emerging economies can merely mimic the advances of global powers and their economyings will grow and their citizens will find work. but for us, innovation is imperative. we innovate or we will decline. fostering the next era of innovation requires us to focus on everything i have discussed today. human talent, capital, low taxes, smart regulations, basic research, critical infrastructure, and, yes, reward for our efforts. with the government in its proper limited role, there is no reason that we can't reinvigorate this economy, create jobs for millions and millions of americans and reassert our innovative leadership in the world. at our very core, we are a nation of dreamers and doers. fueled by a free enterprise, a system that allows failure and

rewards success. we have a dynamic workforce, the vast majority of the world's top universities, open markets and a cultural and quality of might that draws talent from around the world, we're in a global race, ladies and gentlemen, and we're up against rising competitors who are growing stronger, smarter, and more aggressive. we are competing for the world's talent, for its customers and it's capital and we're competing for industrial might in a global marketplace and intellectual strength in a knowledge based economy. we can never afford to rest on our advantages. torl that is not our nature. we reject complacency, and we crave achievement and advancement.

when facinged with an on stack kwl, we -- when we have a need, we fill it. when we have an idea he invent it? why? not specifically -- it's because we are motivated by the possible. we constantly strive to make life better for ourselves and for others. we're inspired by the thrill of discovery. and the hope of reward. that's why i'm very optimistic that we will solve our job crisis. it will be fundamental. it will require the support of our states who are here today to be recognized.

moderating our discussion, major is a highly sought after

and respected correspondent who's been on the forefront of these charges national issues for more than two decades. he's recently joined national journal's white house team in order to cover the president and the 2012 election campaign. he's written four books, with his third the enduring revolution, how the contract with america continues to shake the nation, being called one of the best nonfiction political books of our time.

please join me in welcoming major garrett. >> tom, as i listen to your brief sermonette about how you can learn from failure, and how you can rise from the on sense of failure. i thought, wow, tom watched a lot of my live shots on cnn. i would like -- overlay of formality. you can see their name tags right here in front of me. i'll have them take their seats and i'll briefly introduce them and get this conversation going. one thing that i think is commonly understood i wan to

start this conversation, moderate this panel for a good long while. so, they're on the table, avail yourself of them if you are so motivated. but let's start from my right, your left. something i learned in television t right and the left and the perspective of an audience. on my far right is governor jack marquell and he was kind enough to give -- what i'm going to do with each governor. we'll put in a little bit of this conversation about jobs and the economy. what it was at the worst part of what we now commonly refer to as the great recession. right now according to the

bureau of labor statistics numbers, 19th best in the country, it was at a high of 8.5%, january of 2010. so and to governor marquell's right, david highman of nebraska. unemployment rate 3.9%, the second lowest in the country. to my immediate left, governor of utah, 6%. 11th in the country, down from a high of 8.2%, also in january of 2010. i think we're beginning to see a pattern here. that's probably the first time you have heard that, governor. governor scott walker, state of wisconsin, current unemployment is 6.7%, down from a high of 9.1%. so that gives us a little broad conversation. we're going to talk a little bit to the governors about how they

got there and how their economies and their statings azapted. i want to start with this opening question for all four of the governors and we'll start at my right and go all the way across here. which is you saw the study, you heard the commentary about -- what's been the most important driver of economic development in your state? and here's the variation i would like you to take seriously. what's the best idea that you encountered as governor for job innovation that wasn't yours to begin with. something that was brought to you and that you implemented and it made a huge difference. >> thank you for the opportunity, i also want to thank the organizers for putting the beautifuling -- the -- first of all, i thought is study was great and i thought the focus on energy, infrastructure, innovation, exports, reining in

