place structures, infrastructure to help people enforce their own local laws or to create them in the first place. countries like the united states must respect them so we do not turn in blind eye when people enter illegally. there is more that we can all do to try and provide that structure that enables people not to have to choose between feeding their families and killing rare animals. it is hard work, but i think we will manage. that is what it is all about. 80 will not be completely transformative. it is about setting a framework that is hopefully moving in that direction. it is optimizing u.s. dollars that we are investing.

we have only five or six minutes left. in the front here. we for the microphone. >> good afternoon. this is a very important topic. i work for a management company. i have had the privilege of irking -- working with this group for the five years. there is a lot of innovation in this country. that is something we can share. my experience suggests that there is a lot of innovation overseas. i think about the information technology sector in the west bank. what is the agency doing in terms of venture capital and other means to take advantage and support that? >> thank you for that and for your service. we have done very interesting things that are now maturing. includes working with private funds in latin

america, afghanistan. it has created the capacity to some or entrepreneurs. i was in the west bank and saw a business plan competition with all of these young programmers basically teaching to venture capitalists in the region their business ideas. it was a good idea. half of them are services that we use. online services tailored to a local context. half of them were completely novel. it was great to see. there must've been 400 in ramallah by friday night. it was young entrepreneurs who were pitching their business ideas and trying to raise money. you see that dynamic all over the world. i think our aid and assistance should be used to encourage

that. those men and women have so much value. we brought someone over from google and intel. it the volumes in communities. as not to say that all innovation comes from there, but would people think about successful innovation and entrepreneurship, they think about american entrepreneurship. the more we can represent a broad, the better off we are. >> we have time for one more question. maybe the woman in the red. defer my spot to to his excellency from the philippines. he also raised his hand for a question. >> thank you. this was an interesting presentation.

you have done a great job. you also did a great job in the aftermath of typhoon high on. i appreciate the american government and the american people for their overwhelming generosity. my question to the congressman is -- [laughter] aid, and theeign great job that you do, with the u.s. congress consider providing a greater budget for id.titutions like usa unattractiveevelop business opportunity for u.s. firms. we mentioned the experience of ge. i am of course concerned about this.

american institutions must do much more for u.s. businesses. >> i want to hear the answer. >> you are of course right. made, reference that was to the united states military, in the aftermath of the typhoon and tsunami, watching our military swing into action and thatde water, i think there was more good done in that for hundreds of thousands of people whose lives were turned upside down, but candidly, the perception people have about united eight. -- states. decade,spend the next

approximately $700 million on a nuclear arsenal that we have not used in 69 years. it has a thousand times more than we need to destroy any country and the globe. the news is that they discovered cheating in the missile silos and we have 450 missiles. button. fingers on the they discovered that when they were investigating alleged drug abuse. towe are able to have people -- look at this one area. we could reprogram conservatively a half trillion dollars. we will give you 1.0%. [laughter]

america would be safer. we would be better off. we would save the taxpayers a lot of money. ofome back to the power these concepts where people come together and they see the practical stuff. these partnerships. this is what is going to make a difference. more importantly, for a divided country. they need the support to go forward. >> unfortunately, we have run out of time. it is a fascinating discussion. does the u.s. uses form of its power out there in the world. i want to thank all of you for coming. there will be a quick round of applause. [applause]

>> tonight on c-span, the house democratic caucus wrapped up a retreat. we will so -- we will show you president obama and vice president's biden remarks. jim jordan talks about changes to welfare. and ted cruz talks about u.s. energy production. later, we discussed public and private partnerships.

on the next washington journal, we look at the health care law and the recent extension given by the obama administration. that, alicia caldwell discusses the future of the homeland security department under new secretary jeh johnson. this is all in washington journal, live at 7:00 a.m. on sees. >> watch our program on first lady michelle obama, saturday at 7:00 p.m. on c-span. series on monday night with a special program. >> she brought financial resources to the marriage, as

well as her managerial skills. she made it possible for washington to be away for eight years fighting a war. >> there was something about abraham lincoln where she saw the potential and encouraged. she helped develop it. there were lessons in etiquette that help polish them up for washington society. there were parties that they had were they invited important people. there were the strawberry cream parties where she spoke with the lies -- the wives of important gentlemen. she wielded a lot of power. >> the involvement of mrs. roosevelt in a political career of fdr is there from the beginning. she becomes much more active in her role after 1920. franklin roosevelt contracted polio. she would encourage them to continue with his political ambitions. >> first ladies: influence and image. monday night at nine eastern. it is live on c-span.

>> president obama spoke today on the last day of the house democratic caucus retreat in maryland. he spoke about jobs, the passage of the debt limit increase, and enrollment goals for the health care law. he spoke for 15 minutes. >> ladies and gentlemen, to introduce the president of the united dates, please welcome congressman joe crowley. [applause] >> thank you. we are short on time folks. i can stay here all day if you like. some of you asked me whether or not i would be singing my introduction of the president. i do not want to disappoint you but i will be disappointing you. last night we had an opportunity to have a little dedication to pete sieger.

my newfound best friend in congress, derek hoffman. we played a view all simon songs as well. i got the president to seal on the presidential podium, my mama loves me. if my mother could only see me now. our next speaker is the perfect conclusion to what has been a marvelous and wonderful two days despite the weather. on helping us to shape our goals and agenda for the rest of 2014. critical issues including minimum wage including equal pay, unemployment benefits, immigration reform.

they all need to be tackled. we need to help our country move forward. we should not bother in an election year. all of these issues get lost in the chaos in the republicans lack of leadership. i say otherwise. so desire president. just look at what we have accomplished with this man. this wonderful man. we are helping people today because of his leadership on the the leadership of nancy pelosi, steny hoyer and all the house leadership because of what we have done in passing the affordable care act. history has a way of treating is better than we sometimes treat ourselves. i believe the same will be said about this democratic caucus and our leadership when it came to the issue of her writing for the least amongst us.

this is a reminder of what we can accomplish when we work together. our next guest understands what opportunity is all about. he understands what we have accomplished so far and when used to be done. as a boy from woodside, queens, it don't get much better than this. if my dad were here today, he would hardly believe it. all four grandparents, all immigrants, would hardly believe this is the grandson. i thank you for this opportunity to introduce to you the leader of the free world, more importantly, our friend, president barack obama. [applause]

>> thank you. thank you so much. thank you, everybody. everybody sit down. sit down. it is good to see you. thank you for the wonderful introduction. let me be the first to say happy valentine's day to our fearless leader nancy pelosi. [applause] paul will hopefully get you more than just a thank you. to steny, javier, deed israel who was doing an external or job under the circumstances. it is great to see you.

we just saw each other at the white house for the recently. i'm not going to give a long speech year. i want to spend most of my time answering support questions. let me just make a couple of observations since we saw each other. first of all, i stated in our state of the union that the single most important thing we have to do, not just as a party but as a country, is make sure there is opportunity for every single person that we are focused every single day in this town or in washington making sure that if you are willing to work hard and take responsibility that you can get ahead.

