional in this country as you do and we are going to stand up for the constitution and interpreted it the right way. [applause] and we won. the supreme court flipped the decision and said it was constitutional. ladies and gentlemen there's a lot of people who said they are going to check the boxes and they pledged to do this and this but there's somebody in this race who hasn't taken a pledge. he's taken the bullet for the

conservative cause. i fought on the moral issues and national security issues. we have the debate was light and we are seeing it with more and more republicans getting queasy about america's role in the world we are not the criminal world and we are not setting the agenda we are not the strong words in the world someone else will be. it is not sufficient it is not sufficient they will just elect laws and i am for the border fence on like some in this race. it's not sufficient to say we will direct the laws and withdraw and everyone will leave us alone. when will we ever see that be the case? there are people out there from eight us not because what we do but because of who we are. a day hate us because of things defined in ethical to the moral point of view and it's not just the radical islamists. you know here in florida it is

the socialists and central america it is the socialists who are not dealing with the radical islamists and creating the training camps in central america not because they like us because of what we've done to their country it's because they want us off the beat because they want to dominate the world. they want to spread their venom through the world and have it on our shores. if we do not pass the lean forward reagan policy of fighting these folks where they are waiting for the folks to come to the shores ladies and gentlemen, we will be the generation that not only lost the country because of our debt but the freedom of being taken away by their big government and control that we will be the country that will have allowed the world to sinking to the despair that we will be an island that will long survive. that is our charge to renew america from within and to stand strong for the principles that made america the greatest

country in the history of the world and spread those principles to rubble world. we have something to be proud of, not apologize for and what america is. [applause] am i one final comment to this, this is the most important election in your lifetime and i don't care how old you are. this election is about whether america is very essence will continue whether it will be free and safe and prosperous. if obamacare is implemented in this little program in with of the election of barack obama, we will be the generation that will not lose america's pre-eminence in the world, but we will lose the freedom our founders fought and died for for 235 years. that is why it is incumbent upon each and everyone of you here in

florida the game changing state that you are to get involved and back a candidate who has proven that they will stand tall and be authentic and stand for not just what they believe in and do it in their own personal life but has the track record of showing they can do it and will do it in spite of all of the odds, in spite of all of the wellcome against them and they will do it when things get tough and stand for what you believe in. i've done it. no one else on the panel there last night has done what i've done and can we state. no one else has won a swing state in a panel. no one defeated democratic incumbent on that panel. i've done it and i stood a stroll to the conservative principles. i didn't change one policy when i decided to run for president. i didn't change my party when things got tough in pennsylvania. i stood for what i believed then i stood for the conservative cause and if you stand with me

we will have the next president of the united states. thank you. god bless you. [applause] [cheering] ♪ nothing like a little "rocky" action. well, there is a doctor in the house. the doctor who delivered 4,000 babies. that's a lot of babies to bring

into this world. he and his wife carol have five children, like dni and i, the have 18 grandchildren, they have a good lead on that. went to graduate from duke university school of medicine, the same school as one of our kids, so that is a pretty good way to identify with a great national leader and frankly congressman paul the great thing about congressman paul is that he has been delivering this message for a long time, and frankly -- [cheering] there's a lot of folks in washington who aren't listening but they are listening now. and i remember congressman paul's message to years ago when so many's establishment would not pay attention to how much attention being done to the message today and not only had a warm spot for all the right reasons for in spite of the numbers stands up for what he

believes in and for what his believe sar and this gentleman has never stopped fighting for his beliefs and frankly their beliefs are more and more americans share today and the warm welcome for congressman ron paul. [applause] [cheering] ♪ >> great to be here. a lot of enthusiasm. we have a lot of major problems. a lot of major problems in this country but you know what, there is a revolution going on in this country today. [applause] it's a very healthy revolution that's been going on especially the last four or five years and it's been designed to deal with the problems that we have because we've drifted far too away from our constitution our individual liberties and

sensible foreign policy is and american people are not only tired of it, they are sick of paying for it because we are out of money and we have to do something about that. i see the crisis that we are in basic it as an attack on liberty. personal liberty solves a lot of problems. that's a the country is about, the founders understood this, they detested the king, he was abusive with the military detested the taxes and the abuse of civil liberties so they know and understand exactly what liberty meant. that meant people had a right to their life, a right to their liberty and it didn't come from the government, it can from our creator and they also believe that you have the right to keep the fruits of your labor. [applause] [cheering] they did not give us an income tax, and that was the precise reason when you got that income tax later on in the 20th century has not been was not kind to us,

