good morning. the republican party is just living off the stimulus package programs that president obama put into office. but you do not want to seemed to want to give him any credit for helping out your states. first of all, i have two parts. you republicans are against the minimum wage that would help me as a people. you are also for farm subsidies and you are against [indiscernible] and it is hurting citizens. there are people who need the medicaid and your state. your state is going to receive federal dollars and you reject are thetly because you ideology of the republican party. obviously he is from georgia and does not understand

what we have done in iowa. we have used a waiver program and a different approach. he made some statement about farm subsidies. the new farm bill actually eliminates direct payments and eliminates subsidies. the one thing that we are concerned about the the obama administration is advocating is reducing the renewable fuel standard, which is always been supported by the epa. i met with jim mccarthy yesterday to say -- we want a robust, renewable fuel standard. we want to be able to convert more of our corn and other anducts to renewable fuels be less dependent on foreign oil. that has been working well in this country and we think it would be a big mistake to cave in to big oil. that is something that iowans are united behind on a bipartisan basis. from our next call comes

tom, vermont, independent line. good morning to you, sir. caller: how are you doing? host: great, thanks --guest: great, thanks. theer: alcohol belongs in glass, not the gas. we are taking our food and we are burning it, turning it into alcohol, burning it and cars. the alcohol is also causing tremendous damage to the motor vehicles, as well as -- you bought the line from big oil, hook, line, and sick -- sinker. pollutealso attended to the groundwater on the east and west coast. you ought to come to the midwest and see how this is working effectively, what it has done in creating jobs and reducing our dependency on foreign oil. you just have a lot of misinformation put out by the

very -- the huge amount of money, you know, that big oil spends doing out misinformation on the east coast and the west coast, to me it is pretty disturbing, but those in the midwest, republicans and democrats, recognize that room -- renewable fuels, wind energy, ethanol, bio diesel, is part of the solution. it is something that makes a lot of sense and has been good for the environment, good for the economy. i have been involved in this fight since the 1970's. i know we are up against the ,uge, deep pockets of big oil but you need to study this further and get better information. set: we do have a line and aside for those of you who live in iowa. 3883.85- a story here from "the des moines register." what is happening here? bit.: this is easing up a

not only in iowa, but across the upper midwest we had a wet spring, so we needed more propane for drying corn this fall. and then we had an extremely cold winter. the result is we have had shortages of propane and the costs of gone up dramatically. i have signed an emergency disaster designation, permitting truckers to go longer hours. we have also been in touch with governor perry. he did similar things in texas in terms of getting the propane up from texas. we worked in conjunction with other midwestern governors and were able to get the federal agencies to give more flexibility. have eased the problem somewhat. the price spike at five dollars per gallon is now down to i think three dollars per gallon, but it has been a very difficult

winter. many of our rural residents rely on propane for their heating, farmers do for their livestock. host: a farming related question from one of our viewers -- "what percentage of your state is currently agricultural"? part of thebig state in terms of the land. a lot of it is used for agricultural purposes. i would say one in six jobs are dependent on agriculture. agriculture income has been good in recent years. because of things like renewable fuel standards and better commodity prices for corn and soybeans, we are the leading corn and soybean producer, and ourport reduce or, cattle numbers have been coming back. when you talk about feed versus fuel, there is a great byproduct when you make ethanol all distillers dried grains, a high-protein that is better than feeding your cattle corn. we have found that has been a

really great thing. the byproduct of ethanol actually goes into the food chain and makes for delicious beef. host: in your state of the state address you listed a series of goals for this year, including the creation of 200,000 new jobs and a 15% reduction of the cost of government across iowa, 25% notease in family income, only the healthiest eight of the nation, but the best schools in the nation. how do you pay for all of that? those areest: ambitious goals that i said when i became governor. we have created 130,000 of those 200,000 jobs already. we have gone from six percent unemployment to 4.2% unemployment. the big challenge now is funding the people with the skills to fill the jobs. have an initiative this year

and courage and the people coming out of the military to come to iowa. we are eliminating the tax and military retirement, making it possible for them to go to our schools on in-state tuition, making it easier for them to get professional licensing in our state. we want to be the most welcoming state for veterans. we know that they have a lot of leadership and specific job skills that we need in iowa. we also have a broadband initiative to get high-speed internet to other parts of the state, as well as an anti-bullying initiative for the schools and an effort to reduce student debt by freezing tuition for the second year in a row. the first time since 1975 that has been done in iowa. also encouraging students only to borrow as much as you need, not as much as you can get. our next caller is from iowa. doug, good morning. guest: i am from near max berg,

