into the effort. i don't think you're suggesting i guess i should probably ask if you're suggesting whether we should make that kind of commitment again. rather, it seems to me that we're trying to accomplish the objectives of the counterinsurgency, but adapting based on what we've learned to ensure that most of that list is done by regional partners and by the government of iraq itself. ..

now all of a sudden with the thousands of troops back. can you tell me today, do we have a status of forces agreement. >> no, we do not. we have diplomatic no-space employed the immunity same protections. paragraph 3500 servicemen and women on the ground. a much different order of magnitude. originally limited the counterinsurgency since i was in an iraqi parliament, was that just an exchange of diplomatic notes as well? >> i don't know the answer. i can take that for the record. >> my point is that we can have been exchange of diplomatic notes and sustain the gains we have her counter and urgency, mr. bolton talked about the white box game. this is very difficult for us as a nation. if we can do that with an exchange of the romantic letters, why would we do that with an exchange of diplomatic

letters rather than saying the iraqi parliament will ratify them, therefore we have to leave immediately and everything we thought to achieve its aims to all of you for not. this is a lesson we can't go back and unwind what is happening. we have to be cognizant as we go forward because these conflicts will happen again. the commander-in-chief needs to make a decision that he doesn't get to change the policy that came before him. we have to make decisions that we inherit policies and predecessor. we have to make decisions in the best interest of our country regardless whether it was his war to begin with. >> the only thing i would ask that you would have to concede we have a much different leader then prime minister maliki. >> that is correct. prime minister maliki would've wanted us to be there had we had the opportunity to do with an exchange of diplomatic letters, which he wanted us to do.

instead we chose to reject that. but that, i will yield that. >> thank you, mr. chairman. secretary carter general dempsey, you certainly have tremendous challenges on your shoulders and a thank you for your service. this question i am going to ask both of you may have comments on. as we have announced additional deployment of service members to the middle of these two enhancement equate mission i have become really troubled about the effects it will have on the readiness of our total force. instead of sending complete unit it appears we deployed piecemeal components and it is contingent of senior personnel. so i am concerned the portion of the unit that remains at home station or in training will be relegated to preparing only for

small unit operations instead of being able to train for full operations. now how will we mitigate this and immature are reconstituting units will get the training they need to recover their readiness. that's the first part of question. secondly, while we consider changing the model for how we generate forces for small scare operations. >> excellent question, congresswoman. thank you. i will start and asked the chairman. you are absolutely right when we send in good neighborly forests, we tend to take certain elements including the command element out of the larger unit a brigade or division headquarters and deploy it forward because that's the only part of the force that we need. their best days behind.

that is the readiness dilemma for in this case the army. i know the army works very hard on that. it is as you say. the second part of your question is are we thinking of ways, i forget how you put it but systematizing and dealing with the readiness issues associated. absolutely we are. secretary make you a general odierno i discussed with them and also the chief of staff at the army as well. >> thank you. >> yes congresswoman, we are attacked in our global force management process to account for the fact as i mentioned earlier for the first time in a long time we had the issue of dealing with potential threats and state actors and from nonstate actors. so though it is always our instinct to apply coherent

units, that is to say units organized, trained and equipped had a long relationship with each other. we will have to find ways to account for global challenges at the hybrid solution to global force management. frankly we are a much different army in 2015 than we were in 2003 when this all began. we can figure it out, but we would be happy to describe how we intend to approach that. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i yield back. >> thank you your doctor when stern. >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you for being here. as we go through all this, i can't help but reflect as one of the couple hundred thousand who served in iraq and solace go on to victory to just have my stomach turn when i think of my friends that were killed in areas that are now under control of isil.

today we have also the possibility of a resolution or forward pass for the removal of all u.s. troops from iraq or syria. what do you think the middle east would look like if we did that and what effect would it have on our national security? >> that would be a mistake congressman for obvious reasons. we have national security interests within iraq and we also have united states national security interest in maintaining credible allies in the region and our withdrawal from this issue would challenge and put us at greater risk over time. no question about it. >> i would agree with you on that note. i have a question regarding her humanitarian efforts. obviously those are key

components to whatever military mission we are engaged in. is it helping with recruitment on the local level for our allies in this fight? because our counter messaging having an effect? we talk about isil in social media. are we helping recruit is in the fight with us? >> the honest truth is that the moment are counter messaging is the truth. we don't have a particular way of getting on social media and propagandizing the way isil does it. i don't think you are suggesting we do that. >> you mentioned counter messaging earlier. >> exactly. i understand your question. the critical form of counter messaging by america gets back to the word the chairman started with, which is leadership.

when we step up and indicate that we are in the game not substituting for the game whether it be here or anywhere else, i was just in southeast asia last week. there is a hunger for american leadership. we played that role for decades in many parts of the world. same thing is true in europe. and i think that the best message we can give against all of these threats to our friends and allies is one of resolving steadiness. i made an earlier reference to continuity over time. i think that is important as well. the steadiness of american leadership and he gets back to the things we had in the conversation about the budget earlier. i believe we need steadiness there as well. getting them to do more is the

best kind of counter messaging. >> what about the humanitarian side mentioned as well. i look at how we turned the tide in iraq and part of that was humanitarian affairs where i saw people of iraq trust us more than their own government. because of the way we live with that and endured with and/or and offered medical relief and things like that are we doing things like that part of our humanitarian effort that went over the hearts and minds of people we need if we are going to be successful. >> it is. i don't think without the full opportunity to deploy that. when we take back territory, we need to help the iraqis to do that to restore service come and make sure people are getting food power all of these things that make up normal life. that has to be the sequel to a military defeat of isil. otherwise the title just turned

back again and we are not going to do that all by ourselves. i think way is to enable a fight we need to enable the aftermath as well. to get back to your part about partners and how many are very willing to do that and they have experience including afghanistan. some of the european friends and allies. it's not the united states has to bear the whole burden there. >> i agree. i hope to play those measures. i yield back. >> mr. ashford. >> thank you. thank you, mr. chairman. thank you general dempsey and mr. secretary. i am on topic and has to insert a couple times. when i was in iraq with congressman maltin and asked a

question he asked today several times. it is a compelling question. there is quite a bit of optimism when we were there in february. it has to do primarily with the fact in june to be in operation in mosul and so forth and so on. but much has changed since then obviously and you have addressed that. for me what i reported back to the nebraskans was that i saw the emergence of design degree leaders in arab countries who are ready to stand up and unify the scripts and elastic. manner did king abdullah of jordan was one of those. and it was to me at least, someone who is new to this who is very optimistic kind of report he talked about his idea

of bringing sunni leaders together and i think at that time in april or so. but since that time obviously jordanians have been impacted by significant challenges, not the least of which are the refugees and said that the al qaeda issues for them. number one, i guess my question would be, how are things going with jordan and gdc this sort of exceptional is kind of approach he was taking been able to move forward. i apologize if this has been asked before. >> no. since it is a key question that was alluded to do you are hitting the nail on the head, which is where our via their particularly sunni unlined powers in the region in this

fight which is essentially for a big swath of sunni territory by a group where religion is the center of political ideology. in the case of jordan there is no question about that. the level of insight and commitment by the king and the tremendous support he has in part because of the tragic earning, he is all live in a very committed partner and we do everything we can to work with him. refugees are a challenge to a small country like jordan so definitely a worry. when we had the gcc countries here in washington about a month ago they were facing issues in a region including iran, which they are concerned

about. there is isil as well. you are uniquely positioned to play a greater role in the campaign. they indicated willingness to do so. at the moment we try to help them build capacity to do so because most of them don't have the ground forces that could participate in principle in the campaign in iraq it may be more acceptable. >> obviously at that time there talking about the training mission being undertaken and you're doing more of that. to me and it seemed then and does malice while listening but obviously there's a military object to and that has to be followed through with. maybe i am wrong. but it isn't so much we have to

wait until the military object that is absolutely done that there is also a parallel of berg and other leaders together to try to find a more political solution. it seemed to me when i was much that is what i was hearing. you can't just go from one to the other. it has to be a parallel thing. >> i completely agree with that. another way of another way of saying it is another way of saying it is all the length of strategy has to be synchronized and the political military in particular need to be synchronized. >> means make sally. >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you for sustaining for the long haul today. i want to say we do have serious concerns about what is in incoherence and regional strategy related to having specifically with the agreement with them as supporting saudi arabia and striking influence.

