well, the problem is with barack obama and ronald reagan here, ronald reagan would listen.ou know, we need listeners. barack obama doesn't listen. he just tries to lead from his position without listening to others. i mean, look at geithner. geithner says he's going to stay on. who would stay on with this economy? what has he done? and the only reason i think geithner's staying on is he's sent out resumÉs and find out nobody else wants to hire him, so he's staying on. if i'm the president of the united states, i'm asking for geithner's resignation. barack obama needs to lead, and he's not leading. ronald reagan listened, and he led. mike dever, absolutely brilliant. in fact, everybody running for president should have a mike dever on their team, but they need to be able to listen to those people. they don't listen, they lose. megyn: michael reagan, thank you. pleasure to see you, sir. >> thank you. megyn: well, another bad sign on the economy. we got data today that shows american workers were less productive in the spring for the second quarter in a row. the labor departme

opportunity of this centennial to reach many millions of americans and remind them not just what ronald reagan was as a man, but more importantly, what it is he stood for. so i'm here to report the reagan brand's in great shape. the most recent gallup surveys reveal that ronald reagan's the most admired president among all americans. [applause] now, margaret, too, is on a mission. she faces a different but a related brand challenge. she has set a course to build and then where it needs it repair the brand of the republican party itself. while i will let margaret tell you why and how she believes this is possible, suffice it to say that she brings to the table ideas and through her name and through her reach the ability to attract many newcomers to the republican brand like few that have come before her. now, the second comparison before i introduce her i'd like to make between the mission of the reagan foundation and i shall call it the mission of margaret is to attract young people to our respective causes like never before. here at the reagan foundation we have an overwhelming interest in at

these past couple of years that we have sent over backwards to tarnish the image and legacy of ronald reagan, the reagan brand into the minds of americans. we've taken the opportunity of the centennial to reach many millions of americans and remind notches for ronald reagan was as a man, but more importantly what he stood for. site near to report the reagans brandis and clichÉ. the most recent gallup surveys reveal that ronald reagan is the most admired among all americans. [applause] now, margaret is on a mission. she faces a different but related dream challenge. she has said it a course to build and where it needs it, repair the brand of the republican party itself. i will let margaret tell you why and how she believes this is possible. suffice to say she brings to the table ideas and through her name and through reach the ability to attract many newcomers to the republican brand links you that have come before her. the second comparison i'd like to make between the mission of the reagan foundation and i shall call it the mission of marker is to attract young people to have respect this c

. >> i am gerald parsky, a trustee of the ronald reagan foundation and museum. please turn off your cell phones. please remain standing for the pledge of allegiance once mrs. reagan is here. ladies and gentlemen, it is my distinct honor to welcome former first lady nancy reagan, escorted by our special guest, senator marco rubio. [applause] [applause] [applause] [applause] >> in honor of our men and women who service around the world, please join in the pledge of allegiance. >> a pledge allegiance to the flood of the united states of america into the country for which it stands, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. thank you all very much. please be seated. [applause] >> i would like to recognize governor pete wilson and his lovely wife. [applause] the united states representative and his wife. [applause] the honorable gaddy vasquez, the eight united states ambassador to the aid organization. from the ventura county board of supervisors, peter foy. [applause] all of our representatives from simi valley and thousand oaks city council. [applause] and last

>> where is our ronald reagan?i then they should think the republican field is immature and broadening. i don't think everybody who was in the race will be in is in there yet. and whoever the candidate is really takes the ideas and characterization's of this generation that i have tried to crystallizes two heart because i hope that a reagan emerges. we all do. >> i think that point* was will take 10 there is a lot of youth out there that has no idea what is going on with politics. thinking to people the republican party ought to embrace because they have the charisma to reach out to those and that it is bobby jindal and marco rubio. i am sure there is more out there with the very group you are talking about. >> i absolutely agree. but paul ryan is remarkable nobody can explain the intricacies of those completely boring budget policy in the absolutely understandable and accessible way and paul ryan is one of those people. he is not deeply ideological but a very pragmatic and also can connect to the next generation a

