Welcome to meeting governor jeb bush. It is a fantastic time for everyone. Monitoring my every move. Thank you, governor, for coming. It is marvelous. Would you all stand and say hello to governor bush . And would you remain standing for the pledge . Shall we begin . 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 very much. Mr. Bush thank you for coming out tonight. Thank you for coming out tonight. You had seven years of ongoing training going on, the one thing we do not want to have happen is seven years of ongoing training. We want someone who has delivered eight years of tax cuts in florida and got elected as a republican with eight years of tax cuts, that is governor jeb bush and he will be the next president of the United States. Welcome. [applause]. R. Bush thank you thank you so much. Four you for coming out, 30 on a saturday afternoon. Nothing optimal time for a townhall meeting but today was going to be the day i would break the record for most town halls in a single day. Five. Unfortunately, we ran into a tragic event. Corporal andrew, who lived in dover was killed in a training exercise, training to be an army ranger in georgia. His funeral took place this we wereat the same time going to do our event. This was to be our fourth townhall meeting. It is our third peer but i am honored to be here. I think it will be appropriate to ask for a moment of silence to pray for the families who lost their loved ones and were preparing to serve us with incredible honor and distinction. Yesterday to pay my respects to the family of andrew, i saw 20 ,rmy rangers all dressed up big, strong, strapping young men preparing and training to protect us. Our hat should go off to them and we should focus on how we provide the necessary support for these young men and women to keep us safe. They want to do that and they want to know a commander in chief has their back and they want to know when they go into battle, they have the best toipment possible to be able do their job effectively. They want to know the next president of the united dates will rebuild the military in terms of spending and will make in 21stssary investment century. This president has put so many therictions on top of containment that the policy is a policy we lose each and every day. Isis is not contained when they can take acts of terror in San Bernardino or take out a plane. They are not being contained and even if they were, the simple fact is that is not the appropriate policy. Every day they exist is a victory for islamic terrorism and a feat a defeat for people like us. Every day they can exist, they theuit people all around world, including the nine states, to take avenge of our freedom, which they believe is our weakness. Strategy to destroy isis and i laid out a plan in august at the Reagan Library to do just that. Example, arming the kurds. Troops are in a rack right now, embedding some of those troops inside the iraqi military, reengaging with sunni tribal created a fragile but secure iraq on a day barack obama was elected president , creating a series of safe stones save zones in syria so the 4 million refugees who exist in these camps and now going to arope, we will not create breeding ground for islamic terrorism for the next generations. We allow a safe harbor for them and allow us to build a sunni led force of moderate muslims who would do the job of leading the country and opposed isis and post assad world. Stopped aerial bombing people to the tune of 300,000 people. Is ansecurity that exists direct threat to National Security. Getting the lawyers off the back of the war fighters, taking away the funding stream for isis, it is a complex challenge but a detailed plan is necessary and somebody who has the fortitude and the will to carry it out. Isis isrumps idea said not our fight. Really . Islamic terrorism is not a threat to the islamics to the United States . Tell that to the people in San Bernardino. Donald trump says he gets his military advice from the shows. Really . The commander in chief, someone aspiring to be president of the United States, turns on the Television Sunday morning and thinks that is enough to lead this extraordinary country . Donald trump is excited vladimir thinks he is a good man. He rewards Vladimir Putin with praise as well. Really . A man who believes the United States is in decline and takes every step forward while we step back is a hero of Donald Trumps . Really . He is not a serious person. Is he would be a chaotic states . T of the united i would be a commander in chief and not an agitator in chief. I would leave the country to a more secure place where we would get in the business of creating prosperity again for our great country. As it relates to the economy, there is much to be done. Hillary clinton has given barack obama not just a passing grade, but and a. An a. When you have one in 10 people unemployed or giving up work altogether . Is it when participation rates are lower than they were in the 1970s . Povertyn more people in today than the day barack obama got elected and not when one in five children is on food stamps and more businesses are closing and that disposable income, the great identifier of prosperity, where we stand, Median Income is than the day barack obama was elected. 