>> thank you. >> there we go. thank you. where is the big guy? >> he is home with the kids. we are so proud of view -- of you. thank you so much. >> thank you. come here.

there you go. thank you. how are you? there we go. thank you. there you go. thank you how are you? >>. but -- good luck. we are praying for you. >> there you go.

thanks. all right. >> give it to me. i will take it. >> there you go. >> i am one of your coordinators'. it is nice to meet you. thank you. it is so nice to meet you. thank you so much. >> can i sign that for you?

>> that would be awesome. >> there you go. >> what do you tell rick santorum? he is going to vote for you in his first election. god bless. >> thank you. >> can i give you a hug? >> thank you. >> you are one of my heroes,

senator. the best of luck. >> i am not going to have the time. >> thank you. >> we love you and god bless you. >> family research council. god bless you. you are the true conservative. >> there you go. >> thank you.

thank you. >> it is nice to meet you, senator. >> can i give you a quick suggestion? >> move it along. >> sorry. >> have your cameras ready. >> we appreciate your help in ohio. thank you. >> could i get a quick signature? >> ok. >> thank you so much.

>> look over here. >> thank you. thank you. where do you live? >> north carolina. thank you. you have my vote. >> all righty. >> do you remember when i said you need to run for president? and here you are. good luck. i feel honored. thank you.

>> right over here. thank you. >> congratulations. >> we are not done. >> thank you. >> you are welcome. he would be happy to help you. give your card to him. take care. >> thank you.

>> the best of what -- luck. thank you. nice to meet you. thank you. >> all right. thank you. >> you are welcome. >> thank you. >> got to keep moving. >> i understand. >> there we go. >> thank you.

>> we love you so much. you were in my state yesterday, oklahoma, tulsa. we are praying for you. >> were you born in virginia? >> the va kept me off the ballot -- virginia captain me off the ballot -- virginia kept me off the ballot. happy birthday. >> thank you. >> i am going to vote for you in maryland.

>> i blew up balloons for you 12 years ago in allentown. >> it is nice to meet you. >> all righty. there you go. >> thank you. >> this way. >> senator, let me get one of you and gary. let me know when he is ready.

>> we're looking forward to you actually coming here. >> let me get one with gary. >> it is much better that way. perfect. there you go. thank you. >> right over here. >> thank you so much.

>> thank you. god bless you. we are behind you. i am from tennessee. >> we are pulling them out. we are not moving fast. >> we do not have a camera. >> over year -- over here. >> right over here. >> i really appreciate it. good luck to you. who would i talk to about helping you out in pennsylvania?

>> thank you. >> ok, thanks. >> there you go. >> i appreciate it. thanks so much. >> thank you. >> we have been watching rick santorum at the meet and greet in washington, d.c. it is part of the conservative

political action conference. our live coverage will continue this afternoon. we will hear from newt gingrich and later this evening from wisconsin gov. republican scott walker. tomorrow, we will bring you coverage beginning with senator john cornyn. grover norquist will speak as well. the poll will be announced tomorrow afternoon at 4:15. all that coverage will be live on c-span. we're going to open up our phone lines to get your thoughts on the cpac gathering. we will ask you about social issues in the government campaign. in the last week, you have had the overturning of proposition 8 in california and the change in the health department ruling on coverage of contraception in health care plans. here are the numbers to call.

we will continue to take a look at the twitter comments. here is one that says rick santorum speaks from the heart. the straw poll will be announced tomorrow. mitt romney won three in a row in 2007. for the past few years, it has been won by ron paul. he is not at this event. his son did speak last night. we will get to your calls in a minute. we want to bring you president obama's comments reversing the proposed rule on health care coverage and contraception.

here is what the president had to say. >> it sounds pretty good. hello, everybody. [laughter] a was actually going to say good morning. it is afternoon by now. as part of the health care reform law and i signed last year, all insurance coverage plans are required to cover preventive care at no cost. that means free checkups, free mammograms, free immunization, and other services. we fought for this because it saves lives and money for families, businesses, government, for everybody. that is because it is a lot cheaper to prevent an illness than to treat one. we also accepted a recommendation from the experts at the institute of medicine that when it comes to women, preventive care should include

coverage of contraceptive services such as birth control. doctors often prescribe contraception as a way to reduce the risk of cancers and treat a variety of different ailments. we know the overall cost of health care is lower when women have access to contraceptive services. nearly 99% of all women have relied on contraception at some point in their lives. yet more than half of all women between the ages of 18 and 34 have struggled to afford it. for all of these reasons, we decided to follow the judgement of the nation's leading medical experts and make sure that free preventive care includes access to free contraceptive care, whether you are a teacher, a nurse, or a janitor. no woman's health should depend on who she is, where she works,

