WHITFIELD: All right, welcome back to this special hour of the CNN NEWSROOM. We're taking this time out every Sunday to let you hear from the 2012 presidential contenders in their own words out on the campaign trail. Republican presidential hopeful Jon Huntsman skipped last night's debate in Iowa and he continues to lag behind in national polls, but he is staking his hopes on a new seven-point plan for restoring trust in Washington. Here are points. Reform the tax code, trim the mounting debt by cutting spending, break up big banks on Wall Street so that no financial entity is too big to fail, adopt an energy strategy, streamline regulations to create more competition in the marketplace, and bring U.S. troops home from Afghanistan and create what he calls the Citizen Legislature Act. Huntsman explains what that means.</s>JON HUNTSMAN, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And finally, in order to ensure that government responds to all its citizens with the same level of urgency and fairness, and to lessen the influence of special interests, I will send Congress a Citizens Legislature Act. I will propose a constitutional amendment imposing term limits on members of Congress, six two-year terms in the House, two six-year terms in the Senate. I will ban members of Congress and cabinet officers from lobbying for four years following their departure. I will seek a lifetime ban on members of Congress and cabinet officers lobbying on any issue where they had significant responsibility. And I will also require them to publicly release all income, for four years, following their service.</s>WHITFIELD: So it has been a pile it on Newt Gingrich kind of week. Our chief political correspondent Candy Crowley brings us more in her "Trail Mix" next.
Jon Huntsman Introduces a Plan for Restoring Trust in Washington