>> welcome back, on the left-hand side of your screen is a speaker at the political action conference that's meeting in maryland right now and the reason we're following this is because momentarily dr. ben carson will be addressing this convention. of course, you may recall, as president obama was seated next to a podium, it was dr. carson who ripped into the president's health care program. joining us is steven hayes, senior writer at the weekly standard. i mean, given the doctor's

background in can health care and given his earlier shot over the bow of obamacare, i would expect him, would you not, to address obamacare here, but, i mean, is that in vain? it's survived legal and judicial challenges. would i expect him to talk about it. it's sort of the obvious thing for him to speak about and he knows it firsthand as he made clear in his earlier speech. i think it's actually an important time for somebody like dr. carson to talk about it because there's a debate within the republican party, within the conservative movement more broadly exactly how much to continue talking about obamacare for the reasons that you suggest, gregg. i mean, you know, it's the law of the land, the republicans ran on repeal in 2012 and didn't win. on the other hand, my own view is, republicans and conservatives should be talking about obamacare as much as they can. we are on the front end of what is going to be an implementation nightmare of an already unpopular law and the

more republicans talk about the damage that this law is going to do, the more they're going to be able to point back and say, we had another option and i think, you know, as part of the speech, it would be great if dr. carson laid out some other possibilities for health care reform that we're different, alternatives to obamacare. >> gregg: some of the topics at the convention have been very controversial, including contraception, gay marriage, immigration. and said by the party that they're too conservative on the issues for populace consumption in electoral contests and maybe the last presidential election was proof of that. are conservatives hurting the republican party in elections? >> no, conservatives are helping republican party in elections and the more that republicans run as conservatives, the better they'll do in elections. i think you can go back and look at the elections of 2010 when republicans were buoyed by tea party support, strong

conservative support. you can go back and look at 1994, the republican revolution happened because of conservatives. you can go back and look at 1980, 1984. the times when republicans have done the best electorally has been when they've been conservative and unapologetic about it. i'll say there are times when republicans should make clear that they are not being sort of exclusionary, when they're making their arguments. i would say some of the rhetoric on immigration, for instance, in 2012 had that effect. may have been fair, may not have been fair, but there is he' no question that it had that affect. so there are ways, i think, that republicans can taylor their message to talk about some of the issues, in a way that is inviting and says to people, come be with us, because the arguments we're making are so powerful and persuasive. rather than we don't agree with you, so, go away. >> gregg: two of the more electrifying addresses, rand paul and marco rubio, and paul referred to the public party the g.o.p. of old has grown

stale and lost cover. are these a couple of guys who intend to lead the party in a new direction? >> well, i think certainly rand paul does. i would say that marco rubio has a lot more in common with people rand paul are saying are moss covered than rand paul does. marco rubio has been strong on national defense and i think that's basically what this difference, what this argument is about. my colleague, bill kristol at the weekly standard has an editorial going back and revisiting that comment from rand paul and looking at the history of the republican party and its position on national defense. strength through-- peace through strength and going back and looking at the times when the country was war weary and there have been times in the past the country was war weary and when the united states lets down its guard there are often serious repercussions for having done so down the line. >> gregg: i think that's important to remember. more social issues, in

particular gay marriage, here is why, america seems to be shifting on that subject and in fact, senator rob partman, his new found support of gay marriage because his son is gay, is happening right during cpac, where it is somewhat controversial. and by the way, just as the u.s. supreme court is considering an important gay marriage case. so is this an issue that the party could make a change and help itself? >> well, look, i mean, i think that people who have long-held principles about traditional marriage are unlikely to change and i think that gay marriage, other people have said this before. i believe that scott walker said this in an interview with politico, it's much more of a generation issue than a partisan issue. if you look at younger republicans, republicans 18 to 29 you'll find it like a majority of those republicans who actually favor gay marriage, this is an issue, this is one of the issues like the ones we were talking about just a moment ago, gregg.

where i think that the republican party, nobody's going to be asking anybody in the republican party or conservative movement to say for electoral purposes you really ought to abandoned these long-held views of yours, things that you hold dear as sort of core principles, but at the same time there is he' a way to encourage and invite a discussion about these issues and to say to people who might favor same-sex marriage because they believe it would strengthen the family, come and be part of this big coalition that we, as a conservative movement, have. >> gregg: steven hayes, appreciate your insight. steven, hang in there if you would, would like to get remarks on the other side of the address here by dr. ben carson, a hyper-critic, if you will, of obamacare. >> okay, you're eating into my time. (laughter) all right. thank you so much. it's really wonderful to be here. i thank the organizers for inviting me.

