and thoughts about the future of the united states. above all, my candidacy is a celebration of that opportunity. it might seem strange, but i'm not dead into politics. i'm like a lot of america -- not that into politics. i'm a lot like, -- a lot of americans disgusted. we are familiar with the social issues that divide us. we need to focus our energy on a single issue that defects pasquale where it is within our power to make rich effects costs all, where it is within our power. the budget deficit is a fire that needs to be put out now. spending cuts and tax increases -- i know raising taxes is not a popular strategy, but if we

are riding in a car, we both slam on the brakes and turn the steering wheel. the problems of this country were not created by one party or the other. we're all in this together and we need to start acting like it. please vote january 10. >> thank you. mr. timothy brewer. >> thank you. ladies and gentlemen, thank you. with less than 367 remaining counting today, i suspect we rise and shine and save the world in time. earlier this year the media said after life is possible. for over six years i have been focused on that. if there is the reason i am here, that is the reason.

i am not here to insult your intelligence. i'm no better than anyone of you. i am a natural left-handed policies like albert einstein. i like to analyze. 2005 i received a call in from my inner thoughts. i'm here to offer you the best of both worlds. the experts claim after-life as possible. what does that mean to you. you can not be destroyed. i offer the best way to communicate forever. everything i offered can be considered. i offer the best solutions for the worst-case scenario. on christmas day, this sunday, i offer my solution to contact

jesus out of boston, mass. if i am allowed to. in closing, i will show you problems i can fix if i allowed to do this. it fixes the economy, creates jobs, fixes the problem of abortion, and is wars -- you name it. every major problem known to man. if you get a chance, check me out on facebook. >> dr. hugh cort? >> i am president of the american foundation for counter-terrorism policy and research. i'm running for president to warn america about the huge impending danger.

hear this, america, and here it well -- iran is planning a nuclear attack on the united states in the near future. the lead newspaper in iran came out with an article saying that if iran is attacked, "there are elements in america that will detonate nuclear bombs in the american cities." the leaders have a fanatical belief that if they can kill millions of americans and israelis with nuclear weapons, this will usher in the coming of their messiah. they have said this will happen in 16 months or less. there is evidence they may have smuggled nuclear bombs into america. there is evidence that hezbollah has been helping the

mexican drug smugglers to dig tunnels. iran can bring anything it wants through those tunnels -- weapons, terrorists, bonds. i was on fox news about this. to learn more, google hugh cort, american hiroshima. google hugh cort, american hiroshima. thank you. >> thank you. we'll move to randy crow. >> thank you. my name is randy crow. i was born in houston texas -- houston, texas. i started working in the gasoline business. in 1975 i started working for

myself and have been self- employed primarily in the real- estate business ever since. i also call myself an investor, and currently i am an investor. in 1984 i moved to north carolina. in 19 -- 1997 i put online my website and ran in my first political race. i have run in 18 political races. no successors. -- successes. if i win in new hampshire or louisiana, that will be an exception. i have posted over 600 articles on my website. i was getting all around 100,000 hits a month when i brought it down earlier this year. september 11, a determined that

in -- i determined that the planes were flown by remote control and posted the same a couple of days later. i believe there are four major things that really need to be changed in this country if we're going to save the country like we think we are. the first thing we have to do is if you get money from the government you can not contribute to a political candidate. i will not be able to tell you all my words of wisdom, but maybe there will be some questions that will let me explain some of the other bad things that might be coming down the line in this country. >> thank you, randy crow. l. john davis, you are next. >> i am from grand junction, colorado. a couple years ago, god spoke to my heart to run for president. i've never been in politics.

i wanted to do something no one has ever done before, so i decided to go to every county in america. -- to we've been 21712 1712 counties. two things people tell me is they do not want a career politician. they want someone with business experience. my platform, my foundation, i am pro-god, family, and country, pro second amendment, and pro doing the right thing for americans. it is time to start taking care of america. we need to get back to honoring the constitution. we need to put god in the heart of this country. we need to control the borders. we need to be energy self- sufficient. we need to reduce the size of government.

we need to reduce the amount of regulation on small business. we need to get rid of the irs and go to a fair tax. it has to be we the people let's take this country back, not the politicians. i am running for president of the united states. thank you. >> thank you. mr. christopher hill. >> thank you for being here. i cannot tell you what an honor this is. i worked in on ronald reagan put the campaign in 1981 i was just 16 years old. i served in the united states air force. i'm a veteran from desert storm. i came home to new hampshire and raise my family. during that time i worked on other political campaigns.

politicians come through this state, say one thing, and go to washington, d.c., and do something totally different. i've been campaigning since august. over the past four once i have had an opportunity to meet with so many people just like us. homeless people that need our help. i have met people that told me the system is working, and bobby -- honestly, it is failing. as veterans around the world all we ever asked of politicians is that they pass on a stronger and better america for our children and grandchildren, and those politicians have failed. that is why you see a table with people like us trying to make a difference. we are called the lesser-knowns candidates. tonight we stand for the lesser- knowns americans, the people that lost their hope. they will not vote. i gave seven years of service

so they could vote. i left two friends in the desert 20 years ago, so you could vote. i hope he will reconsider. there are a lot of things to talk about. my website is hill2012.com. there are a lot of things to cover. i hope we have a chance to talk about them. >> thank you. jeff lawman. >> but me say thank you -- let me say thank you to the state of new hampshire for preserving democracy. i am jeff lawman, a new hampshire resident. it is an easy name to remember and fitting for a presidential candidate. i represent a traditional republican platform in agreement with new hampshire values -- fiscally conservative,

socially moderate, environmentally progressive. i encourage you to visit my website where i have outlined a clear path to prosperity. contrary to what the top candidates pander to, no one in my neighborhood spends their day resetting the live free or die model, rather we live it. we never forget the role of the cable is to assist the needy. -- capable is to assist the needy. when a 10-day power outage threatens a neighbor, we immediately respond. there is no choice. it is a matter of duty and human decency. 2012 is a year of choices. rather than complain about government failure or excessive campaign influenced and concentrating authority within the elite seal, i focused on --

elite few, i focused on national solutions and run for the highest office as a complete unknown. on january 10, new hampshire voters will have a choice to left the most qualified candidate that represents america's working families, or we can't elect big money, establishment-supported brand names. if we choose the latter, we will return in four years and discussed by and nothing has changed -- and discuss why nothing has changed. it is as simple as that. >> mr. benjamin linn. >> hello. i was born in 1973, which makes me the youngest candidate appeared. -- up here. i want to say thank you to st. anselm college for inviting us. the reason i'm running is because america is in a big

mess right now. we have a president said he would end the wars within the first one-to-3 -- two years of his administration. if he would have, we could use those resources to rebuild america and we would be recovering. instead, this economy has gone from bad to worse. i am pro-life, pro-family. i believe and support the traditional marriage of one man and one woman. liberals are trying to say the two men or to the women recognize as legally married is normal. to me, that is not normal. i am raising a nine-year-old son, and i want him to have opportunities like a i did. i think it is time to pull troops out of iraq and afghanistan and bring them home. let the people in the middle

east run their countries. our job is not to beat the police men of the world. our job is to defend america and make it strong again. when you have fellow americans losing jobs, that is not a republican or democrat problem. that is an america problem. from george washington to george w. bush, we have an $8 trillion debt and president obama will double bed in four years. -- that in four years. america cannot afford that. no matter who you vote for, we have to get out and vote. vote.rock the if you do not like the way your government is working, we need to vote a different way compared to how we voted for change in 2008. >> thank you michael meehan -- thank you. michael meehan.

>> hello. i am not a politician. i'm a real estate broker, and there is no works, so let's go into politics, right? [laughter] >> i've been doing this for over a year, and i realize how people are really angry. most people do not know that people are nervous. they are worried about their kids. for some reason, i did not know why, what hit me to become president, but i decided it was something i had to do. i'm made it official when i told my wife. that is another two minutes. i did decide to come to new hampshire. where else can you talk to people when-on-one and get a chance to hear what people are saying? i have a little book. i asked people if you were

standing in front of the president of the united states, not the current one, and not myself, somebody that everybody liked, and you had one question and comment, what would it be? a lot of people complain about different things pair wire we spending money over there when we should be spending it here? why are people driving around in cadillac's on welfare and i am working for $8 an hour? that is one of the biggest ones. the people really do care. they think before they say it. they want something better. what i tell everybody is i'm going to new hampshire. i've been here since the ninth of no -- in november. i worked my way back down.

what if someone like me could finish in the top five? most of the people running are not even here. these people take the time. i'm following christopher hill. he is a tough act to follow. what if? what if we just took a chance instead of the regular people up there? what if one of us could finish in the top five deaths do realize new hampshire -- 5? eight new hampshire would be the barometer for how the country feels. >> joe story. >> abraham lincoln quoted the bible to remind us that a house divided against itself cannot stand, yet as a nation division is growing and our values are becoming diluted and unclear. american culture, once defined

with godly principles is disappearing, and we are at war with an enemy that has invaded our homeland. i am joe story, and i'm running for president of the united states. the 10 commandments surge as the -- served as the basis of our common law when america was born as a nation. christian principles defined our existence. the supreme court affirmed that we are a christian nation with liberty of conscience to all men, yet today america is in trouble. we failed to hold elected officials accountable, and we become spoiled by the benefits that a government with unlimited spending provides to us. it is frightening that 10

million children we should be raising with american values have been replaced with illegal aliens with on known values and content. -- unknown values and intent. these isolated cultures serve to divide us and weaken our society. people who choose to live in america must be integrated into our culture. we should respect the differences while assuring we are one mind and one purpose on behalf of america's future. spies and terrorists have invaded our country, and we must identify and isolate these enemies before they strike again. unite with me to restore america, trust in god, individual liberty, and

equality before the law. together, we can face the world with courage and confidence. take action and pray, and vote joe story, just an average american running for president of the united states. my website is the average joe for president.com. >> thank you. that ends the opening crawl marks. -- remarks. will not go to panelists. the panelists will -- we will now go to panelists. the panelists will be just a question -- asked a question. the kids will have 45 seconds to desk. -- the candidates will have 45 seconds. the first will be to dr. hugh cort. >> right here, last weekend in a form with former speaker

gingrich and former ambassador jon huntsman, they both agreed that iran would be the biggest foreign policy problem for the united states in the coming decade. do you agree with that, and more importantly, what you think the united states should do about iran? >> a very good question. i am friends with general, mary, and we advocate a nuclear strike as soon as possible. iran is very close to getting it clear weapons. -- nuclear weapons. the revolutionary guard has been bragging they will have nuclear missiles by march, and the time to act is now. we must help israel. if iran gets nuclear weapons, america is going to be attacked.

>> thank you. let me ask, how many people believe the iranians are in possession of material to make a nuclear weapon or have already -- just a show of hands? that is relatively even the. -- unanimous. the second question will go to mr. michael meehan. >> what reforms d.c. are still needed to -- do you see are still needed to prevent another fiscal crisis? >> regarding banking? >> yes. >> basically, what i feel it is that housing -- you cannot just give people a house with no money down or anything. i've been in realistic for many -- in real estate for many

years. when things get to be a problem, they walk away. the banks turned around, and i do not blame anyone, but the appraisers had to appraise for a higher sum of money because if they did not, the appraisers would get someone else. the banks were making the loans, and charging the fees. then you come up with these different fees. arms, you have to eliminate that. >> thank you. the next question will be from the ambassador to mr. benjamin linn. >> we are on a college campus for this debate, and least 12 states including new hampshire are considering laws to allow guns on college campuses. as you know, or probably have read, there was recently a second shooting murder at virginia tech. as a presidential candidate, what is your position on gun control, and guns on college and university campuses?

>> i would say if you have campus security or local police on the campus where trains to carry a gun, those to be the only ones. with students and professors, and no guns allowed. if the student is caught with a gun, you are expelled from the school. >> the next question will be from mr. davis. >> what should the united states do in regards to the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants now living in this country? do you favor a path to legalization? >> control the borders. i would give every alien in the

country one year to register. i want their id. i will give them a work visa. learn english, obey the law. and then i would give them citizenship. but i would control the borders. i am not for amnesty, but i am for a path to citizenship. >> next question for mr. brewer. >> this is the largest field of candidates. 44 of you who have filed since 1992. why do you think the field is so large? >> probably because of obama takes more vacations and plays more golf. we might as well go in there

and do some work. that is the only reason i could figure. >> what would you do about that, sir? >> i would try my ideas that i offered to earlier. what else do we have to work with? call jesus and make it a good deal for everybody. >> the next question is for mr. joe story. >> what do you believe the government should do to provide health care for people who do not have insurance, yet can still not afford to go to the doctor? >> one of the things we should be doing is to encourage the education of people who become doctors. we provide a lot of money to doctors for education, but we do not create institutions or locations where people can

access the doctors who have been trained. beyond that, i think we should also create a different means of funding these programs. for all the benefits of the government has control of, we should move it into a benefits corporation. all the companies they bought, all the benefits themselves, if you put them into an organization, and provided stock for that, rather than having social security. you would have your retirement benefits that way. " i have to stop you there. next question. >> mr. betzler, what could you offer the country if you were elected that the others could not? what makes you a better candidate?

>> as an underdog candidate, one of the benefits is that you can offer on popular and effective solutions without worrying about losing your front-runner status. without being part of a larger party process endorsements, you can be free to evaluate problems uniquely and specifically and offer the best solution as opposed to pander to lobbyists. >> thank you, a serb. , sir.nk youm the next question is for christopher hill. >> you talked about the lesser- known americans. can you tell me if you were elected president, what you do to help those people? >> we need to start by beginning

to restore the middle class. the middle class is what made america great. the lesser-known americans are out there. i am an airline captain, i worked the graveyard shift. i work with people who are out there working for $10 an hour from midnight to 7:00 a.m. we need to put in place a tax system that lets them keep the money they earn. if you go to my website, i talked very specifically about allowing people to keep money up to $250,000 they earned. above that, i am open to the prospect of taxing the rich above $250,000. letting them offer help to the people that do need help. >> thank you. >> the next question is for mr. lawman. >> you were recently mentioned in a "wall street journal" article about the lesser-known

candidates running for president. the article referenced that during a prior economic turndown, you lost your business. i want to ask you how you stop -- how you thought the current administration is handling the home mortgage crisis and the other financial crises that our country faces. >> i think the current administration is doing what he believes is the right path, but unfortunately, it is not the right path for the americans who were undergoing the downturn. the making homes affordable plan, the cash for clunkers, all of these things have been temporary band-aids. they have produced no solutions. that has fallen short of what his commitment and original obligation it was. i think it is short of what he

was intending as well. >> finally -- >> mr. crow, in your opening statement, you talked about how you used to be in the gasoline business. can you talk to me about your -- what he would do to put together -- what you would do to put together a comprehensive energy policy? >> thank you. are you hearing me? ok. because i was in the retail gasoline business in 1973, i blame the major oil companies. i believe the war is going on in the world are manipulated by the major oil companies because they are trying to get rid of the supply, get the price up, and destroyed the currencies.

this is a long-term game plan with them. we have to get tough with them. all this is about is running people out of business. they have been doing -- they ran us out of business years ago when they cut down the supply. this is what is going on right now. there are a lot of things you can do. you could make the companies divest. they are monopolies and they need to be broken up. >> i want to ask you a quick question. all of you talk a little bit about your ideology. how many of you would support whomever the republican nominee is for president? whether you or one of the other candidates? let's say newt gingrich was the nominee. how many would support the

nominee of the republican party? gingrich? mitt romney? ron paul? rick perry? all right. just checking. >> the rest of them, too. >> you would support any republican as opposed to the president? did anybody vote for barack obama? >> [inaudible] >> our next round of questions will be again with beth. >> we had had attorneys and businessmen as president. as an engineer, what was your expertise in that field -- how would you bring that to the office of the president? >> ok, first of all, i cannot guarantee that more engineers

will solve all our crises. it is a good start. we offer a solution is based program for everything. we are not bound by political rigidity, corporate financing, campaign finances. we believe solutions are the best approach, even if they may not be the most popular. one thing the engineers have is the ability to model solutions much sooner than actual implementation. optimization is something i think most engineers or scientists can offer that you will not find in any other profession. >> joe story? >> mr. story, one of the most important things presidents do is appoint justices to the united states supreme court. i anticipate the next president will have the least two such appointments and perhaps even more.

could you share with us the names of some people that you might consider to appoint to the supreme court? or the qualifications and credentials he would be looking for in such nominees? >> the qualifications and credentials i would be looking for is a strict constitutional construction judgement decisions they have had in the past and they plan on using in the future. decisions made from the bench should not be based on precedent, even on supreme court precedents. they should be based on the constitution. we have lost so many of our values because of the court decisions that stretched the boundaries of what the constitution says. therefore, if you go to my website, you will see some greater clarification. i appreciate your time.

>> for mr. timothy brewer -- >> can you tell me what role do you feel -- do you think that religion and state plays in the presidency? >> everything i count on has to be measured. that is what i do, i measure things. from listening to people on the internet and all over the place, i find everybody is so close. people get so close with their egos, they think they are god's. when you listen to your e -- your inner thoughts you get to the solution to everything in

life. we are the point now that we can measure it. >> thank you during much. the next question will be for dr. hugh cort. >> north korea's totalitarian dictator kim jong-il died this weekend. if you were elected president, what policies would you continue? what policies would you change? how would you handle what could be the second most dangerous situation in the world? it could become the most. it is close to nuclear weapons. >> yes, sir. it is a very grave danger. north korea has fired a couple of missiles off the coast. very antagonistic act. it is a very dangerous situation that this country has nuclear weapons. i think we should be very harsh on them economically. i feel like we should cut off all aid to north korea until

they give up their nuclear programs. after we deal with iran, and the problem with pakistan, i think we should turn our attention to north korea. we should apply pressure to get them to give up their nuclear weapons. or we should take military action. >> the next question is for mr. randy crow. >> can you talk to me about what the president can do and what kind of policies he can pass to help small business owners? >> there has been a concerted effort to run all kinds of people out of business. i have a lot of problems with the federal reserve. one thing i would do is get rid

of it and i would start issuing money by the government and not letting the banksters make the interest. they are doing everything for themselves and big business. they are not loaning money. they have $13 trillion, and they are not putting it on main street. there is a lot of things -- the first thing i would do is to get rid of the federal reserve. that would be step one. >> thank you. the next question is for mr. meehan. >> the state of new hampshire, the legislature has legalized gay marriage. do you support in marriage? or civil unions? >> no. >> would you mind elaborating on that?

>> i do not care for the question because at this point, in the history of the united states, with all the things are happening, this is not a national issue. this is a personal issue. they even go laughter candidates for asking things like -- they even go after candidate for asking things like this. there are so many things we could be talking about to fix the country. i just don't find this an issue at all. >> thank you. the next question is for mr. betzler. >> if you were to win the republican nomination for president and the convention after nominating you were to prescribe you had to pick one of the current candidates as your running mate. it had to be one of them. who would to pick, and why?

[laughter] >> i am not prepared for that eventuality. [laughter] >> give it a shot. >> i think mitt romney. >> why? >> there is no denying his success in business and his experience in government. i have a lot of confidence that you could channel those skills. he would be a good second. >> thank you. >> mr. davis, do you acknowledge that climate change is scientifically proven fact? what should the government do to help reduce the effects?

