of sgr on oco. we would like to get it off the table so there is no uncertainty. as to the care they will receive. again, it would not relate to sgr. if there was an element that would justify doing something on medicare. unless there is an upside to it. there is real concern that republicans had said they will put forth their budget for this year. it makes seniors pay $6,000 a year more for medicare. why is that a good idea? can we get the money someplace else?

>> another thing you are passionate about is democracy in china. you have always thought about that. do you still think about the activists that were arrested? >> absolutely. i had a bit of a change with the chinese government. they decided that we have been fighting for so long that we might as well get to know each other better. they invited me for a head of the state visit a couple of years ago. i told them i want to focus on climate issues and energy issues. that is a place we need to work together. i am not going to ignore the human rights issues and aspects of its. met of the dissonance is in the u.s.

some are being released. others are being arrested. some were at in jail and are now back in. the most excruciating pain that a tyrant can exact vote on a political prisoner is to say nobody remembers why you were here. they did not even care that you are here. we promised that we will always be beating the dum tree -- the drumbeat so their names of be on the house. last year i had one really special privilege. it was to be invited by the chinese dissident who won the nobel prize to be a part of the delegation.

his family cannot go. he chose the delegation to represent him in norway. it was an empty chair. it is a very eloquent statement that went around the world that the chinese would not allow him to come. the nobel peace prize people said this further proves that we were right to give this nobel prize. >> how do think [inaudible] will do? >> teammate a big hit going over there. -- he made a big hit going over there. he is proud of this cultural heritage himself. as we leave it the subject of human rights, let's focus on

syria. this is stunning. 5000 people already killed by the regime's there. people were hopeful that there had been some progress. i am going back some years. clearly, if the regime has turned an ear to what is happening. >> i forgot to ask you, the state of the union. are there to be dates again? you have a buddy system with republican stack? >> it is always worth a try. i like to have a date for when the committees will meet to do the tax cuts. >> who will be your buddy this time? to ask somebody? >> we will ask each other. it is a nice gesture.

it was awful ourselves into saying we're singing cavall-- ls not try ourselves into saying koombayhah.singing podium beeaker's closer together? why do have to speak at it from podiums? i am all for this. i would like to see some follow- through. >> you have done something i like to do and rather fear. many of the people have switched from blackberry to iphone. >> i love it. it is just magical. the manifestation all of the

choices that people have a in life. 25 years ago i came and we had three networks and a newborn cnn. cnn was very new at the time. the passage of the act was the late '80s. by the late 1990's, 600 channels to choose from. now in your very own hand not only that choice but a choice to receive your information in real-time, not waiting for the nightly news or anything. just to have it in real time. information is everything.

i love having my little pal there. mike year-old grandson said he is asia. -- mike year-old grandson said he is asian. he is a chef. on thanksgiving, i was cooking. he was on the counter behind me. i said, do you want to cook breakfast? is it your the chef. he had picked up my iphone and was watching "cars2." i could not do that in a million years. just imagine the difference at all of this is making. the of all the choices.

it is right that we should have all of that access for information to make this better informs. that is what we want to do. everybody knows where the money is coming from. >> i want to thank our live stream audience. thank you for the breakfast with our friends. thank you all of you for coming out. >> i think all of you, too. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012]

>> the south carolina presidential primary on saturday. today the candidates were campaigning throughout the state. rick perry was in south carolina. later, bill kristol of the weekly standard weighs in on the republican presidential race.

>> only those who have shown the resolve to defend the freedom of the west are being safeguarded in the times that lay ahead. >> the decade that open debt before us must see the lasting triumph of liberty. the world needs britain and britain needs us. >> nicknamed the iron lady, margaret thatcher is currently being portrayed on screen by meryl streep. what's the real iron lady online at the c-span video library. more than 100 appearances. >> there are some countries that would like to hand over some of their financial affairs to a

european central bank. this is not our view. we do not wish to hand over for their powers to other bodies. >> clip in share. it is what you want when you want. >> rick perry continues a south carolina campaign. early he hosted a town hall at a veterans of foreign wars post. he is introduced by alan cummings at this one hour events. >> how are you doing? good.

>> how are you? >> you did great. >> we had a little fun last night. there you are. >> thornberry, good to see. >> thank you all for coming out. >> stay right where you are. don't get up. thank you all for being here. we appreciate you. could morning to you. thanks for coming out. >> we were just talking about -- [unintelligible]

we auctioned off once a and ended up on ebay, and we bought it back. thanks for what you are doing out there. how are you, sir? it is good to be here with you. thank you for coming out. ♪ thank you for coming out. rick perry, how are you. thank you for coming. there he is, the navy then. good to see you, sir. >> good morning, governor. >> thank you for coming out. that is all right. how are you? >> we have georgetown, just north of austin. >> i am from stanford, connecticut. >> thank you for coming out. thanks for your service. we were over at georgetown. that is a pretty little place, just a gorgeous town. we really enjoyed the time we spent over there. we walked down -- we got a pretty good tour.

then we drove back through the town and those big oak trees, i have to think that is a great city to live in. >> i was away from it for 26 years, serving in the army, and i was glad to get back. >> thank you. rick perry, how are you? [laughter] we cannot be tired until saturday. >> i am fine, thank you. >> we had fun last night. >> governor, how are you? >> thank you for coming down here. mike was here last night. cassell will have to do long introduction of mike.

he is easy to introduce. >> ladies and gentlemen, i want to thank you all for being here with us today. what a great opportunity we have got in south carolina at the vfw to meet a couple of great americans. we have a fine pair here. this pair will be a full house any day. ladies and gentlemen, i had the opportunity some months ago to be present at republican national governors' association winter meeting. it was in park city, utah. i was helping a friend of mine who works out at park city and he runs a sleigh ride business. he invited me to go up with him. he said there might be some people there you want to see.

sure enough, there is one of the first persons that decides to jump into that horse-drawn sleigh, it is governor rick perry. i had had rick perry on my mind for quite some time. i had known him from the time i spent in texas. i knew about his record. i knew that he had brought in more jobs in texas during the worst economic times of my life in this country, and i think of the lives of everybody in this room, he brought more jobs into texas than any other state court in the union. i had been thinking for some time that is what america needs. america needs a job creator. american need someone, a ceo of this country that knows how to

get the government out of the way of doing business. and get the country down to business and create jobs. we need somebody that understands how to deal with our porous border, and who better than the man who has created more jobs than any governor of the country? who better than the governor that shares a common border with mexico? while we were sitting together in that horse-drawn sleigh, governor, what about it? will you run for president of the united states? he said allen, i am praying for that right now, and i hope to have a decision soon. his decision brings us here

today, and i am so proud, i am so proud to call rick perry my friend. he is a friend to south carolina. he is a friend to the united states of america. ladies and gentlemen, would you all join me in a good, hearty, the vfw welcome to our friend, governor rick perry. [applause] >> thank you very much. allen has to go back to the state house, so i told him to get on back up there and earn your money today. god bless you, and thank you for being here, and to all of you for coming out on a nice, overcast morning. it is real honor for me to get to be traveling with some of the people i am traveling with today. i will tell you, mike and i have known each other a long time.

a young fellow i have known even longer than that is my son, griffin perry. i thank you for coming out. it truly is, to be in the vfw, to be surrounded by men and women who really understand that freedom is not free. the cost of that, a lot of people talk about, but you all understand to the core of your heart. in your soul, you understand, because you have made that sacrifice. as the old profit, isaiah, when god was asking who is going to go for us, who is going to represent us? he held his hand up and said here am i, send me. those of you in here, when your country needed to, you held your hand up and said, here am

i, sent me. that is such a powerful display of love, of devotion, of honor. it is one of the reasons that i tell young people, there is a lot of ways you can serve your country. there is a lot of ways you can volunteer to give back. but wearing the uniform of your country, i put as one of the highest levels of service. i will be forever thankful that i grew up -- i grew up in a little place called paint creek, texas. you'll have to do some heavy research to find it on a map, unless it is texas road map. i had it put on the texas road map, but it is about 200 miles west of fort worth texas, and it is pure rural, dry land, and forming. a little school out in the middle of a cotton pad.

the form to market road posed by and there are two churches, a methodist church in a baptist church. you had two choices. it was a great place to grow up. i scout master was also my superintendent of sunday school and also the president of the school board. he was a 1932 graduate of texas a&m and was part of patton's third army. he regaled us with the exploits of those individuals during world war ii. my greatest privilege and live with that i was the son of the be-17 tail gunner. these were the people who helped develop the values and principles that i live my life by. there were people who understood those concepts of selfless

sacrifice. they are the ones who taught me the values of conservatism from the standpoint of whether it was confirming our money or whether it was good serving our water. i grew up in a house that did not have indoor plumbing, so conserve and water was a big deal. taking a bath and a number to washtub does not take you long in the wintertime on the back porch. i am a hard-core conservative when it comes to that. i was conserve water back in those days, i just did not realize that is what i was doing. that is the fiber of who i am. it was those individuals who reflected about how you live your life. it was those people who i will always be grateful to god that i had the opportunity to be around them. they and their friends, my dad was a vfw member, obviously, and we would go to the american legion post as well. we would see individuals and

talk about that our country is strong because we have a strong military. it is because of the selfless sacrifice, the individual who volunteered to serve our country. my dad will be 87 in april. he has been a county commissioner for about 28 years and he understood about service. service to your country, your state, or your community. my dad said your responsibility is to give back to your country. there are people who came before you who sacrificed. that is your responsibility, to serve in the military, to serve your community or your state. i am standing before you today -- i live a purpose driven life, and it goes back to my father,

my mom, and people who understood that you give back. that is what this country is really based upon, giving back. no other way reflect that better than men and women who have worn the uniform. it is such a powerful message that we continue. dad and i were talking the other day and he still pays a lot of attention -- i just love my dad. he taught me so much. he said you know, the government is supposed to do three things really well. they are supposed to secure and defend our borders and deliver the mail, preferably on saturdays and on time. i said they do one of those pretty well. but two out of three is not good enough. it really is a reflection of

where we find ourselves today, with a country that is allowing its federal government to get so big and onerous and impact us could as the government its bigger and bigger in washington d.c., our liberties get smaller and smaller. from my perspective, that is what this election is really about. obviously, coming to the vfw today, traveling with mike, being around those of you who have served our country, and making sure we continue to support the young men and women of our armed services is of paramount importance, and how we take care of them -- we were just talking about, he has been such a sacrificial man all of his life and continues to help these young veterans coming home who are impacted in a number of ways.

