>> one of the fascinating things about the olympics has been -- and i think it will be really interesting for media, the people in the media industry to understand this change we are going through from a filtered outside-in review of the event, where there is a broadcaster and the interview michael phelps before or after the race, and you get a linear progression that is delivered to you in a certain way. now, before, during, and after the event, you have very much this unfiltered inside-out view of the event from the participants and people who are at the event, even some of the participants taking a total of the guy three lanes over and tweeting it. >> i feel sorry for the nbc folks who spent all this money to do something which is time delayed and they have inserted lots of ads and feature stories

and wonderful emeritus about the athletes and their personal stories. there is an alternative, which is what the olympics by twitter. boom, boom, boom. it is a different choice. >> you can watch this discussion at 8:30 p.m. eastern on c-span2. >> president obama is on a campaign bus tour in iowa. starting in council bluffs, he criticized paul ryan and other members of congress for not passing a farm bill to help those affected by the drought. this is a little more than a half-hour. ♪ ♪

[chhers] >> hello, iowa. [applause] it's good to be back. [applause] well, it is good to be back in iowa. i missed you guys. crowd: obama, obama. >> thank you. can everyone please give patricia a round of applause for that great introduction? [applause]

a couple of other people i want to the knowledge, your outstanding former governor and the best secretary of agriculture we have ever had. tom vilsack. [applause] congressman leonard boswell and your mayor. [applause] did you see the sun is coming out? [applause] i love being back in iowa. we're starting here in council bluffs, but we will be heading east and i think i will and at the state fair. michelle has told me i cannot have a fried twinkie, but i will be checking out the butter cow and chocolate moose.

-- mousse. i will have to take a look at that, if i can. the last time i went to the state fair, secret service let me do the bumper cars. i was not president yet, so i could do that. not this time. now, before i get started, i just want to say a few words about the drought because it has such an impact on this state and all across the country. right now, people in iowa and across the heartland are suffering from one of the worst droughts in 50 years. farmers, ranchers depend on a good crop season to pay the bills and keep a roof over their heads. i know things are tough right now. the best way to help these states is for the folks in congress to pass a farm bill

that not only helps farmers and ranchers respond to natural disasters but also makes the necessary reforms to give farmers and ranchers some long- term certainty. unfortunately, right now to many members of congress are blocking the farm bill from becoming law. i am told that governor romney's new running mate may be in iowa and he is one of the leaders in congress standing in the way. if you happen to see congressman ryan, tell him how important the farm bill is. we need to put politics aside when it comes to during the right thing for iowa and rural america. [applause] it is always a problem waiting for congress. in the meantime, i have made sure my administration is doing everything we can to provide

relief for those in need. last week, we announced $30 million to help ranchers and farmers to get more water for livestock and rehabilitate land. they, we're announcing federal government will help livestock producers by purchasing meat and fish right now while prices are low and we will freeze it for later. we have a lot of freezers. that will help ranchers who were going through tough times right now and also over the long term, the food will be used by those in the pentagon and other places. america depend on farmers and ranchers to put food on the table, depend on them to feed our families, so we need to be there for them. not just today but tomorrow and every day until this drop passes because we are americans. that's what we do. we take care of each other.

when tough times strike our neighbors, we give them a hand. [applause] now, that speaks to the larger idea of why i'm here. the notion that i am my brother's keeper, the idea that we are in this together was at the heart of the journey that began here in iowa five years ago. you know, we spend a lot of time on bus tours like this one, in school gymnasiums, small businesses throughout this state. the bus we had was not as nice as this one. [laughter] that campaign back in 2007-2008 had plenty of ups and downs, but no matter what you, the

people in iowa, had my back. you had my back. [applause] when the pundits had written us off, when we were down in the polls, you believed in me, and i believe in you. it was on your front porches and in your backyard where the movement for change in this country began. but our journey is not finished. not yet. i'm going to spend the next three days driving all across this state, just like a did in 2007, to cross from council bluffs to the quad cities. once more, you face the choice. that choice could not be bigger. it is not just between two candidates, two political parties. more than any other election, this is a choice between two fundamentally different visions

for this country and the path we have to take. the direction that you choose when you walk into that voting booth in november will have an impact not just on your lives but your children's, grandchildren's for decades to come. this one counts. [applause] crowd: four more years!four more years! four more years! four more years! >> think about this, council bluffs. we came together. it was not just democrats but independents and some republicans because we understood we needed to restore the basic bargain that made this country great, the basic deal that created the middle class and the most prosperous economy the world has ever known. it's a simple bargain. it says it you work hard, your

work should be rewarded. if you act responsibly and you put in enough effort, you should be able to find a job to pay the bills. you should have a home you call your own. you should count on health care when you get sick. put away and up to retire with dignity and respect. most of all, give your kids in education that allows them to dream even bigger than you did. that's the american promise. that's the american dream. [applause] the reason we came together was because we had seen a decade in which that dream was being betrayed. jobs were being shipped overseas. you were working harder but making less while the cost of everything from health care to

college kept going up. it all culminated in the worst financial crisis since the great depression. we knew that restoring the basic bargain that made this country would not be easy. we knew it would take more than one year, one term, one president. that was before the crisis hit. we saw friends and neighbors lose their jobs, lose their homes, lose their savings, pushing the american dream even further out of reach for many americans. over the last 3.5 years, we have seen american grit. you are tougher than any tough time. when we get knocked down, we stand back up. some workers lost their jobs and they went back to community college, got retrained, and now have a new job.

slowly we have seen 4.5 million new jobs created, 500,000 manufacturing jobs created. no matter how bad the crisis was, one thing did not change and that is the character of the american people and the resilience of the american people. what has not changed is our determination to do what we came together to do in 2008 which is to make sure that in america, hard work pays off. no matter who you are or where you come from or what you look like, you can make it here in america if you try. [applause] that is what this campaign is about, iowa, and that's why i'm running for a second term as president of the united states of america. [applause]

you know, i told you four years ago that there would not be quick fixes, easy solutions. the challenges have been building for decades. that's still true today. i want everybody to know that we have the capacity to meet every challenge. we have the best workers in the world. we have the best entrepreneurs, the best colleges, universities, the best researchers, the best scientists. we have a diversity of talent and ingenuity. there's not another country that would not trade places with the united states of america. [applause]

what is holding us back right now is washington politics. other got people on the side to have been thinking compromise is a dirty word and whose main idea is to go back to the same old top-down economics that got us in this mess to begin with. you know, this weekend, my opponent, mr. romney, it chose the ideological leader of republicans in congress. congressman ryan is a good man, a family man. he is an articulate spokesman for governor romney's vision. the problem is that vision is one i fundamentally disagree with. [applause] governor romney and his allies

in congress think we just get rid of more regulations on big corporations and give more tax breaks to the wealthiest americans, and medicare as we know it and make it a voucher system that somehow this will lead to jobs and prosperity for everybody. the centerpiece of mr. romney's entire economic plan is a new $5 trillion tax cut, a lot of it going to the very wealthiest americans. last week, an independent study, not by me, but by independent economists said that governor romney's plan would are naturally raise taxes on middle-class families with children by an average of $2,000 apiece. this would not be done not to reduce the deficit.

it would not be done to create jobs or put people back to work rebuilding roads, bridges, or schools. it's just you paying an extra $2,000 to get another $250,000 tax cut for those making more than $3 million per year. does this sound familiar to you? they have tried to sell us this trickle-down theory before. guess what? every time and has been tried it has not worked. it did not work then. it won't work now. it won't create jobs. it will not lower the deficit. it is not a plan to lower the deficit. we need tax relief for working families. [applause] you need tax relief. people trying to raise kids, put a roof over their heads,

send them to college. that is the choice. that is the reason i'm running again. four years ago, i promised to cut middle-class taxes, and that is exactly what i've done. [applause] the average working family here in iowa and across the country has seen their tax go down about $3,600. when you hear the other side talking about democrats raising your taxes, your taxes are lower since i have been president. that's the truth. now, i want to keep your taxes right where they are. for the first $250,000 of everybody's in the come. -- income.

if you make under that, which is 98% of america, you will not see your income taxes go up by a single time next year. [applause] 97% of small businesses will not see their taxes go up. here's the thing, council bluffs. this is important. and omaha. we love you. [applause] we did not want to leave our nebraska folks left out. [applause] here's the thing. if you are lucky enough and fortunate enough to have been blessed enough to be in the other 2%, the top 2%, you still get a tax cut for your first $250,000 and then come. -- of income. all we're saying is after that, and maybe you can do a little bit more to help pay down this

deficit and invest in things like education to help our economy grow. [applause] listen. government will do its part. we have already cut $1 trillion in spending. we will cut more. we have to streamline government and make it work efficiently and effectively, but what we can also do is to ask people like me to do a little bit more. all we're asking is for people like me to go back to the rates we paid under bill clinton. by the way, that was a time when we created nearly 23 million new jobs and we created the biggest budget surplus in history. here's the kicker. folks at the top actually did well because guess what? when a factory worker, a construction worker, receptionist, a teacher,

firefighter, kopp has a little bit more money in their pockets, what do they do? maybe they go out and buy a new car after writing that old be around for the last 16 years. maybe they finally get a new dishwasher because the old one has been broke for a long time. maybe they go and buy a computer for their kids for the new school year or they go to restaurants. heaven forbid, they take a vacation. that means businesses suddenly have more customers. that means businesses start hiring more workers because they are making more profit. everybody does better. that's how we grow the economy. not from the top down but from the metal out and the bottom up. -middle out and the bottuom up. that's the choice in this election. that's why i'm running for a second term as president of the

united states. [applause] you know, across the board there is a sharp contrast between me and mr. romney. when the yacht industry was on the brink of collapse, more than 1 million -- when the automobile industry was on the brink of collapse, romney said to lead detroit go bankrupt. i refused to turn my back on one of the great american industries. i bet on american workers. three years later, the auto industry has come back. [applause] now i want to make sure that high-tech manufacturing jobs take root here, not in china. i want them to take root here in council bluffs. governor romney likes to brag about his private sector experience. a bunch of that was investing in companies that have been called pioneers of outsourcing.

let me tell you something. i want in sourcing, not outsourcing. i want to stop giving tax breaks to companies that ship jobs overseas. let's give tax breaks to those companies that invest in america, higher american workers up to sell all over the world with those goods made in america. that's what i believe in. [applause] here's another difference. right now, home grown energy, things like wind energy, creating new jobs oliver states like iowa. governor romney wants to end tax breaks for wind energy producers. american now produces twice as much electricity from wind as we did before it took office.

we doubled the amount of electricity we are producing from wind. it supports about 7000 jobs in iowa. without these wind energy tax credits, a lot of these jobs would be at risk. 37,000 jobs across this country would be at risk. i think we should stop spending billions on taxpayer subsidies for an oil industry making all kinds of profits and keep investing in a clean energy that has never been more promising. that's a disagreement i've got with governor romney. that is the choice in this election. [applause] back in 2008, i said it was time to end the war in iraq. we ended it. i said it was time for us to go after bin laden and al qaeda.

and we did. [applause] we set a time line to start bringing our troops out of afghanistan. after a decade of war, i think it's time to do some nation- building here at home. [applause] we cannot have accomplished any of this without the extraordinary service of our men and women in uniform. i promise you this. as long as i am commander in chief, this country will care for our veterans and serve our veterans as well as they served us. if nobody who fought for this country should have to fight for a job or a roof over their heads when they come home. [applause] that is why we've invested so heavily in making sure the va works like it's supposed to.

that is why we have put more money into treatment of ptsd and traumatic brain injuries, ending homelessness among veterans. those are investments we have to make. my plan says let's take half the money we are no longer spending on the war and also use it to put people back to work building our roads, runways, imports, wireless networks, creating a veteran's job course of local communities can hire our veterans to be firefighters, police officers in communities that need it. that's the america we want to build. that's the choice in this election. that's why i'm running for his second term. [applause] i want to make sure that america, once again, leads in education. i want to help our schools hire of the best teachers, especially in math and science.

i want to give 2 million more americans the chance to go to community colleges and learn the skills businesses are hiring for right now. i want to give colleges and universities the chance to bring down the cost of tuition once and for all because education is not a luxury. it's an economic necessity. everyone should be able to afford it. i have a plan to help homeowners refinance their homes at historically low rates to save an average of $3,000. my opponent solution is to let the market bottomed out. that's what he said. that's not a solution. that's part of the problem. that's the difference in this election. my opponent says one of the first things he would do would be to repeal obamacare. crowd: boo!

>> i think that part of being middle class in america is making sure you do not go bankrupt when you get sick. because of this law, if you have a pre-existing condition he will be able to get health insurance. that is why 6.5 million young people can now stay on their parents' plan. that is why seniors are now getting discounts on their prescription drugs. that's why insurance companies cannot drop your coverage or impose lifetime limits when you need it most. that is why we passed this bill. the supreme court has spoken. we are not going backwards. we are going forward. [applause] you know, all of these things,

whether it is bringing back manufacturing, creating more construction jobs, protecting people's health care, making sure your kids get the best education, making sure our veterans of the same kind of opportunity my father had when he came back and was able to go to college on the gi bill, this is all part of what makes middle class. they are all bound together in the idea that made this country great. that basic promise that if you work hard, you can get ahead. it is not always going to be smooth. there will be times when times are tough. but the idea that if you work hard and look after your family, that work will be rewarded. that is the promise that our grandparents passed down to us. now it is the promise we ought to pass on to our kids and grandkids.

that is what is at stake in this election. over the next three months, you will see the other side spend more money on negative ads than we have ever seen in history. these folks, they've got some really rich people writing $10 million checks. and basically, they are going to say the same thing over and over again. they know their economic theories are not going to sell. or member what happened when we tried them. all they will say is that the economy is not as good as it should be and it is obama's fault. they expect you to have and asia and not remember who it is that got us into the mess. [applause] but they figure if we run these ads often enough, maybe folks will start kind of thinking about it.

that is true. [laughter] so they may have a plan to win the election, but they can't hide the fact that they don't have a plan to create jobs, or revive the middle-class or grow the economy. and i do have that plan. i've got a plan that puts you first. i've got a plan that puts middle-class families and folks striving to get into the middle-class first. [applause] but i'm going to need your help. i'm going to need your help. i've got to make sure you are registered. i've got to make sure your friends are registered to vote. in iowa you can get registered online. all you have to do is go on gotaregister.com. that is gottaregister.com. the thing is we have been

outspent before, and we have been counted out before. but what you taught me in 2007-2008 and 2008 was that when the american people cut through all the nonsense, when you focus your attention, and you remember the story of your own families and all the struggles your parents and grandparents went through, and how maybe because you got a student lone somewhere, or maybe because your dad was able to get that job at the factory, you guys were able to build a good life together. just like michelle and i were able to get opportunities that our parents could have never imagined. when you focus on that thing that is best in america, the way we pull together and give everybody a fair shot, and everybody is doing their fair share, and everybody is playing by the same set of rules, and everybody is taking responsibility, when you come

together and reaffirm those core values that make this the greatest country on earth, you can't be stopped. all the money those folks are spending doesn't matter. you are our democracy. you make decisions about the direction of this country. and iowa, i've got to tell you, we've come to far to go back now. we've got too many good jobs we have to create. we have too many teacher we still have to hire. we have too many schools that we have to rebuild. we have too many students who still need help getting an affordable education. we have more home-grown energy we have to generate. we have more troops we've got to bring home. most of all, we've got more doors of opportunity that we have got to open for everybody who is willing to work hard enough to walk through those doors. that is what is at stake in this election. that is why i am running for president of the united states. that is why i am asking for

your vote. not just for me, but for this country that we believe in. and if you are willing to work with me, and stand with me, and knock on doors with me, and make phone calls with me, if you vote for me in november, we will win iowa, we will win this election. we will finish what we started in 2008, and we will remind the world why the united states of america is the greatest nation on earth. god bless you, and god bless the united states of america. [cheers and applause] ♪ ♪

♪ [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] ♪

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ >> republican vice presidential candidate, representative paul ryan, also campaigned in iowa. over the next 10 minutes, you will see his arrival at the state fair, followed by his comments at the des moines register's soap box area.

