thank you, grand junction, thank you. . n. [applause] [applause] @@@@@@@@@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that will weaken make sure we get through more questions during the course of this event. ok? let's see a hand. i will start with a gentle lady right here.

let's see hands, and i will start with this young lady right here in the pink blouse. can you check that mike? does it work? >> good afternoon. i work at rocky mount orthopedics here in grand junction. i would like to extend an invitation for you to visit our successful practice to see how we provide excellent health care at a lower average cost to our patients. my question is, the regional healthcare house bill included funding for federally qualified health centers whose future budget would be based on expenses plus inflation. if private physicians, hospitals, and other providers

are going to be given incentives to reduce waste and cost, what will be done to ensure the government programs will do the same? >> is an excellent question. -- it is an excellent question. what is so important about reform is that right now, the way medicare and medicaid operates, if it is starting to go over budget, you basically have two choices, either raise taxes and just keep on pay more and more, and health care inflation is going up at least twice as fast as inflation on everything else, or what we do is just tell the providers will give you less money. we will reimburse you 80 cents or 90 cents for every dollar of services you provide. and then what happens is that the providers in of discharging people with private insurance to make up for the difference.

so that drives everybody's costs up. what has been done here in grand junction and other outstanding programs like mayo, they have started to change the delivery system so you are getting more bang for your health care dollar. let me give you an example. right now, if you go to your doctor and get a test, a lot of times, that test will not be forwarded to the next doctors are specialists that you have to see. you have to take another test. you might have to take three or four or five tests by the time your treatment is all complete. that is a waste of money, and if we can incentivize the provider to say do one test and then email the results to everybody who might be providing treatment or the patient might be referred to, that right there

saves a lot of money. so what we want to do is to do this in medicare and medicaid, which will ientivize a lot of health systems around the country to start using some of the smart practices that you are using. frankly, medicare and medicaid provide a lot of care for a lot of patients, particularly seniors. if they hear from medicare, can you start doing things smarter, they have the incentive to do it. once they put a smarter system in place, the benefits spillover to the private insurance market as well. we want to do it through medicare and medicaid, but we also want to see in the private insurance market that heah providers start thinking smarter and providing better care, which often turns out to be lower-cost care. it is not going to happen overnight, because a lot of these systems have been put in place for a long time.

you are in grand junction or the mayo clinic or another good health care system, each year they are continually comparing notes. they have a peer review process where doctors are exchanging ideas, and they are continually making the system better and smarter, and over time, we can bend the cost curve so that instead of having inflation go a lot faster than everything else, it matches everything else. if we could just get health care inflation to match the inflation on food and other items, all of our long-term deficit problems would be solved. just that alone. if we could just reduce the amount of health care inflation, are long-term deficit problems would be sold. this is the most important thing we can do for deficit reduction. i want everybody to remember

that, because in this debate, we have heard a lot people say we cannot afford to do this because our deficits and debt are too high. the biggest driver of our deficit and debt is health care. if we do not change the delivery systems and that some of the innovations that are being used where you work and in really good health care systems run the country, then we are going to be in red ink for ever. thank you so much for the question. [applause] the gentleman in the red shirt back there. wait for the mike, so everybody can hear you. >> thank you, mr. president, for taking my question. i have been the health insurance business for over 25 years. i am a big steelers fan as well.

>> are you allowed to confess that here? [laughter] >> you have asked many times why insurance companies are so afraid of competing with a public plan option of coverage. i understand insurance companies need to get spanked every now and then for sure, but if the public plan option reimburses on average 55 cents a contract of every dollar of care to the provider, the private insurance plans a contract reimburse an average of 85 cents per dollar of care, how could it be considered fair competition, and thank you for being here today. >> i think it is a good question. for those of you who have not been following the debate as

closely, let me just describe what this issue of the public plan is all about. to do so, i have to describe how we are looking to provide health insurance for people who currently do not have it. i spent most of my time talking about what we would do for folks who have health insurance, but we still have 46 million uninsured. i think it is the right thing to do to provide them with some help. most of them work, most of them are responsible, but their employer just cannot afford it because they do not have the bargaining power to get low enough rates to cover all their employees. that is a big category of the uninsured. what we have said is, let's set up what is called a health insurance exchange. it is essentially a marketplace where you could go online and

you would have a menu of options. most of them private insurers, aetna, bluecross blueshield, insurance companies that want to participate. they will list a range of plans , just like when mike and mark want to get health insurance as members of the senate, they go on to this exchange for federal employees and they select which plan works best for their families. so we want everybody to be able to access that and choose which plan works best for them. they cannot afford it, even though we have a lot of bargaining power and would be able to get the same kinds of breaks that the big companies are able to get or the federal system is able to get, some people will still not be able to afford it, and then we would provide some subsidies. there would be rules that govern in the insurance company that participate.

you cannot exclude for pre- existing conditions, you have to limit out-of-pocket expenses. all the insurers also talked about would be part of the deal if you wanted to sell insurance through this exchange. so far, so good. the argument around public option is, should one of the choices on that exchange be a public auction? the idea here would be that a government run not for profit would have its own option that people could sign up for. they would not have to, but they could sign up for it. it would keep its costs and provide good quality service and benefits, and that would help keep the insurance companies honest, because the idea being that as a not-for-profit, potentially with lower administrative costs, they could do a good job.

the insurance companies have come back and said that is not fair, because nobody can compete against the government. they have legitimate points if what is being done is the government is either subsidizing the government plan and taking taxpayer money and saying we will just keep on spending money it regardless of whether you run a good operation and not. it is hard for them to compete against that. i have already said a public auctiooption will only work if y compete on a level playing field. the second argument that has been made is the one that you just made, which is if the public option is reimbursing at medicaid rates that are substantially lower than what private insurers have to

negotiate for, then eventually private insurers might be run out of business. what has happened in the house bill, as has been modified, is they have said we will negotiate rates that will not be medicaid rates. that actually solves the problem you are addressing, because now this would be a negotiated process and prices would not be set just to medicaid. there's a third argument against the public option, the idea that we should not have government involved at all, that government is part of the problem, not part of the solution, to quote ronald reagan. we have some supporters of that view. i think you can have a legitimate position just saying you do not want to see more government involvement.

i understand the argument. the only thing i would point out is that medicare is a government program that works really well for our seniors and has protected people -- let's not start yelling. it is true that it is expensive, but the truth is, the cost of medicare -- inflation has actually gone up at a slower rate than private insurance. it is not because it is mismanaged. is because of what was referred to in the first question. it is not a government per se. it has to do with the fact that the delivery systems are not working the way they should. if you just believe that governments should not be involved in anything, then you are right, you cannot support the kind of reform we are

proposing. the only thing i want to make sure of is that you make an honest argument. nobody is talking about government takeover of health care. there is a difference between what we are proposing, which has some government involvement, versus the idea that somehow government is going to take over everything and get between you and your doctor. that is not what we are proposing. we can have an honest disagreement, but i just want to be clear on what the debate is about. it is about this narrow issue about the public plan. it is not about somehow it is not about somehow >> it is a young lady stern. -- young lady's turn. >> hello, mr. president, and the deeper being here. >i am a nursing student.

[applause] being that i am a health-care provider there are a few things and the plan that i read about that i wanted to understand more as far as providers been required to report -- what was the word -- preventable medical errors. we are required to report every error we see. i want a clarification of how much you are expecting from providers in this system. >> different states have different rules. we have a patchwork. i confess that i do not know exactly what the rules are here in colorado. but about 100,000 people die every year from preventable

diseases and illnesses in hospitals. diseases and illnesses in hospitals. some of the ways that we could solve this are so simple. there is actually a doctor who has put together a protocol, a lot of just basic stuff that cost no money, that has been shown repeatedly to cut these preventable illnesses and deaths down drastically by magnitude of 50%, 75% reductions in preventable deaths, just by applying these things that do not cost any money. so the question then becomes, how we get more hospitals, more doctors, more health systems to adopt these systems? the best way to do it is to make sure that not only are they reporting is preventable errors, but that they are also available

to consumers, the american people, so that if they have too many of them come after while they start getting embarrassed. if you found out that there are two hospitals here in this city and one hospital has half the preventable deaths of the other hospital, you want to know that, wouldn't you? the problem is right now, often it is hard for consumers to get that information directly. so the idea is simply to make sure that that information is packaged in a way where you can comparison shop and your employer can comparison shop so that we are putting competitive pressure to improve quality across the system. that is what we are talking about. [applause] by the way, thank you for being a nurse, because we need more nurses. that is important.

[applause] the gentleman right here in the t-shirt. hold on one second. >> thank you for coming to colorado. it is a great place. you touched on this and i would like to expand a little more. this problem with misinformation in our country. it seems to me that it is not only just starting health care reform, it is dividing our country. is it not may be time -- i think we all know where it is coming from. is it not time that -- i have to watch what i am saying. >> let me address this. health care is really hard.

this is not easy. i am reasonably dedicated student to this issue. i have a lot of really smart people around me who have been working on this for months now. we have really fine public servants like senators bennett and udall who are working on this and thinking about a lot. the truth is, i want to be completely honest here, there is no perfect, painless silver bullet out there that solves every problem, gives everybody perfect health care, for free. there is n. i wish there was. i wish i could just say we are going to change the system, everybody will get as much care

as they want, anytime they want, everybody will have a, and it will not cost anything. doctors will be happy and nurses will be happy, hospitals will be happy, insurance companies will still make a lot of profits, drug companies will be leveled the charges much as they want -- will be able to charge as much as they want. i cannot do it. nobody can. what i can do is try to sort through what are all the options available, be realistic about where we are going on healthcare, and say to myself, if we keep on doing what we are doing, we are in a world of hurt. we cannot afford what we are doing right now. more people will lose health insurance. more employers will drop coverage. medicare and medicaid will go broke.

