Transcripts For CSPAN Republican Governors Association Day 2 20141123

Republicans push to get even more conservative bills through and the rsc would be where a lot of those folks are. But all along we heard the senate has been the bottleneck in all of this. So whats the excuse going to be if legislation doesnt pass . I think you heard people say this is harry reids fault and i think youre going to hear that even more. Nothings changed. You still by and large need 60 votes and harry reid still is very good at blocking legislation. And also you have the fact that the house is going to send over conservative pieces of legislation and the new Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell is going to have to protect members on votes much like harry reid. You have 24 republicans in the senate up in 2016 and only ten for democrats. As good of a map as it was for republicans this year its a really bad one for republicans in 2016. Well thanks to both of you for your questions this week. Thanks for being on newsmakers. Thank you. Mr. President , the honeymoon is over. Correct the honeymoon is over. That honeymoon. Is over. He will no longer get what he wants just by being president. We will take the president headon. The honeymoon is over. This is one of those cliches that goes back decades, the whole notion of a honeymoon for a new president ial administration. Id say this one goes back about 80 years or so, when fdr took office. He had his hundred days. He was working with an overwhelming democratic congress. There has been this notion that when a new president takes office, they get a honeymoon. World ofmark on the political terminology, tonight at 00 eastern on cspans q a. Electedup of newly governors recently discussed their agendas. A Republican Governors Association Conference Held in boca raton, florida. Is one hour. [applause] we started this year, we had a daunting task ahead of us. We had a pretty difficult map and we were defending 22 of 36 races including 19 incumbents in nine states that president obama had won twice. We successfully defended 17 of the 19 incumbents in some the biggest states in illinois, michigan, wisconsin, and florida. We picked up four states that were previously held by democrats and you see a number of them represented here today, illinois, maryland, massachusetts and arkansas. I was thinking about states that obama had won twice. Today, despite 300 million, 300 million, spent by the local sector unions, the environmental lobby, 300 million they put into these races. Today, we have the largest number of republican governors in nearly two decades. Come january, 200 million americans, this country will be represented by republican governors. [applause] and since 2009, im not taking credit for this, this is because of the governors. There were many great people who came before us. Since 2009, i believe this has been if you look at the facts, this has been the most impactful Political Committee in the country. We have gone from 22 to now 31 republican governors in the country just over the last five years. You look at what those 31 republicans were doing, they represent both the political and policy backbone and future of not only our party but our country in a very real and fundamental way. So, it is my distinct honor to introduce someone who has a great deal to do with that. He was generous enough to take a chance on me five years ago and higher me at the rga. He has been somebody the governor christie and i attempted to emulate this year, throughout this big year with 36 races. He has been a good friend, he was a great governor and hes a great leader for our party and country. Please give a warm welcome to Governor Haley barbour. [applause] thank you all. Thank you. Thank you all. The careful without applause. This is more about how the election sets them up for their administration for their agenda. What does the public who elected you expect and what are the problems they are most concerned about . Since none of you all have anything to do about it, i will not ask any lessons about immigration. [laughter] [applause] i am not on msnbcs payroll. You have met all of these guys i think during the session. Ug, tell us about your campaign and where you think you are starting out and where you are headed. I want to thank the rga for having me here today and everything that happened in our campaign. We started with a broad coalition. We started out trying to line up the right people and communicate the message about what our campaign was going to be about. I really learned a lot last year at this conference in phoenix. I went to candidate training. Governor christie came in the room and talked about his victory in new jersey not only in 2013 but in 2009. Going into rooms where you are somewhat uncomfortable and where it was not that typical republican road to victory and talking about the economy and talking about education and that just resonated with me in arizona given the current circumstances. We talked about being governor of all the people and ran on an opportunity for all agenda. Along the way, we actually had city and state senators and democrats signing on to our campaign because they were not happy with what was happening in the economy in their districts and they were not happy with what was happening in their Childrens School rooms. We just thought that was a winning message and i will govern as i campaigned. I want to wake up to the best of my ability and focus on the economy and the economy and education. Is a great advantage to have an agenda and a campaign. We were able to run the kind of campaign i always wanted to run. That was because the rga had my back. The rga was able to come in at a critical moment when the Democratic Governor Association spent 1 million in attack ads against me after the primary. The rga was there to ray with a response ad that was just perfect. It covered me and allowed me to continue with what i want a stew for arkansas. We were able to run a positive agenda oriented campaign. It made all of the difference in the world. We started out with telling them what i wanted to do for arkansas which was the asa plan for arkansas and they could go to the website and they could download the six points which is what i wanted to do as governor of arkansas, including tax reduction and making arkansas more competitive in their income tax rates compared to surrounding states we had a seven percent rate with all of the republican governors and others around us having lower rates. We had to be competitive. Secondly, we wanted to be able to reduce regulations and health care with choice. These are things that i campaigned on in our sixpoint plan. The advantage of it is that it was not an easy race but we won by a great margin. In fact, whenever we won, the governors race, we actually won every federal race and we won every Constitutional Office in arkansas. [applause] as we say in the south, the First Time Since reconstruction that we have a republican governor, republican legislature, republican Constitutional Officers, and a republican federal delegation. That was some of the fruits of it. But the advantage of going into the next legislative session is that i campaigned on an agenda that allows us to accomplish that agenda and say weve got a mandate for change because we campaigned on it and they supported it. On the computer coding, i think it was the only candidate in the nation that used the word computer coding in a campaign ad. It gave me an opportunity to Say Something very specific that nobody was talking about. If only 20 of our students take computer science, that means we will be producing 6000 graduates into the economy every year that know how to program computers. Its an opportunity to change the dynamics of the economy of this state. That is the kind of message i was able to present and campaign on and now govern with because of what the rga was able to do in making sure that we were protected and to supplement the campaign. We had a 2 Million Financing deficit. They made all the difference. Thanks to the rga and everyone that was able to support that. [applause] thank you, i will skip over governor christie. I want to make this point even though we will not let him talk until last, governor christie ran a campaign for reelection last year where he never said anything bad about his opponent. He ran on his record. These guys are setting themselves up so they can come back in four years and run on your record. The other side cannot run on the record. Can