He had been facing a floor vote of whether he should stay on as speaker. He discusses reasons for resigning at a news conference. My oh, myehner what a wonderful day i used to sing that on my way to work in the morning. Less costly, more accountable government. Over the last five years, our majority has advanced conservative reforms that will help our children and their children. Were now on track to cut Government Spending by 2. 1 trillion over the next 10 years. We made the first real entitlement reform in nearly two decades. And we protected 99 of the American People from an increase in our taxes. Weve done all this with a democrat in the white house. So im proud of what weve accomplished. But more than anything, my first job is as speaker is to protect the institution. A lot of you know now know that my plan was to step down at the end of last year. I decided in november of 2010 that when i was elected speaker that serving two terms would have been plenty. And but in june of last year when it became clear that the majority leader lost his election, i didnt frankly believe it was right for me to leave at the end of last year. So my goal was to leave at the end of this year. So i planned actually on my birthday, november 17, to announce that i was leaving at the end of the year. But its become clear to me that this prolonged leadership turmoil would do irreparable harm to the institution. So this morning i informed my colleagues i would resign from the speakership and resign from congress at the end of october. Now, as youve often heard me say, this isnt about me. Its about the people, its about the institution. Just yesterday we witnessed the awesome sight of pope francis addressing the greatest legislative body in the world. And i hoped we will all heed his call to live by the golden rule. But last night i started to think about this, and this morning i woke up and i said my prayers as i always do and i decided, you know, todays the day im going to do this. As simple as that. Thats the code i always lived by, if you do the right things for the right reasons, the right things will happen. And i know good things lie ahead for this house and this country and im proud of what weve accomplished, especially proud of my team. You know, ive been here my 25th year here and ive succeeded in large part because i put a staff together and a team together, many of which have been with me for a long time. And without a great staff you cant be a great member and you certainly cant be a great speaker. Im going to thank my family for putting up with this all these years. My poor girls who are now 37 and 35. Their First Campaign photo was in july of 1981, and so theyve had to endure all this. Its one thing for me to have to endure it. But, you know, the girls and my wife, they had to put up with a lot over the years. Let me express my gratitude to my constituents whove sent me here 13 times over the last 25 years. You cant get here without getting votes. But i say this often. People ask me, whats the greatest thing about being speaker or about being elected official . Its the people you get to meet. I have tens of thousands of people in my own district that i would have not met other than the fact i decided to ran for congress. Over the years as i traveled on behalf of my colleagues and the party, ive met tens of thousands of additional people all over the country. And you meet rich people, you meet poor people, you meet interesting people. Probably a few others along the way but i can tell you that 99. 9 of the people i meet on the road anywhere could not be could not be nicer than theyve been. Its been really, its been wonderful. Its been an honor to serve in this institution, and with that all right, junior, go ahead. Reporter Speaker Boehner, you were noticeably overcome with emotions yesterday. Speaker boehner really, what a surprise. Reporter did you make this decision last night if the grace of pope francis led you to this decision . Speaker boehner no. No. Yesterday was wonderful day. It really was. Was i emotional yesterday, i think i was. I was really emotional in a moment that really no one saw. As the pope and i were getting ready to exit the building, we found ourselves alone, and the pope grabbed my left arm and said some very kind words to me about my commitment to kids and education. The pope puts his arm around me and pulls me to him and said, please pray for me. Well, who am i to pray for the pope but did i. Reporter if it wasnt the pope, then what was it . Speaker boehner listen, its not about the vote. There was no doubt whether i could survive the vote. I dont want my members to have to go through this. I certainly dont want the institution to go through this. Especially when i knew i was i was thinking about walking out the door anyway. So its the right time to do it and frankly i am entirely comfortable doing it. Reporter mr. Speaker, i heard you say before that a leader who doesnt have anybody following him is a guy taking a walk. Speaker boehner thats right. I have plenty of people following me. But this turmoil thats been churning now for a couple months is not good for the members and its not good for the institution. And if i wasnt planning on leaving here soon, i can tell you i would not have done this. Reporter if i may continue, there are people who are on the right in your caucus and even outside of the institution who have been wanting you to step down for sometime who feel they have a victory today, who feel you were pushed out. Speaker boehner no. The members im glad i made this announcement at the conference with all my republican colleagues because it was a very good moment to help kind of rebuild the team. Listen, i feel good about what ive done. I know that i every day try to do the right things for the right reasons and try to do the right thing for the country. Reporter mr. Speaker, how can this not be a moment for turmoil . You wanted to leave two years ago. You said it would keep the house in turmoil. Theres going to be Speaker Boehner well, im im going to be here for another five weeks. Im not going to leave, not going to sit around here and do nothing for the next 30 days. Theres a lot of work that needs to be done. I plan on getting it as much as i can before i exit. Reporter does it make it easier to make tougher decisions, maybe relying on democrats to keep the government open . Speaker boehner no. Im going to make the same decisions i would have made regardless of this. Reporter youve made no secret of your frustration that some members of the far right and some outside groups used words like knuckle head and some other words you cant use on television Speaker Boehner probably. Reporter did you just have enough . Speaker boehner i wouldnt describe it as having enough. Thats not it at all. When you are the speaker of the house, youre number one responsibility is to the institution. And having a vote like this in the institution, i dont think is very healthy. And so ive done everything i can over my term as speaker to strengthen the institution. And frankly my move today is another step in that effort to strengthen the institution. Reporter wont the next speaker face the same thing . Speaker boehner hopefully not. Reporter thats my question, mr. Speaker. How will washington be different because you leave this institution . What should people watching this expect the house and congress to do Going Forward if youre not here . Speaker boehner well, if we if the Congress Stays focused on the American Peoples priorities, there will be no problem at all. And while we have differences between democrats and republicans, the goal here as one of the leaders is to find the common ground. Listen, i talked to president bush and president obama this morning. I talked to all my legislative leaders who i have a very Good Relationship with all of them. At the end of the day, the leaders will have to be able to work with each other, trust each other to find the common ground, to get things done. With each other, trust each other, to find the common ground, to get things done. And so the Congress Stays focused on what is important to the American People, theyre going theyll get along just fine. Can you tell us how your conference reacted to the news . Speaker boehner id say they were shocked. Can you elaborate a little more . Maybe how the leadership reacted . Speaker boehner i told mr. Mccarthy about two minutes before i spoke what i was going to do. He didnt believe it. I said, you Better Believe me. Should mccarthy be the next speaker . Speaker boehner im not going to be here to vote on the next speaker, thats up to the members. Having said that, i think Kevin Mccarthy would make an excellent speaker. Who is the first person you told and what did they say . Speaker boehner i told my wife. What did she say . Speaker boehner good. I told my my chief of staff and i talked late yesterday. I told him i was thinking that today might be the day. And i told him id sleep on it system of before i went to sleep, i told my wife, i said i might make an announcement tomorrow. What do you mean, what kind of announcement . Well, its time to go. So this morning i woke up and went up to starbucks and got my coffee, read, walks up to petes diner, saw everybody at petes and got home and thought, yeah, i think todays the day. So my senior staff was having a meeting at 8 45, i kind of walked in before i opened the house and told them, this is the day. Its going to happen someday, why not today . Do you know when the next election might be held . Speaker boehner no. What advice would you give Kevin Mccarthy to avoid the same pitfalls you had . Speaker boehner id tell kevin, if hes the next speaker, that his number one obligation is the institution. Nobody else