first, i do not consider energy issues as purely environmental. they have the economic consequences and you have to consider those. secondly, policymakers must distinguish fact from from of things -- from trumped up things and advocacy and people who have an agenda to follow. >> i would like to leave you with a quote from president teddy roosevelt, who was one of our nation's leading conservationist. at think is applicable today. "conference -- conservation means development as much as it does protection. caprotection."

thank you for coming to louisiana. it is an honor to be here. god bless each one of you. [applause] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2011] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] ♪ >> and now, from our sister state, the great state of mississippi, the governor, haley barbour. [applause] >> thank you thank you all. thank you. thank you. thank you very, very much. to all of you saw the republicans, and the ones i met from new hampshire and from all

of the other states, you are not going to find a better place in the world to have a convention than this city, right here on the mississippi river. [applause] >> if you come down here and do not have a good time, it is your fault. [laughter] >> you know, it is great for me to be back in new orleans. in 1969, we put on the first southern republican leadership conference in new orleans louisiana. i was a kid political operative at the time. my first presidential campaign was 1968. i dropped out of college my senior year at all mess, -- at ole miss, and i will tell you something i have noticed. in my 42 years involved in presidential campaigns, this is

the first time more over the last year or year and a half i've had people say to me weekly, daily, maybe many times a day this statement -- "i'm afraid my children and grandchildren are not going to inherit the same country i inherited." those are at stake for this election -- those are the stakes for this election. if i could not get across but one thing, it would be that. i talked about 1968 and 1969. in 1970 i dropped out of law school and was the state director of the census in mississippi. it was a great education for a copy of like i was. one thing you learned is that the government is not very good at communicating.

[laughter] >> some of you might remember that the census is not just a census of population. it is a business, housing, agriculture. we were at the jackson state office and we were looking for the business census forms. it is about 14 questions. it is one sheet for 99.9% of businesses. you could tell this group, this mom and pop operation, had struggled filling out this form, but you could tell they were law-abiding good citizens, because they try to answer every question the best they could they get down to no. 8, and the question was the number of employees broken down by sex. they said we have not broken down by sex, but we have two with a drinking problem.

[laughter] >> i learned the government had a hard time communicating, and we need to focus a little better on the message here. let me tell you what the message here is -- there is one message. our goal, our focus is to elect a new republican president next november, 2012. [applause] >> now, if you are from louisiana or mississippi, or from kentucky, west virginia, we will give you a little reprieve because you have governors and state-wide races, and we will come out of these four governors races, with not just the two republican governors we have now, but with at least

three, and maybe four in all four states. [applause] >> those of you in virginia have legislative races this year. for most everybody in this room, we need to start right now focused on electing a new republican president in 2012. we need to start now. we need to start going through the people in your family that you will contact to get involved. the people you worked with, the people you went to college with. the people that are your customers, the people that are your vendors, the people you go to church with -- let me tell you, people go to church on sunday, and vote on tuesday. we want to make sure they get the message, and we need to start getting the message now. i will never forget that when there is an incumbent president -- it is hard to beat an incumbent president.

the election is always about the incumbent's record. that is perfectly fitting. when i was elected governor of mississippi i beat an incumbent democrat and the reason i beat him was because he could not run on his record. when chris christie beat the democratic governor of new jersey, it was because the governor could not run on his record. [applause] >> it is altogether fitting and proper that next year's election be about barack obama's record, and if it is, we will have a new republican president in 2012. [applause] >> so, we need to stay focused on that. you look at his record right now, if you are in louisiana, kentucky, or any state in the south, or any state in the country, the obama record is a

record that we cannot be proud of because what his policies have done have hurt the american economy, and they have been bad for our country in virtually every way. i mean let's look at the tax policy of this administration. why are we surprised when unemployment goes up by 3 million people is this president campaigned on the largest tax increase in american history, which he wants to apply almost exclusively to employers? how do you expect people who let had the largest tax increase in history hanging over their heads to go out and hire people? we are talking about hundreds of billions of dollars of new taxes, primarily of people who employ other people. after we won the election in 2010, and they have a lame duck

session, our friends in the liberal media elite say obama has learned his message -- lesson. he compromised. he accepted the bush tax cuts to stay in effect for two more years. the truth is obama lost. he lost the election, and he could not extend -- he could not prevent those tax cuts from been extended, and everybody said see, he is learned his lesson. well, it turned out it was what ronald reagan used to call the first play in the democrat playbook, fake up the middle, and run around left city tel. [laughter] [applause] >> because, as soon as christmas is over, the president said he still wanted the largest tax increase in american history, and that will sell his plan.

a few days later we saw his budget. not only enormous tax increases of 1.5 trillion dollars, but he increased spending, and the deficit 3.6 trillion dollars of spending in the year when the government was boy into taking him by obama's testament -- the government was going to take him $3.3ama's testament, billion. if you read -- if you ran your business that way, you could write a book about it. it would start with chapter 11. [laughter] [applause] >> but the left not only wants gigantic tax increases to keep employers from hiring more

people, and buying more equipment, and becoming more productive, they also want the government to keep spending more money. some wants to make us think that the government spends more money that is good for the economy. well, the fact of the matter is the government is sucking all of the money out of the economy, so there is no money on main street or for small business. wall street may be doing great, and the big new york banks might be making money, but you do not see it in small town, where middle sized towns, or anywhere else in america. think about this. the fiscal year ago or so, the fed increased the money supply by $1.5 trillion. if we could have imagined that five years ago, we would of thought main street would be

need deep in money. what happened? the fed took -- the fed took all of that money and used it to buy mortgage-backed securities. none of that trickled down into the economy, but sucked up all that might of god into our economy. so, not just -- might have gone into our economy. if so, not just taxes, but spending is hurting our economy. limit less government means a smaller economy. never forget that. a bigger government means a smaller economy. you heard jimmy fields talk about energy. the obama energy policy has hurt employment and the economy. why? well, where normal people like

us think the right energy policy would be more american energy, the obama energy policy is to drive up the cost of energy so americans will use less of it. they think well, if americans lose in -- use less, there will be less pollution, less global warming, that it would make these alternative energy sources of fiber and -- vibrant, where they could compete. but, do not take my word for it. barack obama said in 2000 aid in an interview with "the san francisco chronicle" under my cap and trade plan, utility rates will necessarily skyrocket. those are his work -- his words. his secretary of energy, steven chu, in 2008, made a statement

saying we need the united states to get the cost of gasoline up to where it is gained europe. they may need that in berkeley, but we do not need that in biloxi, i can tell you that. [laughter] [applause] >> but looks, obama's policy of driving up the cost of energy looks to me to be the only one that he has networks. [laughter] -- that works. [laughter] >> when he became president, gasoline was $1.84 a gallon. their policies have managed to more than doubled it. who pays it? men and women who pump gas into their cars and pickup trucks. where do we see it? we see it when our economy slows down because energy is 100% of

the american economy. there is none of the american economy that does not have it tied to energy. so, republicans in the election are going to run on lower taxes, less spending, more american energy, and then we're going to run on one other thing -- getting rid of obama-care. [applause] >> again, again, the american people understand this. obama-care is costing jobs. how would any employer in his right mind decide to hire more people when he does not even know what his obligations and costs for health care are going to be for his employees? you see employers who are getting people to work more overtime, the you do not see

them hiring new people, and this is another big impediment that this government-run health care system, that will force them to buy health insurance at lord knows what costs -- we do know one thing about the costs, the congressional budget office says the cost of health care under obama-care is going to go up. health insurance premiums are going to go up. that was not the idea most of us had one we started talking about health-care reform. we thought we would do something to help control the cost of health care. instead, we get a government-run health care system crammed down our throats that, again, hurts the economy. we are going to have a campaign about how to make the american economy stronger, and put people back to work, and i do not care which one of our candidates they you hear from today when during

the campaign. you will find out a constant theme -- the theme of economic growth and job creation, of lower taxes, of less spending, of limited government, rational regulation, a free market health care, and an energy policy that is more american energy. if we keep this election of those policies, and let the american people compare what we have proposed to the failed policies of the obama administration, we will win. but, if we let people in the obama campaign take americans' eyes off of the ball, then that is their only chance to win. so, i want to close by talking to you a little bit as a former national party chairman. i do not know who you are going to be for for president, and

there are a bunch of good choices. [applause] >> and the nomination fight is wide open, so it will be a scrap. at some point, you will decide you are for somebody, and that is great. before who you are for. work your fingers to the bone, but understand that at the end of the day, we are going to nominate somebody, and weber that somebody is is -- and weber that somebody is is going to be many multiples -- whoever that somebody is is going to be many multiples better than barack obama. [applause] one thing that i know about our nominee, whoever he or she might be, i know i am not going to agree with him or her on every

issue. i can tell you that right now. i can tell you if you are not willing to agree with him or her on every issue. i had the great privilege of been the political director of the white house under ronald reagan. one of the things about president reagan that always amazed people was how many millions of americans voted for him every time who disagreed with him on lots of issues, but they trusted him, they thought he was trying to do the right thing, and they knew he was the best choice. he always had a scene that i've kept in my back pocket. reagan used to say a fellow who agrees with you 80% of the times is a friend and ally. he is not some 20% trader. -- traitor.

we are going to nominate a republican candidate they are going to agree with 7%, or 20%, or i do not know what it is going to be, but i will tell you it is not going to be a perfect candidate. there's only been one perfect person who ever walked on this earth, and there's not going to be one as perfect running for office in 2012. you, as leaders of our parties, have seen make sure that everybody in our party, and everybody who knows that we need a new president, and everybody was interested in na -- everyway comes conditioned to knowing we are going to nominate far and away the best candidate that will be 10 times better than obama, but do not get hung up in purity. in politics, purity is a loser.

[applause] >> as i say, or can it will not be perfect, but in this business it is unity that wins elections. i am old enough to remember twice when we run approximately 60% of the votes in presidential elections -- 1972, in 1970 -- 84. -- 1984. the reason is most americans agree with us on the issues. if we can get those kind of numbers now -- we can get those kind of numbers now, but we have to run our party in a way that 60% of the people feel like they're welcome, they get a chance, their vote is needed, and appreciated. [applause] >> part of the greatness of the tea party activity of the last couple of years is that on like

the ross perot phenomenon, or the george wallace phenomenon, they did not go often have a third party. they realize if you're going to have a more conservative president, somebody who was to take the country in the direction they want to go, it has to be in the republican party. [applause] >> and if you split the conservative vote, that is the best thing for the left. the left is dying for the tea party, or the whatever party to be a third party. barack obama has worn out three sets of kneepads down on his knees praying for the tea party to become a third party, because he cannot lose if we split the conservative vote.

we all love mississippi. one of our favorite mississippi ans is a man named fred smith. fred smith is the founder and chief executive officer of fedex, a pretty successful little company. he has a great saying that i think is applicable to the crusade that we are about to embark on until november, 2012. fred says the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing. [laughter] [applause] >> the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing, and that is what we have to do between now and november of 2012. we are going to have a great, big primary, and it will be but at the

end of the day we need to be prepared to lean people -- lead people back to the main thing. the main thing is that our children and grandchildren require a busted we elect a new president in 2012. -- require of us that we elect a new president and 2012. .hank you all capital-lett [laughter] [applause] [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, please welcome from california, congressman [unintelligible]

>> well, thank you you all for coming, and for the work you are doing in this cause. a funny thing happened last november on the road to serfdom, it turns out the american people did not want to go. [applause] the message of the last several elections could not be louder or clear. great parties are built upon the great principles and their jobs by their devotion to those principles. from its inception -- inception, the core principles of the republican party have always been individual freedom and constitutionally limited government. the closer we of how to these principles, the better we have done. [applause] >>, and by the way, from its inception, the core principles of the democratic party have always been collectivism, state

ism, and unconstitutionally expensive government. the closer they talk to those principles, the worst they have done. his just this simple way of saying dick armey is right. when we are like us, we win, we are like -- when we are like them, we lose. [applause] >> our party suffered heartbreaking setbacks in 2006 and 2008, not because voters abandon republican principles, it is because they look at republicans and decided republicans had abandoned republican principles. [applause] >> in 2009, house republican leaders recognize that, and a resolve to restore traditional republican principles as the policy and political focus of the party, and they achieved something nobody thought was possible at the time reject the

united house republicans as a determined voice of opposition to the left, and then they rally the american people. there is the reason why a six -- not a single house republicans voted to squander a trillion dollars in so-called stimulus spending. there is the reason every house republican save one voted against obama-care. there is the reason all but a handful of republicans voted against cap and trade. the reason is republicans discovered why they were republicans, and republican leaders discovered reagan could go advice, to paint our objectives in bright colors, and not hide them in pastels. [applause] >> we also made movement a party of enormous importance, tea

party. remember, tea party is not a republican phenomenon. 60% are republicans, but 20% are independent, and another 20% are democrats. i want you to think about that. long before the tea party, we had another name for that movement, and we called the reagan coalition. [applause] >> we are watching it come alive again in a new generation. and they are yearning for a party that would take the stance that once produced morning again in america. the result of this return to republican principles, republican coalition building, was absolutely stunning -- 63 house seats shifted from the democrats to republicans, six u.s. senate seats, 680 legislative seats, 19 state

legislatures, and six governors. [applause] >> i believe we are on the verge of a great political awakening that will produce a new american renaissance. [applause] >> you know, the debates that occurs inside state and federal -- federal capitals are really a reflection of a much larger debate going on right now among the american people -- the debate going on over backyard fences, family dinner tables, coffee at starbucks, and it is upon the outcome of that great debate that the future of our nation will be determined, and that debate is happening at a moment in time when american people hunger for the fundamental principles of freedom that defined our party and found in our country, and we

are winning the debate. the only way we are going to lose it is if we fail to stand by our principles. [applause] >> part of that, by the way, is going to be the debate over medicare. once the american people understand that under obama- care 15 political appointees of barack obama will have life or death say over what medicare services your doctor may provide you, and what lifesaving services he must deny you -- does anyone here doubt for a moment the american people will overwhelmingly demand the republican choice? a system in which every patient chooses the plan that best meets his our core own needs with many providers competing to provide the best services at competitive costs in the

financial reach of every american by a financially- solvent medicare safety net. ladies and gentlemen, this is a debate we should all relish. our message could not be more clear. they say we are in the worst economic times since the great depression. but i remember a time much more recently when we have not only double-digit unemployment, but double-digit inflation, mile- long lines around gas stations, at interest rates at 21.5%. perhaps the reason we did not remember those days david lee is because they did not last long -- david lee is because they did not last long term and we elected ronald reagan under a full republican banner, and he did exactly the opposite of what jimmy carter had done, what barack obama has been doing, and he reduced the tax and regulatory burdens that were crushing the american economy

and produced the greatest peacetime economic expansion in our nation's history. on this centennial year of reagan's birth, let's just not remember him, let's follow his example, and get our nation off of the road to serfdom, and back on the road to sit and prosperity. [applause] >> i want my children to know what morning again in america actually feels like. i want them to know the optimism that america's best days are ahead, and all of the pride and confidence of american exceptional ism. we know how to revive an economy because we have done it before. all it requires is a republican president and a republican congress that actually practice republican principles spre. [applause] >>, or as winston churchill once said, give us the tools, and we

will finish the job. in 1858, abraham lincoln warned this nation that two entirely incompatible philosophies, freedom and slavery, competed for the future, and he reminded us that a house divided against itself cannot stand. he said i do not believe the house will fall, but i do believe that it will cease to be divided. it will all become one thing, or all the other. well, today, two entirely incompatible philosophies, freedom and socialism, compete for our nation's future, and the stage is set for one of the greatest debates in the history of the american republic. so, what are we to do? the great republic and ebullition leader frederick douglass was asked that question by a young protege.

what do we do now? he answered with three words -- agitate, agotate, agitate -- speak out at public meetings, jumped into discussions on facebook and myspace, and twitter, whatever that is -- [laughter] >> if you see an article on mind using it is important, e-mail it to your friends, and leave a comment after it. paint our positions in bold colors. agitate in every forum you could find because only one that great debate between freedom and

socialism has been settled among the american people will we have a congress and the president fully resolved to save our country. lincoln gave that famous house divided his speech to the republican state convention of illinois. he ended with these words that today seem just as much intended for us as it was for the audience that day. he said dennis -- two years ago the republicans of this nation must turn over 1300 thousand strong. we did this under the symbol and costs of resistance to a common danger with every external circumstance against us, of strange, discordant, and even hostile elements, we gathered and fought the battle through under the constant hot fire of a disciplined, proud, and tampered enemy. did we brave all bend to falter

now? now when the same enemy is d?vering, dishevele if we stand firm, we shall not fail. wise counsels and accelerate, or mistakes delighted, but sooner or later the victory is to come. i believe that ronald reagan was right. the history of the past four centuries tells tells us that province had a place in place in this continent where it was to receive what lincoln called the last best hope of mankind, the american republic. if we stand firm now. centuries from now i believe historians will record that in the second decade of the 21st century, just when it began to

appear that the nation had squandered its wells, abandoned its destiny, for gotten its founding principles and discarded its freedom, this generation of americans rediscovered, restored, and revived the promise of the american public, and from that moment in time, america began her next great era of expansion, prosperity, and insolence. let's go out there and make that happen. thank you. [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, in the new york area -- new orleans area, we have a bright young congressman, our representative, steve scalise. [applause]

>> i love that music. how about the stains? [laughter] >> i want to welcome all of you to new orleans. we really appreciate all of you who come here and enjoy the great costs the stealth -- hospitality that we call home to r. i think the fact there are so many people participating in this year's conference shows that we know just what is at stake right now, just how critical of a tipping point our country faces. if you look at what last year was about, there was so much enthusiasm last year. the november elections were so critical. i think if you look at what the focus of most people across the country was, it was to retire nancy pelosi as speaker of the house, and we did it.