it is not matter where you live or what circumstances you were born into. what you look like. who you love. you should be able to make it here in america. as i said at the state of the union, i want to work with congress to make that happen. i am not going to wait. there's too much to do. america does not believe in standing still. america insists on moving forward. we laid out some very specific ways we can move the country forward. raking them down into a few categories. number one, creating more good jobs that pay good wages. number two, making sure folks are trained to fill those good jobs. number three, making sure our kids have the best education in the world. number four, making sure that hard work pays off, that people

are not poor if they are working full-time. that they have some semblance of retirement security. that they can count on health care if something happens to them. already, just in the last couple of weeks, we put forward a range of executive actions that are going to make a difference. yesterday i had a chance to be with a group of minimum wage workers for federal contractors. these are folks who are washing dishes or cleaning close on our military bases.

sometimes the debates on capitol hill get so abstract and to be next to folks, average age by the weight 35, these are not teenagers. these are looking after families in trying to raise kids and see what it would mean to them for us to have a federal minimum wage of $10.10 an hour and how much relief it would give them. it reminded me of why i am a democrat. it reminded me of why i am so proud of this caucus. [applause] you are standing up on behalf of them. we signed the executive order. these folks are going to get a raise. america deserves a raise. now is the time for congress to act. i pointed out yesterday that the majority of low-wage workers are women. that is why we will push to make sure we have equal pay for equal work and we have sensible family policies. as i said, when women succeed america sit succeeds. i still believe that.

we traveled to manufacturing plants up and wisconsin to talk about how we can continue to accelerate his danced manufacturing and technology in this country. we have some great possibilities to create hubs that keep us on the cutting edge. we have already set up a new retirement account that allows people to get a starter retirement.

a lot of people do not have 401(k)s. across the board, we are moving. as i said at the state of the union, i want to repeat today that we can get a whole lot more done if we have congress working with us. this caucus has shown time and time again, under the most difficult circumstance, the kind of encourage in unity and discipline that has made me very proud. i was just talking to nancy before i came out here. the fact that we are no longer going to see anybody try to hold our government hostage and threaten the full faith and credit of the united states of america in order to contract

policy concessions, the fact that we are able to pass a clean debt limit is just one example of why when you guys are unified you guys stick together. this country is better off. i could not be more thankful. i cannot be more proud of what you are doing. just a couple more points. you have seen reports over the last couple of days though we slightly exceeded our targets for enrollments this past month. we now have well over 3.5 million people who have signed up and are getting insurance to the marketplace for the first time. we're going to keep on pushing

on this to make sure here in america everyone can enjoy the kind of financial security and peace of mind for good quality health insurance provides. i just want to say thank you for hanging in there on issue that i think 10 years from now or five years from now we will look i can say this was a monumental achievement that could not have happened had it not been for this caucus. finally, there are some big things we have to do that i cannot do through executive action where he have to get congress and where the american people are on our side. the federal minimum wage law is one of them. another is making sure we've got a smart immigration policy in this country that grows our economy, get people out of the shadows, makes sure our businesses are thriving.

that has got to be a top priority. i believe there are folks on the other side of the outage and only want to see this done but they are worried and scared about the lyrical blowback. look. everybody here is an elected official. we can all appreciate the maneuvering that takes place particularly in an election year. we have to remind ourselves that people are behind the statistics. their lives being impacted. punting and putting things off for another two years or three years, it hurts people. it hurts our economy. it hurts families. part of what makes us democrats is not some abstract ideological

set of beliefs but the fact that we are reminded every single day that we're here to help a whole bunch of folks out there who are struggling still. they are counting on us. we has outstanding members of congress who are willing to fight for them regardless of the political cost starting with your leader nancy pelosi. i'm grateful for you. we keep on making progress. even if we get resistance from the other side. the american people know that we could be breaking out in washington gets its act together. it is important for us to be that process. thank you very much. [applause] all right. thank you. thank you.

>> vice president biden also spoke. he spoke for about 20 minutes. >> thank you. thank you. >> hello, everybody. please, please. you have had a long week. thank you very much. thank you. last time a group stood that long in clap for me, a guy in the back said "keep talking, it is raining outside."

i am sorry i cannot be here yesterday. i want you to know i have a deadline. as i got off the helicopter and drove in the short distance to the hotel, i said if you're not out of here 10 minutes till the president cannot land. that is an incentive for everyone. for everyone. in light of the time, you have been kind enough to invite me to your caucuses before, to this retreat. i have always enjoyed it. i've always been willing and anxious to say as long as you have questions. in order to get to the questions, i am going to be fairly brief and what i have to say in my opening comments. mainly, i came back to say again thank you. i'm not being gratuitous. literally, thank you.

were it not for the house of representatives and the way you stood right the president, particular the leadership of nancy, it would not have been amid this could have been a much rougher road. we understand as well why we were reflected, because an awful lot of you in this room. the president has committed and i am fully committed to put in every bit of effort we can to be of help to any of you. [applause] as jimmy eastland said to me, he said what would they do for you in delaware? some places you help in some places you would her. he said i will come to delaware and campaigned for you or against you, whichever will help you the most.

i want to thank steve israel for being so helpful in directing the where he wants me to go. we had breakfast the other day with about half a dozen of your pollsters. i am anxious to help. i also want to thank debbie wasserman schultz. she has been one of the best spokesman we have ever had. [applause] debbie is always there and always doing it well. i am trying my best to help you raise some money there as well. you are doing a heck of a job for us. i want to thank you. i particularly want to say thank you to shelby, her daughter. every time to comes over i convinced shelby to hang out with me a little while. folks, look. i am optimistic about america's prospects and about our prospects. i really mean that. if you take a look at where we are relative to the other

countries in the world, we are so much better positioned than any country in the world to be the 21st century. it is not even close. it really isn't. i love reading the stories about how the chinese are doing so well on their going to eat our lunch in the europeans are coming back. you would not want to try positions with any foreign leader for all the money in the world. they have more problems. we want to see them work their way through his problems. america is the best nation to lead the world, particularly economically. if you noticed, it is come home to america. an awful lot of corporations, as you know, manufacturing is coming back to the united states of america. it is coming back for simple, basic reasons. we have the most productive workers in the world. i want the chinese to do well. i just that with the president for five hours and told him how much we wanted to see him do well.

i said we want you to buy our products. i really mean it. take a look around. take a look at why companies are coming around. the best research of the needs of the world, not even close to any others in the world. we have a court system where we protect intellectual property. we have a growth in ingenuity. think about it. what products can you name. how may times have you been making speeches about how the chinese have graduated 45 or 60 as many engineers? we are so much better off than anyone else. it always amazes me that we do not talk more about it.

i was recently, i traveled about 800,000 miles so far as vice president. i was coming back from a trip that ended up being around the world. i was coming from india to singapore. i met with a man that said if you have met with, one of the wisest men i have met with. the only guy i have heard henry kissinger said he learned something from. li quan yu is 92 years old and frail. his mind is still extremely sharp. he is still very articulate. i sat with him for about an

hour. there is a book written where it is a group of interviews with him about four countries, china, india, the united states and russia. i turned to him about 20 minutes into the conversation and said "mr. president, what are the chinese doing now?" he said something interesting, "chinese are in the united states of america looking for the buried lack. box you know, like flight recorder boxes that contain the data. there try to figure out what it allows americans to be the only nation in the world able to continually remake itself." continually remake itself. i said "i think i can tell you what is in that black box. i said, there are two things in a blackbox. one is a steady and significant stream of immigrants coming to american shores" -- [applause]

