host: "there's a growing feeling we should go behind rick santorum." the possible backing of rick santorum. guest: it would be a nice situation. in the past, they tried to do something very similar and found a big difference and it would be a very positive thing if they

were to call last behind rick oalesce. -- to cal i think there is a strong possibility. host: "he has to come in second in new hampshire to be viable." host: tell us what you know about his organization in the state of new hampshire. guest: that is a big misnomer. rick santorum has been working on the ground in all three of the primary states, iowa, new hampshire -- he has been visiting but working the states.

the fact that the won in iowa is a reinforcement of retail politics. the iowans and those from new hampshire will be taking their role as first in the nation very seriously. they have been having the opportunity to scrutinize all of the candidates who visit with them. pricks' santorum has been here and put the time -- rick santorum has been here and met with people in large groups and small groups will be evidence in what happens on tuesday. host: so you think is a retail politics will trump the staffing? guest: i think is on the ground

staffing -- it is small but effective. his campaign manager is very experienced in doing retell politics. i think that they have been doing hard work. senator santorum in pennsylvania was very much that retail politics type person who would go out and meet with people one-on-one. the combination of these two is evident in the results of iowa, and i think they will carry through it to new hampshire. i think we will be surprised to how well senator santorum does in new hampshire. host: david is calling from michigan. caller: i would like to commend you on your matter that you're

presenting this case. it is very good and i can tell you are a sincere person. you could ban abortion and gay marriage tomorrow and it would not create one job tomorrow. more marriages fall apart through economic concerns as opposed to a gay couple down the street. when the republicans had control of the white house and both houses of congress, there was no legislation to ban abortion or gay marriage. it seems to be an issue you bring forward and outside of the marriage act, i do not see how anyone plans to ban abortion

or gay marriage. it seems to be in issue for these single-issue voters. you bring this up for them and more marriages have fallen apart because of economic reasons and supply side economics is something that has caused our economic situation to get as bad as it has, in my opinion. host: thank you for your call. guest: it is interesting he brings this up. when we go back and look -- there are a lot broken families. if you look at what is causing the expansion of our spending, a lot of it falls into the area

of health and human services, which addresses the fallout of the breakdown of the family. if you have a company that promotes marriage and encourages their people to stay married -- their people to stay married and those programs to help marriage's stay together, they tend to do is very much better than your average company. the reality is that if you have a worker who was going through a divorce or facing a problem because of a breakdown of the family, they are less focused on their job. they tended to take more time off -- they tend to take more time off. the family is the economic building blocks of our economy. we cannot ignore that.

this is not just a piece of -- a carrot that somebody will jump onto just because they have one issue on this thing. our constitution and the declaration of independence, which is the conscience of the constitution, our declaration of independence says will protect life, we will protect the family in that essence because those are gifts from god. there are there because -- the biggest problem we have in the breakdown of the family was when we decided your word was no longer valid, that you no longer had to stay committed to your family. that came about with no-fault

divorce. look at the immigrant families that came to our country. they had large families and in some cases they were single- parent families. in most cases they were two- parent families where both the mother and father were working so that they could live. their divorce rates were miniscule, 1% and 2%. they were committed to their family. their word meant something. this is something we have to go back to in our country where a gentleman's agreement is based on a person's word, not 15 pages of legal documents that try to cover every possibility.

then somebody comes in to try to find a loophole to break it down. whatou don't have life, matters is what laws you pass or jobs you create. we need to protect the family. that is the best environment in which to bring up our children. we're not against any one thing. this is the best model and we should strive to get it. host: is in our studios and c- span has been covering new hampshire primary since 1984. next call is from nashua, new hampshire. caller: good morning.

where is part santorum on the definition of marriage -- rich santorum -- rick. guest: he believes marriage is between a man and woman and that this is the best environment in which to bring up our children that will be created from that union. host: he spoke about that at the university yesterday, a college convention in concord, new hampshire. this is the headline from it. the story goes this way -- host: i would like to play for you a statement that has been well covered with the president talking about black people and

entitlements. i'm sure many of our viewers have seen it. i'd like you to tells what you think he is saying. clip: i was talking to several departments and she told me the state of iowa will be fined if they do not sign up more people under the medicaid program. that is what the bottom line is. i don't want to make black people's lives better by giving them somebody else's money. the best way to do that is to get the manufacturing sector of the economy rolling again. host: karen testerman. guest: that is exactly what we are talking about.

we're trying to get the blue- collar, the everyday person back into employment, not making them dependent upon by expanding the amount of time that they will be receiving aid from the government. it is interesting that reports showed that when you give a person unemployment benefits for a certain period of time, they will not get a job until they are within two weeks of losing that unemployment insurance. it is something that we need to look at. senator santorum worked on the welfare reform bill. they said if you are going to get welfare, you must have a job and work at the same time and we want to help you get educated so that you can get a

job. there were some real requirements for you to remain on welfare. we want to give you a hand up and the ability to start to get a job afterwards and continue to grow in employment in some way, in a craft or any skill, but we do not want to make you depended upon the government. we want you to be self- motivated and we want you to be -- i am missing the words here. we want you to be able to provide for yourself and your family. the old adage that whoever pays the piper calls the tune. they will tell us how to do things as long as we're on

government subsidies. if they can give it to us, they can also take it away from us. we need the people to be able to take care of themselves so they can expand -- host: we're running out of time. a number of critics of the senator felt that by referencing black people he was stereotyping. what is your reaction to is reference to black people in that clip? guest: i think there were probably black people in the audience and he does not normally perforce to them as "black." i think that that is something that some not just grab a hold of and was trying to marginalize him. this is a man who is trying to get the bulk of america back

into the workforce come into making jobs and becoming the america that we have been in the not one that is and dependent upon the government. host: not much time for this last call from baltimore, michael. caller: i think you do a good job, susan. i would like to ask about senator santorum's attitude towards gay people. i saw a clip of him where he disagreed with the supreme court case of lawrence versus texas -- i am a little bit nervous. i would like to know what he would like to see happen to us.

does he want to re-medicalize homosexuality? i get so sick every four years of being a wedge issue. guest: i agree with you. i believe you have a right to do whatever you want to do. the largest case invited the government into your -- the invited theence case government into your bedroom. marriages between a man and woman. that has been in place for years, for hundreds of years, since the beginning of time. let me clarify. host: are these your views?

guest: these are representati ng senator santorum. if you redefine marriage, where are you going to stop? marriage has been between a man and woman. it has grown our civilization, our country, and that is where the next generation is propagated. what most of the people who are calling in on this issue are looking for legal things that can be done. i have to go to a lawyer today in order to get a medical provision from my husband to be able to be my oversight. if i want to go into a hospital, i have to get permission from a hospital to be given my medical

information. that's something they are arguing that does not exist. they have every right to get the medical provisions, to pass on etc., ifl property, its s they go to a lawyer. i have to do the same thing. host: we ran over by a couple of minutes. karen testerman, we appreciate your time. guest: thank you, susan. host: we return to robie's country store. host: we are with two local characters, you could say. let me begin with you about the primary. have you decided who you're

voting for? guest: no. as far as a plan -- it seems to meet the president is a pawn and the congress is the manipulators. the way the country is being run now, i disapprove. host: how did that factoring in your decision making? you are waiting for what? guest: i do not know. it seems like you have mr romney, who comes from money. then you have newt gingrich and rick santorum. winnie's somebody new, a summit that will change the whole system around -- we need

somebody knew, somebody that will change the whole system. host: would you vote -- will you vote? guest: i will vote. host: what do they need to say to you? guest: 8 change about the way things will be run in congress. they cannot be in there for it lifetime term. get out and get somebody else in with new ideas and get the country running again. there are people out of work. people are struggling. it is around us all day long. every day?om eie in guest: every day. host: does a contentious -- does

it get a contentious? guest: i probably will vote for mitt romney. i think he is more moderate. host: he has been here all lot. guest: he is not getting any traction. i think mitt romney is the best. i think we need to change who we have now. host: why? guest: there are no plans for jobs. they are not doing anything to expand the economy. host: but you will vote on tuesday? guest: i voted every year since i turned 21. host: are you tired of politics?

guest: no. i love it. we should fight to the end to keep this primary here. this is our idea. host: all right, thank you both. host: we continue on this friday morning. andy smith is with us. he is the director of the service center of the university of new hampshire. we will focus in on the population an electorate of new hampshire. thank you for being with us. we just heard that resident of new hampshire defending the new hampshire primary. that is what we wanted to look at the people who live in new hampshire. give us an overview. guest: a small state, about 1.3

million people. it is largely white among the adult population. it is a wealthy state. gh income.cation, hidin eight wealthy, largely suburban state. most of the area of the state is more compacted by the bad economy than the suburban area of the state. host: we will talk about new hampshire residents. we have a line set aside for the people of new hampshire, as well. who is new hampshire today? the have the extraordinary spotlight on them -- they have. we welcome your comments and questions.

a couple of bullet points. the population is about 1.3 million people. host: let's look at the population growth numbers. we have some charts about new hampshire's population growth. new hampshire exceeds in projection the growth figures of its neighboring new england states. what is bringing people to new hampshire? guest: new hampshire is the only state in the northeast that has experienced significant population growth over the past several decades. a large amount of that is

suburban sprawl coming across the border from massachusetts and southern new hampshire. people commute into the greater boston area to work. there are certain advantages to living in new hampshire compared to living in massachusetts. we asked people who moved out of massachusetts why they moved to other states. the number-one reason is that housing is cheaper here. you could find a house $100,000 less. also, taxes were lower in new hampshire. that is something that is quite attractive to people and to businesses. they have been able to bring business here and businesses bring jobs with them.

there were fewer democrats and liberals in new hampshire than in massachusetts. we have the last of the republicans who moved across the border. it is a beautiful state. we have mountains and oceans and beautiful towns. it is a great place to live. people move here may be to let a second home and decided they want to live here permanently -- people moved here to maybe have a second home. it is a great state to raise kids. environmental reasons, social reasons. host: how did it do during the recession? guest: we did pretty well. our unemployment rate is below

the national average. we are third or fourth with the lowest unemployment rates in the country. we tend to come out of recessions more quickly. economists argue that because of the tax structure and the economic structure of the state that relies on high levels of education who can move from one type of business into another car move their product from one market to another. there's more flexibility. host: the unemployment number is 5.2%. the foreclosure rate is one out of every 735 housing units. those numbers do not seem to go together. guest: the banking systems in

new hampshire are in pretty good shape. that means they can foreclose on houses. often banks are in such bad shape that they do not want to foreclose on homes because they will have to do something with that bad debt. it is less problematic to carry a bad loan rather than to foreclose. it is higher but not as high as that figure indicates. caller: hello. i'm a first-time caller. happy new year. thank you for being non-biased. the economy is slow but it is getting better. the republican party does not

want it to get better because they want to get in. but they are not for all people. the republicans only talk about those with the money. they are going to ruin the lower and middle class. when the workers go to another tax bracket, we pay higher taxes. the rich should, too. the housing industry destroyed. i like to say to all republicans -- rick santorum, you have good ideas. ron paul has got ideas. good ideas onul's letting the congress work part- time. they are not going to do it. good ideas.s denied

i come from a big family. ere porr.t know we worked f or. -- poor. ho host: what are the major industries in new hampshire? guest: the biggest employers in the state -- first it is walmart. after that, bae systems. fidelity mutual insurance, the mutual fund company has a large presence in new hampshire. liberty mutual insurance has more employers in new hampshire

than in massachusetts. some people in the finance section and real estate section of the state. our biggest employer is the tourism sector. new hampshire has been one of the first places where destination tourism started in the united states. we have a summertime tourism and we have wintertime and tourism because there is snow in the mountains. tourism is the biggest employer in the state. small manufacturing is the driver of the new hampshire economy. more money is generated from that sector than the tourism sector. we're to believe right in the top five or six in terms of the highest median income for households. there is very low poverty in new hampshire.

we'll start with have the lowest poverty rate in the country. it is a very compressed incumbent pyramid. host: a snapshot of the hampshire. days before the primary. caller: hello. new hampshire is most likely beautiful if it is close to maine. i notice newt gingrich and rick santorum talking about welfare and food stamps. are people talking about g.e. and the major corporations not paying a dime in federal taxes and sometimes getting rebates? no one is bringing this up. host: thank you very much. federal taxation. guest: it resonates in new

hampshire. we don't have an income-tax or sales-tax. we have a pledge which local politicians are required to take that they will not pass an income tax or sales tax if they want to be a governor in new hampshire. george w. bush broke that and was a major reason he suffered a challenge from pat buchanan. tax issues are near and dear to people in new hampshire. when you talk about some of those things, you're getting into minutia. i would doubt people can point where the cayman islands are on a map the alone the tax policy of these banking havens. the candidates are not talking about that because the voters

are not bringing that up as an issue. this is something that is important to the caller, but this is not something that's been coming up over the course of the town hall meetings and not something we are seeing in our polling. host: new hampshire, a republican. caller: good morning. i have been a resident of new hampshire for 33 years. i'm in the real estate business. we've been hit the hardest up here. i think we're probably hire nationally because of the investment in the vacation homes. people from massachusetts are losing their home than in other areas. that will pushes up quite a bit. host: what are you seeing about

the economy and which way to keep moving in the state? caller: we were hit harder because of the vacation homes. host: is that affecting the overall economy? are you seeing signs of improvement? caller: we're probably getting because of this year the economy and because of the snow. it us yet.had as y host: you mention that tourism dollar being important to the state. guest: the white is green in the northern part of the state. we have not had much snow. an inch of snow in boston is worth a foot of snow in the

mountains about being a good day to go skiing or not. the rural parts of the state is largely driven by tourism and hard hit by ups and downs in the tourism business. the tourism business in new hampshire has gone down. with that people coming across the border from canada. the canadian dollar is strong. we're importing tourists from the north rather than the south. host: we had two guests this week including the mayor of manchester, two different views of the demographic. let's listen. clip: it is to most white state in the country behind only

vermont. it is in the low single digits. clip: mitt romney was at central high school yesterday. 2400 students, 80 different languages being spoken at that school. there is great diversity. we have people coming in from all countries that sell all right here in manchester. host: who is right? guest: they are both right. 96% of the adults are white. there is diversity within the large cities. the center of nashua is becoming ethnically diverse. the rest of the state is really, white.ly host: donald is a democrat from

michigan. good morning. caller: first time i got through. host: that is great. caller: i just came back in the house and the last part of the interview with the two gentlemen rothe round table in nei sie's diner, whatever it was. they complained about things not being working. they seem to indicate that congress is whether problem is at. the gentleman that called in about the cayman islands and the

tax shelter down there, he aws ed to indicate the l have to be changed. something beyond the scope of the president. your comment, please. guest: i do not want to get to the debate in the presidential election, whether the president is at fault for the state of the comet or the congress or republicans in the house of representatives. i think republicans and democrats will have ample opportunity to make their case in the coming months. blaming the president -- when the economy is bad, everybody is angry and they're looking for somebody to blame. that is the political implications of a bad economy.

if the economy is bad, and there is a sour mood and that will be the big political battle fought out in november. host: we have a comment on twitter. we have another set of numbers on party registration. there is an undeclared statistics that seems to have dropped during this decade and rising again. these are census department numbers of republicans, democrats, and on declared in lared.ate -- undec guest: the undeclareds are referred to as independents.

most of them have partisan leanings. 35% are democrats and behave like registered democrats. only about 30% of those are trulyeds independent. the state has not become more partisan. it has been easier to state registered as an independent. if you are not declared, they will ask you which party ballot you want to take. when you leave, you can change your registration back to un declared. historically you would have had to make a separate trip to change your registration backto to undeclared.

a lot of people voted in the primaries and went the primariesin 2008. a lot of those people talk about for the republicans or the democrats and probably forgot to fill the form as they walked out. now they're registered as members of the party in whose primary they voted. the secretary of state purges the voter list periodically. undeclareds get purged more. they tend to move in and out of the state more frequently. the migration into hampshire is very important. it is not just the percentage of overall migration into the state. we have upwards of 200,000

people per year that churn back into new hampshire. it is not a stable population. those people who are most likely to be registered undeclared of the new arrivals into the state. host: if we look of these numbers, my parents differ in what way? guest: this points out what is happened over the last 20 or 30 years. we have seen a shift where roughly where evenly balanced between republicans and democrats and the election represents that. so democrats are a slight

plurality over republicans. people are far more likely to be democrats then those people that lived here for years and years. so the old republicans are either dying or retiring to further or points further south. that is changing the politics of the state and it is likely to continue as the older republicans die and the new people move in. people moving in from massachusetts tend to be slightly republican. the rest of the migration is making the state more democrat. host: the blue area of the map, democrats.

red for republican. mountain city, tennessee -- guest: it is important to see were the republican vote is clustered. it is clustered along the corridor of 93 which runs from manchester down to boston. that area is often called the bermuda triangle. that is those people who have moved over the border from massachusetts and that is now the core of republican base in the state. host: the tip of the state has state gop. guest: it has but they're very few people there. more moose than people. host: danny from tennessee.

caller: i used to have made small business framing houses. i wrote big checks and pay my taxes every year. i want to explain something to people that do not understand this. i didn't pay no taxes. that was figured into the price i bid to frame house. they do not pay taxes now matter how big of a check they write to the government. it was figured in before they ever started building the product that you bought off the store shelves. republicans will say that or not said that at all, really. democrats will say -- tax the wealthy, tax the corporations.

