in the late-70's, an author who spent time in the gulag and who wrote novels reaffirming the strength and resemblance -- resilience of the human spirit gave a commencement speech. i was living in california and interested in writing. no internet those days. i had to wait a couple of days for the "new york times's." he excoriated the west and criticized the west for its own law. his message was that any society that defines the tissues of existence in legalistic terms is condemned to spiritual mediocrity. i could not understand it. and that is a reflection that i realized for him, laws are defined differently. from his heritage and experience, law was closed, a threat, a decree. that is not when we see wall -- law -- that is not the way that we see law. it is not an idea to be avoided. it is a thing to be embraced. for us, the law is not a command. as us in making progress. it is not a threat. it is a promise. but this is so misunderstood. there is so little of lamentation throughout the world -- so little implementation that this idea is in danger of falling through the wayside. on a

alexander solzhenitsyn and the gulag, once they gain freedom, they talked about the uplifting effect of the words coming from the united states, deliver -- defending their liberty and freedom. now should be no different. we stand with the did fenders of liberty and freedom in iran and we will not allow them to be silenced. >> i am not in the leadership and i guess i am here because i was a speechwriter for president reagan. i have a very vivid memory of those people who attacked ronald reagan because he was strong in his rhetoric and was forcefully an advocate for freedom and never hesitated to condemned oppression and a press stores throughout the world. -- oppressors three of the world. i remember the pressure on him to tone down the rhetoric. it was coming inside his administration as well as outside. having been one of his speechwriters, i was there on the front line trying to back up his desire to make sure that america stayed true to what our founding fathers wanted us to be, the beacon of hope to the world. that did not want us to intervene everywhere in the world, but at the

and ronald reagan, when he gave the evil empire speech, nathan -- said it spread through the gulag like wild fire. after the berlin wall came down, people behind the curtains said that you were our hope and are beaten. that is what america is. it is interesting, of course, to see the prime minister of england, the chancellor of germany and the president of france have been far stronger in their comments. . host: how is he doing? guest: well, i think he has succeeded in getting his agenda through. unfortunately, it is not a change in climate in washington. it has been done for a long time. it was done by republicans. you pick off two or three republicans and you get your legislation passed. that is an effective way, but it is not a changing climate. but most of all, i think he has mortgaged our children's futures. i think he has created generational that in laying this incredible deficit on the future generations. you cannot spend money like this without sooner or later to -- paying a heavy price for it. who five months ago about the automobile companies, largest insurance company, finan

remember a few weeks ago, harry wu, the great human rights activist from china, who spent 19 years in the gulag there, presented testimony for the -- before the human rights caucus. he said, you know, in china, having a baby is not a human right. he said if you have a second pregnancy, they will forcefully abort that woman. they will forcibly sterilize her. they will find her and tear down her house and sometimes imprison her. and we're putting u.s. taxpayer funds into organizations that promote and provide that kind of service in china? it is really a terrible thing that american taxpayers who have a conscience against their funds from being used for these things are now seeing this administration open the flood gates for these kinds of provisions in our country and around the world. now in this budget, in the obama budget he has proposed, he's included a loophole that would allow taxpayer funds for abortion in the district of columbia. the best way to reduce abortions is to limit taxpayer fundsing for abortion. there's been a lot of talk about abortion reduction and the one thing everyone see

and ronald reagan, when he gave the evil empire speech, nathan -- said it spread through the gulag likewild fire. after the berlin wall came down, people behind the curtains said that you were our hope and are beaten. that is what america is. it is interesting, of course, to see the prime minister of england, the chancellor of germany and the president of france have been far stronger in their comments. . anything except for what we have done throughout our history and that is land our moral support to people who are literally sacrificing their lives for a fundamental belief that they are to be able to peacefully disagree with their government without being beaten and killed. host: the five months since he has been in the white house, have you had a chance to have private conversations with the president? guest: not private. i have had a couple of meetings where there are just one or two other people in the room, but not just the two of us. host: how was he doing? guest: well, i think he succeeded in getting his agenda through. unfortunately, it is not a change in the climate in washing

citizen journalist laura ying and laura lee to 12 years hard labor in the north korean gulags. it would provide release of our two u.s. citizens before the lifting of any u.s. sanctions or granting of diplomatic recognition. much of the language of my amendment had been accepted by the chairman last year and incorporated into the security, assistant and arms export control reform act of 2008. the foreign affairs committee unanimously adopted the agreed upon north korean language during markup held last may. yet, the amendment i offered to address this threat to u.s. national security interests and to our allies in the region was rejected yesterday by the rules committee. in conclusion, mr. chairman, at a time when our country faces a range of threats in our own hemisphere, this bill does not set out a comprehensive approach to those threats. the bill also displays a willingness to put our national security interests in the hands of the vaguely defined international community. mr. chairman, because of the fundamental weaknesses and the core problems with this bill that have not

have a problem with racism and the structures of white supremacy in the united states than the prison gulag we can no longer sustain. 2.3 million of our sisters and brothers incarcerated overwhelmingly for nonviolent offenses no evidence whatsoever that this kind of caging of young black and latino men makes us safer. really no evidence. and all kinds of other ways to sanction law-breaking. and to happen people recover from the worst think they ever did. no other country does what we do, and as every governor can now testify, we can't sustain this. what it costs to look people up, costs to have them come back out with no skills, no prospects for housing no prospects for jobs, no prospects to vote, really stripped of their opportunity to recover from whatever happened, it's just a failing system. front end, back end, and from the public's point of view. so governors are trying to close prison and the small towns and prison guard jobs make us -- long-ed into a system where people had an interest in perpetuating it, even though if you step back you say this can't be. we have to get rid of it.

ronald reagan when he gave the evil empire speech, nathan sh ran sky said that it spread through the gulag like wildfire after the berlin wall came down. people behind the then-iron curtain said you were our hope and our beacon. that's what america is, and it's interesting, of course, to see that the prime minister of england, the chancellor of germany and the president of france have been far stronger in their comments. and let me clear up again, steve, i'm not for sending arms, i'm not for interfering, i'm not for anything except for what we have done throughout our history, and that is lend our moral support to people who are literally sacrificing their lives for the fundamental belief that they ought to be able to peacefully disagree with their government without being beaten and killed. >> host: in the five months since he has been in the white house, have you had a chance to have private conversations with the president? >> guest: not private, i've had a couple of meetings where there's only one or two other people in the room, but not just the two of us, no. >> host: how's he doing?