right now on the nevada caucuses. >> mitt romney is hoping for a win so big that it start a chain reaction across the country. >> this campaign went down the hill. >> romney had his day in florida and wants to keep his momentum going. >> i will lead us on to prosperity. >> gingrich vows to fight on no matter how he does tonight. >> we will be in tampa as the nominee. >> the final four candidates in a marathon race for delegates. >> we're in third place when it comes to delegates and that's what really counts. >> the party's big prize. >> our will be a united party. >> will republicans rally behind a single candidate soon or will the infighting last for months? >> i don't believe the republican party is going to nominate a liberal. >> i think they are looking for an alternative to mitt romney. >> his stakes are high. every contest matters. >> we're going to beat money power with people power. >> in nevada, right now, all bets are off. from the cnn election center, i'm wolf blitzer. weapon want to welcome our viewers from the united states and around the world to a special "the situation room." we're going to find out the results of the florida primary. we have crews in positions across the state and across the country and with the candidates out there on the campaign trail. we have soledad o'brien with the best political team on television. first, we have the first votes actually coming in from nevada and let's tell you what's going on right now. just 1% of the vote is in. it's very, very early but it looks right now pretty good for mitt romney. 54%. 1,329 points. he's ahead of ron paul. there's a about the tell for second place from 459 to 448. rick santorum in fourth place with 9%. but this is very, very early. more official numbers are coming in very quickly. we're getting some entrance polling numbers coming in. cnn's john king is joining us. we're getting a little flavor of what people told us after they told us how they felt. >> in this case, before they voted because it was an entrance poll. we've had a few primary nights. remember the first night of the season, in a caucus, you poll them on the inside. we have 48% of the voters that describes themselves as very conservative. 35% said somewhat conservative. 17% said moderate to liberal. governor romney among the largest sliz of the electorate getting 51% of the vote. but, remember, it's early. speaker gingrich getting 24%. less than half among very conservative voters. that would be one way to look at it. let's slide over and take a little bit more look at the ee lk for rate. 53% men voting. 47% women. how does ron paul do in a state like this because he's in single digits yet look at this. ron paul has done very well with younger voters and you have an older older electorate. that will be interesting to look at as we look at ron paul. 12.6% unemployment in the state of nevada. it's been over 14%. foreclosure crisis out there. no surprise at all. 54% of our caucusgoers saying that the economy is issue number one and let's look at that. we don't have the numbers in yet. we'll see how it goes. candidate quality can defeat president obama is the number one. nevada will be a key swing state this november. george w. bush carried it twice. wolf, this one isn't filled in yet. obviously these voters voting today. they want somebody electable because they think their state will be very competitive. >> a lot more older people are voting than younger people which is normal in elections. >> in nevada there is a lot of retirees there. but we will see. in the month ahead we have caucuses in nevada, maine, early march caucuses in washington state. viewed as ron paul strength. >> we'll check in with our reporters covering what is going on. in nevada, jim acosta, brianna keilar at the gingrich headquarters. what is happening where you are, jim? >> romney is on his way back to nevada. he was at an event in colorado springs, colorado. just a sign that the romney campaign is looking past nevada into these upcoming caucus states. newt gingrich went after president obama. >> the president thinks that america is in decline. i don't. i think he reaches out to the world's worst actors and i think he thinks somehow if he apieces them and accommodates them, it will be better. in my view, it's always the best way to deal with tyrants and autocrtats. >> reporter: now, mitt romney used that speech to go off the president's stimulus package. unfortunate timing. democrats in colorado were pointing out that the facility where mitt romney was giving that speech actually received stimulus money. mitt romney was trying to address that in his comments to voters saying he's talked to the owner of that company and according to that owner the stimulus program did not help very much in terms of hiring people out there. but governor romney is on his way back to nevada as we speak. brianna keilar is over at the gingrich headquarters. what is he up to? >> reporter: no public events today. in fact, in a sign that perhaps newt gingrich has all but seeded nevada to romney, he will talk to reporters and it will be well after caucusgoers have had their say. no event for supporters. he's been focusing on 60 donors last night. the best case scenario for newt gingrich today is to have a