whoever finds their product is paying that tax because it doesn't matter how big the check is that they are rwrite. they are not paying it. it is good business. host: comments from danny. a question for our guest, andy smith. this is from twitter. guest: i do not know what the numbers are. we have the lowest poverty rate in the country. i could not tell you too much about that. i should get back to -- we talk

about race. the non-white population is asians, not african-americans or hispanics. the minorities we have tend to be highly educated compare with minorities in other parts of the country. the welfare population is going to of a higher representation of hispanics and african- americans than the overall white population. the overwhelming percentage of the poor population is white and largely rural white. caller: thank you for taking my call. did i hear you correctly that an undeclared democrat can vote

in the republican primary, and is and that a dishonest system? truly they are a democrat but they are trying to alter the republican outcome. is there a survey on the republican in new hampshires. do they see themselves as conservative, moderate? thank you so much. guest: that is an excellent point. we have a semi-closed primary. those undeclareds can choose to vote in either primary. anderere an undeclared voted, some may decide that they

will vote in the republican primary. some people are truly independents and they may vote in the republican primary. what we see when we look at the electorate, my best estimate is that about 60% of the republican electorate will be registered republicans. about 20% will be undeclared voters, but they are really republicans. only about 10% will be made up of democrats, undeclared voters who are democrats who are truly independent. the registered republicans and the undeclareds vote the same way and mitt romney is doing well with those groups.

you see some of the things that the caller was alluding to going on. ron paul gets his support from those groups. that segment of the electric only makes up a total of about 20% of the people that will show up on tuesday, which kind of limits the impact that they have. every quarter years we're about the new hampshire independence and that they can throw the election either way -- every quarter yeafour years. this is largely a myth. to the heart to get them to come out inand vote in the opposing primary. host: the conservative breakdown. guest: new hampshire is not a particularly conservative state.

it is a fiscally conservative state. it is a small government state. on the biggest social issue in the country, abortion. the likely republican primary voter is more pro-choice then the country as a whole. gay marriage -- when democrats had control of the house and senate, but passed a bill that legalized gay marriage to the legislative process. republicans took back control in 2010 and they wanted to repeal that the marriage law. only 45% favor repeal of gay marriage in new hampshire. 43% oppose the repeal. the hampshire is not a very

religious state. gallup have a server at said new hampshire is the second least religious state. one of your guests commented that new hampshire is the lowest state in terms of a church attendance. this is a state that is not particularly religious. it is a state for which republicans are concerned more about fiscal issues. the candidates who can win in iowa, mike huckabee finishes in a distant third place after winning in iowa. rick santorum of a difficult time converting that win in to support of new hampshire because of the kind of voters --

caller: that happen to answer my question. whether rick santorum could succeed as well as he did in iowa. it does not seem to be the case. i wonder whether he think jon huntsman will of a chance succeeding in new hampshire given that republicans tend to lean more fiscally conservative, which is something that jon huntsman hinges his campaign on. guest: they are more fiscally conservative but they are still republicans. jon huntsman made a mistake by distancing himself from the other republican candidates, saying he believes in evolution and he thinks that global warming is a real, not like

those other republicans, wink, wink. he clearly tried to define himself as something different than the other republicans running. he had worked for the obama administration as ambassador to china. he says he is not like the other republicans but the work for the democratic administration. the jon huntsman campaign is not taking votes away from the other more moderate candidate, mitt romney. he is fighting for the same votes as ron paul. jon huntsman is limited because he has chosen to run as a non- republican. he did not tell republicans in the state about his background

as governor of utah, where he was a quite conservative governor and had good economic growth in the state but that message never got out. the message that got out was that he is not like the other republicans and he worked for a democratic administration. host: steve from phoenix, a republican. caller: good morning. i was going to ask you about repairing. -- rick perry. i think he is the man. he's the only one that doesn't have the baggage and i think -- he is not the greatest soccer of the world -- talker of the

world. we do not need a talker. in arizona, the sheriff endorsed rick perry. why did the skip new hampshire? is regarding demographics -- is it regarding demographics? guest: part of it has to do with democratgraphics. he hit the ground quite well. he jumped into second place in some polls. he was a challenge to mitt romney. he was not ready for prime time. he seemed to get worse as the debates went on. it shows something that you

cannot train to run for president except by running for president. mitt romney is a much better candidate in 2012. rick perry is making work mistakes. -- rookie mistakes. he is not very well liked in the state and has been doing poorly in the polls. i do not know if his decision to go to south carolina will help a muchim much. he will be seen as the person who is a dead man walking, so to speak, and i do not think he will be able to recover in south carolina. it does say something about his campaign and how it was run this year.

one of the worst campaigns i have seen. host: lily is a democrat in the triedetroit. caller: good morning. i'm 87 years old. i get sick of the republicans talking about the president. i do not understand how people can vote for either one that is running. therefore themselves only. the president did not put this country in a mess. the republicans did. the poor democrats have to suffer later. host: closing comments. we have a chart that shows the turnout rate is 60%.

what are you expecting? 70%.: 65% to the undeclared turnout will be lower because there wiy are democrats. i expect turn out to be high. higher than any other state. it is regular voters who do not pay that much attention to politics that come out and vote in the election. that means it is not the activists who determine who wins in new hampshire. in new hampshire, will have 260,000 people voting in the

republican primary. these are regular voters who determines who win. host: thank you for being with us on this friday morning. thank you for your time. guest: thank you very much. host: thank you for being with us. we will have campaign events, newtuding whaone with gingrich in a short while. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012]

signed, john a. boehner, speaker of the house of representatives. the speaker pro tempore: the prayer lfer offered by our guest reverend. the chaplain: at the beginning of this new year, o lord, our hearts are filled with hope and our imaginations are inspired once again with your vision for this nation. our forefathers envisioned a shining city on a hill.

our nation's heros and prophets have called us the beloved community, a people dedicated to the common good, a nation at peace with itself. and so as this new year breaks upon us, may this age-old vision guide us in our work here in the house of representatives. may it stir up within us a new dedication to comity. may it fill each of us who come from every district in america with a sense of common purpose in this house. may this vision reinvigorate our resolve to faithfully execute our oaths of office with courage and integrity. in this new year we pray, bless us now, bless our work and may you, o god, continue to bless america. amen. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to section 4-b of house resolution 493, the journal of the last day's

proceeding is approved. the pledge of allegiance will be led by the gentlewoman from maryland, ms. edwards. ms. edwards: i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is ott of order. pursuant to section 4-a of house resolution 493, no organizational or legislative business will be conducted on this day. pursuant to section 4 hc of house resolution 493, the house stands adjourned until 2:00 p.m. on tuesday, january 10, 2012. >> the house will be back on tuesday before another pro forma

session. they have been holding these sessions every couple of days to keep -- in a attempt to keep the president from making recess appointments. is a james cliburn trying to be recognized by the speaker pro tem he refused. the cameras at the house are under control of the house gallery. this is to keep the president from making a recess appointment but when a hand -- but he went ahead and did it anyway to appoint richard kortrijk to head it -- richard coeur drag -- cordray. nancy pelosi and other democrats are set to hold a short news briefing in the capital talking about the payroll tax cut extension. we may hear more about what jim cliburn was trying to say. it should get under way momentarily and you can fly -- all that on cs -- you can follow

that on c-span.org. this evening, we will be in doracon, new hampshire at the university of new hampshire for the ron paul town meeting at 7:00 eastern. in about 15 minutes, we'll take it to the dartmouth medical school where you can call in and talk directly to former speaker newt gingrich which is set to get under way at about 10:20 eastern and we will have live for you here on c-span. we are going to show you some of last night's town hall meeting in merits and demerits lakes region tea party town hall. this is newt gingrich's comments and we'll take you live to the call-in program.

captain john smith was approached by several aristocrats who said we have paid our way over here and you cannot make this work. he said, you're right. under the contract i cannot make you work. this is a new world. in this new world, there are limited resources. therefore, while i cannot make it work, if you do not work, you will not eat. sort of the opposite of communism. they came back and said, this work thing. we have a new interest in it. and from that point on, workers at the heart of the american ideal. -- work was at the heart of the american ideal. we are endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights. life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. an active term. i said a few weeks ago, i thought it would be good, particularly in the poorest neighborhoods to try to find a way to help poor children have a chance to learn the work habits and learned a bright patterns. i was affected by an article i read 20 or 25 years ago by joe klein which described janitors. they start at a higher salary than the teachers.

the peak pay for school janitors is higher than the peak pay for teachers. it is an example of union power. the first thing that came back was the left, which responded to me about the way they had to senator moynihan when he first discussed these ideas and they were shocked. he was a liberal democrat so he was in double crumble -- trouble because he was a traitor to the idea. of redistribution. be independent. just relax and we the government will define their lives. it came back that newt gingrich wants to attract children into being janitors. [laughter] janitors do really dangerous work, why did you want to risk these kids being killed? i am not making this up. from. we went back and got the

article. we figured out if you kept the head jenna chair to be in charge -- a janitor who is grossly overpaid of everything that was hard, if you would take one janitor preschool and for one janitor per school, you could hire 20 or 30 kids at $3,000 each. it would reduce dropouts. some could work in the front office or cafeteria and some could push a broom or mop a floor. my younger daughter wrote me this note. had i forgotten her first job was at first baptist in georgia and she had cleaned out the toilets and it taught her the value of earning money.

doing. it was part of learning how to work. we have two grandchildren. they're learning how to work. it is an interesting model. maggie wrote me on her new ipad. i rode back and said --where did you get a new ipad? she said i have been saving could afford it. this was -- not her parents get. -- a gift. this was her ipad. it is true that she negotiated how much doing the dishes was worth and she negotiated -- nonetheless. she is learning. a young man of 16 years old name began in manchester who has ian's wicked good donuts. i just did a column this week. i do a weekly newsletter that goes out for free. you can see it at gingrich

productions. this week's column was on ian. he is 16. he started ian's wicked good ? -- doe notat 11. his father found this an expensive down a machine. -- inexpensive doughnut machine. they decided this would be a good thing to learn how to do. his father was excited. ian got two local restaurants that became customers every morning for fresh doughnuts. he found local fruit stands in the summer and became customers for doughnuts. it can imagine how this bill. his father has all level of excitement. -- a level of excitement. for the first time he can drive and deliver his own doubts. -- don that's -- doughnuts. [laughter]

when i wrote the column,i put at the bottom, if you have a story about someone who started early, send it to me. i said, this is exactly what i am trying to explain to people. would you write your story? most of the newsletter was written by ian and it is historic. -- his story of how they created his company. he thinks he will earn enough to put himself through college without borrowing money. i am a candidate because i believe what is wrong with america is deeper than politics and vastly more than barack obama. we need to have a conversation that drives at how fundamental the change needs to be. we need to have the courage to go out and talk to everybody in every neighborhood about an america that works. and what that america is like. i will take a symbol and i will

>> this and lots more an hour of video library. we will leave this now and take you live to new hampshire and the dartmouth medical school or you could speak directly with newt gingrich. host: we are in lebanon, new hampshire along the vermont/new hampshire border and the want to welcome newt gingrich. >> good to be here. >> we have had hundreds of people questions on our facebook page and one that says -- what would you do to reverse citizens united and big money out of american politics? >> i would like to eliminate all of the bureaucracy and the petty rules that cripple candidates. i would allow people to get on limited after-tax personal income to give it to campaigns as long as they report it. we all know who was given and let the candidates raise the directive for their campaign to spend with them being responsible and overnight, 80%

of the attack ads will disappear. candidates would not take responsibility for the kind of viciousness you get. it is really unfortunate to watch this spiraling downward. getting back to a point where the person who runs should be able to raise the money without having to be a millionaire and should be then responsible for the quality of their campaign would do more to clean the poison out of the system than anything else. host: were you angry tuesday night in iowa when you said you will go after mitt romney? you called him timid yesterday. >> i felt that i want a campaign of big ideas. in fact, the weight of the attack ads, 40% of the ads in iowa, or attacks on me. it makes you feel people are paying attention. it was not agar but the terms of the flight have to be let's have a contest, we will not run

negative ads against mitt romney. we will have a contrast. i'm a reagan conservative than he is a massachusetts moderate. i am against tax increases. those are legitimate factual comparisons. i am happy to run the kind of campaign. when we stayed totally positive, the power of the ideas propel me into first place nationally and in iowa. i'm happy to go back and say if we have to run a contest campaign and be now or in our discussion, i will do that. it is not as much fun and as good for the country but it is acceptable. host: we have a line set aside for people who live in the granite state. the other numbers are on your screen. first up is from the republican line from baltimore, maryland. good morning. are you with us? caller: yes.

host: you are on the air. caller: can you hear me? host: yes, go ahead. caller: i listened to the john mccain adds. it was going mitt romney a liar. john mccain says that gingrich crossed the line and call romney a liar but in 2008, mccain called him a liar. host: thanks for the call. guest: that was perfect. i thought about this morning because i knew somebody knew about that. there was this 30-second ad where he has run the flip- floping. you had it exactly right.

i think it is very funny, actually host: you also called her accent torme junior partner. can you explain that? guest: i was speaker of the house. i was leader of the house republican party and negotiate directly with the president. we got ralph -- welfare reform done directly. we got the first tax cut in 16 years to negotiate directly. we did four balanced budgets. i place a devin role. rick santorum is a great leader on welfare reform are of all i said was what is the difference in experience. i helped design and implement a national campaign in 1980 with ronald reagan and 1984 and 1994 with the contract. it is fair to say that i had a larger role as speaker them her cat as a junior senator. he is a good guy. i don't think people should take offense.fens

caller: good morning next speaker of the house. guest: good morning. caller: i want to ask all the candidates this question. aboutt sure how you feel this but if you can ask them in the next debate -- if you happen to not be the nominee - i don't think the field is strong enough. i will vote for you, the thinking man's conservative, but i don't you have a chance against this juggernaut called obama and the millions of people who are hurting. but if you are not elected, what do you want the american people to remember about you? guest: that's a fascinating

question. i'm slightly disagree with your conclusion. i believe when people confront the reality that obama has been the best food stamp president in american history and my work with ronald reagan created 1,300,000 jobs in august of 1983 alone and my work as speaker working with bill clinton, we created 11 million new jobs in four years. i would like to run as the paycheck candidate against obama as the food stamp candidate. i think we can probably beat him. i disagree with your conclusion such request was fascinating. i would like to be remembered for my public life, something i got for my father who spent 27 years in the infantry in the u.s. army. i have tried as a citizen to serve the cause of freedom and the cause of the united states. if i am remembered to somebody who fought and worked and wrote books and served in office as a

citizen trying to protect america and trying to protect freedom, i would feel my life had been well spent host: this is from our facebook page -- what would you do regarding minimum wage if you became president? guest: i would try to get people to have rapidly growing jobs above the minimum wage. we need to have the kind of economic growth in jobs we had with ronald reagan and we had when i was speaker. if you do that, people enter minimum wage but the rapidly rise above it. that should be a beginning point and not an end point. host: this is from our line for democrats, where are you calling from? caller: i am calling from downey, california. host: go ahead. caller: i admire speaker gingrich for his historical acumen. i would like to clarify the comments he made about guns about three days ago he was more or less bringing god into the

equation. others like him to clarify if god really supports guns. i'm not necessarily anti-gun but bringing religion in and saying it is a god-given right to have as many guns as you want, obviously i am from england were the murder rate is low and japan is almost zero. i wanted to clarify. i don't think you should mix religion citing it as a god- given right to give everybody guns. other than that, i admire his historical articulation. that is my question. guest: thank you for calling so early california time. i was speaking as an historian gary i have written a book called "discovering god in america" and a recent book called a nation like no other which explored the founding fathers and their thinking. if you read the declaration of independence, it says we are

endowed by our creator with certain unalienable rights which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. the founding fathers came back and wrote the declaration of the constitution, the second amendment does not say the government gives to the right to bear arms. the second amendment says the right to bear arms shall not be abridged. that meant that the founding fathers thought that you're right to bear arms preceded the constitution and was part of what they regard as naturally endowed rights which they wrote in the declaration and that came from your creator. the reference was not theological. it was for the belief system of the founding fathers that we are in doubt. -- endowed, our creator gives each one of us are rights that are unavailable which means god gives each individual sovereign. we loan power to the government which means the government is always subservient to the people which is why the constitution begins "we, the

people of the united states --" it does not grant the right to bear on this. it's as the right to bear arms shall not be abridged. that implies that the right precedes the constitution and is an inherent natural right of self-defense. host: you have said this campaign is about the big issues. it is the country ready to have that conversation? guest: the country is but whether the media or political consultants are, i am not sure. the woman whose husband died prematurely from alzheimer's, she wants the conversation. she wants the conversation about brain science and alzheimer's and parkinson's and battle -- mental health. people on a conversation about how to create jobs and how we stop the iranians. the country is much more prepared for a large -- that's why i love cspan -- the country's more prepared for a

conversation that either the news media or the political consultants. host: if the president is reelected, what will this country look like in 2016? guest: i think it will be poor, weaker, and more vulnerable. i think is a genuinely radical and his skills are very limited. i think you'll see continued decay. host: if newt gingrich is elected president, what will the country look like? guest: i always lend big support to the american people if we have strong support and we can run a campaign of ideas and if we have a team of house and senate candidates, we will be dramatically more dynamic and the economy will -- will be much bigger and there will be millions of additional jobs and the budget will be very close to being balanced by 2016. we will have a significantly smaller government in washington and more power distributed back to the 10th amendment. host: jim is next from fort myers, fla., democrats line.