you imagine Barack Obamas campaign . You are going to see from the incumbents as well as these people who got elected new governors, most of our people were able to run on what they have done and talk about policy and put real problems on the table and Real Solutions beside them beside them. Most of them already had exceeded in doing that and thats the point we need to make is a party. The democrats cannot run on their record. All that can run on is whats wrong with the republicans, whats wrong with this or that. We are trying at rga to encourage our governors, candidates for governors, to let them learn that there is nothing more powerful than giving somebody something to vote for. With that, tell us how we did that in texas, mr. Attorney general. One thing about texans, they expect results. One way in which texas has achieved results in a way that exceeds any other state if i may humbly say so, over the past decade as texas has been number one in the nation for creating jobs. The day after the election, i received what i think was a playful phone call from scott walker saying that wisconsin was coming after texas for job creation. I have heard his suggestions from him and other governors of other states. I got some bad news for my fellow governors. I am taking what rick perry built in the state of texas and we are going to elevate it higher and better than before to ensure that texas remains number one in the nation for creating jobs. Part of that will come out in some details that we will be announcing in the coming months. Part of it relates to reducing regulations even more. Part of includes expediting permits. Part of that includes the fact that texas has an actual surplus of about 10 billion. Part of what we will do with that 10 billion is we are going to be looking for ways in which we can cut taxes in texas. Even though we already have a low tax structure, one area that constituents in texas want to see reduced is property taxes. Another one is a business Franchise Tax that we are looking to reduce. We are going to find some way that works out mathematically the best to reduce the tax burden in texas even lower. Another thing we will be doing with the surplus is we are going to be adding about 4 billion more per year in building out the road infrastructure in the state. Part of that comes from the oil and gas tax that is added on whenever there is extraction of oil and gas and part of it will come from some other ways in which we will make the money add up. But we will be able to build out the infrastructure so that texans and businesses that want to do business in the state are going to be able to move faster and more productively than ever before. Its like what you were talking about thursday and we focused on its education. We want to start at the very beginning to build a Strong Foundation for education at the prek4 level. We have an aspiration to build the best prek4 through thirdgrade Education System in america to make sure all children will be reading and doing math at or above grade level by the time they finished the thirdgrade. It goes on up into Higher Education. Texas believes we are better than california in every way except one california has five of the top 10 Higher Education Public Institutions in america. Texas should have five of the top 10 public Higher Education institutions in america. That will be one of the goals we seek to attain. Last thing i will mention and i know you did not want to talk about immigration. It was a key part of my platform and pretty much every candidate that ran on the state of texas. We are going to fund a program. Secure our borders. You also all the news you saw the news about the people coming across the border, sometimes 1000 people per day. The reality is the federal government has failed in its fundamental responsibility to secure the border. Texans are not going to stand idly by while the federal government fails and refuses to do its job. One thing texans want to have money spent on this to secure our border. Weve got a plan that will ensure we are able to achieve that regardless of what the federal government does. All those things combined will ensure a stronger, more productive, wealthier texas than ever before. The last comment i will make is one that demonstrates the texas commitment to reaching out to ensure prosperity for everyone from every sector of the state regardless of their background. One way in which we ran our campaign was on heavy outrage to the Hispanic Community. We achieved remarkable recordsetting results in that regard. I did have a secret weapon in helping me achieve that. That is that when i got elected, my wife became the first hispanic first lady in the history of the state of texas. [applause] that is something we are building upon and demonstrates that this is more than a talking point. This is a genuine part of who we are in texas. As my first appointment in texas, secretary of state is not a position that is elected. Its a position that is appointed by the governor. I appointed the chief Administrative Officer from the county on the rio grande valley, the southernmost part of the state of texas, carlos cascos, i who was born in mexico but became a United States citizen as my secretary of state to demonstrate this outreach to the Hispanic Community is not something that ends on election day but will continue for generations to come, ensuring that we unite two constituencies that genuinely agree on most of the issues. That is the Republican Party constituency and the Hispanic Community. Once we marry those two communities the same way i have been married to my wife for 35 years, we will have lasting republican majorities not just among governors across the United States of america for decades to come. [applause] thanks, greg. Good for you. Charlie baker . We went a long way for years ago in 2010. Tell us how you changed and where you are headed. First of all, i want to thank the rga for the support of both elections. It made a huge difference in our campaign and our ability to compete in a state where 11 of of the elected are republicans. We start with a bit of a hill to climb in a bit of a case to make. Actually, as i listen to other speakers, some of the themes are fairly consistent. That may be true across the country in terms of what it takes to win. We made a decision when we get into the race that we would chase 100 of the vote. Were pretty sure we were not going to get 100 but we made a commitment to ourselves and to the campaign we were going to Campaign Across the commonwealth. We were going to campaign in places where republicans historically had not campaign. As a result, we spent a lot of time and a lot of rooms in front of a lot of audiences where you could not have found a republican with a geiger counter. You know what . When you talk about jobs and competitiveness and economic development, and you are talking about the achievement gap and education, even though we have terrific schools and great school districts, we have an achievement gap in massachusetts. When you are talking about a State Government that as thrifty and hardworking and creative and reform oriented as the people of the commonwealth, thats a conversation you can have with pretty much anybody. It cuts across geography, partisanship, gender, race, ideology, the works. That was really fundamentally what we campaign on. We campaigned on the fact that massachusetts, despite all of the wonderful things we have going on there and we do have a ton of great things going on it really has not grown its job base very much in the past 14 years. We campaigned on the fact that even though we have great institutions and great people and tons of innovators and all kinds of small businesses, we are an expensive and complicated place to start a business or grow a business and live. We also campaigned on the fact that there is a looming economic booming economy, massachusetts not so much. And we made a commitment that we would focus on strategies and tactics that would be designed to bounce our economy up from one end of the commonwealth to the other and we wrote down what our proposals would be and how we would approach this and we were very specific about it. We made that in many respects the platform of the conversation we had with many of the people we were talking to. If somebody wants to talk about Workforce Development and what could do their we had a plan. , if somebody wanted to talk about what we could do to expand and improve on them what is happening in