>> we have a link, if you look at religious liberty. >> i have buddies that are arguing with me all the time. don't have your skills. ted: thank you very much. what's your name? > hanna. ou want a picture?

we're praying for you. ted: thank you for being here. ed: you want a selfie? > this is my wife. >> nice to meet you. >> played football for oklahoma state. help that.

ted: thank you for being here. >> my name is lisa and going to caucus aptain at your on monday night. ted: thank you very much. nd why we are winning. hat's your name?

[indiscernible] ted: people are waking up in the movement. >> don't lose the fight. stay strong. ted: what's your name? hank you for being here. ted: you want me to sign this? > yes. when it comes to public policy, we should follow the science and a lot of the politicians who are pushing for raising the cost of living and it would hurt the

american people. if you look at the satellite data, there is nothing significant. follow the science rather than political agendas. what's your name? michael? thanks for being here. >> if you become president -- i ould vote for you. >> i'm rooting for you. >> more with senator cruz and all the campaign events we have covered with him online. we are going to take you live to

iowa for remarks by kentucky senator and republican presidential candidate rand paul who has just arrived here in iowa. >> we are planning on turning out 10,000 college students for rand paul! cheers and applause] >> right here at drake, we have a meet-up location, this monday, 6:00 p.m., we will be here. we are expecting tons and tons of folks. if you are a drake student, grab one of our cards. if you are not a student, we are trying to build a big coalition. we have this volunteer cards. if you are interested in speaking at your caucus or making phone calls, seek us out. if you are willing to speak at your caucus, we can get you to set up with that. who is ready to hear from the next president of the united

states? ladies and gentlemen please join me in welcoming the next president, senator rand paul! cheers and applause] senator paul: thank you. thank you. thank you. thank you. thank you. are there any liberty lovers in the house? [cheers and applause] senator paul: thank you. welcome to the home stretch. here we come, iowa. i want to tell you why america needs to hear your voice. we live in a world that is increasingly becoming unmoored rom tradition, delinked from our ancestors and separated from

separations of right and wrong, great questions of faith have alluded us. and vull garthy is accepted as the norm. einstein wrote, the most beautiful emotion we can experience is the mysterious. he to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer wonder and stand wrapped in awe is as good as dead, a snuffed out candle. the sense behind anything that can be experienced, there is something that our minds cannot grasp, whose beauty reaches us only indirectly. this is religiousness. in order to embrace the mystery, we must be flee. without liberty, our senses are dull and dumbed down by rules and regulations. what victory is faith if we are not free to choose it? the question we face is not of

the moment, but of such a magnitude that we choose today whether liberty can survive in a democracy unrestrained by a constitution. can a civilization that chooses to transfer the fruits of labor from one group to another, can such a civilization long endure. won't we run out of other people's money? cheers and applause] senator paul: the american experiment with liberty is not totally won, today, tomorrow and the day after, we must fight to restrain big brother. [cheers and applause] will you stand together against the rising tied of government

excess that threatens to trap us in the clutch of big brother. will you stand with me? [cheers and applause] [crowd chanting] senator paul: liberty is under assault like never before. in washington and on the campaign trail, republicans and democrats alike call out for bigger government. only a president who understands the corrupting influence of big government can stop it. on the right, the call is for enlarging the military state. on the left, the call is for enlarging the welfare state. in -- and the dirty little secret, the dirty little secret is that the right and the left get what they want, more spending, and you, you get stuck with the bill. the loudest voices in washington

for more spending are actually coming from republicans. recently, cruz and rubio -- [crowd booing] senator paul: they put forward an amendment to increase military spend spending $200 billion. this would add $200 billion to the debt. when i countered them with an amendment that would have cut domestic spending in order to pay for it, they refused to support the cut. the inconvenient truth is that you cannot be a conservative if you are liberal with military spending. cheers and applause] senator paul: we do not become a stronger or a safer nation if we borrow from china to inflate our military budget. we spend more on our military

budget than russia, plus china, plus the next eight countries combined. there's waste everywhere from $43 million for a natural gas gas station in afghanistan, to $1 million for a tell advised afghanistan cricket league. they don't even have televisions in afghanistan. the only problem is that this unholy compromise, the republicans, they get more republican, they get more military spending, but only if they trade democrats a whopping dose of increased domestic spending. if we want to balance the budget and truly believe what we say we believe in, all spending must be restrained. cheers and applause] senator paul: every republican says we are balancing the budget

but no one has introduced it. i have introduced three balanced budget by cutting spending across the board. the national taxpayers union has recognized this and named me the most frugal lawmaker in washington because i'm willing to look for waste everywhere across the board. right and left spend too much money, but they also are carelessly infringing on our civil liberties. both parties are contributing to an assault on your bill of rights. the left attacks your second amendment, the right to bear arms. the right attacks your fourth amendment, the right to be left alone. i'm the only candidate that stands for the entire bill of rights. cheers and applause] crowd chanting president paul]

[cheers and applause] senator paul: since the terrorist attack in san bernandino, the left calls out for more gun control, while the right calls out for more people control. the left calls for bans on gun sales and the right clammers for the government to gather up all of our records. i don't know about you, but i y that our phone records are none of their damn business. cheers and applause] senator paul: they claim we can't be safe without letting the government inspect everything, collect all of our records, but there's no evidence that these actions have made us any safer. two bipartisan commissions investigated the government's bulk collection of data and found absolutely zero terrorist

plots. the circuit court, the court just below the supreme court ruled that the bulk collection of your phone records is illegal and yet still some want to bring it back. rubio says we can't be safe. i say it's wrong and i say it has to end. we need to protect your privacy. cheers and applause] senator paul: now cruz he claims he was with us on reforming the n.s.a. but i think he talks out of both side of his mouth. [cheers and applause] senator paul: did you hear his explanation in the debate? he said he voted for the bill to reform the n.s.a. because he wants to allow the government to collect 100% of your cell phone records. [crowd booing]

senator paul: if his goal is to collect 100% of your cell phone records, he greatly misunderstands the liberty movement. cheers and applause] senator paul: i have a better idea, how about we collect zero percent of your cell phone records? cheers and applause] senator paul: when i'm president we will once again respect the fourth amendment with as much vigor as we defend the second amendment. [cheers and applause] senator paul: when i'm president we will once again defend the entire bill of rights from top to bottom. cheers and applause] senator paul: ted cruz, donald