2300 in washington may not be a lot when you have lifetime protection. Increaseslly get wage for showing up, more benefits than the private sector. People may not be concerned in washington because they do not have those in their income, but across the board for this great country, it means maybe this child will not be able to go get quality daycare or maybe they will not be able to go to college or maybe they cannot buy a car or maybe cannot save for a rainy day or maybe you have a mom who has dementia and you are the caregiver and you cannot care or maybe you cannot take a vacation. Perever it is, 2300 dollars year is a lot of money. The next president has to fix this mess and it starts with changing the culture and washington, d. C. I believe we need a balanced budget to force a conversation to where it needs to be. Need term limits. In florida, we have term limits. I have some friends here, talented people who get a chance to take leadership roles where the permanent political clash has to take a step back here and we need to make sure lobbyists and goshould not take it out the back door and start lobbying the people serving with the day before. Sixyear ban. E a total transparency to ensure people have confidence the government is a servant rather than master. I had a chance to take these ideas and work with the legislature and turn the place upside down. The net result was we had a better government. We do have term limits. We balance each and every year leaving reserves of 9 billion, more than 35 of general revenue. Veto i did it because government should not grow faster than peopless ability to pay for it and in florida, that rep that was the result. There is a big difference in the philosophy of the left and ours. I believe everybody has the chance to make a contribution in our society. A giftve that life is from god, that it is divinely inspired. I believe if we created a society where everybodys abilities can be reached to their full limits, their godgiven abilities, then nothing will stop the United States. The left believes the opposite. They believe life is not fair. That because life is not there, i will take care of you with another spending program, another tax, another regulation. Dividing our country up by halves and havenots. For us to win, we have to have an exact opposite view. Last year, i met a floridian. She was she came to campaign a couple of months ago here in a town hall meeting. When she was young, she was held back two years in a row in third grade. I can imagine that she was quite angry. No one ever told her she was capable. She was going to be passed along basically to a deadend. It happens a lot in america. Thousands and thousands of kids do not get the power of knowledge and they are stuck and we wonder why the demand on government grows faster than our ability to pay for it. She found out, her godmother found out a Corporate Tax scholarship program. It is the Largest Program in the country. We created the first, second and third programs in the country. We eliminated tenure for teachers. We reward teachers for performance. They get more pay when they do a good job based on student learning. The Teachers Union did not like this at all. They mortgaged their building when i ran for reelection to try to defeat me and to support my opponents. They lost and had to sell the building, which warms my heart to be honest, because taking on big political fight is what we aim to do. We cannot stand pat with the things that are broken. I know how to do this because i had a chance to do it. She was the beneficiary. Her godmother found out about the program and she got to go to a christian school. I know what happened. I was not there, but i know what happened. In that first week, a teacher told her on around her and for the first time she was told she was capable. That she had godgiven talents. That god loved her and so did the teacher. Together, they were going to make sure she could learn. She overcame the two years of being held back. She graduated with her age group. She was the first in her family to graduate from high school and college. This year, she will get a masters degree at the university of south florida. I believe that we will be successful politically and we will be successful as a nation if we are on the side of her. I dont know if she is a republican or democrat it is irrelevant. What is important is she has the same right as anybody else to live a life of purpose and meaning. That she will not have to get in line and be told somehow she is not capable of living a life of purpose and meaning, that she is a liability. That the government will manage her life. Isnt it better to be on the side of people pursuing their own dreams as they see fit . Making sure people have the capacity to achieve earned success . Isnt that the better approach . We are going to win if we are on the side of her. If we focus on high sustained Economic Growth and keeping our country safe, we will win. Did we divide ourselves up, allow the narcissist to say i will take care of you. Not interested in forging consensus, solving problems we will never win. Hillary clinton will be elected and god for bid that from ever happening. I believe you are looking at the guy that can beat Hillary Clinton because i have a proven record. [applause] it is a record of applying conservative principles in a hopeful optimistic way with sheer dogged determination to implement them the right way, where everybody has a chance to win. It is not about those that have already made it. It is not whether you have an r or d. That is my mission. I hope you will support my candidacy here in New Hampshire. You all elect president s. You have a responsibility being first in the nation. My belief is you take it seriously, but you want to make sure we have the right person to win the election in the general election, but also the right person who has the right stuff to be president. I ask for your support and i appreciate you coming out for this town hall meeting. Thank you. [applause] yes, maam . You have a microphone coming your way. I was really impressed to hear about your proposal for a sixyear ban on lobbying. Some of the people who rake in the most from lobbying are retired congressional staffers and people who work at the pentagon, both military and civilian, so i would like to know if you would extend the sixyear ban to those people also. Mr. Bush that is a good question. I have a look at the impact of that. There should be total transparency. If you are meeting with a lobbyist, and you are a staffer on a committee of great importance or you are a big dog in the department of defense and you are being lobbied, there should be 24 hour notice. It should be put on the internet. There should be complete transparency. People can