gen. breedlove: so, i'm not >> i do not think it is appropriate for me to comment. we see things happening all over eastern europe. i think i will leave it there. >> general, thank you for being here. i am going to asking a question not directly in your approval you mentioned former sliders. we heard at the pentagon there are as many foreign as indigenous, given all of that we are also hearing today that the u.s. naval ships will begin escorting u.s. flagships through

, did you know that decision. did you approve of that decision? general: you asked me a question out of my area. i do know about this, this is essentially what u.s. naval forces do. right now, for the past 24 hours, i know about as much as you do. >> general, on the vehicles heading to europe, have you made a determination on where those vehicles will go? and how does that factor into your strategy? general: the decision is being considered right now. when that will be rolled out is yet to be determined.

how we please those, is going to be very important. placing the kits so we can train with it is very important. placing it so it could react to a constituency -- contingency is very important. we will make sure we get this right. hopefully that will roll out soon. >> thank you very much. [no audio] announcer: during this month c-span is pleased to present, the winners from the student cam competition. it is the annual competition that encourages middle and high

school students to think critically. students were asked to create their documentary based on the theme, the three branches and year. to demonstrate how a law or action by one of the branches has affected them or the community. matthew post and john cap or a letty and quesnel levine are one of our first prize winners. their entry focused on the school lunch program. >> solar, wind, oil, coal. these are all methods of getting energy.

food is an energy source. they have come to the consensus that humans cannot run without food. today you can point to dozens of studies that points to good nutrition leading to a good lifestyle and good education. the goal of schools is to put nutrition into their lunches. let's see how well he did. -- they did. >> is: should program was formed in the 1940's under the truman administration as a way to address a few different concerns. there were more than 7 million americans drafted during that. . at the time there is a lot of concern about malnutrition.

>> many of them struggled with the rigors of military training because they're nutrition, they were so deficient in terms of they hadn't eaten properly. the school lunch program targeted every american child. >> it was a perfect storm to create the school lunch program. >> it was basically the reauthorization in 2010. it required the usda to update the breakfast standard. >> the funding and policy framework for school meals. >> the mill had to have meat, fruits and vegetables.

>> grains. >> selects a half cup or fruit or vegetable at each meal. >> sodium and trans-fat. >> a lot of kids are actually eating them. >> we realized many of you may be asking just how many kids are eating them. >> how do you feel about school lunches? >> they taste weird. >> yet. >> even the senator has addressed the stigma with school lunches. >> we've all heard mystery meat tacos and fish sticks. >> this distaste towards school lunches is far from universal. >> i like school lunches. it's yummy. >> the idea that healthy food taste worse than unhealthy -- >>

we watched lines where students are making -- taking more than one vegetable. there actually consuming. >> both be student and the ministers, they said they like meals. >> there are lots of selby who's the taste great. >> it depends on what served, what is on the menu, how does prepared. >> students i have eaten with one said to me, she was ahead of me eating broccoli and she said, sir, if you are not going to finish your broccoli i will finish it for you. >> we are hopefully teaching for habits later in life. >> before we implemented these new meal patterns that require frequent festivals, there was a certain amount of waste. that is a challenge.

those in studies show that after the implementation of the meal program, there was no more waste than existed before. >> so you can see regardless of a negative association school lunches carry, kids are eating the new healthier meals and they are having a positive effect. a recent study in the journal of pediatrics shows the kids ages 11-16 are eating more vegetables, consuming less sugar, and hurting your days off with a healthy wreck this. the impact school lunches had stretches much further than just attrition. >> i rely on the free and reduced lunch program to eat every day. >> the free and reduced program is available all throughout the country. >> the school lunch program is for all kids all kids in the u.s. can dissipate. how much each lunch is subsidized by the usda depends on whether or not a family is low income.

>> there are three categories for meal reimbursement. free meals are for the poorest children. the federal government pays the total cost. >> for moderate income families or family still struggling, but are not in the lowest bracket they can get their lunch for a reduced price, they pay $.40 and the usda pays the rest area >> what that means is that once a student is eligible, he comes in and puts his pin number in the register. the student without -- oh nothing. >> i would never eat breakfast and i couldn't afford to bring lunch, so i would go hungry. then i started the program. since then everything has been better. next i have heard stories of members of congress, a number of them has spoken to me about the role of school meals in their lives. particularly if they are from large families are lower income. >> now i am not tired by the

time i get to fit. . >> we've had all kinds of feedback from parents how they see a difference. >> i finally feel like i can concentrate when i go to take the test. >> the students take the juice because it is refreshing and you see the look on their face, it gives me tingles to talk about. >> i feel a difference, and everything i do. >> the impact of school lunches is overwhelming, kids are healthier and less hungry. sounds like a success. >> to watch all of the winning videos, and learn more about our competition, go to c-span.org and click on student camp. tell us what you think about the issue these students addressed in their documentary on facebook and twitter. announcer: on the next washington journal, a look at the riots and protests in

baltimore. how freddie gray is bringing attention to politics and city officials. conservative black chick.com crystal right will join us. smith college economics professor, andrew symbolist on the nfl decision to voluntarily give up their tax exempt status. we will also be looking for your phone calls and comments the a facebook and twitter. washington journal, live every day on c-span. ering a presidential run for 2016. he sent out friday with reporters at a breakfast hosted by the christian science monitor. the governor talked about the recent unrest in baltimore immigration, same-sex marriage and his decision to expand medicaid under the federal health care law. this is just under one hour.

>> thank you all for coming. our guest today is ohio governor john kasich. this is his sixth visit with our group. the last appearance was in june 1997. it has been too long. our guest moved to ohio to attend the ohio state university. after graduation, he worked for a state legislator and at age 26, he ran a door-to-door campaign for state senator becoming the youngest member ever elected to the ohio senate. he eventually served as the chairman of the house budget committee where he was a key architect for the act of 1997. he left congress in 2001 and became an executive at lehman brothers and the host of a fox news program. he won an overwhelming victory

in his bid for reelection last year. now on to this afternoon's mechanics. as always, we are on the record here. no live blogging or tweeting. no filing of any kind to give us a chance to listen to what our guest says. to help you resist that selfis urge, we will e-mail you pictures. if you would like to ask a question, please do a traditional thing and send me a subtle nonthreatening signal. i will happily call on one and all in the time we have available. we will offer our guest the opportunity to make opening comments and we will move to questions around the table. thank you for doing this, the floor is yours. governor kasich: i think this is the first time i have been in washington twice in one week

since 2000 when i walked out of this place. something must be going on for me to be here. it is nice to be back and be with all of you. i remember the old breakfast i used to do that in the old days when washington -- people got along and you can discuss things. i am thrilled to be back here and honored you would come. david: we will start around the table with david jackson, phil rucker. elizabeth warner. carolyn ryan. that should keep us going. you are obviously thinking about running for president. is there a niche that you see yourself filling in the party?

as you told chuck todd on "meet the press" that what you had was more experience than anyone else. governor kasich: not only having been in the legislature and congress but being chairman of the budget committee -- not just talking about a balance budget but being one of the architects to achieve it, and then i spent 18 years on the armed services committee. i have extensive national security experience. i went on for 10 years to find out if all of the things i have been talking about were true. turns out most of them were. i became governor in the state's lowest history. an $8 billion hold, 350,000 private sector jobs, credit hanging in the balance.

put a great team back together. we are now structurally balanced. largest tax cuts in the country. credit is strong. we are up to 340,000 jobs. i have a good resume. i have a good friend who used to say don't tell me, show me. we have tried to show people what we have been doing. the only thing i would tell you is it seems like the media tries to figure out who i am. one person just seems to be an innate. the country has a lot of problems. whether you are a republican or democrat, the anxiety is not that much different. what is a republican think, what does a democrat think you go for me it is about what americans think.

