to build an incinerator at the size of a football pitch some 500 meters from the center of the small market town in my constituency. there is no need for this provision. it would involve importing waste. it has been unanimously rejected by the local planning committee. does the prime minister agree that the concerns of the local people over the negative impact that it will have on their town should be afforded paramount importance when the proposal is considered on appeal? >> i do agree that local consideration should be taken into account. that is why we made changes that we have. it is important that local communities have their say. she has put the case extremely strongly. >> when all the local impious -- week, they asked shire wasrth stafford shar

not on the list to have a local enterprise zone. does the prime minister understand the need for job creation and will he arrange for us to get the investment when the new list is announced in july? >> i understand the point the lady makes. i wish that the shadow chancellor would occasionally shut up and listen to the answer. >> order! >> other members can now follow the prime minister's advice to the shadow chancellor. we need a bit of order. i may be alone in finding him the most annoying person in modern politics. i have a feeling the leader of

the opposition will one day agree with me. where were we? clearly there are massive issues because of the decline of the pottery's. i completely understand the need for stoke to have the support. it is important that she is working to bring the communities together with local enterprise partnerships. i will ask the chancellor to look at whether it can be in the next lot of enterprise zones. ieswant to help the pottery' communities she represents. >> in light of the announcement this week that statoil is canceling 6 billion pounds of investment in the north sea following the budget, will the prime minister ensure that the climate change goes ahead and that jobs are not lost? >> when you look at norway, they

have higher taxes on petrol and duties than we do in the u.k. the key point is that when the companies in the north sea made decisions, the oil price was around $65 a barrel. it is now around $115 a barrel. i think the break we're giving to the motorists by cutting petrol taxes will be hugely welcome. >> the british house of commons is in recess for the easter holiday. "prime minister's questions" returns april 27. at c-span.org, you confined links to past "prime minister's questions." >> next, former massachusetts governor mitt romney is in las vegas and senator rand paul is

in iowa. >> the discussion of u.s. policy in the middle east will be part of the national leadership conference tomorrow. the group will hear from the advisor to the special envoy for middle east peace. [applause] now, former gov. mitt romney. he spoke saturday at the winter meeting of the republican jewish coalition. he criticized the obama administration's handling of iran, russia, and the israeli- palestinian peace negotiations. he challenges the president's record on the economy and other issues. from las vegas, this is about 50 minutes.

>> thank you for hosting this event. thank you to the adelson's opening up their home. not a bad place to have here. what is extraordinary contribution this couple has made to jewry of around the world. thank you so much. [applause] thank you to the rjc for the work you are doing to elect conservatives across the country. we had a good november. thank you to the rjc and like- minded people who wanted to see

change happen. we are flying high because nancy pelosi is fine coach. -- we are flying high because nancy pelosi is flying coach. [applause] there are a number of people in the room who were extraordinarily helpful to me when i ran for president. many people were part of that team. i want to say thank-you to you. i am sorry i did not get the job done. i wanted to become the nominee. if i had become the nominee, i would have been the guy that lost to barack obama. it was a difficult time. when the economy got in trouble, it was hard for republicans. but we have come back in a massive way thanks to your leadership and effort. i also saw a number of you about a week ago in washington at the kennedy center at the tribute for george walker herbert bush.

it was on tv last monday. there were a number of country performers there. i like country music. i am not an extraordinary fan, but i do have some favorites. i think it was kenny rogers that had "you picked a fine time to leave me, lucille." the refrain was about four in then and a corop field. given all the tumult in the world, we picked a fine time to pick as our president a man who has no experience in the private sector, no experience in negotiation or leadership. the consequence of seeing someone learn on the job in the presidency has not been a pretty sight. [applause]

that has been true in foreign and domestic policy. since president truman, we've had a pretty consistent foreign policy. he said we had to rethink american foreign policy. dean acheson described a newfound vision for america's foreign policy. there were three elements. one was that we would be involved in the world. we would not be isolationists. we would be involved. we found by being isolationist that we had been drawn into conflicts of the world a great loss. we would promote our values, freedom, opportunity, free trade, human rights. we would promote the things we believe in. [applause] we found the nations that

adopted those principles tended to be more peaceful. finally, we would be strong. we would acknowledge that there were good guys and bad guys. we would understand that there was evil in the world and that some people have the intention to oppress others. we recognized that we would be strong and links arms with friends to run the world as allies because together, we could be stronger than any one nation alone. that has been the foundation of america's foreign policy for a long time. with the president came into office, the question was whether he would adhere to that foreign- policy that had been in place since the 1940's. the first test that comes to my mind was in honduras. the supreme court there said the pro-marxist, anti-american president had violated their constitution and should be removed. the military removed him.