has an obligation like that. Id tell him the same thing i told you. Do the right thing every day, for the right reasons and the right things will happen you all know me, my colleagues know me. Im always straight with them. They may not like the answer they give but theyll get an honest answer every single time they come to my office. Its an easy way for me to do my job. You originally planned this announcement on your birthday. If it wasnt the pope, what factor weighed on your decision to do it now . Speaker boehner just stuff i read about in the paper, you know, its i really dont want the institution hurt and i dont want my colleagues hurt. I dont want to put my colleagues through all this. For what . What will you miss . Speaker boehner what will i miss . Of course, all of you. I dont know what im going to miss because i havent missed it yet. Ill certainly miss the camaraderie of the house. Let me tell you another story. That was really kind of interesting. Maxine waters and i, democrat from southern california, came here 25 years ago in the same class. Now, you know, theres nothing about my politics and Maxine Waters politics thats even anywhere close but yesterday about 5 30 she called my office. I got a note she called so i called her back. And she said, ive watched you for 25 years here, we came here together, ive watched your career. And i watched you today and i just want to tell you something. Im read im really proud of you. Listen, ive got the best relationships on both sides of the aisle because i treat People Fairly and treat them honestly and im going to miss, certainly im going to miss my colleagues. Going back to the theme of trying to take someone out of the house and stabilize the institution, how do you think that it will become more stable . Several republicans i talked to today said they dont think a new speaker will mean any new outcome. So how could it become more stable . Speaker boehner as i mentioned earlier, the fact that i did this with my colleagues this morning, then we proceeded to have an hour and a half conversation, i thought was a unifying moment. And between that and the popes call for living by the golden rule yesterday, hope springs eternal. Talk about what you think your legacy is, your accomplishments and what are you going to do first . Speaker boehner i was never in the legacy business. You all heard me say it, im a regular guy with a big job. I never thought id be in congress, much less ever be speaker. But people know me as being fair, being honest, being straightforward. And trying to do the right thing every day on behalf of the country. I dont need any more than that. Speaker boehner, you seem very relieved. Speaker boehner zipp a dee doo dah what are your plans, also, have you spoken to Speaker Boehner when please exit from the back. Announcer reaction to this because announcement came from members of his party, the president , senate leadership, and some republican president ial candidates. The honor of john boehner this morning. To the idiocyast of those in our party who seek to divide us. [inaudible] i will let the speaker answer that question. It was emotional for a lot of people but i think everyone hopefully recognized the honor of john boehner this morning. We heard along period of up applause, wasf that after he made the announcement . It was. I can hear that you are upset, tell us why. It is just an emotional moment. Party whothose in our continue to insist on shutting down the party and they can claim a small victory today. Remarkable person and we need to recognize that today. Boehner said he didnt want it to be be a issue. Do you think this will move the Party Forward or do you think they will unite now . Mr. Jolly john boehner has removed himself as the issue facing our party so we need to have a family conversation within our conference in the next four weeks to decide what to do next. Do you expect a shutdown . Mr. Jolly i absolutely hope not. I think with the speakers decision, the odds of us shutting down are much less likely. And why is that . Mr. Jolly because the shutdown caucus has a small victory and they can move forward saying theres perhaps a bigger battle they can fight in the coming weeks. Do you think thats why the speaker is stepping down, to avoid a shutdown . Mr. Jolly you have to speak to him. I cant speak to his intent. Look, its a difficult its a difficult conference to manage. It is the largest majority since the 1920s. It has an undercurrent of some people at the extreme right of our party that have a sufficient voting block, that are always going to have the capacity to put some pressure on the outcomes in our conference. So, again, its a very difficult conference to manage but i think hes done it very well. Will the next speaker have an easier time . Wont the next House Speaker have the same constraints . Mr. Womack i believe the next person in line, whomever that is, is going to face the same difficult task of keeping a very broad conference together. I think thats going to be the case. You can change the faces and the names and the leadership chairs, but the pressures are still going to remain the same. Do conservatives understand that . Mr. Womack i think so. I think everybody in our conference understands that. Weve had a lot of very serious family meetings over the last few years. And we understand what divides us as a conference. I wish we had a little better feeling for how if we were more united what better things, more accomplishments we could achieve as a body. So anyway, thank you. This is a condition of his own making right here. And so you dont know who you would want to be the next speaker at this point . Mr. Massie im going to listen to what the candidates have to say and whether they understand how this republic is supposed to work and whether they respect the fact there are 435 members here that each represents 750,000 constituents. And why do you think the conditions were right to push boehner out of office . Mr. Massie im not quite sure what you mean. Theres a lot of pressure on boehner. Why do you think this was a moment where he said he had enough . Mr. Massie you know, we just came back from an august recess, five weeks of town halls and the American People spoke. And they can see through whats happening out here. Its a farce, a theater. The American People are tired of it. The American People said, stop it, and everybody heard that at their town hall. I think members related that to the speaker when they returned after their town hall. I think its not accidental that the timing happened after we returned from a recess, where people got in touch with their constituents. Is there going to be a Government Shutdown . Mr. Massie i dont know what the president has planned. Do you think you can put a clean bill on the floor . Mr. Massie he said he is. And is he leaving congress at the end of october . Mr. Massie thats what i understood. Do you think that will make things better up here . Mr. Massie depends if the next speaker respects the grievances that are in the motion to vacate. So youre still going ahead with the vote . What im hearing is they are ready for a change in washington. The base of the party has asked for this change for two to three years and its happening. Well see what will come out of conservatives. Do you expect Speaker Mccarthy to mr. Huelskamp i wont speak to that its a matter of conservatives working together as a team. When we decide who well work for and hopefully get elected that will be made a decision as a whole, not one at a time. What other possibilities are out there . What other members could be elected speaker . Mr. Huelskamp i think 200 have that in their mind. I heard im not nominated. I was not there at the beginning of the meeting. This idea that happened in 2010. When i first came up here in 2010, the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, there wasnt competition. Hopefully there will be competition. If people move well see. Do you expect the whole leadership to be shut down . Mr. Huelskamp it depends. I do not know what to expect. I think house conservatives will be sitting down shortly. Weve had many of these discussions for 2. 5 years. Ive been involved in many of those. A lot of them i have not. What happened with eric cantor in five days they had that locked up once he lost, i dont think that will happen this time. There is dissatisfaction up and down. What was the mood in the room . Mr. Huelskamp people said they were shocked and stunned, including other leaders claimed they didnt know before it was announced. Hes had a Long Distinguished Service on lo of different issues. I agree, john boehner, i think its time for new leadership. [inaudible] mr. Huelskamp no, nobody said that. Hes the speaker, a very powerful position. Some issues hes done a great job. Distinguished Service Since 1990. But i think were looking for a new leader thats of this century and ready to move forward so we have a unified Republican Party as which move into 2016. What do you think this means for the mr. Huelskamp actually, i dont know why he did this. Its clear if a vote was called, he didnt have the votes to sustain himself as speaker if nancy pelosi didnt help him out. Makes a very vulnerable position. I was pretty confident we had plenty of votes to prevent that. Was does this mean for a clean c. R. , do you expect one . Mr. Huelskamp i dont know what that means. This would be a time, if someone will stand up and say, how do we win this battle . Because john boehner was taken down a path that was guaranteed to lose. I dont know, the next speaker will have a tough job. Im not happy with the circumstances under which hes departing but clearly, you know, john boehner is a good and decent man. Hes a principled man. And