And waiste. This is 30 thank you. Were thrilled to be here today. Before we go further. Jonathan small. Oklahoma council of government affairs. John richardson. Director at gold waeter institute. Let me say actors dream of being on broadway, musicians dream of going to card gi haul. Im living mine by being on cpac. I expose and battle against cronyism. I thought it would be fun you see young activist out there. I thought it would be fun to kick it off with the panel. One of the examples of government waste you have encountered. Anyone who wants to take that. Theres so much, its hard to wrap your arms around one thing. The last two years, the most outrageous one the amount of money the department of Homeland Security paid over a three year up to 308 billion was paid of taxpayer money to stay at home and not work because they had disciplinary actions and under its 370 days to do that. 380 billion went to pay people to have up to in one case two years on the payroll without coming to work. Speaking of employees haired to do a job, then do Something Else entirely, theres practice called release time or official time. In is where the government pace government workers, taxpayerers funded sally to do nothing but work for government unions. While they work fog the unions they do things like political activity, recruit new members, negotiate higher salaries, enhance their power at taxpayer expense. The federal government spends 150 million a year on release time. Veterans were waiting in cases, dying while waiting, government was paying them to go and ride a union desk instead. Barack obama did not win a single of the 77 counties dont clap yet. We are implementing obamacare in we pay Wind Companies over hundred Million Dollar a year. The state of oklahoma had to borrow from other funds just to pay Wind Companies for renewable standard thats crippling the state of oklahoma. I can go on all day, im going to throw out a regulation the government requires your Mutual Fund Companies to send you prospectus that you never read, you can opt out, Obama Administration considered it making it easy to opt out, they stopped because of the pressure they were getting from the envelope lobby and paper lobby make money off of this. It could not be happening if not for Big Government the envelope lobby, i never heard that before. I want to get into incentive. Why is government wasteful. Lets talk about the why. Why is government so wasteful . No matter how hard we make it were not running it right yet. Lets dive into no matter how many bureaucracies they have i think its several mfactor because the government is too big and too centralized. Another thing is how does it earn its revenue. It obtains revenue by private institution have to earn it. Even those who give it have to perform where the government doesnt have to be frugal with taxpayers money because its someone elses money. The money to tax is the power to destroy. We see that every day in oklahoma. Once government crates a program new constituents are created and they are about trying continue their existence and not help those services are for. The incentive are wrong for government they never have to compete for the resource they need. Thats exactly right. The special interest people profiting from Big Government are part that the wasteful government stay in. When we talk about the hammers or fighter jets that cost to much because of the military complex. Theres vested interest in the waste. They have more say because they hire the senator as lobbiest. Theres a power for lobby for the People Living off the government. This is a problem for government, i want it talk about how this is not just a democrat party, the bipartisan issue is a problem with central planning. This is fatal consent that the government knows better than you do. When boris yelt son was not amazed by the space station but the grocery store. What he recognized is that government dont have the information to make decision for us. Prices cannot be controlled by fiat. Thats the role for markets. When you have a bureaucracy in washington trying to figure out how many bananas are consumed in des moines, it wont work. Congress when and one of the things i was proud of that President Trump did out of the gate was the federal hiring freeze. You can make a compelling argument that government is smaller today were not replacing we have to realize its not just fix cost, travel cost, its housing cost, and the cost on the economy. Its not just 85,000 hammer or the boeing or the cost on the economy. Its hidden cost of the regulation putting on business that makes the cost more expensive. In oklahoma determined that obamacare medicate expansion was not the right direction for us. For the last five years, our medicate agency has spent time trying to force it on oklahoma. They grown our 124 . All while asking oklahomians for money more. The problem is that policy matters in your identifiology matters you tend to believe that humans are the ones to best help themselves flourish the biggest difference is are we going to rely on the wisdom and the are you going to get enough data and smart decision or is it going to be dispersed decision making. The key is in a private sector its not that ceo are smarter, its that its competition. The ones who have wrong idea go out of business or they adapt and see what others are doing. Congressman. If you look at purpose its to protect their institution much its not to serve the american people. A lot of them were, but they have mor ph ed into i tell people, a lot of the folks have never signed the front of the paycheck so they dont know what is regulation is doing. Something that he mentioned earlier, we have to look the costs of the on the individual taxpayer. The average family pace over 15,000 a year in hidden regulatory taxes. Lets get the regulation off the backs of the businesses and off the backs of the individual taxpayer. Thats a great point. Uber broke the back of the taxi cab industry. I never new transportation was accessible, quick, accountable. We grew accustomed to all of a sud how can we hold our government accountable to have the positive changes