Its a must like they havent got the message. Pres. Went on tv and said it was a commune occasions problem. [laughter] apparently he just needs to give onfew more speeches and will understand all the great things theyre trying to do force. I give them credit for onethn thing, for believing in their convictions. But there republicans that arebl and rejoicing that they havent changed directed. It may be good for the Republican Party but it is not good for our country. We are at a point right now that we can decide that we can returt to the what our founding father, intended, the more theed per government tax and spends lesson liberties and less freedoms we ee have. I better set Start Talking about this book. Im here to talk wrie about leadership and crisis. I want to talk about some of the things i read about in this t book. Ur one is about the red tape, the incompetence of our government. Dont get me wrong im aservatei conservative and i dont want my government to do too many things but ill what they do i wants them to do well. S here to tell you that our government has gotten so big anh is involved in renting Car Companies and running ourinvolv healthcare, it has lost its cor focus, its coreit competencies. I described in the book aboutth our frustration even going to Hurricane Katrina and i described a share calling thethe federal government forra help. The response was sheriff, were not taking phone calls right w now. If you send us an email tellind us what you need. He said send you an email, the . Waters rising, i dont haveha electricity, how my, how mymy going to send you an email. And they said put all those details in an email will get help as soon as we cans. The reality is it doesnt matter if its a republican president or a democratic president the bottom line is we should be abli to demand excellence from ourbe government. Nt heres a few examples from the oil spill. Il the oil spill hit me for the first time when i was in southt this is some of the best fishing along the coast its where the Mississippi River hits the belt its wetlands, its amazing what you can catch down there. I wasy in an airboat, before i could, before i could see the oil you could smell the oil. As he got closer to it you coulr hear what i called the deafening silence of the oil. What i meant is this time of the year if youre outside, you would hear critters and bugs, marine life, all kinds of things. You couldnt hear anything the oil killed at all. Then you you got into the wetlands and saw for the first time, this thickss heavy stuff putting everything. Biologist said the grass was starting to turn brown, five to seven days it would be dead. Ea it stuck to everything, if you you put anything in it it just tucked everything. It was sitting there day afterng day, week after week. Y hav a national tv the government said dont worry we have booms down there, doesnt that sound good. That sounds hightech. Hightech. They have absorbent booms there on top of this what theyref sin saying is that theyre throwing combos the paper towels in the water. Wee so federal government said we havei some other plans and i saidt the really one of the plants. Et we might have to burn the wetlands to save the wetlands. Will that doesnt like a great plan to me. So i met with with some louisiana fishermen andsins local residents, we may not beet the smartest people in the world, not a a nobel prizepr amongst all of us. Aughte [laughter] no phds but the most practicalt people you have ever met. Le yav one of them says to me, why dont we go back in that oil up instead of letting it sit therek i said thats a greate idea. Is went to the government said lets vacuum that oil and they n acted like i was an idiot. They said how are you going to get au truck down the mouth of theuc te river there no roads there. Im not the smartest guy in the world but why dont you put aan truck on the back of the boatth and go back in that oil up. Andt i hate this answer fromre w government and they said what weve never done that before so we cant do that. Pi they never spilled this much oil off our coast before so why not try something new. Some so i ordered our National Guard to build some prototypes, the first was the funniest looking thing you have ever seen. Uildom was literally a truck strappedpo on the back of a pontoon boat. It it didnt look like it was going to flow. And it worked. They put it out there in the water, picked up thousands of gallons of oil, there is a reporter coveringe instead gov. , are those the same trucks use to clean up portathfa pottys after football games. I said whatever you do, do do not put that in your story. I just imagine the people of california saying youre theresn doing what in louisiana . Column vacuum vacuum barges that sounds hightech patterns better than portang pottys. Ill be honest, the technology wasnt all that different, it was the same concept. The private sector called andhee said we have industrial pumps and we have bridges, we have wev dozens of these along the coast picking up the oil. A week later i got i got the call from the fo federal government. Call me up and said governor, w are shutting down your barges. I said why this is the one of the few things that is working out there. They said we havent done our yet. Ctions i so