yet he understood he had a responsibility to lead and govern. And there are some around here who didnt share that vision. And all i can say is the next speaker is going to have to do you think he made a right decision . Rep. Dent thats a personal decision. Im not going to second guess his decision. Its his decision, not mine. I really dont like the circumstances under which hes leaving. What do you mean by that . What do you mean by that . Does it have an impact of the possibility of a shutdown . Rep. Dent we will have a clean bill next week. I feel reasonably confident that were going to pass a clean continuing resolution. There will probably be some more drama between now and then. Some kind of quid pro quo, hes leaving so there will be a clean bill . Rep. Dent he said there will be a clean bill. A lot of conservatives were wanting a showdown about planned parenthood. Do you think they backed off their claims . Rep. Dent i dont know about that. I think a clean resolution will be passed and it will happen before the deadline. Hope it does. Accidents happens around here, as we all know. As i was watching the pope yesterday, i was getting text message from family members, they said, is boehner crying . Theres no crying in congress today. A genuine sacrifice his resignation today. Hes a personal friend and im a personal friend of his. Im disappointed hes stepping aside. [inaudible] mr. Rogers well, i think anyone can look at what hes done here and not conclude this was an act of grace. Great stature. And i hope that would translate into support. Thanks. The divisions driving him out of the speakership going to remain when he moves on . I mean, who else can run the House Republican conference . Rep. Rogers well, we got a lot of talent in that caucus. Well see how who develops. Will you support mr. Mccarthy . Rep. Rogers well know in due course of time. Certainly i have Great Respect and admiration for him. Hes done a whale of a job as leader, so he will be on my list. How much do you think his decision would tie to the big fight over planned parenthood and government funding and a potential shutdown . Mr. Rogers well, im sure it must have been a big part of his consideration. There are a number of other things. A new grandchild, for example, and a desire to spend more time with his family. But i was thinking, you know, as one of the crowning moments of his life, not just his speakership, but his life was yesterday with his longstanding 20yearold desire to have the pope address the joint session of congress which came true, a dream came true, but all the while he must have been thinking so much about the upcoming decision that he would announce to us today. A bittersweet day for him, but i congratulate him on being a great speaker over these years. President obama on john boehner, i just heard the news as i was coming out of the meeting here. So it took me by surprise. I took the time prior to this press conference to call john directly and talk to him. You know, john boehner is a good man. He is a patriot. He cares deeply about the house, an institution in which hes served for a long time. He cares about his constituents. And he cares about america. We have obviously had a lot of disagreements and politically were at different ends of the spectrum but i will tell you hes always conducted himself with courtesy and civility with me. He has kept his word when he made a commitment. He is somebody who has been gracious. And i think maybe most importantly, hes somebody who understands that in government, in governance, you dont get 100 of what you want, but you have to work with people who you disagree with, sometimes strongly, in order to do the peoples business. Im not going to prejudge who the next speaker will be, thats something that will have to be worked through in the house. And i will certainly reach out immediately to whoever is the new speaker to see what his or her ideas are and how we can make progress on the important issues that america faces. The one thing i will say is that my hope is theres a recognition on the part of the next speaker, something i think john understood even though at times it was challenging to bring his caucus along, that we can have significant differences on issues, but that doesnt mean you shut down the government. That doesnt mean you neglect the full faith and credit of the United States. You dont invite potential financial crises. You build roads to pass transportation bills, you do the basic work of governance that ensures that our militarys our military is operating and that our National Parks are open and that our kids are learning. And theres no weakness in that. Thats what government is. In our democracy. You dont get what you want 100 of the time. And so sometimes you take half, sometimes you take a quarter. Thats certainly something ive learned here in this office. So im looking forward to working with the next speaker. In the meantime, john is not going to leave for another 30 days, so hopefully he feels like getting as much stuff done as he possibly can and ill certainly be looking forward to working with him on that. Mcconnell bang mcconnell grace under pressure. Friend. Ally and a he took over Republican Leadership at a very difficult. Ime defeatism,ave into he kept up the fight. Did he was able to transform a broken and dispirited minority into the largest republican geordie since the 1920s. That is a legacy that few can match. He flew across the country more times than i can count to recruit new members to the cause. New majority of a he turned the tide in congress and brought conservative reform in many areas. He worked tirelessly to provide hope to those who dreamed of a better life. Families whoss struggled under the weight of this administration. John knows what it is to struggle and dream of something better. He has lived it. Ohiong man from reading, who would one day wield the gavel of the u. S. House of her presented gives. It reminds us of the continuing promise of this country. Know that yesterday was an incredibly important event for the speaker. It was his aim to bring the same spirit of grace that has always guided his life to others. You only had to look onto the capital lawn to see what he achieved. Made thishat he decision shows he is willing to leave us in a similar spirit. I know that we will have more to say than that for now, thank you, my friend. Reed mr. President , i was stunned to learn that john boehner is going to resign in the next few weeks. Relationship with john boehner for a long time. Speaker made those relations much more close. I havent always agreed, and was not always happy with what john told me, but he never ever misled me. He never told me something that wasnt true. I accepted that. I got to where i understood john boehner very well. His word was always very good. He had a lot of dealings, socalled back channel meetings. Everyone knows that a lot of things we do is not in the public eye. Certainly, working together may not have worked out very well in the public eye, but there are things we have to do to get think son. I had a great relationship with john boehner. My staff got along terrifically with his staff. They were both terrific to work with. My staff has reached out to his on difficult occasions and they had a Good Relationship. Doubt that everything that john boehner has done, has been done with a fact in mind that he was doing his best for the people and his district in ohio. , youd a very difficult job served under him, you know what a tough job he had. He had this faction, that faction and a couple more. By ousting the good man like john boehner, he is a conservative republican, but his problem is that john boehner has been pragmatic. He realizes that there comes a time when you have to make a deal. I say to the presiding officer everyone within the sound of my voice, i did not know president eisenhower, i never met him or saw him, but Ronald Reagan, i was here when he was president. He had conservative credentials. But Ronald Reagan was somebody who understood the art of compromise. Who else could have worked out something with the soviet union . Im not sure there is anybody. Ronald reagan was able to do that. Mr. President , i am so concerned. The Republican Party, not the party of white eisenhower, dwight eisenhower, or Ronald Reagan as i knew him, i just think it is very sad that the tea party have taken over control of the party. To say that i will miss john boehner is a tremendous understatement. I looked out for him and the ways that i could. He looked out for me in the ways that he could. I will always consider john boehner my friend, and i look forward to working with him until he leaves. I understand it will be late october. I will continue to work with him, as i have in the past, to do what i think is the right thing for the country. Hopefully we will continue someplace there in the middle to get things done. Sometimes you do the best you can. I wish john boehner the very best in the future. Make hisi can do to life more present, i will be happy to do that. Whether it is setting up a golf vegas, or helping him in some government manner, i will do whatever i can because john peter is a good man. It is a gross understatement because john boehner is a good man. It is a gross understatement to say that i will miss him. Sen. Rubio we will see how things progress. Just a few minutes ago, Speaker Boehner announced that he is resigning. [cheers and applause] with all due respect to the people that serve in government, it is important with respect to him and the service he provided for our country, it is not about him or anybody else, and i am not here to bash anyone, but the time has come to sir turn the page. [applause] cruz do you want to know how much