>> i have not studied on a lot. there is so much information out there, it is hard to know what to believe. i pray -- i am afraid i do not have a good answer for you. we need to take care of the earth. we need to take care of the air and be responsible. there is a middle ground. we have some information, but i do not know with it is true or not. have to do investigation on that. >> christopher hill -- >> i will ask you to assume that one of their most generous campaign contributors has offered to finance a television ads for the new hampshire primary for your campaign. what would you put in that ad? what images and what words? >> the images i would use our images that reflect how great this country is. we are in a lot of trouble in this country.

9% unemployment and we're going off a cliff. i have worked for an airline for 17 years. i worked in 48 of the 50 states. the images i have seen are incredible. mount rushmore, the grand canyon, the face of people who are homeless that need our help. i do not mind putting those images. the message would be pretty simple. we have to step up to the plate. we cannot count on anybody else anymore. it has to be weak, the people. it cannot be politicians in this country. -- it has to be we, the people. we cannot count on politicians in this country. if we can on them again, we will go down this same road again and we will be sitting here again next election cycle. >> the next question goes to mr. linn. >> you talked earlier about the need to leave afghanistan. do you have an exit strategy for getting american troops out of the country? >> yes, i think there should be

out of the country right now. we have not lived up to the deadlines. this president, before he was elected, it said they would end the wars in one to two years. we cannot broadcast to the enemy when we will leave. we have to gradually trained their military and police force. and the power of the country over to them without broadcasting it to the world. in iraq, the president is going to pull out troops before christmas. we will still have troops there. the board has not ended. -- the war has not ended. we're supposed to have troops in afghanistan until 2016. the president is not living up to his promises. >> a dog is our next round of questions. we will try to -- that is our next round of questions. we will try to get through another round of questions. 45 seconds. we begin with the first question

for mr. joe story. >> mr. story, the supreme court is about to take up the issue of president obama's health care law that was passed during the administration. do you support the law? if not, what would replace it with? >> absolutely not. i do not supported at all. we need to give the dog -- did the government out of the benefits business and out of the business world altogether. the government should be a the government and provide for defense. that is from the constitution. if we separate everything out and put them into a benefits corp. and puts general motors and all the corporations the government has bought and we put those resources out along with the payments that come from our physical resources where they sell them and put it into a corporation that operates for a profit and for our benefit,

we could have some major improvements. >> thank you, mr. story. >> hello, mr. betzler. what would your first act to be? >> there is a separation of power and government. my most important issue, returning to fiscal discipline, is not something the president has the singular ability to enact down. i would spend most of the time trying to bring that issue to the forefront of the american mind set. they can apply pressure to the other branches of government to make it their top issue as well. >> for mr. brower, ambassador? >> mr. brewer, i would like you to ask you -- i would like to ask you to follow on what you said about immigration.

if you were elected president, what would you do with regard to that hot topic in american politics? >> i support everybody on the planet. i do not care who you are. it is not my place to criticize anybody. i offer different options. >> mr. meehan the next question is for you. >> for your lesser-known candidates, it can sometimes be hard to get your message out. what do you think should be changed about the presidential election process to make it easier for lesser-known

candidate to be able to reach the voters? >> maybe a little bit of air time would not hurt. i do not know -- i am going person to person. i am talking to newspapers. i have heard that one newspaper turned down a lesser known candidates, would not even write an article. some of us have the ideas and people do not want to hear them. they want to believe the major candidate have the answers. dad is a fluke -- that is a fluke, isn't it? >> mr. linn, gov. perry of texas has suggested the members of congress should have their pay and their time spent in washington cut in half. do you agree or disagree?

>> i agree with him because they are already making too much money. a lot of these two are -- a lot of these are professionals and they're already making money in the real world. i would definitely cut their pay in half. until they get to work for us, we do not have to pay them. it is time to start working for the american people. we need to cut their pay. when they start to work for us, we will give them a raise later on. they're not doing their job. >> next question is for mr. davis. >> mr. davis, some of the republican presidential candidates have talked about wanting to get rid of some government agencies, the department of energy, for example. do you see this as a path for reducing the size of government?

>> i do. one of them i would get rid of is the department of education. i think it should go down to the state and mostly to the communities. who knows better how to educate your kids than the people in the community and the parents? the government is too big. it takes all of our money. it is of to the community to educate their kids. that is all i have to say. >> mr. crow? >> our government is based on some basic principles, including that we have free, a separate, equal branches of government. yesterday, on a sunday morning television talk show, former speaker gingrich suggested that the united states supreme court made a decision that the president did not agree with, perhaps it would be ok or proper for the president to not in force that decision.

-- to not in force that decision. -- enforce that decision. he cited some historical examples. do you agree with the speaker? >> no, i definitely disagree. it is part of the balance of power. we are never going to have anything that is close to a balance of power until you stop the bribery. if you make money in the government, get money from the government, you contribute. you have the executive branch that, in my opinion, has walked into the direction of the dictatorship, mainly because they did so much money from people that get them elected. the money has got to be taken out first. we need three branches of government. >> your next question is for mr.

hill. >> mr. hill, congress approval rating is at an all-time low. a lot of people, frankly, i feel it is very difficult for congress to be able to do anything. if you were elected president, how would you work to get bills passed and to see policies through congress? >> i would begin with this. the reason the popularity is so low is because they failed america. before we work with congress, we need to put term limits in place. i would lead american people, calling on an amendment for term limits for congress. that is the most vital thing that will be direct this country. when i was 16 and i worked for ronald reagan, 30 years ago, some of the same numbers in the house and senate but some of the same members in the house and senate are still serving today. the problem is with congressmen and senators that served 30 and

40 years and have turned washington into an aristocracy. >> thank you, mr. hill. the next question is for mr. lawman. >> you are running for the office of president. until 1952, we did not have term limits. a lot of people think that was a mistake, to impose a two-term limit on the president of the united states. what is your opinion? do you think there should be a two-term limit for president of the united states? why or why not? >> i absolutely do. even though it has not been enacted until after fdr, prior

to fdr, there had not been more than a two-term president. i do believe we should keep that. i believe we should keep term limits in congress. no more than two terms for the senate and no more than four terms for the house. it keeps america turning over new ideas and new faces. it is ridiculous to think that with 311 million people in this country, only 535 have answers and solutions. that leaves another 310 million who have no voice. they probably have better solution some better answers than the ones you will find. >> thank you very much. last question tonight comes from beth and will be addressed to dr. cort. >> i am going to stray away from iran for a moment and ask you about the theme of the presidential race this year.

it has been jobs, jobs, jobs. as president, what would be the first thing you would do to grow jobs in america? >> [inaudible] that a very good question. thank you. if our economy is going off a cliff, this huge part giveaway that president bush was in favor of. you can not print a lot of money without restoring the economy. we have to stop the giveaways. we have to stop the runaway spending in congress. we have to slash spending. we have to do away with the fed. i am favor of ron paul's idea to have -- to return to the gold standard. >> thank you very much for your answers and your time. thank you for adhering to what was fairly quick time. i also want to thank everybody for a hearing to my memo about

blue blazers. the night, everybody. the democrats are up next. [applause] >> ok, everyone. patrick griffin. [inaudible] [inaudible]

>> testing. there we go. thank you for continuing to join us. we had a great session with the republicans. now we have the chance to have a great session with our friends from the other side. we will adhere to the same rules as before. there are 44 candidates running for president here in new hampshire who are on the ballots. candidate who were asked to participate tonight are all registered and on the ballot in new hampshire, running for the office of president. they have not been part of any other national debate. that was the criteria to be here tonight. we will try to do this in a manner that is as even as possible. each candidate will be given a

two-minute opening. i will be watching our timer. i will let the candidates know when we get to 15 seconds. when you see that sign, that is an indication you were at 15 seconds. we will hold you to that 15 seconds. two-minute openings. each of our panelists will ask questions and you will have 45 seconds to answer the questions. let me reintroduce our panelists. let's give them a warm hand. [applause] as i introduce each of you, on your microphone, there is a button to turn it on when it is your turn to speak. let's start at the far end of the table. fbob greene, robert jordan,

edward o'donnell, randall terry, john wolfe. [applause] >> we will try to get to as many runs as possible. we will start down at the far end of the table. >> i am a thinker who has been published on three continents.

i have some important ideas about our most serious problems. most of which are ignored by the establishment. my most basic message is, let's get organized, americans, and start solving our problems. we ask obama and all national politicians worldwide, do you agree, mr. president, that the top five problems of the planets are the nuclear arms race. it is the only problem that can destroy us. ozone coming up quickly on the outside rail. excessive population and population growth. the stagnant super wasteful economy. disparity between the rich and poor. the environment. the master of ceremonies problem that never leaves us, that we sell only in degrees. if you do not agree, mr. president, what are the top five problems of the planet? what is your plan to solve them?

i do not have the answers. it is we, not me. the 4 billion adults that work daily have the answers to our problems. president obama, snow white and seven dwarfs, if you do not like these ideas, come up with something better. the world wide debate will have begun. edcowen2012.com for more formation. -- for more information. thank you for your kind attention. >> dr. bob greene, you are next. >> good evening. my name is bob greene. i hold a ph.d. in physics. i have some very good news for you. i am running to educate the candidates through a tremendous opportunity available to the united states. i am here to tell you about an

overlooked energy alternative. we had and ask for yom for all -- we have enough thorium for all our power needs for well over 1000 years. a lifetime supply is about the size of a golf ball. for more details, please go to my website. www.greeneforoffice.org. what is in it for you? thoriumectric cars and foru fuel cells, we could stop importing foreign oil. this means we will be able to stop fighting oil wars. that equals jobs and an improved economy. energy is a large component of manufacturing variable cost. cheap local power will revitalize our manufacturing sector. manufacturing and shipping a

reactor today, we could replace all fossil fuel plants in 50 years. this should stall climate change and global warming. because this technology can process are millions of tons of existing nuclear waste, we might be able to use the 10% of the 24 billion nuclear waste sitting on the sidelines for project development. we need to mount a project floor, up with enthusiasm and zeal of the apollo project. last, the chinese academy of sciences announced the official launching of the reactor system. -- thorium-based salt reactors. they say they intend to have all the intellectual property

rights. this is going to happen with or without us. are going to be the leader or a customer. it will change everything. >> thank you. mr. heywood. >> i have three main proposals. the first is health care. replace our health care with a national health service, modeled on the british national health service. that system works. it has been in place for 63 years. it is popular with the people. it is incredibly more efficient at 42% our cost with a savings of over $1 trillion in year. third, it covers everyone.

life expectancy is greater. the service is paid out of a progressive tax system as opposed to a regressive premium tax imposed by the health insurance agencies. i propose a return to a progressive income tax. specifically the 1965 kennedy- johnson code. it is fair. it ends money hoarding. under that code, the top 1% of households received 10% of the income. today, that 1% receive 24% of the nation's income. it grows the middle-class. it will shrink the debt.

it will save capitalism. without a progressive tax, it all goes to the top. >> mr. jordan? two minutes. >> sorry about that. mr. jordan is not here. that is mr. o'donnell. >> we need love, kindness, mercy, tolerance, friendliness, forgiveness, second chances, and old fashioned matters. no guns. let us tame the savageness man and make gentle life of the world. no wars.

at a guaranteed job for everyone paid for by private charity dollars. mental health courses in high schools. a non-violent foreign-policy based on feeding, clothing, educating the third world. christmas is the most wonderful event in world history. the message is no matter how much of a mess someone has made of their life, if they make a decision to love other people, there can be happy ending. when my niece was very young, i said, why is santa claus always happy? she said, that is because all he does is give. thank you. >> an opening two minutes to mr. supreme. >> gingivitis has been eroding

the gum line of this great nation long enough, and must be stopped. futures -- a country's depends on its ability to fight back. we can no longer be a nation indentured. together, we must brace ourselves. as the cross over to the bridge work into the 23rd century, let us bite the bullet and together make america a sea of shining smiles. from sea to shining sea. some people will tell you this mandatory and toothbrushing law is about the secrets dental police kicking down your door at 3:00. it is not. some will mention the dental reeducation centers for the preventative facilities. -- tan told maintenance facilities. it is about none of these things. it is not about dna gene

splicing. to create our raese of winged monkeys to act as an issue ferries. it is about strong teeth or a strong america. i am a friendly fascist. you should let me run your life. i do know what is best for you. yes, i am a politician. i will promise you anything your little electoral heart desires. i will promise anything. you are my constituents. you are be informed of voting public. i have no intention of keeping any promise that i make. a vote early, vote often. a vote for me is a vote completely thrown away. i would like to take this moment to acknowledge my mother. please stand out. she is going to try to stand up. that is my mother.

five years ago this april, i gave her a kidney. i challenge to you people, everyone on the stage, give up a kidney. >> thank you, mr. supreme. [laughter] >> mr. randall terry? >> what did i do wrong but i have to be after that? barack obama may well go down in history as the worst president we ever had. the worst. he is at war with life, liberty, and justice. if i were elected president of the united states, that would mean that we have liberty. liberty is defined, you are not compelled to labor for the benefit of the other. the essence of socialism, which we have become a social estate, is that you were forced to labor for the benefit of another. foreign policy needs to be

based upon human rights, not upon our while interest. -- our oil interests and our deep water ports. right now, we are propping up islamic dictatorship. we're paying for terrorism at the gas pumps. every time we buy gasoline, some of that money goes to saudi arabia which turns around and gives them money to terrorist organizations. if we did not do that, human rights could be front and center instead of oil. most of the major paradigm shifts have come through the courts, not their elected officials. we are seeing what could be defined as a ruling oligarchy and it needs to be rain dance. -- reined in. finally, president lincoln said could it be that the civil war was the judgment of god? that every drop of blood that was drawn by the masters what --

whip would be repaid on the field of battle. we've come to the insane place where we have killed over 52 million of our children by abortion. that blood is crying out to god for judgment. we will never restore the greatness of this nation as long as we are killing our own offspring. terryfor- fgo to president.com. if you would like to see some of my television ads, go to my website. >> mr. wolfe? >> i am an attorney from chattanooga, tennessee. thank you for all the graciousness of your invitation. i would like to say i do not think we are a socialist country. you have one-fifth of the people that own 94% of the financial assets. the top 1% may 24% of the

income. i do not think that is proof of socialism. i am in this race because there is a progressive avoid laughter d left here by president obama. president obama is a democrat, but president obama has lost the promise of the democratic party. he has basically sided with wall street from the day he has been in office. most of its funding comes from wall street. he surrounds himself with people like ge. -- erskine bowles and jeffrey immelt. he has people around that like him and they have a lot of influence on the oval office. the finance his campaigns. the outcome of that, the product of all this, it is an administration that has policies that are very favorable to wall street. but not to main street. president obama opposes a 1%

tax on the wall street derivatives. especially the instruments that got us into trouble in the first place. president obama has not tried to stop that. we need a progressive who is going to get in there and fill the void. did the things the president has failed to do. that is the breach i want to fill. i hope to answer your questions tonight. >> thank you. that concludes at the opening statements. we will now go to our panelists. 45 seconds.

the first question -- the clock is right over here. thank you. the first question is to mr. wolfe. >> thank you for your opening statement. he wrote all logic that new hampshire the first in the nation so i wouldn't have recommend you keep to his limit. following onto your opening statement, i think everyone agrees we have a really serious deficit problem in the united states. you have identified that as one of your big issues. it appears that we can also agree that nothing seems to be getting down to address it. what specifically would you do to get our debts under control? >> the deficit is at $15 trillion right now.

if you cut government spending, you would just heighten the recession. right now, we do not have the fear of inflation. i propose a $1 trillion stimulus. with an alternative federal reserve. it will not create inflation. it will go to small businesses. that is the way we need to handle this. we need to get people back to work. we cannot do that by contracting the economy. you are just going to -- with an alternative federal reserve, you can give money directly to these local people. we can get america back to work. we cannot do it through an austerity program. it is wrong, and it is counterintuitive. >> thank you. the next question is for dr.

greene. >> you talk about thorium as being a solution for the nation's energy problem. how do you get it? what impact does it have on the environment? >> you did it by mining, of course. it just so happens that it is a byproduct of uranium mining. you can start by mining already sunk mines. that is one way. you can also try the coal ash pits. it is so abundant, it is actually in your garden. we have large concentrations of lead in the west. >> how do you use this to get energy? >> it is not radioactive.

you have to put it into a reactor were you bombarded with neutrons. that is when you start to release the energy. >> the next question is for mr. terry. >> i have a two-part question. do you believe in states' rights? new hampshire is one of the six states that has recognized a marriage. -- gay marriage. do you believe the state's rights should control on this issue? do you believe there should be a national law mandating what each state should do? >> the founders gave us the 10th amendment to keep the federal government for micromanaging the vast majority of details. however, it could never have

conceived of a moment in which we would become so debauched that we would elevate homosexual marriage or civil unions to the level of marriage. did the states have right to have laws that protect slaveholders? the answer is no. there are some things that are fundamentally evil, like slavery. there is no state right to own another human being. there is no state right to kill your offspring. there is no state right to of homosexual marriage. it is a deal breaker. >> the next question is for -- mr. cowen. >> the government -- in the

political debate, there has been a lot of discussion about wealth disparities and about the wealthy having more money and lower and middle class is shrinking. can you tell me what you would do as president to reduce that disparity? >> i think we need to alter the tax rates so that it goes after some of the money at the top. it lightens the load of the middle class and the lower classes. i had some experience working graveyard shift on the minimum wage. you cannot begin to live on what poor people are making. there is tremendous disparity and it needs to change. it is certainly not christian.

thank you. >> next question is for mr. haywood. >> i saw a recent full-page ad that your campaign took out. he criticized president obama for his on warranted, in your opinion, extension of the bush tax cuts. stating that president obama was eighth weekend and principled leader and calling for him to step aside so that you could be elected president and and the great recession. could you elaborate on how you do that? >> going back to the johnson- kennedy tax plan. that was fair.

it -- you have to redistribute the income. thank you. >> let's go to -- why don't you take a drink? i will come back to you. we will come back to you, is that all right? >> let's move on. the next question will be from mr. o'donnell. >> in your opening statement, you said there should be no guns. are you saying that all guns in the united states should be made illegal? >> including for hunting. in england, australia, japan, no one has a gun. we had 30,000 or 40,000 wounded. there is no need for guns. >> how many of you folks

believe the second amendment should give us the freedom to bear arms? anybody else? >> what is your question? >> guns? >> of course. >> let's try one more time. mr. haywood? >> i have answered the question by stating for the reasons why i think we should go back to the kennedy-johnson tax. it provides the end, -- the income for the government. president obama has proposed replacing a lot of our

infrastructure, but he does not have the money to deal with. that is all on my website. >> the final question goes to vernin supreme. >> welcome back. >> this is not your first rodeo. this is not the first time you have run for president in the new hampshire primary. i am asking you, do you still stand by your pledge made in 2008 to provide a pony for every american? >> yes, i do.