"those immigrants who come are self-selected. they have the most courage and sense of optimism. they have the greatest sense of the ability of they and their fellow immigrants to make things new. when you think about it, the strongest come. it takes a lot of courage to pick up and say i'm heading to a country that may not particularly want to me and i do not speak the language but i'm going anyway. it takes a special breed of person. that is the first thing. the second thing is in the united states, whether you are naturalized american citizen or by birth, you are talking the

time you are a child to challenge orthodoxy." we are the only nation in the world where as difficult as our elementary school education is and we criticize it and we want to make it better and it must be made better, no child in america is ever criticized for challenging orthodox. think about every other country including our allies. orthodoxy. it is the holy grail. you cannot build something new and less to break the old mold. that is the magic of this country. when i take a look at our attitude about ourselves as a people, it always surprises me when we do not have the degree of optimism we should about the state of the nation. in spite of who is president or in congress, the american people are so much stronger, so much more recently and, so much more capable. even the ridiculous policies of our friends on the right can i keep them from moving forward. that is what you see all over. the other thing we have going for us in this moment is this the first time in my career where on every major issue the american people agree with the

democratic party. it's about it. [applause] i really mean it. i know that sounds like hyperbole. every issue facing the middle class for what you were able to do at the debt ceiling to minimum wage, 72% supported an increase of minimum wage. , immigration reform, background checks on weapons, 90% of the american people, infrastructure. he said i do like south carolina but i like their port a lot,

too. they meet hundreds of thousands of jobs. the american people agree with us. 55% of quality. overwhelmingly they grieve for pay equity. 35% is all the difficulties with the aca. 35% of the people do not want to see it repealed. i cannot think of a time where most of the issues that affect the middle class are overwhelmingly in support of us. i wish there was a deal or compromise in know when he got up from the table it was done.

that is what political parties are able to do. all you had to do was look at the response of the state of the union over three or four. i'm not being facetious. i think we should just get a little focus. let's get a little focus. to focusing on the few things we do have problems with, focus on all we have going for us going forward in this election. the middle class, you have heard me say this before, we have great economists in the white house who will debate with you whether middle-class means $49,870 or $52,100.

middle-class is not a number. middle-class is a value set. it is about whether or not you can only her home and not have to rent it. it is not whether not you can send your kid kids to the park in the neighborhood in a worry about whether he or she will be mugged or molested going to and from. it is about being able to send the kid to your school in the vicinity where you know if they do well they will qualify to go to school after they graduate, whether it is trade school or community college or a four-year college. it is knowing that you're going to be able to take care of your parents that are elderly and hope and pray your children will never have to take care of you. that is what being middle-class is. the middle class is being clobbered. they talk about the fact that we should not be talking about income inequality. i think it would be a sin if we did not talk about income inequality. [applause]

when you go from when i was did to ceo that made about 25 times more than the lowest paid employee to now 240 times, i understand all the economic arguments. anderson globalization. i understand the consequences. the reason america is a strong and as vital as it is, it has the most robust as any other nation in the world. this is why it happened. when the middle class does well, the rich gets richer and the poor have an avenue. that is closing. it seems to me -- that is what everything we talk about is about. making sure we are building this country. the thing that amazes me most is about how with republicans all of a sudden infrastructure is bad.

building think the country needs, i do not get it. i really don't, by the way. it is one of the things after all of the years i served in the senate and now five years as vice president, it is the one perplexes me the most. i do not get it. their friends and business are for it. the american public is for it. we are for it. all they have to do is look around and see how badly the need is, but there is this hesitancy to do anything. i know we got a budget deal.

it is a good thing that we're moving on to not have to refight the budget again this year and next. does anybody in this room think that the republican party has walked away from the ryan budget? does anybody in this room think if they are able to take the senate or maintain the numbers that is not what they will get back to? i campaigned for a lot of congressional handed it. i am proud to. many times i go into the districts and supporters are saying there are x number of republicans competing for nomination and this one or that one. kay hagan had about 1500 people. i said the thing you have to ask anyone of the candidates, if they are elected, are they going to vote against when the republicans moved again to reduce taxes by another $220,000

a year for people making over a million bucks? are they going to vote against a woman's right to choose, access to a good job? what are they going to do? are any one of them going to deviate from the orthodoxy? the orthodoxy of the republican party in the house of representatives right now. folks, i think we have, between now and november is three political lifetimes. the one thing i'm actually confident about in large part because of the caliber of candidates you have been able to recruit and the nature of your leadership and because the american people are already where we want them to be, already with us, i cannot imagine our prospects of being viewed by the president and everyone else as being a whole hell of a lot brighter by the time we turn in september than

now. keep your eye on the ball. keep your eye on the ball. the american people are where we are. let's go out and make every single effort not just to defend but to aggressively push our agenda. they are with us. they are with us. i am glad i am with you. thank you very much. [applause] clerics -- >> according to the new york times, the president talked about the trade agenda. specifically the partnership, which is a regional trade deal involving 12 countries. that is part of the --inistration's said it

pivot towards asia. the vice president acknowledged that congress will not grant fast track trade authority. the article also cites remarks by senate majority leader harry reid. nancy pelosi said that giving the president this authority is out of the question for you can read more online. >> on the next washington journal, the inmate -- the american enterprise institute. we will look at the health care law and the recent extension given by the obama administration to medium size in employers in providing health insurance. alicia caldwell will discuss the future of the homeland security department under jeh johnson. this is all in washington journal.

>> c-span, we bring public affairs events from washington the to you. we put you in the room at congressional hearings, white house event. we offer complete gavel to gavel coverage of the u.s. house. by thec-span, created cable tv industry 35 years ago and funded by her local cable tv provider. >> earlier this week, the heritage foundation hosted a conservative policies summit. jim jordan discusses his recommendations for improving welfare. this is from washington, d.c. it runs an hour.

>> let's rejoin the conversation here. i am excited to introduce jim jordan. a lot of you know him. he is absolutely a great leader on every conservative issue that we work on. whether it is federal spending, tax reform, entitlements, pushing back against cronyism, jim is on the friend life. -- the frontline. he arrived on the scene when he chaired the republican study committee. his leadership was extraordinary. it became clear under his chairmanship that this was a guy to keep on eye on. since leaving the chairmanship, he has not slowed down at all. he has become the voice of the conservative conscience in the house of representatives. on top of everything else, he has taken on a very important job.

he is transforming the welfare state. this has been a very important issue. it has been at the core of what we have been working on for decades. he was instrumental in keeping those victories and keeping to transform the welfare state. he has been working to translate those ideas for how to keep going. we are ready to make a massive push. we want the leadership team to bring this to the floor. it is an important piece of legislation. he has joined one of our panelists and i am excited for you guys to meet him.

he had gone out in the field to see firsthand what kind of challenges we are facing. as you know, this is going to be important. i want us to be able to find a way to put out. we are excited to advance his this bill. [applause] >> don't clap if you haven't heard me talk yet. thank you. thank you to heritage, one of the greatest policy think tanks in the whole world. they are doing all the work. i does have the privilege of introducing the bill. heritage has done all the analysis and all the work. we appreciate their work. they are doing work on all kinds of conservative issues. we have been down in richmond about 1.5 years ago. we saw firsthand what people getting in the trenches -- helping people, not just talking

policy. they go out and they administer -- they minister to people. they help them improve their lives. jennifer marshall organized the whole trip. she has done so much research in this area. if you are going to stop poverty, and i will talk in the broad sense, if you are going to cure poverty and prevents it, there are three things you need. work, strong families, free market. let's be honest, this administration is not doing well in any of those areas. that is what we need to change. we need to highlight that. that is what our bill is about. i want to talk mostly about the first thing and that is were. we crossed the line last week. we have one of the two major parties in the country embracing the concept that less work and more help from government is part of the democratic platform.

