somewhere. what a great leader. standing above the crowd. next senator, george allen. today was a big day for me. it was big for paul and his family. it was a big day for america. we took a step forward in restoring the promise of america because i've selected a person that was a leader. as i look for people to guide the country if i get that chance, i wanted someone that is a leader, and leader begins with character, character and division. [applause] this is a man whose character was formed early. he was in high school when his father suddenly passed away and he matured quickly with a family

and a community that helped him regain his footing. he began with interest in public service not because of personal ambition but his passion and faith in america, in the belief that america needed individuals that would put the issue of america head of personal concerns, so he went to washington. for 14 years he has been battling as a leader and he has found the capacity to be an intellectual leader. he really understands how government works, how we can restore the rights and powers of our people, how states are the places where new ideas are developed and grown. he understands the constitution and he has done something very few people know how to do, he has made friends on both sides of the aisle, garnering respect from democrats and republicans. when big issues, like how to

save medicare, instead of doing what the president did, cutting it by $700 billion -- that is what president obama did. we will get him back. this man said he would found -- find democrats to work with to make sure we can save medicare. republicans and democrats coming together. he is a man that has great ideas and the capacity to lead, to find people, to work together, to make things change for the american people. i am happy today. i hope you are happy. [applause] i am happy today. [applause] high now -- i know the democrats are working very hard today. they are pulling out their books, interviewing every one in this neighborhood, and they will

not find anything. they are getting ready because the campaign has been about bringing america's perspective on this race has low as they could make it. this is a man that appeals to the better angels of the american people, asks us to rise to the vision of america, and not be dragged down in the dirt like you are seeing from the obama campaign. [applause] you see, we love america. we love america. we are not going to be searched the office of the presidency by succumbing to the kind of attacks and weill charges coming from the democrats. we will continue to talk about what has to be done to restore

the greatness of america, have faith in our institutions, restore trust in them, and this man and i will not lose your trust. we will honor with dignity and courage the responsibility that you give us as the leaders of your party. [applause] now, the reason he is here, the reason i am here, is that we recognize this is a critical time for america, and you know that. when you have 23 million americans in the richest nation on earth out of work or having stopped looking for work, you know something is critical. when more people are on food stamps and in any time in history, you know something critical is going on. when one out of six americans have fallen into poverty,

something serious is going on. when our national debt, under this president, he has added almost as much debt as all of a prior presidents combined. you know something is seriously wrong. we stepped forward not out of bipartisan -- out of partisan fashion, because of all love for america to get more jobs for people in the middle class and more take-home pay. [applause] there are five things we know we have to do. this country is going to come running back. we are not like japan, who went through the 10-year decline. that is what some people think. they are wrong. they are right if they re-elect barack obama, but if they elect paul ryan and me, you will see a

resurgence in jobs, our competitiveness, get america on track. we will take advantage of energy, coal, natural gas, oil, nuclear, renewals. [applause] number two, we will make sure every american has the skills they need to succeed. those that are older, training programs. we will make sure our kids have schools that prepare them for the jobs of tomorrow and we will do that by putting kids, parents, teachers first, and the teachers' union behind. [applause] we are going to have trade. that is number 3.

trade that works for america. when people like china cheap, we will hold them accountable. we will open up new markets for american goods. number four, we will do something that has only been spoken about but must be done, cut the deficit and finally get to a balanced budget. [applause] number 5, we will champion small business. [applause] if we want more jobs and more take-home pay, we have to make it easier for small businesses to grow and thrive, keep taxes down, keep the regulators from

smothering them, keep health- care costs affordable, and one way to do that is by repealing and replacing obama-care. [applause] you know, governor bob mcdonnell, he began by quoting something the president said here in virginia. when i heard that, i could not believe that he said when you have a business, you did not build that, somebody else did that. he is talking about government. then he said all, you are taking me out of context. i look the context. the context is worse, all right? he says you are successful because you think you are smart, but there are a lot of people that are smart, and you think it's because you work hard, but a lot of people work hard.

where is he going with that? in america we celebrate people that are smart and work hard and use hard work to create a better future for themselves, their kids, and their grandkids. that is who we are. this nation has been built on people reaching for achievement and excellence, striving. that is the nature of america. [applause] when a -- when a high-school student makes an honor roll, i realize they only got the honor roll by being taken to school in a school bus, but i do not give the school bus driver credit for the honor roll. hi give it to the kid who earned it his or herself -- i give it to the kid who earned his or herself. [applause]

it is the same for someone who gets a promotion at work, works hard, it's additional skills. i give the person the credit for doing so. if you are lucky to have taken a risk and you started a business and you and point people, congratulations. we want more people lifting -- and you in point people, congratulations. we want people lifting, striving to be better. just as paul said, when the founders drafted the declaration of independence, and i happen to believe they were brilliant and inspired, they said it was not a government that gave us our rights. it was our creator that give us our rights. [applause] among those rights were life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. in this nation we are free to

pursue happiness as we choose. we do not look to government to tell us how to do it. we do not give credit to government for what we achieved. we look at excellence in every individual. i love this country and the principles on which it was found in which it founded. i am -- on which it was founded. i'm looking at a president who wants to change america. he is changing it to something we do not recognize. i do not want to become europe. i want to keep america the hope of the earth by stay in america we stay in america. -- staying america. [applause] [chanting]

>> this man and i will work tirelessly until november, and after, to do everything in our power to get america on the right track again, to help people find more jobs with more take-home pay, to get our schools better, to get energy independent. we will do everything we can to keep america strong. a strong america with strawberries, strong families, -- with strong values, strong families, a strong military. in a strong america is the best allied peace has ever known. we will bring back to america and keep us the shining city on the hill. thank you. we're going to win this with your help. thank you so much. [applause]

[captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] >> this is the second of three formal events by the presumptive republican ticket. you can see the family members there. here, from ashland, they will head north to manassas at 4:15 p.m. eastern time. that is here on c-span. you can watch it live. you can hear more of what they have to sit. one of your from twitter has a different view about what he is hearing about the mitt romney- paul ryan ticket. he writes the sound you heard it is a huge wave of senior citizens crashing over to obama with a reference to paul ryan positions on medicare and other senior-related issues.

in a call the chicago sun-times" paul ryan will also run for his wisconsin seat. they allow mr. ryan to be on the ballot price. if the romney-ryan ticket wins, a special election would be held. we have kathy emmeline from bradford, pa.. she is at a -- from bradford pennsylvania -- bradford, pa.. what do you make of the paul ryan selection? >> i do not like it and all. readingly good at people, and i just do not see where he has the integrity. when he talks to people, his body language tells me something different. >> what would you be looking for? you mentioned integrity. whether you not seeing that you

would like to see? >> i would want to see a man that could look you in the eye and talk to you, and you could actually see that he means what he says. i do not see that. i hear him twisting things about what the president has stated about the small business out here, then we did not make them, you know? that is not what he meant, you know? i think people need to make more -- pay more attention to statements on both sides, and what i'm hearing from romney and ryan -- ryan seems to be the kind of gentleman i could believe, but with mitt romney, i cannot. look at it this way. i have been a symbol by -- single mother for 30 years. i worked very hard for several companies. i have had eight surgeries in

the last three years because i had to be put back together. the question i have is how could mr. romney know what it is like to go to a food bank, to know what it is like to worry about where you are going to live? >> let's hear from a republican here in washington, d.c.. gilbert. good afternoon, gilbert. >> good afternoon. i would like to stay on the mitt romney vp pick, paul ryan's budget has some good ideas in cutting back on social security and medicare and medicaid, for one simple fact. the social security and states that the government holds the right to stop paying social security if it is not a right guaranteed to the people. so, the people that want social security checks, that is not your constitutional right. that is not protected if they

are -- protected. if they're going to run on a budget plan, they need to stop foreign aid. it was not until the end of world war i that we gave foreign aid. that is our tax money, money that we work for, that goes to other nations instead of keeping it here in our nation for education, schools, defense, all sorts of things. >> thank you, gilbert. we will hear from a hearing earlier this year. he is going back and forth with treasury secretary timothy geithner. we will hear that in a couple of minutes. live pictures from ashland. they're moving on to manassas, also. virginia. we will have that live for you. look for as to take more calls this evening. the candidates had to north carolina tomorrow.

we will also hear from president obama, who is still in a fund raiser in chicago. we have peggy on the line from new castle, indiana, democrat. >> thank you for taking my call. i am not worried about mitt romney or his dp because we have messed with the -- vp, because we have messed with the republicans. they have cut everything. bush made the people for parents who want the president that is worth -- people for. he once -- who wants the president that is worth two hundred $30 million? they talk about his wife working hard. baloney. she has had a maid. they do not live like normal people.

i am scared to death if they get in, i am 75, if they go for food stamps for the poor, medicare, how do they think people are going to live? >> douglas, knoxville, tenn., what do you say about this thick of congressman paul ryan? >> i voted for barack obama, and i was calling to set this out because of my disappointment in what has happened, but by making the selection they put me squarely back into the barack obama camp. i'm 54 years old. paul ryan budget says if you are 55, you get to keep, but if -- your money, but if you're 54, we give the money back to the wealthy and you will find for yourself. you have 11 years to put money aside for your retirement. paul ryan is in it for the rich folks.

i am not a rich man. i voted for the republicans in the primaries, but by making this choice this man will literally killed tens of thousands of people to save taxes for the wealthy. i can now sit in the south won this is the stark choice. barack obama might not be the best and i might have to pinch my nose to vote for him, the one i see paul ryan, i am gone with it. >> -- but when i see paul ryan, i am done with it. >> we appreciate your call. "the new york times" points out that the report between paul ryan and mitt romney seems to be pretty good. he was tapped 10 times on the back when paul ryan was making his initial speech and whispered the word perfect. from twitter, rising dawn says

this will be collected was some verses individualism, socialism against capitalism, a government control against free markets. here's another voice from arizona. republican. >> the man that just said he is 54 -- the budget office has already said we would be lucky if medicare lasted 10 years, and the same man, but me tell you something, the president has already taken $500 billion out of medicare and put it over to make it look like the health- care would do good. the other thing, the lady that just said mitt romney's wife had maids and everything, my son in law was on a mormon mission when mitt romney was a businessman and he went to their home, and romney made the food. the mormons also can food and give to the food banks.

i know mitt romney did that very much. you're a little talking points, you do not have a clue what you are talking about. medicare and social security is going under. no one is going to have it. the one who said he is 54, it is not going to be 10 years, sir. the one that goes on about ann romney, give me a break. look at michele obama, is she having a great time in the white house? this is their money. he earned his money. all these hollywood stars, these movies stars, they make more than mitt romney in a year. this is over his lifetime. are you guys jealous? it makes me sick. >> we get the point. mary is on the line for democrats. good afternoon. >> hello. how're you doing? that lady was all wrong, honey. the guy was right, the one that

was 54 and said it was not want to work with medicare -- medicaid for him -- it was not going to work with medicaid for him anymore. if they're going to cut medicare and privatize social security. these people had better wake up. i feel sorry for those being fooled by mitt romney and paul ryan is not good for anybody. he wants to cut social security and turn it into a voucher program. my mom was so worried about paul ryan, and she literally started crying because she now thinks medicaid and social security is going to be cut off. she is 80, but she is still afraid to i want people to wake up and read the bills before you start calling names. >> angelo, mount vernon, ill., independent.

caller: -- >> yes, i am independent. i am for the working poor. mitt romney and paul ryan, i do not see them standing for the working poor people. do you know what i'm saying? i do not think they relate to everyday people that work hard. he is a rich man. i do not begrudge a person being rich, but i am not rich. i can, but i am not. i want someone that is going to relate to a person like me, working hard, playing by the same rules, do you know what i am saying? i do not see that out of mitt romney and paul ryan. >> thank you for calling. more of their reaction as the candidates begin to leave from senator john mccain. governor romney and

representative brian are the smallest team -- smartest team to return to prosperity. harry reid, senate majority leader says governor romney has doubled down and his commitment to cut social security and end medicaid as we know it. he says catering to the tea party and the far right is more important than standing up for the middle class. we will take more of your calls in about five minutes. if we want to show you an exchange from february earlier this year, paul ryan, the chair of the house budget committee and the witnesses secretary timothy geithner. here is a look. >> the hearing will come to order. welcome, everyone, to this

important hearing. i would like to think secretary timothy geithner for joining us. it is your second hearing the today, and your fourth this week, so you are halfway there. you are a block and, i will tell you that. we know defending this budget is no easy task, so we appreciate your time. >> not as hard as your job and your budget. [laughter] >> it is going to be a fun date >> you have my sympathy, you do care >> -- fun day. >> you have my sympathy, you do. >> you are about to get mine in a different way. when the things i enjoy it is planned against plan. -- a plan beats no plan. you were in the middle of the firestorm as a crash as the fed new york chair. i remember those days.

i remember your predecessor and the chairman of the federal reserve coming here, talking about deflationary spiral the impending collapse of the economy. it was an ugly moment and what came out of that was away legislation because the whole thing caught us by surprise, all of us. the circumstances could not be more different today because back then we faced a crisis most people did not see coming. today, we are facing the most predictable crisis in our nation's history, yet for a fourth day in a row you brought us this this is no plan to restrain spending, to grow the economy, and worst of all to save us from a debt-fueled crisis that would be an economic disaster for all of us. if plan needs no -- beats no plan, why has the president got?

why does it give us more broken promises instead of leadership? excuses' instead of accountability? instead of cooperation, why have we seen the president turned his back on bipartisan solutions that have been percolating? why has he based his reelection strategy on dividing americans for political gain? after house republicans put forward a serious solution in our budget last year, the present an opportunity to advance plans to meet our challenges, advance alternatives and then compromise. if there is a growing bipartisan consensus for the reforms needed -- there is growing consensus on issues like entitlement spending and tax reform, reforms they stunned premium support -- reforms based on premiums support. they have a bipartisan history that dates back to the clinton commission. it continues with the work done

by alice rivlin at the bipartisan policy center, and the work i've recently done with center ron wyden from oregon for a bipartisan option for saving in shrinking medicare. -- saving interest in medicare. fundamental taxing form as a bipartisan history. in 1986 -- i was in high school at the time but i read the book -- we did fundamental tax reform that broadened the base. the congressional sponsors, but tempered, and bill bradley. this is not the left against right issue. this is about those that are willing to tell the nation the truth about fiscal challenges and those and continue to deduct from those challenges. this budget takes the latter approach. it represents a clear threat to the retirement security for american seniors, our prosperity with higher taxes, and it

commits our children and grandchildren to a diminished future. i do not know how you conclude otherwise. secretary timothy geithner, you would be the first with knowledge that having no plan is a plan, a plan for failure. having no plan means we are planning for decline as a nation. the point of this hearing is to find out why that kind of future for our country is apparently acceptable in this budget into this administration. i hope your testimony can provide answers. host: that from earlier this year. four-o'clock 15 eastern time, we will have it live, continuing political coverage here. it did not get in with your call now, we will take calls in prime time tonight -- if you did not get in with your call. president obama will be in

chicago with a fund-raiser at 4:30 p.m. eastern. we will continue to watch mitt romney and paul line. they will be in north carolina tomorrow. lots coming up and lots of video and other information coming up on our website. what we will do now for the next hour or so while we are waiting for the manassas, virginia, event is look at an event from paul ryan out at the reagan library in california from earlier this year. he talked about the republican party agenda right up through present-day as well as this current 2012 agenda. that is 55 minutes. here is a look. [applause] >> thank you very much. thank you, everybody. it is great to see my colleague.

i understand you live in the neighborhood. that is a pretty nice neighborhood you have got here. also, thank you for your kind introduction. if you do me a favor, please thank mrs. reagan for inviting me here to speak. [applause] as fred mentioned, this is my second time here. i have got to say -- there is a spirit that pervades this reagan library. you cannot help but feel uplifted being here. it is a spirit of optimism. it is a sense that things are going to turn out all right if only we make the effort. in good times and bad, ronald reagan invited optimism. this is so true that i do not even have to tell you his favorite joke. [laughter] i only have to repeat the punchline. there must be a pony in here

somewhere. [applause] right? his optimism together with his brilliant mind, his determined will, and nancy's love and support, they were the keys to ronald reagan's greatness as an american leader. his temperament was sunny by nature, but i believe his optimism for the future -- it just kept growing the more he talked with people from all walks of life. president reagan liked to talk about his experiences taurine ge plants around the country. he addressed maybe a quarter of a million people in those years and would stay after to talk to the workers. he listened to their concerns and came to realize how worried they were about the bureaucrats. not only their own company, but bureaucratic interventions by washington, which were making their jobs more difficult. in my own travels across the

country and especially in my town hall meetings in southern wisconsin, i have heard a lot of the same concerns. americans today -- they are uncertain and worried about their future. many are suffering from lost jobs and shrinking incomes in ways that they have never suffered before. we look around, and we see problems. rising health-care costs, rising energy and food prices, rising college tuition, rising debt and stagnant wages. government just does not seem to have any answers, so we start to understand that ronald reagan's famous diagnosis applies again today -- in this present crisis, government is not the solution to the problem. government is the problem. [applause]

look, americans do not want to get rid of government. we like limited, effective government just fine, but that is not what we are getting. we are getting big, dysfunctional government. in the face of enormous challenges, the president and his party leaders have steadily increased government's power. they promised wonderful things and consistently delivered awful results. and they show no signs of changing course. it is up to us to get america back on track. [applause] america is the only country in history founded on an idea -- the idea that all of us are endowed by our creator with the freedom to pursue our happiness, not someone else's vision of what's best for us.

we want government to create the conditions in which we can flourish -- pursue a dream, provide for our families, earn our own success, and live the american vision of the good life. instead, we have a government in place that is determined to redefine that vision, so that less of our success is earned, and more of it owed, to the wise providence of a handful of special assistants to the deputy undersecretary of some federal department that thinks they know better than us. [applause] too many in washington think that you and i and our families and friends can't succeed on our own anymore. sure, we face barriers to success in america -- but government isn't removing those barriers from our lives. instead, those in power are taking the view that we're all just stuck in our current stations in life, and

government's job is to help us cope with it. whatever you call that, that's not the american idea. that's how a problem like the high cost of health care gets a response like the new health care law. this $1.6 trillion monstrosity is already creating big problems for american businesses and families, without addressing the problems it was intended to solve. the good news is this -- americans are rejecting this approach. we know there's a better way forward. and more important, we know we can choose this better way. why? because we've done it before. that's why the parallels between 1980 and today are so striking. now, as then, we face not just a failed president, but a failed ideology.

we face a pessimistic mood in the nation's capital -- a belief that our best days are over and the only thing left to do is manage the nation's decline. but we have the same opportunity today, to reject this defeatist attitude and embrace a positive reform agenda capable of kick- starting a new era of prosperity. and american renewal. a comeback. we know this story has a happy ending. we know our country will not choose a path to decline. but we still have a lot of work to do if we want to get there. let me explain why i'm so confident that america will choose the right path. americans have always rejected those with nothing to offer but cynicism and the politics of division. and right now, that's all they're getting from the president. during his last campaign, he promised to help us, quote,

"rediscover our bonds to each other and get out of this constant, petty bickering that's come to characterize our politics." [laughter] sadly, he has broken this promise, and become just another washington politician. he does not seem to understand that he can't promote the common good by setting class against class, or group against group. the divisive politics of the last three years have not only undermined social solidarity, they have brought progress and reform to a standstill at the very time when america was desperate for solutions to a devastating financial crisis. to be clear, president obama did not cause this crisis. years of empty promises from both political parties brought us to this moment. but regrettably, this president was unwilling to advance credible solutions to the problem.