pre honey's for all americans. -- free ponies for all americans. my platform is a jobs creation program. we can turn their poop into methane gas. will be able to restock our soil. the important thing to realize is it is a federal pony identification program. you will need it with you at all times. thank you very much. >> that is our first round of questions. how many of you on the stage tonight will support -- i have heard more variations with democrats than republicans -- how many of you will support

president obama if he is the nominee of your party? it appears he will be. two of you? three of you? the rest of you will look for republicans -- what? >> undecided. >> anyone else? >> i am going to by myself in. i am the best candidate. -- i am going to write myself in. >> i will be writing and that randall terry as well. >> all right, looks like we may have found some running mates tonight. let's begin back with the second round of questioning. >> mr. o'donnell, and i understand that charitable giving is very important to you. what, as president, would you do to help those on the bottom? >> every church, every synagogue, every mosque, every

temple -- it's a coordinated, every homeless person could sleep inside every night with a nice matches, nice blanket, food, love, friendliness -- if they coordinated. the gwen is pennsylvania quaker meeting had six homeless people living in their meeting. that can be done nationwide. the greatest thrill in the world is to help a homeless person, a prisoner, turn their life around. >> the next question will come from the ambassador shumaker. >> good evening. this debate is taking place on a college campus. because of the loss of equity in many americans' homes, loss of employment, and the ability of both parents and students to get loans, it is becoming harder and harder for students to attend colleges such as this. there is a serious threat that pell grants and other

governmental funding will cut even more availability of funds for tuition. what are your solutions for this serious crisis? >> there is no question that universities and colleges in america are expensive. there are plenty in america, and that is one of the assets we have. i would like to see us lower tuition whenever possible. we need means of pumping money into education. one way -- i totally agree we need to a absorb the federal reserve into the treasury department.

it is a collection of banks, basically. we need for the federal reserve to be absorbent to the treasury department -- absorbed into the treasury department and have a lot more money available to colleges for tuition. >> we talk about raising taxes on the rich, we need to put more money into colleges. people, we are going broke. this is a debt that will crush our children.

this is based on jealousy, greed. god only says to pay 10% across the board. these green regulations that people are posting -- pushing will cripple us further economically. tied at is welcoming the jobs and the money. -- china is welcoming the jobs and the money. how many jobs must we lose because we are bowing down to snails and polar bears? >> this question was submitted by a student. as you know, because you live in new england, it is a very cold up here in the winter. our region is heavily dependent on heating oil.

if elected, what would be your position on the drastic cuts to the heating assistance program that helps poor people keep their families warm in the winter. would you support those? >> i do not support those cuts. there is a lack of imagination in our fund raising ability. i would apply to 0.4 trillion dollars worth of new revenue that i could generate through three separate programs. they would be barely felt by the populace. i would go to a royalty system on patents. i would go to tariffs and i would go to a different way of

calculating corporate income taxes. 1/2 >> thank you. your next question is for mr. supreme. >> i wanted to follow-up on the question regarding the ponies. >> yes. is that the only government entitlement program that you support? what other government entitlement programs are you for? >> just that one. that is enough. in the vein of energy production, i favor harnessing the oxygen power of zombies. we have giant turbines we are

working on, and we will have lots of zombies and just dangle brains in front of them, and they will turn the giant turbines, creating energy, to lessen dependence on foreign oil in america today. >> president obama has been in office for over three years now. opinion, and what would you have done differently as president? i would ask you to respond on some issue other than the tax piece you have already talked about. his biggest missed opportunity. >> to lead us into a national health service. >> could you elaborate please? >> insurance schemes, whether they be medicaid, medicare, united health, blue cross -- you name it. they are not the answer. they are the problem. so inefficiently run systems. we could save 42% -- the british system runs at 42% what we are paying.

that will save this country $1 trillion a year. it is being paid as a regressive tax. insurance premium is not technically a government tax, but it is still a tax. it is something you have to pay for what you have to have. >> thank you. final question in this round is for mr. wolfe. >> as you may or may not be aware, one well-known new hampshire resident walked across the united states in her elder years to draw awareness to campaign finance reform. do you feel there is more that needs to be done to rein in the amount of money being spent in national politics?

>> the only thing we can do now, given the supreme court decision in january 2010 -- i think it was called citizens united -- we are going to have to go ahead and probably get a constitutional amendment, which redefines what first amendment rights are and excludes corporations. that is the only way we can do it under the present law. i would be in favor of that. it is hard to put a harness on free speech wherever it comes from, but the amount of money that the people -- the corporate people, the fortune 500 people can spend every year -- it is now unlimited. they did not have to report it. it can come from any source. it will have a terrible and deleterious effect on law making, and it has already been seen. they can intimidate people who are progressive. people have to marshal that

tune. they know if they do not marshal the corporate tenant, they will be inundated in money spent by their opponents to just swamp them. we probably need to go ahead and get a constitutional amendment. >> we are short on time for another round. what we're going to do is give each of you a 30-second close. not enough time for another round, but enough time to give each of you a 30-second closing statement. i will start randomly. we will begin with mr. green. you have 30 seconds for a closing statement, sir. >> thank you. i feel that i bring a totally different perspective, due to my background in physics. physics teaches you to do -- think widely and broadly and deeply, so i would recommend that as one of my qualifications. i think we need to send a message to the politicians that they have to talk seriously about energy. they are not doing that today. and if they have any discussion that does not include the word thorium, you have not heard a serious energy discussion. also, the national labs have not served president obama well in this regard.

>> thank you, sir. >> at the core of the cancer that is destroying america and the world, we find the banks sucking down the vitality of modern civilization, and it has to stop. finally, i would say to conservatives, jesus christ was a liberal, not a conservative or reactionary roman who loved killing machines and voracious capitalism. jesus christ was about love. >> thank you, sir. mr. wolfe, your closing statement, sir. >> i want to say that i want to be the progressive alternative to president obama. i want to represent the people. i do not think that you all should have austerity. i do not think you should have to pay for wall street's mistakes. but a lot of derivatives, a lot of speculative instruments

throughout the economy, and it ruined the economy and caused a meltdown. democrats and republicans alike are trying to impose an agenda of austerity on the people to cut their social security benefits, cut back on student loans and assistance to the students. that is wrong. we should tax wall street. we should tax corporations. we do have a progressive income tax. taxes now are the lowest since 1928 on the rich, and we need to correct that, or we will not have a good economy. >> every person in here is made in the image of god. thomas jefferson in the declaration said that our rights come from god. all men are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights -- the right to life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness. if we are going to be restored as a nation, we have to be returned as a foundation to the source of ethics, the source of policy.

nationoing to become a of people who kill their children and who put forth every provision and wickedness, then we will go the way of the greeks and romans and the other empires that have perished before us. but if we will be restored, we must return to life and liberty and justice under our creator. go to terryforpresident.com for more. >> i will address what i did not get to in my opening statement, which is the continuing veto of the united nations attacks against israel are not the answer -- those vetoes are the problem itself. had our country not embraced an -ism called zionism there would have been no iraq war, 9/11, afghanistan war.

my proposal is that we veto -- stop the killing united nations actions and let it do what it is supposed to do and free the palestinian people. >> thank you. mr. supreme, your 30-second closing statement. ♪ >> ♪ my name is vermin my name is vermin supreme and you can vote and you can vote and you can vote for me for president if you want to add my name is vermin ♪ thanks very much for coming up today. one more thing -- jesus told me to make randall terry gay. whoo! he's turning gay!

whoo! >> mr. o'donnell, please take us out of this with 30 seconds of your final thoughts. >> jesus christ did one thing -- he helped people. go to mcdonald's new castle, delaware. gary and larry dickenson, they do that every day. >> thank you very much for your time. let's give a hand for all of our candidates. >> thank you. [applause]

[captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] [no audio] >> if you really want to see the candidates, or pull up stakes issue, on the campaign trail. >> we are pleased with the kind of enthusiasm we have seen. >> go to town halls, campaign rallies, and meat and greeks.

-- meet and greets. >> thank you for coming. it was enjoyable. >> it is a pleasure to have the listening. and >> what are the plans to do that? are you planning on taxing these big companies are shipping more overseas? >> i want a test of that clears out all of the loopholes. >> watch out coverage on c-span television and on the website, c-span.org. tomorrow, joseph mcquaid

discusses his newspaper's endorsement of new gingrich. then, carolyn mckinney discusses where newspapers endorsement. then, a discussion on the impact of the 2012 campaign. watch "washington journal" at 7:00 a.m. eastern on c-span. now, ron paul posts 8 am meeting in new hampshire. -- hosts a town hall meeting in new hampshire.

[applause] [applause] >> thank you. thank you very much. >> thank you for coming out tonight. rather than be doing the introductions, i want to introduce kelly.

[applause] >> i am very excited tonight to introduce dr. paul. he is just wonderful. i am an independent, not a republican, not a democrats. dr. paul is somebody that is just completely different and everything that is out there. it is not status quo. i am really hoping tonight that some undecideds will get a chance to ask him some questions and understand and you will be able to see the differences between his ideas and the rest of it.

i will let him get right on it. jim is going to ask him some questions and then we'll open it up to the audience. [applause] >> i will ask a few questions. my first question, dr. paul, you served in congress for 12 terms, yet much of your life was spent as an obstetrician. why did you decide to pursue your career in medicine? >> i decided in my junior year of medical school to go into medicine. there were a couple of things. i was better in science and i

was in languages. it tends to work that way. i had an easier time and sciences. looking at the professions you could go into, over the years before that, it had crossed my mind -- in some ways it was a political thought. i remember world war ii and korea and many relatives and neighbors would go off to war and some did not come back. i can also remember watching a lot of war movies. i know the thoughts crossed my mind. it was almost like subliminal. i cannot ever go and shoot somebody. i will probably get drafted some day. i thought, i would be better off if i was taking care of people who were suffering rather than thinking that could ever do that. low and behold, 1962, they drafted me. the idea of helping other

people. there was this thing about the type of introduction i had to so many wars. i knew i did not want to participate in a violent manner. >> how has that influenced your outlook on government policy? >> the practice of medicine, obviously, i was very much engaged in the madison. when i first got out of medical school, i practiced a couple of years. before medicare, medicaid, things were different. i did some extra work within the military, but i was also doing work in a catholic hospital.

the practice of medicine was very different. and then the the introduction came in of government. over the years, it got worse and worse. that was not the motivating factor for me to get into politics. when i first went into congress, it was considered a fluke. i ran for other reasons and i ended up getting elected. i thought it was fortunate that i could do it. what really got me involved in politics was economic policy. it seems a little bit strange, practicing medicine, but i came across the austrian school of economics. i was curious. the greatest gift i was ever given is the fact that i was curious. why are people unemployed? why do you have inflation? how do you finance the wars? austrian economics, they explained this very well. i became convinced that they were on the right track because their predictions were always correct.

they predicted in the 1960's that the pseudo gold standard would collapse. sure enough, on august 15 of that year, 1971, it did collapse. this made an impact on me. i decided i would just speaking out. like i said, i did not expect to win. my wife is sitting over here. [applause] i told this story about when i decided i was going to run for congress. we had a lot of years of college and medical school. we were doing quite well and i loved it. i had this extra interest. i told her i was going to run for congress. she said, why in the world would you want to do that? i told her i needed to get this

off my chest. they were going in the wrong direction. i would like to talk about economic policy and the direction of the country. she said, this could be a dangerous thing. how in the world could be dangerous? she said, you could end up getting elected. i was not going to play the role of santa claus. it was going to be just the facts. in 1970, i thought we were spending too much money. >> speaking of spending, you recently unveiled a plan to cut the deficit and to balance the budget in three years. why would you think that this helps the economy? >> that is an economic fallacy. there is a certain amount of wealth in the economy. all wealth is created by voluntary action. when governments spend money, they take the money out of the economy, which is productive wealth.

it is very negative. if they have a trillion dollars and they take it from you and put it into washington, you have lost your trillion dollars. since governments are not productive, they spend a trillion dollars on interfering with your life. getting involved in a war they should not be involved in. we the taxpayers get hit twice. that is why a trillion dollars is a real boost. people get nervous. some of those people are not very productive. it was harder to make a sale back in the 1970's on what we anticipated would happen. today, we are there. we know what has happened. we have consumed our wealth. we cannot borrow more. we cannot tax anymore. we have this huge debt. we are just behind.

they have to either print the money or borrow the money. the economic growth is not there. it is not just the united states problem, it is a worldwide problem. it is a monetary problem. the basis of all the monetary system is the u.s. dollar. it has given us an advantage over the many decades. the disadvantage is that we exported dollars and our jobs went with it. there is a limit to how much? you can sustain. when a country is wealthy, the republicans and the democrats get along pretty well. for decades, they did whatever they want. you spend your money, we will

spend our money. i do not think it is lack of bipartisanship. i think it is bipartisanship doing the wrong thing. they have done this for so long. they have consumed the wealth and that is why we are facing a crisis. [applause] >> as an air force pilot, i flew out of saudi arabia, iraq bosnia. i saw firsthand there is a big difference between overseas military spending versus defense spending. the cuts you are proposing to make in your budget, it does come out of military spending for defense spending?

>> the spending that would cut would not touch defense. i think defense will go up. it will be improved because we will not get ourselves involved in things we should not be involved with. our defense is not enhanced by starting wars, occupying nations, and being the policeman of the world. our defense -- [applause] there are a couple of different ways you can measure the cost of the military occupation and the activities we have. i put it in the category of overseas spending. state department spending, building embassies in baghdad, the military operations, foreign aid. it is about $1.40 trillion a year.

we can put a lot from that. too often the republicans and democrats got together and agreed on spending. it should be that we could get together and agree not to spend money overseas. we should be helping the american people. [applause] half would come from overseas spending. $500 billion. the rest would come from departments. five department i would cause. the department of education, i do not see why we need a department of education. [applause] it would still need a lot more to get to a trillion dollars. we would have to move the baseline back to about 2006. government was not too small in 2006. it was too big event. just going back to that base line, we could have real cuts.

whenever you hear the congress or the president talking about these cuts and super committee is putting a trillion dollars. it has nothing to do with cutting. what they're doing is cutting proposed increases built into the system. it is to be we complained about the communist having five-year plans. we have 10-year plans of continued deficit financing. they would cut one trillion dollars over 10 years. $100 billion a year. i am talking about real cuts. going back to the baseline. we could do it. we could have the budget balanced in three years. the economy surged back. it might even happened sooner. we have to do something. we can not to believe that just spending money and printing money and borrowing money is going to bring the economy back.

europe right now is in big trouble because we are all interconnected. china had a thing going there, we exported dollars, we imported their stuff. they have us over the ropes. they have inflated their currency, too. there is a lot of distortion. there will be some changes over there as well. we have to think about sound economic policies. when i talk about that, we have to think about what our constitution says, what liberty is, what sound money is all about, having a proper foreign policy. [applause] >> you get twice as many contributions for military with all the other candidates. that becomes very clear.

speaking of economic recovery, the new jobs report, are we out of the woods? has the economy recovered? >> i watch the markets closely because they discount everything. even though it might not be long term, they immediately discounted. this will be very favorable. before you knew it, the stock market closed down. the market players did not think too much of this. there were increased jobs. they're not telling you the truth compared to what? they said unemployment was up to 9%. now it is down to a plan 5%. -- 8.5%. that is not counting the people who have been out of their jobs for more than four weeks. they do not count them anymore. people who are very partially

employed have just part-time jobs, they do not count them anymore. if you count the way they did during the depression and other years, unemployment is probably closer to 20%. that is why there is a disconnected. the people feel worse than the government tells you you are supposed to feel. the unemployment rate is much bigger than the inflation is much worse, standard of living is going down. people on fixed incomes know about it. the middle class is shrinking. this country lives beyond its means. free-market and sound money given to the largest middle- class, which we used to have. now our middleclass is shrinking in size and the standard of living is going down. if we do not change our policy, this will continue. we could go over a cliff and suddenly have it sink rapidly. that is why i think it is so important that we do something to prevent ourselves from

getting in that bad of shape. >> thank you. >> we will open it up to the audience for questions. as i imagine there are a couple of ron paul supporters here. the primary is only four days away. we need people that are not sure who they are going to vote for to ask questions. this is a big group. let's leave the questions for undecided voters. there will be some people going around with microphones. >> i would like to thank you on behalf of the 110,000 self- employed people in new hampshire. for supporting our equity. the equity for our nation's self-employed act. it would enable us to doc are health insurance premium as a business deduction. that is so important.

self-employed in this nation are really suffering from this self employment tax on all of our income. the first question, would you consider cutting back in half? so the self-employed only palladium pulp -- only pay the employees section of social security? i really do not know the answer to this, but what is your position on corporate personhood? >> on the taxes, my goal is to get the tax is as close to zero as possible. [applause] whether it is corporate tax or income tax. we did pretty well up until 1913. we did not have an income tax. but the government was very small. that's the way it should be. the people should be in charge of their money. therefore you would not have have an income tax.

we are a long way off from that. anything we can cuts is good. on the medical, being able to deduct that as a small business, that got out of whack back in the 1940's. it was very unfair. and the corporations should have been -- it would have been better for all of us to assume responsibility. look for the policies that are automatic and transferable. it became a problem because your insurance was associated with your business. then you had to say, we will move it and it will go to another company. it should have been private all along. i would do anything i could to get the proper deduction. this is going in the opposite direction of what obamacare does. what we should do is make sure

that anybody and everybody can get their money back. tax credits of some sort. maybe have a tax savings accounts. that is totally tax deductible. if that is tax-deductible, did a major medical policy. the important reason for that, we get the doctor and patient talking to each other again. now it is corporate medicine and lobbyists in washington -- some of the big players do not care about how big the government is. they just want to get part of the pie. you have the drug companies, insurance companies, it is very much a corporation. on personhood of the corporations, personhood implies rights. only individuals have rights. you do not have rights by groups.

