budget, and that is what i specialize in. this new budget that the present road doubles the federal debt in five years and triples it in 10 years. congress added new layers of entitlement spending on top of the over $60 a trillion of all unfunded liabilities we have today, threatening the collapse of the level of taxes and get better coming due. the course of this liberal congress has been imprudent and irresponsible, of violating moral and economic norms. we can't sustain our commitments or keep stacking up liabilities and varying ourselves and our children in debt. we can't expect our bonds one day given that many other governments around the world following the same reckless course of our own congress. i have offered an alternative budget that fosters prosperity by bringing spending under control.

i offered an entitlement reform legislation. rather than depending on government for your retirement and security, i propose to empower people to become much more self depended for these things in life. right now, in this moment as we debate it, the key priority of the left, which they hope to the neck by this fall, is a government run health care option that quickly becomes a government-run health care monopoly. to most americans want a nationalized 70% of our economy? serving our nation's medical needs is no different than serving any other public need. free market can provide affordable and effective services of every kind and conservatives must have better ways to achieve health care reform. this of all things that is happening this year is probably the most important that will

affect the future of our country. colleagues and i introduced a comprehensive health-care bill. americans can have universal access to quality, affordable health care without the government taking it over and without adding trillions of new taxes and spending. our bill start with and revolves around the individual, not the government. it reforms health care by strengthening the relationship between the patient and doctor and relies on choice and competition. conservatives must also expand opportunities for international trade to ensure a level playing field for american products and workers. 97% of american consumers are outside of this country. we want to have a good climate so we can achieve global competition, so we can lead and shape this economy. you have to start with our tax code. it is a job killer.

i propose to replace the entire corporate income tax which is the second highest in the industrialized world with a consumption tax. it would take the tax off of exports, put an equal tax on imports, and businesses and firms would be able to write off 100% of their investment immediately. another issue is monetary policy. it is going to be more and more important as time goes on. it is the root cause of our current financial crisis and it is a key for the recovery and sustained growth. for most of our history, the dollar was accepted everywhere. its stability was guaranteed by the federal reserve could. the humphrey-hawkins act require the government to follow a man did.

so often, these goals conflict with one another matter how knowledgeable are well intentioned, the fed can't meet either gold very well. i am not one to blame chairman ben bernanke for this because congress is hutu plan to set up these conflicting targets 30 years ago. it is imperative we get off of this inflationary-deflationary roller coaster such as the one that we are living to right now. when it comes to managing the national currency, virtue has a central role. at the end of the day, the central bank cannot cheat or paper over problems. sooner or later, such decisions will catch up with us and the victims will be the people. long-term economic growth and rising living standards are the major purposes of government and they require a currency that holds predictable value. it is time conservatives broke through the wall of silence and started a national dialogue

aimed at ending the cycle of instability and restoring the dollar standard of value. the course of our current course of leaders in congress is entirely different. they have been in the first principles that made america a free nation and inspired our people with a character for greatness. their alternative to the unchanging rights of persons is a culture of change or relativism. their alternative to individual freedom is the european collective the state. they claim the label " progressive," but nothing is more un-progressive than government ownership of banks or the means of production such as auto companies. the 20th century's most conspicuous failure was socialism everywhere it was tried. relativism clams that there are no objective or self-evident truths. every leading being has its own

truth. your freedom is someone else is slavery. the european and lead have almost succumbed. the american elite are quickly catching up. can anything be more dispiriting? why would anyone defend freedom when it has more value than personal taste like preferring the color pink or limburger cheese? laws shape the habit of the human soul. the government on limited by natural rights expands to eliminate every risk, meet every need, and satisfy every pleasure. it ends up destroying happen is, the natural end of the human soul. relativism leads to solicit government. freedom rooted in natural rights leads to a government that honors and respects true human

dignity. in other words, the struggle between market freedom and a european social welfare state is a moral struggle. my friends in this room, our only real problem is getting the people to hear the facts and explaining the consequences. you and i must engage ourselves in the saving of western civilization. the principles of human individuality and greatness. it falls on the honor of the american people to make this decision for mankind. recover human freedom or sink into centuries of darkness only made worse by the pretensions of progress. if you think the views expressed are pessimistic, you would be mistaken. this is an exciting time to be an american. we have the occasion and the opportuny to reignite the opportunity of america. they have taken a hard left turn. they have revealed their disdain

of the principles that have built america. the founders built the house on a solid rock to withstand such storms. whenever americans have been confronted, they have chosen freedom, prosperity, and national greatness. give the people a fair opportunity to make an informed choice however stark. i am more than an optimist. i am confident they will prefer god's noblest gift to man, the gift of individual freedom. thank you very much and enjoyed your afternoon. [applause] >> all the way from humphrey- hawkins to philosophical relativism. when the american enterprise