in response to the financial crisis, we needed policies to strengthen the foundations of our free market economy. what we got was the opposite. we needed a single--minded focus on restoring economic growth. after the immediate panic in late 2008 subsided, we needed to restore real accountability in the financial sector and just clean up the mess. we needed to restore the principle that those who seek to reap the gains in our economy also bear the full risk of the losses. [applause] we needed policies to control our debt trajectory so that families and businesses could confidently invest in our future. instead, the white house and the last congress enacted an agenda that made matters worse. they misspent hundreds of billions of dollars on

politically connected boondoggles. then, when the country's number one priority remained getting the economy back on track, the white house and the last congress made their number one priority a massive, unwanted expansion of the government's role in health care. they even tried to impose a costly increase in energy prices in the middle of a recession. and their idea of wall street reform? a blank check for fannie mae and freddie mac, plus a new law giving more protection and preferential treatment to the big banks, and more power to the same regulators who failed to see the last crisis coming. the administration and the last congress tried to exploit a financial crisis to transform a free-enterprise society into a government-centered society -- a massively expanded role for the federal government, higher spending to support this expanded role, and higher taxes to support the higher spending.

higher borrowing, too. in three and a half years, debt held by the public grew by roughly $4.5 trillion that's a 70 percent increase. our debt is projected to get much worse, spiraling out of control in the years ahead. this bleak outlook is paralyzing economic growth today. investors, businesses and families look at the size of the debt and they hold back, for fear that america is headed for a diminished future. today, we face a fundamental challenge to the american way of life -- a gathering storm, whose life a gathering storm, whose primary manifestation is the shadow of our ever-growing national debt and whose most troubling consequence is ever- shrinking opportunity for americans young and old. this shadow hangs over young people, who face a struggling economy and the likelihood of greater turmoil ahead. more than half of recent college graduates are unemployed or underemployed in this

economy. half! the shadow hangs over senior citizens, who have been lied to about their retirement security. and it hangs over parents. we wonder if we will be the first generation in american history to leave our children with fewer opportunities and a less prosperous nation than the one we inherited. this storm has already hit europe where millions are enduring the painful consequences of empty promises turning into broken promises. we must avoid european-style austerity -- harsh benefit cuts for current retirees and tax increases that slow the economy to a crawl. but too many in washington are repeating europe's mistakes instead of learning from them. if we stay on this path, then bond markets in a state of

panic will turn on us, threatening to end the american idea. forced austerity would put an end to that most fundamental of american aspirations -- that in american aspirations that in this land we are responsible for our own destiny that on this continent we might forever be free from foreign powers who would impose their limits on our dreams for ourselves and our children. if our generation fails to meet its defining challenge, we would see america surrender her independence -- not to a foreign army, but to the army of foreign creditors who already own roughly half of our public debt. independence not to a foreign army, but to the army of foreign creditors who already own roughly half of our public debt. the policies in place today would guarantee that outcome, unless we turn this around soon. there must be a pony in here somewhere, right? [laughter]

and the good news is, there is. if you hear me say one thing today, hear this -- this will not be our destiny. americans will never accept this shrunken vision of our future. that's not who we are. in 1980, ronald reagan explained perfectly why americans would never accept this mindset, quote -- "they expect you to tell your children that the american people no longer have the will to cope with their problems, that the future will be one of sacrifice and few opportunities." what ronald reagan understood is that the case for free enterprise is not just a material argument, but a moral truth. and next january, our government will renew its dedication to this moral truth -- the american idea of an opportunity society. government's role is not to rig the rules and aim for equal

outcomes, but in the words of our first republican president, abraham lincoln "to clear the paths of laudable pursuit for all," so that all may have an equal opportunity to rise and freely pursue their happiness. the budget passed by the house of representatives this year drew the pattern for government under new management in 2013. it is a plan to lift the debt and free the nation from the constraints of ever-expanding government. this budget will promote economic growth and opportunity on the first day it is enacted, with bold reforms to the tax code and a credible, principled plan to stop the debt crisis from ever happening. president obama's government- centered policies take from hard-working americans and give to politically connected companies and privileged special interests. our budget calls this what it

is -- it's corporate welfare. and we propose to end it. as we end welfare for those who don't need it, we will strengthen welfare programs for those who do. government safety-net programs have been stretched to the breaking point in recent years, failing the very citizens who need help the most. look, we pride ourselves on looking out for one another and government has an important role to play in that. but relying on distant government bureaucracies to lead this effort just hasn't worked. concentrating power in a distant central government consistently leads to worse outcomes for the poor, because it displaces those core institutions through which we really do look out for one another -- community, faith and family. it stifles their vitality and substitutes federal power in their place.

too many in washington spend too much time trying to measure compassion for those in need by measuring inputs. how much are we spending? how much are we increasing spending? how many new programs are we creating? but we're not measuring outcomes. are these programs working? are people getting out of poverty? shouldn't that be our goal? look at the results of the government-centered approach to the war on poverty. one in six americans are in poverty today -- the highest rate in a generation. in this war on poverty, poverty is winning. the intentions may have been good -- but the outcomes were anything but fair. it is anything but fair to keep people trapped in programs that hinder their upward mobility. it is anything but fair to allow the debt to weigh on job creation today, closing off the most promising avenues for the

poor to rise. and it is anything but fair to close off even more opportunities by further weakening the economy with permanently higher taxes. fairness means empowering citizens with policies that promote growth and opportunity. fairness means maintaining strong, but not limitless, safety-net programs for society's most vulnerable. and fairness means fiercely protecting the god-given right of every human being to flourish by his or her own efforts. [applause] our budget builds on the historic welfare reforms of the 1990s reforms proven to work. we aim to empower state and local governments, communities, and individuals those closest to the problem. and we aim to promote

opportunity and upward mobility by strengthening job training programs, to help those who have fallen on hard times. our budget lifts the debt, fosters economic growth, and ensures that government keeps the promises it is making to americans. instead of letting our critical health and retirement programs go bankrupt, our first budget next year will save and strengthen them so they can fulfill their missions in the 21st century. the president likes to talk about medicare. we welcome the debate. we need this debate. what the president won't tell you is that he's already changed medicare forever. his health care law puts a board of 15 unelected bureaucrats in charge of cutting medicare. we should never agree to turn the fate of our parents and grandparents over to an unaccountable board and let it make decisions that could deny them access to their care.

the new president and congress will reverse this change immediately. [applause] our budget next year will keep the protections that have made medicare a guaranteed promise for seniors throughout the years. and it will make no changes for those in or near retirement. in order to save medicare for future generations, we propose to put 50 million seniors, not 15 unaccountable bureaucrats, in charge of their personal health care decisions. [applause] the president also likes to talk about taxes. we welcome the debate. we need this debate.

if there is a single reform ronald reagan is identified with, it is tax reform. he persuaded america, republicans and democrats both, that lowering rates across the board, reducing the number of brackets, and eliminating deductions and loopholes were essential to restarting america's engine of economic growth. and he was right. president reagan's major tax reforms, enacted with bipartisan support, proved to be a cornerstone of the unprecedented economic boom that occurred in the decade during his presidency and continued in the decade that followed. but as the years went by, credits, carve-outs and lobbyist loopholes grew on the code like weeds. and president obama wants to take us further in the wrong direction. he remains committed to taking more and more from the paychecks of hard-working americans not even to pay down the debt, but to chase ever- higher government spending.

we propose a total overhaul of the tax code, to make it fair, simple, and competitive. [applause] we lower rates across the board. but revenue would go up every year under our budget, because the economy grows, and because we propose to close those special-interest loopholes that go primarily to the well- connected and the well-off. when we lower tax rates by closing special-interest loopholes, we're saying washington shouldn't micromanage people's decisions through the tax code. let people keep more of their hard-earned money. let them decide how to spend it. we need this kind of tax reform to get our economy moving again. in the last four years, millions of americans have stopped looking for work. if the labor force participation

rate were the same as it was when president obama took office, then the unemployment rate would be 11 percent today. we are heading toward a "new normal" of european unemployment levels because the administration's ideas for job growth have failed. we will never accept that here in america and we don't need to. the reforms we will put in place next year will make our economy the engine of job creation it was in the 1980s, giving millions of workers who had given up hope for a job a new shot at success. the principles and proposals i have been describing today are not exclusive to one political party. the patient-centered medicare reforms we advanced in the house this year have a long history of bipartisan support. and tax reforms based on lowering rates and closing loopholes go back to president reagan's 1986 reform, when

democrats served as the congressional co-sponsors of the landmark law. it makes sense that these ideas have attracted leaders in both parties. patient-centered medicare offers the only guarantee that medicare can keep its promise to seniors for generations to come. and pro-growth tax reform, by lowering rates for all americans while closing loopholes that primarily benefit the well off, can eliminate unfairness in the tax code and ensure a level playing field for all. this is just a glimpse of what we can accomplish next year. now for the hard part -- progress will require the removal of certain partisan roadblocks. [applause]

let's start with a flawed health care law that must be replaced and the insistence from some in washington flawed health care law that must be replaced, and the insistence from some in washington on tax hikes and tax gimmicks instead of tax reform. only with the right leadership in place can we move forward with ideas that renew the american promise of leaving our children a stronger nation than the one our parents left us. we can do this. in talking with americans across the country, i have been inspired by the spirit and energy of those hungry for a new direction that restless desire to break through the barriers holding them back, to get back to work, to raise their families, and to build a greater legacy for the next generation. people understand the moment we are in, and they are way ahead

of the political class on this. they know that the times call for leaders who understand the depth of the problems we face, and who offer far-reaching reforms equal to the challenges. in 1980, ronald reagan offered supply-side economics at home and a rollback of soviet communism abroad. the challenges this time? they're different. but the moment calls for the same kind of boldness. i believe boldness and clarity of the kind that ronald reagan displayed in 1980 offer us the greatest opportunity to create a winning coalition in 2012. we will not only win the next election we have a unique opportunity to sweep and remake the political landscape. of course we will highlight the president's failed agenda.

[applause] that goes without saying. but you know what? americans deserve to choose an alternative, one that aligns with our needs, one we can rally behind, one of our founders would be proud of. a bold reform agenda -- that is our moral obligation. we have an obligation to provide the american people with a clear that that gets our country back on track. if we make this case effectively end win this november, then we will have the moral authority to enact the kind of fundamental reforms america has not seen since ronald reagan's first year. [applause] look, it is rare in american

politics tori that a moment in which the election revolves around the fundamental nature of american democracy and the social contract, but that is exactly where we are. the defenders of the status quo would give more power to unelected bureaucrats, take more from hard-working taxpayers to fuel the expansion of government, and commit our nation to a future of debt and decline. this approach is proven unworkable, and congress in our courts, in our communities. we who advocate the american idea in the 21st century -- we want to build a better path consistent with the timeless principles of our nation's founding. we put our trust in people, and citizens, not nameless government officials, to determine what is in our best interests and make the right choices about our future. in this country, keybanc we still have the ability and the dignity and the right to make

our own decisions and determine our own destiny. we are americans. nothing can keep us down. [applause] .

>> and i thought i might start with the most popular question. >> no! >> how's that? >> the second most popular question! the question is i know you're happy being budget committee chairman, but if mitt romney asks to you run as his vice president, would you agree to do so? >> [applause] >> nah! next question. you know, that's somebody else's decision months away and that's a conversation i need to have with my wife before i have it all with you. >> fair enough stkpwhraoeu like what i'm doing.

don't underestimate how important congress is. >> you've spent a lot of time campaigning are mitt romney, what is your sense of the man and would he make great president? >> sleety. i was telling januarya, not too long ago, we were having dinner last night, if i had mitt romney and spent the time with him a year ago i would have endorsed him then. we haven't had a republican primary since bush and reagan, and that's when i decided to get involved in the primary and i got to spend a long time with him, a number of one four-hour days, and what you see is what you get. he's a very sincere, very smart, very committed man. what i see in mitt romney are the kinds of tools, the kinds of skills, the kinds of character thaw need in a leader. he makes decisions. he doesn't paerpbd. so what i see is a person who understands the moment our country is facing and a person who is willing to do what it takes to get us out of the path we're on and pack

on the pot to prosperity. i really believe he's the right guy for the times and i think he's going to beat break pw*pl and i think we're going to save this country. >> [applause] he's very funny as well. he has a quick wit. >> he's been here a couple coupf tiles, and we'd love to have him back. next question, will the major budget sessions left for the lame duck session be addressed or will both parties punt? >> we're passing our method of addressing them. three weeks ago we pass what was called the reconciliation bill, cutting $315 billion in government spending from what we call mandatory spending, that's 61 percent of the government which has been on autopilot, hasn't been touched by congress since 2006. we cut $315 billion from there to deal with the sequester, which is to replace seven # billion dollars in cuts coming in

january. so we've already dealt with that from the house. we will be bringing a bill to the floor in about a month on the tax issue, which is to extend the current tax system for another year and then to have what we call procedures to put it on the docket for 2014. what eld beyond and i are doing, we in the house are leading by example, we're saying exactly what we'll do, who we are, what we believe, we're passing budgets -- budgets, passing solutions, only to see them stack up like kord wood in the united states senate. the senate isn't doing anything, they haven't passed a budget in three years and the president is offering no solutions to this end of year pipe july -- pileup we have. it's difficult to say what's going to happen given that the seb senate and the white house is what it is, but in the house we've said here's

what we think specifically we have to do to deal with the stkpwhrao*us during the five weeks of lame duck enough time to address the issues? >> well, i don't think you'll see -- some people like to d grand bargains and things like this after the voters have decided. that's not any way to run a railroad, that's not how a democracy should work so i think what will happen will be extensions, extensions of current law, that sort of thing. it really kind of depends on who wins the election. if we win the election, our intention is to extend current law to buy time to put a permanent solution to this country's fiscal problems. our runaway debt, our decifits, the fact that the tax code basically blows up in january. so what we want to do in the lame duck is extend, in order to have a 2013 session, that actually fixes these problems once and for all. >> how much do we need to reduce the federal decifit in order to be credit worthy once again and stabilize the budget.

>> at a million, a trillion dollars is what experts say. we cut $5 trillion out of the president's budget. it's not as much as what you do on paper, as the substance of the reform *s reforms, in my opinion, meaning it's confidence in trajectory. the debt right now is set to basically skyrocket. our debt is as big as our economy right now, then it gets to double, triple, then it gets to eight times as high as our economy under the current pro-- projections by the end of the century. that's how of government spending. if we put in place the kinds of reforms that change our debt, those entitlement programs and though that the debt trajectory is getting under control, that we're avoiding the european levels, and we actually pass the laws that convince the credit markets that show we're doing that, that to me matters most. if we just pass paper things, european-like austerity, trends here, tax increases there, we'll lull ourselves into a debt crisis and have a round of austerity package and austerity package like europe is experiencing, but

if we do real reform and get caps on government spending, i really believe we'll turn this economy around very quickly. i believe that america will be turned around. we will be the port in the storm in the global economy, you will want to put your money in america, want to keep your company in america and america can, just like ronald reagan when he came in in 1980, can turn back on to an era of prosperity if we get the right polices and leadership in place. going back to your earlier question, mitt romney has got to win, eldon and i stay in the majority, then we've got to take back the united states senate. >> this next question is about omabacare. the supreme court is about to announce its decision on omabacare. presuming the ruling goes against the president, do you think this will help or hurt

republicans in the fall? >> i think it will help republicans. i don't understand how -- i don't know about a -- political people in washington that try to suggest this is somehow good for the president. >> [laughter] >> his signature achievement, he stopped working on the economy, went to try and take over basically 16 percent of our economy for government, and it was repudiated by the supreme court as being unconstitutional. i don't know how you can try and suggest that that's not a bad thing for you. more to the point, i think it's good for republicans, but that's really sort of immaterial here. it's good for the country. it's good for america. [applause] >> is it -- they just be a journalist, because they add i'd like to follow up! it says congressional republicans, are they prepared to deal with the fallout of the decision with a smarter plan of their own?

>> yeah, so a number of us had put out very comprehensive plans of our own prior to omabacare. i had a bill with senator tom coburn from oklahoma, richard burk from north carolina, kevin dunas, in the san joaquin valley, a very comprehensive, patient-centered approach, mitt romney is working on ideas, we are working on ideas, and what we believe is, number one, we're not going to say the next day, here's our 2700 page bill to take over the health care system. that's not who we are. number two, we're going to articulate a vision for how do you have a patient-centered health care system in america. one where health care is an asset to our economy, not a liability, one where we recognize the fact that we should not be turning this sector of our economy over to bureaucrats, over to price controls, over to government rationing. so yes, there are key drivers, some key principles, that allow us to get to a system where you can't have guaranteed access to

affordable care, including for people with preexisting conditions, without having the government taking over. we have an obligation to show that vision, we have, we will, we will show the country exactly how we will get rid of this law which will destroy the health care system. takes a half a trillion dollars from medicare, puts this board in charge of it. so it ruins the medicare system. it ruins the health care system. we will show how we will replace that with a patient-centered system so we can have affordable health insurance for all and we, patients, along with our doctors, we're the driver, the decision makers, the nucleus of the health care system, not some federal bureaucrat in the -- not some bureaucrat in the federal government. [applause [stkpwhraoepb this next question is from one of the students here tonight, the question is, what is the most important thing you take into consideration as you prepare the federal budget? >> the debt crisis. so when you look at the fact,

the weird thing about me, i was feeding -- reading federal budgets since i've been 22 years old. that's kind of sick, i know. this time is different. you know, governor, when you were senator from california, you know, the budget deficits were in the billions, maybe hundreds of billions, and the little tweaks and changes could fix the problem. it is so structural. let me say it this way. by 2025, three programs, medicare, medcade, social security, along with the interest we pay, consume 100 percent of federal revenues. by the early 2030s, just our federal health care programs consume 100 percent of federal revenues. so we have a situation where we don't have a huge, long window of opportunity to prevent a european debt-like crisis, the world reserve -- it buys a privilege but if we don't take opportunity of this moment, meaning the next

president and the next congress to prevent a debt crisis, it's going to be really ugly. first thing i look at when doing the budget is what gets us off the path of a debt crisis and cradle to grave welfare state the president has us on and what gets us back on the path of the american idea, an opportunity society where we grow our economy and more importantly we continue the american legacy. my dad always told me, you leave the next generation better off. without a shred of doubt, we are serving that legacy based on the path we're on. that to me in a nutshell, does this plan get us back to prosperity, keep the promises government is making to today's seniors and does it make sure that my kids have a better life than the one i had. >> great. [applause] >> this next question actually follows up on that, and it says if you could get president pw*pl to cut just

one thing from the federal budget, what would it be. >> ? omabacare. and this may be the same answer, but -- >> omabacare! >> [laughter [stkpwhraoepb what is the biggest waste of our tax dollars. >> oh my gosh, how much time do you have? we have a thing we call -- the gao does this audit, tom coburn, a good friend, was talking a second ago, the gao does this audit, hundreds of billions of dollars are wasted every single year and they have the different euphemisms for them, unfunded liabilities, unobligated payments, incorrect payments, if you take a look at our entitlement programs, particularly our health care entitlement programs, tens of billions, if not hundreds of billions of dollars, get wasted. it's a system that doesn't work. it's a system that really does waste a lot of our

dollars, but more importantly, it's a system that puts more bureaucrats in control, and so if money is to be wasted, it's other peoples' money that's wasted. and so that's kind of the mindset you have in the federal government. we have a 20th century bureaucracy for the 21st century. we need to structure the way the federal government works so we have more control over our dollars and b we don't have a monopoly giving us our health care services. we have people, doctors, hospitals, providers, insurers, across the country compete fog our business, because if money is wasted, then it's their money being wasted, not taxpayer money that's being wasted. so it's the approach that i think is the big approach. so i would have to say the big dollar items are the entitlement programs and how they're being wasted. >> okay, thank you. a couple of questions seeking your predictions. what do you think the chances are of the republicans holding the majority in the house this upcoming election? >> i feel very good about it but you can't take anything

for granted. every one of us is up for reelection every other year, so the house, the entire house is up for reelection. i feel pretty good about it, but again, you can't take anything for granted but i'd put our odds on us maintaining control of the house. >> how about the senate? >> i feel pretty good about that too, because i know one third of the senate is up every two years, the ratio is 23 democrats and ten republicans, so the ratios play in this particular case to republicans this year. i think we're going to win the senate seat in wisconsin, i think we'll probably win one in missouri, nebraska, they elected this dynamic woman in the primary there just the other day, you know -- nebraska is -- corn huskers here? i really think we have a chance at taking the senate. i really mean that. i'm not just giving happy talk. i think based on the senate race, the mixture of all of it, but more importantly, this is not an ordinary time. this is just not your ordinary election time. doesn't matter what generation you come from this, is the most important election in our lifetimes.

