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? good. 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, 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. a classic example embedded in my 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 y'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 ephesians 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 and regulations around fracking, horizontal drilling and taking over the energy industry. i think that's a bad idea. y'all think that's a bad idea? i'll tell you that one of my bills in my opportunity agenda is called the see jobs act. i believe there are resources in the atlanta o.c.s. if we're able to seismic the atlanta o.c.s. we'll discover, i believe, deposits of gas. if we do that, south carolina could see $1.8 billion of new revenue just from one state. the whole four-state region will see, i think 10 or $12 billion of more revenue. 9 million jobs a day in america are connected to oil and gas.

it can double in the next 15 or 20 years. we can see south dakota unemployment all across america that, once again, if it starts working right, the president thinks it's wrong. that's a problem we can solve. we can solve that problem. let me close with this. over the next several months you guys and gals will have an opportunity to send help to the united states senate to corey gardener. we have to have -- corey's cousins are clapping for him. those of you not related to corey can also clap. we need corey gardener in the united states senate, period. if we are going to succeed in 2014 we've got to win six seats

while holding onto the 45 that we have. i have colorado on our map. so we need 51. number two, if we're going to have a real shot, if we want to improve the likelihood of our success in 2016, we need the house and the senate on the same page using reconciliation and other budgetary opportunities to push an agenda to the president's desk and make him say yes or no to things like the keystone pipeline and tax reform, lowering corporate taxes. we have to figure out how to tackle the toughest issues coming our way and that takes a majority in the senate and the majority in the house. and with your help, this is a key state. the west was won by the

conservatives. we need your help. by doing so, we will return america to the brightest path forward with the greatest opportunities for success, and we'll see more kids like me rising up not to be senators, but to be ceos, presidents, and difference makers in their communities. god bless you, god has already blessed the united states of america. >> all right, who's winning the fight on the right. i want to welcome back mary katherine, second time to the summit guy and thirdly, james golden, summit newcomer, great book out there, assault and

flattery. thanks to the four of you for being with us today. last night at the opening of summit 2014 we heard the remarkable dr. ben carson propose a truce between the rhinos and the tea party. someone came up to me afterward, two sisters at the summit for the second time from southern california, the simon sisters. the first words out of their mouth were they're loving the program and right after that john, don't ever let the establishment take over the western conservative summit. you got to keep away from those rhinos. so there it is in a nutshell. one approach is conciliations. the other approach is polarization. let's get started with guy benson. guy, who is winning the fight on the right? we look at establishment versus

tea party. we look at social conservative versus libertarian. we look at drug legalizers versus drug enforcers. we look at foreign affairs, national security hawks versus noninterventionists. who's winning and are we hurting ourselves more than we're hurting the enemy. >> thanks for having me back and look at this crowd. thank you all for being here. john and his team put on a tremendous event. i think all of us do a lot of conferences over the course of any given year and the western conservative summit is one that i'm really always looking forward to because it is a first class operation. it's a loaded question that john asks obviously and sort of covered a lot of ground in his question. i would say there are a few different ways because i was ruminating how to answer this. you can attack it from various angles.

you can look at the 2014 cycle and look at the primary fights that have happened. who has had the upper hand on this tea party grassroots versus establishment struggle and tug of war that's going on and there are examples in both columns. mitch mcconnell easily won against a tea party challenger in kentucky. tom tillis won his primary there so the establishment had a couple notches on their belt. in nebraska you had ben sasser. eric cantor was stunningly defeated, something no one saw happening. and then there are the sweet spots. you have joni ernst in iowa. another way to approach the question is to look through the prism of the upcoming 2016 cycle and the potential republican field of candidates. while i think that's wildly premature, the first rule of

political commentary is that it's never too early too baselessly and recklessly speculate about the next presidential election so perhaps we'll get into that. but if you want my candid and honest opinion to the very simple question, who is winning the fight on the right, it's this. the left. the left is winning the fight on the right. because we are spending an enormous amount of time and energy and passion and money beating the tar out of each other while they don't. i was reading the wall street journal this week -- >> you would, rhino. >> they had an info graphic about spending this cycle, in 2014, from the biggest super pacs on the right and left. they took the top three super pacs on the right and the top three super pacs on the left and they broke down the numbers. overall the democrat top three super pacs have spent $24.1 million whereas the republican side was spent $13.8 million.

the democrats are very comfortable spending lots of big money as long as it's big liberal money on politics. if you look further into the numbers and this is where the journal's piece was so important, of the $13.8 million spent by those top republican leaning super pacs, 74% of that money was spent fighting primaries, 74%. on the democratic side of the $24.1 million they've spent, 90% of it was on general election to beat the right, to beat conservative. only ten percent went to their primary fights. i'm not here to say that we shouldn't have robust debates on foreign policy, social issues

and what have you on the center right. we should have those things. we are a party and a movement of ideas and debating things openly is important. i'm not saying that we should just crown people, nominees, without blinking an eye and do what the democrats do which is immediately and unquestioningly stand up and salute. they're much better than we are and i don't think we ought to aspire to be just like them. however, we have to think about strategically, when it makes sense to fight against one another, how to kiss and make up and go onto the real battle united. if we don't do that, the left will continue to eat us for lunch every single cycle and they are absolutely thrilled to watch this fight play out. i think that's the challenge to all of us here and in this room to figure out how to avoid that,

how to navigate those seas. i will say again on a positive note, i think what you've done on the senate race here in colorado is exactly what needs to be done nationally. thank you. >> guy, thanks. that gets us off to a great start. just thinking about that acronym, do you hear the other political parties sniping internally and calling anybody a dino? democrat in name only? we all agree that the liberal progressive socialists nostrum that fail again and again are about as extinct as the dinosaur, but they don't call each other dinos. i think that's kind of revealing. katie, next to you, guy says the left is winning the more we fight amongst ourselves on the right. what say you? >> i think they've won in a couple instances, but i i think that you can't talk about this topic without looking at where the battle between the -- you know, the nonestablishment and

the establishment actually comes from. and that comes from people being very frustrate ed with the republicans versus democrats and not seeing a difference between the parties in washington, d.c. the reason why they have a conservative movement in a tea party movement the way that we've seen it is because after president bush left in 2008 president obama came in and people said there's not a lot of difference here between what big spending republicans are doing and what big spending democrats are doing. that's why it was important that grassroots activists got into that cycle and had an incredible historic movement. debate is a very good thing and i think we can talk about serious issues without demonizing each other and come to an agreement. guy is right when he says the left is winning when we continue agree on issues. the establishment and conservatives, nonestablishment agree on a lot of big things that can have a big political impact. obamacare is one of them. the irs scandal is another one. i think that if we focus on issues that we can all agree on to fight the left, that's how we can win.