trump, marco rubio -- [crowd booing] senator paul: they alltel you that they want to carpet bomb the middle east. cruz tells you he wants to make the sand glow. trump says the problem is we haven't been willing enough to use our nuclear weapons. i'm the only candidate that asks will indiscriminate bombing of civilians create more terrorists han it actually kills? [cheers and applause] senator paul: i'm the only one willing to point out that every time we have used our military might to topple secular dictators from hussein to gaddafi, and the void has not been filled with jeffersonian

democracy but with radical islam. the iraq war cost us $1 trillion and lost 5,000 of our men and women, thousands more live on with catastrophic industries. as commander in chief, i will never, never ignore the human cost of war. cheers and applause] [crowd chanting no more war] senator paul: the other candidates offer you more of the same, macho rhetoric, fear mongering and perpetual war. putin. ys we should

christie says he is ready to shoot down russian planes currently flying over syria and iraq and no one asked what next. alone on the stage, i call for a reasonable, a realist foreign policy where we stand strong enough to deter any attack, but ii.eager to start world war [cheers and applause] - not eager to start world war iii. [cheers and applause] senator paul: i will adhere to the reagan doctrine -- [cheers and applause] senator paul: that war should be he last resort, not the first. [cheers and applause] senator paul: and when i am

president we will only fight wars that are constitutionally declared by congress. cheers and applause] senator paul: when i am president we will only fight wars to defend america, not for regime change and not for nation building. [cheers and applause] senator paul: now, one candidate in particular wants you to give him power. he tells you he is so rich, he must be smart. if you give him power, he will fix america. but you know, there is another tradition in america, a tradition that believes that power corrupts and that our goals should not be to gain power but to contain power and

to limit presidential power. cheers and applause] senator paul: our founding fathers feared centralization of power. as madison wrote, where an excess of power prevails, no man is safe in his opinions, his person or his possessions. our founders wrote the constitution to restrain the accumulation of power by government. trump is ignorant of this tradition. and in many cases, he is overtly opposed to the limited philosophy of government. he believes the government has the right to seize your property and give it to a rich crony through eminent domain. anyone who champions the rights of the individual.

he supported the government bailing out the big banks. he has used the government to get rich and bully his competition and now he asks you to give him power. this race should not be about which candidate or this race should be about which candidate will protect you from an overbearing government not about which candidate will grab the ring of power. lecting gollum should not be our objective. cheers and applause] senator paul: i'm the only one in this race who doesn't want power or dominion over you. i want to set you free and leave you alone and i want a government so small, you can

barely see it. cheers and applause] chanting president paul] senator paul: for several years now, you know i have been fighting against indefinite detention. this allows american citizens to be in prison. this was a law signed by president obama a few years ago. my fear is that one day, a president might use indefinite detention the same way president f.d.r. did to detain african-americans like they did in the old south. power corrupts as we have seen with an out of control i.r.s.

using its power to harass. the i.r.s. presumes you are guilting until proven innocent. imagine being detained without a trial because your own government deems you suspect but does not to prove it. when i think of the terrible possibilities of indefinite detentions, i'm reminded from "to kill a mockingbird." she comes to the rescue. and recognizes the leader of the mob of the father of the boy from her class. i go to school with your son walter. he is in my grade and does right well. i beat him up once, but he was real nice about it. tell him hey for me, won't you. the little girl broke the angry move of the mob by personalizings it. scout found the inner humanity

that exists even in a mob hell bent on violence. hen there is a mob intent on indiscriminate government searches and mob intent on detention without trial, then someone must stand and shout down that mob. as president, i will not only shout down the mob, i will indefinite detention once and for all. cheers and applause] senator paul: when anyone says we must give up our liberty for a false sense of security, i can't think of atticus when he took the case of defending tom robinson. in washington, that sentiment is often true. after my filibuster for the

right to be left alone, some said i was the most unpopular man in washington. it felt that way. [laughter] senator paul: but i thought of hat atticus said, before i can live with other folks, i have to live with myself. the one thing that doesn't abide with majority rule is conscience. the majority is not always right. in fact, the majority is quite often wrong. come, it ose time has is stronger than all armies. for a republican to win again, because this isn't just about the primaries. we get caught up, which means winning iowa, which hasn't been easy, for us to win again, we need to be brave enough, braveb enough to believe that ideas are powerful, maybe even stronger than armies.

cheers and applause] senator paul: to win, we will need to be a bigger, better, bolder party. we need to welcome all parties of all walks of life, black, tattoos, without tattoos, with earrings and without earrings. we need to become a bigger diverse party. as my dad always says, liberty. as my dad always says liberty always brings people together. cheers and applause] senator paul: it's the common desire to be left alone that binds us all as unique individuals.

after all, big government hurts people from all walks of life, rich and poor. the woman in detroit who wants to run a hair braiding business and run out of her apartment and shut down by big government, the developer moving dirt on his own land who is jailed by armed e.p.a. agents. the small business that can't compete with corporations and their armies of compliance officers, the elderly woman use - losing her home to eminent domain, also known as donald trump, the teenager from a poor family facing jail time for marijuana, what do these individuals have in common? they are losing their liberty to big government. your big government has 48 agencies from the i.r.s. to the department of education that all have their own swat teams.

is that freedom? when i am president, these attacks on your liberty will stop once and for all. cheers and applause] chanting president paul] senator paul: the g.o.p. has been the party of emancipation. we are the party of civil rights. we need to be the party of justice. justice begins when the war on rugs ends. [applause] senator paul: a generation of young black men have been incarcerated and permanently lost the privilege of voting and the opportunity of work. the war on drugs has

disproportionately incarcerated those who live in poverty in our cities. though blacks and whites use drugs at similar rates, three out of four people in prison are black or brown. we must begin to treat addiction as a health problem, not an incarceration problem. cheers and applause] senator paul: for five years, i fought for a vote on auditing the fed. [crowd chanting] senator paul: when i finally got the vote, ted cruz was nowhere

to be found. fact -- [laughter] senator paul: in fact, ted was the only republican to miss the vote. but even worse, ted maintains that the correct response to the great recession was to have the fed more aggressively lower interest rates, when we all know that artificially low interest rates are the problem, not the solution. cheers and applause] senator paul: when i'm president, the federal reserve will learn that their days of nlimited power are over. [crowd chanting]

senator paul: america has much greatness left in her. we are still exceptional and still a beacon for the world. we'll thrive when we believe in ourselves again. i see an america strong enough to deter foreign aggression, yet wise enough to avoid unnecessary intervention. i see an america where criminal justice is applied equally and ny law that disproportionately incarcerates people of color is repealed. cheers and applause] senator paul: i see an america with a restrained i.r.s. and cannot target people for their political or religious beliefs. [cheers and applause]