second-place finish. make sure he doesn't lose ground to ron paul and conservative voters, voters that with the tea party voters. >> specifically target conservatives, brianna. >> reporter: he's really raising questions about mitt romney's credentials. he had two campaigns here yesterday in las vegas. one was at a church where he hit romney for comments that he made on cnn saying that he would patch holes in the safety net for the very poor. gingrich basically saying it's an endorsement of a welfare state. >> my good friend, the governor from massachusetts, said it was okay to not worry about the poor because after all they have a safety net. it's not a safety net. it's a spider net. it deprives them of independence. [ applause ] >> one of the reasons i am running is i want to replace the spider web with a trampoline that launches them into the middle class and gives them a future. >> reporter: so, wolf, newt gingrich not expecting to win here in nevada. what he's trying to do is stay relevant through this month until super tuesday in march when he's going to see voters in conservative states head to the polls, especially the southern states. >> march 6th will be a big, big day, brianna. thank you. i love it when mitt romney calls gingrich "my good friend." i'm not necessarily sure that they are such good friends. >> it's always a sign when they say my good friend. we have gloria borger and david gergen with us tonight. is it all about the race for number two? >> well, it really is about whether mitt romney can really start consolidating the conservative base? even though we had that big win in florida, he was still losing among people stronly identified with the tea party, strongly said they were very conservative, what i call the base of the base. and we'll have to see tonight whether those people are starting to rally 5r7bd mitt romney. you heard newt gingrich telling the voters, you know what, he's not a conservative. mitt romney doesn't even understand what the conservative economic message is. he said, we're all about the trampoline. not about the safety net, which is, of course, some conservative's way of thinking i'm the conservative alternative. >> he also said that he's trying to stay relevant through the month of february because to some degree he's conceded the race. >> you've been in the news. you've been driving the conversation. >> not me, sir. just my interviews. >> so i think the question transcend who owns the month of february. there are a series of caucuses and primaries in february, relatively small individually but taken together they are critically important. and we have three battle ground states up for grabs. come november they will be critical. a dozen battle ground states across the country. if mitt romney can beat all three, they don't have a plausible argument about why they should be a national candidate. what reason do we have to believe that they can win against obama in a general election in a battle ground state. i think nevada building on florida. if romney can run here tonight, if he's above 50%. >> i was going to say, is that the line, 50%? >> well, he was at 51% last time and he didn't get the nomination. >> but he's got these other guys out there. >> and we have to see if newt gingrich is number two or ron paul is number two, how close to romney -- >> and we have many, many hours to see all of that. >> yes, we do. thanks, guys. our chief political correspondent candy crowley is in washington, d.c. how are you? >> good evening. >> what are you looking for this evening? the 50% plus mark that david and gloria were talking about? >> i don't know if i would put a number on it but it's like pornography. you'll know it when you see it. i think this has to be part of the big role for romney. it reminds me a little bit of barack obama versus hillary clinton when he really began to -- iowa obviously was a great win for barack obama when he was a candidate. but it was these caucus states that -- people don't say, well, there's only four delegates here or only six delegates here. people say, oh, they won another one and so it was during this period that barack obama began to rack up victory after victory after victory that really made him look like he was on a role. if romney can do that and make it past super tuesday and say i won most of the important states, i agree with david, it's going to be really difficult for anybody else in the race to argue that they should be the nominee. >> candy crowley in d.c., thank you. wolf, back to you. we're getting ready for a significant number of votes to come in from nevada. get ready. we're about to report on the official vote count as it is coming in. a caucus is nothing like the privacy of a voting booth. they are very loud and can get passionate. into congressman ron spaul ready to fire up his supporters in minnesota. as soon as he starts speaking, you'll know it and hear it. live from the cnn election center. the nevada caucuses. we're only just beginning. 