I sincerely hope everyone is doing as well as they possibly can be. With all that weve gone through in this state. But i can tell you that the light of the world is shining on West Virginia right now. And if you dont believe that, youre just plain not thinking right. Id like at this time to recognize some really, really special people, my family. Cathy and jill are with us tonight and from beyond that, i want to go directly to my cabinet members. You know at this time, it is such a difficult time. You know, weve got for all practical purposes, all my cabinet members watching virtually. But there is one that is watching from the heavens above, dennis davis. A man that we just lost. A man that was in charge of all of our vets in the state. A man, a mans man. Thats all there is to it. He set out on a mission to build facilities and all Different Things from exempting veterans pay from income tax. All the Different Things he set out on a mission to do, i can i can tell you one thing and one thing alone dennis davis lived and breathed every day so all of you lets offer a moment of silence to the great, great secretary that we lost. [moment of silence] thank you all so much. Dennis davis was not always a terrific individual and a terrific cabinet secretary, he was a real friend and you know from time to time this job takes you to people that maybe you dont know and you grieve and for your loved ones, but this one really hits home with me. You know, four years ago, i walked in here, really on the front steps out front, with a tackle box and an ax. I walked in here to tell you just from a folksy tone that people have really enjoyed, to tell you the truth, that a lot of Straight Talk and a lot of truths, you know, a lot of complete transparency, you see, these me, thats me through and through. Ive got a lot of experience, ive got a lot of passion. Ive got a lot of enthusiasm and im a godly man and proud of it. Now, like it or not like it, when they firsthanded me the books four years ago, theres no other way to cut it, im a business guy and our state for all purposes was bankrupt. In tough, tough, tough shape. We drained the Rainy Day Fund down to levels where bonds were being drated. Our roads were in pretty dadgum tough shape and we had all kinds of issues at hand. They handed me a budget a projection for the next six years. The year we were in we were going to come up 217 million short. The next year we were going to be 497 million short. And then it proceeded on to 772 million short. It was all cumulative. Meaning if you were 219 short now and added 497 you zoomed in above 700 million. And when you anted up another 700 million or whatever it might be, it was something really tough. Now, we dug in. An awful lot of you were here at the same time and weve got new members that i absolutely congratulate on every way, but with our new members comes all kinds of news around it, new blood, new ideas, all kinds of good stuff. But we rolled up our sleeves, did we not, and we went to work. We went to work on a prayer that ill get to you in a little while and all of a sudden things began to change. West virginia began to really change. And the biggest thing of all that we really needed to change was our image. The image that we knew was here and knew was good, but the image that the outside world really looked at us, they thought we were backwards or we were poor or absolutely we were supposed to know our place. Its a shame. I dont subscribe to that. And i know you dont either. But let me tell you just this, we began to see a miracle. A miracle evolved. The miracle of West Virginia began to evolve. Good stuff. Really, really good stuff. Now, along the way, before i go any further, i want to congratulate you, all of those that are here. I want to congratulate you on just this. You had the courage to run, did you not . You know youre going to accept rocks thrown at you. A lot of them are going to be really unfair, but you had the courage to step up and say, ill serve. Ill serve. And youve done so very admirably and im sure you will do so in the future very admirably. And before i go any further i want to recognize some really, really important people, and theyre the people that are the chief justices, the chief justice and justices of our supreme court. Now, i think theyre right up here. But if i could just say, chief justice evan jenkens, if you could stand, please. And Justice Elizabeth walker, justice tim armstead. Justice John Hutchinson and Justice William and please gave them a round of applause. [applause] ive got a few more people to congratulate here, congratulate on them earning the positions that many of them already had. Weve got a new man to the task and at hand, but, its attorney general patrick morrissey, secretary of state mack warner, our state auditor jp, our commissioner of agriculture kent and our newly elected state treasurer riley moore. Please stand, our constitutional officers. [applause] and two leaders of the band, leaders of all of you all or some of you all in everything, but in senate, craig blair if you would stand and speaker of the house, are roger standall, i cant see them, but theyre standing back there, so please applaud for them. [applause] i spoke just a seconding an about the miracle of West Virginia, did i not . Theres been a lot of accomplishments that have happened in the last few years from surpluses to making our center piece for putting money away and just imagine, we