Transcripts For CSPAN Politics Public Policy Today 20110820

day bus tour of the state. last week she won the iowa republican straw poll. this is just over one hour. ♪ [elvis singing "promised land"] [cheers and applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, i want to make one comment from our previous introduction. there is no doubt here today that anyone here would have any problems of -- on january 2015 when michele bachmann leaves the white house. ladies and gentlemen, michele bachmann. [applause] >> thank you. ♪ thank you. thank you. thank you. thank you. thank you for coming. thank you. thank you. hey, everybody. hey, or a beach, south carolina. you would think we are on vacation. let's give a big cheer for myrtle beach. you would think this is an election night victory party. you are all invited. who is ready to make barack obama a one-term president? we have got our mission. we have our marching orders. now all we get to do is make it happen. that is what we are going to do. we have wonderful people here with us today. please go ahead and have a seat. i know it is warm. please be patient. -- thank you for your patience. if i do not mention your name, please rate your name. we have state rep nelson hardwick. where are you, nelson? there he is right over there. we see you. get 'er done. we have councilman al allen. where is he? we know he is here. north myrtle beach councilwoman doris wilson. we have myrtle beach councilmen randall wallace. there he is. we are glad you are here today. we also have myrtle beach tea party chairman joe dugan. where is joe? there he is. you are the man, joe. we are glad you are here. where there any other local dignitaries? you are all dignitaries as far as i am concerned. my goodness, we are glad you are here. just a moment. >> carolina patriots conservative group. >> yay. we have wealthy in our midst as far as i am concerned. anyone else? we have my next-door neighbor who drove all the way from minnesota right here. thank you, guys. yes, ma'am? the school board. karen, thank you. we are glad you are here. we have my former law school classmate over here. hello. it is good to see you. say it again. jerry mcdaniel is here. what is your title? p.r. person for the model beach tea party. i would say you are pretty good at what you do. we are surrounded by dignitaries. we have another one right here? john canulo, brunswick county vice chair. we are glad you are here. thank you for what you're doing. we are all going to come together in 2012, are we not? we are going to make happen right here in myrtle beach. this is the center of the universe, myrtle beach, where we take the country back. i like the sound of that. we also want to remember in the midst of the great joy that we have here today that it is altogether fitting and proper that we imagine someone who is also a great hero and dignitary. if we look behind us, the flags today are at half staff here in myrtle beach. they are in -- at half staff in honor of the fire chief who died tuesday in the line of duty. when you join me for just one moment -- father, we thank you for this brave man, the fire chief here in myrtle beach. we ask, father, that you be with his family, love once, and friends. we thank you for the services given to this local community. lord, we thank you for him and ask that you would honor his memory as well as those who are first responders and all of those response -- serving our nation weather in iraq or afghanistan. lord, we ask you to be with them here today. i in your name we pray, a man. thank you, everyone. do we not live on in a great country? i am it thrilled that you are here. i feel like i am on vacation being in myrtle beach right now. there is no better place. i am think of you are here, thank you want to take the country back. if we are seeing this all across the united states of america. in now just over 50 days ago my candidacy to be the next president of the united states of america. [applause] by the way, you probably do not know, but my name is michele bachmann and i intend to be the next president of the indicted states of america -- of the united states of america. you may have heard last saturday that there was a little election in iowa and i was the no. 1 when are in the iowa straw poll last week. [applause] we were absolutely thrilled. the victory was even more stunning than what was reported because i had only been a candidate for the presidency for 49 days when the election happened. there were numerous candidates who spent several years in iowa and spat multiple millions of dollars in a very sophisticated ground game. our 49 days included the day i announced any day of the straw poll. i spent about half the time, it seems, in washington, d.c., fighting against the premise that barack obama should be given another $2.40 trillion in a blank check to spend. because i believe that your marching orders for it is time to stop giving him money to spend that we do not have. do you agree? that is why i said do not raise the debt ceiling. raising the debt ceiling just means we are going to borrow more money that we do not have. that is going to set us up for what? for failure. that is exactly what happens. we did not have to default, did we? we could have played the interest on the debt -- that is the plan i offered. and then make sure that, number one, you pay the men and women in the military who are doing the work for us. i thought it was reprehensible when the administration answered questions to our brave men and women overseas who are serving at the time in the military, and when they ask the question will we get paid, the answer was we do not know. we do not know if you will get paid. under president bachmann, our men and women will always get paid in the military. always. the president also indicated that maybe senior citizens would not be getting their social security checks in august. i was all over iowa. i talk to senior citizens in iowa and they said, "i cannot move my table. -- i canceled my table. i canceled my internet. i did not know if i would get my check or not." you do not do that to senior citizens in the united states. you respect them. [applause] there is absolutely no question that we cannot continue the level of spending we have in this country. do we have any social conservatives here today in this audience? we do. good to see you. we need social conservatives. do we have any fiscal conservatives today in this audience? we do. i caught up thought so. do we have been a national security conservatives in this audience? ntt party conservatives in this audience? the roof is coming down. that is good to know. let me show you how bad it has gotten in washington, d.c. are you ready to go to school? we are going to school. let's have our first lesson. oh my goodness. oh my goodness, i have to apologize. i have to confess because i did not bring my teleprompter with me when i came to myrtle beach today. [applause] you have never seen the president without his teleprompter, had you? in my white house, there will be no teleprompter. because people in myrtle beach can take the unvarnished truth. see that great buzz over there? there are also no czars in that bus and there will be no czars in the bachmann white house either. let's go back to school. the day i came in the united states congress was january of 2007. anyone have any idea the national debt we have accumulated? how much money do we owe as a country? yes, sir? oh, man, are you good. you take the cake. $100,000 million, billion, now here is trillion. no one tell barack obama what comes after trillion. do i have your word on that? very good. here we go. it is a whole new set of numbers. this is how much money it has taken our nation from the time we pass the constitution of the united states until the time i came into office. $8.67 trillion dollars. that is what we accumulated in debt that we owed that we have to pay back. does anyone want to take a gander, after we made the decision to give barack obama that $2.40 million blank check in exchange for $24 billion in cuts, how much now do we owe? $14 trillion. $16 trillion. here we go. get ready. hold on to your hats. here we go. this is what we owe today. $16 trillion. it took us 219 years to accumulate over $8 trillion in debt. it took us four years to almost double it. almost double it. do you see why i fought so hard? i was one of the lone voices in the wilderness of washington same for the last two months we have to stop. we cannot do this anymore. we have to change the premise. we cannot just do what they do year after year, time after time, which is take the cat -- take the credit card and with the limit. let me ask you -- why in the world -- what say you make $50,000 a year. that is a lot of money. what say you start spending money and by june, that $50,000 is gone. you say, that is no good. i want to keep spending more. some foolish banker agrees to give you another $50,000 to spend to get you through the rest of the year, so you spent it all. you come to the end of the year and then you have to start january. are you better off than you were before? you are worse off because you of that $50,000, but also you of something else -- interest on the debt. that is what has happened to this country. imagine if you do that not just one year, but year after year after year. pretty seine, what would happen? the sheriff would not on your door and he would take your furniture and put it at the end of the driveway. that is what would happen. if you were a business, you close your doors. he would be done because you have to pay your bills, do you not? the irs does not take kindly to you not paying your taxes. neither do the offenders. they would be there to take what you have and sell it. the united states of america is no different. what was done is we've voted or sell a lifestyle that we cannot possibly afford. now the day of reckoning has come. what have we seen happen? we sell the stock market slide 1500 points in one week. yesterday, 420 points down on the stock market. we have lost, what? the credit rating of the united states -- the aaa credit rating went down to aa plus. we are not done with school. bring that back. we have more lessons to learn. bring it back, a young man. we are not done. we have more to learn. we have more to learn. the aaa credit rating but down to aa plus for the first time in american history. we made it to the depression without losing our credit rating. we made it through world war ii without losing our credit rating. if we made it through korea, vietnam, 9/11 -- would made it to all that and never lost our credit rating, but we have not been able to make it through barack obama without losing the credit rating. one more reason we need to have a election night victory party here in myrtle beach. [applause] with your help, that is exactly what we are going to do. by the way, i am buying. i'd better ask my husband first. now let me ask you this question -- how much money did all of us pay in taxes and send it again to washington, d.c. this year? how much money did we take? i do not have a pocket. if i did, there would just be left and little rock's in there. $2.40 billion -- that is very close. $2.40 trillion. once again, we would get the scary numbers out. this is how much we pay again to get hundreds, thousands, millions, billions, and then trillions. all of us together set our money in and we paid $2.40 trillion. this is what it looks like. we all worked really hard this year. how about you? i did. let me ask you this -- how much of this amount did congress spend it? very good. you got up early. that was very good. we spent every bit of it. we spent all that. i thought that was going to clear all the -- create jobs. where are the jobs? here is the problem. we spend more than that. we did not just been at $2.20 trillion. this is how much more we spent. then we will add it all up. then we will take a look at that. tell me what you think. here we are. not only did we spend every bit of that $2.20 trillion, we spent $1.50 trillion more just this year for a total of $3.70 trillion. do you know what that means? that means we are going to have to cut our town hall short because you all have to go out and get another job. you got to get another job because somebody has to pay those bills. thank you. that is good. that is what the problem is. the thing is, would you go to get your second job? unemployment is a little troublesome right now. the government, that is right. what did barack obama say was the solution to jobs? stimulus. we have to borrow more money from countries like china and we have to spend it on all these government projects. let me tell you what happened -- the wonder where that money is what? $1 trillion -- you should be allowed to find it somewhere. you should be able to find jobs somewhere, should you not? i cannot find jobs. i do not know where they are. let me tell you what they did do. at the very beginning of the recession -- by the way, they tell us we are in a recovery. does it feel like a recovery to you? it fills an awful lot like -- an awful lot like a recession. at the beginning of the recession, there was one employee in the department of transportation that made $170,000 a year. 18 months into the recession, there were 1690 employees in the department of transportation making over $170,000 a year. is that not special? that is amazing, is it not? that did not seem to give us jobs did it? i do not know. maybe we do not have the formula right. the president said what the problem was. he said the whole problem in washington right now is that don tea party. you heard about that? it is the tea party. that is the problem with america. because these tea party people, let me tell you what they believed -- they believe we are taxed enough already. that is what they believe. [applause] that is our tea party. cast enough already. -- taxed enough already. i am going to let you as the first question, how about that? that is one thing they believe. here is another thing the tea party believes -- they believe you should not spend more money than what you take in. what a concept. it is amazing. no wonder he is so upset with the tea party. here is the third thing the tea party believes -- i know you won't believe this, but they believe that the government, whether it is the congress, the president, or the supreme court -- should act within the limits of the constitution. if you have ever heard of anything -- have you ever heard of anything? no wonder the president is upset with the tea party movement. but the tea party movement is right. they are right. because they know they are reasonable, fair minded people who recognize that you cannot spend money that you do not have, that with -- that we start increasing taxes on our job providers, we will get less jobs rather than more jobs. i understand that. i am a federal tax lawyer. that is what i get for a living. i understand that if you increase taxes, you get less of something. when you lower taxes, you get more of something. so why in the world are we increasing the taxes on the job providers in this country when we need more jobs? it only makes common sense. i think people in myrtle beach get that. i think people all across the united states get that. you see, we are fiscal conservatives who want the country to work again. we are practical, fair minded people who believe that these solutions are not about, and we are not alone there are none of these events i do where people come up to me and say yes or a democrat. i voted for barack obama. there is noted that i get to where an independent does not come up and say i voted for barack obama in 2008, but i am voting for you this time because i want my life to work again. i want a job. my son was a job. he is in college. he wants a job. do you know how bad the unemployment situation is? president obama has not only failed us all, he has really failed african-american youth. right now, african-american youth unemployment is almost 40%. kids who want a job, kids who want to learn job skills -- 40% do not have a job. that is trouble. that is trouble because how did they move on to get the next better job? they need that beginning job. hispanic youth is not much better. it is over 32% of hispanic use out of work. he has failed hispanic youths. he has failed african-american youth. he has failed all americans when it comes to job creation -- all americans. that is what i want to do as president of the united states. my focus will be to turn the economy around. i get it. i understand what the problem is. the problem is the government is taxing away too much money. the first thing they are doing wrong, i think we have already proved it, they are spending more money than they should. that is where we began. as president of the united states, i will only introduce a balanced budgets into the congress. [applause] how many of you would like to see a balanced budget amendment to our constitution? i would. [applause] but as president of the united states, i intend to lead by example. i do not need a balanced budget amendment to tell me the right thing to do. i am going to introduce the balanced budget from the get go. because that is the right thing to do to put our fiscal house in order. we cut spending, we cut taxes on the producers and the job creators, and then we deal with the regulatory burden. i was the first member of congress to introduce a full repeal of obamacare in the united states congress. [applause] as president of the united states and, furthermore, as nominee of the republican party, i will not rest until i can elect 13 more like my big, new republican senators so we can have a filibuster-proof majority in the senate and actually repeal obamacare. [applause] let me ask you this -- i was tired of looking for 13 more jim united to go to the states senate. [applause] i think that might change the complexion and makeup of the united states senate, do you not? if we have 13 more like minded senators in the senate, if we had the conservative house, this is what we can do. i would get together with them right after election night. i will pull the leadership together and tell them this, we will get that aaa credit rating back. we will. if i was the president of the united states the day the standard and poor's to downgrade, this is what i would have done. i would have said to all 235 members of congress, if you are coming back to washington, d.c. today. by a plane ticket and get back to town. we are america. we are going to get it back. this is how we are going to do it. we are going to announce to the markets that we will not default on our interest payments on the debt. now wary of default. take it all the table. number two, we will pay or men and women in the military. number three, we will play our senior citizens who are currently on the retirement system. after that, we will reform the system. we will reform medicaid. we will reform medicare. we will reform social security for those who are not yet on it because these are 8 year old systems and 45 year old systems. i am 55. i need a tuneup once in awhile, i do not know about you. but we need to bring the systems into the current time period. we can make them better than what they are. we will never cut people off, but we need to make them better and more functioning because they are not working for anyone. this is what we know. no one was to say it, but it is true. nine years from now, we are told, that the medicare hospital trust fund will be hot -- will be flat broke. we've seen the movie "titanic." when you have an iceberg and you have a ship going right into it, the go ahead and take -- what you call that thing? we as a navy does your. you take the throttle and give full speed ahead? the want to go faster into the iceberg? that is what president obama is doing. i could no more do that. if my mother is 80. my stepdad is 87. if the last thing i want to happen is for them to be a step replacement and find out, sorry, there is no money left. i love people to much to do that. i care about people too much to do that. that is why obamacare is such a disaster for the country because under obamacare, it is a symbol of everything that is wrong in washington, d.c. we are told that 800,000 jobs will be lost because of obamacare because employers will not be able to afford the cost to pay for obamacare. we also know this about obamacare -- are you not darling? you really do get that first question. here is the other thing we know about obamacare -- we know president obama thinks about senior citizens. he has already stolen over $500 billion out of medicare. he has to let it out of medicare at a time where we have more people entering the ranks of needing medicare than ever before. how does that math work out? i was in the white house a little over a month ago. we ask the president, not once, but three times, mr. president, what is our plan to save medicare? we know what is going to happen. he mumbled a little bit and did not answer the question. then he finally said, "obamacare." do you realize that this is in all likelihood be president's plan for senior citizens? medicare will collapse. you all will be welcomed into the world of obamacare. is that what you want? that is not what i have seen anywhere else in the country because we already know what he thinks of senior citizens. obamacare will be a disaster because this is how it will run. the president is a 2015 people to a board. on this board, they will be charged with all the major health care decisions across the country. the me ask you this -- do you think that 15 people could make -- should make up the health care decisions for myrtle beach, south carolina? do you think 15 people could make all the health care systems -- decisions for those of us gathered here? i want to make my health care decisions with my doctor. that is how i want to do it. [applause] ipab has 15 people making all the decisions for over 300 million americans. their job will be to say, no. that is their job. here is a hypothetical. we can see this board say we do not have any more money. what are we going to do? i might say we can afford 10,000 hip replacements this year. that is it. they run out of a hip replacements by june. you are 10,001. where did you go? under obamacare, guess what? there is no appeal. as a matter of fact, it is enforced in 16,500 irs agents. that is our future. i am here to tell you that obamacare lays a foundation for socialized medicine in this country. as president of the united states, i will not abide socialized medicine in the united states. i will not rest until we repeal obamacare. [applause] and i will not rest until we repeal the dodd-frank legislation, which has stopped credit in this country and is killing the banking industry and killing businesses from being able to get credit. i believe very strongly in our united states military. my dad was in the air force. my stepdad was in the army. my brother retire from the u.s. navy. i have tremendous respect and admiration for our military. i see that as president of the united states, our number one duty is to be commander in chief. i am privileged. we love our military and we stand for them. i am privileged to sit on the house permanent select committee on intelligence. we are a very tiny committee and we deal with the nation's classified secrets. regularly, i am briefed but here within the interior of the united states and the threats that come to us externally. what i can tell you is this -- there is not a day, not a day that goes by that there is not someone who wakes up and thinks about how they will kill americans today. there is not a day that goes by that someone does not wake up and think how am i going to destroy the united states of america today? that is what the next commander in chief needs to understand, as i have come to understand sitting on the intelligence committee, that this is job number one of the president -- the safety and security of the american people. that, i will do. [applause] i will tell you -- i will do something very different from what our president has done. i read that made a very grievous decision in may when he called on israel to retreat to indefensible, 1967 borders. as president of the united states, i will stand with our ally, israel. i will stand with israel. [applause] the united states will once again announced to the world that we will have israel's back as every president has done since the time of harry truman. israel declared their sovereignty in may of 1948. 