advisory board. and i've invited my friend, the gentleman from wisconsin, here tonight who wanted to join me on the floor to talk about this , and i yield to the gentleman from wisconsin. mr. duffy: i appreciate the gentleman from arkansas yielding. i want to take a couple steps back in this conversation and first talk about the national debt. . >> we are well over $15 trillion in national debt. this year alone, we are going to borrow $1.3 trillion on top of a trillion dollars last year and the year before that. there are trillion-dollar deficits as far as the eye can see. and last year, the house republicans put forward a budget that showed a path to balance telling the american people how

we balance the american budget at some point in the future. now, last year and this year, the president put out a pugget, neither of which were ever balanced, never telling the american people what it is to balance the revenues. a couple years back when the president and this house passed the affordable care act or obamacare which the c.b.o. now states that over 10 years, the rosiest of projections will cost the country $ trillion more. even when they put out that proposal for health care reform, they aren't willing to put out a budget that says how we are going to pay for it. that concerns me. i'm a father of six. we are spending today and passing the bill off to the next generation. it's unconscionable. let's actually talk about what

the president and this house has passed in obamacare. $2 trillion over 10 years in additional spending. it's a bill that is going to power bureaucrats in this town to make health care decisions for americans in every part of the country instead of your family, your health care provider or you making that decision. and listen, i'm from wisconsin. and i know the values that we have in central wisconsin, they are probablyly little different than kansas, kentucky, minnesota or michigan and we should allow people to make health care decisions insed of bureaucrats in washington. what concerns me the most is how obamacare impacts, impacts medicare. now, listen, obamacare takes a half a trillion dollars out of medicare and uses it to fund

obamacare and we all know in america that we have some financial pressures on medicare and we know that we have to come together as a country, as a community, both parties, to figure out how we are going to pay for medicare, keep the promise to our seniors, at a time when we are still having that debate, to think that this house would pass a bill and take half a trillion dollars out of medicare and use it for obamacare? i think that's wrong. let's first figure out how we first keep the promise to our seniors before you make a promise to anyone else with their money. that's unconscionable. what concerns me the most is what the the gentleman from arkansas mentioned, the independent payment advisory board. and i think you will hear a lot more as the months go on. this is a board of 15 unelected bureaucrats. and what they're going to do is

look at reimbursement rates with medicare and they are going to be able to reduce reimbursements to doctors, hospitals and clinics for the care for our seniors. and let's make no mistake. this is reimbursement for our current seniors, not for some future generation. it's for today's seniors. and the argument for the president goes like this. mr. and mrs. senior, don't you worry about your quality of care or your access to care, we're just going to pay your doctor, hospital and clinic less for your care. if you believe that, i have oceanfront land for you in arizona. of course it's going to affect our seniors' access and quality of care. when you pay less for it, you will get less for it. and seniors, they won't delay time. they have bargained and retired based on this promise for

medicare. and this proposal doesn't meet that obligation. takes half a trillion dollars from medicare, but then is going to ration the care of our current seniors, seniors who can't go back into the work force and they retired based on the promise from the federal government and obamacare reduces that bargain that's been made to our seniors. mr. griffin: you know what really scares me is that this restricted access to health care, to medicare that you're talking about, it already exists. the ipab, the independent payment advisory board that's in obamacare that will cut the amount of reimbursement to doctors when it gets going, it's not even cutting yet. and we already have a problem.

with seniors getting the doctor that they want, because so many doctors have said, i'm just not going to take medicare anymore. and before i yield back, i just wanted to mention an email that i got in my office this week. it was a constituent of mine, program administrator for the arkansas senior medicare patrol. he goes around and he talks with seniors about medicare and how to recognize fraud in medicare. and he was at the sherwood senior center this past week, this week, in my district, and he was giving a presentation teaching arkansas seniors about

medicare fraud. and a lady, a senior who is on medicare, an angry senior said to him -- she wasn't angry at him, but she said with passion, quote, i don't understand why i'm forced to pay my medicare premium, but can't find a doctor who will take me because i'm on medicare, end quote. so, we already have a problem with access to medicare because doctors, more and more doctors are saying, i'm not going to take medicare. there are a host of reasons sm the reimbursement rate, the administrative hassle, what have you. i hear the gentleman from wisconsin saying, the independent payment advisory

board that is in obamacare is only going to make the problem worse, because while some of us are interested in reforming the way medicare works so that we get more service for our dollar, the president is only interested in saving money by just reducing and cutting without reforming. we all understand the need to reach solvency, but those of us who back medicare reform want to do it through innovative, creative, cost-saving approaches that avoid rationing, whereas the president simply wants to cut through an unelected board.

i want to yield back to the gentleman from wisconsin. i just thought it would be helpful to give you a real-life example of a senior in my district who has been impacted by that. mr. duffy: i appreciate the gentleman for telling that story. all of us have stories like that, from people in our districts, from our own family members, our friends, our constituents. and this is a very important issue. and that's why i think we have to have this conversation about what the independent payment advisory board will do. and -- i used to be a former prosecutor and used to a system where you don't like the decision of a court, oftentimes you are able to appeal that decision. this board is unappealable. the decisions they make, the 15 members, when they make a decision, that is going to be the law, that is going to be the rule, and you can't appeal it or have it overturned.

i just want to close my comments up on the independent payment advisory board. we don't believe on the republican-house side we should go forward with a plan that was going to reduce reimbursements for seniors, that's going to affect the quality and access to care for our seniors. let's give them what they bargain for. we in the house, republicans have said, put back the half a trillion dollars and put that back into medicare and do away with the ipab board, if you are going to make changes to medicare, make it for a future generation, a generation that will have enough time to plan for the changes in medicare. but don't pull the rug out from our seniors who have been given a promise and now aren't going to get it because their medicare is going to be rationed. we think it's fair to do it for a future generation. but make no mistake, when we

hear one party has transformed medicare or changed medicare as we know it, there is one party that has done it, and that's the democrat party and obamacare, and have changed the way medicare has worked and going to ration it. we should save it, protect, preserve it and i know my freshman colleagues are going to fight tooth and nail to make sure every one of our seniors get exactly what they bargained for and changes will be for a generation that can deal with changes in due course. mr. griffin: i thank the gentleman for joining us on the floor tonight. i see my friend, mr. quayle from arizona. and i would like to yield to him at this time. mr. quayle: i thank the gentleman for yielding and talking with his constituents back home and how manydom tors

are not seeing -- how many doctors are not seeing medicare patients or patients they currently provide services to. and the gentleman from arkansas does a lot of town halls and last week i was on a town hall meeting with my constituents back home and there were a number of constituents that raised the concerns that medical doctors aren't going to give them services because they were concerned about the payment that the medicare system would be giving them. this is a constant refrain we hear from our seniors that they are consistently being turned down by their physicians because of the lack of payment to medicare. this is a system we need to fix. this is a system we need to make sure we keep the promises to our seniors and reform it for future generations so it will be there to protect them when they reach retirement age. if you look at obamacare, it is

filled with provisions that confer arbitrary power that raise costs and cuts benefits and harms access and restricts choice against this really sorry backdrop. the independent advisory board or ipab has the dubious distinction of being one of the absolute worst provisions in the health care bill. this single provision -- this board of 15, unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats what would the power to impose price controls that would cut senior access to care. to make it worse, this board would not have to meet in public or listen to public input. amazingly, obamacare leaves the door wood open for ipab members to receive gifts from lobbyists. the public has no right to talk

to members of ipab but those showering them with gifts do. this will solve the problem? it doesn't. it restricts payments to doctors that provide health care. it is already the case that 12% of doctors will not take medicare patients due to the unreliability of government payouts. that is twice the number of doctors who refused to see medicare patients in 2004, with is a frightening statistic on how quickly that is rising. a recent survey showed that 60% of doctors will have or will restrict their medical practices as a result of obamacare, and those doctors, 87% said they would be fworsed to restrict the amount of care they offer to medicare patients. obamacare ignores the laws of economics in this instance. you can't cut the number of

people supplying it. by forcing doctors to turn away medicare patients, the cost will go up as fewer and fewer doctors see to the needs of the growing number of seniors. ipab will directly ration care and it is astounding that the president would look at an important issue and decide that the best way to handle rising costs is by attacking senior access to health care and the doctors who provide it. medicare does need reform, as my friend from arkansas knows and been on the floor numerous times talking about the reforms necessary, but needs real structural reform that protects access for our current seniors and fixes the system for future generations. the president punted on making these needed reforms. instead he chose to give us a rationing board that would make the problem worse. let's repeal ipab and give our seniors the care they deserve.

i yield back. . mr. griffin: 70 house democrats, 70 house democrats opposed ipab. when it was being debated in the president's health care law. before i ever got to congress. 70. and in fact it wasn't in the house version. and i am hopeful that some of the democrats who have come out against ipab will join us in repealing it so we can move on to truly reforming medicare to save it. i see my friend, the gentleman from tennessee, we are lucky, fortunate to have some physicians, many physicians, serving with us here in the house of representatives and they bring an expertise in this

area that really helps us when we're working on collusions -- solutions to the problems with medicare and medicaid. and i see one of them has joined us here on the floor tonight. i'd like to yield to my friend from tennessee. >> i thank the gentleman and i think that it's great that we're taking time tonight to discuss such an important issue, that is so near and dear to all of our seniors. because this last year, quite frankly, has been a very confusing time as we try to reform and fix the problems that face medicare today. we have, without a doubt, a number of seniors that are having trouble finding access to care right now for all the reasons my colleagues have stated. that we have a flawed payment formula in the s.g.r., sustained growth rate formula, and we've made attempts to correct that this year, but again, as they so often have done now for the past 13, 14 years, they've just pushed the problem down the road rather

than deal with it. so, i don't think it hurts it -- to review for a minute what problems are facing medicare. we can't deny for a second, mr. speaker, that medicare is going broke. can you talk to any number of agencies, whether it's c.b.o., aarp, we all know that medicare is on an unsustainable course. mr. desjarlais: medicare is quite simply going to be broke in about 10 years. that's not a republican problem, that's not a democrat problem, that's a people problem. and what we're here about tonight is to make sure our seniors don't have to worry where their health care is going to come from. so, we must get together and take steps to make sure that their access to care is preserved and protected. we did this earlier, last year, with the paul ryan budget. we put forth a sensible reform that would put medicare on a path to sustainability. if you're 55 or older you don't have to worry about any changes to your current health care.

that was grossly distorted in the press and in the media. we were accused of literally there were tv ads made of pushing an elderly person off a cliff. and this is just plain and simple wrong to create that kind of uncertainty for our seniors. now, the bottom line is we have 10,000 new medicare recipients entering the medicare pool every day. we have a situation where when medicare was first formed in 1965 that the average life expectancy of a male was 68. well, thanks to advances in medicine, men and women both are living at least 10 years longer. however, this was not managed in the budgeting for medicare and hence we've gone deeper and deeper into debt. and now our average couple that pays about $109,000 into the medicare system over a lifetime extracts about $340,000. so about $1 in for $3 out. so again there's no denying that we have a problem this is

going broke. while the republicans did offer a solution, as i said, and my colleagues have said, however right now the ipab is the only solution we've seen in president obama's plan to cut costs, but it is going to gut a half a trillion dollars from our seniors. and that's the fact that they need to know about. they need to call their representatives. i yield to the gentleman. mr. griffin: will the gentleman yield? mr. desjarlais: yes, sir. mr. griffin: i just want to make sure i understand or i'm able to communicate what the gentleman is saying. what you're saying, correct me if i am wrong, but what you are saying is, the house has a plan to reform medicare to save it. as far as i know, i haven't seen any other plan to save medicare pass the senate, haven't seen the president propose a plan to save

medicare, there's only one. now, the president has a plan for medicare but it's not to save it. and it really doesn't reduce costs to innovation or what have you, it just cuts. and the cuts are decided upon by unelected bureaucrats who are on this ipab, the independent payment advisory board. now, you mentioned the television ads, i had television ads run back in my district, they talked about how i and others wanted to change medicare as we know it. well, i quoted senator lieberman earlier who said, can't save medicare as we know it because it's going bankrupt. so what i say to folks is, we have to reform it. and i'm happy to have a

discussion and debate and compare this reform with that reform. happy to do that. what is intellectually dishonest, though, is to compare reforms that i advocate or you advocate, to compare those to the way it is now. that's intellectually dishonest. it's actually deception. why is that deception? because the way things are now, it's not going to be that way. seven, eight, nine, 10 years. it's unsustainable, the path we're on with regard to medicare. so if someone says your reform changes medicare as we know it, that in and of itself, if it is

presented to demagogue, that in and of itself is intellectually dishonest. because medicare as we know it goes bankrupt and changes itself. so i am happy to have a conversation to compare this reform with that reform. i don't claim to have a monopoly, certainly do not have a monopoly on wisdom in this area. i think we ought to be having a free and open debate of reform ideas that save medicare for seniors. but what we can't do, what we can't do is mislead people, mislead seniors into believing that medicare as it currently functions is sustainable.

that's not true. that's not true. and, folks, -- and folks who continue to talk about medicare as we know it need to point out that medicare as we know it ends on its own, by itself. the congress of the united states could do nothing on this for 10, 20, 30 years, whatever. and medicare would go bankrupt with no congressional action. so our job asee i see it is to take affirmative steps to save medicare, to save medicare, to maintain the quality of -- to maintain the quality, to maintain the quality so that doctors still want to take medicare patients and reform it

to save it for people, seniors like my mother. but we've got to start with the fundamental idea that we can debate reforms but comparing reform to an unsustainable status quo is intellectually dishonest. i yield back to the gentleman. mr. desjarlais: my friend's absolutely correct. what we need to do here, if nothing else, is we need to agree on the facts. and the facts as you just stated are that medicare is going broke. it is on an unsustainable corts. so medicare must be -- course. so medicare must be changed as we know it, as you said. you mentioned your mother. my mother happens to be having her 73rd birthday today. it's a happy birthday for my mother but i hope she has many more happy birthdays to come and we all have those stories. we all have parents, grandparent it's, we know people on med -- grandparents, we know people on medicare who are counting on. this they're looking at these

arguments and they're confused. they don't know what to believe. i think if we can agree, as you said, to the facts and then sit down and have a meaningful discussion of how we can preserve and protect this program for future generations, then that's half the battle. mr. griffin: even a bipartisan discussion. i welcome it. in fact, i was proud to see that a democrat from the senate joined with a republican in the house on a medicare reform plan. and i'm happy to debate all these different plans. as long as they have the ability to save medicare and guarantee quality care for seniors. if we end up debating reforms on the one hand versus the status quo, the way things are now, medicare as we know it on the other hand, we can't have that debate. because the whole point is that medicare as we know it, the

status quo, medicare as it is now, it's going bankrupt. so any discussion of the options has to be between the different options that save medicare. the problem is there's only one plan that saves medicare that has passed the house or the senate or that's been proposed by the president and that is the house budget plan from last year and we will, i am confident, have a plan this year that we will vote on shortly that will propose changes to save medicare. i want to thank the gentleman for joining us here tonight. do you have anything else you want to add? mr. desjarlais: no. i agree with what you're saying and i'll guarantee you, any of the seniors watching tonight, listening to this debate, they don't care whether the republicans win this debate or whether the democrats win this debate. that's irrelevant. what they want to know is that

they're going to have access to care and i think it's so essential that we repeal this ipab. the gentleman was with me earlier today at a press conference when they asked about all the rhetoric last year about these being called death panels and that may sound a little bit theatrical but i can tell you as a physician that if i'm treating the patient who's 78 or 88 and they've got some form of cancer and this ipab board decides in the government one-size-fits-all mentality to throw a blanket over seniors of a certain age who have a certain disease and cancer's probably a good one to pick, that they don't necessarily need to spend that expensive money on chemotherapy or speermal drugs or her -- experimental drugs or perhaps they don't want me to order the m.r.i. to detect the cancer, if you're 78 or 88, that may sound so old to some people, but i know a lot of people that age that are very active, they've got 15 or 20 grandchildren and those grandchildren enjoy their

company. and so if they make a decision that these people shouldn't get that treatment, that's very well what could happen with this board, then you decide what kind of panel or what kind of name you want to put on it. mr. griffin: i think ultimately the ipab seeks to save money by simply cutting blindly, without regard to innovation, without regard to structural reform, simply having a board of unelected bureaucrats ration care by making decisions on what medicare will cover, won't cover, and by how much. yes, we need to do what is fiscally right. but we need to keep our promise to our seniors and the way that you do both, the way that you do both is to reform medicare structurally. not blindly cut, leaving all the rules the same, just reducing what you're paying

doctors. that's not the path. that's not the path. that is in effect rationing and that will continue to exacerbate the problem of medicare recipients being unable to find doctors who will take them. the answer, the answer is to take medicare that has been so good to so many seniors and reform it and innovate and make changes that won't just cut costs by reducing the money paid but will actually change the rules so that we are able to get more value and more services for our dollar. . and that's the approach we have to take. mr. desjarlais: i'll add one more point. there is not a senior that i talked to that wants a bureaucrat in the exam room.

