I did not know judge scalia well. I only had an opportunity to speak with him at length once. But when i did, my lasting memory was that this conservative firebrand was such a gentle man. A gentleman. A person of clear faith who treated everyone he met with dignity and respect. Judge scalia could be harsh in his o pinions but by his own admission, his favorite friend on the court was liberal jurist ruth bader ginsburg. And regarding the importance of civility, judge scalia famously said, i dont attack ideas, pardon me, i dont attack people, i attack ideas. If you cant separate the two, you ought to get a new day job. We celebrate judge ska caliscal. This town could use a big dose of both. Now, turning to governing in 2016. New blood has rushed into the house over the last five years. More than 150 of the 246 members of the House Republican conference have been elected since 2010. In the senate, more than half, 29 of 54, republicans, are in their first term. Republicans, their first term. Its a bipartisan trend. All combined, nearly half of both chambers have been elected in the last six years and clearly this turnover has changed the institution. And even though Speaker Paul Ryan has been around a little while, he is uniquely qualified to lead this group. In many ways, paul ryan is the intellectual hero of this new movement. He fathered the responsible budget positions that were the inspiration for those who built these new majorities by running in 2010 and wrond. This is not my first time being a part of this kind of revolution. In fact, i was part of governor daniels sweep in indiana in 2004. Governor daniels was a bold transformative conservative leader. The kind of leader you knew you better be ready to keep up with. The first day of the first session in 2005, i told a story, i later repeated a year ago as the new republican policy chair when i spoke to our joint House Senate Conference that we put together in hershey. Its one of the best stories on leadership that i know. Its a story that ive heard attributed to yogi bare ra, showed up as manager of the new york yankees in the 198 os. Those days steinbrenner was known as being a captain hook. That year he had four managers in one year. When you came in to be the new york yankees manager, knew knew it was going to be a tough job. He showed up to work and had been left two envelopes by his predecessor, one to use in time of the first crisis and the second to wruse in time of the second crisis. They got in the middle of the year and lost ten games in a row. In those days, it might be enough. He hated to do it, but he had to open the first envelope. He opened the first envelope and it said, blame me, the prior manager. Thats what he did. He called a press conference and said, hey, they left me no talent, these guys dont have much fundamentals, hang in here and well try to get through it. They started winning games, they got into september, then they lost and became mathematically eliminated from the playoffs and he hated to do it but he had to open the second envelope and he opened that envelope and it said, prepare two envelopes. Right . And i think its such an important lesson, you know, you can only blame your predecessor for so long. Eventually you got to start delivering results. Now, a little about my background. I was born and raised in greensburg, indiana, by a single parent mom who recently retired from the delta faucet factory. I represent my hometown and 19 Rural Counties in east central and southeastern indiana. Ive been married to my wife, jennifer, for almost 15 years. We actually met on a blind date. And weve been together ever since. We have three great kids, ava whos with us here today, and their ages are 12, 11, and 8. Two boys and one girl. Two girls and one boy. Forgive me. Two girls and one boy. Thats important we get that right for everybody at home. Two girls and one boy. You know, like most american families, our weekends and evenings are occupied with homework, school music concert, ball practices and sports games. Were hoosiers, so we like basketball and to brag a little, last weekend our kids scored six points, ten points and 20 points. In their three games respectively. Theyre also all doing great in school. A few weeks back at the state of the Union Address it was a particularly special time for me because my daughter, ava, was actually my date and, of course, i also knew for certain that it would be president obamas last state of the Union Address. Those experiences form who i am as a leader. When i approach the challenges we face as the country, i think from the perspective of a kid who was raised in Middle America by a single mom on a factory workers salary. And from the perspective of a husband and a father who loves his kids and wants them to grow up in a country full of opportunity. And now im the House Republican policy chair. So far, ive been incredibly impressed with Speaker Paul Ryans leadership. I agree with paul 100 that we must reinvent ourself as a party of ideas. As paul likes to say, we have to become a party of proposition, not just opposition. Im excited by the environment of policy entrepreneurship that pauls trying to create in our chamber. This approach will be better for our conference and for our party and frankly most importantly, it will be better for the American People. So where do we start . From my perspective, there are two defining challenges facing america. First, we must win the war on terror. Whether we like it or not, we are now locked in a battle of good and evil against islamic extremists who want to destroy our way of life. This is the cold war of our time, and as british Prime Minister tony blair has said, we