understand what we need to do in this country to turn things around. every time i hear a candidate talk about if we put more money in the hands of businesses and if we put more money in the hands of those companies that create jobs, when i hear those candidates say that, without actually putting -- pointing to the facts that companies have sent our jobs overseas to countries like china and india and parts of indonesia. i know they are lying to us. the only republican candidate or any candidate -- both in the democratic or republican party speaking the truth is ron paul. people are taken aback by the thing ron paul says. they are not used to hearing candidates speak the truth. >> ruth is joining us from all bill -- from mobile, alabama.

>> i wanted to talk about the rich people. there was a lady a few calls before me who said they had not gotten rid of the earmarks. they have. the republicans in this congress have gotten rid of the earmarks and that is the reason they could not bargain. they did not have any bargaining chips. congress had given up the earmarks so they cannot say, if you vote for this, i will give you and your mark. the other thing about the rich -- i want to say i am not rich. i was 12 years old before i had electricity in my house. i am still not ridge. i am not pork because i work really hard. . this is a straw dog that somebody has built up. it is class warfare a thing -- a class warfare thing.

they make the rich afraid of the poor. if there are some rich people who have got money they should not have, why don't they tell us specific examples where the rich have gotten ill gotten gains. also they will say that the 10% -- i may have my numbers wrong -- 10% owned 60% of the wealth. what is the wealth? >> thank you for the call. you are watching former house speaker newt gingrich, who was preceded by tim pawlenty. they are called to be bar-b-q area. bernard is joining us from pennsylvania. go ahead.

you are on c-span. >> thank you. politicians say we must learn to compete when we cannot pete -- compete with american countries against third world countries that paid slave wages. >> we will watch for a moment. this is former house speaker newt gingrich with his wife. >> these look good. >> pretty good technique. >> i could to the other thing. >> was the pan hawaii? -- pan hot?

>> a couple over here. >> here you go. a big photo opportunity. new future, newt. that's right. now.u're in trouble >> you go for it. good form. >> doing pretty good right now.

>> we have flipped everytinhing that needs flipping. >> i want to know which one of you is from the food channel. >> how do you feel about last night? >> good. we have our grandchildren here. how could you not be happy at the state there? >> how do you describe the atmosphere here? what is a like to get out and talk to people? >> it has been clear all day today. people keep walking up to me and speaking well of last night and promising to be with us in january and getting pictures and walking with me. you will see how many teachers -- people are excited about what

we are doing. >> sarah palin is here today. rick perry is here today. >> the more the merrier. we have six months to have a national conversation about the right policies in washington. as i said last night. , i wish there were immediate things that they could do to start turning around the economy immediately, starting with repealing the dodd-frank bill. showed the country that they understand we are in real pain. in the house, if republicans have real control, they should have all the subcommittees' to the right work in september and find all the money we need to find in september and october by having all 435 members do work, not just the six members on the

house committee. i thought last night was a great place to start talking directly about that. we need to replace the select committee with the whole congress. do something to help america now. >> how does your campaign moves forward? >> we never invested here. our goal is in january. we are looking forward to january.

brand science, as it affects alzheimer's and mental-health. all time as a loan is a $20 trillion public and private cost by 2050. i want to talk about new and different ways to fix america. that is what this campaign will do. we are attracting more and more people with that kind of positive message. people who have never gotten involved in politics are saying, this is about my family and my life. i want to be involved. ry much. you vert >> god luck. >> it has your name on it. >> i'll take it.

>> that was a highlight. thank you. >> the iowa pork producer's location. the presidential candidates were invited to take pictures as they look to the pork. pork on a stick is one of the features at the iowa state fair. all of this is available on our website at c-span.org. we are going to hear from the democratic party chair, debbie

wasserman schultz. also, newt gingrich, who will be at the soap box, an event sponsored by the "des moines register." >> good to be here. >> good morning, everyone and welcome to the des

>> welcome to the "des moines register" soap box. our first speaker is mitt romney, the former governor of massachusetts. mr. romney is seeking the republican nomination of the presidency. without further ado, let's give him and i will welcome. -- an iowa welcome. [applause] >> carol, thank you and thank you for the "des moines register." i appreciate the free press and the work you do. good to have so many friends today. what a great day. this is ideas. the last time i was here -- you cannot hear? i will speak louder.

this is a challenging time. i wish i could start out with terrific news. right now, most people are concerned about the country and recognize that america is in crisis. in crisis because we have 25 million people out of work or have stopped looking for work or are in jobs will be need their skills. we have kids coming out of college that cannot find jobs. we have people wondering if they can stand on the family firm. we of people wondering if-factor is going to leave our country. i want -- iowa is a leading state. it is a state with a diverse economy. the nation as a whole is struggling. we are led by a man who is a fine fellow. he is out of his death and he does not understand how the economy works. -- out of his that -- of his

depth and does not understand how the economy works. i happen to believe if he wants to create jobs, it helps if you have had a job. i have spent my life in the private sector. i have doing what you have been doing, which is trying to make ends meet. my business helped me start a company. i managed enterprises to make them better if i could. sometimes successful. sometimes not. i learned the lessons of a free economy over 25 years. i believe is essential in washington to have someone who knows how the economy works and who spent time in the real economy and someone who is so professional experiences being a politician. i happen to think the reason

this recession was deeper and the recovery is more tepid than it should have been is because the president does not understand that his policies did the exact opposite of what the nation needed. he says he wants to create jobs and create the conditions that will lead employers at jobs. ask yourself this. did promising to raise taxes help create jobs? did obamacare convince small businesses to hire more people? no. did cap and trade and talk of higher energy costs cause anyone to add more jobs? no. did dodd-frank cause banks to give out more loans? know. on every dimension you can think of in this president's first to one-half years in office, the actions he took made it harder for entrepreneurs to build

businesses and for big businesses to invest in capital and people. i predict, in this place, on this day that in november 2012, president obama will not carry the state of iowa. [applause] i happen to believe that after a lifetime of work in the private sector and then some service in the governmental sector of four years -- i like my experience as a governor. i did not in hill politics. i am still at a business guy -- i did not inhale politics. there are things an economy needs to do if it is going to perform better than nations around us. let me mention a couple of them. you have to have tax rates that are comparable with leading

nations. you have to have regulation and bureaucracy that is streamlined and encourages the private sector instead of burdening its. you have to have trade policies that work for us, not just the other guy. you have to have energy policies in tend to get america free on its dependence on foreign oil. -- intent on getting america free of its dependence on foreign oil. when the president says we are going to give general motors to the uaw, you question if you have the uaw -- you have the rule of law. you have to have institutions that build him in capital. we are a capitalist nation. that does not mean capital of a fiscal nature. we have to have great schools, universities, immigration policies that bring in the best and brightest.

finally, you have to have a government that does not consistently spend more money than it takes in. you have got to balance your budget. [applause] over these last several months, we have what people in washington debate about what we should do about the debt in this country. there were a number of people on the other side of the aisle who consistently pleaded to raise taxes. the people on our side of the aisle said absolutely not. we do not want to take more money out of people's pockets. if government takes money out of people's pockets, it is not going to help the economy. government is already too big. during the days of john f. kennedy, government at all

levels comprised about 1/4 of our economy, 27%. today, government at all levels comprises about 37% of the time. we are edging closer and closer to a nation that no longer has free enterprise. we insisted that we cut federal spending, that would cap federal spending, that we have a balanced budget amendment. that is the right course for america if we are going to rein growth ofcessive government. [applause] i do not know why the president is as misguided in managing our economy as he is. sometimes i wonder if he takes his political inspiration from the social democrats of europe. i do not think europe is working there. i do not think europe will work here. i happen to think we got it right and they got it wrong. i believe in freedom and opportunity american-style.

i believe in capitalism and free enterprise. i believe in the constitution as it was framed by the founders. by the way, i like all the amendments, not just a few of them. those who served in state government are particularly fond of the 10th amendment. those who don't know, i will give you the top line. the 10th amendment says, those powers not specifically granted to the federal government are to be reserved by the states and the people. when the president imposes obamacare on the entire nation, he not only put in place that policy and an entitlement we cannot afford, he travels on the principles of the 10th amendment to the constitution. that is why it will be repealed on day one of my administration if i am lucky enough to be elected president. i believe in the american

people. a lot of people are cynical and skeptical. i love the country because of the people of the country. i have had the chance to go across the country. i have met people across iowa. we visited a lot of counties and made a lot of friends. this is a fundamentally patriotic nation. we love america, not just for our rocks and hills, we love america for the dow use this nation has worked -- has promoted around the world and preserved for ourselves. we show it day after day. one way we show it is when the national anthem is played, we place our hand over our heart. that tradition began in the days of fdr. he asked us to put our hands on our part in recognition of the blood that was shed. we love this country and because of that love of this country, it

was fully convinced that despite our challenges -- i am convinced that despite our challenges, $62 trillion in unfunded promises by government -- russia is resurgent with its energy resources. we face real challenges in the world. i am convinced that the patriotism of the american people if combined with leaders that will tell the truth and live with integrity and who know how to lead america back to greatness, we will rise to the occasion and remain as we have always been, the greatest nation on earth and the hope of the earth. thank you so much. [applause] thank you. thank you. thanks, you guys. i will take a couple of questions here.

i will take some questions that here. >> do you support scrapping scrapping the social security payroll tax so that rich people pay their fair share into the trust fund? >> the question was, do i support raising the cap on social security taxes so that rich people pay their fair share. there was a time when we did not support attacking people based on their success and we did not go after people because they were successful. i have watched this president go across the country attacking people. if you want to speak, you can speak. right now, it is my turn. let me continue. [applause]

all of the streets in america are connected. i have watched people attack wall street. we want to make sure people pay their fair share. half of the people in this country pay no income taxes at all. when we talk about fair share, we have to think about what is a fair share? we do not want to raise taxes on the american people. government is too much already. we want to restrain the growth of government. the promises we are making 20- year olds, 30-year olds have to be promises we can keep. is that we can raise everybody's taxes. do you know what the tax rate would have to be too out of the promises of social security and medicaid? --to honor the promises of social security and medicaid?

we are not going to do that. i am glad you are on social security. i came here to speak then you will get to answer your -- ask your question. [shouting and cross-talking] >> we are on social security and medicare. what are you going to do to strand and social security, medicare ,-- strengthen social security, medicare and medicaid. without cutting benefits? >> is there anything else you

want to say? >> i will wait to hear what you have to say. >> you can hear my answer and if you do not like my answer, you can all take for someone else. i am not going to raise taxes. that is my answer. if you want someone who will raise taxes, you can voted for barack obama. barack obama is killing this economy. he is why 25 million people do not have jobs. [chanting "wall street greed] >> as the governor of massachusetts, you close loopholes. would you look at the revenue side to balance the federal budget?

>> the question is, i closed loopholes that helped big banks not pay taxes. a loophole is when someone takes advantage of a tax law in a way that was not intended by the legislation. we had a special provision for real estate enterprises. the was lower tax rates -- there were lower tax rates for some circumstances. banks had figured out that by calling themselves with the companies, they could get a special tax break. we said, no more of that. if there are taxpayers who find ways to distort the law and take advantage of loopholes in a way that are not intended by congress, absolutely i would kill those loopholes. a lot of people use the words loophole to say, let's raise taxes on people. i will not raise taxes. >> i have a non-controversial

question. i am a peacock farmer and a teacher. i supplement my income as a peacock farmer. i was going to add more people and did well in the state of iowa. can you assure me that if i support you, you will make small businesses like mine better? >> i can tell you this, i will not promise tax. i would not do what almost every politician does when they get on this space. i am not talking about this stage. when they get on a stage, they get up in front of the american people and promise also as a free stuff. it is time in america to tell people the truth. when have to earn what we spend. we cannot spend more than we earn. we cannot go to china and say give us your money so we can spend more than we earn.

i will make america the most attractive place in the world to start a business, to grow a business, to expand a business of any place in the world. i will make sure our corporate tax rates are the same as other nations around us. right now, they are the highest in the world. i want our regulations to be competitive. i want our trade policies to open up outside the u.s. agriculture is one of the biggest exports we have. people in this state understand the importance of trade with other nations. this president has not entered into any trade agreements with any other nations. that does not help but add jobs. other nations have put together 40 different trade agreements to open up trade. we need to do the same thing. i will make it easier for you to sell peacocks to other nations if people want to buy peacocks. what do they buy? they by the that there's? >> we sell them in the -- do

they buy the feathers? i want to make this a better place for jobs and higher income. >> i have a non-contra vote short question -- non- controversial question. >> i have not had a raise in two years. congress gets a raise every year. why? >> he says he is a senior citizen on social security. he had not seen a raise and congress has voted itself a race in each of the last two years. it makes sense that congress would link their pay to those who are on social security.

all this discussion about entitlements -- recognize that we can keep those programs. we ensure that the next generation will have those programs. you want to raise taxes. great. that is your right. voted for someone who wants to raise taxes. that is the nation of a free society. [shouting and cross-talk] we have up here a group of people who think we should raise taxes to pay for their benefits. how many people agree? you have your answer. you had your chance to speak and i have my chance to speak. >> here is my question.

social security cannot add a single dime to the deficit. do you agree that social security should take no part in deficit reduction negotiations? >> that is your question? can i answer? do i believe social security should take no part in deficit reduction negotiations? that is your question. the answer is this. social security, medicare, and medicaid account for half of federal spending. >> lie! not the deficit. >> half of federal spending. if we are going to balance our budget and not spend more than we take in, we have to make sure the promises we make our

promises we can keep. there are various ways of doing that. we can raise taxes on people. corporations are people, my friend. of course they are. everything corporations aren't ultimately goes to people. where do you think it goes? >> into their pockets. pockets. beings' you can raise taxes. you can make sure the promises we make our promises we can keep. the areas you have to consider are higher income people receiving less rapid growth in their benefits. the want to give wealthier people a bigger portion, that is your right. i think we should have progressed of indexing. we should consider a higher retirement age. that is my view. you may disagree with its. .

i appreciate the chance to be with you. we have a few folks up front who got here early to make sure they have their voices heard. my guess is they will be voting for president obama. you will be voting for a person who will balance the budget and will not raise taxes. i am that person. great to be with you. [applause] >> when are you going to help the middle class out? [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2011] >> mitt romney kicking off the candidate appearances at the iowa state fair.

we will be back live with more coverage from the iowa state fair coming up at 3:00 p.m. debbie wasserman schultz, chairman of the democratic national committee, is scheduled to speak. newt gingrich is set for 330 eastern. -- 3:30 eastern p.mn. our live coverage will resume at 3:00 p.m. eastern. herman cain started things off with his speech in the morning. -- in des moines, iowa. it is about 20 minutes. good morning. >> i love that grading. it sounds like you are energetic and ready to go. so am i.. happy to be here in iowa at the

state fair. i heard you all have something called a pork chop on a stick. i just sent my staff out to get me one. in georgia, we eat pork chops for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, so i feel right at home. i'm glad you are here, and thank you for stopping by. thank you for giving me the opportunity to share a few thoughts about this great country that we live in. the first announced and i want to make that might be different from the way that others do it, we are an exceptional nation, the united states of america. ina cain presidency, i will never do an apology tour. we have nothing to apologize for. the founding fathers got it right. the founding fathers got it right when they said we hold these truths to be self-evident

, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain, in a new level -- unalienable rights, and among these rights were life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. it did not say anything about a guarantee. it said the pursuit of happiness. it did not say we needed to establish a department of happy in washington, d.c. we do not have a department of happy in washington. but the pursuit of happiness is under attack. it is under attack, but we can take it back. that is why i am running for president. we have become a nation of crises, but we can fix them. we have been economic crisis, an entitlement crisis, and immigration crisis, an energy

crisis. we have a foreign-policy crisis. and the biggest crisis we have is a deficiency of leadership crisis. [applause] and next to national security, and getting this economy going is job one. here is how we do it. first, recognize that the engine to economic growth is the business sector, not government. the business sector. [applause] and in order to get the engine driving this economy, we need to put some fuel into the engine. that is why in the first 90 days as president, a i am going to ask congress to send me legislation that will lower the top corporate and personal tax

rate to 25%, 0 taxes on repatriated process cheese, and take the capital gains tax to 0, and make all those tournament -- permanent. that is how we will put fuel in the engine. now, once we get the economic engine moving, then we can address a lot of the other issues we face. a lot of the other issues we face. when i was growing up as a young man in atlanta, i never said or dreamed that i would run for president monday. -- one day. that was not what i wanted to do. growing up, i came from a humble family. my mother was a domestic worker. my father was a barber, a janitor, and chauffeur, all at the same time. dad knew that he needed one job

to put food on the table, his second jump to keep a roof over our head, and the third job to save for his american dreams. just like your parents. dad wanted us to get a better start in life, and we did. that was able to achieve his american dreams, even though he walked off a farm at the age of 18, literally with just the clothes on his back. he achieved his american dream is the old fashioned way, he worked for it. [applause] that is one of the reasons i am running for president. because i want our children and our grandchildren to be able to have the same opportunity that we had. i want our children and grandchildren to be able to grow up in a nation where we get

government out of the way, government off of our backs, and out of our pockets, because it has gotten out of hand. [applause] like i said, the founding fathers got it right when they talked about the pursuit of happiness. the founding fathers got it right when they talked about limited government. the founding fathers got it right when they talked about individual responsibility and individual liberties. that is what we have to get back to. when i was doing my radio show in atlanta, before i ran for president -- i was on the radio for five years. but when you run for president, according to the came fine gold rules, you have to become unemployed unemployedmccain- feingold rules, you have to become unemployed. those who are running, they can

keep their job, but i could not. i think it is a bit of a double standard, but that is not going to stop the. i am learning that the american an appetite for a non-politician. i have never held public office. [applause] i am a business problem solver. that is what i have done all my life. i happen to believe those same skills will work in washington, d.c. from the white house. i happen to believe that. [applause] and when i give my speeches inside the belt way sometimes, i will have someone stand up and say, your ideas about replacing the tax code with a fair tax,

that all sound well and good, but you cannot do that. my response is, what do you mean do that? well, you do not know how washington works. my response is, yes i do. it doesn't. [applause] work.sn't why do i need to learn what it does not work? you will be sending aid to washington, d.c. to change washington, not become a part of the culture in washington, d.c. [applause] here is how we are going to change it. former senator everett dirksen popularized the statement, when they feel the heat, they will see the light. the heat comes from the people. my job, once president, is to be a president of the people, by the people, and for the people.

not for the politicians, not for washington, d.c. that means i am going to listen to you, not listen to the lobbyists, or the establishment. the people in this country are crying out to the top of their voice. we, the people, are still in charge of this country, and we want to take it back. that is what the people are saying. and so when people ask me why i'm running for president, like i said, it is for the children and grandchildren. i will never forget when i look into the face of my first grandchild in 1999. the first thought that crossed my mind was, what do i do to make this a better nation and better world? not know the answer then.