or how much money she makes. everyone should be in control of the decisions that affect her own health. this basic principle is already the law in 28 states across the country. as we move to implement the rule, we have been mindful there is another principle at stake. that is the principle of religious liberty, the right enshrined in our constitution. as a citizen and as a christian, i cherish this right. my first job in chicago was working with catholic parishes in poor neighborhoods. my salary was funded by a grant from the arm of the catholic church. i saw local churches often did more good for a community than a government program ever could. i know how important the work the face based organizations -- i know how important the work of

the faith-based organizations is. some have religious and objectives -- religious objections to covering contraception for employees. we originally exempted all churches from the requirement. it was an exemption that eight states did not already have. from the beginning of the process, i spoke directly to various catholic officials. i promised that before finalizing the rule as it applied to them, we would spend the next year working with institutions like catholic hospitals and universities to find a solution that protects religious liberty and ensures that everyone has access to the care she needs -- every woman has access to the care she needs. after the concerns raised over the last few weeks and the cynical desire of some to make

this into a political football, it became clear that spending months hammering out a solution would not be an option. we need to move this faster. last week, and directed the department of health and human services to speed up the process. we would not spend a year doing this. we would spend a week or two doing this. today we have reached a decision on how to move forward. under the rule, women will still have access to free preventive care that includes contraceptive services no matter where they were. the core principle remains. if a woman's employer is a charity or hospital with a religious objection to providing contraceptive services as part of their health plan, the insurance company will be required to reach out and offer the woman contraceptive care free of charge without copays

and without hassles. the result will be the religious organizations will not have to pay for these services and no religious this edition will have to provide these services directly. let me repeat. these employers will not have to pay for or provide contraceptive services. but women who work in these institutions will have access to free contraceptive services just like other women. they will no longer have to pay hundreds of dollars a year that could go towards paying the rent or buying groceries. i have been confident from the start we could work out a sensible approach, just as i promised. some folks in washington want to treat this as another political wedge issue, but it should not be. i never saw it that way. this is an issue where people of goodwill on both sides of the debate have been sorting

through complicated questions to find a solution that works for everyone. with today's announcement, we have done that. religious liberty will be protected and a law that requires three preventive care will not discriminate against women. we live in a pluralistic society. we will not agree on every single issue or share every belief. that does not mean we have to choose between individual liberty and basic fairness for all americans. we're unique among all nations for having been founded upon both of these principles. our obligation as citizens is to carry them forward. i have complete faith that we can do that. thank you very much, everybody. >> the announcement today, the white house announced that religious employers will not have to cover birth control for their employees.

instead, the government will demand that insurance companies be directly responsible for providing free contraception. we're going to open up the phone lines in a little bit, asking you about social issues and the 2012 campaign. we will show you a panel discussion from this morning coming up. before we get to your calls, we wanted to show you some comments from mike huckabee on the campaign and social issues. >> i want to begin today doing something you probably did not think was going to happen at cpac. i want to say a great big "thank you" to president obama. you have done more than any person in the entire gop field to bring this party to unity and

energized this party as a result of your attack on religious liberty and the attack on the personhood of every human being in america. [applause] thank you for doing what none of us republicans apparently could get done. single-handedly, the president's attempt to trample the constitution and the fact that there is an explicit wording that he apparently did not get in night. civics -- in ninth grade civics says the the government will not prohibit the exercise religious beliefs. it is time that we tell them we will elect a new president, a new congress, repeal obamacare

and stand up for life and liberty for every single american. the first amendment is pretty clear. it tells congress cannot do anything, should not do anything, will not do anything that prefers or prohibits people's freedom to exercise their own faith. the fact that pathless -- catholic hospitals or any organization would be required to provide contraceptive services and plan b apportioned -- abortion pills is a direct violation of the first amendment. i heard yesterday that ewtn is filing a lawsuit. for that, i am grateful. [applause]

i remember vividly when john kennedy said we're all berliners. in many ways, thanks to president obama, we are all catholics now. [applause] we're all standing together. quite frankly, a lot of people thought this election would centers solely on the economy. many people said we do not want to hear about these "social issues." let me be very blunt with you. whether this is popular not, i do not care. i am not running for anything, i can say anything i want. it is a refreshing position to be in. [applause] one thing the actions of the president and secretary have shown us is that morality matters even more than money because we're there is a nation that has lost its morals, that

is a nation that will freely give up its money. if we give up the basic right to life, we will certainly give up those things in our pockets. let us never act as if somehow the simple idea of how much money we get to keep is more important than whether or not we keep our very lives and liberties under the constitution of the united states. lose those and money will not matter. that is what happened this week to remind us of that great tie- in between the two. >> that was mike huckabee from this morning. we will show you all of his comments in a few minutes. his statement was the morality matters even more than money. that frames what we're going to talk about. that is a look at social issues versus economic and other issues in the 2012 campaign.