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[ male announcer ] sustainable solutions. fedex. solutions that matter. we're watching for the next round of results from today's caucuses. we expect to get a lot more numbers coming in very, very soon. stand by. we'll update you as soon as they come in. let's go to john king looking at entrance polling data. we're getting more information on what folks are saying as they register their votes. >> not only what they voted for but what was on their mind at the time that they voted. look at this. nearly 6 in 10 of the caucusgoers made up their mind before january. a lot of these people made up their mind before the early voting. let's move over here as we decide here. this is interesting. among voters who wanted a k57 candidate to defeat president obama, can they win in november, among shows voters, an overwhelming win for romney. 74%. 3 out of every 4 voters thought mitt romney. they thought he was the right candidate. a very distant second for speaker gingrich. if you want to look at one weakness, it looks like he's on his way to a convincing win. as you see, most voters wanted him to defeat obama, that would suggest that he's going to win. ron paul is getting 45% of the votes. 31% for speaker gingrich. rick santorum, third. 17% of the electorate, governor romney comes in last. >> a weak point? >> a weak point as you go forward. it's potential that that could be exploited. 74% of those caucusing today in nevada say they support the tea party movement. the tea party was big in the state of nevada. 74% say, yes, i support the tea party. this has been a weakness of governor romney and he's getting half. speaker gingrich, if you look at what people said on the way in, issues on their mind, these numbers would suggest that governor romney is on his way to a very comfortable victory. as you noted, we're going to get actual results. >> we've got live pictures from carson city. they are counting the vote in carson city and elsewhere as well. take a look and listen. >> reporter: i'm paul steinhauser. there is a caucus going on here today. we're in the cafeteria and we have three precincts meeting. people are already starting to speak on behalf of their candidates. we're in our second speaker supporting mitt romney for the presidential nomination. after people give their preferences and speak, the voting begins. >> i'm peter hamby here in henderson, nevada. i want to give you a look at the scale. there are three precincts. at this one, there's 378 registered republicans but only 35, 40 people are showing up today. remember, there's not the political culture surrounding the caucuses in nevada as there is in iowa. this is only the second caucus that republicans have held here. the first one was in 2008. we're seeing a little bit of logistical confusion as people figure out the ballots and that sort of thing in hen der ton. >> reporter: i'm paul here in carson city. now, this area, 11,000 republicans, 10,000 democrats. they are dropping their votes off over here in the precinct offices. there are 24 of them. carson city went for john mccain in 2008 in a totally unscientific poll, talking to people around here, mitt romney is doing well. he's covered a lot of northwest nevada. i'm paul in carson city. >> we're going to go to carson city live as soon as they start counting the votes. more numbers are coming in right now. we're going to update you in a moment. let me go over to soledad once again. she has some excellent contributors. >> yes. the best. let me introduce you to the contributors. maria cardona, wearing the red jacket. >> absolutely. >> ted rowlands and will cain. >> shocking he has a tie on. >> you've been promoted to the big boy table. let's start with eric. is it all about momentum and who has it tonight? >> yes, momentum and you've got to remember looking at a lot of the polling that we've seen thus far, it takes a while to have news events catch up. romney will probably have momentum coming out of nevada as people speculated that it would happen a couple weeks ago. but also you will see, for example, the marion gingrich story, that happened three our four days before south carolina, it did in florida. the mitt romney interview with you came so soon to nevada it hasn't had time to percolate. >> roland martin, let me ask you about that. he was talking about the poor. when you look at the state of nevada, you're talking about a state where homes are in foreclosure as a higher rate than most of the country. let me play a clip. >> sure. >> i'm in this race because i care about americans. i'm not concerned about the very poor. we have a safety net there. if it needs repair, i'll fix it. i'm not concerned about the very rich. they are doing just fine. i'm concerned about the very heart of america. the 90, 95% of americans bho are struggling and i'll continue to take that message across the nation. >> i know i said last question but he said, i'm not going to care about the very poor because they have a safety net. there are americans who are poor and they are struggling who will say, that sounds odd. >> finish the sentence, soledad. i said i'm not concerned about the poor that have safety nets but if there are holes in them, i will repair them. >> they are hurting but a lot of people don't consider themselves to be poor. people who were retired, went there and had a second home. they say i'm middle class, i'm simply having a difficult time. it's a question of how the other candidates hit on that. you hear newt