it's really important to stay focused that this is not a one size fits all policy. we've seen, as guy pointed out, the differences between, say, lindsey graham winning in south carolina for example was different than what happened in virginia with eric cantor. the immediate headlines are tea party loses or establishment wins. the media i think fuels a lot of the war that goes on between us on the right as well, whether it's true or not. so it's important to have healthy disagreement and i think the best solutions are found by looking at our difference, airing our differences in a nonpersonal attack way and behind closed doors and talking about how we can come to agreements on some very, very big issues. and we have a lot of those. you mentioned libertarians versus social conservatives. there are a lot of libertarians

who are pro life. that's an issue we can win on and an issue we can bring people who maybe aren't on the right in on according to polling. so there's a lot of things that we can come to an agreement on. nobody is going to get everything that they want. one of the biggest frustration that i've seen is when ted cruz did his filibuster for example, the immediate reaction is he is crazy, why is he doing this. everyone is going to remember the government shutdown. no one remembers the government shutdown. that was false that was put forward by the media. i don't like that the establishment, whenever there's a new idea that comes up from the grass roots, immediately it's put off. ch and i see where that comes from because when you've been in power if for 30 years, you feel threatened, and you don't want that power taken away from you. but going back to the beginning, i think that we really have to

take a serious look at where will the fight on the right comes from and that is there isn't that big of a difference in washington right now between republicans and democrats and i think it's time for big government republicans to take a hard look at the way that they're voting and the way that they're in bed with cronie capitalism. [ applause ] you know, it's really easy for people who have been in the senate or in congress for 30 years to pooh-pooh new ideas coming from the grassroots and saying those ideas aren't going to work when washington isn't working very well. we've seen conservative grassroots infiltrate d.c. and there's been a lot of frustration about gridlock but the whole point of the way the system was set up was to slow things down so we weren't passing through all of these things. when republicans were in charge under george w. bush we didn't do a very good job and when we expanded government significantly and then the left came in in 2009 government again was expanding significantly. we're at a tipping point now where we have to reign

government in and fall on the side of less government or we're never going to be able to fix it. we should come to an agreement on the right and do it in a way that isn't attacking each other and we have to look at where this fight comes from. it comes from people in washington d.c. getting comfortable with agreeing with each other on both sides of the aisle and not wanting to reign in government spending. >> that's great. katie. thank you very much. get a load of the hat and jacket on james golden. summit 2013 veterans will remember that i had serious fashion envy when moderating the james golden panel a year ago. my crack staff did some focus grouping on an andrews fashion makeover because i wanted to be as hip as james golden in 2014. clearly i have made very, very

little progress. i am wearing the new centennial institute, limited edition, 1776 signature tie. the 2012 edition was blue, politically fitting. the 2014 edition is red, we hope politically prophetic. and there's a great women's fashion scarf in the same great 1776 motif. it's a great conversation starter. be sure to get one at the centennial exhibit booth. here's where i have gone out and gone pretty wild. with the example of george h.w. bush and egged on by members of our media team, jeff and marty, we're now into the crazy socks, okay? so at least from the ankle down,

andrews is no longer shall we say a dinosaur. i'll be working on the rest of me. who's winning the fight on the right. no cross roads in america gets more of this debate than the rush limbaugh show. when somebody dials that number and waits in line for 90 minutes, it's you that's holding them. what do you think, james? >> number one, i think you're a pretty hip guy, okay? and proof positive of how hip you are is that you are making such a difference with your leadership, the western conservative summit is going to be one of the premier political events in the country. congratulations to you and everybody who puts this together. and you speak about rush. i just want to talk a minute and say how blessed i am to have worked with rush limbaugh for so many years and what a great and amazing human being he is. and i thank him. i thank god for bringing that man into our life and into our country and to all of you who listen and support the show,

thank you so much. now who's winning? it's obvious. you told me right. the left is winning this hands down. and they are winning on a -- not just the left wingers, but left wing media is having a field day. they play us conservatives as if sometimes a struggle of power hits. they know what will set it off. if you want to know who else is winning the forces of intolerance of winning, and you need to look no further than what just happened in mississippi. for an example of what happens when this gets really ugly and people are prepared to put everything into this battle against each other and yet what we keep waiting for is somebody to take the same energy and oppose the administration in washington, d.c. and that never happens.

so what we get is a full-fledged war, and it has been, a full-fledged war on the tea party since almost day one. i've never seen in my life where you have a majority handed to you in an election that can flip the house. the 2010 midterm elections were historic. and they should have been historic because it was a seat change. and instead, what you have instead of actual seat changing politically, and back stop to what was going on with the obama administration, you have the republican leadership pretty much ignore the victory that was handed to them. and squander what could have been a natural alliance with the tea party. who won? are they winning? is the tea party winning? absolutely not.

the only ones that could be winning politically is the left. one of the thing that we have to do, as conservatives, is win. this is the war for the heart and soul of the republican party. a third party is going to cut it. you just dilute it to the point that we will never win elections again. we conservatives have to win this for the heart and soul of the republican party. that is our mission. it is that simple. >> well said. >> from the panel, mary katherine hamm was with us when the summit was just getting started back in 2011. she was with us via skype last year. i think an historic first. the first official western conservative summit. baby brought into this world as

part of the next conservative generation. baby daughter's home with dad now, 11 months old. we are glad she is with us for the third, mary katherine, what say you? >> first, thank you very much for having me. thank you for allowing me to skype in last year. i would have brought my daughter, but frankly she was a lot more quiet last year than she is now. she is not mic ready. she is with her dad. it is an honor to be here with you guys, who do so much great work in your communities. and who wage this fight in ways big and small all the time. and it is also really cool to be here with you, who i've heard so much about for years and to finally meet you in person. is a blast. i think just to echo a couple things that you guys said, yes to katie. the media is interested in our fight. but that's part of our issue. and playing into that is something that we need to be wary of, especially when things get so ugly, as in mississippi. and a brief example, a friend of

mine who does conservative politics got a call from a reporter the other day putting together a panel of conservatives who disagree on guy marriage. to talk about where this issue is going. when there are so many other things to talk about. and she said, i'm not really so interested in relitigating all offes this issues that we disagree on. when she was done having the conversation with the media, comes to me and says, you know, i never see the panel where they put democrats with fracking activists and have them fight about what they disagree about. [ applause ] >> and so i think we just need to be aware of that. and some of these things are not easily changeable. you go to war with the media, you have the constructive criticism you need sometimes. but beaware of that. i want to maybe take this in a slightly different direction by saying one of the issues of fighting with each other is that it can wall us off from the new people we want to speak to.

