discretion to say, you know what, it really isn't reasonable for you to have to give up your funding for the visually impaired and the disabled, just to cover these newly eligible people, so we will make it voluntary, we'll make that discretionary -- that would essentially be creating - converting a 1984 amendment approach to a 1972 amendment approach, and i just don't think that is the kind of discretion that the secretary has, with all due respect. now, moving on to the next point, justice alito, your hypothetical, i think, aptly captures the effect on this, based on the fact that these tax dollars are being taken from the state's tax base, and it's not like steward machine, where the federal government would say, and oh, by the way, if you don't take the option we are giving you, we are going to have a federal substitute that will go in, and we will take care of the unemployed in your states. here, if you don't take this offer we are giving you, your tax dollars will fund the other 49 states, and you will get nothing. but of course, this situation is much more coercive, even in your hypothetical, because it is tied directly to the mandate.

it's also tied to the -- to participation in the preexisting program. so it is as if there was yet another program for post- secondary education, they gave them exactly your option -option -- and then they also said, oh, and by the way, you not only -- not get these funds, but you lose the post-secondary fund as well. it's really hard to understand tying the preexisting participation in the program as anything other than coercive. the solicitor general makes a lot of the fact that there are optional benefits under this program. well, guess what? after the medicaid expansion there will be a lot less opportunity for the states to exercise those options, because one of the things that the expansion does -- precisely because the expansion is designed to convert medicaid into a program that satisfies the requirement of the minimum essential coverage of the individual mandate, things that used to be voluntary will no longer be voluntary. the perfect example is prescription coverage. it's a big part of the benefits that some states but not all

provide voluntarily now. it will no longer be voluntary after the expansion because the federal government has deemed that prescription drugs to be part of the minimal essential health coverage that everybody in this country must have under the mandate. so that option that the state has is being removed by the expansion itself. the chief justice made the point - >> mr. clement, may i ask one question about the bottom line in this case? it sounds to me like everything you said would be to the effect of, if congress continued to do things on a voluntary basis, so we are getting these new eligibles, and say, states, you can have it or not, you can preserve the program as it existed before, you can opt into this. but you are not asking the court as relief to say, well, that's how we -- we -- that's how we cure the constitutional infirmity, we say this has to be on a voluntary basis. instead, you are arguing that this whole medicaid addition, that the whole expansion has to be nullified, and moreover, the entire health care act.

instead of having the easy repair, you say that if we accept your position, everything falls. >> well, justice ginsburg, if we can start with the common ground that there is a need for repair because there is a coercion doctrine and this statute is coercion, then we are into the question of remedy. and we do think, we do take the position that you describe in the remedy, but we would be certainly happy if we got something here, and we got a recognition that the coercion doctrine exists, this is coercive, and we get the remedy that you suggest in the alternative. let me just finish by saying i certainly appreciate what the solicitor general says, that when you support a policy, you think that the policy spreads the blessings of liberty. but i would respectfully suggest that it's a very funny conception of liberty that forces somebody to purchase an insurance policy whether they want it or not. and it's a very strange conception of federalism that says that we can simply give the states an offer that they can't refuse, and through the spending power which is premised on the

notion that congress can do more because it's voluntary, we can force the states to do whatever we tell them to. that is a direct threat to our federalism. thank you. >> thank you, mr. clement. and thank you, general verrilli, mr. kneedler, mr. carvin, mr. katsas, and in particular, of course, mr. long and mr. farr. the case is submitted. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] thehe supreme court ar argument. later, whether the rest of the law can stay intact if the mandate is found unconstitutional. the supreme court could announce its ruling by late june or early july and just a reminder, you can watch the health-care oral arguments any time at our web site, c-span.org. >> this week, a look at cyber-

security, privacy, and spectrum issues before the house with representative greg walden of oregon. he chairs the energy and commerce subcommittee on communications and technology. >> this week, joining us is representative greg walden. he serves as chairman of the commerce subcommittee on communications and technology. we appreciate you being on the program. >> thank you. >> if we could start with an issue that it -- is working its way through congress. that is cyber security. it was fast track in the senate and has helped hearings in the house. where do you stand on the various bills? >> first of all, cyber security issues pose one of the single biggest threats to our nation's security. we're seeing this enormous loss of intellectual property whether it is from businesses or theft of government secrets and all the malicious things that

happen, hacking, the theft of services money. whatever. we had a couple of hearings in the communications and technology subcommittee. we have -- what we got out of those hearings from the witnesses almost across the board was do no harm. second, the more you try to prescribe especially in statute of regulation, a very specific thing we should do out here in the industry, the more you give the bad guys are road map, you will miss out -- you will miss- allocate capital. that seemed to be unanimous. after the first hearing, i put together a work group bipartisan, six members of our subcommittee. and said you do a deep dive and report on what you find. what they came back with was the minimal intervention is

best, voluntary guidelines are best. that is why the report that just came out from the fcc group made a lot of sense. if there is an issue where we can be helpful, it is on the path of the bipartisan bill mike rogers has, between the government agencies. and certainly the mccain bill is probably better than the more prescriptive lieberman bill. the country needs to come together. do no harm, do not try and have tsa for the internet, do not house it with the government agency that will write rules and regulations that are outdated the second the ink dries. >> you agree with lee terry, who was against dhs taking over. >> that is an issue. and get back to every witness we heard from said do no harm.

do not think you can get ahead of this. you will miss allocate capital. you will have less filling out paperwork while the bad guys are working. they have every economic incentive to stop them now where and stopped the -- malware and bots. we want to create a system that encourages that dynamic response. the private sector initiatives to keep them not held back. >> joining us is our guest reporter, from politico. >> to continue about cyber security, you alluded to this in talking about the lieberman and mccain bills in the senate. what response -- they are deemed

so critical. should they have to live up to some different type of security standards? >> that is a good question. in the house we have had the grid act. in retrospect, there may be a better way. but you do have a different set of issues especially when it comes to power. now you're talking about switches and relays. i think there is a process, whether it goes to ferc, it gets back, the same principle applies to offset the standards that hold back innovation and dynamic reaction. encourage better communication, and it may be that there have to be some standards on the electrical side in terms of your building of this smart green technology. everyone of those smart grid devices is a portal to the entire grid, potentially.

i think you get down to can we encourage best practices, developed and evolved on a dynamic bases on the energy side, the water side of this infrastructure? >> let's wait and see. let's see if industry can develop this on their own of -- and if they do not we can revisit its. >> that is -- there is a role for all of them to be talking and for them to have this access to the critical information. nsa or some of the other agencies see something coming, they have a direct line of communication that is instant and there is that ability to have the flow of information. the other thing is not to violate antitrust rules or of -- some of the other roles that would apply if you're sharing that information back and forth, you may have some privacy issues. we have to be thoughtful what stops that communications from happening. what are the best practices. they summed it up well in terms of the rest of the internet.

that is a good model. >> you mentioned privacy. what should the balance be? how did you take care of the concerns of groups like the aclu. the bills do not do enough to protect the average american. >> that is the challenge we face. there is this fine line between my private information which i think should be -- the notion that employers could demand your passwords, to your face but, your e-mail or whenever, that is outrageous. i think there are clear lines and there are more blurred lines. the information we got back and use that through these hearings is pretty clear that most of these providers are saying we're fighting this war out there on the internet every day. it reminds me of that movie, men in black. the attacks are very devastating.

and we were warned that america will suffer a catastrophic the cyber attack. . . tells me that we have to move rapidly but not in a way that violates privacy or the basic tenets of privacy. and it encourages quick reaction, not a regulatory environment. >> to take a different tack. google has a new set of privacy guidelines. do you have concerns about those? do you talk with google at all? >> we have not had a lot of discussion. that was the subcommittee more than mine. we're looking at it as it relates to the agency's. i think -- i am old fashioned in a lot of ways. i've always thought my phone

call was my phone call. i read something the other day where one of these groups was talking about being able to listen into the background noise in your phone conversation and target ads based on what they hear. i do not know what it will hear in the background but it could make for some interesting ads to come forward. i do not think it is appropriate. i think people are starting to wake up and realize things that have posted on the public side can affect their job. as potential employers, it is another way to do public background check. you can brush your kind of lucky. that issue is emerging. more users are starting to go whoa. debate, d on the sopa we will dress up and slap down upper writer that crosses that line. -- a provider that crosses that

line. line. the internet can see is pretty powerful and agile. and pretty effective when they feel like their rights are being misused. i think you will see and that is why i prefer to see is the user community have the power and not have the government try and start mandating and regulating the internet. the against dangerous and that leads into the notion that going through the un through the -- who controls the internet. we have to be careful. the last thing we want is the united nations control of the internet. >> you mentioned a few minutes ago the new story about facebook and how some employers are asking for a password. is that one of those areas that congress should consider getting involved in? >> i think we got bigger fish to fry than that. but i do think it is worth having that discussion and

express our personal opinion. because that is individual employers doing things that seem a little over the edge. i do not need to pass a statute to prescribe what employers can and cannot ask for. there is enough pure as it is. maybe we crossed the line on that one. there is probably a few. that is like asking someone, bring in all your mail that you got through the last two years. bring in all your photos. i would not want to work for a company that is that interested. >> the ftc has released its privacy report, its framework for how it expects companies to act and where it might take action against companies that do not follow the rules. should congress play a role?

should it pass a law on privacy? >> we share some jurisdiction. she has been in the lead on that. i think we -- what i have learned around congress is frequently just the fact you hold hearings draws attention to issues that i prefer to see as the private sector solution out there. if not, we need to be prepared to act. that is where i approach it from. the discussion that has been having in washington, there is a lot of talk of legislation but it gets dicey in terms of what one person's view of privacy is and people to not realize the interconnection. >> what about piracy legislation? do you think that will be revisited? >> put a noose been on how you

looby -- a new spin on how you lobby congress. lobby congress. i will be out in silicon valley again. some of the company's recognize that may not be a long-term lobbying strategy. there are issues about theft of intellectual property. they want to be careful there not viewed as the driver of the robber back and forth. if you do that in the bank you are probable. are probable. i would like to see them figure out aggressively how we address and how -- we will call that if it is -- how we would address

that. i am a bit old-fashioned on some of this. it is property that you are stealing. just because you are taking it digitally does not make it better. you should not be in a situation where you have -- you cannot police the fact that you put in free music for free video takes your -- takes you to the website. but they can adjust their logarithms. >> we're talking with representative greg walden. the next question comes from our guest reporter. >> the big talk has been the language on incentive. we have heard multiple officials at the fcc said the language limits their ability to capture spectrum.

what is congress's intent here? are you looking to set participation or did you give them some leeway? are they looking at it in a way that is not how you intended? >> i think this is the first time there has been an incentive like this. the staff to work with the fcc staff to get right. what we did not want to do is create a situation where some of the principal buyers would be excluded at the beginning. att and verizon. there was a lot of chatter coming down to the commission at its highest level. its highest level. they can do all that. we can take away anyway -- any of that authority.

they can deal with issues related to monopolies and that sort of thing. what we wanted to do is maximize participation, maximize duration, maximize the ability to fill this to get more spectrum into the market will protecting the rights of those who have it today, creating a fair system and further, actually implement recommendation to build a network and pay for it. >> let's talk about the broadband network. that network could cause of -- cost up to $16 billion. >> let's see how the issue plays out. i commend the commission for

getting their payments done on time to create the board. they -- we will be doing oversight. remember, the national broadband report did not say give them the deed. that is worth $3 billion. they have 10 when you figure in the 3.27 or whenever it was. they had a new beachfront piece of spectrum here. i am disappointed we ended up accepting governance language that was not exactly how we propose did in the house. i am concerned about how that will work in the end. i hope that the opt out provision states have our real opt out provisions and that will be recognized. we were thinking you can leverage what the states and regions have done to build networks as long as they were interoperable. that has been diminished the way this came out. there was great value. you have several states that

have been building out networks that are seeking waivers. now we're not sure under this law whether they can have -- they have statutory authority. there is some things that need to be worked out. >> when do members of congress including yourself expect this network to reach first responders? >> they do not have to wait for the incentive option. we set up a way they get funding earlier rather than later. they will be the first out of the box. the sooner the better. we want to make sure that they have this interoperable network. sooner rather than later. the model is there to go do it. the money and the spectrum to do it and they will get after it. >> when it comes to spectrum,

when d.c. auctions taking place? >> there was an economist at the fcc said in the team to 24 months. that is perhaps overly optimistic. my guess is in the three to five-year lane -- range. there is enormous insatiable demand for the spectrum to fulfill all of our demands on all the devices we're packing around. so the sooner the better. you are talking three to five years. to set up the incentive piece of the process and broadcast. >> when will we see the results of that auction? >> given the demand, as you hear from the carriers, as soon as it is available. they will try to put it into use. use. >> another thing that the house is looking at is fcc reform.

there is a reform bill. what is the status of that? what are you looking for? >> i appreciate the question. something i have worked on. we put everything out there. everybody that ever had an idea, we put in the bill and we put it in a public process. we refined it down into a fairly tight box. it does a couple of things that are important. it implements for an independent agency the executive order put forward for the other agencies. go out into the market and see if there is a way to evaluate. have a transparent public process. we were pretty prescriptive and we backed off and went the other direction. i have talked to former officials. he said -- they said they would

like them to set their time lines and report if they are meeting them or not. to clean up the process. i have a request in on their universal service fund order. it was something less than that in the beginning that they voted on. they vote on a news release. a piece of paper. and then they added. behind the scenes among the offices and circulate all this and they come out with their final rule that they allegedly voted on. if your participation is in this market, you never see ahead of time what the rule is. that they're considering. how'd you comment on that? at best for the first and the end, they are apoplectic. i cannot have a copy. they do not know what to do. if you go to the federal energy regulatory commission, they publish it. you and i know what is and that is what they're voting on.

the fcc could adopt these processes and procedures. and then there is the sunshine act, a bipartisan bill that allows a majority of commissioners to get together and talk about issues and not violate public meeting was. >> related to the fcc, members of the energy and commerce committee have asked for documents related to light square. has the agency turned over those documents? are you willing to share that with senator grassley? any reason why it has not provided the documents? >> we are in discussion with with them about the scope and types of documents. that will not be a problem. they will cooperate. they have no reason not to. i chair the sub committee and we can invite them up under various ways and we can ask for documents including a subpoena which we have no need to do. we will get the documents and do

what we need to evaluate the documents and we propose to share them with senator grassley who i think is the u.s. senator, should get documents through his committee. >> should we expect a hearing on this in the next couple of months? hearings.oing to have this was triggered because of what i witnessed through the issue. when the fcc -- when they propose to operate in their band after a power level and then somebody is cantilevered listening over the gps system and receivers, this is not a very good process. have you end up having someone spend billions of dollars on a license and they go to do everything and somebody else because of receiver issues prevents them and destroys their business model? i do not think that is right.

from the receiver standards -- of light squared is part of that. i made them sit on the sides and i had done a little bit late in it -- like engineering. i knew enough just to be dangerous. i think we need to look at procedure. >> another issue that the fcc is looking at a, the verizon wireless cable company spectrum marketing deal. do have a dog in that fight? >> i have an opinion. i do not have a dog in the fight. my opinion would be this. the fcc should be focused on what the fcc has jurisdiction over which is the transfer of a license. the marketing does not have anything to do with the transfer and that is one of my criticisms. this would be addressed in our process reform bill. it gets pretty near the definition of extortion when somebody comes in in your

process and says we want to exchange this and they do their diligence. we want to affect the market place over here and we do not have the legal jurisdiction to do that. you want this license changed, do not do this as a side voluntary agreement? it is hardly monterey. these agencies if they want to change the marketplace should do so using their legal authority, promulgate a rule, have comment, and affect the market place. in the scope of a merger, exchanging licenses, they need to not agree to the merger or not agree or fix the harm or not fix the harm but they should not use those situations to legislate outside of where they have jurisdiction and they have done that repeatedly. commissions before this one and

this one. i think that is a bad way to do public policy. >> there is talk about putting more information about political ads online. do you support that? >> i have trouble -- i am troubled by that. the disclosure peace best belongs to the organization and that is the federal elections commission creative you want to know about contributions and expenditures, that is where that fight belongs is over there. we have dealt with this and we will in the context of the process reform that they want to -- the broadcaster the keeper of that data. there is a way to put your public online. the notion is it will save money and tells you how bad the practice of economics is, i was a broadcaster, you would have to come in -- how do you do that over the weekend? or put it on line?

you are picking a large target. you already have to have disclosure. is in your public file. i would leave it the way it is. >> a to ask you about two issues raised quickly. rush limbaugh and the birth control issue in the l.a. city council. council. >> i have no use for rush limbaugh. he is completely reprehensible and inappropriate. we had talk shows, i was the owner of a radius station, we would never paul -- would never put up with that. it has happened on the left and right. the bottom line is i am a first amendment gheit, first and foremost. that does not mean that you can yell fire in a theater or say things that are slanders or

write things that are libelous. i do not want a city council thinking they're deciding what is appropriate and not. can you imagine? that can play all kinds of different sides and what is the penalty? what people of? free speech is good and vigorous and it should be appropriate. the marketplace, you are seeing that play out with rush limbaugh and some of his advertisers. there is reaction. i think he has learned that. >> the final question, what is next on the subcommittees' radar other than -- where do we go from here? >> there is a lot of work we will do. cyber security is next. we will complete our work on that. and then we will do hearings on future of audio, data, video. we will be looking at all those issues. we will get some time to do some

oversight on the broadband build out from the stimulus. mostly oversight -- the oversight money went out the door and that is all -- the wrong time to stop oversight. we will be looking at whether we are getting what we are paying for. and we will continue work on spectrum. there is a small working group to look at the government's spectrum. we would like to have seen the report from ntia. we are not done with spectrum. we are just starting. we will go very deeply on government spectrum as well. >> greg walden is chairman of the commerce subcommittee on communications and technology. he has been our guest. thank you both. >> thank you.

>> this week, republican study committee chairman jim jordan, the ohio congressman talks broke he supports paul ryanne's budget which passed the house thursday. >> there is nothing good about the budget. the fact that the policy segments were the incorporate ideas that have been ideas like welfare reform, sending it back to the states. we think we could better serve their recipients. a lot of good things in there. like tax reform policy. it is 1000 times better than the president's budget. we get to balance it in a reasonable period fof time, five years. it takes 28 years for paul's

to balance. get 218t expect to votes. better than the president's. we will support that. >> also weighing in on campaign 2012 and john vehrs performance as leader. see the entire interview on c- span. >> i am appearing here today as one spokesperson for the hundreds of thousands of marines, sailors, their families, and loyal civilian employees who were unknowingly exposed to horrendous levels of toxins through their drinking water through camp lejeune, north carolina. >> the document crackles a retired marine in his efforts to expose the truth of -- toxic

drinking water. >> one thing they have done over the years is they have obfuscated the facts so much, they have told so many half- truths' and tell lies, they have admitted a lot of information to the media and now, if it were to sit down with me, face-to-face, i could show them that their own documents and counter what they have been saying and they do not want to do that. >> more sunday night at 8:00 p.m. eastern on "q&a". >> nancy pelosi said on thursday she would not support a 90-day expansion of the transportation funding bill. she called it a dereliction of duty the house has put off work on the senate version that was passed earlier this month. she spoke for about 25 minutes during her weekly briefing.

>> good morning. here we are probably coming together before we leave for the easter-passover break. as we gather here this morning the president will shortly be making a statement about the energy at the white house as the u.s. senate is debating

legislation on how we stop the oil and use those resources for the renewable energy so we can take ourselves out of the situation where we are held hostage by an international price of oil. this is an issue very important to me. we have to stop speculation, adding 20% to the price at the

pump. we have to stop those same wall street speculators from trying to sue against the dodd-frank provisions that stopped them from cornering the market and the other point is republicans here, the handmaidens of big oil are trying to stop the funding of the commission that regulates derivatives and speculators. that is on the subject of energy. we are debating the budget today. the republican budget breaks the guarantee and makes seniors paid more. it is a job -- it must be -- it will not have the votes on the republican side to pass but it may.

the democratic budget is a statement of national values, the economic security of their families, creation of jobs. supporting medicare and again, doing so in a fiscally sound way. it is important to know, i mentioned the medicare for seniors. also, if you are young person in terms of higher education, 400 dozen young people will be deprived of access to pull grants and another nine plus million people will have the benefit per -- curtailed. at the same time, the republican bill does nothing to address the fact that on july 1, the interest on student loans will double.

from 3.4 to 6.8%. the house democratic budget under chris van hollen's leadership addresses that and keeps it at 3.4%. if you are student, a senior, a member of the family, this budget should not be a statement that reflect your values. it does not. talking about what else is on the floor today, transportation. the republican budget, we all recognize the transportation bill is one of the biggest job creators. we recognize that over time it has always been bipartisan in its approach. that is because that localities have worked together in a region the way to put forth projects that can compete and create jobs and promote commerce and the quality of life.

the cut that budget from $90 billion to $46 billion. it does not get funded by the republican budget. maybe that is a good thing. apparently they do not have the votes for their own transportation bill which the secretary of transportation has said will be a job loser. it is a bad bill to begin with. they do not even like the idea of let's come together about some transportation bill and adequately funded. what they're doing today is trying to kick the can down the road for the 90-day district -- extension. these extensions are bad. a-list jobs. -- a they lose jobs.