each of you terrify washington . Yesterday, john boehner was speaker of the house. Applause]d thank you so much for being here. I have been here to every single value voter summit, and i was in was the everyday, i introduced by chuck grassley. D a little bithawe iout what to say, and he said have known Rick Santorum for 20 years and he has not changed a bit. I think that is about as high a competent as you can get in the town of washington dc. [applause] someone step down today who and my opinion changed a bit and it was probably time for him to have stepped down to start a new chapter here in washington dc. [applause] trump i have been saying for a long time, and i was just telling david, who said i am not a politician and am not politically correct. I think that is a great thing. I love this guy, over here. And so tired of the time the effort of all of us. We have a country that is in such danger, and such trouble. To be politically correct, every word is measured. I went to great schools, i went to an ivy league school. It is so easy to do, but who wants to do it . We have to get back to business. We are going to have a very interesting period of time. Maybe it starts today because Speaker Boehner, some people like him on a personal asus. Personal basis. Do people like him on a personal basis . Anybody . We want to see the job being done properly. I dont understand, they get elected and are full of vim and vigor, they will change things and get rid of obamacare, they will do all of these things. They come to these magnificent Vaulted Ceilings and what happens . They become different people. A look at the headlines in the power post, House Speaker john boehner to resign at the end of october. Joining us for a look at what happened and what might be next is paul kane. What are some of the main issues that led to Speaker Boehner announcing his resignation today . Kane he has been a speaker for almost five years and for almost every day on the job, the first thing he has had to do is battle with this conservative contingent. People, from 1040 depending on the issue of the moment, who have been agitating for the most confrontational approach to dealing with barack obama. To settle down after his understudy eric cantor admitted june, boehner that he wanted to retire, but cantor was gone and he felt like he wanted to be a veteran presence. Months, things have settled down but there were still constant chirps from conservatives. Controversiale videos revealing abortion practices by planned parenthood. For the last two months, conservatives have taken that issue and said, what we have to do is shut down the government. To force obama and the democrats to come to the table, and agree to shut off all funding for planned parenthood. Democrats have made clear that is not the case. They have made clear and demonstrated that they are not willing to support planned parenthood still, it was a roughly only 500 million per year that they got, in the organization said none of that money goes to abortion practices. They were ready to stand and fight democrats. Boehner knows if they go down this alley to a shutdown that it will be the republicans who get blamed. Host other House Republican leaders, how have they reacted and when did they find out . Early this morning, boehner made the decision. After seeing pope francis he made the decision that he would not put everyone through this decision of shutting down the government or force a vote on they kidding his speakership vacating his speakership. He did not tell his fellow members of leadership until about two minutes before their closed door meeting. They were shocked. He said he had to tell Kevin Mccarthy five different times. Yes, kevin, i am retiring. Now that is going to set off another Chain Reaction of events, to try to replace boehner, to try to replace mccarthy host Chain Reaction. A Chain Reaction and, does will fall and dominos will fall. They have to figure out, what direction do they want to go . Will there be some ideological challenges from the far right . Host what about this Freedom Caucus . What are they saying about this resignation . The Freedom Caucus is this Breakaway Group of about 40. They dont officially release all the names. They say they have about 40 republicans who used to be part of the normal caucus, but they broke away from that informed their own group. They have been the far right agitators. Jim jordan of ohio. They want to try to get one of their own into one of the leadership ranks. They feel that they forced boehners and in the last week or so hand in the last week or so, and they want to get one of their own up there. These are 40 of the most conservative guys and they have to appeal to a group of 246 republicans. They have to broaden their reach beyond their group of 40. Do you think we might see those elections happen . Mr. Kane the last time there was any need for a leadership election was june of 2014. Eric cantors stunning defeat in his own primary. In that case, boehner had decided he would stick around another year or two. He did not want another long, drawnout battle. He said lets hold a snap election and they held it nine days later. Oneost on a tuesday and week and two days later they had elections. This time there might be more positions up for grabs, and potentially more candidates. Now,ght be two weeks from or a lengthier assess, but boehner has made clear that he is out of here friday, october 30. Host who do you think they will put forward . Mccarthy . Some of the other likely candidates . Is very Kevin Mccarthy much likely to be the republican nominee for speaker. There would be a floor vote, he does not have a lot of opposition. He is generationally younger and closer in age to a lot of the conservatives. They dont necessarily trust him, but they see him as generationally closer to them. There might be a nominal challenge, which is what happened in 2014 when he moved up to majority leader, but i think the bigger fight is going to be for the number two post. That is where you are going to crop ofole ideological divisions. Steve scalise, he is the majority with now, he will want to move up to number two. When these opportunities come open you have to move up the ladder. Number four is rogers. She has been eyeing a challenge to scalise already. She could be in the hat. There will only be a different southern conservative and a lot of people are looking at tom price. He might be able to win southern voters as well as the Freedom Caucus. Peter, who was a member of leadership but lost out in the merrygoround of the last round of leadership races. Host we will keep an eye on this with you and followed follow you on twitter pkcap announcer you can watch both events live on cspan. A panel of entrepreneurs and ceos discussed the effects of government regulation and the tax code on businesses. Speakers included peter coors. This is about an hour and 15 minutes. Thank you, very much. Moderator, i wish i had an hour and 15 minutes with each one of these people here. We have a very distinguished panel. Pete is chairman of vice chairman of coors. He is a colorado native. Most recognized colorado native we probably havent colorado right now. [applause] the coors name has become synonymous with colorado. Coors brewing is a tradition that stretches over five generations of family. It was started by his greatgrandfather in 1873. Amazing legacy. In addition to his corporate responsibilities, he has held leadership positions in American Enterprise institutes, boy scouts of america, International Chapter of young president s organization, the denver art museum, and the coors foundation. I want to mention one other great thing about pete and that family who did a tremendous amount of philanthropy and support for our state and nation and our culture. It is unmatched. [applause] he is far too humble to mention the volumes of awards and recognitions and he personally, and the family, and company, have received. I will mention one that i thought was particularly appropriate. In 2010, he was named as citizen of the west. Thank you very much for being with us. [applause] our second panelist is paul dietzel. Three years ago he founded a company a Technology Company headquartered in baton rouge, louisiana. Also a 2014 candidate for the louisiana congressional seat in district six. Company is the leading Software Platform for campaigns in the u. S. , with more members of congress using it then any other Software System for online contributions. Political campaigns, lettuce organizations religious organizations can securely collect donations. They have collected already donations in all 50 states, and 23 nations. Pretty amazing record if his name seems familiar to you, it is with good reason. His grandfather was the legendary coach of the 1959 National Championship team at lsu, coach of the year, later coached at west point and the university of south carolina. Welcome. [applause] goodall hasnd heidi a good story. She is the founder and ceo of camp bowow. Heidis was not an easy path to success. She lost her husband in a plane crash when he was 25 years old. Hope, heidi and opened her First Franchise facility in 2000 in denver. She now has over 200 franchises. Bowow is one of the largest women that franchises in the country and one of the fastestgrowing brands in the pet Care Industry and the leader in that sector. She was recently recognized as one of the 10 most promising entrepreneurs. She works attime, the colorado foundation. Advisory boardhe for the Leadership Program of the rockies. She also founded a nonprofit back,he calls moms fight a nonprofit to help empower moms to make social change and become important players in colorado. She is a mom of four children. Welcome. [applause] jim nyman is