Transcript: GOP Response From Gov. Mitch Daniels

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."

I don't believe I criticized Rush or suggested that he was on any verboten list.

When we home-schooled our kids and taught them history, first we established a matrix including an overall timeline whether of world history, Church history, or American history. Then we plugged into the timelines significant and memorable people and events and slowly but surely a mastery of history was achieved.

When we consider current events it is also essential to establish a matrix into which to plug the people and events. Daniels' speech last night was a current event. Just how credible it was or what its purpose was may be inferred from the context of his life, his career and the circumstances.

To his credit, he was probably a capable budget director for Dubya in an administration not known for allowing tight budgeting. Dubya was the boss and determined the policies and Daniels did what he was told to do. Next, he became governor of Indiana where, according to the credible accounts of several Indiana residents posting here, Daniels did a fine job across the board on many issues dear to conservatives and not just money. That shows what he was willing to do when he was boss and answered only to the voters. Good for him.

Last night he gave the Republican response to the SOTU. Jim DeMint did not give that speech. Nor did Mario Rubio. Nor did Romney (too obvious) or Paul (too crackpot) nor Gingrich (too populist) nor Santorum (too committed to social conservatism as the identifier of his political life). None of those four could have chosen themselves. It was not their choice. Daniels did not choose himself to give that speech. He was chosen. Who does the choosing? Weepy and wimpy John Boehner? Mitch Let's Make a Deal McConnell? Unidentified megabucks types hidden in some board room in Manhattan? Boehner, McConnell and the megabucks boys? I am betting it was the entire group and for reasons upon which we are not eager to dwell.

Why Daniels? First and foremost he is boring and safe. He excites no one among the public. He is as allergic to red meat as Romney and as their mutual sponsors. Daniels, whatever his record as Indiana governor (term-limited and free as of 1/2013 BTW), showed the elite a modest amount of leg at CPAC by calling for the social issues "truce." Those elitists are downright embarrassed that they have to share a political party with us hillbillies who hate abortion and homosexuality and love guns and are serious when we worship God.

All that is just sooooo philistine among the people in their circles. Not only that but many of us fail to understand how desperately necessary (more than anything else actually) it is to bail out investment bankers with such legislation as TARP as often as necessary to prevent Muffy and Skipper from an unthinkable reduction in lifestyle. They are simply TOO BIG TO FAIL and the rest of us need to understand that whatever happens to us as a result, we must stand prepared to pour in cash as needed or wanted to bail out our social and economic "betters."

You are far more impressed with Daniels' speech than I am but that is just a matter of differing tastes. The first minute and a half that we agree was disagreeable is just another instance of Daniels showing a little leg to the elite. Knowing that he is willing to anger the base by buttsmooching Obozo, comforts the elitists because they believe that emotions must NEVER be on display and that we hillbillies just refuse to be civil to our elitist superiors like Obozo. Whether "we hillbillies" includes you or not is up to you.

As a lifelong resident of Connecticut until 2000, I do have some historical perspective for you. In 1971, under the otherwise sainted Governor Tom Meskill, the political powers that be rammed through a state income tax with only partial support from the elitists. Those who were conservative and principled stuck with us. I was part of a small group of inexperienced folks outraged at that income tax sponsored in the State Senate by then freshmen Senators Joe Lieberman of New Haven and Larry DeNardis of Hamden. We resisters put 5,000 people on the state Capitol lawn on a Wednesday at noontime. We had the support of some newspapers like the New haven Register and the Waterbury-Republican/American. The state exploded and the tax was repealed within a month in July, 1971. It was not scheduled to go into effect until October 1, 1971. No one heard of a state income tax again until 1991.

In 1991, the worst excuse for a gummint leader in Connecticut's history, Lowell P. Weicker, Jr., took office as an "Independent" Governor having promised to oppose a state income tax. People were looking at his words and his advertisements and not remembering what scum he had been throughout his despicable career. They did not take note of the context. He took the trouble to recruit the entire elite and to buy them off with verrrrry favorable tax reductions for the wealthy. He bribed and bullied his way to enactment of the tax you are paying today. We put 60,000 people on the state capitol lawn in resistance and had the support of many labor unions in addition to the conservatives and Tom Scott organized a terrific rally but to no avail. One of the elitists who defected said that if he stuck with us his wife would divorce him for rejecting the tax breaks offered by Weicker. That ripped it for me, a child of factory workers, as to working with the worthless self-centered elites. It took nine years but that was a major reason why I left Connecticut for America (even Illinois is better).

