has a special place in our firm. he joined us as a special advisor based upon his extensive experience. we are very happy to have him. indeed, the firm has been privileged to have him. the city club is privileged to have him. i daresay america has been very privileged to have john boehner as our leader as the third most powerful person in our government for years. today, he will share his comments on the future of our political system, in case there happens to be any question about that these days. [laughter] ladies and gentlemen, i give you the retired speaker of the house of representatives, john boehner. [applause] mr. boehner: where do i begin?

big thanks, fred, for your shirt inspection -- sort introduction. i think you did a good job without getting too carried away. thank you to the city club for the opportunity to be with all of you today. did has been a longtime friend, supporter, and i did not know this was your luncheon. thank you for having me here. , rightere six years ago before i became speaker. i came to your indication, to an economic speech where i called on the president's to fire his economic team. they did not like that. they savaged me after the. i think i was right. here is six years later, no longer the speaker of the house after spending some 25 years.

as i told the students at notre dame, notre dame gave vice president biden and i an award. and you know that is a let word. in english, it means rejoice. exactly what i have done every day since i left. [laughter] people stop me and think i'm going to go back into the government. i had a cab driver wondering if i was running for the senate last year. oh, no, no. i'm supposed to talk about the future of politics. i thought about this and thought wait a minute, i am no expert on politics. i have never even taken a political science class. that, i'm the son of a bartender, what the hell do i know about politics? about me,'t know much i grew up in cincinnati. i have eight brothers and three sisters, and my dad owned a bar.

i tell people there are a lot of lessons i learned growing up that were lessons that really helped me do my job. i grew up in a big family, learned to get along together, get things done together as a family. i grew up in a barn, -- in a bar, learned a couple lessons there. one was big able to disagree without being disagreeable con summing up probably helped me more in my political career than anything else. if you run a bar, you can disagree with somebody, but you are going to have to put up with them all night long. you want to be nice about it. best lesson i learned growing up in a bar where i mopped floors, waited tables, is you have to learn to deal with every jackass who walks through that door. i never thought in my wildest dreams i would ever get involved in politics.

like a lot of you, i worked my way through school. i played half -- i played football. boy.ius worked my way through xavier university, found myself in a small business. i grew it into a successful business. along the way, i got involved in my neighborhood homeowners association and ended up as speaker of the house. [laughter] mr. boehner: this too can happen to you. i never in my wildest dreams ever thought i would do anything like this, but i was kind of made to do what i ended up doing throughout my career. very happy about it. what a political year we have had. well no, i knew there was something i forgot. i want to congratulate cleveland on the biggest year you have had in a long time. [applause] i thought cleveland

had a great year when johnny manzella signed up and when lebron james is coming home and there was this announcement that the rnc was coming to cleveland. that was a big year. winning the nba championship, going to the world series, and then hosting the finest republican convention i have , everyone i talked to around the country after the convention could not have said nice things about cleveland. how nice it was, how nice everybody was, how safe it was, and none of that nonsense that people talked about, none of that really happened. congratulations on a really good year. goingure donald trump is to be pretty happy. he had a pretty good year as well. something is going on around the world. it is not just here in the united states were a guy named bernie sanders, a man who was

elected for the first time when i was elected for the first time .n 1990 he was a socialist from vermont and came to washington, old liberal curmudgeon guy walking around. trust me, that shocked people in america. all of us who served with bernie over the last 25 years. he doesn't talk to anybody. he might have been the most honest guy running for president. he actually believes all that crazy stuff he says. [laughter] you can't help but love bernie. , really.d trump he is a friend of mine, we had played golf over the years, but i never really thought donald trump was the kind of guy that wants to be president of the united states. i had af fact, conversation with can you believe this? is that no paradise that i can't either.