was not kind to our financial situation, our debt, our foreign policy, monetary policy. you know, 1913 was a bad year. it was 1913 we got the income tax which was just encouraging spending, but we also got another euro that became very detrimental and someday we are going to get rid of it and that is the federal reserve system of 1913. [applause] >> the reason the federal reserve is so important and one of the major reasons i got involved in politics many years back is in 1971 we several linkage of our money to go gold which meant the founders ideas were rejected. the founders understood something about the runaway inflation of the continental dollar so they put in the constitution you can't use anything except gold and silver legal tender and you can't print money. in 1792 when they wrote the

first coinage act the said anybody who committed to counterfeit they would get the death penalty. that's how serious they thought it was the there's been a lot of counterfeiting going on lately so i don't know whether to get around it invoking the death penalty, but the one thing is we have a terrible situation and you as an individual americans believe that the silver coins and gold coins in the constitution is right and use that money you can be arrested and york confiscated and they can say that you are a terrorist and counterfeiting, but using authentic money. but what do we do with the real counterfeit? we leave them alone. why is that so important? if you're against big government you have to understand the monetary issue because it grows for a couple reasons. there's a group in washington that loves to spend endless money on the militarism that we have to be in every country in the world. we are now and 135 countries.

we have 900 bases overseas and it's not defending our country. we have less security. we need to bring the troops home. [applause] we also spend endlessly for the entitlement system. the entitlement system is based on a concept it rejects the issue of rights. you have a right to your life and liberty and should have the right to what your net but the entitlement system says you don't have the right to keep what you are an. people who want something from you can send a government agent to steal it from you and give it to them and that is called entitlement. believe me. we have quite a few generations now that believe in this and when their goods and services aren't forthcoming they are going to be very upset and a lot of them are getting upset already. but the real reason the entitlement system is dangerous is the and on that system is sold on the idea we are going to help the poor, help the poor,

sure. if you look carefully you'll find it helps the rich. that's the monetary system does and the entitlement system does the best example is the housing bubble that we have. the house and bob dole went on for a good many years and inflated the currency, everybody loved it, then the head the barney frank of the world coming to say we have to have this community, the reinvestment act and force banks to give bad loans. sure. people bought the houses and the price of the house borrow more money against their houses in the prosperity they claim. but guess what, the bubble that is predicted by the austrian free-market economist first it collapsed. so, both political leaders or both parties mind and they said we have to bail them out. it's a disaster. we will have a depression and the truth is they haven't bailed them out and wall street would have had a depression, not the people. [applause] so we bailout the people who made a lot of money. they were in the financing

business. they were in the building business. they were in the mortgage business. they were in the derivatives business, and they taught this country and unfortunately they dumped it all on you. so they bailed out the people that ripped us off and on to their securities on us. the federal reserve now with money created clean air. they hold $1 trillion of derivatives and worked with assets. that's why the money value goes down and prices go up and why medical costs too much and why education costs too much. so it is this whole concept of money coming to the rescue of the rich and dumping it on the poor. how often do we as libertarians and conservatives say you mean you don't want the government taking care of everybody? you heartless people, you have no compassion. but the true compassion comes from liberty. the free markets, sound money.

[applause] [cheering] is the answer to our economic woes. the one thing it won't do, it won't create perfect economic equality and that is what the socialists love, perfect economic equality and they are good at achieving it at a low level and people are equally poor and that's not what we want. what we want is opportunity for people to work and keep what the earth. we need the government to be involved. it's not like the government shouldn't exist but the government shouldn't be the regulator the should be the fixer of the interest rate, and they shouldn't be -- they shouldn't be bailing out the rich. so, in a free market there are some very strict regulations, property rights. can't take another person's property. you can't steal, you can't hurt people, you can't counterfeit money. and if you mess up, you know

what should happen? you should go bankrupt. other people shouldn't bail you out. [applause] and if you do well, you have the right to keep what you are now. [applause] the other area that i believe we have suffered a lot in the last several decades is the loss of personal liberty. i know there's a lot of different things that happened but i keep thinking that the most symbolic views of our personal liberty is the abuse that we have all been conditioned to put up with our airports. but also it has led to some other silly things. the federal government believes they have to tell you everything to do with your personal life and everything to do with your economic life. there won't be very many here who might not care about this

