the speaker pro tempore: the house will be in order. the chair lays before the house a communication from the speaker. the clerk: the speaker's room,

washington, d.c., january 19, 2012. i hereby acomponent the hn rabble tom reed to act as speaker pro tempore on this day, signed, john a. boehner, speaker of the house of representatives. the speaker pro tempore: the prayer will be offered by chaplain father conroy. chaplain conroy: let us pray. we give you thanks, o god, for giving us another day. as you make available to our people the fwrace and knowledge to meet the needs of the day, we pray that your spirit will be upon the members of this people's house, giving them the richness of your wisdom. bless the members of the majority party as they gather these next days. may they, with those who accompany them, travel safely and meet in peace. bless also the minority party as they gather for their own gathering, may these days be

filled with hopeful anticipation. may the power of your truth and faith in your prove nance give them the faith they must have to do the good work required for service to our nation. give all members the strength of purpose and clarity of mind to do those things that bring justice and mercy to people and maintain freedom and liberty for our land. may all that is done this day be for your greater honor and glory, amen. the speaker pro tempore: the chair has examined the journal of the last day's proceedings and announces to the house his approval thereof. pursuant to clause 1 of rule 1, the journal stands approved. the chair will lead the house in the pledge of allegiance. ledgeledgeledgeledgeledge ledgeledgeledgeledge. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america. and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under

god,. indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. the speaker pro tempore: the chair lays before the house a communication. the clerk: the honorable the speaker, house of representatives, sir, pursuant to section 214 a of the help america vote act of 2002 u.s.c. 144, i hereby appoint mr. gregory t. moore to the u.s. election assistance board of advisors. i thank you for his attention to his appointment, signed, sincerely, nancy pelosi, house democratic leader. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the house stands >> the house returns at noon next monday for general speeches. the main event on capitol hill will be the president's state of the union address before a joint session of congress. live coverage of that speech

tuesday at 9:00 eastern. just announced that mitch daniels will relive burt -- will deliver the republican response. texas gov. rick perry ending his presidential bid and endorsing newt gingrich is the news reports this morning. that is according to officials who spoke on condition of anonymity. he plans a news conference at 11:00 this morning in south carolina where he will announce his decision. we will carry that news conference live beginning at 11:00. polls show rick perry coming in last about what newt gingrich gaining in support. -- whil newt gingrich gaining in support. on election night it was reported mitt romney be rick santorum, but the totals from

eight precincts were missing. we will have rick santorum later this afternoon. we will tell you about that in just a moment. omorrow morning on " washington journal." ron paul will be at the college of charleston -- charleston this morning. we will have that at 11:00 eastern. at the same time on c-span to, everything by a non partisan national campaign to double the number of women in congress. speakers include former u.s. ambassador to austria, and the former massachusetts lieutenant governor. also this afternoon, rick santorum is part of the republican national committee chairman of the southern republican leadership conference joining the republican national chairman and herman cain. that will be levitt 2:00 eastern here on c-span.

>> lead up to saturday's of carolina primary, c-span is road to the white house coverage takes to live to the events of this week. >> every time you turn around, this is an administration against american business, jobs, american energy, and then they seem not surprised that they are putting people on food stamps and think it is an accident of nature. >> there is no reason we cannot compete making cars. you are making bmw's here in selling them are around the world. [applause] this idea that we cannot manufacture is wrong. we can compete. foreign companies are coming here in right to work states. i support right to work. >> as candidates get their message out, meeting voters.

>> i have young people that have gotten into eagle scouts. there is a role for every one of us. it is finding out where that is. >> find more video from the campaign trail at c-span.org/ campaign2012. >> rick perry dropping at of the campaign and endorsing new degrees. yesterday new digs bridge daughters said the monday candidates debate has reinvigorated his campaign. they spoke near hilton head for about 40 minutes.

>> i would like to thank all of you for coming. for those of you that do not know, i am ahead of newt gingrich's campaign in this area. it is a very exciting time for us here in the low country. we're all brimming from his debate performance the other night, and i think it has put a new wind in everyone's sale. we are honored to have the presence of his daughters here today, but i will leave that honor to barbara nelson, former secretary of education, to introduce them. i would like to thank all of you for coming once again. thank you. [applause] >> this is a great day. thank you for coming out. there is some of going on today. thank you for giving us a place and everything. he is so is the best in doing that.

james volunteers his time to organize this county and put everything together, as many people do. thank you very much. the former legislature here. the you for coming. our county chair was here last night, and they're laughing at me because i wanted to make sure which grow i got so i could share allowed. dennis and i both understand how hard it is to go around the state. and i ran twice. i cannot imagine how difficult it must be to do the whole united states. i also know it is very hard on families. the candidates to take a lot of stuff, but there is your -- i have two daughters also, and it was interesting, the conversations they had with many people. that is what supports you, your

family through this. briefly before i introduce them, people ask me why i am introducing him, but i want to leave it three words with you, because i think it is important. when people go to the voting booth, i want them to remember vision, a sound vision of american acceptable was of for the 21st century. -- exceptional was soism. the last word is probably the most important word, and that is courage. the courage not to give in what everyone is pulling at you from five different directions. i am excited that you came, and i am very proud and honored to be able to introduce. i do not know which one was born first, but i'm going to do right to left. this is kathy king bridge lovers glovers.l

thank you for coming to the low country. and this is jackie gingrich. >> i am the oldest of the two. thank you for having us in this fabulous establishment. the aroma is so enticing. i have seen the food strolling by. make sure everyone spends a little money in things our proprietor's for having us. we really appreciate it. [applause] >> i am very thrilled to be here. i am incredibly thrilled because that gave such an incredible performance on tuesday night. he is known for a good debate. people ask to would you like to

see onstage against president obama, the answer is newt gingrich. not only did he meet the expectations on tuesday, but he exceeded them. part of it is because we are in south carolina. in i went to school here in south carolina. i want to the presbyterian college. that is from georgia. we are from georgia, and we are right across the border -- order. there's a lot of familiarity and warmth that we feel for being here. most of all, there is a lot of passion in life in the people of south carolina. >> you could feel it. it was electric, wasn't it? >> electricity in the air, you could feel it move through your body. dad took that and ran with it. one of the ideas i would like to throw out there is when he was the nominee -- when he becomes

the nominee and debates president obama, i think we should have a pay-per-view and all of the money we raised would go to pay down the national debt. that when no one can complain about it. that is my idea. -- that way no one can complain about it. we are aware of that. it is very important that not only you vote, however many people you can drag to vote for him, because it really does mean a lot. first of all, we are at a terrible point in our nation's history. if we do not speak barack obama we will have not just the same but worse. it will get much worse. we have to not only debate him on stage, which clearly dad would be the best to debate him on stage, but the candidates that the toughness and courage to withstand a barrage of

attacks that record to come his way. it is going to happen. it is a fact. the joy i have had on the campaign trail is i have spent a lot of time with staffing. another joint i have had is with lisa.d and callist he is determined. he knows god is with you answer your not afraid. he did not have to run. this is not something he was compelled to do as a person. he was making a very good living with no one bothering him. we knew if you ran it would be long, hard and personally painful, but he also knew that where we are in the country, he had no choice. he is doing this because of his children, my children, his grandchildren. he is the only candidate who is balance the budget and cut

spending and taxes. he is the only one, including president barack obama. i really appreciate you being here. he is fun to watch. with the electricity here in south carolina, i have no doubt we can go on to victory, but we need everyone to call everyone they know and spread the word. we have got to have a canada iie that can stand toe to toe with barack obama and come out on top. we have no other choice, we have to get it done. [applause] >> just to build on that, and there may be boats with questions, and we are delighted to answer those to the best of our ability, but you are all passionate. south carolina does choose presidents. you do know a lot of people. we know there are people who are actively engaged in this campaign and want to see it

succeed. send the message out we have to coalesce around a republican conservative, and the christian community is doing that. they understand in the boat that is not for newt gingrich will in the end probably before barack obama, because we need someone who can pull the team together and carried this state through and make it happen. feel free to spread the joy and love and keep watching the debate. they have been fun. newt gingrich tends to rise to the occasion. i do not think we have seen this many debates go on and to see someone's performance and understand the reason he is there is a for these children and for jackie's children. thank you. if you'd like to ask us questions, we will do our best. >> i can see the apples do not fall far from the tree.

[laughter] >> they are so shy. you know your dad really, really well, and i know everyone says sometimes people are up there on tv, but what would you tell us that really captures who he is? >> this is a fun memory. i am willing to brag about the fact, and you may have heard this already, but newt gingrich ought not debates -- his coaches are my niece and nephew. i would challenge you to remember that when you are watching the debate, watch closely when he walks up to the podium for the first time,

because maggie has told grant, and she does count his miles. -- told grandpa she does count his smiles. we are serious. you can see it. her son, robert, is quite elegant and he said short and concise. we all know and love my dad. we know he did best back in the 1990's because he has so much to say. even 90 seconds, short and concise is still probably very good advice. he has a great affinity for his grandchildren, and they love him dearly. they always either chat right before, the video before the debate, and he really listens to them. it is very important to keep in your mind that he is giving coaching in america right now. >> it is important for many

candidates to spend time before hands debate things. he has had decades of debate coaching. we do not have a schedule. there is a quick read of a novel, something to help him relax. a call to the grandkids, and your good to go. that is the kind of person we need in the leader. we do not need a person spending a day figuring out what types of questions might be asked. iwhen you notice -- he takes an answer and brought in them. he brings the question back up to where they are really important. that shows the knowledge he has. that is the kind of man we need as our president. we have had people come and

volunteer with our campaign that have been at other campaigns, and the one question is how is he prepared for a debate? we let them know he unwinds, relaxes. it is all in his head, in his mind. and that is why he is such a great debater. he does not have the talking points. he is not sitting back there getting grilled on what to say. he has the knowledge base to adequately and eloquently and press his point to the people in concise terms they can understand. whereas others if you see them get off their talking points, they get rattled. we do not need that in a nominee. when you get president obama on the debate stage, he will have to stand on his own. he might have a teleprompter,