can they make more money, is there a place for them, can i kid get a college education without mortgaging everything you have? how do i keep my kids off of drugs.had make you my kids off of drugs? what about my neighborhood? these are all things people are concerned about. when i speak to people, no matter where it is or it week, i spoke at the atlantic magazine conference, which was interesting. then i went to something called the new america or it. i thought it was center right, it turned out to be centerleft. everybody has the same concerns. in terms of -- am i willing to put myself in the box? the answer is no. i don't get politics in the traditional way. i think it is about answering

people's concerns. if you do that, i think you can be successful. in ohio, and was able to win 86 out of 88 counties. 60% of women, and it was satisfying to do that. i think it was on the basis that the state felt better. there is another element. as i like to say, economic growth is not an and to itself. we have done everything we can to make sure that everybody can feel included, but everybody has a stake. david: i will try not to go too long. you have spoken about helping others, you said no good as ever lost, to give somebody a chance and give them hope, if it is

just one person, it will follow you through each energy. given that, what is your take on what the federal government should be doing to ameliorate the conditions that cause the situation in baltimore? gov. kasich: that is a long answer. two days ago, i unveiled the only program i know what in the country involving police and community. i had 20+ people on this task force. i had the former head of the highway patrol, and the second one was an african-american woman who was a former senator who ran for secretary of state. she is a fixture on msnbc. i didn't even know she was a vice chairman of the democratic party in ohio. she and john, along with african-american ministers

along with police representation, business people, political figures all sat down and came up with a consensus. the two immediate things we are doing is creating a statewide standard on use of deadly force. and secondly, spelled out efforts on recruitment and hiring of minorities. we are going to move into a phase where we will have a collaborative -- a community collaborative to develop additional standards whether that involves data collection, transparency that should be available to people whether there is an incident, the ability to move police and community together and have an integrated. we have learned a lot as we studied what they did in watts

and in cincinnati, where there were serious problems. we have meat on the bones. i will start traveling through the state to some of the areas that we think are important. we await a very important decision in cleveland that should be coming up with of the next week. i extremely aware of it. that was timely. we set this thing up months ago and now we have to be in the community so that the community knows, and that the law enforcement community knows that we are deadly serious about improving these relationships. but, i have been very involved in a lot of other activities that are related -- i will get carried away here, but the issues of poverty. this includes criminal justice reform involved in the community in terms of fixing cleveland schools, which was

vital to the african-american community, actually endorsed the levy up there. we are seeing dramatic improvements in cleveland. i am proud of what we are seeing happening. we have created a mentoring program, which i think could be at the nub of our problem. i have african-american women in my cabinet. i believe that mentoring person-to-person, in the schools, encouraging, lobbying showing people a different way of life, what can be achieved is really critical. they have told me that. in cincinnati, there's a thing called the cincinnati collaborative. the graduation rate in cincinnati is about 63% in this high school made up fundamentally of minorities. i believe that program is critical.

as you all know, i expanded medicaid to bring dollars home, so we can begin to deal with some of our most vexing problems. we are involved in corrections reform. we have a low recidivism rate -- what he 7% compared -- 27% compared to about 50%. we are involved big time in terms of workforce training making sure that people get trained for jobs that exist. we are performing our entire welfare program. when you go to a welfare office, you have somebody to coordinate your care, just like we see in health care. so that a person can get the help they need, the training that they need and that they are held personally responsible for what they do. it has been a whole series of things that have allowed me to be in the communities.

for the first time, we are going to meet set-aside provisions. we will do better than 50% -- 15%. we have a highway program from downtown cleveland to the cleveland clinic. we were able to set aside state dollars to provide 20% of that two minority contractors. also we are in the community providing assistance to help people build small businesses. i have made it clear that will be billed as highway, we are not going to shut people off. there is a tendency to isolate people if you are not sensitive to what neighborhood and community concerns are. i have told my cabinet and everybody else, we need to build entrepreneurial ship in minority communities. when you to stress it to our

children, regardless of race. i want to make sure that everybody has the sense that they can get somewhere, that they can be lifted, that their share in the american dream. i have to tell you, we are involved aggressively in fighting infant mortality in poor areas. we are running strong anti-drug programs. it is not one thing you can do. when you do a variety of things and this is a teamwork effort when you do those things, you begin to develop credibility and connections. there is a lot more to go. david: thank you on that. obvious is something you care about deeply. >> when what you make your candidacy official? gov. kasich: first of all, i'm starting to determine whether we will have the resources to win. if i do not have the resources

and i don't see a path to victory, i am not going to do that. i love being governor. we are, at this point, optimistic that we will have the resources to move forward. but it is it to be determined. in terms -- let me ask you a question. will it be hard for me to distinguish myself from a group of politicians? i'm very free in my life, and i'm going to do my best to talk to people about the things i care about. in new hampshire, i told people who i am. i told them what i was concerned about. what i am concerned about is the drift of our country. there are two kinds of relationships that need to be healed. one are the relationships with our allies, europe, central europe, middle east.

i think those relationships have eroded over time. not just with obama, over time. we don't have the deep relationships we need to be unified and sent strong messages to people. the second area that needs to be healed, which may be harder, is to heal the relationship between republicans and democrats on capitol hill for it we have in him and billet -- we have an inability to have things work. a senator told me that i wouldn't believe how polarized everybody is. i have a taste in ohio, we work to try to fix that. america's inability to solve problems makes us weaker, it hurts our kids, our families. it also sends a message to people around the world that america is losing its strength

and that is not helpful to our allies or enemies. i'm going to talk about the things i am concerned about. if it works, great. if it doesn't, i may still realize my dream of being on the pga tour. i have been around this -- my first election in 1978. iran against -- i ran against an incumbent. the guy iran against was a democratic senator and he had a dam named after the family name. people thought a croatian was something that climbed out of the ocean. [laughter] i ended up winning that election

and one of the most shocking upsets in modern ohio history. that is what i do. i am a retail guy, i am going to work hard and communicate the best that i can. i was the only republican to defeat an incumbent democrat in 1982. i won reelection. i beat an incumbent for the first time in 40 years in ohio. what is interesting is that i won cuyahoga county. either i got it or i don't. i'm optimistic. i have had good receptions in detroit, south carolina, new hampshire. i'm going to do the best i can. without the resources, you cannot do it. you don't have any resources, go

away. >> i want to ask you a multipart question. it has to do with foreign policy and how your middle east foreign policy would look different than president obama's. in discussing what your policy would look like, can you tell us where you are on obama's emerging deal with iran? and your position on a bill pending in the senate that would give congress the ability to weigh in, but also without a vote of disapproval would -- gov. kasich: two interesting stories in the paper today. i read both of them today. you read the editorial pages and you begin to understand -- well, let me not say. two stories are very interesting.

there was a guy driving a $75,000 m bertini in iran, and he got into an accident and killed himself and the woman in the car with him. i don't understand exactly what is happening with social media in iran, but what is emerging is this bitterness toward those who have and those who don't have. those who have these special freedoms and those that don't which speaks to me about the potential of unrest over time and regime change. you lift sanctions and make everything hunky-dory, and you will have the ayatollah for a long time. i don't think it is likely the ayatollah will go, but it is far more likely with economic pressure. secondly, the fact that we are negotiating with countries that just seized a danish ship, and we are going to put our naval

presence in the gulf, because we are worried about what our friends might do. i think that was the quote in the paper today. if somebody is throwing bricks through my window and i'm afraid of what they might do, i don't know how to make a deal with them based on trust. i am concerned about a lot of things around this deal. one is the proliferation of weapons and material. this material is dangerous in the hands of people like hamas has the left, and god knows what group is going to pop up next. a dirty bomb is a different thing than a nuclear weapon. but a dirty bomb is a terrible thing if exploded in new york, for that matter, god for bid. i don't even know that the united states and iranians agree on what the agreement is.