issue in this day that we live and out for government has decided the federal government has to decide whether or not you are allowed to drink raw milk. that's going too far. the solution to the problems can be found and understanding of personal liberty is the issue of the founders delivered to us and we have unfortunately rejected it. we've embarked on the deficit financing, we embark on policing the world and we have embarked on a run in everybody's personal life and we have an economic crisis because we are spending money we don't have. we have to think of the freedom as being one issue. freedom, personal liberty come intellectual liberty is exactly the same as your economic liberty and that is all one package and people should have the right to do with their life what they want, but they do not have the right to come and bailout even on a personal basis or on a financial basis with a corporation or the big banks.

this is what we were given, and unfortunately we have been so careless and we have allowed this to slip away. so it is true this is a generation that has to make a decision and there is a lot of young people right now that are very excited about looking into this in detail endorsing the idea that the federal reserve system's or a fraud that we don't need income taxes we ought to allow young people to opt out of social security. [applause] so therefore, there is every reason to be optimistic about what is happening if we follow through. the revolution is an idea that the non-violent revolution that if we do not achieve what we want to achieve in bringing us back from the understanding of liberty, i believe it could lead to symbolics in the country that's already stirring up in the world because when the kids don't come the people are going to be very upset. as we have to change the attitude. it's not like i have to invent it or you have to invent it because it was given to us.

our liberties were given to us by our creator is that it was only delivered to us with the best package ever we were the freest and most prosperous country and what do you have now? and attack on your civil liberties. all you have is gaps and we have a perpetual problem with government, so we do have a tremendous job ahead, but if we look to the tradition and to our hard work we can restore the greatness of america that is my goal. thank you very much. [applause] ♪ >> okay. ladies and gentlemen, the gentleman that i am about to introduce we know right off the

bat there to great things about him. he's a great man of faith and courage. first about face, a man diagnosed a few years ago with stage for cancer involving the liver and other organ and for a family including ours where that hits close to home imagine stage for cancer with a low chance of survival just believing in the lord and your chances and here he is with us today, just an amazing story of courage. when i talk about the discipline, imagine this. leading a company with 400 burger king's and then after that godfather's pizza and staying slim and trim. [laughter] i know if i hit 400 burger king stores that would be about 1250 pounds standing up here today so what an example of discipline. what really is an example is the

man who believed in the american dream who came upon his bootstraps and worked his way of the ladder and became one of the most successful businessmen in america and he's here with us to share that dream and experience to share with us why he's the right guy to lead the country. she's catching on. can't believe the number of times i get around people come to me and tell me and i asked you like and they say i like the people died. i get that time and time again. so she is obviously building of a pretty significant network of supporters. the second thing i love about him is that 999 plan. [cheering] i'm not going to steal his thunder only to tell you we had a nice event for the major donors for the american conservative union this past wednesday and even more as the guest of honor who i don't know if you know stephen but he is to be the leader of the club for growth and is now a great writer

in "the wall street journal" and frankly one of the smartest guys in the business. stevan was telling us when pressed he was with herman cain's discussion and we had long planned about his discussion and it made a lot of sense and i guess that is the bottom line about him he made a lot of sense. join me in welcoming herman cain. [applause] [cheering] ♪ >> thank you. thank you very much. [applause] thank you. let it be in mind that the tragedy of life does not lie in

not reaching your goals. the tragedy lies in having no goals to reach for. it's not a calamity to die with dreams unfulfilled, but it is a calamity to have no dreams. america is a nation of dream makers and dream achievers. the founding fathers would dream of creating the greatest nation on earth and they did, they got it right. they got it right. the shining city on a hill that all of the other countries looked up to, but of late the

shining city on the hill started to slide on the hilltop because we've become a nation of crises and every crisis plus a little further down the hill as the shining city on the hill, but the good news is even when america is at its weakest we are still the greatest country in the world and they are still looking up to us. but we don't have to remain as a nation of crises. we can change it. one of the greatest things about america is its ability to change. its ability to be resilient. its ability to fix the problems and our greatest crisis is a severe crisis of leadership in washington, d.c. and the white

