defended the united states constitution. he descended in the 5-4 decision in 2005, where the supreme court interpreted the constitution's eminent domain provision to allow government to compensate private property and give it to other private owners to promote economic development. justice scalia equated the decision to the dred scott decision, the supreme court ruled that blacks are not human, but property and cannot become american citizens. he also equated the decision to the roe v. wade decision to legalize abortion on demand. decision,ing the kilo donald trump told fox news, i have been to agree with the decision 100%. according to the kato institute, since the kilo decision, over

one million households have been evicted from their homes by government action. 29% of them are minority households and 32% of them are households in poverty. where do you stand? ted cruz: thank you for the question and you and i have been friends for many years. thank you for your incredible ministry, speaking the truth and reallyging -- to -- i am grateful for everything you do. [applause] briefly that ie may be wearing boots, but star's boots are much cooler than mine. not even close. your question is very important. i can categorically opposed to kilo.

it was a disastrous decision. [applause] i think the decision really touches on two important teams. number one, fidelity to the constitution. the constitution requires that private property cannot -- can be taken for public use and only with just compensation. what the court did is it really read the public use provision out of the fifth amendment. it says it no longer has to be public use. it can be for private gain. we need justices who actually honor the constitution, who don't erase parts of it if they disagree with it. it is also a symptom of a broader problem we have in government. of government being used as a tool of giant corporations in the rich and powerful to target the powerless. justice o'connor wrote a descent in kilo that was popular. she said, and this opinion,

every motel 6 can be condemned to build a ritz-carlton because what happened in kilo was you had a woman who had her family that netiquette wanted to condemn to build a parking lot -- that connecticut wanted to condemn to build a parking lot. the supreme court said, you can condemn it. donald trump's record on this is not just abstract. in atlantic city, there was a little, old lady who lived in her family home for many years. she loved her home. donald wanted her home because he wanted to build a parking lot for the limousines and his casino. and so, he went to his buddies in atlantic city and the government and convinced them to try to condemn her home so he could build a parking lot for casinos. yearshe fought it for and ultimately, she beat it. she was able to be doubled

at donald trump's efforts in court. whenever donald is asked about this he says, we need eminent domain for roads and schools. well, roads and schools are for public use. government does have the power of eminent domain to build every way. that is a very different thing than government being used as a tool to help the rich and powerful against those who are more vulnerable. let me put it in a broadcasting cents ther that principle, government could take away your radio station and give it to a bigger radio station. they could conclude that country music generates more money than religious broadcasting. let's take all the profit from the one and give it to the other because frankly, they gave us more campaign contributions. the deals in washington are the result of a corruption -- and it

is the corruption of both parties. both democrats and republicans far too often are willing to act for the big money interests in washington at the expense of the people. we need a president who will stand for the property rights and the liberty of the american people against the bipartisan corruption of washington. [applause] >> thank you. roy beck, who is with numbers usa, you have a question. >> i have a couple of numbers first. last night there was a little bit of talk about immigration. i caught a comment. you had a comment that was lost in the shuffle, i think, at least in the news coverage. i want to read part of that comment. you said, the people that get forgotten in this debate over immigration are the hard-working men and women of this country, millions of americans, and legal immigrants here who are losing their jobs, seeing their wages driven down.

this gets into the issue of compassion, and of economic fairness. interestingly, although evangelicals like most americans have difference of opinion about different parts of immigration issues, on this issue there is no group in america more concerned about economic fairness than evangelical christians. saying,led the highest the government should not bring in new foreign workers, new immigrants, to compete when there are americans who can't find jobs. after seven years of the obama recovery, the government says there are 15 million americans who want a full-time job and can't find one. what kind of values and priorities are you proposing to deal with -- this legal immigration program? senator cruz: thank you for the question. and thank you for the great work that numbers usa does in focusing on this enormous problem. immigration is another issue.

i was mentioning on eminent domain how you have washington, where career politicians in both parties are listening to the big-money interests, and there's an unholy alliance. the democrats view illegal immigration and amnesty has more -- as just more votes. they want to let as many people into this country illegally, make them citizens because they believe they will vote. you know, there is a new politically correct term for illegal aliens. it is called undocumented democrats. [applause] it is not complicated why chuck schumer and president obama and harry reid want more and more illegal immigration. the problem with republicans is there are too many establishment republicans in washington who listen to wall street and the big money interests on k street, and their view is, it's cheap labor. the more cheap labor, the better. bring it in. drive wages down. that is fabulous. i mentioned last night an article i know you are familiar