[applause] >> now, of course, there were some other good offshoots -- not only did we with -- retire nancy pelosi and took away her gavel, we also talked the gavel away from people like barney frank who are out there passing dodd- frank regulations that are making it harder for local community banks to get our economy back on track. we also took away the airplane she was flying around the world was using taxpayer money, so now she has to know what it is like to go through airports and deal with the gsa and those experiences as well. i think you are seeing dividends. completely shifted the debate. president obama for the last two years was talking about how much money he can spend other people's money to get the economy going. of course, what happened was when they brought that great stimulus bill but they promised

a month just borrow another $1 trillion we willp under -- over 8%. asee over 9% for the last 18 months because it is failed approach of stimulus and darling money and bailouts is not working, we shifted the debate now. instead of talking about how much more money to spend, we are finally talking about how much money to cut, and that is where our focus needs to be. [applause] >> you know, as we are finally starting to make cuts, and believe me i would like this to go even further. as we passed the house budget, they're out there demonizing paul ryan and those of us that voted to pass that bill, frankly i thought it was the beginning, but it shows you just how wide the divide is right now. so, one of the big debates we had over the potential government shut down a few months ago -- i thought the most

shameless the massad of the white house was a president, our -- sings i saw out of the white house was a present, a commander in chief that was willing to use our military women and men as uppawns. we said if we are still too far apart and get to a government shutdown, our military men and women in the field ought to still be paid and the president said he would veto that legislation. our men and women in the military should not the uss-- used as pawns. [applause] >> we know how many weeks so many anecdotes about how spending is out of control -- how many radical things are being done. yesterday, we had an agricultural bill go to the

house, and we passed a bill that actually cut spending. we were called every name in the book. these are agencies that had double digit increases over the last two years. i had an amendment that passed yesterday. they just guarded two weeks ago with a new regulation in the department of agriculture to call for a policy that requires the department to start implementing global warming initiatives. so, just think about this. now we defeated cap and trade, thank god, in a bipartisan vote, where the president wanted to run every manufacturing job out of the country, and raised over testing hundred dollars -- raise over $1,500 in new household taxes. think about this. they are spending at the department of agriculture millions of dollars right now to study how our farmers should be

growing our crops based on what they think the temperature will be in the year 2015. our local weatherman probably cannot predict what the temperature will be this weekend with a 50% margin of error, and they're spending money to save our farmers should be growing crops in 39 years. my amendment passed to end that foolishness. that is one example of things that are being done with -- done with money we do not have. how was that money borrowed? a couple of months ago i wanted to see how we really borrow money. there is a building in washington, d.c., called the bureau of public debt, probably the busiest place in town. so i went down there and i watched debt been sold, and the debt is being sold to americans, but the biggest buyer is china. if you look at all of the money

that is being borrowed from china, guess where the bureau of public debt is? i could not make this up. it is in chinatown. he is in chinatown in washington, d.c.. talking about going to wear your customers are. this is true. the first bureau we ought to close down as the bureau of public debt. let's start balancing the federal budget. let's get back to appoint where we can create jobs in this country. one of the biggest threats right now is the obama administration put the various agencies and departments that are creating all of these radical rules that are running jobs out of this country. it is going on everywhere. look at the epa. we have had hearings multiple times. we have died some pretty interesting encounters and some big disagree -- we have had some pretty interesting encounters

and big disagreements. they are trying to pass cap and trade through the epa, telling local businesses how much carbon they can emit at a time when we defeated cap and trade in congress turned out legislature was supposed to make the law. you have the epa trying to pass this radical stuff. we passed the bill in the house that said epa has to be out of the business of regulating greenhouse gases. we decided that issue. that is sitting in the senate. [applause] >> now look, i wish it was just epa. it is every federal agency that is putting bull's-eye on the back of our job creators. if you are a capitalist in america, you are the problem according to this administration. but the national labor relations board. they are trying to tell ballwin they cannot build the plant in america -- boeing they cannot build the plant in america

unless they're going to use union work. that is not the job of the federal government to tell our employers where they can create jobs are not in america. [applause] >> you know, i am concerned -- encouraged by this response because the mainstream media has not been covering this, but somehow or another you have managed to figure this out. he is not just the epa or the national labor relations board. with the sec. we have jurisdiction in our committee over the fcc, and we have a hearing over the net neutrality rule where the federal government his gun and try to regulate the internet. now look, -- federal government is going to try to regulate the internet. now look, i graduate in computer science. i understand and know the kind of innovation that has happened

in this industry. his one of the few industries that are still growing. -- it is one of the few industries that is still growing. the last thing we need to do is have the government tried to fix the one area of our economy that is still working. [applause] >> now, who you trust more? who do you trust more to create jobs and keep innovation going? the innovators? the college dropouts at harvard that become the next billionaires', where the federal government that cannot get anything right? look at what happened over the years. technology in this cell phone -- there is more technology in the self and then there was on the apollo spacecraft. that is how technology has an -- innovated without the help of government. if you think about the broadband capabilities, that was built with private money. that was not federal stimulus money that built the internet to a point where now 95% of homes

have the internet. over $500 billion of private money built out of broadband and created thousands of jobs and great new products everybody uses and loves to date. guess what the government wants to do? they want to take over the internet. we cannot let that happen. >>, all of this gets to the bigger picture of what american dream -- what is the american dream? all of us in this room know the american dream is the concept our founding fathers had, but it not -- it did not start and end with george washington. there are so many great things about america, and the greatest thing is that every generation has had better opportunities than the one that came before it. how many people in this room think that if we keep going down this path, how many people think the next generation will have the same or better opportunities

that we enjoy today? we cannot let that happen. that is what this and next election is all about. we have a responsibility to preserve the american dream for our children, and our grandchildren. we are not going to let this president take away that opportunity for the next generation, and how do we get there? there are so many places we can go to fix this country and get it back on track. let's start here, in south louisiana. we know how to create energy. we are proud creed over one- third of america's oil and gas, it is under attack by the obama administration. since the deepwater explosion last year, the president put a moratorium on drilling which violated the recommendations of his own scientific experts that said it would reduce safety in the golf. the president said who cares about that. he had one of his radical czars

change the documents. guess what happened. we have seen over 13,000 jobs leave this country. we have seen a greater dependence on foreign oil, and you wonder why we are paying higher gas prices? guests present nearly doubled since president obama and took the oath of office. he is the finger-pointing and chief. the block used to stop at the desk at 1600 pennsylvania avenue, and we are not want to let him get away with blaming people because it is his problem and his responsibility to fix it. he does not, we're glad to replace what somebody who does, and we're going to do that anyway. [applause] we can eliminate our dependence on middle eastern oil today if we seturan create over 250,000 american jobs by exploring resources in america.

we have billions of barrels in the cost of mexico, in alaska, through the shell in the midwest, as there is more energy to sustain ourselves and completely lemonade our dependence on middle east oil and all these countries that want to eliminate us. we need to eliminate those policies. if you look at one of the newest buyers of u.s. debt, it is opec, and they're doing it with our money. the president says he wants toz. i want to drill here, in america, where we have no reserves. [applause] >> i want to talk real quickly about obama-care. i did not no-space a four-letter word i'm not allowed to say. -- i do not know if that is a four-letter word and not allowed to say. guess what has happened in the last few months since they

passed this bill that they said would be so great? we have had a heated -- hearing and we have exposed will be the latest scandal in washington. there have been over 1400 wafers issued by this administration, and guess who has gotten them? i have a list right here. it represents over 3 million employees will of god and a waiver. how many people got a waiver in this room -- got a waiver from obama-care. how many people got a waiver? over 90 of these groups are labor unions, the very people but said we need obama-care when secretly they got a waiver from obama-care. aarp is on the list. look of this list. these are all the waivers. they are admitting that it broke the promise of liking -- if you like what you have you

can have the the key. i have a plan, and it is called repeat -- repeal. that is what we need. [applause] >> i can see my time is running out. i would love to talk about a few other things, including israel, and how the president is trying to undermine our greatest allies. we ought not to be taking the side of the palestinians when it comes in negotiations. they need to be settled between israel and the palestinians. that undermines our greatest ally in the world. i've talked about a lot of problems that i hope i'm not depressed everybody. the good news is it is not too late for us to take our country back, and that is what our focus is going to be, and i know everybody in this room is committed to that purpose. as we remember the 100th

birthday of ronald reagan, let's commit ourselves that we are going to rebuild the shining city on the hill that we know america is. we're not going to let despair and doubt continue to we're going to replace president obama with the president he will not apologize for american greatness, but restore american greatness. thank you for all you do in that cause. let's take this country back. [applause] [applause]

♪

>> ladies and gentlemen, america needs a energy. we'll talk about how to get it. the american national gas association [unintelligible] help me welcome the former republican national committee chairman and former counsel to president george w. bush. [applause] >> it is great to see you talk about one of the most important

issues before us in this country. that is energy supply and our economy. as i was flying down here today, i actually sat next to a great former congressman from louisiana, bob livingston, and he let me borrow his copy of american spectator -- "american spectator kirkcaldy they talk about natural gas. -- spectator." , the talk about natural gas -- "america has become the saudi arabia of natural gas. in fact, we problem have more capacity is in natural gas and the saudis have in oil. american president since jimmy carter have caused -- called for america to be energy independent. we can do all of that, as we have here and now the capacity independent. the solution is natural gas." we'll talk a little bit about that with a distinguished panel today, begin with a friend of

mine from the white house, a former deputy national security adviser to president bush. he currently serves as the national security adviser for the center of strategic and international studies, and is a national security adviser to cds news. he has his own consulting firm, and is a frequent columnist and commentator. please join me in welcoming him to our stage for this panel on national -- natural gas. amy jaffe is the director of the energy forum at rice university's institute for public policy. she is an expert and has written extensively on that. she had a refreshing op-ed in "the wall street journal" called shell gas will rock the world.

please welcome her to our panel. [applause] >> because we are conservatives, and we like real-world experience, we also have stephen mueller, the president and ceo of southwestern energy. he has over 30 years in the oil and gas industry, a degree in geological engineering from the colorado school of mines, and he will talk about the real world and pecten what he is seen on the front lines of our economy as the president and ceo of a major production companies domestically in the united states. please welcome stephen mueller. [applause] >> steven, do you want to leave us off with a few -- lead us off with a few comments and then a little questions and answers? >> sounds good. thank you. thank you for moderating the panel.

i am excited. i represent southwestern energy and the industry. i am also representing another group, anga, the ones sponsoring this. it is 30 companies that are independent and have set up and develop the shell revolution that we have here today. i want to talk a little bit about that as i have my opening comments. when you think about the country and the issues, you start a list that talks about middle east unrest, high gas prices, you have an economy that is really tough. you've got a lot of issues out there. all those issues natural gas can help with. that is why we are so excited about it as a company.

when we look at it, just a few years ago, we talked about and there were some nations that talked about setting up an opec for natural gas. as you have heard, we have got more than enough gas out there, and just a second ago you heard him say we have a huge amount of natural gas, more natural gas than saudi arabia. that is not the oil industry's opinion. that is the opinion of a noted -- of a bunch of noted experts from mit the department of energy. they tell us that the number one producer of natural gas in the world is not the countries we

worry about. it is not venezuela. it is not russia. it is not iran. it is the united states of america. and that is a national treasure. [applause] it is also a national treasure for another reason. we employ a 2.8 million people in the united states in the natural gas industry. we have people working in every state in the united states, and for every bit of gas will develop here, not only do we have natural gas that keeps energy in the united states come from having to be bought from somebody else, but it adds jobs, and that goes back to the comment about helping the economy. ultimately, it is all about supply. this is not a 10-year supply issue. this is not a 20-year supply

issue. we have 100 years of supply. that is for generations. when we talk about in our company, three generations from now, we will still be producing gas. we need to be responsible and what we are doing and need to work to make sure we are part of the community. i would like to take a different tone right now and talk about that for a second. there is a lot of questions out there, and we get challenged on a regular basis, and we understand that challenge is out there. a lot cases we are in the community that has never seen natural gas drilling before. we drill with an intensity in the country we have never seen before. and there should be questions about that. we welcome those questions, and we as an industry work hard at answering those questions. i am very glad and excited to say that anga has met an

important part of try to answer those questions. anga companies have come together and said we want transparency in what we are doing out there. we want to tell them how we are drilling wells. we have taken that stand as an organization. we have helped set up a national volunteer organizations set up between two different groups. they are the regulators who worry about our groundwater and that goes with the oil and gas commission that sets up with our regulators who regulate what we do, and they have a voluntary website, you can go to the website and see what we are doing and how we are doing it. we are proud that the industry

has set that up. texas passed a regulation that the governor should signed very soon. that regulation is the first day in the country to the regulatory process of the legislation to pass full disclosure. other states have done that. arkansas has done that, and so has wyoming, pennsylvania, and you see other states doing that. we work in our community, we live in our community, and we think that is important. let me mention this for a second about our company and what we are doing. less than seven years ago we had our first production in arkansas. we found the gas shale in arkansas, and we are the major producer there. today less than seven years later we produce 3% of the nation's gas out of that shale,

and we are still growing over 20% a year. we have been active in working with and curling those organizations out there to make sure we in the community grow together, not us against the committee. we do not believe that the community should make a decision between economic benefit or environmental benefit. they can have both. we can do both. anga is committed to do that. there's another part of the natural gas area i want to talk about for a second, and that is natural gas vehicles. if you think about natural gas, natural gas can be used in many ways. it can be used in your large trucks, school buses, you have seen in many places municipal buses, ups and at&t announced that they are right to convert their vehicles to that, and you

are seeing cars are going to natural gas vehicles. that takes infrastructure. what we have done is look at corridors across the united states after out how we can put in fueling stations to touch most of u.s. citizens. recently in texas, there has said the decision past that will tie the austin-fort worth- dallas car door and that will go to be implemented over the next few years and that touches over 10% of that truck traffic in the united states. we are attacking that problem as well. we have a video we would like to show you. it is a very short. it talks about what is going on on the natural gas vehicle end of it, and before i showed, i would like to mention what last thing. in arkansas, we are walking

the talk. southwestern energy has built a natural gas vehicle station. we have 60 trucks we use on a daily basis. that number is grown rapidly. within the next 18 months that will be over 600 trucks. in the future, we build the station for ourselves because it was economic for us to do so, but we also put the pumps in front for the public. the public pays $1.60 per gallon. there is a tremendous benefit their from our standpoint. with that, if we have the still, let's roll the clip. >> our dependence on foreign energy is holding america back. once we did make a change, once we can start now, at&t and

verizon have an answer. ups does, too. leading companies across the nation are converting their trucks to american natural gas. reducing emissions and advancing u.s. energy interests. a city known for its freeways and smog is converting its entire bus fleet to natural gas. [unintelligible] communities across the country -- oklahoma city -- a new natural gas filling station. the price at the pump? about half of what you pay for a gallon of gasoline. it will give america the opportunity to declare energy independence.

america has more on natural gas than saudi arabia has will. -- oil. north american natural gas -- get on board. [applause] >> you know, get on board is one of the phrases that the marketing people have out there, natural gas is truly a national treasure, and we think -- we take that to heart at anga, southwestern energy, and we hope to lead the way to make natural gas a very important part of our country. thank you. >> i have good news. i came into writing about the

energy business by studying the middle east, and 10 years ago, looking over the natural gas market, we were envisioning a market where rock would have political leverage over europe, where we would be dependent on natural gas, and the gas market the oil market. weaver brought have our president call leaders in the middle east to put more supply on the market. a group of companies brought about technical innovation and came out with a way to produce a natural gas that sits in shale rock underground across the united states, and this gas is in place as he did not think of. i'm from texas. this gas is in north dakota, pennsylvania, new york state caught all around our country, and because it is closed and nearby, it is going to mean lower prices for consumers to. we are seeing that. when you think about how your pump price went up, think about

your electricity bill. it did not go up because you live near natural gas. we had a unique opportunity here because we have the resources domestically available that is incredibly plentiful, but there are environmental challenges. we're trying to work together to make sure we can come up with a technology to produce the shell gas in a way that was inexpensive, we can use that innovation to ensure its production is environmentally sound as well. we have these great benefits. for the next 20 years, we are not on behalf import any natural gas by ship from the middle east. [applause] because we are not importing natural gas by ship. it means all the natural gas out there in the ship can go to europe and it means they can tell the russians where to go.

russia's market share in europe -- did a simulation rice university -- 30 years russia's a share will drop the only 10% of supply. that is thought to be a benefit to u.s. national interests. we are lucky. for 30 years i have watching -- i have been watching the energy industry and people like our leaders have been standing up and calling for industry independence. they say we did not have enough resources on the ground. we're finally in the place where we do. that is the thing we need to be proud of in this country. we had a problem, it looked like it was not solve all, we were becoming more and more dependent, the middle east was

looking worse and worse, and we were sitting here thinking to ourselves, my generation, we're going right back to 1979 and we finally, through innovation of our industry, domestic engineers, domestic exports, domestic jobs, we are getting to the point where we could actually envisioned a world where we will not need national -- and natural gas imports. some of the fields producing natural gas also produces oil. while we saw the infrastructure problems in north dakota, north dakota is thought to be able to provide this country with 1 million barrels a day of oil. [applause] we have our -- in texas. that is thought to be able to provide you with almost 500,000 barrels a day of oil in addition to the natural gas. we are in a great position.

now is the time to grab it. we need to be realistic. i am a big advocate for alternative energy. i think there will be a day in this country where we will have cars that do not run on gasoline. i believe in that day. natural gas will help us to get to that date because if you have a car you could plug in, you can use natural gas to generate electricity, but the answer is we are lucky that he had this resource for now to give us the bridge to give us the time to develop new technologies, and we need to take advantage of it. >> thank you. [applause] >> thank you and thanks to anga having me here. i spent over a decade in my life looking at how the enemies of the u.s. look at our vulnerability. one of the key for abilities that our main enemies around the world have can consistently

focused on has been our energy vulnerability, a high dependence on middle east oil, former abilities in terms of infrastructure around the world. when i was working at the white house, i spent my time worrying about the critical infrastructure that we rely so heavily on to import the oil and gas we need for our economy to run on. this development of the shal technologye is is a game changer. if you look at the diary that as found at bin laden's compound, one of the things he was talking about in natural was his strategy to go after oil tankers. we have seen outcry that going after it will in fisher as a key soft underbelly of american interests around the world. they attack the saudi facility

which was one of the main refineries around the world, trying to take it off line. they did not succeed, but a major attempt. in 2002 they attacked a french oil tanker off the coast of yemen. fortunately, it did not have major repercussions. consistently they and other terrorists around the world have to the oil infrastructure as a key vulnerability, attacking pipelines, supply chains, point of entry and exit in terms of energy. the enemy now knows this is a key point of former ability and one that not only matters in terms of current supply, but can have economic shock waves. ben laden talking about having a major economic impact on the united states. if you look at the amount of time and effort we put into defending around the world the

waterways, the choke points, it is enormous. the navy has to worry all the time about throughways in places like the straits of gibraltar, the streets of hormuz, places where our enemies like iran are willing and able to attack shipping lanes this is an area where the united states spends time and energy around world trying to defend the infrastructure that allows the will to be imported into the united states. the share of reliance and dependants of the united states on oil does not allow the country to use its full leverage. if you look at the case of iran, one of the reasons sanctions have not been as effective as we would like, something we worked on when i was at treasure, is because iran is a major player in the global energy market. if you take them out of the equation, if you put a new element of supply in the u.s.