>> where is our ronald reagan? i think the republican field is still amateur and broadening i don't think anybody who will ultimately be in the race is in yet and what i hope is whoever the candidate is, really takes the idea is saying characterization of this generation that i tried to crystallize two heart because i hope the reagan will emerge. we all do. >> as you were elaborating in the point* was well taken there is youth that is lost and has no idea what is going on with politics. i am thinking to people the republican party ought to embrace because they have the charisma and that is mario rubio and bobby jindal those two people and i am sure there is more but to me probably have the ability to reach that group. >> i absolutely agree. but paul ryan is remarkable. nobody can explain the intricacies of the completely boring budget policy. [laughter] in the absolutely understandable and accessible way. paul ryan is one of those people he is not ideological a very pragmatic and you understand and also can connect

and that defined his presidency and that defined ronald reagan's america and the time i that live -- n that era. something else defined the reagan presidency, that was defining the proper role of government. he did that better than any american has ever done before. and -- [applause] and i stand -- it's always been important for americans and america to do that. but i stand here before you today, all of us gathered here today at a time when defining the proper role of goth is as important as it's ever been. the answer to what the proper role of government is lies in what kind of country we want to have. i think the vast majority of americans share a common vision of what they want our nation to be. they want our neigh to be two things at the same time. number one, they want it to be free and prosperous, a place where your economic hopes and dream kbs accomplished and brought to fruition, that through hard work and sacrifice, you can be who you were meant to be, no matter who your parents were, no matter how much misfortune you had in your life if you have a good idea, you can be anyth

it's ronald reagan. and yet as you correctly point out in the wake of the 241 u.s. marines and navy personnel being killed in beirut and when you didn't add is that the intelligence showed them that the irony and said the syrians were directly involved in the creation of what was then a completely new found organization. >> it's in the book. that's right. >> she did worse than nothing. he told those marines who were in heaven on at the time, pulled them out to the ships offshore, the ships stayed there for a few days and then off they went and nobody said a word about it because fortunately for president reagan there was another tiny one, successful, grenada that took place at exactly the same time. here is the essence of a republican tough-guy who reacted to vietnam and reacted in the fashion that would have done any liberal democratic pride. >> absolutely. and i have to tell you that when i approached the research on that chapter and was thinking about ronald reagan, i approached it with memories that i carried with me even at the time that i was covering, which w

good evening, i have the honor of being a trustee of the ronald reagan foundation. [applause] >> before we get started, i would like to ask all of you to turn off yourself funds. if you cut all please remain standing for the pledge of allegiance, once miss the reagan is here. -- mrs. reagan is here. it is my distinct honor to honor former first lady nancy reagan for escorted by her for -- her guest, senator, " rubio. -- mark rubio. [applause] [applause] [applause] [applause] [applause] >> in honor of our men and women in uniform, who defend our freedom around the world, please join me in the pledge of allegiance. i pledge allegiance to the flight of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands on one nation, under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. [applause] >> thank you very much. please be seated. i would like to take a quick moment to recognize some people better with us today. from our board of trustees, governor pete wilson, and his lovely wife and daughter half, gayle. -- better half, gayle. the hon. gaddy vasquez he wa

ronald reagan, 16 million jobs. and i remind you that ronald reagan did raise taxes during his administration. guest: ronald reagan did not raise taxes. in fact, they're cut over 30%. what they did was in 1986, they eliminated a lot of loopholes. they streamline some of the things then. host: and before that, eliminating tax deductions. guest: this is an ideal time to just go to a flat tax. you have made a wealthy people that do not pay -- their tax rate is 39%, but when you look at the effective tax rate, with all the loopholes, some of them do not pay much of anything. everyone ought have something in the game. we ought to go to a flat tax, and ronald reagan's economic adviser told him to cut taxes 30%. you will see the economy explode three it took three years to get the deal done. democratic congress phased in over three years. when the full 30% one in, the economy exploded. he did not raise taxes. he tried to simplify the tax code. i would say that perot that stupid ridiculous document out and start fresh. flat

