to be sheep, or are we going to be shepherds? are we going to be pretenders or contenders? are we going to be students of the game or playing the game? what we have to keep from happening is when he creates a country and hillary clinton creates a country of 300 million victims as opposed to 300 million pate rots. . we have to understand if you go back in history, the winter of 1778 when george washington pulled those troops out of valley forge they left barefoot on the ice. you had brothers killing brothers in the civil war. we had 30% unemployment in the depression. several millions of the best and brightest got injured or killed in world wars. then we had 9/11. each time that happened, america stood up and said, i'm going to make it better. i firmly believe this is our

generation's valley forge. we have to get it right not only for ourselves, our kids and brand kids, but for all future generations. winston churchill said, in every man and woman's life there comes a moment when you're tapped on the shoulder to do something great. what a shame if you're not ready for that moment of greatness. president bush told us in september of 2012, we have not fallen, we have not failed, we will pass this test. secretary bob gates told me, sometimes you have to plant a tree you never stand under. first corinthians says we have to lay a foundation and a cornerstone in our life. and luke says the measure you give is the measure you'll give back. we need to quit trying to predict the future and go out and invent the future. that's what we're all about. let me close by saying this. tomorrow, look in the mirror.

when you get up in the morning look in the mirror, tell me who you see. do you see george washington? do you see thomas jefferson? do you see margaret thatcher? do you see ronald reagan. if you do, we're going to win. if you don't, we're going to lose. efetion the armor of god tells us, put your helmet on, put your buckle on and boots on and raise your sword to the enemy and fight like heck. that's where we are today. we need to do that. i would say in close, get on your horse, buckle up, saddle up, suck it up, go be paul revere and make sure conservatives are elected and lead this country in november of 2016. thank you very much.

mr. brady: thank you. thank you. question for you. how many of you are ready to obliterate the tax code now? it's time, it is time for republicans to deliver, look i'm convinced the biggest problem facing our country, we've got a government living way beyond its means. i think spending cuts gets us ostly back to balanced budget. we're going to need to fix the broken tax code. the -- i agree. and the good news is, we have already begun. i've been named chairman of the house ways and means committee to follow now-speaker paul ryan and we're going to lay the foundation this year for a new

republican president to fix this brecken tax code, replace amacare, reform welfare, and expand economic freedom. and i'm convinced we need a tax code built for growth, to the growth of your family's paycheck, for the growth of our local businesses, for the growth of america's economy. and the good news is we have a green light from our speaker, paul ryan, not a red light, not a flashing yellow caution light, a green light to do this work. every one of our presidential candidates has laid out a pro-growth plan for america. the democrat candidates have their plans too. one intends to raise taxes on everyone except the clinton foundation. the other wants to raise taxes on everyone, especially the clinton foundation. republicans are determined to fix this broken tax code. we already have begun work.

last december we wept right to work and passed into law over $600 billion of tax relief for families and businesses, permanent tax relief they can count on. we lifted the ban on selling american oil around the world, our economic freedom. we stopped the president's crazy $10 a barrel tax on oil. when he sent it to us, we killed it last week, dead. [applause] and you don't know this, apparently it's a secret, but we passed into law for the first time ever in the law a ban on i.r.s. targeting conservative organizations and their doe no, sir. so we're laying the foundations. i think -- we should do this by our principles. conservative principles. one, we need a tax code that's fair and flatter and simpler. people can't understand this code. people say it's -- our tax code

is 10 times the size of the bible with none of the good news. and they're right. we need to elimb -- eliminate exclusions and deductions and loopholes to lower tax rates for everybody. we need to make sure small businesses aren't paying more than big businesses. we need to smake hour -- to make sure every american business can compete, whether it's on main street or around the world because we have the most uncompetitive tax code on this planet. i'm tired of reading about american companies being forced to headquarter overseas because our tax code won't let them invest and create jobs right here in america. we tax them here, we tax them around the world. when they make a profit, when they wip and compete, we tax them to bring those dollars home. that's wrong. we need to make sure that our tax code is built for growth. that's what we're looking at, opportunity. and that principle. and finally, we're going to do tax reform and our goal is not

to bail out washington's spending problem. our goal is to grow america's economy. i'm convinced we can do this. it's been a generation, it is hard. i mean, it's been a generation since president reagan did it. broaden the base, lower the rate, create economic growth for this country. i'm convinced we can do it. enge maybe the biggest challenge is too many americans have given up hope that we ever will. but with a new republican president i'm convinced we can. and as president ronald reagan said, republicans believe every day is the foirt of july. democrats believe every day is april 15. as republicans, as conservatives, we've promised to reform this tax code for far too long. let's lay the foundation this year in 2017, let's deliver on that promise. god bless. thank you. [applause]

>> good afternoon, everybody. thank you for being here, thank you for standing up for conservative causes. that's what we're trying to to in washington and we need your help. i've listened to a lot of the speeches back stage. back when i was speaker of the house of north carolina, i used to tell my members, if it's already been said, don't say it again. senator perdue, the congressman from texas, everybody else laid out what we need to do, why we need to keep majorities in the u.s. house and senate. mr. till liss: i want to talk about the -- mr. tillis: i want to talk about

the thing i've enjoined most about being a u.s. senator the last year. i've traveled around the globe. i've been to baghdad, afghanistan a forward operating base outside of kabul, in kabul. i've been in indonesia. i've been all over the world. i had somebody ask me, what's the furthest distance you've traveled from the united states since you've been a u.s. senator? i said, the white house. i have not seen a president take this country in a direction that is so far afield of where the american people want to go. pick a subject, regulation, taxes, states' rights, property rights, pick a subject. it doesn't bear any resemblance to the america i grew up in. i'm a reagan republican. i registered in 1978 as a republican. i got to see a turn around from principled republican leadership in the white house. i saw this country going from the depths with iran doing whatever they wanted to -- are

we not living 1978 again? with the right leadership and outcome in an election, we turned things around very quickly. and the american people embraced conservative principles. that's what this year is about. now, i will tell you that i'm also a member of the judiciary committee. you may have heard we have a supreme court nomination opening. i happen to be one of the senators who signed onto letter to tell this president we're not going to nominate a supreme court justice until the people have spoken. now just today i was on the senate floor and had senator schumer and senator leahy talking about how we're not doing our job. we're absolutely doing our job. they were talking about how we have a constitutional obligation to advise and consent. i said we've done that. they said, what have you done? i said, we've advised the president we're not going to consent to one of his nominees. we're going to let the american people speak. we're going to move forward and do everything that we can to make as much progress as we can

this year. but we need to make sure we're focusing on the white house and we're focusing on majorities in the senate and in the house. ladies and gentlemen, people don't realize now how important it was for taos win in 2014. we now know. can you imagine what we'd be thinking about right now? we'd be thinking about another ginsburg nominee on the supreme court. and we'd be helpless to do anything about it. but because we have 54 members in the u.s. senate we're in the position to determine the makeup of the supreme court that will likely be there for another 20 years. and we're going to do everything we can to make sure that's a conservative judge who respects the constitution, it's not a living document, the founding fathers got it right and we need to interpret it that way and protect and preserve the constitution as it was originally envisioned. it's worked pretty well for us for a couple hundred years. now i want to talk my last minute and a few seconds about what we have before us. the election. i want y'all to help me influence the narrative we see