12 years later, i believe i know the answer. 12 years later, i believe i know the answer after a lot of prayer, soul-searching, a lot of prayer and soul-searching. that is when i made the decision to run. i love it when people say that i do not have a chance of getting the nomination, that i do not have a chance of winning the presidency. all that does is inspire me to work a little bit harder and longer. i love it when they tried to count me out. [applause] love it. but here is something they do not know about herman cain. i have been going against the odds all my life. this is not anything new for me.

when i took over godfather's pizza, it was supposed to fail. they had already predicted it was going to go bankrupt. it did not go bankrupt when i got there, surrounded myself with the right people. why didn't we fail? i did not get the memo that we were supposed to. i did not get the memo that america cannot fix its problems. that is why i am running. but i have been going against all odds per run my life. let me tell you about another instance, back in 2006, where i beat the odds, which is another reason i am running for president of the united states. in 2006, i was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. the doctors told me i had a 33%

chance of survival, three out of seven. well i told the doctor, i am not going to be among them 30%. i am going to survive. and against the five, i had to go through -- against the odds, i had to go through chemotherapy, double surgery, they took out 30% of my colon, 70% of my liver, more chemotherapy, and now, as of two weeks ago today, after my latest annual checkup, i have cancer- free for five straight years against the odds. [applause] against the oddds!

when i was speaking to neil could go, showing him the note from my doctor, he said that god did not want to do with you yet. i said, perhaps he did not, but perhaps i should make a difference right here in this community and in this country. he said not yet. so that is another reason i'm running. i happen to believe that we were all put here on this planet to make a difference. everybody can make a difference in a different way with your talents, your time, treasurer, your abilities. we all have a responsibility to make a difference in this world. i happen to believe, that after achieving my american dreams

that i am supposed to do something else other than just retire or go on cruise control. i do not believe that you retire. you refocus. you are going to do something with your time. i happen to believe this is what i'm supposed to be doing at this moment in time. and i am optimistic that we are going to get the nation back on track, because of what i call the spirit of america. the same spirit that inspired the founding fathers. the same spirit that has brought this nation through some of its most turbulent times. that same spirit of america is going to cause the american people to stand up, speak up, and rise up, and put this nation back on track. [applause]

and i was asked last night after the debate, name a president and i would pattern my leadership style after. and i said ronald reagan. [applause] ronald reagan. and then the reporter said, well, he was not perfect. no, but he was ronald reagan. you cannot need to be perfect. you have to be yourself. people connect when you are yourself. so it was ronald reagan's leadership that helped to turn this nation around, and he did, and it is in that same spirit that i am running for president. and ronald reagan reminded us of

this thing called liberty when he said freedom is never more than a generation away from extinction. we cannot pass it on in the bloodstream. it must be fought for and protected, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and grandchildren what the united states of america used to be like. i am not going to have that conversation with my grandkids. and i do not think you want to have that conversation with your grandkids. the founding fathers got it right. that is why we must become the

defending fathers. we must defend the declaration of independence. it must defend the constitution of the united states of america. we must defend the life of the unborn. we must be the defending this for the greatest country in the world. [applause] and i happen to believe we will be able to do that. because on our currency, on the money that you will have to pay for that pork chop on a stick, it says, in god we trust. and in the fourth verse of the national anthem, there is a phrase in the middle of it that says, in god is our trust. that is why i believe the united states of america is going to get back on track.

my name is herman cain -- hermancain.com, and i am running for president. [applause] >> herman cain earlier today at the iowa state fair in des moines. you can see that and more on our website, c-span.org/politicsm including video of herman cain announcing his presidential run. we will be live at the state fair about -- in about 10 minutes or so. more candidates speaking this afternoon. newt gingrich is scheduled for

3:30. we will hear from minnesota rep michele bachmann. we will have plenty of coverage from iowa. until we hear from debbie wasserman schultz, we will take you to the comments of former pennsylvania senator, rick santorum. you want someone who has actually done that, not pounded their fists and said i will do this, if you do not do this and this, i will not vote for anything. it is easy to vote now. it is hard to get things done to move this country in the right direction. i have done that. when i was in the united states senate, with the democratic president, with a bare majority, which had 52 were 53 republicans. we need bipartisan support to pass anything. i pushed for a welfare reform bill that and a federal

entitlement, something we will have to do with medicaid, food stamps, education and housing programs, if we are when you get this federal budget under control. i did it with income support for poor people, and said this is not a federal responsibility. it is a state responsibility. we end of the federal entitlement, required work, and put time limits on welfare, and i got bill clinton and half of the democratic caucus to vote for it. that is the leadership we need in washington, d.c., today. so, if you want to look at a record of political accomplishments -- by the way, in 2000, i ran for reelection. george bush ran -- lost the state by four points, and i was the only conservative reelected, and i want it by five. if you want someone with a record of accomplishments politically, with respect to getting things done, and it is

not just in the area of economics. i was a big proponent of a balanced budget amendment. we came within one vote. i continued to push for it. that when i did not succeed, but i've not given up, and i think that is still the issue today. i got other things done. on cultural issues, nobody stood up and font for the sanctity of human life as much as i did in the united states senate. thank you. i will take that. and the applause, and the times, please interrupt. i was at the heart of the abortion industry. we finally got this issue out before the american public, and guess what? bill clinton kept vetoing, we kept trying to override, but i get 12, 13 democrats to vote for

us. when-by-one they came over because i went to the floor and pounded away. pat leahy, one of the most liberal democratic senators out there, who came up after me after this debate and walked up to me and said i want 20 minutes of your time because you apportion time between the two sides. i said you want 20 minutes of my time? >> he said you either give me 20 minutes of your time, and i will -- or i will vote against you. i said take 25. he went up there, and he stood there. he counted the arguments i have been making, and he said he can no longer stand against the wake of the argument. ladies and gentleman, that is what we need. we need somebody that can look it the cameras, talk to the american public and members of

congress and bring the wake of the republic behind us. i have done it in the toughest areas you can reach a pending federal and fireman's, getting people together on moral, cultural issues. -- and in federal entitlements, getting people together unmoral, cultural issues. i was able to win elections. i've also the the national security experience prepared every -- experience. every one of those years, i brought a bill to the floor. every time i was able to get bipartisan support for what i was doing, and it was moving the country from a cold war force to a force that would be the threat of terrorism before 9/11. i was the head of the curve in reshaping our military. it is the same thing if you go to the foreign policy issues. israel pulled the mere existence

is at stake because we have a president that has turned his back on the state of israel. [applause] >> you love, was the head of the curve was the greatest threat -- of the curved, what is the greatest threat to israel? i supported a bill that put sanctions on a new clear are wrong when the cia was saying -- a nuclear iran when bessie i s the cia was saying it was ove. that bill passed after being blocked by none other than joe biden for six months. we got it done. why? i was right, and ahead of the curve. in doing what was right to protect the state of israel and our national security against

iran. if you want someone with a record of accomplishments, with a clear vision for what this country needs, to get our country going again -- we need to cut these entitlements. i have done it. i was the leader on social security in 1994, talking about these issues. i was talking about social security reform because i knew today would come. it is demographics, folks. in the last 15 years, 300,000 people turned 65. this year, when 0.5 million are turning 65 and it will be this wa >> follow the speech on our website, c-span.org, we will go back live. >> we have the representative

from the 20th district in florida talking about democrats, the chairwoman of the democratic national committee, debbie wasserman schultz. >> thank you to be "des moines register." thank-you to the iowa democratic party. i want to sing the praises of your chair, who is doing a fantastic job making sure that people >> this is my first time to have the privilege of being in iowa and the first time at the state fair. this bear is legendary, and i was absolutely thrilled when we made plans for me to be here. the reason i am here is the same reason that i would democrats are working in the trenches every single day, and that is to make sure that like president

obama has said so many times, americans and by wednesday to understand that we are at a crossroads. we are at a crossroads in america where we have a very stark contrast, a very clear choice we can make. next november, we can make a decision to go in the direction that the nine republican candidates last night pledged a rigid inheritance to, that the tea party wants to reject making sure reject corporate america, that we protect the most -- even in a question where in getting a handle on our deficit and dealing with our economy and getting it turned around long term, their response to our proposal to have a 10-1 cut to revenue ratio, they all raised their right hand and said no revenue, no balance, no compromise. that is unacceptable. i am here to tell you i think

that is unacceptable. thank you. the other choice that americans will have is to continue in the direction that president obama and his leadership have taken us. we have gone, under president obama's leadership, in the month before his inauguration remember let me take you back to a time when we were bleeding 750,000 jobs a month, and passport, -- and that was thanks to the failed policies of the past which all republican presidential candidates are embracing once again. bass or 2.5 years later and we are 17 months straight -- fast forward and we are into private sector job growth to 0.4 million private-sector jobs created, 2200 jobs a month created in iowa in the first six months of the year. just look at the recovery act.

that is just a small snapshot of light in iowa your only at 6% unemployment. 34,000 jobs were created right here in this great state. that is real leadership. what we need to do, in addition to continuing to create jobs and get our economy turned around, is we need to come together. i know is going to sound a little funny from the chair of the democratic national committee to say we need to come together and compromise, but that is what americans are looking to us to do. they want us to come together and work together. we need a little unity in america right now. that is what democrats have been committed to under president obama's leadership. you saw in the debate leading up to the debt ceiling and unacceptable rigidities on the part of the republicans in congress who refused to establish some balance, it refused for many weeks to even sit down and work together with

the president and with congressional leadership to finalize a plan that would get this deficit reduced over the long term. [applause] thank you. we ended with the debt ceiling deal that as president obama said, it was not perfect. it was not the deal that he would have written if left to his own devices, but you know what? i am a mom, and as a mom with young kids, one of the things i always talk to my kids about is, i know you wanted 100% your way, but the reality is, that is not what life is about. we are not going to come together and solve our nation's problems if one party rigidly insists on it being 100% their way all the time, crosses their

arms and stamped their feet and refuses to compromise and work together. that is not what america needs. what america needs is for us to come together and make sure that beyond creating jobs, beyond getting the economy turned around, that we ensure that we never put insurance companies back in the driver's seat when it comes to your health care decisions. under president obama's leadership, we made sure that you cannot be denied or dropped from your coverage if you have a pre-existing condition. if your 26 years old, up to the time you are 26 you can stay on your parents' insurance. if you are a senior citizen, will make sure that prevented screenings are part of your health care so that you can stay healthy, and not only access health care when you are sick. we made sure that equality means something in america and repealed under president obama's leadership the "don't ask, don't

tell" policy which is absolutely unacceptable in an america that is committed to equality. we made sure that we passed the first bill that was signed into law by president obama meant something significant to women in this country, though lillie ledbetter their pay act, to ensure that if your woman, you get equal pay for equal work, and the lot is enforceable. that is incredibly important. my message to iowans and to americans and to all of you here at this fair is that we had an opportunity to come together. we need to reject the politics of the past. we need to reject the notion, as mitt romney said on this very stage yesterday, that corporations are people. really? is exxonmobil a person? general electric? do they have human life

qualities? no, they don't. it is absolutely imperative that americans understand that in order to make sure that we can get a handle on our economy, make sure we can quicken the pace of recovery, as president obama is so committed to do, that we go back to washington and make the kinds of investment in infrastructure is that president obama will be championing, make sure that the millions uncle construction industry workers that lost their jobs in the recession have an opportunity to get back to work, fixing our nation's roads and bridges, getting our electric grid modernized so that we can make sure we can really create jobs. let's extend the payroll tax cuts. let's come together. that is the bottom line. at the end of the day, the middle-class and working families and small business owners need a champion. they have one in the white house. they will continue to have one

in the white house with your help and your advocacy. we need to make sure, and as a mom, as i said, with three young kids, the reason i am in public service as a member of congress, the reason i made a commitment to president obama that i would work as hard as i possibly could to bring him across the finish line and help him stay at work doing the work that we need to have done for this country is because the future of my children, the future of your children is at stake. the future of my parents' generation is at stake. as someone represents a district in south florida with literally hundreds of thousands of seniors who depend on medicare, to ensure that they can stay healthy. the difference between barack obama and congressional democrats and all the republican presidential candidates is all of them committed to end medicare as we know it. get the safety net out from under our seniors and privatize social security.

those policies need to be rejected. we need to make sure that when we sit down at the table together to insure the long- term security of medicare. medicare needs to recent preserve, not ended. we need to make sure when it comes to medicare, should we be adding another 64 under dollars in premiums to our senior citizens? -- $6,400 in premiums to our senior citizens? [unintelligible] >> we need to work together, and i know we can. i know we can come together. democrats are committed to that.

president obama is committed to that. we will work together every single day from now until election day to get this economy turned around. we will do it with your help. thank you very much. [applause]

>> you are watching c-span's live coverage from the iowa state fair, one day after the fox news debate and one day before the straw poll that will be taking place about a 30 minute drive north of des moines as iowa state university. more live coverage with more speakers at the soap box, sponsored by the des moines register at the iowa state fair. we do have a line set aside for those of you live in iowa. a reminder, all of our programming is available online at c-span.org, interviews with all the candidates and highlights from the state fair. it opened yesterday and is a 10- day event. it has become a similar political event every year. you have been looking at live

pictures with the again starting yesterday. mitt romney kicked things off at the soap box and this morning we heard from herman cain, rick santorum, congressman ron paul, and former governor tim pawlenty. you heard representative debbie wasserman schultz. they will wrap up with michele bachmann, her speech scheduled to get underway at about 5:00 eastern time, so later this afternoon. and former alaska governor sarah palin also at the iowa state fair. she does not have any public event. it is part of her one nation bus stop tour, and she went to a couple of the areas where the agriculture expo is taking place at the state fair. we will get to your calls in just a minute. in the meantime, more scenes from iowa state fair.

[crowd murmuring]

>> live coverage from the iowa state there. coming up, former house speaker newt gingrich. connie has been waiting on line. please go ahead. >> thank you for taking my call. why a specialtand committee has not been appointed to investigate the treason in house of congress. i would like to know, it does cost it -- the constitution and rule of law the republicans keep spending about. what constitution are they talking about? my constitution that says anything about a committee elected by the people. >> next is a viewer from eric -- from arizona, republican line. >> i just wanted to say that we

are obviously well on our way to another election to the president for this great country of ours, but before we make that decision, we need to ask ourselves a very essential question. what is it about america that makes us so great? we need to choose the c that is able to try those changes to keep us on the right track. in the last 2.5 decades that i have been around, i have not really seen any great strides of congress on any issue. it does not seem to me like the path that america is on is really anything to praise. america does not need another president with a political agenda. what we need is leadership. that is what we need to focus on as voters and stop putting these people up on a pedestal, and realize that are just like the rest of us. that is the only way we are going to have any kind of progress in this country. >> mary is joining us from las vegas on the democrat line. >> thanks for taking my call.

i just have to go statements i would like to make. -- two statements i would like to make. i just listen to debbie wasserman schultz. the only thing she does not have as a plan to put into effect. the other thing i want to say is, washington has become like the bermuda triangle. when you enter it, you lose true accountability and you forget who sent you there and why. the tea party, to me, means true, everyday americans. we are not communists or terrace or democrats or republicans. we are from the united states of america, americans who finally stood up and said we are not going to take it anymore. washington has to come together. they need to work with the american people, people who sent them there to speak their word because they cannot speak their

word, so we send people to speak our word. if we can change the bermuda triangle from what washington has become, we will and accountability and return the american dream to every person in this american country, the greatest country in the world, the united states of america. >> john joining us from bakersfield, california. >> i would just like to comment -- first was hoping there was an independent number, but there was not, so i called on the republican line because i am leaning toward the republicans this year. i am a registered independent, a fiscal conservative, but i believe that we have obviously gone way off track here. i am a small business owner. i had to go small businesses,

lost one in the last four years. -- i had two small-business is. it was impossible to continue with the taxation that i had. what people do not understand is that small business and business owners, the joke is that as a small-business owner, i own the place, i must be rich. what i get tired of hearing is tax the rich. things are not always what they are perceived to be. >> thanks for the call from bakersfield, california. we are live all day at the iowa state fair for what is being called a soapbox, giving presidential candidates a chance to speak to those on hand. yesterday, several hundred 4 mitt romney, to a few dozen who

were listening to the candidates today. michele bachmann is appearing on all five sunday morning shows. you can listen to those shows on c-span radio. next this time, joining us from asheville, north carolina, on the republican line. >> i have been listening to all the comments. i really don't know which way we could go, except we have to stop spending money that we don't have. we keep spending money that we don't have. we would not do that at my house. you would not do that at your house. the answer would not be to go to your credit card and max it out now so that we can spend ourselves into getting back this money. it just does not make any sense. we have to stop spending. we could raise the age of beneficiaries for social security with a four-year plan.

each year we raise just by three months each beneficiary. just three months per year, and you could get out in four years. help small businesses by giving them money, not by extending unemployment to people. you are giving money to people who are not working. give the money to small businesses to hire people, and you would get more people working. it does not make sense that you would keep spending, give money to people to stay home, and that would be a way to fix things. it does not make sense to me. >> tomorrow, our live coverage of the straw poll, the republican party of iowa organizing this event. it gets underway at noon eastern. the speaking part starts at 1:00 and will wrap up at about 4:00.

governor rick perry also officially enters the gop race tomorrow. he will head to new hampshire and iowa for the next couple of days and we will have the results as they are announced by the chair of the iowa republican party. the 2012 republican candidate. >> i am calling from the iowa state fair right now. it is packed with people. >> that is what we are watching right now. we have been covering the candidates over at the soap box, organized by the des moines register >> sarah palin showed

up, a bunch of reporters found her, and a mob ensued. she walked round of fare for about an hour, answering questions. everywhere she went, a huge pack of people followed her. >> give our audience a sense, as we watch this with our live cameras at the state fair, what is it like for you as a reporter? >> it is great. coming to iowa is it for a political reporter, is a great thing. you talk to real voters you are actually matter these people are trusted by the rest of the nation, or at least the primary calendar, to influence the nominee for the party. it is exciting and fun.

>> you are watching congressman steve king just a moment ago as he spoke to reporters. what is the political temperature of i went in particular -- of iowans? >> the political temperature is pretty heated. people are definitely more interested than what they were three months ago. right now the temperature among candidates and the crowd is much higher. people are really excited. >> the debate last night is now history. what kind of reaction do you think the candidates are getting one day after their two-hour questions in ames? >> usually you get one really

big story line. this has what -- has been more like three story lines going on. i think people are paying attention to ron paul, thinking he is going to do really well in the straw poll tomorrow. he is separate -- separating himself from the other pack of republicans. the story between governor tim pawlenty and the other candidates, the heated exchanges that went on last night. he this is there and did his thing. he did not take the bait. >> two questions i have to ask you, the same day the iowa straw poll is taking place.

what kind of reaction is it getting in iowa? >> public figures are more cordial in their reaction to that. when you talk to supporters of some of the other candidates -- if you want to compete in iowa, why are you in south carolina on the second most important day of the iowa public cycle? in their minds, he could have changed his schedule if you really want to be here on the straw poll. >> this is a complete sidebar question, but some of the reporters in d.c. have been wondering about all the food, including the deep-fried butter. >> i cannot find it. how i see deep-fried oreos, twinkies, candy bars, and cookies, but i have yet to find that deep-fried butter.

if someone knows where it is, please tweet me. i would like to know. >> we will be expecting a story on line. the experiment for joining us. in about a minute or two, we will hear from former speaker newt gingrich. >> thanks for taking my call. i am a lifelong republican, but i have to say, i. first of all, during the last speaker, the democratic representative that was there --

>> representative debbie wasserman smith. she represents the orlando florida area. >> there was a gentleman in an orange hat this cut up and kept yelling at her and wagging his finger at her. -- that stood up and kept yelling at her. in any other situation, that would just be called mean. i think that is such a poor representation, no matter who it is, whatever side of the aisle and it is on, there is too much anger. people are not talking. it seems like, from my perspective, being a republican, that what i am seeing now is, i hate to use the added that is going around now, but there does seem to be too much party.

