Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker rallied conservatives at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference Saturday morning, telling attendees to lead the nation by being “optimistic, relevant, and courageous” in enacting pro-growth reforms in the United States.
Last summer, Walker became the only U.S. governor in history to survive a recall election after successfully pushing through a series of aggressive reforms, including the elimination of forced unionism in the Badger State.
He proudly shared some of these accomplishments with the crowd. “We came in and took [my predecessor’s] deficit, 3.6 billion dollars, and today it’s nearly half a billion dollar surplus,” he said. “We showed in our election that when people realized the debate was between who do you want in charge, the big government special interests, in this case the big government employee unions, or the hard working tax payers, the hard-working taxpayers won out.”
When talking about collective bargaining reform – the issue that brought him into the national spotlight after making the Badger State the 24th right-to-work state in the country – Walker stressed that the power to legislate in America belongs to the people and not union bosses.
“Collective bargaining isn’t a right, it is an expensive entitlement,” he said. “Once and for all, we are giving the taxpayers a voice in this debate. We put the power back in the hands of the people.”
Often mentioned as a possible Republican presidential candidate, Walker admitted that he does have ambitions for national office in 2016. With his success in passing pro-growth, conservative reforms like right-to-work in Wisconsin, Walker has proven that he’s more than qualified to hold the highest office in the land.
He also discussed how big government prevents people from living the American dream.
“You see in America, people don’t grow up dreaming they’re going to be dependent on the government,” explained Walker. “In America, people don’t come to this country as immigrants because someday they want to become dependent on government…that’s precisely why in America we take a day off to celebrate the 4th of July and not the 15th of April.”
Well said, Governor.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXq5EhG4kqY&w=560&h=315]
