CQ Transcriptswire

SPEAKERS: SEN. JOHN CORNYN, R-TEXAS

COLLEEN HOLMES, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, EAGLE FORUM

[*] HOLMES: Good morning. My name is Colleen Holmes. I am the executive director of Eagle Forum here in Washington, D.C., and it is a great honor this morning to introduce our speaker.

As any gentleman will tell, it takes a real patriot and a truly dedicated public servant to leave the great state of Texas to come to Washington, D.C. Well, we’ve got some Texans in the House this morning.

That’s especially true when you have a career that’s as distinguished as Senator John Cornyn . Before being elected to the U.S. Senate in 2002, he served as Texas District Court judge, a member of the Texas Supreme Court and Texas attorney general.

Senator Cornyn’s colleagues have joked that he is the only person in the Senate to have practiced real law and that grounding in real life is more important than ever in these times where we’re hearing about so many different brands and justice, social justice, economic justice, even environmental justice.

But as a seasoned jurist, Senator Cornyn knows that true justice does not have a political agenda. And for that reason, he has taken unwavering stance, calling for strict constructionists’ jurisprudence, and he strongly condemned the practice of judges legislating from the bench.

Throughout his career, Senator Cornyn has tirelessly advocated for open government and accountable government. Or as he would put it, he started to bring some Texas sunshine to Washington and, boy, do we need that?

Part of these efforts include his instrumental role in passing the 2007 OPEN Government Act, which extensively reformed the Freedom of Information Act.

Senator Cornyn currently sits on the Senate finance judiciary and budget committees and serves as a top Republican on the Judiciary Committee’s Immigration, Refugees and Border Security Subcommittee.

He also serves as the deputy -- on the Deputy Whip team after just one year in office and has been a member of the Republican Senate Leadership since 2006. He has served as the vice chairman of the Senate Republican Conference.

And in November of 2008, his colleagues chose him to lead their National Republican Senatorial Committee where he continues to advocate for strong conservative principles of bolstering our national defense, repairing our broken immigration system and securing our borders and strengthening the economy by expanding job opportunities, keeping taxes low and reducing spending.

Senator Cornyn is a graduate of Trinity University and St. Mary School of Law, both in Texas, and he earned the masters of law from the University of Virginia Law School. I hope the Texas will forgive him that. And as further evidence of his excellent judgment and something that we at Eagle Forum certainly appreciate, I understand that Senator Cornyn has a unique appreciation and often expresses his appreciation for conservative women. He married one and raised two.

He has been married to his wife, Sandy, who is with him today for 29 years. Please welcome Senator John Cornyn .

CORNYN: Thank you very much. Ms. Colleen, thank you for that very nice introduction, and it’s great to be with all of you here at CPAC.

I appreciate all of the conservatives coming from around the country to here to Washington, D.C., because the fact is, as you have heard learned that change has indeed come to Washington. You can see it as you ride around the public transportation system where it’s now more crowded under the bus than it is on the bus.

And you can see this as you stroll by the office of the IRS, where it’s now, of course, patriotic to pay your taxes unless, of course, you are a member of Obama’s cabinet.

And just this week, the Democrats have tried change the District of Columbia to the State of Columbia with its own representative in Congress and perhaps some day to senators too.

But one thing will never change. The elites in Washington and the media will continue to betray conservatives as out of touch, out of fashion and out of luck. But one thing hasn’t changed: they are wrong.

Following the thumping we got in the last election, the conservative movement is regrouping, reorganizing and renewing itself. And we’re bringing forward new leaders to restore America’s strength and prosperity and to defend our enduring values.

Conservatives have been in the wilderness before. And as before, we can begin the work of picking ourself up and dusting ourself off right here at CPAC.

Back in 1977, after Democrats had taken control of both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue, Ron Reagan came to CPAC and reminded us that America’s values had not changed.

He said, “We who are proud to call ourselves conservative are not a minority of a minority party. We are part of the great majority of Americans of both parties and of most independence as well.”

Of course, four years later, Ronald Reagan returned to CPAC as president of the United States. And soon after that, America began one of its longest periods of economic expansion. And the Soviet Union was on its way to the ash heap of history.

As President Reagan was beginning his second term, I first ran for public office. Back then, Texas was a one-party state, Democratic, and they held the stranglehold on virtually every office from the local level to the state level. And perhaps unsurprisingly, corruption was a serious problem.

Well, despite the odds and a few of us decided to buck the system and run. We ran as Republicans. More importantly perhaps, we ran as reformers. And we won.

Since then, I have had the honor to serve in all three branches of government, the judicial, the executive and now on the legislative branch as United States senator, representing my beloved Texas. Make sure you give the Texans time to applause there.

As a conservative, I can’t tell you that I won every battle I have engaged in. As a conservative, I had to keep learning about how to apply our principles to new challenges.

But as a conservative, I found that when you stand on principle consistently, you can earn the public trust and even the respect of your adversaries and good things can happen.

I still believe good things can happen. Following his primary defeat in 1976, Ronald Reagan was quoted in old Irish ballad, and said, “I will lay me down and bleed a while. Though I am wounded, I am not slain. I will rise and fight again.”

I believe as conservatives, we spend enough time bleeding. And now, it’s the time to get back in the battle and fight. I do believe that we need to choose our battles wisely.

With a new president, with the kind of popularity new presidents tend to have, we need to pick those battles, but make no -- have no doubt about it. It is a time to fight back. And that’s why I agree to take on a new job in addition to new six-year term as United States senator from Texas, as chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

In case you haven’t noticed, the Republican caucus in the Senate is a lot smaller than it was just a few years ago.

In fact, in 2002, when I came to Washington representing Texas, we had 55 Republican senators. And now, they are 41. I think it’s just obvious that if we don’t turn this around, then soon we will be able to run out the Republican cloakroom and just meet on the elevator.

But you all understand what having 41 senators means. It means we barely have enough votes to deny cloture in the Senate, and that is if all Republicans stick together. No easy task depending on the issue.

Having 41 means that we have leverage to block bad legislation or perhaps more importantly to shape it, and to bring Democrats to the negotiating table, so we can actually improve it and send a bill to the president that he will and should sign.

Having 41 Republicans means that Harry Reid is only one vote away on each and every piece of legislation from having filibuster-proof majority, and having in effect what Nancy Pelosi has in the House. So I think it’s just obvious as a nose on our face, our mission is clear, we must win more Republican seats. We must build a new majority.

And this is just as important. In the process we must regain the trust and confidence of the American people. Our first task is to support a good man, Norm Coleman in Minnesota,

Norm is a fantastic human being and he is a great leader that Minnesotans can be proud of. The Democrats, of course, are up to their old tricks, up there in the land of 10,000 lakes, which has now become the land of 10,000 lawyers, as Al Franken continues to try to steal this election,

Now, I believe that Norm has a real shot at pulling this out in the recount litigation that’s occurring right now. I am still calling him “old number 42.” We’ll continue to support Norm, and I encourage you to do so as well, because we need him back,

Our second task is to be honest with ourselves about why we lost so many seats over these last two cycles. And I believe it boils down to this.

We lost the trust of the American people. A post-election survey sums it up. When asked which party sticks to their principles more often, only 37 percent said Republicans, while 44 percent said the Democratic Party -- shocking to me,

The good news is our conservative principles weren’t the problem. According to the same survey, 69 percent of the American people describe themselves as fiscal conservatives, while only 27 percent said they were liberals on issues like taxes and spending, and 53 percent describe themselves as social conservatives, Compared to 40 percent, who say they are liberals on issues like abortion or same sex marriage.

Democrats understand these numbers too, that’s why they recruited a junior senator from Pennsylvania who is pro-life and a junior senator from New York who sleeps with guns under her bed,

And that’s why Obama, quite skillfully, but deceptively promised tax cuts to 95 percent of the American people, and promised it so often that by the end of the presidential campaign, as amazing as it may sound, more voters thought he would be better bet on taxes than John McCain ,

So the message to the voters seems pretty clear to me. The American people will support us if we stick to our principles and they will abandon us if we don’t.

Now to reclaim our party’s identity, we must demonstrate our principles in respectful opposition. Principle opposition means supporting the idea of the stimulus bill, if it’s timely targeted and temporary, and opposing when it’s not.

Principle opposition means supporting the administration, when it calls for greater transparency and accountability in government, and exposing their hypocrisy when their rhetoric doesn’t match reality.

And principle opposition means reading the fine print on what the Democrats are actually doing and explaining the American people what they’re trying to get away with.

One example of reading the fine print is drawing attention to what I call, “Bailouts for Trial Lawyers,” the Democrats moved through Congress recently.

Now, trial lawyers have give a big money to the Democrats and they seem to be getting their money’s worth for their investment.

In the stimulus bill, in the so called Lilly Ledbetter Act, and another legislation moving through Congress, the Democrats are encouraging more litigation and creating more uncertainty in the workplace.

Now I think the last thing in our businesses and our job creators need is to worry about the threat of more litigation, but that’s exactly what the democrats are trying to do.

We must read the fine print and help the American people understand what it means. The simple truth is for millions of voters who voted for this president, they didn’t think they were voting for bailouts for trial lawyers, but that’s what they got.

Our task is to show them what’s really going on here in Washington. So that the furlong (ph) they are saying that’s simply is not what we bargained for in this last election.

The fourth thing we need to do is to recruit good candidates to run as Republicans in 2010. Right now, I see the landscape is pretty promising. There are some incumbent seats in the U.S. Senate that we’ve got to defend, and open seats we must hold, like Ohio, Missouri and Florida.

And we may even have some unexpected opportunities in places like New York, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Arkansas, Colorado, Nevada, and yes, even California.

As somebody who has run in 14 contested elections, I’m a strong believer that getting the right candidate is 90 percent of the game, getting candidates who can communicate our principles, who will work hard, and will connect with the voters in their states.

And the National Republican Senatorial Committee, working with Michael Steele at the RNC, and my friend Pete Sessions over at the Congressional Committee -- we can offer good candidates the tools they need in order to win.

Now, not all of these candidates are going to be as conservative as I am on each and every issue, it’s critical that we get candidates that will fit their states and who can get elected.

