do that lays the foundation for growth and shared prosperity in our country? you ask what you can do to lay the foundation for the private- sector and citizens to create that type of growth and prosperity. one of the things that is stitching for the role of government beyond trying to lady foundation of government for excellent infrastructure and skills of our people is trust. trust in engaging in commerce, trust in the ways that we communicates, trust in the quality of products, trust in the reliability of the currency, trust in the banking system. all of these things are parts of the things that makes us take for granted that we exchange -- the exchanges we take place, the interactions of commerce that

help drive our economy. there is no question that a critical part of that trust is the trust of the flow of information between any of us and the intended recipient of our communication. we have taken for granted that we have lots -- laws that protect our communication through the mail and through the phone. you are not allowed to open someone else's mail. those laws that protect the privacy of communication we take for granted. confidentiality is fundamental to the trust that helps drive our participation in democracy, our desire to weigh in on matters and personal communications, and in economic

commerce and exchange. it makes sense that as we move forward, as technology moves forward, that we ensure that that basic sense of trust is part of the technology of the future and the present. this is not a group that one needs to tell how critical the internet is, not only to our personal communications, to our democratic communications, to our economic communications. i could reach no shortage of statistics that danny gave me of the 50% of gdp created from the internet from 2004-2009, the importance of internet revenue, of the hundreds of thousands of people involved in an ovation

that who are part of our economy and driving our economy. it was appropriate and necessary. for us to build in that level of trust into the internet. the president said, never has privacy been so important today than in the age of the internet. just in the last decade, the internet has been able to renew political engagement by citizens around the globe. much of this innovation is enabled by novel uses of personal information. it is incumbent on us to do what we have done throughout history, apply our timeless values to technology and the circumstances

of our times. this is an area, like many areas, where legislation is appropriate, needed, a fitting. it is also an area where we do not have to wait for legislation. where we citizens have an ability with government and industry and consumer groups to come together and make progress on our own. this is a terrific example of that. what we are doing today is a we cannot wait effort. we are unveiling a consumer bill of rights to spur innovation and have consumer rights protections. i know others will speak more about that. secretary bryson will. we are pleased to recognize the

internet and the media industry to provide users with an easy,1- click way to opt out of online tracking if they want to avoid targeted advertising. many of the companies we use do not track technology. this will make it easier to let users opt out of tracking if they choose. this is the type of example of voluntary internet -- industry actions to increase the trust that is essential to the development of our economy going forward. it lightens the burgeon -- the burden of government. -- enlight -- lighten the burden

of government. we must reject the conclusion that privacy is an outmoded deluge. it has been at the heart of our democracy from its inception. we need it more than ever. it is my pleasure to introduce our secretary of commerce, john bryson . [applause] >> it is a pleasure to be with all of you here in the room today. i thank all of you here. in my years in my private life and what i did prior to coming

here, i had many opportunities to meet with congresswoman mary bono mack. we work together across issues in southern california on issues that had to do with water and other issues. i know that she is a sound an awful legislator. -- thoughtful legislator. [applause] we have not seen each other for some time. it is a great treat. i think you know that the work we are addressing today is the result of bringing together a broad representation of privacy experts, consumer groups, internet companies, and many others. i thank you for being with us. as we all know, millions of

americans shop, sell, a bank, learned, talk, and work on line- learn, talk and work online. the online portion of sales are nearing $200 billion annually. the challenge here is that we have also seen stories of consumer data being lost, compromise, or stolen. privacy and trust online has never been so important. has never been more important to both businesses and consumers than it is now. an increasing number of consumers are concerned about their information being safe and

also being used only as they intended. today, we need strong online protections for consumers. at the same time, we need to provide businesses with principles to help guide their privacy policies and decisions. we need this now. we cannot wait. the consumer privacy bill of rights will help protect consumers' personal data, provide businesses with better guidance on how to meet consumer privacy expectations, and to make sure the internet remains a strong crop -- strong platform or commerce, innovation, and the growth. this group -- this blueprint was created with input from industry, academia, technical experts and includes seven basic protections that consumers

should be able to expect from companies. let me take you through those. i will do it one by one, but briefly. number one, individual control on what kinds of data that companies collect. no. 2, transparency and how those companies plan to double that number two, individual -- transparency and how those companies plan to use that data. the ability of consumers to access and ensure the accuracy of their own data. sixth, reasonable limits on the personal data that online companies try to collect and retain. and seventh, accountability from companies or strong privacy measures. we will be working with congress

to implement this through legislation. we are also moving forward. we feel we just cannot wait. the commerce department's national telecommunications administration -- nti -- i see larry, who is our leader -- that team will meet with businesses and stakeholders. they will work toward consensus on codes of conduct based on this blueprint. what we like about this approach is that it gives us more speed and flexibility than traditional regulatory processes. from there, companies can voluntarily choose whether to adopt these principles. as a former ceo, i know that many of them will have an

incentive to do it. i had that experience. a meaningful action of many wantesses' customers will to seek out strong privacy protections. already, it is great to see that components are being made to tools that allow more individual control. as gene said, this includes the digital advertising alliance and advertising and media companies. finally, we envision that this plan will be of great interest internationally. we plan to support a broad cooperation and consensus on this issue. is global by nature. in closing, i want to underscore that this blueprint

is an important step in fostering a culture of trust and respect for privacy across america's businesses and consumers. thank you very much. i will move onto the introductions. special thanks to jon leibowitz. he does not follow immediately, but i want to recognize the role of the federal trade commission. i want to turn now to stuart ingis, who is the counsel to the digital advertising alliance and what they have been doing to help this along. thank you all very much. [applause] >> thank you and good morning. it is a pleasure to be here and to see so many friends and people who have worked on this issue for so many years.

the digital advertising alliance is a consortium of the largest internet media and marketing companies and associations in the country. it is our pleasure today to have four -- five of the ceo's who have led this initiative for the better part of the last three or four years to get us through the different codes that have been developed and progress. i would like to identify them. randy, nancy, bob, larry. their work here an-d mark rom -- and mark roman . the daa was developed so that consumers can make educated decisions. we have responded to calls from

the department of congress, -- department of commerce and the ftc to develop principles for online advertising and monte site data. these are enforceable codes -- multi-site data. it provides transparency in the form of that blue icon we see all over the internet and corresponding choices to consumers regarding voices of web viewing data about them. we are pleased with the commitments being publicly recognize here today and applauded by the white house, the department of konk -- commerce and the federal trade commission. we are announcing today that the daa will begin work to add browser based header signals to be set of tools by which consumers can exercise their purposes under the daa

principles. once implemented, consumers will have the ability to exercise choice to multi-site data and its collection. we will develop consistent language across browsers that will be simple to use and will describe to consumers the effects of exercising such a choice. finally, the associations that convened the daa are working to ensure proposals put forth in the white paper continue the success in providing toys to consumers and -- choice to consumers. i will turn it over to our leader, jon leibowitz.

[applause] >> thank you, stuart, for your leadership in this area. what a pleasure it is to be here today to spotlight the efforts of the administration, congress, and mary bono is here. the federal trade commission, consumer groups, an industry are working to protect consumers online. at the turn of the century, one gene is deployed lee technology and how evolutionary selling tactics -- one genius deployed technology and revolutionary selling tactics. before everyone panics that larry is about to get a mention

over bill gates, the century was the last century and the person was henry ford. he said it is not the employer who pays the wages. employers only handle the money. it is the customer who pays the wages. he was exactly right. it is all about the consumer. the ftc acknowledges that. we let consumers choose whether they are tracked online. you, as captains of industry, acknowledged it would be stepped up to that challenge. privacying consumers' encourages trust in internet commerce, which deals growth of the cyber economy and pays all of our -- fuels growth of the cyber economy and pays all of our wages. commerce is engaged in extensive

study and research that has resulted in a white house consumer privacy and bill of rights blueprint. danny are here. danny was there at the concession and he is here for the birth. [laughter] i do not think i need to go further with that analogy. members of, but as members of commerce on both sides of the aisle -- congress on both sides of the aisle have demonstrated that they understand how important it is that consumers' personal data be treated with care and respect. protecting privacy online and off is an assistant part of the ftc mensch -- essential part of

the ftc mission. most notably, last year, two of the largest internet companies are required to honor their promise to commit this to hundreds of consumers worldwide and to hire outside monitors to uphold their privacy practices. the ftc has had a policy function. we have focused its like a laser on privacy. last week, we released a report of mobile apps for children. in all cases, parents were not telling parents what data was collected from children. that has to change. no one has the right to keep parents from taking a firm hold of their child's hand as they crossed the information

superhighway. we are working with industry to make sure parents are getting the information they need. the principles underlying most of our work are laid out in a december 2010 draft report on privacy that calls on companies to follow the three principles. privacy by design, more consumer choice, better transparency. how many of you in on his three privacy policies online? that is about 1/30. you are a pretty sophisticated audience. we recommended a do not track system that lets consumers choose what information is collected about them on line and how it is used. a powerful group of leaders have come together to respond to our call. for the past several years, the online advertising industry is working to develop an icon that consumers can click to opt out of receiving targeted ads. the ad industry has received by

italy's from companies that deliver 90% of -- buy ins from companies that deliver 90% of online advertising. more recently, industry has gone further. it has committed to not browsingg consumers' data. it is moving toward simplifying the opt out page is showing that if consumers do elect not to be tracked, that choice stays with them. in a related effort, the companies that make web browsers stepped up to our challenge to give consumers a choice about how they are tracked online. until now, the advertising industry and the browsing vendors have operated on a

parallel track, but separately. with the advertising industry announcing it will honor consumer choices about tracking made through a web browser settings, the two initiatives are beginning to come together. consumers will be able to opt out of tracking through the icon or through the browser settings. america will really be moving further down the road to protecting consumer privacy. while these developments are encouraging, we have to ensure that all companies that track users, including the ones that are not advertisers, are at the table. the world wide web consortium gathered engineers, consumer groups, and participants across the broad technology industry to create a universal standard for do not track. we look forward to their deliberations bearing fruit over the coming year. challenges lie ahead. we all understand there are privacy problems in cyberspace.

we spend a lot of time bringing cases against companies that fail to honor their promise to commitments. the current do not track the initiatives are not yet complete. these issues aside, let's take stock at how far we have come. american business is committed to improving tracking controls and to letting consumers choose how their data is handled and shared, to protecting consumer privacy. henry ford once said, coming together is the beginning. keeping together is progress. working together is success. with the encouragement of this administration, which has recognized the link between protecting privacy online and in gendering trust in internet commerce, it has made a beginning alf coming around one small at 8 senator's do not track -- beginning of coming around one small agency's do not

track initiative. businesses have committed to advance do not track. the president has reminded us that in america, personal privacy is a right. from here, we can see success, which will come if we work toward one common goal. a thriving internet ivar economy filled by the confidence of consumers whose privacy and data is handled with care and respect. let me introduce the extraordinary ellen bloom, who heads federal policy for consumers' unions. [applause] >> i am not so sure about the extraordinary. i will take it. thank you, chairman. it is a pleasure to be here today and be part of this announcement. what we have just heard from our

distinguished speaker is good news for consumers. i am delighted to be here offering support on behalf of my organization, consumers' union, the policy and add the cheese -- and advocacy arm of consumer reports. customers tell us one of the real concerns they have about the internet is privacy. in a recent poll conducted by consumer reports, 80% of consumers tell us they were concerned that online companies may be passing their personal information to third parties without information. if people do not trust that there online information will be handled with care and respect, they are going to be uncomfortable signing up for new services. that is going to be a killer for innovation and growth. today's privacy initiative recognizes this fact. we agree with the administration that companies of privacy

administration would be the best legislation would be ideal. this action today puts us -- privacy legislation would be ideal. this action today puts us on track for controlling how private data is used online. we are pleased that industry is stepping up its efforts to respect consumer privacy choices. we delayed the administration's consumer privacy bill of rights puts the right amount of focus on data collection and its use in giving individuals more information and more control over their information. we are grateful for the price us -- process described today that will be convened by the commerce department. this will bring consumer privacy groups and industry together to develop enforceable privacy codes of conduct. we expect that it will be a loud and forceful voice delay that

process. we are going to do everything to make sure that happens -- powerful voice in that process. the advertising industry will be breathing new life into the do not track tool for consumers. some of the nation's largest media and marketing association have agreed to respect consumer choices. we are pleased with that. this is a welcome step toward having a single, single, persistent tool to opt out of being trapped on line. we hope that day comes soon. we will support the ongoing negotiations. the world wide web consortium to help develop a uniform do not track standard. that is what consumers want and need. we are cursed by today's announcement. we are not ready to rest -- we are encouraged by today's announcement. we want to educate consumers about how their information is used uncollected online and give

individuals the information to make meaningful choices. the internet gives us extraordinary tools to interact with each other and society. it has raised a valid concerns about what is there when it comes to your private information. we look forward to working with the medication, the ftc, and industry to come up with their rules of the best working with the administration, the ftc, and the industry to come up with rules of the roche. -- of the road. thank you. [unintelligibl[applause] >> that is it. it is time to get going. we are in a we cannot wait mode about this issue. you will hear from congress about this issue. as gene said, the internet has come about because of the

corporate as part of the wide range of individuals and organizations that are represented in this room and are gathered together around this room. we are critically dependent on all of you working together to make this happen. to those of you involved in the discussions we have seen tremendous collaborative spirit, flexibility, trust- building, and that as our test forward. i want to close quickly by acknowledging a couple of people at the commerce department including john morris, jake nestor, were shall call on, and joe walsh tester. there are many others. i will leave out a number of people. they have done a tremendous job. they are the reason why this is

here. i wanted to thank all of our colleagues across the white house. shannon got us all organized. is aneesh here? thank you. we look for to the next steps with here, and thank you again for coming. [applause] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] >> fcc chairman jon leibowitz will be our guest tomorrow on "newsmaker" to discuss the proposals you just saw. that is sunday, and because of our live event coverage, it will air at 11:00 a.m. eastern. coming up today, in about a half-hour, back to live

coverage for a discussion on economic growth with the vice president of procter and gamble, a senior fellow and -- fellow from the harvard school business. we have coverage tomorrow live beginning a 9:30 a.m., with a discussion on education and eliminating hunger. at two o'clock 30 p.m. eastern, homeland security and the national guard. live coverage of the national governors' association meeting all weekend long here on c-span. as we just mentioned, live nga coverage resumes in about 25 or 30 minutes, but until then, the opening remarks with governor jack markell and governor dave heineman. they talk about expanding jobs

and economic growth. they speak for about a half hour. good morning, i am delighted to be here with jack markell. is a good friend, and we first met each other about 10 years ago when you're boast -- both surge in s state treasurers. the unique bipartisan nature allows us to have candid conversations with colleagues from across america. >> as governors, we face similar challenges, and our meetings offer us an opportunity to discuss the challenges we face governing our states. every day, governors work with legislature's to find real solutions to real issues. we are redesigning state government to work more