a number of reporters are writing about a shift in what is important in the campaign. the miami herald wrote that abortion and gay marriage are at the center of the discourse with the improving economy pushed to the background. what are your thoughts? caller: i think the only reason why social issues are taking the lead is because politics are pushing them up there. anybody without a job is not going to want to talk about the right to have an abortion or not. they are worried about where their next meal will come from.

they want to push the social issues up to the front runner. i disagree with them. the country is to the point where nobody has a problem with having the freedom of religion. the problem is when they want to use religion to take a way other people's rights of freedom of choice. it gets to the point where they need to focus on things weigh more important as far as the debt, foreign policy going on. i do not see that abortion and whether you have the right to use birth control or not, i do not think that should be at the top of the list for the presidential campaign. host: do you have a candidate you are supporting? caller: i am a big time ron paul supporter because he has always stuck to the constitution. if people would use it the way

it was supposed to be used, you would find a lot of the answers to these questions are in theire and there is no reason to have these debates. host: roger is on the line from ohio. caller: i called in earlier for rick santorum. host: i think you have been waiting. go ahead and make your comments. what do you think about the topic we're talking about, social issues? caller: social issues are very important. if you cannot trust the candidate on his moral standings, he will lie to you about everything else. he will say whatever he thinks the people want to hear. to have somebody running who says this is the way i live my life and how i want to do things is very important.

that gives me an idea of what they will do in the white house. host: roger is supporting rick santorum. he did speak earlier to the gathering at cpac. we will show you that later. carolyn is from los angeles, a democratic caller. caller: and just listened to the president -- i just listened to the president's news conference and was impressed with how deftly handled the situation. he has taken care of it with his usual calm approach. it has made the republican candidates look hysterical at the way they have reacted to this. i know it is all fair in love and politics, but i think it has made them look very hysterical. i think it made him look his usual calm self.

i think that bodes well for him in the election. host: jupiter, fla., is on the independent line. caller: i have been holding on the line trying to get to you. host: you are on, josephine. what do you think about social issues becoming more prominent? caller: they should be. obama said before he was elected there would be no lobbyists. they are still there. let me first say this. i am tired of listening to these people who are these democrats. all they do is to mean the republicans -- demean the republicans. i could start the meaning the democrats from the top on down. the only person who can deliver the knockout punch is newt gingrich.

host: you will get a chance to hear from newt gingrich later this afternoon. next, we hear from cory on the republican line from indiana. caller: i really have a problem with our president making these promises. the only thing he can promise that is free -- he has promised the insurance companies will not charge. that is false. the only thing you can promise that a third party will provide for free is a smile. somebody will be paying for those services. he is doing smoke and mirrors for people. it is really sad. host: under the changes, religious employers will not have to cover contraception for their employees. instead, the government will demand that insurance companies be directly responsible for free

contraception. the president did sign into law a bill that was the last piece of legislation of gabrielle giffords that dealt with cross- border smuggling between the u.s. and mexico. lisa in hyde park, mass., is on the democrats' line. caller: i have been waiting for a long time to make a statement. i am personally a democrat. i would like to make a statement on what was said today. i am a very religious person. the catholics and christians need to do something about children who are here in the world not being taken care of or

being left behind. if there is a way to help someone to keep that from not happening, that sounds like a good idea to where they are not harming anyone or trying to find a solution to the problem. if you have children and cannot take care of them, and have a way to do something about it, that sounds like a good thing to do. host: the conversation continues online. we're asking about the republican presidential candidates. three out of the four major candidates have spoken at cpac. rand paul spoke for his father last night. kara is on the republican line. caller: abortion is the biggest genocide in human history. 53 million unborn babies have

been killed, rip apart and poisoned since 1973. do not be fooled by what obama is saying today. this is not a reversal of the horrific policy to force religious organizations to fund abortions. what is going on is he is having the insurance companies pay for it. who pays for the insurance company coverage? the religious organization. the religious organization is still being forced to completely violates their own religious beliefs and religious freedom by funding the murder of babies for abortions and contraception. host: we appreciate your input. we want to get a few more phone calls before we wrap it up. nathan is on the independent line. caller: there is an argument

that ron paul is unelectable. i think the opposite is true. the other candidates not supporting his position will keep them from getting ron paul's supporters' votes. rick santorum said not compromising on your principles is very important. i think that is true. the other candidates have compromised on their principles. ron paul is my candidate. i will only go to the polls for him. i will not compromise on my principles. it seems like the other candidates were for the bailout at one time. now they are trying to speak to conservatives. less government is the only

answer to the problem. host: ron paul did not speak to the conference. rand pual spoke last night. caller: all i hear is attack. i think the bilderberg group is behind all the republicans. host: what makes you think that? caller: they want to get rid of government. they want to have one group of people rule the whole world. that is why they're trying to do away with the middle class. host: emily is in denver on the republican line. caller: we go through cycles.