31,000 jobs in north carolina, that is the most. they have big things going on there. maryland, 4000, nev., 4000, mich., 3500. the list goes on. there is no confidence, ester mts so when they kick the can down the road, the private sector cannot go down that path. of course, there is a big difference between passing the said bill, the bipartisan bill and the house, h.r. 7. 2 million jobs in the senate bill where is the house bill is job loser. separate and apart from that addressing kicking the can down the road, that is a job loser as well. it affects small business and cost the taxpayers more. putting it down to the future where it will cost more as well.

it is a bad idea. we asked them to pass something that can go to conference and extension covers the boat to and that should be a matter of weeks and it is over. apparently they do not have the votes to do that. we're at their mercy. whether it is energy and the need for us to address the price of the pump, you have asked me what i support. i am pleased to see in a paper because of the conversations the administration is having, the price of crude is already coming down. part of the oil issue is when you say are you going to stop well -- wall street speculation and release or not put oil in -- that puts the speculators at

unease. all these things are connected but they have one thing in common. keeping america no. 1. whether it is funding education, whether it is reducing our deficit in a fair way, not by giving hundreds of millions -- thousands of dollars individually to higher income people to the tune of hundreds of tens of billions of dollars and asking seniors to pay more. any questions? >> you hold the gop budget -- called it a job loser. there was a bipartisan bill, 38 representatives voted for it. [inaudible] >> i do not get your point. >> this was bipartisan and it included --

>> are you telling me about what was a caricature of simpson bowles? they changed the spending and revenue provisions in it. and so it did not receive support on either side. it was not such a good idea. we think the house democratic budget is a statement of national values, does reduce the deficit, while investing in the future through education and the rest and respecting our responsibilities to the american people including our seniors. that bill did not have support because it was not what it was advertised to be. a day or two before i would have told you i would be supporting the bill when it was presented to our caucus as an option but then when we saw what the particulars of it were, that is

why did not vote for. i cannot answer for what others did. people voted the way they voted. >> have you had any conversations between you and the white house or colleagues about what to do about health care is a significant parts are struck down? >> i am confident about the merits of the case. i did not go there myself. i did not see the proceedings. i wish there were television cameras in the supreme court in case any of you have that question. we can all see the arguments and the back-and-forth of it. i am a supporter of judicial review under the constitution in that regard. that is why we read the bill in a way that was constitutional. i still feel pretty confident about it. this game is not over.

what happens if your team does not win? let's have the game. i have confidence. from my can see, i do not know -- he was confident yesterday but he went to the court. i was pleased to send a number of members, a representative of our caucus and it will -- they were all impressed by our democracy and how the system works. and the substance, we will see what the decision is. it was lovely to see the reaction. people were so grateful to have the opportunity to go there. >> there is a bipartisan report that the cost to oil companies could be passed on to consumers.

i support a bill that could raise gas prices when gas prices are so high? >> i think you speak to the bankruptcy of decency in the system. we have oil companies -- i'm not talking about all oil companies, i am talking about the big five making tens of billions of dollars a quarter in profit, record-breaking, historic. why do they need an incentive to drill? i have had republicans say to me, you want to reduce the budget by eliminating the tax breaks, subsidies for big oil trade you could save that much by taking money out of programs. it is a different value system here as to how you do a budget. and so i think keeping america no. 1 is very important. the rewarding of an industry that makes billions of dollars per quarter, five companies

making billions and saying if they do not, they will best -- misbehave and pass that on to the consumer. that does not argue for giving them a reward in my view. >> [inaudible] >> the hoodie? didn't i talk about that yesterday? i think that he deserves a great deal of credit for the courage he had to go to the floor in a heady, knowing that he would be told he was out of order and he quickly left the floor. he was not contentious about it. he made his point. he called attention to a situation that needs to be addressed. in the way a man with a suit and tie might not be able to do. >> yesterday you did not seem concerned about -- [inaudible]

it had been changed. your colleague is writing a letter to the speaker asking him to enforce the dress code across the board evenly. you think it is being enforced across the board currently? >> i do not pay a lot of attention to it. i really do not. i do think respecting -- anyone of us will tell you the biggest honor we could have in the congress is to represent their districts, to do so with dignity and that includes how we come to the floor. sometimes members are coming in off the plane or something like that and they run to make a vote. they may vote in the back of the room without a suit. as i said yesterday, i am more concerned about what they say on the floor and the policies they put forth that have better relevance to the lives of american people, this falls into the relevant. all the -- all of us have the

responsibility to serve with dignity. if you are going to enforce it, and force it. -- enforce it. i still wonder why women can wear hats on the floor. >> -- cannot wear hats on the floor. >> [inaudible] >> are we talking about trayvon martin? we are supporting an investigation that is taking place. that is an issue in the justice system. if that doesn't seem to be working, consider some other options. i am pleased that the investigation is going forward. ok. >> are you urging members to vote again in 90 days? >> they can do with the one but

i think it is responsible -- irresponsible. it cost jobs, it is almost a dereliction of duty not to have done this bill before. what is going to happen after we come back? what merkel is going to happen, what enlightenment is going to come upon us that they will finally be able to pass the bill? they should just passed the senate bill. let's go back to december when we had the payroll tax. the senate democrats and republicans supported this. the president supported. house democrats supported it. it was only the republicans who were opposed and opposed it be -- until it became too hot to handle. they are doing the exact same thing. senator barbara boxer, senator inhofe, could we go to the array of opinion in the senate, 74

members voted for it, one was absent for funeral. it would have been 75, three- quarters of the senate voting for this legislation. the president willing to sign, house democrats ready to support and yet other republicans now want to even bring it up. we could have a vote on it. some members want to have a vote. our ranking member has to have it made an order as a substitute, we did not ask let's have a vote on whether we could have a boat. a vote is what we could have. and of course we had to bring it up as a previous question issue. that is procedural and not as substantive. members will do what they do. i myself will be voting no and just think, we should discourage especially when there is no real prospect for success, they had their own bill, pass your own bill.

it takes us to conference and as horrible as it is. let's pass the senate bill. we can work together in a bipartisan way to pass the senate bill. he had to have the majority to bring the bill to the floor, he said. there were members plus one to bring it to the floor. either they cannot get a majority for they are insisting on 218. it needs to be signed -- approved by the senate and signed by the president. time is important. let's just get it done. it is about time that we pass this very important jobs bill. i do not know again what merkel can happen. -- mara liasson cole -- miracle can happen. maybe that is something we need

to do. pray for a miracle. we have seen nothing but kicking the can down the road. they make it again. every day that they kick the can, more jobs are lost and the cost for the taxpayer goes up and small businesses suffer for lack of getting -- being part of these projects that will go forward. >> [inaudible] about the current state of american politics. the most pain on both sides -- [inaudible] >> do you know what is in the bill? if you are making a judgment about it as to what was in simpson bowles, as i said, i felt fully ready to vote for

that. i felt it was not even a controversial thing but it is not what that is. there are tens of billions of dollars that means something in terms of lives of the american people. i do not think that is a measure of anything. the measure is the republicans will vote for a bill that cuts the medicare benefit that make seniors pay more to get less. that is astounding. do not feel like taking to the streets and saying, you're getting ripped off in there? that is the focus, should be the focus of our attention and again, the same thing with the president. it was a caricature of the president's budget. same for simpson bowles. when we had a briefing, people

felt pretty ready to vote until we saw it in print. keep your eye and what is happening here and that is we have a shift of resources once again from the middle class to the wealthy. this -- my members do not like me saying this. it took advantage of the wealthy and they're going one better by getting more tax breaks to the high end. it does nothing to reduce the deficit, nothing to create jobs, nothing about fairness. does not invest in the education of our children. it weakens the medicare right now and eliminates the guarantee all together. it also eliminates the provisions that are in effect now. $3.20 billion are saved by 5 million seniors, trying to

close the doughnut hole. that would be gone. it means the annual wellness check up without a copiague, that would be gone. the 2.5 million students who were on their parents policy until age 26, that would be gone. every child to the tune of millions of kids who have a pre- existing medical condition, asthma, diabetes, birth defects, you name it. they cannot be discriminated against because of pre-existing medical conditions. that would be gone. because of -- do you want me to tell you some more? this is absolutely so irresponsible. so out of touch with the needs of the american people and their kitchen table concerns that they have. it is a big day for big oil and wealthy people and the rest of that. and that is who they are here to serve and with that, i will go to the floor to speak against the extension of the transportation bill.

>> [inaudible] it was voted on by the president. >> yes. >> thank you. >> think you will. -- thank you all. >> next, newt gingrich, mitt romney, and rick santorum speak at 8 faith and freedom forum in wisconsin. then the weekly addresses by president obama and speaker of the house and john boehner. after that, a conversation with former president bill clinton and jon stewart. mitt romney, rick santorum, and newt gingrich speaking at the wisconsin state and for it -- faith and freedom coalition. other speakers include paul ryan, former attorney general

alberto gonzalez, and faith in freedom coalition chairman ralph reed. this is one hour and 45 minutes. >> wow. i asked calista to come and stand with me. we spent all week in wisconsin. we have had a great reception. our son in law, is from wisconsin. we have connections on both sides of the state. last night we were up at green bay we are glad to be back. i am delighted so many of you are out here. wisconsin on june 5 will be the most important center of decision making in america. i am glad all of you are committed for being with the

candidate who is determined to protect the taxpayer and to what is right for america. we came away back in 2009 and did a fund raiser in milwaukee. i came back just before the election and campaign. he was saying what he was going to do. he was open and out there. act at -- as a result, the people of the state elected a republican senator, a republican house, a republican u.s. senator. the people were not confused. the entire fight has been an effort by a small interest group with enormous money to change the will of the people in a way i think is very much against democracy. i commend you for standing there and being willing to fight to make sure. it is one of the most important elections in american history

and will literally change behavior across the country. thank you for being active citizens. i am it very proud to be associated with ralph reed and the tremendous job he has done all across the country. the number of false we have today, the number of faults of been out at the victory centers, the number of people organizing is very encouraging. >> we are very proud to be associated with ralph reed, and the tremendous job he as the across the country. the number of folks that are here today, the number of people who are organizing, it is very encouraging. this is the most important election of your lifetime. the reelection of barack obama will be a disaster for our children and grandchildren and our country, and you are key to having a grass-roots campaign that stops the left from continuing to be in power in washington, d.c., and i thank you for your active involvement. [applause] >> let's be really clear how big the stakes are. the american civilization as we have known it is under attack on two fronts.

on one front, there is radical secularism that would drive got out of our life, language, government, and make us a country of the extraordinary on american nature. on the other front there is radical islamists. we saw it with the leaders in saudi arabia but said every church in the peninsula should be destroyed, with no complaint from our state department. we need to understand, this is an historic, cultural fight for the survival of american civilization. let me be clear, we believe that this is an exceptional country, not because you and i are exceptional, but we are the only society that says power comes from god to each one of you personally, and then you loan power to the government.

[applause] >> this means that you are a citizen, and the government is supposed to be a public servant. obama has the opposite model, a european elitist model in which the government is sovereign and tells us what to do. that is why this fight is so fundamental. it is not just barack obama. it is the academic community, the news media, people in entertainment, the judges -- there is an an entire elitist people that will dictate to us. callista and i did a film about pope john paul the second called "nine days that changed the world." it is a remarkable movie.

we were doing a movie on reagan, and we have gone to europe to interview the president of the czech republic and the president of poland, and we ask both of them what was the decisive moment in defeating the soviet empire, and we thought it would give us a great ronald reagan antidote, but they both said it was when the pope came in 1979 and spent nine days and a pilgrimage to poland. and the first morning, he had 3 million people in victory square for mass, and we suddenly realized there were more of us than there were of the government. now, that is the point of the mobilization that you represent. there are more people in america by a huge margin who believe that our rights come from our creator, then there are people who believe we should

erase dodd from american memory. we need to assert [applause] >> we need to break normal politics, reach out to every person who agrees that rights come from our creator, and we need to build a movement dedicated to changing the judges, the bureaucracy, the politicians, the news media, and college professors, until we get back to an america that understands where its rights come from, and understands what its future is based on. [applause] >> i take this so seriously that our campaign manager and i spent nine years working on a paper that is a 54-page outline about what to do about judges. we are not helpless in front of

an anti-religious bigot. we are in a position as people to use the legislative branch to balance off the judicial branch, and i would urge you to look of that paper and he will realize that intellectual we have been given up an argument we should not give up. of course law schools believe in judicial supremacy. none of the founding fathers would agree. the number one complaint was no taxation without representation, and the number two complaint was british judges who day regarded as kings, rather than judges. the judicial branch is the weakest of the three branches. will never fight the other branches because it would inevitably lose. the notion of the supreme court being supreme over the president and congress is nonsense. it is one of three equal

branches, and we need to assure that we, the people, are the ultimate the fibers of america, not a handful of appointed judges. [applause] >> you also need to reassert in your state legislature in your local school board that you expect teachers to actually teach the facts. [applause] >> every child should encounter the declaration of independence and explore the question, what did the founding fathers mean -- "we are endowed by our creators." why does the northwest ordinance of 1787 organize illinois, indiana, ohio, part of wisconsin and michigan -- why does it say religion, morality and knowledge being important? schools are vital.

notice the order. religion, morality and knowledge, it eliminated by the modern left to the only knowledge, which explains much of what is wrong with our culture today. [applause] >> so, you not have to have a theological agenda. you could have them use president lincoln's second inaugural -- march, 1865, four years of civil war. he had been dramatically reshaped by the pain of war, and he knew he personally in posted because at any point he couldn't accept the south's leading, and the war would have ended. he became a dramatically more religious person. he read the bible every afternoon. if you get a chance, go to stand in the lincoln memorial and read the gettysburg address, which says "one nation under god" which lincoln wrote by

hand. that is what got me into politics when it was concluded that that was not constitutional, and i concluded that was hostile and we needed a long-term strategy to replace judges that do not understand america. then, turn, and read aloud slowly the second inaugural -- 702 words, 14 references to god, and you tell me how a historian could explain lincoln without god? it is impossible to be historically accurate in describing a secular lincoln because that person did not

exist by 1865. it had been replaced -- replaced by a deeply-religious person. [applause] so, callista and i talked about for a long time, and we knew it would be hard, but we decided running for president matter because it was an opportunity to take to the american people fundamental, basic decisions about who we are and what we have to do, and they all come together in the same pattern. if you want to take on radical islam, you need to have an american energy policy that creates american independence so the no future president will ever again bowed to a saudi king. [applause] >> if you truly believe in religious freedom, you have to take on an administration which is able to simultaneously

apologize to a fanatical radical islamists were killing americans while waging war against the catholic church and sees no contradiction in the fact that if you are a christian, they can oppose it, but if you are a radical islamist that kills americans, they owe you an apology. that is how bad obama is. [applause] >> the administration has adopted a principal since the burning of the korans , which should have been responded to by the president calling on the religious leaders to condemn muslim prisoners who had been defacing the koran, and using them to get messages out of jail. in an ongoing effort to appease everyone who is our enemy, a new slogan, which i think is clever, says we will hold those things to be sacred which others have called sacred.

they did it for the koran. my challenge for the obama administration is simple. put up the cross is that have been taken down by judicial fiat. you want to hold things sacred, we will let you hold things sacred. [applause] >> tell the moslem brotherhood if they keep burning churches in egypt, you are cutting off the billion dollars you just gave them. [applause] >> we need an administration that actually think religious liberty includes christians and jews. [applause] >> men, we need to turn to entertainment television and say if you're going to run a television show that has the word christian in a derogatory name, try to run the same show with the word muslim, because if you cannot say muslim and you can say christian, it shows you how derogatory the show is.

that this house fundamental the fight is. an american energy program will create american jobs, keep the money at home, strengthen the dollar, increased royalties to the federal government, lower the price of gasoline. if gasoline dropped as much as natural gas has, it would be $1.13 a gallon, so - [applause] >> you can simultaneously week and radical islam, and improve life for americans, and that is kind of is the kind of policy we need that put us back in charge of our life and dramatically reduce the size of washington. as speaker of the house, i led the effort to balance the federal budget, and we balance it for four straight years, the

only time in your lifetime. [applause] >> paul ryan, who you will hear from is a great guy and is doing a great job as the budget committee chairman, and he is moving us in the right direction. the key to balancing the budget is very simple. we want to shrink the government to set the revenues available, not raise the revenue to catch up with obama, the credits card. [applause] >> i will close with this practical example of morality -- it is immoral for us to spend so much when we crush our children and grandchildren to death. it is a moral obligation to go back to a balanced budget. if we do it correctly, and you will and oppose it -- you would have to impose a balanced budget on washington, and at the same time you could put the royalties from natural gas and

oil into a sinking fund to pay off the debt. if we had discipline and did that, and open the american energy independence, you would simultaneously pay off the debt for your children and grandchildren, so literally by the end of their lifetime, america would be dead-free and that would have the effect of no ball into saudi kings, and no worrying about chinese stakeholders. he would be back in an independent country. you would have american foreign policy based on american interest, not appeasing enemies, and you would be committed toward leading the world towards genuine religious liberty that the imposition of foreign beliefs. i think all of this is possible, but only possible if we defeat barack obama. we have to repeal obama-care. we have to repeal the anti- religious behaviors. he has given us a long list.

i believe we are up to it. with your help, it will start to work. our goal will be that the new congress and you will have to help when the senate seat here to make this possible, we need the new congress to stay in session, and by the time they swear in the president we should have revealed obama-care and dodd-frank. as president, i would sign them on the first day, and the first executive order would eliminate the white house czars at that moment. [applause] >> the second executive order would reimpose ronald reagan's mexico city policy that no u.s. money goes to pay for abortion anywhere in the world. [applause] the third executive order would reinstate george w. bush's freedom of conscience provision

and repeal every one of the obama anti-religious moves in the administration and return us to genuine religious liberty. [applause] >> the fourth executive order would move the american embassy from tel levied to jerusalem in recognition of israel's right to define its own capital. [applause] >> i participated in 1980 with ronald reagan in a remarkable change of direction for america that ended up creating 16 million new jobs, rebuilding our belief in america, and defeating the soviet empire. in 1994, i helped to architect the contract with america, which changed congress in one day. with your help next tuesday, i will look for to defeating barack obama decisively, debating him in october, and i am confident that he will look

like as much of the radical as he is, and we would have a remarkable debate, and at the end of that process, the country would repudiate the most radical administration of our times. thank you. [applause] ♪ >> ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the chairman of the wisconsin gop, brad courtney. >> good morning. first of all, i want to say that we as conservatives in wisconsin over the last 17 months have had a lot of wonderful victories, and i want to say thank you to everyone of you in this room for making that happen. keep up the fate.

we will win june 5 and take it through november. thank you for your support, but keep on moving. now, it is my privilege to introduce one of the most influential voices for the republican movement in the united states and chairman of the house budget committee. congressman paul ryan -- [applause] ♪ >> and good morning, everybody. how are you doing? this is awesome. i will not start singing. this is great. thank you a lot, brad. thank you. thank you very much. i am not going to start singing like bono. i will tell you that. how many of us have been in this room about six times?

it is great to be here. my kids love the water park. let me say one thing. i have known ralph reed since i was 25, and you know what bothers me most about him, he still looks like he is 25. i want to give you some good news and some bad news. the bad news -- our country is on the wrong track. america is headed in the wrong direction. the american idea could be lost for a generation if we stay on this path of that, doubt, and declined. the good news -- it does not have to be. there is still time for a choice. we have a choice of to the bureau futures in front of us, and that is the good news. we still have time to get it right. we really have a choice in front of us -- debt, doubt, and decline, where president obama

is taking us, where a renewal of the american idea. what is the american idea? it sounds like a the platitude. america is not just a country with a lot of states. america is an idea. what is that idea? our rights, they come from nature and god, not from government. they come to us naturally, before the government. we are the first country founded on an idea like that. thank you. thank you, mom. [applause] >> this debate is going on today between the american idea and the transformation the president and his allies are trying to impose on the country -- it is between natural rights and government-granted rights, between a constitution of limited government and economic freedom, and the school of

thought that we should have a living and breathing constitution, there are no less to what commitment can do. a debate between classical liberals and modern liberals. it is a debate that is coming to a crescendo. while in this election the debate will not be completely lost or won by one side or the other, but this election will put in place a trajectory because of mass momentum that will last a generation and be difficult to reverse. so, that tells me we have some bad news that we have to deal with, the massive momentum, and the man that is bringing it about. we have a debt crisis coming. everybody knows this. turn on the television, what is going on in europe could happen to us next if we do not skip this situation under control. we cannot keep spending money we do not have.

we are borrowing 40 cents on every dollar. the president gave us a budget that says let's do more of this. his fourth budget in four years, giving us a trillion dollar deficit every year for more spending, more borrowing, and a lot more taxing. the senate has not passed the budget in going on three years, over 1000 days. we have a law that says not only is april 15 tax date for americans, it is also a budget before congress. congress is legally supposed to pass a budget every year. we did it last year. we did this last week. [applause] >> because we want to respect you by being honest with you. we believe that if americans see the truth, they get the facts, they will make the right

decision now, that is the math. it is ugly. it shows a debt crisis. it shows empty promises that politicians from both political parties have made to americans. if we keep going down the same path, they will become broken promises to seniors that organize their lives around these promises, to people that are struggling to survive and get by -- that is what happens in a debt crisis. everybody hurts. everybody loses. america's economy goes down. we want to prevent that. what about the momentum? i'd describe the fiscal tipping point. we have another tipping point. it is even more dangerous. immoral tipping point. we can come to this tipping point where by more americans become takers as opposed to makers. more americans see the government as the provider of

their livelihoods as opposed to they, themselves. you know, there is data and statistics out there, and one of them is alarming -- the tax foundation says 70% of americans get more benefit from the federal government in dollar value and a payback in texas. 49% of americans are not paying income taxes. there are a lot of reasons. recessions. plant shutdowns. the economy is not where it needs to be, but the question becomes have we lost our zeal for the american dream? have we lost our quest for the opportunity society, where we make the best of all our own lives, reached our destiny, tap our potential, and make our kids better off? a lot of people are down and out and not doing so well. i have friends that of lost their jobs at the plant, and they're in a tough position, but they have not given up hope on the american dream.