equation, you begin to change the geopolitical dynamics with iran in a way that puts them on their heels. it allows us to use our leverage around the world. finally, i think what you have seen over the last decade has been the start of a race for resources, with china racing around the world to places like sudan,,, and other hot spots around the world to gain access to supply. this would distort geopolitics of the regions. if you change the energy dynamic, that geopolitics of what is happening, as any has talked about, you start to change the dynamics with china as well all around the world. this becomes less a diminishing type of resources and around the world that we have to fight over, and the united states become the centerpiece for economic and energy power, which changes the geopolitical

landscape completely. i think to the extent he can gain our own energy supply, to the extent we have domestic resources, we change the global landscape in terms of our national security in a dramatic way. we take from our enemies a very real source of vulnerability that a target on every day, be it al qaeda, iran, venezuela,,, and you change the calculus so the united states now has its independence. i think this is a really important strategic moment for the united states. we have to take a hold of that, especially that there is this myth of -- keyhole. this is the opportunity to take it and turn it into one of our key assets. i'm excited to see how this landscape unfolds. it is the opportunity for the

united states to grow stronger around the world as opposed to being vulnerable. thank you. >> thank you. thanks very much. in terms of that, their reliance on foreign sources of energy, in 2010, the united states imported 4.2 $5 billion of oil from abroad, and in importing that, we exported $337 billion of overseas outside of the united states. if we were able to develop our resources here, and my former mentor spoke here, if you talk about energy, he has a line about our liberal friends a lot will, coal, and gas, as long as it stays under the ground. if we develop and use it here domestically, and if we were

able to develop the natural gas resources here, what with the back be in terms of our economy rather than bringing in $4.25 . dollars imports a year? >> there is something about a little complicated that we did not quite understand. we know every time the price of will go as high, we read in the newspaper there is a banking and financial crisis you know that the two connected. i will explain to you how. we shift as hundreds of billions of dollars over to saudi arabia and other countries, and they have tiny economies, and they cannot absorb that money. that money comes back out into the financial community and it is something that we call hot money, money floating around in this but let that markets. it makes for inflation.

we had giant inflation in our stock market, in the london stock market, and the value of these assets goes far above their real value. what happens is we start to go into our recession. we start to slow down because you are spending a lot of money on fuel, are not going to the movies, you're not going to the dinner, you feel more divested. the next thing you know is somebody pulls the rug out and this bubble of money that is floating around in the financial system goes poof. it collapses and overnight like it did in 2008. it is taking your bank account with you. your investments, your pensions. we really need to get to a

different place where we are not shipping these dollars are brought to pay for this energy. we need to come up with a better plan with a better system. we need to use our domestic resources. we need to use energy more carefully, better equipment, or technology, more conservation because we have seen this over again, in 1979, 1990, and then 2007, 2008, the consequences that come our beyond even just the fuel consequences. it is not just about standing in line for gasoline, but a whole financial system and the instability it creates. >> stephen, how about jobs? >> i am not and, thus -- i am not an economist. if you think about it, almost every state in the country has got some kind of crisis. there are two states that

cannot. arkansas and north dakota, and guess why they are in the b lack -- their drilling. in arkansas, there are over 36,000 jobs in the last four years. in pennsylvania, they just started drilling there three years ago, 80,000 jobs. we have put that into perspective with the national numbers. 80,000 jobs in three years in pennsylvania, and that was from the time when the economy was down. we have a big growth that we can do for all the states in what we are doing. >> you touched on this in your remarks, what we the defect in terms of reassessing u.s. national security interests around the globe if we were able to have more domestic energy supply? >> what it does is it allows the

united states to be more directly thriving -- driving its own interests absent the need to calculate how that impacts our energy independence. we can start pushing for interests and ideas around the world in a way that does not have to be tempered what we may be doing in the context of the price of oil. for example, we could pressure iran in more aggressive ways and could have over the last decade because we would not be so concerned about price of oil. on things like corruption, what you described as perhaps the greatest transfer of wealth in human history, what it does in some cases is it treats culture of corruption. if that is absent, you can start to worry about things like that in a more aggressive way. our engagement around the world and all the hot spots. it allows us to reassess where we need to devote our energy. libya has been of such interest

us. it allows us in a way to be freer of energy countless when we start looking around the world to what our real national security interests are. it is the operating in many ways from a foreign policy perspective. it would allow the united states to reassess the globe in that way. >> in terms of the energy consumption, and you mentioned natural gas vehicles, stephen, and we are looking at cass at more than doubling over the last few years. what are the policies -- are at their policies that would be the 11th that would allow for greater utilization of natural gas vehicles, and what are they, and how long would they be taking to implement? >> i do not want to get into politics. there is a natural gas bill that

potentially has incentives for natural gas vehicles. we as an industry have put together a plan to contact between 70% and 80% of our population. to do that is relatively inexpensive. we're talking about a few billion dollars total. if there is not incentives, i think the industry might take a lot of that on. are seeing it in little ways. we're not the only ones. up to 20 states already, several talking about how we can support building infrastructure. i do not think it is so much legislation or help on the dollar slide. it is consistent policy so we can do our work. i think that is the biggest thing we need.

>> ab, the you have anything can add -- amy, you have anything that ad? >> i think we have the ability the have the market deliver the resources. i think it is a question of having government get out of the way. [applause] and you read a lot in the coming months and years about environmental problems, and the thing you have to understand is if we have lost in this country that forbid people from taking chemicals and putting them into a stream or putting them in somebody's back yard, and if the government is doing its job and prosecuting people who do that, then it will not happen. i do not think it is that much more complicated than that, and

we really should press the industry and industry is willing to consider it. there is a lot of innovation going on in the industry today that are coming up with a drilling fluids that are not toxic. there are other things we can do to help that along. we need to support the government and support research and of all the elements -- research and development of new technology. i am an advocate for solar power. not every state in this country is sunny. for those of you, who live in a state, i live in a sunny state. that is something the u.s. government can get behind in research and development, but there is this tonality in washington today that anything that is a fossil fuel is going

to be bad. we did not like to think that way, but it is not practical. in the end, we do not have a choice. when not want to change our lifestyle. we are not want to set in the dark at night. we are not going to stop watching television. until we have to look at the resources we have, natural gas is the cleanest resource we have, and it is something we need to tap and we need to be realistic about the time line when we can switch to something else. i am not saying we should not try and we should not have a policy, but where i would put my criticism of the current administration is it is well and that have a policy tabout what e are trying to do in 50 years, we need to think about what we are doing this year. we are lucky to have the opportunity that for those of you who are adventurous and are

willing to buy a car that might plug into your cgarage, you can feel that with natural gas instead of electricity. we can get off of oil, and the last will we use, the last dollars be sent abroad. i have two teenage sons, and i want to see them -- and i do not want to have to see them go into a draft, and certainly not over oil. [applause] the point is, this is what we do. we pay billions of dollars to countries across the middle east and other unstable places, and that is because we have given them this asset and they have taken these dollars. we have to try to get them reinvest in something. we have to sell them something here in the united states so we have less of a trade deficit.

what do we sell to resell the military equipment to defend our oil, to the global community, right? as we sold them and those arms, what we wind up having to do? we get to go to libya and tell them they cannot have arms anymore and they cannot use it on their own population. this is a crazy pattern. we need to get half of this, and we cannot. -- we need to get out of this pattern, and we cannot. >> one of the things is historically the knock on natural gas as a resource in the economy is that there was volatility in the prices, but that has stabilized over the past five years or so. can you talk a little bit about

that volatility and where it is in the marketplace today in terms of energy supply? >> if you think about natural gas and what has happened, this is not quite the best analogy, but one of the best i can come up with. copernicus, before him, everybody said -- were drilling for rocks that were not shale. you would never do anything with it, and our 73 sections is shale. if found out the earth goes around the sun. the shale is my to bigger than what we have been milling about for 100 years, and supply continued to increase and over the last five years we have increased the supply and gone past the demand side from basically 2008 to today, the volatility has been gone. has been in a low for dollar

price range. -- it has been in the $4 price range. we have had that seismic shift. >> stephen, thank you. amy, thank you. juan, thank you. have a great conference. thank you. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2011] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [no audio]

♪ >> this is the republican leadership conference, their second date. with were speaking cut us with more speakers coming up,

including herman cain. we expect to hear from michele bought one, ron paul, and rick santorum. we will have more coverage from new orleans tomorrow. live coverage from new orleans here on c-span. >> lady is and gentlemen, you know him as the former ceo of -- [inaudible] you may not know that he was president of the national restaurant association, representing [inaudible]

please welcome presidential candidate herman cain. [applause] >> thank you, thank you, thank you. my, my, my. my, my, my. sounds like you all are ready to have a party. [unintelligible] one of my heroes, the late doctor benjamin mayes, used to remind the hon men of war house, let it be borne in mind that the tragedy of life does not lie in

reaching your goals. tragedy lies in having no goals to reach for. he went on to say that it is not a calamity to die with dreams unfulfilled, but it is a calamity to have no dreams. i have a dream. [applause] in fact, i have two strings. the first dream that i is that in november, 2012, conservative

republicans are going to take back the house and senate. i have a dream. i have got another dream for 2012. that dream is you are looking at the next president of the indicted states of america. -- president of the united states of america. look at him. some of you all have heard me tell the story about the bumblebees and how will be -- and how long these are not supposed to fly, because aerodynamically his body is too fat, the winds are too thin, he cannot flout them fast enough, and the bumblebee flies because

he did not get the memo that he was not supposed to fly. ever since i formally announce my running for the presidency of this great country, there have been some people who have said that herman cain should run. bill o'reilly, who i respect, said that herman cain doesn't have a chance. don't get crazy, you all. mr. karl rove, who has done a great job for president bush, does not take my candidacy seriously. and one of the best political commentators on tv, one of my favorites, disappointed me, mr.

charles crowd hummer -- krauthammer, is a 20 when he did not take my candidacy very -- seriously. i did not get the memo that i was not supposed to run. i am running. i am running. the reason i am running is because this nation has become a nation of crises. we have a moral crisis. we have an economic crisis. we have an energy crisis. we have an immigration crisis. most of all, we have an efficiency of -- a deficiency of leadership crisis in the white house, and we are quite a change it.

i did not get the memo. one of the reasons that i have been inspired to answer this call has been because the american people that i have talked to and the ones that i have listened to are tired of this national nightmare that we are on right now. this economy is not growing. we have a lot of problems. i do not have time to go through all the things that i would do. let's talk about one of the biggest crises that we have, this economy. what would be one of the first things that i do as president would be to ask the united states congress to give me a bill would contain the following elements in order to boost the economy --

a max 25% tax by all corporations and all individuals, max of 25%. we are the only nation on the planet that has not lowered its top corporate tax rate, and we wonder why jobs are leaving this country. number 2, take the capital gains tax rate to 0% -- 0%. don't to trim it back. taken to 0%. we need to unleash some equity for small businesses and new businesses in this country, and taking it to 0% would be one of the ways to do that. thirdly, suspend taxes on foreign repatriated profits.

let that money come back home. number four, provide a real payroll tax holiday for every worker in america and every business in america by allowing a full holiday of the full 6.2% of employees for a year. and number five, and this is the most important one. reduction is,tax make them permanent. uncertainty is killing this economy. make them permanent. i have talked and listened to many businesses, businesswomen, who at that growth plan on hold. they do not know what the tax rate is going to be in 2013 cherry they do not the full

impact of "obamacare." they do not know the full impact of the dodd-frank legislation. they did not know what the impact will be of the foreign situation. people have gone from feeling concerned about the future of america to being fearful, and we've -- and when we put the right person in the right -- in the white house, moi, american exceptionalism will be obvious again. i am near the french quarter, right? you all get the "moi"?

americans are tired that our president is apologizing around the world. i will never apologize for the greatness of america. many of you know my background. i was not born with a silver spoon in my mouth. we did not even have a spin to put in my mouth. -- a spoon to work -- to put in my mouth. i grew up in atlanta at. they taught us these fundamental lessons -- believe in god, believe in yourself, and believe in the greatest country in the world, never see yourself as a victim. never.

with those principles, i have been able to achieve my american dreams and beyond. i want to thank all of you because a year ago when i spoke at this conference, i challenged you to stay informed, involved, and inspired, and you did. and look how we are coming along the. the job is not over yet. but stay informed, stay involved, and state inspired. the liberals do not want us to believe that we can do this. they do not want us to believe that the people are going to elect the next president of the united states, not the media. the people. the people are going to elect the next president of the united states. and we are winning because we

are more informed and involved and were inspired because we see that it can. we can feel that happening, that spirit of america that i talked about. we will make it happen because of that spirit of america, because people come up to me all the time and say i have never been to a political event before in my life, and i would say, why are you here? they would simply say because i am tired of sitting on the sofa complaining. i think it is time to get involved, and i heard about your message of the common sense solutions the wanted to hear up close and in person. i said, that i change your mind? they said you not only changed my mind, but you are the first candidate running for anything

that i will have ever made a contribution for. i said i did a lot of mind changing, tonight? people are sick and tired of being sick and tired of problems not being solved in washington, d.c. they are sick and tired of taking a can downer rec on all these issues. -- of keeping the can down the road on all these issues. we have solutions. all we need is the leadership and the will of the american people. when i tell people, i want to do that five-point plan, the first bill i want congress to give me. i tell them i want to take social security and i want to introduce the country again to the concept of an optional personal retirement account so we can fix social security eventually. optional personal retirement accounts. then when i tell them in order to get the price of gasoline lower, we have got to stop being

dependent upon foreign oil. we had enough resources to become energy independent. let me tell you what the obama doctrine was in brazil. he said america was on to become brazil's best customer. my doctor will be america will be its own best customer. you have the resources that we have. we must and this dependency on foreign oil. we have got to end this dependency on foreign oil. one of the things that the media and others like to beat me up about as a candidate -- i am not supposed to be running -- he has no foreign policy

experience. well, you are right. i do not have any foreign-policy experience. but as my dad would say, who did not have a lot of formal education, who i'd deemed a man with a ph.d. in common sense, as my dad would say, you do not need foreign policy experience to know your friends and your enemies. that is where foreign policy starts. know who your friends are. know who your enemies are. i do not have all the intelligence information to know whether or not pakistan is our friend cannot. it raises a lot of questions, but i could tell you about one friend we have in the world, in that part of the country -- in the world, a country called israel.

let me tell you what the cain doctrine is. it is real simple. know who your friends are and know your enemies are. that is where foreign policy starts. the cain doctrine for israel is real simple, and you mess with israel, you are messing with the united states of america. [applause] they are our friends. our friends. that is where foreign policy starts.

that is where foreign policy starts. you do not have to be a rocket scientist to figure that use stand beside her friends and you keep an eye on your enemies. and so, as i continue this journey, and when i talk about these common sense solutions, some of the people that did not get a memo that i am running feel like to say, that is an awful lot of stuff to try to get done in washington, d.c. you did not know how washington, d.c., works. i said, i do. it does not work. that is why i am running. [applause]

the american people are not going to send me to the white house to learn how washington works. you will be sending their to change washington, d.c. i encourage you to continue on this journey because we can do this, because of your encouragement, and the encouragement for people around this great nation. i may the decision to try to take my experiences to the white house, because it is not about us, folks. is about children and grandchildren. i now have three grandkids and every time they come over on sunday and jump in my lai up -- and jump in my lap, i reminded why i am doing this.

not everybody needs did the same thing. life can be a challenge, life can seemed impossible, it is never easy when there is so much on the line, but you can make a difference. there is a mission just for you and me and you. look inside carry and you will find -- just look inside and you will find just what you can do. when all this look inside and ask ourselves what we can do, and we all collectively bring our energies together in the greatness that built this nation, the same spirit that took this nation to some of its toughest times, we will be able to get this nation off the wrong

track and back on the right track. the founding fathers did their job when they conceived those principles of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness and the declaration of independence, which inspired the constitution. they also were wise enough and have enough foresight that when they got to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, they did not stop there. they kept right thing -- writing, and we need to keep reading. when it says in the form of government becomes destructive of those ideals, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it. we have some altering and abolishing to do in this

national nightmare. [unintelligible] founding because the fathers did their job, we have got to be the defending fathers. we have got to defend the future for our children and grandchildren against more runaway spending, against more ill-conceived legislation because at the end of the day, when you look at our lives and why we were put here on this planet, there is a sense of urgency for us to take this nation back. because when you look at this life that we have been blessed

with, as dr. mayes reminded the men of morehouse, life is just a minute, only 60 seconds in it, forced upon you, cannot refuse it, did not choose it, but it is up to you to use it. you must suffer if you lose it. give an account if you abuse it. just a tiny little minute, but our eternity is in it. the president obama and all the liberals in washington, d.c., the united states of america is not going to become the united states of europe, not on our

watch and not under president herman cain. >> you remember that dark horse candidate from last year? how do you like me now? [cheers and applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, welcome the man who is responsible for putting on this great

conference, the republican leadership's conference, charlie daniels. [applause] >> thank you all for being here today. it is so exciting to see over 2000 delegates over 38 states represented here in new orleans today. not only are we celebrating some amazing republican presidential candidates, we are also celebrating the centennial of everyone's favorite republican, president ronald wilson reagan. [applause] i want to take a moment to remind you of what he said. he said freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. i want you to pause for a minute and let that sink in. freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. it just happens we don't pass

along and are bloodshed dream -- in our blood stream to our children. may our next speaker take that warning very seriously. everyone is excited to hear from the congressman from texas. [applause] last 10member, for the or 15 years, one person has been out front, one person has been out front fighting for these liberties and standing up for the republican party. our governing party consists of libertarians, social conservatives, and conservatives who are powerful on national-security issues. this coalition does not work unless all three organizations work together. please join me in recognizing

congressman ron paul. [cheers and applause] >> thank you. thank you very much. thank you. thank you. i have great news for the calls of liberty. the country is coming our way. i have always been an optimist. i have always believe the calls

of liberty would win. but even three or four years ago, i would never have predicted that we would have made as much strides as we have now, today. there is every reason for us to be encouraged and to keep the fight, because that is what america is all about. it is the law of the land and it can be found in our constitution, and we demand respect for it. [applause] there are four categories i would like to just mention in my opening remarks where we have made strides. probably where we have made the least amount of strides is in our civil liberties. there is a growing interest because the american people are sick and tired of losing their privacy and being prodded by the tsa at airports and cannot get on the airplanes. another area where we made a lot

more strikes than you can see it in the recent debates and votes in congress, that are coming our way because the american people are sick and tired of the list, know when wars around the world. -- the in less -- endless, no- end wars are around the world. and certainly there can be no doubt about the republican party and the country coming around to argues that there is too much spending, too much debt, to much barring, and it is time to stop the spending. -- too much borrowing. [chanting]

how did you know that was my fourth item? i don't know how you do it. this is wonderful. this is where men have made our greatest strides. for the american people to wake up and realize you cannot print money in secrecy by the federal reserve and pretended is the creation of wealth. we have gotten the attention of american people dealing with our monetary system and the federal reserve, and it is time we not only of the federal reserve but also, in due time, get rid of the federal reserve. [cheering] of the years ago, 1907 and 1908, it was very evident there was a financial bubble and the bursting of the bubble was on our doorstep. the free-market economist

predicted it and anticipated it, and it did arrive. this has given a lot of credibility to their -- to us to look at the five -- of federal reserve s being the bad guy. congress intervened and spent nearly a billion dollars, bailing out the people who were making a lot of money and deserved to go bankrupt, and should not have been bailed out. what a lot of people did not know, and still love you have difficulty understanding it, there was a much bigger bailout by the federal reserve. they created about five trillion dollars out of thin air, and then they went and bailed out the banks and the big corporations, in total secrecy, and guess what? all those bad assets, those derivatives and all the assets

that were worthless, that nobody could sell in the marketplace, guess what? we, the taxpayers, ended up buying those with money printed out of thin air to the tune of about $2 trillion. the federal reserve during that time -- reason we have to address this subject, they can create more money and spend more money than the entire congress. curtailing congress is one thing, but if the people in congress do not curtail the federal reserve, you will not touch the problem. that is why it is so important. [applause] we have had some hearings in my subcommittee in the financial services committee dealing with the fed. we have more information than ever before. we have found out that of all those trillions of dollars created by the fed, guess what?