>> we will take you live as the former speaker of the house and 2012 republican presidential candidate, newt gingrich. >> we want to welcome you to the iowa state fair and the 2012 presidential soap box. we are fortunate to have the former speaker of the house of representatives, the republican from georgia. let's give a big iowa welcome to newt gingrich. [applause] >> it is good to be here. thank you all. isn't it great to be at the iowa state fair? this is actually the best state fair in the country. it is the this time we have been here, and our grandchildren, maggie and robert, are with us. and he'd pick up where we talked last night about urgency, about getting things done, and about working at a time when you have

to go different parties involved. -- when you have to make different parties involved. i worked with ronald reagan and we developed the program. we had to find a way to bring the american people together, so that they would say this was the right thing to do. tomorrow is the 30th anniversary of ronald reagan signed a three-year tax cut that launched the recovery that enabled us to create jobs for year after year, and it could only have been done by having the american people bring above democrats and republicans together. when i became speaker, with the contract for america, we had republican house and republican senate, but we had a democratic president. under our constitution, that means you have to find a way to work together.

the trick is, we fought very hard, but we also fought with the idea of finding a way to make things work. when we pass welfare reform, the most successful entitlement reform of your lifetime, half the democrats in the house voted for welfare reform, because the people of the united states had concluded that giving people money for doing nothing was destructive, and so there was a genuine bipartisan coalition. when we passed the balanced budget -- people say bill clinton takes credit. he was president. he certainly did at least half the credit, because if he had not signed the bills, we cannot have done it. the you have to find a way to work together even if at times your having arguments. i want to start with the idea, what if we took seriously the current problems of the united states, and what have we decided that we, the american people,

going to insist that politicians in washington learn to work with each other? i want to bring three specific proposals to you today. this is not about what i would do in 2013 if i were president. we have problems we need to solve this summer, and we need leadership that is willing to work to solve it this summer. that is why it is so important to work now to do things this summer. [applause] i am going to give you three proposals. that are predicated on you convincing the members of congress to come back to washington, cut off their vacation, and decide that this is a serious enough situation that we are to start over. notice what i just said. if all they are going to do is come back on both sides to fight each other, they ought to stay home. it does not do the country any good to have people come back just to fight. but if they would be prepared to

say this is a serious enough crisis, we are going to start over. erase the board, and i would include in this the gang of 12, which i think it's a disastrously bad idea. let me talk to you about how i would do it. the first rule is going to sound silly, and all i want you to do is bear with me for a second, because i did spend 20 years in the u.s. congress and i have been studying this business since august of 1958. the first rule is, in both the house and senate, for the first three days of the week, monday, tuesday, and wednesday, they only bring up things they agree on. this first of all requires them to find things they agree on. otherwise they will look stupid and there'll be no business. second, what it will do is the opposite of what we have been doing. we have been building issues bigger and bigger and bigger. now is either you have to raise

taxes and i won't play. you have to cut taxes are i will not play. it has become such a big disaster that now they are saying let's play stupidly. that is not any way to run a country. if you can find a way, step by step, that you could agree on something, let's pass it. you will get a lot of small things done, and you will start to build a habit of working with each other. i tried to convince the senate republicans when they were in the majority that one of things they should do is find junior democratic senators that have good ideas and passed them. just to create a framework. people tend to forget that in 1984 when the reagan administration was being too slow on apartheid, a number of junior members worked with ron dellams on what was a very

heretical coalition. we said if you believe in freedom, you have to believe in freedom in south africa. you had young republicans have been a senior democrat pass legislation that neither leadership thought to pass. we are going to get together and get outside arco caucus and conference and find ways to find things we can agree on. it would start to break the ice. people would start talking to each other and it would get a little better. second, instead of waiting for november for a super powerful, extraordinarily brilliant 12 people to do the work of 522 other people, i would argue -- and by the way, iowa is one of the places i have gotten this from, that they ought to come back and monday, and every subcommittee in the house and senate should be assigned the following task. take every aspect of government

your supervising, bring in experts from business on lean six sigma, and apply it to rethinking the whole thing. i will give you an example that will surprise some of you. our legal visa system is a mess. it is an embarrassment. it makes it more expensive and more difficult to be legal and it is to hire a coyote and come in illegally. i would take lean six sigma and over the entire state visa process. this was first done in government and iowa, in order to redevelop the business attraction program by applying this kind of thinking to make it faster and easier. the developer believes it is

worth $500 billion a year. the entire supersecret intelligence committee of 12 is only trying to get $1.50 trillion over the next 10 years. that is a very different approach. we have talked with ibm, american express, and visa. they have very sophisticated anti-fraud systems. the u.s. government has no effective anti-prod system. if you apply prod system to medicare and medicaid, you could save up to $100 billion the year. if you applied to food stamps, it could save $20 billion a year. i just saved in that one device almost as much money as the entire committee of 12 is going to try to save, but it is a new idea. it is a different way of thinking things. it is not conservative or

liberal. is just being smart and applying modern techniques and management to do things intelligently. i second challenge to the congress is simple. starting next week, actually have every member doing their job, track every member, and every month, find savings. have as your goal pre-empting the committee of 12 by finding enough savings before thanksgiving that you do not need them. the new can add intelligent savings. -- then it you can add intelligent savings. i am against an arbitrary $500 billion cutting of defense. i think it is a stupid idea. i think you ought to have a level of national security you need to have to defend that threats against you. while i am a halt, i am a cheap hawk. i think if you apply lean six sigma, you would save an immense

amount of money, but it would save intelligently by taking out waste rather than cutting out programs because you cannot figure out how to manage. it is a fundamentally different approach. we desperately need to get this economy running again. let me be very clear. every american of every background should be worried. i don't care if you are rich or poor, what your ethnic background is, your geographic region, i don't care which party you belong to. we are teetering on the edge of an economic disaster. look what is happening in europe. look at the riots in great britain. look at the collapse of greece. look at our the italian and french bonds are today. look at the bubble in china which is eventually going to break. say to yourself, how comfortable am i that the current policies are going to avoid the

depression getting even worse? as a historian, i am not comfortable at all. when you bounce along at 9% unemployment, you have a grave risk of sliding down rather than growing up. a third challenge to congress is to come back on monday, and let's start with a couple of things. six democratic senators have sent a letter to the president's asking that their states be allowed to drill offshore. you can put together a bipartisan majority in favor of liberating american companies on american soil to produce american energy, in order to be in a position you do not have just sent $400 billion a year overseas. i got some heat from some conservatives because i favor ethanol. i voted for gasohol in 1984.

ronald reagan signed it. we had a simple. if our choice was iowa or iran, we like having money in iowa. we would rather have money in south dakota than saudi arabia. i talked to a lot of sophisticated ethanol people and i believe in it. i believe in it years ago. i thought was right for national security. i believe that all american energy -- most of the ethanol people i know are prepared to eventually get rid of the subsidy if we move to flex fuel cars and tanks so the customer has a genuine choice. as oil prices go up worldwide,

ethanol becomes general it -- genuinely commercially competitive, if you have a gas station that carries it and a car that uses it. i reject those that say we have to do exactly what big oil wants. i am for drilling offshore and opening up lots of land for oil. i think american oil is vastly better than iranian oil. but i am also for ethanol, solar, and wind. here is a fact you should keep in your head. we have more total energy in the united states than any other country in the world. we have more total energy in the united states than they have in russia. you have a federal government which is anti-american energy. it just boggles the mind. i don't want to get involved in an ideological fight. i will oppose this example.

there are a lot of things we can do. i hope the house will repeal immediately the dog-franc bill, which is a disastrously bad bill. you go into any community bank in iowa and ask about the devastating impact of dodd- frank. we need to repeal sarbanes oxley. it does no good. it is just a dump bill d --umb bill. we ought to have a national conversation about this. we own 69% of alaska. 69 percent of alaska is federal land. alaska is twice the size of texas. that means we currently have in federal land 1.5 texases.

surely we could designate one half of texas as national parks, forests, wilderness areas. that would be 125,000 square miles. and then we could say with the rest of alaska, what if we could find minerals, oil, gas? that means to be opening up an area the size of the entire state of texas. if governor harry gets in the race, he will tell you, that is a really big area. there is no reason we cannot have an honest discussion about this. the roosevelt created -- i get some heat from the far right because i really believe we ought to have a healthy environment. how conservative you are, having a river in the middle of a city catch fire is not a good idea. i wrote books called -- saying

there should be a common sense, green conservatism. i am happy to have a dialogue with everyone in the country that says, can we identify a large parts of nevada, parts of alaska, and get back to being a country that favors economic development, favors job creation, favors the production of resources? you notice i did not talk about what i would do in 2013. i came to recruit you to call your senators and congressmen to say to people, we need leadership this summer. we need action this summer. as far as i am concerned, i want to be a citizen this summer helping my country get back to work, helping my countries of its problems. we have plenty of time to run for president later. thank you very much.

good luck, and god bless you. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2011] >> the former speaker of the house, newt gingrich at the des moines register soap box located at the iowa state fair. he is one of the final speakers. in about an hour and 15 minutes we will hear from michele bachmann. some have taken questions, some have delivered the remarks and then moved on to the state fair. we will continue to show you scenes from around this state there. it began in des moines back in 18 before and has been added current location since the late 1890's. this europe marking the 100 anniversary of the infamous butter poll.

on to your telephone calls. first up is of europe -- a year from birmingham, michigan on the republican line. >> i have always voted republican, but now i am getting a little crazy because these guys in the primaries seem so goofy. i was listening to newt gingrich, and he does not mention the kind of record he had while he was there in the congress, the million-dollar account at macy's. he is attacking people for leading.

attacking the congressman who deserve their vacation while he was spending $2,500 a day on his vacation. it is something that just does not feel right anymore. i think gingrich is a hypocrites. he had his chance. he is an old man. we should be bringing up the younger people, that is what i am looking for. >> from davenport iowa, go ahead. we will try one more time for wayne in davenport, iowa. go ahead, stephanie. >> i just wanted to make a comment. i have been watching this for a couple of days. i am going to school to be a

political analyst. the way i see this is, entitlement reform has got to be done. my mother was a welfare queen back in the 1980's and 1990's, and we are still having this problem. yes, there are people that need help, but there are also people that just need a swift kick in the butt. it is ridiculous. 37% of our economy goes to pay for our government's. i think that is ridiculous. they should pay for their own health coverage. they should pay for their own retirement, and when they get out of office, they should get a job like everybody else. i am tired of paying lifetime monetary value for their short- term incompetence. so for i am on the side of ron paul. i think michele bachmann needs to go on home. >> is in this next from fort

worth, texas, -- susan is next. >> i have news for her, most of them do get a job as a lobbyist. during bush's time, the lobbyists tripled. there are over 4000 of them now. corporations that these republicans are so crazy about, during the reagan administration, the their salaries were about 40% of what their employees make and is now over 400%. there is something not right there. also, monopoly laws. why do we never hear of that? it is never used and they just get bigger and bigger and they buy all of these politicians. all of these guys are beholden to grover norquist and the

american legislative exchange council. >> thanks for the call. there are a number of places you can go to get more information. politico has a preview, $30 a ticket to attend. the only risk harming is the need to be 18 or over and you need to have a valid iowa id including a driver's license. other than that, the candidates organizing to bring their six -- supporters. anywhere from $12,000 to as high as $20,000. it is about what 30 minute drive from des moines to ames, iowa. the results will be announced at 6:30 p.m. tomorrow evening. represented michele bachmann is participating in the straw poll tomorrow. she is appearing on all five sunday shows. you can hear of those programs

on c-span radio starting at noon eastern time. next is yvonne and joining us from tarzan of, california. >> thank you for taking my call. first of all, i would like to say i would not vote for any of those people in the republican party, because i am a democrat. i want to say that my father in birmingham, alabama, worked for 55 years of job where he made $5 a day. he had children to take care of. he was also an architect there and built many homes and buildings all over the state. they are talking about -- i heard the callers talk about how

the flash black people, and i heard the woman say welfare queen. the people who are getting the welfare or other corporations and the companies, because if we are going to be the united states of america, we should be united, and that includes everyone. who is in jail? why are the jails overrun with black people? no jobs, no nothing. black people don't have anything in this country. everybody has everything. everybody that came to this country has everything. where are the black businesses? >> the next call from iowa. go ahead, please. >> identify myself as an independent. i have actually presented at the iowa state fair. i have nieces and nephews

showing livestock there. what we want is effective, efficient government, no matter what our party affiliation is. you listen to people like newt gingrich to sounds reasonable, but he wants to get rid of something like dodd-frank. these are things that help us avoid the consumer fraud we experienced in the most recent economic crisis. we are not asking for much. when someone as well has been consolidated -- win so much wealth has been consolidated to four hundred or five writer families in the country, that is not fair. >> about 1 million people attending this 10-day event that opened yesterday. it will conclude at the end of next week. the republican presidential

candidates and potential candidates sarah palin was at the state fair earlier today, attending this event. many of them speaking at the soap box location put together by the des moines "register." >> i am listing to these people calling in and talking. do people not realize this country was built on capitalism? don't they realize it is just our way of life? to many people are on welfare. i realize jobs are bad and people are out of work and is really tough, but our country is just really going backwards really fast. as i watched the debate last night, there was not one person up there that may be excited

about the race next year. i think we are all just tired of it. we are tired of all the games and the political stuff and all the stuff going back and forth. i would just like to see our government get honest and our representatives do their job like they were elected to do. >> from tallahassee, florida, on the democrats' line. >> thank you for taking my call. i just want to comment that there is enough blame on this debt crisis that we are in, not just obama, but president bush, republicans, and democrats. you take president bush, he has $2.50 trillion out of social security to fund the iraqi war and the afghanistan war and put in and i owe you. then you have all the congressman and senators, other than the newly elected in 2010,

we cannot blame them. you have all these congressmen and senators taking earmarks, running up the deficit, republicans than democrats. that is what gets me, none of them are being honest with the american people. none of them are being honest. >> i just wanted to say, i think it is are real events of rick perry, i believe he is announcing in south carolina on saturday. i am a mitt romney supporter, and anyone who does not believe mitt romney is the answer has a real problem. this man has the presence of himself. we need a crisis leader. he has turned crises around. look at what he did at the olympics. this man makes you proud to be an american. rick perry is another fred

thompson. he does not have the fire in the belly. >> will you be at the straw poll tomorrow? >> yes, i will. >> what is the tradition behind the state fair, for those who are not familiar with what happens every summer in the morning? >> there is a great tradition, and as you talked about, the food is a great reason to come. it is just really need atmosphere. we had some friends down in florida who like to come up >> we are watching and trying to get a sense of just how large the fare is. the fairgrounds and the parking and the crowds. can you give us a sense of what it is is like when you are inside the fair? >> i try to stay away from the rides. i get sick on those rights, but the food is tremendous.

you talked about the pork on a stick. it is really something else. i have met mitt romney, and that is why i am saying the man is tremendous. he really has a presence of himself. i have met him several times, and it is really great to bring your kids. iowans have a certain way of them. they know what is going on, and that is what is so special about the state of iowa. >> this is the hometown of former president herbert hoover. >> i enjoy your show. i think that everything that newt gingrich said make sense. first of all, i am a die-hard republican, but democrats are not my enemy. i think it does happen to be wrong on a lot of these issues.

i think entitlements, other than social security, we should get rid of medicaid and all of this stuff. here is the problem i have with my fellow republicans. we have to have jobs before we take away the entitlements, or we are going to end up with what is happening in great britain. let's put americans to work. this is a simple solution. i agree with newt gingrich. why can we sit down with these guys and passed what we agree on? let's start the breaking down and stop all of this nonsense. all of these -- a lot of these politicians on both sides of the aisle are in the pockets of the

special interest groups. i would like to hear your comments on that please. >> next we will go to saint louis, missouri. go ahead, marty. >> i have been listening to some of this stuff. when a democrat gets up and tries to talk, they interrupt and are rude. when newt gingrich is up and talking, people sit down and listen. one of the things that newt gingrich said that i am kind of against they cannot understand -- he was talking about people working together to solve the problems of the country. even when the president said some things that would work, they would voted against their own best interests because he is the president of the united states right now. cantor and michele bachmann, both of them, the voted against

things that they voted for when the president was for it just because he was for it. like the light rail system he was asking for, the stimulus money. and bachmann, they were both asking for stimulus money. at the same time, they would fight against it anytime the president would say we would give stimulus money to people and try to help people out. one way that we could get jobs is by working on the infrastructure of the united states because there are a lot of bridges and roads that need to be worked on. a lot of people have voted against these things like this because he is the president of the united states. we need to have an open mind. everybody needs to have an open

mind, especially the people we put in these offices. they should be more open to realizing they are there because the american people put them there. >> jennifer jacobs is covering the race. her work is available online. "iowa insider" is one of the places you can find her work. jennifer, thank you for checking in wawith us again. sarah palin made an appearance and it was unannounced. what happened? >> she showed up at about 10:45 a.m. this morning. we started getting reports that she had come in through a gate 7. that is a back alley gate with the horses and calves are un loaded. she started walking around and

collected a whole troupe of fair-goers. the media got word that she was here at the fair and deserted recovering -- covering the undeclared presidential candidates who were shaking hands. all of the media diverted and surrounded her. >> is that exactly what she wanted? >> she said she applauded newt gingrich for calling out the press during the debate last night for focusing on the minutia of the political race rather than focusing on the issues. she continued to answer every question as the reporters talked at her. she was a genial and warm and friendly to the press. we had a dozen questions for her and she was willing to answer all of them. it was pretty neat. >> you quote her in her story by

saying she did not want to step on the straw poll so she will not be around tomorrow. >> exactly. her presence alone will step on the straw poll. just the fact that she is here was a distraction. she sounds like a candidate when she talks. she says, if i were to run, i would run on my record as a mayor in alaska. i would want to appeal to voters across the state, not just in iowa. she kept saying, if i were to run. she definitely looked and acted like a candidate. >> we are seeing scenes from the state fair, including the forces and the livestock. we have been focusing on all of the presidential politics. what is it like for you there? >> it is a complete whirlwind. we are at the politics of the

nation today. i feel like we have press here from every corner of the world. we have pressed from the uk and germany and al jazeera is here. everywhere in the world. it is crazy trying to keep up with my competition. it is terribly exciting. obs isnifer jac covering the iowa state fair. what are you looking for tomorrow? >> they say ron paul win. >> from south carolina on the republican line, good afternoon. >> thank you for taking my call. i am calling to express my opinion that all of the senators and republicans, democrats, and republicans

alike and the house of representatives need to get back to god. the united states back morally with kind -- morally with god and then tackle our deficit. >> mark, democrats' line. >> thank you for taking my call. you have a caller who said the government should not give money to unemployed people. they should give it to businesses. the businesses in the last couple of quarters have made more money than they ever had. what are they doing? they are laying off people. they are making more money than they have ever had and they are laying off people. i also wanted to say that president obama -- all of the business deals that the democrats have put forward --

the republicans voted against that. how can the republicans say they are for small business when all they do is vote against small business bills? >> craig is on the phone on the independent line. >> i am concerned about the manufacturing jobs we have lost over the years. i was a big al gore and over the years. i remember him debating ross perot. he said, that sound is your job going to mexico. we have lost so many manufacturing jobs. there is an l.e.d. lighting company coming from china. some of the candidates are talking about reducing the corporate level of tax from 35% to zero. i hear people complaining about corporations not paying their fair share.

corporations are providing the jobs. the jaws are providing the income so that people can live, buy houses, have health insurance and jobs and retirement. by raising what the corporation has to pay and by putting all of these restrictions on the corporations, they have taken the jobs and gone to china, mexico, india. american companies have left because they cannot make the profits they can make somewhere else. i do not understand the mindset of the person who sits and worries about what a corporation pays. >> thank you for the call. john in california, go ahead, please. >> i was born in iowa. foundher's family helped the republican party. we are disappointed with the fact that this get things got so carried away that we had the change in the -- that this debt

thing that so carried away that we had the change in the credit rating. it is going to cost us to borrow money from a firm bank lending group. we lose all of the benefits and -- farm lending group. we are going to lose all the benefits of the bush tax cuts. >> the iowa state fair attracts about 1 million people each year. there are photographs of sarah palin, who was at the state fair this morning. it was an unannounced visit. she worked the crowd. the media tried to ask her questions. she took questions from reporters. she has left the state fair and said she will not be at the straw poll, which takes place tomorrow -- the straw poll. a full day of coverage, including governor rick perry of texas, who is announcing in

texas that he is -- in south carolina to announce he is running for the republican presidential nomination. ron paul spoke earlier. he is in the race for 2012. in in 20 minutes. >> thank you very much. glad you are out this morning. just wondering, how many will manyames tomorrow? that's good. maybe we will get a few more of you to, as well. most people know the candidates are and i would this week and what is going on tomorrow. it is delightful to be here and attending the fair. and i am sort of enjoying the weather as well, having come from texas recently. it is great to be here, but of course, the real thing that motivates me is the issues that i think have been messed up in our country and we have to change our way, we have to change our direction. the american people are tired of what they are getting.

