>> congress returns next trick to a number of items. and plans to begin debate on a measure that will cut all discretionary non-security federal spending for fiscal year 2008 levels. the final date on the bill is expected on tuesday. see the house live on c-span. and the senate returns to session tuesday. they will have time for general speeches before turning to a proposal that will change senate rules on the filibuster which is used to block or delay action on legislation. the proposal aims to limit when and how the filibuster can be used. live coverage of the senate can be seen on c-span 2. >> tuesday, president obama delivers the state of the union address to a joint session of congress. c-span live coverage begins at 8:00 p.m. eastern with our preview program, followed by the

president's speech at 9:00 p.m. then the presence response. then your phone calls and reaction live on c-span, c-span radio, and online at c-span.org. you can also watched the address on c-span 2, followed by remarks from members of congress. >> next, last friday evening, michele bock men, the founding member of the house tea party caucus spoke to nearly 500 members about tax relief. this was her second meet. [applause] >> what a wonderful

introduction. thank you, everyone who is here tonight. thank you for inviting me here tonight. what a wonderful group. i wish everyone could see your faces. as many of you know, i am and i one myself. i was born here in waterloo. i am a seventh generation island. -- a seventh generation iowan. you may know my other brother, he was a tv weatherman here for a number of years. thank you so much for that wonderful, warm welcome. your leadership of this a standing organization, would you be willing to come to minnesota and start one up

there? i think we need one. i come from a very different neighborhood up there, let me tell you. we have had such a great day today. my husband of 32 years, marcus, could you stand up? behind every good norwegian girl there is a swift husband. there he stands. we have had 32 great years together. we have five biological kids and we have had 23 foster kids. we are so proud of all of them. none of them are in jail now and we are just so proud of all these kids. in cedar falls iowa, i remember taking our iowa basic skills test and we were always so proud because we were number one in the nation. here you are, iowans are the nicest people, the best looking people, the smartest people. no wonder everyone wants to come to iowa. it should be no shock. there has been a lot of

speculation about why i am coming here to iowa today, and i don't want to keep you in suspense for one more minute. it is with pride in my heart that i am here to announce tonight in iowa, it is really good to be home. i am a congresswoman from your neighbor to the north in the great state of minnesota. we have given you hubert humphrey, eugene mccarthy, walter mondale, and yes, al

franken. we have given you a lot out of the state of minnesota, but we have also given you post-it notes and we have given you spam. we think it evens out a little bit there. it is a great time in our country to be thinking about some very important issues, and i know that the values that i learned in my life, i learned here in the great hall by state. i am so proud to have this as my heritage and my background. here in iowa, we laid the foundation, the seeds of great is. i put a lot of time into thinking about what i wanted to say this evening when i was extended this wonderful invitation to be able to come to you. i was thinking back about my own roots in my own family. my daughter and i pulled out of family history and started reading it to each other at night.

we were lucky enough to have a relative that wrote some of our family history, and i am ashamed to say that i had not read the book get to know what it was. i had tears come to my eyes when i read about our family and what they went through to get to this country. you all have the same story that you could tell, because rabin roosevelt said we are all in nation of immigrants. other than the native americans, who this truly was their original country, we are all in nation of immigrants. in our history, we go back to 18 bit 7, to my great great great grandfather. they lived in norway and there was only 2% of the land that was tillable. here he was, about 45 years of age.

they had five children and had very few prospects at that time. the inheritance laws in norway were such that you could not accumulate wealth. interesting how government does that. they had changed the inheritance laws so that a person could not sell their land to anyone other than a blood relation from their line. you cannot accumulate more land than the land that you had. so norway within a process through its government of suppressing wealth creation. very different from the way that america was portrayed. at the end of their life, what they knew their parents' generation to be, with five kids, but they made a decision. they had heard about something that came to them.

there were some regions that had come ahead of them and 80 norwegians had written this document, this manifesto. it would take a lot to induce some body to leave their home, give up everything and had, sell everything they had, know that they would never again see the people that they love, their friends, their neighbors, everyone that they would leave behind. they would never see them. and they literally sold at all and got on a ship it very small orders. they did not have much to begin with, but they bought their tickets for each of themselves and their five kids and they got on the ship. this manifesto was written by eight norwegians who had come to america and wanted other norwegians to come and join them. it said we live under a generous government in a fertile land, where freedom and equality prevail, in civil and

religious affairs. without any special permission, we can enter almost any profession and make an honest living. this we consider more wonderful than riches, to live in a country where you could choose to be anything you wanted to be, where you had equality and freedom and fertile land. this is what they heard about. this was that land of promise that went out to these norwegian immigrants, and the flame of imagination rose in their hearts and they decided to roll the dice and take the chance. these risktakers that came to the united states. the greatest wave of immigration was irish. the second greta's was the norwegians. they came from all over. some of your dudgeon summer

italian, but all of us descended from risktakers, people that had that flame of imagination in them. they understood and they saw from a distance the land of promise that was the united states, and they decided to shake the dice and make it happen. my forebears sold everything and went down to the dock. when they got there, one of their kids was a very tall norwegian. you would never know it was my great, great grandfather, looking at my hide, but he was 6 foot 3 inches tall. he was 11 years old, but the captain of the ship set hold on, you need to pay an adult fare for him, he is a big kid. an adult fare costs $25. the family did not have it. they were already there on the boat, sold everything, on the ship, ready to go, and the captain said he is not coming aboard.