because they hear a bunch of more conservatives than you bickering and they just cannot relate to that. because perhaps they have never identified as conservatives. perhaps they're hearing only fighting and not ideas that speak to them. i think that's something we need to be wary about. and i want to offer a couple of issues where we can speak to new people and many establishment folks and tea party folks and libertarians can come together on something that is principled and conservative. i will get -- i apologize, a little al sharpton on you. because these are going to rhyme. all right? here are the issues. overregulation, food and libations, education, and

innovation. these are all areas where the left is full of many state fun-suckers trying to ruin everything. on overregulation, most of us can agree. this is where the debate is healthy. because it is true, that within the establishment, the people have you on the opposite side of these issues and opposite side of where they should be, they are establishment republicans. they have been inside the board too long and they are functionally with the left on some of these issues. i think the tea party has done an amazing job of pulling some of those people back to where they should be and we continue to fight that fight. but on overregulation, we all

know, it crushes dreams. it creates situations where people cannot rise up. so that's something i think all of us can agree on and make an argument about and many people in america do not understand that the regulations bit hundreds handed down everyday, diminish the american dream little by little every time they happen. and that's one argument we can make. on food and libations, first of all, young people who would like to reach really hate michelle obama's school lunches. they also are not particularly fond of soda bans. >> how did the first lady turn into the lunch lady anyway? >> i know. right. so i think that's an area where we can talk to new people. and sometimes globally, frankly. when you've got people sort of default liberals who really love local food and farm to table and all of the things that left talk about, those things require freedom. they require the fda not to come

in and say, i'm sorry. your homemade sausage that you would like to sell to your neighbors doesn't have enough nitrates in it for our taste. so you are not allowed to make these free transactions among free people. and when that happens, it crushes a dream, crushes a small business and makes life less fun for people who would like to eat delicious pork products. and we can make that argument to people and make it to new people. education, obviously. freedom to choose is of dire importance and of most importance in communities we're not reaching. finally, innovations, that's right, you like my al sharpton bit? issue -- i know you guys know about it, alternative to taking a cab. liberals love it. they are literally limb zone liberals on this issue. they like having a limo come pick them up because they ordered it on their smart phone.

so suddenly they're libertarians. they don't want local government and taxi cartels to come down on these things. young people, i think, are very transactional about politics. what is it doing for me? sometimes that makes me sad. buzz a lot of times they go, thank you government for doing this for me. we can make an argument that looks, this is where government is standing in your way. often not doing things well. teaming up with unions to keep you from -- so yeah we can be on board with this. and i think republicans, many of the establishment have been good at identifying, oh, these are areas where we can make an argument. and so i just want to offer that, with the -- with the caveat that, yes, the people that we do fight on these issues will be establishment

republicans sometimes. >> mary katherine, thank you. that's great. mary katherine hamm. three years at the summit. speaking of food and libation, i'll see your al sharpton and raise you dr. seuss. your fans here at the summit, every time we say less green eggs and more ham, okay? >> oh, thank you. m. >> i've got a food thing going. green eggs and ham doesn't work as well as steak and tofu. >> green eggs is just a metaphor for juan. >> that's right. it's going out on c-span, friends. the whole world will know it. >> love you, juan. >> i want to go around the panel kind of in lightning round as time wanes, friends. james and i are the ones with living memory of the great reagan victories of the '80s, and you have living memory, but

you were all fairly young in the gingrich revolution of '94 sweeping the u.s. house and senate with a contract for america. we wax nostalgic and say boy, it was great back then. we had our eyes on the prize. we agreed on 80% and disagreed amicably opt other, 20%. start with you, james. is that just a false nostalgia? was it really better back then or have we always had these kind of fights on the right? >> reagan was a better leader than what we have today. and the fight, if you remember this period like i remember this period, the left absolutely detested ronald reagan, and as quiet as it's kept, so did certain republicans, which we would now call establishment republicans. they didn't want ronald reagan as their first choice. what made him a great president is that he did not waiver from his convictions. he knew what he wanted to do. you can get into the nuances of politics and this and that. but what he wanted to do,

optimism, number one. he believed in the greatness of the american people and he was not ashamed to say it. this is a great country. i love this country. and everything, every being, particle of this man, loved america. that's one. reasons that america loved him back. number two, he wanted a strong defense. he understood what the risks were from communism, and still are, by the way, from communism he and terrorism, and was not afraid to build up the military. and he understood economic policy. and they made fun of him. they called him a dunce. today did all of that. and yet this man, together with margaret thatcher and the pope, changed the course of history. rolled back. giving us unsustained economic freedom and prosperity that's been unmatched. and he did this with an unfriendly media and with democrats that couldn't stand him.

it is possible do this again. >> so to come not just to an approach but to inspire and motivate around that approach. i asked the three of you, i think of you two young guns, we have three of them up here this morning, katie, how about you? as you study your history, you didn't list through that period, but as a pundit, have we always had these battles and divisions to overcome, as you see it? >> i actually had the honor of being at the reagan ranch center yesterday. so i got a little refresher on reagan's time in office. i think that we've always had these battles. but i think what made reagan great is when people said it was impossible to get these things gone in washington and that's not the way we do things here, he said, i don't care if you've never done things this way here. you're going to do things this way here.

so i think we can do it again. there have always been disagreements and i think that's healthy. disagreements for a great idea. i think disagreements allow us to come up with new way dose things and get rid of bad ideas and we're always going to have an establishment versus grass roots battle, i think, as long as people are allowed to stay in office for 30 years at a time. when people are able to hold on to power, they don't want to give it up easily. they are going to disagree people who want to pull back government. so when people feel threatened, they will disagree. but i think we can do it again. i think we are well on our way. the the 2010 election, for as little coverage as it got, was an extremely successful, historic indictment against big government. and i think in 2014 this year, we have some really good candidates who i think will go to washington and try do their best to turn back that tide of continuing government. we can't do it again and we will continue to have disagreement and that's okay. >> i will ask to be taken out by

giving us a name or two that you think, i believe we all five would agree up here, it's futile to look for the next reagan, but that ability to inspire and to unite around a common vision and to bridge the divide. who do you see out there, mary katherine, that's good at this? >> well, let me say first that when it comes to reagan, i think, and i got a refresher course as well this week because i watched the address that reagan gave after the korean airlines flight was shot down, and thank you for thinking of me as maybe somebody who didn't live through those years, but i do have some memory of it. i noticed there wasn't an applause line for under 35s in the crowd. but i'll pat myself on the back. so i do remember some of that. but i rewatched that speech and i kind of expected going into it, well, of course i'm going to like reagan better than obama, if that's all the comparison is.

obviously, i'm wired that way. but when i watched, i think what really struck me, especially having been in politics for 24 hourses a day during this era for a while, is the intellect he assumed in the american people. the confidence he had in them. to listen to that 15 minutes of very prosecutorial laying out of the facts. and for the american people to approach that with an open mind. >> he gave us credit. he approached us like grown-ups. like citizens. >> yes. and that's something that i think, frankly, i get frustrated sometimes. maybe if you're explaining, you're losing. but i need to explain some things. and you see the studies of millenials where they're sort of all over the map in what they believe politically. not a lot of confidence in government, but they still want government to do everything. they want budget cuts, but not to any of the things they like. there are always paradoxes that

make you scared that you can't reach people. and so i think having confidence that we can and giving the american people credit is part of the battle. so i just want to commend him for doing that. >> and great thoughts to go back and find youtube reagan and find on youtube reagan addressing that kal flight 7 shootdown from 1983. closing out very quickly, guy benson, a couple of names that you think are on the political scene and, perhaps, rising stars who have that ability to pull us together. if you care to mention a name or two that are examples of how we shouldn't do it, do that, too. >> just two points. very quickly, you were asking about how things have changed on the right. i want to point out quickly how the left has changed over the last few decades. in 1993, the religious freedom restoration act passed congress with three total dissenting votes, both houses.