with fdr, we went through a war cycle. afterward, we went through the economy. the wars in iraq and afghanistan are over so we focus on the economy. i still think the economy is pretty terrible. that is why we're dishing on social issues. we have a social candidate, rick santorum. host: if you look ahead nine months from now when the story is written about the 2012 election, do you think social issues will have been more dominant or the economy? caller: social issues. the economy is getting much better. host: thank you for all of your calls. you can find out more, comment and vote online. our coverage will pick up again at 4:10 when we will hear from

newt gingrich. later tonight, scott walker, the governor of wisconsin. john cornyn, ore. norquist, and the release of the presidential straw poll. mitt romney won the three years in a row. ron paul has won the last two straw polls at cpac. we're going to bring in much of the morning discussion including former gov. mike huckabee and a panel discussion on social issues in the 2012 campaign. ♪ >> thank you very much. welcome to the second day of cpac. what an honor it is to be here.

i want to begin by doing something you probably did not think would happen at cpac. i want to say a great big "thank you" to president obama because you have done more than any person in the entire gop field to bring this party to unity and energize this party as a result of your attacks on religious liberty and the attack on the personhood of every human being in america. [applause] thank you for doing what none of us republicans could get done. single-handedly, the president's attempt to trample the constitution and the fact that there is an explicit kind of wording that he apparently

did not get in civics that the rest of us must have heard. the first amendment says congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. obamacare precisely did that. it is time we tell him and congress that we will elect a new president, a new congress, repeal obamacare, and stand up for lice and -- and stand up for life and liberty for every single american. the first amendment is pretty clear in that it tells congress cannot do anything that either prefers or prohibits people's freedom to exercise their own faith. the fact that catholic hospitals, any organization

would be required to provide contraceptive services, plan b abortion pills, and other services outside the conscience of people of faith is a direct violation of the first amendment. i heard that dwpn is filing a lawsuit. for that, i am grateful. [applause] i remember vividly when john kennedy said we're all berliners. in many ways, thanks to president obama, we're all catholics now. we're all standing together. growing up a balladist in the south, i never thought i would see the day -- growing up a baptist in the south, i never thought i would see the day i would stand up in front of a group of people and say we are all catholics. [laughter]

if cpac is giving out awards, they should give a person of the year award to kathleen sebelius. she has given us a reason to rally. i think it is important that we thank those who helped bring our party together and make it so that we will go toward a victory in the white house, congress, and 60 votes in the senate to get a strong majority across washington. [applause] there is one other thing for which i want to say thanks to president obama. a lot of people thought this election would centers solely on

the economy. many people said we do not want to hear about these "social issues." let me be very blunt with you. i do not care if this is a popular statement. i am not running for anything. i can say anything i want. it is a refresh in position to be in. one thing the actions of the president and secretary have shown us is that morality matters even more than money because we're there is a nation who has lost its morals, that is a nation that will freely give up its money. if we give up the basic right to life, we will certainly give up those things in our pockets. let us never act as if somehow the idea of how much money we get to keep is more important than whether or not we keep our very lives and liberties under the constitution of the united states. lose those and money will not matter.

that is what has happened this week to remind us of that great tie-in between the two. [applause] just as the constitution expressly prohibited congress from ever making a law that would prefer or prohibit the free exercise of anybody's faith, the declaration of independence was crystal clear when it gave us the foundation of our liberty and freedom. in 1776 when the declaration of independence was signed, these were radical words. we hold these truths to be self- evident that all men are created equal. they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, among these life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. sometimes in the course of 240 years, we tend to forget what those words really mean.

we hold these truths to be self- evident. nobody has to explain to us. nobody has to amplify them for us because they are so obvious, so absolutely clear that we recognize the truth of them without the expression of them. all men are created equal. in 1776, that was radical. up until that time, people were not considered equal. they were more or less equal by way of how much property they own or what their last name was, where they lived, what occupation they held. some people were considered more valuable than others for temporal things the regime in manifestations. most of our founders came from a sense of nobility and would have justified perpetuating their own position in society as being of

more value than the people rejected that and said that all of us are created equal and endowed by our creator with unalienable rights. that means they cannot be taken from us by the government because the government did not give them to lessen the first place. a creator gave us the rights. government's only job is to secure and protect the rights given by god. if we ever believed government is our god, we can certainly believe that government is free to come and take the rights we have. the idea that we can separate base from freedom -- separate faith from freedom is a ridiculously not leave -- ridiculously naive idea.

