Governor Romney's Remarks to CPAC
2010
Feb 18, 2010
Thank you to Jay and to Scott for those generous introductions.
Both these men have made real contributions to our nation. It's
good to be back at CPAC. I can't think of an audience I'd rather
be addressing today.
I spent the weekend in Vancouver. As always, the Olympic Games
were inspiring. But in case you didn't hear the late-breaking
news, the gold medal in the downhill was taken away from
American Lindsey Vonn. It was determined that President Obama is
going downhill faster than she is.
I'm not telling you something you don't know when I say that our
conservative movement took a real hit in the 2008 elections. The
victors were not exactly gracious in their big win: Media legs
were tingling. Time Magazine's cover pictured the Republican
elephant and declared it an endangered species. The new
president himself promised change of biblical proportion. And
given his filibuster-proof Senate and lopsided House, he had
everything he needed to deliver it.
They won, we lost. But you know, you learn a lot about people
when you see how they react to losing. We didn't serve up
excuses or blame our fellow citizens. Instead, we listened to
the American people, we sharpened our thinking and our
arguments, we spoke with greater persuasiveness, we took our
message to more journals and airwaves, and in the American
tradition, some even brought attention to our cause with rallies
and Tea parties.
I know that most of you have watched intently as the
conservative comeback began in Virginia and exploded onto the
scene in New Jersey. But as a Massachusetts man, who, like my
fellow Bay-staters, has over the years, been understandably
regarded somewhat suspiciously in gatherings like this, let me
take just a moment to exalt in a Scott Brown victory!
For that victory that stopped Obama' care and turned back the
Reid-Pelosi liberal tide, we have something to that you'd never
think you'd hear at CPAC, "Thank you Massachusetts!"
2009 was the President's turn to suffer losses, and not just at
the ballot box, but also in bill after bill in Congress, and
most importantly, in his failure to reignite the economy. In how
he has responded to these defeats, too, we have learned a great
about him and about his team.
He began by claiming that he had not failed at all. Remember the
B+ grade he gave himself for his first year? Tell that to the 4
million Americans who lost their jobs last year, and to the
millions more who stopped looking. Explain that to the world's
financial markets who gaped at trillion dollar deficits as far
as the eye can see. Square that with the absence of any
meaningful sanctions against Iran even as it funds terror and
races to become a nuclear nation. President Obama's
self-proclaimed B+ will go down in history as the biggest
exaggeration since Al Gore's invention of the internet!
Unable to convince us that his failure was a success, he turned
to the second dodge of losing teams: try to pin the blame on
someone else. Did you see his State of the Union address? First,
he took on the one group in the room that was restrained from
responding the Supreme Court. The President found it
inexplicable that the first amendment right of free speech
should be guaranteed not just to labor union corporations and
media corporations, but equally to all corporations, big and
small. When it was all over, I think most Americans felt as I
did: his noisy critique and bombast did not register as clear
and convincingly as Justice Alito's silent lips forming these
words: "Not true!"
Next he blamed the Republicans in the room, condescending to
lecture them on the workings of the budget process, a process
many of them had in fact mastered while he was still at Harvard
Law School. He blamed Republicans for the gridlock that has
blocked his favorite legislation; but he knows as well as we do
that he did not need one single solitary Republican vote in
either house to pass his legislation. It was Democrats who
blocked him, Democrats who said "no" to his liberal agenda after
they had been home to their districts and heard from the
American people. As Everett Dirksen used to say, "When they felt
the heat, they saw the light". God bless every American who said
no!
Of course, the President accuses us of being the party of "no".
It's as if he thinks that saying "no" is by definition a bad
thing. In fact, it is right and praiseworthy to say no to bad
things. It is right to say no to cap and trade, no to card
check, no to government healthcare, and no to higher taxes. My
party should never be a rubber stamp for rubber check spending.
But before we move away from this "no" epithet the Democrats are
fond of applying to us, let's ask the Obama folks why they say
"no" --no to a balanced budget, no to reforming entitlements, no
to malpractice reform, no to missile defense In Eastern Europe,
no to prosecuting Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in a military tribunal,
and no to tax cuts that create new jobs. You see, we
conservatives don't have a corner on saying no; we're just the
ones who say it when that's the right thing to do!
And that leads us to who he has most recently charged with
culpability for his failures: the American people. It seems that
we have failed to understand his wise plans for us. If he just
slows down, he reasons, and makes a concerted effort to explain
Obama-care in a way even we can understand, if we just listen
better, then we will get it.
Actually, Americans have been listening quite attentively. And
they have been watching. When he barred CSPAN from covering the
healthcare deliberations, they saw President Obama break his
promise of transparency. When the Democrat leadership was
empowered to bribe Nebraska's Senator Nelson, they saw President
Obama break his promise of a new kind of politics in Washington.
And when he cut a special and certainly unconstitutional
healthcare deal with the unions, they saw him not just break his
promise, they saw the most blatant and reprehensible
manifestation of political payoff in modern memory. No, Mr.