with in "the wall street journal." focusing on arizona. arizona a couple years ago put in some very strict laws going after illegal immigration. they were condemned all over the country as being heartless and terrible and cruel. groups were boycotting the state of arizona for doing this. well, the effect of those laws is a whole bunch of illegal immigrants left arizona. they went elsewhere. they said, gosh, this is not a good place for us to be. let's go somewhere else. what this "wall street journal" article was talking about is the effect it has had. number one, public expenditures have dropped hundreds of millions of dollars, the money arizona is spending on prisons, on health care, on education. all of these have dropped with the illegal immigrants leaving. that means that hundreds of millions of dollars that are available to provide education and health care to care for the actual citizens of arizona, the americans who are there who are being denied that coverage and

care. also, theyly enough had a quote from one business owner who had a pepper farm. he was complaining, when all the illegal immigrants left, i had to pay higher wages. he was really upset. this is terrible for me. it really captures the voice from washington. what do you mean, i have to pay higher wages? they described how he went out and had to invent a device to help pick the peppers. i don't think his name was peter piper. [laughter] it describes how he then went to the community college and was paying community college graduates much higher salaries to operate this new farming tool , rather than having unskilled illegal immigrants taking it. it described how employment for americans is dropping, how carpenters and construction workers are seeing their wages going up. i think arizona is a great example where in this debate, the people getting left behind are the hard-working men and women of this country.

and it's also the legal immigrants, people who come here following the rules, standing in line, waiting in line. they are the ones seeing their wages driven down as well. when it comes to immigration -- i think our immigration laws should put americans first. [applause] >> senator cruz, doesn't the idea that so many illegal immigrants fled arizona -- does that not argue for the idea put forth by donald trump, called self deportation. in other words, if you begin very seriously to enforce deportation, enforce these rules, that many people will quickly vote with their feet and leave? senator cruz: there's no doubt we can solve this problem. i have laid out a detailed immigration plan. it's on our website, tedcruz.org.

it is 11 pages, singlespaced. it lays out chapter and verse how we solve this. we will build a wall. and i have someone in mind to build it. [laughter] is it vincenzo or donald trump? ted cruz: it will be donald, but then he can try to build it. we will put in place a strong e-verify system at the workplace. you cannot get a job without demonstrating you are here legally. we will put in place a biometric system. you cannot overstay your visa. 40% of illegal immigration is not people crossing illegally. it is people coming on a legal visa and then not leaving. we will and sanctuary cities. you cut off all federal taxpayer money to any sanctuary city. [applause] and we will and welfare benefits for those here

illegally. [applause] and we know how to solve these problems. one of the biggest lies the media tells us is we can't solve this problem. what utter nonsense. they say, a wall doesn't work. if you build a 10 foot wall, people will come with an 11 foot ladder. if you don't think a what works, go travel to israel. when you are trying to stop hamas terrorists, you have a wall with enforcement. it works. and by the way, if you have technology you can spot someone doing an attempted incursion and it is not hard to spot someone carrying an 11 foot ladder. [laughter] [applause] ted cruz: the critical point on this, it is not that we don't know how to do it. what is missing in washington is the political will. democrats don't want to do it and far too many republicans don't want to do it. and i would know. look, donald trump has made illegal immigration the core of his campaign.

there is more than a little chutzpah in that, given that donald trump, his record on illegal immigration is terrible. donald trump had a $1 million court judgment against him for being part of a conspiracy to hire illegal aliens to build his hotel. resort in mira lago florida, which donald trump owns, it was just reported yesterday, brings in hundreds and hundreds of foreign workers and by and large won't hire americans. there was a striking interview on cnn last night after the debate. donald was saying, the reason i bring in foreign workers -- no americans want to be waiters are waitresses or bellhops. what complete nonsense. >> i saw that and i was stunned that he said that. senator cruz: "the new york times" reported that of the 300 americans who applied for those jobs, donald hired 17.

he would not hire -- the americans wanted them. go to a tgi friday's. you're telling me no americans want to be waiters? you don't think people want to where people are going to tip in $100 bills? big business wants foreign workers because they can't leave. you can pay them less, they have no choice. they are often like indentured servants. this is the person who's claiming he's going to be the champion of the working man and woman. every deal donald does, whether it is using illegal immigrants to build trump tower, the people who get hammered are the working men and women. he gets rich, and everyone else holding the bag. gets left -- gets left holding the bag. the difference between me and the other people on that stage is that i am going to do exactly

what i say and we are going to , secure the borders and and illegal immigration. >> i want to move on to star parker. >> thank you. another place that working men and women of america are concerned is on the war on poverty, and poverty rates. the $22 trillion war. a quarter of the budget every year, $900 billion. research and data shows the correlation between single-parent homes and poverty. according to the brookings institution, in 2009, the poverty rate for children in homes with married parents was 11%, while the poverty rate for children in homes headed by a single mother in that same year were 44.3%. giving birth outside of marriage has become increasingly a part of the american culture. in 1970, only 7% of american children lived in a home with a mother who had never married. today, 48% of american children live in a home where a mother