i would argue that we fought that line last week. the comments on the shows from nancy pelosi -- did you hear. reid said? -- did you hear what harry reid said? it is sad to hear the party step over the line and embrace the idea that somehow he is good when people were class. we come from an entirely different focus. this bill comes from an opposite direction. we think work is a good thing. do a short exercise. think about the first job you ever had.

the very first job you had. maybe was a paper route. maybe it was babysitting the neighbor's kid. maybe it was working at a mcdonald's or a burger king. maybe it was as a waiter or a waitress. for me, i was in the middle of ohio and it was baling hay. i was mowing lawns. i was speaking about this over the weekend. the lessons i learned -- you think about the things you learn from that first business. how to manage money and resources. we had an interesting operation. my dad was old school and he said he would provide a truck and built the trailer.

he will give us a lawn mowers and we had one question hour. -- push mueller. you guys pay for the gas. you can have a date on the weekend, and that will come out of the money you earn. you learn to manage your resources. if you were screwing around and you broke something on the mower, you have to pay for it. it was normal wear and tear, he would cover it. you learned about work and the satisfaction you get from doing a job well. you get it signed and you see the nice lawn that you mode. you learn basic values. when we don't let people experience that, or we have policies that this incentivize that, we are robbing them of the opportunity to learn those deals, those lessons, those values that we all got from that very first job. we took those skills and moved on to better employment. i like to mow my own line, but that is what we are missing. this focus on work. this gives you learn, you learn to deal with people. whenever someone would call her house, and find out that we were

in the lawn business, someone would call and we would go to the phone, and we knew someone was asking for us to mow their lawn. we figured we had 20 at the time and we did not need more. we would be in the background telling him we did not need more. my dad never turn anyone down. we always have that additional lawn. you learn to deal people. we had the steinberger lately -- ladies. they were never married, they live together. two sisters. they had a big lawn, but we quickly learned that you grab the mowers and get to learn -- get to work. with that house, we went a few minutes before we started to talk to them. if we talk to them a little bit, they were more likely to make chocolate chip cookies and have been waiting or a.

you learn those skills. they are important in the business that i'm in now. we have to keep track. so many people wanted their lawns mowed before the weekend. there were different things you have to do. my point is that we are robbing people of the opportunity to develop those skills. we have a bill that focuses on how or work is. our bill is simple. let's figure out what we are spending money on now. 77 different social programs. your tax dollars are being used to fund them. but aggregate that. let's require states, let's incentivize states, to have work problems -- work programs that make a difference in people's lives. mowing lawns, flipping burgers, a paper route, whatever it is. let's teach people basic skills so that they can move on to

better employment. if you had a chance, you could see this story. here i have it. it was in the wall street journal. do you see this story? he is the guy behind. we had professor mulligan speech at a subcommittee hearing a year ago on the unemployment concerns. this guy had it right. it was largely his analysis. it is worth reading that if you get a chance.

i will get to our panel soon. he wants to strike at the causes of poverty, not just the consequences. that is what our bill will do. if you want to get at what causes poverty, you have this incentivizing work. it is not adhering to free markets. when we focus on those things, good things can happen. the last thing i will say, and they used to say this to student athletes, this lets you know my background before he got into the business of politics. i was a wrestling coach at ohio university. i used to tell our student-athletes that hard work does not guarantee success. but insurer -- it sure improves your chances.

hard work is the best ticket. we have a culture and government policy is that going the opposite direction. that is a mistake. that is something we should correct. when you focus on that work ethic, you bills a quality that is the most important character quality necessary for anyone to achieve anything of meaning. that is self-discipline. it is so important. i think i have shared this story before. it stuck with me. our high school wrestling coach -- wrestling is big in our school. my brother is a coach. it is a big deal. because he got started with our host back in the day. the wrestling room is named after him. he had cancer a few years ago passed away. there was an amazing memorial service. he would talk about discipline every day. he was the toughest teacher in our school.

he taught chemistry and physics i still remember. it was not just any old class. he said, if you want to do well in my class, you better come prepared and participate. it will take discipline to do well in this class. and in the wrestling room he was , driving me nuts. self-discipline is the most important character quality. i thought, would that guy shut up? he is just like my dad. now i have to get in the classroom and in wrestling. but it hangs in a wrestling ring today. discipline is doing what you don't want to do when you don't want to do it. it meant doing things the right way.

even when he wanted to give them the easy way or the convenient way. the biggest problem is that we always do think the convenient way instead of the right way. this bill is about teaching people qualities to do things the right way. we want them to experience the american dream so they can better their lives. it is all about these concepts of hard work and self-discipline. that is why i am so excited about it. we will get there. it won't be easy, but you guys know this. anything worth doing is never easy. it will take effort, but if we are working with the heritage foundation, i will bet on that team any time. time for questions. [applause] >> if i could invite our panel up. >> i will introduce them as they come up. >> you are in for a treat today. bob woodson is the founder of a group. he has been working with folks in congress, getting them to talk to people.

he wants to understand and rub shoulders with folks. his work has been really important to this effort to o. marshall is with the heritage foundation has been working a lot with bob. the director of domestic policy studies here at heritage. we are privileged to have her here. i will open it up with a couple questions. then we will go to the audience. bob, your testimony at the senate budget committee, we saw that -- very powerful. you shared a story about your niece. that is what we are connecting with. would you mind sharing that with the group? can you talk about the implications? >> when their father died, they

left behind six children in a rural community. they all went to college on a government scholarship. that was her defense. my response was that we generalize about poor people. we disaggregate them. you have people who use welfare as a character attack like she did. it was use as an ambulance, not a full transportation system. they may have a young mom in wisconsin who saved $5,000 of her welfare check so that she send her daughter to college. she was charged with felony. she said she made a decision. it wasn't because she had bad character. she made a a conscious decision. there are those who are poor because of the chances that they take and the choices that they make. there are character deficits

there. they are alcoholics or they have babies out of wedlock. giving money to that last category only injures them. i said that my own niece back in the 90's was an alcoholic. she was living in public housing. she had a small child. i spent a year and thousands of dollars trying to wean her off and of finding her a department in arlington, virginia. i found great job. i went to pick her up at 2:00 in the morning and one of the days -- one of the most dangerous housing projects in philadelphia. when i went up at 2:00 in the afternoon, she was drunk. i could not compete against a public housing. i cannot not compete against food stamps. it was only after welfare reform was she compelled to go out and work. now she is on her feet. i say that to say that it is important for us to this

-- disaggregate that and recognize that help -- people tend to look at all welfare recipients as if they are category one. people on the right tend to look at all welfare recipients as if they are category three. we must adjust our conventions -- interventions to meet the categories of people we are trying to help. we must frame it properly. >> thank you. one other question. i know this will probably come up. talk about the importance of bringing folks like paul ryan and some of the other folks, why do you think is important that we, as conservatives get out , there. >> we talk a lot -- people on the left, when they look at poor ofple, they see a sea victims. people on the right see aliens.