the Vice President and ceo of nyman enterprises. It was founded in 1936 by his grandfather. With two facilities in south dakota, one in wyoming, and one in colorado, the nyman family is also in the ranging business and owns a golf club in wyoming. Son is a fourthgeneration in thens who work company. Congratulations to another familyowned business. They have been recognized by the Small Business administration, and as a Small Business person of the year. They have been recognized by the ted states forced Service Forest service. His leadership positions past and present, the wyoming andomic Development Stabilization board, independent Forest Products association, president of the University Wide wyoming board of trustees, chairman of the university of Wyoming School of environmental national resources, on and on and on, last and certainly not least, he is on the Economic Advisory board for the Federal Reserve bank of kansas city. I think you would agree that we have an Exceptional Panel here today. [applause] im going to invite our panelists to make brief remarks about whatever they think is important to share today and then we will get into questions. Pete, want to go first . Pete thank you for the elaborate and unnecessary introduction. He said why dont you guys Say Something about yourselves . I said i can save a lot of time because he already did it. The one thing we left out was i had the privilege of being in the United States senate in 2004. Many of you were helpful in that. [applause] pete we have something in common. We all lost the last elections, unfortunately. I think we will get into some of the details about the business as we go through the day, so ill pass on to paul. Paul thank you. It is humbling to be here in the stage with such a great business leaders. I look to them to see what i can the next 10,hout 15, 20, 30 years of my life. Looking out in the Business Environment, there is a climate in our country it is really fascinating to me. Even five years ago, it was easier than it is today Business Environment in our country, its fascinating to me. It is easier than it was today to start businesses three or five years ago. There are so many regulations that make it hard for entrepreneurs to jump in and create a business. You look at every day the government is picking on businesses. You see an daytoday example of cooper. I think one of the things that we have to do is unlock our innovators and the next generation. We have to get the next generation of leaders and innovators active and engaged. Thats something im excited to see so many millennia else speaking at this. Its a pleasure to be here with you and i look forward to the panel. Thank you. Heidi. [applause]. I know a lot of you in this room and i think most of you know who know me know how passionate i am about innovation and entrepreneurship and how i believe thats the key to unlocking the potential in our country. Paul set a very well that our youth need to be encouraged to start their own businesses and excited about it. I spend a lot of time talking to college and High School Kids about the beauty of starting your own business and how nowadays they can do it with the click of a mouse or on their phone sitting at home instead of watching tv. I think its unfortunate that the Business Environment is not very good for starting your own business anymore. Its a lot different than when i started my business 16 years ago. Government overreach, taxes, its so complicated to start a business these days. My husband is starting a new barbecue restaurant. He is starting a single unit restaurant in westminster has been mind numbing to watch all the things he had to go through. Its reminiscent of when i started camp bow wow but much more mindboggling now. I want to inspire moms in colorado to get involved and raise their hand and be the change they want to be in politics in the world. I think we can really lift them up and give them a voice and i think they are the swing vote in colorado. We will see how that goes. Thank you heidi [applause]. Jim. Bob, jennifer, the whole group here, what an honor to be with this whole group. At the humbling honor to be part of it. Thanks for the great introduction so i can skip part of my talk. I want to go back one step that was missed. My granddad was a a corn farmer during the Great Depression in colorado. He had to sell out and my granddad then went north to find a new business and started making grain doors for the Railroad Business and thats how he got started in 36. I jumped to my children, well, my dad was six years old then. Now he is 85. Weve got him to half time and in his view thats 12 hours a day. Hes still working six or seven days a week and runs 700 head of cattle. Im proud of my children. My daughter is working for an organization in dallas. My my son just got deployed. He is heading overseas soon. God bless him and you [applause]. When i started we had 15 employees. Now we have 480 and 350 independent contractors that are loyal to us on top of our employee base. Ive been on quite a ride here. Our company is 80 dependent on the service, but their hands are tied. Weve strapped them with regulation after regulation. Endangered species, that is another issue, it drives me nuts to see that we will protect millions and millions of acres to one species at the expense of many other species. How about us humans . Particularly in our industry, most most of our mills are in small communities and that is the lifeblood for agriculture and the Timber Industries of those small communities. They could be destroyed and when are as this is destroyed it can destroy a whole community. Just a quick note, we are clearly overstocked. Theyre not healthy right now. Thats why we have a a bug epidemic. Theres a lot of other reasons people look to, but with the dead trees, we also have the fires. The next challenge that strikes me currently is the exchange rate. The exchange rate, the Currency Exchange rate between us and canada, canada has gained close to 30 or . 30 on the dollar in the last 18 months and guess what, number prices have toppled 25 to 30 in direct relationship with imports from canada where they would normally send them to china. I believe in free trade but i believe in fair trade. It cant be a oneway street like this government thinks it should be to set an example. The third issue i have is getting a good quality education for our kids and employees. Trying trying to find good educators and students to come to work for us has been a tough challenge. On top of that to find those students that want to move to a a Small Community is really a challenge. We are short forresters him a short management and we are short really good electricians. And high tech. We have computers that cut around the curve of a tree. Almost all of our equipment is very hightech. I was on the board of trustees and i constantly, for 12 years, tried, tried to talk and influence the university to say this generation is the smartest generation ever. But this Education System wants to kill them in a certain direction. If we teach these kids a balanced education, they are smart enough to figure out which sides to go. Just give them both sides of the view and they will come along. I have confidence they will come up with the right decision. they are not held to the same standards we are. Clearlyt perspective, there is an opportunity for entrepreneurs to get into our kind of business. They will learn soon enough as they get bigger that they have more and more challenges. The regulatory reach of not only the feds, but the state and local governments, will impact them. One quick story we have a retailer in boulder, colorado. He got a letter from the local Health Department that he had to have a food license in order to back ice bag ice. He asked what it entailed. It is a 22 page application and 400 fee. He said i used to have 13 employees and now i have seven. Who reads these things . We have people who file them. It is just billionaire bureaucracy. Of even at the local level, this creed of bureaucracy is making it more and more difficult for Small Businesses. The government does not understand innovation and jobs. They dont innovate and create jobs. Then dont have any of its own money to create jobs. I think the government spends more time trying to figure out how to regulate innovators and companies as they grow and succeed. They spend less time figuring out how to open the door and create more opportunity for new companies. I think people would agree that it is all right to open the door a create more opportunity for more competitors, but do not come and make it harder once you do succeed and once you are becoming the American Dream because then is it going out and succeed or punch the clock, fit in, not try to innovate, not ruffle any feathers. Or even worse, stayathome and punch the remote. You are certainly in entrepreneur. And goes back to my earlier comment about how easy it could be to start a business at the click of the phone. Then they have to go through the red tape and the Trademark Office and all the crazy stuff that happens around starting a business. So simple and easy to get people into owning their own business and flourishing. They can do that very easily with the technology but then they hit the wall of government overreach. In colorado, the department of agriculture how many people we have to have in the dog play yard to monitor the dog. To 15. Be a ratio of one that is almost childcare. There are a couple of hundred other franchises that can do one to 25 which keeps the dogs and safe and makes enough money to be sustaining our business, but it costs profitability. That is a lot fewer franchisees willing to enter the business if they will make 10 less net profit because