>> ronald reagan, ronald reagan was a strong conservative. >> we agree with ronald reagan.ng themselves to ronald reagan. but the facts show they barely have anything in common. we'll break down the facts with ronald reagan's son, michael reagan. then the defense department facing major cuts thanks to the debt deal. should we really be cutting from the guys that protect us? and the gals? general michael hayden who was the c.i.a. director under george w. bush weighs in coming up. the angels start second guessing where they tread. ♪ call 1-800-steemer energy is being produced to power our lives. while energy developement comes with some risk, north america's natural gas producers are committed to safely and responsibly providing decades of cleaner burning energy for our country, drilling thousands of feet below fresh water sources within self contained well systems and using state of the art monitoring technologies, rigorous practices help ensure our operations are safe and clean for our communities and the environment we are america's natural gas. in one place. ♪ the front-r

forget about some of the things ronald reagan had to go through. you can still like people for what they go through. but if you are talking about people you really try to emulate, musically, i like to listen to the beatles and the stones, so i would probably be more excited meeting keith richards that i would be meeting president obama again. >> you often " led zeppelin -- quote led zeppelin on the house floor. >> i could quote shelley or words with, as well, but i do not that as many people would be as it to that. i tried to work in some song titles into the speech. >> how often do you play the guitar? >> i play all the time. >> when did you start? >> when i was 11. when you are home schooled, you have to do something. >> what is the name of the band? the new flying squirrels? >> ecb the flying squirrels, until we found out there was rocky and the flying squirrels. we went through several permutations. >> losses in the band? and it was always me and my brother, and our drummer was john, and he passed away unfortunately, from a congenital heart ail

no, he actually chose to fire them up with a story of ronald reagan firing the air traffic controllers>> i stood up and i pulled out a picture of ronald reagan, and i said this may seem a little melodramatic, but 30 years ago ronald reagan had one of the most defining moments of his career, not just his presidency, when he fired the air traffic controllers, i said this may not have as broad implications, but in wisconsin's history, i said this is our moment. this is our time to change the course of history, and this is why it's so important that they were all there. >> this is the day after the packers won the freaking super bowl, and that was the pep talk scott walker says he gave to his cabinet. packers, smackers. let's go break some unions, you guys. sure enough a few days later scott walker launches an assault on union rights in wisconsin, that ronald reagan moment of inspiration for scott walker took place 30 years ago today, august 3, 1981 members of the air traffic controllers union went on strike, instead of sitting down and negotiating with them, ronald reagan walked to the ro

if you looked at ronald reagan, ronald reagan raised taxes twice. he had a big tax cut in 1981.raised more taxes than any president up to that point. and he had another tax cut increase before his term was over. see that's the story that conservatives don't tell us. conservaves tell us we believe in lower taxes look at reagan. they don't say in 82 and another time during his term heraised taxes. >> charlie but he also ended up with a big deficit too did he not. >> that's because of defense. >> charlie: well that's spending. marty. >> i think the key thing in all of this is to get people to understand that cutting snding includes the spending that isin the tax code. if we cld focus on that, if we could agree that government subsidies for healthcare or government subsidies for home improvements or other things, that those are really a form of spending, then i think we could bring on board the people who say i'm, i want to see spending cuts, not jt tax increases. >> charlie: david. >> and there's a second piece to that too. i agree, we should get people to understand that when the