state budgets and federal budgets will be unsustainable, and then we will have to make some really bad decisions where we have no good options, even worse options than we have right now. what will end up happening is, mark my words, if we do nothing, at some point, in about eight or nine years medicare goes into the red. if we do not change the delivery systems and some of the incentives, we will have a choice. we will either have to cut medicare, in which case seniors will bear the brunt of it, or we will have to raise taxes, which nobody likes. and we still will be paying $5,000 to six dozen dollars more than any other advanced country in the world and not get better health care for. that does not make sense. in terms of misinformation, because there is no perfect

solution, we can have a legitimate debate about the public option that we just had. that was a good, serious debate. you can make a plausible argument as to why we should not have it. i believe that we should. it is not perfect and will not solve every problem, but it will keep the insurance companies more honest. you can have an honest disagreement with the on that. what you should not do is start saying things like we want to set up death penalty to pull the plug on grandma. i mean, come on. [applause] first of all, when you make a comment like that, i just lost my grandmother last year. i know what it is like to watch somebody love who is aging

deteriorated and have to struggle with that. the notion that somehow i ran for public office, or members of congress are in this so that they can go around pulling the plug on grandma? when youtart making arguments like that, that is simply dishonest. especial when i hear the arguments coming from members of congress in the other party who, it turns out, sponsored similar provisions. here is what this was about. here was the genesis of this little piece of information. we had a provision in the house bill that would give the option of somebody getting counseling on end of life care our hospice

care and have it reimbursed by medicare. the option, voluntary, so you would have more information about how to deal with these situations. it turns out the biggest proponent of this was a republican congressman who is a senator and colleague of mr. udall and mr. bennett. it turns out in medicare part b, which was passed by republican congress, they had the exact same provision. so when i had people who just a couple of years ago thought this was a good idea, now getting on television, suggesting it is a plot against grandma or to seek -- to sneak euthanasia into our system, that feels this honesty. we have enough stuff to deal with without having these kinds of arguments. [applause]

it is a woman's turn here. i have neglected this area. the lady there with a black dress. >> i am a small business owner from colorado springs. i am also a republican that voted for you. [applause] >> what is your business? >> we make software. >> excellent, we need that. >> i hope so. i grew up in a blue-collar family, and my husband and i work very hard at our small

business. we have always treated our employees like family, given them great benefits, any time of the need with their family. i volunteer in my pfessional community and my children's schools, and that is still not enough, because we are on the cusp between middle-class and the rich. we are going to bear the brunt of what this is going to cost. why is what i do now not enough? >> let me talk about both cost and what this would mean for small businesses, because both issues would affect you. first of all, remember what i said, i cannot come up with a perfect solution that is completely free. it is absolutely true that in order for us to provide help to those who have no insurance at all, that is going to cost some money pyrrhic is going to cost

some money. we cannot do it for free. it is 46 million people. that is going to cost money. what i have proposed is going to cost roughly $900 billion. that is a lot of money. keep in mind, is over 10 years. when you hear some of these figures thrown out, it is over 10 years. let's assume it is about $80 billion a year. it turns out that about two- thirds of that could be paid for by eliminating waste in the existing system. let me give you one particular example. right now we provide 107 $7 billion over 10 years, about $18 billion a year to insurance companies in the forms of subsidies for something called medicare advantage, where they

basically run the medicare program that everybody else has, except they did extra money that they make a big profit on. -- they get extra money. there is no evidence at all that seniors are better off using medicare advantage than regular medicare. if we could save that $18 billion a year, that is money we can use to help people who need help right now. so about two-thirds of what we are talking about is paid for through the existing health care system, money that is already being paid by taxpayers. it does not require additional taxes. that still leaves one-third. in order to pay for that, there have been a lot of proposals out there. one of them that i proposed, i still think is the best idea. you may disagree, because i do

not know what your income bracket is. my proposal was that for people making more than $250,000 a year, people like myself, that we should, instead of getting the full itemized deduction of what our highest tax bracket is, we should just kept out are itemized deduction at 28%, which is what the average american gets. my attitude is, i should not get my attitude is, i should not get a bigger tax break if we will willing to do that, does that alone, -- just that alone would pay for what we're talking about. other members of congress disagree with that. that will be worked out in september. i do want to make the point that i have not proposed any plan that would put the burden on middle-class families in order to deal with this. we knew pure people talk about i

am raising your taxes, -- when you hear people talk about i am raising your taxes, i have not propose this. i do not know your particular situation, whether in where providing insurance to your employee years. and -- employees. if you are, you stand to benefit from this plan because every proposal, both in the house the and senate that has been put forward provides a huge number of subsidies to small business owners that are doing the right thing by their employees. it is very likely -- obviously we would have to look at the calculations, and i would have to figure out how many employees to have and what type of health insurance plan you have, money -- it is very likely you would actually gain money.

the only category of people who might not like this plan are employers who can't afford to provide health insurance to their employees but are not doing so. provide health insurance to their employees but are not doing so. what we would then say to them is, we are giving you affordable options. you are going to be able to be part of a bigger pool. you can buy your health insurance through that its change was explained to that gentleman there. you'll be able to get premiums and prices that are comparable to what big companies like xerox or ibm are getting for their employees. we will give you some help doing it, but if you refuse to provide any health insurance for employees at all, then we are going to ask you to make a contribution to help make sure

those employees have health insurance. it turns out, if you as an employer are not providing that health insurance, the rest of us are, because those folks are going on medicaid or they are going to the hospitals for uncompensated care, and that is not fair. [applause] so the bottom line is this, if you are a small business person who is providing health insurance for employees, i am very sure that you would actually benefit from this. the problem is, this is where the information has not been going out in as clear a fashion as possible. that is why i am glad you asked the question. i am going to call on this gel and because he shouted at me a couple of times. -- this gentleman.

i am happy to get a good debate going. >> i am a student at the university of colorado in boulder. i am studying political science and business marketing. i would love to have a debate anytime, oxford style, if you would like. my question is this. we all know the best way to reduce prices in this economy is to increase competition. how in the world can a private corporation providing insurance compete with an entity that does not have to worry about making a profit, does not have to pay local property-tax this, there are not subject to local regulations. how can a company compete with that? i do not want generalities' or philosophical arguments. i am just asking a question.

>> thank you for the question. i just want to point out that i partially answered the question earlier by explaining that certainly they cannot compete with the taxpayer is standing behind the public auction just shoveling more and more money. that is certainly not fair. i have already said i would not be in favor of a public option of that sort, because that would just mean more expenses out of our pockets and we would not see much improvement in quality. it is true that there are certain costs associated with a private business that a government would not have to worry about. it is not just property taxes, it is also things like the cost of capital, insurance companies

have to have a lot of money on hand, and it is conceivable that a private entity that is having to pay a certain interest rate for their money would be really undermined if the government is able to get money much cheaper, implicitly because of sam backs this operation. -- of all salmon backs this operation. this is actually a -- uncle sam backs this operation. i think we can craft a system in which you have a public option that has to operate independently, not subsidized by taxpayers. it would be nonprofit, but we already have not for profits out there like bluecross blueshield. they would have to go on the market ended a market price -- and get a market price. there are ways we can address those competitive issues. if they are not entirely addressed, then that raises a

set of legitimate problems. the only point i wanted to make was, the notion that somehow just by having a byoption you have the entire private marketplace destroyed, is just not borne out by the facts. fact, right now you have a lot of private companies that do very well competing against the government. ups and fedex are doing a lot better than the post office. the larger point want to make, and it is good to see a young person who is very engaged and confident challenging the president to an oxford style debate. i think this is good. [applause] i like that.

this is a legitimate debate to have. all i am saying is that the public option, whether we have our region not have a, is not the entirety of health care reform. this is just one sliver of it, one aspect of it. it is both the right and left that have become so fixated on this that they forget everything else, like the fact that we can help make the make sure that he does not suddenly find himself completely broke in trying to treat his son. we are working on a series of proposals to address the questions you are raising. i believe that we can work them out, but those are specific questions as opposed to broad, philosophical questions about whether government ever has a role to play or not. this is the last point i will

make. you have a bunch of countries that have systems in which government is involved, but you still have a thriving private insurance market. the netherlands is a good example. everybody is covered. the government has regulations in there, but it does not somehow take over the entire private insurance market. i just want people to understand, nobody is talking about a government takeover of health care. i want to repeat that one last time. i have time for one last question. i am going to call on this young lady right here. she just lost your question. who has a microphone?

>> i cannot believe that we have the president of the united states of america in grand junction, colorado. [applause] we are so proud of you. >> thank you. >> i am a naturalized citizen, and i am proud to be an american. [applause] as a child, i had polio, and i have had 52 surgeries to correct my bones. between here and the mayo clinic in phoenix arizona, i have been blessed with a good insurance,

generally excellent doctors and care. however, my major concern in costs, even with good insurance, and has been high, when i have been gone out of the network. why should our doctors' treatment choice be limited by a geographic area of the state? what kind of competition is this, mr. president? .

that is what is going on right now. it is just that the decisions are being made by the insurance companies. now, in fairness, we probably could not construct a system in which you could see any doctor anywhere in the world at any time, regardless of expense. that would be a hard system to set up. if you live in maine, we will fly you into california and put you up. you can see -- and i am not trying to make light of it -- you can see the difficulties. any system we decide they're going to be tough choices that have to be made. that is being done currently in the private marketplace. all that we are trying to do is to make sure that those decisions that are being made in

the private marketplace are not discriminating against people because they are already sick, that they are making sure that people get a good deal from the health-care dollars that they are spending. let's make sure, for example, that if you go to a hospital, you get one of those operations that you discussed and it turns out that two weeks later you have to be admitted because they did not read the first time that the hospital has to pay a penalty for that. penalty, or at least they are not as much reimbursed. the more we make those kinds of changes, the more likely it is that more americans have more options and they are not being

jerked around. it does not mean everything will be perfect, but it does mean consumers have more choices, better options, more security, more protection. that is all we're trying to accomplish, and we're trying to do it in a way to reduce costs overall for families, whether you are getting medicare, medicaid, or private insurance through your employer. i am confident that we can accomplish this, but we will have to work hard and overcome some of the misinformation, we will have to have an honest debate. nothing will be perfect. we are going to have to make sure -- this is something people need to understand -- even if things go perfectly and we pass legislation, let's say, in october, we are still going to have another three months of debate about this and several years of implementation. it will not happen overnight.

