>> in the name of the greatest people that have ever been on this earth, i draw the line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the seeds of tyranny and vice a segregation now, segregation forever. his life george wallace was an ardent supporter of segregation without spoken against the civil rights movement. and four term governor of alabama ran for president we 4 times and lost. one of those efforts cut short by an assassination attempt. this week on the contenders, george wallace. from the governor's mansion in montgomery, alabama at 8:00 eastern on c-span. >> world bank president robert zoellick discussed the world economy. edolphus towns hosted by the wall street journal economic council. he discussed european debt and china's role in the global economy. this remarks are 25 minutes.

>> the danger zone made me think two things. there's a quote from lot kenny perry song but it is true. today we meet on a day when it is worse than the contagions beyond europe. how do you feel? which zone are we at the moment? >> still in the danger zone. i agree with the thrust of your question. i think there is three issues europe is trying to struggle with. one is the one can mention about competitiveness and the others the banking system and a third is sovereign debt. the three are obviously interrelated. as they try to deal with one problem. for example, debt reduction for greece creates the risk of

uncertainty in spain. the device they put together to try to give a fire wall for india and spain was clearly the weak link. so what you are seeing going on right now is the fact that lack of certainty about italy and spain's ability to roll over the debt what this also reflects is quite interesting in markets which is starting in august you are starting to see markets look not only at a calculation of economics and finance but judgments of governance. in this case if you look at the statistics for the u.k. for debt and deficit gdp. they could cause some pause as well but because the government has a strong pass there's no clear direction. three quick implications that are worth paying attention to. to mention the emerging-market.

keep in mind developing markets have been two thirds of global growth the last two years but starting in august what we saw was ramifications of this on equity markets, bond yields, currencies. tool trade. the thing to watch on emerging-market is what this would start to affect the consumer business confidence in those markets in which case since emerging markets have been the key to global growth in a different situation. the second aspect is what the europeans are fundamentally doing is providing liquidity to buy time. i am not against buying time. the pens how you use the time. underneath it has to be a growth strategy. this is true for the united states too. issues of investment, innovation leader and how you get the incentives is a big issue europeans have not begun to address. the third one i will share with

this because i was at the meeting as well is there are bigger power shift going on. vice president cheney is here. when you think about the economic and security implications. i couldn't help but be struck when i was in that meeting seeing that emerging-market around rome, watching the europeans basically be unable to get their act together and thinking these other countries that lecture us and told us what to do and frankly we would be willing to try to help but they have to figure out how to help themselves first. this will have huge implications. if there's one thing i left with most which is i never want to see the united states in the position europe was at that meeting in france. >> the europeans get their act together. someone else for them by which i'm in the europeans had trouble. it seems to me they have become part of this particular drama and we're waiting for them to do something. is there any other solution than european central bank becoming the lender of last resort?

>> what this really focuses on, one of the questions in the last session focused on germany. germany will be the key to this but germany will not do it by itself. it will require careful diplomacy with france or the european commission and other players. the problem is germany has a series of positions that individually seem reasonable. don't when the ec because to bailout countries that and make reforms. not pouring money down a hole or leverage this thing up. even the question about should you try to put more sdrs into it. ultimately the german position comes down to others in europe need to be more like germany. that would be good as an economic matter but it does raise the question of whether it is going to happen and what it means for the euro zone. that is the issue they have not come to grips with and comes to the fundamental growth question.

in the short-term everyone will watch to see if the italian government -- the italian government should be able to make it but it is a question of whether markets have enough confidence for people to say there is too much uncertainty and i'm getting out and we have seen that already. we have seen it in the banking system. you are having a form of liquidity with the role, slow-motion if you want to use those terms and that will be harder to manage. at some point this is going to move from a step-by-step process to one as we have seen where confidence breaks and is hard to put back together. >> you subscribe to that view facing financial markets which things get worse before the ec be and germans lowlands being this lender of last resort. we have to let the market play their magic longer before we see it's the revenge. >> i don't know whether the german view requires a sense of the ec be willing to play a role

beyond what tim was hinting that which is to keep markets fluid and liquid for in the event of a crisis. there are lots of steps they can do. so i think right now you are seeing the pressure on whether the fundamental reforms will be made but as i said this is incurring an environment where we have the rest of the world economy somewhat -- depending on what comes out of europe. >> one more beat on europe and we will move to southern hills. what does the future look like for the euro zone? are we seeing a europe in the crossroads? moving to more difficult union of sorts? or disintegration of the euro zone? >> firework the lot with germany. i was the lead negotiator and german unification. i have a lot of respect -- been there twice in the last three weeks. i will just say this. on the one hand, there's a feeling among the german public that they don't want to be taken

to stabs and other people have to strengthen the reform process but one should not underestimate the german a dent -- to the european union. what angela merkel is trying to do and i try to encourage her is to say that where is this going? what system do you try to create so you see coming out of this conference they're talking about political unity. in the united states we refer to that as fiscal unity. this will be a fundamental choice for them because there are different ways to end fiscal union. tim mentioned alexander hamilton and the assumption of the day. you could assume the debt as hamilton did for the past but allow markets to determine for the future. you can create various european structures. this is the debate the germans are pressing watching in the system and frankly i think you are at a point where europe has to decide if it going to go that course or is it going to accept implications of non-combat of

economies which is not going to work in the same system. it is that issue that will play out and for economic diplomacy including the united states has a big implications. i was in london on the way before i was in germany. this is a big issue for london because if you have a deeper integrated euro zone what are the implications for britain and how does it play that? >> how does china fit into this? the european situation -- there was some hope among europeans that the chinese might contribute some money to the rescue package that was made by european leaders. do you think they will and if so why would they? >> i have to say i still am not understanding. to me it is somewhere between an embarrassment and foolhardy. number one, the idea the average per-capita income is $40,000 a year should be going to china

where the average per-capita income is $4,000 a year. in a world -- i still live in a world where i am trying to connect economic power and political relations. not a good thing to do. it wasn't going to happen. as we have seen with the chinese they have their own domestic opinion and i will summarize one chinese official who said if germany isn't so concerned about is why should i be so worried about it? that is the message you're going to get coming out of east asia. having said that, if europe comes to gather at, i do think other countries would be willing to operate. this is the irony. going back to the 90s, they will operate through the imf. so much the cried economic reforms in the 90s is what emerging-market say the message has to come back and how it will

work in a multilateral system. >> talking about china having said that there will be investments. people will privatize or there is opportunity, that will come. i am talking about big bailout. and the chinese economy per se, with the threat of inflation and a slowdown on the horizon. >> i think inflation has been a risk. if you look at the history of the chinese economy and political -- as we're looking at 2012 with great sensitivity of the chinese, by and large they have under control. is not totally addressed yet. i believe you will see some slow down in the chinese economy. i don't subscribe to these collapse thesis. the best thing for china to do for the united states and europe is to keep growing. what i will say there's something bigger going on. the project with china is interesting. the chinese are recognizing that

they can't depend on exports and investment led growth in the future as they have for the past 30 years. just to give your reference point, if china continued to grow at the same rate that it has by 23 it would be like adding 15 south koreas to the international system. the good news is the chinese recognize this. was not clear to me when i worked on these issues with japan on strike for reform 20 years ago and one of the projects we have been working on with the chinese leading into the next generation of leaders is how to take the next five year plan with the particular goals of what to do and how do you do that? this goes to some fundamental issues about the financial sector, pricing, how you approve returns to labor and consumption as opposed to investment. i will say the details will be

in the implementation as they always are but i am impressed that a country that has grown 10% over 30 years since we have to change the structure because maybe some people in the united states and europe ought to think about that too. >> what is a conservative estimate how long you might save with a commitment to change the focus of an economy such as that one? >> i think they want to begin now. i think it was in the last week 5-year plan that got thrown off because the stimulus plan rely on traditional tools. interesting -- the united states relied on a traditional full of trying to expand consumption. having said that, is hard to predict because you have more forces that are entrenched with the old system but i will just say the chinese are aware for examples that within five? will have more people leading a labor force than coming in. now they are in the process of

trying to build value-added production. for the rest of the world to do that in a form of open innovation and capture the benefits of that effective integrated international system but i honestly think there will be opportunities here. so if you deregulate the service sector and create more jobs and increase productivity and create opportunities for western firms. similar in terms of you start to change pricing of the natural resources basically you have a rather capital intensive development strategy that worked for certain export-led growth for that period. like a lot of things in life there is no preordained. i certainly think for the interest of the united states and others to work with china on the structural reforms would be mutual interest. >> where do you stand on that situation into the plans by the transition to change the mix? >> it should appreciate but i am

a practical person. you bash them head on i don't think you will get progress. the chinese have a different view than the u.s. many in the united states would see currencies and pricing that would change structural behavior. in china the view is price signals change and a structure hasn't changed we could have a lot of unemployed people and social unrest. i keep trying to work on a structural side while working on the price side is the most effective piece. >> it will be said that you have been too a lot -- there has been a lot of bashing of the chinese situation which hasn't helped at all. is there any other way of doing it? >> as i mentioned in diplomacy in general if you find points of mutual interest you will get further than if you try to overwhelm somebody. not sure we will overwhelm them. so the point of mutual interest

are the types of things that we will be unveiling with the chinese next year that focuses on some of the sectors that need to be changed. opportunities for service sector development. opportunities for value added production development. there will be other opportunities. we are starting to work with the chinese now on the possibility of low value-added manufacturing and moving to third countries including if we create opportunities in sub-saharan africa. i honestly think that will be more fruitful even though sometimes it may not be as satisfying for somebody as clubbing people. i want to start back on this important point. in my experience over 30 years and there are people who are more experienced. pharma get economic history since my true love of history. if you want to know what the country has to do is quit blaming others. cleanup bureau act. of the united states needs fixing things at home that is

the most important thing to do. [talking over each other] >> in this town for example? >> i wasn't here all day. >> i was here all day. i want to ask about something from your perspective. times like this in the past in history we had -- flipped back into perfectionism and things of that kind. are you concerned that this might happen today and in the next few months? >> if you take the euro zone events there is a set of potential implications. one we are already seeing. the european banks try to increase their capital they can increase their capital or cut their assets. we are starting to see trade finance starting to run off. european banks -- so in the balkans and eastern europe these are dangerous situations that

affect coming out of slower growth on north africa at a time that should be the benefit. it should run across different regions so that is one effect. another effect depends on how these issues are dealt with. what is the risk to counterparties? what is the risk of confidence starting to not only slow down the trade but affect financial markets more generally? that goes to your point about protectionism. there's always the risk that when countries feel the pressure and have high unemployment they will retreat behind protectionist borders. my view is in trade the best defense is an offense. to try to just say don't do that in my experience is less effective than having an agenda and the united states hasn't had an offensive traded and the. it past free trade agreements which i negotiated when i left the job in 2005. >> let's open up to the audience with any questions or comments.

