Posted on 01/24/2012 7:58:22 PM PST by Brown Deer
Following is the full text of Gov. Mitch Daniels' Republican Address to the Nation, as prepared for delivery:
"The status of 'loyal opposition' imposes on those out of power some serious responsibilities: to show respect for the Presidency and its occupant, to express agreement where it exists. Republicans tonight salute our President, for instance, for his aggressive pursuit of the murderers of 9/11, and for bravely backing long overdue changes in public education. I personally would add to that list admiration for the strong family commitment that he and the First Lady have displayed to a nation sorely needing such examples.
"On these evenings, Presidents naturally seek to find the sunny side of our national condition. But when President Obama claims that the state of our union is anything but grave, he must know in his heart that this is not true.
"The President did not cause the economic and fiscal crises that continue in America tonight. But he was elected on a promise to fix them, and he cannot claim that the last three years have made things anything but worse: the percentage of Americans with a job is at the lowest in decades. One in five men of prime working age, and nearly half of all persons under 30, did not go to work today.
"In three short years, an unprecedented explosion of spending, with borrowed money, has added trillions to an already unaffordable national debt. And yet, the President has put us on a course to make it radically worse in the years ahead. The federal government now spends one of every four dollars in the entire economy; it borrows one of every three dollars it spends. No nation, no entity, large or small, public or private, can thrive, or survive intact, with debts as huge as ours.
"The President's grand experiment in trickle-down government has held back rather than sped economic recovery. He seems to sincerely believe we can build a middle class out of government jobs paid for with borrowed dollars. In fact, it works the other way: a government as big and bossy as this one is maintained on the backs of the middle class, and those who hope to join it.
"Those punished most by the wrong turns of the last three years are those unemployed or underemployed tonight, and those so discouraged that they have abandoned the search for work altogether. And no one has been more tragically harmed than the young people of this country, the first generation in memory to face a future less promising than their parents did.
"As Republicans our first concern is for those waiting tonight to begin or resume the climb up life's ladder. We do not accept that ours will ever be a nation of haves and have nots; we must always be a nation of haves and soon to haves.
"In our economic stagnation and indebtedness, we are only a short distance behind Greece, Spain, and other European countries now facing economic catastrophe. But ours is a fortunate land. Because the world uses our dollar for trade, we have a short grace period to deal with our dangers. But time is running out, if we are to avoid the fate of Europe, and those once-great nations of history that fell from the position of world leadership.
"So 2012 is a year of true opportunity, maybe our last, to restore an America of hope and upward mobility, and greater equality. The challenges aren't matters of ideology, or party preference; the problems are simply mathematical, and the answers are purely practical.
"An opposition that would earn its way back to leadership must offer not just criticism of failures that anyone can see, but a positive and credible plan to make life better, particularly for those aspiring to make a better life for themselves. Republicans accept this duty, gratefully.
"The routes back to an America of promise, and to a solvent America that can pay its bills and protect its vulnerable, start in the same place. The only way up for those suffering tonight, and the only way out of the dead end of debt into which we have driven, is a private economy that begins to grow and create jobs, real jobs, at a much faster rate than today.
"Contrary to the President's constant disparagement of people in business, it's one of the noblest of human pursuits. The late Steve Jobs - what a fitting name he had - created more of them than all those stimulus dollars the President borrowed and blew. Out here in Indiana, when a businessperson asks me what he can do for our state, I say 'First, make money. Be successful. If you make a profit, you'll have something left to hire someone else, and some to donate to the good causes we love.'
"The extremism that stifles the development of homegrown energy, or cancels a perfectly safe pipeline that would employ tens of thousands, or jacks up consumer utility bills for no improvement in either human health or world temperature, is a pro-poverty policy. It must be replaced by a passionate pro-growth approach that breaks all ties and calls all close ones in favor of private sector jobs that restore opportunity for all and generate the public revenues to pay our bills.
"That means a dramatically simpler tax system of fewer loopholes and lower rates. A pause in the mindless piling on of expensive new regulations that devour dollars that otherwise could be used to hire somebody. It means maximizing on the new domestic energy technologies that are the best break our economy has gotten in years.
"There is a second item on our national must-do list: we must unite to save the safety net. Medicare and Social Security have served us well, and that must continue. But after half and three quarters of a century respectively, it's not surprising that they need some repairs. We can preserve them unchanged and untouched for those now in or near retirement, but we must fashion a new, affordable safety net so future Americans are protected, too.
"Decades ago, for instance, we could afford to send millionaires pension checks and pay medical bills for even the wealthiest among us. Now, we can't, so the dollars we have should be devoted to those who need them most.