efficiently and effectively. we are finding ways to do more with less, and to deliver better services to our citizens. our citizens expect us to find common sense solutions to their everyday challenges. inaction is unacceptable. we still have our challenges, our differences, do not get me wrong, but our citizens expect us to work together to resolve our differences in a manner that keeps our states going forward. the overall fiscal condition of states has improved, but governors are concerned about the growth of medicaid as it consumes an increasing share of state budgets. medicaid's rapid growth could result in less funding for education, transportation, where public safety. the governors have made significant progress on several fronts. to the council of governors,

the nga, and the department of defense, we were able to resolve long-standing concerns regarding the coordination of state and federal military forces during disaster response. the passage of legislation codifying the dual status commander makes it possible for states to effectively coordinate with federal troops operating within their borders when responding to a natural disaster. we have also worked with the public safety committee to advance an issue that was first raised by the 9/11 commission -- the creation of a nationwide communications network for first responders and public safety. currently, first responders must rely on commercial networks for mobile services, dedicating a portion of the spectrum, providing our first responders with a single communications

network and a device that works seamlessly anywhere in the country. governors and first responders are pleased congress has passed legislation and the president has signed into law. the most important issues for us as governors are economic growth and job creation. it is fundamental to our future. my initiative as chair of the nga is growing state economies. our goal is to provide governors and policymakers with better policy options to assess the economic environment in their state, and create strategies that foster business growth. hi-growth businesses are a driving force -- force of the economy, and a primary source of job creation, prosperity, and economic competitiveness. as governors, we're looking for the best strategy is to

strengthen economic performance. we want to help the private sector growth and create new opportunities for our citizens. we have held three regional economic development summits on this initiative in hartford, connecticut, national, tenn., and seattle, washington. i will host the final summit in april. they have provided the opportunity to learn from experts and business owners about the best strategy is to create an environment focused on the importance of high-growth businesses of all forms, scale- up enterprises, and corporations. it is my pleasure to ask governor jack markell, vice- chair of the association, to say a few words. >> thank you, and i want to say thank you to governor heineman. we have been friends for 14 years now. he has done great work. we expect to have really

productive conversations. for most governors, you do not care where policy comes from, as opposed to where it can take you. we all need bhajans balance. people are looking for work, and they're looking to us as governors for answers. kids in public schools are asking what we will do to give them a better opportunity to have a great future. they could care less which party we come from. they do not care what part of the country we come from. all they care about is that we get the job done. thankfully, a lot of really good answers start with the work governors do with each other, conversations we have with each other, and the work of the national governors' association center for best practices, and i have the opportunity to serve as chair the ideas -- chair. the ideas drive a lot of the discussion we will have this

weekend, and from a lot of work the governors across the country have been doing. the work of the center is funded through federal grants and contracts, as well as private and corporate foundation contributions and the nga's corporate fellowship program. the reason we come to these conferences is because we want to get things done. we want to figure out what might be working in other parts of the country that could work in our states. i will give you a couple of examples. the governor of west virginia helped the state tackle a dropout prevention and recovery legislation. we supported efforts for governor bob mcdonnell in

virginia to help dislocated adults remain competitive. in delaware, we have the opportunity to participate in a three-branch initiative focused on adolescence in foster care, including people from our executive, legislative, and judicial branches, learning models to connect people in foster care with relatives, be adopted, and the like. this is the work government is supposed to do. when we can come together, we can make a real difference. while this particular meeting in washington, and the annual meeting we have every summer in july are the ones that are best-attended, there are more than 70 formal summits and meetings across the year. there are countless opportunities for cooperation and collaboration. if u.s. than any governor what

three issues drive them the most, you would probably get the same answers -- building stronger economies, as governor heineman is working on, improving our schools, and been good stewards of our taxpayers' money there are probably one dozen ways to do that -- money. there are probably one dozen ways to do that, or probably 50 or more of thinking about that. what is so great about this weekend and the opportunities we have with each other is to share those ideas. that is why we are here. i look forward to a productive set of conversations with governors from both parties because we do not care of the good idea comes from the democrat or the republican so long as it put people to work, increase education, or helps be good stewards of taxpayers' money.

>> thank you. we will try to answer your questions. if they're really tough, we will give them to jack. >> does a block grant that grows slower at the rate of inflation help you with medicare problems? >> from my perspective, the answer would be yes. i would prefer more flexibility on a variety of programs in general. other governors may have a differing opinion, but i just would like to have the congress that, as we do in our states, get budgets passed on time, so we know what we are dealing with. >> one of the great things about the weekend when we are great -- together, is we have an opportunity to meet with the president, and last year, the issue of medicaid flexibility

came up because the president brought it up. he said high hear a lot about wanting additional -- he said i hear a lot about wanting additional flexibility. he said all we have to do is say what kind of flexibility we are looking for. we have to understand that not all of the answers are at the federal level. governor patrick of massachusetts, a leader on this, has legislation focusing on getting away from the fee- for-service model. it is something the number of us are following closely. it is about finding the right partnership and recognizing that we have irresponsibility in our own states -- a responsibility in our own states. in my state of the state speech, i spent time talking not just about medicaid, but about the fact that if you think about the number of people in delaware covered with health insurance, taxpayers pick up 40% of them.

we have to do a better job in our state leveraging our roles as been the major procurer of health services. >> yes, sir. >> thank you, governor heineman. just as a follow-up question to that, under the welfare reform legislation pioneered by the governor, and later president reagan, and signed into office by president clinton, welfare was treated as something there was to be a cap put on, and states would have to work within a certain framework on funding it. has anyone discussed, when the president asks what your flexibility is, why not use the very model for welfare and medicaid? >> i think you will see a variety -- welfare on medicaid? >> i think you will see a variety of discussions on that. who knows for sure.

from the governor's perspective, we want more flexibility. local governments do not want one-size-fits-all within the state. we are only asking the federal government to do what most governors tried to do in their state. what you might need to do in a state like nebraska or delaware is different than massachusetts, texas, or california. they have different needs, different demographics. we need the flexibility and we believe in states' rights. >> the issue of flexibility is an interesting one that comes up all of the time. as i said a moment ago, the president said to the governor's directly tell us what kind of flexibility you are looking for i have also heard him talk about it in the -- and i have also heard him talk about

it in the case of education. 10 states have flexibility in the note child left behind waiver. he has said you can get that flexibility, but that should not be understood to be relaxing expectations in terms of what we expect in student achievement. so long as we continue to make progress in doing things the actually lead to student achievement, we will find the flexibility that we seek. [unintelligible] >> the same with medicaid. >> the schools that have been most under-performing, it will not be good enough if we let them continue to under- performance in generations not live up to their potential. >> let me address education for

a moment. it is primarily a state and local responsibility, and in my state, i chair our p-16 effort, preschool through 16 years of schooling, and one of the goals is to eliminate the african- american achievement gap, or the hispanic achievement gap, wherever that might be. more rigorous expectations are critical. parental involvement is important. those are the things we can best do with the state and local level. >> california, the governor is smarting a little bit because the obama administration rejected their waiver request. did that come up at the meeting, or can you characterize how the president is looking at that? >> i did not think it came up in the meeting yesterday.

i think the president and secretary sibelius for that matter, have been very forthcoming in meeting with governors in what they are looking for -- what kind of flexibility we need, and how we are going to make sure we continue to take care of people? if we're just going to drop people off and they're no where to go, that would be a problem. they've been very open and continue to look to governors for our best ideas, republican and democrat alike. >> was there a discussion yesterday about changing the way the nga works with the agenda throughout the year [unintelligible] >> yes. >> can you tell us more about it? >> one of the things jack and i are trying to do is getting

governors to decide policies, not the staff. we want governors to make recommendations. we began the process yesterday. it really started last fall when we had our first executive committee meeting, and we asked the various committees, what your priorities are, and we decided these would be the priorities for the nga, based on what we heard for the governor's -- from the governors, and i think you will see the results of that monday when we vote. >> the people in our states are not all that interested in the policies, committees, and the internal work of the national governors' association, but here's what they care about,

and governor heineman mentioned it a few moments ago. one of the best examples of how we can come together across party lines is what happened with the d-block spectrum. it has to do with the airwaves spectrum. there was uncertainty with what would happen with this block of airwaves. it could have been used for other things, but democratic and republican governors came together with a talented staff and public safety teams and we recognize that if these airwaves could be allocated to public safety, it could mean profound things for the people of our states. for example, imagine if a loved one is injured, in an ambulance, and a medic in an ambulance can have a video camera and can be showing the wound directly to the doctor at the emergency room who was

waiting for the ambulance to get to the hospital? that could save somebody's life. they could be that ready. these are the things that our folks care about. the change in the process that governor heinemann talked about is not a change for the sake of change, but it is to make sure that we are focusing on the things that will make a positive difference in the lives of the people that we serve. [unintelligible] >> say that again. >> will this new approach allow using the directors to lobby? >> first and foremost, we would use our own staff at the nga, but this will give and the staff a clear direction of where the governors are at -- what are the general principles we stand for? secondly, almost every state is going to employ their own people to effectively persuade

congress, relative to a particular issue and how it affects their individual state. to the extent that we can coordinate state and nga staff, i think we can be more effective. it is a little hard for us to see. i'm sorry -- the lights. [unintelligible] >> job creation could be a top policy, and a concern for chinese prudential -- provincial leaders, so you think there are opportunities at the state and provincial levels? thank you. >> i believe the answer is yes. in nebraska while i have been governor we have had a focus on

education and jobs. i've been to china, about a different trade missions and i'm probably going back to asia this fall. we try to work with a variety of countries relative to the opportunities to export more of our goods and services out of nebraska and other states, and have had significant investment for chinese companies into nebraska. anotherrned this from governor. governor markell was talking about how we learn from each other. early on, when i was governor, i learned from another governor, a reverse the trade mission. i've done two of them where we have invited the world to visit nebraska. they have been successful. we have had over 125 business and foreign officials come to nebraska to learn firsthand what we have to offer, and as a result of those visits, many companies decided to invest in

the state of nebraska, and we were very pleased about that. >> absolutely right -- huge opportunities for us to work together, and when we last met as a group in july, there were a number of governors or party secretaries from china that were part of that meeting. we think about that as an opportunity to promote exports, and to attract for investment, like the governor mentioned. i had a chance yesterday to talk with secretary of commerce john bryson, so the u.s. commerce department has recently kicked off a new mission called select usa, and if you think about what the president has talked about with the idea of in-sourcing, and more companies coming back to invest here, select usa is an opportunity for companies around the world were thinking about expanding outside of their home market to make sure the u.s. is on their radar

screen, and we as governors want to make sure our states are on the radar screen. >> governor heineman, there have been some governors, especially republicans, that have voiced concerns that federal government is getting too involved in education through the race to the top program, stimulus funding, and even no child left behind. what is your view on federal and state roles? >> state and local governments have the primary role for education in our country, ok? it goes down to local school boards. the federal government has a limited role.

i want to be careful here. most school districts welcome their funding. they would like a little flexibility in how we use that. i would argue that what massachusetts wants to do with that money is different than what nebraska would do. i think we can all work together when it comes to academic achievement. that should be the focus. more rigor, higher expectations, increased parental involvement -- that is what i have fought for in nebraska. i want the very best teachers i can heavy and the classroom. my wife has been a former elementary school principal and teacher, so this is one i understand well. i lived for over 30 years since we have been married. the commitment we need from teachers, administrators, and parents is critical. i have always said the formula works best, good teachers, plus good parental involvement, =

good learning. we appreciate the funding with as few strings attached as possible. >> to his credit, secretary duncan has been clear about that line, and one of the area's most dates have been involved in is the common core standards. there are some people that say this was a federal initiative. it was absolutely not a federal initiative. secretary duncan could not have been more clear that these were not national standards. this was an effort by states superintendents of education, by governors to work together across state lines to make sure the kids in our state have higher standards for them to meet that are also clear. i think secretary duncan gets a

lot of credit for putting forth policies. in delaware, for example, the state government funded about 70% of education. we have 19 separate school districts, and each of them has an independently-elected school board. it is our view that the people that are closest to the kids generally have a good sense of what is in the best interest of those kids. >> one more question. >> go ahead, sir. you were pointing to someone that i did not see. ok. go ahead. >> one year ago, governors were dealing with severe budget challenges that were controversial. do you feel you have stepped back from the cliff in terms of some of the budget pictures?

>> i think jack and i can remember that when your a new governor, you are trying to learn the process, and all of a sudden you are presented with a significant budget issue. by and large those are addressed by governors across the country, differently, increasing taxes, controlling spending, but at the end of the day i get the sense that governors are feeling a little better that their budget pictures have been proved. i will say this, i've gone through it for seven years, controlling spending is critical, but invest in priorities. education and jobs allow your state to move forward. i think most governors are feeling a little bit better. is the new governor's it

probably just the fact you have a year under your belt and that does help. governor markell? >> of the last 23 months in this country, 3.7 million new jobs have been created, so when governor heineman says the governors are feeling a little bit better, the way we feel generally has a lot to do with the way our people are working or not working. that is what is driving all of us today. that is why governor heineman's initiative was about growing state economies. i have now finished three years. the first year, i came in 2009, and you talk about looking at an abyss, things were in absolute free fall. i think we have stepped back from that. i would not say any of us are feeling great, but things are feeling better. we are moving in the right direction, and we also recognize that we cannot afford to just wait for things to get better. everyone of us is interested in doing what we can to put more people back to work in our states.

>> thank you very much for being here this morning. [applause] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] >> here is a live look at the room where the nga have in their

meeting. we are covering this live all weekend. this is taking place in washington, d.c.. this is live coverage. >> economic growth in the nga. we are delighted to have the participants with us. this will be an outstanding discussion on what we need to do on the key topic, creating jobs and growth. governor nixon and i are leading this. i want to draw attention to how incredible this moment it is for the two of oz. today, in one hour, the last game between kansas university and m.u. takes place. this is a border rivalry that goes back 120 years.

i think we will whip you. he will get the microphone in a little while. >> he decided to join a good conference. do you have a football team out there? >> we have a few sports of care. they have decided to go another way. they will have a nice rivalry meeting. that is why this meeting will end on tape at -- on time. we will talk about economic development today. it is a key hearing. with that, along to make sure that we move forward on a good clip, and get a good sense from participants here, the governors, and the people that will be testifying.

i want to introduce the edc committee staff director, david, thank you for your worth. today's session complement's , andmorning's session governor heineman's initiative, which is to provide governors and other state policy-makers with better policies to improve the economic environment in their state, and practical strategies designed to foster business, growth, and growing the economy turned we will discuss efforts to reach it economy. we will discuss efforts to help -- economy. we will discuss efforts to drive an entrepreneur's growth.

opportunities exist for governors to help increase the attractiveness of our states, and support the entrepreneur who creates new, innovative technology and systems. governor's lead the way in creating a culture that we need in america. my state, we are focused on this and what we can do to create a better business environment. we are focusing on key economic assets and clusters we have, implementing policies to help our businesses take advantages of those policies and strengths, facilitating relationships between universities and private research institutions, creating a new office focus on retailing out-dated regulations, championed education and training, and lower in personal income taxes to create a better environment.

