public sector health care program.+++í increase contributions made to the pension system. and until the funds are solvent, over the next, in some instances 30 years and increase penalties for early retirement and ensure the state would be making its

payments into the system. secondly, on the health care side, when i became governor most new jersey republican employees paid nothing for health insurance. zero. for full family medical and dental coverage. those programs ran anywhere from $s 15,000 to $19,000 and got them from the day they were hired until the day they died. so we needed to do something there kbhap we put forward was a simple test. said everybody should pay one-third. pay one-third a cost of your premiums. that seems to be fair. government can pick up two-thirds. you pick up one-third and somewhat in line with what's going on in the private sector as well, although many people in the private sector would jump at a program like that at the moment. and where did i announce this plan? i went to the firefighter's convention in wildwood, new jersey, on a friday afternoon. it was quite something. about 2:00 in the afternoon. lunch, i suspect, had been

liquid, and those firefighters were ready for their governor, and when i got introduced they were booing like crazy. like, i got up to the stage. a podium like this. come on. you can do better than that. and they did. and then i decided just to eliminate the speech i was going to give them, and this is what i said to them. i said, listen, inds you're angry and feel betray and the reason you should feel betrayed is because you've been betrayed. you've been betrayed by governments of both parties who have come behind this podium over the last 25 years and told you that they would give you increasing benefits you wouldn't have to pay for. and they made you those promises to get you to vote for them and you vote the for them. and so i understand why you're angry. i understand why you feel betrayed. here's the only thing i don't understand. wipe are you booing the first guy to tell you the truth? there's no political upsides coming into this room and telling you the truth. but ten years from now if we do this program and your pension is there to be collect the, and you

have health insurance to take care of your family in rear tyrant, you're going to be on internet looking for my home address to send me a thank you note, because we did the right thing and we did it together. probably about one-third of the audience cheered after that, which was a monumental achievement, i have to say, and then i got the hell out of there as quickly as possible. and then i went around the state for a next nine months. over 30 town hall meeting, and campaigned for that plan. and ultimately, with thousands of protesters on the front steps of the statehouse, and in the galleries of both voting sessions, in a bill sponsored by the senate president and the speaker of the assembly with only eight of the 24 democratic members of the senate and only 13 of the 47 democratic members of the assembly voting yes, those reforms passed in the

assembly and in the senate and were signed into law by me and will save over the next 30 years $132 billion for the taxpayers of new jersey, and will return those funds to solvency. now, it took not just gubernatorial leadership but courage on the part of the legislatures to post the bills and move them forward without the majority of caucuses voting for it. they knew they had to dom that, that's the environment created he in new jersey but it would in the have the happened if the executive didn't lead first. if i didn't put that plan out first and campaigned for it, it wouldn't have happened. legislators don't lead. executives lead and then legislators can be persuaded if you're willing to sit down at the table. this year we've been able to pass a number of important

initiatives. i performed the state of the state address, that the war on drugs while well intention had been a failure. that we're warehousing addicted people every day in state prisons and new jersey giving them no treatment. sending them back out on the street after their term of incarceration and wondering why recidivism rates go up. and why they don't get better. why they commit crimes again. they commit crimes to support their addiction. you can certainly make the argument that no one should try drugs in the first place. i certainly am in that camp. but tens of millions of people in our society do every year. and for some people they can try it and walk away from it. but for other, the first time they try it, they become an addict, and they're sick. and they need treatment. so i said, what we need to do is for all first-time non-violent

drug offenders, we have to make drug treatment mandatory. because if you're pro-life, as i am, you can't be pro-life just in the womb. every life is precious. and every one of god's creatures can be redeemed, but they won't be if we ignore them. and i believe that this program, which was passed overwhelmingly by the legislature this year and will be phased in over the next five years without any person who comes into the criminal justice system in new jersey with a drug aduction to get at year of mandatory drug treatment in-house, and i believe that the results will show after this is fully implemented will be startling, because people can be treated, and miracles half every day at these facilities and lives are restored, mothers and fathers, are restored as the

heads of their families. brothers and sisters and sons and daughters are restored to the families. we return fabric to our families by doing this. and, by the way, for those concerned about economics, it costs us $49,000 a year to warehouse a prisoner in new jersey state prisons last year. a full year of in-patient drug treatment costs $24,000 a year. so it makes economic sense, also. but, to me, that's just a collateral advantage. the real reason to do it is that we have an obligation to be understand that addiction is a disease and that we immediate to give people a chance to overcome that disease and a restored dignity and meaning to their lives. that's not a republican or democratic issue. it's a bipartisan issue that we accomplished this year. we reorganized our higher education system in new jersey in a way that three previous