because the stakes are so high. so what i really believe will be successful for us, as conservatives, as a party, as a country, if we take a page out of ronald reagan's playbook, that is, if we go to the country with a very clear and bold and specific vision, based on our timeless principles, here's specifically how we can fix this country's problems, here's how we'll get out of the mess we're in, then we win by aclamation, then we have an amping election, yeah, we're going to run best president obama on the record he had and he can't run on his record, all that's true, but if we go to the country and say here's our vision, here's what we're going to do to get america back on track and win that kind of an election, then we have a mandate, then we have the moral authority and obligation to put it in place and save this one from a crisis. i think we're going to do it. you know why? churchill said it best, americans, they can be

counted upon to do the right thing, only after they've exhausted all over possibilities. [laughter] >> going back to reagan's time, there was a split, tip okneel running congress, reagan the white house, but they got things done. there wasn't divisiveness. everything wasn't personal. where do you continuing went wrong and how do we get back on track. >> you're asking a republican this so i had a little bit of ice in this answer but the way i say this, the progressives -- the progressives run the democratic party, there are tip okneel democrats. i talk to them all the time, good friends of mine. i offered a medicare reform plan with a senator from oregon, ron wyden, considers himself a progressive, ron

was just eadvicate dollars by his party, ron was taken to the woodshed so severely by his party and he's fine and he can handle it, but i think it was probably to send signals to other democrats, you start working with these republicans, this is what happens to you. so what we see is every time some of us actually do things together on medicare reform, that the liberal corner of the party kh-rbgs is the majority part of the party, the leadership of the party, doesn't want to see it happen because it violates an ideological premise, philosophical premise. let me say it this way. if we win the kind of election i just described, we need to be bigger than that, we need to be man finish mus. we need to invite these into the coalition. that's what rocked. er skin pwo*ls, the medicare ideas we talked about, john breaux, alins riff kin,

budget chief, allen white, they're all saying this, we need to invite the democrats into our coalition, work with them so we can fix this country's problems not by cramming our vision down the throat of the country like they did, but by bring th-g country together, and there are reform-minded democrats who agree with these ideas. medicare reform, tax reform, two of the perfect examples, two of the biggest ideas we have to do and there are plenty of democrats who agree with what we're saying. so with what we need to do is win the mag man mus -- man nan mus and win them in the election. that's not the kind of democrats you have in the white house but they exist and we need to invite them into the coalition. >> a kind of specific question regarding banking regulations. what type of regulations do

you fire bank something. >> aim a big opponent of the dodd-frank system, the dodd-frank law. >> because what it does is it amplifies too big to fail. it basically says that if you're a large, interconnected bank, you'll be deemed systemically risky, that means you'll be able to go to the credit market and get cheaper money and since we're making it harder for banks to customize cred toeut customers, what will happen, the big banks will get pweurg and small banks will be fewer, so this to me is a perfect example of the president's cronyism or crony capitalism, the really large connected firms, they join big government for the common cause to rig the rules for themselves, if they go bust, the taxpayers bail them out and all the innovative financial services firm, community banks which really do feed our small business, they can't compete and go

away. that to me is the trend that's happening with dodd-frank. basically the opposite of that, we want transpairience he, they want people to have attachment to risk and we want to say if you take the risk, you bear the loss, the taxpayers aren't part of this equation. that to me -- a question about the recall, do you think governor scott walker will be recalled, if he is or is not, what are the implication stph-s. >> i don't think he'd be recalled. two weeks away. it is an avalanche coming into our state. you're sort of familiar with these issues in california, right? >> so the way we see this is this is a national trend setting election. it's not just us in wisconsin

and on the ballot, what scott did was he said public employees, they need to pay something for their health and retirement benefits like everybody else does in the private sector. >> [applause] >> it's not a crazy notion. the other thing, what people don't realize as much from out of the state is these reforms are working well. they're reforming our schools. no more last in, first out no, more seniority, merit pay. you can actually reform our schools to make sure that we get the best teachers teaching, more resources and we can actually have the kinds of reforms to make our schools better, because the special interest tkprups that are locking up the schools and denying reform, you know, they don't have the kind of clout they used to have with the new reforms. a billion dollars has been saved this year, which in wisconsin, that's a lot of money. property taxes went down in wisconsin for the first time in 12 years. and so this is working.

it's all turnout. what we're borrowed is the polls are starting to look good. we worry about complacency. we want to be sure we run to the tape and it's about turnout. the reason we say courage is on the ballot is because if you're a governor or state senator or state assemblyman who puts these kind of common sense reforms in place and get recalled for doing it, do you think they're going to do it in other states, no. if you actually do it and show how we're renovating schools, how we're getting our taxes down, making our business climate better, these reforms will show they work so this is a momentum, make it or break it for either side, high risk, high reward for both sides. wee feel good about it, we think we're going to win it and because of that, we got ten electoral votes in november. we say wisconsin, on june 5th, wisconsin helps save america on november 6th.

[applause] >> congressman, the final question, it is what do you think is president reagan's greatest legacy? >> gosh. prosperity. and peace. >> [applause] >> he stared down the evil empire, he had the courage -- i mean, we all know the story about tear down this wall and how he kept it in the speech, and he was a rock solid -- he was a statesman, which means he had a bedrock of principles, a moral compass, he had a vision that he could implement, and he had the ability to put a consensus together to execute that vision. people like that don't come around all that often in the world. thank god for america ronald reagan did. and therefore, there is peace and prosperity as a result.

>> thank you. >> you bet, thank you. >> thank you. [applause] >> thank you very much. thanks! >> [applause] >> thank you. appreciate it. >> >> dinner will be served in the air force one pavilion. please remain seated while congressman ryan departs. thank you all for joining us.

you can watch more of mitt romney's vice presidential running mate by visiting the c span library. congressman ryan has nearly 400 appearances, including the speech from the house floor, speech at the 2004 republican national convention and some of the hearings he chaired as committee chairman. you can watch, click, at c span.org/video library. join us later today for more from the campaign trail as mitt romney and vice presidential candidate paul ryan campaign throughout virginia. they'll be in menasus and we'll bring you live coverage starting at 4:15 p.m. eastern here on c span. >> we're going to turn now to president obama, who talked about the american drought during his weekly address and

he'll be followed by u.s. senator roger wicker, delivering the republican address, talking about the impact of the upcoming spending cuts under sequestration. >> hi everybody. today i want to talk about something that most of you already know. it's hot outside. it's heal hot. and if this feels worse than normal, that's because it is. we just found out that july was the warmest month on record. warmer than any other month since we began keeping track more than a century ago. on top of all this heat, we're also experiencing one of the worst droughts in over 50 years. almost one quarter of the continental united states is facing what we call extreme or exceptional drought. with states like nebraska, kansas, missouri, oklahoma, and arkansas getting hit harder than most. that's bad news for a lot of people, but it's especially tough on our farmers and ranchers. right now almost half of the corn crop in america is in poor or very poor condition.

cattlemen are struggling to feed animals, many folks are seeing their livelihoods dry up in front of their ice and if we don't get relief soon americans everywhere will start to feel the pinch because the food our farmers and ranchers produce ends up on grocery store shelves. we can't let that happen. that's why at my direction, the department of agriculture, led by secretary tomville sack, has been working with her agency ascross the federal government to make sure we're doing everything we can to help farmers and ranchers fight back and recover from this disaster. already, we've given tpaerpls and small businesses across 32 states access to low interest emergency loans. we've opened up more federal land for grazing, and we're working with crop insurance companies to give farmers a short grace period on their premiums, since some families will be struggling to make ends meet at the end of the year. this past week, we went even further, announcing an additional $30 million to help get more water to lifestock and restore land

affected by drought. we'll make it easier for more farmers, ranchers and business owners to get emergency loans, and the department of transportation is helping more truck drivers deliver supplies to states that need them the most. this is an all hands on deck response and we'll be doing even more in the coming weeks to help families and communities that are suffering. but my administration can't do it alone. congress needs to do its part, too. they need to pass farm bill that not only helps farmers and ranchers respond to this kind of disasters but also makes necessary reforms and gives them certainty year round. that's the single best way we can help rural communities right now and also in the long term. so call your members of congress. write them an e-mail, and tell them that now is the time to come together and get this done. too many americans are suffering right now to let politics get in the way. until farmers, ranchers and business owners recover, let's make sure that families who already stretch their budget to the limit don't

have to pay more for groceries this fall. in the meantime, i'll keep doing everything i can to help communities respond to this disaster. because at times like these it doesn't matter if you live in demoines or detroit, we're americans first. if we look out for each other, we'll come out of this stronger than before. have a great weekend, everybody, and stay cool. >> hello, i'm senator roger wicker from mississippi. a little over a year, a congress and the white house enacted the budget control act. as yet another attempt to reach a bipartisan agreement on how to fix america's unprecedented debt crisis. the national debt, a staggering $16 trillion, is unsustainable, and we need to change course. the goal of the budget control act was to have a long term debt reduction plan that seriously addressed federal spending, soaring entitlement programs, and health care costs. a bipartisan committee was create to make tough buts in budget decisions, and as an

incentive to get the job done, a very drastic fall back plan was put in place. automatic across the board cuts, falling heavily on our military. this is known as budget sequestration. our expectation was that the so called supercommittee would work harder and come together on a solution to avoid sequestration's devastating mete acts approach while tackling federal spending in a bipartisan way. there was a chance for real and lasting budget reform but at a moment when presidential leadership could have helped, president obama was silent. the committee eventually disbanded in failure. our country now face unacceptable consequences that will become a reality on january 3rd when sequestration goes into effect. unless the current law is changed, sequestration will force another half a trillion

dollars in cuts to defense programs over the next ten years. defense secretary leon paneta has described the effect on our national security as devastating and i agree. although the full impact of these cuts remains unknown, some very startling projections have emerged. under sequestration, army units would receive less training before they deploy to the middle east. marine corps troop levels would be cut by 10 percent, leaving our marines without sufficient manpower to have one overseas operation, the navy fleet would drop to 230 ships, the lowest number since world war i, and the air force would lose vital maintenance funds required to keep our fighters, bomberrings, and -- bombers and remotely piloted aircraft flying around the world. >> the stakes are high,

crippling defense cuts are around the con and we have to take tough -- make tough decisions on how to avoid sequestration and some defense manufacturers have begun the process of issuing legally required layoff warning notices to shareholders and employees. according to multiple forecasts, up to 1 million jobs are at risk. one report estimates that my home state of mississippi alone could lose more than 11,000 jobs. with the administration having kept its plans hidden from public view, congress overwhelmingly passed the sequestration transparency act, requiring the obama administration to submit a report to congress on the impact that sequestration will have. this bill will shine light on the president's plans. it's time for president obama to inform our men and women in uniform, as well as congress and the american public, how it will move

forward in the wake of devastating cuts. the millions of americans who defend our country and work to build our military equipment should not have to wait until after election day. severe and indiscriminate cuts that harm our security are not the way to address america's fiscal challenges. republicans have repeatedly reached out to president obama with responsible plans to cut spending without crippling our military. the republican-controlled house has already passed legislation to postpone this sequester. republicans in the senate have offered plans of their own. last month, republican leaders in the senate and house sent a letter to the president, offering to work with him to find common ground and enact responsible budget savings. so far, the president has failed to offer any answer. mr. president, it is hard to reach a bipartisan solution

if the commander in chief is not engaged. leader ride, whre not come to an agreement if your own democratic senate campaign chairman keeps calling for us to drive off the fiscal cliff. for over three years, the democratic leadership of the senate has refused even to bring a budget to the floor for a vote. tackling spending issues is difficult when the budget committee doesn't do its work. but we still have an opportunity to solve america's long term budget concerns. the looming sequester crisis should be an opportunity for both parties to work together now to avoid permanent harm to our troops and to our security. let's hope the commander in chief decides to lead. >> president obama is campaigning in chicago tomorrow. join for us one of his campaign fund-raisers tomorrow afternoon. we'll have that live at 4:30 eastern here on c span.

every four years, the democratic national convention adopts a new national platform, an official statement of the democrat party's position on a variety of issues. today, the democratic platform committee finalized the platform in detroit, where members voted for the first time to approve language that supports same sa*ebgs marriage -- sex marriage. here are highlights of the meeting by mayor cory pwaoerbg. this is about an hour. >> chair, madam co-chair, it is such an honor to be here and to be with all of you, that i view as great leaders in america. my name joyce bender from the great state of pennsylvania. and i am going to talk about what president obama has done for those of us who have been left out, and that would be americans with disabilities. we are the largest group unemployed in the united states. and i am so proud to be the

chair of the american association of people with disabilities to be the ceo of a small, woman-owned business in pittsburgh, bender consulting services, but most importantly today, i am not ashamed that i'm a woman living with epilepsy and a hearing loss. i am an american with disabilities. and i am proud to say that. i want you to know that president obama has done more for us, a group of people that have been ignored, than you could possibly imagine. first, he signed the ewing convention on rights to persons with disabilities in his first year, when, by the way, we had tried to get that done for years. then he saw the high unemployment in the federal government of americans with

disabilities, so he signed an executive order that the federal government would be required, over five years, to hire 100,000 employees with disabilities. then he became supportive of section 503 of the rehabilitation act that would require all federal contractors than obligated to have a plan for employing americans with disabilities. he last week -- no, this week, on monday, our great champion, valerie jarrett, has become a national spokesperson for americans with disabilities and our desire to be employed. because without employment, you are never, ever, ever, ever free in this country. you can't buy a car, you can't go on vacation, you cannot live that american dream until you're employed. valerie jarrett invited

college students with disabilities to the west wing of the white house on monday so they could talk about this, but little did they know that president break obama -- president barack obama would join that meeting and talk to students with disabilities half an hour about how he stands behind us and last but certainly not least, the affordable care act. the affordable care act helps people like me, with epilepsy, to be able to secure insurance, whereas millions of children with epilepsy and other chronic disabilities would be left out, and let me tell you, knowing i have seizures, that would be terrible. so i say in pwraogs, i say

americans with disabilities in november will go vote and support the president who has included us, president pwra*pl obama. -- >> wa -- barack obama. >> thank you for the handlers, i'm from minnesota but as i mentioned early, my dad is a minnesota ex-patriot, living and working in ethics county, new jersey and downtown newark. so got a little bit of new jersey in me i guess. >> thank you very much. >> where we will be the first state of 31 to reject the amendment to the state's constitution to separate freedom in that constitution, the freedom to marry and reject the amendment to our constitution which will separate individuals from their freedom and right to

vote this fall, so i'm excited about the prospects november 6th. i couldn't let this moment slip by without making special mention of the section on page 28 that does talk about individuals' freedom to marry. the idea that couples who come together in love and commitment, who want to take responsibility for each other and their lives together and build a life together should be taken as an affirmation of something that we all value and cherish, that is what marriage means and that marriage really matters. to be sure that this is a significant moment, but let me consider the breadth and sweep of this entire document, how it affirms the values that we all share as democrats, certainly, but more fundamentally, as americans, that everyone enjoys the free dolls that are guaranteed in our constitution. that everyone has the right to live their lives in dignity. to pursue their deems dreams. and to become their best shrefrbs, that our family, our community, our country is

strengthened when we come together and spaoert the lives we build together. >> this has certainly an journey for the people in this country, it's been a journey for our president, i'm proud of the president that stood up and said all families matter, and mr. chair, madam chair and other members, young people are looking for a political home right now. and this has become one of the defining moral questions of our time and our moment. and just like in 1948, the democratic national convention, led by minnesota's hubert hum free, when it was time for this party to step out and step forward on behalf of all people and build a vital, vying rant coalition that serves our party to this day this, is one of those moments , so i'm extremely pleased by the platform and plank of this platform, i'm excited to its ratification in charlotte and looking forward to the election on november 6th. thank you mr. chair. >> [applause]

>> on a very personal level,y very grateful for your words. thank you very, very much. we now have the last speaker on this topic, somebody we all should pay a lot of attention to, one of the future leaders of our nation, but right now, one of the leaders of the young democrats. please welcome to the microphone. >> hello, i'm the national president of the college democrats of america and as a young american, our home is in the democratic party. i want to speak briefly on the deal act portion of the platform, and i just want to say, i get to travel across the country and meet with college students and the young people i meet who are dreamers possess such strong passion, talent and love for this country that astonishes me each and every time. about to start law school in a couple of weeks and the first phone call i received was from a fellow student who is indeed a tkraoerpl, she told me about her life as a worker, working as a migrant worker in summers to support

her family and her dream one day to be an immigration attorney for people like herself. i'm so proud to stand with a party that stands with her and i'm proud to continue to organize persons to support our president and young latinos across this country, so thank you for that. >> thank you very much. >> [applause] >> it's my pleasure to bring up again my co-chair woman to talk about the stronger in the world, safer and more secure at home. we are ready to address the final section, so the chair will recognize speakers to the microphone that want to talk about amendments to the -- excuse me -- the stronger in the world, safer and more secure at home section.

are there any people that want to come up and -- thank you. >> i was reminded, i didn't introduce myself last time, ray clouden, detroit, michigan. welcome to detroit. we appreciate that very much. four years ago when president obama was a candidate and went to europe, he got a well, great reception from the world. the opponent this year, not so much, okay? and what president obama did four years ago on our foreign policy, on our defense, he has built on that. we have more respect now than we did before, and we have to continue that movement to get everybody involved in this global economy, global world, to make this place a safer place and make this world a safer place. i see president obama doing that. thank you. >> thank you

>> thank you. loren walker from the great state of washington, on the board of a comfortable world and the alliance for security and democracy, as well as working for seiu in washington state. the previous president of the united states made the world a very scary place for americans. and nuclear policy was all by decimated. this president has moved us forward in every domain with regard to our national security. this platform speaks to the national security implications of climate change, this platform speaks to the national security implications of nuclear draw kwrourpbgs nuclear nonproliferation, as well as getting us out of wars that have not supported our national security. and doing so in a responsible

manner. this platform speaks to everything that our country needs to move forward and work with other nations in a cogent, responsible manner and will bring us very well into the next four years and beyond. thank you. >> thank you. madam chairwoman, my name is kevin greenberg from the state of pennsylvania and city of philadelphia, and i want to compliment mayor nutter for his work on this effort. but i want to speak today on president obama's last 3 1/2 years, almost four years in office with respect to foreign policy. he has kept us safe. period. end of discussion. there's been no terrorist attack. there have not been attacks on the homeland. we haven't heard most of what he's done. but with his national security team, vice president biden, hilly clinton, the secretary of state, they have been tremendous. they have brought our troops home from iraq, they've got a

reasonable and pragmatic approach on how to get us out of afghanistan. there has been strong leadership on iran and he has been per sissent in support of our greatest ally in the region, israel, strange and persist tpoepbt israel and not surprising for someone who started as a grassroots org tphaoerz, he was deft in his touch with the arab spring movement and movement for democracy in the middle east. with that i want to thank you and -- i will subside, but thank you very much. >> thank you. >> hi, madam chairwoman, i am karim jeanne pierre, i come from the great state of california, i rise today in support of this president and applaud him for his leadership in the humanitarian crisis in particular. i worked for the president during the time, i had the opportunity to work in the

white house during the haiti devastating earthquake in 2010 and i had the honor and pleasure of watching this president lead the international effort in making sure that haiti got what they needed in order to move forward in getting back on their feet. and so today, there's still 2 million people who are homeless, 200,000 people lost their lives, and that year, he committed $3.1 billion, and it was, like i said, an honor to watch our president lead this effort, and i applaud the platform committee, the drafting committee, in making sure this was included in the draft, and as we say in haiti, there's a motto that we have which is -- >> [speaking in native tongue] >> and humility there, is strength. so i applaud all of you today for doing that. >> thank you very much. >> [applause]