here the united states. you watched the brexit about going on earlier this year in break -- in great britain. you what was going on in france, in germany, a look back to the arab spring. there is something going on in the world. intod of wood boiler down -- i kind of would boil it down into a couple points be or you have eight years of very slow to know economic growth. -- thesult, middle-class middle class and their standard of living have her really fallen -- have really fallen buried not just here, but around the world. that of frustration americans aren't you as well as they would like to be doing. the kind of job migration we used to see in our society is kind of disappearing. of your incomers sliding, your standard of living sliding, you can imagine that

people are frustrated. it's not just here. i think it is elsewhere around the world as well. secondly, look at how the media has changed. how we get information. a couple decades. a couple decades ago, we had one radio talk show host in america that no one had ever heard of very we had one cable news channel that just did news. we had an internet, but only a couple of geeks in palo alto, california were using it. now here we are today where hundreds and hundreds of radio talk show hosts are spewing out all sorts of noise. look at all these cable news channels. nothing but politics 24 hours a day. you have an internet that allows people to talk to each other, to organize themselves. platforms that people never had before. then you have facebook, youtube, twitter, linkedin, a whole long list of other places that spew

.nformation it is just intense. if you think about it, we would never have known about a policeman being shot in dallas, texas, 30 years ago. because it would not have been in our papers. it probably would not have been on the national news. now we know everything that happens in america, we know everything that happens all around the world, every day. when you look at all this information that is coming at all of us, you realize that people are probably getting 100, maybe 200 times more information about their government than they have ever gotten. certainly more than 20 years ago. what makes it even crazier is that people get to choose where they want to get their news. bigsed to be we had three tv networks, five big newspapers and a couple big radio stations. and they pretty well set what

the news was going to be for that day. now you have all this information coming at you so people get to choose. toe go to buzz feed, some go fox news. i asked an early 30-year-old this fall where they get their news. he said comedy central. [laughter] mr. boehner: that thought ought to scare people. informationof this does and what i said before, it allows people to organize themselves. i had a few not glad had to work with in washington, they were on the republican side -- a few knuckleheads to work within washington. we always had a few members off the reservation. the media kind of ignored them. today, they can create their own platform and grow their own movement. like donald trump created his own movement, or bernie sanders created his own movement.

what makes it even more dangerous, more difficult, is that the speed at which people get the news today is instantaneous. i remember a time when i was serving in the state legislator .ith pat sweeney thankfully, you don't look any uglier than you did then. [laughter] mr. boehner: that is just me being me, sorry. back then, sweeney and i, we could work something out and cut some deals. it would be a day or two before it would end up in the press somewhere. not these days. would have to go meet with president obama and have to organize a way to sneak to the white house, because if i walked into the white house like i would normally do, the white ring press would just go -- right wing press would just go nuts. frankly, the left wing press would go after president obama.

oh my god, he is meeting with boehner. all of a sudden, you have no room to maneuver. all of this together, you can kind of begin to understand that we are in the midst of a political revolution. in the midst of a political revolution, trying to govern is next to impossible. it is going to make it more difficult, i think, in the coming days and years, for the people in public service to actually be able to govern and do what we really expect them to do. we had a big election this year as well. back in the spring, i would talk about the candidates who were running on both sides. i was -- it was pretty clear to me that hillary was going to be the democratic nominee. i told donald trump after i said i would vote for him, i told him

, nors not my first choice my second choice or third choice. but he is the nominee so i'm going to vote for you. springpeople back in the that anybody that doesn't think donald trump can't win, you are wrong. he can win. people ask me could donald trump win ohio? winourse donald trump could ohio. in fact i predicted donald trump would win ohio. you look at where the demographics in ohio are, the top third of the street -- state -- toledo. those are largely democratic areas in the state. if you look at the people donald trump was appealing to, they live right here in the top one third of ohio. what trump did was to get their votes frankly early on, all of , all retired auto workers

of the rest of the union guys and gals who are up here. when he actually won the inction was in the fall october when republicans started to actually come home. over the phone, i did a lot of speeches and made it clear that hillary is going to win. i thought 6040 chance she was going to win -- 60-40 chance she was going to win. pollsters think they can model who is going to show up, it is just their best guess who is going to show up. i used an example that i have used many times that polls don't decide elections, voters do. my first race for congress, i was in a race with an incumbent republican in a primary, and a former republican member in a public and primary. is hard for people to vote for somebody when they can't say your name.

