 mentioned that I would be continuing to work on foreign policy and we've organized a group which will be called the Institute for Peace and Prosperity and it will be run under the Free Foundation. But I was fortunate in these last quite a few years in Washington to have an individual who was a real expert in that area and he will be heading that up and Lou will also be advising us on that and and that's Daniel McAdams who will be on that board and running it. Thank you Daniel. You know it is it is great to be here and over the years it's always been great just to get out of DC let me tell you because the atmosphere is so different. One of the things that people often talked brought up to me was when in Congress or even now is that how do you ever put up with it you know how did you stand it you know because when you look at it and listen to it and see what's happening and then trying to change the direction they said didn't you become frustrated and ignored it just didn't drive you nuts and I said really it it it didn't do it because I think I there I went there with the proper expectations I didn't expect that I would change the world matter of fact I've been surprised on the upside that we've we've gotten as much attention as we had but I think I was talking to myself to probably you know rationalize being there saying it it's not quite so bad but let me tell you now that I've been home for a couple weeks I say how did I ever put up with that stuff there so but there there have been some good things happening happening in Washington when I see one two three or four five literally changed the direction of what they how they've been thinking and in one case probably one of my closest friends in Washington happens to be a close friend of Carl Davis's too and that's the congressman from North Carolina Walter Jones the Walter Jones was a typical neocon and he represented I think a sport brag he represented many many military personnel and he just felt like he had to do this this this and he he was the individual that when the Iraq war broke out he he voted and supported it and then he was the one to introduce this resolution to change freedom fly french fries the freedom fries because he was annoyed at the French because they weren't joining in the battle of course the French are making up for that right now down in Algeria but he that's how annoyed he was but shortly after that and we visited quite often and he it finally dawned on to him that he he was for the war because of one thing they lied to him flat out lied to him he went to all the briefings and listened to him and all the experts in the cia and administration and the president on down and he you know believed what they were saying but didn't take too long he found out they were lying they were lying through their teeth about it and then he started seeing the troops come back the ones that were wounded the ones that were killed and all the harm he knew about the problems on the military bases so he now is one of the strongest anti-war you know opponents and this to me is is a significant thing because that's what we have to do we have to change change people's mind and understanding and it it became an important issue for our campaign as well because as I traveled around the country so often they probably you know the neocon average republican would come up and many of them were at least in my face very courteous and polite and they say wrong we really love what you're doing you are such a good conservative you'll vote against all that spending in everything else and and we really like that but we could support you if you would only change your foreign policy so I tried to explain to them you know that the college campuses and the young people in crowds like this where would you be if the foreign policy was that of military adventures and this is a major part of our philosophy and very very important so I would say you give up our foreign policy and accept the policy of intervention we've given up way too much and we should never give an inch on that Washington has has not changed a whole lot and if you measure what's happening into the country in the country with what's happening in Washington you could become a little bit depressed if you watch only the major networks and TV you might even end up throwing things at the TV but we live in a different era and and and today you don't have to get your news off the TV so if you look only at Washington and not what's happening elsewhere I would be in a lot of trouble but but today a whole generation are coming of age that don't get their information from the TV and they get it elsewhere and so life is changing I've been interested in these ideas for a long time and many of you I know share this it wasn't so easy to get information in the 1950s and 1960s when I became fascinated with these studies it was it was hard to find the information I was so delighted when I discovered the foundation for economic education Leonard Reed's group this was fantastic that this was available you could actually get a book and study and write off and get a book today you can get a book instantaneously with a couple clicks on your computer you know so this this is we live in the most miraculous of times you know it was Victor Hugo said that you can't you can't you can stop an invasion of an army but you cannot stop an invasion of ideas and you know when I first heard that I was so excited about that because I'm really sort of a chicken at heart I had a light fighting and shooting and killing people and if I thought I had to try to change anything by becoming violent I didn't want to be part of it so when I decided that ideas are more powerful than armies why not join the position of changing ideas and confront the people who have the military power so we have the greatest weapon in our hands for fighting Washington right now are not much interested in some of the very important issues that are dear to our heart they claim there's a lot of partisanship going on up in Washington if you turn on the TV there's a