we are spending that money now based on of the decision that came through the bill but we are going to need to give financial support because we have a big job to do. again, we are not involved in health policy. we are involved in moving the money to make the law work. >> thank you. >> next, a tea party to repeal the health care law. then secretary arne duncan>> one court begins three days of oral argument challenging the constitutionality of the health care law. justices will cover a number of issues. tea party activist held a party in support of repealing the law. speakers included former republican presidential candidate herman cain, the virginia attorney general, and

brent bozell. this is just over two hours. >> my fellow defenders of liberty, let me be brief and clear. obamacare is a manifestation of the president's wooden-headed idea that health care decisions can be better made by government bureaucrats than you and me. better left to the states than to the individual. obamacare expands the organized

power of the state and robs individuals and families of making decisions for themselves. obamacare is a clear and present danger. [applause] today we rededicate ourselves to defend liberty. today we pledge to stand up for liberty. to speak up for liberty. to pray for liberty. to rip up obamacare for liberty. god bless you. take a stand. [applause]

>> thank you ken blackwell. let's do a little chat, how about it. repeal the law law. -- repeal the law. [chanting "repeal the law"] all right. next we have got from the media research center, he what did the liberal media and lets us know what they are doing, but brent bozell -- brett bozell. [applause] >> look, mr. president, no

teleprompter. i was asked to rip this thing up when i am it done. i feel like doing it now. i have a couple of comments for the president. i want him to understand something he said before he was elected president -- he said that the problem with the constitution is not what it tells you you can do, it does not tell you what you cannot do. i have a message for our constitutional scholar -- yes, it does. next week, the court is going to be taking up the obamacare issue. elena kagan should be taking a vacation. in the yvette the court loses

its mind on this one, let's look at things from a different angle. who here believe this administration when they said it was going to cost $900 million a year? who here was surprised when we learned it was up to $12.70 trillion a year? who here believed this administration when nancy pelosi, when harry reid, when barack obama, when everyone of these liberals look at the american people and pledged that we were going to save $2,500 a year? who believed that? is anyone surprised it has gone up $2,200 per person? is the thing called democracy. think about this.

they threw everything and the kitchen sink. it passed in a bipartisan fashion from their standpoint. bipartisan means they got everything, we got nothing. the day after it passed, what did the president do? he went on the road to sell it. wait a minute. if you had the support, why are you selling it after you won? the american people are not buying it. i have to wrap up some more of this. -- rip up some more of this. it has been two years. more people than ever before are opposed to this. where do we stand? nobody wanted it. it is not constitutional. mr. president, get rid of this stupid bill. what does he do instead? instead he comes out with a mandate. let me tell you something -- i am speaking here as a catholic

and an american. this president came out with a mandate and he ordered me as an employer to fund some oone's abortion, or as an employee, to put up the money for it. mr. president, i will get around that stupid law, but if i cannot get around that stupid law, here at i am bring out the handcuffs, because they are going to have to arrest me a [applause] -- arrest me. [applause] ladies and gentleman, destroy this bill. destroy this law. thank you. >> next up is dr. john whitley from north carolina. please put your hands together. [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, our

founding fathers are crying today for the abomination that is occurring in this country. bear with me. it is absolutely a wonderful day to be here in the united states of america on the ground of the u.s. capitol exercising our first amendment rights guaranteed by our constitution. [applause] amen. let our voices be heard all over this country, especially to the people over here who are going to hear this case next week, that we are serious about our country. we are serious about our liberty. this case comes down simply to liberty versus tyranny, democracy versus socialism. [no audio]

i spent a lot of money getting my education and i will not have any government tell me how i am it going to treat my patients. [applause] i would also like to add that i am from the great state of north carolina, the state which i hope and pray it will halt the reelection of the guy that lives down the street in the big white house. i want you to note that i speak not only for myself, but for literally hundreds of thousands of other of physicians and health care professionals that we absolutely sacrifice our life to provide the best possible care that we can pour each and everyone of you. as rush limbaugh would say, do not doubt meet what i am about to say, listen to me clearly. if obamacare is not repealed in its entirety, not just

individual mandates, which is getting most of the press -- there is a lot of bad in this bill -- i can tell you what is to happen. private medical practitioners will cease to exist in this country. all physicians will become employed. they will be under the direction of government insurance players. the other thing that will happen is private health insurance companies will not exist. the confidentiality of your health records, your personal health and folk -- this is very serious -- will be forever stored on government computers to be analyzed, accept, and scrutinized by who knows whom. trust me, this will happen. i saved the best our last. if it is not repealed and we have universal, socialized health care in this country, it will actually be medicaid for all of us, including the

wealthy. physicians and health care professionals all across this great country are upset and angry at this unconstitutional takeover of our health care system. the obama administration, in my opinion, is an anti-democratic administration. i would like to leave you with this. it is my body, it is my health, and it should be my choice. [applause] to those individuals who are truly proponents of socialized health care, let me direct this statement to you -- leave me, my body, and my doctor the hell alone. i would also like to remind you that two years ago yesterday, this president and his progressive administration took the unbelievable step of marching us further into socialism. never in the history of these united states has a commander in

chief duly elected by the people made such a historic move towards socialism. i am very heartened to look out among this group despite the rain, and i am absolutely stoked that the freedom-loving americans are here in numbers and you will go forth from this place and echo the sentiments you heard here about liberty, freedom, and say no to tyranny. [applause] as i finished up, to the supreme court, including justice taken, who absolutely should recuse herself from this case, but we all know will not -- hear us loudly -- we will not be silenced. we are not going to go away. we are going to continue to fight for our democracy, our

republic, and for our constitution. there have been too many sacrifices, too much blood shed to not make this fight. it has been an honor to stand up here for a few minutes and talk to you about my love, my profession, and what this government is trying to do. i live every day, i work in this environment, and i can tell you as someone in the trenches that the health care you have now will never be any better than it is today if this law is not repealed and that truly is the way. the last thing i will say is what the soviet union and its mighty army could not do, the signatures of these judges on a simple piece of paper can do -- put us further down the road of socialism and away from our democratic republic. to my god and every man and woman and child here today, i beseech you go fourth, let your

voice be heard loud and clear. the constitution is a living document that we all believe in. the words are simple. they are not complicated. you have to believe and the constitution. it has helped us become the mightiest country on the planet. it is not time to veer away from it. god bless america. god bless all you great patriots. thank you so much. [applause] whitley.you, a doctor quickdocr this is from a man who is been standing by us, fighting throughout this entire thing. he missed his son's wedding so we could vote no on this bill. he had to miss today. he had to be back in the district form his district. i have a message from "steve cain. [applause]

"i want to thank all of you for coming here today to take part in the "road to repeal rally." we have travelled a long road together, but it is a journey we have been compelled without choice to undertake. for many of you, today's trip to washington was not a new pilgrimage. many of you have been coming to this capital to fight this battle for several years." how many of you have been doing that? [applause] everyone of you. "we stood together on these grounds and fought obamacare in the fall of 2009 when it was first brought to the house floor and we did it again two years ago when nancy pelosi, harry reid, and president obama used parliament terry gimmicks to force it through congress and enacted through law. after obamacare was signed into

law, we joined together in a new fight -- the fight for complete, 100% repealed. [applause] in the run-up to the 2010 election, we worked hard to ensure repeal would be the central theme of the national referendum. with your help, we rallied to support a house republican committee, calling for a house vote on legislation to repeal obamacare. that became an important tool in the 2010 election. it clearly defined who was for repeal and who was not. it helped draw american to the polls in 2010. it helped bring about a republican majority in the house. [applause] but our work does not stop there. at the beginning of last year,

we worked together to bring my repeal language to a vote in a republican-controlled house where it passed overwhelmingly. with your help, we sent the same language to the senate where every republican senator voted to repeal to pull out obamacare by its roots. this weekend, we are approaching a new band in the road to appeal as the supreme court takes up the case. we know no matter what the court decides our mission will remain the same -- continue the work necessary to bring about a couple legislative repeal of obamacare as if this act had never been enacted. [applause] the american people have rejected this government takeover of their health care. americans know that obamacare infringes on our liberty and they know the price tag is unsustainable.

every day brings new revelations about its skyrocketing costs and it's overstated coverage provisions. the american people continue to speak out against obamacare's individual mandate, its attack on first amendment, just protection, and its multi- trillion dollar price tag. obamacare is one massive in the promise and it must be repealed. [applause] ipad thank you for answering the call to be here today, just add you have done so many times in the past. i am committed to making sure this is the second anniversary of obamacare's passage is the last and i know by your presence here today that you are as well. i look forward to continuing this journey with you, the tea party patriots and constitutional conservatives everywhere, down the road to

appeal -- repeal. together, we will repeal obamacare." [applause] >> , we have an incredible speaker. she is a patriot and citizen just like you. sonnie johnson from virginia. [applause] >> hello. you know how important this is. i am out in the rain, so forgive me for what i might look like. so. all right. i always like to take a minute to reflect. we need to think back on what we have learned and the lessons we have been taught and see how far we have to go. what have we learned? we learned why obama bought it

was so important that 26-year- old stay on their parent's insurance. in his economy, there are no jobs for them to buy their own, but it also leaves them the time and energy to go and find something to occupy. we learned that obama cares, not about us, but about his union friends that contributed to his campaign and helped him get elected. can i say waiver, anyone? we learned that when nancy pelosi said that we had to pass a bill to find out what was in it, she was talking to sebelius and hhs because they make up the rules as they go, or may be the cbo at a fine a billion dollars here or $8 billion there. what is $1 trillion between friends? it is not like they have to

write a budget or anything like that. [applause] we found out that most of congress do not even read the bills that they pass nor do they read the constitution they have sworn to uphold. you know that pesky little freedom of religion and those pesky little americans that hold on to their faith rather than free stuff. what is wrong with them? we have learned that they will hide their socialistic agenda at behind a single individual and they will call it a "war on women," but since i do not play their game, we would just ignore it. we have learned their tactics. they thought we would not see through the fog and

distractions. they thought that they could pass this bill and we would disappear, their names and faces would be etched into the history books, and we would be so happy that our benevolent government left us with free things. they were wrong. [applause] we decided that we would teach them a few of our lessons. so we taught an overbearing, over zealous big government that we the people still exist. [applause] and since they do not want to read the constitution, we figured we would kind of help them out and we peacefully assembled and we demanded that the government redress our grievances. but we did not stop there.

we reminded them there was a thing called the 10th amendment and 26 states stood up and took their grievances to the supreme court and we will get a ruling on that very soon. [applause] we reminded nancy pelosi that she can skydived -- she cannot skydive into our personal lives, but we can pole vault are right back out. no more speaker of the house. we showed the vice-president joe biden that it is a big f'ing deal. not because he said so, but because we said so. we care about our liberty, our freedom, our children, their future, this country, and we will not sit down, shut up, and take our place. [applause]

we showed at the big government our tactics. we organized. we ignored the mainstream media and we occupied the voting booth. [applause] in 2010, we handed big government, shall i call it a shellacking -- but we are not finished yet. neither are they. they want a single-payer system. if we do not repealed this bill, they will force every business out of health care until they get what they want. they do not mind at the small steps of progress. we must introduce them to the roadblock of liberty and say not another step. [applause] we must introduce them to the

roadblock of fiscal sanity and say not another $1 trillion. we will introduce them to the road block of we the people and say do not tread on me. [applause] we must stick to our tactics and not play their games. that means that we are going to maintain the house, we are going to capture the senate, and we are going to put someone new into the white house. [applause] repeal the bill. [applause] >> great job. thank you, thank you.

she is awesome. i will stand next to her every day and say not another step, do not tread on me. [applause] far those of you who were here two years ago, we had a few people who handled our megaphones and chanted and mate -- make sure to help you and support you all day long on that saturday at they were preparing the vote, all day long on sunday until nearly midnight when they voted. one of those people was mark herr from memphis, tennessee. mark. [applause] eitbart.rt andrew bright bar [applause] king george ignored at the

british colonists and it resulted in a self-governing society, a new form of government. james madison captured it best when he said these political institutions that we established we established in mankind's capacity for government. that is the heart of our struggle. those who want to centralize power over there at the white house and here at the capitol building and over there at the supreme court -- we just want to govern ourselves and be left alone. so this government ruined health care, deformed, reformed to let paper of a bill -- toilet paper

of a bill is the result of their action. to the legislative branch in article roman one of the u.s. constitution, we say repeal this bill. [applause] to the executive branch by an article ii, we will remember in november. to the judicial branch and article iii, opine against this bill. to the states in article iv, stand-up, grow a pair, exercise your power. [applause] your power in the 10th amendment.

do it. and to "we the people," the whole constitution is yours. but here is the thing -- you have to stand up. you have to tell your federal delegation from your state repeal this bill now. [applause] it does not stop there. you need to tell them to give back all of the usurped power that they have taken out of your hands. [applause] you have to go back and tell the executive branch go home. replace him. [applause] go back to the judicial branch and tell them to opine against

this bill, but tell them to stop legislating from the bench. stop assuming that you can overrule things. make your opinions and let us decide. and to the states, go back there and tell them to start exercising their power. get off the federal crack dollars. take back policy and give it to the citizens of the united states of america. [applause] and to your federal project fellow citizens, it is critical for you to learn what self- is and petrarchce federal project your fellow citizens to preserve it self- governance. as for me, give me self- governance or give me

guantanamo bay. god bless a self-governing america. god bless we the people. thank you very much. [applause] >> mark herr will be here with us through the duration of this week, so you can hear more from him on monday, tuesday, and wednesday in front of the supreme court. while we are in front of the supreme court, there are a few people in america who have taken this law to the courts and have been fighting for us. one of these people is the attorney general from va, ken kuccinelli.l >> good afternoon.

[applause] you know, that is exactly what it sounds like when i go into the "washington post." maybe not quite like that. yesterday was the second anniversary of the president signing this bill. that is the bad news spread the good news is yet today was the 237th anniversary of patrick henry's "give me liberty, or give me death" speech. he gave that speech at st. john's church in richmond. that is in virginia. [laughter] on broad street in richmond. two years ago yesterday, 17 blocks west on the same street

is where we filed the first lawsuit by any state that got the individual mandate declared unconstitutional. [applause] now many of you remember reading about that earthquake we had in virginia last august. we do not have a lot of those in virginia. that was right near lot hillyer -- montpellier, so basically what happened was james madison was turning over in his grave. hopefully the supreme court will put him back right in june. this will be a dramatic week and then we will wait three months to see if we still have a limited government with enumerated powers or not. that is what we are waiting on. i will tell you here today that whatever the outcome of that, the battle for the principles that are at stake in this case

will go on in these elections this year. they will go on this year. we all have for the hyperbole in elections, but i think i can make the case that you will never lived through a more important election than this year. ever. [applause] if you ever pick a year to lead it all on the field, 2012 is the year. [applause] in 2010, this health care issue helped propel more constitutional conservatives into the house of representatives than ever before. ever before. so we have sent reinforcements to the right side, now we need to take out the other side and move them right out of the white house. move them right out of the white house. get senator dement, congressman payne, and all of the good

folks some reinforcements and take our country back. and take our constitution back. [applause] it means what dr. seuss on the constitution -- it means what it says and it says what it means. that is right. in virginia, we have a senate race. we are ground zero but the presidential race. we will be fighting all the way through. one of the things i did with my colleagues you will appreciate. we catalog. the one of the violations of the law by this president and his administration. i said then and it has been completely unchallenged by the left, which is interesting, that he and this administration represent the greatest set of lawbreakers ever to run the federal government in our lifetime.

[applause] the rule of law itself is at stake. are we going to be a government of men or laws? we will find out in november. i know who patrick henry and james madison are rooting for. did i mention they were virginians? [laughter] in case any of you have forgotten that small point. i am so glad to see you all weathering the weather. what i want you to do is go home and push like you have never done before for seven more months and we can take this country back. we can take congress back. we can get our constitution back, something the founders would be proud of. this constitution matters. god bless all of you. thank you very much. [applause]

>> constitution matters. next up is the coast of the doctor gina show. please put your hands together for dr. gina loudon. [applause] >> we already knew this, but i think today proves that our god reigns. i think he is raining on obama's parade today, what do you think about that? i was researching to talk to you today. you all have been so amazing, standing here keeping your cheer on. i came across some great stuff on obamacare that i had never thought of. they say we have to repeal the whole bill, we are not kidding

when you take it to its end, you know that our foundational documents were founded on the- freedoms, meaning freedom from government, not freedom to have a new car, freedom to have a new outfit, freedom to have health care -- that is not a right. the government does not seem to understand that. if you think about our bill of rights for a moment, the alexandria tea party -- anybody here from alexandria today? they have a great piece on this. you should check it out. this is where i got it. this is what you have to think about now. if this government is going to tell you that you have to have the freedom of insurance, a positive right, not as our founders intended at all -- what happens to our bill of rights?

now instead of the right to keep and bear arms, you suddenly have to keep and bear arms. can you imagine the kind of guy in this era is going to force all of us to buy? water guns? bb guns? it would be disastrous. secondly -- think about the right of free assembly, the right to worship do you want to worship and to go to church. can you imagine if this government, if this administration decided to mandate? you not only have to go to church, but they are going to tell you where you have to go to church. i have a feeling we would all be wright's jeremiah rig church and calling him pastor. this could get a little bit fine if you want to think about this for a moment brigid what if conservatives were in charge but we still had obamacare? when you have sandra fluke and

she wants her to $3,000 worth of abortion pills -- how about this? how about we decide that sandra fluke is to try a different kind of birth control and it will be mandated by you? how about a little abstinence ms. fluke? [applause] do not need a law degree to figure all this out, do we? how many of you -- anybody out here -- loves somebody with down's syndrome? congratulations to everyone of you. you know what i am talking about. this is national down syndrome awareness day this week. i happen to be a blessed mother of a guy i adopted who has down syndrome. his name is samuel. he is what i think about every single time i think about the

nerve of this government to tell me how i get to be a mother. when i went to adopt him they said you need to come fast. he is dying. he was 10-days old. he had 10 different diagnoses, including down's syndrome. i was trying to adopt a child with down syndrome. 90% of them are aborted. they said he has all these problems. he is on a feeding tube. he needs all the surgery. he has a heart, lung, and hip problem. i was overwhelmed. i was pregnant with my fourth day burke -- fourth baby. these are all the interventions we want to take with your baby. no one had ever held this baby. i said, "can i just told him for a couple of days?" let me tell you what happened when i held that babies with down's syndrome who had all of these problems.