you know my name looks like been her, boehner. i've been a desk this former member, his name is tom kindness. i never had a poll showing me within a voice of winning -- within 80 points of winning. we turned out people who would not normally vote in republican primaries. i had 500 volunteers, each got 10 other neighbors who happened to be independents opt to vote for me in a republican primary. i won by 5000 votes. -- iy was more surprised thought i was going to win, but i was the internal optimist. my opponent must of been completely shocked because there's no way could lose when you are up 82 points. when you look at the selection once again, i told audiences this fall look at this, the

enthusiasm gap. how enthused are you about your candidate? trump led the whole fall. the turnout in the republican primaries was up 40%. the democratic primaries was down 20%. really shouldn't surprise a lot of people that he actually did have a chance. well, he won. now what? something has happened in washington over the last 5, 6, 7 years, where it was almost impossible for me to do a deal. when i talk about doing a deal, i talk about coming to an agreement with the president on what we both think is in the right interest of the american people. and people would just have their pitchforks out for me, and for the president, because we were

able to come to an agreement once in a while. i've just got to tell you, i just think it is wrong. now we've got a guy who is got a book called the art of the deal. donald trump will do anything. people asked me what advice would you give each of these candidates depending on who wins? i said i would give each of these candidates the same advice, and that is -- presidents don't have much power to do things on the rhone. if you really want to get big things done, you have to find a way to work with the other side. you have to find a way to work with congress to change the laws to make real change. to do that, you have to have honest relationships with both sides of the aisle, and the leaders in the congress. , there are a lot of frankly big things that can happen. i always thought it was important when i became the

speaker that i had good relationships with my colleagues , my other leaders. and, frankly for that matter, the president. the president and i've butted heads a few times. we learned to get a long with each other. ,ot that we always agreed because our job was not to agree. our job was what can we agree on? to changeexpect him his principles, and i don't think he expected me to change mine, or to compromise my principles. himamerican people elected president, they elected a republican congress. our job on behalf of the country was to find the common ground. where is it? finding a way to cut a deal is critically important if we are going to be successful in america. i like to think donald trump has the opportunity to do that. he is kind of a democrat. he is kind of a republican. he has no ideology.

he has nothing that is going to i'm tim for credit -- nothing him is going to bin d when cutting a deal. congress is a committee of 535 people. the american people expect great things out of that congress. this is why the leaders have to be able to look each other in the eye, trust each other in order to get things done. when i announced i was going to retire, i got more than a few phone calls. the first phone call came from one of my dear friends, george w. bush. i can't tell you what he said, nor what i said to him. the second call came from president obama. boehner, you can't do this, we have to get this done. we have to get a debt deal, we have to get a debt limit, and budget. he was going on and on. finally, the president says "hey, boehner, man i am going to

miss you." i said mr. president, yes you are. [laughter] knew each other, we understood each other and could talk to each other. we had a lot of disagreements. all those lessons i learned growing up in a bar -- the art of -- e are a lot of people i workedof the people with on both sides of the aisle are the most decent, honest people you could ever find. fighting for what they thought was right for their constituents in the country.

just because you are a democrat or republican does not mean the other side should excruciating you because of your view. you have a right to your view, i have a right to my view. the president has an opportunity to reach out and work with congress. there are big things he can get done. tax reform will be hot on the congress agenda. immigration reform will not go away, it has to be dealt with. infrastructure is probably one .f the first things we have huge infrastructure needs and no way to pay for it. construction paid for with the gas tax. all of our cars are getting more miles to the gallon. the gas tax revenue continues to drop your after year and well continue. will continue to drop.