and we provide the air force. no wonder why sunni partners are concerned about had a lot of bad as participants i want to say on the record the incoherent strategy impacting the lack of commitment of allies and the political nature in iraq. i want to focus on the targeting over to the region, met with the commander met with the gtf leadership. they felt isis is on the defense is. i've been involved in the targeting process. i am concerned any mention we had all the targets we have except for when collateral damage is a fact are.

i went to quote the smartest guy in air power in our generation and the "washington post" and i would do it quickly a week ago. the fastest way to and is to eliminate the islamic state as quickly as possible. under air campaigns in vietnam. increasing the loss of innocent life while unintended casualties of war are regrettable, those associated pale in comparison with the savage acts being carried out by the islamic state. what is the logic of a policy that restricts their power to avoid the possibility of collateral damage while allowing the insurgency against humanity is the question he posed as an it's a very vital. one civilian casualty hitting a legitimate state. to commit atrocities and murder against people on the ground. how do we balance that?

what percentage is coming back with ammunitions on board as an indication of limitations and how many targets have we identified. we haven't struck them specifically because of the collateral damage limitations much tighter than armed conflict requires or the approval process takes so long. how many are not hitting targets because of the extreme constraint we put on collateral damage. >> for the record i couldn't disagree more with retired general and i would say that as chairman citizen dempsey. secondly, the targeting we do is based on intelligence and week views --

>> we got the pid but now we don't strike appeared >> that is right. that decision is made by the commander on the ground. >> do we have a number. 80% or 20% don't get it. >> i would like to answer you in a classified version because we want to signal enemies. >> tickets to the indication of whether this is allowing. >> this is not the limiting factor. >> the next question we talked about earlier. 1600 pilots flying every day could have an issue could have an issue in the potential pilot being captured with the potential fate of entertaining pilot. they visited the search and rescue forces they are but they remain outside of iraq because of limitations of boots on the ground and responsiveness is important to scoop them up right

away. we are allowing but not rescue forces. have you advised the administration to move them there or are you comfortable with them being so far away with the increased responsiveness. >> at this point they are operated locations outside of iraq and they can later and we are not taken any more risk at that point. if we got to the point where we accompany, that will require -- you know this. it is important to understand. it is about putting a medevac capability and combat search and rescue and a qrs. 15 people might require 150. >> we've got pr in hand right now if we expand this at some point we have to address it. >> thank you, mr. chairman.

somebody has to be last. certainly appreciate your service. i just want to follow up right where you're sitting we had king ability here. actually it was the day after they released the video be directed at. he made a couple points that resonated with me through today. one is that this is our flight indicating it's not a christian or muslim that they had to fight. certainly they want our help and we are doing now. something that struck with me to this day as i've been fighting the fight for 1400 years. so it sort of reminds me the steps here if anybody -- you had in here they come up over here.

this is the question i'm going to. what is considered a win? most of the discussion has been around iraq. but those lines are simply a part of maps. this is about the middle east. what do you see as they win? is it geographically based and is the short-term? where are we in five to 10 years and in particular with isil. >> well, this gets back to the previous question about how complex and varied are the problems of the middle east. the way we ground ourselves and our strategy is an american national interests. so in this different circumstances, we are trying to pursue our interests. our interest in the particular fight again isil are to stop

this movement from becoming something that endangers friends and allies, and therefore interest in the region is capable of striking the homeland. success in the campaign would be eliminated not every mobile, but every mole hole and make it such that there is no safe haven for the kindness average a firm which it can continue to destabilize places like jordan or even further afield. that is what we are trying to accomplish. it is difficult. it will take some time but that is what the strategy is about. for that region, for that problem. we talked about iran as a challenge. this is one but not the only

one. >> general, just to follow up from a strategic timing perspective, we can take up the whole as you mentioned. but do we have to look at this long-term and make sure you have what is needed. but this is long-term and ongoing because if we defeat them in one area they will be gathering, and the 14 year fight the cables reflect a non. do you see this is ongoing? space-bar congressmen come i absolutely do it have said so at every opportunity. we need to put ourselves on a sustainable footing across afghanistan and we could certainly argue over to nigeria. a sustainable footing allows us to keep pressure on the network to build partners to make a lot more to gain or lose than we do and that is the path we are on. >> so predictability.

your friends are going to be there. >> i don't want to turn it into a budget here. predictability would help us accomplish that. >> they are seen america potentially could walk away from their commitment to our friends in the area and that is less than want to see. project ability is the single most stabilizing force. do you agree with that? >> predictability of perseverance. >> thank you. i yield back. >> thank you. mr. secretary, the thing i wrote down that i keep thinking about today is hope is not a strategy. i hope we have thousands of sudanese who fled into the training we are going to do that get energized to fight isil. the way of god -- there are

concerns about whether they are going to do that and trust the federal government. we have a provision in our build a sense unless you can certify iraq has an implicit government we can directly harm the sunni tribes and the kurdish passion archive. again, hope is not a strategy and hoping for an inclusive iraq was sunnis joining the fight. i hope it happens. if it doesn't happen obviously we can't have cases continue to grow. on a similar note i hope we have defense budgets grow 5% to 7% a year and not only the industrial base could plan on not and it would be a much better, more efficient system. on the other hand, we are not in the world right now. if the president chooses to veto

defense bills that provide exactly as much money as he asked for because he doesn't like to label on the money or wants to leverage more money for the irs or epa, that will have serious as for military. that will mean we are to see our for the rest of the world -- i'm sorry, rest of the year. i hope not only you will have to deal with the real world, but the president as well can use hope not as a strategy but look at the real world consequences of some of these decisions because as we returned, this is a very complex, long historical background of problems in this part of the world. we've got to deal with it as they find it, not as we hope it would be. you all are welcome to comment. you don't need to. does them a parting thoughts after having been here.

>> i only say because it is my favorite phrase that i think this has been every other part of the world we need to be part of gold and hope into reality. practical is the meaning of the slogan and i think i'm just echoing. >> it is a great point. how do you get from reality to the strategy. that aside we had this. to get from where we hope it will be to where we are today. it looks like the long winding of difficult road in the middle east. let me ask our guests to remain seated so the secretary and chairman and their party can make their way out. because you longer than we intended.

if everybody will stay seated for just a moment why witnesses to power. thank you all for being here. we will look forward to other engagements. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> with that, the hearing stands adjourned.

