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If you are waiting for the next speaker to come, keep in mind that that people sitting next to you may have come to hear the personal at the podium right now. Faith and freedom and cwa always does masterful jobs of bringing people to those things and people honoring the spirit, i guess, of the program. I will also just say, obviously, you know weve had we had some security terrance. So we have taken some pretty pronounced efforts to keep that to a bear minimum. Thank you for dealing with ininconvenience as you have been coming in. As we begin the program, obviously, we are excited to have each of the participants in the program. But we believe that the most important component of this is really to honor and lift up those precepts that we believe made america great. So i would ask that you join dr. W. A. Merit of the southern Leadership Conference of North Carolina to lead us in prayer. Good morning. Its such a wonderful day that god has given us. And each of us have arrived here safely. And its a blessing. Ive travelled quite a ways to be here with you today. Buttine honored and blessed. And i want to share that blessing with you. If we could bow our head for a word of prayer. Heavenly father, we ask for your guidance, for your blessings that we can do your will. Help us to be strong and to fight the negativity that is upon our country. Give us the faith. Give us the grace. And by all means, lord, let us do their will. We know that there are trials and tribulations that we will have to face. But we know with the strength of the lord that we can overcome any obstacle that may be upon us. We want to thank you, in jesuss name for all blessings, and we ask for continued blessings as we move forward through this conference n. Jesuss name we pray. Amen. Please welcome for the pledge of allegiance new jersey ffc president , brenda roems. Im honored to be here this morning to lead you in our pledge of allegiance. All rise. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of america, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Please stand as ffc director of marketing and events joy creaseman sings the national anthem. O say, can you see by the dawns early light what so proudly we hailed at the twilights last gleaming . Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight oer the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming . And the rockets red glare the bombs bursting in air gave proof through the night that our flag was still there oh, say, does that starspangled banner yet wave oer the land of the free and the home of the brave . [ applause ] please welcome to the stage, from the great state of tennessee, representative marcia blackburn. Good morning i tell you what, i am absolutely thrilled to be here with you this morning. How wonderful to see so many conservatives here together clipped and ready for the battle because this is a fight that we have to win and being here, you are laying the foundation for going out there and being the foot soldiers. We as conservatives, we know if we focus on personalities we lose every time. If we focus on the issues and focus on the constitution, we win. I want to bring you up to date on some work that we are doing in the house of representatives. Everybody remembers the videos that came out last year, and with every video we got a little bit more insight into what was happening with the big abortion. We got a view of doctors who were willing to sell baby body parts for money, a view of clinics as middle men that were marketing body parts on line, a view that exploits young women and sees their babies as a Profit Center. Many of you said what are you going to do about it . And the house of representatives is doing something about it. We cant hear you. The microphone is not on. Lets see. Can you hear me now . All right. Well do it this way then. The videos is what everybody saw. And you wanted us to do something about it. On october 7th, 2015, the house passed a resolution. It established the select Investigative Panel on infant lives. And we were directed to investigate the issues related to acquisition and transfer for resale of fetal tissue to Research Institutions and related manners. Look at the core language of the resolution. Its not the usual congressional inquiry. This is about exacting detail, evidence, accounting practices, business records, bank records. Its about subpoenas and depositions. Let me give you a snapshot of the abortion biz and the fetal tissue industry. There are currently 512 surgical Abortion Clinics. 218 are u 486 clinics. 1018 doctors who perform abortions. There are eight procurement businesses that we have under scrutiny, companies that pay money for tissue and resell it. These companies have hundreds of customers, and the transactions and when i say transaction, this means individual sales of baby body parts for money. Those transactions number in the thousands. The average price paid to the Abortion Clinic for tissue is 50. The average resale price is 700. Sometimes higher. The investigation must be exacting because selling baby body parts for a profit is a violation of federal law. It is a tenyear felon. This statute was passed as A Henry Waxman amendment in 1993. Its a basing accounting statute. Sell the baby body part for a profit and you are in violation of the law. Donate the body parts, you are within thelaw. This is one of the reasons we have issued subpoenas. 36 subpoenas to date. And weve had very little cooperation from big abortion. We get documents that are redacted. They are missing also. There has been little complyians from the middle man. People have said to you had, we will not comply with a congressional subpoena. Some people have said start the contempt process. And i plan to do exactly that. [ applause ] these subpoenas will be enforced. At our first hearing on the bioethics the democrats agreed that nobody should sell a baby body part for a profit. Their star witness admitted that outside of a few early vaccines, no cures can come from fetal tissue research. They agreed that no one should be able to get pregnant for the purpose of making a fetal tissue donation. The witnesses, including a democrat, all agreed that the consend form used is very m misleading. They agreed it would be a legal and ethical violation for an Abortion Clinic and a researcher to deceive the board, called an Institutional Review Board that, by law, reviews fetal tissue research. At our second hear hearing which was on the pricing of fetal tissue, two former u. S. Attorneys agreed that our investigation had produced evidence that Abortion Clinics and the middle men were profiting from the sale of parts. All the panelists agreed that we needed the Accounting Records and bank records from the middle men. Thats the reason for the subpoenas. I want to show you a business brochure that is absolutely bone chilling. Take a good hard look at this. This is a stem express offered to the Abortion Clinics to add a Profit Center to their clinic. We got the language highlighted there. And you can see they add the selling of baby body parts for profit. Now take a look at the website that goes with the brochure. This is the place where stem express sells the baby body pargts, the drop down box with everything listed, brain, heart, lung, liver, tongue, scalp. Click on what you want, click on the gestation period you want, kplik on the date you want it, and then proceed to check out to pick your form of shipping. It really is baby parts on demand. This is big abortion today. Long gone is the lie of legal safe and rare. In big abortion, the baby is a Profit Center, whatever the cost. Look at these invoices. Money paid to the clinics for each body part. Money paid to the procurement company. And there are many Procurement Companies besides stem express. Its all about the money. Does it matter that abortion business exploits frightened young women facing a lifechanging decision . Does it matter that Abortion Clinics and stem express violate hippa privacy . Does it matter that everyone of these actions degrades the rules and the dignity of our Organ Donation . Yes, it does matter. On the screen, youve got copies of letters that ive sent to the Inspector General of health and human services. Over 70 payments of documented evidence of violations. You can wreath read them all on our website. Im not alone in this effort. I chair the select investigationive panel, and it is full of some wonderful members. I want to introduce you to our team. Weve got doctors, a former nurse a prosecutor. Were a strong prolife team. You have joe pits from pennsylvania, diane black from tennessee, larry boo chon from indiana, shawn duffy, dr. Andy harris, vicky hartzler, and mia love. Strong, prolife members. [ applause ] their efforts matter to me, and i know that they matter to you. And knowing about what we are doing in the house is all part of your equipping for the fight. This year matters. I want you to remember that on april 3rd Hillary Clinton said she said this on meet the press that the, quote, unborn person, end quote, doesnt have constitution rights. Think about how strikingly callous that is. The unborn person doesnt have constitutional rights. The analytical coldness with which she dismissed rights for unborn children reveals a hardened core that is shocking. Abortion restrictions are in place. They are in law specifically because unborn children have constitutional rights. [ applause ] what is even more troubling to me is that her comments may signal her intention much the same way president obama has used executive orders on immigrations to use executive action to block even minimal protections of life at its most vulnerable stage. So here is our website. I want each of you to get involved torque tell others, to write letters, write an article. I want you to get on our email list, go to our website. Pull down these documents that i have shown you today. And i want to offer to you a call to action. One of our founding fathers, dr. Joseph warren, who is president of the massachusetts assembly, the militia, gave the charge, and the command, as they headed to bunker hill where he lost his life. Heres what he said. On you depend the fortunes of america. You are to decide the important questions upon which rest the happiness and liberty of millions yet unborn. Act worthy of yourselves. For us today, as conservatives stepping up in this election season, equipping for the task at hand, focusing on the issues and making certain that we are there to protect life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, thats our charge in this election season. May god bless you. May he bless your weekend, and equip you for a winning a victorious months ahead. Thank you so much. [ applause ] ladies and gentlemen, please help me welcome to the stage from the great state of west virginia, congressman alex mooney. Thank you. Its such a pleasure to be with you. You are here bright and early. Congratulations for your efforts in being part of this effort to take this country back from the far left who is attempting to ruin it making it a socialist utopia. Im alex mooney. On my first term in congress from the great state of west virginia. Ive been passionate about the political process my swir life. My father served in vietnam as an army captain, received the bronze star, was political and raised me to believe in fighting for our country. My mother, when she turn 20d years old, was sitting in a prison cell in Fidel Castros cuba. She was born and raised in cuba. When the bay of pigs invasion failed they locked everybody up that wasnt a communist and she was forced to be able to flee and was accepted into this country. She saw a entire country taken from her by a despotic dictator, an evil person. There is good and evil in this world. Some would have you believe its gist differences of opinions and there is not objective truth and its subject of and there is