every single one of those problems when the baby was held for two days were gone. [applause] praise the lord for that. under obamacare, they may mandate my child needed to be rock and held by some machine. i would be forbidden to say i do not want your intervention, let me hold him and see it that might solve the problem. we will not stand for this. we will not have any more of it. there is a reason for that. we are the land of the free and we are the home of the brave. i want you to -- it will be so funny when we leave. they will think the occupiers were here with all this paper. you will pick it up. i know you. we are the land and the free and the home of the brave, but we will say it loud enough they can hear it and it will still echo next week in the supreme court

building. we are the land of the free and the home of the brave. do not ever forget it. thank you and god bless you. [applause] >> thank you, dr. gina. how many of you have seen the are theyabee ads delivered 2 million sign petitions to congress saying repealed the bill now? we have the gentleman who helped behind the scenes on that. he is also the founder of a "restore america's voice foundation." ken. >> thank you. before i talk about obamacare for just a moment, i want to talk about you. you are out here in the rain.

do you know what? someone else talked about people like you. it dates from 1776. it is the only thing i have written because i do not want to get his words wrong. "these are the times that try men's souls. the summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country. but he who stands it now deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. thank you." thank you are coming out here. thomas paine, 1776. [applause] you are not coming to fight when the sun is out and the weather is fine. it is too important what is. to happen to our country. at the very heart of our grand experiment in liberty is a

simple and noble idea that was unheard of in the history of the world. no law can be enacted without the permission of the people who will live under that law. it is called "consent of the government." [applause] it is the bedrock principle along which our entire experiment in government is built. yet nancy pelosi and harry reid and barack obama knew that the american people had rejected a takeover of a fifth of our economy with obamacare and they did it anyway. when they did that, they crumpled up the very heart of our system of government. that court over there is looking at the constitutional questions about obamacare. i will tell you all right now that no matter what they

decide, they are not looking broadly enough. does the commerce clause all-out mandatory participation in this bill? no, it does not. whether they say it does or not, will we allow our elected representatives to ignore and treat with contempt consent of the government? note. -- no. the rest of the bill of rights, the first amendment, allows freedom of speech so we can decide what we want and do not want in our loss. freedom of assembly so we can get together and organize for or against the proposals that are before us. the second amendment so we make sure we have a bulwark against the government reneging on our rights. all of that requires us to be the most active citizens that the country has seen in 100

years. this is the worst law, the most interested law to have passed our congress since the income tax. the income-tax was promised as only taxing the rich, it would not touch the rest of us. ever since it was passed, the federal government has gained so much power that now they routinely sneer at the rights of states with the power of the purse. it is not only attacked the rich, it was passed the same way this health care legislation was. i will not call it a set protection and affordable care act because it is the opposite. it was passed as the same kind of lies we have heard now. lie after lie and i will tell you that no democrat want to defend it anymore. that is why we must bring it up at every campaign stop, every appearance, every town hall

meeting. what about obamacare? let us hear your justification. thank you. [applause] >> next up, ladies and gentleman, congressman and a doctor, dan ballot check from michigan. -- bellichek from michigan. [applause] >> it is my great privilege to be with you all here today. i am a general surgeon. two years ago at this time i was taking care of patients back in michigan. i was wondering what this new law was going to do to my patients and my fellow doctors. the american people never wanted this law. we fought at town hall meetings. we ranked capital phones off the hook.

the administration put this bill through congress. my predecessor in my district, mr. stupak, cast the deciding vote. i was lucky enough to get the support of my fellow citizens and i am pledged to repeal this law. i voted for a full repeal. i will continue to fight this law as long as i am here. i thought it was a bad idea two years ago and i know it is a bad idea today. the administration made a lot of promises when they were trying to sell this law. today it is evident that this law is bad medicine for america. the administration claimed you could keep your own health plan and your own doctors. you cannot. they claimed it would create jobs and it did not. the a minister and -- the administration claimed it would lower cost. to sum it up, the bill for all

american taxpayers is rising. regulations are increasing and insurance premiums are skyrocketing. i am not sure which part of this bill is affordable, but i have not found it yet. in the house, we passed a full repeal of the health care law and have voted to repeal or defund parts of it 25 times. unfortunately, the senate keeps blocking these actions. this week, the house votes to repeal the health care law under the most onerous of advisory boards. pickedent obama's hand- board of medicare russian ears. -- rationers. this week in the supreme court, they will decide whether or not the individual mandate is constitutional. the supreme court does not really decide what is constitutional.

we all decide what is constitutional. i took an oath of office. everett one of our elected officials -- everyone of our elected officials took an oath to preserve, protect, and defend the constitution. mr. pandit that, nancy pelosi -- please read it so you know what is in it -- mr. president, and if the policy -- please read it so you know what is in it. our work is not done. the 2010 tea party patriots helped conservatives get elected to the house of representatives. just think what would have happened if the democrats would have controlled the house for the last two years. just think of the further progression of the socialist agenda mr. obama would have had. we need to work as hard in 2012 as we did in 2010. why? we might run up against a wall

fighting for the constitution. we need to get the senate and we need to get a change in the white house. let's get out there and do our work, work hard to win in 2012. repeal of this bill -- repeal this bill. [applause] [chanting "repeal this bill"] >> i am going to sing a little song that i wrote and performed back at the tax based in seattle. it has been three years, so i might not remember the word. i have really bad and rhythm, so if you could not clap with me because you get me off a beat and i will not be able to get

back on track. please refrain from clapping along with me. here we go. ♪ obama won't you buy me a mercedes-benz, the rest all dry porches, i must make amends. me a won't you buy mercedes-benz. obama won't you buy me a digital tv eye and do not have a coupon, i need it for free your face i will not see aama, won't you buy me digital tv obama, will you bring my mortgage rate down padlocks all around my home town prove that you love me and spread the wealth around

obama, will you bring my mortgage rate down obama, what you buy me a mercedes-benz the rest all drive porches, you must make amends it is not fair that i am broke obama will you buy me a mercedes-benz ♪ [applause] i am going to embarrass you. that did it. >> that was kelly from our support team. she is from washington. how many of you know that she is on msnbc? kelli had the first protest 72

hours [no audio] thanks for being a trailblazer. [applause] next, from heritage action, we have and nathaniel yellis. [applause] >> i am doing a little art project. can you hold this for me? you do not mind, do you? this is an improvement to obamacare. >> all right. [applause] >> repeal obamacare. [applause] >> perfect. >> i am going to tell you a story. 2010, obamacare is passed into law. republicans over here, conservatives over here -- what

are we going to do? we have been vanquished? they have 60 votes in the senate. what are we going to do? heritage action -- we sat everyone down and said "we need to repeal this entire bill." [applause] some of our friends or a little afraid, but, thankfully, where preventative steve king, michele bachmann, they introduced bills to repeal obamacare. we said that is not enough. now we need a discharge petition. we got signature after signature on that discharge petition across the republican conference and the house of representatives. then we said now, you blue dogs, you voted against obamacare and said you opposed it. now we are going to hold your feet to the fire. sign our discharge petition we

e-mail. we got e-mail's back. we said tell your members of congress and tell them to sign the discharge petition, especially if they said they are opposed to it. when you make a phone call and you said the report, i get to read it. late last night i would do my job reading call reports. about 8:30, one of our friends in wilmington, north carolina, called up his blue dog democrat. no staffers are keeping the lights on at 8:30 at night. do you know who was in the office when our friend from wilmington called? mike mcintyre. he got congressman mcintyre on the phone. he said, "mike, you opposed obamacare, right?"

our friends said "why are you not on the discharge petition?" click. called back, no answer. called back, no answer. that it the hard work of accountability. calling these guys, holding their feet to the fire. you are standing here getting rained on, but you need to get plugged in to heritage action. plug in somewhere where they can tell you now at the time to make a phone call. if we are not making those phone calls, e-mail's, they do not know it and they will not make the right choice unless we hold them accountable. you are here, you are doing the right thing. keep holding them accountable. do you know what we will do? we will repeal obamacare. [applause]

>> seniors are going to be very affected by this law and everyone of us will eventually be a senior, so we are all going to be affected by this. next, jim martin. [applause] >> no, it is not ted. thank you to the tea party patriots for organizing this. i am jim martin. i am chairman of the 60-plus association representing over 60 million senior citizens. [applause] >> seasoned citizens, as somebody said.

for 20 years, we have been the conservative alternative to the liberal aarp, the group that puts its arms around the president and gave him political coverage by endorsing obama- care. aarp likes to tout harry belafonte. he is so far to the left he makes president obama look conservative. pat boone likes to tout his friendship with ronald reagan. aarp -- the association against retired persons they say they are a listening tour, but did date -- did they listen to the voices of millions of lives? now, they did not care if they turned their hearing aids off. if they turn their backs on us. what their reward was was an obama-care waiver. i am here to demand you give america's seniors, all americans, a life time waiver from obama-care.

[applause] look, we know that is not going to happen, so we are taking matters into our own hands. the people are speaking loud and clear. thank you for your efforts. obama-care is on life support. it is our job to pull the plug. it is bad medicine. it is hazardous to our health. you know, it is the biggest threat to our house that has ever been enacted. i have been here for 50 years. i would like to remind many of the seniors, two years ago 60 + predicted there would be a senior citizen tsunami headed toward capitol hill carry a lot of pro-obama-care folks would have to be updating their resin is. -- resumes. there was one person reaching their resins' -- their resumes. nancy pelosi.

she called you unamerican for opposing this bill. [booing] >> well, let me tell you something. that is exactly what happened in 201060 members have to update their resumes -- 2010. 60 members had to update their resumes. 2012 will not be different. a second senior tsunami is on its way. dozens more are about to get a one-which ticket back home. [applause] , including one noteworthy person that will be headed back to chicago. [applause] >> fellow patriots, the 60 plus association so lose you on behalf of the fight for liberty of future generations.

can we repeal obama-care? yes, we can. not only we can, but we will. keep up the fight. thank you. [applause] >> thank you, jim martin. next, we have a doctor who is from -- i do not know where she is from. it is dr. marcy cooke. >> and virginia. [laughter] >> thank you. is a thrill to speak to you. more than two years ago i was here on 9/12/09 and i marched with you in washington, d.c., and i stand with you here again facing one of the most crucial moments in american history. i have read the affordable care act.

i have read it three times. just to be sure. i can tell you the essence of this lot is about losing our freedom. as a citizen, it is an individual -- here is the individual mandate is deemed constitutional, there is no limit to what the government can tell us to give. as a doctor and as a patient, because we are all ultimately patients, many other freedoms are taken away. the cornerstone of great medicine in america is the doctor-patient relationship. your doctor, with his rigorous training, years of experience, guided by sound research, based on medical principles, blinded by that the credit oath to do no harm is led to do everything in his power to diagnose and

treat you to the best of his ability with only your medical welfare as his goal. your doctor brings all of this into the exam room, where you and he together determine the best course of action. this law threatens all of that. theresa's made by your doctor based on -- choices made by your doctor based on sound medical principles and choices made by you based on your doctors and vice and personal preferences will be replaced by a group of unelected bureaucrats handing down diagnostic and treatment protocols to your doctor based on consideration as to whether your life is worth the cost of those diagnostics or treatments. your doctor's hands will be tied. he will have to follow these protocols. if he does not, his very ability to practice medicine will be threatened, and how will these bureaucrats know what

happens in the privacy of your doctor's office? because it will no longer be private. electronic medical records will allow superhighway of your medical information directly to the government. if this lot is fully implemented, you're right to choose your medical care will be demolished. you're right to keep your medicare premedical care private will be demolished. -- your medical care will be demolished. do we want to lose our right to choose, our right to privacy? is this what we want for our country? >> no. >> why have we been working so hard since the passage of this law? why are we all here today? we are here to make sure that

the individual mandate to purchase a government-approved one-size-fits-all insurance is struck down from a lot, and with it, the entire law. [applause] >> a law that will take away our freedom to choose our medical care, decrease the quality of our care, and bankrupt this country. we are also here to make sure that beyond 2012, new leadership will work towards replacing this law with real solutions to their real problems of health care to carry -- to the real problems of health care. [applause] >> we, the people, guiding our government -- that is what makes our country great. we are the physician and boots on the ground, fighting to

protect the doctor-patient relationship. we are here to protect your freedom of choice. at docs 4 patient care we are here to protect your medical privacy. we will work together to make this happen and keep our country strong. thank you. [applause] >> thank you. now, from american's senior association in my hometown of atlanta, phil. [applause] >> it is good to see everybody out here. thank you for coming out. i am with the american seniors association. which are on the other conservative alternative to the aarp. it was good to see my friend jim martin. we stand with them in opposing

obama-care. we stand with you in opposing obama-care. we hold our members, 13 million strong, and 98% oppose obama- care. do you believe -- agree with them? i do not know what was wrong with the other 2%, but anyhow. why is it that under this social regime they gave out waivers to different left-wing labor bosses, their friends, the aarp? what was that about? if you have to give waivers out, it is a bad law. there are also 20 different taxes in the slot. it is an outrage. we have a tax on monday makers of medical device makers, -- attacks on the medical device makers. the costs go up, they will pass that along to the consumer. there are many, many reasons, is you heard from previous

speakers why we have to stop this expensive and tyrannical law. let's hope the supreme court justices do the right thing and realize it is unconstitutional to force anyone to have insurance or be fined if you do not do it. it is on american. how many of you would have fought over the last three years we saw our private enterprise system, before our very eyes, dismantle, which-by-week, month-by-month period is that we do what? >>no. >> let me tell you something about the left-wing aarp. they have betrayed not just their membership and seniors, but everyone. they were shameless cheered

bidders for obama. what was that about? -- cheerleaders for obama? what was that about? they stab you in the back, seniors. if you forget everything else i say, pair up your aarp cards. do not support them. we are not the aarp. we are the next aarp. we are the american seniors association. join us. check us out. keep up the fight, go back to your home towns. keep fighting. keep the faith. god bless. >> next up is a patriot that i have known since almost the beginning from the constitutional tea party and virginia. >> thank you, kelly. we love you. thank god for you. i think god for each one of you here. i spent 15 years in the former soviet union not only smuggling

bibles, but smuggling medicines. it was the worst of the worst for socialized medicine, so i had then there, i have seen it, and i have lived it. i want you to know that we need to stand strong, be encouraged. join hands with one another. call members of congress that are on our side reaching those in the tea party coalition, -- those in the tea party coalition. follow them down the road to repeal. what do we want to go to, the road to -- >> retail. >> join us. every day i will be there tomorrow. members of the tea party patriots, people from across the nation, if you can not be there, god bless you. you can at least be in prayer. pray for our country. i will lift up my nice to the hills from whence come as our

help. god will always be with us. never give up. love one another. also, virginia has a great up- and-coming governor, ken cuccinelli, who was here today. get him in office. god bless you all. repeal. >> thank you, rita grace. next, it is herman cain. [applause] [applause] >> thank you. thank you.

thank you. >> thank you. thank you. >> you guys are great. you know, -- >> you were railroaded. >> you are right. you know, the liberals and the establishment they thought that because of a few raindrops you were going to stay home today. i was in harrisburg this morning for a speech. i was in north carolina yesterday for a speech. i was in nevada last week. i have been across this country and traveling, wanting to get here to be here with you, to deliver a message to the people

in washington, d.c., and to deliver a message to obama and his administration -- we the people are here. we want our freedom back. [applause] >> this is about freedom. we want our freedom back. that is what this is about. it is the freedom to choose our own doctors, the freedom to choose our own health providers, freedom to choose our own treatment, freedom to choose our own health insurance plan -- this is not just about the repeal of obama-care, which it

is, but this is about getting our freedom back to just being free to make our own decisions with our lives. [applause] >> in 2006, if obama-care had been in full effect, i would not be here today. many of you would not be here today. in 2006, i was diagnosed with stage four cancer. i had cancer in my colon and i had cancer in my liver.

my surgeon, when i asked, well, and what kind of chances do you give me, he said based upon statistics, you have about a 30% chance of survival. i said that means i have a 70% chance of dying. he said yes. i said first of all, since i can choose, i choose to be in the 30% of survival. [applause] >> now, imagine if a bureaucrat and got a report on their desk trying to decide if i should be approved by surgery, my chemotherapy, and they saw that

this guy, herman cain, who they do not know, but just see a name on a piece of paper, if they were to say he has a 30% chance of survival, i do not think the government wants to pay for his surgery and his chemotherapy. that is what obama-care would do to you and me. that is we -- repeal it. [applause] >> this is about freedom. freedom of choice -- the first message i want you to take home with you and keep it in your heart because we have a lot of work to do is that we are here, we are still in charge, we want our freedom back, it starts with the repeal of obama-care, and we will repeal a whole lot of other things also. [applause]

>> as i said, i have been traveling from sea to site -- from sea to shining sea for over the last year, and even though my quest for the position of president was derailed -- you are not booing me, are you? [laughter] >> even though my quest for the position of president was derailed, i want you to know i am still on a mission, a mission to maintain control of congress, to gain control of the senate, and send barack obama back home. [applause]

>> that is our mission. that is our mission. [applause] >> one of the things that i hear from some people -- a question i am often asked from sea to shining sea, by too many people, "can we defeat barack obama?" >> yes we can. >> i say to them -- [chanting] yes we can guess we can >> i have another one for you. yes we will defeat barack obama. >> [chanting] yes we will

>> here is why. the american people are divided into two groups. you have the patriots like yourself -- you have the patriots and the citizens that know what is going on, and you have the other groups that i call the clueless. yes. it is costs against the clueless, and the good news is there is more of ross then there are of them. -- us against the clueless, and the good news is there is more of us than there are of them, and because there are more of us than them -- by the way, do you think this many clueless would come out in the rain?

i do not think so. it might mess up their weave. you are the patriots. we are the real patriots that care about this country. we know what is going on. we know they are trying to take away our freedom. we are here to make the statement that we want our freedom back, and we are going to get our freedom back in november at the ballot box. [applause] >> and finally, yes, we know we need to repeal this terrible bill, and i believe that it will get repealed because of the american people, because just like when the founding fathers started this great country, they had three basic ideals that helped to inspire this nation. life, liberty and pursuit of

happiness -- that is why we are all here. life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness -- and you see, the founding fathers had the foresight and wisdom to foresee that we might have had something like obama-care shoved down our throats. the provision been made in the declaration of independence, when you get past life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, and if you keep on reading, it says, with any form of government becomes destructive of those ideas, it is their right of the people to alter or abolish it. we have some altering and abolishing to do. abolish obama-care. abolish obama-care.