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

>> -- it is what we are trying to achieve. we are opening a new new facility in a different part of iraq and we are hoping it will be trained, effective and see if we can support. it just doesn't give you a lot of confidence. [inaudible conversations] >> not necessarily. we have some questions that are combat veterans about the way we tie our road teams in the air and advisors being able to go into the field and so forth. i would like to describe that. if iraq cannot be an inclusive government, they've got a

provision in the bill to directly harm other groups in iraq. a lot of members as you may have heard are just not at all convinced they will have the government. >> president carter has said it could push the central government closer to iran. >> and as they get closer i don't mean at all disparage. the intentions -- was seems to be the intentions of prime minister abadi. yeah iran seems very much in the driver's seat here. that is part of the reason i insisted to ask about iran fact cavities in the region. you can't just separate iraq as part of that is dissolved.

you've got to take into account iran and influences throughout the region. and by the way i do not think i got any sort of answer to your plan for dealing with iran. and it's hard. these guys are doing their best. but i don't ever want to create confidence. [inaudible] >> it was filed. it is coming to the floor today. there is a privilege status under the water power for the solution, which is why he filed. now we could get into a parliamentary debate about whether it's truly privileged or not. luscious vote on an up or down and that is what is happening.

>> weiss at august 14th? >> he just has a timeframe to get out. >> that is when it runs out. if you file -- if it's something does not authorize, you can file a vote that would enforce the law within 60 days. i don't think it will pass. we have the debate to vote on authorizing use of military force. so there are discussions, but this is just a straight up or down with straw. [inaudible]

>> no, no, i do not think so. i think we have to have the real au and after day. this is withdrawn now regardless of the consequences. so regardless of one's opinion or whether you think they have a strategy are not, >> where are we with the larger debate? >> a lot of the discussion, you know, my opinion is we should have the debate. we should have the vote. two concerns. one is we don't have a strategy. they're expecting me to go. they don't have a strategy to be successful. what if we try to vote in favor. what does that say?

it is a hard question to answer too. on the other hand even if it's difficult this back-and-forth among the leaders. >> what happens bad? >> i don't know. i am hoping the president will try -- [inaudible conversations] i'm sorry. just to emphasize, if they veto a defense bill that provides exactly as much money as he asked for. in a world we describe today, how does any of that make sense? >> is that appropriated at all?

it is being considered. >> i don't know the answer. it would be operation and maintenance that would move it. i understand it's moving from one location further to the east. there would be some cost driving, transportation costs that would be out of when i'm caused that aside at the oco. >> do you have any thoughts? >> as part of the contingencies of a dangerous world. as you saw a lot of what we have in the overseas contingent fee account is our #-number-sign's. funds. not just the middle east but also what is happening in the far east and eastern europe as well. >> carter said there weren't enough people entering the

program to send us were sent to fight isil. is there any hope after the program? >> hope is not a strategy. i don't know. he is not the first person who has said iraq is easy compared to syria. i see little prospect of having a ground floors we train that can push back in the near term. what has happened recently if they have made some gains in the north i appreciate there is someone there willing to fight. the kurds are not going to remove isil i'm serious. they are doing good work but they can't do it on their own. thank you. enjoy the rest of your day.

>> some are saying kind of front left of the chamber if you will. so he comes into the center doors sits down and it's almost looking directly at summer. summer is not looking at him. his head is bowed.

literally signing copies of the crime speech. he walks down the center aisle with his cane. again totally oblivious of what is happening. had god signing the breach. this is cane over as head and says i've read your speech over twice to my state and my relatives. he looks up at this point in his word because it's so close and burke strikes sumner on the top of the head with the cane. his head explodes instantly.

>> coming up in 20 minutes, day two of the faith and freedom coalition conference. [-left-bracket remarks by kentucky senator and presidential candidate rand paul for the first day of the conference. he spoke for about 15 minutes. >> are there any protesters left? if there's anybody left we can start with the protest. if there's a protest outside the first question right now.

disappointing. i think there are some big issues that go beyond the superficial issues of the day. one of the issues that is a big and recurring issue in occur to our founding fathers and has occurred to symbolize men and women since the beginning of the time is our liberty and virtue mutually exclusive, are they incompatible? can you have one without the other? can you have liberty without virtue. washington didn't seem to think so. washington set in fact democracy requires a virtue of people. ronald reagan said freedom and faith are so intertwined should never attempt to decouple them. a friend of mine in the reagan administration and wrote a book called america's way back. he said the great achievement of our framers was they sympathize

freedom and tradition. he said freedom requires tradition for law and order, for inspiration. but the tradition requires free gum to escape stagnation, to escape coercion. you have to have a dose have a does above that one without the other isn't something we strive for. when i think how we compare different ways of mixing liberty and virtue, and i think how different the american revolution was from the french revolution. the american revolution with throughout the king but kept their religious bearing. this is a perfect question for the media. are we a christian nation? we were founded by people predominately christian in people predominately religious and kept their religion as part of their tradition. we also cap the democratic

representation. has been going on 150 years. we have a revolution that we were remarkably lucky it turned out as well as it did. part of it is her sophomore freedom but we didn't give up on believing we had to have a virtuous nation there had to be an underpinning or undergirding from some and beyond us. [applause] that we believe that i raised him from god and couldn't be taken away. they come to washington every week. i will say, are we a republic or democracy. i get it right about half the time. the thing as a citizen important question because if you believe that iraq is god but a majority

should take away from us. [applause] oz guinness as a theologian and he talks about a book and i highly recommend how liberty requires restraint that the only restraint consistent with liberty is self-restraint. you have to voluntarily -- it is sort of like the question can government save you? nobody believes that. can government be the end-all? the reason i asked reason i ask his questions as so often i meet with pastors and ministers looking to government for the answers. i look back and i say i am looking to you for help. what is the number one linkage of a problem to poverty in our country? poverty is a public policy to fix poverty.

the number one link is having kids without being married. that i can't make you get married. i can't do that. it doesn't mean someone shouldn't say it's appropriate and necessary and important. so really it needs to be a combination. [applause] and is to be a combination of their religious people people in government who are religious pastors. it is to be a combination of all of the above and there's not nearly enough. we had a shooting in south carolina. what kind of person goes to enter a church and shoots nine people. there's something terribly wrong but it isn't fixed by your government. it is people straight away not understanding where salvation comes from. if we understand that will have better expectations of what we get from our government. i will give you an understanding

or little bit of how i feel let down. i spent most of my life as a physician. i trained for 10 years practiced when ayers and still consider my primary role might that i will continue doing surgery. i will do surge around friday or people who don't have insurance. i'll be in haiti in august. it is a talent i have that i can give back. at the same time when i look to government and say you do bad things. at the very least we should agree to not do bad things. it's probably six months ago i said maybe at the least we should get our money to countries to persecute christians. [applause]

if you asked that question not just here in this audience, which i know understands and has religious faith. but if you asked the question anywhere in america outside the beltway, it is a 95 99% questioned. my amendment says any country that puts christians to do for speaking their mind on religion for changing their religion to christianity or for interfaith marriage, we shouldn't give them a penny. not 1 penny. [applause] you know what the vote was? 18 to two against my amendment. what we have is a congress and representatives so out of touch that i put forward some ain't easy to answer. we borrowed million dollars a minute.

we hardly have money for anything if you look at it. could we start by not giving money to countries to burn our flag and persecute christians? 18 to two to continue doing it. last week i decided i would give them another test and it has been annoying me to no end that hamas and the palestinian authority have a unified government and hamas continues to launch missiles against israel. really, why would we be giving money to a unified government who may well in reality be used in that directly or indirectly to buy missiles to fire them against one of our best allies. i said why don't we have it back because u.s. have to give it back to them. if they recognize they will

renounce violence and quit doing what they've been doing it on our treaties with regard to israel. i've got a few more. not only do they believe we should give away money and regardless of the behavior. this is how we project our power and include the behavior of nations. if you don't have restrictions, you are not influencing anybody. it has been going on your income a year out in washington is so distant from the people they don't understand. i am convinced it's never getting better unless we do a couple things. when it's a limit every one of their terms.