there was absolutely nothing they could do about it. this is a true story. this is the plot of our ancestors. my great, great, great grandparents said i am sorry, son, you'll have to go and find a relative to live with back in the village. as soon as we can, we promise you we will get the money and send it to you and we will bring you to join the family. can you imagine if you were an 11-year-old boy and your parents said that to you, and off they went? he stood on the bank and the other children got on the boat. if you could have seen that boy's face, the records said he had his hands in his pockets, and he had the most pitiful, a forlorn look on his face.

the family was crying and they were heartbroken and halver was on the bank, heartbroken, thinking he had to walk back to the village and find some distant relative to listen to him and hear his story. the captain looked at the parents and looked at the boy, and finally the captain said all right, i guess the ship won't sink, so he got to go on the ship. it was just the first of so many miracles, and the ship took 13 weeks, from the time they left norway until they hit quebec was 13 weeks. then they had to take an overland routes that took many, many more weeks until they got to the mother colony in wisconsin. a norwegian met them and walked

them. imagine, they got off after all this and walked 6 miles to their home. it was summertime and they had their heavy woolen clothes on. when they got to this norwegian's yard, all of them just laid flat out in the front yard, there were so exhausted. this is our story. these are the people that came here for just a chance, the chance to write their ticket, the chance to come to this land of promise. when i think these people and the greatness of these ordinary people, they are the most extraordinary people you could ever, ever imagine. they essentially build a watertight boat and put wheels on it. they got as far as desoto in wisconsin, and they literally floated their wagon, and the cattle had to swim across the mississippi river to get to lansing.

they got to lansing, iowa, and they had heard there was free land in the dakotas. so that when 300 miles on the wagon, no marked roads, just military trails at the time. they got over to the dakotas and they had the worst winter in 42 years. the next winter, or the next summer, they had the worst flood in 50 years. their third year in america, they had the very worst drought that had ever been seen in the dakotas. the fourth year, locusts came and eight everything they had. all of a sudden they remembered, iowa, that was the land of milk and honey. we are going back to iowa. so they got in their wagon, retraced the route, they got to chickasaw county -- i guess

luther college was not there back then. that is where they went, and they planted their farm, and seven generations of my family ever since for their. halver, this young boy who got on the ship, joined up with the union army when he was 15 and bought in the civil war. today when i was at the capitol here in des moines, i saw the beautiful mural of all the civil war soldiers who had gathered in front of the capital here in the morning. in a family history, there is a recording that i just heard of halver coming to the capital, and he must have been there in that picture, just to see that painting. it struck me today when we saw that painting that this, again, is our story, of these beautiful people and the sacrifice that they brought to build, not just iowa, but every

state across the union. as we look around and we see this magnificent hotel and this beautiful capital city of des moines, where there is one gleaming, shining new office building after another, one great industry after another, it is important that as we look at those buildings and admire those buildings that we recall that it is not ourselves that built them up, it is people that went before us, whose sacrifice, who built it up and who threw their labors literally felt the trees and clobber the land and picked the rocks and build the barns and did what had to be done to build up this most magnificent country that the world has ever seen.

i am in love with these people, absolutely in love with these people. as much as i revere our founders, the thomas jefferson's, the benjamin franklin, and the george washington's of this country, i think is important for us to remember that the george washingtons and john adams stood on the shoulders of the very immigrants who came here. it was the ordinary people who lived them up. it was the ordinary people of this country who made this an extraordinary nation. it took a great leap of faith for these people to come here, and they were absolutely marvelous because they did not come here for the promise of a federal handout. they did not come here for the promise of a welfare payment. they did not come here for the promise and hope of socialized medicine.

they came here for the promise of america, and they came here to live in this land of limitless opportunity. the came here for the chance to write their own ticket and they came here to build a better life for me and for you. we are the beneficiaries of their courage, and i am determined to do whatever i can to preserve the promise of america for, not only for my kids but for your kids and for the generations yet unborn. that is why i am here tonight, because it is my firm belief that america is under greater attack now from a very different foe, but under greater attack now than at any time. it is a problem of our own making. it is like a thundercloud of debt that is weighing upon our nation, that if we don't quickly turn the ship, the iceberg is straight in front of us. we can all see this icebergs and like fools, we are pointing

the ship directly into it. but we can turn. it is us who can make that turn happen. do you realize, it has been 21 generations that america has survived. we have passed the torch of liberty from one generation successfully to the next. the question we need to ask ourselves is this, will it end with us? will we be that last generation? will we be the first generation to fail to pass the torch of liberty? it doesn't seem like a very positive message, but i have to ask you, will we be the ones for whom this great experiment in human liberty will in on our watch? don't get me wrong. this nation always exist as a piece of real estate. it will be here, as europe remains a piece of real estate, but the question is, will we

remain the leader in the world? will we remain the indispensable nation in the world, and will we remain as the exceptional nation of the world? the question before us that is even bigger is, will we become just one more ordinary nation, just one more country between albanians and zimbabwe on the role of that united nations general assembly? i don't think so. i don't think you think so either. or will we take action now to ensure that we remain the exceptional nation that our parents of this country was, a covenant nation, just as the puritans were about to land in massachusetts bay, and like my grandparents in yours of this would be.