caller: mr. speaker, thank you for your past performance i am in fort myers and one of 10 democrats that live here. i used to be in washington and work for senate majority leader who became head of appropriations. my question is about cleaning up washington. i think it is important that we get the money out of politics and that maybe from true campaign finance reform. what is your view on campaign finance reform? maybe even public finance reform and second, cal has the supreme court decision about super pacs helped or hurt the political process in the future. thank you very much. guest: given all the things you are seeing, we see that mitt romney's super pac is running

negative ads in florida. the best way to get control of the money is to make it possible for individuals to give unlimited after-tax money to the candidates, make the candidates responsible for the campaigns and you would rapidly get rid of the sioux p [acs an outside spending and you have a focus on the candidates and they would be more responsible. the candidates would not have signed on as that are as-and dishonest as the super pacs were run and that is part of why they use them. what the dirty work done out there so they can stand and smile. if they had to sign the ads, you automatically bring down level of negativity by probably 80%. host: derry, new hampshire, go ahead. caller: mr. gingrich, someone needs to be met romney because he is no good v.

why are you against people having food status because i think the republican put the country under with wars and thousands of people getting killed on both sides over dick cheney pause lies. why don't you guys talk about that? i have a choice. i would vote for you before mitt romney. i think the republican party put this country -- people the need food stands need them. what you have against people having food stamps? guest: i prefer that people have a job. i want to run on a campaign of people getting back to work, people being able to create a business, people going out and having a better future with their earning a better income. my goal is not to be anti-food stamp, it is to be pro-paycheck. that is probably a different approach. we want to try to stop governor

romney. host: there are a few debates this weekend, one tomorrow and one on sunday. how are you preparing? guest: i think about it a lot what is the core message you are trying to get across it and how are you trying to communicate with the american people? i have regarded ever debate as an opportunity to reach out to the american people and communicate key values and key ideas. i don't actually debate my friend standing there, i try to talk directly to the american people. host: is there something that you try to do to prepare for these debates personally? guest: i usually drink a die coke. i get advice might two senior debate coaches. my granddaughter maggie who is 12 and my grandson robert to his tent. host: what they tell you? guest: maggie is in charge of my

smiling. i am too intense. i write three things -- i read lincoln, slower because lincoln talked very slowly and he wanted you to hear each sentence before he started the next sentence. then i put a book smiley face and i write maggie. i have a line and then i go robert -- shorter, clearer. that is his advice. i try to skew of those three. host: we will go to range, new hampshire you are on the air. caller: i love new gingrich. why is sarah palin, all the candidates, they should come together and stand on stage and newt gingrich reminds me of lbj and rick santorum of jfk. put them together on the ticket either way. let's just be mid romney,

please, don't let us down. guest: i think the point that the two colors in a row for new hampshire made about mid romney is interesting in terms of his relative strength. he bought a house here and spent five years campaigning here. this is one of his three best states of utah and massachusetts. when you look at his record, is almost impossible to imagine how he will debate obama. obama will start and say that obama care was based on mitt romney care. he brought in his staff to help in designing. mitt romney was the successful in raising taxes and raised about $750 million in taxes as governor. the desire to raise taxes is mutual. obama will point out that romney was very successful in getting liberal judges and massachusetts and pro-abortion judges. obama can point out that romney care approved abortion funds. it is interesting to see what

the met runs counter would be. in many ways, as a massachusetts moderate in the tradition of dukakis in kerri, he is close to obama then reagan conservative traditions that is at the heart of the republican party. if you're going to debate obama, you should have somebody who is way over here. the $1 billion of obama will clutter the difference. if you're anywhere close to him, he will drive you down in negativity . host: are you trying to play down expectations? guest: he has an enormous amount of money. he has a big organization. it is important to be here and make the case. i think we will erode his lead to some. i think we will do better than the polls indicate. new hampshire is notoriously a state that decides very late. people are talking now and the town hall meetings like the one last night that you covered was

one of the funniest meetings i have done. host: why was it funny? guest: it was one of those magic evenings where different people were just really good. the questions they ask -- there was one kid who got up the was 22-years old and said this is all about my future. he said most of the people of in this room won't be here. the way people reacted to him was worth a minute of him standing there like a vaudeville act. host: will go to richard from a range, new hampshire, go ahead. caller: good morning, mr. speaker. i'm a graduate of franklin pierce university. i am encouraging my friends to vote for you in the primary. however, i believe you're the candidate we need to face president obama in the general election because of your outstanding debate abilities.

i like your idea of bringing the debate to president obama on a very positive scale. i will leave you with that thought, thank you. guest: first of all, thank you. i remember speaking at franklin pierce a couple of years ago. i think you have the marlin fitzwater center there. host: they do. guest: it was a fun event thank you very much. you make a key point -- if you ask who can beat obama, because he will have $1 billion and he is the incumbent president, go back to 1980 -- ronald reagan in late 1970's nine is 30 points behind jimmy carter. he gradually catches up but what makes the difference is that one debate where reagan says there you go again. we had better have somebody who can debate obama. if you cannot stand on the same platform and you cannot make clear the difference between the

reagan conservative achievement. with reagan, we create millions of new jobs, six times as many jobs in august of 1983 as the obama program as this last month. under gingrich we created 11 new jobs. i could stand there as an authentic reagan conservative on jobs and economic growth in the way the president cannot compete with. i can stand there of lowering taxes, not raising them in a with a president cannot compete. i can talk about what we need to do to reform things having reformed welfare in a way the president cannot compete and i could talk about bipartisanship. as a reagan republican in 1981, i work with republicans in the house and we had 1/3 of the democrats to vote with us. as a speaker, i work with a democratic president to get bills side. given obama possibility to work on a bar a partisan basi -- to work on a bipartisan basis, i

can't show that we have a better approach, a better track record, and a better philosophy for the country's future of host:. let me go back to our facebook page 3 >> there are many people who are very confident and you may want to use them in a variety of ways. he is certainly a person of great talent and some of the people should look at seriously and have a great respect for host: new hampshire, go ahead caller: speaker gingrich, one of their most fundamental responsibilities would be as commander in. chief. i expect the president to have studied his predecessors. looking back at the last 200 years, when do you think it was a mistake for us to go to war

and conversely are other times we didn't when you think we should have? i am trying to get a sense of when we use our military. guest: that is a very, very good question. this is george washington's commander in chief flag which flow over his command headquarters at valley forge. i wear it to remind myself that washington at philadelphia and the constitutional convention which he presided over, when they ride into the constitution that the president is commander in chief, the guy presiding was commander of the field for eight years. he knew exactly what the term meant. we should use force very cautiously. i don't want to go back to the various events in american history. you could raise questions about the spanish-american war and why we got into it. there is a lot of good conversations we could have but i would tell you that i am in

the ronald reagan tradition of wanting to be very strong and very, very careful. ronald reagan used force in frequently. he built up our military dramatically to intimidate the soviet empire and it worked because they collapsed. he was careful about using force and when he did use a, it was precise and overwhelming and liberated the island of grenada from a communist dictatorship. we used when air strike against gaddafi after americans were killed in the bombing in berlin by libyan agents. that scared gaddafi says decisively he was quiet for many years. ronald reagan did not believe in getting involved in long drawn out campaigns anywhere. he thought it was against american policy and the thought the american people would not sustain it. he his goal was to be very powerful and behind that power use diplomatic, in -- economic, intellectual and other capabilities to get our way and not to use armed force very

often. there's a lot to be learned by studying how ronald reagan would and would at host: act. meredith, new hampshire, good morning. caller: how are you? guest: our you? caller: it was very impressive last night. host: it is on our website c- span.org if you want to watch the entire town hall meeting. caller: i loved everything you said. i followed you throughout. i am retired prepared i love the way you hang in there. despite many attacks by your own party. everybody else have collapsed by now. you are so strong and powerful i love everything that you say. your five points last night resonated so much among all of us. you have so many supporters

throughout the united states. nobody, not even your party, decided not to watch anymore. i'm watching c-span only. crowd hammer krow --autmammer used to be my idol. he supports you. you have so many supporters and i would like to give you a hug. i had to leave early last night because of my grandchildren. you have to know and everybody has to note that all these attacks towards you, once you are nominated, because you will be, are going to be used against

republicans by the opposition in the attack. eds host: i will stop you there. much guest:ery thank you very much. that made my day. ronald reagan had the 11th commandment of not attacking other republicans for a reason. host: he did ran against gerald ford. guest: he never engaged in personality attacks. he would disagree about policy but would not attack them as individuals. he would be appalled to the negative advertising. ronald reagan had an innate sense of dignity and an innate sense of trying to create a contrast between ford negotiate the panama canal and he was against it. those are policy issues. it was not a personal fight. host: you have run for office

before but never for president. how does this feel? guest: first of all, it is amazing. the complexity of the country and the scale of the process and the number of things you have to know and do -- is exhilarating. you get this attention so you can develop an idyllic brain science and know you are communicating with thousands of people at a time. it takes enormous discipline. you can get totally sucked into minutia but i want to be focusing on ideas and trying to develop messages. you have to raise money on the one hand and make speeches on the other had. -- on the other hand. it was a bigger challenge than i thought it would be. i thought i had a pretty good sense of the scale but the presidency is more complex,

more intense process than putting together the 1994 campaign. that has been a surprise to maker host: are you in for a long haul regardless of what happens in after guest:? oh, sure, we came in knowing this is a matter on the state. this is where the media is and where the crowds are in our town hall meetings have been terrific. people show up and if you go to the north country and you are in places like lancaster of people show up and they are glad you are there, 160 people in a small town in the middle of the day. you have to feel good about that. the other purpose is educational. if you are prepared to go out at the town hall meetings where you take questions and listen, you learn about america. the questions in western iowa are not the same as the questions in eastern iowa. the questions and i was not the

same as the questions in new hampshire. new hampshire is not the same as south carolina. it is very helpful for a president before they get to the white house to have been immersed in the american people and be able to draw on that memory, on the nature of the people they are leading in the nature of the country they are trying to lead host: one last question -- what our viewers through your typical day. guest: you get up as early as you can to do the first television show and you campaign all day and do the last tv show and you climb into bed exhausted and get up the next day a do the first tv show and campaign all day until you the last tv show and you fall asleep exhausted. it is the most focusing process i have ever been in. i spent all day -- i would guess an average day -- as my began a 6:00 a.m. and i was downstairs at 6:30 and on tv by 7:00. i would guess we will run tonight until 10 or 11:00.

same thing tomorrow. host: speaker, newt gingrich, thank you very much. all of our events including the town hall meeting from last night are available on our web c-span.org site at. thanks so much for being with us. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] >> we take you on the campaign trail with the candidates.

watch the c-span coverage of the new hampshire primary on c-span television and that our website, c-span.org. ♪ >> also on c-span 3, we are showing you passed and concession speeches. today it is two dozen for the victory speech from john kerry and a concession speech by howard dean. that is today at 2:00 p.m. eastern and repairs at 8:00 p.m. at 11:00 p.m.. more of our live road to the white house coverage coming up this evening with ron paul at the university of new hampshire town hall meeting. we will have that for you at 7:00 here on c-span barrack. the labor department reported the unemployment numbers saying that employers added a net 200,000 jobs last month and the unemployment rate fell to 8.5% which is the lowest since february 2009.

the rate has dropped for four straight months. there is a tweet - rex santorum applauds and employment growth. former senator santorum says our economy is overcoming what barack obama is pushing. last night in nashua, new hampshire, supporters of the candidate including the daughter of john huntsman and presidential candidate body rummer spoke in favor of their campaign. this was opposed by the national debt city republican committee. this is 90 minutes.

>> i'm lucky to be here am i and the son-in-law of the guy who can shoot straight. quantify and secrets, find me in the back of the room. to give you a few pieces of information about his record and what message he is bringing to the people of new hampshire and what he sees as a vision for our country. for his experience, i think it boils down to two words -- and experience and leadership. he is a guy that has the trifecta. he has foreign policy experience, who live overseas four times, three times as ambassador and most recently as a bastard to china.

that could be the relationship -- written -- most recently as ambassador to china. he helped build his family business to a multibillion- dollar business starting in the 1980's. he has executive experience over 10 years. he brought the state of utah to the number 1 state for job creation. it was the best states for business if you ask for a magazine and the best managed state by the pew center . he has been there and done that and achieved success in every walk of life and the has the experience to take our country in the direction it needs to go. crown leadership, he was the guy who brought new ideas to the state. he brought difficult ideas and create the most competitive business environment for utah to compete with the other states and our nation. it brought a 10-point plan when he was running and said he will take off these 10 points and sure enough at the end of four years, he went back and his

campaign slogan was promises made, promises kept. these are not easy things green it did the largest tax cut in state history which had not been done 60 years. these are things that require bring it together and requires true leadership. beyond that, the vision looking forward comes down to two deficit -- the first one is economic, we all know it. we have $15 trillion in debt that will wreck our generation unless we solve it and take a real step toward reining in spending we're not talking about super committees getting together to tackle what would have been 2.5% of our spending over the next five years. it needs to be $7 billion. entitlements, defense, it all means to be on the table. we need to take a serious look for us, for our kids, for our grandkids. the second is a deficit of a different, but equally corrosive and that is a deficit of trust.

no one trusts the institutional power our country was founded on merit a% approval rating for congress. where are those people hiding? the executive branch, no trust. crony capitalism, things the president campaigned on that is not delivering on for a wall street, no trust. we're said to the element out again unless we reform the system. he can say a much better than we can but hopefully we'll give you guys and insight about the guy who has integrity and character and honor. for those of you that our undecided, maybe we can convince you. have a great evening and thank you for letting us be here. would have to go to another couple of events that god bless you and have fun this week. i think will be a great primary. [applause]

>> our next surrogate is someone -- those of us who have been nashua will read them -- will remember fondly and it is good to see him back -- our former mayor -- [applause] i should say he is here representing speaker gingrich. >> thank you. i don't think some of you people here remembered me fondly. [laughter] but barry does. my good neighbors are here as well. i am here to represent my candidate and that is speaker gingrich. i had the opportunity to get to know the speaker back on st. patrick's day when he came to nashua to speak at a breakfast.

this is a guy with no notes, completely captivated the audience of well over 500 people. he also had a strong message about dealing with people with disabilities. that convinced me that maybe i should take another look at this guy. i did and that is why i am supporting him. i am here because there are two other circuits that are supposed to be here. once planted not arrive on time and the others of the north country. the other one did not have stature enough. [laughter] i'm being facetious. there is not a hard worker in a gingrich campaign than ed stevins and you know what he has done for the committee. he almost elected himself for the board of public works. two years from now i'm sure he will be elected my candidate,

hopefully yours, does not change his positions overnight. he does not change his position depending on what audience he is talking to or which states he is in. he is what the true conservative leaders in our nation. he believes he is the best person for the job and i certainly believe that. when you are looking at the candidate who can best beat president obama, you need a good strong conservative candidate, one who can not only think on his feet -- everyone will say this is that newt gingrich is probably the most intelligent candidate running for president. when a candidate for governor as well [laughter] i think we have one. be that as it may, i think he will be a very strong opponent

to president obama and is in ministration. he is being supported by the state's largest newspaper, "the union leader," and they have run a series of op-ed pieces about what he is all about. let me just read what jeffrey anderson wrote about newt gingrich just the other day. it is an article of faith among many republicans that it romney is the most electable candidate in the gop field. it is not clear that this assertion is actually true. if one were going to design a republican opponent tailor-made to president obama's liking, that upon it would be vulnerable to obama's main rhetorical thrust, making class warfare argument started uniquely unsuited to take aim at obama's least popular solutions. and all of these ways, newt gingrich certainly is the one that can carry this particular

message. there's more to gauging a general election rather than looking in nationwide polls. in the last four weeks, we have seen how the polls have to change dramatically article -- have changed dramatically. i think that the real people account, you the voters, next tuesday will look at the field and decide perhaps the best conservative candidate to be president obama is speaker gingrich. as i say, when he led the charge in 1994 to revolutionize congress, he did it because he felt strongly that the congress should be there not to spend your money but to provide the type of leadership that our country needed. he was criticized for that.

the good thing about newt gingrich is what you see is what you get his conservative credentials are in order eddie has not changed or flip flopped. that is why i am supporting that's why i'm supporting him come next tuesday. thank you. >> thank you. our next speaker was the 52nd governor of louisiana. he was a member of the u.s. house of representatives from louisiana. he announced his presidential bid in march of 2011 has stressed campaign finance reform.

governor buddy roemer. [applause] >> thank you. i am from southern new hampshire. [laughter] what is so funny? i am proud to be here. i had lived in manchester in a small apartment. i have gone to know new hampshire's very well, and i like you lot. treated me but kindness and honor. i will always have good memories here. i ran for president for one reason -- i thought america was headed into a decline. or how you measure -- no matter

remeasured it. work 1 billion cell phones made in the world last year -- were 1 billion. you know how many were made in america? zero. and the president did not say a thing. i've been to china. i offer no apologies. have watched them work child labor, workers 12 hours a week, but six days, 12 hours a day, six days a week. i have seen a worker and a factor with a rope around her waist with a child teid to it. - -tied to it. she said there was nowhere to put the kid.