in the media. i have had people come up to me over the past couple of days, well, the republican party is in disarray. they're all broken apart. they're not going to come back together. that's hog wash. the republican party is alive and well. the reason i love this party is because we're so independent. and we're so principled. we're doing everything we can to get different candidates elected. i endorsed marco rubio, i have friends who endorsed donald trump and ted cruz. treat this like the competition that actually puts the person, the athlete we have to bring to the white house. put on your jerseys now. fight if a -- fight a good fight. i like football, like a good football game. go panthers. but then, when the primary is over and we have a nominee, does anyone here think that any candidate on their worst day isn't eons better than hillary clinton on her best day? so make sure you work with me. make sure you hold us all

accountable. keep us grounded in conservative ideals and conservative agendas. they work. they worked in north carolina. we turned the state around in five years. we're going to turn this country around. it's within our reach. you win this -- we win this election you come back here next year and hold us accountable to producing a conservative agenda that get this is country back on track. for many of you who weren't born in the 1980's, trust me when i say it can be done in a handful of years. not decades. this isn't a generational thing. we could fix this country in no time with the right sort of leadership in the white house and the resolve in the u.s. congress. i want to be one of those people, i know my colleagues in congress share my view and my optimism. with your help we'll get it done. thank you all and god bless you. [applause]

>> thank you. i'm ron desantis, i represent florida's sixth district in the u.s. house. mr. desantis: i'm running for the u.s. senate to succeed senator rubio. u guys can check me out at desantis2016.com. when i was in the navy, you had to do a lot of different things, one is conduct yourself with honor, courage and commitment. another thing you had to do is be protective of the nation's secrets and classified information. let me tell you this. any one of those people that i serve with or myself, if they had taken top secret information and put it on a private email account, they would have been removed from their post. they probably would have faced court-martial. and they very well may have ended up in fort he venn worth, kansas. so what i say to you is, why

should that be any different for the secretary of state? hillary clinton is not above the law. she needs to be held accountable. and she made a conscious decision to set up this rogue private email server because she didn't want anybody doing foia. she didn't want congress investigating her communications. so she was protecting herself and her political interests, knowing full well that that system would not keep the nation's secrets safe and she chose herself over our nation's security and that, my friends, means she is not qualified to be ommander in chief. another place in washington where we need accountability is with the i.r.s. the i.r.s. targeted millions of conservative americans in the run up to the 2012 election. when we in congress have tried to investigate this so we can hold people accountable so we can do justice for our constituent the i.r.s. has

stonewalled. you have the i.r.s. commissioner, even though we subpoenaed email they destroyed 24,000 emails under subpoena. he came and made false statements to congress. there were other emails they said they looked for them, and then cursory examination by the i.g. finds them. let me ask you this. if you were being audited by the i.r.s. and you the stroyed documents and you lied to the i.r.s., and you refused to produce information, is there any way that you would be able to get away with it? so why should the i.r.s. be able to get away with it. i think we need to use the power in the constitution to impeach and remove the commissioner of the i.r.s. he should not be there. i think of all the taj that's been done under this administration, probably the most lasting has been the damage done to our constitution. you know, the founding fathers, they studied the history of every republic in the history of

mankind and got lessons from each one of them and they noticed every single republic in history had one thing in common and it was this. every one of them had failed system of they believed that it fell to our country to determine once and for all whether people really could govern themselves, whether you could have a society base thond rule of law rather than the rule of man. a society dedicated to individual freedom rather than social engineering and power for the ruling class. and the constitution was their answer to this us historical dilemma. when off president who boasts about, you don't do what i want, congress, i will go on my own or i have a pen and phone and will do that. and somebody who wants to stack the supreme court with a fifth liberal judge. you're starting to move away from the principles that make the country great. so i think 2016, we need a resurgence in first principles. we need to restore the constitution. and the rule of law.

and the reason is simple. when you gos came into washington, you can see on mall, all these great statues, monuments, washington monument, lincoln memorial, martin luther king, the white house, capitol building, all these great things, signifying a lot of great ideas. if you go across the river and look, you won't see any big monuments, you'll see a lot of small headstones because it's arlington national cemetery. but those folks, as great as the ideas we have that mark our country if you don't have people willing to stand up and give the last full measure of devotion, the principles aren't going to matter very much. part of the reason we have to make sure we restore america's greatness and these principles is yes, for us, for our kids, for our grandkids but we also have got to do justice to those folks who fought so hard to give us the freedom we have today my commitment is to run hard, so -- is to make sure we're restoring the country's best traditions

and if we're doing that, i think we have a great future for the united states. thank you all for coming. thank you for your activism. god bless everyone. thank you. [applause] >> thank you. one man turns in several thousand ballots, all by himself, at one polling place on a general election day. that doesn't happen in america. does it.

it does happen. during every election in my state. and believe it or not, it's perfectly legal. i'm michelle reagan, the secretary of state from arizona, and i am here to warn conservatives everywhere that although our election system is the greatest in the world, it is still far from perfect. arizona is a red state with a republican legislature and a g.o.p. sweep of the top nine statewide offices. yet an outrageous loophole in state law allows for mass ballots collection. also known as ballot harvesting. and the radical left who uses ballot harvesting has blocked our commonsense attempts to close this loophole. citing the of the-used phrase of voter suppression or that we are

trying to block access to the polls. far from it. as republicans, we proudly believe in greater access to the polls. we believe that it should be easy to vote. but we also believe that it should be hard to cheat. that should be the gold standard that you should demand your secretaries of state are striving for. in america, we know that we have a fundamental right to a free and fair election process. but that also means we must have a process that is free from fraud. and it is your secretaries of state all across the nation, your republican secretaries of state, who are standing vigilant

for these causes. easy to vote, hard to cheat. one person, one vote. not one man, several thousand ballots. the very fact that ballot harvesting even exists today and remains legal is appalling. we must and with your help we will find a way to end it. in 2004, arizona was the first state to require proof of citizenship when registering to vote and to show voter i.d. at the polls. and yet just last year, my election officials rejected approximately 1,700 voter registration forms because they were received without adequate proof of u.s. citizenship. by the way, exactly zero of those registrants supplied proof

of citizenship when they were given a second chance to come in and follow up. it's elected officials like myself around the country who are the ones keeping the process honest by protecting elections om the progressive effort to loosen registration requirements. the g.o.p. can nominate the most superior candidates in the country, but it will mean nothing, absolutely nothing, without proper oversight of ballot security. if we believe in our candidates, and we believe in their message, then we must also fight for fair elections. from curbing ballot harvesting, to keeping voting laws that require proof of citizenship, it is your secretaries of state that are fighting to ensure your

lections are secure and valid. we are the most important tool you have to keeping freedoms at the ballot box. please support me and the 28 republican secretaries of state nationwide who are trying to make it easy to vote and hard to cheat. thank you so much. [applause] mr. fleming: good afternoon, everybody.