"The mortal enemies of Social Security and Medicare are those who, in contempt of the plain arithmetic, continue to mislead Americans that we should change nothing. Listening to them much longer will mean that these proud programs implode, and take the American economy with them. It will mean that coming generations are denied the jobs they need in their youth and the protection they deserve in their later years.
"It's absolutely so that everyone should contribute to our national recovery, including of course the most affluent among us. There are smart ways and dumb ways to do this: the dumb way is to raise rates in a broken, grossly complex tax system, choking off growth without bringing in the revenues we need to meet our debts. The better course is to stop sending the wealthy benefits they do not need, and stop providing them so many tax preferences that distort our economy and do little or nothing to foster growth.
"It's not fair and it's not true for the President to attack Republicans in Congress as obstacles on these questions. They and they alone have passed bills to reduce borrowing, reform entitlements, and encourage new job creation, only to be shot down time and time again by the President and his Democratic Senate allies.
"This year, it falls to Republicans to level with our fellow citizens about this reality: if we fail to act to grow the private sector and save the safety net, nothing else will matter much. But to make such action happen, we also must work, in ways we Republicans have not always practiced, to bring Americans together.
"No feature of the Obama Presidency has been sadder than its constant efforts to divide us, to curry favor with some Americans by castigating others. As in previous moments of national danger, we Americans are all in the same boat. If we drift, quarreling and paralyzed, over a Niagara of debt, we will all suffer, regardless of income, race, gender, or other category. If we fail to shift to a pro-jobs, pro-growth economic policy, there will never be enough public revenue to pay for our safety net, national security, or whatever size government we decide to have.
"As a loyal opposition, who put patriotism and national success ahead of party or ideology or any self-interest, we say that anyone who will join us in the cause of growth and solvency is our ally, and our friend. We will speak the language of unity. Let us rebuild our finances, and the safety net, and reopen the door to the stairway upward; any other disagreements we may have can wait.
"You know, the most troubling contention in our national life these days isn't about economics, or policy at all. It's about us, as a free people. In two alarming ways, that contention is that we Americans just can't cut it anymore.
"In word and deed, the President and his allies tell us that we just cannot handle ourselves in this complex, perilous world without their benevolent protection. Left to ourselves, we might pick the wrong health insurance, the wrong mortgage, the wrong school for our kids; why, unless they stop us, we might pick the wrong light bulb!
"A second view, which I admit some Republicans also seem to hold, is that we Americans are no longer up to the job of self-government. We can't do the simple math that proves the unaffordability of today's safety net programs, or all the government we now have. We will fall for the con job that says we can just plow ahead and someone else will pick up the tab. We will allow ourselves to be pitted one against the other, blaming our neighbor for troubles worldwide trends or our own government has caused.
"2012 must be the year we prove the doubters wrong. The year we strike out boldly not merely to avert national bankruptcy but to say to a new generation that America is still the world's premier land of opportunity. Republicans will speak for those who believe in the dignity and capacity of the individual citizen; who believe that government is meant to serve the people rather than supervise them; who trust Americans enough to tell them the plain truth about the fix we are in, and to lay before them a specific, credible program of change big enough to meet the emergency we are facing.
"We will advance our positive suggestions with confidence, because we know that Americans are still a people born to liberty. There is nothing wrong with the state of our Union that the American people, addressed as free-born, mature citizens, cannot set right. Republicans in 2012 welcome all our countrymen to a program of renewal that rebuilds the dream for all, and makes our 'city on a hill' shine once again."
great speech
dull delivery
is he the best the gop has to offer?
Do you see Daniels running for national office in the future? He sounds great, and that is a record to stand on.
I was thinking that the speech ought to have been handed to Palin so she could edit it to procvide more memorable lines and the deliver it herself.
Daniels was the Bush budget director.
FWIW, I have been saying this for a couple of months already. Maybe I gave up before the first half was even over. ;)
Actually, I haven't completely given up, but my confidence level is currently in the toilet. I feel like I am watching a train wreck unfold in slow motion and there is nothing I can do to stop it.
Hence the warning from Gov. Daniels.
I hope he does. I have to agree some time with a good speech coach might help Daniels but in reality, I tend to doubt it. Some see boring. I guess I see Mr. Smith goes to Washington. I’m not convinced that charisma is all that matters I guess.
Your thoughts?
—de-certified state employee unions the first day in office.
—privatized the toll road and built up state highway infrastructure with the funds.
—most generous school choice in America.
—founded a Christ-centered school steeped in the classics for inner-city youth.
—AAA bond rating
—only budget surplus in the Midwest.
—government size rolled back to 2008. Real cuts, not just cuts in spending increases.
—ended state funding for Planned Parenthood.
—passed legislation making abortion after 20 weeks a crime.