we will have to set up these reforms to give insurance, and i hope everyone understands that. we cannot tell companies to take everybody if you have a whole bunch of people who are healthy and young to choose not to get and young to choose not to get insurance at somebody will not buy insurance until they find out that they're sick and that they go to the insurance office and say give me insurance and i can go pay my bill. the insurance company would lose money pretty quickly that way. if we're going to eliminate the pre-existing conditions problem, we have to eliminate the coverage problem. that is what this will have to be phased in over a number of years. the last point that i want to

make, and this has to deal with the budget issues because we have the huge deficit right now and a huge debt. i think that is collaring how people view the debate. a lot of people are said how can we afford this right now? we have to reduce the deficit. i want everyone to understand the source of our deficit. if you do not understand that, then my argument will not make sense. when i walked into the white house, i had diplomats waiting for me at the door, a 1.3 trillion dollar deficit. i say that -- i say that -- this is not, by the way, the previous administration's fault. the financial crisis was so bad that revenues plummeted, and all this money was spent in making sure that the banking system did

not completely collapsed. so all of the actions that have been taken just spite the deficit. but the problem actually is not that -- the extraordinary steps we've taken over last one or two years. the real problem is much longer. even if we had no fiscal crisis whatsoever, we have a structural deficit, we are spending more money than we're taking in, we have been doing it for the last eight years. when we passed the prescription drug benefit for medicare by a republican congress, they did not pay for it. they did not want to pay taxes, but it wanted benefits. that just went right into our structural we did not pay for.

we get a structural deficit that, over the course of the next 10 years, is about nine trillion dollars. i say that, because i want everybody to understand that if you're going to tackle that problem, the only way we can do it in an intelligent way is if we get control of medicare and medicaid spending and some realistic way. if we do not do that, we cannot simply tax or cut our way of the problem. ask some times in audiences what people think the amount the federal budget is devoted to foreign aid. people say 20%. if we just cut that out, we could eliminate deficit. it is 1% of our budget. 1%.

people think it is all this pork project and your marks. 1%. all are spending a social security, medicare, medicaid, interest on the national debt. every single program you think up that you think of as a government program, it is only about 25% of the budget. the last his social security, medicare, medicaid. and what is really going up fastest is medicare and medicaid. so i want everyone to understand, if you are a fiscal hawk, if you are a deficit hawk

and you are tired of this crazy spending in washington and want to finally make sure that we are looking out for the next generation, then you, more than anybody, it should want to reform the health-care system. because if we do not do it, we cannot solve that problem. thank you, grand junction. now look at some of the health- care ads that members of congress are seeing during the congressional august recess. the first ad is from the maa that supports the president's plan. that is followed by eight and add that opposes the current proposals. >> what does health insurance reform mean for you? it means you cannot be denied coverage for a pre-existing

condition or dropped a few get sick. it means putting the decisions in the hands of you and your doctor. tough new rules to cut waste and red tape and focus on preventing illness before it strikes. what does health insurance reform really mean? quality, affordable care you can count on. >> washington's latest health reform idea, a trillion dollar health plan and a government run public option with big tax increases, even on health benefits. the non-partisan congressional office at the deficit will grow $239 billion. inflated taxes, swelling deficits, and government control. tell congress to slow down and reform health care the right way. >> tomorrow on washington journal, martin crustsinger.

and mark murray from nbc news. and the future of the republican party. martin anderson talks about ronald reagan's approach to cold war foreign policy. live it 7:00 eastern on c-span. -- live on 7:00 on c-span. the supreme court, coming the first sunday in october on c- span. >> next, the right online conference. speakers include joe the plumber. this is 2 hours 45 minutes.

[captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2009] >> bleeth -- please direct your attention to the video screen. >> in richmond they're saying send it back. americans for prosperity demonstrated in capitol hill this afternoon. >> americans for prosperity call the stimulus package one big barrel of pork.

>> the more i meet -- the more i read about this plan, the more i dislike it. >> there is one group that thinks this idea is a horrible idea. they have on-line petition that is getting thousands of signatures every few hours. we were only able to access the front page because there was some much web access. i know americans for prosperity was on fox and friends and put up a web site just thaless thana month ago and i have 100,000 people that have signed.

>> right now we're hearing from a group known as the americans for prosperity. >> one of the main reasons that people are turning around now in the public is definitely on our side. >> because of americans for prosperity, radio talk-show host, people have found out what is really in this bill. > when you look at the numbers, where people have the freedom to choose, that is where prosperity is. that is where job growth is. >> a crowd of dozens rally. they are called a fight against the new federal bill that will make it easier for them to organize. >> if there is a reareason that people are exited in mass.

>> i think rick is a hero. i think the vast majority of people are sick of the bailout. >> i have 500,000 people who signed the petition against the stimulus bill. i am willing to call all of them to come out to the event. >> -- had great and local republicans gathered to say you do not a stimulus. >> today they gathered in a protest organized by the americans for prosperity group. [music playing]

[applause] >> leading us in the pledge of allegiance this morning is oklahoma state director stuart jolly. [applause] >> i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america. and to the republic, for which it stands, one nation, under god, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. thank you. [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the president of americans for prosperity

foundation, tim phillips. [applause] >> good morning. and i hope you guys enjoyed last night. a thoughtful speaker. a wild men of the central part of the state i guess. thank you all for coming out this morning i mentioned this last night, but you are on the cutting edge of what we're trying to do in the movement. u.s. year. if you are learning and educating yourself. we are getting better and better online. we will beat the other side because of people like you and what you are doing. thank you for being here. this morning you will hear from amazing people. we have the no. 1 and no. two best-selling authors.

and we will be doing a book signings. you would hear from them later on today. we have two of the best economics writers in the country. it is what i read when i get up in the morning. we have a leading die from the very beginning in the movement. he is a good friend and ally of what we're doing. i will tell you something, this morning walking around at breakfast i met so many of you. i am so excited to get to know you. how many of you are tea party people? [applause] i want to thank you all for what you're dealing with suspension our first speaker of the morning is someone that was really not seeking the limelight. he was thrust into the limelight

by just asking a simple question. you know your parents always told to, be careful what you ask for? he was standing in the front yard one day and there was this guy barack obama's who wandered by. i asked a simple question. he was a good average american, but suddenly he found everything from the new york times attacking him -- and state officials in ohio digging without any cause into his very business backgrounds. he paid a price for freedom. guys like this, but we need to say thank you to and appreciate and keep active. joe has been out there with us across the country. some of you were in pittsburgh earlier this year. joe was here with us. also in harrisburg he was with us. what he is doing this morning is going across the country because

he loves this country. he is not a quitter, he is a fighter. i want to introduce to you and joanne the plumber. -- joe the plumber. [applause] . . >> i believe in giving credit

where credit is due. i want to thank you for what you do. you are in power in your local man. what you were doing is getting the information out there and blogging. we cannot do it without you guys. i of seeing great organizations out there that cannot do it without you guys. [applause] usually, my speeches about yelling at people. i do not believe in making people feel good about themselves. i want them feeling bad about themselves after i get done talking because i want them to do something and so i have to relax on bad because you guys are doing something. what is important to you guys? there is an american heritage. we cannot allow them to take that away from us. [applause]

our president wants to say that this is not a gaudily nation, and i am saying that it is. i am a christian. [applause] right now we find ourselves in the midst of a battle and mainstream media wants to propagated as much as they can. i am here to tell you to try to lose that message because it does not work. my neighborhood is full of union guys and they are all democrats and my good friends. we agree on 99% of everything. we want the government to get out of the way and let us work and do our thing. that is what we want, right? [applause] when you are out there blogging, as easy as it is to take a shot at the left, contain yourself. these are your friends and neighbors. let's make this an american movement, not a republican

movement or democratic movement, but a conservative movement. we need all our guys together. mainstream media does their best to divide us i don't have this 100% confirmed but i was reading an article talking about how we are no longer americans. that bothered the hell out of me. i am an american. i am not a person of the united states. i am an american. they try to take that away from us. [applause] political correctness is another way of keeping us down. i believe in true leadership and i believe in stating exactly what you are and what your about and then asking people to follow you. don't sit there and go left and right. he is just one of many that do that. true leadership is to not get me

wrong, i am not saying and the next leader of corn to carry us forward, of pump up -- a couple pieces i don't believe them are abortion. i did not believe that 10 years ago when i will believe that 10 years from now. you can put the money in the bank that joe was one to stand for this. i like my guns. i love my guns. [applause] i do not believe in same-sex marriage but i think it is one to be a state issue. it has nothing to do with the federal government. these things are things that i believe then. i want true leadership for climbed 1 to vote for. i want you guys to make sure that you that the people out that are going to represent you. we need accountability, responsibility, education and the constitution.