lot of partisanship they yell and scream and fuss and fume and cheat and holler and it's not all fake it's for real because there's always an argument over who has the power Murray Rothbard used to write about the banking industry the the Rockefellers they'd be fighting with each other but they came to endorsing the Fed they endorsed the Fed and this is sort of the way it still is Republicans and Democrats fight fight with each other but when it comes down to the important issues there's way too much compromise too much bipartisanship we got into this mess because of the bipartisanship but it was easy when the country was wealthy and growing in the prosperity and the momentum was there we had a relatively good economy and free society and sound money in spite of its imperfection created the most massive amount of wealth known to mankind and this momentum continued even as the underpinnings of that system was occurring there was still a lot of wealth to divvy up and so it was easy to compromise okay you want milk subsidies we'll give you tobacco subsidies you know and vice versa so there was there were no arguments now it's a true argument because even our opposition realizes that you know there's a limit to this except for Paul Krugman he doesn't I don't think Paul Krugman think there's a limit because if you write a money and the most important thing is people spend more money and that will solve everybody's problem so if you don't have enough money and the Fed won't print or the Treasury won't borrow enough just create a trillion dollar platinum coin and cash it in for a trillion dollars and it'll be miraculous and all our problems solved but guess what a whole generation of people today not only the individuals in this room but a whole generation of young people in college campuses know that it's all a fraud it's not going to work and they're reading about the Fed and they know there will be a day when the Fed will be ended you know I've been criticized on occasion for not calling an end to the Fed of course I wrote a book called in the Fed but I they don't like it because it sounds like softer because my goal isn't to send the troops down there and get rid of the Fed I'm just waiting for them to self-destruct is what I'm waiting ready for but the Fed will end we shouldn't have the Fed but my thoughts are that we should work more on just legalizing the Constitution and if we did that oh that's radical isn't it just legalize the Constitution and then you wouldn't go to jail if you use silver for your legal tender you know today you go to jail I'd suggest that we look at the monetary the Cornish Act of 1792 and find out what the penalty was for was for counterfeiting money we who use silver today aren't the counterfeiters it's the Fed that's a counterfeiter and we should hold them accountable but both sides support the Fed both sides support the military industrial complex both sides support the welfare state and therefore the arguments are very superficial and distracting do you think the bankers and the military industrial complex and others really worried a whole lot during this last election after it was narrowed down to two with which one one would have made much difference I I don't believe there would be it could have been any difference but there's still the fact that this whole fanfare of beating the drums of this competition but I think that's our important job is to make sure that people know there's an alternative and that we're not part of that system and I think that's what's happening uh for some for some very special reason the those young people in college campuses as well as all of you because I don't see one person here over 30 so I think that is great and that is open open to these ideas and now studying you know just just sort of bewilders me when I have young people come to me uh matter of fact today I had somebody come up to me he says oh I started reading about this because of you when I was 14 why have people come to my office in Washington and they say you know I started reading Murray Rothbard when he was 13 and they're reading now believe me you know if what Victor Hugo said is true which I believe and ideas do have these consequences we're on a roll as far as I'm concerned I think it's going great and a lot of people deserve deserve credit sometimes it's an individual talking to a family friend or a neighbor and sometimes it's a teacher in a particular school and sometimes it's an it's an organization or an institute like the Mises Institute that changes people's minds and this is this is what's been happening and I'm impressed with the growth of the numbers I remember in 07 when somebody wrote me into thinking about running for an office and and I said yeah yeah I guess I'll do it but I can't see much coming of it and I gave them all those arguments and this information was was leaked out it got out before I made the announcement that I would would run in the presidential race so it got out and and before I knew it you know it got on the internet and then before I knew it a lot of people knew about it I said what's going on here and they said well it went viral and I said viral I never even studied viruses of this sort in medical school so that that is that to me was remarkable but even what's happened since five years ago but yes the campaign was important I helped some but believe me a lot of people were involved planning these seeds and when you see see the exponential growth that is before us today this to me is so impressive and it's not like it's the 14th district in Texas it's not like it's in Texas it's it's not like it's in united states with the communications that happened today you know the other day somebody called me up and they said when do you come to the candidate we have a mesas institute branch up here and they're all over the place so this is this is what's happening and I you know I have to tell you I had a you know a little bit of personal delight in in it in that time when Romney went to Poland you may remember what happened we went and I