have to be both wise enough to understand the true breadth and depth of the challenge we face, and brave enough to build the intelligence, military, and political capabilities necessary to defeat it. The second major the second major challenge, shrinking paychecks. And thats where i want to focus my remarks today. The left speaks a lot about income inequality, but wage stagnation for middle income workers is the driver causing the collapse of the american dream. And i also believe its driving the angst that youre seeing in the american electorate. Now dont get me wrong, American Life has improved a lot over the last 50 years. We have hundreds of channels on cable tv, where in the 1960s, you only had 12. Your cell phone that you carry around now provides more information than there was in the Public Library when i grew up. Cars and Consumer Products are safer. The environment is cleaner. Major medical devices keep us all alive and healthier. But when it comes to economic security, for low and middle income workers, we flatlined. In fact, paychecks for most workers have frozen over the last 30 years. According to the bureau of labor statistics, since 1964, purchasing power for the average American Worker in 2014, real dollars, increased by 84 cents. 84 cents over 50 years. I applaud efforts by Speaker Paul Ryan and others to address poverty. Paul is right. The old approaches are not working. Weve been fighting poverty for over 50 years and trillions of dollars later poverty is winning the war. We should seek ways to better lift folks out of poverty, but with all due respect, where i live out in the middle of america, middleclass workers are worried about falling into poverty and they want to know whats our agenda for them . People in the middle of rural indiana used to live under the premise that they may not retire and go to the beach, but they could at least buy a boat, drive to the lake for a day and come home. Now they worry that they may never get to retire. And they worry that their kids and grandkids may never have a chance to live the american dream. A year ago, no one would have believed a reality tv star and a socialist would be the president ial candidates leading in polls across our country. Like it or not, the American People are sending us a message. It all reminds me of a 1980s sports book you may remember called a season on the brink , its a book about bobby knight and the indiana hoosiers. The middle of the year Darryl Thomas who was the hoosiers Power Forward complained because coach knight was yelling at him and one of the assistant coaches told darrylin more or less a quote, darryl, sometimes you have to listen to the wisdom of what coach knight says to you and ignore how he says it. Today establishment washington may not like how the American People are sending this message, but the message is clear. The American People dont like the product that theyve been receiving from their leaders in washington. Wages have flat lined over 50 years. Folks want opportunity. They want their borders protected. They want their kids and grandkids to grow up in an american that they know is safe. To me, it seems pretty simple. The American People want their leaders to focus on them. Their hopes and dreams. Several of the president ial candidates are channeling this anger, but frankly, anger is not a strategy. Ultimately, we need solutions to the challenges of our day, keeping working people out of poverty. No american, no american, should work a 40hour workweek and live in poverty. So how do we do that . Well, lets start with the third rail of politics. Americas most successful Antipoverty Program, Social Security and medicare. I make no apologies for working to protect and preserve Social Security and medicare. These programs are vital to keeping middle and lowerincome class americans out of poverty. If these programs collapse, the social construct of the last 50 clears wi years will collapse with it. We cant let that happen. Fixing these programs with i s heavy lift, but fracnkly, the American People are far ahead of their leaders on this topic. Entitlement reform is really just the beginning. Washington has a long way to go to recognize todays economic angst and reconnect with the American People. In the spirit of paul ryans culture of policy entrepreneursh entrepreneurship, i offer five modest ideas that would help make that happen. First, School Choice. I serve on the house education and Workforce Committee and recently helped lead an alltoorare Committee Hearing on School Choice options. Simply put, this is the civil rights issue of our time. School choice gets to the very essence of the american idea that we are are all endowed by our creator with a godgiven right to pursue happiness and pursue happiness and live our own version of the american dream. That starts with a high quality education. We should not rest as a nation until every child in america has an opportunity to go to a great school. Im not suggesting that we somehow create a federal department of School Choice, but we can take existing federal dollars and empower parents to decide how best to use them. And by the way, for my conservative friends, empowering parents is an unassailable way to devolve the federal department of education and restore local control of our schools. Z÷z next idea, something i want to call the rights act. Ill be releasing legislation soon and heres the premise. Republicans have long talked about the rains act, a macroeconomic policy that says if a regulation has more than 100 million impact on the American Economy that congress should have to approve those regulations before they have the effect of law. Its great policy. Its something