and i've been around here since the days of ronald reagan, dare i say. i was in the house for ten years. ronald reagan said very clearly, he said don't -- and i'm paraphrasing, he was very strong, don't play games with the debt ceiling. it's dangerous. even he said the thought of it is dangerous. so we just came out of that mess. now let's look at what else they've done since they took power -- how many months ago? five months? that all it feels like an eternally -- since they took over the house, they stopped the patent bill, which senator leahy says would result in hundreds of thousands of jobs, stopped it cold. why? because the patent office doesn't have any money to work on those brilliant ideas that are coming out of our people. they needed more funding. that bill took care of it. the house stopped it cold. hundreds of thousands of jobs. the economic development administration -- i know about that because i brought the bill here. it's a beautiful program. it's been in place for generations. it gives a little seed money in areas that have had high un

but the find ronald reagan across america in the time i lived -- that's the find -- defined ronald reagan anyone else was able to do before. it has always been important for americans to do that, but i stand here before you today at a time when defining the proper role of government is as important as it has ever been. the answer as to the proper role of government not really lies in what type of country we want to have, and i think the majority of americans share a common vision for what they what our nation to be. they want our nation to be two things. they wanted to be free and prosperous, a place where your hopes and dreams can be brought to fruition, that you can be who god meant you to speak, no matter where you were born, no matter how much misfortune. if you have a good idea, you can be anything if you work hard and play by the rules. they want us to be compassionate in america, a place where people are not left behind. we are not going to let our children be punished for the errors of society, so we are a nation that aspires to two things. prosperity and passion, and ronald reaga

and how did ronald reagan do that effectively or ineffectively, if you believe so? ia played a huge role, you know, i guess in reagan's time it was primarily dominated by the nightly newscasts. now, days, of course, there's a lot written and said about how the internet and the diversification of news sources has changed politics but in those days it was the newspapers and the major broadcast networks. i think one of the things that's interesting about the way the media dominates the conversation in washington particularly in the congress is that a lot of key off what's on the front pages on the front pages of the "new york times" and "washington post." if you're interested on politics and you want to get up to speed quickly you want to make a habit of reading these two newspapers. they drive the rest of the reporters, what they ask about all day. they drive what the members of congress are most interested in and what the congress is going to ask of the white house. and it's something that the white house has to manage constantly all day and indeed we've got huge staf

and i said ronald reagan. [applause] ronald reagan. and then the reporter said, well, he was not perfect. no, but he was ronald reagan. you cannot need to be perfect. you have to be yourself. people connect when you are yourself. so it was ronald reagan's leadership that helped to turn this nation around, and he did, and it is in that same spirit that i am running for president. and ronald reagan reminded us of this thing called liberty when he said freedom is never more than a generation away from extinction. we cannot pass it on in the bloodstream. it must be fought for and protected, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and grandchildren what the united states of america used to be like. i am not going to have that conversation with my grandkids. and i do not think you want to have that conversation with your grandkids. the founding fathers got it right. that is why we must become the defending fathers. we must defend the declaration of independence. it must defend the constitution of the united states of a

when ronald reagan took office the national debt about $1 trillion. when he left it was more than $2.5 trillion. he doubled it. it is not easy to spend that much money. he did it by instituting the

>> when i was driving down the ronald reagan freeway, yes, ronald reagan would be a much better political choice at this point. what's exciting to me about huntsman, we are always in a country that's generally divided, about 50% are republicans, 50% are democrats. we want a strong republican party, one that makes sense with real policy issues. is huntsman viable, though, or is this a repeat of '64? >> if you look at numbers, he's not viable, but his strategy, new hampshire elects presidents, south carolina elects presidents. he made a choice to sit out iowa. in that same interview, he called out america's almost heroin-like dependence on foreign oil. the guy is clearly making a very, very strong play for the center. whether there's going to be a center left after this fight we're going to go through in the next year remains t.b.d. >> the fun thing would be to say if this was like '64, no matter what happens on the domestic economic front, president obama will be able to win in a lbg fashion, but that's not what the polls are looking like, it looks like president obama is tied within the m