i think when we talk about poor people, we spend too much time talking about their deficits and their shortcomings. we give statistics about the 70% were born out of wedlock. people are not motivated to change or improve by warning them about injuries to be avoided. we as conservatives must inspire people and talk about victories that are possible. instead of always focusing on the 70% of the families that are raising children in deficit communities, we should look about the 30% who are raising children that are not dropping out of school or in jail or on drugs. we should go in and find that 30% and ask them what they are doing that is different than their neighbors. how can we insinuate support and resources to them so that the 30% can begin to affect the 70%. we should be the champions of the 30%, as much as much as we are opponents to the 70%.

we have seen firsthand what happens when you go into communities that are suffering our characterat challenges. it requires an intervention by those who are living in the same cultural zip code anything geographic zip code. nothing is more powerful to a person trying to find direction than exposure to a witness who says transformation is operable. -- is possible. it witness is more powerful than an advocate. what we do, and jim saw this, is that we go into those neighborhoods and identify people who are healing agents. we know the human body is oriented towards health. the moment there is injury, healing begins. we need to go in and identify those community antibodies. we need to find creative ways that we can insinuate resources, information, and money so that

these individuals can become a whole immune system. the body of the neighborhood is healed from the in and out. many of those hailing -- healing agents, the grassroot people, they embody conservative principles. they believe in sacrifice. victimizere that the might have knocked you down, but the victim has to get up. they believe in all of the things that we believe in. they will articulate conservative principles. when you go in there, the qualities that make them effective also render them invisible. they are not whining or complaining or petitioning government. they are just busy doing their work. you have to act like a geiger counter and find them.

they are not looking for you. once you do, you will recognize the strength that they have. you will build on their strengths and enable them. there are many barriers that we found when drug and alcohol was involved. there are problems in america with alcoholism and drug addictions were economic, i would send an economist. problems with education, because our problems he sent a savior, but that's something else. >> thank you. i'll ask one more question and then we'll open it up. we recently had a lot of commentary about 50 years since the war on poverty was launched. it's an opportunity to talk about what our solutions are as conservatives.

but maybe could you briefly give an assessment of the 50 war on poverty and talk about what it's going to take to break through the ideas. >> the 50 year anniversary was january 8th and as congressman jordan already said president lyndon johnson said he wanted to attack the causes of poverty and not the symptoms. that's a noble intention. how is it born out. today that comprises 80 different programs that provide, cash, food, house know, medical assistance and targeted assistance to poor and low income individuals. a total price tag over the years of $20 trillion. i bring that up only to say if we were going to win this war on poverty by spending, we would have done it a long time ago. so we've got to look more deeply at the things that bob's calling

to us look at, the incentives within these welfare programs. this is just as true for any private enterprise that is trying to tackle poverty -- incentives matter. in the same time period the unwed child bearing rate has gone from single digit to 40% overall we have some markers that we need to be aware of, but then get very focused on the incentives that will bring out the success stories and that's what congressman's jordan's legislation will do and bring the food stamp requirement into the puzzle and that's just emblematic of one problem. with the reform act that was so widely hailed left and right as a great success because it transformed the old aid to families with dependant children into a path towards self-sufficiency and required work and made sure that people were engaged in work activities over time. that led to dramatic effects.

the welfare roles fell in half and child poverty reached an entire low and that was not a lesson to say let's repeat that these 80 programs, but too many walked away and said the job is done. the job is not done. we have not done justice to the poor in the united states and we need to keep working and build on that success. the next step is congressman jordan's legislation and look forward to engaging in this new conversation about how we make the path toward sufficient-sufficiency clear and incentives match that. >> i would like to add a footnote to that. the black community is more of a moral barometer of the health of the nation. prior to the 1960s, 85% of black families had a man and woman raise children. but it has gone down to 30%.

if race and poverty spending were the cure then detroit should be a social reform mecca, but it isn't. because the problem is structural 70% of every dollar spent on poor people does not go to poor people. it goes to those who serve poor people. they ask not which problems are solvable but which ones are fundable this year. you have perverse incentives for professional service providers to serve the poor no matter how compassionate they may be if their income and careers are dependant upon having people two serve no matter how compassionate, you're asking them to sacrifice their own personal careers and their income in order to empower poor people. conservatives by contrast have

no proprietary or strategic interest in the existences of poverty and therefore they've got more of an incentive to partner with the people suffering the problem. but we've got to make that kind of leap and demonstrate to people that we're willing to -- and the final point is we must come up with non-governmental interventions. for instance, in indianapolis, indiana you have a program where a church -- for example, you have kurt moore. he spent 13 years in federal prison and came out and found christ and didn't leave him in prison but brought him with him. [laughter] but kurt needed a job. so he given a job in this ministry washing cars for another member of the church for four months. he said why don't you go in

business for yourself? kurt was given a beat-up van and some equipment and kurt started washing cars in people's driveways. two years after that he employs 15 people and has contracts with 23 car dealerships to wash trucks. but kurt -- so i'm -- we need to come in. john williams is a local business guy and so now they are in partnership to talk about giving him access to capital because he has to buy new equipment but he doesn't have any credit because he was in prison. but when we can come in and partner with people like that, provide access to capital, coaching and so that we begin to establish these kinds of relationships all over the country and the church has 15 other entrepreneurs rather than vilifying the rich, let's provide the means for wealthy people for creating wealth and their business acumen so we can grow and generate jobs by building on the strength of people in those communities.

we need to always talk in terms of what is working in those communities and how can we build on those strengths and you will find that when kurt has to -- when asked about minimum wage he'll have a different response than some advocate. >> let's open it up for questions. >> kids under 20 could you pass a minimum wage law? >> it might not get signed by the president but we could work on it. bob's comments are right on target. let's do what works and not what people here in washington think may work. we can focus on that kind of thing, but getting that across the line would be difficult with this congress.

>> right here, jerry. >> good morning. i'm startled by what i thought i heard. the statistic that 70% of the dollars that flow through these programs do not go to the end recipients but are for the infrastructure that delivers it, is that correct? >> yes, sir. one study done by -- at that time, the liberal community service society of new york city looked at all the various poverty programs. they were the first study i saw that said 70% of all dollars goes to social worker, psychologists, drug counselors, foster care systems, the care for kids, just the whole variety of services stems, yes.

>> one thing to remember in that statistic it will vary program to program. some federal programs cash and some are social services so it's a payment for a service. >> one other question for whoever. some of the things you're talking about the perverse incentives in a lot of the programs that actually subsidize the lack of work -- this is true with many federal programs -- how much recognition of the perversity of some of these incense actives is recognized by the democrat party? and as a barrier to actually getting some sensible things done? >> my reaction is not much. one of the things our legislation seeks to do is let's start at least get our arms around everything that's going on. i mentioned 77 and jennifer mentioned 80, it's a lot of programs. you have job training, education, nutrition.

this agency is probably doing something that is redundant. let's find out what we're spending and let's account for t that's a step in the right direction, but every time it's tried where you have this -- i like the way bob described it, three categories of folks, but the tough love component does work. we did this back in the mid '90s when they passed legislation federally, we did it. we did it in the state of ohio. i offered the amendment on the floor and it was an all out debate. they had the deal worked out for welfare reform and job training but there was no tough love component. i thought i could offer one on the floor. after two years if you're an able bodied adult we will no longer pay you without working. a two-year warning. it was a big debate.

