[applause] i was pretty proud to campaign over here through the fall for 2 fabulous people, governor terry branstad and terry reynolds. you have great people in those two. and a guy that they used to call coach. they call him congressman now. he is a good one. i want to say a special thanks to another member of congress, one who's no whole bar is passionate conservatism, he is the reason i'm here today. brother steve king. most of all, i want to say thank you to the minute women here today who represent a grassroots movement to restore america to its central idea of why we get up every day.

that is freedom. freedom is god's gift to mankind . america's gift to the world. freedom made us most productive nation in the world at the turn of the 20th century. for freedom, we sent our best and bravest to fight on foreign cellular -- foreign soil. america is and always will be the last great hope of the free world. when freedom is threatened by big government, massive debt and slow growth, it is the people who have the power to make a great change. that is exactly what we did at the ballot box last november. [applause] enough to smothering debt.

enough to bureaucracy. enough to broken borders that undermine our security. the american people need a clean break from the economic policies that have slowed our recovery at home and the foreign policies that have weakened our standing abroad. i got a feeling that after six years of disappointment, of mediocrity and decline, a slow course correction is not what voters are going to be looking for in 2016. [applause] i been thinking about 2016. after six years of the most divisive president in our modern history, i believe americans are looking for leaders who will bring the country back together to heal this nation. americans are sick of this

partisan bickering on both sides , grandstanding and gridlock. they want solutions. they don't want soundbites. a want results, not rhetoric. i'm here today to say that it's not good enough for conservatives to be just an opposition force. we've got to offer a vision for the future. we have this tremendous opportunity to put forward this program is agenda that returns jobs from overseas, increases wages, and allows middle-class families to once again climb the ladder of success after a lost decade of economic client. -- decline. the time has come to usher in a new era of prosperity, of reform, and revival. we begin by unleashing the american arsenal of energy. testep one for congress, authorize

the building of the keystone pipeline. this president needs to sign it into law. the whole obama energy policy amounts to this long list of projects that we can't begin permits that we can't grant studies that we can't conclude and resources we can't use. that is their policy. it would be tragic if he continues to play to his political base instead of revving up our economic base. we opened up more of america to energy exploration, jumpstart the economy, provide lower energy costs for families. we must realize the energy is not just critical to our economy. this is critical to our national security. to create jobs, we also need to reform the tax code. america has one of the highest corporate tax rates in the western world.

these policies, their shipping hundreds of thousands of jobs overseas, sending capital fleeing to foreign nations. our broken, outdated tax code has become this incubator of corruption, of favoritism, bureaucratic harassment, and it has to be reformed. we need to stop strangling small businesses with overregulation. i want the folks on main street and not just the folks on wall street, to be able to make a living in this market. [applause] we got runaway agencies like the epa that are harming business startups slowing our economic recovery. if we are to drive economic growth small business has to be that engine. we've got to be honest with the american people about the

immoral debt being forced on the next generation. no great nation has ever spent and taxed its way to prosperity. let's get our fiscal house in order. it's time to make some tough choices about spending, stop putting off today's problems on tomorrow's americans after six years of the obama presidency. -- americans. after six years of the obama presidency we have a record number of americans on food stamps. we have a so-called recovery that is weighted down by this massive bureaucracy, crippling regulations, and record debts. the only way we will unleash it is to make major economic and fiscal reforms. i happen to know something about this. as governor of texas, i signed seven balanced budgets. i lead a state with one of the lowest tax burdens, and we

created the best economic climate in america. [applause] we kept spending under control. we provided smart regulations. we improved educational opportunities. we stopped frivolous lawsuits at the courthouse. [applause] in the last 14 years, texas has created almost 1/3 of all the new jobs in america. think about that. if you just look at the last seven years alone, starting in december of 2007, you will see that 1.4 million jobs were created in my home state. at the same time, the rest of the country lost 400,000 jobs.

america can experience a season of economic revival if we expend our energy production, if we reformed the tax code, if we reduce regulations on small businesses, and we control the size and scope of government, starting with spending. i want to share something with you. and 2014, the american people sent a message that goes far beyond economic and fiscal reform. the institutions of our government are in crisis. for years our leaders have been lurching from one crisis to the next. take the tragedy at the border. this summer, the president was on an important mission raising money for needy democrats. [laughter] i invited him to chopper on down to the rio grande valley, to see the results of his policy that

have brought tens of thousands of unaccompanied minors to texas. he turned me down, saying he did not do photo ops which surprised his large gaggle of white house photographers. it's really hard to describe the events of last summer. children were turning themselves in to federal border patrol agents, and they have been sent over to these makeshift federal facilities. federal agents taken out of the field to change diapers and meet the basic needs of children without parents. on private land should -- ranch land we were seeing victims of human trafficking. these smugglers who exploited this human tragedy, these people are just a product to make a profit. you and i know these are human beings made in the image of god.

it's a simple fact that the drug cartels control every square inch of land on the mexican side of the border, and no one crosses that border without their consent. it was because of this criminal threat that i took action last summer, and i deployed the texas national guard to the border with mexico. the drug cartels and transnational gangs exploit children, enslave women peddle their drugs and weapons in our country. they are the face of evil. for the sake of the nation, we did not stand idle against this threat. there is what i say if washington refuses to secure the border. texas will.

