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it is up to you everyone around the world, come >> ♪ yahoo >> ♪ celebrate good times come on! we are going to have a good time tonight let's celebrate it's all right let's celebrate it's all right we're going to have a good time tonight it's all right ♪ >> ♪ yahoo ♪ yahoo >> ♪ celebrate good times, come on celebrate good times, come on celebrate good times, come on come on and celebrate celebrate good times ♪ ♪ ♪

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>> ♪ only in america dreaming in red, white, and blue only in america ♪ ♪ ♪

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♪ only in america dreaming in red, white, and blue only in america where we dream as big as we want to we all get a chance everybody gets to dance only in america ♪ ♪ ♪ only in america ♪ >> it is good to see you. jennifer. [cheers and applause] >> mitt? mitt? mitt? ♪ ♪

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>> live road to the white house coverage continues from florida tomorrow with a newt gingrich campaign rally in tampa. among the expected speakers or michael reagan, son of ronald reagan. we will also show you a mitt romney at a campaign rally in the villages, both live tomorrow here on c-span. for more resources on the presidential race, used c-span's campaign 2012 website and read the latest from the candidates, political reporters, and people like you from social media side sat c-span.org/campaign2012. [applause]

>> thank you, thank you, thank you. >> next weekend, booktv and american history tv explore the history and culture of beaumont, where the texas oil industry got its start. the book bazaar owner john roberts on beaumont's literary culture and the challenge of running an independent bookstore. also teddy roosevelt's expedition to africa and europe, and sunday at 5:00 p.m. eastern, and january 11, 1901, the gusher change the e economy in texas, and this doyle came roughnecks. the infamous in -- with this came roughnecks. the infamous brothels thrived.

beaumont, texas, next weekend on seas and 2 and -- on c-span 2 and 3. >> economic forecasters ivan the economy is fragile. they pointed to uncertainty and developments in europe that could push the country back into recession. they also talked about dealing with entitlements and health care spending. this is just over two hours. >> i want to welcome everyone to the senate budget committee. i want to start with a bit of the business of the committee, because i know people are asking what is our intention with respect to going to a marked up.

i want to make clear to everyone that i intend to go to a marked up in the committee, and i want to do it sooner rather than later. it talked about march 9 as a time that might have a real estimate. since that time that have talked about that and not let that slip, so we just have to wait and see. i will be talking to all the members of the committee and i want to start that consultation immediately. we will start consultations next week with respect to members of the committee, and will certainly be talking to senator sessions about the timing, and hopefully we will know in the

near term what the cbo schedule is with respect to the real estimate. i want to start with that. >> i appreciate that. i know that the chairman deeply cares about these issues, and i think that process will be good for america. >> i do, too. we have some disagreements on some part of what has happened here to fore, and i will talk about little about some of that as well. we also have places where we agree. i think it is good for us as a body and good for the country to have the fullest possible debate. last year in some ways we got overtaken by a separate process, because very early on, and negotiation began at a higher level than ours. that had an effect on what we did. i do want to say that when i hear discussions that we don't

have a budget, i don't agree with that. i just think that is wrong. because when we did the budget control act in august, that provided a budget for this year and next. the budget control act was not the normal way of doing budget, i am the first one to say that. but in many ways, it is a stronger document than a typical budget resolution. typical budget resolution never goes to the president for signature. it is purely a congressional document. the budget control act is actually a law, passed overwhelmingly in the senate, 74-26. not only does it have the force of law, it also set discretionary spending caps for 10 years instead of the one year that you normally have in a budget resolution.

and it provided enforcement mechanisms, including a two- year deeming resolution, which improves the enforcement of budget points of order. something i insisted on in the budget control act. finally, it created a reconciliation like super committee to address entitlements and tax reforms. and it back that process up with a $1.20 trillion sequester. so it is surly different than a typical budget resolution. but we do have the critical elements of the budget in place. i will be the first to say, i would like to see it different than what was adopted in the budget control act. i am sure each of us would have done it differently if we had the power to do.

today's hearing, i want to focus on now, the outlook for the u.s. global economy. we have three excellent witnesses, the former vice chairman of the federal reserve, now professor of economics and public affairs at princeton university. we have the chairman of macroeconomics advisers, one of the most respected macro economic firms in the country, and the director of economic policy at the american action forum. welcome to all of you. thank you for being here. we appreciate very much bigger spending time with us. i would like to briefly review the economic situation confronting the country. it is important to remember the economic crisis that we have come through from 2008 and 2009, we experienced the worst recession since the great depression. the economy contracted almost 9% in the fourth quarter of

2008. that is really stunning. 9% contraction in the fourth quarter of 2008. we lost 800,000 private-sector jobs in january 2009 alone. the housing market prices was rippling through the economy, with home building and home sales plummeting and record foreclosures. we faced a financial market crisis that threatened to set of global economic collapse. credit markets were largely frozen. we have come a long way since then. the federal response to the crisis, including actions taken by the federal reserve, the bush in ministration, the obama initiation, and congress successfully pulled us back from the brink. it is clear that our economic situation would be much worse now if we had not had that federal response.

one of our witnesses today, along with economist mark zandy, completed a study in 2010 that measured the impact of federal actions on shoring up the economy. their conclusion was as follows. we find its effect on real gdp jobs and inflation are huge, and probably averted what could have been called depression 2.0. when all is said and done, the financial and fiscal policies will have cost taxpayers a substantial sum, but not nearly as much as most had feared and not nearly as much as if policymakers had not acted at all. if a comprehensive policy response to save the economy from another depression, as we estimate, they were well worth the cost. this chart shows dr. blinder's estimate of the number of jobs we would have had without the federal response.