we need to find a new source of funding for infrastructure. the meantime, dealing with the fact there are two and a half trillion dollars of you and a half -- of u.s. structure sitting overseas that will not come back because we have excessively high taxes, i can see a deal being cut with blowback at a lower rate. fixing the system so we do not have to deal with that long-term and they will find an economic unit -- analysis that will determine this will produce 100 or $500 billion in new revenues and then use that money to find a longer-term infrastructure program. it would be a great way to get started. i think it would be great bipartisan support for a plan like this. you know, donald trump sees himself as larger-them-life. as you might imagine. atd of reminds me of looking

a teddy roosevelt. you know, teddy this guy was a lot like donald trump. larger-man-my. when teddy roosevelt became president he wanted to do big things. and frankly, he did do big things. i think there is an opportunity in this new political order to do big things. but big things only get done on a bipartisan basis. and round with the president about this in 2011 when i became speaker. if you go back and look historically, big things get done when both parties have their fingerprints on the deal. so, i think he has that opportunity. it is going to be an exciting year. we thought this pastor was exciting, just watch what happens over the next 12 months. remember this, we live in the greatest country in the world. a country that there is no limits on what you can

accomplish. the only country in the world where you can be the son of a bartender and grow up to be speaker of the house. god bless all of you for being here today. thank you. [applause] >> thank you, mr. speaker. are enjoying a friday form with john boehner, 53rd speaker of the united states house of representatives. we're about to begin the q&a session. we welcome questions from everyone. those of you joining us the oh radio broadcast, webcast, or do, live simulcast at the cuyahoga county library. if you'd like to tweet a question, please tweet

@thecityclub and our staff will try to work it in. your question should be brief and to the point. holding the microphone the art content coordinator terry eisenberg and director of program's, stephanie jansky. may we have the first question please. andtion: speaker boehner, would like to ask a question, and in the campaign, the question of trade. in ohio, people have suffered because of the trade arrangements. and many people and companies have prospered. how do you see that situation working out this year. mr. boehner: it is difficult to rearrange a trade agreement. though,ase of nafta nafta is now 20 plus years old. it is probably time for all of the countries involved in nafta to take another look at it. i am on the other side of this

issue. trade has been great for america. trade has been very good to ohio. yes, there are job dislocations when you have trade but when you look at it on the whole, and my unofficial been very to the united states and i would argue, very beneficial to ohio. shoulddoes not mean it not be reviewed from time-to-time. i make this point, enforcement of these trade laws is critically important and i am not sure we have used the resources we have two and force the trade laws with already agreed to. i do think the transpacific partnership is overdone, it dead. it was overdone, and dead, a year ago. view. because for five provisions decided at the end of the negotiations they could never pass muster in the congress. there probably aren't 10 votes in congress for the transpacific partnership trade deal.

i think this u.s.-european conversation is pretty much at a standstill but i do think on the trade front, the u.s., great britain trade agreement. while they are exiting the european union, they are not part of an eu trade agreement so they have to make their own trade agreement and i think as our closest ally, as our closest friends, i think discussion between the u.s. and britain on a free trade agreement would be in both of our country's best interests and rightly, be very alpful to the brits as negotiate their exit from the european union. question: great to have you here today. issue of a $19.6 trillion debt. is the new president and his new secretary of treasury

and the senate leadership and speaker ryan and ms. pelosi, all --you together, what did would be your recommendation as to how we finally and effectively address the debt before gets worse. mr. boehner: we have spent more than we broadened has a country for 50 of the last 65 years. let me say the scanning case you thought i said rep. we have spent more than what we last 65in for 60 of the euros. you can't do it at home, in your business, you can't do it here, either. the president and i were on the verge of the grand bargain in july of 2011, we stood in the president and i and shook hands on a debt reduction deal that was over $5 trillion the first 10 years. over 25 years, it might have been in the

20,000,000,000,000-20 $5 trillion range. because of the changes we're talking about. frankly, my greatest disappointment in my year of politics was one that deal fell apart. that you have got big drivers of the debt. baby boomers are retiring at record rates. they are living longer than everybody ever expected we would live. taking up more social security, more medicaid. those programs are not sustainable in their current form. and, we're not talking about massive changes. aks totalking about twe give these programs, essentially critical to the american people, a firmer foundation. until that happens, frankly, there is no chance that you are going to reverse the deficit spending week continue to do. never going tore

solve this problem without really economic growth that allows the economy to grow, that be -- allows better jobs to created. allows the american people to learn more and frankly, as they are more common to pay more in taxes. if you don't have economic growth growing economy and controls on spending you just cannot get there. we were there in the late 1990's . we had a balanced-budget deal with resident clinton. what happened? five years of a surplus. five straight years, surplus about $600 billion over this five years. what happened? spending only grow at about the rate of inflation. 4% or 5%as growing at above the rate of inflation. so you have more income coming in, holding on spending, and the result was we had a surplus. you can do it but it is going to be tough to do.

