So was the president who signed the last amnesty bill into law ...
Posted on 02/21/2015 1:05:15 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
Yes, believe it or not, Wisconsin governor Scott Walker actually spoke at some length at the dinner this past week where Rudy Giuliani charged that President Obama doesn’t love America. All the hullabaloo went to Giuliani, but in terms of the Republican presidential race, a number of Scott Walker’s pointed comments about policy and politicians are not to be missed.
First a word about the dinner itself, which was generously backed by John Catsimatidis. It was the second event sponsored by the Committee to Unleash American Prosperity, a new group founded by Arthur Laffer, Steve Moore, Steve Forbes, and myself. Just as the Committee on the Present Danger — formed by Midge Decter, Norman Podhoretz, and Irving Kristol — worried about the decline in American foreign policy in the late 1970s, we are worried about the decline in American economic growth over the past 15 years.
Our view is simple: To maximize growth, jobs, opportunity, and upward mobility, the U.S. must recapture the first principles of economic growth that were so successful in the 1960s, ’80s, and ’90s. Namely, pro-growth policies should seek a low-rate, broad-based flat tax, limited government spending, the lightest possible economic regulations, sound money, and free trade.
Since 2000, the U.S. economy has barely reached 2 percent growth per year. Over the prior 100 years, American growth averaged 3.4 percent annually. To get back to the long-run trend — which epitomizes the most powerful engine of free-market capitalist prosperity in the history of history — future growth over the next decade will have to average 4 percent annually.
To advance our policy goals, our committee (still in formation) will be interviewing all the Republican presidential candidates in the months ahead. A few weeks ago we had dinner with Texas governor Rick Perry. This week we welcomed Scott Walker.
In his opening, Governor Walker stressed growth, reform, and safety. During the question-and-answer period, he emphasized sweeping Reagan-like tax cuts. And he frequently referred to his successful efforts in Wisconsin to curb public-union power as a means of lowering tax burdens, increasing economic growth, and reducing unemployment.
Noteworthy, Walker argued that when Reagan fired the PATCO air-traffic controllers over their illegal strike, he was sending a message of toughness to Democrats and unions at home as well as our Soviet enemies abroad. Similarly, Walker believes his stance against unions in Wisconsin would be a signal of toughness to Islamic jihadists and Russia’s Vladimir Putin.
Walker was also highly critical of President Obama’s conduct in the war against radical Islamism, and said the U.S. must wage a stronger battle in the air and on the ground against ISIS.
He stressed the need for a positive Republican message in 2016, and bluntly criticized Mitt Romney for spending too much time on the pessimistic economic negatives emanating from Obama’s policy failures.
And in an unmistakable rip at both Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton, he called for a new generation and fresh faces to turn America back in the right direction.
More specifics: When asked about a sound-money policy, Walker said he was willing to sit down and learn. And on free trade, he needs a much clearer message. But in response to a question about solving middle-class income declines, he insisted that sweeping economic-growth policies aimed at all groups and categories, not just the so-called middle class, is the answer. He also aggressively defended his controversial University of Wisconsin budget cuts, arguing that they would slow tuition hikes and force professors to teach more.
Why did he leave Marquette before graduation? He saw a more attractive position at the Red Cross and wanted to start a political career. Yes, he nearly flunked French. But many folks think that’s a political plus. And as NR editor Rich Lowry has written, 68 percent of Americans do not have a college degree. And many of us believe the time has come for a president without Ivy League credentials.
Can Walker win? Arthur Laffer has known him for years and says he has matured enormously from his days as Milwaukee county executive. Others say he is the only Republican candidate with a record of winning many different elections, from local office, to state assemblyman, to three gubernatorial races in four years.
Walker is a superb retail politician, a trait that will serve him well in the early primaries. He has an uncanny knack of maintaining direct eye contact. At the dinner, rather than rushing out for an early-morning TV call, he insisted on talking to every person in the large crowd surrounding him.
The question now is whether he can develop from a tough state-union buster to a national politician who can modernize Reagan’s policies while maintaining the Gipper’s upbeat message of optimism and growth.
Right.....whatever you do, do NOT READ UP ON HIM!!! You stay JUST the way you are.
” have a very large picture of Harry Truman in the background.”
****
Yes. The foreign policy incompetent who fired MacArthur rather than let our military win against the communists. That should put a shine on Walker’s credentials.
“You must have read a different article.”
*****
Read the same article. Actions speak louder than words. Kudlow is spinning because he and Lowry at NRO just gone done wining and dining with Walker at a GOPe event in Manhattan.
Lipstick on the moderate pig doesn’t turn it into a conservative.
“do NOT READ UP ON HIM”
*****
A 1,000 articles and a dozen ghostwritten Dreams of Walker’s Father autobiographies won’t change the facts. He’s supported amnesty in the past. His major financial backers support amnesty. And you’re trying to turn another Mitt Romney into a conservative.
That dog won’t hunt.
Setting up for another left-Wing rout seems to be the only “strategy” some have. Stock up on Kleenex and Cheese to go with the teary preemptive whine.
No, he and his flacks are doing the usual—claiming that their amnesty position isn’t amnesty.
Educate yourself.
Here’s a link for you.
READ the ENTIRE “hit” piece.
It’s an interesting piece. As hard as this less-than-friendly “news” outlet tries to slam Walker (even at the end where they’re telling you how to interpret Walker’s words, in spite of what you’ve just read - they just make it up to fit their scenario) it just isn’t there. But there is the headline - which is what people absorb.
Oh, and don’t miss the part where they had to make a correction on their reporting about Walker’s stance.
Didn't stop them from destroying Palin. Not to mention, Clarence Thomas and Condi Rice.
Just a one issue viewpoint that is misrepresented about Walker.
Walker wants to solve a long standing problem in a fair and equitable way that previous Congress have punted.
Do you favor the Democratic position? That is what you may get.
So many of today’s politicians are over educated, which leads them to be less then intelligent when making realistic decisions, etc.
He tackled the special interest unions that fed money to the democrats which reduced state and local spending.
He is challenging the out of control spending at the University of Wisconsin system.
Walker will cut spending and reduce the power of the federal government and return it to the states.
Truman didn’t have a college degree. He is considered to be one of the best Dem presidents. That is my point.
Imagine that, a pro growth conservative hitting notes on just about every issue we as a base want heard. He connected the dots well, his description of weathering the fire and storms of the left as a sign that he will hang tough and be unrelenting with all our enemies, foreign and domestic, resonates well.
I would say IBTACF. But I found this thread too late.......:-)
When it comes to politicans it doesn’t get much more conservative than Walker. Where in the article are you referring too?
Who’se your chosen candidate? Jeb? Romney?
Well golly he didn’t outline his entire platform in one speach lets just dump him.
good grief, conservatives sure love to eat their own.
We should have a good attack-dog for VP candidate. Ted Cruz would be good at the top of the ticket, and could be effective as an attacker in the #2 slot. Then, after a win and the advent of a Supreme Court vacancy . . .
Walker’s actually more open borders than Hillary. And there’s nothing fair or equitable about amnesty or open borders.
Limited government spending was number two in the list of things this organization said were necessary to "maximize growth, jobs, opportunity, and upward mobility..." and it's the one area that Walker had nothing to say about. Why?
Fine. How and where?
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