sponsored by ted kennedy. signed by president clinton. this week every single democrat voted to overturn the hobey lobby decision, which is based on that bill, the protections in that bill. we're not dealing with our daddy's democratic party anymore. not even close. there's also this talk about how far the republican party has gone to the right. they never talk about how radical the democratic party has become. so i wanted to make that point, which is unresponsive to john's question, but it's important to point out. >> we're pundits. that's what we do. >> we're on a hard break. i need a name or two that has that unifying vision. >> i will now answer that question, john. i have watched what scot walker has done in wisconsin, with great admiration. scott walker -- they have thrown everything they have at that guy, and he has stood up to them, laid out the facts, treated the people of wisconsin like adults, got his agenda

through, beat them in their rad redo election they foised upon the state of wisconsin. and he's in for a very tough fight again this year for a re-election. the media is out to get him. if he can win for the third time in four years in wisconsin, i think he should at least get a look from our side heading into '16. >> and walker was great kicking off western summit a year ago. a lot of us were here. okay. as we wrap the panel, we thank the returning three times, katie ham, and as the rookie, kate y we want to initiate you. they got their ultimate glamour portrait last year. i hope we have the slide of katie pavlich's glamour portrait. please come back often.

thank you, guys. katie, mary katharine and james golden. coming up later today here on c-span3, we'll bring you a discussion on the communications act of 1934. which created the federal communications commission. speakers will include former fcc commissioner robert mcdowell and former national telecommunications and administration head larry irving. they'll provide recommendations for updating the act to help reflect modern technology. you can see that live from the brookings institution starting at 2 p.m. eastern. tonight on c-span3, washington journal's interview with university of minnesota president eric kaler. that will be followed by a portion of this year's netroots nation conference. selections from the communist party usa national convention and views on progressive politics from the campaign for

america's future. that all starts tonight at 8 p.m. eastern here on c-span3. and tonight on our companion network c-span2, it's the second florida governor's debate between rick scott and charlie crist. here's a look. >> are you saying there are so many racists in the republican party, you couldn't remain a republican? >> no. i'm saying that element exists. listen, my mother and father are republicans. i love them to death. they don't have a racial bone in their body -- racist bone in their body. what is at work here is a pretty simple thing. if you remember back with me to 2008, and some of the e-mails that were distributed about the president by some members, not all, of the republican party, they weren't exactly flattering. and i think you probably can research and find out what i'm talking about. but it wasn't right. and i can tell you that the

reaction i had gotten from some in the republican party, leadership, wasn't tolerable to me, you know. and it was pretty clear to me it wasn't just because i was willing to work across the aisle with a democrat to get the recovery funds to come to florida. it was also pretty paerapparent me, because he was the first african-american president. listen, i don't enjoy saying that. it's not fun to say. but i'm going to tell the truth. and those are the facts. >> governor scott? >> charlie, you are a divider. you're a mud slinger. you're a divider. the entire time you've been in politics, what you've done is just you -- >> you have spent millions and millions -- >> excuse me, if you could. >> you are a divider. you don't -- look at what we want to have. we live in a -- we live in a wonderful state. we are the best melting pot in the world. we have so many wonderful people here that have come from all over the world, and you want to try to divide people. i want everybody -- i want everybody -- i want everybody to have the same shot i had to live

the american dream. >> thank you, governor. governor crist? >> nothing could be further from the truth. i reached across the aisle when i was your governor. i worked with the president to get the recovery funds. this governor, governor rick scott, won't work with the president even to get high-speed rail, which is so important to central florida, eventually the whole state, would have been $2.4 billion to florida. some say 60,000 jobs. he will not lift a finger to get medicaid expansion done. as a result, a million floridaens watching tonight aren't getting health care again today as a result of that inaction on rick scott's part. plus, it would bring 120,000 jobs. >> let me respond to that. first off, charlie, your high-speed -- first off, you left me with a $3.6 billion budget deficit, you borrowed $9 million, you borrowed everything you could. then you left a project on the table that would cost us billions of dollars. and then you want to talk about medicaid, you were governor when it passed. why didn't you -- why didn't you

get it passed right then? why didn't you expand if right then? i actually have worked with the federal government. worked as an example, something you wouldn't do, we settled a decades lawsuit over the evergads. you wouldn't lift a finger. >> recent polls have listed this race a toss-up. can you see the full debate on c-span2 at 8 p.m. be part of c-span's campaign 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 @c-span and liking us auto facebook at facebook.com/c-span. now, more from the sears

western conservative summit. first, tea party co-found irjenny beth martin talks about undocumented immigrant children along the u.s./mexico border. then in 15 minutes, former new york lieutenant governor and author betsy mccaughey talks about the affordable care act. finally, in 33 minutes, louisiana state senator elbert guillory. this part of the forum is just under an hour. >> thank you, senator andrews. how is everyone doing? isn't this an amazing event? you know, yesterday after all of the events, i was reflecting on the tea party. now, when i think of the original tea party, i'm reminded of renegades who frustrated by government interference painted their faces and dumped tea into the boston harbor.

when those patrioted initiated their principled protests they could not have known their demonstration would be the inspiration for a similar movement hundreds of years later. i also imagine they would never guess a savvy businesswoman and mother of two would be leading the charge. jenny beth martin is the political strategist who in 2009 responded to the call for a new kind of party. frustrated by the unprecedented expansion of government, she fully committed to grass roots movement and is today hailed as the tea party's co-founder. jenny beth is now the national coordinator for the crusade and tirelessly working toward a return to constitutional principles and fiscal conservativism. named as one of "time" magazine's most influential leaders she oversees nearly 2,000 affiliates and more than 15 million members. in she is also a frequent guest on every tv, radio and news outlet in the country.

when jenny beth is not busy shaping a national movement she blogs about everything from household menu plans to irs targeting and discrimination. i, for one, do not know how she does it. we are so tremendously blessed to have this revolutionary with us today. please help me welcome tea party co-founder, jenny beth martin. >> thank you. i bring news from the rio grande valley, the breach point for the largest invasion of american territory since the british occupied and burned our capital city in the war of 1812. just yesterday morning i awoke in mcallen, texas, having spent

the better part of the last week seeing for myself and for you exactly what is happening on our southern border. i spent that time talking with local sheriffs and residents. hearing directly from the front lines and learning firsthand about the problems on the border. we hear calls from people on the left and even some in the republican party saying we must launch what they call a humanitarian effort. they tell us we must care for the unaccompanied minors coming into our country. they tell us we must not, no, we cannot, send these young people home. they tell us we must borrow even more money from china to house and clothe and feed and inoculate and treat these strangers who broke into our home. well, i am a mother. i am a woman. i am a christian.

