we have a president is to the recently who said if you have a business, you did not build that. then he said something else that was equally troubling -- somebody else did i had an acquaintance who runs a little small business where i that now and he said if i put -- i put a second mortgage on my house to start my business. i work 80 hours a week. obviously there are other factors but i am the main one who built this business. he was really not only just offended but troubled and really insulted by the president's comments. i think you got small business owners all over the country saying you have the president of the united states saying i did not built my business if i took out a loan, a second mortgage on my house -- house. had a big dream. now he is a somebody else did that? it is out of sync with how most entrepreneurs and small business leaders think about it

in. >> i think the unemployment being so high in staying so i under him is an indication that his approach does not work and his philosophy behind the approach. thank you. >> hi, i'm nancy meyer. i was born and raised in ohio. we move down here 15 years ago. we both graduated from ohio state. >> did you come for a job? family? >> a job. now i am a stay at home mom but have a part-time job. we have two kids. 15 and 13. i think my biggest concern about things right now is just the getting government out of our lives.

it is like every aspect of our lives has government control in some manner -- education. i think we need to shrink it. which hopefully the budget will shrink. have less. >> there are about 6 million businesses in the country. most of the backbone of the economy is small and medium- sized businesses. if you talk to the people who start and on those businesses, they all say it a little different but they basically say the same thing if you listen carefully. the taxes are too high and it is too expensive, some say the regulations are too difficult, burdensome. others say health care costs are too high. others say the economy is too

slow. what they all say basically the same thing, that the burdens of government on their business is discouraging them, starting to price them out of the market where they do not feel like they can take a more -- take more risk or deploy more capital or invest in their businesses more. that is what is happening in the economy. some of our democrat friends, including president obama, say we are for jobs to. you cannot be pro jobs and anit -- >> his comment about the government being responsible for the business, almost bragging about what i do not like government. bragging about what they don't like about business. >> he is my wife. >> i'm bob meyer in the construction industry. >> commercial or residential? >> commercial. we've been fighting the last three years just to stay where we are, had to let some phones go and it's because of this

overregulation. and big government. and it doesn't work and drives me nuts. her brother-in-law said the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over trying to expect a different result and it's the same result. government doesn't learn if you give them more money, the most inefficient institution on earth. so getting them out of our lives and getting more of our freedom back is one of my big concerns. >> appreciate it. >> my name is julie and i'm the mom of one 9-year-old out there skating, a little boy. in addition to being a mom, i'm an instructor in an education department at a local university. and my professional field is special education. i'm an advocate for people with disabilities. and as i look for the future both for my son and for the people which i advocate, still

concerned about the affordable care act. i know we need to repeal it. that would be a very good start. but i'd also like to see us replace it with a good plan. so if president romney is creating this plan for health care reform, what would it look like and how would it value human life differently? >> that's great. i can give you some of the elements of what he's thinking about and if you have some ideas or observations you think would be helpful, chime in. i think everybody knows governor romney is opposed to the affordable care act, otherwise known as book -- as obamacare in some circles. but it takes government in our view to look at health care as a level that's intrusive, begins to represent a more inefficient governmentcentric model instead of a consumer oriented model. some of the things governor romney wants to do in terms of

repealing are these, let's have medical malpractice reform so we don't have doctors -- many of them acknowledge they do a lot of things because they're afraid of getting sued which may not be as necessary or important medically as it could be so real medical malpractice reform would matter. number two, let's try to save our entitlement programs by reforming them. he's got a proposal on how you reform and protect medicare and get them on a pathway to financial solvency instead of insolvency and part of it includes pushing the medicare program in a block grant with reasonable increases for inflation back to the states. he also talked wisely about getting consumers empowered in the marketplace. if you go to a doctor, hospital or clinic, a lot of times, unless you're motivated, you don't really know what the service costs, what the quality measures are around it and how it might compare to other options to the clinic down the street, the hospital across

town or other options you might have in the marketplace. so trying to get good information in consumers' hands about price and quality and effectiveness and then get financial incentives to use the system wisely in the hands of the consumer. because i don't know, i go to the doctor and get in the mail this is not a bill and what i owe to the bottom and my eyes go right to the $20 or what i owe but don't get anything that explains it beyond that. so the bill goes to some third party. he talked about if people need financial help, let's provide 2 to the best of our ability but to the fullest extent possible, let's put them in the driver's seat instead of the government telling them what the options are and dictating the scope and limit of the services they might need or want. it's more of a consumer oriented model than the centralized government model. but you have some suggestions? >> i was thinking in turn that would address the issue of the

value of life because no one would do that except the parents and they should be making the decisions about care and treatment and ultimately what we're going to do for this. and just the thought of a government making the decision who could see that individual, someone who is unable to produce or unable to contribute is a concern. but the parents will put it in their hands. >> with a special needs child the government has programs at different levels and i used to hear input from parents who say gosh, i appreciate the help but instead of saying you can use the money for this but not that, this number of hours but not this number of hours, this thing but not that thing, a lot of red tape. whatever assistance you're going to give to me, give it to me and let me decide how to best use it to take care of my child as a parent. and i think you spend it pretty well, or use it pretty well. >> thank you.

my name is christine, i have two children, two are here, 17, 15 and 10. i'm at home with them now. and i guess the thing that has really struck me, especially in the last few months is the democratic party, the party of tolerance seems to be really quite the opposite and it's gotten to the point where in a very fast period of time and i can't even really remember when the pivot was but when it comes to our first amendment, you know, freedom of speech, i've actually felt not threatened isn't the right word but intimidated just to say yes, i'm christian and i believe in traditional apparently. and even just recently with the whole chick-fil-a brouhaha --

>> just had lunch there down the street with chicken strips and fries and the whole thing. >> i was dispointed that we didn't have any, you know, leadership on the republican side that stepped forward. we had to wait days before finally michael bloomberg of all people to step forward and say time-out. we don't give business licenses based on someone also political or religious views. and i thought really we had to wait three days and then i'm saying thank you michael bloomberg? i was just really wishing somebody in the republican party would have stepped forward and just seems to be this real lack of leadership. and i'm hopeful and praying if governor romney does win the election that we'll be allowed

to have civil debate and disagree with each other without feeling threatened or penalized. and i just feel like it's gotten to that point. >> really profound observations. you probably all know what she's referring to. but as one example of that intimidation, you have the person who is principal at chick-fil-a with a traditional view on marriage and then government officials around the country including in chicago, i think in boston and some other places saying pretty explicitly, we're going to deny you a land use permit based on your political views. so now you have the police power of government intimidating and threatening people based on their free speech rights and their religious views. i mean, it's chilling.

it's stunning. it is jaw-dropping. so i think strong people who see this need to stand up and say no, we don't do that in the united states. we can have civil disagreements about our views versus another view but we don't use the power of government to try to intimidate and chill and retaliate against people for exercising their free speech right. that's outrageous. thank you for bringing it up. the good news is the chick-fil-a down the street in north carolina didn't look like the business was being impacted by this. so really an important point and firmly embrace it. thank you. sir? >> my name is jay hall from clayton, north carolina. and for the past two years, my family has been on a movement that the government really needs to be on and that's getting our household out of debt. we have thankfully embraced an incredible system and gotten to

where the things we want and need -- or the things that we need are what we pay for. the things we want they have to wait. and it's just ridiculous that the government -- is it $4 billion a day we go in more debt? and it's just insane that the government has to spend so much money and i'm thinking not about myself, but about my children, my grandchildren and where they're going to be, what this country is going to be like in 20, 30 years if we continue to spend at the rate that we're going now and expect 10% of the people to pay for it. it's insane. and there's really got to be something put in place, be it a balanced budget amendment or something has to be in place where we can at least get back to being financially and fiscally responsible. >> the good news is governor

romney has a good track record on getting budgets and businesses and other things in order and in shape so the federal government needs it badly, when he was governor of massachusetts he balanced every budget when he was there and inherited a deficit and left the state in a positive financial position. so that's a good record. to give you quick math, for every dollar the federal government spends they don't have approaching 40 cents of it. so there's different numbers to throw around. but you think about that, what if every dollar you spend in your house you didn't have 40 cents of it? it is reckless, irresponsible, we need to stop it. president obama made it worse. when he came into office he made a bunch of promises and broke almost all of them. one of them was he was going to cut the budget deficit in half in his first term. he didn't cut it in half but tripled it, or nearly so. it's a great point and obviously, you can set aside

the rhetoric of one side or the other and look at it from the perspective of eighth grade math. the math doesn't work anymore. and this may be the last election where we have a chance to get this thing turned around short of an improceedings of a dramatic nation. so we've got to get governor romney in there so the current president can't, won't do it, doesn't understand it, is incapable of getting this budget under control. you want to fwrab that one? >> hi. my name is john dansy and we lived in north carolina about seven years. >> where did you come from? >> jersey, couldn't take the taxes and wanted to come down for a better life. one thin i'm faced with right now -- i'm going back to small business. i'm looking to open a small business. but i've actually put it on hold because i'm so concerned about how obama's tax -- his tax plan is going to interfere with my business and the health

care plan will interfere with business. he says he's for opening small business and there's incentives and this and that. i can tell you there isn't. as someone that's been out there looking and trying to get things done, it's not what they tell you it is. it's very difficult to actually try to do this. i don't think he is pro business, obviously. we need somebody who is going to be pro business. >> are you waiting or still working on it or -- >> outside all in place but it's a matter of pulling the trigger. >> wait until november. >> i'm just very concerned to open it now because the regulatory issues were a major factor for me, and unless those change i'll be bogged down so much in debt i won't be able to go and start this business. >> nancy, something you wanted to add? >> no, just the other thing. we have two kids, twins, 14-year-old boys, and you know, they're going to go to high school next year. you worry about what's going to

happen to them. you know, they go to college. will there be jobs? how much taxes do they have to pay? all this trillions of dollars we're in debt, what will be put on them, you know, that they have had a handle when they get jobs and things like that? things like that worry me. >> i have two children, one in college and one in high school. and as all parents, you tell them certain things that we all learned and believe in like in you work hard, study hard, try to do your best in school, play by the rules, there's going to be some opportunities for you and if you do all that, and sometimes i worry about whether if president obama gets re-elected, whether that really will ring true. we have almost half of the high school and college graduates now can't find work or are dramatically underemployed. so we make these promises to our children about the american dream. we want to protect it and make sure it remains open but when you have half of the high

school and college graduates who can't find work or are underemployed as a parent, i don't know about you but sometimes makes you feel like we've got to find a way to keep that promise to our kids. and right now it's not true for a lot of them. >> and i've worked for 30 years and you make money, you want to move forward and get promoted but he makes you feel like you're evil because you make money. make sense? i'm proud of what i accomplished but now according to obama, we're evil. because we gave our kids a good life. i don't know how to explain it but -- >> you explain it well. there's a limit to how much people can be kicked in the shins. >> yes. >> before they say i'm discouraged and maybe it's not worth it. >> yeah. maybe it's time to retire. >> we don't want that. we want people to enjoy their retirement but we don't want entrepreneurs to throw their hands up in the air and say it's too hard, i'm not going to

do it, it's not worth the risk. >> right. >> my name is rob tamosco, this is my wife debbie and we've been hear 15 years and came down from lower virginia and i'm a software engineer and have been for 22 years, i have two daughters, one 15 and one 17, leaving for her freshman year of college. >> the able of my daughter. how are you finding it so far? >> turning gray. >> feeling old. so i'm concerned about jobs, i'm concerned about debt but there's something more fundamental concerning me in the last month or two and that's the power of the executive branch that seem to be growing and growing. i learned and teach my daughters about checks and balances and they're in place so that one person of one branch of government doesn't have too much power. what i see in the executive branch and they're picking and choosing which laws to enforce, be it any of the things, we don't have to get into details, but any of the areas, how does

that sustain over time? i can't imagine a system where the next president comes in and they want to enforce a different set of laws and a different set of laws. that's chaos. what's the sustainability of the powers in the executive branch and even look at budget. we passed these huge stimulus budgets and give them to the executive branch and say dole them out as you see fit. to me the executive brafrpbl isn't representative, congress is. how do we pull back in the power of executive branch. >> some of you may have heard the president issued some directives on repealing or changing some of the welfare reform. we did welfare reform in the 1990's by most accounts with really good success, really good progress in emphasizing work and getting people trained for work and the like and he's dramatically relaxed those standards, not by going back to the congress and passing a bill where you have checks and balances but by issuing a directive. i think the answer to your question is a couple things. one, when congress passes laws we need members of congress who

