Broadcasting into iran in support of those efforts in an effective way, and now were in this situation, it is very hard to untangle the lost opportunities. Hard to get the confidence back in ejupt when theyve seen egypt when theyve seen the embrace of the muslim brotherhood. This is the challenge we face in this theater. Danielle you just brought up a whole series of things. Public diplomacy, which brings also in russia. I dont want to leave the middle east until we talk about the authorization use of military force. I know you support the notion of an authorization. There was a lot of back and forth between the administration, which didnt want to give language to the congress and the result is that weve been operating in what amount to a military mr. Royce were operating nder the 2001 and twee 2002 authorization. Danielle correct. Mr. Royce what i support is the authorization of use of military force that will give our commanders the flexibility they need mountain field. One of the things we need, though, in all of this is the commander in chief to be a commander in chief. One of the things we need as we move forward on this is a commander in chief willing not to tie his own habbeds and the hands of whoever follows him into office but instead to be dedicated not to a containment policy with respect to this but destroying isis. Let me just speak to that issue for a moment because when isis came out of raqqah in syria and began its assault across the well, across Northern Syria and across the border into yirke, there were calls from the pentagon into iraq, there were calls from the pentagon to use u. S. Airpower in the same way we had used it in back during the first gulf war when kuwait was invaded. You will recall when kuwait was invaded, the United States took a position that those 42 divisions were going to be obliterated and we did that with 118,000 sorties. 118,000 sorties took out those armored divisions. And the question we had at the time to the white house was, theyre moving with Toyota Pickup trucks, you can see them from the air, why not use that strategy and remove isis before they ever take fallujah or before they ever take modes you will, town by mosul, town by town, city by city . This was month after month after month when we held hearings on that and somehow the administration sat in a state of paralysis when isis could have been destroyed before they were embedded, before they were recruiting on the internet from all over the world, before they were selling the concept that they were indestructible we could have taken them out from the air. Lets take to the next stage. Then they finally on the ue ezitty untain, mountain, after iziti mountain, after they had taken a bank, we had a young captive speak before our congress, before our committee and explain to us what happened to. Er she said, all of the men were killed, the girls, women were sold. I was bought by an american. I was a concubine by an american who was recruited by isis a few years ago on the internet. He explained to me as a yazidi i was an apostate and thats what happens under a just system. If youre not a believer in the isis, you know, strategy isis cause, youre an apostate. She said, why wont you arm the yazidi men . Why wont you arm the kurdish men and women . By the way, 30 of the kurdish battalions are female. And they are fighting with 40yearold weapons, all right. They are fighting isis. When you ask the question is, well, baghdad. Yeah, the shiialed government in baghdad does have a problem with us arming the kurds or the yazidis or others in the region. But thats because of the influence of iran that doesnt want to see anything except shiia militias operating across the region. Why should we care about the pressure from iran on baghdad . Why shouldnt we and i got legislation, Bipartisan Legislation that i passed out of committee to arm the Kurdish Forces. Ou have 180,000 peshmerga, 180,000. You have 40,000 isis fighters. But as the as the kurdish soldiers tell us, we dont have artillery. We dont have longrange mortars. We dont have antitank weapons. That is why it is so hard for us to stop isis. Another question i have. Besides arming the christians and the yazidis and the kurds and the sunni tribes who want to take their towns back and live now in d. P. Camps. Oh, maybe seven Million People now have been displaced within syria and we have no safe zone that this administration has set up to protect them. They would like to go back. They would like to have weaponry and some training from the u. S. To take their villages back. But as long as were going to defer to shiia militia or to baghdad and iran, how is that going to happen . And as long as were not Going Forward d deploy our observers in order to call in those air strikes, how are we going to give close order you know, Close Air Support to those kurdish units and other units fighting isis . We need a strategy not to contain isis but to destroy isis so that those young men and women, now, watching on the internet suddenly get the message that its not their destiny to go join isis and expand the caliphate, that thats a losing cause. That takes a change of calculus on the part of the administration. Danielle now are you optimistic now that theyve taken back ramadi . Mr. Royce im somewhat optimistic. The human rights abuses, to put it mildly, that they inflicted upon indigenous village populations have created a huge blowback. So some of that is moving in the right direction. But we could accelerate this if we listened to those in the field who want the authorization. Id say 75 , 80 , from what i heard from the commanders of the flights that go out come back without getting authorization out of washington in terms of dropping their ordnance. They got to get approval out of washington and in this kind of situation with those rules of engagement, you know the challenge there. For all of those reasons, i would like to accelerate the rollback of isis because so ch depends upon us getting a handle on this enthusiasm of recruitment that right now is such a problem in europe and north africa and now its becoming a problem here. Danielle for as long as theyre perceived to be winning, theyre going to be recruiting. I dont think theres any question about that. Now, lets change gears a little bit. Youve introduced legislation to support military assistance to ukraine. I know the administration has ankly, to me, inexplicably resisted that. This is the challenge we face in ukraine. Were not able to arm the people on the ground to support themselves. Its not theres an analogy to what you were just talking about in the middle east. Putin is now in syria. How do we meet this challenge . Mr. Royce well, if we go back, danny, one more step, why did it begin . It began with a decision to pull our interceptors out of poland and the czech republic. Our secretary of state Hillary Clinton and this idea of pushing the reset, the idea that the Obama Administration wanted to send a signal to putin and we had put in an interceptor system. We are expanding the system as a counterweight if iran ever threatened europe or the United States, the concept was to have the interceptor system and a program where we could intercept any missiles coming out of iran before they arced, you know, and fell into european or u. S. Territory. But the russians were pushing back on that, and so in the face of the commitment that had been made by poland and the czech republic, our secretary of state clinton and the president pulled out this system, and i believe that as a consequence of that, putin read that as weakness, a look of resolve on the part of the United States. And saw an opportunity when the situation presented itself in ukraine. Now, myself and eliot engel and a delegation of eight, four on each side, went into ukraine and we went all the way east before you get in order to talk to the russianspeaking there. To get their feelings about what we was going on, to take their temperature. And we talked to the civil society, the lawyers groups, the womens groups, the jewish groups, different minority groups, the mayor, the council. The response we got was that, look, we get a lot of they said this. Putin is recruiting every skinhead and malcontent he can find in the russianspeaking world and theyre bringing them in here with weaponry, but we can handle that because we can from he our accent their accent. We arrest them. Thats not the problem. The problem is the russian tanks. Our problem is that we do not have antitank weapons to stop their tanks. And our problem is that you wont sell or give us those weapons. So the reason for the legislation, danny, is to give hose in ukraine a credible deterrence that says to putin, if you continue with the armor in this region, there will now be an antidote for inserting those tanks into this situation because they clearly feel they could have handled the situation, the circumstances if if it werent for russian armor and russian troops. So our goal, obviously, we have the sanctions on russia to try to push russia out, but for me i think the problem is, if you show resolve upfront, if like reagan you announce that because the iranians have taken the hostages, when you become president youre going to do something about it, what happened the day he was being sworn in . Our hostages at the time were being taken to a canadian plane and they were trying to get them off the tarmac as fast as they could before reagan took that oath of office, right . Whats happening today in iran . They took an additional american hostage after the agreement was signed by our secretary of state. So i think our whole strategy has to look at whats worked in the past, including, by the way, broadcasting. I was in Eastern Europe, in east germany on an Exchange Program years ago. I saw the effects of reagans orkstration of those broadcasts under radio free europe, Radio Liberty, where we had a different plan. Our plan was to reach out and actually change those governments by taking that 2 3 opposition that existed and ratcheting that up to 85 , which is exactly what happened. And in east germany, where i saw this happened, you could see exactly what was happening with the population and you could see that inevitably now because we were sharing our values, the types of values the a. E. I. Speaks of, along the role that we had around the world to explain these political ideas of freedom, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, tolerance, these were the concepts that were being taught and people were listening to this. This is what should be going on now with respect to our broadcast into Eastern Europe and into russia and what does even the Administration Says the broadcasting is practically defunct. So the legislation that myself and Elliott Engel are moving address eliot engel are moving addresses that in two ways. You put a strong c. E. O. In charge of this instead of a sevenboard, you know, nine members of the board that cant make a quorum. You let that c. E. O. Run it daytoday and you give that c. E. O. The mission that we once gave radio free europe, Radio Liberty and you guess us back up countering what putin is doing with his Propaganda Machine and r. T. Television along with what isis is doing. Danielle so the radio is the surrogate radio and also our direct broadcasting back in the day really were a lifeline of hope. We heard one talk about how they were the hearing that was really something that gave them optimism that they had a future. In the 1990s we created radio free asia. To do the same thing. Mr. Royce i had a hand in that. Danielle im trying to understand whats happened. When i looked at the Senate Foreign relations, we created the broadcasting board in actually to double down on protecting these radios from, you know, the influence of the go along to get along in diplomacy. What happened . Mr. Royce so its morphed into National Public radio for [laughter] mr. Royce with a bureaucracy and without the mission that we had at the time and lets be honest. Our mission was to infuse those societies with the knowledge that would allow them to move towards greater freedom. And greater support for market economy, right . And a template in a lesson of tolerance of how democratic systems would work. We have moved off of that mission, but theres no reason we cant move back onto it, and the legislation today is not obviously about radios. Its about the internet. Its also about television. Its about the whole pan plea of social media that we can deploy. But to do it we have to