it's great to be with you. you know, back in the day when i played football, i did play football, believe it or not, back in the day when i played football, there was a sign that hung out over the locker room door and what it said was, when the going gets tough, the tough get going. and my friends, the last seven years under barack obama has been a tough going. you know what? republicans have not been very tough standing up for you. and you're demanding change, aren't you? ronald reagan, yes, absolutely. you're demanding change. and ronald reagan, the person we celebrate here this afternoon, he's the one who brought change to the united states and we need that once again. one change we're all anxious for is a new president. 322 days and seven hours, right? but who's counting. so let's -- so that's driving

people leek you and me to be angry and frustrated with both parties in washington. it seems like both parties want bigger government. they just fight over who is going to run it. it's just frustration that led me to help found the house freedom caucus, a band of brothers that led to sweeping change, conservative change to the house leadership. knowing that we would be subject to severe punishment from our leadership and having no assurance of success, more than once freedom caucus members were heard to utter those words of ben franklin, we must hang together or assuredly we will hang separately. so just as our founding fathers had no guarantee of success, just the hope of freedom and liberty and that special idea of this nation, of america, that was true of the freedom caucus as well. only through bold, courageous leadership, demonstrate by the freedom caucus, will our country be changed for the better.

now, last year, we freedom caucus members decided we had had enough of unkept promises when it came to the people's business. we shook up the house and ahed a historic change when we successfully forced the speaker of the united states house of representatives, we forced him to resign. now how is that for change? under the most liberal president in history this nation has suffered the passage of damaged -- damaging legislation that flattened our economy and drained our freedoms like obamacare, big corporate bailouts and oppressive regulations. you cried out to republicans for change and they said first give us a majority in congress. and what did you do? you gave them that majority. and did anything change? nothing changed. don't you think we should start a freedom caucus in the senate?

there you go. in case the senate lead ship hasn't noticed, people are still angry and frustrated at them as well. they want them to keep their promises too. next year, with my leadership and a new senate freedom caucus, i will force a vote to repeal obamacare, lock, stock and barrel. and we will send it to a republican president to sign once and for all. i will do the same to shut down funding for nonsense regulations from the e.p.a. and other agencies. and what we'll do is we'll take out the bureaucrats who mistreat our wonderful veterans. and i will work every day to get government out of the lives of ordinary americans. especially the job creators, our entrepreneurs. you know what? i'm a product of that. growing up in a working class home, looking for a way to make a few extra bucks, i went to my dad and said, dad, i want to

start a lawn mowing business. i was only 14 years old. i said the only problem is, all we have here is a clunker. i can't even get it started. he said fine. we went to the store, we bought the lawn mower then he took me to a loan agency and made me sign a note and told me i was going to have to pay for that law mower out of my meager cash that i would make. and then what's more he, said, well, you'll also have to cut my yard for free. donald trump had nothing on my dad. the first job taught me the principles i later used to build a private medical practice after six years as a navy medical officer and build a nonmedical business that employees over 500 louisianans today. but the common american story seems to be fading for many into the past. but is there hope for the future? freedom loving people like you and i can make a difference. republicans can win back the trust if we begin to listen to

you once again and not the washington special interests. thank you so much and god bless. [applause] mr. burgess: thank you. thank you for letting me be with you. i am a simple country doctor who one day decided to run for congress and since being here i've immersed myself in health care policy. we hear about obamacare, what's going to happen, why don't the republicans have ideas?

why don't they come forward with things? let me give you some insight. on the republican side there's no shortage of ideas. one of the criticisms is maybe there's too many ideas and it's difficult to coalesce around one set of principles. speaker ryan has decided that we are going to have task forces developed that will develop what will be an alternative to the affordable care act, well and good. i'm ok with that. we also know within a few weeks time we are likely to have settled on a presidential candidate and that individual will have clear ideas of what they wish to do. but i'll tell you this. i was there when that darn thing passed, not a single republican voted for it when it came back over from the senate. i do remember those town hall meet offings august of 2009. i remember them very clearly. and you go to those town hall meetings, normally, i represent denton, texas, and denton, texas, in august, you'd be lucky to get two dozen people out for

a town hall on a saturday morning. the saturday morning i went to the visual arts center of denton, texas, 2,000 people showed up. we had to move it from inside in the air-conditioning to outside in the parking lot in the sun because we didn't want to turn anyone away. i didn't want news shows to say, congressman burgess wouldn't listen to me on what i thought about the health care law they're doing. i want to tell you, people were upset and the thing they were telling us over and over again loud and clear is, don't mess up what we have. and number two, if you're going to do anything at all, could you please help us with cost, because that's what really concerns us. the bill the democrats pass and the president signed into law failed on both of those accounts. so where are we today? let me share with you something. congress, deep in the recesses of the affordable care act, harry reid and nancy pelosi, when they wrote it, exempted members of congress from having to do what everybody else in the

country was going to do. i said i can't do that. my constituents are not very understanding and if i take a special deal they're going to let me hear about it. i went to healthcare.gov and bought a policy on the individual market, took me 3 1/2 months to sign up. most miserable experience i've ever been through in my life. but i'll tell you, i did learn something. these policies are unsubsidized, very expensive policies, more money than i've ever spent for health insurance ever. and they've got huge deductibles. i always had a health savings account so i was used to big beduct -- big deductibles but have never seen deductibles the likes of which were included in the individual market. i set about trying to fix it for people in the individual market. you've got a high deductible policy, $6,000 for a deductible, only allowed to put $3,400 into your health savings account, those two amounts should match up. i'm paying $700 for health care.

in an employer sponsored plan, they'd be able to deduct that from their income taxes, let the individual deduct it as well. and finally, since i do believe in health savings accounts, i need a catastrophic policy, shouldn't have to break the bank to buy that. let's have a true catastrophic policy. i'll cover everything else out of cash flow, i'm doing it anyway with a $6,000 deductible and let's let that be the rescue mechanism. now going forward from here. what's going to happen and largely it's going to be driven by our presidential nominee, but i will tell you this. there are a number of good proposals out there. i think we need to carefully vet those on the house side but for me, for me, it's let's keep costs in mind. that's the number one thing. and if you don't get rid of the individual mandate, then you haven't done anything. just imagine for a moment what it would be like if insurance

companies had to market to you policies that you wanted, rewarded you for the kinds of healthy behaviors we all say value. instead with the individual mandate you've got to buy the policy, and it's going to get more expensive every year but you can't do anything about it because there's a mandate. get rid of the mandate. fix some of the other problems in the individual market and then let's get to work on the rest of it. thank you very much for letting me be with you. [applause] mr. yoder: good evening, everyone. i'm congressman kvetch yoder, i grew up on a farm in rural kansas. i represent kansas city and the

heartland. i believe very strong think -- strongly this is the greatest nation that the world and i'm trying to do everything i can in washington, d.c. to restore prosperity for every american. i believe our nation was built on bedrock values, faith, family, freedom, and liberty for everyone. those values are enshrined in our most important document, the united states constitution. i want to talk to you today about the constitution and how the fourth amendment has to continue to apply in the digital age and what we have to do to defend it today and i want to talk to you about the most co-sponsored bill in the entire united states house. but first i want to thank you. thank you for your grass roots work, thank you for your advocacy and thank you for being the support that helps elect the big majorities in congress. i came in in 2010, we were the majority that swept out the democrats. the first vote i took in congress was a vote to fire nancy pelosi from speaker eff of