was paid room and board for a child --she was paid room and board for a child. the president has a constitutional duty. yet last three presidents said not a word. they took no action for us to be competitive. i run for president because i think we are a nation in decline and we can do better. andtired of the naysayers the negative guys. i looked at this a year ago and set i've been out of politics 20 years and i probably will be the only person running the who has been a governor and a congressman. i am dealing one running -- i am

the only one running who has been a governor and a congressman. we did not foreclose on a single mortgage holder. and a farm boy -- and a farm boy -- i am a farm boy came north to go to school. i got my undergraduate degree in economics and a degree in finance and banking. it can be done. i do not like american politics. american politics is money, money, money, money, money, money, and it is not your money. special interests own this

country. i saw it in health reform and health care reform. ion.oil addict they laughed at the tea party. "how dumb they are." my wife and i went to the first tea party meeting. my wife is a nurse and i employa piano player. i run for president because i say no to the special interest. the only person running for this office who doesn't take pac money. did not take pac -- i did not

take pac money. louisiana had the highest unemployment rate in america, to fall 20%. -- 12.8%. i sought a state where the infrastructure was decaying and you could not ride the roads. sought a state where people were leaving -- i sought a staaw a sr people were leaving. were below guam. i ran against a couple of congressmen and a governor who had never lost a race. put limits and no pac money and

i whipped them. he laughed at me. it can be done. america has become corrupt. i am speaking the truth. how is congress rated in the polls? 12%. one out of 8 americans said they are worthy of a vote. president is raising $1 billion to get reelected. he signed bank reform, "too big to fail. one. headed for another after he went a week after re-

signed, wall street, a fund raiser, a $35,000 a ticket. the host was goldman sachs. love love america,-- i america. i am the only governor who changed parties. i became a republican and i am proud to be a republican. i'm more proud to be an american and the next leader of this country does not need to build a party. he needs to build a nation, not afghanistan. we need to fight for fair trade. need budget reform. we need health care reform. we need all of that. it will not happen, new

hampshire, because everybody running for office has a super pac. ask them. they have a big war chest, hidd en donations. they buy your vote. sometimes somebody has to stand up and say, table it. i need a million people. it is hard to do when they of fat 16 national televised debates and you know who was in been asked to single one? i wonder why. ever wonder why someone can spend eight years in congress

and the saluted for running for reelection and never have an opponent. that was me. 43 congressmen who voted with president reagan time after time and i didn't care what tip o'neill said. what you need is courage and a leader free to lead. you need to send a signal to the rest of america. rumor is not well known -- the roemer not well known, but i like this guy. raised about $300,000. i have contributions from all 50 states. i am the only got that has qualify for matching funds. limit the contributions.

that is what the leader has to do. i called president obama the biggest hypocrite i have ever seen. he talks about what he will do to wall street and fair play and about a different america, but he takes the money like everyone of them. [applause] so are you going to pick, new hampshire? which one of them is ready? i do not see him. i have been anxious all year for somebody to step forward. i thought that rick perry of text might step forward. i said this might be somebody

that could lead. has seven super packs. he's the expert on crony capitalism. he has never served a day in congress. just look at him. they are decent people. i think republicans should send the best. some republicans say the first priority is to beat obama . i have a higher goal. hold me to this. i believe we can have an america that creates jobs for its children and grandchildren. i believe we can have an america where education is run locally.

i believe we can have a balanced budget over the next four years that treats everybody fairly and that g.e. will pay their fair share. i believe in an america that can be strong again and not a joke run by the lobbyists. there is no problem in america that we cannot solve. if we do not solve the problem of special interests owning the government, we will be right back here four years from now switching again. the problem is the political system that has sold out to the highest bidder. it know who wrote the banking bill -- you know who wrote the banking bill?

the big banks. you know i'm telling you the truth. how would you like to see health reform? reform. health care in america. it is just too expensive. i would like to see a president who would start with nurses, doctors, and patience in the room. -- patients. wouldn't you like that? [applause] but it won't happen. san mitt romney there. -- send. he seemed like a decent guy. but it won't happen. that is where he gets his money from. it won't happen. and i am not just picking on him. -- mitt.

you could take any of them. he is like the 1%, and newt gingrich is like a lobbyist for the 1%. i have worked with all these people. they are decent. they are not corrupt. it is the system that is corrupt. we've got to break the system. send a message, new hampshire. tell the world that we know what we need to do, but it starts with the money. the final story. my dad is 89. he will be 90 on his next birthday. my mother had her 80th birthday christmas day. -- 88th. they are still alive and they live on a cotton farm in north louisiana. five kids, all still alive and they all live all around there. i am the renegade, i came to new hampshire. i went to visit occupied wall

street. you know i am a tea party republican. but i went to visit occupy wall street. first candidate to do it. they are a scruffy-looking group. maybe it is because i am granddaddy, i like listening to young people. i have learned so much. the reason i went to occupy wall street and spent a day listening was because they smelled just what i smell. they smell corruption, don't they? their solution is incorrect. we don't need bigger government, we need better government. but i went to listen. that is what you should know about me, i am afraid to listen. -- unafraid to listen. i listened first. i have spent 68 years getting ready to leave.

i have written a constitution. louisiana, we wrote our constitution in 1973. i was the non-lawyer. i have experience in listening. i want a president that hears an america that wants to change. it starts with the money. some say money is not that important. do you believe that? do you believe that? this race is decided by debate, i am 0 for 16. i wonder who makes that decision? do you know? when i reached 1%, i called and they said you have to have 2%. when i reached 2%, i called and they said you have to have a half million dollars raised in the last 90 days.

they keep moving the target, because i don't think they want to hear about the money and politics, money and politics. it is going to take money for me to win. my average gift is about $51 a person. i have reported every name given to me. i am free to leave, and i will take on barack obama, the likes of which you have never seen, but something is wrong in america when a former congressman and governor cannot get invited to a debate, and there were people on that stage that have never held elective offices or never been governor are never been congressmen are never started a company or never built a billion dollar bank. so i don't have time to listen to them anymore. i am just listening to new hampshire. stand with me. final thoughts.

if we take our government back, we will have the biggest economic boom this country has ever seen. we are that close. all we need is to keep the special interests out and let the plain people in. theater roosevelt said it 100 years ago this month. he asked the republican party, are we going to be the party of privilege and wall street, or are we the party of plain people who built a great nation? i ask nashua tonight, who are we going to be? thank you very much. [applause]

>> we are doing pretty well as far as our schedule. we have time for a few questions. are there any questions for the governor? >> easy questions. >> we have a constitution. we have no place for that law. a person can follow their idea of moral values and all that business, but this country is not run like that. this country is run by constitutional law. no place for that. [applause] >> [unintelligible] >> full disclosure. i am a conservative. i have always battle in congress and as governor of louisiana for full disclosure. i am not so much interested in limits. $100, $1,000. that does not bother me, but full disclosure, nothing under the table. cut i think super packs are illegal.

by the supreme court ruling, they said must be independent of the candidate. jon huntsman father is financing the super pak. i guess they don't talk? i would make them equal to individual gifts. whatever we decide to do, right now it is $2,500. if we do that for individuals, we ought to do that for pacs across the board. i would not allow all lobbyists to bring a check. she could bring a good idea, request. lobbyists have a good function in government. as long as they are not hosting a fund-raiser. congress did a special committee. a couple of months ago, it was a total failure. guess what they did three days after being selected? the lobbyists held a fund- raiser for them. that is why you did not get any budget reform or tax reform. you don't own this country. the lobbyists do, for the big

corporations. i would have it illegal for a lobbyist, a registered lobbyist, to bring a check. he has a decision to make. lobby, or fund-raiser. you cannot do both. number five, i would have criminal penalties for politicians who violated criminal penalties. i would have 48 hours to report a gift. now it is 120 days. this election is going to be over before you find out from mitt romney or jon huntsman who their super pak is, who gave them money, and how much. they had a trick in the law that the vote followed to hide that fact. -- that they both followed. 48 hours. we live in the age of the internet. we could do it like that. all constitutional, and congress

has the power to do it now. i would make it house bill number one and i would veto all bills that came to me until we passed a version of that. i will play poker with them if that's what it takes. i will listen to the ball game with them. i will go to garden parties. but we will campaign -- we will pass campaign reform and turn this country around. [applause] >> we have time for one more question. >> [unintelligible] >> it talked about the fiasco in the gulf. the pipeline that is being proposed -- >> the pipeline is much safer, but go ahead. >> [unintelligible] how do feel about that?

it is a controversial issue. >> i agree with you completely. if you get on my website, i have 17 more reasons why we need energy independence. i am a natural gas guy. it is clean, 20% of the carbon footprint of oil. we can drill below 5,000 feet safely. we have enough natural gas to last 350 years. we can turn our fleets of first and our big trucks to natural gas. it cleans up the environment and it is american made, if i can put it like that. i think we are addicted to foreign oil. i don't mean to pick on exxon or british petroleum. but when i was in downtown baton rouge a couple of years ago when the british petroleum fiasco happened, a guy stopped me and said did you hear about

the oil spill in the gulf of mexico this morning? i said no, you're the first one that told me. he said, can you guess which producer caused it? i said british petroleum. i did not hesitate a second. as governor, we clean up for air and water in louisiana. we had their regulation of energy. -- fair regulation. i believe we need to the energy independence. natural gas. we need to take back our future, and i would do it that way. it can be done safely. watch me do it. we do it in louisiana. [applause] i will close, if you let me. if there is no other questions, i will point to what the enemy is doing. barack obama's five top ambassadors, germany, france, switzerland, great britain, and

belgium, gave an average of $725,000 each to the presidential campaign. is this country for sale? the number of george bush from those was $285,000. how do we average people feel? i don't want to fuss at them. i would rather stand up and do it ourselves. that is what i am asking you to do. i know it is tough to do. most of the people have never given me a dime. i am asking you to give me a dime. thanks. [applause] >> thank you, governor. our next surrogate is on behalf of ron paul. we have a nashua activist.

greg sorbie. [applause] >> who is ron paul? who? if you know him, if you look into him, you have to vote for him. it is that simple. who is he? in these turbulent times, ron paul is the heart and embodiment of what it is to be fundamentally american. he is a faithful husband, dr., veteran, a true conservative, and the only constitutionalist in this race. article one section 8 defines power of the congress, the ninth and 10th amendment limits the power of federal government. our government is out of control. ron paul knows this.

he understands it. the biggest threat to our national security today is our nation's debt. we are the biggest debtor nation in the world. china is the biggest creditor nation in the world. now you know what is wrong with our economy. where do you think this will take us in history? not following the constitution is what got us into this mess. not listening to our founding fathers is what got us into this mess. it is time for a new founding father. ron paul has been correct in his predictions and knows what needs to be done to turn us around. he is an honorable man of his word, and you can put your trust in his word. look at the other candidates out there. look at what they do, not what they say. ey do.hte

look at their actions. ron paul has proved himself over decades of being a man of his word. ron paul is the wise choice, the moral choice. he is the righteous choice. he is the only one who can save our nation. that is just the two minutes that i wrote down because i was going to come here and had late notice. let's just talk about any topic you want to talk about. in the iowa caucus, 60% of those -- 50% -- under the age of 30 voted for ron paul. the youth are enthralled with him. do you want to talk about where this nation is going and who cares most about its future? ask any young person who they support. there are so many distracting

things in politics, fracking. i don't give a frack. [laughter] let's talk about what is important. let's talk about where we are today and where we are going in the future. let's talk about our economy, our family unit, our education, our society. the morals in society, honor, integrity, trustworthiness. can you find this in any of our politicians? ron paul is not a politician. he is a statesman. can you find anybody who does what they say? can you find anybody who has predicted what is going to happen, the consequences of all these great ideas from these politicians?

and the solutions the federal reserve system really is at the heart of it. it is really hard for people to understand, and they gloss over it when you start talking about it, but it is what has led to us being the greatest debtor nation. it has also led to our trade imbalances. we have been doing all these imports from wal-mart from china, and now we owe them all this money. it is just like an individual situation, when you are loaded up on credit card debt. you are going to have to work it off. it is the fault or work it off. -- default. rough times. china knows this, strategically. how are we going to fund all these wars abroad, when china is the one who gives us all these knickknacks?

the taxation keeps going up. but he was talking about all the -- buddy was talking about all the corruption buddy was talking about all the corruption in the pacs. ron paul has some special interests out there, a lot of them. the american people are his number one donation center, the american people. no other candidate has that. no other candidate from the very top of for the get their money has the american individual people. -- of where they get their money. under that there is google. he has done more donations from military personnel than all the other candidates combined, including obama. he wants to support our troops. support our troops.

maybe you should support the candidate they support. what do our troops want? they want ron paul. we need changes in america. there is nothing radical about fixing things. people on the news -- buddy was the candidate who showed up here, and it is really nice to hear somebody. they are quick talkers. the tea party and wall street have in common -- we are all fed up with special interests. at the end of the day, that is what it is. we are americans together. we just want america back. we need to find somebody who is american with us.

somebody who has morals in this age where it is so hard to find morals. honor, integrity -- i keep going back to those. find anybody else who has that. morals, consistency, who is ron paul? this tuesday, i want my america back. i wanted back with all of you. i want it back with all of you. i want my special interest backed. i don't have one particular group of want to benefit, and i don't want to listen to all those other special groups who want to benefit themselves. i can see through it. military-industrial complex, health industrial complex. the lawyers -- stop listening to them. just turn it off. listen to your neighbors. listen to what your heart tells you is right.

listen to your kids and what they want for their future. this tuesday, vote for ron paul. [applause] >> or next speaker is probably not a stranger to any of us here, though he has a new title tonight. deputy majority leader, keith. [applause] [cheers] >> you are a funny guy.

thank you. >> i guess i should start with howdy. i am just going to give you my story and tell you why i support rick perry. m. tucker, who is the deputy -- pam tucker -- speaker, we kind of said that we were stalking him even before he started running. he signed this hat. he came to my house of a 17th after i threaten the campaign because he was not calling me. he showed up. it was just a great little house party. we all got to meet him. there were probably about 40 people there. as everybody knows, on my radio show, i have pretty much interviewed all the candidates. some of the things that keep me

motivated or from john o'brien. he tell me something early on this whole campaign cycle. he said there are only three things that matter about the next candidate i am going to support. number one is can he beat barack obama? number two is can he beat barack obama? number three is can he beat barack obama? i think we think the same thing. that was definitely my opinion. i heard from governor roemer and what he was saying about the ways that campaigns run. you also have to be realistic. it is not a fantasy world. i did the whole fantasy thing before with ross perot, and that did not work out too good. there's no perfect candidate. if you look for the perfect candidate, that person does not exist, because we are human. you have to go and see who can win this beauty contest. this guy obama has a billion dollars to spend on negative campaigning. when i asked all the candidates, i would always finish with --

are you willing to play smash mouth with barack obama? roemer has his idea why the country is in trouble. i think the main thing that is killing this country is political correctness. we cannot say what we think. the president you have today is here today because of p.c. and anybody who went -- [applause] i was in salem, new hampshire, three years ago when sarah palin was giving her speech. i was standing right next to her. she picked up my son. we left there and i said to my wife, it is all over. if you remember, when sarah palin first came on the trail, it is the first time she led in the polls. she told the truth. you have to tell the truth. that got us in the white house.

-- that guy. when i asked you are willing to play smash mouth with barack obama, he leaned over. she raised $9 million against me -- $90 million -- points. that is the thing i am talking about. the first thing is you have to campaign. here in new hampshire we realize he got in late. it is hard to come back in new hampshire when you get in late like that. he does have the organization to go forward and tell his ideas of what it wants to do. that pretreated those facts that are important to me. >> $100 a year gets us through about june. july is tough, and come

christmas time, we are hurting. [laughter] i had to get a real job and for the past 20 years i've been in medical sales. something that is near and dear to me is tort reform. it.ernor rick perry did g they had that in the state of texas. we will have a republican governor. friends who seventh taught me on right to work, i am like michael corleone. we are going to get them all. [laughter] but we will get right to work in this state. it is a huge issue. the other -- the other thing that attracted me to governor perry is one of the interviews i saw that he was going to different states and attracting people to this day because of -- to his state -- right to work.

he tell me on my radio interview, you guys get right to work out here. put a sign that says open for business. those are just regular things that the average person can relate to. that is what we need. he does not just talk about them, he did them. i used to be self-employed, but i have been audited twice. the tax system we have is outrageous. as governor perry pulls this out all the time, here is his tax plan, on a postcard. that is it. just 20%. you send it in. if you don't like it, if you want to use the old form, you can still do it. that would get rid of a lot of iras jobs. the keynote to me really is, you really have to be able to beat this guy when he goes head- to-head. he makes comments about all the

debates and everything. i blame my republican leadership for that. they should never have agreed to 347 debates, having guys like al sharpton do commentary, that is ridiculous. they should have just said no. the ship had 10 -- they should have had 10 and be done. if you don't agree to go to it, you are not going to look right. once you start seeing the governor hit the trail, those who have been at town hall meetings, seen him and to the questions when he can have more than 30 seconds to do it, you will see a difference. i think we will see that in the next couple of days. he will be here saturday and sunday for the debates and then back to south carolina. i think that is when you are going to see him come out. that is about all i have. i will be glad to answer any

questions. if i can offer some facts, i would be glad to. does anybody have any questions? of course you do, fred. >> why did thing to press into such a number on the debate? to me, he sounds like a good debater. he acts a little bit like ronald reagan. why do you think [unintelligible] >> the press is right in obama's pocket. i believe this whole thing is orchestrated. everything is local. if you do the local races like we do here, when i ran for state representative, they gave me these cards in my first term. it had all the republican platform issues. everything was 17% tax increase. 17% tax increase. that is why i have no idea what i have in the bank. my wife will not let me touch

it. she writes all the checks. it is not my thing. i was going around talking to people and their eyes were blazing over like a lizard. i started telling people, do you know what the democrats did to you for years ago? away took away your right o from being able to note that your daughter, 14 or 15 years old, is having an abortion. they did not even know it. they were freaked out. i think it is the same thing. they know that he is the guy who has all the ammo. he has all the ammo. i think that is why they made it tough for him. it does not seem to bother him. when you see him in a town hall debate, you will see that there is always plants. the ones that i was that, the vfw, they are there for a reason.