♪ [applause]

>> thanks for having us. >> we are glad to have you here and glad to have you on the ticket, glad to work for you between now and november. >> thank you much. remember you are energizing the state. my more in law is from clinton, iowa. her mom was norman's second cousin or something like that. we are going to have the statue at the capitol. harlan will come back to the iowa capital. we have the world food price

building in downtown des moines. >> wow. >> beautifully redone. >> my whole family flew out for that thing we did in the hall. that was neat. >> yes. >> well, they have all that displayed in downtown des moines here. >> oh, really? >> he was a wrestler for the university of illinois. >> i knew that. he was a great american. >> thanks for coming to iowa. >> my pleasure, good to be here. thanks.

[inaudible] >> i am going to enjoy this fair right now. we do the other things later.

>> i have mickelsonned a cow there. i usually lose to a woman who does it. i have learned over the years how to do it. >> don't let them talk you out of a deep fat fried burger. >> i am going to keep myself in shape, that is for sure. [inaudible]

[inaudible] ♪ what is your name, ma'am?

>> marilyn. >> nice to meet you. don't want to get in the way of your food. enjoy the fair. >> thank you. >> are you enjoying the fair? >> yes. >> nice to meet you. how are you doing? what is your name? >> joe. >> nice to meet you. >> cliff, paul, nice to meet you. >> can i be on tv? >> you are tv. what is your name? angry bird. good to see you. [laughter] >> watch the baby, everybody. hey, how are you doing? >> great. >> good. >> what is your name?

mike o'flaherty. i just met one. >> i am paul. nice to meet you. >> thank you. >> where are you from? >> des moines. >> weather is awesome. we are running for an awesome here. that is why we have all these people around. sorry to bother you. hope you have a good day. >> thank you. >> i am going to make a prediction, paul. >> we are like america's team. hi, how are you? [inaudible]

>> hey, how are you doing? what is your name? >> hayden. >> is that after hayden frye? >> it could be. >> you can get a velcro strap there. that helped us a lot. >> they work well. my kids always spit it to the ground, so we tie them to the shirt. >> that is cool. >> take care. >> we will play stump the running mate later. our job is to strengthen medicare. that is what we do. with president obama, there is rating and ultimately rationing medicare.

>> how do you like it? >> i am just starting to get used to it. it is very different. >> thanks for coming out to the fair today. >> thank you for coming to iowa. >> what is your name? >> paul. >> i have a company called competitive edge. we do a lot of promotional things all over the country. >> where do the shirts come from? >> he is also our landlord. >> in his first campaign, i was his landlord also. >> very cool, nice it meet you. take care. >> charles, how are you doing? >> good. >> good to see you. >> politicians hold and kiss babies not for votes, but because we can get away it -- with it. >> i want my hands on this

little baby. >> you have iowa state, iowa, and the packers. >> bears, vikings, packers. >> so all over. >> you have a lot of packer fans and a lot of cub fans. >> bill thomas. nice to meet you. on board 100%. >> all right. nice to meet you. thank you. [inaudible]

[inaudible] >> i am paul. nice to meet you. >> take a left here. >> ok. >> later in the day, representative ryan spoke at the state farm in the des moines register's political soap box area. he is introduced by the register's editor. this is about 10 minutes. >> good afternoon.

we will wait just a second here and let the media get positioned. hi name is rick green. i am the editor and haven't of the des moines ridge >> register. we thank you for being here. we appreciate your patience. we know it is hot, but we think it is worth the wait. this has been -- [cheers and applause] political soap box has been a register tradition for about 10 years. it is an opportunity for us to be able to bring forth candidates at different cal bers and levels and a chance to interact with you as voters. all we ask is that we have great civil discourse and be respectful to our guests as we go forward. ok? >> ok. >> i have the privilege of introducing the governor of the great state of iowa.

[cheers and applause] >> thank you very much. ridge green, des moines register, thank you for hosting this. thank you all for being here. it is a great honor and privilege to introduce a man who i think is going to be a great haven't for our -- great vice president for our country, the voice of fiscal responsibility when we need it most, a great congressman from our neighboring state, paul ryan. [cheers and applause] >> appreciate it. thank you. >> are there any packer fans here? [cheers and applause] >> all right, cool. hey, everybody, how are you doing? >> great. >> thank you so much. what a beautiful day to be at the state fair.

we have fares -- do you have wrist band day here? that is a favorite day for my kids fments can you buy a wrist band and ride all the rides for the whole day. this is a suggestion from a wisconsinite to a neighbor, have wrist band day. the kids will love it. i hear that president obama is starting his bus tour today. and i heard he wasn't going to come to the iowa state fair. i think it has become -- you know what? it's funny, we like to be respectful to one another and peaceful with one another. these ladies must not be from wisconsin or iowa.

[cheers and applause] like i said, she must not be from iowa. hey, all right. >> my guess is the reason president obama isn't making it here from council bluffs, because he only knows left turns. [cheers and applause] but as you see the president come through on his bus tour, you might ask him the same question that i am getting asked from people all-around america. that is where are the jobs, mr. president?

now one thing we've got to get straight is we are not growing this economy like we need to. we are not creating jobs like we can in america. that is why mitt romney and i have a plan for a stronger middle-class to get this country back on track, get this country growing jobs again and get us back on the path to prosperity in this country. [cheers and applause] there are five things that we are going to do right away that are designed to create 12 million jobs. number one, we have energy in this country. let's use that energy in this country. everything. renewables, biomass, oil and gas. it is here, let's get it. let's not keep buying from other countries. we also need our workers to

have skills so they can compete, thrive and survive in the 21st century economy. you know what we also need to do? we need to stop spending money we don't have. [cheers and applause] president obama has given us four years of trillion dollar plus deficits. he is making matters worse and spending our children into a diminished future. we don't have to stan for that, we are not going to stan for that, and on november 6 we are going to change that. [cheers and applause] we also need to have free and fair trade so we can make more things in iowa, make more things here, sell them overseas. 97% of the world's consumers are out of this country. we need to mike things like wisconsin, iowa and the midwest. if we do that, we will create

jobs. [cheers and applause] >> you know what? one more thing. one of the great things about mitt romney is that this is a man who actually knows how to create jobs. this is a man in his life who has created jobs, started small businesses, turned around failing businesses. that is the kind of leadership and experience we want to have in the white house. [cheers and applause] this is a man who has real-life experiences. that if you have a small business, you did build that small business. [cheers and applause] we need to rebuild, reenergize and revitalize the small businesses of the country. that is where our jobs come from. i've got to tell you, overseas, which for a wisconsinite means

lake superior, our competing nations are taxing their businesses at a lot lower rate than we are taxing ours. he wants their top tax rate to go as high at 44%. the canadians lowered their tax rate to all of their businesses to 15%. how are our successful small businesses going to compete when we have other countries lowering their tax rates like that. we need to make sure we get rid of the loopholes and lower the tax rates and not keep taxing small businesses and spending that money in washington. audience: u.s.a., u.s.a., u.s.a.! >> that's right.

thank you. another thing. we have people who are hurting in this country. people are hurting because we don't have jobs. families are hurting because they are living paycheck to paycheck, and the paychecks aren't been stretched as far as they used to. this is the worst economic recovery in years. this is the biggest government since world war ii. one of six americans are living in poverty today. what we have to do, what we need to do is have the kind of policies that get people from welfare in self sfishes and dignity. what is so zurting about president obama's most recent action is he took reform that

was bipartisan, signed into law by bill clinton in 199 of that we call welfare reform. it was one of the most successful ideas, bipartisan policies in 20 years. because it is said if you are going to receive welfare benefits, you have to go work, get ready for work or get job trailing to you get back on your feet. you see, we blown in a safety net. we believe in a safety net that is there for people who cannot help thells. we are there to help people down on their luck so they can get on their feet. welfare did more to help the poor did more to reduss poverty. and he passed a rule waving work requirements. that is going to send us in the wrong direction.

that is the wrong way to go. we want to give people hands up, not hand outs. [cheers and applause] and so what you will see from us is this. we owe you a choice. you are our fellow citizens. what we want to do is give you the choice so you can decide what kind of country you want to have, what kind of people do you want us to be? we want to be that land of the free, that opportunity society with the safety net, a society of upward mobility, a society of people making the most of their lives. we don't want to follow europe. we don't want a welfare state or a debt crisis. we don't want to keep this path of household increases going down $4,000, and we want to

turn this around. we are used to this in wisconsin. [cheers and applause] with row mitt romney, we have a leader that is proven. when his country changed him, saved the olympics and made us proud. we have a leader who when he was government of massachusetts balanced the budge without raising taxes. lowered unemployment and increased household increases. increased take-home pay. our job is to grow the economy, get people back to work and have people have bigger paychecks and more take-home pay. this can be done. we can get this economy growing. you know what we are going to do this? we are going to do this in iowa and all-around the country. we are going to do it everywhere we can go. we are going to get this country back, and november 6 is

the date we are going to do that. [cheers and applause] i feel such kindred spirits here. i live just an hour and a half from dubuque. clinton, iowa is where all my more in law's family are. we united as upper midwesterners. some of you may be vikings or bears fans. i see a few packer hats here. at the end of the day we are americans. [cheers and applause] america is special. america is the only country founded on an idea. that is the big deal here. that is the big difference here. what is unique about america is that we recognize the point, the fact, the essential principle that our founders

established that our veterans fought for. our rights, they come from nature and god, not from government. that is who we are. that is what we believe. and if we reapply those founding principles, we will get our country back on track. help us win this thing. help us bring this state to the mitt romney column. do this because we will look back at this moment in time and say we save it had for our kids and grandkid. thank you very much, everybody. [cheers and applause]

[inaudible] >> republican presidential candidate mitt romney cam papered in miami on monday, joined by florida senator

marcoo rubio. this is 25 minutes. [cheers and applause] >> how are you doing? >> so good to see you. thank you. good to see you. [speaking spanish] [cheers and applause] >> good afternoon, miami. [cheers and applause] >> it is our honor and privilege to be here with you

today. with your indulgence for a moment, i would like to say a few words in spanish. [applause] [speaking spanish] [speaking spanish]

[speaking spanish] [applause] audience: u.s.a., u.s.a., u.s.a., u.s.a.! >> in english, i described to them how i saved a bunch of money on my car insurance.

[laughter] i am honored and privileged to be here with you today. i am proud to be of and from this community. i live just a few blocks away. i shop here. i went to middle school down the street. and joining me here on the stage is the next president of the united states. [cheers and applause] at such a critical moment in our nation's history. for two hundred and some-odd years this country has been different than the rest of the world. never in the history of mankind there been a society like this. for thousands of years, almost everybody in the world lived in poverty. wealth and poverty belonged to just a handful of people at the top, and everyone else was trapped by the circumstances of their birth. whatever your parents did for a living, that is all you were allowed to do. you were only allowed to go as far as your parents went. but two hundred and some odd

years ago that changed. on this continent in extraordinary men began a nation that every man was born with them certain rights given by god that no government could deny them. from those principles sprung free enterprise, and that created prosperity in this nation unlike anything man has ever known. no community understands that better than this one. hundreds of thousands of men and immelman who lost their youth and their country to tyranny and are grateful to god this nation was 90 miles off the shore of theirs. because here they were able to provide for their families and leave their children better off than themselves. this extraordinary country and what makes us different has never been automatic.

it has always required americans to accept it and to do what it takes to keep it that way. now it our chance to do that, too. for four long years we have had a president that doesn't understand that about our country. he doesn't believe in free enterprise. he thinks the only way people can get ahead is by pulling other people behind. and he divides us against each other. he divides against reach other in a deliberate attempt to win this election. but it won't work. because that is never who we have been, and that is not who we are now. what we have a chance to do this november is elect someone that believes in free enterprise, that believes in the greatness of america and will instill the policies necessary to ensure that our children inherit what they deserve, the greatest nation in all of human history. [cheers and applause] and that is why it is my privilege and my honor to

welcome to my community, to welcome to my neighborhood, the next president of the united states of america, mitt romney! [cheers and applause] >> thank you. thank you. thank you. thank you. this is the team. this is the team. this is the family. this team, this family are going to help me win the white house this november. [cheers and applause] better days are ahead, but we are going to have to have a better leader in the white house, and i will be that person. you know, i know there are some people that are critical of

america and think our best days are past. but i know something about the heart of the american people. don't forget who just won the most medals at the olympics. we did. don't forget who just sent a vehicle all the way to mars. who put us there? we did. and i know the chinese are planning on getting to the moon. they are actually working very hard to get a rocket to the moon. they will get there i am sure. congratulations. and when they do, they will find an american flag that has been there for 43 years. [cheers and applause] now the people are america are going to have a choice about which course to go down, and i have someone here i want to have you understand a little bit about me. this happens to be my son, craig romney, my youngest boy. i am going to have him say a couple of words in spanish. i don't know that everybody here unders spanish, but he

does. craig, say hi to everybody. [speaking spanish] [speaking spanish] [speaking spanish] [cheers and applause] audience: romney, romney, romney, romney!

>> thank you so much. i said we have a dramatic choice to make about what kind of america we want. we are either going to go down the path the president has led, which makes us more and more like europe, or we are either going to make america more and more like america. this president ran for office, and when he ran for office, he said he was going to do a bunch of things. he was going to get us more jobs. unfortunately, he hasn't done that. 23 million americans out of work or stopped looking for work or under ploim. i will get the jobs america needs. i how to -- i know how to do it. he said he would help people hang on to their homes. but we have seen a record number of foreclosures. we'll get the economy going so people will see home values going up again. the president said under his pro impress we would see more people start businesses and

begin new enterprises. he has been crushing small enterprise. we are at a 30-year low in business start-ups. if i am elected president. i am going to add jobs. the president said he would cut the deficit in half. i think it is immoral for us to keep spending our kids' future. if i am president, i will cut spending and get america on track to a balanced budge. if you think jobs of plentiful, if you think home values are good, if you think your health care needs to be taken over by the government, you know the person to vote for, and that is barack obama. but if you want good wages and good home values and finally get america on track to fiscal sanity, then i should be the next president of the united states. [cheers and applause]

now the other day the president said something which i didn't believe he said it. i couldn't believe it. he said if you have a business, you didn't build it. someone else did that for you. audience: boo! >> i thought that couldn't possibly be what he meant. he is he look at the context. i looked at the context of what he said. the context was worse than the quote. he said if you are successful, you may think it is because you are smart. he says but a lot of people are smart. you might think it is because you worked hard. but a lot of people work hard. i couldn't figure out where he was going with that. in my view this has been a nation which has always referenced and celebrate people who -- celebrated people who have been successful and achieved things. we are a nation of individuals with dreams who come here to build enterprises, raise families and create things. that is the nature of america.