[applause] >> we are going to alter the occupying of the white house come november. so, i say to all of you, because the mainstream media and the liberals -- are you all booing me? [laughter] >> they want you to believe that we cannot do this, and i'm here to tell you, state inspired. state inspired that we can do this -- stagy inspired. stay inspired that we will repeal obama-care. stay inspired the we will change washington, d.c., and i want you to stay inspired with the spirit of the bumblebee.

d.c., when i was in college, i learned -- you see, when i was in college, i learned that the bumblebee is not supposed to fly. you and i know that the bumblebee flys. he will see some this spring. we know that the bumblebee fries -- flies because we have seen it. i was in mathematics and physics major. we started that if you take equations of motion and you measure the caribbean and the parameters of the bumblebee reaching the aerodynamics parameters of the bomb but -- the aerodynamics parameters of the bumblebee, that little flat body, the computer comes back and says the soccer cannot fly. -- sucker cannot fly. we thought we made a mistake, so we got some more help was little bumblebees, put them in a bigger computer, a faster computer, and ran it through the equations of

motion, and it was supposed to say the bumblebee could fly, and it came back and said the sucker still can't fly. there is only one reason the bumblebee flies. the bumble bee believes it can fly. believe we can repeal obama- care. believe we will defeat barack obama in november. god bless you. [applause]

>> we are going to repeal it. yes we well. -- will. next, guy benson. >> you know, i am so lucky. i get to go directly after a very dull, uninspiring, flow- profile speaker. thank you -- low-profile speaker. thank you -- thank you for staying. we affirm persuasive arguments that obama-care is bad medicine. we -- it is. we have heard that is bad economics. it is. we have heard it is bad law. it is. this law is also something else. obama-care it is indisputably bad politics for the democrats.

yesterday was the two-year anniversary. the president did not give a speech about his big accomplishment. that is not an accident. the white house knows full well above the number of things. there is a new study out reported in "the washington post" which concludes the 2010 election was lost for democrats because of obama-care. nancy pelosi have bedeviled taken out of her hands because of the law she crammed down our throats without knowing what was in it. they have also seen the recent "usa today" call which confirms that obama-care is a drag on this president's chances for reelection. they know that. they have noticed the rest recent poll out this week that shows that 56% of the american

public wants this bill and repealed, and they know about the fox news poll that shows 59% once this bill repeals. that is not all. there is a "washington post/abc news" poll. 67%, two out of every three americans said either repeal the individual mandate or get rid of the whole thing. 67%. [applause] >> the gallup organization asked what do you think of the individual mandate, which is a central pillar for this lot? 72% said the individual mandate is unconstitutional. think about this. this is remarkable. after debating this for the better part of three years, more

than seven out of 10 americans, not just here, but across this whole country, more than seven out of 10 of us believe the central pillar of this law violates the american constitution. all of the statistics and all of the pols lead us to one lesson that we have won this debate. we have won this argument. despite years and be delivered misinformation campaign from democrats, a president, and a lap dog, obsequious media, we have won this debate. round one goes to the good guys. round two is next, and this is as we learned in 2010, just winning the argument does not necessarily impact legislative outcomes, right? so, we thank and salute the

house of representatives for voting for repeal already. thank you, house of representatives. [applause] >> every single republican and a handful of democrats. we think republican leadership for forcing votes in the u.s. senate on repeal. thank you for trying. we know it will -- it has been said by every speaker, but i will say again -- in order to get this job done, we need a new senator. harry reid has had long enough running dead body not passing budgets come up with a link -- running that body, not passing budgets, putting his thumbs, and, of course, we need a new president in order to achieve those goals, -- president. in order to achieve those goals, we have to unite and win. thank you. >> next up is ellen cortez from let freedom ring?

>> let freedom ring. >> an edge in this is obama-care and its web of bureaucracy? what we going to do with it? we will erase the. they say there are no young people in the tea party. i think i'm here to prove that is true. or this guy here. this health care law is supposed to be a marvelous thing for youth. we can stay on our parents' health care until we are 26. that is usually -- that is really an ideal role. we want to be independent from our parents. that means we need jobs, and this president, what has he done? he is kept his eye off of the ball and passed a law that six

away your freedom -- and takes away your freedom. we want to be independent and have jobs. three out of 10 young adults are forced to live better home. we need to get rid of barack obama so we can bring them a better future. [applause] >> president obama made a lot of promises about his health care law, but when he did not make and probably should have was that he could bring families closer together. all these uses are forced to live at home. repeal this bill. repeal this bill. repeal this bill. thank you. [applause] >> thank you, alex cortez. before our next speaker, we have a little task i need you guys to help me out with. see this?

at the end, we will tear this and say repeal this bill at the same time. we are not like those people that like to break the law and rape people and all other sorts of bad things. we will clean up after ourselves. what you will do is take this, go home, write the date on it, and right we will repeal this, put it on your refrigerator, and looked at it every single day because we are repealing this. we will restore our constitution. 9/12/2009 i helped organize that event, and there is a lady from california that could not be here with us because she is the home fighting breast cancer. she is here today.

she was from the laguna beach tea party. please join me in welcoming linda. [applause] >> i almost faced a perfect storm. right after i organized the first tea party of laguna beach, california, a fist terrifying news that i could have breast cancer. what i did not realize was the terrifying moment was that my private health-care moment would save me. our family had a plan known as blue cross/blue shield, and that provided me with diagnostic mammograms which includes an ultrasound. so, in that spring day when my surgeon oncologist asked me do you want to hear the good news or the bad news, all i heard her say was early breast cancer, noninvasive, and because i had the freedom to select my

health care plan i was going to be scared my life, -- stared my life, and at the very least months of chemotherapy and radiation. what if i had a government health care plan? at the end of 2009, the group that dictates what your health care is going to be, ladies, and men, said women at the age of 50 could get yearly mammograms every other year. anyone under 40 that is diagnosed with breast cancer can be lethal, and the older you get the greater the chances are for breast cancer. this sounds like rationing. does it not sound like rationing to you? that is exactly what was said

by the former professor at johns hopkins university, the first woman to be head of the national institute of health. she said it was rationing, she told the press, and at that time i went to susan g. colman in southern california and i demanded that they pronounced obama-care uh on fit for american women, and i actually -- obama-care unfit for american women, and at that time i said there is something our group says -- "sam, keep your mitts off of our tits." why would the task force do this? it is simple, ladies. first of all, they are sparing you for -- from mental distress in case you have a false positive, but according to "the

huntingtown post" three months ago, they will reword the language so you better understand it terror and you do not understand what they're trying to do for you. -- it. you do not understand what they're trying to do for you. the cost of covering women 40 and over and the baby boomers far outweighs the cost of saving those women's lives that might die of best the breast cancer. to be fair, congress did pass and include in obama-care a provision for mammograms starting at age 40 for yearly mammograms, but let me tell you, ladies, it will not be enough. if i did not have an ultrasound, which found the breast cancer, i could have been at a later-stage breast cancer. indeed diagnostics.

at the same time, congress and the president who loves this healthcare plan, decided they did not think they wanted it. they would have a ppo, so in the spring, and early-summer, i decided to have a bilateral mastectomy because obama-care was breathing down my neck, and not only that i was facing medicare, which meant one half of $1 trillion would be taken out of the medicare trust fund, and there would be a panel of 15 sitting around some table in washington deciding if linda could have surgery to cure her breast cancer or a pill. i decided on the bilateral mastectomy, and in early-summer of 2009, as i was being very emotional, as i was being wheeled down the hall from the

recovery room, my husband reported to me later i cried out red, white, and blue. >> [chanting] red and blue. >> my husband, wondering what i was talking about said hani, it is neat, john, and i said where is john -- honey, a disney, john, and i said where is john adams? when i got to my room a girl explained i am an unapologetic liberal, but if there is a war i am joining with linda. [applause]

>> so, today, to save ourselves from rationing, we must get rid of this, now. we stand assembled and give our voice by the first amendment, and we tell the supreme court justices, no obama-care. no obama-care. no obama-care. >> it is a war on women, but not the war on women the liberals want you to think. it is a war on every one of us. it is a fight for freedom. we are freedom fighters, and we

are going to keep on fighting. [applause] next up is the author of "democracy denied" and the vice president for policy at americans for prosperity. his name is bill. >> first of all, thank you guys for standing here for a couple hours in the rain. there are a few more minutes you will in door to prevent much greater pain in the future from this administration. nancy pelosi was famously asked is the bill constitutional, and she said, "are you kidding?" are we kidding? do we care about the united states constitution? are we going to repeal this bill? let us remember how this thing

passed in the first place. they took a draft bill that should never have passed, because the people of massachusetts, not the most conservative state -- they took a draft bill and put it in the united states code as is. and that draft bill embodied every corrupt deal you can imagine to get it passed the finish line. the state of connecticut, gatorade for the state of florida. it bought off the hospitals and the pharmaceuticals. and the corrupt deal they made with the insurance companies are pretty simple. they said we want to regulate you out of control. we will tell you every single way to operate your business. if you accept it, we will force everyone in america to buy your product. we will force them to buy your product, whether you want to or not. we will sweeten the pot with a couple billion dollars of tax

subsidies. that is the bill we have now. it is corrupt. the unconstitutional mandate is at the heart of how this whole thing operates. the federal government does not have the power to force us to purchase a product. the united states supreme court had better do the right thing and strike down the mandate. [applause] but when they strike down the let us just say when they strike down the mandate, they need to go further. if they strike down the mandate and only the mandate, all the regulations and bureaucracies will destroy private health care in this country just as surely as if the mandate had stood, so they have to strike down the entire law. and if any of obamacare is still

intact after the supreme court decision, we need a congress and a president that will do the right thing, the will restore constitutional government, the will stand up for liberty and will repeal obamacare. i have been to a lot of tea party rallies. i remember two years ago, when we were out on the capitol steps, begging them not to pass this bill. three years ago in washington on tax day, i am in front of the white house under the pouring rain, where our voices were ignored. i am going to do something i have never done before at a tea party. i am going to litter. it is a one-time thing. repeal this bill. thank you very much. >> next up is a speaker from less government, which is something we would all like to see.

>> it is a screw. it is the new obama health care plan. my name is eric holder, and i am here to brainwash you. [laughter] oh -- is this not the right crowd? i was going to come out and have an original idea, but this woman had it on her side -- undersigned. nancy pelosi said we had to pass the bill to find out what is in it. i would like nancy pelosi, harry reid, and president obama to read the constitution, so they will know what is in it. of course barack obama knows what it is. and i would like a couple of the supreme court justices to read it. there is a little refresher course going into this week.

one of them should read it and then immediately step aside. but that is a separate issue. what we have here a fundamentally is the original constitution, which has not changed, with some amendments as exceptions, guaranteed us right to life, liberty, and property. barack obama and the democrats guarantee others access to our life, liberty, and property. and that is not what was intended. as was pointed out a little earlier, barack obama complained that this was a negative rights constitution, a positive rights constitution. the constitution mentions a lawyer. it does not mention a doctor. yes. so i am going to be brief, just because i am going to be brief. this is -- i am really honored

to be here, especially with all these women we are supposedly at war with. and we are, they just did not mean it that way. it is an honor to be here. keep this fervor going for seven and a half months. november of this year will be a transformational change, the likes of which barack obama has seen but not wanted. thank you very much, ladies and gentleman. he put up. >> the first time i came to washington, d.c. 40 party patriots, i met a woman who was very involved in fighting this legislation. at the time, it was still legislation, not a law. she knew a lot of doctors, a lot of patience. she knows a lot about this

policy. please join me in welcoming from the doctor patient medical association kathryn sark. >> three years ago, 2.5 years ago, we were holding another rally, where we had doctors. there is an old joke that had doctors. a patient comes in to the doctor and is touched -- and is hunched over. he is having trouble walking. he comes out upright, walking like this. his buddy says, "that must be some doctor. he took care of you like that." and he says, "what he did was he gave me a long pertain." -- longer cain." this is a $2 trillion cane. it does not actually fix any of the problems. it just gives us a longer cane,

and charges us for it. we are trying to work on that. it is like advertising a great price and when you get to the store there are not any of the product. in marketing, we call that bait and switch. it tells you you are going to have insurance coverage. it tells you you are going to be enrolled in medicaid. but just try to find a doctor who is going to be around who can literally be able to afford to take care of you at these prices. a few years ago, when we started working on this, i have been working on this since we sued hillary clinton. so i have been on that a long time. what we saw starting three years ago was a thing piting doctors versus patience, as though we have competing interests, which is not true. we are never going to let that happen again. we are all going to work

together, as doctors and patients, to stop them. what they do not tell you about this bill is that it is unfair to the middle-class. folks want to tell you it is unfair to the middle-class. it is like the episode of friends, where they all go out to dinner and split the tab, and one only has soup. if you have advertisers and a bottle of wine and you split the tab, it is ok. we do not want to tell people they cannot have their bottle of wine and their appetizers. we just want them to pay their fair share, right? people always ask me why there are not more doctors out here. why isn't there a sea of white coats? and do you know why? because they do not want to come to rallies. they do now want to stand up here at podiums. we have to drag them, kicking

and screaming. you know what they want to do? i want to take care of their patients. they do not want to get into the politics. they want to be left alone. i will tell you some other things they do not want to do. they call it the destruction of medicine. it is the destruction of medicine. they are taking us down to doomsday, when we want to go down the road to repeal. here is what doctors will not tell you, so i will do it. they do not want to spend two minutes for every minute they see a patient, going to government regulations and paperwork. they complain they spend one fourth of their time on medicare compliance. that is before this is completely in effect. they do not want a government bureaucrat peeking over their shoulder, telling them how to take care of you.

they do not want to be forced to think of their patients as cost-benefit units. they want to think of you as patients, and that they work for you. i will tell you another thing they are afraid to say. they are afraid to complain about money, because they do not want you to think they are greedy bastards who want more money. but i will tell you the truth. medicare pays them as low as $12 for an office visit. we pay plumbers and other skilled tradesmen more than that, and they do not even get paid for an office consultation. shall we talk about itab? everybody knows about this. it is patients against bureaucrats. on top of it, the ipab panels, which cannot be practicing physicians, by the way, will be paid more than the average

doctor in places like pennsylvania and ohio. president obama tells you about the red hills and the blue pills. i do not remember seeing his and the license. he just tries to pretend he is a doctor in television. all the other politicians, except for the few we hear about, is all loaded with lawyers. when it comes to your medical care, do you want to trust the lawyers or do you want to trust the doctors? of course. i will tell you the last thing doctors will not tell you is that they are quitting. they have had it. the cannot do it anymore. they are throwing in the tiles in their independent practices, going to work as salaried employees. hospitals are buying up their practices. you know what happens when they do that? they become unionized. their politics start to change.

they start moving to the left instead of conservative. you think they do not know that? they are trying to cultivate a new group of democrats to vote for them by taking away the independence and creating this pessimism. what are we going to tell them? no doom. and if you care about this, to cut yourself phones -- take out your cell phones and tell us, "my doctor works for me." thank you all for coming. >> thank you. and thank you to doctor/patient medical association and her colleague, kelly, who helped us put this event on debate. you have been very helpful in the success of this event.

we have three more patriots. i know we are running long. we are going to whip the bill, tear it up, and make a walk back to the metro station, past the supreme court. we have paul more from washington, d.c. -- tom moore from washington, d.c. tea party. >> it is a beautiful day. how do i know? we have thousands of patriots in washington, d.c., and it is raining. we have a representative who knows a little bit about farming. he knows that when it rains, seeds grow. i know a little bit about farming. i am always planting seeds. like you, when i come to washington, i am usually planting the seeds of liberty. you came here in 2009 to plant the seeds of liberty.

you were discontented. you did not like what your government was doing. and it rained. and those seeds grew, and the blossoms. in september of 2009, a million and a half blossoms showed up on the capitol grounds. that is what patriot farmers can do. in 2010, you came back again. there were hundreds and hundreds of view, came to the obamacare war room, the take the town hall to washington. he showed up again on march 20 at the capitol, planting seeds. in november, 2010, a tsunami swept washington, and we cleared at the house, and we brought some conservative leadership here. you are all planter dudes. get used to it. this is, in 2012, your american spring. things are going to change this year. coming out of the constitutional

convention, ben franklin was asked what kind of government had given us. he replied, "it is a republic, if you can keep it." that is you, the individuals, you collectively. we have a representative citizen government, and only you can keep the citizen in that government. you have to speak up. you have to not allow yourselves to be coopted. you have to support your principles. you have to plant the seeds of liberty. thomas jefferson said, "one man with courage is a majority." meaning man with courage, and women, who stand up -- others will follow. you are not alone in this. look around you. you have plenty of help. only if you choose to exercise of your voice are you going to reap the seeds of your liberty. i tell you it is time to tell your politicians that excuses

are the nails that bill the house of failure. we are tired of seeing them let america fail. bill you to balance the budget. failing to tell the truth. failing to restore jobs and the economy. failing to live up to their promises. it is time to get angry. it is time for you to let them know what you think. it is time for you to tell them, "i am matter than hell. i am not going to take it anymore." tell them. we are madder than hell. hang on to that feeling. box it up. take it home. share it with your friends, your family, your colleagues. show them how to plant the seeds of liberty together. you have the duty to do that.

you are the conscience of america. i have one question to ask. who decides? >> we the people. >> and who decides what happens to obamacare? >> happens to obamacare? what are we going to do together? repeal it. what are we going to do? i'm getting old. what can i tell you. thank you and god bless all of you. >> next we have for from cleveland, one of our state coordinators from ohio. ralph king. >> patriots, this week they are going to be looking at obamacare.

the state of ohio just came out with a mandate against the forced health-care and insurance and obamacare. all 88 counties, all of the democrat counties, with a mandate vote rejected obamacare. we need you guys to reject obamacare. here is the thing. it was not because of the speakers and because of the leaders. there is a bunch of people in the crowd today. those people are the ones that took it to the doorstep on obamacare. when we leave here today, instead of singing and preaching to the choir, we need you to go out and be the chorus to

america. you need to take this to the people. our founding fathers looked back at the four fathers of our country and why they came here and what really started this country. it was personal property rights, religious freedom. obamacare destroys both of them. this is not about health care. it never has been. it feels good to be right. this is a direct attack on everything the united states of america stands for. they will take this bill, you see them going after your religious freedom. under the guise of health care. they go after what you eat, the air, the water, we need to

repeal this bill. we need to send a message to the supreme court. listen and respect the constitution. repeal the bill. [applause] >> our last speaker, we have one more thing to do, brad from north carolina. >> you people are a beautiful sight. you represent america's finest. if you can be saved, it is folks like you who are going to do it. my name is brad schuler. i came to advocate for the

thousands of medical patients who do not have a voice and are threatened with destruction. for me, this is personal. in time, you will know someone who will need medical care to survive. shortly after this farce they call the health care bill, hr -- john boehner about to congress, did you read the bill before you passed it? hell no you did not. it has been two years and john boehner post hell no describes what we're trying to communicate today. we are on our way to a great american tragedy. no one has yet to feel the -- felt the pain. many innocent lives will be destroyed and we will forever be destroyed -- changed as a nation. this appears to be the

fundamental destruction of the greatest civil society to have never existed. this is good versus evil. [applause] in all this chaos, we americans are left with four questions we must ask ourselves -- does this moment have to be a pinnacle? the most exceptional society in the course of human history? no, it does not. is this a moment in time where we are no longer strong enough and virtuous to read -- reduce the wave of tierney that has been mounting against us? no, it isn't. have we lost to the fortitude necessary to be a will to enjoy the god-given freedoms we have? no, we haven't. i think with and agreed that as

americans we have enjoyed many blessings. including the most medical system to have existed in human history. now here we are at the last line of defense against this imminent danger to our people. the burden is on the american people to protect liberty and freedom for future generations of young americans. i will call this a code red. we must now face the fourth and final question, with no easy way out, we will have to answer it now. we can no longer wait. are we really going to allow our medical system to fade away and become another mediocre soaps -- socialist left over to be tossed on the trash heap? no, we aren't. it is our responsibility to

challenge this. thank you for standing up. thank you for carrying. never give up. to you all, god speed. >> thank you, brad schuler. will you give that out to everyone? all right. this bill is horrible. it is taking over our freedom. we are not going to let that happen. i say power to the people. this is our cancer. obamacare is a cancer. time to repeal! [cheering] would you show me how to get back over to the metro?