don't just outsource the details to the bureaucracy, tell your members of congress you expect them to pass laws to say what they mean and mean what they say and don't leave that much latitude for the bureaucracy to fill in. number two we should have a president who respects checks and balances and tries to exercise their executive authority within the law and within reason. then three, if there's an overstepping in that regard there's always the court system which is the third check and balance. but i share your concern, if you have too much done by a single branch of government it starts to erode the three institutional system. >> we're a country of laws. >> good point. it would help if they wrote them in more detail. what happens is the members of congress don't want to get in the details so they say department x, y, stmbings, go do a, b, c and we'll check back later. they've got a lot of time on their hands in washington,

d.c., they can do more detailed work than that. >> my name is debbie. i've been a homeschool mom for 10 years and working for a company bringing fliesing and affordability to health care and i'm excited to an part of that. my concern is similar in that the economy and jobs riding on the limited g. and i see our government reaching into areas and stepping into areas that doesn't have the constitutional authority to do so and get involved in, in the name of solving problems or making things better, the mortgage industry or the cost of education outwarrant health care. so as i look down the road again, looking at this from the future, looking at my kids and their kids, what does that overreach mean for their freedoms and opportunities and what cost is laying at their feet because of that overreach? >> history is a good guide of

how things might work out. and when you see countries that have taken their government either on spending or overreaching in other ways, history shows what happens. you look at uranium and -- europe and see governments that have involvement in the market to such a degree it becomes stifling and discouraging to the enterprise and where you have an entrepnurel economy and you see where we're headed if we don't get that back on track. the american people are pretty wise if you ask them is the country on the right track, is it headed in the right direction? the majority say no. so the wisdom of the american people shines through if we make sure we do our work and help governor romney get his message out and present it to the people. it's their conclusion governor romney would have a better vision and that the president doesn't have the country on the right direction but we've got

to close the sale. >> thank you. >> how are we doing on time? where's your timekeepers? anybody? they're out skating. i'm going to go skating in a few minutes. anybody bring their skates? >> i did. >> you going in your shorts? >> absolutely. it's north carolina. >> i checked my luggage for the sole purpose of bringing a pair of skates with me. how did the canes do this year? >> next year. >> it's up and down. >> although the wild it grab two really good free agents. >> the wild had a tough year, too but signed a couple big free agents so we're hopeful for next year. than thers looking all right? >> looks good. >> who is going to stand out as an up-and-comer? >> cam newton. again. >> we're worried about it, we had adrian peterson in minnesota but he blew out his

knee so everyone is keeping an eye on how he's looking. jumping back to the economy, you have an abnormally high unemployment rate, over 9%. it's hard. and i'm sure you've seen or heard or felt the effects of that. but we've got to get the country moving and that will help north carolina as well. >> one of the things that was really encouraging was when romney -- and this was a couple months ago when he came out and said on day one i'm going to do this, i'm going to do this. i think people -- -- at least the friends -- they want to hear more of that. it's enough for me that he's not obama. but for some people who are afraid of any change want to know specifically, you know, what his plan is. is he going to repeal some of these executive orders that obama just sits down? obama has admitted he cannot

work with anyby from a different party which would be great if he were a king. but in our country where we have a two-party system, you know, for him to just be able to sit down and write a few executive orders and not be challenged, would a president romney -- what would he do on day one? >> that's a great question and at the risk of having everybody's eyes glaze over on details, i'll give you some details because i know it's not just about words but specific action items. here's some of them. on the tax reform tax side, scott's giving me the -- >> i'm sorry. i'm just teasing. on the issue of what we're going to do on tax reform, cut the corporate rate from 25% down to 25%. get the tax rates consistent

for businesses in the rest of the developed world and not have it be one of the top in the world which is now. two income tax rates for small businesses and individuals, 20% across the board. you know most small businesses pay their taxes and proceeds on the small business on their individual returns because they're pass-through entities, they're partnerships or limited liability corporations or the like, subchapter s corporations. three, let's make sure we have an american energy policy that's aggressive and goes after the huge, massive opportunity we have in american company, including shell oil, shell gas and that means we have a ton of tomorrow, ohio, pennsylvania, other places in a massive amount, go after it aggressively and have a regulatory framework that protects consumer safety but picks up the tempo and the ability to go get that reserve and it would transform to your point i think the economy. three, repeal obamacare but replace it along the lines as we talked earlier and also repeal or replace if need be

the executive orders on other topics, or as many as appropriate. then we need to do a number of other things. we have a situation involving the current president that is pretty unfair with respect to the relationship between unions and businesses. so he stacked the national relations board, president obama did, with those who are political operatives or politically biased. you saw, for example, when boeing wanted to build a new facility, a private company in south carolina, he had the government try to interfere and try to tell a private business that they couldn't expand their business within the united states at a different location. another example of government overreach. then we have a whole series of regulatory things we need to do. the regulations are thick, they're slow, they're expensive, they're heavy, they're contradictory. the whole system, the tempo needs to be picked up and modernized and web-enabled and needs to be something that favors and encourages

investment and job startups and businesses aren't discouraged so it makes it difficult. that's a spin-threw but the items we have to get done. we're getting the hook here. if you want to go skating, we'd love to see you out there. but thanks for taking time out of your weekend. i really appreciate it. thank you for the hospitality in your lovely state. >> absolutely. >> thanks. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp.2012] >> next mitt romney speaks to citizens in golden, colorado. then those who have been mentioned as possible running mates for governor romney. the aspen institute hosted a

forum with governor chris christy of new jersey, nickie haley of south carolina, bobby gendel of louisiana, been mcdonald and scott walker of wisconsin. you can see it friday starting at 8:00 p.m. eastern starting on c-span. >> congressman paul ryan, chairman of the budget committee has been mentioned as a potential vice-presidential running mate for mitt romney. he campaigned for governor romney at a campaign rally outside the romney for president campaign bus in waukesha, wisconsin. his remarks are 10 minutes.

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♪ >> we believe in america! >> believe in america! believe in america! >> we believe!

we believe! [applause] >> i don't know about you, but are you ready to hire mitt romney, fire barack obama, and save america? [cheers and applause] >> well, we have an opportunity to do that, and we have paved the way in wisconsin.

paved the for america, paved the way for liberty and freedom and the constitution and what this country is all about. we're not going to let barack obama replace the philosophy of the founding fathers with the dreams of obama. we're not going to let them do that. we're not going to let barack obama import europe and the white house because here's a news flash, europe doesn't work in europe and europe isn't going to work here. we are in a battle for freedom in it country. it's the same battle that founded this country. it's the same battle that james madison reaffirmed in the bill of rights and the same battle that founded this party and here we are today in an america, led by a president who

unfortunately is in love with the sound of had his own voice and he's in love with the reflection in the mirror. but what he's not in love with is something people in wisconsin are in love with. we appreciate people of their word who run for office, govern like they campaign, and this president promised to turn this economy around. he promised unemployment below 8%. he promised to cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term and he hasn't done any of it. ladies and gentlemen, a country that surrendered it's sovereignty to its bondholders can't guarantee prosperity or freedom to anybody. barack obama's priorities are not america's priorities. and i got to tell you, when you

compare a person like mitt romney who's made a life of making promises and keeping promises to the king of promises, there's no question which direction we need to take this country. i promise you this, as chairman of this party, i know one thing we all have in common. we're not standing here today because we're worried about the future of the republican party. we're here together because we're worried about the future of america. and what we have here, myself excluded, but what we have here behind me is the future of america. we have people in wisconsin, and you think about the wisconsin way, the wisconsin

way is making promises, keeping promises a and doing some simple things like being a man of his wrd, who runs for office, governs like he campaigns, our hero in southeastern wisconsin, ladies and gentlemen, paul ryan! >> thanks. i want to read a quote to you. i'd like to read a quote, if i could. tell me if you know who this came from. if you've got a business you didn't build that, someone else made it happen. [crowd booing] >> you know where that came from? that's july 13. remember, spread the wealth around. people like to cling to their guns and religion. every now and then, the president drops his veil. he's not so coy about his idol

and really lets us know what he thinks. it is that kind of thinking that leads to the kind of government we're getting. it is that kind of thinking that is behind the idea of a government driven economy striving for a government-centered society. it's no wronger -- it's no wonder very have the worst economy recovery since world war ii. it's no wonder we have the biggest deficits and the biggest government since world war ii. it's no wonder we have the worst jobs quarter in two years. it's no wonder one out of every six are in poverty. highest rates in a generation. you know what? it doesn't have to be this way because help is on its way.

[cheers and applause] >> we have in the man that we have nominated to be our standard-bearer in mitt romney is a man who understands the idea of america. >> friday on c-span, a conversation with republican governors that have been mentioned as possible running mates for mitt romney. they sat down to discuss a variety of issues facing their country. the aspen institute organized a forum with chris christy, scott walker of wisconsin and other. you can see it friday starting at 8:00 p.m. eastern here on c-span. >> in the weeks ahead, the political parties are holding their platform hearings in advance of the summer conventions with democrats voting next weekend on their final platform relations in detroit. followed in mid august as republicans start their platform process at their tampa

convention site. we begin august 10 with a reform party in philadelphia followed by live gavel to gavel coverage of the reform party convention and the republican national convention plus starting monday september third the democratic national convention. >> senator thune has been recommended as a running mate. he spoke to those at the office in springfield, virginia. his remarks are just under 10 minutes. [applause] >> thank you very much. thank you, patrick murray, for running and you're going to win. you're going to win because of the work of a lot of these folks here. thanks for the chance to be with you. it's been pointed out already, but the reason i'm here today is because virginia is ground

zero in this presidential campaigns and all the other campaigns up and down the ballot this year. it's important we get the vote out. every phone call you make, which i know is tedious work sometimes, will get us one step closer to making sure mitt romney is the next president of the united states. and it can't happen soon enough. you've all heard it stued. -- you heard it discussed. pete was talking about this, when you've got 1.5% economic growth which they told us with the last quarter growth. very sluggish growth. over 40 months of unemployment, 23% of all americans are underemployed or currently not employed. since the president took over health care costs have gone up by 23%, college tuition costs have gone up by 25%. the number of people on food

stamps have gone by 44% and the federal debt has gone up 49% in the 3 1/2 years this president has been in office. we cannot change the direction of this country soon enough. and unfortunately, what this president is doing, as was mentioned by pete, you know, he hasn't met with his jobs council in 191 days. you would think with the state of the economy, the president would be focused like a laser getting this economy growing and putting people back to work. you know what he's done in 191 days since he hasn't met with the job council, he held 19 fundraisers and has time to play 10 rounds of golf. he's got his priorities straight but they are a lot more about the election this fall and the jobs of hard-working americans. we need to change direction for this country and the only way we're going to do that is elect

somebody at the presidential level and knows how to lead the country and fix the economy and knows how to put americans to work. i campaigned across iowa with governor romney because i believe profoundly he has the skill set, the experience and the know how to turn this country around, get it back on the right track, get the economy growing and expanding and putting americans back to work. the reason i know that is because he has a record of doing it. he took the stress companies when he was a private businessman, turned them around and created jobs in doing that. he took a state in massachusetts that he was governor and turned it around and left it with surplus and reduced texases and got more people back to work. he took the olympics and turned that down. he's got a record of taking tough, much situations and turn them around.