all those things, when it gets to that point, in a 32nd sound bite on the stage with a people, -- eight people, it just did not play right. anybody else? paul? >> a couple of weeks ago, we went to see steve forbes represent rick perry and talk to us about his collaboration with him on his financial plans going forward. very impressive, of course a. a question i forgot to ask him was, was the going to protect, again, coming from steve forbes, would they be protecting social security going forward, and what that plan was. can you speak to that at all? >> that is the first thing that came out in the debate. anybody that knew anything new had nothing to do it touching people's social security that is already in there.

i think the highlight of this campaign is when he said ponzi scheme. that is what it is. if you don't think it is upon -- a ponzi scheme, you are ignorant. that is what it is. i am 52 in march. these kids, there is no way. you have a lot of guts. [laughter] that takes a lot of guts. of course people are still going to be protected. they are not going to touch that. that is going to be there. one other thing, before i forget. especially being in government, he wants to cut congress, basically cut in half as far as the terms go. that is music to my ears. they have the 13th largest

economy in the free world and texas itself. they meet for 140 days a year every other year, and they have had a balanced budget every year he has been governor, for the last 11 years. we should start their right here in new hampshire. there is no reason to be up there. it your business done, go back to new hampshire. we don't need career politicians. that is the whole problem. people can be corrupted and manipulated in the state of new hampshire just by power. when you go down to washington and combine that with money, and they have access to be able to go ahead and do insider- trading and there is no penalty for it, you cannot make these things up. they got to go. you do not hear them talk about that in the media. that is the key thing. let's get rid of congress. anybody else? all right, thank you. [applause]

>> the next speaker tonight is my honored former -- i guess he is my predecessor, dennis hogan, chairman of this committee last year. now he is our hillsboro county attorney. he is here representing rick santorum. dennis? [applause] >> i am andrews' predecessor, and you are doing a great job. we raised a lot of money. i hope everyone of you will keep watch over when we have another fund-raiser for the nashua civic hope he is every bit as successful in raising money as i was. don't tell buddy roemer i said

that. [laughter] i am so glad i did not have to follow but roemer. -- buddy roemer. he is such a terrific spea i have four things i wanted to make sure i say. i want to talk about rick santorum's electability. he is a full spectrum conservative. and i want to talk about leadership. going back to what we are doing here in nashua, coming up to the 2010 election, always running -- i was running for county attorney and i had to go to manchester, an important city in the county and that i had not run elections then as i had in nashua. the congressional campaign was being run by -- he was entirely into the idea of teamwork. he did not care that my little campaign for county attorney did not bring much resources when it came to get his person

elected there in manchester. he said come on in, be part of the team. we will be carrying your stuff. my pamphlets were as good as any put out in manchester, and that -- and the pamphlets, was a good thing for me. down here in nashua at the same time, nick pappas was in charge of the national victory office -- nashua victory office that the republican national campaign had sent up. he had the same attitude, come in, do work, we don't care about anything other than you coming in here and being part of the team. that extensive teamwork that -- that sense of teamwork that both of them have, i dearly appreciated. those are two quality guys that can do a great job campaigning. both of them ended up on the santorum team. i said to myself, that takes

some smarts for a guy like santorum to take these knowledgeable, effective campaigners. one of the most important things about leadership is picking the right people to do the job. you have to set the culture for that organization, of course, but having the right people doing the job well is a big part of setting the culture and getting the job done. i knew early on -- i won't say i knew how great he was going to do in the iowa caucus, but i knew early on that he was going to do the right thing. he was going to campaign with good organization and probably good results would come from starting out with those two. i went with don and randy white house and we went to the ames -- randy whitehouse -- straw poll.

we met some people there that i want to tell you about, because it is important that you know there are people there from south carolina. they have an organization that is going to take what we do in new hampshire, and we were there to let the people in iowa know, if you send us him as a winner, we have an organization. we will not drop the ball, is what i am saying. the people in south carolina were there to tell us the same thing. he has a former congressman on his team there. my purpose in telling you all that is that it gets mixed up with the elective ability part. -- elect ability part.

leadership quality. he is showing them in running this campaign, he has been the first person on a lot of things. one of the important parts of leadership is knowing where you are going. he spoke out against tarp. there was a big emergency. who had the guts say you're stepping over the line. rick santorum did, and that took guts. everybody was all in a panic at that time. working backwards, he is a full spectrum conservative. let me talk about that. on everything you can think of, it comes down on the conservative side of the issues. that is best illustrated, if you get the youtube clip where he is debating with barbara boxer, and he is just very nice, very calm. she tried to get on the record

that he was getting upset, and he was not getting upset. you can see that when you see the video. it's that kind of conservative that will go out on a limb on an issue that some people say it is going to cost us something politically. he is going to push the envelope to get us there. the best example of his full spectrum conservatism is the comment from rush limbaugh. we are not going to worry about what rick santorum comes up with if we make him president. we know he will come down on the side of things the way we like to see them. will he go back to the way he was before? he has always been here with us. a lot of people have been waiting to see if he could have that electability. he is one of us and he agrees

with us. his personal story, and this goes a lot to electability. he talked a lot about it when he did his speech at the caucus. his granddad came over from italy, worked in the coal mines. his father was a working man as well. he comes from that part of america, the working part of america. that sells very well to the electorate. the electorate wants to know there is someone who understands them, that has walked in their shoes, or at least on the same sidewalk they have walked on. and has seen the troubles that gone on. the fact that maybe if you were very successful because you worked very hard, not just somebody who wonders how people became successful because their dad was successful. he has risen on his own merits. he went to law school and

worked in private practice for a few years. then he got elected to congress, a smart, young guy. he was in congress for 20 years. then he got a chance to not be in congress for the last few years. i think his personal story is one that very easily sold to those folks who don't concentrate on politics the way we do. this issue and that issue and how do they line up. they just look at the person and think, is this a good man, someone we should put in charge, or not someone we should put in charge? excuse me while i get a drink. i picked the wrong time to be silent. [laughter] my favorite part of the argument for rick santorum. it is and electoral college vote. not how many people you can get

for you to vote in the united states. these are state by state elections. if you can start off with the state that is generally a democratic state and put it in the republican column like ronald reagan did, you start off in a huge advantage. base. taking away their if we can take pennsylvania and put that in our column, that is a huge advantage. the obama administration recently talked about how they are planning on their reelection. it depends on the state's that went for john kerry in 2004. pennsylvania is right in there. you take pennsylvania and put in the republican column, that is going to be great. he has gotten pennsylvania. he started off his election career by winning in congressional district that was democrat, by working hard,

going door to door. then he went beyond that and got elected to the entire state of pennsylvania. he can win an entire state. that tells you a lot. that tells you he can hold his own in the big cities. he can win in those suburbs outside of philadelphia and pittsburg. -- those kind of suburbsthose kind of folks will see the same thing and hopefully see him the same way those folks in pennsylvania saw him. that will give us a great advantage in winning the election come november. i am sure i have not done as great a job as rick santorum does himself. he speaks extremely well. i am impressed by the way he speaks in an inspiration away. -- in an inspirational way.

he talked about the founding fathers and how we have to honor their work and go back to their intent and the freedom they have given us and how we are smothering ourselves with government excess. then he can sit down and talk to you one on one about the intricacies of the federal budget, and which places we can actually go and save money. we all agree we have to make the federal government smaller. it would be great to have someone on day one that knows the federal budget and where to go and what proposals to bring forward that will work. he has proven that he can work well both with republicans and democrats as well, to come to a common ground. he explains how he got welfare reform back in the 1990's, but he had to do that with the democratic president. they worked together on that. you see what is happening in washington right now and you think, how come there are not any people like that?

what is the problem with them getting things done? at least we know there is somebody we can put up there who has been in that situation and got things done. that is rick santorum. >> if you want to see him, saturday he is that the lawrence born in hollis at 2:00 p.m., according to the gop website. i would be happy to answer any questions if i can, but i am sure you would much rather hear them from the candidate himself. i thought the board of education knew all the answers. >> since you worked with senator santorum for a while, i know he is a roman catholic, as i am. let's talk about foreign policy. all across the nation, and here

in new hampshire, catholic pastors and bishops have been speaking out from the pulpit against war. the other thing is that if you look at the rasmussen reports from last month, over 50% of the american voters believe we were wrong to attack iraq. 63% believe we should not be going back in case they get into trouble. 67% believe that we will not be successful in our military mission in afghanistan, and 75% of likely voters now believe that the united states should not become militarily involved unless it is to protect the security of the united states homeland. given both the pastoral side and also the very overwhelming evidence that the likely american voter opposes military intervention, do you feel that

this will alter rick santorum's decision on foreign-policy as we move forward? >> the way i understand his position is that the best way to avoid a war is to have a strong stance and strong defense that would make anyone reluctant to cross our interest. i don't think that is contradictory to a position against war. if everybody knows you are not going to go to war, you are probably going to invite trouble. >> we have time for a few more questions. one in the back. >> what would he cut? >> that is a specific question i do not know the answer to. thank you.

[applause] >> our next speaker is someone that is well known to all of us. senator gary lambert, speaking on behalf of mitt romney. [applause] >> thank you very much for having me here tonight. i understand that ann romney was supposed to speak to you, and i feel privileged to speak to you. she was not able to make it and she asked me to come up here. i know most of you in the audience, and being an elected official, you speak to your audience. what i am about to say is not the kind of thing i would normally say to democrats and independents, because i know who you are. i know how lot of you think. -- how you think. a lot of you have friends like

pete silver. >> remember we are on live tv. >> i am here to convince you to vote for mitt romney. i know everybody out in this audience is very astute. they know the candidates' positions. so rather than going on with the blah blah gigot -- i would like to get right to the point. i know how this movie is going to end. mitt romney is going to be the nominee. with all due respect to all my friends out there, that is going to happen. the way i look at it, the sooner we can get it over with. in the end, guess who we are after? we are after barack obama. we have got to beat him and save our resources and get to that point. mitt romney has the best round game, the most money, and the polls say he is going to win. i know there are a lot of you out there that say the polls

like. -- lie. the polls are pretty good, and they say mitt romney has the best chance to beat barack obama. even a little guy like me, i ran a poll during my senate campaign and it came out right on the money, the way it came out in the election. they are really good at doing polling now. pete is a good friend of mine. the last time he picked a fantasy candidate -- i just talked to ron paul supporter today, a great guy. it was not you, it was someone else. he even knew ron paul was going to lose. he believed he was going to lose. i think ron paul said he was going to lose or thought he was going to lose. i don't get it. this is not about picking a favorite, not about picking someone you like or even someone with your own beliefs and principles. this is about picking a person that can beat barack obama.

one of the main reasons i like mitt romney and support him, being a senator who won in a democratic district, the first republican in 94 years, i can appreciate i who can beat the -- a guy who can be democrats, and that is who you need to get out there and convert democrats to vote for you, and especially those independents. that is not the group we have in here. that would be a different route. -- group. he appeals to the independent voter and certain democrats. i am going to spare all of that and all the details, but i will take any questions you might have, if i can answer them. yes, sir. >> [inaudible]

i actually was offended by what you were saying earlier. you know lot of people in this room. you don't know me, i don't know you. i was hoping for a little bit more than why everyone is going to vote for romney and the process is already decided. that is not what i think the primary is about. there is a vetting process, and as important as the result is is the process for getting to the result. i think you diminish that with your comments, and i found it offensive. [applause] >> i am sorry about that. i will be more than happy to spend a half-hour with you offline. i have a limited amount of time up here. i have to pick up my son at basketball practice at 9:00.

i understand, i apologize if i offended you or anyone else in any way, but i will tell you this, i expect most people are paying attention to the issues and have almost made up their mind. this was more or less a time to tell republicans why they should vote for romney. >> i think representative price also has some comments. >> former representative, thank you very much. and thank you for the senator. i guess my question,if i can pose it as a question to the senator, our economy is in trouble. our country is in trouble. we have 25 million people in this country who are unemployed. we have young people who are graduating from college and cannot get jobs. we have people who are working

longer than they had hoped to work because their retirement funds are gone. we are in trouble. we have challenges, and i look and ask you if you would agree that governor romney's skills are uniquely suited to solve all our economic problems at this time, at this point in time. i look at him, he is a proven problem solver. whether you look at his business career, the 25 years he worked for private industry, whether you look at what he did with the olympics, or whether you look at what he has done as governor of massachusetts. he has gone into trouble and struggling ventures and unable -- he has been able to turn them around. in business, he created thousands of jobs. he took companies and

reorganize them and turned out thousands of jobs. the olympics -- i read that book and that is when i first decided to support governor romney. if you have time between now and tuesday, please read that book. it was an eye opener. this was an olympics that was filled with scandal. that had no sponsor set up. the thing was headed for trouble. he turned it around successfully, post-9/11. very successful olympic games. as governor massachusetts, $3 billion budget deficit. he cut taxes 19 times, built up at $2 billion rainy day fund. he has gone into trouble than -- troubled and struggling enterprises and turned things around. working with the other side, government in washington is gridlock. we need someone who can work with both parties and move the

country for. we might not get everything we want. you have to move the ball forward. governor romney has shown that he can do that. he can win. he can pull the independent vote. hisdn't you agree that skill set is uniquely suited to the economic challenges that we face in our country? >> absolutely. i could not have said it better than you, pam. [applause] >> we have time for a few more. >> as another romney supporter, i would like to reinforce what she said, but no one like to point -- i would like to point out another chapter in the book where he pointed out what he did in massachusetts with health care. if you read that chapter, you will see the details of what the situation was there, what he was trying to do, because the

democrats had something a lot worse. he did it with private insurance, with everybody putting some money into these insurance plans, so that everybody had a little bit of skin in the game, if you will. that was another thing in that book that helped convince me to back mitt romney. i think if you have a chance, i reinforce what pam said. read that book and get a picture of the man that really can be -- beat obama. [applause] >> one more question. >> romney is a man of integrity, consistency, and honesty. -- honesty? >> absolutely. >> he does not change his values over time. >> people change their opinion on things. his core values have always

been the same. his record is indicative of that. >> somebody that can change their position with the political winds, i feel like we have had a lot of that in america. i feel like that is something that has put us where we are today. i am very cautious about somebody who is just another one of those people, just another person who changes their opinion with the wind. >> i would disagree with you. he does not change on a whim. we change our opinions on certain issues after learning more about them. that is not changing your core principles and your values. toobamacare you'd have change with the wind. -- he would have to change to repeal obamacare. >> i can give you the talking points. we have heard them over and over again. governor romney talked about this.

what was good for massachusetts -- it may not be good for the country. it was a state-run program. it is unfair to compare that. we would not have done a countrywide. we know that. >> is it good for anyone? >> it seems to be working in massachusetts at least. then i think we have time for one last question. >> you might be right, might be inevitable -- but the problem, and not vote for the person who has your values but vote for the person who wins. even if mitt romney ends up being the eventual nominee, the process going through the debates and going to the primaries, it makes him a better candidate. if you vote for the candidate who supports what you care about and he gets to talk about it some more, you never know. he might change his position to embrace some of the things you want. i think there is value for us to vote the candidates we won

because it is our ideas out there. and i think there is value for him as well because it makes him a better candidate when he has to go up against obama. >> that is a good point. >> i've heard from many supporters as well. i tend to disagree with it. i am about winning. you have to win. the name of the game is to beat barack obama. that's it. ok? let's do what we have to do to get there as fast as we can. >> all right. thank you very much. [applause] >> just a few final things. one, reminder that it is time for dues. annual dues, this is january. if you can see maria -- she has left.

dan richardson, is he still here? he is outside. it is $10 for an individual, $15 for a couple. i do not think you can get much better than that. he mentioned fund-raisers. we will be having them this upcoming year. we have a difficult time ahead of us. we had redistricting. house and senate districts will -- they will be different from what we are used to. we need to be prepared. the democrats did not like us having the majority in the house. you can bet that they will be working overtime on this one. they will especially trying to, as it appears to be, there will be a lot of obama money coming in. there will be a lot of volunteers where the votes do

not mean much. we need to be prepared. we will have fund-raisers. we will also organize to make sure we can deliver for the republican side. whichever of these wonderful nominees we just heard about is going to be the candidate. we have heard from each of the candidates. the russell process, i have -- throughout this whole process, i have stayed neutral. i am still staying away and still i can get the voting -- still staying neutral until i can get to the voting booth. i do want to maybe share a few ideas. one skills that is being able to articulate your ideas in a way that is going to be compelling to the candidates. each of you who came up and spoke, you are motivated by

your candidates. that is a good assessment. bear that in mind. the other thing is governance. which can govern effectively and in a way that is consistent with the constitution and our conservative principles? to contrast that, we have a president right now who, while the senate was still in session, made recess appointments to four positions, one of which is a position in an unconstitutional office he created. he has likened himself to the fourth best president. and i noticed in the ones he listed as the best president,he did not include george washington. this is a man whose hubris and

egotism combined with his dogmatic ideology has so made -- made him so in net -- inept that he does that recognize his own ineptitude. [applause] this is a president whose name in the future should be like jimmy carter's for the failed presidency. it should be an easy election for us to win. it won't be. we need to be able to point out those problems with obama. we need to pick a candidate that can draw that conclusion. -- contrast. those are just my thoughts. think about who can run.