gingrich offering some comments that is speaking to that very issue. what will santorum do? what will happen when they go to states that you have a significant number of catholic voters? did you look at what they do? i think he's going to have to deal with this issue beyond thinking these are poor, unfortunate people. easygoing to states where there are the poorest people in the country. erick is right, it's going to catch up with us. >> let's talk about consolidation. >> that was problematic to conservatives and liberals but for different reasons. they heard it literally. mitt romney does not care about poor people. i don't think conservatives feel that way. it's not that you are picking groups to favor and disfavor, helping and helping more. >> maria cardona, we're going to go to you in a minute. but first, in minnesota, ron paul. americans believe they should be in charge of their own future. how they'll live tomorrow. for more than 116 years, ameriprise financial has worked for their clients' futures. helping millions of americans retire on their terms. when they want. where they want. doing what they want. ameriprise. the strength of a leader in retirement planning. the heart of 10,000 advisors working with you one-to-one. together for your future. ♪ we're about to get some more vote results coming in very, very soon. stand by for that. we're about to get a bunch of new votes coming in to the cnn election center. in the meantime, rick santorum and ron paul aren't in nevada tonight. they are looking ahead to the contest on tuesday, this coming tuesday. for the first time, voters in more than one state will weigh in on the same day. gary tuchman is in colorado. let's go to david mattingly first. why is ron paul in minnesota as opposed to las vegas? >> they are looking closely and they can start there looking at minnesota and the caucus is on tuesday to tell them how high that bounce is going to go. so they are already on the ground here. he's attracting on government and foreign affairs. listen. >> it's called mind our own business. >> reporter: now, again, ron paul is watching from the back room here, watching what is going on he's also feeling about where he's positioned in this state. minnesota has been known to embrace campaigns and he definitely fits that mold. they are very enthusiastic about participating in the democratic process. that's what he's counting on if he does well tonight in nevada. he needs something that he hasn't seen since november and that is momentum. wolf? >> hold on, david mattingly. i want to go to paul in carson city. paul, i know that they are counting the ballots in carson city. you have access to this with the only effort that is going to see how the folks in carson city are voting and gingrich 12 and santorum 15. and 19 for santorum and 20 for paul. as we whip around, let's get a look at our campaign. you can see that the ballots are pouring in. there's 24 precincts here in carson city, wolf. what you have is about 12,000 republicans in this area. about 10,000 democrats. this county did go for john mccain in the last election. so it will be interesting to see how everything shakes down. it looked to be at least 50%. all the precincts appear to be that way tonight. so far romney, of course, is doing the best as we've heard. he flooded this northwest part of nevada, made a lot of stops. all the candidates seem to be registering to a degree and i hear ron paul in my ear. they've got a lot of ron paul supporters here as well as gingrich supporters and santorum. what everyone is seeming to say, this is a super bowl for them. in terms of a game, wolf, no matter who they are going to support, for everyone to come together and make sure in november they are galvanized and unified and in the end they are able to defeat barack obama. >> you saw it here, you actually saw the votes as they were counting. you saw the tally change as they were counting. 53% for mitt romney with 1,391 votes. he's 891 votes ahead of gingrich and ron paul at 19% and rick santorum at 9%. we have reporters and producers at various locations. we're counting the ballots. we're seeing how the results come in as they are officially reported and that's why we can share them with you. i want to check in with gary tuchman right now with rick santorum in colorado watching what is going on. colorado, nevada, what is the decision making? we know that there's going to be a contest on colorado on tuesday. he wants to get an early start realizing nevada is not going to be all that strong for him? >> that's right, wolf. rick santorum has known for a while now that he wasn't going to do well for the state of nevada so he held on to his chips and he's doubling down here in colorado and also where there are caucuses on n a primary this tuesday. he will be in this huge ballroom. i'm almost by myself with some waiters. the people will arrive shortly. this is the annual republican party lincoln day dinner in honor of that very favorite republican president who saved the union back in the 1860s. you can see the motto of the night is how the west will be won in 2012. rick santorum will get about 600 people listening to him, talk about why he wants to be president of the united states and his believe that he can still