-- lowering personal income taxes to create a better environment. technological innovation often happens faster than a government can process. this does not mean that government plays no role in a healthy climate for an provideseur, but it's -- it provides lessons that could move us forward as states and as a country. hour session will offer us a chance to distill universal level -- hour session will offer us to distill universal lessons and learn from successful entrepreneurs, researchers, and others. it is something we have to do as a country. was that, i want to invite governor nixon for additional comments. >> thank you. and thank you to the jayhawks for losing to us in football and

basketball this year. for those on c-span, we will complete this on time. there is such an audience -- crossover audience with the c- span audience and the n.c.a.a. audience. missouri is known as a show-me state. we have focused on maintaining -- fiscal discipline, and creating a positive environment. we held the line on taxes, balance the budget, and preserved are aaa credit rating, giving businesses the confidence to invest in our state. we are also investigating an education, scholarships, and training, and we're working with small businesses across our state. one of my first acts as governor was to establish a special loan

program targeted to help small businesses move forward, and our small business credit initiative, investing about $27 billion to help turn ideas into bricks, mortar, in jobs. we are doing that with only seven scholarship players on the university of missouri basketball team this year. efficient dollars is what it takes to deliver a winning program in the n.c.a.a., i guess. i want to introduce the true experts with us today. amy wilkinson is an entrepreneurship scholar with a joint appointment at the woodrow wilson international center and harvard university with expertise on how leaders must change in order to influence the age of the entrepreneur. she is writing a book based on 250 interviews with high-impact entrepreneurs that will explain

how innovation has altered traditional assumptions and will demonstrate how to harness this change. she has a diverse background, having started and led a mexican art export company, and as an investment banker she worked as a strategic consultant. if she has public sector experience, serving as a white house fellow and special assistant to a u.s. trade representative. she will discuss the key characteristics of the high impact on turnover -- high- impact entrepreneur. jeff weedman is vice president of global business development for the procter and gamble co.. he leads a team to identify partnerships that drive innovation and create value around the world. his team manages mergers, acquisitions, equity investments, and joint

ventures, outsourcing, and open to innovation efforts. he has also led development of the first-ever comprehensive agreements between procter and gamble and the public university systems of ohio and michigan to streamline how academia and business work together to streamline local business creation. jeff weedman will talk about the procter and gamble open innovation efforts, and present some results-oriented case studies. let's begin. amy wilkinson, we look forward to your comments. >> thank you for that introduction, and thank you to the governors for focusing on entrepreneurship and for the national governors' association for putting it on the agenda so

prominently. i would like to start with the sentiment circulating that goes like this -- deere, out of this, -- optimists, pessimists, and realists, while you were dried -- arguing about the glass of water, i drink it, signed the opportunist. as mentioned this morning, to create an ecosystem of entrepreneurship, you want high- impact entrepreneurs, people that will start companies and scale companies. in order to change cultures of the state level you want people to scale companies to a significant size. so, the facts, the data is that 1% of young companies aged 3-to- five-years-old create 10% of

annual jobs. in the last three decades in the united states, firms less than five years old created all of the net new jobs, yet in the recession, starting about 2008, that changed. this is worrisome. as people who lead states, this is something to pay attention to, because started around 2008, support ups -- start-ups are starting smaller and stay in smaller. howard gdp comes back, but what happens if our jobs are short and we do not create innovation that we need? looking to high-gross start-ups is an important thing to do. -- growth start-ups is an important thing to do.

i spent hours of research on this. i can speak quickly about the leadership characteristics that we see in that group. this is the quick aptitudes that i see. these people really find the gap. they are spotting opportunities other people do not see. they drive for daylight, which is like managing speed like aid nascar driver they are looking for the light. -- driver. they're looking for the light. they tried fast cycle federation. it is talked about a lot in silicon valley. it started to ripple across the country they fail wisely curtis is not a -- country. they fail wisely. this is not about the fear of sell year. the idea is you avoid

catastrophic mistakes if you set failure ratios. you want to fell 10% of the time or 5% of the time. network minds. this is important for people in this room. there are new solution sets. no one can stay in a silo. it cannot be a public sector leader only, an entrepreneur only. we will see network solution sets. it is more than social networking. this is people putting their brains together to figure out a way to solve something. the less effected is about giving small goods -- this last at the to is about disking small goods. -- aptitude is about interest in small goods. i am happy to talk more about those characteristics, since we

are with policymakers, let's shift to the missing ingredient, what do you do to get these high-impact really going in --s your state. for statements of the population are going to drive the future of entrepreneurship bros. here the air. baby boomers. generation y, immigrant, or foreign-born entrepreneurs and women. baby boomers are the fastest- growing sector of the population to create jobs. it is not necessarily who you think it is. it is people age 55 through 64 getting out there to start companies. the average age of first-time entrepreneur in the united states is 39.

that surprises people, and it tilts toward more people in the baby boomer age range that you would -- than you would expect. they will redefine retirement. they may not retire. there are reasons for the parent people are living longer. they are healthy logger. -- there are reasons for that. people are living longer. they are healthy longer. we are seeing them drive innovation and entrepreneur growth. leaders of state, how do you tap into that population? they can not only start companies, they can be angel investors in companies. they can be mentors. they can be advisers. there are certain places where they like to live. making your region, city, state, attractive to this demographic is important. it is amazing how many people

like to retire in nine, oregon. it is an example of a place that probably does a lot to engage this enterprising and bloomer segment. the next segment, this is a guy giving an elevator pitch. this next generation are really interested in being an entrepreneur. 40% of young adults say they want to start a business, and 60% of gen y will be a serial entrepreneur, have already started a company, and they believe they will never work for a large company and will create their own job. that is encouraging for the united states, but the question is what do we do to educate these people to know how to do that? it comes back to the education system. it is k-12 education and college

programs for entrepreneurship. i can highlight a couple that i hear are really working. high schools targeted toward stem education is something i hear over and over again. there are some examples. north carolina school for science and mathematics. thomas jefferson high school in virginia, and texas initiative -- those are ones i keep hearing about is really good models. another thing that i hear about this project-based learning. this is another thing that i know different has close are experimenting with, but instead of having teachers teach directly in the class, the idea is 12-to-20 students work on a

project, guided by teachers, but from the perspective of an entrepreneur, the working groups. they work in teams. nobody starts a company completely alone. it is different than our current education system. our current system is testing individuals. as they collaborate with anyone we call it cheating. in the entrepreneur system, you have to collaborate all the time, and the idea is how can you work together and learn together? it is an important thing to think about trying to foster at every level of education. another example that i love his first robotics. i am unsure how many people are familiar, but it is an additional experience outside of the high school with building a roll bar. -- robot. this is the sport that founder

of -- founder says everyone can be a professional. if you can think about building a robot, it teaches you all the things they really need to be good at for the rest of your life. as an example of supplemental learning, i think first robotics is an example of something to every student should know about. shifting to the college level, it is the same logic, which is working in groups, working in teams, working through projects. for example, at the college level launch pad at the university of miami, and they are doing this in an unbelievable way, so is the syracuse student fan box. they are programs at the college level that are taking student entrepreneurs and partner in them with angel investors, potentially, a long night

entrepreneurs -- alumni entrepreneurs, faculty. it is not just the business school. this is the law school, the arts academy. it is an interesting thing to see piloted at the university- level. any university or community college could do this. it is an important thing to try to replicate. shifting forward, foreign-born entrepreneurs. >> i realize immigration is a contentious topic, and not something the states can address without working at the federal level, but it is an important thing for championing at the state, local, regional level. foreign-born entrepreneurs are representing 30% of the new

business orders in the united states, and 25% of high-tech start-ups. these are companies -- logos that you know, bogle, ebay, paypal, yahoo!. i spent seven years said stanford. those companies ahead founders that were students on our campus, and they literally were like all of the other students. there are a lot of international students on campus. the guys that started up these companies were not different. in all cases they partnered with american students. so, they were immigrants funders partnering with the american founders. they needed faculty. they needed to bounce ideas off of other people. the scale those companies out of ski -- stanford university and they have foreign-born founders, but did a tremendous amount for that region, and

obviously for the world in terms of changing the way we all communicate and find information. so, the foreign-born founder segment is something that a specially at the university ties to plenty of people saying we need to staple a green card to the back of stem diplomas. we really do not want them leaving our states, going back to shanghai, or dubai, or anywhere else they would go back to. we need to figure out a way, as an example in these companies, to get these people to stay anywhere in our states, but do not leave, especially if we have educated youth in our universities. we wanted people to stay and innovate in our states. the final demographic is women. this is near and dear to our --

my heart. i was an investment banker, and i believe that women are the under-valued asset class. that means that women can be an entrepreneur, and we do not see that right now. we do not see that in this high-growth segment. there is a question there. there are statistics that are troubling, and in some ways ". women are 46% of the workforce, 50% of college students, 51% of our ph.d.'s, and last year, 76% of our valedictorians. girls are smart, for any of you that have not figured that out yet, so why do we not see them starting out companies? in my research, i will say it is really hard to find companies that a skilled over $100 million in revenue in five years that have had women as founders.

nd dot is a phenomenal company. rapid growth businesses. there is another example called the guilt group, an online sales, luxury group in new york. they might be industries thought of as dourly industries, but they are crackerjack company's best scaled up. they are hard to find -- companies that have scaled up. they are hard to find. why are women not doing this? access to capital is one thing. a report is out that said if women have equal access to capital as men, that would create 6 million jobs in less than five years. 2 million jobs in the first year alone. let's get some capital to these women, right?

another reason -- the university of wisconsin has done research on self-perceptions for women. they can work 15 years in an industry and not think they are ready to start a company on their own. some of that is women having to change the self-perception. another piece is the network piece. they do not have the access to mentors, and that becomes the importance of accelerators. there is a group in silicon valley championing women in particular. four governors, there are things you can do. you can give the more visibility, put them on science and technology boards -- that is a great way to expand networks. you can champion them, because seeing women examples the a lot to get other women to go out and do the same thing. so, those are some ideas to try

to get that going. now, places, shifting to not the people, but the place's -- largely university-based parent there are three recommendations. i will speed up a little bit -- base. there are three recommendations. this is the mad scientist. we want to coordinate this research out of the universities. there are suggestions. speeding commercialization of faculty innovation is important. more than half of a national technology companies have a faculty founder, -- nano-tech nology companies. i was at a conference, and they feel the market can pass them by

what they feel the university system is not commercializing their idea. that can be frustrating. as governors or leaders of states, you can encourage universities to adopt a standardized licensing agreement for a spin out of the company, for example, where a free agency model, where faculty can go anywhere to license. those are great ideas because there is great innovation happening and not getting to the market. another idea is an innovation voucher. here is the key pawn lady. other ladies -- the coupon lady. the idea is a voucher of $5,000, $7,000 -- not really large amounts of money, going to a small, or medium-sized enterprises, and they can cash it in at a university, and that leads to immediate collaboration

between a small growth company, and a university faculty member that could prototype an idea, feasibility test an idea, or do some other research of a value to small and medium-sized companies. the netherlands voucher program is a really good example of this. there are phenomenal results. i will tell you a tiny bit of results of those kinds of programs. 80% of the research and development investments in the netherlands have come out of this small and medium-size voucher program. 60% of these enterprises say they will continue to do knowledge transfer-type businesses, even when the voucher is expired. if you have a one-year budget, it establishes the relationship, and they continue to talk and work together. another idea, another idea, this might the

controversy, but reallocating some of the budget to reflect economic development goals in the region. as leaders of the state, can you encourage universities to try to do research related to industry clusters. could you have technical assistance go towards local companies? that would not cost anything in terms of increasing a state budget, it would just be an allocation adjustment. if universities are interested in trying to do more of that type of thing, they would try to get more of a budget directed towards them. clearly, metrics are important on how you measure that. it could be patents received, it could be licensing and come. there are discussions about what would make that fair or even a possibility that this is something that i hear talk about as an idea for innovation. finally, turning to the policies.

this is something that governors and leaders across states can be getting together to do. i like to think of it like the turbo tax. everyone can do their own taxes, why is it so hard to register a business? it really does not need to be that hard. we're trying to get a back .ffice solution for the state's

this is to figure out how to register not only for some of the business things that maybe it can have add on legal services or other things that businesses need. we should be trying to make this as easy as possible. portugal does have a pharma online program and i don't necessarily think of portugal as being massively efficient but in this way, they have done an amazing thing for registering small businesses. the results are very visible. this thing has been working.

a mentoring program. mentor should is really key. this is part of the learning process. -- mentorship is really key. having someone to call, having an experienced person who has seen these things before, done these things before, or that can just bounce ideas back and forth and try to improve your thinking before you go out and invest money. this system is really important and having on online system would facilitate this in your state. you can have executives that are retired and living on your state and see someone on completely the other side of the state. you don't have to live locally right next to someone to be their mentor. this was unlocked a lot of value. you would have to vet the startups and the mentors.

you would have to make sure that these were a real deal and they had experienced people trying to do important work there. you would have to have experienced mentors. there would definitely have to be some thinking through on that to make it work. this is somewhat inconclusive, right? the recommendation here is that we probably need to study this more. there are lots of different approaches. the kauffman foundation is making the recommendation that simplicity and wide base and a corporate income tax structure is really the way to go. with that said, across the stage, 41 states offer corporate tax exemption, 45 offered incentives for job creation, 49 are using me tax exemptions on new equipment. this is really complicated,

everyone has different ideas about how to make this work. you want transparency, you want it to be decluttered and you want to have some disability for your plants in the future. the new paradigm, i will close by saying that it is possible to build a entrepreneurial at the system. i grew up just south of seattle. seattle is not a thriving place 30 years ago. there was a sign that said, will the last person out of seattle, turnout at the lights. between timber and boating, those with the industries that are really driving seattle. it was not an easy place to grow

up. there was not a huge amount of opportunity. it is not as much as there is today in seattle pented today, seattle has microsoft. -- it is not as much as there is today in seattle. today, seattle has microsoft. it has amazon, starbucks. this is absolutely a thriving city. this has happened in the last 30 years. i think it is a pilot and something to look at and to try to see exactly what happened in seattle and how can other regions do that. in some cases, people will point and say it has to do with technology. the examples i like to point to our costco and starbucks. this is not high tech, this is high skill in terms of

apprenticeships and other work force training programs but costco employs 150,000 employees and starbucks has 140,000 employees. that is a lot of job creation in a non tech environment in seattle. this is something to point to, something to look at. i hope the governors will be very entrepreneurial themselves and we will test some of these and the local states. thanks. [applause] >> thank you. thank you for joining us today. >> thank you, governor. as i thought about being here, what am i going to talk about? i promised my government affairs people that i would not turn this into a commercial. i am able to see which of you

used a gillette razor this morning and which of you did not. [laughter] we are going to talk about a lot of the same things but from a different perspective. i hope that you will find the comments pragmatic and practical. i want to give you some case studies. and the goal is to actually give you two or three tips that you can focus on, maybe you can actually start using on monday. i will start with a quote. small companies are both the greatest creators of new jobs and the greatest destroyers of jobs because small companies fail so often. my job with procter and gamble and your job is how can we help these small governments grow and not fail?