career and vocational schools, we had a plan to talk about. If somebody wanted to talk about strategy to bring back some vitality and life to some of our main streets in some of our cities that have not done so well over the course of the past decade, we had a plan and we can talk about it. In many respects, it was that focus on three issues, what we could do to improve the economy, to close the achievement gap, and to bring what i would call fiscal discipline and an professionally aggressive approach to the way we managed State Government. In many respects, it brought people over to our team. I heard a couple of other folks talk about the fact that they got democrats to endorse them and we did, too. We got a lot of democrats to endorse us in a state where if you are a democrat and you endorse a republican in the state, you are absolutely taking a chance on your political future and political life. Many of them did it anyway because they bought into what we were selling. And that we had the capacity to follow through and deliver. As i sit here today, having won that election, i really feel as if we are, in fact, representing 100 of the commonwealth. Out of the 351 cities and towns in massachusetts, we got more votes than we did in 2010 in 345 of them. Which means that the work we did saying we would chase 100 of the vote and campaign from one end of the commonwealth to the other and make air case to make our case to people on the stuff we cared about most and we believed was fundamental to them, if youre trying to find a job, you can find one. If you have one, you can keep it. You can send your kids to school every morning and you hope theyre getting the education to build a future on and you have a State Government that is hardworking and thrifty and willing to stretch a buck as you are, that is the kind of massachusetts you want to be part of. That sold. The great thing for us so much of that we put together, wrote down and communicated day after day to the people of the commonwealth. Folks knew what was coming. The first major appointment we made to our cabinet was we appointed a democrat from chelsea which is one of the poorest communities in the commonwealth, a small city outside boston. He had been the city manager for the past 14 years. And had done an incredible job in creating jobs and Economic Opportunity and improving the quality of life and the quality of the schools in that community. We made and the secretary of Economic Affairs and development. Many people were shocked and amazed that the newly elected republican governor appointing a democrat from chelsea were obviously i did not do that will on election day to be our secretary of Economic Affairs and community development. That is exactly the kind of person we were looking for based on the campaign we ran and on the issues we ran on. As this administration plays out, you will see us over and over again bringing people to the table and into our administration who buy into our vision for how we can build a great commonwealth from one end to the other. At the end of the day, that will be how we will be measured four years from now when i will look forward to running on our record when 2018 rolls around. Thank you very much. [applause] thank you, charlie. Larry hogan, i have an office in washington and i spent eight or 10 days per month up there. You would not have known that there was a governors race in maryland from listening to the liberal media is eat. We would love to hear your story about how you got elected but also how you will go forward. Thank you very much. It sure is at leisure to be up here. I cannot tell you how proud i am to be up there with these incredible new governors. Arent they great . [applause] i guess i am the least likely guy to be up here. Most people do not expect to see it happen. We worked incredibly hard. Maryland was way off track heading in the wrong direction. We had a governor who is running for president , martin omalley, who like to tout his accomplishments. I started a group called change maryland became the leading voice of opposition to what i saw as the failed economic policies of the omalleybrown administration. We talked about the fact that 40 taxes in a row had taken an additional 10 billion out of the pockets of struggling maryland families and small businesses. Rick perry one of the taxes they passed as a rain tax. We are the only state in the union that taxes the rain. Rick perry was trying to steal some of our businesses which was an easy thing to do and he said it was like spearing fish in a barrel. We are going to try to compete with texas now. We surprised people. We had a great team and we worked really hard. We went into areas where most republicans dont usually go. We talked to people all across our state about the economy and the fact that weve lost 200,000 jobs and unemployment has doubled. We had the largest mass exit mass exodus of taxpayers in the midatlantic region. We got to the point where people, regardless of their party affiliation, had had enough. And i guess the one lesson from our state is if we can do it in maryland, there is no place in the country where our republican principles cant succeed. I want to thank governor christie for his leadership. He came down and he said you are in the exact same position i was in in 2009. In a blue state in new jersey when people thought we could not win. And he said that Haley Barbour came up there and believed in the race and invested in the race and helped make it happen. Governor christie said he was going to be my Haley Barbour and he sure was. I want to thank governor christie for his leadership. [applause] we ran a race where we only spent 4 million in a state that was more than 21 democrats to republicans. We had only elected one republican in 48 years we had everything but the kitchen sink thrown at us. My opponent outspent me and then a. Had millions from the dg several Million Dollars in union super pacs come in. We had the worst attacks against little old me. Nobody thought i had a chance that chance but they kept coming after us. We got to the five yard line through a lot of hard work and by going out and convincing bluecollar democrats, who we won overwhelmingly in maryland. We did better with africanamerican voters than anyone else had done in the history of our state. We did better with hispanics and better with women. And not to take anything away from you, governor, but my wife is going to be the first asianamerican first lady in maryland history. [applause] and we won overwhelmingly with the asian vote in maryland as well. But we really could not have won this race had not governor christie believed in us. Had he not convinced his colleagues, the great governors we have today, to get involved in the last minute. At the last minute, money was put in by the rga. You do not have the money. Maryland was not on the map. It was not in the budget. Maryland has been in the on the no way in hell list. And somehow, we popped up and it was the foresight of governor andstie for believing in us the other governors for stepping up. I want to thank the rga for their leadership. For actually going into debt for our race. They ran some great commercials. Inexpensive media markets. In expensive media markets. I would not be standing here today without the help of the rga. I hope you think that that Million Dollar loan was a good investment. We are happy to have one in maryland. We have a lot of work ahead of us. Our state is in a terrible financial crisis. Our economy has been going down the tubes for eight years. After the leadership of omalley. I am not sure his president ial campaign is doing so well after that race. We have to turn things around. I will put together the smartest people i can find regardless of their party affiliation. The first person we named was the smartest guy on budget issues, he is a democrat. I happen to believe that we have to reach across the aisle and come up with real Common Sense Bipartisan Solutions to the Serious Problems that face us. In maryland, we are going to to roll up our sleeves. We have 60 days to put a cabinet together and take over a state that is in pretty bad shape. We have a 40 billion budget i had to submit two days after this morning. We have a 7. 