president obama insisted he be put back in office. think what that message was around the world. colombia in south america is one of our best allies in opposing chavez. you have what happened with dissident voices taking to the streets in iran. instead of supporting them, he had nothing to say. the world recognized that instead of promoting these values in a dynamic way, he was going to be silent -- at least in some circumstances. then it went on to a question about the extent of our solidarity with our allies. would we stand with our arms linked? in his speech to the united nations committee chastised our best ally in the middle east,

israel. he castigated israel for building settlements and had nothing to say about hamas or launching thousands of rockets into israel. then he won the nobel peace prize as part of this whole process. i think that was in part because of an assessment that he was going to engage iran, north korea, and syria. how has that worked out, by the way? a south korean -- a north korean ship shelled a south korean island. iran is supporting insurgents in their own nuclear bali. that has not worked out well. he is following an unusual beliefs. he said that we all have common

interests. there's probably a context where that has logic. i do not think he understands that not all leaders of the world have common interests. some people want to oppress other people and exploit it and kill other people. we are not like them. we do not have common interests with them. we have interests with people who seek and love freedom. [applause] one of the most distressing products of this wondering foreign policy -- wandering foreign policy was with russia. russia has been our number one geopolitical adversary for some time. they are not an enemy, but they tend to line up on the other side and try to pull people with

them. they have had as an objective the removal of our missile defense system from your. if he had been an experienced negotiator, he would recognize that even if you want to give the person across the table what they want, you do not tell them that a fraud. instead, you think about what you want. you get something in return. instead, he gave them their number one objective and gold. what did he get in return? he could have gotten a commitment on their part to say that we will not veto crippling sanctions against iran for their nuclear program. that is what he should have done. that is what experience would have done. [applause] now we have the tumult in the middle east. it is hard to read where that

could go. this could be one of the most positive developments in the last 50 years in the middle east with nations embracing modernity and seeking representatives forms of government or it could be the worst thing with nations turning towards radical islamic jihadism. america could have a lot to say in that. i was distressed to hear our secretary of state characterized mr. assad as a reformer. this is not a good start. america must use our resources to help move these nations toward modernity and provide greater stability in the world. i think the president's inexperience in negotiations contributed to less than positive developments on the

israeli-palestinian negotiating front. the president came out and was critical of israel, perhaps in part that he wanted to show the world that he was impartial and neutral. i know from negotiating that is not how you start. you want the people around the table to know who you will stand by. you are with them. you are an ally. instead, he said that he would be critical of israel and tougher on the settlements than the palestinians are. by doing that, he had the predictable and unintended consequence of convincing the palestinians that they could probably get a better deal imposed by america then by negotiating with israel. the palestinians were perhaps less anxious to sit down to the negotiating table, in part

because the president was so critical of prime minister netanyahu that they wondered if we might try to push him out of office. what was the impact on the mind of the israelis as they were negotiating? they have had bad experience ceding territory to others. lebanon, gaza. rockets are now been fired from gaza. if we pull out from the west bank that happens to nearly surround jerusalem on three sides and is close to tel aviv, they realized it could be dangerous and perhaps existential to hand over the west bank. if iran became active in a

military way, america would always stand with israel. because of the lack of confidence in our commitment, even the israelis want to pull back from the negotiating table. the consequence of not understanding negotiations has been extraordinarily difficult. this president has said that he is so anxious to retreat from policies of the prior administration that he did not realize he was also retreating from the policies of truman, kennedy, eisenhower, nixon, and reagan. this nation needs those policies and our commitment to freedom and strength and to our allies. [applause] i think most americans recognize that the president's missteps on domestic policy have been just ial.onsequence o he did not create a financial crisis. it was already under way and things were getting worse.

i fault him for a number of things. can i see all the people in this room who have been or are in business? that is what i thought. more than all the people in the room are in business, right? he came into a setting where you recognize if you have an enterprise in trouble, there are three rules for a turnaround. focus, focus, and focus. find out what is cruel and focus on it. what was critical when he came into office was the economy. instead of focusing on it, he delegated it to nancy pelosi and harry reid. they put together a borrowing and spending program. instead of creating incentives for the private sector, they sent money out to the states to protect state workers.

the money lasted a couple of years. now the states are having to pay the piper. the one sector which could have afforded to shrink was the government sector. instead of promoting the private sector, he protected the government sector. does a lot of money spent with little return. then he focused and what he really cared about, his own liberal agenda. we will have cap-and-trade. we will the spirit will, gas, nuclear -- we will disparage oil, gas, coal, nuclear. we will unionize every business in america whether employees want it or not. we will have the federal government take over the responsibility of caring for the port in their states. the list goes on of his agenda. there was dodd-frank that the lead -- that regulated the

financial industry. then there was the concept of massive deficits. in the business world, we can deal with bad news. you know if the government does something bad, you can deal with it. it can be painful, but you can deal with it. the one thing you cannot deal with is uncertainty. cap-and-trade caused energy intensive industries to not know what the effect would be. people did not know the cost of labor and pull back. obamacare, in the health care industry, you did not know what the future would be and pulled back. this was at the same time we wanted small business and innovators to be stepping forward and growing. they became more uncertain and pulled back. this president has caused the deepening and lengthening of this recession, this downturn. yesterday i was here in las

