He served in the u. S. House and senate from 1995 to 2007 in the state of pennsylvania. He was a leading contender for the nomination in 2012 it was the right to life of traditional marriage. Hes now the ceo of eecho mmike studios the growing faith and family Film Production company. He cofounded the patriot voices the grassroots Online Community of americans committed faith, family, freedom and opportunity. His other book includes it takes a family and american patriots answering the call to freedom. Please welcome the former senator rick santorum. [applause] thank you everyone for inviting me to be here. To be congratulated in the wisdom into choosing to help in that organization. Im going to be appear next month in this room to i guess you could say pretty or in washington the next movie. One is just a couple of months ago to hallmark. I thought it was important to weigh into an area that i think is the quintessential issue of our time with respect to faith and that is our religious liberty. Liberty. And so we put together a documentary which is coming out september 1 grade we are going to b be showing it here later in august and you can talk to folks at heritage and get an invitation that leads the way that its called one generation away based upon the speech Ronald Reagan gave that is away from extinction and it chronicles seven or eight i cant remember which cases. The florist in washington, the photographer that wouldnt participate in the samesex weddings, we have the military chaplain issue, and education, someone i was kicked out of eastern michigan because of her beliefs, her religious beliefs, so it is a great chronicle of whats going on. We have some fabulous people engaged in it. Jennifer marshall is probably the leading spokesperson in the book quite a. We have a whole host of others. We have the freedom from religion. These folks are all letting you know their worldview and i think its important to see them uncut with adv then so thats one of the things we will be launching and taking out. Its a little different way of showing the movies where we decided not to premiere the movies in theaters anymore that we are going to premiere our movies in the churches because they have the ability to be theaters and instead of encouraging pastors and people to go to the theater we are going to have them be for the theater and center of the culture instead of sending them to the theaters and making hollywood a lot of money we will make the church and us a lot of money. So if you belong to a church and we are called echo would like to cinema and if you want your church to be involved in that, we would encourage you to go to echolightcinema. Com. Ive been doing a book tour for the last couple of months into this issue of what i call bluecollar conservatives. When i ran for election in 2012 we did very well contrary to what every experts said would happen. We were i think given the least of all of these odds we were at the bottom. No one had a lower chance of being the nominee in the assault started and yet at the end we were right there and actually we were leading the race at one point and after missouri, colorado and minnesota. We were sent 76. He was the conservative alternative and he had a strong base among evangelical christians and that is what was making the difference. But it really wasnt what was. That was the conservative alternative. Romney was a good thing. But what was making the difference and what wev and whd over time as making a difference is the message that i was delivering out there across the country into the message is a message focused on workers, focused on the economic populism, it was a message focused on the people in america that are being left behind by the economy today. So, 70 of americans do not have a college degree. 70 of americans who are in their 30s dont have a college degree. Its not changing. That has been constant. If you listen to both Political Parties i might add, you hear the emphasis on technology and on the new economy and all these things if you look at 77 americans, they dont necessarily see themselves as part of the picture that is being painted by either political party. The Democratic Party gives them their dues and Pay Attention to the voters not in a way that i think is particularly helpful because what they want to do is redistribute wealth and money but they dont want to send opportunity. They dont want to send the ability to rise. The problem is we dont speak to those voters. We simply dont talk to them. If you think that the economic message of the Republican Party that has been the same as it has been for the last 35 years. It hasnt changed, hasnt changed at all. The message can think of three things come if you want to boil it down to three things can talk to a pastor that will tell you three things. Think of politicians. What is the third thing in the Economic Policy clicks if you are going to say what are the three things republicans focus on, number one custody actions. Actions. Number two, cut spending. Number three, [inaudible] getting there, close. At length in the budget. Reduce the debt, balanced the budget. Thats been a message for 35 years. We all go back to Ronald Reagan, we got Ronald Reagan. When Ronald Reagan came to office, that wasnt the message. It was a new message. He wasnt going for eisenhower did this, we are going to do that eisenhower did. It was a new message. We are stuck. Now, are these bad messages . No, im not suggesting they are bad messages but the problem Ronald Reagan was dealing with our different than what we are dealing with today. He said youre using the same message i used 40 years ago what are you doing. Havent you looked at america and see a different america than we have 40 years ago . Of course it was very different. I got a First Mortgage in 1982 for the house. You know what i paid for an Interest Rate cut iowas a firsttime homebuyers and i got i got adiscounted rate. 17. 