it is one of the things i have focused on and make sure that we do in the state of texas. i challenge other governors. you need to put programs in place that sent the message that your state respects and supports and helps those young men and women who are coming home. whether it is making sure you have policies in place from an economic standpoint so that they can find a job when they get home, all too often these kids, particularly over national guard troops they get pulled in and out, they comeback. we make sure their jobs are being held for them in the state of texas. we make sure that when they come home, what they have

learned in the military can be transferred over into college credits without them having to sit there and ride it out at a community college or one of our universities, so they get credit for the technical things they have learned. it makes a huge difference and gets them into the work force to transition into that civilian work force. we give our veterans who are disabled -- if you are 100% disabled in the state of texas, you do not pay any property-tax on your residence. that is a powerful message to those who have served, that we are recognizing, and i continue to look for ways to be able to send a message to those young men and women that what you did will never be forgotten. it is not just a memory or a parade very i believe the president of the united states ought to be able kasay when you come home from military service, we are going to have a parade to thank you.

but there are other ways to do it. there are other ways that a more concrete that last longer than the memory of people saying thank you for your service. i want these individuals who are coming home, particularly those who have been wounded -- i want to offer this for the country to consider, a wounded warrior tax exemption. if you have been wounded, if the dod has designated you as an individual who has been wounded while you were on service to the united states, you get a five- year exemption from paying any personal income tax in this country. [applause] that is sending a message. that is sending the message that will last longer than a parade. it will last longer than a proclamation on wall and a pat on the back. all those are important, but to be able to clearly say, to help

financially to get their lives backed, these post 9/11 veterans certified by the department of defense deserve that type of exemption, if you sacrificed that much for your country. the least this country can do is to give you that type of support when you come back. as someone who has worn the uniform of this country, i want to tell people -- and as the commander-in-chief for the last 11 years, as we have deployed our national guard to multiple theaters, to iraq, afghanistan, we have had our troops in bosnia during the time i have been governor. i understand, not only having worn a uniform, but also having been the commander in chief for the last 11 years, the impact it has, not just on our

warriors, but also on their families. at the president of the united states, our sons and daughters will not be sent into a conflict unless there is a clear and compelling reason for us to send them in. when we send them in, i can promise you, we will send them in with all the power and might that the united states can put in place to win, not to go for any other reason than to win and to get it over with and get back home as soon as we can. [applause] that is the commitment i made to the men and women, not just in the military, but the men and women of this country.

i want to talk just a second about the campaign we are going through and the issue that i think is on a lot of people's minds. that is obviously the economy. as alan share with you, i have had the great privilege to oversee the 13th largest economy in the world over the course of the last 11 years. we created more jobs than any other state in the nation, over a million jobs have been created in my home state. i cannot wait to stand on the stage with barack obama and talk about our job creation differences. i will bring a stark contrast to the current president of the united states when it comes to the issue of job creation. we know how to do that. we know how to do that as a country. you cannot overtax and over regulate and expect of entrepreneur is to continue to go risk their capital when they don't know what the next shoe to drop is. when the regulatory climate is eating them alive and the compliance cost chris just chewing up the profits, of course they are going to sit on their money. that is what is happening in

america today. people have lost confidence. they have lost confidence in washington d.c. we have an administration that looks at energy policy and basically says, you all are going to have to learn how to use green energy. mr. president, i don't have anything against green energy. wind and solar and other alternative fuels, i don't have a problem with that. but washington, d.c., doesn't need to be forcing americans and saying here's the energy you are going to use. the president said prices are going to go up because we are going to green sources of energy with no regard to what's it going to cost. washington, d.c., doesn't have to mandate to the american people. quit trying to pick winners and losers. the market will do that, mr. president.

let us decide. we need to build a pipeline from canada down to the united states so we can have that oil refined into energy for america's use. open up the pipeline, mr. president. create the jobs. [applause] >> when the unions are building that pipeline, he's on the wrong side of the issue, period, quit listening to the environmentalists. they aren't going to leave that oil in the ground in canada. the other way it will go is to the west, to china. so pick one, mr. president. is it going to be china or going to be the united states? the pipeline has been studied

for three years and one of the safest pipelines ever built, 20,000-plus jobs and $5 billion to the states in resources. this is a no-brainer. build the pipeline and open up our federal lands and waters. we have 300 years' worth of energy in this country. that is a powerful, powerful message. we can be independent of those countries that don't have america's best interest in mind. but we have to have a president that's committed to this country, committed to this country's energy independence, committed to this country's military, committed to the young men and women. i see dr. hatfield and hold your hand up. this is the head of the school of military history at the university of texas and one of the great military historians in the world. dr. hatfield, thanks for coming with us. you ask him any question on military history, and i appreciate you being with us today.

he and i have been on magnificent trips to normandy and powerful influence on our young men and women back in my home state. mike, i wanted to take a moment, and as we wrap up here, i'm not going to talk a lot about mike. he was here last night. you all know his story. anybody that has that blue ribbon around your neck and that star, mike thornton truly is an american hero. his service to our country in the united states navy, navy seal. when you read his citation, the one thing that jumped out at me, i suppose in the last century at least, the only medal of honor recipient to save the life of another medal of honor recipient, tommy norris, whose live he saved in that mission back in vietnam in 1972 was extraordinary. give it up for him.

mike thornton, ladies and gentlemen, a great american and a south carolinian of some repute and he is living in the state of texas but from the state of south carolina. [applause] >> there were two residents from the south of south carolina and ended up at the alamo together and travis was the commander of the alamo and bottom was a lawyer from a wonderful family and it's those people -- it's south carolina knows how to grow patriots. you have done it from 17 70's in the revolutionary war through all of the different conflicts that we have had in

this country. south carolina knows how to grow patriots and heroes. and one of yours from whitestone, south carolina, mike thornton. >> thank you. it's great to be back among our friends. thank you. many of the ladies have served our great nation, too, in uniform and i say a special thanks to the spouses that are here and what they do for this nation because people don't understand the sacrifices our spouses have made as we travel the world to keep our nation

free. i have been to 76 countries in my life. thank each of you for being here. i have known lynn for years and years and my helped start the spartanburg post in 1968 and he signed my piece of paper and i became a lifetime member of the v.f.w. and still on the roster up there and my good friend dave moorehead is here, too and we thank you for your leadership up there and what you have helped with the state. ladies and gentlemen, i served this great nation for almost 26 years and i retired the navy seal team and a navy seal will be a hit man for the mamafffa and i started a security company. i moved to texas when i met rick perry 16 years ago. rick is a doer and what he does, he surrounds himself with

great people and people have the answers and rick gives up on the point, he moves forward. what he has done his past 11 years as governor, not counting the jobs, but what he has done for the men and women in the great state of texas and what he continues to support, rick, how did you do this and he tells them and they have taken that and projected to their states and they have raised the awareness for our military veterans. we have the greatest country in the world and we have veterans and 26 million are living in this this country and stand as one and keep this nation safe and free for our children and grandchildren and their future as americans. and people don't look at it that way.

we have to be strong and stand up for what's right because it's the right reasons. all of us went to war, we went to war for our nation but for each other. the medal i wear belongs to each and every one of you. it be longs to the ones who fought before me as i met several of the world war ii vets, but it be longs to the guys welcoming home from vietnam. we can't change the past, but we sure as hell can make the future better for our young men and women and that's what rick does in the state of texas. we have retirement homes, we have new cemeteries and places that we can take care of these kids. and we have the outreach for different organizations that want to support all veterans. no matter if you were from vietnam, world war ii, vietnam, desert shield, desert storm, we

are moving forward to take care of our veterans and that's the type of leadership that rick does. what he does with the economy is unbelievable. the job situation there and i have been all over text and veterans when they come out and retire and in places like fort bliss, texas and around houston and retire in that great state of texas because they have someone who cares about their retirement, someone who cares about their life after the military. someone hoist going to care this will the end of their life and somebody cares about their families and their children. and they will have a place that will be free and will continue to grow. i'm not going to stay up here much longer, but my home state of south carolina is the place i love. where my father's buried and where my mother lives and my brother lives in greenville and sister and brother-in-law live in start tanburg and my

grandchildren live in carolina beach. we have had a lot of great americans -- mike williams who was a medal of honor recipient. there are more medal of honor recipients since 1906 in the state of south carolina than any other state in the united states. [applause] >> because the people of south carolina care and they understand and they are going to fight for what's right. and with your support and your vote, i would like to ask the next president of the united states to come back up here, rick perry, to answer some of your questions. god bless you, god bless your families and god bless america. thank you very much. [applause] >> mike thornton, ladies and gentlemen. that is what our country is all about, men and women who

understand that freedom is not free, there is a great cost. when he went back in across the field of battle to go get tommy norris, you know, the commonsense brain was saying don't go back in there because this guy is dead, that's what he was told and he said just like james butler bond, who was stopped as he had left to go find out the question whether reenforcements were coming to the a lmp amoo and why are you throwing away your life away? he said buck travis needs to know the answer to his question and his request. and in the book "lone star," he spat on the ground, spun his horse and rode into i am mortality. mike thornton represents everything that's good about

those people of south carolina like james butler bond, an individual, he went back in. he saved a life. he made a difference. he continues to make a difference. he continues to save lives with the service he gives today. having people like mike thornton stand up beside me and say, listen, i want this man to be the president of the united states. it matters. it's a powerful message. having the newest medal of honor recipient has endorsed us as well. the young navy seal who wrote the book "lone survivor," they will be here on thursday, having those individuals, dan moran, a young marine, who has gone through 30 different surgeries, hit by an i.e.d. in iraq and spent two years in

brook army medical center. i got the phone call one after phone from my classmates from texas a and m who was a major general in the marines and said i'm sending you one of your boys and probably won't make it because his lungs is burned so bad. third agree burns. and we looked after him, we looked after his wife. this young man is on the campaign trail with me. today. he's still in pain. he still has the demons that attack him, but he loves this country so much. he has an incredible christian witness and he wants to help his friend, who he trusts and knows will lead this country be

the president of the united states. so, mike, i want to say thank you to you and to your colleagues that have endorsed and working with us and for all of you here again, let me say thank you to the men and women who have served our country. your families who are here with you who kept the home fires burning and what a privilege it will be for me to be the president of the united states and the commander of chief of the greatest fighting force that the world has ever seen. god bless you and thank you. [applause] >> let me open it up for any questions. kate dawson is your republican chairman here in south carolina.

