the price for whatever services it is, and the people that have looked at our plans believe that you could reduce premiums for medicare beneficiaries by 6% over an extended period of time. right now, medicare grows at 7% per year. it will overwhelm the budget when you combine it with medicaid, social security, and obamacare. the new entitlement that is going to be exploding into our lives at warp speed here in terms of its -- the cost curve has not been diminished. and so, as it relates to obamacare, i would repeal it. i would move to eliminate the mandates, employer mandates, employee mandates. all the mandated benefits that create this extraordinary cost. i would allow for state exchanges to be created that would require one basic thing, pre-existing conditions, and focus on catastrophic coverage. being the one thing that i think health care should provide to people, and other plans beyond that, but the basic plan would

be a low premium catastrophic coverage to give families peace of mind. you would expand the hsa concept, which has been extraordinarily successful. it's been pushed back under obamacare so people can be reworlded for their healthy lifestyle decisions. you would allow for portability, you would allow for being able to purchase insurance across state lines. and you would focus, as i said, on low premium catastrophic coverage. the government could play a role in providing, as they do now, for low-income people subsidized insurance. but medicaid should be -- could look like a private plan. it could be done as the states decide. what happens in new hampshire might be different than what happens in florida. but, in return for the freedom to create a new plan, we would shift this responsibility to the states. where it existed prior to obamacare, and it's the proper place to do it. yes, sir. >> governor, time for one more question. >> we'll do a few more.

>> hi, my name is mark weston. i read a lot of the things in here, and i agree with them, and i agree with what you're saying tonight. but one of the things i think as we would elect you president would be instilling in you a lot of our trust. part of that is then how do you make decisions? these are decisions that are already made. many of them we would say are crises right now. but there will be new crises that come up. so how do you go about forming a decision on the issues as they arise? >> great question. i always -- there's been a lot of great questions today. but, there's always a really insightful kind of question, and that's leadership. that's the definition of leadership is how you go about making decisions. first, you start, i think, with the premise of knowing what you don't know. not having the arrogance to assume that you know everything. that you're blinded by your own ego. we have a few candidates that i

think may have a little illness in that regard. you have to have humility. you have to have humility to know what you don't know. and then the next step is use the power of the presidency to convene, to get the best ideas, and not just do it in an insular way. one of the joys of service when i was governor that i learned, i learned this, was if you call someone up and ask for their advice, it is the highest form of flattery. and i started doing it because i saw people just, you know, grateful for the chance to give an opinion. i didn't take everybody's opinion. but i did on big decisions, i took the time to listen to people that i respected. and it gave me new insights. it gave me a different perspective. you cannot operate in a bubble. in the presidency, the nature of it is that you're -- you know, you got to protect the president. it's got to be in this secret service is all around you, in fact, the joe biden was in my neighborhood because of the snowstorm, he couldn't get back to -- he was overseas, and he

went, smart guy he went to coral gables for the weekend, because washington was shut down, and the amount of secret service coverage for the vice president was probably five-x more than when my dad was vice president. there's all these mechanisms to make it harder for the president to interact with real people. or people that could give them insight. so first, know what you don't know. and reach out to seek the best advice. secondly, have the most talented team on the field. this administration is comprised, this is an overstatement, but here goes, compromised of political hacks and academics. they're really -- everything is politically motivated. they've centralized a lot of the decision-making as it relates to national security in the white house. and there's a political context for everything. it's wrong. you should have the best and the brightest people that have life experiences that bring diversity of opinion, and allow for a robust discussion about things. trust people, give them the mission, let them go do it.

have their back. but don't micromanage for fear of some political consequence along the way. and that's what i got to do as governor of the state of florida. i picked group -- now, in florida, we didn't pay people much. so i had to -- the extra burden of identifying people's talents before they themselves knew it. talent management is part of this. you make good decisions by empowering people, and finding the best people and empowering them to do things they can't even imagine doing. i have an alumni, the jeb alumni group. first of all i can't tell you how grateful i am. they are fiercely involved in this campaign, giving up whatever it is. there will be 100 of them going door-to-door today, tomorrow, they're all over the place. because they believe in me. because i believed in them. that kind of team is necessary to make the right decisions. and then finally, apart from