vegas. i went by the home of david and kathy tyler. their home is in a neighborhood with a high level of foreclosures. we walked around and looked at the foreclosures. it breaks your heart. an unfunded is not a statistic. -- unemployment is not a statistic. it is real pain and sorrow in the lives of people. it is not just those unemployed. you can see the in the homes in their community. -- you can see the empty homes in their community. there were unemployed people sleeping in an abandoned house. unemployment hurts even those who are employed. i was astonished by the fact that at a time when nevada was in trouble in the unemployment rate was going out -- nevada has had the highest unemployment of

over 10 statements for 13%. this president disparaged nevada at the same time. companies were afraid to come here for meetings because they were afraid they would be singled out. contrast that with what rudy giuliani di when hed invited businesses to new york. let's hope that they invite business to nevada. [applause] this is a room full of business people. i do not think the president like shoot a lot. [laughter] i say that a bit tongue in cheek, of course. when he put his cabinet together, he did not select a lot of business people to be there -- if any. i think he sees business as a necessary evil -- and may might -- maybe not even necessary. every good job we will create

will come from the private sector. i love on to paris, innovators, and creators. -- i love the entrepreneurs, innovators, and creators. i wonder how the president can be so misguided. i think there is the perception that europe got it right and we got it wrong. like the europeans, when things got in trouble here, he borrowed to spend more money. like the europeans, he is disparaging of fossil fuels and is anxious to put in place a cap-and-trade deal. like europeans, if he wants unions where the employees do not want them. i believe in america. i believe that we got it right. i believe the american experiment works. i believe is happening in europe is not working there and will not work here. [applause] i believe in free enterprise.

i believe in capitalism. i believe in freedom and opportunity. when the founders came together and work the founding documents of this country, they not only give us the choice to choose our elected representatives, they also allowed us to choose the life to live. this became the land of opportunity on the entire planet. every creator and person seeking freedom wanted to come here. that is what made america what america is. i love the opportunity and freedom that is america. washington is trying to smother that with regulation and taxes. they are wrong. i believe in america. i believe that we stand by our allies and friends. i believe in strength. i believe in a strong military and a strong commitment to the principles that keep us the help of the earth. -- that keep us the hope of the

earth. [applause] i want to close with a couple thoughts and then turned your questions. we are at a unique point in time in american history. there is a recognition on the part of the american people that something is really wrong with our government. even when my dad ran for office in the 1960's, we used to talk about deficits and too much spending. that was a message that struck home with our base. it was not something that independents or democrats warmed to. on the list of things people are concerned about, national debt rarely made it to the top five. that has changed. it is now no. 1 or no. two. is now the economy and our debt. that is good. it means the american people

focusing on what has to be dealt with. when the "washington post" criticizes president obama for not proposing reforms to social security, you know something is happening in america. this is a paper whose editorial board i presume is liberal. they are something -- saying something has to change. when our people. the truth and are called upon to take bold action, americans will rise to the occasion. we are a very patriotic people. when i was helping run the 11 games in salt lake city a number of years ago, -- when i was helping to run the olympic games in salt lake city a number of years ago, our athletes put their hand over the heart for the anthem. i did not see any emanation do that. i asked if other nations do that

and apparently they do not. i was told the practice began during the years of franklin delano roosevelt in recognition of the blood shed by the heroes fighting for our liberty. we would place our hands over our hearts. we are a patriotic people. as i place my hand over my heart, i think about the blood sacrificed by our sons and daughters, by noble families in the past and today. the american people rise to the occasion as long as they're told the truth and given a pathway. we have every opportunity to share the truth with people, to explain to them that we believe in america, that we got it right, that free enterprise, freedom, opportunity, strength, standing with our friends, american values are right and true. they're the only way to preserve peace on the earth and keep the american dream alive. we must come together and

communicate that to our friends and sacrifice for the greater good of the greatest nation on earth. i know there are some who would apologize for america. i find that a strange thing. our free enterprise system is now being picked up by places like china, india, and parts of africa. it has helped us lift billions of people out of poverty. there is nothing like it in the history of the earth. we have pioneered in lifting people out of poverty. then there is the blood of our sons and daughters should for liberty around the world. what you are doing here makes an enormous difference. let's work together to make sure that we can remain as we as a lawyer -- let's make sure that we can remain, as we always have been, and the hope of the earth. [applause]

thank you. thank you. i see a hand up already. >> [unintelligible] >> i have to tell you about this young lady. come up here. i recognized almost everyone in the audience who is important except the most important person to me, my dear wife, ann. [applause] i am going to say something first. she is quite a champion. she was diagnosed in 1998 with multiple sclerosis. she is gone to work to overcome that and be physically able to

do what is required in her life. a couple of years ago, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. she is a fighter and a hero. she is the mother of our five sons and the grandmother of our 16 children. [applause] >> my heart and have been good friends of ours and also to recognize what a wonderful tennis is to feel as though we do what a wonderful thing it is to feel as though it is something you work for and loved and cherished. mitt and i appreciate that, having come from a religious heritage, because that gives you such a sense of peace and family and dedication that we pass on from generation and generation,