[applause] i would be good and some bad. the cottagers apportioned amount of bad versus good but overall term limits would be a good idea. it's not about one person. it is about changing the system. we have limited to two terms senate passed overwhelmingly. i am convinced the american people were ever allowed to vote on term limits. it's an 80% issue. if i go do half republican, house democrat, the only thing that unifies them is their disdain for congress. we should go ahead and consider how long we keep people up here. the inertia is so strong. they say power corrupts, they

are absolutely right. there's too much power here. what is the worst thing the president has done. i'm going to get into generalities. the biggest problem the president has confronted us is the collapse of the separation of powers. madison said we would hit ambition against ambition. we would have coequal branches of government and congress was jealously guard their power against the president taking that power and vice versa. one of the philosophers they look to sad when the executive begins to legislate, a form of tyranny will ensue. the problem i have is a president who writes his own legislation on immigration health care war powers act. he's been collecting phone records without permission. even though we told him not to

has petitioned the court to continue doing explicitly what we told them not to do last week. this is a president run amok with power. lincoln said any man can stand adversity but if you want to test a man and give him power. the reason i'm running for president is not to gain power or glory for myself. to take power away from government and give it back to the people. [applause] i think we succeed as a movement and as a party when we figure out how to take our message to new people. we need to be the party of the entire bill of rights. we need to take it people who haven't been here in the message. we need to dilute our message and be more like democrats and then get more votes.

i think it's the opposite. we need to engage conservatives and say we need to be as conservative as promised. we are going to be boldly for what we are for but then we have to figure out what parts of your message haven't been listening to it. i spent the last year going to howard university and saying i want be the candidate. i want to be the party for the entire bill of rights. all 55 candidates running for president or for the second amendment. on our side. the thing is a lot of young people may not be their primary issue but they do like the right to privacy enshrined in the fourth amendment. i've tried to champion that i'm all for looking at the records of terrorists but i want to do with it more and judges name

suspicion, not indiscriminately for anyone. [applause] with your phone records 85% of the time they can tell what your religion is. do we really want the information floating around president obama's white house? are you saying what a sunday tea party groups and religious liberty. not just about him. it is given the power to any president, a power that could be abused. the fourth amendment, your right to privacy but also the fifth and sixth amendment about justice. it is everybody treated equally under the law regardless of the color of your skin. it is about minority rights. we should be the party of minority rights. you can be a minority because of the color of your skin or shaded their ideology.

you can be a minority because you teach her kids at home. become a minority because you believe in right and wrong and you go to church that wants to express right and wrong. you can be a minority because you're an evangelical christian. that is why we are a constitutional republic and ensure the protection of freedoms and protection of rights is never allowed to be manipulated or distorted or destroyed or taken away from you by a majority. we need to be a party of the entire bill of rights. one story shows you the message of the bill of rights is about people you might not have met before. philippe bronner was a 16 or a black kid from the bronx who died last weekend. it makes me profoundly sad to think about what happened. he was accused of a crime and put in prison for three years without a trial. they were not here in the country illegally.

he was released after three years in prison. there is never any charge brought. in prison he was in solitary confinement for two years. he could make bail. he was from a poor family. he was eaten by gains in prison. to try to commit suicide several times and unfortunately was finally successful. that should never happen in america. you should never be in jail for three years without a trial could the sixth amendment says you are right to a speedy trial. i am here to tell you what will be the biggest most dominant party that wins all elections when we protect the sixth amendment just as much as second amendment. [applause] paul kendra tells the story of

an 11-year-old boy who came home one day and saw his father passed out drunk on the front porch. this guy had been to school in 17 different school districts. comes home, see his dad passed out drunk in the snow on the front porch. the young boy was 11 years old. he could've gone inside. he could've gone somewhere else and attended it wasn't his dad but he reached down and grabbed his dad by the overcoat and drunken men and put in today. this young man has something special about him and that is what we need to look for. this young man turned out to be ronald reagan who grew up in a difficult home life that turned out to be one of our greatest leaders because he had strength and cared for resolve and the sunny optimism that brought democrats and non-republicans to the party. when we find that again, we will win. thanks for having me.

[applause] [cheers and applause] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] ..

>> thank you. thank you. it is an honor to be with you here again today. a great turnout. i appreciate very much. am i the first speaker at the event? good. i'm glad. it's great to be with you. and a real honor to be with all of you as we look forward to 2016 and the challenges before our country. about two months ago i announced about nine weeks ago to be frank i announced i was running for president. i've traveled the country extensively. almost before i go including today something, i will see something that reminds me of my parents. today it's easy. i'm in a hotel banquet room which is what my father did for

many years, and always open my speeches without because it's a reminder to me and hopefully to our audience so much of what i've been able to do in this light, the opportunities i've had have been a direct result of experience they felt in this country. so both of my parents were born to poor families on the island of cuba. a report in societies like most of the societies in the world where your future depends largely on what your parents did before you. and so in 1956 my parents left their homeland and came here to the united states of america. light in this venture was not easy for them at first. but in time they found good jobs. my father became a bartender. primarily worked in banquet like this. my mother was a cashier stock clerk at kmart i made at a hotel like this. and in time to earn enough money to do things like buy a home and raise a family and retired with security.

and most important of all for them they were able to leave all four of their children better off than themselves. i'm often reminded that they don't come from privilege. and if my privilege people than money or things, they are right. but i know this. that while my parents never make enough money to say for me to go to college, that's what i had over $100,000 in student loan debt which i was able to the resort with the proceeds of my book, and americans in which is now available in paperback didn't inherit any real estate. i didn't inherit any money. even now by the way our mortgages are still at large part of our budget and we wish they were. and yet i still consider myself to be a child incredible privilege. because i was raised in a stable home by two married parents who love each other and loved us and who taught us and instilled in us the values we would need to

succeed. and most important of all they taught me that there was no dream too big and there was no goal out of reach even for the son of a bartender and a made because i was an american. and these opportunities come my life journey, my parents life journeys and the opportunities i've had, they are the direct result of one thing. the fact that my parents came here and i grew up during the american century. the 20th century was the century where america lead the world against evil, essentially driven by an american economy that produced the best companies, the best products, but those jobs in the entire world. and a century in which america was the one place on earth would anyone willing to work hard could achieve the universal dream of a better life. but the world is different now. the early years of this century have brought about the most significant period of change since the industrial revolution.