[applause] will explain those real quick. accountability, right now, he is that the perfect reason to say so what because as americans have done nothing for so long. we do not hold them accountable. i have been a plumber for many years. every once in awhile a piece of calcium would break loose and it would leak again and you better believe that that wife or husband is on the phone rang me over $70. our politicians are spending trillions of dollars. when nancy pelosi talks about it being an american and disrespectful, i respect nobody who lies to me and manipulates

me and take my money and puts my children in debt. they want me to be respectful towards them? please. [applause] i am not the most civilized person. most of those people i took behind the when shed -- to the woodshed and with the tar out of them. you guys are doing an incredible job. you're in powering americans again and that is the key. do not forget that. back to my points. accountability. we have to hold them accountable. those are too easy things right there and then exit -- ben education and the constitution. my sons are straight a student and he is captain of the football team and teachers do their job of my size twelves also do their job. it is my job to make sure he is educated. it is the parents' job to make sure he knows what is going on. >> the parenting issue not --

the constitution is black and white. follow that and make sure that your politicians followed. that is all i have to say today. thank you for coming. i really appreciated. -- i really appreciated. >> always respect your military members. thank you, god bless you. [applause] >> and now, please welcome the call was from a wall street journal. -- the columnist from the wall street journal. thanks for coming out today. how many of you are readers were subscribers to the wall street journal. thank you for helping to pay my salary. i remember who i work for.

i want to tell you, i have not been able to spend as much time with you as i had hoped because i am inviting my time as a reporter between this group and the left-wing bloggers gribbin they have been very nice to me. last year, they treated me like a pinata. they have been much nicer this year. but i have to tell you, people ask me what the differences between the mood in this conference and the mood in that conference. the mood here is much brighter and optimistic. [applause] and their leading political analyst was on a panel thursday of pollsters and soberly told them i am here to tell you what the truth is, not what you want to hear. he predicted the most likely outcome of the 2010 election was that liberals would lose between

20-50 house seats. [applause] i do not have to remind you what happens when the 40 seat level is hit. nancy pelosi becomes minority leader. [applause] we have all been this way before win freedom has been under challenge and attack and the american people have been called upon to some and that which is in the best interest. i want to give you a very short history lesson based on what ronald reagan taught us when he was a presidential candidate and president. in 1977, the conservative movement and the free market movement was in peril. the country was in peril. democrats had won the white

house and won control of both houses of congress. ronald reagan addressed a group of former advisers and aides in the spring of 1977 and were all the press and he said to be of good cheer. he said before i am beaten but i am not slain. i shall rise and fight again. reagan told us the following. he said the, look, liberals only when elections when two things happen. when we make mistakes or people that claim to represent us make mistakes and when the campaign as moderates. that is just what jimmy carter succeeded in doing. he said that the problem is, they may campaign as moderates but they cannot govern as moderates. because the people that pay the

bills for liberals will not have any other way. they will not let them govern as moderates. they always have to move left. reagan said that i predict that jimmy carter will govern from the left. if he governs from the left, he will fail because liberalism always fails. if it fails, people will notice. if people notice, people get upset and they will get up and -- get concerned and you will have an opportunity to have another conversation with the american people. it does not mean that you do not have to learn from your really previous mistakes, but, it means you have another chance to go and ask for the votes of the american people. if you do that from a principal position, you will win. [applause]

what happened in 1978, kropp 13. the 19708 midterm elections stop jimmy carter in his tracks. except for the damage she was doing to the american economy and our foreign policy. carter brought as 15% inflation. remember gas lines? the soviet union on the march in the iranian hostage crisis so that in 1980, ronald reagan was able to come roaring back to come up with one of the best lines ever in politics. he said that a recession is when your neighbor loses his job. a depression is when you lose your job. recovery is when jimmy carter will lose his job. [applause] somehow, i think we will hear that line again directed at some people in congress next year.

[applause] reagan won 44 states in 1980 and we all know history changed as a result. in 1993, it happened again. there was a president that broken tax pledge, remember, read my lips, no new taxes. the perot voters went off on their own and that was before they figured out that prospero's -- that ross perot's tray was not up and locked in the correct position. 16 years later, the democrats have the white house in both houses of congress. ronald reagan had not yet been felled by alzheimer's disease o. he had one final meeting with his staffers and there were depressed again and he said to be of good cheer and he reminded

them of his 1977 speech. he said that we were here again and the same conditions apply. bill clinton just campaigned as a moderate. he will govern from a left. people who pay the bills in the democratic party will not have any other way. if he governs from a left he will fail. if the fails people will notice, they will get upset and concerned and will rise up and he will once again be able to have a conversation with the american people. he was right. bill clinton raised taxes, the btu tax was proposed. there was scandal after scandal and then there was a hillary health care plan that crashed and burned. [applause] well, here briard again, 16 years after that. i and say that he was the last two battles, it is time to go

343. and this time, in 1977, it was people like the direct mail teens that were riling up the opposition. this year, the above people coopted all of the health care providers and took them into their coalition. the pharmaceutical companies cut a deal with barack obama. the insurance company had been on the sidelines. they all said we had to do this and they could not oppose the health care because it won a seat at the table. so, the responsibility has fallen on you, the american people.

with the new technologies, blogging and the internet, you have been the people who have risen up and stop this healthcare plan. you can't stop it completely because you're not the voice of the new politics. i believe we have reached a point in this country where political leadership can come from anywhere. we all know the leaders in our movement. sometimes they are really not leaders, they are followers. they watch the parade of people outside their window and say those are my people i must go out and lead them. you are the new leaders of american politics. you can bring about change and you are doing it as we speak. i just want to leave you with these words. in 1977, which proved you could stop the government in its tracks. now, you have a chance to do that again.

they called the generation that survived the progression the greatest generation. the greatest generation is only the greatest generation until the next regeneration has the challenge to defend their country. if you do again what you did in 77 and in 1993, you may one day be able to turn to your children and grandchildren when they ask you what you did in the summer and fall of 2009, you'll be able to say that we were a new grid generation. we stopped big government in its tracks and we took back this country. [applause] thank you. >> please welcome the managing

editor for red state dog,, erik erikson. >> good morning. thank you all for being here. usually, when i come to these events, i give you this great line from abraham lincoln that starts back in 1856 when he was wondering why the united states had become the greatest country on earth, the envy of europe and europeans were coming to study as every man could make him self. now, generally, i delve into this visual a little further. because of events that are upon us, i want to change of what i would normally tell you.

if barack obama succeeds and if health care passes, in this country, people will not be able to make themselves any more, the government will be make them for them. the rest of your, in your jobs, you're going to have a lot of trouble. we come here to figure out how to fight and how to organize. we work together on this. if you do not know the person sitting behind to any person sitting in front of you, you probably know the people to your sides. you need to know that person because we are in this together. this is actually a fight. and people do not like to use that word, but it is. so, together, we have to fight

together. we stand up and we go to the two parties. this is where i want to deviate. there driving advertisers off of blood backs television and radio show. there will be emboldened to go off to other people and that is pretty big. if they can take him down, they will start working on people smaller than him. we have to stick together. there is an organized operation in this country to shut us down. you and i are astroturf for us. to people course of some of the hungarian billionaires', they are the real activist. think about the conundrum. uni that leave our job, we are astroturfers. the real activists are incredible lon craigslist.

together, we can do what barack obama promised. we can change the country. we can commit this country back to freedom and small government but, here is my provocative statement of the day. how many of you have gone to two parties? >what do you do after the tea party? let me suggest something for some of the leftist. if they faint, you know they are leftist. we need a coup. we need a coup of the political parties. how many of you that would to a two-party then showed up and became a precinct captain after local political party. i am an elected official in georgia and there are 50 precincts there. of the 50 in the republican

party, half of them have no precinct captain. if two-thirds of them are filled up by people who have gone to two parties, that all the sudden, who runs the local republican party? the tea party activists. you take over your counties that way. once you take over the majority of your counties, who runs the state political party? once you run this state, who runs the national? not washington d.c., but you guys. we need a coup of the political parties. they promised hope and a promised change and republicans will probably get swept back into office. until they start cleaning up their own act, it is not want to do is a good. we will be back where we were. you must get involved. a stop going to keep arteries and go to political parties and blow them up.

get involved. take them back. a become the voice you want to become, become the national political party. we are a two-party country in this nation. ballot access laws prevent third-party organizations from coming. we have local political activists, so take them over. want to take those over, then we take back washington and we keep it. thank you. [applause]

i want to thank the organization for allow me to speak. last january, the political class and media experts were writing the obituary of the conservative movement. after seven months of intensive legislative battles, it is becoming increasingly clear that they spoke little too soon. republicans have taken a stand for the american people and for fiscal responsibility. the tide is shifting. that is due in no small part to your support and hard work in the online community of conservative activists. we learned last fall just how powerful and formidable and networks campaign can be we are living through some pretty historic times in the death of the economic crisis that we face

and in the attempt by some democrats to exploit this crisis to advance an extremist agenda. 3.7 million jobs a been lost. trillions of dollars of been lost in savings and investments. many families are struggling to make ends meet. sadly, as the american people make tough sacrifices, in washington, it is business as usual. this year, alone, congress has passed a stimulus bill followed by a nearly four trillion dollar federal budget. there are plans for government takeover of america's health care. whether it is censorship on the airwaves or taxpayer funded abortion, the liberal assault on our values continues at a dangerous place. house republicans are committed to offering better solutions and that is where you come in.

we need your input and we need your voice. you have the power to carry our message further and faster than at any time in human history. our success depends greatly on your success. that is why i am excited that you have gathered in pittsburgh. as we look back at the last seven months, there is a lot to be proud of. many of my colleagues have made courageous stands for smaller government, lower taxes and free-market economics. as we look to the road ahead, we see that much more work has yet to be done. the american people still need solutions to get the economy back on track and to put people back to work. they want someone to hold this administration accountable for their failed policies. people continue to face extraordinary challenges. there is not a moment to lose. house republicans will build on the success. continue to stand by the

american people. i am delighted to have you standing with us. i wish i could have been with you all today. i hope it is a tremendous success. . please welcome glenn becommeaku. [applause] it is great to be with you today. i want to talk to you about the impact of both new technologies and old human nature today. first, a pennsylvania man and a

private citizen, there were educated man. he stood up in a town hall meeting and asked arlen specter question. he said my question relates to section 425 of the bill which requires seniors, folks like us, to have mandatory counseling every five years for buying with dignity. that is kind of scary. i am still very healthy, active marketing professional. i am not in my twilight and i think you would agree with that. i am offended by this required

counseling. i would like to hear your views on that subject. arlen specter, a man who had already pledged to support the bill, including the compulsory in government and of life counseling. arlen specter who would have voted for the bill stood up and said he cannot support and of life counseling. in the days of -- that followed, a media storm erupted. imagine your mother, my mother, your father my father, you yourself have to go every five years to a compulsory government counseling session on and of life issues. not a private discussion, not a private discussion with a trusted clergyman, not a private

discussion with the family, none of that. a required meeting with the government practitioner, official, or bureaucrat. when you run the numbers on that, every senior citizen 65 or older having to go every five years to this required counseling session, that is 55,000 sessions a day. 7000 government practitioners would be required just to hold all these 55,000 sessions a day. imagine the assembly line and what a private into a discussion this would be. it would be a bureaucratic paper chase for government officials and it would be an incredible violation of our privacy. the man from pennsylvania, in

his quiet, intellectual way, put a spotlight on this previously overlooked component of the bill. within days, senators from both parties were saying this would be removed from the bill. this is the way legislation should be scrutinized in the future. in the past, even president old, has stated that proposed legislation should be posted on the internet. we must hold present a bomb accountable for the stand. we must insist that all bills be posted online for all to see.