and concrete tangible steps that we can do to enforce regulatory demand less from your government. Barry gold water said aim was not to pass them but to repeal them. When you call them and government abuses have effected you. They will listen. Tell your story. If theres a law or regulation thats prevent theing you from starting a business or speaking your mind or engaging with your community in a meaningful effective way, notify your lawmakers of that. Notify the media of that and tell your story because theres harm being done unless the stores get out there. Nothing would be done about it. The election was a great time. We should be encouraged by that. As you think about it as it relates to sports, when you pick your team, its just getting start. Roster is being set. Government is working just as much against your interest as the federal government would be. I would edncourage people to tun your attention to the state houses. The great scourge for america is sugary drinks. If we dont put a tax on it were all going to die, thats an area where citizens need to get involved, its not governments job to determine what i eat and drink, get out of the way and protect profperty. When i think look the threat of Free Enterprise, most of these laws would not get into place for using Big Government to profit as well. I do a lot of traveling and talking to grass roots activists young and old. People want to see government get smaller, they want to see the government get balanced. Can you theyre on the way. One of the things you have to realize the founder put in a system that was slow. It was slow because the idea that the founders were law. Some of them are good. Every law is some type of liberty difficult and get through. So the process is throw. Its purposefully slow. We have to honor the process. If we dont need to violate the every parliamentary procedure and everything that we can do to push it through. Were already seeing some of those go through. Something called the Congressional Review Act allows congress to actually undo any executive policy or regulation that was implemented by the previous administration. And that time frame takes us back to june. We have already passed ten of those. Theyre over to the senate. Were expecting as soon as the senate gets done with the confirmations because of the time constraints there, theyre going to start take these up. You already see the president issuing executive orders. But one of the challenges we have in congress is over the decades we have advocated our article i powers. Its our responsibility to hold these regulatory agencies in check. As i have chaired an oversight committee, a subcommittee, ive been frustrated by how much these agencies ignore subpoenas by congress. Because we dont have the tools to hold them accountable. Thats why as a member of the article i project, were working to regain those article i powers so we can actually constrain the growth of this government. And where we need your help is get excited. We won. Were winning. Were finally winning. Its almost like were still in a state of shock. We need to have that same fortitude and that same drive that we had over the last eight years as we were fighting on defense. Now we have an opportunity to be on offense and share those stories. The left fights on emotion. We need to be able to fight on the same emotion. Because we actually have the solutions that are right for america by putting the power back in the hands of the people. Well said. Thank you. So, john, something i know that the Goldwater Institute fights a lot for is School Choice and educational choice. And also in oklahoma as well. I want to talk about this. This is a great example of government failure over the last 60 years that is again tieing into this theme of cronyism. And something that i learned and i ran across coming from chicago, this thing called a rubber room which essentially is a physical building in Downtown Chicago where they keep teachers that they cannot fire. So theyve been so bad, theyve sometimes have committed crimes, they have to put them in a physical building outside of the class. They report to there every single day. They get full pension, full salary. But theyre such a suburbs to a students educational future, they have to remove them from the classroom. The rubber rooms turn into a rubber building. This is an example of how right now government has failed our inner cities the last 60 years with the governmentrun schools. Talk a little about School Choice, what this administration is trying to do through the nomination of betsy devos and how we can push back against this failure of governmentrun schools and for the Liberty Movement moving forward. Here is the question. Here is the choice we have. Do you think a number of government bureaucrats should be making decisions that are best for you and your family, or do you think that those decisions are best made around the kitchen dinner table . And when it comes to School Choice, for the first time in history, maybe, an opportunity for people to make their own choices that would never be accessible to them. This allows people to get out of failing schools, to get out of the inner city, and to have access to real educational opportunities. And there is a variety of programs, mostly at the state level and the federal government can do a lot in this regard. Educational savings account, vouchers. Esa is a great program. Rather than you just being relegated to attend the school thats in your zip code, you get a debit card. Rather than the state paying the cost of education in your zip code, it gives you and your family that money and you can spend that at the school of your choice whether its public or charter or private or home schooling. And if there is money leftover, maybe you could roll that over into College Tuition and the like there is some very exciting developments in School Choice there are some real solutions. And if we really want to change education in this country, we really got to get behind a lot of these School Choice programs. Charlie, i might say i talk about how important this issue. The reason why the left opposed betsy devos the