right and the wrong for every person. That is not true. There is good in this world and evil in this world. This is evil in this world, like the killing of unborn children. We are passion add about fighting back against this as are you because you are here. But my parents raised me to get involved in the process at a young age. I believe its everybodys duty to get involved some way or another. For example, as an absolute minimum, everybody should vote. Everyone seems to agree with that. Everyone should vote but we all know people in our family, our friends, our neighbors, in our church that dont vote. Even in president ial years some people dont vote. As a absolute minimum, people should vote. You are here at a conference, i applaud you for that, its desperately needed. Frankly, i think right now what we are naysing if this country is close to a constitutional crisis. We have a president , an executive who thinks he can make the laws and thats not the way the system works. The founders of our country wisely set up a system of three coequal branches of government. The president of the United States enforces the laws, he does not make up the laws himself and go around congress to do so. This has become quite a difficult battle in the congress right now. My state of west virginia, the coal is our number one product. It drives our economy. This president decided he is going to declare a war on coal. He is going to use the Environmental Protection agency, the department of interior or any other means at his disposal to try to shut down the coal industry because of a radical environmentalist agenda thats not even based on science. He has been prosecuting this war for a long time unnecessarily putting people out of work, costing good paying jobs for families just for a political agen agenda. One of my first battles in congress im in my freshman year. Ive been there a year and a half. You may recall february of last year president obama decided to declare executive amnesty by executive order, Illegal Immigrants were told they can stay which is against our law in this country. He did that by executive order. One of the things thats so scary about that is president obama himself had said no fewer than 22 times that he lacked the authority under the constitution to do that by himself. When he was speaking to different groups, he would go speak to left wing groups im here speaking to a conservative group. When he would speak to liberal groups when he was asked why dont you do illegal amnesty by executive order he said i dont have the authority to do it. He would use terms like i am not a king. I am not a dictator im not the emperor of the United States of the United States of america. He himself said it no fewer than 22 times. Everyone knew the president lacked the authority to do that. And he did it anyway. That, ladies and gentlemen, is a scary thing. The president does not have that power. So part of the battle weve been seeing, and i know you have been watching it is in congress simply to assert ourselves and stand up for the constitutional powers that we have. Ive gotten very familiar with article one section seven of the United States constitution. Which simply says the power to raise revenue, the power of the purse, known as the power of the purse, lies specifically with the United States house of represent tiffs. So when the president of the United States gets out of control and starts going around congress and making up laws through the rule making process of his departments and through executive orders congress was empowered by the founders of our country to stop him through the power of the purse. We simply need to do that. [ applause ] thank you. There has been a lot of talk about having study commissions and how to do a task force to examine how to control the president and maintain the power of congress. We dont need all. That its right there. We have it. We simply have to do it. Someone is essentially being a bully. This president is being a bully. This isnt a partisan comment. The president doesnt have the power to did these things. Even the new president , doesnt have the power to go around congress. S that constitutional issue for the separation of powers. We just need to assert ourselves. We have differences on tactics in congress but not differences on the principles. What has been interesting for me to so whats been happening, which is so frustrating and i know its frustrating to you, is when the house passes bills and we have the largest conservative majority. 247 republicans and 188 democrats. Thats the largest republican majority in over 80 years. Its been frustrating to see us pass bills that have u. S. Senate abuse the filibuster rule. The u. S. Senate the Minority Party the Minority Party in the United States senate led by harry reid filibusters everything. You need 60 votes to pass something over there. We need to put that on the floor and make them filibuster it and make them see the destructive tactics they are using. They are trying to shut down government and blame the Majority Party for that which is of course unfair. Thats something thats been a battle for to us push back against. When we pass our bills in the house of representatives, we should wait until the senate acts and appoint a conference committee. But for us to pass good bills, bills that reign in we are passing appropriation bills one at a time with writers, thing that defund planned parenthood. Things that stop obamas war on coal [ applause ] thank you. And various other they are called riders but those are policies so we say you cant take the money and go against the American People. What congress was elected to do. What i want to say is if the people of this country wanted everything barack obama is going unchecked he would have put nancy pelosi in charge of the house. The voters asked for that check and balance. We cant get everything but there is a lot we can do. One victory we had late last year was we passed the bill in the house and the senate to repeal obama care completely. [ applause ] thank you completely. Every word of it. And we used the budget reconciliation act. There is procedures we can use to get around the Senate Filibuster specifically on a few things. Thats what we did. We passed that with all republican votes, no democratic votes and passed the bill to repeal obama care completely. It went to the president s desk. As expected president obama vetoed the bill. We were tried to send the American People a message. If you give us a new president , one thats not for obama care completely we can do that. And rest assured if we retain a conservative majority in the house and the senate the first thing well do is repeal that bill completely. You will see that on the desk of the president. I know there is frustration out there and a lot of doubt. When i was seeking election to this office the number one skepticism i had is that we could make a difference at all. But we are fighting hard and with your help we til to make a difference for our values as people believe in traditional judeochristian values and American Pride and Strong National defense. Thank you very much for coming, and i look forward to doing battle with you. God bless. [ applause ] ladies and gentlemen, help me welcome to the stage savanna barry, Liberty University young women for america president. [ applause ] hello. Im here to introduce our next speaker, congresswoman virginia fox from the Fifth District of North Carolina. Congresswoman fox was first elected to congress in 2005. And prior to that served as the senator in North Carolinas legislature for ten years. Congresswoman fox has established herself as a champion of conservative values in both congress and the North Carolina senate. However, most notably she has been one of the most fearless leaders in congress when it comes to the prolife issue. Without fail it has been said of her she is one of the most dedicated unwavering persistent and hard working members of congress when it comes to the issue of pro life. This has become increasingly evident with her leadership when it comes to the fight for the 20 week ban. As she was one of the members of congress that led the fight for this piece of legislation on the house floor. As a young prolife woman i am glad to have one like her setting an example of fearless and selfless leadership in congress. Please join me in welcoming from the great state of North Carolina, congresswoman virginia fox. [ applause ] thank you very much, savanna. I appreciate. That i told savanna back stage that a young woman who runs my office is a liberty grad. She came to me as an intern about 11 years ago. And first few minutes i talked with her, she got me some information. I said to my chief of staff, that woman is staying here as long as im here. So you keep her. And she stayed. And im so grateful to her. We love the liberty grads. We really do. [ applause ] i want to say that its a great honor to be with you this morning. And especially as i have seen the list of speakers and heard already a couple of my colleagues speaking to you, and some more back in the back getting ready to come speak to you, i think you will see what a Wonderful Group of republican members that we have in the congress. You will see that we are very strongly committed to faith and freedom in our country. And we are leading the fight in this area. But we need folks like you out there in the hinderlands helping back us up with this. So i want to say to you, its an honor to be with you. And i want to encourage you as the other members have encouraged you, and im sure the members coming after me will, to stay involved, and get even more involved. I agree, everybody can do something. And when i get letters from people in my office, and i read my own mail and answer my own mail, so i stay up with whats going on. And people say what are you going to do president obama . What are you going to do about this . And i turn it right back around, i say, what are you going to do . Because we cant do this alone in the congress of the United States. We have to have everybody involved. Im so delighted that marcia talked to you about the select Investigative Panel on infant lives. Im the one who originally introduced that bill. And i want to tell you, it is a prime example of one of our major responsibilities in the congress that is often overlooked. And that is the responsibility of oversight of the executive branch. You know, we read about how Dysfunctional Congress is all the time. Thats all the press wants to talk about is because republicans are in charge we are dysfunctional. That is just not true. Dont buy into that. I asked recently because people were saying why cant you all just get along . Do you know 99 of our bills pass with by part san support . Because we do work together. And we have between 20 and 80 hearings a week. And you never hear about that. We are passing legislation. But also, we have lots of committees doing their work in terms of oversight of the executive branch. We are delving into what the executive branch is doing and how it is either doing its work right or not doing its work right. As well as agencies that get money from the federal government, like planned parenthood. And thats part of our responsibility. And i think we are doing it very well. I do want to tell you again very briefly, you are going to hear from a variety of us. And i want to tell you because i hope to inspire the young people here like savanna. You might think that members of Congress Come from rarified backgrounds. But i want to till, i grew up in western North Carolina in a house with no electricity and no running water. My mother had a sixth grade education, my father, a ninth grade education. As i tell people that, i tell them im not telling you that to complain or to brag. Im only saying, we live in the greatest country in the world. [ applause ] and i was asked this morning on a radio show, if i were giving a commencement speech right