make up the mind whether it is appropriate or not. That is across the board a more transparent government is what we need. The president promised the most transparent government in American History and we have not gotten it. We have the exact opposite. The best way to deal with the transparency issue is to open it up. It could be that staffers that is a revolving door as well. It makes sense to look at it. The other thing we have to do as relates to the Defense Department is make sure there are more than three contractors. We have created such a confusing, convoluted system that you have the big defense contractors. The cost is higher. They are aggregated. All the other parts of the operation, they subcontract out. They use the influence to get these contracts. All sorts of legal costs are associated with it. The fighters do not get the equipment necessary at the speed they should. One of the other elements is to embrace reform so we have more contractors and it is based on merit rather than influence. Yes, sir . Afghanistan and iraq during your brother administration and people have come back with ptsd. Im running for office state representative. Mr. Bush how old are you . 18. Mr. Bush go for it. [applause] im running on the promise to take care of our veterans. Im wondering what you would do to take care of our veterans and fix the v. A. . Mr. Bush first of all, that is fantastic. Second of all, you have to work with the next president to give this is the federal government responsability. There is a veterans operation in every department. But to reform the v. A. , you made a president committed to it. One, we need career souls servers Reform Civil Service reform. It cannot be the economic entrance of the employees. It should be about the veterans. Right now, it is about the economic interest. There was a hearing in congress and this guy had the gull to say i did not know you thought accountability related to firing. Heck, i dont see it that way. There have been three people fired with the most egregious scandals that exist which is 140 million of bonuses for reducing rates without giving care to veterans. Men and women died. Veterans died. Yet, there were bonuses given and only three people fired. We need Civil Service reform so there is reward for a job well done, but there should not be lifetime employment and government. In government. It should not be a career that gives you 40 benefits and wages more than the private sector. There should be 21st century implement practices. Veterans should have more services. If a veteran wants to see a doctor that is their private doctor, they should have the right to do it far easier than today. We will have the entire town hall meeting with jeb bush airing tonight at 12 40 a. M. Eastern on cspan. The congress is frustrated because this entity is so insular and him accountable, you need a president that will accept responsibility. We had problems all the time. I would read the paper. Another child has been hurt or a state worker did not identify abuse. My instinct was not how can i make figure out a way to make sure no one blames me . How do i blame my predecessor. Set of accepting responsibility, pretty firstrate hospital. It is now at 1. 8 billion. The Veterans Administration cannot order itself out of a wet paper bag. Accountability. Everyone says the dog ate my homework. Unaccountable,so you need a president that will accept responsibility when these things happen. Governor, we have problems all the time to die read the paper and say, oh my god. Hurt. R child has been my impulse was not to say, how can i figure out a way to make sure no one blames me. How do i make sure the dog eat excuse,ork is the right how can i blame my predecessor, which has been a common refrain in washington, if you know what i mean. Instead of rolling up your sleeves and accepting responsibility in solving the problem. That is my pledge. On day one, we begin the process to modernize the v. A. And make sure it is effective and empower people to make better choices and we will have a much better system to cooperate when you are a state legislator to make sure the care they receive is the best. There should be no veteran homeless in this country. The longterm disability issues that exist for veterans should be a longterm commitment to solve the thing. Posttraumatic stress, now i serious problem, it has to be dealt with. Together, we can solve this. It does not have to be necessarily from topdown, but the responsibility is on this president and this president has let us down. I do not have a question but i want to make a statement. I will not get you into trouble. I have been a volunteer politically. I am 85. Mr. Bush that is not possible. I live well. My husband and i retired to New Hampshire in 1986. [laughter] i want to tell you what a wonderful staff you have. It is the best staff i have ever worked with. Mr. Bush thank you. [applause] well, how much do you get paid to say that . [laughter] yes . I have two questions. The first thing you have already talked about the balanced budget. I would like to know how long it would take to resolve the 18 trillion. Do not answer yet. The second question is i would like to know how we can protect our borders better . I know a lot of things have to be done but those are the two that interest me. Mr. Bush the way to balance the budget to get us towards a path of reducing the debt rather than accepting the level, it is growing the economy at a faster rate. Having entitlement reform. Reform the Social Security system. Cut back on discretionary spending. Shift power back to the state. The one reversal of the trend is shrinking government. We need to rebuild the military. Whatever it takes to be able to create a secure america has to be the highest priority. We can reform the Defense Department. There are more civilian employees than men and women in uniform which does not make sense to me. Their process needs to be streamlined. There is a lot we can do to shrink the cost of doing business in the Defense De