you can't do big things in washington, d.c. unless you have presidential candidate. and there are people in congress with a good idea on how to fix things. you need a leader in the white house who is will to roll of up his sleeves and leave the american people and the united states congress on a pathway to get this country back on the right track. i'm very excited about this election. it's a critical year. the consequences and stakes could not be higher and why we need every single person doing everything they possibly can between now and november to make sure we turn out all of our votes on election day. as pete mentioned, or pat mentioned i had a couple elections, 524 votes. i lost the senate race by a narrow margin and can't tell you how many people came up to me after that election loss and said, you know, if it was going to be so close i would have

such and such vote. i had people come up to me and say i would have voted. i'm not sure why they wanted to admit that. but every single vote counts. there's no institute on getting people out on election day and getting our voters out and that's what you're about, identifying those poters over there and making sure they vote and thopefully persuading those to vote the right way in november. these activities, the blocking and executing the small things in the campaigns that really make a difference. everybody can do their part. not everybody's name will be on the ballot but everybody can do their ballot to set up a economy built around the fundamental concept of freedom not the one this place is built on and that's government. it's a choice in the election whether we believe in the power

of freedom or whether we believe in the power of government and this president and his administration and allies in congress have doubled down on expanding and growing government at the expense of the private economy. every single day the government gets bigger and we have more bureaucrats and more regulations and taxes in the washington, d.c., the american people have fewer and fewer freedoms. it's about freedom. that's what this election is at stake. it hangs in the balance. we can do our part to tip that balance in favor of freedom. whether it's pounding in yard signs or making phone calls or walking neighborhoods, or con contributing to the campaign, whatever you can do. i want to ask you to work as hard as you can between now and november. it's about the future of this country. there's never been a time in our nation's lift. pete is right, everyone gets up and says this is the most important ever and we think it is because they might be running for something.

but if you look out across this country this is the most important election in a long time. i honestly if we don't get it right this time we're on a slippery slope and heading in a direction that will make us like a western european social democracy unless like the distinctive nation our found herself in mind when they created this great republic so many years ago. so i'm thankful to be here. i'm thankful for what you're doing. thank you for your service this it great country and the veterans here today. we're very blegsed. very blessed. because of the service and sacrifice of so many americans every single day and put on the uniform and defend our interests here at home and around the world. that's also at stake because we have a president i don't think who unders really how to lead this country, not only when it comes to fixing the economy but to maintaining america's place in the world. we'll change that in november

when we elect mitt romney as the next president of the united states and elect george allen to the united states national and patrick murphy to the house of representatives. because if we're going to give mitt romney an opportunity to become president he needs a team to work with in congress and why getting george allen of the united states senate and givings us a majority in the senate in elections a fine quality canada who shares your values and principal wills and will give us a team to turn this country, around fix the economy, get people back to work and make america great again. thank you very much. god bless you and may he bless our great country. thank you stfment [ >> when it comes to mitt romney's choice for number two, we have a favorite son in virginia who is a really solid conservative, proven track record, great head of hair.

now, if for some reason mitt romney doesn't select our favorite son, there.be somebody else who fits that bill as well. thanks for all your work. let's get back at it. thank you. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp.2012] >> the aspen institute hosted a forum with governor chris christy of new jersey, nickie haley of south carolina, bobby gendel of has, bob mcdonald of virginia and scott walker of wisconsin. you can see it friday starting at:p.m. eastern on c-span. >> in the weeks ahead the political parties are holding their platform hearings in advance of the summer conventions with democrats

voting next weekend in detroit. followed in mid august as the republicans start their platform committee. we have live gavel to gavel coverage of the national convention beginning monday from tampa and the democratic national convention live from charlotte, north carolina, starting monday espn 3. >> friday on c-span 2 the young america's foundation holds its 4th international student conference. at 2:00 p.m. eastern, discussions on u.s. im-- u.s. immigration issues. at 7:45 p.m. more from the young americas foundation. peter schweitzer, author of "throw them all out" speaks to a dinner gathering of the group. we'll be live at george washington university at 7:35 p.m. eastern on c-span 2.

>> republican presidential candidate mitt romney announced a five-point plan to help the middle class with tax cuts and to reduce the debt. he addressed the accountability report card for president obama's first term giving the president low marks. it took place at jefferson county fairgrounds in golden, colorado, the state where barack obama accepted had his party's nomination for president four years ago. this is 30 minutes. >> thank you. thank you. please. >> thank you for those generous words and also great to have the attorney general here, attorney general sothers. i appreciate, we have a person running right here, we have joe

coors here running for congress. make sure everybody knows joe. [applause] 3 >> and how about missy franklin, huh? wow! isn't that something? that is really exciting, just a colorado girl with a big heart. i met another colorado girl with a big heart this morning, her name is mikella hicks you don't know her but she was involved in that terrible shooting in aurora. she was hit by a bullet and she was in the theater next door to the most terrible one and the bullet went into her mouth and took out some teeth and part of her jaw but she is here and doing well. i guess maybe by applause we show how united we are with the tragedy of those people and how much we love them and how much we care for them. [applause]

>> i'm sure you know this, i mean, this tragedy has impacted the community of aurora. i'm sure it's impacted the entire state, the trauma here has got to be extraordinary, but across the country, people are thinking about aurora and the tragedy there and the lives that have been lost and lives changed forever. we love you and we pray for you. you're in our hearts, you're in our prayers. today i come to talk about making things better. and i'm going to start off with a bit of a report card. some of you have been handed a little piece of paper here. if you haven't gotten that, you will. i see some people opening these things up. i'll talk about it in a minute. you don't need to open it up

yet. but ever since i was in elementary school we had report cards and you saw on the report card how you were doing. when i was younger, they had used to give us a, b, c, d, f. and there was ard p of time he could be better and got soft in the grading but i'll be more straightforward with the grading because when the president was here as a candidate accepting the nomination four years ago in colorado, he laid out the report card upon which he hoped to be judged by. and in his speech he said, look, i can tell you how we measure success and how we measure progress and he went throw one by one the things he would use to evaluate whether he was making progress or not. he said, number one, i can judge progress by how many people find a job. now, on that basis, we haven't even -- seen what we would hope to have seen. we have fewer jobs that would have been created.

we have 23 million americans today that are out of work or underemployed, people who pulled out of the work force. 23 million. and of those technically unemployed by the bureau of labor statistics numbers, it's still above 8%. he said he'd hold unemployment below 8%. it has not been below 8% for 40 straight months. that's the longest period in american history. the president has been unsuccessful in his number one objective as laid out by his own measure. then there was the next one, we'll see how many jobs we have that can pay for a good mortgage. then we saw record numbers of foreclosures and of course home prices that are down. he said we'll judge success to what happens to average family income. that's gone down. the average family in america have seen their income go down by $4,000 in the last 3 1/2 years. now yet another measure. he said i'll measure success by

whether someone who has a good idea will go out and start a business. yeah. i hope he understands the people that have a good idea and start a business are the ones who actually build a business. [cheers and applause] >> we're at a 0-year low in the number of business startups that have occurred, a 0-year low. perhaps because he thinks government is the one that helps build businesses as opposed to people. we're seeing that kind of result. and then one more, a little later he said this, he said he was going to cut the deficit in half. >> sure. [laughter] >> you know, it's sad -- i mean, it's just extraordinary to have someone go out and make those promises and not deliver on them. i have a little report card

here and it shows his report card. if you look there with the arrows, it says jobs, on the far left, the obama record. it has a little red arrow, downward arrow. we have fewer jobs under president obama. then there's underemployed and unemployed. and then we have the home prices, they've gone down. that's in red, too. then we have the budget deficit. that's gone up. that's in red. finally, we have family income. that's gone down. all measures he laid out are measures which have gone in the wrong direction. when i get elected governor of my state, i had the people i was traveling with, i want you to write down all the things i promised during my campaign, all the things i said i'd fight to try and do. i had a legislature that was 87% democrat so i knew all the things i wanted to do wouldn't get passed but i'd get as many

through as i could and fight for all of them. i said to the people that traveled with me, please write down all the promises i made in my campaign and i you aed a few more in my state of the state address and the inaugural campaign and halfway through my term as governor i published the promises and checked where they were, which ones i succeeded on and which i tried and couldn't get done and only two were the ones i hadn't get been able to take far enough to put them down as a success. so i have my own record. and you can see it by the way i'm here. [cheers and applause] >> if you look on there -- obviously i got to do the grading here today which is very good. but you can check up on me on this. jobs. we added jobs. i added jobs. we've added more jobs than the and has in the entire country.

i added jobs. unemployment rate. i brought the unemployment rate from 5.6% to 4.7%. the home prices, home prices went up. budget deficit. i came in, there was almost a $3 billion budget gap and i closed it without raising taxes. and finally -- [applause] >> and finally family income, that also got better. on all those measures, he has a red arrow, i've got a green arrow. if you see on the right-hand side, if i'm elected president of the united states of america, my promise to you is i'm going to get all those arrows green again. [cheers and applause] >> the reason i took you through that is i know in campaigns, talk can be cheap. you can say anything. but results, if they're not done the right way, they can be real expensive. and you look at this president and he talked about a number of

things he was going to do. i remember watching him speak in front of those greek columns. he won't want to be reminded of greece these days. [laughter] it got a lot of people excited. a lot of people said, if he can do those things, that will be terrific. those people are disappointed. i know he will be able to speak eloquently and describe all the great things he is doing and what he will do, but look at the results. it has been a disappointment. his policies have not worked. they have not gotten america back to work. my policies will work, and i know that because they have worked in the past. i spent 25 years in the private sector. i understand how businesses decide to grow, where they shrink, why they go overseas, how they decide to go back here. i understand that small businesses create jobs in america. people create jobs, not government.

i will get america working again. [applause] thank you. i want to lay out for you specifically what i am going to do. five things. i want you to remember five things. we are up to five things, we can remember five things. we will get more jobs and more take-home pay. number one, we will have energy independence in this country. [applause] in eight years, in eight years,

if i am president of the united states, my commitment is to get america and north america energy independent. we will not have to buy any energy from anywhere else in the world. not from venezuela, not from the middle east. i will make it clear -- we will be energy independent. i know how to go about doing that. one thing we will do is really open up federal and private plans for drilling, oil, gas. [applause] we are also going to make sure we continue to use coal. we have a 250-year supply of coal. [applause] i like renewable. we will continue to see wind and solar as important parts of our energy resources. we will build that pipeline to bring oil in from canada. [applause]

this is not just hope. [laughter] we have looked place by place, area by area, to see how much growth we could see. what are we going to see? how could we get america and north america to a point where we are energy sufficient and do not need to buy oil from the middle east and venezuela and other places where we do not always have the world's best friends. you will see exactly how we get there. this is not just an idea. this is energy independence for north america. what it will do is not only put a lot of people to work in the energy sector, and that is terrific, but additionally, because we will have low-cost energy by taking advantage of resources by coal, natural gas, renewables -- we will see manufacturing come back. low-cost energy brings back

manufacturing. [applause] that is number 1. when president obama was running for office, he said that if his policies were put in place, energy prices would naturally skyrocket. you are already seeing that. for the average family, energy prices, your utility bill, has gone up $300. that is real money. for middle-class american families, $300 is a lot of money. this president has seen that go up. i do not want to see that happen. i want to make sure we keep energy costs down for families and manufacturers to bring jobs back. that is number 1, get us energy independence. number to, i want us to have the skills to succeed. i will no longer sit by and watch our schools be compared in the bottom quartile, the bottom third. we have the best schools in the

world. [applause] for that to happen, one thing i have laid out is that every child ought to have the chance to go to the school where they can get the best education. every parent ought to have the choice. the federal powers to provide for education for the disadvantaged, those who are poor, those who are disabled -- all of those dollars will be tied to the student. the student can taken to the school of their choice. we will have more choice for america. [applause] getting our schools to be the top performers instead of in the bottom quartile, getting our schools to be better is not a mystery. i happen to be in a state where, before i can governor, republicans and democrats came together to fashion education reform proposals.

i continued to push them further. we now have massachusetts ranked number one of all 50 states in education. i understand what it takes because our schools can be better. number one is energy, number two is the skills we need. number 3 is trade that works for america. it is good for a nation like ours to trade with other nations, but if nations like china cheat, we have to stop that. [applause] i was with an attorney who represents a company that makes various industrial products like of valves and switches. he said that they have problems because people were calling them up with warranty problems. they went out to find the defective product -- sure enough, it had their brand name

and serial number. it turned out that they had not sold them. these were counterfeit goods coming in from china, where people were taking their brand name and putting their packaging around, selling them as if this is that company. this costs american jobs. this costs jobs here. people are hacking into our computers and stealing trade secrets and technology. there are reports about this apple store they found in china, seven apple products, except it was not a real apple store and they were not real apple products. these practices kill american jobs. i will finally sit down with china and make sure that they understand that if they cheat, there will be consequences. we will not let them walk over us and steal our jobs. [applause]

by the way, when i citrate it works for america, it is not just that. it is also opening up new places to sell products. we have next door to us an area with a massively growing middle-class -- latin america. we have natural advantages. we will be able to be very effective in treating with latin america. we will create american jobs by opening up trade with latin america. i will create a zone called the reagan trade zone where nations have free trade and agree not to manipulate their currency and live by the loss of intellectual property. if we do that, you will see a third big step that will get this economy going. energy, skills, trade -- four, we have got to cut the deficit and get a balanced budget. [applause] let me tell you, this is something -- mathematically, if

he put the formula on the board, to cut the deficit you have three things you could do. you could have a faster-growing economy, because if the economy is growing faster and wages go up, people pay more taxes, that cuts the deficit. two, you could pay -- raise taxes. you could cut the deficit that way. three, you could cut back on spending. those are the ways to do it.

