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Presentation by Peter Schweizer

“The Stakes: Who Will Define the American Dream?”

JUNE 16, 2014

Kevin Gentry: Emcee of Retreat, Vice President of the

Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation

Peter Schweizer: Author, President of the Government

Accountability Institute

Marc Short: President, Freedom Partners

KEVIN GENTRY: Okay. So we're going to round

out this morning with just a presentation by Peter

Schweizer to put into a clearer perspective, again,

sort of the nature of the opposition. Peter, come on

up.

Peter is well known, so I think you all will

recognize (inaudible) in the mainstream media – well, I

don’t know how mainstream -- but 60 Minutes, Disney, et

cetera. He is a dogged researcher who is really –

y’all may be familiar with this, folks -- about, you

know, members of Congress who are benefitting from

insider trading. A lot of the cronyism stuff he's been

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covering. He's a great researcher, a great, great

asset for our movement and our cause. But I think he's

also got a good handle on what the opposition is like

as well. Could you make some comments to close us out?

PETER SCHWEIZER: Absolutely. Thank you,

Kevin, and thank you, everybody, for being here. You

know, I've written three books on the Reagan

administration, but I think my favorite Ronald Reagan

story was confirmed when he was Governor of California.

To set the scene for you, it’s 1968, and he, of course,

is part of the University of California Regents System

as governor, and he's in Berkeley, California. And

he's standing with Lyn Nofziger, his longtime aide.

And the meeting is just breaking up, and they're

getting ready to head to the governor's limousine. And

there was a crowd that started to form outside, and the

crowd starts to chant, "Make love, not war! Make love,

not war!"

Well, Lyn Nofziger is a little bit nervous,

and he says, "Governor, maybe we should go a different

direction."

And Reagan says, "No, no, no, don't worry

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about it, Lyn. Let's just keep going."

So they start walking towards the crowd, and

the crowd keeps chanting, "Make love, not war! Make

love, not war!"

Lyn Nofziger is getting very, very nervous,

and he says, "Governor, I think we should go a

different way." Reagan says, "Ah, Lyn, don't worry

about it."

They keep walking closer, and the crowd is

chanting, "Make love, not war! Make love, not war!"

At which point Reagan turns to Nofziger and says, “Lyn,

don't worry about it. This crowd doesn't look like

they're capable of doing it this morning."

(Laughter.)

PETER SCHWEIZER: Now, laugh. Those people

that Reagan encountered in Berkeley in 1968, of course,

have moved on, and they now control some of the very

institutions in the United States today.

---CUT IN AUDIO---

But it's sometimes hard to encapsulate, so I

had help from a neighbor a couple of months ago, a

neighbor had moved into the area, where I’m from in

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Florida. This neighbor is from the developing world.

And he asked, you know, what do you do? And

I said, well, you know, I fight cronyism and

corruption. And I explained all the sorts of things

that we try to do. And as I sort of rambled on on the

issues we work on, he interrupted me and he said, “Oh,

I understand it. You fight for the American Dream.”

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I spend a lot of time researching what I call

‘crony capitalism’ and ‘corruption.’ And here is

something that has puzzled me for a very long time…

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Why is it that progressives on the left are

so supportive of crony capitalism? Why is it that

progressives on the left seem to embrace so many forms

of corporate welfare? I mean, these are guys that hate

corporations, right? These are guys that hate the

private sector. And then it dawned on me -- the reason

that they don't mind that sort of government behavior

is because for the left -- when it comes to the

American Dream, it's about dependence versus

independence.

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You all have made your money independent --

not independently as to how many, you know, friends and

associates (inaudible) -- but independent of the

government. Crony capitalism says to professionals and

the corporations, you can't do it independent of the

government. And just like the welfare state has

created a culture of dependency among people that are

in poverty in the United States, the goal for crony

capitalism, in my mind, is to create a status of

dependence, of the successful, on government, on the

argument that that's the only way that they made their

money.

So if you look at what's happening in the

country today, I think this starts to explain a lot of

things.

---CUT IN AUDIO---

…not about creating revenue from the

government, which is what we currently assume taxation

is about. The tax code is increasingly about

redistributing wealth…

---CUT IN AUDIO---

…the whole issue of student loan forgiveness.