this is really committed to helping to foster entrepreneurial growth and a couple of reasons. one is that small companies are the source of great ideas come innovation, energy and they are also our consumers. the vibrant healthy economy creates more consumers. i am passionate about this most personally and professionally. i think that businesses can do more for growth than we have done historically. i will focus on three opportunities that i think state governments can do starting on monday and you'll see some overlap in terms of the things that you did. one, help university's research institutions be more research friendly -- business friendly.

help on to open doors and startups connect with more partners. small companies staying small are not going to be sufficient. last, how would you help support development of capital funding and to foster and support startups? all three of these were highlighted. in the greater cincinnati region, we started a project and we said, how do we create an entrepreneurial economy in the greater cincinnati area? one of the things is that we did not know what was going on. we went outside and hired mckinsey and company to support this on the effort. we talked to a lot of on japan norris, angel investors, venture

capitalists. -- we talked a lot of all entrepreneurs. these collectively helped us form a view of the landscape and also helped to lead us to what we needed to do and frankly this is not just about cincinnati and this plays out in every city, every state in the country. the areas for focus are really in three areas. i suspect each of your states and regions have gaps in different areas. i'll get to the seed investment as one of the recommendations later. making the university's research

institutions more friendly. today's reality, it takes too long to build relationships and partnerships with your university. in my organization, we have talked to many around the states and also across the globe. it is too much red tape, it is too much it focused on i.t. -- on ip. i have to tell you, that the u.s. is getting beaten by global competition. they are more competitive, they are more forward thinking. let me talk about what is working. we had a relationship with the durham university.

i am a graduate of a big 10 university. this is in the u.k.. they have done something fascinating. they have formed an institute within the university that brings together the multi disciplines, we don't have to go department by department. they do it for us. we have ended up investing money with that university to do research. they do the work in sight to bring those works together. on japan norris, they don't have time to go to department -- entrepreneurs, they don't have time to go department to department. we also go to singapore. this is a government agency, it not only clues their university,

it includes the regional labs as part of this agreement. when we have a need, they can call. we can call them and say, do you have anything in this space? they bring those parties to get there. technology transfer offices. we work with a lot of them. we prefer to work with business engagement offices. these are meeting the need of the professor, how much do they generate in revenue? this is about solving unease between the companies. and the university. michigan and ohio, we have statewide agreements with the

university in those states. the state of ohio, one of the members of the administration said that we are going to do this and i lost a bet because we will have it done by may. michigan did it in 90 days. we negotiated a 85% with the boilerplate that happens but still there are things that have to happen beyond that. i don't think that it went far enough. it is further than any other state we have done business with. it does not have things in it that create jobs, -- it does not have things in it. this is not about getting more

revenue, this is about business engagement. i am very pleased, we are residents of ohio. that is a good step of the right direction. today's reality is that it is hard for startups to knock on the right door and big companies. it is hard for big companies to see all lead is out there. last year, my department had over 4400 and solicited ideas. we believe innovation is a democracy. we will take good ideas from wherever they come from. i don't want to have to see and

talk to anyone associated with it. do you have something that can help us with this problem? we tried to build the networks because we're looking for solutions. what we tend to look for is how in fact do we make these kinds of connections? i will tell you, we like smart agents. i mentioned the u.k. this is the engineering and physical sciences research council which is a government agency. when we have something we need to solve, we go to them, if it is in their area. we have similar departments for the other sciences. we say, do you have something that would solve this kind of surface technology? that organization does not say, why don't you go talk to durum

for leeds. they say, we will get back to you. they go off, they pre qualify. when they come back, they say, does this meet your need? the hit rate is phenomenal. we say, wow, we want to work with that university. they put in the capability. they put in money. that is the kind of competition we are facing. what comes out of that is technology that we have preferred rights to in our fields of use but it also overlaps with the university's educational mission. we have seen at the students, our hiring tends to be a preference coming out of those places because we have two-year or three-year.

we have been a tiny tiny investor in. when the principles call and say, here is something that you should look at. guess what, i look at it. they understand our needs. does your development organizations, do they know what the needs are? i like websites, i like having things posted. it is necessary, not sufficient. this is a full contact sport, okay? this is a bigger than basketball. you have to understand the needs of the entrepreneur, the big company, but the bill is that exist and really make the match between those and help to drive a three. you have to have someplace to call and some place to drive it. the last place i want to talk

about is the development of funding sources. startups cannot secure financing. they still knock on my door. they have this great technology. that is pretty good. i might be interested in using that. can you deliver that to our business in europe and in latin america and to do that within the next 90 days? of course they can. we need capabilities that come from other places to help this kind of funding. >> as much as you would like it, big businesses, medium businesses cannot be the sole anchor. i think you have a role to play here. capital funding developments, governments can help you should not be the sole banker but you do need to provide incentives. you need to provide incentives to the people can invest with

labs and the university's private-sector. when we did this survey in the greater cincinnati area, one of the surprises that we had was that our seed capital was overdeveloped relative to the rest of the u.s.. there was lots of little seedlings. if they have to yield rate of most part ups, we don't have enough early stage capitals. we concluded that we did not have to do anything to help the seed capital. the state of ohio actually had a program. i saw that kentucky is doing more to incentivize and provide tax benefits for angel investors that will invest in seed businesses and we have concluded regionally that we're going to need to put together a fund of funds that will be really targeted against the early

stage, what happens when those yield. you can incentivize businesses to do that. for us, it is about creating an environment where these can grow and become local institutions and build for us and if you go back to the croats -- if you go back to the growth. we can get there by partnering, incubating, being really good clients. up in them to grow, stay in the community and improving the community is something that we think is very important and we think there is a role for your

state governments to do the same thing and to partner with us in doing that work. i think that there will still be losers so. this is a marketplace, not all startups make it. getting it to be a good market place where they are not failing because they don't have access to the capability that exists in each of your states is a good thing. we have to get beyond that and make that connection. we want more winners and we want bigger winners. those are my comments, i appreciate your time. thank you. [applause] >> thank you amy and chest, and appreciate your comments and those were quite good and very useful, i have a number of notes i have taken. i will show up for the first question and then go to the governor of missouri and then open up across the floor for different individuals that would

like to ask of the their these individuals or maybe with the broader group, is that is the way you want to go. amy, you raised the issue on university incentives and i think that this is something that we all struggle with. we find at universities in our states and we try to do this pretty aggressively and want to get as much back out of it as we can for our state and for the people of our state and the students. we took a portion of our findings and grant it through the department of congress instead of the border regions as a way to incentivize a job- creating atmosphere with it. maybe if we go this route and put some metrics with it, that would be better. do either of you have thoughts of how you might use the budget process to create more in a violence -- to create more in the violence --

-- to either of you have thoughts on how you might use the budget process to create more environments? >> could the state budgets have met chicks are around things like patents and licenses out of universities or licensing income or -- >> instead of journal articles, to give marks for those. >> part of the problem is that the universities and the faculties in universities >> they are all tenured and they are only interested in what they are interested in which may or may not have anything to do with regional local economic development goals. can you allocate a portion of the state budget by saying to whatever the state university

is, if you actually have asked it, the mattress are more companies went out into our region in fields that matter to this region, then we will give you a larger portion of our budget and it will work in bigger states that have three or more state-funded universities. i don't know if this works as well in smaller states. if it creates competition at the state level because they would like more of the state budget, that is where it could work. >> i get worried about licensing revenue because it in power's technology transfer offices to focus on each individual deal and i think that you should be focused on a broader economic footprint have to enter university tells me the world class pretty much everything.

how many new companies have you started? how many spinoffs have started from your faculty? this is publish or perish, it is not part of the reward system in terms of starting up companies. finding ways that allows professors to benefit or maybe even get tenure, i don't know. the second question i asked, which most fail, is how many of those new businesses have been started by your students? this is something where the culture is such that you saw how want tothe gen y's start a business? guess what, if they start a business there, they are more likely to have a better education, this is how it really works. if it works, their roots are there and you want to keep york university kids at home, i suspect. >> do you think that we have the wrong incentives in place for

our state universities in this country to create better economic development, better job-creating machines? are there wrong incentives in place? >> i don't think the incentives are there to do that. inside of the university, i don't see people talking about let's create jobs. with the exception, mit in boston, they are doing this and there is research out. the kauffman foundation put out a report on mit and they extended the network. the engineering and science and technology faculties that are involved there and the university as a whole, that would be a good model to look at. m.i.t. has done a very good job and that is the internal culture, they said up cross collaboration across departments

and side of the university. that is something that should be encouraged. stanford has championed a big initiative on that in the past four or five years as well. get your faculty to talk to each other. not only do they not talk to the regional players, they don't even talk to each other. so, changing the culture inside of the university is very difficult to do but there are some models and i would point to the mit sample as the one that works. >> well, i respect stanford and mit, they are incredible institutions. many they aren't necessarily on the cutting edge of technology, but they do that people start businesses. you have to make connections at those community college levels that could engender business

growth without necessarily inventing something brand new that requires significant research dollars. >> i have not done a lot of work with community colleges and things like that, other than i have had some of those administrators, and visit with us. in a lot of ways, and i do not know if this was uniquely our region, but some of those the administrators were oversubscribed on service curriculum. they sell out every one of their cosmetics licensing classis, welding, climbing, they cannot get enough. they do not have enough money. there are some things that can be done at the community college level. i would also say, you are not standard, but we see really cool and it's a test at other

universities and departments within the universities around the globe. what is the world class department? do you have a lot of small manufacturing? can you combine that? can you incentivize prototyping so you can draw more to that? i also think that the incentives -- in this kind of interesting. i get a little worried when i hear people talk about changing the incentives. the politics of universities car something that are amazing. their time frame are semesters. the young faculty, they get it. do not make it a keen a better program that spread across everything evenly. -- peanut butter program that

spreads across everything evenly. if he started asking the question, how many start-ups have come out of your university, you will get some shocking data. see how old the examples are they give you. >> i would like to add one thing. a launchpad program, this is university of miami, this is the model program right now. it has been replicated in two different colleges in detroit and one in north carolina. it is new and in a university or community college could be looking at this. the university of miami is out in front on collaborative in terms of getting alums together with their students. it has great results. if you want to look at a program that is not mit or stanford,

look at this university of miami program. it will do a lot of great things in the future. >> let me give you another example. take a look at the university of michigan. michigan lost a really big business there, a drug company. michigan has a program where they have an entrepreneurial institute. i serve on the advisory board. i m blown away. these are students started companies. they are building relationships with universities across the globe. you can get consulting help. students who were going through their business programs can start their own company. they even have one of the few investment funds that it is didn't run. students -- that is didn't run. -- student run.

we would be happy to follow up and give you where we see these pockets around the globe of things that are doable. >> that sounds good. >> thank you. we have the theme of college rivalry week going. i would like to note that six years ago, we started a very aggressive program with working with research and development and startups transitioning to the private sector. we just passed the last two years and my teeth at the university -- which is passed, in the last two years, at mit. it is a good model and we are proof that it works. if you set your mind to it, you can make a change. i want to welcome you to utah.

we are glad to have procter and gamble there. my question is for you, amy. i have heard about the fact that we need to have -- the student center coming to the united states, getting degrees in engineering, we ought to attach a visa or a green card. maybe that is something we should consider doing. the more important question is why is it we cannot grow our own? why did we not have enough of our own students going into science, technology, engineering? why can we grow from within? >> i think we need to do both. we need to attract the world's best talent into the united states. we had a history of being able to do that in the past. the question on why we are not doing its -- why are we not

going our own talent at home? i think our education system is broken. i do not think it is working. i am sure all the governors are spending a lot of time working on k-12 education. there are different conversations. we need to inspire people in a different way. i think there are plenty of people who see technology as cool. google, facebook, twitter, technology is pretty sexy these days. it is changing our k-12 education system. maybe high schools that are targeted for that education. that is where i think we need to attack it. it is carrying the message that nerds into a rule the world.

honestly, if you look around, it is crazy. it is a different way of thinking about things. >> i think it is something that we really need to address seriously. i do not know of the education system is broken, whether we are not channeling people into the right courses, and the alignment necessary for the market demands. if it is cultural, if we are just lazy. the economic rewards seem to be there. you would think it would compel people to get people into a line of work that would pay a great dividend. i am puzzled. we certainly have seen that with steve jobs and bill gates.

why we are not -- why we're having to import is a puzzlement to me. >> i will make one more comment. he is the segway inventor. he is the founder of first robotics. he attacks this very problem. our culture -- we have made sports really cool. we talk about sports, we paid athlete an enormous amount of money. right? the other thing we worship is celebrity. we make hollywood unbelievably interesting. we pay actors a whole lot of money. the model behind first robotics is to try to make building a robot cool. trying to make technology and

engineering the sport we would all talk about. instead of talking about basketball, let's talk about, let's build a robot. let's get the robot to play basketball. it is kids in junior high school and high-school building robots. i encourage everybody to go to one of these things. it is amazing to see. i watched the regional championship here in washington, d.c. it is like a carnival. everyone is eating food, there are cheerleaders. the u.s. patent and trade office has scouts. it is crazy. it is just like sports. how do you turn it around? you look at models like first robotics. you try to make math and science really exciting for kids. >> sorry for talking about

sports earlier. [laughter] i feel really bad now. i am glad you were talking about nerds. we have a lot in the room. gov. walter, you asked for the next question. >> -- gov. walker, you ask for the next question. >> i do not think about talking -- i do not think talking about sports is bad. in terms of job impact, that is much greater than the score of the game. we should be applauding both. thank you for being here. one thing that you said that struck me, you talked about the sentiments come at you mentioned

the university of wisconsin report on barriers to women. i am curious in all of your interviews, you mentioned access to capital. why is that? the people you were talking to -- how did they get access to capital? what are the barriers? that would enlighten us in some ways. >> this is just starting to be researched. different people will have different data sets. this is a problem with entrepreneurship data. it is hard to get it and it seems to be some much anecdotal.

what i see in my research is networks. when in -- women do not know as many angel investors. people tend to find a those they know. people tend to find those they have heard about. it is not a gender based issue. it is -- if i do not know you, i do not even know how to ask you to fund my business. if i do not have a friend or at -- friend of a friend of a friend -- the way women are finding their companies, a lot of it is on credit cards. it is their own money. access to networks that would even make the introductions for women is the real driver of that. it is less of a gender issue and more of a network issue.