don't even speak Polish so maybe someday I'll go to Poland and meet those two people that were on that side now but there's there's more than two people here and there and I think there's two reasons I've talked a lot about the internet and the young people but I think there's another reason why this is happening and it has to do with where we are in a scheme of things the evidence of the 20th century is so overwhelming that it can't be ignored anymore the overwhelming failure of socialism the overwhelming literally liquidation of this communist as Marx and Lenin proposed I mean it died and we didn't have to fight him we didn't have to go in with armies we went in with ideas and the failure of theirs so I think you see spreading of our ideas but it's the failure of theirs and I think this is what's happening is the failure of our foreign policy that changes the minds of people like Walter Jones and it's this failure of of government's credibility the other day I was on my college campus and we had a nice crowd out and I asked him about how many here believe the government leaders when they make pronouncements from Washington how many believe these things I didn't see any hand I know I don't think I'd get any hands in here but but a college campus is a liberal liberal art school nobody believes the government I would say that's a healthy start you know we all know the story about the policy of Bastia you know you and I shouldn't do if the government shouldn't be able to do anything that you and I can't do if we can't redistribute all steel robin and all the government shouldn't be able to do it if we can't counterfeit the government shouldn't be able to counterfeit we're not a lot of use violence the government shouldn't use use violence but you know I wanted I know this might be a radical idea but maybe we can do it the other way around anything the government assumes they have a right to do to us we should assume we have a right to do that to them would it be too radical to say that if the government lies to us we have the right to lie to the government do you have a gun in your house and how many guns do you have do you have gold in your house how many how much gold you have in your house so it's I think it makes a point if nothing else governments assume a role that was never intended in this country but it's been assumed that way to one degree or another for literally centuries if not millennium and most people say well it's that's the way it's going to be it's been that way for thousands of years governments are always too big and they fight the wars and make innocent young people die and therefore you can't expect anything different to happen and I am so optimistic that I believe we can change that or at least introduce this whole notion that it doesn't have to be that way you know if if Switzerland can go what four three four hundred years without actively fighting a war why can't a lot more of us do the same thing that's what I think we ought to do not is that to mean you don't you give up you become pacifist and give up defense no you put a k-47 in everybody's house some people say well it's Switzerland because they're surrounded by mountains and it's a special situation and nobody ever wanted to invade them and they didn't have to participate well didn't we have a pretty special situation and still do even in this modern age you know there's a lot of water between us and any individual that might invade us right now I don't think there's anybody planning on invading us I remember back in the early 80s they were planning to build these huge tanks we were building more tanks and I asked them why do we need more tanks are we expecting the Russians to come across the Bering Sea and invade us with their tanks I mean it just goes on and on and I don't think it's too over the top to think that attitudes can change I think two things have to happen though to get it I think we need more resistance from young people to say we're sick and tired of it all we don't want to fight your wars and we're not going to go and be cannon fodder we need more resistance to these wars but we need more we need individuals in Washington who have different ideas and different programs and I think that would be worthwhile but I don't I don't think that would answer the question because I think people abuse power what they get it so if they're if they're able to and believe they can use this power and get in those positions and it is thought by the people the government ought to have this monopoly of power then I think there will always be abuse I think we have to get to the point where we tell anybody in Washington you don't have this authority you don't have this authority to run our lives you don't have authority to run the economy and you don't have authority to tax us and fight wars that we don't need to be in and we don't even want you in office is that that is the case because you don't have the legal right to do it you know one of the biggest problems of course is trust in in Washington and most of that that lack of trust is justified but uh the commentator it was a commentator the other day talking to a senator about his promises as his oath and uh the senator answered he's and he was uh changing his mind on his pledge to not raise taxes and he more or less said he says I I care much more about my country than I do about some he didn't use the word stupid but he was important and some stupid pledge or 20 years ago I took not to raise taxes I think that is the attitude because most of them either distort what the constitution is or they figure that's old-fashioned you just say it they don't take it uh uh seriously but they he just said that my oath and my promise doesn't mean anything and that that of course would uh have to have to change another commentator asked the senator he says aren't you because he was taking a position which for us wouldn't be uh you know too too too much of a of a step to take but he was conservative wanting to cut back a little bit and um the the commentator said to him isn't this