shows we would have had 8 million fewer jobs in the second quarter of 2010 if we had not had the federal response. i understand dr. blinder will present estimates for the number of jobs saved in 2011 as well, which i look forward to hearing. although the recovery has recently shown signs of strengthening, it has been a long and difficult road back. recovery tend to be shallower and take much lower. here is what two leading economists found in their research. "real per-capita gdp growth rates are significantly lower during the decades following a severe financial crisis. in the 10-year window following severe financial crisis, and

agglomerates are significantly higher than in the decade that preceded the crisis. the decade of relative prosperity prior to the fall was importantly field by expansion in credit and rising leverage that spans about 10 years. it is followed by a lengthy period of retrenchment that most often only begins after the crisis and last almost as long as the credit surge." in other words, we should expect to see more than normal growth and relatively higher unemployment right now, because we are recovering from a severe financial crisis. if we look a private-sector job growth, we see it has improved dramatically from one we were in recession. as i noted in january 2009, the economy lost more than 800,000 private-sector jobs to private sector job growth returned in march 2010 and we now have 22 consecutive months of growth. some additional positive signs

that we see in the economy, as i mentioned before, we have had 22 consecutive months of private sector job growth. last week, unemployment claims fell to their lowest level since april 2008. we have seen nine consecutive quarters of real gdp growth. gdp growth is not expected to have risen to 3.1% in the fourth quarter of 2011. housing starts are up 25% since december 2010. consumer confidence was up sharply in the last two months of 2011. u.s. auto manufacturers are returning to profitability, and state revenues are showing signs of improvement. but those with news elements are no reason for complacency. there are serious risks that remain to economic recovery. for example, unemployment and underemployment remain far too high. housing continues to pose a

threat. too many homes are still in foreclosure or underwater. political deadlock in washington could block key measures. federal, state, and local budget cuts could add too much near- term fiscal drag. the european debt and fiscal crisis is creating uncertainty and threatening u.s. exports. as was reported on the front page of the washington post yesterday. i hope all our colleagues read the story about what has happened with the slowdown in europe and how that is affecting u.s. companies as well. beyond that, we have what i have termed our own debt threat. we have a debt that is too high, growing too fast, and his comparative that we present a plan to deal with it. i was part of the fiscal commission, part of a group of six. in both the above effort, we came up with plans to reduce debt by $4 trillion over what would otherwise occur.

i personally favor a more ambitious effort than that. my fondest wish would be that we could come together around a plan that would reduce the debt from what otherwise will occur by about $5.50 trillion. why do i put that number? because we could balance the budget in 10 years if we put in place a plan of that magnitude. the timing of when it begins is critical, because the economy is still weak. i would not personally start tough medicine until we see the economy doing better, but i would put in place a plan right now to achieve the kind of debt

reductions that i have described. i believe that would be a tonic for confidence in the economy. i believe it would assure markets that were serious about the fiscal affairs of our country appeared with that, i am going to stop. i apologize for the length of that opening statement, but there was a lot to talk about. senator sessions, welcome back. >> i agree with you that a plan now is needed. i do believe that it would, in fact, provide a tonic, as you say, confidence in our business world and the world around that we have our house in order. one of the things that is destabilizing our return to growth, or weakening that, is lack of confidence that we have our house in order and we have a plan that would bring our house back into order, and balancing the budget in 10 years would be really good goal.

i believe we could do it, but it would not be easy, as you know. we are entering the budget season for fiscal year 2013, producing a budget for public accountability and scrutiny. it represents one of the bonneville duties of a good government. particularly in a time of economic stress. the last time the chamber offered and present to the floor of budget in 2009. i believe that is 1002 days ago. i appreciate your call comments, your expressed a desire to work on a budget resolution, and i look forward to working with you in a realistic way, but it is not going to be easy to lay out a plan that works. for too long, washington has been spending what we do not have, borrowing what we are not able to pay back.

it has become a habit, a trend. our debt is now greater than our entire gross domestic product. slowing down road today and casting a shadow of doubt on our economic future. i believe it is impacting growth today. we would have higher growth today if we didn't have as much debt as we have. americans were promised that a surge in spending would lead to a corresponding job creation. maybe there has been some help there, certainly the amount of money that has been spent certainly in the short run should have provided some help. but i would just point out, our job situation is not good. the number of people working today, 131.9 million, is less than in 200. that was 132.5 million. we had more people working in

the year 2000 than we have today. the number of people on unemployment compensation is one thing for valuable insight, but it is not the only thing. we are not creating sufficient jobs. i saw one of the french ministers this morning on bbc saying they believe have to get their debt under control, but most important, make the french economy productive and growing. the middle class is being squeezed from all directions. real wages are declining. it is not a winning combination we are you are not adding real numbers of jobs and not having real income. declining food and energy prices are rising. job prospects remain scarce. health expenditures, which we hoped and were told would go down, are going to be by the end of this year up for a family of four by $200 a month.

