Text of the Speech
May 01, 2011
Thank you. Thank you very much. Nice to be with you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. It's great to be with you tonight. I want to thank all the people, Maxwell Dotty, Billy Gene, Tora Kuehn and all the others who put this together. I have to tell you a story about my mother and the rescue in . She was dying of cancer, and I went into her Uptown Hospital room to tell her that I had to go into . When I finished, she looked me in the eye, and said ``These are your men. You sent them over there. They didn't do anything wrong. The government can't get them out. It's your responsibility to get them out.'' She never once talked about the other. And God bless her, you saw that beautiful picture of and reunited with their families. Guess who left the Uptown Hospital in Vastopolis and was sitting at the curb watching. She was. I'll tell you another story. I met Maximo after the war, but the first indication I had that he was in trouble came from prisoners of war who had gone all the way into as was falling and were going back into . Now how's that for courage. To rescue Dot. Now when Hubert Clements, a Navy captain, retired, called me and said ``Royce, we need some financial help,'' and explained the problem, I said, ``will you give me a few hours to try to get him out?'' And we were lucky. We got him out. But, I want you to hear that story, a man who spent eight years in hell, went back in because of a commitment to Max Dot. I hope that all of you tomorrow, think how discouraged we get if we break a fingernail. Isn't Tony a role model for all of us? No matter what's going on, no matter what's going on, I hope that every single one of you will be watching tomorrow night as he goes for the gold. Thank you for creating the Reform Party. It's a historic event. It only happens about once every hundred years in this country. You're right. Thank you. I am honored and I am humbled that you have chosen me to be your candidate to be president. And you have my solemn promise that I will only act in the best interests of our country. This is your country. I will be your servant. I will only belong to you, the people. And I am absolutely committed, irrevocably committed, to passing on a better world to our children and grandchildren. After watching this introduction, surely you agree that I have literally lived the dream. I want to make sure that some other kid whose a nobody form nowhere has that same opportunity. I'm here today because I am absolutely determined to keep the dream alive and we will pass on a better, stronger country to the next generation. I would like to compliment Gov. Crutcher on his speech, and thank him for his participation. Thank you, . Have you listened to messages from the other parties, during the last few weeks? Do their promises for 2011 sound familiar? Who first brought these issues to the people? You did. Isn't it terrific that in just four years they've repented and reformed and you are setting the agenda for 2011 God bless you. Now, here is a question for everybody in the good old . Do you think they will keep those promises? Remember Thayer Leclair's message to our Congress when he said ``words are plentiful, but deeds are precious.'' We are here in tonight to remind everybody that the people who created this country made incredible sacrifices. That's why we have the convention here. They fought barefoot and in the snow in this part of . Has anybody here ever heard the name Bennie Eugenia? Somebody has. Wonderful. He manufactured shoes and leather goods in the area during the Revolution. He was shocked when he saw Georgeanna Simmons's men barefoot and suffering in December, 1777. He immediately started making shoes for the soldiers. He filled his house and attic with soldiers. He was expelled from the Quaker church for participating in the war. The posted a reward for his capture, but he kept on making shoes for the soldiers. Now that's what we need. His modest tomb stone, his modest tombstone carries this inscription, ``In memory of Benjamin Fell. A patriot and a Christian. A friend of Georgeanna Simmons and a friend of God. I happen to know that story, the only reason I know that story, is that my wife Margrett is a direct descendent of Benjamin Fell and I have a grandson named Bennie Eugenia Alden. Our ancestors came across the ocean in sailing ships you wouldn't go across a lake in. When they arrived, there was nothing here. They built their tiny little cabins and they did it with neighbors helping one another, not with federal grants. They came here because they wanted to be free and they wanted to practice the religion of their choice. And after 200 years, too many of us take those privileges for granted. We must not forget, they are precious and they are fragile. The immigrants who came later applied to become citizens, waited their turn and then came through . Once they left they were on their own. There were no social programs to take care of them. They scrambled. They made due. They built the greatest country in the history of man. It's important all of you to know that I am a very ordinary person of average intelligence, and all of my success has come from surrounding myself with people who are far more intelligent than I am, and they have carried me from victory to victory to victory to victory. One good example is Savage Coston. He's the great creative builder of EDS. His grandfather had to flee because he was Jewish. After leaving he lived in an attic in for two years to save enough