11 minutes later, harry truman did the biggest favor he ever did for israel. he recognized israel's sovereignty. every president since has had israel's back until may of this year when the president made that indefensible statement of his. likewise, i will stand up against america's animes like an iran that seeks to have a nuclear weapon. i will stand against a nuclear iran and i will stand against a nuclear syria. [applause] the president has taken his eye off of the main events in the middle east, which is the buildup of a nuclear iran. the president of iran, ahmadinejad, has said that he would use a nuclear weapon to what israel off the map. he has said he would use it against the united states. if history has told us anything, it is to take the threats of madman seriously. i take them seriously. as president of the united states, this court -- this country will be respected in this world. [applause] so you see, we have a team that is absolutely -- that absolutely cannot be beat. when you bring together fiscal conservatives, social conservatives who believe that the family is the basic unit of government of this country, we should respect the family. respect marriage. respect life. i do. social conservatives, tea party conservatives, and the national security conservatives. when we all come together under this banner, i am just telling you, we must stick together. we cannot get anyone out about that. we need each other. we stand together, we hold hands together, we fight together, and, together, we will take the country back and we will make barack obama a one-term president. god bless you. god bless the united states. let's take some questions. i promised our first questioner. >> i am 8 yes veteran retired from the united states army. i just want to let you know that if it was not for the veterans of this country, our country when not have the freedom and constitution that lies in this country today. i will be doggone it on less socialistic my country over. i am willing to make barack obama a one-term president. >> thank you. he said he will make barack obama a one-term president. if he is a veteran. thank you for all -- to all the veterans for your service. put your hand up if you are a veteran, you are married to one, or you are a boyfriend or girlfriend. thank you for what you had done for this country. if we are going to make him a one-term president. i want you to go to my website, michelebachman.com, go to my facebook site, like twitter site, go to my youtube. i am determined that we have to win, and we will win the primary here in south carolina. it is important that we do everything that we can to volunteer to give money, to organize, to come together and take this state of south carolina. south carolina determines to the next president will be. i intend to win the state twice. once in the primaries, and next time in the general election. this will be the pace car for the entire country. south carolina. >> what would you do to bring in the 50% of the people who do not pay any taxes at all? that is ridiculous. >> thank you for asking that question. what would i do to bring in the 50% of people who do not pay taxes. it is unbelievable that 53% of americans pay taxes. 47% do not. it may be worse than that this year. this is incomprehensible because every person in this country, i do not care who you are, you have a stake in the success of the united states of america. every single person should pay something, even if it is $1. everybody should pay something because we all have a stake in the success of the nation. that is what i want to do it, change the tax code. that is my background. i have a degree in federal tax law. i have worked in task force. my husband and i started our own business. on every level, i am very familiar with of the tax code kills jobs and how we create them on the other hand. i want to take the tax code, which is 3.8 million words. the irs say they cannot tell us how many words. i think that is a problem, do you not? i want to make the tax code so small and so simple that any american can fill out their tax form on a postcard and send it again and we all participate. whether it is fair or flat, it has to be simple. i will take that debate in the first 100 days i am in office. >> i want to ask you a question about the economy. if the economy stupid? that is the bottom line. without money coming in, you cannot pay the bills. what i would like to hear you talk about, ross perot had it right. he said, "you take money from 1%, to reduce all of your expenses 1%, and you start to close the gap." why do we have to target either unions, policemen, or some group when everybody, whether you are a tree company that does work for the federal government, a ship builder -- everybody takes 1%, we get it done, and the deficit starts to shrink. you do not spend any more money than you have it. what you're talking about cutting spending, right? of course we have to do that. there is no question. there is not one department that should not be left on the table. by the way, i think there are departments which a completely closed out of the federal government. that is my opinion. do not forget, i am very pro education. that is that i cut my teeth is on educational reform in the political world. let's face it -- jimmy carter created the department of education as a political payoff to the unions. we have not seen increased test scores, have we? if we repeal all the federal education laws, which, by the way, cost local school districts and arm and leg because all of the unfunded mandates that came down to the schools, which made all the requirements, congress is all too happy to pass laws. you have to do all this, but we will not give the money for it. get rid of it. it is not working. what i would do is pass the mother of all repeal bills and repeal the federal education law. then i would get to the department of education, turn the lights off, locked the doors, and say we are done with the department of education. over a three-year period, i would take the money we sent out to the schools and write a letter to the superintendent and say, "you have to realize you do not have a more alarmist to deal with, but over three years, we will get down to zero. change your budgets accordingly." i tell you, they would take that deal. it is not that hard to turn the economy around. the solutions are not that hard. what we at mid missing is someone with a backbone -- what we have been missing is someone with a backbone. i have the spine to do it. that is what sets me apart from all the candidates in the race. we cannot have the other team in the white house having -- wearing another -- a different jersey. we need a different kind of president with a proven track record of taking on washington. i am and proud republican, but i have taken my own party on issue after issue because i keep it principle over party. we have to stand for the people. we have to change it. this is our tiny window of opportunity. 2012 is it. >> this is our last question. just a minute. look at this beautiful hair. turn around. oh my word, are you beautiful. >> thank you. we met last year at the tea party rally under the washington monument. my question to you is this -- how do you, as a mother, feel about texas governor rick perry allowing a texas chair to send new pictures of my little sister's end date? >> that is quite a question. i am glad you are here today. i cannot answer it here, because i do not have any information about it. i cannot do that. i am sorry. i cannot answer. >> would you please check into its? >> now that you have put it out here, i have no doubt that it will be checked into. there you go. [laughter] we have one more question. i know that was difficult for you to say that. >> quantity ask you about stimulus spending. you mentioned that earlier. hr5140 was the first stimulus bill. you voted yes on that. how can we trust you to fight spending? >> if you can trust me because my track record i have in washington. that bill came out when i first came to congress. it was a bill that george bush was behind. $160 billion that was a rebate. i was told this was people getting their money back. i like that idea. i like the idea of the government giving our money back to us. the ultimate expression, though, is it really was not. it really was not getting our money back to us. i paid taxes in. i did not get any money back. there were people who actually got money to, like the gentleman said, had never paid taxes again. you find out when you go to congress, you cannot necessarily believe that even what your own party leadership tells you. i am not try to castigate them, but this is what i was told -- we are just giving the people their money back. i thought i would rather get the money back to the people that we did in washington, d.c. for these people to stand. that is why i voted for it we had that made me extremely skeptical of any think i heard there on out. we had to do our own research. we have to find out from then on what is in the bills. by the way, i think you should read the bill before you pass them. thanks for asking that question. i am really glad that you did. this is an example of what happens all the time in washington. it is pathetic. the question is do i think that members of congress should have term limits and caps on their salaries? right now, we have been putting a cap on salaries, and rightly so because the american people are not seeing wage increases, so neither sid members of congress the wage increases. there are no term limits, as you know, in congress. for us to do that would be a constitutional amendment. it is difficult to do because, let's face it, the people writing the laws are the ones to are not necessarily interested in having term limits. some states have done that. some states have looked at term limits and all -- and some members have voluntarily term limited. here's the problem -- the people who usually term limit of the fiscal conservatives that we want in washington, d.c. it is never the big spenders that term limit out. this is a problem and what the best things that happened is that the congress had an internal rule that the committee chairs, who are a big part of the problem, or term limited. we passed some of our own rules as republicans that we do term- limit the committee chairs. it helps, but it is not the solution. pardon me? yes. i think the bill has been introduced, but it has not gone anywhere. pardon me? >> anybody who votes against it, it is a matter of public record. are they entitled to remain there forever? >> my opinion has been when it comes to term limits that i think it is important for the voters to make that decision. that is the ultimate term limit. they have, especially in this last election, they have made this decision. my only concern with term limits is two-fold. at the state of arizona -- the state of arizona has term limits on their senators. if you are in for just a few years, then the bureaucracy runs the state. that is what i have been told. one thing i do not want to do is empower the bureaucracy because they already have a lot of power as it is. what i want to do is cut back the bureaucracy. we need members of congress to do the right thing. the same with the president of the united states. we need someone who does the right thing. they tell me we have to go. there is the hook. i want you to know i love you, i care about you. i am thank you came. get to michelebachmann.com. we will take the country back in 2012. god bless you all. thank you for coming. i love you. thank you. ♪ [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2011] >> next, remarks by former new mexico governor and republican candidate gary johnson. then, the 50th anniversary of the fall of the berlin wall. following that, a conversation with a former fbi profiler. >> tomorrow on "washington journal," robert rector from the heritage foundation looks at the effect of social programs. the discussion of why u.s. and european leaders are calling for the removal of bashar al-assad, and the new york times education correspondent talks about the obama administration's decision to allow states to provide for -- to petition for waivers on key provisions of math and reading proficiency. watch more video of the candidates. see what political reporters are saying and track the latest campaign contributions with the c-span website for campaign 2012. easy to use, it helps you navigate the landscape with twitter feet, facebook updates, campaign bios, and links to early primary states. find it all at c-span.org. now, republican presidential candidate and former new mexico governor gary johnson speaks at the national press club in washington. mr. johnson did not participate in the iowa straw poll and did not receive any votes. this weekend, he begins a nine- day campaign tour of new hampshire which is scheduled to hold a primary in february, 2012. this is one hour. >> for more information about the national press club, we invite you to visit our web site. on behalf of our members worldwide, i would like to welcome our speaker, as well as those of you attending today's event. our head table includes guests of the speaker as well as working journalists who are club members, so if you hear applause, we would like to note that there are members of the public in attendance, and it is not necessarily evidence of a lack of journalistic integrity. i would also like to welcome our c-span audience. you can also follow the action on twitter or through our podcast. after our guest's speech concludes, we will have q&a and allow for as many questions as time permits. a journalist's presence at the table does not imply or signify an endorsement of the speaker. i will introduce the members at the table now. we begin with john hurley. jonathan cool, public affairs and media specialist. patrick mcgrath, former national correspondent for channel 5 here in washington and a fellow member of the national press club board of governors. jonathan did lack is with the johnson campaign and a guest of the speaker. might soar hand is also a member of our board of governors. kip nightly is a guest of the speaker and a colleague in the state government of our guest today. skip over the podium for a moment. melissa is our media chair and doing a fabulous job this year. skipping over our speaker, rachael ray is a culture writer for the daily telegraph of london. she was an organizer of today's lunch and did a great job. thank you, rachael. michael coleman is the washington correspondent with the albuquerque journal. tim young is the chair of our young members committee here at the national press club and a contributor to the huffington opposed. chris murphy is the producer and host of your financial editor. it is good to have a public broadcaster here today. you can now applaud the head table. thank you. >> our guest is for limited government, a fiscal conservative who delivered hundreds of the vetoes during his governorship. he says he will take a similar approach to governance as president. that does raise the question today, while many americans appear to be turning for a more affective government, one that could put country above party, where would governor johnson fit into that division? he is an outspoken advocate of legalizing marijuana, a gay- rights, and keeping government out of the way of creating jobs. he has a message that he believes is resonating one-on- one but has yet to gain wide news coverage. he has not been invited to participate in the cnn debate in june. he opted out of the iowa straw poll last weekend. the "washington times" dubbed rodney dangerfield of the election in that he gets no respect. my apologies to those of you who are too young to know who rodney dangerfield is. we are pleased to offer him the opportunity to bring his perspective to this table. he condemned the marriage vow that a christian conservative group asked him to sign. "in one concise document, they managed to condemn case, a single parents, single individuals, divorce say is, muslims, unmarried couples, women who choose to have abortions and everyone else who does not fit into a normal -- norman rockwell painting." he blasted texas governor rick perry for "doing an impression of george bush," saying that americans are not ready to elect another governor from texas as president. with his own ideas on the budget, medicare and the department of education, governor johnson recognizes that name recognition has been an impediment to his message. we want to give him a chance to deliver that message today. please give a warm national press club welcome to governor johnson. [applause] >> great introduction. i am not frustrated and i am not angry. i am really not. i think this is a process, and i am a believer in the process. in that process, i have to sell myself as being capable to fill this job as president of the united states. in that context, who am i? i am an entrepreneur. i have been an entrepreneur my entire life. i started a one-man handyman business in albuquerque in 1974, and in 1994, had 1000 employees, the american dream come true. a lot of hard work, but a lot of accountability that went along with that, and really, a real success story. i sold that business in 1999. no one lost their job and that business is doing better than ever, go figure. but it gave me the financial freedom to be able to do what i want to do when i want to do it, and that has always been a goal of mine, and i have always viewed that as entrepreneurial. my venture into office was entrepreneurial. i have run for two political office is in my life, governor of new mexico and reelection as governor of new mexico. i am also an athlete. i have been an athlete by entire life, and i think that is part of the equation, the discipline, the fitness that is part of this job -- i think you need somebody that sets goals and has the discipline to accomplish things. i have done the hawaiian iron man triathlon four times. i have had a lot of really good adventures. i actually summit did mount everest after i was few -- through being governor. that was of great treat standing on top of the planet. people ask me what it was like to ponder mount everest. i did not conquer mount everest. she lifted her skirt and i got in there and got a peak and it was really cool. [laughter] i did some things as governor that were really unique. it was fun, by the way. it was invigorating. it was really wonderful to be cutting edge on policy decisions, to understand what the issues were and to make decisions that in my opinion benefited the citizens of new mexico. the pledge from me was that politics would be last, issues would be first, that i would understand the issues. i had an open door after four policy as governor of new mexico. i saw anyone in the state on the third thursday of a month starting at 4:00 in 5 minute increments. there was no one in new mexico that could say they could not get into see the governor about this or that, and that was really, really and lightning. when i ran for governor the first time, the incumbent controlled the debate process. when i ran for reelection, we did some polling, and i was up 10 points. i ended up debating my opponent 28 times, which i thought was good politics, because i thought it was people really wanted. as governor of new mexico, i did a track for trash program that i still have today. i have now biked across the state of new mexico 100 days for 100 miles at a time, picking up trash across the state. i have done that for 18 straight years, which i think has also been popular. they did a poll here on all the presidential candidates and the favorability is that they have in their own states. do you know that there is only one candidate running for president that is viewed favorably in his or her own state? i thought that was great. they did a study here a couple of weeks ago on job history. what is the jobs report when it comes to each candidate running for president? i had the best jobs record, the creation of jobs in new mexico when i was governor, as opposed to anyone else running for office. now that rick perry has entered the race, he is statistically a hair ahead of me, but a couple of weeks ago i lead that. i did not create one single job as governor of new mexico. government does not create jobs. the private sector does, but as government -- governor of new mexico, i was able to veto legislation that was going to be adverse to business. then, when it came to rules and regulation, because i controlled all of the agencies, i created an environment where there was real certainty, and in that environment and jobs did grow. as governor of new mexico, i was distinguished for having vetoed perhaps more legislation than the other 49 governors in the country combined. i vetoed 750 bills while i was governor of new mexico. i had thousands of line-item vetoes, and i took of that debate and discussion that went along with all of those vetoes. it made a difference when it came to billions of dollars of spending that in my opinion was not going to make a difference in any of our lives. it was just going to spend money and pay lip service, rather than address issues. every day i engaged in the whole notion of, what has johnson vetoed today and why? and that got played out in print, radio and television, and i would like to think that i came out on top of that debate, always arguing for smaller government, always arguing that the best thing government could do for me as an individual was to empower me as an individual to make choices that i think only i have the capability to make. right now in this country, i think we are on the verge of a financial collapse. i think it is going to be a monetary collapse, and i think it is due to the fact -- it is going to be a bond market collapse -- and it is due to the fact that there is no we paying $14 trillion in debt given the fact that we are going to add another $11 trillion to that in the next eight years. it is not going to happen. we are printing money to cover this debt. i really want to applaud congressman ron paul and the attention he has brought to the federal reserve and monetary policy and what that is all about. we have a monetary policy in this country right now where we have zero interest rate. the value of the money we have in our savings account is going to be worth nothing if there is a monetary collapse, and i suggest to you that it is unavoidable. it is going to happen. it is written. how do you avoid it, though? that is why i am here. i think you can avoid it by balancing the federal budget. i promised to submit a balanced budget in my first year as president, and that means cutting 43% of what government is currently spending. if we are going to talk about a reduction of 43%, we have got to start by talking about medicaid, medicare, and military spending. when it comes to medicaid and medicare, i suggest that the federal government could block grant the spate -- the state a set amount of money and give health care to the poor and those over 65. i had an insurance