>> those that you found that were successful, was it because they had personal networks? things that were driven to drive them into those sort of not working relationships? >> -- networking relationships? >> they came out of stanford university business school, harvard business school. that is due to a network. that is a nice stamp to be able to say i was educated at this place. it gives to alumni to call. it puts you in touch with people. the other thing i see is women who were successful at ebay early. they have gone on to start tech businesses themselves.

it is either networks of having been at a company that succeeded or it is networks out of the university that gave them connections. if you are looking to try to support women, it is some of the things of trying to tie them to people who can help them. i like the point of big companies. another thing for women is and who you sell your product to. it's great to have a connection to a big company as a client. you could be facilitated a lot of these introductions, it getting visibility to women's companies, or just inviting some of the women founders to participate at events where they might lead people. it sounds kind of basic, but that is what would stimulate more women to be on to penurious. it is the connections. >> use of the cost and foundation.

-- you mentioned the kauffman foundation. they are located in kansas city, missouri. >> thank you, governor. my question is for any. good to expand on your lab mentor imagine? -- could you expend on your web mentor matching? >> there is an initiative, it is one year old, and it is targeted towards energy. there is not a whole lot of data it to lead us know if it is working or not. that is a model that the federal level government has just stood up for the same thing. that is the best model i know about of the government level. there are plenty of models

through alumni associations. i would be looking to emulate university alumni that does produce solid mentoring. >> on the sports analogy, i cannot remember if it was last year, one of our speakers was the president of mit. she really made the same point. she was talking about the importance of celebrating the hundred and yours. -- celebrating the inventories and the like. and he mentioned the robotics program. there are others. my son participate in something called odyssey of the mind. you go to the world competition, a 10,000 kids. kids getting together. it is very much a competition. to see these kids get excited

about science, about the invention being celebrated. the second thing i wanted to follow up was the issue about women and access to capital. amy is right about the networks. this is something we have looked at very extensively in delaware going back several years. years ago, there was a big move around the country on financial literacy. back in 1999, we put together a one-day conference call be everyone's money conference. -- the every women's money conference. we ended up creating something called the delaware money school. we offer about 600 class as a year on a variety of financial topics. 90% of the participants are women.

women face an unbelievable number of disadvantages when it comes to money. they spend less time in the workforce than men do. they earn less. they invest more conservatively. they live longer. the first step is to get them connected with more of the basic financial literacy said they feel like they are ready to start taking some of the risks. there are so many marks against them before they start. we have found starting at a basic level, we have more than tens of thousands of women participating in this program. you can see the stories as they learn more and have developed more confidence. you see them taking more risks. they have the know-how and the confidence and they have the networks to seek the financing.

>> good comments. good discussion on around the room. a lively discussion. and excellent points. amy and jeff, thank you very much. i have already sent a couple of notes to different people. before we adjourn this meeting, i want to remind the people in the economic development committees that in december, this group adopted 3 inch from policies as part of the policy development process. commerce, transportation and the structure, and public finance. i want to thank everybody who served on the committee. we have consolidated 17 existing policy statements, totaling 25,000 words. we made them into three principal based policies. less is more.

policies i hope will advance caught will move this forward on monday. do any members of this committee have any other business items they want to bring up or suggest we bring up prior to the monday meeting overall? if not, i will declare this session adjourned. we look forward to reconvening on monday.

>> we will have more live coverage from the national governors' association meeting tomorrow beginning at 9:30 eastern. among the discussions, it looked at efforts to end childhood hunger with remarks by agriculture secretary. in the afternoon, a special committee on homeland security and public safety. will bethe governor's chief of the national guard euro. -- bureau. before we pick up coverage of the winter meeting tomorrow, we will speak with lt. gov. bob mcdonnell. he is a guest on tomorrow's "washington journal." he will join us at about 8:30

eastern. our other guest includes nolan finley. we will also speak with democratic pollster celinda lake about the history of women voters. watch "washington journal" beginning at 7:00 eastern on c- span. >> one of the trickiest things about writing this book was thinking through the way rights were straddled aspirational ideal and a more practical and formal mandate. >> richard thompson defines

human rights. tonight at 10:00. also this weekend, at 7:00, and a story and looks at the african-americans who served in congress. -- historian looks at the african-americans who served in congress. booktv every weekend on c-span to. >> this particular only telephone it only brings in a serious crisis. vote for president johnson on november 3. >> bush supports the death penalty for first-degree murderers. dukakis opposes the death penalty and allow first-degree murderers to of weekend passes from prison.

>> the accusations that john kerry made against the veterans deserved against -- served in vietnam was devastating. >> we can all point to an average is commercial -- outrageous commercial, but on average, negative commercials are more likely to be factually correct and negative commercials are more likely to talk about issues. >> will 2012 be the most negative campaign cycle in history? a discussion looks at current and past political campaigns and their impact on american culture. watch this on line at the c-span video library. it is what you want, when you want it. primarymichigan's election on tuesday, candidates have been traveling about the state this week.

rick santorum criticized mitt romney for his health-care initiative in massachusetts. following his speech, we will show you today's remarks on -- from mitt romney. [applause] >> thank you. thank you so much. thank you for that great reception. i appreciate the opportunity to be here. americans for prosperity, all the great work they do in supporting free enterprise, free markets, and limited government. i am excited to be here with you. i look forward to a good day on tuesday here in michigan. i am looking forward to big things. [applause] this has been a campaign that has had its ups and downs for me. this has been an amazing ride.

two months ago, the pundits were asking me why i was still in the race. we will go out there and we will deliver a positive message for america. we will remind people why we are the greatest country in the history of the world. and why we will again be a shining city on the hill, the beacon of hope and freedom for the world. we have to -- [applause] him we have to have a leader. who believes what america was all about and why we created the greatest country in the history of the world. we have to have someone who understands the greatness of america that is not in our military, not in our economy, not in our form of government. it is on the idea that from the

very beginning, our country was founded on the idea of the dignity of every human life. of freedom and opportunity for every human being to realize their potential. to be able to build strong families, business, and the community, and church, civic and community organizations. all the things that create a great and vibrant community. that is what made america a great country. we did not start as a country with a sovereign and a strong central government allocating resources and putting people into class is entitled. we believe in limited government tand free people. we built this great community.

that is the secret of america. that is why you have seen other countries try to copy what we do here. even in the last couple of years, we have tried to help other countries be like america. they find it hard. they cannot quite do what we do. we are different. we are exceptional. we did it from the foundation the right way. we believe in free people. my grandfather came to this country in 1925. when he came here, he spent the first two years, he left my father and his family behind. he came here as a proud italian- american. a shout out for the italian- americans.

that is my name in italy, too. guess where my grandfather came. he came to detroit and he worked two years in the auto factories here in detroit. he was not a red wings fans, i just want you to know that. sorry. he came here and worked two years and then he went to the coal mines of western pennsylvania. when my dad came to this country, that is where he came. my grandfather came to this country. he was not promise any government benefits. there were no government benefits. just one -- freedom. that was enough for him. [applause]

ladies and gentlemen, there are a lot of things at stake in this election. but ultimately what is its stake is our freedom. we have the government and a leader who believes that he knows best. the elite in society who thinks they can manage your life better than you can. they can manage industries, sectors of the economy, and tell you that they will give you rights to health care and to all sorts of other things. they will tell you they will take care of you. but what we find is when the government says they will give you rights, they will tell you how to exercise those rights. and the biggest example of that is obamacare. i would not be in this race if it was not for obamacare.

to me, obamacare is the game changer for our country. it is robbing us of our essential freedom. [applause] it is the ultimate top down, i know better than you do. i will tell you what insurance policy. what benefits, but your deductible, everything. the government has designed five plans for you. it tells you what doctors and hospitals will be reimbursed. it manages your economic choices. it landed some based on what the government thinks you should have. we need help savings accounts.

-- health savings accounts. the real answer is consumer driven health care. do you have any idea who was the original offer of help savings accounts 20 years ago? -- author of healthy savings accounts 20 years ago? [applause] i was for free-market health care before conservatives were for free market health care. that has been a leader on conservative, on the most fundamental issue, your health. it is what the progress of nirvana has been from the beginning. they have seen it in other socialist countries in the world. when the government can convince you that you need to give them the power over your health, they got you. they got you.

now he will pay tribute to them. you will give them even more power so they will give you more benefits. i saw that from the beginning. why? because i am a conservative. not because it is popular. it is because of the white man. it -- is because of who i am. i was never for a government run health care system. it is robbing you of your freedom and giving control to the government. [applause] you look at this race, the big issue is government control of the economy of businesses, of the energy industry, health care, financial services and

history, regulation, mandates, government programs. prue has been out there on the big issues of the day -- who has been out there on the big issues of the day? never buying into climate science. the only person i sit next to on the couch is my wife. i do not go out and crow that i oppose the first carbon tax on power plants. as governor romney did when he was governor of massachusetts. i did not buy it. i did not buy climate science. [applause] i did not buy it because i knew

climate science was political science. [applause] i did not blow in the wind when things were popular to be with the elite. i do not come from the elite. my grandfather was a coal miner. i grew up on public housing. i worked my way to the success that i have. i am proud of it. [applause] i will not let the lead come up with all the ideological -- with funny ideology to rob you of your freedom. i was not for obamacare. you are the center of the health-care industry. i was not for bailouts. i was not for the bill out of

washington -- wall street. we saw what happened to the mills in western pennsylvania. bethlehem steel, no longer. these are the big names that dominated the steel industry. most of them are gone. the steel industry is still here. pittsburgh is revitalized. there is a lot more there, too. capitalism works. free markets work. he'll have to believe in it. -- you have to believe in it. [applause] i can understand how some people can panic at a time of crisis and believe that government is the answer.

it was the wrong thing for them to do to bail out wall street. i can understand why people did it. what i cannot understand is why some people would bail out wall street can use a very different measure to not bail out detroit. if you will bailout wall street, and take care of your friends on wall street, and you do not have a principle against government bailouts, why do you pick one and not the other? you can criticize me for not supporting the detroit bailout. i did not support any bill out. i did not support bailout in my own community. [applause] what you have with me is what you see is what you get. as opposed to, what you see today is different than what you get tomorrow. i will be a strong consistent

conservative. i will stand up for free people and free markets. i have laid out my 10-point plan of what i will do in the first 100 days. i talked about cutting taxes for everyone. governor prodi's plan is to cut plan is to cuty's taxes. how will he pay for it? bypassed -- by taxing the top 1%. never thought of republican presidential candidate would adopt the burbidge of occupy wall street. -- verbage of occupy wall street. [applause] he is in a primary where conservatives matter. to imagine what it will be like when the general election comes around. what you see is what you get. we will cut taxes for everybody.

[applause] we will focus on creating jobs, just like we are doing in pennsylvania. we will talk about manufacturing. i know what manufacturing means to a community. i understand what it means to have felt sweat the bottom of the economic ladder, -- to the folks who are at the bottom of the economic ladder. i know what it means to have those manufacturing jobs, it gives to the opportunity to accumulate more skills over time. those opportunities for working men and women, not all folks are gifted and the same way. some people have incredible deficits and want to work.

-- incredible guests and want to work. president obama says he wants everybody in america to go to college. what a snob. [applause] you are good decent men and women who work hard every day. they are not taught by some liberal college professor. [applause] i understand why he wanted to go to college. he wants to remake you and his image. -- in his image. i want to create jobs so people can remake their children into their image, not his. [applause]

we have an opportunity in america to stand up for working men and women in manufacturing and energy. create jobs from the bottom up. to go out in states like michigan, pennsylvania, and ohio and talk to minority communities. not about giving them more food stamps, but about creating jobs. [applause] we will cut the size and scale of government. i propose $5 trillion in cuts over five years. spending less money each year than the year before. [applause] i have not been the advocate of expanding government with new entitlement programs, like governor romney.

i never formed entitlement programs -- i have performed entitlement programs. if you look at the rest of the program, we reformed welfare program. instead of a dependency program, we made it a transitional program. food stamps and medicaid and analyst of welfare programs need to have happen to them what i was able to get seven votes and the united states senate and bill clinton's signature. we had leaders talking to you and you wrote to them. that is great to see. i was at a tea party event just a few minutes ago. i am glad you are here. 15 years ago, you were not here. 15 years ago, we were pretty

complacent. why did you do all those things? where were you? the american public was not out there doing what they were doing now. we were not in the condition we are in now. i saw it coming. i was proposing reforms to social security and medicare. i was proposing reforms to a whole bunch of other programs. i turned around and all the people were behind the, way behind me. now you are out here. i am glad you are here. we need your help. we need your energy. we need your enthusiasm to do the big things. if you want big things to happen, you have to elect somebody and nominate somebody who can draw a clear contrast with president obama. who was able to do big things. [applause]

someone you cannot give away the most important issue in this race, health care. governor romney gives that issue away. he was the author of a bill that led to romney-care. he imposed his values on every business and every individual. just like obamacare and in some cases, worse. say mandate. mandated health care. for mandate -- same mandate doctors, at the same thing. say mandate for catholic hospitals to handout morning after pills. he overruled his own secretary of health.

if we give up every issue, freedom of religion, freedom of contract, freedom of the economy. the biggest issue of the day, we give up the issue on the bailouts. we make it worse here. we give up the issue of cap-and- trade, government control of the energy and manufacturing sectors of the economy. disqualified, disqualified, disqualified. why would we do that? why would we nominate someone who is on qualified to take on the big issues of the day? he would say, i have changed my mind. let me assure you, the money and the media will convince you he is not what he says he is today. ladies and gentlemen, this

election must be about career choices. we do not need -- every time we have run a moderate, we have lost. [applause] every time we have run a conservative, a complete conservative on all the issues, national security, culture, and economy, we have one. -- have won. [applause] every time, in a primary, all the experts say, elect the moderate. you have to elect the moderates. otherwise, you will lose those key constituents. we won the 2010 election because our people were excited about our candidate and they came out in droves.

that is why we won, not because the compromise. -- we compromised. they say, a moderate, we need to worry about moderates and the issues. if you are a moderate, issues are obviously not the most important thing to you. otherwise, he would be in one camp or the other. that is why you are a moderate. how many moderates have you talked to say this -- i did not vote for the party, i vote for the person. the were you going to vote for? -- who are you going to vote for? are you going to vote for someone who says one thing one day and says anything else the next day to whein?

at least someone you know they believe what they believe. that is the difference. [applause] we have an opportunity to make this election about big things at a time when big things are extinct. you have an opportunity here in michigan to shock the country. we will stand up for limited government. we will stand up for a constitutional country. we will stand up for strong families and strong communities. thank you very much. god bless you. god bless america. thank you. [applause]

[captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012]

>> go, rick, go!