5 . Mortgages are 20 . That is stagflation. You have 70 tax rates. Cut taxes . At 70 , that is a big deal. But when it is a 38 rate of pay cuts 38 to 34. Really, thats your platform . Thats pretty minimalist when its close to 73 coup 30. He had big ideas at the time because the problems that were in place. So we need to learn from him but we dont need to be in. Most of them dont even know who he is. So we need to go out and say what is the problem facing America Today . What is the economic problem facing America Today. That wasnt the case in the 1980s. Overall, things have been really bad. Not there were a lot of people doing very well but there are a lot of people who arent. And actually all of the people that are not within what is our message to them and the average american that see their wages stagnant and inflation beginning to creep up and people who save getting 0 interest on their investments unless they are getting involved in more risky ventures so what do we say to the folks that are living good responsible lives and working Class Balance the budget. I challenge anybody here to tell me how that is going to help average american workers. And if you do, do it in 30 seconds. Good luck. But we are on a message that doesnt connect heres a question you all can answer. What is your favorite word . Everybody has the same favorite word although its different. Whats your favorite word . I have a little girl some of you may remember her from the campaign. She is now 6yearsold, little girl with disabilities. She doesnt have a lot of capabilities that she knows herr name and when i sing her a song is great if she likes me to sing songs that she likes me to sing songs with her name in the year x. So i change all of the words around and i have to say bella every four or five words and she loves the song. Everybody loves to hear their name. They love to see themselves. If you think about the republican message and we paid this beautiful picture of the economy, most americans dont see themselves in that picture. Where is the firemen got a construction worker, the truck driver, where i is that you attrition, where are they in this picture . They are nowhere and you say we have a tax cut and thats true but we focus on higher income because that is what creates more growth and thats all we talk about. It may be because they are lower income receiving food stamps, but they dont see themselves in this picture. If we are going to be successful in painting the future vision for america, we have to include people in the picture and we dont need to become them to do it. I cant you how many speeches i gave but the one people always talk to me about is a speech that i gave in des moines iowa on caucuses i got up there and i talked about my grandfather who was a coalminer and i talked about being at his funeral. It was the first funeral i had ever been in. I render you links to his casket and my eyes were on a level with his when i not down and i looked at him and i saw his hands folded like this and my grandfather was a coalminer until he was 72yearsold. He had the biggest hands id ever seen in my life. He had big working hands and all i could do i this. He was an immigrant to the country, brought my dad as a kid and worked until he was 72 and i sat there and all i could think about was those were the hands that of my freedom. I heard that everywhere i went. For people that are bluecollar coalminers but their dad was with their grandfather was into they realized how important this work is to america and how we dont honor that anymore. America feels disconnected to its Political Class because we are a Political Class. We are not connected to the average worker in america. Hispanics are like every other immigrant group in america. Start at the bottom of the ladder and work your way up. They dont start at the top, they dont come here and take the top jobs. If you come through harvard and jl and mit that the vast majority just like every other immigrant group that has ever come to america, they are working their way up and so when you are talking bluecollar issues you have to be talking to hispanics and talking to worke workers. A big issue to list talks about his immigration. Immigration destroys the opportunity for workers to get better wages that we as republicans never talk about that. We never talked about immigration and how it affects average worker workers would rar hispanics and their ability to provide for their families. We talk about it in sort of academic terms or cultural terms, but we dont talk about it in terms of how its going to impact working men and women in the country and how it is impacting them and keeping wages down and causing less employment. Theres a message out there for us. Its consistent with conservative policies that we can drive and be successful and thats why i wrote this book. Thats why i wanted to come here today and share it with you. Its a vision for one final point in america is tired of division. Division. Conservatives are tired of division and of the fighting. They are tired of nobody getting along and that the trail. They really are tired of it. Even the hard conservatives to say enough with this. Its because we have the most divisive president in history of the country. He personally goes out and attacks people and tax and goes after the other party like i have never seen a president before. Bill clinton didnt do it, bush didnt do it. We are being just as the trail and it doesnt help. We need a message ladies and gentlemen that is a positive message for americas future that something that includes all americans and not. We should be the party, the Republican Party is the party of the union. We want to unite people. The Democratic Party wins elections by dividing america into classes and groups. Thats how they win and they trd they try to pump out the votes in their own little