we build relationships with those and there is a trust between patients and doctors. they don't want a bureaucrat in those exam rooms. we need to keep that in mind. and i would like to thank the gentleman for leading this hour on such an important topic. mr. griffin: i thank you for joining me here tonight and i want to reate rate what you said. whatever solution we come up with has got to be patient-centered and respect the patient-doctor relationship. patient-centered, not government buyer buyer-centered. i thank all of my colleagues for joining me here tonight and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the chair lays before the house an enrolled bill.

the clerk: h.r. 473, an act to provide for the conveyance of approximately 140 acres of land in the national foferte in oklahoma to the indian nation's council incorporated of the boy scouts of america and for other purposes. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from arkansas rise? mr. griffin: i move that the house adjourn. the speaker pro tempore: the question is on the motion to adjourn. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. the ayes have it. the motion is adopted. accordingly the house stands

>> sabrina shaver, of the women's forum. artura vargas of the latino officials talks about the projected voter turnout for latinos. we'll also examine federal food safety programs and how the f.d.a. inspects meat with

caroline smith dewaal for the science for public interest. "washington journal" is live on c-span every day at 7:00 a.m. eastern. in march 1979 c-span began televising the u.s. house of representatives to households and today we are available on tv, radio and online. >> we've even had advice that we do not do as i did today and come in with a plain old white shirt and a summer tie, heaven forbid. now, i don't know whether my colleagues feel this would be a better decorum for the senate, and i see the distinguished senator staffer over here nodding no but perhaps the people of ohio would be glad to make a judgment on what they want to see me attired in here in the united states senate.

so mr. president, these are just a few of our concerned here in the senate, and i'm sure that none of us will do a thing differently in the senate of the united states now that we are on television. thank you. >> c-span, created by america's cable companies as a public service. >> next, republican primary presidential candidate mitt romney talks about the u.s. economy at the university of chicago. the event was part of the university's harris school of public policies series of forums entitled "presidency 2012: the purposes of government." this is just under 40 minutes. >> republican presidential candidate. [applause] >> welcome, everybody, to the presidency 20 126789 i know you're not here to see me.

that was a very nice introduction. but a few things. so governor romney, he received his b.a. from b.y.u. he then went on and got a j.d. and m.b.a. from a lesser institution in cambridge, but he has a connection, one redeeming quality, he has a connection to u of c. he's actually -- his namesake was a star football player at the university of chicago in 1922-1923. and he went on to play for the bears. so you recovered. if you haven't checked online this morning, if you're keeping track of these things, the delegate count is 516 for mitt romney. santorum is the closest one up and he doesn't quite have half that at 236. and romney has a 15-point edge

here in illinois, leading him to the campaign. [applause] >> an eight-point edge nationwide. and he just is coming back from puerto rico where he got all 20 delegates. you're on a bit of a run. but we're not here to talk about the horserace. we're here to talk about issues. and that's really what this series is about. it's about trying to get some clarity over what are the key issues that we as a nation face. and hear what you have to say about the economy. there's no bigger issue in this election than the economy. so it's really our pleasure to welcome you, governor mitt romney. >> great. thank you. >> thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you. thank you. thank you so much. thank you.

thank you. thank you. i appreciate in particular your mention of my dad's first cousin who indeed played football here at the university of chicago, and also for the chicago bears. i think by naming me mitt romney they assumed i would inherit some of his athletic talent. i did not. it's great to be back at this, therefore, family familiar place and i appreciate both of your introductions today. it's an honor to be here at the university of chicago, and i appreciate your hosting me here. it's also an honor to visit the campus that houses the becker freeman institute. this is a place of great significance. milton freedman played an extraordinary role in our nation and the concepts of the economy that i'm going to talk about today. you probably know he used to tell a story about having gone to asia in the 1960's and some government officials there asked him to visit one of their

massive work sites and when he got there he saw thousands of workers trying to build a canal with hand shovels. and milton turned to one of the engineers that was there and said, why aren't you using machines? and he said, oh, you don't understand. this is a jobs program. and without hesitation he replied, oh, i thought you were trying to build a canal. if it's jobs you want, you should give the workers spoons, not shovels. so milton freedman understood what frankly our president, president obama, i don't think has learned after three years and hundreds of billions in federal spending, that is government does not create prosperity. free markets and free people create prosperity. now, for the last three years, the president has expanded government instead of empowering the american people. he's put us deeper in debt. he's slowed the recovery, and he's harmed the economy. and i believe he has attacked the cornerstone of america's

prosperity. economic freedom. today i'm going to talk to you about economic freedom, why i believe it's so critical and how as president i would restore it to get our economy going again, not just short term but long term. as you know, this november we face an important decision. our choice will be not one of just party and personality, this election is going to be about principle. our economic freedom will be on the ballot. and i intend to offer the american people a choice. i spent 25 years in business, by the way, as you probably know. my business used to take me to different parts of the world. and i was often struck by enormous differences between different nations that in many cases were living right next door to each other. i was interested in the differences to their prosperity and how it was nations so close to each other in terms of geography could be so different in terms of prosperity.

i mean, look at mexico and the united states, israel and egypt , chile and ecuador. i read a number of books that purported to explain the differences, one by jerod diamond called "guns, germs, and steal" and the difference was due largely to the minerals in the ground, physical characteristics, natural resources associated with different countries. that didn't explain it all, just a part. then i happened to read a book by a professor david landis called "the wealth and poverty of nations." in that he traces the history of all the great civilizations on the earth, those that have come and gone. and after about 500 pages of scholarly analysis, he concludes with this observation, he says, if we learn anything from the economic -- the history of economic development, it is this, culture makes all the difference. culture makes all the difference. culture. what is it about america's

culture that's made us the greatest economic power in the history of the earth? of course there are a lot of things that come to mind, our work ethic, our appreciation for education, the willingness of americans to take risks, our commitment to honor, contract, oath, our family devotion, our commitment to a purpose greater than ourselves, our patriotism. but i believe one feature of our culture that propels the american economy stands out. freedom. the american economy is fueled by freedom. free people and their free enterprises are what drive our economic vitality. the founders wrote that we were endowed by our creator with the freedom to pursue happiness. in america, we would be free to pursue our own course in life, and we would have economic freedom just as we have political and religious freedom. here we wouldn't be limited by

the circumstances of our birth or directed by the supposedly informed hand of government. we'd be free to pursue happiness as we wish. the founders were convinced that millions of people all freely choosing their own occupations as they wished and their own enterprises, all pursuing their individual dreams, would produce great prosperity. and of course they were right. economic freedom, as you know, is the only force in the history of earth that is consistently succeeded in lifting people out of poverty. it's the only principle that has created sustained prosperity and why our economy rose to rival those of the world's leading powers, and has long -- or since surpassed them, of course. today, however, our status and our standing in the world, our imperil, because the source of our economic strength is threatened. over the last several decade, and frankly particularly over

the last three years, washington has consistently encroached upon our freedom. the obama administration's assault on our economic freedom is the principal reason why the recovery has been so tepid and why it couldn't meet their expectations, let alone ours. if we don't change course now, the assault on freedom could damage our economy and the well-being of american families for decades to come. now, we see this attack on freedom in every corner of the economy. i'll start with taxes. of course by their very nature, taxes reduce our freedom. their only real role in a free economy is to fund services that are absolutely essential like our national security and education and providing for people who can't care for themselves. and yet the president has proposed raising the marginal tax rate from 35% to 40%. he's also proposed special

breaks for his favorite industries, and of course further increases in taxes for businesses he doesn't like. and then there are endless decideds and credit -- subsidies and credits intended to shape behavior in our economic society. think for a moment what that does to the freedom to pursue one's dream and start a business, or to grow a business. last week i happened to be in st. louis and spoke with an entrepreneur there. he and his son make amplifiers for electric guitars and recently had to lay off two of their employees. this owner said that by his own calculation that government takes 65% of what his business makes. and president obama, by going from 35% to 40% would take that up to 70%. now, if you invest your savings in a new business, and you're one of the few, the very few of these entrepreneurs who see success and generates profit in your business, the president wants to take 40% of that for

federal income tax. and then you have to add the payroll tax, the gas tax, the state tax, the city taxes, property taxes, excise taxes and so forth. and then on top of that, you have to factor in the regulatory burdens. by the way, the cost of the regulatory burdens exceed the total cost of all income tax payments in this country. so pretty soon those kind of taxes and costs add up to pretty substantial burdens. businesses shut down. jobs are eliminated. and entrepreneurs decide it's too risky and too costly to start a business or to invest or to hire more people. taxes. another example. dodd-frank. it's an 848-page behemoth that's going to be followed by thousands and thousands of pages of new regulations. now, regulations, of course, are essential to the functioning of a free economy. but burdensome, outdated regulations serve only to

restrict freedom and, therefore, imperil enterprise. by the way, the victims of the regulations aren't the nameless, faceless banks. they're the employees, the business owners, the customers who rely on those financial institutions. this administration's regulations are even invading the freedom of everyday americans, not just the banks and the corporations, but citizens. mike and chantel sakic run a small business in idaho and saved enough money to buy a piece of property and then they are going to build a home on the property. but a few days after they broke ground, an e.p.a. regulator told them to stop digging. the e.p.a. said they were building on a wetland. now, the sakic's property is not on a wetland register and it sits in a residential area. but nonetheless, e.p.a. would not let them appeal the decision. they were told they couldn't go to court. in this case, an unelected

government bureaucrat robbed them of their freedom. no recourse, no remedy, they could do what the e.p.a. wanted or they could face millions of dollars in fines. under president obama, those same bureaucrats are insinuating themselves into every corner of the economy. they prevented digging rigs from going to work in the gulf. they keep coal from being mined. they impede the reliable supply of natural gas. they're even telling farmers what their 15-year-old sons and daughters are allowed to do on the family farm. you may remember that famous quote from wil rogers, he said, this country has come to feel the same when congress is in session as when we do when a baby gets ahold of a hammer. he says the question of how much damage he can do before you can take it away from him. now, wil rogers was concerned about the damage congress could do. but today, our freedom is never safe because unelected,

unaccountable regulators are always on the prowl. and under president obama, they're multiplying like the proverbial rabbits. the number of federal employees has grown by 140,000 people under this president. and those regulators, they do a lot of damage. for every regulation, there are unintended consequences, unestimated costs, and unwanted influence, by the way, of special interests who care very deeply about how those regulations are written for their benefit. and of course the bureaucratic impulse is to make more rules, never to get rid of old rules, and each of those regulations tends to erode our freedom and stifle our prosperity. now, by the way, the obama administration's assault on economic freedom isn't just limited to actions against individuals and free enterprise. it extends to intrusion in the workings of the free marketplace itself. when government, rather than

the market, routinely selects winners or losers or puts its hands on the scales of justice, then enterprises and entrepreneurs can't predict their prospects, and free enterprise becomes replaced with crony capitalism. solyndra, enter one, fisker, there's a lot of examples. when government, by the way, put $500 million into solyndra, you can imagine scores of other solar energy entrepreneurs and enterprises either lost their investors when it happened or failed to find any. when the nlrb tried to keep boeing from opening or operating its plant in south carolina, it sent a signal across businesses of all kinds that they should be dissuaded from making investments in right-to-work states, limiting, of course, their freedom. when general motors shares were directed to the u.a.w., political payback replaced the

rule of law under the bankruptcy code. and of course the rule of law is absolutely fundamental to the functioning of a free economy. when the free market is imperiled of this nature, it's devastating, the opportunity. and when the heavy hand of government replaces the invisible hand of the market, economic freedom is the inevitable victim. for centuries the american dream has meant the opportunity to build something new. some of america's greatest success stories are of people who started out with nothing, just a good idea, perhaps a corner in their garage. too often today, americans look at what it takes to start a business and they don't see promise and opportunity, they see government standing in the way. and the real cost isn't just the taxes paid and the money spent complying with the regulations, it's the businesses that are never

started. the ideas that are never pursued. the dreams that are permanently deferred. you know, we once built an interstate highway system and the hoover dam. today we can't even build a pipeline. we once led the world in manufacturing and exports and infrastructure investment. today we lead the world in lawsuits. labor unions, they once served as a symbol of worker rights and fair treatment and a growing middle class. today they too often represent the worst of special interests and crony capitalism. but now, of course, after spending three years attacking business, president obama hopes to erase his record with a speech. in a recent address, he said that we're all inventors, we're builders, we're makers of things, we're thomas edison, we're bill gates, we're steve jobs. the reality is that under president obama's administration, these pioneers would have found it much, much

more difficult if not impossible to innovate and invent and create. under dodd-frank, they would have struggled to get a loan from their community bank. a regulator would have shut down the wright brothers for their dust pollution. and the government would have banned thomas edison's light bulb. oh, yeah, they just did. [applause] >> every great innovation, every world changing business breakthrough begins with a dream. and nothing is more fragile than a dream. it's essential to the genius of america that we've developed a culture that nurtures these dreams and dreamers that honors them and, yes, that rewards them. there's always been something uniquely brilliant about america. i don't believe the president understands this fundamental

secret of america. and day by day job-killing regulation by regulation, bureaucrat by bureaucrat, he's crushing the dream and the dreamers. if we continue along this path, our lives will be ruled by bureaucrats and boards and commissions and czars. that path erodes freedom. it deadens the entrepreneurial spirit that's so unique. freedom is becoming the victim of unbounded government appetite and so is economic growth, job growth and wage growth. as government takes more and more, there's less and less of an incentive to take risk to invest, to innovate, to hire, and the proof is in the weakness of this recovery. this administration thinks our economy is struggling because the stimulus was too small. the truth is, this economy is struggling because our government is too big. too intrusive, too invasive of our economic freedoms.