$2400 according to the cbo. what makes matters worse is that the growth we have seen has been too much driven by an sustain borrowing by the government. this is not a solid foundation, in my view. the cbo one said, for instance, that the president's first stimulus package -- and they accounted for this carefully -- ultimately would be a net drag on the economy. yes, they said you would have a short-term benefit, but that stimulus is now gone. the money is spent. the benefit, short term, is now gone, but we are carrying the burden of that debt still. so we are adopting policies

that are leaving us weaker, not stronger in the long run. in the state of the union tuesday, president obama had a chance to tell the american people the truth about the danger we face. he missed perhaps his last opportunity to rouse the american people to make some tough decisions that will feel tough, but will not require us to salvage this government spending. i was discouraged about how little the president spoke of our mounting fiscal obligations. the super committee finally agreed -- as you know, only $2 trillion of production deficits, instead of the $4 trillion we have been told repeatedly is the absolute minimum. you have said you would like to

see more. we will spend $45 trillion in the next 10 years, and we will add $12.40 trillion to the gross debt, so i do not think a $4 trillion reduction in the expected growth of debt is too much to ask. i really do not. the president outlined no plan to go beyond that $2.4 million. the money we were borrowing to fund the war -- we were hoping to reduce that amount of borrowing and stop increasing the debt by bringing the war costs down, and now, he proposes expanding at least half of that on new programs. so that is a concern. we hear the argument that spending cuts should be

deferred, but this, i think, goes against common sense, and really more, the political reality. the american people are ready to hear the truth and willing to take some action. we have economists who say cutting spending now would be the perfect time, you should next june cut taxes by a certain amount, but this is a political world. we are not able to make decisions like that. we have to move when we have the consensus to move, and i am really trouble that we might lose the consensus we have to make some really good changes that i thought the last election led us to. mr. chairman, i would offer more of my remarks for the record, but i would just say we should focus on solid policies, creating jobs without adding to debt wherever possible. more growth, more jobs without more debt. that means more domestic energy exploration, american energy. a streamlined tax code focus on

growth. more free market competition in health care, not more government domination. immigration policy that spurred national interest and legitimately protect our american workers. it means making the government leader itself and more productive. that would make america stronger and healthier. the president says he wants america built to last, but we cannot do that on borrowed money. debt is not an asset. spending is not the virtue. borrowing cannot be our future. thank you. >> i thank the senator. i just want to say there are places where we disagree, and we are going to have a really good debate in this committee and hopefully, we will have a really good debate on the floor of the senate.

but while there are places where we disagree, there are places where we are in strong agreement. especially in place where i see we are in strong agreement is the need for a substantial plan to deal with the debt over this next 10 years. you know, if we could find a way to come together in this committee -- i have been here 25 years. i am not operating under any illusions. this is an election year. but i do believe if we could find a way to come together around this committee, that itself would be a boost to confidence in the country. so let's try. you have my commitment. i am eager, and this is the last year i will be here.

i am not burdened with a reelection campaign. i will spend every possible moment focused on trying to achieve a result. i ask all members -- you know, i know it is hard. we have all taken positions, things we feel strongly about, but if none of us are willing to give any ground, we are not going to succeed. it is going to take all of us to give some ground on things we hold dear to find a way to come together. i have sat on both sides, and i plead with colleagues -- let's give it our absolute best shot. i pledged to do that. them a while you have taken action, you have said we are going forward. you have made a decision to go

forward with the budget process, and that is real action. i think that as a good first step. thank you. >> thank you. we will go to our witnesses and go right on the table. what have we said? seven minutes. if we try to hold to that, full testimony be made part of the record, and then we will open the panel up to questions. thank you very much for being here. i appreciate it. >> chairman conrad, ranking member sessions, members of the committee, i would like to thank you for the opportunity to share my views on the budget today. i think even in this fractious environment, everyone agrees that the recovery has been far too weak. the numbers we have now show a compound growth rate since the recession ended up only 2.4%. that is a rate we could be

satisfied with it we started at 5% unemployment. some observers view this week macro economic performance as unsurprising and maybe even inevitable, given the devastating financial crisis that brought about the recession. you mentioned the analysis, which is just the celebrated, showing that it takes a very long time for economies to recover from banking and financial crises, but what was pointed out in a very nice paper recently by three researchers at the fed is that the extraordinarily poor performance over a decade is not so much from the slow recoveries after the bottom, it is that the bottom is so deep. it just takes a very long time to climb out.

that should be a lesson for all of us. it means we are not condemned to a sluggish recovery in terms of growth rate, much less one that never gets us back to full employment, as you hear some people claiming. there are many factors relative to the speed of vendor recovery, including both macro economic policy and luck. i want to start with the first and finish with the second. it would be nice to have a little luck. the u.s. policy response to the devastating recession was vigorous, as you said, mr. chairman, but it is petering out, as you also said. the fed deserves a lot of kudos for what it has done, but i want to focus on congressional action. i realize that for many members, voting for tarp in 2008 was about as much fun as a root canal work, but i have little doubt that history will record that that vote, the vote for the recovery act in february 2009, followed then by the very successful banks stress tests

that spring, which required the tarp money behind them to be effective, really turned the tide, and making a horrific situation merely terrible. it is a hard point to make, right? we wound up at a terrible point. it could have been much, much worse. in the paper that you mentioned, mr. chairman, we use a large scale model of the u.s. economy. to estimate the overall impact of all of these policy responses taken together on the economy. i think, as far as i know, it is the only such estimate to the state. there are many such estimate to the effects of the recovery act, for example, but there were many things done in the financial arena. we estimated that all those policy responses together added