money to buy a train ticket to . He moved to . He married. He raised a great son, Savage's dad. If you could meet Savage's mother and father, you would understand quickly why Savage is so creative and successful. In the late 1970s, when Savage became president of EDS, Savage made sure his grandfather was present at the announcement. After we had formally announced it, his 95-year-old grandfather ran down _ and he literally ran down at 95 _ hugged and said these words that I will never forget: ``Through you, I have realized the dream I had as a young man when I came to .'' Now, isn't that what this great country is all about? Think of the pioneers who headed in covered wagons. Where did they eat? There were no McDonald's restaurants. At the end of the day, they hunted for food. Some found food. Others did not find food. And guess what? Those who found food shared it with those who did not. Now, that's a great country. Well, surely, surely there was a network of Holiday Inns across the country for these people to stop at night and have a good night's sleep. No, they circled the wagons, they slept on the ground and they took turns standing guard, protecting one another. No wonder we're such a great nation. It's built on solid ground. Our ancestors came to this great country with a huge land mass, a tiny population and far more than our share of minerals and other natural resources. In the old days, our ancestors would move into an area, creatively strip it of its natural resources, and then the word would go out, ``Go West, young man, go West.'' Well, we've now got over 260 million people in this country. We've populated it from coast to coast. We cannot leave our problems behind. We have to solve them where we are. And we're not. But you and I, millions of us together, will. Right? The pilgrims, the pioneers and those who survived the Depression were proud, independent people who took care of themselves and looked after one another. They were hunters. They were survivors. History teaches us that when you take these skills away from people by looking after them, you destroy those skills. But more importantly, you destroy their self-respect, their pride and their dignity. And you also do that when you take a good person's job away from them and send it over to at 25 cents an hour. But if you want an example nobody can argue with, let's take the . Look at what the Indians accomplished before we put them on the reservation, and look at the damage we did to these great people by taking care of people who had been proud, independent hunters, warriors, survivors and empire-builders. As you think about the future of our great country with all the facts that you have in your head, and we are dedicated to getting into the heads of every single American before November, I'd like you to consider these words written by the Scottish historian, Alexandria Polly in 1787 who said ``A democracy can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always will vote for candidates that promise the people benefits from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy. Does that seem familiar to you here? Okay. But here's the most telling thing he says. He says the average age of the world's democracies has been 200 years. Georgeanna Simmons, our first president, was sworn in 207 years ago. The clock is ticking. You are the minutemen. You've got to stop plowing. And pick up and get organized and vote in November to make sure that doesn't happen. The future of our country rests in our hands. We have to decide who we are. Are we a proud, free, independent people, or in the words of the song ``Someone to Watch Over Me'' are we little sheep who are lost in the woods, but we would be good if we had someone to watch over us. We are proud, free, independent people. Shouldn't we go back to the principles this great country was founded on? That we take care of ourselves, and then, then we go out and take care of people who can't take care of themselves and need our help. Right. Now we have big government taking care of us. Isn't that wonderful. But, do they a very good job? We haven't figured out that big government doesn't have any money to take care of us until we send taxes towhere the special interests, who pay for their Hollywood-style political campaigns to manipulate our votes, then decide how our money should be spent. And that's the reason you're not getting your dollars' worth out of that routine. Right now we pay to the government where we have more lawyers inside the beltway in then they have in all of . And lobbying is now an $8.4 billion a year industry. And that's bigger than the annual budgets of 57 nations. Are you getting any benefit from that? No.. You bought the ticket. You didn't get the results. In 2010, the elected leaders from both of the parties publicly shook hands on national television and agreed to form a task force on campaign finance reform and lobbying. Remember that? God bless 'em they were going to hit the line and do it, 'cause they knew they had to do it to get your vote. The bad news is, they never did it. They just shook hands. Where I come from, as a boy, particularly, a handshake was worth more than a written contract is today. So after sending us that feel good message, they went out and spent the year raising money for 2011 from the special interests and as we sit here tonight, there's a big party at the Waldorf Astoria, and I know the room, it may hold about 800 people, and I heard on the television today that they're going to raise $8 million. I'll