policy as governor of new mexico. we did the math. how many medicaid recipients? what if we all -- what if we gave them all the same amount of money that i spend on my insurance policy? would we really save that amount of money? yes. so that is what we did. we set up health care networks that did not exist prior to that and say that same amount of money. if the federal government had given me medicaid with 43% less money to deliver health care to the poor, i could have done that in new mexico if they had done away with all of the strings and mandates attached to medicaid. if i had been given medicare, i think i would have been able to do the same thing, and that would be to deliver health care to those over 65, but with no strings, no mandates. the notion of 50 laboratories of innovation, 50 laboratories of best practice, in my opinion, that is what would happen. we would have spectacular success that would get emulated because we would all be competitive, and we would have spectacular failures that would get avoided in this same way. but the notion that washington knows best and top down is the answer, that has us in the predicament we are in. if we do not fix this -- it is not a sexy message -- but if we do not fix this, we will end up with nothing. we will end up printing 100% of the dollar's used to buy our own debt. debt is a good thing. it implies that someone is loaning you the money and that they are going to get paid back. in the last year it has been reserved -- revealed that up to 70% of the treasury purchases made were from the federal reserve printing money. the monetary collapse is going to be when we print 100 percent of that money to buy our own debt, and the result of this is going to be an absolutely devastated dollar that is getting devastated right now. a strong u.s. dollar, balance the federal budget, cut 43% of what we are currently spending, and i am promising to do that. i promised to submit that budget as president, and i promised to veto legislation that goes out of bounds from being able to balance that federal budget. you will argue that they will override the veto. well, i will be elected president by promising to do this, and i will do this. i think you're going to get closer to a balanced budget electing a president who is promising to submit a balanced budget as opposed to electing a president who is going to promise to do this over 15-20 years because that is the only prudent thing to do. we can fix this. we can fix this, but we have got to do it and we have got to do it now. talk about military spending. can we cut our military spending by 43% and still provide a strong national defense for ourselves? i think the operative word is national defense, and yes, i think we can do this, as opposed to offense or nation-building. i was opposed to iraq before we went into a rack. i did not see a military threat from iraq. we have the military surveillance capability to see iraq rollout any weapons of mass destruction. if they would have done that we could've gone in and dealt with that situation. i thought if we went into iraq we would find ourselves in a situation or civil war to which there would be no end. afghanistan, initially, i thought that was totally warranted. we were attacked. we attacked back. after being in afghanistan for six months, we wiped out al qaeda. that was 10 years ago. we are building roads, schools, bridges and highways in iraq and afghanistan, and we are borrowing $0.43 on every dollar we are spending to do that. that is crazy. libya. when libya happened i issued a paper. i am opposed to what we are doing in libya a-z. where was the military threat? where in the constitution does it say that because we do not like a foreign leader we should go in and topple that foreign leader? where was the congressional authorization? have we injected ourselves into a civil war in libya? do not five other countries qualify for that same intervention? i suggest that we get out of iraq, afghanistan and libya tomorrow. kaifu when we comes to -- when it comes to our military spending, does anyone here think it is justified that we have 100,000 troops on the ground in europe? i cannot find anyone who believes that. can we not get back -- get by with 57,000 troops? i would make the case that we do not need troops there at all. and all of these infrastructure projects that have taken place in europe over the last couple of decades, you know, they have been able to afford those infrastructure projects as well as health care for their citizens because they have not had to spend anything on a military. we have subsidize that. there is a real threat when it comes to terrorism and we should remain vigilant to that threat, but it cannot be just us. it has to be other countries. when it comes to issues like health care and energy, in the free market guy. as governor of new mexico, i vetoed all sorts of legislation that i felt unfairly advantaged individuals, groups, corporations that were connected politically, as opposed to legislation that would affect everyone equally. what do we need to do in this country? balance the federal budget first and foremost, and then we need to scrap our entire tax system in this country and replace it with a fair tax. if you have not looked at the fair tax, is fairtax.org, but basically it does away with all federal taxes and replaces it with wine consumption tax. it is what it says -- with wine consumption tax. consumption tax. it is what it says. those who consume more will pay more. those under the poverty level will not have to pay. it is what it is. simple. make it easy. it does away with income tax. it does away with the irs. it does away with corporate taxes, business to business. when you talk about creating jobs in this country, why would you start a job anywhere on the planet other than the united states given an environment where there is no tax? suggest tens of millions of jobs will be created in this country when you create an environment that a fair tax would bring about. free-market approaches to the solutions that we face. i believe in free markets. i think there is a magic to free markets, and the criticism of free markets really, is that it is manipulated, that it is not free, that is anything but free. when it comes to health care, when it comes to energy, free- market approaches to health care, to energy, looking at the immigration issue. i think immigration is a hot- button issue. i think it starts with our mexicans coming across the border and taking entry-level jobs from americans. absolutely not, because we and americans can collect welfare checks which is a little bit less money or the same amount of money for doing nothing. we need to reform welfare in this country. i think we should make it as easy as possible for someone who wants to come into this country to get a work visa, not a green card, not citizenship, but a work visa that would entail a background check and applicable taxes would be paid, and if we enact a fair tax, nobody would avoid paying taxes because of the one federal consumption tax. i think we need to find a way to document immigrants, set up a brace. where they can get a work visa. building a fence across 2,000 miles of border, putting the national guard arm and arm in -- arm in arm across 2,000 miles of border, in my opinion, is a whole lot of money spent with very little benefit whatsoever. and then, do not discount the problems with drugs at the border and border violence. this is prohibition played out. i have advocated the legalization of marijuana since 1999. legalize marijuana and arguably 75% of the border violence with mexico goes away, that being the essence of the drug cartel's activities that are engaged in the marijuana trade. legalize marijuana. control it. regulated. tax it. it is never going to be illegal to smoke pot and be impaired and drive b -- be legal to smoke pot and be impaired and drive behind the wheel of a car. it is never going to be legal to smoke pot and do harm to someone. it is never going to be legal to sell pots to kids, but which is going to be the easier situation to control? the one where kids buy drugs illegally and then by harder drugs, or the one where you have to show nit like you do with alcohol? based on the experience in holland and portugal, i think it would get better, not worse. 28,000 deaths south of the border over the last four years. if we can not connect the dots between prohibition and violence, i do not think we ever will. these disputes are being played out in with guns rather than in the courts. this is a contest right now on the republican side to go up against president obama in the general election. i really think that if republicans do not concentrate on pocketbook issues they are not going to find themselves in a position to be able to make the change needed. i want to say the republicans should not be focused on social issues. i will tell you, when i ran for governor of new mexico, i did not get the social conservative vote in the primary. it was not something that i was going to get. i did not get it, but i got that vote in the general election, because then the focus was on the pocketbook and the pocketbook issues. i think republicans really need to concentrate on pocketbook issues, and if republicans are going to be talking about abortion, if they are going to be talking about gays, gays in the military, gay unions -- and by the way, i support gay unions. i fundamentally support as human beings right to make decisions that only they should make. i fundamentally believe a woman should have the right to make the decision when it comes to an abortion. i happen to believe, and this is, you know, these are social issues to a degree, i happen to believe in evolution. i happen to believe that global warming is happening and that it is man caused, but that said, what should we do about global warning -- warning? i do not think we should implement cap and trade -- global warming? i do not think we should implement cap and trade. i do not think it is going to make a difference long-term at all and that those resources could be redirected in many more effective ways. this is my pitch to all of you. i would not be standing here if i did not think i could do this job. i would not be standing here if i did not think this needs to be fixed, and based on my experience, good government was easy. it was not difficult. it just took the willingness to go out and do this. fed and there is nothing in my resume a common nothing in my resume aid to suggest that the -- and there is nothing in my resume a common nothing in my resume aid to suggest -- my nothing to suggest that i am not able to go out and pursue this. i guess we will now open this up to questions and any insults' that you all may have. >> hopefully not. thank you very much. we will open this up to questions and we have had a good flow of them since he began speaking. here is one that says, it is a growing opinion that it is not just congress that cannot compromise, but the american people themselves. everyone wants to live in communities where they do not have to listen to opposing views. what makes you the consensus candidate? >> i would not have raised the debt ceiling. i think for all of the trials and tribulations that would have gone on by not raising the debt ceiling, that we would have stopped printing money, and that is what we need to do. we could have addressed this now. it would be extremely difficult to deal with it now, but i suggest dealing with it now will pale in comparison to what looms in the not too distant future. we need to deal with that. love, i attend events where -- look, i attend events where people are screaming, "balance the budget! balance the budget! stop spending!" and they are holding a sign the says do not touch my medicare. there has to be a consensus here built on reality. as president of the united states, as governor of new mexico, i know the power of the bully pulpit, the ability to talk about issues. as governor of new mexico, advocating school choice, bringing competition to public education, you can make a huge difference. that is the role the president has and should be carrying out to its greatest degree. >> with defaults have been ok in your view? -- would default have been ok in your view? >> i did not see as defaulting. we would not default on debt payments or payments that were important. military personnel, whenever that might have bent. but this was, in my opinion, an opportunity to deal with this now. i do not want to discount how painful the process would be right now if congress and the president were to have engaged in this, i just suggest it is going to pale in comparison to a monetary collapse where we are not going to be in control at all. >> so, when you say you did not see a default happening, are using a default would have been avoided or it would have been permissible? >> i would not be the dictator. i would be the president of the united states and i respect the three branches of government, but if i had been a dictator, yes, i would have made all the interest payments and all of the payments that would have kept this country going forward, and i would put a stop to spending in areas that we have to put an end to. i would have block granted the state's medicaid and medicare. we would have had 50 different ways of dealing with the delivery of health care to the poor and those over 65, but we would work it out. we would be working it out right now. as opposed to not working it out, and there is no magic in this. there is a day of reckoning here. >> so your proposal is to cut 43% of the budget. in a town where people at the end of the day ultimately have to get along or they do not accomplish anything, there was thegreement to pacut -- maximum solution was not the one they agreed to. ultimately, how would you have covered more effectively in that situation? >> what you are pointing out is the impossibility of balancing the budget. it is impossible. you cannot do it. well, if i get elected president of the united states, and this is what i say i am going to do, is to submit a balanced budget and not expect anything short of a balanced budget, what message does that send to congress? we as the american people want this issue addressed. if you're going to elect a president who you may view as pragmatic because we need to do this over 15-20 years, it is not going to happen. we are going to find ourselves with nothing. that is the un-sexy message about all of this. we are going to find ourselves with nothing at the end of the day, as opposed to fixing it. there is a lot to be said for fixing this, and we can do it. we went to the man. we can balance the federal budget. >> some people would like you to differentiate yourself from ron paul hill finished second in the iowa straw poll. you referenced him in your speech. to the extent that he in some ways might be seen as having views that are similar to yours, how are you different? >> it gets back to resume aid. i think that ron paul has had many principled no votes in congress. i would like to think that if i were in congress i would have done and would do the same thing. but as governor of new mexico, out of those 750 vetoes -- new mexico is two-one democrat. the legislature was to-one democrat. out of those 750 vitos, one- third were republican bills because republicans grew government just like democrats, in my opinion, and that legislation needed to be vetoed. unofficially, i vetoed 100 bills where the vote was 117-0. only two of them were overridden, so it stood up. at the end of the day, dr. paul, and again, i applaud his principled position as a congressperson, but my experience was different. i could not go home at the end of the day wondering my veto. i had to explain it. i had to debated. i had to discuss it. and that went on all the time. and i would like to think that the perfect -- a verdict on that was that i ended up getting reelected the second time by a larger margin than the first time in a state that is majority democrats. >> you veto, veto, veto. when does the budget get passed? >> if congress does not balance, they are going to have to override, and if they override, then it becomes the choice of the american public. do we stick with a president who promised ed balanced budget, or congress, and if congress overrides, i suggest to you that the end product will still come a lot closer to being balanced than if you elect a president vowing to do this over a 15-20 year time. it will be business as usual and this will not get addressed. >> some people have sent up questions about the electoral process so far. can you talk about why you did not want to participate in the iowa straw poll and that you were not invited to participate in some of the debates? how do you see yourself getting to the finish line with those challenges so far? >> there are 184 candidates declared running for president. it so happens that i am like the guy right on the bubble. it is where it works out. i am like ninth out of those 184. you could say, wow, what do i need to break through, or you could say, in ninth. in due to break through here. -- i am at ninth. i am due to break through here. it is well known that i am not well known. if you are known by 100% of republicans and you're pulling at about the same level that i am -- which, by the way, 1%-2%, what does that say? really, not anything. what a 17% say for the front runner when the 17% does not move? it says that this is wide open. i am putting my chips on the table in new hampshire, a state that i think has a terrific political environment. people say come in, sit down, tell me what you think. let's talk. let's discuss. let's cuss about this. iowa. my decision to forgo iowa is that my running for president is very entrepreneurial. it is reflective of the times. we are doing this on a shoestring compared to others. in iowa, it was $35,000 for a booth. it was $30 per ticket to bring in supporters, of which i guess it was reported that michele bachmann bought 6000 tickets. do the math. and that did not include the barbeque or the entertainment. i could not afford it. i could not afford it. [laughter] >> there enough. as this continues on, do you feel you have the resources to mount a campaign in new hampshire? >> yes, we have an office in new hampshire. we have four full-time people in new hampshire. they are terrific. they are all young and they are ideologues and they are terrific. we're fighting for a cause, if you will, so it is fun. if you're not spending a whole lot of money, and i am not, i can last through this. i might end up winning california. that is how this will all work. >> rick perry seems to have toned down some of his words going from iowa to new hampshire. had the think what you are presenting plays in new hampshire relative -- how do you think what you are presenting plays in new hampshire's relative to the rest of the country? >> when i ran for the governor of new mexico, the primary was in june. in february, they did a poll, five months before the primary in new mexico, they did a poll, who would you vote for on the republican side of the ticket? i had to% of the vote. we were ecstatic, because i was on the list, but we had not spent any money when it came to trying to actually sell a message. what is it that i am saying? i had worked harder than anybody at that point. i had addressed more people. i had built up a great base in new mexico, and it worked out that way. when we started spending money on what it was i was saying, i went from 2%-24% in a couple of weeks. in understand how it works. i understand that you can do well in new hampshire. you can go from obscurity to prominence overnight with a good showing in new hampshire, and that goes back to eugene mccarthy. this is the card that i am playing. >> someone asked why you did not just run as an independent, in light of the way you have been treated by the establishment? why seek the republican nomination at all given the difference is you have with members of that party? >> first of all, i have no problem with the republican party. the republican party has been great to me my entire career. i have no complaints with the republican party, none whatsoever. and i really do not have any complaints with the press either. this is a process and you grind it out. you grind it out, and i think it is a process where you have to say the right things, espouse the things i really need to get done, and then you have to have a resume may debt under the light of day says -- that under the light -- have the resume that under the light of day says, this is a man that will do what he says he is going to do. >> have even asked to participate in any debates so far? >> i have been in one and excluded from two. they are pretty darn up front about it, where i was relative to where i needed to be. it is what it is. i guess i could not participate in another debate, and if i do well in new hampshire, maybe people will decide to go and hear what i have to say in south carolina. maybe as a result of talking to you here today, you will walk out of here and say, he does not stand a chance, but i like what he has to say. >> you have been described as holding political positions while governor that are similar to tea party recommendations. how you view yourself with respect to the tea party? >> the tea party is a mixed bag. this is my opinion. i think this is what the tea party stands for, the federal checkbook. if that is true, great. i am a tea party year. talking about dollars, a sense -- dollars and since and how we spend our money, how we actually become fiscally sound. in scene tea party events -- but i have seen tea party events that do not have that as their basis. they have a social agenda as their basis. in my opinion, if republicans are going to leave or nominate a candidate that first or foremost has a social agenda, i do not see republicans in position to actually address the problems this country faces. >> of all of the gop contenders, who do you see as the toughest challenger right now and how do you tailor your strategy to target that person? >> i am not going to tailor my strategy to target an opponent. i ran two campaigns for governor were i never mentioned my opponent in print, television or radio. i do not know any other candidate can claim that. mitt romney has raised 300 times as much money as i have. that is formidable. i do not think i have to say anything about it romney that isn't going to get that it out in the process -- about mitt romney that isn't going to get vetted out in the process. >> your new mexico governor when rick perry was starting out as texas governor. what do you think of him as a person and as a governor. do you think he is suited to be president either professionally or temperamentally? what qualifies you more than him? >> i did like him. he took over for george bush. i served with him for two years. i thought he was a likable character, very charismatic. back to the job. in making the pitch that it is me, nobody else. i think you will all leave here being hammered by that pitch that i am giving you. that is the only thing i can control is my pitch. i love the fact that texas has such a great economic environment. i think that economic environment has existed for a long time, and that starts with no income tax. it is something i talk about in new mexico all the time, that this is the direction we need to move. it did not make reduction of taxes happen because of a legislature that was two-one democrat, but in the environment that i had to deal with, statistically, before rick perry entered into this race, i had the best record when it came to jobs. now that he is entered, statistically, it is kind of like the polls and trying to get into the debates. it is really