feel confident in our message about our goals. We have to be able to talk about freedom. We have to be able to talk about these issues that im speaking of freedom of religion and so forth and give people a vision of a Different Society than the one that they see clashing around them. You have to be confident to do that and you have to believe that the right thing to do is to empower the people. I believe the right thing is to be with the 2 3 of the people in iran that went to the streets. I dont think the right thing to do is to increase the leverage of the ayatollah or the irgc in that society which will now receive 100 illionplus in revenue because weve sort of forgotten that all of those companies were nationalized, including the oil industry, right . Its not going to the iranian people the way its been set up. Its going through the Iranian Revolutionary guard corps. What will they do with that additional money . What is the ayatollah going to do . This is not going to be empowering for the people in iran. So i think this strategy has to be reversed. Danielle so we talked a lot about political freedom. We havent talked about economic freedom. Youve come out in favor of the of t. P. P. , the Transpacific Partnership. Mr. Royce yes. Ill just explain my thinking which i have sat down with the representatives of governments across across the pacific rim and in europe and what they share with me is, look, were either going to have agreements for international trade, which are low tariffs, high standards , or were going to have agreements if beijing is leading the process of low tariffs, no standards. And we figured out that for us were much better protected in these negotiations if we can have high standards. So were willing to give you more market access. Were willing to open our markets. After all, your tariffs are pretty low to begin with. Ours are pretty high. Well bring our tariffs down, and you write agreements with high standards and well sign onto that because we would ooner have america driving this train than beijing. Is is also what european parliamentarians of either political stripe, you know, across the spectrum, tell us privately. Now, we understand protectionist attitudes and so forth in europe, but when youre talking to those who actually understand whats at stake, they encourage us to move forward and to lead because they say, if you dont lead in the United States, then beijing is going to lead and thats not going to have a happy outcome. Danielle so critics of t. P. P. Have said in fact, critics even among those who are nominally free traders, critics have said some of the provisions will allow the chinese and Stateowned Enterprises to slide into t. P. P. With no problem, that some of the intellectual property provisions arent good. How do you take that . Mr. Royce well, the intellectual property. Rovisions are existing i would like to see them stronger. But on i. P. Protections, i. P. Protections are in there. You contrast that with what beijing is pushing which has no protections, no protections. This obviously increasing dont let the perfect be the enemy of the good, danny. That is what i would say here. D remember this is not a situation where if we advocate moving forward trade libization in a rulesbased system i just want people to reflect on what part of the consequences have been in terms of liberalizing trade around the world. Part of that consequence, if you look at economies then, World Economy was about 5 trillion. Today its 70 trillion. If you look at Child Mortality rates then, we cut that rate by 2 3. We have cut that rate by 2 3. I mean, around the globe, the answer is not to put up higher tariffs. We saw what that looked like during the Great Depression. Because that Great Depression was a worldwide depression, and one of the things that accelerated it was this was governments moving forward with ever higher tariffs as we fought tariff wars, and today were in a situation where we could be so advantaged if we can build on the momentum of higher and higher standards, because we have our allies in europe and we have our allies in the pacific rim who will agree to go along with us. But if we lose the momentum on this process and instead its driven in asia by beijing, i think its going to be a much different future. Danielle i take a little bit of a glim on us and institutions like ours as well. I dont think we talk enough we talk a lot about political freedom. We talk about human freedom and religious freedom. We dont talk enough about the transformative role of economic freedom. Even in the middle east where we dont see that, it makes such a huge difference in peoples lives. I have completely monopolized the microphone and id like to open things up for questions. Everybody knows our procedures. Ill call on you. Someone will come over to you with a microphone. Identify yourself and your affiliation, please, and put your brilliant, brilliant statement in the short of a very short question or ill cut you off. This gentleman had his hand up first. Chairman royce, jake from foundation. Hindu thank you. President obama has invited Prime Minister for talks leer in the spring. And these talks now are overshadowed with yet another terrorist attack. As chairman of the Foreign Affairs committee, what would you advise the administration should be the trajectory of these talks to kush religious curb religious extremism in the area . Mr. Royce i talked to the Prime Minister of india. This issue of better cooperation, antiterrorist cooperation between the United States and india, and the attack on mumbai, for example, is an example of where we picked up certain intelligence but and we shared it with the indian government, but collectively we werent able, even though we knew an attack was coming, we knew the city that was going to be attacked, we werent able to discern enough information to prevent that loss of life. The secondary problem, of course, is many of the schools, in this case, the campus, that exists to recruit those jihadists have not been closed down. There are 600 schools as well as this l. E. T. Campus that exist in pakistan that i have been trying to get closed down in three trips over the years to pakistan. I have pushed, pushed, pushed on this. Part of the problem is these are not funded actually inside pakistan. Theres gulf state funding that continues to play this role in pushing an ever more confrontational interpretation of this jihadist ideology. So we need to work worldwide to shut down the funding of that kind of mechanism. Third, we need to work on the internet with respect to, you know, we got to work with palo alto as well as in india and in tel aviv with respect to those that are involved in that i. T. Community in terms of how you take this down on the internet. So theres a number of Different Solutions here. We need to do all of this in tandem, and we must understand, you know, as we dismiss isis and these other organizations as the j. V. Team, this is not the case. They are growing with their momentum. This is accelerating, and instead this must be along with containing or stopping iran from developing the capabilities eventually of getting a Nuclear Weapons program. And i would argue that the way this agreement was handled was just a temporary 10year, 15 at the most, hiatus on this. I dont think we until we have a strategy to empower the people in iran, i think we got a problem if the ayatollah is making all of these decisions and until we close down those deobindi schools and the l. E. T. Campuses where the terrorists are recruited, i think well have the same problem in terms of the attacks in india. Danielle its interesting you bring this up. Weve taken our eye off the ball in pakistan. We are not talking about al qaeda as well and what theyre doing in afghanistan. I didnt touch on that with you so i encourage you all to ask. This lady has a question. Hi. Penny starr with c. N. S. News. So if you could advise the new president in 2016, what would be the First Priority in restoring u. S. Leadership around the world . Mr. Royce well, i think the First Priority is to lay out a strategy in which were going to lead. And i think reaching out, first, to our democratic allies and then to our other friends around the world in order to lay out what that strategy is going to look like. I think, also, in terms of explaining the rules of the oad internationally, ok. The International Treaties and agreements, for example, that mean and are interpreted by all of the countries except one means you cant claim a reef at your sovereign territory. You cannot take a marking pen and draw a ninedash line around the South China Sea up against the borders of Nine Countries and say all of this is our territory. So i think its important we work with the International Community and with our democratic allies and others to say these are the rules and were not going to violate the rules. And with respect to terrorism, theres a new strategy, and our strategy is not to contain it, its to defeat it. And you take it from there. Danielle can i followup on your South China Sea statement . What more should we be doing . Were doing some freedom of navigation, very limited freedom of navigation operations in the South China Sea to push back on the chinese. What more should we be doing . Mr. Royce the whole question here is freedom of navigation. Is dani, what we need to do do that on a routine basis and do that with a pacific fleet. I dont think you necessarily just want to send one frigate out there. You just want to keep those sea lanes open and make it clear, by the way, working internationally, since everyone else happens to per receive this exactly the same perceive this exactly the same way, you make this a worldwide issue that these are the rules of the road. Danielle gentleman back here. Thank you, chairman royce, and a. E. I. Im the communications director. This week you had a closed door iefing with ambassador james worelick on a conflict. Particularly steps you and other congressional leaders would like to see this administration take to bring peace to the region. Could you elaborate on that as much as you can as well as other steps you and other leaders would like to see this administration or future administrations take in regards to protecting and helping our allies in armenia, georgia, who are in constant threat of other forces, such as turkey . Mr. Royce i sent a letter to the president along with my ranking member, eliot engel, and others on the committee that lay out a strategy of, first, putting these range finding special equipment that can tell where a gun a fired from. If you have an incoming shell, it can tell which side of the line the shell is coming from. As a direction finding equipment. Second, to put observers there and, third, to require all sides to pull up snipers off of the front lines. If these three things are done, the n. G. O. Community and those in the pentagon tell us it will lead to a much safer situation because youll no longer have the trip wires. So were pushing for all three of those actions. Now while at the same time were talking to both baku ents, ive been in with a bipartisan delegation. Eliot engel and i trying to lower those temperatures. Thank you for your time. Kurdistan tv. In your opinion, how important u. S. A. W that the separate the kurds, make gistic military capability . Thank you. Mr. Royce i think its very important. Because first of all, the Kurdish Forces are doing most of the fighting on the ground. Second, the Kurdish Forces are the best fighters. Third, as i said, 30 of the kurdish battalion are female and those women are fighting up against isis. And you and i both read accounts in the American Press about their bravery and action. I think its morally its not morally responsible for us to allow those women on the front to fight isis with 40yearold equipment. They need to be given the antitank guns, the artillery, the longrange mortars that they have requested in order to match isis. And if they can fight with the same equipment, i have no doubt that they will be victorious, and i think it is a very important point. Danielle do you ever worry that supporting some of these this these groups on the sis of tribes or sect or ethnicity will push the middle east . Mr. Royce we should be focusing on giving them the equipment that will allow these fighters to take their villages back. That should be the focus. And the munitions, necessary, to take their villages back cause if we do not, if we as i mentioned the word pa rale cis, if