many of the people in this room to read and analyze the bills. the results will be a shorter period at the result will be much better. while the distributed intelligence is relatively new, the wisdom of successful leadership is very old. on august 6, present a bomb spoke to an enthusiastic group of supporters and he said the following. he said that we have some work to do. i am the president. but i do not want the folks that created the mess to do a lot of talking. i want them to get out of the way so we can clean up the mess.

i don't mind cleaning up after them, but i do not want them to do a lot of talking. >> now, there are so many things wrong with this statement that it is hard to go into the mall. but first, the regular middle- class americans that attended to parties in town hall meetings and did not create the mass, it was created by a military policy. [applause] then those bad subprimal loans were packaged and sold by fannie mae and freddie mac. there were backed by barney frank and the captain of liberals and socialists. it is our right " petition the

government and it is to present the to take into account the views of all americans. [applause] the third and most important, i want to focus on the growing issue of barack obama a's leadership. the next week, remember the number? 9000. the president, says he has only roblin of which onconly met him. we all see the pictures of barack obama having intimate discussions with him. in various campaigns, he tells the world that he supports a single payer government health

care system. there are many videos. you can see him supporting a single health care system and you can see the supporters saying that it is not a trojan horse, it is right there. about a week ago, he says it was not really a single payer health care and said he never really supported that. our president has been in office seven months and all he beats his chest about being president, we do not know where the true fans and the allies began. over 20 years ago, i was a young officer in the army. in that experience, there were a lot of great leaders. i want to read to a quick quote from the party -- the army leadership manual.

the nation has given authority to these soldiers. this gives leaders power over soldiers. it does not ensure that this power will be used well. rank identifies those other entrusted with responsibility. you become a positive leader when your rank is ratified in the minds and hearts of your subordinates. when your troops follow you out of respect and confidence and not out of fear. that is " no. 1. >> your subordinates assess your character as they see your day- to-day actions. the learn whether your open and honest with them. soldiers want to follow leaders that they trust that provide them strength, inspiration and guidance.

if you show character flaws, your subordinates will follow you only because of their own sense of duty or your car or served -- or your coercive powers. it is sad to ask these questions. of these traits of a successful leader? >> no. >> does he inspire confidence? >> no. >> is he the kind of leader we would need and a crisis? >> no. we must be like the man from pennsylvania. we must use the power of the internet to read, analyze and communicate and we must hold our government accountable and educate and inform americans and stand against the subtle but growing tyranny of our times. we must take america back. thank you very much.

[applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, please give hand into a leader in the conservative movement, the author of "leave us alone", grover norquist. >[applause] >> after the 2008 election, our friends on the left had some helpful by scores. they suggested that we move to the left and that we stop talking about taxes and spending. it was very similar to the advice they give us after goldwater lost in 1964 and after watergate in 1974 and after clinton won with the democratic

house and senate in 1992. the other team always advises us. they say to stop talking about taxes, that nobody cares about taxes. this reminds me of the scene only in the movie when the bad guy says to our heroine to put down the gun and we will talk. our heroine is fulsome up to put down the gun, the movie goes on for another 45 minutes. they give us this applies because they understand what strengthens the center-right movement is our opposition and our support for liberty. our coalition holds together because everybody here and everybody who walks into republican precinct are there around the table for different reasons, but they are all there because of the issue that moves their vote and brings into

politics. a 11 thing from the federal government. they want to be left alone -- of what one thing from the federal government. they want to be left alone. -- they want one thing to be from the federal government. they want to be left alone. i served on the board of the national life association. [applause] the gun owners who wrote on the gun issue simply wish to be left alone. they do not go knocking on doors, insisting that everybody else be a hunter. they do not ask for guns stamps and the do not require that every fourth grade child and a public school system be taught with books about heather having to hunters.

[applause] -- having two hunters. all the various communities have faith and that. they want to be left alone to practice their faith and raise their kids and that is what is important to them. we have evan -- evangelical protestants that do not agree what happens and how. we do not agree on everything. the guy that wants to make money all the looks across to the guy who wants to go to church all day and they both looked over at the guy that is fondling his guns and says that that is not what we do with our free time. it is not necessary that everybody on our team agree with how we spend our free time and

our freedom. we tend to vote for the guy in the middle of the table does says that they will leave everything alone. being left alone in having a reasonable police force and a military strong market the canadiens off our back. one of the reasons liberals never like cops and the military is because they're the part of the government that is part of the list alone coalition. we're up against the other team. and this is the coalition around hilary's table. everybody is there because they want the government to go still stuff from other people and give it to them. trial laurelawyers, the big city political machines, those people

that are locked into welfare dependency and those that make $90,000 a year managing the dependency of others, making sure that none of them good jobs and become republicans. >> we have the government workers union. we have the course of utopians the one to make the rest of us perfect in their eyes. you have radical in our medalists that have rented cars too small to butcher entire family into, toilets too small to flush, and on the sabbath, you have to separate the green glass from the brown glass. they have what they want the government to enforce. their list is slightly more tedious than of a kiss.

they simply want the government to enforce each of their to do lists. the guys around left table can work together as long as we're stupid enough to keep putting tax money in the center of the table. if we keep putting tax dollars in the center of the table, and they can't get along. if, we said no more tax increases and no more ridiculous spending and make it stick, the amount of money in the center of that table begins to dwindle. everyone around the left begins to look at each other a little bit like the second of last seen in those movies. they're trying to see who to

eat and to throw overboard. the left is not made up of allies, it is made up of computing parasites. -- competing parasites. if we do not let them to us, they will chew on the guy next to them. our job is to say no to new taxes and no to new spending so that we meet the new left, there are fewer than them and they are shorter. that is what the stimulus package was all about, putting $780 billion on the table so they could split up between their friends. the theory is as follows. we would have the government take a dollar from one side of

the economy and taxes or and that and move it to publicly connected people over here. they dipped their buckets into the water and walk around to the other side of the lake. they poured this into the lake. what we're doing is taking water out of one side of the lake and after we do this 700 billion times, it will be deeper than it was before. if you believe that that will be stimulated to have more water in it, then you will expect the stimulus package to work if you

believe there is still the same amount of water as there was before, and the stimulus package is a good package is not good for the united states of america. [applause] our friends on the left are a little bit frustrated as they see the country getting frustrated. they told themselves and us about how they had this wonderful social organization going on and they were great on the web and there were good organizing things. when you read their emails, they say that the contacts to congress are running 15-1 against the government taking over health care. where is there great organelle

-- organization. we have a secret weapon on our team. it is a community organizer named barack obama. he, by threatening everyone's energy costs and raising taxes and taking over your health care and tax your insurance, he has organized a majority of the country against the democratic party and against barack obama, read and as a policy. -- harry reid and nancy pelosi. we dodged one bullet when we did not go home. they told us to leave and we said no.

we got organized with the two parties on april 15 and july 4 and the august revolt. every year, they write that something interesting happens in august. this is what happened. we happened. [applause] there is another mistake but we have avoided. that is that we have avoided the mistake that we made in 1996 and 1998 when we focused too much on bill clinton and his personal failings. bill clinton was a threat to the country because of the taxes and spending in the regulations that he supported an he more clearly supports now -- that he supported them and the more clearly supports now. -- that he supported then and

keep more clearly supports now. this time around, we are focused with nancy pelosi and harry reid and those democrats in the house that are voting for higher taxes on energy. yes, barack obama is the guy who signs the bills at the end of the day. he is almost irrelevant. the damage is done by nancy pelosi and harry reid and the democrats in the house and the senate. [applause] if big murdered -- is big government were a martini, barack obama is just the vermouth. he is barely there. let's keep our eyes on the damage that nancy pelosi and harry reid and a democratic congress are doing to our lives and our ability to function in this country.

we are winning. [applause] >> our next speaker is a fox news contributor and a former domestic policy aide in the reagan and bush white house. please welcome you and jim petersen. >> thank you all very much. -- jim pinkerton. my mother is watching this on c- span and so she is very proud of all of us. when i was backstage, grover said to me what jobe did i tell

so he could steal it. i told him that i usually tell the joke that i will begin my talk by answering two questions. no. 1, 6 foot 9, and no. 2, no, i did not play basketball. grover said to go ahead and keep that one. this is a serious time in our country. that is why you are all taking time away from your jobs to be here. i should say that for 13 years, it has been my enormous privilege to work with fox news [applause] although, as eric erickson

said, fox is under fire. you have all been watching the effort to boycott and i think it is showing you that that is a small part of ongoing efforts as the federal government does its best to squelch what barack obama said. i also want to talk a little bit about how fox can work together with the on-line community. i will come back to that letter. in the short run, the power of television and the power of cable news has been seen, very dramatically in these town hall meetings. it has had a huge effect. there is something about the drum of ordinary americans

standing out to arlen specter it has had a colossal affect on the politics. this has been a television struggle. people say that fox is conservative. fox is not conservative, it just looks conservative compared to the rest of the media. [applause] i think that is a good case in point. for example, when lynn sweet stood up and asked a question a professor gates, that made her look like a conservative because she asked a tough question. [unintelligible] when he stands up to robert gibbs, they say that he is a conservative.

this is a major story. it will be interesting to see how much pickup it gets in the mainstream media. i will tell you right now, it will be up to all of you to make that story turned to where it should be. the good news is, fox had a poll yesterday and bought a 49- 34 margin, people are opposing the health care bill. by contrast, in september, 1993, the closest whole that the fox research unit could find was 54- 31 in favor read it. there were 23 points ahead and they still lost. we are 15 points ahead, now, and

if we keep up, we will win. let me close with some thoughts on how the online community activists can work with the rest of the conservative movement and make their own contribution. a lot of you're probably on youtube. . back in 2004, when dan rather reported on those phony memos about president bush in an attempt to swing the 2004 election, it was the red state community that took apart those memos and proved them false. just in terms of a project for the future, as we think about health care, [unintelligible] the probably always have a

fallback position. the men not be able to sell us on this, but then i get something through. they already got through inside the $800 billion stimulus package. there was a $20 billion proposal for health information technology. that is $20 billion to software vendors to digitize records. at new gingrich says this is a good idea. that money is going to get spent to advance health care and permission technology. it will develop the capacity to analyze this stuff. this article, here, by a very smart person in washington writing in the august issue of the washington monthly magazine talks about where this $20 billion for health information technology is going to go. he is a smart guy. he is kind of a liberal.

everybody should care about this. i started a blog but i invite you all to look at. even though the health care bill may rise or fall, there is plenty of stuff elsewhere in the government that is changing our lives and it is up to us to get the details. i guarantee you, more people have read the thousand page health care bill than members of congress. that is the power that comes to us. it becomes our challenge. this is what we can do online. on your computer screen, i hope you're working away on this because that is the challenge ahead. thank you, very much [applause] -- a think you very much.