but he got to be accountable. -- has to be accountable. >> richard. richard is our former state representative here. he has done a great job with the campaign. is that a great job putting things together. >> we really appreciate being here. richard and i go back to the north carolina days. we have been friends for logger then he would like for me to read it. >> it is great to be here with kathy. when i was in the legislature back in the 1980's, it is cracked when kathy was living in -- it is back when kathy was living in north carolina. i have opportunity to attend a

number of southern republican exchange meetings. newt gingrich and bill bennett and other conservatives would talk about how you govern from a conservator -- conservative republican. we did not have control of a single state in the south as far as state legislature. we were talking about how you govern from of conservative perspective. i can tell you he was in the vanguard of developing the modern conservative movement. the one thing i wanted to leave with you is that newt gingrich talked about when you hear him speak. if you just are for me, you will let me. he says i want you to be with me. the reason that is important is it is bigger than newt gingrich. it needs to be a movement about turning the country around and getting back to constitutional

principles and living on what the constitutional amendment says. i can remember one time, and i never even mention this to kathy, but i was sitting down with you gingrich in the late and he maybe 19 '9090's criticized ronald reagan to a space about not doing more to get more conservative ideas pushed while reagan was president. reagan told him that we had just started this process come up to you guys to continue it. he met great opposition from even amongst republicans, because he was pushing for conservative change as they were not used to. that is why a lot of folks said negative things. it is because he was pushing the conservative ideals we talked about in the meetings we had in the 1980's about how you govern from a conservative perspective.

that is what he is bringing out. with the contract for american now, he has the new contract for america. the plan is to not just elect newt gingrich, but if you do not let the congress and senate that can make things happen, it will not happen. that is why it is a movement. it is not about just nuking bridge. he is the leader of the movement. -- it is not just about nuking ewt gingrich. we need people to buy into what he is talking about. if they will bite into it as part of a movement, it does not to support newt gingrich. movement that we have to have to turn this country around. i do not even think it is about beating barack obama, even though we want to do that. the bigger issue is not about beating him and get control of the white house, it is about turning the country back to the principles that made it this

country great. [applause] it is a pleasure to be here with his daughters, and anchorage you all to work hard and get as many votes -- and encourage you to work hard and get as many votes out at the poll as you can. if anyone has any questions, go to newt.org. >> can i plug one thing on that also? i look at kids, and i am in education. i want you to look specifically at your dad education plan. a lot of people do not realize that the responsibility for education is in the state constitution. it is a state issue. your dad has spoken that we really need to get that out of

our hair so to speak. not only downsize the u.s. department of education come up to make sure the money gets to the local classrooms for kids, and also offer more choices. if we do not have an educated work force -- he said it is not how you started -- they started cleaning. you want children to learn work ethic. you want them to have opportunities, and those are not there now. >> what is the most awesome question you get asked? [laughter] >> i do not know. maybe what it is like to be newt gingrich's daughter. >> that will work. >> that is probably the biggest

question. my answer is it is a lot of fun. we have grown up living a very vibrant life, doing a lot of fun things. there have been challenges, but not unlike t those that most of you face. there are also great opportunities, and we'd get to meet really nice people such as yourselves. >> i was 7 when he began campaigning. he lost twice in 41. one thing i learned from his reading him is persistence. that has been very helpful in my life. you can see that today when he campaigns. he is still very persistent. i do think we have been very lucky. one of the joys of campaigning has been spending time with my sister. that means it cannot spend as much time with my sister.

we are a very close family. that is the one thing people do not know about him, he is a lot of fun. he is a really fun guy. funny.lat out fronun and he is a wonderful person. great father and great- grandfather. and he is in it for the right reasons. we really appreciate all of your help. [applause] >> i would just like to come up and also bring out to motivate you in speak your mind. it is important to worry -- realize that south carolina plays a very historical role. in this unique election cycle, whether it is the debate we have had, it is truly the challenges

we face of the country. what i am moved is most people do not realize the 21st century contract with america is a management document. if you go to newt.org, you will find many years and knowledge that gives you specific ideas and solutions on how you face problems that face this country. -- how you fix problems that face this country. we have a lifetime of experience that i truly believe has prepared him for this moment. i believe it has uniquely qualified him to offer the direction we have in this country. it gives south carolina the chance to stand off -- stand up on behalf of the rest of america to say we will have a conservative nominee that will draw a contrast between us and barack obama and will take the fight to obama and expose him for his record, and we will win the white house and get this country back to the

constitutional founding. i urge all of you to go out and recruit your friends, everyone you have got. if they are not in favor, tell them to call me and i will talk them into it. get them to the poll, due in on saturday. we are speaking on behalf of the nation. thank you. [applause] >> thank you very much. this is such of shy group. i never have known these people to be the shot. and thank you again for being here. and [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012]

[in this thindistinct room nois] >> thank you. thank you very much for coming.

>> he has my vote. he has my family's boat. -- vote. i do believe your dad said here in this very place [inaudible]

[general room noise]

oom noise]ule norri

hmm this deal and a key is the person that did

debate barack obama. he is the person that can say he is balance the budget. in to have the contrast would be

enormous. the next few weeks will be people trying to provide noise to get in the wake. that is the truth. you will see the democratic president that is intent on winning and will raise a ton of money. you will see attack ads no matter who the nominee is. we will be the one tough enough that can withstand it. and he will be able to explain very clearly to the american people. he can provide the contrast. he is very articulate.

i think that will be the challenge we're going to have. we know there will be more and more [inaudible] he is like the energizer bunny. he just keeps going. he just keeps marching and going forward matter what. >> is there a particular thing that your dad would like to debate barack obama on? he has done this for decades. that is one of the springs he has. we do not worry about the fact that they might bring up something he does not know. >> we're thrilled to be here.

i love you guys. [general room noise] >> lovely. nice to meet you. thank you for coming. >> 0 good. he used to wear a bow tie. all the time. >> good for you. >> thank you for coming by. love it. >> did you get barbeque?

>> i want to get ribs. i love ribs. i was looking to see if they have -- >> [inaudible] is about all you will want to eat. it a couple of racks. -- get a couple of racks. >> i am trying to see what else. [inaudible] [general room noise] bs on a halfrigs on have rack rack? [laughter]

[general room noise] [laughter] [laughter]

the oak table in the back was in the front. we took it apart and put it in the back. then they sent me down here to help out.

>> thank you again. >> it is beautiful. >> thank you. >> thank you.

[room noise. ]

>> thank you. i will tell him. >> lots more road to the white house coverage coming out of south carolina on the c-span networks. first, the republican officials say rick perry will abandon his presidential bid and endorse newt gingrich. ththe canada has scheduled a nes conference for 11:00. polls showing you king ridge gaining support heading into the saturday primary. meanwhile, rick santorum at the official -- the official results art at, has edged mitt

in iowaby 34 votes caucuses. we will talk to him tomorrow morning on "washington journal." some votes remain at missing in the event that finished close as ever. mitt romney was officially declared the winner by eight votes initially. the certified results, rick santorum with 29,839 votes. mitt romney with 29,805. a difference of 34. president obama will be in florida today talking about his plan for boosting tourism. the president will speak at walt disney world near orlando. we will have coverage at 12:45 eastern. the announcement is part of the president's "we can't wait" initiative. the president will fly to new

york city for a number of campaign fund-raising event. the president's campaign running its first advertisements today in south carolina. >> the president headed south to orlando, florida. our coverage head south again as we take you to charleston, south carolina. we will be live in just a few minutes. this is the car lit -- college

of charleston. ron paul will be speaking here shortly. we understand his plane is on the ground and on his way. he should be a few minutes after 11:00 eastern. we will have a life for you once it does start. while we wait for that, at this morning's conversation with joe wilson. host: joining us on the "washington journal" is joe wilson, republican of south carolina. we were talking with our viewers about the pipeline decision by the president. guest: it is an honor to be with you, peter. thank you for raising the issues. i have enjoyed listening to the comments. it is very clear to me it is jobs. i have the opportunity to visit alberta, canada, and i know the issue of jobs, and the tires that are used are made in the lexington, south carolina.

we have 300-500 people making the tigers. these are nice tires. they cost around $60,000 each. what the president is doing is affecting jobs, not just in south carolina, and i am very grateful the engines that carried the equipment are made in aiken county. over and over again people will be finding out that this is really sad, the president's actions. for every dollar spent in the alberta, canada, 90 cents is put back into the united states for services and supplies. this is not a good decision. i am really appalled. i even found out just recently that indeed that the pipeline goes from alberta to houston, and then it goes through other transmission pipelines to north georgia and south

carolina. this goes to south carolina to develop the energy resources we have. it makes us less dependent on other countries. i am very disappointed in the president. i cannot imagine why he has come to this conclusion. according to "the washington post" he is blaming the republicans for the deadline. there is no central way to transfer point -- transport oil than by pipeline. we have been doing it for well over 100 years. we of tens of thousands of miles of pipeline, and with the new technology, this is the safest way. i am very disappointed, because so many people will not have jobs. >> i also want to ask you about the vote yesterday in the house

about the ceiling of the debt ceiling. the debt ceiling has to be increased, right? >> i will acknowledge it is symbolic. i appreciate the leadership of speaker john boehner. he wanted the issue to be voted on. the senate has not voted on this different legislation we have proposed for creating jobs. but to let the american people know that the republicans are making every effort to try to rein in spending, which now the debt we have exceeds the value of the american economy, over $16 billion. the president's came to the republican congress in february of 2009 and said that the deficit we have, the borrowing we had, was not sustainable. it was $600 billion on the day he was speaking. sadly since that time, even that

year, he doubled its to over one hand -- one trillion dollars. his spending since that time truly has put extraordinary debt on the people of our country. >> you mentioned the speaker. mentioned thespea speaker. there is an article say you're one of the 12th bourne's in his side. guest: when he is right, i am happy to point that out. indeed i am voting, as i believe the people of the second district of south carolina, i am voting as i believe they would want me to vote. sometimes the leadership would not like this, but the bottom line, i am representing the people of south carolina. host: we're going to put the