But I don’t think there’s any contradiction between being principled and pragmatic. As I said, I’m one of -- I’m proud to be the fourth most conservative Republican in the United States Senate. Back in Texas, we call that mainstream.

But I have to tell you, I would rather have a Republican who votes with me 80 percent of the time than a liberal Democrat who will vote with me zero percent of the time. You can sign me up on each and every occasion to support that Republican for election and to oppose that Democrat.

Now I understand that, occasionally, we get frustrated by the way some of my colleagues vote -- I do to. But a circular firing squad is no solution to the problems our party finds itself to in right now.

Remember that Ronald Reagan was able to accomplish quite a lot with Republican caucus that was not as conservative as our caucus is even today, because, and this is important, because he had a Republican majority in United States Senate.

When today’s Republican recapture the majority, we will be able to control the agenda. As you know, the chairman of a committee determines what bills are called up in the committee. The majority leader, when Mitch McConnell is majority leader then he will be able to determine which bills actually come to the floor of the Senate.

And we will be able to keep the worse liberal ideas off the floor entirely, and. of course in doing so, to limit the chances of division among our rights.

So to be a national party we have to put blue and purple states into play. We must be a national party and we must run candidates that can win in every region of the country.

Now this brings me to my final point. I believe it’s very important that we broaden our party and we increase our appeal among groups that share our values, conservative values, but they don’t necessarily identify themselves as Republicans or maybe even identify themselves as conservatives.

Some of these people I’m talking about are independents. Some are young people, who are just forming their own thoughts about how government should work. Many are Hispanics, African-Americans or members of other ethnic and religious communities.

Reaching to these people doesn’t mean apologizing for our principles or watering them down, it doesn’t mean saying, yes, but less to every liberal initiative.

Above all it doesn’t mean playing the game of identity politics that the Democrats seem to play so well. Conservatives must resist the poisonous liberal notion that political convictions come from your race, or your class, rather than your head and your heart.

Reaching out does mean getting out there and leaving with these folks, and welcome them, and explaining to them, who we are and inviting them to join us.

But I believe the sage philosopher Woody Allen it about right. When he said that 80 percent of success in life is showing up then we need show up. We need to show up not just at election time, but all the time.

Now, some of the way we can show up, but we can’t do so when person is by embracing new technology. And we have learnt from Obama how devastating that new technology can be when used against us. But we’ve got to embrace it and used it ourselves. And we have to use new networking compatibilities in order to reach out.

But some times -- and I think most of the time -- the best way to show up is just to sit down with people face to face, and treat them with the dignity that they deserve, and explain to them why we are conservatives, and why we believe conservative principles affirm that human dignity, and are the best way for us to exercise our freedoms here in America.

Let me give you just one example. Last November, I won 36 percent of the Hispanic vote in Texas. Now I wish that number were higher, I won’t lie to you, but I’m proud that I got so high in a pretty tough election.

36 percent of the vote was actually 5 points higher than Senator McCain got nation wide among Hispanics and I had a Hispanic opponent.

Despite...

(APPLAUSE)

CORNYN: Now, despite broad Hispanic support for the McCain- Kennedy immigration bill, as you know, I had major reservations about it and I ended up voting no.

But nevertheless, many Hispanics...

(APPLAUSE)

CORNYN: Many Hispanics, Republicans, independents and Democrats ended up supporting me for one simple reason.

We took the time and effort to build relationships within the Hispanic community.

We demonstrated our respect by showing up and telling them both what we were doing and listening to their concerns in responding.

As we build these relationships, we discovered that something I think that is very important for all of us here at CPAC to understand, Hispanics are among the most conservative voters in the nation when it comes to their basic core values.

Hispanics own small businesses, so they respond to our economic message of lower taxes and sensible regulation.

Hispanics are social conservatives and believe in traditional marriage and the sanctity of human life.

And many Hispanics appreciate the facts that Republicans are the ones that stand up when it comes to trade and foreign policy. We reject demigods like Hugo Chavez; we support reformers like President Calderon in Mexico, and President Reuben in Columbia.

(APPLAUSE)

CORNYN: And we work to expand trade throughout our hemisphere and around the globe, because we believe that creates jobs and opportunity right here at home.

The false liberal narrative that conservatives want to push people out of the movement is just that. It’s false.

The truth is our principles when correctly explained can draw people in.

Well, it’s been a tough year for conservatives, there’s no question about it.

As many people predicted here at CPAC, just a year ago, as our dear departed friend Tony Snow reminded us then when one act of the drama ends, another is sure to begin.

This is our moment Tony said, “This is the time to do what we do best, turn adversity into strength.”

We’re not about to walk back from the high ideals and grand accomplishments that we’ve achieved over the last generation.

Ronald Reagan, Tony Snow, and so many others who have inspired us are gone, but their principles, the principles that inspired them are still with us because they lived for lives on.

We who gathered here at CPAC are some of those who will carry that conservative banner forward.

Others will join us from every state across the land, and together we can earn the support of the American people and create a new era of opportunity.

Thank you, very much and God bless you all.

(APPLAUSE)

(UNKNOWN): Anybody have any doubt? Right, Texans are awfully proud of Senator John Cornyn ...

(APPLAUSE)

(UNKNOWN): Every right today. Introducing our next guest is Larry Hart.

He is the director of government relations for the American Conservative Union and brings 13 years of experience in the legislative and executive branches of the government.

In 1999, he formed Hartco Strategies, a media relations and political consulting firm whose clients ranged from members of Congress to non-profits, and he’s been involved in politics at every level throughout his career.

He also served as the professional staff of the House science committee, on subcommittee on energy and environment for four years after a three-year stint at the Department of Energy, issues that are increasingly important to all of us.

Earlier, he was communications director for Congressman Dana Rohrabacher of California and, before that, the late Herb Bateman of Virginia.

He’s also been active in efforts to rebuild Afghanistan, serving as pro-bono executive director of the Afghanistan-America Foundation, and in 2002, produced “Life After War,” a documentary focusing on NPR with war correspondent Sarah Chayes who left media to help rebuild a village near Kandahar.

He’s also, for those who may stay up late and watch late night, was a child actor and for the all-night cable enthusiast you may see him occasionally on the “The Real McCoys” and “The Donna Reed Show,” making a rare, early morning appearance, Larry Hart.

(APPLAUSE)

HART: Good morning. Good looking morning, crowd. You know one of the hardest things in politics is to give up a safe seat in Congress to run for higher office. Particularly, when it means taking on your parties establishment in a primary.

Many consider it, few do it. But that’s exactly what our next speaker did in 2004, when he gave up his House seat to run for the Senate.

Jim DeMint took on former South Carolina Governor David Beasley and a wealthy developer and finished second, well behind Beasley in the first round of the primary.

Undaunted, he persuade and won the run off easily, then went on to defeat the well known state education superintendent in the general election.

Well, taking on tough challenges as characterized Jim DeMint ’s Senate career as he is the leading opponent of the Senate, of the ultimate bipartisan sacred cow, the earmark.

For this...

(APPLAUSE)

HART: ...For this Bob Novak has called him a hero, and the Wall Street Journal Steve Moore, the taxpayers greatest allay for saving the taxpayers some $17 billion by his actions.

Now among some of his colleagues, there are few less laudatory labels. But at the American Conservative Union, we call him a defender of liberty, for being the only senator to score 100 on our ratings for 2008.

(APPLAUSE)

HART: A year that’s all Republicans barely divided on the best course of action. Well for Jim DeMint , the course of action was clear.

Apply conservative principals to every vote you cast.

He defines it this way. “The greatness of a country is found in its people and its values, not in its governments.”

(APPLAUSE)

HART: Jim DeMint is applying those principles to the chairmanship of the Senate’s steering committee, which includes a majority of the Republican conference and works to advance conservative causes in the Senate.

Just yesterday, he forced the Senate to vote on his amendment to repudiate efforts to restore the so-called “Fairness Doctrine.”

(APPLAUSE)

HART: It carried overwhelmingly.

Pleasure to introduce Senator Jim DeMint .

(APPLUASE)

DEMINT: I need you folks to get me out of bed every morning. I think, I am ready to go fly.

I can’t thank you enough. You don’t know how encouraging it is to those who of us who are in the fight for 9000 of you to come from all over the country to encourage us, and to create that critical mass that keeps us moving forward.

So, thank you for being here and thanks for getting up so early this morning to listen to us.

I am just back from the frontlines and we do have a few things to celebrate from yesterday.

And we are seeing with examples like this fairness doctrine that with the support of the American people through bloggers and radio talk shows, we can get people to speak out and to stand up and to call-in and e-mail, and we can change the minds of so many senators if we have people who are willing to stand up and fight.

Yesterday we did, force a vote. They wouldn’t allow this vote in the House, but I worked with members of the House. We worked together to work the media, to get the message and the truth to the people that this potential of the fairness doctrine coming back was a real threat.

And they couldn’t get a vote in the House for because the rules in the Senate, we could add it as an amendment to something else, and we forced the Democrats out of their closets and we got 87 votes to kill the fairness doctrine.

(APPLAUSE)

DEMINT: And we need to take that same idea, that same process of engaging the American people to take back our government and to take back our country and I believe that we can and I believe in some ways it’s starting right here this week with you folks converging on Washington to tell us that you are behind us.

Well, I am excited about yesterday, but I am actually more excited about something else.

My wife and I are on baby watch, grand baby watch actually.

(APPLAUSE)

DEMINT: Now, we’re expecting our second grandson tomorrow actually.

So, if you see me run off the stage, you see I got a better offer than you have here this morning.

When our first grandson, he’s two-and-a-half years, his name is Jimbo (ph). That’s a good New England name, right?

You could tell on from south of the Mason-Dixon Line.

But I tell you this, and I could see some of you in the audience who are probably grandparents too and you know it’s true when I say it that the only thing in life, it’s not overrated, is being a grandparent.

But it does -- it gives you new perspective of what we are working for here, and it is about our children and grand children, and the future of the country, carrying on with so many who fought and died for.

It’s a very real cause that we are here fighting for.

I really appreciate my good friend, John Cornyn .