now this is commencement season, what would i say to young people . And i would say that to them. Wake up. Open your eyes and realize you live in the greatest country in the world, where you have every opportunity to exercise the godgiven skills and talents you have to be whatever it is you want to be. Now, i have to tell you when i was younger i was just focused on surviving. Thats all i was focused on. I did not know god would lead me to where he has led me. But i feel very strongly that i could not be in the congress of the United States without the hand of god guiding me and bringing me here. [ applause ] and so and as others have alluded to, i love the title of your group, faith and freedom. We all know thats how our country was formed was on faith and the concept of freedom. And we are losing those freedoms, slowly but surely, in this country. And the only way were going to keep them is for people like you to be involved and to make sure that you hold people running for office to account to maintain our freedom to make sure that our faith is not pushed aside. I dont know how much you ever get a chance to go down and see the congress in session. But you know, we begin every day with a prayer, and the prejudice of the pledge of allegiance. And every republican meeting that we have our conference meetings not all the Committee Meeting but a lot of our special Committee Meetings we begin with a prayer and the pledge of allegiance. And i think its important you know that. Because we do look to god for guidance. And i would tell you, some of the prayers that are given in our conference are so inspiring, ive been collecting them. And i hope some day to be able to publish those. But i want to tell you, you have folks on our side of the aisle and some people on the other side of the aisle who want to sustain what founded our country. This morning i said to one of our staffers before i came. You know, i said i want to talk just a bit about the founding of the country and this theme of faith and freedom, and i said because i know ive read that the founders the signers of the constitution, the signers of the declaration of independence, were members of the American Bible Society. Most of them were preachers. Most of you probably know that histo history. If you dont, i encourage you to go to wall builders and learn more about it. But i found something really interesting. My staff gave me the list of president s of the American Bible Society. And i see that United States senator theodore freelying highsen was elected president of the American Bible Society in 1846. And then Frederick Theodore was elected president of the society in 1894. The reason i mention them is there is a freeling highsen in the congress right now, from new jersey. So that thread has stayed with us throughout our entire history and we want to keep that thread there. I will tell you that, again, you hear lots of negative things about us. But its important that you know there are really positive things that happen. We have a Prayer Breakfast every thursday morning out of which the national Prayer Breakfast developed. We get together in a bipartisan fashion and we pray for each other and we pray for our leaders. I go to a dibl study on wednesday mornings. And my group focuses on jesus calling. How many of you read jesus calling every day . Its so great, and its one of the boast devotionals that we have. But i want to talk just a little bit more about policy. As some of you know, and other people will probably allude to today, speaker ryan has asked us to look at setting up an agenda called better way for the American People. We want to point out to people that we have a philosophy, and we have an agenda that if we are returned to congress with a republican majority and we get a republican president , then we will have a better way for the American People. We believe we will win on philosophy and ideas. We dont want this contest this fall to be a contest of just personalities. So we are working on that. We have rolled out the first one kmrks is on poverty, opportunity, and education. These things that our faithbased organizations have always been so good at. And we want to give them even more of an opportunity in the future. Do you know anything that the government does better than the private or Nonprofit Sector . Nothing. Absolutely nothing. And weve been spending a trillion dollars a year on poverty programs and havent moved the needle one bit. And so we want to reengage the Faith Community in working with us to make a difference for the American People. Go back to the way it used to be in this country, where that was the responsibility of our faithbased organizations. You know, i am somebody who begins each day, as i said, reading jesus calling. Sometimes i read it at midnight before i go to bed, and then read it again in the morning. But i want you to know that most of us, starting with the speaker, and coming down to all of us on our side of the aisle that we know that this nation needs a moral and Spiritual Foundation in order to survive and thrive. [ applause ] George Washington said in his first inaugural, nobody people can be bound to knowledge and adore the invisible hand which conducts the affairs of men more than the people of the United States. So we must be involved as people of faith. And i often talk to people at home who feel like they are losing their faith. And they say oh, we want do anything. We cant do anything. Its all lost. Please dont buy into that. Do not buy into that. I believe as long as god gives us breath, we have hope, and we can save this country. And when i [ applause ] what i have told people for many many years when they told me years ago when i first ran for the state senate i was at a Church Meeting people. And he they said, we dont think church and politics should mix. Politics is a dirty business. And i said well let me tell you something, if people of faith are not involved in political life, then you are leaving it to the filistines, and im not willing to leave it to them. So i want to say to you, thank you. Thank you for being involved with the faith and Freedom Coalition. Thank you for caring about this country. Thank you for being people of faith. And dont be discouraged. Im not discouraged. You shouldnt be discouraged. You are going to hear a lot of other members of congress who are going to encourage you to do the same thing. This is the greatest country in the world. Help us keep it that way. God bless you. And got god bless america. [ applause ]. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome, from the great state of georgia, congressman jody highs. Thank you very much. What a tremendous honor to be here. I really appreciate the opportunity to come. And most of all, thank you for being a part of this, and the faith and Freedom Coalition. What an outstanding job you are doing. For some of you who may not know, my background is actually in ministry. I was a pastor for 25 or 30 years, conservative radio talk show host as well. And i want to share with you just a couple of bits of good news because you know, i think all of us here from washington allot of discouragement, not necessarily from washington representatives, but what we all just feel, whats happening in our country. We are watching the demise of our country right before our eyes. And we are disturbed. Were broken. But i want to give you a little bit of good news. Then i want to circle back around and give you some other points of perspective in all of this. One of the committees i serve on is ogr, over sight in government reform. That is the committee that ive come to refer as to the group that deals with the three branches of government, which today are waste, fraud, and abuse. Thats what ogr deals with. Whenever there is inefficiency, waste, scandal, it comes under the jurisdiction of our committee. This past year, we have actually called for the removal of office from ogr, removal of office from various departments and agencies somewhere in the ballpark of 20 different heads of departments. We have been successful in removing 18 out of 20. [ applause ] and thats not the type of thing you hear about in the news. I wish it i wish that type of information would get out more. But thats good news. Now, one of the two that we have not been successful in is a guy jamd john kossco nguyen who is head of the irs. You remember the lowest learner scandal, the email scandals and the targeting of the irs on conservatives and conservative christian organizations . Absolutely inexcusable. And we have had hearings with him. We asked him to step down from his position. He refused to do so. We sent a letter to the president asking him to remove kossco nguyen. We refused to do anything about it. We went the next step. That is we filed articles of impeachment against john kosscon ayen. And its taken several months but im glad to report to you that a couple of weeks ago the House Judiciary Committee actually took up hearings on that. We are going to stay on his case until he finds Something Else to do or has a clean cell that he can spend a lot of time in. [ applause ] im also honored to be a part of a group of vngss in congress trying to roof out to the chris tan communities across america. We just had our first meeting with many leading pastors from across the country. We understand that we have got to have people of faith, we have got to have christian leaders across the country engage with us in prayer and in just impacting our culture. And so we had a fantastic meeting about a monday or so ago. We had a Conference Call with a group of pastors that will take place again next week. We are trying to expand. That we understand the tremendous need. Another huge thing that right now we are engaged in is fada, First Amendment defense act. I dont have to tell everyone in here that the rise of persecution is massively on the increase in the United States of america. And we have got to defend our rights to keep the doors of the gospel open and to keep the rights of conscious for every believer and every christian and every citizen in this country to live according to their believes and to do so without fear of intimidation or harassment or punishment from our government. [ applause ] so we are working hard to push the First Amendment defense act through. A couple of things let me circle around in the closing few moments that i have. I dont know how else to say it, but we are in the fight of our life for our country. Absolutely the fight of our life. At the core of that battle is the spiritual need and the fact that we have and we continue to foresake the judeochristian principles upon which this nation was established, the principles that separated this country from every other nation in the history of the world. That is the core problem that we are experiencing. And spiritual problems cannot be resolved by Political Solutions or political prowess. [ applause ] and we are firmly aware of that. Friends, absolutely the greatest need we have in this country is a spiritual awakening. And we need you. I want to thank you for being a part of this. As a mentioned a few moments ago, my background is in ministry. Ive been a pastor for many years, conservative radio talk show host for about 12. And the redefining moment there have been several, but one of the redefining moments in my life came when the aclu came after the county where i was pastoring over the Ten Commandments that were in the courthouse. Members of our Church Actually put those commandments in the court house. That lawsuit literally march inside the doors of our church. That was a turning point in my life. I stepped up and became a leader in that battle. Later on, we had a battle with the irs and their attempts to sensor what can and cannot be said on pull pits across america. We continue that battle to this add addae. The point of saying all that is to say this. This is our country. This is our turf. And the reality hit me one day