senator paul: i see a simplified flat tax that unburdens our citizens from the fear and intimidation of the i.r.s. code. [cheers and applause] senator paul: i would eliminate the entire tax code, the i.r.s. and unleash the engine of capitalization to create jobs and opportunity like never before. cheers and applause] senator paul: we have the highest corporate taxes in the world. is it any wonder that our companies are leaving our shores. money goes where it's welcome. i would bring corporate investment back by cutting our corporate tax and pleadly bringing home $2 trillion in american profit. cheers and applause]

senator paul: i see our big cities, i see our big cities once again shining and beckoning with creativity and ingenuity with american companies offering american jobs. i have a vision for an america beyond partisan squabling and beyond petty divisions. with your help, this mess iege will ring from coast to coast. a message of liberty, justice and personal responsibility. a message that can gain support from across the political spectrum. a message that can prevail and win the white house. cheers and applause] senator paul: the journey to

take back america will not be easy. it will not be without obstacles, but together, we can do what others say is not possible. stand with me now as together we seek a new vision for america. i ask for your vote today for the presidency of the united states. thank you. and god bless. cheers and applause] chanting president paul] senator paul: thank you.

thank you. thank you. thank you. >> five minutes to tell you about the campaign and what happens in four days. so on your chairs, you saw these cards when you came in. my name is steve grubbs and chief strategist here in iowa. we know what we have to do to win. there has been a lot of money spent on television and phone calls made. let me give you a quick update. we have over 1,000 precinct captains helping us out statewide but there are 1,700 precincts and still looking for a few more people who will stand up in their caucus who can speak

from the heart or read a statement from rand paul. we want you to fill out this card. if you are in state or out of state. in state is first preference. if we have a precinct that is unfilled, there are tables over here and want to plug you into a pri sink. fill out this card and we have seven laptops over here. let's say you don't want to speak at your caucus. can i -- raise your hand if you have never been to an iowa caucus before. maybe a third of the room. you are who is going to make the difference in this caucus right there. here's the tricky thing and what throws a lot of people off. a lot of people think that they go to their caucus where they go

to vote in a school board election. not where you go. the state republican party has set up locations in schools and in fire houses and all sorts of crazy places across the state. and so, do one of two things. your caucus.comw. and put in your address or before you leave here today, fill out this card and drop it off with our team and we will call you or email you to verify your -- the location of your caucus. we want to make it easy so you don't miss it. be at your caucus at 6:30 p.m. maybe you are not registered to vote. doesn't matter. you can register to vote at the caucus. so especially show up at 6:30. maybe you are 17 or you know

somebody who is 17 or somebody who lives with you is 17, as long as they are 18 by the general election this fall, they can vote. take them with you. my mother took me to my first caucus at 16 and still doing it 10 years later. [laughter] we are going to leave it at this. we have a chance, very few people in the state of iowa have a chance to make a big difference, not just in the united states, but we have a greater impact in electing the most powerful position in the world than any other group of people. we have four days to make a dramatic difference for freedom, for liberty, for our children and for the united states of america. thank you for coming. fill these cards out. and let's go, rand paul!

[cheers and applause] >> we continue from iowa. some of the organizational aspects of the caucuses and a chance for you to watch a republican caucus here on c-span and democratic caucus on c-span 2. if you are attending the caucus as either a democrat or a

republican, call these numbers on your screen. senator rand paul is making his way to the c-span bus, a busy day on the campus of drake university. in addition to this event, tonight, donald trump will be on the campus of drake university since he isn't competing in the debate. the debate gets under way at 9:00 p.m. a couple of tweets including this from one viewer. what a diverse and young crowd for rand paul. and also some news at this hour from "the union leader" in manchester, new hampshire. there will be a debate next thursday evening and a commitment from hillary clinton nd bernie sanders and martin o'malley and will be moderated by chuck todd.

let's go to charles in kentucky. your thoughts about what you heard from your senator. caller: he is my senator and i'm very, very impressed with what he has said. so impressed there any possibility to get his email address where i can send him something. host: you can go to the campaign website and his senate press office. what do you want to email him? caller: well, around here in kentucky they keep saying cream rises to the top and i believe this is a young man that is going to rise to the top. and it's impressive to watch him. and i can just say thank you about this and thank you for being -- it's just wonderful. host: thank you for the call. bailey from illinois, good

afternoon. caller: i'm currently a college student and majoring in business and economics and i just have a question for senator paul as to how exactly he is going to pay down our $19 trillion debt. host: senator paul is back inside the arena and listen in as he makes his way through the crowd. > you have the debate tonight. senator paul: hi, how are you? >> can i take a few pictures? senator paul: sure. inside or outside. >> c-span bus. chanting president paul]

senator paul: yeah, robert. on the fact check ational story. . i have a question for you >> going to be talking to steve cheduley back in washington --

cully, back in washington. >> welcome aboard. host: senator rand paul making his way on the c-span bus. we'll take your calls. bob from tennessee. you are on the air. good afternoon. caller: good afternoon. host: your thoughts of what you just heard from senator paul?

aller: i hope no more april 15 that the companies collect the taxes and government gets their hands on it and if they don't, it's mine. host: joshua joining from california. aller: good afternoon. i just watched the rand paul here at drake and i really agree with him. i'm a college student myself and specifically a non interventionist. foreign policy speaks to me because i had a lot of friends that went to iraq and afghanistan. that is our generation right there. host: if you live in iowa, democrat or republican and if you will be attending the aucuses on monday evening.

202-748-8920. and we welcome our listeners on c-span radio streaming on the b at c-span.org and heard on xm. 02-748-8920 if you are attending the caucus. caller: the only thing i heard about the taxes it's not fair that obama taking our taxes if we can't afford health insurance. i work five days a week and i still can't afford obamacare. s he going to do anything with obamacare. host: senator rand paul who is on board the c-span bus. and matt is joining us from darlington, south carolina. caller: i was wondering if he could speak about the dangers of the polling system we have.

