MARTIN: Thank you man so much, Steve, and thanks to Breitbart for all the you do for our movement and for conservatism. And thank you to Joe Dougan and the entire team who organized and put this conference together today. It's such an awesome success.
Good morning fellow disruptors. You and I are disrupting the establishment and they don't know what to do. Not even a full seven years ago, our movement began because we were so concerned about the direction our country was headed. In the past year, we saw the first three candidates who announced for president, ran for the Senate and were elected to the Senate because they ran on Tea Party values, and right now the top four front-running presidential candidates are all campaigning on Tea Party values. And we're seeing news reports, especially this week, coming out from the hill and other places in Washington DC saying the establishment really does not know what to do, and they're very- very concerned that someone who has our values might actually be elected president.
We've come a long way, and by the way, before I get fully started, I want to let you know that our super PAC Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund is doing an endorsement process right now. It is a grassroots process, and we have four different ballots, we're in the middle of our second ballot, the balloting ins for the second round today at five o'clock, so you can go to teapartypatriotscitizensfund.com and you can cast your ballot right now to be a part of that process and then you can still vote in the third round and then in the final round. So be sure to go and do that because it's a vote- it's supposed to be an endorsement from the Tea Party movement so please take the time to do that and to participate in this process.
Our Constitution gives us the power to overthrow our government at regular intervals. We have the right to change our government with ballots, not bullets, but it's up to us to exercise those rights. We only get the government we deserve, so I'm here this morning to talk to you about the challenges facing us this year. The challenges facing us as individuals, as part of a larger movement, as voters, and as a nation. And I'm going to issue a challenge to candidates for office, not just to Republicans but to Democrats and to independence as well, and not just to presidential candidates, but to candidates for all offices, from school board to State House to the White House. So where to begin right here right now.
We must begin by recognizing that President Obama intends to milk every last drop out of his presidency that he can. He's not going gently into that night. He knows that as president of the United States, on any given day, he is more power to affect change than he will in all the years of his retirement and he's made clear he intends to use that power right up to the very end. I've never met Barack Obama. I don't know what's in his heart, whether his intentions for our nation are good or not. But to do my job I don't have to know what's in his heart. All I have to know is what are the results of the policies he promotes. All I know is what I see and what I see all too clearly is that the policies he promotes and has promoted and enacted had been dangerous- it had been disastrous for us… I'll assume he intends no ill will, but that makes his attitude toward the presidency and the Constitution that much worse. For he treats us, sovereign citizens, each of us, endowed by our creator with what our founders called unalienable rights, as if we are children in need of scolding.
The great author CS Louis- the great Christian author CS Lewis wrote about this in an essay he entitled “God in the Dock.” “Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive,” he wrote. “It would be better to live under robber barons than to live under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber barons cruelty may sometimes sleep. His cupidity may at some point be satiated, but those who torment us for- but those who torment us for our own good, will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. To be cured against one's will in curative states which we may not regard as a disease is to be put on the levels of those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will. To be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals.”
So our first challenge is to keep close watch on this president as he spends his last 369 days in office to ensure that his efforts to do what he thinks- thinks best for us, Constitution be damned, do not succeed. I for one refuse to limit myself with playing defense for another year, or rather I'm sorry, I refused to play defense for another year four months and about 60 minutes, not that anyone's counting. I want to go in offense and I want you to go on offense with me and I want you to start right here right now.
Imagine with me an America where our children have a brighter future because parents and teachers decide how best to educate their children without- without our federal funding being tied to Common Core education standards. Where fellow citizens have a brighter future because the federal budget is on its way to balancing and the penny plan has been passed. Where neighborhoods and communities have a brighter future because our economy is growing faster and stronger and we have a simpler, fairer, flatter tax system with reduced rates. Where a nation is has a brighter and safer future because our borders have been secured, and where we all have a brighter future because we have better quality health care at lower costs because Obamacare has been fully repealed. And where government is more responsive because we've enacted term limits for Congress.