in reality, and ronald reagan -- in reality, ronald reagan is the founder of trickle-down economics and basically a lot of americans don't understand how that affected our country. ronald reagan supported giving the big businesses tax breaks and putting more money in their pockets with the hope that those big businesses and the wealthy in this country would use that money to create more jobs. and over the last 30 years, that has not happened. we have lost more jobs in this country than we have gained in the last 30 years. i think candidates like ron paul, who i endorse wholeheartedly,

like ronald reagan, the werner dethroning the establishment, mitt romney in the way reagan pushed aside george bush 41. reagan found a way to play a big debate moment in new hampshire to make bush look too small for the role. >> i am -- for this microphone -- chris: democrats hope barack obama won't be like jimmy carter, whose economic times were so tough they got reagan elected and reagan's far right views weren't even in focus. could the same be true for rirk perry? if he were the republican nominee, would his controversial views get ignored? >> i'm not real sure you're a bunch of right wing extremists, but if you are, i'm with you. >> john is this what the republican parties wants? a guy wo -- who kids around and embraces the far right? >> certainly i think that the republican party right now is a very it logical party. the story of reagan is a guy with extraordinarily good skills, with deep conviction, with a degree of certainty about himself that was lacking on the part of any other candidate. all those things are present in rick perry and not as pretty in mitt romney and they give

at least in the primaries he was running against ronald reagan. he at least had the good sense after he was elected president after eight years a record reagan taking us from less than a trillion dollars in deficit over three trillion dollars deficit. you know saying oh well you know we got to make the economy look good you have give me three trillion dollars i'll show you what it looks like to live large any i george herbert walker bush at least had a decent sense to raised taxes a little bit. but really now is the time to run the state through the heart of this vampire of supply side economics reaganomics trickle down economics whatever you want to call it it doesn't work unless you're the top one percent. now thank goodness president obama started this discussion yesterday. it's up to you and me to continue it. bottom line we need to roll back the reagan tax cuts that's it. crazy or meet the friendly frack or soros talisman energy a company that specializes in fracking blowing toxic chemicals underground to extract natural gas launched a new cam

ronald reagan gave me my start in politics.of him that when i was able to vote, i registered to vote, i worked on the campaign of ronald reagan as a volunteer. there was something just so inspirational and so positive about the way he approached our country. and it inspired me to get involved, and i hope you can feel that same way about candidates that you will see in your future that want to lead our country. it was that optimism, i think, that drew me, but drew others and drew people from a variety of parties or multiple sectors around our country. they felt that ronald reagan cared about the nation. and in dealing with the congress most specifically, i mean, you referred to the poll today that was in politico that 85% of the american people think we are at such a low level of civil discourse in our country. and i think about president reagan who, who is arch enemy politically on policy issues was the speaker of the house at the time, tip o'neill. yet that never blended into how he spoke about him personally and vice versa. t

the unemployment rate in july of '83, ronald reagan, was 9.4%.der president obama, it's 9.1%. so unemployment was higher under ronald reagan at this point in his first term than it is under president obama. so why are people acting as though president obama cannot get reelected when you had a high unemployment rate until ronald reagan, who has been the hero of the right? >> i think it's because we live in this age of 24/7 information and news. >> absolutely. >> so we're all hyper-aware of this. gallup has a very interesting tool on its site, where you can track the approval ratings of presidents, compare them, when you look at reagan's and obama'sist eerily -- they mirror each other. it's incredible. i agree with you, i do think that the president is doing very well going back to likes congress, but congress has the highest disapproval ratings it's ever had, 82%, president obama has -- >> it's the approval they had in the history of taking polls. >> the president is at 48%. >> i've heard of breaking a ceiling, but never heard of breaking a baseme