house, our biggest crisis. and if you change the leadership you change the outcome. we are not going to get a different outcome until we change the leadership and that is what you do, and that's what i do. next to national security, the greatest challenge we have is this economy. so goes the economy, so goes the solution of so many other problems. a lot of people like to talk about china and the threat that we have from china, that china is doing this and china is doing that. well, let me tell you the strategy is relative to dealing with china on all of these issues. it's a three simple words. outgrow china and the rest of the world and we won't have to

look back. [applause] [cheering] outgrow them. hell do we do that? we have an economic crisis. we have an economic crisis and the plan that the president put forth is not with any engine which is the business sector. my plan does. i call it 999. the 999 plan. the first thing we do in order to get the 999 plan going is we throw out the current tax code. it is broken. [applause] sometimes you can't pitch something and it can't be fixed. 999. we impose the business flat tax,

the 9% personal flat tax and 9% national sales tax and it replaces all corporate taxes, all personal income taxes other than the new nine it replaces the capitol gains taxes to be paid, and also replaces the estate tax and the biggest one that everybody pays is the payroll tax. it replaces that. 999 replaces all of those taxes in order to make this one of the most business friendly nations in the world and when we give businesses certainty, they will expand, they will grow, they will keep jobs here and jobs will come back to america rather than leaving america. our economic challenge is not

only an economic imperative, it is a national security imperative china is just sitting their waiting for this economy to go off the cliff. they are holding the majority of our debt, and if our economy collapses, that is exactly the point that they want us to be. but all i can tell you that in the cain presidency that is not going to happen, not on my watch, and not with the people of this country. [applause] here is how we make that happen. three simple things. stay informed. that's why you are here. that's why you get on the internet and talk to your friends and neighbors. you have to stay informed

because many of you heard me say stupid people are ruined in america. don't be among the stupid dhaka stay informed. secondly stay involved. some people want you to believe that what you do is harder. this movement doesn't matter. yes it does. the reason they want to call you names and call me names, yeah i just called a few names too, imagine that is because they want to intimidate us and to not letting our voices be heard and the last time i checked according to the founding fathers, when they talk about both unable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness if you keep reading that same document it went on to say that when the form of government becomes constructive of those ideas, it is the right

of the people also abolish it. we have some abolishing to do. [applause] it is our right. it's our right. third, stay inspired. believe we can take this nation back. if i didn't believe we could take a back, i wouldn't be running. because i believe that we can take this nation back. you believe that we can take this nation back. my inspiration comes from you and other sources. one of my biggest inspiration's, the fact that i saw the face of my first grandchild in 1999, the

first thought that went through my mind is what do why do, what do i do to make this a better nation and a better world i didn't know the answer then, i didn't know it meant running for president of the united states of america, but when you are a man of faith you know is that your plan and then there's a god's plan i listen to god's plan right now. [applause] on this journey, and so if you do what you can do, and i do what i can do, i know that we can succeed and taking the shining city on a hill back to the top of the hill, that is our challenge and that is what we can do because as president

ronald reagan used to remind us freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. it must be fought for and protected. one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and grandchildren for the united states of america used to be like when men were free. i'm not going to have that conversation with my grandkids, and i don't think you want to have that conversation with your grandkids. help me put united back in the united states of america. [applause] ♪ now more from the conservative political action conference in orlando. for house majority leader dick

army and grover norquist took part in the discussion about cutting the government spending. they were joined by the chief financial officer. this is 35 minutes. >> hello everybody. our website is letfreedomringusa.com and the website specific to this project we are going to be talking about the balanced budget amendment is bbaorbust.com. i was privileged to be involved in the cut cut and balance coalition as we were dealing with the debt ceiling debate. how many of you think the debt ceiling debate came out well? i think that is a pretty unanimous vote of no-confidence. you see, washington when it left to its own devices inevitably produces a deal even when it is clear that america is clamoring for a solution.