they know they're serious problems. there is a lot of frustration. there is a lot of unemployment. somebody has to come up with answers. a few years back, in the 1970's, i first ran for congress and i was pretty concerned. i believe the stage was set for the kind of problems we have today. it happened back in august of 1971. that was the time that we decided that money does not matter, we can print money, nothing to back our currency. we can print money and can leave -- live happily ever after. we believe as a people if we could just counterfeit our own money, we could live and not have to work anymore. what did we end up with? a huge amount of debt. we 0 $3 trillion to foreigners. -- we owe $3 trillion to foreigners. they are frustrated and washington, which makes it frustrating for people across

the country. a lot of people have become dependent on the government and we are doing way too much. the simplest explanation is that we have to drastically reduce the size of our federal government. most people are starting to realize this but the big argument is, where are we going to shrink it? people say you need by partisanship and compromise and sacrifice. my argument is we have had too much bipartisanship. it is the bipartisanship that has -- have endorsed all of the problems. if we enact the republicans to shrink the guise of government, they doubled the size of the department of education and get us involved in a bunch of wars. we elect democrats to expand the wars. and we have republicans to expand the budget and democrats doing the same thing. there is always this compromise. the big spending conservatives and the big spending liberal get

together and they don't have to worry in the short run. they can always delay it. sure, you can tax to a degree but there is a limit. you can borrow to a degree, but if you borrow too much, interest rates go up. there is a magic answer -- keynesian economics. it is called fiat's money. the miracle pill is that you print the money when you need it. that is what 1979 was all about. no restraints on the monetary authority, and all our problems in the last 40 years came from the fact that big government has subsidized -- is a subsidized by the printing press. the american people are starting to realize it has a lot to do with our monetary system. they know the prices go up when the value of the money goes down and they are not too happy about it because the standard of living goes down. people can make a little more money and the checks go out but if the money below goes down, the standard of living goes

down. that is one of the reasons the people are very upset. the people on retirement, the people getting social security, are starting to recognize this. the tragedy is production is down. the productive jobs have gone overseas because of this monetary system and overregulation and over taxation. we chased our jobs overseas. in order to get capital back in you have had a strong currency, a tax code and regulatory code that invites the business is back. it is so sad to me to think in my lifetime we saw a point where there was a country called communist china evolved into being our banker. there is something about that, and we should reverse that, but we have to endorse a very basic principle, and that is called freedom and the constitution. [applause] but since it was bipartisanship that got together and spend all

the money, how do you get out of the mess? how do you get people to agree to cut spending? that is where the difficulty is and there is no agreement in washington. what i have done is tried to propose a way to try to get the two sides to come together. the area that we could most easily cut is what we spend overseas. we spend way too much overseas. we have an american empire overseas. we spent trillions of dollars. obligated to spend trillions taking care of the seriously wounded and injured individuals coming back home, which we are obligated to do, and we pass out all of this foreign aid and it is all supposed to be for national security. all of this mill terrorism doesn't help us. it doesn't make a secure. people won't vote against it because if you vote against the military budget -- not realizing all you are doing is giving subsidies to the military industrial complex -- they claim and accuse you of being an

american and not caring about the military. i tell you what, that is the way i have been voting and i am proud of one thing. during this campaign and the last campaign, our campaign always raised the most money from the military people, more than all of the other candidates put together. [applause] and having served in the military -- i was drafted in 1964 -- nick -- 1962 and was in the air force for five years, so under its -- i understand a little bit what it is like to have a bad war going on and people being sent from the world and ending up with no-when wars. we should it be able to defend and non interventionist foreign policy on moral principle that you did not initiate wars, you don't fight unless it is constitutionally declared. it is a very simple answer as far as i am concerned about how to start off by saving a lot of

money. that is to have not intervention, stay out of the business of other countries, mind all of our business and bring all of our troops home. [applause] that means the middle east, japan, germany, south korea, the whole works. because if you do that one thing instantaneously -- and the president does have the authority -- that a means bring the troops home. they are going to get paid all of the money, let them spend the money here rather than japan and germany. psychologically it would give a tremendous boost to the economy. you have to change a lot more than that. you have to change the nature of what people want. the appetite for big government has been around. there is a lot of blame to go around. you complained the president, you can bl >> black angus cows at the iowa

state fair. we are showing new politics and state fair scenes. earlier in the day we heard from herman cain, rick santorum, and ron paul. debbie wasserman schultz giving you the democratic perspective. newt gingrich at 5:00 p.m. eastern time. in case you missed it earlier in the day, tim pawlenty, who is spending a lot of time in iowa. he spoke to folks at the "des moines register" soapbox earlier in the day. it. >> good afternoon. thanks for the opportunity to share a few thoughts about the future of our country but before i do that, i wanted to do is a special guest, my wife mary, former first lady of minnesota. a big part of my campaign. i know she would like to share a

few thoughts with you about the great state of iowa and this country. mary pawalenty -- pawlenty. >> thanks for being here. i know you're seeing one or two politicians along the way. we love the seeing eye was a fair and going to the minnesota state fair, of course. i would like to say thank you. i appreciate i was -- iowans. we have come to appreciate all engage you are and how people genuinely asked good questions of the candidates and doing the job you do so well cycle after cycle. it matters, obviously not only to iowa but it matters more broadly to our country and ultimately to the world. thank you for doing what you do best. i do want to say a couple of things about my husband who you will hear from in a moment and hopefully you will get the opportunity to ask him some good and perhaps tough questions. but i want to tell you a little

bit about who in it -- who he is. you all see and in this political arena but he and i have been married almost 24 years -- this september. two kids, anna going off to college this fall and mara who is 14 years old. i support my husband not only because i love him so much but also i support him with my head. i have watched him and tough times and good times and bad times. i have seen him throw it all, as all of you who have been in long-term relationships have. i know this is a person whose head and heart are generally -- genuinely connected. is someone who has his compass said. he is someone who, i think you got to know him, he is the kind of person who who you would want as a neighbor. in a long-term friends and neighbors -- that you would know this is a person you would like to not only be your friend, somebody you would like to be

alongside, but someone you can genuinely respect as a leader. i am confident that he is the person who has the best judgment and wisdom, character, strength, and experience to be the next president of the united states. ladies and gentlemen, again, my husband, tim pawlenty. >> love you, thanks. >> thanks a lot. i know you are out here to enjoy the fare and the weather and the food. i appreciate you coming by. i am just want to address one issue today -- jobs in the economy. and there are questions, i would be happy to take them. i know one issue facing iowa and our country is if people had access to jobs. if we had a chance to go around and ask each of you what matters to you the most, i think we would hear about your family, i think you would hear about the importance of having housing and paying for your mortgage or the rent. i think you would hear about

concerns about putting gas in your car. i think you would hear concerns about being able to pay for health care and down the list. all of those things and more. getting kids to college -- it requires money. for most iowans and most americans, the way to get money is to have a job. the best way to answer the question is what are those things that we can do to make it most likely that the jobs will grow in this country. because of you don't have access to a job, your life it's pretty tough in a hurry. you know that's the issue. we have had three years or so of president obama's direction and we have to step back and ask, how is it working? the answer is, not very well. with a crushing levels of unemployment in the country. nearly $4 a gallon gas. we have a federal government that seems out of control and not capable of getting spending under control, and we have an economy it pointing toward instability and maybe a decline.

it is not acceptable for america, not acceptable for iowa and reduces our ability for a better quality of life for citizens. we should talk to the people who provide jobs. 6 million people -- 6 million companies in the united states. 5.9 million of them have 500 employees or fewer. so, most of the jews in the economy is in small or medium- sized businesses. if you talk to the folks who want to either start or grow businesses will provide jobs, they tell you the same thing -- they say, the burden has gotten too heavy. the costs have gotten too high. they talk about taxes being too high. they talk about regulations being too heavy. they talk about regulation costs being too expensive. they talk about health care costs going through the roof. and if we don't answer those concerns or address those concerns, we are not going to be about to provide the quality of life for our citizens that we

want. i think what we do about that is turn to our government and say we want to take it back and getting -- get it in a better direction. i have the most specific, aggressive, bold as pro-jobs graph -- plan. number one, we've got to get the business tax rates from some of the most expensive in the world to more competitive so our companies can compete. currently are companies get taxed at 35%. we need to bring it down under my proposal to 15%. in exchange for that, clean out all the loopholes, credits, exemptions, as many as possible so a business possibility to compete depends on your ability to connect with customers and not your ability to get a lobbyist or buy off or influence congress. a flat, symbol, tax rate. [applause] number two, most of our small

businesses in this country and jobs providers pay their taxes on their own individual returns because of what is called a pass through entity. they don't pay the business or corporate tax rate but they pay it on the individual terms as a small business. i think it is important we do individual taxpayer relief as well. i am proposing to take the six tax rates down to two and had a simpler, flatter tax system, and it and limit taxation on interest, dividends, capital gains, an estate tax. then we called for an energy policy that is an american energy policy and not a middle east and energy policy. [applause] and then we need to fix health care reform the right way. look, if you like the approach president obama has taken on health care, vote for him. but my experience, taking a problem and dragging it into washington and creating a top down system where you offer citizens one choice for a

limited number of choices and then you regulate it and yet government employees staff and bureaucrats run it and you tax people more to pay for it, is not a good plan been in the long run it will not best serve our people. it will be financially insolvent in the next 15 years. we do have an out of control health care system but it has to be fixed the right way, like i did in minnesota. we have to have individuals who have skin in the game, with better information about quality and price. we have to pay providers just not for volume of procedures, but we've got to make sure they are actually getting paid for better health. then we got to let in on the regulations more broadly. a lot of business -- they say, yes or no if i need a permit but tell me quickly. so there is a whole proposal about regulatory reform. i want to get to your questions, but i want to close with one overarching thought i think some of this whole debate.

that is this -- if you think about what separates the united states of america from the rest of the world, it is not that we are the biggest country in population -- we are not. we are not the cheapest country in the world, although we do need to be more competitive. if we are not the biggest, and we are not the cheapest, what is it that has made us the most successful, exceptional nation the world has known? the answer is, we are the freest country in the world and when people are afraid they can do a number of things. they can dream as they see fit. they can invent, create, they can design. they can associate as they see fit. they can worship as they see fit. they can speak as they see fit -- like this german does. that freedom unleashes in the human potential the ability to say "i can do this. " it is fundamentally different than most other cultures throughout the globe through most of time. when the government comes and say, you know what, we are going

to take over, where they say we are going to make it more difficult, or they will tax it or regulates it or make it slower or discourage it, they not only run of their budget but they do something else that i think is equally or even more corrosive to the country, and that is, they weighed down the american spirit. they weighed down and discourage the american people. you have people all over the country who are discouraged and war. not because of themselves, not because they lost faith in their family or their church or neighborhood or community, but they lost faith in their government. they lost faith in their government. what is going on with that, people say barack obama had his chance. he came through iowa and other places and he said both for me, and he had great speeches and rhetoric. the great speeches did not put gas in my car, great speeches to not pay your mortgage, great speeches does not pay your health care, great speeches does

not buy your groceries. [applause] so, what we need to do is this -- tell barack obama that he had his chance. it's not working. and if you like the way the country is going, vote for him. but if you want to get this thing moving and grow jobs and gas prices down and get the federal government under control and get results -- not based on flapping your job and getting fancy speeches, it is getting it done like i did in minnesota. thank you. i'd be happy to take your questions. thanks a lot. all right, who's got a question? sir. >> we have been hearing a lot of candidates talking about jobs overseas, keeping them here at home. i read every port that a lot of the candidates have all of their campaign material contract overseas and not in this country.

>> question from this gentleman over here with the super-t- shirts on. talking about candidates saying growing jobs here but they are making or ordering the materials from places overseas. that is their prerogative. the direction i have given my campaign is to buy american, and to buy it from here. yes. >> my name is gabe and i am from the great state of minnesota. i wanted thank you for speaking to us but i want to address one concern, and that is you have not stood for me and my friend. you have not stood for us. that is really hard for me as someone who supports the national organization for marriage, someone who stands for the definition of marriage between one man and woman -- i thought our country was about life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness for everyone, no exception. i want to know, when will you stand up for me and that is what

i want to know from you today because you are discriminating against me, and it hurts, it really does. >> the german and a friend is asking a question about gay marriage or traditional man ag -- the gentleman in front here is asking a question but a marriage. i understand we have a difference of opinion on this issue. let me give you my perspective and i am sure you will give me yours or have giving me yours. from my perspective, i am not the point nor i him every -- ever at the point saying every domestic relationship is the same as traditional marriage. the relationship between a man and woman in a traditional marriage is important for our country, society, and coulter and i think it should remain elevated not just in our words but under our laws that is why i supported and offered laws as marriages between a man and woman. >> i support that you have your moral values but that is something that is hurting my future and how i get to live my life, and that is something --

for someone who talks about government that gets out of your lives, why this government get involved in our marriages. >> the question -- the german ones to know why the government is dead -- gentleman wants to know why the government gets involved. i think every state has an history of the country laws defining or addressing marriage. this is not a new thing, but an important thing. we would just have a respectful disagreement, sir. go ahead. with the nebraska shirt on. [inaudible] i think the gentleman was asking about the cut line of large versus small. the statistic, 6 million or so businesses -- 5.9 million or so have 500 employees or fewer and most of those have 100 employees

or fewer. >> is anyone towards a bad -- this will be the last one. turkey ranch -- turkey hill ranch. >> and the arab world, 99.9% of the land mass is owned by arabs. and you tell me why they cannot find room for a palestinian state other than israel? >> the question about why we can't get a palestinian state -- >> why doesn't have to take land from israel when they own most of the land? >> the question about land available other than from israel for a palestinian state. it is a long and involved issue with a lot of complexity. we should stand by our friends in the world, we should stand by them strongly. one of our best friends in the world is the nation of israel. we stand by them shoulder to

shoulder. there should be no daylight between us and israel. unfortunately the current president has repeatedly stuck his thumb in the eye of israel in a way that undermines the friendship and undermines their security interest and ours. it is not helpful to them and not helpful to us. now you have been denied as nations -- united nations or people -- declaring, this anemic organization, think about declaring a unilateral palestinian state without israel's concurrence or agreement, without america's concurrence or agreement. all it would do is reflect a coalition between hamas and fatah. pick up the hamas charter -- the words and tones stand for the destruction of israel, hostility towards the united states. we should not have the united

states or anyone else unilaterally imposing anything on israel. thank you for coming out. i know the sun is hot. i appreciate you being here and i appreciate the chance of sharing a few thoughts with you and i hope you'll come to the straw ballot, vote for my campaign. >> we are bringing you live coverage throughout the day of the iowa state fair in des moines, as well as a look back at some of it earlier speeches from the 2012 gop presidential candidates. we just heard from tim pawlenty, who spoke earlier today. he will be making remarks tomorrow afternoon during the republican straw poll. you can watch live coverage starting at noon from iowa state university. tune in here on c-span. you can catch it on line --

online at c-span.org. coming up at 5:00 p.m. today, congresswoman michele bachmann. let's take a look back at the speech given earlier by congresswoman debbie wasserman schultz of florida. , debbie wasserman schultz. >> thank you to be "des moines register." thank-you to the iowa democratic party. i want to sing the praises of your chair, who is doing a fantastic job making sure that people >> this is my first time to have the privilege of being in iowa and the first time at the state fair. this bear is legendary, and i was absolutely thrilled when we made plans for me to be here.

the reason i am here is the same reason that i would democrats are working in the trenches every single day, and that is to make sure that like president obama has said so many times, americans and by wednesday to understand that we are at a crossroads. we are at a crossroads in america where we have a very stark contrast, a very clear choice we can make. next november, we can make a decision to go in the direction that the nine republican candidates last night pledged a rigid inheritance to, that the tea party wants to reject making sure reject corporate america, that we protect the most -- even in a question where in getting a handle on our deficit and dealing with our economy and getting it turned around long term, their response to our proposal to have a 10-1 cut to revenue ratio, they all raised

their right hand and said no revenue, no balance, no compromise. that is unacceptable. i am here to tell you i think that is unacceptable. thank you. the other choice that americans will have is to continue in the direction that president obama and his leadership have taken us. we have gone, under president obama's leadership, in the month before his inauguration remember let me take you back to a time when we were bleeding 750,000 jobs a month, and passport, -- and that was thanks to the failed policies of the past which all republican presidential candidates are embracing once again. bass or 2.5 years later and we are 17 months straight -- fast forward and we are into private sector job growth to 0.4 million

private-sector jobs created, 2200 jobs a month created in iowa in the first six months of the year. just look at the recovery act. that is just a small snapshot of light in iowa your only at 6% unemployment. 34,000 jobs were created right here in this great state. that is real leadership. what we need to do, in addition to continuing to create jobs and get our economy turned around, is we need to come together. i know is going to sound a little funny from the chair of the democratic national committee to say we need to come together and compromise, but that is what americans are looking to us to do. they want us to come together and work together. we need a little unity in america right now. that is what democrats have been committed to under president obama's leadership. you saw in the debate leading up to the debt ceiling and

unacceptable rigidities on the part of the republicans in congress who refused to establish some balance, it refused for many weeks to even sit down and work together with the president and with congressional leadership to finalize a plan that would get this deficit reduced over the long term. [applause] thank you. we ended with the debt ceiling deal that as president obama said, it was not perfect. it was not the deal that he would have written if left to his own devices, but you know what? i am a mom, and as a mom with young kids, one of the things i always talk to my kids about is, i know you wanted 100% your way, but the reality is, that is not what life is about.

we are not going to come together and solve our nation's problems if one party rigidly insists on it being 100% their way all the time, crosses their arms and stamped their feet and refuses to compromise and work together. that is not what america needs. what america needs is for us to come together and make sure that beyond creating jobs, beyond getting the economy turned around, that we ensure that we never put insurance companies back in the driver's seat when it comes to your health care decisions. under president obama's leadership, we made sure that you cannot be denied or dropped from your coverage if you have a pre-existing condition. if your 26 years old, up to the time you are 26 you can stay on your parents' insurance. if you are a senior citizen, will make sure that prevented screenings are part of your health care so that you can stay healthy, and not only access

health care when you are sick. we made sure that equality means something in america and repealed under president obama's leadership the "don't ask, don't tell" policy which is absolutely unacceptable in an america that is committed to equality. we made sure that we passed the first bill that was signed into law by president obama meant something significant to women in this country, though lillie ledbetter their pay act, to ensure that if your woman, you get equal pay for equal work, and the lot is enforceable. that is incredibly important. my message to iowans and to americans and to all of you here at this fair is that we had an opportunity to come together. we need to reject the politics of the past. we need to reject the notion, as mitt romney said on this very stage yesterday, that corporations are people.

really? is exxonmobil a person? general electric? do they have human life qualities? no, they don't. it is absolutely imperative that americans understand that in order to make sure that we can get a handle on our economy, make sure we can quicken the pace of recovery, as president obama is so committed to do, that we go back to washington and make the kinds of investment in infrastructure is that president obama will be championing, make sure that the millions uncle construction industry workers that lost their jobs in the recession have an opportunity to get back to work, fixing our nation's roads and bridges, getting our electric grid modernized so that we can make sure we can really create jobs. let's extend the payroll tax cuts. let's come together. that is the bottom line.

at the end of the day, the middle-class and working families and small business owners need a champion. they have one in the white house. they will continue to have one in the white house with your help and your advocacy. we need to make sure, and as a mom, as i said, with three young kids, the reason i am in public service as a member of congress, the reason i made a commitment to president obama that i would work as hard as i possibly could to bring him across the finish line and help him stay at work doing the work that we need to have done for this country is because the future of my children, the future of your children is at stake. the future of my parents' generation is at stake. as someone represents a district in south florida with literally hundreds of thousands of seniors who depend on medicare, to ensure that they can stay healthy. the difference between barack obama and congressional democrats and all the republican

presidential candidates is all of them committed to end medicare as we know it. get the safety net out from under our seniors and privatize social security. those policies need to be rejected. we need to make sure that when we sit down at the table together to insure the long- term security of medicare. medicare needs to recent preserve, not ended. we need to make sure when it comes to medicare, should we be adding another 64 under dollars in premiums to our senior citizens? -- $6,400 in premiums to our senior citizens? [unintelligible]