what are you worried about, what you need to inspect. Ou they need to inspect the valvesg because theres a danger you might drop some oil back in thed water. I said were picking up thousands of gallons of oil and youre worried about some drop drops. And they they said governor those are the rules. They gave us 24 hours and said we we had to get it done. Hours later they came to the command center and said governor we cant find phone numbers foru these barges. Turns out they had already approved each one of him, the right hand and knowizeo what the left hand is dveoing. Eventually they realize how absurd it wasnt that we dont have to check the valves butemai they have to stay import. Now we have to count the numberd of lifejackets and fire extinguishers on the boats. Said you cant do this in the base a nywhile they are picking up the oils and they said no those are the rules. Twentyfour hours, i went to the port myself, along the way we get a call saying great news, were not going to do the inspections after all they can go to work. But to 24 hours sat in the the,w wetlands unnecessarily because of the bureaucracy and read tape. D last example what it oil was coming into the bay, is one of the most fertile visionaries of our coast. We couldnt get we couldnt get the federal government to move. It was coming in and their a boats, skimmers, people, equipment, sitting just waiting to be used. E. C they kept telling us, federalin government so theres no oil tri dont worry about it. Abit our fishermen cap seen it. Y ook finally took an official up in d blackhawk hell of copter so heou could see for himself the oil. As it was a friday mor aning, i was so excited and he saw the oil. And i said thats great who doet we need to radio to get those boats in the water. O, u he said it will take me at lease 24 to 48 hours to hours to go through the bureaucracy get this done. This was the man in charge of the federal response for our state. He saw the oil, the resources were there any he was saying it was taking 24 to 48 how her spirit he later told reporters that he said he was just slow and dumb, he wasntmb. Slow and dumb, it was the system. Time and again we have the same examples and regulations would not enable us to move. The reason i tell you this isehi fighting the oil it was Like Fighting the war. We want a greater sense of urgency, the government to throw everything we have added. Too many times i got in the way of the ideas or othert oil. Innovations to fight the war. A the reason i start there, bothnd of the book and in my remarks t today is when a government gets obey, and they lose the core competency to fight enemies, secure the borders, it loses it core competencies. Present for one said a government big enough to give you everything you wantn is a big enough to take awaycons everything you have as well. That is what were seeing, that is the lesson we learned, that is the lesson of the country learned out of what happened in the oil spill. A Second Chapter concerns healthcare. It scares and worries me that the obama care legislation, theres many reasons to be scared. Over 1 trillion spending, itso actually closer to 2 trillion. 0i 500 billion in cash increases, cost to medicare. Itoesn government gets more involved in our lives. 16 million new americans being put into an unreformed, medicaid healthcare system. M my background is in healthcare policy. I worked at the state level, federal level, private sector, what scares me the moste is not as a policymaker governor, as a policymaker governor, is the father of three young children. I will share with you some examples my wife and i have hado with her children. We have an ah 8yearold girl at home, she runs the house. 8 thyeeyre staying with theirit t grandparents i can only imagine, sugar theyre eating right now. [laughter]trict that same old grandfather he thinks timeout is cruel punishment. I tried to punish my kids and hs says son, we never spanked youu when you were growing up. He just forgot my entire up, childhood, its amazing. But i think thats what ite sixy graham parents are supposed to do. We have a a sixyearold boy and a 4yearold boy as well. L. My april girl was born in thepis same hospital daddy was born, six euro boy born hospital, 4yearold boy had a slightly different idea. Nger our first child took 36 hours of labor, second child took 24 hours of labor, their child took 30 minutes of labor. Our lit our 4yearold boy was born at home, my wife and i alone on the bathroom floor living thishroooo child. Is she did all the work, dont gete me wrong. People came up to me after a saint you did such a great job, i sent me i just caught the baby i had an easy job. I want to share with you a few thoughts from that expense. Hought first my message to every man in the warm, i dont care how tough you are, there is a reason godyo allowed women, not meant to havk babies. Man came up to me after this an. Said you know the same thing happen to me, let somebody mean the same thing happen. He set iw had me a said i had me a kidney stone its exact same thing. [laughter] i said sir i would go home and tell my wife that. Because unless it was in a pound kidney stone, is not the same thing. My beautiful wife is accomplished engineer in her own right. A ve she has an interesting