has not been married. my question is based on a gallup poll from last year that shows 61% of americans say giving birth outside of marriage is morally acceptable. do you think it is a problem that more and more americans, particularly young americans, think having a child outside of marriage is morally acceptable? if you think it is a problem, what would you do as a president to restore traditional marriage and return fathers to homes? senator cruz: all of us know the deterioration of family in recent decades has been one of the most heartbreaking developments in our society. the challenges facing single moms, for me, it's personal. i come from a family with a lot of single moms. both of my aunts were single moms. my sister was a single mom, and for a period of time, my mom was , what -- was a single mom when

i was a little boy and my father left us before he became a christian. thankfully, he was saved and came back and reunited our family. [applause] there is no harder challenge anyone faces than being a single mom. our prayers need to lift up single parents who are raising kids. raising kids is hard enough with two parents. but with one alone having to , work, it's unbelievably difficult. up prayers need to lift them , but the best cure for property is a secure two-parent home with a mother and father caring for those children. [applause] now, many of these issues are not going to be cured by government, and any presidential candidate who says, i'm going to magically wave a wand and fix this is not being honest with you. many of these are issues for the church, for the community to work and encourage and build strong marriages as the foundation of the family, of the

community, of where we live. i do think government policies can be changed so they are not attacking marriage, so they are not undermining marriage. there's a powerful bully pulpit of the presidency to speak out of the virtues of fathers, take responsibility and care for your children. [applause] >> i'd like to follow-up with that with regards to the role of government. the american people are being forced to send $900 billion to washington, where less than $.20 on the dollar reaches the home that we say we are trying to help. president bush attempted a faith-based initiative, which, in some people's estimation was the right approach. paul ryan is proposing to allow

for more -- federal government to get out of this business and allow for the states to take up a little bit more flexibility to try to help the problem closer to community. where would you find yourself in these two different ways of approaching this dilemma from a public policy standpoint? senator cruz: on virtually every issue i'm a supporter of sending , as much as possible back to the states and local government, having accountability from the people. [applause] when it comes to welfare reform, we need to have creativity and innovation. faith-based approaches make enormous differences, because if you're going to change someone's heart and mind -- when i was in college, i wrote one of my two junior papers comparing government welfare to charitable and church efforts at caring for people. the church that i attended growing up was a church that had a very big food pantry in ministry with the homeless and the poor in houston.

i spent a lot of time interviewing our pastor, a lot of people who work in the food pantry. the incentives are all very different. if you are raising money in a church or charity to provide for people in need, you are not interested in wasting that money. if you see a young, healthy man come in and say, i need help, you will give him some groceries and help him. if that same young man comes in the next week and the next week and the next week and it's just like the grocery store, there comes a point where you say, listen, son, we are not going to feed you the rest of your life. what are the problems you are facing? do you have a job? no? why not? can we help you get a job? let's work with you on training. do you have drug and alcohol problems? so many of the people facing these challenges are wrestling with drug and alcohol addiction. my sister, who was a single mom, wrestled with drug and alcohol addiction her whole life and ultimately passed away from an accidental overdose.

these are challenges people are facing. so often the answer is, did you know that jesus christ is your lord and savior? that that can transform in a way that 1000 government programs can never touch. [applause] and so, i think as much as we can be empowering faith-based operations, as much as we can be sending it to state and local level, the better. the philosophy should be that the social safety net should be a trampoline and not a hammock. >> that was a great quote. senator cruz: ice -- i think of

these issues often from the perspective of my dad. my dad spent much of the last couple of days with you guys. [applause] when my dad came to america in 1957, he was just 18. he couldn't speak english. he had $100 sewn into his underwear. he washed dishes making $.50 an hour paid his way through school. , i try to think of every challenge facing this country, every domestic challenge from the perspective of my dad, how it would have impacted my father. if my dad were washing dishes -- if he was making $.50 an hour, if there were an illegal immigrant willing to come in and wash dishes for $.30 an hour, my dad might have lost that job. he would have been hurt. he was vulnerable. i've also said many times, thank god that some well-meaning liberal didn't come put his arm around my father and say, let me take care of you, let me make you dependent on government, let

me give you a check and sap your self-respect and individual dignity. while i'm at it, don't bother learning english. i respect your culture so much, i will lock you out of the professional and educative classes in this country. it would have been the most damaging things you could do to my dad. i would rather you have taken a two by four and broke his legs. that would have healed faster then the damage to the human spirit. that is why well for reform and eight work requirements. the object of welfare ought to be to get every able-bodied adult off of welfare. with the dignity of a job, providing for their kids. [applause] >> our final question. we have 10 minutes, but we have a final question from roy. >> to follow-up on our earlier discussion, talk about the millennials, these are the people forming these households, having the babies. will the men take

responsibility? one out of every three millennials today is not working. it connects to everything you are saying there. it seems to me that your policy -- i read all the singlespaced -- you do call for an end of chain migration, where people bring in their extended family, and the visa lottery, both of which bring in disproportionately people who compete directly with people getting on those first rungs. the question really is, i want to know what extent you are committed to that, and in what way you would form the legal immigration choices. who should come to the united states? senator cruz: if you look at legal immigration -- you have legal and illegal.