10 million jobs in 2011 and 2012. it is roughly the same number for 2011 and 2012. if you translate that to the unemployment rate, it is roughly 6.5%. instead of 8.5%, we would be at 15%. maybe that is wrong, but if it is even close to the ballpark, that is an unthinkably bad outcome that we avoided. spending from turkey, of course, is long gone, and spending from the recovery act peaked in 2009 and has been declining ever since. in 2011, that amounted to roughly 1% of gdp. in fiscal 2012, a two will be perhaps half that amount. correspondingly, if you look at the federal spending component of gdp, it has been falling

since third quarter of 2010. this comes to the point about the near-term fiscal drag that you mentioned in your opening statement. i published an op-ed in the "wall street journal" a week ago describing what i called four myths about the budget deficit. i will not go over all four now. one was that we had an urgent deficit problem that had to be tackled right away so that we do not become the next greece. that has as a corollary the notion that if there's any fiscal stimulus efforts, pay for it immediately if not sooner last we spoke the market. the markets are practically falling over themselves to lend money to the federal government, the united states federal government, not to some other federal government, at negative real interest rates. i suggest the as an example, a package that would spend another $500 billion in the near term and pay for it 10 times over with $5 trillion worth of

deficit reduction. i would support that kind of policy if you changed the 5286, the four to three -- almost any number. a second, which i know comes straight from your legal mandate to deal with 10-year budget windows, is the obsession on the next 10 years. if you look at the cbo long- term projections, what happens over the next five years is actually quite benign and what happens over the next 10 does not matter very much. it is after that that things explode entirely out of control, almost completely do health care spending. so that is the issue. finally in the last minutes i see on the clock, the luck issue. my outlook for gdp growth in calendar year 2012 is about 2.5%, the st. tepid pace we have been experiencing since the recession, and the biggest threat on the economy -- financial contagion from europe. the latest news on that in the

last few days or week or so is pretty good, but it turns good and turns bad and we cannot count on that. it could change any day. we get a worst-case scenario, a european financial blow that will be somewhat like lehman brothers -- not exactly like lehman brothers. -- almost all of that growth could evaporate. the other major risk, which i cannot begin to calculate, comes from the middle east and oil. so far, that looks ok, but who knows what might happen there? some might say the near-term outlook for the economy is mediocrity if we are lucky and stagnation if we are not, and i would have helped that the united states of america had higher aspirations than that, and i would also hope that this policy would help, not hinder, this recovery. thank you very much for listening. i'll be happy to answer any questions. >> thank you very much.

then the chairman, distinguished members of the committee, i am the senior managing director of macro economic of buzzers, a forecasting firm in st. louis that i founded in 1982. thank you for inviting me to discuss the risk around the u.s. and global economic outlook for the u.s. and what policy might do to improve it. our outlook for 2012 was dark. we see the nation's gdp growing only about 2.25%. this is not fast enough to help the unemployment rate. unemployment could drift up modestly from here over the next 12 months. given that much slack in labor and product markets, inflation will remain subdued. consumer prices likely will rise only about 1.5% over the course of the year, but with

unemployment that are above the benchmark and inflation below the 2%, monetary policy will remain accommodative and interest rates historic low. consumer spending will grow at about the same pace of gdp. private domestic investment will grow somewhat faster. a narrowing trade deficit will be a modest boost to growth, but fiscal policy will restrain the recovery. it has three components. first, the stimulus associated with the american recovery and reinvestment act of 2009 is abating. second, the caps on discretionary spending passed as part of budgetary control at of 2011 will start to bite. third, state and local governments will continue to trim spending and boost taxes in order to comply with their balanced budget mandates. where are we in the deleveraging process that all of us are concerned with? at least at the aggregate

level, there are indications that in the united states, we are nearing the first stage of the deleveraging process. corporations -- at least large corporations -- are flush with funds and balance sheets. house prices have fallen back into historical alignment with incomes in rent, and thanks to consumer retrenchment and very low interest rates, the ratio of household debt service has retreated to very low levels. a sizable percentage of homeowners remain under water on their mortgages, and there can be little doubt this is both a drag on consumer spending, the housing rebound, as well as an impediment to labor mobility that contributes to high structural unemployment. the deleveraging process is only secondary, now coming more

forcefully into play as the economy continues to expand. credit strings have tightened were qualifying credit scores linger well above recent norms. federal regulations intended to define and curtailed systemic risk are now under development. all the secondary dimensions of the deleveraging process might safeguard the economy and improve the quality of expansion, but they also do restrain the pace of their recovery. in my 30 years in this business, i have never known as much uncertainty to surround our forecast as as the case today. i want to discuss briefly with you the risk and uncertainty that a critical to have the environment may evolve over the next several years, areas about which i think many economists actually agree, although there

could be some reasonable disagreement on some of these bonds. first, let me address fiscal policy. we prepare our forecast using an economic model that allows us to make their explicit assumptions about fiscal policy. this was a lot easier in the old days. changes in the governing mandatory benefit, changes in tax cut and changes in discretionary spending were relatively infrequent and usually considered permanent in nature. now, the fiscal landscape is cluttered with temporary policies, extensions, modifications which could have measurable impact on our forecast. i do not know how all these things are going to play out. i would be suspicious of any forecast to the claims he or she does. to give you a sense of the challenge, our forecast assumes the payroll tax holiday benefits will be extended through december but will be paid for gradually through the next decade, the health care reform will not be repealed, that most

of the bush tax cuts will be extended, that it will sequester will be avoided, and the grand bargain on a gradual deficit reduction will be achieved. a lot of assumptions. however, imagine the enormous fiscal drag in 2013 -- roughly 5% of gdp -- should either by political design or political miscalculation the tax holiday, unemployment benefits, the doc vix, the bush tax cuts all expire even as the health care taxes take hold and discretionary spending is sequestered. furthermore, all that could happen in a sputtering economy when the fed, having already expired most of the errors in its monetary quiver, could not respond aggressively or might be politically restrained from spawning at all. in our modeling, that is a recipe for recession. i want to talk about the euro crisis. the view of the slow-motion train wreck that is a view of the debt crisis as a single downside risk to continue economic recovery in the end of the states. slower growth in the eurozone