>> questions? comments? jump in here please. any quick questions? >> on the issue of trade and the best defense being a good offense do you foresee any ability, secretary geithner talked to the areas of opportunity. the cme on the horizon where we could foster the area of trade? >> i think people have to start to take a little fresh -- for example there may be some possibilities -- i would look at things with europe on services. frankly this specific partnership is an appealing concept. we have free trade agreements in those countries so i would like to know what is the added. it started to bring japan out. the korean fda would.

that i think offers another set of big opportunities. whether you look at it -- with the agenda is going forward it is worth looking at whether there is an opportunity in brazil. brazil is more reluctant on the tariffs in the wto because it is afraid of chinese competition but there may be opportunities in a big economy like that. with the free trade agreements we did and the administration has finished in the western hemisphere you have two thirds of the western hemisphere outside the united states governed by u.s. free trade agreements. what this comes down to is the difference between talk and execution. these things vice president cheney knows is we used to work on. they take a lot of time to set up, work with the country, negotiate, deal with constituent groups and bring it to congress and deliver but at the end of the dave you are committed that is how you do it. you don't just talk about it.

you said you had one more. >> going back to europe, you had these -- at the moment we to big countries in europe, greece and italy, technocracy has replaced democracy. a good example, i wonder -- i hope you don't take offense but public servant. i wonder whether the -- with her that works and how long does it work for? is a stop-gap measure to have a technical democratic government and have to go back to deal with politicians? how do you get the political will to do stuff? >> i do want to point out that francesco does have an italian passport. it is a very serious question this way. whether it is the united states or italy it is the challenge of how you integrate policy with

politics. i am quite serious sunni is points about trade and the fact you talk about entitlements in the united states. i wonder why people haven't taken on social security. it is not as big as medicare but everyone knows the variables and frankly it would have a good sign to market to deal with it and it is not that complicated. here is where the political paralysis has come in. the republicans for their reasons want to emphasize cuts. democrats for their reasons want to say we don't do anything to social security because it is a political base. as soon as you emphasize cuts or take the democratic approach the public turned off. if you say to people i guarantee what you have today plus the cost of living increase, that is the difference between using the current wage index and the cpr and if you say because of added years of life over time we would like to add a couple more years i honestly believe this could be done but it goes to the point

asked him was talking about broadbased tax reform are was that the treasury in the 80s. you feel things moving left and right but it requires execution and execution whether it be italy or the united states requires people that have a sense of not only what they would like to do but willing in our constitutional system to work the mechanics of the process to do it. in the italian case this will be equally important. the competition commissioner and have the highest respect for but markets are hard headed. they will look at whether he has political party support to execute those reforms and similarly with the look of the new spanish government and its commitment. in some ways people make too much of the technocratic political. you want a system that presumably has good policy but a politically -- given whatever constitutional system you have. for members of the business

audience they have big players in this too. they have to express their positions on these issues and say why it is important it explain it to their employees and consumers. otherwise we will be in a period of drift. the united states is a very powerful country. it can go on for a while longer but as i said when i was at this meeting i was struck by the fact that i never want to see the united states in the position that europe was. if we keep going this way another five or six or seven years we could get there. >> thank you so much. [applause] >> there was a flood in fort wayne. people were down there filling sandbags desperately trying to keep the river so air force one stopped, hata motorcade, took off his jacket. my memory is he filled three sandbags, said hello to everyone. got back in the car and went back on the plane.

that night would fill the airwaves was not three sandbags but reagan filling sandbags with his shirt off. >> thanksgiving day, sam donaldson, andrea mitchell and former senator chris dodd talk about a legacy of ronald reagan. new york city mayor michael bloomberg and arianna huffington discuss the american dream and opportunities for the u.s.. astronauts john glenn, the alarm strong, buzz aldrin and michael collins are awarded the congressional gold medal. the entire schedule go to c-span.org. >> newly designed c-span.org web site has 11 video choices making it easier for you to watch today's events live and recorded. it is easier for you to get the schedule with features like the three network way out so you can quickly scroll through the program scheduled on the c-span networks and even receive an e-mail alert when your program is scheduled to air. there's a section to access the most popular series and programs

like washington journal, booktv, american history tv and the contenders. handy channel finder so you can find where to watch our three c-span network on cable and satellite systems across the country and the all new c-span.org. >> the president and ceo of the blue cross blue shield association recently spoke about the future of providing health care and the limitation of the federal health care law. his remarks were at a forum hosted by the u.s. chamber of commerce. this is 45 minutes. [inaudible conversations] >> good afternoon, everybody. let me welcome you to the u.s. chamber. my pleasure today to introduce our distinguished speaker, scott serota. scott is the president and chief

executive officer of blue cross blue shield association. the blue cross blue shield association you should know is a national federation of 39 independent community based and locally operated blue cross blue shield companies. the. system insures nearly 1 hundred million americans or roughly one of every three of across the country. scott has been president and ceo since the year 2000 after serving three years as chief operating officer before that. prior to all of that he was executive vice president for system development, responsible for new business, strategy and the. technology evaluation center which is the nation's leading source for evaluating safety and efficacy of the emerging medical treatment in our society. before joining the. system he was president and ceo

of chicago-based rush prudential health plans where he led the integration of rush presbyterian, st. luke's medical center health plans and the prudential. earlier in his career scott created and led the physicians referred health inc. which is a missouri based physician hospital organization. this is a person who brings real-world experience to his position in the association. scott earned a bachelor's degree from purdue university and a master's degree in health administration and planning from washington university school of medicine. in addition to providing trusted health care coverage to one of three americans their leading efforts with physicians, hospitals and others to innovate and create more effective, accessible and affordable health care systems for all americans.

with the congress, politician than the courts continuing to discuss the implications of health reform and with the administration continuing to detail and implement many of its provision that is the perfect time to hear from a health-care leader. please join me in welcoming scott serota to the stage. [applause] >> thank you all for coming today. a special thanks to the chamber and national chamber foundation for the opportunity to speak with you. i also want to take a second to recognize the chamber for its long history of supporting employer based health-care. continuing collaboration with the blue cross blue shield association on a number of

issues. [shouting] >> the ceo of blue cross -- $2.5 million per year. >> $2.5 million per year. is there an example? and -- >> to testify in congress. to create more progress. ..

>> 45,000 people each year. don't get treatment. because they can't afford it. people have to choose, pay for health care, are keeping their house, or sitting their child to college. we say that this situation is not acceptable. [inaudible] >> and other ceos of corporations --

[inaudible] >> no lobbying against the interest of the 99%. get out, health care. we are the 99%. we are the 99%. [chanting] [chanting] >> we don't have health care. >> we are the 99%. we are the 99%. we are the 99%.

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [applause] >> will well, thank you. any questions? [laughter] well, i would like to take that we do value our relationship with the chamber, with all the

companies, large and small. we are proud to count as our customers. together with the chamber and other coalition partners, we at the blues are committed to keeping health care coverage affordable for small businesses, for all businesses, and for all americans. to achieve that we need to fix a system that is fundamentally broken. in my remarks i will share a vision for a new health care system that serves our citizens medical needs and also protects our countries economic health. in doing so i will post it ways in which we all must be involved to realize that vision. for our own good and for the well being of our children, our families, our businesses and our nation. let me start with little bit of fact background. our health care system is pragmatic today and it's a vision. consumers are forced to make important, in fact, sometimes life influencing decisions with limited information.

providers rely far too much on personal experience and individual judgment. the system is fundamentally based on misaligned incentives that yield inconsistent and sometimes very costly results. there's no doubt that fixing the health care system is an economic imperative for the u.s. medical costs grew 48% over the last decade, nearly twice the consumer inflation rate. health care spending now exceeds $2.5 trillion annually, an average of $8000 for every man, woman and child in america. and more than 17% of our nation's gdp is spent on health care. far greater than any other nation on earth, and that share continues to grow. i'm here to tell you that the amount that we are spending is really not a problem. the real problem is we are not

getting the value for the dollars that we are spending. what could be more important than our health? why would we be concerned about spending 70% of the gdp if we were getting that level of value, but we are not. life expectancy in the u.s. is just 26%, is number 26 in the world, from birth. we're behind such countries as japan, greece, the united kingdom and chile. each year 98,000 people die from preventable medical errors, 400,000 harmed from medication errors occurred across three and half a billion dollars. and one-third of all people admitted to a hospital suffer an adverse event. an incredible 30% of health care spending goes toward ineffective redundant and sometimes harmful care. with all our collective resources, our ingenuity, and our resolve, we can do better.

working together we can realize a vision of a health care system that simply put, keeps people healthy and ensures safe and effective care, and efficient care for people when they are ill. we've identified the nation's health care challenges and we're trying to classify our solutions into four elements, based on her more than eight years experience and leadership in providing coverage to nearly 100 million people in all 50 states, puerto rico and here in the district. those four categories, the four pillars, if you will, are reporting safety, doing what works, reinforcing frontline care, and inspiring healthier living. these elements reflect a system view of where care delivery is rewarded for safe and effective treatments. where care is based on proven

treatments and procedures and as well coordinated across the systems many touch points. where we have an emphasis on primary care to support people's efforts to stay well, and manage chronic condition so people can live full lives. and where people are actually engaged in managing their own care and have the information they need to make smart decisions that improve and help them sustain their lives. i'm proud to say that blues, as well as other health insurers, are leading the effort to transform care to realize this vision. we are rolling out in nearly every state new care modules that online payment with safety, online payment with quality, online payment with improved outcomes. i give you a few examples. in pennsylvania and west virginia, the local blue plan and providers are participating in a hospital pay for performance program. that focuses on preventing infections promoting the use of evidence-based practices and time payment to quality and

safety target. now, that sounds good in theory, but 52 participating hospitals saved as many as 250 lies in one year by providing, by preventing infections. 250 lies focusing on just that one area in one part of the country. we are also leveraging our data and analytics to speed adoption of care that works and shed light on what doesn't work. after you an example here as well. we have our analysts do some work. these data show that a commonly prescribed drug therapy was in effective at treating pancreatic cancer. gave hundreds of patients false hope and added more than $40,000 in costs per case, and it didn't work. we had to find that out so we could save that money and reinvest in procedures or protocols that do work. data sharing is also critical. another example here. michigan hospitals, the success of this occurring -- michigan

hospitals in reducing expensive hospital acquired infections in intensive care units. blue cross blue shield of michigan coordinator with the michigan hospital association participating hospitals and they took some, a very few, very practical steps such as completely draping patients during surgery, using a specific antiseptic, strictly adhering to a five-point checklist to assure all procedures are followed, those are simple things, but the result were incredibly impressive. over five years more than 1830 lives were saved. more than 140,000 hospital days were a voided, and treatments costing $300 million were averted. our commitment to primary care is also evident in the new medical models which we are rolling out across the country, including here in washington, maryland, northern virginia where we create a first of its kind program. the program here reports

positions for developing a following special care plans for their sickest patients, and achieving results and increase quality and reduced costs. more than 3300 primary care physicians across the region are participating in this program today. to keep people healthy and in control of chronic conditions, we are educating and engaging consumers making it easier for consumers to understand the conditions they have and the treatments required for them, including the quality of the cost of alternatives so they can have productive conversations with their doctors, armed with facts, armed with information so they can be better consumers. we are connecting patients with new online tools so they can share their experiences and review their interactions with health care payers and health care providers. we are working with physician partners, the american diabetes association, and others to provide children and their families easy to understand information about preventing and managing childhood obesity and diabetes.