now i'm running for president in part because i have the experience and the vision to get us out of this mess. i'm offering a real choice and a very different beginning. i have a conservative economic plan that will deliver more jobs, less debt, and smaller government. my agenda takes america in the right direction. it preserves freedom. it encourages risk and innovation. it fosters competition. it allows americans to pursue happiness as they choose and will lead to greater opportunity. and instead of expanding government, i'm going to shrink it. instead of raising taxes, i'm going to cut them. and instead of adding more regulations, i'm going to reduce them with an overriding concern, do they help or do they hurt jobs? of course that's just the beginning. there's still more we've got to do. before we can create enduring prosperity, we have to restore our economic freedom. to build a strong america, we

have to empower americans to pursue happiness as they choose. not as government directs. we have to restore the world's most competitive economy, not relinquish it to cronies or to bureaucrats. we've got to elect a president who puts his faith in free people and free enterprises and in the founding principles that made this country the greatest nation in history. together we must restore america's promise by renewing our economic freedom. let's affirm our conviction that america is the land of opportunity and freedom and usher in a new era of prosperity and leadership. thank you so much and god bless this great land. thank you. [applause] >> i think professor howl -- professor howell, i think we'll

invite professor howell to come back and start with some questions and i look forward to what you have to offer. thank you. you can use this one if you want. >> maybe i will. >> it actually turns on automatically. you watch. >> hello? >> see. [applause] >> it's magic. >> ok. i've got three questions here. i'm going to crazy em-- read them remember bait im, the growing deficit and escalating debt are the top risk factors for the u.s. economy. as an econ student at the university, i would like to know the key steps you'd take as president to address these concerns, especially considering you've proposed recently a package of tax cuts that will only make these matters worse. >> thank you. first, i want to correct that last parenthetical which is the tax cuts. my tax plan actually does cut the marginal rates across the economy by 20%. so instead of the president raising taxes from 35% to 40%, i take them from 35% to 28%.

now, the reason i do that is to create incentives for people to invest in starting small businesses and creating jobs. my priority is jobs and economic vitality and growth, and that generates revenue for government. that's the best way to make that happen. now, i also point out that i'm going to reduce and restrict the deductions and exemptions at the same time so the combination of reducing some of those tax expenditures, they're called, and creating more growth will mean that the policy is revenue-neutral. so i'm not going to add to the deficit with my tax plan. in fact, by getting growth into our economy again, i'll reduce it. but number two, i've always got to cut spending and i recognize that. and i have sort of a three-fold approach to how you cut federal spending. number one, we have to eliminate programs. some programs we like, some we're happy to get rid of, but we just have to eliminate some programs. there are too many. it's in the nature of washington elected officials to go there and come up with a

program they can go home and say look what i created. you know how many work force training programs we have in washington? 47. 47 different work force training programs reporting to eight different agencies. think of the overhead. no one in business would ever allow such a thing. i'm going to take all those programs, collapse them down to one, send the money back to the state and say you states create the programs you think best for your own people. one, we're going to eliminate programs. some of the examples, i'll get rid of obamacare from day one, it's $90 billion worth of a program we can't afford. that's easy. but subsidies to amtrak and the national endowment for the humanities, subsidies to planned parenthood, i'm going to eliminate those subsidies and those organizations will have to stand on their own. number two, sending programs back to states. i mentioned the job training program. there are others, medicaid, food stamps, housing vouch you ares -- vouchers, i take these anti-housing programs and give

them to the states to figure out how to run them best and limit how they grow in the rate of inflation, or in the case of medicaid, inflation plus 1%. i'd shrink the side of the federal work force that remains from 10% through attrition and link the pay of government workers with the pay that exists in the private sector. [applause] that is good enough. >> second question -- many young people have been affected by the recession more than most. given that you have delivered this talk at a university, what might you say specifically to young people about your economic policy? how can you address crippling student loans in a lagging economy that would speak to the struggling young adults particularly in america? >> i don't mean to be flip with this because i actually believe it. i don't see how young american can vote for a democrat. i apologize for being so

offensive but in the humor there is some truth there. that party is focused on providing more and more benefits to my generation and mounting trillions of dollars in annual deficits that my generation will never pay for. the interest on that debt is going to young people in america. some have called this the greatest intergenerational transfer of wealth in history of humankind. my party is consumed with the idea of getting federal spending down and creating economic growth and opportunity so we can balance our budget and stop putting these debts on you. these debts are not frightening to people my age because we will be gone. they should be frightening to people your age who are concerned about your future and wonder what your tax rates will be and wonder whether social security and medicare will be there for you. adding insult to injury is the fact that we have an administration that when they were running for office said

that social security and medicare were in deep financial trouble and yet 3.5 years later, have offered no proposals to balance those programs and make them sustainable. i have. you may not like my ideas but at least i put ideas out there to save those programs for your generation and i have laid out, with my economic plan, proposals that preserve economic freedom, creates growth, will provide jobs for you as you come out of college, and will make sure we don't pass our burdens of debt onto you. that is at the heart of what my party is about, making sure we preserve this extraordinary unique nation in the history of the earth, this exceptional place which is imperiled by debt, lack of willingness to deal with the challenges we have, by stagnating growth and by an attack on economic freedom among our other freedoms that are being attacked.

that is what it is about. i shake my head that we're not doing as good a job as we should be doing to connect with young people across the country. you should be working like crazy for me and people like me, conservatives who want to keep the cost of government down and give you a brighter future, thank you. [applause] >> i believe we have time for one last question. as president, what would you do to target poverty in areas like the south side chicago? >> one of the best things i can do is take money associated with poverty programs in washington -- i mention this before -- take money that is in poverty programs like food stamps and housing vouchers and welfare programs and take those monies and bring them to the state and to the localities and say you know better than we how to help your own people. what kind of work force

training is needed? what kind of housing opportunities are there in your region or your state? as opposed to the federal government telling every state and every locality how to put in place anti-poverty programs, give states and localities the power to do that themselves. i happen to believe in the concept of federalism. associated with that -- as one piece -- the money goes closer to the problem. a second piece is changing our education system to put the education of our young people first and the interests of organized union labor and the teachers units behind. [applause] the cost of crony education is not born in a wealthy community. among wealthy people are people of higher income and above. they are able to choose

neighborhoods to live in, communities where they think are good schools. they can decide to go someplace where there are good public schools or go to parochial schools or private school and pay the extra tuition and may have opportunities for charter schools. if you are poor, your opportunities to move to some place with a great school is limited. i want to fix our schools in the urban centers of our nation and we know how to do that. this is not a mystery to us. there have been great institutions like the mackenzie institute, which is a great consulting firm, they have an institute that does studies around the world and they looked at education in some of the most effective places in the world like finland and south korea and singapore and chicago and boston and other places. they found that classroom size was irrelevant to the quality of education which was not apparent.

that is not what people anticipated. spending did not seem related. overwhelmingly, the characteristic that had the most impact on the quality of education was the educational attainment and scholarship of the teachers. in places like finland, they choose teachers from the top five or 10% of college graduates and in our country, in many places, we are choosing from the bottom 1/3. why don't young people want to go into teaching? because it does not pay well and the teachers' unions are focused on people with long tenure about to retire and retirement benefits, pensions, health care benefits. we need to be more concentrated on the starting conversations of people coming out of college so we can attract the best and brightest and give them a career path not based on tenure but based on accomplishment. we have some examples for this.

we have higher education. we do pretty well in higher education. these principles we have to bring to our schools to help people in the most troubled areas of the country and give the resources to the people closest to the challenges and provide education which lifts people out of poverty and communicate that the principles of america -- hard work, education, family formation - these principles will help provide people with a future that is more prosperous and promising. i appreciate the chance to be with you today. our questions are over but i have enjoyed the chance to speak with such an esteemed group. i appreciate the number of faculty and students and others who have made it here today and look forward to seeing you on the trail. i need you to vote tomorrow. i would appreciate your support. [applause] it is an exciting time for the country.

this is a choice. freedom is on the ballot this year as to whether we will continue to have a government encroaching further and further into freedoms or whether we will restore the principles that made the nation what it is. i represent a restoration and a reclaiming of america's founding principles. the declaration of independence is my inspiration and the constitution is my blueprint for this path forward. i would appreciate your help, your votes, and let's get the job done and take back america. thank you so much, thank you. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] ♪

♪ ♪

♪

♪

♪ ♪

♪

>> rick santorum held a campaign rally in illinois. the boyhood home of ronald reagan. that state awards 69 delegates. mitt romney 1 puerto rico's primary. [applause]

>> this was his hometown, too. he was the 40th president of the united states. his path to the presidency started the year. the statue was not here then, of course. this was where his character was formed. two blocks from here, the church that helped form his faith and further down the street, the school he attended to help form his mind.

it was that path and those attributes that led him to the white house. attributes like sincerity, humility, and 8a deep faith. there will never be another ronald reagan, we still look for those attributes in our candidates. that is why i have chosen to endorse senator rick santorum because i see those qualities in him. [applause] back in december, i was talking to a store owner and she happened to be a democrat. she said, who delights on your side for president? i said, i really like rick santorum. isotope he can get some momentum. senator, -- i just hope he can get some momentum.

[applause] when you capture the party's nomination, and you are looking around for a vice president, dixon, ill., is not a bad place to look. i am just saying. series a, ladies and gentlemen, it is my great -- seriously, ladies and gentlemen, it is my great honor to introduce to you the man i believe will be the next president of the united states, center rick santorum. >> thank you. [applause] what an honor it is to be here.

to stand in front of this statute in this town that did so much for this country. this town helped shape and mold ronald wilson reagan. any change the world. -- and he changed the world. i always say that the great thing about america is that we just go on every day and we live our lives. we try our best to provide for ourselves and our family. ordinary people doing ordinary things. those ordinary things end up contributing to an extraordinary things. that is the greatness of our country. the idea that people do come from small town america, in many cases, first generation of american, to have the opportunity because your top the

principles of hard work and honesty and integrity and doing what is right. all of those things you're taught across america, those are the things that make our country what it is. that is what makes america unique in the world. we are a country that from the very inception, believed in the very basic principles that the government should be limited and that we should have unlimited potential of the american people. that is a great combination. [applause] i have been told by at the local meteorologist that our time is short. the weather has passed, but it is coming back. i will not give a long speech. i know you'll be excited to hear that. i do want to talk about what

ronald reagan stands for, stood for. white is so important -- why it is sold important that we have a candidate that does that in this election, that stands on the pillars of what ronald reagan built as the modern republican party. when he took the helm back in 1980, he fought some battles. he had been fighting some battles for a couple of days to revive conservatism. he fought an insurgent campaign against a sitting incumbent republican. we do not have a sitting republican. running for office this time, but we have someone who is the choice of the establishment republican. we see that so often in republican politics. it is almost inevitable whoever is the next in line. that is to the republican tends to put forward.

ronald reagan said, we do not need the next to mine. we need something very different. what is going on in 1976 and even worse in 1980 was something that was corrosive of the american spirit. in the '60s and '70s, we stopped believing in what i made -- and what made america great. we started believing that the government controlled aspects of our lives. back in the late 1970's, the word liberal was not a dirty word. now even liberals do not like being called a liberal america. there is one man who changed that. he changed it not by going out and tearing down his opponents, he went out and painted a vision of who we are. where we came from. and what we can be in the

future. that was the greatness of reagan. it was not his rhetoric. he was someone who could coined a phrase. he would tell you it was not his rhetoric. it was his policy. his policies were rooted in an -- and the greatness of our country. of course, what that means is that it was -- in the american people. not a big and powerful government. [applause] he ran that insurgent campaign in 1976. people were saying, why don't you get out of the race? he fought, he won 11 states in 1976. i might add, if we happen to win

illinois, that would be the 11th state i have one in this election. [applause] he fought the battle. he fought the battle in 1976. after four our years of misery because the republicans did not accept his message. he was considered too conservative. someone who was unelectable because we needed to appeal to moderates. needed to appeal to democrats. conservatives and republicans did not have confidence in our vision for america. they thought we had to compromise that vision. we had to be something not true to ourselves. being true to ourselves as reagan was. the conservative principles that our country was founded upon. that was not a winning formula.

we had to sell ourselves short in order to win the election. we found we did not win the election. jimmy carter went about the process of weakening america on every possible front. now we have a similar election coming up in 1980. we have barack obama, up four years of weakening america in an area that that would disturb president reagan as much as any. we have a president to less talk and -- who was talked about leading from behind. talking about reducing our military and pulling back from america's influence in the world. we have a president who does not believe that america is a source for good. ronald reagan, a shining city on a hill. to president obama, we are a source of policy that required

this president to go around the world and repeatedly apologized for america and what we have done in this world. ronald reagan would never apologize for the greatest country in history of the world. [applause] we have a very similar theme. we have a president who has made this week, cut our defense, we are approaching a $4 trillion budget. $1.20 trillion in deficit. expanding and exploding the deficit by $5 trillion. the only place the president can find to cut its defense spending. it is the only place he is willing to take a pound of flesh. it is the only thing the federal

government has to do that individuals cannot do. when i was born, defense spending was 60% of the federal budget. it is now not 60% or 50 or 40 or 20. it is 17%. it is the one area that president obama says we have to cut some more. but me pledge -- let me pledge to give just like ronald reagan pledged. we will have a strong and powerful and forceful america. [applause] that was one of the legs of the three stools.

strong national security, peace, and it worked. against those that no one thought could never be defeated, the red menace of the soviet union, the power that many on the left so we had two apiece. -- to appease. ronald reagan had the courage to go out and do what our founders for rowling to do. speak truth -- but what our founders were willing to do. speak truth. our founders were not afraid to speak the truth. when ronald reagan called evil evil and called the evil empire what it was, the press was in a tizzy. how could we be so inflammatory? the greatest of america, ronald reagan knew.

we did see what was good and what was evil. reagan also knew that we would no longer be great if we could not tell the difference between the two. [applause] there is an evil in this world. there reside in the hearts of radical islamists. they want to destroy freedom loving institutions, a press -- people within their own faith, subjected them to harsh laws, torture, and death. particularly in the nation of iran. we have a president who said recently that he has israel's back.

we know he has turned his back on the nation of israel. [applause] we cannot allow iran to build a nuclear weapon. i've been saying that for eight years. we passed bills that put sanctions on iran, under nuclear program. talked about in gauging the persian people. iran is a person country. a country that is not at war with the jews historically. a country that is a proud and noble civilization. it is being hijacked by a bunch of religious zealots. we have the opportunity to engage them in 2009.

in gauge the freedom fighters, help them to overthrow their oppressors. this president sided with those who terrorize and kilt freedom loving people, particularly americans. we need a president who will stand up for the very principles that made this country great. in gauge the freedom loving people of this world, not to start a war, but to prevent a war and prevent them from getting a nuclear weapon. [applause] one of the most vaunted legs of reaganool the president o talked about, he talked about limited government and free people. [applause]

how many jokes did ronald reagan tell about big government? he understood that the government was in the way of three people being able to live their dreams, to work and to reap the fruit of their labor and to take care of themselves and their families. he saw a tear. he saw a community, he saw how we built the great society from the bottom up one neighborhood at a time. people taking care of each other. yes, if you were raised in a single home, you had died down the street that helped out. you had the football coach, the baseball coach. you have the folks in the community organizations, the library. everybody looked out for each other. we brought a community. we did not have all these government programs to take care of people. it was our responsibility. as brothers and sisters and the

community to look out for each other. in small-town america, it still is [applause] that is the vision that reagan tried to remind us all. remind us how important it was to allow the businessmen, to make a profit and not condemn them. as being the 1%. 1% does a lot of hiring of the other 99%, and that is a good thing. [applause] ronald reagan stood for free markets, a free economy, he would be appalled at looking at what is happening today with the government takeover of health care.