so i honor that as well and appreciate that. when i was sitting in the audience, as you know, i have heard him speak quite a few times, and i am still moved by what he says. if he does decide to go forward, he will be an absolutely wonderful president of the country. [applause] >> i appreciate all of your comments, and i think we can all agree on just about everything you said. i just wanted to ask you one question, and i apologize for

this, but i am a physician, and it is relating to health care. we studied the affordable health care bill, and it has caught many, many problems, and most people would agree that it would be best eliminated and unfunded. i just wanted you to contrast that to massachusetts and the health-care system that developed in massachusetts when you were governor, and how would you make sure that whatever happens to reform health care would be different. >> thank you. good question, and that is the first time i have been asked the question, so i appreciate the chance to address it. [laughter] first of all, you all have universal health care,

socialized medicine in your state, and i say that a bit fishy sisley -- a bit facetiously, but if somebody has a heart attack or cancer, as you know, we do not let them die on the street. they go to the hospital and are treated, and guess who pays for them? you? government. you are all paying for it. we found out that was happening in our state. we found that a number of people that even though the employer offered them health insurance, they said, "no, we are going to turn it down." why do you turn down coverage when you pay only 20% or 30%? and they said, "because i can get it for free just by showing up in the emergency room." we are willing to say that the people who have the ability to pay should pay for themselves, and that concept lead for us

coming up with an experiment, if you will. now, that experiment has not worked perfectly. some things have worked well, some things have not, but we allow states to preserve powers not specifically granted to the federal government, so we took on a problem, with republicans and democrats working together, and we came up with something, and we tried it, and i would never do what president obama did, which was to usurp the power of the states and replace it with an overreaching government hand. that is not the right way. the first thing i would do as president is grant a waiver from obama care for all of the states. i could go on, but i am told to stop when they applaud. [applause] thank you.

>> recently, donald trump has begun an attack against president obama. when you were government of massachusetts, i was one of your citizens. >> thank you. >> when you ran against shannon o'brien, you ran what i will call a gentlemanly type of campaign, as we saw in a recent government rates. it was also kind of gentlemanly, and if you have the opportunity to be the candidate, are you willing to take on more of what i call this type of approach to running? >> there is no question. it is in my view, when you run, when you disagree with somebody on policy, but as much as i disagree with obama on his domestic policies, which have cost us jobs, and men and women who could be working are not working -- it causes the breakup of families.

it causes people to give up faith. it causes children to not go to college. i will take him on aggressively. and, by the way, if we get the chance to talk about health care, of course, he does mean a great favor by saying that i was the inspiration of his plan. i will say, "if that is the case, why do not call me? why did you not ask me?" i know what you are doing, mr. president, is going to bankrupt us. we cannot spend more money. even if obama care was perfect, we cannot spend more money at the federal level. i am not going to go after people on innuendo and personal attacks. i prefer to do it on policy, because i want to make sure that the difference between us is as clear as day and night on every single issue where there is a difference and the people do not

get confused by things that may or may not be relevant to independent voters, hispanic voters. my goodness. we have to talk about opportunity and freedom. we have to draw in the huge number of people who come here has immigrants. -- as immigrants. ours is the party of opportunity, and theirs is the party of handout. they did not come here for a handout. they came here for an opportunity for themselves and their kids. thank you. the young lady right here, almost in front of me. >> thank you, mr. romney. and thank you for having the spirit of what i think we all believe and know. hopefully, we will see you in the white house. in a couple of months -- [applause] in a couple of months, the quantitative easing that we have been living under is going to go away.

the strength of the dollar looks like it is falling, and there is a risk of its being lost as a reserve currency. in that case, oil may no longer be priced in dollars, which could be another problem. when you start your campaign, and as you enter the white house, how will you deal with that? what would your response to that in your approach to that, and what can we start doing today to start to prepare for that >> you know, you heard yesterday, i believe it was yesterday, the presentation from ambassador sam fox, where he described the national policy. by the way, i find it interesting coming from the private sector that we have a government that does not publish a balance sheet, and in the business world, if somebody said to you, "here is the income statement for my company. how much we pay for it?"

i would say, "we need to look at your other numbers." building facilities here, employing americans here and around the world. people make these investments arm around the world, and if they think our balance sheet is a sick, the investment is going to be overrun by massive inflation or economic collapse, they will not invest, and if they do not invest, we cannot hire more people and give people good jobs paying good incomes, so what we have to you urgently in this country is deal with the fact our balance sheet keeps getting worse and worse every year by greater and greater deficit spending. if you look at what is happening, our spending is going like that, and our revenue is not increasing at the same rate. let's take about where we spend our money. right now, washington is embroiled in the discussion about discretionary spending.