[cheers and applause] >> a little later in the day, mitt romney had an opportunity to address the crowd in americans for prosperity for rum. here is a look at what he had to say. thank you. it is good to be back in the place we called home for the first 19 years of my life and the first 19 years of your life. we were raised in this area. i went to a party when i was a senior in high school. a girl i had seen an elementary school, but had not noticed at that point, suddenly became very interesting. she was a sophomore.

i went up to him and i said, i live closer to ann than you do. can i get for a ride home? we have been going steady ever sense. -- since. >> this is a great group. thank you. this is interesting. i like to tell people if you cut as open and we believed, -- we bleed. you listen to tiger baseball. i had a little transistor radio that i carried around with me. i also had opportunities to come out at least once a week, and when i was in high school, this is where i worked.

at my father's company in troy, mich.. my grandfather started working at age 6 in the coal mines. when my father was 15, we emigrated to heare. this is where we got our start. we are grateful for our ancestors that made sacrifices that brought this to the greatest land in the world. [applause] all of my aunts and uncles gave my father and education. with that college education, he started a company right here in troy. he engineered parts for aircraft carriers.

whether it was a hydraulic lift or a vaccuum toilet. everyone in my house -- everything in my house and moving parts. my father had this system so that the door would automatically close every time. i figured everyone's dad was like that. right here is where i worked as a high school kid in my father's company. i was so proud of him and so proud of the progress they made, the sacrifices of my grandfather as a coal miner, and that is the sacrifice would be to restore to america. i am convinced there is only one person who can do that. a year ago, when we were making the decision, it was tough because i told mitt four years before, i would never do this again. he laughed and said, you know

what, you said that after every pregnancy, so -- [laughter] i guess i really did not mean it. a year ago, when we were making this decision, we were trying to figure it out, it was going to run, we could not figure it out. i said, if you win the nomination and if you can beat barack obama, i need to know, can you fix america? he said, yes. ok, let's go. that is all i needed to hear. [applause] maybe i should just do all of the talking and let him stand here and watch me. [laughter] i also decided no more debates. if we're going to do another debate, he will sit in the audience and watch me, and that will be it. but i have seen his whole life be successful in everything he tackled, whether in college, and he got a degree from harvard

law at harvard business school at the same time, whether in business, everything he tackles, he did well. and he is the kind of guy who has integrity, intelligence, good judgment, experience. i am looking for a president will sit in that office, bring that experience, get rid of this deficit spending, and bring sanity back to this country. so now let's hear from you, mitt. >> thanks, sweetie. she is only slightly biased. it is good to be in michigan. at lot of stories here, deep roots. i was both born here and raised here. i love telling my dad's funny stories. he was in mount pleasant on the fourth of july, just after being elected governor. he stood in front of the audience and he said, it sure is good being here and mount

clemens. [laughter] and there was this big "ooh" from the audience. and my mom went up and said, george, it is pleasant, pleasant. and he said, yes, it is pleasant here. [laughter] i was born in detroit, harper hospital. there were about 35 kids in elementary school. my guess is that every parent to send a child to kindergarten that morning in that school believed america's promise. they believe if they thought their job the right values and the home and of the child got a good education, and if he or she was willing to work hard, take risk, and have dreams, they could achieve prosperity of some kind and security. that is something we knew. a part of america was the conviction that the future was brighter than the past, that our

kids would live a better life than even we had lived and talk about our grandfather making the sacrifice to come here. she talked about the brothers and sisters, all collecting their savings, giving it to her dad so he could go to college and build a better life for his kids. this has always been part of the american experience. in the last few years, people beginning to wonder if that american promise will be kept or be broken. we have watched a president who has presided over, what, 36 straight months with unemployment over 8%. the 25 million americans out of work, stopped looking for work, part-time jobs that need full- time employment. those are numbers but i have told you, but those numbers stand behind real people and real crises. it is seniors planning on retiring but who cannot. as a mom and dad, one has a day shift, one has the night shift. they rarely see each other, only on sunday.

we have young people coming out of college who cannot find work, soldiers coming home from afghanistan, from iraq, and they cannot find good jobs back here. this is the greatest economy in the world, the greatest nation in the world? we have people really suffering. this president has made a lot of promises he has not kept. he said he would cut the deficit in half. he has doubled it. he is on track, by the end of his first term, his only term, by the way -- [applause] he is on track to put together as much public debt almost as all of the prior presidents combined. this is a record he cannot be proud of. he also said he would get people back to work. he said, if i connected this economy turned around in three years, i will be looking at a one-term proposition. we are here to collect. we're taking it back.

he also spoke about the need to secure medicare and social security, but temperamentally solvent. and in three years, no meaningful proposals, not even one, to do that. extraordinary. here is a person who not only campaign for president, but has been president three years, and with no prospects of turning the economy around, getting america back to work, no plans to end deficit spending. he just gave a state of the union address in which he did not even mentioned the deficit. the massive debt this country has. how can that be? and no plans for medicare or social security? this president is out of ideas, out of excuses. 2012, he will be out of office. [applause] the choice in this election will come down to very different directions. i just listen to frank blackmon. what a hero, what a terrific

guy, great american. bulova listening to him. he was absolutely right as a talked about the different course that america could take. this president has put us on a course to be more like europe. europe does not work in europe, it's sure as heck will not work here. start with the deficit. the idea that he is willing to stand by and watch trillion dollar deficits, not just watch them but put them into law, is simply unthinkable. we are on course to become like greece or italy or spain, and this president sits by idly watching. what i will do is cut spending, cap spending, and balance the budget. [applause] i have done that. i'm not just talking about that. if you are in business and i was in business 25 years, with it to businesses are run myself,

others i try to help, if you are not a conservative fiscally in business, then you are out of business. you have to balance your income statement. you have to make sure that your cost = your revenues, or your revenues equal or exceed your costs, and at that time again. i went to the on banks and did that. i want to my state of massachusetts and balance the budget every year, without raising taxes or adding more debt. as i go to washington, let me tell you how i will do it. at first, i will look at every single line item, every single program, and ask this question -- is this program so critical to america that is worth borrowing money from china to pay for it? if not, i will get rid of it. [applause] by the way, it does not take a leader to promise of free stuff. it takes a leader to call for sacrifice and get people to follow. i will be going to the american

people and say, look, you may like these programs, but we have to get rid of them, and i will lead. we will have some sacrifice and we will get rid of programs and people like. one that would all agree to get rid of is obama-care. i will get rid of that from the very beginning. [applause] but there are others. we have a bill called davis- bacon. but says you have to use union labor or paid union wages. that costs $10 billion per year. i will get rid of that. we subsidize things like amtrak. we have to stop doing that. there are some things i like, like the national the dormant for the arts, national endowment for the humanities. they're wonderful, but i am not willing to borrow money boat from china to pay for them. there is public broadcasting. i like pbs, i like big bird, my kids like bert and ernie. i did not think it is worth borrowing money against a war

kids do not have to watch advertising. i think it is a case for big bird and kellogg's corn flakes to be on the same tv at the same time. we will stop spending on programs that are not absolutely essential. that is number one. i will cut a lot of spending by doing that. there is another way to cut spending, and i am sure you will appreciate this. that is by taking programs we will keep, like medicaid, the programs for the poor who need health care, and housing vouchers, food stamps or people in need. we will take those programs and instead of them being managed by the federal government and growing completely out of control, we will send them back to the states. we will let the states run those programs, with specific limits on how fast they grow. [applause] and by the way, that saves $100 billion per year, by having medicaid grow at inflation plus 1%. there are other programs that

are so on economical and wasteful in washington. you know how many job training programs there are in washington? 47. think of that. and reporting to up to eight different agencies. as somebody is looking for job training, think of all the programs that have to sort through, all of the bureaucrats and the waste. i want to get rid of all of it. take those dollars, send it back to michigan, and say, mich., you craft them and do a better job at much less cost. [applause] so balancing the budget. balancing the budget starts with cutting and eliminating programs. no. 2, taking programs we will keep, sending them back to the states, where there manage with less fraud, inefficiency, and more effectively. and third, with the government that remains, we have to make it far more efficient than what we have. let me tell you a story about

efficiency in government. this comes from john lehman, former secretary of the navy under ronald wrangleregan. he said at the second world war, a navy purchasing was approximately 1000 people. he said by the time he became secretary of the navy, we were commissioning 17 chips per year, a navy purchasing had grown to 4000 people. he said today with commission nine ships per year. navy purchasing? it has grown to 24,000 people. we have to economize. i will cut at least 10% of the federal work force that remains, through attrition, and i will link the pay of federal workers to pay that exists in the private sector. [applause] you do those things and we balance our budget. the other things? we have to get the economy

growing again. this president does not seem to understand what drives growth. this president this last week announced a program where he will raise the marginal tax rate from 35% to 40%. you know how many people work in businesses where the businesses charge not the corporate rate but the individual right? where businesses have flow through, where they did not have the corporate level tax, to have the individual tax? the giono in the private sector work force, 54% of americans work for lack of business? so if you raise the tax rate from 35% to 40%, to make it harder for them to grow. i will cut the marginal tax rates for everyone by 20% and get this economy going again. [applause] he has his own plans for energy as well, and that is to say no

to call, no to oil, no to natural gas, no nuclear, yes to his friends at cylinder. my view is we have to say yes to the keystone pipeline, yes to drilling, yes to energy in this country that we can develop in this country. [applause] he believes in something i called crony capitalism. it is kind of phony capitalism. he takes your money so he can invest with his friends, whether it is fisker or tesla, money goes into businesses that happened to be big contributors to his effort. and not worked out so far, we will see how they do down the road. what they do is make it harder for the private sector to grow and thrive because competitors of those businesses cannot get financing and go out of business. the right course for america is not having a president trying to direct winners and losers, it is to let the free market choose the best and let those to arrive and succeed.

-- and to let those thrive and succeed. we are facing real challenges, a crisis of fortunes in the american family that is under stress, the economy, globally with iran and others threatening our security and our peace, and this is not a time for business as usual in washington. it is a time for principal, conservative leadership. i learned that in my home, the values i was taught there. i live in my home. i learned it in my business experience, where you have to balance your income statement. i applied to those principles as the governor of a state. by the way, playing in michigan as a conservative is like playing an away game. i legislature was 85% democrat, yet we balance the budget every year without raising taxes or the debt, reduce the legislature tax rate 19 different times, and

we also were successful in implementing english in our schools. we fought for english immersion, our kids are taught in english in our schools. [applause] i empowered our state police to enforce illegal immigration laws in massachusetts so we could deport people who come here illegally. [applause] i also faced a supreme court in my state that said john adams had written into the constitution. the marriage between people -- written into the constitution and right to marriage between people of the same gender. we reversed that in my state. we were on progress to do that. then we also had the legislature passed a bill that said we would allow cloning and our state. they want to change the definition of when life began. i stood up, said no, and veto that legislation. i'm a pro-life governor, a pro- life candidate, perot

traditional marriage candidate, and i am a conservative. i test from my conservative traditions by quoting somebody who endorsed me and my 2008 campaign. santorum said, mitt romney, this is a guy who is really conservative and we can trust. he said he is the clear conservative candidate. he is right, i am the conservative candidate, and what we need in the white house is principled conservative leadership, and i will bring it. [applause] now, at the last debate -- and that was a fund debate and arizona -- and that last debate, we heard something about business as usual in washington. when the senator mentioned sometimes you have to take one for the team, what he was describing was the circumstances where he disagreed with something on principle, but he had to vote for that because it was taking one for the team.

but cannot do that anymore. we cannot continue to take one for the team. my team is the people of the united states of america, and i will fight for that team, not the partisans in washington. [applause] the list from that debate was extraordinary. he was opposed to planned parenthood funding and tidal 10 but voted for it. he was opposed to no child left behind, he voted for it. he voted to raise the debt ceiling five times without compensating cuts and costs. he described how he favors earmarks, including fighting for the bridge to nowhere. he supported arlen's dr.'s effort to get a deal -- arlen specter's effort to get out some judge approved. there was also 1996, where he supported arlen specter, by the way, when he was running for president.

arlen specter, the only pro- choice candidate we saw in that race. there were other conservatives running like bob dole. he supported the pro-choice candidate, arlen specter. this taking one for the team, that is business as usual in washington. we have to have principled conservative leadership, and i have demonstrated that through my life and as governor. i listen to frank blackmon a moment ago, and he was right on -- this president says he wants to transform america. i do not want to transform america, i want to return to america the principles that made us great over the years. again, thinking about frank, he quoted the declaration of independence. those first words, carefully selected by the founders, changed the world. they said that "the creator had

endowed us with our rights," not the governor, not the state. and among them, of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. those words meant opportunity here in america, and freedom. so freedom lovers from all over the world came here. this was the place of opportunity, where people could pursue their dreams. government would not direct how could live their lives, the circumstance of birth would not limit what to achieve. through work, education, a little good luck, their ambition, their dreams, that would determine their success. that brought people here by the millions of the centuries. we have to restore those values. i love the words of the great american hands that describe how much we love this country. "america the beautiful," o beautiful for spacious skies, for it pills of planes.

a beautiful, for heroes proved it, and liberating strides. for more than some of their country love and mercy more than life. many veterans in the room hoot remember that? please stand and be recognized. [applause] thank you. thank you, sir. there is another verse. o beautiful, for patriot dream, that sees beyond the years. the idea is the founders of this country did not just right for their times. this all beyond the years. the principles of freedom and the preservation of life and the ability and america to pursue happiness as we choose. that those principles would not be temporary but enduring. they have changed american meat is the most powerful nation in the history of the earth.

president obama and his friends are trying to change us, take us in a different direction, because more like europe, make us an entitlement society, where people think they're entitled to whatever they want. they want government to take from some and give to others. in that society, the only people who do well are the government givers and takers. that is the wrong course for america. the right course for america is to lower the burden of government, make it smaller, and the deficits, debt america on track to prosperity by lifting up the american people with. homes, great value is, toward the jobs, is soaring economy, with a nation that a second to none. i will fight with all of my energy to consult -- to install conservative principles, the principles of the founders, the principles upon which this nation was founded. there were found with berlin's and inspiration. we need to restore them so that america can remain as it always has been, the shining city on the hill.

thank you very much. great to be here with you today. thank you. [applause] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] [captioning performed by national captioning institute]

we will have a more open " road to the white house" with live coverage. ron paul will be speaking with business owners and hutson phil, mich., at 6:00, newt gingrich in georgia. the former speaker of the house is on a two-day campaign bus tour of his home state, whose primary falls on march 6, also known as super tuesday. watch live coverage sunday, here on c-span.