the ayatollah says they are going to lift sanctions, we say that that isn't true. the first thing you have to do is make sure you are in agreement of what the agreement says. what i am worried about is something that i got experience being in congress. do not fall in love with your proposal or idea. i look at things simply. you go to the car dealership and you are so hungry to get a car, you will pay anything. a very silly way to do anything. that is just a minor thing, but if you fall in love with an agreement on this whole nuclear weapons issue with iran, no matter what you do, you keep responding to the ayatollah's position. when the ayatollah said that sanctions have to be lifted immediately, and i saw the president say something about maybe we can work on this. that signals falling in love with the deal.

i think that the economic pressure ought to be kept on that country. because of our deteriorating relations with our allies, can we? this is very serious. we tried to trust north korea and now we are worried that they have a nuclear arsenal. asian countries are talking about building nuclear weapons. if everybody has a nuclear weapon, there's a possibility of use. do i think the senate should have say? absolutely. in reading, i saw that bob corker worked something out. it ought to be treated has a treaty. in terms of national security policy -- and israel is our great ally in we need to support them -- they live in an extremely dangerous environment. we also have allies over there

with whom we have shared values. the jordanians, for example. the problem with the saudi's is at the administration's have been too soft on them. women cannot drive or leave the country, and that is just the little things. think about the funding of some of these organizations that are intent on destroying us, israel, and then. we have been too easy on them. the egyptians, you know, they have been an ally. i'm glad to see the president has resumed military aid to egypt. in terms of national security, i am surprised that we have not been able to gather tougher sanctions against vladimir putin. we just have not had the tough talk or action that we need. in terms of how we conduct foreign policy, it is our vital interest. i am not a person that thinks we ought to be involved in this

nation building. i am not a believer in nationbuilding. i think we should have a lee terry that is mobile and -- a military that is lethal and can come home. i think we should support common interest with groups that may or may not be allies. i think we missed a great opportunity in syria to be able to build support for those who were supposed -- who were opposed to assad. you see all of these things and yet we miss that window. i am extremely concerned about turkey. one of the things we have to ask ourselves is, did europe make a mistake by telling turkey that they haven't done well enough to be included? this is a big, important country. we need to have good relations there. we have got to be strong. the other thing i would tell you

is, you know, when we are weak economically, people own our debt, it limits our ability to conduct as robust a foreign policy. that is why i support the balanced budget amendment. we have this deal in congress, and it is the same deal. i'm going to have the chocolate cake today, but i will go on a diet like, next year. it is typical. this debt is a serious problem for our country. our inability to address it is a terrible mistake. >> it was reported that you are accused of hiding the height jesus because you expanded medicaid. what is your response on that? what is the sale that you make to republican primary voters and donors? gov. kasich: i'm really not

hiding behind anybody. i am here at this lunch, so i don't have anybody protecting me. let's get to the nub of medicaid. first of all, the last republican i can think of who expanded medicaid was ronald reagan. people tend to forget that. if other people don't want to take the money, that is up to them. i have money i can bring to a higher. it is my money. there is a money in washington. it is the money of the people who live in my state. what do we do with the money? we have 10,000 people sitting in prisons who are mentally ill. we have more people sitting in prisons in america then we have psychiatric hospitals. to me, that is immoral. that is a failure on our part. we deem institutional life the mentally ill and promised to take care of them, and we have not done it. my goal is to treat them.

to get them on their feet and in a position where they can work. many people with mental illnesses can, if given medication and properly handled. in our communities, we have the ability to treat mentally ill. you know there are things that can happen with the mentally l with they get themselves in deep trouble and not even know what they are doing. i do not want to put them in prison, come out, make another mistake, and up back in prison. it's not the place for them to be. most people in prisons are people who have committed other crimes, but they have substance problems, addiction problems. what we are doing our we are in the prisons giving them rehabilitation, and then we will release them into the community

within a community advocate, not a drug dealer. the revolving door is, you go in, you come out, you go in, you come out. that is not working. our recidivism rate in treating addictions, if we are aggressive in getting them into the community, we think the recidivism rate would be 10%. the working poor, without health insurance, and up in emergency rooms. they end up sicker and more costly. i think it makes more sense to get them care so they can get the preventive care they need, and then remove barriers for them to climb up and have better work. they are the working poor. all of these programs, i want to quote my mother. she is to say, johnny, it is a sin to help people who need to learn how to help them selves.

we are in the process of reforming this welfare system. this is not just giving somebody something and that is the end of it. we are asking for personal responsibility for those folks some of them it takes a while to get to the baseline. addiction is tough to i. you see hair when deaths -- hero in deaths. this is in a norm is problem. -- this is an enormous problem. we are beginning to see a trend to emergency room visits by the poor at the same rate as everybody else, which means that this is beginning to work. it also means that we have to have a robust job-creating economy, and my goal is to get those people off. in terms of the spiritual side,

people don't have to think the way i do. i don't care if they are humanist or a believer and some faith. my feeling about it is, all people are made in the image of god. everybody deserves respect. i was here last friday, a guy raised his hand. he said, all these people, getting benefits, blah blah bla h. i said, let's stop and think for a second. you have got a young boy, he grows up in an environment or he hears gunshots, he doesn't want to leave his house. we had a case in cincinnati where a neighborhood was so dangerous that kids and did not want to leave. when he gets to school, he needs somebody on drugs. -- he meets somebody on drugs.

he doesn't know who his family is. he has no role models. do we take that person and do we say, they are not worth paying attention to? do we take that person and say god knows that we can get them on their feet, who knows what the potential is? maybe they will cure cancer. there is no loss of human beings. in our prisons, if we have bad people, we will lock them up forever. but if you want to work your way out, and be a productive member of society, you can. and so, i think everybody is concerned about this. whenever and for reelection as governor, this is what i talked to republicans about. i didn't talk about obama or hillary, i talked about what we have done, what we do for people in the shadows, and guess what?

there are a lot of people in this country who have family or friends who has depression. we know a lot of people in this country -- too many people -- whose son died from a heroin overdose. they are every mother and father's concern. the spiritual side for me, i feel an obligation to do what i can to help. giving them something is not all there is, it is to get them out of the situation so they can rise. i was involved in welfare reform. very involved with it. programs worked, but it needs improved. you realize that if you are the father, you cannot be in the family.

what a system. if you are working mom, and you get a bonus or something, you lose your childcare. who the heck is going to take a bonus and improve themselves if they lose a bigger benefit them again? these are simple things. that is why programs should be sent back to the states. they are not simple answers to these problems. david: i will go out of the announced order. >> huge elements of your party and your caucus, the compromises an absolute no-no what is your

prescription? gov. kasich: you talk to people one at a time. you go back and ask people, or talk to democrats about how iran the budget committee, i have a lot of friends who are democrats who i worked with. the republicans would say we're going to do a budget markup, and i said we are not going to shut anybody up. i said, i want you to tell me what the democrats will wind rate because my brother taught me about pressure cookers. the leaders have to be able to explain to people that you don't have to compromise your principles to be, a compromiser. when we can't fix social security, immigration, infrastructure, where does that

leave us? we cannot balance a budget. we all know these corporate tax rates are too high. who pays? i have two 15-year-old daughters. they pay. the families and communities and state pays. they pay for failure. i am an optimist in the way in which people can see a better way. i think it is going to take a lot of work. it would be easier to fix our relationships with foreign leaders that it is to fix our relationships between republicans and democrats, but they are vital. in my state, i am not going to get democratic votes on the budget, but we just passed a bill on lake yury -- lake lake yury.

we passed and infrastructure bill unanimously. we passed human trafficking legislation before they got to it here -- unanimous. there are things you can do together -- the cleveland school reform, really tough stuff. virtually unanimous. just because somebody thinks and different than you, i was involved in a government shutdown. but you do not poison the well. and sorry, but we can't wait an agreement here. we have to walk away from the table, which is exactly what we should do in regard to aegon. but you have to get answers. i tell ya, i have a lot of regard for jim jordan. he is a good man, he gets it. he will give when he sees a good argument. i don't give up on this. leaders have to be involved with both parties. it is frustrating.