5 billion structural deficit. We will get to work and do everything we promised to do in the campaign. We will cut spending, cut taxes, streamline regulation as make maryland a business friendly state. Which it has not been in a long , long time. We will get the government off our backs and out of our pockets and grow the private sector. Put people back to work and turn our economy around. And im going to warn the governors appear. Usually they laugh about governors up here. Usually they laugh about maryland. We will compete. L some jobs from texas. Thank you all for having me. [applause] larry sykes, i have no doubt that you will make governor christie as proud as he made us proud after he got elected. A great story. I want you guys to get ready, i governors ask questions. The chairman of the rga is going to preface that by making some remarks about your class. First off, its great to be here. I think what larry said in his remarks are absolutely true, regarding what the role of the rga and the rga chairman should be when we are at our best. It is first and foremost to make sure that we raise the resources and the attention to defend our incumbents. The men and women who have already been elected and are out there serving. And we had 19 of them this year. 22 seats to defend but 19 incumbents. The first thing we needed to do was to make sure that we did everything we could for those incumbents. Talking about some of those statistics before, but if you look at what happened in florida and michigan and wisconsin, we spent an enormous amount of money, over 40 million in those three states to make sure we protected those incumbents. And much different than what the senate map was this year. The rga map was the complete opposite. Playing defense in 22 of 36 races and being able to defend nine states the president had won twice. We depended eight of those we defended eight of those nine seats. The records of those governors and the trust they established in those states with their citizens. One of the things i point out to all of your folks appear is folks up here is that that work begins now. To not only layout your agenda but to establish the trust between you and the people that you have the privilege to govern. If you do that, the people of your state will repay you with their support. Of their policies and your and, ultimately, if you decide to run for reelection, of your political career. What you really do when you try to get a budget as large as the one haley established in 2010 the one about on 2014 is the one i set up in 2014 is the ability to go into states to put get food from the other sides table. Not many thought we could do that this year. We saw opportunities based upon the candidates in the states. You see larry hogan and Charlie Baker here. Asa hutchinson sitting here today. Those were all states controlled by democrats that are now going to be run by a good, fiscally responsible, smart republican governors. And it also means, to be honest, that you take some chances and in places that dont work out. We worked hard in colorado. And bob can close in colorado, within a couple of points of winning the race. If you take a chance it does not always work out. In connecticut and rhode island where we also challenged. Again, in races that were less than six points. If i had told you that we were going to spend all the money in money fell said we were going to spend in races, 70 of our money in races that were six points or less and i told you that maryland was not one of those races, he won by eight. By eight points. So the money we borrowed and spent there is not in that 70 . Hogan blew the race out. So, you know, we did not wind up in that. You have to take chances. I remember watching haley do this in 2010. We take chances in a lot of places and some places we lost. One thing he taught me as i was doing this job as the chairman in this cycle, he reminded me that we lost five states in 2010 challengers by a total of 50,000 votes. In 2010. I remember one night, sitting at my house one month before the election, trying to get a handle on the map. It was a sunday evening and i called haley and i said, can you give me some time to do the map with me . And we went through the entire map together we were on the , phone for over one hour. He continued to remind me that in the place that you are taking chances, Pay Attention to what the other side is doing. Lets not lose some of these by that kind of small margin. Do the Little Things and encourage your organization and your staff to do the Little Things that will make the difference between losing by 5000 or 10,000 votes and winning. We see that up here. Charlie baker one by 40,000 votes in massachusetts. That was a place where we can close four years ago but came up short. Thanks to the efforts of his campaign and the help we gave you, we were able to do it. By providing this support that you have overtime, by going from 85 million goals to one or to 60 million budgets was to give us the flexability to take those risks and do them in a firstclass way, not on the cheap. So we do not come close but when. But win. From my perspective, the most rewarding thing about six periods was sitting there on \election night and listening to tothe voices of my colleagues and my soon to be colleagues on the phone, calling them in congratulating them after winning these tough races. The best phone call that i got to make, i called very during his victory speech. And the great thing is that he answered. But the best phone call i got to make was asa hutchinson. I was watching and the race got called for arkansas, early, really early. And so i picked up the phone, i had the phone next to me, and i called asa. He answered the phone and i said congratulations. And he said, what do you know that i dont know . Tell youill be able to the story of why he did not know that the race had been called, but its really great when you get to call and tell the person. They are the governor elect of arkansas. Its because he is a great grandfather and he had his grandchild in there watching Something Else on television and did not have the tv on it was tv on for the return because it was only two minutes after the polls closed. I didnt think it would get called that quick. It has been extraordinarily rewarding to work with these folks appear and be able to help folks up here and be able to help having them realize these extraordinary opportunities theyre going to have, to govern the place where they live and call home. It is a great opportunity. And i got the lessons about how to do this job and i talked about this earlier in this morning so i wont go on, but the foundation for this type of effort, going from 2231 in five years the credit goes to two sources. All of you who gave us the Financial Resources and support to be able to do it and not and to governor barbour, who built the organization not just to maintain what we have, but to try to go and grab more and more all the time and encouraged us to do that. And so what i had the chance to do this year was to build on the foundation that he laid. You look around, this is the class i get to call mine. Because i was chairman. Look at the people who Haley Barbour brought in in 2010. These are the folks who are leading and have been reelected as governors across the country. I tell you one thing. Can you put up that 2015 map again . This is the last point i will make and then i will let folks talk about and have some questions. This is what i want to point out to all of you. I think it is very important. The National Media has a lot of fun saying that the Republican Party is a regional party. We are a Southern Regional party and not national party. I want you to look at that map. Lets start with the northeast. And look up all the Charlie Baker and myself and hogan the northeast. We are encroaching. On what used to be solid blue territory in the northeast with four republican governors in the northeast. Then move past pennsylvania and go to the midwest. You will have a hard time finding a democratic governor in the midwest. John kasich, rick snyder, mike. Making your way into the mountain west, go to the southwest and look at every place you go. Except now for the Pacific Coast coast,t for the pacific republican governors in every region. With the National Media should report is that the Democratic Party has become a regional party. The northeast and the Pacific Coast and thats it. And that is because of your effort. [applause] so thank you for helping us do that. Now that ive noticed the governors sitting there dont have microphones there is a microphone. Lepage was hiding it. Dennis. One, congratulations to you new governors. We are excited to work with you. One of the exciting things for me is to hear the governors talking