thank you for being here. yes, sir. >> got some oil in texas? got in trouble sunday night. seems like they are talking to drilling for oil. could you tell us how much potential there is in texas, colorado and maybe some day we will have to drill off this coast. >> it's your coast. >> you are damn right. >> south carolina's call. every state makes that decision about whether or not off their shore and if a state wants to do that, but the federal government should never force you into a position -- that's one of the things that is a real tenet of our campaign, the

powers not delegated to the united states by the constitution nor prohibited to it by the states are reserved for the states respectively or to the people. basically our founding fathers understood that there were a few and enumerated powers that the federal government was supposed to be involved with. military and it would be good if they would skire our border. we have been fighting for 11 years trying to keep our border secure with mexico and our federal government has been a a failure at that. but this issue of allowing the states to be making the decisions about whether it's how to deliver health care, how to deal with environmental issues or energy policy, the state should be more engaged and involved and be the determining entity of that than one size

fits all in washington, d.c.,. yes, sir, with the plaid shirt. >> i like everything you tell me, i agree with all of it, but i have one small problem. first presidential debate and everybody standing up there and i watched everything you said except one thing and it bothers the -- i'm sorry. >> there is a little misunderstanding there. this issue goes back to the issue of board security. the reason that south carolina is getting sued and the immigration law, reason that arizona is also fighting that battle, reason these other states are having to deal with this issue of illegal

immigration is because we have been forced to deal with this issue, because of the failure of securing that board. i don't get confused about where the real disease is. we are dealing with the symptoms. the disease is a federal government that has failed to put into place security measures to shut that border down and we know how to do it and we don't have the resources in the state of texas to do it ourselves. i deployed two gun boats to two lakes last month. we have texas ranger teams on that border that we pay for in the state of texas. this president has pulled our

national guard troops off. they are less than 300 and not even on the border, 300 national guard troops for an 1,800-mile border. that is irresponsible. we need thousands of national guard troops, thousands of national guard troops in preparation of training this border patrol that will be there day in and day out. we need the aviation assets that are available. the predatory drones to be able to shut that border down. if we don't, the issues, the symptoms of this disease are not going to go away. what happened in the state of texas is they decided that if young people were in our state because the federal government forces us to deal with this, forces us to get health care and give education and the people of the state of texas said, how are we going to deal with this? are we going to have tax wasters or taxpayers?

and the legislature said we're going to require these young people to get in the line to become citizens of the united states and pay full in-state tuition to get educated in the state of texas so they are not tax wasters, and that's what the legislature did. only four difficult sentencing votes. that was text' call. remember our 10th amendment? if any other state, you decide that issue on your own. and i would never as a president of the united states try to impose anything like that on the states. that's the states' call. the people of the state of texas said economically, this is in our best interest rather than have tax wasters that we will have either in prison or welfare rolls because they aren't educated.

the's how that happened in state of texas. south carolina, free to deal with it as they see fit. but the next president of the united states, who i hope is me, knows how to secure that border, and we will have that board shut down, locked down and there will be a stoppage of the drugs and the weapons and the illegal immigration within a year of me taking my hand off that bible. [applause] >> i don't have a question but a statement. i was born and raised here. lived here my whole life but i was bred in the marine corps and i wanted to make a statement. as a 13-year-old kid i was going down the wrong path. at 17 years old, i decided i was going to join the marine corps and spent nine years in and real fast, real quick, i straightened up. and you, sir, are the reason

that i'm voting for you because you are the person we need to straighten us up. [applause] >> don perry, i'm sure we are a relative. my question is is with the e.p.a. 14 years to build a coal-fired plant. just as they get started to open it up and start construction, e.p.a. stopped it. closing down probably the plant over -- the cross plant and they cleaned the i am purities out of the environment and use it to build gympsum board. what are we going to do with the e.p.a.? >> he gave a couple of examples

of how they are killing jobs and actually taking an amazing energy source away from the united states, 25% of all the coal in the world is in the united states. we are the saudi arabia of coal. we've got over 300 years' worth of energy in this country, yet as i said earlier, this president is trying to force this country to go into almost exclusive use of green sources of energy, regardless of the cost. and that's where i have a real problem. i don't have a problem with green energy. if the state of south carolina wants to put incentives into place to get the wind energy or alternative energy sources to come and proliferate here, that's their business. but the federal government shouldn't be doing it.

if you need any other better example than a half billion dollars going to one company on the solar energy side, that ought to answer your question about the federal government picking winners and losers in the energy business. not how our country works and we need to allow the market to decide those things. but the e.p.a. is the biggest job-killing agency in this country. i'll give you one example. we have had a clean air act. listen, this is our air, our children that are breathing it, our grandchildren that are going to be breathing it, griffin's children -- get on the ball, son -- [laughter] >> when they inherit our state, i want that state's air to be cleaner than it is today and it can be because of programs we

put into place in the state of texas, a flex i believe permitting program. we cleaned up our air more than any other state in the nation. any other state, we cleaned it up more. but this administration said a year ago, they are going to come in and take over our process. our comptroller estimated their program they want to put in place will cost 360,000 jobs in the state of texas. they are about killing jobs because they are command and control. they want to control your life from washington, d.c.,. that's why this election is so important, that we elect an individual who is an outsider. i don't think changing one washington insider with another washington insider is going to make a difference. when i talk about a balanced budget amendment to the constitution and making congress part-time, it makes people real nervous and that's good. they need to be real nervous. our allies have to be competent and the enemies need to be nervous that we are going to have a strong military in place

and the way we do that is have an economy and the way you have an economy that is strong is neuter the e.p.a. when i talk about neutering the e.p.a. and pulling all the regulations, fess them, audit, if they kill jobs, throw them out. if it is a job-killing environmental regulation, because the fact is, those coal plants that you are talking about, they spent almost $100 billion of putting in the cleaning equipment to make sure that that emission moots the standards of this count -- meets the standards of this country. they want to kill the coal industry. that's their goal. and if we kill the coal industry in this country, we will be more indebted to countries like venezuela and hugo chavez and

countries that don't have our interests in mind. mr. president, let's have our friends and our domestic energy industry what we're focused on and if the alternative and the green energy sources can compete, god bless them, let them all do it. but all of those tax credits and all of those subsidies for all of the energy sector and listen one more question. one more question. yes, sir. >> radio station here yesterday was taking a survey and they wanted to know who we thought would be the next presidential candidate to cut and run if they did bad on saturday and my ha ha question would be if you do bad on saturday, will you cut and run? >> if you do good on saturday, i'll do good on saturday.

you have my back on saturday and i'll have your back in the next four years in washington, d.c.,. do we have a deal? god bless you and thank you for coming out here and being with us. [applause] >> that was a great dancer, governor. -- and certification, governor. -- answer, governor. >> all right, brother. >> what was your first car, by the way? 1967 pontiac calalina selling bibles. 389, with that 400 -- >> they made a 389. >> it was bigger than that >> if had a 26-gallon gas tank. >> oh, yeah. >> two-door.

it was canary yellow. i remember it like -- i was the proudest boy in texas. summer of 1969. i was going into my sophomore pfft year of college. [unintelligible] >> thanks for being here. i appreciate it. >> i have three of them. >> good for you, man. >> i know the value. >> good program. >> you are talking about shorten the terms of congress. does the executive branch have that much power? >> we have to do it with a constitutional amendment. i'm not a constitutional lawyer, but what my i stink is that we -- my instinct is that

we can combine a balanced budget amendment to the constitution and limit their time. [unintelligible] >> every other year. we need odd year for 140 days. ors 600 ar legislate toward month. they go home and they are doctors and teachers -- there's a little bit of everything. they are part of our state. we have a balanced budget amendment to our constitution and they pass the laws that need to be passed and go home. >> great idea. >> that's how our founding fathers wanted it. this full-time congress put it in by stat out. -- stat out. -- by washington, by statute.

we can say pretty plays all we want but it is going to take an amendment. >> thank you. don perry. what little bit i know, there were three brothers that came over here in the late 1600's and one of my -- going back and he was born in 1760 and he was a young 16-year-old who fought in the american revolution. but they were north carolina. >> somewhere down the line -- >> i just want to say thank you, sir. >> we were talking last night and bobby, says --

>> appreciate it, sir. >> i love your comments. my daughter lives in houston and we are pulling for you. >> she lives in houston? >> yes. going to see her in a couple of weeks. keep up the good work. thank you kindly for all you are doing. >> governor, when i walked in this door here this morning, i have been a newt gingrich supporter, but i'm walking out this door a perry supporter. >> god bless you, sir. >> i appreciate what you will do as our president. >> thank you, sir. >> i would like you to get rid of the caccoon around -- cocoon of ease around washington.

>> they are either an insider and that place isn't going to change. unless we bring in someone who is willing to step on some toes. my purpose in life has never been to be the president of the united states or get rich but serve my country. that is what this is all about forming. >> we need you there. -- that is what this is all about for me. >> we need you there. >> one last question for you, how did you bake out with your back surgery? i just went through it, too? >> i was off running for 10 weeks and how much we run in the last three days? 12 miles. mine's done and i hope you have good luck with yours. >> second time around. but i'm doing good. >> like getting married, you only need to do it one time. >> good for you.

thank you, governor. >> i have a marine and air force. he is in wisconsin. your daughter? >> she was a nurse. >> i'm married to a nurse. >> god bless you. thanks for coming out today. >> say hello to george strait when you get back. >> i have a question. >> president obama is now trying to take the small business administration and commerce department and make one department. i was a veteran champion of the year for region two and they are all talk, no substance. what are your plans? they do nothing. i was a small businessman.

they do nothing. >> deal away with them. -- i would do away with them. if you con sole dailt agencies and like the e.p.a., i would substantially reduce the size of it and be a repository of best practices and let it work out differences between states if there are issues like power lines or what have you. department of interior, department of agriculture, probably consolidate those two together. but department of education, do away with it. idea that the federal government has a thing to do with education, that's foreign to me. that's a state issue. >> he wants this to make another cabinet position. >> best thing we can do is eliminate -- >> thank you. >> ok, cowboy. >> bless you. hopefully we'll surprise a lot

of people on saturday. much obliged. >> come on. get in here. one, two, three. got it? >> i come from a long line of military. >> tell them thanks for their service. >> how are you? >> are you from spartanburg? [laughter] >> yes, sir. >> much obliged, yes, sir.

yes, sir. god bless you, thank you. >> he will be in spartanburg. >> get a chance, get over there. >> i will. yes, sir. god bless you. thank you. >> yes, sir. let me sign it. there you go. thank you. >> yes, ma'am. he cut it off. he cut it off. there you go. there you go. all along.