i'm frustrated with things right now in my state, but you don't knock the chess pieces half the chess board. you don't give up. this is america. >> a lot of republicans say, as you look at the potential governors, they are from important midwestern states. i'm wondering why the ohio story is better? what have you done in ohio that makes them are qualified? gov. kasich: you cannot be president if you don't win ohio. that is not even a question. they are all fine men. they have done a good job. what i am concerned about is what happens in ohio. what's happening in ohio is the economic growth, the inclusion.

they got almost 64% of the vote and that is a reflection of the gains we have made. i like snyder and walker. we are all in the republican governors association. they are all good people. so nice bait, but i ain't t aking it. why do you research? and we will get back to you on that. some people say, is he conservative enough? i was an architect of balancing the federal budget. i was involved in welfare reform. i come into the state, i ran a surplus rid we have the largest tax cuts in america, with more to come. and we are helping small business. i mean, you know, i really wish i could take credit for all of it and i got these really smart

people and they do a good job and that is how it works. >> think you for coming. gov. kasich: i would love to give you short answers, but the problem with these things is that they're not simple. >> you talked to cnn and they asked you if you would attend a gay wedding, and you said you wouldn't. and yet, you remain somebody who believes that government should define marriage as between a man and woman. why is it that you think that couples who you know personally should be allowed to get married, but people who don't, should not? gov. kasich: ohio passed a constitutional amendment to say marriage is between a man and woman and anything that approximates that. it has changed.

if my friend advised me to a wedding, my biggest question is going to be, what time is it? it is a time to celebrate. >> do you believe it should be between a man and a woman? gov. kasich: i do, yeah. >> so why should it be different for people that you know personally? gov. kasich: i am for marriage defined as between a man and a woman. if the supreme court changes that, those changes have to be respected. i have a number of friends who are gay ok? and i like them. they know how i feel about this and they are fine. they want me to go, and i care about them, and i will go. you know? i usually don't go to weddings of people that i do not know. i don't go to that. but if somebody that i like is getting married in a traditional sense or the nontraditional

sense, i am not hung up about celebrating with them. we can beat in this horse, but my position has been clear forever. >> hillary clinton recently came out for equipping police officers with body cameras. do you support this? gov. kasich: we have a comprehensive set of recommendations and initial meat on the bones of many recommendations to come. that will probably be considered. we've also have the supreme court look at the grand jury process. i will get to you -- and i know you are interested -- i will get to you the details of what we have already done, and i'm glad we have done it. it is comprehensive. training and transparency are issues. having law enforcement in the community and the community embracing law enforcement, all of these things are a vital

part. there is no one thing i can be done to fix it. on the issue of body cameras had a guy in ohio with the body camera and he was in iraq veteran. he had a close confrontation with somebody and he did a fantastic job. we hold him up as a hero for what he was able to do. he had a camera on. i would go to my experts and say, is is going to make a difference? >> there has been a debate for a while within the party on immigration policy. governor walker said that the country should consider having fewer immigrants invoiced concern about immigration lowering wages. governor bush said that it was

zero-some thinking. i would like to draw you into that fight. what do you think about it? gov. kasich: we have 12 million people here. the border has not been protected. it needs to be protected. if you can't control who comes in and out of your home, you got chaos. the same is true for a country. border protection is something that absolutely should be done as -- it should be first, but there are things that we can unite both parties around i would hope. what i have said is, i would like to know who they are, i would like to know, do they have a sponsor? did have a criminal -- are they engaged in criminal activity they should be deported.

on the path to citizenship or legalization, i think they could be sort of one in the same. here is what i would say. i take nothing on the table when it comes to negotiations like this. i would prefer not to have a path for citizenship, but for legalization which is different, i think. the reason why i would not her for a path to citizenship is, i try to tell my daughters, you know, you don't ditch the line to get taylor swift tickets. you stand in line, and if he didn't get there at the right time, you don't get them. i don't like when people ditch the line. that is part of the problem with those who came in a legally. at the same time, my view is you have to sit out and negotiate this. and i am open to where we would go on this, preferring not to go to citizenship, but i wouldn't take anything off the table. and we have to deal with this

issue. look, if you are going to worry about who shouts the loudest on anything, you don't make any progress. you know? i had 20% approval on my first year, and you have to work to do that poorly. so, you know, do your job. this idea that a have to do a focus group to figure out how i feel, there could be questions asked to me that i have not thought about enough. that wedge question, like will you go to a gay wedding, or all of this kind of stuff. i haven't thought about them. they are kind of wedge issues. most of the time, i kind of -- kind of know what i think. i know how i feel about something. and you can't run around trying to please everybody. you gotta just be a leader. that is the way i have run my

life. it has worked out pretty well. i will try to be shorter. david: we will have one more question, and then we will get you out on time. >> the trade bill before congress right now has divided republicans from the ohio delegation. what do you think of it and could you comment on any liability for senator portman in his reelection and backing? gov. kasich: look, i am not in congress now i don't have access to all of the detail. i have expressed my concern about what happens as a relates to the workers. we've got, for example steel making investments in ohio, and the next thing i know, they claim they are being dumped on by the koreans. the images search and doesn't act fast. why?

probably politics. i supported nafta. i am pleased to see people raising serious questions about what we do for those who are displaced. i am concerned about the government being so above everything that when they see a trade fire laois in, they don't do anything about it. i think we have a long way to go on this bill. i fundamentally am for open, but i am not for america doing things that destroys our manufacturing industries. i know this bill involves some of these intellectual property rights. i know we had an amendment on currency manipulation. maybe he will offer that again. that would probably be a positive step. let's see how it comes out. my concern is, trade is good but at the end of the day, it needs to be fair and a level playing field.

i have to see what it is at the end. they are on's asking me, what would you do on this bill? i say why don't we let it get to my desk first. david: last last question. gov. kasich: then two more. [laughter] go ahead. >> revisions to the tax code and where are you on carried interest? gov. kasich: revisions on the tax code. i'm in conversations with steve forbes about this tax. i want to look at the distribution table. the beauty of his plan is this. the beauty of his plan is number one, you can have the plan i am suggesting, which is a flat, or you can take the traditional tax. i have asked him about the distribution tables, he has said they are good.

i have been a little bit concerned about the issue of dynamic scoring and i have talked to him about it. he says that if we open the floodgates, we will have significant growth. pretty good answer to me. we don't have all the details but i am fascinated. it is simpler and flatter. if you don't like it, you can keep the current system. i don't think now is the time to change it carried interest. i think we need this investment. our venture capital folks out there particularly on the west coast with google and paypal and you tube, these are important things that i don't want to do anything that is going to hinder investment. i understand the concern about it, maybe there is a way to kind of soften it a little bit, but at this point, i wouldn't change it. i think the corporate tax rate is too high.

