This is 40 minutes we are absolutely delighted to be here with you today. And that is candy right over there. Can you stand up . [applause] now its been a few years since ive been a at liberty that we talk about liberty all the time since thats what it represents, liberty and freedom from the snares of the world and the right kind of teaching and the right kind of values for the young paper that people and viewers achieve vital part of the future of the nation. But you know, i do want to acknowledge today as veterans day because i feel that we dont do enough for our veterans when you consider what they did for us. I think about world war ii, and i think about those soldiers invading the beach at normandy being molded down by machine gun fire, 100 bodies laying in the sand, a thousand bodies laying in the sun. With a frightened . Yes. But did they turn back quickly stepped back over the bodies of the colleagues and overwhelmed the access. Knowing in many cases they would never see their loved ones. Why would they do such a thing . Not for themselves but for you and me so that we can be free. So everybody that is a veteran can they stand up please. [applause] its a sacrifice and something we begin to think about in our lives because there is nothing that is free, and particularly the concept of freedom. We should be so delighted that we live in america. Is there a better place to live than america. Ive been to 57 countries and some of them are beautiful places that are always delighted to get back here because theres Something Special about the nation that we live in. Have you ever noticed that there is an american way, there is an American Dream . There is no french dream. There is no canadian dream. [laughter] there really is only an American Dream and what that means is that there is Something Special and something extremely unique about the nation that we live in and the values that went in to making this nation what it is and some people say theres nothing exceptional about america is just the same as everybody else. Its not true. Even for hundreds of years people did things the same way. Within 200 years of the advent of america men were walking on the moon its most successful the nation has ever known and we are delighted to be here. I wanted to be a doctor. But the problem was i wasnt that great of a student. Everybody called me tommy. That was my nickname and i believe that i didnt think i was very smart. And i remembered once we were having an argument in the schoolyard about who is the dumbest kid in the class. It wasnt a big argument because they all agreed it was me but then someone extended to who is the dumbest person in the world and i said wait a minute, there are billions of people in the world, and the upcoming q. Are the dumbest one. But i did admire the smart kids and i couldnt even imagine how they could know so much that there was one person who didnt think that i was done and that was my mother. She always thought that there was something there. She would always say you were much too smart. And she just didnt know what to do and she prayed and asked god for wisdom to know what to do to get her sons to understand the importance of intellectual development. And you know what, god gave her the wisdom at least in her opinion. My brother and i didnt think it was wise at all. Turning off the tv, what kind of wisdom is that taking us read two books a piece for the Public Library and submits to the book report which she couldnt read that we didnt know that and she would put a checkmark in highlights and undermines and people always say to me why did you do it . Your mother was always working. She wouldnt have known whether you read the books or not. And back in those days you have to do what your parents told you. There was no social psychologist saying let them express themselves. [laughter] and as i read those books, incredible things began to happen. I began to realize particularly as i read about people of accomplishment but the person that has the most to do it is you. Its not somebody else. Its not the environment, and that was incredibly empowering to me. And i stopped listening to all the people around me who talked about what could be done. And i start thinking about what could be done and what a difference it made in my life, and fast forward to medical school i said wow i needed. I finally got their. My only dream was to be a doctor. I skipped right over firemen and policemen, and there was finally a medical school it was going to be great. And i was sent to see my counselor and he looked at my record and said you seem like a very intelligent young man. I bet theres a lot of things you could do outside of medicine he says he were not cut out to be a doctor. I was devastated. I went back to my apartment and i said lord i always thought you wanted me to be a doctor but its not looking very good here. And i started praying for wisdom and i started thinking about what was happening with me and i was going to a lot of classes that i wasnt really learning anything from the classes and i thought the thing that really teaches you a lot is reading. So im not recommending this to anybody but maybe the executive decision to skip the lectures and spend the time reading and the rest of medical school bus easy after that and the point being that everybody learns in a different way. I personally dont learn anything from the lectures, but i learned a lot from reading. [applause] there are other people who learned a great deal and thats how they learn. Other people from discussions, some people learn from repetition, some people are very visual. One of the other things i discovered is that its very visual semimade flashcards. I had literally thousands of flash cards. Always had a bunch in my pocket. In my second year in medical school i was living with my brother who was in the school of engineering. He even knew all the bacteria because i would have these cards are talking about it. So you find out what works for you and that is an incredibly important part of what you