close. >> what do you think of his suggestion that the fed chair has committed treason? >> i think the fed share is the messenger here. i think the fed has kept interest rates artificially low. in my opinion, the federal reserve should be pursuing policies for a strong u.s. dollar not a weak u.s. dollar. if we were to abolish the federal reserve, the treasury could still print money. that would happen. if we were to abolish the federal reserve, we would have to make up a lot of the functions that the federal reserve does carry out with regional banks, and we could make that happen. transparency within the federal reserve, that is what i think is really key, and we should work to see that more transparency comes out of the federal reserve, but no, bernanke is the messenger here. he is having to deal with the situation that i am arguing is a situation that puts us on the verge of a monetary collapse, and if interest rates are not dead 0, which he, the federal reserve controls, if they were not at 0, we would be at that monetary collapse right now. it would be evident to the world and all of us as citizens. >> someone asked, we have the 9/11 anniversary coming up. what do you think about the federal government's reaction to that in general? you thought that moving into afghanistan could of been a little more concise. what about the department of homeland security, tsa, etc.? >> i would have never established the department of homeland security. i think it is duplicative. i would never have established tsa. i would have left airline security to the airlines, and i daresay that today getting on an airplane would be as safe and less intrusive if the airlines were in charge as opposed to tsa. right after 9/11, we secured the cockpit doors. well, that prevents an airplane ever being used as a missile again. more important than anything, passengers are not standing by for an asian managers -- for any shenanigans. what i did in new mexico was i stood back and said, no, we do not need to barricade the faa building. it is not going to happen. we are not going to divert 30 years of traffic because of 9/11. i am not going to post centuries on the dam in loss crucis -- las cruces. on and on in the name of security, in the name of safety, we're giving up our civil liberties one step at a time, and i am not back by. i am not back by to give the civil liberties -- and i am not that guy. i am not that guy to give up civil liberties. can we spend more money? can you and i spend more money than government takes in and then hand that bill to our kids? i do not think so. >> if we were to pull out of iraq and afghanistan tomorrow as you propose, would you have any concerns about al qaeda filling the vacuum that would be left. >> if we pull out of iraq and afghanistan tomorrow, these are the questions we are going to be faced with. what is going to happen? that debate and that discussion is going to be totally warranted. it is going to have bases in fact, and it would be something that would concern us all. i test argue that we are going to have this same debate and discussion 25 years from now if that is when we finally decide to get out, and i hope that is not the case. i hope to get elected president of the united states and begin an immediate pullout from iraq, afghanistan and libya. >> you said you support the notion of gay unions. does that translate to gay marriage? >> i think government should get out of the marriage business. i think government can be in the civil union business. get out of the marriage business. leave that to the churches. >> could you talk a little bit more about how you view the issue of climate change and what should the government's role be in mitigating that? >> well, climate change. i think the world is getting warmer. i think that this man -- i think that it is man-caused. that said, should we be engaged in cap and trade taxation? i do not think we should. we we should be building new coal- fired plants. when you look at the money we're spending, and the look of the result, i argue that the result is completely inconsequential to the money we would end up spending and we could correct that money and other ways that would be more beneficial to mankind. the long-term view, should we take the long term view when it comes to global warming? i think we should. in billions of years, the sun is going to grow and encompass the earth. global warming is in our future. >> census projections indicate the u.s. will soon become my majority minority country. some say because the gop has taken a hard line on immigration, they are alienating those people. haldeman is the party's chances of winning the white house. how do you manage that? >> i think it is a fair statement. i think mexicans -- illegal immigration is a bad thing. i gave some suggestions on how we deal with illegal immigration. but legal immigration is a good thing. we are getting the cream of the crop when we are in -- when it comes to workers. i think the republican party is vilified -- has vilified hispanics. it is not necessary to do that. i have never done that. i do not intend to do that. immigration is something positive. enacted a fair tax. make this country the only place to start to grow a business for those businesses in this country that are going to want to rely and low-cost labor. maybe that is a legal immigrants the can get a work visa. i think we should view of this as positive. new mexico is the highest percentage, per capita percentage of hispanics of any state. 47%. i'm often asked, what did you do to attract the hispanic vote? the answer is nothing. i did not do a thing. i took the job from the standpoint of government should provide a level playing field for everybody. government should take this position of, make it equal access for everybody. that means the american dream. you could go from having nothing to having everything if you're willing to work hard and innovate. this government, our government really benefits those that are well-connected politically as opposed to the latter which is what this country is about. >> you talked about having an open door after four o'clock. when that extends to the white house? the weather be more funding for the secret service? >> i am looking at a reduction in what the executive spends to live from day to day. air force one needs to be grounded. i think that is symbolic but it is not really, it is dollars and cents. i would like to establish an open door for waste, fraud, and abuse. i think there could be some parameters set up that the third thursday i would meet with anybody in government that can tell me about the notion of white -- waste, fraud, and abuse. you can get right in the middle of this stuff and six staff immediately. you might say, gosh, that is peanuts compared to a whole. you fix the penis. -- peanuts. i have fixed it for 40 others subjected to the same treatment. >> we are almost out of time. i would like to take -- take care of a couple of housekeeping matters. we have speakers on august 30. it will not be a luncheon it will be a news conference where i will conduct the questions with our labor secretary. september 6, rudy guiliani will be our guest. as we 0 is due before the last question, we would like to present to our national press club copy. the wine final question -- one final question, there has been a couple of president johnson's. the first was the first president in peace. -- impeached. how would you be different from them? [laughter] >> i do not think there could be a bigger difference between lyndon johnson and myself as president. he gave us medicaid and medicare. i think he set the course for where we are at right now financially. it has taken this long to get there. i am as opposite -- i know lyndon johnson when he took office, new mexico voters did not vote for him. roswell was an air force base at that time. he shut down at air force base. that is not mean. . my thing is politics last. that is what i would be as president. >> thank you for being here. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2011] >> we would like to thank all of you in our audiences for listening. we are adjourning. ed. >> the next, ceremonies in germany to mark the anniversary of the berlin wall. then the fbi series with a conversation with a former profiler. after that, candidate michele bock man holds a town hall meeting in south carolina. >> as kids head back to school, the education secretary talks about the state of the education system as well as waivers from the note child but behind lock and other education issues. watch more video of the candidates. see where reporters are saying and track the latest contributions with c-span's web site for campaign 2012. it helps you navigate the political landscape with facebook optics from the campaigns, canada biographies and the latest polling data. all at c-span.org. now from berlin, at a ceremony marking the 50th anniversary of the start of construction of the berlin wall. the german president and the mayor are among the speakers who remember those who died trying to escape east germany between 1961 and 1989. the ceremony is being held near a section of the memorial. this is about 50 minutes. >> state secretary newman, ladies and gentlemen, members of the parliament, mr. walked -- gner, i would like to welcome you here at the memorial for our commemoration -- on the occasion of the anniversary which was built 50 years ago. your presence underlines the importance of this date for a european history al -- as well as your commemorating the victims of the wall and barbwire and supporting the work of those who work in this respect. after our remarks we will be able to dedicate this memorial. we will have an intercity memorial which was possible only because of the demonstrations of the courageous east germans in the fall of 1988 and nine. the memorial is also a site of individual and grief but at the same time it is symbolic for our collective memory of the communist dictatorial. it is a symbol of the division of germany and europe into a free part and a dictatorial part. you could only guess the extent of the suffering related to this wall. based on state orders, families were torn apart. individuals jumped out of their windows or cross barbed wire at the last second as a young soldier. others tried to escape through underground tunnels or they paris. today they are among the 136 victims of the burden of. last night we memorialize their biographies in the chapel of conciliation and made sure they would never be forgotten. more than 2000 inhabitants were evacuated. their houses were torn down. death sitting on the strip. it crossed cemeteries. then in the chapel of conciliation was destroyed. today a the former site of the berlin wall is actually a site to learn about the importance of freedom, but principles of democracy, as well as the certainty that these goods are self-evident. it is also time to remember those who built the wall as a political solution. it is also a site that gives is hoped that freedom is possible even in this world where we stop crises worldwide. many places are not free. i would like to think those individuals and associations that enabled us to plan and build this memorial over the past to a half years. without your dedication and support we would not have succeeded. i would also like to include in my gratitude my wonderful collaborators and i would like to thank you for your dedication to this project. i will now give the floor to the governing mayor. [applause] >> president, ms. wolf, representatives of the constitutional bodies, honorable citizens of berlin, dear representatives of the association of the victims, ladies and gentlemen, dear friends of germany, of berlin and germany and the rest of the world, and today we are commemorating the saddest day in the recent history of berlin. the street has become a symbol of the tragedy of the division of our city. after august 13, nothing was the same again. the conception of the wall hit us to the court. we were helpless watching how the s.e.d. cemented the division of our city. many individuals tried to escape to the west. the images are still overwhelming today. they tell us the story of the need and desire for berliners to want to be freed. they document the injustice as represented by the wall. my comment is this was a bitter experience but it is an impetus to combat totalitarian thinking the matter what ideological form we're presented with that. [applause] 128 individuals died between 1961 and 1989 at the wall because they tried to reach freedom. it was a dream of freedom only and it was terminated because they were shot at by the east german police. on august 13, 1961, the regime lost -- locked its people in. they took away the life and perspectives of so many individuals. it bought some time but already it was a bankruptcy declaration that he pulled a tried to escape from. 50 years after the construction of the wall, we memorialize and commemorate the victims of the regime but we also remember another site of horror, prison, were treated unjustly because they wanted to be freed. we remember the dedication of some many berliners who maintained their fate to the future of berlin and did everything for that. we are also thinking of willy brandt and his successors of misgoverning mayors. what they achieved for all of us. we are reminded today of everyone who supported us worldwide, john f. kennedy who said i am a berliner. he encouraged us to persevere. thosegrateful to all of who were members of the civil rights movement which was housed by the protestant church. the peaceful resolution and the victim of the european and freedom movement in holland and czechoslovakia's, their desire to overcome communism or the ones who opened the path for us. so we could reach freedom. we are grateful to one of our honorary citizens me tell gorbachev. on november 9, 1989, the wall fell. berliners were overjoyed. we celebrated the end of a very sad era of having been locked in and havingwhatsoever. the entire world celebrated this occasion with us. that was 22 years ago. berlin has changed very quickly. today it is considered one of the most interesting capitals of the world. we can be proud of all this. on the other hand, there are still individuals in eastern germany whose lives went off track. they deserve our solidarity. whatever they achieve, we must be respect to love. we do not understand those who feel nostalgic toward the wall. the wall was part of a dictatorial system. it was not based on the rule of law. [applause] it is frightening that today some feel the sed had good reasons for blocking the east berliners and east germans. there is no justification for the violence through killing, barbwire, three searches, there is no justification for any of it. [applause] the wall has become history but we may not forget it. whoever studies it is sensitive toward an injustice and totalitarianism. we're at a focal point of what happened in 1961. we recall in memorialize the history of the wall. we are adding another memoir. we have more than 500,000 visitors. polls show that there is an increasing lack of knowledge what the construction of the wall really meant. the time has come that this important era of our most recent years tree should be taught more to school children. parents need to discuss their memories with their children. we need to talk to contemporaries that are still among us. berlin daily, one day after the construction, we will never forget this day, this is unforgettable for us as berliners. this is 50 years later. it is our joint responsibility to preserve the memory and to pass it onto the next generation. freedom and democracy must be preserved. we have to do everything in order to prevent such injustice from ever reoccurring. [applause] >> excellences, eminencies, ladies and gentlemen, fellow citizens, on august 13, 1961, it was a sunday morning. the young couple living in their student apartment in west berlin, they heard on the radio that a wall was being built. they were fearful. and they went to east berlin where her small child, her son, was staying with her parents. her husband remained in the western part of berlin. the family had been torn apart. many months later both of them were arrested after they had been trying to come together through an underground tunnel. both were arrested. the son was taken over by the stage. the parents did not know where their child was. under which condition is he held? two years later the family was reunited. they finally were given the permission to leave the gdr. that was 12 years after they left their students apartment. this is an overwhelmingly sad fate. there were hundreds of thousands of examples of this. today we are assembled here in memory of the fateful day of our history. at the same time, which are fortunate that we know there was a happy ending to it. that was not necessarily something we were able to expect. there was a time where we almost ceased to expected. remember the highly armed blocks the world was divided into. the differing systems of government. germany was divided right on the border between a divided world. here in the center of eastern germany, we had berlin which was a symbol of freedom but also a symbol of the failure of a victim -- dictatorial regime. today remember the suffering induced by the wall but also the and just a state run by the sed party. it taurus as individuals and prevented us from having basic rights. we remember crimes that were subtle but also very brash. they have been described in in detail. those who were fleeing were killed. at the same time, there was a distrust. families were destroyed and torn apart. there were many human face on both sides. the families, partnerships, torn apart. french ships. neighborhoods were cut in half. even villages were cut in half. hope was lost. lives were destroyed. time and again, blood was flowing. from the beginning until 1989, 136 individuals died. according to my knowledge, no one knows the real number. the first victim was eda on 1961. she wanted to escape from her apartment. she was living on the third floor. she is through mattresses and betting on the ground and in order to have a softer landing. this was useless. she died one day before her 59th birthday. two days later, the next victim, an apprentice taylor, -- tailor, he tried to find a gap between the harbor and the railroad station. he swam through the canal. he swam through the port. then he was shot in the head and killed. we will never forget peter, also an apprentice, who on august 17 was near checkpoint charlie. he cried out for help but be bled to death. i would also like to remind you of someone who died of sybaris 6, 1989. -- on februrary 6, 1989. he was discovered and shot. he was completely paralyzed and then killed by a shot to the head. i am grateful that you as his mother and her sister, you have joined us today. we expressed our grief. we express this to you. we also express our grief and regret to of the victims of the wall. [applause] before all of those who were killed. the hundreds of individuals who were also killed at the border dividing germany. we will observe vein moment of silence at noon. we want to remember them in particular. there were other victims of the wall. millions behind the wall in other countries. they were not at -- able to self actualize. they were not able to pursue an improvement in their lives. they were prevented from participating in what was happening in the world. this offering was manifolds. in spite of the fact there were a few rare escapes'. we are also grateful for those who made that possible. there were tunnels built underneath. many escaped but there was also a hot air balloon that was used. 48 kilometers were swam by someone across the baltic sea. the wall was built against its own people. it was an expression of the fear and east -- against the eastern german people. many thought nothing would change. but we saw once again freedom is invincible. no wall will be able to resist the will to freedom. the violence and oppression, repression cannot resist the will of freedom of so many. on the evening of august 13, berlin's citizens were on the evening of august 13, no one could ever retain anyone in slavery. the citizens of the gdr during the days of revolution in 1989 were heroically courageous. the determination of the security forces was unquestionable, but the love of freedom of the individuals triumphed. during the decades of division, this love remained. there were many individuals who wanted freedom. they dared to risk their lives to escape. there were many individuals who got together in small circles discussing changes, and many times they were christians who were not willing and able to accept the conditions. there were ministers, congregations that protected them and allowed them to pray for freedom. in 1953 there was revolution and in 1968 in check and slovakia, and 1970 and 1980 and 1981, we observed it in poland, our immediate neighbors. part of the truth come the whole truth is also that -- too many accepted the division and accepted the wall. the east germans were faced with the alternative either to adjust or to be imprisoned. wherever was possible, individuals withdrew into their private lives. these were lives that were very impressive under the conditions of a criminal state. at the same time, however, what was shameful wasn't increasing in difference in west germany. there was intellectual and personal complacency and injustice committed on the left was more acceptable than in justice from the right. there was more of focus for the west germans and the wall, and many became indifferent to the fate of millions of germans on the other side of barbwire. some demanded even that the mandate of unification should be in deleted from our constitution, even in 1989, and for many politicians, the german question had been closed and the subject of one single nation became the cause of many, and whenever the officer was commemorated, fewer and fewer individuals listen and even the media turned away. that is nothing but the truth, and whoever says there is an injustice here, barbwire, a wall, that individual actually was not recognized and called an intruder and someone who was forever note wedded to yesterday. our country owes so much to the citizens of the former gdr for their efforts in order to reestablish freedom and to have germany reunited. they said we are one people. [applause] >> michael gorbachev really was the one who began the opening. there were changes. there were the churches in hungary, and everyone cooperated to bring down the division of the continent and demonstrated what can happen when one group won in freedom symbols with others, to have fought for freedom oneself and achieve freedom in our country, that is the gift that our east germans gave us. the injustices of the wall still appeals to all of us not to leave those alone to fight for freedom, democracy, and human rights, and civil rights. that means we have the obligation to make sure that history will not repeat itself. we have to remember that we have to enlighten and teach, especially at a site such as this. it represents the efforts of so many museums, victims associations, and others who were very committed to this memorial. such dedication was absolutely necessary because on the other side of the wall, it was a totalitarian state. many germans had begun to forget that, especially in this cause, we have to make sure that history not be falsified and that ignorance be prevented. i would like to thank all the teachers who are very committed in this direction and i would like to appeal to you, please use the opportunity to educate more students when you come to a site such as this. i am convinced that it is just not possible as a