most is they want to keep trapped the most vulnerable in the indoctrination camps, if i can just say it, and prevent them from having the opportunity to fully be empowered to stop generational poverty. Thats the other area where we as a movement need to get involved at the local level. Its fascinating to me that its okay for every other Government Service to allow choice, except for k through 12 education. That argument is inconsistent. If we truly care about the most vulnerable, were going to work hard to get them out of the system thats not working for them. And put them somewhere where theyre going to be able to succeed. Thats why the left oppose that issue the most. Once they lose the ability to control the minds of our kids, they lose the ability to control the culture in the United States of america. Thats really well said. [ applause ] and one of the worst sort of counter arguments against School Choice that we saw when they were opposing devos on n the senate, congressman chris murphy from connecticut, he said well, i turned out great coming out of a Public School. And i came out of a Great Public School too. And whats the term the left uses . Check your privilege. I looked up where chris murphy went to Public School. It was right down the road from loomis chafee, the private school. He went to the Public School. Guess what . To live in that School District where chris murphy went to school, you have to be a lot wealthier than you do to send the school to the Catholic School where i send my kids. So its a privilege that its a more walled, gated community, these really wealthy suburbs with really nice Public Schools. And what were doing is were threatening if we offer a voucher, were threatening to send in the deplorables from outside that wald community into their Public School. Thats half of what theyre afraid of. Thats right. I have to say one thing. The only reason Vice President pence had to break that tie is because of two republicans that were bought by the public teacher union, senator collins and senator murkowski. For those republicans that are not on the right side of School Choice, they got to go. Im telling you now. Im telling you right now, this is an issue that we can build broad consensus on. The fact that the Vice President had to break a tie for the first time for a cabinet appointment because our own party wont stand for poor kids in poor cities, you got your work cut out for you. But anyway, its a great example. You can see the passion for this issue. Because it cuts all across lines. I went to a Public School in northwest suburbs of chicago. But you know what . I look at some of the people that i went to high school with. Thankfully it was good Public School. But i see other people across town that werent in as good area. They should have had that opportunity to go to a better school. So congressman, talk about this issue and just in general how we build these consensus around Free Enterprise solutions to communities we wouldnt otherwise be communicating with. Well, i think it regarding your previous question, i think we also need to look at the cabinet appointees that trump is making across the board. Theyre all people that understand what is wrong with the agencies of which theyre going to be heading. And that is thats something in itself to be excited about. My parents always told me youre known by the company you keep. And he is keeping some really, really good company, that i think is one of the things that is going to head news the right direction. We have to be very aggressive. Right now we have a short time. We have a short window. This is the most Incredible Opportunity that americans have had. Not just conservatives, but when we implement our policies, every american will benefit from it. I dont care if youre the ones out there protesting. Youre going benefit from lower taxes. You can be some of those out there that are thousands of people calling my office every day, saying the most the worst possible things that you can say to my staff employees. You will benefit from an improved education system. But we have to show the people that our values work, and that its going to take a lot of work, but its going happen in a very short amount of time. We have basically two years to start turning the tide on this nation. Thats why we have to be very aggressive. I had our staff here this week. I said this is a time that we go big, we go bold, or we just go home. Now is the time. Thats one of the reasons were pushing legislation which basically gets rid of this old policy of being able to get in the government, game the system, and stay on the payroll, even while youve been indicted for conspiracy, and you can stay on the government payroll. Youve got seven to 14 day, youre gone. Its really well said. And, you know, i think this really illustrates a broader point as we look to close the loop on this panel is all the people here in this room are looking what can i do about this. You know what . What if we all stormed town halls like Chuck Schumers town hall saying why dont you support School Choice . Why dont you support these options . Hey, the work is not yet done. Well might have set the table properly there was a great analogy or metaphor made earlier. I think jonathan, you made it earlier where you said we have all the troops in the right position. Now we have to go take the territory. And we have to have the courage to pass this legislation and to actually have the wherewithal to implement this meaningful reform. And so i would just love to get some closing thoughts to these activists out here. Because all of us, were on the front lines. And the activists here on the front lines just kind of what are your thoughts of what does success look like in the next two years . How can we gauge that success . How can we hold our elected officials accountable . Because we cant lose this opportunity. I mean, house, senate, presidency, more state chambers ever controlled than any other time, more governors mansions across the country. Were not going to have an opportunity to perform like this. Jonathan, kick it off, please. I think the first place we would start, for