we are one nation under god. the idea of our quality of life is the essence of who we are as americans. it took us a long time to get to the place where we applied it appropriately. women did not get the vote for 150 years. african-americans were not given full freedom until the 1970's. that is a hard part of our history. nevertheless, the framework was there all along. it was the idea that no person is worth more than another and no person is worth less than another. i am not pro-life because of politics. i am political because i am pro- life. i do not want this country to ever fall back against the position that it was founded upon. that is that every human life from the moment of conception, from the moment it became a creation of god, when the

chromosomes come together, it is not an appendage of the mother because it would share of characteristics which it most certainly does not. biologically, scientifically, that is a live from the moment it is conceived. it is a unique life. it is a human life. [applause] the reason is a unique and human life and cannot be anything else is because the irrefutable science is that this life becomes the dna schedule at the moment of conception can never become a dolphin. it only has the capacity to be fully developed into the human beings we are today. it is a human being because that is what it started out to be and that is what it remains. people say it is not looking like a human at that point. a baby and an old man do not look the same, but they are still human, my friend.

[applause] that may not be entirely true. a lot of old men look like a little baby. [laughter] and they drool all over themselves, so maybe there is some truth to that. the value of our lives is not in what we own. it is in who has created us. i understand the economy is going to be a centerpiece of this election cycle. that is fine. it should be. i also want to make it clear that i will never vote for someone who does not respect the sanctity of human life because i believe if a person does not respect your life, they ultimately will not respect the liberty and sense of equality

that should be extended to every single american living under our constitutional form of government. i want to invite you all to the screening of the "gift of life" movie. i think it is a powerful tool to share. it is unlike any pro-life film i have never seen or been a part of. it is not so much about the what of the issue of life, but rather the why. the stories are compelling and powerful. i hope you have a chance to go to the urban marshall theater and see the screen. it will be one of the most living hours you will spend at cpac. let me also encourage you to read a book by andy andrews. it takes 15 minutes to read.

i wish i had written it. andy is going to sell a lot of these. he should. it is a powerful story. it is simple. "how do you kill 11 million people?" how do you do it? you lied to them. the reason so many things happen in this country, if we're willing to believe lies told to us by people who want to be our leaders, it is not hard to ultimately come to the place where people will march to their own destruction. let us not be an american people who marched to the destruction of our own freedoms and liberties because we believe the lies we are told. instead, we researched the truth. we discover the truth. we absolutely demand the truth from those who want to serve us. since 1973, we have seen the

termination of some 50 million fellow americans who never saw their first light of day and never took their first breath. 50 million that we know of. when i hear people talking about how we have to import labour into our country because we do not have the labor force necessary, we had 50 million people who would have been a part of our labour force that we killed. what happened to them? who would they have been? what would they have done? when we devalue a life that is not born, we ultimately devalue a life that is born. one reason we see so much anger and hostility is because many workers are treated as expendable and disposable.

it used to be that there was a sense that if you were loyal to the company, the company would be loyal to you. if you have a pension, it would be protected. if you had a pay plan, it would be protected. there were instances where companies could not continue. they went out of business even with the best efforts to keep them alive. generally speaking, americans could go to work for a company in their 20's and retire in their 60's. there would be a low partnership between the workers and the company that was good for the development and building of the middle class of america. why do you think we have come to the place where even though some people are challenged because they are not well enough to their company, what happened to the idea that their companies would be loyal to them as well? what happened to the idea in this country that there would be a sense of partnership in the workplace and not an attitude that every worker is expendable and disposable? why did that happen?

if we believe that life is disposable when is not born, why would we doubt that we would come to the place that we believe american lives are expendable after they are born? the economy of this country is tied in many ways to the belief that people as individuals do not matter. the matter only as a mass. i believe every individual has equality. no government can protect or provide a job. i do not want the government passing a law telling a company what it has to do, but i want companies to act with a sense of responsibility and orality to do what they should do because it is good business and good human behavior. that is the moral responsibility of those who run the businesses. what is really tragic is we have

created a society where we value some more than others. we have made government the referee. we leave our government to decide which businesses will live and which will fail. the government decides big banks and insurance companies will live because we will bail out there irresponsibly managed businesses. the small businesses on main street and the homeowners are left to simply fail and fall because they are not considered equal. when you have the mindset from the government that someone is too big to fail, you have the same mindset that others are too small to matter. what happened to the idea that all of us are created equal, big and small, black and white, rich and poor, strong and weak? the essence of america is that we do not have a government that decides who is strong and who is weak, who lives and dies, we