>> we need to work together, and i know we can. i know we can come together. democrats are committed to that. president obama is committed to that. we will work together every single day from now until election day to get this economy turned around. we will do it with your help. thank you very much. >> we are bringing you live coverage of the iowa state in the morning and a look back at some of the earlier speeches. you just heard from dnc chair debbie wasserman schultz. coming up at about 5:00 p.m. eastern time, we expect minnesota congresswoman michele bachmann to take the soapbox at

the iowa state fair. we will leave the will-- leave the -- leave the fair to go to iowa state university for the straw poll. the number of the candidates are expected to speak. we will also bring it to you live on c-span and c-span radio. you can also stream live at c- span.org. a look back at today's speech from newt gingrich. we will show you as much of this as we can before continuing our live coverage of the candidates from the iowa state fair. big iowa welcome to newt gingrich. [applause] >> it is good to be here. thank you all. isn't it great to be at the iowa state fair? this is actually the best state fair in the country. it is the this time we have been here, and our grandchildren,

maggie and robert, are with us. and he'd pick up where we talked last night about urgency, about getting things done, and about working at a time when you have to go different parties involved. -- when you have to make different parties involved. i worked with ronald reagan and we developed the program. we had to find a way to bring the american people together, so that they would say this was the right thing to do. tomorrow is the 30th anniversary of ronald reagan signed a three-year tax cut that launched the recovery that enabled us to create jobs for year after year, and it could only have been done by having the american people bring above democrats and republicans together. when i became speaker, with the

contract for america, we had republican house and republican senate, but we had a democratic president. under our constitution, that means you have to find a way to work together. the trick is, we fought very hard, but we also fought with the idea of finding a way to make things work. when we pass welfare reform, the most successful entitlement reform of your lifetime, half the democrats in the house voted for welfare reform, because the people of the united states had concluded that giving people money for doing nothing was destructive, and so there was a genuine bipartisan coalition. when we passed the balanced budget -- people say bill clinton takes credit. he was president. he certainly did at least half the credit, because if he had not signed the bills, we cannot have done it. the you have to find a way to

work together even if at times your having arguments. i want to start with the idea, what if we took seriously the current problems of the united states, and what have we decided that we, the american people, going to insist that politicians in washington learn to work with each other? i want to bring three specific proposals to you today. this is not about what i would do in 2013 if i were president. we have problems we need to solve this summer, and we need leadership that is willing to work to solve it this summer. that is why it is so important to work now to do things this summer. [applause] i am going to give you three proposals. that are predicated on you convincing the members of congress to come back to washington, cut off their vacation, and decide that this is a serious enough situation that we are to start over.

notice what i just said. if all they are going to do is come back on both sides to fight each other, they ought to stay home. it does not do the country any good to have people come back just to fight. but if they would be prepared to say this is a serious enough crisis, we are going to start over. erase the board, and i would include in this the gang of 12, which i think it's a disastrously bad idea. let me talk to you about how i would do it. the first rule is going to sound silly, and all i want you to do is bear with me for a second, because i did spend 20 years in the u.s. congress and i have been studying this business since august of 1958. the first rule is, in both the house and senate, for the first three days of the week, monday, tuesday, and wednesday, they only bring up things they agree on. this first of all requires them to find things they agree on. otherwise they will look stupid

and there'll be no business. second, what it will do is the opposite of what we have been doing. we have been building issues bigger and bigger and bigger. now is either you have to raise taxes and i won't play. you have to cut taxes are i will not play. it has become such a big disaster that now they are saying let's play stupidly. that is not any way to run a country. if you can find a way, step by step, that you could agree on something, let's pass it. you will get a lot of small things done, and you will start to build a habit of working with each other. i tried to convince the senate republicans when they were in the majority that one of things they should do is find junior democratic senators that have good ideas and passed them. just to create a framework. people tend to forget that in

1984 when the reagan administration was being too slow on apartheid, a number of junior members worked with ron dellams on what was a very heretical coalition. we said if you believe in freedom, you have to believe in freedom in south africa. you had young republicans have been a senior democrat pass legislation that neither leadership thought to pass. we are going to get together and get outside arco caucus and conference and find ways to find things we can agree on. it would start to break the ice. people would start talking to each other and it would get a little better. second, instead of waiting for november for a super powerful, extraordinarily brilliant 12 people to do the work of 522 other people, i would argue --

and by the way, iowa is one of the places i have gotten this from, that they ought to come back and monday, and every subcommittee in the house and senate should be assigned the following task. take every aspect of government your supervising, bring in experts from business on lean six sigma, and apply it to rethinking the whole thing. i will give you an example that will surprise some of you. our legal visa system is a mess. it is an embarrassment. it makes it more expensive and more difficult to be legal and it is to hire a coyote and come in illegally. i would take lean six sigma and over the entire state visa process. this was first done in government and iowa, in order

to redevelop the business attraction program by applying this kind of thinking to make it faster and easier. the developer believes it is worth $500 billion a year. the entire supersecret intelligence committee of 12 is only trying to get $1.50 trillion over the next 10 years. that is a very different approach. we have talked with ibm, american express, and visa. they have very sophisticated anti-fraud systems. the u.s. government has no effective anti-prod system. if you apply prod system to medicare and medicaid, you could save up to $100 billion the year. if you applied to food stamps, it could save $20 billion a year. i just saved in that one device

almost as much money as the entire committee of 12 is going to try to save, but it is a new idea. it is a different way of thinking things. it is not conservative or liberal. is just being smart and applying modern techniques and management to do things intelligently. i second challenge to the congress is simple. starting next week, actually have every member doing their job, track every member, and every month, find savings. have as your goal pre-empting the committee of 12 by finding enough savings before thanksgiving that you do not need them. the new can add intelligent savings. -- then it you can add intelligent savings. i am against an arbitrary $500 billion cutting of defense. i think it is a stupid idea. i think you ought to have a level of national security you need to have to defend that

threats against you. while i am a halt, i am a cheap hawk. i think if you apply lean six sigma, you would save an immense amount of money, but it would save intelligently by taking out waste rather than cutting out programs because you cannot figure out how to manage. it is a fundamentally different approach. we desperately need to get this economy running again. let me be very clear. every american of every background should be worried. i don't care if you are rich or poor, what your ethnic background is, your geographic region, i don't care which party you belong to. we are teetering on the edge of an economic disaster. look what is happening in europe. look at the riots in great britain. look at the collapse of greece. look at our the italian and french bonds are today.

look at the bubble in china which is eventually going to break. say to yourself, how comfortable am i that the current policies are going to avoid the depression getting even worse? as a historian, i am not comfortable at all. when you bounce along at 9% unemployment, you have a grave risk of sliding down rather than growing up. a third challenge to congress is to come back on monday, and let's start with a couple of things. six democratic senators have sent a letter to the president's asking that their states be allowed to drill offshore. you can put together a bipartisan majority in favor of liberating american companies on american soil to produce american energy, in order to be in a position you do not have

just sent $400 billion a year overseas. i got some heat from some conservatives because i favor ethanol. i voted for gasohol in 1984. ronald reagan signed it. we had a simple. if our choice was iowa or iran, we like having money in iowa. we would rather have money in south dakota than saudi arabia. i talked to a lot of sophisticated ethanol people and i believe in it. i believe in it years ago. i thought was right for national security. i believe that all american energy -- most of the ethanol

people i know are prepared to eventually get rid of the subsidy if we move to flex fuel cars and tanks so the customer has a genuine choice. as oil prices go up worldwide, ethanol becomes general it -- genuinely commercially competitive, if you have a gas station that carries it and a car that uses it. i reject those that say we have to do exactly what big oil wants. i am for drilling offshore and opening up lots of land for oil. i think american oil is vastly better than iranian oil. but i am also for ethanol, solar, and wind. here is a fact you should keep in your head. we have more total energy in the united states than any other country in the world. we have more total energy in the united states than they have in russia.

you have a federal government which is anti-american energy. it just boggles the mind. i don't want to get involved in an ideological fight. i will oppose this example. there are a lot of things we can do. i hope the house will repeal immediately the dog-franc bill, which is a disastrously bad bill. you go into any community bank in iowa and ask about the devastating impact of dodd- frank. we need to repeal sarbanes oxley. it does no good. it is just a dump bill d --umb bill. we ought to have a national conversation about this. we own 69% of alaska.

69 percent of alaska is federal land. alaska is twice the size of texas. that means we currently have in federal land 1.5 texases. surely we could designate one half of texas as national parks, forests, wilderness areas. that would be 125,000 square miles. and then we could say with the rest of alaska, what if we could find minerals, oil, gas? that means to be opening up an area the size of the entire state of texas. if governor harry gets in the race, he will tell you, that is a really big area. there is no reason we cannot have an honest discussion about this. the roosevelt created -- i get some heat from the far right because i really believe we

ought to have a healthy environment. how conservative you are, having a river in the middle of a city catch fire is not a good idea. i wrote books called -- saying there should be a common sense, green conservatism. i am happy to have a dialogue with everyone in the country that says, can we identify a large parts of nevada, parts of alaska, and get back to being a country that favors economic development, favors job creation, favors the production of resources? you notice i did not talk about what i would do in 2013. i came to recruit you to call your senators and congressmen to say to people, we need leadership this summer. we need action this summer.

as far as i am concerned, i want to be a citizen this summer helping my country get back to work, helping my countries of its problems. we have plenty of time to run for president later. thank you very much. good luck, and god bless you. [applause] >> we're bringing you live coverage throughout the day to day of the 2012 gop candidate speaking throughout the day in iowa. we just saw comments from newt gingrich. he was also helping barbecue earlier today at the iowa pork tent. let's take a look. >> these look good. >> pretty good technique.

>> i could to the other thing. >> was the pan hawaii? -- pan hot? >> a couple over here. >> here you go. a big photo opportunity. new future, newt. that's right. now.u're in trouble >> you go for it. good form.

>> doing pretty good right now. >> we have flipped everytinhing that needs flipping. >> i want to know which one of you is from the food channel. >> how do you feel about last night? >> good. we have our grandchildren here. how could you not be happy at the state there?

>> how do you describe the atmosphere here? what is a like to get out and talk to people? >> it has been clear all day today. people keep walking up to me and speaking well of last night and promising to be with us in january and getting pictures and walking with me. you will see how many teachers -- people are excited about what we are doing. >> sarah palin is here today. rick perry is here today. >> the more the merrier. we have six months to have a national conversation about the right policies in washingn. as i said last night. , i wish there were immediate things that they could do to start turning around the economy immediately, starting with repealing the dd-frank bill. showed the country that they

understand we are in real pain. in the house, if republicans have real control, they should have all the subcommittees' to the right work in september and find all the money we need to find in september and october by having all 435 members do work, not just the six members on the house committee. i thought last night was a great place to start talking directly about that. we need to replace the select committee with the whole congress. do something to help america now. >> how does your campaign moves forward? >> we never invested here. our goal is in january.

we are looking forward to january. brand science, as it affects alzheir's and mental-health. all time as a loan is a $20 trillion public and private cost by 2050. i want to talk about new and different ways to fix america. that is what this campaign will . we are attracting more and more people with that kind of positive message. people who have never gotten involved in politics are saying,

this is about my family and my life. i want to be involved. ry much. you vert >> god luck. >> it has your name on it. >> i'll take it. >> that was a highlight. thank you.

>> we are bringing you live coverage throughout the day to day of the iowa state fair in the morning -- in des moines. we expect to hear shortly from michelle bachmann. >> our representative, our candidate is a little late. she is having a hard time getting here. we hope you can stick around. she will get here as soon as she can. we appreciate your patience. she will be here shortly. >> as you just heard, we are expecting to hear from minnesota congresswomen michele bachmann. she will be taking this soapbox here at the state fair. all of the gop 2012 presidential

candidates were offered 20 minutes to speak on any topic they want here at the state fair. tomorrow, we will switch gears and leave the state fair to head to the iowa university in ames for the republican straw poll. we will start with a preview and the history of the impact of the straw poll at noon eastern. a number of candidates are expected to speak. we will carry all of those events live. you can tune into our live coverage any time on c-span.org. now, a look back on some of the activity today as gop presidential candidate and former governor jim pawlenty spoke to some of the people at the fair. -- tim pawlenty spoke to some of the people at the fair.

>> again, from the iowa state take awe're going to to look back at tim pawlenty. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2011] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] >> good to have you back. >> ready?

i want to get in the front row. you have to have a plan? what is the plan? >> you need a pan. >> are these ready to be flipped? what do you think? ready to roll? all of them? >> table at the time? >> you are good. >> where you from? >> northern iowa. not far from minnesota. about 10 miles from minnesota. >> what kind of operation the you have? wh is that?

[unintelligible] >> pretty busy out there. >> i missed the. i have been gone all summer, so i have not been able to grow. is that rachel's left that i hear back there? >> are you just try to poke me? >> it is really important in the sense it is the first test. the early states are important, and we look forward to competing in all of them, and the first up is iowa. -- step is iowa.

[unintelligible] >> what kind of -- [unintelligible] >> does this make or break for you? >> i am confident we are going to do well at the iowa straw poll tomorrow. our goal is to move toward the front of the pack. i thinwe will. well, i make a mean pork chop. is not about rhetoric. it is about results. if you look at my record on results in minnesota at growing jobs, cutting spending, health care reform the right way, those are the things republicans and iowa people, and everyone across

the country wants to see. what do you think? flipping them? take the rest of these off? >> there has been a lot of talk in this race -- [unintelligible] >> it really does not. >> do you still believe you are the right man for the job? what do you bring? >> i bring a recordf results. i have cut government spending to historical lows, cut government spent -- cut taxes. those other kinds of results people across the country want.

do you want some pork? the 7 ft. already? >> -- these have been flat already? >> where you from? [unintelligible] >> are you down here for of all fair, or just today? you have to cook all whil whe? [laughter] >> that is good. >> and if you do not do well tomorrow? >> i am confident we will do

well. >> ifou do not move from the back of the pact to -- for the front? >> we're confident we can get that done. >> will you have to quit? >> you did not give me a very good, complete answer. >> i thought it was really good. [unintelligible] i felt really good about it. i thought it went well fo the campaign, helps to advance the message about getting things done. >> a lot of people are focused on the words between you and michele bachmann. is that part of the debate? >> the back-and-forth between her and die, the question that was as was answered, and there are some differences between the candidates, and that started to

show last night. we have never been close social friends, but we have always worked togethe she has done some wonderful things with her life, but her record of results in congress is really nonexistent. if we're going to have a nominee and ultimately a successful candidate and president, that person is going to have to have leadership and results, not just giving talks about it. >> de think she is done? >> we will just wait and see. >> how does the overall debate change? >> i do not know if we will know the answer of that tomorrow, but all i can say about the momentum is from my standpoint it went very well, we are happy wi results, and i will add to our momentum going into the straw poll. we are waiting for the pan.

i am going to have to go. thank you for the opportunity. [laughr] thank you. good to meet you. wants to do it here? >> he is a political science major. i told her we would get a picture. camera? here we go. >> did it work? thank you so much. really nice to media. -- nice to meet you. >> where are you studying? >> the univeity of iowa. then what? >> teacher or professor?

>> profess, probably. thank you for the hospitality. >> do we get to eat now? >> sign it? all right. >> i already started yesterday. sign that one, too? >> all right. >> thank you. [unintelligible] >> you want to go this way? ok.

>> what is your first name? >> kevin. >> thank you. >> you are welcome.

>> sign this one, too? >> thank you. i appreciate it. >> hey,uys, how're you doing? this is my wife mary. >>his is my wife georgann. >> i'm supposed to be at work. [laughter] >> i'm supposed to interview today. >> one time i was golfing with the guy who got a hole in one, and he was supposed to be at

work. >> it is good. no i am here. >> what have you been doing to get some sunshine? >> we do a little fishing. i like to be outside. i try to save my vacation during the summer, where a short week, and go fishing. we have a whole light. -- lake. sun valley light, it i a little private lake. >> how was the water quality? >> unbelievable. >> fish? good fish. [unintelligible] >> he has a vacation and come in southern iowa.

-- home in southern iowa. >> good luck. >> i appreciate it. >> we have been bringing you live coverage throughout the day of the iowa state fair as well as a look back at some of the

remarks by 2012 gop presidential candidates. we just watched tim pawlenty cooking barbecue. coming up shortly, we expect to hear from michele bachmann. she will be taking the soap box here at the state fair, where candidates have been offered 20 minutes to speak on any topic they choose. our coverage continues tomorrow. we will leave the state fair to head to i/o university for the republican straw poll. -- iowa university for the republican straw poll. a number of the candidates are expected to speak. we will bring it all to you live here on c-span, on c-span radio, and streaming live online at c- span.org.

>> we will be coming back to this live coverage here of the soap box at the iowa state fair. in the meantime, a look back a gop presidential candidate and former pennsylvania senator rick santorum. he took the soapboxes earlier

today. if you want someone who has actually done that, not pounded their fists and said i will do this, if you do not do this and this, i will not vote for anything. it is easy to vote now. it is hard to get things done to move this country in t right direction. i have done that. when i was in the united states senate, with the democratic president, with a bare majority, which had 52 were 53 republicans. we need bipartisan support to pass anything. i pushed for a welfare reform bill that and a federal entitlement, something we will have to do with medicaid, food stamps, education and housing programs, if we are when you get this federal budget under control. i did it with income support for poor people, and said this is not a federal responsibility. it is a state responsibility. we end of the federal entitlement, required work, and

put time limits on welfare, and i got bill clinton and half of the democratic caucus to vote for it. that is the leadership we need in washington, d., today. so, if you want to >> we interrupt the comments of former senator rick santorum. you can find them in their entirety online. we take you back to a live look at the state fair as minnesota congresswoman michele bachmann arrives. [applause] >> without further ado, from waterloo, minn., michele bachmann. [applause]

>> hi, everyone, from one island to another, my name is michele bachmann -- iowan to another, my name is michele bachmann. i am running to be president of the united states in 2012. [applause] did anybody catch the debate last night? we sent a signal all across the united states, and it is this. with your help tomorrow, in ames, iowa, we are going to make barack obama a one-term president. [applause] it does not get any better than that. it is going to be a great election coming up, and you're going to send a signal. this is where barack obama got his start. this is where he is going to come to his and, in iowa.

-- end, in iowa. did you get the change and the hope you believe in? it is time for real change. we're going to repeal obama- care. [applause] and today the 11th circuit court of appeals already made their decision that unconstitutional individual mandate is unconstitutional. as nominee of the republican party, i will not rest until i elect 13 more titanium-spine senators, and we are going to repeal obama-care, dodd-frank, turned the economy around, and

it will not take more than three months to get the whole shooting match up to speed. we're going to do it. are you coming out tomorrow? come on now. come to our tent. we have randy travis live for you in our tent. we're going to have a little texas band and lone star. we want you there, because tomorrow is the day we make a downpayment on taking the country back. i'm coming out to shake your hand and see you now. god bless you everyone. good to me you. -- meet you.

>> according to your husband, i am a barbarian. you treat me like a second-class citizen. shame on you! shame on you! shame on you! shame on you!

shame on you! what about rights? equal rights for every american. >> thank you. god bless you too. >> led us through! >> how do you feel about your performance? >> civil-rights.

>> o weekend of presidential politics at the iowa state fair. brief remarks by michele themann represeresponding to debate last night. she was in another part of the state. tomorrow she will be speaking with the other official candidates. nine names will be on the ballot. we will continue our coverage from the iowa state fair which has become the political center of the universe. david axelrod, a longtime strategist to president obama and debbie wasserman schultz of the democratic national committee speaking on the soapbox. politicians can come and speak for up to 20 minutes. some have taken questions, including mitt romney. some have delivered remarks and worked the crowd. we will continue to show you the

scene as our camera moves into a different position. >> i like to see the congresswoman get up and make more than a 32nd speech trashing president obama. what are her ideas for is the future? what is she going to do for the country? >> thank you. from the republican line. guest: i find myself almost -- in 100% agreement with michele bachmann. i think her ideas are based biblically. the reason she talks about barack obama is because he has trashed the country for two years. he has not come up with a plan for anything in democrats have not put forth a budget for what? three years. we need somebody to get in there and do something right.

host: the iowa state fair is a combination of carnival and corn dogs, dating back to 1886. the next caller is from chicago, democrats line. go ahead. caller: i would just like to say that i think it is a shame that michele bachmann continuously reviewed so, but does not propose any plans herself. -- refutes obama, but does not propose any plans herself. newt gingrich actually presented a plan for what he would do to do things better. i do not think it is a lack of leadership as much as it is a lack of action. we're in a political crisis and it is not because of leadership or the economy. it is about honesty. what we need is honest political leaders and political figures in

the white house, in a legislator, that can change the course of america's economy now. host: thank you for the call. we will get another perspective on politics on sunday with independent senator bernie sanders from vermont. he caucuses with the democrats. he will be with us on "newsmakers." by the way, "the new york times" has pointed at the sarah palin has been spotted and swarmed at the iowa state fair. it was not announced in advance. she made her appearance and spent several hours working the crowd and answering reporters' questions. she says she will not be in iowa tomorrow because she does not want to overshadow the straw poll. we're joined on the republican line. . caller: i watched all of the

speeches. i want to talk about what the previous caller said. what we need is less rhetoric, no plans, no honesty, and all of these people talking. the fact of the matter is that the only honest person in either party running for office that comes through in the way he speaks, his passion, his ideas, is ron paul. that is why i think it is quite clear that he is probably going to win the straw poll tomorrow. hopefully he wins the nomination, because when i listen to all of these other republicans talk, it is like, where has my party gone? where is the party that used to stand for less government intrusion in your life? for lesser intrusion in the market? all of these people, if it is not bachmann or santorum, they want to get into people's bedrooms and they want to go to war with everybody. where are the people the stand up and say, you know what?

the constitution works. that is ron paul. that is why people need to take him seriously. host: thank you. politico takes a look at one other candidate is to get into the rate -- candidate yet to get into the race, rick perry. he will be traveling to new hampshire as well. we also will be covering more presidential politics next week, including former massachusetts governor mitt romney who will be in berlin early next week. but of course, all eyes are on ames iowa for the straw poll. six candidates are officially competing in terms of speaking. we will have live coverage. these are scenes live outside the state fair where michele bachmann and her husband continued to work the crowd. let's listen in for just a moment.