that it is we, the people. You realize as christians we have two mandates to engage our culture and to make a difference. We obviously have passages like matthew 5 that call us to be salt and light in our world regardless of the country we live in. We are called to be salt and light regardless of where we live. But here in america we have Something Else. We have a system of government that does not work without involvement from the people. So we have both a biblical mandate and the honor of living in a country that doesnt work unless we step up to the plate and engage this thing head on. And when that reality hit me, i realized that i cant just complain. I cant just do the things that i was doing at that point. There is a very deep sense of responsibility and duty to step up. And after much prayer, my wife and i felt like this is what we needed to do and god led the way. None of us can do of the al. All offis are not called to be part of public office. But all of us can do something, and you are right there in the midst of it. From the depths of my heart i say thank you for your engagement in our culture. Let me close with this quote. One of my great heros is james garfield. Dont know if you know much about garfield. He is the only minister ever to be elected president of the United States. And unfortunately, he was assassinated. I dont know if that has anything to do with it. But i dont know if that has anything to do with it, but garfield, ive never read anything from him that i didnt deeply walk away from saying he got it. He understands. He understood the issues of faith and freedom. He understood the role of religion and morality as our founders described. And garfield made this quote, and i want to leave you with this tell me if it doesnt apply more today than its ever applied in any of our lifetimes. He said this now more than ever before, the people are responsible for the character of their congress. If that body if that body be ignorant, reckless, and corrupt, it is because the people tolerate ignorance, recklessness, and corruption. [ applause ] he went on and said, if that body be intelligent, brave, and pure, its because the people demand these qualities to represent them in the national legislature. Then he said this if the next centennial does not find us a great nation, it will be because the people who represent the enterprise, the culture, and the morality of the nation did not aid in controlling the political forces. Folks, this is our turf. Its our country. Its our time for the body of christ to have her finest hour. This is the time to step up to the plate. The stakes are enormously high, as you well know. This is the time. I want to thank you for being engaged. God bless you. Keep the torch ablaze. [ applause ] ladies and gentlemen, please help me welcome to the stage the executive director of the faith and Freedom Coalition, dave baker. [ applause ] senator david perdue was an outsider and businessman with over 40 years of experience including serving as ceo of reebok and dollar general. David had never run for Political Office until 2014 when he and his wife bonnie were inspired to get involved and help change the direction of our country. In the senate, he has made his mark on the budget, Foreign Relations, agriculture, and Judiciary Committees. David is fighting for georgians and all of us every day in the u. S. Senate, and is committed to solving our National Debt and Global Security crisis. Ladies and gentlemen, senator david perdue of georgia. [ applause ] good morning. I think we have a few georgia folk out here, dont we . [ cheers ] all right. I am so honored to be here. We do have a serious moment in our history as you heard from the prior speaker. And i hate having to follow these preachers. Theyve got all the anecdotes and all that. Jodis another one. I think were called to pray for our country, our leaders, yes, even our president. In his role as president , i think we should pray for barack obama. I think we need to be very specific about how we pray. We should pray like psalms 109 8 says, it says, let his days be few, and let another have his office. [ applause ] in all seriousness, i believe america is in a moment of crisis. I see three dimensions in that crisis. First, we have a constitutional crisis. Not my words. The words of jonathan turley, a constitutional law professor at George Washington university here in town. This president has figured out how to run the Country Without Congress through executive orders and regulatory mandate. Hes actually created the fourth arm of government the regulators. Those regulators just in the last seven years, have created 20,000, over 20,000 new regulations. Its sucking the very life out of our Free Enterprise system. The second dimension of our crisis, i believe, is the Global Security crisis. I believe the world is more dangerous right now than any point in my lifetime. Im a member of the Foreign Relations committee. I travel a good bit as a part of that responsibility. And i can tell you when you meet with these leaders around the world, you can see the fear in their eyes because we are not leading any longer. Theyre worried about their freedom and their future. The world is very dangerous. We see it on many levels. First, the rise of russia in china and their evergrowing aggressiveness. We see the expansion of isis around the world now. We see the Nuclear Proliferation danger among rogue nations like north korea and iran. We see hybrid warfare being perpetrated today, including cyberwarfare and other means. And the last thing that nobodys talking about is we right now have an arms race in space. Ladies and gentlemen, the world is a very dangerous place. And yet at this point in our history, this president just like the last two democratic president s, has disinvested in our military to the point where were spending about 3 of our gdp on our military. Thats the lowest point since world war ii. Its 200 billion less than our 30year average. We have this legacy of this president will be that hes leaving us in the weakest position militarily at the very point were facing more threats around the world than we ever have. We have today the Smallest Army since world war ii. The Smallest Navy since world war i. The oldest and Smallest Air Force ever. Ive been around the world visiting these men and women. I can tell you the best, and i mean the very best of america is in uniform fighting for you and me in defending our nation right now. [ applause ] the third dimension of this crisis is in iraq with the Global Security crisis. Our debt crisis is preventing us from recapitalizing our military to be sure that we can defend our country. We all know the headlines 19 trillion of debt. But it gets worse. The Congressional Budget Office says if we dont do something in the next 30 years, that debt goes to 30 trillion. Ladies and gentlemen, today if Interest Rates were just at their 30year average of 5 , how many of you remember doubledigit inflation . Yeah. I dont want to go back there, and you dont either. If it just went to 5 , wed be paying over a trillion in interest today. Thats not possible on a 4 trillion budget. Worse than that, in the next 30 years alone, future unfunded liability are estimated to be over 100 trillion. Folks, thats 1 million for every family in america. This is intransigence on a major scale. Both parties are guilty, by the way. Weve got to do something about that. You know, whenever americas been at a moment of crisis, weve worked and worked, and with gods direction, we have found a moment of opportunity. Thats what we have today. I think the moment of opportunity is greater than the moment of crisis. We had the opportunity to change our country and set up the next 50 to 100 years for our children and our childrens children that would make the last 70 years of economic boom, the greatest in the history of mankind, pale in comparison. We have to get serious about doing something. First, when my wife and i decided to run id never done anything in politics. My mom and dad were school teachers. My mom is 90 and she thought id lost my mind running for senate. If got so bad halfway through, the democrats were here piling on. I was the nominee, and my mother was involved. She called me six weeks out from the election and said, david, i love you like a son. I said, mom, i am your son. She said, yeah, but if these democrats keep up, i might not even vote for you. This is all new me. My wife and i decided we had to do something to try in some small way to change the direction of the country. We saw then there were three things that had to happen in our opinion. One, to change the direction of the country, we had to win the republican majority in 2016 in 14, and we did with your help. Then we said, well, we need to maintain that majority in 16. Most importantly, to change the direction of the country, the way this country is led now, we had to put someone in the white house who was conservative and who understood that we need to change the direction of the country. Those were three things we had to do. Today we have an opportunity this is a president ial Election Year. Were down to two candidates. If you want to change the direction of country, you dont want a third term of barack obama, you have to put aside our differences and put donald j. Trump in our white house. [ applause ] with trump in the white house and the leadership around him, i believe we can finally bring term limits to the United States senate and United States house of representatives. I believe we can actually [ applause ] i believe we can actually begin to correct the budget process thats been broken for last 42 years. Its only worked four times, folks. Imagine that. Thats the root of what this problems all about. I believe we can eliminate redundant agencies, some 300 billion worth. Yes, we can grow this economy. The irony of all these sweeping programs that the democrats have put on us you think, how did we get here. The irony is that they failed. We have had in the last 100 years three supermajorities, the first gave us the new deal. The second, great society. The third, obamacare and doddfrank. Im a business guy, but i can put at the feet of those three supermajorities most of the responsibility for the financial catastrophe weve got now. The irony is that those sweeping progressive programs have failed the very people they claim to champion working middle class and working poor. They failed. Today we have the weakest economic recovery in the last 70 years underway. In the last seven years alone, we have not had one quarter of 3 gdp growth. We if you look at the work force we have, we have the smallest Work Force Participation rate since jimmy carter was president. And worst of all, folks, in the last seven years under this president , weve allowed four million women to fall into poverty. Its unconscionable. These programs have failed. We know that. The evidence is there. Now we have the opportunity. If we get serious and put our differences aside, we can create an environment where we can fix these things, save social security. We can absolutely arrest the rising nature of our health care cost, and put this country on a direction for our children and grandchildren to where we wont have to look at them and apologize. I believe that one of the most profound things weve got to do is get back to our founding principles of our founding mothers and our founding fathers. Economic opportunity, fiscal responsibility, limited government, individual liberty. I think were called to pray. En in second chronicles it says, if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, i will hear them in heaven. Forgive their sins and heal their land. Ladies and gentlemen, we need that prayer today. We need to heal our land. We need to turn back and turn away from the direction weve been headed. Thats why we have to change the direction of our country. I believe that john adams had it right, that once a