[applause] this problem has dragged on long enough. the president bears much of the responsibility for a change in policy that brought more than 70,000 unaccompanied minors to texas. there's plenty of blame to go around. congress should have acted on this many years ago. that is the problem with washington today. congress has become this debating society, unable to act. they only talk. the institutions of government are failing while people are dying. we need to send a message to congress, secure the border now override this president's lawless executive order, restore law and order, stand up to this face of evil and protect our citizens. [applause]

it is time. it is also time for a major shift in our foreign policy. time and time again, this administration, this administration has chosen to abandon our friends and weaken our alliances. that is what this president is doing. [applause] yes, sir. that is the face of america. that is what they are going to see for the next two years. [cheers and applause]

this is why we live in america today, to be able to stand up and tell our government to do what we want to do. that is what we elected them for. [cheers and applause] take a look. think about our friends who have been abandoned. think about how we have weakened our alliances around the world. take israel. when peace talks between israel and the palestinians fell apart did we stand with our greatest ally in the middle east? no!

unnamed administration sources were quoted as hacking the israeli prime minister. the secretary of state compared israel to the apartheid regime of south africa. that is not the america i know. the america i know stands for freedom. it stands steadfast with israel. [cheers and applause] thank you. last year we saw isis terrorists enter iraq using american tanks, american weapons, taking cities secured through the sacrifice of american blood. this happened because of the president's inaction in syria

where he led opposition forces to become radicalized. separately he warned the syrian dictator that using chemical weapons on his own people was a red line he could not cross. assad cross that line without consequence meaning a dictator remains in power today due to this administration's empty words. when a president makes promises that he won't back up, his statements are not a policy they are just an opinion. the world pays attention, realizing they can test both our strength and our resolve. these brutal terrorists to not respect talk -- do not respect talk. they only respect force. what is at stake here? what is at stake is no less than the preservation of western

values. and what is required is not moral confusion, but moral clarity. it matters that we understand all of this. without confidence in the truth and goodness of our own values, the great moral inheritance of our own culture how are we going to deal with the falsehood of theirs? what happened in paris reminds us that this is not a rhetorical question. this is a simple fact. when it comes to the western world fighting this great threat this administration needs to stop bleeding from behind -- leading from behind. [cheers and applause] what is needed at this time in history is a clear vision for the world, with america leading again with freedom on the march

again on the most pressing issues of our time. we don't have to settle for the present state of decline. we can usher in a new era of growth and strength. i am proud to be an american. i am proud to be a citizen of a country that stands for freedom and befriends freedom around the globe. i am proud of our free enterprise system that allows people to risk their capital to both succeed and fail, and get up, dust yourself off and try again. i'm a proud man who loves american industry and its innovations. i'm proud to have worn the uniform of the united states air force. [cheers and applause] i am proud of young men and women who travel to far-flung regions of the world to fight

for all that is right in the world. [cheers and applause] there is nothing wrong in america today that can't be fixed with new leadership. the next two years are about hope and revival and a vision to restore america's place in the world. america is looking for a new path forward and starting today, right here in iowa, let's give it to them! god bless you, and god bless america. thank you. [cheers and applause]

>> i think it's pretty clear there's no backing up or backing off with rick perry. [laughter] he will just wade down into it or stand and deliver. our next guest speaker comes from a similar mold. it is governor chris christie in new jersey. [cheers and applause]

he and his wife have lived in new jersey all their lives. he was born in newark. in 2001, chris christie was appointed by governor bush 43 to be a u.s. attorney for new jersey. he began to take on aggressively the corruption that existed within the state at that time and he began the investigations of the corruption. at one stretch he had 130 convictions with zero acquittals. pretty good record. that's a lot of work to get done here and -- done. i first met chris christie when at that time democrats had the majority in the house of representatives, and john conyers was the chairman of the judiciary committee. they decided that chris christie was a likely candidate for governor of new jersey. they wanted to put an end to his political career by putting him up for a political lynching process,.