be president of the united states. a lot of people don't see how he can be the nominee but they talk about his campaign steps, what he will do as his first day as president of the united states. >> i will help be prepared for a variety of different things we can do everything from first firing every czar that is there. pau pause. [ applause ] to look at things that web we can do immediately to turn the country around economically, by signing the keystone project and moving that forward. >> so the former u.s. senator in pennsylvania will be speaking in colorado in about two hours from now and then will fly to the state of minnesota will he will spend the day campaigning tomorrow. wolf? >> i know. his aides have expectation for minnesota and colorado but low expectation for nevada. ron paul is getting ready to speak. we'll hear him as well. more information coming in as far as entrance polling? >> wolf, you just showed those numbers. it looks like from the early results that governor romney has a pretty big lead. who will get second place? you see newt gingrich and ron paul in second place. i want to know -- i looked through all of these income groups and mitt romney is carrying every group except those who made under $30,000 a year. ron paul winning that group with 32%. governor romney and speaker g g gingrich. there's a piece of ron paul support. it's only 10% of the electorate. if he can hold on -- >> probably young people? >> probably young people. but not as young as he would hope. about 18% of the electorate today describes themselves as independent. look at that. ron paul getting almost half of that vote. 48% of that vote there. romney next and then speaker gingrich. again, this is a source of strength for ron paul. not a huge slice of the electorate but he's competitive for second place. and then if you come over here th, this is a younger electorate. that's too small of a slice here. we're not getting the slice because sometimes when it's so small you don't see as hard of a number. this is the biggest slice of the electorate and this is why at the moment governor romney is ahead at 60% of the vote. but we're looking and looking and trying to find more interesting information. >> fascinating information. when you say democrats, independents, republicans, this is a closed contest. only registered republicans can actually participate but i guess they register as republicans. >> when they go in, they describe themselves as independent but they have to be allowed to vote in the process. they just described themselves as independent. >> thank you, john. we're about to get a significant update of the nevada vote totals. the first candidate we will hear from is ron paul. also, we'll check in at the republican party's nerve center in nevada. lots of news happening. we're here at the cnn election center. stay with us. the hyundai genesis. in a new, faster-acting formula. zero-to-sixty in less time than a porsche panamera s. the 429 horsepower genesis r-spec. from hyundai. i think we should see other people. in fact, i'm already seeing your best friend, justin. ♪ i would have appreciated a proactive update on the status of our relationship. who do you think i am, tim? quicken loans? at quicken loans, we provide you with proactive updates on the status of your home loan. and our innovative online tools ensure that you're always in the loop. one more way quicken loans is engineered to amaze. i was 18 years old before i had my first fresh bun. the invention that i came up with is the hot dog ez bun steamer. steam is the key to a great hot dog. i knew it was going to be a success. the invention was so simple that i knew i needed to protect it. my name is chris schutte and i got my patent, trademark and llc on legalzoom. [ shapiro ] we created legalzoom to help people start their business and launch their dreams. go to legalzoom today and make your business dream a reality. at legalzoom.com, we put the law on your side. go towill be giving awayd make yourpassafree copiesa reality. of the alcoholism & addiction cure. to get yours, go to ssagesmalibubook.com. welcome back to our special situation room. we're here at the cnn election center. we're getting actual vote totals coming into "the situation room," the cnn election center. take a look at this. 1% of the vote is coming. there it goes. 3% of the vote is now in. you saw it change live here at the cnn election center. mitt romney with 52%. did did i vice sif lead. very impressive numbers for mitt romney. we'll see if that holds up as we go into the night. it's going to be a fascinating night. our own peter hamby is waiting for the all important numbers. >> wolf, we're inside a hotel suite at the venetian hotel. amy, we see a bunch of computers around here. what is happening exactly? what are these folks doing? >> sure. we are tallying the votes as they come in. this is our state secretary and he is in charge of verifying the votes as they come in and then he will be sending those over to twitter and google and we'll input them so they will be announced at 5:00, 16 out of 17 counties and then the largest, which is clark, we'll relay those votes at 7:00. >> reporter: i want to ask you about turnout. it was pretty low at the precinct. was turnout higher