>> i would show you the best way to where the taxis are, maybe thiscar, let's saunter up way. >> lisa is going to sing as we go out. ♪ god bless america land that i love stand beside her and guide her through the night with a light from aboe ve from the mountains to the prairies to the oceans white with foam god bless america my home sweet home god bless america

♪ home sweet home ♪ have a safe trip home, everybody. god bless. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] >> on monday, the supreme court stars three days of hearings on the constitutionality of the new

health-care law. hear the argument for yourself as the court releases' audio at 1:00 p.m. eastern each day with coverage on c-span 3. listen and add your comments. our coverage starts monday morning with "washington journal." and continues through the day. then the oral argument on c-span 3. >> education secretary arne duncan discusses how to increase the graduation rates. then the weekly addresses by president obama and mitch mcconnell. then another chance to see the tea party rally. on monday, the american promise alliance hosted a conference to address the high school dropout rate and to prepare young people for college. you will hear from leaders from business and nonprofit organizations on their efforts to increase graduation rates.

speakers in a cluedrne duncan and gene sperling. this is about two hours and 30 minutes. >> ladies and gentlemen, please welcome -- 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 and national partners, welcome 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. they continue to do a wonderful job with education nation. 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 thriving, communities cannot thrive, and that means our nation cannot 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 and careers. did we cannot do it in silos. everyone can how out. -- help 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. at&t's commitment to high school 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.

-- >> 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. >> 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. [applause] >> a powerful statement. please join me in welcoming my friend, mandell stevenson and richard randall stevenson. -- my friend, randall stevenson. [applause]

>> it is an honor to be here. they are an inspiration to those involved in this cause. i also 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 -- faces are the same. you walk in here excited. about.what i'm talking congratulations 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 100% of those students

have graduated. [applause] 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. i get asked why a company like ours is involved in programs like this one. to me it is simple. if the united states is going to win in the future, it will be by education. our economy is more global. 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 america's interest to step of 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 mentoring academy. 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 summit. it is an honor of being here, and i hope you have our great summit. thank you very much. [applause]

>> 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. >> thanks 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 numbers of dropouts 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. you see districts 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. worth more than a year's of work. [applause] this year's theme is education and the economy. a report begins there with unemployment still high, a skills gap, 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 at

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 for the nation the and every 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. 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 having the highest college rates 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 -- help us 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 efforts 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. [applause] 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. some states have updated their laws from 16 to 17. president obama gave 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 laws. finally, it became evident that we needed to help reconnect the 1 million students 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 youth to describe them. at a white house event, there was a goal of 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 moved 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. -- graph. dark green is good. brown is bad. i wanted to go for red and yellow but i was overruled. dark screen is good.

-- dark green 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 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 -- dropout 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. hard saying keep working 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? -- math 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 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 couplethis . 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.

money. 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 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 use their dollars flexibly. and the using reform? enhancing support? are they creating fundingthe 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. until we recognize it, we do not act against it. the truth this -- this is one case where 90% is not an a. we are hard wired to hear 90% equals good.

if a school can have a 90% rate, new york 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. school. with that in mind, thank you. let's turn back over to john bridgeland to talk about some [applause] the homework assignment. great to know that the 13 states where the battle will be won or lost to reach this national goal. 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 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, 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 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. promisewith america's 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. let'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 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 reporter from wamu. 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 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.

now let's make that happen. 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 a 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 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 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 fits the occasion. it says if you want to go fast, go alone. 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 relationship, a trusting relationship. >> we also understand the importance of 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. what if we invest $250 million 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 successes we shared, the 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 disruptive 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 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 $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 dominski. 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 our parent 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 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 today we lag behind many 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 they can do what they set their minds to do. [applause] >> one of the 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 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, sometimes not just

for a few years, but the kids, children have been cheated that of a world-class education. and for far too long, all of us here, adults, educators, have observed this failure with a complacency that is disturbing. from the moment the became the ceo of the public schools in 2001, i had some many people tell may not much could be done to transform a failing school. i was told nothing could be done to transform failing schools at scale. skeptics on the left said the barriers of poverty and race in the attachment of parents to the neighborhood schools were too tough to overcome. those on the right of the political spectrum said teachers and the unions and district administrators would never buy into a fundamental change. at the national level, the no

child left behind law requires low performing schools to take action to improve learning. in reality, chronically underperforming schools were required to do little. for years the federal government provided little or no resources to help support change in the schools. almost no high schools were included in federal school improvement efforts, even though 15% of our nation's has schools produced 50% of our 1.2 million dropouts. adults. their fingers and bicker. at the end of the day nothing changes for our nation's children. earlier in his administration, president obama said ameritech could no longer maintain the status quo. we could not continue to tinker. he believes and i believe that change is desperately needed and

low performing schools. we absolutely reject the idea that some school or some children or some neighborhoods are just destined to fail. in 2009 our administration with the support of congress created a new and much more ambitious program or turning around a low performing schools. it gives districts for options for dramatic improvement. all four options require schools to improve student learning. as my friend says, a tweaked here are a toggle there will not lead to fundamental change. for the first time the administration put serious resources into turning around efforts to the tune of $4 billion. that money has gone to 1200 schools, each of which got a three-year grant of up to $2 million per school. 45% were high schools. we wanted to attack the toughest

challenges head on. almost immediately, armchair analysts, blockers, and pundits uniformly predicted the program would flop. they said it would be a terrible waste of time and taxpayer dollars. they said we have little effect on student outcomes and learning. even if the program work on a few schools, we would never succeed at scale or produce lasting change. fortunately, great teachers, grade school leaders, and partners and parents did not listen to the skeptics. most importantly, students themselves more than stepped up to the challenge. in these courageous teachers, and community partners understood turning around low performing schools was some of the most controversial and toughest work it would face. they knew it was among the most important and potentially most rewarding work it would do in their entire careers. they did the difficulty of the

work could not be an excuse for inaction. they did not claim to have all of the answers. the approach this work as we all try to do with real humility coupled with a tremendous sense of urgency. we are still getting in the results from the first year of the program. our preliminary data shows after one year, the commitment to change is producing dramatic gains and learning in a significant number of schools. we all know none of the schools need -- none of the schools are where they should be and where the need to be, but the sense of hope israel. we have 850 schools in the first. we have preliminary achievement data from 43 states covering 700 of the schools and the first year of the program. in year one, one in four schools saw double-digit increases in math proficiency.

in 50% of six schools, the percent of students who were proficient in math or reading went up in the first year. as encouraging as these increases and academic achievement are, i want to be clear there are still preliminary. we are only talking about the first year data. everybody realizes we will need several years of data for a lasting improvement. we are continuing to gather data on other critical outcomes that matter to assessing student progress. things like graduation rates, dropout rates, disciplined, attendants, and others. this is a first look at the initial results. it is encouraging to see rigorous research and cities like philly and new york city are finding a way to turn around schools and reconstitutes goals. they can substantially boost graduation rates. even more encouraging, they are doing so district why, not an

isolated pockets of success. we all know scale is so important to this effort. it is heartening to hear as we learned early this morning that there has been a big drop in the number of high schools dropout'' nationwide. the number of high schools in america where graduation is not the norm fell from 1750 schools to 1550 schools. nearly 400,000 fewer students attended high school dropout factories. what are the secrets to the success? we are seeing schools that boosted achievements tend to shared two common elements. they have a new dynamic leader who is deeply committed to the students into the surrounding community. i am talking about principles,

he works on an indian reservation 200 miles northeast of arizona. every monday morning he gets up really early and drives to. five hours to his school. all week long he lives on the reservation. the second thing turnaround schools have been common is they have teachers and adults that share relentless focus on improving instruction for collaboration and data. all four models give professionals in the school's resources to be ambitious teachers. it provides greater use of data for instruction and increase learning time including more time per collaboration among teachers. they provide for improved teacher evaluation systems. for the first time, they provide meaningful feedback for rigorous instruction and programs aligned with state standards. the road to success is not the

program itself. the focus, the passion, and the commitment to drive success. contrary to a lot of predictions made, the program has helped spur innovation in the field instead of stifling it. an elementary school in st. paul, minnesota has adopted a peer to peer system that has all teachers observed in their classrooms and also served as observers and other classrooms three times a year. in ontario, ore., teachers are making smarter use of technology. and las vegas, the principle of an elementary school used funds to institute a tutoring program that added one hour of time to the end of the day. reading and math proficiency both improved by 20 percentage points. down the road in reno, they

hired a new coach and a specialist to give teachers meaningful feedback in daily coaching. students themselves have a big role in tracking and analyzing their own progress and impairing students to take ownership of their own learning is so important. all data is tracked for each student and a data journal. at the heart of the successes are teachers and school leaders who are excited about the prospects for change. it is what motivates them and gets them up every morning and keeps them working late into the night. this is a labor of love. teachers recognize how demanding the work is, but they also see the potential for transforming the life chances of their students. they know school culture is a difficult thing to change. they also believe all children must be given an opportunity to fulfil their academic and social

potential. as one study put it, teachers who are successful turnaround schools feel like they are part of something big. let me give you an example. one of our panelists you will hear from in a few minutes will talk in a moment about how a program has worked in her district at roosevelt high school. two years ago, roosevelt was named one of the worst schools in the state. in the first year of the sig program, a 4% jump in the graduation rate. attendance is up. discipline issues are down. t, roosevelt was the educators have fostered the belief among students about what is possible for them. the arts are thriving, and so is the school's, program. last summer they perform the play at the international thespian festival in nebraska.

to make sure all the students could make the trip, the drama director took out a second mortgage on her home. that is a remarkable commitment and we have to give her some help. i will figure out how to do that. in cities like portland, maine, unions are looking to strengthen school turnaround efforts. they are cooperating with management to provide customized support for teachers and new professional development for staff. a final barrier to turning around schools is the parents are supposed to fight change in neighborhood schools. sometimes parents do cleaned to the familiar. we are finding community organizations are in many cases helping to drive change and enhance learning opportunities. community engagement is crucial to a successful turnaround. you cannot spell partners without parents. that is one reason why our administration has announced a

new ad minister -- initiative called "together for tomorrow." schools cannot do this by themselves. together for tomorrow is underway at six demonstration sites around the country. working with the white house and the corporation for national and community service will be expending this ever to foster more partnerships to advance school improvements. in the end, none of us can do this work a lot. promoting a community culture where is everybody's responsibility is our national mission. it does take a village. children only get one chance to get a quality education. as dr. martin luther king said, we cannot wait for reform to happen. we cannot win for equal opportunities to be realized. this is the civil rights challenge of our generation. i want to thank everybody here for their courage, commitment, and their leadership in bringing

new hope to schools, communities, and children where the light of hope had dimmed. this is a movement about so much more than education. it is a daily fight for social justice. it is a fight we will win. thank you so much. [applause] i would like to bring out the real stars of the show. carol smith is the superintendent of portland public schools. we have a fantastic turnaround school and washington. we have a business and tech teacher there, rose smith. [applause]

i will start with the real star of the show. i could not have done this and best -- in high school. you have been at the school for four years? share with us with the school was like before the turnaround of what the culture is like now. >> the first couple of years, when i came i was 14 years old. everybody else was older than me. my first years there, i was young. a lot of stuff was new to me like a couple of kids -- i was not really used to kids smoking and gambling and things like that.

>> in the school? what's in the school. i tried my best to stay away from it. it was all around so it was hard. a couple of years after that when the new staff came, everything was shut down. >> students are taking their education more seriously now? >> yes, sir. >> what has changed? >> most of the teachers did not really care my first couple of years. even if it was wrong, it would pass us anyway. now they make sure we sit down and do it until it is right or we cannot leave. me being on the basketball tim, i could not play unless the work was right. >> is that not too tough? what's it is not like that at all. >> how long have you been teaching? >> seven years. >> it is not the easiest school to teach that.

what you choose to work there and not another school? >> i feel it is my duty not only as a product of the d.c. public schools but also from a resident of the city to give back to the students what i received what i was in school. i had teachers that cared and motivated me. i had teachers that made me feel as if i matter. i feel like it is my duty to give that back to my students. that is why i continue to work there and be fulfilled by it. >> give her a round of applause. [applause] you have been here seven years before and after. what was the culture like then and now? >> before we had a very low attendance rate. our graduation rate was very low. we have students who would come to us every day who were

disengaged academically and socially. now that we have made changes, it was not -- changes difficult and necessary. we have students who come to school because they want to be there. they come to school because they can see the light at the end of the tunnel with regards to graduation and being able to move on with their lives. students have an opportunity to not only come to school and feel a sense of pride and be encouraged in their social standings, but they can also receive their graduation diploma much quicker with our accelerated program. a lot are more credits over the course of the school year than before. >> change can be threatening. you were there before. how much were you scared of it and how much did you resist it? walk me through mentally your thought process walking into this. >> for me i had to fill empowered myself. i had to say, i can do this.

yes, i do make a difference at the end of the day. although i am not able to reach all students and my glasses, i have been able to touch a few. seeing them graduate, seeing them go on to college, seeing them successfully go out into the world of work mix all the difference. >> what do you think about this young man? >> this is my teddy bear. i have seen him grow into a fine young man. he comes to school and he was one of those disengaged students. he has been empowered. he receives instruction that was quality instruction. he was not just a class to get a great. he realizes the skills that he learns will make a better and brighter future for him. i am excited for him as he prepares to graduate in june. [applause] >> i want to open up the

audience. if you have any questions be thinking about it. you had one of the lowest performing schools and the state. not one were tinkering would make a difference. walk me through what it was like before and what you guys did and the results. a pretty remarkable progress in one year. walk me through to how you got to hear from there. >> roosevelt high school was identified as one of the lowest performing in the state. they had been a school that was organized as three small schools on a single campus. we used a big opportunity to mobilize the strategies to bring it back together as a unified campus which actually built energy. as you called out in your opening remarks, the school had a 14 point gain in graduation rates, double digit achievement

in reading and math, a percentage point decrease in discipline referrals. the big one i would call out is an increase of 5% of students who choose to attend their neighborhood school. one of the was a downward spiral of students choosing to transfer out. we have an energy going on where students are apt -- opting back again. that is exciting. the key factor, we have a dynamic principal who is an instructional leader. she understands partnership and how to engage partners. she is a galvanizing leader. i want to do a call out to hurt. she has built an energy that has been remarkable. there was local ownership. the transformational model the school chose to undertake, we

had teachers, districts, participation in choosing the model and building the plan and identifying what strategies were going to use. as well as implementation. there is a focus on instruction. part of the strategy is coaching, investment in finding time for teachers to collaborate. as part of this teacher valuation tool, we have now implemented across the district. it has transformed our relationship with our teachers union and how we work together. that has been remarkable. the last thing is partnership. it has been huge. this is with our faith and business community. with universities who are helping to build a college going

culture. this is what is going to happen. and nonprofit partners who are helping us work on how we use out of school time affectively. the combination of all those things, it is a different place than it was. you feel an energy there and that is palpable and exciting. it is roosevelt on the rise. >> this change is really hard. this sounds fantastic but it is not easy. how much resistance was there? looking back, is this more than you anticipated? what was your expectation coming into this? >> it was not a foregone conclusion we would apply for the grant. even the fact of the school community deciding they were going to go forward was a deep conversation with our union and the teachers and the

administration at the school of whether this was an opportunity or jumping through hoops. we did an amazing process of the front end or the union leadership sat with a group of teachers who export what it meant to apply for the grant and evaluated the options. we have the entire staff sitting while we figure out what was the opportunity and the challenges and the go forward strategy. you figure out what you want, we will remove the barriers. that is what we did. that is a piece of what the success has been. feeling like they are driving what the -- what they want to do. >> what was your expectation for change? >> i did not believe it would be the kind we have seen. to open it to the

audience. any questions for any of our panelists? do we have microphones? do we have another one? >> hi, i'm an education advocate. i have a question for dave. i'm curious to find out which stereotypes you're confronted with and how that affected expectations and also looking at your curriculum and telling me if you think it embraced her culture and how it affected your participation. >> me, stereotypes, i did not pay attention to things like that, get ant trying to education. the curriculum, it could be tough at times. the teachers made it easy for

me. they stayed by my side in july of understood. -- until i understood. >> it can be a mostly depuyt -- debilitating when you are participating in meetings knowing that you work at the school that is considered the bottom of the barrel. knowing you are working at a school where people feel you are working with rejects, it is not a good feeling. the point where we felt, that is what you think of us. we will show you what we can do. we have done that. [applause] with regard to our curriculum, is rigorous. it is challenging. we found that with tawing the higher academic standards, when our students complete their courses, they feel they have earned it and take in new

skills and chatted away they can use in the future. it has been embraced. >> hello, i am the director for d.c. public schools and i have to say that twitter and e-mail is bursting with pride over both of you. we are so proud from d.c. to have been sitting up here with the secretary of education. [applause] my question is about what is next. you are getting ready to graduate and you have figured some things out. what next as we can take what you learned and tell your story to other kids and make sure that other students across the nation can lift themselves up and learn from what you have done. what do you think you want to do to help us do that? >> i know for sure i am going to school.

i am not sure. school first, then college. [applause] after that, i would like to come back and speak again about my trouble -- trials through high school. >> with america's promise alliance. i would like to ask a question to the portland representative. there are many people in the audience who represents nonprofit organizations that the community level. what is the most effective way for the local nonprofits to reach out and be supportive of the students and these schools that need our help?

>> at roosevelt, it has taken a number of different forms. we have a nonprofit that is a stepped-up program where they are leading, providing advocacy and tutoring connected to the teachers and students and the work in the classroom. there is a relationship and how they are supporting success. we have community schools that are wrapping family engage in support. we have a family engagement coordinator who is organizing with zero " -- organizations family nights that giving families. we have a church that has wrapped his arms around the school and is building and energy. on the campus, it spends a lot of activities. they are a mechanism for individuals to support the

score. and then the association has been engaged with businesses in supporting roosevelt and the university has engaged individual students that those relationships carry-on in college. they have taken different shapes of figuring out the community organizations offering with the school needs. focusing on what the school is trying to achieve. they are not random. they are aligned on what roosevelt is trying to accomplish. >> good morning, alice. my question is to mrs. smith. can you identify a few of your salience changes that created transformation in your school? >> i will take you back to me the presentation.

we have done some things that roosevelt we're doing out the district. one of those is finding academic priorities students. putting a special law emphasis on tracking kids in ninth grade. we have an academy. we are tracking students being on track to graduate. having the program and of credit. the predicts there graduation than if they were not on track. we are doing everything we can to make sure that occurs. that is specific. then the instructional coaching and the work among teachers. i would say that is a huge piece of the collaborative problem solving that teachers are doing. intense and powerful.