seems like the candidate are pre-determined winners before we have caucuses or primaries before we even started. like college football, the team that is ranked 50th shouldn't even play if they are not in the top 10. i wonder about the dangers and the system they go about polling and people they do poll and that he might be shunned out because of the system. host: have you ever been surveyed by any news organization, matt? caller: no. and most people don't have land lines, they have cell phones and i understand that's basically how they do their polling. host: live coverage of the caucuses on the c-span network. we will have live coverage of the caucus in northern iowa and chance to watch for the

democrats. there many will be 1,800 caulkes nd there will be winners and losers. jacob in austin, texas. go ahead, please. caller: i'm calling to say i'm voting for rand paul. voted for obama in 2008 and reason i'm supporting him i believe we are either heading more towards liberty. that may sound extreme but that is a fact. and i agree that rand paul is going to fully take our nation towards more of a libertarian route. doesn't happen overnight. but i agree with his path to liberty. host: all of our coverage available on our website live and taped coverage at

c-span.org. and joining us from the campaign 2016 bus in des moines is senator rand paul. thanks for being with us. we appreciate it. senator paul: thanks for having me. host: you are on the main stage. donald trump competing across town. what is your strategy tonight for debate on the fox news channel? senator paul: it's important for me to get my message out and uniqueness of my message. i'm the only fiscal conservative on the stage because i'm the only one willing to hold the line on spending, whether it is outrageous and wasteful military spending or outrageous and wasteful domestic spending. republicans have gone along with democrats because they want higher military spending but trade with the democrats and give them higher domestic spending and that is why the

deficit or the debt doubled under george bush and doubled again under president obama because what is happening the right and left want to continue spending for different reasons but they get together and we are borrowing a million dollars a minute and it is a real problem. i'm the only one who has said we have to look at all spending in order to balance the budget. host: we just showed your event live. steve is joining us from iowa. are you going to go to the caucuses on monday? caller: i am. host: who are you supporting? caller: i will be supporting rand paul. host: why? caller: i followed his father for probably the last 20 years and i thought that he was probably by far the best person to help our country not just in our financial woes, but to

preserve our liberties. and i think it has been proven over the past eight years and perhaps the past 16 that our liberties have been taken from us. i think they might have pushed the overall debt past the point of no return. we might be in a position for the united states if we are going to have to renegotiate our debt or do something with that debt. host: we'll get a response. steve, thanks for the call. senator paul. senator paul: a lot of our supporters are very concerned about losing our liberties particularly in a time in which there is fear being promulgated. terrorists can't beat us in any pitched battle or military battle. they want to cause fear. we shouldn't give up our liberties. our people don't want to have a government collecting all of our phone records or credit card statements. we want to be left alone and we

think there is a right to privacy that is important. we also don't think the government programs that have done bulk collection of all the phone records have made us safer or stopped any terrorist plots. we think our foreign policy ought to be one in which we defend america, that when we go to war it's the last resort that we declare war when we go to war and we don't get involved with nation building or regime change. thruste the middle east every time we tried it, some had this notion that thomas jefferson is going to win the next election over there. we wind up with chaos, the rise of radical islam and things end up being worst than before we got involved. our people want to question our foreign policy and say has the intervention worked, has it made us safer and made the region more stable. the answer is no, it hasn't. and we need to try a new policy.

host: jeremy is on the phone from columbia kentucky. aller: i wanted to thank senator paul. i think we shouldn't be all over e world fighting for every country. i appreciate what he's doing and upport him here in columbia. senator paul: i appreciate that, and i think there is a growing consensus and the interesting thing that real people who are republicans, people who are independents and democrats are coming to this message because the candidate that is most to war intake us back the middle east is actually hillary clinton. hillary clinton, with the

democrats and marco rubio are the most likely to get us involved in another massive war in the middle east. and there are a growing number of americans that say can't we have a reagan-like national defense and not be eager to be involved in every civil war. we have to think -- trying to take out assad in syria. if we bomb assad, my fear is that isis takes over syria. thinking before we act is important. there is a growing consensus that is coming to this belief. host: billy from salem, virginia. ller: what i want to say i think rand paul is the most intelligent and most articulate about identifying the problems and resolutions, the liberties we've lost, the dulling of the minds of the general public believing that the federal government is going to save us and the belief that a smaller

government is the way and the means to getting back on track a free trade, free economy, supply and demand and take this mafia federal government, where you are republican, liberal democrat, it's quite clear there's nothing getting done, but stealing and untruths coming out of washington and rand paul is exploiting that and doing a great job of making people understand. how do you pay off the national debt? you stop spending. host: let me ask you, senator, if you thought you would be at this stage in the campaign at this level based on the message that you are hearing from the viewers and the message you have on the campaign trail.

senator paul: i guess you never know what to expect, i was just a small town eye surgeon, never knew that i would run for office. i ran for my office and won a few years ago for the u.s. senate and it has been an amazing journey to be part of the national stage and i'm excited to be part of it. i'm a great fan of our country's history. i'm a huge believer that the founders wanted the government to be very small and wanted our freedom to be very expansive. i continue to believe in that vision of the founding fathers, let's keep government restrained and use the constitution to restrain government. i will be on the national stage saying exactly what i believe that our government should be restrained and constrained by the constitution. host: with the mayor jim gray likely to challenge you in your

senate bid, there are some g.o.p. strategists to not run for president and focus on your own re-election in kentucky. how do you respond to that? senator paul: i always think it is funny when unnamed people tell you what to do because i don't respond to unnamed people. i tried very hard to be a good u.s. senator. i show up for virtually all of my votes. i have a great attendance record and given back $2 million to the taxpayer and to the treasury. i continue to try to have a loud voice across the nation for kentucky. i have opposed the president's war on coal and tried to defend our native industries in kentucky. when it comes to re-election, kentucky voters will look at how hard i tried to protect them from the president's overbearing and overzealous government and we'll see what happens at that

time. but the voters will get to decide and i will continue to show up for my day job and continue to vote in the senate and do the best i can for the people in kentucky. . kevin: my question is, i agree with you on not going to war in the middle east. but i'm concerned how we can help protect israel and our friends over there. but i'm also concerned with them taking american hostages and how we go about getting them back. mr. paul: i think if you are concerned about the safety and well-being of israel, we should want a more stable region over there. so i think when we toppled saddam hussein in the iraq war, that actually made iran more of a threat and emboldened iran.