if we keep going down this path, if we allow the health care law to kick in, the empty promises to continue, we might find ourselves in a place where more americans see themselves as a dependent. we convert our safety net, designed to help people that cannot help themselves or people down on their log get on their feet, we turn the safety net into a hammock that lolls able-bodied people into the lives of complacency. whatever you call that, that is not the american dream. we have these tipping point coming. we have ugly mess that we have to face up to. we have momentum going in the wrong direction, and that brings me to the man. we have a president that is making it worse, bringing us in the wrong direction. president obama cannot run on his record. has anyone fill the gas lately? i filled up my truck last night, and i could not get it to

fall, because it cut me off at $100 because the credits card will not let you buy more gas. the tip the economy with the poverty rates. president obama can not -- look at the economy. look at poverty rates. president obama can not run on his record. a lot of centrist told me he will triangulate. he will work with you guys just like bill clinton did in welfare reform. not this guy. this is not a bill clinton democrat. he is committed to his ideology he is committed to the transformation away from the american idea, away from our first principles. so, he will not run on his record, and if he is not want to change his tune and ideology, what does he have left? he will have to divide america in order to distract america.

he is going to play in the politics of envy and division. we see it every day. he is speaking to people as if they are stuck in their current station in life, and victims of circumstances outside of their control, and the government is here to help them cope with it all. when i was flipping burgers at mcdonald's on the interstate, when i was working for oscar meyer, selling bologna, real bologna, by the way -- [applause] >> when i was working three jobs out of college, waiting tables to pay back my student loans, i did not think of myself as a victim. i saw myself on a road of opportunity, trying to realize my version of the american dream, pursuing happiness how i define it for myself. [applause]

>> the idea that we are stuck in some station and the government is here to help us cope with it is an old idea. it is an idea that the president wants to create this new narrative said that we think if you go with the republicans, they will throw you to the wolves. it is a dog-eat-dog world, and if you want security in your life, stick with us. i tell you what, it is a false choice. it is an empty promise. if you want to look at what this false choice looks like, we have already been given a glimpse of what an obama presidency unplugged would look like. did you see that thing with the russian president? unbelievable. if you see what they're doing in implementing this health care law, in my view there are hundreds of new regulations that have not come out with

this thing. if he is willing in a controversial election year to have these new government- granted rights trampled on our constitutional rights like our first amendment right to religious freedom and liberty in a tough election year, what do you think he is going to do after he never has to face the voters again in implementing this health care law? so, the good news. -- we can turn this back. we can do this. we showed you how to get off of debt and decline, on to prosperity, pay off our debt, we apply our first principles -- if we show you exactly how to do this. we need to offer the country a choice of two futures -- have a sharp contrast, so the american people can decide which they want their country to be, not some backroom commission.

we owe you the respect of letting you decide what you want americans and american to be in the 21st century. if we win that kind of affirming election, then you have given us the authority, the responsibility and the obligation to save the american idea and the american dream for a generation. [applause] >> we can do this. we can turn this around. the country is not going to be fooled. people know what is at stake. people know we are on the wrong track, and good news is if you reapplied the ideas that made us great, we can get right back on track, and that is what this is all about. i want to make an introduction. i, like the rest of you have a vote on tuesday to make, so i, like the rest of you, our thinking, what do i do? who is the best person?

i have known these gentleman for years. newt gingrich is a brilliant man, a friend for a long time. i serve with rick santorum for a long time. i have nothing but good things to say about these men, the one i've of the votes i have to make on tuesday, what goes to my mind is who will be the best president? who is most likely, most willing and able to deliver on the reforms that are so necessary quickly, and who has the best chance of defeating barack obama? [applause] >> i think the primary has been helpful. i think it has been constructive. it has brought these issues to the fore, where we are having the debates we need about the big ideas, but there comes a point where this primary can

become counter-productive. if we keep dragging this thing on, it will get us off of the mission and the goal which is this -- save our country in november by replacing barack obama as our president. [applause] >> that is why for me and my vote, i think we need to coalesce around a person who we think is going to be the best president, who is going to deliver these kinds of reforms with the courage, experience, and ability to do it, and who gives us the best chance of realizing this vision and putting it into practice, and in my humble opinion, that person is mitt romney. [applause] >> this is big. you know what? wisconsin, we have a big responsibility. we have a big opportunity. the whole country is watching,

wisconsin, and we, on june the fifth, tuesday, and in november, we can take back our state, reapplying our founding principles, and we can help decide the fate of this country. then, we will look back at this moment and know it was a time in history where this generation stood up to do what was right to protect the next generation, just like our parents did for us. please join me in welcoming to the stage, governor mitt romney. [applause] ♪ i was born free i was born free >> thank you. ♪

thank you. please. thank you. what a remarkable thing to do which it get up on saturday morning and, listen to politicians. you guys are just fabulous. i appreciate you being here, and i know you're not just here for me. i particularly appreciate the extraordinary introduction of your congressmen paul ryan. what a leader in our party. what a conservative. [applause] >> i very much appreciate his support and endorsement, and appreciate the that the you are focused on doing what has to be done, getting our country back on track, and replacing barack obama. that is a job we need to get done soon. [applause] >> i listened to congressman ryan, and he described almost every policy area that we confront, the challenges we have, and the importance of this election. i thought i would take a moment

to talk about the process, the experience i have had of getting a chance to go across the country and meet fellow americans. i had not expected as a young man that i would have the chance to do what i am doing. i thought i would be in business like my dad was all my life, yet he later in life decided to run for office, and the opportunity opened up after the olympics in 2000 to to go back to my state, and i now find myself with the chance to go across the country and i meet the people they you do not see on the news. the people you see on the news have done something unusual, and generally not a good thing. i get to meet every day americans who do not make the news, but nonetheless inspire. i come away from this process more enthusiastic and more optimistic about the future of our country, because i have seen the american people firsthand.

[applause] >> i mean, i was in appleton yesterday. i met a husband and wife in their 60's. they expected to be retiring about now. they purchased a couple of duplexes as rental properties to be the end, for their retirement, but the home values have collapsed, some 30% under the president, so they are not able to require. one is working at a company that only has $1 million in revenue, and he is a salesman, so how many sales people you can afford a small company is something he has to worry about, and his wife works at a department store. both are working hard, but both are committed to making sure their future is bright. they have a son out of work, but they are helping him. tough times, but people that are not discouraged, not despondent.

i met another woman yesterday from avastin who was born outside of this country, came here, and has two children, sons in their 30's. one of them is disabled. she works as a translator. she loves her work. she provides for herself and her family. a remarkable story of american spirit. i was at saint louis to get a guy was working for the city in the landscaping division, and decided to start his own landscaping business. he has some two hundred people working for him. his only worry is gasoline prices, driving around from home-to-home, which is not easy to do with the price of gasoline, and he hears that the epa is thinking about regulating carbon emissions from lawn mowers. then, he thinks how can i afford replacing lawn mowing

equipment and snowblower snacks not a lot of snow this year. he did not have to get them out often. another man i met in san antonio, texas, he came from this country from cambodia in 1976. he went to work in a restaurant, then as a taxi driver in new york city, decided to save money and apply to business school, got an mba and started working in government- related positions, ultimately became part of the white house team for george w. bush and was appointed ambassador to the united nations. 14 years after coming to this country. he said you could not imagine the motion i have as i stood before the foundations, said that i come representing the people of the united states of america.

[applause] >> there is no other nation on earth like america. i used to travel around and see different countries, and i was always proud of the fact that i have a special gift no one else had. i was american. there was no question in my heart said it was special to be american. i wonder why it is as i tell you these stories and meet people across the country that we are an extraordinary land with extraordinary people who live done more to lift people around the world of poverty than any other nation. free enterprise, as we promoted -- [applause] >> and of course, the greatest contribution was not just free enterprise and the concept of freedom itself, but the sacrifice of our sons and

daughters over many wars to free people from tyranny and despotism. this is a remarkable land. [applause] >> i wonder, as i think about those things, if it does not all go back to the very foundation of america, that when the founders of the country crafted the words of the declaration of independence, i believe they chose in those few words and principles a vision for america that would make this unique and exceptional in the world, not only the freest nation, but the most prosperous and the greatest. you know those words. they concluded by brilliance or inspiration that we were endowed by our creator with the rights, and among those rights

would be life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, and those rights, and those associated with them, i believe, are what made america what we are, and today those rights are under attack by this administration, which is one more reason why we have to replace this administration. [applause] >> this is an election not just about a person, not even about a party. is about a vision of america. we are going to choose the destiny of america, just like the founders chose a couple hundred years ago. we will choose what america is going to be like over the next hundred years in this election. this is an inflection point, where we decided we're going to be committed to the life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, or a different course. president obama believes in a government-centered society.

he does not call a. , but if you listen to his speeches he believes government calling our lives will do a better job doing so that individuals. you see that item after item. think about the economy. did you realize that government at all levels today consumes 37% of the total economy? 37%. if we allow obama-care to stand, it will consumed directly almost half of the total american economy. then, when you consider the intrusions of power they are putting into industries like the automotive industry, the financial-services industry, the energy industry -- they will control either directly or indirectly over half of the american economy, and we will have to stop and ask ourselves, are we still a free economy?

do we believe in free enterprise, or are we becoming what some of the most unsuccessful countries have become, a government-dominated economy? these are the choices we have to make. the president continues to build government larger and larger, creating more and more dependence upon government. this is a time when he is willing to put together trillion dollar deficits. can you imagine that as your legacy, and he has done it every year. if i am president, we are going to cut federal spending, cap federal spending, and finally have a balanced budget amendment. [applause] >> government-centered society is crushing economic freedom.

you understand the impact of regulations, for instance, and how it could make it harder for small businesses to grow. let me mention another one. taxation. we know high taxes make it harder for people to make ends meet and kill jobs, but let me give a little granular to that. the president wants to raise the marginal tax rate from 35% to 40%. think about that for a moment. do you know how many people in america were in businesses that are taxed at the individual level, at the marginal tax level, not the corporate tax rate? 54% of american workers work in businesses that are taxed as individuals, so when you raise that tax rate from 35% to 40%, you kill jobs. that is what he is doing. he would rather have money for the american people than for small business that encourages free enterprise and economic and fatality.

there are some other ideas. one of the special ideas on obama-care is to apply a 2.3% tax on sales of businesses. if you want to start some new idea, and own profitable business, you will get taxed even if you are not profitable. one russian company said they would have to lay off two hundred people to pay the new tax on their business. then you heard the vice president yesterday -- did you hear him yesterday? he has a lot of things to say, does he not? [laughter] >> anytime you're a looking for something to go after in a political sense, just listen to the vice president. [laughter]

>> the vice president has material for us. [laughter] yesterday, he was talking about taxing companies all over the world. if you are here as an american company, we will tax you for your enterprises. does he not understand this means the enterprises will leave and go somewhere else? they just kill economic freedom. they make it harder and harder for our economy to grow and would be allowed to work. the proof is in the pudding. look at this recovery. the weakest recovery we have seen since hoover. this is a time for freedom. it is not a time for the government to dominate society or the economy. [applause] you know, i think the american worker should be able to join a union and form a union if they would like to. i do not think you need to be forced on them and i do not think that unions should be able to take money out of a worker's pay check and give it

to a politician that the union boss wants to give it to. [applause] you know that religious freedom is under attack. again, under obamacare. they want to dictate to the catholic church that the employees of the catholic church have to be provided by the catholic church with health insurance that gives them free contraceptive entry sterilization treatments despite the fact that this violates the conscience of the catholic church. if i am president of the united states, this great choice we have will make sure that in my case, i will restore and protect religious freedom. we are one nation under god and that must be maintained. [cheers and applause]

life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. life was the first of those. i want to protect the sanctity of human life. if i am president of the united states, unlike this one, i will restore the mexico city policy. i will defund planned parenthood and i will take our money out of the united nations population fund. [applause] i mentioned to you what it was like being able to travel abroad and standing in a little taller, a little straighter because i knew i had a gift that others did not have and that was i was american. something we all share. i think that means a different thing to each of us. it means something important to

all of us. people understand it is important to be american. it is exceptional and special to be american. our president does not have the same feelings about american exceptionalism that we do. over the last three or four years, people have begun to question that. on this tuesday, we have an opportunity to vote. to take the next up. to bring back the special nature of being american. it to not turn us into a government-dominated society like we have seen other nations pursued but to restore to this country of principles that made this nation the greatest in the history of the earth. to restore our commitment to the pursuit of happiness. i represent someone who believes in the stunning principles. the president says he wants to transform america. i do not want to transform america. i want to restore to america

the principles that made us the hope of the earth and together, we will do that on tuesday and every day thereafter until we get back the white house. thank you. thank you. ♪ ♪

>> ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the stage, from the wisconsin coalition, jesse garza. [applause] >> hello, everyone. are you having fun today? [cheers and applause] what an amazing lineup of speakers we have this morning. well, has seen an explosion of the hispanic population of wisconsin. the population increase 73% and we now have more of a 103,000 eligible hispanic voters here in our great state. if we want to maintain that, we must capture the strength of the

faith in the hispanics and see if there is engagement. and i have the distinct pleasure of introducing to you a true defender of the hispanic vote. judge alberto gonzales served as the 80th attorney general of the united states and the first inning to lead the nation's -- hispanic to lead the nation's largest law enforcement agency. as white house counsel to president george w. bush, benzol was played a vital role in the administration's fight in the war of terror. he is currently a chair of law at belmont university and his counsel at the national law firm. he was born in texas and raised in a household that personified the core values of hard work, personal initiative, dedication to family, and perseverance in

the face of adversity. gonzales serve the air force. he attended the air force academy and graduated from rice university. he is the first member of his family to graduate from college. after receiving his law degree from harvard, gonzales practiced law at the houston law firm. he was the secretary of state of texas in 1997. he was a justice of the texas supreme court in 1999. i am honored to present to my friend, the former attorney general, alberto gonzales. [applause] >> thank you. thank you. my message today is really quite simple and very direct. we, as a party, we need to reach out to the hispanic community. we need to make hispanics fill

welcome. -- feel welcome. we need to educate hispanics. we need to encourage them to participate. you know, i have served in the white house with a man who understood the importance of the hispanic timidity to the future of this party. president bush also realize the importance of hispanic community to the continued greatness of our country. some people believe that hispanics along to the democratic party. believe it. hispanics, we believe in a job, not a handout. [applause] we value opportunity over more government. we believe in a society that rewards us based upon our ingenuity and creativity, not based on our skin color. [applause]

we believe in god and family. we love america. how we love america and all the opportunities that it provides us. we love it so much. the hispanics are willing to enlist to fight, to die for this country, even though we may not be eligible to vote for its leaders. this is what i believe that this is why i am a republican. we have some major challenges confronting our country today. we need to do everything we can to make sure that changes occur in the white house. the hispanic vote is -- the hispanic vote is decisive in arizona, texas, colorado. tomorrow, it will be decisive in states like wisconsin. today, i do not believe that any republican candidate, and

the of the gentleman you are listening to this morning, with respect, can win the white house without hispanic support. [applause] that is why it is so important that the way the party deals with issues like immigration -- let me take that back. the with the party talks about issues like immigration will impact the future course of this party and the future course of this nation. i love america so much for the many opportunities it has given me. the son of a mexican carpenter and cotton picker and i became the united states attorney general. [applause] but we, as a nation, we are at a crossroads. we need new leadership. it is time for us to take

advantage of the natural alliance that exists between the hispanic community and the republican party and take back our country. thank you very much. [applause] ♪ >> ladies and gentlemen, please welcome back the chairman of the wisconsin faith and freedom coalition. [applause] thank you. i brought a lot of family. that is why the applause is that out. -- loud. [laughter] to it is a great. -- it has been a great afternoon. right now, we want to take an opportunity to thank all of our

elected officials with us today. i asked you hold it was until - - hold the applause until the end. as i call up these things, please rise. county executive. you cannot take direction. [laughter] senator dan when guard. -- wanguard. [applause] ok, go ahead. representative jeff stone. representative bill kramer. representative don pridemor. [applause] tommy thompson. [cheers and applause] jeff fitzgerald. [applause] we wish both of them locked in

their u.s. senate races. now, you can applaud. [applause] thank you. this is one of my favorite parts of any gathering. i would like to have all our veterans and the families of veterans please stand. [applause] thank you for your sacrifice that gives us our freedoms and our liberties and protect us. thank you. god bless you. i am excited to be able to introduce our next speaker. he is the founder and chairman of the faith and freedom coalition. he is the senior adviser to bush-cheney campaigns.

chairman of the southeast region for bush-cheney in 2004. they're only a few of the titles for him. [laughter] at least one relative is here. as chairman of the georgia republican party, he led the gop to its biggest victory in history, helping to elect the first republican governor since reconstruction. as executive director of the christian coalition from 1989 to 1987, he built one of the most effective public policy organizations and political history. he is a best-selling author, husband, father, and a true patriot for conservative american values. ladies and gentlemen, please help me welcome to the stage, the founder and chairman of the faith and freedom coalition, dr. ralph reed. [applause] >> thank you.

thank you very much. thank you so much for having me. are you having fun? [cheers and applause] i heard you had a primary coming up. is that right? but, we have one more presidential candidate who will be speaking. my good friend, former senator rick santorum. we're glad to have him. [applause] it is great to be back in wisconsin. when i came here in may of 2010, i was flying in from overseas. i was pretty jet lag. -- jet-lagged. they said, we why you to come to the state convention for the republican party. i believe that your state chairman was a guy you may know. he is doing a fabulous job. he called me up and he said do you believe in free speech? i said, yes, i do. he said, will you come to

milwaukee and give a free speech? [laughter] so, i did. and after i spoke at the prayer breakfast and we prayed for our state and for this nation, we have an organizational meeting to begin building faith and freedom in wisconsin. we had an audacious plan. our plan was simple. in 2008 and as far as i'm concerned, the most out of the mainstream individual to ever be elected president of the united states won, not in the cliffhanger, but in a landslide. there were 17 million evangelical christians who did not go to the polls. either because they were never registered to vote or because they were registered to vote and they did not even make the effort to cast the ballot.

our goal at stake and freedom -- faith and freedom coalition is to make sure that every single one of those 17 million bible leading evangelical christians and their faithful catholic allies, every single one of them is registered to vote. every one is educated, informed, and goes to the polls and primaries on election day. [applause] that is our goal. i share that vision that morning and the chairman honored me with his presence. the former head of christian coalition and was counted attended that meeting. tony and his wife were there. tony came up to me after the meeting with tears in his eyes that he said, you know, i would not -- i was not looking for a job. but i am committed. you sold me. in the fall campaign, not just here in wisconsin, but all over

america, we made over 60 million voter contacts to voters upstate all over america. what happened here was an earthquake. the election of one of the finest public servants in america today as your governor, scott walker. [cheers and applause] the election of my good friend and your good friend as lieutenant governor. [cheers and applause] the election of one of the most articulate and effective conservatives in the u.s. senate, ron johnson. that was quite an improvement. conservatives gained control of the state house and the state senate. but they're cutting taxes and

streamline government. we elected new members of congress. three months later, we had a new chairman of the republican national committee. 30 days later, the green bay packers won the super bowl. that is a pretty good run. [cheers and applause] let me tell you, we are not done yet. we are not done yet. the eyes of america are on wisconsin again. beginning on tuesday. whether it was john f. kennedy defeated hubert humphrey from the neighboring state of minnesota in 1960 in a huge upset that propelled him to the nomination or it was jimmy carter upsetting mo udall here in 1976. this primary has a history of sending a message to the nation.

then again on june 5, the eyes of the world will be on wisconsin. america will decide beginning here on june 5 whether or not we are going to go forward into the optimistic future of limited government and lower taxes and a return to time- honored values, or whether or not we will continue to go down the path of government bankrupting future generations and government policy being in the hands of public-sector union bosses instead of taxpayers. i believe, on june 5, governor walker will be retained as the governor of this date and we -- this state come and we will look towards the bright future. [cheers and applause] you know, the pundits and the press are continually amazed by the persistence and the endurance of the pro-family

conservative voters. they have been writing our obituaries for 30 years. saying we were going to go away. well, you know, as mark twain famously said, the premature reports of our death are greatly exaggerated. [laughter] if you look at the network exit polls for 2012, there have been 26 contests. we of exit polls for 18 of them. if you aggregate that total votes, that is 10 million votes cast so far, 50.53% of them, nationwide, have been cast by self identified, a bible- believe in it, evangelical christians. they're not just republicans. there the mainstream of america.