and i am proud to say, i am an american. i have listened to these arguments and i've checked them against my heart and my head, my experience and my values. and to these arguments i need the one word to respond. no. [ applause ] disagree? go to the border and speak with the american citizens with whom i've spoken. learn about the crime. local residents will tell you they've seen a flood of illegal immigrants pouring into their cities in the last two years. they'll tell you how crime against persons and property has increased. sheriff joe frank martinez in del rio told us of rjts along the river who have had their homes robbed. everything from televisions and

washing machines to copper wiring, stolen from homes, put on floats -- or put on rafts and floated across the river into mexico. i saw photos of a home where a mother and her children had to hide under their beds for safety while a gang of illegal immigrants started shooting outside their home. these are american citizens who have called this part of our country home for the last decades. many for generations. they don't want to cede their land or give up their property. and they should not be forced to do so. we saw a -- [ applause ] we saw a 2.8-mile stretch of fence in del rio, texas. 2.8 miles.

now, to keep that in perspective, the border -- the bord border -- along the border in -- between texas and mexico is 1200 miles. unless you're a member of the "new york times" editorial board, you have no problem seeing the trouble here. local residents mock the fence because they realize how easy it is to go around and still get into the country. we saw foot paths worn in the soil where people have literally walked around the fence about 20 feet to the east of where it begins. if it it were not so serious, this would be fodder for jon stewart. then there are the coyotes. evil people who smuggle human beings across the border for profit. the coyotes get their money up front. consequently, in the words of bureaucrats everywhere, they are

disincentivized to care whether the people they're smuggling into america make it alive. retired sheriff ziggy gonzalez who started the border sheriff doe coalition told us there are times the coyotes when cornered, will abandon their car, with people in the trunk. which might not be so bad, except sometimes they do it while driving across the rio grande. and then they just watch as their car sinks the river and they escape the border patrol. and the evil doesn't stop there. sheriffs confirm that the drug cartels are running the show on the southern side of the border. and all too often on the u.s. side as well. the drug cartels are sophisticated and cunning yet it is not rocket science for them

to climb out from atop buildings in mexico, use binoculars and see when and where the border patrol are and send their network through an area that's not being covered. sheriffs confirm that as soon as one area beefs up security and patrols, the illegal immigration catch rate in that area increases, while not surprisingly, it decreases in other areas on the border. people don't realize how this administration has tempted people to enter the united states illegally, subjecting them to this evil in the process. president obama's deferred action for childhood arrival program, another one of his executive dictates that flouts the written laws of this nation, is sending the signal to people in central and south america that if they just get into our country, they're going to be able to stay. images of plane rides, flat screen tvs, soccer balls and teddy bears send messages that

children will be cared for and showered with material gifts. but the media is blocked from the detention centers where many of the children are sick. where the young children cry themselves to sleep, wanting their parents. the reports ignore how dangerous a trek through central america to the united states can be. the articles for some reason don't mention that the overwhelming majority of these so-called children are actually mid-teen boys, 16, 17, 18 years old, just the perfect age for gangs. the young people are at the mercy of the drug cartels and the brutal desert heat. they risk injury and death. if they're not pulled into the drug cartels and used for other purposes. friends, what we are seeing is neither moral nor compassionate.

it is neither moral nor compassionate to encourage parents to send their children off to embark on a life or death trek with an uncertain future -- with an uncertain outcome. it is neither moral nor compassionate to put children at risk of bodily injury, disease and death or possibly even worse, life as a gang slave. it is neither moral nor compassionate to put our hardworking american families who live on the border in such great risk. it is neither moral nor compassionate to force the american public to borrow another $3.7 billion from china to pay for a border bailout. [ applause ] unfortunately, those in washington are responding to the border crisis in the way they always do.

grow the bureaucracy, concentrate more power in washington, d.c., commission studies rather than taking action, and throw more of our hard-earned tax dollars at the problem. just like the bank bailouts were used by politicians to cover up the problems of their own creation and pay off special interests. the $3.7 billion border bailout rewards the president's allies, builds a centralized bureaucracy and concentrates more power in the hands of the government. this border bailout is so bad, we'd be opposed to it even if it were free. we don't need it. we don't want it. and oppose it. no border bailout! [ applause ] let me have a show of hands. how many of you have flown

anywhere in this country or around the world in the last year? at the beginning of every airline flight, we are reminded that should the cabin lose pressure and oxygen masks deploy, we need to put them on ourselves first before we reach over and help others. why? because if we don't take care of ourselves first, we're no damn good to anybody. let's call it the delta rule. hey, tea party patriots is headquartered in atlanta. i fly delta air lines a lot. i suggest that to be truly compassionate, to be truly moral, we apply the delta rule to the border. first, take care of our own, then take care of others. [ applause ] instead of a border bailout, simply respect the rule of law

and secure the border. millions of immigrants come to america illegally to pursue the american dream. we admire them for playing by the rules, respecting american law and contributing to our country and our community. we are for legal immigration. and we are against illegal immigration. there already is a path to citizenship for those wishing to come to america. a legal path to citizenship. our government should not reward those who choose to get off the path, cut in line and break the law. to do so would be immoral. in fact, it would be immoral, in fact, it would be unfairly punish those who obey the law and follow the rules. by simply respecting the rule of

law and securing the border, we will send a message to the rest of the world that we welcome immigrants who come here legally and reject those who do not. one of the things that makes america exceptional is the notion that we are a nation of laws, not a nation of men. but we will only be a nation of laws as long as we abide by the law. so today i'm on a mission to recruit you for a mission. to rally an opposition to this proposed border bailout. it is immoral for the president to decide on his own, in clear violation of the u.s. law, that he will not send back illegal immigrants no matter what their age.

the deferred action for childhood arrivals program must end immediately. it is immoral for the president to seek to borrow billions more to pay for his border bailout. it is immoral for the congress to consider giving him what he seeks. call your congressmen, write your senators, give them one simple message. no. tell them to vote no on the border bailout. and if you feel so inclined, you can add a little more personal note to give them a little more personal incentive. tell them, vote no on the border bailout or i'll be voting no on you in november. thank you. god bless you and god bless the united states of america.