and thank you, eric, for what you said. you made it unnecessary for me to talk about political correctness, enough said. but i'm going to talk a little bit about what's logical and what's common sense today. because we don't hear a lot of that and i don't think that common sense should be something that's just for conservatives. you know, liberals and everybody else should understand and enjoy common sense, also. for some strange reason, sometimes he they donthey don't it's interesting the outpouring of sentiment i received after the speech at the national prayer breakfast, i got so much mail, letters, books, just amazing from everybody. and some of the more poignant ones were from older americans who said they had given up and they were just waiting to die

and now, they felt a sense of revival once again. now? (applause) and that's very sad that we have reached a point in our lives where so many people who feel that they're not represented anymore, and this is something i want you people who are in congress, and who are in the senate and who are in the white house to understand. you work for the people. you represent the people, you know? you understand that. i also got a few nasty-grams from people. how dare you insult my president. you are an inward and you need to get back-- unbelievable. and when did we reach a point where you have to have a certain philosophy because of the color of your skin? when did that happen?

and a reporter once asked me why i didn't talk a lot about race and i said, because i'm a neurosurgeon. and they thought that was pretty strange and i said, you see when i take someone to the operating room and take the scalp and the bone flap and that's who they are. the color doesn't make them who they are. when are they going to understand that? but you know, the thing that really is important to me and it's largely because of my own background, you know, growing up in a single parent home in the inner city with dire poverty, terrible temper, poor self-esteem. my nickname in school was dummy and you know, it was because i had a mother who

believed in me and she was always saying, benjamin, you're much too smart to be bringing home grades like this. i brought them home anyway, but she was always saying that. she was very encouraging. and, but more importantly, you know, she made sure that at some point we turned off the tv and started reading books. and you know, she worked a lot. you know, my mother worked three jobs at a time. she would leave at five in the morning and get home at midnight and you know, people always said to me, well, why did you guys read the books? your mother wasn't there? she would know if you didn't read the books. and the fact of the matter is, back in those days, you had to do what your parents said. you know? you couldn't call 911 or some social worker or some psychologist who said, let the kid express themselves. you know? and there was a reason for that, but you know, the

education worked for me. you know, i started reading, within a year and a half i went from the bottom of the class to the top of the class. the same kids calling me dummy in the fifth grade and come to go me in the 7th grade, benny, benny, how do you work this problem. and i said sit while i show you maybe obnoxious, but felt good. by that time i had a very, very different impression of myself and education is such a fundamental principle of the success of america. and we're allowing it to go under. you know, you go out there and you talk to average personnel, they may be able to tell you who won dancing with the stars. they may be able to tell you who won the football game, but they can't tell you anything that's important. they don't know about foreign policy. they don't even know about the way that our government works and the structure of it and what things mean. and consequently, they have

become the ignorant. they have become the unprepared. this is exactly what the founders of this country warned against. they said, our system of government is based upon a well-educated and informed populace. and if our populace becomes anything other than that, we will become a different country. they knew what they were talking about. [applause] and as witness to that fact. congress has a 9% approval rating. and yet, we return the people at a rate of 90% to congress. now, what does that tell you? it tells you that people go in the voting booth and they say, there's a name i recognize, i'm going to vote for that one. you know, they have no idea whether that person represents them or not and what i'm saying to people, the people of america today, is that we are responsible. this is a country that's for and of by the people and not

for, of and by the government. if we turn it over to them we cannot complain about what they're doing. this is a natural course of men and we have to hold their feet to the fire. [applause] and that's why we have these complex brains. and i don't say this just because i'm a neuro surgeon. the brain is the most complex and phenomenal organ system in the universe. your brain, billions and billions of newereurons, numberf interconnections you have rivals the national debt. it's an amazing amount and it has the ability to remember everything you've ever seen, everything you've ever heard. your brain can process more than 2 million bits of information in one second. and the reason that human beings have these gigantic frontal lobes because we're