paralysis, if the administration were in a state of paralysis, think for a minute, dani, we have seven Million People displaced in camps that want to go back to their villages. What are the consequences of that . And that is inside syria and iraq. Imagine the million and a half in turkey. The three quarters of a million in lebanon or a million now in lebanon. The three quarters of a million in jordan. The million in europe. I mean, we have a humanitarian nightmare, and we dither because, yes, were pressured by the baghdad government. Yes, they constantly tell us, no, no, if youre going to arm anybody, come through us. But the problem is that until they show a capability of standing up to tehran, to standing up to the iranian gime and actually engaging the sunni tribes and the kurds and everyone in the same way, until we see that action, and i dont dispute that current government is certainly much better than malikis government, but there is a habit that has has been put into place. We have to break that habit, and i would say the way we begin is arming the yazidis and the kurds and the sunni tribes that want to take their villages back. Danielle young man in the back there. Good morning, mr. Chairman. From the wilson center. You began talking about the administration befriending our enemies. My question is about the administrations attempt to actually support our friends, specifically with the asian rebalance. How would you characterize the progress so far . What more should we be doing with the pacific . And how would you respond to chinas critique that this is just a containment strategy . Mr. Royce a containment strategy, well, its not a containment strategy. What it is is an effort to move forward with the rule of law. And i support very much the administrations support for the Transpacific Partnership as well as the atlantic agreement. Those are steps in the right direction in terms of enforcing the rule of law, the rules of the road. It will better protect our i. P. Property but it will lead to a cinergy of more economic growth. I think all of that is the step direction. Anielle there are two ladies. Thank you. Reporter from voice america. I have a question. We talk about iran and north korea, russia, china. Chairman royce, in your view, which country poses a bigger threat to the United States in the coming year . Thank you. Mr. Royce i think the greatest longterm threat is still iran. It is a threat to the region and 15 years out its a threat potentially to the United States. And that is why i am i am concerned that the perception of our tilt to iran in the region will complicate our efforts to try to constrain iranian behavior. The secondary problem i think we face long term by the way, i think the ayatollah basically has his own caliphate. When he is talking about overturning governments in yemen, in bahrain, in saudi arabia, i think this idea of the shiia crescent stretching to lebanon is a very, very destabilizing reality that were dealing with and then at the same time we have this the isis ncept of caliphate. So you have two competing ideologically driven interpretations, but both are moving away from any acceptance of the of political pluralism or the idea of freedom of religion for people to practice their own religions. Thats not tolerated in either of these quarters. And so with that intolerance and increased radicalization comes the danger that neither one of those groups get ever deadlier weapons into their possession. Thats why i would like to see isis decisively destroyed. Danielle go back to this area, the gentleman. On t seems sanctions relief iran is daytoday, according to secretary kerry yesterday. Iaea says iran has made those commitments, they delete the sanctions automatically without input from congress. Given your view of iran as a pretty substantial threat, what can congress do in the long term in a new era of u. S. Sanctions lifted on irans oil sector . Mr. Royce of course, i dont think its just my view. This particular initiative the president only got the support of 42 members in the senate. All right. And certainly a minority of the members of the house of representatives, including many defections from his own party in the house. So i think the question of what we can do depends upon our resolve to first try to enforce the agreement. And i havent seen any real resolve on the administration in terms of enforcing it. And second, whether or not we intend to keep the commitment made by both those who voted for it and those who opposed it. Which was, regardless of what happened next, we all agree that the u. N. The u. N. Resolutions that are in place will prevent iran from developing further testing on icbms and further support for terror. Now that theyre in violation of that, i would say this is the acid test of their intentions. I would put one other thing on the table. The reports that surfaced in the wall street journal that iran had agreed to transfer the capability to into the hands of hezbollah for targeting for their missiles. You know, iran has transferred there are some 100,000 rockets and missiles now in the hands of hezbollah but theyre dumb rockets. I saw this some years ago during the second lebanon war. I was in haifa. I watched those things crash into the city every day. I was in the trauma hospital. There were 600 victims down there, but those were dumb rockets. They couldnt target the tallest building. They couldnt target the airport. What iran has said is we will transfer that conventional capability to hezbollah. We will also do that in terms of we will resupply the rockets to hamas down in gaza and we will rebuild the tunnels. Now, ladies and gentlemen, those are direct violations of the International Resolutions and the call for sanctions against that kind of activity. Is the administration going to make it clear to the ayatollah that we are not going to allow the transfer of that capability into the hands of nazarallah, into the hands of hezbollah . I think this is an essential question and all of this we intend to use our committee to, as weve done in the past, to put legislation out onto the floor of house of representatives but also to try o encourage the administration to take action. The administration, we would like to have as a partner in halting iran in this kind of conduct, but whether or not they agree, we will go forward with legislation to try to force this issue. Danielle we have a lot of people still waiting. I know you have a hard stop. Do we have time for one more question . Mr. Royce sure. Danielle young lady waving her arm. And this is going to be our last with apologies to everybody. A handful of pentagon officials have been calling for acceleration of the f. M. S. Process recently. Theyre saying that partners are having to buy from russia and china and places like that because it is too slow. Would you speed up the process or would you have concerns about doing so . Mr. Royce no, i dont have concerns about doing that because we have been pushing the administration on this. It has to do also with our industrial base. The defense of our industrial base. When our allies need this equipment, it makes very little sense to have them go instead to other countries because frankly part of keeping our production lines open and part of offering a deterrence is having allies and friends able to count on the United States for weapons of deterrence. So this is weve had ongoing discussions with the administration on this in order to try to expedite and reverse some of these policies that have gone on but things have been held year after year. I used to say month after month but its now year after year. And so were pushing hard on that. Danielle im going to ask everybody to remain seated as the congressman has to head back to his job on capitol hill. But i know youll all join me in thanking him for his leadership. [applause] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2016] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] cspan takes you on the road to the white house. Best access to the candidates at town hall meetings, speeches, rallies and meet and greets. Were taking your comments on twitter, facebook and by phone and always every Campaign Event we cover is available on our website, cspan. Org. Ohio Governor John Kasich is in New Hampshire today for a president ial campaign town hall hearing. Youll be able to watch that live here on cspan starting at 5 15 eastern followed by your phone calls and reaction on twitter. As president obama prepares for his state of the Union Address on tuesday, he released this video on twitter. President obama im working on my state of the Union Address. Its my last one. As im writing, i keep thinking about the road we traveled together these past seven years. Thats what makes america great, our capacity to change for the better, our ability to come together as one American Family and pull ourselves closer to the america we believe in. Its hard to see sometimes in the daytoday noise of washington, but it is who we are and it is what i want to focus on in this state of the Union Address. And cspans coverage starts at 8 00 p. M. Eastern with Senate Historian betty and real clear politics congressional reporter james arkin and what to expect in this years address. Then at 9 00, our live coverage of the president s speech followed by the republican response by South Carolina governor nikki haley, plus your reaction by phone, facebook and tweets and email on cspan, cspan radio and cspan. Org. And well reair our state of the Union Coverage and the republican response starting at 11 00 p. M. Eastern 8 00 p. M. Pacific. Also live on cspan2 after the speak speech, well hear from members of congress in staff hall. Ll staff wear immigrant advocate Greisa Martinez talks about undocumented immigrants from south america. And former National Security advisor to dick cheney will talk about tensions between iran and saudi arabia. And well talk with two editorial cartoonists of the hington post and ann telnaes and signe wilkinson. Washington journal every day on cspan starting at 7 00 a. M. Democrat e house rules committee. He is also the top democrat on the ad subcommittee on nutrition. That is why we invited to join us to join him on the washington journal. In 2014, the u. S. Government spent 76 billion dollars on food stamp money. Isnt well spent money . Is it will spend . Guest it is. It is not enough. The fact is that people should have a right to food. Were coming out of the worst Economic Crises since the Great Depression. A lot of people have fallen on hard times. ,hen people fall on hard times the amount we spend on food stamps increases. Thankfully, we have a benefit to help people put food on the table. The problem is that it is inadequate. You listen to talk radio and you think it is in or mislead generous benefit. They think people can buy lobster. The fact is that it is a very modest benefit. Families who are on food stamps, it does not last for the month. They have go to food banks to be able to make sure they have food for the month. This is an important program. It is an effectively run program. And errorw fraud rate. Possibly the lowest of any other program. It is a program that works. It needs to be expanded. Again, food should be a right in the country. We have be thinking in terms of making sure that families have enough to put food on the table, nutritious food. Host when you look at the chart by the department of agriculture is onehey said there person in the household and youre getting snap benefits. It is 194 maximum. You can go down the list here and see how much people can get. Guest it is not a lot. Think about that. That is for whole month. It is not a lot. Obviously, we are talking about jobs and be selfsufficient. One of the things that we want to remind critics is that there are a of people in snap our children. Senior citizens. Our children who are disabled. Other people who can work. People who are in snap. The majority of people who do work. Behink the question should raised that why is it if you work, you work so little that you are in poverty . We should be addressing the issue of adequate wage as a way to limit the people on this program. Host that goes to my next question. What does that say about a nation of 300 Million People that we are spending 76 billion on food stamps . Guest i think the fact that we have millions of people, the richest country in the history of the world who are hungry, is something which be ashamed of. Reason for anybody this country to be hungry yet, have millions of people children, adults, Senior Citizens who do not know or the next meal will come from. We can fix that. Hunger is a political condition. We have food, resource, and infrastructure to end hunger. Unfortunately, in congress we spent a lot of time demonizing people who are poverty. We spent a lot of time cutting these programs. This Republican Congress tried to cut the program by 40 billion. So, that is where a lot of the attention is aimed at. It is aimed at limiting and cutting these programs and demonizing people on the benefits. Rather than trying to end hunger. Is the direction we need to change. That is what has for several years. Lets get everybody in a room together. Not just government officials, but the head of food banks, the heads of hospitals, principals and teachers and schools. People who are on the benefit of snap. Anybody who has anything to contribute to try to figure out what the best practices. And how to coordinate government and the private sector to get people off of these benefits into selfsufficiency. Unfortunately, we have not done it yet. Hopefully, with the remaining time will make it a bigger priority. Host we will get the calls here in a minute. The fourth line we set aside this morning, if you receive snap benefits, or if you have been a recipient of the snap in the past and what we would love to hear your experience. 