institute concluded its search for a new president after the long and distinguished career of the previous, it turned to a gentle man that made a name for himself in phalanger feet -- in a philanthropy. he argued that conservatives tend to give more to charity than liberals. in his next volume, he maintained that conservatives were happier than liberals. as we continue our search this morning for conservatives that are not only generous and happy but also credible, it seems only appropriate that we turn as well to arthur brooks, who will serve as our moderator this morning and who will introduce our other speaker and our panelists. >> thank you to all of you. i am very grateful to have an

opportunity to be with you this morning. my gratitude to the bradley foundation and to the hudson institute for making this possible and to all of you for your attention and your thinking on this important issue with us here today. what i am going to try to do in the next two minutes is try to frame the question a little bit. what can we do to make conservative credible again? furthermore, i am going to see if we can redirect that from an offensive question -- not offensive, but on the offense. offensive to some. how can we make conservatism successful again and not just credible? the question during this period, that i get all the time, what is the future of american conservatism?

for a researcher like me, we would say that is an empirical question. let's look at the data about what they say. if you ask americans, do you believe free markets are the best way to organize our economy despite severe ops and downs? 70% still say yes, 20% say now. the remaining 10% don't understand the question. that is very encouraging. 70%. point in fact, the core of the conservative movement polls at 70% in virtually every question. something has clearly gone wrong. there are some conflicting data that show us how things have gone wrong. if you ask americans, what system do you prefer? only 13% of people over 40 say

socialism, but 33% of americans under 30 say socialism. maybe, they will just grow up and like you and me start paying taxes. but maybe not. because what we know from the environment in which congressman ryan is working right now, if the obama administration and the democratic congress have their way, one year from now, 49% of all working americans will have zero american tax liability, which is to say the democratic government is working flat out to make free enterprise no longer a mainstream pocketbook issue. that is a threat to the principles of the culture of free enterprise and it is a threat. the question therefore is not whether or not there are threats. the question is, what are we going to do about it?

when we ask what we are going to do, it suggests that the culture of free enterprise is something that is in our hands. in my view, there are two things that we need to do. the first action item is recognizing that we can not only make the economic case for free enterprise. we have to make the moral case for free enterprise. if an already rich country, we cannot convince americans that money is not just about the money, that prosperity is not about character, if we cannot make that case, we are lost. we have to be able to make the moral case and make it well and make it again. the second is that we need policies that are not just no, but rather, what can americans grasp on to prove how are

conservatives going to show themselves to americans as being the authenticates for the future and the case for reform in the ways that americans really care about? those are the questions at hand. successfully answering those questions will take the nature of a panel like this to going strictly on the offense and saying how will we be successful again? for that, we turn to a distinguished panel. we will start with gov. mitch daniels, former ceo of the hudson institute, former board member of the bradley association. he is becoming better and better known to main street americans about the kind of conservative reform that i am talking about today. the editor of the new it atlantic journal will give us

his views finally, rich lowery. obviously, they are going to have a lot to say. [applause] >> i noticed in hudson's bulletin announcing this event, i am described as not shy about telling my party what it needs to do. well, i am shy. i have docked a lot of opportunities to mouth off about it. given my affection and loyalty to the two organizations that brought us together, i could not say no. i am very privileged and will go

anywhere for the good people of hudson or those at the bradley foundation. i think we are here because we are all stunned and concerned by what i have come to think of as the shock and awe state that we have seen. one might call it audacious endeavor to overwhelm the defenses of freedom and free institutions before they have a chance to regroup or organize themselves. we worry that there will be a left wing ratchet, those things that were put in place at to the power of the state cannot diminish the spirit of the individual, we fear,ill prove irreversible. i am neither fatalistic or pessimistic about the prospects. i am a presbyterian. we are supposed to be

fatalistic, theologically maybe. my preacher used to say that a presbyterian is someone that falls down a flight of stairs and says, "well, i am glad i got that over with." [laughter] i don't come at this subject pessimistically either. when i step back, even from the shock of current events and ask myself again, and arthur's data pointed in this direction, are americans predisposed to forfeit hard earned liberties that have proven themselves over and over again? i do not see it. i can make the opposite case. the best educated people ever on the planet possess the

technology that empowers individuals in a way that we have never seen before. bigness in all of its forms observing a federal government that is every bit as clumsy as it ever was and dysfunctional. just wait until what it tries what is about to try. i think such people are less likely and not more likely than ever before to be herded by tghe ehe other leaders in mass transit, smaller cars, or homogenized health care. i think we are going to try to squeeze americans into these boxes e the ones who are pushing water uphill. but still, the topic for which

we are assembled is a huge job. let me try to -- i can't sum it up for you better than what paul did. pillars on which we stand, historical roots of our freedom, let me try to adapt my reflections in a complementary way to his. i think conservatism that will be credible in the years ahead will be active, forward- looking, constructed, constructive, intimately connected with the lives of average citizens, and friendly. let me just go 3 these contentions and try to illustrate briefly. emerson once wrote that there tends to always be a party of memory and a party of hope.