former the louisiana gov. buddy roemer on thursday formally announced his third-party candidacy for president. he is seeking to be the nominee of americans elect, as well as the reform party. he joined us to talk about his viability as a third-party candidate this morning on "washington journal." host: joining us from boston rouge, louisiana, is buddy roemer. you decided this week he would become an independent. explain the strategy behind that. -- explained the strategy behind that. guest: elections are decided by debate performance and opportunity. guest: in the 21st century, elections are decided by debate performance and opportunity. i have been a republican for 21 years. i am proud of the republican party. i was a democrat before that. in the course of the last year, there have been 23 nationally

televised debates. been 23 nationally televised debates. most americans now get their impressions of candidates in the debate format. newt gingrich rose and fell in that format. rick santorum has risen in that format. herman cain, in that format. some have not done so well. debates decide it. the governor of texas fell in that format. michele bachmann felt in that format. debates are important. of the 23 nationally televised debate, i am the only republican candidate who was not invited to the debate. i am the only republican candidate who has been a congressman and a governor. here is the key point. i am the only republican candidate who does not take pac money or special interest money

or wall street money. all of the other republican candidates are financed by those people. i am not talking about super pac's. that is another issue. i am just talking about that take my money and do what i want you to do kind of campaign. for one year, i talked about what we can do in america. i love america. i think there is a lot we can do. i was not invited to a single debate. i had a standing in the polls higher than rick santorum. i had a standing in the polls in florida higher than jon huntsman. they were invited to every debate. i began to get the feeling after a while maybe the republican party did not want to hear about corruptive power of special interest money and their candidates. host: you decided to split your

efforts between the reform party and americans elect. tell us why you have chosen those routes for independent bid. guest: i have been shut out of all of the debates and not been able to talk among the candidates and to the american people about what this country could be. i am the only candidate for president in either party has been a congressman and a governor. i began to try to figure out a way to get on the national stage. the trouble with the primary debate is that the rules are set debate by the bay. every time i would call to see if i was invited to the debate, and said i did not quite have enough money. you do not have quite enough standing in the polls. i reached 1%. i called. they said it is 2%.

i reached 2%. they said it was 3%. i got tired of it. i decided i would take my case to the biggest party in america, the independent party, and that i would try to get independent republicans and democrats interested in a candidate who would try to unite america, who would have a vice president from another party and join together. that is where i am today, an independent. you should know there is a law, rule, that says the debates in the general election. that lot is if you reach 50% in the national poll and are on the ballot in all 50 states, you have to be divided -- invited to the debates. that is what i am trying to do.

i will join with americans elect in getting all 50 ballots. i may or may not be with the reform party. that has yet to be determined. i will be an independent candidate joining with another woman or man to put a team together to rebuild america and get in the national debate. host: 80 roemer is a presidential candidate, former governor of louisiana, joining us to talk about his candidacy. you can call or e-mail us or send us a tweet about the americans select organization which heat reference. it is holding an on-line presidential primary. it hosts and non-partisan ticket -- it hosts a non-

partisanship. their efforts to put the candidate on the ballot. brian, go ahead with your question or comment. caller: i have always found it amusing that in the land of the free and home of brave, we only have two parties. you are either going to be in first or second place. it is ridiculous and embarrassing. i would like to switch topics. i would like to ask c-span to show on the treaties we signed that called for this over a number of years. i am a citizen. i contacted the chamber of commerce. he indicated i am and

isolationist. just one second. i will make my point and get off. we can make peace against mexico or china. it has nothing to do with health care or taxes. guest: he is absolutely right. listen to him. we have this fetish for free- trade. i love it, but it takes two. it is hard to have a marriage with just one person when the other person is not talking, cooperating, not listening, not loving. we have given permanent, normal trade relations with china. have you ever been to china? i have many times. their products will across this country is like a tsunami. they're often made by child labor, forced labor, prison labor, with no environmental

standards or worked safety standards. that is china. what do they do with our products? they stop them from coming into their country. it took us nearly half a decade to get a fire engine built in louisiana into china. here is what i want, fair trade. i would start by asking the department of treasury to tell the truth that time it is a currency manipulator and it must stop. i would revoke permanent normal trade relations. here is what i am trying to get, fair trade. i want trade with china, but i want our products to have the same axis they do. i would like that the workers of china know that there is a nation in the world called the united states that is their biggest market, and we will

stand for them to be treated as human beings, not like little pieces of dirt on a chess set. i believe the caller is absolutely correct. host: our next caller joins us from lafayette, louisiana. caller: governor romer, i am so proud of you. you have been the only republican -- i know you are an independent now. i think it is wise that you have to look over. you are the only canada speaking any common sense. i think that is probably why you have been locked out of the system. i am so proud of you. i really hope you are going to be able to shake up the system. i am so proud of you. keep up the good work. guest: thank you. you have heard me say it before. let me say again.

i was eight years a congressman, incumbent democrat, i won again and again. i never took pac money. i do not think washington is broken. i think it is bought. i am a conservative economically. i believe in full disclosure and transparency. the super pac's do not worry me so much about the amount of money they give. is that they do it in hidden fashion. it is illegal. "the wall street journal" had a good editorial praising the super pac's because people were participating in free speech. they had an interesting phrase in there. they said it is legal as long as they do not corroborate with the canada. i am not a fool. i am a 68-year-old granddad. i am a successful businessman. i love america. i am lucky to be born in

america. but we ought to tell the truth. there's full cooperation between the super pac's and canada's. mitt romney spoke to the fund- raiser for the super pac and then declared he did not know what they are doing. politics should not be an ally. politics should not be controlled by special interests. we need a bank reform. we need budget reform. we need tax reform. we need immigration reform. we need trade reform. we need help care reform. we need all of these things. but they will not happen until we reform campaigns in this country. andneed full disclosure as broad limits to let the people decide. here's how i am running. $100 limit. no pac money.

they say and the good candidate. i went to harvard and studied business. you know how to grow jobs. you are not a lawyer or lobbyist. you do not live in washington. those are not the issue. the issue is, are you going to have a president free to lead first think about the kind of president that you want. then can you be competitive in the system? host: how can you compete by limiting donations from individual donors? guest: very good question. let me answer you. i am not depending on a wall street check. i hold no fund-raisers. i have raised half a million dollars across america, average contribution is $25. i need 1 million people, i need 1 million americans to stand with me. if they would give me $70 each,

that is $70 million. that is more than any two candidates have raised in the primary. if we continue business as usual and let goldman sachs and g.e. be the major contributors, let the fat cats who want to move the capital of israel to jerusalem and by candidates to say that, if we just sit back in our arm chairs as spectators, if we do not get involved, what do you think will happen to this country? this country is in trouble. china trade, lack of education, a budget that is not balanced, a tax code that you cannot read. here is my solution. get a woman or a man with experience who is free to lead

and 1 million of us contribute $50 or $100, and that candidate will get on the stage and win the election and be free to lead. it can be done. obama is saying $1 billion. that is a disgrace. host: the next call comes from the democratss line. caller: good morning governor roemer. i would like to say i appreciate what you are saying, but i will be voting for president obama. is the i think he is the most intelligent president we have had. none of the candidates on the republican side, romney,

santorum, gingrich, in the sell- off happened to herman cain and rick perry, they are totally not qualified. you have these blue dog democrats in office who will not get my vote, but i fully support him, and i appreciate what you are saying. we have the best man for the job and he will be reelected. thank you. guest: i appreciate your opinion, particularly because you are from new orleans. there is a lot of love there. my granddaddy lived in new orleans. he lived on bourbon street. i hear what you said about our president. he is not the best president we

have, he is the only president we have, and i will honor him in this campaign. i always show respect to the office. i'm very disappointed in him. we have a president that has not submitted a detailed budget plan in three years. we have a president does not call for tax reform in the three years he has been president. it is a difficult time in america. i know the parties have divided and split this party in half. i know that. i know the president has a hard time, but i expect the president to lead, to talk about how to grow jobs, to have an energy policy, to have a simple, clear, progressive tax code. i expect the president to hold wall street to the same standards he holds commercial banks.

here is what i do not expect. i do not expect the president of the united states who talks a good game and has you in his corner to sign a bank reform bill, go to wall street the next month, have a fund raiser with the wall street banks at $35,000 a ticket, but does not change too big to fail, does not increase capital ratios, does not reinstalled glass-steagall, and is hosted by goldman sachs. i do not expect the president to be bought. i expected this president to bring change. i have seen none. host: tulsa, oklahoma. go ahead. you are on with governor roemer. caller: i am a former truck driver, and i have seen your

state go from bad, and they have done a lot of good building in your state. i have a car loan financed through my trucking company and i just got that car. guest: by the way, i am -- go ahead. caller: ibm a conservative. i used to be a democrat. i changed to a republican, and i want to be independent. i believe in limited government, strong border control, and obama seems like a good guy, but i think he is trapped by his own party, and the politics as bad. he hired the wrong people to do

the wrong job. it just seems like he can not find a way to leave the country. he is a good speaker, but not a great leader. guest: thank you. i'm a member, to, by the way. i have to go to a $650 million bank here in louisiana -- i have built a 67 $50 million bank. louisiana. we did not foreclose on homeowners. we are old fashioned that way. for a lot of obvious reasons, i think the president is trapped. he is trapped in his own party. he is trapped in partisan politics and a corrupt political system. let me give you a fact. four years ago, when president

obama ran against john mccain, they received more pack money and lobbyist money from washington, d.c., then from 32 states combined. washington, d.c., is bought and sold by pack and lobbyist money. i think we should have a law that says you can't be a registered lobbyist in washington, but you cannot bring a check to a politician. i would have 48-hour disclosure. if a politician receive the checks, he would have to disclose that in 48 hours. i would do away with super pacs because they are illegal. they are in full cooperation with the candidates. i would have criminal penalties.

we need to clean up the system. we did that in louisiana and it made a big difference. we've had good governors like mark foster and bobby jindal. keep cleaning our state. i will start, and i will do it by having a campaign reform bill that is heavy on disclosure. i am a conservative. i like disclosure. we will have broad limits and full disclosure. theodore roosevelt said 100 years ago last month "are we going to be the party of privilege and wall street, or are we going to be the party of plain people that build a great nation? i asked that today. i need 15% of the national poll to get on the debate, and i will

ask president obama why has he not submitted tax reform, comprehensive immigration reform that seals our border, why has he not demanded fair trade with china? host: providence, rhode island. ana, independent line. go ahead. >> i am and independent from -- caller: i am an independent of rick santorum. he won me over with his made in america plan. i do agree with you that there are serious problems with our primaries and they're not helped by the mainstream media refusing to allow all candidates -- allow candidates to direct the conversation. i was a democrat for nearly all of my 52 years until 2006 until

mike -- 's my eyes were open -- until my eyes were opened with the affair left tried to infiltrate the parties. i have seen a lot of the machinations that go on. i have serious concerns with americans elect, which is run by douglas, who was involved in the clinton administration, the people dead and post naphtha up -- the people that imposed nafta upon us, mayor bloomberg, who is also a member of the international crisis group, of global list. they are seeking to manipulate our elections.

host: governor roemer, go ahead. guest: good issues. i have the same trepidation that you do. i'm fiercely independent in my approach. americans elect do, a non-profit organization, is provide ballot access. you have to run on your own. i will select my running mate. i will look at any american who has strong views about loving my country and making it better, but i am independent of americans elect. all they are doing is building a platform. they're not picking a candidate. their membership, 600,000, 1 million people, we will do that on line. i do not even though who

finances americans elect. i do not care. i am fully disclosed. i will not get any money from them. i will not get any ideas from them. all we are doing it is challenging the political system, a system that is institutionally corrupt, and it is dependent on institution money. look at health care. president obama head insurance companies, lobbyists, bankers, pharmaceutical companies, lawyers -- here is who i would have in the room. doctors, patients, nurses -- this is the way you do reform. i need 1 million people to look at buddyroemer.com and say let's

take this country back from special interests. >> what is the website, and the second along -- second, if you're looking at gop candidates, who was at the top of your list that -- vice president candidates, who was on the top of your list? guest: i am looking for a person with some political experience, not too much. i will not mention rick santorum and others who have too much. newt gingrich, my god. i call mitt romney the 1%er, and i think newt gingrich is the lobbyist. host: what is your website? guest: buddyroemer.com.

look at it. i've been a congressman, a governor, i've built a bank. i am hard-headed. i will join with a unity ticket. i am not interested in building a party. i'm interested in building a nation. i am asking every american to stand with me and pulled this nation together. when i talk to congress and listen to congress, i will give them praise, but ask them one thing specifically -- let's reform campaigns, then let's rebuild america together. host: you see the website. while you are looking at the website, upstate new york, don, democrats line. go ahead.

caller: i just wanted to say that it is refreshing to see an independent candidate, and i just wanted to make a comment, you know what really burns me about this whole thing with china? we have these companies that are people that live in america and go over to china and hire chinese workers rather than american workers. guest: yeah. caller: in my estimation that should be treasonous. guest: i take it in that spirit. don, you are right. our tax code was written by the lobbyists for ge. they get to charge their

expenses on building a plant in china off of american income taxes. did you know that? you are paying for them to go to china. here is what companies like that do. they close a plant down in america, bill the new one in china, a charge it against american income, and they do not make the goods to sell in china. they do not sell anything in china. they send the goods back to america. we are the only nation on earth that allows the big boys to own the government, buy the tax code, which is unfair, unreadable, and documented for the lobbyists. they change the tax code. i will take on ge. they are a good company. they are as old as thomas edison.