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Did you guys see this a couple of weeks ago? President

Obama has proposed because you have so many students

facing crushing debt on student loans, has come up with

a proposal – he’s going to fix it. You know what his

proposal is? If you leave college and you go and work

in the private sector, after 20 years they will erase

your debt.

---CUT IN AUDIO---

They want to direct you toward dependence and

away from independence.

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The left doesn't dislike you or hate you

because of what you do. They dislike you and hate you

because of who you are.

---CUT IN AUDIO---

It would be very nice to think that you can

sit out of this debate and say, “You know, I'm just

going to live a quiet life. I'm going to enjoy my

family. I'm going to enjoy my lifestyle. I'm going to

enjoy the success I've built with my business. And I'm

going to sort of shut the rest of the world out.” The

problem is you can't do that because as far as the left

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is concerned, you are what you've accomplished and

(inaudible) who you are, show that their worldview is

incorrect (and analysis flawed).

---CUT IN AUDIO---

That debate is going to come down to the

question of independence versus dependence. And what

Woodrow Wilson was explaining is that they are not

going to let up. Politicians today are not going to

let up.

The left and the academic sphere is not going

to let up. The question is, are we going to let up?

And I would contend to you that we cannot let up. We

can't sit this out because ultimately this debate is

going to be settled by who has the most energy, who has

the most serious ideas (inaudible) and who has the

commitment to succeed at winning. And with that I'll

say thanks.

---CUT IN AUDIO--

KEVIN GENTRY: I'd like Marc Short to come

up. We just have a couple of little closing comments

we’d like to make. Again, this is our final report to

you as our investors, our potential investors.

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Actually at the last meeting was a very

inspiring lunch and those of you who were there. It

was really quite dramatic. And really, was just, it

motivated a lot of us to action. And I hope that you

all will not look to our lunches with dread, but with a

lot of eager anticipation.

(Laughter.)

[VOICE DROWNS OUT COMMENTS.]

KEVIN GENTRY: And then after that we have

another round of breakout sessions this afternoon.

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Folks have asked, you know, what if you can’t

raise it (inaudible)? (Inaudible) saying and trying to

achieve the objectives. On the other hand, if we're

able to raise more than that, we certainly will put it

towards the very long-term objectives that we have.

On the one hand, those things that Rich

talked about yesterday. The long-term stuff and

reaching the middle, but also in building these

capabilities…

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Y’all remember this strategy Marc laid out,

and that was engaging early on the issues beginning

last October. Thanks to y’all's investments last year

when no one else really had the resources to be in the

fight at all, what we did, we believe effectively took

the House out of play. It was a great idea, Marc. And

it also has given us a fighting chance on the Senate as

well, and it has changed a lot of the debate.

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…but it's also about the ground presence that

we're doing with Americans for Prosperity, for LIBRE,

Generation Opportunity, Concerned Vets. We've been

able to double their presence in the targeted states,

that are both targeted for this year, and long term as

well.

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And then finally what does this go to? I

mean, after 2008, it was data, messaging, and voter

contact, (inaudible) for LIBRE, Generation Opportunity,

Concerned Vets, (inaudible) Economics, obviously

Americans for Prosperity, and then we added competitive

intelligence, (inaudible), candidate recruitment.

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That's the goal our investments are paying for.

Marc, if you could add a little bit to that,

and then I'll come back after that with a couple more

comments.

MARC SHORT: So with the investments last

fall (inaudible) in the House (inaudible). As I

mentioned to you before this year (inaudible) entered

here, a lot of our investments were moved back

(inaudible) this program.

It doesn’t mean that we will abandon the

media side, and (inaudible) will look to do more of

that through a super PAC we will create that allows us

to be more engaged in those last 60 days.

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KEVIN GENTRY: So how could you all

contribute to this? Freedom Partners is in favor for

the broad organizing operation. It’s a 501(c)(6)

organization. It’s a membership organization. That is

the primary vehicle (inaudible) linked back to our

other 501(c)(4)s, such as Americans for Prosperity.