getting outside advice and building a team, and this relates to, you know, being informed by my faith, the biggest decisions i've always made, i've prayed on them. i've prayed on them. i'm not ashamed about it. it's an important part. you've got to get serene to make the right decision. you can't always be, you know, too many people live the tyranny of the present. it's just -- it's part of -- and the world we live in, you know, that's all it is. it's winning the -- winning the hour on the news cycle, or winning, you know, the day there's some big things that have to be changed, and you better take a pause, get on your knees, and reflect to be able to make the big decisions, at least in my case again, requires peripheral meditation about this stuff, as well. is that -- [ applause ] yes? governor, my question to you

is obama's executive order on gun control and your stand on the protection of the second amendment. >> i'm all in on the second amendment. i'm all in on all the amends by the way. i think the bill of rights is a package deal. [ applause ] i was the chairman of the national constitution center for a couple years and resigned to pursue this journey i'm on and i fell in love with the constitution again by, you know, being part of this museum honoring our constitution. it is by far and away the greatest manual of how to keep a country moving forward. because it's designed to protect us from our government. and the second amendment is as important as the first. and i have an a-plus rating from the nra, if that matters. i acted on my belief. i didn't just talk about it. i acted on it. and florida has, for example, 1.5 million concealed weapon holders. people are packing in florida.

and it's safer. just plain simple. if people commit crimes with guns they go away a long while in florida. we've had a dramatic reduction in gun violence but law-abiding citizens don't have their rights restricted. this president's first impulse seems to be to win the political argument by taking law-abiding citizens' rights away. and as it relates to his executive order, he doesn't have the power to do it, and even if he did, it's the wrong -- it doesn't -- it won't solve the problem. but it puts him in the position where he wants to be politically. it's all politically motivated. it's not trying to solve the problem. if we were serious about dealing with this epidemic, you know, at least it appears to be this public mass shootings, then the mental health question needs to come back into play. that's the issue that creates this, where people get so -- they start depressed and they go out of control to the point where they're deranged and we don't have any ability to intercept them before they spiral out of control to commit these atrocious acts. and as president of the united states, put aside this one

particular executive order, the president has used executive orders for daca and dapa the direct act kids and their parents. i believe there should be a solution to our immigration problems and i've had detailed plans to lay that out. but what he's doing is unconstitutional. you have to repeal it to respect the constitution. there are people on our side that are arguing well, he did it, we should do it as well. oh, my god. oh, my goodness gracious, a conservative should never, never say that because someone else did it, i'm going to do it. that's latin america. i lived in venezuela. whenever the guy leads in some of these latin american countries the next person tries to prosecute them. you know. that's how they gain power and they say now it's our turn. we would lose our democracy in a heartbeat if we have a president that consistently tramples on the constitution. the executive authority that this president has used that he doesn't have the authority constitutionally to do, i would rescind every one of those rules

and i would do the hard work. which means go to congress. that's how democracy is supposed to work. if you want to change the law, change the law. don't use authority you don't have through executive action. [ applause ] one more. yes, ma'am. and just one more point, get the full therapy to myself on this. appoint an attorney general that has the same reviews, as well. now i feel better. go ahead. >> -- you had to say that you accomplished in florida using the line-item veto and the fact that people's jobs were not guaranteed forever with term limits. but that's not what we have for our president at the time. how would you go about seeing that you had those kinds of options available? >> so service reform you don't need to amend the constitution. it's not a constitutional

guarantee. it's a law. you just have to go to congress and allow for that power that i have. we changed the law in florida. i didn't do it unilaterally. we went and changed the law. you'd have to change the law. the law has been changed as it relates to the veterans administration already. and i think there's more that can be done to reform the department of veterans affairs as well as public employment in general. the balanced-budget amendment and the line-item veto power. the line-item veto power there is a version that you could do by passing -- by congress granting you. it's the power of rescission. you could do that. if you wanted pure line-item veto power you would have to amend the constitution because it was ruled unconstitutional in the clinton years. the balanced-budget amendment, same thing. how do you get those things done? the states. the states have to do this. washington's not going to get a balanced -- i mean, no democrat or no liberal is going to support this, because they, you know, generally, not just democrats, but in general, it's

fun to have a bottle of bourbon and the keys to the maserati and have a good time every day. it's a lot more fun than how miserable would it be to actually do your job where you lived within the means of the people that you're serving. my guess it will be through a constitutional convention formed by the states. never been done before but the constitution provides for this, and it has to be done in a way that restricts how you go about doing it because you don't want a runaway convention. but term limits, balanced-budget amendment, line-item veto power, all of those things i think would be appropriate to do through a constitutional convention of the states. one more. one more then i'm going to head to concord. just go ahead. >> what would you want to do to solve the problem of student loan debt? >> oh, i'm glad you asked that. that's a good way to end. so just to remind you.

