things on that including mississippi and louisiana and north carolina and so i think that's unheralded. >> the most influential writer will be the one who makes conservatism accepting of modern society and modern social issues, leaving abortion aside. maybe that's a politician or a writer, we'll see. >> i hate to cater to our hosts but jim manzen is a niche product. he's not going to capture the hearts of the massives but he gets that markets are about a decentralized process. they're actually really important and that the right really ought to be the party of experimentation and i encourage everyone in this room and everyone watching to read him and follow him. >> he's had some major pieces.

>> he's got the lead piece in the next national affairs. >> the masses love regression analysis. >> charts, charts. >> thank you very much. guys. [ applause ] wednesday, washington journal's interview with university of minnesota president eric kay lore, part of our special series in the big ten conference. that's followed by part of this year's net roots nation conference, selections from the

communist party usa annual convention and views on progressive politics from the campaign for america's future. you can see it all beginning at 8:00 p.m. eastern here on c-span 3. be part of c-span's 2014 coverage. follow us on twitter and like us on facebook to get debate schedules, video clips of key moments, debate previews from our politics team. c-span is bringing you over 100 senate, house and governor debates, and you can instantly share your reactions to what the candidates are saying. the battle for control of congress, stay in touch and engaged by following us on twitter at c-span and liking us on facebook at facebook.com/c-span. coming up, part of colorado christian university's western conservative sum it. first, republican senator tim scott talks about school choice and the economy.

then in 30 minutes, conservative media figures debate the influence of the tea party on the g.o.p. the group includes rush limbaugh, radio producer, games golden who goes by the name bo snerdly on the air. plus author katie paf lich and fox news contributor mary katharine ham. this part of the news forum is just over an hour. >> thank you. it's so good to be with my fellow conservatives today. as many of you know, i'm the number one target for the democratic campaign congressional committee nationally, and they're going to find out that taking on a united states marine corps combat veteran is going to be a lot tougher than they ever thought. it's an honor for me to

introduce a former colleague of mine. senator tim scott is the epitome of conservative values and principles. he grew up poor in a single parent household in north charleston, south carolina. he learned the importance of faith, hard work, and family. he started from humble beginnings to build one of the most successful allstate agencies in south carolina. prior to being sworn in to the u.s. senate in january 2013, tim scott served in the united states house of representatives from 2011 to 2013. he was a member of the house leadership and sat on the influential house rules committee. he also served in the charleston city council for 13 years, including four terms as the

council chair. he was a member of south carolina house of representatives and was elected chairman of the freshman caucus and house whip. today senator scott works to promote conservative causes in congress where he has worked with senate colleagues to introduce a balanced budget amendment to strip the power away from congress to spend money that we do not have. he also was an original co-sponsor of the bill that would permanently ban the wasteful earmark process. tim scott's agenda will empower america through economic freedom and education. he is dedicated to working with anyone committed to building a better future to develop bold ideas that break away from this country's past failures.

please join me in welcoming and giving a warm colorado welcome to senator tim scott, a true conservative american hero. >> thank you. thank you very much. i'm sure that those of you who live in the sixth district will be sending mike kaufmann back to congress. and i'm looking forward to y'all sending the great corey gardener to join me in the united states senate. corey is a good man. we need some help in the united states senate. anybody realize that? everybody realizes that. i want to just spend a few

minutes talking about how we can make sure that in 2014 we take back the majority in the senate and in 2016 we have an opportunity to make sure that there is a republican in the white house. we need a republican in the white house. when i think about the challenges that we face as a nation, i always go back to the song "amazing grace." anyone know the song "amazing grace"? i like that song a lot. i once was lost but now i'm found. i was blind, but now i see. i thank the lord he saved my soul. yes, he saved a soul like me. and that's my story. i'm not sure if it's your story, but it certainly is my story. i think about how amazing the good lord is and how amazing america is and how the combination of a strong god and

an amazing nation makes a guy like me even possible. and that's the story of the grand old party. it's the story of the great opportunity party. let me share my story with you and explain how the conservative principles have made me possible. growing up in a single parent household, my parents got divorced when i was about 7 years old. i started drifting. anybody ever drifted? all drifting seems to head in the wrong direction. by the time i was 14 years old i was flunking out of high school. as a matter of fact, i flunked out of high school. i saw some kids over there. please don't do what i did, okay? i failed as a freshman, world geography. i may be the only senator to ever fail civics. but then when i got to the senate i felt like i was very comfortable because lots of those guys on the other side

have failed civics. amazing. just amazing. i also failed spanish and english. now, when you fail spanish and english, they don't call you bilingual. no, they call you bi-ignorant because you can't speak any language. that's where i found my unhappy self. but i had two major blessings. one was a strong mama. i'm a mama's boy and i thank god more strong mamas. give all mamas a hand, especially if you're sitting next to the one you're married to. please give her a hand. i saw a man up the front and he's like praise the lord. smarten ma man, he wants to go