-- think about who can govern and who can run. that is really the core idea that all of us has to go with. >> [inaudible] >> our next meeting is february 9. the speaker will be -- >> kevin smith. >> both great guys. we look forward to having them. the other big target is taking back the governor's office. we cannot guarantee having 75% majorities and cannot take another 42 years of who the -- another two years of hubei -- who the democrats are putting

up. they are awful. so. [applause] we need to make sure they're not elected. thank you for coming. i am sure these surrogates that are still here would be happy to meet with you. thank you to all of you who tuned in. thank you. ahead of tuesday's new hampshire primary, c-span 3 is bringing you past concession and victory speeches. today, and look back at the 2004 primary but the winner, john kerry, and also the concession speech by howard dean.

our live road to the white house coverage this evening is ron paul at the university of new hampshire in a dorm room -- durham. the u.s. house has been holding pro-forma sessions before returning for legislative business on tuesday, january 17. the republican house speaker block the democrats from being recognized during the brief session today. in today's case, it was jim clyburn, assistant democratic leader. "ville" writes that the republicans will continue the practice of holding pro-forma sessions -- sessions to prevent the obama administration for making recess appointments. however, obama on wednesday appointed richard cordray to head the consumer financial protection bureau and made more appointments to the national relations board. here is a brief look at the pro- forma session. nder god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

>> mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is ott of order. pursuant to section 4-a of house resolution 493, no organizational or legislative business will be conducted on this day. pursuant to section 4 hc of house resolution 493, the house stands adjourned until 2:00 p.m. on tuesday, january 10, 2012. >> the house camera controls the feed. after that, democrats came out to speak to reporters. this is about 25 minutes.

>> good morning. democrats are here and we are ready to work, and we just can't wait. i think that what we heard this morning in the jobs report is an indication that the president's proposals are working, this program is taking hold. and we believe that our republican colleagues are doing a tremendous disservice to the american people by continuing to vacation when the foundation moving an agenda seemed to be solid and should be built upon. and we democrats are here ready to work, ready to make sure to

build stability in the lives of the american people. our conferees are all here in washington looking for their republican colleagues so they can develop a proposal to extend the payroll tax cut for the american people and do so in such a way that certainty and stability will be built into the lives of the american people. 160 million americans are in jeopardy of not having a contingent tax cut. we democrats believe that middle income americans deserve this tax cut, but they are also deserving certainty. that is why our colleagues are here. as you notice, we were just shut down and not allowed to speak from the floor, when we were

told we are in session. and we went to the floor to work. but we were not allowed to do the people's work. and so, my colleagues are here with me today, and i would like now to yield to our illustrious leader who has come back from vacation to bring us democrats here to washington so we can do the people's work. ms. pelosi. >> thank you so much, assistant leader clyburn. thank you for going to the floor to call for the conferees to meet to give a payroll tax cut to 150 million americans, to ensure and reinsure -- reassure millions of americans out of work through no fault of their own that they would have unemployment benefits, and to tens of millions of seniors that

they will be able to see their doctor under medicare. this certainty gives people confidence. these measures will inject demand into the economy. because those who receive the tax cut, those who received the unemployment benefit, need the money, will spend the money, inject demand and create jobs. it is good for the economy, it is good for american families. we were told yesterday that congress was in session. that is why we went to the floor today to call upon the conferees to get to work. the american people are crying out for jobs, they want us to work together. we can do that. i don't know what the republicans are afraid of. where are they? they are telling us that they were late in december so they cannot be here in january? one month -- one month on bank, 1 month off? we cannot wait.

as the leader said, -- giving confidence to people. already the economy is responding to his leadership in that regard and with the hope we will continue our hope in a bipartisan fashion and in a timely fashion to extend the tax cut, the unemployment benefits, and the seniors ability to see their doctors for the rest of the year. there is no reason -- tell me why, how can we explain to americans why the conferees are not here to do their work? even if the leadership does not want the congress to be here doing the people's work? one year and one day ago, republicans were sworn in as the majority in the congress of the united states. great privilege. we can associate ourselves with what a great privilege it was to do the people's work. one year later, have they tired of it? one year later we are working five days in the month of

january, when the american people desperately need us to take positive action for job creation. i am very proud of our conferees, some are with us right here now. all of them here this week to get the job done. scores of our members came from across the country to urge congress to get moving on the conference report, hoping that we could be in session to have some exchange of ideas on this subject. but evidently, the republicans think that that -- that the needs of the american people can wait. we can't eat -- we can't wait. i will yield to the chair of our caucus, john marcin of connecticut. >> to underscore the urgency, meeting with ed reilly of the iron workers and the current head of the greater hartford trade association, trades in my

state and the greater hartford area experienced in the last few years more than 40% unemployment. 40% in the building trades. and here is the president with a plan that puts the country back to work. that focuses on our infrastructure system, and most notably, our schools. in kind -- the contrast could not be more glaring, to understand the need to have a first-rate education system and to see our schools upgraded in a way that many of them have not been in years, and to understand that at the same time you would be putting those very people back to work. the republicans have left us in the dark abyss of uncertainty, and that uncertainty is what we see when we go home and speak to our constituents almost every single week. they want us here working.

they feel what martin luther king said so eloquently so long ago, that the fierce urgency of now, to put them back to work, and that is why we are here both ready to take on a conference assignment led capably by our vice chair becerra, who will speak next. >> thank you, mr. chairman. this is a little difficult to understand. we have been told by the republicans that we are in session. we just spent four minutes today in a session, and now we are done. well, most americans woke up at the beginning of this week wanting to be able to say, loving to be able to say i will go back to work after this vacation. yet, here we are, and we are done. four minutes. and we've got some work to do. either we are in, or we are out

of session. kenya and imagine what would happen if we have republicans working with the president to create jobs? if 212,000 private-sector jobs were created last month, even with the obstruction of the republicans in congress and over 1.6 million jobs created in the last year, despite the obstruction of the republican congress, could you imagine how many americans today would be able to say after their vacation, "i am going back to work?" as ricky ricardo used to tell lucille ball, i think our republican colleagues have some splaining to do. we need to have every hand on that because every american is working as hard as possible. we need to make sure that every single american, those elected to the house of representatives, are ready to work. let me yield to the member of leadership, chris van hollen.

>> i thank my colleague. i will present two numbers. 160 million americans. the other number is about 20 conferees, 435 members of the house. you would think that about 20 conferees of 435 members of the house will get back to work on behalf of the 160 million americans and put that uncertainty to rest. that is what it is all about. as mr. clyburn said, we saw some good news. we saw the overall unemployment rate come down a little bit. we saw 200,000 new jobs created. but we also know that the economy remains very, very fractured. we know that millions of americans are still out there every day looking for jobs, not able to find one through no fault of their own. that is why it is so important we get to work and get to work now, just like all the americans

who have jobs got back to work. now, a majority of the house republicans of the conference committee have been on record in the past the opposing the idea of a payroll tax cut for 160 million americans. so, i hope the fact that they are not here today is not an indication that they do not want to continue to extend that tax cut for 160 million americans, because we know in the last round they tried to have all sorts of extraneous, -- they tried to add all these extraneous provisions, and that is why we had to do it for two months. let's go back, finished the job, and make sure we keep this fragile recovery moving. with that, i want to yield to the ranking member of the energy and commerce committee and member of the conference committee who is here and ready to get to work, henry waxman. >> the republicans are playing a game, let's pretend. let's pretend we are in session

for four minutes. let's pretend we are working, because they banged the gavel and allowed the prayer and the pledge of allegiance. let's pretend today head up a democracy -- keeping other points of view from being expressed on the house floor today when they cut off our assistant leader and the members here today. they are playing, let's pretend it does not make any difference that we are only going to meet five days in the month of january. let's pretend it does not mean anything to them that there are 160 million americans depending on us to act to extend the middle-class tax cut, to extend unemployment insurance for those who are not working, to make sure that doctors are adequately reimbursed so that they will keep seen medicare patients. i think we ought to stop playing

games, whether it is open " let's pretend" or any other game. it is already the new year in 2012. let's get to work. millions of americans are depending on us. let us some of the republicans from the four corners of the earth -- hawaii, and india, or wherever they may be out there on their privately-funded trips -- i should throw in las vegas because i know there is a trip to las vegas. come on back to washington. the weather is not as nice, but the work we are elected to do has to be done here. let the conferees meet. we have been informed we will not even have a meeting until january 18 or thereafter. let's get to work. come on, republicans. let's not pretend to work. let's really work. and i now want to yield to the gentle lady from maryland who so

ably led us in the pledge of allegiance and who has been here with all of us, to express the feelings that we also strongly hold, that the american people are depending on us. >> thank you. this morning, when i came in to lead the pledge i thought it was a work day, and it is sad that here we are on january 3, when millions of americans actually went back to work after their holidays, millions of americans, except republicans in congress, who thought it was ok to take virtually the month off while we wait to extend unemployment compensation for millions of those who are unemployed for no reason or been fault of their own, while we wait to extend and give certainty to 160 million americans across this country who want those middle-class tax cut so that they can take care of themselves and their families and put that into the economy. we came here to work.

and i am just rank-and-file. i thought it was a work day because that is what people do after the new year begins. but that is not what republicans in congress have done. instead, they say we want to work five days in january for a month's pay. we want to work for minutes on friday for a day's pay, while they spend it someplace else other than your in washington on capitol hill doing their business and extending unemployment benefits, providing 160 million americans with the certainty of a middle- class tax cut and making sure our senior and disabled have the ability to have their doctors paid for wrecked -- medicare reimbursement. we cannot wait any longer. it is time to work. time for republicans to get back here in washington and work a month for a month's pay. >> i thank my colleagues for being here. i thank them for going to the floor to express the concerns that i know are felt by people across the country.

where are the jobs, where are the republicans? we talked about passing the bill that would extend payroll tax cuts for 160 million americans, extend unemployment benefits for millions of people unemployed through no fault of their own, and extending the ability to see a doctor for tens of millions of seniors. there is plenty else we can do. the absence of congress being in session deprives us of the opportunity to take it to the floor, to reignite the american dream, build ladders of opportunity for people who want to work hard and play by the rules to reach their success. and we have plenty of work to do. we could be taking up an infrastructure bill to rebuild america, reignite the american dream, rebuild the middle class, rebuild america. make it and america, as mr. steny hoyer always said, so we

could be passing this legislation and the president has and all in his proposal and instead the republicans are missing in action. you heard us on the floor, but unfortunately the public could not here because we were shut down when mr. clyburn, the distinguished gentleman from south carolina, stood up to speak on behalf of the american people. we are pleased to take any questions. >> the republican who presided over the pro-forma session just called what the democrats did on the floor theatrics, and when you were speaker house republicans staged a similar protest during the august recess. >> they danced on the floor, they stayed, and they were on television, as you recall. but the fact is, right now we have massive unemployment in our country. perhaps people in washington do not notice. i wish you could read my christmas cards, cards are received from hundreds of people talking about their needs and

how they want a job and can congress please work together to create jobs. this is a very, very difficult time for the american people. they are losing patience with congress. they simply don't understand why when they need jobs, we can do ours. and again, an important time when we could be instilling more confidence in the public that we would be getting people's work done. >> ms. edwards, you said when you drove in you thought it would be a work day. the district is close to washington. when the democrats were in control of your often asked to preside over pro-forma sessions. when you were presiding did you anticipate or have anticipate -- or have in anticipation that any of those would be workday's? >> formate, as a member of congress representing the fourth congressional district, every day is a work day and we need to

get to work to create jobs for the american people. that is what i expect us to be doing. after a long vacation, the rest of america that has a job went back to work. the congress needs to come back to work, too. we have work to do. we have to create jobs. we have to make sure we extend unemployment for millions of americans who are out of work, and we need to make sure we extend those tax cuts for 160 million americans who went to work after the holiday. i came ready to work. i am ready to work. my democratic colleagues, many of them over here yesterday, also ready to work. our conferees are here. it is time for the republicans in congress to get to the business of the american people. >> and it is about time -- it is about the time american people have been out of work, the time we are not working for them, it is about time for us to get here and get the job done. so, it if you want to get bogged down in process of who did what

-- when we did -- came into congress, one of the first 100 hours, we passed legislation to raise the minimum wage, to insist the secretary had the right to negotiate for prescription drugs, to make sure that those drilling offshore pay their royalties. not all of it became law. president bush was present at the time. but most of its did. and we continued to be on the job as long as there is the need and opportunity for us to get the job done. and right now, it is a time for us to have the conferees set down at the table because the work was not completed last year. it was not completed last year because as mr. chris van hollen said, many of the conferees, in addition to members of the republican caucus, did not support a payroll tax cut for

160 million americans. tax cuts for the wealthiest people of the country. yes. but 160 million middle income american americans, no. then they use the excuse it was not long enough. like yogi berra talking about a restaurant -- i did not like the food there, it is not any good, but the sides, the portions are too small. they do not like the payroll tax cuts but yet they are saying they wanted to be longer. do you want it to be longer. there is uncertainty. if you do not think it is a different time, take a ride outside of washington, d.c., see what the public mood is and the need for us to create those jobs, not only to do what they say in the legislation but what it engenders in terms of confidence in people, hiring by businesses and injecting demand into the economy. i simply would not have us

engaged in a this, that, last august, 10 years ago -- this is about the here and now and the highly unusual circumstance wii in because of republican failed economic policies of president george bush. it took us to a financial meltdown, took us to a near depression, took us into deep deficits that we still have to deal with. are they just too tired to come to work? i hope not. >> conferees -- summit g7 -- it senate democrats are not here. are you calling them into? >> we are asking for them to come to work. we are asking all of the conferees to get to work. am i just wanted to confirm something -- because i think you have to distinguish what republicans did when they came and the floor was not opened, and what we are trying to do today. when the republicans came and

told us to do some work, we had recessed. we had formally recessed. we had essentially told every member to go back to your district and work at home. this is your opportunity. you will not have votes -- we will not have votes. the republicans today are upset at the president for having a recess appointment, and they claim we are not recess, we are still at work, that you should be here prepared to vote. there is a great difference between a situation where we formally recessed and every member understands you do not be -- have to be in washington, versus today where republicans say we are not at recess which should tell every member to be prepared to cast votes. whether it is don edwards or any other member of congress, there is a great difference between what the republicans did on the house floor and what we are attempting to do today. the republicans are the ones saying we are at work and we are

saying, prove it. >> >> appreciate your help. >> thank you very much. enjoyed it. >> how are you? good to see you. >> thanks for coming tonight. glad to meet you. nice to meet you. thank you. >> there you go. >> c-span's "road to the white house closed " coverage takes you on the campaign trail with the candidates. >> great to see you. >> how are you going to get past

the stalemate? >> watch c-span's coverage of the new hampshire primary on c- span television and on our website, c-span.org. >> ♪ ♪ i was born free >> ahead of tuesday's primary on c-span 3, we are bringing you past concession and victory speeches. today, from 2004. democratic winner john kerry and runner-up howard dean, and it also rears at 8:00 and 11:00 p.m. four days before the new hampshire primary and ron paul has two event, the second of which at the university of new hampshire at durham, live at 7:00 eastern on c-span. polls are coming out ahead of the tuesday primary. the tv station wmur at the university of new hampshire will have a poll this afternoon that shows mitt romney leading the

state with 44%. it results to be released this afternoon at 5:00 p.m. ahead of the south carolina poll, a poll shows mitt romney with 27%, rick santorum, 24%, and newt gingrich at 18%. next up, republican candidate jon huntsman held a town hall meeting. it is the first of his three engagements today. this is 50 minutes. >> good morning, and welcome to the final day of convention 2012. it is at this time my pleasure to introduce mr. shawn gingery, a senior at coronado high school in coronado, california, and he will have the honor of introducing our next presidential candidate, governor john huntsman. [applause] >> good morning.

jon huntsman has served his country in various ways throughout his life. indeed, because of his deeply held conviction to service to country that he rose above politics as usual. jon huntsman has served his native utah where his record was outstanding in reducing spending and taxes, and in his spirit of and very light -- unparalleled coverage, he accepted the critical role as american ambassador to china where his business acumen was matched by his diplomatic skills and active defense of america's interest in the face of china's poor human-rights record. this president's campaign is defined by fiscal responsibility, energy independence, tax and regulatory reform as well as an approach to natural security that emphasizes his key grasp of post cold war realities. please join me in welcoming governor john huntsman. [applause] >> thank you.