deficits, the dirt, i thought all the right areas and many of the things we're focused on, tom, i thought your comments on inknown vegas spot on, i went to taiwan about a year and a half ago, met an entrepreneur, she was born in taiwan, she was raised there, educated there, came to the states about 30 years ago, had a great career in the pharmaceutical industry here, went back to taiwan, about 15 years ago to start it. that drug research, design and manufacturing tourist successful. she said that america will always be number one in innovations, but what are you going to do for all those people who don't have phds. that's sort of one of the questions for the day. many of the things that tom talked about are spot on. >> look, i think there are lots of problematic and policy things that can make a difference and

i'll give you a specific answer to your question in a second. but i think beyond the problematic policy is attitude. businesses have to feel wanted. they have more choices than they have ever had before. there are 3 billion people in the world, we had a national governor's association a couple of months ago, governor hineman brought in the ceo of gallup to speak to us. and he said that there are 3 billion people in the world looking for job and there are 1.2 jobs available. we're in a global war for jobs, which really means that we're in a global war for talent because the jobs are going to go where the talent is. businesses have more choices than they have ever had before. one of the interesting things in my state and probably in many states is a lot of our constituents ask us sometimes out of frustration, why are businesses deciding to put jobs overseas these days? and my response is what is an

american business. astra zeneca, is a company based in britain. we lost a poultry company last year, we got some foreign investments from a company in korea that saved those jobs, i think we have to recognize that businesses have lots and lots of choices and number one, they have got to feel that you will do anything you've got to do to make them successful. part of my job as governor is that we make sure we understand the industries in our state better than any other state does and we have to be better submitted to the successes in our state. i would say it's something that i saw in utah, when i was out

there about a year ago for the national governor's association, we actually had promoted it before then. but it really came home to me. and this had to do with the idea that it's absolutely absurd that we expect our -- we expect no matter where we go to do business, that everybody's going to be able to speak in english. and so -- governor herbert brought in a group of elementary schools who spoke to his parties in mandarin. and according to the chinese, in very good mandarin. we have going to open up over the next five years in our state to 20 emergent schools. these will be schools within schools where students will

spend half of their school day learning in a different language. there was actually a push back, but we sold it on economic development. cigna has 500 employees, big international insurance firm. and those 500 employees in de-serve the spa skrrks insurance and emergency evacuation services for hundreds of xpacs around the world. the average number of languaging spoken about the people in delaware is one, the average number of languages spoken by people in belgium was three. if we want to make sure that our state's at the top of the list, we got to make sure that for those kinds of businesses, our folks can actually speak in other languages. that's not what has driven the job growth over the last couple of years, but i think looking forward, it is one thing that i think people aren't thinking

about. but more than anything else right now, it's about that attitude and businesses knowing that you will do whatever it takes to facilitate their success. >> a lot of people around the country ask me, you must not be telling the truth when you say your unemployment rate is 3.9%. the fact of the matter is it's a remarkable statistic and we're very, very proud of it. and they're like, how did you do that? that can't be possible. let me share a couple of things with you, in the time that i have been governor, we focused on four issues, jobs, education, efficiency in government and taking care of our families. and it all starts with the fundamental financial principal. we don't spend money we don't have. we don't do it in our family budgets, we don't do nit our business budgets and we don't do

it in our state budget. we controlled our spending, we balanced our budget by doing it that way, not by raising taxes. but we have invested in education and jobs. includi we have -- when you do those kinds of things, you can spur your economy. efficiency in government, loam just give you a couple of examples. you can now go online in our state and get your driver's license in under ten minutes. 90% of our citizens this past year filed their income taxes electronically. now what does that mean? well, five, six years ago, we used to hire 150, 200 people for fife to six months to process paper returns. now we don't hire anyone. more efficient, more secure because the refunds are going out earlier than ever before.