the creatures that have the ability to extract information from the past, integrate that with information of the present, and project that into the future, which means we can be proactive. we can plan, we can straegize, we don't have to just react and yet, that's what animals do, react. and a lot of people today have decided that they'd rather react like animals rather than planning and strategizing. and this is what we've done now. we're reacting to, you know, what we see as our fiscal woes without planning for the future, without really caring about what is happening to the next generation. and you don't have to be a brain surgeon or a rocket scientist to understand that if we continue to spend ourselves into oblivion, we're going to destroy our nation. if i were trying to destroy this nation, let's say you

magically put me, you know, into the white house and-- (cheer (cheers) >> now, all right. all right. i take it back. (laughter) but let's say somebody was there and they wanted to destroy this nation. what would you do? let me tell you what i would do. first of all, i would create division among the people. i would have everybody pitted against each other, because a wise man by the name of jesus once side a house divided against itself cannot stand. and then i would encourage a culture of ridicule for basic

morality and the principles that made and sustained the country. and then i would undermine the financial stability of the country and drive it so far into debt that there was absolutely no chance that it could recover and i with weaken the military and destroy the morale of the military and that's what i would do and i would guarantee you it would work. now, the question is, if appears, coincidentally, that those are the very things that are happening right now and the question is how do we stop it? can we stop it? or must we inexorably follow the same kind of path that other pinnacle nations have followed before their destruction? because all of those things that i just mentioned are the things that happened to other pinnacle nations before their fall. and you know, this is not

something that has just started in the last four or five years, it has been going on for some time now let's not lay the blame on one particular person, but the fact of the matter is we all have responsibility to recognize what is going on and to use our influence to correct some of these things. you know, one of the things that my wife and i have done is, you know, i go into the schools and we see all of these trophies, allstate basketball, wrestling, this, that and the quarterback the big man on campus. what about the academic superstar? what do they get a national honor society pin, there, there, little nerd. now? nobody really cares about them and you know, i was aware of a survey that was done in 22 countries looking at the ability of 8th grade equivalence to solve math and science problems and we were one of the 22 countries, we came in number 21 out of 22

barely beat out number 22 and i was devastated. we've got to do something about this and we can't wait for the government to do something about this, we as the private sector have got to do something. so, we've started giving out scholarships outs of our own pocket to children from all backgrounds who achieve at the highest possible levels academically and demonstrated humanitarian qualities and cared about other people and we gave out our first 25 scholarships 17 years ago and just in the state of maryland, and now today we have over 5,000 scholars in all 50 states. [applause] >> and-- these are incredibly bright, incredibly bright young people and in fact, just yesterday i found out that one of our

scholars was accepted at a neuro surgery residencesy at johns hopkins. fantastic, but the other component of the program, we put in reading rooms and in that case, we particularly target title 1 schools where a lot of the kids come from homes with no books and they go to schools with no libraries. those are the ones who drop out of school of the we have a 30% high school drop-out rate. we really can't afford that. so we create these rooms that no kid could possibly pass it up. and they get points for the number of books they read. and they can trade them in for prizes and in the beginning they do it for the prizes, but after a while, it begins to translate into much better academic performance, and that's really the goal because you see, we can't afford to throw any of those young people away because for every one of those young people we keep from going down that path of self-destruction, that's one less person that you have to protect yourself and your

family from. one less person you have to pay for in the penal or the welfare system. one more tax paying productive member of society who may discover a new energy source. we need all of them. [applause] and the humanitarian part of the program, the carson scholars fund is every bit as important as the academic part. because you see, we are the a humanitarian nation and historically we have been. many people don't know this, but socialism started as a reaction to measured america because people in europe looked at us and said, wait a minute, look at those americans. you've got people like ford, and kellogg and vanderbilt, rockefeller, carnegie, mellen, they've got so much money and look at everybody else who's got nothing and you can't run a system like that, you have to have an overarching government that receives the funds and redistributes it in

a fair and equitiable way, have you heard that before? what they didn't realize is that all those names that i just said, instead of, like the land barons of europe hoarding the money and passing it down from generation to generation, instead they built the infrastructure of this nation, they put in the trans continental railroad, built factories and textile mills and built the mechanism that created the most powerful and dynamic middle class which took us to the pinnacle, built universities and museums and charitable organizations because that has been the nature of america. we've always been generous, nobody-- nobody is starving on the streets, we've always taken care of them. we have churches which actually are much better mechanisms for taking care of the poor because they are