the story of my family was in my mind when i came to talk to you tonight, because i did not come to just give you a speech about tax reform. i have materials to give you, the context of how great our financial situation truly is here in the united states at this point. the fact that we gained 3/4 -- in reports of the century, we have not seen in games like we had in the house in this election. i did not even come here to give you a political speech. this current crisis we are in is far bigger than democrats and republicans. it is or bigger than an argument just about conservatives and liberals. this is a much bigger discussion. it is a single question now that hangs over our country, a question that abraham lincoln

raised 150 years ago, almost to this very night, when he asked if the liberty of our country would be preserved until the latest generation. the question is this. will america endure? i do not say it is melodramatically or to scare you or to say it lightly. tonight, i think the answer is in grave doubt. the issues of our daily discourse, things like the deficit and bankrupting america and the size and scope of government, weakening of our national security. those are elements of this momentous question and it is not raised in the halls of congress or in washington d.c., or even in the pages of the mainstream media. it does not fit the narrative of the political class, but it is the question that i hear when i am out in the streets talking

to people. i think this is a question that animates iowa and minnesota and people across the country. politicians are not talking about it, but people are talking about this question. long before we ever became a republic, the moment before the first settlers arrived, this unique idea was forged in this covenant called the mayflower compact, articulated by john winthrop. it was a compelling, moral commandment that was imposed by this covenant on ourselves as a people. it was adopted and honored by every succeeding waves of immigrants, every succeeding wave of their children, and it was the obligation of each generation to the next to bequeath to their austerity inheritance of a greater america than they had known. ask this question wherever i go across the country. do you live better than your

parents did? is your standard of living better? then i ask you, what is your opinion about your children? do you believe that your children's standard of living will be as high as the one that you enjoy right now? how many of you believe that? this is the answer that i get. very few people will raise their hand on the second question, and almost everyone will raise their hand on the first. do you realize, this is perhaps the first time in 234 years of american history that audiences answer the question that way. that is why i say there is doubt in the minds of americans that we will continue as this great, exceptional nation. abraham lincoln gave this expression when he said the

latest generation that they show permit the world to know, we have a task of gratitude to our fathers, just as to ourselves, duty to posterity, and love for mankind in general. that requires us faithfully to perform. for 21 generations of america, we have listened to lincoln's words. we have faithfully performed to the next generation. when our ancestors arrived, they spoke different languages. they had different cultures, different backgrounds, different traditions, but unbelievably, they all found themselves back to this tradition, this covenant that was contained in the mayflower compact. is coveted that we republic in the declaration of independence. how unique in all of the world that one nation that was the root resting point from people,

groups all across the world. did not matter the color of their skin. did not matter their language or their economic status. it did not matter whether they descended from the ability or a higher or lower class. it made no difference. once you got here, we were all the same. isn't that remarkable? it is absolutely remarkable. out of that, before a book's unum -- e pluribus unum. we know we were not perfect. slavery was still tolerated when the nation began. we know that was an evil and it was a skirt and a blot and stain upon our history. we also know that the very founders that wrote those documents worked tirelessly until slavery was no more in the united states.

i think it is high time that we recognize the contribution of our forbearers who worked tirelessly, men like john quincy adams who would not rest until slavery was extinguished in the country. we have them to thank for that. instead of continually going back and looking at the weaknesses and the stains of america, let's look instead at the greatness of america, because we were a self correcting hundred. when you look at the united states dollar bill and you see the pyramid on the back of that dollar bill, the top of the pyramid is removed and the all seeing eye of god is above that pyramid.

the founders saw that the history of the nation was not yet written. that was up to us. we were still continuing and perfecting, because this was a self correcting country. so i come here tonight again to remind us that you are that self correcting country, a new are the most important part of what is about to happen in the united states. we took a great leap forward in this election in 2010, a great correcting step against the temptation in washington d.c. for big overriding a centralized government. we saw the passage of socialized medicine. we saw the purchase of private industries. did you ever think in your lifetime that you would see the federal government purchased the largest car companies in the united states, gm and chrysler? did you ever think you'd see

the united states purchased the largest banks in america? bank of america, citibank, or c america purchased the largest secondary home mortgage companies in america, fannie mae and freddie mac. your government owns them. the government completely runs the student loan industry, and they took over socialized medicine. obama recently signed an executive order so he would now start implementing cap and trade, a national energy tax. this is stunning what has occurred in just two years' time. remember, we are americans. remember who we descend from. remember the greatness that belongs to all of you, because you are that self correcting power. we saw something very remarkable happened in this last election, and now is up to you to make sure we see something remarkable

happened in the 2012 election. equality was what -- the most important thing they wanted, and our generation i think faces that darkest of all questions, because the failure to honor a bleak convey the rightful inheritance to america will be no less a threat and require no less a response from all of us. the answer is not with our political figures, i want you to know that. that is what lincoln told us. it is with each one of you here in this room, and time is running out. if you look at the debt that has been accumulated from the time george washington took the presidency on his very first day until the day george bush left as president, all 43 presidents.