i was scared to death. it was the first speech i gave but it passed. it worked. you know what we found? no one got kicked off because deadlines influenced behavior. think about your own life. when people saw the deadline coming, guess what they did? they got the skills that bob was talking about. they found a job and got the skills and moved on something better for them and their family. we need to recognize that component and make sure it's part of the regulation. >> can i comment on the question about is there recognition across the political spectrum of the wrong incentives currently in law? there have been interesting moments of epiphany. there were predictions prior to 1996 there would be a million children starving on the streets. quite the opposite happened. that brought many liberals to affirm that, wow, this kind of a strategy does work.

even on the campaign trail, some of you will remember, then senator barack obama at the saddle back forum for the presidential candidates, he was asked to say, what is one issue on which you've changed your political opinion? he said, i have to say welfare reform. i was on the side that said it was going to be a horror for those poor families but it was a success. you can't fight the facts of how this has worked in the past. we should talk about it and apply the logic to the other programs. >> right down here. >> congressman jordan, you said that deadlines for action. obviously you just last week there was a deadline for 1.7 people ran out and it was not enacted by the senate and not going through. are these people not finding jobs because of the lack of action or trying or is there a bigger issue that needs to be addressed? >> a host of things. you have the phenomenon cited about what the obamacare can be

doing and if they're on unemployment on an extended period of time they're not always the first applicant that the employer will go for. there's that dynamic a host of reasons there. and a lot of things we can do in the policy area that will help the overall economy. you have tax policy and regulatory policy and debt policy, and all those things contribute to the fact we're not growing and including obamacare and the welfare program and the disincentives. what we need to focus on though is policies that empower people. when bob was speaking earlier i was struck -- i keep telling stories here -- but reminds me of things we did in the mid 1990's. we did a thing in ohio school choice program in cleveland. it went to the supreme court and found constitutional and was held up. at the time cleveland had a graduation rate of 32%, spending

about $6,500 per kid. the program started kindergarten, first and second. we give the scholarship and we offer 2000 spots. on the initial sign-up day, 7,000 moms on a mission kicking and scratching to get the golden ticket lined up for that golden ticket. think about what they were saying. keep your $6,500, give me $2,250 and freedom to get to a better school. and the typical family to bob's point, single mom, many of them african-american and many of them had been on or were on public assistance but they knew one thing, they wanted a better life for their kid. and didn't want their kid going to the at the time cleveland public schools. that's an empowerment model where people could see my neighbor got one of these and it is still going on today and helped a lot of kids.

that's got to be the focus as well, empowering people and going in there and making a difference right in their family. >> just one more quick thing. you said that conservatives need to be the champions doing things the right way and not the 70% that aren't. how does somebody reconcile that? >> well, it's not a matter you're ignoring the 70% are, it's just as conservatives we need to know how many of those people born in the 70% have have recovered from it. who have been redeemed? i don't see any conservative redemption studies. i took members of congress in washington, d.c., drug and alcohol treatment program, faith based, where there were 50 marriages of people who were on drugs who recovered from it and restored their lives. we need to go beyond the initial

70% and say, well, how many people have recovered from this bad start they had? how many have been recovered and what is the state of those people? and then we need to be reporting on and writing columns and articles about restoration and redemption. every time you hear conservative instead of us always being low-budget liberals, we must be the group that inspires people to say, even though you may have had a bad start redemption is possible and here and here is evidence of it. at our banquets, i want to you meet two young ladies who were homeless in a homeless center and now they're in college. one of them graduated high school, valedictorian and they were studying by their -- by the

cell phone light on their mother's phone. they ought to be conservative champions. every banquet, every conference. i know at least 7 or 8 young people or an under some trying and difficult circumstances but triumphed over these hard conditions. we ought to be writing about them. >> bob participated in a project called "seek social justice" and star parker did as well and others. we had -- we did exactly what he was talking about, correctly diagnosed what the challenges are and how to overcome them. it was stories about churches, communities and businesses so often portrayed as the bad guy, but really with important service to give to a community

in terms of work and training. one of the reasons that bob's work is so important and important for many reasons, but he helps us diagnosis the things that go beyond the material in this conversation. we have had too much of the materialistic conversation for the last half century. we need to go deeper and the challenges are deeper. really it's a lot of social capital and relational capital and the organizations that are working with bob are ones that are building relationships, they're meeting individuals at a relational level and helping them. we take for granted the way that social capital has helped us where we are today. so many americans don't have that luxury. we can give that and that's an opportunity all of us need to be exploring in the various spheres of society and not just public policy. >> star parker. >> thank you. back to the question of wage loss.

i'm wondering, this gentleman's question, we have the high ground now on school choice and thanks to cleveland and the supreme court decision in 2003 we are winning that. but wage is a challenge because workers are challenged as you have suggested. so i'm wondering if the president is having now discussions about $10.10 we could look at these hard hit zip codes and offer a way to $5 as the congressman said the national dialogue. we might not be able to get anything through but work has to be created in these environments. there is a competition with the illegal community that is at $2 so perhaps this is a good time to roll it into welfare reform. is there any opportunity for that? >> good question and again i'll go back to my remarks. you think about the first job you had where you learned those valuable skills and principals. it was probably less than working for minimum wage. i think you make a good point and something we should explore

as we're -- i am open to that. >> i tell people out of work, volunteer. you can't get anymore sub minimum than that. [laughter] and demonstrate to people that you have values and they'll hire you and once they hire you they won't let you go. that's what we have to do. it is the entry ramp. >> great point. right here. >> i just -- two points. one i just learned internships are under attack that you have obligations of someone bringing on an intern which is scaring people from bringing on internships. my largest point is inspiration is apolitical and narrative we hear is jobs, jobs, jobs. entrepreneurs, small business are disciplined people who build

success from little more than a dream, baking shop beginning at a kitchen table but decimated by the theft of content from the online technology companies. my focus tends to be i.p. and having an idea that people can start at home. so what are you doing to ensure and protect neighborhood and individual enterprise from technology stealing people's hopes from moving forward and separate from that whatever you're running for mr. woodson, i'm on board. >> god bless those who have got nothing to say and have the good sense not to say it. i'll defer to my colleagues on that one. >> technology is not my area of expertise. i think you have on the agenda -- >> we did. this morning. >> we should protect people's intellectual property across the board.

[inaudible] >> great point. >> right here. >> this is really a comment. i did call harry reid's office to tell him what i thought about his opinion about the cbo report and i wasn't that stupid. i am a senior citizen. i got yelled at and hung up on by the person at harry reid's office. he needs to hire somebody else. >> you can work on that one? >> that's what the reaction was. >> he told me i don't have time to listen to people like you. that's harry reid's office. i called lot of people. i did my first job out of college and i always wondered about this. the war on poverty and i worked

out on long island and very high unemployment and my job was youth corp to send people to training programs to require skills. i only lasted one year and turned into a conservative from a bleeding heart liberal. i sent a hundred people to go to different training programs. at the end of the year i discovered only two people completed the training programs. one wound up in prison anyway. of the other 98, they kept going for a couple of weeks and coming back. what i discovered the incentive in my young heart thought okay, he they want to be skilled and be in the middle class. but they didn't want that. they wanted the plane ride. once they were there a couple of weeks and it was really boring and they had to learn a skill, they quit and come back and i would send them on another plane ride and i always wondered if anybody tracked how many people

-- how many trillions or millions of dollars went away on that program. that was our president's program, lyndon b. johnson. did anybody ever track that and found out if anybody finished? >> i can't comment on that although we could look that up for you. what i will say the structure of the policy that congressman jordan would work. it's based on the simple premise we should provide a hand up and not a hand out. this is extremely popular. 80%, 90% of americans are support have this policy. the fact is, if you are receiving aid, should you be working, looking for work or at least preparing for work. it's a very flexible policy. the policy would say by twenty -- 2016, 4 million people need to be participating on a monthly basis in work activities either working for work or preparing for work and focuses attention

first on able-bodied adults without dependence. states would have to put them on that path for self-sufficiency and make it work on that individual's behalf and not encouraging dependancy. it would require regular check-ins so you would know what's happening. that kind of incentivizing helps people look harder for work and has a dissuasion effect but also makes sure people don't languish on the roles longer than is helpful and really tries to move them as quickly as possible towards productive , self-sufficient work. >> right here.