how is everybody this morning? do we have any voters in the room? by a show of hands, show me who is going to be voting. ok. how about over here? ok. can i just square with you all -- this is the new hampshire primary, folks. this is an important event in the history of this nation. you will get out and vote and participate this week. you know what will happen? you will be the window through which the rest of the nation is able to assess and analyze and understand those running for the highest office of the land. you have an awesome responsibility -- do you have an awesome responsibility to get out and learn about the candidates and issues? of course, you do. i hope you do not trivialize it. i hope you make it a learning experience. but take it from an outsider -- i want you all to realize the

importance of this new hampshire primary event and how lucky and fortunate all of you all -- are being participants in a process that will set a trend and perhaps change a nation's history. this is a big, big deal. now, let me get to where i stand. i am the underdog in this race. i understand that. you know what else i understand? new hampshire loves an underdog. you always allowed underdogs to come into the state, into the marketplace here. you hear them out, assess and analyze what they have to say, and you run them through the process and they do a whole lot better than anyone might expect. you wake of the day after the vote and the rest the country looks at what you have done, and they say the people of new hampshire have spoken again. they know what they are talking about. that typically tends to set a trend beyond new hampshire. so, as a candidate, we have done almost 160 public events in this

state. no one has even come close in terms of what we have done on the ground here in new hampshire. because i still believe that you got to get out and turn of the vote. you know what i mean? you got to be on the streets, shake hands, the town hall meetings, house parties. people want to know your heart and soul. what is inside of you. they want to know what is in your head and what you want to do for this great country. you can't twitter your way to success. you can't facebook your way to success, folks. you have to go out and earn it. i and betting politics is still done the old-fashioned way in this state, and you have to be seen, heard, and felt. so we will put it to the test next week. and i think it will go to our benefit. i am excited as candidate for president of the united states of america, and i am running for this reason. because we are about to hand down the greatest nation that ever was, the united states of

america, to you. last -- more divided, less competitive, less productive, and more saddled with debt than the america we got. and i say, this isn't fair. you are getting screwed. that is not right. and i say it is up to my generation to fix it before we hand it down to you. in 1960, when i was born, a long time ago, we exported $3 for every $2 we imported. gdp.n 36% of the world's science, technology, the great standard of living in the world. it seemed like all the nobel prize winners came from the united states. our gdp, 25% of it came from manufacturing, including a lot of activity right here in this state. and i look at where we sit today. 9% of our gdp is derived from

manufacturing. that is unsustainable. we are handing down to the next generation a much different america than the one we got. and i say, i have a choice, as i came back from china as the united states ambassador. you can either stand on the sidelines and watch it all play out, or you can get into the arena and fight, broadened the debate and add to it because this election cycle is all about you. and it is about a country that we are about to hand over to you. so, what is it my generation does? we package this thing called for humanity that represents my generation -- it is about our values, our economy, are standing in the world, and our competitiveness. and we give it to you, the best thing we have to offer. i am not happy with what we are about to hand down and die say aye will do whatever i can in my power to bring about change, so

be america you get is the very best. we have two things we have to do before we handed down to you. and you need to be aware of these issues because everything we are talking about here will fall about your lap. we have two deficits in this country that we've got to fix. one is an economic deficit. it is called $15 trillion in debt. ladies and gentlemen, how did we get to this spot? $15 trillion in debt -- that is not a debt problem, that is a national-security problem. you know what i mean? your dad as a percentage of gdp becomes 70% or 80%, you cannot grow. you cannot compete in the global marketplace. that is your generation. i say, we are not going to ship wreck the next generation with debt. we will deal with it realistically and put forward plans that will cut from all

categories -- from entitlements, from the department of defense -- we cannot have sacred cows. but beyond that, we have to grow. we have to grow out of the whole we find ourselves. this is what i did as governor. we have some governors running, some people from congress -- governors have to deal with growth issues. i changed taxes in my state, created a more hospitable and friendly regulatory environment and we went to number one in this country in terms of job growth. i want to fire the engines of growth in this nation. i know it is totally possible. china is going like this. i have seen the rise of asia, specifically china. china is going from 8%, 9%, 10% economic growth to maybe 4%, 5%, 6% -- they are having problems. inflation is going up. the cost of manufacturing is

going up. unemployment is going up. what happens in china, this vast country of 1.3 billion people, when unemployment goes up? you have political uncertainty. you have risk. and the investment dollars from companies all over the world that plant their dollar in china because it is always a cheap place to go will be saying, uh- uh, we want to find an alternative. they will be looking around and we would be crazy if we did not prepare ourselves for that future. because we are still 25% of the world market. and we still in america had the most productive worker on earth. and i say, as president, i am going to recognize this a opportunity we have to get back on our feet from a manufacturing standpoint. i think the united states of america is on the cusp of a manufacturing renaissance. i really do. we need leadership and we need ideas that will get us there.

and we've got to grow. we've got to expand our base. we've got to earn the ability to pay down the debt. it is the way it is done. just like a business, a family. no different. we need a president that will allow us to get there. but i will be darned if we will hand down to your generation the level of debt we have in this country. because it is like a cancer metastasizing. it will ship wrecked the next generation unless we can get our arms around it. the second deficit i would like to spend a minute talking about is not an economic deficit -- not like the debt we just talked about -- it is a deficit of another kind. and it is a deficit we did not have when i was your age. and i would argue that it is just as corrosive and harmful to we as people as the economic deficit. it is called a trust deficit. because the people in this country no longer trust their

institution of power -- institutions of power. you know what i mean? they no longer trust their elected officials. how pathetic is this? we as a nation were built and founded on trust. institutions of trust. and now the greatest nation that ever was is running on empty. i will be darned if we will pass that down to your generation. no trust. so, how do you feel about getting a country that is wallowing in debt and one that lacks trust and basic civility toward one another? we can do better than that have to do some things. i'm noah wanted u.s. president. i want to lead the charge around this country that allows us to move toward term limits for congress. [applause]

because i know this and many of you are learning about it in your own political science class is, there is this thing called incumbency that reaches up and grabs people and grows very deep roots and makes it almost impossible for people to leave congress once they get there and i say that is not right or fair. we need to free up the system every now and again i want to lead a charge around this country. i want to be a catalyst for change. i know it is the will of the people to bring about term limits for congress. i also want to close the revolving door which allows members of congress to file out and trade and on their insider relationships and their insider information and become lobbyists. [applause] we wonder why there is no trust and why we are cynical and look

at capitol hill. no trust in congress. i look at the executive branch, no trust. no leadership when this nation needs it most. despite partisan commission report on commission spending, it lands on the president's desk, a wonderful plan that could have taken this nation forward on debt and spending and tax reform. it goes in the garbage can. no trust. no leadership. i look at our tax code, this big complicated thing that everyone has to deal with every year. no trust, if you are a lobbyist or down for a lobbyist or if you have a lawyer doing your bidding on capitol hill, you can get a loophole, you can get a deduction which is completely corrupted our tax code. just get your mind around this -- in our tax code to become a

$1 trillion $100 billion in car routes and deductions and loopholes for about 7% of the population. that is a drag on our economy that we cannot afford at this point. it is not fair to the american people. i want to phase out in my tax plan all of the loopholes in all the deductions and all of the corporate welfare and all the subsidies. i want to say we are starting with a clean slate. that is what i did as governor. i'm not giving an academic dissertation. i'm a practitioner. did i succeed in getting all the loopholes out? no, but i got a lot of them out and is a fight worth waging the is what we have to level the playing field. i like what that does to capitol hill in terms of training the swamp for lobbyists. if there is nothing to lobby for in terms of additional loopholes

or deductions, there is nothing to lobby for and i like that outcome. i want to bring trust back to the tax code. i look at our wars abroad and i say no trust. we have been at the war on terror for 10 years and this nation has given its all and i want to be frank and honest with the american people -- i want to say we have done a pretty good job with respect to afghanistan. we have run out the taliban. we have of bended and dismantled al-qaeda. osama bin laden bin lot and is no longer around. we have had free elections and help strengthen civil society. we have strengthened the military and the police but you know what? i want our troops to come home from afghanistan [applause] because i don't want to be nation-building in southwest asia the typically at a time when this nation so desperately needs to be built.

[applause] if our nation is weak, if our core is weak and crumbling as it is today, you cannot protect the values that make this nation so you need. i have lived overseas several times. i have seen this nation when the projects of values of goodness and it moves people. it changes history. it changes the event. those values of liberty and democracy and human rights and free markets -- nobody doesn't like the united states and today we are weak and not protecting those values and i say you cannot have a foreign policy or national security strategy when you are crumbling at home. i want to square with the american people on this, too -- afghanistan is not our nation's future. it is not your future. iraq is not your future. our future is how prepared we are as people, all of us, to rise up and meet head-on the competitive challenges of the

21st century. that is your century and that is about economics and that is about education. that will play out over the pacific ocean in countries i have lived in before. i am here to tell you that we don't get our act together at all because i have seen of these other countries have done to prepare for the rest of the 21st century -- we don't get our act together at home, we will see the end of the american century during our lifetimes. that is not the legacy that i will leave behind no trust in our foreign policy, i want to get trust back into our foreign policy. i look at wall street, no trust. we have banks that are too big to fail. i say we can fix our taxes, move toward greater energy independence, launch a manufacturing renaissance and if we're left with baxter to big to fail, we are setting ourselves up for another bailout, a

disaster. we have been there and done that and we are not going to do it again. [applause] we need a president who can say banks, if you are too big to fail, you are too big. capitalism without failure is not capitalism. we don't want banks looking like public utilities which is what we are getting. we've got six big banks. i imagine this -- combined, they have assets that are worth 2/3 of our nation's gdp, six of them. $9.50 trillion if they get infected by the that is going around europe, and economically they get sick and they start to go down, they cannot go down because it will take all of us with them. we have to bail them out. i say that is not right and not fair for the taxpayers in this countr to have this implied

taxpayer bailout guarantee for these big banks. as president, i will say we will right size you. if you are too big to fail, you are too big. if you get sick and have problems, you can fail and you will not take all this down with us -- with you. i want to get to trust back to wall street. ladies and gentlemen, i am who i am. i have a track record that i want you to look at as voters. it is what it is. i will not stand up and pander. i will not stand up like my republican colleagues and signed a silly pledges. i will not do those kind of things. [applause] we have received the endorsement of about half the papers in the state. we just got the endorsement of "the boston globe." i feel good about where we sit in new hampshire because i know this state laws an underdog. we have worked hard.

we have shared in message that i feel in my heart and soul. now, we need to make sure we can bring it home on tuesday. i am an optimist about where this country is going, about your generation because i have seen it from 10,000 miles away in china. if you walk the streets of beijing and shanghai, they are full of energy right now. that is because they are growing at 10% per year even though that is coming down. you look at this country, from 10,000 miles away, the greatest nation ever, the united states of america -- we are in a funk. you know what i mean? we are dispirited as people. this is not who we are. we have to get out of all but in order to get out, we need leadership and we need confidence and we need to focus on your generation, a driving goal that says we will not leave a broken country to you. [applause]

here is why i am an optimist and why all of you should be optimistic. i have seen a lot of other countries and we have some things that are pretty remarkable in this nation. you need to keep hold of them during your generation and make sure they are strong because they set us apart and all the world. here is what some of them are -- we have stability in this country. you pick up papers and read about instability but we have stability in this country. we are able to gather and have free conversations and dialogue and disagree and we can do it with a sense of stability. we have ruled law, we are still a rules-based system. we have the longest surviving constitution in the world. we even have private property rights right here in new hampshire. we have the greatest colleges and universities anywhere in the world. never doubt that people flocked

here from every corner of the world to attend them, that is how good they are. we have a creative class in this country, the finest thinkers, innovators, and entrepreneurs and they are engines of growth. right now, they are sitting on their hands because they don't have any confidence of where we are headed as a country. we have a pretty brave and courageous armed forces. i, as president, will not allow the men and women from the theaters of combat, the front lines, to come back to the unemployment lines. [applause] they will comeback, your generation many of them, to a sense of dignity and respect and gratitude. they will also come back to jobs. like the greatest generation before them, your grandparents,

the greatest generation, who rebuilt this nation during another time of need, the new greatest generation and you will be part of that will come together as americans and we will rebuild this nation once again. no more division, no more parking ourselves in alleyways and cul-de-sacs because we're all americans first and foremost. never forget that. i don't care whenever a new compromise what your point of origin is or where you go to school -- we are all americans. , first and foremost. as we proceed as people in problem solving and making business in the best it can be, i don't want you ever to forget that. we are americans first and foremost and that carries with it the idea that we show a little respect one for another. we find good and other people, this thing called humanity that i talked about earlier that we are passing down to you, it is all about who we are in is all we have to give his people. there is no more, that sense of

humanity is our values, our respect for one another. our economy, are standing in the world, our schools, that is what we are passing down to you. that is what i want to fix and that is what i want to get right. i want your vote. i want your help. you know what else? i wonder trust. because when you ask someone for a vote, guess what you are asking for? you are asking for their trust. there is not a more important thing, a more valuable thing that one human being can give to another, a trust. i will work hard. i will never, ever discount the importance of the trust that i am asking people for. that is the votes. thank you so very much for being here and it has been an honor and privilege to be here with you. thank you. [applause] thank you. thank you.

thank you. thank you all very much. questions? yes, sir. >> on like most young people, i don't trust corporations. your policies will attract more corporations which i don't that is a bad thing but your plans to rein in the epa and dodd- frank may feel may make us feel unaccountable. how are your policies in the best interest of the country? >> good question, thank you. corporations need accountability. there's no question about that. the problem i have with dodd- frank -- sometimes when we have problems in this country and we have had some -- we overreach. sometimes it is apparent -- i have a daughter of a year -- abby stand up and away.

[applause] if you want to read some really interesting things worse is an interesting videos, she is part of my three daughters who make up jon 2012 girls. you can watch some of their five videos, they are numerous. i mention that because sometimes parents -- maybe this is too simple an analogy -- we overreach. when you have a problem with a son or daughter. and then you kind of comeback to a more comfortable spot. we have had problems in this country and i believe the knee- jerk reaction, the immediate impulse is always to overreact. and then we find we have gone too far. and we need to come back to center. with dodd-frank, this is the deal -- i was in keane a few weeks ago and went to a place called lindi's diner.

all the presidents have been there and they said you were the first candidate to visit. i said that's great writ i like our chances. that says something. i went to the counter and i sat down with a guy named jamie. he was a small-business guy who repairs motorcycles. i ask him how business was going and he said not so good. he said wants to hire a person or two and i can't. i want to get a loan from the bank and i can't. he said he has no debt. what is the deal with this? he said they are asking for a coverage requirement, a ratio coverage requirement that is higher than i have heard of before. he set up like a cover the ratio requirement, i would not need a loan. the economy is frozen. i said dodd-frank is striking again. that is what it has done to the community banks. the other part of dodd-frank i

don't like and i'm not sure anyone of your generation would like this -- we've got wall street protesters out there who have some sensible messages they are in party to the american people one of which is banks that are too big to fail. dodd-frank gives aid and comfort to banks that it to big to fail. is that what you want to inherit? t want to inherit a bunch of banks that look like public utilities that don't service the needs of the economy? i say, thank you, no. there's always a balancing act between rules and regulations in the free market system. we have always relied on a free market system, creativity, innovation. that is the reason that we are over 300 million people with a sizable land mass bordered by the two most impenetrable borders of all the atlantic ocean and the pacific ocean what we have prospered over the

years. we allow a free society to flourish. that will always require a balanced. it will never be either/or. we will have to master write regulations for business, allowing great freedom to prevail secretive class can do what it has always done in this country. thank you very much for the question. yes, sir, right back here. >> thank you so much for being with us again. it is good to see you on. >> i appreciate that. >> it is my chance to say thank- you to new england college for this fantastic events. i want to qualify my question about medicare. i'm sure there are too wanted thousand people in a match from medicare but i am also concerned about my children and your children and what will be there in the future. how can you put it on a stronger financial footing for the young people here today? can you do something about the rising health costs? >> thank you.

whether it is medicare or whether it is probably the number 1 financial challenge at the department of defense even though we don't think about it in these terms, health care costs -- it is a $3 trillion industry. that is the size of the gdp of france. i was reminded when i went to dartmouth medical center the other day. there was a roomful of doctors and researchers. i was reminded that of the $3 trillion we look at and health care year over year, about 40% of that, maybe higher, is needless superfluous spending. i say this is not. we can talk about health care reform but until we're ready to take that initial step and say how do we get the excess cost of the system, that is what is eating us alive and those excess costs are resulting in the

double digit inflation are increases we are seeing a year over year and whether small business or the pentagon is saying -- i have two boys who were beginning their lives in the united states navy's of they are on a different health plan. i see what they are doing health care costs are impacting everybody across the board. i see we have to be smart about how we read the system of access superfluous costs spurted want to get to a point in time where the implications for medicare are real -- to where you can visit the doctor's office with some information on some level of transparency about what is being offered they can choose what procedures are available to them. and what the cost implications are. when was the last time you walked into a doctor's office and had a doctor explain the procedures and what they cost? nobody understands what the costs are a current that has to be coupled with better knowledge of real costs with an insurance

program that does what insurance companies are supposed to do. they are supposed to take a risk and they're supposed to offer accessible policies which they are not doing. i would say this is the other big part of the problem -- we have been buried limited marketplace when it comes to insurance offerings. i say this nation is just beginning the conversation that we need to have in terms of getting the insurance companies to do what they're supposed to do, to provide real options, coverage options for our people that are affordable and are accessible. we just don't have that today. we work very hard in our state in trying to get us there. we looked at our 15% on insured in our state, the largest subsection was the young immortal population. 18-35 years of age, we will never die why do we need insurance?

