That elites in washington should make all those big decisions, that they should be picking winners and losers. Thats a recipe for a closed economy, for cronyism. We want an equal economy where more people can participate and rise by their own talents. Where the individual can put their ideas and aspirations to the test. This contrast, i know it is hard to visualize. So heres an example. Say youve got an idea for a new business, and you want to create a startup. Well, you need to raise money to do that. And if you want to raise money on the internet, as so many people do these days, you typically have two options; ask for donations or go get a loan. Theres a third option. Offer stock. That sounds pretty intimidating, but really its not. Its basically just crowd sourcing for investors. And it works for a lot of people because when youre not making money, you dont owe your investors anything like debt. But a few years ago the securities and Exchange Commission got involved. It thought this kind of crowd funding was too risky for small dollars investors; that is, people like yourselves just getting started. And they said you couldnt do it. Instead of laying down rules to make it safe so people could actually participate, the sec just ruled it out of bounds. Thats the difference between giving information to people and making decisions for them. This why we thats why we passed a law to make the sec change course. We said write the rules so more people can participate, dont you law this. Outlaw this, this works, its good. More people got to invest, more people reached their dreams, more startups got to expand. Weve actually got a bill on the floor this week to consider that were going to be fixing this. But i would argue that this shows the kind of mindset that we need to have in government. The point of having rules is to open up society, not to shut it off. It is to give people the information they need so that they can take action. It is that information that turns you into an investor or an unventer or an inventer, or an entrepreneur. And thats how we solve problems in this country; from the bottom up, not from the top down. Now, we need to take this mindset and apply it to the challenges of the day. Heres just a few more examples. I am all for helping people pay for health insurance. But the Health Care Law literally outlawed millions of plans that were working that people liked. And now millions are struggling to pay for their premiums. And if youre young and healthy, you dont need a plan with all the bells and the whistles. You just need basic coverage. So why not open up our Health Care System so people can pick a plan that works for them . Student debt is now bigger than credit card debtment debt. And so many of my friends on the other side say we should make Community College free. What if you dont want to go to Community College . Why dont we break up the College Cartel and say lets have students give them more options . Why dont we give our students a choice . Weve been fighting the war on poverty for over 50 years now. We spend billions of dollars each year on 92 different federal povertyfighting programs. Yet poverty is not all that much lower than when we started this war 51 years ago. And if you look in our local communities, there are actually thousands of people fighting poverty on the front lines every day and winning this fight. So instead of trying to replace them, instead of trying to overregulate them, instead of trying to control, direct or displace them, government ought to support them. There are over two Million People in our prisons, many of them are not hardened criminals. Theyre not violent people. A lot of them are just people who made a mistake. I think we need to let more people earn a Second Chance in life. Instead of locking people up, why dont we unlock their potential . You know the good news . Good news is we dont just have to ask these questions. We can do these things. And that is why right now republicans are working on a policy agenda to address some of these challenges i have just discussed here today and others. If we do not like the direction our country is going, and we do not, then we feel that we have an obligation, then we owe the country an alternative. We owe it to you, our future. I know youve heard people like me say that yours may be the first generation to be less well off than ever before, that wed severed this legacy of leaving the next generation better off. That does not have to happen, and it will not have to happen if we seize this moment. Maybe this will help some things out. At the Democratic National convention in 2012, they showed this video that said government is the only thing that we all belong to. I think they got it exactly backward. Government is the only thing that belongs to all of us. It is not supposed to manage people, but to serve them. And i think this mindset is in total sync with the way that you live your lives. It is almost cliche to say that your generation is the most technologically savvy weve ever seen. Look, if i can log on to netflix or hulu, that is a huge win for me. [laughter] i usually ask my 11yearold how to do it. [laughter] but you know better than anyone that technology is not a toy or a distraction. It is what allows you to focus on the essentials in life, on your faith, on your family, on your work, on your hobbies. I would argue that government is supposed to do the same thing. These days with technology you are so used to customizing your everyday life. Its at your fingertips. So why on earth would you want to support a governing philosophy that seeks to take away your right and your ability to customize, to individualize, to decide critical aspects of your life like your health care or your education. You cant say government government is of the people when it is imposing its positions on the people. Government does not impose community. The people create it. And governments role is to protect it. Only we the people can build a confident america. So today i am asking for your help. We need your ideas. We need you to create the next lyft or twitter of snapchat or to run for office or to get involved in our community or to do all these things because thats who we are; a country that sees the potential in every human being. You learn this at georgetown, i know it. And does everything we can to bring that potential to life. Thank you very much. [applause] all right. Mr. Speaker, welcome back to georgetown. Thank you. And thank you do you mind if i just no, get comfortable. Because we want to have a real conversation today. As you know, before i came here, i was at the yeah, i heard about that. [laughter] never thought about what id do if i was sitting here face to face and having a conversation with you. These students are ready for you. Ive seen a few of their questions, not all, and theyre ready to have a real dialogue. Heres how its going to work. We want to get through as many as we can. Weve got the students on the riser who have submitted questions via social media, and then weve got the students in the audience, many of whom may want to ask questions. Were going to rotate through. For those of you in the audience, we will have a mic stand in center aisle. Begin lining up now, i recommend, if you have questions. And while they do that and dont filibuster the answers, right in. While we do that, were going to toss it over toest city, shes the one who got you to come to campus, so well let her ask you the first question. Id like a yes or no answer, you can solve this today finally here it comes. The packers going to go all the way this year . Heck, yeah, they are. Absolutely. [applause] so stop asking him. We need a tight end, and then were good. Okay, i agree. On to business. Ive been covering the youth vote for a decade. It wasnt that long ago i was a young voter. If you talk to young voters like i do, youll hear a similar complaint that over the years democrats have pandered to young voters, and republicans have ignored them altogether. Is so why should the millennials in this room, the largest generation in history, and millennials all over the Country Trust that todays politicians including you are going to do anything different . Well, first of all, you should want to be competed for and not taken for granted. Thats point number one, i would say. Second of all, you need to find out whos a conviction person and whos not. Whos telling you what they actually believe. You want someone who means what thay