Six simple ideas. Think about it, there's not an idea on this list that cannot be implemented if we put our minds to it and we put our hearts in it. The Republicans in Congress right now are talking about how they need a plan for our country. We have a plan for our country and think of the difference those changes would make. Each one of them taken individually would make a difference, but all of them taken together would be a revolution. That's the future Tea Party Patriots envisions. Now, we have the opportunity to reach it.
President Obama will be leaving the White House in just one year and the United States- one year for days and 60 minutes- and the United States will have a chance to chart a new course with a new president. We very much want that new president to share our concerns and our values, our hopes and our dreams, and we want more congressmen and Senators who share our vision too, and who have the courage of the man who was just speaking before me, Congressman Mark Meadows. To get to that future, we need to continue to elect people who champion our values while campaigning and who will follow through with votes based on constitutional principles. Even more- with even more people- I'm sorry- with even more of the right people in office, even with the historic majorities that the Republicans now enjoy, it's become clear to us that the underlying problem is that the pressure in Washington DC to do the wrong thing is incredibly strong, and it's difficult and sometimes nearly impossible for the good men and women in Congress to do the right thing. Relying only on electing the right people is not enough. There's one more step and that's my next challenge to you.
We have to make all candidates see that what we want for our country is not only in our best interest, that it's not only in the best interest of our country, but that it that it's also in the candidates best interest too. They need to see that by embracing our vision, our values, and our solutions will help get them what they want most and that is winning their election. So that even if the wrong person is elected they will do the right thing, and with that in mind, we Tea Party Patriots have spent the last year developing a winning agenda for the American Dream, we call this the yellow card project. Through this project, we want- we will make our agenda the driving force in Washington because winning the communications war isn't about the best argument, it's about controlling what the argument is about.
Remember in 2010 and 2014 when we control the debate? We won, but in 2012, we didn't control the debate and we sure didn't see the results we were looking for. So it's about defining the terms of the debate and because we define our core values as personal freedom, economic freedom, and a debt-free future, it should come as no surprise that we've developed an agenda with those values in mind.
Let's start with personal freedom. We want Obamacare repealed. The law- this law does more to destroy personal freedom than any law enacted in my lifetime. It destroys the doctor-patient relationship, it destroys medical privacy, and it destroys our right to spend our money as we see fit. And it doesn't work. And as so- as bad as Obamacare is here's what's worse: most Americans are shocked when they've learned that Congress enjoys a special one-of-a-kind exemption to Obamacare, treatment than no other American enjoys. We need to repeal the Congressional exemption to Obamacare. We need to do this because it's the right thing to do, no man is above the law, but we need to do it not only because it's the right thing to do but also because it will increase pressure inside congressional offices. Republicans in Congress have finally realized after not one, but two terrible Supreme Court decisions, that they cannot rely on the court to repeal Obamacare. The fact is, to repeal Obamacare we're going to need Democrat votes in addition to Republican votes, and if you want a Democrat to vote to repeal Obamacare, make his or her spouse and staff live under it the same way we do.
Now what about economic freedom? Let's start with illegal immigration because illegal immigration is an attack on your ability to earn a good job- to earn a good wage at a good job. We know the crony capitalists at the Chamber of Commerce want to import low-wage workers to compete with US citizens and we know that's one of the major causes of wage stagnation. More importantly, we've seen in recent months that the holes in our immigration system, both in illegal and legal immigration, have led to terrible security lapses, which have led to the death of innocent Americans. Immigration in a way too many Americans now understand, is a national security issue.
So let's secure the border and let's enforce the law that are already on the books. And we need to enact the entry exit visa system so we can track the people who visit our country, know where they are, and know whether they've left as they're supposed to and when they're supposed to. Even if we succeed in getting a handle on illegal immigration, that's not necessarily enough to help you find a good job. It's essential, but it's not enough.