for much of the 20th century america's limited international competition. but now we are engaged in a global competition for the best companies to the best talent, the best ideas and the best job. for much of the 20th century we have plenty of good paying jobs, even for people like my parents with a limited education. but now many of these jobs either no longer big enough or they have been replaced by a machine. for much of the 20th century the world was defined first by two world wars and then a cold one. but now from autocratic government china, russia and iran, to radical jihadists, we don't face one can we face multiple threats to our prosperity and to our security. we now live in a time unlike any moment before us with problems and opportunities unique to this moment. there are those seeking the

presidency. based solely on what they've achieved in the past. but i'm running for president because what we need now are leaders and solutions that are grounded in the future. in this new era that we now have. [applause] so today today while the cost of living keeps climbing, two-thirds two out of three americans make less money today than they did in the year 2006. our outdated policies diminish the i'm not going to fix this. but if i'm honored with opportunity to be president we will put in place new ideas that will help our people increase their paycheck and reduce their bills. first we are going to have new tax policies are tax policies that say the more your employer pays you the less they will go in taxes to the irs. we will help working families i helping them keep more of what

they earn. so that middle-class children middle-class families will have the funds necessary to raise strong families in the 21st century. and we will lead the world and the production of energy so that the cost of utilities at the gassing of your car will save -- stabilized and come down and no longer go up for our working families. today because of automation and technology the good paying jobs require more training and more skills in march occasion than they ever have before. but because millions of americans lack these skills, they find themselves out of work or stuck in low-paying jobs. but if i'm blessed with the opportunity to be president we will change this. we will put in place new policy that will give our people are help our people acquire the skills they need for the better paying jobs of this new century. for starters instead of pushing everyone to go to a traditional four-year college we will

transform higher education so it is accessible and affordable to all of our people. will focus on training more people, more young people to be in a skilled trade. we still need more builders, plumbers, electricians. more people to come in the construction trade and for the life of me i do not understand why we stigmatized these good jobs that pay more than the job of a psychology major. [applause] >> we need to modernize higher education so that people have to work full-time and raise a family can still go back to school. if you're a single mother raising two kids on your own working for $10 an hour and you can't just drop everything and enrolled in four years of college somewhere. we need a flexible programs that allow you to learn online, on nights and on weekends so that a receptionist making $9 an hour can become a paralegal making $60,000 a year.

so at home health aide making $10 an hour can become a dental hygienist making $65,000 a year. these are the new professions that will allow people to change their lives and the future of their children. and by the way, traditional college will still be available but i believe before you take out a student loan you should be told how much people make when they graduate from the school with that degree. [applause] >> well, good morning and welcome to the 2015 road to majority conference. i hope everybody, we got started a little bit yesterday on some very encouraging informative and a little bit eventful event yesterday at lunch with senator rubio certainly in senator paul, senator cruz. we are looking for two hearing much more in the coming two days, all kinds of recognizable names can also some names that

may not be as easily recognize yet but they are certainly emerging on the national scene. before we can officially start i just want to say as we are gathering, certainly here at our conference and in coming events across the country one of my great hopes for all folks engaged in the political process is that we can kind of offer a listening ear to all the people who put themselves out in the position of, you know, endeavoring to lead on issues. my hope over the next 48 hours or so here is a lot of folks are bring slightly different points of view but with a wife expand their own passion, own ideologies let's go ahead and offer tremendous respect and deference. we had a few jokes yesterday that were disagreeing. this agreement is okay but let's

do that at appropriate times. with that said i think will go and get the program started. so would you join me in welcoming first four indication dr. richard believe and then also after him mr. john rawl delta will lead us in our pledge. [applause] >> i don't think i've ever had anybody clap that we pray but i'm glad today that you did this is the day the lord has made i will rejoice. can you say amen? let's play together. father oprah we are grateful this day that you have made that it was not made in a courthouse. it was not made any white house. it was made idea. and today we give this day to you. we want to thank you for the privilege of getting together that we might be able to take the messages that we here at this place out to others and to

share truth so that in these times ahead our nation may return to its moral foundation. and lord, may return to you to get forgive us of our sins thank you for your grace and mercy. turn our hearts back to the. thank you for all of those who made these events possible. lord may wind listen with years of the spirit of god has given us that we might hear truth even though we may hear words care the truth concerning those things pleasing idea. so we give you this time in christ jesus name, amen and amen. >> amen. still love you all please stand for the pledge? i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america, and to the republic for which it stands: one nation under god indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

thank you. [applause] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ oh say can you see ♪ ♪ by the dawn's early light ♪ ♪ what so proudly we hailed ♪ ♪ at the twilight's last gleaming? ♪ ♪ whose broad stripes and bright

stars ♪ ♪ thro' the perilous fight ♪ a ♪ o'er the ramparts we watched ♪ ♪ were so gallantly streaming ♪ ♪ and the rockets red glare ♪ ♪ the bombs bursting in air ♪ ♪ gave proof through the night ♪ ♪ that our flag was still there ♪ ♪ oh say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave ♪

♪ o'er the land of the free ♪ ♪ and the home of the brave? ♪ [applause] >> good morning. my name is larry and i'm from new jersey. [applause] home of eminem's. governor chris christie is our next guest and he was first elected as new jersey governors in 2009 replacing jon corzine the outstanding five to one.

he is new jersey's first and i quote probably pro-life governor. [applause] he decided planned parenthood removing $7.5 million per year every year. and a decade-long lawsuit for the choose life license plate. we know to license place in new jersey, 20 other states and d.c. he was elected and reelected in 2013 in a landslide 61-38 against a woman named barbara bona. chris christie 151% of the women's vote that the election. investing or even the first female governor couldn't win women's vote. i'm sorry, he won 57%. he won 51% of the hispanic vote and that is a state barack obama

had won by 58%. known for his blunt style talk and no nonsense approach you have probably seen them on youtube. i don't think there's anybody that hasn't but you're lucky if you don't know it, chris christie is here, life at faith and freedom. my friend, chris christie. [applause] chair back. >> good morning. thank you. good morning, everybody. it's great to be back. i appreciate you all being here and most of all i appreciate this work that you do everyday. in your communities to bring our message out. i'm very distracted by the teleprompter stuff. i am not barack obama. [laughter] so we will do the best we can to ignore the plain glass plates in front of me as a politician a

contingent look at and even though there's nothing there. that might be the way it happens happened with the president, too. i'm not sure. [applause] you know i saw something on one of the news stations last week or so the president speaking. he said something to this effect. the world respects america more because of my administration. and i came to the conclusion that day that everything that we worried about is the true. he really is living in his own world. look at what's happening around the world right now. when you think about the world that barack obama inherited when he came to the white house the world that he will be leaving the next president, it is a startling how much damage can be done to america's reputation in seven short years look at what's happening around the world. in western europe, they live in

active the fear of terrorist attacks from extremist islamists. in eastern europe for the first time in 70 years after the explosion of spending that we did there, and lies that we give up to have a free united europe. we have russian soldiers marching in eastern europe in the first time in 70 years. and across the middle east iraq is on fire libya is on par syria is on fire, jordan is being invaded for its third wave of wartime right -- refugees. and i ran with this president's permission is steaming toward becoming a nuclear power and a dominant dominant force in that region. and in china we watch the chinese building artificial islands in the south china seas and we have a president who says he doesn't want us to send our

ships within 12 miles of those islands, northlight american planes overhead because he doesn't want to get into a dispute with the chinese. the dispute is being caused by the chinese not by those who want to navigate the free waters of the world. and you look at all of these circumstances and you realize what an awful bill of goods this president sold the american people seven years ago. he tried to make us believe that america was the cause of violence in the world that if we pull back from iraq and afghanistan and gave nice speeches but somehow somehow the world would be a safer more peaceful place. well the exact opposite has happened and now we have flyers all over the world. and the reason those fires have occurred everybody compares the lack of american leadership and the lack of american strength. in this country needs to lead the world again so that it is