mean slower growth in the u.s. export region, which makes goods and services produced in the u.s. less competitive, but more important would be the financial contagion that could spread around the globe without regard to borders if an uncontrolled lehman brothers event occurs within the financial system this year. prices of risky assets around the world declined together even as the dollar strengthened. it could tip the u.s. into the back end of a double-dip recession, and this does not even consider the possibility of a dissolution, either in part or in full of the euro itself. house prices, my last point -- the issue here is that home buyers and home builders delay buying and building if the expectations for further declines in house prices. the consensus forecast is for house prices to begin rising modestly, which would be good news here rising rather than falling house prices will lower real inflation, just a cost of mortgage finance, thereby supporting housing demand. may also boost household net worth, prevent foreclosures,

thereby supporting consumer spending. unfortunately, it is difficult to be confident in the consensus forecast for house prices here for one thing, not long ago, the consensus was for house prices to turn up last year. for another, no one knows for sure how long is the shadows by of houses that could be brought to market the moment sellers since prices bottoming out, therefore delaying even longer the eventual turnaround in housing prices here as the economy approaches the three- year mark of this recovery, the coming years are likely to see growth and utilization rates that will not especially surprising given the circumstances, will nonetheless feel and be very disappointing. furthermore, the risk of the forecast and the uncertainty surrounding them have seldom if ever been as dire or prevalent as they are now. in short, these will be very trying times.

you can call me a cockeyed optimist because at least from my point, i can imagine worse outcomes than the ones i do consider most likely, but i surely hope not to see them. thank you for your kind attention today and the opportunity to offer my advice. >> thank you, dr. prakken. >> thank you for the invitation. as someone who worked on the hill for nearly a decade, as an economist, when my jobs was to -- and for members of the economic forecast, i just want to give the warning that it is really difficult to do economic forecast. i always tried to caution my bosses not to put too much faith in them, and not to denigrate dr. prakken, who has by all accounts the best forecast out there, this is just an impossible thing to do. the look of forecasts the way they work, generally people forecast next quarter something close to what this quarter is, and the one after is a combination of long-term growth than what it was last quarter and three quarters up, it is more or less what they think

long-term growth is. this is not really a science and it is subject to all kinds of contingencies that might happen. i think right now, if you look at what is going on out there, there are a lot of risks to the economy. i think dr. blinder identified this -- who knows what will happen in the middle east or with oil prices? as everyone who has spoken here has indicated, what happens in europe is the real wild card. there have been a few articles in the last few weeks. the "washington post" article refuted that -- the eddied where somehow there is a linkage there, that somehow we are immune from what might happen in europe. i did not think that is the case of all. i think in increasingly globalized society, we are very much at risk. and the idea that this might somehow benefit us because it capital flight leaves europe and

is looking for another place, it might come here -- that might be true in the short run, but i take a little bit of exception to dr. blinder -- i do not think if we are going to run trillion-dollar deficits for the indefinite future -- i think at some point, that is going to start spooking markets appeared especially, as he indicated, if we have an entitlement that is growing and growing and growing and there has not been any real movement to do anything about it. i am not a big fan of fiscal policy. i think it is an interesting and fun game to play -- "what if we had not made certain changes in 2009? what would have been the impact?" i do not think the government is going to be nimble enough to enact fiscal policy in a way that benefits the economy. an example i like to the people has to do with it a favorite

restaurant i have in washington, d.c., a deli located for 30 years at 15th and i street. in early 2010, the building was remodeled, in the ground-floor tenants were booted out. 2012, the work still has not begun. over 100 people who work at these ground-floor businesses ended up losing their jobs. a year later, it eventually found a new place to work, but government does think very slowly. it is the nature of the beast. we simply cannot count on if there is some kind of new recession out there, caused perhaps by the euro crisis -- we cannot count on the government to nimbly respond to this with fiscal policy. as both my counterparts have noted, the federal reserve does not have too many quiver's left to deal with the current crisis we have. it is almost impossible to see how they can -- they certainly

cannot lower interest rates further. it is difficult to see what else they can do. what i would like to encourage the senators to think about -- instead of thinking about the very short run policies we can do to stimulate the economy for the second or third or fourth quarter, just to think longer term and think what we can do to engender long run economic growth. the two i think are most obvious are things that have been cited before -- i think it is time to have entitlement reform occur. i think the simpson-bowles committee made an admirable first attempt, and i think that would have been a wonderful place to begin. the gang of six also talked about this. again, great place to start the discussion. i wish members of both sides would have picked that up and

run with it. as the chairman said, it is a really difficult time to something like this, during an election year, but it seems to me that waiting one more year is something that we really cannot afford at this time. for a number of reasons -- not only our health care costs rising, but another good thing that is happening that also happens to have a bad outcome is that longevity is increasing dramatically, especially from age 65 on. host: [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012]

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>> thank you.

thank you. god bless you. thank you. stick with it. thank you.

we are behind you. thank you.

we need you. i am going to get on that website and tell my friends.