i know where you are from. you have.bet i wanted to give you a vote of confidence. i heard the other calls. i remember in 1993 you helped us to get plants started. i went through what happened after you left office. i look forward to you having another four years. --guest: thank you very much. i am very hands-on, as you know. iowa is working and i am proud to hear from you. thank you for calling. next running assist our from scottsdale, arizona. welcome to the program. caller: good morning, welcome to the program -- good morning, thank you for c-span. they always say that we do not have a voice or a mission. people do not understand where the republican party is coming from. i think one of the things for would be if we had

a leader as president say to the american people that i will ,ower the cost of living through energy, through natural gas we will bring it down below one dollar per gallon. if gas was below one dollar per gallon, why would you still do corn? you could never out produce that costs of below one dollar or $39 per barrel? ist: i do not think --guest: do not think we will see gas below one dollar again. in this day and age the cost of drilling for oil and then refining it really means that the cost is not -- i don't think the market is going to bring it down. initially, i say we want all of policies.in energy i support the keystone pipeline, but i also support renewable fuel. i want us to eliminate dependency on foreign oil and rely on domestic, natural gas,

oil, renewable fuels. i think the combination of that could be great for the american economy and the iowa economy as well. you might have seen it, the headline, terry branstad and "the war on women." iowa and mississippi, the only two states that have never elected a female governor, member of congress, or u.s. senator. changeyou are trying to that, but why has it been so difficult for women to break the glass ceiling in iowa? a war it actually said for women, talking about how my attendant governor is a rising star in the republican party. i appointed the first woman cpa state auditor. i have another of female department heads. at the head of the department of

revenue, the head of economic development, the director of the civil rights commission and workforce development. -- workforce development. one of my department heads is running for congress. she had been the head of the department of public health. i think that we have a lot of talented women. we have a woman who is in the race for united states senate who is a state senator from our state. she is in a contested primary with several others. i think it is just a matter of time that you will see women winning the governor's office, senate seat, and congressional seats in iowa. a number of lieutenant governors, republican and democratic women. talentalways recognized and am really proud of the fact

that cream -- kim reynolds is my lieutenant governor. i want her to be the next governor after me. good morning. guest: how are you? caller: you -- caller: fine. guest: you have that nook siemens plant being built north of time. -- north of town. caller: i understand that. thank you so much. we needed those jobs. will there be enough funding in iowa for resurfacing the roads? guest: we will be addressing that this year. we will have $700 million in the primary road fund this year, and as we look to the future we will have to come up with additional funding. i believe that the funding should come from the users of the roads to help improve the roads and bridges of the state. that is an issue that we do need

to address, but i want to give for reducing administrative costs and having more resources go for the road and bridge construction in our state. your governor, here is chamber of commerce pitch from a viewer. well, you will find the friendliest people in the world. people that will treat you really well and make you feel wanted and welcome. even the president of china came there in 1985 and he now calls as old friends and he tells me how much he loves iowa and how well he was treated when he was there. he came there in 1985 from our sister state. , tested out, iowa see what you think. i think you will find it is a

great place to live, work, and raise a family. is there currently a battle going on between you and the republican party? an effort toere is expand and increase participation in the republican party. i am proud to say that our recent caucuses had really good turnout and i think we will have a revitalized party. we have a hotly contested u.s. senate seat. to lead the whole republican team to victory. this election, 2014, could be a great year if we continue to work hard and work together. with an eye on 2016, we know that we will not be spending the new year's eve in iowa, it looks like you're caucuses are going to be in february of 2016? yes, and we are

appreciative of that. last time it was on january 3. we will do what we have to do to be first in the nation, but we think that february is a better date and we are appreciative of has the national committee done in penalizing states that try to move up their primaries or caucuses. to maintain iowa as first in the nation and encourage all the candidates to counties.o to all 99 it is a great way to start the presidential selection process. well know, the winner of the iowa caucuses does not necessarily mean the winner of the nomination. does the process still worked away needs to? host: we do not always wind up choosing the one who winds up winning, but usually if you are not in the top three you probably will not be viable in terms of getting the nomination. it is important to come to iowa and compete.