governorses tried and special interests beat down every year. how? a deadline july 1st. don't do it by july 1st i will never let it happen douring my entire time at governor. and the press waited and said, arbitrary, he's rushing. it's terrible. you know, it's like watching sausage being made. all the things they said. guess what? it got done by june 28th and wouldn't if i hadn't set a july 1st deadline and special interests didn't understand if they ever wanted it to happen, it had to happen now. that motivated the legislature and intimidated the special interests to a large degrees who believed they can always defeat a legislature and divide them, much harder define defeat and and absolutely committed executive. for the first nim 100 years reformed our teacher tenure las. now, new jersey the teachers' union is if not the, one of the

most powerful in america. new jersey's teacher union collects $130 million in dues every year. and they don't spent a nickel on teachers salaries or pensions or health care. all of that money is used to support their political operations. and they spent in the their first two years as i was proposing ticher tenure reform over $20 million in negative ads against me on new york and philadelphia te television saying my proposaling were anti-teacher and anti-student. after two years seeing that we continued to press on and move on, guess what happened? the teachers union came to the table. and we negotiated new jersey the tenure law, which is over 100 years old. the oldest tenure law for education in country harks now been reformed to say if teachers get two years of partially effective or ineffective ratings they lose tenure.

we're putting accountability back into the system. student test scores kaunted for as well as peer review. and now principals and superintendents are going to have the opportunity to manage their school systems in a way which allow them to put the students first. by putting the best possible teacher they can find at the front of that classroom and not tolerating failure. now, imagine that. that was accomplished also, in a bipartisan way, republican and democratic votes. it took a 2 1/2 year fight, but we accomplished it two weeks ago. i said around the state that the obligates obligation of the government is find that space between compromising your principals and getting everything you want. there is always a boulevard between those two.

that's the boulevard of compromise. sometimes it's narrower, sometimes it's broader. but it is in my experience always there if you're willing to push and always find it. i would not ask anyone to compromise too much of that, politics to begin with, but acknowledge you won't get everything you want. once you getting knowledgement of both sides of that, you can find and force compromise as an executive. i can walk and chew gum at the same time. okay? i can fight with democrats, publicly and privately over issues of principle, where we can't find compromise, and at the same time, hold conversations with them on issues where we can find common ground and force that. this illusion that you see in this town that somehow that can't happen, it's not possible, is just an excuse. it's an excuse of failed leadership by both parties. you have to be able to walk and

chew gum at the same time. you have to be able to find compromise. people send us to these jobs to get things done. so are people in new jersey noticing? well, i'd say think -- the last public poll before election day 2009 when asked that question, do you think your state is moving in the right direction or is if off on the wrong track? 19% of new jerseyans said they thought the state yas mowas mov the right direction. that's why i'm here. 19%, right direction. a tough day on election day. now, in the last public poll, 53% of new jerseyans believe their state's moving in the right direction's in that same poll only 36% of new jerseyans believe our country is moving in the right direction. they are discerning between two different approaches to government. the federal approach and the new jersey approach.

what i've just outlined for you is the new jersey approach. doesn't make every day happy day. it doesn't make every day an easy day, for sure, but what people in new jersey are seeing is their government is getting things done for them. and the state's getting better. 85,000 new private sector jobs since i've become governor. the best home sales in 2012 since 2007. our guest job growth year last year since 2000. 2000. we had a decade of jobless 234z in new jersey. 2000-2009, zero net job growth. 2011 our best year of job growth and 20127 is now outpacing 2011 already. people are noticing. and things are happening inside our state. in the end, my message is that leadership is the only thing that will make the difference.