the house. we started off to a good start there. we moved the house from 179 republicans to -- from 17 republicans to 246 today. the senate moved from 41 to 54. we have 910 state new republican legislators since barack obama became president. those are words amounts. we have now more republicans in the state house than any other time in history. more republicans in the u.s. house than any time sense world war ii. that's because of leader shep of folks in this room and across the country who sent a resundaying message to washington, d.c. to change. part of that is because we have a lot of great young people involved. we have some young people in the crowd here today, cpac brings a lot of good folks here. we've got a lot of good young people in congress. the mainstream media wouldn't tell you this, but 40 and under members of congress, we have double the amount of republicans than there are democrats at 40

and under. i used to say under 40 but i just turned 40 so now it's 40 and under. those young people are leading the way. we have a young leadership team, paul ryan, our speaker. this is in contrast with the democratic side, which is older. their entire top three were born before pearl harbor. we've got certainly a big difference in terms of who the energy and the youth and the opportunities are coming in this country and coming from the republican side. i want to talk about 21st century issue and how it affects the fourth amendment. i'm a young father, i have a 2-year-old girl and a 4-month-old girl. we've got our hands full at home. people ask me what it's like serving in congress, what it's like being a young father, i say it's diapers and tears and that's just d.c., it's also the same at home. doesn't matter where we go. my youngest daughter was born when the royals won the world series. she does not know a world in

which the royals are not world champions. you may be surprised to know there's a 1986 law, written 30 years ago, that essentially says our emails, text messages, digital information leften a server after 180 days is considered abandoned and searchable and seizeable by the government without proximate cause, without a warrant, without any fourth amendment rights. been on the books for 30 years. the world is a different place than it was then about how we communicate with one another. i introduced a bill, the email privacy act. the most sponsored bill in the united states house at 307 co-sponsors. it says the fourth amendment applies to our digital information like the paper information. you have to have a warrant to read people's emails or to read their text messages and the idea that the government after 180 tais can read any of our emails is unconstitutional. so -- thank you. we have some members of the

house and senate who have never sent an emil in their life. this is why it's important we have young voices at cpac and young voices in congress helping our elected officials understand that the fourth amendment has to apply to the digital and the information we email and text message and put in dropbox on the cloud has to be protected by the fourth amendment. we're ensuring that the warrant provisions, probable cause, reasonable suspicion, all those things that are important to protecting our fourth amendment rights, that that's being upheld. so my goal is to get this bill passed and to ensure we send a message to this president, to this administration to the i.r.s. that they can't snoop in our emails, can't trample our fourth amendment right, that they will be protected, that there's a new generation of conservative voices standing up prork tecting the constitution and ensuring the country continues to sthre foundation of law that makes us the greatest country. thank you and god bless you.

>> good afternoon. the great ronald reagan in a speech said, this is the issue for this election. whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandoned the american revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far distant capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves. mr. stutzman: my fellow conservatives, i'm a hoosier farmer and i'm here to bring you some real hope from the heartland. growing up on a farm i never thought the lessons of cleaning cow manure out of a cow pen

would be so useful in my life but serving in congress i'm finding plenty of bull. it was my privilege to serve as a part-time legislator in indiana for eight years. with conservative leadership we took our state from a $1 billion surplus.o a $2 billion we paid our debts and established a 0-year, fully funded roads program and did it without raising taxes. of course in indiana it doesn't hurt that we live next door to illinois. you look pretty good when you're living next door to "the simpsons" but in indiana we're proud of manufacturing, agriculture and welcoming business climate. but the two things we love to brag about is basketball and racing. acing is in our blood. this year we celebrate the 00th running of the indy 500, the

greatest sport spectacle in the world. hearing those high power cars fly by at the brickyard and feeling the power shake the ground under your feet is incredible. so american. for too long now the power of america has been shackled an our economic engine which should be racing like an indy 500 car has been weighed dun by higher taxes, ridiculous regulations and a bunch of bureaucrats who act like over zealous track officials walking up and down the racetrack with their little clipboards telling the best drivers in the world why their engines are bad. the wind is at our backs but president obama doesn't know how to drive and he keeps pushing the brakes. the hard working american taxpayers are the power of our economic engine but we didn't do our job if the fuel line is clogged if the air filter is full of dirt, and bureaucrats keep baiting us into the pits.

it's time to cut the american government back down to the original piece of parchment it was wren on. let's follow the constitution. obama's massive regulations, constant threats to our security or ba macare, dodd-frank, i.r.s. target, the treasonous iran deal, all bad news for our race car. you know, we're supposed to have a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. but right now, we have a government above the people. without the people. and against the people. for proof of that, look no further than the acronyms e.p.a., d.o.e., and i.r.s. think about it. e.p.a. is above the people. d.o.e. without the people. and i.r.s. against the people. we'd be better off if the e.p.a., d.o.e. and i.r.s. would be m.i.a. the biggest drag on our economy

is our nassive $19 trillion worth of debt. proverbs 22:7 says the borrower becomes servant to the lender. for the past two years i've offered the house conservative budget that prioritizes national defense spend, takes care of veterans, reforms social security and it's the only budget that balances in six years. yet out of 247 house republicans, only 132 republicans voted for the conservative budget. it's no wonder we're outraged. we have a right to be angry but let's remember this. we can't turn our backs on liberty and exchange it for the burn of socialism. as margaret thatcher warned with socialism, pretty soon you run out of other people's money. i was in congress for a little while when i saw it wasn't just democrats messing up our car, we had republicans messing up the pit crew. so i was part of the republicans who told our leader, john

boehner, we'd had enough. we stood on the floor of the house and voted against the leadership of john bayne for the 2015. it's time to get a new driver, a new commander in chief. but we still need a strong pit crew. we need to take out the original manuals and remind ourselves that the power of america is in the people, not in washington, d.c. it's time to take our future back, let's prove that we can still believe that -- that we still believe in the capacity for self-governing. thank you -- thank you for being here and standing up for conservative principles. god bless you.

mr. meadows: good afternoon, it's great to be with you. i bring you a little bit of good news. it is encouraging to know that the front runners, indeed everyone on the stage on our side of the aisle run for president, are not under investigation by the f.b.i. [applause] u know, i need also stress that when we start to look at this particular issue of emails and serve servers and things like that -- and servers and things like that, it's amazing the american people would even really entertain the idea that hillary clinton didn't believe that there was anything classified on any of those emails. so i'm here today to ask you to stay involved.

as activists who truly who understand the importance of our nation. these are historic times, not only for our party but for the conservative movement. when we start to look at that, we have to realize that as historic as it may be, it also offers a number of challenges. we're faced today with a medicare program that's going bankrupt. if it were a business, it would already have junk bond status attached to it. we have isis that is going crazy over in the middle east and yet they seem to not fear the most powerful military in the world. it's time that our enemies start to fear us and our allies once again start to trust us and that we take back 1600 pennsylvania avenue once and for all.