this vision cannot be realized without collaboration. we need to collaborate with hospitals and physicians and other caregivers, but the business community as well has a role in helping us create this new system. how many of you have changed are expected to change your health benefits to incorporate provider performance objectives? how many of you have implemented worksite wellness, or other employee engagement programs? how many of you or your colleagues serve as board members or trustees of local hospitals? businesses are increasingly demanding health benefits that give greater consideration for quality networks and performance based provider compensation. emmy to ensure safe and effective and efficient care your one national retailer recently spelled out, it's firm

expectation that insurance administrators will develop customized high-performance networks and innovate towards new reimbursement models. another large manufacture plan on the west coast partner with a local blue to find a patient-centered medical home that targets care to employees suffering from chronic conditions which represent a disproportionate share of that particular company's medical expenses. if that model participants work with nurse case managers who were available on a 24/7 basis. the cost of the participants in that program where 20% lower than the control group, due to the decrease in emergency room utilization and hospitalization. that was net of the supplemental fees to participate with the nurse practitioner, or the nurse manager on a 24/7 basis. participants also reported a 14%, 14.8% increase in their physical function, and a 16% increase in their mental

function. along with patient reported workdays missed over six months period, less than half what they were previous. good medical care is a good investment. it reduces, and reduces your direct costs and it reduces your indirect costs, and it also gives you a better prepared workforce. as employers come to also play role in providing resources and incentives to engage your employees in exhibiting healthy behaviors, and to assume greater responsibility for their own health. you are no doubt more familiar than i am with worksite initiatives, but let me give you a couple examples that stood out for me. blue star energy which is a small fast growing chicago company, no relation for blue cross blue shield, that participate in a workplace wellness program started by the chicago chamber earlier this year. they offer free screenings, incentives and education sessions. 46 a blue stars 90 local

employees have logged more than 1000 hours of exercise, lost weight and improved several health factors. another employer partnered with our minnesota plan to create a cultural health program based on evidence-based best practices. they modified their workplace to encourage healthy lifestyles, they put an incentive-based program into allow employees to buy down on their, on their monthly premium, based upon the achievement of certain health measures, on biometric screening, and the health risk assessment. the employer achieved a 90% participation rate and savings of almost $2 million as a result. you and your peers also have an important role to play as corporate citizens, and influence the way care is delivered in both -- their men in your communities. as directors or trustees of hospital boards, you need to

take leadership roles in understanding and continually improving the safety problem, safety processes and performance which happened in those institutions. it needs to be an important part of every board meeting and of every agenda. beyond the fiduciary and more responsibilities, engaged board members make a difference. industry best practice or hospital boards is his been at least 25% of a meeting agenda time on quality and safety issues, and to regularly hear from patients or family members who were harmed while in the hospital's care. you need to know what's going on in those institutions. surgical safety checklist and infection reduction programs in idaho found the greatest success when hospital trustees presented the program to staff, and personalize their commitment to safety. blue plans across the country develop programs to encourage hospital boards to become more engaged. we provide educational programs

and financial incentives, to learn more about quality and safety initiatives. the measures prescribe our michigan plant are now the second most commonly reviewed statistics by the board for quality and safety training only those provided by cms. finally, i firmly believe that the private market innovation is central to transforming health care, the health care system. as evidenced by the health plan, provide examples i just shared, but the government has a role to play as well. that's why we've just released our pathways, our building tomorrow's health care system, i can't pathways because the first document was our pathways document and this is the supplement to a. i believe you all have this at your seat. this is a call to action. the build upon the successes that we have to approve -- improve health equality for all americans, to leverage these expenses and best practices to

develop a true transformation in health care costs. this report highlights nearly 50 examples of blue cross blue shield companies as what they're doing across the country and what we as a nation need to do more of. our successes in improving the lives of people in every community, in every state, has led us to craft this plan of action with our recommendations to the government as we may see larger scale improvements across all sectors. and economic assessment of this plan concluded that the potential impact, if the government acts on these recommendations, could exceed $300 billion over the next 10 years. first, we need national and local leadership to reward safety. to eliminate preventable errors, infections and complications that harms hundreds of thousands of people each year, and costs billions of dollars.

we recommend hhs beef up the fda drug safety reviews and aggressively incorporate safety measures and to pay for performance or pay for quality incentives in medicare and medicaid. we also believe it's critical to increase the use of technote such as e. prescribing to drive safer care. second, with close to one-third of all health has been toward ineffective or duplicative care we need to change the incentives in our system and do what works. as i mentioned, the blues are enlisting models from coast to coast to to align incentives and increase accountability so that providers are paying for quality outcomes rather than simply the volume of services they provide. in the same vein we recommend several proposals to the government expanding value-based payment in medicare and medicaid and enacting malpractice performed to provide safe harbor to providers who practice evidence-based care. we know these things work in the

private sector. we have been doing them for years. we need to rapidly incorporate them into the public programs so we can take maximum advantage of those things that already tried and true and tested to have successful outcomes. third, we need to reinforce front-line care, by placing a higher guide on primary care and ensuring there is an adequate workforce to deliver it. we recommend the government protect primary care from any system payment reductions and redirect training dollars into primary care. we also recommend that the government expand their efforts to manage dual eligible people, eligible for a little for both medicare and medicaid to get them into the managed care, or to begin to manage their care. fourth, with three quarters of every health care dollars spent on chronic conditions, we need to inspire healthy living. we believe the government should do more to inspire americans to lead healthier lives by

supporting physical activity and healthy nutrition in schools, in federal programs. in short, the government needs to take proven market innovations and implement them across the entire population. we know what works, and we need to do more of it. in closing, the challenge before us is to transform underperforming, unsustainable system so that everyone has access to safe, effective and affordable care. it is a challenge for me. it's a challenge for my fellow insurers, because our mission and business model are contingent upon is keeping people well. it's a challenge for businesses whose productivity depends on healthy workers, and his benefit dollars deserve a high quality product and a fair return on investment. and it's a challenge for all americans whose prosperity fundamentally rests on a healthy u.s. economy.

as they represent of blue cross and blue shield, and the broader health insurance industry, i want to assure you that we are committed to writing to this challenge. we will continue to pursue the types of initiatives that i mentioned. we will continue to innovate and deliver solutions in complex problems, and will continue to partner, to look for support of providers, businesses, the community, public officials, and any other stakeholder interested to realize this opportunity to transform a broken system for ourselves and for future generations. thank you very much. [applause] >> i'm happy to take any questions, you might have. >> let me start up with the first one. >> not from you. >> i suspected put on everybody's mind. action of the supreme court announced they're going to have the mandate? while there's a lot of legal

issues, if we go back and come for, the whole objective is to have a fully insured marketplace. many of the changes of that law are predicated on a fully insured marketplace. give us a sense from the perspective of what happens if they pull that one breakout, shoot down the individual mandate, that leaves the rest of the law in place. >> leave it to bruce to ask the tough question. well, your first supposition is that they will basically roll back the mandate, but leave the insurance reforms in place. i guess i preface it by saying both sides of this legal dispute think that's a bad idea. the government believes if the mandate goes, the insurance reforms need to go also. and so do the people challenging that bill. be that as it may they're still a possibility that they might drop the mandate and leave the

reforms in place. and i think you have a system that's going to have faith. ever increasing cost, because people only buy insurance when they need it. same argument that we may before. it will no longer be insurance. it will be health care reimbursement. because you'll be buying it in and on the way to the hospital and canceling it in the discharge room. so it's not sustainable in that fashion. so we'll have to come up with other alternatives in order to create an incentive for people to purchase insurance and maintain insurance in place. whether it is like the medicare system where there's a momentary it, or a host of other kinds of financial incentives to get people in, the challenge will be to keep those young and healthy people in the marketplace so we can have a real marketplace. but absent a mandate with guaranteed issue and community

rating, you really have a struggle to have a marketplace to operate in. >> thank you very much for your very sage comments. you have provided a number of examples from within the united states where best practices were exported to other areas. i have two questions. one is, what is the extent to which we're looking at other countries which have had much lower costs and better outcomes? i was a german in that regard will understand the costs are $4000 per patient, per person rather than ours which are about 8000 are dissected, to what extent have you embraced or have the various blue cross systems embrace medical tourism, either to send someone, for example, from d.c. to the cleveland clinic, elsewhere in this country, or overseas to get high

quality outcomes at much lower cost? >> i will take the latter question first. medical tourism, as you define it, that is the ability to seek out the best provider, both from a cost and a quality standpoint, is something that the blues have embraced wholeheartedly. with a program, we call it surprisingly blue distinction. and it is a program where we try to identify those people which are meeting or exceeding the marketplace, and we developed marketing materials and programs to send people to go there, regardless of the geography. now, it is a domestic program. we don't look internationally at the moment with this kind of providers. there are some organizations that do look internationally. we are not at that level yet to find the best providers. the art organizations, there are companies that create incentives for people to travel outside the u.s. for services.

we do believe the best quality care still is here in the u.s. now, the first question with regard to are there examples we can learn outside the u.s., the answer is yes, but there are examples we can learn everywhere, whether it is the north, our brethren and candy, what is in great britain where they do a lot more evidence-based practice. they get a lot more of what some would call prescriptive kind of medical care. to germany and other places, but fundamentally you have a different culture, and it's very difficult to extract cultural differences outside the u.s. it's hard enough to do a state-by-state within the u.s. than it is to simply import. so you have to look at those things, identify what works which is a pillar of what we believe, and then figure out how you can incorporate that culturally into the u.s. system. i really believe health care is very much a local phenomenon.

it's delivered in local communities and it reflects the culture of those communities. but we have to create pashtun we have to have efficiency and fight and that's what we're trying to do as we do our analytics on a nationwide basis, to find those truths and communicate those truths on a nationwide basis. >> he is coming with a microphone. >> thank you very much. i have two questions. one, how can a catholic, how has accountability in 2030 help health care? and number two, what are the trends announces of hell's care industry -- health care industry, or -- [inaudible] >> i'm not sure i got all the details of their, but the health care industry, because of the

aging of our population is in growth, it is a much it growth market. we very much need more employment in this market. we need more primary care providers. we need more people are able to help our seniors and others are in as the population continues to expand, i think you'll see more growth in health care delivery side of things. makes our imperative to get more efficient and add more value, extract more value even higher, because as people age and as there's greater demand for the systems, we have to have a way to provide that care any more cost-efficient fashion. ..

>> and then you can manage in an appropriate fashion. when we align those incentives we do see successful outcomes and cost and better quality. we have to do more of them. yea

yeah. >> hello. can i ask you to project five years into the future under two scenarios. scenario number 1 is the individual mandate is sustained and we go forward with reform, what will health care look like five years from today? and the reverse, if it's overturned, what would -- what would health care like five years out under that scenario? >> you know, i'm not sure that i'm answer would be different in either scenario because the things that we need to do as a society, we need to do whether the affordable care act stands or whether it's repealed. we've needed to do it before the affordable care act was even introduced. we need to inject accountability into the health system and accountability for payers and health care. and we need to provide better information so that people can make better decisions about

care. we need to hold people accountable. so i don't think the -- five years may be too short. we didn't get into this problem in five years so we probably won't get out. but if i project health care down the road, i think the delivery, the underlying delivery, the way care is delivered is going to morph in the fashions which i saw irrespective of whether -- whether the bill is repealed or not. what may change -- what will change certainly is payment. is the payment method. if the bill is repealed, i think there will be more market-based innovation, more market-based -- more -- a greater continuity of employer-based care. if the bill stays in place, there's a potential for greater government hand. i think both markets will continue to exist in either scenario. if we're effective in transforming the way care is delivered, i just think you'll

see a greater emphasis on which way care is delivered. >> hi, i'm dr. peter, a health economist for the american nurses association. recent research has shown about half of the private health insurance in the united states refuse to credential nurse practitioners and other advanced practiced registered nurses and this is despite a finding of last year that the institute of medicine that advanced practiced nurses are providing high quality of care. what are you doing to work with member companies to encourage them to accept advanced practiced registered nurses into their private networks? and what, if anything, may you be doing with state legislators to convince them to eliminate of advanced practice nurses? >> the -- i can't speak, frankly, to the specifics of what each of our member companies are doing, but i can speak to the philosophy that we

have as a system, which is to enhance front line care. if we are going to be able to treat the numbers of people that we need to treat on a going-forward basis. we can't possibly train enough physicians fast enough in the primary care environment to do that. we're going to have to look toward nurse practitioners and other advanced-trained professionals to extend the care and extend the reach of primary care into communities. and if we are successful in bringing in the uninsured into the insured marketplace, we're going to have to be more reliant on nurse practitioners and others. my daughter is a nurse, too, so i have a vested interest in the business as well but i believe it's inevitable that we do that. as far as the specifics of what each member company is doing or what we're doing with state legislators, i don't have that at my fingertips. if you give a card to one of our people -- we are working that issue in a number of issues.