If you want to be able to compete for a good job in the economy of the future you're going to need a good education and that means no Common Core. It means breaking the connection between federal funding and Common Core education standards. I'm the mother of twelve year old twins and I've seen their homework. I wish Albert Einstein were my next-door neighbor, but even if he were, he wouldn't be able to do their homework. That's how messed up Common Core is. And when it comes to economic freedom, I can't think of anything we need more than an overhaul of our tax system because leaving more money more of your money in your pocket is the best ticket to economic freedom I know. We want tax reform that moves our country to a simpler, flatter, fairer tax system with lower tax rates.
And finally the issue that brought so many of us out of our kitchens and into this movement in the first place, the fight for a debt-free future. Our debt is more than 18 trillion dollars and it's still growing. That's nearly sixty thousand dollars for every man, woman, and child in our country. It's clear we need a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution so we can tie Washington's hands. And that balanced budget amendment must have a spending limitation provision in it, otherwise they will just keep increasing taxes to pay for everything, but we can't wait to ratify a balanced budget amendment. We have to begin the work on it, but that fight will take years to see to completion. So let's not wait, let's pass a balanced budget right now starting with based on the penny plan. All Washington has to do is just spend one penny less out of every dollar it's spent this year, and if they did that for five years we'd have a balanced budget.
It's simple, it's easy to understand, its popular, and it works. And really if you want to get a handle on the national debt, you have to get a handle on Congress. The culture in Washington is so corrupt the research shows the longer you stay, the more you spend. It's just that simple. The solution, let's not let them stay that long. Let's pass a constitutional amendment establishing term limits. Yeah. Get the members out of Washington and out of Washington DC before they become so used to that corrupt cesspool that they forget who they represent and who elected them in the first place.
The Supreme Court- that's the winning agenda. It's broad and its ambitious- it's and we know it's huge with voters. We've pulled and we've researched this and Americans across the political spectrum support these issues and they want our agenda adopted. Our agenda transcends party lines, and our success depends on gaining support from both sides of the aisle.
This problem of how to actually get members of Congress from both sides of the aisle to vote together on the kinds of things we need to move the ball forward is not new. In fact it's been around for a long time and some of our nation's greatest minds have been vexed by it. Thinking about this very problem, Milton Friedman once wrote, “I do not believe the solution to our problem is simply to elect the right people. The important thing is to establish a political climate- to establish a political climate of opinion which makes it politically profitable for the wrong people to do the right thing. Unless it is politically profitable for the wrong people to do the right thing, the right people will not be able to do the right thing either, for if they try they'll shortly be out of office.”
In short that's exactly what our yellow card project is all about. It's about changing the political climate and making it politically profitable for everyone on both sides of the aisle, inside and outside of Washington DC to do the right thing. So we've laid out our agenda, and we're training people all across the country. We're recruiting those who agree with us to help drive the political conversation. We want this election to be devoted to our- to a discussion of our values and our hopes for the future, but we can't do this alone. We need your help so right now just go to yellowcardproject.com and give us your email address, or even better you can text yellow card, and that's all one word yellow card, to 31 31 31. Go ahead and take out your phones right now they're probably in your hand already anyway and text yellow card to 31 31 31.
And now finally our challenge to candidates, treat us like adults. Please, we know we have problems and we know these problems are hard to solve you do us no good and you do the country no good when you treat us as if we're children. Don't lecture to us, don't patronize us, and don't condescend to us. Remember we are your bosses. We're the ones who put you in office and you're supposed to be working for us. Edmund Burke famously wrote, “the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
Ladies and gentlemen you are, as Burke would have put it, good men. You are doing something. You're here today because you love our country and you love our Constitution. You're here today because you cherish freedom. You're here today because you want to be better activists and to make a difference. Because of people like- because of you and people just like you all across this country, evil is not going to triumph. A better future is ours and it's right around the corner for us. Keep your faith in America, keep your faith in our freedom, and our fellow citizens and in god, together we can and we will recapture our economic freedom, we will regain our personal freedom, and we will create a debt-free future. And together, we will restore the American Dream for ourselves, for our children, and for our children's children. Thank you so much. God bless you and God bless the United States of America. Thank you.