jeb2016.com. i'm proud of the team that we put together to lay out really detailed plans. there's no secret plans here. the bigger the challenge, the more you have to say what you're for. and you can't just say hey, it's going to be huge, it's going to be great. that's not a plan, either. so, what we propose is -- actually it's pre-k to life reform of education. because all of it's bad. all of it's not been modernized, been brought into the 21st century. part of it is to create education savings accounts for people in -- near or at the poverty level. where you can build up that so that they can afford college. that's the first part of this. or they can use it to go to private schools in the k-12 setting. or they can use it for apprenticeships or other things. that every chance -- my first impulse is to empower people rather than institutions. i just think america does it better when it's a bottom-up approach, rather than a top-down

approach where we're protecting the institutions at all cost. but as it relates to the student loan program i would eliminate it. pretty radical idea. [ applause ] you would start from going forward, you know, for those that had it, have student loans, they could opt in to the plan i'm going to describe to you, or they could continue to operate under the current system. i would shift it to the department of treasury to manage it. the department of education is not designed to manage a loan portfolio of $1.2 trillion. it's doubled in size, by the way, since obama nationalized the student loan program through obamacare. you know, done kind of without -- because no one read it, you know. that was -- no one read -- nancy pelosi said in order to read it you're going to have to vote for it. wow. that's -- the civics books -- the founders are turning over in their graves and i don't think the civics books quite put it that way. but this $1.2 trillion portfolio would wind down. so going forward, if you wanted

to get -- you wanted to have access to higher education, here's what i propose. a $50,000 line of credit for any high school graduate. that you could draw down for an aa degree, a.s. degree, apprenticeships, career certification, you know, being a plumber gives you a higher wane than probably being a four-year psych major. and psych majors, look, they're fine. please, i'm -- i've been to this movie where you use a degree and everybody rips into you. i'm all for psych majors if that's -- if you've thought it through. if you've actually understood what the economic, you know, decision is. so, if you had a $50,000 line of credit, in effect, and you would use it, you could draw it down for every $10,000 you would pay it back one percent of your income. so if you drew down the entire

$50,000 you would pay back over 25 years, unless you did it earlier, 5% of your income. no recourse set. no interest rates. it is simply basically the government is saying, i'm going to be your partner. and i'm going to take -- you're going to pay back the money that i give you, the government gives you, out of your income tax. have you gotten a student loan before? >> yeah. i have -- >> well, it's a lot -- it's complicated, isn't it? and it's burdensome. and it's very bureaucratic. and this would be a simple system of using the current -- i mean the income tax system of repayment. and it wouldn't be a burden. if you didn't make money one year, you don't pay back money. if you made more money you would pay more money back proportional to the income you make. it's an elegant way to deal with this issue. and here's the other benefit of it, by putting a cap on it, it challenges the higher -- the schools to do this for less. this is the problem.

student loans are financing the higher tuition costs. this is insidious. we're putting recourse debt on the next generation of people, they can't do -- i mean there was a story yesterday or two days ago in a town hall meeting, i guess it was two weeks ago i was here, it's been like one blur. this lady gets up, and she says, good news. my daughter's getting married. everybody applauds. and bad news. she and her fiancee have $270,000 of debt. not so good news. they're going to live with me. now she didn't seem to be too worried about that. she actually, i think, loved her daughter and was happy that she's not leaving. but i'm not sure the guy with the engineering degree is going to be too happy about that. people want to start their own life. and we've now put this burden on

young people and the cost of higher education grows, financed by this. we should be creating -- schools should have skin in the game. if you can't get the degree in the time that you're expected to get it there should be withholding of some of this money so the universities do everything they can to fulfill their part of the bargain. when you're a freshman entering freshman, there should be a clear path to get a four-year degree in four years. you know what we measure four-year degree completion rates in? six years. full-time equivalent students are measured by 12 credit hours instead of 15 now. and 60% of public students in our country graduate with a four-year degree in six years. with student debt on top of it. maybe a better way is to do what i'm proposing and then do what florida does. which is every person that goes to the university of florida, which has some of the highest admission rates -- requirements of any -- for in-state students, they pay no tuition. because we have our lottery moneys go for what's called the bright future scholarship