2027488000 that is the number for you. 8003. This morning, senator tim scott from South Carolina had an oped in the wall street journal. Republicans here for liberal failures on poverty. I want to read a little bit to you and get your reaction. On saturday, the majority of the republican field will meet to discuss poverty on a form South Carolina. Posted by the jack cant foundation. The two of us will serve as moderators. The high level candidate interest indicates that the party is not willing to concede the issue to the democrats. We expect candidates will get differences. It is only because they have ideas more than the other party is offering. What these republicans share as a muchneeded insight, the ticket out of poverty is a quality education and good paycheck. Caller i do not just guest i do not disagree that a good education and a paycheck our way to get out of poverty. That is something i have been advocating for my political career. As a mentioned, many problems that people who are on snap face is that even if they have a job, the jobs face a little that they so qualify. We need to make sure we pay attention. It would be nice if the republican candidates would get behind increasing minimum wage to make it livable. Of those who are able to work who are on snap, the majority work. They are working hard. They are earning so little that they qualify for this benefit. Lets raise the minimum wage to a livable wage. That is one way to get people out of poverty. Host what you mean when you say Food Insecurity . Guest it means you do not know where your next meal will come from. You regularly go without meals. I prefer to use or hunger. That is what it means. When you miss meals, youre hungry. There is a cost to that. Who should not go to school regularly miss meals, they cannot focus, they cannot learn. I have been to schools in my District Across the country where you walk in and kids are staring off into space because they have not eaten over the weekend. Citizens who go without food, and they take their medication on an empty stomach with us take it with food, and up in a hospital. You end up with not only more suffering, but more cost. Not dealing with this issue is very costly. It has been frustrating for me that there has been a lock of urgency. I tell my colleagues all the time, visit a food bank. Go to the food pantry in your district. Talk to people who go to these places. One about their lives. They do realize that not fit the stereotype that you hear about when we have these debates. Being poor is hard work. There are people working multiple jobs trying to make theireet, trying to pay heating bills and their rent. At the end of it all, they do not have enough to put food on the table for their kids. Kids, irent, ive to cannot imagine how horrible it must feel to go home and tell your kids i do not have enough to put food on the table. We can fix this. We ought to be able to come together and fix it. It used to be a bipartisan issue. When i first come to washington as a college student, i was at the institute for George Washington of George Washington, i watched how he and republicans bob dole worked thether to help strengthen social safety net to make sure people have enough food. We were making great strides. We were eliminated hunger in the 1970s. There are some good republicans who care deeply about this issue. Unfortunately, they are not in leadership. They are not running for president. I coach at the house hunger congress, we have a republican from kansas. I worked with congresswoman joanne henderson. Senator marino of kansas city. People who ive worked with on this issue. They get it. Unfortunately, the priorities of congress have been everything but figuring out a way to eliminate hunger. I think that needs to change. Host caller good morning, gentlemen youcongressmen, wow are selling the aluminum siding . That was a long spirit for cell . Why dont you tell us what it is instead of trying to convince me. Im not anymore but i come from abject poverty right people and my father had his parents address and everybody around us were on food stamps and feeding dogs. They had their beer and their time at the bar and the food they are downing fast food. I will not stereotype but you just stereotyped. You just told us about how nice these people are and that they and so concerned about food home cooking and shopping. They are not the they are writing down to mcdonalds. They are far to 50 pounds. That lady cannot roll out of bed in the morning and make cereal for the kids before they go to school . What are you talking about . Host we got your point. Yout i dont know how respond to that. Thats the stereotype we hear on the house floor when we have these debates. I spent a lot of time and for banks. I spend a lot of time in schools where i hear from teachers about kids who are hungry. I met yesterday with the aarp and we talked about the increase in hunger among Senior Citizens. This is a real problem and we can demonize poor people and use that as an excuse to not do but weg or cut a program are the richest country in the history of the world. Why should anybody be hungry in this country . It should not be and we can fix this problem or we could sit around and demonize poor people. Perpupil isizing not only a lousy thing to do but it does not accomplish anything. Host kevin is calling in from chicago, a snap recipient. Caller hi there, good morning. Stigmatization and humiliation of having to rely on snap benefits is enough by itself. I am not a unique story. I did not recover from the recession. I am 57 years old africanamerican male with a masters degree and i formally earn six figures and pay high taxes because im single with no children. I was outisability, of the workforce for little while and had longterm hospitalization. Then trying to get back into the workforce in your mid50s as an africanamerican male is a very difficult thing, its very difficult, we have not recovered and there is no recovery in our demographic. I was on my way into the snap office this morning. For christmas dinner, i had spaghetti. Thats what i could afford. 79 i was getting benefits andn snap i put into this my never cared. I really never cared. There is a small degree of fraud but i never cared. Thats what i want my tax dollars to be used on when i was earning six figures. Its not something im proud of. That i usedmething to game the system. I used a realistic amount in order to eat. I would like to reference the first caller. At the real roots of this issue is racial animus. And people of color taking something from the good hardworking white people america and that is patently false. Host do you receive any other benefits . Read some of the orion oped to get your reaction. Do you receive any other federal benefits . Yes, of course, i received disability because i am disabled. I look for work constantly. I am a writer. , eight look relations writer and that was my career. I was a Public Relations writer and that was my career. I have phone interviews a most daily. It is a real frustration because im told them qualified but i am not a cultural fit, something i have never heard before. I know its about my age. Even if you start making minimum wage or a little bit above, will you lose some of your benefits . This is what paul ryan and tim scott are saying. Caller its an accident question. Its an excellent question. I was receiving benefits and had a temporary assignment in november with an advertising agency. Weekned about 1000 per which was fulltime work under what i used to make but it was only two weeks of work. And my lightsnt were shut off last month. It was before the holidays because the Energy Assistance program have been cut as well. Me and my dog sat in the dark, cold apartment in the winter for two months before a Family Member put it in their name. Me and likelike most people, yes, its pretty humiliating. You have to eat to live. Leave it there and get a response from congressman mcgovern. Guest i wish kevin well. If people start to earn a little bit, their benefits get reduced drastically. That is true and thats what we call a cliff. Would be nice if some of these benefits would stick with the longer so they can get on their feet and be able to move beyond reliance on some of these programs. The problem that i witnessed with speaker ryan and others is that their prescription is more work requirements, more Strings Attached to the benefits. The problem is that some of his work requirements or you have to be in job training, they sound nice but there are no jobs for a lot of people. Are there are not worker Training Programs. If people cannot avail themselves to that, they lose their benefits and me to figure out a way that makes this make sense in the real world. To do this right would make would require a greater investment. The problem with the republicans proposal is they want a smaller howstment and i dont know you can keep benefits people for a longer time with a smaller investment unless you reduce the benefit outright. Already, the snap benefits is not meet the needs of families who rely on it. Host this is from the orion oped the paul ryan oped think theresaid, i is a problem with this cliff but what is the solution . I think its to keep these benefits with people a little longer so they dont hit that cliff so dramatically. Disagree with the problem being identified but i disagree with the solution. Attached andings more work requirements but what if there is not a job out there . Already know that some of these job Training Programs which Congress Continues to underfund and cut, they are there are limited slots. Lets do this in a way that truly helps people. Speaker ryan is trying to do is come up with a justification to block a grant of these programs. The problem is that it does not respond to the need it allows them to put a cap on the spending. That may sound nice we need to make sure the resources are there for people who need them, plain and simple. Host caroline from reston, louisiana, good morning. Caller how are you doing . My mother remarried and has a son, a stepson. Somewhere innorth michigan or something. Anyway, she is on every program known to man and gets a little bit from each one because she is very. Poor. My father died and she was left with zero and remarried. Drugs and gives her money so she can afford to go to the doctor and get drugs for her high Blood Pressure and Everything Else thats wrong with her in her old age which is natural. He sells drugs. To provide for her. He sells lots of drugs. Ost lets wrap this up caller what you need to get at is the people selling drugs to provide for those parents that she told me about that dont want to work and her, and elderly lady that cannot work, to get medication or whatever. She knows people in her neighborhood host thank you very much. Every call we have had so far, is there a new way of thinking about how we provide poverty programs . You say you want to hold a summit but what would be the next step . Guest we have a lot of really good programs but they are not wellconnected. They fall into multiple different agencies. We began this program talking about hunger. There