with the chairman term limited, what does become a blueprint? what do you see as the future of tax reform? >> that is the 64,000 dollar question. you have a lot of folks on the ways and means committee who have poured blood and tears into this for three years. they have worked on this comprehensive overhaul of the tax code. we heard rumblings last year run -- from the summer into fall months where chairman camp was repeatedly meeting with leadership and urging them to allow this plan to come out. he was rebuffed repeatedly. that agitated a lot of conservative members who said we're been waiting for three years now for this comprehensive tax reform plan to come out. we thought that leadership was on board. they even reserved hr-1 for tax reform.

leadership does not want it to come out. there is a great deal of confusion. it is compounded by the fact chairman camp will be stepping down and there is no clear person to inherit. it is in limbo right now. i think anyone who is being honest would acknowledge there's no chance tax reform was voted on this year. >> i think what he was saying is the role of industry, specifically lobbyists he will give their feedback and pick it apart. we will see this process going forward. people present their arguments. >> the public at home should be of the lobbyists will have their say. thank you for being here this week with your questions.

chris christie had eight percent. rick santorum was tied for fifth place. brand paul the fox news this morning to talk about the cpac poll and whether he would run for president in 2016. >> we are definitely talking about it. my family is talking about it. we are doing the thing that will be necessary to measure it could happen. i have not made up my mind and will not until after the 2014 elections. i have not been shy by saying we are thinking about it. the message i am trying to promote whether i do it or not of bringing our message to minority voters, people have

been persecuted throughout history, young people also like the government has grown too big. it is a message that can grow the party and the party has to go bigger or we will not win again. >> senator rand paul spoke at cpac on friday and where he was the last speaker of the day. he focused on civil liberties and the nsa data collection program. >> thank you. what a great crowd.

imagine with me for a moment -- imagine a time where liberties spread from coast to coast. imagine a time when our great country is again governed by the constitution. [applause] time when the white house is once again occupied by a friend of liberty. [applause] and you may think i'm talking about electing republicans. i'm not. i'm talking about electing lovers of liberty. [applause] it isn't good enough to pick the lesser of two evils. we must elect men and women of

principle and conviction and action who will lead us back to greatness. -- a great andt tumultuous battle underway for the future not of the republican party, but the future of the entire country. the question is -- [applause] bolduestion is will we be and proclaim our message with passion, or will we be sunshine patriots retreating under adverse fire? will we be firm in our convictions, or will we cower defeated and meekly dilute our message? will we water down the bill of rights, or will we be all on fire like the unstoppable william lloyd garrison? for 30 years, garrison stood as politicians whimpered and

compromised and left their fellow man in bondage. garrison would not. .e could not sit quietly by he rose above those politicians that would leave the country half free, half slave. his voice was unwavering. i will be as harsh as truth and on compromising as justice. i will be in earnest. i will not equivocate. and i will not excuse, i will not retreat an inch, and i will be heard. [applause] will you, america's next generation of liberty lovers, will you stand and be heard? [applause]

thank you. thank you. thank you. thank you. thank you. the sons of liberty who fought against british soldiers writing their own warrants would today make a bonfire of the special orders issued by secret police. they would risk everything to guarantee your right to a trial by jury. they would today call out to the president, they would say "we will not be detained, spied upon, nor have our rights abridged. we will not submit and we will not trade our liberty for security, not now, not ever." [applause]

yet as our voices rising yoursts, the nsa monitors every phone call. if you have a cell phone, you are under surveillance. i believe what you do on your cell phone is none of their dam business -- damn business. i believe this is a profound

constitutional question. appliedngle warrant be to millions of americans'phone records, credit cards? i amovernment says, and telling you the truth, they say you do not own your records, that you were visa statement does not belong to you. i disagree. the fourth amendment is very clear. warrants should be issued by a judge. warrants must be specific to the individual. a single warrant for millions of americans' phone records hardly sounds specific to the individual. they should be based on a probable cause. generalized warrants that do not name an individual and seek the records of millions of individuals goes against the

very fabric of the fourth amendment. john adams wrote that james protests against generalized warrants was the spark that began the american revolution. there's a great battle going on. no forget it. there is a great battle going on for the heart and soul of america. the fourth amendment equally is important as the second amendment, and conservatives cannot forget this. will we sit idly by and let our lives be trampled upon? -- will we be like be like lemmings, running from crushing embrace, or will we say we are free and no man, the matter how well

intentioned, will take our freedom from us? daniel webster anticipated our modern-day saviors who wish to save us from having too much freedom. he wrote good intentions will always be pleaded. it is hardly too strong to say that the constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions. how will history remember barack obama? those who had hoped that president obama would somehow be a champion of civil liberties, roger waters might ask, did they get you to trade your heroes for ghosts? did they get you to exchange a walk on part?