one-third of those funds went to foreign banks. it makes no sense. and we find out that some went to banks partially owned by gaddafi. if that makes any sense, i do not understand it, but i think the people, once they know about this, will be outraged and are outraged at what has been going on with our monetary system. today we are facing another crisis. the next crisis that is coming is the result of the federal reserve creating all this money, and that will be the inflation tax. when they create money, they devalue the currency, and prices are rising. that is a tax, and it has started and it will be much worse next year and will be a big issue in next year's campaign. it will be worse than the stag

flation of the 1970's. you will see prices rising. we have to deal with this problem. i have said many times, as other candidates frequently say, we have to do something. we cannot dump this on our children and grandchildren. i addressed that slightly differently now, because it is the current generation, it is as today that are suffering. we don't have the jobs. people are unemployed and getting hit with inflation. we are suffering from the over extension of the wars around the world. it is today we are suffering from this, and therefore, not only should we worry about the next generation, but we have to worry about today's generation. the most precious thing we can do for our next generation -- the dead is a concern, but the most valuable thing we can give -- the debt is a concern, but the most valuable thing is to

have our freedoms back. [cheers and applause] i have talked a lot about foreign policy for a good many years, and it is very, very important. it is the foreign policy originally of the republican party of nonintervention, of neutrality, minding our own business. what the founders and what the constitution says, don't get involved in internal affairs of other nations. don't get in the business of nation-building. besides, we don't have the money. if someone is interested in looking at this in detail, one of the most significant pieces of writing i have ever read about the subject came from

ronald reagan. everybody knows how he stood out in standing to the soviets. in the early 1980's, ronald reagan put some marines into beirut. 241 marines were killed, a real tragedy. it wore heavily on ronald reagan. read what he said in the memoirs. what he said was, i would not turn tail and run, but when he found out how irrational politics was in that region, he decided it was necessary to get out. he said if i had followed a policy of neutrality, a policy where he was more neutral, he admitted, those 241 marines would still be alive. and i take as good advice from

all right on this, because he was courageous enough to admit the mistake and advise us on what we should do. robert mcnamara, when he wrote his memoirs, and he was the one who built up the vietnam war. what a tragedy. i was in the military for five years in the 1960's. i did not have to go to vietnam, but i was in the service, and it was such a tragedy. republicans wanted in 1968 to stop the war. 38,000 americans died after we elected to stop the war. we have lost over 60,000 americans, and mcnamara was the champion of the war. before he died, he wrote a book and he was interviewed. the interviewer said, mr. mcnamara, would you like to apologize to the american people about what happened? he said, what good is an apology? the only thing that counts is

that we looking at policy and chain jerked -- we look at policy and changing our ways. that is what we have to do. how long are we going to let our governments go to war and the congress be derelict in their duty? we have not declared war since world war ii and we have not one of war since world war ii. i sat if we have to go to war, declare the war, when it, and get it over with. [applause] right now, we are in libya. congress was not asked or informed about it. republicans and democrats got together and filed a lawsuit and said not only has he broken the constitution but the war powers

resolution which was meant to restrain president from going to war like this. but our current president explained into congress in a condescending way, this does not qualify as being controlled by the constitution, the congress, for the war powers resolution. he said, they are not shooting back, and we have not been killed. evidently, if we go and bomb people and they do not shoot back, it is not a war. that is how silly it is. it is up to all of us to get a president that will not put up with this nonsense and will not go to war so carelessly. [cheers and applause] a lot of people will ask us as candidates, what would be the first thing you would do? there is always a limit.

everyone knows my opinion on monetary policy. a president cannot get rid of the federal reserve. he might legalize competition that allows you to use gold and silver like the constitution says. but the president has a lot to do with foreign policy. he can change foreign policy, and he is in charge of the troops. he is in charge of the navy. i bet there are not too many in this room who read a recent story this week of where our navy just went with a missile cruiser. it went up through the straits of bosphorus, and to the black sea, right up on the borders of russia, and russia is annoyed. what would we save china came into the gulf of mexico, right up to the shores of us? i know what the texans are the people in louisiana would say, we don't need you here.

one thing i encourage people to do, especially with a question some of the things i say, that we should do this or we should not do that. i always put it in light of eight foreign policy golden rule. what would we think if people did that to us? [applause] although many reasons have been given for why people hate us and want to come here to kill us, the truth is, they tell us the truth. they tell us why they hate us. bin laden told us the truth. the truth is, they cannot stand occupation and control of their land, as we would not, either. bin laden had a plan. he was going to get us very

angry and he was going to drag us into war. he said this. he said i am going to drag the americans into war, just as we dragged the soviets into a war. of course we were on the side of those people who said the soviets had no right to occupy afghanistan and we fought with a precursor of the taliban to get rid of the soviets. bin laden says, i am going to drag them into a war and blog them down in endless war. we will drive them into bankruptcy. this is serious stuff, because we are bankrupt and we are bogged down. we are in five wars. as conservatives, you have to remember what was said many years ago about war. if the state is the enemy of liberty, the bigger the government to run your life, to run the economy, the less liberty you have. war is the health of the state.

we have endless war and they are continuously going on. all great nations have ended, not because of military confrontation. we did not have to confront the soviets. we let them self-destruct, because they spent too much and got bogged down. it is time to give up that obligation of being bogged down in so many countries of the world. [applause] we are now in over 130 countries. we have military bases of over 900. we are not going to be leaving iraq. we are not going to be leaving afghanistan or pakistan. we are going to expand our presence there. we are building embassies in all these countries. the embassy in iraq is a bigger than or at least the size of the

vatican and cost a billion dollars. we are there because we are going to argue the case, at least behind-the-scenes, that we have to protect our oil. but what are our political enemies of recent years doing? in vietnam as well as china. china has become the manufacture of the world, selling as goods, and we borrow money -- we are the greatest debtor in the history of the world, and the chinese have $3 trillion in the bank. are they going around invading countries and having their people get killed and bankrupting the country? no, they are making money and they are buying up oil interests. they are making deals. unfortunately, our foreign policy has driven so many countries into the hands of the chinese. the coalition now has gotten to be india, russia, china, and

iran. we turned iraq over to the shiites and they run iran. no matter how well intended, and a matter what the argument has been, our policies have totally backfired on us and we need to change the foreign policy. we need a pro-american foreign policy. [applause] here at home, we are steadily losing our liberties. we are losing our economic liberties. we do not only our own property. we cannot use our own property unless we pay our taxes and follow all the regulations. we have the un coming down on us

and telling us what we can do with our land. it is a good reason to support my bill that would get us out of the un and the world health organization. the good intentions do not always get out of control. do we need the fda? what the fda is doing and why they feel so compelled to protect you, they will arrest you if you start drinking raw milk that cross state borders. what is so dangerous about you making your own choice about whether or not you can drink raw milk? i think we ought to vote for the right to drink raw milk. [applause] there is another good intention,

the good intention that people not used drugs stupidly. there is a lot of stupid use of prescription drugs, too, that we are not doing a very good job on. up until 1937, smoking marijuana was legal. it was still stupid, it was legal, but all of a sudden we decided we were going to outlaw it. war people smoking now than ever before. -- more people spoke it now than ever before. some states have legalized the use of marijuana for medical reasons. how not compassionate could that be? should an people be allowed to make that choice? as a physician, i can tell you there have been people dying with cancer. they cannot hold their food down and they are taking chemotherapy and they did

benefit. but we should not be afraid of people making their own choices. let's this regard that for a minute. -- disregard that for a minute. but because marijuana is illegal and because the plant looks a , we are notike hiemp allowed to raise remp in this -- hemp in this country. it is irrational, but hemp is a fantastic product. it makes better ethanol than does corn. it makes clothing, and has all kinds of products. it was very helpful in world war ii canada raises hemp and they

make these products and sell them back to us. hemp aset's legalize well. [applause] because of the arbor burden of loss -- over burden of balllawse have more prisoners than anywhere else in the world. 5% of the population, but 25% of all the world's prisoners. i don't think the american people are that bad. i really do not think we need that many prisons. i think we have too many loss is what the problems are. -- too many laws. [applause]

today, in the economic spirit, that is what people mostly concentrate on. 48% of the american people now say they expect that next year we might very likely have a depression. those people who have been unemployed for three years already have their depression. we have been in a severe slump, which was a predictable event, for 10 years. our population has grown by 30 million people, but we have not added any new net jobs. that is how bad it is. so we are slipping and sliding. it has always been moderated by more handouts and entitlements to make people feel a little bit better. it looks like we are going to be doing that for a long time, but it eventually ends up in bankruptcy.

what are going to do with all this debt? our debt, greece's debt, who eventually it's liquidated. how does it get liquidated? occasionally, some countries won't pay, but that usually does not happen. usually it is liquidated by the government printing money, paying off the debt, and you get 50 cents or 25 cents on the dollar. that is what is happening today. we are fast liquidating our debt. but the economy, with all these trillions of dollars spent, has not picked up in these last few years. we got into trouble because we believed we could spend. we had the reserve currency, we spend too much, we borrowed too much, we regulate too much, we printed too much, and we got into predictable trouble. guess what we have been doing for three years? we are regulating and spending

more. we are borrowing more, and the federal reserve has unlimited amounts of money flowing into the system. they think it is going to solve the problem. that will not solve the problem, let me tell you. [applause] we need to restore our confidence and belief in a free society and how markets work. we are supposed to believe in the free enterprise system. that means you want to get the government out of the business of regulating us. [applause] if we have a federal reserve, if i had my way, they would quit printing of the money because it is only helping out the rich at the expense of the poor. i would stop that. the nisei, where with the money come from? the money has to come -- then you say, where would the money come from? it comes from savings.

we should not be taxing the elderly who are saving money. and we should not, under current conditions today, because the fed sets the interest rates for the benefit of the banks. they get the money for free and they get 2% back. if you get out early and retire, you get to% on your cd, when the market rate is 6% or 7%. it is criminal. it is really bad. but we should not tax savings or dividends. that is where capital comes from. over a trillion dollars worth of capital is sitting overseas, because companies are global they make it overseas and they pay other taxes which are lower. all that money, a trillion

dollars sitting overseas that belongs to our companies, that will not bring it home because they are going to have to pay tax on it. i would say let's quit taxing repatriated money and let them bring their capital home. [applause] but then you have to change the environment. the idea, let's just raise the taxes on corporations. corporations cannot function unless they pass it on to the consumer. we should stop that so that put money into investment. one thing i have promised, if i am to be the president of the united states,my goal would be

to freeze the federal register and then start shrinking it. no new regulations. [applause] besides, when did we as a country capitulate and say the executive branch has a right to write laws? they do not. the courts do not have a right to write laws, neither should the executive branch have a right to write laws. so those laws should be repealed to the best of our efforts. we all courts to write laws, -- when you allow courts to write laws, you have very bad legislation like roe vs. wade. i would repeal roe vs. wade, if at all possible. [applause]

let me close by talking a little bit about what a free society should be all about. what people do not quite understand when i talk about people being allowed to make choices on their own lifestyle, that worries them, because they might make a bad choice, which is quite possible. but what happens when government makes the choice for you? they get involved in your education. that tsa tells you what your kids can do. i want that responsibility to be put back to the parents in charge of their kids and their education. [applause] when you are challenged on this, what you should think about is the first amendment. we have a first amendment, and hardly anybody argues with me

about the first amendment. it legalized freedom of thought. even communist teachers are allowed to exist in the controversial things, because it is political free speech. we don't have a first amendment so we can talk about the weather. it is to legalize freedom of speech, but nobody forever says that if you support legalizing freedom of speech, you endorsed this speech that they use. you do not endorse what they say, you just endorsed the principle that they have a right to say it. [applause] this is what the responsibility is like when it is on the right individual -- win is on the individual. it is your life and liberty, and it comes to you from your god, not from your government.

so where is the responsibility on good behavior? it is with the individual, the family, the parents, the church. but believe me, government is not a very good source of teaching good values. the good values have to come from us. but freedom is something that america has been well known for. in these recent decades, i would say in the last several decades, we have lost our way. we care less about freedom than we do about the government taking care of us from cradle to grave. it is ok to sacrifice a bit of your liberty for security, especially since 9/11. you have toeve sacrifice any liberty for your security. [applause] the one thing wonderful about freedom, it brings people together with different values,

different religious and personal values, because it is not confrontational. people are not allowed to force anything on you, and government should not force it on you as well. freedom brings people together and they are diverse. that is the wonderful, magnificent part about our free society. it is not authoritarian, saying you will do this and you will do this, whether in personal or economic habits. the liberals love to tell you what is fair and equal economically, but the principle is the same if someone comes along and tells you, it would be better for your family if you did not play cards or dance or whatever else. a free society -- the great part about free society that we have forgotten about, it is the most productive society. yet we are not productive and we are not wealthy. which means that we are less free, and that is one of our

major problems. we have had the greatest experiment in all of history, but in a thousand years of recorded history, we have only had a couple hundred years of really testing it. 95% of economic growth and well- being for the people have come with the advancement of freedom. we in this country are about to give up on it because we have lost our convictions and understanding of our freedom works and why it depends on you as an individual. everyone of us is unique. we don't get our rights because we belong to a group, but we get our rights because we are individuals. individuals or the ones to claim rights, but not groups. [applause] when you live in a free society, what happens is there are restraints on the use of force, but it releases the creative

energy. it is in a free society -- you do not have a tremendous growth and prosperity in a communist society. we are being overburdened out more than ever before with the government and all the rules and regulations and we are less productive. the free society allows creativity. on a personal basis, it gives you the opportunity to do what is your personal responsibility, at least from my viewpoint. i think the purpose of life is to strive for virtue and excellence. that should be the goal. [applause] there will be many on both ends of the spectrum that will say yes, but government should do that, too. but when government tries to promote virtue and excellence and make all the definitions and tell you what of fair, economic distribution is, they cannot do it without undermining your liberties.

the key to is understanding the value of the individual life and to take their responsibility. without the responsibility being assumed, it does not work. john adams warned about that. he says you have a free society, you have a republic, but if you do not assume these responsibilities, it will not work. that is what our challenges today. we are not quite willing to assume it. as i started out, let me say that we are certainly moving in that direction, which makes me very happy about it. samuel adams said that a lot of people worry. how are we ever going to get a majority to agree on this? you do not need a majority, you need what he said was an irate, tireless minority willing to start the brush fires of freedom in the minds of man.

[cheers and applause] this, i can report to you, is where we are making great progress. there are many, many thousands of brush fires going on in this country. i would like to think i have contributed a little bit, but one thing i can tell you is -- i cannot tell you that i know how many there are, because every place i go, i find out there is another brush fire here and here. more organizations and individuals who have caught on. samuel adams had one bit more of

advice about this fight. he was in a much tougher fight than we are today. we at least know our traditions. but he gave us one bit of advice, he said no longer faces. they were in tough times in very pessimistic. he said no longe faces. there is every reason not to have a long face. let us enjoy ourselves because we know what america is all about. we know that the momentum is with us. one way i can tell the momentum is with us, all of a sudden i have noticed others to happen to be running for leadership are starting to use our language. [applause]

♪ >> ladies and gentlemen, from the state of louisiana, president of the republican national committee.