[cheers and applause] when a person goes to work every day and says you know i think i am going to go to communicate college and see if i can get some more skills and get a promotion at work. when they get the promotion, we congratulate them. we say way to go. when a kid goes to school at the middle school, decides to work her heart out to get on the honor roll. i know they took the bus to get to school. but if they get the honor roll, i give the credit to the kid, not the bus driver. [cheers and applause] so if you begin a business like this one and wring people from all other south florida to taste these fine products right here, i give the credit to the fine people who work here, not to the government who opened the street for us. [cheers and applause] senator rubio is absolutely

right. from the very beginning of this country, the idea was that the rights that we have as citizens here are not given for us by our government, but instead are given to us boy our creator. among those rights are life, aliberty and the pursuit of happiness. we are free in this nation to pursue happiness as we choose, and the circumstance of birth does not limit our potential. look at marco rubio. an extraordinary leader and example of the promise of america. we want tory store that american dream. i heard him speak at another audience somewhere. he said he came here and lived very modestly in a community right here. they saw some other fancy homes. he said i never heard my parents say i wonder why those people won't give us some of what they have.

instead the parents said aren't we lucky to live in a land where if we work hard and take some risks, about might be able to achieve that for ourselves? [cheers and applause] that is the nature of america. that is what makes america the way we are. people have come here for hundreds of years seeking opportunity, freedom to be able to pursue their dreams. and when they are successful, when they achieve their dreams, they don't make us poorer. they make us better off. i will not apologize for success at home, and i will never apologize for america overseas. [cheers and applause] if i become the next president and paul ryan becomes the next vice president -- [cheers and applause] we will do everything in our power to make america strong,

with strong homes and strong values. we will cling to the principles of the constitution and the decoration of independence. we will go to work to improve our economy. i have five things i will do to get our economy growing and thriving again. number one, we are going to take advantage of our energy resources here. coal, gas, oil, nuclear renewables. we are going to make sure every person has the skills they need. our schools have to be the best. we have to put the kids first in our education world. [cheers and applause] number three, i want more trade. it is good for us to be able to trade with other nations. that creates more jobs here. there is a huge market right next door where we could do more trade. it is known as latin america. i am going to increase our trade with latin america and crack down on nations like china when they cheat. [cheers and applause] >> number four, we are going to

finally get america to shrink the size of federal spending and balance the budget. [cheers and applause] >> and number five, i am going to champion small business. we are going to help small businesses grow and hire more people. [cheers and applause] that is what we are going to do. we are going to make sure this nation stays strong. not by vitters of a government that tries to tell us how to live our lives. because i believe in the american people. i believe in you. i believe in your comasity to build a better life for yourself and for your family, for the come generations. i don't believe government can do what you can do. i believe in the people of america. you can achieve your dreams. and as you do so, you will make america stronger. i am going to fight to keep america strong in our homes, our values and our military. it will be second to none in the world. [cheers and applause] i love this country. i love america. we are going to keep america

strong and the hope of the earth. thank you so very much. thank you guys. [cheers and applause] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

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[captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] ♪

♪ >> several lives events to tell you about tomorrow morning. the new head of the nuclear regulatory commission, alison macfarlane speaks on c-span 2 at 10:00 eastern. on c-span 3, a discussion is hosted on the role of the defense department in a domestic disaster.

vice president bynum speaks in danville virginia life tuesday at 10:15 eastern. >> in 10 minutes, americans for tax reform, grover norquist on taxes. then president obama and republican vice presidential candidate paul ryan campaign in iowa. now, the reform party-- the refn philadelphia on sunday. [applause] >> wow. >> i humbly accept your party's nomination for presidential candidate. i realize that many of you are taking a chance on someone that you did not know for every long -- very long before, but i hope this was an educated decision you made. i realize there are some concerns on some of my stances,

but that is one reason i believe the reform party is going to grow immensely and work very well. we have the ability to talk about these things. and this discussion is important in any growing process. i believe that through the process that we have going here, we are creating a model. and we are showing ourselves to be true to what america needs and what they want out of leadership. i respected everything you said. you are a wonderful opponent. i respected everything you said in the debate. mr. cross, you are an incredible candidate and i am happy to have you at my side. i would say this also. there is a lot that drew me to this party, as i said before. but right now, as i look at the

people who took part in this process, i am more proud. i see the fast stand of american -- the vast stand of americans, young, old. there are some of them who are executives, rich or poor. i see the people who are here in everyday life, those who are actually effected. -- affected. not the upper upper echelon. not the super-elites. but those who are effected by -- affected by the decisions made by government. i promise you -- i will do what i can. to represent the ideals and beliefs of this organization. the reform party encompasses and embodies what america is looking for. reform. we have to get this back to a simpler form of government.

is simpler form of economics. this is not over-complicated. i greatly appreciate your faith in me at this point. and i reach out to each and every individual with any problems with my stances. i want to work with you. i want to work with you and i want you to work with me in return. this is the only way it works for everyone. if this is a unilateral decision, it will end in destruction. it will end in failure. and that is not what this party is about. this is about success and a better future. something where we can leave something better for our children and they have more than we had. something where we can strive to do better. in every aspect, in every scenario. where we can project a real image of democracy around the

world. not the psuedo-democracy we have now and can make decisions in congress within the government and get things done. it won't be a do-nothing government or america. it is not going to be an america where people look at us and whisper behind our backs on what we think we are or what we used to be. they will look at us as what we are now and how far we will go into the future. the reform party is the greatest party that there is now. we have nowhere to go but up. we are growing. we will be the voice of the middle class and all of america. i am not a proponent of the 1% or 99%, it is 100% of everyone in america.

i will not focus on social issues. that's not what we need. that belongs outside of politics. i will focus on our economy. on the defense of this country. and on making our americans better educated to make the decisions we need made every single day. i will intensify my focus on bringing jobs back to america. people who are working, grinding their hands to the bones, they don't have time -- to do the research needed. we need people that are going to be effectively intergrating -- integrating themselves into this process.

this democratic process. this great, american process we have. it is what sets us apart from other countries and sets us apart from the communists, those who would be considered religious, fanatical countries. we are america. we are great, and wonderful, and proud. i think the reform party is the microcasm of america. -- microcosm of america. thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you so much, andre. that was just marvelous. i would like to give the opportunity to mr. cross, who is our vice-presidential nominee. [applause] >> i am grateful to be

nominated for the reform party for vice president. i look forward to working with mr. barnett to help restore america to its position of strength and respect in the world that we ought to be in, and that we have dropped from in the two-party system. we need a better way than we are doing things now. even the campaign we are doing at the presidential level is -- even the campaign going on largely at the presidential level is personal attacks and slurs. it reminds me of that commercial, "where is the beef." a few policies and positions are set forth, with little detail provided and little focus on how they will do this and turn around the problems we have now.

i am sure mr. barnett and i will spend time working on options to set forth before the people to provide alternatives to what we have and solutions to our problems. we need a government, of the people, for the people, by the people. we have gotten away from that. i am not a politician. i am a citizen candidate. not a great speaker. i love my country. the founders of this country were not polished politicians. they were generals, farmers, scientists, and all sorts of walks of life that stepped forward to help serve their country. we need this attitude, we need to present that attitude before

the people so they understand that there is a better way, there is a chance to have a better way through the reform party than giving up hope. the american people, many i have talked to, photographic shops at wal-mart, they feel the same way. that there is nothing they can do and there is no hope. everything is out of control. the two parties are so polarized that nothing can be done and we just have to go forward and see what happens, when things collapse or crash. that is a pathetic situation and we can do better than what we have with the republicans and democrats. i look forward to assisting mr. barnett with his approaches and

i believe that together, we can help to make a path for a stronger america, for ourselves and our posterity. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] >> now americans for tax reform president grover norquist at the center for the national interest. this is a 90-minute event. >> ok. folks, ladies and gentlemen, i think we are ready to begin. i am the editor of the national interest magazine. i am delighted to have all of you here. welcome. i am particularly delighted to

have grover norquist here. grover is one of those people about whom is often said in these kinds of settings, he needs no introduction, but i am going to give him one anyway, because he is too interesting not to. he is a massachusetts native, harvard b.a. and mba. he quickly gravitated to the district of columbia, where he has significant position to the u.s. taxpayers association. he is the author of a recent book, "debacle." in 1985, he founded americans for tax reform, whose aim was to reduce government receipts as a percentage of gdp. he believes in a smaller government. he believes in getting a handle

on the debt overhang, which i believe is the most serious problem facing the country today. his most famous for the famous pledge, getting members of congress and other politicians to promise not to vote for any increase in marginal tax rates for either individuals or businesses and not to vote for any net reductions in credits unless there is a commensurate reduction in rates. as of late last year, 238, i am told on google, of 242 house republicans had signed this pledge and 47 senate republicans. this drives democrats and liberals crazy. it has been -- he has been lauded and attacked for it. john stossel lauds him -- "no

one in modern times has fought harder to shrink the state than the founder of the group americans for tax reform." arianna huffington has a bit of a different view. she calls him "the dark wizard of the right's anti-tax cult." p.j. said, "grover norquist is tom paine crossed with lee atwater, plus a soupcon of madame defarge." i pondered that. since in our species you can really only be the cross of a male and female, i found myself reminded of what mark shields once said about his good friend bob novak, the late columnist, when he said "bob novak is proof positive that gadahn coolidge and -- calvin coolidge and were

more than just friends." grover takes a rapier to his opponents. he takes no prisoners. at the same time, he is always very pleasant. he never raises his voice. it is always in mellifluous tones and has a litlt -- lilt to it. it occurred to me that baby -- maybe richard nixon hooked up with doris day. >> thank you for the unique introduction. and, i think, generous. i have been asked to talk about economic and foreign-policy, domestic policy, and how they interact. are two ways in which they interact. there is the reality of

economic a solid -- economic policy and whether it works or not. and, since we are talking about politics, you can win or lose an election on one set of issues, even though you think you're focusing on another set of issues. koren policy and economic policy played out in a campaign -- foreign policy and economic policy played out in a campaign, but they also play out in government. obviously, economics matter. united states is the preeminent world power and has been for some time because of its economic policies. it has a more free and more open society than other countries and it creates more wealth and allows more people to accomplish great things. more so than other countries do, less than we should, less than we will in the future. but we're competing with the alternatives, not with utopia. we were a world power back before we even had much of a military to play with because of our economic growth. you go back to before the

american revolution. we were attacks between 1% and 2% of gdp -- we were taxed between 1% and 2% of gdp in the colonies. people in britain were paying 20% of their income to fund the british empire. empires are expensive. people do not appreciate having to pay for that. they wanted us to help pay for the british empire. we said, thank you, we will pass. rather than run an empire, we ran our rather large commercial republic, which became very powerful. when you have all that lovely money, you can buy things that go boom at great distances on your own. it matters that we have a large economy. it makes it possible for us to have a national defense spending 3% or 4% of gdp that dominates the globe. we spend more than the next 13 countries added together, he says, understating his face as always.

we do so -- his case as always. we do so with a much smaller fraction of the wealth and income of the american people. foreign policy also affects domestic policy. you go back and look at the last two administrations. bush, who got elected on his domestic platform, decided after 9/11 to focus on foreign policy. as a result, there were opportunity costs. the opportunity costs on your foreign policy is that you take a dollar that you're going to spend on welfare and spend it instead buying a gun. the more important opportunity cost -- that is not unimportant when you're dealing with hundreds of billions of dollars. the more important opportunity cost as the band width of the presidency, a congress, a white house, and bush decided to be the mayor of baghdad rather than the president of the united states. he decided to occupy iraq and

afghanistan, rather than reform fannie mae and freddie mac. that had tremendous consequences. time, the president's bully pulpit, the president's attention. the president could go and demand certain things from congress. if you have made all your asks about occupying iraq and afghanistan for a decade, rather than reforming fannie and freddie -- they will tell you they sent several letters to capitol hill and ask them to fix the problem. that is not the same thing. it does not fit the magnitude of the threat and the problem that was suitable and noble for the eight years of the presidency -- seeable and nkowable -- knowable for the eight years of the presidency. a focus on foreign-policy as a consequence for domestic policy. we did kabul.

we lost the opportunity to either expand free-trade during those eight years. that was in terms of our requests -- we could have had all the europeans gang up on france and beat them senseless and get a free trade agreement that made the french farmers not get the subsidies they have been used to. instead, we have all of europe beating up on us because of our foreign policy. we could have focused on immigration reform. very important in the united states economy and to us -- us being us. instead, time and effort was put into iraq and afghanistan. when you talk about how foreign policy affects domestic policy, in theory, you could run foreign-policy aggressive -- aggressive foreign policy and an aggressive domestic policy. but try and get the president, a white house to be able to have that kind of bandit bank -- of

bandwidth when they deal with congress and when they speak to the american people about what they are trying to accomplish. looking for -- go back to reagan. reagan was able to manage the collapse of the soviet union while -- and i would argue this is not a paradox -- because he focused on getting the american economy turned around, taking double-digit inflation down to almost zero prod 20% interest rates -- almost zero, 20% interest rates. if we had read in's growth rate during this recovery -- reagan's growth rate during this recovery -- there are lots of handouts i want to share. it is important to have lots of handouts. ever since trees ran into sonny

bono. you can see the past several years of recovery have been very weak. we have been in recovery technically since july of 2009. if we had reagan's rate of economic growth, reagan's rate of job creation, it would have many millions more americans working today. gdp would be about 10% higher than it is. this is a disaster. it limits american leadership in the world. one of the reasons other countries look up to us is our strong economy. and when it appears to be lagging -- we are looking ok. how is your wife compared to what? how is the american economy compared to europe? we are not so bad. compared to the trend line of where we were and where we could be, where a normal recovery would have taken us today, we are in very bad shape, much weaker than we could be. reagan focused on getting economic growth and job creation, and that sense that he

was always focused -- he had one hand out here, holding the soviet union at bay, walking at grenada -- whacking at grenada, but he was always focused on us and domestic policies, explaining to the american people he was focused on their concerns about keeping the bear at the door. the alternative is to walk outside and spend all your time arguing with the bear and convince people you are focused on what is important to them. since we have elections every two years, there is a cost to that. republicans lost in two dozen 6 not because the economy was a problem. -- republicans lost in 2006 not because the economy was a problem. the independents were unhappy with the occupation of iraq and again as dan -- and afghanistan. not necessarily knocking off

saddam hussein. but staying for 10 years afterwards. the voting switched from 60%/40% to democrats. on foreign-policy issues, the economy doing well going into that election -- moving forward, where do we go from here? i would argue that our tax policy -- we're going to have a big election. we will get into this more with questions and answers. paul ryan ' says vice president clarifies the two directions -- asma -- paul ryan's choice vice president clarifies that the directions. it is written down in the rhine and budget, in the ryan road map, as endorsed by the -- in the ryan budget, in the ryan road map, as endorsed by the modern republican party.

tax policy -- i would argue this affects both our heart power and our -- hard power and our soft power. on the soft power, we have 3 million americans, 4 million americans living overseas. every one of them, as they tell you when you travel to some european country or around the world -- you are not an ambassador for the united states. do not annoy people. people meet you. they get a sense of what the united states is like. this is particularly true outside a paris or london. countries and cities that do not see a lot of americans. there could be a lot more americans overseas representing the united states on a one-on- one basis, a sort of ugly american novel of being a good representative of the united states, except our tax policy makes this different -- difficult to impossible. we have, in the united states, not a territorial tax policy, which the rest of the world

does. we have a worldwide tax policy. france -- if you live in france and you are french, you earn money, the government steals some of it. here, the united states government steals some of it. when you go back to france, they do not take any more of it. the bite at the american government took out of your income is all that is taken out. in the united states, if you are an american and you go work in another country, that country will tax you because you earned the money there. but you come back to the united states and the united states will top off whatever the other country failed to take from you to where it is at 35% or, under obama, 43%-plus of your income. americans living overseas are taxed more heavily than other countries' citizens when they were overseas. that is particularly problematic

when you're working in countries that have little or no income tax. hiring a chairman to work in -- german tour in saudi arabia is less expensive in -- hiring a german to work in saudi arabia is less expensive than hiring an american. reagan lowered marginal tax rates from a top rate of 70% to a rate of 28%. the economy boomed. the rest of the world looked at that and said, we want to do that. use of the european countries come in with flat-income rate -- you saw the european countries come in with flat- income-tax rates. not only does it think it difficult to hire an american, it is less expensive to hire somebody from another country to work in saudi arabia or brazil or around the globe, but american companies are at a disadvantage.