now i share that because some of he battles we face, just to be honest, are not all against the other party. sometimes the battle we face is within our own republican brand. so it's important as activists we make sure we take back that power that's rightfully ours as we the people. so i share that because you know what happens sometimes is, they're out there campaigning, they're asking many of you for your vote. they want you to help. they want you to make sure that you get involved. they campaign like eagles. and then they come up here and start to drink the potomac punch and all of a sudden forget who they represent. now, the trouble with that is that when they start to drink

it, when they're running for office, they think that everyone s so incredibly brilliant. and the minute they get here, somehow they start to question the very people that sent them here's judgment. i'm here today to ask you to stay voed. to not only continue to work but also to offer belled solutions. i've had the great privilege of working hand in hand, side by side with senator ted cruz when he really looked, yes, when he really made sure that he was fighting for his -- fighting for israel, fighting for people on main street, moms and dads. i've had the opportunity to work with senator mike lee when he fights the fight to make sure that each and every day that the constitution is upheld. i've also had the opportunity to work with senator rand paul when we talk about privacy and the fourth amendment and to make

sure that your privacy is protected. there is no one that is greater in that voice there. and now it's my honor once again to stand with senator chuck grassley when he's made a decision that there will be no hearings, there will be no confirmation on a supreme court nominee until the next administration is here. ladies and gentlemen, i'm here to ask you to stay involved. i remind my constituents and they remind me that this is my voting card and it has my picture on it. but i'm here today to tell you that it doesn't belong to me, it belongs to the 750,000 people that i have the privilege of representing. make sure that your member of congress and your senator understand that if they don't see the light, they need to feel the heat. and i want to close with one of my favorite quotes from teddy

roosevelt. i'll read it, far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though they're checkered with failures, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in that gray twilight that knows not victory or defeat. i ask you to stand with me and have a victory in november and take it back. god bless you. [applause] mr. goodlatte: folks, i'm here

to talk to you in a little deeper dive on an issue that is very important to our nation that's not being discussed by our presidential candidates. they're the candidates that one of them, when elected president of the united states will succeed barack obama, who takes his pen and his cell phone and he takes the rights of american people under the constitution away from them. to those of you in this room, the ones who care enough about our constitution to come to cpac and stand with fellow freedom-loving americans, the federalist papers are an important part of our nation's history. written by james madison a proud virginian, i might mention, federalist number 47 makes the case that the concentration of executive, legislative and judicial power in the same hands is the very definition of tyranny. the idea of too much power being concentrated in one branch of government is the basis for my remarks today and the reason for

recent actions i have taken in congress as chairman of the house judiciary committee. today it is clear that president obama has worked throughout his time in office to increase presidential power and reduce the role of the legislative branch. whether it is his use of executive orders or his promise to use his pen and phone to go around congress, his raw power grab has not gone unnoticed by the american people. and we rightfully recognize that it is pastime to restore the legislative role of the people's house in our constitutional system. white house chief of staff dennis mcdonough recently said, audacious executive actions are being crafted beyond even though unconstitutional actions the president has already taken to make sure the steps we have taken are ones we can lock down and not be subjected to undoing through congress or otherwise. the founders would have expected

members of the house of representatives, known as the people's house for its most direct connection to the will of the people, aggressively guard their role in the constitutional legislative process. that direct connection to the people is why we must fight to restore a proper balance of powers in our system of government. congress makes laws, and apparently president obama has forgotten that most basic of principles with his unprecedented actions. that need for restoration of proper balance of pow sers why the house judiciary committee recently created a task force on executive overreach to do just that. halt the ceding of power away from the people's house and congress generally. chaired by my good friend congressman steve king of iowa, the task force will examine the proper balance between the branches of government -- educate the american public about the need for restoration of article 1 powers, and explore ways to more aggressively

exercise the powers congress currently possesses to rein in an overreaching executive branch. keeping legislative power in the particular budget -- and in particular budgeting power close to the will of the people was considered so important that the constitution specifically provides that the house of representatives has the ex-clusive authority to originate revenue bills. but today, as the witnesses at the first task force hearing earlier this week elaborated, congress exercises far less control over budget matter than was originally intended. whereas early congresses specified exactly how much money would be spent for how long, to build a lighthouse or a post road for example, many federal programs today authorize by congress' decades ago are administered by an executive branch and funded on an auto pilot basis without the need for any periodic review by congress.

earlier this year the supreme court agreed to hear the constitutional challenge brought by the majority of states against the president's unilaterally imposed immigration plan. the constitution very clearly grants to congress, not the president, the power to make our nation's immigration laws. importantly, the supreme court agreed to hear the case and rather than limiting the issue the way president obama requested, it took up the state suggestion and requested briefings on the following question, whether the president's action violates the take care clause of the constitution, article 2, section 3. that clause of the constitution requires the president to take care that the laws be faithfully executed. the threat posed by the executive overreach can often seem abstract in the midst of intense policy debates in historically hyper partisan environments. but this is a very important issue and i want to thank cpac for having me here today and

thank you to everyone who traveled here to the national harbor to reinvigorate the conservative cause and continue the fight for freedom, liberty and constitutional principles. may god bless each and every one of you and may god bless the united states of america. [applause] >> good evening. it's an honor to be here tonight with you all. i'm half chinese, 38 years old a native californian, the daughter of immigrants and an attorney

who worked at a renewable energy company prior to launching my own firm. i'm also a graduate of one of the most liberal law schools of the nation, georgetown, and attended bodon college in illary clinton's alma mater, wellesley. and now you're wondering if security has been notified and whether a code pink is going down. i'm one of you. i love our country and i'm committed to promoting our core principles. i also believe that there are many more like me whose backgrounds, languages, words, actions, clothing, music, religion and lifestyles may differ from what we consider mainstream conservative but who self-identify as conservatives if they understood what that meant. this theory was proven true in 2000 when i worked on governor george w. bush's campaign.

i'm just ambiguously ethnic enough to pass for anything. leadended up as a hispanic coordinator. one of my tasks was to speak to latinos and help them realize that were conservatives. we did this with a list of conservative and liberal values without labeling them as such and ask them to check what applies. important two lessons that year when we won 39% of the latino vote. it is our job to articulate what we stand for and everyone wants to be invited to be greater than ourselves and participate in the democratic process. i know this from personal

experience. my mother moved to the united states in 1969 and my father severed 20 years in the us air force and my parents came to california because it was the land of opportunity. that was true of california then and it is getting harder today. so i'm fighting back to win the san diego-based 52nd congressional district and i have the pleasure of doing so by applying the very lessons that i learned in 2000 in my own district as one in five voters in my district is of asian descent. there is a shared cultural heritage and their hopes ap dreams are similar. they want a level playing field that gives them the opportunity to succeed and they want lower

taxes so they can hire more people. they want to innovate without fear and want their children to compete without being discriminated against. none of this is surprising to me. but what does surprise me is that now it's 2016, fully 16 years after the 2000 elections and my constituents tell me this is the first time to participate in a campaign. my district will will be won or lost lost on the asian vote of she we need to give them vision of america and call themselves conservatives. but equally important and i believe it is an imperative that

every american not only invite but welcome those of every background. and the free market of ideas our conservative principles will always prevail. we will only lose if we never try. thank you so much and god bless you all. [applause] ♪ >> hello everybody, thank you for your pastism and working hard to preserve our liberties and freedoms.