-- thank you, very much. [applause] >> please direct your attention to the television screens from michelle blackmon. >> hello, i am congress will commercial bachman. i want to think -- i thank you -- having had the pleasure of working with them on such hot topics as pork-barrel spending, capping tax policies and health care reform, i can tell you that the americans for prosperity foundation is second to none when it comes to organizing our loyal opposition. was this event wraps up on saturday evening, you will be armed with the knowledge necessary to counter the love to make a difference online and in your community. day after day, here in

washington, we see the not so gradual shift away from free market principles and towards socialism, big government, old school tax-and-spend policy that we know will be destructive to the long-term health of our economy. this is in conjecture because we have been there and we have already done that. we have seen what this means for our country and for our freedoms. we still live with the consequences of those actions. go back in time with me for a minute. lyndon johnson got us mired in the welfare state of the great society. jimmy carter's mideast policy helped give rise to the terror state of iran. bill clinton's energy policy and his efforts to block the exploration of american resources played a major role in last summer's energy crisis and in our continuing inability in our country to achieve energy independence. something that is completely

possible. the list goes on. . . you're the front line and you are the leaders who will defend our conservative principles in the critical fights ahead and for years to come. i want to thank you very sincerely, so much for all you're doing to advance our cause of liberty and freedom. and enjoy the rest of your conference. [applause]

>> a columnist on foxnews.com, a contributor for "national review" online and our director, please give a warm welcome. [applause] >> thank you so much for being here and great news to report, our numbers are up, we are catching them online. we are catching them. next year, we will be bigger. we have all the momentum on our side. let me ask you folks, how many were angry before americans for prosperity tell you to be angry.

i will tell you what was manufactured. what was manufactured was this talking point. and where did that come from? george sore oast funds americans for progress and they got a secret memo posted on someone's website and they said that all of you guys were following this guy's memo that you were fake and manufactured and soros funded bloggers. and they put in a press release to every liberal group. by the following monday, the "new york times" was reporting and every democrat in congress was talking about. who is manufacturing talking points. they are using his money to manufacture this whole story. you guys are real people. of course you are real people. they are shipping people on

buses. they are doing everything they can because they are desperate. why are they doing this if they are replay of the economic disasters of the 1930's. they are doing because there are huge political dividends. they will do anything to increase money to unions, go back into politics to create a government-run health care health system. they can have cap and trade and control every aspect of our life and take the money from our taxes and use it to subsidize the people they want to subsidize and punish the people they want to punish. the stimulus bill, why hasn't most of the money hasn't gone out? this is straight out of the f.d.r. playback. he called it relief funds then. they call it recovery funds now. we have a political class that looks at the 1930's and they

don't see failed policies. so what you guys are doing is really critical and telling that our numbers are up and theirs are down. i think we are doing a fantastic job on attacking the public option on health care. everyone is paying attention. i'm scared that they are going to take the public option out of this bill and we are going to being left -- without the public option, it's not socialism but close to facism and mandate that employers must provide insurance and everyone must buy it. they will regulate it every single way to micromanage it. the profits will go to private companies and the government will be in control of health care. so don't just focus on the public option.

we have to kill this whole plan. no mandates for health care. we have to kill the whole plan. it's absolutely essential. [applause] >> i'm going to talk about cap and trade. the good news on that this week, four senate democrats have said they don't want a vote this year because they saw the pushback. nine senate democrats said it won't go for it. and one of the chief attractions of the bill to them. and we have 10 senate democrats who said they won't do it unless there is a carbon tariff that would repeal the smooth-hawley. they are fractured. they were 30 votes short. they said, nancy pelosi, you failed. sit in the corner. we'll send rahm emanuel up on

the hill and they squeaked it through 219-212. so when that pressure comes from the white house on the senate side, when they said it is a loyaltyy vote, we need to have done our work, putting enough grassroots pressure and say sorry, mr. president, i can't do that to the people of my state. i need your help. now we have all been accused being a front for the insurance industry and the energy industry. industry isn't fighting these fights. they have said, the energy industry, we can live with cap and trade. the white house budget director said in march if they give the cap and trade allowances for free, this would be the biggest

corporate welfare in history. you know what they did? gave 85% of the permits. this year, according to the white house's own analysis, the biggest corporate welfare program in history. why would they be funding our efforts to stop it. they're for it. the insurance industry is spending tens of millions of dollars supporting. because they know the public option will come out and once it's out, they will get government guaranteed profits for life and will be forced by law to buy their product and subsidized by their products. why do they fight that? so are the pharmaceutical companies. you watch msnbc, they talk about industry-spoferted groups are behind all the groups behind you. there are groups saying they

need reform and don't watch their own commercials. why would they be against it? it doesn't make any sense and we need to make sure when public options come out again, we don't let them get away with it. i want to talk about another issue that hasn't gotten much attention and that is internet regulation. and there are great economic perils. but as long as we have a free internet we have the ability to organize ourselves, that is the difference between the 1930's and today. we can innovate around the media. we'll use the internet. we have a czar, one ever many in the white house, which has proposed a notice for takedown on the internet. when someone thinks something is untrue, they can report it to the government and if it's

untrue go. they are talking about censorship of the internet. i don't think they will get there, but they introduced a bill just before the recess. new version of something called network neutrality, h.r. 3458, the markey-eshoo bill. this bill would deliberately regulate the internet in a way that would destroy private investment. they say the government can step in and run it like a highway. let's think aboutop!%m9ññ who does a better job of the internet, the people who run it now or the government running it like a highway and imagine. the we have to organ stop these major threats that are against us. hold strong against health care. keep up the fight against cap and trade and we will beat the

online left and take back this country. thank you very much. [applause] >> our next speaker is a parenting expert and she blogs for anderson cooper and numerous performances on "the view." [applause] >> thank you for coming. thank you for the invitation from a.f.p. i'm going to keep my remarks brief because i understand they are running behind. i have been sitting through the sessions that they have had. i went through blogging 101 with

so many of you here today. and the sessions have been great. there's a lot to learn. and i just want to come here today to really encourage you and cheerlead you. many of you have blogs or thinking about starting a blog and it's important. it's the best and quickest and fastest most effective of getting our message out. and i want to encourage you to not limit yourselves to political blogs. i blogged for aol parent.com and i don't necessarily talk about politics in my blogs but it is difficult to talk about parental issues without politics being part of it. it is an interesting way to get our message out, to not always be preaching to the choir but to reach out to avenues that might not necessarily always hear a conservative voice and might

hear what conservatives think through a liberal point of view. so i feel like blogs that are nontraditionally -- let me give you an example. aol, parentage, it tends to be liberal moms that are there. it is nice there is a home for conservative. there is a niche audience and i'm able to get my message out. same thing with anderson cooper. they have been great at cnn allowing me to post whenever i have time, because i have five children -- [applause] >> the other thing through my involvement in cnn i'm involved with cnn.com and i can from the comfort of my home, they'll call me and say would like to come on my blogger panel and if i think

it's something i can contribute to, then i go sure and i leave my pajama bombs on and put on a nice top and i quick find a sitter and i do it right from my home. a lot of the barriers that were up before are really -- i feel like technology has kept up with my lifestyle. i don't have to do it from a studio. i have done shows on cnn to other things on fox and i can do it right from my home. if you are starting out, get yourself a great computer. don't be afraid to put it out there. if you don't want to start your own blog. for the people watching out there in tvland, there is a way to start without starting your own blog and that is commenting on other people's blogs. it can be discouraging as a blog are to read your comments.

it can be demoralizing and it is encouraging when you read your comments and find them people on there who support you and agree with you and it gives you the courage and the strength to keep going. so, again, i just want to tell you how great it has been to be at this conference. thank you all for coming and for being part of the session, getting involved and getting involved on a grassroots level because we are changing public opinion right from our living room, right in our pajamas and slippers with our kids around and being a mom or whatever it is that your's doing is no longer a barrier to making a difference. thanks for having me. [applause] >> please welcome writer and

contributor for politicsdaily.com, matt lewis. [applause] >> i like that music. that's good. i thank you guys for being here. this is awesome. it's good to be here. i said this yesterday and i truly mean it, you guys are not bloggers. you now 21st century online community organizers. [applause] >> and i think it's important. we aren't just writing stuff, you are changing the world and making america a better place. they gave me seven minutes ar a i have seven points that i think conservatives can do to actually make a big, big different. and the first point is adopt a

win psychology. i firmly believe that vince lombardi, the great football coach said winning is contagious and unfortunately so is losing. for the last two years, conservatives have been demoralized by the left and it's time to change it. [applause] >> guess what, conservatives are winning. i do a thing called bloggingleadstv. i do a thing called me and a liberal and it's on the web and we talk what's happening in politics. and guess what? they are worried. i checked in with one of my liberal associates the other day to get a feel of what is happening, they are scared to death about you guys. they really are. they are having conversations right now and the conversations go like this.