Constitutional Government turns away from freedom, it can never be restored. Liberty once lost is lost forever. I dont want to be a member of the first generation in American History that has to tell my children and grandchildren that im leaving them a world worse off and less free than the one my parents left me. It doesnt have to be that way. We have the opportunity today to change the direction of our country, and thank you for being involved. If we put donald j. Trump in our white house, we can change the direction of our country. We cannot allow Hillary Rodham clinton one more night in our white house. Thank you god bless you. [ applause ] who are these democrats . It is my judgment sentenced on tuesday to spend eight months in a confinement cell. It all began when the Obama Administration tried to shut me up. What did i learn . All crime is about stealing. The big criminals are still at large. Didnt see any reason to keep them. Its time to go behind the curtain and discover the soul of the Democratic Party. The democrats support slaves. Judgments of the lord are true and righteous altogether. This civil right act will allow congressmen to sit at the same table swept under the rug. The government is the Democratic Party. Weve got to give them a little something. The democrats went from slavery to enslavement. Corrupt big city bosses, thats how get corrupt unions. What does progressive mean . Social engineering and social control. Margaret singer. The opening video of the Democratic Convention in 2012, the government is one thing we all belong to. What are these democrats hiding . This is about buying and selling influence by foreign oligarchs and foreign governments. When you follow the money, there are few coincidences. What if the goal of the Democratic Party is to steal the most valuable thing the world has ever produced . What if their plan is to steal america . Lets stop them now. [ applause ] ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the stage from the great state of oklahoma senator james langford. [ applause ] good morning you to. Glad ill able to visit you. Let me tell you my story, and let you adjust to my voice. When i first meet people, what i hear most is, thats not what i expected to come out. I get that. Welcome to my life from there. Ive served in the United States senate for the last two years. David perdue, who was just here before, he and i came into the senate at the same time. By the way, hes a solid christian leader and is doing a very good job here in the United States senate. [ applause ] i come from little different background, though. Ive served 22 years in Youth Ministry before i came to the United States congress. Now that may seem like an odd direction for you, but frankly, my preparation of working with juveniles for so many years was actually very good preparation to come to congress. For my wife and i, this is what she calls lifes greatest interruption. We never planned to go to congress. This was a sense of calling for us. Ed we really felt god interrupted our life and said, this is what god is telling us to do. When god called us to do that, we spent seven months praying and struggling through to come to the point im going to be an old man telling my grandchildren i didnt follow god if i didnt do this. I resigned my position, started to run for congress, obviously elected. Were trying to take off into this task to do the right thing the right way, and to be able to engage the nation in those critical things. I had people tell me youre leaving your calling because youre getting involved in government. Thats not where god works. And i always smile to them and said, ill tell you what you should do why dont you go to the Old Testament. Of the 39 books of the Old Testament, try to find a book that wasnt written to a political leader, by a political leader, or by a political leader. To, about, or by. Now for those of you that are going to get bored in my speech which will probably happen quickly, you can start thinking about that. I think there are 37 of the 39 books of the Old Testament that meet that category. If you look at even the calling of saul when he became paul and struck blind on the road to damascus, when anais complained and said, do you really want me to see this guy . The spirit of god said to ananias, yes, he is my chosen instrument, to the jews, the gentiles, and the gentile kings. The rest of the book of acts after that point, youll see paul over and over again reaching out to all people groups including government leaders. Does god have a heart for the nation through government . Absolutely he does. Hes the creator of government like hes the creator of the family like hes the creator of work. So we cannot write off what he has not written off. We should engage in those areas. We have a bad habit, as americans, to make our elected officials into celebrities. Elected officials are not celebrities. Theyre asked to do a job, and by the way, this is a real job, and it has real work. Its slow, its tedious, and common sense things take forever. Ive heard over and over again you know, big ships dont turn quickly. And i always smile and say, yes, but they do turn. You have to start by turning the wheel. And eventually they will turn. We turned into the storm that were in as a nation right now because prior congresses and prior leadership, including some current leadership, have turned us into that storm. We can turn our way back out. The challenge is exactly how do we do that and how can we get that done. I would tell you over the past couple of years and whats happened in the senate and whats happened in the house has been pretty remarkable to see. To answer Hillary Clintons favorite question what difference does it make, let me give a few thoughts for the senate on what difference it really does make. Were actually voting again. And i know that may seem like a trivial thing, but you dont move on issues unless you actually start voting again. Two years ago, three years ago now, under harry reids leadership, there were 14 amendment votes. 14. Were in the hundreds. Were back into voting again, trying to get on the floor to move things. Two years ago, we actually passed the first balanced budget plan passed by Congress Since 2001. Weve laid out a path. In fact, david perdue, who was just here before, he and i and several others are working on a place to reform the budget process. Were trying to lay out, how do we fix this process and make it work better . Every year since 1974 we complain about the same thing. The budget process isnt working. Maybe at some point fix the process. Were trying to lay out, how do we fix this process and make it work better . How do we get the senate back to work again . Getting rid of common core mandates. Getting rid of the mandates. That happened this past year. Not just a conversation. We passed that into law. We put on the president s desk a full repeal of obama care, put on the president s desk defunding planned parenthood, shock among shocked, vetoes both but both made it all the way to his desk. Major highway bill, we actually had a nice piece in the wall street journal dealing with freedom of worship and freedom of religion. There are lots of folks in this administration and other folks around this town that want to equate freedom of religion and freedom of worship. Those are two different things. In our citizenship up to this year, our citizenship asked new citizens, what is one of the freedoms we have as a nation and it listed freedom of worship. I challenged them on it. Thats not what our constitution says. Freedom of worship means if youre in that specific place at a specific time you can worship how you want to. We have the free exercise of religion. That means you can worship anyplace, anytime and live your faith out not only in your church house but anywhere you choose to, because we have the free exercise of religion. The the immigration folks [ applause ] the immigration folks initially said, no theyre going to leave the text asis, we continued to press them on it and they sent a letter back saying youre right. Were going to change this to what our constitutional right is. Wall street journal has a nice piece about that. These are Small Victories but you start adding up Small Victories and were turning the ship, trying to ride us out of the storm. And it will be a long way. I will tell you there are a lot of people that have this sense that our hope should be in washington. I would tell you our hope should not be in washington. I would say we have a higher hope than that. I would also tell you that for all of the folks that believe if we just elect the right people they will change the nation. Let me remind you of something. Washington doesnt change the country. The country changes washington. So the way this will turn around is a lot harder. It is the engagement of people like you. That will actually engage in the hard work, because this is tougher than we want to say it is at times. Quite frankly, there is this sense that if we could only get washington to flip it will flip everything else, and as we come to the reality of, it will really flip when we change our neighborhoods, our families and our communities and our churches. Thats where the work begins. But thats where it actually works. In the end. So heres what id like to challenge you for. Just a few things. I would like to encourage you to do something bold. Vote. Lean in. Get engaged. Its amazing to me the number of christians that step back and say, you know what . It really doesnt make a difference. Its one vote. Tiring, its a long line. Im mad at this candidate or this candidate. Im just not going to vote. Tell you what, that is a sure sign of watching god just be removed from any kind of influence in washington, d. C. If we as the church fail to step up and vote, we abdicate all of that leadership to everyone else whos not in the church. The church has a responsibility to step up and make sure our voices are actually heard. The church has the responsibility to step up and say, our task is our task. I am afraid and as a person whos been in ministry two decades, i am concerned that at times the church is saying, you know what . Governments going to take care of that. Governments going to take care of those in poverty, those with great need. Governments going to take care of all of those issues. You know what, we have 4. 