groups. It is a collection of these groups, labor unions, trial lawyers, abortion after this, environmentalists, secularists. Thats all they are all these little groups. Thats not who we are. Thank you. Ready for some questions. [applause] i go to the university of dallas. Qquebec my daughter graduated their. Can you talk about the rising cost of College Education . That is one of the toughest issues out there. I could say a lot of controversial things right now. I probably wont. Better left for private conversation although that doesnt exist in america anymore either. [laughter] look, first you have to question the value in America Today at the cost. I think that is a fundamental question you see a lot of folks. He finds people to drop out of college and then you have to look at the nature of the college. The university school, awesome school, there are Great Schools most of all. Most of them are liberal education bills. There is a study by the university of texas that said 62 of kids that come to colleges in America Today that will face conviction leaves without it. Its more about relativism and godlessness and all the things they are going into. Is there anyone from yale here . Sputnik of these old societies that has been around for a hundred years to come and speak to the campus at the Political Union president parties and if they like what they have to say theyve held on the table and if they dont, they hiss so you sort of know how youre doing and they are active in that regard. I went through the first time, i came to this in 2000. The largest theyve ever had on the Political Union and you know what it was . Resolve. They are destroying the american family. I went out there and i said what sort of define our terms. So to define the panel he is, what is the purpose, with service does it have to society, does the state of the family today . Every one that you can possibly imagine they said the same thing to me. I have never heard any of that before. And one of the elite universities in the country they have never heard any of that before. So it goes back to the fundamental question how much do we want the federal government to continue to subsidize the liberal education and are we doing thdoing the children int s any favor by putting them through this and having the huge bills and the federal government for what they are getting. So the answer is i think there needs to be dramatic reform within the educational institutions in the country if they want to come to the federal government to say that we deserve to have more support from the federal government. Its controversial in that it will be picked up by the Huffington Post and others. [laughter] thank you for coming to speak to us. Theres a lot of good ones out there you spoke about how republicans can tailor their message to resonate with workingclass families. Would you comment on the Export Import Bank that is coming up for the reauthorization in september and how in a bad institutioany badinstitution ite little guy . Writing is a mistake for us to be out there and focused on the bank. I would agree with the strain of libertarianism that says government doesnt do a lot of things while particularly when it comes to interfacing with the business sector. Id agree that supports most that agenda. One of the problems in the ideology is that it is an ideology and has no foundation in the practical roots of what goes on in society. I always say the federal governments job when it comes to any business is to create a level Playing Field. The government is going to be involved and needs to set rules. I dont think there are any out there. They nee need to set the Playing Field level for everybody. I make this point in my book repeatedly. Its different than any other business in america. Why is it different . Well, the Grocery Store competes with another Grocery Store down the street. Walmart competes with target, citibank competes with bank of america. You can go down the list of any restaurant, aei heritage. They are all in competition. Thats a great. But its the one from mexico or malaysia or china so when the American Government looks at how we have the level Playing Field we cant just look at other manufacturers in the united states. We have to look at how we compete in the level Playing Field in the competition that exists around the world. Thats why we have to look at the tax rates and say should it be the same as every other business i would argue no it shouldnt be. We should look at the tax rates around the world and see what they are compared to others in a level Playing Field but the same thing. Every expert in the world has a similar or much more interested agency than xm bank that subsidizes and a great way to financing of exports. It is involved in the business. Its a bad thing and we are tying the hands of the manufacturers. The ability for the big projec projects. It becomes a problem for the smaller manufacturers to be able to get the credit they need to be able to do these experts. So i understand the ideology. And i dont know how many of you know russell kirk but russell kirk was as conservative as you can get but he understood compromise is not a bad thing and we cannot just be rigid in applying these principles to everything. Because not everything is the same. It mostly works. Sometimes you have to say in this case, this principle needs to be amended. In the compromise there are two kinds. Good compromise and bad compromise. Its getting less of a bad thing. If you can work with ted kennedy and he wants to pass a terrible bill and you can water it down so it doesnt hurt so much that is a bad compromise because you know that its going to hurt but if you have to compromise with ted kennedy in order to, when i was there in order to get something good. Less of itdoes a good compromise. Is iso to stop compromising thed things and be owing to compromise to get less good t