is not one committee in congress that deals with hunger only fit these are multiple committees. Is where the snap program is but there are multiple agencies outside the usda that have programs that help deal with hunger. One of the reasons i wanted a white house conference was to connect the dots. We want to better coordinate and deal with issues like the fiscal cliff that was mentioned in that wall street journal oped and how do we better coordinate with state and local governments . How do we reach out to the private sector . How do we work better with her food banks and schools and hospitals . There is a way to do this but there are a lot of good things going on but one thing that frustrates me as a member of congress is that we did not connect the dots well. I think we could do that. That does not cost any money to better coordinate. I think we might find ways to save money. I would ask any government thisial, not only administration but previous ones what is your plan to end hunger in america . Cite the snap program or feeding programs are multiple programs to help our veterans and Senior Citizens but there is no comprehensive holistic plan. We need a plan to solve this problem. Was that a white house conference could bring everybody democrats, republicans, liberals, conservatives, everyone who might have an idea, lock them in a room and say we not letting you out until we have a plan that has benchmarks we can measure to help end this problem. Be my goal. I think this is a solvable problem and thats what makes it maddening. There are some issues i dont know how to solve but this issue is solvable. Its not like we dont have the resources. Snapajority of people on our children and Senior Citizens and people who are disabled. Of those who work, the majority work. They are working. Listening to the tone of some of the calls, you feel that everyone who is honest is not have the desire to work. If im working, i would much prefer to work at a job that pays a wage that i dont me to buy my groceries with snap. I would rather be able to earn enough to buy the groceries that i want for me and my family. I think its important to understand that of those who can work, the majority of those on this benefit do work. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2016] walter host walter is in baltimore, caller thank you and good morning. Happy new year to you and your audience, even the vicious, ignorant hate i heard today. We are begrudged a per slice of bread. One of my favorite movies is oliver. Please, sir, may i have some more . Its not a matter of color. Congressman, the idea that the citizens, and im being nice, the false narrative of the failed liberal policies, these fools are jokes. They are starting off a problem that is not there. There is no fault democratic or liberal policies. To promoteution says the general welfare and the defense. Feeding people, providing health care, congressman, is against the constitution, why dont they say to that . Have an idea people not caring for one another. Ask you this along with that false narrative, would you take a look at how many deaths from the opioids by white people have triggered this new concern for the opioid addiction in america . Host thank you, walter in baltimore. Guest that problem is huge and it effects every community. In this country. And every economic background as well. When he to figure out a way to deal with it. I think that requires increased investment and finding better convention. In addition to the comments that were just made, i would say that i am proud of the fact that we have programs like snap in this country. I am proud of the fact that we believe that nobody should go hungry. Sometimes people fall in hard times and they need help. We had a group of people come up to congress a couple of years ago to talk about their experience on snap on these were people who have gone on to be successful attorneys and Corporate Leaders and College President s and they came up and basically said to the members of congress, thank you for investing in me during a difficult time in my life when i have thrown on top times. Thank you for making sure there was a benefit that allowed me to put food on the table. Result, i was able to move on with my life and here i am, a big success. This was an important part of it. I visit College Campuses all the time. More and more College Campuses are opening up food banks on campus because a lot of their student population is struggling in this area of Food Insecurity. They dont have enough to eat so colleges are recognizing that they need to be part of this. More and more hospitals are opening up food banks on site because many of the people coming into the hospitals they know are hungry. This is a big problem. Its not going to be solved by demonizing people fall on tough times. We need to think of constructive ways to not only provide them in the shortterm with what they need but how do we help them succeed in the long term . Host tom in woodbridge, virginia. Caller i agree with you 100 but im not sure you actually believe what you are saying. You are talking about demonization of these people. These people are the infrastructure of our country and you are providing an economic disincentive for them to join the workforce. Yourld suggest as part of conference that you will call, i think you should put together the actual facts and make it public to the American People about how many generations of byendency have been created the economic and i believe the actual psychological and harm to selfesteem that these programs have caused versus what you profess to be like helping them out. Host we got the point, congressman . Guest the answer in the longterm is going to be jobs. Why some of us democrats have in pushing so hard for longterm highway bills. Itsssed one recently but not nearly as robust as i think this country needs. Workng more people back to and providing them jobs that the ovary minimum wage is one of the ways to do it. Aboutpeaker ryan talks breaking this cycle of poverty and get more people into the workforce or when he talks about the fiscal cliff, i would feel better if he was also talking about how we create more jobs to pay livable wages. It that he and the republicans fight hard against increasing the minimum wage . Like the fact that people are on programs like snap, want them to get a job, lets make sure there are jobs that are the kind of wages where they can put food on the table for their families. We need to increase the minimum wage and he better coordination amongst the various antipoverty programs but what i dont want is Congress Move down the road of reducing our commitment to the poor in this country or continuing to cut programs like snap. Speaker ryan a couple of years ago voted along with the majority of republicans to cut snapped by 40 billion. The economy is better than when we had that photo but it was cut by 40 billion. I think its a disconnect between the rhetoric which is doing something about poverty and their actions which, quite frankly, exacerbate poverty. We could end poverty and hunger. These are political conditions. But we need the political will to do it. That may mean increased investment in the short term. Host we are out of time but in 30 seconds, the New York Times you have called for this. Guest i have worked with walter jones from North Carolina and a republican from oklahoma. I think this is a good sign. Its late in the game that we should do this. We are at war. Are committing tremendous resources to these wars against the Islamic State and have men and women in harms way. To do itseeds constitutional responsibility so when the speaker has said he will start looking at what we can do, thats a good sign. War is a big deal. It should be a big deal in the fact that congress is allow this to go on so long and not act i think is an act of cowardice, quite frankly, its shameful to mcgovern en of tomorrows washington journal, well talk about the undocumented imgrants from central america. Then joven hannah, former National Security advisor to problem of on the north korea. Then well talk about the anniversary of the Charlie Hebdo attacks in paris. Washington journal live every morning at 7 00 a. M. Eastern. Our road to the white house coverage of john kasichs coverage the Columbus Dispatch reports the republican candidate is proposing perhaps the strongest response of any candidate to north Koreas Nuclear test earlier this week, saying he would equip u. S. Allies in asia with defensive missiles and wanting north korea ships and planes stopped if heyre suspected of carrying nuclear materials. That town hall meeting begins at act p. M. And well get your calls right after. This week, more road to the white house coverage, seven of the republican president ial candidates meet in columbia, South Carolina, to answer questions about their solutions to problems in the u. S. And around the world. Our live coverage begins tomorrow morning at 10 20 eastern time. Well be hearing from jeb bush, ben carson, mike huckabee, and senator marquee marco rubio. Sunday a planned parenthood event with Hillary Clinton as the group plans to endorse her for president. Live political coverage all this weekend here on cspan. Cspan takes you on the road to the white house, best access to the candidates at town hall meetings, speeches, rallies and meet and greets. Were taking your comments on twitter, facebook, and by phone, and always, every Campaign Event we cover is available on our website, cspan. Org. Before we take you live to New Hampshire for the town hall with Ohio Governor kasich, heres a look back at fellow republican president ial candidate carly fiorina, answering voters questions in meredith, New Hampshire, last night. Carly thank you so much to everyone who put this together. I have so much to thank the people of New Hampshire for. When i launched my candidacy on may 4, i was 17 out of 16. I mean the pollsters didnt even ask my name. Literally. And they didnt ask my name because less than 3 of you had ever heard of me. Everybody kind of wrote me off. Well, you know, she cant do this. But you, the citizens of New Hampshire, actually take your citizenship responsibilities very seriously and so you came and listened to me in dining rooms and living rooms and Community Centers and diners. And you carried me this far. So thank you so very much for giving me an opportunity to talk with you. [applause] carly i hope youll carry me all the way. I have to thank you for Something Else as well, though. Its actually here in New Hampshire where i first started thinking about running for president. You see, i was giving a speech, it was the summer of 2014. The seacoast. I was at a rotary club. Before i gave this speech, i sat down at the lunch table to eat with the rotarians, and this gentleman came up to me, he was a tiny bit hostile, and said, im not going to agree with you on anything. I said why is that, sir . He said, im a democrat. Were not going to agree. I said, well, you might be surprised. I gave a speech that night, that day, that luncheon day on human potential. That it is the only limitless resource we have. And it is the only resource we need to solve every problem. That most people have far more potential than they realize. And that this nation is extraordinary and has always been exceptional because more things have been more possible for more people for many places here than anywhere else on earth. At the end of the speech this gentleman came up to me again and he looked at me and said, amen. And then he said this. You know, carly, we dont think of ourselves as a nation of limitless possibility anymore. And when i heard that it really hit me. Because when we dont think of ourselves as a nation of limitless possibility, we are losing the core of who we are. This has always been a nation of possibility. This is a nation that always said yes, even when something was very hard to do, when others said no. This is a nation that, unique in the world, has always valued merit over privilege. And hard work over entitlement, and saying yes over saying no. We never accepted the way things were. If we didnt think it was right we focused and achieved what could be, what should be. I know that this has been a nation of limitless possibility for me. Having traveled and lived and worked, done business, done charity, done policy work all over the world in every corn over the world for decades, i am keenly aware that it is only in this nation that a young woman could start out the way i