numbers up on the screen if you like to talk with representative joe wilson. we have put aside the fourth line for south carolina residents. speaking of south carolina, you have a lot going on down there. have you endorsed the someone for the presidential race? guest: i have become uncommitted. i will remain uncommitted. i am so proud of the people of south carolina. since 1980 the republican presidential primary has been correct in selecting the nominee of the republican primary alternate president. the people of south carolina are composite america. in the communities i represent, nearly 75% of the people voting in the primary on saturday will be transplants. most are from the midwest and

northeast. mid-level executives. people that have come with a positive attitude. then when we get to hilton head, 95 percent of the people voting in the primary will be transplants from the midwest and northeast, with about half of the people being from ohio. we feel like we are a composite america, and we take this very seriously. we should have nearly half a million people participate on saturday. host: what do you think about the fact of the state will be penalized for having an early primary? regret that. and we love florida, but it was florida the forced this early boad. i wish it were later, because it has been difficult, particularly during the holiday season, to organized campaigns. the people of south carolina are engaged. we are so engaged that we want

to nominate someone who can't be victorious in november. host: want to give you one more opportunity to endorse a candidate before we go to calls. guest: on primary day i really looking forward to the ambassador from the slovak republic visiting south carolina to observe the election. i will be taking him to precincts in the district in colombia, lexington, and aiken. this is an international situation. people around the world are looking at self-reliant and the political process over our country, and it is exciting for me to the people of south carolina and to the people of the united states. host: first calller is from june in atlanta. caller: i am very disappointed with his comment about the president. isn't there any other job plan

that the republicans can come up with besides that, which is nothing but a political ploy? that is taxpayer money. what was wrong with us using taxpayer money to help rebuild the infrastructure? that is more needed than this ridiculous pipeline, which shows it will be temporary for jobs we are talking about long-term jobs. it will be for the earth-moving equipment and this will be long term. it would create good jobs and we know that the engines being built in akin county, south carolina, this is long term and the jobs is in the united

states. that's why i hope you'll look into it because the president is just dead wrong because these are jobs that are created in the united states without any government money at all. and in fact it would generate tax revenue because people had jobs and then we would have money so we could address what you are correct and that is on infrastructure in the united states. caller: hi. how are you? thank you for taking my call. i wanted to make a comment about the keystone x.l. i am in favor of the pipeline. however, it's my opinion doing something like that in the absence of regulations is irresponsible. and i'm also wondering why everything is not on the table, why the hard right positions can't find a way to meet in the middle, to compromise to move

this country forward? host: well, i share your concern. in fact, on energy issues i've been working with john garamendi of california to develop modular nuclear reactors. we had a democrat and republican working group on all-of-the-above energy. there has been an example of this. i worked with congressman neil abercrombie, now governor of hawaii. there is extraordinary needed regulation of pipelines and that's why they are the safest form of transporting fuel in our country. but the regulations are in place. and then i'm really excited in nebraska itself. congressman lee terry has taken a real lead on looking into this. it goes through his state and so i hope you go to his website. you'll see where he explains regulations and the environmental safeguards for

the people of nebraska. guest: congressman wilson, doesn't south carolina hold or store a lot of nuclear waste at this point? host: yes. that's been, peter, a source of frustration in that the president promised that he would make decisions based on science. but we found out it's political science because yucca mountain -- and we are suing, along with a number of states, the administration. yucca mountain is a safe repository for nuclear waste, but it's in nevada. and the president's deferring to the liberal leader of the senate, but all science indicates that placing this where the nuclear testing has previously occurred, this is not going to be an area that will be developed. the people of the immediate area of yucca mountain support the storage of waste, but it's created a problem, not just in south carolina. i believe it's like 23 other

states are at risk that nuclear waste is stored because the president has not come up with an alternative to yucca mountain. host: i want to point out two of our twitter followers who have sent us some news here. first of all, bill beatty who tweets regularly to us. former trail blazer kodak has filed for bankruptcy and republic first, emma tweets in that senator rob portman in ohio has endorsed mitt romney for president. roy is a republican in richmond, virginia. hello, roy. caller: good morning. i love the way democrats call you a do-nothing congress, but whenever you pass a bill, harry reid refuses to vote on it and president obama says i'm all ready ready to veto it. now, you take the pipeline, and that's an example of the way we can create jobs and lower energy prices. gasoline at the pump, $3.25 a

gallon. fuel oil, $4.50 a gallon. america has just fallen to economic freedom. canada has -- 10th in economic freedom. canada has moved up to sixth. nobody seems to care. america has no jobs. nobody seems to care. it seems like it's all good as long as obama's president even though it's not really good because he is the do-nothing good president. good day and good luck in the future because we're going to need it. guest: i am very proud of richmond, virginia. we're also proud of eric cantor, our leader, and that's why with eric cantor's leadership we have passed 30 bills which would actually create jobs and create an environment for jobs and we'll keep making this effort to let the american people know that the house of representatives sincerely cares. we have 25.3 million people in the united states who want a

job who don't have a job. i believe that the unemployment rate has been understated, and going back to sadly the president's agenda, he stated as to skyrocket energy costs. this has a dramatic impact on the people that i represent. i represent the wealthiest people on earth at hilton head but not far away in allendale, i represent some of the poorest people in america. they have to be able to commute to work. we need to be redeucing oil, gas prices, energy costs for the people that i represent who commute. and so i think the policies are very clear and the president is fulfilling his promise to skyrocket energy costs. host: next call for congressman wilson who served on the armed services, foreign affairs and education committees, chester, south carolina, todd on our democrats' line. do you know where chester is? caller: yes. my communications director is

from chester. karolina delaney. yep, i punched the button. todd, are you there? we are going to have to move on. republican, william in cleveland, ohio. caller: hello, peter, and hello, congressman. guest: good morning. caller: i am concerned about the efficiency of the pipeline. i believe that congress overwhelmingly -- we had some bipartisan agreement there. cleveland, moye, is one of the original -- ohio, is one of the original refinery. obviously the rockefellers with standard oil. i believe in oil. i believe we should have refineries in regions and not fake the chance of a pipeline. i think congress -- >> a reminder, you can see all of this online on our video library at c-span.org. texas congressman and texas

presidential congressman ron paul three days ahead of the primary. he's live at the college of charleston. speaking with the campus and charleston community members. hundreds of students are waiting to hear from ron paul. both newt gingrich and jon huntsman have addressed the students as part of the series this past fall. we also are bringing you at this hour over on our companion network, c-span2, rick perry says he's ending his campaign. he will endorse newt gingrich. live coverage of ron paul from charleston, south carolina, here on c-span. [applause] >> please take a moment to

silence your cell phones rand other electronic devices. faculty, staff, students and honored guests, on behalf of the department of education, i welcome you to the college of charleston, founded in 1770 and in the heart of charleston's historic district. we are honored to host this town hall event with presidential candidate and congressman ron paul. [applause] following congressman's paul remarks, we will open for questions from the audience. before moving forward, i would like to thank the many individuals and parties involved in making this event possible. it is through your support that we are able to achieve our purpose of bringing presidential candidates to the college of charleston to participate in a dialogue with members of our campus and charleston community. president at our -- present at our nation's founding, the college of charleston is pleased to hear from congressman ron paul. congressman paul is the fourth

presidential candidate to speak in this nonpartisan series on political communication this season. thanks to the generous support of the office of the president, we will hear about the many issues important to congressman paul as well as have the opportunity to ask congressman paul about issues important to us. dr. ron paul was born and raised in pittsburgh, pennsylvania. he graduated from gettysburg college and the duke university school of medicine. before serving as a flight surgeon in the united states air force during the 1960's. while serving in congress during the late 1970's and early 1980's, dr. ron paul served in the house banking committee and was a key member of the gold commission. in 16984 he voluntarily relinquished his house seat and returned to his medical practice. however, dr. paul returned to congress in 1997 to represent the 14th congressional district of texas. he served on the house financial services committee and the foreign affairs committee. as a member of congress, he

continually advocated for dramatic reduction in the size of the federal government and a return to constitutional principles. dr. paul's the author of several books and the recipient of many awards and honors from organizations such as the national taxpayers union, citizens against government waste and the council for competitive economy. dr. paul lives in lake scombrooks, texas, with his wife, carol, and they are the proud parents of five children and 18 grandchildren. so please welcome candidate for president of the united states, congressman ron paul. [cheers and applause] >> thank you very much. thank you, thank you. thank you. thank you very much, and looks like a very nice crowd. my wife is up here with me today, carol.