do and what we do as a society because god has endowed us with these amazing brains and we are made in the image of god. And i get a lot of grief out there. People say how can you be a scientist and believe that god created the earth. Obviously we developed from biochemicals. And people that dont know that youre a moron. I dont criticize them. I say can you tell me how something came from nothing and of course they cant. Okay, no problem. I say im just going to give you something. And now youre going to tell me theres a big there is a big thing and it comes into perfect order so that we can predict several years when a comment is coming that kind of precision. And they say well yeah and i say but dont you also believe that things move towards a state of disorganization . Yes. How does that work and they say we dont understand everything. While i am not sure you understand anything. [laughter] but i say im not going to be critical of you, not the problem because you are entitled to believe what the bbc that it requires a lot more faith than what i believe. But everybody believe what you want to believe. Isnt that part of the problem in the Society Today . People want to force their beliefs on everybody else. I tv that the constitution gives everybody the same rights but it doesnt give anybody extra rights and thats where the problem comes in. [applause] and if we can begin to understand that the ideas we can make Real Progress because that would mean that people whether they believe the same or not could actually sit down and engage in the conversation and put the reasons that the belief on the table because when you you live in a Pluralistic Society it is absolutely crucial that we are now to do that and its also very vital that we begin to think about each other and begin to think about those who come behind us. When i look out there and i see all these young people and i think back to Thomas Jefferson who said that it is immoral to pass the data onto the next generation, and when i think about what my generation is passing on to you guys if you can bring Thomas Jefferson here today to let him see whats going on, he would immediately strike out. He wouldnt be able to believe the kind of death that we are moving with. 18 plus trillion dollars of National Debt backs to beat coke. Think about that if you try to pay that off with 10 million a day it would take you over 5,000 years and we are putting that on your back. But thats the good news because its actually much worse than that. The gap, the fiscal gap which is the enough of money the government does Going Forward with medicare, medicaid, Social Security, all the Government Agencies and programs we owe them for data versus the taxes and other Revenue Sources of course those numbers would be identical because you are not responsible to bringing it up to todays dollars if its over 200 trillion. We can sustain that level of debt is because we can print money where there is a currency of the world. A position that generally goes with the number one economy which we have been in since the 1870s and weve been in competition with china but we still have the title. With china like to be the reserve currency, would you like to be able to print money we bet they would with the International Investment bank. We have a little time to get our house in order. Thats not a lot of time because the financial situation is very precarious. What happened on wall wall street would be a walk in the park compared to what will happen. Fiscal responsibility is our duty and we can fix these kinds of things. It is possible to get our economy rolling again. We have the most powerful economic engine the world has ever known in this country. Nothing anywhere close to it. We declared independence in 1766 in less and less than 100 years but the number one economic power. Because we have the right kind of atmosphere that encouraged innovation and entrepreneurial risktaking and Capital Investment and all the things that fuel the rapid rise. They will fuel a rapid recovery if we are willing to look at them and stop doing silly stuff. You think of [applause] you think of an employer mandate that heres the situation where people used to be so proud when they started the business. That was the very backbone. We put something in there to stop the Small Business from growing and then we wonder why jobs arent coming. And thats why this is so important for people to actually understand whats going on in this country if you listen to the news last week use a lot of people rejoicing that the Unemployment Rate is down to 5 . But if you know anything about economics you know that you can make that money anything you want it to be based on who you include and how you exclude and that the numbers the labor force number is the labor force but a sufficient rate which is at its lowest level since 38 years and thats why the founders of the nation said that our freedom and our system is based upon a wellinformed and educated populace and if they ever become anything other than that, the nature of the country will change. The people will not inform the other was politicians. And they go off in the completely wrong direction listening to all kinds of propaganda and inculcating that into their methods of thinking independent becomes easy for them to swallow things. They dont really understand the financial situation of the country and somebody comes along and says free college for everybody. What a wonderful person. And they have no idea that its the distraction of the nation. [applause] i could talk about the economy for a long time. But let me just say before we start the qanda, this nation is an incredibly special place because when you look at the founding document the declaration of independence, it talks about a certain inalienable rights given to us by our creator also known as god. [applause] and anything thats rare for some kind of an idiot. The nations survival is the pinnacle nation in the world i believe is rooted in our value systems, values and principles that made us