>> my question is about parent involvement and of that was part of your strategy as well. he mentioned family engagement tonight. i am wondering what those look like as well as if you used community-based organizations to help you? >> yes, we do. we have used service organizations that party have relationships to the families with the scores. we have a broader definition of what it means to be engaged. what you're doing to support them. we have had a wednesday morning volunteer morning where parents show up at the school and are a presence at the school landry have an outstanding individual who organizes the parents. she is energetic and looks for

ways to engage. >> i am serving -- i wanted to ask what to do find that you held on to and if he saw appears that did not. how were your parents involved to get to where you are at? >> i held onto staff like they were really behind me. they were pushing me along like a great match. they were really behind me. i probably would not be here right now. they helped me a lot. my parents also pushed me and made me feel like beyond high school there is a greater life. i do not have to follow the crowd. i thank them all off for that. -- a lot for that. [applause]

>> i just want to say give inspiration, get inspired. i think inspiring the potential for students to achieve at greater life outcomes is what i am hearing. my question is -- martin luther king said intelligence plus character is the goal of true education. what have you seen of the last several years at roosevelt that has -- how has it affected your character and the character of your school? what percentage of that has thrive?oyou

>> 100%. i really think, my first couple of years, irt new school was off for me -- a already knew school was not for me. i started getting my head into books. things like that. i would say my character has matured. 100%. >> you are realizing martin luther king's dream. i would like to encourage you to become one of the next residents of the united states. [applause] thank you. >> he can have my job first. >> good morning. i am with a volunteer organization. i look back at myself and i

think back, i have a flashback of me being an intern for strong thurman. we have a lot to offer. i would like to ask the audience, are you proud of the obamas? can i get a yeah?s so am i. the objective is to invite students to assist with a wishing well to honor america's first chosen. i know the president is protective of his children. they should be. i would like for you to review this. can i get this to you? >> we have a little bit of time. let's do three more questions. >> good morning. i am affiliated with is on 126

out of long island city. i do not have a question. i just want to commend you, young brother. from where i come from, i have seen the distractions. i have a little brother who was distracted. i know what it can do to you. for you got to be able to focus and put your mind and the right place, there is nothing you cannot do it if you want to, young brother. you are on the right track. i commend you, young brother. [applause] >> thanks. >> i am coming from a virginia where i work with an americorps member. i have a question coming from the partners dimensions.

you said there were a lot of nonprofit organizations. first of all, what are those organizations? the water the best kinds? what has been the best activities -- what are the best kinds? what has been the best activities? what would you advise on us to get involved? it seemed like you were reaching out as schools. this is us reaching out on the other side. >> i am thinking that one is to me? i'm going to offer, one of our partners is here at the conference and will be presenting this afternoon on scaling up. it has been a longstanding partner in our community, working with young people and their families in second grade. it is all about keeping kids and school and the relationships they bill the students.

they have a 94% graduation rate of the young people they have supported. they will be part of a presentation that would be worthwhile to go to. the partner in they are doing of a school model. jefferson high school is partnering with them. our community college as the nonprofit partner, it is insuring we will be able to guarantee success for every one of the students who is part of that program. i think that is a great place to start. >> say it again? >> self enhancements incorporated. the conferences about scaling up successful packages. >> the final questions. >> good morning. i am a practicing school counselor from chicago public

schools. we know that school counselors are underutilized nationally. my question is how our school counselors engaged in the transformation process at your schools? >> our school counselors do a myriad of things. creative scheduling to make sure our students are enrolled in the courses they need to graduate and not frivolous courses to fill up their daily schedule. our staff also takes the time to work with individual students to meet those needs they come to us with. also career planning as well as college planning. we have staff available to work of students to fill a the fafsa, job applications.

we work on interviewing techniques and strategies for students who desire to go into the world. all of those services students need. that is what are counseling staff does each day. >> ours is similar. flexibility in terms of making sure students are getting these classes they need and changing it if they are not on track. that is a huge and often overlook strategy. you do not want somebody working down a path they do not want to be on. and also linking students with community resources that they need as well as paying personal attention. we have an exceptional staff at the school i'm talking about here today. >> there is a national movement to beyond college readiness. please have them sign not that

they have not done so. >> i am the executive director of stockton urban academies. my question is for rare the student. you mentioned the culture associated with your school. you also said you were able to be your own leader. in stockton, there is a pervasive gang problem. we often find the some of the best students are still overwhelmed by this issue, whether it be generational or neighborhood-wise. did you find your success was linked to the fact you may not have had those ties or did not feel the burden to join a gang or be represented by that community or was that something you struggled with? >> it was not necessarily a struggle. the pressure is a lot better if i do not want to do something, i

do not do it. [applause] where i came from, gangs was a big part of the streets. me being me, i stuck to the books. listen to what my parents had to tell me. a couple of my friends who had graduated and got on to college. i just followed my own route. >> and the teacher, i do you find you have students that are highly motivated that have the potential to succeed but they are overwhelmed by the gains issue where it tinter beers with academics? -- interferes with academics? >> our students come to us and they see our school as a safe haven. we have students who attend luke moore from mary -- every area of washington, d.c.

sometimes they have a lot of gangs and drugs and all kinds of negative things. the students see it as a safe haven. they come into the doors and they laid down those neighborhood beats. everyone is a family and they are there to learn, to graduate, and become successful citizen. [applause] >> thank you for your questions. please give a round of applause. these are champions of the movement. [applause] >> thank you for that hopeful news. i think we heard -- we will have

to figure out when he turns 35. also to carole and rose. our next speaker is a national treasure. gene "the machine" by some, he has been a public servant across administrations, first as the director under president clinton, then as counselor to timothy geithner air, and now as assistant to the president and director of the economic council for president obama. he is a good missed westerner from minnesota, a great tennis player, and they yell lawyer. given this thing, education and the economy, he is a perfect speaker for the occasion. to close out this session with remarks, please will come from the white house, gene sperling.

[applause] >> well, thank you very much. john got most of that right. it is true i went to college in minnesota, but i am actually from ann arbor, mich. i am a huge michigan's ban, and i am still mourning the tragic loss to ohio. nevertheless, i will hold myself up for these remarks today. i really do want to thank john bridgeland for his commitment and what he has done through civic enterprises, part of the president's white house counsel for solutions.

there are people in this town that are committed to getting this done as opposed to worrying about what party is in power and who is going to get the credit, and i thank him for that, and i want to thank the powells. for her chair in the alliance. i remember its creation. it is still a force in public policy, and obviously, you got to see our commitment in action, seeing arne duncan. i thank them, i thank all of you. i will try to make five points quick and let you move on. number one, a focus on how education and the challenge of

preventing dropouts, but beyond preventing dropouts, having higher aspirations, higher achievement, higher graduation rates, higher accomplishment is absolutely critical to our economy and our economic growth. now, there is a degree, and with that, it is just common sense. i am just talking about the basketball playoffs. if you look at any team, any team is stronger, everyone is stronger when everyone on that team is at their highest performance and contributing. of course, if you have an economy where women are not contributing as much, are not allowed to contribute, when you have an economy where too many people are dropping out of high school, never getting the chance to get the skills to compete, that is not just about the interests of those

individuals, though that is crucial. it is about whether you have an economy that is at full strength. now, you have seen the studies. i will not go into all of them. you know them. you know somebody graduate from the no unemployment is 13%. college education, 4%. you know what that means to individuals and their lives. and we know what it means to the cost of our society. the people who have significant education make more, contribute more, pay higher taxes, cost taxpayers less funds. those are all things of which the academic evidence is overwhelming and undeniable.

what is incredibly important to remember, and maybe the most important message, is it benefits all of us. let me just give you one example. the president held a conference on in source in the other day, and in the in sourcing conference, -- a conference on in-sourcing the other day, and in that in-sourcing conference, one of the big indicators what what was the completion rates -- was what was the completion rates. the college completion rate was a key indicator in where they would recommend someone relocate. it is not just the individual to benefit, that community benefits. there will be more job opportunities for everyone. we need to make clear, when we are funding and inspiring higher academic progress, it is

not just about those individuals. is about our economy as a whole. my second point is one that i think all of you feel deeply. even if that were not the case, my guess is everyone who is here today would still be here today. we are fundamentally up people -- apeople -- a people who believe fundamentally that the accident of your birth should not be overly determinative of your life. [applause] we would not tolerate an law that says if you were born in a poor area to a single parent, only seven out of 100 audio can go to college. we would think that law was cruel.

but how much better are we when we stand by and do nothing when that is the reality we live in? we have an obligation, every generation does, to move ourselves closer to that aspiration that the accident of your birth does not determine the outcome of your life. when we know too many children, particularly to many children of color in poor, urban areas, poor rural areas just by the accident of their birth have the decks overwhelmingly stacked against them, that is not something where we can say, ok, we will deal with that another day. the commitment has to be through the early stages through what arne duncan calls the bermuda triangle of education. the commitment has to be deep and strong and through that

process that give someone an opportunity the others of us are too likely born with to create economic security for families. the third point i want to make, i think one of the most critical things for us as a country in making progress as we established -- and that is what i believe you were trying to do here, that this commitment is something where there is an overwhelming consensus in our society to achieving. having been here for 20 years, i will be very honest in saying the following thing.

i think there's a deep double standard when it comes to evaluating programs and policies for the poorest children. we do not find out that a particular intervention to cure cancer has failed and therefore decide, well, i guess that is an argument for not investing in research to cure cancer. [applause] we do not decide that if a certain military weapon is not as effective as others that we give up on the basic security of our country where the basic goal of preventing terrorism. we find another way that is more effective. yet, when it comes to programs for helping our poorest children, if it is not 100% effective, people use that as an argument to give up on the endeavor, instead of going back at and trying again.

how many times have i heard "here is an early intervention strategy." but you know why? some of the benefits and fade out. i hear that and i think, ok, what can lead to to make sure that those benefits do not fade out? what can we make sure that those benefits accelerate instead of fadeout? other people will say, that is the reason why we should not do the thing that is working even for several years. that makes no sense to me. he is afraid it has a negative impact on public policy, because when people feel that the admission of any error or failure to get the performance desired is going to be used as the reason to defund the endeavor, people pull back.

they are more afraid of evaluation, accountability. but if we are all committed to the idea is not right, it is not consistent with our values to let large numbers of our children have the? stacked against them by the accident of their birth, then we will all be in this together. we will analyze and innovate. if something is not working well enough, we will double down on our commitment, not use it as an excuse to pull back. [applause] franklin roosevelt says "it is common sense to try a method. but above all, try something." that must be our motto. when we engage to make sure our children have higher aspirations in our economy.

the fourth point i will make is we are in a tough budget time. this is the time of priorities. where are the priorities of the country going to pay? -- going to be? i am so proud to work for president obama. user is so proud because every time we get to the toughest situations, the toughest budget fights, and the top priorities have to come into play, what the president puts first or at least at the top of his priority list is making sure we are staying with that commitment to invest and innovate in ways to help children who do not come from the best circumstances, have the same opportunities are greater opportunities to succeed. [applause] that is why even in this tough budget, over $1 billion more for headstart, and every budget,

we fight and fight and will continue to fight to not let that it cut back so that tens of thousands of children, three, up four years old lose the chance they have to enter school ready to learn. that is why when we can afford relatively few new programs, one of them is the early learning race to the top, so as we are funding what works, we're looking at what can work better, how we can innovate, what we can learn so we can do better and invest more in children. that is why amongst all the difficult budget challenges the president has stayed with his historic commitment to pell grants and has fought not only to have the largest increase, but to protect that increase budget after budget, in the toughest times among the toughest choices. those are priorities that should transcend political party and political position.

that should be about our national commitment to being a people where every child as a chance to move up. not just in theory, but in fact and reality. last point i would just make -- we really, really as a country have to continue to focus and innovates and rededicate ourselves to ensuring we reach young people early enough to make sure they have the aspirations to seek to achieve as much as they can. college education, high school education. i think one of the things you realize as you get older is that you are born with many gets. -- gifts. one thing many of us who are fortunate enough -- as fortunate of us realize later -- just by our upbringing, by the accident of our birth, we have

to get. -- we have a gift. and that it is a very high expectation that we will go to college. i have watched friends and relatives. i have seen how children have gone off, look in the wrong path, going off. but that high expectation they are almost born with is like a magnet that pulls them back on the bright track. so many of them, so many children of upper-middle-class families, whatever their problems, come back because of that expectation, because of the opportunity. so many other children are born without that get to. that is a gift we all can play a role with. that is a gift you can aspire and achieve. would have to keep looking. we have to protect and invest in programs like trio and career academies, things that

reach people as early as possible at middle school, to provide that aspiration, that expectation that so many of us are blessed with. that is not an expectation that will be there in a family were no one has ever gone to college, but we have that problem, we have that problem for the -- power through the excellent teachers who inspire, the excellent after-school programs -- not just a particular moment or a particular course or particular score card, but what they can be. colleges can influence early in the neighborhoods where they exist. helping the children come to their campus. see what is possible. have a mentor. have someone who believes in

them. change not just their test score or their great, but their expectations for what they can and should achieve. all of us, all of us have an obligation to make sure every child has that gift. we play a role. we have a responsibility. i think that is what's brings -- i think that is what brings everybody else together. i also think there is nothing more important in terms of our values of who we are and what we believe in. thank you very much. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute]

[captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] >> president obama talks about what he calls his all of the above energy policy, to utilize alternative resources and urged them to pass a transportation bill. then as the supreme court to prepares to hear arguments, mitch mcconnell talks about its effects two years after president obama signed it into law. >> hello. this week, i traveled across the country to talk about my all-of-the-above energy strategy for america -- a strategy where we produce more oil and gas here at home, but also more biofuels and fuel-efficient cars, more solar power and wind power and other sources of clean, renewable energy. now, you wouldn't know it by listening to some of the folks running for office today, but producing more oil at home has been, and will continue to be, a key part of my energy strategy. under my administration, we're

producing more oil than at any other time in the last eight years. we've quadrupled the number of operating oil rigs to a record high. and we've added enough oil and gas pipeline to circle the entire earth and then some. those are the facts. but as i've been saying all week, even though america uses around 20% of the world's oil, we only have around 2% of the world's known oil reserves. so even if we drilled everywhere, we'd still be relying on other countries for oil. that's why we're pursuing an all-of-the-above strategy. we're producing more biofuels. more fuel-efficient cars. more solar power. more wind power. this week, i was in boulder city, nevada, where they've got the largest solar plant of its kind anywhere in the country. that's the future. i was at ohio state university, where they've developed the fastest electric car in the world. that's the future. i don't want to cede these clean energy industries to china or germany or any other country. i want to see solar panels and wind turbines and fuel-

efficient cars manufactured right here in america, by american workers. now, getting these clean energy industries to locate here requires us to maintain a national commitment to new research and development. but it also requires us to build world-class transportation and communications networks, so that any company can move goods and sell products all around the world as quickly and efficiently as possible. so much of america needs to be rebuilt right now. we've got crumbling roads and bridges. a power grid that wastes too much energy. an incomplete high-speed broadband network. and we've got thousands of unemployed construction workers who've been looking for a job ever since the housing market collapsed. but once again, we're waiting on congress. you see, in a matter of days, funding will stop for all sorts of transportation projects. construction sites will go idle. workers will have to go home. and our economy will take a hit. this congress cannot let that happen. not at a time when we should be

doing everything in our power -- democrats and republicans -- to keep this recovery moving forward. power to keep this recovery moving forward the senate did their part. it is up to the house to follow suit. to put aside partisan posturing and do what is right for the american people. right now all across the country we have contractors and construction workers who have never been more eager to get back on the job. a long-term transportation bill would put them back to work. who just released a report that shows 90% of construction, trade jobs created through transportation projects are middle-class jobs. it will make the economy stronger for everybody. we have done this before. during the great depression

america bill to the hoover dam and the golden gate bridge. democratic and republican administrations invested in projects that benefited everybody from the workers who built them to the businesses who still use them today. tell congress if we invest in new technology and energy and roads and bridges and construction projects, we can keep growing our economy, put people back to work and remind the worldwide united states is the greatest nation on earth. thank you and have a great weekend. weekend. >> a little more than two years ago at a moment when americans were learning some of the details of president obama's proposed health-care law, the former speaker of the house made a comment that has really come to embody the washington mentality for many americans.

former speaker pelosi said congress would have to pass it in order to find out what was in bed. -- to find out what was in it. two years of gone by and this is what we have found out. the giant bill that they have run through congress has made things worse. that is why as we mark the two anniversary of obamacare this week, republicans are more committed than ever to repealing the and constitutional law and replacing it with the kind of common sense reforms americans really want. reforms that actually lower cost and which put health care back in the hands of individuals and their doctors. and their doctors. as it happens, this year's anniversary happens to fall on

the eve of historic supreme court arguments on obamacare. beginning on monday, the highest court will hold three days of arguments to decide among other things whether the law oppose the mandate that americans must by government to approve health by government to approve health insurance -- the lot's mandate that americans must by government health insurance. as we look back at how we got to where we are today, most people would probably agree that america oppose the health care system has been in critical need of reform for years. among other problems for the rising cost of health care for families, job creators, and taxpayers, the exposure of too many families to potentially

catastrophic health care costs, and the lack of coverage to millions of americans. rather than solving some of the most pressing problems, the democrats partisan health-care law has made many of the problem is far worse. cost and premiums are rising. medicare has been rated. states struggle to keep pace with costlier mandates than before. in the economy is being sapped. new mandates holdback employers from creating new jobs. americans continue to oppose obamacare in large numbers. a recent gallup poll shows that 72% of americans, including most democrats, believe the government mandate to buy health insurance violates the constitution.

this along with a growing list of unintended consequences are causing many of its original supporters to take another look. far from caring a rise in health-care costs, obamacare is expected to increase spending by more than one-quarter of one trillion dollars. federal health-care spending and subsidies by nearly $400 billion. health care premiums for american families are expected to skyrocket by $2,100 per year. the white house has admitted they refuse to acknowledge when they force it into law a key component of their deficit reduction claims, the class act, which is designed to deal with long-term care, cannot possibly be implemented in a financially sustainable way.

as for the law pose a broader impact on the economy, the reality has proven far less appealing than the president's rhetoric. according to the director of the congressional budget office, obamacare means a hundred thousand fewer jobs over the next decade. -- 800,000 fewer jobs over the next decade. the health care what is arguably the biggest impediment to hiring, particularly hiring less skilled workers. states have their own challenges. many cannot afford federal health-care mandates before obamacare mandated dramatic increases in medicaid rolls. needless to say, even in states are able to meet the cost of covering 25 million more medicaid patience, the quality

of care for those to rely on medicaid almost certainly suffer. in my own state of kentucky, an estimated 387,000 more people will be forced into medicaid at a time when the state is already struggling to provide benefits to the recipients who are currently enrolled. kentucky's governor, a democrat is on record saying he has no idea how kentucky will be its responsibilities if this law forces several hundred thousand more people into the state's medicaid program. the math does not add up. then there are america's seniors. many who have learned it is a health care they have an like, it will not be there and its current form for them anymore. president obama was right to attempt to reform.