i support. Its actually authored by my colleague, todd young, in the house. But the people i talk to in middleclass america are not focused on the macroeconomic implications of federal regulatory policy. Instead, theyre worried about what happens when the federal government shows up on their doorstep to close their business, trample their freedom, or otherwise take a wrecking ball to their life. Times have changed. This is not your grandfathers federal government. Constitutional lawyer Jonathan Turley recently pointed out that a u. S. Citizen is ten times more likely to be tried by a federal agency than by an actual court. In a given year, federal judges conduct roughly 95,000 hearings including trials, remarkably, federal agencies complete more than 939,000 proceedings. These Agency Proceedings are often mockeries of due process with onesided presumptions and procedural rules that favor the agency. And my idea is really pretty simple. Every american should have the same rights in a federal government bureaucracy proceeding that they have in federal court. The right to counsel. The right to discovery of evidence against you. And the right to not selfincriminate. Third idea. Expand use of the earned income tax credit. Its a far better way to help lowwage earners than hiking the minimum wage. Despite some of the heated rhetoric on the left, minimum wages reduce opportunity and they eliminate jobs. The Nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that president obamas proposed 10. 10 wage hike once fully implemented would, and i quote, reduce total employment by 500,000 workers. Cutting jobs is no way to help lowwage workers. Instead, lets expand the earned income tax credit and incentivize work by releasing the eitc in every paycheck as opposed to a once a year lump sum. We should also consider expanding that tax credit to childless workers. Both policies may cost money, but work is a blessing and encouraging work makes a whole lot more sense for the future of this country than wage mandates that end up cutting jobs. Fourth idea, allow every american to pay for their health care with pretax dollars. For policy reasons rooted in world war ii era wage and price controls, we dont tax employerprovided health care. On the other hand, if your medical premiums come out of your own pocket, you have to pay for that with aftertax dollars. Thats not fair. Particularly in an era when so Many Employers are dropping their health care plans, i believe, because of the president S Health Care law. This policy change is easy to understand and it would save thousands of dollars for many working families all across this country. Fifth, eliminate marriage penalties. A generation ago, federal tax policy was changed to eliminate certain marriage tax penalties, yet today federal agencies maintain dozens, if not hundreds of policies that penalize americans for getting married. For example, many federal benefits are immediately cut if a srecipient gets married becaue their income is deemed to have gone up. As a result, many folk s keep their benefits and delay getting married or dont get married at all. Frankly, this policy doesnt make any sense. One could argue that marriage is the best Antipoverty Program ever invented by man. We should not be discouraging it. In fact, the centrist Brooking Institute says if we had the marriage rate today that we had in the 1970s, there would be a 25 drop in poverty. The details will matter, but we should make it our goal to eliminate every federal government marriage penalty. Its the right thing to do. I recognize these ideas will cost money, at least some of them. Several of them may not be purist republican doctrine either, but the Common Thread in all these ideas is policy consistent with conservative principles that will impact Everyday Americans in the real world where they live. Frankly, this speech hasnt included many of the bigticket items that also have to be dealt with. Balanced budgets, enhanced energy production, Border Security and immigration reform, health care, trade, Financial Service reform. Each critical to our nations future. But if were going to reestablish trust with the American People and continue earning the right to lead this country on the big issues, we must start by offering ideas that reach Everyday Americans at the kitchen table. And thats what well be working on in the Republican Policy Committee. Now, one last thought before we get to questions. A vision for americas future. You know, when i speak to students, i often ask them if theyve ever seen someone get to a pinnacle moment in their life, won a grammy, won an oscar, maybe an olympic medal. Invariably, they come to the microphone and Say Something like, you know, i never dreamed this was possible. The young people typically nod. I say, let me give you a little secret. Either that person is incredibly lucky, theyre exceedingly gracious, or theyre just not telling you truhe truth, becaus the reality is your dreams are a cap, a limiter what youre able to achieve as an individual. I believe the same is true for a society. If america is going to maintain its position in the world and succeed in the long run, we have to be dreaming bigger dreams for this country than the people were competing against. Now, dont get me wrong, i understand the pessimism. To paraphrase harry truman, a recession is when your neighbor loses his job and a depression is when you lose yours. Folks are struggling, but we have to keep perspective. This is not the most challenging time in our nations history. Weve survived two world wars. A great depression. Cold war. Civil war. And a revolutionary war. Each with bleak moments where the future of our country l