now get that big button. now we're cooking. >> yes, sir. thank you for being here. god bless you. everything's good. let me check in. >> study, ok? we've got a deal. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] >> leading up to saturday's south carolina primary, c- span's "road to the white house" coverage take you live to the candidate events this week. >> we need to eliminate these means-tested entitlement

programs. we need to cap them and send them back to the states, remove the federal oversight and let the states have the flexibility to deliver these programs. >> we have brought to the forefront -- others have talked about it and they get in office and do nothing about it, but right now it is this liberty movement which is seen as a patriotic movement, an individual liberty movement that says to the country and to the word, we have had enough of sending our kids and our money around the world to be the policeman of the world. it is time to bring them home. >> and as candidates get their message out meeting voters -- >> [unintelligible] >> thank you, thank you. >> you have my vote -- i was undecided until now. you have my vote. >> thank you so much. >> we feel like the conservatives are coalescing

around our campaign and that will be good for us not just in south carolina but as we go forward. >> find more video from the campaign trail at c-span.org/campaign2012. >> former house speaker newt gingrich attended the town hall meeting. he told voters he is as qualified -- best qualified to take on barack obama and the fall. he is trailing mitt romney. this is 50 minutes. >> you might take a seat, if you don't mind. i am a share of lexington county. -- the sheriff of lexington county. and on behalf of the next president of the united states,

i want to take this opportunity to welcome you here. also, i want to let you know that after last night, and the performance the speaker dave, he -- gave, he wanted me to decide, there is no doubt to can turn this country around and lead us back to the great nation we are! he talks about jobs and the only jobs! i think he can be the architect of the american dream once again in america. it is my privilege to introduce our party chairman. >> thank you for coming out. i appreciate it. i am the chairman of the party for another three weeks. i have been hesitant to get involved in the campaign but this is a pivotal race.

i felt like it was incumbent to pick somebody. do what i can to change this country by electing a good president. the reason i'm endorsing newt gingrich's because he gets things done. he has done what he set out to do. he did more than that. when he went in, and he wanted to be speaker of the house. there had not been a republican majority in 30 years. somehow he thought he would be speaker of the house. somehow he did it. then he did the budget, welfare reform, with opposition the hallway. -- what clinton opposing him the whole way. i'm excited we have somebody who knows how to get things done. how about the debate? that was amazing. one quick story i want to tell you. i have been in a lot of debates in my life.

this is the first time i have seen one where there was a standing ovation by everybody in the house. it was amazing. that was newt gingrich. i decided to endorse him and i believe we have a congressman from arizona that is going to introduce the speaker. if you would, please welcome the congressman from arizona. [applause] >> i cannot tell you what day honor it is to be here with all -- what a precious honor is to be here with all of you. i know each one understands that the eyes of history and the world, maybe even the founding fathers are on so carolina right now. islander stand you know we are in day destiny-shaping year -- i understand you know we are in a destiny-shaping year. of my perhaps in the in my lifetime. if president obama is reelected, unfortunately, we

could lose our constitution because the supreme court positions he will put on that score, the justices he will put on a court. if he is elected, we could see iran gain nuclear weapons. we could step into the shadow of nuclear terrorism. if he is reelected, i am afraid that the european socialism will gain an unbreakable hold on this nation and we will be forever diminished. everything we love is at stake. i'm not trying to say how important it is but it is the most important we have had in my lifetime. for those of you this of the -- that saw the debate last night, you know newt gingrich has a unique capability unlike anyone else in this race. when the left posits questions that have intrinsic fallacies, and he is able, and he is gifted and able to turn that around and expose those fallacies and answer the

question in the way that every day americans understand. emerson said that what lies before espy and -- before us and behind us is small matters. compared to what lies within us. and gingrich's able to -- vera something in newt gingrich that gives him the ability to articulate the causes of america better than anyone else. if south carolina does the right thing, you will not -- he will -- you will nominate this man. he will go want to be president and there will be hope for my children and yours. would you welcome the next president of the united states, newt gingrich. [applause] ♪

>> i was just asking the sheriff how he gets reelected. that is a long, remarkable career. i am delighted to be here. i really appreciate my good friend trent frank who has been a tremendous leader in the pro- life movement. he has been helping us carry the message. rich, and thank you for having helped us. thank you for your support and friendship. it really means a lot. i want to start, the white house today, said that my comments last night about president obama being the the best food stamp president in american

history, and he seemed to disagree with. i know the white house is isolated from reality but i want to make a point. first of all, it is a statistical fact. president obama is the most effective personal putting people on food stamps. that is just a fact. second, i suggested that the president's policies might have something to do this. it was not as random bad luck. he said, we inherited the worst economy since the great depression. i think that is fair. ronald reagan inherited a terrible economy and turned it around within three hours. [laughter] reagan understood that you did not spend your first term blaming the past but creating the future. reagan ran for reelection with a slogan entitled leadership that

is working. as the -- at the present moment, it would be hard for president obama to suggest that this was working. i was told somebody they were shifting from yes, we can to why we could not as their slogan. let me be clear so the white house understands. when the president adopts a stimulus package as hundreds of billions dollar pages that -- hundreds of billions of dollars that nobody has read and then that the shovel-ready jobs were not ready. and the stimulus fails but leaves this deeper in debt, at -- leaves us $800 billion deeper in debt, at some point he has to take responsibility. that was his plan and proposal and it failed. when the president adopts an anti-american energy policy, against developing energy -- they claimed they were lifting the moratorium in the gulf and replacing it with a permit system but were not issuing permits.

the american people are not that dumb. this is an anti-american presidency. he goes to brazil congratulating them on a developing oil offshore and tells them we will give them money from a george soros-backed company. and then goes on to say he really wants america to become brazil's best customer. i thought he had it backwards. we do not send the president to be a purchasing agent for foreigners. he should be a salesman for american goods and services. [applause] the president's press secretary should come down to charleston and look at the boeing plant they tried to close.

every time you turn around, this administration pushes against american business and jobs, against energy, and then seem surprised they're putting people on food stamps. they think it is an accident of nature. baloney. the environmental protection agency kills jobs. proposalooking at a that would raise the cost of gasoline by 25 cents per gallon. 2011 was the most expensive gasoline in american history, on average. the idea your government would add 25 cents a gallon more tells you how out of touch with reality they are. i would prefer to replace the epa with a brand new solution agency that had to use common sense and be aware of the economy as part of this

decision making process. [applause] the reason i want to -- i think this will be one of the three biggest issues of the campaign. you are going to have a paycheck president and a food stamp president. i worked with ronald reagan to develop supply side economics. we ended up passing it into law in 1981. at the time people called it voodoo economics. it only had one virtue -- it works. >> i remember that. >> remember? the fact is, it is a simple model, cut taxes, develop energy, and encourage the people who make jobs. reagan cut taxes, obama raises them. riging cut regulations.

obama is against american energy. reagan like people who created jobs. obama believes in class warfare. what was the historic result? 16 million new jobs in the reagan years. [applause] we then had two consecutive tax increases. one by a republican, the other by a democrat. i fought both of them. by 1994 the economy was flattening out. we won the election. we went back to the reagan playbook. we cut regulations and reform welfare. two out of three people went to work for went to school. the child poverty went down because parents were working, increasing their income. learning how to get a job.

increasing their income. we cut spending. we cut taxes for the first time in 16 years including the largest in history. -- largest capital gains tax -- capital gains cut in history. the result was, we created 11 million new jobs. unemployment dropped to 4.2%. as a result of cutting spending to increase taxes, we had more revenue without a tax increase because more people were at work. we balance to the federal budget for four consecutive years. the only time you have seen that done in your lifetime. now, i am prepared to run a campaign between president obama as a food stamp president and newt gingrich as someone who has twice created jobs. i think we will be competitive in every neighborhood. i do not care of the ethnic background, historic background, if you say to

parents, would you rather be dependent on the government or independent because they have a paycheck, parents are going to get a paycheck and have a better future. [applause] the second issue is going to be the question of values. i believe in the declaration of independence, the federalist papers and the lessons of american history. president obama believes in saul alinsky's radicalism, a lot of strange ideas he learned at columbia and harvard and a european socialist secular model. we are about as far apart as you can get. i believe the founding fathers were correct when they wrote, we hold these truths to be self- evident. it's very important. they didn't say ideology, philosophy, ideas.

they were trying to understand the truth by which humans govern themselves. and the truth about human nature. they said all men are created equal, which at the time they wrote it was a very radical idea. it was a time of kings and emperors and czars. they said, no, no. we are all equal. and then they said, we are endowed by our creator with certain unalienable rights. this is what american exceptionalism is all about. we are just people. we are exceptional because we have inherited from the founding fathers this extraordinary construct that says, power comes from god to each one of you personally. you are personally sovereign. [applause] if you are personally sovereign, what does that mean? they go on to say, the rights

are unalienable. that means no judge, no bureaucrat, no politician can come between you and god. now, we know you are sovereign because our constitution begins, we, the people. doesn't say we the politicians or we the lawyers or we the bureaucrats. it says we the people. it's a contract. it says we are coming together to write a contract, which is why the current court system is such a mess. if you are interested in topic, if you go to my first name, newt.org, there is a 54-page paper on rebalancing the judiciary and getting us back to a system where judges interpret the law they don't make the law. and it's a very important part of the reform we need to remind judges that they in fact are part of the constitution they are not above the constitution. and that will they are co-equal with the other two branches. they are not above the other two branches. but this leads to a very simple

core concept. in america you are always a citizen, you are never a subject. in america you loan power to the government and the government is supposed to serve you. in europe, sovereignty is in the government. and you are a subject in europe. and in europe the government dominates and you are supposed to obey. and the president and his friends have it backwards. friends have it exactly they would like us to become europeans. we are not going to. we are going to be americans. [applause] there's one more part. the declaration is a remarkable document. there is one more part that says we are endowed by our creator with certain unalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. life is very important and leads to the concept that we should define when life begins.

i believe life begins at the very beginning and i believe that that means that the baby is in fact a person. and therefore it is worthy of being defended. so life begins at conception. the president, we don't know when he thinks life begins. we know as a state senator he voted to allow doctors to kill babies if they survived the abortion, but we don't know what his -- although he sort of implied at one point he dew point like himself because he release he did not like result because he -- at one. he implied he did not like himself because he did not didn't agree with what he was doing. but that would be a good example of debate. because another part i think is much more fun, and that is the right to pursue happiness. now, there are two parts to this. first of all happiness in the 18th century meant wisdom and virtue not hedonism and acquisition. and so the founding fathers believed that a wise people could remain free but a foolish people would end up in a dictatorship.