never raised a dime in had premiums. And how somebody can complain about that, i dont get it. Thats just all there is to it. Weve got a lot of new roads, weve got a lot of patched old roads. Weve got a lot of work that goes on every day. Weve got an ezpass you can go up and down the turnpike for next to nothing. We created jobs and hope and weve really combatted drug issues, but weve got a long ways to go. We absolutely adopted a new slogan, almost heaven, in our department and im talk about that in a little while, but what an incredible job that has exploded into being. We put real money in our state parks and we helped our veterans and we helped our seniors with meals on wheels and all kinds of Different Things and lo and behold, the miracle starts to grab hold and then along comes covid. Now, just imagine that. I said the miracle of West Virginia, did i not . You know, i was interviewed just the other day on the 700 club, Pat Robertson and while i was being interviewed by wendy, i dont know wendys last name, wendy was recently, and shes not from far from here in West Virginia and wendy, we were talking along with Different Things happening with covid and the vaccination process and all the good things that we had going on and she said to me, she said, if you could say your prayer now, what would your prayer be . And i said, well, wendy, i said, you know, we had a day of prayer and i said a prayer and im anything, but reverend jim and i said a prayer at that time and i truly mean this, i dont know how in the world the words just flowed, but the good book tells us just do that. The words that the good lord will take over and the words will flow and they did. I said, wendy, i need to get you a video of that prayer and you know what she said to me, she said, governor, when was that . Well, just like anyone, i said you know, wendy, i dont know, it was probably four or five months ago. No, probably four months ago. This just happened about a week ago. And all of a sudden on my little while board thing that i have out there, jordan flashed up on my white board, it was last march. Shed already asked me from the date of that prayer had i seen things change . Think about it. And every day, the definition of coincidence, and an everyday occurrence in which god chooses to remain anonymous. Think about it. How in the world, how in the world did the little state, how in the world could we absolutely charge to the front like weve charged. How right behind all of that could we have handled what weve handled in covid like weve handled it. Im telling you, it is truly the miracle of West Virginia. Now, i believe with all in me that i am battle proven and i am calm under fire. I really do listen to our experts and you know, we have made moves for the betterment of always, not made moves that were selfish for just a few, but in all of this that miracle and that miracle has truly happened. Now, i ask myself a lot of times, what is my real job . Well, first and foremost, its to look out over the health and the safety of the people, but secondly, its to mind the store, is it not . Because at the end of the day, if the economics dont work, nothing, nothing that you do or i do can work. The economics have got to work. If were going to continue to grow and everything in economics has to work. Well, we have along the way, we have pulled off the economics. Now, we all know that weve been first in covid in the Nursing Homes and first in vaccinations and were on the nightly news everywhere under the sun and weve got to be really because in addition to all that, every single day that goes by more and more and more will come because they see West Virginia in a different light than theyve seen it before. Now, i want to take just a moment to congratulate kathy. Kathy and i, neither one, new hardly anything about community schools. Really and truly we knew it was started in West Virginia and greenberg county and didnt know anything about it with all that, behind that, kathy needs to have supposedly a cause and i donated my salary to that and slowly and surely started the community in school now, i dont blow smoke at anybody, im telling you honest to gods truth, i know whats going on in our schools in a lot of situations. Ive coached forever, ive been there, ive seen the good and the bad. I am telling you without any question the most profound program that we have going on within our schools today is communities in schools. They have touched 49,000 kids now, 49,000 kids in 29 counties. Youve got to give them a giant round of applause, please do. [applause] my daughter jill, theyre up here, and thats good im trying to keep them alittle ways away from me. Let me take you on a ride to the future. Stimulus. You know, ive got to just tell you this way. You see i was really, really and still am really close with our president , president trump, close with his family. Now, i can never understand three things that happened along the way. The first thing that happened was just this, he quit having his briefings on television. Probably his advisors were telling him thats not the thing to do, mr. President , because somebody in the news may trip you up and vicepresident biden at the time is not out campaigning or anything and hes spending most the time in his house and all that and it could cause you problems. Well, i believe when he was talking to the people, the people really, really, really were dialed into president trump. And the next