>> now, where republican presidential candidate mitt romney in pompano beach, florida. the former massachusetts governor leads in the republican primary poll, with 42% of the vote. former house speaker newt gingrich in second place with 31%. florida holds its republican presidential primary this coming tuesday. ♪ [cheers and applause] ♪

♪ >> welcome to broward county. i want to thank the mayor for loaning us the room. i want to make a few other announcements. our broward chairman,

commissioner -- samuels. our co-chair. bob. i am also honored to be a chair. most importantly, i want to thank the committee co-chair for being here. sharon day. i stand before you as a republican, and i want to reflect on something that is very important. i want to thank you, most importantly, because a lot of you are my constituents. like the governor, i am from massachusetts, and i am also a republican. they say it is tough to be a broward republican.

governor romney has a proven record. he is our only chance at beating barack obama in the white house. [applause] we all know how important the state of florida is going to be. tell everybody that is a registered republican to go out and vote on tuesday. make sure their vote is for mitt romney. [applause] it gives me the honor and pleasure to introduce you to our attorney general, the first female attorney general. my friend, pam. [applause] >> it is great to be here with you.

i recognize so many of you out here who helped me so much. thank you. i love you, broward county. [cheers and applause] are you ready to bring back hope and real change to america? [applause] [crowd yells, "yes!"] we have a positive leader who is going to run our country by example. [applause] [cheers and applause] this is a man who has the executive experience to lead our country and the real world practical experience of building jobs and creating jobs. that is exactly what we need now in our country. [applause] [cheers and applause] >> mitt! mitt! [crowd chanting, "mitt, mitt!"]

>> mitt romney is the right man for america. he is an exemplary man of character who has been married to his wonderful wife for 42 years. [applause] [cheers and applause] all of you in this room know my strong pro-life stance. i have a niece with down syndrome, and i have been very active in my pro-life stance, and i want to thank governor romney for becoming a champion for pro-life issues. he vetoed every bill that came across his desk as governor that would hurt our pro-life stance. we know how difficult that was to do in a state where he's from. thank you, governor romney, for having the courage to do that for america.

thank you. [applause] [cheers and applause] >> mitt! mitt! [crowd chanting, "mitt, mitt!"] >> governor romney is pro- constitution. he believes that the founding fathers believed that the powers delegated to the federal government are few and defined. he will stand with us in doing everything we can to defeat obamacare. [applause] [cheers and applause] [horns and whistles] as attorney general, as you know, i am leading that lawsuit, along with 25 other states. and let me tell you, the majority of the states who have signed on to our lawsuit, guess who it is they have endorsed for president? mitt romney. [cheers and applause] he is pro-military, supports our

allies, and he is a friend to israel. that is what we need is now. [cheers and applause] this is a leader who is experienced and determined and will bring our country out of this economic recession. i am proud to introduce our next president, mitt romney. [applause] [cheers and applause] >> thank you. [cheers and applause] >> thank you. thank you so much. great to be here. thank you, guys. thank you. thank you. thank you. those are some great people. thank you, commissioner, for welcoming me here. thank you for your comments and your support. she is one of the first attorneys general to get behind me, and i appreciate it very, very much. i have a couple people on the stage who you may or may not know.

some people behind me, next to be senator connie mack, and next to him is an congresswoman from from california, who happens to be his wife. [applause] and then, let's see. i have my youngest son. this is craig. he is number 5, number 5, and this is his son. parker. parker? he has a place in my heart, he does. we have 16 grandchildren, and they are a great source of joy in my life. one other person i have not introduced, when i was in elementary school, i was in the fourth grade, and there was a girl in second grade. i knew we passed each other in the hall, but i do not remember seeing her, but when she was almost 16, i noticed in a big way.

[laughter] and now she is my girlfriend and my wife. ann romney. sweetheart? [cheers and applause] >> i do not know, can you fit any more people in this room? [laughter] it is kind of packed in here. it is wonderful for such a warm reception. we are really determined to do you proud, and we want to make sure that we do not do anything that you are embarrassed by and just make sure that we -- you know, i have been married to him for 42 years, and i have to say it was not easy raising boys. this one here was not easy. [laughter] they do not all come civilized i will say that parker has been a very good boy today, a very good boy today. it is hard to campaign. he does not quite understand what is going on. there are many, but the one

that i obviously care about the most was how he was as a husband and a father, and, you know, we had some difficult times in my life. i will tell you that i have had to struggle, both as a young mom, and he was so supportive, but also, i was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and with breast cancer, and it is a wonderful to know that this guy has just been so supportive and helpful to me during my struggle. [cheers and applause] when i was a young mother, mitt would remind me when the boys were being especially naughty that my job was more important than his job, and the great thing is that he really meant it. and it was nice to know that we had an equal partnership, and he said, "look." he said, "my job is temporary. your job brings forever

happiness." so that is the kind of guy he is, the kind of character he has, and the kind of person you can trust. i have seen him in all sorts of difficult situations, and people, when they run into trouble, who do they turn to fix anything going wrong, whether it is a business or it is the government or the olympics? they turn to him to fix it. and i think america needs a turnaround, so -- [cheers and applause] i am looking forward to see what he can do to fix this country. >> thanks, sweetheart. thank you. thank you. just listen to her. she is not biased, at all. >> i listened to the president give the state of the union address the other night. [crowd boos] he said the same things he has been saying for the last three or four years. we want to make sure that is

the state of the union address we hear from barack obama. [cheers and applause] he keeps saying the same thing again and again and again. and we keep waking up and have the same thing day after day. high unemployment, homes underwater. do you realize that here in florida, 20% of the foreclosures are right here in florida. this president did not help. this president did not cause the recession. he just made it worse. it is time to get a president who knows how to run an economy and get people working again. [cheers and applause] i listened to that speech of his. i listened to his speech and his ideas. he has run out of excuses. in 2012, we will make sure to run him out of the white house. [cheers and applause]

now, that does remind me. talk about excuses, the last few debates sure have been a heck of a lot of fun. you know that. and speaker gingrich said he did not do so well in the first debate because the crowd was so quiet. and then the second speech, he said he did not do so well because the crowd was so loud. you know? he has resorted to finding some person to blame, someone to say is the problem for his campaign and the fact that he is seeing less and less support here in florida. as people have had a chance to watch us each perform, they decided they liked him less, and that is because he was paid $1.60 million by freddie mac. he stood up and supported freddie mac. that is one of the reasons the