notice what they promise you. they don't promise you the right to happiness. they promise you the right to pursue. so there's no provision in the declaration of independence for happiness stamps for the underhappy. there is no provision for a federal department of happiness to assess whether or not we have achieved, and if you had told the founding fathers a politician was going to come into this room and say i'm going to take from the overly happy and i'm going to redistribute to the underly happy, they would have said to you, by what right does some politician think they have either the wisdom or the power to make decisions like that? a hint of happiness, this is the conversation i had with juan williams last night, is about the concept that pursuit implies, in my judgment, work. and i think we have to reassert that work is good. that it's ok to work. and that's why i suggested last night that we should reform

unemployment compensation so that if you do need it, and you do sign up for it, during the period when you are unemployed, that you should also sign up for a business-led training program so you are learning a new skill and developing a greater capacity to be employed because the idea of paying somebody 99 weeks to do nothing is profoundly wrong. do you realize in 99 weeks you can earn an associate's degree? we are subsidizing people to sit around for 99 weeks. 99 weeks which is keeping the worst possible habits. -- t jindal the worst possible habits. -- we are teaching them the worst possible habits. if you talk about how to get the economy moving, part two is how do you rebuild the capacity to develop being american? how do we teach being american? what does it mean to be american? how does a effect our relation with the united nations where i am totally opposed to the small

arms treaty which is an indirect liberal effort to take away the right to bear arms. [applause] timely, here's a question of real. we have two very different threats. we have the rise of china and frankly dealing with china the primary problems are all here at home. if we adopt the right litigation reforms and right regulatory reforms, right tax reforms, we reform our school system, if we invest in science and technology, the chinese won't catch us in 100 years. we have to rebuild our manufacturing base. we have to do the right things to rebuild our military. if we do what we need to do, we don't have to worry about china. and frankly if we fail to do what we need to do, it's pretty hard to ask them to be as dumb as we are. you can't go to them and say, look, we have decided to be incompetent so would you be

equally incompetent? fixing the harbor in charleston, i want to develop energy offshore to have resources in part to rebuild the harbor so it is big enough for the new ships that are going to come through the panama canal when they modernize it in 2014. i'm told that the corps of engineers bureaucracy takes eight years to do the study. not to do it, to do the study. now, my reaction to that as a historian is to remind people that we fought all of the second world war in 44 months. think about this. from pearl harbor on december 7, 1941, to the surrender of japan in august, 1945, is three years and eight months. now, how can it be that we could mobilize the defeat nazi germany, fascist italy and imperial in three years and eight months and it recently

took 23 years to add a fifth runway to the atlanta airport. this is just self-imposed stupidity and so i am committed to applying a model that they use at the boeing plant called lean six sigma, modern management, replacing the 130- year-old service rules, and giving a government as agile, productive, and lean, as any major modern corporation. it was going to save us a ton of money. it's going to get our economy moving again. it is going to get to us a maimingor step towards balancing the budget and we can do all these things. i look forward to debating the president on creating jobs. debating the president on values. and debating the president on national security. my last comment there is i have not seen any active weakness as great as his decision this week to cancel the exercise of israel. think about this -- [applause]

the iranians spent the last two weeks aggressively practicing closing the straits of who are muth to threaten us, our -- the straits of hormuz to threaten us, and our response is to cancel an exercise so we are not provocative. we are sending the worst possible significant signal to the dictatorship. the appeasement of this white house, timidity of this white house, the refusal to face reality of this white house is a genuine national security threat to the united states. that's something we need to debate out in the open and be directive of u how are we getting to get obama debate? is raising a billion dollars. he wants to run a totally negative campaign. he wants to hide behind commercials. i don't believe it's possible. if you'll help me on saturday and you help me -- i believe if i win south carolina i will be the nominee. on saturdaylp me and i become the nominee --

[applause] as your nominee in tampa, i will challenge the president to seven three-hour debates in the lincoln-douglass tradition with a timekeeper but no moderator. let me be clear. i will accept that the president can use a teleprompter. [laughter] after all, if you had to defend obamacare, wouldn't you want a teleprompter? [laughter] and i believe i can tell the truth without notes better than he dissemble on a teleprompter. [applause] let me tell you how i'm going to get him to do it.

when lincoln announced in 1858 he had been out of office for 10 years, douglas was the best known senator in the country and presumed to be the next president. lincoln said we have 105 days in the campaign, let's debate every day. douglas said, i don't think so. lincoln recognizing the technology of his generation began to follow douglas. everywhere douglas went lincoln would speak 24 hours later. and after about three weeks douglas figured out all the press coverage was lincoln's repudiation of doug's speeches. he said i'll debate you. there are nine congressional districts. we have already been in two of them with you chasing me. i'll debate you in the other seven. they met and every single debate was picked up by virtually every newspaper. and the next year lincoln had them publish it as a book and they were a major step towards why he became the nominee.

in tampa if the president has not yet accepted, i will announce that as of that night the white house will become my scheduler. [laughter] wherever the president shows, i will show up four hours later and i will answer his speech. in the age of 24-hour television and talk radio and websites and blogs, i suspect in two or three weeks they'll decide it will be so much less painful to just have the debate rather than have me literally follow him from town to town. he will look so foolish that i suspect he will agree. on the other hand, if he doesn't agree, i'll follow him all the way up to election day and the country will understand he can't defend his policies and he will look like a man who having gone to columbia and harvard and been the best order of the democratic party was afraid to debate a teacher from west georgia college. that will reduce his prestige a great deal. thank you. [applause]

let's take a couple questions here. we have two microphones. raise your hand. we'll keep finding people back and forth. >> mr. speaker, you mentioned that the founding fathers have said we are all created equal as man. and you have support for israel. my question is on foreign policy. you mentioned that the palestinian people -- what do -- were invented people. what do you suggest should happen to them? should they become israeli citizens? what suggestion would you have for them? the other question is, i know south carolina is 60% and evangelical. christians with a strong support for israel. my question is, the governor is from indian heritage.

her parents came from india. we have a catholic. and the mormon running for president. would you support a muslim- american for president? or would you endorse at some point in the future a muslim- american could be running for president given we had a woman running and hillary clinton and we had a jewish-american. >> it would depend on whether they would commit to give-up sharia. i am totally opposed to sharia law. [applause] in fact i favor federal law that pre-empts it. and says asher real law will not be used in any court in the united states. this is an important question. we have a friend in arizona who serves in the navy who is muslim and a medical doctor but he is a modern person trying to find ways to bring islam into modernity. when you realize that the rising islamization of turkey

has resulted in women being killed. -- 1400% increase in women being killed. when you look at the application of sharia in our brand. -- in iran. when you look at churches being burned in nigeria and the decline of christians in iraq from 1 million to 500,000. it depends on the person. if they are a modern person, and they're prepared to recognize all religions, that is one thing. on the other hand, if they are the saudis, if they demand we respected them while they refuse all-out a jew or christian to worship, that is something different. we need a president to tells the truth and rejects an effort to impose a sense of guilt because we are prepared to tell the truth. i'm opposed with your -- the state department meeting with an organization -- organization of

islamic countries were seeking to sensor -- censor any comment about islam. it is a fundamental violation of our right as free speech. it truly modern person who happened to worship allah would not be a threat. any kind of effort to impose sharia would be a threat. -- a mortal threat. [applause] the palestinian question is a good one. i think if hamas would hunt down and stop the terrorists, i would favor peace with the palestinians. i would favor an independent state. i would favor an ability for them to become prosperous. in november, 11 missiles were fired. that is not a peace process. that is war. hamas' position is the extinction of israel. you do not have negotiations with that.

let's sit down and negotiate while i figure out how to wipe you out. i think we have tolerated for too long terrorist activities disguised as diplomatic behavior. i think the palestinian people should flow -- throw out the folks who want to destroy israel. we will accept israel's right to exist if israel will accept our right to be prosperous and on property. that means giving up the right of return. there is no natural right of return. critics have no right to return -- greeks have no right to return to turkey. in eastern germany to poland. polish to russia. we have brought all sorts of changes. all sorts of territorial changes over the last 200 years. the only place is against the state of israel to destroy israel. we said say that that is over. -- we should say that that is over. there is no right of return. let's negotiate the future. [applause] >> mr. speaker, i am from falls church, virginia.

those of us who are retired enjoy a 4/10 of 1% on our savings. five years ago we were getting 5%. federal insured. given these circumstances, would you reappoint ben bernanke as chairman of the reserve? thank you. >> i have said that i would ask him to resign. if he did not resign, then i would ask the congress to fire him. the first week of the presidency. i think he is not a good chairman. i also have announced i would appoint a commission to look into golden heart mining. we ought to have -- gold and hard money. the dollar you will -- the dollar you say today ought to be worth a $30 years from now. -- a dollar 30 years from now. we have had a time of inflation

that has eroded the value of our money. that is bad. the founding fathers created the constitution to get to sound money. which you have today is pumping trillions of dollars of paper into the world economy. there is a report that the fed has been covertly trying to help prop up the europe. -- the euro. the united states has no reason to prop up the germans while they try to prop up the greeks. if the germans want to euro to succeed, let them pay for it. we have no reason to prop up germany. it is a leading exporting country in the world. it is a game they have been playing more they have propped up their export market. now they want to tie us into their problems. we should not do that. we should seal off our banks and protect our institutions and tell the europeans they have to solve their own problem. [applause] >> mr. speaker, i have a question -- everyone can agree our number one goal is to make

sure we do not have four years of obama. the way that this campaign has been going lately, how can you repair the candidate to be viable against obama? >> i would say the opposite. if we cannot nominate a candidate to go against obama, we have a problem. nothing that has been done so far, the negative ads against me, those various things that ron paul does, none of those -- ron paul does randomly, none of those things things are tough. not compared to what is coming. you have a chicago machine that is going to have a billion dollars. this is part of why they filed a lawsuit. -- again south carolina over honest voting. you only had 600 dead people voting. that is below quota.

if you are the chicago missing, you are worrying, what they only let living people love? how would we ever win? you would expect a chicago machine, a ruthless campaign this fall. the answer is to nominate someone tough enough to stand toe to toe with obama. that is the reason -- if you look at the debates we have had and you ask yourself, it is october. who do you want on the podium? debating obama? the you want somebody who is a moderate to was close enough to obama? how are we going to distinguish romneycare? that debate will be really clever. you want somebody like reagan was with carter. you want a real conservative against a real radical. most of his billion dollars will fall harmlessly. and you are still four paychecks and he is for food stamps. and people get it. you are still for national security and he is for weakness. you are for exceptionalism and

he is for european socialism. that is the -- that is why the only way to defeat obama i believe is to nominate an articulate conservative who knows enough to go nose to nose with him. [applause] here you go. >> hey, newt. thanks for being here. that was a great speech. thanks a lot. i am having a hard time deciding who to vote for in the primary. >> i can help. [laughter] >> ok. >> i really want to vote for you. i am going to say this -- i want to clear this up. i have seen your ads. you talk about how many jobs you created as speaker back in 1994. we all know, and you have said,

that the government does not create jobs. the private sector does. it sticks in the a little bit. not agitated about it. i wanted to clear it up. it sounds like something that democrats would say. it doesn't sound like something you would normally say. so help me with that. >> look, it is a question of creating conditions. the founding fathers created the conditions for the united states to become the wealthiest country in the world. other countries do not do that. in 1960,, and south korea had -- ghana and south korea had the same per capita income. today south korea is the 11th wealthiest in the world. the rules matter. detroit has been badly governed by politicians. it has collapsed. it went from no. 1 in income and -- in per capita income and

1,800,000 people to fewer than 800,000 people. it is about 68 in per-capita income. over half of its housing is empty. it is a human tragedy caused by bad government. when you have a bad government, obama-quality, destroying banks, -- when you have the dodd-frank bill destroying banks, a president blocking you from developing oil and gas, the only reason north dakota has 2.3% unemployment is because the oil they found was of private land. and the federal government could not stop them. otherwise they would not have developed either. they discovered they have 25 times as much oil as the u.s. geological survey thought they had. and you love the same thing -- the same thing will happen offshore. all of our information is 30 years old. we have no modern service.