[cheers and applause] sounds like to me that the spirit of liberty is alive and well in charleston. it's great. you know, and it's nice to be down a little warmer climate. yesterday, i flew up to washington. i knott i ought to attend and vote against the increase of our national debt of $1.2 trillion. so it's nice to come back down and have this nice warm welcome. i always say in washington when i give a speech i never get applause so i'm always glad to get out of washington. you get a better chance of an applause if you are telling the people the truth about what's really happening in washington. and i think that's the real tragedy. i think there's so much deception going on, and i think what's happened over the many years is we have things turned upside down. the constitution was written not to restrain you but to let you have your freedom but also

to protect your privacy. but they're always attacking your privacy. they are trying to take over the internet. at the same time they want more secrecy in government. so i want to turn that around. i want you to have your privacy and your freedom. [cheers and applause] and it looks like the bill to stop the online privacy bill is very stymied. it looks like by the help of many of you we have been able to stop that and it has -- it did come from the energy from the people, the people who heard about the bill where they really wanted to take over the internet and many members of congress responded. a lot of people signed on that bill, and yesterday they started removing their names from that bill. so when the people really decide they're going to speak out, washington will listen. sometimes you need a two-by-four to get them to listen, but evidently numbers

play a role in this. i think this is really important. this is why i in spite of all the problems i'll probably talk about here in a few minutes i'm really an optimist because i think the people and especially young people are waking up and letting the politicians know what they want. so i have frequently been asked, why do i think the young people seem to be attracted to our campaign? i said, well, why not? they believe in liberty, too, you know. so it is a delight that there's a tremendous attraction for the views that i hold, and we shouldn't be surprised at all. i'm always surprised that we don't have a lot more, but our numbers are indeed growing. i have been in this business for a long time, and the crowds were very small. but something has happened, especially in the last couple years. i think there's a recognition that government's not a very good organizer or a management. they can't manage our lives. you know, they can't manage the

economy, and they certainly can't manage all these countries around the world, and i think we're getting sick and tired of what they've been trying to do. [applause] but the only thing they've been good at is running up the debt. they seem to have no problems with that. but you know, yesterday, that vote on raising the national debt limit by $1.2 trillion, it was a real farce in many ways because the debt is going to be increased. last summer the congress gave up their responsibilities and they said, well, when the president needs more money he can raise the national debt. and we get to vote it down if we want to. and then if we vote it down, then he can veto it. then you'd have to, you know, override his veto. a foregone conclusion because voting down the debt increase won't happen in the senate. so the debt is automatically going up $1.2 trillion. nobody seems to care. if they did they would take my advice and cut the budget by $1

trillion in one year is what we need. [applause] but overall our issue is that of individual liberty. that's what's made america great. that's what the founders fought for. when you look at the bill of rights and the fourth amendment and the due process of law, i mean, it has been so severely undermined. if you take -- if you take the bill that was passed shortly after 9/11, the patriot act, that hasn't given you any -- any more freedom. it's given you less freedom. i don't even believe we need the patriot act to take care of the people. [applause] also, yesterday while in washington, i introduced a piece of legislation. it was my typical very long complicated piece of legislation. it was one page. it says -- it says repeal that provision in the national defense authorization act that gives the president the authority to arrest americans by the military and held

indefinitely. i want to repeal that clause. [applause] so in many ways if you look at the 20th century it was the unwinding many freedoms that we had. there wasn't a lot of freedoms that we created in the 20th century. there is big differences here. it's not on profits and savings. it's based on a belief that our dollar can be printed forever and it's a belief that we can borrow money forever so the wealth in this country is basically debt. the money is debt. our wealth is debt. we're running the world on debt. but there still is a bit of trust in the dollar and the dollars of reserved currency. it acts like gold. but believe me, markets are smarter than governments, and markets eventually know in a paper is not gold and this is why the dollar will be rejected and it has been rejected in many ways already. i got involved in politics in

1971 when the last link to gold was undermined and removed. believing then that that would mean the politicians could spend money endlessly and have no responsibility and that's exactly what has happened. everything has exploded. if you're interested in economics, take your economic textbook out and look at the charts from 1971 on the size of government, the number of employees, the inflation rate, the unemployment rate, everything is exponential from the early 1970's. but if you take a look at the value of your dollar since 1971, it went down 85%. so in a true free market economy where we want people to have the incentive to take care of themselves they would work hard and save. they might not be sophisticated enough to -- or willing to gamble in this market and other things. if they put their money away 40 years ago and now they're going to retire, the money they put away has been gradualityly eroded. it would be -- gradually

eroded. it would be worth 15 cents. this is criminal. this is immoral. it is bad economics. that is why we have to pay attention to the monetary system, why we have to look to the constitution realizing the constitution only says only gold and silver can be used as a legal tender. there is no authority in the constitution to print money and there's no authority for the federal reserve system at all. [applause] but, you know, even short of the time will come when we revamp and have a new monetary system or get rid of the federal reserve, the most important thing we do right flow, and it supports about 80% of the american people because i can't imagine anybody being opposed to it, why doesn't the congress demand to know exactly what the federal reserve is doing, how much money they're printing and when and where it goes and who gets all the benefits? and we need a full audit of the federal reserve system.

[applause] during the crisis, which is ongoing, but when it burst, when the bubble burst in 2007 and 2008, the congress went and passed tarp funds in the various programs and spent $1 trillion. sounds like a lot of moneys and it is. and they bailed out companies and banks and transferred the debt from the corporations over to the people because we ended up owning -- owning the bad debt. in the free market you want to liquid ate debt, you don't want to transfer the debt to the innocent people. but what is generally not understood well is what was the federal reserve doing. they were involved in trillions of dollars and we don't even know the exact amount. they were involved with the manipulation of $15 trillion, and it's estimated about $7 trillion were used to bail out people overseas, foreign banks and they're still doing it. they're sitting over there promising -- don't worry. the dollar is strong. everybody can trust the dollar

and we'll take care of the banks in europe. it's the banks they worry about. they don't worry about the people of greece or spain or these other places because, of course, they live beyond their means too. they had a runaway welfare state and they had debt but the banks bought the debt and now they're stuck with the debt. that debt should be liquidated. now, if our federal reserve goes in and starts buying that debt as they already started that means even foreign debt is going to be dumped on us. there's a limitation to that and it comes closer every single day and that's why the burden will fall on us, especially the young people of this country and why it is so important that we understand the importance of liberty, property rights, sound money and the responsibility of individuals to care for themselves but you can't -- it's very difficult to even no matter how energetic you are to take care of yourselves if you don't have a market-type economy and sound money and jobs. that's what you have to have if you are going to take care of

yourselves and this means the government has to change the government. we're overregulated, overtaxed. we have as manipulated a monetary system. and let me tell you, there is a big drain on this economy for what we're doing overseas. we're spending over $1 trillion overseas -- every year overseas. if i thought this would enhance and take care of our national defense i'd be all for it. i tell you what, i quite frankly, i think just spending money overseas is not an answer and will actually make us more vulnerable, especially if it contributes to the destruction of our currency here at home. so we should think more carefully about where we get involved overseas, how long we should be involved over there. and my position is quite frankly, we've been overseas in some places way too long. we don't need any more countries to occupy. we need to come home from places like japan, korea and germany. [applause]

so we can't have a stronger national defense if we do that. it's the prime responsibility of the federal government to have a strong national defense. actually, one of the things i can tell you is where we as our government has done a pretty darn good job. we have a military in a is superior to all the other militaries put together. we have more weapons and we're more capable and, believe me, nobody is going to invade us. and we're quite capable of telling our -- taking care of ourself. but it doesn't mean that we should continue to spend money. i make a strong point that you should think about military spending being different than defense spending. if you spend money, say, in iraq fighting a war that was unnecessary, helping to put our debt -- government into debt of $4 trillion, which has happened with military spending over the last four years, if you do that that doesn't mean that we're

stronger. that means in a we're financially weaker. and who knows, we may have more enemies now than ever because there's a lot of collateral damage that we like to dismiss. but let me tell you, it's not dismissed when people get killed because we're occupying their countries. just think -- i know the other night people didn't like what i said, but just think what it was like, you know, if another country did to us like we do to some of them, wouldn't we be annoyed as well? [applause] so what is the advice and how do you explain the point where they say if you endorse this? does it mean you want to be an isolationist and not trade and talk to people? it's exactly the opposite. we don't want to occupy people. what we want to have is a more and free and open society and a

mobile society. we a lot believe in nonintervention or ice lakesists is the ones that want to put sanctions on countries. sanctions are actually acts of war. i think it's time that we -- you know, after 40-some, maybe 50 years now, i think we ought to think seriously, don't you think it would be safe to remove the sanctions against cuba? we talk to cuba and trade and travel to cuba. [applause] we put sanctions on iraq for about 10 years and bombed them constantly. eventually it ended up in a war and that war is far from over. a lot of our troops have left, but we have a huge embassy there. and troops will have to be there so we'll be -- it will be a financial burden to us and a distraction from what we want to do. i complain about all this effort. i've been -- when i was in the air force i was over in that region and i was right up to the border between pakistan and afghanistan. very, very mountainous.

and, you know, it's just -- just unbelievable how mountainous and rough terrain that is. and the border between the two countries run through there. and we're supposed to be involved in a war fighting and chasing people back and forth and figuring out who's in what country. you know, my idea is, let's forget about that border and worry about our own borders a little bit more. [applause] our borders today are a real mess, especially to the south of us. it has immigration problems and our immigration rules are a mess and i can't go -- into that in detail, but obviously we need better border patrol and we shouldn't endorse illegal immigration but there is something else going on in our borders that we should be thinking about because it is a threat to us and nothing seems to be changing and that happens to be dealing with the drug wars. the drug war is really very

visible down there. in the last five years, 47,500 people died on our own border and it has to do with the drug war. so i would like to say that it wouldn't hurt us to maybe put a moratorium on that war as well. [applause] we have been fighting the drug war substantially since the early 1970's spending trillions of dollars. and guess what? prohibition doesn't work. it didn't work with alcohol and it isn't working with drugs. i think we should rethink that. your generation needs to rethink it because when they -- previous generation decided we will make people more moral and teach theam this alcohol is bad for them which is bad. it's a really very dangerous drug as all drugs are.