my basic philosophy is real simple. legal good, illegal bad. sometimes the reporters find that confusing. >> isn't that a little too black and white? senator cruz: i'm reminded of the great interview sonny bono did years ago, where they asked him what is your view on illegal , immigration? he said, well, it's illegal, isn't it? it shouldn't be that complicated. let's take the legal side. the legal side is not serving the interests of the american workers right now. we need to focus our immigration system. it is one of the great strengths of this country that there are millions and millions, if not billions of people across the globe that want to come to america. that is a blessing. it is a blessing to be a beacon of hope to this country and it is a strength of this country, but we should use it in a way that benefits us. i think, in particular we should , reform our legal immigration system so it is more of a

skills-based system that is bringing in people. we have a shortage of doctors. we have a shortage of doctors estimated up to 50,000 fewer doctors then we will need to care for the aged baby boomers. our immigration system on be looking for it. there are skilled doctors across the world who want to come to america. we need doctors they want to be , here, let's plug it together in a way that actually cares for the needs and provides for the needs of american workers. >> have we never done that in our history? senator cruz: it shifted so that we get far more of immigration right now is to not on skills, but it is based upon chain migration, based upon one person here who brings another family member, another family member, and often many of those are low , skilled workers. the low skilled workers, if they are coming in in large numbers, have the effect of number one,

taking jobs from other workers but driving down wages for , everyone. at the high skilled level, there can be abuse as well. h1b visas, that is a program that, in theory, i support, the idea of bringing in high skilled workers that will produce jobs and economic growth. but we have seen and practice the h1b program badly abused. for example, we have seen companies like disney, name brand company, bringing in not very high skilled workers, but bringing in medium to low skilled workers, i.t. workers, into this country, then laying off vast numbers of americans. and then to add insult to , injury, forcing those americans to train the foreign workers that were just brought in to take their jobs. that is fundamentally wrong. that was not the purpose of the h1b program. i pledge as president to impose

180 day moratorium on the h1b program to institute a comprehensive investigation and audit of every company that has brought in h1b visas. if they are abusing the program, they will be suspended. if they violated the criminal laws, they will be prosecuted. i have joined with the in -- with jeff sessions in introducing legislation to reform the h1b program, to require an advanced degree, so you were looking at high skilled workers to put a preference to u.s. universities, to raise the minimum salary. if we've got engineers and computer scientists that are high skilled, that are going to produce economic growth, that's terrific. that's beneficial for americans. that's the program that ought to be operating, but it should not be taking the jobs of americans who need those jobs. we need to reform that program. i would note, that program is very similar to the program that

right now today donald trump is using to bring foreign workers in rather than to hire american workers. if you want to ask who has the credibility to actually get this done, i'm the only person on that debate stage who has led the fight on this and will continue to lead the fight on this. >> we have a couple of minutes left. obviously, most of the people here are people of serious christian faith, who take very seriously, not just their faith, but the idea that the bible and the judeo-christian faith and ethics has been at the heart of the ordered freedoms of the united states of america, that you can't really pretend there's any way to achieve this level of freedom, whether economic or other, without that basis. the only people who will govern themselves are people who have the incentive to govern themselves and say, i want to serve god, i want to please god.

you don't need to watch me, you don't need a lot of cops watching me. at the heart of self-government is that idea. we are at a time where religious liberty is being attacked. i find that people of faith are in a defensive position in a weird way, when we need to be making the case that, not only is religious freedom going to benefit everyone in america but , a robust expression of faith has historically benefited everyone in america. senator cruz: eric, i think that's exactly right. when it comes to religious liberty for me, it has been a , lifelong passion. i've spent the last 20 years of my life fighting to defend religious liberty. it was interesting in the question last night, hugh hewitt asked the other candidates about their views on religious liberty. donald trump said, "i will defend religious liberty." but missing from that with any statement about anything he had ever done in over 60 years of living to actually defend religious liberty. not only that, moments later, he

said, "well listen, we need someone who will be with a dealmaker and work with the democrats and compromise on the religious liberty with the supreme court nominees." i don't what a president who will work out a compromise with harry reid on who's going to go to the supreme court because that will take away our fundamental liberties. [applause] the media belittles the threat to religious liberty. they say they are not real. one of the things i've tried to do is we have hosted two very large religious liberty rallies, one in iowa, one in south carolina. we brought in heroes who stood for their faith, who have been persecuted. ordinary people, a t-shirt salesman, a baker, a florist, a soldier, a fireman. they told their stories, and their stories are powerful and moving. one of the great things about religious liberty is that it applies to everyone.