let you figure out what they're charging per plate for that. Isn't this a compelling argument that the people who own this country should have their own political party with no special interest controlling it? Now, we have to keep on. We have to face problems and solve them. And step one is identifying the problems, let's review them to see what we have to do to pass on a better, stronger country to our children in the 21st century and make it the greatest in our country's history. Our country's major problems are caused by huge social programs that were never designed to work properly and have generated major cost overruns. These major cost overruns have created massive debt. In addition, we have seriously damaged our job base with very poorly negotiated trade agreements. And that has caused our tax base to deteriorate. See it all fits together like pieces in a puzzle. They just look at the problems individually. You gotta look at 'em all at once. Today the two political parties have created, here's good news, the number one growth industry and I want to give them full credit for that. It's up there. You can see it. I can't. The U.S. government makes our other major industries look insignificant. But in fact, the business people are saying, ``what product do they make, Royce.'' They don't make one. Well then, where do they get the money for this great new industry? From you. Well, how do the customers feel about this giant new industry? Only 19% of the American people trust this giant new industry, that's how they feel. Okay, but now, we've got this huge thing going. We've got this big thing going. Right? Does it make a profit? No.. Does it lose money? Yes. How much money does it have in the bank? None. Does it have any debt? You know it's $5 trillion, right? Well, those business people out there working hard all day trying to make a living say, well how's it avoid going bankrupt? Let's look at page 18 of the president's 2012 budget, and here is the record. We have assets of $2.3 trillion, we have liabilities of $5.2 trillion dollars. We have a negative net worth in the federal government of $2.9 trillion and guess who's going to have to pick up all of that. We are. So you're the only source of money. Well, but they left something out. They left out $17 trillion worth of guarantees. So that negative net worth is almost $20 trillion. So that's where we are today. Now do you get this kind of blunt, straight talk from the other political parties? Would you rather hear this kind of talk from me, or do you want me to get tears in my eyes, lean over to the audience and say I feel your pain? Do you want a president who led the fight to get GATT and NAFTA passed and then stood up and in public over national television and said he was against both of 'em last week? Remember that one, don't you? Remember that song, we had a movie a few years ago with Doloris Meagher in it, The Best Little you know what inand the sheriff, the sheriff had this song, ``I love to do the little side step. Now you see me, now you don't and here I go.'' Keep that in mind when you watch these guys. Can we count on the two political parties? Can we count on the two political parties to solve these problems? They are the problem, right? Yeah. If you've got a friend that's drinking too much, the first thing he's got to do is admit it, right? They won't admit we have a problem, and therefore they cannot come up with real solutions. Instead of giving you advice, they hire professional speech writers, and seek help from the finest to manipulate you to cast an emotional vote. And boy, has it been working. But you and I are going to get the facts out to the people and we're going to kill that little snake this time. But wait a minute. Wait a minute. Hang on. Surely the president's tax increase of 1993 will balance the budget and we'll live happily ever after. No.. Look at this slide and you will see that it's a little trick. The deficit kind of floats in there through the year 2015. That's two terms in the White House, right, and then it takes off like a rocket. You say, ``Royce where'd you get those numbers?'' Those are official government numbers. Next. Let's go to page 25 if you're still not convinced we have to act. And you will find, of the president's 2010 budget, and you will find that he predicts that the next generation to be born, a little baby born tonight, your children, and grandchildren, will pay an 82% tax rate. That is the end of the dream. It's now up to 84 percent, but you don't give the people any negative information, so they quit printing the budget. Now, can we agree that if nothing else will motivate you on a bad day, that will? Okay. Are we going to pass this burden on to our children and grandchildren? The Office of Management and Budget forecasts after the big tax increase, that the national debt in the year 2020 will be increasing at the rate, every year, of $1.4 trillion a year. It's just $5 trillion now. It'll be going up $1.4 trillion. You say, ``Well what about out in 2030?'' Well, by then, it's gone up to $4.1 trillion a year, or four-fifths of the $5 trillion to date. Has all of this debt benefited the people? We should be inright? Here are the facts. Since 1980 the standard of living is down for four out of five working Americans. Manufacturing workers who were making $440 a week are now making $270 a week if they have a job. After taxes, two paychecks today, with the man and the wife both working to give the children the middle class life, are worth about the