i bring this up because the paul ryan plan is not only entitlement reform, welfare reform, plus tax reform. the outline that he has generated, the top rate of 25% corporate and individual, and territorial tax system -- within that the revenue neutral. the territorial tax is very important to america's foreign policy, not just domestic and economic policy. an american company overseas earns $1. the local government taxes some or not. when you bring the $1 back, the federal government takes 35% of it. if you do not bring it back, you want to leave it in china or brazil or germany, you can -- there is no additional tax to

leave it there. we have more than $1 trillion overseas. when you talk to the corporate guys who have been trying to get obama for the last three -- 3 1/2 years to got o territ -- go to territoriality or allow repatriation of that money without a big tax hit, some say it is between $500 billion and $800 billion that would come back in the same year. it does not cost anybody anything. we just have to get rid of our world wide, "system -- worldwide tax system. the reason anheuser-busch was bought by a european company, it is more valuable if it is owned by a european company than an american company because of the way we tax earnings and other countries do not. if we did not fix this, other

companies will start being bought more and more by foreign companies. the economics just makes sense. we can fix that by taking our rates down 25%. and by going to a territorial tax system. i think these are extremely important. another challenge that europe has is the defined-benefit government pensions, the social- welfare pensions, the unionized pensions for the private sector, and there defined benefits. it means you constantly -- defined benefit requires a whole bunch of new people coming in and paying pensions to support the old guys. there are more united mine workers retire than working. it is an extremely heavy load for the industry. the coal industry, the

automobile industry, all of these industries are badly damaged. people have gotten most out of wack inthe public-sector unions -- in the public sector unions. we have begun to reform this in the united states. one of the reasons i am optimistic is not just because i believe that romney and ryangoin and have a republican senate in the house. i think that will happen. i think that is very important. the good news is also when you look at the 50 laboratories of democracy, there are 24 states that have republican governors, republican legislatures. there are 11 states that have that -- 11 democratic governors and legislators. we have a real opportunity to see what works. california, illinois, maryland, and new york are busy working on becoming -- and the red states

are trying to reform reduced taxes. we had overwhelming elections in kansas where the winners were committed to the governor's vision to abolish the state income tax. north carolina is about to elect a governor committed to abolishing the state income tax. oklahoma has made the same commitment with their government and other states are moving in that direction. in utah, the government there a year ago -- all new hires -- state, local, county, teachers, they will have a defined contribution pension. which means here is your pay, here is 10% of their pay and a 401k. tull% if he or a fireman or policemen. -- 12% if you are a fireman or policemen. that is the model that louisiana has begun to move to, kansas will be moving to. other states -- north dakota

will do it shortly as well as wyoming. moving state-by-state to reform the pension system allows us to also look at how we can do this at the national level. private sector has been doing this for 20 years now. shifting from a defined benefit plans to contribution plans. i think we miss the challenge your past. not only because our demographics are better -- we are having more kids, more open to immigration as opposed to the europeans. and we can -- this buys us the time to reform our pension system so we do not bankrupt ourselves with the entitlements. the big reform that ryan has put forward the us three things -- tax reform brings the rates down, makes us more competitive on the corporate and individual level. territoriality which stops disadvantaging american corporations around the globe. american companies are

ambassadors for america. it is much better to do the one on one conversations. so those reforms are key in part of ryan and will happen with the republican house senate and presidency. both happen -- it will not happen if obama is reelected or the democrats have the senate. it wanted to do any of those things -- they did not do any of those things. they moved in the opposite direction on all of them, including territoriality which is why some of high-tech corporate world is so irritated at obama with a had a lot of hopes for. the other two pieces are beginning to reform entitlements. the model we have is working at the state level. people are doing this and winning elections. not losing elections. which is always the key thing

that politicians want to know. is this safe? can i do this and get reelected? and is it good for the economy and everything else? it always has to assure politicians that this is safe to walk out on the ice with. then the other one is the block granting -- ranting of all the welfare programs. clinton reform welfare, the bill in 1996 but block granted aid to families of dependent children. here is your money, a fixed amount, but you have a lot less strings. each state could decide how to get people out of welfare dependency and focus on people with real needs so that people with real need for taking care of and other people were not locked into welfare. there is somewhere between 77 and more than 100 means tested programs at the federal level.

the big ones -- medicaid, housing programs, job training programs, and food stamps but then there are a bunch of others as well. lyon and that approach looks to blovck grant. when you hear critics of ryan say you're cutting aid to the poor, they're plagiarizing the criticism of clinton's welfare reform. everything the left said about clinton's welfare reform turned out not to be true and everything they are saying about ryan is not true for the same reasons. it is doing for other welfare programs what clinton did. they signed the welfare reform bill and it worked. they did everything its critics said it would not. i think these reforms here will help strengthen the american economy and we can afford to have an adequate national defense which keeps us free and

safe and would make anyone afraid to throw a punch at best. as long as we do not make some of the decisions that previous administrations have which is to overextend ourself overseas and areun the government -- wew not very good at making americans organize their lives in the way somebody in washington thinks they should. why did the same people think they can do this in baghdad with success? it has not worked well there. let me take some questions here. the two feet off each other. a strong and healthy american economy with reasonable laws that we do not allow the billionaire trial lawyers -- where we do not have overregulation, we will have tax

is damaging this domestically. but also internationally. it makes it difficult for american companies to work overseas, for americans to be hired by companies overseas. and when you lose that, you lose some of the best ambassadors for who and what america is. strong economic growth allows national defense to be a smaller percentage of a larger economy and we can fourth -- dwarf any with the enemy of the united states by having a stronger economy more quickly that we can by raising taxes here. if you grow the economy 1% faster than expected for a decade, the federal government and of the $2.80 trillion in higher tax revenue. what more revenue, you want to fund that national defense and the state department, reduce

marginal tax rates. deregulate, take that trial lawyers and took them down the pacific. do all the things that the great the american economy and move us forward. revenues flow in from strong growth better than if you try and take people down and pick their pockets. but, questions, arguments? what's wonderful. thank you very much. -- >> wonderful. thank you very much. i am shocked -- struck as i look at the history of the cold war and since that america's most powerful time were those times when we were most help the economically and vice versa. in the early cold war in the truman and eisenhower administrations, we hold that -- be held the soviets in check. we were also in the 1980's and

90's during and after the reagan performance, we were able to bring about the end of the cold war. we were least powerful during that entire history when we had economic difficulties of the late 1970's. with soviet adventurism on the rise of the places like afghanistan and central america and africa. this is related in little bit too grover norquist's point about domestic politics and reagan. i wrote down a few things. in 1984, reagan's reelection year, the economy grew by 6.2%. that is the current percentage our current president could use. in the second term, the average growth rate was 3.4% and as soon as he managed to get the country through that recession which was

an induced recession to squeeze inflation out of the economy, the growth rate per year on average was 3.89%. reagan takes a big key on the deficits which is what it -- take a big hit on the deficits which is a legitimate hit. in 1987, he headed by 0.8% of gdp -- he had a 5.8% gdp. by 1987, it was 3.61%. in his last budget, it was 2.8%. that is a manageable level. then under george w. bush, it went back up to 5.8% in 1992. growth has a big% -- has a big

impact on the deficit an economy. plan butd about ryan's a lot of critics of that plan suggest that those numbers do not add up. that the tax cuts are going to be devastating to the deficit and that the cuts in the entitlements and other places will be devastating for the economy. what is your answer to that? >> the key number to look at in terms of the cost of government is total government spending plus the regulatory burden. set the regulatory burden aside because that is largely driven by the executive branch implementing but at the spending level, the cost of government --

the government spends $100 and it takes $90 in taxes and borrow $10. what problem have desalt -- have you solved by taking the other $10? in the other case, all $100 is taken. it is gone from the private sector. the cost to government in that case is $100. some was borrowed, some was taken or always taken. this is one of the challenges we get into when people focus on the deficit rather than total government spending. that is where reagan was trying to focus on reducing the total sites of government. one of the ways you can reduce that is -- as percentage of the economy. our government was -- would be bigger. but as a percentage of the economy, you want your

government to be a smaller percentage of gdp. the thing to focus on, this is what ryan focuses on, not only does the cost curve on spending start to fall as a percentage of gdp because the economy is growing and we're spending less through washington. but eventually it ends up paying off the national debt because the reforms are so key. you can reform entitlements to save a lot of money. and you save a lot more than my cutting a particular program. we reform welfare by putting it out to the states and allow the state to handle it. the state -- the federal government's a great deal of money. it did not keep increasing the welfare payments and get the state's office state money because they were spending less than they used to have to and spending it smarter. those people with city ryan plan

-- those people ho say the ryan plan cut aid to the poor need to sit by the will be right this time -- to the poor in 1996 need to say why they will be right this time. the ryan plan brings down spending and brings down the deficit. the obama plan -- if ryan has plans written down, you have simpson bowles, an essay in haiku. the want to take taxes from 18.5% gdp to 21%. the are very clear about that. everything else is on the fuzzy side. simpson bowles is over the next decade -- we expect to dollars trillion in gdp.

so they will increase the tax burden on the american people from what it would be, never mind obama's $5 trillion in increases but an additional $5 trillion under simpson bowles. the spending restraint discussed at this point -- simpson bowles is not real. the democrats in the senate have not voted for any of this stuff. they have not put it in their budgets. obama does not put any of simpson bowles spending cuts in his budget. so there is no interest in the spending cut part. they like the $5 trillion in a tax increase. i would argue that ryan has already had his moment. reagan was -- his meeting with gorbachev.

his empire was imploding and he wanted us to make these concessions and reagan walked away from what the entire washington establishment said was a great deal. they love the idea of the deal. reagan walked out and took all the criticisms for having walked away. ryan blew up the simpson bowles phony deal. a massive tax increase little or no spending cuts. that is before it gets to the democrats in the senate. ryan is old enough to have lived through the 1982 budget deal where reagan was promised $3 of spending cuts for every dollar of tax increase. the tax increases were real, permanent. we are still paying them. spending went up after the reagan budget deal. then you had the 1990 deal with

george bush who was in the bush reagan administration and watched reagan get taken on the 3 to 1 deal walked into the room and said we have a deal for you. we will give you $2 of imaginary spending cuts for every dollar of tax increases. i think that is a bit insulting to the democrats. as long as you are lying to the guy, offered 10 to 1. and of course you did not get 2 to 1. simpson bowles is the third iteration of 1982 and 1990. discussions about the possibility of someday cutting spending. it would have ended the same way. ryan would have been a hero for the washington post and time magazine. he would sign a deal and find the republicans up for that disaster.

instead he stepped out and said i know everybody in washington thinks this is a good deal. ryan has been in washington, not of it. you are going to fight against the other team, you have to live and in washington from time to time but you do not have to become of it and you do not have to be scared of the washington establishment. he walked away from a very bad deal. because a much better deal with no tax increase as a result. his leadership encouraged on that fight. >> if you want to ask grover a question, kept my eye. >> i was listening to c-span on my drive this morning and the caller said paul ryan was a puppet of grover norquist. [laughter] i was a little surprised by this. he referred to an adequate defense budget.

it seems that -- if paul ryan was a puppet or even a strong accolade of grover norquist, he would be serious about cutting military spending as well as other spending and he is not. how would you respond to that? >> i would argue that he did not ask everybody to do everything. ryan has designed a budget approach with three things that 66 of the clinton plan and moves it forward on others. you now have the division in the democratic party between the old clinton people and the traditional liberals and a hard left. smashs guys want to reform. they do not want it expanded to other government programs. he has that, he has tax reform, he is looking at in tandem reform. bipartisan tenement reform. -- in tandem reform.

-- entitlement reform. other people need to lead the argument on how can conservatives lead a fight to have a serious national defense that defends the united states from any potential aggressor without wasting money. i work with a group called right on crime. domestically. it is conservative folks who are focused on -- they say we are incarcerating too many people for too long. it does not make sense. we are not stopping crime in with all this additional spending. we are hiring more democratic union members and is that a wise way to spend taxpayer dollars? but only a conservative can come to the table and talk about how long should bad guys be in

prison for? the good news is that the first reforms were done in texas. at the same reforms were done by liberal and in vermont, they could not travel. nobody would go. they did this in vermont. but when you have prosecutors and police and people who are serious about personal responsibility and keeping bad guys in prison and stopping crime and punishing crime -- say are responding to much too little? you have a similar discussion that needs to take place on national defense. how do we spend money wisely? you had dick army who did this with his base closing legislation. it helped our national defense but it was difficult to do because bases were put in different congressional districts just as some of the contracts for weapons systems are also allocated by

congressional district rather than by talent and confidence. that is an entirely long -- a huge, important project. we should be very careful. the government should do this things mentioned in the constitution. with the possible exception of the post office. and probably not things that are mentioned in the constitution. if you take government seriously, we want the bits that should be there then confidently. that includes the defense budget. i would not ask ryan to be the reformer of the defense establishment on top of that. >> please identify yourself before asking your question. >> thank you for coming. i have a question to purpose into three observations. i'm a radical eccentric. as it on the board of a number of financial companies. and regulate -- regulatory

reform is overdue. demint to mitt romney three times. my question is this. -- you mentioned mitt romney three times. my question is this. obviously we need entitlement and regulatory reform. you are not going to get 60 seats in the senate. how you do it? >> my own view -- paul ryan loses the election to mitt romney. obama and wins by eight points. set the because i am not an obama fan. >> let me cheer you up. i grew up a dental massachusetts. -- up in massachusetts. the left post a reaction to ryan is very interesting. they are basically tired. there plagiarizing everything the democrats said about reagan

when he won the nomination in 1980. are we glad to run against the guy who wants to cut spending and cut taxes and confront the soviet union? their understanding of where the country was is not with the country is. looking at it -- if you live and in chicago, you do not have an understanding of what the united states is thinking about in a given time. i would argue he is more it theologically rigid and learns less. -- more ideologically rigid and learns less. his economic policies -- equally challenging. the second part is the argument that the republicans have written down the rhine plan. now we can attack. the democrats always attack the republicans ever since the 1940's with wanting to undo social security and later medicare. they always say that when bush

ran in 2000 and 2004 with a plan to privatize social security for people under 55 -- if you are under 55, will give you the option of a 401k. the democrats said this would have us win the election. that was one of the few elections where social security was a winner for republicans. we did not let the democrats care the old people when they yelled social security. they made it clear they were not changing it to 55 and over. every time, the castoff 20, 30, 40, 50 year olds who understand they will never get what was promised. when you rate something down, you make it more difficult for the other team to lie about your position. the democrats will attack his reforms on medicare. the only thing obama has done to

medicare is promise to take $700 billion away from it to pay for obamacare. and he has had no reforms that will help. he added an entitlement that does not pay for itself and costs twice what they said it was going to cost. by writing down the ryan plan which is reasonable bipartisan reforms on medicare and bill clinton pulls of reform to the poor, let the democrats attack bill clinton 's successful legacy. and make that case if they want. that is the civil war in the democratic party that we should encourage to continue. i am very optimistic that by writing down the ryan plan, the other team seems to have a better target. let's let said that rahm wins.