so if you do those kinds of things, in fact you can move your state forward. we have the fourth largest ag in california, that's obviously helpedous. and the insurance and --. >> virtually it would seem like we owe a lot of america. we're proud of our state in terms of what we do. i just learned today, the mayor of denver, that you're going to hear from is a proud graduate of a college in nebraska, hastings college. so we're glad we could help out the state of colorado and they're headed in the right direction now because of that. but if you look at our act scores and you look at states similar to us. we're over 75% of kids take the score. every year we end up one or two, we don't compare ourselves where

only the top 10% take the score. you put all those things together and i believe you can move your state forward. i was asked name an idea that you were given by another governor ore others. another governor told me about the concept of doing a reverse trade mission. we have done two of them since i have been governor of nebraska. we call it bringing the world to nebraska. the end result is that we have had chinese, japanese, hundreds of other countries are now investigating in nebraska. it's been absolutely amazing. i was told if you get 25 or 30 people there you'll be lucky. both of our con treferencconfere had more than 25 government leaders from all around the world. and for our asian friends, it's all about relationships and everything. taking a picture with them is very, very important. so for an entire hour, i took a picture with every single person

who was visiting our state. university of nebraska was involved in this, major businesses in our state so we could showcase our state. we're going to continue to try to do that. final announcement i would make, anybody who would like to relocate to nebraska, my number is 402-471-2244. thank you. >> governor herbert. we'll give you that number one more time before we wrap up and if any other country wants the number, we'll give it to you. >> thanks to the u.s. chamber of commerce for inviting us to come here and share some ideas about what we think is making our states a little more successful. i can only say amen to all that has been said by the previous speakers. as i look at utah's success, i am reminded of my father who was raised on a far.

and because of that, we have always had a large garden where we have lived in our home. even though we have lived in a more urbanized area. growing up he taught me, he said, gary, if you want to have a good crop, you first have to have a good fertile soil. it doesn't matter how good your seeds are, if you don't have good soil to plant those seeds in, you're not going to have a good and desirable crop. when major asked the question, what's the driving factor for economic success. it's a simple answer for me, it's those who have the seeds and who have willing to go out and have risk for the potential reward. but you've got to have a fertile field in which to plant those seeds in and you believe as an entrepreneur if you'll do that, if you play by the rules, if you water it, if you fertilize it,

if you weed it, at the end of the day, you're going to have harvest day and you'll have a good crop. and that what's we have done in utah. we have done everything to create a fertile field for the business entrepreneur out there. and that is have a regulatory environment that makes some sense, that's not overly impressive. we have actually gone through and done something that they ought to do here in washington, we have -- we actually got through in canada in our regulations in our state. we found out we had 1,199 regulations and we then got public input from anybody and everybody who had a stake in it and we found that those near 2,000 regulations, there was 168 of them that had no purpose. they didn't level the playing field, they were simply a drag

on the economy. so we did what any pruchbt person would do is question modified that in the last session. we're saying to the market place we value the entrepreneur and the business person, we're going to make sure that we have government that gets off your back and out of your wallets. we have actually cut our taxes in utah and we have not only cut the taxes from 7% to 5%, but we flattened them. our deductibility that we have our mortgage interest deductibility and charitable giving and our corporate and individual taxes are the same. so we're competitive when it comes to income tax rates, we cut taxes again this past legislative session again. but when it came to unemploilt insurance rate tax, so all of our 5,000 businesses across the board in utah got some tax relief. so tax reform, regulatory reform, we understand the importance of energy.

and so we developed a ten-year energy plan in utah that gives us a pathway forward, all of this above, but in a free market system. we have to compete, the marketplace determines the winners and the losers, opportunities y s ties to succe fail in our energy arena in the state of utah and subsequently, our energy costings are lower -- or energy capability, but it gives us competitive advantage to the manufacturers, the business entrepreneur that says, you know what? costs are lower in utah when it comes to energy and why don't we locate a plant in utah? last but not least, probably an area that we -- major asked what is something we have done that really didn't originate with me as an idea. there was a study that was done by georgetown university. i think they did it for other