overly idealistic uh why don't you live with reality well the position of so many who are considered uh you know over the top on on this totally overly idealistic and not living up to reality reality um what what what do they mean by this because in in uh in in truth if we were concerned about that wouldn't the uh budget be something that's over the top isn't that extreme isn't that excessive I mean budgets and and deficits of trillions and trillions of dollars printing trillions and trillions of dollar money doing it in secret and then they say somebody who wants to cut something by a nickel is uh is an extremist and over the top and radical um I think what we need to do is turn that around and show that the radicals the extremists those who believe bizarrely in ideas that we don't agree with they've been in charge and it's time to change those individuals and change our attitude about what the role of government ought to be many years ago when I was in congress at first go around I remember a conversation I overheard and a bill had been on the floor and the democrats were strongly in charge and Bob Michael was a republican leader and uh and yet there was a vote that was relatively close and I don't even remember what the bill was but it was relatively close uh because I guess some democrats were defecting and uh Jim Wright and Bob Michael worked out a deal and Bob Michael was able to gather together some moderate republicans and they came up and passed the bill and I remember as soon as it was passed Jim Wright came over to Bob Michael on the floor and he says I want to really thank you for doing what you did because that was so statesman-like for you to do what you did that is so statesman-like to sell out I think there should be a different definition for a statesmanship but I thought well this you know really is the attitude and uh what what is the meaning and cooperation and compromise I look at it more not compromise that we need what we need is coalition building uh there's you know we're not going to have everything we want as fast as we want in government there's no reason I if you're in politics I think if you're not a hundred percent you're wasting your time if you're in politics to move up on the ladder that that's a different story I think you should work with different groups like on foreign policy and civil liberties you know when I when I first went to uh Washington if uh if my decision had been that I wanted to have you know influence in the uh typical fashion that means you would have to move up the ladder and that means you would have to vote the way leadership tells you to etc I was always amazed at individuals who might be voting pretty well and more conservative and they get a position in leadership I remember one time going up to the individual we were just having a vote and he was voting the wrong way I said what are you doing you're not voting with us today he said well I can't do any more I'm in leadership he's in leadership so he has to do do what he's told but you know if you work your way up the ladder uh I guess if if I'd have stayed on and and had done that I could have uh become a chairman but then the other concession you have to make not only on all your principles is you also have to raise a lot of money I think a chairman said each committee has a different amount like ways and means you might have to wait you might have to raise 10 or 15 million dollars for the club you know for the Republicans and then if you don't raise the money you are never considered so I was uh unlike Walter Jones and three or four others like they got kicked off their committee because they didn't bow to the leadership I was never kicked off a committee because I think the problem there was and I heard Gingrich tell say this one time he says well we didn't do this because we didn't want to get too many emails from Ron Paul's friends so he the in the in working up the working up the ladder is is really really the job that they have to worry about but uh I I believe that uh we're you know we're facing tremendous opportunities that we have and and I think what's happening today is so so beneficial that uh we we we can't let up uh every so often I get asked the question what should I do and I said what you know I just do what you wanted to you know everybody has a different job but everybody has a job you know uh and some people can do one thing and not not the other um and a lot of young people will come up and uh there'll be you know 18 20 years old they said well I like what you did I'd like to do what you did how do I get into congress I said how can I run for Congress I said don't do it don't set that as your goal it shouldn't be your goal you might end up doing it someday but you don't want to set the goal of running for Congress uh if somebody wants to get you into Congress because of your beliefs that's a different story but uh if you set a goal to move up the political ladder I think that's that's very dangerous Leonard Reed was great on this he says educate yourself learn and study and know the issues and I still believe I try very hard to understand all the issues and learn how to explain the issues and and that uh that is uh very important uh Mises talked about that in human action he talks about uh some people are inclined to writing and and studying and uh on ideas and issues and pure academician and um and others uh are responsible for making those ideas palatable and uh I feel like I'm sort of in that category I like the education I have educational foundation I promote it but it seems like uh I've listened carefully to what he said about taking ideas making them palatable to yourself so you understand then it makes it so easy for you to get your friends and neighbors and now how many people in this room might have have a Facebook you know a few so we literally in a room like this uh or the numbers of people we have in this room if everybody had a Facebook we're talking to tens of thousands of people a new definition for viral who knows what happens you know on how ideas