this is an important topic. we are doing a lot of things we like to do it simply cannot afford to do. we have got to stop. then there is another 20 percent of the budget, which is the military, and let me tell you, there is a lot of waste in the military. there is no question about it. we have got to cut out the waste, but i am not going to cut out the waste that ruins benefits. we need an air force that can protect us and of soldiers on the ground that can assure people run the world that america is strong. look. i recognize that we are a peaceful nation, but there is no greater allied for peace than a strong america, and so we are down to about -- well, let's see, we had about six fedor chips in the second world war. the navy said we needed to have 313, and we are on the way down to about 250 or 220, so we're

going to have to continue to invest in the military, said the military i would keep at about 4% of the gdp. then there is nonmilitary discretionary. 60 percent that is entitlements and interest. that is where the money is. if we are trying to get the trajectory of our spending down, especially for people can recognize we have solved our problems and our balance sheet will be cleaned up, and they will continue to invest, to do that, we're going to have to take on the reform of our entitlement programs, not changing an iota for the seniors, but going to people in their 20's and 30's and 40's and 50's and tell them, "we have got to tell you the truth about these programs to make sure that they are sustainable and that we can on these promises without killing the country," and i think that is something we will talk about in 2012. i am glad -- the washington post had their criticism for the

president not taking on social security. we have got to do that. we have got to tell the american people the truth, and i know, when i wrote my book two years ago, and i put a chapter in there called "the worst generation." the baby boomers keep getting bigger and bigger benefits for ourselves, hoping the next generation will pay for it. that cannot keep going on. i am convinced the american people understand that. but there are other people who believe that even raising the topic of reforms is touching the third rail of american politics. i am told that you cannot possibly write or talk about this thing and not win an election, and if that is the case, so be it. we have to tell the american people the truth, and the american people are patriotic enough to do something about it. [applause] you guys can make the choice.

we have got a whole bunch of hands all around the room. you about the microphones. >> a great job today. i have agreed with just that everything you have said, but, as you know, as you know, there is a movement afoot about the violation of oslo accords. supported by most other countries, in particular terrorist supporting countries, and what will america do? if you should decide to run for president, if you were present, would you rebirth the recognition of late unilateral palestinian state could >> let's just say this. it would be reprehensible and wrong for the united states of america to cover declare an

independent state. the palestinians and israelis are going to have to negotiate among themselves. [applause] and i think we should make this the last question, because i think you should get some food. i hate stand between an audience is lunch. >> what are your opinions about the reform of the tax code? and if you are in favor of it, can you tell us in what ways? and would you make it revenue neutral? >> yes, what i would like to do with spending and taxes would be to have a cap on federal spending as a percentage of our economy or of our gdp. the government has spent about 18.8% of gdp, and our taxes have been roughly at that level. 18% or 19%, whatever no. we agree on, and we say that the federal government is not going to spend more than that level

korea that is number one. i am not looking for ways to have the highest income people pay the smallest share. i know there are some people who would like to do that, but i would like to find ways to simplify the tax code and make it more fair. how would you do that? there are some who advocate the fair tax which is a national sales-tax. that has really positive growth features. as it is currently envisioned, it lowers taxes greatly for the low with -- for the highest earners and raises the most for the lowest earners. that has to be adjusted. i think it will be a long time before washington griffith a consumption-based tax. i think the thing that would be most likely at achieving would be a dramatic reduction in the

rate of individual taxes. i think that makes sense. they achieve the same revenue outcome by basically eliminating some of the special breaks and exemptions better in our current tax code. we cannot attract the investments of mothers and fathers and families and pension funds and wealthy people, we cannot attract those investments all around the world to build enterprises if we of the highest tax rate in the world, and among developed nations, america is a sin to have the highest corporate tax rate in the world. that will not create jobs. i am not looking for ways to make rich people richer. sorry, son. [laughter] i want to be the very best to help the people of america find good jobs and have good incomes, and if we say, "you cannot spend more than 18.5% of gdp," that is one way to do that, and we can look at ways to keep our tax

rates down. there are some taxes that make no sense in our tax code. i do not know how familiar you are with something called the repatriation tax. this is an unusual tax. let's say if microsoft makes $5 billion selling software to the chinese, and they have got this big profit, $5 million in china, if they leave it there, they do not pay u.s. taxes. they just pay chinese taxes, but if they bring it home, we will charge them the difference, up to 35% more in taxes. does that make any sense? we're telling people if they leave the money outside of the country, we will not tax you, but if you bring the money home, we will tax you. $1 trillion in corporate profits sitting outside of the united states, much of which would like to come back here, and i am criticized for saying that. they say they might give some of

it to the shareholders, and the shareholders will buy things, and they will invest in america and create jobs. it is amazing. i spent some time in government, as you know korea only four years. my life has been in the private sector. thank you. i spent 25 years in the private sector. i spent four years as spending -- serving my state as governor. i would occasionally exchanged shots with others in the legislature, and most of these individuals had never worked in the private sector. i remember one conversation i had about our prison system in massachusetts, and i was looking to see if we could bring in a for-profit prison company to lower our costs, and the people i was speaking with said, "well, governor, they will be more expensive than we are." and i thought, why will they

think that, and they said because they have to turn a profit, and they do not, as i said, "i do not think you understand the free enterprise system." it gets people to do things at lower and lower cost. that is the idea. that is why china is copying us and india. the rest of the world is saying, "yes, that incentive works." one thing we have to make sure is not to burden the entrepreneur real creative spirit of america with government. more and more regulation and bureaucracy and red tape and taxation. if we kill what has made america america -- [applause] this is a great and patriotic room, and i am talking about the people in this wonderful group.

the rjc has had a great impact and will continue to have a great impact. thanks so much. thank you. [applause] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2011] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] >> that concludes our morning program, and it's certainly ended on a very high note. just a reminder, the luncheon is just out of those doors. if you are not registers and would like to join us for lunch, we can still register you. we have got our evening reception this evening at 6:30 in venetian ballroom, and then the dealer dinner this evening,

which is going to be pretty extraordinary, to follow after the reception, so enjoy the rest of your day.