92% of the american people tell the gallup organization they believe in god. 80% say they believe that the bible is the literal word of god. 57% of the american people tell people that they pray every single day. that number has been on the increase since barack obama was elected president. [laughter] who are we and what we believe? -- what do we believe? we believe in the ethic of work and personal responsibility and individual initiative. we believe government should live within its means just like we have the balance our checkbooks every month. we believe in god. we believe and that faith is what built america and we

further believe that in america today, in the 21st century, faith in god is what is right with america. it is not what is wrong with america. it should be celebrated and honored again. [applause] we believe in a government that is limited to the specific purposes, that are laid out in the declaration of independence and the u.s. constitution and the the bill of rights. the government should not do anything beyond those founding charter. [applause] we believe in the sanctity of innocent human life and we believe that the institution of marriage defined as a man and woman is one of the foundational institutions of a free society. we will continue to preserve it. [applause] we have got new allies on this

agenda of faith and freedom. just out of curiosity, how many of your members of the tea party movement or have attended a tea party event? there you go. i attended one of the first rallies in the country in atlanta, georgia and early 2009. it bubbled up from the grassroots from kitchen tables and small businessmen and women who were looking at the stimulus package that obama wanted to bring about. they were fighting it when everybody had given up. when newsweek put on its cover that america was a socialist nation -- they went bankrupt shortly after that cover story. [applause] we have been viciously attacked. nancy pelosi called us nazis.

harry reid called us evil monsters. people have said we should be taken out. when a member of that family -- of the hoffa family says you should be taken out -- [laughter] they do not mean for pizza. then there is joe biden. [laughter] he is a last line. -- laugh line now. joe biden compared to terrorists. now, i have news for them and if they don't know it, they will find out. our right to speak out and petition our government has been purchased by the blood of patriots who paid the ultimate price and bore the ultimate burden and gave the highest

level of sacrifice that you and i might be free today. i do not care how much they attack us. or try to stigmatize us or our leaders. we are not going to be intimidated. we will not go away. we will not be silenced. [cheers and applause] so, we have a big job to do. i want to challenge you, as your friend, to work harder than you have ever worked. pray more fervently than you have ever pray. this is not just a political struggle or an ideological struggle. this is a spiritual struggle. this is about what is most important, not just in

washington, but in our hearts and in our lives. we have to make sure that what happened in 2008 when 70 million -- 17 million our brothers and sisters in christ did not even bother to vote because they believed this was the greatest nation on the face of the earth, we have to winter that never happens again. in 2012, we are currently building a file of 27 million social conservative voters. we are building a fire at -- file 5 million conservatives who are not registered to vote. go to our website right now -- ffcoalition.com any unregistered social conservatives of whatever faith or denominations will come up. you can contact them directly. there is a script there. our goal is to register a

minimum of 2 million new social conservative voters. before october 1 of 2012. and then, we will mail them. we will phone them. we will tax them. -- text them. we will e-mail them. if they have not voted by election day, we will go to their house and knocked on their door and we will take them to the polls and i will tell election night when we are standing on a ballroom floor like this, you will see the longest faces of network news anchors you have ever seen in your life. we will be celebrating the biggest victory in american history. [cheers and applause] you know, ronald reagan said that a federal program is the closest thing to eternal life on this planet. [laughter] after listening to the oral arguments on obamacare this week in washington, and this was

-- it was my privilege to be there for some of the rallies outside, i am not so sure. i will tell you this. even though the supreme court has an opportunity to do the right thing, and we believe the right thing to do because this legislation is a dagger aimed at the heart of religious freedom and the sanctity of life in our country from taxpayer- funded abortion, which is allowed under obamacare for the first time since the high amendment in 1978, to the ability of 15 unelected bureaucrats and what is called the independent in an -- payment advisory board to sequester funds under medicare to deny care and a certain procedures to certain patients, threatening the ability of the disabled and the elderly to get access to the quality care they

need. to the mandate on religious charities and educational institutions, schools and universities. forcing them to fund services that violates their conscience and directly contradict the teaching of their deeply held religious faith. this is not a minor issue. yes, it affects the catholic church. one in every 10 men and women in america live below the poverty level is catholic. one in every six is lying in a catholic hospital. this is not about to put together domination. this is about whether colorado christian university or ohio christian university in columbus, ohio or whether concordia university in wisconsin should be forced by the federal government to violate their own conscience

and their own faith. my friends, this is a travesty. if the supreme court does not do its job, in november, we will do the job for them. moving vans will be pulling into the white house to take obama back to chicago, where he belongs. [applause] then, let me tell you what will happen. on january 20, 2013, we will be gathered on a lawn in front of the capitol. a new president of the united states will put his hand on a bible that will be held by his wife and john roberts will administer the oath. when he takes his hand off the bible, the crowd will cheer.

a band will play. there'll be a 21-gun salute sounded from cannons nearby. we will celebrate, as a nation, that once again, we did not allow the most free and the greatest country on the face of the earth's to slip through our hands. when that ceremony is over, but new president, in their first official act, will walk up the stairs of the west front and go into any room just off the front of the capitol and he will sign into law legislation that will have already been passed by a new senate and a new house, repealing obamacare once and for all. it will be left on the ashes of history, where it belongs. [laughter] now, this is a great he bent. -- event. if you really mean this, if you

are not just here to cheer can reach to the acquirer. -- or here to preach to the choir,i want you to come to the front of this room when senator santorum is done anything. we are holding a meeting right up front. i will be here. tony will be here. our field staff will be here. we will talk about the county's, churches, and making this vision a reality. i invite you to come up afterwards. i promise we will keep it short. it will not last more than 50 or 20 minutes. if you cannot stay for that meeting, then i encourage you to go on our website or your mobile phone and get involved in this organization. i want to close by talking about a man who was the best friend this country ever had, winston churchill. he loved america. you may know his mother was an american. he said something once about america that i think captured us pretty well. he said "the american people

always do the right thing." after they have exhausted every other possibility. [laughter] he knew was pretty well. we have tried a lot of things. we have tried to, if it feels good, do it. we tried keeping up with the joneses. we tried the government. none of it worked. in our dna, is a unique combination that yearns to be freed. he desires to rise as high as far as our talents under god will carry us. let us make sure we redeem that promise. let us work as hard as we have to. thank you very much. god bless you. ♪ >> ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the executive director of the faith and freedom

coalition. >> good afternoon. we have still got some exciting speakers for you today. i will introduce one, but first, i want to say a special word. we have hundreds more in our overflow rooms in the hallway. i want to say to them watching on camera, we appreciate you sticking it out. we appreciate you guys being part of it. [applause] the conservative movement today owes a debt of gratitude to senator rick santorum. even though pennsylvania is no longer have the privilege to have him represent them in the united states senate, he is now a leading figure in the conservative movement. rick santorum is a passionate defender of the unborn. defender of religious freedom. an advocate for the greatest wealth creating an engine in

history, american free enterprise. as a native of pennsylvania, i have had the pleasure of seeing him working for pennsylvania families. it is not a pleasure to see him -- now a pleasure to see him working for american families. please welcome a true conservative leader, senator rick santorum. [cheers and applause] [u2's "beautiful day" playing] >> thank you. thank you very much. thank you for being here and showing an overwhelming presence to those focusing their time and energy on wisconsin, showing that wisconsin stands for eighth-- faith and freedom

and the values that made this country great. that is what i am hearing is across this great state of wisconsin. the first thing i want to do is to send you. -- thank you. thank you for your hospitality. karen is that some other events today here in wisconsin. we have been very warmly welcome. -- welcomed. things i hear everything i go as i cross the state and across the country is that people are saying the same thing over and over again. i am praying for you. i can tell you that we appreciate it very much. people say, how do you go on and go to 385 time hall meetings in iowa and then continue to cross this country ever since june? i have had a few days off but i have been out on the road every other day. going across, trying to deliver a message to this country.

this is the most important election in our country's history. we have been able to do this because of your prayers and support. i just want to thank you. all of you. it is holding us up. it is making a difference. one of the campaigns for president a week or so ago suggested that he would take an act of the -- act of god for rick santorum to win the nomination for president. i do not know about you, but i believe in the act of god. that is where we are coming from. [applause] you know, a lot of issues have been focused on in this campaign year people are saying that their races be about the economy. economy. economy. economy. that is where all the energy is.

the economy is important. i talked about it all the time. also talk about the other issues that are important. i was just out at the jelly belly factory. [laughter] i gave a talk to remind us what conservative means. this was not just focus on one issue. never has been because we understand it is insufficient. you cannot have a strong economy, as you are safe from threats from around the world. you cannot have a strong economy unless you are built upon a strong moral foundation and a strong family. that is the message i have been delivering across this country. it is a comprehensive message. it is the reagan message. it is the three-legged stool. why? not because they happen to be very nice principal positions. because they work together. they interrelate. we cannot be a party or

movement that just focuses on one thing because it happens to be the most important issue at the time without understanding that what rallies and encourages us as conservatives are issues far beyond just a moment. the pressing issue of the day. certainly, you have to have a plan to address those issues. we have. we have gone out there with a message that the wall street journal refers to as supply- side economics for the working man. we talk about energy, growing the energy sector of our economy. we talk about manufacturing. one of the great manufacturing states of this country is wisconsin. we see manufacturers still leaving the state of wisconsin. the opportunity to compete against foreign competition makes it an even playing field for america. that is why i have gone out with a plan that repeals every single obama regulation that he has put in place that cost over $100 million a year.

[applause] we will do that on day one. we can do that on day one. i am the only person that has gone out there and made that bold statement because is constricting the growth of our economy. number two, to take the tax code -- the tax code and simplify it. two rates. simple, five deductions. children, a charity's, pensions, health care, and housing. pro-growth. corporate tax, cut in half. so we can compete on the world coming eliminated. we have a plan. we will reduce the deficit 5 trillion dollars in five years. we will get to a balanced budget in five years. all of these things we have been out there -- [applause]

we have another talking about how we are going to grow the economy and shrink the size of the government. let us be honest. shrinking the size of the government, we can try to do that but it is we do not have strong families and, we are only temporary bit closer to getting the numbers down here without a strong basis for the government to be able to receive, someone else has to pick up the slack. senator grossman showed me a chart that if you are a single woman earning $15,000 with two children, the state of wisconsin provides $30,000 in benefits. $30,000 in benefits. i am sure it is well meaning. you want to help people in difficult situations. if she gets married, she loses $30,000.

what have we done? in an attempt to help people who are going through a difficult time, we have destroyed the opportunity for marriage. we have destroyed the opportunity for people to get married, even if they are co- habitation. it is government doing things they think are being helpful. they're not. the federal government is not at the state is not. that is why we have to get these programs out of washington. we need to get them back to the states and they have to get them back into the local communities. we have to start understanding that, as much as we try to help, if we do not have families the more stable and secure in america, limited government is impossible. the unemployment -- the poverty rate amongst two-parent families is 1/5 of what it is among single-parent families. almost 40%.

we know that you cannot have a stable and growing economy as the family breaks down. it is. in america today, 51% of people over the age of 18 are married. that is down from 71% 30 years ago. down 5% in the last three years. it is dropping like a rock. in part because of the leaders who disparaged the institution of marriage and are trying to cheap and it. -- cheapen it. ladies and gentlemen, we need someone who will go out and tell the truth to the american public about what is concerning our economy. what is concerning the american family. we need to be able to tie the two together so we can have a resurgence in america. a resurgence that allows us to

cut taxes and create energy policies to grow the economy, but also one that understands that we need someone to remind us of what made this country great. [applause] as ronald reagan did, this country is a great country because we were founded great. we were founded on the idea of limited government. we saw that debate in the supreme court justice week. -- just this week. is the constitution a document that actually says you can limit the power of the federal government or have we reached a point where the constitution is not worth the paper is printed on? the court will decide that. we get to be said that, too. -- to decide that, too. we get to the side that in the -- to decide that in the

election. this election has to be about big things. limited government. the unlimited potential of the american people. whether we will build the great society one church, one school, one community and civic organization, one small business at a time. or whether we will be ruled from the top. the two biggest issues in this race that we have talked about a lot are obamacare and energy. i would just share with you that if you want obamacare repealed -- anybody want it repealed? [cheers and applause] we cannot rely on the supreme court. we have to rely on people who want to stand up and fight for freedom, just like you are doing here in the state of wisconsin. standing by your governor and fighting for freedom and opportunity is here. [cheers and applause] you have to fight for that. the central part of that fight is government takeover of health care.

as justice kennedy said, it will change the relationship between the government and their people. why? because our country was based on we the people. we the people govern. the government is there to serve us. when the government controls or your health care and tells you what you must purchase, tells you to do things that may be against your conviction, you know longer rule the government. the government rules you. that needs to change. [applause] that is why, if we are born to -- if we are going to win this election, we have to make this the centerpiece. there is no issue before us that has a greater impact on a greater number of voters in such an important way.

number one, those who do not want to see the government grow, the biggest program in modern history, obamacare. the second -- unemployment. the congressional budget office says the they will increase unemployment. slowing down economic growth. again, raising taxes. spending money. and, of course, the relationship between you and the government. you will not be told how to run your life when it comes to your health care. your economic freedom will be taken. your religious freedom, as well. -- your religious freedom will be taken. think of all of the richness that if we make this the centerpiece and repeal obamacare and have someone who can go out and make the arguments -- i never supported those

arguments, ever. ever. [applause] on monday, i stood at the steps of the supreme court and i said, if you want obamacare repealed, you cannot rely on the supreme court. we have to pick up 13 votes to win the senate. you have to have this reached the mandate for repeal. that means you have to have someone who can make the arguments, a ticket to the -- take it to the public and take it to the president. unfortunately, the choice you have before you in this election in wisconsin on tuesday -- one person who can make that case. you have when you cannot. why? he presented the blueprint for obamacare and advocated it. they said a prescription on what you can buy, taxes employers, people who do not buy

insurance. that is the massachusetts health care plan. the people who developed it actually went and health obamacare. obama developing his plan. he is uniquely disqualified. the reason karen and i decided with seven children -- we knew this would be the biggest issue in this race because it is about freedom. it is about who we are. i knew this would not work unless we can have someone who takes this without reservation. someone who says over the, this is what you said. -- someone who says, this is what you did or said.

this is what you did. it is obama's achilles heel. 75% would like to see it repealed. it is the most pressing issue of our time because it is about who we are. why in the world what they -- would the republican party give that issue away in the general election? why would we do it? [applause] if it is not just that, the other big issue right now is energy. i guess prices. -- high gas prices. i never agreed to mandate global warming. never once was i a member of the club who bought into political science and man-made global warming. [applause] nor did i see it as a reason to go ahead and expand the size and skill of government by imposing a cap and tax program. again, maybe the second most

visceral issue, $5 gasoline and who knows what it will be later? the most visceral issue that will harm our economy and hurt the average person, those folks were in the middle who swing elections one way or another, there is only one candidate that did not buy into this political science. only one candidate who did not say, higher gas prices are a good thing. we need to have less consumption of gasoline in america. there is only one candidate who said that we need to have a pro-energy program to grow the economy here it to another area is on federal lands to reduce the budget deficit as well as the economy. there is only one person who can beat obama without him saying, by the way, you bought into this too. why? why would we give this issue away? the top two economic issues as

to who we are as americans and what is affecting the american public -- we have someone who can make the argument and make it to all conservatives. to rally conservatives. how did we win the 2010 election? we won it. we won it by energizing the tea party and storming the polling places. now with moderate candidates. with conservative candidates whom you can trust to do what they say. no etch a sketch. written on your heart. [applause] governor romney says he will run as a conservative. i will not run as a conservative. i am a conservative. [cheers and applause]

i ask for fellow conservatives -- someone who understands the reagan coalition lives because it is not the reagan coalition. it is the founders' coalition. it is who we are as america. it is what makes us great. if you stand by that, if you stand by that, do not listen to the pundits. i bet you there are a lot of people out here to get frustrated when you elect members of congress or others and they go to washington and they say they will be a conservative and in order to pass a bill or two, they compromise. poll ratings are 10%. i turn that back on you. they're telling you the same thing. toy're telling you compromise. they're telling you to give up

your principles in order to win. how has that been working out for us? giving up our principles in order to win. do not do what you criticize your elected officials of doing. stand up for what you know is right for america. stand up and vote your conscience because you know what, what you know is right for america is also a winning message for america. you do that and we will win. thank you very much. god bless you. [u2's "beautiful day" playing] >> ladies and gentleman, please welcome the chairman of the faith and freedom coalition. >> in his address, the president

says the rule would spur economic growth and reduce the deficit. then, speaker of the house john boehner talks about the republican strategy to reduce gas prices and create jobs. he called on senate democrat to vote for the bipartisan energy bill. >> over the last few months, i have been talking about a choice we face as a country. we can either settle for an economy when few people do really well and it reveals struggles to get by, or we can build an economy where hard work pays off, where everyone gets a fair shot, everyone does their fair share, and everyone plays by the same roles. that is up to us. today, i want to talk to about the idea that everyone in this country should do their fair share. if this were a perfect world, we would have unlimited resources. no one would have to pay taxes and we could spend as much as we wanted. we live in the real world.

we do not have unlimited resources. we have a deficit that needs to be paid down. we need to pay for investment that will help our economy grow and keep our country save. education, research and technology, a strong military, and retirement programs like medicare and social security. that means we need to make choices. when it comes to paying down the deficit and investing in our future, should we ask middle- class americans to pay more at a time when budgets are stretched to the breaking point? or, do we ask some of the wealthiest americans to pay their fair share? that is the choice. we have spent hundreds of billions of dollars on what was supposed to be a temporary tax cut for the wealthiest 2% of americans. we're scheduled to spend almost $1 trillion more. today, the wealthiest are paying taxes at one of the lowest rates in 50 years. warren buffett is paying a lower rate than a secretary. over the last 30 years, the tax rate for middle-class families

have barely budged. that is not fair. it does not make any sense. do we want to keep giving tax breaks to the wealthiest americans, folks like myself or warren buffet or bill gates, people who do not need them and never asked for them? do we want to keep investing in the things that will grow our economy? we cannot afford to do both. some people call this class warfare. i think asking a billionaire to pay at least the same tax rate as the secretary is common sense. we don't envy success in this country. we aspire to it. we also believe that anyone who does well for themselves should do their fair share in return so that more people have the opportunity to get ahead, not just a few. that is the america i believe in. in the next few weeks, members of congress will get a chance to show you where they stand. congress will vote on the buffet rule. if you make more than $1 million a year, you should pay at least the same percentage of your income in taxes as a middle-

class families do. on the other hand, if you make under to launder $50,000 a year, like 90% -- under $250,000 a year, you're the ones who deserve a break. if they vote to keep giving tax breaks to people like me, tax rates our country cannot afford, they will have to explain to you where that money comes from. it will either add to our deficit or come out of your pocket. seniors will have to pay more for medicare benefits. students will see interest rates go up at a time when they cannot afford it. families who are scraping by will have to do more because the richest americans are doing less. that is not right. that is not we are. in america, our story has never been about what we can do by ourselves. it is about what we can do together. it is about believing in our future in the future of this

country. tell members of congress to do the right thing. called up, write the letter, pay them a visit, and tell them to stop giving tax breaks to people who don't need them, and start investing in the things that will help grow our economy and put people back to work. that is how we will make this country a little fairer, a little more just, and a whole lot stronger. thanks. >> one of the biggest challenges facing taxpayers right now was paying at the pump. rising gas prices read all kinds of havoc on families, especially in this time when many are still asking, where are the jobs? going back to my days of running a small business, i have for plenty of politicians say they will do something about energy, but never followed up. this has to change. the house is acting, approving a budget this week that removes government barriers to job creation, including policies that block american energy production and drive up gas prices. this budget now heads to the

democrat-controlled senate, where it faces an uncertain fate. they passed a budget in more than a thousand days. it is a very of leadership that is contributed to washington's stimulus spending bills. the budget, i am sorry to say, is the tip of the iceberg. the senate has called dozens of house-passed bills, several of which would implement the republicans energy strategy, to adjust rising gas prices and help create jobs. all of these energy bills passed with bipartisan support. many are backed by the many are backed by the president's own jobs council. about a month ago, during a meeting of the white house, i asked president obama to consider working with us on these proposals. the president, who has seen gas prices more than double on his watch, assured leaders in congress that there was room for common ground. there was a new sign of hope. unfortunately, only a brief one. in the weeks since our discussion, president obama has not spoken about these

bipartisan house-past energy bills, and gas prices continued to rise. about the only thing the president has pushed the senate to do is to prevent construction of the keystone pipeline, a project the american people strong support. he personally lobbied senate democrats before the vote. that might have made the difference. he also successfully urged senate democrats to take up energy tax legislation that will not lower the price of gas, and according to the nonpartisan congressional research service, would actually make it more expensive. clearly, the president had some sway over senate democrats. today, i am challenging president obama to make good on his rhetoric and urge the senate to allow a vote on bipartisan, house-past energy bills. on a path torward a real all of the above energy strategy. in the meantime, the house will consider -- continue to act. this week, republicans launched the next phase of our american

energy initiative, focused on addressing rising gas prices. this phase includes proposals to responsibly increase energy production on federal land, and freeze new refinery regulations that will hurt our economy. the pain of the pompous and urgent issue for hard-working taxpayers. it deserves the same urgency from leaders in washington. the house is doing its part. we can do more if president obama steps up and heeds the will of the american people. thanks for listening. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] >> next, a conversation between bill clinton and jon stewart. then, chelsea clinton moderates a panel. then, newt gingrich, mitt romney, and rick santorum speaking at a faith and freedom forum in wisconsin. tomorrow on "washington journal," peter coy describes

why he thinks the crisis is worse than you think. thenj,ohn velleco and dan gross on whether stand your ground laws have resulted in more or less gun-related violence. and marc lunch -- lynch talks about the international response to syria. "washington journal," sunday at 7:00 a.m. eastern on c-span. >> i am appearing today as one spokesperson for the hundreds of thousands of marines, sailors, their families, and loyal civilian employees who were unknowingly exposed to horrendous levels of toxins through their drinking water at camp lejeune. >> the documentary "semper fi"

shows jerry ensminger. >> one thing they have done over the years is they have obis stated the facts so much -- obu scated the facts so much, they have given information to the media, and now, if they were to sit down with me face to face, i could show them with their own documents and counter what they have been saying. they don't want to do that. >> more with jerry sunday night at 8:00 p.m. eastern on "q&a." >> the closing session of the clinton global initiatives university featured a conversation between former president clinton and jon stewart of "the daily show." they discussed issues facing the next generation and our young people can address these challenges.