you see, the way i would do it is by cutting spending and getting more growth. that is the best way to cut our deficit. [applause] our friends across the aisle and the president have a different view. they think we should just raise taxes. that is the primary way we should cut the deficit. the problem is this -- taxes are connected to growth. when you raise taxes, you lower growth. the reason we are so opposed to raising taxes and that -- it is not just because taxes hurt people and kill jobs. when you raise taxes, you slow down growth. your businesses start to grow. the market and raise taxes, the more they lower growth and they are unable to arrive at their budget. it is like a dog chasing its tail. the right answer is to reduce government spending and create

incentives to put people back to work to grow this economy. [applause] number one, energy, number 2, skills, number 3, getting trade right for america, number for, balancing our budget, and number 5 -- we will champion small business. [applause] we want to help small businesses build themselves. we want the people who work in business to be successful and grow their enterprises. how will we do that? lowering taxes on small business so they can keep more of their money to grow. [applause]

i am also going to make sure that the regulators and regulations on small businesses do not drown them in red tape and keep them from growing. i will do something that is scaring a lot to small businesses -- we have to get rid of obamacare. [applause] in my view, there are a lot of things we have to do to make health care work better for americans. number one, it is very expensive. we have to get the cost of health care down. the president's plan does not bring down the cost of health care.

actually, in his campaign he said he would reduce health insurance premiums for the average family by $2,500 by the end of his first term. instead, they have gone up by $2,500 for the average family. he has not been able to do that job. i would focus on getting the health care costs down. we also need to make sure people with pre-existing conditions cannot be denied care. we want to make sure they can get the insurance they need. [applause] we want people to be willing to become doctors and nurses. but we simply cannot afford trillions of dollars of more federal spending. it its more expensive as time goes on. we cannot afford to have bureaucrats tell us what kind of health care we can have. we cannot have it cut medicare by $500 billion. [applause]

if we do those five things, if we get ourselves in a position where we are able to do those five things. take it vantage of our energy, get our skills right -- i am talking about our kids and adults, programs to get people back to work. number 3, opening of trading keeping the cheaters from stealing american jobs. number four, getting to a balanced budget by lowering our deficits. number 5, championing our businesses to make businesses grow and thrive. if we do those things, you will see this economy come roaring back. manufacturing, jobs of all kinds will come back. [applause] we get our economists. how many jobs will be created

just by doing those things? i have more coming down the road, but just those things alone create 12 million new american jobs. [applause] 12 million jobs. this is the path of more jobs -- to more jobs and more take- home pay and a brighter future for you and your kids. i know that because i have seen it. i spent my life in the private sector. i know how jobs come and go. i worked in a state. i found a way to work across the aisle. we have got to have somebody who goes to washington, bury the hatchet, and says that they are good democrats and republicans who care about america. let's work together to get some growth again. [applause] this is important. getting america working -- this is not this is not a statistic. 23 million americans are out of work or underemployed.

this is a tragedy. it is a moral failing for a country as successful and wealthy as ours to have policies that have kept people from going to work. i want to get people back at work, put them in good jobs with more take-home pay. i care about this. i have met with people who are struggling as a result of the policies that have not worked to get america working again. i met with a young woman who had been out of work for two years. she was a marketing executive who had been out of work for two years. i met a woman in florida who had said, in order to pay for a second child, they took a second mortgage on their home. then home values collapsed. they wonder if they can keep their home. i met a couple that plan on retiring and has a few duplexes they would use rental income from.

now that will not happen because of what has happened in the housing market. people are hurting and suffering. single moms in particular, raising kids, going to work -- it is harder to pay for gas and energy bills. having to get your kids to child care and work at the same time. people need help. people need an american presence will help people to get good jobs and better take-home pay. i will get it done. [applause] you guys, you are each going to

get that report card and told you about. you will see the details behind those five steps. it will keep you up all night, reading those things. i want you to know this -- it will look strange to you. as you read to the things i have just described and some of the points we will put in place to make those expected, you'll not think, this is a foreign concept, i have never heard of that. energy independence, skills to succeed, a trade that works for america, cutting the deficit, championing small business. that is as american as america can be. what we are talking about is letting americans build a better future for themselves, not expecting government to give them everything they want. [applause] government is always going to be there to make sure that those who cannot care for themselves can be cared for, and that we have a safety net for

people who get in trouble. government is a keeper is spent in this, but if you want to get this economy going, -- a key participant in this, but it went to get this economy going, after it will take the private sector. this is america. this is as american as the very first days when the founders of this country wrote the declaration of independence and said that our rights came from the creator, not government. [applause] among those rights are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. in this country, we are free to pursue happiness as the cheers. when we do pursue happiness as we choose, when we are lucky enough to get that promotion, we are we know that we built that and the government did not.

[applause] i cannot wait to get to washington. i cannot wait to get there. i am so excited about getting america working again. i am so excited about restoring the principles that made this nation the strongest in the world. i do not want to transform america into something it is not. i want to restore the principles that made us the hope of the world. we will do it together. we will bring back america. thank you so much. >> in the weeks ahead, the

political parties are holding their platform hearings with democrat boating's next week and on their final platform recommendations in detroit. in august republican's turf their process of tampa convention site. -- start the process at the camp tampa convention sites. >> thursday the u.s. house voted to reprimand or richardson of california for violating federal law and house rule. members approved the bipartisan ethics committee report outlining seven violations against richardson, including the use of house resources for her own personal purposes and pressuring her staff to work on

her 2010 campaign. this debate from the house floor is 40 minutes. i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. >> as chairman of the committee on ethics, i rise in support of a resolution before us today which calls for a reprimand for representative laura richardson of california. article 1 of the institution gives congress the responsibility for punishing members of our body for disorderly behavior. and in the house it is the committee on ethics, the only evenly divided committee made up of five democrats and five republicans and served by a completely nonpartisan professional staff that has been entrusted with the responsibility to enforce the rules of the house and recommend actions such as that before us today when a member or staff acts in a manner that

violates the spirit of public trust. the obligation, therefore, falls to this committee to review those allegations that are a member has violated the ethical standards that the american people expect and deserve from those of us who are privileged enough to work for them. men and women who wear the title of representative of this great nation. . this unfortunate story begins in october of 2010 when the committee during the 111th congress first began to receive complaints from several members of representative richardson's staff, both from the washington, d.c., and long beach, california, offices. that representative richardson required her staff to perform campaign work. the committee began an initial i choirry based on these complaints, as well as from media reports consistent with those complaints. on november 3, 2011, the

committee, now in the 112th congress, empaneled an investigative subcommittee, appointed representative charles dent, of pennsylvania, and representative john yarmuth of kentucky to lead this bipartisan subcommittee in reviewing the allegations against representative richardson. mr. bonner: joining mr. dent and mr. yarmuth were two members pulled from a pool of members who assist the committee when needed. in this case, they are representative rob bishop of utah and representative ben ray lujan of new mexico. these four members, two democrats, two republicans, served on the investigative subcommittee and over the past nine months led an extensive investigation, supported by the committee's dedicated, nonpartisan, professional staff deviling deep into this matter. -- deaf ving deep into this

matter. -- deviling -- delving deep into this matter. ultimately the subcommittee unanimously agreed to a statement of alleged violation against representative richardson. mr. speaker, while the full committee report, the investigative subcommittee report, representative richardson's responsive views, and all gibts were -- compibblets were filed by the ranking member -- exhibits were filed yesterday by the rank and me yesterday morning and have been available since that time here now in summary are the seven counts of violation. first, representative richardson violated the purpose law, title 31, section 1301 united states code by using official resources of the house for campaign, political, personal, and other nonofficial purposes. second, representative

richardson violated house rule 23 by retaining a full-time employee in her district office who did not perform duties economies rat with their compensation. third, representative richardson violated house rule 23 by behaving in a manner that did not reflect credibly upon this house when she unlawfully used house resources for nonofficial purposes. fourth, representative richardson violated house rule 23 by behaving in a manner that did not reflect credibly upon the house when she improperly compelled members of her official staff to do campaign work. by threatening, attempting to intimidate, directing, or otherwise pressuring them to do such work. fifth, representative richardson violated house rule 23 by behaving in a manner that cannot reflect credibly upon the house when she obstructed

and attempted to obstruct the investigation of this committee into these allegations. sixth, representative richardson violated clause 2, the code of ethics for government service, by failing to uphold the laws and legal regulations discussed above and being a party to them. seven, representative richardson violated house rule 23 by failing to abide by the letter and spirit of house and committee rules. mr. speaker, the record should note that any time a member is confronted with a statement of alleged violation, he or she has the option of challenging those allegations with a public hearing, of an add jude cantory subcommittee, or in the case of representative richardson, negotiating a resolution with the investigative subcommittee. in this instance representative richardson negotiated a resolution in which she

admitted to all seven counts in a statement of alleged violation and has waived her rights to any additional process in this matter, including waiving her right to a hearing. representative richardson has also agreed to accept a reprimand by the house as well as a $10,000 fine. to be paid out of personal funds to the u.s. treasury no later than december 1, 2012. in the history of our country, five members have been expelled from congress, 23 members have been censured, and eight members have been reprimanded. representative richardson negotiated and we recommend the sanction of reprimand. the investigative subcommittee unanimously adopted the report recommending a resolution including these terms to the full committee. and on july 31, 2012, the full

committee adopted the resolution, the recommendations of the subcommittee. mr. speaker, at this time i'm pleased to yield to the distinguished ranking member of the ethics committee, ms. sanchez, for any comments she may have. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady from california is recognized. ms. sanchez: thank you, mr. speaker. i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized. ms. sanchez: i want to thank the chairman for his work in this matter an he has addressed in his opening comments some important aspects of this particular matter. representative charles dent andon yarmuth, who led the investigative subcommittee, will speak in greater detail about the facts of this matter and how and why the committee reached the recommendation of sanctions that comes before the house today. i would like to briefly remind our colleagues why we are discussing this matter on the floor today and the importance of the ethics process to the integrity of the house. as noted before, the ethics committee is unique in that its

membership is evenly divided between democrats and republicans. in that bipartisan spirit, i would like to cite the observations of two former chairmen of this committee about the role the ethics committee and role it has in overseeing the house. a former republican chairman of the committee once said that the ethics process is not a trial. instead it is a peer review process. in that same vain a former democratic chair of the committee said, the purpose of the ethics process is not punishment but accountability and vedibility. accountability for the respondent and credibility for the house itself. the committee followed these important principles in assessing the conduct of our colleague, representative laura richardson. the recommendation for sanction we present to you today will ensure that representative richardson is held accountable for her conduct. it will also reaffirm the credibility of the house by demonstrating our commitment to upholding and enforcing the

ethics standards that apply to all of us equally. how the committee conducted the investigation in this matter reinforces the goals of accountability and credibility. this matter was gun by the committee on its own initiative in the last congress. the members of the subcommittee did not prejudge the outcome of this matter, nor did the members of the full committee. out of fairness to all house members and staff, it is important to point out that the mere fact that an individual is the subject of an investigation doesn't mean that a violation has actually occurred. the existence of an investigation doesn't reflect a judgment by the committee on the allegation. this is true whether the investigation has been publicly acknowledged by the committee or whether it remains confidential. the committee conducted a thorough and fair investigation. representative richardson was represented by counsel throughout the committee's investigation. she was provided with copies of materials gathered by the subcommittee.