>> congressman jordan, there was an opportunity, i guess, last week or the week before last for the farm bill for reform for the food stamp program. i don't know if there was among -- effort among members of the house to work incentives or anything and the cuts that were made very miniscule in a program that has increased over 100% over the past four years. i wondered what happened there , and was it a fact it won't pass in the senate? another disappointment was i know you tried to decouple and unfortunately they'll be on the same path in five years. >> there were some minor changes made that were positive in the food stamp program and some volunteer encouragement of states to enact work requirements. our bill basically builds on that and makes it much, much stronger and mandatory.

yeah, i voted against the farm bill. i don't like the fact that we combine the nutrition program with the commodity programs. i think that makes no sense. split them up and have two different bills which is what we initially had coming out of the house. when you got the years we have had recently we should be phasing it towards a free market much more market oriented system and that's why you saw several of us vote against the final package. >> the policy we need to pursue is the one that changes the character of public assistance so that offers a hand up and not a handout and that's what the food stamp policy and congressman's jordan's bill is trying to do. to be distinguish from what happened in the farm bill context. it changes around the edges. some suggestions that hopefully a few states will do work requirements but it's not changing the character of public assistance in a way that will

promote self-sufficiency. >> there is no reason we can't come back to this next year. it is possible next year you have more conservatives in the senate. you can take up the nutrition title next year alone. do it right next year and then we try to get that through the senate. it was a tough loss for conservatives when they put the two bills back together but we made a very strong, powerful point throughout that entire debate about ending that unholy alliance between rural republicans and urban democrats. [indiscernible] >> first time it had been in 50 years where they had been split going through one body of the congress. >> as part of the bill is there

any incentive in there for companies to work with companies who would hire welfare recipients to work so that there would be a way of keeping track of the people who are looking for work? years ago when welfare reform had first taken place, i was an office manager at a law firm and we brought in a young lady who had -- who was on welfare and she had to go to work and part of it was we had -- we had received a letter that encouraged small businesses to hire these young people. and then these -- the welfare social worker had to send the individual to a company and then we in turn had to provide proof that they were working. this young lady had three children and is now the manager at the company where i work. she put her three kids through college. >> the policy is a requirement on the administrators of the

state level. smart administrators will be reaching out with creative strategies and i know you have stories about this kind of thing, about the creative partnership with businesses to help people enter work. >> it really does. it's how we overcome the vilification of wealthy people. we need to look at them as partners. the example you gave is just perfect. we did this for the whole state of ohio. we went around the world introducing the company to inspire people to change their attitudes. we need to have a whole conference. we have three days of celebrating solutions and so i just think that we need to do that more, just have conferences where we bring people together and exchange strategies of redemption. >> you want to encourage flexibility.

if the states are doing well can get it doing then they get an amount of dollars. that's flexibility and the flexibility you're talking about, that is all good. that's how you meet the needs in these communities. we have time for one more question. right here. >> thank you. perhaps all of you could respond to this. i'm deeply concerned about especially since the president made the comment a few weeks ago about marijuana and minimizing its seriousness and also talking about the states of washington and colorado and experiment going on there which is against federal law. i wonder what you -- how do you incorporate in the kinds of public assistance programs disincentives for using drugs

like marijuana and other drugs. >> i'll comment. some states have experiments with drug testing and that's been quite effective. >> i'm like you. i was disappointed in the president's somewhat cavalier statements regarding the use of marijuana. i just think that's not the kind of message you want the leader of the united states making. we're open to what jennifer suggested, which is some kind of drug-testing requirement. >> what is fact based in that if one goes to the website for the national institute of drug abuse, she had a conversation, two-hour conversation with the dalai lama in india. they show during the exchange an

extraordinary number of brain scans and it's been determined that individuals under 25 years old will have permanent brain damage and lose as many as ten points in their iq for using marijuana. these are facts that the president should have known about and didn't and i think it has very much ill served the whole country as a result. >> not withstanding the legal and the physical problems, it's interesting that the president talks about job generation. walmart -- one of the companies comes into a city like this and they drug test 200 young people in those distressed neighbors -- neighborhoods and only 10% could pass the drug test. yet you got city council members cavalierly saying, oh, we need to illuminate and make it legal

and more access. at the same time they're young people need to work. that's the kind of moral confusion that's being spread throughout the society. we're confusing young people. >> thank you. i'll make a quick programming note. we're going to be moving to the healthcare panel and take a brief break, 4 or 5 minutes. please thank me -- join me in thanking this panel. you did a great job. [applause] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] >> texas senator ted cruz also spoke at the heritage foundation. his remarks focused on energy policy. this is about 40 minutes.

>> thank you all very much. over the last several years >> thank you all very much. over the last several years we've seen crystal clear examples what works and what doesn't work in america's energy sector. on the one hand the private sector offered inspiring examples of creative creativity and putting downward on prices and creating jobs and growth. on federal regulations have artificially driven up the cost of energy, slowed development on federal lands, and impacted the private sector's ability to innovate and meet new challenges to provide americans with affordable energy. the start of today's event i mentioned the only way to win conservative policy victories would be to win elections inspiring millions of americans with bold policy ideas aimed at changing the broken status quo in washington. washington, d.c. is not broken. it is a finally tuned machine aimed at expanding federal power

and using those to reward those politically well connected. only way to change that status quo is to inspire americans across the country to get involved and demand control of their government. nobody has done more sooner to advance this agenda than our next speaker. three words summarize his first year in office, make d.c. listen. whether fighting a bipartisan gun control agenda the imperial presidency of barack obama or doing everything possible to stop obama care before it disrupted our nation's health care system ted cruz had been the leading conservative reform movement for the last year. ladies and gentlemen here to talk about the american energy renaissance act join me in welcoming a great american senator, ted cruz.