i'd be happy to communicate with you and perhaps partner with you to move it along quicker. one more audience question. >> wherever you pick. >> hello, thank you very much for your remarks. i'm interested in your thoughts on a national health strategy. and i don't mean the legislation that we just would have passed -- that may be changed but something that looks at the demographics going forward in our country, obviously, with the aging population. and changes in the way in which health insurance is structured to reflect the burden of disease affecting each segment of our population. and within that, could you answer the question of whether or not there might be room for disincentive within health insurance premium structure. so, for example, if i'm a safe driver, my premium goes down. so if i'm a nonsmoker and i

maintain a healthy weight and i exercise three or four times a week, would i not -- would it not be justified at some level to give me some benefit in terms of my premium? 'cause it seems to me the only differential in premium is age. could you address those national health strategy looking at our demographics going forward particularly the burden of chronic diseases. thank you. >> i would say that one of the reasons, not the only reason, but one of the reasons we are where we are with regard to the health care system in america being fundamentally broken is we didn't have a vision. again -- i'm not talking about a bill. i'm talking about a vision, a collective vision on what we want health care to be in america. and so i would argue that, had we had that in the '60s, we might have created a different

outcome today. we didn't. we are where we are. i think it's important that we get some collective vision on where we want to go and what we want health care to be. we're all americans. i think that's important. it's not easy but important. payment is just a piece of that. we tend to confuse and we've gotten confused over the last two years about health care payments versus health care. they're two separate issues and we've tended to blend them. we believe, i believe, in exactly what you said. healthy behaviors ought to be rewarded. people ought to get differential cost and we're not able to do that because of the law but i think we ought to. and a number of our -- a number of our companies do do that and do reward and incent health risk systems, they incent weight log, bmi reductions and they do

reward their participants for that kind of behavior, and those that do it have better outcomes than those that don't. so we know it works. so we would encourage that would be part of any vision. if you're going to ask people to be accountable, we ought to create incentives for them assuming that accountability. there's a gentleman right in the middle that's raised his hand from the beginning and i don't want to end -- he might ask me a really tough question, too. so this might be a mistake. but this gentleman right here has tried to get a question in from the beginning. can we just give him a chance? this might be a mistake. i don't know. l[laughter] [inaudible] >> in terms of who or how the medical care is supported. do you see it continuing to be basically employer-reimbursed or some other way? >> i continue to believe there's

an important role for employer-based coverage. i think that it creates a sense of community out of the employer group, i think employers believe that it's part of their responsibility. so i continue to think that there will be a place for employer-based coverage as i look forward. i do think you'll see a rise in the individual market as well. i think more and more people will be purchasing their own care or be engaged in purchasing their own care, and that's why i think we have to be successful in creating means and information for people to be able to do that. i don't think it's going away, at least we hope it's not going away. well, thank you very much for your attention. i appreciate it. [applause] >> scott, thank you. ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your participation today. and let me end by thanking our sponsors once again, the blue cross blue shield association,

the diplomatic courier and the weak for their participation in making today's event possible. thank you very much. [inaudible conversations]

>> there was a flood in fort wayne. i mean, people were down there building sandbags, desperately trying to keep the river. the air force one stopped, reagan had a motorcades in the flooded area, took off his jacket. my memory he filled three sandbags and said hello and hi to everyone. got back in the car, went back on the plane. but that night what was filled the airways was not three sandbags it was reagan filling sandbags with his shirt off. >> thanksgiving day on c-span, abc's sam donaldson, nbc's andrea mitchell and former senator chris dodd talk about the legacy of ronald reagan. new york city mayor michael bloomberg and arianna huffington talk about the american dream and the opportunities in the u.s. and astronauts john glenn,

neil armstrong, buzz aldren and michael collins are awarded the congressional gold medal. for the entire thanksgiving schedule go to c-span.org. >> well, coming up next on c-span2, remarks from a conference hosted by women to nurture republican women leaders. speakers include female members of congress and the wives of republican presidential candidates newt gingrich and rick perry. it's hosted by project go pink. from national harbor, maryland, this panel is about 45 minutes. >> good morning. well, i see that everyone was out partying last night. they didn't make it to the opening session. but i hope you had a great day yesterday. you know, this is something that is a work in progress. my name is sue lynch, and i'm president of the national federation of republican women. [applause] >> you can see all of our nfw

members. what happened in my member nfrw has really reached out to like-minded groups. and when suzy terrell and i met in new orleans this year, in april, we talked with sharon day and ruth -- to see what we could put together to kind of collaborate and help educate, you know, women who might be interested in running for office, and sharing some of the strengths that we have in our different organizations. and so i was delighted when this came to fruition when, you know, the date was set and we were able to market it to our -- our membership. and so yesterday was just the beginning of what i hope is a long-term relationship with go pink. as i mentioned, i'm president of

the national federation of republican women, but my term expires the end of this year. and i'd like to introduce to you our incoming president from arizona who will be at the helm for the next two years, and, again, i hope that relationship continues with go pink. but i'd also like to introduce some of the other members that are here who are part of the executive committee and have been on our committees because they really have given me the strength and the determination to really step our nfrw into a little bit more visibility nationally. i'll just pat parker, jessie morton, then we have betty po, who is president from south carolina and is also coming in as third vice president.

ladonna rigs is here and ladonna was one of our members at large several years ago but is back involved with the palladium view who did our straw poll and she's from south carolina as well. and leona johnston from arizona, the pride of arizona with jan breuer. and then june williams from louisiana is here as well. and then we also have tonia steele who is with us, who is our membership chairman, and the membership growth at nfrw has been substantial. we have added 100-and now 13 clubs in two years. we also add an increase in membership in 33 states so that's just wonderful news that i'd like to share. and then one of our committee chairs is here.

sarah sellers who is chairman of our arm services committee. she is a veteran. and i think we should give her a round of applause for her service to our country. [applause] >> and then i would like to acknowledge -- the republican national committee women who have partnered with us, but they're also a part of us at nfrw who are here and mary jean jensen, she's in the back with christie noelman. you'll just love christie but mary bustrum and ruth alderidge you met yesterday. and freddie, are you here freddie from washington state. cesarean gezzy from west virginia. and these are just some of the names of people who have worked

together to help nfrw grow and become the 77,000 strong plus membership that we have. and we've got june ludsby from maryland and elaine from texas. elaine from texas and joan from maryland so it's great to see all of our -- our members supporting like-minded groups as we move forward into the 2012 election cycle. i see dr. jean -- dr. lady jay running for correct me if i'ngr. it's my honor to serve as your national president. you'll see more of me today as i get to introduce a number of the possible first ladies that in 2012 we will win the white house, period. [applause] >> oh, pat, you just came in. i introduced you. i didn't see you. pat parker from maryland.

so, again, thanks for coming. and i hope -- oh, and valerie is here. and valerie is from our staff. valerie daleen who is our political director. so, again, thank you for the opportunity to serve, to collaborate and now let's win in 2012. so god bless all of you and god bless america. [applause] >> good morning. as a small business owner, former educator and registered nurse for over four years congresswoman congressman diane black who was elected to represent the tennessee's sixth congressional district. she currently serves on the house budget committee as part of the subcommittee for oversight and she serves on the house ways and means committee as part of the subcommittee for

human resources. please welcome congresswoman black. [applause] >> well, it's great to be here this morning. i understand y'all had a great night and maybe it's a little light on the number of people that were able to make it here this morning. but it's really wonderful to be here with all of you. and in order for me to understand a little bit more about who you are, i'm going to ask you to participate in a little exercise. now, you don't have to get up out of your chairs. it's not going to take any real energy on your part. but i'm going to ask about whether you all fall into this particular category. and if you do, i just want you to raise your hand and say, that's me, so i can learn a little bit more about you. so i want to know if you are a wife. oh, okay, pretty good, pretty good. if you're a mother. oh, all right. how about if you're a

grandmother? okay. good, good, good. how many of you may be with me in your profession, a nurse? oh, great. how many of you may be teachers? okay. that used -- that's okay. you're a teacher. okay. let me go a little different direction. how many of you like to fish? oh, great, i love it. i love it. how many of you have ever started a small business? oh, great. great. let me try this one. how many of you have ever jumped out of an airplane. oh, great, one, two, three of you. great, great. well, the reason why i do that is because what i just asked you is me. all of those things i just asked you, if you have done, that's what i have done. so i know that this gathering is to help you all to get some

techniques and tools to help you to know how you might better affect either working in someone's campaign or even possibly being a candidate. i want to talk a little bit about how i got to where i am here today. and to show you that you are no different than who i am or i would even say maybe some of these other interesting ladies that are going to follow me today that you'll get a chance to hear about because some of my female colleagues that were elected this time into congress are such exciting people, and we have such varied backgrounds. but let me talk a little bit about how i got into this crazy field of being an elected official. i am a nurse. i'm a mother. i'm a wife. i'm a grandmother. and i was very active in my community in many of those areas because of loving health care and having been in nursing for so long, i was on the board of

the american cancer society. i began a chapter in my own town. i was on the board of the american heart association. one of the things i didn't ask you if you had ever helped to build a house, maybe with habitat for humanity. i was -- there you go. i got some ladies in here that have done that. i was the vice chairman of our habitat for humanity chapter in my little town and have built 12 houses and so i was very, very active in the community and frankly doing what i had always known i wanted to do from the time i was about four years old and that was to be a nurse. i was minding my own business working in an emergency room and just frankly enjoying the heck out of my life, raising my three children with my wonderful husband. and a friend of mine who i had helped in several campaigns and who had been my state representative for ten years, he came to me and said, i've just found out that cindy is pregnant with twins.

and he had a 12-year-old, and i was like, whoa, randy, i can't believe this. he said, totally unexpected. god has sent us is blessing. i have been in the legislature for 10 years, since jessica was 2-year-old, and i frankly don't want to do that with my twins and so i think you ought to take my seat, and i said i think you're crazy. and not only was he a good friend and i worked in his campaigns but we also shared another commonality in that we are very faith-based and talked about how we felt that the lord had called us in different directions. and he threw that big one on me and said, you know, i've been praying about this and the lord says, you're the one who should replace me. and i said randy, maybe you haven't heard the lord. maybe we need to make that phone call again. so as months went by, randy continued to tell people in the community they need to encourage me to run. and when i told my husband this, he thought i was totally crazy. i had lost my mind.

and after a lot of careful consideration by my family and my friends, we decided to put my name on the ballot. well, i had about a 20% chance of winning because the gentleman that i was running against was someone whose family had been in that community since the late 1800s and i had only lived there for 12 years. so in tennessee, you're not a native after 12 years. you're not a native until you can say my family worked a school in the 1800s and then you're a native. but we decided we were going to have a grassroots campaign and we were going to work hard and we were going to let people know that i could do the job, by golly, and we saw our numbers just continue to go up and up and up and up. and the night of the election, we won by 62%. [applause] >> thank you. what a blessing that was. but i will tell you i use the word "we" because it was not just me.

we had a grassroots campaign. one of the most fun things for me during that campaign i love to knock doors. i'm really love of those odd people. i just love people and i love to meet new people and i'm knocking these doors and the doors are opening and people are going, you took care of my father in the emergency room. he wouldn't be here if it hadn't been for you. oh, you took care of my son. you took care of my daughter. but the most interesting one of all was there was a little girl who was about 4 years old when i first moved to tennessee. her mother came running into the emergency room one afternoon and she was just covered with blood. a dog had attacked her. and we were really unsure about whether her faced been damaged. and it came to be that she was a very smart little girl, she put her head down into her hands and saved her face and he only got her hair and scalped her and it took a lot of time and stitches and i said if my 4-year-old was being in here being sutured i wouldn't want her to lay face

down for an hour while she was being stitched and i took a board and we called those little papoosed her and i talked to her the entire time we were doing the procedure. do you know that little girl came to me during the i was running for election and she said i know you. and i said well, i'm not sure i know you. and she said, i would know your voice anywhere. and i said why is that? and she said because you whispered in my ear while i was being taken care of. what a blessing that was to run a campaign -- [applause] >> and to have so many people that i had cared for, that's what got me there. i ran for that office and won and served for six years in a minority in the representatives. it was a tough time. and then decided to run against the speaker pro tem in the senate which again i didn't have much of a chance. i had about a 20% chance.

but this time i didn't know that because the poll was done, and they didn't tell me what the poll was. i said, how was the poll? they said, well, it was pretty good. and i didn't ask what the number was. i just went about my business doing just what i had done before and getting grassroots and we beat the speaker pro tem of the senate by 52%. and we brought the majority to the -- to the senate for the first time in 158 years. what a -- what a dream come true for all of us. [applause] >> from there, i served for two years in the senate before i ran for leadership and i was the first female in the state of tennessee to serve as the caucus chairman. now, you might say, how did that happen because you had 19 members and out of the 19 members, 16 of them were males. i had an opponent who was a male who had served longer than i had. but my male colleagues saw that i could lead. and they elected me.