did, typing and filing and answering the phones for a little nineperson Real Estate Firm in the middle of a deep recession in the late 1970s. Go on, one day, to become the chief executive of what we turned into the Largest Technology company in the world, and run for the presidency of the United States. That is only possible here in this great nation. [applause] i have to tell you at many, many junctures along any life, people said, sit down, be quiet, dont challenge the status quo, dont rock the boat. Just settle. I have refused to accept that advice all my life. I am running for the presidency of the United States because i think the American People are now being given that same advice. And i think weve been getting that same advice for too long. Sit down, settle, dont challenge, just accept the way things are. Why, ladies and gentlemen, should we settle for a nation where record numbers of men are out of work . Why should we settle for a nation where record numbers of women are living in poverty . Why should we settle for a nation where our young people are no longer sure that the American Dream applies to them . Why should we settle for working families whose wages have stagnated for decades now. Why should we set farl nation where we are literally destroying more Small Businesses every day than we are creating . And with them, with those Small Businesses that are going under, goes the entrepreneurial spirit and the job creating capability of this great nation. And why should we settle for the fact, the reality, that while all of that is going on, the rich get richer, the powerful get more powerful, the wealthy and well connected get better connected. Why are we settling for a government that no longer serves the people who pay for it but instead serves itself, protects itself, nurtures and nourishes itself . Why should we settle for a government a vast, bloated bureaucracy in washington, d. C. That has become so inept and so corrupt that it can no longer care for our veterans, it can no longer and isnt securing our border. It isnt keeping our nation safe. Why should we settle for a professional Political Class of both parties, people who send their entire life running and winning, running and winning, saying what they need to say in the drawing rooms of manhattan or the dining rooms of iowa, saying whatever it takes to win and then doing exactly as they please. And why should we settle for an establishment and a media that decides they get to pick the candidates, they get to decide who you hear from, instead of allowing you to do your job as the first in the nation primary and vet all the candidates. If i sound angry, its because i am. I think a lot of you are too. Americans feel as though we are powerless. Powerless to control our own futures. Powerless to hold our government accountable and cut it down to size. And yet, we have enormous power. But we are not using it. You see, every problem that we have can be solved, and all of our wounds can be healed. But we can only do this if we remember who we are. Ours was intended to be a citizen government. We know in our bones that power dispersed into the hands of the many is always more competent, more compassionate, more alive, more just, than power concentrated in the hands of the few. Ladies and gentlemen, i am running for the presidency of the United States because i believe it is my calling to return this nation to a citizen government. I am running for the president of the presidency of the United States because i think it is time. Citizens, it is time to take our future back. It is time to take our politics back. It is time to take our government back. Citizens. It is time to take our country back. [applause] this is why i have rolled out my blueprints. It is a statement of commitment to you, the citizens of this great nation. It is a set of things that we must do first. To restore possibilities in this nation. To cut this government down to size and hold it accountable. To restore the character of our nation. To protect our nation and keep americans safe. I want you to hold me accountable for this. I have to stop and tell you an interesting story. You know, when i first launched my campaign, i was in iowa and a rather seasoned political reporter with the Des Moines Register said, carly, youre not used to the level of accountability and scrutiny politicians are under. I said, really . You know, as a chief executive or an executive of a publicly traded company, you know what i had to do every 90 tais . I had to stand up and report out our results in excruciating detail and answer every single question in public and then i had to project forward what we were going to do in the next 90 days, in excruciating detail and answer every question. If i misrepresented those results or those projections, i would be held criminally liable. Now, imagine if we held pool ecisions to that standard. You see, i cam from the same world that you do. We actually know that actions speak louder than words. We know that if you say youre going to do something, you better do it. And that we judge the content of peoples character, not by what they say, but by what they do. So i rolled out this blueprint because i want you to hold me accountable for it and i want you to come back in january of 2018 and ask you, how am i doing . These are not the only things we must do but these are the first things we must do. To restore a citizen government. We have to actually lift the burden of an incredibly complicated tax code off the backs of this nation. 73,000 pages. Thats what our tax code looks like today. I had a Conference Call earlier today and an accountant asked me a question and before i answered his question, i asked said let me ask you something. Youre an accountant, do you understand the tax code . No, i do not. Exactly. My dad was a professor of tax law. I love my dad he wrote books about federal tax law. I said, daddy, its so boring. And ill never forget what my dad would say to me. Carly, the tax code is how government exercises power. And thats right. And 73,000 pages of a tax code crushes the small and the powerless and elevates the big and the powerful. And so weve got to go from 73,000 down to three. Thats item one. We have to change how the government take yours money. And lets just start with the fundamentals they need to take ess of it. Now owe now you know, theres a 20yearold plan for a threepage tax code. Because thats what weve got to do, go down to three pages. The pundits have said, you cant do that. Yeah, we can. 20 years old, its been sitting around for 20 years. Never gets voted on. Why do you suppose that is . Think about all the oxes are going to get gored when you go from 73,000 to three. Im going to ask you to help me get that done. Ill tell you haw howe in just a moment. But when we go from 73,000 pages down to three, guess what happens . We dont need quite a many i. R. S. Agents, do we . And do you know how many i. R. A. Agents we have today . More than the c. I. A. And the federal bureau of investigation combined. Does that strike you a problem in these dangerous times . You bet its a problem. Ask yourself this. How is it possible that every year the government spends more and more money under republicans and democrats alike and never has enough money to do the important things. How is that possible . How can we be almost 20 trillion in debt and never have enough money . You know why that is . You know why we cant ever reprioritize . Because the way the federal government budgets, all the money is spoken for. If youre a Government Agency and i give you money, you never give it back. So the next thing on the list is, weve got to force the government to budget the way you do. How do you budget . How do we all budget . You examine every dollar. You can cut any dollar. You can move any dollar. Thats how we do it. Thats how we do it at home, thats how we do it at church, thats how we do it in businesses. Not how the government does it you know what thats called . Zero based budgeting. A fancy term for a commonsense concept. We are going to go to zero based budgeting to force the government to examine every single dollar so they spend less of your money and spend it wisely and well. How are we going to get that done . Theres a bill for zero based budgeting sitting on the floor of the u. S. House. Nobody is voting on it. Why . All those professional politicians that rattles the cage that challenges the status quo. You know how im going to get those bills passed . Im going to use the power of the citizenry. And how i will do that is each and every week im going to walk into the oval office, maybe in a weekly radio address, and im going to ask you to take out your smart phones or Smart Devices of choice, you have a flip phone still, you might want to upgrade, thats a suggestion. And im going to say to you, my fellow citizens, do you think finally we should pass that bill for a threepage tax code, press one for yes, two for no. If you you see, ladies and gentlemen, theres an app ar citizen government. Technology is incredibly powerful tool. And i will use it to harness your anger and frustration but more importantly your commonsense and good judgment to move the Political Class and challenge the status quo. Then the next thing im going to ask you is should we finally, finally, actually repeal obamacare and replace it with a Commonsense Health care system hats going to work . [applause] should we stand up and restore the character of this nation by protecting religious liberty a principle upon which this nation was founded and religious liberty is under assault in this nation. Should we finally quit talking about it and actually secure the border . How long have we been talking about this . 25 years. Politicians will stand up and talk to you about their plan but somehow it just never gets done. Im going to get it done and were going to then enforce a proamerican immigration system. And last but not least on this blueprint, we need to lead again in the world. We must start by defeating isis. We must be cleareyed about who are our allies and who are our adversaries. [applause] now ladies and gentlemen, we can do all these things. We can. We can solve all these problems. We can heal all these wounds. But first, we have to beat Hillary Clinton. Thats the first order of business. [applause] you might want to ask yourself, how do we bet bate her . Were not going to beat her with a candidate who insults women all the time. Were not going to beat her with someone who isnt tough enough to have the fight. And were not going to beat her with someone who doesnt have enough experience to make a tough call because theyve never made a tough call in their life. Whether youve decided to support me yet or not, and i really know that the people of New Hampshire take your responsibilities seriously, and i respect that, ive met a lot of people here in New Hampshire saying, ive only seen you one time. Our maybe ive only seen you twice, ive got to see you the third time. Ok, i respect that. But i also know , in your heart of hearts you cannot wait to see the debate between Hillary Clinton and carly fiorina. [applause] and why, why do you whistle and applaud when i say that . Because you know whats going to happen. Not only sit the fight of the century, buy your tickets now, but besides all that you know whats going to happen. I will win. And we have to win, ladies and gentlemen. None of this that im talking about is going to be quick and easy. This is hard work. But it all can be done. Quick and easy is not in the american character. We are prepared to do the heavy lifting. This has always been an exceptional nation. Not perfect. But exceptional. We are exceptional. Because we believe profoundly in the value of every life. Because we believe in the godgiven gifts of every individual. Because we know in our bones that power dispersed into the ands of many is far more competent, compassionate, wise and just, than power concentrated in the hands of the few. I believe we need a president of the United States who understands how the economy actually works so that we can get it going and growing again. I believe we need a president who understands how the world works and who is in it, who knows our allies personally as well as some of our adversaries, who know ours military and intelligence capability intimate intimately and well. I think we need a president who understands bureaucracies because our federal government has grown into one giant, bloated, inept, corrupt bureaucracy that