citizen tell me that we have never had an east german class of visiting the memorial, which memorializes the victims of the wall. the city state was dictatorial and to emphasize it does not mean the citizens there did not live of worthwhile like. there was injustice committed before 1945 and such suffering must continue it and transfer on to the east germans who also lived in a totalitarian state. their desire to become free is very impressive, especially when you look at individual biographies. the state committed crimes, and millions remained morally strong and accomplished very much in cooperation with neighbors and friends. we need to talk about our recent history and we also need to ask where the perpetrators adequately punished? many victims they know. they are very bitter about this. we understand that from a human point of view. what we wanted was just this, but what we received work rule of law. those who suffered in the gdr, please let me say to you, please try to recognize the value of this sentence, because it does have about you. just to only punish when a punishable act was committed, and at one time there was a law that declared that to be a punishable law. in this day, under the rule of law, we also have to look at the perpetrator as a victim and not everything that is morally wrong can actually be criminalize. the gdr system was unjust, and after 1990, the statute of limitations with extended, and under that law, also penalties and punishment was meted. but this was a signal to the entire world that crimes committed against human-rights have to be punished. the constitutional state is not necessarily always just, but it is a major achievement as civilization that is not emotion that judges, and for that reason we should be proud of our constitution, of the rule law, and for that reason we should wonder today what we can learn from the wall and what can we transfer to our future? metaphorically, we now are beginning to talk about laws in the mine, lost in the hearts, at a loss in our society. i would like to refrain from even addressing that or defining that because that really means minimizing the horror of this real loss. yes, we have problems today, but it is not even close to the suffering that we are memorializing today. we can resolve all these problems because we had the freedom to act, and that is what matters. our future is up to us, and democracy takes effort and energy. but the end of the wall is also an encouraging event because this repeated history was written by human beings. the ball did not fall, it was toppled, so we can make changes. for that reason, we are working towards more freedom in our reunited country. today that means in particular that everyone has the opportunity to self actualized. those who are coming to us must be integrated more successfully, and everyone in our society must be given the more opportunity to self actualize, to try to develop and sell. that must be open to everyone. that is a demand of justice. that was also something and continues to be something that our east germans are asking for. we have individuals of different origins. they have come to us and they said this is a good country, we want to defend this and work for it because we are seeing opportunities here. when individuals say that, we are successful in terms of integration and better education. our national community which is free and based on the principle of solidarity should meet with such acceptance. it is the attitude of citizens themselves that matters. this is a national community and we should make our own even more. when we do that we take responsibility for our common cause for serving our society, whether we are volunteering for the new volunteer army or simply a human being held in another one. remembering the wall, reminds us how important it is to be freed and also tolerate something that is different, even when that requires energy. the willingness and ability of society to change will even reward those who were not willing to change. that requires courage, of course, but we have no reason to be afraid of it. we germans have been courageous since 1945 on numerous occasions. in east and west we rebuild our country and millions of displaced individuals and refugees were integrated successfully. we founded democracy, we took down the regime and what we have achieved now is to make this country a joint project. we have achieved to make it our own and whenever it -- wherever someone comes from is increasingly important, especially among the younger generation. german reunification was surprisingly successful. observers abroad see that often more clearly than we do ourselves and i hear on a day- to-day basis, germany is a fantastic country. citizens all over germany are still contributing to unity. so many new initiatives were taken, especially on the part of east germans since the wall was toppled. we are facing worldwide competition and we actually survived the fiscal and economic crisis better than other countries. we have shown that we are courageous to change things and we will have to continue to do that. our society is growing older. there are debts but we have to limit them with a view to future generations. those are the terms of our national anthem and have been it for 187 years. we only really have achieved this over the past 20 years. it is my desire that are portion of being free and unified and living under the rule of law that we truly appreciate that and that are united germany continues to develop and flourish as inscribed in our national anthem, imbedded in a strong, unified europe which will serve and continue to serve freedom at the preamble of our constitution demands. to appreciate and protect freedom, that is something that we need to do and something we finally achieved here in germany. [applause] >> in 1988 i was imprisoned by the state police. there was a crying yana architectural student who shared a cell with me. she had tried to sleep. she was captivated and she had just been investigated. together with a couple and their young son, she had tried to flee. there was a two-kilometer, underground concrete tunnel for the river. the flight plan had been transmitted to the student by telephone. he already was on the western side and maybe today we think this was not very cautious, but the telephone was not bugged. wasgirlfriend's is in called upon to follow him towards the west, but it was very difficult to overcome the border. for that reason, that architectural student approached of family that owned a car because she knew this couple had enough of the gdr. this was a small group and they had rubber boots and black clothes with them, and compass, a torch, and a rope. the 8-year-old son was accompanying them, and he was told there is a secret adventure for you that will be very exciting, and for that reason he maintained his spirits. they drove through the village in the middle of the night. the refugees parked their car within the interdicted zone around the water and they walked across frozen fields and silently along of forest. the adults tried to locate the sounds of the underground river and they could not find the man whole. the child was tired, and all the sudden they felt less adventurous. had they lost their orientation? the watch tower could be seen in the middle of the night, but a manhole is difficult to find somewhere in a grassy field. so they went back to the car and tried a few hundred meters to the north. the job was getting tired so this would be the last attempt. at this time they could not find the man whole so that would just go back and spend the night and try again during the next night. when they came back to the forest, all of a sudden they heard motors. they heard the barking of dogs, and there were spot lights. someone in the village had called the border police. this is something that in the picture touched me deeply, when all of a sudden you are standing there, the dogs are barking, handcuffs are clicking, at the new are fingerprinted. all that was familiar to me because i tried to save myself. i was also thinking about the inhabitants of the village. two of them actually call the border police, and the car was very quiet, but at the same time in the village, someone heard it and they saw that it had not a local license plate. i tried to imagine how individuals accident -- actually jump out of bed, look to the window, pick up the phone and make a call to actually have those stopped who wanted to leave the gdr. i also imagine them going back to bed and expecting accolades for the denunciation. so many denunciations' happened. those have become part of the history of germany. we also don't know what happened to the child. when i was 18 i also tried to flee. i was under a lot of emotional pressure and my brother had already been committed to a penitentiary for political reasons. i wanted to leave on a swedish vote and i was already in my cabin, but one of the east german employees denounced me. those of us to try to flee the gdr will never forget the history of our clients, for the rest of our lives, we remember the worst times of our imprisonment. we remember being humiliated continuously by the guards, and they could act freely and brutally under this regime. that was reflected on their faces as well. on a summer day, we were transported as a group of prisoners and were brought to the railroad station at dresden. there were mostly men, but a few women, and we had been told before got out of the bus, do not look anywhere except for at the back of the person in front of you. only out of the corner of my eyes, they were very close, those who by chance were waiting for a train, and they looked at us, who all the sudden escorted by police, by dogs, in handcuffs, and walked along the tracks. people were shocked, some of them turned away and some of them tried to figure out what happened. all of a sudden there was a young woman waving at us, and she moved her hands almost invisibly in front of her chest. i took this waving with me and just as a bunch of flowers. i was not injured physically. i survived the flight. i had a friend who was stepped on -- stepped on a land mine. in 1970 my friend was captured and then shot by a special command of the secret police, and he shared a cell was someone who was highly disabled. this man had tried to flee with a friend. both were discovered and his friends were mowed down with guns, and he was able to drop to the ground, but he stepped on a land mine and he lost his legs. in addition, he was sentenced to five years in a penitentiary. that is the horrible system, and still so many think it was a good system. we may never forget the fate of our fellow citizens. [applause] authority, we may never forget that a of our fellow citizens, whether they were killed at the wall of berlin, whether they drowned in the baltic, or whether there were killed at the albert preminger of the socialist state. i recently completed a documentary about two young individuals from a wide zig who tried to flee across the border of bulgaria. -- from leipzeig. they wanted to avoid being drafted into the gdr army and they were captured at the border area with greece. they had already left -- lost their hands and feet when they were then killed with automatic weapons. it has the right to kill someone else? then they are dead bodies were fastened to donkeys and that were brought to a village on the border and they were shown on the central market square in order to deter anyone who might ever consider or think of also wanting to flee. the horrors of the wall does not have an injured german faith only. our thoughts do not only go to those who were injured and killed, but also the remaining siblings and parents that were repressed by the state. children that were left behind in a state home while their parents were imprisoned. [applause] >> speaker of the upper chamber, speaker of the parliament, chancellor, dear colleagues from a different parliaments, ladies and gentleman. especially here, where we formerly had the wall, we could still see part of it, and under the immediate impression of the moving remarks, we are becoming very thad allen that today still, those that who have political responsibility or minimizing the impact of the political system of the gdr. without any doubt, it was estate contemptuous of the rule of law. it was buying on its own people and then imprisoning them. -- spying on its own people. those who had the courage not to just, those who were courageous enough to begin the bloodless revolution, we are grateful to them but also grateful to george bush, to gorbachev, and also the german politicians and chancellor kohl. we are very grateful to them, but we also now have to call a spade a spade and speak the truth. in the meantime, there are a number of frustrating studies that were published, indicating that fewer and fewer individuals know what the gdr meant, and for that reason, that part of our history is increasingly being minimized. we have to educate our young individual so that they can learn that no matter what extremist regime is, whether on the left or the right, leads to nothing but oppression. this is mainly a task of the individual states and their school system, but at the same time, the federal government also considers this a task on a national level. for that reason, the governing parties have agreed in the coalition agreement that additional measures will be taken in order to teach children about recent history, including about the regime. the federal government supports a number of memorials that remind all of us of the brutality of the border, not only the berlin wall but the entire border dividing germany. of course here in berlin we have that street moral and memorials and elsewhere. we have a museum which is right on the border. we also have establishments that demonstrate the injustice of the gdr state in different contexts. for example, the memorial today in the secret police prison, or for example, the association for historical research. we also have the former archives that are being researched. what we would like to see is in cooperation with berlin to maintain this memorial, and we contributed financially to its realization. in particular we want to memorialize those who have had to die. two years ago, we published research on who had died at the wall. 136 biographies are found in this book, 136 lives were terminated. they have a face now in this book. their dignity has been restored, which the gdr regime tried to rob them of. we memorialize this part of history of our country. we are memorializing the death here at the nearby cemetery and it is particularly moving for me as a part of this memorial. one month from now, the house of german history will be opened at the former railroad station which is also call the palace of tears. madam chancellor, i welcome the fact that he will dedicate this especially important memorial. ladies and gentlemen, when we started to plan for this memorial here, the association for the berlin wall gave the initiative as well as the minister of the conciliation congregation. i would like to thank them as well as the director on behalf of the federal government. sites such as this one impress upon us that freedom and democracy are the highest good that we have to continuously defend, protect, and preserve, today and into the future. [applause] >> americas 9/11 foundation is the host for motorcycle fund- raiser that takes participants by the september 11 crash site in pennsylvania, the pentagon, and new york city. if the foundation uses the money raised to provides college scholarships for children of firefighters, police officers, and other first responders. here's a look at the travel through northern virginia by the pentagon. [horns] [sirens] [horns continuing] [horns continuing] [sirens] [points continuing] a [horns continuing] [horns continuing] >> next, our washington journal series on the fbi continues with a former fbi probe of. after that, michele bachmann holds a town hall meeting in south carolina. then remarks by former new mexico governor and republican presidential candidate gary johnson. >> any city that averages 250 murders a year, former baltimore homicide detectives and an investigator reporter takes on the tough question of an " why do we killed?" it is one of the books we're featuring on book tv. including a book launch party for a columnist and political commentator armstrong williams. and how unlikely allies got together to change our nation's school systems. steven brill on "afterwards." you can also watch nearly all of our 9000 programs online. >> for politics and public affairs, nonfiction books, and american history, it is the c- span network. it is all available to you on television, radio, an online. and on social media sites. search, watch, and share all of our programs anytime with c-span video library. we're on the road with our c- span digital bus and local content vehicles. bringing our resources to local communities and showing events from around the country. it is watching your weight. the c-span networks -- created by cable, provided as a public service. >> now conversation with a former fbi profile. it was part of the "washington journal" series on the fbi. it is 55 minutes. . host: the national crime and punishment museum holds five unique the galleries looking at criminal intent, profiles, serial killers, victims, crime prevention and more. today we are inside the crime solving gallery, which you can learn all about forensic technology, cause of death, fingerprinting, a ballistics and many more items. we are joined by gregg mccrary, former fbi profiler. that is our topic this morning as we wrap up this week's series looking at the fbi. what is profiling? guest: good morning, and thanks for having me in. the narrow definition of profiling is the description of the characteristics and traits of the unknown offender. the type of profiling pioneered by the fbi is the retrospective look at crime. in other words, crime has occurred. we are now examining the crime, the crime scene, all of the todence related to theat draw logical inferences about who might have committed this crime. host: the difference between prospective profiling in retrospective profiling. >> those are often confused. perspective profiling is trying to -- prospective a profiling is trying to identify common characteristics to determine who might commit a particular crime, who might be a terrorist or a drug courier. that is far more problematic, because you are going to get a lot of false positives, people who "fit the profile" who really are not a terrorist or card career -- host: what type of agencies are doing that work? guest: certainly tsa, homeland security, and the bureau is looking at this to see what logically we can see about that. obviously, the idea is to prevent this before -- a lot of agencies are taking that on. host: retrospective profiling? guest: retrospective profiling is after the crime has occurred. that is the difference. rather that figuring out who was going to commit a crime, we look at who committed this crime or series of crimes. there is a methodology to this. it is a scientific approach, where we look at base rates, up homology, where we it study the victim, often very important, and too often given short shrift in investigations. at the risk of oversimplifying, if you can think of it as what plus why = who? what happened, and the etymology is -- victimology is why gwe look at life styles and variables and put them on a risk to continuum from a low to high. we can understand why victims may have been elevated risks for being victims of violence, that focuses in on who. that basically is the idea that. host: at what point in the investigation does the profiler come in? guest: they can come in at any phase during the investigation. the first phase is to determine whether or not the crime has been committed. sometimes that is easy, a no- brainer. other times is much more difficult. years ago you might recall twa flight 800 took off from kennedy and blow up. it took years of investigation by the bureau and agencies determined it was an accident, it wasn't a crime. sometimes it is easy, sometimes it is not. we have someone that died, maybe under suspicious circumstances. is it natural causes, accident, suicide, homicide? we can get involved in the very early stages, and along the line, say, after the crime has been committed and we know is a crime, we're looking for who did it. sometimes it is to figure out what crime hit many times the crime you think you are investigating is not what occurred. susan smith in south carolina if you use ago reported her two kids had been carjacked, and you probably recall that she in fact killed her children. host: and so does the fbi profiler stop at just the profile of the offender? do you come up with a strategy to go after the possible offender? guest: probably the most important things we do, the investigative strategy and/or interview interrogations strategy. profiling is the sexier aspect, the glitzy thing that gets everyone's attention to it if i go out and tell an investigator that we are looking for a white guy in his 30's, whatever, the proper response is well, that is interesting, but how do i catch the guy? that is the right question to ask. investigative strategy becomes very important in cases where they are trying to solve it. if you're up suspects interviewed in interrogation strategy, it also becomes important, because we're trying to eliminate suspects, identify suspects. we also get involved on the road with prosecution strategy and sometimes expert witness testimony. host: the profiler then comes up with this strategy. how to you make a profile? we are in the crime solving part of the gallery. how does forensics help you? ballistics? toxicology? etc? forensics are foundational. we have to depend on that. we are allowed to come back with results, the autopsy, for example, if it is homicide. those things become quickly important. how is the victim -- if we are talking, hypothetically, a homicide, how is the victim killed? were they stabbed, shot? how many times? so forth. obviously, any other evidence -- fingerprint evidence, dna. certainly blood or semen or anything that is important to us. that is foundational for us, to understand what happened. we can move forward from there. host: gregg mccrary is our guest, worked at the bureau from 1969 to 1995. still involved in forensic science and profiling. we are at the national museum of crime and punishment as we wrap up this week pause to look at the fbi. we showed all of you when we first started this the inside of the crimes of the gallery. i'm just curious, what is the forensic lab at quantico look like compared to where we are today? guest: certainly is not open to the public. [laughter] there are different things being done at the lab did the dna unit is its own unit. to avoid contamination and so forth, folks are not just going to stroll in and out of that. each section would have its own equipment, its own examiner's. they have their own scientific background, their own a degree of expertise. it would be sorted out that way. given the case, they may tap into any one of those areas of expertise. host: how many agents are profilers? guest: just a few. profiling -- there are, like, three units in behaviorial analysis that are operational. those are the folks that do the work and offer operational support. altogether, with agents and support personnel, there is about 40 people involved in that totally. out of 14,000, that is not very many. when i first got involved in the mid-1980's, there were 12 of us at any one time in the operational wing. it has grown because demand has grown. host: that is our topic this morning, profiling