view ofhe the world of medication she said look, if god god intended me to do this without anastasia, he wouldve invented all these great drugs. Drugs in she told the dr. I want the hosi drugs in the parking lot dont wait like it to the hospital. Se we had a a practice mamas or Natural Childbirth lessons, so e were sitting on the floor andurc shes in this pain. Piod the baby is coming out, my second lesson of advice with fathers. Babies dont come out the wayre they do on tv in real life. Your babies and tv they come out paying, wrapped in butyl blanket, theyre beautiful, angelic. My poor wife discriminate pain is asking me what what does our boy look like. I dont have the heart to telli. Her the truth. Theyan [laughter]coming i tell her he is a beautiful baby boy, ten fingers, ten toes. Hes covered in dew, he doesnt look right, what im really thinking is we need to put him back in there, hes not done isw yet. [laughter] my final piece of advice to menn if you ever find yourself in a situation like this, not an appropriate time to make jokes. O i was trying to lighten the th mood, she was in such pain,e te middle of her contraction i said, you know they want to stom teenage girls from getting knowt pregnant, they they should showm a video g this. She said youre making jokes now, really. My grandfather and law arrived in the childbirth he and a place member outside they hurt my wife screaming, they looked at each other and said im not going in there. Her [laughter] and the old days father stayed outside the delivery room imdei glad i saw the first twovefi children being born i knew ait little about what to expect. I i will say this about that experience. The moment i handed our child to my wife, she forgot all of her pain. She she forgot herself completely in that moment she was so focusedcy on that little beautiful bab iyb boy. We have been married 13 years,ma shes my best my best friend, she is an amazing partner, thata was one ofma the most credible experiences of our married life. Being a part of miracle of birth. I really dont love thegovernmet government with the delivery ofe healthcare, its one of most personal and things that we do. The story of her second child, i he looked perfectly healthy we brought him home and a week later they did a check up andha the dr. Said he looks fine but i ti hear something funny as hishe heart. We need need you to see a specialist today. D we went to see a specialist in afterhours attests and all dfe kinds of reviews, the doctors come in and says tcoheres something wrong with your boys heart. Were going to put them on some prescription drugs, at some point that will stop working, well put him in intensive care and at some point that will stop working, were going to try to keep him alive for at least. Three months because them will have to do openheart surgery to save his life. He will not be do able to breathe or eat properly unless we do that. He looked perfectly healthy. When you hear that about your yu child a few thoughts raced through head, you ice read about one in a million children havinu a problem and you never think ao its your child. The secondut thing is boy i would givechand e anything to tradr e places so. So even though were assured byt faith god tells us why do you worry i know the hairs on your head, we were blessed, our boyad before he turned three months all he had was openheart surgery. Hes doing great, doing great, 6yearold boy sees a cardiologist regularly. The dr. Says im not sure if heo should play football when he gets older because of his hearto i laughed and and looked at thei dr. And said look at me. [laughter]re what are the odds, and a son of mine would be big enough to play football. We raise him big in louisiana, a theres no no way he would be big enough to play. Hi dr. In that moment, i dont want the government, some bureaucrat in baltimore or washington tell me which dr. I can go see. What should. What should procedure i can go get or telling the dr. Nurse how to do their job. One of the hardest moment as a moment on track as a marriageyel was when we had to hand our baby over to the anesthesiologists. In that moment i want the doctors and nurses with theirthm training, their years of education to do what they needtn to do to save my chi. Ld life. Thats what. K thats what worries me so much about this government intervention. Wil in the book i talk about theto status quo wasnt acceptable. We do have the best healthcare in the entire world, but we also have things to do to improve it. Lets make it affordable acrosst state lines and jobs. And serious about cracking down on lawsuits that cost tens of billions of dollars. Lets focus on outcomes, 75 of what we spent is spent onipping chronic patients. Lets do a better job keeping folks out of emergency rooms, lets do a better job treating those with diabetes and asthma in others. Os there are things that we can do that dont involve the massive government bureaucracy. In medicare today their 100 30,000 pages of rules andof regulation. The Hospital Association says there nurses spent an hour filling out paperwork for every hour they provide care. Anybody here that thinks government is going to do above her better job with health care remember the bureaucracy and red tape of the oil spills in katrina