i asked the ministration to bring the money back. they said, the money michael to shareholders. i said, that would be a horrible thought. at the end the day, we need to get the money here so they can invest here and not europe. >> a follow-up on tax questions. can i follow up -- you have proposed cutting income taxes in your state. you talked eloquently earlier about the poorest in society. how do get around the argument that this is a tax on the poor? gov. kasich: first of all, we have significant tax relief for those of the bottom, to. sort of like reagan did. we have created the first earned income tax credit in ohio

history, which was praised by the groups concerned about the things i talked about earlier. we are significantly increasing the personal exemption. here is what i am trying to do. in states, i believe it is a lot better to be reducing the tax on risk taking and incentives for investment. and i think giving people the ability to choose consumption over income will lead us to a faster growing ohio. this is all tax reform. the recently cannot get it through is special interest groups. they are powerful interest groups, fundamentally business interest groups who want to protect their own tax system. i understand that. in the greater good for ohio the more that we can bring down that tax is when we look around the country, we see the fastest growing states a do not tax income, whether it is texas or florida. you look of things in new

hampshire, you have all of these people moving from one state to another to avoid taxation. i mean, look at the growth in nevada for people leaving california. i believe that incentivizing investment and risk-taking is preferable, but it is hard. we have made progress on this, by the way. when i announced my taxcutting plan, i announced that the community action agency, which is the one that is right there in the trenches with those who are poor. and, you know, i said, look. we have to get people jobs. the biggest cure for pop he is a job. -- the biggest cure for poverty is a job. thank you. [captions copyright national

cable satellite corp. 2015] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> our road to the white house coverage continues next week with those seeking to enter the 2016 presidential retails. ben carson is expected to launch his campaign monday in detroit that. will be live 10:00 a.m. eastern on c-span. tuesday we have live coverage of former arkansas governor mike huckabee as he announces his candidacy in hope arkansas live tuesday 11:00 a.m. eastern on c-span. >> the new congressional directory is a handy guide to the 114th congress with color photos of every senator and house member plus bio and

contact information and twitter handles and district maps, a map of capitol hill and look at congressional committees, presidential cabinet. order your copy today. it is $13.99 through the c-span online store at c-span.org. chris christie spoke about jobs and the economy friday at a leadership breakfast in northern virginia. he talked about entitlements and tax policy and took questions. this is 50 minutes. governor christie: thank you.

gary said i gave him permission to go off script. i said who am i to obstetrical people not to go off script. can't be a hipypocrite up here. thank you for inviting me. i'm happy to be back and i want to thank bobby and all the people here for giving me the opportunity to come back and talk about some of the issues i think are particularly important facing our country right now and to take some questions by i enjoy doing the most. first let's start with the group of folks i'm in front of this morning and this region. this is obviously an extraordinarily important region in our country's future. the technology industry here has provided an extraordinary amount of economic growth and jobs, great innovation for our

citizens, and extraordinary promise for the future if -- if -- we decide to get our country moving in the right direction and do the things we need to do. this region of course over time has become completely interwoven with the government. we understand that. but we also know that there has to be continued really robust growth of the private sector to make sure that we don't have any region become completely dependent on government for economic growth and vitality. it needs to be a partnership and a partnership that works but it is driven best when it is the private sector that is driving growth and innovation and can offer that innovation and those ideas to government as a way to improve the services government provides to the folks that we serve each and every day. so i would urge you to continue

to push the government to do the things we all know common sense dictates but all too often are left by the side of the road in the political carping and sniping that goes on most particularly in our nation's capital but every once in a while in state capitals as well lake -- like mine. i met a gentleman this morning that has a business in new jersey and was a beneficiary of some of the tax incentive and tax credit programs and it literally saved his company and terror growing and hiring and that is the kind of partnership i'm talking about. a partnership that frees up your ideas and your hard work to be able to succeed through the initial challenging times to be able to grow and expand and that helps every person in new jersey not only the ones who wind up working there but also

the broader community that benefits from that company's involvement in the community and the money they provide in salary and benefits helps strengthen the fabric of our state and its people by making them feel good from a good paying job that brings meaning to their lives. to provide for their spouse and children. and to be able to be an active involved member of the community. all of this is interconnected. and there are times that i get frustrated about the fact that many leaders in government don't see the obvious things that need to be done in order to take advantage of the extraordinary resources that we have in this country, most particularly our human resources, to be able to

make our country grow and be a better more prosperous place. i saw this in new jersey in the policies we have seen in washington the last six years. between 2000 and 2009 in new jersey we raised taxes and fees at the state level alone 115 times -- 115 times. and what were the results? we also grew spending by 56% at the state level over those eight years. what happened as a result? new jersey had a jobless decade. that period of time we grew net zero private sector jobs. that was during a period of time in that eight years when we did have national growth coming out of 9/11, spraoeur to the recession -- prior to the sraoegs of 2008 -- recession of

2008. yet new jersey did not benefit from any of that. why didn't we benefit? because we put in policies at the state level that raised taxes that increased spending, that extended regulation to all new areas and made new jersey a place that became more expensive to do business more onerous to do business and as a result people voted with their feet. businesses left or just decided they didn't want to take the risk that went along with growing a business in that type of environment. that is kwrwhy in the five years since we came into office we have grown 175,000 new private sector jobs. now some may say that is good but not great. i would like to do better too. but in light of the fact that we had nearly 10 years of zero private sector job growth we are

fairly happy with the fact that our policies have been able to push that forward. how have we done it? first away did it by -- we did it by reducing government spending somethingly in our state. in the budget i just proposed for fiscal year 2016 which will be adopted at the end of next year discretionary spending, spending on everything in state government other than pension healthcare and debt service is $2 $2.5 billion less than it was eight years ago. not 2 poeu.5 billion less on the projection like they do in washington and call it a cut. this is actually less spending, $2.5 billion in less spending at the state level. we have 8,500 fewer employees today than the day i became governor and we did it without layoffs. through attrition and making government more ever and

effective. -- for efficient and effective. you first have to reduce the size of government. we put in $2.3 billion in business tax cuts and incentives. that has helped to spur growth in our state and folks who were already there not only want to stay but want to grow as well. it has been extraordinaryily important to our economy. we did a number of were already there not other things in the tax realm. but what we need to do on a national level is what we are continuing to do on the state level in terms of entitlements. i spoke a couple of weeks ago at saint anselm in new hampshire about a vision for entitlement reform. i have been talking about this since 2011.

71% of federal government spending is on entitlement programs. 71%. to give you some perspective on the growth of that, when john can't was elected president in 1960 entitlement spending was 26% of the federal budget. it is now 71%. so you have lots of people who come before you over the next number of months who want to talk to you and i will briefly about national defense and education and about research and development development, national institutes of health, things that we need to invest in to make our country continue to be a cutting edge leader around the world. but if they do not first talk about how to reform entitlements with all due respect you should just eat your breakfast and not pay any attention. because the fact is that if you don't get the 71% under control where are you getting the money to do the other things we need to do? and no one likes to talk about

this. nasty business. talking about raising the social security retirement age two years over the next 25 years -- brutal absolutely brutal. talking about doing the same thing for medicare eligibility, two years over the next 25 years. now, the fact is though we need to do these things. why? i'm not only here to bring bad news but i'm here to bring you good news. you are all living longer. congratulations. [applause] governor christie: not only are you living longer but you are living better. we are living better longer into our lives. medical innovation. pharmacological innovation. this is to be celebrated.

the average age now of a woman in this country is 83. average for a man is 79. when these programs were developed -- by the way i heard some of the women chuckling out there but you should know that in the last decade we are catching up. we are down four years now. we were down six years before. we are coming. laugh now. but these programs were developed when mortality was in the 60's for both men and women. so, we are living 15 to 20 years longer and expecting these systems to continue to support us through that lengthened time. another thing is means testing. we have means testing of

medicare. we need more. on social security and social security the idea is to make sure none of our elderly ever grow old in their lives in poverty. now, let me ask you a question. if somebody is making $200,000 a year in retirement income -- retirement income -- do they really need their social security check? everyone in this ram knows if ur you are -- room knows if you are getting $200 much,000 retirement you have $4 million or $4 million socked away. is that social security check making a difference in the quality of your life the same it would make in the quality of life of a person who is living from social security check to social security check to pay rent or buy food? now, i have people saying i paid into the system and i deserve to get it back out.