He’s not only part of our elected leadership and responsible for getting a Republicans elected to the Senate, but he is one of the conservative leaders that sits around a small table with me on the steering committee to help move our Republican conferences back towards conservative principles.

He’s got a tough job. He has got a tough job, and he is right. We have to find ways to appeal to a larger number of American voters. And I believe we can, but not by saying one thing and doing another, not by talking about limited government, while increasing the number of earmarks, expanding government, spending in debt to historic levels.

Before we earn the votes of Americans, we must re-earn the trust of the American people.

The current majority and the new administration has plans to expand the reach of government beyond anything that we’ve ever imagined. Now is the time for conservatives to champion the ideas that have worked and will work for America. Now is the time to show America the real differences between the parties.

The party politics and political labels will not win elections. We must stand for the principles that work, the principles that made America great and will make America great in the future. I believe we can win the hearts and minds of many more Americans, but not by changing what we believe, not by abandoning our principles.

We can do it by convincing Hispanics, Sacraments (ph), blacks, white, poor, rich, by convincing all Americans that we are better off when we’re free, that we will be more prosperous and more secure when we can make our own choices from many alternatives in all areas of our lives based on the things that we value as individuals and as families.

We will win the hearts and the votes of the American people when we convince them that freedom will work for them, their families and for every American.

When we stand together for Americans to make their own choices about where their children go to school and their way to choose their own doctors and to own a health plan, a health plan that they can afford and keep from job to job; when we fight for them to have a choice to own their own social security account and to keep a larger share of what they earn in their paychecks; when American see us fighting, not just talking, but fighting for their rights and freedom, then we will earn their trust and their votes.

Most Americans don’t expect the government to give them the American dream. But they do expect their elected officials to make sure that they have the opportunity to work for it and to earn it. That dream begins with individuals, not the government.

The American dream will be within reach for all our citizens, when our families, schools, churches, businesses and community organizations, all of our institutions work together to equip our citizens with the character, the skills and the capabilities to succeed in a free society.

When the majority of Americans are responsible for themselves and accountable for their own decisions, then we will have an America where freedom works. When we can convince Americans that this freedom will work for them, that this freedom will give them and their children a better life, more prosperity and security, then we’ll win the votes of the American people and then we will deserve the votes of the American people. Thank you.

For years, I have been burdened by a growing concern that Americans have lost the knowledge and the understanding of what freedom is and how it works. We still hear freedom mentioned in political speeches, but politicians of all stripes like pied pipers leading children to their demise have been successful in lowering Americans into more and more dependence on government.

We really shouldn’t be surprised. A nation that raises its children in government schools cannot expect its people to stand for the principles of freedom.

You know, I have spilled these burdens along with my heart and soul along to the pages of our new book that I have titled “Saving Freedom”. The subtitle is we can stop America slide into socialism. The publisher is V&H International (ph). The book will be introduced on July 4th under their new Fidelis (ph) imprint.

My goal with this book is to remind Americans of how important freedom has been to the success of our country and how important it is to our future, to explain how freedom works and how we can preserve and protect it.

I am convinced that neither Congress nor the president will save freedom. In fact, unless Americans fight back, the federal government will continue to erode freedom in every area of our lives. Only the American people, informed, engaged, activated and enraged can save our country now.

I believe Americans are sick of politics, as they should be. I think they’re thirsty for common sense solutions and the truth. I am convinced that if we show them the right target, if we tell them how they can help save freedom, they will shoot.

Unfortunately, over 10 years, neither Republicans nor Democrats have offered very good choices. It’s time for that to change.

Earlier this week, we heard the world’s best salesman of socialism address the nation. I was right there right on the second row, and it sounded so good. But like so much political doublespeak, President Obama’s speech was designed to mislead the American people.

He is not confident in our people or in our free markets or our free institutions. He believes in government, and most of his solutions are more government spending and new government programs. He spoke of lofty goals and how government was going to fix everything that is wrong with America.

I agree with many of his goals. We need to fix our financial system, fix our schools and reform healthcare. We need to make America more energy independent and cut wasteful programs and improve our nation’s infrastructure. We all agree on those things, but we can’t accomplish these goals with more government programs and spending. Think about it. We just need America to think about it. The president lambasted the greed and waste of banks and Wall Street, but what bank would make a loan to someone they knew couldn’t pay it back unless the government was there to buy that loan.

You know, and what securities firm or asset managers on Wall Street would buy a bundle of these loans unless it came with a government guarantee. It wouldn’t happen.

Hey -- and why not buy these securities with borrowed money when the Federal Reserve offers an interest rates that’s lower than the guaranteed return rate on the securities they guarantee. Folks, this is just human nature of good common sense. The free markets and deregulation did not wreck our credit markets in our economy; the government and political greed.

It is government and political greed or on the bulls eye of the target of what’s wrong with our economy. Stupid government policies have destroyed the accountability of the free markets.

The president presented some devastating statistics about education in America. But who has been running our schools for the last 40 years? It’s really the federal government and our courts. We spend more on education as a nation than any other government program, more per child than any other nation in the world.

Obama believes that more federal control and more spending is the answer. But that is completely irrational. In America, we’ll know it if we tell them the truth. I’ll make my own guarantee. If we let the $10,000 plus a year that we are now spending on every student in America, if we let that money follow the student to the school of their parents’ choice, public or private, secular or religious, I will guarantee that within five years America will have the best schools in the world.

I worked all my life in the free markets, and I’ll tell you what would happen. The America -- America’s investment in education would likely double with no additional government spending, as the private sector employed its best minds and technologies to produce a wide variety of learning environments designed to win market share by meeting the needs of a wide variety of students.

Teachers would have many different choices of jobs, and teaching would become a sought-after, well-paid profession. Freedom will work in education if we will just let it.

The president also said that education begins at home. But who has messed up the family structure in America? The government welfare policies increased unwed mothers (ph) from 8 percent to 35 percent and climbing. Government policies have severely damaged the family structure in America. And now, the government wonders why children can’t read when they get to school.

The president said we need to reform healthcare because it’s too expensive and too many people are uninsured. But is more government the answer? I don’t think so. Once again, government has caused the problem. We can’t allow our government to control over half of the insurance market and still expect the private markets to work.

We can’t help employers by health insurance, but then make it impossible, almost impossible, for individuals to find affordable policies for themselves. And then we act surprised that millions of Americans don’t have insurance.

We can’t limit competition between health insurance companies by restricting Americans to only those policies they can get in their state, and still expect health insurance to be competitively priced.

I mean this is not rocket science. Why not let freedom work in healthcare. Every American could have a health insurance plan that they could afford, own and keep, without the government spending, one additional value (ph).

This could go on and on. President Obama complained that America is dependent on foreign countries for 70 percent of our oil, but who has been restricting the drilling of oil?

Who has been restricting the development of clean burning, domestically produced, natural gas? Who has stopped the development of no emission, nuclear energy? Its been our government. Government is the problem.

You know Democrats complained about American manufacturing jobs going overseas, but who loads the highest corporate tax rates onto the backs of American businesses? And who holds businesses hostage with the threat of more lawsuits than any other country in the world? And who strangles American business with regulations? Folks, we’re not letting freedom work, but we are blaming freedom for the problems.

President and the Democratic Congress are blaming America’s problems on free markets and free people, but the truth is beginning to hit the American people, right in the face.

The government is not the answer to our problems, the government is the problem. Freedom is a powerful, but delicate and endangered thing.

When Ronald Reagan said freedom has never been so fragile, so close to slipping from our grasp, when he said that the entire federal budget was one-tenth the size of the stimulus package that we passed two weeks ago.

We need to think about where we’re going. Government is out of control, and freedom is the only solution. In American freedom is built on the principles and values that are derived from Judeo- Christian religious convictions.

If we allow this government to continue to purge religion and faith, religious values and the principles that are derived from our culture, we will loose our freedom.

Freedom sits on the foundations of the values and principles that are derived from faith. But it’s built with the support beams of constitutionally limited government in the rule of law. If we allow Congress and the president to continue to ignore the constitution, and compromise the rule of law, we will loose our freedom.

Freedom solutions will work in education, healthcare, energy, housing and all areas of our economy and culture. Government has never or will it ever, solve our problems.

The good news is that Americans have gotten a glimpse of the big government plans of Obama and the Democrats and millions are ready to stand up, speak out, and yes, even take to the streets to stop America’s slide into socialism.

Now, we’re looking for leaders, and everyone seems to be asking, who will be the new leaders of the Republican Party in the conservative movement.

First, I hope these two groups will be one and the same in the future.

Let’s not rush to pick leaders based on, who is the best speaker, the best personality, the best politician, or the best looking. That would eliminate me right away.

But just give me a teleprompter. I don’t know these were here this morning. If you could just see me with a teleprompter you would (inaudible).

We need to look for those men and women, who are willing to stand and fight for the principles of freedom. We will know that we have found our new leaders, when we see people with character and conviction, stand with courage for the principles of freedom.

When we see American’s, black and white, men and women, immigrants, poor, old, young, Republicans, independents, even some democrats, when we see these American’s inspired and responding to those among us, who are standing for freedom, we will know that we have found our leaders.

Thank you, for standing for freedom, with courage and conviction for the cause of freedom.

(UNKNOWN): Thank you, senator. Isn’t it clear that those on the left, you say Republicans are just obstructionist, the conservatives are offering no alternatives, clearly, they are just not listening. And maybe they need to listen lot more carefully.

Grover Norquist is our next introducer. He is the president of Americans for Tax Reform, a grass roots tax payer group, founded at the request of President Reagan in 1986. I just refer to him as The President and still do.

ATR asked our candidates to sign the tax payer protection pledge, committing themselves in writing, not just in words, to oppose all tax increases. He serves on boards of National Rifle Association. The American Conservative Union and serves as president of the American Society of Competitiveness.

He also rocked the house, the story of 1994 Republican sweep of Congress and most recently has written Leave Us Alone: Getting the Government’s Hands Off Our Money, Our Guns, Our Lives.

He also chairs the Wednesday meeting in Washington DC, were over 120, to 150 activists gather each week to promote conservative ideas and a pro-freedom coalition.

Please welcome Grover Norquist.