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Maybe some of you are constrained and you can

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only do 501(c)(3). It's about 10 or 15 percent, maybe

20% of our overall budget is 501(c)(3).

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…disclosure and can help give us a little bit

more bite in the last two months with respect to the

electoral objectives, that would be great as well.

We'll go into that -- and by the way, our

team always glad to work with you on an individual

basis, however you want to dig into it, address this.

And that's what we do, especially after this meeting.

And obviously, too, if you believe that you've got some

other folks, you know, back home in Chicago, or Boston,

or Orlando, or Tempe, or Spokane, and you want to bring

them together, we are glad to put together a team that

is interested, you know, (inaudible) to go into this

maybe into a half-day or a day-long presentation as

well, if that would be useful. Glad to follow up in

that regard.

But before we break for lunch, maybe just a

couple of questions, if there are any. I know on the

one hand this is crazy -- $290 million is an

extraordinarily intimidating figure. We've come a long

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way from where we were seven or eight years ago.

But as Marc pointed out, or I hope he pointed

out, this morning, I don't think it's a drop in the

bucket next to what the left is doing, but it's not

like -- don't believe the emails that the left sends

out trying to raise money for their causes. They're

sending them out right now, saying that we're leading,

we're raising $290 million. Well, look, you know,

they've got, I mean they literally are talking about,

you know, two billion dollars…

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I know you all are going to come up -- and

I'm sure this frustrates some of you. Well, look, I

really think that, you know – we talked about this

recently -- the New Mexico U.S. Senate race should be

in play, or this governor's race should be in play, or

this House race, or what are you guys -- this is the

opportunity to do more on voter fraud! Or what are you

doing to expose this? Yes. Yes, absolutely!

But we have to prioritize and do what we can

do most effectively. And we're going to give you

hopefully, certainly an honest, but a really sterile,

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candid, emotionless assessment of what needs to get

done to make sure we get it done to achieve the

objectives as fast as possible.

And, you know, we want to be ready to expand

with additional resources, but we've got to stay

focused on the main things that we can achieve, and you

know it's tough. Sometimes we have tough discussions.

There are a lot of Californians. I wish we could do

more about California. We don't want to give up on

California yet. But putting all our resources there

right now or New York just wouldn't be prudent. And

so, that’s you know -- we're trying to do this in a

business-like way for you all because literally you all

are our investors.

FRAYDA LEVY: Kevin.

KEVIN GENTRY: Yeah?

FRAYDA LEVY: What have you heard about the

call (inaudible)...

KEVIN GENTRY: Frayda, could you grab a mic?

Will somebody grab Frayda a microphone there?

FRAYDA LEVY: Frayda Levy, and why don’t you

explain about the call that takes place in the interim

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to keep everybody updated on what's going on?

KEVIN GENTRY: Yeah. Well, we will try to

give you as much information as you would like. We

schedule generally every other week a conference call.

We try not to send a lot of detailed stuff out in e-

mail form or written form. We're also glad to talk to

you in person. That's even better.

But we really want to keep you as informed as

possible about your investment to make sure what you

choose to do really advances your objectives as closely

as possible, again, to what you're trying to achieve,

and what we're trying to achieve.

All right, lunch is -- yes, sir? The

microphone is coming right up here. If you'd introduce

yourself.

SPEAKER: Yeah, hi. I'm (Ted Beason?). I'm

from Dallas, Texas. And my big question is, can we

designate our donation to our state, which is Texas?

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We’re supporting (inaudible) in the Americans

for Prosperity program there. Can we designate our

funds for Texas?

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KEVIN GENTRY: Absolutely. You can designate

your funds for something we're doing anyway, right? So

I'll get to the Battleground Texas project – it’s a

huge aspect of we're doing, absolutely. But if you

come to us and say, I want, you know, a million dollars

to start an Americans for Prosperity chapter in Hawaii

tomorrow,” we're going to probably say, “Let's talk

about it after this fall's election, you know. Thanks,

but no thanks.” So, yes, as long as it's along the

priorities of what we laid out, and certainly Texas is.

Okay. Lunch is upstairs in the Monarch

Ballroom. We look forward to seeing you in a couple of

minutes.

(Whereupon, the meeting was adjourned.)