[ applause ] [ cheers and applause ] >> i am so glad to be with you today. because we are in the fight of our lifetime. our access to our doctors and hospitals, our religious freedom, our second amendment rights, and the rule of law, the very basis of our society, are all under attack. you will play a key role in allowing us to take back the united states senate this fall for the freedom of this country. and you will be decisive in

selecting the next president of the united states. there are republicans in washington who say we ought to settle for fixing this health law within the framework of the health law. they're saying that because they haven't read this health law. if they had, they would know that it is rotten to the core. [ applause ] and i urge you to choose a president of the united states who will fully repeal this law. a president who will rein in the government spending and a president who will take seriously his or her duty, sworn

duty, to uphold and defend the constitution of the united states. because this law shreds your constitutional rights. it lowers your standard of care. it puts government in charge of your care and it takes away something as precious as life itself, your liberty. this law requires almost everyone to enroll in a one size fits all government designed health plan. when you go to file your taxes, you have to attach proof for the irs that you are enrolled in such a plan. attaching the proof will shield you from an irs penalty. but it will subject you to a degree of government control and intrusion unprecedented in american history.

for the first time in american history, this law empowers the secretary of health and human services to dictate how doctors treat privately insured patients. so even if you have aetna or significant that, and you've paid for it out of your own pocket, the government can still call the shots. yes. section 1311 h-1-b of this law. that's right. read it and you'll see. says that insurers can pay only those doctors and hospitals that obey whatever regulations the secretary imposes in the name of quality. well, that blanket authority can cover everything in medicine. when a cardiologist chooses to use a stent versus a bypass. when an ob-gyn orders a sonogram

or does a cesarean. your doctor will be legally required to enter your medical information into a nationwide int interoperative electronic database seen by thousands of eyes. your doctors' decisions will be monitored for compliance with these government guidelines, which are being written right now. and ultimately your doctor may have to choose between doing what's right for you and avoiding a government penalty. now, the president said that he was going to solve the problem of the uninsured by making health plans more affordable. but that's not what's happened. you've gotten your premium hikes in the mail, right? instead what this law does is it vastly expands medicaid and pays for it by eviscerating medicare. it takes $716 billion out of

medicare over this decade and moves it over to fund the expansion of medicaid and those subsidies on the exchanges. it's robbing grandma to spread the wealth. that's right. even richard foster, the government's -- the president's chief actuary, warned that the cuts to medicare are so severe that some hospitals may stop taking medicare. where will seniors go when their local hospital stops taking medicare? other hospitals are already responding to the severity of these cuts by laying off nurses everywhere. and i advise people, if you know you're going into the hospital for surgery, for example, try to cobble together enough money for a private duty nurse, at least for the first night. because when you push that button for pain control or help

in the middle of the night, you're going to wait too loaning. and if you're a baby boomer, say you're 60 or 61, line up your doctors now. line up a card olgsz. line up an internist, even if you're health y because if you wait until you turn 65 and go on medicare, you will not be able to find a doctor willing to take you on as a new patient. doctors are paid less to care for seniors than any other kind of patient. and in addition to these across-the-board cuts to medicare, section 3001 awards bonus points to the hospitals that spend the least per senior. now, think about that. not per patient. per senior. we know that the hospitals in the bottom quinntile for senior have higher death rates for

congestive heart failure, they have a poor chance of surviving their illness and making it home again. and this law is pressuring the other hospitals to imitate the hospitals that have the high death rates. this provision, section 3001, will also mean that fewer seniors get hip replacements, knee replacements, angioplasty, bypass surgery, cataract operations. those are the five procedures that have virtually transformed the experience of aging in our country. when i was a kid, i remember that older people were trapped in wheelchairs with crippling arthritis, or stuck in nursing homes because they were so out of breath from congestive heart failure. now older people enjoy their later years. they continue to work. they travel. they play with their grandchildren. they even come to meetings like this one. that's right.

that's right. and obamacare will undo that progress. the stakes are very high here. because if you're seriously ill, the best place to be is in the united states. oh, yes, don't let anybody tell you differently. a woman in the united states diagnosed with breast cancer has nearly a 90% chance of surviving it. in europe her chances are less than 80%. you do the arithmetic. it means she's twice as likely to die there. a man diagnosed with prostate cancer in the united states, it is not a death sentence here. but nearly 1 out of every 4 men diagnosed with prostate cancer in europe dies from it. and if someone in your family has what we currently call an

incurable illness, this is the nation of hope. this is where the cures are developed. since 1950 the united states has won more nobel prizes in medicine and physiology than the entire rest of the world combined. and that's why defeating this law is the fight of our lifetimes! that's right. we're not going to give up on this! [ applause ] congress should have taken this 2,572-page bill and put it in the paper shredder. and given us a 20-page bill. in plain, honest english that members of congress would actually read before voting on it. you know, 20 pages ought to be enough. the framers of our constitution established the entire federal government in just 18 pages.

that's right. i've written a 20-page bill that i'm glad to share with you that will replace this. it's the very size of this. that makes it so dangerous. you know, the chief architect of our constitution, james madison, wrote in federalistic 62 cautioning against congress ever passing a law, here are madison's own words, so voluminous that no one could read it. or so frequently changed that a reasonable person would not know what the law is. that is obamacare to a ""t." yes. and our lawless president has repeatedly rewritten, revised,

deleted and delayed and distortethis law. so that the health plan he's rolling out now bears little resemblance to what congress actually enacted in 2010. and that is the most important reason that we must win a sizeable majority in the united states senate this fall. not simply to slow down obamacare. no. but in addition, we must elect a new senate majority leader. a new senate majority leader who will have a chat with the president. and remind the president that in these united states, the rule of law is king, not mr. obama!

we must be able to dangle the sword of impeachment over this lawless president's head. not that we would actually want to put our nation through such an ordeal, but we must have a sufficient majority in the united states senate to make the threat credible, because that threat is the tool that the framers gave us in our constitution to defend our freedom. that's right. [ applause ] we must also vote out of office this fall the spendaholics, who have gained control, taken the government into their grips. the spendaholics. because under this obama administration, these spendaholics have pushed federal spending up as high as 25% of gdp. then you add in state and local government spending and you're

up to 42% of gdp. 42% of everything all of us produced going to work everyday. 42% of the fruits of our labor are being sucked up by government programs. do you get 42% of your happiness from government? no! no. only once before in the entire history of this nation did government spending reach 42% of gdp. and that was in the midst of world war ii when we were fighting for our survival as a nation. nothing today justifies government expropriating 42% of the fruits of our labor. it's wrong. that's right. it's wrong. we must put a stop to it. the fact is, that our government has been hijacked by people who

don't share our values or value our freedom. the spendaholics are pushing government spending up to levels commonly found in european countries. we americans don't want to be europeanized. no. no. in europe the people toil to support the state. in america we work to support ourselves. that's right. at least that's the way it's always been. but now the federal bure rack racy is run by the bureaucrats for the bureaucrats. they have taken the service out of civil service. it's gone. let's face it, most of them are paid more than they would get in

the private sector. more than we get in the private sector. and it's virtually impossible to fire them. no accountability, right? irs employees taking home big bonuses although the end of the year even when they've been found guilty of not filing their own taxes. imagine. and you saw this one. a general services administration employee on the front page of papers all across the united states sitting shirtless in a hot tub with a glass of wine at a las vegas boondoggle on the taxpayers' money. he retired with full benefits. and how about this terrible story? a v.a. surgeon suspended for 14 days for abandoning his patient unconscious on the operating table before the surgery was completed. he left the medical center, right? so, he's suspended. he still gets an $11,000 bonus

at the end of the year. these federal bureaucrats are living on easy street. and they're putting us on the road to surfdom. that's right. and think about it, think about what's happened as a result. as i said, our government has truly been hijacked by people who don't share our values, who don't value our freedom. they put the state ahead of the individual. our president is presiding over the downgrading of our economy and the degrading of our constitutional rights. but you and i, you and i have a rendezvous with destiny because we are going to elect a president of the united states who will fully repeal the obama health law.