about competing with one another. That is so healthy for this country when every state does a little better. The Competition Among the states helps the country in a tremendous way. We look forward to the competition. And know that if you are coming to our state and is shooting fish in the barrel we need to do a better job. So congratulations to all of you. This would be a question or comment for you, chris. Congratulations for you and the rga team. And haley, boy, you have a great thing set up for all of us and we appreciate it very much. One of the things you have to , make the hard decisions you are not going to fund landslides. And in that, you have to make those tough calls about where you spend your money. And i just wanted you to provide some insight on that. And secondly with the majority , of republicans we have now, with the change in the senate and strengthening the house, what do you view is opportunity as the opportunity for us to address major issues . In the past, we have addressed welfare reform, opportunities for energy. Governorsa association can you do as a collective effort on policies . Congratulations, buddy. First off, on the tough decisions that you have to make, that that we had to make to invest in these races, some of the toughest things were saying no to people. Saying no to colleagues who we just had a lot more confidence in then they had in themselves. Rid investingnts money in places. You were one of those, matt. You know, matt and i have known each other now for nearly 14 years. We served together as United States attorneys in the Bush Administration and now is governors. I knew he was going to win wyoming and i had more confidence in that than he did at the moment. Its tough to say no to somebody youve known for 14 years. I have more confidence in matt that he had at the moment. Part of it is saying no to folks. Not that they wouldnt use the money well or were deserving of the support, but it is the comment i make publicly. He wasnt smart enough to never say publicly. We dont pay for landslides. We dont invest in lost causes. The people that we needed to focus are the places where we can do different things. That was the guiding principle. The Guiding Principles of these decisions were is this investment a difference making investment . And if it is we make it, even if , we have to borrow to do it. If it isnt, we wont. The last lease of your comment, peace of your comment one of , the great things about this organization has been the rgas policy team. Were we are working on Public Policy issues that all the governors care about and using that to forward collectively the wisdom of this group to all our representatives in washington. To push hard on issues like you brought up and also like medicaid reform, which is such an impactful issue. On our budgets. Part of the thing i encourage the new governors to get involved in is to get involved in the Public Policy commitment. Its really important. You or your staff can have an impact on the policies you are developing in our state. To get pushed around the country. Because not only do we share that with washington, but you share it with each other. If you have an issue that comes up in your state. Yet,ou have not dealt with that you have not dealt with yet you dont have to try to , reinvent the wheel. This group collects all the policies use around the country and makes all of the specifics available to you and your staff. The great thing we have funded through the rga through the support of our donors and supporters, and it is something that we can continue to expand. Now we will have 31 people pot. Tributing to that that will be really helpful. For want to apologize punctuality be chairman, but punctuating the chairman, but i hope all of you will recognize how important the Public Policy group is. The news media tends to cover washington. They dont have much idea whats going on in various states. This gives you an opportunity to learn whats going on in 31 states, at least. And frankly by making good , decisions, as matt said i was around when we did welfare reform in 1996. And the welfare reform bill was written i republican governors in 1995. Because dole and gingrich asked them to come in. What should welfare reform look like . And its been immensely successful. We need more time where governors are influencing washington. And helping our party get them the right way for Public Policy. Because this new Republican Congress is going to be about getting things done. Economic growth and job creation and the real problems facing american opportunities dont think they cant learn from you. But also, you will learn from other governors, too. I commend that. What is the first big problem we face . What is the first big problem you faced as governor . The first big problem is the border situation. That simply must be addressed. People need to understand that what you saw on tv last summer was not a onetime or isolated incident. It had been going on for years and it continues to go on. And what we anticipate happening tonight will reignite what happened in the aftermath of what the president did two years ago. When he spoke from the rose garden. This is a genuine challenge to the sovereignty of the United States. This is a genuine challenge to the leadership in this country. But it is a way in which the president is putting more and more financial responsibility for the states to carry them do states to do the work that is assigned to the federal government. We have to step up and addressed that problem. The other problem i will mention that we face is frankly a good one. Im glad to hear maryland talk about it and hear scott walker talk about it. A problem i have is maintaining the run of being number one in the nation for job creation. I face that challenge now from 31 other governors. From across the nation. You are right, competition always leads to better results. And when we have these other 30 governors from across the nation gunning for texas to create more jobs, to take jobs out of texas because their policies are striving to be better than ours, that makes us in turn go back and focuses us to elevate our game even more. You know who will win . All of our citizens. All of this nation. I believe that the way the United States of america is going to turn out better may not be from the top down. Its going to be from the bottom up with states and governors leading the way. Thanks, greg. Larry, you and charlie have a different situation. Threestory governors will have theseican majorities three at governors will have republican majorities and you have a pretty significant democrat majority. Other than process and getting them to work with you, what issues do you think you have the best opportunities for working together . In our state, we have two thirds majorities in both houses are democrats. It has been that way for decades. I have said during the campaign that we have to figure out a way to work together. The only way things are going to get things done in maryland is to work in a bipartisan fashion. The great thing is that i have had great meetings with leading democrats already. They seem to realize we are in bad shape and we have to go in a different direction. There was a great story in the local paper yesterday that quoted the top leaders of the Democratic Party saying they got a message on election day that the voters in maryland what to want to go in a different direction. They cannot keep increasing spending by 36 . I have reached across the aisle to work with them. I know governor christie has had this experience in new jersey. You can disagree on policy and stand up for your position without being disagreeable. And i think it has a lot to do with how you deal with people. Were not going to go in there in a confrontational way. We are going to try and push our agenda but we are going to keep an open mind and work closely with people across the aisle because its the only thing we can do to get things done in maryland. I think it is what voters want us to do. When i was campaigning across the state, i heard over and over again from people angry at democrats and republicans who wished all the politicians would stop fighting with each other and sit down and come up with Common Sense Bipartisan Solutions. That is the only way we will turn things around in maryland and its a path we ought to be looking at as a party. How to lower the partisanship a little bit and talk about solutions to real problems. Charlie, you have the same kettle of fish. I would agree to some extent with what larry said. By the way, i grew up with a democrat for mom and republican for a dad. Disagreements are not new to me. My parents taught me a long time ago how to disagree without being disagreeable. We had gains in the house and gains in the senate. They were modest, but they were gains. Other races were hotly contested as well. Some of the folks were going back to beacon hill that have ds after their names realize it was harder than i thought it would be. Everything we did was bipartisan. 