thing along the way you make mistakes in any job, but the next thing he came up with the idea pelosi and everybody was, they were pushing a 600 stimulus package and came out with 400. And i said, mr. President , why . And he said what do you mean . And i said, mr. President all these people vote and all of them had hoped for 600 and you gave them 400. It was the prudent thing to do, but at the end of the day, we lost our president , didnt we . The next thing that happened along the way was there was a stimulus package and thats what i just said. I believe the democrats and the republicans continued to play politics and politics and politics and it would not move while people were really hurting. People cant pay their rent, power bill, car payment or whatever it may be. All of a sudden, our president got slowly, slowly and more and more trouble. And we lost the election. And so today, today where we are is we have a new president , of which every single last one of you and myself should get behind and support with all in us. And the reason we should is out of total respect of the presidency of the United States of america. Now, with all that i say to you just this, the stimulus package that should have been passed a long time ago, in my opinion, and the president , the President Donald Trump came out and said i want to do a trillion 800 billion package, did he not . Thats exactly what he did. And stumbled, stumbled and stumbled, but today, today where i am is just this, now ive done a lot of stuff. Ive run a lot of businesses that support thousands of people and i know what to do in a lot of stuff. I am telling that we as America Today are still stumbling. We need to move forward aggressively and super boldly and if we leave some money on the table, we just do. We cant underfund what we need to jump start this world. And it will jump start the world. Whats going to happen is just this. Theres going to be a trillion 900 billion dollar stimulus package passed. With that, theres a good chance that a lot of Different Things will happen to West Virginia. A lot of good things will happen to West Virginia. I can tell you though the stimulus packages will end. You really need to listen to me. West virginia has not only dug itself out of a hole and got itself on the launch pad, its even taken itself off and become the diamond in the rough that everybodys missed, but, yet, if everything just goes back to the way it was, i challenge every single one of you, West Virginia will fall back into being West Virginia some day. We are on the launch pad right now. In fact, were airborne right now. And thats why tonight, tonight i am asking all of you to join me to repeal the income state income tax in the state of West Virginia. [applause] now, how do you do that . What do you got to do . Theres a lot of people in this life that will work night and day to try to do nothing. Thats not me. Here is how you do it. First of all, you take one bite of the elephant at a time, a big bite. You cut the income tax on everybody in the state of West Virginia except the super highest earners and you cut theirs by a third, but you cut everybody else by half. Right out of the gate. You absolutely explain that just this is the way it has to be. If you do that, youre going to the total income tax dollars are 2. 1 billion. 2. 1 billion in our state. Half, almost, of our total revenue. Now, if youll stay with me just one second. Ill tell you just this. If you take half of our revenue and still put it in the bucket, half of our income tax dont go away. Half is still in the bucket. Youve got to go back and revisit and look at tiering the severance tax on all gas and coal. I told you this year ago. We should help our coal companies, our gas companies, our oil companies, we should help them in every way to continue to create jobs and on and on and on do all we can. My family has been in the coal business forever and im going to tell you that when profits rise to levels that are beyond our imagination, we ought to be willing to step up and pay just a teenie bit more. I think what were going to have to do thats going to hit the everyday man, is were going to have to raise sales taxes by 1 1 2 if were going to eliminate our income tax. We need to look at putting an additional tax on cigarettes and soda in trying to make us healthier and better and that could be a source of revenue for us. We need to absolutely bring into taxation our professional services as well. And then you need to have a wealth tax, a tax on those that are very, very welltodo. That can pay just a little bit extra. And then you need to make some cuts. The cuts need to be in my opinion very minuscule. You do not need to cut to the bone, but you need to make some cuts. By minuscule, i mean very minuscule, 25 Million Dollars of cuts will get you there. Now, at the end of the day, just imagine, imagine, imagine if i were to say to me, to anybody, we can cut our income tax in half right off the getgo. Well have to pay another percent and a half on our consumer sales tax. If youre not a smoker or you dont buy soda pop, thats it. For you, thats pretty much it. We need to tier our tax on coal and gas and oil. It wont bring in a whole lot of dollars, but it will bring in a few. It is so minuscule, its unbelievable what im asking you to do. And with all of that along the way, with the wealth tax, a luxury tax basically, thats also minuscule. By minuscule, and it may only bring in 