and what an honor that was. so i say all these things to you to encourage you because i think women have something that's very natural, that puts us in the position of being great elected officials. first of all, we're very organized. i don't know many men that is organized. now i do know a couple of men that are as organized as women are, but for the most part, men are not that organized. women are much better at organizing. women are also what we call gatherers. i don't know if any of you ever seen the comedian who talks about the difference -- the prime difference between men and women, that men are -- they're pointers and they're shooters and they go out and they say when they go shopping with you and you want a pink blouse and they see that first pink blouse and they say, shoot it and take it home and women say, no, we have to look at five different stores and make sure it's the right one because we gather. and we gather information and

we're very good about gathering all the information to make sure that when we make a decision, we have gathered all the information that is needed to make a decision. that is one of the prime differences that i see as i work with males as i did in the state and now in the congress that we're very good about gathering information and making sure we have all of it to make a very good decision. so we're organizational. we're good at gathering. we're also passionate because women are as sarah palin says -- we're mama grizzlies. you know, we're passionate about our families and taking care of our children. [applause] >> and our husbands and our families. and, frankly, that's the reason why i'm doing what i do today is because i have six grandchildren, six beautiful grandchildren. they call me mimi. as a matter of fact, when they were born, i was in the delivery room and i touched them as soon as they were born and i whispered in your ear, i said you will love your mimi the most and everyone does and i'm here

and i believe that we need a smaller government. i believe we have to have less debt. i believe we need to leave this country in good shape for the future of our children and our grandchildren. [applause] >> applaud that. because you know that? we mama grizzlies know what the goal is and we know what the mission is, and we have the energy, we have the passion, we have the organizational skills and we, frankly, as they say in tennessee, we get er done and that's why women make great candidates and great elected officials. and there's no one in this room that couldn't do just that. and i encourage you if someone says no you can't do it, you only have a 20% chance, don't let that stop you. if you have it in your gut and i tell these young women that i meet with -- if you have the power -- or excuse me, if you have the passion and the fire in your gut, in your belly, then do it.

and you will be successful. thank you all for what you do, whether you decide to run for an office or whether you decide to keep your home fires going and make sure that you raise a family that knows about hard work and conservative principles, or whatever it is that you do, follow that passion that's in your gut. and if you're called, be sure to rise and answer the call. thank you for having me today. [applause] >> i'm mary jean jensen from south dakota. [applause] >> and i want to talk to you this morning a little -- just a

little bit about the perfect candidate. we're all looking for the perfect candidate. and i want you to know that she's right in your community. she might even be sitting here. we found the perfect candidate in south dakota because she was right in our community, active, a leader, you know, maybe 20 years ago, christie nome had no idea that congress was going to be on her plate later on. she was a young college girl with the future of, wow, where am i going? what am i going to do? and then reality happens. a tragic accident and she had to go home and run the family business. but you know running a business, which was a farm, a restaurant, an insurance agency, a hunting lodge -- those are the things that train us, train our candidates to be the perfect candidate. and i want you to know that christie nome represents the

whole state of south dakota. now, if you're not familiar with the map, there's only two other states that have a larger district, and it's not because of people. it's because of miles. montana and wyoming are probably larger districts. she spends her time, of course, back and forth every weekend with family and sometimes family out there. but a lot of times on those roads dealing with every single small town, all the constituents that all just want a little piece of congresswoman. so keep looking for that perfect candidate. we think we found her and welcome, christie nome from south dakota. [applause] >> mary jean is so sweet. thank you all for having me today. i'm just thrilled to be here and you all look so good. they told me i was one of the first ones this morning so i needed to wake y'all up and pep you all up so i'm not going to do a dance for you or anything

but i'll just share a few words about my story and my life, why i ran for congress and a little bit about what motivates me every day to keep working at it. i am blessed to have my oldest daughter with me on this trip so i'm going to make her come out and wave at her. so cassidy is with me. [applause] >> i like to torture her. [applause] >> this is my daughter cassidy. she's my oldest so she's 17 and a senior. we're trying to pick out colleges right now. she wants to be an orthodontist. kennedy is my other daughter she's 14 and a 9-year-old boy named booker. so thank you, cassidy for coming out. i told her i would make her talk but not today. it's so good to be here. this hotel complex is kind of special to me because when i was sworn in out here, in january, my family stayed here. and when i talk about my family, my family is pretty large. i was the third of four

children. and then also my husband was the middle child out of three boys in his family. and so when we do stuff, we do together. kind of everything. we all load up and go. and brian and i and the kids had to be out here a little bit earlier for meetings before we were actually sworn in to congress but the rest of my family decided that they would drive because it would be cheaper and we got a lot of little kids. cassidy is the oldest of 14 grandchildren just on my side of the family. they decided they would all load up in the truckster to washington, dc, to get here and the day they arrived we came out to meet them and greet them. when they pulled up to the hotel there were three or four vehicles and they had even gotten an enclosed trailer to put all the luggage because my brother-in-law, of course, who is just very practical said well, that will be more room in the vehicles for the kids to be buckled in and we won't have to worry about luggage so they pulled up with all the vehicles with a trailer and everything up to the lobby and they started to unload. now they've been on the road for

three days and so as they were unloading we're standing there waiting for them and i see that everybody has opened up the trailer and they're carrying in a bunch of rubbermaid tubs and i said to my sister as she came in the door, i said what's with the rubbermaid tubs, well, we decided to pack with rubbermaid tubs and stack it if there and pull things out and i said you came to washington, dc, and you packed in rubbermaid tubs? and she said, well, yes, it just made sense and i thought that is the perfect story about south dakota people. [laughter] >> look at this fancy hotel that they pull up in and then we have my family who unloads and they start carrying in rubbermaid tubs and that's what they packed in for luggage. talk about commonsense. [applause] >> you know, what, and i shook my head and i laugh but i thought that is exactly the kind of people that we need in washington, dc, making

decisions. you know, things where we don't worry necessarily about being the best, about being the person that looks the best or sounds the best but the person who get the job done and does it in a way that needs to be done because it is just commonsense. when i first decided to run for congress i will tell you from the time i was little, when i was just a little girl, all i wanted to do when i grew up was to farm with my dad. my dad was an amazing man. he was a cowboy. we had a large operation. we had a big ranch and a farming operation and that's what i wanted to do. but when i was college he was killed in an accident on our farm. he was 49 years old and we honestly didn't have any idea how we were going to move forward. i had a younger brother that was still in high school. my sister was living in georgia. my other brother was living in oklahoma. and so it was really kind of left up to me to come home and take over the operation. you know, one of the things that really opened up my eyes to government and to politics and right away we were hit by state

taxes. if any of you worked in a family business you understand you may have equity in farm and land in equipment but you don't have a lot of cash laying around. and i came home to take over the operation and right away had to take over the decision do i want to sell off the lay to pay the federal government to pay taxes or dew point to take out a loan to pay that off. and my dad taught me like any good farm land because you won't have any more loan. i took out a loan and it took us 10 years to pay off the estate taxes and i thought honestly this is something that really makes me think about government. and its role in people's lives and what it does to harm businesses and what can we do to bring more commonsense to that area of our lives. so i started to get involved locally. and to serve on different boards and commissions. but i ran for the state legislature in 2006, for much the same reasons.

you know, when i was -- had cassidy, when cassidy was first born -- i mean, when you go to baby showers -- and we had cassidy's baby shower -- my grandmother came. and a lot of you i'm sure have gone to a baby shower before where they go around the room and they say, you know, give the new mother some advice for this new child. tell her something that will be very helpful. so they went around the room and did it. you guys have done it before, haven't you? yeah, okay. my grandmother got to her and she said to me -- i'll never forget it. she said, kristi, say yes as much as you possibly can because so many times as a mother you have to say no. and i thought about that a lot and i thought about it a million times and i thought that is so true with our lives. so many times we have opportunities in front of us. so many times we see jobs that need to be done and so many times we have a role that needs to be filled or a leader that needs to step forward and do something and we all in minds come up reasons about why we shouldn't be the one to do it and why that doesn't really work

into our lives from now. and from that point on i decided when i see things, i would ask myself why wouldn't i do that? and if i ever i possibly could i'm going to say yes. that was one of the decisions that i made in running for the state legislature. we had an opening. and we needed somebody who understood business. i had been running the farm and ranch. my mom -- right after my dad passed away she bought a restaurant in a nearby town. she bought a restaurant because she thought it would be a lot of fun. now, i don't know if any of you guys have run a restaurant before, but that's a lot of work. so after about six months, she asked me to come up there and help her, and so i managed her books and managed her employees as well. and that was certainly one of the businesses i wasn't the most fond of. but we spent a lot of time with that but i also threw that whole process of running businesses and being involved in that and realize that so many times in our lives we shouldn't be people who automatically think of no. we should be people who automatically think of yes. and so as you go about and you

leave here today, i know many of you are involved in the political process and very involved in the government and maybe thinking of running for office, boy, say yes as much as you possibly can because our country needs you. our country needs you. our young women need you as role models and we need people who are truly used to juggling 20 things at one time and really come forward and get things accomplished because we got a lot to do. you know, i would leave you with one little thought. as i jumped into our race and ran for the state legislature and won, within two years, i decided to run for leadership. and the reason that i ran for the assistant majority leader position in south dakota was simply because i didn't like being on the outside of where the decisions are made. i wanted to be -- i wanted to be as effective as i possibly could, wherever i was going to be and so i was ran and was elected by my caucus members to be the assistant majority leader of the house in south dakota. and served there for two years.

when we decided to make the decision to run for congress, it was from a lot of people talking to us -- and i will tell you, even mary jean talked about 20 years ago i would never think i would be in congress three years ago i would never have thought i would be in congress. you know, it really was that far off my radar but at the end of the day, when you see people that aren't representing your state or when you see people that aren't working and aren't voting how people want them to, it is up to us to make sure that we fix it. we should be fixers and doers and that's what i decided. at the end of the day, if i could give the south dakota people their voice back, if i could give them somebody back in washington, dc, that was willing to listen to them and to do the work that needed to be done to address the problems we're facing in this country, then why wouldn't i do that? maybe that was another situation where i could say yes. i'll leave you with one final thought. we had a very tough race for congress, but i want to tell you a little story that somebody used as an example with me about

a year ago. but how many of you have gotten into your vehicles before and have started driving down the road and your vehicle is just not working right. you don't understand it. for me it's a pickup but maybe a lot of you drive cars or suvs. but it drives kind of jerky and it's something stiff and it's not turning right and you're just frustrated and you can't figure out what is wrong with your car and then all of a sudden, you realize that you've got your emergency brake on. oh, come on, how many of you have done that. i have done that. just once and then it never happens again. that's right. well, i will tell you our lives are very much like that. when you pull that emergency brake off, all of the sudden, aren't you amazed at how good your car drives? it's amazing. this car works beautiful. everything flows smoothly and you're surprised how smooth you can turn. our lives are like that but our emergency brakes can be something that's totally different. it can be something -- an insecurity that we've battled

our spire lives. maybe it's speaking in front of people that you're scared of. maybe it's walking into a whole room of strangers and you're just not sure who it is that you can go talk to first or you're just -- you don't always view yourself as the most social person. maybe you don't see yourself as a leader. i will tell you that all of those things are the emergency brakes in our lives, that keep things in our lives from flowing as smoothly as they should be. and if we would just let those go, if we would just put those behind us, that we would be able to have smooth sailing and truly accomplish everything that god has for us in our lives. i truly believe that what holds us back in life is not the gifts that we have in us or the gifts we don't have. it is truly the fact that we let all of our little hang-ups hold us back. as you go forward and get involved and you work with each organization or even if you choose to run for public office, just know that we truly do need you. that this country needs you. that you can do anything if you will say yes. and take that emergency brake off. so thank you for having me

today. i sure appreciate it. [applause] >> hi again. congressman thomas was elected to represent the people of wyoming in 2008. she graduated from the university of wyoming with a law dredegree and served a total of 14 years in the house and senate. she currently serves in the house appropriation committee as part of the subcommittee on agriculture, interior and environment and also on the subcommittee on labor, health, human services and education. please welcome her. [applause] >> well, thank you and good morning.