members do not want to go to make changes for social security, medicare, or medicaid. they just do not want to do it. even some of the most conservative members want to talk about balancing the budget, they actually have to vote on the specifics, shriveling like a flower on a sunny sidewalk somewhere in august. so, don't hold your breath. is aion: mr. speaker, it remarkable active diplomacy that the pope accepted your invitation to address the joint session of congress but not too long after there was also a memorable situation where a campaign nominee, donald trump, took on the pope in a back-and-fourth conversation. maybe, i wonder, does he need to repair a relationship there and him so, how?

mr. boehner: i think pope francis will forgive him. laughter] mr. boehner: i have to tell you, you might have guessed i grew up catholic. went to catholic grade school, high school, university. i was an altar boy growing up. i get to congress and we have got some world leaders addressing the joint session of congress, the house and senate. when we had a new pope, i sent him a letter and asked him if you come and address the joint session of congress. i was junior member of leadership, brand-new majority. back nothing.eard the next pope comes along, i invite him to come. it did not happen. so when post francis got elevated, i sent him a letter. luckily for me, when of his close allies in the united trying to a cardinal

convince him to come to the u.s. and the pope said no, i am going here and here and here. but he said, i got this letter from your parliament and the i am somewhat intrigued by this. well,e cardinal said, john boehner is the speaker of the house. ine involved in helping kids washington, d.c., get an education. i have a number of programs i'm involved with in washington, d.c., helping kids of all stripes get an education. and the pub says, all right. i will come. so the cardinal calls and says, boehner, you cannot tell anything but he is coming, he is coming. it turns out at the same time this meeting happened my daughter tells me she is pregnant with my first grandchild. others cardinal and -- work the vatican

over to try to get the pope to baptize my grandson while he is here. you might not know this or think about it at the vatican has this 200-year history of bureaucracy over the united states. they are good at this and they finally came to me and said, listen. the pope will be happy to bless your grandson but we really don't want to do a baptism. ok, fine. ande get to the pope coming it is a big deal. i have every camera in the world in my office. i greet the pope. we finally get all the media out of the room and my chief of are with sevenwe cardinals and a pope. i looked at my chief of staff and said, what are we doing here? laughter] mr. boehner: i had a nice meeting with the pope and my family was in the adjoining room. they start government, the pope

and i gets up and the pope turns to his assistant and says, get me a glass of water. no, really? so i watch his assistant go get a glass of water, bring it back. the pope takes in his right hand, puts it into his left hand a candidate i am waiting for him to bless him and he just took a drink. the greatest fake out you have ever seen in your life. laughter] mr. boehner: i was absolutely convinced he was going to baptize him right then and there. -- ig the pope there was guess i don't want us there was the most memorable experience of the 25 years i was in the congress. i have never seen members of the house, democrat or republican

more excited. >> mr. speaker, thanks for being her. i am a little sheepish about this following that story, but i recall your comment about the budget deal in 2011 at bella part. there was an interesting exposition the new york times the following spring that got into the inner workings of the back-and-forth of that. putting aside the substance of that, i was fascinated by how the deal fell apart kind of in relation of classic roles of where you keep your counsel. you seemed beyond frustrated in that expose. wondering what the benefit of the years of past, can you tell us more about that and more importantly, is there a lesson

to be learned from that for the people that need to cut the next deal? mr. boehner: frustrated does not i feltgin to explain how about that. i had spent six months with the president trying to work through this and work through these came to me my staff sometime in july of 2014 and my staff sat me down and i thought, do wrong. and they said, you were about to risk your job if you continue withg your conversation the president. i said, listen if i can get this deal done and begin the process of getting america back on a sound financial foundation, so be it. but bob woodward of the washington post writer, writes a lot of books. he writes a lot of washington books. and he wrote a book about this.