representative richardson also chose to waive certain procedural rights and steps in the investigative process that were available to her. the subcommittee listened to her views and interpretations of the facts of the investigation as well as appropriate sanctions. the full committee also took into account her views. ultimately members of the house of both parties waived the allegations regarding representative richardson and based on the facts concluded that her convuct did not meet the ethical standards that apply to all of us in a number of respects. the cop clution was bipartisan and it was -- conclusion was bipartisan and it was unanimous. the misconduct in this matter was serious and in accordance with the house press department it merits a serious sanction of reprimand. representative richardson has agreed to accept the sanction of reprimand for her conduct. usually it is the committee's work in investigative matters like this one that receive public attention. but the committee's nonpartisan staff provides advice and education to members and staff

every day. the report issued by the committee in this matter serves both purposes. if you have not already taken the opportunity to do so, i urge my colleagues and house staff to carefully read the committee's report. as the report says, the boundaries between our official, political, and personal roles are sometimes clear and sometimes they are complicated. this matter illustrates the consequences of failing to heed those boundaries. finally, i wish to acknowledge and thank my colleagues, representative charlie dent and john yarmuth, rob bishop and ben ray lujan for their hard work on the investigative subcommittee. in addition, i want to thank all of our committee staff, although we are a bipartisan committee, we have a professional nonpartisan staff. all of the members of the committee appreciate their continuing hard work and service to the house. and with that, mr. speaker, i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady reserves her time. the gentleman from alabama. mr. bonner: mr. speaker, i am

now pleased to recognize the gentleman from pennsylvania, mr. dent, who ably served as chairman of the investigative subcommittee for any comments he may have. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from pennsylvania is recognized. mr. dent: thank you, mr. speaker. i want to thank the gentleman from alabama and the gentlelady from california for the leadership of the committee. as a member of the committee on ethics and as chairman of the investigative subcommittee or i.s.c.n. this matter, i do rise in support of the resolution which calls for the adoption of this committee's report and will serve as a reprimand of representative laura richardson for her conduct and will impose upon her a $10,000 fine. i do not relish sneaking -- speaking under these circumstances. this is indeed a solemn moment when the house must consider punishing one of its own members. as the chairman stated, over the last nine months as members of the investigative subcommittee, my colleagues,

mr. yarmuth from kentucky, mr. bishop of utah, and mr. lujan of new mexico and i conducted an extensive investigation into the allegations regarding representative laura richardson. the subcommittee met on 20 occasions. in total the i.s.c. and staff conducted 12 interviews during this phase of the inquiry. and reviewed the transcripts of 17 interviews conducted. during the committee's earlier phase of its inquiry. the subcommittee also reviewed thousands of pages of documents. i appreciate the hard work of each of the subcommittee members, especially the ranking member, mr. yarmuth of kentucky, a pleasure to work with. i'd also like to thank the nonpartisan professional staff of the ethics committee who conducted the investigation with dignity and professionalism at all times. deborah, cliff, sharia, and brittany. at the conclusion of a thorough investigation, the subcommittee

unanimously concluded that there was substantial reason to believe that representative richardson had violated the code of conduct and other laws, rules, and standards of conduct. the chairman outlined the seven counts in the statement of alleged violations which was unanimously adopted by the investigative subcommittee. here's the summary of the findings of the report and why the committee recommends that representative richardson be reprimanded by the house for her conduct. as discussed fully in the investigative subcommittee report, fundamentally representative richardson failed to acknowledge the boundaries between the official and political realms. on page 59 of the i.s.c. report, it reads in part, quote, this case is about boundaries. the house entrusses members with a -- entrusts members with a great deal of discretion over a large amount of taxpayer resources. this constructive trust requires members to delineate between the official, political, and the personal in ways that are at times quite

tidy and at others, tangled. representative richardson did not acknowledge these boundaries. she acted to consume the resources endowed to her as a member for whatever purpose suited her whims at the moment, be they official acts, her re-election, or personal needs. the i.s.c. discovered significant evidence suggesting that her wrongdoing continued even after learning of the committee was investigating her. if the committee fails to exact a steep price for such conduct, the message is one of a set of rules with a toothless enforcement mechanism, i close quote. representative richardson's misconduct included, first, she improperly compelled or coerced members of her staff to do campaign work. representative richardson required the staff of her district office in long beach, california, to perform campaign work, each week night from approximately 6:30 p.m. through

9:00 p.m., during at least the two months prior to the 2010 primary and general elections. this practice alone accounted for hundreds of house of conscripted campaign work by public servants who did not wish to perform it and may not be forced to do so. she also required the district staff to perform addition at campaign work on the weekends. . she applied the same thing to our washington staff. second, representative richardson used official resources of the house for campaign and nonofficial purposes. while the report has a detailed eposition of many of the resources used by representative richardson, some of the improper resources includes the use of staff time during the day to conduct campaign activities, repeated

use of the house email system to conduct campaign system, use of the m.r.a. to lease a car which she parked at her house and used as her only mode of transportation in the district, regardless as to whether her destination was official, campaign or personal in nature. third, representative richardson paid her deputy district director as a full-time house employee but for months before the 2010 elections she directed this employee to conduct campaign work for significant portion of each day. additionally, in 2011, nearly a year after representative richardson received notice of the committee's investigation into misuse of house resources, representative richardson hired a new district director who, with representative richardson's knowledge and approval, spent much of his time performing campaign work. taken together, a theme emerges. representative richardson used

her staff as she saw fit. the evidence does not demonstrate isolated incidences of compelled campaign work. if that were in fact the case we would not likely be here today. it demonstrates a constant effort by representative richardson to direct and pressure her official employees to perform as much campaign work as possible, regardless of whether or not they wanted to volunteer. the environment representative richardson cultivated in her office was so poor that one of her employees, a detailee from the wounded warriors program, wrote in her letter of resignation, quote, as a service-connected disabled veteran, it is said to say i would rather be at war in afghanistan than work under people that are morally corrupt, closed quote. just as concerning as the substantive violations, if not more so was the significant evidence that representative richardson obstructed and

attempted to obstruct the investigation. to fulfill our constitutional duties, the house must take action against any member who improperly attempts to frustrate a committee investigation. the investigative subcommittee concluded that representative richardson obstructed and attempted to obstruct the investigation into these allegations. specifically, representative richardson directed her staff to testify that fair campaign work had been voluntary, even in cases where staff had not volunteered. she also attempted to obstruct the committee's investigation by altering or destroying evidence. and finally, representative richardson obstructed the investigation by failing to provide materials responsive to a subpoena issued by the investigative subcommittee. the investigative subcommittee served representative richardson with that subpoena only after months had passed with representative richardson ignoring numerous requests from the i.s.e. that she provide

responsive documents. even they the investigative subcommittee discovered documents that representative richardson had in her position, custody or control and nevertheless failed to produce. based on these conclusions, the investigative subcommittee found in a representative richardson committed seven different violations of the code of official conduct or other laws, rules or standards of conduct. throughout this process, representative richardson has been afforded every opportunity to defend herself. ultimately she initiated a negotiated resolution and admitted to the seven counts in the statement of alleged violation. she received a copy of the investigative subcommittee report five days prior to its adoption and was given an opportunity to provide her views to be considered by the committee. through her misconduct, representative laura richardson has violated the public trust. while no member wants to sit in judgment of a colleague, it is our duty to protect the

integrity of the house. accordingly, on behalf of the committee, mr. speaker, i recommend that the house adopt the committee's unanimous report and that the report serve as a reprimand of representative laura richardson for her misconduct. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady from california. ms. sanchez: thank you, mr. speaker. i yield to the gentleman from kentucky, a member of the ethics committee, for such time as he may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from kentucky is recognized. mr. yarmuth: i thank the gentlewoman from california for yielding. as a member of the committee on ethics and as the ranking member of the investigative subcommittee in this matter, i rise in support of the resolution that calls for the adoption of this committee's report and will serve as a reprimand of representative richardson for her conduct and will impose upon her a $10,000 fine. after the investigative subcommittee unanimously concluded that there was substantial reason to believe that representative richardson had committed these violations,

representative richardson initiated formal discussions regarding a negotiated resolution of her matter which would avoid a hearing. they engaged representative richardson delaying hearings for more than a week to continue to negotiate. on july 18, 2012, representative richardson agreed to the terms of a negotiated resolution with the investigative subcommittee. as a part of that resolution, representative richardson has admitted to the seven counts in a statement of alleged violation. there is no longer a factual dispute regarding whether these violations have been proven. on july 16 -- july 26, 2012, the investigative subcommittee unanimously adopted its report and transmitted it to the full committee. representative richardson was provided a copy of the report and pursuant to the terms of the negotiated resolution she was given five days to submit

her views. on july 25, 2012, representative richardson submitted her views on the report in writing. those views were transmitted, along with the investigative subcommittee report, and considered by the full committee. as noted in the committee's report, the members were not persuaded by representative richardson's submission. some of the terms in the negotiated resolution require action only by the ethics committee or representative richardson, but there are terms that have been brought before the house today, mr. speaker, and that is the need for the house to impose the punishment that all parties agree is an acceptable sanction for representative richardson's misconduct, a reprimand by the house of representatives and the imposition of the $10,000 fine. it is important for all members to understand that it is our responsibility to ensure that if our staffs wish to work on our campaigns, they must do it on their own time outside of their office and without the use of any official resources.

a staffer is free to volunteer but a member cannot compel them to do so. mr. speaker, it became clear during the investigation that representative richardson did not believe that she was compelling her official staff to work on her campaign. it was equally clear after hearing from members of her staff that they believe they were being compelled to do so. there are examples of representative richardson providing explicit directions for her staff to work on her campaign. there are more numerous examples when representative richardson's actions would lead any reasonable staffer to believe they were required to do campaign work or face retribution. the way members treat and manage their staffs is often as important and significant an influence on employee understanding and actions as any words a member may use. ultimately, it is also the member's responsibility to know and manage what is being asked of their staff and what isn't. as this case shows, when these

rules are broken members are not only responsible, they will be held accountable. mr. speaker, i once again support the approval of the ethic's committee report and the sanctions imposed on ms. richardson and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady from california. ms. sanchez: thank you, mr. speaker. at this time i'd like to yield to the gentleman from colorado, the chairman of the congressional black caucus, for two minutes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from missouri is recognized for two minutes. mr. cleaver: thank you, mr. speaker. the committee has examined the case and reached the conclusion of the subject of the investigation as agreed to accept responsibility and in fact has affixed her name to the findings as a confirmation of such.

and as a supporter and colleague of the subject of the investigation, i know that she regrets the violations and hopes the reprimand by the house will allow both her and the house to move on to address the great issues facing the nation. mr. speaker, i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the gentlelady from california. ms. sanchez: i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady reserves her time. the gentleman from alabama. mr. bonner: mr. speaker, i am prepared to close unless there are any other speakers that seek recognition. ms. sanchez: yes. mr. bonner: mr. speaker, i'm happy on the part of the committee to yield five minutes to representative richardson. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized for five minutes. ms. richardson: thank you, mr. speaker. and i thank the ranking member for yielding time and it's my

understanding that i would be provided additional time if needed. i had no desire or intent to prolong the debate on this report, but given what has now been stated during this debate, which is contrary to what i understood to be agreed to, i want to make sure that my colleagues are aware of several issues critical to understanding the full context of this resolution. first, i want to assure my colleagues that contrary to the inflammatory suggestions in the full committee report, i do take these findings very seriously and do accept the responsibility for the specific conduct set out in the statement of alleged violations. second, i set forth in my statement of views, including in the committee report, several significant concerns about the manner in which the committee conducted this investigation. i find it was interesting that the ranking member stated in the initial discussion that the subject of an investigation does not mean that an individual or a violation has

occurred. well, in fact, in this investigation there is seven areas where i feel there has been a violation. prejudgment and improper influence of witnesses by the ethics committee, the very matter that the ranking member just mentioned. and i'll state for the record what specifically was stated in those statement of views. during the rule 18-a inquiry at the outset of the committee's process, the committee counsel improperly influenced witness by telling them a year before any such decision had been made by the ethics committee. that the ethics committee was likely to impanel an investigative subcommittee. thereby clearly signaling that the ethics committee staff, at least already believed that i, representative richardson, was guilty of misconduct and influenced subsequent staff testimony. for example, during the interview of angel, a key staff witness, ethics counsel told her it's completely up to the full committee on what they