[applause] >> what a wonderful crowd. is everybody having a good time? i am going to get to spend the rest of the afternoon with you. first, let me try something really quickly. if he did not notice, i am wearing nancy reagan, republican lawman read -- republican woman red. with the rest of the republican women stand up? that is great. i like the men being here, but i love to see other republican women, so welcome. i am going to be with you for the rest of the afternoon. if you are excited by the people

you have heard speak, the best is yet to come. we have just started. i will get back stage so we can continue. glad you are here, and let's enjoy the rest of the afternoon. [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, from south carolina. >> thanks for coming. thank you. i enjoyed hearing a little bit

from ron paul. i told him just a minute ago, i used to think you were crazy, but i am starting to feel a little crazy myself. it has been a great week. the people of wisconsin won a victory over government unions. obama finally figured out it was the atm's that were causing unemployment. we are making progress. he said something i agree with, he said one term might be enough. what do you think? we have got to beat this guy, come on. i am here for three reasons. i want to thank you, i want to give you a challenge, and i want to ask for your help. first, and thank you. like a lot of you, i am really worried about my country.

when i was elected to the united states senate in 2004, we had 55 republicans in the senate. we had george bush in the white house and we had a big majority in the house of representatives. but we did not do what we said we were going to do. we kept spending. everyone seemed to be there to take home the bacon, and in 2006, americans threw us out on our rear ends. we lost the majority in the house and the senate. instead of making some changes, we blame it on bush, kept spending, kept building bridges to know where -- to nowhere, and kept bringing home the bacon. in 2008, it got worse. barack obama was elected president of the united states. at that point, i think me and the millions of other americans had had enough. that is when people started taking to the streets. that is when they heard about

socialized medicine and other things that were coming down. for my part, i decided the only way to change washington and to change the senate was to change the people who are there. it was not pleasant, but with thousands of people standing behind us, we started what we call the senate conservatives fund. a lot of you help us with that, and i appreciate that. i did something with a lot of you behind me that i do not think has ever been done. as a republican, i endorsed an opponent to a sitting republican senator, senator arlen specter. he had not stood with us. he was one of the big spenders, but he told me -- i was dressed down in my own republican conference when i endorse pat toomey for the senate. with fingers pointed at me, you

do not understand how this place works. it is not about principle, it is about numbers. when the press asked me about that, i made things worse when i set out rather have 30 republicans who believe in the principles of freedom and 60 republicans who believe in nothing at all. jthan 60 republicans who believe in nothing at all. as it turns out, the people of pennsylvania stood with us, as well as thousands of people all across the country. we got the principles and the numbers. a lot of you stood with me when i stood with marco rubio in florida against washington's pick. they said he did not have a chance, but because you and all the others around the country still quit reject stuck with us, i now serve with marco rubio.

if you think john paul is something, you ought to meet his son, senator rand paul. washington had another pick, but a lot of you stood with us to get behind rand paul, and i now serve with senator rand paul. he pointed at me when he got there and said my goal is to make you look like a moderate. he is doing a pretty good job. we serve with people like mike lee against his establishment in utah. they said a conservative could not be elected in wisconsin, but we stood together and we now have senator ron johnson. but my thank you is this. what you and i discovered, i was told i could not change the senate, and a lot of americans have been told it could not make a difference. but we did change the senate. we stood up and we changed

politics in america with the last election. power left washington and ended up back in the hands of the american people. we have a long way to go. i am also here today to tell you, i think 2012 might be our last chance to get it right. but we can do it. we can change things, but not because people in washington change things on their own. it is because millions of americans decide what has to be done, and again, take to the streets with their voices and their votes, and make a difference. i have found that sometimes the people in washington did not necessarily see the light, unless you make them feel the heat. that is what we did last year, and that is what we need to do again. but let me talk a little bit about where we are as a country. i am in the middle of it. you are looking in. we need to work together to

change it. like you, i am concerned about our country. we know the statistics, the unemployment figures. by the end of the year, will we $15 trillion in debt as a nation. the president has proposed almost doubling that. he does not seem to think it matters at all. we have real problems with our culture because of government policies. now you have over half of americans getting their jobs, income, health care, food, housing from the government. you have less than half of americans who are actually paying for it. we are on track to have 60% of americans depending on the government in some way and only 40% paying for it. if we get there, how many do you think are going to vote for less government? we are at the tip in point right now. we have got to change things right now. this is our moment. that is why i am here and i think is why you are here. our country is in trouble.

if we are going to restore america's greatness, we need to remind ourselves of why we were great in the first place, why we were exceptional. it is not that we are a different kind of people. it is not that we had more resources. but america was unique in all the world in that it was founded with a decentralized society and political and economic structure, and it was based on individualism and personal responsibility. all other countries in the world were run by kings and army generals and dictators. they were centrally controlled with social class caste systems where people could not move around. we were totally different. millions of people making their own decisions about the things they want to do and value. from that came on drawers and innovation. it was incredible what happened in our country. -- from that came doctor nor

reject entrepreneurs an innovation. even think about what happened in america, it makes you proud to be an american. just about every innovation in the world came from us, from electricity to the electric light, from the telephone to the automobile to the airplane. you see what happened. we were the first on the moon. nothing could stop us, because we were unique and different. we believe in the individual. we kept things decentralize because our founders did not want the concentration of power in washington. even after two wars and a depression, america had more than half of the gold supply in the world. we exported oil to other countries. our per-capita income was three times the next country behind us. we had done incredible things. we were a rich nation, poised to

take our country into the future. what happened after world war ii, roosevelt came in and began to shift from the centralized individualism with his new deal to a more centralized government power, with centralized health care, with the beginning of the welfare system. over the years, with lyndon johnson bringing in medicare, and we ended up as the federal government moved along, which brought the power of education to washington, an energy and education, to the point now in america, if you look at where we are after two years of obama, where he has basically socialized medicine and nationalized our financial system, the government controls or owns, directly or indirectly, a large part of our economic system. it has a huge impact on our culture. the change the paradigm in america. there is nothing wrong with

america. i still go around south carolina and brown the country and i see free enterprise working. individualism and personal responsibility -- families are there, but the aggressive nature of this centralized government has pressed us down. but it is yearning to come back. it can come back, and we can be optimistic, but we need to change what has been done to our country. that is where you come in, because they are not going to change it voluntarily in washington. there are a lot of solutions. it is not what the government needs to do now, it is what the government needs to let go up. there are so many things we can do without people having to sacrifice, just by giving them better choices that cost less, that give individuals freedom to make their own choices. we can protect social security and give younger workers better choices. we can keep medicare the same for those who are on it, but give younger workers the chance

to keep their own insurance when they retire. we can do that for less money. we can give education back to the states and have writer kids. we can move transportation back to the states. it is not a matter of taking things away from people, it is a matter of taking things out of washington so that america can work the way it worked in the first place. here is what i am here to tell you today, and this is where i need your help. i know that the power to change things is in your hands, and people all over the country who feel just like you. we are never going to have limited government in this country if we cannot come to the point where we stop spending more than we bring in. the unrestricted spending ability in washington means every time there is a problem, we can create a new program for it. there is nothing that stops us, and there is no political will to do it. literally, it is like working

with an alcoholic. first they will tell you they do not have a problem. and you say $20 trillion? at what point do we have a problem. ok, we will quit spending tomorrow. but they cannot quit. you have to make them quit. the only way we can make them quit is the way 49 states make them quit, with a constitutional requirement that we balance our budget. [applause] if there is no need to talk about limited government and less taxes in america, all of the things like reforming social security and medicare, we are not going to do it the right way, unless we have to. the boldness that we see from wisconsin, from scott walker and chris christie and john kasich,

we see that. these people are making the hard decisions because they have to. they have to prioritize. the cannot spend more unless they find something to cut. they have to balance their budget. i am telling you, that is what we have to do. that has to be hr one thing that we leave here with today. starting next week, there is going to be a national campaign where i need your help. we are working with people in the house and the senate. we are being told you cannot do this, the democrats will not support you. i am not interested in whether or not they want to support us or not, but we can make them feel the heat. the campaign is cut, cap, and balance. what this is is that pledge. there is a website, you might want to write it down. what we are asking is,

congressmen, senators, presidential candidates, and hopefully grass-roots people all over the country, this place that we will oppose any increase in the debt limit unless there are significant cuts in this budget year, caps on spending in the out years that drive us towards a balanced budget, and we pass a balanced budget amendment and send it back to the states to ratify. [applause] they will tell you you cannot do that. they told us we could not stop the emigration bill because only five senators were trying to stop it, but millions of americans wanted to stop it. they said i could not get rid of earmarks because only a few people wanted to. when we brought in those new centers, the first thing we did was banned earmarks. they keep telling us what we cannot do, but this is something that we have to do. what i want to see happen is

that the senators who signed hit hear from you. thank you. thanks for fighting. thanks for stunninstanding with america. those senators and congressman whose hands are a little bit shaky to sign up want you to help them to sign that. all we need is 41 senators to say no increase in the debt limit unless we cut, cap, and balance. if we hold, they will fall. we have to hold, folks. but we cannot do it unless these folks inside washington know you are standing with them. the media is going to say the world is going to fall apart if you do not increase this debt limit. i think barack obama and the democrats are going to have a hard time going into august and september saying i need to close this national park because i am not willing to balance the budget six or eight years out.

that is going to be a hard argument for them to win. if we cannot win it, we are not going to have a country anyway. now is the time to go to the mat. go to the web site and sign up yourself, and then look at which senators and congressman signed up. we do not really start until next week, but i am telling every presidential candidate, if your name is not on this list, do not come see me. we raised $9 million last year and we are going to raise $50 million this year. i am going to tell them, unless your name is on this pledge, i am not talking to you. because this is it. for me, i am in congress. i think you are sitting here for such a time as this. let me leave you with this one

thought. every generation has had to work to sacrifice, to fight for the freedom that we have. some have fought on a frontier to survive. some have fought on a a battlefield trying to survive in their own home and make ends meet and raise their children. we all have to fight. but this is our moment to fight. 2012 is our last chance to turn things around. we can't stand four more years of obama and four more years of spending. we have to stop it. folks, our own point of leverage between now and this election, to get them to act in a responsible way is this debt ceiling increase. it won't come around again. unless we say no way to a debt limit increase unless we balance the budget, we're going to get rolled like we did a couple of months ago on the c.r., continuing resolution, where we

made historic cuts of about $5 or something the way it ended up. we cannot come out of this, and i'm telling our leadership and so far i'm not sure how much of an audience i've gotten. but if you want to lose those people who elected us last november, if you want to deflate that new base that believes they have the power to change things, if you want to destroy the conservative movement in america and push a third party candidacy at all levels, than fold on this one. we need to take a stand, sign our name and i just was talking to an editorial person a few minutes ago and he said, this is a really high-risk strategy. do you know your markets will get unstable and people will start to scream? and i said, it was a pretty high-risk strategy when those folks put their name on the declaration of independence.

[applause] but now it's our turn. likely herman cane said we are not the founders but we are the defenders. if we want to defend what so many people have fought and died for, this is our time as americans. so join with me as you did last year, let's stand together. i think if we do, the courage that you have will be contagious in washington went will take our stand and we will save our country. thank you for standing with us. thank you for fighting. live free, america! live free!

>> ladies and gentlemen drrks williams served for almost 39 years. he's currently running for the united states senate.

please welcome roger williams! [applause] >> thank you all very much. it's great to be here in new orleans and it's great to be at the most important republican gathering at the state 2012 g.o.p. convention. i'm roger williams. i'm your christian, conservative businessman running for the united states senate from the great state of texas. [applause] barack obama once famously said it himself -- i am lebron. i got game. well, after watching the heat get beaten by texas's beloved dallas mavericks in the nba finals, i think obama's right. he and lebron are both losers

and they have no game! [applause] now for 2 1/2 years we watched as obama tried to remake this country from a nation of makers into a nation of takers. for 2 1/2 years we watched as obama has worked to raise our taxes, take over health care and strangle our businesses. for 2 1/2 years we watched as obama has filled out his march madness bracket while the economy suffers all across this country. he said he wanted to make history, and he has. he has become a worse president than jimmy carter. >> that's right! [applause] now, he likes to make jokes about shovel ready project not being shovel ready. after he just wasted a trillion tax dollars we don't have and there's nothing to laugh about,

about that. the only project ready for the shovel is his administration. [applause] now, he likes to give intellectual discourses about what is happening to our economy. well, here's a roger williams version of it. a recession is when people are losing jobs. and a recovery is when obama loses his. now, barack obama loves to talk about unemployment benefits. that's good, because if we all do the work that is necessary to elect good, conservative leaders for our nation, then obama's going to need those unemployment benefits come november 2012. until then a lot of us in this room have a lot of work to do explaining to the american people all of the ways this man

destroyed our economy. i believe he's tearing the very fabric out of america. he's pulling at our hearts, and it's all deliberate and it's all intentional. i have run moin business for 39 years. i still run my business. i know how to create jobs. barack obama has never run his own business but he knows how to kill jobs and he's doing it right now as we speak today in this country. [applause] but it's not surprising, it's not surprising our economy continues to struggle. what a surprise it is that many people, many of our friends don't realize that it's this administration, it's the reason for the problems we face today. perhaps i see a little more clearly than some since i still own and operate my business. every day i deal with the effects of what i call the obama economy. i know that some people believe

the president doesn't know what he's doing. i hear it all the time -- he's not smart enough, he doesn't know what he's doing but i disagree. i think he knows exactly what he is doing. [applause] he is fundamentally changing our economy, so that all of us are more dependent on government, which makes him strong and the people weak. but let's be clear about one thing -- when you look at the policies of barack obama and what he pushes, and the unending tide of government growth and control he envisions, you can only come up to one conclusion -- barack obama is a socialist, pure and simple. [applause] his policy stands in direct opposition to the foundational

beliefs that have made our nation so exceptional. individual responsibility, rugged determination to achieve and an entrepreneurial spirit that drives innovation and our faith that we are one nation under god. so now it's time that we take back our country, so businesses can grow again. families request find unemployment and we can create opportunities worthy of passing on to our children and our grandchildren. as a small business owner, i have been directly affected by the obama economy. i feel it every single day just like you do. and it gives me the determination to fight back and say enough is enough, mr. president. i am not taking it anymore. now, it starts with health care, providing health care coverage for my employees was already one of my company's biggest

expenses. now it's almost impossible. thanks to the changes brought about by the president's health care law, premiums for my employees have gone up -- well, my deductibles are higher than they have ever, ever been. and they will likely increase this year and the following years. do you think it's an accident? i say hardly. the administration knew that it would be impossible for small businesses like mine to pay for this increase. that's why we're seeing a steady flow of waivers, new word of waivers for the new health care law, granting the president's friends while the rest of us get stuck with the bill. barack obama said he welcomes new ideas. here's a roger williams idea -- let's send barack obama back to community organizing and let's defund obama-care. [applause] now, it continues with energy

costs. the rising price of energy has cost us money through increased electricity rates and higher gas prices at the pump. the president predicted in 2008 that his energy plan, which you might have seen when i walked in, would make energy prices, i quote, "skyrocket," and they have. even though his cap-and-trade plan has not passed, he's using the e.p.a. to send chills across the energy and business markets and his refusal to encourage domestic drilling has left us more dependent than ever on foreign oil. but yet he goes down to before zill. he gives them $3 billion in money we don't have. he says drill, baby, drill, we will be your best customer. do you think it's a coincidence? i doubt it. this administration doesn't want to promote demensic energy and believes high energy prices are a good thing. president obama said he welcomes

new ideas. here's a roger williams idea -- let's send barack obama back to community organizing and let's say good-bye to the e.p.a. [applause] now, it culminates with taxes and spending, runaway federal spending and growth of government programs may be a problem for our country but for this administration, it is an opportunity to call for higher taxes. this is why president obama wants to raise taxes on people making $250,000 a year. now, many small businesses pay taxes at the personal level, so this tax increase is a tax incentive on small businesses and families all across this country. you think it's a mistake? i don't think so, not at all. it's a simple formula. the more the budget deficit increases, the more the administration calls to raise

taxes. president obama says he welcomes new ideas. here's a roger williams idea -- let's send barack obama back to community organizing and let's lower taxes to create jobs so americans can get back to work. [applause] now, you have heard today in 2012 we had the chance to turn it all around. i, like all of you, do believe this is the most important election of our lifetime. in 2012, we have the chance to end the nightmare that is the obama economy. now, to do this, we need to send principled, conservative business people who know how jobs are created and know how to stand up to barry bonds. in 2012, when obama asks for another term, let's say, repeat after me, no way. >> no way! >> now, when he asks to take over more of our economy, let's

say, no way! and when he asks to bring us more change we can believe in, let's say, no way! now, i'm running for the u.s. senate because i know how to run a business, i create jobs. the sign of fronts of checks more than the backs of checks. i'm running because i'm a conservative and because i know we must stop this madness now or go down a road that no one in america has ever traveled before . so we need to take our country back, we need to put obama on unemployment, let's make america great again. by the way, no amnesty, no sang wary cities and eng -- sanctuary cities and english is our official language! [applause] i say it's the constitution as it's written and the bible, those two can get us there and

they can keep us there. [applause] so we can do it as a group and we will do it. so i say it's on to victory in 2012 and never give in and never give out. may god bless all of you. may god always bless the conservative movement. and may god continue to bless this great country we simply call the united states of america. thank you very much. [applause]

>> we are fighting to protect our constitution. no thanks to liberals. they want to burden our families and small communities around the country. but she opposes big government and federal spending, voted against the bailouts as well as balanced budget amendment and calls obama-care the crown jewel of socialism. a staunch defender of our nation's most vulnerable and most innocent. she advocates for the rights of

the unborn and traditional values and i do believe that given the opportunity, she will defund parenthood and put pro-life judges in charge of the u.s. supreme court. her experience as a small business owner, a tax attorney, a wife, mother of five and foster parent of 23. foster parent of 23, i have 6. prepare her for lordship in our nation's capital and truly guide her beliefs. last year she founded a tea party caucus in the united states congress, and to this day, she continues to fight for the conservative principles, individual liberties enshrined in the constitution of our founding fathers. ladies and gentlemen, it is my honor to introduce the next speaker, a bold reformer, a lady despised by the liberals the country wide, the lady who nancy

pelosi spent $10 million trying to beat, the representative from minnesota sixth congressional district, and my close friend congresswoman michele bachmann! [applause] >> hi, everyone! go southern leadership conference! yeah! [applause] good to see you all. god bless you. who doesn't love the big easy?

thank you for the wonderful warm welcome and thank you for the invitation. love you too! love new roorls! -- new orleans! you survived katrina! you survived president obama oil moratorium! there is nothing you can't survive! you have such a great spirit. you inspire all of america. you know that! new orleans inspires us all. you have got it here in new orleans and i'm so thankful to be able to be here with all of you today. you are very brave people here and i want you to know you also have a very brave governor in governor bobby jindal! and governor haley barbour!

these two governors show you can get it right, and they did. they are marvelous men. i love them both. now earlier this week, i don't know if you caught it, but there was a republican presidential debate. [applause] it was -- it was held by cnn, and it was up a little north of here in new hampshire. i want you to know, i learned a couple of things in that debate. i learned, first of all, that newt gingrich likes "american idol." i didn't know that. [laughter] i learned ron paul favors the blackberry. and i learned that herm cane likes deep dish pizza. 6 and besides being a hard core, die-hard johnny cash fan, the world found out that i have christmas with elvis on my ipod. [applause] but i have to tell you a little

secret. you aren't going to tell anybody, are you? ok, i have to tell you, i was a little nervous and i didn't know if they were going to-to-ask boxers or briefs? [laughter] you know, a girl never knows. you never know. but the debate i think did bring three things out in new hampshire that were very, very important. and the first one is this -- in contrast to the current administration, what we saw on the stage in new hampshire were leaders, people who could lead this country. and our party showed very well, i think, in that debate. it was a real honor for me to be able to announce that night that i had filed my paperwork to seek the office of the presidency of the united states of america. the greatest country the world

has ever seen. [applause] during the brief years that i have served in the halls of congress in washington, d.c., i feel that my greatest accomplishment has been to bring the voice of the people into the halls of congress, and politicians started paying attention to your voice when it was brought into washington, d.c. what my goal is to take your voice into the white house where it hasn't been heard for a very long time. in order to do that and to be successful in 2012, we need to engage a strategy of the three-legged stool, and the stool is this -- we need to add piece through strength republicans, and i'm one of

those. and we need to add the fiscal conservative leg, and i'm one of those. and we most certainly need to add the social conservative, and i am one of those. [applause] and we need the tea party movement. the liberals want you to think that the tea party is just a radical fringe of the republican party. there's a reason why the left is absolutely april pleck tick about the tea party movement, why they shout prajore tive -- pro jore tive terms. here's the truth, it's an idea and it's made up of disaffected democrats who it it up to here with barack obama.