[inaudible]

>> with our loan under water we need people who know to stop spending. and believe me we need republicans who know how to stop spending, not just democrats that know how to stop spending. [applause] >> do you know what the largest emerging market economy in the world is? some would say china. hong kong, yeah. it's the american woman. l[laughter] >> american women are the largest emerging market economy in the world according to mattie

dikewalled author of influence, women today are responsible for 83% of all consumer purchases including 53% of stock market investments, 62% of new car purchases, and 55% of all consumer electronics to name is few. globally women have $22 trillion in consumer spending. what's the tide between our emerging economic power and the need for our emerging political power? especially, as republican women and conservative women? they go hand-in-hand. since the united states is over

$15 trillion at very low interest rates, as soon as the interest rates go up, interest payments on the national debt will crowd out all other spending, including the ability of the private market economy to adjust. and american women are the private market economy. so here's what we have to do, in business and in politics. we have to cultivate each other's talents, drawing each other from the worker bees in an organization to the top of the organization. you do that by identifying your women colleagues, whether it's in a political group, whether it is in a club or an organization, whether it is in your place of business, and you put that woman in a higher area of visibility. you nurture her talents.

you give her responsibility. you mentor her. mentoring is something that men do well by design. and women do it so subtly that they don't even recognize it, so in the business place, we're not as apt to consciously pick a women who we work with, who we recognize as truly talented and give that woman an opportunity to grow her talents, to become more visible, to gain a position that turns them into a diane black or a kristi noem, or even a condoleezza rice. women frequently are so busy nurturing the entire organization or as the previous speaker said, gathering from

among the organization that they're not looking at pinpointing and mentoring and developing that leader within. we have to do better at that because women leaders, like you just had on the stage, are truly significant in the u.s. congress in terms of forcing fiscal discipline, on people who aren't accustomed to adjusting to fiscal discipline. and i mean republicans and democrats. there are many republicans in this congress who have become so accustomed to an appropriations committee dominated by big spending democrats and moderate republicans that the culture of the appropriations committee over the last 50 years has become a culture of spending, not a culture of savings. now, i have gone back and read a book called the power of the

purse, which is a history of the appropriations committee in the u.s. house. and pre-1965, before the -- [inaudible] >> before they handed out stingily, sparingly, appropriately and not spent on programs that we could not afford. that culture changed during the lbj era when the great society began to expand the scope and the role of the federal government. and the desire for a bigger,

more intrusive federal government, greater regulation at the federal level brought about an era where democrats put their most liberal members on the appropriations committee and republicans put their most moderate people on the appropriations committee. the culture has come to a pendulum in the last 50 years to the point where it now must swing back. and some of the freshmen that you helped elect in the last congress are helping swing it back. but it is painful because, of course, the people who are on leadership positions within the appropriations committee are by and large those who came up through the ranks over the years of that culture of spending. and now to reverse the ship of a

culture of saving and cutting is just causing tremendous turmoil within the congress. we need more. we need to be the point in 50 years when i'm no longer around, when most of us in this room are no longer around, that our children and grandchildren are saying, it's time for the pendulum to swing again, that we have gotten our fiscal house in order. that we have right sized these runaway entitlement programs. that we have spending appropriate for our gdp. that we're spending enough on those constitutional duties that the founding fathers enumerated. and that we are spending less at the federal level and trusting our states, our governors and our state legislators to do what is right for their citizens

within their states in the context of that population. that's what we need to do. we need to return power to the states because they govern more efficiently. they know about the regional and local nuances that make it appropriate for them to make different spending decisions than the one size fits all federal government. women recognize that. and i'll close by telling you this. i was in the wyoming legislature for 14 years and there were not very many women in the wyoming legislature. [laughter] >> but we had a chief clerk of the wyoming house that had been watching legislators for years. and one time he was asked, what is the difference between men and women in the legislator? is there anything that transcends party and that seems to be more consistent with gender, among legislators? and he without hesitation said

absolutely. absolutely. women look farther down the road men seem to be talking and looking to the next election more often than women. women are looking to how their children's lives will be, their grandchildren's lives will be. and what they can do now to shape a better future. we all know that through polling that more people believe that america's best years are behind us. and that we may hand to our children a lesser america than we inherited from our parents. we cannot allow that to happen. and women need to assert themselves in the strongest of ways to make sure that our children inherit a better

america. and we must do it by emposing fiscal discipline, restoring the founding fathers' vision for our country, having great states as incubators of great ideas. and allowing that to happen in a way that keeps the federal government to the greatest extent possible in a strong but limited role, and our states will flower. our economy will prosper. our people will take charge. and america will be better for it. thank you all very much for your role. [applause] >> from the miami book fair international last weekend -- >> miami was center stage in the bay of pigs. it's where the cia came to recruit cuban exiles who eventually participated in the

invasion of cuba. after castro came into power, many of the people who didn't like him very much fled cuba. and where they fled to was mainly right here in miami. >> race still bedevils the american life. of course, the election of the first black president was a landmark that shows there's been tremendous change in american racial understand it. had there not been that change, he would have had no hope of prevailing. >> in a presidential debate it's critical that you -- it's hard to relax in that situation because you've got to be calm enough to where you can listen to the -- and make a split second decision. do i move on? do i follow up? what do i do now? >> watch booktv's coverage from miami online at the c-span video library, archived and searchable. watch what you want, when you

want.

>> and now more from the recent conservative women's conference. up next comments from gail huff brown, the wife of senator scott brown, and callista gingrich, the wife of presidential candidate newt gingrich. it is hosted by project go pink. this portion is just under 30 minutes. >> i am that gail huff brown artificial and my firm held at it for her husband, senator scott brown who, by the become isn't a doing a great job representing the people seat in massachusetts, when senator brown came to washington, not only did the senate get better, so did our local broadcast news. for those of you who may not know, gail move from the abc affiliate in boston to the one in washington, d.c. juggling family and full-time work as a broadcaster is a significant part of her life. and she doesn't with tremendous

grace, and a whole lot of stuff but as they say in broadcasting, when we had a story and we have a reporter, we're going to throw it to her. so gail, i am throwing it to you. please give a warm welcome to gail huff brown. [applause] >> good morning. thank you for that very kind introduction. for those of you who don't know me, and i'm sure many of you here from all over the country -- how many people here from outside of the d.c. area? okay, almost everyone. so that pretty much explains that. well, welcome to my second and sort of newly adopted home, washington, d.c. there's so many wonderful things to do here, and i hope all of you are enjoying yourself getting out of here as well and enjoying some of the wonderful things that are nation's capital has to offer. as i was thinking about what i wanted to share with you, i

thought about the mission of this organization. motivating, mentoring and mobilizing women to have the courage and encourage them to get into public service and politics. it struck me that many of you probably feel that you are constantly faced with choices, like being a series of choices. and doesn't limit your dreams, having to make choices? whether it is career versus family, public service versus private life, ambition versus family. it seems especially as women are constantly being asked to make those decisions. there's one thing that i hope you take away from this today and remember, it's that you don't have to choose as long as you keep true to your core priorities. and to allow for change, a lot of change. i found the more you break your core priorities, the more you can do and the more you actually

get out of life. so i'm going to share a little bit about my background, and lauren helped to that as well. my husband, senator scott brown from massachusetts, and i met 27 years ago. in fact, we just celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary in july. when we first met, i was in graduate school learning to be a news reporter. i wanted to travel around the world and tell people stories. scott was in law school. he wanted to become a lawyer so he could help good people who found themselves in bad situations, as he would say. something he knew a lot about, having been arrested at age 12 for steely records out of a department store. it's one of many stories he outlines in his book, against all odds. but after a lot of hard work we create a really ideal family situation in boston. scott being a lawyer and a state senator, needing a reporter for the local abc television station, two wonderful

daughters, effect would've been had just graduated from college. and i felt like you know what? life is really great right now. i really feel settled. and you not important it is to have a feeling, like everything is right right now. then in 2009, scott came home one day and he said honey, i'm thinking about running for the u.s. senate. then it was shocking. and needless to say when he won, it involved change, and a lot of change. with that change scott and i had a lot of choices to make. he was going to spending a lot of time in washington, and i could join them, or i could keep working at my reporter job in boston. now at first this seemed like a very, very difficult choice to make. do i support my husband in his career, at the expense of mine, or do i prioritize my career, stay in boston, cm1 weekends? most senate spouses do not move to washington, d.c., and this

surprised me because i figured that if i moved to washington, d.c., i would see all the other senate spouses. but guess what? most of them end up staying home in their states come in their districts. but after more than 20 years with scott i really couldn't imagine not seeing him on a day-to-day basis, and going maybe weeks at a time without seeing each other. on the other hand, i have been at the abc television station for almost two decades. and prior to the u.s. senate election, i was arguably a better note of the two of us in the household. if you don't count our daughter was on american idol, was far better known than either mom or dad. but when i really thought about it and there were two core priorities that i felt i couldn't give up. supporting my husband and continuing my job as a chose. when i realized that my professional career wasn't tied

to where i live, the choice to become a lot more clear. i was very fortunate. i was able to get a job at the abc station here in washington, d.c. where i now work as a reporter for wjla channel seven. i wanted to keep my identity as gail huff brown of the journalist. but also wanted to be mrs. senator scott brown. and i enjoy the incredible opportunities and experiences that come up with that, like going to the white house for congressional picnic, or christmas ball out of those are opportunities i did want to miss out on. like many of you we are also a two income family. and i like making my own money. i don't want to have to explain to scott why i need a 60th pair of shoes. you know how that is. [laughter] it might have been a lot easier to keep my job in boston. but not embracing the

opportunity to make a change would have been sacrificing a corporal become and how is supporting scott. and being here meant that i got to support as well. there are challenges, like scheduling opportunities. this thanksgiving, for instance, i will be working. i have been at the station for little over the years on very, very low on the totem pole. so scott and girls will be going up to some of the shelters and helping to deliver food and serve food and help those who need it for more than i do. and life isn't simple. after today i'm going to go to the airport. i'm going to fly to boston and then i'm going to take the subway to pick up my car and drive an hour to get home, then i will cook and clean for our extended family to come for our daughters 21st birthday party. we didn't get a chance to spend it with her because she is at syracuse in college and, of course, we're done here at d.c. we ended up missing out on a lot of those types of things.

it's been very stressful to try and balance his career and my career, and our family life. but for scott and me it has been the greatest honor in the world to be able to help other people, and to serve our country. and i understand that saying yes to a job that puts you in the public spotlight is very difficult. you give up so much. privacy and family life, those are the two losses that i feel most. but i do think that the gains outweigh the losses. you are a part of something so much bigger than yourselves, and it gives you the strength to keep fighting harder and harder. at the end of the day what's most important to me and you is following your core priorities, serving the public, supporting each other, and being there for our daughters and for our extended family. those are the things that make us who we are.