margaret thatcher, after she left the prime minister ship of england, looked at what she had accomplished and. she said she was never able to accomplish what reagan accomplished in america. the reason the british national health care system. she said once government has their hooks into you, once government makes you dependent upon it for your very health and your lives and that of your children and loved ones, they got you. they got you. there is no amount of tribute you will not pay to get what you think you need to preserve your health and health of those that you love. that is why obamacare is the number-one issue in this race. it is a race -- an issue about

fundamental freedom. aides about whether or not you will be a generation of -- it is about whether you will be the generation the reagan talked about. he said freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. we did not pass it to our children in the bloodstream. it must be fought for, protected, and handed on to them to do the same. or one day, we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children would was liked and the united states when men were freed. . do not be that generation that reagan warned about. there is only one way to stop it. to make sure we nominate

someone who can take on barack obama on the issue of health care, freedom, liberty. someone who has not been for government mandated health care. someone who is not been done for top-down government control of the health care sector. someone who understands how critical government controlled health care is in our society. and is able to go after barack obama comment make this the central issue -- barack obama, and make this the central issue. two-thirds of americans opposed obamacare. two-thirds of americans. [applause]

why would the republican party puts up denominated takes that issue off the table? -- puts up a nominee that takes that issue off the table? why would the republican party nominate someone on the most important issue of the day, freedom, why would we take that off the table? that is why you have to help me here in illinois. [applause] the third leg of the reagan stool was talking about -- our country was founded on basic principle, the foundation of

american society. it is not the individual, you build a society on individuals and it is like building a house on grains of sand. you have to build on something that is strong, that has cement. you can put heavy structures on top. that is not the individual. none of us are out here and society living radically individual lives, not linked together in a way that is important for us to prosper and survive. reagan understood that foundation was the family. marriage and family are at the core and foundation of our society.

in order to have limited government, you have to have people living good and decent lives. somebody says, i will be my on government. i live my life under my rules. after we leave your and drive down the left side of the highway, see how long that works out. you cannot live according to your own rules. we have to live according to rules that are good and decent and moral and fair, that allow us all to pursue our dreams. when people break those moral bounds, and society becomes a very dangerous place. government debt -- government gets bigger. we have to hire more people in uniforms. we are less free. these are the basic things we

all understand. we will be constrained from the chains to put on ourselves. or will we be constrained by the change the men -- chains that men put upon us? ronald reagan understood that faith plus family equals freedom in america. i know we are concerned about the economy in this country. we have talked about economic liberty and limited government and balanced budgets and less spending, strong families. all those things work together. to make america work. you cannot have limited

government unless you have free people living good and decent and moral lives. you cannot have a strong national defense unless you have a strong economy and people going out and prospering and living lives that allow us to grow and greed the dynamism -- and create the dynamism. all of these things work together. reagan understood that these things wove together in a great mosaic that was the united states of america. he understood it and he brought people together. all based upon the founding principles of our country. reagan opted quoted and relied

heavily on our founders. people we charted the course for america. in the last few years, we have had a blueprint in this country that i thank god for because they have resurrected one of those founding document that was put in the dustbin of history. something called the united states constitution. [applause] i carry with me, it is an important document in this country, the document that is the operator's manual. how the american government is to function. if you read it, a very limited powers are given to the government. very extensive powers are given to the states and to the people.

reagan and revered this document. he understood its importance, but he also understood the importance of another document. another man from illinois would " beautifully and frequently. abraham lincoln. that was the declaration of independence. these two men of illinois and new that the constitution -- ill. new that the constitution without the declaration could be a very dangerous document. it was the declaration that anchored the constitution. the constitution is tethered to it. why? because the declaration tells us who we are. there are many on the left would like to dismiss the declaration as a document that existed before the american government was established. it has no legal binding in america.

it has a moral binding america. that is binding comes from one phrase that we all know. we hold these truths to be self- evident. apparent to all people of faith, people of no faith, that all men are created equal. [applause] is that true in other civilizations around the world? is it true in the muslim world? of course not. for those who clamor for equality, understand where that concept comes from. it comes from western civilization. it comes from the roots of our country.

theirre endpweowed by creator. the concept of equality does not come from the government. the concept of truth does not come from the government. it comes from our creator. [applause] this is what made it dif -- made as different from any country in history of the world. no other country had said that people are equal. we came from societies and thousands of years of being ruled by kings. they distributed to those who they felt were worthy of their rights.

our founders said, we believe in the dignity of every human life. all life is sacred. [applause] we changed the world. we had a constitution whose job it was to simply recognize the right that are already written in the heart of every person. they're there to protect those rights and allow you, the american people, to go to great and just society, to change the world by listing the human spirit. the limited potential that reagan used to talk about all the time. the infectious optimism. he saw it in the eyes of the people out here in dixon and across this country. he saw the potential, the human

spark that lincoln talked about. he understood the greatness of our country. in each and every one of you, not someone who believes that smart people in washington to make decisions for people because you are incapable of governing yourself. what a pathetic view. [applause] we did change the world. for 2000 years, life expectancy was 25. up until 1776. in 230 years, because of america, because of you, free people, life expectancy doubled. we went through a technology revolution. imagine what the world would be

like today if we were still having kings and emperors and dictators. man and society for their benefits instead of having a free people from the bottom up governing america. making sure, by their actions, of keeping america free. [applause] at the end of that declaration, the founders wrote this phrase. all the men of wealth, property, stature, education. they signed this document known they were giving up a lot were they to lose.

they were giving up their lives because they were signing a treasonous document. they did so willingly. they believed so much in that concept that has proven to be that transformational concept in human history. here we are, we have taken that flame from previous generations. we are the descendants of reagan and that generation. told those tyrants to tear down walls. [applause] there were no different. we are no different than the people here today. they did what they had to do.

they stood up and they rose to the occasion. ladies and gentlemen, what is necessary now in america to preserve freedom is for each and every one of you to engage in that struggle in the selection. do not be those people that reagan talked about. they had to tell their children and children's children what it was like to live in an america where men were freed. you do not want to ever have that conversation. i must do the right thing in this election, -- unless we did the right then and the selection, we will be the generation that allow that torch to go out. the best way to make that happen is to make this election like the election of 1980. do not make it about who can best manage washington or be the ceo of the economy.

we need someone you can talk for big things, like reagan did. for freedom and for america. let's be brutally honest about it. there is one candidate who can never make this race about freedom. he simply abandoned freedom when he was the governor of massachusetts. he abandoned it when he promoted obamacare in 2009. you listen to any of the speeches, he never talks about it. he cannot talk about it. that is the most important and pressing issue in our country right now. the big central issue. how can we nominate someone who cannot summon the energy, summoned division, some of the

greatness of our country and elevate the debate to something that is lasting. you can do that here in illinois. you can put someone ford coupe will not -- you can put someone forward to will try to communicate that message that is at the heart of what america is. you help us here in the next 24 hours. if you go out and are willing to vote for me tomorrow -- [applause] i appreciate that. that is great, but it is not enough. we are up against being outspent its third five, seven, or 10 to 1.

no vision. no hope. no promise of what america is to be. we must do better than that. [applause] i am asking you what our founders signed and that declaration to pledge to each other, our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor. no one is asking for your lives next 24 hours. no one is asking for your fortune. if you go to ricksantorum.com -- [laughter] pass the hat. your honor is at stake.

what will dixon at say? will they stand up and uphold freedom, a pole legacy of this great man and what he did to this country? will that have been in vain? will you be degenerates and that reagan talked about in his farewell address -- will you be the generation that reagan talked about in his farewell address? i need your help. i need to not just to vote for me, but i need you to go out and talk to u.s. friends and neighbors. i needed to rise up and speak loudly from the place of freedom. let the voice of reagan be heard across this land. thank you very much. god bless you. [applause]

>> ladies and gentlemen, rick santorum. ♪ ♪ 24 hours, people. if everybody here would call 100 people, we could turn around this election. ♪ >> hello, dixon. there is only one ronald reagan. the only one who came here to see as and that is rick santorum. we are in the 16th congressional district. i want to say the names of four delegates are. they are pledged to represent

board. you have to go down your ballot to vote for each of these people in order for us to win. one of them is over here to my left. let's give her a round of applause. ♪ from the great county of ford, jan peterson. her husband phil is serving as an alternate delegate. from the neighboring 17th district -- let's give for a

round of applause. the great congressman from the 16th district is here. i am from henry county. i will be on the 17th district ballots. this is an alternate delegates in the 17th district. from sterling, ill., one of our elegates, let's give her a round of applause. do not forget to vote for delegates. thank you very much. ♪ >> yard signs are available back here at the lemonade stand.

god bless you all. it out and vote and get your neighbors to vote. >> great interview. ♪ victory is in sight ♪ there is hope for our nation again may be the first time there will be justice for the unborn the constitution rules the land i believe rick santorum is our man ♪ t the planhe's goa

faithful to his wife and 7 kids there is hope for our nation again may be the first time since we had ronald reagan i believe rick santorum is our man ♪ ♪ when we the people are supposed to rule this land rick understands there is hope for our nation

again may be the first time since we had ronald reagan justice for the unborn i believe rick santorum is our man yes, i believe rick santorum is our man we believe our rick santorum is our man ♪ ♪ >> ♪

♪ ♪ ♪

backs thank you 40 paying guidance -- >> thank you for obeying god. ♪ >> i hope you win.

>> thank you. i will fight for you. >> we are praying for you. >> keep working, playing and working return -- praying and working. our thank you. >> good luck on the campaign. >> thank you very much.

>> are you ready? get ready. >> i have been praying for you.

>> thank you very much. you got all our support. >> can i get a picture? ♪

>> who is taking the picture? >> thank you, rick. >> and got a -- got it. >> how many delegates the you have to win? >> i do not know. good >> not worried about that.

>> we are praying for you. >> she is old enough to vote. we are pulling for you. cannot lose. -- >> cannot lose. >> good luck, rick. >> thank you for coming triggered strikes -- thank you for coming. >> thank you for coming out.

>> road to the white house continues with the last primaries of the month held this week. tomorrow we will have live coverage of the illinois primary, and then on saturday louisiana holds its primary. connecticut, delaware, and new york, pa., and a lower at the end of the month. for more information, go to our web page. and watch the latest video. and you can read what the candidates, political reporters, and people like you are saying about the presidential race on twitter and facebook.

>> a new america where freedom is made real for all without regard for race or economic conditions appear eager -- or economic condition. [applause] a new america which protects the ancient idea that men can solve their differences by killing each other. >> we look back f-14 man who ran for office and lost. go to our website to see video of the contenders. >> the radical left continued to offer one solution to the

problem that confronts us. they tell us again and again and we could spend our way out of trouble and in juneto a better -- into a better tomorrow. and trucks more on the republican presidential race. earlier we spoke with ken blackwell. he is a member of the republican committee. given this is 45 minutes. -- now this is 45 minutes. >> ken blackwell is joining us from ohio. the is the vice chairman of the republican committee. thank you for joining us. two candidates are rising in the polls, mitt romney and rick santorum.

which one has a better shot when it comes to appealing to the conservative vote? mitt romney says in the end republicans will support him. how does conservatism play into this? >> conservatives want limited government, economic growth, and job creation, so this comes down to a debate about the size of the government, and i think the candidate that can best articulate a vision to getting back to constitutional ance is going to be the one it gets close eye on share of republican hopes on air. this is of horse race. people talk about momentum, but the end of the day it is who can hit 1144 delegates as this campaign moves, so it is a horse

race right now. illinois is going to be a major road prize for a candidate, although its proportional allocation is based on the district within the state. >> he is a family empowerment senior fellow. here is the number to copyright go -- the number to call. a story recently says more want newt gingritch to step aside. is this good for the party? >> it is part of the process. those who talk about muscling

folks out of the race are a little naive. at the end of the day, the voters speak. there is no clear path for santorum or romney, sir newt understands the process, so he can be a major influence of his moves toward tampa. this will expand rapidly if he does not have a better showing in some of the upcoming primaries. >> of what time is a good time for the candidates to get out? >> when that person decides it is time to get out. you have folks who say this is

about the good of the party. it is not about me pursuing those ambitions. this is a matter of what is good for the party, but each individual candidate has to come to that decision point at his or her given time. i do not think people are going to be able to push gingrich out of the race. he is the standard bearer, and is only when he perceives his advantages outweigh advantages of staying in. they are speaking to each one of these candidates. nobody has what is down, and as a consequence, santorum, romney,

and gingrich are still in it. if this goes to tampa i do not expect you will see ron paul get out, because his delegates could be influential in tampa. >> a couple of things have changed since the last time there was an election. they are pouring money into the races. do you think that has changed the scenario? we have heard from candidate saying when the money runs out of this when you get out, but gingrich is not facing that yet. >> he is not facing that yet, and i am a big believer that of the political process. i've push for a complete transparency so we know who is

speaking in any political debate. i think there are people who will allow their voices to speak, but they are not stupid, so out of certain point people will stop speaking through their dollars to candidates the do not stand a ghost of a chance, and that will have an impact on the decision to stay in. >> olivier joins us on the phone. she is a democrat from birmingham, alabama. caller: i need to make a suggestion to seize them before i move on to what i need to save. why don't you have a line just for women to call about issues?

give us a voice of our own, and what i wanted to say about the gop candidate, the republicans are not speaking to my issues, and santorum is the only candidate i have seen on all networks. mitt romney only speaks on fox news. another point, and what is with newt gingrich, i want to be an american president and aunt president obama wants to beat as audi president -- to be a saudi president. i feel bad, because i went out

and voted your good -- and voted. do not talk down our vote. i voted for president obama, and i am an american black woman. thank you. have a great day. >> thank you so biasemuch. this election is about the direction for the century. give will be about a government driven by of a central government? will it be totally dependent on the federal government to manage economic affairs, or will in return to the original notion of limiting government driven by an understanding that in america are limited system works

economically when we have strong families. if you look at centuries of authoritarian government, when you see them concentrate power is when they do two things, either destroy the family or silence to the church, so we believe the religious liberty is central to a limited government model, and economically, we believe strong families are important to economic success and growth. human capital driven by young people getting married and educating children are hallmarks to our economic prosperity in the future.

and >> she does not feel like republicans are appealing to women. good night she said the women's vote could prove pivotal. do you think the republicans could get the vote? >> you speak to their needs. sometimes we partition american aspiration along gender lines. most people want the opportunity to make a better life, and as a consequence, those candidates who are talking about how tuno keep it together, create jobs and opportunity, and speak to the issue every mother, grandmother wants, and that is

to create an educational environment for their children can have a chance of a better life through a quality education. women are at the forefront of education. we want to see a system that provides opportunities for children to have a quality education and a better life. host: ken blackwell was the republican nominee for the governor of ohio in 2006. he served as secretary of state and state treasurer. but he has also been the mayor.

let's go to our call. caller: what i wanted to talk about is we need in this country of a finger -- a big thinker to run things. we have a small thinker the right now running this country. we need someone who can think thebig. i would like to say something about oil. but oil and gas in the united states belongs to the american people, and whose signs the leases giving the oil to the oil companies where they can sign it back to us? they need to supply the needs of the american people and sell

surplus wherever they please. they could do the same thing if foreign countries would pay more for food, it will go overseas, too, and we will star. richard -- will starve. >> what we have is a classic clash between two models of government. there are those who see government as a mechanic, government can fix every problem we have, and in order for government to be a better mechanic, it has to get larger and larger and more intrusive. and you have gardiner and -- government as a gardener.

it nurtures opportunity and initiative and free markets create a better life. there is a fundamental clash that will be played out in this race. the president wants a larger, more muscular government, so if you begin to look at his policy, and government is a mechanic, so government tries to run energy production, and that puts us out a competitive disadvantage. when we let markets work, we have the resources in this country and the individual and collective genius to be energy

as we go forward. that is of a vision the caller is talking about, and there will be a clash of these models, and i think it is going to be a turning point in how we finish out the next century. host: good morning. on the gas issue, four years ago they wanted to say it was a bush's fault. now the obama is president they want to say it is not the president's fault. they have not been drilling as much as they could. if they could get more crude out of the ground, the gas price

those -- gas prices will go down. i am tired of them saying it is not obama's fault, but his policy is making it his fault. good the same about a pipeline. he is going to lose a lot of jobs in this country if he does not let it go through. >> it goes back to the clash i just talked about. but ever since the 2008 convention, when the republican platform and pushed and all of the above strategy in terms of energy production, but has been the clash triggered the president has penalized and -- now that has been the clash.