NORQUIST: Ladies and gentlemen, it is my privilege to introduce John Boehner. Who is the gentleman, who when he came to Congress from Ohio, told his constituents, if you want somebody to go to Washington and steel money and bring it back to the district, what they call earmarks, you want to vote for somebody else.

And in his time in Washington, he has kept that commitment, and then a leader to keep spending down, not one of the shoplifters that thought their job was to bring goodies back to their friends.

He is one of the gang of seven. The original effort by Republicans to reform the way Congress worked, and moved and he became a leader in the effort for the contract with America, which helped us Republican control of the House and Senate.

But now he is the Republican leader in the house. And he just did a very amazing thing. It’s the first step on our road back to a Republican and conservative House of Representatives, and that was to hold every single Republican to say no to Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid spending...

(APPLAUSE)

NORQUIST: That was step one on the road to a majority. Imagine the billions and tens of billions of dollars and your tax dollars that were dangled in front of people asking to please be bipartisan, set your principles aside, and give us the votes and every hour under Congressman Boehner’s leadership said no.

Please write down and remember a couple of numbers. We need, in 2010 to win 40 House seats, presently held by Democrats. Some masquerading as conservatives, but everyone of them -- Nancy Pelosi , liberal in their voting and that are fact.

We need to pick up 40 seats after the March 31, election in New York. 20, we will need to 39 seats. So as Alfred Hitchcock would say, there are 39 steps to a Republican majority.

One other number, there are 46 Democrat members in Congress today, sitting in seats that voted in ‘84 and ‘88 for Bush and McCain at the presidential levels. Those were not exactly our strongest presidential years, but 46 Ds sitting seats that actually want to elect Republicans. It is my honor to introduce to you leader Boehner, the next speaker of the House of Representatives.

BOEHNER: Good morning to all of you. On the way here this morning, I remember that my first visit to CPAC occurred 24 years ago in 1985, when I was brand new state representative.

Some of my friends from my state rep district suggested I come to this gathering. And I came here in 1985, 1986, and really, I came here to learn more about our movement.

And is see some of my friends here KD (ph) and Dave Kern, couple of constituents, who have taken upon themselves back in the late 80s and early 90s to make sure that I never wavered from the truth. Dave, KD (ph), thank you very much for your help.

Not many of you know a whole lot about me, but I come from Cincinnati. I grew up there. I have 11 brothers and sisters, and my dad owned a bar, all right.

Now, there is a lot that I can say about that, the skills I learned growing up or the skills I need to my job today. Growing up in a big family, you have to learn get along with each other, get things done together, gets thing done as a family.

I grew up work at a bar, mopping the floors, waiting tables, attending bar and there you learned to deal with every character that walks in the door. Trust me. I need all of these skills to do my job today.

But I was lucky enough to have parents who cared. And parents who insisted that we get a decent education. I was lucky enough to begin my own business, and to grow my business. And along the way, I got involved in my neighborhood homeowners associations and ended up in the United States Congress.

This too could happen to you. But I got involved in this for one big reason that the opportunities that were available to me and the opportunities that were available to all of you, I thought were slowly disappearing and I thought someone from the real world would (ph) take more active role in their government.

Now that’s what got me involved and that that’s what keeps me involved.

I didn’t come into Congress because I wanted to be a congressman. I came here to do something to preserve the opportunities that were available to us so that were available to our kids and theirs.

(APPLAUSE)

BOEHNER: But that’s freedom that we enjoyed, economic freedom is really under assault today. And I think the stimulus was the opening of salvo. It was supposed to be focused on jobs, jobs, jobs and it turned into nothing more than spending, spending, and more spending.

But when you put this in the hands of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reed, it obviously became a gravy train for leftwing pork, and I knew something was wrong when I read the first version of the bill, and it had the word contraceptives in it, $230 million.

And I brought up to everyone’s attention and guess what they have finally decided to take it out, but...

Sitting in my desk right when this outline came out before -- long before they have resolved the bill, and I was looking at this outline eating my lunch, getting ready up to the press gallery and talk a little bit about it, and all I could think of was, “oh my god.”

When you look at all of the spending that was in there, for every leftwing idea there whatever it was, you began to realize that we were on the wrong path.

And while they got the contraceptive language out there, it’s still has money in there for (inaudible) just watch, because as this bill starts to get implemented, I will assure you that you will know how every dime of this bill is going to be spent.

And now this bill set the stage for government controlled healthcare, began to dismantle the welfare reforms for 1997 by relaxing the work requirements.

And most of the tax relief was really welfare, tax relief to people who don’t pay income taxes.

And how do you make the economy better by encouraging people to work less and making them more dependant on our government?

There was one Congressman though -- one Congressman who vote to president and they asked him, well, why did you vote president.

And he said, “Well, because that’s how President Obama used to vote when he had the vote on lousy bills.”

Well, let me tell you that, there wasn’t one Republican who voted to president, there wasn’t one Republican who voted yes, we all voted no.

The liberals and the mainstream media, they just didn’t know how to deal with it.

First they said, we (inaudible) no, and then when I pointed out, well no, they have an alternative, an alternative that would have cost half as much as the Democrats and would have created twice as many jobs in America.

Then they said, well, they are committing political suicide. But Nelson and I (ph) pointed out that some 53 percent of Americans think the stimulus will either won’t help or will hurt our economy.

But that wasn’t the end of what’s happened here in the first five weeks of the Obama administration.

This spending barrage was just beginning. This week, the House passed an omnibus appropriations bill, the largest spending bill that we passed since the stimulus, $410 billion, $30 billion over budget, the largest increase in the domestic discretionary spending since (inaudible) years, and a bill that had 9,000 earmarks in it.

And as Webber pointed out, “I’ve never asked for an earmark, I’ll never ask for one. My job wasn’t to come to Washington and steal from public treasury for my districts. It was to stand up for my district and to fight for freedom for the American people.”

And while they had money in this bill for blueberry research on nature center, a whole bunch of other beautification projects, they couldn’t find money to continue the D.C. scholarship program to help poor kids get out of some of the most rotten schools in America and give them a chance at a decent education.

One of the issues that I hope put into law of some seven or eight years ago, but they’ve made it clear they’re going to kill this program, that’s how bad this is.

One day after President Obama gave the speech about hope, Nancy Pelosi passed a bill that takes away hope for thousands of American kids here in D.C. They have a chance at this decent education.

But that wasn’t enough. The stimulus, the omnibus, and then yesterday what happens, the budget comes out.

This budget is nothing more than a job killer, plain and simple.

It erases taxes on all Americans in the midst of a recession.

It relies on tax increases on small business, family firms, middle class families, retirees, charities, every American with a 401 (k) and yes, any American who dares to flip on a light switch and all. They are all going to pay higher taxes under this budget.

The government tried to raise taxes in a recession once before.

It was the Hoover administration, we all know what happened.

But this budget also includes the so-called cap-and-trade system for global climate change, which is a French term for pink slip or as what I’d like to call it another code word for a carbon tax in America.

American jobs are going to be under threat and if we do this with our industrialized countries working together with us we will ship millions of American jobs overseas. And I can say that I my demo -- Republican colleagues and all democrat members of the Congress are never going to stand to see taxes raised on Americans to the tune of $1.3 trillion and they ship millions of American jobs overseas, it’s just not going to happen.

Well, the stimulus, the omnibus, the budget, it’s all one big down payment on a new American socialist experiment.

They’re laying the groundwork for everything in these bills, expanded welfare, government run healthcare, green jobs, the works.

They even want to pay irresponsible neighbors mortgage off for them.

All this is being done though on the backs of our kids and our grand kids, and all of these bills seek to replace our economic freedom of what their wins and mandates of politicians and bureaucrats.

Listen, I took to meet from liberals for my speech on the House floor opposing the stimulus.

They didn’t like it when I pointed out, but no member of the Congress had read the nearly 11,000 -- 1,100 pages in this bill.

And they didn’t really didn’t like it when I toss this bill on the floor of the House. They called it disrespectable.

Well, I tell you it was disrespectable, it’s taken a trillion dollars from our kids and grandkids and giving it out to people like A. Corman (ph) and other liberal groups at America.

Disrespectful is spending a trillion dollars of money that our kinds and grandkids going to have to pay for in the dark of night behind closed doors without even giving the Americans more -- less than a day to actually read the bill. Don’t talk to me about disrespectful.

And all the way the new democratic Congress handled the stimulus and handled the omnibus tends to reminds me of what happened in the early 90s.

This was common practice. We changed that. Newt Gingrich, Vin Weber, Bob Walker, Dick Armey, we stood up against the democrat majority and we changed it. We won.

We’ve got a new generation of leaders now in the same fight. People like Eric Cantor , Mike Finn, Mitch McConnell (ph), Paul Ryan.

We all know these names; you ought to get to know them. Because they and other GOP performers are working with me to rebuild our party, rebuild our party on sound principles.

The principles that we believe of a smaller less costly and more accountable government. Ronald Regan, when he as governor of California near the end of his term, wrote a letter to his friend who was a banker in Houston, Texas.

And I’m going to just read one paragraph of this letter to you, where he says, “I agree with you about the two parties. If the Republican Party is to look at all, it must know the side what it believes and stand on that and raise a banner to which all who believe can rally. Failing this, I see no future for the party, if it listens to those who say we must become even more like our opponents in order to win elections.”

I believe the people are telling that this won’t work. Let me tell you what I couldn’t agree with Ronald Regan more.

I didn’t come here. I didn’t come here to be a little less like my colleagues across the aisle.

I came here to promote economic freedom. I came here to make sure that the opportunities that were available to all of us will in fact be available to our kids and grandkids.

And so to win in 2010, we’ve got to be the party of new solutions. There are issues that Americans care about, but we have to build solutions on the principles in which we believe in.

We need to explore new ways of connecting with the grassroots and our potential supporters, and we must be prepared to compete everywhere in America.

And how would we do all of this? As I said, we are not just going to be the party of no. We’re just not going to be the party of opposition.

We really are going to be the party of better solutions. We are for better solutions rooted in the enduring conservative principles of freedom and security that have been associated with our parties since Lincoln.

New solutions doesn’t mean new big government programs. It means unleashing the power of freedom around our country in the lives of every single Americans.