if you can find your core priorities, you will be amazed at how much he really can accomplish, and how rewarding public service really is. my daughter now lives in nashville, and she sings country-western, she writes all her own music now, she wrote a song that sums it up. it is go get it. so i leave you today with that message, go get it. believe in yourself, believe in the country, believe in what you can do to make a difference. thank you for having me today. [applause] >> well, now it is my honor to introduce to you callista gingrich, who is the president

of the gingrich productions, and multimedia production company based here in washington, d.c. callista and her husband, newt, host and produce a historical and public policy documentary, and she'll be talking about those shortly. callista is also an author of a children's book about american exceptionalism entitled sweet land of liberty, featuring elvis the elephant. and after she speaks, she will be signing books in the lobby. prior to the listed join the gingrich production, mrs. gingrich served as chief clerk of the house, excuse me, the house committee on agriculture in washington, d.c. prior to that she actually was an assistant to steve gunderson

he was from a great state of wisconsin pics i got to know callista a little bit better during her term as a staff assistant on the hill. and i'm just so excited that she's able to be with us here today to talk to you about what she's done as a woman in politics. so let's give her a warm welcome here at go pink. [applause] >> thank you, sue, for that kind introduction and warm welcome. i would like to thank project go pink for the opportunity to be with you this morning. i appreciate the contributions that each of you make to mobilize, support and elect republican women across our country. your continued support for conservative policies and strategies are necessary to ensure that our nation remains a

beacon of freedom for future generations. as you probably know, my husband, newt come is a republican candidate for president of the united states. [applause] the last few weeks have been very exciting for our campaign. one of the best things about a presidential campaign is the chance to meet so many wonderful people across america, and to learn about their concerns and hopes for our future. newt and i are determined to run a positive issue oriented and solutions based campaign. we know and think of the other republican candidates as friends. many of us have bonded along the campaign trail as we go through similar life-changing experiences. we are all in this together, and believe that what we are doing is in the best interests of our country. are only opponent is barack

obama, and we're committed to removing him from the white house. [applause] over the last few months the polls have been wild. in june and july, newt and i were told that our campaign was dead. that was hard. recent polls reflect that newt is surging ahead. candidly, this is better than being dead. 5 newt and i are engaged in this race because we believe america is at a crossroads and care deeply about the future of our country. we believe that america is an exceptional nation and must remain so. today, i would like to share with you why i believe our understanding of american exceptionalism and american history will be a pivotal factor in determining the direction, and ultimately the survival of our nation as we know it. over the past several years,

newt and i have had the privilege of working on several documentary films and books exploring at various events and individuals in american history that have helped make america an exceptional nation. throughout the course of our work it is becoming increasingly obvious to me that america is facing an identity crisis unlike anything we've ever faced before. this crisis is most evident among our youth, we are being taught pride international heritage is inappropriate. and that there is nothing uniquely special about being an american, or about the values and principles upon which our country has been built. we are currently in a great debate over whether america is an exceptional nation, or whether we are just another country. it's up to us to decide which version of america our children will learn about and believe in.

over 20 years ago in his farewell address, president ronald reagan called upon america to return to what he called an informed patriotism, warning that those who quote, aren't sure that an appreciation of america is the right thing to teach modern children, end quote. president reagan understood what is at stake, and that it isn't simply an academic or abstract debate. our understanding and appreciation of what we are as a nation determines our policies, our values, and whether or not we teach our children that we are a special nation. as for me, everything i know about the history of our country, and our core values, has led me to believe that we are an exceptional nation and people are growing up in whitehall wisconsin an all-american midwestern town, it was impossible not to be

instilled with a sense of patriotism. at sunset elementary we set the pledge of allegiance each morning, and then sang a patriotic song. in junior high and high school, my band and choir celebrated national holidays by singing and playing patriotic music. as a girl scout i truly believed in our pledge, to serve god and country. in fact, today i find myself living out that pledge in ways i could never have imagined back at sunset elementary. as a young person i was surrounded i people he believed in the greatness of america, and were unapologetic about those beliefs. contrast this to today. when a majority of eighth graders can't explain the meaning of the declaration of independence, and 95% of high school seniors cannot explain

how the three branches of government are meant to interact, it goes without saying that most high school students graduate without ever coming to appreciate what makes america unique. the united states was the first nation to be founded an act of rebellion against a colonial power. there was the first nation to be established on the premise that the rights of man are inherent, and the government drives -- derives its power from the consent of the people. it was the first nation to be based on a separation of powers, and to recognize the existence of the state is solely to secure the rights of the people. finally, it was the first nation to affirm all of this and it probably debated and democratically accepted constitution. all of these things make america unique, but, in fact, as i have become more involved in studying

our history, i realize that american exceptionalism is rooted in something even more fundamental. five years ago, newt animated documentary film entitled rediscovering god and america. the film introduces a concept of an american exceptionalism through a walking tour of washington, from the national archives to arlington national cemetery. at the national archives, the source of american exceptionalism is displayed in a single document, the declaration of independence. the key in this document is our founding fathers assertion that we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, and that we are endowed by our creator with unalienable rights among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. is this assertion that our

rights come from god that makes america truly exceptional. we are the only country in history to assert that each of us personally receives our rights from god, not from bureaucrats, politicians, or judges, but from god. this means that each of us is personally sovereign. this is what our constitution begins we the people. we the people lone power to the government. government never loans power to us. [applause] this unique endowment by our creator is why americans are citizens while other governments often treat their people as subjects. in many countries the government and political bosses reign. here in america, the people rein.

because our founders understood that their freedom was based on faith and that no government could come the twin god and men, our form of government was grounded in the role applause. structure to recognize and protect the dignity, intelligence and value of every individual. these protections have a lot of patriotism, individualism, and entrepreneurship to thrive here in america, as they have nowhere else on earth. because our founders rejected the notion that government had unlimited power over individuals, property rights were protected in the constitution. to a degree they had never been protected before. the founding fathers even wrote a patent office into the constitution to protect the intellectual property of inventors, giving americans the ability and incentive to create, invent, and realize a better future.

there are a number of american inventors who personify the spirit of innovation and belief in progress. benjamin franklin invented the lightning rod and bifocal glasses. a few years later, robert fulton invented the steam boat. samuel morse, the telegraph. thomas edison gave us the electric light and phonograph. henry ford invented mass produce, affordable automobiles. and the wright brothers discovered how to fly. all of these inventors illustrate the very best of the american experience. of hope, opportunity, and entrepreneurship. they chose to be courageous, to take risk, and to follow their dreams. without bothering to ask the government for money, permission, or approval. in doing so they changed the life of every person in this room who has ever turned on a light, watched a movie, or flown

in an airplane. they demonstrated that success is truly possible when a nation unleashes its god-given creativity. modern inventors, like bill gates of microsoft, and the late steve jobs of apple, are part of this long tradition of creativity and innovation. our lives have been changed again and again by pioneers and inventors. now, for a moment forget about history, forget about the existence of the declaration and the constitution. forget heroes like jefferson, franklin, martin luther king, jr., and john f. kennedy who testified to america's uniqueness. forget the fact that we are all children of immigrants. among academic elites, that claim that america is an

exceptional nation is viewed with skepticism, and even scorn. they apologize for the ways in which america does not look like other nations. for such elites, the would exceptionalism is criticism, not praise. a myth born of self righteous arrogance that has no place in a globalized multicultural socie society. and nothing pinpoint you as a conservative more than promoting and believing in american exceptionalism. as i became more concerned about the danger of losing sight of what makes america truly exceptional, i decided to write a book for four to eight years old, entitled "sweet land of liberty." my goal was to highlight the wonderful achievements of our country, to a rouse a love for america and to communicate why america is a special nation. to do this, i knew i needed a

unique character to capture the interests of young children. to guide them through the defining moments of our nation's history. i considered many animals, including monies, giraffes, and hippos. i have to i have to concerns i didn't consider a donkey. [laughter] but in the end i couldn't resist and adorable elephant. and politics notwithstanding. when i began thinking of a name for our elephant, ellis came to mind. my grandmother had come to united states from poland through ellis island in 1907. therefore, i thought ellis the elephant was perfect. both as a phrase for children, and symbolically as we are a nation of immigrants. in "sweet land of liberty" we first meet ellis at the library,

an avid reader like my husband, newt, ellis reads about our history and shares what he learns with others. ellis introduces children to the pilgrims first thanksgiving, the boston tea party, george washington crossing the delaware, and many other historic moments. it is my hope that these stories will help young people feel proud of our country, and enable them to begin to appreciate the courage, service and sacrifice that has made this country an exceptional nation. today, america stands at a pivotal moment you're not only economically, but socially, culturally and politically. it is important that each of us do our part now to advance and defend the pillars of sprayed him -- pillars of freedom. it is a learned, which means anyone can learn to be an

american. it also means that each generation is capable of forgetting or failing to learn and recall what it is that makes america a special nation. pulitzer prize-winning historian michael kamen said, quote, a civilization without memory ceases to be civilized. a civilization without history ceases to have identity. without identity there is no purpose. without purpose, civilization will wither, end quote. when we know who we are as americans, the way forward to defending and advancing the cause of freedom becomes increasingly clear. it is my prayer that together, we may work to ensure that liberty and freedom prevail, and that america remains an exceptional nation. thank you, and god bless.

[applause] >> anita perry, the wife of republican presidential candidate rick perry also spoke at this event hosted by the group project go pink. will hear about state budget cuts and the importance of heritage and diversity. this is 50 minutes. >> throughout the last couple of days, i have listened to our panels talk about what we need to look for in a candidate. well, we in wisconsin were fortunate enough to find a candidate who really reflected almost everything that they mentioned in their panel discussion. but the neat thing about rebecca

is that she is one of us. she's one of us as republican women. she's a conservative republican women, and she has worked very hard to make certain that she has maintained those strong badges through very difficult times the last year and a half. many of you know what's going on in wisconsin, and she won't tell you this but i will. rebecca and scott walker are being faced with recalls. and i am appalled in the way that the union thugs are operating in our state. and there is one thing that i don't want to see, and that is governor scott walker and governor rebecca kleefisch recalls because of standing for the principles as politicians. and so, know that when she stand before you today she is faced with all of those emotions of

what they are trying to do to not only her, but to her family in trying to bring harm to them, either politically or personally. and so, if you have any extra cash available that you might be willing to write out a check to help offset the millions of dollars that are coming in to our state to recall who i think 2 upcoming politicians in our party that really stand for the principle that we all believe in. you know, go to the gop website, www.wisconsin is the where -- on a more positive note you will just enjoy, get to know a little

bit of the midwest flavor that our wonderful lieutenant governor rebecca kleefisch brings to the table as a republican women here supporting all of us in our endeavors as we take back america in 2012. so with that, governor rebecca kleefisch. [applause] >> then the motion of a recall. i don't know what's who is talking the. we are women that we are not emotional, right? i come from the land of protest and bongo drums, and of recalls and rejection of logic. i also come from the land of reform, and reason of enterprise and creativity. ladies and gentlemen, i come

from scott walker's wisconsin. [applause] like most of you all here, i am a mom, and we as moms will do just about anything in order to make sure our children's futures are brighter every day. now, so moms do that by teaching sunday school. other moms do that by volunteering in their kids classroom. i chose to set aside my little business and run for lieutenant governor of the state of wisconsin. and today i have the joy of knowing that what i have done this year, and what i go out into every day, is making a difference for my children down the road. and whether i like it or not, i also know that what i am doing every day is making a difference in there today as well. i tell you that because

yesterday as i was kissing my kids before they left for school, my each year old said mama, if you see a protester today, make sure you be nice and smile. my children at five and eight have become little experts on turning the other cheek. because wisconsin political climate is so politically charged right now, even my children have become targets. but friends, even my children know that when they have 1 dollar, they cannot spend too. something so simple that a kindergartner could understood and, right? welcome but not so much. because there are some in wisconsin who still don't understand that. and so when i am asked to explain, i say that when we were sworn in we had a big budget

problem to solve. the moment we dropped our hands from being and i curated, the governor and i were met with buckets of red ink on our desks. this year alone we had -- we are left with 3.6 billion deficit for our next biennium. and so we had asked our government employees to contribute a little bit. we asked for a 5.8% pension contribution, about the national average. we asked for a 12.6% health care conservation. that's about half the national average. and we asked for some concessions in collective bargaining because we just couldn't afford it anymore. you know, our state like many of yours was given an opportunity to kind of opt out of the recession.