27 tax cuts, bipartisan. Workers comp reforms, to this from the highest costs to the lowest. Bipartisan. Education reform, bipartisan. There were a lot of pieces of bigslation that got done, ones, that had real sustainable positive impact on the commonwealth that got done during that period. The big issue for any leader, especially in politics and if you represent one party and leaders on the other side represent the other one, find your common ground. There will be common ground. Reasonable people can find it. Think about the pension refund stuff reform stuff you did in new jersey. There are plenty of opportunities to find common ground. But the two most important ingredients is you have to have trust, like any other organization and any other relationship in life. If there is no trust, the likelihood you will do anything great is pretty small, so you have to work on building that and convince people you are coming at this with an appropriate attitude and appropriate aptitude about what is possible. The second thing you have to do is you have to be willing to accept the fact that its a d. Ocracy with a smalld you are not going to get everything you want all the time and that is ok. As long as you are moving your commonwealth in the right direction and making results stronger and competitive and doing the sort of fiscal things to make it possible for your state to grow and be great. You wont get all of what you want, but you get a lot of what you want. Thanks, charlie. You have a different situation. You have the most conservative legislature in arkansas since george washington. [laughter] and we are loving every minute of it. We have had challenges but every one of them we have worked hard to face and we are excited about the opportunities. The big challenge right off the bat is the budget. We cant do like washington, write checks and spend money. We actually have to balance the budget in arkansas. And im taking over from a democratic governor. And so the democrat governor has to submit the budget before he leaves office. He tried to position it so that the choice is either to cut services such as education or youve got to, if you want to fund education, you have got to lose the republican tax cuts. That have been advocated in the past. That is the position. I have to go in there and manage the budget in order to be able to preserve and have a competitive tax system. And the goal and objective is to compete and create jobs and grow the economy because we know that is the right way to focus on education and to fund infrastructure. As a part of that, we have to be able to push back and work with our new majorities in congress provide grant or performance grants, as i like to call them, to the states so they ,an manage things like medicaid so they can manage more of their budget that comes from washington. With performance responsibilities to make sure it is working. One of the challenges of the Medicaid Budget is exploding. To have more authority at the statelevel level to manage that and make it work for our citizens is the kind of authority we would like to have from washington as well as on the welfare programs that are so important to our citizens that have been poorly managed and we can do better. Taking a page out of the scott walker book. I will start stealing jobs and corporations from california and we will grow our economy through crossborder trade. I think we have a great opportunity. Governor, thank you for asking me to do this with the five governors elect. Were not only proud of you but when you come back and four years you will build to run for reelection on your records, too. Thank you all very much. Monday night, on the municators, tim walberg tim long on the technology that predicts outcomes. Analytics get more granular than just whether or not something passes. We can break down on a legislator by legislator races with a basis whether they will vote on a thing. There are opportunities for lobbyists to look at the bill based on the cosponsors and the 50 people most likely to vote for it, the 50 people beast likely to vote for it. You can start looking at developing a strategy in terms of trying to get at the information that you need. What i will say is that our analytics do not provide all of the answers. It is not a crystal ball were we can ask any question. That being said, there is a lot of power in being able to combine the analytics we provide intelligencestry and human intelligence on the ground and being able to the combined those two things. Monday night at 8 00 eastern on cspan two. Now, the latest on talks over iransclear program Nuclear Program as they approached the deadline. Continues. Host we would like to welcome patrick lawson, Research Director patrick clawson, reachers director Research Director. Negotiations on iran continue, led by secretary kerry. Tomorrow is the deadline. What is the u. S. Negotiating for . Guest United States and other countries negotiating with iran want to be creating a breakout period that would put iran at least a year away from having a new year weapon. A Nuclear Weapon. They want to be sure that irans vigorous, robust Nuclear Program keeps iran at least a year away from having a new year having a Nuclear Weapon. Host how likely is it that the deadline will be met . Guest it is possible, but not likely, that there will be some kind of framework, declaration of principles, that would allow the parties to have six months to work out an agreement. There is no way that a detailed crude treaty will be prepared by tomorrows deadline. The this is the story on front page of the New York Times. The story points out that the concern over the possibility of a future iranian Covert Program is really dividing the u. S. And its allies, including china, negotiating on all of this, saying it has been rarely mentioned by negotiators. They are pressing a lastminute effort to resolve more immediate differences. The biggest disagreement centers on how much capacity iran could retain to make nuclear fuel and how quickly economic sanctions would be suspended. The efforts focus on the fate of irans three major declared Nuclear Facilities and online thinning the breakout time for iran to produce enough fuel for a single bomb. But those declared facilities are crawling with inspectors and cameras. Iran says they need this Nuclear Capability for energy, not weapons. Itst for iran to argue what has is for energy is a little bit odd. They claim that they are starting to make feel now for a reactor make fuel now for a reactor they will design and build in the future, but they havent even begun building a reactor. That reactor would take at least a decade to build. This program smells a lot more like what is doing is giving iran the capability to develop Nuclear Weapons. It has repeatedly been said that a bad deal means no deal for the u. S. And that p5 one. One and the p5 plus guest the u. S. Has to consider how other countries around the world react. If other countries like saudi arabia think this bad deal puts iran to close to a Nuclear Weapon, they might decide to develop their own Nuclear Weapons or acquire them from another country, such as pakistan. That would be very destabilizing to the region and contrary to u. S. Interests. The u. S. Knows that doing a bad deal would not accomplish the u. S. Objective of increasing the stability in the region. Quite the contrary, a bad deal could destabilize the region badly. Host the Jerusalem Post reporting that this may corner israel into war. This is what the story looks like from the Jerusalem Post website. Benjamin netanyahu wants the continuation of tight sanctions on irans economy, coupled with the threat of credible military force. He believes more time under duress would have led to an acceptable deal, but that opportunity may now be lost. Guest beat a deal is worked out, it will still be necessary to have if a deal is worked out, it will still be necessary to have a credible threat of military force. We are still