1 million federal employees right now. The highest number of federal employees in the history of the government. Our federal budget is over 4 trillion. The highest budget that its ever been in the history of the government. Hows that working out for us . You know what would be a simple solution . Maybe a simple solution is to say, maybe the church needs to step up and be the church again. To actually do what we are called to do. [ applause ] foundation of the nation, foundation of the nation has always been our families. Its always been there. You see, government rises and gets bigger when families collapse. And as families falter, government rises and tries to help children that are exposed, tries to help moms exposed, help in education and criminal justice. All of those things are based on the collapse of the family. So the government continues to get bigger, bigger, bigger to solve the issue of the family. Governments not a great solution for families. Churches are. If churches were to lean in and say, im going to mentor a young family so we dont see the divorce rate we have. We have 400,000 children in the foster system right now. If every church adopted one child or have one foster family in their church, one foster family, we would solve the foster care in our nation. There are very specific ways our church can step up and lead in this and we are at our best when we actually do that. You see, we dont believe that government is the final solution. We actually believe in crazy verses like psalm 121, i lift my eyes up towards the mountains. Theres a hill higher than capitol hill. Where does my help come from . My help comes from the lord, maker of heaven and earth. We get the bigger picture. Its not capitol hill thats the pinnacle spot. We understand there is something bigger, but we also understand that its not only the right thing to do theres a right way to do it. Let me tell you one of the challenges the church has, and what we have as christians. We get drawn into the siren song of the angry voices, and we assume thats the way were going to make a difference. Peter wrote to a church in a Pagan Society and he said to them i challenge you to be aliens and strangers in this world, to live such good lives among gentiles though they accuse you of doing wrong they may see your good works and glorify god on the day that he visits us. Then he said, here are five ideas how you can stand out in a crowd. Number one, Honor Authority. You want to make a difference in our community, we do politics in a different way. We stand up for whats right and we Honor Authority at the same time were doing it. The whole world will look at us, say, why do you do that . It gives us the opportunity to present truth. We are not consumed with being the angriest. We are consumed with being right. And doing gods work, gods way. And at times i believe we pray for revival, because it sounds so much easier than actually doing the work. You know what we can do . Lets lean in. Lets do the work. Because there is much to be done in our nation, and the church of all people should lead. I have a job. Ive been given it by the people of the state of oklahoma, and i will do it with all my might because we have a lot to get done, but we together have much to get done together. Lets do it. God bless yall. [ applause ] ladies and gentlemen, please help me welcome to the stage the the National Executive director of freedom and faith coalition, timothy head. [ applause ] encouraged . You feelin it . [ applause ] you understand now why we pull together and why we invite the people that we invite to come participate, at least for me, its incredibly encouraging to hear and see and almost be able to reach out and touch the actual people that, that carry the values, carry the very burdens that we ourselves carry in our own hearts and minds. So thank you so much, senator langford, for those remarks. Making it happen as the senator just told us is a different animal. Its an additional animal, a different skill set. We want quick results, we want fast, urgent, immediate results, but you know what . Sometimes the longterm results take the long game. They require a longer perspective than just one congressional cycle, one election cycle sometimes, even. The our next next presentation is going to come from a gentleman who understands that intrinsically. The United States senate is a complicated body. The personalities involved are sometimes elaborate personalities. The rules themselves are nuanced and intricate rules and the policy itself is what we talk about all day every day. But its my pleasure to welcome the Senate Majority leader who not only understands the values and the principles that make us who we are but also understands the process in order to make this stuff actually happen. Would you please join me in welcoming the leader of the Senate Majority, Mitch Mcconnell. [ applause ] well, thank you very much, tim. Its great to see you. Had an opportunity to hear from two of our finest in senator perdue and senator james langford, and im pleased to be here with you today this year once again. When the American People elected a new republican majority in 2014, they called for the senate to get back to work. As james pointed out, the previous majority didnt do much. At 15 roll call votes on amendments in an entire year. They wanted an end to democratic dysfunction. They knew it was time to go in a new direction, and thats what weve delivered since taking office in january of 2015. We passed the most important k through 12 education reform in more than decade. As youve heard, it puts kids and parents first. It gets rid, let me repeat that, it gets rid of no child left behind and its one size fits all mandate. It prevents prevents washington from imposing common core. [ applause ] youre amazed that obama signed it. Right . He didnt have any choice. Its a conservative whim described as the largest evolution of federal control to the states in a quarter century. Passed the most important longterm transportation reform in nearly two decades. It reveals our nations highways and crumbling infrastructure. Reduces waste. It gives local communities more control over how funds are actually spent, and it doesnt raise taxes by a penny. We enacted permanent tax relief for families in Small Businesses. We replaced several washington annual kick the can exercises with meaningful reforms. We even brought an end to the jobkilling selfimposed oil embargo from the 1970s. Many of these issues have been tangled in gridlock literally for years and then a new majority came along. Now, each of those is actually law. No everything we passed received a president ial signature, as you can imagine. We voted to build the Keystone Pipeline which would have created 20,000 jobs. He vetoed it. Voted to end the pain of obama care. Put it on his desk. He vetoed it. We voted to defund planned parenthood. [ applause ] but, of course, he vetoed it. We put measures like these on the president s desk after years of harry reid protecting him from tough choices. He never got those kind of bills on his desk. It shows whats possible if we elect a new president next year. Its another demonstration of whats happening today in the senate that not only back to work but back on the side of the American People. It also shows whats possible with perseverance. I take the comprehensive antihuman trafficking law passed last year. This will be hard for you to believe, but countless innocent victims are bought and sold into modern day slavery every year in our country. Too many have nowhere safe to sleep. Too many have nowhere safe to turn. Too many are abused and made to feel invisible. And many are just children. We thought it was time to finally bring justice to these victims. We thought it was time to finally bring voices to the voiceless and hope to the suffering and the shadows. So we passed the justice for victims of trafficking act. You would think that would be easy, but it wasnt. It wasnt. Democrats actually filibustered this antislavery legislation for over a month. Let me tell you why. The far left wanted to fight over the Hyde Amendment. You know what that is. The longstanding principle that says federal tax dollars should not be used for elective abortions. A victory in federal law for decades. It actually enjoys bipartisan support for decades, but some on the far left wanted to change that and they thought filibustering an antislavery bill was the appropriate venue to get their way. We were determined to fight this effort in order to preserve the Hyde Amendment and eventually overcame this shameful filibuster and the Hyde Amendment was intact when the president finally signed the bill. We eventually passed critical, compassionate and comprehensive legislation to help victims of modern slavery and, of course, the president had to choice at that point but to sign it. This Republicanled Senate is dedicated to fighting human trafficking, combating sexual assault, and helping protect those who suffered from these heinous crimes. Thats why we passed [ applause ] thats why we also passed a bill that helps victims of child pornography get restitution from those who profit from their pain. Thats why we took steps to crack down on the socalled pass the trash practice of schools. What im talking about is shipping child predators to other school districts. Thats why just last month we wii were not we not only were authorized the adam walsh act, but we also provided additional rights and protections for victims of sexual assault. So the senate is getting a lot done. And that progress continues this day. This actual day. In fact, we just left the floor within a few, within that hour, the senate took an important step towards passing the most sweeping reforms to the Defense Department organization in a generation. The National Defense authorization act that will soon pass finally. We had a big step about an hour ago, is legislation that will modernize our military and provide our troops with more of the tools they need to confront the threat that we face. [ applause ] and as you already know, the challenges are abundant. Everything from isil to iran, to russia to china, and they are complex. As Henry Kissinger put it we face the most diverse and complex array of crises since world war ii. If only president obama were as serious about confronting these threats as they are about confronting us. He still hasnt put forward a credible plan to defeat isil. His deal with iran continues to reveal the significant flaws every passing day. And if you allow me to paraphrase jimmy carter, something i rarely do, its hard to think of many places in the world where our relationship is better off since president obama took office. Thats jimmy carter on barack obama. President obamas going to leave a lot of problems to his successor. What we can do today is help prepare the next commander in chief to face these challenges. This proreform, proinnovation, promodernization defense bill will help us do that, and the senate will pass it very soon. The young men and women who sign up to defend our nation dont ask for a lot. But our nation certainly asks a lot of them. When deployed they deserve the equipment and training necessary to actually do their jobs. [ applause ] and let me also mention when they come back home they deserve all of our support. Dont they . [ applause ] this is why were working to pass the most sweeping overhaul of the military Health System in a generation. This is why we have already passed legislation to support wounded warriors, veterans who struggle with Mental Health challenges and earlier this week to support female veterans in particular who need our help. [ applause ] this is also why we voted to enhance oversight and accountability over at the v. A. What weve seen at the v. A. In recent years is a national disgrace. A national disgrace. And its hardly the only scandal weve seen over the course of this administration. Just this week the irs was finally forced to hand over a list of organizations it had targeted for their political views. There were hundreds of conservative groups on the list. The Obama Administrations conservative speech suppression scandal shocked a lot of americans when it first came to light. It was brazen. Its why we passed reforms that will help prevent another lois lerner. Heres whats clear from looking at the last 18 months the majority i lead has got a very different set of priorities from the one we replaced, and let me just hesitate a moment and tell you the difference between being in the majority and being in the minority. When i became the majority leader instead of the minority leader i said to people, im now the offensive coordinator. I used to be the defensive coordinator. If youre a football fan you know the difference. The offensive coordinator calls the plays has a better chance of putting points on the board. The Senate Majority leader sets the schedule. The schedule ive set is dramatically different than what harry reid was doing in the senate in the past. [ applause ] so what were interested in is a better economy and more opportunity for the middle class. Were interested in a stronger National Defense at a time of countless global threats. And were committed to defending the First Amendment. Congress is your first line of defense when it comes to protecting this fundamental constitutional right. The Supreme Court is the last line of defense. The New York Times recently ran a headline declaring a Supreme Court with merritt garland would be the most liberal in