>> i just want to add that there are many, many reasons to support what you said. beyond humanitarian, and beyond all the important things out there. there's also the business of we have many people in america who are haitian americans. and i don't think there's anyone that doesn't have a friend or a member of a family who was originally from haiti. so that was a very personal matter, when that earthquake occurred, and the continuing effort to try to do something to help those people and those children. so now christine, do you want to read the amendment stph-s. >> yes please, thank you madam chair. >> the first amendment in this section is amendment number two, it's found on page 39, line number 22, sponsored by group shunpe, this amendment was withdrawn by the sponsor previously on the floor. >> next amendment under section of the amendment number nine, it's found on

page 43, line 24, sponsored by william ed monson, this amendment has been withdrawn. >> the next amendment is amendment number 27, it's found on page 49, line 26, sponsored by colleen starkla this, amendment has been withdrawn. madam chair, that concludes the amendments for this section. >> okay. i think we're now ready to move on the amendments so that we can have a vote. may i hear someone move to -- >> no? someone is saying no. they were all -- okay, good, thank you, thank you for moving. >> [inaudible conversation] >> so let's have mr. barker ville -- there's

baskerville come forward to be recognized about the two motion that is she's put forward to reconsider. and i guess what we want you to do is to talk about the amendments, individually, and after each one, the clerk will read them. thank you very much, madam chairman. >> madam chairwoman. my name is leslie baskerville from the district of khr*upl barks i salute anita bonds from the democratic party and long time democratic party activist. i rise on behalf of the national congress of black will under the able leadership of dr. efay -- e. fay williams, on behalf of the black leadership forum, on behalf of the national coalition of black civic participation, led by ms. mel knee campbell. i rise to request a motion for reconsideration with regard to two amendments that

i put forward from were -- that were, in fact, adopted. i would like to amend them slightly. i would also like to recognize that my first amendment, amendment number 28, is being offered and reflects the input of mr. matt haney from california. relative to amendment 28, wi like to amend my amendment to -- wi like to amend my amendment to read to make college affordable for students of all backgrounds and confront the loan burden our students shoulder. these are friendly amendments, they are designed to emphasize the extremely courageous and remarkable work of president obama and this administration in expanding access to education for all students, at a time when the congress and in

particular, the united states house of representatives, decided not to invest in human capital and invest in education, president obama fought and succeeded in getting great opportunities for all students who are prepared and who aspire to a higher education. at a time when tom mortgagenson -- mortenson from the pell institute says states aren't interested in investing in the growing population, president obama says we will not do that, in order to have an america built to last we must invest in all students. to that end, he doubled the investment in pell scholarships, this means that students across the nation, whether you live in rural america or appalachia, the mississippi dealt kwrarbgs all low income students who aspire to a higher education and are prepared will be able to attain a higher education.

president obama passed the american tax opportunity credit act worth up to $10,000 over four years of college to american families so that college will be possible to a much larger group of students. president obama caps student loan payment sos that no student can be required to pay more than 10 percent of what he or she earns a month in a student loan payment, and also caps the limit of interest on student loans. he also expanded opportunities for worthwhile and meaningful work study so that low income students can work, work their way through college. all of these things and other investments in students and families will make possible for tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of students, to access and succeed in college, and so every student and every family and everyone who believes that investing in human capital will help to make an america that is built to last must support

president obama, and for that reason, i rise to request a motion to reconsider and have a friendly amendment to my motion. >> so the parliamentarian is going to help coach me through it. this is more complicated than i knew. >> okay, so she's made a motion. do we have 15 seconds or more? >> that's more than 15. >> all those in favor? >> all those in favor to reconsider the motion? >> aye. >> and those opposed? >> nay. >> you're back to the main motion. >> she has stated -- >> sorry. so we're back at the main motion. >> so christine, when you get it clarified, would you read the amendment? >> it has been rewritten. >> excuse me. the new language states to

make college affordable -- you can help me read this? >> [inaudible] >> one moment, please. it's amendment number 28. it's found on page number nine. line 25. and line 39. -- and line 29. the new language states to, make college affordable to students of all backgrounds and confront the loan burden our students shoulder. this is inserted before the section on pell grant scholarships. now we're voting to adopt the amendment as read. so if you're in favor, say aye. >> aye. >> opposed? thank you very much.

>> madam chairman, can i just commend this past amendment? i had the privilege -- rich from south carolina, i had a privilege to work for claiborne-pel and when the pel granted were created and i also had the honor to meeting then-senator obama when he was running for president in charleston, south saeurz so when he mentioned the front porches of south carolina, i was at that meeting. president obama is a recipient of pell grants, he is a recipient of student aid. there's no stronger contrast between our party and the party who will try to run in november on an issue such as this. president obama knows the importance of student aid t. enabled him to get to where he is today. governor romney does not. i think this is such a stark contrast between the two parties and i want to thank

you for your amendment. >> thank you for those comments. >> [applause] >> okay, and now we're going to ask you to make the movement, the motion that you want to make on amendment 32. >> yes. madam chair, i move for a motion to reconsider amendment number 32 and to amend the language of my amendment to read we invested more than 2.5 billion in savings from reforming our student loan system to strengthen our nation's historically black colleges and universities, hispanic serving institutions, tribal colleges and universities, alaska, hawaiian, native institution, asian american and pacific islander institutions and other minority serving institutions

these schools play an important tphroel creating a diverse work force, educating new teachers, and producing the next generation of workers. again, this is an area where i thought it was important to underscore the remarkable leadership of the president of the united states, president barack obama in his 2011 state of the union address. president obama called for training 100,000 new stem teachers over ten years, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics teachers. in his 2012 state of the union address, president obama called on congress to send him legislation that would create an america that is built to last, a country that leads in educating its people, an america that attracts a new generation of high tech manufacturing and high paying jobs. in order to realize president

obama's vision of an america that is built to last, it is project that's we must educate 8 million additional americans between now and 2020. we cannot realize president obama's goal without historically black colleges and universities, predominantly black institution, tribal colleges, asian, pacific islander institutions and hispanic serving institution that is are doing the lion's share of educating the growing population of our nation. for example, hbcus are 3 percent of america's colleges and universities, they are graduating 50 percent of african-american teachers today, so just 3 percent of african-american colleges and universities are graduating 22 percent of african-americans with engineering undergraduate degrees, 40 percent of african-americans with phds. there are similar stories to be told with regard to tribal

colleges, hispanic serving institution, asian pacific islander institutions. these vitally important institutions are preparing disproportionate numbers of tomorrow's leaders, tomorrow's diverse, excellent work force, and for those reasons, i rise to, again, underscore the remarkable work of president obama in creating an excellent work force, creating opportunity phos an excellent work forbes a diverse work force, an all inclusive work tpofrplts thank you so very much. >> thank you very much. >> [applause] >> i see we have speakers lining up. are you on the same subject or are you waiting for the next call or stkphugs. >> i speak in support of my assistance. >> good afternoon. esther parker from the wonderful state of maryland, the state who is number one right now in educating in all public schools. i rise to support this amendment.

at this time, we talk about the work force of this country. but i think our party has got it right, and our president has gotten it right in order for us to be competitive in this global worblgsd unless we produce young men and women of all nationalities, of all races, to be able to come forward with the skills to compete, then all we're doing is giving lip service. and so i rise in support of this amendment. thank you. >> thank you. >> so we've had a motion. we've had a motion to amend to reconsider the amendment, and so we now we need seconds. >> second. >> all those in favor? >> aye. >> all those opposed? so we adopted reconsideration, and now we're going to -- let's have

the reading of the proposed amendment. >> this is amendment number 32, found on page number nine, line 33, sponsored by leslie baskerville, the amended language now states we invested more than $2.5 billion in strengthen our nation's historically black college and communities, hispanic institution, tribal universities and -- tribal colleges and universities, asian american pacific islander institutions and other minority serving institutions. these schools play an important role in creating a diverse work forbes educate ing new teachers and producing the next generation of stem workers. >> so now is our opportunity to accept seconds on the amendment. >> and now all in favor? >> aye. >> all opposed?

thank you. so that business is concluded. >> [applause] >> we have a couple of people who would like to say a few words. congressman, would you like to take the -- >> yes, madam chair, what i actually have is a motion to suspend the rules for a brief discussion and hopefully adoption of language dealing with the section on america's security. and i know that requires the -- the motion has to be ratified. >> so is there a second? >> second. >> we need two-thirds to suspend the rules. so all those in favor of suspending the rules for a few moments, to make this point of privilege, please say aye. >> aye. >> opposed? >> and i saw a hand. is there something we need to

deal with it? >> [inaudible] >> actually, we're not going back, it's not new language. it would be a sense of a conference resolution regarding national security based on the things that are outlined in the document that we have. >> it's friendly. trust me! >> [laughter] >> thank you. >> thank you very much madam chair. on page 33 of our document, rightfully so, it says that the president and the democratic party know there is no greater responsibility than protecting the american people. we are also understand the indispenseible role that the united states must continue in phroeting international peace and prosperity and because of the steps we've

taerpbg the united states is leading once again and tpherbg is -- and america is safer, stronger and more secure than it was four years ago. and i think rather than just to have that there, i thought we would amplify it with a sort of sense of this conference resolution and i'd like to read that wording if i might. it says it is the sense of this body that the president, our intelligence agencies, our armed force, and our men and women in uniform, be congratulated for their efforts in the last four years in striking major blows against international terrorist operations and for rebuilding and helping to rebalance our foreign policy and american relationships worldwide. >> is that something we're just accepting or do we have to vote on it? >> you've got to vote on it. >> we're going to vote on that. this is a resolution, it is

not an amendment to the platform. but we want to have a vote. this is -- you are moving to include this as a resolution, and now we need people to second this. >> it's not changing the platform. >> no, it doesn't deal with the platform. this is a sense of -- thank goodness you know these rules. i appreciate it very much. >> thank you. >> so now what we need to do is have people vote in favor. so all in favor? >> aye. >> let's -- we have to know. if you have a question -- >> i want to make this very clear. so we are the platform committee of the democratic party. this is not in any way a part of the official document. it is a sense of the group that's gathered here, just our sense, our sense of it being expressed in a formal fashion. when the platform is presented in charlotte, in north carolina, we will be

presenting the platform as we're voting upon, however, we will be coming out of this today, when we adjourn, with a platform and also now with the statement that was just articulated by the statesman and the congressman about the issue in which he discussed. and -- is that clear? i want everybody to be exactly clear with what you are voting on and i think it might be helpful one more time if you succinctly read exactly what everybody here is affirming as a sentiment of this body, not an official part of the democratic national committee's platform >> thank you mr. chair. it is a sense of this body that the president, our intelligence agencies, our armed forces, and our men and women in uniform, be congratulated for their efforts in the last four years in striking major blows against international terrorist organizations and for helping to rebalance and

rebuild our foreign policy, american relationships, worldwide. >> and what i'd like to do -- would you like to offer a comment on this before -- >> may i ask a question? >> [inaudible] >> i'm going to take a point of preu here, especially with the indulgence of somebody, not a former congressman, but

really, i was -- someone was a beacon they looked to for light and instruction, i'm going to indulge and beg upon him, that now that he articulated it, and we've also seen the sense of the room for tkh how old -- none of these words that we find contrary it our hearts and spirit. in fact, i believe that this room feels an enthusiastic embrace of that sentiment. i would like to ask as the person tasked with delivering a concise and cogent document at the end of this, i would just like to ask that we thraoefb at that, instead of giving any kind of formo zero leave it at that t. instead of giving any kind of formal underlying to this statement, now that it's been articulated, heard and recorded in the minutes, now that it's been seen on national tv i'm hearing by at least 149 people, i would like to beg on the indulgence of the good congressman that we leave it at that as a point that we all know our spirits with. i would ask before we take no

action, i would like to ask the good congressman if he would indulge me in that point of stkpwhraoeuf absolutely. and since it was not a resolution or an amendment, it can't be withdrawn. >> not at all. >> no, but i appreciate the body's affirmation of it. i think it's very, very important in the debate going into the next several days, as we deal with this election. >> i think you not only reelect -- reflected the spirit of this room but frankly, you reflect the spirit of the democratic party. so we thank you. >> thank you mr. chairman. >> [applause] >> okay. i'm sorry, please. would you like to speak? >> do speak closely to the mic. >> hello and thank you for having me here, shelly kapor collins, a native of maryland but living in california for

15 years, and i briefly did some amendments and i understand they are already part of the dialogue but i wanted to draw attention to the president's efforts on enforce -- on insourcing. >> you have to get real close. >> so i want to draw attention to his efforts on insourcing. i apologize, i'm not a public speaker. i'm going to read th-fplt i'm proud of our president's vision to outeducate, outinnovate and outbuild the rest of the world and bring jobs to our beautiful country. we lost vast technical skills, especially for the manufacturing industry, manufacturing has evolved from a labor intensive industry to a highly sophisticated technology driven industry where we need that technical talent and the president recognized this last year when he formed the advanced manufacturing steering committee and to ask them to find out how we can recapture our competitive global edge going forward around advanced manufacturing. one of those things, and i

know it's important for people here today, and imperative for the future of advance of manufacturing in the u.s., we must encourage stem education and increase the number of education who choose stem majors and careers. students educated in stem will have greater opportunities to engage in a myriad of industries, especially given that the chemical industry enables more than 96 percent of all manufactured goods, and as an indian american woman, i can tell you that my education is my most prized asset. it's in technology and coming from an immigrant family, that education was the key to getting ahead in life. so i do understand that. finally, to address the issue of the skilled labor shortage in our country, we can address outsourcing right now today by recognizing our veterans of the capable talent pool that have been trained, especially since they have that training and quality and we can place them in advanced jobs, provide them with stemcation and we

can start to keep those jobs here at home today. >> would you clarify stem? >> science, technology, education, and math stkpwhrao*egs stkpwhrerg. >> and engineering education. >> that's tremendous. thank you very much. >> my pleasure. >> appreciate that. >> [applause] >> we're going to vote on the main notion a minute, but before we do that, i'd like to have any comments you have, any editorial, typographical corrections you'd like to make. is there anybody that wants to make one of those kinds of clerical changes? >> thank you madam chairwoman , i'm from georgia. i just want a clarification because i didn't get withdrawn on an amendment we have, that's amendment number 34. i just want to make sure that was withdrawn. >> apparently we need to handle number 34. >> so we're going to have the

clerk read amendment 34 because you are quite correct, thank you for catching it, we need to deal with 34. >> madam chair, we've not yet taken up this amendment. >> so we need to take it stkpwhraoup yes, ma'am. there are two to follow, amendment number 34 and amendment number 35 have not yet been read to the body. >> would you please read -- one or time, since we vote on it separately. >> amendment number 34 is offered by carol burk, the summary is as follows, all references -- references to states in the platform will include all u.s. territories and less -- unless specifically excluded. >> is there any discussion on this? would someone like to make a motion to accept this amendment? >> second. >> -- motion.

>> any seconds? >> all in favor? >> aye. >> all opposed? thank you. it's accepted. now the next reading. >> the next amendment. >> the next amendment, amendment number 35, sponsored by carol burk, this amendment has been withdrawn. >> thank you very much. now, at this moment, mayor, do i have anything? oh, i'm sorry. i saw -- >> from california, on page 50, line 26, i think it should read, from, not form. it's a typo. >> thank you very much. thank you. we've had a lot of help and we appreciate it very much. do you think there's any -- i'm going to do this now. so this is a big moment, everyone. this is the overall -- wait a minute, more comments. let's have it stkpwhraoeu didn't see this addressed. >> please speak into the microphone. >> sorry. on page seven, line three.

>> page seven, line three. >> continue invest, continue to invest. >> thank you. >> and then on page 13, line 22t. says entrepreneurs and manufacturers. it says manufacturers. >> thank you very much. i appreciate it. yes, sir. >> is this a clerical, grammatical kind of error or something more than that? >> i'm not sure. i think it's a clarification question? >> go ahead and ask your clarification question. >> is it plop pratt to ask, with respect to amendment 34, that we just voted on, just to get confidence from the drafters of the platform that it is, in fact, the case that in all places, this language of states and territories has been accounted for throughout the platform?

it's obviously a welcomed amendment. we just didn't have a discussion. i just want to be clear that, in fact, those distinctions are already properly accounted for in the language. >> patrice, he's asking about whether or not the states, the viewpoints have -- we've got an answer right behind. thank you. >> thank you madam chair. kevin greenberg from pennsylvania. as i understand it, there's been an amendment to this amendment which we probably need to clarify through the process that it should include all u.s. sertories where -- territories where appropriate. the two additional words need to be added because in some cases it's appropriate, in some cases, it's not. i move for reconsideration to allow it. >> would my co-- with my co-chair's permission, i'm going to term that as a clerical addition, and what i would like to ask with my co-chair's permission is for us to to stop all my gram

atticly empowered friends to going through and finding the grammatical -- i assure you, there will be a well versed, certified by randy weingard in terms of english an grammatical skills, a person is going to go through this entire thing and shake it hard for any kind of grammatical things. we heard recently in the congress some republicans forgot the word "un" in front of employment and we're not going to make those mistakes. can i get an amen? >> so what i would like to do is get an all encompassing resolution to empower us to make sure we have taken, for those of you in law school, sort of a blue booking eye towards ensuring this is a grammatically tight document

i would like to make a motion. >> second. >> second it. i would like to get 15 seconds. >> aye. >> i would like to hear a very hardly all in favor of say -- >> aye! >> all right. then we are concluded with that. i feel empowered now. >> fabulous. fabulous. that's leadership! >> okay. so we're about to take the vote that gives us that moment where we vote on the entire platform and all amendments. all of the amendments have been considered. and so we want to vote on whether or not to approve the draft platform as amended for recommendation by adoption at the 2012 democratic national convention. all in fave, say aye. >> aye. >> all opposed? the ayes have it. the platform is approved. >> [applause]

>> [chanting four more years] >> i'll make a few concluding remarks, then mayor booker will adjourn us. so pursuant to our rules of procedure, any minority reports must be filed with the democratic national committee within 48 hours. forms are available from staff. on behalf of the chairs of this committee, we, again, thank governor stickland and members of the drafting committee for their hard work in preparing the draft platform. i'd also like to thank the platform committee staff, the

dnc staff, particularly karen corn wel. , andrew grossman, platform director and director of the party of office affairs and delegate selection. i'd thraoeubg thank the amazing hotel staff, the court reporter, our sign language interpreter, and everyone here. we appreciate all that you've done to make this meeting a success. in the army, we have a phrase, one team, one fight. and that's what this is for the next 90 days. we want to be sure that we communicate the values we all believe through this platform and watch them be represented by the democratic party and our president. with that, i'll ask mayor booker to conclude. >> how's everybody doing? all right, i think we set some records for speed and efficiency so right now please give yourselves a round of applause. >> [applause]