and forensics. richard, independent in georgia. caller: yes, good morning. on profiling, i am a little confused with homeland security. recently, they put a message out that is maybe a white male, evangelical, pro-life, may be a member of the nra, pro-second amendment. my idea of profiling is someone who belongs to a radical group or someone who goes around it to a university or school preaching revolution by violence, or someone who belongs to a radical organization, like the kkk. host: gregg mccrary. guest: thanks for that question, richard. what you're talking about is prospective profiling, someone who might commit a crime afterwards. the plans he made are good, because -- the points he made a good, because it points out how we can get false positives. what department of homeland security is concerned about is the lone wolf offender, someone who is out there -- we just had that in norway. i was in norway last week, not related to that mass murder, but on another case there, but where the lone wolf killed 77 people based on some political beliefs and so forth. those are the things we are concerned about, as well as organized tourists like al qaeda and so forth. we are also concerned about the lone wolf, a little more difficult to identify because they don't talk to anybody, they don't communicate. they develop these ideas and carry them out themselves. host: nikk is a democrat -- nicky is a democrat and a convicted. -- democrat in connecticut. caller: hi, gregg. does the fbi sometimes get their information wrong, with a wrongfully accuse someone of something? i will bring the case up, i don't know if you have anything to do with it or anything. [unintelligible] the that's not familiar? guest: does not sound familiar, but go ahead. caller: he was in chicago, and basically they said he had something to do with the brothers -- they did a movie called "casino" that had the same idea. his wife convicted him. he swore he did not do it, but basically, was doing 200 years, and john gotti followed with him later. there are not connected, i don't think -- host: are right -- caller: i would like to vindicate him, because they went after hand, and maybe he got -- maybe he was responsible for, like, tax evasion and those things that those guys do, but they got him for killing a mother, and one of the brothers is on trial -- killing a brother, and one of the brothers is on trial -- host: we will take your point about wrongful information. guest: certainly we can get wrongful information. i was not on the case so i do not want to comment on that . but the bureau of arrested an attorney in oregon, i believe, because ms. identification of a fingerprint. he was released. certainly, we are human beings and we try as best we can to get it right. human beings will make mistakes along the way. the important thing is to correct those errors. host: 1 upper father goes to testify, how much weight do you -- have when a profiler goes to testify, and how much weight you have with your testimony? guest: profiling testimony per se is not allowed. it is too prejudicial. we do not get up and say, here is a profile of let serial killer, a child molester. that is not allowed, nor should it be allowed. we testify as to crime scene analysis. we educate the jury about things they might not be familiar with, staging and those sorts of things. host: to stay off -- is there a formula as to how they do the job, steps that they go through? guest: there is a methodology. we start with a victimology -- who or what is the victim, why is that target being targeted for some reason? like i say, we can understand that, then we can get a focus on where we go to find the offender. it is all very case-specific. it depends on the individual facts and things we have at each particular case. host: paul is an independent in georgia. paul, are you there? caller: who? host: in georgia. what is your question or comment? caller: i held -- yes, i am here. host: and we are listening to you, go ahead. caller: my question to mr. gregg, how are you doing today? guest: doing well, thank you. caller: i remove my shoes on the airport, my baggage is checked. how come all of these drugs, to this country? guest: how, drugs, into the country is that the question? -- how come drugs come into the country? is that the question? certainly we are trying to enforce the laws and keep those things out of here it we can see the problem when it goes and control in mexico. the extraordinary violence with a narcoterrorism. we're not perfect and crimes are committed every day, but we are doing our best to prevent those things and solve the ones that we can prevent. host: how does the fbi choose a special agent to be profiler? there is not many of their special qualifications, even more criteria needed? guest: typically draw from the pool of agents. we want at least 10 years or more of investigative experience. i was in the field 15 years before i got involved. we want seasoned investigators. people ideally with advanced degrees, behavioral sciences or social sciences, or some science related -- host: psychology you are referring to? psychiatry? guest: absolutely did any of those behavioral sciences would be a good academic background. the important thing is to have a skilled investigators who knows how to apply these things to investigations, because it is ultimately the investigative techniques or tools that is used to help solve crimes. host: how to be other agents and whitby road you profilers? -- how did the other agents in the beirut and you profilers? -- in the bureau view profilers? guest: i had a guy bring it is dismembered corpse, and it was actually a grizzly bear attack. we get some harassment, but it is respected. host: timmy, democrat in west virginia. are you with us? you are on the air, sir. caller: my question relates to the prior caller. i wonder if they are doing and he refers profiling of law enforcement agencies -- doing reverse profiling of law- enforcement agencies. i had been watching tv quite often, i notice they and getting a lot of drug money -- they have been getting a lot of drug money. vice versa. in other states. but they are not seizing drugs -- host: ok, we will leave it there. we got two phone calls about drug crimes, versus terrorists, murders, serial killers. how does a poor father go about distinguishing between all of those three -- how does a profiler go about distinguishing between all of those three? guest: that combine these things. if we have a dead victim, and the person is a drug dealer, where does that dieguide the investigation? clearly to drug dealing, and retribution and some sort of for market dominance, some of drug dealer killing another drug dealer to eliminate competition. it works the same in all of these areas. victimology, all of these things. host: we are in the national crime and punishment museum. you see ballistics and fingerprinting, and etc. how does ballistics help, for example? guest: if it is enough, we can only get back to a specific weapon, or we -- can at least -- we can link it back to a specific whether or at least narrow it down to the type of weapon we looking for. whether it is the blood around, the shell casing -- the bullet around, the shell casing. when the bullet is fired, there are groups inside the barrel. every what is unique. pon is unique. they can be compared to give us general characteristics, or if it is detailed enough, we can get to a specific web. host: what about fingerprinting? guest: same thing. depending on the quality of the prince, they can be helpful. new techniques are being developed all the time in. it has been a around for awhile, but the technique of using super glue is technique that has not been about years ago, but it has been around for years. it can be effective. host: and a fingerprint database in west virginia is one of the largest in the world and holds the most fingerprints. guest: what we're doing is computerized testing. it would have taken hours or years, maybe, it to go card by card by card. depends on the individual examiner to make the call, but they -- that is very good. it was helpful in the d.c. sniper case years ago, where we had a fingerprint in case they were bragging about in montgomery, alabama. sent in with the dna -- the same thing with the dna bit technology is very, very effective. host: how often do you hear from state and local law enforcement saying, hey, i need help, a profile on this case? guest: keep in mind, murder is -- typically murder, even a serial murderer, is a local or state violation. we don't come in and take over case. we don't take over a serial murder case or investigation. we are there to support the authorities who have the primary jurisdiction, there to work behind the scenes and provide any expertise we have to the investigators to hopefully move forward and solve the case. host: what is a new technology or area of our forensic science that is groundbreaking for the fbi, for profilers in the fbi? guest: stuff we talked about continues to grow. with dna, this stuff came on the scene in the 1980's and we needed a big splotch of blood or semen before they could do any sort of analysis. now it is microscopic or sub- microscopic. ng things, you cannot even see it but it is a their bread is refining the techniques and being more discriminating in our ability to find these things. host: we are showing our viewers toxicology. what does that mean, and how does that help? guest: is used in an autopsy. i took the case last year. a woman died of unexplained causes in cleveland, ohio. she got sick. when the investigation developed, nothing was determined to be the cause of death. there is the normal toxicology screen that was run and nothing came up. information developed that she may have been poisoned by potassium cyanide. we did a cycle -- we did it talks logical testing and we found out she had nine times the lethal amount of cyanide in her system. she had been poisoned. that led to her husband as the suspect. is a long story, but he is serving eight long prison sentence for murdering his wife. toxicology was key in the murder and manner of death. host: all this week on "washington journal," looking inside the fbi. our guest, gregg mccrary. alex is an independent in new york. caller: good morning, gregg. two quick questions and then i will hang up and listen to the answer. i wonder if you could comment on the fbi 's citizens' academy, about that program. the second one is, what do retired profilers do as far as where they move on? thank you for being on, i will listen to the answers. guest: thank you, alex. two good questions did the fbi citizens' academy exists in every liaison field office. we worked for citizens, we represent their interests in the crimes, and we want them to get to know us. i would encourage anyone interested to call your local field office and inquire about that. we give tours of the bureau and we want to demystify as much of this as we can to help people understand better what we do so they can help us. law enforcement, at the end of the day -- we are only as good as the citizens want us to be. we depend on them to provide information and report crimes. it is important that we have a good relationship. host: how small the detail is too small? guest: no detail is too small. that could be the one you are looking for, absolutely. you have to evaluate each piece of evidence as it comes in. things that may not seem important first become a very important later as the investigation terms. -- turns. it is a revolving sort of relationship, symbiotic relationship, as investigation goes on. host: does the witness also get guest:? -- does the witness also get a profile? guest: not usually. we talk about doing crime scenes and francine analysis. we have to think of the mind at a crime scene. our crime scene as a location that holds at least potential evidence of a crime. a victim's-certainly has evidence, as -- victim's mind certainly has evidence. how you surge that crime scene? how do you do the cognitive crime searching. same time, we want to be careful not to contaminate a crime scene with that interviewing or interrogation strategy. host: queens, new york. democratic caller. caller: you started when a j. edgar hoover was in charge of the fbi. i am wondering about the changes after his death affected your work. guest: very dramatic changes. i came in 1969 under hoover -- old school, if you will -- where this idea of profiling did not even exist. host: did that change under hoover? guest: not really. he died in early 1970's, 1972, if i recall. but to be fair, to be honest, up profiling has been in existence ever since there was crime in an informal way because investigators show up and say, gee, who would do this? what we are trying to do is formalize this program, make a scientific, do research, and see how tight and discriminating a program which can develop. host: neil in fort lauderdale. caller: good morning, agent mccrary. i find what you do to be not only fascinating but absolutely essential to our well-being. your many years of experience, it begs the question -- when evidence is grossly lacking or sparse at best, how many times have you relied upon at a visceral, intuitive, gut feeling that lead you down the path to success? guest: well, this certainly is an issue that comes up. a lot of it depends on experience. when you look at a crime scene and you know something is wrong. how do you know is wrong? you have looked at thousands of crimes scenes. this one is staged. the perpetrator does it to avoid detection. host: the person is organized. guest: we put them on a continuum from organized to disorganize. organized would be thoughtful, intellectual, trying to avoid apprehension, more evidence- conscious. the disorganized offender reacts start up spontaneously. those crime scenes look more frenzied, and have a chaotic sense to them. i guess the answer to the question is, to agree, that does play a role after you have looked at thousands of times scenes and you look at one and you know this is not right, something is wrong with this scene. you begin to drill down, and at the end of the date, hopefully, we find evidence we need. host: which type of criminal, it is organized or unorganized, is more of a threat, causes more concerned? guest: organize the offenders are better at avoiding apprehension so they can have a lot of corporate disorgani -- have a longer career. disorganized offenders, we can catch them more quickly. host: what are some examples of an organized criminal, one that would stick out in people's minds in history? guest: ted bundy is somebody everybody has some familiarization with. he killed for a number of years and had numerous victims. he was very good overtime at avoiding detection and apprehension, actually escaping from prison at different points and so forth. that is the sort of offender who was more highly organized, more thoughtful, more devious, more creative, more intellectual, can pose more of a challenge. host: we are live this morning from the national museum of common punishment. eric is a republican in illinois. caller: yes, hello. i was calling to ask mr. mccrary, how do you guys provocative individuals -- how do you guys profile corrupt individuals, such as in law enforcement, people who manipulate records? my name is aaron, and i was born in illinois, and at two months ago, i got out profile report from the west virginia said saying that i am a born in texas. i am not born in texas. the police department has manipulated two of my it rests in 2008. how would i go about changing these, knowing that these are corrupt individuals anin the police department? i need some help. these are corrupt individuals. i am not born in texas. guest: the fbi does investigate police corruption and civil rights violations. what i would suggest is he contacted local fbi office and make his concerns known. that would be the best way for him to proceed at this point. host: let me dig down a little bit in the training of our profiler. forensic pathology. what is it? guest: that is the study of the science of dead bodies, looking for causes of death. when i went through profiling training, i took courses in basic and advanced forensic pathology at the institute in bethesda, maryland. that does not make me a forensic pathologist by any stretch of the imagination, but it allows profilers to read autopsy reports with a better understanding of what is being discussed in their. what i would also add is that the bureau has outside experts, people on contract, a forensic pathologist on contract. when we have specific questions, as we had in a number of cases, i could pick up the phone and call one of these pathologists and say, here is what i am reading, i am not understanding this, is this what they mean? sometimes we get the contract pathologist and a touch with the pathologist who did the exam. host: a total of 400 hours looking at behavioral-type sizes, psychology, psychiatry. how much time did you spend a studying psychology and psychiatry? guest: again, i have a master's degree in psychological services. that component, the academic component. what we are looking at at the bureau is how it psychopathology is expressed in crimes and crimes scenes. that is what we want to look at. that is a unique area. you can get a ph.d. in psychology, a forensic psychology, and never see a crime scene or look at it. what we're doing is taking what we know about mental disorder, mental illness, and looking at how that manifests itself in criminal behavior. host: jack is a democrat in montana. caller: yes, hi. i heard you mention montana, i was wondering if you could tell the audience about the fact that the field office in butte, montana, was noted to be the worst assignment for an fbi agent, and people were sent there to be punished. is that right? host: how you know that? caller: newspaper articles have been written in the local press. guest: there is some truth and falsehood to that, jack. host: [laughter] guest: the joke in the hoover days is that if you screwed up, you would get transferred to butte. some folks love butte. a good friend of mine is from the area. host: what did he do to get back there? guest: he got an office transfer so he wanted to go there. there are obviously disciplinary procedures for agencies whose good things out. -- it was sort -- for agent who screw things up. it was sort of a standing joke back and the days, that if you screwed things up, you end up in butte. salaries.filers' taxpayers are paying for the bureau. how salaries changed over the years? guest: you can go to the website and look at the scale. field agents top off at 13, and then you go up to 14. most are 14. whatever that salary is today -- host: is that the highest, gs14? guest: yes, if you stay as a profiling. if you state administratively, you get salary increases. the profiler, the title would be supervisory special agent, a grade 14. host: gregg mccrary is the author of a book, "unknown darkness." diane is a republican in minnesota. caller: thank you. thank you for having all this week all year discussions on what the fbi does. i am curious to find out, because we have been to so many major cities and we have had the opportunity to see what major cities look like, i'm wondering how you could triple the amount of fbi, cia employees. each city we go to, including minneapolis, it seems like they are destroyed, but destroyed by gangs. why not spend more time -- i guess my question is -- host: diane, we will take your question about field offices. guest: certainly any field office with a gang problem has a gang task force but the local agency would be responsible. that is an area we have an interest in. their task forces and a place to do with that. granted, it is like other crime problems. we have not solved it totally. it still exists, but it certainly is not being ignored. host: are profilers in all 56 field offices -- -- of them guest: what we have in every field of this is at least one isrdinator -- f ielield office at least one coordinator. some training, and knows what we need, what we want. they can call the field office and say we need a profile. they know the materials we need to look at and so forth. we have the middle man, if you will, sometimes more than one in the field, trained as coordinators and can coordinate with local authorities. we do go out. sometimes they come out to us and it is an ongoing case, and we triage these -- if it is an on going serial murder or rape case and where there is a realistic threat of harm, many times we go out. this become our no. 1 priority, to stop the violence as quickly as we can. if it is an old cold case, homicide from 10 years ago, we will look at, but not today. host: triage -- what you mean by that? guest: sort of like medical triage, the most dramatic casualties a first. whose life is really hanging in the balance? the ones that can hang on for awhile, we will get to later. we look at the ones with the most accident circumstances that need the quickest response -- most exigent circumstances that the quickest response. host: georgetown, massachusetts, independent. caller: hello? host: we are listening, ben. go ahead. caller: i'm wondering if you apply your expertise -- i know you are not in the fbi at the time -- during the 9/11 attacks. i spent some time looking into it and the forensic evidence of it. you can even look, if you were to do it toxicology report on these people dying from this abnormal lung disease, i think what you find inside the lungs are these nano-size particles of dust that can only be manufactured at a highly controlled facility. i guess -- sorry, i'm just a little nervous, it is kind of a big issue -- host: are you wondering if he has looked into this? caller: well, personally, it is my understanding that the fbi was involved in the 9/11 theestigation, but fema had lead on this, which seemed odd to me to begin with, because they are under direct control of the president -- host: ok, all right, we will take it from there. let's talk about the investigation into fema -- tell us what you now. guest: first of all, i was not involved in the 9/11 investigation -- host: right, right, right. guest: the fbi would have the lead it is a terrorist attack, said the fbi would have lead jurisdiction -- host: because it is domestic. guest: even overseas, when there are attacks on embassies overseas, at the bureau's investigative and jurisdiction and we fly -- the bureau has investigated the jurisdiction and we fight over i think where he was going with this is that it is something that could be manufactured in labs. we still have a lot of conspiracy theories about the 9/11 attacks, that it was an inside job good people believe what they want to believe, but i think the evidence shows that this was done by the terrorists who hijacked those airplanes. i don't know any evidence of any sort of particle -- the only thing i could think of is that right after 9/11, the anthrax attacks. those were inhalational deaths of the anthrax particles that were suspended in white powder and all of that. that is separate from the 9/11 attacks. host: what has been difficult in your career, the most difficult of all to put together, and why? -- most typical profile to put together, and why? -- most difficult profile to put together, and why? guest: there was a serial murder case where the murderer was killing in europe and the united states. if you say it is fiction, people are not going to believe it, but this was a member of the media who was covering his own murders for the media. he was reporting on it, running for the newspaper, going on tv and doing interviews, covering his own murders, meanwhile going out and killing of these women and reporting on it, into giving detectives and the people in charge of