than it was in 2008? well, that's a hard call to make because clark county is the largest county and for the most part it's been pretty smooth. ron paul, the congressman from texas, the republican presidential candidate, is getting ready to speak right now i want to go and listen to what he has to say. he's in minnesota where the kaukdss take place this coming tuesday. ron paul has a very enthusiastic crowd lined up. i want to hear what he has to say. ron paul. >> thank you very much. thank you. thank you very much. it sounds like the revolution has already come to minnesota. i want to thank kirk for that very nice introduction and emphasize marianne stebbins, all the work that she has done to organize this and other events. also, i'd like to introduce my wife who is sitting over here. carol. [ applause ] and we have -- and we have one of our 18 grandchildren and she's sitting with her and that's linda. [ applause ] but it is great to see a nice crowd and a lot of enthusiasm for a very special issue, something dear to my heart that he is liberty. [ applause ] if government is the opposite of liberty, especially when they avoid doing the things they are supposed to, the government in our country especially was created to protect liberty. unfortunately n. these last several decades i'm afraid they have been misled and they are stealing our liberty from us. but something pretty big is happening in this country. not only with this election but there is a lot of enthusiasm now for the cause of more freedom and less government, less war and a free market economy. we do a fair amount of criticizing the current administration which deserves it. but our problems didn't occur in the last three years. our problems have been around for a long time. unfortunately, it's been a bipartisan affair too often. there's been, in a way, too much compromise in washington. they said, no, you want more compromise. if they compromise on doing the wrong things, it's not worth very much. [ applause ] and this is what has happened. conservatives and republicans might want to spend money in one way and liberals and democrats might want to spend in one way and then they get together and agree on it and you can tax but there's a limit, people might object and then they had this cra crazy scream that they came up with in 1913 and said, what we need to do is make sure that the money is not backed by anything, it's just paper, and we can create it endlessly and then that has led us to the trouble that we have today. this is why the fathers were explicit in putting into the constitution that they didn't want to have run away inflation again because they had it at the beginning of our history and that is why they said that the states only could use gold and silver as legal tender. [ applause ] and they placed an explicit prohibition against printing money and gave no authority for the federal reserve system. so if we ever want to get our economy back on foot again, which is an absolute necessity, we cannot do it without addressing the subject of the monetary system, the subject of the federal reserve. and it should begin with an absolute complete auditing of the fed to find out who their buddies are and who they have been bailing out. [ applause ] so much of our problems of big government came from 1913 on and especially in 1971 when the last link to gold was removed and that meant there were no limits whatsoever and look at at any c happened since '71, the price inflation, the many wars we have been fighting. exponential growth since there are no limits. except the market is powerful too. the governments are powerful but the markets are more powerful because there is a limit to how much money you can print. eventually trust is lost. and i believe this is what we have done. we have entered into a phase where it is recognized that this debt and the printing of money cannot be sustained. so our efforts now to return to our constitution is more vital and more necessary than ever before. [ applause ] >> so if liberty is the cause we have to restrain the government. that is what the founders gave us. they gave us a document that placed no restraints on the people but put restraints on the federal government. today it's been turned around. the federal government is putting restraints on the people and they have turned the government into a secret operation. it should be the opposite. we should have full exposure not only of the fed but the full exposure of our government. [ applause ] >> and of course if we want our secrecy back and our privacy back i would think we have to restore the 4th amendment which means we have to repeal the patriot act. [ applause ] >> you know the problems that we have had since 9/11 have been significant. and that was a bad day for all americans because many americans died and it was a very, very tough time. i was supportive of going after those individuals who were responsible and we should have done it and we did do it. but unfortunately it provided an opportunity for our government to do a lot of things they shouldn't have done and used it as an excuse. and for instance this was their excuse to do something they had been waiting to do and that was to invade and overthrow the got of