housing market is in such troubled here in florida, and as a result of that, people want someone who will say no to freddie mac. how many people in this room have been touched or have had family members touched by the housing crisis, one way or another? wow. look at that. look at that. i will work to get freddie mac out of our housing market and to get what we expect in a -- real estate economy. now, i think this is going to be a historic election, and i know that politicians are fond of saying their election is an important one. i think this is an important time in our nation's history, one of the inflection points, where we will decide what direction america will go, and it will define what the world will be like, because we have the president today who, if he were elected, would take american in a direction i do

not think we would want. i think the president is pulled towards the european social welfare states, where government plays a heavier and heavier hand in the role of the economy, the role of citizens. people think they know better than free people, and instead of turning america and transforming us into something we would not recognize, it is time for america to return to the principles that made us the greatest nation on earth. [cheers and applause] this president, this president is comfortable with $1 trillion deficits, and he has now put together over $5 trillion of public debt. by the end of his first term, his only term, by the way, by the end of his first term, he will have amassed almost as much public debt as all of the prior presidents combined.

think of that. and this is at a time when nations of the world are looking at places like greece and ireland and italy and spain, and in fact, saying you can hit a wall at some point, when people stop loaning you money, and you go into catastrophe. we cannot anticipate the time that would occur, but sometime in the next one year, five- years, 10-years, that is going to happen. unless we get off of the scores of massive debt. my course is very different when i am president. i will cut federal spending. i will cap federal spending as a percent of the economy. and i will have a balanced budget. we will get that job done. [crowd chanting "mitt, mitt!"] here is another difference. the president looks at something like health care, and he believes that given all the challenges that we ought to have health care run by government bureaucrats. they do such a great job running amtrak and such. my view is that we should return this to our citizens and others. repealing obamacare will be done

on day one. [cheers and applause] i think our president looks at america and thinks that our time of the greatness is past in some respects, and so he reaches out to some of the world's worst actors. remember, he said he was going to visit in his first year ahmadinejad and castro. kim jong il was one of those he was going to visit, and how did they respond? they said, no, thank you. [laughter] distancing ourselves from our friends has not made america a stronger and more respected nation in the world. the right course for america is to stand by our principles and to stand by those nations, and i will stand by our allies and our friends.

[cheers and applause] he went around the world and said that america had been dismissive of other nations, that we had dictated to other nations. no, mr. president, america has freed other nations from dictators. i will not apologize for the united states of america. [cheers and applause] [crowd chanting "mitt, mitt!"] he has one place he seems to want to cut. very interesting. the military. he has cut in the most recent proposal about $450 billion from our military budget over the next decade. you realize, our navy is smaller than at any time since 1917? our air force is smaller than any time since it was founded in 1947. at a time when the world is not

safer, look around the world. is north korea safer? what i mean by that, are we safer from north korea? no, they're in transition with a new leader right now. he knows what could happen. we have china saying the would have the south china sea. and almost half of the world trade goes through the south china sea. they are saying our nation would have to get permission from them to go through the south china sea. go across the world, you have got pakistan in a state of tumult with 100 nuclear weapons, and you have the arab spring in full bloom, and some going well and some not going well. there are threats and challenges around the world. for them to shrink our military is unthinkable. he is saying we should reduce our personnel by 100,000, slowing down the number of aircraft that we build, reducing the number of ships that we build. that is the wrong way that we go. my view is a very different course. i believe america is the greatest ally that peace has ever had. [cheers and applause]

i believe that it is essential -- i believe it is essential, i believe that it is essential that we invest in our military to make sure it is so strong that nobody would think of testing it, so i want to add personnel to our active duty personnel, to our armed services. i want to add ships. i want to go from building nine per year to 15 per year. i want to build the new aircraft. i want to get more of those, not fewer of those. i want to make sure it is strong. there is a lot of waste, we all know that. i am going to go after that waste, but i am not going to take that money to pay for some program that he comes up with. i want to take that money to rebuild america. there is the care for our veterans and the way they deserve to be treated. [cheers and applause] this is a time of choice.

this is a time of choice in america about which course we're going to go down, and by the way, the republicans running for president, we agree in the general direction of the course. we have differing views, but by and large, the other fellows agree on most of the things that we mentioned, but we have different experiences. what we need is not just someone who says we agree but someone who says i know how to lead. [cheers and applause] the speaker had one chance to lead our party in 1994. he came in, and after four years, he had to resign in disgrace. and he did not serve our party. by the way, but the time he left the speakership, his approval was 18%. it did not work out so well.

if you are judging someone, if you have ever tried to hire someone for a job, you look at not only what they say but what they have done and what their record is, and his record is one of failed leadership. we do not need someone who can speak well perhaps or who can say something we agree with but who is someone who does not have the experience of being an effective leader. [cheers and applause] let me be first to acknowledge, i am not perfect. you may not agree with everything i have done or every position i have, but this i can tell you. i have had the chance to lead four things in my life. one, a business that got in trouble. i helped turn it around. number two, helped start a business that became highly successful, and number three, i went off to the olympics, helping to turn them around, and number four, took the reins as the governor of a state that was struggling at that time, got it back on track, put in place a budget, established a rainy day fund, so i have learned from that experience. i believe that america needs a leader that has led