a president who will rein in the power and size of the behee moth federal government. we should eliminate the department of energy, environmental protection, education, and most importantly, let's get rid of that department of the interior because the land belongs to us. it shouldn't belong to the federal government. that's right. and we will elect a president who takes seriously his or her oath to defend the constitution of the united states, the finest document ever created by mankind. this is the fight of our lifetimes. this is a fight we must win. because you and i know one thing for sure, freedom isn't free.

it's up to you and me. thank you. thank you. [ cheers and applause ] >> thank you. we can do this! thank you! thank you. thank you. thank you very much. frederick douglas once famously stated, i'm a republican, a black, die in the wool republican. and i intend to belong to no other party than the party of free dome and progress. those words describe the mind set of a true public servant, dedicated to the benefits of society beyond the party title and beyond the name. the louisiana state senator

elbert guillory is also a man of these same words. recently changing to the republican party from the democratic side. when asked why he made that decision, he said that it was the right decision, because the individual must be free to pursue his own dreams. free from governmental control. senator guillory has been an example of leadership and is still an example of leadership for all public servants across america. he has dedicated his life through the vietnam war, serving in the united states navy, after which he obtained his law degree from rutgers university and has been practicing law for over 30 years. he uses these experiences in the committee meetings and in his decision making. he's also one of the community. he is invested in his community, in the community of louisiana through nonprofit organization, being one with his constituents, serving them through the judiciary committee, health and welfare, other educational

committees, he's an example for what all leadership is supposed to be across america. it was said by martin luther king jr. that progress is neither automatic or inevitable. every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, struggling and suffering. the tireless exertion and passionate concern of dedicated individuals. well, ladies and gentlemen, i am privileged to present to you a man dedicated to this cause, for justice, for opportunity and for freedom. a man in a fight for what is right and a man who will die with his boots on. senator elbertguillory. ♪ got a dollar tree and i know god is on my side so i'm feeling all right ♪ >> good afternoon.

joseph, thank you very much. that was extremely well done. young men like that -- [ applause ] and i see some other young people in this room. i'm very heartened to see them. i'm owe i'm equally heartened to see so many types of americans here under one banner, speaking one language. the language of free dome and liberty. but many, many colors of americans. happy to see you here. 14 months ago i was a democrat. yes. once i was lost but now i'm found. for several years it had been a difficult fit. i was having difficulty in the meetings that we held.

i was having difficulty in the votes that we were taking as the louisiana democrat party moved farther and farther to the left and just kind of left me standing there. then one day the head of the louisiana democrat party, who's also a senator, said anyone who does not like obamacare would only not like this wonderful idea because of the president's african father. therefore, anyone who does not like obamacare is a racist. i'm sitting in the senate telephone and i pick up the phone. it's my 104-year-old mother. yes, mom? elbert lee, did you hear what that woman said? yeah. it was all over the newspapers and television. yes, ma'am, i heard. did you say anything like that? no, mother, i didn't. are you associated with that? no, ma'am, i'm not.

well, you just better be very careful because i won't want you to bring dishonor upon our family. [ applause ] i hung up that telephone and called the registrar of voters in my county and within a couple of minutes i was a republican. so now i'm here. what are we going to do? 240 years ago there were meetings like this held in america. america at that time was in dim straits, as we are today. and so people met and talked with each other and tried to decide what we would do, how would we create -- what are we going to create for the future? what kind of nation will there be? and that is what we are doing today.

those minutemen and founding fathers and founding mothers created a vision of a nation where people could live in freedom. live without government breathing down their necks. without government boots on their backs. without some government thinkers picking their pockets. without a government czar telling them how to educate their children. without some government dictator selecting their doctors for them. no government, no government, no government. central to their vision was the concept of very small government. under today's democrat-led administration, their vision has become a nightmare of government intrusion into every minute aspects of our lives. and there are the days of the revolution, those minutemen were

the warriors. it was their sacrifice. it was their energy that threw off the yoke of oppression of king george. today, my brothers and sisters, you are, you in this room, are the minutemen. it is out of these days of oppression that we in this room must create a new vision of liberty and freedom. a new america. of freedom. we've had -- [ applause ] we've had almost a decade of hope and change. it seems like so much more, so much longer. hoping for a job and trying to live off the change in our pockets. you know, the unemployment figures in the black community are so high, i haven't seen

black unemployment this high since the great depression. what is happening in washington, d.c., is bad for all of us. under any circumstances. my brothers and sisters, we need to chart a new course for america. we need to set forth our vision of the new america. and so i have today to present to you ten points that i think that the new america should adhere to. first and foremost, america must continue its tradition -- excuse me. america must continue its tradition as a godful nation, prayerful nation. godliness is the birthright of america. our prayers in schools and public places have been set aside for too long. prayer, only prayer, has the power to lift individuals,

families and nations up from desolate and disconsolate moments. but we have let a small minority come into our house and stop us from praying. this is our house. this is god's house. we must take it back. [ applause ] a powerful military is very important. powerful yet marked by effective and smart spending. on this day, today we have troops stationed in 167 nations. i didn't know that planet earth had 167 nations. no one can convince me that we have a burning national interest in 167 nations across this

world. so, we need smart and effective military spending. and we need a new law. any politician who advocates sending americans into some forlorned, foreign escapade should first have to send his grandchildren or children to the front lines. if we implement that law overnight, our military will become much more effective because there will be far fewer, fat old men jumping up and down, trying to send our young people into harm's way on just a whim. [ applause ] the third point for a new -- a renewed america. we should stop the war on children. we should outlaw abortion on demand.

god gave life. life is precious. yet 1.3 million young americans lose their lives every year to abortion. we have to certainly put some viable alternatives into effect. adoptions, more presex education. but still in a caring and godly america, aboertion on demand should not exist. point four, tax reform. two things, first, we should stop spending taxpayers' money unwisely. we should stop spreading it like butter across the world. second, a flat tax, a percent of income. a percent that everybody knows and everybody pays and everybody pays their fair share. and we would get rid of the irs forever.

point number five, employment. every american should have access to employment. access to work. every american has the right not to work. and every american has the right not to eat. we are a caring, loving people. so we assist people who are in need. but a road -- but a bridge over troubled waters should never become a road into the future for generations for anyone. so, government has an obligation to, through its policies, promote work. let me tell you about louisiana for just a second. my governor was here last night and he didn't brag enough about what he has done. under bobby jindal's leadership,

for four, five generations democrats ran louisiana and we were at the bottom of job creation and employment. economic development, bobby jindal came. we became republican. and those republican policies have moved louisiana from the bottom to number eight in the usa. a perfect example of republican policies, of business-friendly policies creating jobs. compare that to the policies of the democrats in washington, d.c. during the last two years they've put twice as many people on social security disability as they have put to work. twice as many of the dole as on the payroll.