And there is another issue where a better solution was already known, and that’s the issue that we’ve known about for thousands of years and it’s the issue of life.

Republicans have been known as the pro-life party, and I’m going to tell you the truth is the American people been on our side throughout this life and you will see Republicans as we get in to these appropriation bills, and if we see the freedom of choice act, I stand up and defend the sanctity of life.

My mother had us 12 of us one at a time, and I’m sure wasn’t convenient for her to have us -- to have 12 of us, but I’m sure glad that she did. And if we were to grow our movement, we have to learn how to use the new media, how to connect with more people around our -- the country. And whether it’s all of the events that the RNC is putting put together -- they have got a big tech summit coming. All of the new tools available to -- for us to reach people in ways that we have never been able to reach them before.

Today, in booth 610, you stop by the Freedom Project. My Political Action Committee that helps candidates all around the country who believe in what we need to believe in.

As I said, we also need to compete everywhere. And when I say compete everywhere, New York 20 is probably the best example. This is where Kirsten Gillibrand was appointed to the Senate. It’s an open race. Jim Tedisco is the minority leader in the New York assembly. He is our candidate.

This election is on March 31st, and it is a giant opportunity for us to let America know that America is on our side. And so, if you’re looking for ways to get plugged in, go get plugged in.

So if you really want to know what we think and you want to help us understand what you think, stop by the Freedom Project booth today.

freedomproject.org, you can go to our Web site. We can tell you about the races that are coming up. And you can find out over there what’s going on in the House of Representatives and how Republicans are standing up and defending the values that we all believe in.

You know, I am really proud to be here. I am doing something I never thought in my wildest dreams I’d ever have a chance to do. But I had an opportunity growing up to play football in high school for a guy named Gerry Faust. He went on to coach at Notre Dame, but I played at Moeller High School. They won a lot of state football championships after I left, all right.

But I and my eight brothers went to Moeller, and I played for Coach Faust. So we won a lot of games. We won a lot of games not because we were bigger, not because we were stronger, not because we had more ability. We won because we believed we were going to win. We won because we believed in ourselves.

And one of the things that I have been trying to drive into our colleagues and demonstrated by the stimulus bill is that when we stand on principle and we do what’s right for America, the right things will happen. And our members are getting their footing. They do believe in themselves.

When I got into high school, I began to think more about what I learned from Coach Faust. And it was really this. There is nothing in this world that you can’t accomplish, nothing that you can’t succeed at, if you are willing to work hard enough and if you are willing to make the sacrifices that are necessary.

And I look back over my life and my career, that formula has worked pretty well. And I think if you look back over your own life and your own career, you realize that that formula has worked for you as well.

I am a big believer in America that our best days are ahead, that our responsibility whether that’s those of us elected or those of us that are here, our responsibility is to make sure that the opportunities that were available to us or available to our kids and our grandkids, and a lot of Americans don’t believe that that is the case today. Why do?

But we’ve got to make the decisions about the future for them. We’ve got to make tough decisions today that will ensure that they have a brighter future. And I also want to say to all of you, “This is a fight that we need to fight. This is a fight that we need to win. Please come and join the fight.” Thank you very much.

(UNKNOWN): Man, if that didn’t get you fired up, you’re not waking. You need some more coffee. And I ought to get it done.

Matt Schlapp will introduce Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell . He has previously served as deputy assistant to the president and director of political affairs in the White House. Prior to his appointment, Schlapp worked in the Bush-Cheney 2000 campaign where he served as regional political director; and in 1994, helped to led Kansas representative, Todd Tiahrt , from Kansas to the U.S. House of Representatives; one of the continuing rising bright stars in Kansas and in the Congress.

And he served as his Chief of Staff. Schlapp is a member of the American Conservative Union board of directors. Give him a big round of applause.

SCHLAPP: Good morning, everyone. I hope you’ve recovered from last night festivities, I feel pretty excited about where everything is. And I am really honored to be standing with you here today to have the privilege to introduce our leader, the Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell .

We know what’s at stake and we know now is the time when we really need experienced leadership. We need to have a clear understanding of what we believe in, and we need to know how to make it happen. Let’s face it. We need our Republican leaders to be tenacious and to be clever and to know what we have to get done.

When I think of Mitch McConnell taking the lead in the Senate, I feel a lot better, especially when I pose a few questions, a few questions about what’s at stake. And you’ve heard about these things from your speakers throughout the conference.

But are you ready to stop the largest tax increase in the history of the globe? Are you ready to stand up and say that when they talk about capping carbon, whenever that is, and talk about cap-and-trade, which is a large tax increase, that we’re going to stand up and say, “This is not the right time. This is never the right time.”

Are you ready to stop the government from stepping in and mandating the wages of factories and mills and businesses all over the country, the government making those decisions in the form of what they call card check? We need to stand up and say, “This is never going to be the right time for that in America.”

And if you are ready to put away America’s credit card, if you’re ready to put the checkbook up and away for a while, you need some adult supervision. If you are ready to say no to the bailouts and the giveaways and rewarding and insuring failure, then I think you’ll join with me in welcoming our next speaker who is not only the leader of our Republicans in the Senate, but he is our leader.

And without further ado, I want to give you a wonderful public servant, someone who is the longest-serving Senator in Kentucky history, someone who knows what we have to do. He is the right man for the right time, Mitch McConnell .

MCCONNELL: Thank you very much, Matt, and good morning, everyone. It’s good to be here.

I’ve been to a number of these CPAC conferences over the years, and this room is packed, and I can’t tell you how excited I am to see all of you this morning.

We’ve had a great line up of speakers. I just saw my friend, John Boehner, on the way out. He is a great teammate here in Congress; John Cornyn , doing a wonderful job to the people of Texas. He is head of our National Republican Senatorial Committee, which is our campaign arm; Jim DeMint , one of the strongest advocates of conservative principles we have. And I know that you’re all as impressed as I am with the leadership of Dr. Tom Coburn .

And I want to thank David Keene for inviting me. David has been one of the great thinkers and foot soldiers in the battle of ideas over the years. He has been organizing this conference longer than most of you been alive. And they get better every year.

In fact, some people call CPAC the conservative spring break. And David is, of course, the driving force. He can be proud of that. And I know he is proud to be the father of a brave young soldier serving our nation on a second tour of duty in Iraq.

You know, the organizers of CPAC probably thought they had done a pretty good job when about 200 people showed up to hear a speech by a Republican governor from California named Ronald Reagan.

At that time, if you could have guessed that the man they have come to hear would do so very much to revive our nation’s fortunes and to help secure the freedom of so many millions overseas and if you could have known how important CPAC would prove to be during that period and still is today.

CPAC has been the host of presidents, lawmakers and some of the nation’s top opinion leaders. And most importantly, it’s been a training ground for young minds.

Of the record 8,500 registrants this year, 8500 registrants this year, more than half are college students, including I’m told a good number from the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Compare that to the left’s annual attempt to imitate CPAC, the so called kick Take Back America conference, which last year drew about a third as many people at CPAC. What this proves, of course, is that conservatives are more fun and interesting than liberals.

I mean let’s be honest. Who wants to hang out with guys like Paul Krugman and Robert Wright when you can be with Roger Hollander (ph).

There are some in the media I’d like to thank that the conservative movement is on the way out, that it’s devoid of energy and enthusiasm. Well, they should come to CPAC. I know it might be a disappointment to many of them, but they’d see what I see. The conservative movement is alive and well.

But even if we put on a better confidence than our friends on the other side, they’ve got quite a bit more influence regretfully at the moment. And they have big plans for the country.

And since all of you are on the frontlines, the volunteers, the organizers, the future opinion leaders who are carrying and will carry our message to a new generation.

This morning, I thought I would discuss some of things that I think we all need to do if you are going to stage a comeback and we must stage a comeback.

Now, the first step in my view is to remind ourselves where we are. The political landscape is a lot different today than it was Kentuckians first send me to Washington.

Imagine this, back then, the Republican governor of New Jersey had just been reelected with 70 percent of the vote. Republicans had just taken over both legislative chambers in Connecticut. And Republican candidate for president had just 49 of 50 states.

For republicans, 1984, the political compass didn’t point in one direction. Our principles, as we know, are universal, but back then it really showed, not so today.

As we look over the political landscape in 2009, we see that every single one of New England’s 21 House members is a Democrat, that there isn’t a single Republican senator representing tens of millions of American on the West Coast.

And that you can walk from Canada to Mexico, and from Montano to Maine, without ever leaving a state in this country that has a Democratic governor.

We are fast becoming a regional party, instead of national one, and there is name for regional party, it’s called the minority party. Being in a minority party might be OK, if you are a college debating society. On today’s campuses it might even be fun in a counter- cultural sort of way, but I assure you it’s not good for America when we are in the minority and none of us should be content to stay there. I should note that looking at the list of events this weekend, it appears that no one at CPAC seems to least bit content about our current political standing or at least with relying on old methods for building the party and communicating our message to the broader public.

One of the reasons, so many of you are here is that somebody else told you, through base book or tweeter, that they were going.

And before you leave many will have heard about the best and latest strategies for raising funds, recruiting candidates or building coalitions for conservative causes among minority groups. All of these things must be at the heart of our renewal.

But the instrument is only as good as the strategy. And the strategy has to improve. First and foremost, we need to search out those who have left our party, wherever they are, and give them a good reason to take a second look.

These people were Republican for a reason. We need to remind them why. As we do this we shouldn’t fall for the false temptation of diluting our principles. You don’t expand your appeal by turning away from those who are the most loyal.

Instead you work harder to appeal to everybody else. But this much is clear, our message isn’t getting out to as many people as it should and that needs to change.

Second, we need to be concerned that the very wealthy and the very poor, the most and least educated, and a majority of minority voters have stopped paying attention to us.

We’ve made the case to Hispanic and African American voters that our policies are best suited to the aspirations of these communities, yet in the last election, Hispanic voters turned out in far greater numbers for the Democratic candidates. And sadly, the party that was founded on the principle of racial equality attracted just 4 percent of the African-American vote in the last presidential election.

These are not reasons to abandon the effort. They’re reasons to work twice as hard. And in this regard it’s encouraging to say that CPAC is hosting a panel this year on the building of Hispanic coalitions. This is a necessary work and it shouldn’t be an uphill battle.