we must be, as we have been in our better days, the party of hope. someone once said conservatism is a democracy including the dead. at least in my state, -- i don't spend much time campaigning to them. that is a wonderful phrase when that expresses our reverence for tradition and our commitment to fundamental timeless principles. in making our believes credible and prevalent once again in this country, our sites must be resolutely forwarding to the future. an incredibly moving speech was

given at the graveyard about the enzio beach head. he give the entire speech to the cross is behind it. in my view, we must with respect to direct ourselves almost entirely to the young people of this country. when we speak to them, we are speaking to their parents and grandparents that want the best for them. i think it is a starting point for our recovery that we examined every issue and present every issue in terms of its implications for those who will soon inherit leadership in this country. i come from a state that is an ominous these days. it has been entrusted with leadership. in our state, we are the party

of purpose. we are the party that defines the agenda, makes new proposals relentlessly, and then pursues them with all of the vigor we have. we are indebted by the opposition at the moment which can only be described as a reactionary, which helps. they are negative, they are backward-looking, they are everything that we must not be. one day, they will recover their footing and bring forward new ideas. for the moment, that is the state of play. we try to never be without an idea on the table or a major change under way. i love the story of winston churchill in his last days of public service after the war, second tore as prime minister, in the '50s, he goes to the office one morning.

the naval briefing officer says really not much to report this morning, mr. prime minister. nothing much is happening. winston churchill said, "let's make something happen." our presentation and our ideas must not be borne in of distractions but in an understanding of connection. if we are going to present a people's agenda, we must not only a searcssert but assert wih credibility. and the tape, which will -- empathy, which is what adam was

talking about, to feel deeply about the concerns, the hopes, and the fears of other people is something that must be visibly a part of what we do. i like meetings like this. i have been to a lot of them. one of my friends that described such things as the leader of the theory class. there is a place for that. but if we are to become credible, if we are to achieve leadership through popular consent, we are going to have to earn it. there is a special burden on us. let's be honest. we must never conflate conservatism with the republican party. we have a very special burden.

you can be a silver spoon, blue blood, windsurfing, coastal in the test, but if you where the democratic label, you are presumed to be empathetic and understand the problems of everyday people and vice versa. it is unfair, untrue, but it is reality. it is the reality we must deal with. i have spent the last six years traveling constantly in the back roads in the inner cities of my state. when i stayed overnight with the alexandria family in yorktown. it was probably the 80th time that i have done this. i stayed with people of every description. i traveled by recreational vehicle 100,000 miles probably and many more on one of my two motorcycles. i performed impromptu weddings

and bars. [laughter] when i do this, i learn things and i am able than, i hope, to present and express ideas that you would find familiar in a language that, maybe, helps to bring to us people that might not be reached at the level of of distraction. i don't use the 'd' and the 'r' word. i don't talk about liberals and conservatives. it is not a language i hear people using very often where i see them. if you were to examine what we do, if you were to look at our house karen -- our health care plan for the uninsured, they are

in total control of their health care and for the dollar's better used to pay for it. if you believe that they have the judgment to look out for themselves, if you look for our telecom changes, yes, there is the regulation. i don't talk about that. we affected the largest privatization in american history three years ago. i have never used the 'p' word. we harvested close to $4 billion without a penny of raising taxes or a penny of borrowing. a fabulous success, but we have

presented it as a practical solution to a very real world problem. an idea or a would be movement is only as good as the answers and eventually the results that it produces. a couple of other thoughts. we must recover the fiscal high ground and its available to us. i tell you with certainty, concern about debt and deficit has not gone out of style. many americans are more conscious of it today because they recognize it in their lives and the lives of a neighbor or the life of some business there were associated with. people borrowed too much, saved too little, and are paying a serious consequence. you are seeing saving rates rise

in america. that is a conservative virtue, don't forget. everything paul talked about, about the worsening picture long term, the threat that it poses to every young person, presents an opening. but let's face it. as a group of like-minded people, as a party, a lot of credibility has been forfeited over recent years. it will not return overnight. i think it will only return if we are prepared to engage in some grown-up conversation. i am not a seasoned office holder. i have only held one office and will be the last one i will hold i think i have got enough evidence to say that you could talk to americans as adults.