therefore, i submit to you that we can have no solution until we achieve a balanced budget amendment. how many people agree with that position? [applause] that's what we are going to discuss in this panel, and we have three absolute experts with specifically relevant experience. i'm going to introduce them one at a time and then and they are going to speak for a few moments each and then we are going to have a discussion. so i would like to first well, grover norquist, president of the americans for tax reform, and the force behind and the author of the taxpayer protection pledge, grover norquist. [applause] another man who should be a hero

to virtually everybody in this room is former congressman dick speed. 28 years in the house, majority leader, former professor of economics at north texas state and chairman of freedom works, please welcome dick armey. [applause] [cheering] and finally, jeff atwater, chief financial officer of the state of florida prior year to that eight years senator, two years as president of the senate and prior to that, 25 years as a community banker, somebody who really understands the real world, please welcome jeff at water. [applause] >> all right. i am going to invite each of our panelists to open with five to six minutes of remarks in general about the balanced budget amendment as a concept, how it works, things we need to

be concerned about, not every balanced budget amendment is the same. there are in fact some bad ones out there that you are about to hear about three of the budget control act requires both the house and the senate to vote on the balanced budget amendment between the first october and the end of the year and yet they don't define what it is. so literally any piece of legislation that has some reference to be a balanced budget amendment would qualify with a lot rather useless provision in the act. and i think that there is at least one out there that we need to be on guard for so let's all support the concept of a balanced budget amendment, but do some really serious and critical thinking that helps us distinguish between and among different varieties of the balanced budget amendment. not everything that masquerades under that title is in fact

helpful putting us on the path towards fiscal restraint and fiscal sanity. first let's open up with grover norquist. >> thank you. our friend has come back in the past and said we have a debt crisis, a deficit crisis making the solution to raise taxes. the real solution is spending too much money, spending less money. now he comes and says we should have tax reform because the tax code is complicated and the rates are too high and the way that he defines tax reform is the about $2 trillion in taxes increases i assume he will jump in with both in favor of the new line which is the balanced budget amendment and he will support a balanced budget amendment which will be in his or restructure to raise taxes so the first thing he does is make sure any balanced budget amendment requires a two-thirds

vote to raise taxes in the state of california and the state of arizona does so that the balanced budget amendment will not force the tax increases to balance the budget but will help the congressman and senators who are fighting to reduce spending as the way to balance the budget. let's focus on of raising taxes and then we can focus on spending. the americans for tax reform runs the new tax increase pledge we ask all the candidates in the office to commit in writing to citizens, not to h.r. or to me despite what the president says sometimes i will not raise taxes, no net tax increases the commitment made to the citizens of the state and their district to read what we've done with that is the majority of the republicans in the house and the senate and the to hundred 30 members of the house all but six republicans in the house all but seven in the senate and made

that commitment in writing that's taken tax increases off the table so that obama even though he keeps coming back and asking for it again is told no, you can't do that. the republican party needs to maintain that commitment never to raise taxes and only when we convince people we are never raising taxes do you ever get to a conversation about reducing spending. step one, don't raise taxes. stepped to come and now we bring spending down. and of course we have a challenge than because president obama's theory of how the economy works is the government spends a dollar and we are all richer. he takes a dollar from someone who earns it and gives it to somebody from chicago and announces the more dollars in the room. nancy pelosi, senator reid and obama stand on one side of the like and they each bucket of water, what amount to the oversight of the lake and in front of the msnbc cameras poor

the buckets back into the lake and announce that they are stimulating to great depths. here's the trick they are right to do this 800 billion times and that will make their life become much deeper. he really believes this. the problem is when you tell somebody that works on saturday because he worked on saturday we are going to take some additional money and say to somebody who forgot to work for a living but decided to work for a living here, because you didn't work we are going to give you money, you kind of change the incentives everybody faces. the guys planning to work on saturday and thinking of getting a job in the first place, each are told, you know, you don't have to work on saturday there's no reason to actually get a real job because we can get you government resources instead. the idea of the keynesian economics to take money from one person and give it to another it's not just moving the stone from one side of the room to the other, it actually damages the

economy by changing the sentence was from producers and people trying to decide whether to work. we've got to make sure the balanced budget amendment is a little on spending and not another tool to force tax increases. >> thanks very much, grover. congressman? [applause] i have to say this by cracks me up. [laughter] he describes the great adventure of going to harvard that he made it a point to the cup every marxist professor on campus because he didn't want to be seen as. i can only judge he must have been successful because he came out with understanding nothing. going to be amazed and shocked, i know you will, to realized for