states, but we got this study and it said that if we did not in fact increase our educational performance in the state of utah that over time, 2020, our economy would underperform. now utah has always valued education, the u.s. chamber of commerce says we're the best valued education in america. that ease because we're low cost and still get high performance results out of our schools. we have 43% right now currently of our adult population that have done some kind of post high school certification or a degree. but that's not adequate enough in what jack's already identified as a global market place. we're competing with the chinese. that's 1.3 billion people that want our jobs. so we need to in fact adjust our skill levels to line up with the demands of the marketplace. we need more engineers, we need more science, technology, engineering and math. so what we have done is set a

goal in utah of 66 by 2020. that means by the year 2020, 66% of our adult population will have some type of post high school education or degree. it's not a matter of we want to do it, it's a matter of necessity, it's an idea that we must do it or our economy will underperform. we got this study and we read the study and we said we're going to do something about it. this is a very ambitious goal but it's something that we can and will reach over the next eight years. with that we have had great results. as mentioned, our economy in utah has turned afternoon from the 8.2% to 8.3% unemployment rate to the 6% now. we were down to 5.7%. we have people that have engaged and tipped the rate up. people think there's opportunity out there in the marketplace and those who are sitting on the sidelines are back reengaging

and our economy is going at more than two times the national average, steve forbes named us the best state in the union and our economic outlook is good. it's not a zero sum game. i believe if ever state does what we're doing and what you're going to hear today, we all will have what i call the rising tide of economic expansion which races all boats on the pond. and it's a step we need to take to lead. >> the timing of nebraska getting down to 3.9% unemployment coincides with the cornhuskers going into the big ten. so that was a key reason for -- i didn't say who was smiling at the end of the game. we hope you're just -- not with

the same reaction. i also want to echo to begin with, i think attitude is very much a part of that. i remember a year and a half ago in january 2011. every time you come into the state of wisconsin, one of our major highways, there's a big sign in the shape of the state of wisconsin that says wisconsin welcomes you. an historically, under the sign, there was a shingle with the name of the governor. when i came in last year, i replaced the shingle of my predecessor with a new shingle and all i put was it was open for business. not only for those coming in, but those increasingly coming in from -- but for businesses, more importantly within the state, i wanted to send a clear message, not only symbolically, but then follow it one the action. in addition to attitude, i would say certainly stability, and your question tied right into that. i'll give you a couple of

examples. most of us, other than a handful of us that were blessed with tremendous natural resources. most of us had not only economic challenges, but fiscal challenges as well. there was 50% budget deficit per capita. if not the, it was one of the biggest de eges egest deaf silt had. so we sought to balance it. i put more money into medicaid than any governor in wisconsin's history. not only to protect needily families, children and seniors, because i knew in many cases in the past when medicaid had been cut, it became a hidden task for employers in our state just got passed on to everybody else that pays for health insurance. so we did it without all those poor options that we saw from some of our neighbors and instead we put in long-term structure reforms that not only helped our state budget, but helped us balance our budget not

just for today, but for years to come. we tried to think more about the next generation rather than just the next election. and that's what people like us to do. stabilizing our fiscal health also tied into stability and certainly our economic channels as well. we knew that there were, for example, three areas in which we could rein in costs and make it easier for employers. it was the first time property taxes went down, we saw an overall reduction. we did a 100% exemption of capital gains in our state. we did all sorts of things that were tied into growth and prosperity. we did that lowering the tax burden. we used the regulatory burden, we borrowed some of the things that gary has done, looking at antiquated out of regulations.

we did major reforms when it came to frivolous lawsuits. the other three things we did were about providing that stabl as a good part. like most states in the country, we heard time and time again from our employers, almost to a frustration, we heard people saying, i've got jobs, i just don't have enough skilled workers to fill them. as a governor, you want to pound your head against the wall to fill them. you're like i've got people, whether 3.9% like dave, we still would like to be closer to 3% or 4%. so when you hear about jobs that are open, it's incredibly frustrating. so we would like to take a series of actions, that are looking for works in the skills they need, machiners, fabricators, in advanced manufacturing, we have taken aggressive action to be a better