of regulations. That is not your job. You does run your business and we will tell you how to operate it. I remember that conversation for as long as i remember. I expect he will. Local regulations, federal regulations. In your business, which is more onerous or are they free of problems . We are getting it from all angles. It will fundamentally change franchising in the country. They are going after mcdonalds first, but they are trying to the franchisee who has about 3500 employees across the country. They are saying we are now responsible for the 3500 employees and if one person makes a bad hiring decision, all the franchisees need to pay for that mistake. They are trying to unionize the restaurant if industry. There independently owned and operated industries. Sodont control the employee it is a terrible day for franchising. We will see how it will go. Made by five was unelected bureaucrats, three of which are his buds. Entrepreneurial opportunities good, bad or little of both . Somebody came to me and said i would like to get into the business. The almost 80ver years and what it took to get here, i would talk to them a little bit about i have friday manufacturing so when you look at the strength of this country, we are founded on the manufacturing side. Is it new money or old money. I have pride in creating new money which turns over more. I try to encourage him. I would not do this but if you ask if there are any opportunities, i would say go to canada. They will give you all the tender you want. Almost a very minimal cost. They will subsidize the labor and put you in business. He says dont do it down here . I said no, different concept but if you can do in america, we figured out how to do that. Trying to think of what regulations. Think. T immigration to some of the ones i mentioned. Your it goes on and on. I have people dealing with regulation day in and day out. This if thinking about there is more opportunity today than there had been in the past. In thinking about it, i would say there is more opportunity in america now than any other time in history because technology has opened the door for that. The problem is because the government has placed itself between the innovators and the opportunity. Y granddad got into the farming business through a handshake with his neighbor who gave him the land. It became more complicated. I had little experience with that. It throttled financing in Small Community banks which are just disappearing. And Small Business. And jobs. My second question every politician, democrat or republican, is going to say im for Small Business, progrowth economic policies. Government keeps getting heavier and heavier. Capital seems to be more difficult to access. Job creation seems to be out there but today we have a smaller percentage of her work worse population actually working or looking for work. Code andst on the tax then i will ask you specifically about regulation problems. Politicians will profess is all we want to incentivize. We want to incentivize recreation. Answerg i might know the , tell me specifically what you would like to be changed in the tax code to talk about it in washington. If you could Tell Congress and the president what to do about the tax code let me start with paul. I think the real answer is not whether or not Congress Knows what to do. I think it is whether congress will actually act on it. They have all these different invisible players that incentivize them to not act upon it. You hear about it on tv every night. They are talking about lowering the tax rate, running the base, all these different things. You know all the words they use on tv. They all know it. Both parties. They know historically that is what works but that is what they tell us and they go back with all their buddies in d. C. And dont do anything. I dont think it is whether or not they know what to do, think it is their comfortable with how it is. What would you tell them to fix . Specifically, there is a handful of thanks. I like to simplify and make things easy as you know from work using our software. I would lower all the rates across the board and get rid of a handful of ones. Maybe it is because im 29 and dont understand such complex subjects, but the gas tax blows my mind. Maybe that is because my grandparents are in their 80s an90s. I cannot imagine how that works for the people. It is criminal. I think it goes back to the previous question that at the end of the day it is about money, it is about control. That is what it is about. They can say they are for middleclass and jobs but at the end of the day, the government at all levels is about control. How do you get control . You breed dependence on the system. You look like you are ready to go. I want to jump into this. [laughter] when i was campaigning, i had a debate about death tax. A bunch of contractors in the room he got up and said we are talking about maybe 5 million per person as an exemption. He said dont you think it is enough . 10 million is enough . He said certainly everybody in this room would probably go along with that. I got up and said how many people in this room have 10 million . A few hands went up. I said how many would like to . I got up for crowd. [applause] i used to say if you get rid of the decks death tax, the kids will spend it which case the money gets back into the marketplace or they will reinvest it and build the economy. There is nothing bad that can happen. Absolutely. Friend or foe . [applause] i like to talk about canada capitalism. If you look at the last 200 years, there are fewer people in poverty, fewer people that are hungry now around the world, not just the u. S. There is never been more innovation than the last 200 years. What happened . America happened, free market, capitalism. Potential, ithat is not just about making money, it is about solving the worlds problems if we can let loose entrepreneurs and innovation. I think that getting rid of the , getting to a fair tax [applause] vca i got to experience paying the tax bill on april. 50 , bye. Byebye,if i die, 50 , it does not go to my kids and my husband. What it does is if you want to start another company right now no. There are these all opportunities. Im going to work on my nonprofit. It is terrible. Im guessing you have experienced some of the same, including what we have not talked about, the highest Corporate Tax rate in the world. Because i haveme set in the halls of congress and heard you proclaim that we are incentivizing capital formation, business investment, risk takers. Are we incentivizing them . The tax code is holding us back and we to find a way to simplify it. My wife has that Bumper Sticker by the way. That is good. A simple tax code would be good around the country. Why are we penalizing the rich . Why is this whole country thinking about the wealthy and help the poor. Lets stop the fight and let the rest of us have a chance to get there like you said about those who have 10 million. The death tax, i started an organization 15 years ago working on the death tax. Taxation, triple if you are corporation. Now you lose your father and mother and you pay it again. There should be noted death tax. It should be abolished. I dont care how wealthy you are. That is my view. A big pieceode is of how government regulates our every move. I have had economists suggest to me that if we were in a position that Business People were making their business decision based on what made business sense instead of what the tax cold code told them to do, we would have about 2 trillion of economic activity. Simplifying or flattening or making fair the tax code makes a lot of sense. Let me move on. Let me move on to regulations. To put it in context, by the governments own calculations out of the Small Business administration, the cost of regulation on an annual basis, federal regulation, not state or local. It is about 2 trillion a year. 2 trillion. Eight or 10ctor of to one, the talks the cost of all the sexes. Mind when we have had all kinds of people in the Business World as well as major economists to say certain pieces of legislation, 800 billion stimulus package, obamacare, dodd frank in the middle of a antijob, we impose anticapital investment regulations which compounds the problem. That is not surprisingly. It lasts about seven years. Job creation and giving getting the economy moving again has been a little sluggish. Regulation is that excessive, i would like to hear from each of you. Some specifics. It is a twopart question. What regulation specific in your business are most problematic and if you could, if you were in one of those witness chairs in front of congress and they said what should we do, what one or two things should we do to fix the problem, what would have a big macro effect in getting the fourmy moving at that point 5 where many people think we need to be right now . What would you Tell Congress . Let me start with heidi and you get the first shot. I have a lot to say about this. Im a believer in vote with your dollar. I think society would be a better place if we left it to individuals to figure out who they want to support and which companies they can give their dollars to and i think the free market would flesh out these regulatory things. If i was sitting in front of congress and ask them to do one thing, i keep thinking about when you were talking about your first day in office and going through all the regulations. Note. Somebody just got to wipe the slate clean and i dont think that will happen but we need somebody in office that is willing to take that attitude with it. And trust people. Jim . I will go back to one of my opening comments on environmental. When you do an Environmental Impact statement, it takes the force of about five to seven