oh my god what happened. i thought we had these people in their place. i thought we figured them out. i thought they were going away forever. it's talk radio, it's the blogs, we have to figure out what's going to happen. think of it, they got their butts kicked for a long time so they are going to ratchet things up. it's going to get interesting. guess what? there is an opportunity to turn around that win psychology. 2009, we have races in new jersey and virginia and 2010 is going to be big, too. i encourage you. by the way, the whole thing about demoralizing your opponent -- one of the most potent forces in politics is to demoralize and mock your opponents. that's why they hate rush limbaugh so much because he

makes fun of the left. the daily coats have been good at defeating. most of you don't love in washington, d.c. o'new york. you live somewhere else and you don't have to go to cocktail parties and be beaten down all the time. the second thing is, get the tools. no excuse for not having the tools. i mean get training. it's not enough to come to one conference and think you know everything there is. i'm always striving to be a better writer. you can do that, too. go to conferences and read books. get the logistical tools, a blackberry or iphone that allows you to videotape things. a video camera might come in handy or audio record and tweet from your havend held device.

you should all be on twitter. get net worked. there are a lot of people you need to know. get net worked with them. know who they are. i know this is a nonpartisan thing. there is a democratic party, but i do know that a couple of folks from the nrcc are here today, get to know them because if you are republican, they can plug you in. stay principled. conservative bloggers too often made a mistake of just siding with the bush administration over things whether it was medicare or no child let behind. it is important to stay principled. if you agree with the republicans on something, say it. but do not become part of this system. the way that conservative bloggers are going to become more effective activists is going to be an independent voice and shoot straight with the

american people. you have to have correct if people are going to take you seriously as a blogger, active it, as a community organizer. the next point is get the facts. there's no excuse for being sloppy. the left would love nothing more than to find you going off half cocked and writing something that isn't true or posting a falsehood. one of the great things about blogging is that we keep the mainstream media honest. bloggers fact-check things. the "houston chronicle" talked about this lady who was a pediatric surgeon. they found out she was not a surgeon. do your homework, study up and get the facts straight.

number six, stay aggressive, be on the offense. you guys are winners. keep that win psychology. and number seven, thank you for being here and thank americans for prosperity and their foundation and the activists making a difference. i think it's working. keep up the work. keep up the fight. thank you. god bless you. [applause] >> our next speaker is the senior political adviser of americans prosperity foundation in new jersey. welcome steve lonegan. [applause] >> thank you, everybody. it's a pleasure to be here. i'm from new jersey and all those folks that came from new jersey and the rest of the country. my background is, we have had

some outstanding speakers. i come from a pretty basic background. i was a kitchen cabinet maker. and i started my business back in 1980. if you remember that year coming off of jimmy carter. unemployment was 9%. things seemed hopeless for america. we seemed to be losing our position in the world, but we had this new president named ronald reagan and came into office with this idea. he said these economic times, what we need to do is cut the size of government and cut taxes and put money back into the hands of individuals because they know how best to invest. remarkably the different of this administration that think thinks the opposite. in those years that followed, as business grew and capitalism, i saw my business grow and me and

my family and those around me prospered. as i got into the 1980's, i noticed that government was getting to be more intrusive and invasive on the state level, federal level. more inspectors walking into my manufacturing plant with their badges and clipboards and testing devices and coming up with more rules and regulations and became more and more difficult and i began to see more competition from foreign manufactures that seemed to be able to come in and trade more effectively. well, you have heard of all that how we're losing our manufacturing base. and i started to wonder, what's going on with government? i decided to get involved and i started to learn, study and read and began to understand truly what the difference is between a liberal and conservative because we hear this all day long.

the liberals and we represent the conservatives. what does that mean? the difference between a liberal and a conservative is that the conservative believes in the spirit and value of the individual, the individual's ability to rise to the best possible potential, free of the shackles of big government to achieve their very best potential and elevate everyone around them. that's america. that's america. [applause] >> the liberal, on the other hand, sacrifices the value of the individual for what they call the common good, for the state, for the collectivist good, in their minds. and they truly believe that they can plan better for us than we can, that we as individuals aren't smart enough to make those millions of decisions every day for what is best for us, consumption and health care. they can do a better job. they can plan better forever sing contingency from birth,

through life to death. and we see right now in this massive radical legislation, the most sweeping radical collective legislation in decades, if not in the history of the country that could alter the course of america's future. and you've heard about the health care bill and cap and trade the two biggest sweeping changes. and those cleck i havist liberals believe they can sit and plan every possible contingency for your health care, for your whom and dad's health care. they know it all, better than we can. and it took a lot of work for them to do that, come up with a plan, one single plan. i want to show you that. that popular bill, h.r. 32 0. i want you to see what it is. this is the bill. folks, that's the health care bill, right? a little over 1,000 pages and

within this document is the entire blueprint to the future of your health care. that's what the plan gave us. now, we know we are going to have to stop this bill that is a critical attack on everything and could alter the course of the future. they just don't stop here. they could plan everything. they con injuried this thing called climate change and they're going to determine the future. they are going to plan more. they came up with the cap and trade bill. well, you know, planners believe in planning. the more they plan, -- and what's important? the more important the issue, the more they plan, right? this is the cap and trade bill, folks. almost 1,500 pages and within this document and i want to compare the two -- i hope you can all see it, what's more

important to the liberal left? health care down here or cap and trade up here? that's where their values are. they'll put more time and more planning into preserving their so-called environment and polar bears than your very health care. within this cap and trade bill, folks, are some of the most dangerous assaults on america's prosperity you have ever heard it. we are going to cap consumption of energy and trade, trade our jobs is what we are going to trade to the four corners of the world. they call cap and trade, cap energy emissions and trade the carbon offsets, you have heard all about it. in the so-called free market when they create these carbon credits, an energy consumer comes in, which will never happen by the way, they get credits that can be sold on the

open market, but there is only a limited number of carbon tax offsets that can be sold that will be in the marketplace in a global marketplace that american businesses will have to buy should they want to expand. if the russians and the chinese and the arabs determine that they can control the marketplace by driving up the cost of those carbon offsets by purchasing them and driving up the price by holding them, they can drive america's prosperity through the floor, by cornering the market. and you see the stock prices driven up. by cornering the marketplace, the enemies can determine america's economic development and it happens in the marketplace. they can drive up the carbon tax offsets and we drive more jobs overseas. in the marketplace, sometimes

bubbles burst and maybe there might be drops in prices. the company that met emission standards, they would have been better to wait for the market to drop. so the question is what is really behind this massive legislation? is it our climate? is it our health? friends of the earth said, did he core of any climate control regulations must be significant income redistribution component. that is the redistribution of your wealth, folks, from america to around the world at our expense and that's the core of what you see. do you know how many trees they had to kill off just to print this? ladies and gentlemen, we are today in americans for prosperity to go out and fight for freedom like never before. we can and must win on these

issues. losing is not an option. i hope you leave here with the tools we have given you. the email is the must ket of today's revolution. this is a revolution of ideas and we are going to will be this one. i hope you the technology, whether it is twitter blogging or blogging or emailing, use it each and every day. because with the challenge ahead of us, it's up to us to say what are we going to do today to defend liberty and freedom? we have the momentum. and this is not a new battle, folks. this has been going on for 200 years. authoritarianism, it will deteriorate into

totalitarianism. again, as you leave here today, i hope you are prepared and wil go out and use the tools we have given you and stand up for freedom and liberty. thank you and god bless you. [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, pleas welcome to the stage, former pennsylvania congressman john peterson. [applause] >> good morning. energy. got energy here this morning?

yes, you do. nobody's talking about energy. energy is the mother's milk of the economic future of this country. and affordable available energy. i come from 110 miles north. i grew up one mile from the first oil well that started the industrial revolution in this country. energy, available, affordable energy is a must. every recession we've had from every time, we preceded it with high energy prices. the recession today isn't just housing, it was energy prices last year. 142 oil sucked the living life out of businesses and reported no profits if they used a lot of energy. as a country, we have had three presidents in a row that didn't

value energy. there just wasn't a major issue. we have had 14 congresses in a row that have not had a priority on energy until the end of the last congress. why? it was cheap. we get a spike and we settle back down. we get a spike and try to do something, we settle back down. and we had a spike last year, $142 oil that crippled this economy. a decade ago, when i found out in the interior bill that we put a moratorium on outer continental shelf drilling, i started to fight. and it was getting closer and closer and closer. and last year, we had the votes to win, but they pulled the bill. the budget that they passed in february of this year was because they couldn't pass it last year. they pulled the interior bill. we amended that -- we pulled

that bill. the only two bills was defense and homeland security because they didn't have the votes. they let it go away. president bush took it. two moratoriums, presidential and legislative. what is our energy mix today? here's what we use. and how do we use it? industrial, transportation and like that. energy consumption by fuel. this is history, this is the predicted future by our energy department. they're going to tell us that we're going to take wind and solar. they don't even make a line. that's going to replace this. i'm serious. that's the claim. it doesn't make any sense.

now the obama administration has been very, very busy. not been reported. they delay the five-year plan for 180 days. but we all believe they aren't going to open up any outer continental shelf. there are huge reserves of oil and gas there. they have chosen to lock up shale oil in the west, five states, from one to two trillion barrels of shale oil. shell did a study in conjunction with the federal government. $60 oil will work. they said we know how to do it. similar to the tar sands in canada. we can get oil out of there. off the table. the rome plateau, biggest gas field in colorado. seven years of prep work to lease it. they took it off the table. they canceled 76 existing leases

that bush had issued in utah. they canceled huge leases in alaska. did you hear about it? no. but those are done. this is an interesting one, woody biomass has grown by 1%. pelletst stoves. but we can't use it if it comes off of federal lands. they don't want to cut a tree down. and the courts helped them. instead of the five-year plan, that's in limbo. what are the plans in the future? the budget will remove every tax incentive to produce oil and gas. they aren't going to rich companies, but to go after hard to get energy. we give them a tax break to get them to try. they are going to put a 13%

excise tax on the gulf of mexico. that's our own personal energy. they will put a 13% tax on it. 80% -- they hate big oil. they just hate big oil. 80% of our energy is produced by little guys. big oil are the marketters. they have legislation to give e.p.a. control. it has been regulated by the states for 30 or 40 years. it opens up those seems down there when they force water in and allows the gas to come out. i'm going to tell you, 19 years in the state government, eight years in local government, 12 years in government, the average guy can't teal with that. we found a ton of gas this this country.