they tried a prohibition method to try to mold people. they did it for 10 years or so. they woke up one day and repealed it. this has been going on longer. it's much more complicated. it's been more costly. we fill our prisons with nonviolent criminals. you can get put in prison for being a nonviolent user of drugs on three occasions for life. and i would suggest those people who have done the murdering and the raping shouldn't be getting out and we shouldn't be putting nonviolent drug users in prison. [applause] the other question -- the other question we ought to ask is, it seems like we accept the idea that alcohol must not be a drug and if you're addicted to alcohol you're treated as a patient. as a physician and person in politics, i would suggest that people who are addicted to drugs, instead of encouraging them to kill and murder and rob

in order to get enough money to pay about 1,000 times more for the drug, why don't we treat people who are addicted to drugs as patients rather than as criminals? [applause] not only -- not only is it a failed policy but it also does something to our liberties because it's an excuse for people to come busting in the houses. i'm sure you heard the stories of the police, the departments, the federal government, the f.b.i. busting into places where they were suspected of having drugs. guess what, they go in the houses sometimes -- wrong houses sometimes and tear up the houses and leave the people in distress. some people get killed that way by these sting tipe operations. so it's a very -- it is an recollection cues now with the patriot act to use search warrants -- i mean, search

without search warrants. so in order to really protect our privacy and restore the fourth amendment you have to deal with not only the patriot act but also the downside of the war on drugs. but what -- what are some of the things we must do in order to get the economy going again? and there's a lot that we have to do. they say my viewpoint, does that mean the government should do nothing? in some areas we shouldn't tell people how to spend nair money. we shouldn't have to tell people how to spend their money. there is the environmental of the economy that we have to deal with. we have to have a sound currency. we shouldn't have a currency that's constantly losing value. we shouldn't have a federal reserve system that creates the bombs and the busts. we shouldn't have these programs that tell -- tell the businessman they must give loans to people who can't qualify for loans contributing more so to the boom cycle. we should have low taxation. the other night they asked me what i thought the ideal tax

would be on income. i gave them my uncomplicated answer. i thought the income tax should be zero. [applause] people working their way through college, you know, if there were more jobs and not taxes it would be easier to work your way through college and not have to borrow so much money. it was close to that when i went to college. taxes were essentially niel at that time. the jobs didn't pay very much. the education doesn't cost very much. when the government gets involved, whether it's housing or education, they want everybody to be educated and more people might get educated, but when they just pump money into anything, whether it's houses or education or medicine, guess what the number one thing that happens, the price goes up. the cost of education, the cost of medicine, the cost of houses distorts the economy and then there has to be a correction.

that's certainly what happened in the housing bubble. but right now the most important thing that we have to try to do in order to get the growth back again is you have to liquidate. you have to get rid of debt and you have to get rid of malinvestment. when the federal reserve lowers the interest rates lower than it should be, it encourages savers and business people to do the wrong thing, make mistakes and borrow too much money. if you can't liquidate the death you want build on that. unfortunately in the last four years, like i mentioned before, they didn't liquidate the debt, they transferred the debt. they transferred the debt from the people who made the more money and gave it to people who are losing their jobs and losing their houses. so what we need is a clear understanding of the free market economic system, and unfortunately we have been engaged in this country many, many decades, if not 70 or 80 years being taught only one form of economics and that's the keynesians economics.

people aren't smart enough to tell you how to spend your money and run your business, the people in washington. [applause] but our whole system thrived on the principle of individual liberty. my belief is that our life comes from a creator and our liberty comes from our creator and where he ought to be able to assume responsibility for ourselves and not be hindered by our government. the one thing what happens if you live in a truly free society, then you have the chance of assuming the responsibility of seeking excellence and virtue. that should be the goal in life. excellence and virtue and prosperity, and yet when government depe sides they are going to make you virtueous or they are going to make the economy perfectly equal, believe me, they ruin things. they ruin things. they can bring about equality in economics, but the 20th

century has shown what total socialism gets. poverty is what you get. so in a free society it's quite different, but it becomes a more creative society. we were the freest and the most prosperous and we had the largest middle class ever. now the middle class is shrinking. productivity is down. but there's no slowing up of spending. none whatsoever. and this is the reason, you know, i made this modest suggestion that if spending is the problem, instead of tinkering around with how you raise the debt limit and deceive the people, we should cut the budget by $1 trillion. i think that's a pretty good place to start. [applause] freedom at one time was seen as a unit, and the founders understood this. if you had a right to your life you had a right to your social life and you had a right to your economic plife. today we have a few people defending personal liberty and a few others defending economic plibrit. but you need to put this back

together. if you have a right to your life and your liberty, therefore, your social life as long as you don't hurt people, you have a right to do what you want to do as well as how to spend your money. and some people say, oh, no. some people will waste nair life. they are going to do some dumb things and we got to take care of them. i had one member of congress, we were voting on something, putting controls on the people. i said, why are you doing this? why should you regulate and tell people what to do? they said, they're too stupid. this is their attitude that they have to tell you. but it is true in a free society. if you have your freedom you might make misfakes. but the whole thing is, it's better you make your own mistake and suffer the consequence rather than the politician making the mistake and everybody suffering. [applause] so if we could bring people together -- and this is to me the wonderful message of

freedom. some people will use their freedom in one way. you don't endorse people's use of freedom. the limit is use of force and stealing and hurting other people's property. you don't endorse this. we understand this in religion. people can beate yist and they can be all forms of religion. they make mistakes. but in social things and economic things, all of a sudden we think we have to regulate them. we need to have a better understanding and not feeling so threatened. just because we legalize freedom, that doesn't neen we endorse what people do. a lot of people would like to paint me as being pro-drug or something. i'm not. you know, it's just that i'm pro-choice on people allowing to use their own life. but i condemn, you know, some people on their choices. but i'm willing to believe in a free society is the most prosperous society. that's what made america great and that is what's going on in this country. believe me. the crowds are bigger, the young people know about it.

the remnant is still out there. people are getting excited. and they know change has to come. the only question now is, are we going to march forth with continuation of gigantic growth of government worldwide and have the united nations taken over or are we going to demand our rights as individuals to live in a free country where we don't have to be dictated by international government, where we don't go to war on the united nations and nato and that we live as free people in this country as it was intended? thank you very much. [applause] thank you. thank you. >> ok. great. what a crowd. ok. if you could have a seat,

congressman paul has agreed to respond to questions as he is able. we have a few staff around. if you raise their hand they'll get around to you as they can. here, we have one over here. >> considering the nature of the bully pulpit series, my question of communication, how would you use the bully pulpit as president of the united states? >> how would i use the bully pulpit as president of the united states? probably give the same speech i gave you today. the message is important, but understanding is important. we talk for many years in the support i've gotten about a revolution. it's an intellectual revolution. but nothing works if people don't understand it. government reflects the people. there is no doubt about it. and they have to understand if. so just like i mentioned about the change in attitude about the piracy bill on the

internet. people knew and understood that so you want to galvanize people and get them excited to put pressure on the people in washington. we don't have to change every single person in washington. what we have to do is change your hearts and your minds to know what you expect from government. when that happens. we don't hear that very often from very few of our leaders that it's the change in people's minds that have to count. but government is a reflection of the people. if the people want us to go to war under u.n. banner and not declare war and occupy more and more countries, the government will continue to do it unless you decide as a generation enough is enough. if you want your rights back again and your assumption you can take care of yourself, you have to hear from the people, that would be something i would keep pushing to try to get people to understand. the one thing about the free market, people say, well, it's cruel and it's evil and uncaring. but actually it isn't. it's humanitarian. if you care about your fellow man, you want freedom, because it produces the most and gives

you the largest middle class and the greatest prosperity and one of the best distributions. although there would be inequality. but people, when they hear this they should be encouraged and that would be a message i would continue to spread. [applause] >> dr. paul, in regards to the soapa and pipa bills currently in congress, are south carolina senator lindsey graham is a co-sponsor of pipa. in my interactions with him through email, i feel that the politicians speak a different language than the voters. as a politician, what do you suggest we tell him in regards to the bill so he fully goes away with pipa? >> if there is two or four of you, it's not going to do any

good. just yesterday, rubio switched his vote. he took his name off because he heard from his people. a lot of people in washington aren't philosophically interested. they're interested in re election. that's what motivates most of them is re-election and power. no, if there's enough people to send that message, they should have, you know, change their minds. that's what the system is all about. so i would do is encourage to contact all your representatives who do not agree with you on sopa. >> congressman paul, i'm a sophomore polysci major. in 2009 you signed a letter from the texas congressional delegation requesting support from the federal government for high-speed rail in texas. i was curious as to what your opinion was towards high-spreed

rail and american infrastructure in the united states, being a promoter of small government? >> well, i don't recall that particular pletter but it's something that i would sign and make request. i represent a district and they take a lot of money from all our districts. they take highway funds. this is the best example. it's probably a highway transportation bill. highway funds were supposed to be a user fee. we pay for gasoline. we send the money to washington. it's supposed to build our highways. there is no money in the bank and they have to appropriate money. i routinely, if there was any request from any city, town or individuals for infrastructure, i would just, you know, automatically make the request and say, you know, you took their money, we have niece moneys come back and they're called earmarks. this is like a controversial issue because i believe in the principle of earmarking. i don't -- because if you vote against an earmark and don't

support it, the money goes to the president and he gets to spend the money and i think it's wrong. as a matter of fact, i think there should be more earmarking. i think everything -- every nickel should be designated how the congress because we represent the people. so we should designate this and we should -- we should do this because that is our responsibility to designate how the money should be spent. but the one thing is, since i never voted for an appropriation bill i never voted for one of those earmarks. i might make the request saying, look, if you are going to divi up the money that you stole from us, yeah, i would at least -- let my request be in there. [no audio] >> thank you, dr. paul. i know you don't want to occupy

any our countries or break down our relationships. do you have any plans to strengthen our relationships, particularly with pakistan and iran? she knows i don't want to occupy more nations but what can we do to strengthen our relationship in particular with pakistan and iran. i would continuously do that because i would want to offer friendship and trade with anybody who will accept it. and that would be the opposite of punishing the people of these countries like in iran. we're putting punitive punishment and not allowing them to import or export which is an act of war. so i wouldn't do that. i would take off the sanctions because it backfires on it. it hurts people. it never hurts the government. as a matter of fact, it enhances the power of the government because there's a lot of people in iran right now that don't like their government. and they actually have elections. the american people don't realize it.