>> kentucky senator rand paul was the featured speaker at a g.o.p. event in des moines. he was introduced by iowa senator chuck grassley. this is 30 minutes. >> do you realize they gave me a couple of minutes to say something?

first of all, i owe it to all of you and hundreds of dozens of people who are not here for giving me the privilege of serving iowa in the united states senate, and to all of you people once again, thank you very much. [applause] to make sure that we get turned around, and we will turn around. if there is one thing if you do not remember anything else, these are three months into this session, and we have got another 18 months to go before the next election.

there are things that the democratic congress and president have forced on the people, 22% on top of a $814 billion deficit, or, i mean, stimulus that did not work, keeping the unemployment not under 8% back always over 8%, and also, for the debt we have for about 50 years, and maybe most of you think that is too much, but today, it is 65% and is on a path to be 95%. over the next two years, to preempt that at 22%, get back to a 2008 or 2000 level of expenditures and freeze for five years after that, and maybe even do better if we can, but at least i'm telling you what my

goal is, of and also, to get this debt down so we do not leave it to our kids. i want to introduce my distinguished colleague, and i want to put in the context that i hope you know, and i think the past months have proven it, but i hope that the upcoming months prove it more, as a result of the last election, the new people who were elected, including our distinguished speaker, and it was the greatest number of new people elected to congress since 1938 and the largest number of people elected to all the state

legislatures since 1928, so it was a watershed election but, again, if you just remember one thing, and the new people have proved this better than i can prove it. the leadership thought we could do better than we ever have before by cutting expenditures. the leadership takes it to the caucus. listen, mr. leader. we ran on a platform of cutting

$100 billion. so these people were committed to what they were elected on, and this is good for all of us to stand up and say, where in the constitution doesn't say we have the authority to do this? what are you going to say to chuck grassley, why does it take a bunch of new people to tell you that you ought to be doing that? well, it should not take a bunch of new people, and maybe it does not regularly, except it has never been part of the thought process every day like it is now. that is what is different, so that brings me to -- [applause] that brings me to our distinguished senator from

kentucky. a -- rand paul/ so far, he is not quite as famous as his dad, but i bet he will be. he graduated from baylor and got his medical degree from duke, duke medical school, and he is an eye surgeon, ophthalmologist, but and he has got his eyes focused very well on the constitution and not spending money. i think we can give him some credit, maybe all the credit for

2007 when he said we needed a modern day revolution. he has a very clear vision about america's future, a clear vision of the voters' expectations, and we hear it from the caucus, and we hear it on the senate floor. he is a tea party person, who has put -- he is a tea party person who has brought a great deal of passion to congress there are people who have said, "i agree with everything you do, but you do not have enough passion. well, i am chuck grassley korea -- .

but the passion that he and his father into politics are a very, very important. as i say, he has a clear idea of the path that james madison set us on i served with him all long time ago. [laughter] he said our government is by consent of the governed. [cheers and applause] and the second been that i hope

president obama remembers is that he talked about the american exceptionalism. in the first paper of the federalist papers, and it was a frenchman who came over here who talked about that, and his name was de tocqueville we have a senator guest with us this evening, and if you could give him a great iowa welcome to rand paul. ♪

>> my song -- my son robert was playing. that was really exciting. the one thing you will know within five minutes of senator grassley is that he cares about iowa, and there is nothing false or disingenuous about senator grassley. you are very lucky.

and the other senator, are you about to say anything about him? there is sort of a debate, and i try to say, "you know what? we could buy a lot more if we did not have to pay scale wages in iowa or kentucky." i do not think i got anywhere. so when i got to iowa, the governor was very nice, and he invited me over to the capital,

and you know where i am. i am in a double wide trailer in washington. i have seen his office, and i have seen my office, and it is hard to budget out of there, because i have seen his office. there are some who want to stay here and take care of iowa, and that is great, and i congratulate you on your new governor. about 1902 or 1903, there was an author who wrote "a man without a country."

about six months later, you will spread your head and say, "how did the rest of these guys get your?" i went to a city in kentucky, and we are rural. i grew up in a small town. i think we were on our bus tour, and a woman came up to me and grabbed me by the hair and said, "i just wanted to know if it was

a toupee or not." the thing to have to put up with. and i said, "hey, maybe. give me a break. i am just having a bad hair day. the senior senator is mitch mcconnell and sit at another desk. i was kind of intrigued by the history of this and excited. i told one of my colleagues that i was going to sit at henry said, "are, and he you going to be the great compromiser?" , i learned that henry became speaker of the house in his first term. he was president of the senate.