did they get you to exchange a walk on part in the war for lead part in the cage? i do not question president motives, but history will record his timid defense of liberty. when congress passed legislation allowing for the in definite detention of an american citizen without a trial, he shamefully signed it while promising not to use such a power. a great president would have risen to the occasion. instead of merely suggesting that he would not use this dread power, a great president would have taken pan inhand and vetoed -- pen hand and vetoed this abomination. a great president would have

loudly proclaimed congress cannot and must not overturn the right to a trial by jury. a great president would have protected us from the prying eyes of the nsa. a great president would have proclaimed i will not abide it. the constitution will not abide it. our forefathers fought for the right to trial by jury so that not one innocent man would be wrongfully imprisoned. remember richard jewel? everybody thought he was the olympic bomber. he was convicted on television trial.no the only problem was he did not do it. had he been a black man in the south in 1920, he might not have

lived to prove his innocence. thene with a memory of times in our history when we did not adequately defend everyone's rights, when we did not adequately defend everyone's right to a fair and impartial tand now and s be heard. we must defend our rights. justice cannot occur without a trial. this fact should be abundantly clear to any group that has ever been persecuted. by the be a minority color of your skin or the shade of your ideology. who has ever been a minority of thought or religion, anyone who has ever taught their children at home or sought to

pray to god without permission should be alarmed that any government might presume to imprison without a trial. whether you are black or brown or white, man or woman, you should fear a government that maintains the authority to imprison without trial, without a jury. we would not that need a constitution to protect us if government were comprised of angels. guess what -- admitted we were not likely to ever be governed by agngels. it is not so much that president obama has done, although he has

done a lot, very little good, but it is not what he has done with his usurpations of power as much as it is the pre cedent that he sets for lawlessness. if the executive branch can you initiate or if the executive branch can't detain citizens without trial, if it can amend -- if it can amend legislation, if it can declare that congress is in recess, then government, unrestrained by law, becomes nothing short of tyranny. want to skew recognized this. he wrote when the executive ranch usurps the legislative authority, when the president says i can write the laws, write me, a tyranny will ensue

and we must stop this president from trading the constitution. -- treading on the constitution. it is not just the harm that this president is causing. it is the future harm that he allows by destroying the checks and balances that once restrained each of the branches of government. progressives by their own assertion do not want to be bound by any original intent of the constitution or its authors. they believe the constitution is whatever the majority says it is.

--ressive's believe that a progressives believe that a majority may separate you from your rights. jim crow, the japanese internment, today's indefinite detention without trial only occur when we allow our god-given right to be abridged by the girardi vote. our rights are inherent. they are in separate bowl -- they are inseparable from our person. our rights are innate. they come from our creator, and no government can take them away from us. the constitution merely codifies what exists for all time. mr. president, we will not let you, we will not let you run

roughshod over our rights. we will challenge you in the courts. we will battle you at the ballot box. mr. president, we will not let you shred our constitution. our future hangs in the balance. we can debate a jobless death, a and alarming bothersome and abusive regulatory state, but know this -- you cannot have prosperity without freedom. it is not a message of the haves versus the have-nots, the rich versus the poor, it is a message for anyone who wishes to own their own destiny. will not greatest flicker if we believe in ourselves, believe in our

founding documents, believe i that. not only great prosperity, but it sure in their generosity. anybody who thinks it is great to be poor in cuba, america is the most generous nation on earth. we cannot forget about it, but it came with our freedom. they go together. it is going to take all of us to gather. it is going to take a national revival of liberty. america's greatness, exceptional character is not in our dna, but it is in our founding documents, that for the first time in history rewards all individuals, regardless of birth, ethnicity, it is a republic that restrained government, not the individual. your task is not to minimize the loss of freedom, not to clutch it. your job is to maximize your

liberty. let's do it together. let's take a stand. and the president refused to -- of american citizens, i took a stand. i filibustered. some things are worth fighting for. spied discovered the nsa on and was collecting every ierican citizen's records, took a stand. i sued the president. it is decidedly not a time for the faint of heart. it is a time for boldness and

action. the time is now. stand with me. let us stand together with liberty. thank you, and god bless america. ♪ >> good morning once again to cpac 2014, the largest conference of conservative activists in the country, in the world. it is wonderful to see you all here this morning. i am margie ross. i am president and publisher of regnery publishing.