i'm entitled. hence, the names of the programs. there are lots of things we pay for that we get nothing back except a sense of security. i pay home ownerships insurance. i'm sure you do. we pay it every year in case our house burns down we want to be able to rebuild our house. if you live this 20 years, 30 years, making each month and go to sell the house do you go back to the insurance company and say by the way looking good, no problems house didn't burn down, i would like that money back if you don't mind. this is meant to ensure that people did not grow old in poverty. i was talking to my friend mark zuckerberg about the entitle idea he said what do you mean about entitlement reform. i said if i get my way it means

you get nothing. the fact is i think most people who have been extraordinarily successful in america will understand this. that we need to make choices in this country. you will notice i just talked about means testing social security and medicare and raising the retirement age and i have not been vaporized into the stage. the idea that this is the third ralph american politics and you -- rail of american politics and you can't talk about it sis people don't trust american people enough to tell them the truth. there may be a lot of people in politics that don't trust the american people enough but i do. i believe not only should we but we must. because if we want this country to be the place we need it to be for our children and grandchildren we better start

addressing this. i do not want to be a member of the first generation in this country's history to leave the next generation a weaker, poor er er less opportunity filled country. because awaywe can't let go of the idea that we get everything that we want. that is not the way you run your businesses. and it is not the way your government should run this country. we have lots of ways that that money could be used to help make this country granter stronger, better than we are today. we need to reform the tax system at the individual and corporate level. it is onerous compared to almost any system around the world and we need to get to that right away. the second thing we need to do is reinvest in national defense.

the united states now because of the conduct, in my view of foreign and defense policy by this administration can no longer be counted on by our allies and is no longer feared by our adversaries. that is 0-2. you have to do both of those things and we are doing neither. allies are running from us and pursuing their own course. adversaries are showing new aggression every where. iran iran not only on their own but sponsor sponsorship of hamas and action in syria has led to exacerbation of conduct of isis not only in middle east but europe and coming to a theatre near you soon if we are not careful. mr. putin in russia is clearly

trying to put the old band back together. he is working and moving his way way. crimea. ukraine. and if you are living in one of the balkan states, members of nate -- nato do you believe it is a full american or junior membership. the conduct of our country has democracies like poland nervous. our allies are concerned. our adversaries are emboldened. the only way to turn that around is not only through a more robust and direct and honest foreign policy where we draw lines and mean it not say never mind when it gets a little difficult and where we invest in a national defense that once again prevents conflict, we don't invest in fat defense to

-- national defense to have conflict. we invest in national defense to prevent conflict. but we should invest in research and development and new ways to lengthen our lives and improve the quality of our lives. but none of these things are possible to improve science and technology and engineering and math education for all of our children none of those things are possible if we don't get our house in order. i have seen this in new jersey where the canary in the coal mine, the mistakes that have been made the past decades in new jersey take a lot of effort to try to fix. we don't want to place our country in the same position. so, i come to you this morning to let you know that the reason i'm telling you this is because if you all don't get it and fight for it, we have no hope. the people who are leading the technological revolution in this

country, the thinkers, the doers, have to be the leaders. it can't just be men and women in my business. it has to be men and women in yours. don't fall victim to the conventional wisdom that says if something is not politically popular we should not talk about it. because i don't want to be in old age and i don't think you either looking back on the missed opportunities that hitter our lives rather than the fights we took on that were necessary to fight. so the message i bring to you this morning is born of the hard work of trying to dig a state that was in awful difficulty out

of it and traveled the country the last year 106,000 miles to 37 different states that is wracked with anxiety and that is not just economic anxiety but the anxiety that is watching a government that is not doing its job. we need to do our job again. that is what you pay us for and that is what we need to get done. i will stop because i want to take your questions more than i want to hear myself talk any more. [applause] [applause] >> thank you for your candor and vision and being with us this morning. we can take a few questions from the audience. if you have a question please proceed to one of the two microphones and be prepared to identify yourself by your name and company affiliation and consistent with the normal practice of nvtc this is for people of business and not open to members of the media. you can listen but not ask. the first question.

i'm going to ask the first question unless i see somebody. which i do not. governor, i have a question. you have talked about cutting entitlement spending because mathematically it is definitely something we must do. i think it is pretty clear you are not going to raise taxes. so, you have taxes and spending. the only third area that could make a difference is economic growth. what will you do for economic growth? governor christie: the only way to some the long-term debt problem is economic growth combined with the restriction of spend something i talked about. you can't fix an $18 trillion problem with one or the other. this is where i difficult significantly from the president. the president believes that he should be the one deciding who the winners and losers are. the government should decide. if you are a winner he will take somebody from you and give it to

people he would rather have do a little better. that is never the way this country succeeded. so the first thing is fix the tax system. the tax system is now a clear dis disincentive to growth. we have seen it all over this country. the president has taken victory laps for 2.5% g.d.p. growth. it is the weakest recovery from a recession in modern times. and the jobs that have been created have not been the really good paying jobs we saw created in the 1980's and 1990's. they are jobs that are predominantly at the lower end of the wage scale and many because of obama care and other factors are not even full-time jocks. the way is through growth and first step is to get a tax system that encourages people to

repatriate money back in the united states and lower the tax system. the president thinks the way to stop corporate inversions is pass a law against them. so he wants to treat the system rather than the disease. let's change the tax system so that no c.e.o. feels it is their duty to their shareholders to engage in corporate inversion to maximize the value of their shares but they will want to stay here in the united states. those are the first steps. [applause] >> todd stottlemyer vice chair of nvtc. immigration is a friend to the technology industry. would you talk about your views on immigration reform? governor christie: i think the way we need to start this conversation in the country is to see if we can agree on two basic facts. fact number one is that people

who are here in an undocumented status are not going to self-deport. they are not leaving on their own. as somebody who was a united states attorney in new jersey seven years in the bush administration there are not enough law enforcement officers at the local county, state level to those two facts, we then have at least the beginnings of the outline of how we have to start to try to fix this problem. part of the reason i think it's so inintractable in the country, though, is because the executive branch hasn't done what the executive branch is supposed to do, and that's execute and enforce the laws in this country. so you have people believing and not wanting to engage in any commonsense discussion of reform of the system because they don't believe that whatever changes are made in the law, that they're going to actually be enforced. and quite frankly, employers are a huge part of the problem. you know, i'm not a guy who is in favor of building a fence or

wall along the entire length of america's southern border. it's too expensive, it's inefficient and i'll tell you i've never found a wall or fence that people filled with the human will can't find their way under, over, or around. and so there may be spots where a wall or fence may make some sense. and there may be spots where technology to enforce border security can be used. but in the end there's a will -- a lot of undocumented folks in new jersey and i have met many of them. i will they will you that not one of them has ever come up to me and said, the reason i came here illegally to the united states is because i wanted to vote. none of them ever said that. every one of home to i've spoken to said they came here because they wanted to work and support their families. so here's the thing. you know, if we know that, if we know that, then let's start talking about the issues that really matter in this and not the ones that are just emotional. so the idea that employers, all employers, shouldn't be subject

to e-verify makes no sense to me. if we set up a system that people are then going to be willing to buy into, they need to know this is going to stop. and we're not going to be back here again 25 years later having the same conversation. and if folks know when they come here they're not going to get a job if they come here illegally, the incentive to come is going to be significantly less. and so we then will have an opportunity to discuss the broader issue of how do you deal with the folks who are here already and how do you deal with the issue of legal immigration and how do we make the qualitative and quantitative decisions on legal immigration that we need to make? but until we have an honest conversation with the american people about the fact that the president of the united states is not going to look the other way on the issue but is going to enforce the laws and not just democrats but republicans too, that the laws are not only going to be enforced against those who sneak their way in, but against the business community who exploits that. we need to do both.

then we can, in a commonsense way, qualitatively and quantitatively look at what to do with the people. but until we have that conversation, we're going to continue to bicker and demonize and demagogue this issue. because there's too much political capital in it to do otherwise. we need to force people to look at it in another way. >> following on the -- >> introduce yourself. >> steve cooker, i'm with monster worldwide. governor, following on the notion of immigration, there's another piece of it that really is at the center of the technology in terms of bringing on qualified individuals, people who can really do the work people that are professional and technical in nature. we see that we sometimes struggle with finding those types of individuals within their -- within our own backyard and at the hard of that are all the stem initiatives that i think that are growing up.