has to get cut down to size. She must understand technology. Mrs. Clinton you dont wipe the server with a towel. Yes, indeed, you can have more than one account on a device. But technology is an incredibly powerful tool that im going to use to restore power to you, the citizens of this nation. But it is also a weapon. It is a weapon that is being wielded against us by our enemies and we need a president who understands how to deal with that. Perhaps the most important thing of all is we need a president who understands what leadership is. You know, when i was a secretary, i thought that the leader was whoever had the big office. Whoever had the big title. Whoever had the best parking space. Whoever had the perks. And then i got a little older and wiser. And i learned that there were people with big offices, big titles, big egos, and they were not leading. You see, leadership is not about the size or even the shape of your office and it isnt about the size of your ego. The highest calling of a leader is to unlock potential in others. I believe my highest calling is to restore a citizen government to this great nation. Citizens, i am prepared to count on your commonsense and good judgment, you know something is going desperately wrong in this country and the system is no longer working for us. I am also prepared to count on your courage and your wisdom and your fortitude to do what must be done now. I ask you to join me, stand with me, support me, vote for me, because citizens, it is time, it is time to take our future back. It is time to take our politics back. It is time to take our government back. Citizens, join me. It is time to take our country back. [applause] carly why am i running as a republican instead of an independent . Because the Republican Party is the party of abraham lincoln. I was asked, i have to tell you a story, its a really important question you just asked. And in order to win, in order to win, we have to, i think, reintroduce conservative values and principles to this nation. O i was on the view. I know, i know. Twice actually. I went on the view. And you know, its not exactly a republican primary audience but on the other hand, on the other hand, to win, to heal our wounds, to unify our nation, to solve our problems, we actually have to talk to people who dont yet know they agree with us. So in the course of one of my first visits to the view, i was having a conversation with one of their hosts, rosie perez. We were talking about vladimir putin, who ive met and she was kind of curious about him. Donald trump is having a bromance with vladimir putin, but in any event. In the middle of the conversation she said, you know, carly, i really like you. She sounded quite surprised, i have to say. But im not a republican. She said. I said, rosie, im shocked, i wouldnt have guessed this. Why are you, she asked me. Why are you . And thats the question we have to answer to win. Because we have to attract others. And i said, rosie, im a republican because i know no one of us is any better than any other one of us. Each of us are gifted by god. All of us have the capacity to live lives of dignity and purpose and meaning and i know that our principles, our values, and our policies work better to lift people up. Thats why im a republican. Now, i will tell you that weve had a lot of republicans who have gone against those principles, lets be honest, ladies and gentlemen. Crony capitalism is alive and well in washington, d. C. And republicans are just as guilty of it as democrats. You see, this is the problem. When you become a member of the professional Political Class, of either party, then you dont challenge the status quo. You just operate within it. Thats how under republicans and democrats alike, our governments gotten bigger and bigger and bigger for 50 years. And more complicated. And what happens when government gets big and powerful and complicated . Then only the wealthy and the powerful and the big can handle it and the small and the powerless get crushed. So, when i say im a republican, im a republican because i believe that people have the capacity to live lives of dignity and purpose and meaning and i want to give them that opportunity. It is also true, you can applaud, its ok. [applause] it is also true that whatever your Party Affiliation is, and i have democrats and independents show up at my events, maybe youre an independent or a democrat, i dont know. But the American People have found Common Ground on a lot of things. Not on everything. But a lot of things. And lets start with our Common Ground. When 75 of the American People think the federal government is corrupt, what does that mean . Its democrats, republicans and independents. Its young, its old, its men and women. When 80 believe we have a professional Political Class that cares more about its own power and position and privilege than actually getting anything done, by the way, republicans as well as democrats have exempted themselves from all the laws they pass. Then that means once again democrats, independents, and republicans, young and old, men and women, agree we need to do something different. And thats why im running for president. [applause] we all know who you are, id like to thank you for calling on me. My name is holly, im a united veteran. Vy i dont actually have a question for you tonight. What i do have is a challenge. You see, during bill clintons Second Administration in the middle of the night, by the wave of a pen and magic executive order he changed the terminology from p. O. W. m. I. A. To duty status whereabouts unknown. He did it because it was more media friendly. In actuality, what it did was it changed the urgency of the situation, their military classifications and put additional unnecessary stress on families, especially those that live in military housing. With the recent impending issues surrounding bo bergdahl, its more important now than ever that the terminology be restored. So that those serving in harms way today are protected by this terminology. So im approaching you, mother to mother, in an effort to protect my son and his family and every other son and daughter of this nation. Im challenging you to show the world that if elected president of the United States, you will be the woman who has the courage the men didnt have and change that terminology in your first 100 days. Carly i accept. [applause] thank you, first of all. Thank you for your sacrifice and the sacrifice of your son and his family. It is a stain on our nations nor when we do not honor and respect and care for and lift up those who serve and those who have served. Here is no more heartbreaking, enraging, infuriating example of the professional Political Class and an inept, corrupt government than how we deal with our veterans, and how we deal with those who have served. But it also, ladies and gentlemen, is an example of your power. So let me just tell you a brief story and then ill return to the specifics in one moment. Do you remember when we learned about the scandal of the v. A. In arizona . We learned that veterans were dying before they had ever revived received an appointment and bureaucrats were cooking the books so nobody would find out. The American People were so outraged, the citizens of this nation were so outraged, that you used your power and you flooded congress with objection. And this congress, this Political Class, moved. In three short weeks, three weeks, this Congress Passed a bill a bipartisan bill, it sailed through the senate, 990, the president signed it, and that bill said you could fire the top 400 Senior Executive at the v. A. For dereliction of duty. Sadly, we all moved on. And the Political Class forgot about it like they always do because the pressure abated. One persons been fired. And now weve learned that 307,000 veterans have died waiting for health care and the 142 billion handed out 14 million in boe us in bonuses. This is a stain on our honor and we cannot settle for this. [applause] so not only do i accept your challenge, mother to mother, i will also tell you this i will promise you this, hold me accountable for this. As command for the chief, i promise you, i will value, i will respect, i will listen to, i will care for those who serve, those who have served, and those who are willing to serve. So help me god. [applause] seeing as youre an extremely influential woman today, id like to know more about your stance on the issue of abortion. Carly well im pro life and [applause] carlly allow me to tell you why. First, i come from the world of science and technology. So science is, i think, proving those of us who believe this right every day because we now know that the d. N. A. In a zygote is the exact same d. N. A. As the day you die. So i cant draw that line. But, maybe i should tell you a personal story as well. I accompanied a very dear friend of mine to planned parenthood when i was about 23. She wanted my support. And i watched while she was given no choices. No options. I also watched what that procedure did to her, emotionally, physically, spiritually. Then, a couple of years later, i met my husband and when we got married, 31 years ago, i learned from his mother that shed been told to abort him. She chose not to. She was a woman of courage and faith. She spent a year in the hospital after his birth. But her son, my husband, became the joy of her life. He has been the rock of mine for over 30 years. And i think often about how different my life would be had he not been in the world. A couple of years later, i learned i could not have children of my own so i know how precious a gift life is. Now, i do not ask everyone to agree with me. But i do say that the American People, american women, on this issue as well, have found Common Ground. And the Common Ground we have found is this. Everybody, the majority of americans, believe that abortion for any reason at all after five months is wrong, so let us take that Common Ground and finally pass the pain capable unborn Child Protection act. And weve also found Common Ground on this, the American People are horrified that planned parenthood is harvesting body parts. Fetal tissue for research purposes. You may have noticed how strongly i have stood out and spoken out about that. And how much heat i took from the liberal media. That the ality is first budget that president fiorina submits will have no unding for planned parenthood. Ive been a registered republican for 22 years and i understand fully where this gentlemans question came from, why are you a republican. Carly me too. We have had too Many Republican president s who have not served us well. Ver since ross perot started with weve got to take our country back, every politician thats come down the pike has said the same thing but nobody ever says who were going to take it back from. I happen to know who were going to take it back from. Donald trump knows who were going to take it back from and so does Bernie Sanders. And im sure you do too. Would you please tell everybody who were taking this country back from. Carly were taking this country back from the professional Political Class. The big and the powerful who control them. The special interests. Were taking this country back from the establishment that is benefited by a big, complicated, powerful government. Thats who were taking it back from. Were taking it back from people who use all of that complexity to their advantage. You see, when you have a big, powerful government, it takes more and more crony capitalism. This is the lie Bernie Sanders tells. He says crony capitalism is a problem, hes right, it is. Republicans and democrats aleek have contributed to it. The lie is this, Bernie Sanders solution is more big government, many complicated government and more big and more complicated government creates what . More crony capitalism. If you doddfrank, remember can doddfrank . Financial crisis. How did that start . How did the financial crisis, the housing crisis, start . Fannie mae and freddie mac, right . Government sponsored entities. Republicans and democrats alike supported them. And they started rolling up, you know, government decided it was a good idea for everybody to own a home. Then wall street got engaged. There were 25 Government Agencies that were supposed to be minding the store. None of them did their job. When the crash happened, what did democrats do . They passed doddfrank. They didnt reform the 25 agencies. No ones reformed fannie mae and freddie mac. And guess who helped write doddfrank . The wall street banks. And the result is that we have 10 wall street banks too big to fail who have now become five, even bigger, even more powerful wall street banks. Meanwhile, 1,590 Community Banks have gone out of business. 