senator grassley: i feel it's about time that we have a national debate on the supreme court and how it fits anywhere our constitutional system of government. this document, the constitution of the united states, splits the pointment power of people to the supreme court between the president of the united states and the senate of the united states. it says that the president shall not not nature. it also says the senate has its own authority to consent or not consent, to that nomination. there are separation of powers for a specific purpose throughout this constitution. these separation of powers are

designed for accountability. they make our system of constitutional government self-government, much stronger. rules spelled out by vice president biden when he was chairman of the senate judiciary committee, recognized that the framers intended the senate to take the broadest view of the advice and consent powers for the senate. beyonden rules recognize fairness of confirmation hearings to the nominee to the supreme court, to the country campaign. esidential this year's presidential election must be a debate about the role of the judiciary in our

system of government. do we want justices who decide cases based upon empathy and their own moral compass? that happens to be the obama standard. or do we want justices who decide cases based on the constitution and the law? that's the approach that justice scalia renewed with vigor. [applause] senator grassley: but with equal vigor, president obama has imposed on the american people liberal ideas and liberal policies that couldn't be achieved at the ballot box. you know the famous words, he uses pen and phone, he says stack the court like the d.c.

circuit so he can circumvent the will of the american people. so you see, step by step, individual liberty is lost. justice scalia spent a lifetime defending liberty and we owe it to scalia that we are going to defend it now after his death. [applause] senator grassley: this is a critical moment in history for defending the united states constitution. the fight, as far as i'm concerned, has gus begun and must go on for a long time. the stakes are high. no one who values the principles spelled out in this document can sit out this battle. so i'm counting on you, each of you, not to sit it out. i thank you for inviting me.

cheers and applause] ♪ ♪ >> thank you so much. i'm jody hice and i represent the 10th district of georgia and i have been a pastor for the 25 years and conservative talk show host for 12. i was there preaching my trial sermon and a deacon said you are going to do fine and engrained anticipation when he said, be brief, brother, be brief.

i promise to do that. some of the greater character qualities things like dedication, respect and service. this past year i had the great honor to meet some of the most outstanding people in our country. and i'll tell you there is none more dedicated to the dream, more worthy of our mutual respect than our vet raps. we have a tremendous debt of gratitude that we owe to them. ese returning heroes are living legacies of our liberty and the sacrifices they have endured are remarkable, things as small as birthdays and barbecues and missing the first steps of their children or even the last breath of their parents or loved ones all while

defending us from tyranny and aggression. there are a great many issues. these war fighters, coming home to the united states, many have lost limbs, facing physical scars that will be with them. many of them experiencing ptsd, with scars that you and i will never see that they carry. i was very horpped to support the clay hunt save act which directs the v.a. to provide direct reports to them regarding mental health and suicide prevention programs. folks, it is a major issue, the issues and we must provide them with the mental health issues. our returning heroes come often

to find themselves waiting in long lines just to get health care. and it's disgraceful, particularly in light of the fact that the v.a. has gone into one scandal after another after another. we have over 400,000 veterans having to wait over 30 days just to see a medical provider and to get help for them. these individuals have proven on the battlefield to be among our bravest, among our best and we owe it to them to take care of them. all of this, while the obama administration has done little to nothing to step on the gap to help and i can't say that the house has stepped in and has done quite a bit. did you know justs a an example n 2014, the v.a. gave out 1 2

million in bonuses while our veterans are waiting in line to get health care. among some of the things that we have been able to pass in the house are bills, legislation, that hold the v.a. more accountable and provides the possibility for them to fire bad actors at the v.a. we have passed legislation that helps us be able to track poor performer at the v.a. personally, i put forth the federal employee accountability act where we have federal union workers, we now have over 200 of these in the v.a. alone hired to help our veterans but spend 100% of their time to go union work at the expense of our veterans.

we put legislation to try to address that problem. we have been doing much. we can never repay our veterans what they have done for us. e can help going to parades or sending packages, but we can never repay them fully for the sacrifices they have made. we would not be here. now is the time for us, now is the time for us to show our dedication, our respect and service for them and give the veterans what they deserve. thank you so much. god bless and keep the torch atpwhrazed. cheers and applause] ♪

mr. wilson: no state officials, there weren't any. but flash forward to 2010 now in south carolina, we have a supermajority in the state house that is a supermajority in the state senate, every statewide official is a conservative. eight out of nine of the federal

delegation are conservatives. how far we have come and we are grateful for this success. and you need to understand sometimes we don't get credit for this but in south carolina we elected with the governor, the first female governor in 230e years and i'm grateful with the election of senator tim scott, you south carolina selected the african-american senator. additionally with the election of someone special to me, my oldest son, he is the youngest attorney general of the united states. what a broad party we have, open door. and the reason that i believe that we are so successful is because with barry goldwater and why not victory and why not

victory in the cold war. and with the service. i'm a veteran and four of my sons have served in afghanistan and egypt and in iraq. i'm very grateful. what ronald reagan did, liberating people and additionally, conservatives have stood for the principles of limited government and spanted freedom. and it means creating opportunities and jobs. i had the opportunity to work with the first republican governor, jim edwards. e went to france and visited michigan lynn tire company with the north american headquarters, we have two plants. they are the largest single investment in creating jobs. nd right down i-20 and the

strict i represent, and just up the road is continental tire. suth carolina because of opportunity and the opportunity we have is the leading manufacturer of tires of any state in the union and i had the opportunity to work with the governor and brought b mmpwmp to suth carolina. these were hade in suth carolina. with the development of b mmpwmp, suth carolina is the leading exporter of cars. 2e7bs of thousands of jobs are created because of initiatives. the governor helped bring boeing. we have 8,000 jobs. eople building jetliners and

most recently a volvo corporation, more cars. final point i want to make. you will meet the finest people as conservatives. and i met this young lady as she was a camper and rocks anne. my second son met his wife in the senate page dorm and they thurmon. for senator they wouldn't have spoken to each at home. and a victory party elected to the city council. i introduced my son to a reporter and he was elected attorney general because he married over his head. please be involved. nd you are involved to our

party. god bless you. thank you very much. cheers and applause] ♪ ♪ >> thank you so much. it's great to be here. i'm u.s. congressman brian babin. i represent the great state of texas. i'm new to congress, but i can say without a doubt that this is the important election cycle. for the past seven years america

has been battered, from obamacare to the insign iranian deal people are hurting and angry and we can't afford four more years. america is at the breaking point. i say to you, our time is now. let's take america back. let's secure our borders and rebuild our military and let's stop apologizing for the nation we are. we are found on the christian values. we should be proud of this. we don't need to change america. and that's why i have been plan. ed with oweo's this issue is a first priority. by expanding the program to tbeds of islamic radical

jihad, obama is inviting the turmoil into the united states of america. how many of you folks out there have seen the american people put at risk every day by this ridiculous program that has been put forth by the president and he simply doubles down each time. obama's department of homeland security said they cannot properly vet these folks. and while it's not on page one in the news today, folks, we cannot afford to wait. because it is only a matter of time before we see another terrorist attack like paris, like san bernandino or like the houston refugee plot that was planning to blow up a mall. this threat requires a response by the u.s. congress and a very

hard look at this refugee program. or else we will see abuses that will cost americans their lives. that's why i introduced the resettlement accountability h.r. 3415 which puts congress back in the seat. we have sworn an oath to the protect the safety and security of the american people and i know i will not stop pushing this bill and the security of the american people in pursuing all opportunities to protect americans. american people -- applause plass >> the american people are desperate for strong new leadership in this country. how many of you have seen the movie called "the american sniper?"