if you take all the debt combined, all of that debt is less than the debt that was accumulated by barack obama in just one year. that is the level of debt and spending we have engaged in. this is not hyperbole. in the second year of his presidency, we saw a debt level almost equal to that. in fact, it is even more. on the books it says $1.29 trillion in debt. it was $1.40 trillion in the first year of barack obama's presidency. that does not include the $200 billion we spent on fannie mae and freddie mac. my youngest daughter is 16 years old. by the time she reaches maturity, we will have seen social security running in the red for years.

last year was the first time a security -- social security began spending more money than it was taking in. we have and i know you account for the social security trust fund -- an iou for the social security trust fund. it is filled with iou's. why? because congress took all of that out and spend it. what are those iou's made out of demo our labor. shortly, we will have the specter of having to increase the amount that government is taking out of social security if we want to continue putting out checks at the same level. consider at the same time, medicare is scheduled, according to the government, to go flat broke by 2017.

that is six years from now. six years from now, medicare is scheduled to be flat broke. social security is already running in the red. we are running deficits in excess of $1 trillion every year. we are at 60% of debt to gdp ratio. greece was at 90% when they had riots in the street. i did not come here to the press you on a friday night. i came too late context for you so that you will know this is a serious situation that we are looking at. it is also one of our own

making. it was not the kind of country that the founders initially thought we would have. they did not see that we would be a nation that would be filled completely with an entitlement mentality. they thought this would be a nation of free enterprise, individual personal responsibility. now something has changed. abraham lincoln has spoken to us as well. when he left -- when he was leaving springfield, he said he was an accidental instrument, a temporary instrument called to serve for a limited time. he said he wanted to appeal to us to bear in mind that it is

with you that the decisions lie, not with politicians, not with presidents or office seekers, but with you shall the union and the liberties of this country be preserved for the latest generation. 150 years later, i think those words explain everything we need to know about our responsibility in this tiny window of opportunity that we have. we have the next election. if we want to kill obamacare, if we want to end socialized medicine, it must be done in the next election. it must be done in 2012. just like we repealed speaker nancy pelosi in 2010, it will be our charge to repeal president obama in 2012 and a liberal senate in 2012 and put in place a bold, strong, constitutional conservative for president who understands the time and knows what to do and has the courage and fortitude to make it happen.

that is what we have to look for going forward. the united states faces virtual bankruptcy, as i said. this week, we saw the chinese come to the united states. it was in many people's minds as we saw our president bowed to the head of china. people wonder, where the chinese coming to measure the drapes while they were in washington, d.c. i did not know if we have gone that far. we have some great questions we have to answer in the next few months. this is the first great question. is america to continue to be an exceptional nation? i know we are an exceptional nation. i think you also know we are an exceptional nation. will we be, as some advocates, an ordinary nation like every other? will we remain an indispensable nation for good, as we have been for more than a century, as a beacon for the rest of the world? or will we adjust to a managed and inevitable decline. an ordinary america would be no america at all.

how would we govern this nation? would there be an elite presuming to know what is best for everyone and telling the owners in this country what they can and cannot do and which lighted ball they can buy -- light bulb they can buy, which insurance policy they can buy? will we be a nation where individual liberties will be prized? will we succumb to an instinct of a managed utopia where direction lies in the bureaucracy of the state? what i believe is the truth of where we are in this country. i do not expect the political class to understand what i am is saying. i think iowans in this room know what i am talking about

when i talk about exceptional as some. others who hear this message will know -- exceptionalism. others who hear this message will know what i am talking about. were the words, all men are created equal, living words? ken burns said the war was waged in 10,000 different places. americans killed and other americans in the 10,000 and hundred thousand. we do not face the prospect of an armed civil war. but we face the question of whether our nation will live with the latest generation equally crate -- equally great. it is a slavery of a different time.

the media may twist what i am about to say, but it doesn't bother me at all. it is a slavery. it is a bondage to debts and a bondage to decline. that is what that slavery entails. it is the subservience of a sovereign people to a failed self selected elite. that is our fate. on the eve of the issuance of the emancipation -- emancipation proclamation, lincoln said, we cannot escape history. it will write to us down in honor or dishonor. we will nobly win or lose the last best hope. other means will succeed. this could not fail. the way which it follows, the world will forever plod. this nation has always been preserved by men and women who rose to the challenge, by immigrants who came here and risked everything to come to you the united states and the

soldiers on the battlefield. they deserve this great nation. what i spoke to you tonight was somber. i spoke to you tonight was serious. but it is also not without a great hope. my faith is in you, the ordinary i was citizen. for my money, i would take ordinary in the day of the week over the self anointed elite. i love the iowa ordinary. [applause] what we have seen in recent

months has been nothing more than extraordinary, whether it is from the tea party or other groups, iowans for tax relief, you have someone something deep inside that we have not seen in modern times -- you have some and -- you have summoned something deep inside that we have not seen in modern times. this was not coordinated by some central elite. this was the spirit of 1776 that will up in all of our hearts and said, get up off of the couch. do something. do not let this great nation go down. now is the time to come out. you saw what happened right here in iowa. when in your iowa house seat back. ousting three supreme court justices. this was a shot heard around the world. [applause]