the other side of that is, those professals that come from elsewhere and to -- those professionals that come from elsewhere and attracting them and keeping them here in the united states, can you talk to both sides of that? one is what can we do to keep those people who want to immigrate into the united states here in a professional capacity and the other side, what can we do from an education perspective in preparing our work force for those type of jobs? governor christie: i'll start with the last and then go to the first. you know, this is one of those situations where reform of our education system is so incredibly important. what you're talking about and what most businesses want is an education system that produces results. you know, i don't think the american people have shown any reluctance to invest significant moneys in our educational system. from k to 12, to community colleges, higher education in

the four-year college and university space and graduate school. the problem is that, you're having problem finding enough people within our shores to address the needs of your business, that's the premise of your question. we need to make sure that we have an educational system that is providing the type of results that we have. we have to work on the potential of children not the comfort of adults. and unfortunately, especially in the k-12 system we're much more focused on the comfort of adults than we are on the potential of children. that's the only explanation for not having a longer school day and longer school year in this country. the only explanation. our school calendar is ridiculous. it's based on the agrarian calendar. i can tell you even in the garden state, kids are not leaving school in june to go and till the fields, -- the fields everybody. it's not happening anymore. and the fact is, why don't we then, like many of the other

industrialized countries of the world have a longer school day and longer school year? we don't because the power and the authority of the teachers' unions. that's it. that's the only reason why. you want better stem education those kids are in school from september to july. and they're in school until 5:00 or 6:00 rather than 2:00 or 2:30, and they're getting the type of exposure to all of the things that they need to to be able to improve those skills that will happen. just like in your business when you work better and harder and longer. almost invariably your results are better. so we need to have a national conversation about how we educate our children. we're still educating our children the same way we did in the 1800's. 20, 25 chairs and desks facing forward to a white board or black board with one person standing in front talking to them for a limited period of time each day, for a limited period of time each year.

everything else in american life has been improved, modernized, but education. at its core, yes we use computers now it's one of the great moments when my 11-year-old daughter bridget started taking computers when she was 8. and she said dad when you were 8 who did you have for computers? [laughter] i said, no one. no one. the world has changed in that respect. but not much more in the world of education. my point to you in terms of, if you're ranked in the 20's in the industrial world in math and science, what makes you believe that 10 or 15 years from now we'll still be the number one economy? hope? prayer? we have to change this. and secondly, what i'm implying in my answer is, once you get a system that people are willing to buy into, then you can start having the discussions about quantitative and qualitative choices in legal immigration.

but until you get to the base problem of what we permitted to happen over the last 25 to 30 years, and the feeling amongst so many people in our country that we're not willing to enforce the laws, why are they going to buy into a whole new set of laws that i think the government won't execute on. we have to have that conversation and the idea that if someone brings a particular quality or set of qualities, that that would help our country even more, that that's something that should be considered in the immigration process. it's an important idea to discuss. but if we don't get to the underlying problem first, we're not going to ever get there. and you're going to continue to be frustrated. so let's get to the underlying problem, fix it, and then our frustrations will abate if not eliminate on this topic. >> next question. >> hi, governor, i'm carol cornman with police. and i.t. services company.

i want to get your opinion on the aca and how it's been set up and the reporting. i'm baffled a little bit that even small certified businesses, and we're all about small businesses growing, yet under the a.c.a., small businesses are classified as larbling -- large businesses in some cases. i just wanted to get your opinion on that. governor christie: my opinion on the affordable care act is that it goes exactly in line with the philosophy i was talking about earlier in my remarks and the difference between myself and the president. you know, let's look at my state of new jersey and let's pick the state of wyoming. what person in this room actually thinks that the health care challenges that i face for my population in new jersey of 8.9 million people in the most ethnically diverse state in the country, most densely populated state in the country, are the same as the health care challenges faced by governor meade in wyoming?

you don't have to know anything, right, anything about health care to know those two places are significantly different and face significantly different challenges. you understand that, i understand that, the president of the united states refuses to acknowledge it. the idea that you can have one national system that is going to appropriately, efficiently effectively address the health care needs of the population in new jersey and health care for the population in wyoming is ridiculous. and the core weakness of a.c.a., besides the fact that -- the factor you mentioned in terms of the nondisparate treatment of business, the tax increases, the mandates, all those things, the core problem is that this just won't work. because the challenges i face in new jersey are so significantly different than they face in other parts of the country and other states. we should be going to a system that's state-based.

where governors work with the people in their state to say what is the best way to access health care in a state like ours? and you know, the way businesses will be affected by that is when governments closer to you are making the decisions, you have much greater input. i know small business owners in my state. i work with them all the time for our economic development authority, through our local chambers of commerce. they have access to policymakers in a way you'll never have access to federal policymakers in that way. so i'm a repeal and replace guy. i absolutely believe that obamacare is not salvageable and needs to go. but we also can't be the party that says, it needs to go and we'll get back to you in a couple of weeks about what actually we're going to do. the american people will not go for that dodge. so we need to come out and talk as a party about what we want to do. i will tell you that my inclination is going to a state-based system. because i just believe as a

governor that, you know what gary herbert decides in utah versus what i decide in new jersey versus what matt meade decides in wyoming versus what phil bryant decides in mississippi, are all smart specialized things we know about our states. we get input from folks like you. that's my view on it. the onerous nature of this is going to suffocate businesses, has already suffocated jobs and we know that. the 30-hour work week. all these things that are going on now surrounding aca has just suffocated economic growth and the president doesn't want to see it or acknowledge it because he believes in an omnipotent omnipresent federal government and i don't. >> three more questions and that will be it. please keep the questions short, identify yourself first. >> jim toland. as a followup, clearly obamacare hasn't been the most popular legislation or program with the republican party. it does seem like people talk about repeal and replace but there's much more focus on

repeal. the question really is, what's the replace? status quo wasn't working very well either. 50 million people uninsured, it's got to be more than we'll do it at the state level. what's the program to get a program that actually addresses the pathologies of the old system without baggage of the new? governor christie: we should get there and talk about it but take a deep breath. it's may 1. you know. i don't -- quite frankly, i think all of us have to go about this in a responsible way. has there been more of an ab emphasis on repeal? sure. you can't replace until you do repeal. so there's been more of an emphasis on repeal.

but the fact is that all of us who are responsible and for those of us who decide to run for president, it's going to be our job to come forward with a specific plan and ideas. i would -- what i'm trying to give you is a window into my approach. i'm not going to sit here this morning and lay out my entire plan for replacing obamacare with all due respect. we'll do that in a different setting that makes more sense. but what i'm telling you is the directional guidance i'm giving you is that i believe this is a problem that's much more appropriately dealt with at the state level than it is dealt with at the federal level. all you need to do is look at the growth of medicaid over the course of the last number of years. the last 25 years, medicaid has grown over 00%. and the economy has grown 200%. so you know, this system where the state pays for half of the cost but has almost no influence on the rules, which is where we're headed and where we are with obamacare, i think is a failure. and i think we're in the same spot. will be in the same spot with this kind of exponential growth if we allow obamacare to continue. >> but isn't that the same dodge

--? >> this is not a time for discussion. next question please. >> governor my name is paul , stide, i'm with effective communications, also i'm a native omendham, new jersey. governor christie: my hometown. >> to questions about superstorm sandy. how in your estimation is the recovery going? and how have the events of superstorm sandy shaped you as a man and shaped you as a leader? governor christie: i'm a -- on the recovery, the recovery is going very well. now our businesses are back up and running. our jersey shore tourism last year set a record year. in the second year after sandy. and most of the new jerseyans who lost their homes are back in their homes.