[applause] the difficulty with having rights by groups, to reasons why that is not good. you punish a group, which we have all had to live through a system of punishment. that is wrong. privileges to groups are not any better. that is why we should all be individuals. if you have a legal organization, it is the individual that should be responsible. the corporation itself is not a person. only we as individuals are. [applause] >> good evening, dr. paul. thank you for being here. my question is a continuation of the health-care issue. i spent most of my life as an advocate for children. especially disabled children. i understand from your plan that you would like to see the end of medicaid and medicare because they are government run

programs. that is possible, but how would be a sure that people who are virtually all uninsurable would be covered to buy companies and better in the profit-making business? that is a tremendous concern and i guess in families that cannot coverage if they do not have -- half there is nobody that is going to take care of those kids. >> it is and important question. even if one agrees we should have never started it, we are not there now. we have a system where we are very dependent. i know some people say it sounds like i will cut those medical programs. in a way, i have a very modest position on this.

earlier on, i mentioned were i would cut. overseas spending, wartime spending, some of the department's going back to a certain level of budgeting. i think social security beneficiaries, the promise has been made. we took the money. the money has been spent. we all know that. there is no money in the bank. i still think we should try to provide the promises and take care of the promises. medicare is the same way. child health care would be the same thing. my budget proposal does not diminish it. i would hope to see the day or we could work our way of out of bed and think of a better way. hotthis is rather new in history. in my lifetime, and the time i practiced medicine, there was a

time when people would go to hospital and if they needed help, there were charity hospitals. i worked in a catholic hospital for a while. even in the midst of all the government, there is a bird -- burn hospital in galveston, texas that takes care of any child that is burned for free. just think how much more prosperity we would have if we had a free-market economy. now the concern is we are broke, we cannot pay any of our bills. how will we make -- how will we service all these people? the only way you can do that is to cut that kind of spending. if you go along with this idea that you do not have to cut anything, you are kidding yourself. those programs will exist, but already those checks are buying less. we are on a dead-end course. in order to take care of some of those programs, you have to cut the spending elsewhere. but they are not my top priority. i would hope that someday we would be able to work our way

and make encouragement that we get back to self-reliance. [applause] >> dr. paul, is there any way you would consider allowing citizens my age -- -- the same access to medicare benefits as citizens your age? >> medicare benefits? >> even though i am a lot younger than 65, i should not be denied the right to have those benefits the elderly have. >> they are struggling and they cannot even take care of the elderly right now. medicare is in worse shape than social security. financially, there is no way. if young people do not have a job and take care of themselves, and they have the medicaid programs. that is something i do not attack. that would not work.

as the dollars are not there. the previous generation are depending on you to work to pay for their medicare. at your age, it is not going to work. we need a very prosperous economy where you have good jobs. did your own benefit and your own deductions rather than the corporation's being involved in giving a tax break. [applause] >> welcome to new hampshire. my concern is related to foreign policy. there has been a lot of discussion regarding your policy on air safety abroad, pulling troops back where they be felt -- where we feel they should not be deployed. we face some serious threats in

the middle east, particularly iran. how would you handle iran? in the minimum and maximum extremes that we face with them? nuclear iran [inaudible] >> all nuclear bomb scare me. we have had way too many of them. [applause] some of my opinions come from the experience i had when i was in the air force during the 1960's. i went in with the greatest confrontation with the soviets occurred in the october of 1962. that is when i received my draft notice. that was over with by the time i was sworn in. i was in during the vietnam era. they had 30,000 -- they has been in cuba. we had them all around their country. we were about to have a nuclear exchange. compare that to the problem we see with iran.

maybe someday getting a nuclear weapon. the danger is way overblown about them having one in the near future. i think they would like to, that would be a concern. i do not want them to get one. the u.n. says they have no evidence there on the verge of a nuclear weapon. are all in cia says that. -- our own ec in a says that. -- cia says that. to give you some reassurance, the secret police for israel said if iran gets a nuclear weapon, it will not pose an existential threat to israel. they are saying, hold off, let's not get overly excited. let's not start dropping bombs. the three generals have said, they are against doing anything radical. my greatest fear is that we

will overreact, go in and not have a good reason. like we went into iraq. think of all the things that were stirred up about iraq. weapons of mass destruction. al qaeda. all these things related to 9/11. none of it was true. and then we ended up occupying afghanistan. we have lost 8500 americans. hundreds of thousands begging for help. we should only go to war with a great deal of caution. [applause] it is not that i dismissed it and that is not important, it is that there are different ways to do it. i felt very fortunate in the october 1962 because kennedy at

least had the wisdom to talk it out. they both agreed to move their missiles out. khrushchev moved them out of cuba and kennedy move them out of turkey. i am suggesting that more can be achieved without resorting to violence. the need to get involved over there right now -- this whole thing of sanctions, that is the first step to war. this is really very dangerous. we had sanctions on iraq for 10 years and finally went to war against iraq. i want you to think about a golden rule for foreign policy. what if china did in the gulf of mexico what we are doing in the persian gulf, how would we act? what if china is moving their ships and and used drone of missiles to bomb a few of their

enemies that might be on our land. we would not like that very well. we never see it from their viewpoint. we just see it from our viewpoint. i think sometimes it is a distorted view point. they have not forgotten 1953. we went into iran and overthrow their government. throughout unelected leader. -- true out at an elected leader. they were practicing democracy but we did not like him because he did not want to give the oil benefits to the british and the americans, he wanted to keep the benefits for the iranians. we overthrew him and put an the shaw who was there for 26 years. he was a ruthless dictator. what did that do? that stimulates radicalism. that is how radical islam got going in iran. until the most took over in 1979. most of us do not know that or

care about it or see the relationship. there are reactions to this. there is blowback. our cia knows about it. this is what we should be more cautious. i talk about what happened in the 1960's and 1950's. the french and the americans were fighting the vietnamese. we did not declare war, we went over there and got involved in a civil war. we were going to stop the movement of communist -- communism. we lose 60,000 lives and then we walk out. there was no domino effect of communism. the chinese moved toward western economics. they have not done so badly. the vietnamese have become westernize. just think of what happened in peace that we could not pursue in war. the use of force should be the very last thing you do.

[applause] also, i think it is worthwhile -- it introduces the religious attitude. i think there is nothing wrong with considering the just war principles that have been around since st. augustine. they are not bad principles. you fight a war in defense and you do it proportionally. you have to do it to protect your own people. there is nothing wrong with those principles. they are a universal principles. i just try to follow those because i think the goal is peace. it is not occupation. [applause]

>> i wanted to ask about current health-care system that was voted in that costs a lot of money. do you have any plans? the direction you could go to make that not as bad as it could be if he were president. >> is she talking about obamacare? >> yes. >> anything we could do it could make it better i would think. if we cannot reverse it and get congress to repeal the entire thing, the one thing we always should preserve when government gets overly involved is always give the people the option of getting out of it. opting out is very important. if it is a bad deal to be involved in one of these programs, i think everybody

should have a chance to get out of it. it is sort of like the way a lot of people complained about our educational system. i do not think federal control of education helps. we also are able to opt out and a lot of people do. they have the right to go to private school. i think that is very good. in medicine we ought to be able to opt out, too. there are a lot of things we can do. obamacare and we should repeal it. there is no way can be paid for the way we are going. and there will be rationing. there already is rationing. that is a bad thing. once government get involved -- the big problem is since the 1960's when the government got involved, the pomp money. whether it is pumping money into education or medicine or housing, it usually does not

give us better quality. it pushes prices up. if it pushes the cost of education way up. that is what government does in medical care. it makes the prices and the cost skyrocket. they say the government has to come in and give more money out to poor people who cannot afford it. if the problem is really a monetary policy and then a government intervention policy, if you want the maximum efficiency in delivering goods and services you have to look to the free market. that is the way to deliver free -- that is the way to deliver goods and services. [applause] >> how about up here. i know this gentleman has been waiting.

>> thank you. i traveled here from rhode island. i want to say thank you for letting us ask the questions. and ai have been following the news a little bit. i watched cnn, msnbc, fox. i do find there seems to be a lot of people that keep saying you are an electable. you are unelectable. i start to see that on twitter and facebook among friends and family. whitey you think that the media keeps saying things like that. is there some sort of agenda behind it? i do not understand. >> i think it is wishful thinking on their part. [applause] we take on all the special interests whether it is the military industrial complex, everybody that has gotten a bailout. we take on the federal reserve. anybody close to the

establishment has something to try to protect. the other thing that they do -- when they ask me this, i am supposed to get angry and upset. it makes me laugh they said, how come you are so dangerous? you people are dangerous. yes, i endangers because i live in the constitution. that is a dangerous thought. [applause] and other dangerous idea, i do not think we should be printing money. we should only have gold and silver as money like the constitution says. [applause] my goal is free markets, the protection of civil liberties, sound money and property rights, contract rights, sensible foreign policy. the other thing i sometimes do not see how this could be

dangerous because i see great danger in our country right now. it is against our liberties. if you protect liberty, you protect the marketplace. he protect your property. you do not have this foreign- policy we have. right now liberty is very much threatened in this country. after 9/11 there was a lot of fear. i understood it and i was concerned and i voted to go after the guys that did it. but there was a lot of overreaction, too. immediately they brought up a bill that had been floating around congress for a couple of years and passed it in one week. that bill was not patriotic even though they called it the patriot act. we should repeal the patriot act. [applause] now, if it would have called the bill what it was really doing -- any time you see a bill in washington that sounds good,

figure it is doing the opposite. that is a safe bet. if they would have called the repeal the fourth amendment act, a lot of people might not have voted it. they do not name and what it is. it has gotten worse since then. one year ago the president send somebody over to the senate to announce any policy. under certain circumstances, the president has authority to assassinate american citizens. that is the law of the land, at least he assumes it is. he has already done it three times. maybe one out of three might have been a bad guy. that people deserve a trial as well. -- bad that people deserve a trial as well. [applause] can you think of anything worse than the nazi war criminals? they even got trials. there is nothing we should be intimidated and so frightened

of that we allow our presidents to assume this power to assassinate american citizens with no charges. not only that, two weeks ago they passed the national defense authorization act, another bad bill. people always know about it and i am very pleased about that. it is very bad. it gets rid of the prohibition against the military and forcing domestic law. there were only seven senators that voted against it. my son voted against it, let me tell you [applause] that means an individual who may be associated with an organization that might have done something bad -- that is all they need, associated forces. a website or donation or what ever, no matter how in the senate was.

even if it was not an asset you are still supposed to get a trial. for now the military can haul you often put you in a secret prison and an attorney is the night to you. one senator boldly said if we pick you up because we suspect you belong to al qaeda, do not ask for a lawyer. a u.s. senator saying that. that has to reverse. we have to protect civil liberties. liberty is the most important item. we are a free and prosperous country and at one time was very wealthy because we are honored and understood this. it was written into our declaration of independence. it was acknowledged that governor -- government did not give us our rights, our life and liberty came from our creator and comes in a natural weight. if we lose that, worrying about paying some bills is academics because life will not have that much meaning. one thing i have noticed in the last four years, there has been

a sudden change in interest in the economic issues that have been talking about for a long time but also the foreign policy issues. even in the last four months there has been a tremendous surge in interest in what our campaign has been talking about and why it offers us so much. it is not offer us something new and strange that we have to invent something new. all we have to do is look at our traditions and look at what we were given. do not let what we started disappear so casually. right now it has been slipping away. in an economic crisis, which i anticipate will come. if we do not clean up our act the economy will get much worse. the destruction of currency can have a lot of violent repercussions and a lot of demonstrations in the street if not violence. if they have all these laws against us, who knows?

if you happen to be locked in a group that happens to be construed as anti war -- oh, and you might be an associated force. you cannot tell what they might do. that stuff need off the books. we need somebody an office to say the top of a president is to protect your freedom. it is not to run the world. it is not to run your life. [applause] it is not to run the economy. the president, the bureaucrats, the politicians do not know how to do that. our obligation should be the protection of liberty. this will work its way out. then we have a very good chance that once again our calls will be peace and prosperity, which should be our goal all the time. thank you very much. [applause]

>> do me a favor. here is what we are going to do. before we go any further, we will ask the press to move over. we will give people time to that to get pictures. we have to give them some room. will the media please move back. meetform a line over here. folks who are not interested in that can exit over there. on the photos you are going to have to go to our web site www.ronpaul2012.com. click on the new hampshire site and you will have to download it. the we have a photographer here. he will do the -- she will do

the photos and we will applaud them and you can get them. that is the program. thank you very much. come on, guys. give us some room. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] [captioning performed by national captioning institute]

canada and 10-again, we are going to develop superior you cannot use your camera or sell, or what not to do the photos. -- again, folks, we're going to do the photos. you cannot use your camera or cellphone or what not to do the photos.

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>> we take you on the campaign trail. >> he is going to come now. i like the crowds that we're seeing. pretty exciting. >> go the town hall meetings and meet ingrates.

-- meet and greet said. >> i am responsible for his being here. [inaudible] >> thank you to coming. >> it is a pleasure that have a great leader. thank you for being one. >> what are some of the plans to do that? are you planning on punishing countries that shift work overseas? >> i am looking at the tax code. >> who look at our television and at our website, c-span.org. >> i walked into a bike shop,

and the owner of the bike shop said that he would like to have a computer. and i saw $and from my eyes. >> steve jobs biography by what mr. isaacson is number one on the new york times best-seller list. tomorrow on book tv, he talks about a device that the apple co-founder got early in his career. >> one is the focus, really keep your focus. the other is empathy. but the perfect word for it, but it is basically making an noshir to get emotional connection with the people who are going to buy your product. and that there is not a great word, introduced. but it means cast an aura around whatever you do so that the minute steed even throughout his career had his own personal name on the patents for the boxes, the packaging of the apple products, so when you open up and there was that ipod cradle,

you in putrid that it was something really cool just the way that it was. >> watch the rest of the interview tomorrow and noon eastern on book tv on c-span2, or anytime on line at the c-span video library. former house speaker newt gingrich says that his campaign for president is one of the most focus his ever been through. he prepares for the candidate debates by getting advice from his to grandchildren and drinking diet cokes. he made his remarks during a c- span call-in program and lebanon, new hampshire. it is 30 minutes. 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. >> if ument to see the candidates, c-span's road to the white house coverage takes you to it.

>> i'm pleased we're seing the crowds we're seeing. i'm pretty excited. >> go to town halls, campaign rallies and meet and greets. >> thank you for coming. it was enjoyable. >> it's a pleasure to have a listening ear. thank you for giving one. >> we'd like to bring manufacturing back here. what are some of the plans you have? are you planning on taxing some of these big companies for shifting work overseas? >> i want a tax code that clears out all the loopholes -- >> watch new hampshire primary coverage on c-span television and on our website at

c-span.org. >> because i didn't speak and i didn't give, really, a window into my life, i had become kind of an evil cartoon and didn't help myself with wearing a hat, coming out of my car in court but i'd become kind of a villain. i wanted to show i'm not an evil person. i did things that were wrong but i don't have a tail or horns, i grew up like mench else. >> this weekend on "after words," once the most enflunerble lobi in washington, jack abramoff was quicked of mail fraud. also, from news from all the people, juan gonzalez and joseph torres on the role segregation played in the way news was promoted.

and marji ross about what it takes to be a female publisher. >> now to concorde, new hampshire, from jon huntsman participated in a town hall meeting. he was endorsed by "the boston globe," a paper published in the state of mitt romney. the new hampshire presidential primary is this tuesday. this is about 50 minutes. >> thank you for being here. it is my pleasure to introduce ron begin jerry, who will have the pleasure of introducing our next presidential candidate, jon

huntsman. >> good morning. john hunts -- jon hundredthman has served his country in various ways throughout his life. it is because of his deeply held conviction of service to country he's risen -- risen above washington politics. he reduced spending and taxes and in a spirit of unparalleled courage he stepped across the political divide and accepted a role as am bsdor to china where his business accruemen was used in the face of china's human rights railroad. he favors energy independence, tax and regulatory reform and an approach to national security that emphasizes his keen grasp of post cold war realities. please join me in welcoming governor jon huntsman. [applause]

>> thank you. how is everyone this morning? do we have any voters in the room? by show of hands who is going to be voting. ok. how about over here? hands? ok. can i just square with you all? this is a new hampshire primary, folks. this is an important event in the history of this nation. you're going to get out and vote and participate next week you know what's going to happen? you'll be the window through which the rest of the nation is able to assess and analyze and understand of those running for the highest office in the land, do you have an awesome responsibility to get out and learn about the candidates and issues? of course you do. i hope you don't down play it at all. i hope you don't 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 and how lucky and how fortunate all of you are to be participants in a process that is going to set a trend and perhaps change the course of your nation's history. this is a big, big deal. now, let me get to where i stand. i'm the underdog in this race. i understand that. but you know what else i understand? new hampshire loves an underdog. you always allow underdogs to come into the state, into the marketplace here. you hear them out you assess you 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 up the dea after the vote and the rest of the country looks at what you've done in the new hampshire primary and said, the people of new hampshire have spoken again. they know what they're talking about. that typically tends to set a trend beyond new hampshire. so as a candidate, we have done a we have done almost 160 public

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

less good, more divided, less competitive, less productive, and more saddled with debt than the america we got. and i say, this isn't fair. you're getting screwed. that's 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. we owned 36% of the world's g.d.p. science, technology, the greatest standard of living in the world. it seemed that all the noble prize winners came if the united states. our g.d.p., 25% of it, came from manufacturing. including a lot of activity right here in this state. i look at where we sit today,

9%. of our g.d.p. 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 had a choice then 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 in the arena and fight. you can get in the arena and broaden the debate and add to it because this election cycle is all about you. it's about the country we are about to hand over to you. so what is it my generation does? we package this thing called humanity that represents my generation, who we are. it's about our values, it's about the economy, it's about our standing in the world, it's about our competitiveness. we give it to you. it's the best thing we have to offer. i'm not happy with what we're about to hand down. i say, i'm going to do everything i can within my power

to bring about change system of the america you get is the very best. and aisle convinced we have two things that we've got to do. before we hand it down to you. you need to be aware of these issues. everything we're talking about here will fall into your lap and you'll have to deal with it at some point. we have two deficits in this country that we got to fix. one is an economic deficit, it's called $15 trillion in debt. ladies and gentlemen, how did we get to this spot? $15 trillion in tet, that's not a debt problem, that's a national security problem. you know what i mean? you get your debt as a percentage of your g.d.p. to 70%, 80%, 90%, you don't grow anymore. you can't provide jobs, can't compete in the global marketplace effectively. that's your generation we're talking about. i say, i'm not going to ship wreck the next generation with debt. we're going to deal with it realistically, we're going to

put forward plans that will cut from all categories, cut from entitlements, cut from the department of defense, you can't have any sacred cows, you've got to cut across the board, we have no choice. beyond that, we have to grow. we have to grow out of this the hole we find ourselves in. you have people run, people from congress, the house of representatives, governors have to deal with growth issues. i changed my taxes in my state. we created a more hospitable and friendly regulatory environment and 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's totally possible. china is going like this. i've lived in asia four different times, so i've seen the rise of asia, specifically the rise of china. china is going from 8%, 9%, 10% economic growth per year down to maybe 4%, 5%, 6% economic growth. they're having problems. inflation is going up. cost of manufacturing is going

up. unemployment is going up. what happens in china? this vast country of 1. billion people, when unemployment goes up? you have political uncertainty. you have risk. and the invested dollar from countries that plant their dollar in china is going to be saying, uh-huh. -- uh-uh. we want to find an alternative mac. we in this country would be crazy if we didn't prepare ourselves for that future. were still 25% of the world's market and we still have the most product i worker on earth and will for your generation. i say as president, i want to recognize this opportunity that we have to get back on our feet from oa manufacturing standpoint. i think the united states of america is on the cusp of a manufacturing renaissance. we need leadership and we need

ideas that will get us there. but we've got to grow, got to expand our base and we've got to earn our ability to pay down our debt. that's the way it's done. just like a business, like a family, we need a president that will allow us to get there. i'll be darned if we hand down to your generation the level of debt we have in this country today. it's like a cancer metastasizing. it's going to shipwreck the next generation unless we get our arms around it. the second thing i want to talk about is a deficit we didn't have when i was your age. i would argue that it is just as corrosive and harmful to we as people as the economic deficit. it's called a trust deficit. because the people in this country no longer trust their

institutions of power. you know what i mean? people in this country no longer truster that elected officials. how pathetic is this? we as a nation were built and founded on trust. one with another in a free vote. -- society. institutions of trust. and now the greatest nation that ever was is running on empty. i say i'll be darned if we're going to pass that down to your generation. no trust. how do you feel about getting a country that is wallowing in debt and one that lacks trust and basic civility, one toward another. i say we can do better than that as americans. but we're going to have to do some things first. what drives the trust problem, the trust deficit in this nation? i look at congress and say, i know what i want to do as president. i want to lead the charge around this country that allows us to move toward term limits for

congress. because i do know this, and i'm sure many of you are learning about it in political science classes, there's this thing called incumbency that reaches up and grabs people and makes it almost impossible for people to lee congress once they get there. i say that's not right, that's not fair, we need to free up the system every now and again. i don't want to just talk about it, i want to lead a charge around this country and be a catalyst for change. i know it's the well of the people to bring about term limits for congress. i also want to close the resolve -- revolving door which allows members of congress to file right on out torque trade in on their insider relationships and insider information and become lobbyists. and we wonder -- [applause] and we wonder why there's no trust and why we're cynical when

we 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 debt and spending called simpson bowles, lands on the president's desk a wonderful plan that could have taken this nation forward on debt and spending and tax reform, 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're a lobbyist or can afford a lobbyist or if you've got a lawyer doing your bidding on capitol hill, you can get a loophole, you can get a deduction, which is completely corrupted -- which has completely corrupted our tax code.