and do not think for a moment that a lot of justices around the country feel the hot seat in their own state because of what i what did. you rock here in the state of iowa. it is proof what you did that the spirit of 1776, this wonderful, early iowa pioneer spirit still lives in this state. why shouldn't it? the blood of these incredible people still flows in our veins, these people that we descend from, these generations that created, built, and sustain our country. as great as the task we have before us in this country, if we once again rely on ourselves before an almighty god, and if we educate ourselves and stand for to lead, and fall on our knees and cry out to that most munificent, beneficial creator,

we can in our own time reignite, rejuvenate, reclaim the greatness of the united states of america. it is in fewer hands, this first precinct in the 2012 race, it is in fewer hands, iowa, that this question will be decided. do not forget. it is not all the politicians who are going to come through here. it is not the speakers who are going to come through here who will decide whether america will go on as the exceptional, indispensable nation. it will be iowans who will make that decision. you will be the ones who decide. that is why i am is so excited. i feel like i know you because

i was born here. i was raised here. these are my values. i feel like we understand each other. i trust you with that decision. but i also charge you with that decision today. you must remember, it is your decision going forward in the next 24 months. you must answer these questions about what kind of country we can have. we cannot look to short-term interests. this is too big. we cannot fail. this is too important. even the french figured this out, after all. we have been a country for 100 years. they struck the statue of liberty and lady liberty held the torch. they put it in new york harbor. even the french figure out that we are the torch of the world like the way of exceptionalism and greatness. we can do it again.

[applause] we are that last, best hope on earth. if there is not america, to where do freedom loving people we para? to where -- to freedom loving people repair? to where do we go? thank you for having me tonight. thank you, everyone. thank you. [applause] i did not give your name. [applause]

>> geri. >> hello, geri. >> thank you for coming. >> i am so glad you were here tonight. >> i saw a republican poll. you were listed with john mccain. [unintelligible] >> isn't that funny? >> people wanted to redo it. i voted for other. >> thank you. what is your name? >> dan. >> hello, paul.

>> i am so glad you are here. >> thank you. it is nice to be back in iowa. >> i am jason. >> good to me you, jason. in 1965, they had a tornado. good to meet you. >> can i get a picture? >> you got the chart? >> can i get a picture with you? >> where is the camera? thank you. thank you. it was so nice of you to come out. >> no tornadoes. >> hi, georgia. nice to see you. hello, john. >> i am living in iowa now. [unintelligible]

>> what is your name? you are jim? good to see you. tell me where you live. >> in urbandale. >> in urbandale? good to see you. you are in the morning? -- you are in des moines. good to see you. do you know laura? >> no. i go to law school.

>> good to meet you. good for you. oh, boy. you are busy. >> we have got to get you back up on stage. >> i think katie wants her over here.

>> can you take a picture? >> thank you. >> thank you. i was just walking out of the state capitol when i saw him. isn't he great? he is the nicest guy. i am not in my district. i wear earmuffs in minneapolis- st. paul. where is the waterloo courier?

that is my hometown paper. my brother used to deliver that paper. the reason why i wanted to come down here is to set the table and ask some big questions about 2012. inevitably, we will be looking at who the nominee will be for 2012. there will be a lot of candidates coming through. i wanted to talk about the big issues and the big questions

that need to be addressed for 2012. >> are you a nominee? >> i did not come here for personal ambition. i came here because there are some big issues that need to be framed. the issues are the ones i mentioned. will the united states remained an exceptional nation? will we remain a nation of sovereign citizens where we make our own decisions? or will we be ruled by self- appointed, bureaucratic elites? we need to keep that in mind going forward when we look for a nominee. whoever that nominee will be, we need to make sure that they understand how serious these times are. we need bold moves by whoever gets into that office. they need to have the fortitude to take -- fortitude to carry that out. >> you said you had a bid announcement to make. and he just said you were glad to be on -- a big announcement to make. if you just said you were glad to be on. >> i am glad to be home. i know it is shocking when a girl goes to iowa that

speculation might come along. i am here to be a part of the compensation for 2012. i am certainly a part of the conversation. there has been no decision about candidacy, but i certainly want to be part of the time the session -- part of the conversation. the main focus is on what we need to do and what we need to accomplish for the next 12 months. there is an important narrative we need to make on the conservative side. that is that the policies that barack obama has put into place are devastating for continuing our nation as an exceptional nation. unless we repealed many of his bad pieces of legislation, i believe that will lead us into becoming a nation in decline rather than a nation on

ascendancy. for to london to 34 years, we have been a nation in -- for 234 years, we have been a nation in the sentencing -- nation in the ascendancy. i am focus on what we need to be talking about on the next 12 months. i think our nominee will bubble up to the surface in about one year from now. we all will know who that nominee is. we need to be talking about important things over the next 12 months. >> you indicated some misunderstandings for that slavery analogy. did you want to clarify what he meant? >> i thought i was very clear. it is by this to death and bind this to decline -- bondage to debt and bondage to decline. >> why is health care reform socialized medicine?