carbon tax, tax and give, give away our jobs. that's what the carbon tax -- and there is another thing in that bill that gives the citizens the right to sue if they think they have been harmed by climate change. nobody's talk about that. i read it the night before last. renewable electric standards are in that bill. 25% has to come from renewables or we pay a fine. it will eliminate canadian tar sands oil and heavy oil from mexico -- mexican crude. folks, the future of america is in jeopardy if we don't have an energy policy. china and india are prepped to take it. their energy policy will hand it to them because we won't compete. available, affordable energy. mother's milk of the future of this country. and if we don't have a vibrant

economy, we will never have the resources to pay down the debt. if we don't drill, opec will. [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen please welcome to the stage national blogger with hotair.com, ed morrissey. [applause] >> good morning. i hope you are enjoying a great lineup here. what a great conference we're having, right? absolutely. [applause] >> i'm thinking to myself, americans for prosperity, i don't know, some of you may remember a time when that would have been considered a

redundacy. it's like saying swimmers are getting wet. america was built on prosperity. a lot of people don't think about it. some people just flat out deny it. people will tell you that american prosperity was an accident of history. we just happened to land on a continent with a lot of natural resources. we just happened to build a country of mighty arsenal of democracy around the world for almost a century and it was all an accident. that is absolutely not true. absolutely not true. the people who built this country were pretty smart people. and they talked about rights. and i want to get back to this. i will get back to this. one of the things that i find to be a hair-raising experience, fig ratively speaking, of course is the idea and you hear this

from the left and hear it sometimes from people on our side of the aisle, will talk about health care as a right. people have a right to health care. it sounds good. people don't want to see people denied health care. but it is a fundamentally flawed argument and fundamentally against what actually built america for prosperity. and let me explain this. you look at the founding documents of the nation and the first one is the declaration of independence. and in that document, they talk about unalienable rights and list four, life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness and the right to change the government that infringes on those. those were the four founding rights of this country. notice that those rights didn't say i can take from somebody else and give it to someone else because it's a cool idea to do so. this is lifting the individual above the state and not the state above the individual.

about 13 years after they signed that document -- by the way, it says unalienable. i said that inalienable. but if you wrote it today, it would be 850 pages long and nobody in congress would read it either. got to have some fun up here. at any rate, 13 years later under the articles of confederation, things weren't working and they went back and wrote the constitution. does anybody know what the first mention of a right is in the constitution? what was the first thing that the founders wrote in the constitution. first right mentioned? speech, and that would have been the answer i would have given to. that's the second thing. the second right in the constitution. first right is in article one,

section eight, right of writers and inventors to control their own creation. it is property rights. property rights were the foundation of liberty in this country. property rights is what built this country as a prosperous nation. and that was the first thing that the founders of this nation when they wrote the constitution in 1789 that was the first thing on there. article sun section 8 is what both gives and limits the power of congress and that is a right in congress. they told the congress, you have the power and you will protect property rights in the united states. now the next is speech. speech is -- first one in the bill of rights. keep and bear arms, petition your government for redress and grievances, although hoyer and

pelosi feel that is un-american. if you want to send the first amendment to steny hoyer and nancy pelosi, maybe they'll catch up. but notice what these rightsr freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of religion, none of those rights confiscate something from somebody else. they are a right of free he men and women. you have the right to free speech. you do not have the right to demand your local newspaper reprint your speech. you don't have the right to demand local air time on your local television station. you don't have the right to confiscate somebody else's property. those are inate to the individual. when you hear people talking about the right to health care. again, it sounds good, because we are all compassionate people. nobody wants to see somebody go out without medical attention when they need it, but the

actual right here is the right of the provider to profit from his goods and services in the marketplace. that's the right that has to be protected. [applause] >> and i'm not saying that because i have a special love for doctors, although i think doctors do great work in this country and we have the best medical system in the world. people come all over to get treated here. that's no accident. but i'm also saying it because that same impulse can be used to take away, to confiscate goods and services from other people in the name of somebody right. you have the right to food. do you have the right to water? you don't if you're confiscating it from somebody else. you have the right to buy it in the open marketplace. you have the right to contractor it but you don't have the right to take someone else's food.

that is what built america as a prosperous nation. that is what builds the marketplace. that is what creates opportunities in america. that is what creates the great health care system that we have. that's what creates the great economy that we have here in the united states. and if we lose that by start saying that people have rights to our goods and our services through government confiscation, which is exactly what this government health care plan is all about, then we are going to lose something special and the reason why we were produce produce in the first place. and that won't be no accident either. i want to thank you very much for your time. been a pleasure and thanks again to americans for prosperity foundation. [applause] >> please welcome the chief

washington correspondent for newsmax.com and awe tore "in the president's secret service," ronald kessler. [applause] >> thank you all. it's a great pleasure to be here. dan rather called for a presidentially appointed commission to study the news media and what has gone wrong. this is the same dan rather who presided over one of the most egregious journalistic fiascos in the history of the free press. his producers were warned and he was fully informed and fully involved before they ran these damaging documents about george

bush's national guard service and that he got preferen shal treatment were warned that they were probably fake, that, in fact, cbs two handwriting experts on documents said that the proportional spacing that appeared in the documents did not exist when these documents were supposedly produced in 1972. that the superscript on numbers did not exist and on and on and on. and they warned very forcefully that they probably were manufactured. nevertheless, dan rather aired that show on "60 minutes." after they ran as the previous speaker said a blogger, document expert, pointed out these very

obvious signs of these documents being fake. and what did dan rather do? did he apologize? did he come clean? was he honest? no. he said this is probably one of the best reported stories in our history. stonewalling. and you know, that summarizes in many ways what we see in the media today in many corridors of mainstream media. i began my journalism career as a "wall street journal"/wall street -- and i can assure you if we had done the kind of stories that appear today, we would have been fired. no question. there was a lot of pressure to be fair, honest and get it right. but the good news is that the

marketplace is working and the marketplace on the one hand is promoting the internet and on the other hand is putting a lot of these outlets out of business. the "new york times" with its liberal agenda has seen its circulation decline. of course, part of that is the internet but part of is people just don't trust it. people in polls say they don't trust journalists. if you can't trust what you're reading, why read it? and on the other hand, the "washington post," this will shock you, has become a fair newspaper in my view, not only in my view, but also john fund, dave keen, whom i have quoted in my news stories ever since

katherine became publisher a year ago and then appointed the executive editor in september and that is remarkable. guess what? since the executive editor took over in september, the decline has leveled off. that is the marketplace at work. the "washington post" and "new york times" continuing to slide. into this mix, the largest conservative website but runs every single day, stories that are critical of republicans and conservatives. news stories that report criticism, news stories that report scandalous behavior when it occurs, but it does emphasize conservative opinion and conservative stories that you don't see in the mainstream media. and one example is i began doing

stories in january of 2008 reporting on reverend white and his connection with barack obama. and until that time, the main stream media totally ignored the fact that barack obama was in reverend white's pews and considered him a mentor and the only exception was sean hannity who had him on to talk about the black value system that basically says that the way any blacks who achieve economic success are being bought off by the capitalist system and are to be shunned. but in my stories, i reported for the first time on reverend white's sermons, saying that the government created aids to kill

off blacks, that israel is a racist country, that the government created killers to kill off minorities throughout the world, et cetera, et cetera. and also that the same reverend white gave awards to farrah kahn for lifetime achievement. who picked up those stories? nobody. nobody touched it. i mentioned the stories to a cnn reporter at a party and she had not seen the stories and she said that's amazing. of course, i could never run a story like that. i would be accused of being bias against barack obama by my network. finally, after sending the stories to friends i know in

mainstream media, tv networks and newspapers, after about two months, i did a "wall street journal" op ed quoting the sermons and abc and fox did start running clips of these sermons that reverend white was giving and about that time, the political landscape started to change, hillary started winning in the primaries, largely because of the realization that barack obama had been so closely tied with reverend white and what that says about what barack obama really believes. but by that time it was too late. by that time obama was ahead. if the mainstream media had done its job, which the first amendment was crafted to encourage, very possibly he would not be president today and that is a pretty shocking commentary on where we stand in

the world of journalism. newsmax has four million average unique visitors a month. and it has a monthly magazine which has a readership of 600,000 and is growing despite the decline of other print media. it was started by r in 1998, who had been a previously "new york post" editor and hired by the pig tribune review and then noticed a lot of his stories were being picked up by this website. so he decided he would look up this and find out what it was all about. it turns out it was max who was working as a clerk in the cbs gift shop in hollywood. and it just started this

website. chris thought this was a nifty idea and way to get out stories that mainstream media wasn't picking up. and he got a $25,000 investment from the family of bill casey, the former cia director, whom he knew. and slowly but surely, created in the great spirit of free enterprise this newsmax.com. my book in the president which goes into the character of presidents which is important to know and portrays jimmy carter as being the phoneiest president of all. he would come into -- [applause] >> he would come in into the oval office and tell the press he was working hard and then nod

off to sleep on the sofa. he would pretend to carry his own luggage and portrayed himself as a peanut farmer, and the luggage was empty or give it to aids as soon as the camera was off. i will be signing the books outside. and i think there is hope. and i think the marketplace is working. and i think we will do our job to create a more honest media. thank you. [applause] >> our next speaker is "wall street journal" editorialist, fox news contributor and end of prosperity author, steven moore.

[applause] >> thank you. ladies and gentlemen, this is a great privilege to be here. you are fellow pates. i'm so honored to speak to you today, which you have done to bring the obama agenda to a halt. so thank you for what you do. i don't know how many -- how many of you read the "wall street journal" editorial page. thank you so much for that. how many of you are regular viewers of fox news? what would we do without the "wall street journal" and fox news and americans for prosperity. i do a show for some of these rival networks and earlier this week, i was on the air with chris matthews on "hardball" i don't know how many of you wa