safe for liberty and prosperity for all of the people of the world and for the people that live here in the united states. [applause] this president diminish our military both through actions that hurt their morale by the awful scandals out of that his administration were veterans of come home have been denied the health care they were promised. that is a national disgrace and this president has refused to fix it in a way that honors the service of our veterans. in practical ways we wanted thousand fewer soldiers come active duty soldiers in the army. we are headed towards a 260 ship navy the smallest it's been in our lifetime and were headed towards 50% reduction in hardware in the air force. listen everybody, if i know these never felt so does vladimir putin and so do the mullahs in olympic and to conduct around the world being less respectful as i believe a direct result of this

presidential weakness and the weakness yes put on our military. we need to make our military strong because what we've always understood this strength brings peace. it doesn't cause war. weakness causes war. [applause] and speaking of weakness let me say this. of all the people who may be comfortable for you, or considering catching the race for president, i'm the only one who's had the responsibility of having to prosecute and investigate terrorist country. i was appointed united states attorney for new jersey by president george w. bush on september 10, 2001. the next day my wife went to work two blocks from the world trade center. and i was on the phone with her when the second plane hit the second building. she was assuring me that everything was fine, that she

was okay. the phone went out. she was evacuated after five hours i did not hear from her. i can tell you those with a longer five and half hours of my life with our three young children wanting to know if mom was okay. well, thank god she was okay but we lost one of our dear friends in our parish in our town that they in world trade center and our oldest son, his best friend lost his father. we have watched that young man for the last 13 years and his siblings, put up with the emptiness that can never be filled in place of a parent that was lost much to younger you see, these things are not hypothetical to me. i live in a state that lost the second most people on the timber 11, all of us in the state of new york. and i went to the funerals of the people that we knew who were killed that day.

and what the united states congress has done in the last few weeks through their change of the patriot act, i want to you today has made america weaker and more vulnerable. there is no excuse for taking legitimate tools away from our intelligence community in what is a dangerous and dirty world. and the fact is that if civil liberties are your concern there are many ways for us to protect the civil liberties. i can tell you i was a u.s. attorney to review patriot act applications, who reviewed applications to the fisa court. and who brought the first terrorism case post-9/11 of an indian born british citizen who is trying to shoulder-fired missiles to what he believed many terrorist group to shoot commercial airliner out of the sky at newark airport. we prosecute him with the use of the patriot act. we convicted him and he got sentenced to over 50 years in prison. since he was in his early 60s

i don't think we'll have to worry about him again. here's the facts, everybody. those tools allow us to do what president bush instructed us to do after nine 9/11 which is to never let this happen again. if congress is worried about civil liberties as they should be, have aggressive congressional oversight. if they are worried about people going outside the line and paul to get those people who go outside the line but do not put them in and women in our intelligence community in harm's way and do not make america weaker and more vulnerable with al-qaeda and places are plotting and planning everything to attack and kill us just because we are americans. these type of actions i'm telling you from experience are shortsighted and decent people give his long speeches up on capitol hill if god forbid there is another attack on this country, will be the first ones to the cia director and fbi director up to capital both in under oath and excoriated him for not connecting the dots. without understand the hypocrisy that understands the question because they were the ones who make the jobs harder for these people to do.

this is a fight we do have and this is a fight with her open our eyes wide. this is not about politics. this is life-and-death for our country and i stand for keeping america safe and making america strong and not giving political speech on the floor of the senate to raise money for a presidential campaign. that's were i stand. [applause] -- that's where i stand. but to do these things, to project a sort around the world to keep people for and say, strengthen our intelligence community, strengthen our military we need to invest in that. a shame of what is going on in this country right now is that in the current federal budget 71% of all the spin is on interest on the debt and entitlement programs. listen everybody. those programs are important but they are heading towards insolvency. we all know this. you notice in your heart. you know it to be true. yet we don't want to talk about

it because we are all dominated by political consultant tell us to talk about entitlements for goodness sake it is the third rail of american politics. don't touch it. i'm not going to touch it everybody. i'm going to hunt it because we don't have this conversation we are selling our country -- hug -- worse yet. we are resigning our children to a lesser life. social security is a promise. it is a promise that is rooted in this idea that no one in america who has worked hard should grow old in poverty. that's a good idea and a right idea. but now we're to the point where choices are few because of the lack of action by our leaders. so yes i said we should raise the retirement age two years over the next 25 years. think about that. it to get increase in 25 years to i will be 77 when it becomes more effective.

will the world really stopped spinning on its axis for that? or to say to someone who makes over $200,000 a year, and retirement income retirement income, then maybe you don't need to get your social security check. do you do need your solstice party check them? or is it better to leave that money for for the person they would need to do is try to figure out whether to pay the rent or to buy food or pay the heating bill or go to the doctor? you see these programs if we don't do this, you only have two other choices, everybody. either insolvency, which is creeping up on us over the next seven or eight years, or a massive tax increase on all the american people, which would be damaging to our economy and hurtful to working families today. our opponent on the democratic

side, they don't touch social security because they are for the working person. baloney. they don't cut salsas pretty because they don't think it's popular. is what i think your are lead are not supposed to follow polls. leaders are supposed to change polls and but by telling people what needs to be done. [applause] and i've no idea how a massive payroll tax increase in all be reckoned with good for our middle-class working families. taking more money out of their pocket is not what they need in an economy that barack obama has turned into a part-time employment economy. that's what he's done. since 2074000000 more people in america are working at part-time jobs at 3.2 million fewer people are working full-time jobs. that's the economy this president has bequeathed to this country. and now the idea that others want to roll up a massive tax increase on top of that just makes no sense to me. that's what we need to discuss and todd reform, reform medicare as well.

that's increased eligibility to years that phases in over the next 25. to make over $2000 a year in retirement income, less that subsidize your medicare premium 75% as we do know the that subsidize it 10%. if you have the money to pay it you are blessed. you worked hard and this country is giving you the opportunity to work hard to have a great idea and how that success. no place in the world does that happen. don't listen to the people who come behind this podium and say one of my fellow former governors sent them you can't touch social security. this is a sacred trust. if the government lies and steals from you, what do we have left? what i say to them is governor the wine institute has already occurred. remember al gore in 2006? a linux box for putting this money. let me take what's in a lockbox everybody. a stack of ious is in the lack

under in -- is in the lockbox. so now the question is it's not prevent the line and steely. the already out of the barn. how did he get the horse back into the barn? you'll know it's a lot easier for the horse to run out of the barn and to get it back in. it's hard to do these things. we need to though. that's why the first speech i've given it is national conversation is not anti-reform. not because it was strong politics but because it was strong leadership and that's what we need in this country again is people are willing to tell the truth whether they think we will like it the first time we hear it or not. larry mitchell i get reelected in new jersey with 61%. let me tell you democrats into trees that i would never get elected the first time when jon corzine outspent me three to one. in a state that hasn't elected a

republican to the tent a cynic and 42 years. the longest streak of any state in the country this is the blues state as there is in america getting outspent three to one can we beat a democratic incumbent because people since we are strong enough to tell them the truth and then to follow through on a in the years since then we've got business taxes over $2 billion. we balance the budget centuries ago, capped property tax reform the teacher law so teachers who get a failing grade intifada, not have a job for life in front of our children's classrooms. [applause] and reform the pension benefit system that still needs more work but it's better than it was when i got there, and has not withstood a fight all the way to new jersey supreme court which has upheld those reforms that says yes, workers need to pay more into the pitch and cannot get cost-of-living adjustment him on the back of hard-working

taxpayers on my sticker those were published with a democratic legislature. not even close, 24-16 innocent, 48-32 in the lower house. these guys did not wake ups and how to win at chris christie happy today? [laughter] belief me. but it does not stop me from doing the things that i think are right and does not stop me from compromising to get with to get things done. you need to do both. so when they see me plant -- plan. -- planned parenthood budget, there is no room for compromise there. but we have a pension benefit proposal that the president of the second a democrat is willing to sponsor them if you make a few changes then yes you need to make those changes.