it is 98% correct in my view. all of the facts were there. so, in my world when you shake hands and cut a deal, it is a deal. -- may regret it later but later, but if you shake hands on a deal, it is a deal. i was floored when the resident decided to walk away from it. incidentally, i do not think the president was well-served by his own staff. question: welcome to cleveland. is there something hillary clinton could've done that would have the outcome of the election? think so.r: i don't you know, look at donald trump. he ran against 16 people in the republican primary.

and, you know, 13 of them were good opponents. i want talk about the others. talk about the others. it ran away with him. donald trump had a better understanding of what was going on through the minds of the american people than a majority thane american people anybody else. bernie sanders created a movement, for god's sakes. all right? he was relatively closer to where donald trump was in terms of understanding the frustration people were feeling, more so they and hillary. >> you what ended by talking about how great america is, yet we have a president-elect that got elected by how great america is not anymore and promising a lot of things that may or may

done. able to be how accountable is he going to be? how will congress or the media hold him, who will accountable? mr. boehner: this is donald trump. he says a lot of things he will not do. the exact opposite. so, the president-elect is going to be the president elect. and, you know, the media will probably point out these things aboute changes his mind immigration or a few other things which i suspect. but, his voters do not really care. that is the amazing part. they don't really care. trumpen it comes to this administration, i would encourage all of you to do this. attention to what he says. just watch what gets done.

ifell people all the time, you see a politician who looks good, they are probably not telling you the right thing, all right? so don't listen to what they say, watch what they do. it is what they do that really matters will stop i tell you right now, donald trump is going to surprise you and a lot of other americans. listen, this guy was never in politics. it does not take long being in politics to realize it is not good to have people angry with you, upset with you, afraid of you. so my guess is that donald trump will move quickly to call people's nerves. i predict right now, he will be the immigrant's best friend. just watch. question:. can we get to the next question

-- john boehner: can we get to the next question, please? question: how will you make college affordable? mr. boehner: congress can't make college more affordable because they do not control the prices that universities charge. this problem is so far out of control i would not even know where to begin. is $1.2 trillion worth of student loan debt. over the next year, i saw a from theis morning government accountability office, we are about to lose $208 billion of that because it cannot be repaid. so, something needs to happen to these student loan debt already out there. the fact we're going to allow it

to get bigger is probably not going to happen. i think colleges and universities have a whatnsibility in terms of they charge. and terms of how they are running their organizations and what you are going to see longer-term, more online schools that frankly do a very good job without all of the brick and mortar and expense. you will see more and more of that going on around the university systems. i think frankly, you will see a but ire of that will stop do not know that there is a lot -- you will see a lot more of that. i don't think there is a whole lot congress can do to help that. politicians will tell you they can but i do not know that that is the truth. question: speaker boehner, your remarks today were very insightful but the question i have is, we have in this election, the minor political

parties record numbers of votes. is that more a reflection on the candidate on the major parties or is that a change will see going forward and potentially the democrats and republicans offer each one a set of views on the issues whereas, you know, these minor parties offer a different set of views? mr. boehner: i think the third-party candidates that ran, they mostly get protest votes. if you look back into the summer when people were upset with both candidates, their numbers were wenty high and as the fall on, their numbers continue to dwindle until election day when they did not get much of the vote at all. we are fortunate in the united states to have, in my view, to have essentially a two-party system. if you look around your, they sometimes 12 political parties. not one political party could ever get a majority.

so they have to compromise who they are to form a government with some other parties. why the time there comes an agreement with two other parties of former government, they have nothing and do nothing. that weortunate essentially have a two-party system. now, within those parties, i can go through all of the divisions in the democrat party or all the divisions within the republican party, we'll get lumped in there worksworks -- but it better here than, friendly, it works anywhere else. but i do not see any decline in the two-party system as long as it is open and transparent. you know, they start to play a lot of games, there could be a third party. question: hello. mr. boehner: hello, i like your

hair cut. you, i likeank yours, too. [applause] question: was a lot of pressure you felt as speaker of the house? mr. boehner: i gave up pressure about 20 years ago. pressure does nothing for you except kill you. it does not help you make better decisions. so, no. i just decided i was not going to do it anymore. you know, there was more pressure standing appear today giving a speech than i've had in the last five years. because i've not been a lot of these for a while. and, no, i just -- it gets in the way of making a good decision. i used to watch some of my colleagues in leadership and some of myself stuff run around with chickens -- like chickens with their heads cut off when things were falling apart but it was easy for me to just kind of sit there and not worry about