want to do. they make the final decision, which could be anything from dismiss the matter entirely to investigative by impaneling an investigative subcommittee. the counsel continued, if that happens, you will be called, you will be placed under oath, so that is the process. chances are, this is important, chances are they are going to want to impanel. this is according to her transcript on number 34. committee counsel told former district director during his first interview that the chances are very likely that you are going to be interviewed again. if you are going to be interviewed again it will be under oath and it will be in front of members of the committee. my recommendations could be anywhere from dismiss the matter as being, you know, not a violation or impanel an investigative subcommittee or, i think, you probably know which way at this point we're looking. eric's transcript page 83 and 84. committee counsel told the

staffer the committee's choices in this matter are to dismiss the matter because the information received lacks merit or lacks sufficient information to believe a violation occurred. or we recommend that an investigative subcommittee be impaneled. you actually won't hear back from us until such time we decide to interview you again. and the reason is that as i said, everything is done confidentialally. i expect we would not be impanel and investigate a subcommittee until the beginning of the 112th congress because there is insufficient time left in this congress to do so. so more than likely it will be january before we impanel before doing -- by doing any additional work. and then finally, the committee counsel told kenneth miller during his first 18-a interview on november, 2010, that when i present the findings to the member, i will be giving them a full briefing on what i believe was violated, be it house rules, campaign law or federal

criminal statutes. miller's testimony, page 47. . during these interviews with my staff, the committee attorneys made clear to staff witnesses that the ethics committee staff had already determined that i had committed violations at the very first stages of the preliminary inquiry. committee staff explicitly requested that my staff not speak with my own counsel, a recognized form of prosecutorial misconduct, which effectively deprived me of opportunity to actually learn of the specific allegations against me until the final stages of this investigation. anoupsing the resolution had been negotiated, new and additional allegations appeared in the investigative subcommittee report, supported by attorney proofers that i still to this day haven't seen. the full committee report takes issues with my raising these concerns stating the resolution is a matter that i waived all my procedural rights and that

the time rising for these objections has passed. these concerns should be taken seriously by the committee as i brought them forward. third but most importantly -- i request additional time. mr. bonner: mr. speaker, i would inquire of the gentlelady from california how much additional time does she intend to seek? because as i have heard her comments, respectfully, it sounds like those were all contained in her response which was included in the report submitted to the house. how much additional time would she be seeking to conclude her comments? ms. richardson: is was told i would be allowed to continue to request additional time to complete my presentation. i would say approximately less than five minutes. mr. bonner: mr. speaker, i will grant the gentlelady five additional minutes.

the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized for an additional five minutes. ms. richardson: thank you, mr. chairman. the purpose of me standing today, i had no intentions of speaking because i believe we had agreed to a certain format of what would have occurred, but the most important issue that i bring forward is the comments of mr. dent. third, with respect to the account of charging obstruction of the committee investigation, i want to make clear that the statement of alleged violations does not assert anywhere that i deliberately failed to produce documents in response to requests for information and a subpoena as referenced in yesterday's public statement by the chair and ranking member. i did not admit to this conduct and i certainly do deny it and it's my understanding that the committee is aware that in fact it was not included. with respect to the conduct to which i did admit, my statement of views explains that my office calendars were adjusted retroactively but only to accurately reflect the history

of the time worked by my deputy district director. discussion abouts that adjustment in fact took place before the committee commenced its inquiry. i did at the very beginning of the committee's preliminary inquiry suggest, and, mr. chairman, i think this is very important, i acknowledge the statement of alleged violations . in fact much of which has been said today has been in fact true. but what i want to make emphatically clear and what i want to emphasize that i have never taken or threatened any action against any staffer who did not volunteer to work on my campaign. there is no doubt that a number of staff felt compelled or coerced to do so. that was not my intent and i deeply regret that this occurred. so i want to make sure, very clear to the committee, i'll repeat that statement. there is no doubt that a number of staff felt compelled or

coerced to do so, and that was not my intent, and i deeply do regret that this occurred. i never told any staff member that they would be out of a job if they did not work on the campaign and it is undisputed that i was not present at the staff meeting at which the time this statement was made. with that context and these clarifications, mr. speaker, i respectfully ask that my colleagues would refer as was stated by the committee that they would refer to my public reference to this matter, my statement of views which are included in the report. as i conclude, mr. chairman, and the ranking member, i look forward to the resolution of this matter. in fact, i sought the resolution of this matter for well over a year and i have agreed to the items that were set forward. however, some of the details that were set in the language that was said today was not what had been discussed. so for the record i wanted to clarify that. with that i reserve the balance

of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady may not reserve her time. the time is controlled by the gentleman from alabama. the gentlelady from california. ms. sanchez: mr. speaker, i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. ms. sanchez: thank you, mr. speaker. i just feel it's important to point out several important issues that were raised by ms. richardson in her comments on the floor today. much of what she has stated on the floor today were included in the views that she filed after reviewing the report that was issued. she raised these points in her views of the report and i feel compelled to add that the committee took those views very seriously. and they responded and refuted those points in its response to her views, which is all included in the report which has been made publicly available. nothing that has been stated on the floor today by any member, but most especially mr. dent,

is not -- are statements that are already included in the report to which representative richardson has responded. again many of the points she raised we investigated, took very seriously, and included in our response to those views. i don't think that there's anything further to add other than she has been given an opportunity to voice her concerns at every step of the process, and we have scrupulously adhered to a process to try to take her views and her suggestions into account. and we have arrived at the report which is unanimously agreed on by all of the committee members w that i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady's time is reserved. gentleman from alabama. mr. bonner: mr. speaker, i'm prepared to close if the gentlelady, ranking member, has no further speakers.

ms. sanchez: i have no further speakers. the speaker pro tempore: does the gentlelady yield back? ms. sanchez: i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back her time. the gentleman from alabama. mr. bonner: mr. speaker, in closing i want to once again thank members of the committee as well as members of the pool for their tremendous service that they render to this institution. and on behalf of the entire house i want to again thank the nonpartisan professional committee staff for their extraordinary hard work and commitment to the house of representatives and to the american people that we all serve. as is often noted on the floor, especially during somber moments like this, public office is a public trust. and for the vast majority of members who have been honored with the opportunity, the privilege to serve in this the deem's house, there is an unspoken duty to hold ourself up to a higher standard. unfortunately, as representative richardson has

admitted, she did not live up to that higher standard and as such she did a disservice to her staff, to her colleagues, and while it is ultimately up to her constituents in california to be the final judge of her actions, i think it's safe to say she did a disservice to the hardworking taxpayers from all corners of this country who expect and deserve more from their elected leaders. throughout the course of this matter, the investigative subcommittee heard desperate, sometimes emotional pleas for help from members of representative richardson's staff. representative dent has shared at least one of the stories with the body today. and even since word first broke yesterday of this resolution this morning, the committee has received calls from other staffers thanking us for bringing this matter tomorrow a public rureb. -- resolution. as a former hill staffer myself, i have great respect

for those staffers who are willing to come to the ethics committee with their stories and heartfelt concerns. that is not an easy thing to do against a member of congress, particularly when that person claims to be your boss and you are made to feel that your job is in jeopardy. at the end of the day, however, we must remember and never forget that the real people involved are the american people. i was particularly moved by one of ms. richardson's former staffers who testified this certainly should not be an example as to the way an elected official of this country should conduct themselves under any circumstance. mr. speaker, i am simply haunted by the statement of another staffer that mr. dent referenced, a lady who is part of the wounded warrior program, someone who was willing to risk her life in service to her country, and ended up coming

home a disabled veteran. she told the committee and it bears repeating, it is sad to say that i would rather be at war in afghanistan than work under people who are morally corrupt. mr. speaker, while some might prefer a harsher sentence, perhaps even a few might think a reprimand is too severe, i urge my colleagues to support the unanimous recommendation of the only evenly divided committee in this house of representatives. with that i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the previous question is ordered. the question is on adoption of the resolution. so many as are in favor say aye. those opposed, no. the aye vs. it. the resolution is adopted. without

[captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] i love you. thank you for having me. run for the supreme court?

what elementary did you go to, sir? so much of what i learned to be true, and i understand how truly special this country is. it is something we should never apologize for. it did not become that way by accident, by luck, or by chance. it became that way because people chose that route. they believe in the power of the individual. they believe what a free people in pursuit of happiness can do together. they believe in a country where it was not your government that gives you your rights. it is the job to protect the rights that god has given you.

those ideas made this country. they also changed the world. no matter where you live on this planet, there is someone like you that was able to accomplish here but they never would have in the nation other on birth. it reminds you of how important the american miracle is for all the world. two decades ago, the american medical lived in my house. they made if the mission of their lives to give us a chance to do everything they could not. that miracle is in other houses. in this community, a bartender and a maid can open doors for the children is an issue of this election.

we need to embrace the things that made us great, or become like everyone else. no matter how fearful we are, because times are tough. when times are tough, and your house is worth less than they once were, those are the times that those who ask us to abandon the principles of the old rear their head. that has never worked anywhere. everywhere we have tried it, it has not made us more prosperous. every country that has tried it has become more pork. now is not the time to go backwards, when what you were going to be was decided by who your parents were.

embrace the things that make us different. that is what november is giving us a chance to do. that is what you are working for. up and down the ballot, across the country, and race after race. those that ask you to apply the policies that will make us like everyone else. you will decide those elections in your willingness to work and make a difference. i promise to do my part if you will do yours. thank you. thank you. >> friday, a conversation with republican governors that have been mentioned as possible running mates from mitt romney. they discuss a variety of issues facing the country. the aspen institute hosted a forum with the governors of south carolina, louisiana, new

jersey, virginia, and wisconsin, friday, at 8:00 p.m. eastern. ohio republican senator robb portman has been mentioned as a possible running mate for mitt romney. he campaigned for romney on monday, telling supporters that pennsylvania would be in the red cone for mitt romney. obama won the state in 2008. this portion of the event is 10 minutes, due to technical difficulties. >> when the president pushed his health care bill through, he said a few passes, it will be great. i will keep their current health care. he says it will be cheaper.

he said the average cost for an american family will be $2,500 less for health care premiums if you push this through. we learned last week from a non- partisan group in congress that it is $2500 more. probably fill that in your family budget. i talk to small business owners that say one reason they cannot create jobs is because health care cost keep going up. it is difficult for them to provide health care for their employees. they are looking for ways to bring people on, but they cannot because of health care. this law has not made it easier. it has made it harder for our families, small businesses, and for our budget deficit. it is $1 trillion.

and the president says, look at my economic record, i hope people will look at it. they will find out they did not work. it is no wonder. the president is out of touch. he said the private sector is doing fine. i asked small-business owners if they are happy that the government built their business. i almost felt run out of the room when i said that. it is a joke. i am kidding. the presence of the private sector is fine. he also said, all we need to do is take your tax dollars, send them to washington d.c., have washington d.c. take a cut, borrow more from places like china, and send it back to the states so that the commonwealth can create more public sector jobs in pennsylvania.

that is the solution to our economic problems. does that make sense to you? it does not make sense to any americans. the private sector creates jobs. if the government would have created jobs, we would have been doing fine under the stimulus. it did not work. we have created the greatest economy on earth. we have created a beacon of hope for the rest of the world. we did it with hard work. we did it with small business owners. one woman i met said my husband and i started a music business. it had two employees. we are struggling. my husband says, is keeping a small-business owner because you can choose which 16 hours to work per day. the president says, if you have a business, you did not built it. someone else did.

the speech was about the government building it. those small businesses should be paying more taxes. the government really built it. that did not make a whole lot of sense to the people i spoke with. it doesn't make sense to me. when the president said that, he did not build the business. someone else did. i thought about all of the small business owners i know in cincinnati. i thought about my father. my father took a risk. he was a salesman for a big company. he gave it up to start his own business. he borrowed money from my mother's on to. that is risky. he could not get it from the bank. he had no record of starting a business, but he believed in himself. he believed in america. he believed his dream could be accomplished.