Ronald Reagan once said, Hispanic voters are Republicans, they just don’t know it yet. It’s up to all of you to show Hispanics, in the search for the American dream, that the Republican Party is their home.

As we seek to reach...

(APPLAUSE)

MCCONNELL: As we seek to reach old friends and find new ones, we need to expand our principles. As conservative, we believe a big and encroaching government is a threat to liberty.

That greater liberty and freedom lead to greater prosperity, stronger families and communities; that workers should be allowed to keep more of what they earn; the judges should follow what the constitution says, not what they wanted to; and that human life is sacred.

I was disappointed that one of the first things the new administration did was to reverse the Mexico City Policy. Americans do not want their tax dollars to be used promoting abortion either here or abroad.

Conservatives also believe that the government has no more solemn duty than to protect the people who established it. And on this last point, let’s be very clear about something else.

When it comes to Guantanamo, the new administration needs to show us more concerned with safety than with symbolism. Many of those still detained are serious threats to the safety of our citizens, serious threats. In fact, several of these terrorists still proudly proclaim their desire to kill more Americans.

Now the new attorney general visited Guantanamo earlier this week and returned with a glowing report. He said; it was well run, that he is impressed with the people in charge and that every single person there has to be moved out of Guantanamo and it has to be shut down in less than a year.

The Obama administration needs to answer a very simple question, where exactly do you expect to send these guys?

Well, they don’t have an answer to that question. they don’t have an answer to that question, but I do...

(CROSSTALK)

Those are all very good suggestions. Well, let me tell you where they are to be. They are to be right there in the jail in Guantanamo.

You guys get it. You don’t take much prompting at all. I mean, obviously, that’s where they belong.

Over the past few months, we’ve seen a big government mentality creep back into (inaudible) Capitol Hill. It seems that failed big government solutions of the Carter era are back -- making a come back.

And I assure you Republicans are going to do everything we can to make sure that the failed policies of the past stay where they belong.

And let me tell you where they belong. They belong right next to the bell bottoms and the leisure suits. And no one doubts that government should have a role. Indeed some challenges are so great or so urgent that they do require government to act.

Government can also play an important role in helping Americans meet 20 percent through challenges, through things like education reform, making healthcare more efficient and more affordable for everyone, and increasing energy exploration.

But in the face of new challenges, Democrats seem to be reverting to the old play book of blotted government, out of control spending, and higher and higher taxes to pay for all of it.

During the last administration they never passed up an opportunity to wring their hands about the spending that both parties approved to recover from a horrific terrorist attack, to fight two wars, and to rebuild after the single worse disaster in U.S. history.

But now the shoe is on the other foot. And what have we seen? Well in just one month -- just one month, the Democrats have spent more than President Bush spent in seven years on the war in Iraq, the war in Afghanistan and Hurricane Katrina combined -- in one month.

If the overall spending has been jaw dropping, then the individual proposals have been even more troubling. Everyone is familiar with the $1 trillion stimulus bill. A bill that was supposed to be timely, temporary and targeted turned out to be none of the above.

Much of the spending won’t go into affect for literally years, much of it is directed in wasteful projects, like government golf carts.

And much of the new government spending will be virtually impossible to cut off once the economy recovers. Next week, we’ll be voting on another spending bill, the Annual Appropriation Bill that covers spending through October.

We had a couple of days to look at what the Democrats are proposing and it looks a lot like the stimulus bill. And that may be the stimulus bill wasn’t just enough, because as it turns out the Appropriation Bill double dips by including money for 122 programs that were in the stimulus bill.

We hear a lot from Democrats these days about the needs for Americans to sacrifice for the good of the whole. Yet, at a time when Americans are tightening their belts, Democrats in Washington were letting there’s out a notch or two.

And they’re not pushing back from the table yet. When it comes to fiscal responsibility, Democrats are clearly telling Americans to do as they say, not as they do.

What does all this mean? Well, one way to look at it is that for more than two centuries, Americans have embraced a simple principle that’s at the heart of who we are as Americans.

The principle said that we work hard so our kids can have a better life and more opportunities than we had.

Well, it seems that this Congress wants to reverse the order. It seems they want our children to work hard to pay the debt that we ran up, because we don’t have the will to make the hard choices now.

The government first approach isn’t unlimited to spending tax dollars. It also extends to the Democrats approach to free speech.

On this issue, the constitution could not be clear. The founders felt so strongly about government limitations on speech that they prohibited it in the very first amendment.

Yet today, some on the other side want to shut you up by enforcing limits on what’s said on the airways. They called it the fairness doctrine.

What they should call it is the, we can’t compete with conservative talk radioactive 2009.

And let me tell you this, let me tell you this. It will be an honor for Republicans to make sure that this unconstitutional proposal never becomes law.

Now that the government first approach is evident in Washington, it’s effort to stifle the freedom of workers in this country to decide without coercion or intimidation whether they want to belong to a union.

Workers should be free to vote the way they want without a union boss or a company manager looking over their shoulder.

And Republicans will make sure that this union power grab never becomes law.

Look, pushing back these efforts to basically European as a mirror will not be easy.

It will require a committed effort on the part of everyone in this room. It will require carrying our message to those who have left our party and to many more who are receptive to our message.

Meanwhile, Republicans and Congress will be vigilant about promoting their ideals, the ideals that made our nation great, and we will be relentless in proposing new solutions for the 21st century challenges we face.

Some people look at Republican losses and places like the north east and the west coast and say it’s over in these places that we need to focus on our strongholds.

If that’s not the kind of -- but that’s not the kind of party I’ve signed up for and I bet you didn’t either.

Looks, if conservative principles were right then they were right for everyone and for all times and in every state in America.

I know we can compete in those places without diluting our message, because I’ve seen it done.

I described earlier what most of the country look like in 1984. I didn’t see what Kentucky look like in 1984. Well, it didn’t look like it does today and there’s an important lesson here.

The year I was elected to the Senate, both senators in my state were Democrat the year I ran.

Of the seven congressional districts in our state, Republicans held only two.

Six years later, I was reelected and set in plan a motion -- a plan in place. I knew that Kentuckians like most Americans were common sense conservatives.

Many of them had been registered Democrats still are, but on almost all the issues, they actually agreed with us.

My strategy was simple; first, find good candidates. If they could win on their own, let them. If they couldn’t, surround them with people who could push them over the line. It was hard work, but it paid off.

Just nine years after that, both U.S. Senators in Kentucky were Republicans. Five of our six congressional seats were Republican and in the final count of state Senate flipped to a Republican control when a long time Democrat agreed to switch parties in my living room.

So, don’t tell me we can’t do this working together, we can. Over the years Kentuckians got comfortable -- not a bad slogan, it works better for us.

What happened to my state is over the years Kentuckians got comfortable with Republicans, and they are comfortable sending other Republicans to the state capital, to the nation’s capital.

Believe me, it’s amazing how much people will start to trust somebody with an R after their name, once he’s been around for a little while, shown them what a good conservative government can be like and the difference it can make in their lives.

It happened in their commonwealth of Kentucky, and it happened last fall in New Orleans; it sent a Republican to Congress for the first time since 1891, a Republican who also happens to be the first Vietnamese American member of Congress in our history.

And with your hard work and creativity, it will happen in every other state and city in American in the months and years ahead.

So, my message to you is this. Be proud of your principles. Be daring in recruiting new candidates and never ever tire of fighting for the ideas that will ensure the safety and prosperity of this great country.

You are the soldiers. You will do all these things. You will get others to do them too, and before you know it, we’ll have made our comeback.

Thank you very much. God bless you all. Good luck.

(APPLAUSE)

(UNKNOWN): Are we all socialists now? Let’s talk a little bit about that.

Newsweek has declared it so, but who cares what they have to say. With this Congressmen Todd Tiahrt of Kansas, Representative Jason Chaffetz of Utah, Congressman Scott Garrett of New Jersey, Fred Smith of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, and to moderate this panel, Matt Kibbe of FreedomWorks.

If you all will join us; Matt Kibbe, who he will be moderating this panel is the President, CEO of FreedomWorks, this position he has held for the last four years. Previously, he was FreedomWorks executive vice president.

He manages Freedom Works overall operations and strategy including public policy development, grassroots operations and state and federal issue campaigns of the organization.

Prior to joining FreedomWorks, Matt served as chief of staff in House budget committee associate for U.S. Representative Dan Miller of Florida from 1993 to 1996.

He also has served as director of Federal Budget Policy for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

He has has written extensively on economics, public policy and politics. His writings have appeared in outlets such as USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Times, Reason market process, and the journal of regulation and social cause.

Please give a big resounding welcome to our panel to talk about socialism.

KIBBE: Fun fact of the day. In 2008, General Motors lost $84 million a day, that’s the bad news.

The good news is Congressman Barney Frank thinks he knows how to run a car company and no matter how many billions of dollars we pout into this failing businesses, he has got a better ideas. So, it’s all good.

This didn’t have to be this way. You’ll recall that the troubled asset relief funds was used late last year to bailout GM and Chrysler for a purpose that no one intended it to be for.

We had an opportunity last year to kill that bill and to stop this lush fund that the Obama administration is now using, and I’m happy to say that our two elected officials that were sitting in the House of Representatives last fall during this note voted no not once, but twice against that bailout.

I’m going to go straight into the panelists. Our first panelist is Representative Todd Tiahrt , who began serving the 4th District of Kansas in Congress in 1995.

He was appointed to the House for operations committee in 1997, and currently serves as Senior Republican on the appropriation sub committee on labor health, human services and education. Congressman Tiahrt.

TIAHRT: Thank you. Good morning. It’s great to see you all here and I’m really pleased that you are so involved that you want to come here and find out what you can do to change America.

Last fall, we heard a lot about promises and we heard a lot about hope, because promises do build hope, but keeping promises build trust.

But do you trust this administration to do the right thing for your future? You don’t? I don’t either.

This week we passed $410 billion spending package that was about a 9 percent increase over the last year.

Last week, we passed $1.2 trillion in this stimulus bill. Will you saw the president’s budget was on your chair $7.37 trillion, how much is this, how much is a trillion dollars? Has anybody written a check for a trillion dollars?