are spread so this this is a uh a wonderful time we have a wonderful philosophy it's not complicated it's based very fundamentally on what life is all about uh I think life is precious and I think life comes from our creator and uh if if we think that we can defend all other kinds of liberties without the respect for life and the protection of all life I don't think we can spread these ideas uh as as well of the ideas of liberty but those uh who who expect to uh defend the and defend liberty unless like men undergo the fatigue of supporting liberty and people who come to groups like this have already invested a lot of time and money uh in this issue in these ideas and I only encourage you I thank uh all of you for coming I thank Lou for the invitation and believe me I'm very encouraged and uh in many ways you know I feel I feel almost released in a way I don't have to go through tsa quite as often other other important events like that so uh but I won't stop arguing the case why we need to get rid of the tsa as soon as possible but uh let me just close because I want to make one important point uh that I think that so many respond favorably on college campuses and that is what is the concept of liberty all about uh I'm convinced that a hundred years ago or so for some reason we went off track and we took the principles of liberty and cut them in pieces and we have personal liberties and the civil civil liberties and then we have the foreign policy sitting out there then we have economic liberty and um people who don't quite understand this you know go into categories in different groups but if you believe in the individual as possessing liberty and not as a group and you don't have group rights you don't have gay rights and you don't have women's rights or minority rights and all these things you just have individual rights and everybody deserves equal protection and the law regardless but if we have that liberty this means the individual is in control control of one's own life but it also means that what you do with that life is your own business you reap the benefits but you also have to assume the responsibility and the consequences of your actions now most college campuses left moderate or whatever uh the young people understand this more challenging is when you go to Berkeley campus and get you know a nice crowd out and say well this is exactly the reason you have to believe in economic liberty if you have a right to your life you have a right to keep the fruits of your labor and of course if we have economic liberty and personal liberty and we understand uh the foreign policy then we have a totally different foreign policy we have a foreign policy of peace and prosperity we cannot have we cannot have prosperity when with the perpetual wars and you know they they claim that we're involved in war all the time and they act like it because they're undermining our liberties all the time they call the global war on terrorism uh i think it's a domestic war on our liberties and uh that's where the real problem is so i chastise myself and others for not having done a better job because we have a philosophy that i think is i believe sincerely is a correct philosophy the philosophy of liberty but how do we get painted uncaring uh we don't care about the troops we're unpatriotic we don't care about the poor and uh we need welfare and and all these things and we lose the argument about humanitarianism that we don't have a concern for our fellow man you know if if somebody accepts the libertarian position and does it in a selfish manner and does a very good job in taking care of themselves and never give a penny away they are no enemy of ours they're not an enemy but the whole thing is is the nature of most people is that they're very generous you know uh with helping people and taking care of their families and all these things but if you want a prosperous society in a society where people can promote their own excellence in virtue you want a free society if you want wealth you want a free society and we lose this argument all the time we use it all the time we don't care about people and that's why the poor people need more help but you get more socialism but I believe the argument has gotten easier it's gotten easier for me because you give them wealth you give the society welfare you get republicans and democrats endorse it because they don't want us to be seen or called selfish or unpatriotic but then when the crisis hit when the thing collapses as it did in 1809 where the required 15 joint dollars of printing money secretly and bailing out would they bail out the poor people the middle class now they lost their jobs and they lost their houses and it bailed out of the rich so this is all crumbs that they throw to the poor and we need to send in that message that this system of welfare is it's welfare for the rich and the military industrial complex the medical industrial complex the whole business is corporatism at its worst so the challenge is there by essentially the answers we need to improve on the delivery we need to spread this message but there's a vacuum out there there's the other system has failed social fail this is the 1912 predicted that socialism wouldn't work and uh the price fixing was bad I guess not in the concept or yet we don't want way too price control except we need to fit next to price of uh of interest rates you know mess around with the money to have a cartel and have an economic control over money yeah money is one half of every transaction in the country and they give up the money issue to the social that's coming to an end we're on the verge of a major major economic crisis it's worldwide treatment ever I believe in the history of the world because it's a dollar on both and it will come down and a bit and the pieces will be picked up so the more of us out there to carry ideas are powerful they do spread they can't be stumped we have the truth and we have the energy so I say keep on going because we're on the right track and we can participate in the building of this