-- no modern surveys. i am suggesting that somebody who wants to create jobs can cut taxes in the right way. i have zero capital gains tax and my proposal. -- in my proposal. bring in huge amounts of money. so you can write off all new equipment in one year so have the most modern workers in the world. we have a 12.5% corporate tax rate. all of these things are really, really, very helpful. we abolished the death tax so family businesses do not have to worry about the federal government. they can focus on job creation and growing and being affected. not fear they have to go to the undertaker and the irs. in the same week. we have an option of flat tax. that means this is a hong kong model. steve forbes has written about it. it means that if you want to keep your tax code with the various breaks, fine. it is also paper work. if you want to fill in one page, i earned this amount, i

have this number of dependents, you can do your taxes on one page. you choose which is better for you. that gives us a sense of the right way to approach this. we can take one last question. >> i am john butcher. the mainstream media would lead us to believe that the american people once the folks in -- once the folks and -- wants the folks in washington to compromise and get something done. given the environment in washington, socialist vs. free enterprise, how you compromise with a socialist? >> i think they have the wrong formula. i made some controversy because i gave a speech to the heritage foundation and said i will cooperate but not compromise. when reagan was elected, a tip o'neill was speaker of the house.

we had to get one-third of the democrats to vote for the reagan tax cuts are we could not pass them. -- or we could not pass them. when i became speaker, we had bill clinton. i had to get his signature. we passed welfare reform twice and he vetoed it. you have to negotiate. the key is, what is it that matters? and not yield an inch. and what does not matter? is there something the other guy wants that would lead them to work with you? it requires a great deal of creativity but if you look at the track record in the 1980's with reagan and with clinton, you can get it to work. i am appalled that obama getting -- at how bad obama is that getting washington to work. i am not exempting the republicans. this guy has no concept of how to negotiate for bring people -- to negotiate any has no concept of how to bring people together. you do it his way or he makes another speech. i will close with his example.

the web-warner bill on developing oil and gas, offshore, republicans in the house should pass it. if the republicans would pass it, it would go to the senate. how does harry reid stop a bill written by two of his members? now you would have a bill creating energy, revenue, the -- a bipartisan bill creating energy, creating jobs, creating revenue, and the senate would pass it at that point. it would go to the president has -- as a bipartisan bill. in this economy, if you have a bill that increases energy, increases jobs, increases revenue to the government, even obama would have a hard time vetoing it. you have to be creative and persistent but you can get the system to work if you have a vision of where you are going. and you are willing to work cooperatively.

i like to meet folks. i'm going to come down here. if people can come this way -- [applause] >> i want every vote here. i want you to call, facebook, all of your friends between now and saturday. thank you. ♪ ["only in america" playing] >> he had to move on. >> good luck. >> thank you, sir. >> thank you. >> thank you for coming. >> we sure need your help. >> thank you.

>> thanks so much for coming. >> we sure need your help. >> the press are allowed up on that platform. ♪ >> how are you doing? >> wonderful. >> maybe later. [phone ringing] >> thank you, sir. >> thank you for coming. you have got my but, sir. >> thank you. >> nice to meet you.

good luck. >> good luck. >> of pleasure to meet you. >> nice to meet you. >> thank you very much. >> hello. >> thank you. >> appreciate it. >> we need your help. >> thank you very much. >> we need your help. thank you very, very much. >> good luck. >> thank you very much. [unintelligible] >> you will get my vote. >> thank you. thank you very, very much. >> thank you.

>> we need your help sadr digg. >> thank you. >> need your of saturday. -- need your help saturday. >> welcome to you, sir. gen so nice to hear such wonderful words come from your mouth. >> we need your help saturday. >> we need your help saturday. thank you. >> you're the man to kick that jackass's ass. >> thank you. >> i just decided to vote today. after last night, god bless you.

>> we need your help. >> thank you. >> i am definitely going to be voting for you. >> hi there. thank you for coming. >> if thank you. we are in support of you. and we have a new voter in the household. >> i made team. my first putt on saturday. >> i need your help. >> i love my grandchildren, ok? is the county treasurer. >> then we made one other time? -- did we not me one other time? .

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[captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] people >> hopeful. we were all hopeful for a long time for some progress.

i'm going back some years but clearly the regime has a tin ear to what's happening in its own dawned reaction to it. >> i forgot to ask you, the state of the union. are there to be dates again? you have a buddy system with republican? >> it is always worth a try. i like to have a date for when the committees will meet to do the tax cuts. >> who will be your buddy this time? are you going to ask somebody? >> we will ask each other. it is a nice gesture. let's not fool ourselves into saying that we're singing kumbaya. can the speaker's podium be closer together? why do have to speak at it from

podiums? i am all for this. i would like to see some follow-through. >> you have done something i like to do and rather fear. many of the people have switched from blackberry to iphone. >> i love it. >> why? >> it is just magical. the manifestation all of the choices that people have a in life. 25 years ago i came and we had three networks and a newborn cnn.

cnn was very new at the time. the passage of the telecommunications act was in the late 1980's. by the late 1990's, 600 channels to choose from. now in your very own hand not only that choice but a choice to receive your information in real-time, not waiting for the nightly news or anything. just to have it in real time. information is everything. i love having my little pal there. my 3-year-old grandson says he is a chef.

this was at thanksgiving before -- and he said i'm a chef. he wears a hat. on thanksgiving, he was at the counter behind me. i said do you want to cook breakfast? he said no. i said well, you're the chef. i turned around and he had picked up my iphone now, three years old and was watching "cars 2". i couldn't get "cars 2" on there in a million years. just imagine the difference all of this is making. think of all the choices we have. in some ways we are spoiled. in other ways it is right that we should have all of that access to information to make us better informed and that's what we want to do with the election is to make sure that everybody

knows where the money is coming from. who is supporting whom so that the decisions that are made are made in the public interest, not in the special interest. >> i want to thank our live stream audience. thank c-span for breakfast and thank our friends. our graduates. congratulate them. we think our friends from bank of america, all of you coming out in the rain. >> i thank all of you too for the opportunity to be here. [applause]

>> up next on c-span, texas governor rick perry holds an event in south carolina. then newt gingrich talks to voters in west columbia. then on this morning's "washington journal" a conversation on the debt ceiling and we'll take a closer look at super pacts in the 2012 campaign.

>> some will say we are reactionry. others will say that we stand for socialism. there will be the inevitable -- it is time for a change and so on and so on. we'll hear all of those things and many more but we will hear nothing that we have not heard before. >> as candidates campaign for president this year, we look back at 14 men who ran for the office and lost. go to our website, c-span.org/thecontenders, who had a lasting impact on american politics. >> let our pounts stand on the status quo while we seek to refresh the american spirit. let the opposition collect their $10 million in secret money from the privileged few and let us find one million ordinary americans who'll contribute $25

each to this campaign, a million member club with members who'll not expect special favors for themselves but a better land for us all. >> c-span.org/thecontenders. >> republican presidential candidate rick perry continues his south carolina campaign. earlier the texas governor hosted a town hall at a veterans of foreign war post in inlet. >> how are you? >> you did great. >> we had a little fun last night. there you are. >> good morning, governor. good to see you.

>> thank you all for coming out. howdy. y'all stay right where you are. don't get up. thank you all for being here. we appreciate you. could morning to you. thanks for coming out. >> we auctioned off once a and ended up on ebay, and we bought it back. thanks for what you are doing out there. how are you, sir? it is good to be here with you. thank you for coming out. how are you?

that's awesome. thank you for coming out. rick perry. how are you? thanks for coming. there he is, the navy then. good to see you, sir. >> good morning, governor. turn here and let him take our picture. that is all right. we're all a little slow. >> we have georgetown, just north of austin. >> i'm from stamford, connecticut. >> thank you for coming out. thanks for your service. we were over at georgetown. that is a pretty little place, just a gorgeous town. we really enjoyed the time we spent over there.

my wife is over there. >> was it on the boardwalk at all? >> we walked down, as a matter of fact we got a pretty good tour. we drove back through town and those big oak trees. i have to think that is a great city to live in. >> i was away from it for 26 years, serving in the army, and i was glad to get back. within a half mile from where i grew up. >> thank you. rick perry, how are you? we cannot be tired until saturday. >> i am fine, thank you. >> we had fun last night. >> governor, how are you? good to see you. >> thank you for coming down

here. mike was here last night. i said i don't have to do a long destruction of mike. he is easy to introduce anyway. >> ladies and gentlemen, i want to thank you all for being here with us today. what a great opportunity we have got in south carolina at the vfw to meet a couple of great americans. we have a fine pair here. this pair will beat a full house any day. ladies and gentlemen, i had the opportunity some months ago to be present at republican national governors' association

winter meeting. it was in park city, utah. i was helping a friend of mine who works out at park city and he runs a sleigh ride business. he invited me to go up with him. he said there might be some people there you want to see. sure enough, there is one of the first persons that decides to jump into that horse-drawn sleigh, it is governor rick perry. i had had rick perry on my mind for quite some time. i had known him from the time i spent in texas. i knew about his record. i knew that he had brought in more jobs in texas during the worst economic times of my life in this country, and i think of the lives of everybody in this room, he brought more jobs into texas than any other state court

in the union. i had been thinking for some time that is what america needs. america needs a job creator. american need someone, a ceo of this country that knows how to get the government out of the way of doing business. and get the country down to business and create jobs. we need somebody that understands how to deal with our porous border, and who better than the man who has created more jobs than any governor of the country? who better than the governor that shares a common border with mexico? while we were sitting together in that horse-drawn sleigh,

governor, what about it? will you run for president of the united states? he said allen, i am praying for that right now, and i hope to have a decision soon. his decision brings us here today, and i am so proud, i am so proud to call rick perry my friend. he is a friend to south carolina. he is a friend to the united states of america. ladies and gentlemen, would you all join me in a good, hearty, the vfw welcome to our friend, governor rick perry. [applause] >> thank you very much. allen has to go back to the state house, so i told him to get on back up there and earn your money today. appreciate you brother. god bless you, and thank you for being here, and to all of you for coming out on a nice, overcast morning. it is real honor for me to get to be traveling with some of the

people i am traveling with today. i will tell you, mike and i have known each other a long time. a young fellow i have known even longer than that is my son, griffin perry. i thank you for coming out. it truly is, to be in the vfw, to be surrounded by men and women who really understand that freedom is not free. the cost of that, a lot of people talk about, but you all understand to the core of your heart. in your soul, you understand, because you have made that sacrifice. as the old profit, isaiah, when god was asking who is going to go for us, who is going to represent us? he held his hand up and said here am i, send me. those of you in here, when your country needed to, you held your