the president has penalized oil and gas in this country. as a consequence, we see gas prices going out and options region -- going up, and that influences all voters. women see the pump price going up and up, and that is on the minds of women across the board, everyone house to understand -- so everyone has to understand the vote of women is at play on both sides. if you looked at the president's popularity, it is not going nup.

a lot of pundits are saying this is a weak group of candidates, and they are going to hand this over for reelection, but the polls are not saying that. at the end of the day, people want to see gas prices come down. they want to see job opportunities expand, and they want to see a smaller, less intrusive government in their lives. good >> we recently did a poll but showed that romney and santorum are suffering less support and john mccain did. when i fifth would vote for mid romney, 35% said yes, and john mccain was 47% who said they

would vote enthusiastically for john mccain. does not concern you? >> it really does not. at the end of the day there was a different mix of candidates, and john mccain was clearly of preferred candidate. that is not the case now. competition is good. this is the opportunity for those who aspire to be the standard bearer to speak to the grassroots across the nation. if you begin to look at the top line numbers of republican candidates, they are starting to better -- to do better, so this notion there is a

devastating impact in terms of competition is misleading. we will see a stronger republican candidate as we get to tampa. i told you earlier there is no clear winner before tampoa. i happen to believe there will be a clear winner, and we have a managed convention on the floor when we get to tampa as republicans, and right now there and nobodyr pasth, should be muscled out of this race. caller: for the good of our country, it is incumbent upon

the american people to allow reason to prevail over prejudice in their decisions concerning the election that is coming for the president and as far as a limited government is concerned, mr. blackwell, it is argued since 1954 is irrational for any african-american to be concerned or in support of limited government because it was government that allowed us to be able to vote without being suppressed -- having our vote suppressed. and as far as the clash of ideas, in terms of the economy there is no question. in america, most everybody is in favor of capitalism and of the

free market, but had it not been for government intervention with the automobile industry, so many millions of people who are now working would be out of work. and our automotive industry would have been down the tubes with respect to the republican laws a fair -- plays a fair philosophy. it seems to pass up -- pathological for any african- american to be talking about limited government in view of the civil rights act that had it to be pushed through overstates rights advocates. guest: thank you for your point of view and i respectfully disagree. look, we have a mounting debt problem as a consequence of a government that is larger, more muscular, and more interested in our lives. and right now, our debt is over

$15 trillion. and as a consequence, we have seen our debt as a percentage of our gross domestic product increased substantially, so much so that the united states of america is almost indistinguishable from european socialist countries. right now, china holds 47% of our debt. we have a problem as a consequence of big government and big government spending. we are mortgaging our bit -- our children's future. we are saddling them at the

point of birth with a humongous in debt. we have intergenerational theft going on that we must stop. and as a consequence of big debt, we have anemic economic growth. african-americans who want to work, who want to see an expanded economy understand that a key to that is, one, not a big government that sponsors schools with school choice, and they understand that we must get back to limited government. we must get to a balanced budget inside of five years, i think, in order to get our economy growing again. so we maintain our premier position as the most prosperous democratic republic in world history. host: ken blackwell is with the family research council. he is joining us from

cincinnati this morning. jane is our next caller on the independent line in marion springs, mich.. good morning. caller: good morning. i wanted to say that if we think about why china is a wealthy and why they own so much of our wealth, if we go back to the mid-1990s, the trade agreements that were primarily pushed through by republicans where democrats got the money was, 52,000 american operations are shipped to china. 6.5 million manufacturing jobs. a collateral number of equal jobs. i think the republicans are whistling by the graveyard that they created when it comes to jobs. and then republicans told us about the great prosperity that was going to happen as we signed these trade agreements. bush made china and most favored nation partner. can you imagine that? an ideological and military enemy of the united states. i would like to let the

listeners know that these losses of jobs in manufacturing should be right at the doorstep of republicans and democrats. that is the reason i am an independent. guest: i think anytime the federal government, whether under the control of democrats or republicans, has chosen big, muscular central government, or federal government in our case, that has been a loser for us. but let's go back and look at the decade of the 1990's. not only were we for free trade, we should have been pressing for fair trade. but in the 1990's, we had a tremendous expansion of growth and job creation. free and fair trade did actually create wealth. and created jobs and opportunities. i think the caller would agree that with 9/11, we, in fact,

started to spend more and more of our resources non-vonn -- not on economic expansion and job creation, but in defending our interests around the world. i am not sure that i would be right to say that the caller would have had us power in a corner and not go out -- cowart in a corner and not go out and do what we had to do to make the world safer and to advance american interests globally. host: let's go to a comment on twitter. how would you invite more citizens to turn out to vote and participate fully in our democracy? guest: i believe in a neighborhood expansion of port is a patient. that means there is nothing --

no form that is unimportant, whether a school board meeting for a township meeting, going down to your county commissioner meeting. understanding that this is an election where we cannot sit on the sidelines any level. and particularly at the presidential level. we have to increase voter participation. that means more americans have to speak to those folks that are seeking to lead us, so they know where we want to go as a country. voting is both a right and duty. i think every american's duty is to engage in this debate and this dialogue about america's future. we have made it relatively easy to register to vote. there is nonintrusive, and blocked access to polls. -- unblocked access to

polls in any election. host: when did you first run? guest: i ran for school board in the early 1970's. from there, i ran for city council and became mayor of the city. i then went into the bush administration as an undersecretary of the u.s. department of housing and urban development with my good friend jack kemp. and there may pivot and went over to the state department to work with jim baker when i was the u.s. ambassador to the united nations human rights council, and then came back to oakland -- to ohio and then became treasury of -- treasurer of the secretary of state and then ran for governor. host: he is now the chairman of the national committee and chairman of the family research council. from oregon, republican line,

good morning. caller: good morning. i want to ask the judgment -- i appreciate what he does. if he could speak a little bit on the administration being against texas's right for voter registration and trying to increase the thing with a corn -- acorn trying to register people who are here illegally. getting registration for voter i.d.. that is all. thank you for your time. guest: thank you for your call. for 40 years, emphasis in voting rights was placed on making sure that folks have access to the ballot and that they could have uninhibited access to exercising

the franchise. over the last maybe decade, there has been an emphasis placed on not only access to the ballot box, but protecting the integrity of the ballot box. it one of the things that has been done is that now, some 30 states have required a photo id to make sure that a voter is who he or she claims to be. in 2008, the supreme court found that indiana's voter i.d. law was constitutional. and there were many other states that started to pattern their requirements after the indiana law -- texas, south dakota, and others. excuse me, south carolina and

others did that. and were stopped by the justice department and challenged by the justice department. if the justice department could do this, what about states under the voting rights act. we now have to the three cases that will make their way to the supreme court. we will see whether states within the purview of the justice department under section 5 of the voting rights act will have their photo id requirements upheld by the courts. look, photo ids are pretty common occurrence in american life. you needed if you are going to buy alcohol or tobacco. you need it for a marriage license, to get on a plane, to check out a library book.

having the voting -- the duty of voting require one to show a photo id, as long as it is not burdensome to get that total id, i think, will probably be upheld by the courts. and it is consistent with the modern-day concerns of election practitioners, whether they be lawyers or election officials at the state and local level. host: clan -- ken blackwell, bill asks on twitter about the race for the republican nomination. he says rick santorum is trying for the piece lots just before the convention. is this his strategy? guest: i think if you would ask rick santorum, he is running to be a party nominee.

if you look at how far he has come, you have to say that, one, he is determined, and two, that he is articulating a vision that has made him very competitive as we move forward in this process. i do not think he is running to be no. 2. no. 2 might be offered to him somewhere if he is not nominated as the leader of the ticket. but i do not think he is playing that game right now. i think he actually believes that he has a vision and a set of leadership skills that could lead this country into a very successful third century. his challenge is that governor

romney has a vision and a set of leadership skills that he thinks are better suited to take us into the balance of our third century as an exceptional nation in the world. and we all know that newt gingrich thinks he has the ideas and proven leadership skills to do the same thing. and god bless him, ron paul is a scrapper and will have an impact on the policy direction of this country, particularly on economic matters. host: what did you read in the win by mitt romney's team in puerto rico. rick santorum is trying to tamp down the remarks he made about use of english verse is spanish. what do you think about the brahney run? -- the romney win? guest: if you look at their

positions as they have campaigned over the course of this primary season, there is not a dime's difference between the two. when they got to puerto rico, rick santorum spoke out consistent with his english first position and mitt romney chose not to discuss it. but at the end of the day, i do not think that was the pivotal issue. mitt romney has been organizing has spent a lot of money in pr at a time when probably rick santorum, as he is fond of saying, was driving across iowa in a pickup truck trying to make sure he got through the early primary in order to live again -- live to fight again in these later primaries. host: let's hear from leon in glendale, ariz., democrats line.

caller: good morning, mr. blackwell. i live in the greater phoenix area in glendale, arizona. i am 70 years old, african- american us -- dissent and originally from cleveland, ohio. i understand you are from the cincinnati area. first, i'm sure you will join with me to congratulate the fact that we have four ohio universities in the sweet 16 guest: i was hoping that somebody would bring that up and create that opening. you are right, it xavier university, which is my all modern, the university of cincinnati were there is the urban institute for human rights, and then you have ohio university, and the ohio state university all there. but let me just say, within a 150 mile radius, we also have kentucky.

this area office -- our cup runneth over with basketball talent. caller: my graduating class at university was 64. this time, the university of ohio bobcats have made it to the sweet 16. that is how i want to talk about sports. i called because, sir, you have only repeated over and over republican, conservative, boilerplate talking point. i respect you. you have accomplished a lot. i would much rather hear you come up with some original thought to answer the caller's question is. it is almost like i am listening to fox news. you point out that the democrats are for big, intrusive

government. and yet, santorum and the republicans and the conservatives love to insert probes into women's body parts, almost as if they have been abducted by aliens to the mother ship. they want to make us have more religious dialogue into the passing of our laws -- dogma into the passing of our laws. religious sexism and anti-gay. you advise people in their lives based on ethnicity and gender and color. half of what -- half the people in the world are women. there.et's leave it you brought up a lot of points. let's get a response from ken blackwell. what do you think of his comment that you are sticking to the party line and would like to have more original thought from

you? guest: i guess he did not catch it. i am pretty long in the tooth. i have been around. at various levels of political activity. in 2008, was the vice-chairman of the republican national committee and convention platform. it is true not surprise him that my point of view is conservative and my point of view is republican, that my point of view supports limited government and religious liberty. his question sounded as if they came right out of james carville's playbook in terms of this issue are around contraception. as if it was about controlling women. when he knows -- because i can tell that not only is he a learned man, but and engage political thinker. he knows the issue was about religious liberty and

government actually putting a strong toehold -- chokehold on the church. i want to go back to what i said. government grows -- and this has been the case and authoritarian governments throughout human history. and when you balance the church and you destroy their family. it should not surprise him that i will be articulating a point of view that champions religious liberty, champion's life, because i do believe our human capital challenge in this country really does turn on our being able to have strong families that nurture children and educate them, and that will drive our economic growth in the future. he can call them boilerplate. they are original thoughts on my part. i was part of shaping those platform planks as we move

forward, and i hope to be part of the dialogue and discussion about those issues that are important as we go forward. i would agree with you. look, at the end of the day, this is about economic growth. the misnomer is in order to talk about economic growth, you cannot talk about the pro life ethic. or to advance economic growth, you cannot talk about strengthening traditional marriage in this country. to talk about economic growth, you cannot talk about giving parental choice through school choice. i know how to talk about the big economic issues of the day without abandoning the social issues that are so important to the future quality of life in

our country. i welcome the opportunity to debate at our level these issues back and forth. at the presidential level, i just hope the candidates understand there is a way to talk about government as the gardener that nurtures economic and individual freedom, economic freedom and individual liberty without shortchanging the values that have made us an exceptional nation in all of human history. host: jonathan is in fort lauderdale, an independent caller. caller: i'm wondering about the republican field this year. my question is, because i believe obama is pretty much going to wipe the floor with these guys. i'm wondering if it is because -- the field is a week because

republicans feel they will not win this election -- the field is so weak because republicans feel they will not win this election or there is just not a leader in the national party that wants to run, or nobody wants the job, quite frankly, because it is such a tough job and there is an invasion of privacy and all of that. let's just be real. host: let's hear what ken blackwell has to say. guest: the anticipated my answer. -- key anticipated my answer. is a competitive field and it will produce the candidates that will challenge the president. and as long as that canada can talk about the clash that i have outlined -- that candidate can talk about the clash that i have outlined here about big, intrusive government intervention in our lives that has actually given us anemic economic growth as contrasted by

that which will help us reduce the debt and put us back on the path toward job creation and economic growth, i think that the president and his people know that this is going to be a close race. it is probably going to come down to maybe 12 pivotal states, and within that 12, i believe that virginia, north carolina, ohio, and florida will be the four most crucial states. if you look at the polling data coming out of those four crucial states right now, this is a very competitive race. that means the president is losing ground in those four pivotal states. and if you wind it out to the next circle of eight, meaning now 12 states, the president and

his people know that he is in a competitive race. the polling numbers that came out last week should not be encouraging to him. and what the caller just said, and that was, the american people have already marginalized and press decide the eventual republican candidates. i think this allies that. host: ken blackwell is the republican national committee platform committee vice chairman. thank you so much. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] >> on "washington journal" tomorrow, we'll talk to sabrina schaefer. arturo vargas talks about the projected voter turnout for latinos. we will also examine federal food safety programs and how the

fda inspects meat with caroline smith dewall. washington journal is live at 7:00 a.m. eastern every day on c-span. in a moment on c-span, freshman house republicans talk about legislation that would repeal the medicare advisory board that is now part of the health care law. after that, a high-school education summit. we will hear from education secretary arne duncan. later, candidates for mitt romney and -- kate mitt romney and rick santorum tomorrow. >> in march, 1939, c-span began broadcasting nationwide. it is available on tv, radio, and online. >> we have had advice that we do not do as i did today and come

in with a plain old white shirt and a summertime -- a summer tie. heaven forbid. i do not know if my colleagues feel this would be a better decorum for the senate, and i see the distinguished senator stafford over here nodding no. perhaps the people of ohio would like to make a judgment on what they would like to see me attired in here in the united states senate. mr. president, these are just a few of our concerns here in the senate. i'm sure that none of us will do a thing differently in the senate of the united states now that we are on television. thank you. >> c-span, created by america's cable companies as a public service. >> up next, house republican freshmen discuss legislation that aims to repeal the medicare independent payment advisory board created under the obama administration's

affordable care act. the house is expected to take up the legislation at the end of the month. this is about 30 minutes. >> thank you for joining us here today. we want to talk a little bit about medicare and the independent in an advisory board. i wanted to start out by pointing out a couple of quotations i have here. first, a quotation from a a president obama. if you look at the numbers from medicare in particular, we will run out of money and not be able to sustain the program a matter how taxes go up. it is just not an option for us to sit by and do nothing. and i think we have another quotation here from senator lieberman. bottom line, medicare is hurtling towards its demise.