it. question: hello. can you speak to the rise of the all-time in right within the alt-right -- of the within the republican party on can you speak to the cabinet the president elect is putting together. mr. boehner: i am not sure what you're talking about. question: the white supremacists. mr. boehner: i don't think they are part of the party. they may have voted in this election by i don't know. i better stop myself right there. [laughter] mr. boehner: the second question was about the cabinet. so far i think they have made some good choices. and, i expect they will continue to make it choices. this is not going to be anything

like anything we have seen before, all right? election likeen a this in our lifetime and we are not going to see anything in this coming year like we've seen before. debtll see donald trump's more to the teleprompter so he is less like himself. and, you know, the choices he is making is, you know, there are some patterns. a reason why these people are being selected. so, you know, he is not going to be milquetoast. there are some people who are going to carry out the administration he once to have. remember, he is going to do think things in my view. or attempt them. laughter]

boehner, if. there's one thing you could do over and your political election what would it be? mr. boehner: you know, i can tell you i have not one regret. i decided early in my political , i thought, 20 years from now people are not going to care how white voted other than me so i made a commitment to myself my entireer violated 35 years in public office and that was, at the end of the day i was going to vote in such a rightat i believed was for my constituents or my country or both. vote in myt one entire political career i would do over. there were probably five votes over those years that i could go on this where that way but i finally made a decision and look, after all of those votes,

five or 10 was the maximum number i ever had a problem either way on. wasn look back and say it one of the best decisions i ever made because i am the one who had to live with the votes that i cast and i want to be able to look at myself in the mirror the morning and say, you did what you thought was right. not what you thought was lyrically correct or would get more votes. and, frankly, there is enough of the today in terms of doing right things for the right reasons. it is not rocket science. you doinghow are speaker boehner? mr. boehner: good. this is almost over. the congresses are some of the most polarized i can remember. what did you do personally to

combat bad and what can the new congress due to combat the cultural and political polarization permeating the country? -- boehner: i and that fellow republicans believed in something different. when i did find common ground, people did not want me to cut any deals. any deal i cut with the president was bad. it was bizarre. but it was what people thought. one of the great things about this election is this all went away. we have donald trump. you know, tim ryan from youngstown, one his district. so here is tim ryan going, og, you know, i am a democrat and i then there do x but

are people in the district. right wing republicans, i am know, who,here, you they don't want to do anything because unless it is perfect whatever perfectness, they are not for it. they're looking up, they got a bunch of these donald trump people in a majority of their district. so if donald trump is for it, they are going to have a hard time being against it. we do not have a president that has any left -- ideology. left wing, right wing, there is not. so, get ready for a ride. this is going to be a ride. all of the rules we have seen, you know, ground rules that sweeney and i had for many years, those are all gone. so get ready. your seatbelt on, it is going to be a wild ride. [applause]

>> that brings us to the end of today's forum. thank you mr. boehner, thank you ladies and gentlemen. the forum is now adjourn. bell rings] chattering] announcer: c-span, where history unfolds daily. c-span was created as a public service by america's cable television companies and is brought to today by your cable or satellite provider. >> in the weekly address, first

lady lady michelle obama joins president obama to deliver a message. representative tim murphy of pennsylvania has the republican response, giving tribute to the sandy hook shooting victims. he also talks about helping americans living with mental illness. president obama: merry christmas everybody! one of the best parts of the holiday season is spending time with the special people in your life. and for me, that means getting some help from my best friend for our annual christmas weekly address. mrs. obama: given how our first christmas weekly address went, i realized that barack needed all the help he could get. [chuckling] mrs. obama: this is our first christmas in the white house. [laughter] mrs. obama: you have got to pull it together.