decades. If judge garland is confirmed the New York Times also speculated he could tip the ideological balance to create the most liberal Supreme Court in 50 years. Thats why president obama is trying to airdrop another Supreme Court justice on his way out the door, and in the middle of this election. He thinks he can get away with it, too. If his nominee is portrayed as some kind of moderate. Let me tell you, president obama calling somebody a moderate does not make him a moderate. Hes clearly not a moderate. Americas Largest Organization of gun owners examine the record. What it found a judge who does not respect our fundamental, individual right to keep and bear arms for selfdefense. Americas Largest Organization of Small Businesses examined his record, too. What it found. A judge who nearly always sides with regulators, labor unions and trial lawyers at the expense of Small Businesses. So let me say this once more and let me say it clearly barack obama will not get a Supreme Court justice in the 11th hour of his presidency on the way out the door. [ applause ] were right in the middle of a president ial Election Year. The president were in the process of selecting will make this choice, and will either turn the court in the right or wrong direction depending on the outcome of this novembers election. There are many reasons why the senate should knock this year. Youve heard me lay them out before. Even Vice President biden back in 1992 in the middle of a president ial Election Year when he was chairman of the Judiciary Committee said if a vacancy occurred they wouldnt fill it. Been a very useful quote. So, look, we clearly disagree with the democrats on this issue. But it doesnt mean we cant continue to find other areas of agreement, which ive been talking about. So thats what weve been doing with the new republican majority. We know we have big differences, and on those weve put it on the president s desk like obama care. Hes vetoed, defunding planned parenthood, he vetoed it. But americans expect us to work and make some progress on things we can agree on. Weve worked to find common ground. Weve gotten significant things done for the country, even though we have a president with whom we differ on a large array of issues. Where weve had our differences weve shown whats possible with a president from the same party by pointing out he vetoed these bills, a republican president would have signed them. So were continuing to make progress today. The senate is back to work. The senate is back on the side of the American People. I couldnt be more proud to lead this new majority and i couldnt be prouder of all of you. Thank you for coming today and for having me here to give my remarks. Thank you. [ applause ] ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the stage faith and Freedom Coalition National Field director john harbison. Good morning. Its great to be here with you all this morning. As a citizen of the state of alabama, im proud and i have a distinct privilege and honor this morning to introduce to you my senator, senator Jeff Sessions. [ applause ] senator sessions as we know in alabama, hes a steadfast conservative. He is an advocate for the rule of law and his unwavering support of americas men and women in uniform. He grew up in rural alabama, worked his way through Huntington College in montgomery, alabama and went to the university of alabama law school. President reagan appointed him as a United States attorney in the district in alabama and we are so proud that he is our senator. Ladies and gentlemen, please join me in welcoming senator Jeff Sessions. [ applause ] thank you. Thank you, john, and for the good work you do, and all of you do, to advance faith and freedom. Its a cornerstone of american democracy. Our success as a nation, and we have to maintain and understand a really Exceptional Development of this country and these issues, why theyre so important. Im glad to follow Mitch Mcconnell and he mentioned the Supreme Court vacancy. This is an important issue. I may talk about it for a minute or two, but when Justice Scalia, one of the great justices ever to sit on the Supreme Court [ applause ] a man of exceptional legal brilliance and a man of deep religious faith, and understood how it all came together, understood and loved the america that weve been bequeathed, when he died i thought, i said, you know, maybe i should call mitch, and ask him to say right away, dont wait, just say right away, were not going to move anybody this year. Its too late. Were going to let the American People decide in the next election who should sit on this 44 Supreme Court. [ applause ] and before i could get around to doing it he did it instinctively and i just want to share with you that on the question of the courts of the United States and the legal system and on good Law Enforcement for protecting us from the criminal element, Mitch Mcconnell is absolutely rock solid. Its a pleasure for me to serve with him, time and again he stood up to even members of our our congress to promote the kind of judiciary that you and i believe in. Well, you know, i told our colleagues a couple of years ago maybe im a little warped in the brain, but i told the American People arent happy and im not happy. I dont know about you, but im on their side. You know . People dont feel good about the economy. They dont feel good about a lot of issues facing us. They dont feel good about the hostility to religion that they feel out there, and theyre not happy about it, and the polls show that the wrong track is exceedingly high, and its remained that way in poll question after poll question. People saying this country is on the wrong track. And i think it is. I think the American People are fundamentally correct, and i believe that its right and moral and just and biblical that we have a lawful system of immigration for the nation state that we serve, and i know, and weve had economists come and testify before our committee, that is harvard professor, the worlds leading expert on it, that you bring in more labor than we can absorb, poor people have their wages go down. Poor people have their job prospects go down. Things arent going good out there for the American People, and one of the reasons is that the extraordinary unprecedented rate of immigration into our country, particularly in lower skills, and its hammering good and decent people who need to be able to raise a family and take care of their children, and theyre not able to do so effectively, and i believe we can do better on that. I know that we can. You know, i recall nehemiah returning and asked for permission to come home and the king let him go, and he went home. Just a little bit of a humorous joke. I dont intend to do what . To build a wall. He went to build a wall in jerusalem. [ applause ] and it wasnt to keep the people in. You know . Give me a break. So i just think that we need to understand that we in the government of the United States represent the interests of the American People. We cant do everything for everybody in the world. We are a nation state, and nation states act like theyre supposed to. When paul said, be loyal to the state he was talking about the pagan wrong. He wasnt talking about, you know jewish theocracy. I just would say to you, when you think about that. And, also, when nehemiah came on he asked for letters to allow him to go through other countries, and the king gave it to hill. Joshua, remember . When we came into the holy land he asked permission to go through, i guess, moabites or somewhere and they wouldnt let him. Well pay you money. No. Well do all this. Go our way around . No. So he went around. So the idea that nations dont set laws, establish who can and cant enter is not biblical in my opinion. Nations do that, and theyve done it since time immemorial. Theres nothing wrong with it. We just need to have a fair system that gives people an equal opportunity to apply and those who meet the standards can be accepted in numbers that dont excessively exacerbate the wages and incomes of poor americans. I truly believe that of all races and ethnic groups. Particularly minority groups that suffer the most from that. One more thing. You know, jesus talked about the poor a lot. And we should think about that. And give real thought to it. In my view, ive changed. Ive supported virtually every trade agreement that has come forward, but i do believe that trade agreements arent serving the American People effectively. [ applause ] i know the ideals and belief in free markets and that, but our competitors, business allies, but economic competitors, they dont operate on a same way we do, and so its not a purely level playing field. When president obama signed the korean trade deal, with our good friends in south korea, he promised we would increase exports to south korea by 11 billion, 12 billion a year. Last year since 2011 when it was signed, last year, we had about a 20 million increase. Weve had no increase in our exports to korea, but they had a 12 billion, 15 billion increase to us and the trade deficit with korea, because it is hard through all kinds of mechanisms to export to china, korea and many of our competitors, but we open our businesses and we result in a flood of imports often manipulated through currency to make them less expensive than what we make in the United States. Often subsidized, part of a product to directly attack our american industry often, so i just say to you it is time for us to understand that this has consequences, if we these errors weve made. Its not working the way its been promised, and we found the flaws in the trade deals, and in their computer models, they lay out these positive projections, and its just not a right thing. So i think we need to listen to the American People about this. Theres nothing wrong with having a lawful system of immigration that serves the American People. Nothing wrong with saying, trade agreements shouldnt just benefit the corporate elite, but also ought to give a fair chance for manufacturing plants, the American Worker to have a good job in this country. [ applause ] now, the Supreme Court is 44. Just unbelievable weve had this long battle for all of these years. So many of you have followed it closely and you understand it very clearly and now with the loss of often the fifth vote, Justice Scalia, we are facing a critical time. Ralph reid told me the other day, he said, you know, its like this. We actually have two branches of government at stake in this election. Dont we . However, so the courts are at risk here, too. I was a ranking republican on the Judiciary Committee, and it fell my lot to handle, lead republican views on the confirmation of two highly Accomplished Women up for the Supreme Court. And we tried our best to do the job with integrity, with fairness, but with rigor, and i felt like so many of you. The court hasnt been performing in a way we would like it to. So what is at stake here . And we got a lot of complaints and issues that were raised, but i wanted to share one with you that i think defines who we are. And defines the challenges we face, and its something that you in this room need to understand and really kind of commit ourselves to being successful on. Justice sotomayor, we found, and she had given a number of speeches over a decade in which she discussed the court and the philosophy of ruling. She quoted a philosopher, a legal writer in this way, and she favorably quoted him, and the she would always say, there is no neutrality. No objective stance but a series of perspectives. That still makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck. A judge, to say there is no objectivity. Just a series of perspectives, and that the aspiration to impartiality is just that. An aspiration. You see, this is a postmodern, relativistic, secular mindset, and i believe its directly contrary to the founding of our republic. If you look [ applause ] why do we have free speech . Because