whenever i say that, i'm mindful of the people who are still not back in their homes. and there are some who are still not back in their homes. and so i always say to people, the recovery is going really well unless you're not back in your home. if you're not back in your home the recovery is going miserably. one of the problems in the aftermath of katrina was that there was significant rampant fraud in louisiana. and as a result, the federal government does what federal and state governments do all the time. they play the last game rather than the next game. they look at what happened and they made the rules on aid so onerous, not on the state necessarily, but on the individuals in terms of proof and paperwork, that it held up a lot of what's going on. i think hud in particular has seen this over time and have begun to loosen up on those

things and allowed us to get those people who are not in their homes at a much faster pace. we've spent billions of dollars already. we've increased resiliency in our states so when the next storm comes things will be better. i think overall the recovery has gone well. when you think about this, when i woke up on the morning after sandy, 365,000 homes had been destroyed. in 24 hours. 365,000 homes. we had no power in more than 2/3 of the state. we had 50-plus gas stations open and operational. most of the state highways were closed. all the schools were closed. there was no wastewater treatment plants in the state. it was as big a disaster as any state has ever ever sustained. and we're back on our feet and people are back in our homes and economic activity has resumed so i feel very good about that. in terms of me, i can only tell

you that in 2011, there were lots of people who urged me to run for president. and when i made the decision not to, i did something my political advisors said i should never say. i was asked, of course if you would be when you say you're not running for president i was asked why and i said because i'm not ready. and my advisor was like, no, no, no. that will last forever of you not saying you're ready to be president. you can't say that. i said, well, it's true. sandy went a long way toward making me ready. when you sit around a table and you get the reports of that destruction rks and that level of pain and loss, and then everybody, your cabinet, your law enforcement, your national guard all sit around the table and after they report all that they then look at you and say, ok, what are we going to do? you get prepared as a leader in those moments like nothing else can prepare you. because you have a blank piece of paper in front of you.

and human suffering all around you. and everybody, not just the people around the table but everybody in the state is looking to you to say, please fix this. please help. and that's why when i was going through sandy, i never spent more than half a day in the emergency operations center. from the day after sandy forward, i would spend half the day in the emergency operation center with all the different people i had to talk to, get briefed by and give instructions to. and i would always spend half the day in one of the towns that have been destroyed to actually remind myself all the time about who i was doing this for and what they really were concerned about. and i can't tell you in the beginning how emotionally impactful that was. to walk into a town like belmar which i did on the first day after the storm, a jersey shore town, and have a woman come up to me and grab me and begin to hug me and say into my ear, i've lost everything. you're the only person who can

help me. those are moments in my life that i'll never forget and have changed me as a person and have molded me as a leader. but in the end what people want is the truth. they want you to be decisive. they want you to be present. in their lives. when they feel as if their lives are at risk. and so sandy has changed me in every way that sandy could change somebody, that something like that could possibly do to both your mind and your heart and i would have never wished that on my state, ever, ever. and hope and pray it never happens to anybody again at that level of devastation. but we learned from it. we're a better state because of it in the end. and once we get everybody back in their homes i'll be able to breathe a sigh of relief and say, you know, mission

accomplished. but until that time you can't. you just keep plugging every every day. [applause] >> one more question. >> governor christie, this is isha, i'm with a global insurance brokerage. can you talk about the importance of having honest conversations with the american people? i would like to know how to balance the receptivity of receiving that information from the american people coming from politicians. governor christie: everybody approaches this business differently. i'm someone who always tries to err on the side of letting people know what i really think. [laughter] [applause]

this has to do with how i was raised. we're all a product of our parents, right? sometimes we're thrilled about that, sometimes we're not. i know my children will spend a significant time complaining to someone about something i did that i really thought was good when i did it but obviously i was completely wrong, right? we're all products of our parents. i grew up in a house with an irish father and a sicilian mother. [laughter] now, you all know what this means. this means i became at a very young age expert at conflict resolution. i am the oldest son in that family and it's not that my mom was argumentative. it's just that she never found an argument that wasn't worth having. [laughter]

in her view. you know. and she used to tell us, whatever was bothering her all the time we'd say like, mom, enough, stop. she'd say to me, no, no, no, no, i'm getting this off my chest and i'm getting it off right now, you're going to listen. there will be no deathbed confessions in this family you're hearing it now. and i will tell you that, you know, it forms who you are right? the ethic i was taught is if there was a problem, talk about it now. if there's an issue get it off your chest. if you feel something, let people know it. and so it's hard then to get into politics and say, i'm going to conduct myself completely differently than the way i've conducted myself for the 40-plus years before i got involved in politics. my mom used to say to me all the time, christopher, be yourself. because then tomorrow you don't

have to worry about remembering who you pretended to be yesterday. it's great advice. i'll end with this, to give you greater insight to the impact this has on real lives. so i -- i'm talking about my mom in the past tense because she passed away 11 years ago next week. and she is the formative figure in my life and i tease my father all the time, he comes to my town hall meetings, i say, to understand my parent's relationship, in the automobile of life my father was the passenger. [laughter] he really doesn't like that. but i do, so what the hell. so my mom in february of 2004 was on valentine's day was diagnosed with lung cancer. and she had been a lifetime smoker. and her disease progressed very

quickly. and so by the end of april of 2004, i was at the u.s. attorney's national conference in san diego and i got a call from my younger brother saying to me, listen, mom's back in the hospital. really bad. if you want to see her, you have to get home now. i flew back to new jersey and landed at newark airport and got in the car and drove to the hospital. and i got there and they started to give her more phone and -- morphine and trying to pain and i waited for her to wake up. she had not seen me for a week and she said what day is it? i said it's friday. she said what time is it? 9:30 in the morning. she said go to work. [laughter] i said, mom, i decided to take the day off.

i'm going to spend the day with you. she said christopher, it is a work day, go to work. i said are you afraid i'm taking advantage of taxpayers' money. i will make up the time, don't worry about it. she said go to work it's where you belong there's nothing left unsaid between us. and you know what? she was right. because of the way she taught me to conduct our lives. that thing she used to say all the time, you are going to hear it now. there are no deathbed confessions in this family. she was right. there didn't need to be. i knew she loved me. i knew the things she wanted to change about me, but ran out of time to do it. right? i knew all that. so i leaned over and kissed her and i said ok, i'm going to work and i left and i never saw her again.

but she let me go. if you want to understand the balance, in me, the balance is what i'm thinking in here what should i say or shouldn't i say, i think of her. and think if she were here now to watch the sirk us that my life has become, she would say two things to me. first thing she would say, remember, i changed your diapers, don't act like a big shot to me. and second, i could only imagine what she would say now. and secondly, she would say these people trusted you with the most important important job that they could give you in the state you were born and raised. let them know what you feel. you owe the person that. and so that's where i come down on the balance and has nothing to do with political calculation and everything to do with who i am and in the end, if you lose

that, you have no business being a leader any way. be who you are. some people will like it and there may be some days where i may some things, maybe i want to phrase differently upon reflection. but here's the one thing that all of you will learn about me you will never have to wonder is that how he thinks, how he feels, and is that what he is going to do or does he mean it when he says he's not going to do. if that's your cup of tea, new jersey has said we like this guy. and if i decide to run for anything again, if people like that, then that's what they'll get. if they don't, then i'll go home. but either way i'm going to be who i am and that's the balance. [applause]

[captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2015] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> coming up next year on c-span, "washington journal," than a look at the winners in this year's student canm competition. then, president obama honoring the teacher of the year at a white house ceremony. coming up next on "washington journal," a look at the writing and protest -- rioting and protests in baltimore. we will be joined by peniel joseph from tough university and

conservative black chick editor crystal wright. then a discussion about the nfl's decision to give up its tax-exempt status. >> the findings are thorough coupled with the medical examiner's determination that mr. gray's death was a homicide has led us to believe that we have probable cause to file charges. ♪ host: that is the state attorney from baltimore city, maryland marilyn mosey. responses from not only congress, but also the white house. we will hear from them and a