>> i just have one question. is this iowa pork? it is iowa. it is ironic. that is all i want to know. have a great time. thank you. i passed the test. excellent. >> thank you so much. thank you so much. >> what is your name? >> date. >> that is such a beautiful name? >> -- faith.

>> that is such a beautiful name. >> thank you. >> do you want a picture? ok. >> thank you. thank you. >> good to meet you. what is your name? good to me you, marc. come to ames and help us tomorrow. >> god bless you. >> god bless you too.

[unintelligible] [laughter] >> how old is adam? >> 15 months. >> you are one good boy. what a sweetie. it looks like he has been eating some fun stuff at the fair. let's get you back to mama. you are a little pumpkin, aren't you?

what a sweetheart. hi there. good to see you. thank you. >> seem to have michele bachmann

and she moves through the iowa state -- scenes of michele bachmann as she moves through the iowa state fair shaking hands and kissing babies. >> hi there. hi there. i come in the shell. nice to meet you. -- i am michelle. nice to meet you. host: back to your phone calls as the c-span live coverage of the iowa state fair continues. you can check it out online at c-span.org. also, our video library, the archives of all of our programming, including our campaign coverage, and all day

tomorrow we will be streaming live at c-span.org and on c- span radio the iowa straw poll in ames at iowa state university. ryan is joining us from hawaii on the democrats' line. caller: aloha. i want to remind people that our government is by the people and for the people, and by romney sing the corporations are people -- saying that corporations are people, he is basically saying that the american government is by the corporations and for the corporations. bachmann is a liar and a hypocrite. the mere fact did she gets on the pulse goes to show the crap we are in. aloha. host: republican line. caller: i have a couple of comments.

ron paul seems to be the only one who tells the truth. that is why he is called radical. i support him because for years he has been saying the same thing regarding the federal reserve, taking us off the gold standard, which was legal currency at one time. plus, bringing the troops back where they can be better served protecting our borders and still, you know, getting paid and remaining here in their own country. the only other comment i have is, i cannot understand for the life of me, a social security is not part of the deficit.

it is a separate entity. it is funded by the people that have worked, and it was supposed to of gone into a separate, i you know, the trust fund, however, the money has been taken out and used for other things. that created, that is i guess what they are saying created deficit spending, but that is not quite true. the politicians took the money out. they should replace it. host: thank you for the call. it takes about eight hours to drive from one end of the iowa to the other. the iowa state fair is one of the largest in the country. about 1 million people attend each year. iowa has a population of about 3

million residents. they are the first in the nation to vote on the presidential caucus. the dates have not been finalized. it will be february or january, followed by new hampshire, south carolina, and then a series of other primaries, including likely florida. republicans, by the way, holding their convention next year at this time. back to your calls, jason in washington, go ahead. caller: i am from iowa, but i currently reside in florida. i just wanted to call and express some concerns i have about michele bachmann. there seems to be a lot of political rhetoric, but there does not seem to be much substance behind it. i think a tuned in a little late to your channel this afternoon, but if i heard her correctly, i think she said she could have all of the masses and political

problems we are experiencing resolved within three months. i think that is a fantastic plan, but most americans should be very afraid. that obviously takes some intellect not seen by most humans before. i also have great concerns about her husband's position on some issues of morality. when are they going to keep politics real and out of the bedroom and out of the church, and bring it back to where it needs to become a functioning government? i do not think she has any plans to do that. host: two of our iowa partners include the demo in register -- des moines register and our friends at kcit-tv. we also have partners in new

hampshire and north carolina. go ahead, democrats line. caller: i have some comments to make. first off, i think our president of done a lot better if we had had somebody -- could have done a lot better if we had had somebody take control of the house that shared the views of the people, and not be so one- sided. that bachmann is a two-faced idiot. host: eugene is next on the independent line. caller: i am concerned about the fact that republicans seem to lean more toward corporations than they do towards the american people. they give the corporations more of the power. instead of saying that obama is the problem, i think it is more

important to say that congress is the problem, because this problem has been going on since the other presidency. the thing is, instead of blaming obama for everything, i think what they need to say is what have they not done for the american people and what have they given to the corporate world? i think it is very important that if you bring jobs here, they need to bring back all of those blue collar worker jobs that were taken out of the united states just since the 1980's. >> thank you for the calls. we have live pictures all day long from the iowa state fair. our thanks for the tremendous effort. next call on the republican line is a viewer from michigan. caller: i am calling on republican.

i think ya doing a good job. i hope you do a right thing for the public. are they voting for senators yet? host: thank you for the call. tomorrow is the straw poll. it is really the first test for this republican field. anywhere from 12,000 to possibly as high as 20,000 independents. each of the six candidates who are officially participating. the price tag for a tent is a minimum of $15,000. the price tag for admission is $30. the only requirement is that you need to be 18 or older. at past republican straw polls, residents from neighboring states could come, but this year, you must be in iowa

resident. our next call is nancy from sacramento, california. democrat line. caller: i just wanted to give a couple of i opening numbers here. the monthly number for our government operation is about $306 billion a month we need. we're bringing in $172 billion. so, that leaves us -- that is after taking the interest payment on our debt, that leaves us 143 billion a month. let's just say we get rid of bush tax cuts for the rich. that gives us $6 billion. now we have $149 billion a month to work with. social security costs $49 billion a month.

medicare, medicaid is $50 billion. food stamps are $9 billion. hud housing is $10 billion. tuition is $10 billion. unemployment is 30 billion. those are the basic needs of people. now we have $32 billion for defense every month, $3 billion for veterans' benefits, military activity which is $3 billion, that is the war. you can add that back if you want to get rid of it, and then federal salaries are $14 billion. basically, we're $36 billion short every month. we're not talking years or 10 years, monthly. you can get rid of the wars, add back the $3 billion for more pay, that still leaves us $33 billion short. host: thank you for the call.

thank you for doing your research and providing as those numbers. again, we're providing live coverage from the state fair in iowa. six candidates have given their remarks. the chair of the dnc, debbie wasserman schultz from south florida have given speeches. we will re-enter these events tonight beginning at 8:00 eastern. they are posted on our website at c-span.org. tomorrow morning, we will be previewing the straw poll. we will have a look at the events today and what will happen tomorrow. the first speeches at 1:00 eastern time tomorrow. the announcement of the winner is expected in about 6:30 p.m. eastern time, 5:30 p.m. i know what time.

again, -- i a what time. again, nine names will be on the ballot. governor rick barry is not officially a candidate, but he is jumping into -- rick perry is not officially a candidate, but he is jumping into the race in south carolina tomorrow. up next, former treasury secretary henry paulson spoke at dartmouth college. this event from earlier in the week runs just about an hour. [applause]

>> last week we welcomed robert ch, who had the following questions. >> maybe this question is a segue to your question, but our next speaker is hank paulson. >> i have a two related questions for you. why in the bailout did you not conditioned those funds on wall street doing several things it needed to do, particularly with mortgage litigation and also making money available to main street through small regional banks, and also putting some

constraints on lobbying by wall street's firms particularly through a period of time congress was trying to reform the financial system. [applause] secondly, after you have explained all of that, i would like you to tell us whether the social benefits of the wall street exceed the social costs. thank you, hank. [applause] >> some things in life never change. those that sounded like two questions rather than the one. i will start with the first one, on the social benefits vs. cost, i have a difference with bob. i am a capitalist.

i believe that we have the most prosperous country on earth, which it has been for a good while, for a lot of reasons. one of the reasons is that we have world-class capital markets. we have had world-class capital markets. if we want to stay on top and we want to remain competitive, we will need strong the capital markets. why do we need these? jobs and growth. capital markets fund and the companies that will compete in the global marketplace, trade prosperity and jobs for americans. what do we need capital markets? to create family -- to create credit for families who want to buy homes, cars, retirement securities, investments. i know what bob asked the question the way he did, because our financial markets and wall street failed us big time in 2007 and 2008.

there has been a lot of focus on that and deservedly so. business practices, flawed business practices, a decent business practices, if we just leave it at that and only blame the banks, we will be right back here again. there has been much less talking about the flawed government policies that created this problem. we as a country save too little, are too much. as a nation and its people. that is not inherent, that drives from policies that are flawed and encourage us to do that. why did we have a housing bubble? we just emulated the bidding de las -- daylights out of our house is their tax laws, a freddie and fannie,fha. we need to deal with some of those things. we had a flawed regulatory

system. we needed better regulation, but we had a system that was just plain that broke. somebody put it in place after the great depression. we had emergency systems to deal with banks but not nonbanks. we need to learn our lesson. the lesson to take away is not that capital markets are not worthwhile and cannot provide social benefits. the lesson we need to take away from all of this is what mistakes were made so we can correct them. that is one of the things we do with the united states of america. what there is a problem, we shine a light on that. we move quickly to correct it. we need to do that. as far as his first question on the tarp, this is something i have heard a lot. it let me be really clear what we were doing. the purpose of the tarp bank capital program in october when we announce that program and on a single day, we put capital in nine big banks with over 50% of

the deposits. then in the days and weeks after that, we recapitalize many daddy banks. these were not failing banks. most were healthy banks. the idea was rather than nationalizing banks as the failed and putting all kinds of restrictions on them, it was to get a head, inject confidence, prevent a collapse, recapitalize the banking system. you can only do that if it was a voluntary program. we needed to design a program that was going to be -- that would protect the government. the banks would voluntarily accept. let me just put that in context for you. in early september, we have been first -- in order to prevent a real calamity come in and essentially nationalized fannie mae and freddie mac. they had 5.4 trillion dollars in securities outstanding.

it would have been an incredible disaster if we did not do that. we fired the ceos, walked out equity shareholders. this was tough action. the following weekend, we had merrill lynch and aig going down all at the same time. the we tried very hard, we cannot find powers that worked to save lehman. we tried. merrill lynch avoided failure because they were acquired. if they had acquired lehman that would have been worse because merrill would have gone down. aig was taken over very tough terms, ceo was replaced. it was essentially nationalized. we then had to have the treasury guarantee money markets to avoid an implosion. when they were working to get terps, wamu essentially failed. what soviet was acquired what was failing.

after we had our, six european nations have come in and had to nationalize certain banks. we made a judgment. we had to do something very dramatic and move quickly. we were tired of dealing sequentially with one failing institution after another and dealing with it. we said how do we do something that does not look like nationalism, does not have the tanks to it, does not have government control, let us tonight -- design this, i hoped and expected we beget two to 3000 banks to accept. as soon as we announced the, critics and people asking questions and immediately started saying, you know what, you cannot let banks get away with the security have to put restrictions. you have to make them landed more. we said, more than what? more than at the top of the

bubble? more than they would have wanted the failed? how our response to make them landed? you have to put this restriction and that restriction. as soon as that happened, the bank started to get concerned. congress passed legislation that retroactively changed the rules pretty had many banks that applied, had been approved, many of them did not apply. rather than having 2000 or 3000 banks take capital, we had roughly 700. it worked. they also rushed the to pay back the government. i look at it and say if 3000 banks had taken capital and kept it for three or five years, that would have been stimulus plan. is interesting that the same people who stigmatize the program and criticized it and said you have to make the banks do this, they were the ones who

caused the banks to pull back and regional banks not to take money -- they are the ones who say, why did you not give money to the regional banks? why did more banks take it? why did they lend more? that is a perspective. you can see i care a lot about it. the one thing i have to say, i was in a class and i tried to explain it. the class did not really understand. when i left government, i thought terps was one of the most successful government programs of all time. i felt that. but the polls showed that 92% of american people were against the tarp, and 60% were against torture. what do i know? [laughter] i think the reason is we do not like bailout or russkies. in our country, the united states of america, we believe some people take risks they can make money. -- get our country, people do,

peoplerescues. everybody thinks it is wrong. i do things that were important to me, but i did it for the american people. did you ever imagine -- he saw what happened when the men went down. what would have happened if we had one of these big institutions go down. i was never able to make the connection between wall street and main street. even though bob asked two related questions, they really were one in the same. if you do not understand the role of markets and how important it are two main street, you will never know why we understand why we had to do what we did. on that note, and you can tell i do not care at all about this right now -- >> i am sure you would have gotten an a in blogs class for that answer. >> bob was a better student and i was.

he was also a great public speaker and college and a tremendous actor. he was. he was the star in all of the place. >> first off, let me think the professor for the introduction. i hope it is on. i will shop. is it working now? >> they said we would hand-in- hand it -- a said we would have a hand held in case we needed it. >> we have a green light on. it i want to thank president camera for putting these programs together. i think they have been great. i want to especially take a moment of personal privilege. it is a great honor for me to moderate this program.

i played a small part in the effort to address the financial problems of 2008. we were on the brink of disaster of extraordinary proportions of a nation and a world. one person stood between this country and a fiscal meltdown of catastrophic proportions which would have impacted main street in an incredibly dramatic way. that person basically thought outside of the box and did things that were not typical with governments and got congress to do things i never expected congress to be able to do, and let the world in a process of stabilizing and then trying to correct recent fundamental failures of our financial markets. as a result, we avoided a massive disruption which would have affected every american in a different way. unemployment would have gone well beyond what it was, and we probably would have had an event

equal to the depression in my opinion. that one person stood up and did what needed to be done was hank paulson. [applause] obviously we are going through difficult situation. i would say, do you see what we are going through right now and 2008 and you see greece as being a precursor much like lehman was to the possibility of a merry significant fiscal event? >> that is a question i think a lot of people are asking right now. i see it as being different situations. today, let's take the united

states. in 2008, what is our issue? our issue is growth. we need growth and we need jobs. this is an issue for the whole economy. in 2008, the housing bubble fell just proportionately on the the banking system. a bubble by definition means that it is unrecognized until it burst. there is no doubt the full extent -- people saw the bubble. the full extent of the housing bubble was a surprise to the markets. it really was. today, the risks are pretty obvious. i think people largely understand them. there are focused on them. the banking system has more

capital, is better regulated, and the banking system is much stronger in this country. the challenge is growth. let me tell you why the challenges growth. the consumers had so much debt in 2007, that was 157% of disposable income in 2007. today, we are still developed -- delivering. it is 110% of disposable income. as terms of wealth, i am sure it is off the charts. in terms of that, it is still way above any historical low. it is unrealistic to think that the growth is going to be led by consumers any time soon. the that is the challenge. now, let us look at your. the affects of the housing bubble in 2008 are taking longer to play out in the capital

markets and the banking system. -- in europe. the most pressing problem and most challenging problem in the global marketplace today are structural issues in the european union. here, i am talking about the large fiscal deficits in a number of nations there. structural issues in the eu itself. now, the leaders are working on this. it will take some time to resolve these problems. the they have made some progress today taking a number of steps. they have not been easy to take. political resistance and so on. they have a lot more to do. it is going to be messy politically because they will be tough political issues. one thing you should not underestimate because -- the

willpower and commitment of european leaders to resist -- preserve the european union. in terms of lehman verses greece, i see that as very different in most respects. lehman was an institution we worked to say. we did not have the authority to save it. we did not have the emergency power for the nonbanks. on the other hand, the eu has been working and taking steps and has the power four months to deal with sovereigns like greece. out of the 2008 banking crisis and financial crisis, leaders everywhere have requirements for banks to have more capital. i am a big believer we need that. there will be a spotlight on european banks. the similarity is it will be important for those largest european banks to on the most sovereign debt to be well- capitalized. >> thank you.

what about the s&p downgrade? what do we need to do to get our fiscal house in order here in the united states? >> ok. two questions. first, the s&p downgrade. first of all, our political process -- our government has not been working at a aaa level. there is no doubt about that. despite that, i would take u.s. treasurys over other sovereign debts -- other aaa sovereign debt any day of the week. i clearly would. that is not to say we do not have important issues we have to deal with. in my judgment, other major countries have more significant and more difficult to manage economic issues than the united states of america. now, are you asking me that question?

senator gregg was just a key member of the commission. it is no doubt by far the big structural issue in the united states is our fiscal deficit. it is a formidable issue. coming back to the bowl since then deficit commission, i think what they show to the rest of the world is what a lot of the markets already understand. we are such a rich country and such a big economy that if we act soon and there is a shared sacrifice, we can solve the problem by exporting the sacrifice brought different segments of our country's social upper passed to sacrifice too much. the longer we wait, obviously, the more difficult it will be. what do we have to do to get our fiscal house in order? i think it comes down to -- we

need to grow. when we go about it, we have to reform entitlements. we have to reform a tax system. we have to reform a tax system so it gives us the revenues we need and give us growth. i start off by saying, despite all the criticism and how poorly the government performed and all of that, i think the criticism is deserving. let me tell you something. beginning with olson said that the rot the summer, this is the best debate i have ever seen in my lifetime. as important as cutting is, and cutting expenses, that is essential. that alone will not get you there. you have to reform. you have to reform entitlements. would you talk about entitlements, think of medicare. that is where the huge dollars

are. you need to reform the tax system. all of this stuff -- i find it very uninteresting and not even terribly relevant about whether the bush tax cuts should expire, what should we do with race. the question that should be asked is, since we need more revenues, how do we get them in a way in which we have as little drag on jobs and growth as possible? how can we get them and remain competitive? nobody who is credible that i have heard defense our tax system. i do not think our tax system will get us there. i think we need reform. we need basic reform. i am hoping, you know, gregg is the one -- i think the idea of the super committee -- the first person i heard it from was you. the way i look at it is this.

congress took an underwhelming step in terms of the first cut. it was a step, right? it was a step. now, we have the super committee. i think it is unlikely we will get reform until we get a new election. but i can help. even if we do not get reform, if we get the objective of $1.5 over 10 years, it is an easy laugh. let me tell you, you have to start someplace. hopefully that will build some momentum. you cannot get reform unless -- that can only be done on a bipartisan basis. i can only be done with both

parties wanting to cooperate. i do not think we can do that with the people we have in washington. we need a new election. i hope i am wrong. even if i am right, i think we will lead to the right direction. >> at least to another question. i would like to get your thoughts on the tea party and its influence on the progress. >> let us start with the tea party. even before that, i want to say something about political process. it is crazy for me to say -- speak about it. political process. one of the lessons i learned in washington is that it is almost impossible to get something big and difficult and controversial down without a crisis. twice, we got kampf -- congress

to act and they did it before the system collapsed. it took a crisis. even if the vice majority of members of congress in my judgment understood the deficit and were determined to do something about it, it would still be an ugly process to get there. it would take time. now, get to the tea party. i have all of my republican friends and democrat friends asking about the tea party and try to put me on the spot or get me to defend them. i start off by saying, you know, the tea party did not come on to capitol hill and takeover by force, they were elected. elections have consequences. voters and both parties respond to the people who voted for them. a lot of people in the like -- last election, voters wanted them to come in and change government. i am hoping that the next election, the voters will say,

you know what, we want you to come in and compromise and solve problems and fix the major problems and fix what is wrong. we want you to do that. maybe i am being naive, but i would like to see if the fiscal deficit be the centerpiece of a campaign. whoever wins, feel -- whoever wins will feel motivated to fix it. right now voters have to be educated. voters are telling people in washington that we won benefits we do not want to pay for. we want benefits we do not want to pay for. house office is that? -- how selfish is that? all students to -- all students here, your parents want the same things i want.