this is about an hour-and-a- half. >> thank you very much. first, before i bring on john stewart, -- jon stewart, and i want to thank him for interviewing us. -- joining us. actually, i am a little hacked off. i thought he was going to interview me instead of me him. i want to start off with the cgiu commitment challenge, or as we call it, the cgiu commitment bracket. as you know, the final four will be battling out for who plays in the jabeen should game monday night. -- the championship game monday night. while a lot of attention has been given to march madness, we wanted to celebrate our own version.

the voting open on tuesday, -- opened on tuesday, march 20, with the last finalist. the 2012 cgiu bracket has received almost 200,000 votes, that is more than twice as many as last year. [applause] and in our final four, bamboo spikes battled night monsters. million dollars dollars to on -- million dollars scholars took on tracking cell phones. and finally, there were two, george washington university's -- [cheers] -- bamboo spikes, and tracking -- bamboo bikes, and tracking cellphone. -- cell phones.

the polls closed an hour ago. we have our winner. panda, cycles. [cheers and applause] so, i want to invite to the stage of the group, all undergraduate here in george washington. [applause] with their bamboo bike. they are committed to creating a sustainable motorized alternative. they will build it at a fraction of the market value cost, while comparable in quality. they also plan to implement a one to one model, donating one bicycle to bicycles for humanity for every bicycle sold. bicycles for humanity will coordinate with other

organizations in africa to distribute the bicycles for free. the bicycles currently retails for about $4,500. but panda cycles will place their product at less than $300. by the end of 2013, the group plans to have sold two dozen, and to donate the same number to africa. if you will order more at a cheaper price, which could be good on any campus in america, we could have 2400. first, i've got to get the championship trophy here. [cheers] [laughter]

one thing i would like to see is, of it like to see these things made all over the world because you can plant bamboo in a way that is very good for the environment, maintain its topsoil, controls erosion. this might be the beginning of a sustainable level of of four people all over the world, thanks to this good idea. -- a sustainable living for people all over the world, thanks to this idea. let's give them at hand. -- a hand. [applause] thanks, guys. test rides are available outside. [laughter] [cheers] our fifth cgiu meeting, i believe, has been a real

success, and i hope you do, too. we had 915 new commitments made at the meeting, which now brings us to more than 4000 since the first meeting. i would like to ask you to add one more. jon and i were talking backstage about this, and he said, will probably get into this in the questions, perhaps, in a humorous way. he said, ok, all of you are overachievers. what about the other 11 million college students? what about the people who cannot bear to think of raising money? i promised a friend of mine that i would talk about this. this is something you can do on every campus in america for free. and i want to talk to you about it. last year, 39,000 people in america ordaz died from drug overdoses. that is 1000 more than were killed in automobile accidents.

increasingly, it is not about heroin or cocaine or crystal meth. it is about prescription drugs. mixed with alcohol. and people are dying in large numbers every year because they do not know that if you drink four or five years and then pop and rock to cotton, for example, it shuts down the part of your brain that tells your body to brief while you are asleep. -- your body to breathe while you are sleeping in the last couple of months, two men that i knew personally died in their sleep. they were not addicts. they had no intent to die. they had no idea they were putting their lives at risk. no one had told them the simple biochemical impact of mixing a

prescription drug with a couple of beers. this is happening all over the country. this is a simple thing that is claiming people's lives. it simply deadens the part of your brain that tells your body to breathe while you are asleep. if it happened at noon and semipaste out, the survival rate would be 100%. if it happens at night, you are alone and the mortality rate can be 100%. everyone of you can go back to your campuses and make sure every single student at every college and university here represented knows that simple fact. no money and next to no time, and you can save a very large number of lives. [applause]

and since we are in the middle of this health care debate, you might be interested to know that medical claims caused by prescription drug abuse are now $20 billion a year added to the nation's health-care bill. and since a lot of the people who make those claims are uninsured, that is part of the reason that those who do have insurance pay $1,000 more a year for their health insurance than they would if everybody in america have health insurance. i asked you to think about this, and to take it seriously, not to be morbid, the father of my friend who died a said he was a good man and he would want his life to mean something. if we could save a few thousand

lives because we understand the basic impact of what was essentially an accidental death, repeated over and over and over in this country all the time, we could do an enormous amount. please, when you go home, make sure every student at your school knows this. but if you do, you'll be doing a great thing. let me just say i want to welcome the people who are joining us live on the website at washingtonpost.com and comedy central. [laughter] i keep waiting for steven colbert to appear to demand equal time. [applause] before i bring out jon stewart i want to briefly thank the people who make xcgiu possible.

thank you, george washington, and dr. stephen now, you have been great. [applause] thanks to the peterson foundation, microsoft, peter roberts, a prospect fun, and booze allen hamilton, for sponsoring this and making this meeting possible. they could not be held without its sponsors. and finally, i want to thank all of you who came and participated, who committed. i am grateful that you came from as close as your own campus to as far away as nepal and turkey, and china and elsewhere. you are very welcome here. we are very grateful to you. [applause] before i ever appeared on the jon stewart show, my daughter told me years ago when she was

just a little older than you that more people in her generation got their news from jon stewart that from the network news. [applause] at first, i thought it sounded a little weird. but i can tell you now, i have been on jon stewart's show to talk about two of the three books i have written since i left the white house. he clearly had read them. he knew what the facts were. he had been well briefed. and every other time i've been on there, he really seemed to me to have put in more time and more preparation and ask more serious question, while poking a little fun at me along the way, then anyone else who has interviewed me. in short, he has done what we need to do more of in our schools. he makes learning fun, and it is still learning. please welcome jon stewart. [cheers and applause]

>> thank you very much. hello, how are you guys? how are you? [cheers] it is an absolute honor to be here. you know, it is funny -- >> [unintelligible hollering] >> you have assigned? i cannot read them in any way. [laughter] as i went over a lot of the projects that these kids are doing, i cannot help but think about how much they remind me of me when i was their age. [laughter] i guess, just a commitment and dedication.

no, i cannot tell you how incredibly impressed i am with the work you are doing and with the enthusiasm that you bring to it, and the passion and ingenuity. i made a wrong out of an apple wants. -- . a bong out of an apple once. i just know how difficult it can be. [laughter] and now i know i sure have used bamboo. included, that is how you get sponsors. [laughter] but i am honored to be here. president clinton is being very honest -- very modest. he could have taken the route that some ex-president's take, you get a couple of speaking engagements and you get yourself a nice little manar and a pool. but his condition -- commitment to change the world and improving conditions around him has been very inspiring. i want to thank you for everything you have done as well.

[applause] >> and i got a better deal. because.com i get to hang out with them. >> is kind of exciting. pryke it keeps me young, as long as i do not look in the mirror. -- >> it keeps me young, as long as i do not look in the mirror. >> it what did you learn this weekend from interacting with the students and some of the products -- projects that they are doing? what did you take away? >> two things. the one is, we have the largest number of non-american students here. people who are citizens of other countries, many of whom go to school in the united states, and some came from around the world where they are in school. and i learned all over again that all of these young people, partly because of social media and internet communications in general, have a much more global perspective on a person to person basis than any other generation before. the second thing i learned is, every year, the commitments are getting better. they are thinking of things they can do that they really can do. and they understand and they do not overpromise.

that is, these guys promised -- they're not or to promise they can build 20,000 bicycles, but they know they can build 24. they understand that the power of the idea rests in part on people replicating the idea, or putting money into what they're doing, so it can be done everywhere else. but they are thinking about things that they can actually do that not only will help the people they set out to help, but help other people. i think that is really important. i mentioned when we opened that a couple of years ago, a commitment was made -- i confess, i did not notice at the time.

and i am surprised, because i care about it. an undergraduate of vendor built who has now graduated -- of vanderbilt who has now graduated. he offers those who are just out of trees -- prison and training in marketing and making sure true they're upscale, good shirts, and people would buy them without knowing it. he knew he could do it with 20 people, so that's what he promised. if everybody in america had a similar plan to train? in may, the repeater rate would go way down. -- train ex-inmates, the repeater rate would go way down. even though we like to say we are a country of second chances and almost everybody who goes to prison is going to get back out, the truth is, they wear a scarlet letter around their necks for the rest of their lives.

it is not. we should try to put people back into productive life in america. that is the sort of thing that we see them do. [applause] >> is there a plan in any way to get -- you know, you've knowcgiu and it has taken -- you've got cgiu and the plan is to make its own entity. is there a plan to have an initiative where people can come in on a larger scale and come in and steal and exploit their ideas? [laughter] wait, that was subtexts. hold on, but so they can get a sense of where they're going to go? >> last year, i started having a separate lunch with some of the students. i did that today.

for the very first time, one of the students as the very same question, can we graduate our ideas up to cgi. and in june in jakarta we're having our second cgi, which i promise -- and in june in chicago we are having our second cgi, which i promised to continue having until we get our economy back to it's full capacity. these are great ideas if someone would support them. we are trying to get these things take into cgi in new york in september. [applause] i'm embarrassed that we got all the way to the fifth cgiu and i never thought about it. you are always one step ahead of me.

>> these kids are thinking when they get out of college that they would like to be employed, because it does not work that way anymore. it is a different world out there. you have been doing this five years. you have been "the most powerful man in the world what is the difference with the ability to affect -- "the most powerful man in the world." what is the difference with the ability to affect change through an ngo? i find there is an erosion of confidence in the government's ability to engage its own corruption, create change in the way you want, and yet, there has been an enormous energy toward these ngo's, toward the smaller groups. at what has been your experience on both sides of it? >> one i took office as president, confidence in

government was very low because the economy was very weak. when i left office, because we had a lot of jobs, because it was the only time out in 40 years when the bottom 20% earnings increase in percentage terms as much as the top 10%, and as many people moved out of poverty -- 100 times as many people moved out of poverty than in the previous 20 years. there was an increased level of confidence in government. the level of confidence in government people's sense of well-being and whether they can do better. but there is a difference. if your president, in theory, you're handling more money, and you can direct it to more places, and you can help more people. for example, we gave out 2 million micro enterprise loans every year in -- all over the world. but you also had to deal with the things you did not expect to have to deal with, like the incoming fire in bosnia, kosovo,

what have you. and you have to go through both congress and bureaucracies and deal with resistances in foreign countries. if you want a foundation -- or your like them with their ideas, you wake up and you start with one thing and you see how far you can walk in and out, how big you can make it. we started out with a very modest proposal with aids drugs, and out at our foundation, we negotiate contracts to give 4 million people, about half of all the people in poor countries in the world, the least expensive high-quality aids medicines. [applause] any kind of non-governmental work gives you more flexibility and more creativity and ability to build from the ground up. it is hard to help as many people as you can help as president if things are going well and you're not spending your time bailing out a boat. but it is immensely personally

rewarding. for example, a couple of years ago i visited this reforestation project where running in allawi through a young -- in mowlawi through a down mowlawian university graduate. the people chose in these three different villages the different kinds of trees they wanted to plant to get their carbon credits. and then decided they would keep only 55% of their income and give the other 45% to their fellow villagers to get them in the system. they have the sense that they needed to plant more trees. they wanted to reverse global warming and preserve agriculture. it took an hour and a half to drive about 18 kilometers on this road to get there. but it was worth all of the money in the world to me to see one more time in one of boat poorest places on earth, and when that was -- and one of the poorest places on earth, and one

that was hard to reach, and one and where they did not know me from adam. i get in your was not adam. i do not look that old. -- i guess they knew i was not adam. i do not look that old. [laughter] the intelligence and effort and social consciousness, in a way, are pretty much evenly distributed in investment and opportunity. it is a real inspiration to keep hitting it. >> you brought up mowlawi. corings up that you are doing cgi just for america. there is the idea that we're going to do things like we are doing in allawi in places that are "third world" and underdeveloped. there is a program where we connect kids to each other

through the internet and classrooms and other things. they connected kids in haiti with kids in harlem. the idea was, through art, to learn an uncertain -- an understanding of each other. they were stunned, because the project upseppa kids in harlem. because they felt from -- ups that the kids in harlem. because they felt from everything they have learned that there lot -- their lives would be far superior. and this was posed earthquake in haiti. but what they found was, the kids in harlem were suffering really badly as well. what do you do about in so- called developed countries, the intractable social problems of poverty? and how do you attack them in the same creative ways that you can in countries like haiti?

>> first, in my mind, the two problems -- i do not think we have to -- we should choose one over the other. that is, the united states does not spend a high percentage of its income on foreign assistance and for and development. if you ask people what we should spend, they say, between 5% to 15% of the budget. if you say, what do we stand? they say, 25% of the budget. the truth is, we spend 1% of the budget. >> you are saying people are what -- sometimes misinformed. [laughter] >> yes, and interestingly enough, these numbers have not changed in 20 years. it does not matter how many times someone like me says it. people are somehow pre programmed to think we are putting all of this money into foreign assistance in america, when we are not. since we live in an interdependent world, since we need more customers, since america has only about 12% of its gdp a tide -- tied to exports, as compared to

germinate, which has -- germany, which has 25%, they do even better than japan. we need to widen the circle to places like africa that feels a special tie to us. on the other hand, i think we need to go back and take a wac at american poverty, too, much harder. i personally believe we should reinvigorate the empowerment zones and grants. i know the president has proposed this. and i proposed at the end of my term, and we passed a bill to try to make it possible for every area of the country to have an unemployment rate -- that has an unemployment rate above the national average or below a certain income rate, i think everyone of them should become a center for solar and wind power.

[applause] all we have to do is build the transmission lines sufficient to carry the power back to the urban areas. we rank first or second in the world in every survey of potential to generate electricity from sun and wind. the problem is, with the exception of california and a few other places, the sun shines brightest and the wind blows hardest where the people are not. we have 140 separate electrical grids that are connected.

if we are about to have a brownout in washington d.c., in theory, they could bring power all the way from california to us. but as you go from one system to another, you lose a lot of power, or the distribution systems are inefficient. in wyoming, they're building a wind farm out. they're having to build their own transmission lines to connect it to california. this is a huge deal. if the government could do-, -- could do that, solar power has gone about as cheap as wind power. it will not be forever, but there is not a lot of overproduction. we could revolutionize the lives of native americans in a way that allows them to be self supporting, diversify their economies, and lift themselves out of poverty. the same thing is true in the mississippi delta and the appellations -- in adel asia and in the inner city. in harlem and oakland and other cities, i run a mentor should program for the people in inner- city businesses with "inc" magazine.

based pick their most successful small business people and -- they pick their most successful small business people and they bring them to work with our folks. you'd be surprised how many businesses we had in harlem that have not computerized their records and did not know how to manage their inventory and had not measured the changes in markets. they are no different than people anywhere. perfectly intelligent enough to make the most of the modern world if they know what their options are and they know what the benefits are. that is what i think is important. and i'm not surprised -- trust me, most people living in haiti are still much worse off. we still have half a million people living in tents. although, they are moving them out pretty fast. but the haitians are incredibly gifted, creative, hard-working people who have never had a government or society worthy of them.

[applause] >> if you are going in when you are for starting to unravel some of these issues and empower local populations, if you are going to rank where you need to attack first, is it order, corruption, health, all three at once? when you are stepping into an area and you want to unleash the type of creativity that you see here and in those communities, you have a hierarchy of issues that you feel like you have to walk through to get to that point? >> yes, but it depends. i have looked at them in three baskets when you're going into a developing society. first, the number-one thing everyone in the world wants is ag said -- a decent job that pays a decent income. they want to be able to raise their kids in dignity. it will solve all lot of the other problems if they have that. but you also need to help them

build systems that will make good behavior have predictable possible consequences. which is why -- predictable positive consequences. which is why our work on building school systems, and health care systems and water systems and energy systems. and to get all that done and ford to work, you have to honest, transparent government, that is also capable of providing security to the people. i see it in those three baskets. then i asked myself, what can i do the most on? in haiti, for example, i worked first on bringing investment in. second on helping get money for health care systems and school systems and energy systems. and third on supporting the united nations peacekeeping force in trying to get order and in working with the donors to haiti to put every single red cent that went through the commission that i cochaired on the internet.

here is how much canada gave. here is who got it. here's what they are supposed to do. and when it is over, you'll get a performance and accounting audit. all of that i think is important. meanwhile, we have got governments were willing to give money to the haitian government to rebuild. but you need to think of it in those three areas. and not every person will have the ability, even me -- i have a pretty wide portfolio and reach. i cannot do all those things in all the countries. we have an enormously gifted

group of people, over 1000 of them, working all over the world and increasing health access. we still will not go into any country unless the government invites us and signs a strict no correction pledge. i do not ask them to have no correction in an area that i'm not working in because i'm not president in. i do not have any control over that. but if somebody pays $500 for my $60 medicine that keeps children alive for years -- for a year, that will be known in 72 hours in some other country where people do not have the $500. if it happens there, you'll have seven or eight kids died for everyone life that we saved. i think the best that ngo's that are actually wanted by government can do is to say, when you are dealing with us, there has to be in a corruption pledge. and we have to be able to enforce it and monitor it and report on it. i think that is really important.

>> has there been something that you have seen through cgi, in the last five years that has, pound for pound, the most impact in terms of when you look back and think of a program, an initiative, a commitment, that for what was put into it gave you the results in a powerful way? >> i cannot say one over the other, but i can say that a lot of these -- all these programs that the students do, the ones that helped people in america and did what they were supposed to do probably have the most immediate impact. students that when home and organize the greening of their own campuses. maximize the retrofit of all the buildings, have more bicycles on the campuses instead of cars. that is something where you can actually say, here we are, here we are a market in america, and we proved it was economical and we did not raise the tuition. instead, it lowered the utility

bill of the college. that is something that has had a comprehensive impact. on the other hand, a lot of these commitments -- again, what we've got to do, and i need to help do a better job of getting other people to recognize the potential. we talked a little bit about the socket ba -- about the soccer ball one of my associates a couple years ago designed a soccer ball that would absorb the energy that was driven into issacharoff -- into a soccer ball and to use it. it was a way of turning human heat energy into a way of making it usable.

if you think of all the places in the world that can grow bamboo and where it grows and what it can do to reduce all kinds of other environmental problems, it has staggering potential. what i think we need to do is to do more to try to take these things to scale. we need to take those that prove to be extraordinarily successful and take them to cgi and say, instead of thinking of a new commitment, how about some of these? [applause] >> how many people do you think cobbled up this weekend, just ballpark? -- coupled up this weekend, just ballpark? [laughter] how many do you think, about 100?

oh, sorry. >> one of the promises to myself in my old age is i will try to find an opportunity every day for the rest of my life, even if i'm just saying it to myself on tuesday, i don't know, or i was wrong. -- to say, i don't know, or, i was wrong. i don't know. [laughter] [applause] >> i don't know. i am always surprised at your ability to be tenacious, your ability to approach these issues that are seemingly intractable. has your commitment ever wavered? has your commitment ever been challenged in a way -- not necessarily dark night -- knight of the soul, but i cannot keep banging my head against the wall? everybody will come up against

seen the -- seemingly intractable issues. >> the closest i came was after the financial crisis in 2009. my foundation, you know, i did not have any private wealth when i left the white house. i was in debt. everything i do with my foundation comes from other people's contributions. thankfully, i make enough money where i can give to the foundation every year, too. but i did not for a while and there was not enough to run it. we had a bad year in 2009 and i could not blame anybody. i had people who were giving me a million dollars or more a year who lost 75% of their net worth overnight.

we had saved a small endowment -- and i do mean it small, about $27 million. we basically had a decision to make, are you going to shut down what you are doing in ethiopia where i had hundreds of employees trying to build clinics for people, because people are still dying anonymously in ethiopia. they just live out there somewhere and there are no clinics. or are you going to bet that you can come back and blow what you save? and i chose the latter course. i thought, if this does not turn around, i am one dead duck, because there is no way i will ever be able to do this. i was really worried. i was afraid i could have another health problem. something could happen. i have all of these people's jobs and lives depending on me. what if i make the wrong call here? maybe i should cut back now? instead, i decided to roll the

dice and try for one more year, and it worked out fine. but that was hard. and when you work at something and it does not work, that is tough. i had a much more ambitious plan trying to turn around businesses in inner-city areas and have them -- help them hire more people. we started off with a strategy to try to get consulting services across the board. it was highly expensive for the businesses. even the one of our sponsors and others were helping us, it just did not work. and one of the businesses i helped to start failed, and i was personally involved with it. i am not big on -- i hate to fail. especially when somebody else gets hurt.