it's made up of independents who had it up to here with barack obama. it's made up of libertarians. it's made up of people who have never been political a day in their life, and republicans were already there. we're already there. that's the tea party movement. they should be afraid of this movement. it was the verb and vibrancy of the 2011 election. let me tell you, that movement has more steam, more power and more energy today than it had last november 2010. get ready, 2012, the tea party will be bigger than ever. [applause] because the tea party and all of

america had one goal, and it's this -- that barack obama will be a one-term president! now, the second thing we're reminded in the debate earlier this week is the race really will be all about jobs and the economy. we understand that this president hasn't done such a good job on that. here we are, two weeks, two years into the recovery. we're two years into the recovery. under ronald reagan, we were literally adding hundreds of thousands of jobs in a month. under ronald reagan's recovery, and instead now we're in the obama trench of a double dip recession.

that's all we need to know to explain today people are worried about their retirement. they have this fear that's becoming not just gnawing, now it's on the surface. they don't believe their kids are going to do as well as they did. do you realize this is the first generation that felt that way in 234 years of our nation's history. that's how devastating these economic numbers are to americans, and also i think what this debate was about earlier this week is how we're going to reverse the trend. that's the good news of all of this, how we're going to add jobs. i'm a job creator. my husband and i started from scratch a successful company. we came from a lower middle class background. i drove a school bus and all sorts of other jobs to get through college. my husband did the same thing. that's what america gives us.

a chance, a hope, opportunity. wasn't there something about hope and change in 2008. do you remember that? 2012, that's the real hope and change election! [applause] we republicans have the most powerful, positive story to tell in 2012. it's a story barry bonds can't even begin to tell and he won't tell because he's got a big "f" on his economic report card. he can't tell it. as a matter of fact if you want to sum up this election in the post simple, positive terms it goes something like this, the day barack obama became president, a gal enof gas was $1.79 a gallon, that day. today it's $3.75 a gallon. has president obama failed you on energy policy?

ten days after he became president, the price of an auns of gold was $940. ten days after he was naug rated. inaugurated. today it is $1,500 an ounce. has the president of the united states devalued your dollar? he has made us all poorer. now, get this -- the day that president obama took office, and your share of the national debt was $35,000 for every american. and that was after nancy pelosi had, had the gavel for a few years. you know what it is today under president obama? your share has gone from $35,000 to $46,000 in national debt. who would like to join me in sending a change of address form to 1600 pennsylvania avenue for

2012! that's priceless! the final thing we saw at the debates earl year this week is the fact 2012, i believe this race is going to be all about you, not about politicians. it's going to be about you and the future that we hold, about the free market system and about the morals and theville yus that have always been the cornerstone of this country. it means, i think, we're going to have to trust our neighbors and our friends with telling them the truth about what's going on in our country. i don't think we should fear telling them the truth because never has anything been more important i think to let them know this next example. you heard about it today, and it's obama-care. because obama-care is the symbol of what's wrong with jobs, of

what's wrong with spending, with what's wrong with debt, what's wrong with government overreach. i was there. i fought against obama-care with you on the front line every step of the way against obama-care. and while we've been seeing the liberals in the last few weeks trying to scare americans about medicare and especially senior citizens, what's been ignored is president obama's plan for senior citizens regarding medicare. have you heard what that is? two weeks ago i was in the white house. i was in a meeting with president obama and the president was asked not once, not twice, he was asked three times, mr. president, what is -- a private, closed-door meeting, what is your plans for medicare? what are you going to do to save

it to so it doesn't go flat broke like we know it will in the not-too-distant future? you know what the president's plan is. this hasn't been talked about very much. the president's plan for senior citizens is obama-care. we all think for our senior citizens that somehow medicare is going to go on. i think very likely -- and i'm speculating, i think very likely what the president intends is that medicare will go broke. and that ultimately that answer will be obama care for senior citizens. what else would the plan be? if he's not intending to save it, knowing full well what the numbers in front of our eyes that it is certain bankruptcy for our senior citizens and he's willing to allow that to happen, then that will mean our senior citizens will face obama care

knowing full well that our president took $500 billion -- that's a half trillion dollars out of medicare, to give it to younger people in obama-care. just when our population of senior citizens is growing with baby boomers joined in their ranks, we'll have more people but less money and no plan to save us. the next time liberals scare you about medicare and republicans, you ask those same people, what's your plan to save social security? and don't tell me it's obama-care because obama's gift to senior citizens right now is to steal from them $500 billion out of medicare. that's not going to wash in the

united states of america. i'm the very first member of congress who went down the very first morning after the passage of obama-care. i stayed up with my staff until after midnight the night that obama-care passed because i said to my staff, we will not allow president obama's version of socialized medicine in the united states to stand in this country. we're going to put together a bill to repeal obama-care. we're going to tell the american people all is not lost. have hope. we will repeal obama-care. so the next morning, i marched to the floor of the house of representatives and was the first member of congress to file a repeal bill. i want you to know this, as president of the united states, i will not rest until we repeal obama-care!

you can take that to the bank! you can cash that check! we will repeal obama care in the united states of america! it will happen! have hope. have real hope. we will. i wonder if they're listening in the white house right now. you will come november 2012. you will listen then. obama-care is the signature issue of this president, but did you know it's also a job killer. the congressional budget office has already told us obama-care will kill 800,000 jobs. the president, with all of his job creation plans, has already killed over 2.5 million jobs. now nearly a million more. what in the world can someone be

thinking to pass a bill like this knowing full well you're going to kill nearly a million jobs? i think we know what we're going to be thinking in about 18 months of now and will be there to make it happen. senior citizens get this issue more than any other segment of the population. they paid attention to what was going on in the obama-care debate and i think senior citizens are going to line up at the polls. they can't wait to toss this president out of office, and i'm thrilled about that. if obama-care represents the president's failure on health care, i think the president's more bid obesity on spending and debt accumulation is probably the worset of all. our joint chief of staffs chair is admiral mike mullen.

and mike mullen said our national debt is our biggest national security threat. now, wouldn't you think when the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff says our greatest national security threat is debt, that maybe the commander in chief might listen? you would think in a normal white house, that's what would happen. but instead what are we doing now in washington? we're debating raising the debt ceiling! and what's the debt ceiling? that's the right to give congress the authority to borrow more money it doesn't have and keep spending money. what's your opinion on raising the debt ceiling? >> no! >> i knew i was going to like you. i knew it before i walked in here. did you know in the last ten years, congress has raised the debt ceiling ten times.

i have been in washington three terms and in that time, we have been asked to raise the debt ceiling about a half dozen times. every time i voted no on raising the debt ceiling,, and right now i will be voting no again because there are no serious cuts. there's only smoke and mirrors. washington, d.c., that game is over. it's over. because do you know -- if you have a dollar in your pocket. take it out. you probably don't. the government is trying to take it out. if you have a dollar, take it out. hold it up. take a good look at that dollar bill, because i want to tell you something, and i know we're getting towards suppertime here and i don't want to diminish your appetite, but when you look at that dollar bill, take a look

at it and fold that dollar in half. because -- or not quite in half. because 42 cents of every dollar that the federal government spends is borrowed money. borrowed money. could you live that way? i couldn't live that way. the federal government can't live that way either. because they're spending money that we don't have. i want you to know right now that as president of the united states, i will make serious spending cuts such that this nation never has to raise the debt ceiling again. [applause] and, yes, i know it will be hard. it will be very hard. gee, think of how hard this is going to be.

cutting spending for planned parenthood. that will be really hard, won't it? cutting spending for npr, very hard, won't it? cutting spending for bullet trains to nowhere, very, very hard. this is the heartbreaker of them all, cowboy poetry festivals! that's a barn-burner. and like the great and powerful oz in the movie with dorothy and the tin man and the scarecrow, when toto takes that curtain and pulls away and you see the wizard flailing his arms and pushing the buttons and pulling the levers, that's the picture of the obama economic team right now trying to put this economy back in order. [applause] well, mr. president, the bailouts didn't work! the stimulus didn't work! i voted against them!

we've got to have some new sheriff in town who knows that method is a method for failure. we know what works, it's cutting spending. it's growing the economy, it's doing what free markets do and what economic superpowers do. and mr. president, you're no economic superpower! [applause] i'll tell you the late thing the federal reserve will do is have a quantitative policy where the federal reserve is printing money like it's gin rummy. not going to happen. not going to happen. the time president obama has been in office, you know that dollar that you hold in your hand has devalued 14%. two years ago that value was

worth, let's say a dollar. today it's worth 86 cents. can you afford this president? i cannot afford this president. are you better off today than you were two years ago? is your savings account worth less under this president? well, strangely, this president seems to find all of this kind of amusing. he told us after he heard the jobless report being 9.1%, this is just a bump in the road. is this a bump in the road? >> no! >> i think this is the grand canyon. that's what this is. and then we heard the president say of the failure of a trillion dollar stimulus regarding the shovel-ready projects that they weren't quite shovel ready yet. i think somebody needs to take the shovel out of the president's hand and have them stop digging because there's no pony in what he's trying to shovel these days.

[applause] mr. president, the status quo is not working for americans. the scatous quo certainly isn't working for the african-american community with 16% unemployment or the hispanic community with merely 12% unemployment. it's even worse for the youth. for hispanic youth right now, 26% unemployment. for african-american youth, 40% unemployment. this president has failed the hispanic community. he has failed the african-american community. he has failed us all when it comes to jobs. as president of the united states, my goal will be job creation in the hispanic community. job creation in the african-american community. job creation for all americans.

and turning this economy around, and we will! [applause] now, this just happened earlier today. maybe you have heard about it. but the president of russia is named president medvedev. and this is a very interesting speech that he gave. he even knows the private industry and not government is the key to an economic turnaround. in a speech that he gave. i want you just to listen to me as i read this. this is the president of russia today -- "my choice is different. the russian economy ought to be dominated by the private businesses and private investors. the government must protect the choice and property of those who willingly risk their money and reputation. a president calls for private sector growth. why can't our president speak those words?

i promise you, i will! as a constitutional conservative, the other thing we need to talk about is the absolutely explosive growth in the cost of regulations on job creators. the estimate now is $1.7 trillion burden on our job creators. it's unacceptable. the worst offender of all is the environmental protection agency. [applause] that the whole issue about the human activity that contributes to carving growth -- carbon growth and all of the rest, this led to cap-and-trade policies that want to have government tell you everything from what car you're supposed to drive, the house you're supposed to live in, what light bulbs you're supposed to use. that's why i introduced the light bulb freedom of choice

act! [applause] i am so proud of that bill, i introduced it after the 2007 energy act. let me tell you, president bachmann will allow you to buy any light bulb you want in the united states of america! that's why i call the e.p.a. the job-killing agency of america. and that agency is going to have its lights go out if i become president of the united states! and as dire as this president has made our economy, i'm here to tell you that i am probably even more concerned about the vulnerability of the united

states when it comes to america's national security and our vulnerability. because today president obama's taking leverage away from our military through a never-before-seen reduction of forces during war time while they elevate political correctness and social experimentation over readiness. as a matter of fact, in a shocking action, president obama's justice department threatened to prosecute our intelligence professionals who opened the door for our successful mission when we captured and eliminated osama bin laden. just for doing their job, is which is to get information on the bad guys so we can keep the american people safe. as a member of the house intelligence committee, we are tasked with keeping the secrets of this nation, i'm confronted

every day as a member of this committee, with the threats that we face as americans. and i want to say to you, you have my word, as commander in chief. i will commit every resource required to fulfill the first constitutional duty of our government and it's this -- to protect our country and to keep the american people safe, free and sovereign. you may recall one of the people in the president's administration said in libya, the president was leading from behind. do you remember that? i want you to know as president, i will lead from the front. we will be the head, not the tail!

[applause] and that's because america is the independenceable nation of the -- indispensable nation of the world. i'm committed to ending the war on terror. when we eliminated bin laden, that was not the end of the war on terror, as much as i wish it was. because i'm here to remind you it is a sobering thought. every day there are terrorists who wake up, seeking away to kill americans and to destroy this great country. we're coming upon the tenth anniversary of 9/11. we can never go to sleep until the scourge of the ideology of terror has come to an end and been defeated. i will stand and win the war on terror.

because, mr. president, you don't win the war on terror by closing gn -- guantanamo bay. you do not end the war on terror by reading miranda rights to foreign terrorists. by the way, miranda rights aren't for foreign terrorists! [applause] and never should a commander in chief put troops in harm's way unless and until you define the clear and vital mission of the united states in a conflict. that's why the libya policy is significantly flawed. while president obama has diverted his attention to libya, the real 900-pound gorilla in the room in the middle east is a nuclear iran. we must never allow iran to have a nuclear weapon and naively and dangerously and wrongly, the

president instructed our ally israel to shrink its borders to an indefensible level. i want to make an announcement today -- stand with israel! [applause] here's one last truth. through his policy, president obama devalued the dignity of human life, and i think some of the most eloquent words were ever written were penned in the declaration of independence, which said it is our creator who endowed us with an alienable rights and the chief among them is the right to life.

and the beauty of this language -- and i encourage you to read this for yourself again -- the beauty of this, it is not government that gives us the right to life. it is god, our creator who gives us the right to life. government doesn't give this right to us so government can't take it away. only god gives us this right. the declaration goes on to say the reason why governments were instituted in the first place was to secure these inalienable rights that only god could give. that's the purpose of government, to protect life, and i stand for life. [applause]

telling our great story i think is going to require a very different kind of leader. we need a constitutional conservative, someone who's committed enough to stand firmly in what our founders gave us in this magnificent country and their vision of a limited government where power flows from the people in a limited way to government but all rights are reserved to the people. well, who is that leader? on monday night the people also learned that my name is michele bachmann. that i'm a former federal tample lawyer. -- tax lawyer. that i am a successful business owner together with my husband. and that i'm a member of congress. we have been married almost 33 years. we're the parents of five great kids. the oldest is a physician. the youngest is going off to college. we have been privileged to be foster parents to 23 wonderful foster children.

[applause] you know, we've had such a great time here in the last few moments. it's tough to end. i think our friends and our neighbors all understand that the challenges that we're facing as a country right now seem almost virtually insurmountable. but i think together in this room we know that there's a possibility and it reminds me of one of my favorite heroes from the bible. he's found in the old testament. and he's not one of the big players but he's one of my heroes. his name is jonathan. his father was a king and his name was saul. and in ancient israel, there was a war that was going on. gee, funny how some things just don't change. there was a war going on between ancient israel and the philistines. and the king had thought the

enemy, the philistines, were positioned too well and the king thought that the philistines were too great in number to doe feet. so he waited. and he was paralyzed by the problem that was in front of his face. but his son jonathan was unwilling to be cowed by the problem in front of him. he was not about to accept defeat. so jonathan secretly enlisted his armor bearer to gage the philistines. so they went to the top of the cliff of the outpost. they climbed up there. and then jonathan said to his comparetette and i quote -- come then, we will cross over towards the men and let them see us. if they say to us, wait there until we come to you. we will stay and not go up to them. but if they say come up to us, we will climb up because that

will be our sign that the lord has given them into our hands. what did the armor bearer reply? the reply of the armor bearer was one of loyalty and trust. "go ahead, i am with you, heart and soul." and so they climbed. and jonathan and the armor bearer not only defeated the philistines who are at the outpost, they defeated the entire philistine army but it all started with two men who had the courage to face insurmountable odds. and i stand before you today to submit to you we have the people in america who are like jonathan and that armor bearer. they are willing to show the courage now to surmount those

odds and take on the challenge. and we need a leader who will stand with the people and take courage and take on those odds. i ask you today, are you ready to take on those odds? [applause] and i am here to say to you, i am ready too. let's go together. we're americans. we have a can-do spirit. we can do this! we will do this! we will have victory in 2012. thank you for having me here! god bless you, and god bless the united states of america! [applause]

>> how are you?

>> wow, is everybody excited now who i see things in the newspapers that say they're republicans have no candidate is the offer. we have heard from a lot of them today. i have to admit this is one of the most excited crowd i have seen in a long time, and your enthusiasm is catching. we need to keep it up because they may not be listening to us on pennsylvania avenue, but if we keep up obama will not ignore us when he is out on the golf course. everybody returned to your seats. we will continue with the leadership conference. have several more great speakers that come up, so let's get on with the show.