tonight. i have to go back to washington d.c. so this is all the fun i get to have. my mama is and was an amazing woman. she would work 16-hour days as a nurse's aid making sure we stayed off of welfare. she believed she needed to set the example for her boys to follow. she worked hard at it. when i flunked out of high school as a freshman, she was none to happy with me. my mama believes that sometimes love has to come at the end of a switch. i know this is the west, but a switch, for those of you who don't understand what a switch is, a switch is a southern apparatus of encouragement, typically applies from your belt line to your ankles and my mama encouraged me a lot that freshman year. and the second blessing that came my way was a small business owner, a conservative republican. i didn't know it at the time that the chick-fil-a operator

was a conservative republican. all i knew was that john showed up at the right time. he started telling me some very important lessons. he started saying that, tim, you don't have to play football or be an entertainer in order to be successful in america. you can think your way out of poverty. i had never heard this before. i thought the only way out was playing for the dallas cowboys. i know this is denver territory, i understand that. let me just say, my chief of staff is from colorado. my deputy chief of staff, colorado. my legislative director, from colorado. it pains me to see all the orange in my office. this is not a part of the speech, and i apologize for interrupting the presentation to have a commercial break.

i decided during the football season last year to make one bet. not a bet that puts you in jail because betting is illegal. this is not a bet. this is simply, i made a statement that, in fact, if the denver broncos can beat the dallas cowboys in the cowboys stadium, i would wear a denver broncos tie. when tony romo threw that interception and we lost 51-48, i called my pastor. i wanted to know if it was okay for me to violate my statement. and he said, son, i know you're a politician so you guys do that all the time. however, as a man who believes in the lord, you got to honor your word. so i said, sir, i'm cheap -- i mean, i'm frugal, sir, would you please buy me a tie, so he bought me this beautiful denver broncos tie. he, too, is from colorado. god bless his soul. so i had to wear the tie,

unfortunately. the cowboys did not win that game, so now the commercial break is over. back to the presentation. that message is brought to you by the western conservative summit, sponsored by john andrews. god bless you, john andrews. let's give john a hand. john, my mentor, chick-fil-a operator, he was teaching my some very valuable lessons. he started teaching me that if you have a job, you've done well. but if you create jobs, you've done extraordinarily well. if you have an income, you can support yourself. but if you make a profit, you can change the life of your family and your community. and this became the very fabric of my journey towards conservatism. as a 15-year-old kid learning these very basic business principles that the free market -- four letter word

coming, please close your ears -- making a profit is an amazing journey and experience in america. i will tell you i bought it full. it took me four years to get it. and then when i was 19 years old, john was 38, he died. and it changed the course of my life. i set my mission statement to positively impact the lives of a billion people with a message of hope being my faith in christ jesus and an opportunity being john's lessons of financial literacy. i had a great successful business. he was right, it can change your life. we grew up living with my grandparents in a 1,000 square foot house. me, my mother and my brother shared a bedroom. my grandparents had the other room. john said you can change all of that through business ownership, and he was so right.

one of the reasons why, as you uncover my opportunity agenda in washington d.c., that i focus so much on the entrepreneur is because i've experienced first hand that when the government steps back and entrepreneurs step in, all things change, that a good economy makes all things possible. the question is what makes a good company. so my opportunity agenda focuses on how do we create a good economy. we all know that tax reform and regulatory reform are necessary, key ingredients to that good economy. i can't hire more people and pay higher taxes and have higher regulations at the same time. i can do two out of the three. if you want me as an entrepreneur hiring more people, we have to reduce the cost of doing business. i know you guys in this room are fans of obamacare.

good, good, good. obamacare spends too much, taxes too much, and it destroys the best healthcare system in the world. i like my friends who say, what about the balanced approach. if you're looking for the balanced approach, just look no further than obamacare. over $800 billion of new revenues, higher taxes, the destruction of the relationship between a doctor and a patient, look no further than obamacare for all the challenges that we face because in obamacare we see a couple things. not only do we see higher taxes, higher regulations, but we also see this march towards centralizing the control of all the major decisions, taking over another sense of the economy and

presenting to the america people in my opinion a clear decision, do you believe in redistribution or do you believe in the private sector, do you believe in entrepreneurship, do you believe in the power of 300 million americans. or do you believe in the intellect of 535? let me just tell you if you're looking for the answer, it ain't the 535. as we move forward, we're going to have to have something as we face the fact that there are some things that we are clearly going to have to stand against. let me do a survey. how many of y'all -- you can say yes or no. do you think obamacare is a good idea? how many of y'all -- do you think the president is handling the border situation with the

guatemalan kids in a good way? how many of y'all think he's handling the syrian situation in a good way? how about the irs scandal? the economy? the v.a.? all the things that are going wrong, we should be winning every single election. we should. someone asked this simple question. why are we not then winning the elections? i think this is an important point. people do not care how much you know until they know how much you care. this is a very important key to our success in 2014 and 2016 and one of the reasons why i'm so excited about y'all bringing corey gardener to the ballot is that you can't see corey and not smile. he's always smiling.