years to put together a sale. Then they are inundated and it takes two to three years to put the statement together than a single letter could stop it. Back to thees regulations. Guess what happens . They file a suit and find one little deal wrong and the government reimburses the Environmental Community for their fees. In some cases, 700 an hour. That is incriminating. Bills to help that regulation to maybe untie the hands of the service which would help us tremendously. In your business specifically, litigation has become a weapon of war. Yes. , how many rich liberals are there in the room . [laughter] you get rid of regulations and all those liberals will be worried some of you will get hurt. I think dr. Carson hit it on the head by reducing the size of the government. We are generate somewhere between 30,000, 60,000 pages of new regulations every year. Who writes those regulations . Little underlings that get government jobs that pay nicely and they can retire when they are 40 years old. If we can reduce the size of government, we will reduce the size of regulation and eventually repeal some of this stuff. Regulatorswe have having the opportunity to keep writing regulations, they will keep doing it because it is job security. It is true at the federal level, the state level and at the local level. It absolutely is. With some hesitancy, i will challenge my friend pete. It is more like 80,000 pages at of the federal government and another 20,000 out of our state government. 100,000 pages of rules every single year to control everything we do. Entrepreneurs cannot keep up with it. Dodd frank is a great example. It would put Community Banks out of business. We have not started a new Community Bank since the recession started. It is nationwide. They have not even written all the regulations. The imagination is working well. Paul, i want to ask you more specifically since you volunteered you are still under 30. Isnt that amazing what he has accomplished . [applause] you are inspiring, my friend. , sometimes iation see polling data and pete touched on it. One that heidi mentioned. Jobless creation. Some statistics i have seen more recently just in the last month or so suggested especially among young adults, they have a very different attitude. They think they really need government to control the nasty big Corporate Executives that are preying on them and governments can save them from themselves. If that is prevalent in younger is, howand i think it did that happen . I think it is anticapitalism, antiamerican economy. Point thatto the government has done a very good job at one thing, maybe keep making people depend on the. There was debate if we should increase the age where people can stay on their parents plans. Look, there are a few exceptions, but who in the world would rather stay on their parents plans, their parents house until they are 26 or go out and actually have a good paying job that they can work and feel good about themselves and afford to go out on dates. [applause] i think the reason you see those statistics is not because that is the optimal thought of young people. I think that is what government has bred. You look at dodd frank. It is a lack of information being given to the young people. I spoke to about a group of 100 while a at a university was running for congress. I said how many of you heard of obamacare . Every Single Person raised their hands. How many of you have a debit card, bank account, student loan something in the financial sector. Everybody raised their hand. I said how many of you rate heard of dodd frank . Two people out of 100. It was a misguided 2300 page corruption in the financial markets. Ofwe really think 2300 pages documents will fix it . It made the corruption more complicated, harder to find. And that is what the intent was. If you look at the numbers, talking about jobs, millennials have the lowest employment right now in the history of our country. The ageook across brackets, it hovers around 16 . What is even more disturbing to me is that in the africanamerican community, that climbs to 40 . That is completely unacceptable. It is because night after night we see on the news come out of the white house it is our government and the people in congress and not all of the people are good people so anybody watching on cspan, i want you to know there are good people in congress, just not all of them. We live in a society that no longer, as my grandfathers generation, no longer rewards success, no longer rewards hard work and no longer rewards you to be loyal. What happened to the loyalty in our country from relationships to employment . 30 years ago, people would stay for companies for 30, 40 years. They might leave and start a back that saves the Company Hundreds of millions of dollars. One of my Business Partners was looking for a company 50 years ago and he created a small little thing that saved his Company Hundreds of millions of dollars. He started at the very bottom and work his way up to the very top after 40 years and became hailed as forbes best manage company in america in the 1990s. That was not because he was handed it or the government, it was because he worked his butt off. He knew his hard work would be rewarded. Today, going back to the initial question, young people dont see hard work is rewarded. It is a sad. It is not fair somebody is successful. Right. We are touching on a subject that i would like to ask we can ask one more question and we will do some audience. I want to talk about the workforce and workforce readiness. Jim, i will open with you. You had the experience of the university of wyoming, president of the board of trustees. You mentioned in your opening comments that education is an important issue to you. During the last campaign, this Colorado Springs in particular. I was talking to an official and he pointed out a big paradox. Specifically went there because their Unemployment Rate is among the highest in colorado. I asked him how many jobs, how many were unemployed. Here is what i do remember. He said we actually have postings, Jobs Available in Colorado Springs that outnumber the number of people in unemployment by 2;1 1. More Jobs Available than people unemployed. I said that seems to be a paradox. What is the problem . The job skills of those unemployed do not match the need, the skills needed for the job. I looked at a study. Are they ready to work . A workforce study and this is the opening quote in the executive summary. Tthe findings are summarized. It said the u. S. Workforce is woefully illprepared for the mans of todays and tomorrows workplace. Ceos like the four of you have input in the study which says yes, we need academic skills. They said what is more necessary is applied skills. Work ethic, teamwork and collaboration ability. Critical thinking, problem solving. Can you find heres a question after the pontification can you find the workforce iat you need and, if not, know you specifically, jim, have pondered this. What do we need to do to fix this . I have such a strong passion for education, trying to help and influence the Education System from a business perspective. Too many times we try to force our kids on to college because that is the right thing to do when may be a trade school or something would be a better option for them. I will divert a little bit. I want to share the experience i had. We took that over three years ago, september 1. ,bout a third of our workforce we had done a study and none of them were using unemployment, none of them use medical services and they were all qualified. Under the Social Security administration, it was all legal citizens. Under the Social Security administration, we cannot look any deeper than that piece of paper that they give us. We will get penalized. At home in wyoming, we use Homeland Security everify. We started snooping and applied it instead of the Traditional Company we took over. We found out 38 employees were illegal. I said wow. Somewhere there 14 years, 12, 10. Some had children that were graduating from high school, been in the community. We had to make the tough choice. Hired a good legal firm out of denver to consult with and their specialist said this administration hates you. They will not hurt the employees. Those immigrants that are not legal. They are after us, the business guide. The fine would have been 16,500 per document. My fines would have been 900,000. I had to let 38 people go. That was one of the toughest situations i was in. It was painful to see those good workers and they had skills. I just spent 6 million plus automating, which you had a chance to look at. That was my alternative because i could not find skilled workers to replace and fill in. I have had a tough situation. I have a passion for the hardworking people that can come from mexico to parts of colorado. I felt like going back 50 years, they had some of the passion i saw in my granddad and dad. And stronghic faithbased family values that i had to let go. That really hurt. One of the many places i saw government beginning to a worse employer laws. They need to give you a system that is absolute, quick and accurate that you can live within the law and they have not done that. But thisowed the law, is showing 30 years of broken laws and letting people come across the border and not having a proper system. I hope ben can fix that if he gets elected. Pete, you have been the norm is workforce. Attracting skilled workers, retaining them, how tough for easy is it . Pete it is a mixed bag. We have had employees who have been there 30, 40 years. Love the company. The older employees tend to be more mobile. You talked about going to Colorado Springs. Mine wasfriend of having a hard time keeping cashiers. I said that is interesting. It