they have a lot more elections there than they do in saudi arabia. we do whatever saudi arabia wants because we do what they tell them to do. you should offer friendship and trade and say, well, some of these people are bad people. like did we talk to the soviets when they were killing hundreds of millions of people as well as china but eventually we got over this. we should talk to people. one thing i used is the example when i was drafted in 1962 with the missile crisis in cuba and kend and khrushchev talked and decided they would not start a war. we took missiles out of turkey and missiles out of cuba. i think we need more diplomacy and more talking and not more instill dation. pakistan is the example of the worst type of foreign policy we could have because i used to claim there were two options. we go to a country and say, look, we want you to be our

buddy and dictator like mubarak and give them $40 billion. if they do our bidding we give them a lot of money. if they don't do it we bomb them and occupy them. but in pakistan we have three ways of doing it. we bomb them, kill innocent people, they get angry at us, they get angry at their government and we keep giving money to their government and we wonder why we don't have good relationships with that. the founders were right, the more trade and communication with people the less likely we'll fight with them. when i was in high school we were fighting the chinese. i was glad nixon talked to them. the french and americans probably killed more than a million vietnamese. we finally left. we lost 60,000 americans. many of them sick and injured people. finally we leave. guess what? there was no communist domino effect.

what happened is they became westernized, china became our banker and we invest in vietnam all through peace and not war. we should be talking to people, whether it's pakistan or iranians or whatever. that doesn't mean you should condone what they do. i don't want more people to get nuclear weapons. i don't want the iranians get more nuclear weapons. we contained the soviets. they had 30,000 of them. so the last thing we need is a war in iran over a weapon they don't have. [applause] >> dr. paul, i have about three comments. one, i would like to see term limits for congressmen and senators. if they can accomplish anything they should be able to accomplish it in the time allotted to them. they don't need to make a

career of being in washington, switching from this to that and taking big money from the big oil companies, the big pharmaceutical companies and big insurance companies, big banking consortiums. we need to make our own decisions. those big companies do not need to make them. we need to get rid of the lobbyists and we need to deal directly with our representatives. and i think you're absolutely right about drugs. i know this is very unpopular, but if we made drugs legal we would get rid of all the crime involved. [applause] and like alcohol, we could make them legal, clean out our jails

and collect tax on them to help on this deficit. thank you. >> didn't i tell you people under 30 have good common sense. very good. thank you. with term limits, i introduced the first term limit bill even in the 1970's when it wasn't a subject. we had a chance to vote on term limits in the 1990's after the republicans took over in 1994, and we had about six votes. i voted for all them. so i support term limits but i don't think it's the answer. it would be helpful, but ultimately if you -- if you have somebody who believes the same thing and they leave and you put somebody else in who believes in the foreign policy and the monetary policy and the federal reserve and all the bailouts, it doesn't change anything. but what i think you're suggesting is the turnover you're going to get a better chance of doing it.

that's why i support it. unfortunately we are not on the verge of it. after we had the six votes in the 1990's it was passed by, so i guess the second -- your second option to that is the people that aren't responding to you, you know, there's still such a thing called an election and you have to work harder at that, i guess. ok. which way are we looking? >> one more question. >> dr. paul, on monday the debate when asked, what was the highest income tax you would have you said zero. totally agree. i think it's direct theft. i don't think the american people understand how you would get the taxes, whether it be user fees or tariffs or what. could you please elaborate on that? >> he likes the idea of a zero tax rate and i think most of us do. but he asks a realistic question, how do you get there, because obviously if we had no income tax right now, the deficit would get worse. so you have to change the

spending habits. we have to literally change the role of government. if you want a perpetual welfare state and if you think we should police the world, no income tax would go up. they'll keep printing money until the whole thing blows up and that's what i'm worried about. that's likely to happen. let's say we are sensible, we work our way out of it, how do you get to a zero tax? bring our troops home, not be the policemen of the world, have a strong national defense and say we are not in the entitlement system. today, most people in this country, or at least a lot of people in this country think entitlement -- it sounds like it's a good word like you have a right to it but entitlements aren't right. you have a right to your liberty but you are not entitled to somebody else's property. so you have to change that whole philosophy. [applause] but up until -- up until 1913

we didn't have an income tax. it was user fees. i think the user fee on the highway, we could work with that. we have a user fee -- i have a lot of coastal area in my district, and you know in the intercoastal canal they pay fees to use it. but then somebody else uses up the money and then they -- we have trouble taking care of our harbors and our canals. so user fees would be good. a highway gasoline tax i think would work under these circumstances. but the big thing is cutting back on the size of government. but some taxes -- the import tax isn't, you know, real popular. an import tax raised revenues at the very beginning of our history. but when it's punitive, when it punishes people and tries to protect certain industries that is bad. but if you have a flat tax, i think that would be a proper way of raising some revenues if we want to avoid the income tax. anyway, that looks like our time is up.

i enjoyed it. wonderful day. wonderful weather. thank you very much. [applause] >> congressman paul, thank you, and on behalf of the bully pulpit series at the college of charleston i'd like to present to you a token of our appreciation. [cheers and applause] >> well, what a crowd. thank you. on behalf of the sear sees, the nonpartisan series, regardless of your vote, we want you to remind you to vote saturday during the primary election. thank you so much. >> hey, thank you. appreciate it. thanks a lot. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012]

>> young people come to my office and i hand out a constitution and say, you read it because nobody else reads it. >> thank you, sir. >> ok. thank you. thank you. thank you, you guys. glad you're out.

>> good luck. >> good to see you guys. >> are you going to make me an honorary member? >> can i take a picture with

you? can you take a picture? >> sure. >> thank you so much. >> can we take a picture? >> we can try. >> air force medic and veteran myself, thank you very much for coming. >> good to see you. >> thank you for your hard work. >> congressman paul. >> israel and the united states could mandate -- they're

retaliating verbally on what we're doing to them because we're trying to undermine their whole system and they're going to suffer from it. butter in' just saying we might have some recourse. but it would -- it wouldn't make any sense from their viewpoint either to do it. they've never done it before. [inaudible] >> i do not make judgment on people who send me money. if they're bad people --

>> good to see everybody. >> congressman paul, what do you feel about your fellow texan dropping out of the race? >> what would you say to young people who don't want to show you -- who don't care about politics? you don't want to try to get them involved? >> i do. if that doesn't do it i am not going to lose any sleep over it. i try to energize them with ideas and i've been successful doing it. if people aren't interested it's because they're bored with the idea. i think i can energize them

with ideas. >> why are you so interested in colleges and young people? >> they care about liberty. >> why do you think it is that young people are -- >> they like to read them. >> thank you very much, dr. paul guest. >> it is a pleasure to meet you. >> good to me you. -- meet you. >> it lot of enthusiasm, dr.

paul. >> sure is. >> give me a second. >> can you -- >> i'm out of ink. >> aw. >> just ran out of ink. >> i'll love you forever. >> that's a long time, you know. oh, they tell me i have to go. >> thank you, dr. paul. >> how you doing? [applause]

>> ok, very good. ok, here we go. >> thank you so much. >> ok. >> dr. paul, can i have a hanchett? -- handshake? >> i care as well, because right now -- [unintelligible] >> we want. what we know --

[unintelligible] the most i can do -- i want them to get all the money back on their taxes. >> ok. thank you for being here. >> ok, very good. caduceus, everybody. -- good to see you, everybody. >> thank you, mr. paul. >> good to see you. >> we love you, too. >> dr. paul! >> i am worried about the budget. >> thank you. >> as a young person going into medicine, you are an inspiration. >> ok, great.

oh, yeah, wonderful. >> if we can ever do anything for you, we are ready. >> saturday. here we go. >> that's going on facebook right now.

>> doctor paul! >> thank you, dr. paul. >> i need you to step back. >> dr. paul! >> everybody step back. >> ok, here we go. >> thank you.

>> congressman ron paul at the college of charleston. the latest polls in south carolina is showing ron paul in third in what has become a four- man race. he also finished third in iowa. news reports showed that in iowa, rick santorum aged mitt romney by 31 votes. we will talk to rick santorum tomorrow morning on "washington journal."

iowa results were certified today. you may remember originally that mitt romney it was considered the winner by eight votes. i estimate today, mitt romney called -- in estimate today, about mitt romney called the rtual tie.ts a vitrua president obama is in florida today, talking about his plans to boost tourism and. he will be speaking at walt disney world near orlando. we will have the coverage at 2:00 the five eastern. it is part of the president's "we can't wait" initiative. from florida, the president flies to new york city for campaign fundraising events. also this afternoon, rick santorum will be joining republican national committee chairman reince priebus.

also there, former presidential candidate herman cain. that is scheduled live at 2:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. the south carolina race is now a four-man race. rick perry is dropping out of it the gop race and endorsing newt gingrich. he has concluded there is no viable path forward. >> thank you all for coming out, and particularly to my incredible staff that's here. i want to say thanks to each of you for the work that you have done. rick, victoria, you all were awesome. nelson, thank you. it has been a real privilege to be able to learn and to grow. as i stated numerous times during the campaign, this campaign has never been about the candidate.

i ran for president because i love america. i love our people, i love our freedom. as a matter of fact, this mission is greater than any one man. as i travel across this great country, starting here in charleston and going to new hampshire, iowa, california, down into florida, numerous states in between, obviously, i discovered this tremendous purpose, resiliency of our people. they never lost hope, despite the circumstances that we find ourselves in. they haven't stopped believing in the promise of america. they haven't stopped believing in the american dream. americans are down, but we can never be counted out. we are too great a people for that. what is broken in america is not our people. it is our politics. what we need in washington is a

place that is humbler, with a federal government that is smaller, so that our people can live freer. i entered this campaign offering a unique perspective, a governor who had led a large state, leading the nation in job creation, and executive leader who had implemented a conservative principles, a sign of tenant farmers who was born with little more than a good name, but who has experienced a great opportunity and freedom of this country. but i have never believed that because of conservatism is embodied by one individual -- that the cause of conservatism is embodied by one individual. our party and conservative philosophy transcends any one individual. it is of movement of ideas that are greater than at any one of us and will live long past

anyone of us in our lives. as a former air force pilot, i don't get confused. i know we cannot lose track of the ultimate objective in carrying out our mission. that objective is not only to defeat president obama, but to replace him with a conservative leader who will bring about real change. our country is hurting, make no mistake about that. 13 million people out of work, a 50 million of our citizens on food stamps. $15 trillion national debt and growing. we need it bold conservative leadership that will take on the entrenched interests and give it the american people their country back. i have always believed the mission is greater than the man. as i contemplated the future of this campaign, i have come to

the conclusion that there is no viable path for for me in this 2012 campaign. therefore today i am suspending my campaign and endorsing newt gingrich for president of the united states. i believe newt is a conservative and visionary who can transform our country. we have had our differences, which campaigns will inevitably have. newt is not perfect, but who among us is? the fact is there is for the new fitnes -- there is forgiveness for those who seek god. i believe in redemption, for it is a central tenet of my christian faith. newt gingrich has the courage to tell the washington interests to take a hike if that is what is

in the best interests of our country. as a texan, i have never shied away from a fight, particularly when i considered the cost to be righteous -- considered the cause to be righteous. as someone who admired the great, if not the greatest texas governor, sam houston, i know when it is time to make a strategic retreat. i will return to the trail leading home to texas, wind it down my 2012 campaign, and i will do so with pride, knowing i gave foley of myself of a cause worthy of this country. as i head home, i do so with the love of my life by my side, a woman who makes every day could it when she is there by me, and that is my wife, anita.