get your minds around this. today in our tax code, one trillion, one hundred billion in carveouts and deductions and loopholes affect about 7% of the population. i say nonsense. that's a weight, a drag on our economy we cant afford -- can't afford at this point. more importantly, it's not fair to the american people. i want to phase out in my tax plan all the loopholes and deductions and all the corporate welfare and all the subsidies and i want to say we're starting with a clean slate. that's what i did as governor. i'm not giving an academic diseration, i did this as governor. did i succeed in getting the loopholes out? no. but i got a lot of them out. it's a fight worth waging. i think we have to level the playing field for our creative class in this country. i like what that does to capitol hill in terms of draining the swamp for lobbyists. .

you can't project the values that make this nation so unique. i've lived overseas several times. i've seen this nation when it projects the values of goodness and it changes history, it changes events. the values of liberty and democracy and human rights and free markets. nobody does it like the united states and today we're not projecting those values. i said, you can't have a foreign policy or a national security strategy when you're crumbling at home. i want to square with the american people on this, too. afghanistan 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 to meet head on the competitive challenges for this century, your century. that is about economics. that will play out over the pacific ocean in countries i've lived in before. if we don't get our act together, we have seen what other countries have done to prepare for the rest of the 21st century. if we don't get our act together, folks, we will see the end of the american century during your lifeim toos. that's not the legacy i'm going to leave behind. no trust in foreign policy. i want to get trust back into 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, we can move toward greater energy

independence, we can launch a manufacturing renaissance and if we're left with banks that are too big to fail, we are setting ourselves up for another bailout, a disaster. we've been there and done that, ladies and gentlemen, we are not going to do it again. [ applause ] >> so we need a president who is going to be able to say, banks, if you are too big to fail, you're too big. because capitalism without failure is not capitalism. we don't want a bunch of banks looking like public utilities, which is what we're getting. six big banks. imagine this. combined they have assets that are worth two-thirds of our nation's gdp, 9.5 trillion. so if they get infected by the flu that is going around europe, you know what i mean? if economically they get sick and start to go down, they can't

go down, it will take all of us with them. so we have to bail them out. that is not right. that is not fair for taxpayers in this country to have this implied taxpayer bailout for big banks. as president, i'll say, we're going to right size you. if you are too big to fail, you are too big. if you get sick and have problems, you fail, you don't take us all down with you. no trust in wall street, i want to get that restored. ladies and gentlemen, i am who i am. i've got a track record that i want you to look at, it's noticed. it is what it is. i'm not going to stand up and like a lot of republican colleagues, sign silly pledges. i'll not do those kinds of things. [ applause ] >> we received the endorsement of half the papers in the state.

we got the endorsement of the boston globe. we're moving forward. i feel good about where we sit. i know this state loves an underdog. we have worked hard. we have shared a message that i feel in my heart and soul, we need to make sure we can bring it home on tuesday. i'm an optimist about where this country is going byour generation. i've seen it from 10,000 miles away from china. if you walk the streets of beijing and shanghai, they are full of energy right now, they are growing at 8, 9, 10% per year, even though that is coming down. look at this country from 10,000 miles away, the greatest nation ever. the united states of america, we're in a funk, you know what i mean? we are disspiritted as people, this isn't who we are. we got to get out of the hole. in order to get out of the hole, we need leadership and

confidence. 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'm an optimist and you ought to be an optimist. i've moved around and seen other countrys and we have a remarkable nation. you need to keep hold during your generation and make sure they are strong. they set us apart in all the world. here is what some of them are. we have stability in this country. pick up papers and read about instability everywhere, we have stability in this country. we're able to gather and have free conversation and dialogue and disagree and we could do it with a sense of stability. we have rule of law. we're still a rules-based system. we have the longest surviving constitution in the world.

we have private property rights. here in new hampshire, we have the greatest colleges and universities anywhere in the world. never doubt that. people flock 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 innovators, free thinkers and entrepreneurs. there are engines in this nation 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, you know what i mean. i as president will not allow the men and women from the theaters of combat, the frontlines to come back to the unemployment lines. [ applause ] >> they're going to come back, your generation many of them, to a sense of dignity and respect

and gratitude. you know what else? they're going to 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'll rebuild this nation. no more division. no more parking ourselves necessary alley ways and cul de sacs, because we are all americans first and foremost. i don't care what your point of origin is, where you go to school, we are all americans first and foremost. as we proceed as people in problem solving and making this nation the best it can be, i don't want you to forget that. we are americans first and foremost and that carries with it the idea we show a little respect one for another. we find good in other people.

this thing called humanity i talked about earlier we're passing down to you, it's about who we are. there is no more. that sense of humanity is who we are. our values, our respect one for another, our economy, our standing in the world, our schools. that's what we're passing down to you. that is what i want to fix and what i want to get right. i want your vote. i want your help. you know what else? i want your 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 than trusting one another. i'll work hard. i will never ever discount the importance of your trust that i'm asking people for. that is the vote. thank you very much for being here. it's been an honor and privilege

to be here. thank you. [ applause ] >> thank you. thank you. thank you. >> thank you all very much. questions? yes, sir. >> good question, thank you. corporations need accountability. there is no question about that. the problem i have with frank, sometimes when we have problems in this country and we've had

some, we overreach. you know, sometimes as a parent, i don't say anything, because i have a daughter over here. abbey, stand up, just wave. if you want to read some really interesting things or see interesting videos, she's part of my three daughters who make up the john 2012 girls. if you go on youtube tonight, you can watch some of their funny videos. they're quite humorous. i mention that because sometimes parents and this is maybe too simple an analogy, we overreach when you have a problem with maybe a son or daughter, maybe you overreach. then you kind of come back to a more comfortable spot. we've had problems in this country and i believe the knee-jerk reaction, the immediate impulse is always to overreact and then we find we've gone too far and we need to come back to center. with dodd frank, here is the

deal with dod d frank. i was in keen a few weeks ago and i went to a place called lindy's diner. they said, huntsman, you are the first candidate to come to lindy's diner this go around. i said, that is great, that means something. i went to the counter and sat down with a guy named jamie, small business guy, he repairs motorcycles. and i said, how is business going? he said, not so good. i want to hire a person or two and i can't. i want to get a loan from the bank and i can't get a line of credit. i have no debt, what is the deal with this? they are asking for coverage requirement, a ratio coverage requirement higher than i've heard of before. if i could cover the ratio requirement, i wouldn't need a loan to begin with.

the economy is frozen. i say, dodd frank striking again. that is what it has done to community banks. the other part of dodd frank, i'm not sure anyone in your generation would like that, we have wall street protesters out there who have sensible messages they are imparting to the american people, one of which is banks are too big to fail. dodd frank gives aid and comfort to banks that are too big to fail s. that what you want to inherit? do you want to inherit banks that look like public utilitys and don't service the needs of the economy? thank you, no. we are always going to find, there is always a balancing act between rules and regulations and the free market system. we've always relied on free market system, for a class of people to move forward. i think that is the reason we are just 300 million people with

pretty sizeable land mass, pretty good natural resources in the country, bordered by atlantic ocean, pacific ocean, why have we prospered over the year? we allow free society to flourish. that will require a balance, never either-or, we will manage the right regulation and business and allow the right freedom to prevail. thank you very much for the question. yes, sir, right back here. >> question: thank you for being with us again. >> thank you for being here. >> question: this is my chance to say thank you and allow me to come to it. my question and i want to qualify it, about medicare. i'm sure it is 200,000 peep nel new hampshire on medicare. i am concerned about my children, your children, what will be there in the future? you visualize and have a plan putting on stronger financial

footing for the young people here today or my children, your children and do something about the rising health cost? thank you. >> thank you. listen, whether it is medicare or whether it's probably the number one fan trillion gdp of . 3 trillion. i was reminded when i went to courtmouth in chicago medical center the other day in a room full of docs and researchers, very informed people. i was reminded of the $3 trillion we look at in healthcare year over year, 40% of that, maybe higher, is needless spending, washing around. i say, this is nuts. we can talk about healthcare reform, but until we're ready to take the initial step and say, how do we get the excess cost out of the system, that's what is eating us alive. excess costs are resulting in double-digit inflationary

increase we are seeing year over year over year and whether small business and whether the pentagon is saying, i've got two boys beginning their careers in the united states navy. they are on a different health plan right now, tri-care. i see what they're doing. healthcare costs are impacting everybody across the board and i say, we've got to be smart about how we rid the system of excess cost. i want to get to a point in time and the implication for medicare are very real, to where patients can visit the doc's office with some information and 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 is the last time you walked in a doc's office and had a doctor explain the cost. nobody knows what healthcare costs are, not patients, not doctors, by the way. that has to be coupled, that knowledge of real costs with an

insurance program. a program that does what insurance companies are supposed to do. they're supposed to take a risk and supposed to offer affordable, accessible policies, which they're not doing. i say this is the other big part of the problem, we have a very limited market place when it comes to insurance offerings. i say this nation is just beginning the conversation, 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 that 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 15% uninsured in our state the largest subsection was young, immortal population, 18 to 35 years of age. we're never going to die, why would we need insurance? even if we want it, there is

nothing we can afford. we worked hard in getting an affordable policy, stripped down catastrophic policy, tough to do with the insurance company. we've got something. you know, time will tell if this was an effective move, i think it will prove effective. if you want to buy an affordable policy for an example in that state nour state or another, you can't because of the cross-state border transactions. i want to drop the barrier that stand in the way of making this insurance sector compete. they're not near where they need to be in terms of making that possible. things like personalized medicine. i believe in the years to come, when we look at medicare for the next generation, we'll make the delivery of healthcare and cost of healthcare far different than they are today. when thanks to the human je nome project and the molecular biology done over the years, the way that we're able to assess and analyze human disease and

tackle human disease early as opposed to late and assess and analyze individuals based upon their d.n.a., what you have predisposition for. you are able to anticipate disease before the very end when it becomes extremely expensive and you can take prevenative and p preechlative measures. it is an exciting future. i'm an optimist when i look at that. finally, things like end of life care, where it becomes very, very expensive. there should be a much different way of delivering that kind of care at home as opposed to in very, very expensive hospitals and institutions. we need more of those options i believe will address cost. that is a long way of saying, in my head is a lot of thinking about the whole cost side of medicare and healthcare generally. we'll keep having this conversation. the end of the day, we'll find ourselves right back with the

basic premise and that is, you know, we've got to deal with cost if we're going to do anything about healthcare refofrm longer term to help our people. yes, sir? >> question: thank you for being -- i think the only republican candidate for the presidency to actually believe in science. [ applause [ applause ] >> that's quite a revolutionary thought, isn't it? >> question: no, water boils at 200 degrees fairen height whether you like it or not. having had the experience in china and the environmental degradation that china is experiencing as a result of both growth, as well as energy needss, i would like you to take a moment and talk about science and our energy needs as it relates to the environment and a possible economic benefit that

the united states through innovation, could be able to achieve in the years ahead. i'd also like you to answer the question, whether you believe that corporations are people. >> you know, the only other time i was asked that question was on the steven colbert show. you walk out and you don't want what you are going to get. you run a huge risk and i got the same question. i'll just let everyone ponder that one for a moment about corporations being people. on the energy side, first of all, i lived in beige bad-- beijing, the most polluted city in the world. you wake up some mornings and can't see across the street. you couldn't see across this room, that is how bad it is. there are traditional pollutants, as opposed to co2. they just come up the place. do they have challenge necessary

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

we can't force technology into the market place based on subsidies, we are learning hard lessons today. it just doesn't work. eventually science and technology will take us in that direction, no doubt about that. that is good. in the meantime, we have to decide what kind of bridge we build from today into the inevitable future. okay, we have options. we wake up to the reality in this country that we have more gas than saudi arabia has oil. i say, come on, how stupid are we? when are we going to take advantage of something that is cleaner, more accessible? i understand the fracing ponent, that it is safe and they dealt with the issues they encountered before and the american people can believe in it. i believe this is a resource that will serve needs longer term and i believe we ought to better for the air and the national security implications

are enormously positive. why do i say that? because the imported oil now, 50 plus percent, much from transactional countries that aren't necessarily rooting for our success, you look at what we're paying for gas at the pump and we save a buck, 50 cents, whatever it is. take another look. look at what we as taxpayers pay on a fully loaded basis. the deployment of troops, keeping the ceilings open for transport of goods. 13 bucks a barrel, i say, come on, who are we fool something those days are gone. i drove a natural gas car when i was governor. i never thought i'd be a natural gas car driver. i ran into an entrepreneur who said, i'd like to convert your

black suburban to natural gas. i had no idea you could do that. i paid him out of pocket and went on my way. it started a conversation in our state. it led people to talk about alternative fuels. we had an air problem, tbl or not in utah. we had really bad air quality during peek winter and peek summer. people cared about that. it was a health issue. it started a conversation about alternative fuels, which led to this. we have no infrastructure. we have no outlets and so i went to the public utility and i said, you can either be ahead of this discussion or behind, but i think you'll want to be ahead of this discussion. i don't want to get stuck 300 miles from nowhere in the middle of the desert because i can't find a fill-up station for natural gas f. we're going to take the revolution seriously, we need to build out the infrastructure. it is very real.

what i want to do my first day as president or thereabouts, say one product monopoly that favors oil is going. that's so we have an option. that is the only option we have these days. if you drive a car fuelled by gas or diesel, you do okay. one product monopoly. this is hardly where the nation needs to be longer term. i want to go to the committees and say, we're going to break this one apart. we're going to do to this one product distribution monopoly called oil, what we did to broadcast communication in the early 1970s, you all don't remember that time. when i grew up, we had three options on television. now we have more and many here 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

make it so we can draw from different products. i think that is the kind of energy independence that i would envision starting with the infrastructure that is desperately needed. realizing full well we'll convert to power and electricity and today is using 19% of natural gas. they want to do more, but they want a president who will use pu pulpit and say, we're not looking back. we will draw from the sun and wind and we have a bridge to build to take our people into the future while creating jobs, improving the air and addressing national security implications from imported foreign oil. thank you. [ applause ] >> we'll take one more and let you go. yes, ma'am. >> question: -- >> i think that is self-evident and not sure that needs to be answered.

of course corporations are not people. come on. who would say such an outlandish thing? i can't imagine anyone running for president would say something like that. >> question: some supporters of ron paul have put a video out showing you speaking chinese and portraying you as chairman mou. what does it say about a country learning to speak fluently becomes an instrument to be used against you? secondly, is it still possible to be a cent rift politician in the u.s.? why is it -- do you have the impression the other candidates are clawing their way for the right and you are this interest and why does this interest aloft? why is the interest the underdog? thank you. >> you know, some people like to call it sentrist, or something else. you know what, i do what i do

based on a view of this country and its future and a sense that we have to be real. we have to draw from ideas that are doable and not so outlandishly stupid that they create political fighting and finger pointing and never in a thousand years going to get done. i'm a realist at the end of the day. i don't like to spend time posturing and being one thing during the pre-primary phase and the primary and the general. i'm going to be who i am from start to finish. i'm willing to say during the primary phase or pre-primary phase, if you don't light your hair on fire and don't sign silly pledges and don't have "oops" moments, you will not get as much air time. people will not talk about you as much and you will not go up in terms of name recognition. that's okay because at the end of the day, this is a nation full of common-sense minded

folks. they will enjoy watching the circus play out in 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, ask the question, you know, i enjoy the political theater, i've enjoyed the circus acts, it's been entertaining, "survivor," and i have to make a decision on someone who can be president of the united states of america. someone who has a background to draw from, ability to bring people together, a temperment and vision for where the country ought to go going forward, i think that will inform a lot of decisions when they approach the ballot box starting here in new hampshire. this is no caucus, this is a primary, the real deal w. respect to the ron paul video, i saw just parts of it yesterday. first of all, it's just stupid. second of all, yeah, i've lived overseas four times.

i believe that our world tends to be a small interconnected place, more so than we think. i speak chinese, if somebody wants to poke fun of me for speaking chinese, that's 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 abandoned at two months of age and left in a vegetable market. picked up by the police and sent to an orphanage, no future or hope, nothing to look forward to. now she's in my family and she's one of the greatest human beings i know. [ applause ] >> she's also 12 years old my senior foreign policy advisor. i have a second daughter who was born in india in a very rural

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

>> thanks, everybody. >> should ron paul disavow that ad from that video? >> are you offended by the video? >> if you want to see the candidates, the road to the white house plic cat coverage

takes you on the campaign trail. >> it is encouraging, i'm pleased we are seeing the crowds we are seeing, so pretty exciting. >> go to town hall, campaign rallies and meet and greets. >> i'm responsible for -- >> it is a pleasure to have you here. thank you for giving one. >> i have a question for you. you talked about bringing manufacturing back here into the united states. what is some of the plans to do that? are you planning on taxing some big companies for shipping

overseas? >> i want a tax code that clears out all of the loopholes. >> watch the coverage on cspan television and on our website cspan.org. >> every weekend on american history t.v., the people and events that tell the american story.

payroll tax cut compromise, but presiding officer jeff dennam of california ruled him out of order and said no business was to be conducted during the pro forma sessions and gavelled the session to a close in the video feed was ended. here is a look. 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.