>> the way the legislation is built, we will see a decline in the health-care industry. if we see a class of the private -- clash with the private insurance industry, it will mean greater costs. already with obamacare, we have seen people report they have seen increases in their insurance premiums of 25% or 45%. this is what obamacare is. you're getting less in terms of health care and you are getting less. pay more, get less.

what a deal. i do not think the american people will go for obamacare. we need to keep our focus. this was a signal -- this is a signature issue for 2012. that and the overwhelming debt we are accumulating. >> how frequently do you expect to visit your home state in the next year? >> probably every weekend. [applause] thank you. where is the "waterloo courier"? [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2011] >> c-span's road to the white house continues with remarks by

former pennsylvania republican senator, rick santorum. he spoke to republican party members in south carolina, which will be one of the first states to hold a 2012 presidential primary. this portion is about 20 minutes. -- about 50 minutes. >> i am talking loud enough? good. thank you for giving me the opportunity to be here today. i will make a few remarks. then i would like to get your questions and your thoughts. of all the things on my resume, usually the things that get the most reaction from the audience is the last thing on the resume. the fact that karen and i are raising seven amazing children. i got a question from a young lady in the back. she said, why are you out here? why are you doing this?

in large part, it is those seven children and other children. when you look at the state of this country -- seven kids is a big responsibility. one of our kids is a special needs girl who needs a lot of care. it is a conflict with me to think about why am i here? i am here because of what has been happening in this country, particularly in the last couple of years. but over the last two dozen years, we have seen this country, our basic freedoms, it winnowed away and taken by an ever increasing, powerful government in washington, d.c. i always think about a fraud. you put a frog in a pot --0- i always think about -- i always think about a frog. if you put a frog in a pot on the stove and turn up the heat, it will jump out. i would like to thank nancy pelosi, and harry reid, and

barack obama for turning that heat up on the stove. and a lot of others, me included, who were sitting there letting the heat rise and rise when america was cooked. and we jumped out. that is what the tea party is all about. that is what all of these organizations and people who have come all live off of their couches. i was going to say something else, but it is being recorded. all of their couches and out into the streets. if you want to know the difference between what is a point on in america and what is going on in the rest of america with respect to this march toward socialism, look of the protests.

in europe, you have people in greece and ireland and france and spain processing because government is taking something away from them. in this country, you have people in the streets protesting because government is trying to do too much to us. that is the essence of the difference between america. all of you understand that difference. our deep in a the-all our dna in america is different from the -- our dna in america is different from the dna in other places in the world. the declaration of independence sums up the heart of american exceptionalism. the heart of american exceptionalism is this phrase, we are endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights. that phrase sums up america better than any other phrase. it is what makes us different than people we see as our

allies, see as our friends, even see as similar to us. but they are not. if you think about our founding document and what the founding fathers were trying to get across, it was revolutionary. we came from a continent where that was not true. we came from a continent where the beef was that god gave rise to the sovereign, to the king. then the king or the queen spread the wealth around. in america, we did not believe that. we believe that every individual has rights given to them by god. the foundation of our country, the foundation of everything we believe in is the belief in god and that god gives each of us writes that the government is supposed to respect. that is a -- god gives each of us rights that the government is

supposed to respect. my father and grandfather came to this country because of that, because of the promise of respecting the dignity of every human life, respecting the dignity of their work and their faith in their pursuit of creating stronger families. that is the essence of america. that is not what is going on or what went on in europe. it is no surprise to me to see europe in the state that they are in. one of the things you hear from the american left -- they are angry about what is going on in america right now. they do not understand why america is not going in the same direction as europe, why we resist socialism. what is socialism? socialism, but for another

name, is the same as a monarchy. it is the government taking care of you, the government getting the rights from god and spreading the wealth around. in europe, they are used to that. they are used to being taken care of. we are not. and we won't. [applause] it is that which has brought people out of the woodwork and brought me to be here and traveling around the country to try to deliver a message that i hope will unify this country and bring us to a point where we are willing to stand up and say, government, we can do with less. if you look at my record, i came to the time was in 1990. i would not say -- i came to the congress in 1990.

i would not say it was a miracle. it was during the time of bush 41. bush had forgotten to read his lips. if you were a republican, you were not doing too well. i ran against the subcommittee chairman on one of the most important committees in congress. he had $1 million that he's been. i spent about $200,000. i grew up -- he had $1 million that he spent. i spent $200,000. i grew up in western pennsylvania, but i had never lived in that county. i lived in a neighboring county. i spent about five years in that district. i was frustrated with the person. i ran and no one gave me a chance. on election night, when i won the election, i stood up and

talked about how government was getting too big. i talked about the respect for human life and the importance of the family. we had a message that connected at that time. i was able to beat a 14-year democratic incumbent. that night, it was reported that this man lost. the wall street journal has -- "the wall street journal" has these little blubs at the bottom of the paper. they said, we heard this congressman in pennsylvania lost. can you tell us the name of the person who beat him? that was on the front page of the "the wall street journal." . they did not know who i was. i came to washington, d.c. with one thing in mind, to do the

right thing for the country. and i did. i started out with a guy named john boehner. you might have heard that john boehner is speaker. there was a group of us who saw corruption in the house of representatives. we said we would not stand for this. members of congress had bank accounts. i was told when i signed up and turned in my papers to become a member of congress that you have to have your paycheck deposited in the house bank. i said, why can it be deposited in right? they said it had to be deposited in the house bank. six months later, there was a report that came out that said the members of congress were writing bad checks on their bank accounts from the house

bank and the taxpayers were covering it. i thought that was outrageous. so did john boehner and a few others. we said something about it. they ignored us. they said, this is not a problem. this is no big deal. it turned out, this report had been issued for 20 years. every two years they did a review and issued a report. the same thing happen. a group of congrressmen issued a -- congrressmen did a press conference and it went away. for two years, we stayed on it. we found out about the corruption in the house bank and the house post office. it led to the conviction of the chairman of the house ways and means committee, dan rostenkowski. here is the interesting part,

it was hard to stand up to the democratic majority who had been there for 40 years. i tell you what was hard, standing up for your own leadership. two of the members who ended up losing their elections were in the republican leadership. they put huge pressure on all of us to back down. but we did not back down. it was not the right thing to do. two years later, i had to get reelected. it was 1992. that is a redistricting year. two of our congressional seats were lost. it was probably south carolina. all of you pits birth people are moving down here. the cost me my seat. the-all of the pittsburgh people are moving down here. -- all of you pittsburg people are moving down here.