a government is approaching a cataclysmic the school to pinpoint, while washington is busy posturing for the next election. we ought to all agree that medicare has to be reformed to save it. we ought to be able to do that. we have come up with reforms here in the house. our budget that we are about to vote on soon will have medicare reforms in it. we have seen a bipartisan medicare reform with the ryan- widen medicare reform, and we can debate how best we need to proceed in that area. but what we can do is simply cut -- cannot do is simply cut without changing the way medicare works. that is not reform. and that is what the independent pain and advisory board that is in the president's health-care plan does. it basically says, we are not going to reform medicare, we are not going to change medicare to save it. we are not going to change the

internal workings of medicare so that it provides more services for less money. we are not going to do any of that. what we are going to do is leave medicare exactly as it is and when it starts to run out of money, have an unelected board of bureaucrats start cutting or rationing, depending on how you define it, care. and thehave more seniors who cat find doctors who take medicare. it is already significantly below with the private sector provide its, and it is going to be worse if this kicks in, so what the president has said is i know we need to reform medicare, but i will create this board to

cut, and we are working on this. >> thank you superior -- thank you. i am here, and i am a nurse. my husband is a general surgeon, so this is something we are familiar with. this has two purposes. they are what they pay for, so

they may or may not be able to receive it, so there is large bipartisan support, and i think about is essential. rather than just an appealing something, we have to replace it as well. the other essential to peace is reform -- essential pieces to reform frivolous mouth practice lawsuits triggered one thing we can do is put this piece in place. there are estimates but said we will save money in health care if we are able to reform malpractice lawsuits. and now physicians order numerous tasks because of the fear of lawsuits.

we are not hunting about anyone being unprotected. what this does islamic the lawsuits that come forward -- limit lawsuits but come forward. i am in favor of this bill. thank you. >> three years ago with her -- two years ago we heard from speaker pelosi. americans were watching. this or that -- this board

decides about your care. bureaucrats. he also said this would create jobs. it's been not. she also said this would lower costs. it did not. she also said we could keep our own doctors if we wanted, and you cannot. i was talking to rick and brenda brown, and they were talking about the cost to cover their employees and the fact but it was going top common -- going up and the fear they will not be able to help their employees.

this was caused by the bill but was passed without anyone knowing about it. american people have found out what is in it, and they do not like it, and it is time we start repealing it. let's get government out of our health care. >> i do not think anyone sitting out here today can argue medicare is in trouble. we know medicare is going broke. 10 years is a good average. this is not a republican problem. it is not a democratic problem. a people problem.

you should be afraid of this bill. we set forward are responsible means of fixing medicare. gering we all know we can agree that medicare is going broke. we have a plan that will start to preserve and protect medicare for future generations, but we are the lanais. we are accused of pushing grandmother region and we are vilifies region -- we are villainized. we are accused of pushing grandmother off the cliff. as several colleagues have stated, this is designed to put a washington bureaucrat between the patient and there dr.. that is not what our seniors

want, and this is going to take place in the form of rationing of care. it is going to take somebody who is in need of a test and have the board decide if that is opprobrium. this has been a bipartisan effort in house, and i hope we can protect our seniors now and in the future in terms of access to care. >> i am from mississippi. this time last year the representatives passed a budget, and we laid out a framework for future debate and discussion on how to deal with our enormous national debt and the medicare problem that is

driving a large portion of that debt. when we passed that, the other side did not want to discuss the issue. they made commercials of chairman ryan pushing seniors off a cliff. i hope we will be able to continue to have discussions. those who only want to deal with sound bites have not put forth a reasonable alternative, nor have they put forth a reasonable defense of the status quo. right now that is cut in half a trillion dollars from medicare beneficiaries, half a trillion dollars but will result in rationing, in patients not getting the care they need. the status quo will also result

in an unelected group of bureaucrats making decisions for health care for people in north mississippi. i do not think either of those things are grosvenor -- are good, so i am hoping we can continue this discussion on reform while protecting existing recipients. we will also make sure the program is there for their grandchildren, and we will appeal this unelected group of bureaucrats the stem between patients and their doctors. rex thank you for being here today. two years from this friday is when the health-care bill first passed, and it is true that we know what is in the bill, and there is so much not to like. one thing i have no problem

with is unelected bureaucrats deciding care our seniors will have access to. we can tell it will limit access to care, and it limits its on two fronts. the board can decide what treatment can be given. any savings that happened only happen by reducing the amount that is paid out. i am hearing doctor after doctor saying i can no longer take medicare patients, so what good is it for someone to have medicare when they have no doctor who will be able to see them? about is limiting access -- that is limiting access. we need to fix medicare for our seniors. this is the wrong direction. there is an important step, and that is addressing the problem of lawsuit abuse and the high

cost that is inflicted and the amount of defensive medicine that goes in and how we all pay a price for that. it drives the cost of our care. let's do all weekend to address the real problem of health care, and that is the cost of health care. make sure the patient can still see the doctor they want to see. this is what we can do to fix medicare. >> it is great to see you, and this is a special week in washington. i am fortunate that i have a group of senior advisers, and those are the people we are talking about today, and we are talking about something they did not understand, so as we watched the cherry blossoms, i am told they are going to speak on

and they will start to decline, but we also have our group owes seniors who are going to -- a group of seniors but are going to decline. they paid their dues, and they know they did everything they were asked to do. you try to understand why are they being robbed of the most important thing our seniors should have, and that is peace of mind. after you think, i am pretty safe now, but i want to be taken care of by the government. they are finding out there are democrats who are saying, maybe we should have looked up what was coming.

they do not answer to congress or the electorate but can do what they want to do. we know medicaid is not going to last. all we are trying to do is fix it. keeps a promise to our seniors, who have done everything they could to preserve this great country, and now we are going to penalize them? we will repeal those, and we have people on the other side who voted for it and said, i probably should have read its , probably should have understood what it means to those people i represent, but we are going to fix it.

it is crazy that it is directing people to a future where they will not be able to handle medicare patients. we are at a pivotal point in our history where we have to take a look at what government has done to hurt citizens. this program have hurt him deeply, and we need to repeal them. thank you so much. good >> the independent payment advisory board was devised for one massive only, to restrict benefits to medicare beneficiaries about money could be spent on the rest of the affordable care act, but only in washington could you design a system that would use 15 of the , none of thee commo

being active practitioners, to decide how health care is going to be delivered to our seniors. that is the opposite of what our seniors want. they want no one looking over their shoulder, no one deciding whether that is appropriate care or not. this is going to be coupled with for reform, and it is about time. the change was dramatic. good it was all driven by a crisis in the united states. a woman going for care develop

our relationship with an obstetrician. it is about time we take up with new congress. the senate took no action. this time they will be forced to of least consider tort reform so so our studentcam -- so our citizens can have access where they did not have it before. thank you. good stuff i would like to open it up for questions. -- i would like to open it up for questions. >> [inaudible] >> are you talking about the broader law?

i would say the opposite. if you leave it in place you are not changing the way medicare works. you are not changing the rules so you squeeze more value and reduce costs. all you are doing is cutting costs in the medicare system as it is constituted, which by definition will mean less services provided to people, fewer doctors been willing to take medicare patients. yesterday there was a guy called a senior medicare patrol at a senior center, and a lady stood up and said, i do not understand why are have to pay my premium but cannot find a doctor who

will take me because i am on medicare. but as a problem now, and it is only going to get worse. >> are you talking about the obamacare in its entirety, the loss 63% of americans oppose an still 53% want to repeal? it was front loaded to have some of the ideas people to like, if it avoids the lot of pre- existing conditions -- the law of pre-existing conditions. the law was designed to front load positive factors, but as we start to go into costly cutting factors, i think you will see it go to the number it was when the bill was first passed.

good >> in general common -- in general, new advocated cutting spending. why is this not proper? >> you are talking about cutting $500 billion in medicare in the form of rationing to seniors, so it is not a rational or reasonable approach. >> we know if we are going to deal with debt, we are going to deal with medicare among other programs. we have 10,000 retirees going on medicare every day. the president says, i am not going to change it.

i am not going to do any of those things. i am going to rely on reducing line items to reduce services. in my opinion, about is the total cost out -- that is a total cop out. give we are the ones who said we need to reduce costs, but you can reduce cost and harm our access to care, or you can reduce cost in our reform away. the one thing and we ought to agree on is status quo is unacceptable, and the president seems to get it, but his actions have taken the approach

that we're just going to cut and we are not going to do anything to change the forces in a program, so there are broadway's to save and less preferable ways to save -- there are good ways to save, and less preferable ways to save it. we will simply say, we have run out of money. >> the status quo of medicare is not feasible, nor is the tax laws as the bush tax cuts and trillions to the deficit. they work on it last summer. would you be willing to take new revenue in exchange for the reforms you want?

>> you are saying the status quo of the bush tax cuts. there are a number of ways to reform the tax code, and who has spoken more about reforming the tax code? i do not know if anyone has. i advocate for that every chance i get, so the eighth year you somehow have to adopt their version of change or you are not -- the idea you somehow have to adopt their version of change is nonsense. with medicare there is only one reform plan. there is one reform plan in the house and senate, and that is

our reform plan. i believe we can get more revenues. we voted for it last year, at least a framework during your -- out least a framework. there is no other option on the table with medicare. >> you were here when they pass health care law. one of the most hurtful criticism, knowing what you know now, it's got a fair description -- is that a fair

description? >> we do not know what is going to turn out to be. could in fact fulfill the entire requirement through end of life care. in my rural area, it is hard to find a primary care provider who takes medicare. an across-the-board cut would be devastated. a good part of the problem is it is non-specific as to how that is done with no congressional oversight. you know we have budget neutrality rules, and when you

combine this repeal with tort reform, it is completely consistent with republican principles. >> it is going to apparently include some medicare reform. i want to get your reaction. and perhaps i think it is another example of the house leading -- >> i think it is another example of the house leading by throwing reforms out there so we can solve this problem. nothing but cricket from the senate on this front. they are still struggling with the idea of a budget. we did this last year, and i am happy to debate the different reforms, but the status quo is unacceptable, because the status

quo and leads to bankruptcy, so when you hear the demagoguery and now about opposed reforms compared to the status quo, it is dishonest, because the status quo is not a possibility. >> earlier we spoke to a reporter about the house republican budget proposal. good >> paul ryan is about to release the budget proposal this week, and joining us to talk about it is nanticoke region in -- is nancy cook. and when can we expect to see

it? >> paul ryan is doing a series of the events to sell this idea he has. >> what are some of the key items? spending cuts. he is also supposed to do push back spending cuts, and one of the big things democrats are expected to go after him as the way he is for it to restructure medicare and medicaid as well. >> you talk about how the budget will be presented to congress. what approach is mr. ryan expected to employ? parts he is making sure to talk about it now in moral terms, so he has been talking about how americans have a moral obligation to tackle this debt crisis, whereas last year he was

talking about spending. this year he is attaching a greater sense of values. >>, a political risk is there -- how much political risk is there? >> there is i huge medical risks. this idea of him trying to get republicans to vote for it could be damaging to republicans and will come up in the election. courts have we heard from many of the candidates on the proposal? >> we have not, because it has not come out. he and mitt romney have some similarities in what they proposed for medicare, medicaid, and the spending cuts.

by tomorrow morning queen elizabeth ii will address a session of parliament as part of her diamond jubilee celebration. she is the only british monarch to reach 60 years on the throne. later, the house armed services committee hears from a head of military operations in afghanistan. live coverage starts at 10:00 a.m. eastern on c-span 3. >> on new america where freedom is available to all, without regard to race or economic conditions. bowdo[applause] a new america which protects the

ancient idea that men can solve their differences by killing each other. we look back 14 men who run for office and lost. >> of profit of the radical liberal -- prophets of the radical liberal left tell us uld spend our way out of trouble and into a better tomorrow. >> next, a look at ways to improve high-school dropout numbers. this is 2 hours 30 minutes.

♪ >> ladies and gentlemen, please welcome -- [inaudible] michael powell. [applause] >> good morning. it is such a pleasure to see all of you here, and i am happy to welcome all of you. on behalf of our more than 400 , welcomenal partners commo

to the summit. we are happy you have come here from all parts of the country. you all come together to help solve the most urgent problems of our time. i would like to say a special word to our youth leaders. you are the reasons we are here, and you are a big part of the solution. and we could not do it without you. i would like to thank our partners who made this possible, state farm, and our premier sponsors of the grand nation summit, at&t, target, and the bill and melinda gates foundation, the corporation for

public broadcasting, ford motor co., intel, lumina foundation, and the telecommunications association. i would like to thank nbc. and we are so pleased to work closely with them as we make people aware of the education crisis in america and what can be done about it. given the number of sponsors is a reflection of the way the campaign has become a large and growing movement. this campaign is a spark that

is igniting americans to join us. peter passed away last year. there was no greater champion for the power of five promises to change lives. good he once said, to dream is the source of a life well lived. if he were here today, he would be so excited to see so many people who have stepped up was leaders to bring more promises to the people who need them. we all know it is an of election-year. jobs is our top priorities, but

we need to have all americans recognize there is a direct link between quality education and economically strong communities. but as the theme of this summit, and you will be hearing more about it. when children are not arrivithr, communities cannot thrive, and that means our nation cannot derive superio thrive. we have to educate our way to a better economy. young people are the secret to our success. most people know we launched this with president obama and our need dunton, and we have

made real and sustainable progress. you will hear more about the report we will be releasing. you will hear what is working, but we also know we have to do more, and we must do it faster if we are reaching our goal of graduation rates by 2020, and we must remember these are not statistics. they represent our children, who want nothing more than to claim for themselves the promise of america, the opportunity to live secure lives. when we talk about readiness for

college and work, that is what is at stake, so let us rededicate ourselves, not just for the next two days, but in the days to comment, but we will not stop until we have kept a promise but we will bring others to this work and bring our communities together so we can remain a great nation and hold our place in the world, and it is my privilege to introduce somebody i can truly say i have known all my life. please welcome the co-chair, michael powell. [applause]

>> good morning. we know a lot about what it takes to successfully raise a child, but i do not think there is a greater blessing to have a courageous and committed mother, and mine happens to be spectacular. by the time i finish my remarks, seven more kids will have dropped out of high school. by the time you finish your work to days from now, another 6646 will be gone. again that is a ticking time bomb. but as a sure way to erode the foundation of any hope for the american dream. we are here to change out with some urgency. we launched a campaign to mobilize american to end this

crisis. now the campaign has become a large and growing movement of individuals working together towards this goal. we are grateful you are here as leaders of the movement. this includes people from communities on the front lines helping young people succeed. all communities can join by working to pursue goals and share best practices. nearly 40 communities have joined the network, from large urban centers to smaller rural communities like north carolina. whether you have been part of the campaign for a while now or

whether you are new to the movement, we think you will learn a lot over the next several days, and we think you can share your experience sir you become more involved and inspire others to join us when you return home. you will learn what is working from communities, businesses, nonprofits, and young people themselves. we hope you will be attuned to the success stories. give we hope you will be attuned to new ways you can work with others in the community of. cross sections collaboration is critical in preparing young people for success in college .nd careerists

did we cannot do it in silos. everyone can how out. everyone united together, we can ensure all our young people live up to their full potential and truly realize the american dream. thank you. [applause] >> our first speaker, randall stevenson, is a longtime friend and supporter of america's promise of lions -- promise alliance. he helped spearhead the mobile internet revolution, and he is passionate about education. high schooltment to success in and work force

readiness. we are all familiar with the statistics surrounded a drop out crisis, but a good to look up those numbers. i want to show year-on-year -- show you a short video about the way aspire is changing lives. >> half the people i know are not even in high school. >> people automatically think of death row. >> my mom is currently incarcerated, so it is hard to

regard >> it is hard to find a positive role model. praxair refused to be a statistic. -- >> i refuse to be a statistic. >> this is a program that prepares you. things are pretty different once you leave school, so it helps you be prepared, how to act. it marks it is not a skill development -- praxair is not a skill development class. your -- >> it is not a skill development costs. by how to been -- >> how to be a leader. >> it is very diverse, if you

want to get a job after high school, if you want to go to college, and you want to go to different work fields. good >> work experience, how to make a resume. it was not straight forward education. >> to have people who can tell you, i believe in you, and i think you can do it. musical theater is my dream. >> i want to be a journalist. once you prove them wrong, there is nothing they can hold over your head. it marks one of these days, i am going to bust out of here. >> i did it. it is your turn. >> a powerful statement.