we are the premier publisher of conservative books. we have been publishing great conservative books for over 65 years. we publish many of the speakers and thought leaders that you will hear today and see up on this stage over the course of the next three days. if you have attended cpac in the past, you know that the speakers you will hear from will shock, delight, amaze, inform, incense, and inspire you. so what better way to start off this conference than with the man who has provoked every one of those emotions in just his first year in washington. senator ted cruz. [cheers and applause] born in canada of a cuban father and an american mother, raised in the great state of texas -- [cheers] educated at two the premier universities in the country.

senator ted cruz clerked for rehnquist and then work in the justice department for president george bush. then elected to the united states senate in 2012. critics said that ted cruz didn't know how things get done here in washington, d.c. and the media calls ted cruz the most hated man in washington. and that is a pretty competitive list to be at the top of. but conservatives, we describe him somewhat differently. fearless, principled, relentless, a patriot. both sides agree on one thing. business as usual ended when ted cruz came to washington. [applause]

and that gives us hope for the future. so please join me in welcoming the honorable senator from texas ted cruz. [applause] ♪ [applause] >> good morning. god bless cpac. i do have to start with a bit of bad news this morning. i'm sorry to tell you that by virtue of your being here today and tomorrow morning each and everyone of you will be audited by the irs. [laughter] so i appreciate the courage of your convictions.

yesterday, lois lerner went before congress and yet again pleaded the fifth. of course, president obama told bill o'reilly during the super bowl there is not a smidgen of corruption with the irs. it reminded me of one of my favorite movies. you keep on using that word. i do not think it means what you think it means. [laughter] somehow my understanding of smidgen was a little different than his. i want to thank you all for being here. you are here today at cpac because you understand the stakes in this country have never been higher. you are here because you understand our country is at a crisis point. we are at the edge of a cliff. liberty is under assault.

and what i want to talk to you all about this morning is how we win. there are a lot of d.c. consultants who say there is a choice for republicans to make. we can either choose to keep our head down, to not rock the boat, to not stand for anything or we can stand for principles carried and they say, if you stand for principles, you lose elections. the smart way, the washington way is don't stand against obamacare. don't stand against the debt ceiling. don't stand against nothing. i want to tell you something. that is a false dichotomy. [applause] you want to lose elections? stand for nothing. the last 4 congressional

elections, 2010, we follow that strategy. we put our head down and stood for nothing and we got walloped. the one election that was a tremendous election was 2010 when republicans drew a line in the sand. we said we stand unequivocally against obamacare, against bankrupting the country and we won a historic tidal wave of an election. and then of course all of us remember president dole and president mccain and president romney. those are good men. they are decent men. but when you don't stand and dry -- draw clear distinction, when you don't stand for principles, democrats celebrate. so i will stand here today and let's take for example young people. there are young people here today? [cheers and applause] i got a note, by the way. everybody should be cheering at that. everyone is young at heart. if you are at cpac, by

definition, you are a young person because you are the future of america. [applause] but i want to give you an example of how we win young people and that is an example of how we win elections across the board. i am going to suggest a radical agenda to you. hope and change. [laughter] you look at the last five years and president obama's hope has diminished across the world. the people of ukraine has seen russian tanks move into their sovereign land as the nation of israel has been left without its friend of -- friend and ally, the united states of america. you look at home with the lowest force participation since 1978. millions have lost hope because the american dream is harder and harder for anyone to achieve. and i have to tell you, change

, real change, is changing the corrupt and broken system here in washington, d.c. [applause] how do you win young people? the two who have most energized young people? ronald reagan and rand paul. the key is being named ronald. [laughter] it, neitherhink of one of them were young, rugged, james dean, "rebel without a cause." .hey were septuagenarians they painted a bold and inspiring vision for america about ho