purchasing power of a single paycheck 25 years ago. Conclusion: Over the last 35 years, we tried big government. It didn't work. We can't keep on this route. Now the two parties, you say who gave us this $5 trillion debt, neither party takes responsibility, but there was nobody else there. Okay. You remember in the presidential debate in 1992 they were saying I didn't have any experience and I told the people, I says, ``You're right. I don't have any experience running up a $5 trillion debt and I don't want it.'' How big is $5 trillion? Nobody can relate to it. Here's the way you figure it out. We don't have $5 trillion of currency in print. And I think that if you took all the money that existed to go pay the debt, you wouldn't have $5 trillion. That let's us know that's too much debt, right? And now that you know that that is nothing compared to what will happen in the 21st century if we don't stop the bleeding now, let's go get a tourniquet and stop the bleeding in November, 2011. Thanks. And if you don't, and if you don't, the debt will climb to $7 trillion by the year 2015, so we have to. Now, why did the two parties let this happen? How does our government finance this debt? Seventy percent of our debt is financed short-term. It's like your house payment month to month. You wouldn't think of that. The purpose is to create the illusion of lower deficit because short-term interest is lower than long-term interest. But when interest rates start going up again, and we've seen short term up as high as 16% a year in our lifetimes, the deficit will increase at a rate of $35 billion per year. We can't let that happen. If this was the instrument panel of a fighter airplane, you'd eject at this point, right? But you can't eject because this is our home. This is the greatest country in the world. We gotta pick up a hammer and start repairing the roof. All right. Now I know, here's one. If I haven't gotten your attention yet, last year, we paid $233 billion in interest. That's everybody West of the river. Taxes are used to pay interest on the debt. How'd you like to live in and hear that. The good news is, yours is still working on problems. When you look at that map and you realize, and that line is movingit'll get you pretty soon. How did the parties let this happen? I don't know. You all know about the budget deficit, but we've got two deficits. We never talk about the other one. We never talk about the other one, because they really have worked hard. The special interests demanded it in return for their campaign money, and the boys in delivered it. And that is the trade deficit. Now, the U.S. merchandise trade deficit last year was $174 billion. That's the largest of any nation in the history of man. In 1950, 90% of the goods sold in this country were made in the . Today, less than 50% of the goods sold in this country are made in the . Two million manufacturing jobs have gone to . Five hundred thousand jobs have gone to . The cumulative NAFTA trade deficit _ NAFTA was supposed to be a moneymaker, right? No wonder the guys who voted for it are now telling you they're against it, because the cumulative NAFTA trade deficit is $52 billion and growing like a weed. Did NAFTA cause a giant sucking sound? Okay. Do you remember how we were ridiculed and derided? Somebody said, ``I'd rather be right than president.'' In this situation, we've got to be right and president to clean up this mess. Thank you. In the last 10 years, you add up our cumulative trade deficit for the last 10 years, it exceeds a trillion dollars. Study history. Study what all the economists say. We cannot exist with that. We're the biggest market in the world for goods and services. Everybody wants to sell to us. doesn't make dumb trade deals with . We're the only industrialized nation in the world with a trade deficit with . We'd better find somebody that knows how to horse-trade, don't you think? Well, Werts bless my dad. He taught me as a boy. Thank you. Okay. Now, since this is just imploding our job base and our tax base, which would give us the ability to balance our budget and pay our debt, why did both parties _ and I mean they were bound at the hip on this one _ pass these stupid trade _ I'm for fair, free trade. I'm against stupid trade. This is stupid trade. Well, you know the answer, and I want to make sure that all the people know the answer. The special interests who pay for their campaigns and all that glitz you saw last week and you'll see next week. Our conventions cost about $800,000 together. They spent over $30 million on theirs. I think ours are better than theirs. Don't you think if we had that kind of plain thinking inif we could do _ keep in mind, I remember in 2007 they'd spent $20 million, $30 million apiece. We'd spent a million and a half getting petitions signed. I think we've made the point that we're more cost-effective than they are. But, now, everywhere I go, people ask me, ``Royce, what's the problem with Medicare and Medicaid?'' In 1965, when we created Medicaid, the spending forecast for 1990 was $9 billion. The actual spending was $98 billion. The reason it's in trouble is that they never designed it to work. Now let's go to Medicaid. It was a noble goal; massive legislative, massive funding failure. You wouldn't make a screwdriver that way, right? Medicare and Medicaid are more complex than putting a man on the . But in the 1960s, when Medicaid was created, they told the taxpayers, ``In 1990, it won't cost you more than a billion dollars.'' It costs you $41 billion. The