pollution limits anymore and in one nine hundred eighty these power thirsty corporations backed ronald reagan and set out to smear the good name of government they figured if they could just get the american people to buy into the idea that government was broken and ineffective and they could we will or we had a power and faced and today many americans have also bought into this idea and surprise the corporations are moving in today far too many of us see this theater of ineptitude on capitol hill and think the government is never work and never will and therefore we should starve the government and scrap it all together and it's not just what's going on in congress it's what's going on everywhere feeling public schools the debt ridden united states postal service here bankrupt amtrak bailed regulators and wall street incompetent oversight of oil rigs mismanaged disaster relief black hole pentagon spending soaring medicare prices we see government programs failing all around us and nobody trumpets these failures like the republican party whose members could barely spit out five words without

republican party we've all gone stupid even president obama was just barely twenty years old when ronald reagan won the white house can't remember the days when government worked and the american people would revolt against those who were trying to dismantle it. that's probably why he's going along with the tea party nearly every step of the way to their demands rather than just calling them stupid like eisenhower did. but the tea party and ron paul fanatics fail to understand. is that is the government is the only thing that stands in the way of corporate power. what do you want between you and your doctor to paraphrase the eternal question for the health care debate the government you can petition an elector on elect or a for profit health insurance corporation who c.e.o. will have you arrested if you try to visit his office to talk with you. while you are keeping an eye on our environment the government scientists working for you are exxon mobil's lobbyists working for them the reason why republicans won this debt limit debate is the same reason they've won nearly every single economic debat

bush or ronald reagan. be rick perry which seems more like john wayne. >> everybody is trying to say he's like george bush or ronald reagan. that ad you just ladies an introduction of rick perry and it plays in hearted of america. my wife, one of 11 children, first one born in a hospital. didn't have indoor plumbing until she was 12 years old. rick perry not until he was 6 years old. it plays in that hard-working family that guy out of the middle part of this country and made it well. it reminds me of ronald reagan going to school on a needy school scholarship to eureka college. it plays in heartland. megyn: why is he distancing himself from george w. bush. >> because all the attack ads against george w. bush the last few years have done damage to george w. bush and the reputation of george w. bush. this president ran against george w. bush. he wants this president to run against rick perry. he has to show he's different than george w. bush. he is a leader that will bring hope to the united states. the next

i grew up in ronald reagan's america.s in 4th grade when he was sworn in and senior year in high school when his presidency ended. ronald reagan and the things he stood for defined so much of what i experienced. to have a chance to talk about two major issues, one, what would america's role in the world be? that led to the end of the cold war. the other is what is the role of government? and what the role of government should be in america? he fought that battle to try to get us back to the right place. because we are not there now we are facing this day of reckoning. the way to understand it is, we have -- america has built a government that not only we the richest country in the history of the world can continue to fund. >> sean: when you were in 4th grade i was graduating from high school. which means i'm older than you, which is really annoying. >> i'm getting older too. >> sean: we all are, everyday. i raised this question last night, i wonder now as the white house and political operatives from president obama try a

[applause] i tell people all the time that i was born and raised in ronald reagan's america. he was elected when i was in fourth grade and he left when i -- left office when i was in high school. those are important years, fourth grade through our school. they are years that for so much of what i know to be true about the world and our nation. ronald reagan's arar can in most people's minds be defined by the cold war and the end of it. he did not just believe that the soviet union and communism could fail. he believed that it was inevitably destined to fail and it was our obligation to continue the process. that defined ronald reagan's america in the time that i lived, the time i was growing up in that era. another thing define his presidency, defining the proper role of government. he did that better than any other american has ever done before. [applause] it has always been important for americans i stand before you today when defining the proper role of government is an important as it has ever been. the injured land -- the answer lies in what kind of country we want to ha

i said ronald reagan. [applause] ronald reagan. and then the reporter says, "well, he was not perfect." no, but he was ronald reagan. [laughter] you do not have to be perfect, folks. yet to be yourself. people connect when you are yourself. and so it was ronald reagan's leadership that helped to turn this nation around. and he did. it is in the same spirit that i am running for president. ronald reagan reminded us of this thing called liberty. -- this think all liberty when he said "freedom is never more than a generation away from extinction." we cannot pass it on in the bloodstream. it must be fought for and protected. one day we will spend our sunset years and our children and our grandchildren -- with our children and our grandchildren. we will tell them what the united states of america used to look like. i am not going to have the conversations with my grandkids. i do not date you want to have that conversation with your grandkids. the founding fathers got it right. that is why we must be -- we must become the defending fathe