and ask yourself, do you want that same bureaucracy and red tape brought into our healthcare system. Another example is about immigration. Ill talk to about my parents experience. My parents came to baton rouge, louisiana she was pregnant with me. They came so. They came so my mom could study at lsu. She is a gratitude student Study Nuclear physics. When i think about their story n my dad wality is it so much interesting thans mine. M my dad is one of nine children, grew up in a house without electricity and running water. Literally, i remember asking him one day for an allowance for alk the choice he used to make make us do around the house. E ha instead of getting an allowance i got a lecture. He said said son, do you know how lucky youol are. He said when i will was growing lp i had to walk uphill tonti School Almost three miles, apparently was school was done he had to walk uphill going home from school as well. Un [laughter]th when i asked for an allowance he said well how much do you pay me for the close on your back, the roof over your head. I. Na i never dig in allowance periods at first they came to the United States they turned down the offer from lsu and said they would give you an entire month off when the baby came. Visi so this is before the days of internet, cell cell phone, they didnt know anybody, never came to america before visited. Theyo just move, the two of themp. Mya dad and his pregnant wife came to baton rouge. His baton rougem heres what i love about the story. My dad doesnt know anybody opens up the phone book and goes to the yellow book and starts calling places looking for a job. He finally finds one thate. Hires him sight unseen over the phone. My dad said thats great, i dont have a car so how my delegates work. The company says will come getie you, dont worry. Nfidenc the amazing thing is my parents, to me have live the American Dream. They had the calm but is,hi to optimism, knowledge that if you work hard, if you apply yourselp you can create a better create s better quality of life for your children. Dont try to criticize american front of my dad. My parents chose to come here, they know what its like growing up in a society where we dontti have freedom, where you dont take these opportunities for grandma. If my brother i try to complain about anything, we will get another lecture for my dad. S goe reason i know that he grew up in poverty, i heard thoset. D. Stories every single day of my life. With her pretty quickly not to go home and complain. You better not go home and say the teacher doesnt like me or lifes not fair, none of that matter to myt th storyhe was one of those stats if you brought him a 97 hn wanted a hundred. Joe i heard the story about josephlh kennedy, one day Bobby Kennedy comes b home and joe kennedy wanted all of his sons to bep president , joe comes home it h and the want to become a Catholic Priest and running fori office. His father said cement gray, dad weve never had a pope and the family before it be nice to havb one. Al that was my dad as well. Io whatever you do, you are going to be the best at it. You are never going to complain because they camte you woke up in. America you are already better off than anybody else in the world. You had the privilege and blessing to live in the greatest country of the world. Who solearned it from my parents. Heres the important thing aboue their experience, they came hert ican vaicmericans. I have a whole chapter about assimilation, some people sayse. That political correct to impose mac and values of those come in here, thats nonsense. Excuse me if someone chooses to be here i think its okay to expect them to want to embrace american values. [applause]. What makes america so great is. There people here that can treat trace their lineage back forreu comdreds of years. Were not here because of that,la and ethnicity or attachment of history, were here because of ai shared commitment of certain values, and ideals. That is then genius of america. I parents tos come to america to change it, to fight against it, they came ton chase the American Dream, to be citizens of the land of the free of the land of the free and the home of the brave. A great deal of our strength is our commitment to our values, hard work, respect, commitment to freedom, believe in god, thats where our strength comes from. I am all for diversity. Red,can look at mthein and see t certainly im an example o f pon diversity. Diversity were talking about skin color, ethnicity,d thats great. Reome we are all precious in his eyes. But if by diversityi we need mos people to believe inno collectivism, military dictatorship, terrorism, suicide bombing, or some of the otheri negative things those world has to offer, no thank you. You. We need people who want to comeu here who believe in the American Dream. Thin they simulated because they i wanted to, they love thismc country, they appreciate it morr than any of us do. Th boo reac way as someone born and raised here sometimes i thinktid immigrants can love this country even more than we do because we are tempted to take it for granted. We dont realize the alternatives out there. Another factor in the book, thet reaction people have when they find out i am a cultural conservative. Tonal i cant tell you how