iraq is now aligned with iran and they're close allies and close allies with russia. so i think if you think that israel's our friend, and you want to have that good relationship and you want israel to be safe, i think the first thing you want is stability in that region. i think if we topple assad, i think things get worse as well. and so i think if we are looking for stability and looking to allow some day those people there to choose something, a better way of life, and a better way of government, the best way is not intervening in their civil wars and not trying to pick and choose their leaders, but to defending american interests and to try to prevent anybody from falling into the hands of isis. the main thing we have to do is to not fund isis or their allies or deliver weapons to their side of the war. for the last several years, the united states, saudi arabia and qatar, have been pouring arms into that civil war. but they've been giving arms to the allies of isis. i've said that was a mistake and foolhearty from the

beginning. i think it's turning out to be true. that by giving these arms, isis simply snatched them up. isis now has $1 billion worth of u.s. humvees, they have our tanks, they have $1 billion worth of u.s. cash. if you want to find something really insulting, isis pays their soldiers with our money. that they confiscated. so we have to have a better foreign policy, one that defends america, protects american interests, but doesn't always think that toppling secular dictators over there makes things better. i think it makes things worse. host: one of the tweets taken onboard the bus. your wife kelly is in this photograph. your aide. hanging with the paul family on the c-span bus. my question, what's this experience like for your wife, kelly? we've seen your son at the puritan restaurant in new hampshire. i know he's with you today in des moines, iowa, as well. mr. paul: yeah. it's exciting to have my family

with me. i've got brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews coming. my dad's going to appear with me sunday night. we're going to be at the university of iowa, so we've got a lot of exciting things and politics is kind of a family affair in the paul household. so we're looking forward to it. several of the kids, nieces and nephews, will speak in caucuses for me. kelly will speak in a caucus in des moines for me. so we make it a big family affair and try to have a good time doing it. host: a few minutes of your time. let's go to scott in illinois. caller: hi. senator paul, i'm a graduate from drake university several years ago and an m.d. just like yourself. i'm also a fiscal conservative. i'm wondering how you have a plan to help bring down our national deficit. reduce the deficit rather than just creating a point of zero

deficit. mr. paul: -- mr. paul: we don't have a great connection. if we could repeat that question for me. this may have to be the last question because i think we have to move on. to get ready for the debate. host: i understand. mr. paul: can you repeat the question? caller: the question i have is, how are you going to bring down our national debt? host: thank you, scott. mr. paul: how do you bring down the national debt. the way i look at it is the first thing you have to do is quit adding to the debt. so the annual deficit is what we add to the debt. over the last eight years of president obama, he's added $10 trillion to the debt. really what you have to have is a compromise between both sides. right now we have the reverse compromise. on the right, they want more military spending. on the left, the democrats want more domestic spending. they compromise and everybody gets more spending and you get stuck with the bill. so if we want to actually stop adding to the debt, what you have to do is just make a rule.

says you can't spend what doesn't come in. we bring in about $3 trillion in revenue. we should just make a rule that says you can only spend what comes in. that's a balanced budget amendment. the american people are for it. but unfortunately you can't get enough people in congress to actually vote for it. that's what we need. congress hasn't been very good at balancing their books. we have to balance the annual budget before you can actually begin to even tackle the national debt. if you want to make the national debt smaller, as you hold the line on the debt, you could be paying back some of it if you're running surpluses but really what would also happen is if you hold the line and you don't add to the debt, as the economy grows, the debt will become a smaller percentage of our overall g.d.p. and i think that would be good overall. in the recent years we've gone the opposite way. where our overall debt, $19 trillion, is actually approaching 100% of our g.d.p. and may even exceed it now. and that's real problem.

so the first thing you have to do is quit adding to the debt. and what i would do is cut spending. i'd eliminate several departments of government. i would send back many powers from the federal government to the states. and to the people respectively. and i would be one who would veto bills. i'd veto bills. if you don't second me a budget that doesn't balance, i veto it. you don't send me spending bills that lead to a balanced budget, i veto those. we haven't had a president who stands up for fiscal responsibility in my lifetime. i would be the first one and absolutely without question i would do it. because i wouldn't be running for office if i wasn't absolutely certain that i would veto budgets that didn't balance. thanks for having me. love to do it again sometime. host: i want to ask you if you feel your message and these issues have received the attention -- in light of all the attention donald trump has been getting in this campaign? mr. paul: i think we get a decent amount of air time. i think donald trump gets about as much as all the candidates

multiplied by 25. so, yeah, there has been a problem. and i think the media kind of succumbed to a celebrity fad and i think it hasn't been good for the campaign. because it's made it harder for other candidates to compete on an equal footing. i do think eventually the american people will wake up and discover that donald trump's not a conservative. he's nearly 70 years old and he has never voted even in a republican primary before. for president. so i think there's a lot of arguments to be said that he's not a conservative, he believes in using eminent domain to take private property from people, he's been for a single payer system, he's been for higher taxes, bailing out the banks, single payer health care system, you name it. so i think there's a lot of evidence that he's not a conservative. but the race has been somewhat skewed by the coverage. i think we could do a better job. but nobody asked me, i don't get to make the decisions on that. i just get to do the best i can. putting my message out there and we'll see what the voters decide. host: we're grateful with your time today.

we'll let you get ready for tonight's debate. thank you for being with us. thank you for stopping by the bus. what do you think of the bus? mr. paul: thank you. have a great time. thanks. host: senator rand paul on the campaign 2016 c-span bus which is in des moines, iowa. at drake university. and if you're on the drake cam purks or in the greater des moines area, the bus is going to stay there for a couple more hours. because another event happening with donald trump. 9:00 eastern time. we'll have live coverage. let's show you the scene on the bus and outside the bus. we'll be back in just a moment.

>> all right, all right. mr. paul: we'll take a photo over here right fast. >> nice to meet you. paul thanks for coming. wait here. you're a freshman? >> i'm a junior. >> graduate in december. freshman. mr. paul: good, good.

i need to come over and see you guys. >> sure, yes, sir. mr. paul: excited to be in iowa? >> yeah. mr. paul: you guys get a lot of snow. >> yeah. 15 inches. mr. paul: we saw 25 in new york. everybody got dumped on. i have a son at u.k. right now. he said they got a bunch of snow there too. >> we were talking to loning wolf. mr. paul: yep. naudible] thanks for everything. we have to go get ready. [inaudible]

mr. paul: all right. thanks, everybody. inaudible] >> he made 300 calls yesterday. want to get a photo. >> thanks for everything. appreciate it. > where's our car? >> thanks. mr. paul: thank you. >> enjoy the rest of your time. thanks. > thank you so much. mr. paul: other side. > thank you so much.