a man -- a dead man with no sight could see that's a speeding car heading for a crash. we've got to stop that. the sixth point, gun ownership. a few months ago i was in washington, d.c., i passed by the white house and i saw the secret service people and the weapons that they use to protect the people who live at the white house. those weapons that they have are military-style, high-capacity, automatic and semi-automatic weapons. exactly the kinds of weapons that this president wishes to ban and banish from private american ownership. what duplicity, what hypocrisy. his family is no more important than yours. [ applause ] his daughters don't deserve more safety and security than your daughters. if those weapons are good enough

to protect the people in the white house, the family living in the white house, they're good enough to protect your families. number seven, we must outlaw the garbage we put into our children. the violence, the vile language, the violence in video games, the killer video games and a lot of the music. a lot of that garbage does not belong in a civilized society and it should be outlawed. we will never stop the culture of violence, including all of the shootings, we will never stop that until we outlaw the garbage we are putting into our young people. it should be outlawed. the eighth point. the wild reckless spending of the last 13 years should never allowed to destroy america's fiscal integrity and to endanger

our future. a $17 trillion debt is simply unacceptable. if you were bankrupt, sir, if you were near bankruptcy, you would say to your spouse, my darling, tonight, this weekend, you have to do your own nails. i'm going to do the lawn myself. and cut some beans tonight. you would do two things. you would cut back on your spending and you would pay down your debt. our president has presented a budget that increase federal spending 63% over the next ten years. increases our $17 trillion debt to $25 trillion over the next decade. if we're having difficulty paying off $17 trillion, can you imagine almost doubling that? we're on a bad road. and if this government goes down, it's going to take a lot of people down with it. and there will be a lot of pain

in this nation and in this world. we've got to stop the spending. ninth, public education. i'm a strong supporter and a proud graduate of public school. but public education has failed america. almost half of our schools are poorly performing, violent, disrupted schools. our students graduate and after they -- for those few who graduate, for those who do graduate, they are still -- they rank near the bottom of industrialized nations. it's a failure. we've got to do some things differently. we must make industrial education available to students starting at the sixth and seventh grades. we must give families more choices. charter schools and voucher programs that will permit families to take their students, their children, out of violent, badly performing schools, poorly

performing schools, and put them into safe performing schools. we must make that choice available. and we must remove the violence, the disruptions, those children from our classrooms, they deserve to be in therapeutic, educational environments. where their issues can be addressed, where they can be made whole so that they can become full american citizens. and while they are in that environment, the other 29 children in the classroom will be safe, and their educations will not be destroyed. [ applause ] the tenth point in our vision for america involves the middle east. we have two interests in the middle east, oil and israel. let's talk about oil first. we do not need middle eastern oil. [ applause ]

what we need is to let our drillers drill, open new lands, let them drill horizontally, let them frack, let them open the pipelines from canada, assist mexico to develop their oil industry. it would help them with jobs and help us with oil. and now israel. we need to take from israel one mile of territory inside their bord border, completely around the border and then we need to take another mile of arab land around there in the two-mile zone, we should station our troops, we should have anti-missile systems, anti personnel systems. we should state to the world our clear commitment that no one can throw a rock or send a missile or a rocket into that zone of that area of safety and fire.

if we do that, we will protect the families of israel and we will make us much more safe here at home. [ applause ] warriors, hear me tonight. this is a war. this is war. this is not a time for the faint of heart or the queasy of constitution. we must -- when you walk out of here, remember that you are not just the cream of america, you are the hope of america. we have to fight this war with all of the passion, all of the commitment and all of the energy that we have. and remember, we fight for the glory of god and the nation of his children. and remember, that we fight to bring america back to the

mountain top. godspeed, god bless you. [ applause ] >> beautiful. thank you very much. senator elbert guillory. elbert guillory, louisiana's. news out of the canadian capital today. shots were fired at three places in ottawa, including the national war memorial where a soldier was shot and parliament hill. no arrests have been made. here is some cell phone video of the shootings inside of parliamentary hall. [ gun shot ]

we understand parliament hill in ottawa is still currently on lockdown. cbc news reporting the prime minister will make a statement at some point today on the shootings in ottawa. you can see the tweet from cbc news alerts on your screen. we will continue to follow the situation here on the c-span networks. log on to c-span.org. coming up later today, a discussion on the communications

act of 1934 which created the federal communications commission. speakers will include former fcc commissioner robert mcdowel and former national telecommunications and information administration head larry irving. they will provide recommendations for updating the act to help reflect modern technology. see all that live from the brookings institution at 2:00 p.m. eastern today. tonight on c-span3, washington journal's interview with university of minute's president. it's part of our series. it's followed by a portion of this year's net roots conference nation and views on progressive politics from the campaign for america's future. see it beginning at 8:00 p.m. easte eastern. part part of c-span's

campaign 2014 coverage. follow us on twitter and like us on facebook. c-span is bringing you over 100 senate, house and governor debates. you can share your reactions to what the candidates are saying. the battle for control of congress, stay in touch and engage by following us on twitter, at c-span and liking us on facebook. with live coverage of the u.s. house on c-span and the senate on c-span2, here on c-span3 we show you the most relevant congressional hearings and public affairs events. on weekends, we are the home to american history tv with programs that tell our nation's story, including six unique series. the civil war's 150th anniversary, visiting battlefields and key events. american artifacts, history

bookshelf, with the best known american history writers. the presidency, looking at the policies and legacies of our nation's commander. lectures in history with top college professors. and our new series, real america, features government and educational films from the 1930s through the '70s. created by the cable tv industry and funded by your local cable or satellite provider. watch us in hd, like us on facebook and follow us on twitter. a recent poll from the heritage foundation shows that millions of union members would leave their unions if they could without penalty. next, teachers, former union members and right to work activists discuss their experiences and the reasons why they and others would want to leave their unions. this is just over an hour.

>> good afternoon. welcome to the heritage foundation. we welcome those who join us on all of these occasions on our website. i would ask everyone to make the last courtesy check that cell phones have been turned off. it's always appreciated. of course, we will post the program on the heritage home page for future reference. internet viewers are welcome to send questions or comments e-mailing speaker@heritage.org. dr. ferj is our seable to do re. his academic research focuses on the volatility in the developing world. prior to joining us here at heritage, he was an assistant

professor of economics and a visiting research scholar at northeastern university. he earned his doctor at in economics wi s from the universf rochester and he holds a master's degree from economics and a bachelor's in international affairs from northeastern university. join me in welcome iing salim furth. >> thanks. it's good to see everybody here today. my colleague, who really organized this event and is responsible for bringing this panel together, apologiizes he couldn't be here. i'm pleased to have the privilege of joining the panel to discuss unions and membership in unions. labor unions -- i'm quoting from james here. labor unions are some of the largest political spenders in the united states.

the aflcio spend one-sixth of its budget on politics and lobbies in the 2010 midterm election cycle. that year the american federation of state, county and municipal authorities spent a third of its budget on those activities. in the last midterm election, unions operated ten of the 20 largest political action committees. they made up three of the largest five outside spending groups. excluding the two major political parties. nationwide, unions report they spend over $6 million a year on lobbies and politics and $1.3 in the 2009 election chapter. there's a potential -- we call this pair check fairness