>> following the pro forma session, met with nancy pelosi, and republicans to return to work and criticized the gop for saying the house was in session. pelosi praised the new jobs numbers and called for extending the payroll tax cut. this is about 25 minutes. and we believe that our

republican colleagues are doing a tremendous disservice to the american people by continuing to vacation when the foundation for movement and gender seem to be solid and should be built upon and we democrats are here ready to work, ready to make sure that we build stability in the lives of the american people. o our -- are here in washington looking for their republican colleagues so they can develop a proposal to extend the tax 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 continued tax cut. we democrats believe that middle income americans are deserving of this tax cut, but also deserving of certainty and that's why our colleagues are here. as you notice, we were just shut down and not allowed to speak on the floor when we were told that 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 illustrous leader who has come back from vacation to bring us democrats here to washington so we could

do the people's work. nancy pelosi. >> thank you, assistant leader clyburn. thank you for going to the fl r floor. to reassure millions of americans who are out of work through no fault of their own, they will have unemployment benefits and to tens of millions of seniors, 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 and those who receive unemployment benefits need the money, will spend the money, create jobs, it's good for the economy and good for america's families. we were told with great vea mens yesterday that congress was in session, that's why we went to the floor today to call upon the

conferrees 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 they were in late december so they can't be here in january? what is this, one month on, one month off? american people want jobs. we have a job to do, we can't wait. as the leader said, the president's american jobs act has given confidence to people. already the economy is responding to his leadership in that regard and with the hope that we will continue our work in bipartisan fashion and in a timely fashion to extend the tax cut, unemployment benefit and senior's ability to see doctors for the rest of the year. there is no reason, tell me why, how can we explain to the american people, why the conferrees 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 the 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're working five days in the month of january when the american people desperately need us to take positive action for job creation. i'm very proud of our conferrees. some are with us now. all of them here this week to get the job done. scores of 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 the needs of the

american people can wait. we can't wait. now i'm pleased to yield to distinguished vice chair of our caucus, john larson, of connecticut. >> to underscore the urgency meeting with ed reilly of the ironworkers and the current head of the greater hartford trade association and the trades in my state and in the greater hartford area experienced in the last years, 40% unemployment. 40% in the building trades. and here's the president with a plan that puts the country back to work. that focuses on infrastructure system and most notably our schools. the contrast couldn't 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 haven't been in years and to understand at the same time, you'll be putting those very people back to work. 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, the fierce urgency of now, to put them back to work. and that's why we're here both ready to take on a conference assignment, led capably by our vice chair, who will speak next. >> thank you, mr. chairman. this is a little difficult to understa understand. we've been told by the republicans that we are in

session. we just spent four minutes today in session. now we're done. well, most americans woke up at the beginning of this week wanting to be and loving the opportunity to say, i'm going back to work after this vacation. yet here we are and we're done. four minutes. we've got work to do. either we're in or we're out of session. can you imagine what would happen if we had republicans working with the president to create jobs? if 212,000 private sectors jobs were created last month, even with the republicans in congress, and over 1.6 million jobs created in the last year, despite the obstruction of the republicans in congress, can you imagine how many americans today would have been able to say after the vacation, guess what, i'm going back to work. as ricky ricardo used to tell

cille ball, i think they have explaining to do. this is not the way you run government. every american is working as hard as possible, we need to make sure every single american, including those who got elected to this house of representatives are ready to work w. that, let me yield to ranking member of the budget committee, chris van hall. >> i thank my colleague, just present two numbers. one is 160 million. 160 million americans. the other number is about 20 conferrees, 435 members of the house. you would think that 20 conferrees or 435 members of the house could get back to work on behalf of 160 million americans and put that uncertainty to rest. that's what this is all about. mr. clyburn said we saw good

news this morning in the jobs number. overall unemployment rate come down a little bit. we saw new jobs created. we also know that the economy remains very, very fragile. we know millions of americans are out there everyday looking for job, unable to find one through no fault of their own. that is why it is 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 on the conference committee have been on record in the past opposing the idea of a payroll tax cut for 160 million americans. so i hope the fact they are not here today is not an indication that they do not want to continue to expand that tax cut for 160 million americans. we know during the last round they tried to add extraneous unrelated provisions to the package, which is why we had to

do it for two months, instead of a year. let's get back and finish the job. let's make sure we keep this fragile recovery moving and with that, i want to yield to the ranking member of the energy and commerce committee and a member of the conference committee who is here and ready to get to work. >> the republicans are playing a game, let's pretend. let's pretend we're in session for four minutes. let's pretend we're working because they banged a gavel and allowed a prayer and allowed the pledge of eeshgs allegiance. let's pretend they head up democracy or keep other points of view from even being expressed on the house floor today when they cut off our assisted leader and the members here today. they are playing let's pretend it doesn't make any difference that we're only going to meet five days in the month of

january. let's pretend that it doesn't mean anything to them that there are 160 million americans that are depending on us to act to extend the middle class tax cut, to extend unemployment insurance for those who are working to make sure doctors are adequately or reimbursed so they will keep seeing medicare patients. i think we ought to stop playing games, whether let's pretend or any other game, it's already the new year, 2012. let's get to work. millions of americans are depending on us. let us summon the republicans from the four corners of the earth, hawaii, india, or wherever they may be on their coattails or privately funded trips. i should throw in las vegas, 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 conferrees meet. we've been informed we won't even have a meeting until january 18th or thereever. let's get to work xhchlt on, republicans, let's not pretend to work, let's really work. i now want to yield to the gentle lady from maryland who so ably led us in the pledge of allegiance and has been with us to express the feelings 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 workday. 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 okay to take

virtually the month off while we wait to extend unemployment compensation for millions of those who are unemployed for no reason, no 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 cuts so they can take care of themselvess and their families and put that into the economy. we came here to work. and i'm just the rank and file. i thought it was a workday because that is what people do after the new year begins. that is not what republicans in congress have done. they have said, we want to work five days in january for a month's pay. we want to work four minutes on friday for a day's pay. while they spend it some place else other than here in washington on capitol hill doing the business of extending benefits, providing 160 americans with certainty of middle class tax cut and making sure our seniors and

disabilitied have the ability to have doctors paid for medicare reimbursements. we can't wait any longer. it's time to work. it's 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 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 the payroll tax cut for 160 million americans, extend unemployment benefits for 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 could do. the absence of congress being in session deprives us of the opportunity to take bills to the floor that we reignight the

american dream. people are so hopeful, build ladders of opportunity for people who want to work hard and play by the rules, to reach their success. we have plenty of work to do. we could be taking up infrastructure to rebuild america and reignight the american dream, rebuild the middle class, rebuild america, make it in america as mr. hoyer always says. we could be passing that kind of legislation, the president has it all in his proposal. instead, the republicans are missing in action. you have heard us on the floor, but unfortunately, the public could not hear 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 you have. >> question: the republican who presided over the pro forma session, theatrics. when you were speaker, house

republicans staged similar protest during an august recess. you didn't bring the house back. >> no, but they danced on the floor, they stayed and were on television as you recall. but the fact is right now we have massive unemployment in our country. perhaps people in washington don't notice, i wish you could read my christmas cards, cards i receive 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're losing patience with congress. they simply don't understand why when they need jobs, we can't do ours. and an important time we could be instilling more confidence in the public that we will be getting people's work done. yes? >> question: you said when you

drove in this morning you thought this was going to be a workday. your district is close to washington, d.c., democrats were in control, you were asked to reside over pro forma sessions, when you were presiding over the sessions, did you anticipate those would be workdays or is this somehow different? >> for me, as a member of congress, everyday is a workday. and it's a workday that we need to get to work creating 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 and extend unemployment for millions of americans out of work and make sure we extend those tax cuts for 160 million americans who went to work after the holiday. i came ready to work. i'm ready to work. our democratic colleagues, many of them were here yesterday also

ready to work. our conferrees are here, it's time for the republicans to get to the business of the american people. >> it's about time. it's about the time that the american peep vel been out of work. it's about the time that we are not working for them. it's about time for us to get here and get the job done. so if you want to get yourselves bogged down and process who did what some summer, we came into congress and the first 100 hours we passed legislation to lower the -- raise the minimum wage to insist the secretary have the right to negotiate for prescription drugs, to make sure those drilling offshore paid royaltyies to the federal government. not all of it became law. president bush was president at the time, but most did in our six for '06. we continue to be on the job as long as there is the need and

opportunity for us to get the job done. right now it's a time for us to have the conferrees sit down at the table because the work was not completed last year. it was not completed last year because mr. van hollen said, many of even the conferrees in addition to the members of the republican caucus, did not support a payroll tax cut for 160 million americans. tax cuts for the wealthiest people in the country, oh, yes, but 160 million middle income americans, no. then they use the excuse it wasn't long enough. i've told you tis like yogi bera talking about a restaurant, i don't like the food there, it isn't any good and the portions are too small. they don't like payroll tax cut and yet they want it to be longer was their excuse for not

getting the job done. there is uncertainty here. if you don't think this is a different time, take a ride outside of washington, d.c., see what the public mood is. see what the need is for us to create these 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 will not have us engage in this, that, last august, 10 years ago. this is about the here and now and highly unusual circumstances that we are in because the republicans failed policies, economic policies of president george bush. took us to a financial meltdown. took us into mere 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.

>> good evening, everyone. good evening, everyone. i am the executive director here. i want to welcome you all to the forum. we do many events here. it is the home for politics. i invite you to the web site, and to get our news letter and find out what is happening. this evening, i want to menti a few things. thank you to c-span for being here this evening. this will be on the web broadcast. c-span is doing their magic as usual. our secretary of state is here in the audience. [applause] >> bill is a mentor to many people, including me.

our state library and is also here. our commissioner of cultural affas, the assistant secretary of state is also here and a few distinguished people are on our panel. we have a 30-year state representative and a longtime supporter of the new hampshire primary. he sponsored a law in 1975 that mandated the secretary of state set its dates seven days or more before similar elections. beth hall is a reporter for the "union-liter." patrick griffin, who will turn over the microphone to, you may have seen him last week in a debate. he is an author and the senior fellow here at the institute of

politics. >> good evening. [unintelligible] >> tonight we will share together in this new hampshire primary where candidates you have not heard a lot about have an opportunity to share ideas. let me quickly allow you to understand how these gentlemen were invited. there are -- [laughter] [laughter] [applause] >> how is that? better? there are 44andidates on the ballot. invitations for the event

tonight were extended for all candidates on the ballot in new hampshire seeking the nomination for the office of present who have not been part of any other national debate. that is how these folks are here tonight. we will begin with republican candidates. then when we finish, the democrats will join us to share their thoughts. a couple of quick rules. we will ask candidates to begin with a two-minute opening, and do that in alphabetical order. following that, the panelists we have tonight will alternate asking each of them a question. will pick the candidate randomly so we cannot keep going in and order.

i will ask that you hold your applause. we will ask that you keep interruptions to a minimum. i also reserve the right to occasionally ask a quick follow-up question. everybody understands? let's start with our candidates. very quickly let me introduce them bear betzler, from philadelphia pennsylvania. timothy brewer of dayton, ohio. dr. hugh cort of birmingham, alabama. randy crow, from north carolina. mr. l. john davis jr. is from grand junction, colorado. jeff lawman is from new hampshire. benjamin linn from new

hampshire. mr. michael meehan from saint louis, missouri and the end of the table, joe story. let's give them a nice round of applause. thank you gentleman. [applause] we will immediately go to our openings. we will begin with mr. bear betzler. we'll ask you to go for two minutes. when you're two minutes are done, i will give you longer to finish your thought. ok? all right. you are up first. >> thank you. i am bear betzler from philadelphia, pa., and it is great to be back here in new hampshire. i would like to acknowledge

bill gardner and everyone at the election division that has been so helpful. as a lesser-knns can it, people are quick to ask -- candidate, people are quick to ask why you are running, and i am grateful we have a state where the tradition allows all candidates to participate on equal footing in the primary process -- sharing their ideas and thoughts about the future of the united states. above all, my candidacy is a celebration of that opportunity. might seem strange, but i'm not dead into politics. i'm ke a lot of america -- not that into politics. i'm a lot like, -- a lot of americans disgusted. we are famiar with the social issues that divide us.

we need to focus our energy on a single issue that defects pasquale where it is within our power to make rich effects costs all, where it within our power. the budget deficit is a fire that needs to be put out now. spending cuts and tax increases -- i know raising taxes is not a popular strategy, but if we are riding in a car, we both slam on the brakes and turn the steering wheel. thproblems of this country were not created by one pay or the other. we're all in this together and we need to start acting like it. please vote january 10. >> thank you. mr. timothy brewer. >> thank you. ladies a gentlemen, thank you.

with less than 367 remaining counting today, i suspect we rise and shine and save the world in time. earlier this year the media said after life is possible. for over six years i have been focused on that. if there is the reason i am here, that is the reason. i am not here to insult your intelligence. i'm no better than anyone of you. i am a natural left-handed policies like albert einstein. i like to analyze. 2005 i received a call in from my inner thoughts. i'm here to offer you the best of both worlds.

the experts claim after-life as possible. what does that mean to you. you can not be destroyed. i offer the best way to communicate forever. evything i offered can be considered. i offer the best solutions for the worst-case scenario. on christmas day, this sunday, i offer my solution to contact jesus out of boston, mass. if i am allowed to. in closing, i will show you problems i can fix if i allowed to do this. it fixes the economy, creates jobs, fixes the problem of abortion, and is wars -- you name it. every major problem known to man.

if you get a chance, check me out on facebook. >> dr. hugh cort? >> i am president of the american foundation for counter-terrorism policy and research. i'm running for president to warn america about the huge impending danger. hear this, america, and here it well -- iran is planning a nuclear attack on the united states in the near future. the lead newspaper in iran came out with an article saying that if iran is attacked, "there are elements in america that will detonate nuclear bombs in the american cities." the leaders have a fanatical belief that if they can kill

millions of americans and israelis with nuclear weapons, this will usher in the coming of their messiah. they have said this will happen in 16 months or less. there is evidence they may have smuggled nuclear bombs into america. there is evidence that hezbollah has been helping the mexican drug smugglers to dig tunnels. iran can bring anything it wants through those tunnels -- weapons, terrorists, bonds. i was on fox news about this. to learn more, google hugh cort, american hiroshima. google hugh cort, american hiroshima.

thank you. >> thank you. we'll move to randy crow. >> thank you. my name is randy crow. i was born in houston texas -- houston, texas. i started working in the gasoline business. in 1975 i started working for myself and have been self- employed primarily in the real- estate business ever since. i also call myself an investor, and currently i am an investor. in 1984 i moved to north carolina. in 19 -- 1997 i put online my website and ran in my first political race. i have run in 18 political races.

no successors. -- successes. if i win in new hampshire or louisiana, that will be an exception. i have posted over 600rticles ony website. i was getting all around 100,000 hits a month when i brought it down earlier this year. september 11, a determined that in -- i determined that the planes were flown by remote control and posted the same a couple of days later. i believe there are four major things that really need to be changed in this country if we're going to save the country like we think we are. the first thing we have to do is if you get money from the government you can not contribute to a political candidate.

i will not be able to tell you all my words of wisdom, but maybe there will be some questions that will let me explain some of the other bad things that might be coming down the line in this country. >> thank you, randy crow. l. john davis, you are next. >> i am from grand junction, colorado. a couple years ago, god spoke to my heart to run for president. i've never been in politics. i wanted to do something no one has ever done before, so i decided to go to every county in america. -- to we've been 21712 1712 counties. two things people tell me is they do not want a career politician. they want someone wi business experience. my platform, my foundation, i am pro-god, family, and country, pro second amendment,

and pro doing the right thing for americans. it is time to start taking care of america. we neeto get back to honoring the constitution. we need to put god in the heart of this country. we need to control the borders. we need to be energy self- sufficient. we need to reduce the size of government. we need to reduce the amount of regulation on small business. we need to get rid of the irs and go to a fair tax. it has to be we the people let's take this country back, not the politicians. i am running for president of the united states. thank you. >> thank you. mr. christopher hill. >> thank you for being here. i cannot tell you what an honor

this is. i worked in on ronald reagan put the campaign in 1981 i was just 16 years old. i served in the united states air force. i'm a veteran from desert storm. i came home to new hampshire and raise my family. during that time i worked on other political campaigns. politicians come through this state, say one thing, and go to washington, d.c., d do something totally different. i've been campaigning since august. over the past four once i have had an opportunity to meet with so many people just like us. homeless people that need our help. i have met people that told me the system is working, and bobby -- honestly, it is failing. as veterans around the world all we ever asked of politicians

is that they pass on a stronger and better america for our children and grandchildren, and those politicians have failed. that is why you see a table with people like us trying to make a difference. we are called the lesser-knowns candidates. tonight we stand for the lesser- knowns americans, the people that lost their hope. they will not vote. i gave seven years of service so they could vote. i left two friends in the desert0 years ago, so you could vote. i hope he will reconsider. therare a lot of things to talk about. my website is hill2012.com. there are a lot of things to cover. i hope we have a chance to talk about them. >> thank you.

jeff lawman. >> but me say thank you -- let me say thank you to the state of new hampshire for preserving democracy. i am jeff lawman, a new hampshire resident. it is an easy name to remember and fitting for a presidential candidate. i represent a traditional republican platform in agreent with new hampshire values -- fiscally conservative, socially moderate, environmentally progressive. i encourage you to visit my website where i have outlined a clear path to prosperity. contrary to what the top candidates pander to, no one in my neighborhood spends their day resetting the live free or die model, rather we live it.

we never forget the role of the cable is to assist the needy. -- capable is to assist the needy. when a 10-day power outage threatens a neighbor, we immediately respond. there is no choice. it is a matter of duty and human decency. 2012 is a year of choices. rather than complain about government failure or excessive campaign influenced and concentrating authority within the elite seal, i focused on -- elite few, i focused on national solutions and run for the highest office as a complete unknown. on january 10, new hampshire voters will have a choice to ft the most qualified candidate that represents america's working families, or we can't elect big money, establishment-supported brand names. if we choose the latter, we will return in four years and discussed by and nothing has changed -- and discuss why

nothing has changed. it is as simple as that. >> mr. benjamin linn. >> hello. i was born in 1973, which makes me the youngest candidate appeared. -- up here. i want to say thank you to st. anselm college for inviting us. the reason i'm running is because america is in a big mess right now. we have a president said he would d the wars within the first one-to-3 -- two years of his administration. if he would have, we could use those resources to rebuild america and weould be recovering. instead, this economy has gone from bad to worse. i am pro-life, pro-family. i believe and support the

traditional marriage of one man and one woman. liberals are trying to say the two men or to the women recognize as legally married is normal. to me, that is not normal. i am raising a nine-year-old son, and i want him to have opportunities like a i did. i think it is time to pull troops out of iraq and afghanistan and bring them home. let the people in the middle east run their countries. our job is not to beat the police men of the world. our job is to defend america and make it strong again. when you have fellow americans losing jobs, that is not a republan or democrat problem. that is an america problem. from george washington to george w. bush, we have an $8 trillion

debt and president obama will double bed in four years. -- that in four years. america cannot afford that. no matter who you vote for, we have to get out and vote. vote.rock the if you do not like the way your government is working, we need to vote a different way compared to how we voted for change in 2008. >> thank you michael meehan -- thank you. michael meehan. >> hello. i am not politician. i'm a real estate broker, and there is no works, so let's go into politics, right? [laughter] >> i've been doing this for over a year, and i realize how people are really angry. most people do not know that people are nervous. they are worried about their

kids. for some reason, i did not know why, what hit me to become president, but i decided it was something i had to do. i'm made it official when i told my wife. that is another two minutes. i did decide to come to new hampshire. where else can you talk to people when-on-one and get a chance to hear what people are saying? i have a little book. i asked people if you were standing in front of the president of the united states, not the current one, and not myself, somebody that everybody liked, and you had one question and comment, what would it be? a lot of people complain about different things pair wire we spending money over there when we should be spending it here? why are people driving around in cadillac's on welfare and i am working for $8 an hour? that is one of the biggest ones. the people really do care.

they think before they say it. they want something better. what i tell everybody is i'm going to new hampshire. i've been here since the ninth of no -- in november. i worked my way back down. what if someone like me could finish in the top five? most of the people running are not even here. these people take the time. i'm following christopher hi. he is a tough act to follow. what if? what if we just took a chance instead of the regular people up there?

what if one of us could finish in the top five deaths do realize new hampshire -- 5? eight new hampshire would be the barometer for how the country feels. >> joe story. >> abraham lincoln quoted the bible to remind us that a house divided against itself cannot stand, yet as a nation division is growing and our values are becoming diluted and unclear. american culture, once defined with godly principles is disappearing, and we are at war with an enemy that has invaded our homeland. i am joe story, and i'm running for president of the united states. the 10 commandments surge as the -- served as the basis of our common law when america was born as a nation. christian principles defined our existence.

the supreme court affirmed that we are a christian nation with liberty of conscience to all men, yet today america is in trouble. failed to hold elected officials accountabl and we become spoiled by the benefits that a government with unlimited spending provides to us. it is frightening that 10 million children we should be raising with american values have been replaced with illegal aliens with on known values and content. -- unknown values and intent. these isolated cultures serve to divide us and weaken our society. people who choose to live in america must be integrated into our culture. we should respect the

differences while assuring we are one mind and one purpose on behalf of america's future. spies and terrorists have invaded our country, and we must identify and isate these enemies before they strike again. unite with me to restore america, trust in god, individual liberty, and equality before the law. together, we can face the world with courage and confidence. take action and pray, and vote joe story, just an average american running for president of the united states. my website is the average joe for president.com. >> thank you.

that ends the opening crawl marks. -- remarks. will not go to panelists. the panelists will -- we will now go to panelists. the panelists will be just a question -- asked a question. the kids will have 45 seconds to de. -- the candidates will have 45 seconds. the first will be to dr. hugh cort. >> right here, last weekend in a form with former speaker gingrich and former ambassador n huntsman, they both agreed that iran would be the biggest foreign policy problem for the united states in the coming decade. do you agree with that, and more importantly, what you think the united states should do about iran? >> a very good question. i am friends with general, mary, and we advocate a nuclear strike as soon as possible.

iran is very close to getting it clear weapons. -- nuclear weapons. the revolutionary guard has been bragging they will have nucar missiles by march, and theif ir, america is going to be attacked. >> thank you. let me ask, how many people believe ir already -- just a show of hands? that is relavely even the. -- unanimous. the second question will go to mr. michael meehan. >> what reforms d.c. are still needed to -- do you see are still needed to prevent another fiscal crisis?