many times, whether its on a college campn will or reporters someone would say how could someone like you seth great opportunities, how could you be educated andthings conservative . [laughter] they must they must be an act, you must not really believe in these things. Well i tell myuplf hate to disappoint you i mustpen not must not be as smart as you think i am. I really am a conservative, down to my bones. S here are a few stories about my experiences. Doiemember what i was working for medicare commission. I was working forn washington d. C. She wanted to write about thesil work were doing, before we ateo we are at lunch and i wras i was us and saying grace over my s meal. Ayor iot a long but just a quick silent prayer, thanks for the food in front of us. She was startled. I. Say grace in d. C. . It was so foreign to her she was startled. I was startled by the fact that she was startled that i was saying grace. I was at the university ran into an intelligent young woman when the smartest people that had some of the best education in this country and one has to to offer. When i she asked me bobby im curious if he you could answer couple of questions. What is the difference between old and the new testament . I hear people talking about those things and i dont understand the difference in who says st. Paul guy . Must be somebody really important. Harvard like so many of our universities was founded in the christian seminary some years ago. Not every graduate from harvard has to be a leader but how can consider oneself educated in todays World Without understanding the basics of western civilization . I answered questions about islam and mohammad and the koran and it almost appears when you send your children to school when you interact with National Foreigners and folks along the coast more and more often it almost feels like we are talking past each other and we dont have the same common experiences and vocabulary. Im here to tell you im a proud son of the south american survey. I guess im one of those poor souls plugged into our guns and religion in louisiana. [applause] the example from the book i want to share with you chapter 16 of the book called its the culture, stupid and we have a very famous political consultant out of louisiana james carver. He actually did a blurb in the book but he said he came up with the great thing its the economy stupid and im here to tell you america is great but if america is not great just because of our economic system. Dont get me wrong im a strong believer in the free market system. I have written for the wall street journal. Ive spoken at the Heritage Foundation and i think the free market system is better than any alternative in the world. Americas not great simply because our government. Im a strong believer and democracy and is better than the alternative. Begin to get me wrong im a strong supporter of our military i prefer a much stronger american military. The stronger we are as america the safer the world is. But what i write in the book is what makes us so great, america is more than the Strongest Military in the most beautiful piece of property. If beautiful and genius is our culture. Our culture is the glue that holds us together. It makes the American Dream possible. Culture is many things. That includes our shared values goals and attitudes. Our culture defines what we strive for and we value and how we conduct ourselves as people. I argue in the book its not capitalism military might of the beauty of her country the mix is great. Our culture. In politics the experts want to put together. Everything gets dissected into put into neat categories. Their tax issues spending issues foreignpolicy issues defense issues on and on but the separations are the Founding Fathers got it right when they said this american experiment was designed for moral people, virtuous religious people. Interested is the culture that binds us together. Theres a famous saying that sums up my point about culture. To quote is americas great because it is good and if america ceases to be good america will cease to be great. I know its on the popular notion these days but if we fail to follow it etc. In peril. Another chapter in the seventh example to share with you at the chapter in the book about what are we going to do about congress . I spent all of three years there and based on what ive said in the book they may not ever want me back and thats okay with me. Harry truman famously complained about the donothing congress. I would love to have a donothing congress. That would be such an improvement over the one we have today. [applause] when you are a little white or little girl taking civics class in high school or middle school you learn the best and brightest go to washington and served in congress. Im here to tell you thats not true. Im here to tell you when you get there you find a real crosssection of our country. They are smart people and honest people and criminals and people with strong character and some with no character. I reference a people need representation representation too raid while they got it. I provide specific recommendations of how we can fix congress. Im here to tell you its not about electing a group of good people. Theyre honorable people and great leaders there but