it is a disgrace what they have done. they are taking advantage of a convoluted tax code, and they are diminishing the americans and building up outsourcing. it is not right. i will not blame this system on one company. i will blamed it on the system were the largest voice in the room is not the american worker. the largest -- the loudest voice in the room is not the american worker, the american people, the small-business men and women that create jobs in this country. the loudest voice in this room is the company with the biggest campaign contribution check. it is called tyranny. i think we need to change that. i would not stop them from giving. i would have flowed -- full disclosure, broad limits, and

asked the american people to get involved. host: garrett, republican, orlando, florida. caller: good morning, governor. i have been hunting down in louisiana. guest: good country. i will never go. host: go ahead. caller: i think it is pretty simple, and in terms of finance, it goes back to being a citizen and a voter. the way it works is if i'm running for congress, the only people permitted to contribute

to my campaign are my constituents. if i'm running for senate, the only people who are allowed to contribute to my campaign are the citizens of my state. president,ing for the only people who are permitted to contribute our citizens of the united states. then, when it comes back to states legislature and so on, let the states control their own rules and regulations. guest: thank you. here is the question. it is bigger than me or you. it is reform. can we take this wonderful america and make it stronger? can we take this wonderful, chaotic america, with its 50

states and its 50 rules -- i mean i did not get on the ballot in south carolina because they charged $35,000, the republican party did. i did not have the money. that is okay. it is their decision. i like living in a country where we do not all look alike and think alike, but we need to think about participation. we have become television spectators. we let the big boys finance the candidates, and then we are all upset when the big boys write the rules. ge makes $5 billion and does not pay federal income taxes. why don't we do something about it? i need 1 million people were two million people to get on my website, buddyroemer.com, and say i am going to do something i

have never done before, held a man who has the courage to stand up to the big parties and the big companies and say i will work for you, but we will ask plane people to come in, too. when i was running for congress i took money from my constituents. i did not take any pac money. they say you cannot win, buddy. yes i can. i 1 four times jim converse and once he and -- i 1 four times in congress. caller: what did they do with the last light bulb factory? obama just had to give back money that he took from a

criminal mexican family. you said the republican party as part of wall street. wall street gave all of their money to obama in that election and he paid them back, just like he paid the union back. i was a union member. i did not support obama. now they're getting their waivers from obama-care. you need to get your facts straight. guest: let me give you effect. both parties are joined at the billfold. that is a fact. i have been 21 years a conservative democrat. i have been 21 years a republican. they have a problem. money comes before ideas, people, and performance, and as soon as they get elected they are worried about one thing, and you know what that is?

it is not tennessee. it is re-election. i do not need to put anybody down. there are good people in both parties. i was proud to be a republican the last 21 years, but i have come to the conclusion that if we want the change that obama promised four years ago then we have to stand tall and put the country first. host: cleveland, ohio. you are on with governor roemer. caller: thank you, c-span. there will be a unique set of problems when you reenact tarriff -- tariffs. all the products will go up. people will not be able to buy a

television set anymore. how do you feel about what they call entitlement programs? i am considering voting for you. i have never voted for a republican in my life, but i would like some answers on how you feel about different programs. host: governor roemer, go ahead. guest: tariffs -- i am not a atriff guy. there could be exceptions. we ought to drill for natural gas safely in this country. we have enough for 250. -- years. let's be smart. let's have an energy policy. less generate nuclear power safely. let's open up yet come mountain. we need to be smart.

we need to form a relation with china and mexico on energy. become energy independent. that ought to be our goal secondly, you talk about the kinds of things that we need to do -- goal. secondly, you talked about the kind of things we need to do in this country in terms of china and jobs. i am for fair trade, but i think the president of the united states some time, some place, has to stand up and tell china "if you do this to us, we are going to respond." i will give you an example. china raised their import fees on american-made cars by 22%. do you know what the president of the united states said? not a damn thing. on entitlement, i am eligible for social security and

medicare. i'm talking about myself. we need to change these over time. i would do four things quickly -- i would raise the retirement age by one month a year for 24 years. it would not affect anyone already on these programs. one month a year for 24 years. we would not have to raise social security taxes or lower benefits. on medicare, i would require insurance companies to compete. do you know that insurance companies have 50 monopolies in the country? you cannot buy medical insurance across the state line? did you know that insurance companies give massive amounts of money to the politicians to protect them? why should we protect them? this is a free enterprise system. we need full disclosure and competition. we need choice and competition.

host: 5 more minutes, sir. virginia beach. go ahead. caller: my question to you is what is rapidly taking over the country are the unions. there was a time in our country when unions needed to be there. it has gotten to the point where they aren't dixit -- dictating policy. -- where they are dictating policy. like the boeing plant. they put detroit under because of the prices they are charging. now, we want to bail them out. host: governor roemer? guest: i hear you. i come from a respect-for-unions background, a deep respect for workers' rights to organize -- i still have that. i am a competitive soul.

i do not think that unions ought to dictate policy in america. they ought to have a voice. they ought not be given special advantage, like in the highway bill. we fought that in louisiana and as a congressman. i am not against unions, but i am against a monopoly or a dictatorship. they should be a player. they should be respected. unions should join with me. let's create jobs. these are not union jobs. these are american jobs. if the union can organize them, fine, but they have to do it fairly and squarely. let me say this. as an independent, a former democrat and a former republican, a successful businessman, and an american citizen i like a nation where

unions can exist, be strong, be heard, and be loud, but they ought not be given or guaranteed. they have to compete. on the automobile industry, i was in japan once with the governor of mississippi and bill clinton, and we ask the head of toyota, what was the problem with it right? was it the unions? he said "no, it is management." be fair. we can blame the unions, but management runs the company. if they do not have the guts or the brains to think and behalf of their company, shame on them. host: we have about one minute, but if you look at the americans elect web site, you are not in the top three. how do you hope to change that?

guest: that is why i announced. this election is not today. you are like a scorecard keeper. what are you going to do? if you are behind, you're going to score once. most americans are undecided, filled with anxiety, and do not know who to choose. here is my goal -- give them a choice. give them a president free to leave. show them a plan on 15 different issues on how to build a stronger america. this i

>> representative ron paul in michigan, and newt gingrich will be in georgia. the primary falls on march 6, also known as super tuesday. watch live "road to the white house" coverage sunday here on c-span. >> this is the voice of the white house i want to be. >> we look back at 14 men who ran for office and lost. go to c-span.org/thecontenders to see people who had a lasting impact on politics. >> do you remember slamming it really hard, and the door is

unlocked? now we have the most violent crime-ridden society in the industrialized world. i can't live with that. can you live with that? >> no! >> go to c-span.org/thecontenders. >> in his weekly radio online address, president obama calls for increased oil production in the united states. then texas senator kay bailey hutchison delivers the republican answer. she also urges the president to consider legislation passed by the house which she says will help boost job growth. >> hi, everybody. in the state of the union, i laid out three areas we need to focus on if we're going to build an economy that lasts. new american manufacturing, new skills and education for american workers, and new sources of american-made energy. these days we're getting another painful reminder of why

developing new energy is so important to our future. just like they did last year, gas prices are starting to climb. only this time it is happening earlier. that hurts everyone. everybody who owns a car, everybody who owns a business. it means you have to spread your paycheck even further. high gas prices are like a tax straight out of their paychecks. now, some politicians always see this as a political opportunity. it is an election year, they are already dustinging off their same three-point plan. i'll tell you the steps. step one according to them is drill, step two is drill, and step three is to keep drilling. we hear the same thing every year. we heard the same thing for 30 years. well, the american people aren't stupid. you know that's not a plan. it is a bumper sticker, not a

strategy to solve our energy challenges. it is a strategy to get a politician through an election. you know there are no quick fixes to this problem, and you know we can't just drill our way to better gas prices. if we are going to take control of our energy future, we need a sustained all-of-the-above strategy that develops a sustained energy strategy -- oil, gas, wind, solar, nuclear, bio-fuels, and more. we need to develop technology that allows us to use less gasoline in our cars and trucks and buildings. that's the strategy we are pursuing, and that's the only real solution to this challenge. now, we absolutely need safe production of oil here in america. that's why under my administration oil is producing more oil today than at any time in the last eight years. in 2010 our dependence on foreign oil was under 50% for

the first time in more than a decade. while there are no short-term silver bullets when it comes to gas, i direct my administration to look to every area where we can make an impact and help consumers in the months ahead. from delivery markets to what is going on in the oil mark etc. over the long-term an all-of-the-above energy strategy means we have to do more. it means we have to make some choices. here is an example. right now $4 billion of your tax dollars subsidize the oil industry every year. $4 billion. imagine that. maybe some of you are listening to this in your car right now pulling into a gas station to fill up. as you watch those numbers rise, know that oil company profits have never been higher, yet somehow congress has been giving those same companies another $4 billion of your money. it is outrageous, and it has to stop. a century of subsidies to the

oil companies has to stop 679 it is time to use that money to help our deficit and double down on clean energy investments that have never been more promising. the use of wind and solar energy in this country has nearly dubs and thousands of americans have jobs because of it. because we have put in place the toughest fuel standards in the world, we have instituted something that will save the typical american family more than $8,000 at the pump. now congress needs to renew the clean energy tax credits that will lead to more jobs and less depend yentence on foreign oil. look, we know there is no silver bullet that will bring down gas prices or reduce our dependence on foreign oil overnight. what we can do is get our priorities straight and make a sustained serious effort to

tackle this problem. that's the commitment we need right now. with your help, it is a commitment we can make. thanks. >> hello. i'm senator kay bailey-huthchison from texas. major league baseball spring training camps are beginning to open. but there are 14 million americans that won't be talking sports at work. they are the unemployed workers that haven't been able to get to first base. earlier this week at an event to highlight the payroll extension tax cut bill passed by congress, president obama was quoted as saying, my message to congress is, don't stop here. keep going. well, republicans in congress do want to keep going. we have six months before the

election, and there is much to be accomplished. much on which we can agree. but the president should send his message to the senate democratic leadership. for example, three of my senate colleagues and i last week reiterated our call to have the senate consider three bills that would make it easier for smaller companies to expand and hire. the key from moving to a monthly trickle of jobs is getting obstacles out of the way of our small businesses. they are our job creators. the measures we have brought forward re-- involve raising private funds. each of these bills has passed the house with more than 400 votes. large majorities of both republicans and democrats.

each bill has also been endorsed in congress. and yes, these bills have been bottled up for months in the democrat-controlled senate. president obama also noted this week that americans are concerned about the rising cost of gasoline. well, they certainly are. gasoline prices have almost doubled in just three years, and it's getting worse. last february, the average cost of a gallon of unleaded was $3.17 a gallon. the highest february price ever. this average is $3.57 per gallon. and all forecasts are for prices to rocket above $4 per gallon during the summer driving season. families and businesses will be devastated. president obama's own energy

secretary has said, and i quote, "somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in europe." well, this administration is certainly trying their best to do just that. we can't slow down global demand for oil and gas, but we can do a lot more here at home to assure that we have the energy we need and to halt skyrocketing costs. but president obama's policy has resulted in an unprecedented slowdown in new explorations and production of oil and gas. off-shore drilling permits are being issued at less than half the rate of the previous administration's. the publicly leased land is less than half that of president clinton's term. not only will the slowdown in domestic production drive up fuel prices, it also takes away

jobs from tens of thousands of oil industry workers. the same is true for the keystone pipeline. it would produce thousands of good-paying construction jobs and tens of thousands more at u.s. refineries and suppliers. that pipeline would assure the united states 830,000 barrels of oil from our friend to the north, canada. after four years of environmental reviews and regulatory approvals, the obama administration is still stalling. if we wait, the canadians have indicated they can shift their oil, and a huge opportunity will have been lost. our message to the president is, we can't keep going.

13 million unemployed americans can't wait until after this year's election or next year's baseball season. we ask the president to help get a bipartisan jobs bill through the democrat-controlled senate and for an energy policy that puts american workers and families first. >> all this weekend when bringing you live coverage here in washington. we continue tomorrow morning at 9:30 eastern with discussions examining efforts to end childhood hunger. among the guests, education secretary tom vilsack. later, the special committee on homeland security will exemployer the changing role of the national guard. joining the group will be fema administrator craig fugate. watch live coverage sunday here on c-span.

>> bobby jindall was scheduled to reveal his budget. a budget $900 billion in the red. in shreveport it is mostly cloudy at the airport. 38 in memphis. are you listening to shreveport news and weather station. >> next weekend book tv and american history tv explore the history and lit rarey culture of shreveport, louisiana, saturday starting at noon eastern on book tv on c-span2. "one damn blunder from beginning to end." there will be over 200,000 books of the john bell collection. then a walking tour of shreveport with neal johnson. and in american history tv

subpoenaed at 5:00 p.m. eastern from foxdale air force base, a look at the base's role on 9/11 and the building of the b-2 bomber. >> also visit the founding father's photograph collection. >> and medicine treatment and medicine during the civil war. shreveport, louisiana, next weekend on c-span 2 and c-span3. >> the house and senate return from their week-long recess and begin work at 2:00 a.m. eastern on monday p among the items on their agenda, they will continue to resume legislative work on a bill on highway and surface transportation. house leaders are working on their version off the floor. keith lang covers transportation issues for the hill. keith lang, what has changed since the house and senate went in recess late this week? >> well, right before the recess, the republican leaders

in the house hit some roadblocks. it became clear they didn't have the votes to get this off the floor. they were getting hit from the left and the right on the bill. there were conservative groups that argued that it spent too much money because it spent $12 billion to $13 billion more than the highway trust fund brings in every year. and they were -- there were democrats who argued that the bill did not include enough and it included some cuts to things like sidewalks and green space. so before they went into the recess, the leaders pulled the bill from the floor. they were scheduled to vote on it before they left last week, and yesterday they made clear they will probably look to make the bill smaller. maybe around a two-year bill. they are going to remove some of the provisions about other transportation and try to see if

they can get to 218. >> the house bill had been a five-year bill, the senate bill a two-year bill. so this final product in the house will look more like the senate bill? >> it won't be identical to the senate bill. the house bill has a proposal to increase domestic oil drilling. the senate had looked at a package of tax loopholes they said could be closed. they were both looking for about $10 billion. the highway truffs -- trust fund, which traditionally funded these bills is funded with money collected by the federal gas tax. that brings in about $36 billion a year. so they are looking at the gap between that and the more than $50 billion they were trying to spend per year. >> are they looking at a deadline for when they want to get a highway bill done? >> the current funding and the

current authorization for the gas tax expires on march 31. this was a bill that was passed, an extension of the last transportation bill that expired in 2009, the last extension of it was passed in september. this is the eighth extension. so if they don't pass this bill or another extension by march 31, then this will run out. this funding will run out. >> you can read the transportation blog and follow keith laing on twitter at klaingthehill. >> the house will continue on monday. follow the house on c-span and the senate on c-span2. >> we got started because there are a lot of conservative think tanks. before c.a.p. there was no group

that worked on domestic policy, national security. >> neera tanden on the mission of the washington, d.c. think tank. >> we think there is an idology between arguments made in washington with very little facts made behind them. part of our job is to make the argument, and the factual arguments and the evidence-based arguments behind our own views. i do think sometimes when the facts don't argue for our position we reexamine those positions because we fundamentally believe the most important thing is to be right about what your views are. >> the center for american progress sunday at 8:00 a.m. eastern on c-span's "q & a." >> one of the trickyest things about writing this book for me is thinking through the way, particularly in the international human rights context, rights were -- kind of

straddled as a moral imperative and aspirational idea, and more practical and seminole man date. >> after wards, on distributing food to the poor in india, richard thompson defines human rights and how well meaning western reform can lead to increased exploitation. >> also this weekend on booktv house historian matt wizcnewski on a discussion about black -- book tv every weekend on c-span2. >> well, this week "the communicators" r u