he hired five people. my mother was a bookkeeper. they lost money for several years. my uncle began to wonder. they persevered. he created a nice business. he did it through hard work and sweat. he worked seven days per week. this is what is happening across america. the president is telling those people, you did not do it. we should be holding those people up. we should tell them they are the backbone of our economy. we respect them. we love what they do for our country. if you look at every recession we have had in this country, there is always a recovery. we are living through the weakest recovery since the great

depression. think about that. if you look at it closely, it was not the big businesses that lead us out of recessions. it tends to be the small businesses. the people willing to take a risk. this administration is going the opposite direction. they are telling the people if they work hard, you'll get the reward you deserve. we will raise your taxes, increased health care costs, increase the regulatory burden you face. i got stories about the regulatory burden from small businesses. the government is making it harder to create jobs. we need to turn that around. we need to give small businesses a break. we talked about the epa, we talked about osha, and regulations that make it difficult for farmers to make ends meet. it is harder across our country

to create opportunity. the jobs we need to lift people up and give them the dignity because of the government. not that the garment is helping, but the regulations make it harder. the unpredictability, the regulations, the higher taxes. this is not how we turn things around. let me tell you why i am optimistic. we have been here before. america did go through a great depression. we went through a couple great world wars. we always come out on top because of the hard work of the american people. we trust the people, not the government to get us out of this. that is the difference in this election. we can do it again. we have a candidate on the republican side who gets it.

he is from the private sector. he took a risk, started a business, created a lot of jobs. not just a couple dozen jobs, but over 100,000 jobs in his businesses. he knows what the role of the government is. he knows what it takes. we need people like that in government. do you agree? the people say, can he lead in washington? absolutely, he can because he is a business person. that is what you do in business. we are desperate for leadership.

here is doing a great job. pat to me is working on the budget. he is working on the entitlement reforms. he is growing on the economy. in the executive branch with the leadership, things to not get done. winning to reform our tax code. we need to develop our own natural resources. we need to get away from our dangerous dependency on foreign oil. we can do that with leadership. we need someone to step up to take on the debt and deficit. it is impacting our ability to create opportunities today. mitt romney is that man. he is that leader. he will do that. [applause] he has the experience. as the background. he has the public policy plans

to change america and a positive way by showing leadership we so desperately need. during the election in 2008, mr. obama went around pennsylvania and ohio. he had an interesting message. it would go like this. we need to bring america together. to solve big problems. i would ask you if you would talk to the folks who voted for president obama. i even forget about what we talked about the earlier, the promises, the fact that the economic record has been a failure. just, say to them to think he has brought the country together? or do think he has divided our country? to think the welfare and the notion that we will is divided the country between democrats, conservatives -- now it does not. we need a president understands not just have to create private- sector jobs, and had to get the

regulatory burden off of business and committed to dealing with debt and deficit. understands the need to create our own resources here. the president who has the record, and the experience, and the public policy plans to bring people together to solve big problems. and you look at mitt romney's background. he goes to the olympics. what does he do? he turns it around. bringing people together to solve big problems. the private-sector talks about his successes. they do not call it taxachustetts. he cuts taxes 19 times. he starts with a budget deficit of a $3 billion. turns it around and reeser plus add a rainy day fund of $2 billion. we want someone who cannot bring us together and solve all problems. [applause]

again, have a feeling that pennsylvania will be in the red,. you are going to paint the column read. in 2008 we made a mistake. american gave the ball out to mr. obama because he promised he would turn things around and bring to put together to solve their problems. we gave him the ball and he fumbled it. it is now time to give the ball to mitt romney to take this country forward to meet the promise of america. he can do it. our destiny can still be great. this century can be the american century. but we need new policies. thank you for thanking me. we must ensure that mitt romney is in a position to lead our great country. >> tonight on c-span 3 to the conversation with republican

governors that have been mentioned as possible running mates with mitt romney the. they set up to discuss a variety of issues facing our states and the country. the aspen institute hosted a foreign with chris christie of new jersey, nikki haley of south carolina. bobby jammal of louisiana. louisiana and wisconsin and honors. you can see it at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. former minnesota gov. tim upcounty is among those being mentioned as a potential running mate. he was on the campaign trail and in north carolina last saturday. he spoke with parents at the polar ice house. this is 40 minutes. >> thank you. thank you for taking the time to be here. >> nice to see you. >> you are all dressed up.

>> how are you? thank you for being part of this. >> good to see you. hockey players? >> 1 a. >> thank you for coming out. >> hello. nice to meet you. >> nice to meet you. >> thank you for being here. i know you could be doing many other things. we appreciate you being here. i am here on behalf of the romney campaign making sure that we travel the country and meet firsthand with people will have

concerns and ideas about how we can get america on a better track forward. these are valuable discussions. as less of an opportunity for me to talk and more of an opportunity for you to talk. and we can engage in a little informal dialogue. i might start with a view -- a few very brief comments. gosar around the table and have you introduce yourself. and if you are comfortable sharing a bit about your background, and any concerns you have for the country, for north carolina that i can take and report back to governor romney. obviously, from the governor's standpoint, and from the campaign standpoint, one of the main issues we have to address is getting this economy moving. governor romney has a tremendous background and the private sector.

but get investments, and get jobs moving. but someone i think was a strong commitment to getting the private sector moving, not just to the governor sector moving. we have seen and of president obama government centered approaches. we need to get the private economy moving. we need to encourage private enterprise. and governor romney has decided, and i could not agree more, president obama had his chance. another is based on the numbers. we had 40 consecutive month of over 8% unemployment in the country. one of the longest streets of that level of elevated employment in the nation's history. i know it is even higher and north carolina that makes it even more challenging for people here. we have the lowest rate of business formations in nearly 30 years in the country which obviously contributes to the

fact that the economy is not crime. the gdp numbers came out yesterday. another anemic set of numbers showing almost no growth in the economy. we a people who are 23 million americans or at of work or are looking for work. 23 million adult americans. it is really challenging. it is not just about statistics and -- having lost a job or being underemployedr have a loved one or a neighbor or friend who cannot find a job or is in a difficult economic circumstances. for me, my background -- i grow up any meat packing town. for me, my background is i grew up in a meat packing town. my father was a truck driver for

a large portion of his life. my mother for much of her life was a homemaker. when those big plants shut down in my home town, a massive job last and economic dislocation, i saw as a young boy with this means to a neighborhood, families. my mom died when i was in 10th grade. my father left it up for a while not long after that. in early chapter of my life, i experienced some of this firsthand. those of the kind of worries that the people have. we hear what people's hopes and dreams are. a job? will i be able to take care of my family? belie take my kids to college and pay for it? will i be able to pay my mortgage? we need actual results of policies that work. that is not what is happening under president obama. he gives great teleprompter speeches but those words did not put gas in sarcastic. they do not pay the mortgage. his speeches do not pay college tuition bills. they do not pay the health insurance premium. americans who are hurting need more the speeches, they need

results. that is what we are trying to articulate. governor romney has a better way. president obama has had his chance. it did not work. now we need somebody in there who is committed and knows how to get this country moving again. but and with that and go around the table and maybe he would be so bold as to start. i know it is a little intimidating with the cameras here. but if he could speak little loudly. maybe if somebody would turn the microphone your way. if you're not comfortable sharing, you can take a pass but if you are, go ahead. >> my name is michael and i am a native of north carolina." appeared theory went to unc chapel hill. -- grew up here. went to unc chapel hill. i have three children. one of my biggest concerns is this area of the country has had a lot of job creation in the past 15 years due to the housing market. that employed a lot of people. it created a ripple effect. a lot of people needed to do the

loan documentation, praised the house. it really rippled out and it created a lot of jobs and commerce. i feel like we need a plan for the next 10 years on energy, infrastructure, exploration and all the things that can spawn off of that to get a lot of people back to work. then we can start to work on some of the harder issues. but i think we really need to have a good catalyst for the next 10, 15 years in job creation during >> that is a great point. the difference between president obama thank governor romney on energy is striking. president obama has put more on drilling. he shut down the expansion of the keystone pipeline.

his epa and other regulatory arms have been a fairly hostile to certain forms of american energy. governor romney is saying let's do all of the above. but every piece of american energy we can to bring to the market. we have exciting opportunities if we are willing to go after it. one of those is we have tremendous amounts of shale oil and gas that three or five years ago, did not -- people did not understand how much we had. now there is enough natural gas within the territorial region of the united states to power the entire base load energy needs of the country by many experts estimates for 100 years or more. not to mention what we could do with natural gas on the vehicles and the like. so that is one example of many and yet you have the obama administration in many wage -- ways to try to slow down our stifle that process -- that process.

we can get america to be one of the world's leading producers of energy again. have to be a low-cost provider of energy. we will get new investments, new jobs and more people working. it will stimulate the economy like you suggested. i thank you. that is a really good point. >> my name is tiffany. i also have three boys. 15, 12, and 9. >> so you are busy. [laughter] >> yes. i am very concerned because i have always loved america. d teaching my kids about that and everything. i find it very sad that we have for the first time ever a president who i did not believe

want america to stay the sovereign country in the world. i really feel like actions speak louder than words and i think his actions, moving us to the socialist direction, i do not see that socialism has worked in other countries. so i am not sure. i'm frustrated watching blowhole process because -- watching the whole process because mitt romney obviously knows how to do it. he knows how to be successful and create jobs. i do not think taking away democracy and moving towards socialism is the answer. there are so many ridiculous a tax on money every day on the knees. i would love to see him fight back a little bit. >> he is. those are great points. we have a president is to the recently who said if you have a business, you did not build that. then he said something else that was equally troubling -- somebody else did i had an acquaintance who runs a little small business where i that now and he said if i put -- i put a

second mortgage on my house to start my business. i work 80 hours a week. obviously there are other factors but i am the main one who built this business. he was really not only just offended but troubled and really insulted by the comments.s i think you got small business owners all over the country saying you have the president of the united states saying i did not built my business if i took out a loan, a second mortgage on my house -- house. had a big dream. now he is a somebody else did that? it is out of sync with how most entrepreneurs and small business leaders think about it in. >> i think the unemployment being so high in staying so i under him is an indication that his approach does not work and his philosophy behind the approach. thank you.

>> hi, i'm nancy meyer. i was born and raised in ohio. we move down here 15 years ago. we both graduated from ohio state. >> did you come for a job? family? >> a job. now i am a stay at home mom but have a part-time job. we have two kids. 15 and 13. i think my biggest concern about things right now is just the getting government out of our lives. it is like every aspect of our lives has government control in some manner -- education. i think we need to shrink it. which hopefully the budget will shrink. have less.

>> there are about 6 million businesses in the country. most of the backbone of the economy is small and medium- sized businesses. if you talk to the people who start and on those businesses, they all say it a little different but they basically say the same thing if you listen carefully. the taxes are too high and it is too expensive, some say the regulations are too difficult, burdensome. others say health care costs are too high. others say the economy is too slow. what they all say basically the same thing, that the burdens of government on their business is

discouraging them, starting to price them out of the market where they do not feel like they can take a more -- take more risk or deploy more capital or invest in their businesses more. that is what is happening in the economy. some of our democrat friends, including president obama, say we are for jobs to. you cannot be pro jobs and anit -- >> his comment about the government being responsible for the business, almost bragging about what i do not like government. >> thank you for sharing that. >> she is my wife, by the way. we are on the same pace. i'm bob meyer. i am in the commercial construction industry. we have been fighting the last three years just to stay where we are. we have to let some folks go. it is because of this overregulation. and big government. does not work. drives me nuts. my brother in law says the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results.

government does not learn that if you give them more money -- they did not spend anything wisely. getting them out of our lives and giving us more of our freedoms back is one of my biggest concerns. >> hi. my name is julie. i and the mom of 19-year old out there skating in addition to being a mom, i am an instructor at a local university. my professional field is special education. i am an advocate for people with disabilities. as i look at the future for my son and the people for which i advocate, i am so concerned about the affordable care act. i know we need to repeal it. that would be very good start. but i would like to see us replace it with a good plan. it president romney is creating this plan, what would it look like?