20, 30, 40 Million Dollars. Maybe its just for, you know, for items that you would purchase one item in excess of 5,000 or 10,000 or 30,000 or whatever ive got a chart on all that, but i dont need to go through that right now. And then theres that small, small stuff. What if i were to say to you that is our chance. The door is right here for you, West Virginia. The door stands right ready for you right now. Opportunity will flash in front of you and if you dont go through, it closes. Its your chance, its your real chance. The stimuluses will die away. Covid will die away. And then ask yourself, step back from it and ask yourself how are they going to come, how are they going to come . This is an opportunity beyond all comparison. I would ask you to do two other things, i would ask you to do established buckets. You know, im really into buckets. I believe when you put something in that bucket it stays there. Id ask you first and foremost to have a flat nogrowth budget in the state of West Virginia for the next three years. [applause] i would also ask you in my bucket to put some considerable amount of dollars, 30 to 50 million in a bucket that basically we use to entice businesses to close, to close and to come and bring their employment to West Virginia. And the other bucket that i would like you to establish is an additional Rainy Day Fund. You see, if we the put the budget where we are now our Rainy Day Fund is absolutely adequately funded, period, right now. If we freeze the budget right now where we are at, absolutely, our Rainy Day Fund is in great shape. If you create that second Rainy Day Fund and let me tell you how you can do it, you see by the wisdom and good stuff of a lot, a lot of people, we have built surpluses, have we not . In 2019 we have 511 million extra dollars. In 2020 weve got a call at the finish line with a surplus in a covid year, plus moving the state income tax to the next year. Weve still got to cross the finish line. We did and whats happened now, now, whats happened is you have a surplus of cash that is extraordinary. And we continue to grow it. I would not spend it. I would set it into a bucket, a Rainy Day Fund bucket for the elimination of our income tax or any shortfall in the elimination of our income tax. Now the opportunity is there. Its entirely up to you. I will listen to any and everybody, but absolutely, ive given you a pathway, a pathway to eradicate our income tax and you may say, well, governor, we understand, but governor, that gets us halfway there and you said youre going to eliminate it. Stay with me just one second. In the state of West Virginia today youre growing at a pace of really, really, really close to 300 million a year. If you think of how many will come into our state, it could blossom to who knows where. If you dont raise and spend an extra money on the budget or on unnecessary items, if you dont if you have the discipline to really watch the store, the gross, the gross alone, the gross alone will take you there. And the gross alone will eliminate the rest of the balance of the income tax. Now i could go on about this for a long, long time. It is the single, i will promise you to god above, it is the single Biggest Issue that you could possibly, possibly address. You need to spend unlimited amount of time addressing this issue. This issue would transform our state like you cant imagine. And if you dont do it, you might as well just sit back and listen to old jim, hes sitting here with white hair and absolutely has had a lot of experience. You mark it down. Covid will get gone. Stimulus will get gone. And when they get gone, absolutely youll turn back and youll say, lets build another field and theyll come and theyll put a factory in or whatever it may be. And then when you build the field and they dont come, what next . The downside of this, the downside is nothing. Its absolutely nothing. Soda pop and tobacco, a little bit on the severance tax, our absolutely not laying in additional taxes on our businesses . Genesee has three different taxes, taxes on their businesses. Their property taxes are multiples of what ours are. Think of the story one more time. The best in the nation with covid, the best in the nation. And now, that state is going to get rid of its income tax and that state is the most northerly state in the union to the population. Theyve got to come through us to get to somebody else. Do you think theyre going to come through us and go anywhere else, one of the most beautiful seasons on the planet, the greatest people. Its our chance, its our chance. Now, im going to move on. Tonight i am asking you to he will evaluate in the cabinet two to he will evaluate cabinet level agencies to secretaries of cabinets in two areas. You see, i am hung up like crazy on tourism and Economic Development. Tonight i am asking you to create two agencies, two new cabinet positions. I will put miss carmichael in the Economic Development position and chelsea in the tourism position. They absolutely, this is stuck on, everybody that knows mitch hes stuck on on all the time and he could probably sell bread to starving russians on credit, and chelsea is amazing, and now, im asking you all to create the closing fund that i just said earlier and im asking us to create additional Rainy Day Fund that we can put excess dollars and let me give you just another tidbit, just imagine this, can you imagine in the state of West Virginia, weve got 464 Million