If you had started the business the day after Christ rose from the dead and made a million dollars that day and everyday until today, in other words a million dollars for 2,000 years, you would not yet have made a trillion dollars. You’d only be about three-fourths the way there. Think about that, million dollars a day for 2,000 years is a not a trillion dollars.

7.37 trillion, it’s a lot of money. And it’s money that we don’t have. The government doesn’t have it. It’s your money, and you don’t have it either. So, where is it going to come from?

Well, I am tired of the bailouts. In fact, I filed legislation this week that says “no more bailouts.” Last year should be known as the year of the bailout. We bailed out Fannie Mae. We bailed out Freddie Mac. We bailed out Wall Street. We bailed out the car dealers, although they call it bridge loans.

We had TARP 1, Troubled Asset Relief Program, the first round. We have another round glooming right now. But the entities that received that $350 billion on September 2nd were worth $319 billion. Today, they are worth $86 billion, one-fourth their value after receiving $350 billion of money that we don’t have. We’re going to have to go and borrow and get it and pay it back.

I mean can you imagine? We’re not here to a Coke machine and pulling out a dollar and sticking it in that Coke machine and pressing the button, and nothing comes out. And so, you go back to your wallet and you start fishing around and you find another dollar. And you stick it in there and you press the button and no more -- and another Coke doesn’t come out. How long would you repeat that process?

Well, in the 1930s, we borrowed money for government programs, and it did not work. In the 1970s, we borrowed money for government programs to overcome our recession then, and it did not work. In the 1990s, Japan tried it. They borrowed money, started government programs to overcome their recession. They call it the lost decade. And their average per capita income went from second in the world to 10th in the world. It did not work.

And now, we’re doing it again. We are sticking another dollar in the Coke machine and we expect a different result.

In July, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was 11,378. Today, it’s 7,182. It doesn’t work.

So, what should we tell Congress? What should we tell the elected members in your district? No more bailouts. Can I hear it? No more bailouts. No more bailouts. I am tired of it. It doesn’t work. Let’s not stick another dollar into the machine.

You know, what we ought to be doing is strengthening our economy. If you want to help the auto dealers, why don’t we give each one of us a $20,000 tax cut to go buy an American made automobile? You’ve got to buy a car, wouldn’t you? I would.

We have to stabilize the dollar, revise regulations so that it helps workers in businesses, reform mark-to-market rules because it’s crushing our trust in our financial institutions, reduce our taxes and renew our access to capital.

I am going to end up, so we get time for some questions, by telling you, I want you to be determined to get this done.

There was a farmer back in the Midwest during the 30s named JW. And he wasn’t a very big man. Even though he was less than six foot tall, he probably weighed 135 pounds. And he typically wore a hat, plaid shirt, bibblerolls (ph), boots and long-handle underwear.

He brought a brand new threshing machine. And he went on to run it. First time, he ran it, it got clogged up. He went around the back and tried to pull out the chaff so that he could get the weed through the machine. You know, being from Kansas, we are concerned about that.

And it got a hold of his -- one of those cogs got a hold of his shirt’s sleeve and started pulling him in that machine. And he held it back with his hand. And pretty soon, it pulled him till there was nothing but his elbow holding him from getting wrapped up in that machine. And then it was his back, and then all a sudden, he was free of that machine. And he was standing there with nothing but his boots and his bibblerolls (ph) on.

And around the cog on that chain was going his plaid shirt and his long-handle underwear. He was determined not to let that machine get in. And I am glad he did, because JW was my grandfather. And I wouldn’t be here today if he hadn’t done that.

That’s how determined I am to stop the bailout and securing this economy around. I want you to be just as determined. Come to Kansas. Help me get elected to the Senate. And we will stop the bailouts and secure this economy, secure your future.

CHAFFETZ: I am Jason Chaffetz , and I got to tell you I am fired up, because I got to tell you a little bit about how I got here, because I am so concerned that this country is turning towards socialism.

I ran my campaign and ran against the 12-year incumbent. I ran (ph) one of our own. I ran against Mr. Cannon who is a nice gentleman. But you know what he told me? He was Mr. Conservative.

And I said, “You know, what? When you took office, the budget was 1.5 trillion. Now it’s $3.1 trillion. There doesn’t seem to be too much conservative about that now that we’re $10 trillion in debt.”

So I wanted to do something about it. I want to be a part of the solution, not just part of the problem. I had no campaign staff. I had no campaign office. I refused to buy somebody a free meal.

I told the voters, if you want to participate with me, I am sorry, no free meals as far as I am concerned. I refused to go into debt. I argue that how you run campaign is very indicative of how you are going to be in office. And I refused to go in debt.

Yes, I was outspent by $600,000, and I won by 20 points. The point is the thing that I said at the very beginning of the campaign is that this is a campaign about who can do more with less.

I think how you run this country is an issue about who can do more with less. As we go into 2010 and 2012, this is the argument that we need to make to the American people that the Republicans and their conservative values are the way to go forward in this country. It’s about empowering people, not towards socialism.

When our president says only government can solve these problems, that scares the living daylights out of me. It’s empowering entrepreneurs. It’s empowering the American work force. It’s about empowering the individual to be the best that they can be.

The only way, the best way to solve our problem is not just spending more money. We can no longer run this country on a credit card. And that’s where we are going.

Our President Obama said he wanted maximum openness and transparency. He promised this that we would have five days to see a bill on the Internet before it was voted on. The United States Congress unanimously, unanimously passed the resolution that said we’d have 48 hours to review a bill before we voted on it. And yet, the single largest spending bill in the history of the United States, a $1 trillion-plus expenditure, had the light of day for just about 13 hours.

There is not one member of Congress that actually read that bill. And it passed. 13 hours, and nobody read it. It had so many pages, 1,400 something pages. They didn’t even have time to put pages numbers on it. Our president is the one that said that he wanted -- this is going to be jobs bill. Nancy Pelosi said it was a jobs bill. And yet, less than 1 percent are tax cuts for businesses. And yet, we know 70 percent of our job

(AUDIO GAP)

CHAFFETZ: ... go to Facebook, go to Twitter on “Jason in the House,” find me. I’d like to love to communicate with you. And thank you. I appreciate it.

(UNKNOWN): By the way, Congressman Chaffetz, one of the issues you ran on was against the bailout.

CHAFFETZ: Yes.

(UNKNOWN): And it was unconventional, but not only good policy, but good politics.

CHAFFETZ: Thank you. Thank you.

(UNKNOWN): Next, Congressman Scott Garrett , one of the good guys, as I like to say, who is recently sworn in to his fourth term in United States House of Representatives, representing New Jersey’s Fifth Congressional District.

GARRETT: Thank you. Thank you, and good morning, everyone. It is indeed a pleasure to be here with all of you, my colleagues here on the desk, good conservatives all. It’s good to be in the room with fellow likeminded conservative thinkers that we are right here in this room.

I think unfortunately, we’re probably a minority in the city, as being if that’s the case (ph). But we are -- so we are not a minority nationally, because I honestly I do believe that this country is a right of center country and that we are the party and the people of the right ideas and the American people are behind us in that.

This panel right here, very briefly, has been talking about bailing out big business and ROE and all socialists now, and I heard you say before, no, no.

But we’ve certainly seen an unprecedented leap towards that over the last several years and of course with this new administration. And now with this budget that came out, it’s a 10-year plan, I guess this is variation of the old Soviet five-year plan twice over.

And so, well, it’s certainly going down that path. And I would just give you two reasons why I think this is happening at the heart of this move towards socialism.

First is, that there isn’t a -- Washington has adopted this mantra of trying to delay pain or prevent pain, whether it’s a pain on Wall Street or pain for the people who made bad decisions in their housing market or pain to other people who made other bad decision. Government thinks that somehow or other they can intervene and actually prevent thing. And obviously, you can’t.

The second thing, what brings us to where we are right now, is the belief by some here in Washington that there is a small group of elites that here in the nation’s capital knows better than the collective wisdom of the American public. And we know that is not true.

Consider for a moment what this administration has either considered or already done or talks about dealing. They’ve considered appointing a health czar and energy czar, a chief deployment czar, a climate change czar, a technology czar, a drug czar and an urban affairs czar.

So, it’s not maybe that we are moving towards socialism. Maybe we are all Bolsheviks now.

Now, before assessing upon, and Todd just talked about this before, looking forward for a second, let’s see where we’ve been. I am on financial services side. I deal a lot with those issues over there.

We spent about $29 billion to bail out Bear Sterns; $400 billion, 200 and 200 to bail out the GSE’s Fannie and Freddie; $153 billion for AIG, more to come; $308 billion to bail out Citigroup, more to come; $39 billion to bail out the auto manufacturers, more to come; and of course, $800 billion to bail out just about everybody else including the bad state governments.

Now, these numbers by the way don’t include something else, its not talk about very much, and that’s the Federal Reserve, who was an agency that needs to be certainly reigned in.

The Federal Reserve has increased its balance sheet from around $800 billion to $2.3 trillion. And so, when you sit back for one second it’s almost a mind numbing aspect when you consider these dollars -- unbelievable numbers.

And that’s actually part of the game plan I think on the other sides, because they could say that -- numbers are so mind numbing that they can say while we spent $700 billion to bailout Wall Street, can we spent $600 billion to give Universal Healthcare or other such things. So that’s a direction that we’re going.

And it’s going to get worse, as Todd indicated, we have tax increases of $1.4 trillion, entitlement up by a $1 trillion, non defense by $9.3 billion. At the end of day, I’ll conclude on this.

It’s really very thin, if you’re a conservative politician in this town, somebody who believes in capitalism in the free markets and the fact that we have seen much lack of accountability at various levels, government, corporate and otherwise. What’s happening now is that there is a game in Washington of one -- every politician trying to updo or outdo the other politician.

To be able to say that Washington is able to once do -- pick through the winners will be through all these bailouts options (inaudible).

I’m not sure, at the end of the day, who the bailouts will benefit and who the winners will be. I can just close on this and say I know who the losers are going to be and that’s the tax payer and that’s everyone who believes in liberty and freedom in this country.