even if we wanted it, there's nothing we can afford. we work very hard in getting an affordable policy, a stripped- down policy which is tough to do with insurance companies. we got something and time will tell if this was an effective mo. i believe it will be effective. if you want to buy an affordable policy in that state, in our state or another that has done the same thing, you cannot. because of these cross-state border transactions. i want to drop the barriers and make the insurance sector compete. they're not where they need to be in terms of making that possible. things like personalized madison i believe in the years to come when we look at medicare for the next generation will make the delivery of health care and the cost of health care far different than they are today. thanks to the human genome project and the molecular biology that has been done over the years, the way we can assess and analyze human disease and

tackle human disease early as opposed to late and assess and analyze an individual based upon their dna, you have a predisposition so you can analyze things when it becomes extremely expensive and take preventive and preventive measures. that is where health care is going long term and that is a very exciting future. finally, things like end of life care where it becomes very expensive, there should be much different way of delivering the kind of care at home as opposed to a very expensive hospital and institutions. we need a whole lot more of those kind of options that i believe will address costs. that is a long way of saying that in my head there is a lot of thinking about the whole cost side of medicare and health care generally. we will keep having this conversation but we will find ourselves right back with his

basic premise and that is -- we've got to do with costs if we are going to do anything about real health care reform longer- term that will help our people. yes, sir? >> thanks for being i think the only republican candidate who believes in science. [laughter] [applause] >> that's a revolutionary thought. >> no, water boils at 212 degrees fahrenheit whether you like it or not. having had the experiences you have that in china and the environmental degradation that china is experiencing as a result of this and their energy needs, i would like to talk about science and our energy needs as it relates to the environment and a possible

economic benefit that the odds states for innovation would be able to achieve in the years ahead. i would also like to answer the question whether you believe that corporations are people. thank you very >> the only other time was as that question was on the stephen colbert show. you walk out on the show and you don't know what you will get. you run a huge risk and i got that question. i will let everyone ponder that a moment about corporations being people. on the energy side, first of all, i lived in beijing which is the most polluted city in the world. they say there are two, up probablydelhi and beijing. you cannot see across the street some mornings. that is how bad it is. their traditional pollutants as a postco2, but they have gummed

up the place. they have challenges in china, enormous challenges in terms of creating 21st century cities. they are getting there in terms of building of infrastructure but little things like impenetrable traffic, pollution that causes people to get sick and stay inside, serious problems. based on science and on innovation and technology and basic research that i believe should be sponsored by the united states government, i think the department of energy basic research likable of the national institutes of health are critically important drivers of growth and innovation that we as taxpayers must continue to fund current from that, inevitably, we will find that we draw more from the sun and wind. there's no question about that. how long does it take to get

there? we cannot force technology into the marketplace based on subsidies. we're learning goes hard lessons today. eventually, science and technology will take us in that direction. that is good. meantime, we have to decide what kind of bridge rebuild from today into that inevitable future. we have some options. we wake up to the reality in this country that we have more gas than saudi arabia as oil. how stupid are we? when will we at least take advantage of something that is cleaner, more accessible and i theytan'sfracking part, understand better to do with issues they have encountered before and the american people will believe in it. this will serve our needs longer-term and i believe it will be better for the air and the national security implications are enormously

positive that is because the imported oil now, of + 50 %, much of it from transactional countries that are not necessarily rooting for our success, you look at what we are paying for gas at the pump and we say is $3.50 or whatever it is. take another look. take a look what we as taxpayers pay on a fully loaded basis. the deployment of troops, keeping the sea lanes open for the importation of oil, storage and handling -- based milken institute, $13 per barrel. who are we fooling? let's see what we can do on our own. i never thought i would be a car driver.

an opera nor in my state said he could convert my carper id -- an entrepreneur in my state said he could divert my car. it led people to talk about alternative fuels. we had an ear problem. in utah. we had really bad air quality during peak winter and peak winter -- and big summer. it became a health issue. it started a conversation about alternative fuels which led to this. we have no infrastructure. we have no outlet. i went to the public utility and i said you can either be at of this discussion or fall behind. i think you want to be ahead of this discussion. i don't want to get stuck 300 miles and nowhere in the middle of the desert because i can't find a station for natural gas. if we take this revolution seriously for natural gas, we need to build up the infrastructure.

my first day as president or thereabouts, i want to say there is one product monopoly that always favors oil. we have an option. if you drive a car that is fired by gas or diesel, you do ok. this is hardly where this nation needs to be longer-term. i want to go to the federal trade commission and the senate judiciary committee and say we will break this one apart. we will do to this one product distribution monopoly cold oil what we did to broadcast communications back in the early 1970's. when i grew up, we had about three options on television. now we have more and many in the media benefit from what was done in terms of opening up the marketplace. i say i want to do for this one product monopoly what was done with broadcast communication and

i want to make it so we can draw from all kinds of different products. i think that is the kind of energy independence that i would envision starting with the infrastructure that we so desperately need, realizing we will convert to address the session and hour of electricity and manufacturing. they want a president who will say this is where we are going. we're not looking back and inevitably will drop from the sun and wind but we have a bridge to build that will take our people into the future while creating jobs and improving the air and addressing national security implications. [applause] will take one more and let you go. yes, ma'am? >> what about corporations as people? >> i think that is self-evident and i don't think that needs to be answered.

of course corporations are not people. who would say such an outlandish thing? [laughter] i cannot imagine anyone running for president saying that. >> some supporters of ron paul have put a video out showing you speaking chinese and portraying withma as chairmano. have you seen this video? how can this be used as a tool against you? is it still possible to be a centrist politician in the u.s.? do you have the impression that all the other candidates are just pulling their weight for their right and you are the centrist? why is a centrist the underdog? >> some people like to call its centrist or something else.

i do what i do based on a view of this country and its future. there is a sense we have to be real. we have to draw from ideas that are doable and not so outlandishly stupid that they create a lot of political infighting and finger-pointing. it can never get done. i am a realist at the end of the day. i don't like to spend a lot of time posturing and being one thing during the pre-primary phase and then the primary phase and during the general. i am who i am from start to finish. i am wont to say that during the primary phase, if you don't like your hair on fire and you don't sign those silly pledges and you don't have oo theseps moments, you'll not get as much air time. people not talk about you as much and therefore you will not go up in terms of rain -- name recognition. that is okay because this is a nation full of a whole lot of common sense-minded folks.

they will enjoy watching the circus play out and all the political theater until they have to stare down the ballot box which everybody is about to do. when they stare down the ballot box, they have to ask the question -- i enjoyed the political fair and a circus act. it has been entertaining a "watching survivor on television but now i have to choose the president of united states, a background in drop from an inability to bring people together, a temperament and a vision for where this country should go. i think that will inform a whole lot of decisions. when they approached the ballot box starting right here in new hampshire. this is a primary. it is the real deal with respect to the ron paul video -- i just saw parts of it yesterday. it is just stupid. second of all, i have lived overseas four times.

i believe that our world tends to be a small interconnected place, much more so than we think. i speak chinese, of course i do. if someone wants to poke fun of me for that, that is okay. what i object to is bringing forward pictures and videos of my adopted daughters and suggesting there is some sinister motive there. i have a daughter from china. who was a bandage at two- months of age at a vegetable market. she had no future and no hope, nothing to look forward to. now she is in my family. she is one of the greatest human beings i know. [applause] she is also at 12-years old, my senior foreign-policy adviser. [laughter] i have a second daughter was born in india.

in a very rural village. and left for dead the day she was born. luckily, she was picked up before the animals got her. she was sent to a catholic orphanage first day and spent a year there and was raised and now she is in my family. i have two little girls who are a daily reminder that there are a lot of kids in this world who don't have the brakes to do and to face an uncertain future that lacks health care, that lacks the ability to dream and plan and any sense of upward mobility. these two girls are on the presidential campaigns. trail i say, how cool is that? thank you all very much for having me here. thank you. [applause]

[room noise] [general noise]

[inaudible conversations] [room noise] >> were you offended by the ron paul video?

>> four days to the new hampshire primary and our live road to the white house coverage continues this evening with ron paul at the university of new hampshire at 7:00 eastern here on c-span. it is also on cspan radio and on line at c-span.org. we're also bring you a look back at past concession and victory speeches on c-span 3 from 2004. the john kerry win and that our indian runner up, about 20 minutes away on c-span 3 and re- airs this evening at all 8:00 at 11:00. rick perry on wednesday after the iowa caucuses came to new hampshire to brentwood, new hampshire. this was his first town hall meeting, the faith, family, and freedom town hall. rex santorum is a new after today doing five events. david rucker told reporters he

expects to get on to the illinois ballot today saying the only problems he foresees are in virginia and d.c. this is rick santorum from wednesday and it is one hour and 45 minutes. [applause] >> thank you, how are you? thank you. excuse me, guys. how're you? thank you. >> i said a few things, guys drinking >. >> it is great to be here with you clpara.

\- clara. sheriff connolly who is the sheriff of mid romney. i want to and thank you, sheriff. i like to point that out. wow, thank you so much for being here. it is really great. i got to stand behind your for the cameras, it would help. let me do that to make sure we get the good audio. thank you very, very much. another one of my co-chairs, the state representative, thank you very much. it is great to be back here in the grandest -- in the granite state. i cannot thank you enough for this great turnout. people ask me repeatedly -- you have done well in iowa but new hampshire is such a different place and it is nothing like iowa.

i said they are all americans, they all have the same fundamental values that our founders put in place that we hold these truths to be self- evident that all men are created equal and endowed by our creator with certain unalienable rights. that is what makes america america. , a country that believes in people having rights individually, the dignity of every human person, the dignity of that person to go out and work and provide for themselves and the government would be limited so they can provide for themselves and their families and raise that family in a way that is consistent with their moral beliefs. that is the key to american barrick is what made america the greatest country in the history of the world. right? [applause] you believe here in new hampshire exactly what they believe in iowa, exactly what they believe in south carolina.

i bet you also believe that this government under barack obama is undermining that very basic principle of what america is all about. [applause] he has systematically destroyed the work ethic by the narcotic of government dependents. [applause] he is going out and ever expanding the reach of the federal government. he believes you are incapable of freedom. he believes you cannot provide for yourself and that the government as to dictate to you all the basic needs, all the basic wants of society have to be organized and orchestrated by the federal government. that is why we have obamacare because you are simply not capable of going out as working

people and providing for yourselves and buying food and being able to provide free transportation and housing and be able to provide four recreation. you are simply not capable of being able to be free enough to go out and contract to provide for yourself with an employer or individually to provider on health care. you need the federal government. you need to say how much you spend and what kind of plan you have and how much access to care and how much you'll spend. that is because the president believes that you need him. he went around -- he was there no answer any talk about hope and changed and you can believe in me. just believe in may and i can go to washington, d.c. and i will solve the problem. remember all the town hall meetings where people would get up and say mr. president, i know you will help me and take care of this for me. remember that?

he convinced you. back in 2008. he did not snow the people of new hampshire, did they? he convinced the country and almost won here in new hampshire. he actually won in the general election here in new hampshire. he convinced the american public that you needed a president that you could believe than. i am here to tell you that what i hear from the american people today is that you why a president who believes in you. [applause] i've gone out and travel this state. people ask how i can do it in new hampshire. you have not been here. they for death because you might say they have not been paying attention to me for quite some

time. they forget this is now my 31st trip into new hampshire. we have done well over 100 of these town hall meetings. we have been traveling all over the state for over one year and talking to the people of new hampshire just like we did in south carolina. "the washington post"-- jon huntsman has done more town hall meetings but he cheated because he lives here. he is just campaigning here. i did 381 town hall meetings in iowa. we will do a whole bunch of them this week and we have done more eve dance in south carolina than any other candidate in this race. i believe that if you're going to ask the people of new hampshire or the people of iowa and south carolina and florida to support you, you have to show that you can win in every area of the country. we will go out and show in a

very short timeframe in new hampshire that we will have what it takes to get the momentum and raise our number is up and to see that we're the kind of candidate that the people of new hampshire can rally behind. we're the kind of candidate that will go and take questions and i second and do this as president. i will tell you the [applause] -- the truth. we will tell you what the problem is, be specific about it and clara will pull up my sweater and say this is too much of an answer. she has been chiding me for a year. i just believe that the american public should be trusted with more, not less, information. right? [applause] people ask me, how were you

going to get america to gather text how about if we start off by having a common understanding of the problems. you cannot do that unless you're honest with the american people about what is the problem. then maybe wants to do that, you will be amazed based on the value as of this country how we can work together to solve things. i am anxious to take your questions. i will go out there and be honest about what the problem is and tell you what i believe is the solution to those problems and more importantly, why i believe is the right thing. it is not just what is up here but what is here and here. it is important for you to understand and this is what new hampshire does better. that is why you are here. how many of you have been to see other candidates so far in this go around? i'm not surprised. this is what you do. . this is your

this is a first in the nation primary. you have a huge burden. everybody says this race is over. one candidate is way ahead and he will win. not a vote has been cast. a lot of folks are trying to tell you that this is the guy that is going to win. you fight. i know bill gardner, you fight to be first. you have a responsibility that comes with that and that is to lead, not pay attention to what the polls say, not pay attention to what the pundits said. how many pundits were right over the last six months over what would happen in this race? none, serially wrong, they're worse than weatherman. [laughter] don't trust them. trust yourself. look at all the candidates. go on there website, come to these town hall meetings.

i am preaching to the choir but do your homework. then do the second thing you have to do and that is vote for someone who will do what america needs at a time when america needs a fundamental change in the direction of our government. [applause] don't settle for a pyrrhic victory. don't settle for someone who can win but then can't do and what do and has no track record of doing the big things that are necessary to change this country both from the standpoint of our economy and the standpoint of our culture and our national security. that is what i ask you to do. lead and the bold. this is not a time for us to

shrink. this is a time for us just like 1980 was, a time for us to have bold colors, not pale pastels. bold colors, contrast between different visions. when you are attacked as i have been throughout my political career from the left, i stand up and say yes i did say that and this is why i believe what i said. yes, i do believe here and here's why. not if i feel uncomfortable or bothered and try to make excuses and try to sound like you're not a real conservative so you can get some votes. people don't elected president because of the checklist of issues. they elect a leader that they trust. [applause] i can tell you that you may not agree with me on every issue but i suspect you know that i agree

with me on every issue. [laughter] [applause] people have said how the wind in a state like pennsylvania with a 90% conservative rating? pennsylvanian say that i don't always agree with you. there's only one perfect candidate and can all run. -- and we can't all run. they would say to me repeatedly that we know we can trust you. we know you are out there doing it because you believe that is in the best interest of america. if that is what you're looking for when you turn those debates on the fall, and you're not afraid to turn your head and say he did not stand up for the basic principles of american exceptionalism, you won't have

to worry about that. it will be broad bold colors and big contrast. that is exactly what america needs and i believe and i hope the people of new hampshire believe, too, exactly what america wants. i will be happy to take your questions. [applause] >> senator santorum, i am curious as to what your take is on the rumors and i think was lindsey graham or some senator that said he agreed with confiscation of 401k accounts an individual retirement accounts. >> i would be stunned of lindsey graham said that and would be disappointed if he did. [laughter] lindsey is off the hook, everybody. >> are you familiar with the rumor? >> i ever heard this before and i know this has been proposed in

the past as a way of financing things. let me assure you that there will be no confiscation of private property under this administration. one of the decisions i find most reprehensible in recent years was the kilo decision for taking private property by the government. [applause] while i disagree with newt gingrich on some of his proposals with respect to how to deal with the court, i think the go one step too far as far as separation of powers are concerned. i believe we have to have a president that stands up and takes the oath of office and you have to say "i will defend the constitution of united states. " if the court does not been the president has to push back. this is one of the things i talk about. you have many folks will go up

there and say i believe this and that is wonderful. most people running in new hampshire are running as a conservative, not all but most. the question is, what does their records say when the rubber hits the road? i would make the argument there is one person in this race i actually talk about my record. many of the abundance up until this week said the reason you're not going anywhere is because you talk about your record too much. people want to hear what you want to do. all the other candidates just talk about what they want to do. my answer was, if i had a record, that was all i would talk about [laughter] i have a record that i am proud of. those folks are talking about what they will do. when they get their moment and people look at the record, guess what happens? it does not hold up. they did not do it.

when i said what to do something as president of united states to push back on the supreme court when they go outside the bounds of the constitution in an egregious way, i did it. when i was in the united states senate, the court struck down the partial birth abortion ban act which was a nebraska statute which passed overwhelmingly in the house and senate. when i had the opportunity with president bush in office, i worked with the house judiciary committee and we rode a bill and i said you are wrong. this is not unconstitutional. we set out two broad sections of the bill detailing to the court why we believe the court was wrong in their interpretation of the constitution. president bush signed it and went to the court and they reversed their decision. this is not an oligarchy or the supreme court gets to make decisions and all of us have to bow. it is three equal branches of

government -- [applause] we're all sworn to uphold the constitution and i will. yes, ma'am? >> [unintelligible] i wonder if it would be difficult to have public assistance and only pay social security to people [inaudible] >> social security has only -- so she asked a question should we have a separate fund and make sure we all contribute social security dollars to people contribute to the system. many people get confused with the welfare -- with the welfare programs ssi. that is not a social security program. it is obvious why you think it is because sssi sounds like social security. it is supplemental security

income and is not a social maturity program. it is a general fund program. it is a program for people who are disabled or claim to be disabled. social security is a separate, supposedly, a separate trust fund and a separate revenue stream. your social security taxes, 12.4%, that the employer pays an 6.2% that you are supposed to pettitte but under president obama are only paying 4%. you are paying less. that money goes into an account and is used to pay benefits. right now, there's not enough money coming in to the social security system to pay social security benefits would go primarily to seniors who reached the age of eligibility which is roughly 66 right now.

most seniors don't take social security at 66. they take it at 62. you have old age and survivor benefits. bad as someone who is a minor -- that someone was a minor my parent dies, they get benefit out of social security. the third area social security disability. that gets confused with ssi, if you have worked long enough and paid into it, you're eligible for social security disability which is a social security trust fund program but as different criteria that ssi. the problem with social security is that right now we don't have enough money coming in to pay the benefits and even if that 2% tax which has been cut and extended for a couple of months -- you saw the big hubbub about