>> one person who deserves recognition, we are in the great state of michigan. i want to recognize the party chairman of this great state. please give a warm democratic round of applause for mark brewer. >> [applause] >> thank you mark! and i didn't feel enough love for this extraordinary person who has provided leadership both today, leading up to this event, it is one of the great trailblazing leaders in the united states of america, a woman who stood for this country, served in our military, led about fine distinction, would you please give it up for my co-chair, lieutenant kennedy. >> [applause] >> now ladies and gentlemen, before i adjourn, let me make

it clear what we have accomplished. we are not a party for partisanship sake, we are a party because we stand on principle, ideals, values, and ideas. what we did today codifies the sentiment of the core not of our party but of the american dream. we should be proud of what we have accomplished. this is the platform that will energize and excite not the democratic party base, but the united states of america and provides the momentum necessary and clarity of purpose, strength of conviction, to drive the next 87 days to ensure that president barack obama is reelected. >> [applause] >> but before i adjourn this meeting, let us be clear.

this is a platform. and what do you have to do with a platform? you must stand upon it. we now must stand as democrats. we must stand for the middle class and expanding opportunity for all americans we must stand for equality and inclusion and whether you are a single mother here in detroit, whether you are a gay man in san francisco, whether you are a blue collar worker in newark, new jersey, this is the party for you, and we must stand for your rights and for your values and your american dream, too. >> [applause] >> we are the democratic party. and our platform is upon which we must stand. we must stand for a responsible foreign policy. we must stand with a president that is making us safer, each and every day. stand with the man who found the terrorist organizations and dismantled al qaeda,

stand with the man who keeps america safe not only from terrorist action but also keeps us safe economically, keeps us safe spiritually, keeps us safe from health care and keeps the freedoms of the united states of america alive and well in the 21st century. we are democrats and this is our platform. we stand for the most vulnerable. we stand because we believe we are a party that opens up its doors and its tent for everyone. from the poor child dreaming and yearning of having an education. from the person without skills that hopes that somehow this economy will provide them a pathway to have a career. we know they have dignity and the importance of health care and living without that fear. we are the party that says america can be america for everyone. and that is what this platform is about.

and so as we prepare to adjourn, lets not just codify a platform that we're going to pass around an compute -- on computer screens and through e-mail and point to and says it's a nice document, because as martin luther king says, change will not roll in on the wheels of inevidentability, it must be carried in on the backs of soldiers that are willing to work for it. we can't hope that the platform is made real in the next administration of barack obama, that's not just going to happen by us thinking about it. remember what a great abolitionist said once, i parade for years for freedom on my knees but wasn't until i prayed with my feet and high hands that i found freedom. freedom is what this nation is about. our ideals have not just sourced this nation's history but it's also inspired countries all around the globe, and it is time that we not take our country back to where it was before, it's time that we look forward to

progress. it's time that we embrace change. it's time that we make real our hope. it is time that we reelect president barack obama in the white house. so let us now go forth from detroit. let us march out of war countries, and let us join hands to show and renominate barack obama and joe biden and let us keep moving until we get to november and in november, let us show again that god is blessing our country, that we are democrats for america. and with that, as an honored co-chairman of the democratic national committee, great platform committee, i ask

this great body as its last action, would you please entertain a motion to adjourn. >> all in favor say aye. all opposed? all right, the ayes have it. this concludes the convention platform committee. you are hereby adjourned. may god bless barack obama and god bless america. c span lu taking you live shortly to the third campaign stop of the day for republican presidential candidate mitt romney and his newly chosen vice president congressman paul ryan. they will continue on the campaign trail, hitting stops in other battleground states. on next to north carolina, then florida. this morning on washington journal we got a preview of mitt romney and paul ryan's bus tour from the view of a political reporter who had been following the announcement of the v.p.

nomination. >> hi ginger gibson. >> good morning, thank you for having me. >> thank you for joining us. where are you this morning, and how surprised were you to find out this was -- this tai was a bit of a change? >> -- this day was a bit of a change? >> i was currently trying to get my luggage on to a bus at a hotel in norfolk, where we thought the morning would be calm, staging the rest of the bus tour, and instead, we had that little sweep, big bags under their eyes, trying to figure out what was going on today, we were surprised when people thought it could come today but based on the campaign yesterday, a briefing on the bus tour, those who were around on the ground with us yesterday here in virginia and in boston yesterday morning, we thought it wasn't coming. we thought they were going to hold off for another week, an there were a lot of surprised reporters wandering around norfolk at 1:00 this morning. >> how did you get this information? how has it trickled out? we understand there was a

call last night among the campaign folks. there's a website that's up now, rom next ryan.com. it doesn't lay out the fact that paul ryan is the running mate but the headline of the website does give a bit away. how did this all come to pass and what do we know officially yet? >> we got it in pieces just like everyone else, started to hear rumors yesterday afternoon that it could happen today, those rumors got a little louder and last night just before midnight we got a press release from the campaign announcing it was going to happen today, then it was the fight to figure out who it was going to be. a lot of phone calls. i think it woke a lot of people up last night, and just trying to piece it together. going on a lot of reports, a lot of sores saying it's paul ryan. the campaign has not truly recognized that. reporters, we were out at the event site trying to see a banner or a sign. we've all been piecing it

together. a lot of the same way everyone else has. >> ginger gibson preview the bus tour that's to come. is this changing at all, do we know that yet? >> the bus tour, as we are told, is going to remain on track. it's going to be -- it's going to instead be a rollout for paul ryan, a coming out time for him and governor romney to be on the stump together, to be seen together, to be talking to voters together. today they're campaigning in virginia. they've got three stops across the state, they go to north carolina, then to florida, and then to ohio. the campaign tells us they're going to go places in states that went blue in '08, trying to reach out to middle class voters. that's one thing they're hoping that paul ryan is going to help them do, presumably, reach out to the middle class voters, people who are concerned about the country's finances and their own finances, and win some of those supporters over. >> and we heard that a lot of people who were either going to be part of this bus tour,

visited on the bus tour, we're going to see the governor of virginia, do we know how this news is going to be shaking out for them, now that the v.p. pick is looking more official, do we have a sense of what it means for the rest of the people who mitt romney is sharing the stage with this week? >> when we looked at the list of surrogates he was going to be appearing with, governor mcdonald in virginia, marco rubio, potentially in florida, it looked a little like a v.p. tryout and now that we have a v.p., that won't be the case. but this is going to be a cheerleading exercise. it's going to be the biggest surrogates getting on stage with governor romney, presumably congressman paul ryan and saying these are the two best guys. i don't think we're going to see any hurt feelings or people shunned away or deciding they don't want to participate. it's going to be the same cast we expected to see but the message will be a little different. >> ginger gibson at

phr*eutco, thank you for talking with us this morning. >> we'll be taking you live shortly to the third campaign stop of the day for republican presidential candidate rit romney and -- mitt romney and congressman paul ryan, meeting in manasus, virginia and then on the campaign trail, to north carolina and florida. if you didn't catch it this morning, here's the first campaign stop of the day, norfolk, virginia, where congressman ryan was introduced as the republican presidentual candidate. >> -- vice presidential

candidate. >> ♪ >> ♪ >> and right in front of the u.s.s. wisconsin, huh? man!

every now and then i'm known to make a mistake! i did not make a mistake with this guy. but i can tell you this, he's going to be the next vice president of the united states! governor romney, ann, thank you. >> [applause] i am deeply honored and excited to join you as your running mate as. >> let me tell but mitt romney. mitt romney is a leader with the skills, the background, and the character that our

country needs at this crucial time in its history >> following four years of failed leadership, the hopes of our country which have inspired the world are growing dim, they need someone to revive them. governor romney is the man for this moment. and he and i share one commitment. we will restore the greatness of this country. [applause] i want to you meet my family. my wife, januarya. >> [applause] >>ure out liza, and our --

our daughter liza, and our sons, charlie and sam. >> [applause] >> i'm surrounded by the people i love. i love you, too! and i've been asked by governor romney to serve the country that i love. jamesville, wisconsin is where i was born and raised and i never really left it. it's our home now. for the last 14 years, i have proudly represented wisconsin in congress. there, i have focused on solving the problems that confront our country, turning ideas into action, and action into solutions. i am commit heart and mind to putting that experience to work in a romney

administration. this is a crucial moment in the life of our nation. and it is absolutely vital that we select the right man to lead america back to prosperity and greatness. that man is standing right next to me. his name is mitt romney, and he will be the next president of the united states of america. my dad died when i was young. he was a good and decent man. there were a few things that he would say that have always stuck with me. he'd say son, you're either part of the problem or part of the solution. well, regrettably, president

obama has become part of the problem, and mitt romney is the solution. the other thing my dad would always say is that every generation of americans leaves their children better off. that's the american legacy. sadly, for the first time in our history, we are on a path which will undo that legacy. that is why we need new leadership to become part of the solution, to restore economic prosperity, growth and jobs. it is our duty to save the american dream for our children and theirs.

i believe there is no person in america who is better prepared because of the experience, because of the principles he holds, and because of his achievements and excellence in so many different arenas, to lead america at this point in our history. >> [applause] let me say a word about the man mitt romney is about to replace. no one dispute that is president obama inherited a difficult situation. and in his first two years, with a party in complete control of washington, he passed nearly every item on

his agenda. but that didn't make things better. in fact, we find ourselves in a nation facing debt, doubts and despair. this is the worst economic recovery in 70 years. unemployment has been above 8 percent for more than three years. the longest run since the great depression. families are hurting. we have the largest decifits and the biggest federal government since world war ii nearly one out of six americans are in poverty. the worst rate in a generation. moms and dads are struggling to make ends meet. household incomes have dropped more than $4000 over the past four years. >> whatever the explanation, whatever the excuse is, this is a record of failure.

president obama and too many like him in washington have refused to make difficult decisions because they're more worried about their next election than they are about the next generation. we might have been able to get away with that before but not now. we're in a dangerous moment. we're running out of time, and we can't afford four more years of this. politicians from both parties have made empty promises which will soon become broken promises with painful consequences if we fail to act now.

i represent a part of america that includes inner cities, rural areas, suburbs, and factory towns. over the years, i have seen and heard from a lot of families. from a lot of those who are running small businesses. and from people who are in need. but what i've heard lately, that's what troubles me the most. there's something different in their voice. in their words. what i hear from them are diminished dreams. lowered expectations. uncertain futures. i hear some people say this is just the new normal. higher unemployment, declining incomes, and crushing debt is not a new normal. >> [applause] >> as it is the result of misguided

polices, and next january, our economy will get a comeback with the romney plan for a stronger middle class that lead to more jobs and more take-home pay for working americans. america is on the wrong track. but mitt romney and i will take the right steps in the right time to get us back on the right track. i believe that my record of getting things done in congress will be very helpful compliment -- complement to governor romney's private sector success outside of washington. >> [applause] >> i've worked closely with republicans, as well as democrats, to advance an agenda of economic growth,

fiscal discipline and job creation. i'm proud to stand with a man who understands what it takes to foster job creation in our economy. someone who knows from experience that if you have a small business, you did build that! >> [applause] >> at bain capital, he launched new businesses and he turned around failing ones, companies like stapels, bright horizons, sports authority, just to name a few mitt romney created jobs. and he showed he knows how a free economy works. at the olympics, he took a failing enterprise and made it the pride of our entire nation.

as governor of massachusetts, he worked with democrats and republicans to balance the budget without increasing taxes, lower unemployment, increase income, and improve peoples' lives. in all these things, mitt romney has shown himself to be a man of achievement, excellence, and integrity. >> [applause] >> january and i -- jan, liza, charlie and sam think america is a place that if you work hard and play by the rules, you can get ahead. we look at one another's success with pride, not

resentment. because we know we know that as more americans work hard, take risks, succeed, more people will prosper. our communities will benefit. and the individual lives will be uplifted and improved. >> america is more than just a place, though. america is an idea. it's the only country founded on an idea. our rights come from nature and god. not from government. >> [applause] >> that's right.

that's who we are. that's how we built this country. that's who we are. that's right. that's our founding. we promised equal opportunity, not equal outcomes. and this idea was founded on the principles of liberty. freedom. free enterprise. self determination. and government by consent of the governed.

this idea is under assault. so we have a critical decision to make as a nation. we are on an unsustainable path that is robbing america of our freedom and security. it doesn't have to be this way. the commitment mitt romney and i make to you is this. we won't duck the tough issues. we will lead. we don't blame others. we will take responsibility. and we won't replace our founding principles. we will reapply them.

we will honor you, our fellow citizens by giving you the right and opportunity to make the choice. what kind of country do we want to have? what kind of people do we want to be? we can turn this thing around we can. we can turn this thing around. real solutions can be delivered. but it will take leadership. and the courage to tell you the truth.

mitt romney is this kind of leader. i'm excited for what lies ahead. i'm thrilled to be a part of america's comeback team. and together, we will unite america and get this done. thank you. >> thank you very much. thank you! >> ♪ >> ♪

>> ♪ >> ♪

>> let's go manassas, virginia where governor george allen is on the campaign trail making remarks before mitt romney and paul ryan appear here. >> and now our next speaker will be the chief job creating officer of virginia, lieutenant governor bill bowl -- bill bow sen a great friend and i present to you bill bowen. >> thank you all so much. wow, what a crowd! thank you all. it is great to be back in northern virginia. thank you all for coming out here on such a beautiful saturday afternoon to give a warm virginia welcome to the next president of the united

states, mitt romney! >> [applause] >> and to the next vice president of the united states, paul ryan! >> [applause] >> now, my friends, you know this is a critical time in ou nation's history. this is a defining moment in america's history. we're 87 days away from an election. so i have to ask you a question. northern virginia, are you ready to win? >> [applause] >> are you ready to win? >> [applause] >> are you ready to win! >> [applause] >> i was kind of hoping you were. that's good news. glad to hear that. my friends, let me tell you something on a serious tphoefplt you know, four -- serious note. you know, four years ago the american people took a chance

on barack obama. they were moved by his powerful rhetoric and his lofty promise of hope and change, but four years late every, the -- later, the rhetoric has faded, it has been replaced by a record of failed leadership. it is time for him to go. in every way, this president has failed to provide our country with the leadership that it needs. his fiscal policys are jeopardizing the financial foundation of our country and mortgaging our children's future. his economic polices have left our economy in a shambles, with unemployment over 8 percent for the past 42 months. america deserves better, america demands better, and with mitt romney and paul ryan, america will get

better! >> [applause] >> there are some who believe this is somehow the new normal. but it's not. we don't accept this as a new normal. america deserves better. america can do better. america needs to come back, and america's comeback starts today in the commonwealth of virginia. >> [applause] america's comeback team has come to manassas to get america back on the right track. and we know a little bit about getting things back on the right track in virginia. because four years ago, governor mctkopbl and i

inherited a -- mcdonnell and i inherited a state that was in many ways on the wrong track, but by adhering to the conservative principles, we've been able to get virginia back on the right track and now we're going to take those same principles to washington, d.c. and we're going to get america back on the right track, because myth rom rom they is the -- mitt romney is the right person at the right time with the right experience to get america back on the right track. president obama had his chance. he failed to deliver. now it's our chance, and we will deliver for the american people. .

>> i am delighted to have the mitt romney paul ryan ticket here and virginia. we are the mother of presidents and the cradle of democracy. with your help will help give birth to another president, mitt

romney. [cheers and applause] what a treat to be with george allen, your next senator. what a great team you have put here on the field and virginia. i want to also echo what has been said. i want to thank all of these veterans who are here today. people who understand freedom is not free. i happen to be in the military under ronald reagan. that was a great experience. my daughter served and iraq when her commander in chief was george w. bush. i can tell you all of our men and women deserve a commander in chief like mitt romney.

the president has been here a couple of times lately. he was here last week. he made a campaign promise. he said if we do not when virginia, he will not be the president of the united states. i hope you help him keep that. unfortunately he came a month and a half ago and he said if you have a business, you did not build up. somebody else made that happen. you obviously do not understand the free enterprise system and the heart and soul of the people, the american dream. if you are getting ready to rehire somebody want to look it that record and that resonates to see if they should get rehired. look at what has happened over these last four years. gas prices have doubled. unemployment over 8% for 42

consecutive months. we have the lowest numbers of entrepreneur newes in business n over 30 years. we do not have a good plan to be able to get people back to work and have the jobs they need because taxes are too high, our regulations are too much. if you had a resume like that and you were looking for a job, do you know what the boss would say? you are fired. thank god we have a choice. we have somebody who believes in the principles of ronald reagan. we have the romney ryan team in 2012 and virginia. because we cannot have that four

more years of a vision that more government and taxes and guarantees and entitlements will lead us to prosperity. we need the gop. the great opportunity party for america. that is the positive optimistic reagan romney idea that if you work hard and dream big and pursue opportunity, you can be anything you want to be in the united states of america. i grew up just down the road in fairfax county. my dad was in the air force. i grew up to have the same job as patrick henry. what a great job we have -- what a great country we have in america. mitt romney has a plan to get the middle-class back to work. by getting us out of debt with a

great energy plan, with a plan to get small business and a entrepreneurs back to work. a positive can do results oriented plan, that is what you will get with mitt romney and paul ryan. ladies and gentlemen, i know i am preaching to the choir. let me tell you, the number one reason we need new leadership in washington. the zero office is one of the toughest places in the world. with the last -- when the last cabinet person leaves office, you need a person with character and heart and a principal and determination to do what is right for the people of america. that is why we need mitt romney. mitt romney is a man with a

great faith who believes our rights and our resources come from god, not from government. he is a man who is incredibly generous who has given to other people because it is the right thing to do as an american. he is a man who has been married to the beautiful anne romney and with five children and 18 grandchildren they are still a lot as you will see today. he is a man who believes in taking responsibility and not assigning blame. to get things done for the people of the united states. that is what you get with mitt romney. i think it is time per a change. the scriptures say with lack of

vision the people perish. with vision the people will prosper. that is what we will get with mitt romney in 2012. ladies and gentlemen, northern virginia will be key to winning this race. you have to do everything you can to get this conservative team elected. please get on your feet and welcome the next president mitt romney and the next vice- president, paul ryan. [cheers and applause] ♪

[cheers and applause] ♪ >> hello manassas.

hey everybody over there. hello, manassas. thank you. thank you. we heard you were out there waiting in line a long time. we went to thank you so much.

guess what? november 6 we take our country back. it is really nice to be here with some familiar faces. my buddy frank wolf talked to you earlier today. it is great to see george allen. i hope you send him back to congress again. [cheers and applause] i am a person who grew up with a lot of mentors and my life. one of the most important was a man named jack kemp. his wife joanna is here today. it is really nice to see you. how about this on some dubliners you guys -- this awesome governor you guys have a bob mcdonnell? let's just review things for a moment.