we believe in debate and expression of ideas. Truth could be ascertained. We believe that there was a truth, first of all, there is one. Theres a god, creator in heaven, who ordered this universe with moral laws just as well as gravity laws. [ applause ] and so we our system was set up to allow public discussion of issues, and the freedom to express your views. It wasnt to print child pornography, but it was to allow free debate on the important issues facing our country, and then you have congress, and the senate had unlimited debate, and you could talk as long as you wanted to. So congress could debate all of the issues, bring in all of the facts that people chose to bring in and then make a truthful, honest decision on what was the best interests of the United States. And what about your trials and lawsuits . You have the right to express yourself through the Opening Statements and the lawyers statements. Witnesses are compelled, even if they want to, to come, testify under oath to the truth. And juries are set there to hear the evidence, and objectively decide whats true. Right . Not what my perspective to is. Today is, you know, this is a dangerous philosophy. Its contrary to who we are, and its a problem with the courts. Once they take that philosophy, theyre no longer bound. Professor van alstein bound by the words of the constitution, wrote one time, do you remember how the constitution ends . It begins with we the people. It ends with, we do ordain and establish this constitution. This one. Not the one the judge may have wished it to pass but this one. If you start eroding your commitment to what the constitution says, theres no principle subject that cant be undermined in the future. I really think this whole court system is really important and the real value and battle were engaged in here is one to reaffirm that there is objective truth. Its not all relative. [ applause ] and that means some things are right and some things are wrong. And were getting too far away from that in my opinion. Its not healthy for any country and its really not healthy for a democracy like ours thats built on the rule of all. Thank you all for what you do. I appreciate your allowing me to be a part of this. Hopefully we can try to put this country back on the right track. And i think well get a lot better towards that end if we listen to what the American People are trying to tell us in washington. Thank you all and god bless you. [ applause ] thank you all. Please help me welcome to the stage cwa executive director, kendra bartlet. Thank you. Its my privilege today to be able to introduce the next speaker. When i was asked to introduce representative louie gomert, i called our state director and said, ann, tell me about representative gomert. She said hes a sweetheart. Being from texas, i know that means we really like him. Representative gomert has represented the First District of texas since the year 2005. And we one thing you can always say about representative gomert is he will always do the right thing. So please welcome representative louie gomert from the First District of texas. [ applause ] thank you. Wow, its great to be here with you. I love being at faith and freedom event, you know, ralph keeps having me. I just told him, i hope you get to have one next year after i i just told him, i hope you get to have one next year after i finish speaking. We got a lot to talk about. Dont you love Jeff Sessions . Weve been in the trenches fighting together and i love being in the trenches fighting with him. Hes a great, smart man. Even though he does talk with a southern accent. And as Jeff Foxworthy said when people hear a southern accent they immediately deduct 50 iq points from how smart they think you are. I get that. From some of the email and nasty messages i get i think theres something to that. He mentioned Justice Scalia. Arent we grateful that god allowed Antonin Scalia to be on the Supreme Court . What a blessing he has been. And i can tell you, i counted him as a friend. I hope he felt that way. But where we are in the country right now, we didnt deserve him. He was a man of principle. But, of course, i love both his principle, plain spokenness and sense of humor. There was no better memories ive had, some unpleasant ones in washington, than to sit down at a meal with Justice Scalia and swap stories and jokes. He loved good jokes, good stories. I told one its tough when people like jokes to find one they hadnt heard before. Anyway, he said how about this one, this probably happened back down in texas when they used hanging. He said a defendant just the worst of the worst, he murdered, he had done the worst, most despicable things, been sentenced to hang. On that saturday morning they brought him out, two or three thousand people gathered to see it. The sheriff brings him up on the gallows and says we have a tradition in our town before we hang somebody, we give them a chance to address the crowd. Would you like to do that . He said, no not really. I dont think you understand youre about to go meet the Supreme Court, the supreme judge your maker. Most people think its a good idea to maybe apologize. Ask for forgiveness. You have victims families out here. People youve murdered and harmed. Done things to. Dont you think you ought to apologize before youre hanged . He said no. Not really. At some point in the audience yelled, will the gentleman yield . He looked at the sheriff and said i dont know what that means. The guy that yelled that thats our local congressman. Thats Congress Talk for you to give him your time to speak to the crowd. He said can i do that. The sheriff said i guess you could. Do you want . He said, i sure do on one condition. Whats that . That you hang me first. So anyway that was Justice Scalia. What a delightful man who cared deeply about the constitution. Im going to get to something right now this apparently is what im famous for and it drives the left nuts. But im going to talk about something that enough people are not talking about. And what happens when a very important issue is afoot and good people, smart people dont talk about it. Then the wrong people get their ways and they do great harm to this nation and to the individuals in this nation. Youve heard of something called transgender. We got to talk about it. Okay . This is not me speaking, you may have seen i brought a manila folder. Ive never done that before. I always have a little card that has my little outline and i look down and reminds me to get back on track. This time ive got articles here. Like i say ive not done this before. But i wanted you to hear this from what one transgender man said is the leading expert he said in the world when he was talking to me. I think hes the best in the world. But he was the head of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins medical facility. And i vaguely remembered reading somewhere that back in the 60s, Johns Hopkins was the first hospital to start doing sex change surgeries. I read that. Maybe you have. But i did not read anywhere until walt hire directed me to dr. Mchughs article in wall street journal. They stopped doing this years ago, the sex change. Let me tell you what dr. Paul mchugh, hes now retired as the head of psychiatry, but he still associated with Johns Hopkins. These are his professional views. And i was hosting point of view just in the last couple weeks for Kirby Anderson and i had dr. Mchugh on. I had walt hire on. But anyway, his article, you can find this in washington journal, may 13th. He said policymakers and the media are doing no favors to the public or transgendered by treating their confusions as a right and need of defending rather than a mental disorder that deserved understanding treatment and prevention. This [ applause ] yeah. This intensely felt sense of being transgendered constitutes a mental disorder into respects. The first is that the idea of sex misalignment is simply mistaken. It does not correspond with physical reality. The second is it can lead to grim psychological outcomes. He says the transgender suffer a disorder of assumption like those in other disorders familiar to psychiatrists with the transgendered, the disorder assumption is that the individual differs from what seems given in nature. Namely, ones maleness or femaleness. Other kinds of disorder assumptions are held by those who suffer from anorexia or bulimia nur voesa where the assumption that the parts from the physical reality is the belief that the dangerously thin or overweight. So he goes on and discusses that, but then he says, with the transgendered holds that one feeling of gender is a conscious subjective sense that being in ones mind cannot be questioned by anyone else. The individual often seeks not just societys tolerance of this personal truth, but an affirmation of it. Here rests the support for Transgender Equality. The demands for government payment for medical or surgical treatments and access to all sex based public roles and privileges. He says with this article advocates for the transgendered have persuaded several states, including california, new jersey, massachusetts to pass laws barring psychiatrists, even with parental permission from striving to restore the natural gender feelings to a transgender minor. The government can intrude into parents rights to seek help in guiding their children indicates how powerful these advocates have become. Now, he is saying that psychiatrists must challenge this and he makes the great point i brought up on the radio show, what an incredible irony that states have passed laws that say you cant take a child to a psychiatrist, psychologist, counselor for what is only in their head to get them help for only whats in their head. No physical manifestation. And as he says here, the orders of consciousness, after all, represents psychiatrys domain. Declaring them off limits would eliminate the field of psychiatry. You get that . Doesnt that make sense . He says you wont hear it from those championing Transgender Equality but controlled and follow up studies reveal fundamental problems with this movement. When children who reported transgender feelings were tracked without medical or surgical treatment at both Vanderbilt University and londons portman clinic, 70 to 80 of them spontaneously lost those feelings. 25 did have some persistent feelings. What differentiates those individuals remains to be discerned. Holy smoke. Think of the damage were doing to kids. Not just the poor girls or women that have been sexually abused, having a man walk into them in their most important privacy. Thats bad enough. But what about the damage to the little child that is confused and we are not allowed to help that confused child. He points out that 2011 study at the institute in sweden produced the most illuminating results yet regarding the transgender. Evidence that could give advocates pause, unfortunately, it hasnt. But he says the study up to 30 years followed 324 people who had sex reassignment surgery, the study revealed beginning about ten years after the surgery, the transgender began to experience increasing mental difficulties, most shockingly their suicide mortality rose 20 fold above the comparable nontransgender population. This disturbing result has yet no explanation but probably reflects the growing sense of isolation reported by the aging transgendered after surgery. The high suicide rate certainly challenges the surgery prescription. I didnt read this but it turns out Johns Hopkins, the first hospital in america to do sex change surgery, quit doing it years ago because they found were not helping, and were probably hurting, so we should not, and as they have said, be cutting up normal organs. This is serious and i know its unpleasant to talk about. Thats why so often we lose. People are afraid of being called crazy or phobic of some kind. Yall, i have one phobia. And thats a god phobia

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