-- mitt romney that wins. have you get tax reform? >> you can repeal obamacare with 50 votes. it does not require 60 votes. you might have an argument on a couple of the policy things but with the right parliamentarian, those are completely solvable as well. tax cuts can be done with 51 votes. you can do them inside of it in your window. this -- these are the guys who redistricted the country. in california and illinois, they be detected -- they redistr icted.

others have elected -- redistricted to let the -- to elect more traditional. these state legislative lines, the red states redistricted to stay red. but the rest of it stays pretty much the same for the next decade. on the back of that is the chart. 23 democrats in the senate, 10 republicans. half the deeds are doable. you are about to the republicans in maine and massachusetts. scott is running an extremely hard left against him. elizabeth warren, who has a lot of problems.

that is a tough sell there. we will of -- we will have a senate yet -- next year. the senate election cycles are so advantageous for the republicans because these are the people who are elected in 2006 and 2008. only the republicans who were really tough one and a lot of democrats got swept into vote against bush. some of us and did not understand what bush and karl rove were doing but now we can cleverly see, they were sneaking up behind the democrats to take them all back. we will get the senate this time around. we will get close to 60 in 2014. in the presidential election, our president is not going anywhere near 50%.

he will not get -- the guys who are undecided will not be voting for him garrett -- for him. >> of elected debate -- i would like to debate what you said of my question is, let's assume we do dumb things and go to a dull more like a record something. should we ask the american people to pay more taxes so they will feel part of it and maybe ask for questions? >> i think to avoid stupid things. >> i know, but bush did not. that is my point. >> there are two things -- one, there are ways to reduce those cuts now moving forward. and if you have a a government program of any kind that is not working or that is counterproductive or is lot -- is worth less than the money you are extracting by force for the

american people to pay for, you should stop doing that. since we have been doing all of these somethings, it is like a ship that collects barnacles. you get rid of the barnacles over time. you go back and say what works, what does not? let's reform these issues. i am in favor of reforming government to cost less, not cutting it. some stuff government does it is useful. tough to find in between all the stuff that is that useful but there are important things and you want those fully funded and then confidently and transparently to rebut that you also want to stop doing those things that are not working well. i am not in favor of raising taxes to pay for mistakes of any kind. >> center for immigration. you were talking about

efficiently running for policy and avoiding waste. that is not really the issue. the issue is what are the objectives that we want in foreign policy? we smashed the the nazis and the japanese with massive inefficiency. what is the goal, what are the foreign policy goals? i think you are capering over a difference among conservatives. i agree with what i think you're for policy is which is frankly, let's not invade whatever the country du jour we are supposed the takeover. >> if the president cannot pronounced it, you cannot blow it up. >> mali is easy to pronounce. my point is that my sense of what you're saying is that even if we undertake the tax in the reforms that i agree with you

are essential, we are going to be under fiscal constraint for a long time into the future. what i want you to actually say is that those constraints are going to force us to not do what mitt romney and paul ryan have said they wanted to do with our policy. the way they have articulated their foreign policy goals is very expensive. not really in any sense like what bush campaigned on. a more limited, modest foreign policy. my senses we are going to be stuck with that no matter what it because of our economic constraints and is that a positive outcome from your perspective of all the problems we have been dealing with?

>> whenever you meet any foe, the first thing you need to do is cut the capital gains tax. [laughter] from there, there are different approaches. i would argue -- you need to decide what your real defense needs are. that does that mean chairman of certain committees get to build bases in their states. that is not a defense needs. that is a political desire but we need to figure out what do we need to do to protect the united states. how do we keep the canadian on their side of the border guard to mark an otherwise make sure the united states is secure? what is that? what does it cost? there are questions about how to less expensively by things if you are the pentagon?

have you make that economically efficient? it is not like going to walmart. so there are a lot of challenges government have is a meeting has been a buy stock. because there is not a market for it in other places. i with a start with what we do come to a decision on that. your question on for policy -- presidents have a lot of leeway on foreign-policy compared to other issues. there is no nra on general form policy. there is no americans for tax reform which has asked politely and consistently and repeatedly for people to make a written commitment to voters. the reason why the pledge has been useful and important is that i ask all candidates for the federal office and state office tuesday -- sign a pledge to their voters. harry reid seems to get this wrong.

they make that commitment as a way to let voters know where they stand. they do not oppose taxes because they signed the pledge. a sign the pledge because they oppose tax increases. those are -- both republicans who do not support and tax creases -- tax increases, do not sign the pledge. sandoval said repeatedly he would not raise taxes. when asked that it would put that in writing, they would say i am offended you would question my character. then they got in, the bulls past -- they both passed massive tax increases. they live their way into office. -- they lied their way into

office present a loss of one not raise your taxes but i will not put it in writing. the first time he had a pickup, he raised taxes. the pledge is there for those who know the want to raise taxes. the politicians who signed the pledge do so because they want to leave the door open. that is okay. they have to run being honest about that. >> you still danced around the issue. buying b52s cheaply is not the point. how you define the objective? but the security mean -- what does security mean? much of our foreign policy elite, security means we need to have democracy in burkina decile -- burkina faso before any american is safe. that is baloney. my sense is your try to be too

polite and a team player to point out that in mitt romney and everybody else other than paul -- have the same take on ruling the world. you will not get what you want until that is addressed frankly and directly by people on the right like you. >> i think you do need to have that kind of conversation. i engaged in that earlier when i said we do need to have a conversation about what our goals in afghanistan are and what is winning. what are we trying to do? how long are we saying -- staying? the answer to those questions are ridiculous? we need to have these conversations with in the modern conservative movement because the guys on the left have forfeited their capacity to argue that they have something to say here. so it has to be a conversation.

chris is going to be managing this and you can be his co- chairman of the committee. >> [inaudible] the point about the one contingency everyone is talking about -- the war with iran -- does it seem looking at the statement that mitt romney is even more willing to go to war with iran than obama? if there is a war with iran, no one knows how much it will cost but it will be a lot more than a few million dollars. at what pot under those circumstances are you prepared to admit something will have to

be done to either stop the war or pay for it with taxes? >> the argument that had been put forward -- the former head the cia explaining that even a piece that there and shelled them for a month, we would convince them the actual -- they absolutely had to have a nuclear weapon. i am not a defense expert. this would not get what you want it to do. they are shelling them and they will sit there going for a month if we had some nuclear weapons, they would not do it. but it taiba that, they get back up -- but when we get tired of that, they get back up.

it the government comes in and decide to focus on a particular war or occupation down the road, you lose the bandwidth to do other things. that is what happened to the bush and administration. it focused on iraq and afghanistan and not fannie and freddie. that was expensive for the american economy, and expensive for the world, and expensive for our world leadership. i am not sure it made us stronger in a hard power military sense as chart -- and not strong as a soft power military sense. >> can ask a follow-up? i think the question and answer sort of fit but he was saying if we got into our war with iran, what would we have to do in terms of economic policy? your answer was we should i get

into war with iran because it does not make any sense. i happen to agree with both of those things but -- there are no numbers on the curve. because of laughter and all those people from the supply side were saying that in different times, the optimal tax rate is at different levels depending on what the needs are. they all said that in times of war, the country is more prepared to pay more taxes because of that response ability and therefore you cannot reach that point of diminishing returns. could you respond to that? >> i read the curve differently. there are two ways to get the same amount of money. want to decide how much she wanted to stock by force, there are two ways to do it. you can tax it at 90% and take a lot of the small economy or text

the 10% and it allowed the money with a small tax burden for much larger economy. at any given point when you decide how much money the government decides it is going to take, there are two ways to get there -- with a type -- with a high tax burden, and no tax burden. what changes is the denominator. ini kidding when i say if you have it war with iraq, cut the capital gains tax. something to grow the american economy. drop the other costs of government. right now the government is eating up 24% of gdp. it used to be more like 20%. it is jumped up dramatically under the stimulus package and the general motors bailout and the various other ways we have wasted money in the last two and a half years. we need to drop the percentage of the economy of sorts by government. federal and state. the states are doing a good job

and the reforming government. we have gridlock in washington at the state's instead of having a box, you have one party controlling the legislature and governor in 24 red states, republican state, and 11 democrats states. the parties together, they can take a stake in one direction or the other three are getting serious reforms. real savings. real improvements. school choice for the lowest income kids, half the kids in louisiana and indiana. massive reforms. and the quality government and also less expensive government. i would argue that what we need to do -- we are spending 4% of gdp on national defense. you can reduce, if you really felt you had to send more money, you could spend more money out of the national budget to an ex

canada and reform of the parts of government to cost less. you could double national defense to 8% of gdp and drop the rest of the government down to 15%. why is the position of ted we will's government -- keep the same amount forever and this is mine. this is my money. that is why obama talks about giving people stuff. the money the government takes from you as his -- he used the money the government takes from you as his. that is not hte way -- the way most americans view the popular way of government. -- the proper role of government. we can afford to invade, occupy

and reduce spending elsewhere. benjamin got us into the korean war by telling the chinese we would not mind, -- when truman got us into the korean war by telling the chinese we did not mind -- he kept the war going for some time. >> i wanted to press you on that last point he made. into the ryan plan, put the act -- total discretionary spending goes up to 3 but 5% of gdp. the trade-off -- if the whole discretionary budget is a but 5% of gdp, how to maintain -- how do you maintain? >> he are talking about productions -- you are talking about projections of 2040, the

government will spend less. and the larger economy. three%, 5%, 10% of an economy twice our size is a much bigger number. i would much rather fund a serious national defense and those things that the government needs to do that are mentioned at least once in the constitution even in passing. of of a much larger economy. if we have been growing significantly over the last 20 years -- >> it would make sense to [inaudible] >> no. nixon said america's national defense needs are set in moscow. the guys who followed did not notice the soviet union disappeared. >> my big question is do you think it matters that this is

the ticket with the least of foreign-policy experience and credibility in modern history? reagan had a cia director perry bush headed defense secretary. -- director. bush had a defense secretary perry does that make an impact? >> i am a big advocate of common sense. looking atous about foreign-policy issues. we survived obama and the problems have come not from his farm policy but domestic policy. >> do they have any foreign- policy experience you can point to? if i was advising the president on foreign policy issues, some of the people he has listened to

are very serious people. >> [inaudible] corporations did not take as much. >> why am i advocating? at present, the federal government takes 35% from companies. 35% marginal tax rate. >> [unintelligible]

>> top marginal tax rate for corporations is 35%. for individual right now is 35%. most businesses pay at the individual level. they are passed through s corps. under obama's world, that goes up to 39 by% in january%3.8% for taxes on successful small businesses that are not incorporated. 35% on general motors. it is a massive tax increase on small companies and less taxes on major corporations. which are more likely to be donors. i want to take that rate, both rates, to 25% as step one in tax reform. please do not misunderstand me and think that 20% is a floor.

it is a ceiling. be taken down to 25%. this is not an endorsement. -- we take it down to 25%. this is not an endorsement. i and in favor of americans being treated less poly then -- less poorly than cerfs were. on the way to americans -- cerf for a couple years and then down lower as you have the economy grow. i am a fabian limited government person to read we take this is that at a time. i do not have some magic bottom number. >> the only real conservative was eisenhower.

he balanced the budget three times and reduce government spending as a percentage of gdp. that percentage went up under nixon, reagan, both the bushes. i know people do not like eisenhower much because he is a moderate but is there anything to be learned from his success? >> fiscal conservatism is not about balancing the government's budget. that is what cromwell and henry viii up the whole point was, to balance their budget. as much as they spent, they took from other people. that is not a conservative position. the modern reagan republican position -- is different than a lincoln republican party. the lincoln republican party was against slavery and for the union. we have a war. and over 100 years, it became a largely consensus issues in most

counties in america, even among democrats. no slavery, one union. what everybody was in on that project, -- once everybody was in on that product, we say now what does the republican party stand for? that is the problem you have. kansas just finished a conversation with the remaining lincoln republican. that was a really good reason more than 100 years ago. there are a little old ladies in mississippi who agree with ronald reagan on everything and they voted for george mcgovern because sherman had been very mean to atlanta recently. [laughter] we're beyond that except for parts of this room. the new movement, this is what i think the obama versus mitt romney and mitt -- an paul ryan thing are so clear obama can i

get away with hope and change anymore. he has to talk about yes we did. versus the republican approach which is written down. the modern republican party, the reagan republican party, is interested in maximizing the rate and that the people run their own lives. the analysis, if you want to know who was in the modern republican party, or on the table. everybody is there because on the issue that moves their boat, they wish to be left alone. taxpayers leave my money alone. businessmen and women, leave my career alone. home schoolers, let me educate my own kids. 20 years ago, that would be illegal. they are very serious about being left alone. the second amendment community -- i serve on the board of the national association spirit --

association. it devotes to be left alone. they do not lock on your door on saturday -- they vote to be left alone. they do not knock on your door every saturday. just leave me alone. they simply wish to be left alone to practice their faith as they see fit. so the other guy who understands scripture -- if i am going to have religious freedom, so the fact that. that is what the senate wright works well together even though they are a bunch of people who do not have lunch together because the guy who wants to go to church all the looks across the table at the guy who wants to make money all day and says that is not how i spend my time. not necessary that people agree what to do but they agree that we should be free.

in this coalition are people in the military and police to protect your right to be left alone. so around this center-right coalition, there are legitimate functions of government. those guys are part of anti- government -- anti use of government. i always get a kick out the liberals who say conservatives are anti-government. can fight back -- cancer doctors are not anti-cells. they are against cells that are problematic. we are against government that becomes against human liberty. balancing the budget that -- balancing the budget is what the left has been telling conservatives for a long time. we are going to spend a bunch of money and we will be back then you can go raise taxes on the american people to pay for our big government and they will

hate you. some people want to fall for that trick. tom coburn. but the other 99% of republicans go -- i have seen lucy and the football thing and i'm not doing that again. your analysis of balancing the budget at the highest goal of conservatives -- maybe in 1953. >> just a clarification. [inaudible] size of government. but clinton held the house and senate, we then had 6 years of republican governance by not increasing spending as his budget projected but by spending less than that. the end up with a surplus. -- you ended up with a surplus.

spending did not increase. a lot less than clinton was planning on spending. that was very important and it did turn the economy around. limit the size of government, the economy will " -- grow so rapidly and to end up with surpluses. >> , to salute grover norquist -- i want to salute grover norquist. it is great to see him begin to embrace the clinton legacy which is the sign of progress even if he has to distort the whole welfare story in the process. >> he did sign the bill. >> every other part of the story is wrong. i want to inject a note of bipartisanship. listening to you carefully here and on other occasions, i have

the impression that your attitude towards american intervention abroad as much closer to barack obama than to mitt romney. and number two, the one issue where you really think the republicans could blow the election is on form policy. is that right or wrong? >> obama triple the number troops in afghanistan when he came into office. i would not allow myself with his views on occupy other countries. will was the second part of that? -- what was the second part of that? >> their approach to future intervention, it sounds to me -- it is clear that you are an anti-interventionist and that the republican party is far more sympathetic to intervention and the obama

administration. but this is a very interesting question. i wondered about it during the bush years. in the unitedthere is an amaziny interesting lack of interest in the rest of the world. and people vaguely know that it is over there and every once in awhile, europeans start killing each other and we have to go pay for ridder something. some of us want to go avenge ourselves on the ongoing british that the stealing our money and making us drink their tea. unlike the guys in yugoslavia and the western hungarian empire that can remember every slight back 1000 years, i was sitting in a room like this where the captive nations guys, somebody was talking in going on and on abou the 700 some xhosa vote.