You are viewing Daniels' speech out of context. Whatever his good points, he is looking for approval from those elites. With all the good he did in Indiana, he is quite willing to turn his back on rank and file conservatives for the approval of monied elites. Your experiences and mine may differ. I know that sort of sellout when I see it and I won't subsidize it. I am sticking with the insight that the big shots are worried over Romney's failure to excite the base and now have Daniels warming up in the bullpen. As governor, Daniels has a much better record than Romney but is crucially willing to cuddle up to the totally worthless big shots who worry only about themselves and never about non-money principles or us. That's where I stand and I won't change.

As to Rush and Sean, I don't make a habit of criticizing either of them and, now retired, I listen to them every day. OTOH, all their whining about "class warfare" is getting very old and very tired. They don't mind the fact that American's real income has stagnated for forty years on average. They don't mind the fact that private sector labor unions have been crushed. They don't mind that the tax burden has been relentlessly shifted to people of modest means. They come up with scheme after scheme to make those who do not pay income taxes pay them to relieve our poor benighted zillionaires. They DO mind very much if people of modest means fight back (the only thing they recognize as "class warfare").

I certainly don't believe in Obozo's relentless campaign to eliminate the sacred Bush tax cuts for the elite from 38.5 to 35% but I also don't see those cuts as the focal point of the entire conservative movement. After what happened in Connecticut in 1991, crammed down our throats by the children of privilege like Weicker (heir to Squibb, Friendly Ice Cream, Hartford Steam Boiler and many others), saving three and a half percent on the top marginal income tax rates for the same megabucks crowd that betrayed us in 1991 is not a war in which I care to participate.

SpringtoLiberty, I was sorry to see no reply, but hope you lurk long enough to read this. I posted it this morning on another thread, and hope it clarifies my political outlook a little.

“”We do indeed now have a true political ruling class, no less formidable than King George and they do NOT want to go back to being our servants. And sad to say, with waay too many of the American people only believing what the glowing box tells them, it is going to be a heckova battle to turn this thing around.

But like it or not, (and I am one of the many here who is looking at their 2nd or 3rd or 4th choice), we have to play with the cards we have left, and of those, we must coalesce strongly behind ONE candidate. The one who we think has the best shot at taking down the entire enemy camp - 0, TheMedia, TheLeft and TheRepubElites, because that is what it will take to win this.””

And for what it is worth, I have no real issue with someone supporting Ron Paul, on FR or anywhere else. Many of my friends out here in the real world are RPers, and I KNOW that they love this nation, and the ideal it was founded upon every bit as much as I. However, here on FR, it is frustrating that so many RPers feel it necessary to lay so much of the blame at the feet of the good conservatives who were, (present company included ;), just going about the business of their daily lives for the past 50 years, working every day, and raising families. Our only, and admittedly biggest sin, was in naively believing that our “representatives” were doing the jobs we elected them to do, that they were serving us, when the sad reality was that they were indeed only serving themselves...

And now, yes, we know that we must choose VERY carefully, because there is NO margin for error.

May God grant us strength, and wisdom and courage.
Tatt

I’m glad to see I am not the only one that believes that there are powerful forces in international finance and industry, and political circles that believe the only way to secure a safe and sound future for a world seemingly out of control, is a world governance, an extension of the UN where the nations of the world join to together. In the unification of the countries of the world, there can be a level playing field of commerce, law and protection. Talbot, Soros, there are many extolling the virtues of a world governance.

You talk about a world governance to people and they think “Oh, he’s one of those conspiracy nuts”. The media has successfully manipulated public opinion in that direction. The facts are that a search of the internet will disclose a lot of serious discussions by “respected” individuals about a world currency, unrestricted trade and labor markets, a new world order. I mentioned the IMF and their investigation into a world currency. Clearly not a group of conspiracy nuts.

I would admit that some of the proponents of world governance may indeed be benevolent, believe that the world would be a better and safer place if there was a central authority to manage all the countries of the world. But as Orwell said in Animal Farm, “Some pigs are more equal than others”. A world governance will elevate some over others, those who lust for power over others now in their respective countries, will salivate at the opportunity to control more countries.

I don’t think it’s unreasonable to read about Soros and so many others and not believe the idea of world governance is more than the ramblings of right wing crazies.

Without the cooperation of the most powerful nation in the world, the US, world governance will never be a reality. America is too invested in individual freedom, exceptionalism and it’s unique identity, to surrender its destiny to a world authority. Unless of course America is broken and loses that position of prominence. An argument can be made that this poser, this puppet is setting the table for the destruction of America.

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