honey, thank you for all you have done. she has been an incredible patriot during this process. i also want to thank my son, griffin, and his beautiful wife, meredith, sydney, who is not here with us today. the fact is, with a good wife, three loving children, and a loving god who is in my life ben, things are going to good in a matter what i do. i'm proud of the policies i put to the american people, i believe we provided the right path forward for our party and our nation. overhaul washington, providing, i think, the roadmap for that, proclaiming the 10th amendment and all the goodness of allowing

the states to be more competitive with local governments, creating energy security, cutting spending, eliminating these unnecessary federal agencies, cutting taxes to that flat and simple 20% -- i will continue to fight for these conservative reforms, because the future of our country is at stake, and the road we are traveling today, president obama's road, is a very dangerous one. i want to thank some wonderful individuals whom i have come to know and admire and have stood by my side. thank you, brother, for all the work you have done and a loyal -- just being a loyal supporter you have been. a strong and good man in the united states congress, make

more fannie -- mick mulvaney. i just want to thank my supporters, the men and women who have come across the country to be here in south carolina, new hampshire, iowa. god bless you for loving your country, for volunteering, being here, and making a difference. in particular, i want to say thanks to gov. bobby jindal, who has been a fabulous spokesperson, steve forbes -- as i know him more, i admire him greatly. what a fabulous, patriotic american. gov. sam brownback, senator jim inhofe -- all just great americans who we have, to have such great respect for and reflected their love of country. i want to say. special thanks -- i want to say

a really special thanks to three distinguished veterans who have joined me on the trail. medal of honor recipient mike thornton. he spent the last two days with us as the troubled south carolina -- as we traveled the south carolina. thank you, brother. and my christian brother up in greensville, who has traveled so many miles with me, a young marine captain. they truly represent what is best about america, who give of so much of themselves. they have been uplifting fro -- uplifting for me as a citizen, as commander-in-chief

of it texas forces. they are truly my heroes. i began this race with a sense of callingg. i feel no different today than i did it then, knowing how calling it never guarantees a particular outcome, but the journey that tests of one's faith and one's character. now the journey leads me back to texas, neither discouraged nor disenchanted, but instead rewarded highly by the experience and resolute to remain in the green and in the service of my country. our country needs bold leadership and real transformation. our country deserves that. we must rise to the occasion and elect a conservative champion to put our nation back on the right track. and this i know -- i am not done

fighting for the cause of conservatism. as a matter of fact, i've just begun to fight. god bless you, god bless this great country of america. thank you for coming out and being with us today. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] >> rick perry from within the hour in south carolina. we're live now, and president obama is that this new world of today in orlando -- is at disney world today in orlando. his comments are scheduled to get underway at 12:35 eastern.

until then, with the south carolina primary just two days away, a discussion on recent trends in voter turnout. host: joining us is the director of center for the study of the american electorate out of american university -- guest: no longer out of american. host: just the center? guest: just a dissenter. host: -- the center. host: what kind of turn out to you expect in 2012? guest: i expect low turnout. we have had increases in 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, and 2010.

it is not going to continue. host: why? guest: the republican party is deeply divided, and whoever gets the nomination will have a fall off. because the democratic party is supportive of obama but disappointed. because young people were driven by anger in 2004 and i hope in 2008, and there is none of that in the present climate. latino support president obama, but they are worried about him because there have been more deportations in this administration than at any time in the past. there are always things that essentially likely will produce lower turnout, as well as the fact that people in the middle, the independents, have no real strong feeling for either party

at this point. we have a huge number people who feel the country is in the wrong direction, and increasingly, a number of people who feel a pox on both your houses. host: here is a chart that your group put together, looking at presidential election turnout from 1948 to 2008. you can see that in 1948, the turnout of the electorate was about 52%, and jumping up to 67%, and then at a high mark this 65, 64.5% or so in 1960. the second time mark -- guest: 2008. host: 62% at turnout. guest: 63, but that's all right. host: where is turnout going to

be from here? guest: between 55 and 58, something like that. it is going to go down. the wild card is americans elect, whether in the people will be looking for another solution. that is why in the future, but that would mitigate the decline in turnout. at this point, you have to be looking at a pretty sharp decline in turnout. host: curtis gans, who votes? guest: in 1980, a friend of mine but for a book called "who votes?" since census data. that book said that people who vote the most are more educated. the people who are older, more presidentially stable, people who are married.

also, at this point, people with higher income more than people with lower income. host: what about regionally in the u.s.? guest: regionally in the u.s., you got this out being a lower in turnout than the rest of the nation -- you have at the south being lower and it cannot then the rest of the nation -- lower in turnout than the rest of the nation. host: why? guest: they are catching up. because of the voting rights act in 1965, african americans were in franchise, and are conservatives, people with racial concerns, moved to the republican party. united two-party competition, which -- you never which -- which had -- you had a two- party competition, which you

never had. most of the rest of the nation is higher, but prior to the 2000 increases, most of the rest of the nation was declining, and we saw the south was increasing. host: curtis gans, current population trends -- which party do they favre? guest: long-term trends favor democrats. host: why? guest: a, because we are going to be a majority minority population, largely because of latinos. and the republican party does not have much routes there and does not have much routes among african-americans. second is there are places where essentially the republican party doesn't have a prayer at this point with the current advocacy. they almost cannot win -- they

lost most of the ground they used to have in the far west. they are even having trouble in the midwest. of the industrial states, only indiana seems to be reliably republican. what they have is the south. the south is going to be less republican at its edges where you have black and latino migration, and places like virginia, where northern virginia is a growing area and the areas around norfolk is a growing area, and both of those are democratic areas. the republican base is going to narrow. unless an they change their advocacy to become more

inclusive and more moderate, they are likely, on the long haul, to be losing ground. that is not speak to this election, because this election will be decided by the unemployment rate in may, june, or july. host: when this country is in a recession, does that encourage or discourage voters? guest: under normal circumstances, and encourages voters, because they are angry and mobilized. the places where we have had significant increases since 1960, during a period of decline, 1982, when we had a recession, 1992, when we were coming out of recession, and 2004, 2006, and 2008, particularly in 2006 and 2008. the problem right now is that people do not seek hope of coming out of the recession from either party.

if you get to make, june, or july, and we're not looking like we're coming out of our recession, it will be hard for people to vote for president obama. at the same time, people don't see economic policies of the republican party as offering much hope. host: i also want to talk about congressional elections and the midterm elections. this chart is something your group put together. turnout here is a lot lower than in the presidential. in 1998 meteor turnout was about 38% -- in 1998, mid-year turnout was about 30%, but it has been increasing, approaching 42%. to you see this trend continuing? host: i don think any trend toward increasing turn out

continuing. there is the problem of the declining motivation of the electorate. we have had a decline in the quality of education and the quantity and quality of civic education that only now is beginning to be reversed. we have two political parties that do not engage the electorate, where people have one party to the right of the american center and the other party is not affected. we have a way we conduct our campaigns, and overwhelming and attack advertising that undermines people's faith in the process. it is increasingly demagogic and

adversarial. we have the impact of technology. it started with television. television like to say it brings the world community into your living room. what it does most profound is brings you into your living room, at atomizes a society and makes people consumers rather than participants and stockholders. we had three networks with the nightly news and share information. then we got cable and satellite. it gives you lots of wonderful things and wonderful choices, but 95% of the channels, you cannot get any intersection with politics and public affairs. you can watch espn, as i often do, all day every day without getting one dollop of public affairs. then you go to the internet, which is a self-was medium with

millions of websites in which politics and public affairs is not the choice of everybody or even the choice of a large group. by and large, they go to separate websites and there's no shared information. then you have the ipad, iphone, facebook, myspace, all those things that create personal networks and spaces that for their fat and -- that further fragment our society. for all of those things, communications technology, we have an electorate that, except for times when we are in crisis, people cannot participate. -- people do not to debate. host: >-- people do not participate. host: curtis gans is our guest.

one of his early positions was as staff director for the campaign of eugene mccarthy. we are going to go to calls. the numbers are on the screen. rick perry as dropping out of the 20 top campaign -- of the 2012 campaign and endorsing newt, according to politico. this is that i was reading just a minute ago. the most recent polls show that newt gingrich is getting quite out of the on -- is gaining quite rapidly on mitt romney in south carolina. i also want to point out that rick santorum tomorrow morning will be a guest on this program, 7:45. he will be taking your calls from south carolina. first call for curtis gans comes from tennessee. valerie, go ahead with your question or comment. caller: thank you for taking my

call. i would just like to inquire of your guest why he thinks there are so many of these groups that are set up for study in the united states. i feel like we're getting less and less truth and more and more opinion. many of the progressives in the country seem as if that they can predict the future. these studies are often very bent in one direction. all the liberals get together, all the environmentalists get together. i feel like their promises are based on their own opinion, an ideology that not all of its share -- not all of us share. we cannot compromise with those who share a different world view. guest: i think there are studies done by the heritage foundation,

by cato. there are studies being done by people with when cynthi -- with points of view, and there are studies being done by people without points of you who are seeking truth. i like to think of myself as that, because my work for the last 36 years has been deeply nonpartisan, whenever my personal political bent is. there are lots of places that produce fine research. even the places with some biases, whether it is environmental or libertarian or conservative or liberal, often produce information that is useful so long as you take it with a little grain of salt. we cannot have too much research. what we want to have as good research. host: next call is from delaware. brandon on our independent line.