right there with them. [applaus [applause]. this is one of the reasons that we give tax deductions to churches. because they do do that, so why is the government trying to duplicate what they're supposed to be doing? you know, we need to start thinking smartly about the way that he we use our resources, use our money and you know, in 2009, 40 of the wealthiest families in america pledged to give away half of their wealth to charity. go someplace else in the world and ask the 40th wealthiest families to give away half their wealth. they'll look the at you like you've got six heads. this is an american phenomenon we take care of our own we always have, it's not the government's responsibility, it's our responsibility as citizens. [applaus [applause]. and then, as long as we're talking about fairness, let's talk about taxes.

you know, some people criticized me at the prayer breakfast for bringing up god and the bible. i mean, it is a prayer breakfast, right? i don't understand that, but at any rate, if god thinks proportionality is fair, who are we to say it is unfair. the minute you begin to deviate away from proportionality, you begin to inject your own philosophy. and that is always going to lead you in one direction or another. i think that's why god had a program like that, you make 10 billion dollars, you put in a billion. you make $10, you put in one. you know, the guy who paid a billion just put in a billion times more than the other guy, but they get the same rights. what could be fairer than that. you know? now, i'll tell you what is not

fair. what is not fair is when you exempt some people and you say, there, there, you poor little thing. you don't have to pay anything, we'll take care of you. you know what? to me teas very offensive having grown up poor, because what you're saying -- what you're saying is i, the superior elite one will take care of you. why? because you see that superior elite group needs to be superior and elite and they can't be superior and elite unless you have a whole bunch of people down there grovelling around and you keep them down there by feeding them, huh? (applaus (applause) >> but the other ulterior motive is if everybody doesn't have skin in the game, then

you can just persecute this 1% or this 2% or this 5%. if everybody has skin in the game, you have to be responsible because if you come talking about raising taxes, you're raising taxes on everybody you better have a darn good reason. doesn't care -- doesn't matter 1 or 2%, but it really matters about everybody. that's what's fair. [applaus [applause] >> and then just briefly, and i don't have time to really go into it, but let me tell you something, health care, you know 1/6 of our economy, if the government can control that, they can control just about everything. we need to understand what is going on because there are much more economic models that can be used to give us good health care than what we have now. and we were asleep at the

wheel to let it happen, but we have to find a way to still, to make it it work. and if we have to work within the frame work of the affordable health care act, fine. if we can find a way to defund it, fine. if -- you know, but we have to find more efficient ways. think about this, 80% of the encounters between a patient and a health care provider could easily be handled by a health savings account. 80% of the encounter, without the need to insinuate a third party or a bureaucracy at these a third of the money. there are ways we can do this. we can use bridge insurance and catastrophic insurance, you know, some of the, i don't want to call them morons, but something similar to that who say, well, carson just talked about how how are you going to talk about catastrophic health care, read the book.

read the book america the beautiful and some other things i've written it will show you how to do that, but obviously, i'm thinking about those things. you know, it's just-- i don't know, it's almost laughable some of the things i hear people say to criticize you, he's a neuro surgeon, so he couldn't know anything about economics. it's not brain surgery. [applaus [applause]. and i can tell you this much, even as a lowly brain surgeon, if you have the highest corporate tax rates in the world, then of course, corporations are going to have money elsewhere. corporations are not in business to be social welfare organizations. they are there to make money.

and a wise government knows how to use that to their advantage. there is a ton of money outside this country and inside this country just waiting to be unleashed, to make all kinds of jobs and opportunities if we just treat them as our friends and not as our enemies. [applause] and finally, finally, we have to resist this war on god. you know? i mean, this -- people, people don't want to talk about god and don't you ever dare mention jesus christ and this is supposed to be a country where we have freedom of religion and freedom of speech? you know, it's absolutely absurd. let's let everybody believe what they want to believe and

that means pc place, don't you be coming down on the people who believe in god and who believe in jesus. if they want to put something out that shows their belief, they have every right to do that. and we need to know, we need to understand that we are not each other's enemies in this country. and it is only the political class that derives its power by creating friction. it is only the media that derives its importance by creating friction, that uses every little thing to create this have chasm between people. this is not who we are. we have much more in common with each other than we have apart. and we have to be smart enough to understand that. and we have