he joined a long list of members of both parties who want to see our health-care system improved. obamacare clearly is not the answer. two years after its passage, americans have come to their own conclusion. they do not like it. they think it is unconstitutional. they want it repealed. the time has come to clear the way and start over. to replace this on constitutional law with common sense, step-by-step reforms that lower-cost that americans support. >> next, a tea party rally to repeal the health-care law. after that, a hearing with amb. rice. on newsmakers, the director of the consumer financial

protection bureau, richard cordray talks about how the agency is shaping up. 10:00 and 6:00 eastern on c- span. >> the u.s. supreme court begins three days of oral arguments challenging the constitutionality to the health care law. justices will consider a number of issues including the mandate issue. tea party activists held a rally in support of repealing the two-year-old law. speakers include herman cain and media research founder. here is a portion of the event. >> thank you, andrew. next up by what like to

introduce ken blackwell. he is going to speak to us from the faith and freedom coalition. thank you. clear. obamacare is a manifestation of the president's wooden- headed idea that health care decisions can be better made by government bureaucrats than you and me. better left to the states than to the individual. obamacare expands the organized power of the state and robs individuals and families of making decisions for themselves. obamacare is a clear and present danger. [applause]

today we rededicate ourselves to defend liberty. today we pledge to stand up for liberty. to speak up for liberty. to pray for liberty. to rip up obamacare for liberty. god bless you. take a stand. [applause] >> thank you ken blackwell. hows do a little chat, about it. repeal the law. [crowd chanting "repeal the law"]

all right. next we have got from the media research center, he what did the liberal media and lets us know what they are doing, but brent bozell. [applause] >> look, mr. president, no teleprompter. i was asked to rip this thing up when i am it done. i feel like doing it now. i have a couple of comments for the president. i want him to understand something he said before he was elected president -- he said that the problem with the

constitution is not what it tells you you can do, it does not tell you what you cannot do. i have a message for our constitutional scholar -- yes, it does. next week, the court is going to be taking up the obamacare issue. elena kagan should be taking a vacation. in the yvette the court loses its mind on this one, let's look at things from a different angle. who here believe this administration when they said it was going to cost $900 million a year? who here was surprised when we

learned it was up to $12.70 trillion a year? who here believed this administration when nancy pelosi, when harry reid, when barack obama, when everyone of these liberals look at the american people and pledged that we were going to save $2,500 a year? who believed that? is anyone surprised it has gone up $2,200 per person? then there is the thing called democracy. think about this. they threw everything and the kitchen sink. it passed in a bipartisan fashion from their standpoint. bipartisan means they got everything, we got nothing. the day after it passed, what did the president do? he went on the road to sell it. wait a minute.

if you had the support, why are you selling it after you won? the american people are not buying it. i have to rip up some more of this. it has been two years. more people than ever before are opposed to this. where do we stand? nobody wanted it. it is not constitutional. mr. president, get rid of this stupid bill. what does he do instead? instead he comes out with a mandate. let me tell you something -- i am speaking here as a catholic and an american. this president came out with a mandate and he ordered me as an employer to fund someone's abortion, or as an employee, to put up the money for it. mr. president, i will get around that stupid law, but if i

cannot get around that stupid law, here at i am bring out the handcuffs, because they are going to have to arrest me. [applause] ladies and gentleman, destroy this bill. destroy this law. thank you. >> next up is dr. john whitley from north carolina. please put your hands together. [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, our founding fathers are crying today for the abomination that is occurring in this country. bear with me. it is absolutely a wonderful day to be here in the united states of america on the ground of the u.s. capitol exercising our first amendment rights guaranteed by our constitution.

[applause] amen. amen. let our voices be heard all over this country, especially to the people over here who are going to hear this case next week, that we are serious about our country. we are serious about our liberty. this case comes down simply to liberty versus tyranny, democracy versus socialism. [no audio] i spent a lot of money getting my education and i will not have any government tell me how i am it going to treat my patients. [applause] i would also like to add that i am from the great state of north carolina, the state which i hope and pray it will halt

the reelection of the guy that lives down the street in the big white house. i want you to note that i speak not only for myself, but for literally hundreds of thousands of other of physicians and health care professionals that we absolutely sacrifice our life to provide the best possible care that we can pour each and everyone of you. as rush limbaugh would say, do not doubt meet what i am about to say, listen to me clearly. if obamacare is not repealed in its entirety, not just individual mandates, which is getting most of the press -- there is a lot of bad in this bill -- i can tell you what is to happen. private medical practitioners will cease to exist in this country. all physicians will become employed. they will be under the direction of government

insurance players. the other thing that will happen is private health insurance companies will not exist. the confidentiality of your health records, your personal health information -- this is very serious -- will be forever stored on government computers to be analyzed and scrutinized by who knows whom. trust me, this will happen. i saved the best our last. if it is not repealed and we have universal, socialized health care in this country, it will actually be medicaid for all of us, including the wealthy. physicians and health care professionals all across this great country are upset and angry at this unconstitutional takeover of our health care system. the obama administration, in my opinion, is an anti-democratic administration. i would like to leave you with this. it is my body, it is my health,

and it should be my choice. [applause] to those individuals who are truly proponents of socialized health care, let me direct this statement to you -- leave me, my body, and my doctor the hell alone. i would also like to remind you that two years ago yesterday, this president and his progressive administration took the unbelievable step of marching us further into socialism. never in the history of these united states has a commander in chief duly elected by the people made such a historic move towards socialism. i am very heartened to look out among this group despite the

rain, and i am absolutely stoked that the freedom-loving americans are here in numbers and you will go forth from this place and echo the sentiments you heard here about liberty, freedom, and say no to tyranny. [applause] as i finished up, to the supreme court, including justice kagan, who absolutely should recuse herself from this case, but we all know will not -- hear us loudly -- we will not be silenced. we are not going to go away. we are going to continue to fight for our democracy, our republic, and for our constitution. there have been too many sacrifices, too much blood shed to not make this fight. it has been an honor to stand up here for a few minutes and talk to you about my love, my profession, and what this government is trying to do. i live every day, i work in this

environment, and i can tell you as someone in the trenches that the health care you have now will never be any better than it is today if this law is not repealed and that truly is the way. the last thing i will say is what the soviet union and its mighty army could not do, the signatures of these judges on a simple piece of paper can do -- put us further down the road of socialism and away from our democratic republic. to my god and every man and woman and child here today, i beseech you go forth, let your voice be heard loud and clear. the constitution is a living document that we all believe in. the words are simple. they are not complicated. you have to believe and the constitution. it has helped us become the mightiest country on the planet. it is not time to veer away from it. god bless america. god bless all you great

patriots. thank you so much. [applause] >> thank you, doctor whitley. this is from a man who is been standing by us, fighting throughout this entire thing. he missed his son's wedding so we could vote no on this bill. he had to miss today. he had to be back in the district. i have a message from steve king. [applause] "i want to thank all of you for coming here today to take part in the "road to repeal rally." we have travelled a long road together, but it is a journey we have been compelled without choice to undertake. for many of you, today's trip to washington was not a new pilgrimage.

many of you have been coming to this capital to fight this battle for several years." how many of you have been doing that? [applause] everyone of you. "we stood together on these grounds and fought obamacare in the fall of 2009 when it was first brought to the house floor and we did it again two years ago when nancy pelosi, harry reid, and president obama used parliament terry gimmicks to force it through congress and enacted through law. after obamacare was signed into law, we joined together in a new fight -- the fight for complete, 100% repeal. [applause] in the run-up to the 2010 election, we worked hard to ensure repeal would be the central theme of the national referendum. with your help, we rallied to

support a house republican committee, calling for a house vote on legislation to repeal obamacare. that became an important tool in the 2010 election. it clearly defined who was for repeal and who was not. it helped draw american to the polls in 2010. it helped bring about a republican majority in the house. [applause] but our work does not stop there. at the beginning of last year, we worked together to bring my repeal language to a vote in a republican-controlled house where it passed overwhelmingly. with your help, we sent the same language to the senate where every republican senator voted to repeal to pull out obamacare by its roots. this weekend, we are approaching a new band in the

road to appeal as the supreme court takes up the case. we know no matter what the court decides our mission will remain the same -- continue the work necessary to bring about a couple legislative repeal of obamacare as if this act had never been enacted. [applause] the american people have rejected this government takeover of their health care. americans know that obamacare infringes on our liberty and they know the price tag is unsustainable. every day brings new revelations about its skyrocketing costs and it's overstated coverage provisions. the american people continue to speak out against obamacare's individual mandate, its attack on first amendment, just protection, and its multi- trillion dollar price tag. obamacare is one massive in the

promise and it must be repealed. [applause] ipad thank you for answering the call to be here today, just add you have done so many times in the past. i am committed to making sure this is the second anniversary of obamacare's passage is the last and i know by your presence here today that you are as well. i look forward to continuing this journey with you, the tea party patriots and constitutional conservatives everywhere, down the road to repeal. together, we will repeal obamacare." [applause] >> next we have an incredible speaker. she is a patriot and citizen just like you. sonnie johnson from virginia.

[applause] >> hello. you know how important this is. i am out in the rain, so forgive me for what i might look like. so. all right. i always like to take a minute to reflect. we need to think back on what we have learned and the lessons we have been taught and see how far we have to go. what have we learned? we learned why obama bought it was so important that 26-year- old stay on their parent's insurance. in his economy, there are no jobs for them to buy their own, but it also leaves them the time and energy to go and find something to occupy. we learned that obama cares,

not about us, but about his union friends that contributed to his campaign and helped him get elected. can i say waiver, anyone? we learned that when nancy pelosi said that we had to pass a bill to find out what was in it, she was talking to sebelius and hhs because they make up the rules as they go, or may be the cbo at a fine a billion dollars here or $8 billion there. what is $1 trillion between friends? it is not like they have to write a budget or anything like that. [applause] we found out that most of congress do not even read the bills that they pass nor do they read the constitution they have sworn to uphold. you know that pesky little

freedom of religion and those pesky little americans that hold on to their faith rather than free stuff. what is wrong with them? we have learned that they will hide their socialistic agenda at behind a single individual and they will call it a "war on women," but since i do not play their game, we would just ignore it. we have learned their tactics. they thought we would not see through the fog and distractions. they thought that they could pass this bill and we would disappear, their names and faces would be etched into the history books, and we would be so happy that our benevolent government left us with free things. they were wrong. [applause]

we decided that we would teach them a few of our lessons. so we taught an overbearing, over zealous big government that we the people still exist. [applause] and since they do not want to read the constitution, we figured we would kind of help them out and we peacefully assembled and we demanded that the government redress our grievances. but we did not stop there. we reminded them there was a thing called the 10th amendment and 26 states stood up and took their grievances to the supreme court and we will get a ruling on that very soon. [applause] we reminded nancy pelosi that she can skydive into our personal lives, but we can pole

vault her right back out. no more speaker of the house. we showed the vice-president joe biden that it is a big f'ing deal. not because he said so, but because we said so. we care about our liberty, our freedom, our children, their future, this country, and we will not sit down, shut up, and take our place. [applause] we showed at the big government our tactics. we organized. we ignored the mainstream media and we occupied the voting booth. [applause] in 2010, we handed big

government, shall i call it a shellacking -- but we are not finished yet. neither are they. they want a single-payer system. if we do not repealed this bill, they will force every business out of health care until they get what they want. they do not mind at the small steps of progress. we must introduce them to the roadblock of liberty and say not another step. [applause] we must introduce them to the roadblock of fiscal sanity and say not another $1 trillion. we will introduce them to the road block of we the people and say do not tread on me. [applause]

we must stick to our tactics and not play their games. that means that we are going to maintain the house, we are going to capture the senate, and we are going to put someone new into the white house. [applause] repeal the bill. [applause] >> great job. thank you, thank you. she is awesome. i will stand next to her every day and say not another step, do not tread on me. [applause] far those of you who were here two years ago, we had a few people who handled our

megaphones and chanted and made sure to help you and support you all day long on that saturday at they were preparing the vote, all day long on sunday until nearly midnight when they voted. one of those people was mark herr from memphis, tennessee. mark. [applause] >> we -- andrew breitbart. [applause] king george ignored the british colonists and it resulted in a self-governing society, a new form of government. james madison captured it best when he said these political institutions that we established we established in

mankind's capacity for government. that is the heart of our struggle. those who want to centralize power over there at the white house and here at the capitol building and over there at the supreme court -- we just want to govern ourselves and be left alone. so this government ruined health care, deformed, reformed toilet paper of a bill is the result of their action. to the legislative branch in article roman one of the u.s. constitution, we say repeal this bill. [applause]

to the executive branch by an article ii, we will remember in november. to the judicial branch and article iii, opine against this bill. to the states in article iv, stand-up, grow a pair, exercise your power. [applause] your power in the 10th amendment. do it. and to "we the people," the whole constitution is yours. but here is the thing -- you have to stand up. you have to tell your federal

delegation from your state repeal this bill now. [applause] it does not stop there. you need to tell them to give back all of the usurped power that they have taken out of your hands. [applause] you have to go back and tell the executive branch go home. replace him. [applause] go back to the judicial branch and tell them to opine against this bill, but tell them to stop legislating from the bench. stop assuming that you can overrule things. make your opinions and let us decide. and to the states, go back there and tell them to start exercising their power. get off the federal crack dollars.

take back policy and give it to the citizens of the united states of america. [applause] and to your federal project fellow citizens, it is critical for you to learn what self- governmenance is and petrarch federal project your fellow citizens to preserve it self- governance. as for me, give me self- governance or give me guantanamo bay. god bless a self-governing america. god bless we the people. thank you very much. [applause] >> mark herr will be here with

us through the duration of this week, so you can hear more from him on monday, tuesday, and wednesday in front of the supreme court. while we are in front of the supreme court, there are a few people in america who have taken this law to the courts and have been fighting for us. one of these people is the attorney general from va, ken cuccinelli. >> good afternoon. [applause] you know, that is exactly what it sounds like when i go into the "washington post." maybe not quite like that. yesterday was the second

anniversary of the president signing this bill. that is the bad news spread the -- the bad news. the good news is yet today was the 237th anniversary of patrick henry's "give me liberty, or give me death" speech. he gave that speech at st. john's church in richmond. that is in virginia. [laughter] on broad street in richmond. two years ago yesterday, 17 blocks west on the same street is where we filed the first lawsuit by any state that got the individual mandate declared unconstitutional. [applause] now many of you remember reading about that earthquake we had in virginia last august. we do not have a lot of those in virginia. that was right near

montpellier, so basically what happened was james madison was turning over in his grave. hopefully the supreme court will put him back right in june. this will be a dramatic week and then we will wait three months to see if we still have a limited government with enumerated powers or not. that is what we are waiting on. i will tell you here today that whatever the outcome of that, the battle for the principles that are at stake in this case will go on in these elections this year. they will go on this year. we all have for the hyperbole in elections, but i think i can make the case that you will never lived through a more important election than this year. ever. [applause]

if you ever pick a year to lead it all on the field, 2012 is the year. [applause] in 2010, this health care issue helped propel more constitutional conservatives into the house of representatives than ever before. ever before. so we have sent reinforcements to the right side, now we need to take out the other side and move them right out of the white house. move them right out of the white house. get senator dement, congressman payne, and all of the good folks some reinforcements and take our country back. and take our constitution back. [applause] it means what dr. seuss on the constitution -- it means what it says and it says what it

means. that is right. in virginia, we have a senate race. we are ground zero but the presidential race. we will be fighting all the way through. one of the things i did with my colleagues you will appreciate. we catalog. the one of the violations of the law by this president and his administration. i said then and it has been completely unchallenged by the left, which is interesting, that he and this administration represent the greatest set of lawbreakers ever to run the federal government in our lifetime. [applause] the rule of law itself is at stake. are we going to be a government of men or laws? we will find out in november. i know who patrick henry and james madison are rooting for. did i mention they were virginians? [laughter]

in case any of you have forgotten that small point. i am so glad to see you all weathering the weather. what i want you to do is go home and push like you have never done before for seven more months and we can take this country back. we can take congress back. we can get our constitution back, something the founders would be proud of. this constitution matters. god bless all of you. thank you very much. [applause] >> constitution matters. next up is the coast of the doctor gina show. please put your hands together for dr. gina loudon. [applause]

>> we already knew this, but i think today proves that our god reigns. i think he is raining on obama's parade today, what do you think about that? i was researching to talk to you today. you all have been so amazing, standing here keeping your cheer on. i came across some great stuff on obamacare that i had never thought of. they say we have to repeal the whole bill, we are not kidding when you take it to its end, you know that our foundational documents were founded on the- freedoms, meaning freedom from government, not freedom to have a new car, freedom to have a new outfit, freedom to have health care -- that is not a right.

the government does not seem to understand that. if you think about our bill of rights for a moment, the alexandria tea party -- anybody here from alexandria today? they have a great piece on this. you should check it out. this is where i got it. this is what you have to think about now. if this government is going to tell you that you have to have the freedom of insurance, a positive right, not as our founders intended at all -- what happens to our bill of rights? now instead of the right to keep and bear arms, you suddenly have to keep and bear arms. can you imagine the kind of guy in this era is going to force all of us to buy? water guns? bb guns? it would be disastrous. secondly -- think about the

right of free assembly, the right to worship do you want to worship and to go to church. can you imagine if this government, if this administration decided to mandate? you not only have to go to church, but they are going to tell you where you have to go to church. i have a feeling we would all be going to jeremiah wright's church and calling him pastor. this could get a little bit fine if you want to think about this for a moment -- what if conservatives were in charge but we still had obamacare? when you have sandra fluke and she wants her $3,000 worth of abortion pills -- how about this? how about we decide that sandra fluke is to try a different kind of birth control and it will be mandated by you?

how about a little abstinence ms. fluke? [applause] do not need a law degree to figure all this out, do we? how many of you -- anybody out here -- loves somebody with down's syndrome? congratulations to everyone of you. you know what i am talking about. this is national down syndrome awareness day this week. i happen to be a blessed mother of a guy i adopted who has down syndrome. his name is samuel. he is what i think about every single time i think about the nerve of this government to tell me how i get to be a mother. when i went to adopt him they said you need to come fast. he is dying. he was 10-days old. he had 10 different diagnoses, including down's syndrome. i was trying to adopt a child with down syndrome. 90% of them are aborted.