it applies to christians, jews, muslims, and atheists. we are a country where everyone of us has the freedom to seek out and worship god, to live according to our own conscience, and that is a principle that can bring us all together. the media tries to caricature any christian running for office. i'm not running to be pastor in chief. my object is not as a public official to preach the message of salvation. that is the role of the church. that is our role as individual christians. i am running to be commander in chief and to defend the constitution. but i will tell you this, i'm also not going to hide my face. -- my faith. the word tells us if you are ashamed of jesus, he will be ashamed of you. one of the things i've had the opportunity to tell a number of times traveling around is to share my own testimony that i mentioned briefly, that when i

was a little boy, my parents were living up in canada. you may have heard that. and they weren't christians. when i was 3, my father left. there were both drinking a great deal and my father went down to houston. seven months later, my mom and i moved into an apartment, just the two of us. she was a single mom. several months later, a colleague from work invited my father to a bible study. and he heard the gospel. at the end of the bible study, they were having prayer time. everyone there had problems. he remembers one woman who described how her son was beating her to get money to buy drugs. yet, what my father could not understand is that even with the problems, everyone there had what the word calls a peace that passes understanding. my dad could not get it, but he

knew he did not have it and he wanted it. when he left, they gave him a little booklet, the four spiritual laws. they said, what are you read -- why don't you read this and come back next week? the next week he came back. they said, did you read the booklet? my father said, it can't be that easy. he asked a bunch of questions. they said our pastor is coming , tomorrow night. why don't you come tomorrow night and ask the pastor? he came the next day, spent four hours asking every question. my dad was young, he was brilliant, he was a scientist, he was an atheist. he was convinced that he knew everything. at 11:00 at night, he asked the pastor, what about the man into tibet, who has never heard of jesus. the pastor said, rafael, i don't know about the man in tibet, but

you have heard of jesus. what is your excuse? my dad said that hit him like a ton of bricks comment that transformed his life. he drove to the airport, bought a plane ticket, went back to my mother and me, reunited my family. as a result, my mother became a christian, i became a christian when i was eight at a church youth camp, and it changed the entire course of our life because one believer was able to spread the good news. >> what a perfect note on which to end. we are out of time. let me thank, again, all of you for coming. most of all, from the bottom of our heart, thank you senator cruz for being with us. god bless you. senator cruz: thank you. [applause]

>> is a whole different campaign now. we have basically moved the on the early primary and caucus states and we are in super tuesday. 12 states, voters in each of these 12 states will have a defining impact of the democrats and republicans nominate. in the different phase campaign because we have moved from retail campaigning, that one-on-one we sign iowa and new hampshire, even south carolina, and now we're campaigning in 12 states more the candidates are going from airport to airport, trying to peel -- trying to appeal to as many voters as possible. it really has moved to a very different level of this campaign, where the candidates hope the voters know what they are. what the candidates have to do is convince those voters, including those undecideds, that

that is the person they should vote for. since this network began, one of the hallmarks has been the ability for people to call in, ask questions, provide their opinions. than is nothing better talking to voters, especially if you talk to voters in the states where primaries or caucuses were held on that day. what were the lines like? why we supporting candidate x? you really get a sense of the pulse of america. networks have their pundits and analysts, and we will have the ability for people to question some leading reporters on super tuesday, but the best pundits are our listeners come our listeners, our viewers. >> what the journal, like every day with news and policy issues that impact you. coming up tomorrow morning, david drucker from the washington examiner will join us to talk about super tuesday andng, the stakes involved,

what the results could mean for the election. olsonxpayer advocate nina will take your calls on this year's tax topics. washington journal, live beginning at 7:00 a.m. eastern. join the discussion. and bordertoms protection commissioner takes questions about his agency's budget requests. that hearing is live at 10:00 a.m. eastern on c-span3. in the afternoon, fbi director james comey will testify about the government's request for apple to help unlocking a crib -- an encrypted iphone used by one of the shooters in the san bernardino terrorist attack. it begins at 1:00 p.m. eastern also on c-span3. democratic presidential candidate bernie sanders campaigned at rochester, minnesota over the weekend.

he talked about increasing the minimum wage and campaign finance reform. sen. sanders: thank you rochester, thank you. representative tina liebling thank you for that introduction. , you said it all. what this campaign is about is not just electing a president. yeah, that's pretty important. [laughter] but there is something more important. as tina just said, it is about transforming america. it is about thinking big and the kind of country we want to

become. it is understanding something that the media will not tell you or talk about much. in the last 30 years, there has been a massive redistribution of wealth. the problem is that that redistribution has gone in the wrong direction. sen. sanders: yes, thank you president obama. we are better off today than we were seven years ago, that is for sure. [applause] sen. sanders: you know, it is amazing to me that our republican friends suffer from a very, very serious illness, which seems to be all pervasive among republicans, that is short-term amnesia. [laughter] sen. sanders: they could go