have an america that referees the game to give us the opportunity to play with fairness. when the guys in the striped jersey put on a team shirt and decide who's going to win the game, the government has become something our founders never intended for it to do. [applause] i was one of the few people four years ago that decried the idea that we were going to bail out companies through tarp. i understand we were told by republicans if we did not do that, the economy would really get in trouble, so we did it. the economy got really, really in trouble anyway. then we set up the ball for obama and the democrats to create a bailout mindset and

mentality. we can blame the democrats, but the republicans were the ones who first put the ball in play. we ought to apologize to america for having created the idea that is a government responsibility to bail out big companies that were not managed well. [applause] i said then and want to say now that it was never an appropriately named tarp. it should have been named the congressional relief access program. i will let you figure it out from there. that is what it was. last week when the president suggested we needed something really significant like the hoover dam, i jumped up and wanted to scream at the television hoping he could hear me as clearly as he heard joe wilson. i wanted him to hear me when i said how could we build a hoover dam when your epa would be more concerned about protecting a lizard than a human life?

help me understand that. [applause] last week at the national prayer breakfast, the president stood and gave the country homily. i was amazed. i did not realize we had elected a theologian to be commander in chief. he believes and said that jesus would want us to pay higher tax rates. [laughter] unlike the president, i do have a degree in religion. i do not recall ever having read in the new testament that jesus was that specific about tax policy. pay them. if youowe taces, pxes

if obama has his way we will have to do a lot of fishing and we hope the fish will be eating a lot of coins. all respect due, he reported giving 1% of his income away in a charity, and he wants to lecture me about being responsible as a steward of my resources. mr. president, last time i checked the bare minimum for a believer is a dime out of a dollar that goes to take care of the or friends. it is the job not of the government, but of christian believers to reach out to people who will need. we will never do that out of a

penny out of a dollar. would rather give that money out of my pocket rather than congress reach into my pocket and take more from me than got is asking. that is absurd. that me say this, in the old testament the bible says willimantic robert -- will a man rob god? you look at their contribution record, look at how a person of believe they have the responsibility to their fellow man. that they're getting is as poor or worse than the president's, this is what you work should realize. dispersant will steal you blind. don't you ever forget it. -- this person will steal you

blind. don't you ever forget it. there is an lot of talk about which candidates are the real conservatives. one of the reasons i am not endorsing one is all of them are more conservative than the opponent they will have in november. personally, i am not interested in the most conservative, because compared to the current occupant of the white house, in the out of them will be so much more conservative, and we need to unite for principal and liberty and let me remind you this. in this country there are people who are hurting. they need a voice. they may think they have one in the white house, but his policies have cost them to the point where you squeeze the handle on the gas pump, i saw

and att that, put $5 in that tank. she came and before i could realize what she was doing, she had started and stopped and driven off. she put $5 in her car. two little kids in her car . she put five dollars in her car because that is all she had. the person who wins the election hiis the one who can tell why te economic policies of the limited taxes will help her fill her take up better than the big government who will not lead us get our own resources and hold us hostage to some middle east tyrant. this is a great country. let's keep it that way. an honor to be with you

today. thank you. ♪ [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] >> welcome, folks. we have an interesting panel, the role of faith, life, and family in our culture and the 2012 elections. let me introduce the panelists. first, marjorie dannenfelser, president of the susan b.

anthony list. we know how important the the list has been to electing members to compress. jordan sekulow. another major leader, timmery. he oversees a network of policy councils. prior, he was a graduate of ohio university. also joining us, andy blom, executive director of the american principles project.

in addition, he has a background including serving executive director as the state affiliate of national right to life. they combined together will have this this gusher and how we should -- how we will have this discussion. the left has told us on the right keep your religion out of politics. the law and the government, politics, law, the government, keep them separate. we have a liberal president and administration, just this last couple of weeks whose are saying if you are not going to do it, we will force it on you. here are examples. the last two weeks they targeted catholic organizations and that affect schools,

hospitals. all because of the power granted not the congress, but to the executive branch from one piece of legislation. it is not just the 2000 hundred -- 2700 pages. there may be a compromise offered. you do not play compromise of the first amendment of the united states. the freedom of the united states is about freedom of religion and keeping the government out of the catholic hospitals and telling them what they need to do. part two, and this supreme court case, the obama department of justice and the attorney general sided with an employee of a religious institution -- called