you need to compromise. compromise is not a dirty word. compromising our principles is wrong but our government is set up to force compromise. the people of new jersey have now twice elected a conservative republican governor and a liberal democratic legislature there like a 13 year old doing a science expanded. put these two things together and see what happens last night but what happened, what happened is in a state where naked before i became governor we had zero net private-sector job growth. eight years zero net private-sector jobs. in a five and and a half years since i've been cover with grated nearly 200,000 new private sector jobs in new jersey to we took an economic basket case of on the road to recovery and those families are now working, who are not working when i became governor know the power of our ideas and how they work for our state and for our country that's what we need to fight for, putting people back to work. [applause]

but when you're pro-life, you need to be pro-life for the life. [applause] the easiest, the easiest time to be pro-life is when a child is in the womb. they haven't anything yet to disappoint us. [laughter] they haven't made any choices yet. it becomes much harder to be pro-life when their drug addicted on the floor of the jail cell. that is a gift from god as well. that life is a gift from god and that's what imagery we safer first time nonviolent drug offenders we are no longer send people to prison we are sending them to mandatory inpatient drug treatment because we need to save lives in this country not dispose of them because because everyone is a gift from god and deserves a chance at redemption. [applause]

life is precious and we learned that again and south carolina. the idea that anyone can any human being would walk into a church and sit there for an hour and pray with people that he intended to murder is depraved it's unthinkable that we can put our minds about conduct like that, can we? and i want to conclude with this today. all the issues i just talked about a lot of others i didn't mention are important for the future of our country. but there's nothing more important today than taking as many moments as you can to pray for the families of those victims. good decent people. who care about their church, love god and their families can to work for the communities come to serve in public life, who were cut down by someone who was

depraved and disturbed and seemingly now confessed to the driver in fact even said he spared one of his of it comes and told her i'm going to kill you because i want you to be a lie to tell people what happened here. this type of conduct is something that only our display of our own love and good faith and in our heart can change. laws can't change this. only the goodwill and the love of the american people can let those folks that that act was unacceptable disgraceful, that we need to do more to show that we love each other. open our check, open our hearts and show love to each other. that's what leadership is about too, everybody. and so i pray for those families today and i suspect you will,

too. and if we can have the power of our prayers and the power of our conduct be an example to those who have hate in their heart then we're doing what we need to do to make our community, our states and our country a better place. i know that this audience believes that come and i know it's the way you live your lives. so let us use the power that you derive from the in a way that will help to heal the wounds of these families. it's moments like this when america comes together and choose the rest of the world what a great country we really are. and i know you'll be part of that. you can count on i will, too. i appreciate the work you do and i appreciate the fact that it's folks like you, your families and friends, but make this the greatest country on the face of the earth. we've just got to fight to keep it that way everybody. thanks for coming this morning.

i appreciate it. [applause] ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the stage timothy head. [applause] >> last fall, many pundits predicted that you they would pick up seats in the senate. somebody to republicans would pick up narrow majority. i think he would have been very hard pressed to find anyone anywhere who would have predicted that the gop would emerge with one of the largest senate majorities in modern politics. but when the dust settled that's exactly what happened. resulted in senate minority leader mitch mcconnell becoming senate majority leader. mitch mcconnell. leader mcconnell is the 15

senate republican leader and only the second kentuckian to lead his party in the center senator mcconnell previously served again by the unanimous vote of his colleagues as republican leader in the 110th 110th, 111th, and 112th congress and also as majority whip in the 108th and 109th. he also served in leadership as chairman of the nrsc during the 1998-2000 election cycles and he also now serves as senior member of the appropriations agriculture and rural committee. married to elaine chao visited as president george w. bush is u.s. secretary of labor and also the former president of united way of america and also former director of peace corps, he is the proud father of three daughters. please join me in welcoming to the stage senate majority leader mitch mcconnell. [applause]

>> well, good morning. good morning. thank you very much for the opportunity to be here with you today. i'm deeply honored to have an opportunity to speak to all of you. i to want to thank ralph reed cofounder and chairman. ralph is an extraordinary leader over the years. he's worked hard in building the faith and freedom coalition. i want to thank all of you for being part of that and being here today. you've got another great conference this year. it seems nearly every republican presidential candidate is here which is a testament to the importance of your organization. i was just hoping somebody might actually recognize me with all these presidential candidates coming up here. as a great treat i know for you to have a chance to hear from all of them in one place at one time. mainly i want to thank you for your involvement and caring about the important issues that

we face. i was reminded on the way over the story of a traveling preacher. the story goes before making his way to the church, the preacher wanted to mail a letter. for as a young boy along the way where the post office was. when the boy had told them, the preacher thanked him and said if you'll come to the baptist church this evening you can tell me -- you can hear me telling everyone how to get. i don't think i will get to their, the boy said. you don't even know where the post office is ass there's a saying i'm a conservative but i'm just not angry about it. just not angry about it. that's the spirit in which i think we're all gathered here this morning because conservatives actions have a lot to be happy about. for example i had the honor of speaking for the faith and freedom coalition several times

but this is the first time i've had the honor of doing so as majority leader of the united states the senate. [applause] thanks to the voice of the american people last november the senate is under entirely new management. into republican senators bring much-needed change to washington, and one of the most important change is that the causes that all of you championed will not get the respect and the attention they deserve in the senate. because of the big difference, my friends, between being the majority leader and being the leader of the minority if you you're a football fan can best be described as follows. the leader of the minority is like the defensive coordinator. you can score occasionally but it's a lot harder. if you're the leader of the majority you are the offensive coordinator and you get to call the place, set the schedule and just about chance to get an outcome that you want. not that it guarantees every outcome but at least i get to

decide instead of that other fellow harry reid what -- i thought that would get your attention -- get to decide what the agenda is. so let me give you an example. take the sanctity of life. the senate is not in a place where the pain capable unborn child protection act, a bill that protects life after 20 weeks in the womb -- [applause] >> a bill that in the past in the senate couldn't even get a hearing, i promise you will be getting a vote. [applause] so that's not only good news for pro-lifers it's good news for our entire country. it's about time we begin the process of putting america into the ranks of most other civilized countries by protecting unborn children after 20 weeks in the womb. it's high time we did that. [applause]

because i do know about you but i think we're fairly as a country is the best thing we can offer to a scared young mom to be is a referral to planned parenthood. is that the best we can do? i don't think so. another hospital endo room cares about is free speech. the opportunity for you to express yourself on any issue at any time. i've been a big defender as a few of you know, the first amendment over the years, had a lot of help from groups like yours because you and i know that you simply can't do what you do everyday if the government doesn't respect your right to free speech. after all, if the government won't even let us express ourselves and advocate for the causes we believe in, then the fight is over before it begins and it's that simple. this administration this one