program. and it's merit based. maybe states should get in the game here to provide support for young people that are striving for success. i graduated, i'm not bragging here, but i graduated in 2 1/2 years but i took a semester off. and i worked. and i was on the tennis team for one year. and now think about it, 18 hours of semester, i assumed i maybe studied an hour for each hour in the classroom, now i'm up to 36. i worked part-time i probably got to 50 hours. i've always worked more than a 50 hour work week. i'm 62 years old right now. when i was 21 i could have worked 100 hours a week. i mean, we should have higher expectations for young people, and we should have our -- much higher expectations for the institution. there should be classes going on on fridays. professors should be teaching more classes. the primary objective of higher education needs to be graduating. with a degree of purpose and meaning. where people can start their life out not burdened by the

debt that you're facing. this is one of many things that are broken that we haven't changed. and i'll conclude with this. if you want your government to be mired in the mid 20th century, because that's where it is, whether it's our welfare system, where we trap people in poverty, where we don't reward work, where marriage is -- makes it harder for people to access any assistance, where people aren't lifted up, they're trapped. if you want an entitlement system that is broken, that will create debt as far as the eye can see. it worked in 1950. it doesn't work now. if you want a regulatory system that might have worked when hubert hum try was in the united states senate and lyndon johnson was president, if you want all that stuff, don't vote for me. because i'm going to turn the whole darn place upside down and bring our government into the 21st century. and make it smaller -- [ applause ] to get it out of the way, so that everybody can reach their

god-given abilities. that's the mission. and i humbly ask for your support. if you're on the board already, get five other people or ten other people to do the same. history's going to be determined by what you all do on tuesday night. and i'm excited about it. thank you all very much. [ applause ]

>> i came here in march, and the snow -- >> that was last year. >> fantastic. >> all right. nice to see you. >> thank you. >> good luck. thank you. >> love to have your vote. >> i'm so glad to hear you. >> that's fantastic. >> i think that's a loss -- >> just remember there's an inverse -- where are we looking?

where's the camera? whose camera are we using? >> not mine. >> all right, guys. >> that will work. >> great to see you. >> good to see you. >> thank you so much. thank you. thank you. >> yeah, thank you for being here. thanks for your help. >> you sold me my house. >> you're kidding? really? >> thank you.

>> -- fantasy football. >> -- to do everything. >> i had the best record but i lost in the playoffs. >> oh. >> when gronkowski got hurt -- >> it started the downturn started. >> right at the end of the season, too. >> yeah. yeah. >> thank you so much, governor. >> yes, ma'am. >> sign this. >> she vote in absentee? >> i will but i'll see her tomorrow. i'm going to give a big group hug. >> dorothy. >> her name's dorothy? that was my grandmother's name. >> nice to meet you. >> nice to meet you. >> i appreciate your answer. i really did. it means a lot when somebody -- >> hope that rhetoric -- i appreciate it. >> thank you so much. >> thank you so much.

>> well, it's -- it was a very insightful question, because it's -- ♪ >> you learn this, this is an acqui acquired experience. you do this by experience. you make sound decisions through the trial and error of life. you learn how to do it. some of these guys have not been -- i mean the best decisions that i have made is when i can draw back on times where i made a mistake, or i had an adverse event where i was knocked on my rear. and dusted myself off and gave me time to pause and say, how could i have done that better? [ inaudible ]

>> thank you, great pleasure. >> i wanted to thank you. weatherford is in north texas, right? >> central. >> central? >> i totally missed. i was thinking it was near fort worth. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> from the bittersweet farm where your brother ran in 2004. >> take care, buddy. >> yeah. >> yes, sir. >> my uncle was in california -- >> oh, great. [ inaudible ]

thank you, ma'am. how you doing? nice to see you. [ inaudible ] >> thank you. thank you. >> we'll do that. >> appreciate it. >> wrr they go? >> oh, thank you. >> what's their name? >> one is amanda. >> we doing a press gaggle? >> i don't think so.

>> is this yours? >> you got that one. >> oh, there he is. >> here i am. >> where have you been? >> good to see you, governor. >> thank you, allen. >> [ inaudible ] >> oh, really? >> fantastic. >> that's cool. >> thank you. >> [ inaudible ] >> he wrote this? in his spare time? >> governor, thank you for coming back. i always wanted to join the army

when your father was in office -- >> you look way too young for that. >> 24 years in the army, just want to give you my card. taking care of the physical therapists -- >> all right. >> just want to get a picture. >> very good. by the way, 260,000 in debt? the daughter is -- her debt was because she's getting a ph.d. in physical therapy. >> i have friends that have more than $250,000. so -- spent $300,000. a little bit lopsided. >> you get a ph.d. you're not generating additional income, it's because you love the teaching or something. >> right. thank you very much. >> good luck to you. >> hi. >> thank you for all -- my

daughter's first time voting will be this tall. >> i'd love to have you vote. >> you talk about actual issues. thank you for that. >> thank you. >> appreciate it. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> any chance for a picture? >> we have -- >> sneak around. >> how you doing? >> nice to meet you. >> nice to meet you, too. >> love to have your vote. >> someone said -- >> no problem. thank you. >> i'm good. >> thank you very much. >> i doesn't do it.