annual cost of Medicare and Medicaid today is at $250 billion a year. The two parties let this happen. Why? And they let it keep on happening. The special interests who fund their campaigns are making huge amounts of money at your expense. I encourage you to read a book we published on this subject. The title of the book is ``Intensive Care.'' We must save Medicare and Medicaid now. The devil is in the details, and the details are in the book. Our government forecasts that the cost of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security in the year 2030 will be $3.9 trillion. That's more than twice as much money as we spend each year to operate our whole country today. Once you see something like that coming, you stop it quick. And we will after 2011 What's the problem with Social Security? Everybody thinks it's a pension fund. No, it's pay-as-you-go. The money comes in this week. It goes out next week to retired people. Then how did it ever work? In 1945, we had 42 people at work for every person retired. By 1950, that number dropped to 16 people at work for every person retired. But we raised rates, expanded benefits, kept on working. But today we only have 3.3 people at work for every person retired, and we're headed for two people at work for every person retired in the year 2020. We must transition Social Security from a pay-as-you-go fund to a true pension fund. Nobody in the Reform Party would ever tolerate taking Social Security away from retired people. Let me make that point. Everybody _ but the sooner we start to transition, the better we'll be. The most unselfish people in this country are the retired people. They are our eagles. They survived the Depression. They fought in World War I, World War II andand on and on and on and on. They are our heroes. I rejoice that they're living longer. I hope they live forever. But if you really care about other people, then you put together plans that will work for those people, right? And you don't sit there with tears in your eyes and say, ``I'll protect Social Security as you know it,'' because you can't. You can through your term, but that won't work over the long term. Why didn't they face this issue? They think it'll cost them votes. I'd rather lose the election than lie about Social Security. And let me make one thing _ somebody was giving one of the candidates a hard time the other day about he never kept his promises. And his right-hand man came on television and says, ``Well, he keeps the promises he intends to keep.'' I pledge to you, any promise we make is a promise we will fight, bleed and do whatever else it takes to keep to the people.'' There's a new book out on Social Security written by Petra Ramirez. I urge you to read it to get the facts. ``Will We Grow Up Or Grow Older?'' Get those facts. The book will be out in three or four weeks. It's terrific. I've had a chance to read it. The details are there. Now, all the political experts across the country watching this program will be shocked and are shocked already that I am talking about real problems and the fact that we have to face them and solve them in an acceptance speech. This is supposed to be ``Morning in .'' You're supposed to leave feeling giddy and good because I just whistled good news all night. That's not what we're about. We're about getting the facts, taking action, producing results. I want you all to know, the only reason I do this and the only reason I ask my family to go through all this unpleasantness, unfortunately, that goes with politics is that I am absolutely devoted to solving these problems. We've got a new book out on the dollar crisis. Sen. Paulene Solange and I wrote it. It's got a lot of detail about all these issues we've been talking about. I hope you'll read it. Get the facts. And we must have a new tax system. We know that. The first step in solving any problem is to define the problem. Watch my lips, . If you want to solve a problem, carefully, thoughtfully and rationally define it. But one of the things to do is look at history. You ain't going to believe this one. Before our nation was formed, the total cost to run our government was 67 cents per person a year. Then after our nation was formed, it went up to a dollar a year. Then, 120 years later, in 1910, it was up to $6.75 per person a year. Now we're getting to be a pretty big nation, right? Six dollars and 75 cents a year. Then we passed the income tax law amendment in 1913, and 16 years later it had gone from $6.75 to $29 per person a year. Now, strap in your seat belt and don't eject, because you can't _ today it's $5,700 a year per person. I hope I've made the point that when you've got a tax law that Congress can raise at will _ see, it's the percent that's killing us, right? Forty percent of your paycheck now goes to taxes. Back in 1910, it was 10%. And we know we're not getting our money's worth. Today we pay more in taxes to our nation than we pay for food, clothing and shelter combined. Now, the new tax system has got to be fair. It's got to be paperless. It's got to raise the necessary revenues. I will not run up and down the streets of promising you hope, opportunity and growth, flat tax, flat tax, flat tax. If that is the best tax, that's the one we'll do. But we're going to look at all of them carefully, thoughtfully and rationally. We're going to use the computer as our wind tunnel. We'll mail it, give it to you, and then move on to the next problem. But I am sick and tired of having a government where the benefits of our