i am waiting at the guy who was running it and i said, can we speed this up? this is taking too long. a hand him a note. ok, jumping ahead to the 1400's. we don't do that. presidents have an incredible latitude on foreign policy that they don't have on other issues. in the united states, i mentioned in passing earlier that there is no national rifle association for national defense. veteran groups are only interested in va hospitals, not how many drones we have. armenian american community that focuses on giving up on turkey. we have people that are supportive of israel had we have

others. for places you're not allowed to shell or does something need to because of the domestic lobby that says, what are you doing? the president can decide anything he wants about any other country beside the four that i mentioned and people assume that they probably deserve it. depending on which the government did, when clinton was blowing stuff out, republicans said, it is outrageous. that when bush got in, having campaigned against that kind of crazed whack job nation- building, we proceeded to knock out the taliban instead and saddam hussein instead. the republicans that voted for a kinder and gentler nation, the

republican base said, ok. just as the democratic base had said ok. the people part of obama's base, what has he done to keep that peace of the coalition together? it didn't sell anything down. this or that, there was a list of things there -- >> he withdrew from iraq and governor romney said that he withdrew to quickly. >> i believe he withdrew on bush's stated time table. he did not withdraw faster than bush was planning to do. >> that gets to, at some point, this is all skins vs insurance. when you're guys blowing up something, the democrats said that is good. and the republicans said, that is crazy. and then the other half of iraq

and afghanistan, it reversed. this is not a moving if you enjoy this day for 10 years. then it becomes a vote moving issue. who sought independents and republicans not enthusiastic about staying in iraq and afghanistan for three periods of time. if you want to talk about grenada and the economy is growing, ok. if you want to stay in grenada for a long time, less interest. it is not like other issues. it is very different and you would think that we treat it more seriously than we do, but the politics doesn't drive us to serious about the subjects that a dozen other areas. which is interesting because it is not unimportant.

everybody gets tired when they are not quite sure what the point is. >> the last question came from the washington post at the brookings institution. just then. >> thank you for your talk. you mentioned a couple of times. there is no nra or no group before realism and restraint in foreign policy. in a way, it goes back to the clary's question. i think you're right when you say people aren't different and the rest of the world is this glauber in mass of people we have to bomb every so often. if you put costs on that, the people that belong to the nra has given the game. they care about their guns. if you sell people who, you will have the read one of your heart

rending story about a kid getting his legs blown off, people say, i can turn the page. it gets back to how you get people to care and have costs imposed on them from having wild and crazy foreign-policy is. i want to ask you more about taxes. i remember when the coburn fracas was going on between atr and coburn and normal that we have at the wednesday meeting were bringing back in different colored tops against the many offenses -- i meant it in the most favorable sense of the word. >> that is what he gets most upset about, i am going to raise your taxes. >> as a similar situation going on with people that are staying in the context of the sequester, let's raise taxes, let's do anything. if we have less than $700

billion a year in defense, we might all be killed. i am not seeing reams of " saying that we are going to raise taxes in order to pay for the empire. is that something big you started to delve deeply into? >> i have chatted with all the guys you have mentioned, and here is the good news. there is a very small number of them, and when you ask about skin in the game, at the head of the ways and means committee at the head of the finance committee. they view deductions and credits as things you could get spread out and reduce marginal tax rates in tax reform. right? that they can manage. they are doing all the work on its. other guys go, can we come and steal your deductions and credits and give it to the appropriators? so when we get to tax reform, there will be no tax reform.

the advocates of, we can produce other spending, we must raise taxes, my job is to make the taxpayer tougher to beat up the other spending interests. if a politician says that all these spending interests are powerful, let's go mud the taxpayer and get the money. if we make that difficult and delicate the guys, he wanted to raise taxes and he is not coming back. he was told, we are not doing that. the handful that talked about tax increases are either in the end of their term, not coming back, or they don't know yet that they are not coming back. but this is a small group, and the idea that you're going to raise taxes on the american people have not think through the defense priorities, when we leave the name out, i don't

remember if i promised not to tell anybody what he said. i said, i would like a serious national defense and i would like to not raise taxes. how can i help you provide a serious adequate national defense of the united states and not raise taxes. do you have reforms you're doing that we can high lake? maybe they aren't moving because of gridlock? perhaps the bipartisan commitment to various overspending. the answer i got was, you can explain to people that we can't cut the defense budget. at which point i thought, this is not a person who is trying. he said i tried these four things and they haven't worked. if you helped us push, maybe we would get them across the finish line. nothing on his list to save money, reform, nothing.

well that the solve all the problems. several billions of dollars, tens of billions of dollars. it doesn't solve next week's problem. here is theyet, dollar amount. now when you have, to the rest. if you are trying, and nobody wants to help you. the lack of seriousness, if the

guys trying to reform the pentagon were just doing everything they could. you might listen to them and they are not -- they are now competing. they convince themselves that this is somehow not a tax increase, but it is. that they wanted take that and spend it on defense, the tax reformers, one of them has just been made of the vice- presidential nominee.

he wants to use those reductions and credits for tax reform which is key to our strength as a nation. >> we have two minutes. a quick question and a quick answer. >> i want to take it up a level. i would hate to disagree with you and agree with larry. it is probably the first time. fundamentally, we have people in this room the understand what tax does and what tax doesn't do. russia, a tax is used against corporations. the argument that the taxes are required for the government. the tax, no governance. across the world, you can couple the ability to honestly tax the people with the people's voice. they have no voice in how their

hovels are in our road. if you go to war and raise taxes to go to war, it engages the populace and the politics more closely. and they watch a little bit more closely. just away from the details of the marginal tax rate, the fundamental reason behind taxation. >> 1 has taxes to pay for legitimate constitutional prices of government. things that are written down. generational warfare could mean anything, therefore it means nothing. >> i had to sneak back then. these guys never get as far as the second amendment. general welfare is everything we

want. >> those pot holes were great for general welfare. >> that this state and local government and an interesting different question. i think what you do to give good government, the best competition you can. people are moving to read states at leaving clues states. that is competition. see how 10going to years from now, a split in this country with coastal verses the split. those states like this country -- like wisconsin that have fixed their pension problems and utah which affect their pension problems could get a defined benefit pension. 10 years from now, michigan ended for state employees 13 years ago.

we just fixed that piece of a problem. you could have the country moving in to radically different ways. you have been governments like france, greece, singapore. and the problem is, the taxpayers are going to leave the states that want to abuse them and move to states that don't abuse them. there will be this incredible shift and we get the french guys to come over here and failed to dave and stuff like that. it will be good because it will be helpful to the economy. taxation is necessary to provide for the limited role that the government has to set the rules for a free society, like protecting your property. not deciding whether you get to keep it. i will limit it to that end we want taxes to be as limited as possible.

i'm not sure about this idea that if you have higher taxes, the government would be less likely to go to war. people have less voice when you have larger government because the government has a bigger voice. and the government tends to run the media and russia. i think it squeezes out of the freedom there. that also sounds to me like the backwoods argument for the draft. which i think is very problematic, and is a serious tax on people. getting rid of the draft was one of nixon's great successes in making people freer and improving the quality. >> with that, we are adjourned and we thank you for a most fascinating discussion.

>> the soviet bear may be gone, but there are still wolves in the woods. we saw that when saddam hussein invaded kuwait. the mideast might have become a nuclear powder keg. our energy supplies held hostage, so we did what was right and what was necessary. we destroyed a tyrant and freda people, locking a tyrant in the prison of his own country. >> 10 million of our fellow americans are out of work. tens of millions more work harder for lower pay. the incumbent president is as unemployment always goes up a little before recovery begins. but unemployment only has to go up by one more person before a

real recovery can begin. >> every minute of every major party conventions, this year, watch the republican and democratic national conventions starting monday, august 27. >> president obama began a three day campaign trip around iowa today. also in ireland today, republican vice-presidential candidate rep paul ryan campaigned in the morning. that is a little more than half an hour. the florida center mark rubio. on washington journal tomorrow morning, the associate professor from george mason university will discuss early voting in this year's election. richard is a visiting scholar at the american enterprise institute and will take your questions about the plan to

privatize the postal service. and we'll be joined by a member of the council on foreign relations with a look at the obama doctrine. the position on multilateral institutions like the united nations. washington journal as live on c- span every day at 7:00 a.m. eastern. president obama is on a three- day campaign bus tour in iowa. in council bluffs, he criticized the vice-presidential candidate rep paul ryan for not passing the bill to help those affected by the drought. this is a little more than a half hour.

[applause] >> hello, iowa. it is good to be back. well, it is good to be back in iowa. i miss you guys. thank you. first of all, can everybody please give patricia a big round of applause for the great in production. a couple other people i want to

of knowledge. your outstanding former governor, i think the best secretary of agriculture we have ever had. congressman that leonard boswell. and the mayor. the sun is coming out. i love being back in iowa. we are starting here in council bluffs, but we will be heading east. i think i will end at the state fair. michelle has told me i cannot have a fried twinkie. but i will be checking out the better cow -- butter cow and

chocoltaate moose. i will have to take a look at that. the secret service --the last time i went to the state fair, secret service let me do the bumper cars. i was not president yet, so i could do that. not this time. now, before i get started, i just want to say a few words about the drought because it has such an impact on this state and all across the country. right now, people in iowa and across the heartland are suffering from one of the worst droughts in 50 years. farmers, ranchers depend on a good crop season to pay the bills and keep a roof over their heads. i know things are tough right now. the best way to help these states is for the folks in congress to pass a farm bill that not only helps farmers and ranchers respond to natural disasters but also makes the

necessary reforms to give farmers and ranchers some long- term certainty. unfortunately, right now to many members of congress are blocking the farm bill from becoming law. i am told that governor romney's new running mate may be in iowa and he is one of the leaders in congress standing in the way. if you happen to see congressman ryan, tell him how important the farm bill is. we need to put politics aside when it comes to during the right thing for iowa and rural america. [applause] it is always a problem waiting for congress. in the meantime, i have made sure my administration is doing everything we can to provide relief for those in need. last week, we announced $30 million to help ranchers and farmers to get more water for

livestock and rehabilitate land. today, we're announcing the federal government will help livestock producers by purchasing meat and fish right now while prices are low and we will freeze it for later. we have a lot of freezers. that will help ranchers who were going through tough times right now and also over the long term, the food will be used by those in the pentagon and other places. america depend on farmers and ranchers to put food on the table, depend on them to feed our families, so we need to be there for them. not just today but tomorrow and every day until this drop passes because we are americans. that's what we do. we take care of each other. when tough times strike our neighbors, we give them a hand.

[applause] now, that speaks to the larger idea of why i'm here. the notion that i am my brother's keeper, the idea that we are in this together was at the heart of the journey that began here in iowa five years ago. you know, we spend a lot of time on bus tours like this one, in school gymnasiums, small businesses throughout this state. the bus we had was not as nice as this one. [laughter] that campaign back in 2007-2008 had plenty of ups and downs, but no matter what you, the people in iowa, had my back. you had my back.

[applause] when the pundits had written us off, when we were down in the polls, you believed in me, and i believe in you. it was on your front porches and in your backyard where the movement for change in this country began. but our journey is not finished. not yet. i'm going to spend the next three days driving all across this state, just like a did in 2007, to cross from council bluffs to the quad cities. once more, you face the choice. that choice could not be bigger. it is not just between two candidates, two political parties. more than any other election, this is a choice between two fundamentally different visions for this country and the path we have to take.

the direction that you choose when you walk into that voting booth in november will have an impact not just on your lives but your children's, grandchildren's for decades to come. this one counts. [applause] crowd: four more years!four more years! four more years! four more years! >> think about this, council bluffs. we came together. it was not just democrats but independents and some republicans because we understood we needed to restore the basic bargain that made this country great, the basic deal that created the middle class and the most prosperous economy the world has ever known. it's a simple bargain. it says it you work hard, your work should be rewarded. if you act responsibly and you

put in enough effort, you should be able to find a job to pay the bills. you should have a home you call your own. you should count on health care when you get sick. put away and up to retire with dignity and respect. most of all, give your kids in education that allows them to dream even bigger than you did. that's the american promise. that's the american dream. [applause] the reason we came together was because we had seen a decade in which that dream was being betrayed. jobs were being shipped overseas. you were working harder but making less while the cost of everything from health care to college kept going up. it all culminated in the worst

financial crisis since the great depression. we knew that restoring the basic bargain that made this country would not be easy. we knew it would take more than one year, one term, one president. that was before the crisis hit. we saw friends and neighbors lose their jobs, lose their homes, lose their savings, pushing the american dream even further out of reach for many americans. over the last 3.5 years, we have seen american grit. you are tougher than any tough time. when we get knocked down, we stand back up. some workers lost their jobs and they went back to community

college, got retrained, and now have a new job. slowly we have seen 4.5 million new jobs created, 500,000 manufacturing jobs created. no matter how bad the crisis was, one thing did not change and that is the character of the american people and the resilience of the american people. what has not changed is our determination to do what we came together to do in 2008 which is to make sure that in america, hard work pays off. no matter who you are or where you come from or what you look like, you can make it here in america if you try. [applause] that is what this campaign is about, iowa, and that's why i'm running for a second term as president of the united states of america. [applause]

you know, i told you four years ago that there would not be quick fixes, easy solutions. the challenges have been building for decades. that's still true today. i want everybody to know that we have the capacity to meet every challenge. we have the best workers in the world. we have the best entrepreneurs, the best colleges, universities, the best researchers, the best scientists. we have a diversity of talent and ingenuity. there's not another country that would not trade places with the united states of america.