>> ladies and gentlemen [unintelligible] pennsylvania senator rick santorum. >> thank you. thank you. thank you. thank you very much. i appreciate that, and i appreciate you being here. it is nice to be in new orleans. i was here the last conference, and the energy then carried on across the country, and we had a great election victory. i remember saying at that time in 2010, that this was the most important election of our

lifetime. but now have to say that this is no longer the truth. even then i said it was the most election because it was going to stop if we were successful more bad things from happening. if we really wanted to change things, we really wanted to make a difference, then we had to elect a new president in 2012, and that is our job this election. this is a very serious time. i spoke here last year and i have been speaking around the country. i just came from new hampshire, from manchester, with my 20 it visits, and i have been in all the early primary state. i've been to south carolina many times, in iowa. my kids have been watching me more on television than they

have across the table at the dinner table. the other day i was home and my son patrick -- karen and i have a very -- we are blessed have seven children. if you do not think i have experience on balancing budgets, he not know what having seven short run means. my sixth, patrick, sistani, you are awfully serious. when i see you are so serious. i said, patrick, this is a very serious time for our country. he said, you should try to tell a joke. i said, patrick, i am not good at telling jokes. >> he said, i heard a good joke. tell this one. he said what goes ha-ha thump? he is a nine-year-old,

remember. he said someone laughing their head off. [laughter] jay leno, there you go. i got the leno-versus coana. -- conan. as i travel around the country i have recognized from people this enormous amount of anxiety. we sell it percolate up in america from the tea party, and god bless the tea party for what they did in this last election. we would not be where we are today without - [laughter] -- [applause] we saw this fear, but yet resolved to confront the problems that face this country. i try to put my finger on what

was it, what was it that really was going on here? maybe it is the economy, the fact that the economy is horrible and as a result of the policies of this administration they have gotten worse and worse and worse. we're now looking at -- they say it will not be a double the, but it will not be any type anyv- shaped recovery. the jobs are being created. tried to climb a hill with barack obama and the rest of the democratic caucus on your shoulder. it is incredibly -- it is unbelievable how much this administration has done in a very short period of time to just crush the american entrepreneuriali spirit. as someone who has been in congress, i spent two terms in

the house and two terms in the united states senate, and every time i was there i voted for lower taxes, pro-growth, less regulation, less litigation, because we know in america that is what works, and what have we seen from this administration? we have seen bill after being caught -- bill after bill, trying to tell everybody how to run businesses and run their lives, and it is destroying america. maybe it is what we see in louisiana. you have survived the regulations that this president is putting on you in the oil and gas industry. they are trying now to talk about where we are in pennsylvania. we have something in common. we are drilling a lot of gas in pennsylvania these days. we have found the second largest reserves of natural gas in the world underneath pennsylvania. yeah.

we are drilling thousands of wells, mostly gas wells, but also utica shale, which is oil wells. we are doing it in people's back yards. what we are drilling for in pennsylvania, pennsylvania has the second largest world population and a cut. we have people throughout pennsylvania. we are drilling in people's backyards, ladies and gentlemen. we have a president who is allowing it right now, but we cannot fill thousands of miles away from everybody in alaska. that is too dangerous, but we can drill in the back yard. that is just sick ideology. that is trying to drive an ideological agenda and in makessense for the health and safety of people. we have a huge amount of debt,

40 cents of every dollar we borrow. president obama, how can you justify 40 cents on every dollar to prop up your sick policies, your sick economic policies and putting this on the back of future generations for the rest of your lives -- of their lives? how deep you justify that? i am someone who has done something. i am the only one who has announced his that i immediately supported the ryan plan, stood by paul ryan while others equivocated. there's a reason i did. when i was in the senate, i actually fought for entitlement reform. when i was in the house i read the contract with america reform bill. it was the first time in the history of our country that we ended a broad-based federal

entitlement. i fought daniel patrick moynihan and ted kennedy and all of the liberals in the senate and was able to end a federal entitlement. people were screaming, people were going to be out in the streets. no, welfare, poverty, poverty is not a disability. it is a temporary condition. we need to believe in people again. we have income support. we put time limits, work requirements, we said you should not have a government that supports people in dependency. we should not tell people they cannot. we should tell people that they can and we believe in you. that is what we need to do for medicaid, food stamps, for all the welfare programs. we can save money and tell

people again that we believe in you, we believe in the american spirit, we believe in the can-do attitude of the american public. that is what paul ryan's plan does. back in 1998, i traveled with bill clinton to missouri and did a town hall meeting where i represented the republicans, calling for reforms to social security when no one else on our side was willing to do that. i stood tall, had the courage to talk about the problems that we were going to confront here in america in their church. of time. there is an article that said in 1990, there were four workers for every retiree. 20 years from now, there will be two people, almost cut in half. did we not know that? of course we knew that. we knew that was coming.

only a few, very few in washington had the courage to stand up and fight for what we knew was coming, which was a fiscal disaster for this country. i did. i stood up and when george bush in 2005 said let's take on social security, in my election cycle, i stood up with jim demint and we went to the floor and we carry the debate. we lost, but i learned from my 2006 election, which i loss, that losing is not the worst thing that can happen. not standing up for principles and for what is right for america is the worst thing that can happen. [applause] i was out there for anybody else. when i was on the armed services committee, talking about asymmetric threats, talking about this group of people who hated us not because of what we were -- we did, but because of

who we work. radical chief thomas -- radical jihadists. i had been trying to shake our military she those threats before we were attack. after we were attacked i confronted even the republican president, george w. bush, because he did not have in my opinion the courage to go out and tell the american public the truth as to who we were fighting. we were not fighting terrorists. terrorism is a tactic. who they are are radical islamists. they are people who follow and ideology that is both a religion and a political doctrine. [applause] i gave a speech five months

before my election at the national press club calling out the president, calling out my people in the republican party, to be honest. this is not just a war on -- it is a war of ideas and cultures. we need to be clear. you cannot motivate people to defend america unless they understand what the threat is. i did, and i stood for our closest ally. a lot of people have set i am for israel. i'd performed and fought and passed bills that make israel secure when i was in the senate. two major pieces of legislation, the syrian accountability act and the iran act, offered. the president of the united states george w. bush opposed

both, thought they were too tough. i did it because i wanted to consider it -- syria and out of lebanon, and i wanted to put a stop to the iranian nuclear program and fund the pro- democracy movement in iran because i knew the existential threat to israel was in fact iran. i thought president bush and eventually he came to my site and sign those bills and we had a safer israel as a result. [applause] i have led the charge on the culture. the debate was the other not and i noticed that john mccain asked all the moral cultural issues to me. that is ok, because i am used to that. i am proud of that. i am proud to stand up for life.

i am proud to stand up for the family. i am proud to stand up for those at the end of life. because someone in this party, someone who wants to lead this party needs to stand up and say that they are just as important an issue as the economy and the national security of this country. if america is not a moral enterprise blessed by god, we will not be a continued we will not -- we will not be a country that can continue for. [applause] so i heard all these things as i travel around. maybe it is all of these things that were going on, all of the facts that the president of the united states was apologizing. he founded and braddock stem cells and refuse to defend -- whether it was that the economy

or the debt, all of the things that the president has done, you have heard a litany. it did not capture what was going on in america. the fear in america is something deeper. when i announced for president a little over a week ago, i went to pennsylvania and i went there for a reason. it is where my grandfather came to this country in 1927, at a couple years later brought my father, who was 7 years old. he came from italy. came not because he had a good job that he was promised, and he actually had a great job where he was. not because he was promised government benefits to be taken care of. they were doing that any major way in italy in fascist italy -- italy under mussolini. he left a beautiful little town in northern chile the game -- to come to america, merced county,

mines. from 1927 until 1958 until the year i was born, he worked in those coal mines. he worked in those mines for one reason. so his son and his grandchildren could be free. that is the reason he came. i believe that is the reason people in america at this b angst, have a sense that something is happening in this country. let me tell you what it is. we have a president of the and i did states who does not believe in the founding principles of this country. he said it in a speech recently where he was given a rebuttal to paul ryan and his budget. he talked about social security, medicare, medicaid.

he said america is a better country because of these proposals. i will go one step further, he said. america was not a great country until these commitments were made. the president of the united states said until government took more freedom and your money have and distributed it and gave it to those they chose the were worthy, america was not a great country. mr. president, america was born a great country. i love our tea partiers. they carry their pot constitutions and hold up at their meetings, god bless them. and the constitution is an incredible, a vital document. it is the owner's manual for

america. it is how we operate the machinery of government. we need to abide by that manuel and quit trying to amend it by doing through the courts and through executive orders, regulations. there's one way to amend the constitution, and it is in the constitution how you do it. the second thing that is printed on these documents, almost every single one, is another document. the you ever ask yourself why is this document also here? the declaration of independence, but why do they put these two together. it is because the constitution is the how and the declaration of independence is the why. it is who we are, and it is

found it in that sentence that you know, a critical sentence that gives the exceptionalism to american exceptionalism. we hold these truths to be self- evident, that all men are created equal and are in doubt by their creator with certain unalienable rights. among these, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. that phrase is a phrase that transform the world. it is the basis upon which our government rests, it is the why, the foundation that the constitution was created to protect. up until this time, up until this document, no government had ever been instituted that recognize that rights came from god to every man and woman, never before it had happened. rights of until that time when the sovereign, the cane.

they did not go to every person. the people were the subjects of the crown or the employer. in this country, the government was there to serve the people, not the other way around. we created this constitution to do one thing -- to do one thing -- and that is to keep america free. that is the one thing that our government is there to do. that is why we say we need the that the government, because government is there to protect life and liberty as a foundation for this country. [applause] i got involved in this race, involved in traveling the country because i believe there was one moment, one bill that will take this sentence and

erase it from the minds of americans. that will do more to erase the constitution from its relevance to political discourse, and it is "obamacare." why do i say it is that big of an issue? because it is the first time that we have passed a piece of legislation and try to enact something that is an entitlement for every working man and woman. this is the connect an i.v. to every single person in america, every american now will be connected and dependent upon washington for their health care, for their children's health care, for their parents' health care, and the government

will be able to withhold or pop up more or less in that i.v., depended on how to comply you are going to be. margaret thatcher said after having transformed england from this socialist country to one that was privatizing their industries and embracing capitalism again, said she was never able to do for england what reagan did for america. -- thatcher was never able to do that. she said, why? she said because of the british national health -- health care system. as brave as paul ryan is, look at what he has proposed.

he does not touch anybody with an entitlement. all of his changes are for people in the future, far into the future. he would not dare -- no one dares talk about taking anything from somebody that has something from the government. look at what is going on in greece. this is the future of america. if "obamacare" is put into action. when i was 16 years old, the first time i had ever been to a funeral with an open casket. it was my grandfather. ket elt next to his cas and i looked at his enormous tanned, hick, beefy, cann

that dug coal for 50 years. i said those hands grabbed their way for freedom for me. he think about the men and women across america now and -- in uniform, and you think about the sacrifice of those in the past who fought for freedom, who were willing to do what ever it till to make sure that they were going to hand off and america as free as we were given. here we are. yes, we are at war come that very few are participating in the war. thank god for their courage, thank god for their sacrifice. most of america is sitting, working, playing, doing what

they do and watching america slowly -- this why of america -- slid away. one of my favorites close says every day we get up and we tell ourselves lies so we can live. the light that americans are telling themselves now as they are in denial about a deficit, trillions of dollars, worse condition than even greece is in for mike that standpoint in the long term, and we deny ourselves that more governments more dependency is just part of the process, nothing really new,

more of the same. we will be ok, we will be safe. that is a lie. we need a leader to stand up and tell america about ally and remind them who week -- about the lie and remind them who we are. this is the challenge of the next leader. to win this election, absolutely to win this election, but then have the courage to go out and lead and motivate a country to remind us who we are, that the people who came to this country came like my grandfather because they cherished freedom. it is who we are as americans. we are different than the greeks, the thrbrits. we came here because we knew our government would believe in us. barack obama does not believe in you.

he believes in himself. in the 2008 election the american public was convinced by this anointed one. he was convinced by this anointed one that he was someone he could trust and believe in, that if you just believed in him and gave him your trust, he would take care of you in america. after two years of running this country into the ditch, of having our allies, like the hondurans and the colombians, now see that america is no good friend and our enemies like iran and venezuela and cuba and syria look at us with the state,

as toothless tigers. no, this is our moment, ladies and gentlemen. this is our moment. it is our watch. it is our obligation to make the sacrifices and to have a leader who is willing to lift up people, to believe in themselves again. i was in the senate i fought for life because i knew of the dignity of every human person. i fought for welfare for -- or for because i knew the potential of every human person. i believed in that. i still believe in that. i believe in the greatness and goodness of this country. i believe we need a leader that will raise them up. i am concerned that if this goes on much further, not only with

"obamacare," but with what our children are being taught. you know what our children's worst subject is put history. how can we have children in this generation of americans willing to fight for america if we do not know who we are? our president does not tell us who we are. he tells us to believe in him. in 2012, we do not need a president that we can believe in. we need a president who believes in us. [applause] i know is frustrating.

i know the anxiety level when you see this country that you love going through what is going to economically,: through what is going to culturally, going through what is going through with the embarrassment of a president who does not believe in america and its values and standing up for them across the country. i know it is hard. but it is our watch, and we need be faithful. we need to go out and fight for those values. i will close with a story of faithfulness. it is a story of faithfulness from my time when i was in the senate fighting on the issue of life. i want to share with this with you because i want to instill in you this seed, that all you need to worry about is what you can do. all of us will be called to do her right things, i believe, in the next year and a half, to

win, yes, louisiana, but all across this country we need to elect a president and a sufficient majority in the senate to repeal "obamacare," ok? this is a big, big task for all bus. we need to keep our head down and keep working and keep faith because if you are faithful god will be faithful. he will bless what you are doing and will bless this land. i close with a story during the debate on a partial fourth abortions -- partial birth abortion. it was the second time the the bill was vetoed. i have offered it. i had fought three years to get it passed, and we try to override it.

we try to get it in 98 and became short again we try again -- we try again in 2000. we told the court how they had screwed up the case, and we told them congress has a say of what is constitutional, and we believe this is constitution. the court sided with us so we eventually won. during the this course, i had a moment where a question that. i had a moment when i was in the trenches and not feeling a lot and the success of the ultimate victory. it was in september of 1998. we had debated for six hours on the override of the president's beat up. i debated barbara boxer on the

floor for six hours. i am catholic. i have a little time off in purgatory as a result of that. we finished the debate at 8:00 at night, finishing up, and i felt maybe there was something more i should do. i was feeling a sense of responsibility, the citi field right now. that is why you are here. i called my wife had a time when we had just had four children, just had a little one at the time, and i said, i have been debating, but i feel there is more. made there are senators who do not have a lot and will be watching c-span and will see what i have to say, and maybe it will change their minds. karen said exactly what she always says. she said this time, when i sat down with her and the family,

that is what you are called to do, and that is what you have got to do. i went back out on the floor of the senate and in an hour and a half, i finished. i am almost done, don't worry. [laughter] i packed up the senate, came in the next morning, and we lost by the same number of votes we were going to lose by the night before. i walked out of that chamber having gone home to late at night to see my kids did that or even my wife. i got out the next morning at 5:00 a.m. and was out before they were awake. i thought what a horrible that i have been. what a horrible husband and i have been, another night where you focused on what you felt called to do, and i thought of hubris and pride that i had that somehow i could make a difference. i beat myself up for days.

five days later i got an e-mail. it was from a young man from michigan state, and it said the following -- the other night my girlfriend and i were flipping to the channels, and i saw you standing on the floor of the senate with a picture of a little to say the boy because is what i was talking about, because i was talking about the children who were the targets of partial birth of forces. we did not find out about the does the disease until later in pregnancy. he said, we stopped to listen, and after a few minutes i saw that my graaff friend tears running down her cheek, and i asked her what was wrong? she looked to me and said i am pregnant and i have an abortion scheduled for next week, but i am not going to have an abortion.

god will be faithful. he has blessed this land, but he needs his people to be faithful, too. that is why you are here. you -- your responsibility to this country it's a select leaders of the republican party who can go out in this election and touch the hearts and souls of the american public. someone who will lift their eyes up, someone who will help break the shackles, the siren song of those in government who said just trust us, just give us a little bit more, we will take care of you, if feet that subtle narcotics. a week after the massachusetts election last year i was in the

green room at fox. it was the day after barack obama decided to push the senate health care bill through the house, and i ran into one williams -- juan williams, and i said, this is crazy, you're going to lose the election. even massachusetts does not like this bill. they had experienced in it. he said this -- he said we believe that americans love entitlements, and once we get them hooked on this entitlement, they will never let it go. dwight d. you think they were willing to push this -- why the

you think they were willing to push this bill through, why were they willing to push this through because they knew "obamacare" is a game changer, it will make america the country that your ancestors left. do not let that happen. god bless you and god bless america.

[unintelligible] >> thank you. i would like to introduce the governor of louisiana, bobby jindal, who will be entering the room.

>> for more than three years now, the governor has let the states through some real challenges, including budget shortfalls, hurricanes, the oil spill in the gulf last year, and mississippi river flooding this spring. isernor jinda's the shed matched only by his commitment to implementing policies that will move louisiana ford and leave more for our children than we inherited from the generation before us. since taking office in 2008, governor jindal has cut taxes six times. he has cut government spending by 27%.

his mantra that the government should do more with less, along with his support of policies that inspired business growth and job creation, has helped foster economic growth in louisiana that have created more than 39,000 jobs along with a capital investment of more than $8.5 billion. we're very proud to have worked beside the government -- the governor in times of crisis. we are proud to partner with him in his continued work to move the great state of louisiana for it. ladies and gentlemen, it is my pleasure to introduce to you jindal. of bobby >> thank you all very much.

thank you. thank you all very much. thank you for that warm reception and the kind is reduction. to all our guests, welcome, louisiana. i want to thank you for this team to what -- to speak at this great conference. we will have a great party tonight called the bayou bash. it is great to see so many friends throughout the south. i noticed a few northerners sneak into our party as well. as governor of this state i want to make sure you spend as much time and as much of your money as you are down here in new orleans. i see my friend michele bachmann is outside. we had the privilege of serving with her in congress.

you may have seen the monday night that based on national tv. she made an important announcement. what do have you here aar it he. i am running to be the governor of the great state of louisiana. i want to take a moment and i will not take long to do what i love to do which is bragg on the people of louisiana. we are some of the strongest people you will find anywhere in this great country of ours. we have been through a lot as a people. we have been two major hurricanes, katrina, read that, and then through an unsinkable -- unthinkable oil spill, and a great flooding of the mississippi river. we will come back better and stronger than we were before. there were 10 plagues the old testament, and louisiana we hope

to avoid the locusts. we have been thrown out everything else. whatever comes our way we are ready for it, and we are calling to prosper. over the last three and a half years our state has made big strides, and despite challenges and disasters, we have flourished. you have heard the joke that at one time a congressman said that at any given point in time -- if half of louisiana was under water, the other half was under indictment. it used to be funny, but it is not true anymore. it is simply a funny reprimands quest remembrances of our past. i had the privilege of having dinner with a person he said when he was a governor he met

the wharton, a myth that a prison, and at the conclusion, the warden said this -- you do not know what an honor it has been the host team. you of the first louisiana governor who has ever come to prison without having handcuffs on. it is great that you. what is great to have you. three and a half years ago we were in the bottom five of the country when it came to public integrity. now we are at the top in demanding ethical behavior from our leaders. today we rank amongst the top seven states in terms of economic growth. our unemployment has been below the national average every single month. we are number one for per

capita economic development in the entire country. we attract new companies, businesses, finding ways to add jobs in a tough economy, and we did it with basic common sense. we figured out something that washington has yet to figure out. it is as simple as this -- when the government create a job, it costs every taxpayer money. when americans create jobs, it gives every taxpayer money. that seems like an obvious notion, but washington has not figured it out yet. we have cut taxes several times to. we got rid of taxes. we passed a series of laws making louisiana the worst place in the country to be an online predator. these creditors victimize women

and children. in our state we have passed laws giving judges the option of castration. we have passed laws making it clear that you cannot kill on line and go after our children and spread this fell in louisiana. some states are so excited you can go online and find out where these critters live. -- these creditors live. -- these predators live. congressman anthony weiner, if he lived here, he might held that resignation press conference from a penitentiary. there are a lot of national

reporters here. that was a little joke, southern humor. i will be gone on about a louisiana's press. i want to get to the point i want to share with you today. time is running short for america. what do i mean? we are the proverbial frog and the water that is coming to a boil. the democrats in washington mistakenly think we are thinking in a hot tub. -- we are sitting in a hot tub. they are worried about trying to re-elect president obama. they are not serious about trying to resurrect the american economy. we must focus our energies on doing what is best for america. we must focus our energies of pursuing policies that will strengthen our country. we must focus our energies on replacing president obama.

we must do this because time is indeed running short. before i talk about that, let me be clear about something tree passions run high in politics. there are some folks who does not president obama -- who does like president obama. that is an ignorant way to think. it is foolish defeating president obama is absolutely crucial. you may recall many of the leftists in this country spent eight years heating president bush. they would go to present -- to lengths to put their ignorance on display with nasty rhetoric. we must not mimic their shallow approach. i have no doubt that obama loves this country. i have no doubt that he tries to spend every day trying to make things better.