it is the only thing that will make the difference. and leadership is not just about obstructionism. leadership is also not about caving every time you get pushed. leadership is about nuance and about understanding and communicating to people. here is what i stand for. and on these issues i will not be moved. but then on other issue, leaving room for discussion. and accomplishing principled compromise where it can be. that's why i have great respect for the senate president steve sweeney and the speaker sheila ole sprerp they're democrats. we don't agree on a lot of things but we've worked together and made it our business to put the people's business first, put politics second. which is why it is a little bit disturbing to me what they've done with the idea of tax reduction. seems to meep the closer we're getting to a presidential election in 2012, and a guper in

a tore election in 2013, the old politics may be creeping back in. that's when it's even more important for the executive to fight to continue to find compromise, not to throw up your hands and give up. and i think all too often executive leadership pipgss across this country executives decided to throw their hands up and say, they're bad. i can't deal with them. they don then don't ask for the job. no one ever told tu was going to be pleasant or easy. the job of an executive is to make sure that the get the job done, you force people into a room and you find a way to get to the compromise. not on every issue. some it will be impossible to find compromise, my experiences is more time answer that not you can find it. so i hope new jersey is setting an example and i trust it is for the rest of the country. states across country i think

you're seeing more and more of this and hopefully this infection of compromise will eventually spread here, i'm not near lir as hopeful about that as i am it will spread to the other states, but we need to continue to talk about it, and that's why i'm here. i am coming to this place, not meaning brookings, but washington, d.c., because i want people to know that their government can work for them. but they need leaders who be willing to take risks. risks with their own parties. and risks with the public who votes for them, because in the end, here's my philosophy and why you know, i have this reputation around the state and around the country i guess now of being pretty blunt and direct and people wonder, where did that come from? it's really simple. we all come from our parents, right jt i mean, we're all part of our parents whether we like it or not, for good or for bad. i had an irish father who's 79

years old and if he were here today, you know, he would be sitting right up in the front. he would greet all of you afterwards. tell you all about his grandchildren and whether e you wanted to or not, hugging you at the end of the conversation. the other hand, i had a sicilian mother. for those who have an sicilian relatives, an entirely different kettle of fish. in the automobile of life, my father was a passenger. my mother was the drive perp my mother was judge, jury and executioner, particularly liked that last job and she set the rules around our house. she was the person who set the tone, set the rules. i said this, my mother passed away eight years ago, died of lung cancer, a lifetime smoker. at the end of her life i was at a u.s. attorneys national conference in sane dag san dieg. my brother called told me shes he is was back in the hospital in grave condition if i needed

to see her i should get home right way. i took the red eye, flew back to new jersey, got in the car, went to the hospital. when i got there she was sleeping. i waited by the bed for a little while. and finally she woke up. without saying hello to me, she looked at me and said what day is it? ip said, it's friday. she said what time is it? 9:30 in the morning. she said, go to work. i said, mom, i decided to take the day off. to spend with you, so i'm going to stay here. she said, christopher, it is a workday. you go to work. i said, are you afraid i get your taxpayers' money worth? i'll make up the time. don't worry about it. >> she said, go to work. it's where you belong. there's nothing left unsaid between us. she was giving me permission to let go and it was the last great gift she gave to me, but that's more important, not just for that moment, but for what it says about the way she raised

us. my mother taught us in a trusting relationship there should be nothing left unsaid between you and those people that you love and trust, that you shouldn't wait for the deathbed moment to get everything out, because you might not make it. and than you need to tell them when you're happy when you're angry, temperature tell them when you feel great, terrible, share everything with the people who trust you. and i know that if 3450i mother were still alive to see this circumstance thas my life has become, that she would be saying the same thing to me. she would be saying, chris, these people trust ud to give you the most important job they could give to anybody in new jersey to make them your governor. tell them what you think. tell them how you feel. and i think that's what leadership needs to be about especially in really difficult times like we are today. we shouldn't be listening to political consultants whisper in our ear telling us, say as

little as possible. shouldn't be listening to those voices who say, just use the party doctrine and don't stray. we should be telling people how we think and how we feel and let them judge us up or down. in the end of the day, i love this job but got plenty of great titles already. i was u.s. attorney and most importantly husband, father, son. if it means that i lose, if i choose to run for reelection, so be it. at least i will be able to tell my children that the time i spent i spent trying to do something significant. i said to the voters when you go to the voting booth next time i am on the ballot, you won't say i wonder who this guy is. they will have a belly full at that time. i will be their cup of tea or i won't be, but i won't be a mystery. you can't lead by being a mystery or enigma or aloof or

you can't lead by being programmed. you have to lead by being yourself and people will trust you. when they trust you, they will follow you. so that's the experience in new jersey. i am happy to take questions for the time we have left. thank you very much. >> we appreciate your visit. we have a little bit of time and i will hand it off. i love the theme of your speech. the lessons from new jersey. what can they teach us here and as everybody knows the most pressing problem we face is with our fiscal unsustainability. clearly any guidance we can

offer is most pressing. i did want to ask you, you stated and it resonated with me, the first job is to sell out your principals. i want to focus on taxes because i think that's where a lot of the disagreements come. i am curious to know what we think the republican principals are in federal taxes. we had a compromise a couple years ago from the simpson bowles commission that had good principals and lower marginal tax rates and paid for by raising capital gains and some of our popular deductions and pearing them down and mortgage interest deductions. this had the spirit of principals and compromise. i'm curious what you think the republican principals are when it comes to taxes. are republicans willing to pay for the reduction of marginal taxes through increasing capital gains or charitable deductions or other deductions.