>> thank you so much. thank you. i wish everybody had a chance to visit with everybody. thank you. god bless. >> tell me about your student loans. i didn't want to ask you in front of everybody. 11 [ inaudible ] >> what's the total balance? >> right now, it's around i'd say about $40,000 if i had to guess. >> what's your degree? >> u.s. history and secondary ed. >> you could use it for teaching, maybe -- >> well that's what i originally thought but the school i went to, they don't have [ inaudible ] so i did that, and i didn't prepare for it, honestly. i didn't do well at it. >> part of the answer is there

should be greater -- in your first year. say i guess i don't like it. never have the opportunity -- this is not designed around customizing and based on the needs of the student. >> i like what you said about making the universities and colleges -- i went to they only offered certain classes certain semesters, so essentially i would say -- >> that makes no sense. >> yeah. >> i mean, when i went to the university of texas i literally got out in two years. i started as a sophomore and i did -- there were always the availability of courses to take. >> yeah. >> and i could get courses -- effectively i went from 8:00 to 12:00 or 9:00 to 12:00 on mondays through fridays.

so i had the whole afternoon to work for, you know, i played on the tennis team one year. and i, you know, paid for my low tuition. >> yeah. >> back then it was the lowest in the country. so it wasn't as big a challenge at the university of texas. but certainly made it easier. usually you don't have a degree or a certificate that shows your skill, you can't make it. >> and i think there needs to be more truthful education about the investment. i was 18 years, not even 18 years, 17 years old. >> our plan if you read it off the internet, you'll see that it includes the requirement of a total focus on counseling. >> yeah. >> so you don't -- it doesn't come as a surprise as you experienced. anyway. >> thank you very much. >> you can read it.

>> you can -- couple tornadoes in florida, right? >> a little lighter -- >> [ inaudible ] we may be a very small part of global warming but the real catalyst what's going on out in space the solar storms and the solar activity on the sun. the earth is not on track going

around the sun. -- moving through space. look, no one's ever talking about solar activity on the sun, and let's face it, everything we all -- comes from the sun no doubt and there's now [ inaudible ] when the earth gets overcharged we have kind of -- >> you have information about this so i can read? >> great scientists from florida. >> you have information you could send me, i can't read a book about it but i can read articles or information. >> you're open minded? >> yeah, i love to learn. >> well, look, we've all been on this planet quite a bit longer than we think. we're not just human beings. we're spiritual beings having a human experience. things are not like we think on this planet. everybody wants to transform the planet with a future. how about -- [ inaudible ] >> send me the info. >> i will. >> thank you.

>> i'm from denver, colorado. davey. >> all right. thank you. [ inaudible ] >> i have a record. she can talk about early childhood education -- >> i know that over her. [ inaudible ] >> why better than me? because i -- i can win. i can win. and i've got a proven record. i've got a record that you can take to the bank. you can trust me because i've already done it. i've been --

>> -- governor who is really running a business. >> -- in the private sector rebuilt the business with 260 employees. >> talk about it. >> happy early birthday. >> thanks, guys, for the help. appreciate it. >> the new hampshire primary is next tuesday, and c-span's road to the white house coverage continues with jeb bush thursday at a town hall meeting at west running brook middle school in derry, new hampshire. he'll be joined by his mother, former first lady barbara bush, and we'll bring it to you live, 7:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. the citizens of the granite state are not easily won. the country meeting places are hotbeds of political discussion.

in village, town and city, voters brave bitter snow and sleet to cast their votes. >> thanks to the people of new hampshire. >> it's good to be back here in new hampshire >> the first in the nation primary. >> new hampshire. >> new hampshire. >> new hampshire. >> hey, he's from new hampshire. >> it's great to be back in new hampshire. >> one reporter has called new hampshire's primary the most cherished of american political tribal rites. ♪ >> governor, thank you so much for coming to new hampshire. >> thank you. >> this is a place where you can observe a candidate in the heat of a dialogue, in the heat of getting tough questions about their positions on the issues. it's not just a place where there's a scripted speech. >> new sh