going to be in a situation where a credible threat of oteri force will be necessary as of military force will be necessary. I think it is unlikely that israel is going to act, so long as there is some reasonable prospect that a negotiated settlement could be worked out, which would publish the american objective of what he iran at least a year away from having even the fissile material for a bomb and therefore further away from having a bomb. Yesterday, the secretary of yesterday, the secretary of state was overheard speaking to his german counterpart, saying we are just not there yet. Here is what he said to reporters on saturday. [video clip] we have been having a difficult having difficult talks here. We are working hard. Carefulwe are making progress. Have some serious gaps, which we are working to close. Onebig thing is the p5 plus are united and working in concert. We are simply not going to say anything substantive about the discussions while they are going on. A lot of serious work is going on by a lot of people. Host if you could speculate on what is being talked about today, right now in vienna, what are the sticking points . Guest the two sides have had so many technical discussions that they have laid out. Here, asa rubiks cube ,ow deputy secretary of state who is leading the negotiations, would say. There are a number of issues that are interrelated in how any solution requires putting together this there is the number of centrifuges, how advanced they could be, how much muchiran retains, or how it ships out of the country to have made into fuel rods, which are much harder to make into a bomb, how many places iran will have centrifuges operating, whether it will be just one or two, and a lot about the verification. The u. S. Concern is particularly that iran might have some undeclared facilities. For most of the last 25 years, iran has had undeclared facilities. The u. S. Wants to get to the bottom of what iran has done in the past as a way of trying to determine if iran still has undeclared facilities. All of these different elements have to be put together in this rubiks cube. Host the New York Times is oforting that irans history secrecy has been overshadowing the stalks. There is a mountain that has a centrifuge facility. It could withstand all but americas largest bunker bombs. It was uncovered back in 2009. Guest indeed, iran has this facility that was discovered, negotiations had been underway for a number of years. The iranians had been saying they had stopped all work on their centrifuge program for a while, when in fact they were building this facility, i think to hold more centrifuges. What that suggests is that the iranians may creatively to allow them to do things which we find to be violations, and which they will come up with lawyerly arguments were ok. Host whats your best guess estimate question mark guest the most best guess estimate . Guest the most likely situation is the talks are extended for several months. The best case would be there is an extension based on principles. That is not the most likely case. Host our guest is patrick clawson, with the Washington Institute for near east policy. 202 5853880, our line for democrats. 202 5853881 for republicans. This program is carried live on the Bbc Parliament channel. We welcome our viewers around the world, including those in Great Britain every sunday morning. Debbie is joining us from albuquerque, new mexico, independent line. Caller i have a comment and question. Please allow me to do this. We overthrew the government in 53. This is blowback. I remember when we put the sanctions on. My disappointment was the fact that we dont get dont get pistachios. Nobody under 40 knows what a real pistachio tastes like. If the sanctions are lifted, can we get pistachios back in this country . Guest the california pistachio growers will take exception with your argument that there pistachios are not as good as the iranian pistachios. Let me reassure you that if the sanctions are ended, we will be getting pistachios back. That would particularly make the former president happy. That family pretty well controls the pistachio trade in iran. Host lets go to virginia. Good morning. Caller im a vet. After the 1986 amnesty, im hardcore on this. If you came through to my country after 1986, whatever your status is, you need to turn around and go back. This compassion and Refugee Status host you not focusing on immigration. We are dealing with the situation in vienna as we are not focusing on immigration. We are dealing with the situation in vienna as negotiations continue. Caller i must have missed the transition. I thought you are still on the last section. The iran thing i have a son who has served twice in the middle east. As long as their focus on killing each other, it leads to another world war three. So be it. We should not send our sons and daughters around the world to stamp out little fires around the world. It is their backyard. They need to learn how to handle it. Its the 21st century. Host russia and china are part of the stalks. This morning, of these talks. This morning. World. P5 plus one, the countries include the u. S. , china, france, russia, the United Kingdom and germany. Jonathan is joining us from manchester, england. Good afternoon to you. Hi. Caller why are Nuclear Powers seen as a countrys ability of strength . Because its absolutely no good for humanity. Shoourlt it would be far better for a country to show strength and improvement for humanity if they developed space rockets and re explored the universe. Would be a far better sight host we will get a response. Thank you, sir. Guest when the nonproliferation treaty was signed, the Nuclear Powers of the day committed themselves to eventually getting rid of Nuclear Weapons but thats devilishly difficult to do. Once they have been invented its hard to reinvents them. But the heart of the nonproliferation treaty was the realization if they developed them, so might their neighbors and everybody would be worse off. So the agreement was additional countries would not develop these Nuclear Weapons. This has worked relatively well. There are four countries that stayed out of it that is india, pakistan, north korea and israel. Pretty much everybody else has signed on. Iran is such a disturbing case because its the first time we have had a country thats in the nonproliferation treaty that seems to be intent on the making Nuclear Weapons. There was a tweet from the iranian president , rohani who sounded, according to one of the Washington Post one of the few notes of optimism. He said if the parties in the iran talks have the necessary political will for agreement, the condition will be ripe for clenching a final agreement. Does that indicate to you that there could be an extension of talks . Mr. Rhouhani has been an optimist when he was in charge of the negotiations a decade ago and by personality type today. He is right that the technical issues have been fully aired. Unfortunately, however, the gap between the position of the two sides remains quite vast. Host if the talks completelies, then what . Guest its unlikely they would collapse completely because the two sides realized that would create a dangerous situation. He would create a situation in which iran might feel compelled to move forward quickly and the situation of those who feel most threatened by the program, namely theisitsis may feel this is a moment when they have to act et host david from los angeles, independent line, good morning. Caller this is, i think, apro pos that i come in with israel might be willing to act. This wag the dog phenomenon with american policy and working and operating as though israel is one of the states of the United States, their Foreign Policy is their Foreign Policy. And they, as a matter of fact, are the only country that has not only literally threatened every country in the region. They are the only country that has Nuclear Capability. To have people who are obviously a part of some kind ofs Misinformation Campaign that always seems to have israels foreign objectives pushing that, even at the expense of americans. We will get a response, david. Well, the u. S. Interests in the Iran Nuclear Issue is the concern about proliferation to these weapons to many countries around the world. And thats an issue that president obama has been involved in for decades. He wants to see the world move away from the reliance on Nuclear Weapons. He certainly did not want to see the nonproliferation system fall apart