President, the American people didn't hear and see too little,
they saw too much!
Here again, with all due respect, President Obama fails to
understand America. He said: "With all the lobbying and
horse-trading, the process left most Americans wondering,
What's in it for me?" That's not at all what they were asking.
They were asking: "What's in it for America?"
America will not endure government run healthcare, a new and
expansive entitlement, an inexplicable and surely vanishing cut
in Medicare and an even greater burden of taxes. Americans said
no because Obama-care is bad care for America!
When it comes to shifting responsibility for failure, however,
no one is a more frequent object of President Obama's reproach
than President Bush. It's wearing so thin that even the late
night shows make fun of it. I am convinced that history will
judge President Bush far more kindly he pulled us from a
deepening recession following the attack of 9-11, he overcame
teachers unions to test school children and evaluate schools, he
took down the Taliban, waged a war against the jihadists and was
not afraid to call it what it is a war, and he kept us safe. I
respect his silence even in the face of the assaults on his
record that come from this administration. But at the same time,
I also respect the loyalty and indefatigable defense of truth
that comes from our "I don't give a damn" Vice President Dick
Cheney!
I'm afraid that after all the finger pointing is finished, it
has become clear who is responsible for President Obama's lost
year, the 10% unemployment year President Obama and his fellow
Democrats. So when it comes to pinning blame, pin the tail on
the donkeys.
There's a good deal of conjecture about the cause of President
Obama's failures. As he frequently reminds us, he assumed the
presidency at a difficult time. That's the reason we argued
during the campaign that these were not the times for on the job
training. Had he or his advisors spent even a few years in the
real economy, they would have learned that the number one cause
of failure in the private sector is lack of focus, and that the
first rule of turning around any troubled enterprise is focus,
focus, focus. And so, when he assumed the presidency, his energy
should have been focused on fixing the economy and creating
jobs, and to succeeding in our fight against radical violent
jihad in Iraq and Afghanistan. Instead, he applied his time and
political capital to his ill-conceived healthcare takeover and
to building his personal popularity in foreign countries. He
failed to focus, and so he failed.
But there was an even bigger problem than lack of focus. Ronald
Reagan used to say this about liberals: "It's not that they're
ignorant, it's that what they know is wrong." Too often, when it
came to what President Obama knew, he was wrong.
He correctly acknowledged that the government doesn't create
jobs, that only the private sector can do that. He said that the
government can create the conditions, the environment, which
leads the private sector to add employment. But consider not
what he said, but what he did last year, and ask whether it
helped or hurt the environment for investment, growth, and new
jobs.
Announcing 2011 tax increases for individuals and businesses and
for capital gains, hurt.
Passing cap and trade, hurt.
Giving trial lawyers a free pass, hurt.
Proposing card check to eliminate secret ballots in union
elections, hurt.
Holding on to GM stock and insisting on calling the shots there,
hurt.
Making a grab for healthcare, almost 1/5th of our economy, hurt.
Budgeting government deficits in the trillions, hurt.
And scapegoating and demonizing businesspeople, hurt.
President Obama instituted the most anti-growth,
anti-investment, anti-jobs measures we've seen in our lifetimes.
He called his agenda ambitious. I call it reckless. He scared
employers, so jobs were scarce. His nearly trillion dollar
stimulus created not one net new job in the private sector, but
it saved and grew jobs in the government sector-- the one place
we should have shed jobs. And even today, because he has been
unwilling or unable to define the road ahead, uncertainty and
lack of predictability permeate the private economy, and
prolongs its stall. America is not better off than it was 1.8
trillion dollars ago.
Will the economy and unemployment recover? Of course. Thanks to
a vibrant and innovative citizenry, they always do. But this
president will not deserve the credit he will undoubtedly claim.
He has prolonged the recession, expanded the pain of
unemployment, and added to the burden of debt we will leave
future generations. President Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid
and their team have failed the American people, and that is why
their majority will be out the door. Isn't it fitting that so
many of those who have contempt for the private sector will soon
find themselves back in it?
The people of America are looking to conservatives for
leadership, and we must not fail them.
Conservatism has had from its inception a vigorously positive,
intellectually rigorous agenda. That agenda should have three
pillars: strengthen the economy, strengthen our security, and
strengthen our families.
We will strengthen the economy by simplifying and lowering
taxes, by replacing outmoded regulation with modern, dynamic
regulation, by opening markets to American goods, by
strengthening our currency and our capital markets, and by
investing in research and basic science. Instead of leading the
world in how much we borrow, we will make sure that we lead the
world in how much we build and create and invest.
We will strengthen our security by building missile defense,
restoring our military might, and standing-by and strengthening
our intelligence officers. And conservatives believe in
providing constitutional rights to our citizens, not to enemy
combatants like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed!