>> i can give you some of the elements of what he is thinking about and if you have some ideas or observations that would be helpful, time in. everybody knows governor romney as opposed to the affordable care act. otherwise known as obamacare in some circles. obviously it takes government in our view and get it into health care in a level that is interested. it begins to represent a more inefficient government centric model instead of a individual or market oriented model. some of the things governor romney like to do in terms of appealing obamacare is have a real medical malpractice reform so that we do not have doctors -- they do a lot of things because they are afraid of getting sued. although it may not be as

necessary medically as it could be. number two, let's try to save our entitlement programs by reforming them. he has a proposal on how you reform and protect medicare and medicaid and get them on the pathway to financial solvency rather than in solvency. part of that includes pushing the medicare program with reasonable increases for inflation, back to the states. he also talked quite frankly about getting consumers in power in the marketplace. trying to get good information in consumers' hands about price and quality and effectiveness. think it financial incentives to use this system wisely in the hands of the consumer. right now, i go to the doctor. i get this thing in the mail called this is not a bill.

then it says would buy at the bottom. my eyes go to what i know. i do not get anything that explains it beyond that. he talked about, it's fine -- if people need financial help, provided to the best of our ability. but let's put the hospital in the good -- the driving seat, rather than having the government dictate the scope of the services they need. do you have some suggestions? >> i was thinking that in turn will address the issue of the value of life. no one is going to evaluate child life more than their parents. the parent should be making the decision about care and treatment and ultimately what we are going to do for this precious individual. the thought of the government

making that decision is a concern. but the parents [inaudible] what's the government has programs with special needs children. i used to hear a lot of input from parents who used to say i appreciate the help but instead of saying you could use the number -- the money for this or that, whatever assistance you will give me, give it to me and let me decide how i can best use it to take care of my child as a parent. i think you would spend it pretty well or use it pretty well. >> my name is christine. i have three children. i guess the thing that is striking me in the last few months is that democratic party seems to be really quite opposite.

it has gotten to the point where in a short amount of time, i cannot remember when the pivot was, but when it comes to our first amendment, freedom of speech, i have actually fell to -- felt intimidated to say yes, i am christian. and i believe that the traditional marriage. even just recently with the whole chick-fil-a bruh ha ha. >> i just had lunch there down the street. >> i was disappointed we did not have any leadership on the republican side that step forward. we had to wait days for bloomberg of all people to step

forward and say time out. we do not give business based on someone's political religious views. i thought we had to wait three days? then i am saying thank you michael bloomberg? i was really wishing that somebody in the republican party would have stepped forward. there seems to be a real lack of leadership. i'm hopeful. i am praying that if governor romney does win the election, that this -- we will be allowed to have civil debate in disagree with each other without feeling threatened or penalized. >> a profound observation. you probably all know what she

is referring to but as one example of this intimidation, you have the person who is principal at chick-fil-a who has a traditional view on his marriage and then you have government officials around the country including in chicago and boston saying explicitly we are going to deny you a land use permit based on your political views. now you have the police power of government intimidating and threatening people based on their free speech rights and their religious views. it is chilling. it is draw dropping. i think people need to say no, we do not do that in the united states. we can have several disagreements but we do not use the power of government to try to intimidate and retaliate

against people for exercising their free-speech rights. that is outrageous. thank you for bringing it up. good news is that the chick-fil- a down the street did not look like their business was being impacted by this. a really important point. thank you. >> my name is jay. i am from clayton, north carolina. for the past two years, my family has been on the movement the government needs to be on and that is getting our household out of debt. we have embraced an incredible system and gotten to where the things that we wanted need -- the things that we need are what we pay for. the things we want, they have to wait. it is just ridiculous that the government is, what is it, $4 billion a day that we go in more

debt? it is insane that the government has to spend some much money. i am thinking not about myself of my children. my grandchildren and where they will be. what this country will be like in 20, 30 years. if we continue to spend at the rate we're going now and expect 10% of the people to pay for it. it is insane. there really has to be something put in place, be it a balanced budget amendment are something, has got to go into place where we can get back to being financially and fiscally responsible. but the good news is governor romney has a good track record on getting budgets and businesses in shape. the federal government needs it badly.

the governor of massachusetts balanced every budget when he was there. inherited a deficit and left the state in a positive financial position. to give you a quick math, for every dollar the federal government spends, they do not have 40 cents of it. so there are different numbers to throw a around but think about that. what if for every dollar he spend in your house, you did not have 40 cents of it. it is irresponsible, it is unsustainable. we need to stop it. president obama has made it worse. when he came to office, he made a bunch of promises and broke almost all of them. he said he was going to cut the deficit in half in his first term. he did not cut it in half. he tripled it, or nearly so. you can set aside the rhetoric of one side or the other and look at it from the perspective of eighth grade math. the math does not work anymore.

this may be the last election where we have a chance to get this thing turned around, short of an implosion of a dramatic nature. we have to get governor romney in there. the current president cannot, will not do it. is incapable of getting his budget under control. >> we have lived here about seven years. we came from new jersey. we can now for a better life. one of the concerns i am faced with is, i will go back to small-business. i am looking to open a small business. i have put it on hold because i am concerned about how obama's tax plan will interfere with my business and how the health care plan will interfere. he says he is for helping small business. as somebody out there looking and trying to get things done, it is not what they tell you it is. it is difficult to try to do this. i do not think he is pro- business.

we need somebody who will be focused on a pro-business. >> are you waiting were still working on it? >> it is all in place. it is a matter of pulling the trigger. i am very concerned. the regulatory issues are a major factor for me. i will be bogged down so much with that i will not be able to grow the business. >> do you have something you want to add? >> we have twins, 14-year-old boys. they will go to high school next year. you worry about what will happen to them. are there going to be jobs? how much taxes will they have to pay? what will they have to handle? it worries me with things like that. >> i have two children, one in high school. you tell them things we learned

and things we believe in like if you work hard and study hard and do your best and play by the rules, there will be opportunities for you. sometimes i worry about if president obama gets elected if that will ring true. we have almost half of the high school and college graduates that cannot find work or are dramatically under employed. we make promises to our children about the american dream. we want to make sure it remains open. we have graduates that cannot find work or are under employed, as a parent it makes you feel like we have to find a way to keep that promise to our kids.

>> when i worked for 30 years. you make money. you want to move forward and get promoted. it makes you feel like you are evil because you make money. i am proud of what i have accomplished. according to obama we are evil. because we give our kids a good life. >> you explain it well. there is a limit to how much people can be kicked in the shins before they say i am discouraged and maybe it is now worth it. we want people to enjoy their retirement but we do not want entrepreneurs to say it is too hard. it is not worth the risk. >> we have been here for about 15 years. we came down from a virginia looking for a lower cost of living. ims software engineer.

-- a ibm a software engineer. -- i am a software engineer. i am concerned about jobs and the debt. there is something more fundamental that concerns me, and that is the expansive powers of the executive branch that seems to be growing. i teach my doctors about checks and balances. they are in place so that one branch of government does not have too much power. i see an executive branch picking and choosing what laws to enforce be it any of the area's -- how does that sustained over time? i cannot imagine a system where the next president says there will enforce a different set of laws. what is the sustainability with powers going into the executive branch? look at the budget.

we pass a huge budget and say dole them out as you see fit. the executive branch is not representative, congress is. how do we pull back in the powers of the executive branch? >> you may have heard the president repealed some welfare reform. we did welfare reform in the 1990's. really good success and the progress of emphasizing work and getting people to train for work. he has relaxed standards, not by going to the congress but by issuing a direct. i think the answer is a couple of things. when congress passes laws we need members of congress who do not outsourced details to the bureaucracy. tell your members of congress to expect a loss that mean what they say and do not leave latitude for the bureaucracy to fill in. we should have a president that respects checks and balances and if there is an overstepping in that regard, there is the court system, which is the third check

and balance. i share your concern. if you have too much done, it starts to erode the checks and balances of the three institutional -- >> good point. it would help if they wrote them in more detail. members of congress do not go into the details so they say department of xyz, go to abc and we will check back and later. they have a lot of hands on their -- they have a lot of time on their hands. >> my name is debbie. i have been a home school mom for 10 years and i work for a start up that is bringing a free

market solution to health care. i am excited to be a part of that. my concern is similar. the economy and jobs running on a limited government. the government reaching into areas it does not have the constitutional authority to do so and to get involved in. in the name of solving problems are making things better, the mortgage industry or college education. so i guess as i look down the road again looking at the future and my kids and their kids, what does that mean for their freedoms and opportunities? what cost is it laying at their feet? >> history is often a good guide of how things might work out. when ec countries that have taken their government on spending or overreach on other ways, history shows what happens.

parts of europe and you see governments that overspent, spent in manners that were not sustainable. have government involvements to such a degree that it becomes stifling and discouraging to private enterprise and all the things you need. if you can see where they are heading if we do not get this back on track. the good news is the american people are pretty wise. if you ask them if the country is in the right direction, the majority say no. the wisdom shines through if we make sure we can do our work and how gov. romney get his message out and presented to the people. i think it is their conclusion governor mitt romney will have a better vision. the president does not have the country on the right direction. >> how are we doing on time? where is the time keeper? they are out skating. i want to go skating in a few minutes.

did anybody bring their skates? will you go in your shorts? >> absolutely. >> i checked my luggage for the sole purpose of bringing a pair of skates with me. how did the canes to this year? not so good. it is up and down. the wild had a tough year, too, but we grabbed a couple of free agents. are the panthers looking all right? who will stand out as an up and comers? >> cam newton. >> we had adrian petersen but he blew out his knee. everybody is keeping an eye out on how he is looking. jumping back to the economy, you have a high unemployment rate, over 9%. it is hard. i am sure you have felt the

effects of that. if we can get the country moving, that will help north carolina as well. >> one of the things that was encouraging -- 1 romney came out and said on day one, i will do this and i will do that. i think people want to hear more of that. it is enough for me that he is not obama. for some people who are afraid of any change want to know specifically what his plan is. will he repeal executive orders that obama sits down and -- obama has all but admitted he cannot work with anybody from a different party. that would be great if he is a king. and our country where we have a two party system.

for he to be able to sit down and write a few executive orders and not be challenged, what would president romney do on the one? >> that is a great question. i will give you some details. i know it is not just about words but specific action items. on the tax reform -- scott is giving me the -- >> i am sorry. [laughter] >> on tax reform, cut the corporate tax rate down to 25%. it detects a consistent with taxes for businesses with the rest of the businesses -- countries and the world. 20% across the board. most small businesses pay their taxes on the proceeds from small business on their individual returns. their partnerships or there are

limited liability corporations or the like. an's make sure we have american energy policy aggressive vector's after the huge opportunity we have an american energy including shell oil and shell gas. north dakota, ohio and lots of other places. go after it aggressively and have a regulatory framework that protects consumers safety and picks up the tempo and ability to get the reserve. repeal obamacare bar replace the one of the lines we talked about earlier. replace the executive orders on other topics, as many as appropriate. then we have to do a number of other things. we have a situation involving the current president that is unfair with respect to the relationship between unions and businesses.

he stacked it with people who are political operatives are politically biased. you saw when boeing wanted to build a new facility in south carolina, he had the government tried to interfere and tell a private business they could not expand their business within the united states had a different location. another example of government over reach. that we have regulatory things we need to do. they are slow and expensive and heavy and confusing and contradictory. the whole system -- the tempo needs to be modernized. it needs to be something that encourages investment and job growth and business start-ups and makes it more difficult. i know that is a quick spin through but that is some of the

checklist items we have to get down. we are getting the puck here. if you want to go skating, i would love to see you up there. thank you for taking the time out of your weekend. thank you for the hospitality in your lovely state. i appreciate it. [applause] >> tonight, a conversation with republican governors mentioned as possible running mates were -- fort meade romney. the aspen institute hosted a forum with chris christie of new jersey, nikki haley of south carolina, bobby jammal of louisiana, bob mcdonnell of virginia and scott walker of. you can see it at 8:00 p.m. tonight on c-span. coming up, next we hear from paul ryan. he speaks to a crowd in the wisconsin.

after that, senator john thune from virginia. a letter mitt romney speaks in in golden, colorado. >> campaign for governor romney at a campaign rally in wisconsin. his remarks are 10 minutes. >> thanks. i want to read a quote to you. let me read a quote if i could. tell me if you know who this came from. if you have a business, you did not build that. somebody else made it happen. anybody know where that came from? that is july 13. people like to cling to their guns and religion. every now and then, president

drops his veil. he is not so coy about his ideology and he lets us know what he thinks. it is that kind of thinking that leads to the kind of government we are getting. it is that kind of thinking that is behind the idea -- idea of a government driven economy striving for a government centered society. >> thank you. thanks for running. you will win. you have all heard it discussed, but peak was talking about this. when you have got 1.5% economic growth, which is what they told us this morning was the last quarter of growth -- a very sluggish growth -- over 40 months of unemployment over 8%. since this president took office, fuel prices have nearly doubled, health care costs have gone up 23%, college tuition costs of gone up 25%, the number of people on food stamps has gone up 44% and the federal debt has gone up 49% in the three and a half years this president has been in office. we cannot change the direction of ts