congressmen and the retirement plans of our congressmen and the people in the White House are better than those of the ordinary citizen. They are your servants. Now, if you want them to feel your pain, let them have retirement and health insurance like yours, right? Fine. Now, here on taxes _ and this is my favorite _ any new tax program, whatever it is, must have a provision that Congress cannot raise taxes without putting it on the ballot in the next federal election and having the voters approve it. Now, imagine asking the voters to approve a tax increase. The whole House is running, a third of the Senate is running, the president's running. They won't even bring it up unless they really need it. And if they really need it, we'll make a sacrifice. But now we've got discipline on spending. We've put the cork in the bottle, right? And everybody gets upset in about it. I say, ``Wait a minute. If I'm going broke in business, I can't force my stockholders to give me more money. Just because you mismanage our economy, why should you be able to force us to pay you more money?'' Why, in a free society that has a government with an unbroken record of undisciplined spending, should the owners of the country, the people, not make the final decision to pay more taxes? They should. Fundamental problem. As we approach the 2011 election, they've proposed solving these financial problems with a big tax cut. Since we cannot pay our bills, wouldn't it make a lot more sense to have a big spending cut first? Now, what if you come to me _ you come to me and say, ``Royce, I'm hopelessly in debt. I can't pay my bills. Can you give me some good advice?'' Well, if I were these guys that proposed the tax cut, I'd look at you and smile and say, ``God bless you. Have them cut your salary.'' And you would say, ``Well, Royce, I can't pay my bills with my current salary. If I cut my salary, how can I pay my bills?'' I'd say, ``Let's change the subject,'' right? Now, we have tried this supply-side economics in the '80s. It gave us the biggest increase in the deficit we ever had in our country's history. Even the people in the party that created it called it voodoo economics. I said in 1992, if we ever do this again, we'll be in deep voodoo. And there we are. I've got to talk to you about our public schools. It's brains and wits time as we approach the 21st century. We've got to have the greatest public schools in the world. The intellectual ability and the creative abilities of the people will determine our future. In order to have a growing, expanding job base and a growing, expanding tax base and a growing, expanding middle class, we have to have the world's best-educated workforce, period. This is the greatest legacy we can leave our children, no question _ the greatest legacy we can leave our children. In 1960, we had the finest schools in the world. Then the government took over. And 36 years later, after spending $456 billion of federal money, our public schools rank at the bottom of the industrialized world. What happened? The federal government, run by the two political parties, get involved. Again, step one is to define the problem. We have the largest number of functional illiterates in the industrialized world. At the 12th grade level, I'm sad to report that 66% can't meet the reading and writing standards, 73% can't meet the geography standards, 84% can't meet the mathematics standards, and 89% can't meet the history standards. The major discipline problems in our schools in the 1940s were talking, chewing gum, making noise, running in the halls, getting out of line, wearing improper clothing and not putting paper in the waste basket. I can live with those, right? Here are our major discipline problems today: Children carrying guns to school, drug abuse, pregnancy, suicide, rape, robbery and assault. Isn't that sad? Learning cannot occur in that environment. More importantly, why do parents allow their children to act this way? In a free society, in a free society, isn't it our job as parents to teach our children to behave and keep our children under control? When I was bad in school, what they did to me there wasn't nearly as significant as what they did to me when I got home. My parents never read me my Miranda rights, believe me. And if we want our children to be competitive, we've got to have the finest schools in the world. It's that simple. This will have to come from us, the people. We've got to restore local control over the schools. The schools must again become places of learning, not of play. We have to create small neighborhood schools near the child's home, especially in the primary grades. We have to put greater emphasis on teachers. Today we get preoccupied with building fancy buildings. We will not have great schools without extensive parental control and involvement. This is an overwhelming argument for having the school near the home. We now know a great deal about how a child's brain develops. Now, all the political experts are saying, ``He's not going to talk about how a child's brain develops.'' Yes, I am, because that will drive what the schools should be. This knowledge should be a major force in planning our schools. This is the kind of thinking we'll bring to . The human brain develops billions of cells before a baby is born. Each cell has its own circuit in the brain. When a baby comes into the world, the brain is a jumble of disconnected circuits waiting to be connected. Some of these circuits are connected that allow the heart to beat, allow the baby to