sure my friend the chancellor will be addressing this not only in his speech tonight but also in the papers that we'll be publishing in subsequent days. >> thank you. does the -- mr. speaker, does the prime minister agree with me that had they not adopted the economic policy task rather than listening to the shadow chancellor mortgage interest rates could be 5% higher than what they are now? >> my honorable friend makes a very important point, today, tragically we have greek levels of debt but we've got german interest rates. that is an enormous monetary boost to our economy and we should all welcome the cut in unemployment today. now, if we hadn't taken action on the deficit, ifmess. >> each week the british house of commons is in session, we

broadcast live, watch any time at c-span.org, where you can find past questions and government programs. up next, speeches from minnesota representative, michele bachmann and ron paul from new orleans. and after this, it's this week's q & a, with andrew rossi, page one, a documentary about "the new york times." this week the republican leadership conference held its annual meeting in new orleans. on this weeks "road to the white house," highlights of that event. michele bachmann, herman cain,

and ron paul, this is an hour and 20 minutes. >> hi, everyone. go leadership conference, yay. good to see you all, god bless you. what doesn't love the big easy? thank you for the wonderful welcome and for the invitation. love you too. love new orleans. you survived katrina, and you survived president obama's 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 got it here in new orleans. and i am so thankful to be here you with today. you are very brave people here.

and i want you to know that you have a brave governor in governor bobby gendle. and governor hailey barber. these two governors showed you can get it right. and they did. they are marvelous men and i love them both. now earlier this week, i don't know if you caught it, but there was a republican presidential debate. it was held by cnn and up a little north in new hampshire. and 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, i learned that ron paul favors the blackberry. and i learned that herman cain

likes deep dish pizza. and besides being a hard-core johnny cash fan, the world found out that i have christmas with elvis on my ipod. but you have to tell a little secret, you are not going to tell anyone? but i have to tell you, i was a little nervous and i didn't know if they were going to ask boxers or briefs. you know a girl never knows. but the debate i think did bring three things out in new hampshire that were very important. and the first 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 parties showed very

well, i think in that debate. and 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. during the brief years i feel that my job is to bring the voice of the people in the halls of congress. and politicians started to pay attention to your voice when brought into washington, d.c. and my goal is to take your voice into the white house, where it hasn't been heard for a very long time.

and 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 peace through strength republicans. and i am one of those. and we need to add the fiscal conservative leg, and i am one of those. and we most certainly need to add the social conservative, and i am one of those. and we need the tea party movement. [applause] the liberals want you to think that the tea party is just a radical fringe of the republican party. there is a reason why the left is absolutely aapeplexic about

the tea party movement, because here is the truth about the tea party movement. it's an idea. and it's made up of disaffected democrats that have had it up to here with barack obama, it's made of independents who have had it up to here with barack obama. and it's made of libertarians and people that were never political in their life, and the republicans are already there. already there. that's the tea party movement! they should be afraid of this movement. because it was the verb and the vibrancy of the 2010 election, and let me tell you, that movement has more steam and

power and energy today, than it had in 2010. get ready 2012. the tea party will be bigger than ever! because the tea party and all of america has one goal. and it's this, that barack obama will be a one-term president! now the second thing that we are reminded of in the debate earlier this week. that the race will really be all about jobs and the economy. we understand that this president hasn't done such a good job on that. because here we are, two weeks, two years into the recovery. we are two years into the recovery. under ronald reagan, we were

literally hundreds of thousands of jobs in a month. under ronald reagan's recovery. and instead now we are in the obama trench of a double-dip recession. and today people are worried about their retirement. and they have a fear, and they don't believe that their kids will do as well as they did. and do you realize this is the first generation that has felt that way in 240 years of the nation's history. that's how devastating these numbers are on americans. and what the debate was about early this week is how we reverse the trend. that's the good news of this. how we add jobs.

i am a job creator. my husband and i started from scratch, a successful company. we came from a lower class background, i drove a school bus to get through college. my husband did the same thing. that's what america gives us. a chance and opportunity. wasn't there something about hope and change in 2008. you remember that? 2012 is the real hope and change election. [applause] we republicans have the most powerful, positive story to tell in 2012. it's a story that barack obama 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. and as a matter of fact if you want to sum up this election in the most simple, positive terms.

it would like this. the day that barack obama became president a gallon of gas was 1.79. today it's 3.75 a gallon. has president obama failed you on energy policy? 10 days after he became president, the price of an ounce of gold was $940. today it's $1,500 an ounce. has the president of the united states devalued your dollar? he's 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 the gavel for a few years.