those things are hard. but you just have to go on. you've got to figure out how you are going to keep score. if you're going to keep score, keep score -- if you're going to keep score in a way that you should not fail, then you should not play. the only way is if somebody is better off when you quit that when you started. [applause] and it is hard. i do not ever wish i were sitting on an island in the florida keyes somewhere, you know, going to play golf and drinking pina coladas. [laughter] because this is fun for me. this is the most selfish thing i do. i love bringing all of these young people here. i love listening to their ideas. [applause] and i feel like i should pay for

the privilege of doing it. it is fun. it is just that when you have more yesterday's than tamaras, you just hate to fail. -- more yesterday's than tomorrows, you just hate to fail. but you've got to keep banging your head against the wall, pushing the rocks up the hill. sometimes they get there. [applause] >> what i took away from that is that president bill clinton is going to start paying all of you for this privilege. i think that is what i took from it. [cheers] we have all of these students and all of this energy. i want to open it up to them to ask questions of you. give some ideas that they have. >> i give you permission to ask questions of him. >> i will lie to you. [laughter] president bill clinton will not. i will. is there someone right there who has got a question here we

go, right here. there you go. if you can, say your name and then whatever your question is. >> i am a student here at gw. what continues to inspire you in spite of the fact that there are so many problems out there? what continues to inspire you to do the great work you do? this is to both of you. >> i tell you what inspires me the most -- two things. one is, all cgi network. cgi in september, cgiu, cgi for america -- there seems to be an unlimited number of people who care about other people and find meaning in life by doing something that helps other people do what they ought to do. i mean, you could not come here and listen to your ideas

without being inspired. the other thing that inspires me is, when i go out in the world and see the people we're working with. i will give you one simple example. it's when i made an africa trip a couple of years ago. i stopped to see one of our farm projects. we have our agricultural products -- projects in allawi and rwanda. i brought on a farm when i was a little boy. ines -- by love agriculture and i know farmers are equally intelligent everywhere in the world. family farmers take care of the land and make the most of whatever they have. we are meeting with these 11 farmers and -- we were in tanzanian then, rural tanzania. and a page one -- and these people have little farms, average, one or 2 acres. they pick one person to be the

spokesperson, the only woman. she was a widow with a 13-year- old son. her sole asset was a quarter acre of land. in the previous years she had made $80. she and her son, lived on $80 for year. we come in and give them better fertilizer and feed and seed and we take their products to market. the average african farmer loses one half of his or her income every year paying someone to take the food to market because none of them have the vehicles. it is scandalous. we take the food to market. this woman made $400 the first year we worked with her. her income went up five fold. that is less than $2 a day. but to her, she was relatively rich because it was five times

more than the year she -- the year before. i said, what is the best thing about it? and she said, my son finally gets to go to school. school was revenue base, and they have to pay tuition to send their kids to school. she was finally able to send her son to school. according [applause] peyer mdot -- [applause] i am about to go to vienna, to the oldest aids fund-raising initiative in europe, the eighth life ball. they support my foundation every year. every year, i see this couple who run along with a group of catholic nuns and one catholic priest from brooklyn an orphanage in cambodia that they support and i support. we provide the pediatric aids medicine and keep 320 or more kids alive.

and in my second book, the only picture in it is me holding this nine-month old boy whose parents had both died of aids, his father before he was born, and his mother slightly after he was born, and he's been raised as an orphan. he was about to die. he got this medicine. about a year later, somebody in california who worked at the orphanage came out to me when i was doing a book signing and said, i see you have his picture. here is him now. he is two. looking good. then they give me a picture of him at age 5. looking good. i know when i go back and going to get another picture of this cambodian kids. he does not know me. but he is alive. that is the most meaningful thing in the world to me. it got only knows what he will make of his life, but i know he -- and god only knows what he will make of his life, but i know he will have a chance.

[applause] >> if you were asking me, i would jessica mando. -- i would just say, ditto. [laughter] right over here. my group -- >> my group and i just went to the nabih note -- navajo nation and found out that most of the energy is generated off of their land. what can we do to develop these extremely poor areas in the united states? >> first, i will go back to the energy. every indian nation in the west -- >> [unintelligible] >> your navajo? good for you.

>> do you think anyone else is going to shout, "las vegas!" [laughter] >> i went to visit this very problem that you were talking about in my last term as president, where there was a young 13-year-old student who had won this great contest enterprise was her very own personal computer. except, in her home, she did not have an electrical outlet to plug into the computer -- to plug in the computer. my first suggestion is, right now, solar panels are the cheapest they have ever been. this is what caused the failure of the famous solyndra company. they were designing a solar panel that was actually cylindrical, like this, and had a higher efficiency conversion rate, but had twice as much. like all electrical products, the price goes down as the

volume sold goes up. they knew they were going to lose money. that is why the energy department gave them money. because it was technologically so much more efficient. after they did that, the chinese came in and offer $32 billion more in solar subsidies, which immediately collapsed the market, especially for the less efficient chinese products. instead of looking at a four- year time loss, they were looking at a 10-year time loss, and nobody was willing to wait that long. that is really what happened. as a result, these panels are cheap. i personally believe the federal government ought to have an initiative and local ngo's batu helped to make every one of these -- ought to help make everyone of these reservations self-sufficient with power.

solar can do the same thing that sells phones did for communication. everyone of these buildings on reservations in the united states that will efficiently and with should have solar power. everyone of them that can generate wind power on side should have wind power. then you can have a simple battery that will give you a day or two of storage if the wind does not blow and the sun does not shine. i believe they ought to be able to export power. if they own coal plants, it is okay if they sell it, but the problem is they probably do not get much benefit from them. i do not know what the agreement was when they gave permission to build the plant on the site. but energy independence would be a great place to start with diverse lot -- diversifying

income of the native american reservations. [applause] >> over here. right there. yes, sir? >> my name is edward from the university of oxford in the uk. my question is, in africa, since president bill clinton pays a lot of visits to africa, i know that most of the people there, past and present, hold you in high regard. would you encourage presidents when they leave power to actually engage in similar initiatives? [cheers and applause] >> he hit a nerve. >> you know, there is a program funded by a somali billionaire who made a lot of money in the cellphone business to actually give cash stipends to former presidents who were honest when in office and wish to do public service when they get out of office. is a great idea.

i actually keep in touch with, for example, every year at the cgi -- almost every year -- at least two former african presidents come. donna has a pretty good record. they keep -- ghana has a pretty good record. they keep rolling over people in elections. ensign ago -- and senate all, they have an honest election honestsenegal, they had -- senagal, they had an honest election there as well i have done work with south africa, with the leader -- leaders there and with nelson mandela to bring education about aids.

a lot of those people are still very vigorous, very interested. and of course, before mr. mandela got so frail, i supported all of his charitable work in south africa. i try to go every year on his birthday and see him and do some event that supports the do the work of the foundation, or the work of some other foundation that he supports. i think it is something that can make a real difference in africa. [applause] >> right there. the guy next to the guy in the blue. [cheers] , ladies, please. he is not a piece of me. he has ideas. >> i come from the university of california pacific. this is my second conference at

cgiu and i'm impressed with the commitments being made here. i get inspired as well and i made commitments to what i can. not to bring peace in afghanistan, because i cannot do that. my question is, all of these commitments that people make here, they go back to their countries and they have security to follow through on those commitments. when i make a commitment, my commitment is at risk, because it is not secure. if i make a commitment to go to kandahar or helmand, i am in danger of being attacked by the taliban. what can be done to bring peace, in your opinion, having served as the united states president, and now with all of your success in mobilizing an army of change agents to do that in other countries? what can be done? because my dream, and i think everyone can hear that, that we

should see on cnn, bbc, aljazeera, news about commitment, about changing the rules, not war. [cheers and applause] >> nicely done. [applause] >> afghanistan is a particularly difficult case for three reasons. one, there's the question of the capacity of the government and its allies, not just the united states, but the other countries that are there, to actually create a secure environment. second, there is the alienation caused by the widespread corruption. and third, the most productive, most likely path to a less violent future on a daily basis would be some sort of agreement between the afghan government

and the taliban, and most people question whether that can be done without the guarantees of the constitution for equal rights for women, and girls being severely eroded. we are in a terrible moral dilemma. you want fewer people to die and you want to stop the violence, and you do not think the government as currently constituted will ever fully be able to defeat the taliban and dominate the country. but if you make a deal under conditions of weakness, or without guaranteed enforcement, you may be selling out the futures of countless women and girls. that is not the answer you want. and sometimes i get to say i do not know what i do not want to say it, but that is the truth.

my experience has been working in the other areas that were dominated by violence. for example, when the president was still in office and pakistan, and i have my differences with him, which we aired on television when i was president. and to his credit, with his support, and a big press conference. but the government actually invited our foundation to come and help them set up a national aids program and provide the madison and testing equipment and training, and it was the first non-african muslim nation to ask us to come in, to say

we're out of denial, we have a problem, will you come help us? what we did do, and none of our people work there or anything. we were able to negotiate place by place come security derangements who thought it was worth doing. so my guess is, given the conflicts of plan, as well as the government, it in order for you to be going safely there, there is a deal to be cut with someone locally, and it would probably have to be done that way. if i can help you get it, i would be glad to try. i think the united states has said we would be happy to support the resumption of the talks between the taliban and

government, but we do not want to sell of the future of every woman in girl in up in the stand to make peace. it's a horrible dilemma. and i think in the meanwhile, the best like someone like you can do, and i applaud you for helping your country in making commitments, there may be a deal to secure the safety and freedom of movement for the people involved in your commitment in the specific areas and a specific purposes you want. i have had some success in doing that and other countries. if so far no one has ever double crossed us on a deal like that. [applause] >> someone give him a hard question. with the economic situation as it is, it is hard enough to go

to college and try to get a job graduate, but it isigh hard to graduate from college in do humanitarian efforts. how to use it just we go ahead and try to help the world at the same time while keeping our heads above water financially? >> i think he might want to host your own tv show. i have found the money to be terrific. you have really brought platform. that is what i would recommend. >> i want to compliment you on inviting the competition. most people do not do that. here is my specific suggestion. you can find this out on the internet or you can contact my foundation and we will give you information.

there are eight or 10 foundations in america whose specialty is funding other people's non-governmental activities. vital voices could help. the rockefeller foundation. there are other people that do it. there are foundations with a lot of money that are interested in doing this. assuming you could find somebody who likes her idea in this economy, it might be easier to start a business that is an nog and to find a job that you find. i believe once we get the direct student loan program fully implemented in america for people who did not take

bank loans over and above that -- all their loans came from the student loan program -- when that is fully implemented, and i think it will move it up until the implemented next year, from their forward i think you will have less pressure because everybody's loan obligation per year will be tied to your income. your loan payments will be a function of your job. your job is not have to become a function of your loan payments. in 1993 my first year as president, i pass this as an option for all the colleges and banks went crazy because they had guaranteed loans. a lot of students took advantage

of it. the students saved $9 billion and lower interest and repayment. the ones who joined it could pay back as a fixed percentage of their income and the taxpayers saved $4 billion. that is because when people can pay their loans, they do. when president obama was elected to give them a mandatory program to direct student loans. it took a few years to get implemented. when that is that i think it will change everything. i think a lot of young people like you will be able to say, you know, i always kind of wanted to teach school for a year or two but i cannot do it for life. i have $50,000 in loans. it is totally irrelevant now. it will be capped as a percentage of your income. you might say, i will go teach on a native american

reservations or add an inner- city school for a couple of years to see what it is like in the maybe i will go into business. you will be able to afford to do it because he will not be bankrupted by your own loan repayment obligations. you all remember that when you are going through this. [applause] >> my name is brittany king. i am a graduate student from houston, texas. >> from houston, texas? >> yes. my mother is a survivor of domestic abuse. i know when you came under earlier you said we in this room are overachievers. because of my past have not always been that way. my first semester of college i failed out with everything else was facing. last night its sentiments a college's universal but opportunity is not. how'd we optimize the talent of those who do not have the same opportunity, somebody like me

who has had to fight hard to be standing today with everything i have had to save. how do we make that something real question marks this is an excellent opportunity that i saw out. >> how did you get through it and how did you become a good student? did somebody help you? was that somebody back in your home? was it somebody on your college campus? how did you get to where you are? >> i think because my daughter was so dependent on me as a single mother. looking into her face knowing we will make it. had she not been there, i may not be standing today. i think i always had an unwavering determination.

i recognize that everybody may have that character trait. when i wake up and i see i still have the air to take breath, i say i have a purpose on this earth. i know there are those who might feel there is no purpose. i will say i have had -- i have had people who have come alongside me and encouraged me and told me to keep pushing. those were people i saw out. some people who saw my determination and resilience who helped me. for those who may not have that drive or motivation or a child saying, what are we going to eat tonight, what do we do for those people? >> that is a great question. [applause] there has been an extraordinary amount of publicity given to the problem of abuse of children, both physical and sexual abuse in the past several months.

not only the well known case at penn state but a major league baseball player has just written his memoirs about his own experience. the senator from massachusetts, scott brown, wrote a memoir about his own spirits. -- his own experience. i think one of the things you can do -- all of you can do is to try to get the people who work with this to establish some kind of beachhead on every campus so people would have somebody who could get them over this.

one of the things you have to do is get to the point where you either put it in a box somewhere or forgive somebody or go rein them out or what ever so they do not hold you prisoner anymore. your daughter basically -- is it your daughter or son? because you had to carry out her, you did not have the option -- care about her, you did not have the option of being a prisoner of your past. your daughter sets you free. with people who do not have children, they have to have something else that will set them free. i will tell you an interesting story. the day nelson mandela was released from prison and early 1991. i got chelsea out of bed. she was somewhat younger than she is now.

i sat her up on the kitchen counter and i told on the tip -- i turned on the television and i said, they are letting nelson mandela out of prison today. this might be the most important thing you ever see in terms of a political event. he walks down this dusty road, this dramatic gesture. he gets into a car. he drives out to freedom. before you know it, he is president. when mandela and i became friends, i said, you are a great man but you are also a canny politician. it was smart to invite your jailers to the politician. it was essential to invite the party to put you in prison to be part of the government. tell me the truth.

i told him about getting chelsea up to watch him. i said when you were watching -- walking down that road, did you not pay their debts again? he said, of course i did. i was full of hatred and fear. i had not been free and so long. i realized if i hated them after i got in that car and got through that gate, i would still be their prisoner. [applause] he smiled and said, i wanted to be free. i let it go. he looked at me and said, so should you. so should everybody. in all these cases of childhood abuse, it is so caught up with things that are wrong, what should not happen to people,

with the power of relationships are. it is so hard to let it go. there are people who do this all of the time. on every continent. think about what it is like in africa for all the children who are turned into soldiers. it is the cruelest of all kinds of child abuse, but in the end it is about a longer being a prisoner to it. you have to give people the strength of mind to look forward instead of backwards. your daughter set you free. [applause] >> let me see if i can get somebody from up in the back. >> hello. i am an undergraduate at the university of pittsburgh.

we have been talking a lot about how wonderful it is we are all getting off of our butts and committing ourselves to these events and we hold babies in africa and we sped off numbers about how well development has helped these countries. what about the negative impact of foreign aid? we have not heard a thing about that all weekend. >> she is talking about the negative impact. i think she is talking about people being sick of bono. are there any negative impacts to foreign aid? >> there can be negative impacts. there can be negative impact of development. if foreign aid is not held accountable it can reinforce the status quo in a country and reinforce the amount of money for corruption.

secondly, foreign aid can be a project the donor fills the country needs that the country has not bought into. in that case, it will be wasted money as soon as the money runs out, the project will vanish and will not have any lasting impact. foreign aid can be harmful if a country sees that less than half the money appropriated is being spent in the country on the people because the developed countries -- ngos are getting cut off the top. there are lots of problems with foreign aid. i spend a lot of time trying to help improve its impact. obviously, i have a conflict with the united states now. i do not do that. i tried to help improve the

impact of american foreign aid by seeing that a higher percentage of it is spent in the country on the people it was intended to reach. if we had a simple requirement like the health-care law that 85% of all the money that you pay and health care goes to your health care and said a profit for promotion, if 85% was all appropriated by every country had to be spent in the country was assigned to help in a way that was transparent, accountable, and honest, that would dramatically increase the impact of whatever dollars are appropriated by parliaments and congress around the world. let me also say that there can be corruption and private development, too. that is the well-known resorts course. why do so many countries with

oils, minerals wind up with average people pour and the economy polluted, because they pay off people who want to be paid off. they do not reinvest money into the country. one of the most rewarding things i do is work with canadian mining countries to pump money into funds in bolivia and peru to reinvest some of their profits into the areas where mining occurs to diversify the economy and strengthen society so when the mines play out the people are better off. every country in the world with mining or oil wells could have their money spent -- there is a reason why the income is twice that in any other despite it is smaller. they put 100% of the money into a trance parent trust. the money goes into a trust. -- transparent trust. you know you can follow the money to see if it is in the trust. is spent to benefit the people

and diversify the economy. that is all transparent. that could be the biggest boon to africa and normal ordinary people would see their incomes rise. we mostly just have climate change projects in nigeria. i go there once a year to a major press event where a nigerian press brings in all the people from different sections of the economy and bring some people like me to tell them that they should be honest and transparent because it would work better and point out how it is working in other places because if nigeria works, south africa works, and you can avoid the worst of what is going on in the condo and give them a responsible path forward. the rest would have magnets that would develop more rapid and positive growth.

there are problems with private development, they both need to be addressed in a way that benefits real people in the countries affected. >> right there in the baseball cap. >> i am putting a lot at risk for speaking right now. i have to bring up an issue i feel need to be addressed. during your presidency you sign significant legislation such as don't ask don't tell and the defense of marriage act. there is obviously a focus on alleviating poverty and making commitments to sustainability, education, health, and development. i identified as being a minority because of my association with the -- they have made considerable differences both in america and across the world. they are still most at risk for teen suicides.

what can we do to secure treatment for all americans? when will this country finally ruled that separate is unequal when it comes to the social institution of marriage? i will not ask my future leader to domestic partnership me. i refuse to be treated as a second-class citizen. [applause] >> the answer to the gay marriage question is this. this supreme court is not even sure you should have to have health insurance. they are not about to say that you have a constitutional right to be married.

they will say it is a matter of state law. but i think we are making progress there. my answer on the marriage issue is, i have changed my position and a lot of other people have. we got it in your. you have to keep working and you will get there. since you brought it up, i t why for doing it. i am always curious at house elected people's memories are. lgbt community must wonder how i maintain support in the communities and so did those two things. here is why. i did not sign do not ask don't tell until both houses of congress had voted by a veto- proof majority for a resolution saying if i kept trying to put gays in the military, they would go back to making it a crime. colin powell came to me and

said, if you accept this, you are beat on this other thing. if you accept this, here is how we will enforce it. no gay person will be asked about his sexual orientation. getting the materials, going to gay bars out of uniforms, marching in gay pride parades out of the uniform, and none of that will be used to kick somebody out of the military. we will leave this alone if you agree to this. rather than go back to what happened, i agree to do it. what happened? the minute i left a broke every single commitment they made to me. the reason i supported it in the first place was partly because and the first gulf war, the military allowed more than 100 gay members of the service to put their lives at risk in the 1991 knowing they were gay, waited until they put their lives at risk, waited until the

war was over and kicked them out. it is true, i did it. if you understood what my options were, i am not sure i did the wrong thing. on the doma bill, the whole purpose was to keep the congress from voting out a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage in the u.s. constitution. if it got to the states it would almost certainly back then have secured the votes of three- quarters of the state legislatures and the country. it was a total calculation based on the odds -- we may have been wrong, but most of the leaders of the gay community believe that if we did not go along with that, the republican congress would put a gay marriage ban amendment to the federal constitution.

they would get the votes in the house and the senate and they would send it to the states. i may have been wrong, but i think under the circumstances as we believed it would happen it was worth it. since then there has been steady, long the progress toward recognizing gay marriage. which i support. [applause] >> i am from california, which revisited when you were in office. my city is about 140,000 people, and we last year were the sixth highest city per capita in homicide rates in the entire country.

we have the highest incarceration rate per county in california of locking up youth under the age of 18. my question to you is how do be as students and youths who are trying to break down some of these barriers in trying to reduce the use recidivism rate and the incarceration rate, how do we break down some of the barriers that we confront with establishments like our local judges, our local district attorneys? >> let me ask you something. why do you think the incarceration rate is so high? why do you think the crime rate is so high? why do you think it happens? >> i think it is a two part answer. one is because our lack of resources and our educational system in our area. the other is because our local district attorney has -- i will drop the hammer and three u. -- threw away the key -- mentality.

>> what percentage involves drugs or guns? >> it is a very minimal amount. a lot of the times our youth is getting incarcerated because of what some people call crimes of passage. maybe sometimes under age drinking, smoking marijuana -- which is kind of like a life passage kind of crime. [laughter] >> let me ask you a question. would you consider "dark side of the moon" by pink floyd a life passage crime. >> i have no idea what that is.

[applause] >> i am so old. >> i am guessing that was something in the 1960's. >> yes. >> let me ask you a question. in my second term, we had a drop in not just the crime rate, but we really went after juvenile offenses and try to keep people out of prison. one thing that we did was to appropriate enough money for after-school programs for 1.5 million young people. i gather a lot of them have been cut now under all these financial constraints that california has been under. i believe that we have to go back to turning the schools into community centers, leave them open every night and on the weekends. offer real support to kids. we also started something in philadelphia that eventually

had half of a million kids in called "gear up." we would tell people in middle school they could go to college. we would tell them, you can go to college and here are with your benefits will be. we promise you right now if you do these things in school and follow this path. i think you have to figure out -- most people do not want to fail. most people want to succeed. first they do not think they will be able to so they do dumb things. they do not know how to. i do not think there is a magic elixir here. i think you have to go child by child and figure out if they each need a mentor of some kind.

then we need to put them on a path for the future by the time they are 13. they're probably not that many in detention under 13. i think somehow they have to be able to choose their schools over the street. i do not care how we find the money, we have to find a way to go back and find a way to turn the schools into community centers. let me give you one example. andre agassi, the famous tennis player, started a school at las vegas. he put it in the poorest neighborhood in las vegas, one of the poorest and all of nevada. it was the first school in the entire county to receive an excellent rating from the state. they are open all the time, every night and every weekend. all of the parents, whether they are two parent or single

working moms are invited to come into the schools. they give all of them computer training. they give the mailing with the teachers. they give the kids something to do at night and on the weekend. the school recognizes that the families are under enormous assault economic and otherwise. these kids are in trouble. they also start early preparing them either to move into a training program where they can get a decent job or go on to college. it has made a huge difference. andre agassi is not one of these celebrities that has to have a charity so you can check the box and somebody else run said. he runs that school. he has people who do that, but he is heavily involved in it and the lives of the kids. it is stunning what happened once they went after every one

of these kids one by one by one. they went after their families one by one. they made them all feel they had a home in the school and they were committed to their success. somehow we have to recreate that for everybody. when we leave here the basketball games are on tonight. [laughter] i want to say this because it relates. you have what maybe a fascinating game between kentucky and louisville. louisville has all of these kids -- there is no way in the world should be in the final four. they have a great point guard. they did not expect to be there. the coach said an interesting thing that might relate to

celinas. he said how did you do this? these kids had no business being in the final four. he said, everybody who plays this game wants to succeed. some do not believe they can. first everybody has to believe they can. then it turns out the one to succeed for different reasons. some want to make their mother's proud. some want to make their parents proud. someone to show their dad they are still good. some want to do it for teammates. people want to succeed for different reasons. you have to convince everybody that the only way you can succeed in your own terms is if you are part of a team that is doing something bigger and better than you are. it was really smart -- somehow, all of these kids getting in trouble, they drift off. most of them are not bad kids. it is connected.

they think life is a dead end anyway. we have to bring them back in. i have no better idea than what i have seen work in las vegas and several other places. you have to make the school the governing community institutions. when the economy picks up again, that is the first in congress ought to think about doing. you can give all the tests in the world and do this other stuff, but kids have to believe they can succeed. they want to believe they can succeed. they have to be given away to do it. their families have to be given a space to support them. i think putting everyone in jail -- there are too many people in jail in this country in my opinion. [applause] >> we have been given the all clear sign. that is all the time that we have. i wanted to very briefly state what an honor it has been to be here. [applause] you know a lot of things. it is always a pleasure to hear

you speak. i rarely have been in a room where i felt like i would like to work for each and every one of you. you are a pretty incredible group of individuals. i wish to the greatest success and all the commitments you have been working on. i want to thank president clinton. >> see you tomorrow morning. thank you very much. [applause] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] [captioning performed by national captioning institute]

>> next, chelsea clinton moderate a panel. after that, newt gingrich, mitt romney, in rick santorum speaking at a face and read them event in wisconsin. then, weekly addresses with john boehner and president obama. >> this week, jim jordan, the ohio congressman talks about why he supports buddy -- paul ryan budget, which passed the house thursday. >> the fact that the policy

statement, were they incorporated ideas that have really been ideas like welfare reform, medicaid reform, when we think it can better serve the recipients, so a lot of good things in there. it is 1000 times better the of the president's budget but never ever did balance. the difference is we get the balance of a reasonable amount of time, in a timeframe that we believe the american people think is common sense. five years is what it takes four hours. we think that is important to show the american people here is what we really need to do. the fact remains you cannot get 218 votes for our budget. so we do need to pass something, and his is a lot better than the president's. so we will support that. >> jim jordan ways and on

campaign 2012. -- weighs in on campaign 2012. tomorrow at 10:30 eastern, the argument on the constitutionality of the individual mandate. can the rest of the loss. tact is the mandate is unconstitutional? here are up -- all the arguments this weekend at c-span or any time at c-span.org. now, chelsea clinton and secretary of state hillary clinton will lead a discussion on how young on to open doors are making a difference in on to entrepreneurs. this is about 55 minutes.

>> we will be hearing from chelsea clinton moderating a discussion on the ways young people are creating opportunities in a tough job market. >> ladies and gentlemen, please welcome chelsea clinton. [applause] and our panelists, a vice president policy of programs tamara drout, president louisement bangk, morano, the environmentalist, research foundation for science, technology, and ecology. >> think you. -- thank you. i may not actually be a member

given that i am 32. probably much older did many of you an audience. for young people to turn out in these numbers to hold the government accountable for the decisions they are making about our fiscal future, we certainly saw tens of thousands of young people turn out in the past 15 months from the arabs bring to protest against higher university fees, to protest for affordable housing, and certainly occupy it wall street where i live in new york city. as much as young people may be in the vanguard of the social protest and social movements, we are notably behind in employment.

youth unemployment has been above 16% for 36 months. and much of the developed world is higher. in greece, which probably many of you have been watching over the past few months, it is just below 50%. in the developing world, it is often somewhere between 26-27% in the middle east and north africa clearly we are confronting many challenges. to think about how we build an economy for the future, but another challenge is how do we build the next generation of all entrepreneurs?

yes, even political and government entrepreneurs. i hope that is what we will talk a little bit about today. i would like to start with cynthia, because cynthia had an idea when she was in school that became not only hurt jobs, but became a mechanism through which she is very much adding to her own and our collective triple bottom line. >> it was a year ago i was graduating from the university of irvine. the real turning point for me was being asked a question, why are you looking for a job when you have one already? from there it has snowballed.

is a parallel moves for-five times than the traditional method. which is five times on the -- i gallons on the head. last month our team double. we will probably double again in the next two months. at the inter-american development bank can explain what that is, how do you find people like cynthia in latin america and the caribbean given that 60% of the population are under the age of 30? how do you connect with people who have these great ideas for their own advancement and also for society as a whole? >> first of all, thank you very

much for having me here. it is great to have the students' thinking about these ideas. day inter-american development ban -- the inter-american development bank has a focus on development. this whole purpose of helping governments find ways to have development finance to do schools, roads, hydroelectric projects. along with that, to incorporate best practices. we are more than just a financial institution. we are a complex but very

focused consultancy institution that looks at best practices. having said that, what cynthia was just describing is the larger story of the emerging world. if you look at the 1980's in latin america, the lost decade when we had the financial crisis at that time, the real issue was unemployment. today, the issue is more security. it is connected to many areas. how to reach what people like cynthia do, we use a fund where we provide grants to help small entrepreneurs kickstart, to provide some of the technical assistance needed. this is the one area where the jobs are created. most countries around the world have them with small and medium- sized enterprises. real skills that you can help develop that small business over time. we worked with students. we got some of the students to

go to peru helping women entrepreneurs and helping them set up their own business. some of the things that cynthia was saying are the kinds of groups that we helped to support. it is ideas like hers and others like her who need the support from the institution to provide some of the funding to help her efforts. >> you in many ways embody the paradigm of doing well and doing good to get there. what you have been able to do it in india is really remarkable with now 500,000 farmers affected. could you talk a little bit about that work and what lessons you think are applicable to students in the audience who are thinking about what they want to do when they graduate? >> what ever you studied or are

studying, it will not necessarily follow you in your life. >> this is why i asked the question. >> in 1984, we had the worst industrial disaster. terrorism took 30,000 lives. something was strange in agriculture killing so many people and also killing species. we started to promote non- violent farming for ecological reasons. it became increasingly economic because a high price tag was pushing farmers into debt. they are trapped in high-cost materials.

eventually, less and less value because of the subsidies, etc. so we built a network of farmers who grow diversity and have doubled their incomes and nutritional outputs. most importantly, they are rebuilding nature's economy. what is wrong with the present model of the economy is because it came from fossil fuels. we cannot afford to keep thinking that fossil fuels are at the center of work which displaces people which is why unemployment is linked to ecological destruction. [applause] we now need to link stabilizing, maintaining, conserving, and rebuilding the nation's wealth of soil, biodiversity, stabilizing the climate. about $80 billion is the cost of extreme events.

we are not doing terribly well. the kind of agriculture we promote is getting rid of 70% species destruction, water waste. a lot of the water crisis is related to waste. 30% of greenhouse gases. 70% of the dispose ability of human beings because of fossil fuels and toxics. how is that relevant to all of you? the five function of quantum theory. [laughter] at the end of it, we are all eaters. all of law should be caring

about what food we eat and how it is grown -- all of us should be caring about what food we eat and how it is grown. about 1 billion people are hungry and about 2 billion people who are not hungry are suffering from disease or malnutrition of all other kind because of that food. i did learn math. what is wrong with the current economic model is the math is not right. [applause] what i realized it is 50% of us will always be involved in the food system. we can be involved in the destructive component of it, speculating on commodities, shooting up prices, creating toxics, driving wal-mart trucks, or 50% could be in the creative work.

every month, we have 25% of people around the world who become chefs or organic farmers. the food system is inviting us to a diversity of creative work that we have not even begun to explore. we need to go there. [cheers and applause] >> i think you certainly have begun to explore it. one thing you said that elicited a lot of whistles is that our math is not right. certainly the math of student loan debt in this country is staggering. [applause] we now have more student loan debt outstanding than credit- card debt.

we breached the threshold of more than $1 trillion of student loan debt outstanding last month. it is staggering particularly when we heard mr. peterson just talk about how he was so grateful that he got "the best education money could buy." a college education today versus when he went, in inflation- adjusted dollars, it is six or 12 times more expensive today. it is actually a lot more costly to go to school and a lot more costly when you get out of school to have gone to school. that is one of the things i hope we will talk a little bit about, how we think about these impediments of people who are clearly motivated to get the best education available, the assessment of their own potential, then to truly go out and push the work forward that

is being talked about. how do we think about that? what should we be asking our policymakers to do? >> great question. the big generational shift that has happened from your parents' generation to yourselves is a great cost shift in terms of who pays for higher education. the shift has been from a public responsibility to your responsibility and primarily by taking on a lot of debt. the implications of this are profound. i also want to talk a little bit about the overall context in which this shift has happened. we have a double whammy for a new generation entering adulthood which is the steady decline in the jobs that are available particularly for those who will not get a college

degree. we hear a lot about the american dream and whether it is broken or not. there has been a significant decline in economic mobility and social mobility. those are abstract ideas. i am going to tell you my story. i grew up in middletown, ohio. any ohioans? [cheers] yay! i grew up in a blue-collar middle-class family. my dad was a machinist at the local steel factory which at the time employed two-thirds of the people in the town. my mother was an office manager at the local orthodontist office. they were able to send me to a public university, ohio university. [cheers] go bobcats! we did great in the n.c.a.a. by

the way. they were able to pay for my college out of pocket. what did that mean for me? i entered school and exited school in four years which is now the exception because it now takes about five years for the average student to complete college. i had zero debt and i did not even have to work a job while i was in school so i could focus on things like clubs that would help my professional career when i graduated. fast forward to your generation. not only has the price tripled, but the jobs that our parents had have declined. that factory now employs about 20% of the population. the wages for those jobs are not nearly what my dad was paid.

my mom got laid off from her job and now makes half what she used to make and is without health care for the first time in her life at the age of 60. when you think about what we have lost, it is not just we have handed over the levers of opportunity over to the shoulders of students to pay for but we have also lost an economy that provided good, quality jobs for everybody who needs one which is true right now in the post-recession. even before the recession, we had a serious structural problem where wages have declined for all but the best educated workers. if we get a chance, i would love to talk about how we can turn that around. one more point. that is how it plays out in the individual level.

in the national level, this is why public policy is my domain. i care about the laws that we passed to create opportunity for people. the united states right now leads the world in the level of education of our older population. we are number one in the world. among 25 to 30-year-old, we are number 12. americans did not become dumber. our public policies changed. the doors that we opened over the course of a generation to a whole new cohort of college students have slowly been closed over time. we have this system that will leave most of you with $25,000 in debt. >> on that sober note -- [applause] >> sorry. >> i hope we get back to talk about some of the solutions. i do not know if a lot of people are aware that the all world

bank system is not only the largest funder of public health programs in the developed world but it is also the largest funder of educational programs in the developed world more so than unicef. could you talk a bit about what you think works since we are very biased toward action and solutions here in terms of accessing young people's potential in both formal educational systems but also through vocational programs? i know you have done a lot with apprenticeships and i think there is a lot of interest in this room working with those models. >> this is very important certainly in the case of latin america. the protests in chile are very different than the ones in the middle east.

this is much more about the growth of the upper class. the average age in latin america is 27. you have all of these young people coming into the labor market with a growing middle- class and there is definitely a change in aspirations which is driving this anxiety. how fast can they get a job? not only can they have the right skills for the changing jobs and our economy which is a paradox to what we see today in the united states. one of the key areas is how to develop skills to work.

some of the things we are doing is working with corporations who are doing business in latin america, both u.s. companies, global companies in general, and companies from latin america, and have them work and identify the kinds of skills that they need for that new labor force that they are engaging. that talks a lot about some of the faults that we know of. it requires much more on the job training. it is that phase that we are introducing which i think in many ways the united states saw years ago with your community colleges and some of the possibilities of vocation. these are some of the things that we are working on, marrying those two. it begins with early childhood education and working with teachers and the whole society's interest in what matters. which is then leads to those skills to work.

>> the larger ecosystem. >> yes. >> when you first started this work, how did you convince farmers to try something new? often, people will want to be second but there is often a great hesitancy to be first. how did you convince people that it was worth trying? given the many years you have been doing this work, do you see in younger people that children of the original farmers a different mentality toward their own lives and their responsibilities to our planet? >> when i started, i would go village to village and sitting with the farmers. because they were all

brainwashed to believe the chemicals were giving them more. that is why i say the math is not right. how much do you spend and how much do you earn? by and large, the net income was negative which is why the suicide epidemic. once they did a cost-benefit analysis themselves, and farmers are not used to doing it -- two years later, the land is being taken away. we worked with them. we helped them keep diaries so they would work on how much they spend on chemicals and seeds that are not renewable and how much they make. she describes the crisis of education and the loan burden in terms of the destruction of the public education system.

the same thing has happened to the agriculture system. now you have an unreliable seeds with royalties. i am starting a massive campaign this year and i hope all the young people will join. i think something is terribly wrong. seeds are being extracted with the cost of farmers' lives. we have four crops. genetically modified, patented. that is not the best food system that humanity can invent. we can do better. >> you are doing better. [applause]

>> so many people from the cities are moving back. as a young boy who used to work with me in the office went back to his village. in india, we make everyone a relative. you are doing good work. he looks at me and says you are doing good work. i left my village to come to the city. i am going to go back. within the first year, he made 200 villages give up toxic chemicals and pesticides. [applause] >> now you work with 500,000 farmers but they are not all in one location. >> we work in 16 states. now we work with the government of bhutan. they measure gross national happiness.

they are organizing at the un, redefining the economic paradigm. the prime minister has asked us to go 100% organic and waiting for the day when this country and makes that commitment. [cheers and applause] >> what do you think some of the solutions are that we actually collectively here can and should be advocating for? understanding the current financial situation of our country is in. understanding how many states are in a more financially precarious system because they cannot have a budget deficit year over year. what should we ask our national government to do and our state governments to do to try to change this equation such that we are not the 24th in education for the next generation?

>> well, i think a couple things. i think we need to think bold here. a lot of that starts with not allowing this idea that we cannot afford to invest in people in this country. we can afford it. it is absolutely true that we have a long-term debt problem but we also have a short term and a long-term priority problem. we have the money. our gdp nearly tripled in the last generation. per capita income grew by 66% since 1980. that does not tell you how it is distributed in society. we know the majority of those gains went to the very top. states and our own federal government have been

constrained from doing the things that benefit our entire nation. i think we have to get back to some real fundamentals. the best investment this nation can make is in the future of its people. [applause] we are a richard nation today than we were when i went to college -- we are a richer nation today then we were when i went to college. we are not without resources in this country. i also want to say a big area where the united states lags considerably at the complete other end of the educational spectrum which his early childhood education and care. [applause] we are one of the few developed nations that, by and large, leaves that stage of life to chance. it is another responsibility

that we put on the parents or people to figure it out by themselves. it is also probably our best shot at creating a level playing field in this country and doing something about the huge disparity of race and ethnicity that we have been this country. [applause] -- have in this country. >> you spoke about being in a job interview and someone saying to you you already have a job. what inspired you to start wello when you were at the university of michigan before it became codified? what sort of class work had you done that led directly to that idea cohering in your head and motivating you? >> it originally started with my curiosity about the global water crisis. over a billion people are

negatively impacted by the lack of access to water. it shocked me how this happens. i would write papers about the global water crisis and started studying business strategies. then i started competing in business plan competitions. it slowly snowballed into something much bigger. i think one of the benefits you have as students is everyone wants to help you. i had the benefit of looking into any professor's office and saying i have a question so can you help me answer this. do you have a contact that i can talk to to continue to learn? the more i learned, the more questions i had. i would say you are at a unique moment. apply for an internship.

it is a great time to explore that opportunity and you might surprise yourself. >> i think there are two big crises. the water crisis and the food crisis. i am so happy young people like you are turning to this. i was invited by a little village 10 years ago because their water was disappearing because coca-cola had set up a plant extracting 1.5 million liters per day. the water level had fallen and what was there was polluted. women were walking 10 miles. one woman said no more and they sat in front of the gate. they called me for my support. within a year, that plant

closed. [applause] water is a public good. it is not a commodity. whether it is education or the water crisis or the issue of food and seeds that i work on, we are talking about an epic contest. [applause]

>> turning to one of our questions from twitter. although those are cardinal challenges because if we do not have access to clean, reliable water and nutritious food, we cannot do anything else. yet there are so many other challenges facing us. in latin america, how can entrepreneurship thrive despite ongoing drug problems and violence? >> when people stop using cocaine in the united states. [cheers and applause] >> that is an entrepreneurship of a criminal kind. >> look, i come from colombia. i know this problem. [laughter] i will always be extremely grateful to president clinton for what he did for our country

because columbia is beginning to turn the corner largely because of what he started. [applause] one of the paradoxes i see is in latin america at a moment when we have the best growth in many, many years, if you look at it and most violent countries in the world, six of them are in latin america. we have about 8% of the population of the world and about a third of the homicides. that requires a very vigorous government response. it has to bring society to get there. we did a steady in central america alone what this means. about 8% of gdp. imagine the cost of drug trafficking in these countries. this is a part of some of our

growing things because of entrepreneurship is thriving and there is huge potential. the huge potential is in the growing middle-class as you have to think about disruptive business models. it is the theory that you are used to selling the regular toothpaste to a certain set of consumers. but today, you have some consumers who have never bought that toothpaste. because maybe the packaging makes it expensive. how to rethink to begin to produce products for the growing middle-class that has a different set of the aspirations. we see it in all kinds of what we call investments. we have developed a number of very fascinating projects. you have seen for instance networks of the private sector to reach the majority.

if i were any of you here, this is what i would be thinking. the biggest growth market in the world it is in the base of the pyramid which is growing very fast around the world. you have about 1.2 billion people in the middle class. in two years, more than 3 billion. that is a big opportunity. >> how can the base be the middle class? the base is the poor. >> the base is definitely the poor. government policies have to support that movement to get people out of extreme poverty. initially through government subsidies and some form of entitlement. something that we developed at the bank which consists of -- we do not want to let your child not go to school. on the contrary, we want you to send your child to school. the government will provide a

subsidy of about $50 a month. then the child will go through medical checkups to begin their learning process. this is something that has begun to become important throughout our country. we are having a difficulty of teaching a whole generation with limited capacity to learn. the one thing that breaks that cycle of poverty begins with giving access to people. >> now my question to you from brian. can lessons of delivering affordable sustainable agriculture be applied to other global challenges like access to health care?