you cost me my seat. we are talking about the steel valley of pittsburgh. it is tough. 17% democratic district. i ran in 1992. george bush got 29% of the vote when he was running for reelection. i got 60%. i decided that we had another election in 1994. before i get to that -- when i came back, i was put on the ways and means committee. no one else was particularly interested in this subject area called welfare. i was. i got a ranking member of the subcommittee that dealt with welfare reform. i ended up over a two year period of time working on

legislation that was included in the contract with america. in 1994, i decided to run for the united states senate. i beat the incumbents badly. no one thought he could be beaten. everyone wanted to run for an open governor's seat. in 1994, i won. only two democratic incumbents lost in 1994. i defeated a democratic incumbent again. i defeated a democratic incumbents to run the house. the-democratic -- democratic incumbent to win the house. i defeated a democratic

incumbent to win the senate. we put term limits on our leaders. we made rule changes to make congress accountable. i led the fight on the floor of the united states senate as a freshman member in my second year in office to reform the welfare system. i worked with the clinton administration and the house and we were able to craft a compromise to do something that had never been done in the history of america, to end a broad federal entitlement. welfare reform passed in 1996. we pass with 17 votes. we ended entitlement and got almost half of the democratic caucus to join us because of

the way we work to get it done. did we compromise? yes, we did. if we compromise on principles? no, we did not. that is the magic. unless we are going to deal with the huge problem of federal incumbents -- federal entitlements, we will not get our deficit under control. you have someone who has actually works to do it. i did not stop there. i started working on social security in 1997. i went on air force one to kansas city missouri -- to kansas city, missouri to talk about how we need to reform the social security system. i come from the state that has the oldest per-capita population of seniors in the country. i would say that our seniors rely on social security more. all of the rich seniors moved to florida and south carolina.

no offense. [laughter] the folks in pennsylvania rely on social security. here i was, two years out of the senate and i am running around trying to change the system. we did not see a blue dress coming along and messing up social security reform. i kept saying there was one day in the future that would change everything. unless we do something by this date, the reform of social security will be fixed. we will have to do bad things like raise taxes or cut benefits. i said this date in the future is we have to get it done by that date. do you know what dates we had to -- do you know what date i was talking about? january 2011. that is when the baby boomers

retire. by that time, it is over. if we do not do it by that time, we will be running a deficit in social security. and we are. but we have to deal with social security. we have to repeal obamacare, which is the next big -- [applause] we cannot do that. the house is going to pass that this week or next. it will not pass in the senate. there might be some democratic votes in the senate to repeal it. it will not pass. it will certainly not pass with this president. if we want to repeal a multi- trillion dollar program and start on the process of fiscal sanity, we have to elect a republican president in 2012 and republican senators in 2012 so that we have the margin to

get that done [applause] -- to get that done. [applause] we also have to work on medicare and medicaid. if there are questions about that, i will take them. i am optimistic about america. because of what i talked about in the beginning, our dna. we are not to them. we are different. we saw that in the last election. i believe we will see it again in 2012. you folks have a disproportionate impact on what is going to happen. you happen to be the first in the south primary state in the 2012 primary -- 2012 presidential election. you will see lots of people coming through here talking about what they will do and

what they have done. it will be up to you. i do not think there has been a republican nominated for president who has not won south carolina. 1980? you folks have a huge impact. you are the human resources department in the country. there is a good crowd here today. you take that responsibility seriously. please do. it is an opportunity that you have to do something great for your country. i know there are some military people here. the thing to serve your country, you have to put a uniform on. no, you do not. you have to put your citizenship uniform on and engage in the process, but cicilline now. our country is at a crossroads. -- you have to put your citizenship uniform on ending

date in the process, -- and engaged in the process, particularly now. they believe they are smarter than everybody else. they believe they can plan things out for everybody and tell everybody how to live their lives. tell them what their education, health care, financial services system will look like because they are smart people in washington. and out here, we are not that smart. we are flyover people. our founders did not look at it that way. they were more aristocratic and the people we have in washington, d.c. today. they believed in the power of people with god-given rights. one final fact you need to

remember about how exceptional america is. the average life expectancy in 1776 was roughly the same as it was at the time of jesus christ. for 1800 years there have been developments and changes, but nothing much happened because of how people were ruled. they were not free. to's freedom was given people, once their inherent -- once freedom was given to people, once their inherent dignity was recognize, life expectancy has doubled. not just here, but in other places around the world. it is not just because that is where technology was and it was going to happen everywhere? really?