our taxpayers were in pain. they elected us to do a budget without raising taxes because they simply could not afford to continue to pay. but in wisconsin, the stimulus money was spent. our health care costs had risen 90% since 2002. we had our own patient compensation fund that we owe $200 million to come and minnesota was not the on our borders and, you all of the 60 mill for tax reciprocity agreement. we are not taking a coupon. and i think they're still kind of mad that brett favre gave us his good years. but despite this, the big union bosses and the out of state special interests and paid protesters, and even jesse jackson and michael moore dissented on the state capitol in madison to defend the collective bargaining that make

sure that a volunteer crossing guard in wausau couldn't do his job because a paging employee should be doing that. passionate paid union employ should be doing that. all of the workers were out hauling snow. when they brought in extra contractors to make sure the morning commute was clear, the union filed a complaint. the snow should have just sat there, they said. they wanted paid union workers to do it. they pay teachers for hours they didn't work. we gave people for dollars each for bring their own pledges to work. we paid corrections officers to call in sick and then work the next shift giving them over time. and we fired the teacher of the year because she didn't have enough seniority. governor walker said enough is enough. we need to do in wisconsin the

same thing our small businesses and our hard working families who fund the government do every day, something that my kindergartner and third grader understand, we need to not stand more than what we have. and i'll tell you, this year alone we asked for those concessions. we made the changes to the expensive growing collective bargaining, and we balanced our budget, change the $3.6 billion deficit into a surplus in wisconsin. [applause] by midsummer wisconsin was creating jobs at twice the national rate. we became the 49th state in the nation to guarantee second amendment rights by making sure we had conceal and carry. we opened wisconsin for business, and if you come to wisconsin and you want to vote,

now you have to have a photo id in order to do it. [applause] but the thanks that was given to our brave legislators, were threats, vandalism, and recall elections. six of our brave state centers faced recall elections this past summer. and happily our majority stood. but the critics were not satisfied. and they were not detoured -- deterred spent three days ago groups filed recall against the governor and myself. and begin collecting signatures your now listen, i respect their right to collect signatures. i respect their rights to be angry. but if they get us on the

ballot, we will win. [applause] >> i'm ready. our governor is ready, and our governor is strong in wisconsin. i tell you that because i know scott walker. in fact, i met a scott walker long ago when i was a journalist, and scott was one of my very best sources at the state capitol when he was a state assemblyman. now, he would, before he became governor, become the county executive in the largest county in the state of wisconsin. but before that would happen, the democratic county executive there would mess up, big time. he was a crook of a guy. had hatched a plan to make sure that he and his cronies were paid out millions upon their retirement. and the journalist to bust that guy on camera was me. i'd like to argue that i was scott walker's very first supporter account executive that

day. but before the eyes of the world were focused on madison, and governor scott walker, the bongo drums, the protest signs, and responsible budgeting, we had to win the honor of serving. and it was constant, the governor and lieutenant governor run in separate primaries. in my race, it was me and for guys in an exhausting statewide campaign. i had more chicken dinners and gas station hotdogs and any human should really consume. by midsummer i really thought there was a chance i would start clocking or barking it but instead i ended up with a really bad stomach ache. that stomach it could've been because i came in dead last at the wisconsin state convention. could have been because of all the fundraising i was doing,

beating all the guys in money making, twice. or it could've been from from something else. it ends up that the statewide campaign was the easy part. t. weeks before my primary election i was diagnosed with a grapefruit sized tumor in my debt. at 35 years old in my first political race ever, i was told you have colon cancer. within days i had to be taken in for emergency surgery, but i got out hours before the polls closed on primary election night. and despite the naysayers, despite the cancer, despite the brutality of a five way race, i beat all the guys by 22 points. [applause] and i'm happy to tell you today i am cancer free. but -- sure.

[applause] but i went through chemo during the mayhem at the capital. my husband, was a state representative, was washing out his capital window yesterday as a collected recall signatures against us. but meantime, i was in another part of the state, more towards the center of wisconsin, watching the white house christmas tree being harvested from wisconsin. the farmer told me that that tree had been through drought, punishing flooding rains. it has seen a severe hailstorm, and even a tornado. but today it was the most beautiful and the strongest tree on the lot. kind of like wisconsin. kind of like america.

ladies, you have been called for a time such as this. you, too, are the mothers and daughters and sisters and the wise who will fight to make this country all that it can be for our children. so thank you. for the support of common sense, and may god bless your efforts to make our nation that exceptional one she has always deserved to be. thank you for having me. [applause] >> well now it is my honor to introduce to you and to you

anita perry. as first lady of texas for the past 11 years, anita perry has worked to promote a number of issues to benefit people from all walks of life. trained and educated as a nurse, mrs. perry drew from her 17 years of nursing as a champion health care issues such as breast cancer and childhood immunizations. mrs. perry has been a strong advocate of economic development, and tourism in texas, leading trade missions to germany, japan, argentina, brazil and the czech republic, to name a few. tourism brings more than 56 billion into the texas economy, resulting in more than 500,000 jobs. please welcome anita perry. [applause]

>> thank you, sue. hey, it's great to be here in washington. the women working for change conference. you know, when conservative women gather together for a common cause, it doesn't threaten in the most. it threatens the liberals the most. because when it comes to ending politics as usual, conservative women are the real change. from nikki haley to south carolina, the susana martinez in new mexico, to mary fallin in oklahoma, conservative women one office. all across the country in 2010. you know, i think sometimes it's worth asking the question, why voters have gravitated the conservative women in recent years. and affirm the judgment and decisions that women make, from earning the boardroom for running for office, to running the household.

we are all about empowering women of all backgrounds, rather than just putting us all in one little box. and we remain sympathetic to the plight of middle-class families, of women who wear the many hats of mother, wife, employee. we know that many women who toil to provide the best environment possible for raising our children, we get our children ready for school, we put in long hours at the office, and then we make those pta meetings, those soccer games, those baseball games. and who at the end of the day are too tired to even take their shoes off? we know those women, because we are those women. many of us have done double duty without twice the pay, but we do it out of love and devotion to our families.

as a texas woman said, liz carpenter, webster's grow but ends deliver. -- roosters crow that ends deliver. >> the issue facing our country today is not gender-based, but jobs based. it's about giving our children a better country than the one we inherited. you are a lot of great candidates out there running for president. i happened to be partial towards one just a little bit. and here is why. no one is more committed to the merit systems than rick perry. he truly believes in america's blindside to one's background, gender or creed. and america that provides opportunity to any and all who work hard, play by the rules, and never stop dreaming.

and he has provided a blueprint of a pathway to a more prosperous america in our state of texas where he has cut taxes 67 times, signed the first state budget that cut state spending since world war ii, and signed the most sweeping lawsuit reform in the nation, including just this past spring a new losers pay law. rick perry believes the best welfare program is a job. he believes the best economic stimulus occurs in the private sector, and he believes the best hope for the world is a strong america. he served his country because he loved his country. and during his tour of duty in united states air force, he developed a deep and abiding love for our nation's freedom here he recognizes what is wrong in america, it's not that

americans are lazy or soft, or if they lack imagination. it's washington that is broken. and he has put forward a bold plan to overhaul washington ending business as usual and ensuring the federal government puts the american people first. he will fight to end lifetime appointees for future appointees to the federal bench because he doesn't believe those who legislate from the bench should be rewarded with a black robe for life. he wants to transform washington by creating a part-time congress, cutting their pay in half, their budgets and have, and the time in washington and have. he believes the concept of a citizen legislature works best. and keeps lawmakers better connected to the people. and, finally, he wants to overhaul the permanent

bureaucracy eliminate the departments of energy, education and commerce, reducing and rebuilding the epa so that it no longer torments job creators. and ending the passenger harassment of the tsa by returning transportation security to the private sector. his bold plan for washington, coupled with a 20% flat tax, represents the most comprehensive change of any candidate, and that makes sense, because he is the only candidate who isn't part of the establishment. he is a true outsider will bring a breath of fresh air to the beltway. with rick perry you don't have to wonder whether the president you get a simmer to the candidate you see, because he knows who he is, and he knows what he believes. and i can promise you this. if you will help elect him president he will make you

proud. and we will have the america again that you and i know for our children and our grandchildren. thank you for having me today. may god bless you all. thank you so much. [applause] [inaudible] >> project go pink as a matter of fact, is a totally volunteer

organization, and we were totally on contributions and registration comes with anyone like to make a contribution because you've already registered, just go to our website, www.projectgopink.com. we're also an information platform. we post news articles, original writing. if you like to write for us, you just send on what you like to send to us. we have a facebook page and we are on twitter. and again, as i said earlier, we are happy to work with you to put on something in your state, a one day training session and conference, a miniconference like we've had here. and we will help organize and teacher speakers, et cetera, et cetera. so we really look forward to working with you, and it is my greatest honor to introduce someone who, along my way in politics has helped me, and she

has headed up one of the most effective groups in politics, and for policy, is marjorie dannenfelser of the sba list. and marjorie has been, you know, all day today and yesterday we've talked about an administration that is burdening our unborn and generations to come with bad policies and bad debt. and marjorie has been on the forefront of leading the fight for the unborn. so i'd like to introduce her, not like you to know that she is a great friend to have at all times and for this country. thank you. [applause] >> this is so fun. i am so short. can you all see me? i think i need a boost. it is truly one of these to be

here. i've really been looking forward to it. this is an exhale time for me. i don't know, this time -- we work all the time, and sometimes i projects are work. this to me is not work at all. it's like coming home. normally on the third friday of the month i have a lunch group of seven girls called bless your hearts, a bunch of d.c. political operatives who really miss home. and we get together every week. we talked about a lot, and a lot of things that y'all have been talk that over these last few hours and days, and one of the things is how grateful we are, im, and i bet you are to the heritage that we have, whether it comes from our regions, certainly from america as a

nation, constitutional heritage, with examples that we have, women and men who have led us to this point in time. those examples, and the heritage has brought us to where we are now pick and i'm so grateful for it. and it's such a diverse heritage, the midwest, the west coast, from a military family, the unique training that that gives you to really reach out to other people. but the one thing i do know kind of well, and we do at our lunch, which is called bless your heart, because what else are going to call ourselves? we have very often come down to a conversation where we kind of get a few things straight. some superficial, some not so superficial that we pretty much feel like we are born knowing a few things. and one is, lipstick is always mandatory even if you're going to the 7-11. without question.

manners are nonnegotiable. they set the table for everything that you going to do from here on out. and it's just a matter of being good to other people, and making sure that they know that they are welcome. good manners are nonnegotiable. lipstick vital. t. has sugar. and thank god that men and women are different from more than physical reasons. because i love meant a lot. and don't all love me? i don't want to be one, ever. i am glad i was made a woman. and everything that came along with it. all the gifts and all the things that came along with being a woman, thank you god for making us the way that we are and not wanting to be something that we are not. most importantly though, what i think brings all of us together, certainly women from the south, we all have sort of our things

we feel like our birthright but i don't think i will be wearing lipstick as i was born, but one thing i am sure of that, is that we were raised, we wouldn't be here if we weren't raised and we were not trained by our heritage, our history, by our families, as women to take responsibility for ourselves, for our families, and our communities. with a watchful eye always for the most vulnerable among us. i think sarah palin did a really good job of explaining it along the way. she came t to in the event thate had and talked about being a mama grizzly ending a frontier feminist. and i kind of like the mama grizzly thing for different reasons than maybe some others did. i like the idea of a mama grizzly not because we go after people, because we attacked him and scratch their eyes out, but because a mama grizzly acts is a very gentle kind of there. i mean, she mark satter

territory mark satter territory, and she lives her life with her cubs within a territory that she has marked out. hurt economy, her family billington everything that goes along within that territory. but if you're a predator, god help you if you walk within that perimeter and threaten junior. because then you will get to eyes scratched out. don't mess with our children. don't mess with the most vulnerable among us. and that is a special gift that we as women i think are wired, i think we are wired that way. i think all sorts of reasons from god and from nature. we are wired that way. frontier feminism is another concept that i think is a very compelling that actually i think all of our candidates, had example fight in some way. ..