potus! [laughter] mrs. obama: celebrating the holidays in the white house over these past eight years has been a true privilege. we've been able to welcome over half a million guests. our outstanding pastry chefs have baked 200,000 holiday cookies. president obama: that is a lot of cookies. mrs. obama: and barack has treated the american people to jokes.ss bad president obama: although a few got a -- frosty reception. ha ha! mrs. obama: there is another one. this year's white house holiday theme is "the gift of the holidays," and our decorations reflect some of our greatest gifts as a nation: from our incredible military families, to the life-changing impact of a great education. president obama: and the greatest gift that michelle and i have received over the last eight years has been the honor

of serving as your president and first lady. together, we fought our way back from the worst recession in 80 years, and got unemployment to a nine-year low. we secured health insurance for another twenty million americans, and new protections for folks who already had insurance. we made america more respected around the world, took on the mantle of leadership in the fight to protect this planet for our kids, and much, much more. by so many measures, our country is stronger and more prosperous than it was when we first got here. and i'm hopeful we'll build on the progress we've made in the years to come. tomorrow, for the final time as the first family, we will join our fellow christians around the world to rejoice in the birth of our savior. and as we retell his story from that holy night, we'll also remember his eternal message, one of boundless love, compassion, and hope. mrs. obama: the idea that we are our brother's keeper and our sister's keeper. that we should treat others as we would want to be treated. and that we care for the sick, feed the hungry, and welcome the stranger -- no matter where they come from, or how they practice their faith. president obama: those are values that help guide not just my family's christian faith, but that of jewish americans, and muslim americans; nonbelievers

and americans of all backgrounds. and no one better embodies that spirit of service than the men and women who wear our country's uniform and their families. mrs. obama: as always, many of our troops are far from home this time of year, and their families are serving and sacrificing right along with them. their courage and dedication allow the rest of us to enjoy this season. that's why we've tried to serve them as well as they've served this country. go to joiningforces.gov to see how you can honor and support the service members, veterans and military families in your community - not just during the holidays, but all year round. president obama: so as we look forward to the new year, let's resolve to recommit ourselves to the values we share. and on behalf of the all the obamas michelle, malia, sasha, bo, and that troublemaker sunny - merry christmas, everybody. mrs. obama: and we wish you and your family a happy and healthy

2017. thanks, and god bless. ♪ representative murphy: this picture means so much to me. i keep it on my desk in my congressional office. it was given to me by a proud parent. this is daniel. daniel - just seven years old - was at sandy hook elementary school on december 14, 2012, when a troubled young man took his life and those of 25 others, and ultimately his own. you know, if there's one thing we cherish at christmas, it is the comfort and joy of being surrounded by the people we love. but every day, 959 lives are taken, directly or indirectly, indirectlyby mental illness. last year alone, 350,000 lives were lost because our broken mental health system continues to fail american families. rather than getting those who need help most into treatment, we leave them out on the streets or throw them in jail. this is heartbreaking. and, it is unacceptable.

as a practicing psychologist, i have seen firsthand how difficult it is for families to navigate our broken mental health system. outdated laws prevent the families and caregivers from being a part of the treatment team. often, this has fatal consequences. we need treatment before tragedy, and care before crisis. after sandy hook, we launched an investigation into our nation's broken mental health system. courageous families stepped forward to tell their stories. and we started to understand the real problems - over 110 federal programs and a $130 billion investment that did little but stand by and watch rising rates of suicide, incarceration, and homelessness. but we needed to do more than just talk about this problem. we needed to start solving this problem. by the start of 2016, we had pushed mental health reform towards the top of washington's to-do list. and last week, one day before

the sandy hook anniversary, president obama signed into law the most significant mental health reform in 50 years. with this new law, we are finally breaking down the wall between physical health and mental health. now federal agencies will be moving from vague feel-good programs to ones that emphasize evidence-based care for those at the highest risk. for the first time, there will be an assistant secretary for mental health and substance use who will lead the way, evaluating and improving the system. we'll be investing in services for the most difficult-to-treat cases and ensuring that family members are a part of the care delivery team. we'll be training people to recognize the signs and symptoms of mental illness, including law enforcement officers for how to best respond to a potentially violent situation. we'll be providing real resources to combat substance abuse, and specifically for the opid