host: another live view of the c-span bus parked on the campus of drake university. we'll stay there into the evening. just a few blocks away. donald trump holding a campaign rally, getting under way at 9:00 eastern time. all part of c-span's road to the white house coverage. you can also listen to it on c-span radio, 9:00 eastern/8:00 local time, 6:00 for you on the west coast. we will continue to crisscross the hawkeye state tomorrow, saturday and sunday. of course a reminder, we will have live coverage. we will take you to the caucuses, so if you've ever wanted to see exactly what happens, a little bit different for democrats versus republicans. a chance to watch a democratic caucus on our companion network, c-span2. that will take place in the des

moines area. a republican caucus here on c-span. and it will be just north of -- northwest of des moines. that's getting under way. our preview programming at 8:00 eastern, 7:00 iowa time. and then the caucuses themselves getting under way at 8:00 eastern time for the caucuses themselves. we'll preview an hour before. hope you tune in. a reminder, all of our coverage is available on our website. online any time. at c-span.org. and we'll be back with much more coverage during the course of the afternoon and evening. in case you missed it last night, from music man scare in mason city, iowa this campaign rally with senator bernie sanders of vermont. susan: the last time i was in iowa, i was here at the time that barack obama was coming through for the second time to thank the people of iowa for believing in him and for giving him the chance to go on to

become the president of the united states. [cheers and applause] the people of iowa did not listen to the machine that said he was unelectable. they listened to what this black man with a funny last men -- name had to say. they gave him a shot. now here we are again facing the machine with the same complaints. except with a man who has proven over and over again that he is consistent, that he is principled and that he is ncredibly brave. cheers and applause]

i have come here because for me gender is not what is important, and issues is what is important. i want a candidate who has the courage to stand and do the right thing when it is not popular. when the time came for the war to vote for the war, the united states was traumatized, it was fearful, it was in a renzy. the few people who had the courage to even ask a question were cut off from the herd and labeled un-american, bin laden lovers. it was a scary time. very few people working in the system have the courage to even ask a question, let alone stand on the floor and make a speech that is now suppressing it -- -- prescient, so clear and so brave as bernie sanders. [cheers and applause] it is one thing to be for gay rights and marriage once everybody else is for it. that's not difficult.

[cheering and applause] you know, change is hard. to say you can't go for a decent minimum wage because you cannot get it because it is too difficult. to have it called pragmatic is not pragmatic, that is cynicism. that is giving up. the right thing is a $15 minimum wage and that is what we have to get. cheering and applause] you know, everybody realizes that we are being run by a machine that is being run my wall street, by big pharm, by monsanto. [booing] yeah, boo. and it is -- yes, no thank you. and it is difficult. there's one man who miraculously has managed, and this may be the only man who can come up through the system, through the pipeline,

unscathed, unsold and pure. we now have the opportunity to make that man our choice for the president of the united states. [cheering and applause] and he's right. change is difficult. what this man is asking of us is to be the machine now. i give you bernie sanders. cheers and applause]

sen. sanders: this place goes all the way back, huh? let me thank all of you for coming out. this is a wonderful turnout. let me think charles for his remarks. let me thank susan sarandon, not only -- cheering and applause] not only for being a great actress. i have known susan for 25 to 30 years. there are other great actresses nd actors in our country but what susan has been doing for her entire life is standing up for social

justice for economic justice and for a world of peace. [cheers and applause] susan, thank you for all that you have done and thanks for being here tonight. >> thank you! [cheers and applause] sen. sanders: let me begin a little bit by talking about our campaign and picking up on some of the points that charles and susan make. that is that anybody here who thinks that real change comes easy knows nothing about american history or world history. frederick douglas made the point way back when fighting to end slavery that change only comes with struggle. reedom is never given to

people, you've got to fight to get it. [cheering and applause] that is what this campaign is about. we are taking on wall street and the economic establishment. we are taking on the political establishment. we are taking on the media establishment. that is the establishment that has to be taken on. [cheering and applause] if we are going to create the country that our people deserve. cheering and applause] susan said, some people say that's hard. it is hard. you do not take on wall street and think it is an easy struggle. you do not take on corporate america and all of their greed and think you're going to do it overnight. if we are going to create the nation that our people deserve, a nation that does not have the

highest rate of child poverty of almost any major nation on earth, a nation in which millions of seniors are not forced to live on $12,000, $13,000 a year. a nation which has more people in jail than any other country on earth. if you want to change that, you are going to have to fight and that is what this campaign is about. [cheering and applause] when we began this campaign, eople said it is true bernie combs his hair really nice. [laughter] he is a fans tick dresser. [laughter] despite those realities, he is

fringe candidate. who in america really believes that we should be taking on the billionaire class? >> i do! cheering and applause] . sanders: turns out there are a few meal -- there are a few million people like you. here is a crazy idea. are you ready? >> yeah! sen. sanders: who thinks the united states should join the rest of the industrialized world and guarantee health care to all people? cheering and applause] turns out a whole lot of people hink that.

who in america says or believes hat people should not be forced to work for $8 or $9 an hour, that a minimum wage should be a living wage? [cheers and applause] well, turns out that millions of people agree with that as well. we started this campaign nine months ago without any money, without any organization and with very little name recognition outside of the tate of vermont. but a lot has happened in the last nine months. [cheers and applause] today, we have hundreds of thousands of volunteers all across this country in 50 tates.

[cheering] let me thank the 15,000 volunteers that we have right here in the state of iowa. [cheering and applause] here is something else that really differentiates our campaign from the other campaigns. that is when we began, we had to ask ourselves a pretty difficult question. that is all of you know, sadly but truthfully, to run for president of the united states today you need to raise an enormous sum of money. it is not good, but it is

true. what the pundits tell us is the only way you can raise the kind of money that you need is to form a super pac and go to wall street and go to the wealthiest people in this country with your campaign funding. we do not represent corporate america. we do not want their money. cheering and applause] we decided to do it in a different way. when we decided to do is to go out to the working families and the middle class of this country and to say the them -- and to say to them, if you want a political revolution, you are going to have to help us out.

an amazing thing happened that i never in my life would have dreamed of nine months ago. today, we have received $2.5 million -- 2.5 million individual campaign contributions. [cheering and applause] that is more individual contributions than any campaign in the history of the united states up to this point. [cheering and applause] let me if i might tell you one of the major differences between our campaign and my opponents campaign. i am delighted to be here with you tonight in mason city. my opponent is not in iowa tonight. she is raising money from a philadelphia investment firm. [booing] frankly, i would rather be here with you. cheers and applause]

now, when you come to the last week of a campaign, especially when you run up against a campaign that now sees itself in trouble. you know, when we began this campaign, we were 40 to 50 points behind. now with your help, we are going to win here in iowa. cheering and applause] needless to say, our opponents are not that enthusiastic about that reality. they go out and say a whole lot of things. one of the things they say is bernie sanders, nice guy, interesting ideas, but he just could not win a general lection.