the -- interviewing detectives and the people in charge of the investigation. it was an intriguing case. host: did your profile include that aspect? guest: i was testify in austria about this trial over there. he went into los angeles to kill people. this is why criminals don't think like you and i think, necessarily. if he went into los angeles to kill, would you avoid at all costs? probably it the police department you would not want them to know you are in town to kill people. this guy, the narcissism that there, the first thing he does is go to the lapd and introduce himself as a foreign journalist. they give him a ride-along and shows him with the prostitutes work. he comes back and tells them while he is in town. -- and kills them while he is in town. host: george is an independent in missouri. caller: the fbi -- do they study cyber-crime? that is miscible question -- my simple question -- host: earlier this week, you and others may be interested, we will respond to cyber-threats -- we focused on cyber-threats -- yesterday, actually, on "washington journal." they can all be found on c- span.org. guest: i would defer to the program, but that is certainly something profilers are looking at. you read the newspaper and the fbi does make arrests on the attacking -- these hacking cases and so forth. host: trent, independent in st. paul, minnesota. caller: good morning. hello? host: we are listening. caller: i want to ask the gentleman, how much time does the fbi have to investigate corruption within the department of justice? guest: well, again, but certainly that would be something the bureau would be interested in, and corruption within the department of justice itself. we have as much time as we needed to do that, depending upon the nature of the allegation and a little -- nature of the allegation and the validity of the allegation. i am sure we would not be opposed to doing -- politics would not get involved at all. it would be a professional investigation into that. host: what is your training like for interrogation techniques? guest: interview at an interrogation, the whole idea is to elicit the truth from an individual. it can be dicier than you might think initially, because of the psychological issues many times. who is the person we are interviewing? other psychological issues that come to bear? it could be mental illness, personality disorders. all that has to be evaluated when you are constructing and shaping an interview or interrogation strategy. the basic thing, like i say, think of it as a crime scene that we want to search very carefully. we want to be sure we don't contaminate it. don't ask any leading questions. i will not ask you if you saw a red car. i will say, "tell me what you saw," because i don't want to give you the idea that there was a red car involved in this thing. it can be more nuanced, dealing with particular mental issues of the person you are interrogating. host: so what kind of training do you go through? guest: it takes practice, not something you can just learn in a classroom. being a field agent, 10 years or more of experience, you have conducted hundreds of thousands of interviews and you have an idea of how it goes. that gives you credibility when you go out to interview detectives did you have to have something more than just academic training. you have got to have a real-life experience doing that to get credible advice. host: on the republican line -- dulce, is that your name? -- in california. caller: yes. thank you for taking my question bridge for the last five years, i worked with severely disorganized and mentally ill people who committed serious crimes. at the same time, i get people who are coming out of prison who look like they are severely disorganized in the mental health, but what we come to see is that they have been on drugs for several years. once they a clean up, what happens is that we realize, ok, this is probably drug-induced psychosis. i want to know, is there a way for you to tell in the crime scene between somebody who is severely ill or somebody who is on drugs, who looked like they are severely mentally ill? guest: the short answer is no. it will be a disorganized crime scene and whether it is a result of mental illness or a drug- induced issue. it will have the same characteristics. it will be frenzied, look chaotic. that is one of the things we say, there could be contribute in factors. youth could be a contributing factor, mental illness, drug abuse. all those things by themselves or in combination with one another can have a disorganized crime scene. host: i wonder how the bureau agents iview policymakers in washington, d.c., the guys who write the checks and give the resources you need. guest: probably not surprising to sehear that we never get the resources we need. truthfully, i am not with the fbi now, but a lot of good liaison goes between headquarters and the folks on the hill who make decisions, and we try to explain what we're doing, why we are doing it, and why we need support on this. it is a continuing -- i would not say battle, but discussion that goes on. host: how have you seen the bureau change? guest: it has changed dramatically. the biggest sea change after 9/11, the shift in to terrorism was a big shift. it was part of what we have done before, but there was a big sea change it around and. everything has changed. no femalent in, a agents. it was more of a paramilitary thing. two guys to a locker, eight guys to a room. we will b -- we would be shuttled around in these trucks. host: more like you were in the military. guest: now it is more like a college campus, and we have a female agents, and it is great. it has changed dramatically over the years, far for the better. host: you are still involved in profiling. what do you do? guest: i think it was alex who asked before -- i am a retired now, but i still do work in crime cases, the testimony in criminal cases, prosecution and defense cases -- depends on teh he facts -- and i teach part- time at a couple of universities. i will be doing in law enforcement presentation later this month, presentations for different agencies. i will be talking to the canadian association of psychiatry and the law later this year. still involved in crime and crime scene analysis and providing expert testimony in cases. host: gregg mccrary, former fbi profiler, 1969 to 1995, author of a book, "unknown darkness." eileen is joining us, connecticut, independent. caller: i am wondering about the software that bill and linda hamilton had stolen by the justice department, and that edwin meese and earl bryan were linked to, and the judge concluded that indeed, the federal government had stolen their proprietary software and remade it to have a back door in it. he gave them my judgment, and the federal government has never paid that judgment. i'm wondering where you stand on that, since you deal in criminal activity and investigate it. guest: again, i don't know anything about that particular case, so i really don't want to comment on the case i am not familiar with. it would just be wrong for me to do that. sorry i cannot answer the question, but i just don't know this is a mix of the case and it would be wrong for me to speculate as to what that might be. host: does hollywood get it right? you see a lot of shows -- guest: dramatic shows, fun things to watch. "criminal minds" is a popular show. the bottom line is no. we don't fly around on a private jets like the guys on "criminal minds" do. a guy asked me, "to you watch ' criminal minds'? you kept to the jet plane hit in fro-- hidden from me." host: [laughter] guest: we don't get an issue dots or fly on private jets. we solve crimes. -- we don't get in shootouts are fly on private jets. we solve crimes. local and state police -- we are just a resource for them to use. host: would surprise -- what would surprise you is about -- surprise viewers about the work? ness,: the tedious reading a report after report after report. i was in ohio, 6000 pages of documents to work through. the tediousness is what people might be surprised about. host: profiling, is that tedious work? guest: oh, yes, you have to review all these documents before you can offer any sort of opinion. you do not want to jump out and get ahead of yourself and start offering opinions when you have not really seen all the evidence. it takes a lot of time sometimes. host: gregg mccrary, i want to >> robert looks at the effectiveness of federal social programs. daniel discusses why the u.s. and european leaders are calling for the removal of the syrian president. and education correspondent talks about the obama administration's decision to allow states to apply for waivers for a provision on math and reading proficiency. why that 7:00 a.m. eastern on c- span. -- live at 7:00 a.m. eastern on c-span. >> she holds a town hall meeting in carolina. then remarks by republican presidential candidate gary johnson. then ceremonies in germany to mark the 50th anniversary of the berlin wall. >> august 16 marked the anniversary of elvis presley's death. this weekend on c-span 3, jerry schilling talks about the king and eve dance the lead to his visit to the white house and his meeting with president nixon. we will also visit amount vermont -- vernon were discoveries have shed new light on george washington. president, a painter. she talks about her grandfather david eisenhower and his 1962 portrait of his wife. the complete schedule at c- span.org/history. >> here is the key. the law of the social security is so clear that the benefits cannot be paid, they will give only the payable benefit. that may sound like garbage but that is a real gut-rancher because that is the one that is going to hit. last may there was more going in than going out. this may. you get to this point in your going to get payable benefits and you can sue and you could moan and you could shrink and it will not do any good. that is 2 feet to me. we went to the aarp in said we think you ought to help. 38 million people bound together by a love of airline discounts. [laughter] an insurance discounts and rv discounts. their magazine has really picked up. sex over 50 was the cover now it is sex overs 70. -- over 70. the ads are about how to get something and not have to pay for it. medicare will pay for it. sexual dysfunction. read the aarp magazine. it is a bargaining instrument. i said to the top guy, are there patriots were just marketers in here? that is a harsh statement and intended to be exactly that. they have not helped when there. they can suggest a modest changes to take care of this security, what are they? we're still waiting. >> watch more online at the c- span video library. >> now, minnesota republican congresswoman and presidential candidate michele bachmann holds a cal hall meeting in myrtle beach south carolina. this campaign if that was cold on the final day of her three- day bus tour of the state. last week she won the iowa republican straw poll. this is just over one hour. ♪ [elvis singing "promised land"] [cheers and applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, i want to make one comment from our previous introduction. there is no doubt here today that anyone here would have any problems of -- on january 2015 when michele bachmann leaves the white house. ladies and gentlemen, michele bachmann. [applause] >> thank you. ♪ thank you. thank you. thank you. thank you. thank you for coming. thank you. thank you. so glad you're here. hey, everybody. hey, or a beach, south carolina. you would think we are on vacation. [cheers] let's give a big cheer for myrtle beach. you would think this is an election night victory party. you are all invited. who is ready to make barack obama a one-term president? lwe have got our mission. we have our marching orders. now all we get to do is make it happen. that is what we are going to do. we have wonderful people here with us today. please go ahead and have a seat. i know it is warm. please be patient. -- thank you for your patience. we have some great dignitaries here today. if i do not mention your name, please rate your name. we have state rep nelson hardwick. where are you, nelson? there he is right over there. hi, nelson. we see you. get 'er done. we have councilman al allen. where is he? we know he is here. north myrtle beach councilwoman doris wilson. good to see you. we have myrtle beach councilmen randall wallace. there he is. we are glad you are here today. we also have myrtle beach tea party chairman joe dugan. where is joe? there he is. you are the man, joe. we are glad you are here. where there any other local dignitaries? you are all dignitaries as far as i am concerned. my goodness, we are glad you are here. just a moment. >> carolina patriots conservative group. >> yay. we have wealthy in our midst as far as i am concerned. anyone else? we have my next-door neighbor who drove all the way from minnesota right here. thank you, guys. yes, ma'am? the school board. karen, thank you. we are glad you are here. we have my former law school classmate over here. hello. it is good to see you. say it again. jerry mcdaniel is here. what is your title? p.r. person for the model beach tea party. i would say you are pretty good at what you do. we are surrounded by dignitaries. we have another one right here? john canulo, brunswick county vice chair. we are glad you are here. thank you for what you're doing. we are all going to come together in 2012, are we not? we are going to make happen right here in myrtle beach. this is the center of the universe, myrtle beach, where we take the country back. i like the sound of that. we also want to remember in the midst of the great joy that we have here today that it is altogether fitting and proper that we imagine someone who is also a great hero and dignitary. if we look behind us, the flags today are at half staff here in myrtle beach. they are in -- at half staff in honor of the fire chief who died tuesday in the line of duty. when you join me for just one moment -- father, we thank you for this brave man, the fire chief here in myrtle beach. we ask, father, that you be with his family, love once, and friends. we thank you for the services given to this local community. lord, we thank you for him and ask that you would honor his memory as well as those who are first responders and all of those response -- serving our nation weather in iraq or afghanistan. lord, we ask you to be with them here today. i in your name we pray, a man. -- amen. thank you, everyone. do we not live on in a great country? i am it thrilled that you are here. i feel like i am on vacation being in myrtle beach right now. there is no better place. i am think of you are here, -- thankful you are here. thankful -- thank you want to take the country back. if we are seeing this all across the united states of america. in now just over 50 days ago my candidacy to be the next president of the united states of america. [applause] by the way, you probably do not know, but my name is michele bachmann and i intend to be the next president of the indicted states of america -- of the united states of america. you may have heard last saturday that there was a little election in iowa and i was the no. 1 when-- winner are in the iowa straw poll last week. [applause] we were absolutely thrilled. the victory was even more stunning than what was reported because i had only been a candidate for the presidency for 49 days when the election happened. there were numerous candidates who spent several years in iowa and spat multiple millions of dollars in a very sophisticated ground game. our 49 days included the day i announced any day of the straw poll. i spent about half the time, it seems, in washington, d.c., fighting against the premise that barack obama should be given another $2.40 trillion in a blank check to spend. [boos] because i believe that your marching orders for it is time to stop giving him money to spend that we do not have. do you agree? that is why i said do not raise the debt ceiling. raising the debt ceiling just means we are going to borrow more money that we do not have. that is going to set us up for what? for failure. that is exactly what happens. we did not have to default, did we? we could have played the interest on the debt -- that is the plan i offered. and then make sure that, number one, you pay the men and women in the military who are doing the work for us. i thought it was reprehensible when the administration answered questions to our brave men and women overseas who are serving at the time in the military, and when they ask the question will we get paid, the answer was we do not know. we do not know if you will get paid. under president bachmann, our men and women will always get paid in the military. always. the president also indicated that maybe senior citizens would not be getting their social security checks in august. i was all over iowa. i talk to senior citizens in iowa and they said, "i cannot move my table. -- i canceled my table. -- cable. i canceled my internet. i did not know if i would get my check or not." you do not do that to senior citizens in the united states. you respect them. [applause] there is absolutely no question that we cannot continue the level of spending we have in this country. do we have any social conservatives here today in this audience? we do. good to see you. we need social conservatives. do we have any fiscal conservatives today in this audience? we do. i caught up thought so. -- kind of thought so. do we have been a national security conservatives in this audience? ntt party conservatives in this audience? the roof is coming down. that is good to know. let me show you how bad it has gotten in washington, d.c. are you ready to go to school? we are going to school. let's have our first lesson. oh my goodness. oh my goodness, i have to apologize. i have to confess because i did not bring my teleprompter with me when i came to myrtle beach today. [applause] you have never seen the president without his teleprompter, had you? in my white house, there will be no teleprompter. because people in myrtle beach can take the unvarnished truth. see that great buzz over there? -- grey bus over there? there are also no czars in that bus and there will be no czars in the bachmann white house either. [applause] let's go back to school. the day i came in the united states congress was january of 2007. anyone have any idea the national debt we have accumulated? how much money do we owe as a country? yes, sir? oh, man, are you good. you take the cake. $100,000 million, billion, now here is trillion. no one tell barack obama what comes after trillion. do i have your word on that? very good. here we go. it is a whole new set of numbers. this is how much money it has taken our nation from the time we pass the constitution of the united states until the time i came into office. $8.67 trillion dollars. that is what we accumulated in debt that we owed that we have to pay back. does anyone want to take a gander, after we made the decision to give barack obama that $2.40 million blank check in exchange for $24 billion in cuts, how much now do we owe? $14 trillion. [beeping noise] $16 trillion. here we go. get ready. hold on to your hats. here we go. this is what we owe today. $16 trillion. it took us 219 years to accumulate over $8 trillion in debt. it took us four years to almost double it. almost double it. do you see why i fought so hard? i was one of the lone voices in the wilderness of washington same for the last two months we have to stop. we cannot do this anymore. we have to change the premise. we cannot just do what they do year after year, time after time, which is take the cat -- take the credit card and with -- lift the limit. let me ask you -- why in the world -- what say you make $50,000 a year. that is a lot of money. what say you start spending money and by june, that $50,000 is gone. you say, that is no good. i want to keep spending more. some foolish banker agrees to give you another $50,000 to spend to get you through the rest of the year, so you spent it all. you come to the end of the year and then you have to start january. are you better off than you were before? you are worse off because you of that $50,000, but also you of something else -- interest on the debt. that is what has happened to this country. imagine if you do that not just one year, but year after year after year. pretty seine, what would happen? the sheriff would not on your door and he would take your furniture and put it at the end of the driveway. that is what would happen. if you were a business, you close your doors. he would be done because you have to pay your bills, do you not? the irs does not take kindly to you not paying your taxes. neither do the offenders. -- vendors. they would be there to take what you have and sell it. the united states of america is no different. what was done is we've voted or sell a lifestyle that we cannot possibly afford. now the day of reckoning has come. what have we seen happen? we sell the stock market slide 1500 points in one week. yesterday, 420 points down on the stock market. we have lost, what? the credit rating of the united states -- the aaa credit rating went down to aa plus. we are not done with school. we have more lessons to learn. bring that back. we have more lessons to learn. bring it back, a young man. we are not done. we have more to learn. we have more to learn. the aaa credit rating but down to aa plus for the first time in american history. we made it to the depression without losing our credit rating. we made it through world war ii without losing our credit rating. if we made it through korea, vietnam, 9/11 -- would made it to all that and never lost our credit rating, but we have not been able to make it through barack obama without losing the credit rating. one more reason we need to have a election night victory party here in myrtle beach. [applause] with your help, that is exactly what we are going to do. by the way, i am buying. i'd better ask my husband first. now let me ask you this question -- how much money did all of us pay in taxes and send it again to washington, d.c. this year? how much money did we take? i do not have a pocket. if i did, there would just be left and little rock's in there. $2.40 billion -- that is very close. $2.40 trillion. once again, we would get the scary numbers out. this is how much we pay again to get hundreds, thousands, millions, billions, and then trillions. oops. all of us together set our money in and we paid $2.40 trillion. this is what it looks like. we all worked really hard this year. how about you? i did. let me ask you this -- how much of this amount did congress spend it? very good. you got up early. that was very good. we spent every bit of it. we spent all that. i thought that was going to clear all the -- create jobs. where are the jobs? here is the problem. we spend more than that. we did not just been at $2.20 trillion. this is how much more we spent. then we will add it all up. then we will take a look at that. tell me what you think. here we are. not only did we spend every bit of that $2.20 trillion, we spent $1.50 trillion more just this year for a total of $3.70 trillion. do you know what that means? that means we are going to have to cut our town hall short because you all have to go out and get another job. you got to get another job because somebody has to pay those bills. thank you. that is good. that is what the problem is. the thing is, would you go to get your second job? unemployment is a little troublesome right now. the government, that is right. what did barack obama say was the solution to jobs? stimulus. we have to borrow more money from countries like china and we have to spend it on all these government