successfully, and i have, and i will lead this nation back to greatness. [cheers and applause] i love this country. i love this country. as a boy, as a boy, my parents took me around the country to see the beauty of america. i fell in love with the country as a little boy. we came to cypress gardens in florida, went west and saw the sequoias, the mountains. the oceans. what a great experience that was. and over my lifetime, and then i fall in love with the people of america, getting a chance to see americans, and day in and day out, you recognize what an extraordinary land this is. what makes this the most powerful nation in the world is not, somehow, the dna of americans is not different. what makes us different is the when the founders wrote "the

declaration of independence," they said this would be an unusual nation. they said in this nation, and in all others, by the way, the creator gave us inalienable rights, among them life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. in this land, in this land, we would not just say those words. we would live those words. in america, people would pursue their happiness as they would choose, so all over the world, innovators, pioneers, people who believe in a future for their children and grandchildren, they came here. this was the land of opportunity. it still is the land of opportunity. i believe these principles make us a powerhouse nation and an exceptional nation. i feel, right now, i feel it is critical that we hold true. that we do not abandon them in a time of stress. i love those principles. i love the hymns of america. our national anthem.

i love the song "america the beautiful." "oh, beautiful for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain, for purple mountains' majesty, above the fruited plain." you know those words. i used to joke in iowa that the amber waves of grain accounted for corn. liberating -- who love mercy more than life. our veterans and the armed services personnel, please raise your hands. national guard, reservists. [cheers and applause] wow, look at that group. thank you. family members. thank you for your service. there is one more verse.

let me mention. "oh, beautiful the patriot's dream, that sees beyond the years" the founders of this country, when they crafted this, they were not drafting thoughts of a temporary nature, but instead laying out a vision of permanence, an enduring vision for america. this is not the time for us to abandon those principles. it is time for us to return to those principles, to fight for freedom, free enterprise, to make sure our constitution remains the blueprint of america going forward. [cheers and applause] i am convinced -- [crowd chanting, "mitt, mitt!"] i am convinced that if we have leaders understand and love the constitution, "declaration of independence," and the principles of america, if we have leaders that will tell the truth and live with integrity and rely on the patriotism of the american people that we will rise to the occasion as we

always have in the past, and despite our challenges, we will overcome them, remains strong, make permanent the greatness of america, and keep america the shining city on a hill. i will do that. with your help. thank you, guys. thank you. vote on tuesday. [cheers and applause] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- ♪

♪

"born free" from kid rock fast, on a rough road riding high, through the mountains climbing twisting, turning further from my home. young, like a new moon rising fierce, through the rain and lightning wandering out into this great unknown. and i don't want no one to cry, but tell 'em if i don't survive:

♪ [chorus:] i was born free! i was booooooorn free i was born free, born free. free, like a river raging strong, if the wind i'm facing. chasing dreams and racing fathered time. deep like the grandest canyon, wild like an untamed stallion. if you can't see my heart you must be blind. you can knock me down and watch me bleed but you can't keep no chains on me. [chorus:] i was born free! i was booooooorn free i was born free, born free. and i'm not good at long goodbyes, but look down deep into my eyes, i was born free! calm, facing danger, lost like an unknown stranger, grateful, for my time with no regrets. close to my destination, tired, frail and achin', waitin' patiently for the sun to set. and when it's done believe that i will yell it from that mountain highhh! [chorus:] i was born free! i was booooooorn free i was born free, born free.

i will bow to shining seas and celebrate god's grace on me! oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh (repeats) phil collins "sussudio" there's this girl that's been on my mind all the time, sussudio oh oh

now she don't even know my name but i think she likes me just the same sussudio oh oh oh if she called me i'd be there i'd come running anywhere she's all i need, all my life i feel so good if i just say the word sussudio, just say the word oh sussudio now i know that i'm too young my love has just begun sussudio oh oh

ooh give me a chance, give me a sign i'll show her anytime sussudio oh oh ah, i've just got to have her, have her now i've got to get closer but i don't know how she makes me nervous and makes me scared but i feel so good if i just say the word sussudio just say the word oh sussudio, oh

ah, she's all i need all of my life i feel so good if i just say the word sussudio i just say the word oh sussudio i just say the word oh sussudio i'll say the word sussudio oh oh oh just say the word

♪ ♪ ♪ [celebration"

[kool & the gang's "celebration"] celebrate good times, and celebrate good times, on --, c'mon. there's a party going on right here. a celebration to last throughout the year so bring your good times and your laughter to were going to celebrate and party with you , now -- celebrate let's all celebrate and have a good time celebration

we are going to celebrate and have a good time it's time to get together it's up to you, what's your pleasure? everyone around the world, come on! celebration. ooh ooh. celebrate good times, come on. it's a celebration celebrate good times,,. let's celebrate. we're going to have a good time tonight let's celebrate, it's all right we're going to have a good time tonight let's celebrate, it's all right.

have ay, we're going to good time tonight, let's celebrate, it's all right. have a good time tonight, let's celebrate, it's all right. ♪ ♪ w whoo whoo! celebrate good times,,. ,, celebrate good times,,. come on. it's a celebration. celebrate good times, come opn. come on and celebrate tonight

does every day is going to be all right. let's celebrate. celebrate good times, come on. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

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♪ ♪ "higher andon's higher'] ♪ ♪

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♪ ♪ [no audio] {crowd noise] guest

michael reagan will speak today and mitt romney will be at a campaign rally after 6:00 eastern. both of those are alive today are here on c-span. more resources and the presidential race, use the campaign 2012 website to watch video of the candidates in florida and see what they have said on issues important to you and read the latest from the candidates, political reporters, and people like you from social media sites at c-span.org/ campaign 2012. >> this week on "q & a", author michael hastings discusses his new book "the operators." new book "the operators."