forward with a straight face and talk about the problems we have today while ignoring what world bush left us in when he left office. [applause] sen. sanders: so we are going to make sure that our republican friends do not forget that when president bush left office that we were losing 800,000 jobs a month. unbelievable. our deficit was a record-breaking $1.4 trillion, and by the way, the world's financial system was on the verge of collapse. other than that, we were doing really good. [laughter] sen. sanders: to hear republicans talk about where we are today without putting it into that context is somewhat of

an outrage. but, here is another truth. yes, we are better today than we were seven years ago. the reality is that for the last 30 years, under republican leadership, under democratic leadership, the middle class of this country has been shrinking and almost all new income and wealth has been going to the top 1%. the reason -- the reason i think our campaign has been doing so well, bringing out new crowds. we just came from texas and had about 10,000 people in austin. [applause] sen. sanders: we had 8000 people in dallas, and this is a pretty

good turnout tonight. thank you very much. [applause] sen. sanders: the reason is that we are doing something very unusual, we are talking truth to the american people. and sometimes, you know, truth is not pleasant. it's like you go to the doctor and you are not feeling well, even if the news is bad you have to know what is going on before you can get better. that is kind of what is going on with our country. we have to face some unpleasant truths. let me give you a few. you are living under, as tina mentioned, a corrupt campaign finance system that is undermining american democracy. [applause]

sen. sanders: i wish i could describe it in more pleasant terms, but i can't. when you have billionaires and wall street and corporate america pouring hundreds of hundreds of millions of dollars into the political process, that is not democracy. that is oligarchy. [applause] sen. sanders: and together, we are going to stop that oligarchy. [applause] sen. sanders: you know what, democracy is about -- and i really love democracy -- one person, one vote. you disagree with me, that's fine. you have a better idea, fight for it. that is a beautiful thing. but what democracy is not about is a handful of billionaires

buying elections. [applause] sen. sanders: and i will take -- will tell you something else that democracy is not about, it is not about cowardly republican governors trying to suppress the vote. [applause] sen. sanders: you know, i have been in politics for a while. it has never occurred to me to figure out a way to make it harder for people to vote because they might be voting against me. so, i say to those republican governors and legislators who are trying to make it harder for poor people, old people, people of color to vote, if you are afraid of participating in a free and fair election, get out of politics, get another job.

[applause] >> bernie, bernie, bernie -- sen. sanders: today in america, we have one of the lowest voter turnout rates. i want to see us revitalize american democracy. i want to see us have one of the highest voter turnout rates, and in my view, we can to make this very simple, either through a constitutional amendment or legislation, if someone is 18 years of age and a citizen of this country, they have the right to vote. end of discussion. [applause]

sen. sanders: now i think they're reason that our campaign is doing so well across the country is that we are listening to the pain and the needs of ordinary people and not to the needs of billionaire campaign contributors, and that is a real difference. and when we listen to people what we hear is people coming up , to me and saying, bernie, i can't make it on nine dollars or $10 an hour. that is a which i can't live on, and certainly my family cannot live on. truth is that the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour is a starvation wage. [applause]

sen. sanders: the truth is that millions of people in this country are working 40 or 50 hours a week, and they are still not earning enough money to take care of their families. truth is that people working full-time sometimes end up with at the emergency food shelf because they need food despite their 40 or 50 hours of work, to take care of their families, and that is why, in this country together, we are going to raise , the minimum wage to a living wage, $15 an hour. [applause] sen. sanders: now what this campaign is about, and it's not easy, is trying to force discussion on issues that congress chooses not to talk

about and media chooses not to talk about. reality, but it is reality that is swept under the rug. let me give you another example of that. all over this country, it minnesota, vermont, all over this country, you have senior citizens and disabled veterans who are trying to get by on $11,000, $12,000 a year, social security. you know what? nobody can get by on $11,000 a year or $12,000 a year social security. [applause] sen. sanders: and it is important for a moment to try to put ourselves into the life of somebody who is 80 years old, 90-years old needs health care,

, needs prescription drugs, needs to keep their home warm in the winter, needs defense food -- needs decent food, and they can't do it on $12,000 a year. many republicans are busy running all over this country. they want to cut social security. i've got bad news for them. we are not going to cut social security. we are going to expand social security. [applause] sen. sanders: you know, you measure the greatness of a country not by the number of millionaires and billionaires it has, but by how it treats the weakest and most vulnerable amongst us. [applause]

sen. sanders: we will not turn our backs on our parents and grandparents and on disabled veterans. we will stand with them. [applause] sen. sanders: we are listening to workers. we are listening to seniors. but we are also listening to young people. [applause] sen. sanders: and what young people are telling me is, bernie, why does it have to be that i end up $50,000, $100,000 in debt for what crime, because i wanted to get a higher education? that makes no sense. [applause]