is a nice entrylevel job. Probably High School Education required and minimal amount of skills. You need to be able to count, use 10 fingers. [laughter] it is a good entrylevel job and you can do that for a while and maybe an opportunity arises and you get promoted. He says im paying them good wages but they cannot make as much money as my wage rate. They can if they go on unemployment. Know what the actual number is, but it is well in excess of 50,000 of income. Before you pay taxes compete with being on the government bill. Talking theson was safety net, we have too many people that are in the hammock not because they want to, but what the heck . If they were offering you the money, you should take it. It is something that is not being developed in young people. We have to replace electricians, mechanics, pipe fitters. It is very difficult to get people to want to take the time and be apprentices and learn the trade and have a lifetime career. Truckers, they are offering 90,000 for truck drivers. We cannot find enough truck haulers to bring our grain a take it out of the marketplace. And collect a check and why should it be in a truck and away from my family . These are the issues we need to deal with. Again, shrinking government, shrinking dependency on the government will go a long way towards developing the kind of talent, because it will grow. Here,atgrandfather came all of our ancestors came here. There was no safety net. There was no osha. There was no epa. There is no disability, unemployment, none of this stuff. They didnt have any choice. Now there is too much choice. [applause] bob you have outlined it very well. I find nothing to take exception with. I will ask a followup question. Can we get from here to there . Can we implement the kind of reforms you are talking about and get the job done in the political environment . Pete people have to work out of necessity. They have to eat. If you take away their subsistence and able bodies, they will get a job. All the Jobs Available in Colorado Springs, they will start running to those jobs. [applause] paul, you are in the high tech business. I expect you need some fairly skilled people. Can you find them. On a broader scale, what about the workforce in america, especially the folks entering the workforce, your age . Paul a lot of it goes back to education. Also, talking to what pete was talking about. The work ethic that was instilled in previous generations had not been intrinsically instilled in my generation. I think it is partially because the government got too big and the government thought he could tell parents how to raise their kids. You are looking over your shoulder. If you correct or rebuke your child thinking you might get thrown in jail for it. I dont have kids, im not married, but that would be my observation. With education, in terms of hightech workforce, it is definitely a challenge to find people. There is a shortage in our country, especially in engineering. You see that is why every day it s this transient shift of employees. That is why there are losses between google and facebook and apple. The only place they can get employees is from other companies. That stems back to the fact, going back to what jim was and we are pushing the government is pushing people to go to college, graduate school. We arename of equality, seeing Everyone Needs to go get the same type of degree, same type of person, same type of thing. The problem with that is when they graduate and they try to find a job, there are only so many that type of jobs. Quite frankly, there are more jobs these days that you can get without having a college degree. Most of my employees with our company, i would say maybe half have no background in what we do prior to working with us. We train them. Is not because of their college. They have basic skills. Paul we are looking for hard work, work ethic. We have settled with saying we will teach them the rest. My cpo has almost become educator in chief. Helping employees that develop and grow their skills. I think you see that across all industries. I dont think there is a job shortage. I think there is a worker shortage, but i dont think there is a people shortage,. If that makes sense bob we can spend a lot of time on this. Heidi, if you can address this briefly and we will get to audience questions. Heidi i think the key is education reform and Publicprivate Partnership in the Education System like ibm is doing. Things like that we do get employers telling the Education System was skills they need an authoring apprenticeships and internships. I think it is with dylan or sweden has a Graduation Rate of 94 . That is because the beginning of their sophomore year, they partnered with the company and started an apprenticeship program. The graduate with wonderful skills and jobs and they love what they do. Bob excellent point. We have a resurgence of career technical education. Back in my day, we called it votech. Teaching job ready skills to a number of young people if they can get that degree in their hand. A really good example. If you get a chance, take a look. It is unbelievable. Week, just what heidi talk about they are adding at the job site. Heidi they get to pick their passion. Bob excellent. Education really is Like Technology in many ways. I always say if you, in the technology industry, if you dont innovate, you get left behind. Education is the same way. We are educating the future for the 1960s. We have to start educating the future for the future. Bob very well said. [applause] all right. We have a microphone over here. There is one over there. Kevins got a question. You have a big enough booming voice. Let it rip. I will wait for a microphone. I want cspan2 year this. I to hear this. Just kidding. I have kind of a loaded question for you. I think education in america sucks. I think it is a racket by the government to get people to go they keep raising the rates and you put scholarship money into it and it has become a farce. Here is my comment and kind of question i believe a lot of these affirmativeaction and diversity programs that are being regulated, essentially force on businesses, is what is ruining the businesses. You talked about bringing people people do notack want to go to little towns and be forced to. The government, if you hire too many white folks, the Government Asks where are the black people . [laughter] you are dammed if you do, damped if you dont damned if you dont. I understand all of it. Here is my question. You got Companies Like the retailers, jcpenneys, that have been forced to hire threefoot tall guatemalan women because they fit the profile and they are in triage going out of business. Then you have places like google and the high tech people you are talking about that say we will hire anybody, which i think is the american way. Lets bring the best. You bring me the best, i will hire them. I dont care if they are eight feet, purple from somalia. If they can code, i want them. My question from an hr perspective, do you feel like i feel that Government Social engineering of business is really what is the downfall of business, because when america says bring us your best and brightest, that is what we want. We dont care what your religion, creed or color is. Do you feel that way . I dont want to put you on the spot if you dont want to answer it on public tv. Bob jim . Jim what a great question. I want to cheer you on. This sickuments about that i have to monitor every month. Thank the head of my construction division, his daughter married somebody from louisiana. You have to monitor what percentage in your area. And that one person got us up to speed to be in compliance. Otherwise, i would have been find. Ed. [laughter] a great person and a great worker. He is about 4. 5 feet tall, too. [laughter] k12 educational system is really in trouble. It is shameful. It is really shameful. We have tried to deal with this in colorado and jefferson county. I got a recall election because they are doing things right and the Teachers Union does not like that. Teachers unions are all about the union and not at all about the kids. [applause] think that our places and reasons to have unions, but our kids need to be educated well. Greatdo succeeds as a organization that is working on rating schools. I have an executive assistant whose sisters daughter goes to a school that has a d rating. When she found out, she said why the you want your daughter to go to this school . She can go to a b rated. Parents have to get on top of it. It is huge piece of the problem those who have parents who care. Minority hiring, all this stuff has been the cause of any real significant issues. In fact, think it has helped us. Management levels we like diversity. The problem is getting young people who are willing to work to start. I give talks to employees. You have to start somewhere. Everybody wants to be president. Well, you have to i talked to college kids. I have this fancy education. I said why dont you be an apprentice . Drive a truck for a while and learn the business and pretty soon you will be the supervisor, then you will be the manager and the depot guy. That is how the system works. Young people want instant gratification. They get it on their iphones, or facebook. It is like a candy store. They dont that to me is the key. I dont care what your race, religion or anything else is. Youve got to get started. Where . Check has a question. I say that we pay a lot of taxes for the Public Schools. I used to go to Public Schools. That we pay money for terrible purpose. Teachers dont really almost every lesson i ever had in Public Schools was a review us and from kindergarten. The teachers never really cared what anyone did, and we are paying money so that they can get paid