let me make it clear that that is absolutely wrong. [cheers and applause] let me tell you why for three reasons. in the most recent national poll that i saw, hillary clinton was doing very well. she was defeating donald trump by 10 points. we were defeating him by 15 points. cheers and applause] now iowa and new hampshire are important, not just because they are the first two states to vote in the presidential process. for both of those states are battleground states. according to the most recent

polls that i've seen, hillary clinton was ahead of donald trump here in iowa by eight points. we were ahead by 13 points. cheering and applause] in new hampshire, based on the last poll that i saw, she was defeating donald trump by one point, that is good. we were defeating him by 19 points. [cheering and applause] but it is not just polls. polls go up and polls go down. here is what is most important. republicans win national elections and state elections when people become demoralized, when they give up on the political process and when they

do not vote. an example of that was just a year ago in november, republicans won a landslide victory. they captured into the senate. in that election, 63% of the american people did not vote. 80% of young people did not vote. that is how republicans win elections. that is why republican governors are all over this country are busy trying to suppress the vote. they love it when people cannot ote and do not vote.

democrats and progressives win elections, as was the case in 2008, when the american people stand up, get involved in the political process and come out and vote in large numbers. [cheering and applause] i think anybody who objectively and fairly looks at our ampaign versus our opponents campaign knows the energy, the enthusiasm, the momentum is with us. cheering and applause] our campaign is doing is reaching out to millions and millions of working class, middle class, young people and say that if you want a government that represents all of the people and not just a few, come on board the

political revolution. [cheering and applause] that is exactly what we are seeing. the third reason we will win a eneral election is we will expose the republicans for what they are. cheers and applause] let me give you an example of some of the views that donald trump has. it is not just his racist and bigoted language telling the american people, jesting that the people coming from mexico are rapists or criminals or drug dealers. that is right. one would have thought that by the year 2016 we would've

gotten beyond that type of xenophobia and racism. cheering and applause] he told us that he saw on television thousands of muslims in new jersey celebrating the destruction of the twin towers when nobody else in america saw that on television. it never happened. that is called pathological lying. it is not just that he is suggested that muslims should

not be able to come into our country insulting one of the large religions in this world. and doing enormous damage to americans image from one end of this world. a fierce debate took place in the parliament in london about whether or not they should allow him to come into their country. that was conservatives and labor people saying this man is insulting minorities. he is scapegoating. we do not want him to come into our country. think about how this man is going to deal with the world when he can't even deal with our strongest ally. ut it is more than that. here is a man who is a multi-billionaire and he thinks

that we should not raise the minimum wage of seven dollars and $.25 -- $7.25 an hour. this say man in a republican debate -- this is a man in a republican debate after insulting everyone on the stage nd half of america came up with the conclusion that wages in america are too high. this is a man who thinks that we should give hundreds of billions of dollars in tax breaks to the families of the top 2/10 -- of the top .2%. this is the man when at a time hen virtually the entire scientific community is telling s that climate change is real, caused by human activity and is lready doing devastating harm,

this is a man who tells us that climate change is a hoax invented by the chinese. i was shocked by that remark, because i thought a great scientist like donald trump would at least have been consistent and told us the hoax of climate change was caused by mexicans. or muslims. but the chinese? this republican party, and i speak to you as a ranking member, a leader of the democrats on the senate budget committee. this is a political party in the senate that voted to throw 27 million people off our

ealth insurance. when you ask them as i did, i said mr. chairman what happens when you throw 27 million people off of health insurance? how many people die? how many people will get much sicker than they should be? they have no answer. they do not care. this is a political party in the senate budget which proposed the ending of medicare and converting it to a voucher program.

what that means is you would give seniors a check for $8,000 and then they go out looking for private health insurance. if you are 85 years of age and you are dealing with cancer, you tell me what kind of insurance policy you are going to get for $8,000. virtually nothing to meet your needs. that is what they want to do. this is a party in the senate that at a time when young people are finding it harder to afford college, proposed $90 billion in cuts in grant -- pell grant funding. this is a party who in their budget at a time when seniors cannot afford the outrageously high cost of prescription drugs proposed raising prescriptions are -- prescription drug costs for seniors.

that agenda, those policies, when exposed to the light of day, and there is nothing more than i would enjoy doing than exposing those policies to the american people. [cheering and applause] my friends, a republican candidate running on those issues is not going to become president of the united states. [cheering and applause] now one of the reasons that we have been successful i believe in this campaign is because we are running a simple straightforward campaign that is talking truth to the american people and talking about the real issues that face ur country, and that we have

the courage to propose real answers to the problems that we face. [cheers and applause] let me preface my remarks by telling you all what i think most of you already know. today in america we are the wealthiest country in the history of the world, but most people do not know that because almost all of the new wealth and income is going to the top %. [booing] let me tell you something else, my republican friends get very nervous when we talk about concepts like redistribution of wealth. they start shaking. here is the truth. in the last 30 years in this country, there has been a massive redistribution of wealth. problem is, it has gone in the

wrong direction. [applause] it is gone from the hands of the working people, into the ands of the top 1% -- .1%. today we get more income and wealth inequality than any other major country on earth. it is worth here now than at any time since 1928. today in america, and i would like you to hear this, you do ot see it on tv. today in america the top .1% now owns almost as much wealth s that bottom 90%. today in america, the 20 wealthiest people in our

country own more wealth than the bottom 150 million bottom half of america. today in america, one family -- this is the united states of america we are talking about, this is not some little oligarchy. this is america. today, one family, the wealthiest family in this country, the walton family that owns walmart, they alone own more wealth than the bottom 40% of the american people. one family. here is something about the walton family that is important o discuss. many of my republican colleagues around the country and they talk about welfare abuse, about poor people ripping off the welfare system. the largest recipient of welfare in america today is the

walton family, the wealthiest family in america. [cheering and applause] here's why. walmart is the largest private-sector employer in our country. yet many of the workers at walmart are on medicaid, they are on food stamps, they are in subsidized housing, all of which you provide through your taxes. the reason the workers and walmart are on medicaid, food stamps and subsidize housing is because the walton family refuses to pay their workers a living wage. [booging and applause] i say to the walton family, it -- get off of welfare.

pay your workers a decent wage. cheers and applause] not just wealth inequality. when we talk about our economy, two major points have to be made. number one, we are much better off today than we were when george w. bush left office seven years ago. [cheering and applause] you got a be easy on the republican's. they suffer from a serious illness called amnesia. they have forgotten the world that george w. bush left the president and to all of us in 008.