Dollars of the cash surplus today right now, right now. We have 178 Million Dollars as surplus through the first seven months of the year and hopefully it will continue to grow, i cant guarantee that. 464 million cash surplus right now. Absolutely, what do you think lets just stay with me where you can understand what i know. What do you think is going to happen with the biden stimulus package . What could happen . They could forgive all of the dollars that weve put out towards unemployment. Theyve already backdated to january of 2020 all of the to fema. What if . What if we had hundreds and hundreds and hundreds more millions of dollars, put them in the bucket. Dont spend them. Dont throw them away because youll spin around five times and wake up and say, where are we . You wont know what happened. Put them in the bucket. Now, through all this, record surpluses and getting through probably the biggest commish accomplishment ive been involved with, getting through the 2020 year with an absolute surplus is amazing, its amazing, with the summit on the covid. Nowhere to turn and income tax and its amazing. With all thats happened ive got a few announcements to make, with all that weve done one thing and i give many, many kudos to my office, all the people in Economic Development. All the people in commerce, all the people across all the agencies. We took all the cabinet up there and met and met and met, but we landed, i believe in West Virginia. [applause] now, weve got weve got two visitors with us, weve got well, first of all, a special thanks to gordon and wdus efforts and courtney robinson. Hes doing a lot of stuff and more announcements to come in regard to that in the not too distant future and john chambers. A guy all of us know very, very well and has done so much good in trying to help us tell our story. But in addition to that, theres mike snyder and i think hes on with us right here, and mike is with and i dont know why with this technology age, but he cant talk, but all we can do is clap for him and thank him. We can wave to him, mike, and thank you, sir. [applause] can you imagine, can you imagine that little state, that miracle that i talked about, that little state absolutely working with these great people that could revolutionize. Revolutionize travel as we know it. They gave us validation. Theyve given us so much and ive told you over and over, you will always be remembered. Youll always be appreciated. And youll be loved here beyond good sense. Thank you, again, sir. Also, at our North Central airport, ill never forget people coming in to talk to me about what was going on at North Central and we had some dollars that were there and so we said i mean, after we listened to the presentation, i said do it. Do it right now. Well, they did it and im just going to follow my script here, but irj, mhirj at the North Central airport employs 300 people today and we had an announcement just not long ago that theyre moving their employment to 800 people and the jobs average pay is 28 an hour. Thats pretty unbelievable. [applause] their leader of the band is in japan right now and i hope im going to get this correctly, but ismail mckayville is with us not with us because of time differences and everything, but i hope some way he can hear us as well. In addition dst innovation, get this, people that made organic material and a lot of it can come from coal, are moving right now into morgantown and set up shop there and then they have promised in phase two to do a manufacturing process in southern West Virginia and with all of that, they hope to create a thousand, a thousand new jobs in West Virginia. Please give them a great big round of applause. [applause] ive got to tell you this. Tourism in West Virginia has exploded, has it not . Absolutely chelsea has done a marvelous job beyond belief. Without question whatsoever we needed to be the frog that was proud of his own pond and invest some dollars and turn that into something really good. Weve done that. You know, we absolutely just think about this. Our parks are having millions of visitors. Absolutely did 100 million of upgrades to our parks. I cant thank Steve Mcdaniel enough. What an incredible job hes doing. We had the best tourism ad in the entire nation. In the last two years, 250 million of tourism investment, investment in our state has come to pass. Weve also welcomed the Newest National park in the country, the new river gorge National Park and preserve. And with us tonight is a fella thats going to take us further. And thats brad smith. The chairman of intuit. And brad is with us and brad has made an incredible donation to us and everything to work on a concept that would bring Remote Workers to West Virginia. Now, i have a bill that is in front of you and in just a second were going to give brad the biggest round of applause in the world, but i have a gill in front of you to propose the attraction of Remote Workers to West Virginia, but its a fundamental change and a modernization to how we look at Corporate Tax and the Corporate Tax structure and how we move towards i can ma making West Virginia attractive for Remote Workers. We want to do it, brad has an idea, not only does he have an idea he put his money where is mouth is and hes absolutely given us an advance to do this, so many, so many want to work from home. So many can work in other places and do great work here. This gives us a real chance. So, brad, thank you from