has repeatedly sought to stifle free speech by singling out its critics. they do it through the irs. try to keep you from organizing and speaking up if they do it over at the federal communications commission or the disastrous disclose act, some you may have experienced this firsthand. and somebody said well yeah, it's just a renegade employee over at the irs, lois lerner. actually the president was going on the irs to do exactly that. the leadership of the said at the time were calling on the irs to do exactly that. she could argue, i was just carrying out orders. they were quite public about it if they wanted to quiet the voice of people who disagreed with them and that has to stop. [applause] welcome they haven't succeeded. them succeed because people like you have been vigilant in

protecting and defending our rights including the most fundamental right and that is the right of free speech. actually through the irs tried to promulgate a regulation to quite the voices of their critics. and amazingly enough it was the single biggest largest number of complaints about any proposed irs regulation in history professor many americans heard about it or read about and wanted something about the felony be quite clear about the the government has no business interfering with free speech. not now, not ever. [applause] every american has a fundamental constitutional right to speak their mind and that includes certainly christians and conservatives. after all, the rights of free speech and freedom of religion are inherently linked. the latter cannot be protected without the former. as jane -- just as it were, the

religion of every man must be left to conviction and conscience of every man come and it is the right of every man to exercise it as they may take. this right is in its nature an unalienable right. that's why it's imperative for christians everywhere to speak up for what they believe in and it's imperative that every american defend your right to do so. the scripture says speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves for the rights of all. we need your voice is now more than ever. why do i say that? because we've never had a president as liberal as this one. i'm something of a student of american history. woodrow wilson was really a liberal. fdr was really liberal. barack obama is the most liberal president in american history bar none.

this president has sought to withdraw the united states militarily from its presence overseas, fail to invest in the modernization of the force put his faith in personal diplomacy and international organizations. he has pushed a regular state that operate under the assumption that anybody making a profit must surely be up to no good. can you imagine that mindset? if you're making a profit you must be up to no good. how do they think businesses grow and hire people and how we have prosperity? you do it with growth. but their view is if you're making a profit you must be up to no good. to a legislative agenda that assumes government as the answer to all of our problems. he wouldn't have put it this way but what does the president really want to do? think about he wanted to europeanized america. when i say europeanized america,

what do i mean? big debt high taxes overregulation slow growth. and while it may not be directly connected to it another problem they have in europe is declining church participation. the secularization of america. big debt high taxes slow growth less future. it all goes together. so republican congress will not be able to achieve as much as we would like. i think it's an important remind people of high expectations, there's only one person in america who can sign something into law or veto a bill. the presidency in our system is a really important job. and you're going to hear from a whole lot of people who would like to have that job come and i can tell you every single one of

them would be a heck of a lot better than what we've got now i tell you that. [applause] >> but one of the things that fit into even now is still a lot of bad things from happening. we may not be able to achieve everything we would like, because as a lot of you know most things in the senate require 60 votes your i've got 54 members. he's got that veto pen so there are limits on what we can achieve a we can stop a lot of bad things. we have hand we will stop a lot of bad things i guarantee you that. for the next year and a half until hopefully we get a new president with a new agenda for america. [applause] and i want to thank all of you for the great class of freshmen we've got. you know, this time last year we

were down 55-45. it's now 54-46. that only could we have a lot of great new republican senators they are really, really smart. this is an outstanding group of americans who share the agenda that we all believe in. meanwhile, our democratic friends in an interesting sort of disarray. they are divided these days not quite sure what they stand for. only yesterday, just to be an example, they joined us in passing a defense authorization bill, but authorization is policy. appropriation is spending. and i followed the authorizing to with an appropriation bill that would actually spend the money to enforce the policy. and they kept us from actually

even giving on the bill that would actually spend the money. so you could say they were for the troops before they were against the troops. sound familiar? they were for the troops before they were against the troops. so they're in a bit of a circular firing squad, and occasionally that's helpful. but look, fundamentally we believe american is a force for good in the world. we are a force for good in the world. we believe america is an exceptional country. we don't think it's appropriate to go around the world apologizing for our shortcomings when most people would give anything they had to actually be here and to be in america. we are a beacon of truth and life. the life. we need to lead and the rest of the world. we don't need to lead from behind. we desperately need a new

president with a new agenda for america on a whole lot of different fronts. that's why also the american people need to faith and freedom coalition. you all are important. people of faith have let in this country going back to the founding fathers. so thank you for your advocacy. thank you for your support. thank you for your engagement. thank you for everything you are doing to protect and preserve the freedoms and values and institutions that have made our nation great. our country needs you and i'm proud to stand with you. after eight years of barack obama, we will have a lot of work to do your a lot of messages are going to be left behind. it will take patience it will take perseverance, but we can do it. you know, every generation of americans have felt a strong obligation to leave behind a

better country than their parents left behind for them. a lot of americans doubt that these days. you look at the polls, they seem to wonder whether we'll be able to fulfill that commitment. i'm optimistic. you know winston churchill is probably the most quoted person who ever lived said this about us about americans. he said come you know, the americans, they always do the right thing. after they've tried everything else first. [laughter] our best days are ahead of us. 90 for all you're doing. appreciate the opportunity for being here. thanks so much. [applause]

♪ >> my brother and although all dropped out of school. by the time i was in third grade i failed twice. >> my first job was picking up garbage, cardboard, so i could have some money to help feed my family, my mother and my son. >> lucy has autism. she doesn't speak. she doesn't walk but nothing it is because not the same as not having anything to say the people with disabilities want to have freedom just like anybody else. >> one out of four women are going to be victimized by somebody. domestic violence is an epidemic this isn't a small problem. >> the barriers right now on people rising up is the great challenge of our time. time. >> so many people to do so much better if we fixed a few things. my core beliefs start with the premise that the multiple in our society should be at the front of the line not the back.

and as governor i had a chance to act on that quickly. >> governor jeb bush institute the first voucher program in the united states to give low income kids an opportunity to go to a private school. out of my immediate and i'm the first person to graduate from high school and then i went on to graduate from college. >> i am currently an account manager and the main reason i'm in this situation, in the position i'm in right now because jeb bush allows companies to grow, create high-paying jobs. jobs. >> this is what leadership is about. it's not just about having a things. that a lot of people talking and they're pretty good about but we need to start fixing things. i said i was going to do these things added to them, and the result is florida is a lot better off. >> i think governor bush changed a lot of lives in florida.

i don't think that we would be where we are today with regards to domestic violence had he not been the governor. >> he wanted women to not live the way that i found myself. it's changed so many lives. >> he really cares about us. he really cares about people with developmental disabilities and with all disabilities. there are people today that are getting services because of what he did. he doesn't do it for himself. he does it because he's a true servant. is the best voice that we can have. >> i'm proud of the fact that many families now have a chance to live lives of purpose and meaning. you can improve the lives of people whether it's in the disabled or change change our economy are fixing our education system to all of these things can be fixed. what we need is new leadership that takes conservative principles, applies them so other people can rise up. america's best days are in front of us and we're going to leave

the world -- lead the world. >> ladies and gentlemen, please help me welcome the 43rd governor of the state of florida jeb bush. [applause] >> good morning. good morning, everybody. ralph reed and penny thank you for this great invitation to come back and speak year at the faith and freedom coalition been. it is a joy to be with you all. before i start my remarks i'd like to pause and i know many of you are concerned with what happened in charleston. in fact, i was traveling to campaign in charleston the day before yesterday. ..