they said he has all these problems. he is on a feeding tube. he needs all the surgery. he has a heart, lung, and hip problem. i was overwhelmed. i was pregnant with my fourth baby. these are all the interventions we want to take with your baby. no one had ever held this baby. i said, "can i just told him for a couple of days?" let me tell you what happened when i held that babies with down's syndrome who had all of these problems. every single one of those problems when the baby was held for two days were gone. [applause] praise the lord for that. under obamacare, they may mandate my child needed to be rock and held by some machine. i would be forbidden to say i do not want your intervention, let

me hold him and see it that might solve the problem. we will not stand for this. we will not have any more of it. there is a reason for that. we are the land of the free and we are the home of the brave. i want you to -- it will be so funny when we leave. they will think the occupiers were here with all this paper. you will pick it up. i know you. we are the land and the free and the home of the brave, but we will say it loud enough they can hear it and it will still echo next week in the supreme court building. we are the land of the free and the home of the brave. do not ever forget it. thank you and god bless you. [applause] >> thank you, dr. gina. how many of you have seen the mike huckabee ads are they

delivered 2 million sign petitions to congress saying repealed the bill now? we have the gentleman who helped behind the scenes on that. he is also the founder of a "restore america's voice foundation." ken. >> thank you. before i talk about obamacare for just a moment, i want to talk about you. you are out here in the rain. do you know what? someone else talked about people like you. it dates from 1776. it is the only thing i have written because i do not want to get his words wrong. "these are the times that try men's souls.

the summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country. but he who stands it now deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. thank you." thank you are coming out here. thomas paine, 1776. [applause] you are not coming to fight when the sun is out and the weather is fine. it is too important what is. to happen to our country. at the very heart of our grand experiment in liberty is a simple and noble idea that was unheard of in the history of the world. no law can be enacted without the permission of the people who will live under that law. it is called "consent of the government." [applause]

it is the bedrock principle along which our entire experiment in government is built. yet nancy pelosi and harry reid and barack obama knew that the american people had rejected a takeover of a fifth of our economy with obamacare and they did it anyway. when they did that, they crumpled up the very heart of our system of government. that court over there is looking at the constitutional questions about obamacare. i will tell you all right now that no matter what they decide, they are not looking broadly enough. does the commerce clause all- out mandatory participation in this bill? no, it does not. whether they say it does or not, will we allow our elected representatives to ignore and treat with contempt consent of

the government? no. the rest of the bill of rights, the first amendment, allows freedom of speech so we can decide what we want and do not want in our loss. -- laws. freedom of assembly so we can get together and organize for or against the proposals that are before us. the second amendment so we make sure we have a bulwark against the government reneging on our rights. all of that requires us to be the most active citizens that the country has seen in 100 years. this is the worst law, the most interested law to have passed our congress since the income tax. the income-tax was promised as only taxing the rich, it would not touch the rest of us. ever since it was passed, the

federal government has gained so much power that now they routinely sneer at the rights of states with the power of the purse. it is not only attacked the rich, it was passed the same way this health care legislation was. i will not call it a set protection and affordable care act because it is the opposite. it was passed as the same kind of lies we have heard now. lie after lie and i will tell you that no democrat want to defend it anymore. that is why we must bring it up at every campaign stop, every appearance, every town hall meeting. what about obamacare? let us hear your justification. thank you. [applause] >> next up, ladies and gentleman, congressman and a doctor, dan from michigan. [applause]

>> it is my great privilege to be with you all here today. i am a general surgeon. two years ago at this time i was taking care of patients back in michigan. i was wondering what this new law was going to do to my patients and my fellow doctors. the american people never wanted this law. we fought at town hall meetings. we ranked capital phones off the hook. the administration put this bill through congress. my predecessor in my district, mr. stupak, cast the deciding vote. i was lucky enough to get the support of my fellow citizens and i am pledged to repeal this law.

i voted for a full repeal. i will continue to fight this law as long as i am here. i thought it was a bad idea two years ago and i know it is a bad idea today. the administration made a lot of promises when they were trying to sell this law. today it is evident that this law is bad medicine for america. the administration claimed you could keep your own health plan and your own doctors. you cannot. they claimed it would create jobs and it did not. the administration claimed it would lower cost. to sum it up, the bill for all american taxpayers is rising. regulations are increasing and insurance premiums are skyrocketing. i am not sure which part of this bill is affordable, but i have not found it yet. in the house, we passed a full repeal of the health care law and have voted to repeal or

defund parts of it 25 times. unfortunately, the senate keeps blocking these actions. this week, the house votes to repeal the health care law under the most onerous of advisory boards. president obama's hand-picked board of medicare rationers. this week in the supreme court, they will decide whether or not the individual mandate is constitutional. the supreme court does not really decide what is constitutional. we all decide what is constitutional. i took an oath of office. everyone of our elected officials took an oath to preserve, protect, and defend the constitution. mr. president, nancy pelosi -- please read it so you know what is in it. our work is not done.

the 2010 tea party patriots helped conservatives get elected to the house of representatives. just think what would have happened if the democrats would have controlled the house for the last two years. just think of the further progression of the socialist agenda mr. obama would have had. we need to work as hard in 2012 as we did in 2010. why? we might run up against a wall fighting for the constitution. we need to get the senate and we need to get a change in the white house. let's get out there and do our work, work hard to win in 2012. repeal this bill.

[applause] [crowd chanting "repeal this bill"] >> i am going to sing a little song that i wrote and performed back at the tax days in seattle. it has been three years, so i might not remember the words. i have really bad rhythm, so if you could not clap with me because you get me off a beat and i will not be able to get back on track. please refrain from clapping along with me. here we go. ♪ obama won't you buy me a mercedes-benz the rest all drive porsches, you must make amends.

obama won't you buy me a mercedes-benz. obama won't you buy me a digital tv i do not have a coupon, i need it for free your face i will not see obama, won't you buy me a digital tv obama, will you bring my mortgage rate down padlocks all around my home town prove that you love me and spread the wealth around obama, will you bring my mortgage rate down obama, won't you buy me a mercedes-benz the rest all drive porches, you -- porsches, you must make

amends it is not fair that i am broke obama will you buy me a mercedes-benz ♪ [applause] i am going to embarrass you. that did it. >> that was kelly from our support team. she is from washington. how many of you know that she is on msnbc? kelli had the first protest 72 hours [no audio] thanks for being a trailblazer. [applause] next, from heritage action, we have and nathaniel yellis. [applause]

>> i am doing a little art project. can you hold this for me? you do not mind, do you? this is an improvement to obamacare. >> all right. [applause] >> repeal obamacare. [applause] >> perfect. >> i am going to tell you a story. 2010, obamacare is passed into law. republicans over here, conservatives over here -- what are we going to do? we have been vanquished? they have 60 votes in the senate. what are we going to do? heritage action -- we sat everyone down and said "we need to repeal this entire bill." [applause] some of our friends or a little

afraid, but, thankfully, where preventative steve king, michele bachmann, they introduced bills to repeal obamacare. we said that is not enough. now we need a discharge petition. we got signature after signature on that discharge petition across the republican conference and the house of representatives. then we said now, you blue dogs, you voted against obamacare and said you opposed it. now we are going to hold your feet to the fire. sign our discharge petition we e-mail. we got e-mail's back. we said tell your members of congress and tell them to sign the discharge petition, especially if they said they are opposed to it. when you make a phone call and you said the report, i get to read it.

late last night i would do my job reading call reports. about 8:30, one of our friends in wilmington, north carolina, called up his blue dog democrat. no staffers are keeping the lights on at 8:30 at night. do you know who was in the office when our friend from wilmington called? mike mcintyre. he got congressman mcintyre on the phone. he said, "mike, you opposed obamacare, right?" our friends said "why are you not on the discharge petition?" click. called back, no answer. called back, no answer. that it the hard work of

accountability. calling these guys, holding their feet to the fire. you are standing here getting rained on, but you need to get plugged in to heritage action. plug in somewhere where they can tell you now at the time to make a phone call. if we are not making those phone calls, e-mail's, they do not know it and they will not make the right choice unless we hold them accountable. you are here, you are doing the right thing. keep holding them accountable. do you know what we will do? we will repeal obamacare.

[applause] >> seniors are going to be very affected by this law and everyone of us will eventually be a senior, so we are all going to be affected by this. next, jim martin. [applause] >> no, it is not ted. >> thank you. thank you to the tea party patrons for organizing this. reed and patriots for organizing this. -- patriots for organizing this. my name is jim martin. i represent over 7 million senior citizens. [applause] >> seasoned citizens, as somebody said. for 20 years, we have been the conservative alternative to the liberal aarp, the group that puts its arms around the president and gave him political coverage by endorsing obama-care. that is the unaffordable care act. aarp likes to tout harry belafonte. he is so far to the left he makes president obama look conservative.

another legendary singer, pat boone likes to tout his friendship with ronald reagan. aarp -- the association against retired persons they say they are a listening tour, but did date -- did they listen to the voices of millions of lives? -- of us? now, they did not care if they turned their hearing aids off. if they turn their backs on us. what their reward was was an obama-care waiver. i am here to demand you give america's seniors, all americans, a life time waiver from obama-care. [applause] look, we know that is not going to happen, so we are taking matters into our own hands. the people are speaking loud and clear. thank you for your efforts. obama-care is on life support. it is our job to pull the plug.

it is bad medicine. it is hazardous to our health. you know, it is the biggest threat to our house that has ever been enacted. i have been here for 50 years. i would like to remind many of the seniors, two years ago 60 + predicted there would be a senior citizen tsunami headed toward capitol hill carry a lot of pro-obama-care folks would have to be updating their resin is. -- resumes. there was one person reaching their resins' -- their resumes. nancy pelosi. let me tell you something.

that is what happened in 2010. 60 members had to update resumes. 2012 will not be different. a second senior tsunami is on its way. dozens more are about to get a one-which ticket back home. -- a one-way ticket back home. [applause] , including one noteworthy person that will be headed back to chicago. [applause] >> fellow patriots, the 60 plus association so lose you on -- salute you on behalf of the fight for liberty of future generations. can we repeal obama-care? yes, we can. not only we can, but we will. keep up the fight. thank you. [applause] >> thank you, jim martin. next, we have a doctor who is

from -- i do not know where she is from. i forgot to ask. it is dr. marcy cooke. [applause] >> and virginia. [laughter] >> thank you. is a thrill to speak to you. -- it is a thrill to speak to you. more than two years ago i was here on 9/12/09 and i marched with you in washington, d.c., and i stand with you here again facing one of the most crucial moments in american history. i have read the affordable care act. i have read it three times. just to be sure. i can tell you the essence of this lot is about losing our -- this law is about losing our

freedom. as a citizen, it is an individual -- here is the individual mandate is deemed constitutional, there is no limit to what the government can tell us to give. -- to do. as a doctor and as a patient, because we are all ultimately patients, many other freedoms are taken away. the cornerstone of great medicine in america is the doctor-patient relationship. your doctor, with his rigorous training, years of experience, guided by sound research, based on medical principles, blinded -- binded by that the credit oath to do no -- by the socratic both -- hypocratic oath to do no harm is led to do everything in his power to diagnose and treat you to the best of his ability with only your medical welfare as his goal.

your doctor brings all of this into the exam room, where you and he together determine the best course of action. this law threatens all of that. theresa's made by your doctor based on -- choices made by your doctor based on sound medical principles and choices made by you based on your doctors and vice and personal preferences will be replaced by a group of unelected bureaucrats handing down diagnostic and treatment protocols to your doctor based on consideration as to whether your life is worth the cost of those diagnostics or treatments. your doctor's hands will be tied. he will have to follow these protocols. if he does not, his very ability to practice medicine will be threatened, and how will these bureaucrats know what happens in the privacy of your doctor's office? because it will no longer be private. electronic medical records will allow superhighway of your medical information directly to the government.

i am with the american seniors association. we are also an alternative. it's good to see my friend jim martin. we stand with him in opposing obama care. we stand with you in opposing obama care.

98% opposed obama care. do you agree with them? i don't know what was wrong with other percent. why is it under this socialist regime they gave out lay waivers. if you have to give out waivers to a law, it's a bad law! you know, there is also 20 different taxes in this law. it's an outrage. we've even got a tax on the manufacturers of medical device. but especially seniors. it affects everything from pacemakers to wheelchairs. the costs go up. those companies will pass it along to the consumer. so there are many, many reasons as you've heard from previous speakers why we have to stop this expensive appear tyrannical law. -- expensive and tyrannical

law. let's realize that it is unconstitutional to force anybody to have insurance or be fined if you don't do it. it's un-american. is that what you want in who would have thought ha the government would be taking over everything from car companies to the health care industry. is that what you want? >> no! >> let me tell you something about the left wing a afferings rp, they've betrayed not just their membership in seniors but everyone. they were shameless cheerleaders for obama. ha -- what was that all about? they even supported the can it in medicare. they stabbed you h the back, seniors. if you forget everything i see, tear up your a affering rp

cards. don't support them. we are not the aarp. we are the next aarp. we are the american seniors association. join us. check us out. americanseniors.orgful keep fighting. keep the faith. god bless. >> i spent 15 years in the former soviet union not only smuggling bibles but smuggling medicine. it was the worst of the worst for socialized medicine. i've seen it and i've lived it.

congresswoman michele bachmann. follow them down to the road of repeal. what do we want to go to to the road of repeal? where's that road? rite across from that supreme court. every day i'll be there from tk to 4:00. people from across the nation. if you cannot be there, god bless you. you can at least be in prayer. so pray for our country >> i will lift up my eyes to the hills from where my help comes from. love one another appear also virginia has a great up-and-coming governor, ken

cuccinelli, who was here today. get him in office. god bless you all. repeal. national cable satellite corp. 2012] national captioning institute] >> thank you, rita grace. next, it is herman cain. [applause]

>> thank you. thank you. thank you. >> thank you. thank you. >> you guys are great. you know, -- >> you were railroaded. >> you are right. you know, the liberals and the establishment they thought that because of a few raindrops you were going to stay home today. i was in harrisburg this morning for a speech. i was in north carolina yesterday for a speech. i was in nevada last week. i have been across this country and traveling, wanting to get here to be here with you, to deliver a message to the people in washington, d.c., and to deliver a message to obama and his administration -- we the people are here. we want our freedom back.

[laughter] >> this is about freedom. we want our freedom back. that is what this is about. it is the freedom to choose our own doctors. freedom to choose our own health provider. freedom to choose our own a treatment, freedom to choose our own health employer -- health insurance plan. this is not just about the repeal of obamacare, which it is, but this is about getting our freedom back to just be free to make our own decisions with our lives.

in 2006, if obama care had been in full of facts, i would not be here today. many of you would not be here today. in 2006, i was diagnosed with stage four cancer. i had cancer in my colon and i had cancer in my liver. my surgeon, when i asked, well, and what kind of chances do you give me, he said based upon statistics, you have about a 30% chance of survival. i said that means i have a 70%

chance of dying. he said yes. i said first of all, since i can choose, i choose to be in the 30% of survival. [applause] >> now, imagine if a bureaucrat and got a report on their desk trying to decide if i should be approved by surgery, my chemotherapy, and they saw that this guy, herman cain, who they do not know, but just see a name on a piece of paper, if they were to say he has a 30% chance of survival, i do not think the government wants to pay for his surgery and his chemotherapy. that is what obama-care would do to you and me.

that is why we have to rip it up and redial it. [applause] -- repeal it. [applause] >> this is about freedom. freedom of choice -- the first message i want you to take home with you and keep it in your heart because we have a lot of work to do is that we are here, we are still in charge, we want our freedom back, it starts with the repeal of obama-care, and we will repeal a whole lot of other things also. [applause] >> as i said, i have been traveling from sea to site -- from sea to shining sea for over the last year, and even though my quest for the position

of president was derailed -- you are not booing me, are you? [laughter] >> even though my quest for the position of president was derailed, i want you to know i am still on a mission, a mission to maintain control of congress, to gain control of the senate, and send barack obama back home. [applause] >> that is our mission. that is our mission. [applause] >> one of the things that i

hear from some people -- a question i am often asked from sea to shining sea, by too many people, "can we defeat barack obama?" >> yes we can. >> i say to them -- [chanting] yes we can >> i have another one for you. yes we will defeat barack obama. >> [chanting] yes we will >> here is why. the american people are divided into two groups. you have the patriots like

yourself -- you have the patriots and the citizens that know what is going on, and you have the other groups that i call the clueless. yes. it is costs against the clueless, and the good news is there is more of ross then there are of them. -- us against the clueless, and the good news is there is more of us than there are of them, and because there are more of us than them -- by the way, do you think this many clueless would come out in the rain? i do not think so. it might mess up their weave. you are the patriots. we are the real patriots that care about this country. we know what is going on.

we know they are trying to take away our freedom. we are here to make the statement that we want our freedom back, and we are going to get our freedom back in november at the ballot box. [applause] >> and finally, yes, we know we need to repeal this terrible bill, and i believe that it will get repealed because of the american people, because just like when the founding fathers started this great country, they had three basic ideals that helped to inspire this nation. life, liberty and pursuit of happiness -- that is why we are all here. life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness -- and you see, the founding fathers had the

foresight and wisdom to foresee that we might have had something like obama-care shoved down our throats. the provision been made in the -- that they made in the declaration of independence, when you get past life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, and if you keep on reading, it says, with any form of government becomes destructive of those ideas, it is their right of the people to alter or abolish it. we have some altering and abolishing to do. abolish obama-care. tempo -- [cheers and applause] abolish obama-care. [applause] >> we are going to alter the occupying of the white house come november. so, i say to all of you,

because the mainstream media and the liberals -- are you all booing me? [laughter] >> they want you to believe that we cannot do this, and i'm here to tell you, state inspired. state inspired that we can do this -- stagy inspired. -- stay inspired. stay inspired that we will repeal obama-care. stay inspired the we will change washington, d.c., and i want you to stay inspired with the spirit of the bumblebee. d.c., when i was in college, i learned -- you see, when i was in college, i learned that the bumblebee is not supposed to fly. you and i know that the bumblebee flys. -- flies.

he will see some this spring. we know that the bumblebee fries -- flies because we have seen it. i was in mathematics and physics major. we started that if you take -- we studied about the fact that if you take equations of motion and you measure the caribbean and the parameters of the bumblebee reaching the aerodynamics parameters of the bomb but -- the aerodynamics parameters of the bumblebee, that little flat body, the computer comes back and says the soccer cannot fly. -- sucker cannot fly. we thought we made a mistake, so we got some more help was little -- helpless little bumblebees, put them in a bigger computer, a faster computer, and ran it through the

equations of motion, and it was supposed to say the bumblebee could fly, and it came back and said the sucker still can't fly. there is only one reason the bumblebee flies. the bumble bee believes it can fly. believe we can repeal obama- care. believe we will defeat barack obama in november. god bless you. [applause] >> we are going to repeal it. yes we well. -- will. next, guy benson.