>> regarding banking? >> yes. >> basically, what i feel it is that housing -- you cannot just give people a house with no money down or anything. i've been in realistic for many -- in real estate for many years. when things get to be a problem, they walk away. the banks turned around, and i do not blame anyone, buthe appraisers had to appraise for a higher sum of money because if they did not, the appraisers would get someone else. the banks were making the loans, and charging the fees. then you come up with these different fees. arms, you have to eliminate that. >> thank you. the next question will be from the ambassador to mr. benjamin linn.

>> we are on a college campus for this debate, and least 12 states including new hampshire are considering laws to allow guns on college campuses. as you know, or probably have read, there was recently a second shooting murder at virginia tech. as a presidential candidate, what is your position on gun control, and guns on college and university campuses? >> i would say if you have campus security or local police on the campus where trains to carry a gun, those to be the only ones. with students and professors, and no guns allowed. if the student is caught with a gun, you are eelled from the school. >> the next question will be from mr. davis.

>> what should the united states do in regards to the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants now living in this country? do you favor a path to legalization? >> control the borders. i would give every alien in the country one year to register. i want their id. i will give them a work visa. learn enish, obey the la and then i would give them citizenship. but i would control the borders. i am not for amnesty, but i am for a patho citizenship. >> next question for mr. brewer.

>> this is the largest field of candidates. 44 of you who have filed since 1992. why do you think the field is so large? >> probably because of obama takes more vacations and plays more gf. we might as well go in there and do some work. that is the only reason i could figure. >> what would you do about that, sir? >> i would try my ideas that i offered to earlier. what else do we have to work with? call jesus and make it a good deal for everybody. >> the next question is for mr. joe story. >> what do you believe the

govement should do to provide health care for people who do not have insurance, yet can still not afford to go to the doctor? >> one of the things we should be doing is to encourage the education of people who become doctors. we provide a lot of money to doctors for education, but we do not create institutions or locations where people can cess the doctors who have been trained. beyond that, i think we should also create a different means of funding these programs. for all the benefits o the government has control of, we shou move it into a benefits corporation. all the companies they bought, all thbenefits themselves, if you put them into an organization, and provided stock for that, rather than having social security.

you would have your retirement benefitshat way. " i have to stop you there. next question. >> mr. betzler, what could you offer the country if you were elected that the others could not? what makes you a better candidate? >> as an underdog candidate, one of the benefits is that you can offer on popular and effective solutions without worrying about losing your front-runner status. without being part of a larger party process endorsements, you can be free to evaluate problems uniquely and specifically and offer the best solution as opposed to pander to lobbyists.

>> thank you, a serb. , sir.nk youm the nextuestion is for christopher hill. >> you talked about the lesser- known americans. can you tell me if you were elected president, what you do to help those people? >> we need to start by beginning to restore the middle class. the middle class is what made america great. the lesser-known americans are out there. i am an airline captain, i worked the graveyard shift. i work with people who are out there working for $10 an hour from midnight to 7:00 a.m. we need to put in place a tax system that lets them keep the money they earn. if you go to my website, i talked very specifically about allowing people to keep money up

to $250,000 they earned. above that, i am open to the prospect of taxing the rich above $25000. letting them offer help to the people that do need help. >> thank you. >> the next question is for mr. lawman. >> you were recently mentioned in a "wall street journal" article about the lesser-known candidates running for president. the article referenced that during a prior economic turndown, you lost your business. i want to ask you how you stop -- how you thoug the current administration is handling the home mortgage crisis and the other financial crises that our country faces. >> i think the current administration is doing what he believes is the right path, but unfortunately, it is not the

right path for the americans who were undergoing the downturn. the making homes affordable plan, the cash for clunkers, all of these things have been temporary band-aids. they have produced no solutions. that has fallen short of what his commitment and original obligation it was. i think it is short of what he was intending as well. >> finally -- >> mr. crow, in your opening statement, you talked about how you used to be in the gasoline business. can you talk to me about your -- what he would do to put together -- what you would do to put together a comprehensive energy policy?

>> thank you. are you hearing me? ok. because i was in the retail gasoline business in 1973, i blame the major oil companies. i believe the war is going on in the world are manipulated by the major oil companies because they are trying to get rid of the supply, get the price up, and destroyed the currencies. this is a long-term game plan with them. we have to get tough with them. all this is about is running people out of business. they have been doing -- they ran us out of business years ago when they cut down the supply. this is what is going on right now. there are a lot of things you can do. you could make the companies divest. they are monopolies and they need to be broken up. >> i want to ask you a quick

question. all of you talk a little bit about your ideology. how many of you would support whomever the republican nominee is for president? whether you or one of the other candidates? let's say newt gingrich was the nominee. how many would support the nominee of the republican party? gingrich? mitt romney? ron paul? rick perry? all right. just checking. >> the rest of them, too. >> you would support any republican as opposed to the president? did anybody vote for barack obama? >> [inaudible]

>> our next round of questions will be again with beth. >> we had had attorneys and businessmen as president. as an engineer, what was your expertise in that field -- how would you bring that to the office of the president? >> ok, first of all, i cannot guarantee that more engineers willolve all our crises. it is a good start. we offer a solution is based program for everything. we are not bound by political rigidity, corporate financing, campaign finances. we believe solutions are the best approach, even if they may not be the most popular. one thing the engineers have is the ability to model solutions much sooner than actual implementation. optimization is something i

think most engineers or scientists can offer that you will not find in any other profession. >> joe story? >> mr. story, one of the most important things presidents do is appoint justices to the united states supreme court. i anticipate the next president will have the least two such appointments and perhaps even more. could yoshare with us the names of some people that you might consider to appoint to the supreme court? or the qualifications and credentials he would be looking for in such nominees? >> the qualifications and credentials i would be looking for is a strict constitutional construction judgement decisions they have had in the past and they plan on using in the future. decisions made from the bench should not be based on precedent, even on supreme

court precedents. they should be based on the constitution. we have lost so many of our values because of the court decisions that stretched the boundaries of what the constitution says. therefore, if you go to my website, you will see some greater clarification. i appreciate your time. >> for mr. timothy brewer -- >> can you tell me what role do you feel -- do you think that religion and state plays in the presidency? >> everything i count on has to be measured. that is what i do, i measure things.

from listening to people on the internet and all over the place, i find everybody is so close. people get so close with their egos, they think they are god's. when you listen to your e -- your inner thoughts you get to the solution to everything in life. we are the point now that we can measure it. >> thank you during much. the next question will be for dr. hugh cort. >> north korea's totalitarian dictator kim jong-il died this weekend. if you were elected president, what policies would you continue? what policies would you change? how uld you handle what could be the second most dangerous situation in the world?

it could become the most. it is close to nuclear weapons. >> yes, sir. it is a very grave danger. north korea has fired a couple of missiles off the coast. very antagonistic act. it is a very dangerous situation that this country has nuclear weapons. think we should be very harsh on them economically. i feel like we should cut off all aid to north korea until they give up their nuclear programs. after we deal with iran, and the problem with pakistan, i think we should turn our attention to north korea. we should apply pressure to get them to give up their nuclear weapons. or we should take military action. >> the next question is for mr. randy crow.

>> can you talk to me about what the president can do and what kind of policies he can pass to help small business owners? >> there has been a concerted effort to run all kinds of people out of business. i have a lot of problems with the federal reserve. one thing i would do is get rid of it and i would start issuing money by the government and not letting the banksters make the interest. they are doing everything for themselves and big business. they are not loaning money. they he $13 trillion, and they are not putting it on main street. there is a lot of things -- the first thing i would do is to get rid of the federal reserve. that would be step one. >> thank you. the next question is for mr.

meehan. >> the state of new hampshire, the legislature has legalized gay marriage. do you support in marriage? or civil unions? >> no. >> would you mind aborating on that? >> i do not care for the question because at this point, the history of the united states, with all the things are happening, this is not a national issue. this is a personal issue. they even go laughter candidates for asking things like -- they even go after candidate for asking things like this. there are so many things we could be talking about to fix e country. i just d't find this an issue at all.

>> thank you. the next qstion is for mr. betzler. >> if you were to win the republan nomination for president and the convention after nominating you were to prescribe you had to pick one of the current candidates as your running mate. it had to be one of them. who would to pick, and why? [laughter] >> i am not prepared for that eventuality. [laughter] >> give it a shot. >> i think mitt romney. >> why? >> there is no denying his success in business and his experience in government. i have a lotf confidence that you could channel those skills. he would be a good second.

>> thank you. >> mr. davis, do you acknowledge that climate change is scientifically proven fact? what should the government do to help reduce the effects? >> i have not studied on a lot. there is so much information out there, it is hard to know what to believe. i pray -- i am afraid i do not have a good answer for you. we need to take care of the earth. weeed take care of the air and be responsib. there is a middle ground. we have some information, but i do not know with it is true or not. have to do investigation on that. >> christopher hill -- >> i will ask you to assume th one of their most generous

campaign contributors has offered to finance a television ads for the new hampshire primary for your campaign. what would you put in that ad? what images and what words? >> the images i would use our images that reflect how great this country is. we aren a lot of trouble in this country. 9% unemployment and we're going off a cliff. i have worked for an airline for 17 years. i worked in 48 of the 50 states. the images i have seen are incredible. mount rushmore, the grand canyon, the face of people who are homeless that need our help. i do not mind putting those images. the message would be pretty simple. we have to step up to the plate. we cannot count on anybody else anymore. it has to be weak, the people. it cannot be politicians in this country. -- it has to be we, the people. we cannot count politicians in this country.

if we can on them again, we will go down this same road again and we will be sitting here again next election cycle. >> the next question goes to mr. linn. >> you talked earlier abou the need to leave afghanistan. youave an exit strategy for getting american troops out of the country? >> yes, i think there should be out of the country right now. we have not lived up to the deadlines. this president, before he was elected, it said they would end the wars in one to two years. we cannot broadcast to the enemy when we will leave. we have to gradually trained their military and police force. and the power of the cntry over to them without broadcasting it to the world. in iraq, the president is going to pull out troops before christmas. we will still have troops there. the board has not ended.

-- the war has not ended. we're supposed to have troops in afghanistan until016. the president is not living up to his promises. >> a dog is our next round of questions. we will try to -- that is our next round of questions. we will try to get through another round of questions. 45 seconds. we begin with the first question for mr. joe story. >> mr. story, the supreme court is about to take up the issue of president obama's health care law that was passed during the administration. do you support the law? if not, what would replace it with? >> absolutely not. i do not supported at all. we need to give the dog -- did the government out of the benefits business and out of the business world altogether. the government should be a the

government and provide for defense. that is from the constitution. if we separate everything out and put them into a benefits corp. and puts general motors and all the corporations the government has bought and we put those resources out along with the payments that come from our physical resources where they sell them and put it into a corporation that operates for a profit and for our benefit, we could have some major improvements. >> thank you, mr. story. >> hello, mr. betzler. what would your first act to be? >> there is a separation of power and government. my most important issue, returning to fcal discipline, is not something the president

has the singular ability to enact down. i would spend most of the time trying to bring that issue to the forefront of the american mind set. they can apply pressure to the other branches of government to make it their top issue as well. >> for mr. brower, ambassador? >> mr. brewer, i would like you to ask you -- i would like to ask you to follow on what you said about immigration. if you were elected president, what would you do with regard to that hot topic in american politics? >> i support everybody on the planet. i do not care who you are. it is not my place to criticize anybody. i offer different options. >> mr. meehan the next question is for you.

>> for your lesser-known candidates, it can sometimes be hard to get your message out. what do you think should be changed about the presidential election process to make it easier for lesser-known candidate to be able to reach the voters? >> maybe a little bit of air time would not hurt. i do not kw -- i am going person to person. i am talking to newspapers. i have heard that one newspaper turned down a lesser known candidates, would not even write an article. some of us have the ideas and people do not want to hear them. they want to believe the major candidate have the answers. dad is a fluke -- that is a

fluke, isn't it? >> mr. linn, gov. perry of texas has suggested the members of congress should have their pay and their time spent in washington cut in half. do you agree or disagree? >> i agree with him because they are already making too much money. a lot of these two are -- a lot of these are professionals and they're already making money in the real world. i would definitely cut their pay in half. until they get to work for us, we do not have to pay them. it is time tstart working for the american people. we need to cut their pay. when they start to work for us, we will give them a raise later on.

they're not doing their job. >> next question is for mr. davis. >> mr. davissome of the republican presidential candidates have talked about wanting to get rid of some government agencies, the department of energy, for example. do you see this as a path for reducing the size of government? >> i do. one of them i would get rid of is the department of education. i think it should go down to the state and mostly to the communities. who knows better how to educate your kids than the people in the community and the parents? the government itoo big. takes all of our money. t is of to the community to educattheir kids. that is all i have to say. >> mr. crow? >> our government is based on

some basic principles, including that we have free, a separate, equal branches of government. yesterday, on a sunday morning television talk show, former speaker gingrich suggested that the united states supreme court made a decision that the present did not agree with, perhaps it would be ok or proper for the president to not in force that decision. -- to not in force that decision. -- enforce that decision. he cited some historical examples. you agree with the speaker? >> no, i definitely disagree. it is part of the balance of power. we are never going to have anything that is close to a balance of power until you stop the bribery. if you make money in the government, get money from the government, you contribute.

you have the executive branch that, in my opinion, has walked into the direction of the dictatorship, mainly because they did so much money from people that get them elected. the money has got to be taken out first. we need three branches of govement. >> your next question is for mr. hill. >> mr. hl, congress approval rating is at an all-time low. a lot of people, frankly, i feel it is very difficult for congress to be able to do anything. if you were elected president, how would you work to get bills passed and to see policies through congress? >> i would begin with this. the reason the popularity is so low is because they failed america. before we work with congress, we

need to put term limits in place. i would lead american people, calling on an amendment for term limits for congress. that is the most vital thing that will be direct this country. when i was 16 and i worked for ronald reagan, 30 years ago, some of the same numbers in the house and senate but some of the same members in the house and senate are still serving today. the problem is with congressmen and senators that served 30 and 40 years and have turned washington into an aristocracy. >> thank you, mr. hill. the next question is for mr. lawman. >> you are running for the office of president. until 1952, we did not have term limits. a lot of people think that was mistake, to impose a two-term

limit on the president of the united states. what is your opinion? do you think there should be a two-term limit for president of the united states? why or why not? >> i absolutely do. even though it has not been enacted until after fdr, prior to fdr, there had not been more than a two-term president. i do believe we should keep that. i believe we should keep term limits in congress. no more than two terms for the senate and no more than four terms for the house. it keeps america turning over new ideas and new faces. it is ridiculous to think that with 311 million people in this country, only 535 have answers and solutions. that leaves another 310 million who have no voice. they probably have better

solution some better answers than the ones you will find. >> thank you very much. last question tonight comes from beth and will be addressed to dr. cort. >> i am going to stray away from iran for a moment and ask you about the theme of the presidential race this year. it has been jobs, jobs, jobs. as president, what would be the first thing you would do to grow jobs in america? >> [inaudible] that a very good question. thank you. if o economy is going off a clf, this huge part giveaway that president bush was in favor of. you can not print a lot of

money without restoring the economy. we have to stop the giveaws. we have to stop the runaway spending in congress. we have to slash spending. we have to do away with the fed. i favor of ron paul's idea to have -- to return to the gold standard. >> tha you very much for your answers and your time. thank you for adring to what was fairly quick time. i also want to thank everybody for a hearing to my memo about blue blazers. the nit, everybody. the democrats are up next. [applause]

>> ok, everyone. patrick griffin. [inaudible] [inaudible] >> testing. there we go. thank you for continuing to join us. we had a great session with the republicans. now we have the chance to have a great session with our friends from the other side. we will adhere to the same rules as before. there are 44 candidates running for president here in new hampshire who are on the ballots. candidate who were asked to participate tonight are all registered and on the ballot in

new hampshire, running for the office of president. they have not been part of any other national debate. that was the criteria to be here tonight. we will try to do this in a manner that is as even as possible. each candidate will be given a two-minute opening. i will be watching our timer. i will let the candidates know when we get to 15 seconds. when you see that sign, that is an indication you were at 15 seconds. we will hold you to that 15 seconds. two-minute openings. each of our panelists will ask questions and you will have 45 seconds to answer the questions. let me reintroduce our panelists. let's give them a warm hand.