all of us, the next time you get an email from your Public School administrator on government email telling you to oppose your state lawmaker trying to promote a School Choice bill, let that lawmaker know that that offends you, and that youre going to work to stop that kind of activity. I think the next thing i think all of us should commit to is over the next legislative section were going to take market on pro free market ideas. When a lawmaker opposes that idea, were going to call him and congratulate him and help push that among our own communities. And then even when our own people get out of line and do what theyre not supposed to do, the governor in oklahoma is trying to increase taxes by 2 billion on oklahomans right now. Were leading that effort to stop her. If youre a friend of free markets, limited government and individual initiative we should support those people. If youre not, our goal is going to be to try to stop you and hopefully see that you dont return to office. John . Where do we see the greatest abuses of power . Thats an important question. Its also a question of accountabili accountability. Where we see the greatest abuses are those that are less accountable. Sometimes the regulatory state. You have a situation in our federal regulatory agencies, the state regulatory agency, they make the rules, they investigate alleged violations of the rule, they adjudicate violations of the rules. And oh, by the way, if you ever take that agency to court, the court is obligated to defer to what the agency did that kind of sounds like something out of a banana republic. That doesnt sound like the rule of law. So we need to support the effortses to rein in the regulatory state. Why dont yes sunset these regulatory agencies and let them come to lawmakers and justify their existence and support reforms that can limit the size and scope of this unaccountable dark government. Congressman . Talking about these regulatory agencies. The epa is one of the worst out there. Its totally off of its mission. It no longer cares about the environment. And i love the environment. I want to protect the environment. Thats why i cosponsored legislation to eliminate the epa. Because it needs to be replaced with a Smaller Agency, a Smaller Agency that works with the states and congress to determine what our policy is and let the states enforce it. Thats how we protect our environment. But this is where you have become very important. You need to keep doing what youve been doing over the last eight years. After we cosponsored that legislation, my office in a series of a few days received over a thousand phone calls of some of the most abusive people calling. All but five were opposed to the legislation. Were going to keep going in the direction were going. But if im in a very conservative district, im only getting five phone calls supporting what were doing, imagine what those in swing districts are getting. Well need to we need to make our voice just as loud as its been over the last eight years. My old boss was bob novak, the columnist. And one of the things he said was and he said as a general thing, not to all politicians, politicians as a class are up to no good. Another saying he liked to quote other people saying was politics isnt about getting somebody to do the right thing for the wrong reason. Its about getting other politicians to do the right things for the wrong reason, for whatever reason they want. So that means you have to make it painful for them to do the wrong thing. So everybody who came on this stage, every politician who came up here and said im a conservative, im with you, they will have different incentives than the rest of us. They will have things, including industry lobbyists, including the polls, including their friends who are consultants, they will have people pulling them in the other direction. And this applies to President Trump as well. Well need to be pulling on the other end of the rope. And that means we cant just go and say weve got your back. No. Weve got your back as long as youre marching in the right direction. Otherwise youre going to feel our bayonet at your back. Thats well said. So what a great panel. And i mean, for everyone out here for now that we control the house and the senate and the presidency, for every one democrat you hold accountable, hold two republicans accountable. Because if we dont get the job done, its our fault. With that, thank you so much. It was a wonderful discussion with you today. And please give it up for our wonderful panel again. So thank you so much. Thank you. [ applause ] the Senate Judiciary committee holds a confirmation hearing tomorrow for the nominees picked to serve as deputy and associate attorneys general. You can watch that live at 10 00 a. M. Eastern on cspan. In the afternoon, ukraines foreign minister joins five other diplomats from central and Eastern European countries to testify on russias influence in the region. Thats live at 2 15 eastern here on cspan3. And later in the evening, a look at efforts to improve Health Care Access for veterans with v. A. Secretary David Shulkin and Senate Armed Service chair john mccain. Theyre testifying before the House Veterans Affairs committee, live at 7 30 p. M. Eastern on cspan2. Who will win student cams grand prize of 5,000 . Join us at 8 00 a. M. Eastern on march 8th for the announcement. This year we asked middle and High School Students to produce documentaries telling us what is the most urgent issue for our new president and congress to address in 2017 . We received over 2900 entries from 46 states, plus the district of columbia, england, germany, singapore, and taiwan. Students competed for the chance to win 100,000 in cash prizes in first, second, and third place categories. You can log on the our website 30 minutes before our big announcement to view all 150 winning documentaries at studentcam. Org. Be sure to watch the announcement of our student cam 2017 grand prize winner, wednesday, march 8th at 8 00 a. M. Eastern on cspan. Now the chief adviser to the president of afghanistan discusses security and Economic Development in the country. He also talks about