projects. let me tell you what happened -- the wonder where that money is what? -- money went? $1 trillion -- you should be allowed to find it somewhere. you should be able to find jobs somewhere, should you not? i cannot find jobs. i do not know where they are. let me tell you what they did do. at the very beginning of the recession -- by the way, they tell us we are in a recovery. does it feel like a recovery to you? [boos] it fills an awful lot like -- an awful lot like a recession. at the beginning of the recession, there was one employee in the department of transportation that made $170,000 a year. 18 months into the recession, there were 1690 employees in the department of transportation making over $170,000 a year. is that not special? that is amazing, is it not? that did not seem to give us jobs did it? i do not know. maybe we do not have the formula right. the president said what the problem was. he said the whole problem in washington right now is that tea party. you heard about that? it is the tea party. that is the problem with america. because these tea party people, let me tell you what they believed -- they believe we are taxed enough already. that is what they believe. [applause] that is our tea party. cast enough already. -- taxed enough already. i am going to let you as the first question, how about that? that is one thing they believe. here is another thing the tea party believes -- they believe you should not spend more money than what you take in. what a concept. it is amazing. no wonder he is so upset with the tea party. here is the third thing the tea party believes -- i know you won't believe this, but they believe that the government, whether it is the congress, the president, or the supreme court -- should act within the limits of the constitution. if you have ever heard of anything -- have you ever heard of anything? no wonder the president is upset with the tea party movement. but the tea party movement is right. they are right. because they know they are reasonable, fair minded people who recognize that you cannot spend money that you do not have, that with -- that we start increasing taxes on our job providers, we will get less jobs rather than more jobs. i understand that. i am a federal tax lawyer. that is what i get for a living. i understand that if you increase taxes, you get less of something. when you lower taxes, you get more of something. so why in the world are we increasing the taxes on the job providers in this country when we need more jobs? it only makes common sense. i think people in myrtle beach get that. i think people all across the united states get that. you see, we are fiscal conservatives who want the country to work again. we are practical, fair minded people who believe that these solutions are not about, and we are not alone there are none of these events i do where people come up to me and say yes or a democrat. -- michele i'm a democrat. i voted for barack obama. there is noted that i get to where an independent does not come up and say i voted for barack obama in 2008, but i am voting for you this time because i want my life to work again. i want a job. my son was a job. -- wants a job. he is in college. he wants a job. do you know how bad the unemployment situation is? president obama has not only failed us all, he has really failed african-american youth. right now, african-american youth unemployment is almost 40%. kids who want a job, kids who want to learn job skills -- 40% do not have a job. that is trouble. that is trouble because how did they move on to get the next better job? they need that beginning job. hispanic youth is not much better. it is over 32% of hispanic use out of work. he has failed hispanic youths. he has failed african-american youth. he has failed all americans when it comes to job creation -- all americans. that is what i want to do as president of the united states. my focus will be to turn the economy around. i get it. i understand what the problem is. the problem is the government is taxing away too much money. the first thing they are doing wrong, i think we have already proved it, they are spending more money than they should. that is where we began. as president of the united states, i will only introduce a balanced budgets into the congress. [applause] how many of you would like to see a balanced budget amendment to our constitution? i would. [applause] but as president of the united states, i intend to lead by example. i do not need a balanced budget amendment to tell me the right thing to do. i am going to introduce the balanced budget from the get go. because that is the right thing to do to put our fiscal house in order. we cut spending, we cut taxes on the producers and the job creators, and then we deal with the regulatory burden. i was the first member of congress to introduce a full repeal of obamacare in the united states congress. [applause] as president of the united states and, furthermore, as nominee of the republican party, i will not rest until i can elect 13 more like my big, new -- like-minded new republican senators so we can have a filibuster-proof majority in the senate and actually repeal obamacare. [applause] let me ask you this -- i was tired of looking for 13 more jim demints to go to the united states senate. [applause] i think that might change the complexion and makeup of the united states senate, do you not? if we have 13 more like minded senators in the senate, if we had the conservative house, this is what we can do. i would get together with them right after election night. i will pull the leadership together and tell them this, we will get that aaa credit rating back. we will. if i was the president of the united states the day the standard and poor's to downgrade, this is what i would have done. i would have said to all 235 members of congress, if you are coming back to washington, d.c. today. by a plane ticket and get back to town. we are america. we are going to get it back. this is how we are going to do it. we are going to announce to the markets that we will not default on our interest payments on the debt. now wary of default. -- no worry of the fall. take it all the table. number two, we will pay or men and women in the military. number three, we will play our senior citizens who are currently on the retirement system. after that, we will reform the system. we will reform medicaid. we will reform medicare. we will reform social security for those who are not yet on it because these are 8 year old -- 80-year-old systems and 45 year old systems. i am 55. i need a tuneup once in awhile, i do not know about you. but we need to bring the systems into the current time period. we can make them better than what they are. we will never cut people off, but we need to make them better and more functioning because they are not working for anyone. this is what we know. no one was to say it, but it is true. nine years from now, we are told, that the medicare hospital trust fund will be hot -- will be flat broke. we've seen the movie "titanic." when you have an iceberg and you have a ship going right into it, the go ahead and take -- what you call that thing? we as a navy does your. -- we have some navy guys here. you take the throttle and give full speed ahead? the want to go faster into the iceberg? that is what president obama is doing. i could no more do that. if my mother is 80. my stepdad is 87. if the last thing i want to happen is for them to be a step -- need a hip replacement and find out, sorry, there is no money left. you cannot have it. i love people to much to do that. i care about people too much to do that. that is why obamacare is such a disaster for the country because under obamacare, it is a symbol of everything that is wrong in washington, d.c. we are told that 800,000 jobs will be lost because of obamacare because employers will not be able to afford the cost to pay for obamacare. we also know this about obamacare -- are you not darling? you really do get that first question. here is the other thing we know about obamacare -- we know president obama thinks about senior citizens. he has already stolen over $500 billion out of medicare. he has to let it out of medicare at a time where we have more needing medicare than ever before. how does that math work out? i was in the white house a little over a month ago. we ask the president, not once, but three times, mr. president, what is our plan to save medicare? we know what is going to happen. he mumbled a little bit and did not answer the question. then he finally said, "obamacare." do you realize that this is in all likelihood be president's plan for senior citizens? medicare will collapse. you all will be welcomed into the world of obamacare. is that what you want? that is not what i have seen anywhere else in the country because we already know what he thinks of senior citizens. obamacare will be a disaster because this is how it will run. the president is a 2015 people -- the president is appointing 15 people to a board. on this board, they will be charged with all the major health care decisions across the country. the me ask you this -- do you think that 15 people could make -- should make up the health care decisions for myrtle beach, south carolina? do you think 15 people could make all the health care systems -- decisions for those of us gathered here? i want to make my health care decisions with my doctor. that is how i want to do it. [applause] ipab has 15 people making all the decisions for over 300 million americans. their job will be to say, no. that is their job. here is a hypothetical. we can see this board say we do not have any more money. what are we going to do? i might say we can afford 10,000 hip replacements this year. that is it. they run out of a hip replacements by june. you are 10,001. where did you go? under obamacare, guess what? there is no appeal. as a matter of fact, it is enforced in 16,500 irs agents. that is our future. i am here to tell you that obamacare lays a foundation for socialized medicine in this country. as president of the united states, i will not abide socialized medicine in the united states. i will not rest until we repeal obamacare. [applause] and i will not rest until we repeal the dodd-frank legislation, which has stopped credit in this country and is killing the banking industry and killing businesses from being able to get credit. i believe very strongly in our united states military. my dad was in the air force. my stepdad was in the army. my brother retire from the u.s. navy. i have tremendous respect and admiration for our military. i see that as president of the united states, our number one duty is to be commander in chief. i am privileged. we love our military and we stand for them. i am privileged to sit on the house permanent select committee on intelligence. we are a very tiny committee and we deal with the nation's classified secrets. regularly, i am briefed but here within the interior of the united states and the threats that come to us externally. what i can tell you is this -- there is not a day, not a day that goes by that there is not someone who wakes up and thinks about how they will kill americans today. there is not a day that goes by that someone does not wake up and think how am i going to destroy the united states of america today? that is what the next commander in chief needs to understand, as i have come to understand sitting on the intelligence committee, that this is job number one of the president -- the safety and security of the american people. that, i will do. [applause] i will tell you -- i will do something very different from what our president has done. i read that made a very grievous decision in may when he called on israel to retreat to indefensible, 1967 borders. as president of the united states, i will stand with our ally, israel. i will stand with israel. [applause] the united states will once again announced to the world that we will have israel's back as every president has done since the time of harry truman. israel declared their sovereignty in may of 1948. 11 minutes later, harry truman did the biggest favor he ever did for israel. he recognized israel's sovereignty. every president since has had israel's back until may of this year when the president made that indefensible statement of his. likewise, i will stand up against america's animes like an iran that seeks to have a nuclear weapon. i will stand against a nuclear iran and i will stand against a nuclear syria. [applause] the president has taken his eye off of the main events in the middle east, which is the buildup of a nuclear iran. the president of iran, ahmadinejad, has said that he would use a nuclear weapon to what israel off the map. he has said he would use it against the united states. if history has told us anything, it is to take the threats of madman seriously. i take them seriously. as president of the united states, this court -- this country will be respected in this world. [applause] so you see, we have a team that is absolutely -- that absolutely cannot be beat. when you bring together fiscal conservatives, social conservatives who believe that the family is the basic unit of government of this country, we should respect the family. respect marriage. respect life. i do. social conservatives, tea party conservatives, and the national security conservatives. when we all come together under this banner, i am just telling you, we must stick together. we cannot get anyone out about that. we need each other. we stand together, we hold hands together, we fight together, and, together, we will take the country back and we will make barack obama a one- term president. god bless you. god bless the united states. let's take some questions. i promised our first questioner. >> i am 8 yes veteran retired from the united states army. i just want to let you know that if it was not for the veterans of this country, our country when not have the freedom and constitution that lies in this country today. i will be doggone it on less socialistic my country over. i am willing to make barack obama a one-term president. >> thank you. he said he will make barack obama a one-term president. if he is a veteran. thank you for all -- to all the veterans for your service. put your hand up if you are a veteran, you are married to one, or you are a boyfriend or girlfriend. thank you for what you had done for this country. if we are going to make him a one-term president. i want you to go to my website, michelebachman.com, go to my facebook site, like twitter so site, go to my youtube. nicei am determined that we have to win, and we will win the primary here in south carolina. it is important that we do everything that we can to volunteer to give money, to organize, to come together and take this state of south carolina. south carolina determines to the next president will be. i intend to win the state twice. once in the primaries, and next time in the general election. this will be the pace car for the entire country. south carolina. >> what would you do to bring in the 50% of the people who do not pay any taxes at all? that is ridiculous. >> thank you for asking that question. what would i do to bring in the 50% of people who do not pay taxes. it is unbelievable that 53% of americans pay taxes. 47% do not. it may be worse than that this year. this is incomprehensible because every person in this country, i do not care who you are, you have a stake in the success of the united states of america. every single person should pay something, even if it is $1. everybody should pay something because we all have a stake in the success of the nation. that is what i want to do it, change the tax code. that is my background. i have a degree in federal tax law. i have worked in task force. my husband and i started our own business. on every level, i am very familiar with of the tax code kills jobs and how we create them on the other hand. i want to take the tax code, which is 3.8 million words. the irs say they cannot tell us how many words. i think that is a problem, do you not? i want to make the tax code so small and so simple that any american can fill out their tax form on a postcard and send it again and we all participate. whether it is fair or flat, it has to be simple. i will take that debate in the first 100 days i am in office. >> i want to ask you a question about the economy. if the economy stupid? that is the bottom line. without money coming in, you cannot pay the bills. what i would like to hear you talk about, ross perot had it right. he said, "you take money from 1%, to reduce all of your expenses 1%, and you start to close the gap." why do we have to target either unions, policemen, or some group when everybody, whether you are a tree company that does work for the federal government, a ship builder -- everybody takes 1%, we get it done, and the deficit starts to shrink. you do not spend any more money than you have it. what you're talking about cutting spending, right? of course we have to do that. there is no question. there is not one department that should not be left on the table. by the way, i think there are departments which a completely closed out of the federal government. that is my opinion. do not forget, i am very pro education. that is that i cut my teeth is on educational reform in the political world. let's face it -- jimmy carter created the department of education as a political payoff to the unions. we have not seen increased test scores, have we? if we repeal all the federal education laws, which, by the way, cost local school districts and arm and leg because all of the unfunded mandates that came down to the schools, which made all the requirements, congress is all too happy to pass laws. you have to do all this, but we will not give the money for it. get rid of it. it is not working. what i would do is pass the mother of all repeal bills and repeal the federal education law. then i would get to the department of education, turn the lights off, locked the doors, and say we are done with the department of education. over a three-year period, i would take the money we sent out to the schools and write a letter to the superintendent and say, "you have to realize you do not have a more alarmist to deal with, but over three years, we will get down to zero. change your budgets accordingly." i tell you, they would take that deal. it is not that hard to turn the economy around. the solutions are not that hard. what we at mid missing is someone with a backbone -- what we have been missing is someone with a backbone. i have the spine to do it. that is what sets me apart from all the candidates in the race. we cannot have the other team in the white house having -- wearing another -- a differentwe need a different kind of president with a proven track record of taking on washington. i am and proud republican, but i have taken my own party on issue after issue because i keep it principle over party. we have to stand for the people. we have to change it. this is our tiny window of opportunity. 2012 is it. >> this is our last question. just a minute. look at this beautiful hair. turn around. oh my word, are you beautiful. >> thank you. we met last year at the tea party rally under the washington monument. my question to you is this -- cahoot how do you, as a mother, feel about texas governor rick perry allowing a texas chair to send new pictures of my little sister's end date? >> that is quite a question. i am glad you are here today. i cannot answer it here, because i do not have any information about it. i cannot do that. i am sorry. i cannot answer. >> would you please check into its? >> now that you have put it out here, i have no doubt that it will be checked into. there you go. [laughter] we have one more question. i know that was difficult for you to say that. >> quantity ask you about stimulus spending. you mentioned that earlier. hr5140 was the first stimulus bill. you voted yes on that. how can we trust you to fight spending? >> if you can trust me because my track record i have in washington. that bill came out when i first came to congress. it was a bill that george bush was behind. $160 billion that was a rebate. i was told this was people getting their money back. i like that idea. i like the idea of the government giving our money back to us. the ultimate expression, though, is it really was not. it really was not getting our money back to us. i paid taxes in. i did not get any money back. there were people who actually got money to, like the gentleman said, had never paid taxes again. you find out when you go to congress, you cannot necessarily believe that even what your own party leadership tells you. i am not try to castigate them, but this is what i was told -- we are just giving the people their money back. i thought i would rather get the money back to the people that we did in washington, d.c. for these people to stand. that is why i voted for it we had that made me extremely skeptical of any think i heard there on out. we had to do our own research. we have to find out from then on what is in the bills. by the way, i think you should read the bill before you pass thanks for asking that question. i am really glad that you did. this is an example of what happens all the time in washington. it is pathetic. the question is do i think that members of congress should have term limits and caps on their salaries? right now, we have been putting a cap on salaries, and rightly so because the american people are not seeing wage increases, so neither sid members of congress the wage increases. there are no term limits, as you know, in congress. for us to do that would be a constitutional amendment. it is difficult to do because, let's face it, the people writing the laws are the ones to are not necessarily interested in having term limits. some states have done that. some states have looked at term limits and all -- and some members have voluntarily term limited. here's the problem -- the people who usually term limit of the fiscal conservatives that we want in washington, d.c. it is never the big spenders that term limit out. this is a problem and what the best things that happened is that the congress had an internal rule that the committee chairs, who are a big part of the problem, or term limited. we passed some of our own rules as republicans that we do term- limit the committee chairs. it helps, but it is not the solution. pardon me? yes. i think the bill has been introduced, but it has not gone anywhere. pardon me? [inaudible] >> anybody who votes against it, it is a matter of public record. are they entitled to remain there forever? >> my opinion has been when it comes to term limits that i think it is important for the voters to make that decision. that is the ultimate term limit. they have, especially in this last election, they have made this decision. my only concern with term limits is two-fold. at the state of arizona -- the state of arizona has term limits on their senators. if you are in for just a few years, then the bureaucracy runs the state. that is what i have been told. one thing i do not want to do is empower the bureaucracy because they already have a lot of power as it is. what i want to do is cut back the bureaucracy. we need members of congress to do the right thing. the same with the president of the united states. we need someone who does the right thing. they tell me we have to go. there is the hook. i want you to know i love you, i care about you. i am thank you came. get to michelebachmann.com. we will take the country back in 2012. god bless you all. thank you for coming. i love you. thank you. ♪ [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2011] ♪ "ames brown's

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