signed that machine gun law well i don't agree lot of things ronald reagan did he was known as red ronnie and his conservative a whole stance was a cover for the things that he was really up to look bottom line we had a second amendment we defeated the british empire to get it we're not turning it loose and since obama's been in office gun sales have basically doubled and it's going to continue and the new world order is going to fail in this you in treaty to restrict our guns because you and they can hardly be un deallocation. absolutely if i need regulation absolutely fifty plus senators just signed a public letter that the united nations regulations are what the a.t.f. is trying to implement and hillary clinton trying to get us through treaty to waive our second amendment that's how i think gun owner having to report to rifle sales stripping your gun rights or stripping your second of that right. there's an instant background check run and the number of firearms handgun rifle or long gun is all recorded it's called the nics if the a.t.f. can start creating its own regulation

as we know, ronald reagan won the youth vote by 20% in 1984. the young vote. millennials, the 30 and unders made all the difference in barack obama's re-election and they are deeply disappointed by him. what are you going to do to reach out to this group who could be as much as 24% of the electorate? >> bill: that's a good question, too. what are you going to do to get the youngsters to vote for you because i think you are boring? i think you have to throw that last question out. you know, look, i'm a provocateur in my questioning as you all know. that's why -- >> -- you? no. >> provocateur? >> that's why i'm not moderating the debate because i throw in because i think you are boring. [ laughter ] >> a pinhead you might say. >> or a pinhead. exactly. that's why i am here in new york and they're running up a big tab in iowa. i like the question because i think the republican party creeds the young vote and the black vote, too. they don't even try for it. hispanics is going to be well contested this time around. >> i hope you are right. >> bill: all right. so se

he wants to make sort of ronald reagan and george w. bush look like hubert humphrey.t it's a reallytrange moment. >> at the moment we do have three at the top of the field. you've got romney, bachmann and perry. i want to ask you guys about what you think that effect might have on these candidates. in the national journal, the gop's emerging three-way race dynamic virtually ensures the party's nominee in 2012 will run on the agenda to the right of any nominee at least ronald reagan in 1980 a prospect that may excite conservatives and hearten democrats at equal level. >> perry has the number one job cating record in the country at least by the numbers. why he would not be out talking abt that as opposed to making irresponsible, just silly and arguably dangerous comments about a federal official is beyond me. i read what ron said. i happen to think whoever the republicans nominate is going to be a very serious candidate. they will be taken seriouslyy the country for many reasons. the tone and substance of your questions this morng to robert, the focus of average america

this economy could use gas, 30 years tomorrow, 30 years ago today, imagine that, today ronald reagan rates. a lot. and it happened three decades ago. when he left office in 1989, we had well over 15 million new jobs 25 million from the worst level and that was after nasty recession when ronald reagan came into office. and the dow jumped 137 percent and that is why michael reagan says we need a dramatic pro growth policy now. michael, i don't think we will see taxes cut to that degree, but, do you think we should? why? >>guest: well, we should, we need to look at the models whether it is the 20's or the 60's or the 80's with ronald reagan when he took over the economy it was in a malaise and he cut taxes and inemployment dropped from 7.6 percent to 5.5 percent and the dow tripled during that period of time, and 20 million jobs were created during that time and if you look at the deficits which we seem to be talking about as a share of the g.d.p. it dropped from 6.3 percent down to 2.9 percent. >>neil: i remember that and we are showing the image of your dad signing this, a fog, and i