you know what it is today in 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 to 1600 pennsylvania avenue for 2012? that's priceless. i think the final thing we saw earlier this week in the debates is the fact that in 2012, i believe that this race will be all about you. not about politicians. it's going to be about you, and the future we hold. about the free market system and about the morals and the values that have always been the cornerstone of this country. and it means, i think, that we will have to trust our neighbors and friends with telling them

the truth about what is going on in our country. and i don't think we should fear about telling them the truth. never has anything been more important of this example. and you have heard about it today, and it's obama care. obama care is the symbol of what is wrong with jobs and spending and what is wrong with debt and what is 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. [applause] and while we have been seeing the liberal in the last few weeks trying to scare americans about medicare and especially senior citizens. what is 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 in a meeting with the president. and the president was not asked once or twice, but three times. mr. president what is your plan for medicare. what are you going to do to save it so it doesn't go flat broke like we know it will in the not too distant future. and you know what the president's plan is, this hasn't been talked about 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. and i think very likely, and i am speculating, i think that very likely what the president intends is that medicare will go broke. and then 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's certain bankruptcy for our senior citizens. and he's allowing that to happen. that means our senior citizens will face obama care knowing full well that our president took 500 billion dollars, that's a half trillion dollars out of medicare to give it to younger people in obama care. senior citizens is growing, with baby boomers joining their ranks. we will have more people but less money. and no plan to save it. so the next time liberals scare you about medicare and republicans, you ask those same people, what is 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. [applause] i am the very first member of congress who went down the very first morning after the passage of obama care. i stayed with up my staff until after midnight the night that obama care passed. because i said to my staff, we will not allow socialized medicine to stand in this country. tell the american people, all is not lost, we will repeal obama

care. and the next morning i marched to the floor of the house of representatives and i was the first member of congress to file an appeal bill. and i want you to know this, as president of the united states, i will not rest until we appeal obama care. you can take that to the bank. you can cash that check. we will repeal obama care in the us of america. it will happen. have hope, have real hope. we will. i wonder if they are listening in the white house now, you will in 2012. you will listen then. obama care is an issue of this president, but did you know it's a job killer.

the office has called us that obama care will kill 800,000 jobs. the president with all of his job creation plans have killed 200,000 jobs and now nearly a million year. what in the world could someone be thinking knowing that you will killing a million jobs. i know what we will be thinking, and in 18 months we will be there and make it happen. senior citizens get this more than any other segments of the population. they paid attention of the obama debate, and i think that senior citizens will lineup at the polls and won't be able to wait to toss this president out of office. and i am thrilled about that. and if obama care represents the

president's failure on health care. i think that the president's morbid obesity on spending and debt accumulation is probably the worse of all. our joint chief of staff chair is admiral mike mullen, and he said that our national debt is our biggest national security threat. wouldn't you think when the chairman of the joint chief of staffs said that 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 in washington, we are debating raising the debt e ceiling. and that's the right to give congress the authority to borrow

more money they don't have and keep spending money. what your opinion on raising the debt ceiling? i knew i would like you before i walked in here. you know in the last 10 years, congress has raised the debt ceiling 10 times. i have been in washington three terms and in that time we have been asked to raise the debt ceiling half a dozen times. and 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 is only smoke and mirrors. and washington, d.c., that game is over. it's over. because do you know, if you got a dollar in your pocket, take it out right now.

you probably don't, the government is trying to take it out. but if you got a dollar, hold it up. take a good look at that dollar bill. because i want to tell you something, and i know we are getting close to supper time, and i don't want to diminish your appetite. but take a look at that dollar bill and fold that in half, not quite in half. because 42 cents of every dollar that the 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 are spending money we don't have. and i want you to know right now, 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, now 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 heart breaker of them all, cowboy poetry festivals. now that's the barn burner. and like the great and powerful oz in the movie with dorothy and scare crow and pulling that away

with the lever, and that's the picture of the obama economic team right now trying to put this economy back in order. well, mr. president, the bailouts didn't work. the stimulus didn't work. i voted against them. we got to have some new sheriff in town that 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 economic superpowers do. and mr. president, you are no economic superpower. i will tell you the last thing that the federal reserve would do under my administration, and

that's having another quantitative policy where they are spending money, and that's not going to happen. as president obama has been in office, that dollar you hold m in your hand has devalued 14%, today that dollar is worth 86 cents. can you afford this president? i cannot afford this president. you are better off today than two years? is your savings account more under this president. well, strangely this president finds all of this amusing. he told us after he heard the jobless report as 9.1%, this is just a bump in the road. is this a bump in the road? i think this is the grand canyon, that's what this is. and then we heard the president say of this failure of the

trillion dollar stimulus and the shovel-ready project and not shovel-ready yet. i think they need to take that shovel out of that president's hand because there is no pony in what he is trying to shovel these days. [applause] mr. president, the status quo is not working for americans. the