corey says hi, obamacare stinks, y yes, it does. one of the keys to success is making sure that our candidates are likable, that our candidates are armed with the right message, that, yes, we know what we're standing against. when we have a $17 trillion debt it's clear, we're standing against spending money you do not have, buying things you cannot afford and impressing a world that seems to be completely unimpressed. this is easy. when you have a $600 billion annual deficit, it makes it easy for us to stand strong against the challenges that the left are bringing to our country. that's the easy part. we have to answer the question, what are we for? as we answer that question, what are we for, i believe we'll start winning elections everywhere.

standing up and saying no is good. it takes us through october. unfortunately, the election is in november. so for us to get through november, we have to have a positive policy agenda that attracts a diverse group of voters to take a second look at the grand old party and start thinking of it as a great opportunity party. my opportunity agenda, in my opinion, does just that. there are two pillars to the opportunity agenda. the first is education. the second pillar is how do we build a good economy. let's talk about the first pillar, education. one of my first bills in the senate is a choice act, creating hope and opportunities for individuals and communities through education. as a guy who did poorly as a freshman, my mother beat me -- i mean, she encouraged me into summer school, which helped me

catch up with my class, finished on time, earned a football scholarship, went off to college, finished five years and have done pretty well since then. the foundation of which is education. if we look at the centralization of education, we come to one very simple conclusion. it's not working. iny opportunity agenda in the choice act is this notion of school choice. i'm a big believer that parents deserve more choices the fact is that the choice act helps us get there. here's a classic example. in d.c., the cost per student for a public education is around $21,000. i know that sounds like a very low number to some of ay'all. this side of the room said wow. this side of the room said

hmmmm. i'm going to talk to the hmmmm section here. for $21,000, 56% of the students graduate. very few of those students go on to get a two-year or four-year degree. my choice act embedded in the choice act is a d.c. opportunity scholarship. it allows for school choice in d.c. here are the results of school choice. i'll be right back. for the wow factor over here, the d.c. opportunity scholarship costs $8500 per student. $21,000 typical public education, $8,500 for school choice.

93% graduate versus 56% graduating. 91% go on to a two-year or four-year institution. 93% of the parents are happy. if we were looking for a way to change the dynamics in who votes for us, the issue of education cannot be owned by the democrats. cannot be owned by the democrats. and when we do our part, i will tell you, the results are amazing. i'm taking this agenda around the country and i'm telling the truth, people love it. all people love the concept of choice so much so, i've noticed a couple things in d.c. when the people start liking something, the federal government sues.

if there seems to be a correlation to relationship, i don't know what it is, but in louisiana they decided to go forward with the school choice agenda and the federal government, the department of justice decided to say that you cannot help poor kids get a better education, unacceptable. it will hurt public education. i assume that's what they said. don't quote me on that one. but they said something like that as they attacked public education because of school choice in louisiana. i believe the way that you improve public education is to decentralize public education from washington d.c. and send the control, the decision-making, and the money back to the states. you can do that very quickly. think about the fact that the

average employee at the department of education in washington d.c. makes $103,000 a year, and the average teacher makes $53,000. people keep telling me that we have a money problem in education. i think we have a priority problem in education. this country spends $700 billion annually on education. we can do better. we should demand better. the second part of the choice act simply says this. kids with special needs deserve to maximize their individual potential. everyone in america deserves to understand their own potential. what we say is if you can't get the education your child needs in your zip code, you should

make the idea, the money for special needs kids, portable. just like we have school choice for vulnerable kids, we should allow the same thing for our kids with special needs. a great story out of south carolina, a young lady at the time i guess she was five years old. she was going to kindergarten. she has downs syndrome, rachel lewis. doing pretty well in mainstream classes. teachers got uncomfortable with her being around students, tried to push her into a special needs class. her parents fought to get her back into a mainstream class. after a year and a half they were successful and then they realized that ultimately these teachers who fought to get her out of the class are now responsible for educating her. so they took her to a private school, hidden treasure. 20 years later or 18 years later, she's now 20 years old. she graduated from hidden

treasures with her high school diploma and she doesn't have one job, she has two jobs. if we give people the opportunity to maximize their potential, they will succeed beyond our wildest imaginations. it's kind of like e feeshens 320. he is able to do above what we ask or even imagine. that's the picture i want for the kids. thank you. for the bottle of water, thank you very much. coming from south carolina where it's 95 degrees and the humidity is 100%, waking up at 58 or 60 degrees in colorado springs the other day, a little sniffle. i'm going back tonight and it

will be 90 degrees in south carolina. my body is still adjusting. by the time i get there it will be okay. thank you for the water. it's helpful. the second part of the opportunity agenda is, in fact, how do we build a better economy. i'll tell you a couple things. the clock says i have 3:30 seconds. my mama wanted a preacher which means i get three closes, not one. jobs in the economy. it's simple. if you look at the economy recovery around this nation, if we did not see success in the energy sector, we would not have this terrible anemic recovery we're having today. the balance of our success has been driven by our energy production. today our president is considering whether we should federalize the rules