sen. sanders: what this campaign is about is asking people to go beyond the status quo. don't think small. ask yourself a simple question, what kind of world do we live in, what kind of craziness exists, when we are severely punishing millions of people for what crime? the crime of trying to get a good education. that is nuts, and we are going to change that. [applause] sen. sanders: and this campaign is listening to women. [applause] sen. sanders: and what the women

are saying is, why does it happen that when we go to work and we are working along some guy doing the same job, why are we getting $.79 on the dollar compared to that guy? [applause] sen. sanders: and the answer in my view is that what we are looking at is nothing more than old-fashioned sexism, and together we're going to change that. [applause] sen. sanders: this campaign is listening to the african-american community. [applause] sen. sanders: they are asking, how does it happen in this

country, the wealthiest country in the history of the world, how does it happen that we have more people in jail than any other country on earth? china, four times our size, has fewer people in jail than we do. how does that happen? the people in jail are disproportionately african-american, latino, and native american. so, together, we are going to take on and fight institutional racism and a broken criminal justice system. [applause] sen. sanders: we spend $80 billion a year of taxpayer money

locking up fellow americans. there are a lot better ways to spend money than locking up fellow americans. [applause] sen. sanders: this campaign is listening to our brothers and sisters in the latino community. [applause] sen. sanders: and they are telling me that they are tired of being exploited, tired of living in the shadows, tired of seeing a family member being deported and family separated, and what they want and what i want is comprehensive immigration reform and a path towards citizenship. [applause]

>> bernie, bernie, bernie -- sen. sanders: now, this campaign is different than other campaigns and a whole lot of ways. it is not just that we have the most progressive agenda, but there is something more profound than that. it is me telling you what no other candidate for president will tell you, and that is that no president, not bernie sanders or anybody else, can make the changes this country desperately needs, alone. [applause] sen. sanders: can't do it alone. [applause]

sen. sanders: no president, no president, no matter how well-intentioned, how hard-working here she may be, no matter how smart, no president can take on the power of wall street, corporate america, corporate media, and huge campaign contributors, alone, and that is why -- that is why i'm going to be asking for your vote on tuesday, but i need more than that from you. i need your help the day after the general election, because i can't do it alone. [applause] >> bernie, bernie, bernie -- sen. sanders: what the political revolution is about is revitalizing american democracy

and making sure that every american understands that, yes, football is a spectator sport, democracy is not a spectator sport. [applause] sen. sanders: every person in this room is extremely powerful if you choose to use your power. what i will tell you, because i am in the united states senate and see how things get done, there are people up there who have incredible wealth and power, and what they want is for americans to not vote, not to be thinking about politics, not to get involved in the shaping of the future of america. what they want is a low voter turnouts, low public consciousness, so that the

lobbyists and big money interests can control the future of this country. and our job is to take them on and to say, that men and women fought and died for american democracy and we are going to revitalize american democracy, we are going to have a government which represents all of us, not just a handful of campaign contributors. [applause] sen. sanders: i want to take a brief moment to mention the differences on some key issues between secretary clinton and myself. number one, maybe most

importantly, when we began this campaign we had to make a very important decision, and that decision was do we have a super pac or not have a super pac. we concluded, at the end of about one second, that given the fact we don't represent wall street, we don't represent the billionaire class, we will not have a super pac. [applause] sen. sanders: and here is what is absolutely extraordinarily -- extraordinary, and something i would not have believed i would be able to tell you 9-10 months ago. we have now, in our campaign, received over 4 million individual contributions. [applause]

sen. sanders: that is more contributions than any candidate in the history of this country up until this point. [applause] sen. sanders: and do you know what the average contribution is? >> $27. [applause] sen. sanders: with such a brilliant audience here, there is no way we are going to lose minnesota. i can see that. [applause] sen. sanders: you are just too smart, i can see that. it is $27.

and to paraphrase abraham lincoln at gettysburg, this is a campaign of the people, by the people, and for the people, and i am proud of that. [applause] sen. sanders: now secretary clinton has chosen another path to raise money. she has several super pacs . recently, one of her super pac's reported raising $25 million in a filing period $15 million from , wall street. now, every candidate, democrat or republican, throughout history, has always said, yes, i received millions and millions of dollars from wall street, the drug companies, the fossil fuel industry, doesn't impact me. they just give me that money for

the fun of it. they just throw that money around. it does not impact me. and on top of that secretary clinton, as you may know, gave some speeches to goldman sachs for $225,000 a speech. now, i think that if you get $225,000 for a speech, it must be a really excellent, wonderful, speech, and therefore you should be very proud to , release the transcripts of that speech. [applause] sen. sanders: clearly must have been an unforgettable speech. share it with the people. second issue. everybody knows how important foreign-policy is to our country and the decisions we make our

decisions of life and death. back in 2002, the most important foreign policy debate in that modern history of this country took place. the debate was over whether or not we listen to president bush and vice president cheney and secretary of defense donald rumsfeld and go into war in iraq. i listened to those speeches they gave and the remarks very thoroughly. i, and other members of congress know that the decisions we make , will impact in very real life and death ways young men and women in the united states. i listened very, very carefully and concluded they were lying and voted against the war in iraq. [applause]

sen. sanders: and it gives me, as a senator from a state which suffered very heavy casualties in that war, it gives me no pleasure to tell you that much of what i feared would happen if we invaded iraq, in fact did happen. go to my website, berniesanders.com, and look at what i said back in 2002 and the political vacuum and instability that would be created. secretary clinton heard the same evidence, listen to the same speeches. she voted for the war. that is a real difference.