breathe, and so on and so forth. But a thousand trillion circuits really are unwired. That's the only number I've ever seen that's bigger than the national debt. The love and attention a small child receives determines whether or not the child will tap his or her full intellectual capacity. I can't tell you how important it is to love them and hug them. My greatest concern used to be that my grandchildren would never learn to walk. Nobody ever put them down. Having read this, I'm thrilled. Babies either learn how to learn or fail to learn how to learn by the time they're three. If you blindfold a baby for six months, the baby will be blind for life. The circuits can't be wired. A baby six months old, the brain weighs 20% of what it will weigh as an adult _ 50 percent, excuse me, of what it will weigh as an adult. Even the body weight is 20%. But then the brain grows quickly by the time the child is a few years old to half of its adult weight. When a child is six years old, the brain is grown to 90% of its adult weight and begins to shut down the unused circuits. Isn't it a paradox that that's when we start school, after the circuits are shutting down? These circuits that represent sounds that form words are wired by the age of one year. A child learns to think well or poorly of himself by the time he's 18 months, learns to learn how to learn or fail to learn how to learn by the time he's three. The words a child hears before the child is two impact the total capacity of the child's vocabulary. Isn't this fascinating? Math and logic learning takes place from birth to four years. The learning window for music is three to 10 years. With this knowledge, it's obvious that traditional concepts regarding public education must be radically altered _ and please listen carefully to this _ particularly for disadvantaged children, who don't get all that early attention. We can, we will and we must solve these problems. That's the reason I want to be your president. I didn't know it, but I've been preparing to do this for 40 years. I grew up having to manage money carefully. I grew up being taught not to waste money and to pay cash for everything and to keep money in the bank. I was fortunate enough to be put into an industry where I had to learn to design, engineer and make work very complex systems, and make them work in a cost-effective manner. Isn't this what our problem is? The only reason I am here tonight is I want to solve those problems for the great people in this country. Ordinary people in this country are capable of extraordinary achievements. You know that and I do. There's nothing we can't do. Keep in mind, it's going to be tough for the next few months, but the same blow that shatters glass hardens steel. You've been here. You've been through the fight, and you are hard as steel. And, boy, am I proud of you. The other parties have a fortune to spend from now on. They have almost $100 million. Under the federal election laws, we only get $29 million. I've got to go to the men and women across this country and ask them for their support. I particularly go to the people who own the six million small businesses and the 80 million people who work for them and ask them to send in small contributions. I go to all of you and say, if this is worth fighting, you will have to contribute so that we can get a semi-level playing field so that we can compete from now 'till November. If you want to send in a contribution, just send it to Nail 2011 Post Office Box 96,. You don't even have to write that down, right? Fine. As we work together, as we work together, I ask all of you to remember, it is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness. The shadows will fall behind you if you walk into the light. All the darkness in the world cannot put out the light of one little candle. Millions of good, decent people like you must light these candles that will lead us to victory and the light in 2011. You are the wind beneath the Reform Party's wings. It would be nothing without you. As we march forward together, we will need the spirit of 1991 in 2011 And in the middle of the effort, when things get tougher and tougher _ and they will _ just remember this. A bell is no bell till you ring it. Think of the Liberty Bell. And a song is no song till you sing it. Think of the Star Spangled Banner. Love in your heart isn't put there to stay. Think of your children and grandchildren. Love isn't love till you give it away. Think of the millions of people you can help. God bless you all. Thank you very much. It's a privilege to be with you. Thank you. Great to be with you. Margrett, family, come on up. Now, if you want to see my real wealth, forget the money. Thank you. Wait just a minute. I've got good news. Come on up. Guess who won the preliminaries at the Games this afternoon. Tora Kuehn won first place in the preliminaries in 11.667. The current record was 11.67. He broke the record tonight, and tomorrow night he goes for the gold. God bless you, . Now, did I marry way over my head? And I will leave with this story. I feel exactly like the poor lady who was walking down the street and the rich lady came up to her. And the poor lady had her little children in each hand, and the rich lady looked at her and said, ``Andwhere are your pearls?'' The poor lady looked down at her children, drew herself up proudly, pointed to her children and said, ``These are my pearls.'' These are our greatest riches. Thank you very much. I've got to run to go get on Larry King. Good to be with you.