i will remind my republican friends about that world. that was a world in which 800,000 americans were losing their jobs every month. that was a world in which we were running up the largest deficit $1.4 trillion in the history of our country. that was a world in 2008 where the world financial system was n the verge of collapse. so it is fair to say that under president obama, vice president biden, we have made real

progress in the last seven years. [cheering and applause] here is another truth. that is while the economy today is better than it was seven years ago, much better. the other reality is for the last 40 years, the great middle class of our country, a middle class that was once the envy of the entire world, that middle-class has been disappearing. for months in iowa, we have people who are working not just one job but to jobs or three jobs. we have people who are working so hard, just to cobble together enough income and health care to take care of heir family. all over this country you got mom working, you got get working, you got the kids working. you've got families that are stressed out economically, marriages that are suffering from the stress, kids not

getting the attention they deserve because their parents are working so hard. while our people are working so ard. by the way we in america work the longest hours of any people in the industrialized world. japanese are very hard workers. we now work longer hours than he japanese. with all of our people working such long hours, it turns out that despite that, 58% of all low income generated today -- new income generates day is going to the top 1%. my friends, when you have an economy in which the top .1% owns all of -- owns as much wealth as the bottom. you have an economy that is

rigged. cheering and applause] how would you like to hear a radical idea tonight? are you ready for a radical dea? what about creating an economy that worked for working families and the middle class? not just the top 1%? [cheering and applause] when we talk about the economy, we've got to talk about obs. every month federal government comes up with a report on unemployment. what you see in the front pages of your paper is official unemployment 5%. anybody here believes that unemployment in america is really 5%? >> no. sen. sanders: you are right.

there is another report that the government comes up with that concludes that people have given up looking for work and many people are working part-time when they want to work full-time. that number is close to 10%. let me give you another number. it is very frightening. i have -- i asked some economists to do a study for me on youth unemployment. what kind of employment is there for kids who graduate high school. you know what the answer was? kids who were white, 33% of them were unemployed or underemployed. latinos, 36 pd. african-americans, 51%. [booing] this is a tragedy. people want to stand on their own two feet. they want to become independent.

above and beyond that, if anybody in this room tonight thinks that there is not a direct correlation between that high rate of youth unemployment and another american tragedy, and that we have more people in jail than any other country on earth. if you do not see the correlation, you are missing an important point. [applause] here is another radical idea. are you ready for the second radical idea of the night? what about investing in education and jobs? [cheers and applause] rather than jails and incarceration? cheers and applause] when we talk about our economy

and why it is people work so hard, work so many hours, the nswer is pretty obvious. that is the wages in america re just too low. my $7.25 minimum wage, in view, is a starvation wage. you can do the arithmetic. do it when you get home. you can take out your cap -- calculator, multiply $8, $9, 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year. the sum of money you're going to, with will not be enough for an individual to survive on, et alone a family. in america when people work 40 hours a week, they should not be forced to live in dire poverty.

cheering and applause] that is why i believe we should raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour over the next several years. cheers and applause] when we talk about jobs and the need to put our people back to work, it is clear to me that we need a massive federal jobs program. what that means is that we should not be firing teachers, we should be hiring eachers. [cheers and applause] it means that when we have a child care and pre-k system, that is extremely

dysfunctional, that millions of americans, parents, desperately are searching for quality, affordable child care, they can't find it. we have got to address that problem by hiring hundreds of thousands of well trained, well paid people to take care of america's little ones. [cheers and applause] and when we talk about creating jobs, we should understand that our infrastructure, our roads, our bridges, our water systems, and you all know what's going on in flint, michigan, that's right. our wastewater plants, our rail system, our airports, our levees, our dams need an enormous amount of work. because in many parts of the country, they are disintegrating. i believe if we invest $1

trillion in rebuilding our infrastructure, we can make america safer and more productive and we can create $13 million jobs. cheers and applause] now, people say, well, you know, $1 trillion, even in washington, that's a lot of money. how are you going to pay for that? i will tell you how. right now you have major corporations that make billions of dollars a year in profit, but in any given year, because they stash their profits in the caiman islands, bermuda and other tax havens, they end up in a given year not paying a nickel in federal income taxeses. what we are going to do is end that loophole, they're going to pay their taxes.

[cheers and applause] and we're going to use that revenue to rebuild our infrastructure and put our people back to work. [cheers and applause] and when we talk about equitable wages and raising the minimum wage, i hope that every man in this room will stand with the women in the fight for ay equity for women workers. [cheers and applause] women should not be earning 79 cents on the dollar compared to men. that's nothing more than old-fashioned sexism. together we're going to change that. cheers and applause] now, here in iowa, because you

are the first caucus or primary in the nation, you have a lot of, lot of, lot of politicses -- politicians running through your state. and you're going to hear from a lot of republicans who talk about family values. you ever hear republicans talking about family values? how much they love families? i hope that everybody in this room understands what republicans mean by family values. what they mean, what they mean, they are deadly serious in meaning, is that no woman in this room, in this state, in this country should have the right to control her own body. i disagree. cheers and applause]

what the republicans mean by family values is they want to defund planned parenthood. i want to expand funding for planned parenthood. cheers and applause] what the republicans mean by family values is to tell our gay brothers and sisters they do not have the right to get married. i disagree. cheers and applause] now, i will not shock anybody ere to suggest that there is a lot of hypocrisy in politics. i know, i know, i'm sorry to disillusion you. i know that you thought that everything, every politician said and did was honest and straightforward. sadly, i have to inform you that is not the case.

and when you think about the highest form of hypocrisy, let me give you what i think to be the case. my republican colleagues go around the country telling us how much they hate the government. they want to cut social security, they want to cut medicare, they want to cut medicaid. they want to do away with the e.p.a. they hate the post office. they hate the veterans administration, they hate every government agency there ever was. they want to get the government off our backs! to pt, except when it comes whether or not a woman should be able to make a very personal choice. in that case, they love the government and want the government to make that choice for that woman, that is hypocrisy. cheers and applause]

now, jane, who you just met, and i have been married 27 years. [applause] we have -- i don't know how she did it. [laughter] but we've been married 27 years. we have four kids and seven beautiful grandchildren. and we believe very much in family and in family values. but when we talk about family values, it is in a very different wathan republicans talk about it. when i talk about family values, i talk about ending the international embarrassment of the united states of america being not only the only major country on earth, wealthy country, but almost the only country on earth that does not guarantee paid family and

medical leave. [cheers and applause] what that means, what that means is that today in iowa, in vermont, all over this country, women are having babies. and that is, for all of you who are parents, you know what an extraordinary moment that is. it's a pretty big day for the baby as well. but here is the reality. if that mom in iowa or vermont does not have a lot of money, she will be forced to be separated from her newborn baby in a week, two weeks, three weeks. and she will have to go to work, go back to work to earn enough money to take care of her family. that is wrong. that is not what should happen