hand up and said, here am i, send me. that is such a powerful display of love, of devotion, of honor. it is one of the reasons that i tell young people, there is a lot of ways you can serve your country. there is a lot of ways you can volunteer to give back. but wearing the uniform of your country, i put as one of the highest levels of service. i will be forever thankful that i grew up -- i grew up in a little place called paint creek, texas. you'll have to do some heavy research to find it on a map, unless it is texas road map. i had it put on the texas road map, but it is about 200 miles west of fort worth texas, and it is pure rural, dry land, and

cotton farming. a little school out in the middle of a cotton pad. the form to market road posed by and there are two churches, a methodist church in a baptist church. you had two choices. it was a great place to grow up. my scout master was also my superintendent of sunday school and also the president of the school board. he was a 1932 graduate of texas a&m and was part of patton's third army. he regaled us with the exploits of those individuals during world war ii. my greatest privilege and live with that i was the son of the b-17 tail gunner. these were the people who helped develop the values and principles that i live my life by. there were people who understood

those concepts of selfless sacrifice. they are the ones who taught me the values of conservatism from the standpoint of whether it was conserving our money or our water. i grew up in a house that did not have indoor plumbing, so conserve and water was a big deal. taking a bath and a number to washtub does not take you long in the wintertime on the back porch. i am a hard-core conservative when it comes to that. i was conserve water back in those days, i just did not realize that is what i was doing. that is the fiber of who i am. it was those individuals who reflected about how you live your life. it was those people who i will always be grateful to god that i had the opportunity to be around them. they and their friends, my dad

was a vfw member, obviously, and we would go to the american legion post as well. we would see individuals and talk about that our country is strong because we have a strong military. it is because of the selfless sacrifice, the individual who volunteered to serve our country. my dad will be 87 in april. he has been a county commissioner for about 28 years and he understood about service. service to your country, your state, or your community. my dad said your responsibility is to give back to your country. there are people who came before you who sacrificed. that is your responsibility, to serve in the military, to serve your community or your

state. i am standing before you today -- i live a purpose driven life, and it goes back to my father, my mom, and people who understood that you give back. that is what this country is really based upon, giving back. no other way reflect that better than men and women who have worn the uniform. it is such a powerful message that we continue. dad and i were talking the other day and he still pays a lot of attention -- i just love my dad. he taught me so much. he said you know, the government is supposed to do three things really well. i said yeah, dad, what are those? they are supposed to secure and defend our borders and deliver the mail, preferably on saturdays and on time.

i said they do one of those pretty well. but two out of three is not good enough. it really is a reflection of where we find ourselves today, with a country that is allowing its federal government to get so big and onerous and impact us could as the government its bigger and bigger in washington d.c., our liberties get smaller and smaller. from my perspective, that is what this election is really about. obviously, coming to the vfw today, traveling with mike, being around those of you who have served our country, and making sure we continue to support the young men and women of our armed services is of paramount importance, and how we take care of them -- we were

just talking about, he has been such a sacrificial man all of his life and continues to help these young veterans coming home who are impacted in a number of ways. it is one of the things i have focused on and make sure that we do in the state of texas. i challenge other governors. you need to put programs in place that sent the message that your state respects and supports and helps those young men and women who are coming home. whether it is making sure you have policies in place from an economic standpoint so that they can find a job when they get home, all too often these kids, particularly over national guard troops they get pulled in and out, they comeback. we make sure their jobs are being held for them in the state of texas. we make sure that when they come home, what they have learned in

the military can be transferred over into college credits without them having to sit there and ride it out at a community college or one of our universities, so they get credit for the technical things they have learned. it makes a huge difference and gets them into the work force to transition into that civilian work force. we give our veterans who are disabled -- if you are 100% disabled in the state of texas, you do not pay any property-tax on your residence. that is a powerful message to those who have served, that we are recognizing, and i continue to look for ways to be able to send a message to those young men and women that what you did will never be forgotten.

it is not just a memory or a parade where i believe the president of the united states ought to be able to say when you come home from military service, we are going to have a parade to thank you. but there are other ways to do it. there are other ways that a more concrete that last longer than the memory of people saying thank you for your service. i want these individuals who are coming home, particularly those who have been wounded -- i want to offer this for the country to consider, a wounded warrior tax exemption. if you have been wounded, if the d.o.d. has designated you as an individual who has been wounded while you were on service to the united states, you get a five-year exemption from paying any personal income tax in this country.

[applause] that is sending a message. that is sending the message that will last longer than a parade. it will last longer than a proclamation on wall and a pat on the back. all those are important, but to be able to clearly say, to help financially to get their lives back, these post 9/11 veterans certified by the department of defense deserve that type of exemption, if you sacrificed that much for your country. the least this country can do is to give you that type of support when you come back. as someone who has worn the uniform of this country, i want to tell people -- and as the commander-in-chief for the last 11 years, as we have deployed our national guard to multiple theaters, to iraq, afghanistan,

we have had our troops in bosnia during the time i have been governor. i understand, not only having worn a uniform, but also having been the commander in chief for the last 11 years, the impact it has, not just on our warriors, but also on their families. at the president of the united states, our sons and daughters will not be sent into a conflict unless there is a clear and compelling reason for us to send them in. when we send them in, i can promise you, we will send them in with all the power and might that the united states can put in place to win, not to go for any other reason than to win and to get it over with and get back home as soon as we can. that is the commitment i made to the men and women, not just in the military, but the men and women of this country.

i want to talk just a second about the campaign we are going through and the issue that i think is on a lot of people's minds. that is obviously the economy. as alan share with you, i have had the great privilege to oversee the 13th largest economy in the world over the course of the last 11 years. we created more jobs than any other state in the nation, over a million jobs have been created in my home state. while america lost 2 million jobs. i cannot wait to stand on the stage with barack obama and talk about our job creation differences. i will bring a stark contrast to the current president of the united states when it comes to the issue of job creation. we know how to do that. we know how to do that as a country. you cannot overtax and over regulate and expect of entrepreneur is to continue to go risk their capital when they don't know what the next shoe to drop is. when the regulatory climate is eating them alive and the

compliance cost is just chewing up the profits, of course they are going to sit on their money. that is what is happening in america today. people have lost confidence. they have lost confidence in washington d.c. we have an administration that looks at energy policy and basically says, you all are going to have to learn how to use green energy. that's where we're going. mr. president, i don't have anything against green energy. wind and solar and other alternative fuels, i don't have a problem with that. but washington, d.c., doesn't need to be forcing americans and saying here's the energy you are going to use. the president said prices are going to go up because we are going to green sources of energy with no regard to what's it going to cost. washington, d.c., doesn't have to mandate to the american people. quit trying to pick winners and losers. we'll do that.

the market will do that, mr. president. let us decide. we need to build a pipeline from canada down to the united states so we can have that oil refined into energy for america's use. open up the pipeline, mr. president. create the jobs. [applause] >> when the unions are building that pipeline, he's on the wrong side of the issue, period, quit listening to the environmentalists. build the pipeline. the canadians are our friends. they are our allies. they aren't going to leave that oil in the ground in canada. the other way it will go is to the west, to china. so pick one, mr. president. is it going to be china or going to be the united states? the pipeline has been studied for three years and one of the safest pipelines ever built, 20,000-plus jobs and $5 billion to the states in resources. this is a no-brainer.

build the pipeline and open up our federal lands and waters. we have 300 years' worth of energy in this country. that is a powerful, powerful message. we can be independent of those countries that don't have america's best interest in mind. but we have to have a president that's committed to this country, committed to this country's energy independence, committed to this country's military, committed to the young men and women. i see dr. hatfield and hold your hand up. thank you for being here. this is the head of the school of military history at the university of texas and one of the great military historians in the world. dr. hatfield, thanks for coming with us.

you ask him any question on military history, and i appreciate you being with us today. he and i have been on magnificent trips to normandy and powerful influence on our young men and women back in my home state. mike, i wanted to take a moment, and as we wrap up here, i'm not going to talk a lot about mike. he was here last night. you all know his story. anybody that has that blue ribbon around your neck and that star, mike thornton truly is an american hero. his service to our country in the united states navy, navy seal. when you read his citation, the one thing that jumped out at me,

i suppose in the last century at least, the only medal of honor recipient to save the life of another medal of honor recipient, tommy norris, whose live he saved in that mission back in vietnam in 1972 was extraordinary. give it up for him. mike thornton, ladies and gentlemen, a great american and a south carolinian of some repute and he is living in the state of texas but from the state of south carolina. >> there were two residents from the south of south carolina and ended up at the alamo together and travis was the commander of the alamo and bottom was a lawyer from a wonderful family and it's those people -- it's

south carolina knows how to grow patriots. you have done it from 17 70's in the revolutionary war through all of the different conflicts that we have had in this country. south carolina knows how to grow patriots and heroes. and one of yours from whitestone, south carolina, mike thornton. god bless you, mike. here you are. >> thank you. it's great to be back among our friends. thank you. many of the ladies have served our great nation, too, in uniform and i say a special thanks to the spouses that are here and what they do for this nation because people don't understand the sacrifices our spouses have made as we travel

the world to keep our nation free. i have been to 76 countries in my life. there is nothing like to good old u.s.a. we all know that. thank each of you for being here. i have known lynn for years and years and my helped start the spartanburg post in 1968 and he signed my piece of paper and i became a lifetime member of the v.f.w. and still on the roster up there and my good friend dave moorehead is here, too and we thank you for your leadership up there and what you have helped with the state. ladies and gentlemen, i served this great nation for almost 26 years and i retired the navy seal team and a navy seal will be a hit man for the mafia and i started a security company.

i moved to texas when i met rick perry 16 years ago. rick is a doer and what he does, he surrounds himself with great people and people have the answers and rick gives up on the point, he moves forward. what he has done his past 11 years as governor, not counting the jobs, but what he has done for the men and women in the great state of texas and what he continues to support, rick, how did you do this and he tells them and they have taken that and projected to their states and they have raised the awareness for our military veterans. we have the greatest country in the world and we have veterans and 26 million are living in this country and stand as one and keep this nation safe and free for our children and grandchildren and their future as americans. and people don't look at it that way.