ronald reagan knew better. he knew that our greatness never came from our government, it always came from our people. in the early 1980's, there was nothing wrong with the american people. he knew that if we embrace the principles that made us great in the past, they would make us even greater in the future. the the end of that decade, history has already recorded what happened. the soviet union and its brand of communism literally collapsed. by the way, an interesting aside, i've had the opportunity to have been with old to work with ronald reagan at the time. do you realize he gave that speech where he said "tear down the wall," that there were people in the administration they kept taking that out of the speech? they thought it was too abrasive and antagonistic. it was not presidential and did not belong there. it was a realistic that we could accomplish that. reagan knew a fundamental truth. this notion of wanting to accomplish your god-given ambition and their god-given dream was not an american principle

ronald reagan signed it. we had a simple. if our choice was iowa or iran, we like having money in iowa. we would rather have money in south dakota than saudi arabia. i talked to a lot of sophisticated ethanol people and i believe in it. i believe in it years ago. i thought was right for national security. i believe that all american energy -- most of the ethanol people i know are prepared to eventually get rid of the subsidy if we move to flex fuel cars and tanks so the customer has a genuine choice. as oil prices go up worldwide, ethanol becomes general it -- genuinely commercially competitive, if you have a gas station that carries it and a car that uses it. i reject those that say we have to do exactly what big oil wants. i am for drilling offshore and opening up lots of land for oil. i think american oil is vastly better than iranian oil. but i am also for ethanol, solar, and wind. here is a fact you should keep in your head. we have more total energy in the united states than any other country in the world. we have more

obviously, the one -- we, being right-wingers, the closest would be ronald reagan. and that's why i went back because people have very sugar-coated memories of reagan. part of the reason reagan gets invoked so often these days is to contrast him with certain, um, contemporary republicans who we don't think are meeting the grade. um, but if you look at the way reagan was treated when he was president, he wasn't even the most popular conservative. it was, i have it in my book, it was jerry falwell, william f. buckley and then third, ronald reagan. my newspaper, human events, was constantly attacking him, famously attacking him to the point -- and that was his favorite newspaper. he went to a party at human events and said i'm enjoying it a lot less. >> host: you write, democrats are always the party of the mob. the only thing that changes is which mob they're supporting. >> guest: yes. >> host: what does that mean? >> >> guest: it means, for example, i describe one more fully in the civil rights chapter which is the true telling of civil rights. so it's my revisionist

ronald reagan was called a dummy. one of the most eloquent presidents we ever had who could speak spontaneously far better than our current president. no insult intended. it is just a fact. he was called stupid. so they had a dilemma. it turns out he wasn't a dummy. he was quite bright. what did the left do? a professor of history at stanford named sanford bernstein -- perfect. we have it. it is from a terrific new biography. the next speaker following me gave us this book. if you listen to him he is terrific. and arthur brooks when we visited him. this is a biography by peter wallace and. left page. scholars still puzzled by this contradiction have reached for some highly unlikely explanations. historian barton bernstein, professor of history at stanford has speculated that perhaps reagan learned as a young man to hide his intelligence because it was not valued in the midwest world in which he grew up. is that amazing? that is how they can't deal with the idea that we might be as intelligent as they or as kind as the

ronald reagan was for tax cuts more than any other american president we've had, but at the end of they he realized we can't run a credit card budget, we can't borrow our way to prosperity, and when we faced this massive ballooning deficit in 1982, not withstanding the recesssive economic conditions you described so well, he reluctantly went ahead, the tax increase was signed. it was the equivalent of $150 billion a year at the present time, and yet he felt we had to do it because we had no choice. and that is totally different than the kind of republican you have today. today's republicans are credit card republicans. they're not reagan republicans. and their position is totally irresponsible and is really a shame that they try to rewrite and reinvent history when the facts speak so clearly, as i think we've outlined them here. >> well, washington's debt showdown cost american tax pairs more than $1.7 billion. that's the amount of additional interest that the u.s. had to pay to investors on monday to sell treasury bills to finance its operations. but what about the consequences of spe