>> thank you very much, mike. good afternoon. it's great to join you. i just got off a plane coming in from texas. exactly. you know, i got to tell you, yesterday it was 70 degrees back in houston. i took my girls out to the park. i get out here and it is freezing. i mean it is really cold. i have to admit i was surprised. al gore told us this wouldn't happen. look, it is so cold, i actually saw a democrat with his hands in his own pockets. now that's cold. you know, mike mentioned the disconnect there is in washington. the disconnect between career politicians in both parties and the american people. the most common frustration you hear all across the state of

texas and all across the country, is that politicians in washington they aren't listening to us. and this cuts across party lines. this is true of republicans, democrat, independents, libertarians, americans are frustrated because their priorities are not the priorities of washington. if you get outside the beltway, the number one priority of americans is jobs and economic growth. state of texas doesn't matter where you are, you can be in east texas, up in the pan handle oreo grand valley, over and over again when you ask americans what their top priority, the answer over and over again is restoring jobs, restoring economic growth. i've got to tell you in the 13 months i've served in the senate, we have spent virtually zero time even talking about growth. in harry reid's senate, jobs and

economic growth don't even make it on to the agenda. we spent six weeks talking about guns and the president's agenda to restrict the second amendment right and no time talking about fundamental tax reform, regulatory reform, reducing the barriers coming from washington that are making it harder and harder for people who are struggling to achieve the american dream. today what i want to talk to you about is one specific avenue. we can pursue to restore growth. it is truly, i believe, a providenceal blessing that at a time where we had five years of stagnant growth, at a time when we've got the lowest labor force participation in this country since 1978, we are also seeing the beginning of a revolution in energy. we are seeing extraordinary

developments in energy that are opening up resources that five or ten years ago, would have been unimaginable. that as i said is a providenceal blessing. we are seeing the beginning of an american energy renaissance. and if the federal government doesn't get in the way and mess it up, that has the potential to transform the situation for so many people who are struggling. take a look at a state like north dakota. the president has tolds us he wants to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour. now what he doesn't confront is that the real obama minimum wage is zero dollars because that's what everyone who has lost their jobs under the crushing taxes and crushing regulations is getting right now, is zero dollars with the obama minimum

wage. if you look at north dakota, the average hourly wage in the oil and gas industry in north dakota is $45.90 an hour. i'm a lot more interested in generating lots of jobs at those wage levels where people can provide for their family than continuing the path where more and more people who are struggling lose their jobs. in north dakota which is experiencing a boom because of shale gas and oil, the unemployment rate is 2.6%. in north dakota, does anyone know the hourly pay for a cashier at walmart? $1.50. -- $17.50. in north dakota, mcdonald's is offering a $300 signing bonus because people can make so much in the oil fields it's hard to

get people to flip burgers. that's the potential of growth. and i got to tell you it's happening in my home state of texas as well. "the dallas morning news" reported last year that, quote, in west texas, the flood of money and workers into the region is im possible to miss. increased oil revenue is turning around poorer school districts. a high school graduate can earn more than $80,000 driving trucks. from 2001 to 2012, the number of texas upper middle-income jobs grew 24.2%. think about that for a second. a high school graduate making $80,000 a year driving trucks those are the sorts of jobs that we want to see expanded. bringing back working-class jobs, blue collar jobs where

people can earn a living, provide for their family, that was the backbone of the american middle class. those are the jobs that have been decimated under the obama economy. and you know we're seeing that as well in pennsylvania and parts of ohio, as they're taking advantage of the marcellus shale. even so it is striking if you look at the marcellus shale, the shale doesn't end at the border between pennsylvania and new york. but the jobs do. the jobs end because in new york they don't allow fracking. new yorkers apparently, according to their political leadership, don't want jobs. because they prohibited the ability of development. if you go south to pennsylvania you're seeing this kind of economic opportunity and the arbitrary line carved in the ground shows the impact of

misguided government policies. now there is one thing and only one thing that can stop us from achieving the full potential of this energy renaissance and that is the government. let me tell you a story. it's a story about a modern pioneer, some might call him a modern day hank reardon. fellow named george mitchell. now if you listen to the president's state of the union address a couple years ago, you might think president obama invented fracking. but let me suggest that credit for the technological developments far more properly belongs with george mitchell. here's what the economist magazine described george mitchell as. mitchell was the embodiment of the american dream. his father was a poor greek immigrant. a goat herd who later ran a shoe

shine shop in galveston, texas. mr. mitchell had to work his way through the university and graduated at the top of his class. he was also the embodiment of the entrepreneurial spirit. he did not discover shale oil and gas, geological surveys revealed them decades before he started, he did not even invent fracking. it had been in use since the 1940s. but few great entrepreneurs invent something entirely new. his greatness lay at a combination of vision and grit. he was convinced that technology could unlock the vast reserves of energy in the barnett shale beneath dallas and ft. worth and he kept grappling with the unforgetting rock until it eventually surrendered its ridges. the point i want to make,

economic growth, the energy revoluti revolution, didn't come from the u.s. department of energy. it didn't come from any government agency. it didn't come from a grant program picking this is how we're going to transform energy. it didn't even come, with all due respect to our wonderful host, from a think tank in washington. it came from entrepreneurs putting capital at risk and meeting a need. and let me note that where it occurred was not accidental. it occurred in my home state of texas. there are very few state s in te union that would have allowed the experimentation, would have allowed mitchell to go.

the barnett shale is not some distant formation out in the countryside. it is right underneath dallas and ft. worth, major cities. you know, california, is blessed to have significant shale formations. they're not developing them. had mitchell been in california, had california's regulatory system been the only regulatory system we have, there's no way mitchell would have succeeded. because there's no way he would have been allowed to try and develop the technology. think for a moment what we are able to do now, to drill down, miles into the ground, turn and drill miles horizontally, and extract resources -- you want to talk about technology, you want to talk about unbelievably

you imagine trying to do the same thing under san francisco? couldn't have happened. that is the story of america. this government is fond of picking winners and losers or to be more fair, is fond of picking losers. it seems this administration would like to see a whole lot more solyndras and a lot fewer george mitchells. what an incredible opportunity we have right now. but we can't fall victim to what hyatt called the fatal conceit. we cannot believe that government invents, creates or produces. it doesn't.

what it often does it stifles creativity, invention, production. the only thing that can stop this great energy renaissance is the government getting in the way. and i will note, particularly with this administration, it's been doing that more and more. right now, federal lands contain 43% of the nation's oil reserves and 28% of the nation's natural gas reserves. but significant portions of that land are not available for development. the number of new leases has fallen by 42%. from 9,661 to 5,568 between the bush and obama administrations. now, you may be confused because if you saw the president's state of the union address, he proudly

took credit for expanding oil and gas production. what he didn't mention is that it's expanding on private lands. not on government lands, on private lands. the u.s. has approved 37% fewer new drilling permits under the obama administration than under the bush administration. now presidents going back to richard nixon have given speeches calling for energy independence. it doesn't take a geopolitical expert, it doesn't take the renowned insight of a henry kissinger to realize that our nation being dependent on foreign nations for energy, many of whose interests are very different than our own, is profoundly dangerous. as a result of the innovation,

as a result of the technological advances we have right now, we're seeing jobs, we are seeing incomes rising, we are seeing less and less dependence on foreign oil, we are seeing the environment improve in unprecedented levels based on the expansion of natural gas that is reducing admissions. you know, it's interesting, our office put together a map of counties across america, color coded as to whether median income has gone up or down. that map looks like it could be a geological map of shale formations in this country. because you can see median income going up in and around the bakken, down around the barnett, the marcellus, and the eagle ford shale and one other notable exception.

washington, d.c. the rest of the country sadly has seen median incomes go down. we should be lessening the barriers for incomes to go up everywhere. for every american. you know,s just recently, president obama's former secretary of energy -- and i would note under prior administrations it was the u.s. secretary of energy, but the president is fond of saying it's my secretary of energy, to his secretary of energy recently observed that the delay with the keystone pipeline is not scientific. it's political. there have been five environmental review, each of which has concluded the keystone pipeline does not raise significant environmental concerns