let's see where things stand it. do you think the economy is heading in the right direction? do you think we are getting the debt and deficit under control? president obama is our president. he has put all of his policies in place and they are just not working. take a look at the results. we have had the worst recovery and 70 years. we have the largest deficit and the biggest government since world war ii. one out of six americans are in poverty today. unemployment has been above 8% for three years. the president's answer to this is more chronic capitalism, more welfare, more solyndra. we do not think the secret to

economic growth as politicians in washington and bureaucrats picking winners and losers in the economy. the secret is letting people keep more of what they earn and helping small businesses compete and create jobs. [cheers and applause] you see, the president has shown us his aspirations for a government centered society with a government run economy. it is not working. it has never worked before. so if president obama will not run for reelection on his record, because it is a terrible record. he did not moderate. he stayed hard left. what does he have left? not only nothing, but he will divide the country to distract the country to try to win the

election by default. hope and change has become an attack and blame. we are not going to fall for it. we are not going to fall for this kind of rhetoric that says to people they are stuck in their station in life, a victim of circumstances outside of their control and only the government is here to help them cope with it. that is not who we are. that is not the america we know. is not the america we will have starting next year. somewhere out there on the horizon is the dream you have for yourself and for your children. above the discord and the delay and the distractions of the day, it is there. it is getting farther away because the president has given as policies that have put our nation on a path to debt,

despair, and declined. here is the good news. we do now have to put up with this. we can turn this around. we can get ourselves back on the right track. it will take leadership. it will mean that politicians have to think about the next generation instead of their next election. [cheers and applause] it will take a person with experience and leadership. mitt romney and all the things he has done in his life, he is the kind of person who was made for this moment. he is the kind of man with the integrity, the experience that we need. when he ran bain capital, he created jobs. he turned around failing enterprises. he has firsthand experience that if you have built, started, or run a small business, you did

that. [cheers and applause] do you remember the olympics 1999? people forgot how ugly it up for a moment. it was bloated, wasteful, corrupted. does that sound familiar? when his country needed him, mitt romney answered the call and he saved the olympics and made us proud of. [chanting "usa"] when he was governor of massachusetts, unemployment went down, the credit rating went up, and household incomes increased.

under obama, unemployment has gone up, incomes have gone down, and for the first time in our nation's history our credit was downgraded. the contrast could not be more clear. the choice could not be more clear. here is our commitment to you. you deserve to decide. you deserve to decide what kind of country we are going to have, what kind of people we are going to be. it is our obligation to give you our fellow citizens a choice of two features. you are going to decide. if we do this right and we read apply the principles that built this country, we honor you by letting you decided the course of this country. we will get our country back on november 6. [cheers and applause]

this takes special leadership. this takes courage. this takes our country coming together. when we do this, we will get this done. we will do it because we have a man who is running for president who has the courage, the integrity, the honesty, the experience to put us back to work to make us proud again and to reignite the american dream. ladies and gentlemen, the next president of the united states mitt romney. [cheers and applause] >> thank you. [cheers and applause] >> thank you so much.

manassas, you are kind to welcome us like this. this is a terrific welcome and a clear indication that come november 6, virginia will vote for romney ryan and we will take back the white house. now, today was a good day for me. i have to tell you. it was also a good day for america. we have taken the next step to restoring american oppose the promise with paul ryan. -- american that's promise with paul ryan. if he said one word about paul ryan it would probably be leader. this is a man who learned leadership young that. leadership is a function of character and courage. as a young man, his dad died and he was forced to grow up quickly.

he and his family came together. instill in him or the hard working ethnics -- the hard- working ethics associated with the midwest of america. his heart is still janesville, wisconsin, small-town america. [cheers and applause] he did not go there with ambition to become something big. he went there with ambition to accomplish something big. he has taken our party. with his intellectual leadership he has made sure we focus on values, we fight for things we believe in. sometimes our party has gone astray. paul ryan said we will bring it home to the things we care about. we care for our seniors and our children and we stop spending for things we did i have a. [cheers and applause]

-- we stop spending when we do not have a. he took a different approach. he tried to read -- he tried to reach across the aisle. he is one that realizes honest people can have honest differences. he has worked with democrats and republicans to work on major pieces of legislation that help people. right now there is one he has put out there. he cuts medicare $700 billion with his obamacare plan. what senator ryan says is we need to protect medicare. that is what our party will do. this comes at a critical time. as paul just said to you, it is

a critical time for america. would you have a country as prosperous as ours but 23 million people are out of work or stop looking for work or underemployed you know something is wrong. when you have a nation that invented public education and our kids are getting scores on the bottom third of the world, you know something is wrong. when a nation as prosperous as ours has put together $16 trillion of debt passing on our burdens to the next generation, it is not just wrong, it is immoral to put the obligations to our kids. candid it obama said he would cut the cost of their health care premium by $2,500. has your premium gone down? as a matter of fact the average

family has seen their premiums go up. a $5,000 difference in a nation with a median income just about $50,000. gasoline prices have doubled. these are critical times in this country. you have a choice. america will have a choice. i think i know you guys will do, right? a america will have a choice. they have seen the product of the obama plant. it has been executed over the past three and a half years. it has not worked. middle income families are getting squeezed. we have a different plan. we do not want america to become europe. high unemployment, no wage growth, economic calamities. we want to restore the principles that made america the help of the earth. we will do this. we are going to do five things.

five things that will give this economy growing again with more jobs and take home pay. take advantage of our energy resources, coal, oil, gas, nuclear, renewable, get america energy independent. we have to make sure people have the skills to succeed, not just those in the work force today but also our kids. we will make sure our kids are focused -- our schools are focused on the needs of the kids. the teachers union will have to take a back seat. [cheers and applause] we want trade. that is no. 3. trade that works for america. we want to open up new markets for our goods. when people cheat at trade, we will hold them accountable.

[cheers and applause] no. 1 energy, skills, a trade. number four, we will finally do something politicians have talked about for years. we will cut spending, cut the deficit and get us on track to a balanced budget. [cheers and applause] one more. we will champion small business. we will help small business. [cheers and applause] we want lower taxes for small business and regulators that encourage small business. there is a big cloud hanging over small business today. you ask them what they are worried about. they are worried about the cost of health care because of obamacare. we are going to replace it with something that works for the american people.

the other day here in virginia the president said something i just cannot believe. i cannot imagine he actually said it. i looked it up. he said "if you have a business, you did not build that. somebody else did that." i guess he thinks government should take responsibility for all the achievements of people in this country. i have a different view. i believe america was founded on the principle of individuals pursuing happiness as they choose and reaching for accomplishment excellence. when a young person makes the honor roll, i know it took a school bus to get them to school. i did not give the bus driver credit for the honor roll.

[cheers and applause] i know that you spent some extra time finding a way to do the things that other thing -- other people cannot do at the worksite. i know that to get to work you had to have a driver's license, but i do not give the person at the dmv the credit, i give the person who got the promotion credit. now, the president says we are taking him out of context with . -- with that quote. go back and look at the entire speech. he says that if you are successful and you think it is because you are smart, lots of people are smart. if you think it is because you are working hard, a lot of

people work hard. i wondered where he was going with this argument. we welcome and celebrate people who work hard to improve their skills and reached for achievement. this is the nature of america. our rights did not come from government, it came from the creator. [cheers and applause] among the those rights were life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. in this country we are free to pursue happiness as we choose. people striving and achieving are what make america the powerhouse that it is. the president is changing it into something that is government dominated, a government center. that will not work in america. that will not work anywhere. what works around the world as free people pursuing their

dreams. we want to those dreamers' here. we can accomplish our dreams. [cheers and applause] and so looking at that kind of record of the president has and contrasting it with our vision of optimism, bringing back a dynamic and powerful economy with more jobs and more take- home pay, the president understandably has resorted to an unusual campaign. in some respects i think he disrespects the office by taking the campaign down to the lowest. i can recall in my lifetime. the next vice president of the united states and i will lay down a vision of hope and opportunity and progress and achievement individual accomplishment. boston for america and we will win. -- we will stand for a america

and we will win. i love this country. i love america. i know you love america. that is what brings you here. this is not about me or him, this is about the country we love. is in trouble. we will take a back and make sure america remains the hope of the earth. thank you so much. [cheers and applause] >> mitt romney and his newly chosen price presidential running mate in a manassas, virginia. will continue on the campaign trail this weekend.

it will hit stops and other battleground states. it will be on to north carolina and florida with coverage continuing on c-span. we will have highlights from a manassas and their other stops here on c-span. you can see more of mitt romney's running mate by visiting the c-span video library. he has nearly 400 appearances in the video library including his speeches from the house floor, his speech at the 2004 republican national convention. you can watch, clip, and share those using the video library at c-span.org/videolibrary. president obama is campaigning in chicago tomorrow. we will have one of his campaign fund-raisers tomorrow afternoon live at 4:30 eastern surrounding his fist -- 51st birthday celebration. the obama campaign released a new advertisement.

will take a look at that now. [videoclip] >> medicare, social security and the entire tax system. >> i think it would be marvelous if the senate were to pick up paul ryan's budget and to adopt it. >> the paul ryan a medicare plan turns medicare into a voucher system. >> the paul ryan budget that cuts aid to the disabled, aide to immigrants' children. >> it would cut pell grants for college students by $170 billion and cut off over 1 million students over the next decade. >> the cuts here are so dramatic. there are so painful. >> and gets a $4.30 trillion tax cut for the wealthiest in this country. >> if mitt romney became

president of the united states to think he would follow through with a lot of reductions you made. >> it is an excellent piece of work and very much needed. >> that was one of the latest ads released by the obama campaign released this morning just as the vice-presidential candidate for the republicans paul ryan was announced. we are going to be bringing you some more campaigning a denture chicago tomorrow. president obama will have a campaign fund-raiser tomorrow afternoon. we will have that live at 4:30 eastern on c-span. as house budget committee chairman vice presidential candidate paul ryan spoke about over hauling medicare. he also spoke about the federal

budget and the national debt. we will take a look at his comments. they are about one hour. [applause] >> look at this crowd. apparently the rise in the name has simple around here. it is really nice to see you. that was very kind. i appreciate it. i want to thank you for inviting me here. i am a big packer fan. i assume most of you are bears fans so i know it took a lot for you to invite me here. that does not mean we cannot work together. i want to say as chairman of the house budget committee, i stand ready to do what ever it takes to help the re-signed jay cutler. [laughter]

now, really, what i am here to talk about today is our economy, about the need to get four quarters of strong consistent performance. that was not another jay cutler joke, i swear. it could be but it was not. i will come to the point. despite talk of a recovery, the economy is badly underperforming. growth last quarter came in at 1.8%. we're not even creating enough jobs to employ the new workers entering the job market, let alone the 6 million people who lost jobs during the recession. the rising cost of living is becoming a serious problem for many americans. the aggressive expansion of the money supply is clearly contributed to major increases in the cost of food and energy. an even bigger threat comes from the rapidly growing cost of health care. a problem i would argue made much worse by the health-care

law enacted last year. the most troubling of all, the unsustainable trajectory of government spending is accelerating our nation toward a ruinous debt crisis. this crisis has been decades in the making. republican administrations including the last one failed to control spending. democratic administrations including the present one have not been honest about the cost of the tax burden that would be required to fund their expansive vision of government. congress is controlled by both political parties have failed to confront our growing entitlement crisis. there is plenty of blame to go in around both political parties. years of ignoring the drivers of our debt have left our finances and dismal shape. in the coming years, our debt is projected to grow more than

three times the size of the entire economy. this trajectory is catastrophic. we see this coming. by the end of the decade, we will be spending 20% of our tax revenue simply paying interest on the debt. that is according to optimistic projections. if rating agencies such as s&p moved from downgrading our outlook to downgrading our credit, and interest rates will rise even higher. it will cost trillions of dollars more. this course is unsustainable. that is not an opinion. that is a mathematical certainty. if we continue down the current path, we are walking right into the most preventable prices in our nation's history. the question is, how do we avoid it? the answer is pretty simple. we need to make responsible choices today so our children do not have to make really painful choices tomorrow. if we look at what is driving our debt, the explosive growth

and spending is a result of health care costs spiralling out of control. by the time my children are raising their families of their own, literally every dollar we reason revenue will be paying for three major entitlement programs. some of this is demographic. every day 10,000 baby boomers retire and start collecting medicare and social security. a lot of it is simply due to the fact that health care costs are rising faster than the economy is growing. revenues cannot keep up. is basic math. we cannot solve our fiscal or economic challenges unless we get health care costs under control. the budget passed by the house last month takes a very credible steps to controlling health-care costs. it aims to do two things. to put our budget on a path to balance and to put our economy on a path to prosperity. i am here today to stress the point that these goals go hand

and -- hand in hand with one another. stable government finances are essential to a growing economy. economic growth is essential to balancing the budget. the name of the budget is the path to prosperity. you see right now, we are finally having a debate in washington about how to address the fiscal problems. eris, having the debate and we need to have to an alarming degree -- we still are not having the debate that we need to have it. many in washington including the new president demanding we trade eight federal spending restraints to a large permanent tax increases. this sets up a debate in which we are really arguing over who to hurt and how best to manage the decline of our nation. it is a framework that expects ever higher taxes and bureaucratically ration health care. i call this the shared scarcity

mentality. the missing ingredient is economic growth. shared scarcity represents a pessimistic future for the -- a pessimistic vision for the future of this country. it would leave us with a nation that is less prosperous and less free. to begin with, chasing ever higher spending with ever higher tax rates would decrease the number of makers and society and increase the number of takers. able-bodied americans will be discouraged from working. that is not who we are. when it becomes obvious that taxing the rich does not generate nearly enough revenue to cover all of washington's empty promises, austerity will be the only course left. a debt fueled economic crisis will more than force massive tax increases on everyone and current beneficiaries without giving them time to prepare or adjust. given the expense of growth of

government, many of these critical conditions will fall to bureaucrats we never elected. shared scarcity impedes economic growth. it ends with lost freedom. in a recent speech he game -- he gave in response to the budget, he alighted deficit reduction approach that in my view the finds shared scarcity. the president goes to plan begins with trillions of dollars and higher taxes. it relies on a plan to control cost of medicare that would give a board a 15 unelected bureaucrats in washington the power to deeply ration our care. this would disrupt the lives of those who are currently in retirement and have a waiting list for today's satan years. i need to emphasize to make something clear. i am not disputing for a moment that he inherited a difficult fiscal situation. he did. millions of american families have just seen their dreams destroyed by misguided policies

and irresponsible leadership that caused a financial disaster. the crisis squandered our nation's savings and cripple the economy. the emergency actions taken in fall 2008 did help the ensuing panic. subsequent interventions such as the president's stimulus law and the unprecedented monetary easing have done much more harm than good in my judgment. in the aftermath of the crisis, we need government to repair the free market foundations of the economy as it did under the reagan administration in the early 19th '80s. keeping taxes low, and forcing reasonable predictable regulations and protecting the value of the dollar. instead leaders embarked on an unprecedented spending spree. pass a new health-care law that raises taxes by $800 billion.

anchorages a sharp departure from a rules based monetary policy. which created even more uncertainty. in a 2010 election, the voters sent a clear message. this is not working. washington is to try something else. well, we know what that something else must be. we know what has always made growth possible in america. we need a call for new leadership by getting back to the four foundations of economic growth. first, does a pretty simple. we have to stop spending money we do now have. that means getting health care costs under control. we have to restore common sense to the regulatory environment so that regulations are fair, transparent, and do not inflect undue uncertainty on america's employers. we need to keep taxes low. in the year by year approach to tax rates so that job creator 7

certification -- incentives -- instead of easing monetary stimulus to bail out washington's failures because businesses and families need sound of money. let me deal with each in order. the first, real spending discipline. is pretty simple. you cannot get real sustainable growth by continuing to pile onto the debt. board that means more uncertainty. more uncertainty means fewer jobs. the s&p just downgraded the outlook of u.s. debt to negative. that sends a signal to job creators. they're not going to expand and create jobs in america, at least at the rate we need them to do so. mounting debt also threatens the poorest and most vulnerable citizens. those who depend most on government would be hit hardest by a fiscal crisis.

we have to repair the social safety net program so that they are there for those who need them the most. this starts by building a successful, bipartisan welfare reform of the 1990's. our reforms save the social safety net by giving more powers to governors to create strong flexible programs that better serve the needs of the population. we propose to make these programs solvent. as we strengthen welfare for those who need it, we also propose to end it for those who do not. we end wasteful corporate welfare for those such as fannie mae and freddie mac. those who have gotten a free ride from the taxpayer for too long. all of these steps are necessary to getting spending under control. there are not enough. we cannot avert a debt crisis unless we directly address the rising cost of health care. getting health care costs under control is critical both for solving the fiscal miss and for promoting growth. one reason so many people are

not getting raises is that health care costs are eating into their paychecks. the second foundation addresses the growing scourges of what i call crony capitalism. washington bureaucrats abuse the regulatory process to pick winners and losers in the private economy. congressional republicans continued to advance reforms to stop regulatory bureaucrats from strangling job growth with red tape. we have advanced legislation into the dodd-frank law that stops businesses getting advantages as an offer to not enjoy today. most important we propose to repeal the new health-care law and its burdens some regulations. is bad enough it imposes an on constitutional mandate on

americans. it poses new regulations on businesses that are stifling job creation. let me share with the one figure that serves as a devastating indictment of the new health- care law. so far, 1000 businesses and organizations have been granted waivers from the laws -- they may prevent job losses now but they do not guarantee in the future. nor did they help the firms that lack the connections to lobby for waivers. this is no way to create jobs in america. true bipartisan health care reform starts by repealing this a very partisan lot. the third foundation, it recognizes we cannot get our economy back on track of washington tries to tax our way out of the miss. the economics profession has been clear about this. hire marginal tax rates create a drag on growth. as the university of chicago

recently wrote, no country ever saw its debt to -- no country ever solved its debt problem by raising tax rates. countries that did not grow inflated or defaulted. higher taxes are not the answer. this foundation calls for a rules based monetary policy to protect working families and seniors from the threat of high inflation. the recent departure from aerospace economic policy has increased economic uncertainty. i would argue endangered the independents. they cite the maximum employment aspect of the fed's dual mandate. the other being price stability. congress should and the dual mandate and pass the central bank instead with a single goal

of long run price stability. the press -- they should follow a monetary role to achieving this goal. these are the four foundations of economic growth. the house passed budget starts the long arduous process of restoring the foundations and building a prosperous future. we left the crushing burden of debt by reforming does programs driving the debt. we reduce the deficit by over one-third in the first year to bring an end to trillion dollar deficits. the house budget does not simply put the budget on a path to balance, it actually pays off our debts over time. we cannot achieve this goal by rubber stamping spending increases or raising the increases and the national debt limit without reducing spending adventure washington. john boehner made this very clear in a recent speech at the

economic club of new york. the house passed budget contains $6.20 trillion in spending cuts. for every dollar the president wants to raise the debt ceiling, we can show him plenty of ways to cut for more than $1 worth of spending. given the magnitude of our debt burden, the size of the spending cuts should exceed the size of his call for a debt level increase. [applause] for those in or near retirement. it offers future generations a strengthen the medicare program that they can count on with guaranteed coverage options. less help for the wealthy and more for the poor and the sick.