20 of the Credit Union Industry has gone out of business. And why does that matter . Because Community Banks and Credit Unions serve whom . You. Me. Us. Small businesses, new businesseses, families struggling. And we are crushing them. And meanwhile, wall street gets bigger and bigger. So Bernie Sanders knows the problem. But Bernie Sanders solutions will not work. Although they will take us to socialism, which is apparently what he wants. Donald trump frankly is a businessman who has used all of this complexity for his own advantage, his entire life. He is a crony capitalist, ladies and gentlemen. And he admits it over and over again. [applause] by the way, we do not need another narcissist in the white house who talks about us but only cares about himself. [applause] you mentioned your dad. He was my tax professor. Ms. Fiorina oh, wow. Great to meet you. Even then, he spoke about better ways to tax. He vowed, he went for the evaluated tax. He wanted to know what the tax code should mean, not what it was. Hes saying the stuff you are now. My question is this. We have, shockingly enough, over 300,000 people that have died from gun shots in the past decade. And weve done a lot of things wrong. Im not interested to know what you think about president obamas plans or what hes done in the past. My question is, if in the multiple facets of that problem, do you have a plan that you would envision to try to reduce that total . Need rina so first, we to enforce the laws we have competently. And the reason we have to start there [applause] the reason we have to start there, dylan roof in South Carolina. The young man who stormed into a church and murdered nine people. He never should about have been told a gun. The f. B. I. s admitted it. We didnt do the background check right. And president obama and his speech actually said, gee, we need more f. B. I. Agents and more d. E. A. And a. T. F. Agents. My question to the president is, where have you been for the last seven years . Secondly, the reason you have gun violence, incredible levels of gun violence in cities like chicago, that have the toughest gun laws in the nation, is because there are lists and lists, loads of criminals who own guns. We actually know who they are. The Justice Department has lists of criminals who should not own guns and who do. And do you know how many of those people are being prosecuted . Less than 1 . If we want to keep people safe, lets take guns out of the hands of the criminals who arent supposed to have them. And if we want to change the laws of this country, then theres a way to do that. And it isnt with executive orders. Its with the peoples representatives. [applause] thats part of returning power to the people. So, you know what, the things that president obama put forward in his executive order about background checks actual ly failed in congress on a bipartisan basis twice. So if its really true that the American People are all fired up about this, then lets go get laws passed. But it is not the role of the president to say, i just dont like this law, so im going to do something different. Thats called lawlessness. Just as his immigration executive orders have been lawless. Hes not the only president who has abused the power of the presidency. But, part of returning to a citizen government is remembering what the president s job is, and what the legislatures job is. And by the way, we have kind of a good blueprint for that, too its called the constitution, ladies and gentlemen. [applause] lets enforce the laws we have. Yes, madam chairman. Questioner my name is michelle lamborn. Pleasure to meet you. Youve spoken a number of times about citizen government and putting the power back into the the hands of the people. I live locally. Our community has been subjected to Corporate Power and privilege, being able to override our local decisions. In our community, we pass whats called the rights based ordinary which is a local law enacted by the people, citizen democratic process, to in essence sboord nate the power and privilege of business entities that would come in to violate our right to protect our health, safety and welfare. We are being told, as far as law today, that this is illegal. Because corporations have the power to override with state preemption they often use, and they often use their power and privilege in the sense that they created many of these state agencies and corporate Government Agencies. So you have individuals that are coming from the corporate industry and then in turn serving in these state agencies and theyre regulating their own industry. Theyre writing those laws. So, we have a Grassroots Organization here in New Hampshire, the New HampshireCommunity Rights network, that has proposed a constitutional amendment for the state of New Hampshire. To secure the right of local communitieses selfgovernment. Im not talking about home rule. Home rule is a myth in the sense that the state still keeps the locality, the municipality, in bondage and still has the right to take their power of choice away. So what were talking about is local communities being able to enact rights based laws. So expand and protect the rights of people, communities and nature, so that you can collectively protect your natural resources, your local economics, etc. What is your stand on that proposal . Ms. Fiorina thats up to the people of New Hampshire. That is up to the people of New Hampshire. Questioner [inaudible] ms. Fiorina of course you get that choice. The constitution is pretty clear. That specific powers not enumerated to the federal government belong to states and individuals. We have a couple of amendments that are up say that. Thats up to the people of New Hampshire. Let me address the larger issue, if i may. Let us be honest. Crony capitalism, imminent domain, this unholy alliance between big powerful interests, whether theyre unions by the way, or whether theyre businesseses, and big, complicated government is what we have to take our country back from. Thats the truth. So, youre right. Big Companies Often work with a legislature to get certain laws passed so that they can come in and overturn the will of the people. Its a perfect example of taking our country back. The fundamental philosophy i have is that the United States federal government should only be doing those things that the federal government is responsible for doing. Kind of a unique concept, isnt it . Look, let me say two other things here. We are no longer a nation of laws. We have become a nation of rules. Think about how many rules, and i would consider executive orders part of this rulemaking, think about how many rules roll out of washington, d. C. In the last year alone, its been 86,000 pages of rules. We have been rolling out tens upon tens upon tens of thousands of pages of rules every year for 40plus years. Se rule self who are the makers, who are they . They are not elected. They are not accountable. They are nameless, faceless bureaucrats. And they spew rules out of washington, d. C. Now, ill tell what you im going to do. Number one, the first rule we have to repeal is and law is obamacare. Yes, obamacare is a law. But its also a company accompanied by tens of thousands of pages of rules. By the way, did you know that buried in the pageses of all those regulations of obamacare is the takeover of the student loan industry. And the federal government decides now that your child is going to pay between 4. 5 and 6. 5 interest on the loans the federal government gives them and the federal government only pays between 1. 5 and 2. 5 interest on its debt. In other words, ladies and gentlemen, the federal government is making money off of our young people. Does that strike you as a racket . It is. And its one of the reasons we have to take our government back. But i will do more than just repeal obamacare. We have to literally do a top to bottom review of every single rule on the books. When was the last time we did that . Never. When was the last time that you can remember a regulation was repealed . Actually, not never. Ronald reagan, he repealed the 55mileperhour National Speed limit. Yea. He deregulated the airline industry. He deregulated the trucking industry. Thats the last time. Thats a long time ago. Why doesnt this stuff happen, ladies and gentlemen . Why is it that politicians stand up and tell you the same things over and over and over and over, less regulation, less taxation, never happens. Its the difference between managers and leaders. Its not that politicians are bad people necessarily. Some of them are. But a lot of them arent. They go for the right reasons. But managers are people who do the best they can within the existing system. They dont challenge the status quo. They accept the status quo. They operate within the status quo and maybe, just maybe, they take advantage of the status quo. Thats a manager. A leader knows their job is to challenge the status quo. Thats the only way you solve festering problems. Margaret thatcher is a great hero of mine. And Margaret Thatcher once said this. I am not content to manage the decline of a great nation. Well, ladies and gentlemen, neither am i. And i think we have been managing the decline of this great nation for far too long. But with your support im prepared to lead the resurgence of a great nation. [applause] we have time for one more question. One more question. This gentleman had his hand up. Im sorry. Then you can come up and say hi. Questioner do you think that you should add to your list term limits for the politicians . And, what is your feeling on that . Ms. Fiorina i think term limits are a great idea. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2016] listen to all our political coverage online. Were going to leave this here to take you live now to New Hampshire for a town hall meeting with Ohio Governor and republican president ial candidate, john kasich. Mr. Kasich i pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. I should also begin by both embarrassing and welcoming my wife and daughter to the town hall meeting. I do that because if i dont, my mother will find out about it and she wont talk to me. I first got to know john kasich 1996, when i was elected to congress, representing exeter in the First District in New Hampshire. I was assigned to the budget committee. He was the chairman. And from the first day i met him, i knew that this was the kind of leader that i wanted to emulate. He was tough. He was conservative. He was absolutely determined to balance the budget. He was unconventional, theres no question about it. But he was able to get people to do things they didnt think they themselves could do. He believed in the importance of leaving Something Better for our children and grandchildren than what we found. And thats what led him to lead the drive to balance the budget for the first time in a generation, in 1997. We cut taxeses, we balanced that budget. We reformed entitlements. We left no stone untushed unturned. And thress there wasnt a single special interest that had anything to say about it. We did it, he led the effort, because he knew it was the right thing for the country and of course for the people of hio that he represented. He left congress, worked in the private sector warks a Great Television star on fox, as hell tell you. Big, big. And then he knew he had more work to do. He went back to ohio, he ran for governor, and as governor in ohio, he has done the same thing. Provide the kind of tough, conservative leadership that delivers results. Its not about talking, its about doing things that matter for the people you represent. He cut taxes, he balanced the budget. Theyve restored that restored 350,000 jobs in ohio. Theyve reformed entitlements. Theyve made their Health Care System work better. Theyve privatized services when it makes sense. And theyve given power back to the local governments. Thats the kind of leadership that ive always respected in my Public Service life. And i think thats the kind of leadership that we need in america today. Someone who not just makes a good speech, not just has good ideas, but knows how to get things done. Knows how to turn ideas into results. Thats the kind of president i want. And i believe thats the kind of president john kasich will be. Ladies and gentlemen, john kasich. [applause]