>> there is not one deduction, but i think that's a gain that both partisans try to play. they don't want anything to happen. they want the vision. at times the press starts to play as well. i think simpson bowles while i don't agree with everything, should have been pursued. i think it was an absolute mistake in leadership. a lost opportunity not to push it. you have republican and democratic votes and you didn't get the requisite number, but you got bipartisan report. the lowering of rates and both the elimination of loopholes and the means testing of other deductions is acceptable in the current context. i think you also have to get the spending side as well. that's where you get democratic opposition. i don't think that you can just deal with the tax system and get this under control.

we have to deal with entitlements. if we don't deal with it, we will never get there. no matter what we do, we will never get there. i agree with many of the principals laid out and believe lowering the marginal rates make sense, but only in the context of eliminating loopholes and means testing and other did you dukzs in order to make sure that you have a system that perceives in a fairway. that has to be combined with entitlement restraint. if we don't have entitlement restraint, we are lost as well. >> you talk about the budget and i'm curious to know whether or not we had the supreme court ruling on obama care and the mandate. is it a mandate or a tax. i welcome your comments on that. the other part was on the medicate expansion. this has a direct impact and you

can now not opt out without losing your current funding s. this something you decided in thinking about your upcoming budgets or is this a wait and see for new jersey? >> a few things. it's a wait and see and just found out about it and it won't affect our budget. we have to look at fiscal 14 and 15. i was glad that the supreme court ruled that extortion is still illegal in america. that's a relief. obama care was extortion. it said you expand your program to where we tell you and if you don't, we are taking all the rest of your money away. that's extortion. it was in a bunch of nice words in a bill, but it was extortion. they support the proposition that extortion is still illegal even when done by the president of the united states. secondly it seem that is a place like new jersey, we had the

second most expensive medicaid program in the country behind new york. our question is going to be how much more do we need to expand the program? we have the most generous benefits already. that's the analysis we are going to make and also to make an analysis on the exchange issue as well. all these things will be in context. what's the most effective way. we have the folks working on it and come to analysis given the current state of the medicate system. >> i would think we have to come to some decision by the beginning of 13. we have enough time to plan. i don't know what the feds may put on as well. it will be a vigorous back and forth as well. >> let's take questions from the

crowd. we have microphones coming around. state your name and make it a question. >> i'm not a resident of new jersey. >> my condolences. >> yesterday on the new jersey turnpike i thought i might become one. >> sunday in new jersey. people coming from the jersey shore. that's the way it goes. >> my question had to do with the federal state relationship. i just wanted to see a few comments and views from state side because here in washington we see things differently. particularly in areas like education or more recently health care insurance. in some sense is the federal intrusion into areas that were more traditionally state responsibilities helpful or hurtful for the state? >> it's generally hurtful. issues like health, the idea

that the federal government will give a one size fits all program and think it will work just as effectively as it will in montana. it makes no sense from a gut perspective. the health challenges i face in the most densely populated state in america with 8.8 million people with that kind of urban population, i face some extraordinarily different challenges than brian did in montana. why is it that anyone down here and this is the arrogance of the federal government. they believe that down here they could craft a program that would work for everyone. i think that you have to leave more of this. medicaid should be blocked. the way i can administer in new jersey is the way that haley barber was able to negotiate a

medicate problem in mississippi or rick pery in texas or andrew cuomo in new york. the idea that i heard the president say i'm afraid you will take health care away from children. what makes you think i would do that? what in my record tells you i might do that? there is a suspicion that exists that i think drives some of this intrusion. on the education side, secretary duncan tried to do positive things to empower states to do more. i think overall trying to manage broad education policy from washington, d.c. for a school district in jersey city and a school district in tyler, texas, that's a bit of a challenge. you have to have an ego to think you will be able to do it effectively. >> the questions? right here in the aisle. >>