[applause] as i introduce each of you, on your microphone, there is a button to turn it on when it is your turn to speak. let's start at the far end of the table. fbob greene, robert jordan, edward o'donnell, randall terry, john wolfe. [applause]

>> we will try to get to as many runs as possible. we will start down at the far end of the table. >> i am a thinker who has been published on three continents. i have some important ideas about our most serious problems. most of which are ignored by the establishment. my most basic message is, let's get organized, americans, and start solving our problems. we ask obama and all national politicians worldwide, do you agree, mr. president, that the top five problems of the planets are the nuclear arms race. it is the only problem that can destroy us. ozone coming up quickly on the outside rail. excessive population and population growth. the stagnant super wasteful

economy. disparity between the rich and poor. the environment. the master of ceremonies problem that never leaves us, that we sell only in degrees. if you do not agree, mr. president, what are the top five problems of the planet? what is your plan to solve them? i do not have the answers. it is we, not me. the 4 billion adults that work daily have the answers to our problems. president obama, snow white and seven dwarfs, if you do not like these ideas, come up with something better. the world wide debate will have begun.

edcowen2012.com for more formation. -- for more information. thank you for your kind attention. >> dr. bob greene, you are next. >> good evening. my name is bob greene. i hold a ph.d. in physics. i have some very good news for you. i am running to educate the candidates through a tremendous opportunity available to the united states. i am here to tell you about an overlooked energy alternative. we had and ask for yom for all -- we have enough thorium for all our power needs for well over 1000 years. a lifetime supply is about the size of a golf ball. for more details, please go to my website. www.greeneforoffice.org. what is in it for you? thoriumectric cars and foru

fuel cells, we could stop importing foreign oil. this means we will be able to stop fighting oil wars. that equals jobs and an improved economy. energy is a large component of manufacturing variable cost. cheap local power will revitalize our manufacturing sector. manufacturing and shipping a reactor today, we could replace all fossil fuel plants in 50 years. this should stall climate change and global warming. because this technology can process are millions of tons of existing nuclear waste, we might be able to use the 10% of the 24 billion nuclear waste sitting on the sidelines for project development. we need to mount a project floor, up with enthusiasm and zeal of the apollo project.

last, the chinese academy of sciences announced the official launching of the reactor system. -- thorium-based salt reactors. they say they intend to have all the intellectual property rights. this is going to happen with or without us. are going to be the leader or a customer. it will change everything. >> thank you. mr. heywood. >> i have three main proposals. the first is health care. replace our health care with a national health service, modeled on the british national health service. that system works. it has been in place for 63 years. it is popular with the people.

it is incredibly more efficient at 42% our cost with a savings of over $1 trillion in year. third, it covers everyone. life expectancy is greater. the service is paid out of a progressive tax system as opposed to a regressive premium tax imposed by the health insurance agencies. i propose a return to a progressive income tax. specifically the 1965 kennedy- johnson code. it is fair. it ends money hoarding. under that code, the top 1% of

households received 10% of the income. today, that 1% receive 24% of the nation's income. it grows the middle-class. it will shrink the debt. it will save capitalism. without a progressive tax, it all goes to the top. >> mr. jordan? two minutes. >> sorry about that. mr. jordan is not here. that is mr. o'donnell. >> we need love, kindness, mercy, tolerance, friendliness,

forgiveness, second chances, and old fashioned matters. no guns. let us tame the savageness man and make gentle life of the world. no wars. at a guaranteed job for everyone paid for by private charity dollars. mental health courses in high schools. a non-violent foreign-policy based on feeding, clothing, educating the third world. christmas is the most wonderful event in world history. the message is no matter how much of a mess someone has made of their life, if they make a decision to love other people, there can be happy ending. when my niece was very young, i said, why is santa claus always

happy? she said, that is because all he does is give. thank you. >> an opening two minutes to mr. supreme. >> gingivitis has been eroding the gum line of this great nation long enough, and must be stopped. futures -- a country's depends on its ability to fight back. we can no longer be a nation indentured. together, we must brace ourselves. as the cross over to the bridge work into the 23rd century, let us bite the bullet and together make america a sea of shining smiles. from sea to shining sea.

some people will tell you this mandatory and toothbrushing law is about the secrets dental police kicking down your door at 3:00. it is not. some will mention the dental reeducation centers for the preventative facilities. -- tan told maintenance facilities. it is about none of these things. it is not about dna gene splicing. to create our raese of winged monkeys to act as an issue ferries. it is about strong teeth or a strong america. i am a friendly fascist. you should let me run your life. i do know what is best for you. yes, i am a politician. i will promise you anything your little electoral heart desires. i will promise anything. you are my constituents.

you are be informed of voting public. i have no intention of keeping any promise that i make. a vote early, vote often. a vote for me is a vote completely thrown away. i would like to take this moment to acknowledge my mother. please stand out. she is going to try to stand up. that is my mother. five years ago this april, i gave her a kidney. i challenge to you people, everyone on the stage, give up a kidney. >> thank you, mr. supreme. [laughter] >> mr. randall terry? >> what did i do wrong but i have to be after that? barack obama may well go down in history as the worst president we ever had. the worst. he is at war with life, liberty, and justice.

if i were elected president of the united states, that would mean that we have liberty. liberty is defined, you are not compelled to labor for the benefit of the other. the essence of socialism, which we have become a social estate, is that you were forced to labor for the benefit of another. foreign policy needs to be based upon human rights, not upon our while interest. -- our oil interests and our deep water ports. right now, we are propping up islamic dictatorship. we're paying for terrorism at the gas pumps. every time we buy gasoline, some of that money goes to saudi arabia which turns around and gives them money to terrorist organizations. if we did not do that, human rights could be front and center instead of oil. most of the major paradigm shifts have come through the

courts, not their elected officials. we are seeing what could be defined as a ruling oligarchy and it needs to be rain dance. -- reined in. finally, president lincoln said could it be that the civil war was the judgment of god? that every drop of blood that was drawn by the masters what -- whip would be repaid on the field of battle. we've come to the insane place where we have killed over 52 million of our children by abortion. that blood is crying out to god for judgment. we will never restore the greatness of this nation as long as we are killing our own offspring. terryfor- fgo to president.com.

if you would like to see some of my television ads, go to my website. >> mr. wolfe? >> i am an attorney from chattanooga, tennessee. thank you for all the graciousness of your invitation. i would like to say i do not think we are a socialist country. you have one-fifth of the people that own 94% of the financial assets. the top 1% may 24% of the income. i do not think that is proof of socialism. i am in this race because there is a progressive avoid laughter d left here by president obama. president obama is a democrat, but president obama has lost the promise of the democratic party. he has basically sided with wall street from the day he has been in office. most of its funding comes from wall street. he surrounds himself with people like ge. -- erskine bowles and jeffrey

immelt. he has people around that like him and they have a lot of influence on the oval office. the finance his campaigns. the outcome of that, the product of all this, it is an administration that has policies that are very favorable to wall street. but not to main street. president obama opposes a 1% tax on the wall street derivatives. especially the instruments that got us into trouble in the first place. president obama has not tried to stop that. we need a progressive who is going to get in there and fill the void. did the things the president has failed to do. that is the breach i want to fill. i hope to answer your questions

tonight. >> thank you. that concludes at the opening statements. we will now go to our panelists. 45 seconds. the first question -- the clock is right over here. thank you. the first question is to mr. wolfe. >> thank you for your opening statement. he wrote all logic that new hampshire the first in the nation so i wouldn't have recommend you keep to his limit.

following onto your opening statement, i think everyone agrees we have a really serious deficit problem in the united states. you have identified that as one of your big issues. it appears that we can also agree that nothing seems to be getting down to address it. what specifically would you do to get our debts under control? >> the deficit is at $15 trillion right now. if you cut government spending, you would just heighten the recession. right now, we do not have the fear of inflation. i propose a $1 trillion stimulus. with an alternative federal reserve. it will not create inflation. it will go to small businesses. that is the way we need to handle this.

we need to get people back to work. we cannot do that by contracting the economy. you are just going to -- with an alternative federal reserve, you can give money directly to these local people. we can get america back to work. we cannot do it through an austerity program. it is wrong, and it is counterintuitive. >> thank you. the next question is for dr. greene. >> you talk about thorium as being a solution for the nation's energy problem. how do you get it? what impact does it have on the environment? >> you did it by mining, of course. it just so happens that it is a byproduct of uranium mining. you can start by mining already sunk mines.

that is one way. you can also try the coal ash pits. it is so abundant, it is actually in your garden. we have large concentrations of lead in the west. >> how do you use this to get energy? >> it is not radioactive. you have to put it into a reactor were you bombarded with neutrons. that is when you start to release the energy. >> the next question is for mr. terry. >> i have a two-part question. do you believe in states' rights? new hampshire is one of the six states that has recognized a marriage. -- gay marriage. do you believe the state's rights should control on this

issue? do you believe there should be a national law mandating what each state should do? >> the founders gave us the 10th amendment to keep the federal government for micromanaging the vast majority of details. however, it could never have conceived of a moment in which we would become so debauched that we would elevate homosexual marriage or civil unions to the level of marriage. did the states have right to have laws that protect slaveholders? the answer is no. there are some things that are fundamentally evil, like slavery. there is no state right to own another human being. there is no state right to kill your offspring. there is no state right to of homosexual marriage.

it is a deal breaker. >> the next question is for -- mr. cowen. >> the government -- in the political debate, there has been a lot of discussion about wealth disparities and about the wealthy having more money and lower and middle class is shrinking. can you tell me what you would do as president to reduce that disparity? >> i think we need to alter the tax rates so that it goes after some of the money at the top. it lightens the load of the

middle class and the lower classes. i had some experience working graveyard shift on the minimum wage. you cannot begin to live on what poor people are making. there is tremendous disparity and it needs to change. it is certainly not christian. thank you. >> next question is for mr. haywood. >> i saw a recent full-page ad that your campaign took out. he criticized president obama for his on warranted, in your opinion, extension of the bush tax cuts. stating that president obama was eighth weekend and principled leader and calling for him to step aside so that you could be elected president and and the great recession.

could you elaborate on how you do that? >> going back to the johnson- kennedy tax plan. that was fair. it -- you have to redistribute the income. thank you. >> let's go to -- why don't you take a drink? i will come back to you. we will come back to you, is that all right? >> let's move on. the next question will be from mr. o'donnell. >> in your opening statement, you said there should be no guns.

are you saying that all guns in the united states should be made illegal? >> including for hunting. in england, australia, japan, no one has a gun. we had 30,000 or 40,000 wounded. there is no need for guns. >> how many of you folks believe the second amendment should give us the freedom to bear arms? anybody else? >> what is your question? >> guns? >> of course. >> let's try one more time. mr. haywood?

>> i have answered the question by stating for the reasons why i think we should go back to the kennedy-johnson tax. it provides the end, -- the income for the government. president obama has proposed replacing a lot of our infrastructure, but he does not have the money to deal with. that is all on my website. >> the final question goes to vernin supreme. >> welcome back. >> this is not your first rodeo. this is not the first time you

have run for president in the new hampshire primary. i am asking you, do you still stand by your pledge made in 2008 to provide a pony for every american? >> yes, i do. pre honey's for all americans. -- free ponies for all americans. my platform is a jobs creation program. we can turn their poop into methane gas. will be able to restock our soil. the important thing to realize is it is a federal pony identification program. you will need it with you at all times.

thank you very much. >> that is our first round of questions. how many of you on the stage tonight will support -- i have heard more variations with democrats than republicans -- how many of you will support president obama if he is the nominee of your party? it appears he will be. two of you? three of you? the rest of you will look for republicans -- what? >> undecided. >> anyone else? >> i am going to by myself in. i am the best candidate. -- i am going to write myself in. >> i will be writing and that randall terry as well. >> all right, looks like we may have found some running mates tonight. let's begin back with the second round of questioning. >> mr. o'donnell, and i

understand that charitable giving is very important to you. what, as president, would you do to help those on the bottom? >> every church, every synagogue, every mosque, every temple -- it's a coordinated, every homeless person could sleep inside every night with a nice matches, nice blanket, food, love, friendliness -- if they coordinated. the gwen is pennsylvania quaker meeting had six homeless people living in their meeting. that can be done nationwide. the greatest thrill in the world is to help a homeless person, a prisoner, turn their life around. >> the next question will come from the ambassador shumaker.

>> good evening. this debate is taking place on a college campus. because of the loss of equity in many americans' homes, loss of employment, and the ability of both parents and students to get loans, it is becoming harder and harder for students to attend colleges such as this. there is a serious threat that pell grants and other governmental funding will cut even more availability of funds for tuition. what are your solutions for this serious crisis? >> there is no question that universities and colleges in america are expensive. there are plenty in america, and that is one of the assets we have.

i would like to see us lower tuition whenever possible. we need means of pumping money into education. one way -- i totally agree we need to a absorb the federal reserve into the treasury department. it is a collection of banks, basically. we need for the federal reserve to be absorbent to the treasury department -- absorbed into the treasury department and have a lot more money available to colleges for tuition.

>> we talk about raising taxes on the rich, we need to put more money into colleges. people, we are going broke. this is a debt that will crush our children. this is based on jealousy, greed. god only says to pay 10% across the board. these green regulations that people are posting -- pushing will cripple us further economically. tied at is welcoming the jobs and the money. -- china is welcoming the jobs and the money. how many jobs must we lose because we are bowing down to snails and polar bears?

>> this question was submitted by a student. as you know, because you live in new england, it is a very cold up here in the winter. our region is heavily dependent on heating oil. if elected, what would be your position on the drastic cuts to the heating assistance program that helps poor people keep their families warm in the winter. would you support those? >> i do not support those cuts. there is a lack of imagination in our fund raising ability. i would apply to 0.4 trillion

dollars worth of new revenue that i could generate through three separate programs. they would be barely felt by the populace. i would go to a royalty system on patents. i would go to tariffs and i would go to a different way of calculating corporate income taxes.

1/2 >> thank you. your next question is for mr. supreme. >> i wanted to follow-up on the question regarding the ponies. >> yes. is that the only government entitlement program that you support? what other government entitlement programs are you for? >> just that one. that is enough. in the vein of energy production, i favor harnessing the oxygen power of zombies. we have giant turbines we are working on, and we will have lots of zombies and just dangle brains in front of them, and they will turn the giant turbines, creating energy, to lessen dependence on foreign oil in america today. >> president obama has been in office for over three years now. opinion, and what would you have done differently as president? i would ask you to respond on some issue other than the tax piece you have already talked about. his biggest missed opportunity. >> to lead us into a national health service. >> could you elaborate please? >> insurance schemes, whether

they be medicaid, medicare, united health, blue cross -- you name it. they are not the answer. they are the problem. so inefficiently run systems. we could save 42% -- the british system runs at 42% what we are paying. that will save this country $1 trillion a year. it is being paid as a regressive tax. insurance premium is not technically a government tax, but it is still a tax. it is something you have to pay for what you have to have. >> thank you. final question in this round is for mr. wolfe. >> as you may or may not be aware, one well-known new hampshire resident walked across

the united states in her elder years to draw awareness to campaign finance reform. do you feel there is more that needs to be done to rein in the amount of money being spent in national politics? >> the only thing we can do now, given the supreme court decision in january 2010 -- i think it was called citizens united -- we are going to have to go ahead and probably get a

constitutional amendment, which redefines what first amendment rights are and excludes corporations. that is the only way we can do it under the present law. i would be in favor of that. it is hard to put a harness on free speech wherever it comes from, but the amount of money that the people -- the corporate people, the fortune 500 people can spend every year -- it is now unlimited. they did not have to report it. it can come from any source. it will have a terrible and deleterious effect on law making, and it has already been seen. they can intimidate people who are progressive. people have to marshal that tune. they know if they do not marshal the corporate tenant, they will be inundated in money spent by their opponents to just swamp them. we probably need to go ahead and get a constitutional amendment. >> we are short on time for another round. what we're going to do is give each of you a 30-second close. not enough time for another round, but enough time to give each of you a 30-second closing statement. i will start randomly. we will begin with mr. green. you have 30 seconds for a closing statement, sir. >> thank you. i feel that i bring a totally

different perspective, due to my background in physics. physics teaches you to do -- think widely and broadly and deeply, so i would recommend that as one of my qualifications. i think we need to send a message to the politicians that they have to talk seriously about energy. they are not doing that today. and if they have any discussion that does not include the word thorium, you have not heard a serious energy discussion. also, the national labs have not served president obama well in this regard. >> thank you, sir. >> at the core of the cancer that is destroying america and the world, we find the banks sucking down the vitality of modern civilization, and it has to stop. finally, i would say to conservatives, jesus christ was a liberal, not a conservative or reactionary roman who loved killing machines and voracious capitalism. jesus christ was about love.

>> thank you, sir. mr. wolfe, your closing statement, sir. >> i want to say that i want to be the progressive alternative to president obama. i want to represent the people. i do not think that you all should have austerity. i do not think you should have to pay for wall street's mistakes. but a lot of derivatives, a lot of speculative instruments throughout the economy, and it ruined the economy and caused a meltdown. democrats and republicans alike are trying to impose an agenda of austerity on the people to cut their social security benefits, cut back on student loans and assistance to the students. that is wrong. we should tax wall street. we should tax corporations. we do have a progressive income tax. taxes now are the lowest since 1928 on the rich, and we need to correct that, or we will not have a good economy.

>> every person in here is made in the image of god. thomas jefferson in the declaration said that our rights come from god. all men are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights -- the right to life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness. if we are going to be restored as a nation, we have to be returned as a foundation to the source of ethics, the source of policy. nationoing to become a of people who kill their children and who put forth every provision and wickedness, then we will go the way of the greeks and romans and the other empires that have perished before us. but if we will be restored, we must return to life and liberty and justice under our creator. go to terryforpresident.com for more. >> i will address what i did not get to in my opening statement,

which is the continuing veto of the united nations attacks against israel are not the answer -- those vetoes are the problem itself. had our country not embraced an -ism called zionism there would have been no iraq war, 9/11, afghanistan war. my proposal is that we veto -- stop the killing united nations actions and let it do what it is supposed to do and free the palestinian people. >> thank you. mr. supreme, your 30-second closing statement. ♪ >> ♪ my name is vermin my name is vermin supreme and you can vote

and you can vote and you can vote for me for president if you want to add my name is vermin ♪ thanks very much for coming up today. one more thing -- jesus told me to make randall terry gay. whoo! he's turning gay! whoo! >> mr. o'donnell, please take us out of this with 30 seconds of your final thoughts. >> jesus christ did one thing -- he helped people. go to mcdonald's new castle, delaware. gary and larry dickenson, they do that every day.

>> thank you very much for your time. let's give a hand for all of our candidates. >> thank you. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012]

that this is about have immense. -- 50 minutes. >> good morning, and welcome to the final day of convention 2012. it is at this time my pleasure to introduce mr. sean 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 unparalleled courage, he step across the partisan divide and 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 national 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? awby 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. we owned 36% of the world's gdp. 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 9 of activity right here in this state. and i look at where we sit today. 9% of our gdp is derived from manufacturing. 8 lot clarathat 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. behalf his have cut across the board. we hadn't choice. -- you have to cut across the

board. we do not have a choice. memphibut beyond that, we have o 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 as americans. but we will have to do some things first. what drives the trust problem, that trust deficit in this nation? i know what i want as 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, simpson-bowles, 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. i say nonsense. that is a drag on our economy that we cannot afford at this point.

more than that, 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. i did this when i was governor. 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. they are now one waziristan and other sanctuaries. 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. -- so unique. 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 if you get sick and have -- 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 carafe 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. acte's always a balancing 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