20 years teaching the american university i knew a lot of marxist professors and all the marxist professors have one thing in common, they are wrong about everything. so first thing you have to understand about this president is he doesn't understand anything and he amazes me. second thing, she's been effectively at least once at the end of that. i want to use this analogy. obama thinks of the american political economy as a jockey and a horse and as you realize we've got the most beautiful horse in the race for economic well-being and efficiency and effectiveness, productivity production, equity, distribution , but obama is

confused because he thinks the jockey is supposed to carry the horse and his idea in winning the race is used far of the horse and feed the jockey and he's determined to do this. there's no doubt in my mind when he did take that one recreational course and activity she found the marxists requesters and got that one wrong too. the reason i like this analogy is our problem, ladies and gentlemen, is we had the big problem, the overwhelming problem that smothers the american economy as we have got a jockey that is just too big, fat, dumb and lazy. i don't mind here against the people who are confident. but we have a government that combines their stupidity and their ignorance and their dumbness and largeness of what

they're against and i can tell you right now in their area and i hope you will because if you read my book will both profit. [laughter] as a self righteous region. so what they're saying is what we need to do is feed him and make him stronger. now the united states government right now as we speak whether you look at jobs that could be in south carolina or coal mining jobs all over america and the oil fields in the balkans and north dakota with the epa out of control with a silly mind it regulation shutting down and killing jobs or the department of labor out of control because they are afraid there may be new jobs for people who aren't members of the labor unions he is currently as we speak through

his administration's regulatory arrogance killing more jobs than he could ever possibly hope to create with that job expansion gag that he just pulled out because it is just plain ignorance with no objection. the jobs of restoring prosperity and the american economy is cut the size of government. cut it down. [applause] it's very important that we make the cuts [inaudible] and when we are in soledad -- i was just on tv last week with howard dean and he thought the most wonderful thing we could do is expand a miracle. nope. americorps is the insult to you and our children. we have to cut out stupid

programs, counterproductive programs, put a ribbon on arrogance and regulation and overall reduce the size of government and that means the entitlement. so we have to look at those among us like paul ryan and dear to step forward. the question of entitlement in america has been carried on the last three years republicans but don't dare and democrats but don't care. we have to get serious adults working on this problem now. once you cut the government down and make it fit, the capabilities of our economy in a manner where it can be an instrument of assistance to what we do naturally witch's brew ourselves into a prosperous nation then you reform the one

legitimate reason, only one. anything you try to do with the tax code other than raise money is an audacity to the taxpayer. now unfortunately from 1984 to professor who gave us what is called the flat tax. if you think the answer is something other than the flat tax, i'm sorry, you are wrong but we got the right answer. cut taxes to reduce the government in such a way as to allow the economy to rule the incentive to grow. now, not every balanced budget amendment that would be floated out there will give you that. but luckily we have got senator lee and those of us in the tea party movement across america can be especially proud of senator lee who introduced and developed a lot of support within the legislative bodies

for the cut cap-and-trade, velte government, capped government, and then you can do the cut cabin balance and then balance the budget and you should cut the government spending by at least $2 for every subsequent reduction of taxes to the comprehensive tax reform. why do i say that we are particularly proud? the field like we have a hand in helping them run? because he's given us the best balanced budget amendment option out there, and the republican that he replaced today in office would not have voted for it. so the effect of the matter is if we can stay on the job and keep our standards high, stay focused and demand, we can have a truly conservative majority in both the house and senate and in the white house and get it right but don't let anybody say wants

to fix the problem of the deficit use of the problem you can fix the problem of the deficit by destroying the economy as well as reviving the economy and our choice is very clear. [applause] 64, mr. leader. [applause] just add water is the chief financial officer and the state of florida is actually working with and under the balanced budget amendment. so in your remarks tell us how it works, give a little bit of the history of the balanced budget amendment in the state of florida and the difference between the constitutional fix and the statutory fixed for the fix that is just an attempt to balance the budget for the law rotterdam for the full force of the constitution spirit every candidate on stage at the debate suggests again the states can be the laboratory, the petrie dishes, the great experiment we

can learn from nationally, federally, and again in this case the united states have some sort of legal winder 41 states or the legislature must actually task a balanced budget amendment. a balanced budget at the end of the recession. here in florida is a period of time where we work under a statutory lead assigned requirement to balance the budget but the wisdom of the people of florida and i did this in our constitution along with -- the was about 25 years ago, and additionally with that a super majority for the corporate tax increases. putting a little bit of a restructuring is the right way to go. but the important thing is how is it working? imagine the experience we are suffering right now in the country and the economic trough that we have been in the state of florida, the state hardest hit, highest unemployment, highest number of foreclosures and a drop in the valuation of property, greatest number of new participants and