a ministerial exception. if you are a religious institution and hire somebody like a minister or instructor and you have a specific standpoint they have agreed to teach, and they refuse to do so or change, you can terminate them or ask them to leave, and you do not have to fear of lawsuits. this has been in place since 1872. the obama administration fought it all the way to the supreme court to do away with the ministerial exception. what does that mean? religious institutions would have been a protections whatsoever. they could not say the scented but they taught and class. they say they do not believe with our theology anymore, and they will pay for it. they did not have to join that case. they did. they are saying we told you to get out of politics, but if you are not going to do it, we will

force it down your throats. they told us to be quiet, do not vote your faith. do not mix your feet and their politics and your religious conviction. that should not affect what you do when it comes to the government. that's get to the discussion. you will find it interesting, and it seems like all of us the tables have certainly changed. they are now trying to do what we have refused to do. are you going to let them get away with that or not? let's talk about it. i want to go right to a direct question to marjorie, because what is happening to planned parenthood, not just the komen

foundation issue, but when the president was told by his vice- president and chief of staff this is not the right thing to do. he sided with planned parenthood. that is not a shock, but even when told by his own people, vice president and chief of staff, this is not good before an election. he seems like if planned parenthood pushes it, he will go the distance. when you have that kind of issue hitting us straight forward, why is it this time that planned parenthood is flexing its muscles? is it because of the list in electing pro-life people? >> fundamentally, all these issues, we agree they are -- is a group of people, including

planned parenthood that behave with great conscientiousness. they act like people of conscience. 100% they believe in the principle that reproductive freedoms ought to trust anything else, including religious freedom, whether it is in granting planned parenthood but they want or with planned character, outrage like a petulant teenager when money is taken away from them. it is -- they are instructive. we know what our rights emanate from. they are in doubt. i think we ought to be asking the question back to the feminists and the left, who decides the question they have been asking for a long period of time, the abortion issue, who decides? dq trust what the founders

imbedded in our founding ?ocuments >> what you are seeing again, the flexing of the muscles, komen foundation, in that moment they announced their defunding, regardless of your stance on abortion, but because of the issue with mammograms can and we have a huge whistleblower case moving to the ninth circuit court of appeals, where they try to stop it, and the ninth circuit says this this trial because we have whistle-blowers. you see how komen was rewriting their code, so they could planned to finund

parenthood. now more people than before realize the foundation was funding the world's numberone abortion provider. komen does crape work, but why? why would they switch so quick? >> i am fascinated by the explanations given by a left for all these things, and the explanation on the hhs regulation is, which seek to require contraception in health care programs, the explanation is that this is preventive care. think about that. you have pregnancy is not a disease. fertility is not a sickness. we do not need preventive care for those things. earlier this week there was an article in "the wall street

journal" and the explanation for their side, the pro-abortion side, was remarkable. they said, if you just teach theology it in your religious schools, we do not cover you. if you want to have a broader mission into the world, then you have to abide by these regulations. if you are a catholic teaching institution and you teach theology, not a problem, but if you are then compelled by that theology to go into the world, then we will regulate you against your conscience. there was a catholic commentator who said, we do not go into the world because they are catholic. we go into the world because we are catholic. take that back to the -- to the

source. why did god sent his only begotten son to die for our sins? because he so loved, not just the jews, greeks, gentiles, he so loved the world. so i think the explanations are just incredible, unbelievable, and highly remarkable. >> it is unbelievable that a president who knows people are weird with him on this issue would push it right before an election. we talked about and we have said it that this proves it. the abortion industry control ling majority. there are democrats who voted for "obamacare" who say is a big problem. i want to get to a question, and

i want to tie it back into a few things. the way your organization is set up, your issue is pension reform, and you also married to the emigration to the life issue. when you see these issues and the but you talk about it, it was interesting going through the issues. how does it all fit together? >> >> it all goes back to basic first principles, this panel mentions family. all this goes back to the family. economics goes back to the family. the economy is an issue at the kitchen table, not at the high reaches of government. religion is an issue at the kitchen table. faith is an issue at the kitchen

table. one of our most important projects we call preserve innocence, and is about the same assault going on here against our children in the schools, and our site has been asleep for years, what the government agenda that has -- that is anti- religion, anti-catholic, appallingly sexual is being pushed to the schools with government money. we have a panel coming up on that. see this because there are things going on in our schools, and we wonder how this is happening. every day our children are being indoctrinated in this, and this is not a war against faiths. it is a war between faiths. you have to understand when they do not have a faith in god, they have to believe in something

that makes them feel good. this is an issue of faith for them. this is their fate and the problem we have is they are passionate about their faith. >> something we talked about, fate as an issue. [unintelligible] a lot of people think it would evangelical, but attorneys have been fighting that issue before evangelicals figured this out. we did not want to talk about that and churches. of what to ask a direct question, i was not planning to talk all about planned parenthood, but it happens. right before. we talked about obama's war on religious freedom, and this was the most severe. now he is walking back later today. it is not worth your time.