when we talk about why the middle class is disappearing and why, for millions of americans, real wages are going down, a lot of that has to do with our disastrous trade policies like nafta, permanent, normal trade relations with china. [applause] sen. sanders: now this is an issue the media does not talk about at all. you can hardly see any discussion of trade on television, for pretty obvious reasons in terms of who owns the corporate media. but, these are issues of huge consequence, and what these trade issues are about is not complicated. you don't have to have a phd in economics to understand it. what it is about is corporate america writing trade agreements which say, why do i have to pay workers in minnesota or vermont a good wage with good benefits,

protect the environment, do with unions, when i can shut down plants in the united states and move to low-wage countries, not worry about unions or the environment, and then bring my product back into the country. that is all that that is. and here is what has happened. since 2001, we have lost almost 60,000 factories in this country and millions of decent paying jobs. people who once worked in a factory made a middle-class wage, good benefits, and there now flipping hamburgers at mcdonald's. now, i voted and helped to lead the opposition against all of these trade agreements. i and helping to lead the opposition against the tpp. [applause]

sen. sanders: secretary clinton supported nafta, supported permanent normal trade relations with china. now, when we talk about what is going on in this country and why there is so much angst and frustration, it has everything to do with the fact that in minnesota, vermont, all over this country, we have millions of people who are working not one job. they are working two jobs. they are working three jobs. and despite an explosion of technology and worker productivity, their wages are going down. you have mom working. you have dad working. you have kids working. you have marriages that are being stressed because people don't have time to spend together, kids don't get the attention they deserve. we have people people in america , working the longest hours in the industrialized world.

japanese are very hard workers. we work longer hours than do the japanese. 58%he end of all of that, of all new income goes to the top 1%. and then -- that's income -- and in terms of wealth, you have the top 1/10 of 1% today owning almost as much wealth as the bottom 90%. you have the 20's wealthiest people in this country owning more wealth than the bottom 150 million, half of america. this is a rigged economy. [applause] sen. sanders: you know, has they win, tails you lose.

so together, are you ready for radical idea? together, we are going to create an economy that works for working families, not just the 1%. [applause] sen. sanders: when we talk about the economy, please understand that every month you see on the front pages of the paper statistics about unemployment, official unemployment nationally is 5%. anyone believe that? >> no. sen. sanders: you're right. if you look at people who have given up looking for work and who are working part-time, real unemployment is close to 10%. and here's something else we do not talk about at all, the media has nothing to say about it,

that is youth unemployment in this country. kids who graduated high school between 17-20, if those kids are white, 33% are unemployed or underemployed, latino 36%, african-american 51%. and if anyone here thinks there is not a direct correlation between that outrageously high rate of youth unemployment and the fact that we have more people in jail than in any other country, you would be missing an important point. here is radical idea number two, we are going to invest in our young people -- for our young people, in jobs and education, not jails and incarceration. [applause] >> bernie, bernie, bernie --

[applause] sen. sanders: and real -- and when real unemployment is almost 10%, and when we have an infrastructure which is collapsing in many parts of this country -- i was in flint, michigan the other day. let me just tell you -- i don't even want to talk about it was so horrific. it was hard for me to believe that i was listening to people who were living in the united states of america in the year 2016. when you hear what they were talking about, the poisoning of children because of a terrible, terrible water system, schools that are totally inadequate, health care system terribly inadequate, massive poverty, you would think you were living in a fourth world country, you really would. but it is not just flint.

all over this country we have water systems in trouble, roads, bridges, rail systems, airports, levies, and dams. we can create 13 million decent paying jobs rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure. [applause] sen. sanders: think about america -- think about an america that has the best rail system in the world. think about an america that has great public transportation, which has state-of-the-art water systems and wastewater plants, and which creates millions of jobs doing that. and, when we look at our educational system, we should be hiring teachers, not firing teachers. [applause]

and it is important again to think out of the box -- think outside of the status quo. every psychologists who studies the issue understands that the most important years of emotional development are zero through 4. that's a fact. and yet, all over the country working parents are finding it very hard to get affordable childcare. you have childcare workers who make wages lower than mcdonald's wages while they do some of the most important work in our society. we can create hundreds of thousands of