there is widespread bipartisan agreement that the open ended fee-for-service structure of medicare is a key driver of health-care cost inflation. ask any hospital executive and will tell you the same thing. as my friend, a noted health care policy expert likes to say, medicare is the engine. the rest of us is getting ready for a ride. this disagreement is not really about the problem. it is about the solution to controlling costs in medicare. if i could sum up the disagreement in a couple of sentences, i would say this. our plan is to give that seniors the power to deny business to any efficient providers. their planned -- [applause]

we disagree also about how to best deliver the tax reform americans have long demanded from washington. here is a quick story about tax policy. 25 years ago in this club, gec zero said "i represent a company that does not pay taxes. i guess things do not change. what i am saying is we need to broaden the tax base. it calls for eliminating loopholes in the tax code that are distorting economic incentives. tax policy drives -- we do this not to raise taxes but to create the space for lower tax rates and a level playing field for innovation and investment. america's corporate tax rate is the highest in the developed world. we need a tax system more

competitive. a simpler fare tax code is also needed for the individual side, too. families and employers spend over 6 billion hours and over $160 billion each year figuring out how to pay their taxes. it is time to clear out the web of deductions and loopholes for everyone to create job creation. [applause] and so that is what we have proposed. the budget does this by making the tax code simpler, flatter, more globally competitive and less burdensome for families and small businesses. by contrast, the president says he wants to make deductions, but he also wants to raise rates. that includes raising the top rate to 44.8%. that would amount to $1.25

trillion increase. when we tax more than our foreign competitors, we win, they lose, that is not a good idea. the president says only the richest people in america will be affected by this plan. class warfare may be clever politics. it is terrible economics. redistributing wealth never creates more of it. the math is really clear. the government cannot close its enormous fiscal gap by taxing the risk. -- the rich. there is a civics side to this as well. sewing social unrest and class envy makes america weaker not stronger. playing one group against another not only distracts us from the true sources of an

equity in this country, corporate welfare and chronic capitalism that enriches the powerful, and empty promises that betrayed the powerless. those committed to the mind-set of some shared scarcity are telling future generations sorry, you will have to make do with much less. your taxes will go up because washington cannot get spending down. they're telling future generations, there is not you can do about rising health-care costs. government spending and health care will keep going up. we cannot afford to borrow or tax another dollar, will have to give a board of bureaucrats the power to tell you what kind of treatments to can and cannot receive. if we succumb to the view that our problems are bigger than we are, if we surrender more control of our economy over to a governing class, then we are choosing shared scarcity over renewed prosperity.

that is the real class warfare that threatens us. a class of governing elites picking winners and losers and determining our destinies for us. look, we face a choice of two futures. we can continue to go down the path toward shared scarcity or we can choose the path of renewed prosperity. the question before us is really simple. which path with -- which path will our generation choose? my mentor jack kemp captured the essence of why we must choose the path to prosperity. we cannot progress as a society by using government to diminish one another. the only way we can all have more is by producing more, not by bickering over how to share less. economic growth must come first. when it does, many social problems tend to take care of themselves. the problems that remain become unmanageable.

there is a question i get a lot from people at town halls. when you go around the country showing people these charts that show our debt is on track to cripple the economy, people start to ask you whether any plan, even a plan like the house-passed budget, can save america from a diminished future. most think the country is deeply down the wrong track. they say, congressman ryan, i know you have to sound optimistic in public, but in private is there anything we can do to save the country from fiscal ruin or should we be bracing ourselves for the worst? that is a difficult question. it gives me pause. it is one that keeps me up at night. the honest answer is one i am about to give you. nobody ever got rich betting against the united states of america. i am not about to start. [applause]

time and again, just when it looked like the era of american exceptional as some was coming to a close, we got back up. we brush ourselves off and got back to work. we rebuild our country, advancing our society and moving the boundaries of opportunity forward. we can do it again. america was knocked down by recession. america is threatened by a rising tide of debt. we are not knocked out. we are america. it is time to prove the doubters wrong once more to show them this exceptional nation is once again up to the challenge. thank you very much for having me today. i appreciate it. [applause]

[captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] >> thank you. first of all, i would like to say it is pretty incredible a green bay packer fan gets a standing ovation in chicago. >> i will savor that one. >> i will pick up on a couple of questions. thank you to the audience to give these. in today's chicago tribune you said despite washington coming to grips with the fact the debt threat is real, policy makers are not having the debate americans deserve. can you expand on what that means for america in your opinion? >> yes, because i think what is happening is we are talking about, tell us about how much taxes we should raise. let's not forget about economic growth and prosperity. we have to make sure we keep our eye on job creation and

prosperity. the way we handle this crisis will clearly determine the kind of country we are coming out of it. what we really believe is the right mix of policy is spending cuts and controls along the with policies that keep the economy growing. if we try to tax our way out of the problem, we will shut down prosperity. .

>> obviously, the midwest has been hit in many areas hard industrially, your district as well. can you talk about innovative ideas -- ideas you thought of or policymakers are thinking about across the nation. >> you have to get to the basics. economic growth, that's why i talk about the four foundation, sound money, low, competitive tax rates, spending under control so our dollar is stable, interest rates are low and getting the hraegtory under control. we have so much government activism, it's bringing a chilling on investment and raising the hurdle rate which people have to clear to be successful. those basic fundamentals, those foundations, you can't replace them. there can't be some widget or a bill in congress to spend on some new program that

fixes all of these things. the other thing i would simply say that we embrace in our budget is you have to have a work force that's educated that can be there for the high skill jobs we need in the future. we basically are saying, let's prepare a social safety net. there are 49 different job training programs, spread across nine dit government agencies in the federal government. we don't even measure whether they work or not. we want to collapse them orson soloo consolidate them into career scholarships. we lost four plants in the last couple of years, displaced industries. when a person finds themselves in this situation you want to have a system where it makes it esy to go back to school to get new skills, to get them a new career, life long learning, getting skills so we can do this. we want miles wide to add jobs up in abbott park, we love abbott park here but we want to have abbott park,

two, in kenosha. >> but the point i'm trying to make is we want to have a skill set, a work force, that is there to do these kinds of jobs, so our technical colleges are primed and ready to develop a curriculum. we want to have a system that works to further those kinds of goals, so education is a key component, federal government has a particular role to play, not a dominant role to play and four foundations of economic growth. you can't replace them. >> we'll get into medicare, but on education, you publicly commented that you like some of mary duncan's comments. can you talk about what you think the federal government's role is in education, a little more on what you just talked about, and where there are opportunities for both parties to work together collect toeufl get towards a solution? >> i think he's one of the most impressive members of the president's cabinet. you probably know him. he's an impressive guy. he's a person who clearly

reaches across the aisle and that's noted because we don't see a lot of that these days. first of all, let's remember most of the money is spent and raised at local and state governments. the federal government is sort of a junior partner when it comes to k-12 education but the federal government imposes lots of regulation, lots of unfunded mandate, idea is the biggest unfunded mandate. the state and federal obligation have an obligation to free up property tax dollars to customize education in those local school districts. the other thing, charters, school choice, all thosegenovative education ideas need to be implemented, tested. we should get washington out of the way which are spraoepbting them from doing those sorts of things, look at what mitch daniels has done in indiana. it's impressive. we've got similar kinds of reforms in store in milwaukee and wisconsin. so we want in the spirit of federalism to expand the laboratories of education

reform, but at the federal level and post-secondary -- post secondary creation, job training -- look, i'm 41, i've got a lot of buddies in high school who lost their jobs at the gm plant in jamesville, most thought you could go from high school to jamesville and make a good living for the rest of your life. that was conventional wisdom. that's not the economy anymore. a lot of my friends find themselves in their 40s and 50s with nothing. we have to have the ability to go back to school. one of my buddies is going back to school to learn a new trade and he's so happy to get into the new business. another friend of mine went back to get a degree at hvac, now he is a contractor with his own business, lead ago fulfilling life and making jobs, providing for his family. those kinds of things, that kind of job training scholarship that goes to the person so they can go out into society to me is a smarter way to go.

that's where the federal government has a bigger role to play versus the k-12 things. we have to stop stifling that in my book. >> both parties seem to be worlds apart on the budget debate. are you willing to compromise with senate democrats and president obama to get grand bargain? won't republicans need to allow tax revenues to be part of the conversation? >> i don't think we're going to have a big grand global bargain, only because i think we're just so far apart on issues like health care. now, we are putting our pwurpblgt out there, as our starting point. we submitted a budget that literally balances the budget and pays off the debt and reforms entitlement programs to make them safe, sure and solvent. we have yet to see anything from the president or senate democrats that comes close to solving this problem. as far as who is putting plans and details out there, we've already done that. we're waiting for our partners on the other side of the aisle to contribute something. do we have to have some compromise in this, of course we do. but the way we look at revenues is if we look at

revenues as a source to fix this problem, then it takes pressure off the problem, which is spending. spending is the problem that is the source of the problem, we need to address that. i am for having higher revenues coming into the federal government. i don't think you get that by raising tax rates. i think you get that through progrowth economic polices and fundamental tax reform that raises economic growth and then you get higher revenues through that way. i subscribe to the geary becker school of thought. i hear him -- i see him here. it's great to see a living legend in front of us. that to me is the way to increase revenues. the other problem we have is if we blink in this moment, and we show both political parties don't have the courage to actually address the spending crisis we have, what type of confidence will the bond markets have in us after that? i think the biggest mistake we could make is rubber stamp a debt limiting in showing we don't have a chance of

getting anything under control. we've got to have serious downpayments on spending cuts and controls to buy ourselves time in the credit market so that whatever we don't resolve in this episode is resolved soon, and i really believe this next election is going to be the most important election in our lifetimes, it's going to be a choice of two futures and i for one believe we owe it to our constituents and kunmen to give them an option, a choice. what kind of country do you want, the historical american idea, opportunity society with a safety net or the path we're on, which is to make us a social democracy, a cradle to grave welfare state. i know those are harsh words but it's the practical result of the path we're on and the least we can do is give all of you a choice so you can pick which one you want going forward. >> you mentioned political courage in that comment and i've seen you in an interview where you talked about the third rail, medicare and other issues such as that and looked as it if -- at it as

if you were a koala bear. >> you have to be willing to lose your job to be good at these jobs. you just do. i'm serious. >> [applause] >> the other thing i would say, the public is way ahead of the political class in washington. the problem we have, and both parties do this to each other, you put something out that proposes a change, it's bold, the other party uses it as a political weapon against you and that fear of that political weapon paralyzes the political system, and we've had this political prowess for a long time and republicans do it to democrats, democrats do it to republicans. i for one, what we're trying to do is break through that, put ideas out there and yes, grab those third rails, because a, i think the country is ahead of us, b, look, i represent -- my district goes from jamesville to lake michigan and up and to including seven counties,

lake geneva -- it went through du cakis, gore, obama, it's not a big republican area. i put these ideas out there in 2008, 2010, and i for one believe that people are ready to be talked to like adults, not children, on these issues and when you give people the facts, when you show them what we're trying to do, i think people want to see us fix this problem. political courage means worry more about our economy in the next generation than you are about the next election and it will be fine at the end of the day. >> great. so let's get into the medicare a little bit more. your budget includes significant medicare and medicaid reforms and calls for a full repeal of the health care law. how do you address the uninsured and what 'rising health care costs for businesses and are you still committed to replace and not just repeal the health care law.

>> for sure the answer is yes to that especially. so what our budget does is weo given that medicare and medicaid are the biggest drivers of our debt, and we had chart that is showed that, those two programs alone are the biggest contributors to it so you have to restructure not only how the programs work to save them, the trustees gave us a new warning that medicare is going bankrupt faster than we thought it was. we're saying if we do this now we can do this on our own terms as a country, meaning you don't have to pull the rug out from those who have retired. people on medicare, people who are ten years away from retiring are preparing for it. our whole point is dong change their benefits but in order to do that you've got to reform this program for the next generation. those of us under 54, you've got to save it and make it a solvent system so you can cash flow the current generation and make good on the proms that government made to them. the way to do that, we believe, is not by giving a panel of 15 bureaucrats the

authority to micromanage, ration and price control medicare and that is in law now and being imposed on current seniors. we rekneel and we say let younger people when they become medicare eligible, select among a list of medical care covered jobs that medicare provides. it works like the system that i and members of congress and federal employees have. in this case you subsidize the insurance, if they're poor or sick, you subsidize more, if they're wealthy, you subsidize them less. give support to the people who need it the most and less support to the people who need it the least. doing it this way, according to the medicare and congressional budget office, makes this program solvent, secure, so my generation can count on it when we retire and it helps solve our debt crisis. now, the question is, is can this be done. well, look, i hardly think this is some radical idea. this is the same kind of recommendation that president bill clinton's bipartisan commission to save medicare

recommended in the late 1990s. the idea originally comes out of the brookings institution, the think tank, it works like medicare benefits work today. medicare prescription drugs works like this, advantage works like this, buying your medicare supplemental insurance works like this, private providers, competing against each other for our business and that runs to the other part of your question. we believe the best way to get at this issue, health inflation, is by giving the patient the power, a consumer-directed system. where the providers, hospitals, insurers, doctors, compete against each other for our business as consumers. we spend over 2 1/2 times per person on health care in this country than any other industrialize dollars country. we spend a lot of money on health care but we don't spend it intelligently, so we need a system like all other market-based sectors of our economy where you have transpairness tkpwhre price, transparency in quality and economic incentive to act on those things so we have apels

to apels metrics to compare and shop. i think ultimately you need to deal with the tax exclusion, i have separate legislation, we subsidize people in the higher brackets more than the lower brackets, that's upside down. more to the point we want a system where the individual is in the driver's seat, not a bureaucrat and the insurance laws, i would argue for subsidizing those with preexisting conditions so they don't go bankrupt if they get sick, they have the spraoepbt tiff medicine and disease medicine, i think we do that with risk pools and bring more competition and choice to the health care sector. if we do this, i think we're going to be fine. we're not only going to grow the economy but the point i try to make is we can have insurance for everybody who doesn't have it, and do it without braking theo breaking the bank and taking this entire sector economy over by the government. >> [applause] >> in a speech you gave on

january 25th, you addressed the house budget committee and said our debt is the product of acts by many presidents and many congresses over many years. no one person or party is responsible for it. and that americans are skeptical of both political parties, and it's justified. can you expand on the notion that the problem we face here is a product of both parties and how do we get past and move forward collectively. >> look, both -- look at what politics rewards. it rewards the poll take makes an empty promise to the voter. pretty simple. you want to get elected, you promise somebody something, you get elected. we got to stop that. what we're trying to achieve here and we'll see if this works is -- >> [laughter] >> -- is turn the political rewards system away from rewarding the politician who makes the empty promise to the political leader who speaks honestly with people about where we stand as a country and what it takes to get this thing fixed. that's what we have to

address. both parties have done this, but we're on borrowed time. look, the way i look at this is we're the -- one of the most complex experiences i had was t., a r.p. in 2008. i was in the -- tpheufs the meetings with pw*b pw b and -- with ben bernanke and henry paulson, that was an awful situation and that particular surprise caught us by surprise and we watched the spreads and the vixx and the money market meltdown. that caught us by surprise. let me ask you this. what would you o'clock of your president or member of congress if they knew it was coming, if they knew why it was happening, when it was going to happen and more importantly, knew exactly whatly what to do to prevent it from happening, and but it was bad politics. what would you think of this crisis? the thing that is stopping us from fully and -- fixing th-g

thing is politics. we got to get through that. that's why some us are putting these ideas, and these plans out there to try to move this conversation to a level it has to get to. we're not there yet but we're sure going to keep providing. -- trying. >> you've clearly touched a nerve in the nation with your ability to convey this message and you've got the president of the -- respect of the president, you said publicly you respect the president as well, it's a mutual admiration society. can you talk about what it's like to be the voice that discusses these issues with someone of that stature and how you take that on? >> i don't really think about it too much like that i grew up studying economics. i wanted to go to university of chicago rand go into the field of economics and i ended up being a politician.

that didn't go so well, i suppose. i'm joking. as chair of the house budget committee, it's your job to look at the fiscal finances of this canada they're downright scary. the thing is most people who have been involved in these things think about budgets like they thought of them in the 1990s. because of the recession the numbers moved up and it's really a scary situation, and we don't have a lot of time left before we have a debt crisis on our hands. all of those things we take for granted, the world's reserve currency, all those things are threatened. so i simply see it as my job elected by my colleagues to take this post to do whatever i can to address this issue, to be sort of a paul revere and to have this country get to have these conversations. with the president, i have a lot of respect for him but i don't respect the political

tone that has been injected in this conversation which i think is counterproductive, not productive. at the end of the day i think we're going to have to make a choice between two theories of government or philosophies. one which i would characterize as the traditional american idea, where the goal of our government is to protect our natural rights and promote equal opportunity, so we can go make the most of our lives. where we're defined by the characteristic of equal opportunity, upward mobility and prosperity. first is what i think is a different vision, a different philosophy, one seen in many other nations, which is the goal of the government grows to try and equal the results of our lives. that is scarce decline, where we delegate decisions and power to unelected people in bureaucracies and they try to micromanage these busy things in our lives and i don't think it works, i think it's at the core of what separates us at the end of the day. >> you just mentioned the

debt ceiling so let's get do that a little bit. what conditions are attached to a raise and if you require a dollar for dollar cut in the budget required for each increase, where do you envision the cuts come from. >> we put out $6.2 trillion in cuts. so we've got a good menu to pick from. we also propose budget process reforms. there are three basic process reform that is are in our budget. what we call statutory caps on discretionary spending. we've had this before. it got turned off in the last decade. >> we also proproceeds debt targets or limits with enforce mechanisms which means the debt rises above a certain level, a sequester kicks in, we also propose a global spending cap on government as a share of gdp, this is referred to as the mccas kill bipartisan agreement in the senate. we aren't taking anything off the table, but if certain entitlements are taken off the table by democrats because they choose not to do

so, first of all, we should not do that, i disagree with that, we've proo proposed $790 million in savings from other programs that are in need of dire reforms. discretionary spending went up 24 percent in the last two years, throw the stimulus on top, 84 percent over the last two years. the government gave a number of executive agencies triple digit increases in their budgets. that's totally unsustainable. there are lots of areas where we believe we should be cutting back on spending and capping spending going forward. so i think what you're going to see at the end of the day is a mixture of spending cuts measured in the trillions, and caps on spending to lock in those gains and keep those cuts going into place and wherever it is we don't have agreement on, and whatever big issue it may be, we owe it to go to the country with our plan to fix this versus, say, the president's plan and think that's what we're going to end up doing. >> let's get into defense, just a quick question here.