caller: how you doing? good show today. i would like to mention about -- if you could give me a little history, because i know that most people think that felons can't vote, but every state is different. to my understanding, most felons can vote. can you give information our history on that? you can even have a business as a convicted felon in the past, and you pay taxes and things of that nature and do everything as an american citizen and amongst these issues and have been knowledge of people thinking you cannot vote is wrong. host: all right, brandon, we got the point. curtis gans. guest: the picture is a mixed picture. i think ollie massachusetts allows felons -- only

massachusetts allows felons while in jail to vote. several states believe that once you have finished your penance to society and return to society, you ought to have the right to vote. that is my position also. some states either deny felons the right to vote after they returned from prison or they create obstacles to participation or if they create long waiting times to their participation. i think once they have been released into society, done their time, have been restored to all other aspects of citizenship, the right to vote should be included. you haveething else written about is voter i.d. laws.

you have a chart that shows where they are. the state in green all require a photo id. the states and a yellow require a friday but they can sign an affidavit -- >> you can see all of today's "washington journal" online at any time on c-span.org. we are taking you to walt disney world in florida, where president obama is unveiling a strategy to boost tourism and travel. today he signed an executive order to increase visa processing in china and brazil. the president should be speaking shortly, live year on c-span. >> i am the son of a cuban immigrant, a father who is convinced of the opportunities in our country. he took a chance and followed his uncle's to new york city,

were key improved his trade of cooking at great restaurants and hotels. i am also the son of a particular week and a mother -- of a puerto rican mother, who immigrated to this country at 10 years old. they arrived in new york city with hopes of a better life. in 1967, my father decided he wanted to move out of the big city and bring us to a quiet town called all the month springs, florida. -- altamont springs, florida. my father decided to go to school, and he learned a new trade, carpentry. he got a wonderful opportunity to work with a large construction company, building this magical place in orlando called walt disney world. [applause] he worked for disney world until joining his brother, michael, in opening their own restaurant. with the help of our father, we

started our own cuban cafes. .e began to expand tr local developing business programs give us the opportunity to compete. the local hispanic chamber, business initiative of funds, all instrumental in helping to train as and develop relationships to keep going. fawning joint-venture partnerships with -- forming a joint venture partnerships were also instrumental in helping us to learn more up to speak the business of the food service and high volume. over the years we have been blessed with the ability to expand our business, and today i am proud to say that we run multiple locations. we have a joint venture partnership and we run in the convention center. we also own a cuban bakery and local grocery. tourism is a big factor in our

business. as a matter of fact, tourism is a big factor -- excuse me -- for thousands of families in orlando who work in the service industry. anything that increases traveled to orlando is good for all of our businesses. anything that increases foot traffic to our airports, right past all of our restaurants, coffee shops, refill stores, is great for business. i am pleased that president obama is taking steps to increase travel and tourism to the united states. i am also very pleased that he came to orlando to make this great announcement. there is no better place to be than right here in what is the world. i am also extremely excited -- right here in walt disney world. i am also extremely excited that my wife and archer the debt to be one of the families working in orlando in an industry that is positively impacted by the news we are about to hear. with that, please join me in

welcoming the president of the united states, barack obama. [applause] >> come on. [applause] hello, everybody. i am glad to be at disney world. [applause] the magic kingdom. this is outstanding. folks, let me begin by thanking you for that extraordinary introduction. he was too bashful -- i will do it. his restaurant is called zaza. new cuban diners.

he was wondering, "i don't know, i don't do this in lot." he is a natural. [laughter] something.run for it is great to be here. it is rare that i get to do something that' sasha and malia envy me for. [laughter] that does not happen very often. maybe for once they will ask me at dinner, boehmi how my day we. i am excited to meet mickey. it is always nice to meet a world leader who has bigger ears than me. [laughter] i want to acknowledge the presence of one of a flood of's outstanding -- one of florida's

outsanding mayors. the mayor of orlando is in the house. [applause] we have outstanding members of my cabinet, interior secretary ken salazar -- [applause] and commerce secretary john bryson. [applause] they are focused on what brings us here today, and that is creating jobs, and boosting tourism. you just heard what a huge difference tourism makes for small businesses. every year tens of millions of tourists all over the world come to visit america. it makes sense. it is the greatest country on earth. people want to come. as folks in orlando know, that is good for our economy. people are renting cars, stake

in hotels, eating in restaurants, checking out the sights. it means people are doing business in the united states. in 2010, nearly 60 million international businesses help to the tourism industry generate over $134 billion. tourism is the number one service -- number one, and that means jobs. more money spent by tourists means that businesses can hire more workers. it is a pretty simple formula. that is why we are here today, to tell the world that america is open for business. we want to welcome you. and to take concrete steps to boost american's tourism industry so that we can keep growing our economy and creating more jobs. here in florida and all across the country. here is the good news -- we of got the best product to sell.

look at where we are. we have got the most entertaining destinations in the world. this is the land of extraordinary natural wonders come from the rocky mountains to the grand canyon, from yellowstone to yosemite. this is the land where we do big things, and having got the landmarks like the golden gate bridge, the empire state building, the hoover dam, the gateway arch. this is the land of iconic cities, and their sights, from independence hall in philadelphia, nathaniel hall in boston, the space needle in seattle, the skyline of my hometown of chicago. it is a nice skyline, for those of you who have never been there. [laughter] all right, a couple of chicagoans back there. [laughter] i am here today because i want more tourists here tomorrow.

i want america to be the top tourist destination in the world. [applause] the top tourist destination in the world. this is something we have been focused on for some time. two years ago, i signed a bill into law called the travel promotion act. it had brought support of democrats and republicans. as you know, that is not always happen. it set up a new nonprofit organization called grand usa . its job is to pitch it america as a travel destination for the rest of the world to come and visit. you see advertising for other countries, other destinations in the united states, right? well, we've got to do the same thing, so that when people are thinking about where they want to travel, where they want to spend their vacation, we want them to come here. that is already in place, but we

have got to do more. today i directed my administration to send me a new national tourism strategy focused on creating jobs. some of america's most successful business leaders, some who are here today, have signed up to help. we are going to see how we can make it easier for foreign tourists to find basic information about visiting america. we are going to see how we can attract more tourists to our national parks. we want people visiting not just epcot center, but the everglades, too. the more folks who visit america, the more americans to get back to work. it is that simple. just as we do a better job of marketing our tourist destinations, we have also got to make it easier for tourists to make the visit. there is a good reason why he is not easy for anybody to get a visa it and come to america.

obviously, our national security is a top priority gues we. we will always protect our borders and its shores and tourist destinations from people who want to do us harm, and unfortunately, such people exist. that is not going to change. but we also want to get more international tourist companies to america. there is no reason why we cannot do both. we can make sure we are doing a good job keeping america's occur while at the same time maintaining the openness that has always been the hallmark of america, making sure that we are welcoming travelers from all around the world. one is that we're taking is the expansion of something called the global entry program. it is a program to protect our borders and makes life easier for frequent travelers to and from the united states. getting into the program requires extensive background checks, but once you are in, once you have proven yourself to be a solid individual was coming

here for business or recreation purposes, instead of going through long lines at immigration, we can scan your password, your fingerprints, and you are under way. it is a good example of how we are using new technology to maintain a national security and boost tourism at the same time. we are now going to make it available to almost all international travelers coming to the united states. if they are willing to submit themselves to the background checks necessary, we can make sure that we are facilitating easy travel into the united states. [applause] there are some additional steps that we can take. why now there are 36 countries around the world whose is visitns can america without getting a tourist visa. after they go online, they get cleared by homeland security, and there is only one thing they have to do, and that is booked a

flight. that is a great boost for tourism. over 60 percent of our visitors don't require a visa, and in most cases that is because of this program. today i am directing my administration to see if we can add more countries to it. [applause] we want more folks to have an easier time to come to the united states. let's realize that in the years ahead, more and more tourists are going to come from countries not currently in this program. countries with rapidly growing economies, huge populations, an emerging middle classes, countries like china and india. it is especially important here in florida, brazil, a huge population that wants to come to florida. [applause] but we make it too hard for them. more and more people can afford to visit america who could not

come before, and over the next four years, the tourists traveling from those countries we expect to more than double. but we want them coming right here. we want and spending money here in orlando, in the united states of america, which will boost our businesses and our economy. today i am directing the state department to accelerate our ability to process visas by 40% this year. we're not talking about five or 10 years from now. this year. [applause] we already made incredible progress in this area. we have better staff our embassies and consulates, we have to streamline services with better technology. waiting times for visas are down. but applications keep on going up. they are skyrocketing. people want to come here. china and brazil are the two countries which have some of the

biggest backlogs. these are two of the countries with some of the fastest-growing middle classes, who want to visit and have disposable income, money they want to spend on our parks and monuments and businesses. that is what this is all about, telling the world that america is open for business. making it a safe and simple as possible to visit. helping out businesses all across the country grow and create jobs. helping those businesses compete and win. ultimately, that is how we are going to build an economy where hard work pays off, where responsibility is rewarded, and where anybody can make if they tried. that is what america is all about. that is part of the reason why people want to come here. they know our history. they know what the american dream has been all about.

a place like a disneyland represents that quintessentially american spirit. this image is something that is recognized all around the world. this weather is something that -- [laughter] people appreciate all around the world, including the northern parts of this country. we want everybody to come. all who are watching, disney world in florida are open for business. we want everybody in the will to know the same, and we're doing everything we can to boost tourism for decades to come. thank you very much, everybody. god bless you, and god bless the united states of america. [applause] ♪

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