[applause] what is holding us back right now is washington politics. you've got people on the other side to have been thinking compromise is a dirty word and whose main idea is to go back to the same old top-down economics that got us in this mess to begin with. you know, this weekend, my opponent, mr. romney, it chose the ideological leader of republicans in congress. congressman ryan is a good man, a family man. he is an articulate spokesman for governor romney's vision. the problem is that vision is one i fundamentally disagree with. [applause] governor romney and his allies in congress think we just get rid of more regulations on big

corporations and give more tax breaks to the wealthiest americans, and medicare as we know it and make it a voucher system that somehow this will lead to jobs and prosperity for everybody. the centerpiece of mr. romney's entire economic plan is a new $5 trillion tax cut, a lot of it going to the very wealthiest americans. last week, an independent study, not by me, but by independent economists said that governor romney's plan would are naturally raise taxes on middle-class families with children by an average of $2,000 apiece. this would not be done not to reduce the deficit. it would not be done to create jobs or put people back to work rebuilding roads, bridges, or

schools. it's just you paying an extra $2,000 to get another $250,000 tax cut for those making more than $3 million per year. does this sound familiar to you? they have tried to sell us this trickle-down theory before. guess what? every time and has been tried it has not worked. it did not work then. it won't work now. it won't create jobs. it will not lower the deficit. it is not a plan to lower the deficit. we need tax relief for working families. [applause] you need tax relief. people trying to raise kids, put a roof over their heads, send them to college. that is the choice.

runningthe reason i'm again. four years ago, i promised to cut middle-class taxes, and that is exactly what i've done. [applause] the average working family here in iowa and across the country has seen their tax go down about $3,600. when you hear the other side talking about democrats raising your taxes, your taxes are lower since i have been president. that's the truth. now, i want to keep your taxes right where they are. for the first $250,000 of everybody's in the come. if you make under that, which is 98% of america, you will not see your income taxes go up by a single time next year. [applause]

97% of small businesses will not see their taxes go up. here's the thing, council bluffs. this is important. and omaha. we love you. [applause] we did not want to leave our nebraska folks left out. [applause] here's the thing. if you are lucky enough and fortunate enough to have been blessed enough to be in the other 2%, the top 2%, you still get a tax cut for your first $250,000 and then come. all we're saying is after that, and maybe you can do a little bit more to help pay down this deficit and invest in things like education to help our economy grow. [applause]

listen. government will do its part. we have already cut $1 trillion in spending. we will cut more. we have to streamline government and make it work efficiently and effectively, but what we can also do is to ask people like me to do a little bit more. all we're asking is for people like me to go back to the rates we paid under bill clinton. by the way, that was a time when we created nearly 23 million new jobs and we created the biggest budget surplus in history. here's the kicker. folks at the top actually did well because guess what? when a factory worker, a construction worker,

receptionist, a teacher, firefighter, kopp has a little bit more money in their pockets, what do they do? maybe they go out and buy a new car after writing that old be around for the last 16 years. maybe they finally get a new dishwasher because the old one has been broke for a long time. maybe they go and buy a computer for their kids for the new school year or they go to restaurants. heaven forbid, they take a vacation. that means businesses suddenly have more customers. that means businesses start hiring more workers because they are making more profit. everybody does better. that's how we grow the economy. not from the top down but from the metal out and the bottom up. that's the choice in this election. that's why i'm running for a second term as president of the united states. [applause] you know, across the board

there is a sharp contrast between me and mr. romney. when the yacht industry was on the brink of collapse, more than 1 million -- when the automobile industry was on the brink of collapse, romney said to lead detroit go bankrupt. i refused to turn my back on one of the great american industries. i bet on american workers. three years later, the auto industry has come back. [applause] now i want to make sure that high-tech manufacturing jobs take root here, not in china. i want them to take root here in council bluffs. governor romney likes to brag about his private sector experience. a bunch of that was investing in companies that have been

called pioneers of outsourcing. let me tell you something. i want in sourcing, not outsourcing. i want to stop giving tax breaks to companies that ship jobs overseas. let's give tax breaks to those companies that invest in america, higher american workers up to sell all over the world with those goods made in america. that's what i believe in. [applause] here's another difference. right now, home grown energy, things like wind energy, creating new jobs oliver states like iowa. governor romney wants to end tax breaks for wind energy producers. american now produces twice as much electricity from wind as we did before it took office.

we doubled the amount of electricity we are producing from wind. it supports about 7000 jobs in iowa. without these wind energy tax credits, a lot of these jobs would be at risk. 37,000 jobs across this country would be at risk. i think we should stop spending billions on taxpayer subsidies for an oil industry making all kinds of profits and keep investing in a clean energy that has never been more promising. that's a disagreement i've got with governor romney. that is the choice in this election. [applause] back in 2008, i said it was time to end the war in iraq. we ended it. i said it was time for us to go

after bin laden and al qaeda. and we did. [applause] we set a time line to start bringing our troops out of afghanistan. after a decade of war, i think it's time to do some nation- building here at home. [applause] we cannot have accomplished any of this without the extraordinary service of our men and women in uniform. i promise you this. as long as i am commander in chief, this country will care for our veterans and serve our veterans as well as they served us. if nobody who fought for this country should have to fight for a job or a roof over their heads when they come home. [applause] that is why we've invested so heavily in making sure the va works like it's supposed to. that is why we have put more money into treatment of ptsd

and traumatic brain injuries, ending homelessness among veterans. those are investments we have to make. my plan says let's take half the money we are no longer spending on the war and also use it to put people back to work building our roads, runways, imports, wireless networks, creating a veteran's job course of local communities can hire our veterans to be firefighters, police officers in communities that need it. that's the america we want to build. that's the choice in this election. that's why i'm running for his second term. [applause] i want to make sure that america, once again, leads in education. i want to help our schools hire of the best teachers, especially in math and science. i want to give 2 million more americans the chance to go to

community colleges and learn the skills businesses are hiring for right now. i want to give colleges and universities the chance to bring down the cost of tuition once and for all because education is not a luxury. it's an economic necessity. everyone should be able to afford it. i have a plan to help homeowners refinance their homes at historically low rates to save an average of $3,000. my opponent solution is to let the market bottomed out. that's what he said. that's not a solution. that's part of the problem. that's the difference in this election. my opponent says one of the first things he would do would be to repeal obamacare. crowd: boo! >> i think that part of being middle class in america is making sure you do not go

bankrupt when you get sick. because of this law, if you have a pre-existing condition he will be able to get health insurance. that is why 6.5 million young people can now stay on their parents' plan. that is why seniors are now getting discounts on their prescription drugs. that's why insurance companies cannot drop your coverage or impose lifetime limits when you need it most. that is why we passed this bill. the supreme court has spoken. we are not going backwards. we are going forward. [applause] you know, all of these things, whether it is bringing back manufacturing, creating more construction jobs, protecting

people's health care, making sure your kids get the best education, making sure our veterans of the same kind of opportunity my father had when he came back and was able to go to college on the gi bill, this is all part of what makes middle class. they are all bound together in the idea that made this country great. that basic promise that if you work hard, you can get ahead. it is not always going to be smooth. there will be times when times are tough. but the idea that if you work hard and look after your family, that work will be rewarded. that is the promise that our grandparents passed down to us. now it is the promise we ought to pass on to our kids and grandkids.

that is what is at stake in this election. over the next three months, you will see the other side spend more money on negative ads than we have ever seen in history. these folks, they've got some really rich people writing $10 million checks. and basically, they are going to say the same thing over and over again. they know their economic theories are not going to sell. or member what happened when we tried them. all they will say is that the economy is not as good as it should be and it is obama's fault. they expect you to have and asia and not remember who it is that got us into the mess. [applause] but they figure, if we run these ads often enough, maybe folks will start thinking about it. that is true. they may have a plan to win the

election, but they cannot hide the fact that they do not have a plan to create jobs or revive the middle class, or grow the economy. and i do have that plan. i have a plan to put you first. i have a plan that puts middle- class families and folks trying to get into the middle class first. but i'm going to need your help. i've got to make sure you are registered. i'd get to make sure your friends are registered to vote. in iowa, you can get register online. all you have to do is go to gottaregister.com. the thing is, we have been outspent before, and we have been counted out before. but what you told me in 2007

and in 2008 was that when the american people cut through all of the nonsense, when you focus your attention and you remember the story of your own families and all the struggles that your parents and grandparents went through, and how maybe because you got a student loan somewhere, maybe because your dad was able to get that job at the factory, you guys were able to build a good life together, just like nichelle and i were able to get opportunities that our parents could never have imagined. when you focus on that thing that is best in america, the way we pull together and give everybody a fair shot if everybody is doing their fair share and everybody is playing by the same set of rules, and everybody is taking responsibility, when you come together and reaffirm those core values that make this the greatest country on earth, you cannot be stopped.

all of money those folks are spending does not matter. you are democracy. you make decisions about the direction of this country. and i've got to tell you, we've come too far to go back now. we've got too many good jobs we still have to create, too many teachers we still have to hire, too many schools we still have to rebuild it, too many students we still need to help get an affordable education. we've got homegrown energy, more trips we've got to bring home, and most of all, we've got more doors to opportunity that we've got to open for everybody willing to work hard enough to walk through those doors. that is what is at stake in this election. that is why i'm running for president of the united states. that is why i'm asking for your vote, not just for me, but for this country that we believe in.

[applause] and if you are willing to work with me and stand with me and knock on doors with me and make phone calls with me, if you vote for me in november, iowa, we will win this election and we will finish what we started in 2008 and will remind every nationwide the united states is the greatest nation on earth. god bless you, and god bless the united states of america. [applause] ♪ [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] ♪

♪

>> republican vice-presidential candidate rep o'brien also campaigned in iowa. over the next 10 minutes, you will see his arrival at the state fair followed by his comments and demo in -- at tehe des moines soap box area.

[unintelligible conversations] >> mother-in-law's from clinton, iowa. my wife's third or fourth cousin. my mother is from clinton, iowa, and the second cousin. you know the family? >> it will be the iowa -- we also have a world food price

building in downtown des moines. >> my whole family flew out for the whole thing. >> we have all that displayed. they also have to preserve the environment. >> i knew that. he was a great american, this guy.

>> you said yesterday that the president -- >> i want to enjoy this fair right now.

>> have you ever seen this? >> no, i have not. i've milked a cow. i usually lose to a 17-year-old woman who is wearing a tiara. i'm going to keep myself in shape, that is for sure. that is your -- that is interesting. that is great.

>> they have some tournaments. >> yes. i am looking forward to it. watch out for that. oh, yes. good to see you. ok. we will get to that later. right now, i just want to enjoy it. where you from?

i'm paul. you.to meert >> nice to meet you. >> what is your name, ma'am? enjoy the fair. n't want to get in the way of your food. hi. you are enjoying the fair? how are you doing? nice to meet you. nice to meet you. they make those. you are on tv. what is your name? angry bird. good to see you. watch the baby, everybody. hey, how are you doing? good. hey, what is your name? hey, buddy.

what is your name? >> mckenna. >> where are you from? >> des moines, iowa. >> we are running for office. that is why we have all of these people around. have a good day. >> a prediction poll. >> you know what? we like to think of it as america's team. good to see you. what is your name, ma'am? like a tootsie roll. very cool. nice to meet you. hey, aidan.

how are you doing? that is pretty cool. you get a little velcro strap and put it on your -- >> is he named after hayden fry? good to meet you. you have to put a strap on these things. they help out a lot. -- it's just when it gets >> right, right, right. they work well. my kids just spit them out on the ground. nice to see you. take care. >> the majority in your state and iowa -- >> we will play all these issues. president obama -- we will see these issues later. our job is to protect medicare. we will deal with these issues later. hey sir, thanks for your support.

thanks for your service. hello, jenna. i am just getting used to it. it is different. thanks for coming out to the fair today. >> thanks for coming to iowa. >> the competitive edge has a lot of promotional things. all of this -- >> oh, really? no kidding. and in mitt's first campaign, i was in landsford also. >> welcome to iowa. thanks for coming. >> good to see you. charles, how you doing? >> not provoked -- >> because we could get away with it. you don't try to get someone --

>> so what nfl team do you have? >> iowa state and iowa. >> are you more -- >> this is a factor. bears, vikings. >> you have a lot of basketball. >> we have a lot of cubs fans. >> i live an hour and a half -- >> i am behind you 100%. >> my grandfather went to -- great school. i keep going. we had an event for governor crawford. that is the centerpiece -- this is --

>> you -- we got this and -- >> we ran again. >> he ran before and almost beat him. and now he's running again. >> this year -- >> good to see you. >> nice to see you there. >> no question, no question. >> i would speak to him, too. [applause] >> he spoke at the state fair and is introduced by the

register's editor. this is about 10 minutes. >> sit down, guys. >> good afternoon. we will wait just a second to let the media get positioned. my name is rick green, the editor and vice president of the des moines register. we want to thank you for being here and appreciate your patience. we know it is hot and warm but it is worth the wait. [applause] >> this has been a political soapbox. this is a chance to bring forward great candidates from different levels to interact with you, the voters. the great tradition is that we have great civil discourse and we are respectful to our guests. i introduce the great governor of iowa, terry branstad.

[applause] >> it is my honor to introduce a man who will be a great vice- president for the country. the voice of fiscal responsibility and a great congressman from our neighboring state, paul ryan. [applause] >> hey. [applause] >> are there any packer fans here? all right, cool. hey, everybody, how are you doing? what a beautiful day to be at

the state fair. do you have wristband day here? wristbd day, you can ride all the rides with one wristband all day. from a wisconsinite to an iowan, have wristband day. your kids will love it. i heard president obama is starting his bus tour today. and i heard he wasn't going to come to the iowa state fair. i think it's -- i think it's become so -- you know, it's funny. it is funny because iowans and wisconsinites love to be respectful of one another and listen to one another, but these ladies must not be from iowa or wisconsin.

and so -- oh. they are starting to hear. like i said, you must not be from iowa. so, hey, all right. my guess is, my guess is the reason president obama isn't making it here is because he only knows left turns. [applause] you know, but have you see nhim come through on his bus tour, you may ask him the same question i am getting asked, and that is where are the jobs, mr. president? [applause]

now, one thing we have to get straight, one thing we have to get straight is we are not growing this economy or creating jobs like we can in america. that is why mitt romney and i have a plan for a stronger middle class to get this country growing jobs again and get us back on the path to prosperity in this country. there are five things we will do right away to create 12 million jobs. we have energy in this country, let's use this energy in this country. renewables, biomass, nuclear, and oil and gas. let's get it. let's not keep buying from other countries.

we also need workers with skills to thrive and survive in this economy. you know what we need to do? we need to stop spending money we don't have. president obama has given us four years of trillion-dollar deficits and is making matters worse and spending our children into a diminished future. on november 6, we will change that. we also need to have free and fair trade to make more things in iowa, make more things here and sell them oversees. 97% of consumers are outside this country. we need to make more things in iowa and the midwest. if we do that, we will create

jobs. [applause] >> one more thing. one of the great things about mitt romney, is that he actually knows how to create jobs. he has created jobs, started small businesses, turned around failing businesses. that's the leadership and experience we want to have. this is a man with real life experiences who knows if you have a small business, you did build that small business. [applause] we need to rebuild and reenergize our small buisinesses and that is where our jobs come from. i have to tell you, overseas, for a wisconsinite this means

lake superior, our competing nations are taxing their businesses at a lower rate than ours. president obama tells america's successful small businesses that they want the top tax rate to go to 45%. the canadians just lowered the tax rate for their businesses to 15%. how on earth are our small businesses going to compete when we have other countries lowering their tax rates? we have to lower the loopholes and reductions. and we have to stop cutting small businesses and spending that money in washington. that's right. that's right. >> usa! usa!

>> thank you. another thing. we have people who are hurting in this country. people are hurting because we don't have jobs. families live paycheck to paycheck and the paychecks aren't stretched to what they have. we have the largest deficit and biggest government since world war ii. one of six americans live in poverty today. what we have to do and need to do is get the policies that get people from welfare to self- sufficiency and dignity. what is so disturbing about president obama's reason action

is that he took a reform that was bipartisan and he signed this into law by in 1996, we called this welfare reform. this is one of the greatest by partisan policies in 20 years because it said, if you will receive this, you have to get ready for work, to get back on your feet. you see, we believe in the safety net. we believe in a safety net that is there for people who cannot help themselves. it is there to help people who are down on their luck to get up on their feet. and the working requirement did more to help the poor and to reduce child poverty than anything we have seen in a generation. and president barack obama just got rid of those work requirements, and they're no longer has to be a work performance for people to receive welfare.

this is going to send the wrong message. we want to give people a hand up, but not handouts. and so, what you see from us is this. we owe you a choice. you are our fellow citizens and we want to give you a choice to decide the kind of country you want to have, and what kind of people you want to be. we want america to be the land of the free, with a safety net but upward mobility, a society of people reaching their potential and making the most of their lives. we do not want to follow europe or have a welfare state, we do not want to have a long recession, or see the path of household incomes going down. we want to turn this around.

and with mitt romney, we are used to this in wisconsin. and with mitt romney, we have leaders -- a leader who is proven, who knows to create jobs. we have a leader when his country needed him, he moved to salt lake city and he saved the olympics and he made us proud. we have a leader, when he was governor of massachusetts, balance the budget without raising taxes, and he increased household income. he increased the take-home pay. our job is to grow the economy and get people back to work and help people have bigger paychecks. this can be done and we can turn this around and get this economy going. do you know what we will do? we will do this in iowa and all around the country. we will do this anywhere that we can go.

november 6 is the day that we are going to do this. [applause] i feel such kindred spirits here. i live an hour and a half from iowa. this is where my mother in law is from. we are united as midwesterners. some of you -- you may be vikings or bears fans. i won't hold that against you. i see packers hats. but at the end of the day, we are americans. america is special. america is the only country founded on an idea. that is the big difference here. what is unique about america is that we recognize the points and facts, the principles that

our veterans fought for. our rights, they come from nature and god, not from government. that is who we are. that is what we believe. and if we reapply those principles we can get this country on track. help us do this thing. help us bring this state to the mitt romney column. we saved it for our kids, our grandkids. thank you, everyone. have a great -- state fair.