iraq. iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. that war was totally unnecessary and based on false assumptions and lies. [ applause ] >> now there was a simple little procedure placed in the constitution to try to prevent wars of that sort. the provision is simply that presidents aren't allowed to go to war without a declaration of war. the congress and the people through their congressmen are supposed to make these declaration. i was on the international affairs committee when the resolution was coming along to give this authority to the president. it wasn't a declaration of war. so i said, look, this is going to lead to war. what they want to do is give the authority to the president to do whatever he wanted and whatever he thought was necessary. they had been wanting the war for about six or seven years before this. my first speech against the war was in 1998. it was announced by the administration that our policy was the overthrow of the government of iraq. so when the debate came up i offered an amendment to this blanket giving of authority to the president. i offered an amendment to said to declare war. but i don't want the war. i will vote against this amendment but if you want the war go to war in a proper fashion. they ridiculed this. they voted and the voice vote was all no. nobody wanted to pass it. then i forced him to have a recorded vote which further annoyed them. they didn't want to be on record. this everybody voted against it. the chairman of the committee explained that i was off based to talk about the constitution because he explained it to me. he said that part of the constitution is anachronistic. we don't follow it anymore [ boos ] >> this constitution in a way has become anachronistic. if we are going to have peace and prosperity we have to force the people who represent us, the president on down and send only people there who know how to read and understand and will take their oath of office seriously. [ applause ] >> but because we have delivered so much power to the executive branch we go to war without declaration. we have delivered the legislative process to the executive branch. technically under our constitution only the legislative body, the congress writes laws. but just think of all the regulations. just think of the federal register. thousands and thousands of pages and every year the numbers go up. i would like to be the first president that actually shrunk the size of the federal register. [ applause ] even the courts legislate. we don't live within the confines of the constitution. and unless we do we will continue in this process. go to war that are undeclared. spend money that we don't have. print the money that we don't have. but we have to change our appetite for big government. we have to can ask the questions the founders asked. what should the role of the government be in a free society. they came to the collusion it should be limited. we will write restraints on the federal government to say you can't do this. the constitution was written to restrain the federal government although they wanted the colonies together in one unit and they wanted to restrain the government. they wanted to put no restraints on the people. [ applause ] >> but unfortunately we have gone in the wrong direction especially in the last hundred years especially since 1971. but the time has come and it is evident that something dramatic has happened in the last four or five years. although there are several of us talking about this for a long time. the dramatic revelation occurred with the collapse of the economy, with the suicidal approach of just spending money and not cutting anything and printing money and think it's going to work forever. we have an economic crisis come upon us because we had too much government, too much spending, too much debt, too much taxation, too many wars. and they try to solve the problem doing the same thing. it's not going to work and that's why we have to change our direction. [ applause ] in washington they talk a little bit about the budget but they do nothing. they talk about cutting spending but they don't -- they're not telling the truth. they're talking about, you know, that congress couldn't do it. the super committee couldn't do it. they turned it over to an automatic cut of $1 trillion over ten years. on the automatic increases of $10 trillion they will cut $1 trillion out of the increases. they are fighting each other on trying to prevent which cuts are going to happen. that's $100 billion a year of cutting only proposed increases. the national debt is going up $100 billion every month. so my solution or at least the beginning of the solution is to cut the budget by $1 trillion in one year. [ applause ] there you go. some people get a little bit nervous about the government not spending money. but i tell you what. don't get nervous. the government don't know how to spend the money. is it always spent politically. they do the wrong things. they take it from us and when they spend it they come down hard on us with more regulation. there is nothing wrong with this whole economic moral principle of saying you have the right to spend the money you spend the trillion dollars and you spend it your way and not the way of the politician. [ applause ]