he ran four times for president, and he lost to james polk. i learned about him being the great compromiser. when i was little, i read about him keeping people together. that may have been true. from my point of view, he kept the union together but, but maybe by compromising something we should not have. he voted for the fugitive slave law -- slave law.

he gets a lot of credit for being the great compromiser, but sometimes he is compromising a misplaced ideal. we do not think what we're compromising over. he did not free the slaves at his death. he was to free them 20 years after his death, so is the compromise worth it? there are people who say, "give him a break. he was just a man of his times, and that is is what people did at that time, but the thing is, there were people who did not accept slavery at the time. he had a cousin by the name of cassius clay. he was also from kentucky. there was a great boxer named after him. he was a great abolitionist, and when he came forward to the lectern, he put his bible down

and his bowie knight. you did not mess with cassius clay. he had a sort of take no prisoners style. henry clay was probably probably -- probably probably more for a different stance. they never spoke again. henry clay did not have a place for the emancipation of will for his cousin, cassius clay. he would call out the slave traders. one night, in a small town near lexington, and he was stabbed in

the back repeatedly, and he falls to the ground. tom turner takes a pistol and holds it to his head and fires, and it misfires, and he does it again, and it misfires, and the third time he does it, cassius clay used his ninth -- knife and gutted him. there are sometimes we should fight for what is right and not take the easy way out. [applause] i think we have to ask who are our heroes? are we in fraud by the great unanswered pater? what about his cousin, cassius clay? corsa centuries of recorded history, we were plagued by smallpox. in about 1721, the smallpox

plague was coming, and it was a terrible and awful disease and an awful death, and sometimes as many as 50% of people who got smallpox would die, and there was a doctor, and he had heard from a famous minister at the time about a technique they used in africa and the middle east, and what they would do was take pus from someone who survived the smallpox, who had the discrete version, and it sounds pretty gross, but we are not having dinner tonight, but but the thing is, everybody told them it was the wrong thing to do, and the established doctors said it would be malpractice. it was said to be enormously dangerous, and the person who got it could die.

the vast majority of the town would get it and die, so he inoculated his son. talk about bravery. he inoculated his son, he and his son survive, and he saved people from smallpox. within a generation, they all did inoculations. everybody was doing it, and it became acceptable, but it took somebody brave enough and bold enough to step forward against popular opinion and do what he felt was right. i think we need more people like that. we need more people in washington who will lead instead of follow. i think we need -- [applause] i think we have a president who is not leading the country. we have a president to have basically abdicated his role of leader and is not doing what we

need as a country. [applause] now, some would say that the issues we deal with today have no moral equivalency to slavery. they do not have the infectious urgency of smallpox. but i would say when we think about this, we should ask, can a civilization that does not respect life, will we be judged at some point in time whether we stood up and said that the law in the land should respect the unborn? will we be judged for that? [applause] we face a day of reckoning, not

only a day of more a reckoning and our country, we face a day of fiscal reckoning. we have significant problems, and i think it is rapidly approaching, where we will be able to pay our bills? will we destroy our currency? can we continue to spend and spend money we do not have? we are running in annual deficit of nearly $2 trillion. you say, "i read the paper. it was only $1.60 trillion. it is a lot. what is $1 trillion? how can you imagine what $1 trillion is? ronald reagan used to use an example. it is about $1 million if you stack it. in giving it to $1 trillion, it would be 67 miles high. we are no longer talking about

billions. billions are passe. we are talking about trillions. here is the rubble of the whole debate out there. we are talking trillions in deficits, but we are talking billions in cuts, ok? the democrats have offered up $6 billion in cuts for the rest of the year. what does that mean? nothing, absolutely nothing. we borrow $4 billion per day. we spend $10 billion per day, so probably what we are going to get is a compromise, $33 billion, and that is three day'' worth of spending, and it is about 2% of one year's problem. there is a disconnect. what i got home, or if i could 28 tea party, the you know what ice a?" when i go home, they say, "that

is a good start." [applause] but in washington, when i talk about $500 million in a penalty, -- there is a disconnect. we all want to balance a budget, but guess what? to balance the budget, we will have to cut spending. people tug at your heart strings. they come with terrible childhood diseases, at -- there is someone who has a sign in his office which says, "if you have, looking for money, you are in the wrong office." there are so many with justification. can we help these people have this disease or who are struggling and suffering? the question we have to ask for each of those people who, , is it justified to borrow from a

future generation, or is it justified to borrow from china or japan, or work -- will they even continue to loan money to us? i fear that the day of reckoning has been moved up because of the disaster in japan. china has bought over $1 trillion. japan owns about $886 billion worth of our debt. but we've relied on them continually buying our debt. can japan continue to buy our debt when they have problems at home? the way we buy our debt is by making more money from the federal reserve. we simply print it up, and that destroys your savings and the value. ultimately, everything goes rapidly up with inflation. we are facing a day of reckoning, and it will take leadership. i do not think we are getting leadership in the white house.