into a great nation and the question is are we going to stand up for the values and principles or will we allow ourselves to be intimidated by the secular progressives. They dont care whether you agree with them or not as long as you sit down and keep your mouth shut. And i think that the secret to the prosperity of this nation is we must be willing to stand up for what we believe in. Thank you. [applause] if you would submit a few questions and just grateful for you giving us the time. The moral ground in this country has been shifting dramatically in the last few years. None more via standard issues like marriage. What about where tradition holds values like marriage seem to be the minority. You can use the bully both very effective ways to once again level the playing field. You know, the First Amendment is incredibly important. It talks about freedom of religion, not freedom from religion that freedom of religion, and we have got to encourage all the branches of the government to work effectively with checks and balances. What we have seen recently is the legislative branch which is the branch that represents the people as more or less acting like the peanut gallery which means that the executive branch and the Judicial Branch are overstepping their boundaries and we are going to have to have a president whos willing to work with the legislative branch to put things back. We need legislation to protect the religious freedoms of people who believe that marriage is between one man and one woman. [applause] youve proposed the idea of a flat tax eveuve proposed the ia flat tax even likening it to tithing as refers to proportional giving. Could you elaborate a little bit more about the flat tax . The reason i liken it to tithing is i believe god is the fairest individual and if he thought it was fair i think it must be pretty fair. Basically you make 10 billion, you pay a billion. You make 10 you pay one and get the same rights and privileges, hard to be more fair than that and get rid of all the deductions and all the loopholes everybody has been proportionate now. My proposal takes into consideration poverty and at the Poverty Level you get a rebate but we dont change the system because the minute you change a system and allow just one crack at it everybody starts moving towards that crack and then every geek pretty soon you have another and wind up with a 7500 page tax code and thats what we dont want. Some people say that its not fair because the guy thats putting a billion still got 9 billion left. We need to take more of his money. Thats called socialism. [applause] and then the guy that guy thats putting 1 dollar only had ten some people say thats not fair because he cant afford to put in a dollar. Of course he cant afford to put put in a dollar. He can afford to drive on public roads and sent his kids to Public School and i can tell you having come from the bottom percentile, i can tell you that people down there also have have pride and they want to carry their own weight. They dont want somebody patting them on the head. [applause] and then the people see the mortgage to action would have so much more money in their pocket they would be easily a particular mortgage and some say there would be charitable deductions and it will dry out. What they dont realize is there are lots of churches in america before 1913 when the federal income tax went in place and those people have more money in their pockets, they will actually put more money in when the tide comes by. [applause] this is one of the main things the students wanted to know and its interesting that you asked the lord for wisdom and you were saying that in your time with us a few minutes ago obviously a lot of students believe you have a lot of wisdom to dispense. Students want to know if you could get a College Student one piece of advice if you could go back to when you were in college and you could go back and say i wish somebody had come in front of me and had undressed me or said this one piece of wisdom to me, what advice would you give . My advice would be proverbs three, five and six. It says trusting the trust in the lord with all your heart, lead both to your own understanding in all your ways acknowledge him and he will direct your path. [applause] i have clung to that for all kinds of adversity in my life. I cling to it now. Many want to bring me down because i represent something that they cant stand. But the fact of the matter is romans Chapter Eight if god is before you can be against you. [applause] if its a Nobel Peace Prize winner that comes our way its always the same question. How can we specifically be praying for you and i want you to know its not just a cliche spiritual thing we say out loud. Our students really do commit to pray for you and your family. We know this is an incredibly busy time and so how can we be specifically praying for you when we see you on tv and think there is the Carson Family and the team. Why did i get involved in the world of politics . People say the successful why did you get involved in politics and i ask myself that, too. But when i got the call to be the keynote speaker. I said what are you up to. I kept writing things down and i said no thats not it. Right up until five for the Prayer Breakfast when i awakened that morning it was so clear i was supposed to say. And obviously resonated with millions of people and then people started clamoring for me to run for president which i thought was pretty absurd. And i said why would i even be thinking about Something Like that im going to retire and relax with my wife and have fun. But, i said just ignore this chatter out there that will tie down. But it didnt die down. It kept building and building. And all the political professionals with the carson ran for president , are you kidding me, thats ridiculous. Hes not connected to any of the money. He doesnt know anything. Hes never been elected to public office. Its impossible. Dont even think about it. And i said im glad to hear that but it kept going. And i finally sai