sniber in d as the iraq and with plod, sweat, determination and sacrifice. they took back control of ramadi in 2006 from an eff i will and determined enemy and this shows what can be done when we have the right leadership. americans can do the impossible. with the right leadership, america caps can and will do the impossible. folks, it is time to move passed the failed leadership of bralk and retake the white house ap restore america's standing in the world. this is one simple but one very important question. do we continue down the road or reclaim america's greatness. it's easy for me to answer.

and with the u.s. supreme court in the balance it is now important. ust look at the democratic candidates. one candidate who is under f.b.i. investigation who has had a cloud. another one is a self-described avowed socialist. never has the contrast between the parties been more well-defined. folks, our time is now. take america back. i want to thank each and eff one of you for what you do and for the conservative cause. i want to cpac. god bless you and god bless the united states of america. thank you. thank you. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2016] [captioning performed by national captioning institute]

>> 2012 mitt romney weighed in on the presidential race. mr. romney delivered a sweeping indictment and implored republicans to reject the businessman's candidacy. we will have his comments at 8:00. here's a preview. >> make the right choices. america's future will be better than our past and our president. on the other hand, if wemaker

choices, the horizon i described will not materialize. let me put it plainly. if we choose donald trump. the prospects are greatly diminished. let me explain why i say that. first on the economy. if donald trump's plans were implemented, the country would sink into recession. his proposed 35% tariff-like penalties would inti state a trade war. kill our export jobs and lead entrepreneurs to flee america. his tax plan, in combination with his refusal to reform entitlements and address spending would balloon the deficit and the national debt. even though he has offered very few specific economic plans,

what he has said, he would be bad for american workers and american families. you say wait. wait. wait. isn't he a huge business success, doesn't he know what he talking about? no he isn't. and no he doesn't. [cheers and applause] responded to trump his speech. trump dismisses romney. donald trum's remarks will be here shortly after 8 km p.m. here is what mr. trump had to say today. mr. trump: he made a fairly long speech.

>> he disappeared. he disappeared. and i wasn't happy about it. because i'm not a fan of barack obama and that was a race that i backed him. you can see how loyal he was. he was begging. i would have said jump to your knees and he would jumped. >> we will have the comments and donald trump at 8:20 here on c-span tonight. some of the crmp pack onference.

they speak about their approaches to growing and fostering the growing movement. >> our next presentation is, it takes a village, three approaches to conservativism. to get us started please welcome senator ted cruz, paul teller. ♪ >> good to see you. privileged to be the chief of

staff for united states senator ted cruz. you may have heard of him. it is excellent to be here. i have come here the last 20 years and the best event of the conservative movement, best for networking and fellowship and cpac is he developing that. no longer going to be good enough. we should be better armed with idea and strategies that can help each of us be better soldiers for whom communities across america and across the world. this will highlight three different approaches. classical, popular and lib terian conservativism. classical or traditional emphasizes things like natural law and history as a guide for modern behavior.

pop you lift emphasizes like close adherence to the will and political. trust of and it emphasizes and an approach to social policies. today, momentarily we will have three separate speeches from individuals who represent these branches. the american conservative union. while there are differences, the great bulk of our priorities are united and aligned. each speaker will explain the philosophy of their conservativism a how it is reflect d. i will introduce each speaker and we'll go from there.

senator ben have sasse. he represents the state of nebraska, elected in 2014, spent the five years of midland yifert. the 130-year-old lutheran college. fastest growing institutions in the country by the time of his depart you are. he has been guiding companies through times of crisis and he is one of the most principles that i ever worked with and in senator cruz's office we work with him. and we are glad he is wearing a

suit today. please welcome senator ben sasse. senator sasse: thank you, paul. and go big red over here. you know you are in good shape. paul mentioned that it is atypical for me to be wearing a suit. on twitter recently, i had a guy, you should follow me on bensasse. i look more like a gym rat. hea son of a football coach, is pretty high praysed. you have bad hair, bad teeth and

no rhythm, how did you get tagged, something you got embraced. i put on a suit to change it up. so my task today is to define a little bit of what classical conservativism means and we can distinguish among the three terms. republican, conservative and american can conceptionalism or the american idea. i'm a happy republican and principled committed conservative and we believe in the idea. we are blessed to live in the best time of history in the best country. to be i urge you all republican to be conservative

and to be american, but very important the way we rank order those three. i stand before you today and as of a credo matter, i'm an american first and conservative second and only a republican third although i'm happily a republican and how we rank those identities, because if we get them out of order, we wage order. but i think back to lewis talking about the little old lady that loved her cats. and he said you could have affection for the cat if you recognize that the cat be the first thing. you will never know god nor know the creature. when you think about your i had at the present time as a member of a political party or as a

principled conservative, you have to understand how we rank order them. we should begin by admitting it has been a bad seven years for all three of those categories. been a bad seven years for the republican party. bad seven years for conservative imple. more importantly be that it is a bad years who cherish and love the american idea. if you inherlted, we want to lift it up and celebrate the american idea and tragically, we have had the last seven years a guy as president one of his core purposes is to remake america. we don't want toll change america. want to recapture the

greatness and pass it onto the next generation. [cheers and applause] we have had as our president a man who does president pay respects to the separation of separation of powers and these are feet tiers, not buzz. we have a president who has said if the congress won't do what they want to do, i have a pen and phone and i can make up law. that's tragic. we have a guy as president, pardon me, was asked, do you believe this america cap exceptionalism and you could see it running in his head, i don't, but i know i'm supposed to say yes. but i'll say yes. i believe in american exceptionalism the way the

greeks did or the brits. mr. president, that isn't what it means. american exceptionalism is not an ethnic claim because something of that americans are better. american exceptionalism is a claim about history. american exceptionalism is what happened in the american founding. and if we can't explain it, you can ensure. and we live in that kind of cultural amnesia. this has been going on since the 1960's. but this president has attacked the nature of american history. we should go back because our founding movement is extraordinary. our founders were making a claim about human dignity.

everybody everywhere, not just people like us, but everybody everywhere is ordained with natural rights. everyone everywhere is created in the image of god and government is our project to secure those rights. it isn't the source of our rights. [cheers and applause] government is a tool and our founders recognized that tool is necessary, because unfortunately the world is broken and people want to take your property and take your liberty and your life. you don't want a world where there is anarchy. we need a world to restrain evil and create a framework for ordered liberty. but this is president what we aspired to. if politics is all you have in

your life, you don't america. politics is about creating a live all o you can be the great things. and schools and small businesses, p.t.a. the meaning of america ca is not in washington, d.c.,, it is all in communities and the platoons that you come from. the american founders understood that throughout all of human history, almost had been wrong about the nature of government because people have said we need government, therefore we must make right. e king has the monopoly on violence. the king is free and the people,

they weren't citizens, they were dependent subjects. if you wanted to do something, your passive assumption was prohibition. unless you were allowed to do it, you were prohibited. it's not the established church, you need the government to give you. you want to start a small business. and you see if they will give you a charter and start that small business. but the passive assumption was prohibition. the american founders looked at this, throughout almost of human history, throughout almost of human history, people have been wrong about the nature of government and nature of freedom. and we the people in america believe our rights come to us via nature and we the people

give the government give them enumerated powers.