i watched chris christie sit there and give it back to them over and over again with his wife, mary pat, sitting behind him. i never saw him flinch. he give straight answers straight from the shoulder. that is when i saw what chris christie was made of. he was subsequently elected as governor in that blue state, new jersey, and he took on some or corruption, and he took on the budget and cut that budget by over $1 billion. the reward he received was in the election of 2013, where he was reelected in that blue state, new jersey, with 60% of the vote. he did some other things. he vetoed the gay marriage bill in new jersey. he is pro-life, as are all the people who came to this stage today. [applause]

i watched chris christie look our core producers in the eye last fall and he said if they send that gestation bill to my desk, i will veto it. that's what he did. you have a man who can take on everything that that whole rank of democrats on the house judiciary committee can throw at him without reinforcements except for his own brain and character, and a man who stood before a press conference a few months ago for an hour and 45 minutes and delivered back to them everything that they asked. i'm very proud and very happy to welcome to iowa and to be the individual who has the opportunity to introduce my friend, and i believe a friend to iowa, governor chris christie of new jersey. [applause]

>> thank you very much. thank you all for being here today. i want to thank my friend, steve king. he made me sound like a hero in front of that congressional committee in 2009. on that committee that day there was just one republican who sat there the entire time during that hearing while they were beating me up, and beat them up right back. that was steve king. [applause] when i left that hearing room that day, he waited for me in the hallway. i said to him, congressman, i never met him in my life. i said, with the way you stood up for me, anything you ever need from me again in my career if anything comes of my career, you just pick up the phone and call. he's a good man and a great friend. i'm happy to be here with all of you today.

i have read a lot of stuff before i came out here to the summit. i have heard the conventional wisdom. [indiscernible] don't they know i am from new jersey? it doesn't bother me one bit. [cheers and applause] i have heard and read the conventional wisdom that somehow i guy from new jersey would not be welcomed or understood at the iowa freedom summit. but somehow i'm too loud, i'm too blunt and to direct. i have been to iowa 11 times in

the last five years. i have been invited by the governor of your state. i have been invited by our congressman from the first district. i have been invited by the iowa republican party. i have been invited by the iowa republicans. this is the fifth time i have been invited to this state by congressman steve king. [cheers and applause] if i was too blunt, to direct, too loud, and to new jersey for iowa, why do you people keep inviting me back? [cheers and applause] even more importantly, if the values i'm fighting for every day in new jersey and all across this country are not consistent with your values, why would i keep coming back? i wouldn't. i do because our values are consistent and we are fighting together to make this a better country. [cheers and applause]

we know what this is about. this is conventional wisdom for washington d.c. that argues that a conservative republican governor from new jersey can't possibly share the same values with conservative republicans here in iowa. they were wrong every time they have said over the last five years. for your welcome today, they are wrong again today. [cheers and applause] i'm here today because i have been a friend of iowa and iowa has been a friend to me. our conservative values work not only in iowa, but they work in new jersey too. i have traveled this country the last year. i have been in 37 different states. i have traveled 106,000 miles to support republican governors and candidates for governor in every corner of this country. i have learned a lot about america in the last year. i would like to share with you a little bit of what i've learned. there is one emotion i have seen

more than any other. it is the same emotion no matter where i've been, whether at my home in new jersey or illinois, pennsylvania, or here in iowa. the media will try to tell you it is anger. it's not. it is anxiety. the people of this country are anxious, this uncertain and this unhappy about the course of our country for this long, then something has gone seriously wrong in america. the promise of america, the dream that brought so many of our forefathers across the oceans was that in america, the people rule. in america, the government does what we want. in america, the politicians and bureaucrats are the servants, not the masters. [cheers and applause] now, i have to give the voters

credit. they have tried over and over to change this. in 2006 and 2008, they took power from republicans and gave it to democrats. in 2010 and 2014, they took power from democrats and gave it to republicans. the matter how many times the voters try, the anxiety is still there. they have a right to that anxiety. according to the census bureau in 2011, 2012, and 2013, the real median household income in this country was less than $52,000. three years and a role like that with no increase at all since 1993 to 1995. the average american is living just about as well as they did before al gore invented the internet. [laughter] no wonder americans are anxious. no wonder they keep looking for change.

there is economic stagnation in this country. there is also an overwhelming feeling that it's just not possible in your family to get ahead, to really get ahead for your children and your grandchildren, the nomad or how hard you work or no matter what you do, no matter what job you switch to, that a better opportunity is out of reach. there is uncertainty in our country. it is a product of the failure of leadership by those we expect not just to set the tone, but to follow through and execute and that failure has happened at 1600 pennsylvania avenue. [cheers and applause] this doesn't just affect us here at home. this affects america around the world as well. there is persistent divisiveness in washington which has not only lead to paralysis and failure to get anything done, but a culture of distrust that has begun to

seep into our neighborhoods and communities to not trust this government can work any longer. i met lots of people over the last year. the one i remember the most was an 82-year-old woman in florida. she said this to me in for a beach. governor, i have to ask you a question. what has happened to our country? we used to control events. now events control us. i don't want this type of country. i don't think most americans want that type of country either. we want a government that works the way the civics books tell us it is posted work, a government that works for the people, that helps make their lives easier instead of making it harder every day. at my core, i remain optimistic about this country