please join me in welcoming my friend, mandell stevenson and richard randall stevenson. -- my friend, randall stevens on. [applause] >> it is an honor to be here. they are an inspiration to those involved in this cause. want to welcome ken smith. this is an organization we love standing beside and being involved in this cause, and the young people we saw in this

video -- stand up, kids. [applause] i had an opportunity this morning to meet with some of those kids. you noticed some of those bases are the same. you walk in here excited. .ongratulations to you this says a lot about those

kids, the drive you have, it says a lot about the teachers and the administration, and over the past couple years, almost those students have graduated. that is something we are proud to be a part of your your -- to be a part of superior it is going to been -- to be a part of. economic opportunity is flowing into those markets but have the best prepared talent.

an educated work force has been america's greatest competitive advantage, and that is going to be more important, and i am pleased we are making progress. there is still more we are trying to do. we are going to have american businesses struggling, and the center of gravity will shift to where labor pools reside, so it is in corporate america is interesting -- corporate to step ofnterest education. many of you are familiar with

this. it was concentrated on work force readiness. we committed $140 million, and we exceeded that. our employees also gone an ambitious job. the infective was to attach 100,000 kids waste drawn shuddering opportunities, and -- with job shadowing opportunities. both we have taken our effort and are more than doubling it. we are making a $250 million commitment, and i am pleased to tell you the first million dollars is going to america's promise.

we like to invest in a proven success, and this has proven success. we are going to launch a .entoring academy i one of the things we want to accomplish is to tap into our nation's most of their technology and marry it with educational needs to help students connect in social media as well as web-based content. many people are familiar with named best -- with game desk. what is really impressive is the fire but everybody is focused on the same thing, and that is high

school graduation rates. we have to win this race, and my hope is this will be a catalyst to support your work triggered the u.s. is home to the most vibrant and innovative companies in the world. there are a lot of companies with a broad range of industries that have gotten into these initiatives, and i encourage everybody to get involved. this is a race we have to win. i am going to thank you for this opportunity. . is an honor to be part of this assignment -- this summit. it is an honor of being here, and i hope you have our great summit.

thank you very much. >> i have the distinct pleasure of introducing someone who knows how to tackle challenges. brian gallagher is the ceo, one of the partners. now he is an exemplary leader and we are privileged to have. please welcome brian gallagher. record morning, and thanks for your leadership here it is a privilege to be part of it, and

thanks to the alliance partners. this does not happen without your work year-ago the region without your work. this is an important today's. we are getting some progress, but the question is are we doing and not to continue that momentum a curator -- to continue the momentum? the only way we are going to accelerate and scale our work is to do it together. you have heard about the collective impact. our would challenge us to focus on five things, first of we have a common agenda. when it comes to helping young people succeed, we need one agenda. we need common metrics. if we do not the same language

we will not be together. we all have diverse assets, but we have done to make sure we understand we are interdependent as well. and we have to communicate constantly. the world is filled with millions of messages. one thing america's promise has done well is raise the conversation, and we need to make sure we put infrastructure behind collaboration. too often we set a common agenda and then run our own institutions. given what we have in front of us is our hilos strategy. and we will continue to work on strategy and try to provide

political cover, but our success will be defined by what happens on the ground across the country. you are going through your large institutional commitment to. and -- you are going to see a large commitments. we want to cut the national high school dropout rate in half. in less than a year we have already have 400,000 commitments from people willing to get involved in education. [applause] we are trying to teach ourselves how to be about our own organization. will we put a commitment into making sure there is infrastructure to support these

collaborations? and we have made an effort to have community conversations in over 40 cities across the country, focused on how we make sure the young people who are not in school or do not have a job have a strategy to make sure they are addressed, and it is my honor to be able to say we have made a commitment to all of the partnerships to identify the feeder schools. on one thing i did not realize is we do not have national data. it is a conversation or a phone call from a local united way to find out who those schools are, of them on paper, and make sure we are working with them, and we

have turned our own national conference into a community conference, and i am done with the days of and we get together and talked to ourselves. did you can learn so much, but you learn by being together with different institutions. we have invited all of our community partners, to make sure we are learning from each other. as jim collins would say, i think the wheel is starting to turn, but can we get self sustaining momentum so education and academic achievement and a real readiness -- and career readiness become important in this election and the one in front of us.

thank you for being here. thank you for your commitment. have a great two days. >> good morning. how lucky the nation is to have frame gallagher, leading the united way. not only are they wonderful commitments in the past, but the new commitment to identify the feeder middle schools and also to have general of leadership. what a powerful mother-son combination, but also let me

say what a gift to the nation it is to have margaret reiter are one of her to stand and be an acknowledged by everybody. [applause] she is not going anywhere. what a gift it will be to have john. i would like him to stand as well. everyone knows who he is, and to randall stephenson of at&t for their extraordinary work now to help boost graduation rates and make education a stronger data- driven enterprise. this morning we have the pleasure to release the 2012 update to the nation on our progress and challenge in ending a high-school dropout academic. we released two reports over the

last 18 months but showed increases in high school graduation rates across dozens of states. reductions in the number of strong about high schools and the students attending them. and deeper evidence that school districts are boosting graduation rates and preparing students for college by rising to a standard of excellence. serving as a challenge that if they can do it, others can too. today with our colleagues and the alliance for excellence in education, working with many of you, are happy to report even more progress in the last couple of years then we have seen on an annual basis of the last decade. dc district's continuing to make gains and leading organizations aligning their work with the civic plan of action, and plan

ignited by the foundation, also a supporter of this summit and this year's report. we also showed the daunting work ahead to reach national goals and pledged to provide an update every year to the class of 2020. i also want to thank mary and joanna for the outstanding work on this year's report. it was more than a year's worth of work. [applause] this year's theme is education and the economy. a report begins there with unemployment still hyper, igh, a the economy is a problem. education is one solution. secretary duncan says we need to educate our way to a better

economy. ben bernanke said the best way to improve economic opportunity and reduce inequality is to increase the educational attainment and skills of american workers. a report begins with this data because we know from 100 summit that it was the economic action that helped spur policy-makers and business leaders and other stakeholders to a accelerate their efforts. what is at stake? the education to jobs equation is completely flipped. 72% of jobs required high school or less. by the end of the decade, a 75% of all jobs which require high school and college. ironically, in a time of high unemployment, 53% of business leaders are creating most of the new jobs in the country. it is difficult to find qualified u.s. workers.

our tax dollars are also a stake. we know if we were to cut the costs of dropouts in half, it would save $45 billion to taxpayers. this year's report is full of wonderful data, economic data and everytion fthe state. we will share tomorrow to make the case for addressing this crisis. but as the engine of the campaign, the plan has two specific goals -- a 90% graduation rate of the class of 2020. presidents since john kennedy have set goals for the nation to boost educational outcomes. today this plan is a specific plan of action that puts in place benchmarks along the way to ensure we make progress in

chart our progress. it takes that national goal seriously. the plan targets the high-school dropout factories where we're losing about half of our students every year. their schools that -- they are schools that brian gallagher will help us track to keep students on track to graduate. when the governors came together, we work with organizations to encourage such alignment with these benchmarks of the plan. high school is insufficient. we also highlight the goal of hiring -- having the highest college raised in the world. we have to double our rates to 6 in 10 by 2020. i wonder what a plan of action for college would look like in the country.

how are we doing? the nation, the average free spring graduation rate has risen from 72% to 75.5%. with an increase from last year. it would be less fun if these numbers were going in the wrong direction. wisconsin was the first to reach 90%. [applause] wow, that's a lot of people from wisconsin. or a lot of enthusiasm. vermont is just 0.4% shy of reaching the goal. these states made about seven percentage point gains of the last decade. they have been working hard to reach these goals. however, if the rate of progress from the first decade continues

during the second, the graduation rate will be closer to 80% rather than 90%. we would need to excel the rate threefold to 1.3 per year to reach the national goal. we have made extraordinary progress. the work of all of you has made such a difference. it is not enough. on our current pace, there would be more than a thousand drop out factories. the extraordinary data at the state level -- i will go into that in a minute. we would first like to report on the tender research-based benchmarks that topless track the cost of 2020. many of our case studies making gains on these various elements of the plan. i'm going to review a few of

them for you today. progress in reading increase for the last decade from 29% to 34% in 2011. more than 65% of fourth graders are below proficiency in reading. the nation is fortunate to have such a strong focus. once that feeder schools are identified, it will be interesting to see how the campaign is aligning with the students. you can predict the likelihood a student who will drop out based on their attendance, behavior, and performance in reading and math. we've partnered with the everyone graduate center to analyze early-morning systems in 16 districts and seven states. when third produced early

morning reports while another 16 reports they have no plan for doing so. some consider early-morning systems as part of their state accountability system. the field is awash in innovation at the state and district levels. an example of how a community- based organizations stepped up outside of st. louis because they wanted to make their more -- they're at first more efficient. it is big brothers and big sisters working with public schools. i want to do a shout out to becky in that community. in 2005, we heard in the context of listening bent they signed out of the schools on their 16th birthday. because the state to give them permission to do so. research from the current chair on economic advisory shows that

increasing the age reduces earnings. prostates have updated their loss from 16 -- laws from 16 to 17. president obama give us a boost this year in the state of the union. nearly 18 states that permit students to drop out of a 16 have legislation to update their loss. finally, -- their laws. finally, it became evident that we needed to help reconnect the 1 million students to drop out every year. -- who dropped out every year. 1 in 6 of the 38 million youths

are disconnected from school and work. the cost taxpayers 1.6 trillion dollars and society's 4.7 trillion over their lifetime and represents an untapped resource in terms of talent and wisdom and productivity for the country. the country has coined the term opportunity used to describe them -- youth to describe them. at a white house event, there was a goal of two injured 50,000 jobs as a way back to -- 250,000 jobs as a way back to employment. we will be talking about these benchmarks in more detail. we will see how we can make progress. i hope each of you will think about what you and your organizations can do to help move the needle on this plan of action. it is now my pleasure to turn it over to one of the most extraordinary researchers and

people i ever met, please welcome bob, co-director at john hopkins university. [applause] >> good morning. what we're here to do is take a look at the most recent data and figure out how to get to 90%. we have to step on the gas. how do we do that? we begin with the good news. the number of low graduation rate a schools has dropped considerably since 2002. from 2000 to about 1500. that is a 25% improvement. these are the schools that are graduating 50-50. a quarter of them -- imagine

what that means to the land of opportunity. in an era where there is no work for a high-school dropout, it is progress to say there are 25% fewer than a decade before. but, if we go at this rate, there are thousand left in 2020. we cannot have a thousand schools or the odds of graduating are 50-50. basically it is a coin toss. we have to a accelerate. a couple of things are in our favor. the recent data from 2010 does not include the impact of a school improvement grant process and an effort to target the low graduation rate high- school swiss transformative reform. you will hear about that later on this morning. faster than the reduction in schools has been the reduction in students attending the schools that still exist. that is down by almost 800,000

students. fewer students are attending now than a decade ago. that is improved by about a third. the schools that remain have fewer students which means there are more options available. in the past two years, the rate of progress has accelerated. that tells us -- it has move to the cities. the first wave was focused on the suburbs and towns. now it has spread to the cities which are often seen as the most intractable. there are major efforts to do district-wide reform. i think we're starting to see impact of that. at the state level, it is a mixed story. half of the states have gotten better and half have not. this is our friendly graf. dark green is good. brown is bad. i wanted to go for red and

yellow but i was overruled. dark screen is good. remember that. when we look closely, we find that 12 states are driving progress. looking at a rate of growth and size of the state. about 120,000 more kids graduating now than in 2002, holding population constant. almost all of those kids come from 12 states. they have had significant, efforts to do something. this progress has been balanced by a 10 states that have gone the wrong way. that is what we have to remind ourselves. at some level, all of the works, we highlighted tennessee. it had double-digit gains. almost 18 points over 10 years, which charlotte -- which shows

changes possible. two-thirds of the progress has been wiped out by california going the wrong way. that shows us how we have to get the states moving and the ones that have not been moving in the game. we tried to organize this. that is what we do. we tried to make it more manageable and find a path to improvement. we look at the states, the 25 states that have made small gains, no games, or gone backward. they fall into four categories. there are smaller states like idaho, south dakota, wyoming, they are already around 80. they have been stuck there. they have to improve less than a point a year. it is a small number of kids per class. we could put all of the kids in ninth grade veteran danger of not graduating in a room like this.

they would all fit. you can imagine someone else putting their arm around those kids and making them succeed. some other states, bigger states, there are 5000, 10,000, 20,000 kids. we cannot put them in an auditorium. they have many. the most troublesome group, where the battle will be won or lost, are in the 12 states that are far away. they have to make more than a point a year. and they have 5000 more kids per class to move from cropp on to graduate. 40% of all the graduates we have to get are in these states. these are states that have not moved. that tells us we have to put a focus to see what it takes to galvanize efforts. many of the states that made progress did so from a low base.

now they have moved into the 70's or 80's. but they still have a way to go. we're saying keep working hard here but bring these states into the game. how do we do that? we are releasing this year a civic marshall plan index for each state which goes state-by- state and tells us how far they are from their goal. how many low graduation rate high schools do they have? how many would have to be improved? also, what is their reading level? their mac level? how many kids are taking ap classes? and then we also at the economic data. what is this costing the state in productivity and lost tax revenue? that is how we can make the argument that these states needs to get moving.

the cost of not moving. remember, students drop out of high school but they stay in the community. the community bears the cost of the crisis. by using the data to show that, we can galvanize the community, the business sector, others to work with the system and address it. once we have done that, what do we ask them to do? there it is. we a that -- lay out a 10 step strategy. i'm not going to go through these but i want to take the time to talk about the first three and give you a homework assignment on no. 9. a couple of things to keep in mind. this year, for the first year, we're finally measuring graduation rates the same way using accurate measurements, how many entering ninth graders get

a diploma four years later. -students that have transferred to other schools, adding students to come in. so we can now within districts and states which are making progress to learn from and which are still struggling in need more help. this data is just coming out. 35 states, you can get this some more on their website. we are going to be trying to put it all together on our website. by the end of the year, all states except for a couple should be out. this is powerful data. you can create a map in your state and community, how many schools have to improve for us to meet this goal. let's target your efforts and measure them to have a strategic impact. the second thing is that almost all states, 11 already, 24 in

the pipeline, are applying for waivers from the notes from left behind that. states are gaining flexibility to move around the federal money. using it in a more targeted way. in return, they are pledging to reform their lowest schools plus any school with a graduation gap. those are our schools. we have to make sure the states use this freedom wisely. but they do it to show these procedures and, as we have learned, it is to group things together. you need to do a transformation. in need to enhance support in those schools. those kids need a good lesson and something else. we have to bring in that something else which will involve bringing in nonprofit

partners. many of which are here today. many have stepped up using metrics and moved up their game using evidence-based procedures. when the to bring those into schools and use a system to target those adults and schools on the kids most at need. that is what we should be looking for as states moves -- to use their dollars flexibly. and the using reform? enhancing support? are they creating funding streams to pay for it? the other thing is that, as they build these indexes, which are going to be very exciting graduation rate accountability is still held that a high outcome. we need a graduate prepared for college and career. neither one of those is could by

itself. we could increase our college readiness and still have kids not graduating. that is not good. these are complex systems this is the first year we have with a good graduation rate accountability. we have an accurate measure. all states have had to put in goals. we cannot lose that. finally, our homework assignment any district or state or community that has a drop out challenge for a graduation crisis has and the problem beginning as early as kindergarten. this is like bacteria in a hospital. it creates havoc. into we recognize a, we do not taxing -- act against it.