and they said no, we will not put the rights in the document because if we put it in and people will assume that is the end of their rights. there was a picture. a giant ocean, throughout human history, people have believed that the island is your right and the ocean is the powers of government. and the american founders said this is backwards because the imed is the little set of enumerated powers that we the people give the government and the ocean is the limitless rights of people who are created with dignity. and yet they said, if we don't list them at all, so the compromise, outside the

document, let's add the bill of rights. the first 10 amendments are not in the constitution proper. did you then in the bill of rights, they said let's make sure no one is confused. what should we list first. let's list it first. religion, press and assembly. it's a dog's breakfast. they couldn't list one thing first because they wanted to scream and the structure and when you go through the second amendment all and dear, when you greet to the 9th and 10th amendment, there is no endless list. any any power given to the federal government, the federal government doesn't have.

[cheers and applause] >> republicans and conservatives and americans we need to know that you have to understand that you have to understand and to the american idea first on that list, but we live in a time of constitutional crisis. our kids don't understand the american idea. and students who should be challenged with competing ideas are crying for safe bases and don't have to encounter an idea that might encounter them. that's a mess. we live in a time when 41% of americans under age 35 think the first eafment is dangerous. 41% think the first amendment is dangerous because someone might think their first amendment speech.

that's the point. r founders had different swruse. and government is the framework that says we aren't going to shoot at each other, but we are going to sit at the table and argue and think that big ideas vr consequences. [cheers and applause] and so it was that cpac when president reagan said in a republic you are only one generation away from the freesm. you will lose it. and we are in that time of constitutional crisis. so the top concern of all americans and all those who believe in limited government and we should invite people from political parties to remain

constitutionalists. we should invite them back. and so i say to you, with when i want you to be a conservative and republican, those things must be listed second. let's distinguish. conservativism is a principles. it is about a political party. i love both of these things. i want to see these. you have to rank it first and then your conservativism first and republicism third. your conservativism is a set of matters and and how much intervention the government should have. the 535 people we work with, we aren't smart enough. we believe in free market and

family structures are the first government are the most institution. governments cannot do that. and we will have debates about foreign policy and those kind of debates are really important. and we should fight about them but our belief, rick santorum is coming out and rick has a view -- i think he has the view we should raise the minimum wame. i disagree. small versus medium-sized government. at is that a position and we should recognize debates about the minimum wage are important but quo never be ultimate. america is about limited government. conservativism. offed.t is about ranking

as i close. we are not here to talk about the presidential candidates. but in a time of constitutional crisis. i would suggest to you as you listen to presidential candidates, you should be listening to the ires of grandmas and grandpas and whether or not they will understand the american idea. you should be listening too presidential candidates do they believe in limited government. are they champions of the party of lincoln, do they believe in the dignity of every race and every creed to be a part of the american experiment. do we believe that fatherless black boys will be invited by

the way we lift up the american idea? [cheers and applause] do you believe that your candidate should talk about the separation of powers because we are skeptical of government's overreach. do you believe that you should hear the beating heart of the american cede which is that the freedom of press and speech and religion, will you hear that champion the greatness of americans, not the greatness of washington, d.c.,? you need to hear from your presidential candidates someone who wants to sit at the dinner tainl of your children and talk about the greatness of 32078 million americans, not the powers of the federal bureaucracy. do you hear a champion not of

tearing more things down but of building american back up. but what we need most of all not someone who wants to breathe fa fire on washington. that's how we will make america great again. thank you. cheers and applause] >> everyone knows and is very grateful for rick santorum. native of pennsylvania. he was a candidate for president in 012 and 2016 and u.s. house from 1991 to 995 and moved up to

the you senate. member of the gang of seven that exposed the congressional banking and post office scandal and author of the welfare reform act of 1996. born awed partial abortion. he has a grassroots of americans across the nation. safe freedom and opportunity. and author of books called "blue collar conservatives" and how we can better engage. and now to talk to us about populous conservativism, please .elcome senator rick santorum

[cheers and applause] ♪ snote -- senator santorum: thank you. i want to point out -- i have two of my boys here from the c inch tadel. you guys, stand up. good job. great to be here with you. let me just say that i listened to ben sass emp. i'm a conservative. but what i would say there are a lot of conservatives today all across this country who are scared. nervous about what is happening in this presidential race. seeing the republican party

being attorney up. they are nervous as all heck as to what they are going to do. now you know what the american public has been feeling over the ast 10, 0, 30 years. they are nervous about their jobs, their families, their communities. they are nervous about where am america is going and putting their faith in the conservative movement and putting their faith in the republican party and concerned about them and going to work to make things better. create conditions. many of which were talked by men which i have nout for. but they don't see anything happening and see america happening down ag path, moraly, culturally, economically, from

the stand point of security, from many others and they don't see the republican party responding to that. they don't see the voice within the conservative movement as they do on issues, well, that are not in their wleelhouse. 90% of america don't run or own a business. and which we talk about all the time is how much we are going to support the business community and promote jobs and create jobs successful.es to be so tea it's very clear, we are all in, everybody. we are it comes to 90% divided.

and that over time, that ip insecurity continues to rise and see complete inaction and unbilling was to fight in washington. and so what i believe is going on in america and what i believe has to be the future of the conservative movement, has to focus on the problems what are confronting an america that is going through huge trans formational changes. we see the change in the american family. as paul mentioned, i wrote a book "it takes a family" talking about the huge change and what it's going to mean and the insecurity and what it's going

to bring it about. if we don't make a priority to help strengthen and rebuild the american family, but having to be an incense if i have piece of a conservativism that talks about the breakdown of this critical institution. our nominees for president has nt entalked about it. it's not their issue. it's not the establishment's issue. and social conservatives and people who live with the consequences are saying well, where is the conservative movement for us? what are they doing to help make my neighborhood be more stable? development and dwroth? what are they giving an opportunity for our children.

we have some republicans who are for school choice. but most of them want to reform the system. our president was talking about reforming the system. we are willing to fight and die, but not that one, not those that are hurting on the margin. when you hear about it. what do we have to do? we have to identify the needs and begin to have as much passion tore helping those in need who are struggling in america as we do for the things, well it's -- it's easier to cut taxes and easier to say we are smaller government. i'm for limited government. but not for smaller government when it comes to defense. there are places that we need bigger defense government.

i would say there is a difference. but for us, we have to understandthere are millions ofs out there when it comes to these issues that are real for them -- there is a lot of fear and anxiety in washington, but there are a lot of people in america who are cheering, because at least someone sounds like -- i don't think is, but sounds like -- they are on their side. i am here tonight to represent marco rubio, and i'm very proud to do that. [applause] i am not here to give a speech for one candidate or another. i am here to talk about where our party needs to go. what we have to respond to. needse to respond to the of the 90% of americans who are workers, and the 70% of americans age 25 to 65 who do not