its not enough to send another cast of characters to washington. We need to strictly change your capital. We need to go back to the Founding Fathers original intent. I think about the Structural Reforms in place. Theres a balanced budget requirement in our institution. What a novel idea for congress, dont spend more money than you take in. We have a requirement supermajority vote where they can raise taxes. What a novel idea for congress. Take us supermajority vote. Make them vote up or down on single items of legislation. Otherwise theyd uncle it altogether. They say i voted for the puppies hammering the legislation. They know, they think would understand the tricks they are playing. We need to have and heres my most important recommendation. This is going to sound odd. We used to pay farmers not to grow crops. I suggest we pay members of congress not to pass bills. [applause] is a relatively recent invention make them part time give them term limits and dont let them become lobbyists. If it did live under the same laws they pass the rest of his maybe they would be more common sense and washington d. C. Your wallet and liberties are the safest outside of washington lets pay them to stay home. They should lose money every day they made. [applause] ive talked about the spending problem in our country. We need to stop and im up in the abuse of candidate running for governor of new york. He got up there and he said he was a candidate for the high party. That was all over youtube and it was amazing. Saturday night live did a skit on it. Every firsttime candidate should watch this guy. He clearly understands marketing. I think we should start our own political party. The reality is they have gone from 4 trillion to 14 trillion its projected almost double the 26 trillion. The voters pulled the fire alarm. They pulled the lever on the escape slide and they said we need to stop this right. Its what happens in congress. Some people propose a congress made up of if you care about these people you will vote and here is what the republicans in congress do. They say well we are not like democrats the democrats. We only want to spend half of what they spend so we become democrats. The reality is you try to get competition about who can spend the most you define compassion and spending the most to lose that battle. We are off to the races and before you know did he vote against any of these programs all of a sudden you are labeled and uncaring unfeeling friend of the richer friend of wall street and a friend of fox news. [laughter] the bottom line is this we need to put our country in a different direction. We need to understand the federal government isnt the answer to all of our problems. We need to understand every dollar they spend is not free that comes out of our pockets. 37 cents out of every dollar they spend is barred. They are taking money from her children and grandchildren. An example and want to share with you from the book i have a chapter entitled do we really want to be like europe . What do i mean by that . I talked earlier about american exceptionalism. When asked about american exceptionalism our president responded people in other countries feel the same way about their country as well. He didnt take the opportunity to say of course we believe in the greatest country in the world. He went overseas in call themselves not only a citizen citizen of the United States presses the system of the world. Im not even sure what that means. Im a citizen of america and i believe americas place in the world and im in the case for american exceptionalism. Let me warn you in sophisticated circles is considered unenlightening to say we live in the greatest country in a the world that americas most powerful country in the world is the best thing for everyone. Those statements if you want to go to university shouldnt say things like that. Youll be kicked off the guest list in the next Cocktail Party and they may even bring up on charges of be careful. America is the greatest country in the world. I talk about american exceptionalism. Theres no place on earth with her combination of freedom opportunity commitment to doing the right thing and make no mistake about it. The world is as safe as one america is the strongest. That seems undebatable to me. I had an opportunity to meet with Prime Minister netanyahu and it seems to me foreign leaders understand. They understand the importance. The foreign leaders of freemarket countries out there understand the Important Role that america has to play and must play for the entire world to be a safer place. America uses her power for preservation of peace and the pursuit of liberty and freedom. In the course of Human History thats very unique. We are not about building empires. We are not about leaving our troops abroad permanently except to protect our allies. We should be proud of it and we shouldnt have to apologize. All the stuff about seating taking our seats in the nation. Im not saying we are better people. Im saying the Founding Fathers of america got it right. As long as we dont screw up they started and by the way we could screw it up. As long as we dont this country will remain the greatest in the world. I want to close with a final story and take questions people ask me because