>> there are still wolves in the woods and we saw that when saddam hussein invaded kuwait. the mideast might have become a

nuclear powder keg. our nuclear supplies held hostage. we did what was right and necessary. we destroyed a threat and locked a tyrant in the prison of his own country. [applause] >> tonight, at 10 million of our fellow americans are out of work. tens of millions work at lower pay. unemployment always goes up a little before a recovery begins. unemployment has to go up by one more person before a real recovery can begin. >> c-span has aired every minute of every convention since 1984 and this year watched the national conventions on c-span starting monday, august 27. >> mitt romney was in miami on

monday joined by marco rubio. this is 25 minutes. [applause] >> looked at this. -- look at this. yeah, you bet. could to see you. -- good to see you. >> buenos tardes.

good afternoon, miami. it is our honored to be here with you today and with cindy -- with your indulgence i would like to say a few words in spanish. [speaking spanish] [applause] [booing]

[speaking spanish] [chanting u.s. saa.] >> i described to them how i

saved a bunch of money on my car insurance. [laughter] i am honored and privileged to be here with you today. i am proud to be from this community. i live a few blocks away. i went to middle school down the street and joining me here today is the next president of the united states. [applause] at such a critical moment in our nation's history, for 200 some odd years, this country has been different than the rest of the world. never in the history of mankind has there been a society like this. almost everybody in the world lived in poverty. wealth and power belong to a handful will people at the top and everyone else was trapped by the circumstances of their birth. that is all you are allowed to do. you were only allowed to go as

far as your parents. but 200 some odd years ago that changed. on this continent, extraordinary man began in asian on the principle that every person born was born with certain rights given to them by god that no government and their leader could deny them. [applause] from those principles sprung free enterprise and free enterprise created prosperity in this nation, unlike anything man has ever known. no community understands that better than this one. hundreds of thousands of men and women who lost their youth and their country to tierney and are grateful to god that this nation -- tyrann and are grateful to god that this nation was here to provide for their families and leave their children better off than themselves. this extraordinary country is

what makes us different. it has never been automatic. it has always required to do what it takes to keep it that way. now is our chance to do that, too. for four years, we have had a president that does not understand about our country. he does not believe in free enterprise. he thinks people have to pull people behind to get ahead. and he divides us against each other. he divides us in an attempt to win this election. but it will not work because that is never who we have been in that is not to we are now. what we have a chance to do is collect some one that believes in free enterprise, the greatness of america, and will instill the policies necessary to insure our children inherit what theythat is why it is my pe

and my honor to welcome to my community, to my neighborhood, the next president of the united states of america -- mitt romney. [applause] >> thank you. thank you. this is a tame -- this is the team. this team, this family are going to help me win the white house this november. [applause] better days are ahead but we will have to have a better

leader in the white house. i will be that person. i know there are some people that are critical of america and think our best days are past but i know something about the heart of the american people. do not forget who won the most medals at the olympics -- we did. do not forget who sent a vehicle all the way to mars. to put us there? we did. i know the chinese are working hard and getting a rocket to the moon. when they do, they will find an american flag there that has been there for 43 years. [applause] the people of america are going to have a choice about which course to go down. i have someone here i want to have you understand a little bit about me. this happened to be my son, my youngest boy. my baby, if you will. i am going to let him sit a

couple of words. and in spanish. craig. [applause] >> [speaking spanish] [applause]

crowd chants: romney! [applause] >> thank you so much. i said we have a dramatic twist to make about what kind of america we want. we will go down the path the president led which makes us more like europe or we will make america more and more like america. this president ran for office and when he ran for office, he said he was going to do a bunch of things. he was going to get us more jobs. he has not done that. 23 million americans out a walk -- worker stopped looking for work or are underemployed. i will get the jobs americans need. i know how to do it. he said he would help people hang on to their homes but we have seen a record number of home foreclosures. i will get this economy going so people will see home values going up again. [applause]

the president said that under his progress we would see more people start businesses and began to enterprises. he has been crushing small enterprise. we are at a 30 year low in new business start-ups. and i am president, i will help small businesses get going and add jobs. the president said he would cut the deficit in half. i think it is immoral for us to keep spending our kids' future. by president, i will cut spending and get america on track for a balanced budget. [applause] if you think jobs are plentiful, if you think home values are good, if you think your health care needs to be taken over by the government, you know the person to vote for and that is barack obama. but if you want someone who will get good jobs and rising wages again and rising home values and finally get america on track to having fiscal sanity, i am the person that should be the next president of the united states.

the other day the president said something which i did not believe he said it. i could not believe it. he said if you have a business, you did not build it, someone else did that for you. i thought that cannot possibly be what he meant. he said look at the context. so i looked at the context of what he said. the context was worse than the quote because he said if you are successful, you may think it is because you are smart but a lot of people are smart. and you might think it is because you work hard but a lot of people work hard. i cannot figure out where he was going with that. in my view, this has been a nation which has always celebrated people who have been successful and begun businesses and chief things in their lives. we are a nation of individuals with dreams to come here and build enterprises and better

lives for themselves and their children. that is the nature of america. [applause] you know, when a person goes to work every day and says i think i am going to go to community college and see if i can get more skills and get a promotion at work, when they get the promotion, we congratulate them. the same way to go. you made that happen. when a kid goes to school and the size to work her heart out to get the honor roll, i know they took the bus to get to school but if they get the honor roll, i give the credit not to the bus driver but to the kid. [applause] so if you begin a business like this one to bring people from all over south florida, i will tell you what, i give the credit to the people who work here. not to the government to open the street for us.

senator rubio was absolutely right. from the very beginning of this country, the idea was that the rights that we have as citizens here are not given to us by our government but instead are given to us by our creator. it is thought to give us our rights and among those rights are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. we are free in this nation to pursue happiness as b-2s. and this circumstance of birth the limit our potential. look at marco rubio. what an extraordinary leader and example of that kind of promise of america. that is the american dream. we want to restore the american dream. i heard speak at another audience somewhere. he said some the hubble not forget. when he came here and lived modestly in a community, he saw a big fan of the homes and said

he never heard his parents say i wonder why those people might give us what some of the have -- some of what they have. the parents said aren't we lucky to live in a land where if we work hard and take risks, we might be able to achieve that for ourselves. [applause] that is the nature of america. that is what makes america the way we are. people have come here for hundreds of years seeking opportunity, freedom to be able to pursue their dreams and when they are successful, when they achieve their dreams, they do not make us poorer, they make us better off. i will not apologize for success at home and i will never apologize for america overseas. [applause] if i become the next president and paul ryan becomes the next vice president, we will the

everything in our power to make america strong with strong homes and strong values. we will cling to the principles of the constitution and the declaration of independence. we will go to work to improve our economy. i have five things i would do. i think i will do to get our economy growing and thriving again. we will take advantage of our energy resources here. our coal, gas, oil, nuclear, renewable. we will make sure every person has the skills they need to succeed. that means our school and no longer be in the bottom. they must be the best. we have to put the kids first in our education. [applause] #3, i want more trade. it is good for us to be able to trade with other nations. that creates more jobs. there is a huge market right next door where we can do trade, latin america. i will increase our trade to not -- to latin america and

crackdown on nations like china when they cheat. no. 4, will get america to shrink the size of federal spending and balance the budget. and number five, i want to have been small businesses. we will help small businesses grow and hire more people. [applause] so that is what we are going to do. we will make sure this nation stays strong. not by virtue of a government that tries to tell us how to live our lives because i believed in the american people. i believe in you. i believe in your capacity to build a better life for yourself and your family, for the coming generations. i do not believe government can do what you can do. you can achieve your dreams and as you do so, you will make america stronger. i will fight to keep america strong and our homes, values, economy, and military -- it will be second to none in the world. [applause]

i love this country. i love america. we are going to keep america strong and the hope of the earth. thank you so very much. [applause] ♪ [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] ♪ driving down the street today, i saw a sign for lemonade. they were the key is kids i had ever seen in this front yard. as they handed me my glass, smiling thinking to myself. what a picture perfect postcard this would make of america. it is a high school prom, a

springsteen's song, a ride in a chevrolet. a man on the moon, a kid stand with lemonade. it is open arms. one nation under god. it is america. ♪ lat on when i got home, i slipped the tv on. saw a little town that some big twister tore apart. people came from miles around just to help the neighbors out. i was thinking to myself i am so glad that i live in america. ♪ ♪

it's america. ♪ we do not always get it all right. there is no place else i would rather build my life. it is a rock-and-roll band, a farm cutting hay. it's a high school prom, it is a springsteen song, it is a welcome home. it is a man on the moon, a kid

stand with lemonade. open arms, one nation under god. it's america. ♪ ♪ it's america.

girl i have been thinking about us and you know i'm not good at this stuff. these feelings are piling up will not get the rest. this might come out a little crazy. a little sideways, maybe. i do not know how long it will take me but i will do my best. i will be a strong and steady you be my glass of wine. you will be my sunny day. i will be a shade tree. you be my honeysuckle. i will be your honeybee. ♪ ♪ that came out a little country but every word was right on the money. i have got you smiling right back at me. hold on because i'm not done.

there is more that came from. i'm just having fun seriously. you will be my louisiana. i will be your mississippi. you be my little old etta. you be my sugar baby. i will be your sweet iced tea. you be my honeysuckle. i will be your honeybee. ♪ ♪ your kiss said it all. i am glad we had the stock. nothing else left to do but fall in each other's arms. i could've said that i love you. could have built a line or two. baby all i know is that he speak

right from the heart. you be my soft and sweet. kabul be a strong and steady. you be my glass of wine. the be my sunny day. -- you be my sunny day. the dubai and honeysuckle. you be my honeybee. ♪ ♪

♪ >> the soviet bear may be gone but there are still wolves in the woods. we saw that when saddam hussein invaded kuwait. the mideast might have become a nuclear powder keg, our energy supplies held hostage so we did what was right and what was necessary. we destroyed a threat, freed a people and locked a tyrant in the prison of his own country. tonight, 10 million of our

fellow americans out the work, tens of millions of work -- more work harder for lower pay. the incoming president says unemployment always goes up a little before a recovery begins. but unemployment only have to go up by one more person before a real recovery can begin. >> c-span has aired every minute of every major party conventions since 1984. this year, watched the republican and democratic national conventions live on c- span starting monday, august 27. >> several large avesta tell you about tomorrow morning. the nuclear regulatory commission. an event hosted by energy daley. that is on c-span2 at 10:00 eastern. also at 10:00 a.m. on c-span3, the heritage foundation hosted a discussion on the role of the defense department in a domestic disaster. here on c-span, vice-president

biden will be speaking at a campaign event in virginia. you can do that but at 10:15 a.m. eastern. -- you can see that live at 10:50 a.m. eastern. in a few minutes, remarks from the presidential and vice- presidential nominees. for the v part -- for the reform party. then grover norquist on tax policy and presidential politics. >> wow. i humbly accept your party's nomination for presidential candidate. i realize that many of you are taking a chance on someone that you did not know for very long before, but i hope this was an educated decision you made. i realize there are some concerns on some of my stances, but that is one reason i believe the reform party is going to grow immensely and work very well.

we have the ability to talk about these things. and this discussion is important in any growing process. i believe that through the process that we have going here, we are creating a model. and we are showing ourselves to be true to what america needs and what they want out of leadership. i respected everything you said. you are a wonderful opponent. i respected everything you said in the debate. mr. cross, you are an incredible candidate and i am happy to have you at my side. i would say this also. there is a lot that drew me to this party, as i said before. but right now, as i look at the people who took part in this

process, i am more proud. i see the vast stand of americans, young, old. there are some of them who are executives, rich or poor. i see the people who are here in everyday life, those who are actually affected. not the upper, upper echelon. not the super-elites. but those who are affected by the decisions made by government. i promise you -- i will do what i can to represent the ideals and beliefs of this organization. the reform party encompasses and embodies what america is looking for. reform. we have to get this back to a simpler form of government. is simpler form of economics.

this is not over-complicated. i greatly appreciate your faith in me at this point. and i reach out to each and every individual with any problems with my stances. i want to work with you. i want to work with you and i want you to work with me in return. this is the only way it works for everyone. with everyone. if this is a unilateral decision, it will end in destruction. it will end in failure. and that is not what this party is about. this is about success and a better future. something where we can leave something better for our children and they have more than we had. something where we can strive to do better. in every aspect, in every

scenario. where we can project a real image of democracy around the world. not the psuedo-democracy we have now and can make decisions in congress within the government and get things done. it won't be a do-nothing government or america. it is not going to be an america where people look at us and whisper behind our backs on what we think we are or what we used to be. they will look at us as what we are now and how far we will go into the future. the reform party is the greatest party that there is now. we have nowhere to go but up. we are growing. we will be the voice of the middle class and all of america. i am not a proponent of the 1% or 99%, it is 100% of everyone in america.

i will not focus on social issues. that's not what we need. that belongs outside of politics. i will focus on our economy. on the defense of this country. and on making our americans better educated to make the decisions we need made every single day. i will intensify my focus on bringing jobs back to america. people who are working, grinding their hands to the bones, they don't have time to do the research needed. we need people that are going to be effectively integrating themselves into this process. this democratic process.

this great, american process we have. it is what sets us apart from other countries and sets us apart from the communists, those who would be considered religious, fanatical countries. we are america. we are great, and wonderful, and proud. i think the reform party is the microcosm of america. thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you so much, andre. that was just marvelous. i would like to give the opportunity to mr. cross, who is our vice- presidential nominee.

[applause] >> i am grateful to be nominated for the reform party for vice president. i look forward to working with mr. barnett to help restore america to its position of strength and respect in the world that we ought to be in, and that we have dropped from in the two-party system. we need a better way than we are doing things now. even the campaign going on largely at the presidential level is personal attacks and slurs. it reminds me of that commercial, "where is the beef"" a few policies and positions are set forth, with little detail provided and little focus on how they will do this and turn

around the problems we have now. i am sure mr. barnett and i will spend time working on options to set forth before the people to provide alternatives to what we have and solutions to our problems. we need a government, of the people, for the people, by the people. we have gotten away from that. i am not a politician. i am a citizen candidate. not a great speaker. i love my country. the founders of this country were not polished politicians. they were generals, farmers, scientists, and all sorts of walks of life that stepped forward to help serve their country.

we need this attitude, we need to present that attitude before the people so they understand that there is a better way, there is a chance to have a better way through the reform party than giving up hope. the american people, many i have talked to, photographic shops at wal-mart, they feel the same way. that there is nothing they can do and there is no hope. everything is out of control. the two parties are so polarized that nothing can be done and we just have to go forward and see what happens, when things collapse or crash. that is a pathetic situation and we can do better than what we have with the republicans and democrats. democrats.