>> you know, i am so lucky. i get to go directly after a very dull, uninspiring, flow- -- low-profile speaker. thank you -- low-profile speaker. thank you -- thank you for staying. we affirm persuasive arguments that obama-care is bad medicine. we -- it is. we have heard that is bad economics. it is. we have heard it is bad law. it is. we will know whether they agree soon enough. this law is also something else. obama-care it is indisputably bad politics for the democrats. yesterday was the two-year anniversary. the president did not give a speech about his big accomplishment. that is not an accident.

the white house knows full well above the number of things. there is a new study out reported in "the washington post" which concludes the 2010 election was lost for democrats because of obama-care. nancy pelosi have bedeviled taken out of her hands because of the law she crammed down our throats without knowing what was in it. they have also seen the recent "usa today" call which confirms that obama-care is a drag on this president's chances for reelection. they know that. they have noticed the rest recent poll out this week that shows that 56% of the american public wants this bill and repealed, and they know about the fox news poll that shows 59% once this bill repeals. -- wants this bill repealed. that is not all. there is a "washington post/abc news" poll.

67%, two out of every three americans said either repeal the individual mandate or get rid of the whole thing. 67%. [applause] >> the gallup organization asked what do you think of the individual mandate, which is a central pillar for this lot? 72% said the individual mandate is unconstitutional. think about this. this is remarkable. after debating this for the better part of three years, more than seven out of 10 americans, not just here, but across this whole country, more than seven out of 10 of us believe the central pillar of this law violates the american constitution.

all of the statistics and all of the pols lead us to one lesson that we have won this debate. we have won this argument. despite years and be delivered misinformation campaign from democrats, a president, and a lap dog, obsequious media, we have won this debate. round one goes to the good guys. round two is next, and this is as we learned in 2010, just winning the argument does not necessarily impact legislative outcomes, right? so, we thank and salute the house of representatives for voting for repeal already. thank you, house of representatives. [applause] >> every single republican and a handful of democrats. we think republican leadership -- thank for forcing votes in

the u.s. senate on repeal. thank you for trying. we know it will -- it has been said by every speaker, but i will say again -- in order to get this job done, we need a new senator. harry reid has had long enough running dead body not passing budgets come up with a link -- running that body, not passing budgets, putting his thumbs, and, of course, we need a new president in order to achieve those goals, -- president. in order to achieve those goals, we have to unite and win. thank you. >> next up is ellen cortez from let freedom ring? >> let freedom ring. >> an edge in this is obama- care and its web of bureaucracy?

what we going to do with it? we will erase the. -- it. get rid of this thing. they say there are no young people in the tea party. i think i'm here to prove that is true. or this guy here. this health care law is supposed to be a marvelous thing for youth. we can stay on our parents' health care until we are 26. that is usually -- that is really an ideal role. we want to be independent from -- dependent on our parents. we want to be independent from our parents. that means we need jobs, and this president, what has he done? he is kept his eye off of the ball and passed a law that six away your freedom -- and takes away your freedom. we want to be independent and have jobs. three out of 10 young adults are forced to live better home. we need to get rid of barack obama so we can bring them a

better future. [applause] >> president obama made a lot of promises about his health care law, but when he did not make and probably should have was that he could bring families closer together. all these uses are forced to live at home. -- these youth are foced to live at home instead. repeal this bill. repeal this bill. repeal this bill. thank you. [applause] >> thank you, alex cortez. before our next speaker, we have a little task i need you guys to help me out with. see this? at the end, we will tear this and say repeal this bill at the same time. we are not like those people that like to break the law and rape people and all other sorts of bad things. we will clean up after ourselves.

what you will do is take this, go home, write the date on it, and right we will repeal this, put it on your refrigerator, and looked at it every single day because we are repealing this. we will restore our constitution. 9/12/2009 i helped organize that event, and there is a lady from california that could not be here with us because she is the -- at home fighting breast cancer. she is here today. she was from the laguna beach tea party. please join me in welcoming linda. [applause]

>> i almost faced a perfect storm. right after i organized the first tea party of laguna beach, california, a fist terrifying -- i faced terrifying news that i could have breast cancer. what i did not realize was the terrifying moment was that my private health-care moment would save me. our family had a plan known as blue cross/blue shield, and that provided me with diagnostic mammograms which includes an ultrasound. so, in that spring day when my surgeon oncologist asked me do you want to hear the good news or the bad news, all i heard her say was early breast cancer, noninvasive, and because i had the freedom to select my health care plan i was going to be scared my life, -- stared my -- spare my life, and at the

very least months of chemotherapy and radiation. what if i had a government health care plan? at the end of 2009, the group that dictates what your health care is going to be, ladies, and men, said women at the age of 50 could get yearly mammograms every other year. anyone under 40 that is diagnosed with breast cancer can be lethal, and the older you get the greater the chances are for breast cancer. this sounds like rationing. does it not sound like rationing to you? that is exactly what was said by the former professor at johns hopkins university, the first woman to be head of the national institute of health. she said it was rationing, she told the press, and at that time i went to susan g. colman

in southern california and i demanded that they pronounce obama-care uh on fit for american women, and i actually -- obama-care unfit for american women, and at that time i said there is something our group says -- "sam, keep your mitts off of our tits." [cheers and applause] why would the task force do this? it is simple, ladies. first of all, they are sparing you for -- from mental distress in case you have a false positive, but according to "the huntingtown post" three months -- "the huffington post," three months ago, they will reword the language so you better understand it terror and you do not understand what they're trying to do for you. -- it. you do not understand what

they're trying to do for you. the cost of covering women 40 and over and the baby boomers far outweighs the cost of saving those women's lives that might die of best the breast cancer. to be fair, congress did pass and include in obama-care a provision for mammograms starting at age 40 for yearly mammograms, but let me tell you, ladies, it will not be enough. if i did not have an ultrasound, which found the breast cancer, i could have been at a later-stage breast cancer. indeed diagnostics. at the same time, congress and the president who loves this healthcare plan, decided they did not think they wanted it. they would have a ppo, so in the spring, and early-summer, i

decided to have a bilateral mastectomy because obama-care was breathing down my neck, and not only that i was facing medicare, which meant one half of $1 trillion would be taken out of the medicare trust fund, and there would be a panel of 15 sitting around some table in washington deciding if linda could have surgery to cure her breast cancer or a pill. i decided on the bilateral mastectomy, and in early-summer of 2009, as i was being very emotional, as i was being wheeled down the hall from the recovery room, my husband reported to me later i cried out red, white, and blue.

>> [chanting] red and blue. >> my husband, wondering what i was talking about said hani, it is neat, john, and i said where is john -- honey, a disney, john, and i said where is john adams? when i got to my room a girl explained i am an unapologetic liberal, but if there is a war i am joining with linda. [applause] >> so, today, to save ourselves from rationing, we must get rid

of this, now. we stand assembled and give our voice by the first amendment, and we tell the supreme court justices, no obama-care. no obama-care. no obama-care. >> it is a war on women, but not the war on women the liberals want you to think. it is a war on every one of us. it is a fight for freedom. we are freedom fighters, and we are going to keep on fighting. [applause] next up is the author of "democracy denied" and the vice president for policy at americans for prosperity. his name is bill. -- phil.

>> first of all, thank you guys for standing here for a couple hours in the rain. there are a few more minutes you will in door to prevent much greater pain in the future from this administration. nancy pelosi was famously asked is the bill constitutional, and she said, "are you kidding?" are we kidding? do we care about the united states constitution? are we going to repeal this bill? let us remember how this thing passed in the first place. they took a draft bill that should never have passed, because the people of massachusetts, not the most conservative state -- they took a draft bill and put it in the united states code as is. and that draft bill embodied

every corrupt deal you can imagine to get it passed the finish line. the state of connecticut, gatorade for the state of florida. it bought off the hospitals and the pharmaceuticals. and the corrupt deal they made with the insurance companies are pretty simple. they said we want to regulate you out of control. we will tell you every single way to operate your business. if you accept it, we will force everyone in america to buy your product. we will force them to buy your product, whether you want to or not. we will sweeten the pot with a couple billion dollars of tax subsidies. that is the bill we have now. it is corrupt. the unconstitutional mandate is at the heart of how this whole thing operates. the federal government does not have the power to force us to purchase a product. the united states supreme court

had better do the right thing and strike down the mandate. [applause] but when they strike down the let us just say when they strike down the mandate, they need to go further. if they strike down the mandate and only the mandate, all the regulations and bureaucracies will destroy private health care in this country just as surely as if the mandate had stood, so they have to strike down the entire law. and if any of obamacare is still intact after the supreme court decision, we need a congress and a president that will do the right thing, the will restore constitutional government, the will stand up for liberty and will repeal obamacare. i have been to a lot of tea party rallies. i remember two years ago, when we were out on the capitol

steps, begging them not to pass this bill. three years ago in washington on tax day, i am in front of the white house under the pouring rain, where our voices were ignored. i am going to do something i have never done before at a tea party. i am going to litter. it is a one-time thing. repeal this bill. thank you very much. >> next up is a speaker from less government, which is something we would all like to see. >> it is a screw. it is the new obama health care plan. my name is eric holder, and i am here to brainwash you. [laughter] oh -- is this not the right

crowd? i was going to come out and have an original idea, but this woman had it on her side -- undersigned. nancy pelosi said we had to pass the bill to find out what is in it. i would like nancy pelosi, harry reid, and president obama to read the constitution, so they will know what is in it. of course barack obama knows what it is. and i would like a couple of the supreme court justices to read it. there is a little refresher course going into this week. one of them should read it and then immediately step aside. but that is a separate issue. what we have here a fundamentally is the original constitution, which has not changed, with some amendments as exceptions, guaranteed us right to life, liberty, and property.

barack obama and the democrats guarantee others access to our life, liberty, and property. and that is not what was intended. as was pointed out a little earlier, barack obama complained that this was a negative rights constitution, a positive rights constitution. the constitution mentions a lawyer. it does not mention a doctor. yes. so i am going to be brief, just because i am going to be brief. this is -- i am really honored to be here, especially with all these women we are supposedly at war with. and we are, they just did not mean it that way. it is an honor to be here. keep this fervor going for seven and a half months. november of this year will be a transformational change, the likes of which barack obama has

seen but not wanted. thank you very much, ladies and gentleman. he put up. -- keep it up. >> the first time i came to washington, d.c. 40 party patriots, i met a woman who was very involved in fighting this legislation. at the time, it was still legislation, not a law. she knew a lot of doctors, a lot of patience. she knows a lot about this policy. please join me in welcoming from the doctor patient medical association kathryn sark. >> three years ago, 2.5 years ago, we were holding another rally, where we had doctors. there is an old joke that had doctors.

a patient comes in to the doctor and is touched -- and is hunched over. he is having trouble walking. he comes out upright, walking like this. his buddy says, "that must be some doctor. he took care of you like that." and he says, "what he did was he gave me a long pertain." -- longer cain." -- longer cane." this is a $2 trillion cane. it does not actually fix any of the problems. it just gives us a longer cane, and charges us for it. we are trying to work on that. it is like advertising a great price and when you get to the store there are not any of the product. in marketing, we call that bait and switch. it tells you you are going to have insurance coverage. it tells you you are going to be enrolled in medicaid.

but just try to find a doctor who is going to be around who can literally be able to afford to take care of you at these prices. a few years ago, when we started working on this, i have been working on this since we sued hillary clinton. so i have been on that a long time. what we saw starting three years ago was a thing piting doctors versus patience, as though we have competing interests, which is not true. we are never going to let that happen again. we are all going to work together, as doctors and patients, to stop them. what they do not tell you about this bill is that it is unfair to the middle-class. folks want to tell you it is unfair to the middle-class. it is like the episode of friends, where they all go out

to dinner and split the tab, and one only has soup. if you have advertisers and a bottle of wine and you split the tab, it is ok. we do not want to tell people they cannot have their bottle of wine and their appetizers. we just want them to pay their fair share, right? people always ask me why there are not more doctors out here. why isn't there a sea of white coats? and do you know why? because they do not want to come to rallies. they do now want to stand up here at podiums. we have to drag them, kicking and screaming. you know what they want to do? i want to take care of their patients. they do not want to get into the politics. they want to be left alone. i will tell you some other things they do not want to do. they call it the destruction of medicine. it is the destruction of medicine. they are taking us down to

doomsday, when we want to go down the road to repeal. here is what doctors will not tell you, so i will do it. they do not want to spend two minutes for every minute they see a patient, going to government regulations and paperwork. they complain they spend one fourth of their time on medicare compliance. that is before this is completely in effect. they do not want a government bureaucrat peeking over their shoulder, telling them how to take care of you. they do not want to be forced to think of their patients as cost-benefit units. they want to think of you as patients, and that they work for you. i will tell you another thing they are afraid to say. they are afraid to complain about money, because they do not want you to think they are greedy bastards who want more money.

but i will tell you the truth. medicare pays them as low as $12 for an office visit. we pay plumbers and other skilled tradesmen more than that, and they do not even get paid for an office consultation. shall we talk about itab? everybody knows about this. it is patients against bureaucrats. on top of it, the ipab panels, which cannot be practicing physicians, by the way, will be paid more than the average doctor in places like pennsylvania and ohio. president obama tells you about the red hills and the blue pills. i do not remember seeing his and the license. -- his m.d. license.

he just tries to pretend he is a doctor in television. all the other politicians, except for the few we hear about, is all loaded with lawyers. when it comes to your medical care, do you want to trust the lawyers or do you want to trust the doctors? of course. i will tell you the last thing doctors will not tell you is that they are quitting. they have had it. the cannot do it anymore. they are throwing in the tiles in their independent practices, going to work as salaried employees. hospitals are buying up their practices. you know what happens when they do that? they become unionized. their politics start to change. they start moving to the left instead of conservative. you think they do not know that? they are trying to cultivate a new group of democrats to vote for them by taking away the doctors' independence and creating this pessimism. what are we going to tell them? no doom.

and if you care about this, to cut yourself phones -- take out your cell phones and tell us, "my doctor works for me." thank you all for coming. >> thank you. and thank you to doctor/patient medical association and her colleague, kelly, who helped us put this event on debate. you have been very helpful in the success of this event. we have three more patriots. i know we are running long. we are going to whip the bill, tear it up, and make a walk back to the metro station, past the supreme court. we have paul more from washington, d.c. -- tom moore from washington, d.c. tea party.

>> it is a beautiful day. how do i know? we have thousands of patriots in washington, d.c., and it is raining. we have a representative who knows a little bit about farming. he knows that when it rains, seeds grow. i know a little bit about farming. i am always planting seeds. like you, when i come to washington, i am usually planting the seeds of liberty. you came here in 2009 to plant the seeds of liberty. you were discontented. you did not like what your government was doing. and it rained. and those seeds grew, and the blossoms. in september of 2009, a million and a half blossoms showed up on the capitol grounds. that is what patriot farmers can do. in 2010, you came back again.

there were hundreds and hundreds of view, came to the obamacare war room, the take the town hall to washington. he showed up again on march 20 at the capitol, planting seeds. in november, 2010, a tsunami swept washington, and we cleared at the house, and we brought some conservative leadership here. you are all planter dudes. get used to it. this is, in 2012, your american spring. things are going to change this year. coming out of the constitutional convention, ben franklin was asked what kind of government had given us. he replied, "it is a republic, if you can keep it." that is you, the individuals, you collectively. we have a representative citizen government, and only you can keep the citizen in that government. you have to speak up.

you have to not allow yourselves to be coopted. you have to support your principles. you have to plant the seeds of liberty. thomas jefferson said, "one man with courage is a majority." meaning man with courage, and women, who stand up -- others will follow. you are not alone in this. look around you. you have plenty of help. only if you choose to exercise of your voice are you going to reap the seeds of your liberty. i tell you it is time to tell your politicians that excuses are the nails that bill the house of failure. we are tired of seeing them let america fail. bill you to balance the budget. failing to tell the truth. failing to restore jobs and the economy.

failing to live up to their promises. it is time to get angry. it is time for you to let them know what you think. it is time for you to tell them, "i am matter than hell. i am not going to take it anymore." tell them. we are madder than hell. hang on to that feeling. box it up. take it home. share it with your friends, your family, your colleagues. show them how to plant the seeds of liberty together. you have the duty to do that. you are the conscience of america. i have one question to ask. who decides? >> we the people. >> and who decides what happens to obamacare? >> we the people. >> and what are we going to do together?

i'm getting old. what can i tell you? thank you. god bless you and our u.s.a. >> thank you, tom. next we have from the cleveland tea party, ralph king. >> patriots, this week, they're going to be looking at obamacare. teh state of ohio just came out with a mandate against the forced health care insurance in obamacare, all 88 counties, all the democrat counties, with a mandate vote, rejected obm

amacare. we need you to reject obamacare. here is the thing. it was not because of the great speakers or the leaders that ohio did that. there is a bunch of people from ohio in the crowd today. [cheers] those grassroots people are the ones that took it to the doorstep on obamacare. when we leave here today, instead of singing and preaching to the choir, we need you to go out and you need to be the chorus to america. you need to take this to the people. understand, over 230 years ago, and i went to public school, our founding fathers looked back at the forefathers of our country and why they came here, and what really started this country.

it was personal property rights and religious freedoms. obamacare destroys both of them. this is not about health care. it never has been. we have been saying that. it feels pretty good to be right, doesn't it, people? this is a direct attack on everything that the united states of america stands for. they will take this bill, and under the guise of health care, you see them going after your religious freedoms. under the guise of health care, they will go after what you eat. they will go after the air. they will go after the water. we need to repeal this bill. we need to send a message to the supreme court. listen and respect the constitution. [cheers and applause] people, repeal the bill.

[cheers and applause] >> our last speaker -- remember, one more thing to do, brad schuler from north carolina. >> i would like to say that you people are beautiful sight. you represent america's finest. if we can be saved, it is folks like yourselves that are going to do it. my name is brad schuler. i came from north carolina today to advocate for the thousands of innocent american medical patients who do not have a voice in this and are threatened with destruction. for me, this is personal. in time, you all will know someone who will need medical excellence in order to survive. shortly after this farce they

call the health care bill passed, john boehner yelled out to members of congress, did you read the bill before you passed it? hell no, you didn't. it has been two years since this vote and john boehner -- i think that is what we are trying to communicate to these people here today. we are currently in what i would call the set up face to a great american tragedy. nobody has felt the pain this decision will yield. once the full implementation is upon us, many innocent lives will be destroyed and we will forever be changed as a nation. this does appear to be gained here. the destruction of the greatest civil society to of ever existed. simply put, this is good versus evil. we americans are left with four questions i think we must ask

ourselves. does this moment here and now have to be our pinnacle, the high water mark on america as the most exceptional society in the course of human history? no, it doesn't. is this the moment in time when we are no longer strong enough and virtuous enough a people to resist the wave of terror any that has been mounting against us for many decades now? no, it isn't. have we lost the fortitude that is necessary and required of a people to be able to enjoy the god-given freedoms that we have here in america? no, we haven't. i think we can all agree that as americans, we have enjoyed many blessings, but the most apparent one having been the finest medical system to exist in all of human history. now, here we are, seemingly as the last line of defense, against this imminent danger to our people. the burden is squarely on the