you've been critical of putting wars on off budget, as you say, emergency supplementals have been a poor way to do this. >> right. >> can you talk about your path to prosperity and how it deals with defense. >> we budget for the war and to president obama's credit, he does, too. the last administration didn't do that. we were in wars for a number of years and they kept using emergency funding designations, outside of spending limits by the congress. i was not in agreement with that. i think we now have consensus between president obama's own budget director and ourselves, budget for these things, it's a tradeoff and call it like that. number one. number two, you can't throw $700 billion at any government agency and not expect there to be a lot of waste, so nothing should be immune from the budget scalpel so we do cut $178 billion in defense spending, we designate 100 to our troops to modernize equipment we've been burning through and 78 billion for

deficit reduction. that's basically what secretary gates has recommended as well. now, i would love nothing more than to budget for a peace dividend. here's the problem. we don't have peace right now we have our men and women out there, fighting on two, maybe -- you could argue would be the third front. we can't pull ut rug out from under them. we have to back them up, they have to have the resources they need to do their jobs. that doesn't speak to foreign policy decisions or not. the point is we're there, we're committed, we can't underfund them or de fund them. we have to go after the waste at the pentagon, we've proposed in doing that and that, too, should be a contributor to debt reduction. >> some of your crit ics, "new york times" columnist paul krugman -- >> never heard of him. >> i have to bring in "new york times" because there's a lot of "wall street journal". he said you would raise taxes for 95 percent of the population and produce a $4 trillion revenue loss over ten years, newt gingrich had

a few comments related to your budget. how do you address some of these issues? it's open debate, obviously, but curious what your latest perspectives are on the people voicing concerns. >> first off, for the tax portion, that's actually not an accurate statistic in comparison, we use cbo nuts, we don't use anybody's back of the envelope calculations. we're not talking about cutting tax revenues. we're talking about revenue-neutral tax reform. let me explain it this way. this is where the class warfare gets into it. the people who enjoy the biggest tax deductions are the folks in the top two brackets. if you have a dollar of income parked into a tax shelter, that's taxed at zero. if you take away the tax shelter, lower everybody's tax rates, then that dollar is taxed. and so by broadening the tax base, depriving tax shelters and lowering tax rates you're subjecting more of that person's income to taxation, albeit at a lower rate, an

kaoerz the key to it. just like the president's fiscal commission, which i served on supported by democrats, they too agreed, you need to lower tax rates to create jobs and broaden the tax rate. -- base. so it's taken out of the book of a fiscal commission, broaden the tax base, lower the tax rates because again, we are taxing our employers, our job creators, at tax rates hire than our foreign competitors are taxing theirs, whether it's a corporation or a successful small business. and the president has in law in his budget a plan to raise the top tax rate to 44.8%. well, i don't even know what those in illinois pay. ours is 6 percent, 7 percent, and yours are higher -- or just went higher. the point is we're only going to tax subchapter s corporations, llcs, over 50 percent? how on earth can we expect

them to thrive in the local economy. drive around wisconsin, go to kenosha, look at the outskirts of town, there's ab industrial park and that industrial park will have a lot of businesses that have 50-500 employees. odds are they're paying taxes as individuals. that's where most of our jobs come from. and if we keep cranking up their tax rates and the guise of class warfare, we are going to shut down job creation, stifle economic growth. >> on the news thing, i would simply say these ideas we're proposing are the most gradual, sensible thing we could come up with, they replicate the reforms like the prescription drug program. name a program that came in 41 percent below cost. the medicare prescription drug plan did. why? because it gives seniors the power. seniors get to choose which among competor target plans

they select from for their drug benefits and the provider knows that the senior can fire them if they don't perform, if they don't give them competitive price, good quality service and next year they can fire them and get somebody else, so they compete for that senior's business. that has brought premiums down, saved taxpayers, 41 percent down, so what we're seeing is replicate that kind of reform for people 54 and below when they become medicare eligible. this doesn't take effects for ten years. hardly is tis radical in my opinion. what's truly radical is a status quo, a bankrupt medicare, kicking the can down the road, going tens of trillions of dollars deeper in the hole every year we don't fix the situation, we have a debt crisis and austerity and you're cutting indiscriminately to current seniors where you're giving them no time to prepare or adjust and taxing the economy to slow us down. that's the result of the political paralysis if we

keep it up, that's what happens. >> let's talk about the kicking the can down the road analogy and you've spoken about the need to pass on a better america to the next generation. can you talk about when ito what it means to you as a leader, and in political de dates. >> i'll talk to you about it as a dad. jan and i have three kids, six, seven, nine years old. i'll asked to run the cbo numbers all the tile and i ask, what will the tax rates have to be on my children, when they're my age, raising their children if we just raise taxes to cure this problem. they got back to me, here's what they said, the lowest income tax bracket that lower income people pay, which is 10 percent, goes up to 25 percent, middle income tax rates from middle income payors goes up to 60 percent and the top bracket, the one that all the small businesses i was talking about, goes up

to 80 percent, next the cbo said this could have negative effects on the economy, so even they get it there at the cbo. >> their model forecasts the economy going forward. and their model a year ago crashed in 2054 because the computer similar ulation couldn't envision any way in which the economy could continue because of debt. this year the computer crashes in 2037. our government economic estimators can't conceive of a way in which our economy can continue past that year, when our children are in the midst of the prime of their lives. they're telling us out a shred of doubt that we are giving the next generation an inferior standard of living, lower living standards, less prosperity. we've never done that before. mine, look, like the ryans here, my family came when they stopped growing potatoes in ireland and may a go of it, and we were first in

wisconsin, northern illinois, and made something of ourselves. and each preceding generation sacrificed, worked hard, they took on the challenges, whether it was depression or world wars or whatnot, so that the next generation could be better off. that's what we do in this country. we know -- they're telling us, all the fiscal authorities are telling us that's not the case anymore. we don't turn this thing around, we will be giving our kids a lower standard of living, a less secure, a less prosperous america and the point i keep making is it's not too late to turn this around. we know we can fix it. we want to get on with fixing it. that's the whole point. >> last question, just to pick up on that point -- >> [applause] >> you obviously have a great sense of midwestern ethic and authenticity and that's why so many people are so supportive of you. >> it's the packer thing, too. >> we've got to work on that part! but can you talk a little

about your political mentors? you mentioned jack kemp earlier and where you derive a lot of your political thinking and your authenticity and how it drives you going forward. >> ideas. i mean, i lost my dad when i was a young guy so i always had mentors in my life, jack kech and bill bennett were among my professional mentors, my mom, a big mentor to me, and i was a big reader when i was younger, i he'd hayak, gary becker and siegler and friedman and all those guys, i grew up on those ideas, and i grew up with an aptitude and interest in economics and when you get into public policy, the idea is to aapply those principles and less less kwr-pbs to the time. it's not as if we have to reinvent the whaoe. we know what ideals built this country: freedom, responsibility, limited government,

self-determination, all of those things made us great. they'll continue to do so. we just have to reapply the founding principles to the problems of our time. that's what we try to do in this budget. and we're going to be fine. so that's what makes me sleep soundly at night because i really think americans want america. and i don't think they want another country. and so it's those mentors and those writers that, you know, really inspired me. i'm a big churchhill fan and we're in a church hillan moment. it's not an external threat, it's an internal threat. it's debt. and we'll turn it around. i really do. this done is -- this country is not done with exceptionalism. so thanks. >> well, great. >> [applause] >> on behalf of the economic

club, and thank you very much to ann griff tpoeupb bringing congressman here, we appreciate you being here. thank you, and the meeting is adjourned.

>> you can see more of mitt romney's choice for his running mate, chairman paul ryan by visiting the c span video library, mr. ryan has nearly 400 appearances in the video library, these include speeches from the house floor, his speech at the 2004 republican national convention, and hearings he chaired as budget committee chairman. watch, clip and share c span videos your way, with the c span video library, c span.org/videolibrary, later tonight, we'll bring you more of mitt romney and paul ryan's remarks from today's events and we will also bring you live coverage tomorrow of a romney-ryan campaign stop in wisconsin. phao*eul, president obama is in chicago tonight -- phao*eul, president obama is in chicago tonight and tomorrow. we're going to bring you live coverage tomorrow at 4:30 eastern on c span.

this week on the communicators, a look at cyber attacks, there's a new book out, called "we are anonymous", it's authored by parmy olson and parmy olson is london bureau chief from forbes magazine and joins us from london. ms. olson, if we could start, what is "anonymous"? guest guest actually, a very difficult question to answer. a lot of people see it as a group or an organization. it isn't quite that. if tpheurbg it's more of an internet phenomenon or a movement. it's many different people collaborating together on line to protest against all sorts of -- for all sorts of different reasons and also to haras people sometimes for fun. it comes from a culture of image boards and discussion boards online, and some people see it as the start of a new way of protesting online. host host how did it begin? guest guest so anonymous

emerged from something that's called image boards. these are discussion boards on a website and one in particular, for chance, which in 2004, around 2004, 2005, this website became very popular and the creating of that website forced all users to be anonymous when they posted comments. a lot of the users didn't like this at first but what they realized over time was when they were stripped of identity and age and gender and all sorts of different features it created almost this more mysterious powerful collective identity they could be part of. over the years, they used that not only for discussions, but to work together as a kind of collective force, spamming other websites, often just in the form of pranks, and over the years that took a much more serious direction, particularly after they started attacking the church of scientology in 2008. >> who are they, parmy olson? >> they can be anyone.

anybody can be anonymous, a man, woman, employed, unemployed, young, old. tpwheu large, though, the main or the -- by in large, though, the core constituents tend to be young men or young peep. there's a misconception about anonymous, that it's a big group of hackers. that really isn't the case. for the most part they're young people who have grown up with the internet, understand the internet really well, how to circumvent it, the highways and byways and who understand the subcultures of the internet very well. >> parmy olson, you talked about the fact that they have pro-- protest or are protesting things. what are they protesting? >> there are all different sorts of things they use to protest. in the period in which i wrote the book, between late 2010 and summer of 20 # one, even in that short space of time there were many different event that is anonymous became a part of and was supporting, so it was supporting the pirate bay

because this is a bit-torn piracy site, supporting wick i hraubgs because mastercard, visa and pay pal stopped funding services for wickileaks, supporting prodemocracy demonstrators in the middle east. often times the most dramatic operations done by people at anonymous are attacks against people who are trying to attack anonymous itself. the security contractor in february 2011 gave an interview to the financial times where the ceo said he had identified members of anonymous and its leadership. a group of annons went after this gentleman with vengeance and attacked his servers and installed thousands of -- and stole thousands of his e-mails and published them online. it was a devastating attack on his reputation and career. very demonstrative when it comes to the organization. >> do they exist today, are

they still anonymous or have they been identified? >> certainly some supporters, very key organizers who have been anonymous have been identified because they've been arrested. the only other time that someone would be identified is if they had been doxed by someone else anonymous or a rival hacker but certainly anonymous still exists. it's one of those things that it's very -- a new phenomenon in the sense there are no leaders, it's an illustration of a new type of way that people are collaborating in this very digitally open age. it's very nebulous. so people can be in it for two years, three years, some people are in it for a day. so although maybe some of the people who are part of a particular generation of anonymous at the time that i was writing my book zero still around. many have left and still many more have joined. so people are coming and going all the time. >> parmy olson is the author of "we are anonymous", author

of the -- and bureau kho*ef for forbes. who is saboo? >> saboo is one of the key people i interviewed for the book and he was pretty much the de facto leader from anonymous called lolsack, w is a hacking group. they were organizers in anonymous to start with and they kind of found each other in the private channels used by hackers and press release writers in anonymous in 2010 and early 20 # one. they performed friendships and created this splinter group, lolsacs, saboo became a hacker. he was a great communicator and writer and someone who was good at networking. who the two guys work together, saboo was quite a skilled hacker, they decided they wanted to, after there had and two month lull in activities with anonymous,

they wanted to do something to reinspire anonymous and create some kind of project they could get some of their closest collaborators to work together on. the two of them, plus another four or five others, had worked together on attacking hb gary federal, the i.t. security contractor which i mentioned earlier. they felt that was such a successful attack in one way that they could do it all over again and they could take it one step further and better and create something anonymous had never seen before. >> and what was that next attack? >> so they weren't quite sure what they were going to do when they started working together. they thought maybe they would create a chat network, a more stable chat work for people in anonymous to collaborate on. that ended up not really being needed so they said let's actually start looking for vulnerabilities on high profile websites, see if we can exploit them and if we can, let's steal the data and publicize it under a new

name, we won't be anonymous, because in anonymous there's this kind of general ethos not to attack the media, because the media is the message, so let's go after whoever we want, so they started finding vulnerabilities in fox.com, pbs, an affiliate of the fbi called infraguard and they would exploit the vulnerabilities and one by one announce them under lolsacs. that's a derivation of laugh out loud. it means having fun at someone else's expense. they were doing these things for lols, for fun, and sometimes attach a cost as well. the impression that the media was getting was the attacks had been planned but like so many other things done by anonymous, they weren't really planned, it was these guys being opportunistic, finding or exploiting other peoples' carelessness in terms of protecting their online data, exploiting that, then attaching a cause to it

afterwards. >> so was there a profit motive? was there money involved in these early attacks? >> you know, when i first started writing about anonymous, that was one of my first thoughts. i thought there's got to be some kind of darker element here where these hackers will use these communities and networks and tools for financial gain, to steal credit card numbers or whatever else. in all the reporting i did on anonymous, that hardly ever came up. money really wasn't a motive for most of these guys. it's community, it's a sense of purpose, sometimes it's a sociopolitical point that they want to make or agenda they have. and very rarely to these kinds of elements come into play. of course, they were accepting donations at one point. lolsack had a type of crip tocurrency but that was one of the few times where finances were a part of what they were trying to do. >> parmy olson, you said

earlier they worked together. how did they work together? >> they don't meet in person. that's for sure. occasionally, if there's a very strong feeling of trust between two of the -- two supporters or two members of lolsack, they would talk to each other on the phone from time to time, just to check on each other. but for the most part, they were collaborating on i r-plt c, internet relay chat, this is a real-time chat network and you can choose a network you want to chat on and create chat rooms within that network. very quickly, with a few keyboard strokes you can create a secret chat room or public chat room and if you understand the nuances of how irc works you can have a dynamic collaborative environment to discuss these and this is how these guys worked. >> could other people join that chat room, was it a hackable chat room or was it very private?

>> it was private for the most part. within the culture and within communities aligned with anonymous, there's -- like i was saying, a lot of e drama between supporter, people will attack each other, dox each other, find out that person's personal information, they'll go under a false nickname and they'll try and make their way through special engineering tactics into a private chat room and use elements of sub tra tpaopblg to leave out information, so nothing was truly private but they did have various levels of private chat rooms that they use to discuss with each other and i should pont out, there's a huge degree of paranoia that exists among those with anonymous, the fear is they're going to get found out by the police or usually the fear is they'll be found out by another hacker. they can do that very well. >> parmy olson, there's another character in your

book, kayla. >> and character is probably a good way to describe that, although kayla was an interviewee in the sense i was interviewing this person by e-mail and on internet relay chat, i. r-bgs c. this person was presenting themselves as a 16-year-old haerbg and just completely going with that story and having a very elaborate back story attached to that persona. so when i asked them about their lives and their back story, they talked about growing up in the countryside, with a single parent father, friends in the skwhraoeupb world, teaching herself to hack, having guys who were kind of slightly perverted in the way that they were dealing with her online. really, all these different details about her life, and you know, never denying the fact that that was the true person that she was, that's kind of sticking with that story, and although it seemed very implausible, i kind of

went along with the interview and teased out as much information as i could about the real person behind that persona as i can, and if anything it was a great illustration of the ability that some people have to manipulate perceptions on the internet and i think that's illustrated even in a broader sense in what anonymous was doing, creating this eye russian it was this malevolent calculating organization or very powerful organization when often it was lots of small groups of people working together, wrapping themselves in that collective identity, and amplifying their message on that platform. >> you write in "we are anonymous", since 2008, anonymous has destroyed servers, stolen e-mails and taken websites off line but in the collective act of social engineering, its greatest feat was in getting people to believe in the power of its hive mind. >> what's hive stphaoeupbd.

>> this speaks to where anonymous began, which was the image boards. so when the original commenters on these discussion boards were stopped from using their nicknames and they had to be anonymous, there were two different -- there started to be a kind of slight civil war on those sites between the people who wanted to use nicknames and those who wanted to be anonymous and the guys with the nicknames would call the anonymous guys, they would jokingly refer to it as a man called afinish mus and the hive mind and this joke actually turned into something that was real, the sense that through collective action, through collective discussion, they could create something more powerful than what any individual could. we talk a lot these days about crowd sourcing. that's a very big kpoepbt of how anonymous works as well. collectively gathering ideas together, voting for what's best, and sometimes, the most charismatic individual, the real doers, if you could call

it a duocracy, the doers are the ones that tend to lead the way. they're never pined, never really voted in but if there is popularity that surrounds that person they can get things done and the crowd can move forward. >> parmy olson is in london, joining us via skype on the communicators. we are talking about her new book "we are anonymous". what is -- we began our discussion talking about horchan. what is horchan and can anybody go to that site? >> you pbably wouldn't want to go to that site. it's a free for all. i shouldn't say you probably wouldn't want to go. check it out by all means but user warning, beware of what you see. it's really all sorts of content there, a lot of porn, a lot of pictures of gore, and a lot of opportunities for people to prank other people, to say there's someone who's a regular user on one of the spreads on forchan and they have someone

at school that they really dislike, they'll get that person was facebook profile, put it link to it on one of the threads and say let's go after this person and if they manage to kind of promote that in the right way, then other people on the thread will be very happy to join in and help to crack that person was facebook account, hack into their account and spam it with all sorts of not very nice images and words. so yes, it's an amoral free for all but at the same time it's unhindered creativity. so you have a lot of internet means on facebook, twitter. a lot of these come from forchan there's such an element of freedom and no limits to what you can say or do, that often, they come out with very funny and hilarious mimes and jokes and tricks and pranks. >> parmy olson, the online

personas that are developed versus the personal personas that are real, what's the difference between these two? >> you know, i think that's something that the internet has provided for a long time. you know, when you're on facebook, you might project a different kind of personality on facebook to who you are in real life. some people don't draw a distinction at all between how they are online and how they are in real life. with the irc networks you can have a nick anymore and create a backstory, like kayla did. you can be a different gender, you can be a different age. what anonymous does is take that to the next level. not only can you live out an altar ego or different kind of personality or different gender, you can have a person, you can have a moral high ground as well so anonymous becomes this meeting ground where all these different personalities can come together and can have a kind of purpose and

find -- fulfillment for the real people behind those personas. >> do saboo, kaylaand topiary still exist online? >> no, they don't. the people behind those names have been arrested. the man who was arrested for being kayla pleaded not guilty to all the charges against him, whereas jake davis has pleaded to two out of the four counts. saboo, who was outed as being late 20s man from new york, lower east side named hector monsaguer has pleaded guilty and has yet to be sentenced. >> how were they arrested, who was arrested first? talk about that. >> the first person who be arrested was saboo. he was the charismatic figure, the one people looked up to, almosteld older brother within volsack, could be aggressive and was known to tell people off from time

to time, very hot headed sometimes if you got on the wrong side of him and he was the first to be arrested on june 6th, 20 # one, right in the middle -- 2011, right in the middle of the lolsack hacking spree. he went off line for 36 hours and everyone in the private chat rooms were very worry, topiary was very worried, i remember him telling me he was worried about whether saboo had been arrested or not and saboo came back online and said everything was fine and in fact his grandmother died and he was going to be off line for a few more days to deal with funeral arrangements and whatnot. the truth was the f.b.i. had come to his house and had threatened he would be incarcerate fod two years because they had evidence he had been involved in credit card fraud and, he had two young girls and agreed to cooperate with the f.b.i.

even as lolsack announced attacks, create other hackers, he was cooperating with the f.b.i. >> that was in new york city, correct? >> that was in new york city, the lower east side, right. many of the other thebs of -- members of lolsack were in the u.k. so jake davis was based in the shetlands, very remote community of islands between scott lawn and norway and lived by himself in a small wooden house, just near the main town of lirwick in stehland. >> and jake davis was topiary. >> that's right. a few weeks later in july, after lolsack had ended, jake had a knock on his door and it was the police and phra*eupb clothed police officers had flown up from a jet in london and want to see everything on his laptop, he had to step away from his computer, they asked him for the pass wards to get --

passwords to get access to the hard drives on his computers and they gave -- and he gave them access and they questioned him and questioned him for the next four days. >> did he admit to being topiary at some point? >> he was very cooperative with the police, after they spoke to him -- i probably shouldn't say too much about that because in the u.k. i have to be careful about what i say, because there is a trial coming up and there's an issue of contempt of court, but the understanding is he did cooperate with police and they were able to get the passwords to the accounts, for instance his twitter account and he was manning the lolsack account. >> p-plt army olson, what about kayla? >> again, another situation where the police arrest add young man, ryan ak roid, in september 2011, they came to his house and arrested him in his home, he is 26 years old,

former soldier, did time in iraq. i was in the u. -- he was in the u.k. army for five years, and really, looks like the kind of soldier, when you look at him, he's got this military crew cut and tattoos on his arm, and so he just, you know, about a month ago, he was in court with topiary -- sorry, with jake davis and ryan cleary and a fourth man who's been arrested in connection with lolsack and is a minor and can't be named legally and they had to answer to the indictment, an eight count indictment against them. >> all pleaded stkpwheult. >> there was a mixture of guilty and not guilty pleas. jake davis pled guilty to two out of the four, ryan akroid pled not guilty to every single charge against him, on the eight count indictment, ryan cleary pleaded guilty to six out of the eight charges

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