—sought to prosecute Planned Parenthood for failing to report abortions stemming from sex with minors.
—smallest per capita state government in the US
—lowest property taxes in the US.
—created Hoosier Healthwise as an low cost totally voluntary health plan for low income people.
—put state employees into health savings accounts in which they could accumulate unused health funds and roll them over year to year to reduce premiums.
—enacted state legislation to require photo I.D. to vote, causing the ACLU to go ballistic
—will sign the only Right to Work legislation ever passed in the Rust Belt.
That’s just the stuff that comes to mind.
What part of “track record” do Daniels’ critics not understand? What the hell part of that is not conservative?
***
You are right. Many of the people who slam Daniels fail to look at his results in Indiana. He has better fiscal record then Newt. He just isn’t flamboyant enough for there liking.
Great posts in #59 and #64, CatholicEagle and shoedog.
Wow, I wish we in CT had a conservative governor like Mitch Daniels! Nothing but pure socialism and union thuggery here in the Peoples' Republik of Connecticut. Our governor here walks in complete lockstep with Uncle Sham Wow Obama.
And...Sarah Palin is prettier!
Say it isn't so that Republicans are going Obama-Lite.
Gov. Daniels and the other Republicans might begin by reading the following summary of principles, which constitutes a level of discourse that could help Americans to evaluate the grave matters before us in terms of:
"1. Does this legislation or idea increase, or decrease, individual freedom and creativity?
"2. Does this legislation or idea increase, or decrease, the power of some citizens over other citizens?
"3. Does this legislation or idea recognize that the persons who will exercise the power are themselves imperfect human beings?
"4. Does this legislation or idea recognize that government is incapable of creating wealth?
"5. Does this legislation or idea authorize taking from some what belongs to them, and giving it to others to whom it does not belong?
If 'thou shalt not steal' is a valid commandment, can we assume that it is meant to apply only to individuals and not to government (which is made up of individuals), even if those persons in power pass laws which sanction such redistribution of the wealth of others?'
"6. Does this legislation or idea encourage, or discourage, the very highest level of morality and responsibility from the individual?
. . .when government makes actions 'legal' by some citizens at the expense of other citizens, the result may be behavior which would not be considered possible by individuals acting alone.
"7. Does this legislation or idea propose that the 'government' do something which the individual cannot do without committing a crime?"**
**7 principles drawn from James R. Evans book, "America's Choice: Twilight's Last Gleaming or Dawn's Early Light," and reprinted in a Stedman Corporation (Asheboro, NC) booklet entitled "I'm Only One, What Can I Do?"
Thanks for the kind words.
It took a long time to get Mitch. Your time may come, too. Keep running the good race!
walsh & nutmeg,
There is a campaign going on here. Only piss & vinegar are allowed. I am sure some appreciate the Daniels message, but in the middle of campaign, no praise will come from the right.
I was at the CT straw poll for NEWT in Bristol on FRI. Lost to Mitt 29% to 28%. Mitt ended up getting some press out of it.
See my Post #91.
Of course, the socialists aren’t even being subtle - it’s Cloward-Piven letter by letter. Increase the government obligation(debt) to the point it’s unsustainable and the economy collapses.
If they are not stopped, probably in the middle of the next 4 years, or earlier, the credit ratings on US debt will fall very quickly and the US currency will no longer be the currency of international trade.
When that happens the wheels literally fall off and our economy implodes. The solution, in the face of the panic after the US dollar has been derailed, will be a new world currency. A world currency is already being discussed by the international financial community and in places like the IMF.
Just one of many articles about what is being discussed
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/shocking-new-imf-report-the-u-s-dollar-needs-to-be-replaced-as-the-world-reserve-currency-and-that-sdrs-could-constitute-an-embryo-of-global-currency
Thanks, although that time will most likely NEVER come in my lifetime in Connecticut. One of these days, hubby and I are outta here! ;-)
Congratulations on choosing such a brilliant governor. It must be nice to live among smart, common-sense people...
Mitch is not even Coolidge, someone he calls to mind. Coolidge was very sharp, knew his limitations as a platform speaker. He was, however, the first President to address the nation by radio, and was very effective in that medium—and knew it. I sometimes wonder what Coolidge would would have done if he had not lost his son Calvin. He was devastated, and all the jokes about his naps come back to me. Obviously he was deeply depressed, and he had the taste of ashes in his mouth. Probably killed him before his time, because his father had such a long time. If he had really sought the election in 1928 he could have had it. If he had been president, the crash would have come, but at least he would not have made Hoover’s mistakes.
Sorry, I really don’t understand your post #93 at all.
The Gold-oil deal between Iran and India has made them sit up. If we are not csareful, it will be 1931 all over again and we will be the British Empire, all over again.
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