and our country, we have my generation being incredibly sawfish. not willing to make a sacrifice, and the people who will pay for it will be the next generation. and think it will be a mandate. on the debt ceiling, what i say to people on that -- i have said that all along when i have been asked, there is no danger of default. leaders on both sides said repeatedly that they were going to raise the debt ceiling. it was an ugly process to get there. it was not pleasant. but again, i come back to what i said earlier. to get major reform, you're going to have to get people who will cooperate, compromise, and i think we will be another election to get us there. i never thought we were in danger of default. at least the american people have had a real education. >> i want to change focus, and then we will get questions from

everybody in the audience. you have been one of the leading experts and knowledgeable people on the institute of china. tell us where you think china is going. is it a threat to us? what is their future and what are their problems? tell us a little bit about this institute. >> if i lived in new hampshire, it would be at dartmouth. i live in chicago. my proudest moment was when i gave a commencement address in 2007. i love this school. i think you are getting as good an education as there is. i was in a class today, and sophomores were asking me all kinds of sophisticated questions. i did not know what an investment banker was when i was there, i was an english major. i did not know the difference between a stock and a bomb. --and a bomb.

bond. it is an institute that is affiliated with chicago, and it will be focused on the united states and china. the reason it is, when you look at major problems in the world today, i do not care if it is and the economic arena. or in foreign policy, national security, you look at these big issues. if the united states and china are not cooperating, we have almost no chance of solving them. we are working along with others, we have a good chance. i view this relationship as very important. this will not be like other institutes. it will be a do-tank, not a think-tank. i have people who are action oriented.

we will look to negotiate and get important things done. now, china. the first question you asked was -- is china a threat? i get asked that all the time. are they going to knock us off of our perch? are they a threat to our position globally? let me begin by saying this very simply. we are by far the largest economy, the richest economy in the world. there is not another major economy -- we have significant issues, but all of them, including china, have much more daunting issues than we have.

our ability -- are problems of the to our of our own making. our ability to solve them is going to be more difficult if china has problems. those people through are rooting for china are rooting for the wrong thing. be careful what you wish for. if they have problems, our problems will be even more significant. no. two, if you look ahead, people say where are we going to be 10, 15, 30, 50 years from now. i will never ever bet against the united states of america. but if we are not continuing to be the world leader and the most powerful and important country on earth, it will not be because of china or any other nation, it will be because we did not have the wisdom and foresight or the political leadership to make the policy adjustments we need to make to stay competitive and stay on top. in terms of strength -- i will

get to the military in a minute. in terms of strength, including our military strike, is rooted in economics from. china understands that. everybody understands that. the most important thing we can do is fix our economy. that is number one. i get asked -- there is a story i saw in the washington journal, a picture of a chinese aircraft carrier. i can't ask a military question. what i say there, i cannot speak from experience. what i say in china and in the u.s. that there are a fair number of people in the united states who are concerned about china opposed the military involvement and the motives behind it. there are a good number of people and the asian region who are concerned about it. i believe that the key thing

that we need is trust. you only get trust 3 transparency. i am a big believer of military to military dialogues, transparency, trust building the military. but you look at the relations between the two countries, we have a lot of economic tension. 30 years ago, we did not have any economic relationship or tension. the good news was no tension, the bad news was we did not have a relationship. we had tension with the japanese or canadians or europeans. we have a lot of people who are used to working with the chinese. so when they have problems we know how to deal with that. the military's cannot trust or like each other as much. we really need the trust building. that is important. and i end with the strength. i am all for coming with the

position of strength. fixing our economic problems and being strong in asia. being strong diplomatically, be strong militarily in asia. >> now, we will take questions from the audience. there are some questions back there. >> thank you for taking my question. there are seven western countries suffering from the same disease -- high debt and high unemployment. discussions about how to control that. unfortunately, it has been cutting spending which is leading to higher unemployment and lower gdp. i have not heard a single politician, present, our prime minister lee out a plan to boost in gp which in the and the

traits prosperity and pays down the debt. are you aware of any plan anywhere in any country, most important, what would you do to create jobs and to pay down the debt? >> i am not going to comment on politicians. i have always tried to stay out of that. i will say that for myself, i think this is a about job growth, economic growth, job creation. this is as you say a problem in many parts of the developed world. i think even in the developing world, china has got a really difficult job to keep doing this. nowhere in the history of the world or any nation transformed itself so dramatically so quickly and the demand for

change is unrelenting. the chinese people have high expectations. i think it is going to be increasingly challenging for them to be as integrated as they are in the global economy and to continue to do things as well as they have been doing if they do not speed up the pace of reform. i think it is a challenge ever were. to get to your specific question, i do not think -- i do not believe in silver bullets. i think we need fundamental reform. the question is really our political system -- can't adapt to? the kinds of reforms that we need, i had talked about taxes a little bit. we clearly need -- if we had a tax system that incentivized savings and the capital accumulation and let us raise

revenues and a way that would make us still competitive, it would make a big difference. there are a couple of ways we can go, but it takes tax reform. i think trade is very important. i believe in trade. i think it is disgusting that we have not had wto agreement. we have not passed the free- trade agreements we had before congress. columbia, korean, so on -- again, it trade agreements. immigration -- my gosh. the idea that we have all of these bright people from all over the world to come to the united states. rather than state will that be shut or green card to their diploma, we send them back.

we send them back. we send job craters and innovators of this country. how stupid is that? the energy policy -- we can talk about what we need to do in energy policy. i have got one, i think we have to wait a while to figure out how to fund this. when you look at unemployment and you look at unemployment among the males 20 years old to 50 years old, and you look at the danger of young people being out of work, you can afford anything when you are gone other than not to work and not to grow. dealing with that, you simply need to think out of the box. you need to say, and this is a great country. there should be universal service for everybody. everybody gets training and then some sort of equivalent to a g i bill.

there are a lot of things that need to be done. i think the reason it is hard for politicians to talk about them is because they are not that difficult conceptually but as jack and i were talking, they are just not easy questions and washington. some like medicare are politically different, but there is not low hanging fruit because it is hard for democracies to do fundamental reform like we need. there are things that can be done that create jobs and growth, but we will have to be competitive to do that. >> thank you. other students with a question? >> i did not even get to education which is huge. >> in early 2008 when you were

brokering a deal between paris turns and j.p. morgan, you asked to j.p. morgan to decrease the price in the name of moral hazard. why did you think the shareholders should take responsibility and take the punishment for moral hazard and not the managers? >> let me say, the managers -- let me talk about moral hazard i really believe in moral hazard. no matter how good regulation is, it is unrealistic to think regulators will undercover the problems that the bank did not cover themselves unless you think the banks or intentionally tried to blow themselves up. what you need is every customer, every lender to the

banks, every shareholder, every borrower to be focusing on that bank. moral hazard. i believe in that. we did not have the emergencies to deal with bear stearns. it was either bankruptcy or be taken over. if you do not think management lost their job, it was gone. there was no wonder that up there was a bailout. but i was conscious of the fact that the fed -- the united states of america was assisting that transaction. so we got a call on thursday night that said, aquino what, we are going to fail. there will be bankruptcy of the government does not come in. there is something about a picture where it says the government will come and if there is more room -- the government should provide less

incentive. why should the government pay more so the shareholders can get something? i felt that. later, the deal could not get done. it would not get done without raising the price. a number of other said to me, you know, you are right. let us not get that -- let's not let that get in the way. this was not mean-spirited. it was the same thing the -- the aig was structured and away, so or fannie and freddie. the government was there, and the government was taking big losses and big risks. kenya imagine -- people call that a bailout. they almost shot me anyway. kenya imagine if we had taxpayers come in to pay for the shareholders? in those companies, management

and top ceos, they wanted fannie and freddie. we did not have all of the tools we need it. -- question over here. >> i have a follow-up to that with a moral hazard within the firm. as somebody who ran goldman, there will always be a situation where traders and managers are doing extremely convoluted, complex things and nobody at the top can fully understand what they are doing with the for's money. since they get paid on commission, it is heads i win, tails the firm loses. how can we do a better job of managing that risk? >> it is a huge issue. people focus on compensation and

the amounts. it is really more important is the system. this is something i focused on very hard with goldman sachs. first of all, people who pay formulaic compensation and give them a percentage of trading profits, they get what they deserve. they did not deserve -- the taxpayers got it as well. what happens then, if it is traders get a percentage of the upside and do not pay for their losses and that does not work, you should not have formulaic compensation. we were very with that.

the other thing you have is people who were shareholders and really had every incentive to look out for the firm overall. the last thing which i think many firms ignored, the control side on operations being the back office and look at cutting costs. what you need to do is put really experienced and capable people -- former traders, former bankers in the control side. you have to pay them the same way. you have to have great people. if there is an argument between them and the traders or the front office, they have to win. these institutions are not easy to run. risk management is very important. >> i think we started the century with a fairly balanced

balance sheet for this country. i did not go to dartmouth so i am a little slow, but i do not understand why have we not had a war tax, why are we not ask to pay for those two wars rather than out of art debt. >> a lot of people ask that question. what i come back with this is the answer i gave before. we clearly in my judgment need more revenues. if you look at revenues, if you look over a 40 year period, they have been roughly 18.2% of gdp or something like that. expenditures are 21% or 2 -- 22%. now, revenues are at 15%, right?

expenditures are high. we need more revenues. we have a tax system that is really broken. just really, really broken. it is filled with loopholes which is just one form of social spending or another. look at something like the mortgage deduction, i do not happen to have a big mortgage, but if i did what should i be able to deduct that? there are a huge loopholes. on the corporate side, we have a system that really does not let us, in my judgment, be competitive in the way we tax corporations. it is antiquated. we are out of step with the rest of the world. it is filled with loopholes.

different industries pay different amounts. we have a situation where almost half of the people in this country do not pay federal income taxes. they pay other income taxes, but it is a system where we need a fix. taxes are very, very important. i tend to not focus on should there be a war tax, what would be the rate, because i look at that is moving -- this is a bad analogy, but it is like moving the deck chairs a round. we need fundamental reform. we need to get the revenues in an equitable way, we will be competitive. if i repeat myself, i am sorry. >> secretary paulsen, i have a

question about another one of your passions. given what seems to be that has been divided on a partisan basis, what can we do to raise awareness about environmental issues and what role can the federal government play in trying to create awareness of an issue? >> to me, this is hugely important. i will just tell you what i am doing. my interests, personally, have always been in a wild beautiful places. biodiversity, working to help the first national parks and china in a non province or in chalet were doing things in the united states, working on a green force. that is what is fun for me because i like to be -- i am

very concerned about global warming, i am very concerned about all of the issues with energy efficiency, alternative sources of energy. the paulsen institute at the university of chicago, one of the major issues is going to be environmental. we are the two biggest economies, the two biggest emitters of carbon, the two biggest importers -- we have common interests. the only way we solve this problem is by developing and deploying new alternative sources of energy that are cost- effective. governments are not going to do that. there are a lot of things that

need to be done there. china right now is well ahead of us in terms of what they are doing. they need to do it. they have a huge issue. they have 1.2 billion chinese, and we have given them a very bad model here. 1.2 billion chinese cannot live the way we live in the united states. there are not enough resources in the world. you add another two or 3 million people it will not work. you need new models of growth. you need new models of energy efficiency. there is a lot that is going on in china. one of the first things i will do will be sustainable urbanization. it is not because i like to be in cities -- trust me, i would rather be in hanover then do york. but when you look at where the problem as, it is around water

which is a huge issue. you look at energy use, if you want to get some things done, we are going to have to have major breakthroughs. if it does not get done in countries like china and india, it will not get done. the kinds of things i pushed on are these. i often talk with people in india, china, other developing nations, and they say, you guys polluted when you went through your development phase. i said, we sure did. there are two things that are different. now we have science to know how bad it is, and we have technologies. it is very wrong to not be using the cleanest commercially available technology. i think it is morally and economically wrong to have

tariffs on environmental services. there is a whole series of things like that that i push on. i think these issues are very important issues. i happen to be an optimist because i believe that the experts are often wrong in terms of technology development. i love to tell the story that years ago i was working -- i forgot where it was with motorola. they had a consultant to a story a -- a study as to how big the market was for mobile telephones. they said 900,000. mobile phones were about this big, the battery lasted 15 minutes, it cost two dollars a minute. they did not see the huge upside through technology. i really think we need to develop clean technologies. sartre, you got me going on

something -- >> we have time for about two questions. actually, we are out of time. let us go up here for a question. >> thank you so much for sharing with us this afternoon. we all go home wiser and hopefully less worried. ice it hit my question is that you said the united states must be strong economically in china. can you expand on that how you think we should be stronger? >> how do we get stronger? i think a little bit was almost the way i answered the last question. it certainly is not spending more money on military. we spend multiples of what other countries spend on the military. even there, there is room to cut and still be strong. we have to spend in the right ways and the right places. it is very hard to cut military spending because part of this is jobs and politics and everything else.

what i think we need to do is that we need fundamental reform. i believe that the chinese and everyone understand economic strength. i think that bob's question about wall street was actually -- a big joke but it was a very good one. there was a time when people looked at us and look at us as having pixie dust. our capital markets for the in the of the world. it wanted to look like us. we have lost that. my chinese counterpart, when i would talk to him about opening capital markets because i thought they needed to open markets for their good, they were not going to be able to make the kinds of changes they needed to make unless the reformed and allocating capital

and added investment products for their consumers so they were not rip-off and getting less than inflation and so on -- but when i was making that case to them, he said he used to be my teacher. my teacher does not look so smart anymore given what has happened in your capital markets. i think for us, our strength has got to be -- i do believe our strength, our global pre- eminence is rooted in our economic power and all of the other things america represents. i think all of that is still here. we just need policies. the chinese are no different than anyone else. they understand strike. >> ok. >> right now, they look stronger than they are. i have great admiration for what they are accomplishing. we do not look as strong as we are. we have great underlying

strength. we just need some strong leadership and some policy reforms that will put our economy back on the right footing, and that could take a while. >> go down here to a student for the last question. a little bit over time. >> thank you for coming and talking to today. i am sorry to hammer on on the china issue. i think i recall goldman sachs that's all for maybe another american company predicting that the chinese economy would overtake the united states and around 2025 or something. how do you think we can compete in the long run? a basic level that if a chinese worker reaches half the productivity, it would still have doubled the economic output of the united states. >> let me go back to so-called

experts. when people draw lines and assume that these trends will continue and we are three times bigger than the chinese economy, there is a lot to this. first of all, if china has significant challenges. significant challenges. not the least of which is continuing to manage an economy where the pace of change is just so relentless and use a mix of administrative measures and market reforms. no economy just goes like this and our laws gravity forever. i hope china continues to do well. it is going to be a big benefit to us. let us talk about what their issues are. enormous challenges. the idea, there is huge issues

in terms of big wealth gaps and equities. they are working very hard to deal with that. they are dramatically increasing wages. wages are going up very quickly, and they need to increase domestic consumption because they realize there are too big to depend on exports and be depended on others and those for exports. which is what up 20% last year. imagine this, they cannot continue to grow unless they develop new energy models and new models for growth. they have big changes. one of the other issues they have got is they are in the middle of it -- it is political. to understand china, recognize that the last leadership change almost 10 years ago was the

first time a sitting chinese leader did not pick his successor. the party apparatus did that. this is the second time. there are all kinds of that -- they look to the lens of domestic stability. every decision they make whether it is economic, whether it is personal liberties, whether it is, you know, all of these things, it is going to be what gives us the most domestic stability. i happen to think what will give them the most domestic stability is speeding up the pace of reform and speeding up some of the personal freedoms and liberties. that is the case we need to make. they have got meaningful challenges. all i have got to say is do not bet against the united states of america. for that to happen, you could draw that china line forever,

priests and it will all be living like we are in the united states and there would not be enough resources in the world. it is impossible. they cannot keep growing like that forever. they need to change their growth curve. we need to get our job done. let me come back to what i said. china is an interesting for all. this interesting, this is too much about china. the question about where we are going to be, come back to what i said. this is not going to be about china, trust me. this will be determined by us. the policies that we put in place, that will be america. if china has problems, and i hope they don't, our challenge will be greater. we are integrated into a global economy. >> thank you very much, mr. secretary. [applause]

that is a pretty good place to stop, i think. you now have to ask jeff, the heavy heat. he is the next guest. >> i am asking the question. i can only imagine what he will ask you. my question is simple. today, we talked about our big need in this country, economic growth and jobs. jeff, you are serving right now as chairman of barack obama's jobs council. my question to you, what we need to do, what can be done in the short term to create jobs in this country? and more importantly, in the

longer term, what do we need to do to maintain competitiveness and create jobs in the united states of america? [applause] >> c-span has been following the gop 2012 presidential candidates at the iowa state fair, and we will show you some of their remarks at 8:00 eastern time. we will tell you -- to bring live coverage starting at noon eastern with a preview and some of the history of the event that is in the thirty second year. a number of republican presidential candidates will speak as well, live from iowa state university. you can also listen on c-span radio or stream any time on line at c-span.org.

for more on the presidential debate, we spoke with a congressional reporter. >> looking at the headlines, headline writers. the gop today hitting hard at each other and obama. iowa. the atlanta journal, gop hopefuls joust in iowa. gloves come off during the debate. this bird post, they like the gloves analogy -- pittsburgh post, they like the gloves analogy. what was noticeable for you last night? guest: the race sort of changed and solidified certain ndidates, starting to drop in contests and asking voters to choose. the most visible and exchange was between former minnesota gov. tim pawlenty and congresswoman michele bachmann.

they went at it quite aggressively in terms of michelle bachman basically saying tim pawlenty was to political, and hymns and she has no record. the-and he said she has no record. suddenly, mitt romney, was not really the target of attack, started to add a case against texas gov. rick perry who will enter the race looks like this week. use of mitt romney say, herman cain and i are the only ones who can only do this job because we a private sector experience. i think that washe beginning of an argument against rick perry. host: in the national polls, is an estimate the difference adding rick perry to the lineup. guest: it seems to draw a certain amount in the national polls, but those are pretty meaningless at this point did rick perry has a long way to go.

we will see. host: talk about the straw poll on saturday. c-span will provide live coverage, every minute of it. what will it mean in the end? guest: well, the straw poll, somewhere around 10,000 people probably who will come and be courted by these various candidates. it is a show of strength. right now, i think the reason youaw michelle bachmann and tim pawlenty attacking each other so fiercely, it is not how many candidates are scarcely surviving, it is a test of strength. host: it is likely so of the second and third tier candidates might decide the voters are speaking to them? guest: yes, but i guess the

media may essentially decided for them. tim pawlenty has been wking hard to win. he has -- he looks good on paper. there is a sense he has to show voters >> tomorrow, we continue live coverage of the gop candidates as they speak during the republican straw poll. coverage starts at noon eastern with a preview and a history of the event. a number of candidates will speak. we will bring that to you live from iowa state university. next, a look at working women in america and notions of pay equity, child care, and the work force. this is from today's washington

journal. ntinues. host: we are back for the final installment of looking at jobs in america. on monday, it was work force training programs. wednesday was public-private partnerships. thursday was the federal jobs program. our focus today will be women in the workplace. robert gross is the director of the census bureau. he will give us a statistical look how women are sharing in our society today. eileen appelbaum is a senior economist at the center for economic and policy research. she spent eight years as the head of the rutgers center for women in the workplace. let's start with the basic numbers. how many women are at work in our population today? guest: the number of women in the labor force has consistently increased over our lifetimes. i think we have a graph that

shows from the late 1960's to 2009, it shows a steady increase. the numbers of voice trailed those of men in the workforce. this is a component of the labor force working full time year round. you can see a steady increase on the 2009 figures. host: it looks as though proportionally, men and women were equally hit in the 2008 recession. guest: the effects of recession are fairly dramatic on full-time employment. at the right side of the chart, you can see that men suffered a little worse than women during the recession. most people relate that to the kinds of occupations and

industries men are working in. construction and manufacturing were really hit during the recession, affecting more men than women. host: you wrote a piece about men being hit early the women feeling the effects more now. guest: women have made a lot of progress in terms of employment and moving into better paying occupations. there's still a very strong gender division of labor in the country. manufacturing is overwhelmingly male. you can hardly find women employed in construction at all. women were employed in private education, health services, and the public sector more than men, especially of the state and local levels. during the recession, jobs were lost across the economy except for private education and health services. that is the only sector this of job growth throughout the

recession. women were hit as well as men. the big impact in the recession was in manufacturing and construction. it was overwhelmingly in men's jobs that were lost. in the recovery, women have. much -- in the recovery, women have. less well than men. there are two reasons for it. we are in an era or we are cutting services. state and local governments are in trouble because of the recession. they are having to cut services. these are largely women's jobs. we have seen k through 12 education take a huge hit. that is hard to understand when we know how important it is for the future to have good schools situations. that is not the whole story.