On our watch, the conversation with a would-be suicide bomber
will not begin with the words, "You have the right to remain
silent!"
Our conservative agenda strengthens our families in part by
putting our schools on track to be the best in the world.
Because great schools start with great teachers, we will insist
on hiring teachers from the top third of college graduates, and
we will give better teachers better pay. School accountability,
school choice and cyber schools will be priorities. We will put
parents and teachers back in charge of education, not the fat
cat CEO's of the teachers unions!
Strong families will have excellent healthcare. Getting
healthcare coverage for the uninsured should be accomplished at
the state level, not a one-size-fits all Pelosi plan. The right
way to rein-in healthcare cost is not by making it more like the
Post Office, it's by making it more like a consumer-driven
market. The answer for healthcare is market incentives not
healthcare by a Godzilla-size government bureaucracy!
When it comes to our role in the world, our conservative agenda
hews to the principles that have defined our nation's foreign
policy for over six decades: we will promote and defend the
American ideals of political freedom, free enterprise, and human
rights. We will stand with our allies, and confront those who
threaten peace and destroy liberty.
There's much more on our positive, intellectually rigorous
conservative agenda. Not all of it is popular. But the American
people have shown that they are ready for truth to trump hope.
The truth is that government is not the solution to all our
problems.
This year, I have taken the time to write a book that tells the
truth about the challenges our nation faces, and about the
conservative solutions needed to overcome them. I have titled
it: No Apology: The Case for American Greatness. I've set up a
booth outside so that you can buy a few hundred copies each.
Well, maybe one or two.
Sometimes I wonder whether Washington's liberal politicians
understand the greatness of America. Let me explain why I say
that.
At Christmas-time, I was in Wal-Mart to buy some toys for my
grandkids. As I waited in the check-out line, I took a good look
around the store. I thought to myself of the impact Sam Walton
had on his company. Sam Walton was all about good value on
everything the customer might want. And so is Wal-Mart: rock
bottom prices and tens of thousands of items.
The impact that founders like Sam Walton have on their
enterprises is actually quite remarkable. In many ways,
Microsoft is a reflection of Bill Gates, just as Apple is of
Steve Jobs. Disneyland is a permanent tribute to Walt Disney
himself - imaginative and whimsical. Virgin Airlines is as
irreverent and edgy as its founder. As you look around you, you
see that people shape enterprises, sometimes for many years even
after they are gone.
People shape businesses.
People shape countries.
America reflects the values of the people who first landed here,
those who founded the nation, those who won our freedom, and
those who made America the leader of the world.
America was discovered and settled by pioneers. Later, the
founders launched an entirely new concept of nation, one where
the people would be sovereign, not the king, not the state. And
this would apply not just to government, but also to the
American economy: the individual would pursue his or her
happiness in freedom, independent from government dictate. Every
American was free to be an inventor, an innovator, a founder.
America became the land of opportunity and a nation of pioneers.
We attracted people of pioneering spirit from around the world.
They came here for freedom and opportunity, knowing that the
cost was incredibly high: leaving behind family and the
familiar, learning a new language, often living at first in
poverty, sometimes facing prejudice, working long and hard
hours.
All of these pioneers built a nation of incomparable prosperity
and unrivaled security.
After its founding, our national economy grew thanks to more
pioneers people like Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Edison,
Henry Ford, William Procter and Robert Wood Johnson, Bill
Hewlett and Dave Packard and Thomas Watson. These are names we
know but the less well known are just as vital American
innovators, and they number in the millions.
That American pioneering spirit is what propelled us to master
the industrial age just as today we marshal the information age.
This course for America, chosen by the founders, has been
settled for over 200 years. Ours is the creed of the pioneers,
the innovators, the strivers who expect no guarantee of success,
but ask only to live and work in freedom. This creed is under
assault in Washington today. Liberals are convinced that
government knows better than the people how to run our
businesses, how to choose winning technologies, how to manage
healthcare, how to grow an economy, and how to order our very
lives. They want to gain through government takeover what they
could never achieve in the competitive economy power and control
over the people of America. If these liberal neo-monarchists
succeed, they will kill the very spirit that has built the
nation the innovating, inventing, creating, independent current
that runs from coast to coast.
This is the liberal agenda for government. It does not encourage
pioneers, inventors and investors it suffocates them.
In a world where others have lost their liberty by trading it
away for the false promises of the state, we choose to hold to
our founding principles. We will stop these power-seekers where
they stand. We will keep America, America, by retaining its
character as the land of opportunity. We welcome the
entrepreneur, the inventor, the innovator. We will insist on
greatness from every one of our citizens, and rather than
apologizing for who we are or for what we have accomplished, we
will celebrate our nation's strength and goodness. American
patriots have defeated tyrants, liberated the oppressed, and
rescued the afflicted. America's model of innovation, capitalism
and free enterprise has lifted literally billons of the worlds
people out of poverty. America has been a force for good like no
other in this world, and for that we make no apology.