we have to be strong and stand up for what's right because it's the right reasons. all of us went to war, we went to war for our nation but for each other. the medal i wear belongs to each and every one of you. it be longs to the ones who fought before me as i met several of the world war ii vets, but it be longs to the guys welcoming home from vietnam. we can't change the past, but we sure as hell can make the future better for our young men and women and that's what rick does in the state of texas. we have retirement homes, we have new cemeteries and places that we can take care of these kids. and we have the outreach for different organizations that want to support all veterans. no matter if you were from vietnam, world war ii, vietnam, desert shield, desert storm, we are moving forward to take care of our veterans and that's the

type of leadership that rick does. what he does with the economy is unbelievable. the job situation there and i have been all over text and veterans when they come out and retire and in places like fort bliss, texas and around houston and retire in that great state of texas because they have someone who cares about their retirement, someone who cares about their life after the military. someone hoist going to care this will the end of their life and somebody cares about their families and their children. and they will have a place that will be free and will continue to grow. i'm not going to stay up here much longer, but my home state of south carolina is the place i love. where my father's buried and where my mother lives and my brother lives in greenville and

sister and brother-in-law live in spartanburg. and my grandchildren live in carolina beach. we have had a lot of great americans -- mike williams who was a medal of honor recipient. there are more medal of honor recipients since 1906 in the state of south carolina than any other state in the united states. [applause] >> because the people of south carolina care and they understand and they are going to fight for what's right. and with your support and your vote, i would like to ask the next president of the united states to come back up here, rick perry, to answer some of your questions. god bless you, god bless your families and god bless america. thank you very much. >> mike thornton, ladies and gentlemen. that is what our country is all

about, men and women who understand that freedom is not free, there is a great cost. when he went back in across the field of battle to go get tommy norris, you know, the commonsense brain was saying don't go back in there because this guy is dead, that's what he was told and he said just like james butler bond, who was stopped as he had left to go find out the question whether re-enforcements were coming to the and why are you throwing away your life away? he said buck travis needs to know the answer to his question and his request. and in the book "lone star," he spat on the ground, spun his

horse and rode into immortality. mike thornton represents everything that's good about those people of south carolina like james butler bond, an individual, he went back in. he saved a life. he made a difference. he continues to make a difference. he continues to save lives with the service he gives today. having people like mike thornton stand up beside me and say, listen, i want this man to be the president of the united states. it matters. it's a powerful message. having the newest medal of honor recipient has endorsed us as well. the young navy seal who wrote the book "lone survivor," they will be here on thursday, having those individuals, dan moran, a young marine, who has gone

through 30 different surgeries, hit by an i.e.d. in iraq and spent two years in brook army medical center. i got the phone call one after phone from my classmates from texas a and m who was a major general in the marines and said i'm sending you one of your boys and probably won't make it because his lungs is burned so bad. 50% of his body was burned, third-degree burns. and we looked after him, we looked after his wife. this young man is on the campaign trail with me. today. he's still in pain.

he still has the demons that attack him, but he loves this country so much. he has an incredible christian witness and he wants to help his friend, who he trusts and knows will lead this country be the president of the united states. so, mike, i want to say thank you to you and to your colleagues that have endorsed and working with us and for all of you here again, let me say thank you to the men and women who have served our country. your families who are here with you who kept the home fires burning and what a privilege it will be for me to be the president of the united states and the commander of chief of the greatest fighting force that the world has ever seen. god bless you and thank you. >> let me open it up for any questions.

kate dawson is your republican chairman here in south carolina. thank you for being here. yes, sir. >> got some oil in texas? got in trouble sunday night. seems like they are talking to drilling for oil. could you tell us how much potential there is in texas, colorado and maybe some day we will have to drill off this coast. >> it's your coast. >> you are damn right. >> south carolina's call. every state makes that decision about whether or not off their shore and if a state wants to do that, but the federal government should never force you into a position -- that's one of the things that is a real tenet of

our campaign, the powers not delegated to the united states by the constitution nor prohibited to it by the states are reserved for the states respectively or to the people. basically our founding fathers understood that there were a few and enumerated powers that the federal government was supposed to be involved with. military and it would be good if they would our border. we have been fighting for 11 years trying to keep our border secure with mexico and our federal government has been a failure at that. but this issue of allowing the states to be making the decisions about whether it's how to deliver health care, how to deal with environmental issues or energy policy, the state should be more engaged and

involved and be the determining entity of that than one size fits all in washington, d.c. yes, sir, with the plaid shirt. >> i like everything you tell me, i agree with all of it, but i have one small problem. first presidential debate and everybody standing up there and i watched everything you said except one thing and it bothers the -- i'm sorry. >> there is a little misunderstanding there. this issue goes back to the

issue of border security. the reason that south carolina is getting sued and the immigration law, reason that arizona is also fighting that battle, reason these other states are having to deal with this issue of illegal immigration is because we have been forced to deal with this issue, because of the failure of securing that board. i don't get confused about where the real disease is. we are dealing with the symptoms. the disease is a federal government that has failed to put into place security measures to shut that border down and we know how to do it and we don't have the resources in the state of texas to do it ourselves. i deployed two gun boats to two lakes last month. we have texas ranger teams on that border that we pay for in the state of texas.

this president has pulled our national guard troops off. they are less than 300 and not even on the border, 300 national guard troops for an 1,800-mile border. that is irresponsible. we need thousands of national guard troops, thousands of national guard troops in preparation of training this border patrol that will be there day in and day out. we need the aviation assets that are available. the predatory drones to be able to shut that border down. if we don't, the issues, the symptoms of this disease are not going to go away. what happened in the state of texas is they decided that if young people were in our state because the federal government forces us to deal with this, forces us to get health care and give education and the people of the state of texas said, how are we going to deal with this?

are we going to have tax wasters or taxpayers? and the legislature said we're going to require these young people to get in the line to become citizens of the united states and pay full in-state tuition to get educated in the state of texas so they are not tax wasters, and that's what the legislature did. only four difficult sentencing votes. that was texas' call. remember our 10th amendment? if any other state, you decide that issue on your own. and i would never as a president of the united states try to impose anything like that on the states. that's the states' call. the people of the state of texas said economically, this is in our best interest rather than have tax wasters that we will

have either in prison or welfare rolls because they aren't educated. that's how that happened in the state of texas. south carolina, free to deal with it as they see fit. but the next president of the united states, who i hope is me, knows how to secure that border, and we will have that border shut down, locked down and there will be a stoppage of the drugs and the weapons and the illegal immigration within a year of me taking my hand off that bible. [applause] yes, sir. >> i don't have a question but a statement. i was born and raised here. lived here my whole life but i was bred in the marine corps and i wanted to make a statement. as a 13-year-old kid i was going down the wrong path. at 17 years old, i decided i was going to join the marine corps and spent nine years in and real

fast, real quick, i straightened up. and you, sir, are the reason that i'm voting for you because you are the person we need to straighten us up. s that's out. >> thank you, sir. one more question. >> don perry, i'm sure we are a relative. >> got to be somewhere. >> my question is with the e.p.a. 14 years to build a coal-fired plant. just as they get started to open it up and start construction, the e.p.a. stops it. closing down probably the plant over -- the cross plant and they cleaned the impurities out of the environment and use it to build gypsum board.

what are we going to do with the e.p.a.? >> he gave a couple of examples of how they are killing jobs and actually taking an amazing energy source away from the united states, 25% of all the coal in the world is in the united states. we are the saudi arabia of coal. we've got over 300 years' worth of energy in this country, yet as i said earlier, this president is trying to force this country to go into almost exclusive use of green sources of energy, regardless of the cost. and that's where i have a real problem. i don't have a problem with green energy. if the state of south carolina wants to put incentives into place to get the wind energy or alternative energy sources to come and proliferate here, that's their business. but the federal government shouldn't be doing it. if you need any other better

example than a half billion dollars going to one company on the solar energy side, that ought to answer your question about the federal government picking winners and losers in the energy business. not how our country works and we need to allow the market to decide those things. but the e.p.a. is the biggest job-killing agency in this country. i'll give you one example. we have had a clean air act. listen, this is our air, our children that are breathing it, our grandchildren that are going to be breathing it, griffin's children -- get on the ball, son -- [laughter] >> when they inherit our state, i want that state's air to be cleaner than it is today and it can be because of programs we put into place in the state of

texas,s a flexible permitting program. we cleaned up our air more than any other state in the nation. any other state, we cleaned it up more. but this administration said a year ago, they are going to come in and take over our process. our comptroller estimated their program they want to put in place will cost 360,000 jobs in the state of texas. they are about killing jobs because they are command and control. they want to control your life from washington, d.c.,. that's why this election is so important, that we elect an individual who is an outsider. i don't think changing one washington insider with another washington insider is going to make a difference. when i talk about a balanced budget amendment to the constitution and making congress part-time, it makes people real nervous and that's good. they need to be real nervous. our allies have to be competent

-- confident that america is going to be there for them and the enemies need to be nervous that we are going to have a strong military in place and the way we do that is have an economy and the way you have an economy that is strong is neuter the e.p.a. when i talk about neutering the e.p.a. and pulling all the regulations, test them, audit them. if they kill jobs, throw them out. that simple. if it is a job-killing environmental regulation, because the fact is, those coal plants that you are talking about, they spent almost $100 billion of putting in the cleaning equipment to make sure that that emission meets the standards of this country. they want to kill the coal industry. that's their goal.

and if we kill the coal industry in this country, we will be more indebted to countries like venezuela and hugo chavez and countries that don't have our interests in mind. i say to this president, mr. president, let's have our friends and our domestic energy industry what we're focused on and if the alternative and the green energy sources can compete, god bless them, let them all do it. but all of those tax credits and all of those subsidies for all of the energy sector and listen one more question. one more question. yes, sir. >> radio station here yesterday was taking a survey and they wanted to know who we thought would be the next presidential candidate to cut and run if they did bad on saturday and my

question would be if you do bad on saturday, will you cut and run? >> if you do good on saturday, i'll do good on saturday. you have my back on saturday and i'll have your back in the next four years in washington, d.c.,. do we have a deal? god bless you and thank you for coming out here and being with us. [applause] >> all right, brother. >> what was your first car, by the way? 1967 pontiac calalina selling bibles. 389, with that 400 -- >> they made a 389. a 455 they made.

>> that's what i had then. >> two-door. i remember it like -- i was the proudest boy in texas. summer of 1969. i was going into my sophomore year of college. >> thanks for being here. i appreciate it. >> i have three of them. >> good for you, man. >> i know the value. >> good program. >> you are talking about shorten the terms of congress. >> we have to do it with a constitutional amendment. i'm not a constitutional lawyer,

but what my i think is that we can combine a balanced budget amendment to the constitution and limit their time. >> every other year. we neat odd years. 600 a month. they go home and they are doctors and teachers -- there's a little bit of everything. retirees. they are part of our state. we have a balanced budget amendment to our constitution and they pass the laws that need to be passed and go home. >> great idea. >> that's how our founding fathers wanted it. this full-time congress put it

into place by washington by statute. >> thank you. don perry. what little bit i know, there were three brothers that came over here in the late 1600's and one of my -- going back and he was born in 1760 and he was a young 16-year-old who fought in the american revolution. but they were north carolina. >> somewhere down the line >> somewhere down the line --