the bottom of our hearts, love you and please, give him a welcome. [applause] an issue in West Virginia, covid has taken us off track. We had jobs and hope and we had some beginnings, some beginnings, but we still have got to know the drugs and impacts us all im not going into great, great detail, but we have a fella with us tonight right there his name is joe bosick and joe had brought a concept to us and everything and he asked me if id be the head coach. And thats game changers. Theres been so much happen and tonight i am announcing the game changers. In conjunction with the West Virginia drug intervention absolute has established a partnership, now, get this, with the world renowned Hazelton Betty Ford foundation to bring evidencebased prevention programs for opioids and substantial abuse to students in all West Virginia schools. It is unbelievable and tonight weve got with us and i think this is mark and he is the president and ceo of Hazelton Betty Ford. And well have angela and she is the founder and executive director of crr Carr Building assets and reducing risk. So please give them a giant round of applause. [applause] just so you know where i am, we made some really, really bold steps for broadband did we not . West virginia is deficit on broadband belong belief. We need to do everything to blanket our state with broadband. It will make us better and better and better and the opportunities just abound everywhere. It is the next highway construction project. We absolutely have fed dollars now pouring in and we have Real Progress in broadband, but weve got to do more. Weve got to do more. Thats just all there is to it. From the standpoint of the roads report. Our road to prosperity, you know, a long time ago we absolutely moved along the lines of were going to start our roads to prosperity vote. I went on the road, stayed on the road and lo and behold 73 of the people voted for it. I promised them we wouldnt raise additional taxes. We havent raised a dime of additional taxes and we have absolutely continued to do work and we absolutely had our roads get in this situation over decades of neglect. We still have more to do and i want to tell you we will continue to do it. Tonight i also want to strongly support and hope like crazy it gets in through this year, as an intermediate court of appeals. I want to announce something that is really, really close to my heart. We have a lady thats with us that is our teacher of the year. I said in my first state of the state, we needed to make education our center piece. Not that we needed to just throw a bunch of money away to education or anything, but here is my whole naught. We have to change our image. We absolutely had to start down a pathway to really trying to change our image to the outside world. Tonight we have a fifth grade teacher thats with us a 20year veteran. She has sponsored by toyota motor manufacturing West Virginia, high mark of West Virginia, West Virginia lottery, West Virginia Educators Association her name, and make her absolutely welcome. Her achievement is unbelievable. Our teacher of the year erin anderson. [applause] i wont keep you a whole lot longer. Ive got to just say this, ive had a team around me in this covid deal. Our covid czar, clay morris. Our general of our national guard, general hoyer, our dhhr secretary, secretary crouch and the doctor. All those all over the place, all of those in our Health Communities and our First Responders and all of those that absolutely have braved this fight. Can you imagine i say it all the time, but can you just imagine, imagine crawling out of bed, getting your scrubs on or whatever it may be and going right into the fire as you kiss your children goodbye and hope youll see them again later in the day. Knowing you could bring it home. Knowing there were so many uncertainties in the beginning and yet, they win. Our virtual workers did the same thing, and yet they win. They did everything for all of us. We owe them so much. But we could absolutely owe no one more than our National Guardsmen and women. 1460 of them are deployed right now. They have started our Mountaineer Challenge Academy and now we have Mountaineer Academy 2 and now theyve stood up for a task force for covid vaccination. We owe them so much, ive said it many times, to our military we owe everything we have. If you dont think that, youre not thinking right. Please give nem them a great big round of applause. [applause] so in wrapping this thing up, youve given me an honor beyond belief. A lot of people along the way would say, gosh, oh, man, i bet its just awful being the governor at this time. I mean, how lucky unlucky could you have been, blah, blah, blah, blah, but you see, i believe just this i believe the good lord made you who you are for a reason and he put you rit right here for a reason and i believe he made me who i am for a reason and thats why this has not been a burden, its been an honor. Its been tough and youve had all kinds of sleepiness nights and its been really tough, but im telling you, ive got to thank all of those around me in my office and all the great work that theyve done as well, especially you, kathy. Jilly, jay, katherine, those little rascals, jc and connolly and more than anybody in a lot of ways, baby dog. Before i go, let me just say this, West Virginia was really rolling before we got covid. Covid. No one know what in the world it was, crying out loud, its 2 00 in the day and we