nobody is going to accept it. what we have seen in all four gop candidates, they have all pledge toneed to defund planned parenthood. some of that is because of the congress makeup and every republican is not pro life. if one of these four comes president, could they repealed the funding of planned presidenparenthood? >> of course, and the reason they would not is because we are holding beck accountable. not only are we talking about

planned parenthood when we would not have a year and a half ago, because of the abuse. we are talking about that now and we can talk all day long. when we hold people accountable like the pro-life democrats who are now in private life, now we hear it they may have regretted their everett, not because they lost, but because they got sold down the river, accountability is everything. >> when it comes to accountability, we told about what this administration would be. never have we had administration this tied to the abortion industry. the health care law, the tip of the iceberg. the power we have seen all coming out of one piece of

legislation that i will get you in a second because it has ramifications on more than just life. tom, i wanted to go to the presidential board citizen links. we know the economy keeps getting to be the top issue, and the governor talked about how important it was to say that no social issues matter. when you talk about to evangelical voters, and for all that activists here, if you do not consider yourself part of that, this is my question -- is enough to have that choice? they will have a choice between big government economic programs and a different alternative. is that enough to get people to the polls this election cycle, or do they have to address the social issues which keep being told that is not why people are voting that day?

what have you picked up to the debate, traveling with the country -- travelling in the country? >> citizen link is a public policy arm that is the focus on the family. we work with family policy councils that are professionally run to handle issues like that. on planned parenthood, whether or not planned parenthood is defunded, is a growing movement led by indiana to defund planned parenthood from getting state dollars, and counsels are able to it reads in elections to improve state legislatures. indiana is a case in point. on the marriage issue as well.

the marriage amendment, defining marriage as got to find it, was held up in the indiana house, which had a narrow majority of democrats. they could not defeat the speaker, but we could turn him into the minority leader, and that is what happened with the 2010 election. when republicans took over, the marriage amendment was passed. his economic spin-off? taxes make people angry. what makes people passionate about this issue of family, and i must say this, there is hardly any issue that is more settled in the mind of people than the definition of marriage. 31 states now have put the

definition of marriage to their voters, and in all 31 states, the average maturity of over 61%, and in politics we got 60% -- we call 60% a landslide. southern states, east, west, even california pit. reporter was saying the ninth circuit which eric which -- which overturned the marriage amended, that only applies to california. a whole lot of people, but what he did not say that most of those people rejected a same-sex marriage by passing proposition 8. the margin of those voting for a marriage with god's definition,

democratic party concession is -- constituencies, provided the margin of victory. that indicates the strength of a marriage as a family issue. to speak's have rights out on issues. what are you telling people this was the right thing to do? let's talk about proposition 8, because for me, and you look at this from a grass-roots, so many of these issues, are not about that issue, because these kind of constitutional reasoning can apply to economic issues, not just social issues. you look at their ruling there, and what they keyed in on, how many of you heard politicians say, including our own president

park -- -- our own president, say they do not approve of marriage, but they approve of civil unions. because california recognizes civil unions, and people have been given full rights, we still do not have marriage. the main court reasoning was you cannot grant every other right and say you cannot use the term as a protection issue. all the politicians who told people it is about the benefits, but will not be marriage, including our own president, if this makes it to the supreme court, and that reasoning stance, the states at least and the district of columbia, who have at least given civil unions, if not full rights to marriage, which before it under what they did by politicians who told them do not worry, this is not want to be marriage, the

effect of this now, you see the grass roots movement. this was the plan all along. people bought into its. you're seeing in the court take all of it, and this gives them reason to say he cannot give -- keep everything and give one thing away. >> we saw where the effort was not to acknowledge gay marriage. it is removed the word "marriage" from the state statutes. they eliminated marriage. we keep -- we have a terrible problem as christians because we keep falling to incrementalism. you get a little, the give and little, and then you are in a situation, if the supreme court blesses the ninth circuit, these

people are really bad, but if the supreme court blesses it, marriage just falls like ominous. >> it is so important what you guys are dwelling on. i want people to understand it. a lot of times on the gay marriage issue, they will say we just want civil unions, not a marriage, civil unions. and then some republicans capitulate, some democrats capitulate, and then the argument is now we are second- class citizens. we want the title of marriage, and you cannot deny that to us. that is the legal strategy, and that is what we have seen, what is happening right now in the colorado legislature. >> we have never seen a better

strategy put in place by the gay rights community. the strategy was people do not want to believe it, and then it hits you, and this is a general question for everybody, and use this to make your final statement, a couple minutes, because it gets back to "obamacare." the tie this to a few different targets, the federal individual mandate targets people. it can