on his watch. The israeli concerns are quite different as the caller pointed out. Israeli concerns are irans particular Nuclear Program. Its not been the focus of the american concerns. American concerns have been about proliferation. There has been some tension 2010 the two governments on their objectives. Similarly, by the way, the saudi objective is also somewhat different than the objective. Saudis want to stops irans destabilizing activities and see the Nuclear Activities as one example of that. A followup of that, trending on our twitter page from viewers and listeners on the issue of Nuclear Weapons pointing out to the u. S. , its particularly interesting concerning the fact that we, the u. S. , the only nation that has used Nuclear Weapons on another nation. Guest look, there is no question that the nonproliferation system faces a very difficult problem, which is that some countries already had Nuclear Weapons. And its hard to reduce reliance on Nuclear Weapons on countries that already have it. We have had some successes. A number of countries like the ukraine, south africa, gave up Nuclear Weapons. But the United States has agreed to reduce the number it has. What everyone thinks about how we can move forward to its reducing the role of Nuclear Weapons in the world, surely that problem is going to be made worse if there is another Nuclear Weapon state that comes from within the nonproliferation system, namely iran. We have been following this story and these negotiations. We have been checking in from time to time with Thomas Erdbrink with the New York Times. He is live on the phone from tehran. Thanks as always for being with us. Caller thanks for having me. Host let me ask you first and foremost about the sanctions. What impact have they had on irans economy . On a micro economic scale, great impact. They halt irans ability to sell its oil, its primary source of income. Led to the near collapse of irans national currency, the real. At a time haslet led to an increase in unemployment, inflation, generally growth of inequality with figures being almost the same as in the United States. So generally, people would very, very much like to see these sanctions being lifted, of course. And the story this morning front page from the New York Times is the talks continue. One of the big issues is irans covert operations b it comes to its nuclear capacity. How real is that . I think its hard for the iranians at this point in time very largescale covert operations or sort of a parallel Nuclear Program because people tend to forget that the International Atomic Energy Organization has been here monitoring all sides. Their monitors are here on a permanent basis accounts, and they have cameras in all facilities and at the same time, the United States has been using drones in order to sort of sniff around over the iranian skies to see what is happening. There is focus on iran. Even though this is a vast country with desert and mountains and a lot of spaces to c conceal a potential Covert Program, it is quite hard for the iranians in this time and age to do that completely unnoticed. Thomas erdbrink, i know its a complex issue but could you summarize basically what is being negotiated and what it means for iran and its economy and what the u. S. And israel gets out of this deal, if anything . Naturally, what the u. S. And european nations are trying to achieve is to sort of normal eyes, if you will, relations with iran, also to this nuclear deal, they have been looking at mr. Rhouhanis policies of as he says, are inspired by moderation and beyond the nuclear case, they see an opportunity to sort of bring iran out of the fold and it may be see if the iran of the future can play a much more constructive role that it has been playing under hard liners such asthmahmoud ahmadinejad an other things. Its hard to see whisrael gets t of this but the u. S. Allies in the region, saudi arabia, the gulf states, they are nervous over the prospects of a major deal with the iranians because it would, no matter how you look at it, sort of upset the power equations or the status quo in the region. At the time when we see the Islamic State has gotten a lot of support from certain version gulf countries such as qatar and saudi arabia, many suspect. So the idea of the rainians gaining power, its scary for many people. I guess what the Obama Administration is trying to get out of this is, yeah, maybe a sort of yeah, to, you know, to sort of solve this problem that has been going on for the past 10 years in order to try and, as i said, bring iran back into the fold. As you say, it is hard to sort of give an overall summary of all of theents that took place over the past 10, almost 11 years. Two final questions and first ten to Patrick Clausen in Washington Institute for near east policy. Well, sir, i wish i shared mr. Erdbriks optimism about the ability to find undeclared facilities because at the time when the ieai were most intrusive was in 2003 and 2005 and thats precisely the time they list the forgo facility. It was not discovered until this huge facility had been understand construction for a number of years. So that suggests that as mr mr. Erdbrink said, iran is a very big country. Its got tunnels built all over the place. So thats why the focus on getting verification and figuring out what iran had in the past so you can tell what it might be doing now is so important for these negotiations. Thomas, did you want to respond to that . Well, you know, mr. Clausen is a wellknown proponent and critic of the Islamic Republic and has every right to be so. He has every right to the distrust the Islamic Republic and in no way am i defending them because their level of well, their history of the Nuclear Program is clear for all to see but we must also try and see why these the past 10 years has led to such a debate and saveningz. Iran is a country that had a revolution, whether we like it or not that finds itself very long in the world very alone in the world and is rather hellbenefit, intent on being independent so when they feel that foreign powers are pushing into a certain direction because they have potentially tunnels or potentially other sites, they will lash out. So what the Obama Administration, i guess, is trying to do. I can in no way speak for them is try to find some sort of conclusion to make sure iran doesnt move toward a Nuclear Program that is weaponized but at the same time as the Obama Administration also is agreeing to is allowing iran to have a sort of well controlled Nuclear Program. How it plays out in the details, we will see, and its very, very likely that there will be no deal at all and we will see a different situation emerging. From your Vantage Point in tehran, what do you think is going to happen . I think that because of my experience of living here and seeing the influence of power of irans hard liners from very up close, i have a very different perspective from those people who are now in vienna or from those people who are supporters of the deal. It is very hard to talk to iran because you will always be talking to, sort of, two different nations on one hand, the friendly smiles of mr mr. Rhouhani and mr. Zarif but we have hard liners who i saw this morning gathering and shouting death to america. These two realities exist here and make it very hard to make a deal with iran. His work is Available Online at ny times. Com. Appreciate you joining us on on the next washington journal, professor paul kraut examines the present obama immigration order in the history of old immigration policies and president ial orders. Jerry jones has an update on the state of homelessness in the brian, of the National Congress of native americans, discusses issues involving tribes, including health care reform, sports mascots, and the Keystone Xl Oil pipeline. As always, we will take your calls and you can join the conversation on facebook and twitter. Tonight on cspan, q a with clinical journalist david mark political journalist david mark. That is followed by the prime ministers remarks. And then the speech by alex salmond before members of parliament. This week on q a, our guest is david mark with a new book entitled dog whistles, walkbacks and washington handshakes decoding the jargon, slang and bluster of american political speech. Mr. Mark talks about the humorous side of politics and the language used by politicians to speak to each other and to the american people. Why did youk, want to decode the jargon of american political speech