were having schools and sporting events all over the country, big 12 events and everything shutting down everywhere. We had our state tournament going on right down there and at 2 00, my team, my team was playing. We pulled the plug and we started to work, did we not . And along the way, along the way we have done a lot of really good work. Weve lost in excess of 2175 people and i say that because this morning, 2175. A shame. And its absolutely sad. Please always remember them in your thoughts, in your prayers, and absolutely you will see that through all this when we were really rolling, i am now in a position of honor and with that i have delivered right back there to our speaker and to our president , that flat budget that i referred to. Im very, very proud of that and we can do it. We can do every single thing that i have outlined here tonight. Before, tell the truth, we were 50th in all kind of things. We were competing against mississippi, like i said, who is going to be dead last and the blunt end of a lot of bad jokes and now were that diamond in the rough to people. Were not the diamond that is it going to be found. Were the diamond that they have found. Were absolutely the star of the game show on the National News every single night, almost. Its West Virginia. West virginia and West Virginians and now youve got the reins. Im telling you with all in me if you want to drive Property Values in in state up and if the border counties are concerned that somebodys going to go across and buy soda pop or buy cigarette across the border, i would say to them just this, those people across the border are going to come to you to live. I mean, crying out loud. Why would we worry about that, theyre going to be coming to you to live. Your stores are going to be filled like you cant imagine. The opportunity is right here right now. I can tell you just this, too. The steepest part of the mountain, if youll just watch, any mountain ive ever climbed in your life, where is the steepest part . Its always near the top. Its always near the top. You start off like this and goes like this and then all of a sudden, youre standing there looking and that last little part to get here to kathy is almost straight up. And most people slide back down. Im confident that you wont. And the big question in all of our minds thats been asked me over and over, where are we going to be in 10 years, where are we going to be in 20 years . Im going to tell you somewhere here, who knows where they are so im not going to im not to go there, oh, here. Think about this, let me make sure because i didnt want to disappoint you and not have some kind of graphics. Well, okay. What . Okay. The middle one. But in a lot of ways this is where we were. And this is where we are today. And this is where we want to stay. Where are we going to be in the next 10 years, in the next 20 years . Im going to tell you, if youll just pay really close attention to just this one thing. I would just say just this. We have a chance of being the state that has the things that we have wanted so badly that other states have had, the good things that we have wanted so badly that we didnt have, well be the state that has them and now what else well be . Well be the state that doesnt have the bad things that others still have. And the last thing what well be able to do, well be able to have that and well be able to live in paradise because thats West Virginia. You all know, all youve got to do is look outside. You all know just what an opportunity we have. And so im going to read to you just two lines. Over the next four years i want us to be even better. I wont be satisfied until West Virginias success is no longer a surprise, but it is what is expected. I want every other state in america to know if they want to get to the top of the mountain in anything they do, theyre going to have to go right through the Mountain State to get there. God bless each and every one of you, thank you so much. [applause] on thursday, the House Financial Services Committee Hearing on the recent volatility and the stock price of game stop and the decisions by some companies to restrict trading of the stock. Witnesses include robinhood ceo, citadel ceo, Melvin Capital Management ceo, ga breal plat plotkin and analyst keith gill. Moch live thursday beginning on cspan online at cspan. Org or listen on the cspan radio app. Listen to cspans podcast the weekly. This week a look at the u. S. Foreign policy and nato. Our guest is a senior policy analyst in European Affairs for heritage foundation, margaret thatchers for free. And he talks about the idea of a peace dividend. You know, i think theres still an idea at the end of the cold war theres this peace dividend for countries in europe and also to the United States. Theres the end of history, this is the mindset. There really is no existential threat anymore from russia, kind of a waywardness what is the role of nato. Does the u. S. Still need to maintain troops in large garrisons in europe anymore and the conclusion was no. And while the u. S. Maintained many of the bases in europe, a significant number were closed or consolidated and the number of troops were brought down significantly. Find cspans the weekly where you get your podcasts. The u. S. Senate is meeting today for what we believe will be a short pro forma session. Most senators are in their home states this week and now live to the floor of the u. S. Senate here on cspan2