the truth this -- this is one case where 90% is not an a. we are hard wired to hear 90% = could. if this " and having 90% -- a school can have a 90% rate, the literacy rate, we have to attack that. you could have 90% attendance and have kids missing one month or more of schools. if you go beneath that literacy rate, half of those kids are not coming to school regularly. it does not matter how great the lesson is. they are not there to get it. we have to campaign at a local level to say we need to measure how many kids are missing a month or more of school.

once you have those metrics, things the committee can galvanize against. we have to get our kids to school. with that in mind, thank you. let's turn back over to john bridgeland to talk about some powerful, institutional plays. [applause] >> not only wonderful data but the homework assignment. great to know that the 13 states where the battle will be won or lost to reach this national golal. we have examples of states, nonprofits, businesses, and government initiatives and community groups that are making groundbreaking progress on one or more of the benchmarks.

many studies, for example double digit gains in maryland, thank you for the progress in georgia and atlanta. and in alabama. show us the past -- pathways for word on how they are beating odds. i want to thank the leadership council members to build the nation. all the organizations listed for their work of the last year working in partnership. this is their plan. to get a better sense of how organizations in the ground, and achieving real results, we're going to talk about other things in the report. our other plan is the

corporation for public broadcasting's american graduate initiative. presented by pat harrison, it is one of the most exciting developments we have had. it has seen the power of the media to raise awareness and spur action to address the challenge across the country from little towns like richmond, indiana, the corporation for bubba -- public broadcasting has reached perverse communities in created a dialogue to engage communities. pat and max miller are working together. in addition to brian gallagher's announcement, united way and big brother, big sisters are taking their partnership a step further to accelerate their progress. finally, rounding out the

beginning with leadership from one of the more significant companies, at&t, we will hear from beth shiroishi showing the power of the business community to strengthen education. please welcome the ceo of the corporation for public broadcasting, pat harrison. >> i want to thank bob and bridge for all they are doing. it is great to meet so many people who are concerned about america's young people and our working to improve it. as alma powell says in the

report, we cannot afford excuses. america is one of the most effective and largest partnerships increasing champions for the nation's children and champions never make excuses. their work toward a mission, every single day. our kids really need these champions. we should think of them as our kids, our best and brightest. that is how they start out, believing they have a bright future. believing that they can be among the best. somewhere along the way, they lose their way and when that happens, we all lose. as their success goes forward, or it falters, so those are

nation. let me tell you what the public media stations, radio, television, online and in the community are doing to address the drop out challenge for an initiative we launched last year called american graduate, and let's make it happen. i want to thank michael powell for his eloquent words, and inspiring public media to action. working with america's promise and guided by the marshall plan, we began with a very strong foundation, a core part of our mission which is education. for decades, we have provided a safe place where children can learn, commercial-free, and for free.

we have improved reading readiness in high need communities through our ready to learn program. we have digital media resources to pbs learning media correlated to the standards. now, public media and is utilizing our resources, our trusted content, our connection to communities, our civic leaders, and our audience in ways that can help kids stay on the path to a high school diploma. and in ways that are specific to each community. .et's look on a national level while all this is happening on a local level, we are also focused on telling the story nationally. so tavis smiley investigate the causes of increase dropout rates

among black teenage males while jim glassman examines the role that middle schools can play even before those kids start thinking about dropping out. on the radio-side, npr motivates people to get involved by featuring stories from cheap -- teachers who are doing their best to keep kids on a path to a diploma. how effective is this coverage? those are just a few examples. let me tell you a story. wamu committed to a nine part series on the drop out challenge. the stories focused on early- warning signs, kids that overcame barriers to success, model schools that engaged the community, and much more. roberto rodriguez, who has assistance to obama for

education, re-tweeted the story on the dropout challenge that was generated by a senior wamu.er fromw next, a senator from new mexico was also listening to the story and now he wants to engage his local station in a district hearing on how the crisis is impacting the state of new mexico. next, george miller from california also heard his report and he wrote about the american graduate initiative. from d.c. to mexico and every single state, the dropout story

has been heard. there are meetings to listen and effect change. kqed produced a town hall moderated by npr, live web cast, and it will become a radio bought -- broadcast special. at the end of the town hall one teacher said, and thank you for coming to us to hear what we have to say. there is more to come. from projects such as vegas' virtual high school, and helping kids get their diplomas online,

to news hour and their students reporting which gives middle and high school students the opportunity to learn digital media production and connect to the education they're getting to relevant to next steps for their future, to our new web site, a virtual resource to help people understand and be inspired of champions in their community and states. i have to say how honored and proud of public media is to be working with america's promise with civic enterprises and with all of you to build a grand nation. i know that one day we're going to see bumper stickers on thousands of cars in every state that says, i help a young person become an american graduate. happen.s make that

thank you. [applause] if you will turn to the screen, we will have a short video on how public stations are working to make that goal reality. reality. >> i think the reasons why students drop out is because they do not have someone that inspires them. >> over the course of a lifetime, a high-school dropout will make a million dollars less than a college graduate. >> if that is what is cool in your community, that is what is going to happen.

>> i do not want to bis test system. a lot of students say i have never been -- be a statistic. a lot of students say i have never been challenged. >> we are charged with that. >> will all americans be willing to do what it takes to change this reality? >> there is a drop of crisis and public media can help. >> public media has assets unrivaled by any other media organizations. i am thrilled to these broadcasters have stepped up to the challenge. >> working in partnership with business and civic organizations, we will help these kids stay engaged through extracurricular activities. >> we're going to be able to educate people to this problem.

>> today we will focus on wheat -- what we can do. >> a lot of our initiatives are focused on engagement about building connections. >> after-school mentor programs and community town hall meetings bringing together teachers and students. >> when i think about the american graduate initiative, i see a possibility for success. >> public media is making a commitment with our partners and the people we serve. we know that the challenge is a serious but we also know what works. if we start where these kids live, in our community, and are in partnership with teachers and parents, civic and business leaders, we can make the dream of a high-school diploma a reality. let's make it happen.

[applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, please welcome max miller and vice president of education, a united way worldwide, nina o'donnell. >> good morning. i know proverbs can be a cliche but there is a proverb that it's the occasion. it says if you want to go fast, if girl -- go along. if you want to go far, go together. it is inspiring to be here with us and all of the people who are watching on the web knowing we are working to help communities

help every child go far in the school, life, and work. >> organizations have been working together for years. we have been allies for some time. now we're taking it further. we are increasing the number of mentors working with children facing adversity in kindergarten and the school and in the high risk schools. >> big brothers and big sisters has proven to have positive effects in a child's life. one of the things that united way does well as record people with a passion to make lasting change. together, we are aligning our resources toward the benchmark of a civic marshall plan. together we are doing that with many partners and many leaders like school superintendents and administrators. we will be working together in new ways to make sure every child has a caring adult supporting his or her success.

>> we're going to be focused on three things, targeting elementary schools that feed into some of our lowest performing high schools, using data to drive results and accountability, and mobilizing everyone to give their time, talent, and money to help our kids. >> we whatever united way and big brother, big sisters to work together to help create opportunity. it is already happening in places like winston-salem, austin, fort lauderdale and many others. community groups, volunteers, and parents are working together to make sure elementary and middle school students succeed. >> this is working very well. big brothers, big sisters, united way, and the schools are working together so that when a child is skipping class, a big

brother or a big sister is there to work with the family and teacher to make sure that child gets back on track. it is not just about the bad things. they celebrate the good things, too. >> that is what we want to create in every community. we hope to come back here in reports that all 1200 united ways and all 355 big brothers, the sisters are doing the same thing. we hope you will join us and together we will all work to make sure that every community helps all of our children go far in school, work, and life. >> thank you and please enjoy this fantastic video capturing this partnership. [applause]

>> i am 14 years old. this is my school. i have a big family, three sisters and a little brother. this is my mom and this is my dad. a lot of kids in my community do not even finish school, do not care about school. i just got into one of the best high schools in the city. this is my true story of the people who helped me get there. >> i want you to achieve academically. i want you to do well in school and graduate high school. >> this is important for our young men to be educated.

i see that young men are not educated, especially black young man. >> united way and big brothers big sisters have had an incredible working release -- relationship, a trusting relationship. >> we also understand the importance of the entering in general. we are measuring how the children -- mentoring in general. we are measuring how the children maintain their grades and their behavior. it is all about building strong kids who can make great decisions. >> i know when we have a representative, they are checking report cards. we have to work together to make sure that we have everything in place to make them successful.

>> you try very hard. this period, for the past three years, -- >> you are capable of achieving anything you put your mind to. >> it is about community, being woven into the fabric of who we are together. it is about collaboration and partnership. it is about trust and being united in the community. >> please welcome beth shiroishi. >> it is such an honor and privilege to be here today. as a former teacher, a mother,

and representing at&t, a proud a partner in the campaign, and at&t we challenge ourselves to rethink possible, to ask, what if? i was handed a serious what if. millionwe invest $250 to try to change our country? what've we invest to graduate every person with the skills to power the workforce? this is not new for us. four years ago as we watched this program because we believed then that as we do now that it is important for our company, our community, and our country. reaching end of those four years, we had a decision. do we change directions or do we take the six sexes we shared, though the earnings and the challenges, -- successes we s

hared, treaty learning and the challenges, or do we build on the successes? we will continue our commitment to invest locally. funding those proven programs that are truly helping more students graduate from american high schools. we are not stopping there. driven by that what if, we are looking to seek exponential change. what is that this -- destructive innovation that could change for the better education, especially for those in underserved areas? we're looking to expand alliances with organizations seeking to do that. we are bringing more of our own company to bear. we will start by innovation centers to build an eco system of developers, educators, and

others to put more brains to work thinking about raising the graduation rate. last but not least, by connecting people. expanding opportunities for at&t's employees it through an enhanced java shadow, mentoring -- job shadow, mentoring, and engaging our customers and consumers. we unveiled our first platform where we are challenging all americans to stand in support of a 90% graduation rates. i would hope you will join us there to earn even more dollars for america's promise. we are not naive enough to think that to enter $50 million -- $250 million dollars can solve the issue. but what if it starts a movement? turning what if to we will.

what if every business, every parent, stood in support of a 90% graduation rates and took a concrete action to make the possibility true. let's aspire to that. [applause] >> we're trying to keep on time. now to introduce our very special next guest, an extraordinary leader, i am pleased to introduce a director of education for community relations, reba domisnski. they made it possible for us to be together today. target is a leader in business and innovation and all we're

trying to achieve. a portion of its giving goes toward education, with a focus on the early years. target is also sponsoring a session later this morning called hitting the mark on third grade reading. it is providing a special round for networking throughout the summit. please welcome reba dominski. [applause] >> thank you. good morning, everyone. before i begin, i'd like to take a moment to thank alma and michael powell and all of our partners. on behalf of everyone at target, we are truly grateful for your leadership and for your vision and we are deeply honored to be part of this movement.

at target community giving is and has always been a cornerstone of our company. we listen, we learn, we act locally to support the communities that we serve. our commitment began over a generation ago with george draper dayton, the founder of company, who had a personal passion for giving and social causes. he saw the intrinsic link between business and community. he knew that great and strong businesses start with great and strong communities. in 1946 we formalized our giving, committing to give a full 5% of our income, the maximum allowed by law. as our businesses continued to thrive, so has our support of the community and today that 5% equals $3 million every week. [applause] thank you.

the reasons that target and other companies give are clear. first, it's the right thing to do and it's also good for our business. we know that our reputation is built not only on what we say but what we do. it also makes us a workplace of choice for our 350,000 plus team members pitch providing volunteerism opportunities, we motivate and engage our team in meaningful ways and attract talent who want to work for a socially responsible for company. one of the great social challenges our time is education and the million students each year who fall off the path to graduation. just a generation ago american america produced more college graduates than any other country. we led the world in math, science and literacy. but times have changed and behind manyg

countries. we think innovation and determination, we can find solutions. we can create lasting a positive change and we can improve economic outcomes for all children. at target, we believe that all kids deserve a quality education regardless of race, or class. we believe in providing teachers and schools with the support they need to help kids succeed. we believe all children can learn and to graduate from high school ready for college, ready for their lives. we believe that together we can create a grad nation. that is why target is on track to give a billion dollars to education by the end of 2015. [applause] thank you. it is why we're connecting our work in the arts, volunteerism

and to education for greater impact. it is why we forge strong partnerships like our partnership with america's promise alliance. target is also using our strengths to raise awareness of this issue. a good example of our partnership with the ellen show where we gave money to schools across the country. ellen asked for viewers to nominate schools. the response was phenomenal. the money will be used for new technology and basic needs. let's take a look. >> education is at the heart of giving. they are committed to helping children reach their potential.

50 schools will receive a $100,000 grant, each totaling $5 million. >> we have a lot of homeless children here. more than 85% of our students. when they leave here on a daily basis, sometimes we do not know where they are going. sunday is they are in a hotel lorraine motel. they may be on the street. >> i am the principle of this elementary school into,, washington. we are at 100% free lunch. they may not have things provided at home. it is familiar to have someone that they love that has been in jail for has been killed. >> when you go to school you get a new backpack. new clothes. at christmas you get presents

and a cake. these kids do not get that. i decided to give them those things. >> when we got the support, i could focus on the problems at home. >> my kids did not have christmas that year. if not for the school. >> my biggest motivator is the kids. it is the thought and the hope that they do not have to live this way when they grow up. they can reverse the cycle. >> i hope they know what -- they know they can do what they set their minds to do. [applause] >> one of the school's use of

featured was an elementary in washington. -- schools you saw featured was an elementary school in washington. we received a letter to say that after the show aired, the neighborhood and county have stepped up to increase safety patrols and services, something she has asked for repeatedly in the past. she said that the teachers and staff and students have renewed energy, pride, and purpose and that the parents are excited, with many coming to volunteer for the first time. she told us the story of being in a classroom and the kids were head down, a pencil to paper. somebody said, why is it so quiet? they said they figure they're going to come back and figure they spent the money on the right school. i have worked for target for 18 years. i have generated millions of dollars in sales and launched a

major brands. but i have never been more proud to work at target and one a received a letter from the principal. as a team of educators, parents, public and private sector leaders, and a nation of citizens, we can bring about sustainable change and hope. if we are to be a grant nation, it will take a lot of effort. it is also going to take strong leaders. today i am honored to introduce one such leader to you, secretary of education arne duncan joined when the program was announced. he spoke for all of us when he said education is the most pressing issue facing america. he has worked to address that issue and help put america in a

race to the top. thank you, secretary duncan, for all your doing to help this country return to the global leader in education. please join me in welcoming arne duncan. [applause] >> good morning. reba, thank you so much for that kind introduction. target's been a fantastic, fantastic partner. they absolutely walk the walk. i appreciate everything you're doing to change children's lives around the country. i also want to give a quick shout out to bob belfanz and john bridgeland. to identify and promote solutions. please give them a round of across -- applause. [applause] this morning i want to provide

a preliminary progress report on our school improvement grants or what's known as our sig program. it seeks to accelerate the achievement in the schools. leaders, teachers, unions, and local partners in the community undertake this challenging work. we are seeing some encouraging signs of progress in this first year of data from are six schools, which few anticipated. before i talk about that data, i want to put in context what we are seeing. the starting premise for the program is self-evident. the united states cannot meaningfully boost graduation rates and promise education without ending the cycle of failure in our low performing schools. tragically,