as the economy has recovered, we have recovered jobs in manufacturing and construction. in those two sectors, women have continued to lose jobs. we have had even more growth in health care and private education services. men were less than 1/4 of the work force in those industries and they have gotten more than 40% of the jobs in the recovery. ies that werer doing well, men are doing better than women. women are falling behind in the public and private sector. host: the phone numbers are divided into time zones. here are the numbers. if you are a woman calling in or

have someone in your family who is a woman in the work force and have an interesting story to tell, tell us about it. we would like to see how the statistics play out in your lives. you can also send us a message by twitter or e-mail as well. i want to ask whether the statistics bear out what we have just heard. guest: the current statistics often come from the bureau of labor statistics. we have a survey that gives us monthly estimates of employment and unemployment. it is a wonderful monitoring tool. she was citing those figures. that is from our sister agency. host: dr. groves, explain

the statistics gathered by your agency. guest: it is those agencies whose mission is the production of statistical information. they are measuring the heartbeat of society. they are doing this consistently and continuously in all of the cabinet departments of the federal government. host: explains with these -- explained what happens with the statistics when they are gathered. guest: the information comes from interviews and forms filled out by residents around the country. we rely on the people in the country to tell us how their life is going with the answers to our questions. reassembled those answers -- we assemble those answers into datasets. these statistics come from those answers. we cannot have these insights

into society without the cooperation of people throughout the country. they go to everyone. there is a wonderful thing about the federal statistical system. we released to everyone at the same moment. we all see it in this democracy of the same time. host: i have a question for you about policy developments that may affect women particularly. is there a committee in congress that specifically looks at women in the workforce? guest: both the house and senate have committees that look at the labor force and are concerned about issues that affect workers. we have access from the public has access -- and the public has access to bring their point of views to them.

there are initiatives congress and the white house are considering and have initiated. it will not just the women workers. women have a lot of the responsibility for families. there will be especially helpful to women. the congress is considering something called the healthy families act. this would guarantee to every worker that they would have a minimum of seven paid sick days a year. there are some jobs where you would not have any paid sick days at all. we have 40 million workers in this country, overwhelmingly women, because these are workers in food service, nursing homes, home health, child care centers. they have not even one paid sick day. if they get sick or a child gets

sick, they lose the income for that day. they could even be threatened with disciplinary action or fired. we need to do something about that. i am pleased to say congress is considering such legislation. host: there's been a big discussion in this town about a difference of earning power between men and women. you have several statistics on women's earning power compared to men. guest: the first one you have put up has to do with median earnings. that is the point where 50% of the people earn more or less than the midpoint. men are in the blue line. from 1960 to 2009, the pattern

of movement is shown for men and women. women always trail men in the median earnings. there has been a gradual coming together of alliance -- the liones. if you drill into this, women are making 77 cents for every dollar a man makes. part of the light of this is that women work in different occupations than men. this chart tells a story about how the percentage of women's earnings to men's median earnings differ by occupation. on the left are occupational groups that have low ratios of women's median salaries to men. thate right are those

have higher or more equal rates. those on the right, the middle job is relatively new industry and occupation. women went in there and are getting more equal pay. host: the others were more women's jobs. guest: they still are, more than 90%. where women predominate, men earn closer to women. host: our last guest was talking about the accomplishments of the administration. how has the labor law changed the landscape for women in the workforce? guest: it has put employers on notice that they had better be

careful in terms of discriminating in wages against women. we always thought if an employer discriminated in pay, a woman would have the right to bring a case and be reimbursed. the lower courts ruled that way. when the ledbetter case got to the supreme court, she was the only woman among 15 managers in her category at goodyear rubber. she did not find out until very late in the game that the men were being paid much more than she was. she was paid less than the lowest paid man, even though she had a lot of experience and was considered a good manager. she did not find out until late in the game. she brought the case. the supreme court said you only have a certain number of days from the time the first happens to bring the case. we moved to pass legislation to

take care of that situation. it did not happen in time for her, unfortunately. in january of 2009, a law was passed that says every time an employer gives out a paycheck that discriminates against an employee on the basis of gender, that is a new act of discrimination. you will not run into a situation where you find out about it later and they say is too late. host: this chart seems to indicate that there has been some progress made in the earnings ratio. guest: this chart is the ratio of women to men's earnings over time. there were times of. -- there were times of gains in times of flattening. the last 10 years is a relative flattening of the curve. it has not moved. most people make the

observation that women work in different occupations. the second thing they note is the average numbers of hours worked per week varies by men and women with women intending to have fewer hours. then there is the interruption of careers for women more than men. host: there is the usual number of hours worked per sex. guest: this is the reports of people in our survey of the number of hours they work usually. the male rate is generally flat. the female rate is slightly increasing. these are reports a full-time

women. host: people are working fewer hours in full-time jobs. guest: the usual definition of full time is 35 hours or more. guest: people are being forced to work fewer hours. we have millions of men and women who have been put on short hours by their employer or have part-time jobs when they wanted full-time jobs. host: these are the major occupation groups with mothers of preschoolers are opting out of the work force. guest: this is reporting the% of women who held a job in a particular occupation group. many of them dropped out of the labor force. the first thing to note is that

3/4 of the women who give birth remain employed. these are the rates of those who drop out. there are stark differences across occupational groups. one story of of this is that those jobs and occupations that require greater education have lower rates of dropping out of the labor force. it is a rare phenomenon. only 1/4 of mothers drop out of the labor force. it varies by occupation. guest: one reason we see that professional and managerial women are not dropping out is that most of these women have the ability to have paid time off when they have the child. they work for employers who have insurance, or they have generous sick leave or

vacation benefits. if women are able to take unpaid time off from work, they overwhelmingly return to work with the same employer. it is the women who lack the ability to keep their job out of the workforce -- if you can maintain your relationship with your employer, you are much more likely to come back to work with the same employer. the cost of recruiting and training workers is very high. even in the lowest paid jobs, this is a major expense for the employer. when you drop out of the and come back in, you are not on the same step of the escalator that you were on. you are lower down. you never catch up.

it is important we have policies that make it possible for women to draw a partial wage replacement while they're having a baby and return to the job that they had. we have that in california and new jersey. they are completely employer paid and have worked really well. host: we will start with kay on twitter. she said that today, working full-time get your food and gas money. the first call is from nancy in pennsylvania. caller: i have a story to tell. i was working for an insurance adjuster. i was the only woman working. i was in a managerial position. i found out the men were getting paid more than the to do the

same job. i asked my employer about it. he said he did not feel he needed to pay me as much as the man. this was in the 1990's. host: what did you do when you have that information? caller: i kept on working. however, the irs came in to the office. they were looking for this man. i told them he was out in the field somewhere. they told me this man was not reporting any of my deductions and they thought i needed to leave the firm. i did leave. i was very hurt about it. i went to the unemployment office. they said because i walked off the job, i would probably not be receiving unemployment. i did get a letter from them.

i did file a case. i did win. the employer did show up. he told the representative at the unemployment office that he wanted me back, that i was a good worker. the representative told him he was messing with my social security and that in the future, it will hurt me. this man was paying me by check. he was paying the other people under the table. host: i am going to ask eileen appelbaum about how the courts have responded to cases like that. guest: every state and large

city has a wage and hours board. i would hope someone will file a complete their. i am glad she was able to get unemployment compensation. this is clearly an employer of you would not want to work for. today we have lawyers in many states who will take these cases for women. we have been quite successful in litigating them and winning back pay and social security for women. host: the next call is from california. john is on the line. caller: i would like to know what guidelines or agency goes by to hire disabled workers since the last census. guest: we had over 3.8 applicants for jobs. we probably hired over 1 million

people in 2010. it was a massive effort. the process we used was as sensitive as possible for the hiring of those with physical and other ailments. the job of the numerator, the largest number of jobs we hard for, requires people to drive to areas, walk the streets, and knock on doors. we have a lot of office jobs. tempted -- we attempted to reach out to various communities to make sure people working on the labor force reflected the communities they were working in as much as possible. host: los angeles, may, you are on the air. caller: i wanted to ask mr. groves about the surveys they

send out. if a person is selected, what is the magic word to stop the "harassment"? they call at all hours of the day and night. they send letters by ups or federal express. this has been going on for months. you sit down for a nice dinner, the phone rings. they're calling you again. this has been going on for months and months. i have lost them not to call and they do not listen. -- i have asked them not to call and they do not listen. guest: i would ask you to consider how we get information about our country and the things we're talking about today. we know these things only

because people throughout the country to a few minutes to answer the survey is. this may not be interesting to you, but it is important for us at this time in our history to attract help people are getting how people are getting jobs and how they are doing. it is important to have cooperation. if you take a few minutes, we would appreciate it and the country would benefit. host: this is a debate you often hear discussed around the family dinner tables. jim tweets that he was told that women working led to the necessity of to income households and the disintegration of families. is that true?

can you answer that statistically in any way? guest: we can track the prevalence of dual career couples. it is unambiguous in the data. dual income households are quite common. the lie of this is not a trivial question. what are the mechanisms that produce social change? that is something scholars have been studying for decades. host: what is your response? guest: women have been entering the work force since 1910. there are two main forces that pushed some women into the workforce. the first is education. as women have become better

educated, the country needs their skills. women have wanted to use their skills. they have gotten this education. there are interesting jobs for you to do if you want to be part of it. that is one aspect. the second aspect has been the decline in wages of men without a college degree. we have had stagnant wages in the middle and declining wages for people below the middle. even those with college degrees have not seen their wages rise recently. starting in the early 1970's, the wages for men began falling. working-class men resisted having their wives go to work. it was a badge of shame. the last group of women to enter the workforce in large numbers were those married to men without a college degree.

i think the caller has the timing back woods. what happened was that it became so difficult to make ends meet on a man's salary as wages did not keep up with living expenses that women did begin to work. we have the increasing dual income earners. high-paying women earn high- paying men. families become more unequal. host: you are beginning to see discussion of the high cost of college and the loans and whether it is worth it. guest: i will give you a quick answer to it. on average, college educated workers make more. people have to realize there is a widespread. many high school workers are making more than those who are

college educated. if you were at the bottom of your class in high school, when you get through college, where will you be in the distribution after you graduate? one thing that is really unfortunate in this country is that we look down on people who pursue vocational education. the high schools in new jersey are rated on how many kids go on to college. they do not ask for the graduate, only that they enter. they do not give any credit for men and women who go into apprenticeship programs. it may be much better and more practical for some to get a good paying job that way. host: we have about 22 minutes left. let's go to the societal change

about women going to college. that is well-illustrated in two graphs you have. guest: these are my favorites. there is a massive social change we have seen. the first starts way back in 1940. it is tracking the percentage of adults with a bachelor's degree or more. look at the difference between men and women. the trailing of women has been repaired. there is now a time at about 30%. if you drill into the data for younger women, this is a massive change.

you can see a real crossing of the sexes. these younger women are achieving higher rates of college degrees. anyone who has been on a college campus these days have seen this over the last 10 years. this will change our society in future years in ways that we will all see. host: i am going to try to decode this twitter message. it says that corporations controlled too much. steve is on the air from detroit. caller: women at work in

industries represented by unions make the same pay for the same job as men. we need more union representation in this country. unions are not a bad thing. guest: i would endorse that view. we have large numbers of women in jobs in home health and home care. people come in and help disabled folks get ready for the day or take care of the fragile elderly. these jobs are extremely low- paid. the only way we have been able to make any progress at all is when the workers have been able to organize. they are able to do that in california. that makes a huge difference in the dignity and pay of the job. immunized -- in unionized workplaces, women are paid the same as men. at women rising

into management ranks and halt that has changed. guest: this is a fascinating movement. this reflects the percentage of managers who are women. you can see it's pretty massive jump -- you can see a pretty massive jump between 1970 and 1990 and then a flattening. the jump coincided with a large jump in labor force participation by women. there is some slacking off of the rate of growth of labor force participation in the last 20 years. there is a flattening on the managerial ranks. host: what is the effect of more women managers on the work

place? guest: women managers manage women. they are rarely found in the top ranks. some companies have made a huge effort to integrate women into the top ranks in financial- services and pharmaceuticals, but they are still the exception. host: fort wayne, indiana, welcome to the conversation. caller: whenever anyone mentions women getting paid 78 cents to the dollar, he said no. some of us choose to do what we rather than going for the pay. i have been married almost 50

years. i love my job. i made a change about 25 years ago leaving a job that helped to send my children to college to go into something i really wanted to do know when it paid much less. but i made a choice. if i had been divorced or widowed and had to choose something to be paid more, and may have worked more hours. but it was a choice. host: your family situation gave you the opportunity to make different choices. caller: when they throw these statistics are, everyone jumps on "same job and same pay." but when you throw out a blanket statistic that you only get

paid 70 cents to the man's dollar, people interpret that differently. i do think women make choices. guest: the caller is right. the overall rate of 70 cents per dollar for women to men does not tell the whole story at all. there are a variety of drivers. the first is occupational choice. the caller was noting that sometimes choices are made better not income-maximizing. this chart points out that what occupation you have chosen also affects the ratio or is related to it. certain occupations have a bigger disparity between the sexes than others. people sometimes make choices about how many hours they work

within an occupation. sometimes they are told how many hours to work. that affects these ratios as well. host: the next call is from california, david. caller: of like to comment on the statistics when women began entering the workforce. the way i see it, we have a higher rate of divorce in america. in 1975, i believe that is when it all began. men left families and forced women to go to work. it was unfair. that was when it started. as more women into the workforce, it made sense for women to manage women. women work very hard. they go to work and come home and manage the home, cook,

clean, and take care of the children. that is a burden that is unfair. major steel companies began shutting down. an entire work force the sustained generations of families was completely gone. people were laid off. one gentleman could not find another job. he wound up hanging himself because of depression. an entire family was wiped out. when men do leave their families based on economic reasons -- the number one cause of divorce in america now is financial situations. guest: the caller makes a very good point. we have lost a big part of our manufacturing base in this country. the latest figures show our

trade deficit being up again. there is nothing wrong with trade or importing goods provided you are also exporting goods. one thing we have had happened in this country is that our dollar has become overvalued. we hear about wanting to have a strong dollar. that is not good for manufacturing or the kinds of jobs the caller was talking about. if we had a dollar that reflected imports and exports, manufacturing jobs would increase again and we would be able to have a strong manufacturing base. hopefully, a lot of those jobs will go to women as well as men toward gender equality in the workplace. i do agree we have lost a lot of good paying jobs because of our trade policies.

host: these statistics are all on the census department website. you can find the women in the work force statistics we are using this morning. you have a number of statistics about women as small-business owners. we keep hearing that small business has been the engine of economic recovery and job growth. florida, louise is up next. caller: i wanted to ask the florida governor this earlier. i am 65 and recently went on social security. for many years, i worked as a housekeeper at a large hotel resort chain on the beach. i never made more than $20,000, if i was lucky.

after the bush tax cuts to defect, our employer made one housekeeper do the work of two or three workers. if you did not perform to their demands from the hotel manager would threaten to give your job to an illegal at a lower wage. i know of many hotels to pay illegals under the table. how come florida can get away with giving our jobs away to the illegals? guest: i think the bigger question is how can the employers do away with driving down wages and speeding up work? this is a disgrace. it is true in the hotel industry throughout this country. we have done studies on it. i edited a book that took a look of this. as an earlier caller said, the only thing standing the twin employees and that kind of thing is a union. unionized hotels, workers were

not able to speed up the workers in the same way and drive down the wages. it is outrageous that hotel housekeepers in our fanciest hotels are paid the same as housekeepers at a motel 6. those fancy hotels can afford to pay decent wages and benefits and should be doing it. caller: i am the first time caller. i wanted to add to the comment about many companies cutting talented people because of their high pay. i have been involved in companies that have gone under because it looked good to get rid of the high salaries, but all the talent walked out of the shop. i have worked as a supervisor and engineer in the automotive industry, aerospace, and

military contracting. i am having a difficult time finding a job. the main thing is you have to have a degree. i could not afford to go to school. i have more experience than someone coming right out of college. they are not hiring people to be in a schoolroom environment. they will be working. i have the majority of that experience, but i am not considered. guest: there is the benefit of the college degree. it is unfortunate. we know that there are more than four unemployed workers for every job opening. a person like our caller facing a decent labor market would definitely be hired. employers have their choice right now. lots of people who could be doing a good job and making an important contribution to our

economy are cut out in an economy with such high unemployment. host: cynthia is calling from colorado. caller: i am aware we have become primarily a consumer spending and consumer based work force in the country while our manufacturing is almost disintegrated -- has almost disintegrated. i am curious as to why we cannot make more things and import less. guest: this is a very good question. i think it is because we have not paid attention to the importance of maintaining the strong manufacturing base. if the country wants to have higher productivity growth, decent wages and good jobs, be able to balance trade, it has to be producing.

it is not a question of wages being too hard. among the industrialized countries, with one of the lowest paid manufacturing work forces. it is because they're committed to having a strong manufacturing base. they have policies that make it possible. they have business development policies that make it possible. we do not want to do that. the result is what we have seen. that is a hollowing out of manufacturing in the disappearance of those jobs. host: let's go to women-owned businesses. guest: this slide we will look at describes the percentage of businesses owned by women. this includes those that have

employees and those that do not. it may be a travel agent working out of her home by herself providing travel services, all sorts of service-related professions or businesses themselves even though they are small. the vast majority of businesses are very small. this chart tells us that women are entrepreneurial and increasing in those activities. the growth of women-owned businesses between 1997 and 2007 was about 47%. it roughly doubled the rate of growth of men-owned businesses. host: these are pre-recession numbers? do you have any idea what happened after the recession?

guest: this comes from 2007. our budget allows us to do these every five years. we hope there will be an update on this and what happened over that time. the latest figures here are pre- recession. that is fair to say. the next slide looks at the percentage of all employees who working women-owned firms. that is much smaller. only 15% of the employees work in those. that tells us indirectly that these tend to be smaller businesses that women own. another look at this asks the question about what kind of sales and receives these businesses have. from left to right, we move from very small businesses with less

than $5,000 of sales and a year to those with up to $1 million or more. we're looking at the percentage of all firms. host: more women-owned businesses have smaller receipts. guest: german-owned businesses, the equivalent number is probably about 18% or so. host: this one is industries with high and low women ownership. guest: this is related to the occupational differences we saw at the individual level. you can see on the left are the industries where there are higher rates of female ownership of businesses. on the right are the industries with low numbers.

host: could you explain what these are? guest: the first bar has about 62% women ownership. these are businesses in health care and social assistance. all of the service-oriented industry classifications tend to have hired women ownership. host: educational services is the next. that harkens back to our earlier discussion about the industries that attract women employees and owners. guest: they go to where they have an opening. host: the next call is from ohio, rich.

are you there? caller: there seems to be a graph missing of men who are supporting families. a lot of times, a woman as they're able to take care of the kids. there is no charge keeping track of that. it is a handicap. we're kind of fighting men versus women on these jobs. a lot of women are getting hammered on this. if we reduce our dollar, we will get more bids -- goods shipped. that will hurt us. guest: on your first point, we did not bring those kinds of statistics.

there is a rich set of data on this that can be seen on our website. the bureau of labor statistics had a wonderful series looking at how households entered the labor force and the proportions that are dual or single earners. guest: i do not think we're talking about men versus women. i think we're talking about an economy that is not creating jobs sufficient to employ all the men and women who would like to have jobs. what we are considering is how we have a labor market that is better able to serve working families, that makes it possible for men and women to be good parents as well as good employees. i do not think this is a male versus female issue.

host: ethel is calling from tennessee. caller: everybody is -- host: let me interrupt you. we have one minute left. caller: i want to talk about the women of higher salary. the men make a higher salary than the women. i was at the post office from 1980 to 2000. i did have a husband. host: i am so sorry.

we are out of time for the program. the last question is about wage disparity. guest: an earlier caller pointed out that people should be able to choose the occupations they like. we know a lot of women enjoy care occupations. there is no reason why these occupations should pay wages solo. they're taking care of the most vulnerable members of society. these jobs should pay to send -- decent wages and have decent benefits. since there overwhelmingly female, that would make a huge difference. host: