>> i also sleep very soundly at night. >> let me ask you topically this week, did the hillary rose and critical of mrs. romney have any dent on the issues oriented toward women you have been working on? >> a short answer is no. i spent as a short-term sideshow that is interesting for cable news. i notice the battle against women was talking earlier. every single term when we talk about jobs, debt, deficit, the budget, turner country around, the republicans, not the democrats, have targeted contraception, planned parenthood. josh is in favor of a motion that did not pass in mississippi. the fact that this is supported by the democrats is not supported >> the war on women is ridiculous and if we have a

war at women, they have a war on stay at home mothers. hilary rosen , this is a gimmick which is totally made up. >> that is it for us and thanks to both of you for being here to defend your party's campaign solutions. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012]

you can watch live coverage here on c-span beginning at noon eastern. coming up over the next hour, we will hear remarks from republican presidential candidates mitt romney and newt gingrich, as well as from rick santorum, who dropped out of the race last week. they all spoke at the national rifle association last friday. first to speak was mitt romney. he criticized the obama administration for attacking freedom.

[applause] >> thank you, thank you. thank you. thank you very, very much, chris, i appreciate the kind words. there is one more person i would like to introduce. this is a hero of mine. i happen to believe that all moms are working moms, and if you have five sons, your work is never over. my sweetheart, and romney -- ann romney. [applause] >> this is fabulous.

let me give a shout out to all moms that are working, and, by the way, to all dad's that are working. we love all of you. i often think that as a parent you are only as happy as your saddest child. our boys are grown now. it is such a wonderful opportunity for me to think about the heritage we are leaving our children. were -- the fact that when my kids were growing up, we let it all -- a stone's throw away from lexington green. we were thankful for those patriots who had the ability to fight tyranny.

we are grateful for all of you here today. i have heard recently how women were being referred to as a special interest group. i thought to myself, really only washington could do that. there is only one part of that group that is correct. when men are special. [applause] -- women are special. we love this country. we love the people love this country. we have had an extraordinary experience going across and meeting tens of thousands of wonderful americans that are so concerned about the future of this country. we recognize that we are headed in a direction that is perilous. this is what i love the most. women are talking about the economy and jobs and the legacy

of debt we are going to leave our children. we are mad about it and we will do something about it in november. we have to make sure we keep this country strong and fighting for the right reasons. thank you so much and we will hear from mitt. >> you bet. thank you, sweetheart. it is great to be with so many friends here today from the national rifle association. this fine organization is sometimes called a single-issue group. that's high praise when the single issue is freedom. all of you can be proud of your long and unwavering defense of our constitutional rights and

liberties. in 207 days, we'll do something that is really quite amazing: americans will choose not only a president but an entire house of representatives and a third of the us senate. the entire world will be watching us. and by around midnight on november 6th, maybe a little earlier or later, we'll know the results of millions of americans exercising their right to vote. in doing so, americans will make a profound choice, a decision that is much more important than the candidates or the political parties. we will not just select the president who will guide us, we will also choose between two distinct paths and destinies for our nation. so many of the big issues in this campaign turn on our understanding of the constitution and how it was meant to guide the life of our nation. it was one of missouri's greatest sons, harry truman, who expressed a guiding

conviction that you and i share. in a ceremony that placed the constitution and declaration in the permanent care of the national archives, president truman offered a word of caution. liberty, he said, "can be lost, and it will be, if the time ever comes when these documents are regarded not as the supreme expression of our profound belief, but merely as curiosities in glass cases." truman believed, as we do, that the principles of our constitution are enduring and universal, that they were not designed to bend to the will of presidents and justices who come and go. the belief that we are all created equal, that we are endowed by our creator with unalienable rights -- these are not relics from another time,

they reflect truths that are valid in every era. the framework of law created by the declaration and the constitution is the source of our greatness. it has generated unparalleled opportunity and prosperity. our founders understood this, which is why they created a system of government that is limited. this president is moving us away from our founders' vision. instead of limited government, he is leading us toward limited freedom and limited opportunity. this november, we face a defining decision. i am offering a real choice and a new beginning. i am running for president because i have the experience and the vision to lead us in a different direction. we know what barack obama's vision of america is -- we've all lived it the last three

years. mine is very different. my course restores and protects our freedoms. as president, the constitution would be my guide, and the declaration of independence my compass. today, i want to talk about this administration's assault on our freedoms -- our economic freedom, our religious freedom, and our personal freedom. and i want to share my plans to return america to the first principles of our founding. the american economy is fueled by freedom. free people and their free enterprises are what drive our economic vitality. the obama administration's assault on our economic freedom is the principal reason why the recovery has been so tepid -- why it couldn't meet their projections, let alone our expectations. the president's assault on economic freedom begins with his tax hikes. by their very nature, taxes reduce our freedom. their only role in a free economy should be to fund services that are absolutely essential, such as

national security, education, and the care of those who cannot care for themselves. and, yet, president obama has proposed raising the marginal tax rate from 35% to 40%. the vice president has proposed a new global business tax. medical device companies are soon to be subject to a new tax on revenues. and the president is now touring the country, touting a new tax on investment and the wealthy. congress does not need more money to spend, congress needs to learn to spend less! dodd-frank is another example of the president's attack on economic freedom. it's an 848- page behemoth that will be followed by thousands and thousands of pages of new regulations. regulations are necessary. but burdensome regulations serve only to restrict freedom and imperil enterprise. the victims of those

regulations are not nameless, faceless banks. they're the employees, the business owners, and the customers who rely on financial institutions that lose out. under president obama, bureaucrats are insinuating themselves into every corner of our economy, undermining economic freedom. they prevent drilling rigs from going to work in the gulf. they keep coal from being mined. they impede the reliable supply of natural gas. they tell farmers what their children can and can't do to help on the farm. will rogers famously said that

he worried whenever congress was in session. today, our freedom is never safe because unelected, unaccountable regulators are always on the prowl. and under president obama, they are multiplying. the number of federal employees has grown by almost 150,000 under this president. for centuries, the american dream has meant the opportunity to build something new. some of america's greatest success stories are of people who started out with nothing but a good idea and a corner in their garage. today, americans look at what it takes to start a business and they don't see promise and opportunity. they see government standing in their way. the real cost isn't just the

taxes paid and money spent complying with the rules. it's the businesses that are never started, the ideas that are never pursued, the dreams that are never realized. we once built the interstate highway system and the hoover dam. today, we can't even build a pipeline. we once led the world in manufacturing, exports, and infrastructure investment. today, we lead the world in lawsuits. we once led the world in educating our kids. today, half the kids in our fifty largest cities won't even graduate from high school. if we continue along this path, we'll spend our lives filling out forms, complying with

excessive regulations and pleading with political appointees for waivers, subsidies and permission. that path erodes freedom. it deadens the entrepreneurial spirit. and it hurts the very people it's supposed to help. freedom is the victim of unbounded government appetite -- and so is economic growth, job growth, and wage growth. as government takes more and more, there is less and less incentive to take risk, to invest, to innovate, and to hire. this administration thinks our economy is struggling because the stimulus was too small. the truth is we're struggling because our government is too big. i am running for president

because i have the experience and vision to get us out of this mess. my agenda takes america in the right direction. it preserves freedom. it encourages risk taking and innovation. it fosters competition. it promotes opportunity. instead of expanding the government, i will shrink it. instead of raising taxes, i will cut them. instead of adding regulations, i will scale them back. the answer for a weak economy is not more government. it is more freedom! economic freedom has not been the obama administration's only target. our first freedom-- our religious freedom -- has also been under attack. recently, in a labor regulation case, the government claimed that a church should not be free to determine who qualifies as a minister under the law. it claimed that the government

instead could interfere with that decision. the government! the constitution came to the rescue. the supreme court rejected the obama administration's attack, in a 9-0 unanimous decision. now, the obama administration has decided that it has the power to mandate what catholic charities, schools, and hospitals must cover in their insurance plans. it's easy to forget how often president obama assured us that under obamacare, nothing in our insurance plans would have to change. remember that one? well, here we are, just getting started with obamacare, and the federal government is already

dictating to religious groups on matters of doctrine and conscience. in all of america, there is no larger private provider of healthcare for women and their babies than the catholic church. but that's not enough for the obamacare bureaucrats. no, they want catholics to fall in line and violate the tenets of their faith. as president, i will follow a very different path than president obama. i will be a staunch defender of religious freedom. the obamacare regulation is not a threat and insult to only one religious group -- it is a threat and insult to every religious group. as president, i will abolish it. like economic and religious freedom, our personal freedoms

have been under attack. few things are more important to us than our health, and our healthcare. the 10th amendment preserves the right to choose our own healthcare, and all rights not specifically granted to the federal government by the constitution, to the states, and to the people. obamacare violates the constitution. i'm counting on the supreme court to say exactly that. but it's not just health care. mike and chantell sackett have seen firsthand how the obama government interferes with personal freedom. they run a small business in idaho. they saved enough money to buy a piece of property and build a home. but days after they broke ground, an epa regulator told

them to stop digging. the epa said they were building on a wetland. but the sackett's property isn't on the wetlands register. it sits in a residential area. nevertheless, the epa wouldn't even let them appeal the decision. fortunately, the constitution confronted the obama administration. the supreme court ruled unanimously for the sacketts and against the obama epa. this administration's attack on freedom extends even to rights explicitly guaranteed by our constitution. the right to bear arms is so plainly stated, so unambiguous, that liberals have a hard time challenging it directly. instead, they've been employing

every imaginable ploy to restrict it. i applaud true conservationists like rob keck who work to preserve lands, herds and flocks for hunting. i applaud ambassador bolton for opposing international efforts to erode our rights. i applaud congressman issa and senator grassley for their work in exposing the "fast and furious" scandal. and i applaud nra leadership for being among the first and most vocal in calling upon attorney general holder to resign. we need a president who will enforce current laws, not create new ones that only serve

to burden lawful gun owners. president obama has not. i will. we need a president who will stand up for the rights of hunters, sportsmen, and those seeking to protect their homes and their families. president obama has not. i will. and if we are going to safeguard our second amendment, it is time to elect a president who will defend the rights president obama ignores or minimizes. i will. we've seen enough of president obama over the last three years to know that we don't need another four. in a second term, he would be unrestrained by the demands of

re-election. as he told the russian president last month when he thought no one else was listening, after his re-election he'll have a lot more, quote, "flexibility" to do what he wants. i'm not exactly sure what he meant by that, but looking at his first three years, i have a very good idea. consider the courts. president obama has an unusual view of the supreme court and its responsibilities, as he reminded us just the other day. he said, quote, "i'm confident that the supreme court will not take what would be an unprecedented, extraordinary step of overturning a law that was passed by a strong majority of a democratically elected

congress." of course, what president obama calls "extraordinary" and "unprecedented," the rest of us recognize as "judicial review." that concept has been a centerpiece of our constitutional system since 1803. judicial review requires that the supreme court strike down any law that violates the constitution -- the founding document that is the bulwark of our freedoms. but president obama seems to believe that court decisions are only legitimate when they rule in his favor, and illegitimate if they don't. he thinks our nation's highest court is to be revered and respected -- as long as it

remains faithful to the original intent of barack obama. that's the problem with those who view the constitution as living and evolving, not timeless and defining. they never explain just who will decide what the constitution means and in which way it will "evolve." in his first term, we've seen the president try to browbeat the supreme court. in a second term, he would remake it. our freedoms would be in the hands of an obama court, not just for four years, but for the next 40. that must not happen. as president, i will uphold the rule of law, and put america back on the path toward the founders' vision. i don't want to transform america; i want to return america to the principles that

made this nation great. our founders began this great american experiment. they created a nation conceived in liberty and they entrusted us with the duty to preserve it and defend it. in the generations since, more than a million americans have made the ultimate sacrifice. one day toward the end of my term, my office got a call telling us that a soldier had been killed in iraq. his casket was on a u.s. airways flight, but his family had not been notified in time to get to the airport and receive his body. i was asked if i could go to the airport in their stead. i said, of course. we drove over to the airport and on to the tarmac.

the jet came in and the people disembarked. the luggage came down the conveyor, and then, after a little while, the casket appeared. the state troopers who were there with me all saluted. i put my hand on my heart. and then i glanced up at the terminal. there's a big wall of glass at the u.s. airways terminal in boston right where the plane had come in. the people coming off the plane had seen the police cars, so they'd stopped to see what was going on. and then the people walking down the hall saw the people leaning up against the glass, so they pulled up behind them. a huge crowd had formed up there.

every single person had their hand on their heart. when i think of our country, scenes like this come to mind. should i have the honor of serving as president, that's how i will seek to lead -- not by pitting one group against another, but by bringing us together. americans want a leader who will tell them the truth, who will live with integrity, and who will preserve this great nation -- and protect our constitution. we have a sacred duty to restore the promise of america. and we will do it. we will do it because we believe in america. we'll stop the days of apologizing for success at home and never again apologize for america abroad. there was a time -- not so long

ago when each of us could walk a little taller and stand a little straighter because we had a gift that no one else in the world shared. we were americans. that meant something different to each of us but it meant something special to all of us. we knew it without question. and so did the world. those days are coming back. that's our destiny. we believe in america. we believe in ourselves.

our greatest days are still ahead. we are, after all, americans. join me in this great cause. god bless you, and god bless the united states of america. thank you so much. thank you. >> republican presidential candidate newt gingrich also address the nra conference in st. louis. the former house speaker said the right to bear arms comes from our creator and vowed to protect the rights of gun owners.

[applause] >> thank you. thank you, chris. it is great for me to be back here with all of you. i would like to thank all of the women who were so generous and so kind. i am here to talk about a number of key issues. i also want to thank wayne lapierre for the tremendous leadership he has provided for the right to bear arms and protecting the second amendment. i want to thank the national rifle association for the work that you do to make sure we are in a position to preserve our rights. i want to recognize a man who has been a great leader at the nra. it is great to be with john again this morning. it is important that we produce leaders, and in particular, that we produce leaders that are prepared to be on offense and prepared to carry our ideas and our values into the political conflict.

i want to suggest for the national rifle association a fairly bold change in parts of its direction in order to be more aggressively on offense in terms of defending the right to bear arms. let me start by saying, i want to speak two positive words about the obama administration. i know this is an unusual place to come and be positive about the obama administration. but i think the words goodbye are very positive. [applause] and i think we need to focus our energies from now until november not just to say goodbye to barack obama and joe biden, but to say goodbye to those

liberals in the senate who have been blocking passage of the right kind of legislation. if you understand and believe in our constitution, you know we have to win more than just the presidency. we have to win house seats and senate seats to get america back on track. we have to have one of the most decisive in elections in our history. we need to get america back on the right track because from economic problems to fiscal problems to national security problems, we are a country that has gotten away from the things that made us effective. in a game which administration, we would start in a direct way. on the first day, i would sign a direct order to thoroughly investigate and make public what happened with fast and furious and who was responsible.

[applause] on that same opening day, i would start with an executive order which would eliminate, as of that moment, all of the white house czars. [applause] and i would immediately come as of that day, issue an executive order, moving the american embassy from tel aviv to jerusalem in recognition of israel's right to sovereignty. [applause] i would also open up offshore and federal land to the development of american oil and gas which the specific purpose of american energy independence so that no future president ever again bows to a saudi king. [applause] we are on the edge of a technological revolution, which has enabled us to go from a seven years' supply of natural gas in the year 2000 to over a 125-year today. we did it by something called to drilling.

it turns out that drilling works. the president gave several speeches because i have been advocating gasoline below $2 and it is since $2.50 a gallon and his political consultants told him to go out and start making speeches about energy. i do not know if you remember the president's solution. does anyone remember the obama model? algae. the president said we need algae.

we are thinking about having volunteers at gas stations which bottles of algae. i want to talk about energy because it is a perfect example of a strategic change and how we should be thinking on a national level. if we would have a determined effort to open up federal land -- we all in alaska and it is twice the size of texas. we all one-and-a-half times the size of texas. we could give the

environmentalist half of texas for polar bears, glaciers, mountains. that would leave you an area the size of texas to develop. in north dakota, the new drilling technology has increased the amount of available oil from 150 million barrels to 240 billion barrels. they could have 500 billion barrels in north dakota alone. in that context, we could become energy independent. this would allow us to say to the europeans, the chinese, the japanese, that the straits of hormuz are a problem for you, not us. it would -- [applause]

-- it would allow us to say to saudi arabia, we are prepared to exert as much pressure as needed to allow you to stop. an american energy program does more than that. the unemployment rate in north dakota is 3.5%. there are 60,000 energy jobs they cannot sell because 3.5% have the wrong skills. i advocate that we change unemployment compensation so that you should be learning while we are paying. we should never again give people in 99 weeks of money for doing nothing. in 99 weeks, you could earn an associate's degree. keeping energy in the united states would strengthen the dollar and create several million american jobs. it would increase the revenue for the federal government as people are put to work. i say this as the only speaker

of the house in your lifetime to author four consecutive balanced budget. we paid off $105 billion in debt. if we are prepared to control spending and we are prepared to reform government, nothing is a bigger step to a balanced budget than to take somebody off of food stamps and off of unemployment and off of medicaid and public housing and put them back to work paid taxes and taking care of their families. finally, having an american energy program would allow us to take all of the royalties. if we develop our capability in federal land and offshore, royalty payments would be $16 trillion to $18 trillion to the federal government. if we were disciplined, we could balance the budget on an operating fund basis and put all the royalties into a debt reduction fund.

in the lifetime of the young people here today, we will have paid off the entire national debt. [applause] the right energy program would allow you to stop worrying about the chinese. that is a strategic energy program that makes sense for america. for anybody who says we cannot get the price of gasoline down, prices dropped from $7.90 a gallon. i am being cautious by tried to get to $2.50. i am being reasonable. let me focus on the central theme of the national rifle association.

the right to bear arms comes from our creator, not our government. [applause] it is one of the unalienable rights and alluded to in the declaration of independence. it does not grant the right to bear arms.

it acknowledges their pre- existing condition. the founding fathers knew this for a practical reason. when british troops arrived on lexington and concord expecting to force the peasants into surrender, something they had done quite well in ireland, scotland, wales, and england, they found they were not up against peasants. they were up against americans. they were up against trained

militia. they were up against people who work sure the land of the free or the home of the -- and the home of the brave. without being the home of the brave, you would not remain the land of the free. [applause] many of you know i like wayver

-- wayne very much. i think the nra has been too damaged. the gingrich presidency will submit to the united nations a treaty that extends the right to bear arms as a human right for every person on the planet because every person on the planet deserves the right to defend themselves from those who would oppressed them, exploit them, raped them, or kill them. [applause] it is not enough to be against the small arms treaty that keeps

us psychologically on defense. the time has come to win with the following proposition. far fewer women would be raped, far fewer children would be killed, far fewer towns would be destroyed if people everywhere on the planet had the right to bear arms, and far fewer dictators would survive if people have the right to bear arms everywhere on the planet. [applause] take the george sorus is and the hillary clinton head on. they want to live in a world where the elites disarm the rest of us so the we're helpless when the elite's turn sour. we believe that millions of people can protect themselves and the armed with safety because they are in charge of their life because god has made

them sovereign not government. [applause] remember, i will close with this, but i want you to think about this and put it in your hearts. our declaration of independence did not say, "we americans." it is a universal document, "we hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal," not "all americans," and that we are endowed by our creator. we do not need to go across the planet trying to impose american values, but we do need to go across the planet and advocate human values and those human values are best captured in the declaration of independence, the constitution and the federalist

papers. and we have an obligation to reach out to our fellow humans and say to them, if you have the right to bear arms, recognized, if you have a government recognizes your inherent rights, the recognizes you are a citizen not a subject, the government is to be limited, not people, than you too would have a chance to pursue -- then you too would have a chance to pursue happiness and live in safety. it is not enough to watch people move from one dictatorship to another, to watch libya, egypt, iraq, syria, lurch from disaster to disaster. we should think about people and we should help people understand that they are endowed by their creator, and we should say that the second amendment is an

amendment for all mankind, an amendment that will improve all mankind. with your per se -- with your help, this is still a more open nominating process than anyone in the media believes, and with your help, i would like your support to lead an effort across the planet to ensure that the right to bear arms becomes permanent. it is a human rights everywhere which will guarantee safety here in america. thank you. good luck and god bless you. [applause]

>> during his remarks, rick santorum said that freedom is at stake in the next election. he also warned about the opportunity for president obama to appoint more justices to the supreme court. he spoke for 15 minutes. [applause] >> thank you, thank you. thank you. thank you very, very much, chris, i appreciate the kind words. it is great to see you and great to be here again at another nra convention. i am very excited to be back under a little different circumstances than when i signed up to come here. i wanted to come even though, as chris mentioned, we are no longer in this race for

president in 2012. i want to come to say two things, really. number one, thank you. thank you for being an organization and a group of people who, even outside of this organization, go back out into your communities and fight for those rights that you heard the two previous speakers talk about so eloquently. talk about those rights that are unavailable, talk about the rights that make this country the greatest country in the history of the world. the national rifle association is not just an association that protects the second amendment. protect fundamental freedoms of which the second amendment guarantees that they are protected. that is what you folks do and i am here to thank you for doing that. [applause] i was supposed to come today with my wife, karen, as she was scheduled to speak at a luncheon earlier and as many of you know, we had a little hiccup over the weekend, over easter weekend. our youngest, our little girl,

isabella, bella, ended up being second in the hospital for several days. she is out of hospital and on the man that i want to thank everybody for your prayers for her and our family. [applause] karen -- she is still not nearly one other presents a karen did not feel comfortable flying across country. you've got the short end of the stick. you just got me instead of me and carry. when it comes to gun rights advocates, i have to say that i don't hold a candle to my wife. chris is right, i am a hunter and got under but she owns with more guns than i do. [laughter] [applause] she gets a chance to shoot them more often than i do. you all hopefully will have an opportunity in the future to get a chance to talk to her and

hear her passion. let me assure you, it is a passion for the second amendment. karen and i are like members of the nra and we wanted to announce today -- i talked to chris -- now bella is a life member of the nra and i hope it is a long life. [applause] i just have to tell you that on the campaign trail, it was fascinating. we got a chance to talk about american values. and not just talk about them but try to demonstrate them. i enjoyed the opportunity to go out on several occasions to demonstrate the importance of our rights. one of them was the opportunity to talk about the second amendment and we did several hunting trips, a couple of them in iowa. we have the national media trailing along with this as we went on a bird pontiff in

central iowa and it was very exciting. my 19-year-old was at his first pheasant hunt. he knocked one right out of the air and it was on fox news within two hours. it was great. [laughter] [applause] we had an opportunity to showcase, in a very important sense, the right to bear arms and the importance of this tradition and these rights in our country. i also took to going to some shooting ranges and taking part -- target practice as part of a town hall meeting. we had several those scheduled and enjoyed doing that. we tried to drive home the point that this is an important

part of who we are as americans. it is an important part of something to be showcase, not hidden of our important these rights are and have to be protected. we had a great time on the campaign trail and i just want to thank everybody was involved in that for what they did to support me. as i have said many times, in doing 385 town hall meetings in the state of ohio, going to over 1000 of those meetings across this country, what i talked about on the campaign trail, i talked about the foundation of freedoms and i talked about the declaration of independence and constitution, our rights case from a creator, not from the supreme court or the president or the congress. when i talked about those things and i talked about the integrity of the family and how we had to have both constitutional rights, face, and family because the most important of the constitutional rights, the one that all rights come from, is the freedom open religion. -- the freedom of religion.

i talked about all those other rights spring from that. if you have the right to speak and assemble but you cannot say or assemble for what you believe in, then those are hollow rights. i talked about the integrity and the boards of the family in america. we had to have a family that was strong to import those values to the next generation, the values of freedom and opportunity as well as virtue that is necessary for good and wholesome society. i talked about how poured it was for good and decent americans in order to have limited government because you cannot have limited government if you don't have strong families. you cannot have limited government and people are not behaving well. government gets bigger as families break down and society breaks down because there is a lack of virtue in it. those are simple things that as across this country and talk to people, like the folks here in

this room, i got a lot of nodding had sent people understand that is the reality of the situation and yet we don't have a lot of folks in this country who run for political office to talk in those very plain terms. i got those plain terms by traveling around this country and listening to the people because they very clearly and plainly said that to me, how important these basic american values. this country was not built from the top down by planners and experts designing systems that work in america. no, this country was built by the bottom-up by people like the ones sitting in the tears in this room who understand what it is like to build a great country one family, one church, one community, one civic and community organization at a time. that is what makes america

great. we are a bottom up society, not a top down society. if there is anything that is at stake in this election, it is just that. whether we will be a country that will be ruled from on high or will we be a country like back in 1776 when faced with the tierney of those on high ruling them said that we will not stand for the spirit we will declare independence and we will fight and i am hopeful that each one of you will engage that fight over the next six months to make sure we defeat barack obama in the general election [applause] finally, i want to affirm what you are doing. i want to thank you and a firm you.

what you are doing is absolutely vital, talking about freedom, talking about the essential elements of what made this country great. you are an organization that has been a beacon, a beacon on this issue for a long, long time. this is about america's freedom and there is no organization i know out there that talks about it and focus is on it and does a better job of communicating it than the national rifle association. i just want to say to you as someone who went out with no chance of ever even making a blip on the political scene over one year ago -- everyone said what are you wasting your time. you will not have any money and no one knows who you are. what i found it is this country is still an amazing country. and that opportunity is still alive and well in this country. that is because there are people like you and organizations like this across

this country who hunger for an america that believes in what made us great. when ronald reagan left office in his closing address issued a warning to the american public. the warning was -- his concern about whether americans going forward were learning about who we are as americans, what it meant to be an american. in this administration, a deliberate effort to try to redefine history. winston churchill said the debate is not about the future, it is about the past. we have seen from this president is redefining america as a country that is broken and always has been. a country that is unfair where there is not an equality of opportunity, a country that has done horrible things around the world that we have to apologize for. he is trying to redefine who we are an's of the government as

the solution to those problems. what the nra does so effectively and we as american citizens have to demand and fight for is to tell the real history of america. the real story of america which is a story that barack obama list all these programs. he listed social security to medicare to welfare to on employment insurance and said america is a better country because of these entitlement programs. he says i will go one step further, america was not a great he says i will go one step further, america was not a great country until these programs. you know, ladies and gentlemen, america was not a great country because government created programs to run your life.

america is a great country because it was founded great in a god-given rights and free people. [applause] and that freedom is at stake. as governor romney talked about with respect to the supreme court, a 5-4 court, if this president is reelected, that 5-4 court may be 5-for the other way and the things we take for granted in america will no longer be taken for granted. does anybody have a doubt what

the decision would be on obama kerri president obama had five votes on that court? and what the meeting would be for the constitution and any limits on power? we heard from justice ginsberg. she was as the question whether she would recommend the american constitution for a country starting or try to draft a new constitution. she said she would not agree should recommend the south african constitution because it was more up-to-date. she also gave a lecture not too long ago where she talked about all of the court cases that she would overturn or that would be overturned if they were able to get that fifth of those rich listed a whole point of them but to spend most of the time talking about one case and that of course was the helen decision. she talks about that case as the principal case that she would like to overturn. this election is the most important election in your lifetime.

it is vitally important for the second amendment but it is important for all of the amendments and it is important for the very foundational principles and freedoms of our country. as always said earlier, you are all in. berets and i drove around iowa in a pickup truck with a guy named schock - chuck for months on and with no chance of winning is because karen and i and our family felt we had to be all in. this was not a race -- [applause] this is not a race i felt comfortable sitting on the sidelines. i had to do everything i could. i ask all of you to do everything you can.

i know there will always be complaints about not liking one candidate or another or they as a rigid are not as good on certain issues. we've got to win in this general election. we got to elect conservatives in our primaries, constitutionalists in our primaries and make sure they are elected in the. general the we have to be all in and i pledge to you that even though i am no longer in this race, i will be all in between now and november. i will do all i can to make sure we elect republicans, conservatives up and down the ticket and with your help, we will make that happen. thank you all very much. god bless you. god bless the nra. god bless america.

taylor is an eighth grader. copper why did you choose a topic in comparing year could be responsible -- >> i think it is a big issue. our students to not know about our government. >> you interviewed several students at the beginning of the documentary asking them specific questions. how did this help you understand that even more? >> i think you can see that. it is an example of art and you do not know about our government. they do not even know who our that is

pretty bad. >> what is this website? >> it is a web site that has a lot of computer games about our government and it is pretty fun. we went on the computer and started playing games and it was very fond. >> how did your interview with the retired supreme court justice help you understand this issue? >> before we interviewed her, i did not know what it was. what -- i did not notice about the issue that our students do not know about our government, and then she started explaining and what she does and stuff, and i learned. >> what was your favorite part from creating this documentary? >> and had to be interviewing our students because they did not know anything about our government. i got pretty funny answers. we asked to the vice-president was. >> what was the most important

understanding you took away from your research. >> i got to learn about our government and i did not know what our five freedoms war. i did not know what the president does or the vice president, and i did not understands that a lot of students do not know about our government. >> what would you like the students to watch the documentary to learn? >> i would want them to notice the fact that our students do not know about our government and it should be taught in our schools. when it comes time for them to vote, they do not know what to look for in our president and that is not good for our future. >> thank you for talking to with us today. is it -- here is a portion of taylor posture is the video -- taylor's video. >> this is however government works and i am able to communicate with them and help them make and how i wanted to

be. that is why it is important and you need to start learning in school, i think. >> the first woman on the supreme court or the woman who brought animation to children. which would like to be remembered for? >> both things. i think it is so important that people know how our government works. when i drop, i wanted to be part of our community and part of what happened in the place and city and town and area in which i lived. to do that, i had to know how it worked. i think each of us needs to know that and it is more fun to you, is in it, if you know how things work? and if there is something you think needs to be changed in your city, to know how to go about it and who talk to? that matters, don't you think? >> you can watch taylor's video

cam.org.ntsca >> lastly, hips senator rob portman was on the trail to pennsylvania. he spoke for about 20 minutes republican fund raiser on thursday. [applause] >> thank you very much. to brian and and -- thank you. [applause] there are still democrats registered here, but unbelievable results last year.

you know what they say -- so goes this county, so goes the country. are you going to win this year? [applause] absolutely. i have to be honest with you, though. i am from cincinnati, ohio. thank you. ok. we will get pros and cons on that. in a bank will stand. now, in a browns fan. to be here makes me uncomfortable. i am glad you are not waiving those right now. that is all i can say. let me say this. go pangolins it. -- penguins. [applause] that is something we can all agree on. it is great to talk with all of you tonight. on what to think in a for her

service as the county commissioner and now she is running statewide for the commissioner. her husband, lieut. colonel, is in afghanistan tonight. while we sit here and enjoy our dinner, he is protecting us and serving our country. we want to thank him for that. [applause] i am on the armed services committee, and i'm going to cut out after i speak because i have to be somewhere first where -- first thing in the morning. it is one of the great responsibilities we have as members of the house and senate, and for me, it is a great pleasure to work closely with those guys. they are go -- they are doing a terrific job across the seas in afghanistan piccat. [applause] it is wonderful to be here with

marcia. she is a star in the united states house rep. she has a slight southern accent, as you will hear. that is because she is truly from the south. not just from tennessee, but even further south. you have a treat tonight hearing from her. she is not afraid to speak her mind. i am also here with timothy murphy. he is a real champion for this area. he understands the issues in this county, in this district. he understands what makes pennsylvania tech. thank you. [applause] they are both on the energy commerce committee, by the way, which is among of the -- which is, among other things, -- just an example of what is going on in the house of representatives,

they have passed about 30 pieces of registration in the house to help to this comment -- this economy moving again. this is the kind of stuff we need to be seen. on the other hand, i am a member of the world's greatest deliberative body. instead of acting, which we should be doing, all 35 bills i talked about, they have died in the united states senate. why? the senate is controlled by the democrats. not only has the senate not move forward with these 35 bills, but the united states has not pass the budget for the past three years under democrat-controlled. does that make sense to you? it does not. we need some help. a colleague of mine is doing a terrific job. we serve on the so-called super committee together. it ended up not being met super. [laughter]

he is doing a great job. he is articulate. he is smart. he is a strong voice not just for pennsylvania but for the economy right now. he need some help, folks. he wants to be the senior senator from pennsylvania. [applause] we need another republican. i want to say a word about my former colleague and friend, rick santorum. you have to admire him. [applause] you have to admire the fact he was willing to throw his hat in the ranks, to endure long days on the campaign trail, time away from his family, plenty of criticism from all corners, all in a very, in his case, heartfelt effort to make this country better.

he was doing this in a selfless effort because he loves his country. tonight, i think we should give him the tribute he deserves. he had a lot to debate. i particularly like what it santorum did. in regards to manufacturing. to be sure we would get this economy moving by bringing back manufacturing jobs in pennsylvania and around the world. that means new leadership in washington, d.c. [applause] i also want to say that tonight, we are thinking about rick santorum and his family. i know i am not alone in saying that we also really appreciate, just as we talk about the lieutenant, we appreciate the sacrifices he and his family made for this campaign. for those in the room tonight, thank you for what you do.

you are here because you care a lot about your community, your state, and about your country. as i said earlier, this county is going to be one of the key counties. for the sake of our kids and grandkids, we have to do that. the stakes are very high here this time around. the direction of our country is going to be decided in this election. think about it. it really is about the principles and values that made this country great. or are we going to continue down the path of debt, borrowing, entitlement. the same time europeans are trying to get away from that because they know it does not work.

cannot endure another four years of barack obama. [applause] to turn things around, we need to win the presidency, but we also need to hold house. we have to be sure again that we have the republican seats in the united states senate -- yet states senate, to have the majority there. to move this legislation through the house. fiscaler america's condition is so bad -- we do not even have a budget. we need to do all these things we need to be sure, once the senate passes desperate, wheat -- passes this, we need to turn this country around. instead, we have a president in barack obama who believes we

should continue spending more we now are taking andin, have a 15 trillion dollar debt. he wants to spend more. does that make sense? no, it does not. in the house of representatives , for a vote, he got absolutely no support. 414 to nothing. even democrats did not want to stand up and supported. we learned a lesson we all know because of our families and businesses really -- you cannot spend your way to prosperity. our nation continues to suffer trillion dollars annual deficits. it is unfair, even immoral to do

to future generations. we have a president that has a plan to deal with it. he wants to raise taxes to close that gap and to take on our unprecedented debt. instead of dealing with the spending, he wants to simply raise taxes, including on small businesses that we are you -- we are relying on to get this economy moving again. does that make sense to you? no, it does not. instead of raised taxes that are going to hurt small businesses -- by the way, we cannot raise enough taxes to catch up to the spending that we have currently projected. it's simply cannot happen. you cannot raise taxes that's enough to change that level of spending. we have a president, at a time when employers are crying out for more sensible and balance approaches to regulations, during an incredibly weak

recovery, he is saying we ought to be regulating more, not less. some of these regulations have a particular lot impact on pennsylvania and ohio. does that make sense to you? no, it does not. that is another reason we need to be sure to get new leadership in washington. i happen driving a lot around ohio the last couple of days. people say the prices are going down -- i have not seen it. the keystone pipeline. we have a pipeline that goes on the northern part of our countries -- to go way up our dependency on the middle east, because with more supply, you will have lower prices.

this makes too much sense not to move forward on. yet, we have a president who rejected it. instead of sending his notes, the canadians tell us the chinese are happy to buy all of it. yet, the president blocks it. does that make sense to you? no. we have a president who looks the other way, not only when we have the opportunity to get this affordable, reliable energy, but we have the opportunity to also get a lot of jobs through this pipeline. tens of thousands of jobs, and over time, more jobs. the president is choosing environmentalists over blue- collar jobs, even when the environmentalist concerns were addressed. we have a very different view. we want to use our god-given resources to lower energy

prices and bring back jobs. we can do it. in pennsylvania, you are doing it. in ohio, they are doing it. i've was traveling around ohio the last couple of weeks. a great pick spurs company in ohio. in the last year, they have put a $100 million investment into ohio. they have added over 100 new jobs. they are making pipes there and finishing pipes made here in pennsylvania, creating jobs and opportunity. this is not just about a very important job of developing our own natural resources and having more affordable sources of energy, this is about jobs. we need to bring it to the rest of the country. we need to stop the washington interference from prison our own energy here at home. don't you agree? [applause] i have also had the opportunity to speak of a lot of small

businesses. -- speak with a lot of small businesses. we are talking about people who own restaurants, hotels, you have seen it here in this county. this is a true job-creator. if we deal with it in a wide -- in a way that encourages it, we will create a lot of jobs. yet, we have a president and administration looking for new ways for federal regulation on energy production. we were talking about this tonight. there are literally a dozen federal agencies in the department now looking for ways to provide federal -- federal regulatory overlay on a production of gas. this is not the way for us to get our economy back on track. we have an administration and a president who discourages .roduction therap

oil prussian decrease on federal lands by 14%. does that make sense to you? no. we should be doing just the opposite. promoting production, promoting jobs. i think they do not get it. i hope the president spends sometimes with folks who are involved in the business. i hope dispensed time with the nearly 500,000 pennsylvanian to are out of work. he is saying that things are going great. the white house tells us the economy is doing fine and everything is doing great. i do not send that in ohio and i know you do not sense that in pennsylvania. he thinks this is another business cycle downturn. we have fundamental problems in our economy that the president has not addressed in his four years and has no interest in addressing. he needs to change the way our

economy works, and that includes tax reform. we know we need regulatory relief to free up the private sector. we know we need to develop our resources here to create jobs and opportunity. we know a lot of things can be done on health care cost -- health-care costs containment. how was the health care bill working? not too well. the cost has not gone down. it has gone up. finally, we have to deal with this deficit and debt for our economy to truly take off. it is a wet blanket over our economy today. we are in desperate need of a new direction, not because we are partisans. not because we are republicans. we are americans. that is why we feel it. we understand the strength of our country, not from washington, but it comes from people. our economy does not come from

washington and the regulatory environment. if it comes from three men and women in the private sector. ultimately, it come from the way our country was founded. it is a different concept. at the time, it was a radical ideal. -- radical idea. not by our government, but our creator, we were endowed with certain unalienable rights. those include life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. if that pursuit of happiness is what has made our economy also the strongest economy on the face of the earth. we need to get back to some of those concepts, don't we? some of the basic concepts that say we, america, has an opportunity. we need to return to those principles and values that made us great. we need to understand why america shined. i believe mitt romney is that

person. he is a great leader. he has turned around businesses, the state of massachusetts, the salt lake alembics, in his business career, he created over 100,000 jobs. nice -- it would be nice to have someone in the white house who knows how to create jobs, wouldn't? -- wouldn't it? [applause] he made america proud turning around those olympics. later, as governor of massachusetts, his state faced a $3 billion budget deficit. he not only balance the budget, he cut taxes 19 times, and when he left massachusetts, they had a $2 billion surplus. that is what we need in washington. that kind of turnaround. [applause]

in doing so, he had to work with democrats, because massachusetts is a great democrat state. he learn how to promote a conservative agenda by bringing people across the aisle together to solve problems. again, that is what we need in washington to cut spending and jumpstart job creation. he has done it. he has the right plan to do it. he will cut spending. he will send congress a fundamental tax reform school at lower the rate. make america competitive again. he will get people back to work, expand domestic energy production, and he will bring us of president obama's one- size-fits-all health care plan that is treading down -- tracking down health care production, increasing the costs. we have spent the last three years with a president who has

over promised and under deliver. i think it is about time to let someone who knows how to read. do you agree with me on that? [applause] we can do it. we have gone through tough times before as a country. we have gone through too great world wars and depression. -- two great world wars and a depression. with the right leadership and the right policies, consistent with the values and principles that have made this country great, which will rise to the challenge. once again, we will become a beacon of hope and opportunity for the rest of the world, that shining city on the hill. let's go do it. godspeed to you, and god bless approving -- bless you. [applause] [applause]