>> i think the two are so intimately linked. the who had a report of the biggest chunk of diseases related to the food system. [applause] >> it is true in this country as well. >> this country sets the basis for bad to around the world. i think this junk food culture should go. you cannot have john food and at one of vitamin to it. you have to maximize nutrition output by intensifying ecology, not chemical output and capital output. i think that is the disjunction in the present model. higher cost of everything. cost of health.

lowering of income for everybody. we need the opposite. [applause] >> this is a -- one thing that was articulated i would argue is a call for government action. i think this is precisely what should be rendered on to government. what do you think and given that we have growing inequality in our own country but a round the world given that for the first time in 2011 more poor people lived in middle income countries and poor countries, how should our government and governments around the world to think about recalibrate in the

field for the corporate sector and for the private individuals? >> ok. i am like the senate on this panel. i think it will be very hard for the united states to play that role. -- i am the cynic o nthis panel. it will be hard for the saddest days to play this role of corporations. >> there are lots of special interests and this town but not one reflective of our views. that is a challenge to us to think things should be different. >> absolutely. we need everybody in this room to help championed public financing of elections, a constitutional amendment that says money is not speech.

the battle for the future of this country is hard to fight when we are out spent by corporate and special interests. [applause] i will leave it at that for now. i do think it is fundamentally reject the work they do every day which is how do we revitalize the work of government in providing the basics needed in society and providing that structure of opportunity that enabled me to sit in front of you today. i do not see it fundamentally changing until we change the system. i would also require corporations to be more transparent about the true cost of their supply chains. those of us sitting in the washington, d.c. would no there was a factory that was polluting

the water. that should be something that we should expect. cori we should have more of a view so we know we can make of the right choices. given your experience and having worked in the government before as -- what do you think a middle-income country's role is? >> the whole question of closing the gaps of equality -- let me begin by saying would you look at latin america it is part of the most unequal part of the world and part of the right distribution. the first time in ages because we have been able to have positive economic growth on a sustained basis, you begin to see the drop in equality. it is a huge function to this that comes with the way that is

done. a huge function in the way that entitlement programs are delivered, are measured, and the quality and institutions behind it. this is something extremely difficult to put together. unfortunately in many cases it takes many years before government has the capacity to deliver the kinds of things that are needed. here we devote a lot of our efforts to support governments and renewing institutions. but on the larger discussion i think the awareness in the leadership of countries that this is what matters and how to drive -- the effort of government and how to build the partnerships. today the way to do this is you see the talent that is out there -- using the talent that is out there from everybody. i have seen a lot of interesting

cases in many countries in latin america that i think have a great possibilities for the future. >> maybe we should learn something from you. i will direct this question to you. given that the system of education takes decades to show employable results, how do we convince poor families it is worth the investment? how'd you convince farmers you work with to use the 100% additional income from the crops that you help them plant to invest in their children and communities? >> two points about this. remember there was a scholastic system of teaching. at a certain point it fell out of reverence. new universities were created.

all learning was linked to the church. it is being squeezed into a very narrow teaching. it is in order to turn human beings into raw materials for the corporate machinery. we need to make public education again. we have to have other initiatives of learning beyond universities. our farm is the new university. in any case, that is why we have grandmothers' come to teach our farm. being taught to disrespect the

knowledge of our elders. the elders have a lot to show. they have a wisdom in this time we need desperately. we need to learn from every source. a plant, a seed, nature, the soil, they are all teachers. we have to make more teachers. >> a broader definition of education. i will direct this to you. for those of us traveled with student loan debt, how do we continue this work? how do we do this while facing our basic needs? >> these are very creative. personally, that was something i worried about one year ago. howard audacious to think it will move to another country and start a business without a man speaking the language -- without

even speaking the language. i was able to rally support and get people behind me to believe what i was doing. you have to think about what will take me until next -- will get me to next week, next quarter -- now what will this look like 20 years down the road. be creative and tighten your belts a little bit. >> i think that is great advice for any of us and what we want to do. even if small businesses or farms receive funding to get off the ground, how can we compete with global mega companies? >> i think what you will see more and more in the world is how the change of the face of

the global companies. how you have these evolutions of companies coming from the south. you see huge business is developing as a result of -- changes that are taking place in emerging countries. if you look at the top 100 corporations today and compare them to 20 years ago, they are very different. it will be very different in a short period of time. i think the real possibility for emerging small businesses is to look at the vacuum of needs that exist in the huge space being developed that requires a totally new thinking of the way you'd do your traditional business. i think that is where with the use of technology as i was saying before, that is where i think the real possibilities are

possible. >> i want to give you the last word because you said you were a cynic. i do not want you to think you left here with only cynicism. although thankfully we have the highest number of students from outside of the united states that we have ever had here at cgiu, more than one-third or from outside the united states, we have close to two-thirds better from the united states and the more studying here from abroad. i would like you to comment a little bit on what cynthia says. how would you recommend we all leave here and many of us go forward and try to figure out how to make a living while also pay off student loan debt to navigate that balance not only for their own lives but for all

of us? >> it is a hard balance. it is one of the reason so many students get pulled into careers they originally did not want to because they pay so well. one thing i have loved about the conversation is clearly some moments in which you are clap, there is such a strong moral compass in this room. i am actually optimistic about the future of this country. i want to be one of your honor. nieces. i am in love with this woman. [cheers and applause] i am not a personal finance expert. i myself tried to make ends meet after college and i did not even have student loan debt. what i will say is that we need young people with your moral

compass to solve these problems. we desperately need you to run for office. if your talents and passions lean and this way, we need to revolutionize the economic field. we need you to go into economics. >> i just remembered while you were talking about the leadership coming from the young, we realize this neglect of the future as part of the crisis. we are moving the the you and to create a commission for future generations and their rights. -- the un to create a commission for future generations and their rights. i hope all of the joint. >> as somebody here recently lost their grandmother, i will

join you and dropping -- i will join you in adopting her as a matriarch figure. i would like to close harkening back to what he said to have our voices heard and to hold our corporations accountable and to hold our academies accountable. certainly to hold our politicians accountable. to urge you not only to go into economics or to run for office but to go work for walmart were coca-cola to go change the corporate system to build a better world we would all want to live in. i think he will have a lot of people knocking on your door. [cheers and applause] thank you all very much.

>> next newt gingrich, mitt romney, and rick santorum speaking at a faith and freedom forum and wisconsin. a conversation between former president bill clinton and john stewart, a host of "the daily show quit."

>> your questions for author and richard brookhiser. he will take your phone calls and e-mails and tweets monday at noon eastern. >> ronald reagan was leaving after delivering a speech. he is 15 feet from the president. he shoots and he took six shots. the first one hit jim brady. the second one hits, who was a d.c. police officer turned around to check on his progress. he screams " hits it." now the path is clear. hinckley has an effective range. he has done target practice. >> march 30, 1981, the assassin

john hinckley fires six shots. the race to save a president sunday at 7:00 and 10:00 eastern. >> in march of 1979, c-span began televising the house of representatives to households nationwide. we're now available on tv, radio, and online. >> i could not resist getting on the phone and i called the secret service says the president. i feel like going jogging tonight -- in the nude. my wife and i were looking at the lawn on midnight that these guys or all -- fully enclosed. i have been studying him since yesterday and i think -- the way

to do the president is to start out as mr. rogers. then you add a little john wayne. you put them together and you have george herbert walker bush. [cheers and applause] >> c-span, created by america's public -- cable companies as a public service. ♪ [applause] >> wow. i asked my wife to come and stand with me, because we spend all week campaigning here in wisconsin, and we have been

having a great reception. some of you also know our son- in-law is from sheboygan, so we have connections on both sides of the state, and last night we were up at green bay inspecting the team that we have a share of, so we are really glad to be back in wisconsin. i am delighted so many of you are out here. wisconsin, and june 5, will be the most important center of decision making in america, and i am glad you are committed to being for the candidate that is determined to protect the taxpayer, protect our children and do what is right for america. [applause] >> we came back in 2009 and did a fund-raiser in milwaukee for

scott, and i came back here to waukesha, and he was saying what he was going to do. he was open. he was out there. as a result, the people of the state elected a republican senate, the republican house, a republican governor, and the people were not confused. the entire fight of the last year and a half has been the effort of small interest groups to change the will of people that is very much against democracy and self-government. i commend you for willing to be fight june 6, and make sure that we win. it is one of the most important elections in american history and it will change behavior across the country. thank you for being active citizens. [applause] >> we are very proud to be

associated with ralph reed, and the tremendous job he as the across the country. the number of folks that are here today, the number of people who are organizing, it is very encouraging. this is the most important election of your lifetime. the reelection of barack obama will be a disaster for our children and grandchildren and our country, and you are key to having a grass-roots campaign that stops the left from continuing to be in power in washington, d.c., and i thank you for your active involvement. [applause] >> let's be really clear how big the stakes are. the american civilization as we have known it is under attack on two fronts. on one front, there is radical secularism that would drive got out of our life, language, government, and make us a country of the extraordinary on american nature.

on the other front there is radical islamists. we saw it with the leaders in saudi arabia but said every church in the peninsula should be destroyed, with no complaint from our state department. we need to understand, this is an historic, cultural fight for the survival of american civilization. let me be clear, we believe that this is an exceptional country, not because you and i are exceptional, but we are the only society that says power comes from god to each one of you personally, and then you loan power to the government. [applause] >> this means that you are a

citizen, and the government is supposed to be a public servant. obama has the opposite model, a european elitist model in which the government is sovereign and tells us what to do. that is why this fight is so fundamental. it is not just barack obama. it is the academic community, the news media, people in entertainment, the judges -- there is an an entire elitist people that will dictate to us. callista and i did a film about pope john paul the second called "nine days that changed the world." it is a remarkable movie. we were doing a movie on reagan, and we have gone to europe to interview the president of the czech republic and the president of poland, and we ask

both of them what was the decisive moment in defeating the soviet empire, and we thought it would give us a great ronald reagan antidote, but they both said it was when the pope came in 1979 and spent nine days and a pilgrimage to poland. and the first morning, he had 3 million people in victory square for mass, and we suddenly realized there were more of us than there were of the government. now, that is the point of the mobilization that you represent. there are more people in america by a huge margin who believe that our rights come from our creator, then there are people who believe we should erase dodd from american memory. we need to assert [applause] >> we need to break normal politics, reach out to every person who agrees that rights

come from our creator, and we need to build a movement dedicated to changing the judges, the bureaucracy, the politicians, the news media, and college professors, until we get back to an america that understands where its rights come from, and understands what its future is based on. [applause] >> i take this so seriously that our campaign manager and i spent nine years working on a paper that is a 54-page outline about what to do about judges. we are not helpless in front of an anti-religious bigot. we are in a position as people to use the legislative branch to balance off the judicial branch, and i would urge you to look of that paper and he will realize that intellectual we have been given up an argument we should not give up.

of course law schools believe in judicial supremacy. none of the founding fathers would agree. the number one complaint was no taxation without representation, and the number two complaint was british judges who day regarded as kings, rather than judges. the judicial branch is the weakest of the three branches. will never fight the other branches because it would inevitably lose. the notion of the supreme court being supreme over the president and congress is nonsense. it is one of three equal branches, and we need to assure that we, the people, are the ultimate the fibers of america, not a handful of appointed judges. [applause]

>> you also need to reassert in your state legislature in your local school board that you expect teachers to actually teach the facts. [applause] >> every child should encounter the declaration of independence and explore the question, what did the founding fathers mean -- "we are endowed by our creators." why does the northwest ordinance of 1787 organize illinois, indiana, ohio, part of wisconsin and michigan -- why does it say religion, morality and knowledge being important? schools are vital. notice the order. religion, morality and knowledge, it eliminated by the modern left to the only knowledge, which explains much of what is wrong with our culture today. [applause] >> so, you not have to have a

theological agenda. you could have them use president lincoln's second inaugural -- march, 1865, four years of civil war. he had been dramatically reshaped by the pain of war, and he knew he personally in posted because at any point he couldn't accept the south's leading, and the war would have ended. he became a dramatically more religious person. he read the bible every afternoon. if you get a chance, go to stand in the lincoln memorial and read the gettysburg address, which says "one nation under god" which lincoln wrote by hand. that is what got me into politics when it was concluded that that was not constitutional, and i concluded that was hostile and we needed a long-term strategy to replace judges that do not understand america. then, turn, and read aloud

slowly the second inaugural -- 702 words, 14 references to god, and you tell me how a historian could explain lincoln without god? it is impossible to be historically accurate in describing a secular lincoln because that person did not exist by 1865. it had been replaced -- replaced by a deeply-religious person. [applause] so, callista and i talked about for a long time, and we knew it would be hard, but we decided

running for president matter because it was an opportunity to take to the american people fundamental, basic decisions about who we are and what we have to do, and they all come together in the same pattern. if you want to take on radical islam, you need to have an american energy policy that creates american independence so the no future president will ever again bowed to a saudi king. [applause] >> if you truly believe in religious freedom, you have to take on an administration which is able to simultaneously apologize to a fanatical radical islamists were killing americans while waging war against the catholic church and sees no contradiction in the fact that if you are a christian, they can oppose it, but if you are a radical islamist that kills americans, they owe you an apology. that is how bad obama is. [applause]

>> the administration has adopted a principal since the burning of the korans , which should have been responded to by the president calling on the religious leaders to condemn muslim prisoners who had been defacing the koran, and using them to get messages out of jail. in an ongoing effort to appease everyone who is our enemy, a new slogan, which i think is clever, says we will hold those things to be sacred which others have called sacred. they did it for the koran. my challenge for the obama administration is simple. put up the cross is that have been taken down by judicial fiat. you want to hold things sacred, we will let you hold things sacred. [applause]

>> tell the moslem brotherhood if they keep burning churches in egypt, you are cutting off the billion dollars you just gave them. [applause] >> we need an administration that actually think religious liberty includes christians and jews. [applause] >> men, we need to turn to entertainment television and say if you're going to run a television show that has the word christian in a derogatory name, try to run the same show with the word muslim, because if you cannot say muslim and you can say christian, it shows you how derogatory the show is. that this house fundamental the fight is. an american energy program will create american jobs, keep the money at home, strengthen the dollar, increased royalties to the federal government, lower the price of gasoline.

if gasoline dropped as much as natural gas has, it would be $1.13 a gallon, so - [applause] >> you can simultaneously week and radical islam, and improve life for americans, and that is kind of is the kind of policy we need that put us back in charge of our life and dramatically reduce the size of washington. as speaker of the house, i led the effort to balance the federal budget, and we balance it for four straight years, the only time in your lifetime. [applause] >> paul ryan, who you will hear from is a great guy and is doing a great job as the budget committee chairman, and he is moving us in the right direction.

the key to balancing the budget is very simple. we want to shrink the government to set the revenues available, not raise the revenue to catch up with obama, the credits card. [applause] >> i will close with this practical example of morality -- it is immoral for us to spend so much when we crush our children and grandchildren to death. it is a moral obligation to go back to a balanced budget. if we do it correctly, and you will and oppose it -- you would have to impose a balanced budget on washington, and at the same time you could put the royalties from natural gas and oil into a sinking fund to pay off the debt. if we had discipline and did that, and open the american energy independence, you would simultaneously pay off the debt for your children and grandchildren, so literally by

the end of their lifetime, america would be dead-free and that would have the effect of no ball into saudi kings, and no worrying about chinese stakeholders. he would be back in an independent country. you would have american foreign policy based on american interest, not appeasing enemies, and you would be committed toward leading the world towards genuine religious liberty that the imposition of foreign beliefs. i think all of this is possible, but only possible if we defeat barack obama. we have to repeal obama-care. we have to repeal the anti- religious behaviors. he has given us a long list. i believe we are up to it. with your help, it will start to work. our goal will be that the new congress and you will have to help when the senate seat here to make this possible, we need the new congress to stay in

session, and by the time they swear in the president we should have revealed obama-care and dodd-frank. as president, i would sign them on the first day, and the first executive order would eliminate the white house czars at that moment. [applause] >> the second executive order would reimpose ronald reagan's mexico city policy that no u.s. money goes to pay for abortion anywhere in the world. [applause] the third executive order would reinstate george w. bush's freedom of conscience provision and repeal every one of the obama anti-religious moves in the administration and return us to genuine religious liberty. [applause] >> the fourth executive order would move the american embassy

from tel levied to jerusalem in recognition of israel's right to define its own capital. [applause] >> i participated in 1980 with ronald reagan in a remarkable change of direction for america that ended up creating 16 million new jobs, rebuilding our belief in america, and defeating the soviet empire. in 1994, i helped to architect the contract with america, which changed congress in one day. with your help next tuesday, i will look for to defeating barack obama decisively, debating him in october, and i am confident that he will look like as much of the radical as he is, and we would have a remarkable debate, and at the end of that process, the country would repudiate the most radical administration of our times. thank you. [applause]

♪ >> ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the chairman of the wisconsin gop, brad courtney. >> good morning. first of all, i want to say that we as conservatives in wisconsin over the last 17 months have had a lot of wonderful victories, and i want to say thank you to everyone of you in this room for making that happen. keep up the fate. we will win june 5 and take it through november. thank you for your support, but keep on moving. now, it is my privilege to introduce one of the most influential voices for the republican movement in the united states and chairman of

the house budget committee. congressman paul ryan -- [applause] ♪ >> and good morning, everybody. how are you doing? this is awesome. i will not start singing. this is great. thank you a lot, brad. thank you. thank you very much. i am not going to start singing like bono. i will tell you that. how many of us have been in this room about six times? it is great to be here. my kids love the water park. let me say one thing. i have known ralph reed since i was 25, and you know what bothers me most about him, he still looks like he is 25. i want to give you some good

news and some bad news. the bad news -- our country is on the wrong track. america is headed in the wrong direction. the american idea could be lost for a generation if we stay on this path of that, doubt, and declined. the good news -- it does not have to be. there is still time for a choice. we have a choice of to the bureau futures in front of us, and that is the good news. we still have time to get it right. we really have a choice in front of us -- debt, doubt, and

decline, where president obama is taking us, where a renewal of the american idea. what is the american idea? it sounds like a the platitude. america is not just a country with a lot of states. america is an idea. what is that idea? our rights, they come from nature and god, not from government. they come to us naturally, before the government. we are the first country founded on an idea like that. thank you. thank you, mom. [applause] >> this debate is going on today between the american idea and the transformation the president and his allies are trying to impose on the country -- it is between natural rights and government-granted rights, between a constitution of limited government and economic freedom, and the school of thought that we should have a living and breathing constitution, there are no less to what commitment can do. a debate between classical liberals and modern liberals. it is a debate that is coming to a crescendo. while in this election the

debate will not be completely lost or won by one side or the other, but this election will put in place a trajectory because of mass momentum that will last a generation and be difficult to reverse. so, that tells me we have some bad news that we have to deal with, the massive momentum, and the man that is bringing it about. we have a debt crisis coming. everybody knows this. turn on the television, what is going on in europe could happen to us next if we do not skip this situation under control. we cannot keep spending money we do not have. we are borrowing 40 cents on every dollar. the president gave us a budget that says let's do more of this. his fourth budget in four years, giving us a trillion dollar deficit every year for

more spending, more borrowing, and a lot more taxing. the senate has not passed the budget in going on three years, over 1000 days. we have a law that says not only is april 15 tax date for americans, it is also a budget before congress. congress is legally supposed to pass a budget every year. we did it last year. we did this last week. [applause] >> because we want to respect you by being honest with you. we believe that if americans see the truth, they get the facts, they will make the right decision now, that is the math. it is ugly. it shows a debt crisis. it shows empty promises that politicians from both political parties have made to americans. if we keep going down the same path, they will become broken promises to seniors that

organize their lives around these promises, to people that are struggling to survive and get by -- that is what happens in a debt crisis. everybody hurts. everybody loses. america's economy goes down. we want to prevent that. what about the momentum? i'd describe the fiscal tipping point. we have another tipping point. it is even more dangerous. immoral tipping point. we can come to this tipping point where by more americans become takers as opposed to makers. more americans see the government as the provider of their livelihoods as opposed to they, themselves. you know, there is data and statistics out there, and one of them is alarming -- the tax foundation says 70% of americans get more benefit from the federal government in dollar value and a payback in texas.

49% of americans are not paying income taxes. there are a lot of reasons. recessions. plant shutdowns. the economy is not where it needs to be, but the question becomes have we lost our zeal for the american dream? have we lost our quest for the opportunity society, where we make the best of all our own lives, reached our destiny, tap our potential, and make our kids better off? a lot of people are down and out and not doing so well. i have friends that of lost their jobs at the plant, and they're in a tough position, but they have not given up hope on the american dream. if we keep going down this path, if we allow the health care law to kick in, the empty promises to continue, we might find ourselves in a place where more americans see themselves as a dependent. we convert our safety net, designed to help people that cannot help themselves or people down on their log get on their feet, we turn the safety net into a hammock that lolls able-bodied people into the lives of complacency.

whatever you call that, that is not the american dream. we have these tipping point coming. we have ugly mess that we have to face up to. we have momentum going in the wrong direction, and that brings me to the man. we have a president that is making it worse, bringing us in the wrong direction. president obama cannot run on his record. has anyone fill the gas lately? i filled up my truck last night, and i could not get it to fall, because it cut me off at $100 because the credits card will not let you buy more gas. the tip the economy with the poverty rates. president obama can not -- look

at the economy. look at poverty rates. president obama can not run on his record. a lot of centrist told me he will triangulate. he will work with you guys just like bill clinton did in welfare reform. not this guy. this is not a bill clinton democrat. he is committed to his ideology he is committed to the transformation away from the american idea, away from our first principles. so, he will not run on his record, and if he is not want to change his tune and ideology, what does he have left? he will have to divide america in order to distract america. he is going to play in the politics of envy and division. we see it every day. he is speaking to people as if they are stuck in their current station in life, and victims of circumstances outside of their control, and the government is here to help them cope with it all.

when i was flipping burgers at mcdonald's on the interstate, when i was working for oscar meyer, selling bologna, real bologna, by the way -- [applause] >> when i was working three jobs out of college, waiting tables to pay back my student loans, i did not think of myself as a victim. i saw myself on a road of opportunity, trying to realize my version of the american dream, pursuing happiness how i define it for myself. [applause] >> the idea that we are stuck in some station and the government is here to help us cope with it is an old idea. it is an idea that the president wants to create this new wants to create this new narrative said that we think if