did it happen in the muslim world? no, it did not. did it happen in a communist country? no, it did not. it happened because of us. this is the gift your parents gave you. you are the stewards of this great inheritance. it is on your watch now and it is at risk. i pray that you do what they did and stand up and leave america at least as great as what you have. [applause]

>> it was a borrowing capacity that will not be at its max. it will not able to borrow money and pay our bills and get interest on our bonds. it would be a default if you do not raise it. that cannot happen. i understand people say that this will send a message to everybody. you do not send a message to everybody by costing the american taxpayer. you make your point by making spending cuts and a down payment

on some of the other things that we will need to do. i think the president, if his recent conversion process is anywhere near rio -- and i am not convinced of that parent whether politics will dictate a different course, that is different. as far as their ability to be able to get spending cuts, this is their best opportunity. that is too tight with the debt ceiling, do some reductions and -- discussion -- do some reductions in discretionary spending, and pass it on. it will be hard to get it to the senate. i think the house -- as long as they do not go overreaching, as long as they come up with solid proposals that have broad support, i think they can get some spending cuts. what you were talking about with shutting down the government,

that is how they created the bulk of the government. the real shutdown of the government will take place this fall. october 1 to september 30 -- what happened in 1995 was that the congress wanted to cut spending and bill clinton did not wanted to do it. he did not want to get rid of his midnight basketball program that was in the budget. we decided that we would pass budgets that he would not sign. eventually, he did not sign it again. we ran out of money. the appropriations bill did not get done because we did not fund the government. he went out to the american public and said, see? these folks are crazy. these revolutionaries -- remember, recall that the

revolution. not the best moment pleasure, but, nevertheless, that is what we did. he was able to paint gingrich and the like as fanatics, that we were not being responsible. we will come up against the same thing this time. there is a group of house republicans, bless their hearts, who will pass a budget that is really tough. and this president will not want to sign it. i think there are enough house republicans, i think, to hold the line and forced a showdown. and so the president will have to make a decision, whether he signed something he does not want or whether he will allow the government to shut down. experienced in the teacher and looking at what this president is doing, he's tried to pattern himself very much after bill clinton in the second two years of his first term. there will be -- they will be successful again, a less, over

the next month -- over the next weeks and months, the conservative movement, the tea party movement, as well as the members of congress begin -- are out there talking about this eventuality. if you do not hear about this again until october, then we will lose. the public will not understand what is going on. this has to be a drumbeat starting now. i think we are helped by the fact that there are debt increases in play. we are talking about a similar scenario. this may be a dry run for what will happen and that may be a good thing for us. that is a positive. and the other positive is that this is not 1995. there is this thing called the internet. it was not in great utility in 1995. it is now. we had rush limbaugh, but now we have talk radio extraordinary

all over the place. they're all kinds -- there are all kinds of ways to get information now. that to me is the secret weapon that barack obama will miss if he thinks he can repeat it. in 1995, the mainstream media was on his side. now, it does not matter if it is mainstream. it helps a lot, do not get me wrong, but it is not the determining factor. yes? >> what is your stand on health care? >> we are going on to cobra. what about young kids to you tell to go to college and get an education? coming out of college, they cannot find a job in their field. they are finding jobs, but they are uninsured. so they are paying a lot and a high deductible. they are told to come back on our policies as parents. corporations have said, you cannot. we are grandfathered in.

we will not give you health coverage. what are we doing about that? >> you are talking about an important issue, health insurance. but if we have to be very careful as we talk about health policy. one is health insurance. one is medical care. there is a difference between not getting medical care and not getting health insurance. everybody in america, if they are in need of medical care, particularly of an urgent nature come gets medical care. and they get the best medical care in the world, by the way. the issue that you bring up is an important one because it is the health insurance. what we have heightened -- what we have high helped entrench rights? because it costs a lot. what does it cost a lot? because we have a system in place that does not control costs. there is -- a system that does

not control costs is a difficult one. most of the money spent on medical care in this country is paid for by the government. medicare/medicaid. the federal and state employee'' benefits, too.alth government is the biggest factor in health care. what do they do? do you think they run an efficient and wise allocation of health care resources? no? do you think they said artificial caps and limits and are arbitrary in the way they manage it? yes, they do. as a result, the private-sector system has to manage not only their own risk, but managed visa be the bulk of the medical care that is being paid for which is probably not being compensated. you have the private sector trying to manage its own care.

government regulation tells them how to do it. and government interests in the marketplace and tilts the whole playing field because providers are used to being -- used to receiving certain reimbursement rates. it does deserve it -- it is a system that is not working very well because the government has too much power and influence. there is no reason. there is no other insurance provided through your work other than health insurance because the government provides price controls since after world war ii. companies could not give you wage increases, so they give you benefit increases. that is how it started. does it make any sense to have your employment -- to have your health insurance tied to your employment? no.

i say that to lay out the playing field. why is it a health insurance access problem? it is because we have a system that is pretty dysfunctional. if we really want to solve the access problem, you have to solve the cost problem. the problem with obama care is that he said that every business would crush the federal budget. sobe has a $2 trillion entitlement. and -- so he has a $2 trillion in sediment. there are hundreds of regulations that will be promulgated under obamacare. how many have you heard about a regulation promulgated two days before christmas, coincidentally >> 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, good. >> 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, good.