the leadership on our side, i know you need to take it seriously, and i know that you do. it is not enough to be a republican. it is not enough just for the republican party to exist. political parties are empty vessels unless we imbue them with values. we have to stand for something, and we have to mean it. [applause] there was a man written about who was 11 years old. he comes home from a ymca basketball game in illinois, and it is a cold evening. it has been snowing. he da finds his hed passed out, did to the world. -- he finds his dad. he reached down, and he dragged

him inside, getting him on of the cold. this young man did not give up and say, "woe is me. what can i do. i have these awful family problems. how can i do this?" this man lived in 30 different cities as he was growing up. this man was growing up to be ronald reagan, the man with a sunny optimism and a charisma that shined so brightly that it got this through the malaise of the late 1970's. it pulled us out of a serious recession. he had an optimism that tugged so vitally at the heart that he changed a generation of democrats in to republicans. that is the kind of bold leadership that we need. that is what we need. we need bold leadership, people

who will and can articulate the american dream, people who can understand that the american means that we believe in the individual, that we believe in you. when ronald reagan said that government is not the solution to the problem, government is the problem, we need to articulate that, but we need to articulate that we are the solution and that the solution has unlimited potential, if we can get government out of the way. america is a great country, i think the greatest country that can be conceived because we got our documents right. we enshrined liberty and freedom in our documents, and we should have respect for those documents. one of the things i am fighting this week, and we will continue

to fight next week, i think the most important vote we will take when we are up there is whether or not to go to war or not, whether or not we send our brave young men and women to war should be something that we vote on. now, president bush got a lot of grief from a lot of different angles for the afghanistan war and the iraq war, but do you know what? in both instances, he came to congress, and congress at least voted on that before we went. these are the checks and balances that our founding fathers wanted us to pass. this is a terrible precedent, to go to war without coming to congress. they had time to go to the u.n.. they had time to go to nato. they think it is more important than congress. it is awful. he had time to go to the u.n.. he had time to go to nato.

he had time to go to nato. he had time to consult with private citizens, but he did not have time to go to the end of connecticut avenue and talk to your representatives. that is going to have to change. [applause] senator grassley and mentioned about us being exceptional, and i think that is true. it is not about our skin or our dna. we are exceptional because we in braced individual liberty and capitalism. but we have to remember to obey these things. we have to remember to update our constitution. james madison said that the constitution is what is demonstrated, the executive branch most interested in war and most prone to war, therefore, the constitution has

been given that power to the congress. it was a division of power of checks and balances, very important to our founding fathers. we need to have a debate over that. i hope to have just such a debate when we go back. as we move forward into the next cycle, i think there is every chance that we can have great success. we had great success in 2010, and we can do it in 2012, when i asked iowa to help us find the right person. thank you very much. ♪ >> lets meet one of our top winners in this year's student

cam competition. a topic that does better understand the role of federal government. today, we go to silver spring, maryland, to talk to our winner, a sixth grader at a middle school. how are you doing? why did you decide to korea a documentary? >> well, i lived about two blocks away from the national institutes of health, said that was a pretty convenient thing to do that i could get information from there, and also because whether it is the flu shot or whatever, it seems like it is pretty interesting to do. >> what is the history in the country?

>> there was an english person who gave someone smallpox and call that a vaccine. all over the world, especially, and the smallpox vaccine was used, and people started using this technique all over the united states to create communities -- immunities? >> what about allergies and diseases today? >> the researchers are searching for an hiv vaccine and a malaria vaccine, and those have been declared extremely important vaccines. the flu vaccine, there are always new strains, and the different vaccines are always coming out. >> in your documentary, you

interviewed a doctor with the national institutes of health. >> i learned all sorts of things. having nih make the different vaccines, and they produced the vaccines. >> and what is the government role in distributing vaccines? >> the government researches for the vaccine, and then they create a prototype, which they then give to the pharmaceutical company in order to have the pharmaceutical company distributed to the general public. >> and finally, what did you learn from working on this documentary? >> i learned so much. i learned about how the vaccines are made.

i learned about the polio vaccines, jonas salk, and i learned about my great uncle, who actually got polio before the polio vaccine came out. i also learned about how to interview people and about film, and and learned about the video editing things. >> thank you for talking with us today. >> thank you. >> and now, here is a portion of her documentary. >> institute that i direct, our top priorities over the next several years are an hiv vaccine, a tuberculosis vaccine, and a vaccine that we will call universal flu vaccine, namely a vaccine that you can give once or twice in the lifetime of an individual that will protect them against these.

>> what do we do with them? they cannot produce enough of the vaccine for everyone. therefore, with the pharmaceutical companies. >> nih never produces a vaccine in large quantities. we do fundamental science and then handed over to the pharmaceutical company so that they can produce it in large quantities to be made available for the american people and for the global public. >> and you can see this at studentcam.org, and you can continue the conversation on our facebook and twitter pages. >> necks, "q&a," and then british prime minister david cameron in the house of commons -- next. after that, former