i also have no doubt that what he thinks is best for this country is in reality a complete disaster. i have no doubt that the president is wrong, his policies are wrong, and i have no doubt that he is leading us down a bad path. i question where he is going. america is cress is approaching a to be put. time is of the essence. when the president ran for office, there was great confusion as to who he was. much of this confusion was intentional on his part. he ran one of the best campaign our country has ever seen. some conservatives found reason for hope. --governor palin refer to it

any doubts about who he is and where he wants to take america are now completely erase. he is easily the most liberal president america has ever and door. we find ourselves at 8 tipping point. all the battles raging in washington, battles over budgets, spending caps, reforms, that ceilings are all skirmishes in a larger struggle over what america is and where america is it all boils down to one question. will america march boldly forward to grow our free market economy, or are we going to retreat -- continue to retreat along the road that the president is taking us, the road towards government growth and european socialism? and you cut through all the clutter, this is what the next election is all about. let me say it again. are we going to march boldly forward with policies that

embrace and are enable to grow our free market economy or are we going to continue to retreat, the road for european socialism? mark rubio put it great when he said we should not be implementing the policies of countries that people come here to get away from. [applause] well said. i'm proud that i campaigned for him. well said. i couldn't have said it better. never have we seen such a clear divergence of views on where our country should go. by his actions in office, president obama made his intentions plain. there can be no doubt where he is taking america this president has grown its federal government in an unprecedented manner. the president doesn't seem to understand that jobs are not created by the federal government in washington, d.c. government needs to create an environment where it is easier

to create jobs, and that's all. every new job created by the government burdens our economy. every new job created by americans in a private sector strengthens our economy. this president has taken over our health care against the clear wishes of the american people. he has made us more dependent on foreign oil, has used taxpayer money to bail out the auto industry, passed a stimulus bill that was enormously extensive that didn't create jobs. he has grown the national debt to over $14 trillion. he has taken us to where the debt is almost as large as the entire economy. and he has brought the country with the great history in the world to the point of flirting with bankruptcy. you couldn't make these things up. and yet, in spite of all of this failure he is now asking us to give him four more years. to do what? to take over the banking industry? to take the debt from $14 trillion to $20 there will? -- drr 20 trillion? one can only guess what a

second obama term would bring. which brings me back to my thesis. time is running short for america. we are at a tipping point. i want to answer that fundamental question about where america is going. america will march boldly forward on the path of free enterprise and growth. we will not retreat on the path to european socialism. [applause] earlier this week the president took to talk shows with what i found to be a very curious message. as you know, he is battling with congress as we speak, trying to get them to increase the country's debt ceiling yet again. he said if we do not raise our national debt ceiling, we could have an economic crisis. [laughter] i think he's got it backwards. we can't raise our economy ceiling because we do have a debt crisis. let's get this straight once

and for all. under the president's watch, our national debt has grown from $9 trillion to $14 trillion and continues to climb. now he threatens us with a global financial crisis if we do not borrow even more money. so now we're in a position needing us to do more, increasing our indebtedness in order to stave off global financial crisis. does this make sense to you? let me translate this. let me translate the president's message into english. when he says we must increase our debt ceiling in order to stave off a global financial crisis, he is basically saying we need more debt in order to keep our debt from strangling us. so the president of the united states is reduced to threatening us with global financial crisis if we don't take action that will lead us to an american economic crisis. that only makes sense in washington, d.c. so what should we do about this debt ceiling crisis?

the obama administration is having a hard time grasping this economics 101 thing. so the public service, i'm go doing help them out. let me try explain this in simple terms. my beautiful wife -- i obviously married up. i married better than i deserve. we've got three great young children. 9, 7, and 4. little girl's 9, the boys are 7 and 4. the 4-year-old's got a birthday coming up in august. every day he changes what he wants for his party. every day he's got a new idea. and as much as i hate this, i'm doing everything i can to stop it. before you know it, these beautiful, wonderful three young children will one day become teenagers. [laughter] i'm already preparing myself for the day. and i know which one it will be. one of those children will call and say, dad, there's a problem. you remember that credit card you gave me for emergencies? well, i owe $6,000 on it.

and if i don't pay it, there's going to be real trouble. so could i borrow some more money? that is pretty much what the federal government is saying to the taxpayers today. they're basically saying we spent your money here in washington. we spent money we didn't have. so now we need to borrow more money from you right now. so what is a parent supposed to do? you've got three options when you get that phone call. first, i guess you could say, sure, here's more money, no problem. that's one option. but that's an option that's certainly going to lead to more irresponsible behavor and eventually bankruptcy. that is pretty much what the taxpayers have done for many years. it's what the president wants us to do again now, even though that is precisely what is crushing our economy. a second option would be to say to the child to my child, no, that's your problem. you won't get anything from me, have a nice day. i don't think i would be allowed to say that the problem

is it's still my child. we're part of the same family. if he fails, i fail. there's a third option. i could say this. son, here's the deal. i'll loan you the money. we'll get that credit card paid off right now. now, that's the easy part. now, son, here's the rest of the story. you're not going to have a credit card for a while. we're going to have to make some structural changes in the way you live. you're not going to be eating out anymore. you're not going to the mall. you're going to sell your fancy car, buy a beat-up used car, get a job. you're not going to spend more than you make. and you are going to start saving some money every month. my friends, that is precisely the message that taxpayers of america must send to president obama and the federal government in washington.

this debate over the debt limit may be the most important thing congress does in the next two years. the truth is, i don't try to give advice to congress very often. they've got a hard job, fighting with a president who is philosophically dead wrong. from increasing the debt every republican should weigh in. america is addicted to spending. republicans in congress have a choice. we have to decide right here and right now. will we continue to be enablers of that spending addiction? now is the time. not tomorrow. now is the time to insist on a balanced budget amendment, or other types of bold, structural reforms, right now, this month. the president is desperate to raise the debt limit. we should force them to accept a balanced budget amendment before they vote on that. we should force the federal government to confront its spending addiction. think of the difference one vote in the senate would have made back in the 1990's. one vote away from sending that

amendment to the state legislators. we need to insist today. right now, right this month, to get that amendment passed by 2/3 of the house and the senate and then ratified by the people. we want a majority in congress last year. it is time to put that majority to use. the people are with us. the american people are with us. our leaders in congress must not shrink from this opportunity. we lost. we had the majority of a couple of election cycles ago. we lost that majority not because america stopped being conservative but because our republican elected leaders stopped being conservative. if our leaders in congress shrink from this opportunity, they will. and they will deserve to lose the support of the people. we must march forward. i can't state this emphatically enough. not tomorrow, not next month, not next year. now's the time to insist the president support the balanced

budget amendment to the constitution to force discipline, force fiscal sanity in washington, d.c. america must march forward. we must not retreat to socialism. now, as i close, "do want to acknowledge the elephant in the room. know many of you are here this weekend trying to figure out which republican you're going to support for president. and contrary to popular legend, we do have a number of good candidates running. i go back to the central question facing us here today. is america going to march boldly forward, embrace, enable, and grow our free market economy? or are we going to continue to retreat along the road that the president is taking us, the road towards government growth and european socialism? as for me, i'm going to vote for the candidate who is best able to draw this contrast, a candidate who is able to not simply run a good campaign but grasp the urgency of the situation, will not apologize for america. but rather, will take decisive action to embrace, enable, and grow the american dream. america must march forward.

we must not retreat towards socialism. those three children i was talking about, the little girl and the two boys, i'll close with this. i've outlined all types of challenges that face this great country of ours, but as i close, i remind you, i'm a pure optimist in my bones when it comes to the future of this great country of ours. we are blessed to live in the greatest country in the history of the world. [cheers and applause] every generation of americans is given more opportunities to our children than we inherited from our parents. indeed, that's the american dream. if our children work hard, get a great education, they can do even better than we did. we must not become the first generation that mortgages, sacrifices their future. and we will not. i remain convinced down to my bones we live in the greatest country in the history of the world and that we will fulfill the promise our parents left to us by leaving more opportunities for our children than we inherited from our

parents. i absolutely am convinced the american people are good people. and the founding fathers were right tone trust them to entrust them with the power to make our government work for us. i trust them to make the right decision this coming election cycle to make sure we don't retreat towards european socialism, but rather we continue marching strongly forward to an even better future for our children and grandchildren. god bless you, and enjoy your time in louisiana. thank you very much. [cheers and applause]

>> you're watching the republican leadership conference live here on c-span. taking place in new orleans. setting up for a panel discussion now. it's expected to be the last event of the day. our "road to the white house" coverage continues tomorrow at 12:50 p.m. eastern time. we'll have the republican leadership conference again here in new orleans. and the group will hear from texas governor rick perry, r.n.c. chairman and some others. you can watch along live here on c-span. again, that's tomorrow 12:50 p.m. eastern time. today the speakers touched on a number of times on the national health care law. and in some news being reported by the associated press, the obama administration says it will end a controversial health care waiver program in september. the waivers were part of the law that restricts annual

dollar limits on coverage. and the administration says those won't be needed because the insurance will be broadly available when the law he's going into full effect in 2014. the house and senate wrapped up this week. we'll hear a patent and trademark overhaul bill that deals with the approval process for offshore drilling and the department spending bill. following that vote tuesday, a prosecutorial vote on a multi-year reauthorization of the commerce department's economic development administration, that will happen in the senate on tuesday, as well as the nomination of leon panetta as secretary of defense. robert gates steps down from that position on june 30. we continue our coverage here on c-span. >> i overheard one little old lady at the elevator earlier

mention to another one that in reference to the heat, it's not the heat, it's the humility. many have mistakenly assumed that the road to the white house in 2012 is paved on a foundation of fiscal issues only and that social issues and the principles that concern those social issues voters are either unneeded or a distraction. i can remember when my own grandfather used to tell me when i was in the midst of a foolish decision, son, assumption is the lowest level of knowledge. left we assume that social issues don't play an important role, we have our panelists here today to talk to you about some of those social issues. today as we embrace on restoring this republic to its constitutional foundation, to its devine natural order, and to the leadership understanding

what history has taught us, that fiscal and social concerns are related and relevant to america's overall success, today we're privileged to have with us some of america's leading experts who in each of their critical areas can speak saliently and with expertise to the sampingtity of life -- sanctity of life, to the stabilizing effect to the society that traditional marriage and family plays, and to the roles of catholics and evangelicals together. they will each take a turn started by my new friend, congresswoman marilyn musgrave who's the project director of the susan b. anthony list and one of the sponsors of this conference. congresswoman musgrave is the project director of the susan b. anthony list, a national pro-life group dedicated to electing candidates and pursuing policies that will reduce and ultimately end abortion in america.

how many of you believe we need an abortion-free america? this past election cycle the congresswoman led the s.b.a.'s "votes have consequences" program which targeted self-described pro-life democrats who caved when it mattered most. that is, those who gave their votes to president obama when he needed to pass obama care, the largest expansion of abortion on demand since roe v.wade. she served two terms in the colorado legislature and then ran for the u.s. house of representatives in 2002. there she served three terms representing colorado's fourth district and is is a champion for the sanctity of life. help me wock congresswoman carolyn musgrave. >> thank you very much. indeed votes do have consequences. we know right now we have the most pro-abortion president in history. you know, yet we have people saying that we should have a truce on the social issues,

that we really shouldn't expect perfection out of our candidates. and i want to say to you, the life issue is what got me into this political arena, and the life issue matters today. it matters in this election cycle. when you think about the life issue, the contrary is son our side right now. around the nation states are working to defund planned parent hood, the largest organization that wants our tax dollars when they have nearly $1 billion in assets on hand. we see around the nation legislation that takes into the account the heart beat, the fateful heart beat of that unborn child. don't you love it? in ohio, they brought a pregnant woman into the hearing . and all of those legislators heard that little heart beat. they saw the ultrasound on the screen.

life matters in this election cycle. for the first time in 2011, we learned that the majort of americans self-identify as pro-life. we know that the majority of women are pro-life. i thought the democrats said if you wanted the women's vote, you had to be pro-abortion. not true. don't you believe those things. so in this momentum that we have in the country where we see states taking pro-life action, and we have 240 votes in congress for the pence amendment to defund planned parenthood, the life issue is front and center. [applause] susan b. anthony list knows that when we get ready to choose our presidential candidates, again on the democrat side we already have the most pro-abortion president in history, but as we look at all of these would-be nominees, susan b. anthony list said we have a pledge for you. we have a pro-life pledge.

it has four parts. and you're going to love this first one. candidates who signed the pledge must commit to court supreme court justice who are committed to judicial restraint to not legislating from the bench and adhering to our constitution. they will choose pro-life nominees for relevant cabinet positions. they will advance pro-life legislation that will end taxpayer funding domestically and internationally for abortion-providing organizations, that really mirrors what's done in congress. and lastly -- now, listen to this. ever since i've been in politics i've heard candidates and elected officials say i'm pro-life. but you know what? they never broke a sweat on the issue. they never worked to advance the cause for life. susan b. anthony list is not taking that anymore. the fourth part of the pledge

is they will advance and sign into law a unborn child protection act to protect unborn children capable of feeling pain from abortion. so we are looking for candidates, for possible p -- potential nominees that will lead on the life issue. i just want to announce to you we have five that have signed our pledge. senator rick santorum, governor tim pawlenty, congressman ron paul, former speaker of the house nutt gingrich, and congresswoman -- newt gingrich, and congresswoman michelle bachmann. and i have an action item for you. we have a pro-life citizen pledge. what this says -- and they'll be handed out at the doors. we are saying only vote for a candidate that is pro-life. if your favorite has not signed the pledge, ask them why. and let's work to get them all to sign it.

life matters in this campaign. and we always must fight for the sampingtity of human life. and i have a message for all the would-be nominees. look at the republican primary voter. it is politically expedient to be pro-life. more importantly, it's the right thing to do. thank you very much. [applause] >> congresswoman, one of the citizens pledge points of reference is the defunding of planned parenthood. what can activates in a local area, in a state, do to encourage the signing or the participation and the repeal of those resources? >> well, we know that planned parenthood is the largest abortion provider in this country. they are all about abortion. they have a sullied image right now. their brand is damaged thanks to the work of live action. we see what really he's going on in these clinics. they're not pro woman. they're not looking out for

young girls. and they're taking our tax dollars to provide abortions while they have nearly $1 billion in assets on hand. at a time of fiscal and moral crisis, they don't need our tax dollars. and i believe that people in states around the nation are working very hard now to get their state legislators and their governors to defund. we saw action most recently in wisconsin. and i applaud those efforts. people should demand in your states that your tax dollars are not used for abortion. and make sure you communicate with your member of congress as the fight he's going on that you do not want your tax dollars going for abortion. >> excellent. our next panelist is christopher plant, rhode island's executive director of the national organization for marriage. as a native of rhode island, chris has served for nearly 20 years in working with children and families, as well as community development and a variety of context and

locations including the inner city of chicago, providence, central america, and east africa. he is committed to reinforcing and protecting the house toric institution of -- historic institution of marriage and family and facilitating sustainable grassroots development across rhode island and now america. his experience includes social work, classroom and teaching, youth and family development, and public policy. he's a graduate of king's college. he lives with his wife cynthia and their three children. imagine that. ages 13, 10, and 8. christopher, talk to us. >> thank you. you're going to hear a lot of the same things that you just heard from the congresswoman here. marriage matters. and marriage is is a winning issue and can be a winning issue in the upcoming election. i was on the floor last night at the exhibition center, and someone said why should i spend any political capital on marriage in defending marriage as one man and one woman? let me tell you why. american voters believe marriage is one man and one

woman of the just yesterday at license defense fund put out their survey that said 62% of americans believe marriage is one man and one woman and only that. 53% of them believe that strongly. now, that's one survey. but the fact of the matter is, that survey reflects what the american voter has done in 31 out of 31 states. every time marriage has come on the ballot in this country, it has been defended as one man and one woman. and gay marriage has been defeated in 31 out of 31 times. this is a winning issue. if you want the votes of americans, you stand for marriage because americans stand for marriage. not just in the bible belt, not just in the deep south, but in the rust belt states of ohio, michigan, from alaska to hawaii, and most recently the extreme liberal coastal states of maine and california that people when asked have said we believe marriage is one man and

one woman. this is a winning issue. there is no reason to run from it. now, we can take it even further to the voters. when they go to elect officials in iowa, in 2009, the supreme of iowa decedes same-sex marriage to be legal in iowa. the national organization for marriage got on the ground with grassroots organizations and campaigned there. and when three of those supreme court justices were up for retention elections, we had them defeated. they were thrown out of offices. the first time this has happened. if you are a candidate, stand for marriage because the people, the voters, stand for marriage. similarly in new hampshire, governor lynch, in the assembly there in 2009, enacted same-sex marriage. again, the national organization for marriage and others on the ground got there, campaigned hard, spent $1.2 million in new hampshire. and what was the result?

first one dozen turncoat republican candidates were successfully primaried on the marriage issue. then in 30 out of 32 districts that we've played in, we won those. as a result, 127 pro marriage legislators were elected to the new hampshire assembly. a veto-proof majority. and as a result, there is now a strong move to repeal same-sex marriage in new hampshire. this is a winning issue. this is not something that needs to be run from. finally in minnesota which has just made the news, it was in the last election cycle that n.o.m. worked very hard to elect republican majorities in both chambers of the assembly there. we were successful. and as a result, now minnesota will have a marriage amendment on their ballot in 2012. they will become the 32nd state to defend marriage. we can say marriage is is a winning issue. and not to be run from because the people of america believe

marriage to be one man and one woman. we also know that marriage boosts the fortunes of those -- of candidates. george bush would not have beaten john kerry in a state like ohio if marriage had not been on the ballot. because marriage on the ballot brings out the conservative voter. and particularly it brings out the faithful conservative voter. and when that is on the ballot, while they don't normally vote or they vote in smaller numbers, they will come out and vote for candidates that agree with them, that marriage is one man and one woman. the overwhelming evidence is that marriage, like life, is a winning issue. it is not something that our candidates need to run from. it is not something that our party needs to run from. it is, in fact, something that we need to embrace. we need to stand with the american voter and say, yes, we agree that marriage is one man and one woman. my own view is that marriage is like life, as we've already said. the government did not create life.

the government did not create marriage. marriage is an institution, created by the creator. and government cannot redefine what the creator created. as catholiconline said recently, same-sex advocates claim the power to change what is not into what is simply because they say so. no matter your point of reference, whether it is the word of god, natural law, custom and tradition, or the history of the world for that matter, you cannot by political decree change the fundamental order of the universe. men and women are different. children need mothers and fathers. stand on that. run on that. don't run from it. [applause] >> christopher, as a follow-up question, what role do you see clergy, pastors, and priests playing en route to this road to the white house in 2012? what can they legitimately do? >> they can legitimately help >> they can legitimately help educate their congregations.