So I just ask you to consider this, Barney Frank and who was the one of my...

(AUDIO GAP)

... Barney Frank and others have led the charge on the other side of the isle to say, what brought us to this point is deregulation and a lack of government spending and a lack government involvement.

What we must be all charged with doing is to tell the true story that we are here in this fiscal situation that we are in now because of too much government involvement, too much government interference, and the answer is to unleash the potential of private capital and simply getting the government out of the way.

God bless you for...

(APPLAUSE)

UNKNOWN: We are down -- we are down, there are last five minutes and I have the honor of introducing Fred Smith, who is a force of nature, one of the smartest guys I know and the president of the Competitive Enterprise Institute.

SMITH: Like Hubert Humphrey, I talk very fast and I can hit gust of 250 words a minute, watch out OK.

No we’re not all socialist, yet capitalism is really in crisis, I think we should all recognize that, in the bumper sticker story, as the congressmen just mentioned is easy.

Greedy capitalist operating in a Republican deregulated world ran amuck taking money and candy from babies and orphans.

Markets have failed, governments must succeed and certainly there were a lot of fools and frauds operating in the housing markets. But why? Why were there so many and why housing particularly?

Well there are many factors, but the major element is, as the congressmen just alluded to, is that we have moved in a way from the honest socialism of the past, where government actually owned things and was held responsible when they failed to the mixed economy dishonest socialism of today.

The left -- old left used to say when the new problem came up, new government agency is run by ourselves and we will spend money wisely.

Well they’re not so sure about that. First, social expenses are on one budget, secondly they are held accountable when they fail, and thirdly, they basically have to get appropriations each year, much better to leave in place a nominal private sector or create nominal private entities and then assign to them the responsibility of carrying out the political mandate you want to see.

In the housing area, we created Fannie and Freddie. Now that requires at least a bill in this audience. And we and others try to explain to people, what it meant to create an organization that had profit side -- of course, you can pay Franklin Raines any figure you wanted to do

They can operate like a cowboy in an open plain. But if anything went wrong you and I were on the hook. It had the moral hazard problem associated with government guarantees for whatever it did wrong.

We testified. We were criticized. We were doomers and gloomers. We were too negative. They had a high yield

(AUDIO GAP)

(UNKNOWN): Ladies and Gentlemen, please welcome Bridgett Wagner of The Heritage Foundation.

WAGNER: Thank you all. It’s great to be back at CPAC this year. The Heritage Foundation is the proud co-sponsor again now for many, many years of CPAC, we look forward to coming. Now you guys have been here a day and I am sure you have all heard the news that the era of big government is back.

The Obama administration’s new 3.7 trillion, yes trillion with a “T” budget, includes vast new spending program on healthcare, climate change and welfare programs, financed by new taxes and cuts in our military spending.

It increases spending to the highest levels since the Second World War and explodes the deficit in to new uncharted territory, but that’s all OK, because they have a plan to cut the deficit, with more taxes.

Even the Democrats in this morning’s paper are saying it will be tough to find the votes for this budget. We hope so.

And as if we didn’t already know this mornings’ Washington Post, helpfully reminded us that President Obama’s agenda seeks to “faster redistribution of wealth.” And it is likely to spark fierce political battles on an array of fronts from social spending, to energy spending, to healthcare and taxes.

Well, as one famous governor I am sure you all know my face, fierce political battles, you bet it.

Our next speaker is someone we can count on to be on the frontlines of those fights in Congress. Tom Coburn is a real citizen legislator.

He’s taken the term limit pledge and honored it by serving three terms in the House and returning to Oklahoma and running for the Senate.

And because he’s pledged to serve only two terms there, he’s a man on a mission. He believes in reforming government programs and cutting waste, fraud and abuse in the central budget.

He also believes in expanding access and affordability to healthcare by putting the patients, not the government in charge. And by as a practicing OBGYN, who’s delivered more than 4,000 babies, his commitment to the sanctity of life is a commitment lived not just spoken.

Dr. Coburn is one of those rare politicians who’s actually run a business and created jobs himself. In the House, he has played an influential role in reforming welfare and other entitlement programs and trimming the budget, and in the Senate, he has championed transparency and accountability and that will pork in all its forms and flavors, both Democrats and Republicans.

His fight over the bridge to where there is (ph) more to educate the public on the spending practices of our elected officials, he has been a library of think-tank papers, or a lifetime of conferences and panel discussions, and that’s coming from a think-tank worker myself.

His port busting activity is legendary and I should say not necessarily appreciated on Capitol Hill.

His office Web site, if you go to it, has a link for the Washington Waste of the Week. But I checked it this morning and when you click through the site, it actually gives you a daily update on the Waste of the Day. That’s how bad it is.

And if you are a real port-buster, you can follow Tom Coburn and tweeter, and get a running commentary on the current legislation and debates in the Congress.

Dr. Coburn wrote an op-ed last year before the election, and said, “For Republicans to regain their brand as the party of fiscal discipline, they would have to rejoin Americans in the real world of budget choices and priorities, and leave behind the fantasyland of borrowing without limits.”

And he said, “They must start the -- restart the permanent campaign against the government. They should tear up the emergency credit card, the emergency spending credit card and refuse to accept any new spending, whatsoever, until Congress does its job of eliminating wasteful spending.” Something we haven’t heard this new administration speak of at all.

Regaining their brand Senator Coburn said it was not about messaging, it was about action and courage and setting priorities.

And most of all he said that’s about being willing to give up their political careers, so our grandkids don’t have to grow up in a debtor’s prison, or a world in which other nations can tell a weakened and bankrupt America where we can and can’t defend liberty, pursue terrorists, or show compassion. Ladies and gentlemen that sounds like change we can believe and help me welcome Tom Coburn of the great State of Oklahoma.

COBURN: Good morning. Thank you. Have your seat. Let me just give you a little upfront notice, I’m only going to speak about two or three minutes.

One of the things that don’t happen in meetings like this is you don’t get to ask enough questions.

So, if you’re going to want to ask question to me, please line up the microphones now so that we don’t hustle forward.

Look, we are in (inaudible) as we say in Oklahoma, but we’re not in such (inaudible) that we can’t get our way out of it.

And the way we get out of it is go back and understand what made this country great, and it’s three basic principles. Personal accountability, individual responsibility, and freedom that’s greater than anywhere else in the world. That’s what we need, that’s what we need to be about.

Our country was built on a heritage of sacrifice and what we have today and what we’ve had in recent years is a reversal of that trend.

What used to happen is one generation would sacrifice for the generation following us so that opportunity and advancement would take place. We’re operating just in the reverse of that now.

We are stealing from the next two -- I use to say the next generation, it’s not true anymore.

We’re now stealing from the next two generations and what we’re stealing is a standard of living that has been 30 percent greater than anywhere else in the rest of the world, and we’re about to steal that from the next two generations.

It does not have to be that way. So, what has to change is the willingness to fight even when you know you are going to lose so you can make sure that the story is out there and the comparative choice that the American people can see.

The Obama administration and Barack Obama will have a different philosophy. And there is nothing wrong with them having that philosophy, but there is plenty wrong when we don’t challenge it intellectually and we don’t put forward the competing view that is based on what has made this country great and has made it greater than any civilized society in the history of the world.

So, courage is the number one character quality that we should be looking for in the leadership among the conservatives in this country.

If you’re not willing to fight even if you lose but still fight then you don’t belong in this movement.

We need people of strong character with the courage to fight even if we loose.

And the reason is as we lose, we educate the American people between the choices and that’s what has not happened in the last six to eight years in Congress.

So, if you want to ask questions, what I’d like you to do is -- I guess they are lined up, I can’t see you for the lights. So, we’re going to go with that. I want to leave you with one last little tidbit.

When I decided to run for the Senate, the first thousand dollar check I got was from a guy from San Francisco by the name of Milton Friedman.

And he said me one of his quotes, and he said, “We don’t do these things and say these things because we think we can ultimately persuade the other side in a debate. What we say these things and do these things because when their ideas fail, we will be there at the ready at the willing with ideas that work,” and he was right.

So, who goes first? Where are we, right here.

QUESTION: Senator, thank you for your leadership. If we only had 51 senators like you, I wouldn’t have to ask.

COBURN: Well, we actually need 60.

QUESTION: So, I’m a Goldwater Republican for 40 years. I dreamed, dreamed of a conservative majority in Congress who would limit the growth of government.

Unfortunately, we tried that and so far, it hasn’t worked. And so, my question to you is, is it time for grassroots conservatives to start thinking about constitutional limits to the spending and borrowing and growth of government and those constitutional limits would have to be initiated from the states, since Congress will never do it themselves. What do think of that strategy?

COBURN: Well, first of all let me say that we haven’t had a conservative majority in the U.S. Senate in sometime, and that’s evident by what’s passed in the Congress.

We’re never going to do it on our own. The grassroots affects though is to challenge. Look, we let career (ph) politicians off easy.

When they are in their state, we need you there asking the hard questions and making them explain their positions of how they rationalize their position for the next election instead of rationalize a position against the constitution of the United States, and against the numerated power that it lies within it.

So, I think anything you want to do. I think most important, that is the big hill to climb will be very, very difficult that I’m not sure we are climb. Most important is to organize so that you are in front of those politicians when they are in front of the public where they get question and hit for the things that do not line up with a limited government, a pre-society, and a infringement on your right.

You know as the government grows your freedom declines and that’s what the Obama budget is all about. It’s about taken your freedom away.

It’s not about just growing the government because every time the government grows by 1/10th of 1 percent, you have less freedom.

QUESTION: Thank you.

QUESTION: Dr. Coburn. Actually...

COBURN: Where are you?

QUESTION: I am right here.

COBURN: OK.

QUESTION: I am waving my arms frantically.

(UNKNOWN): I am sorry about that. Go ahead.

QUESTION: First of all, thank you very much for your service for smaller government conservatives like me. There’s not lot of us out there anymore, you give me hope and you’ve been my favorite senator for years. That’s great. And I actually follow you Twitter. You’re awesome.

I was wondering, in prior years of Congress in the Senate, if you had just one particular favorite, or I guess at least favorite bit of report that, like our past and it’s just sounded to you that even somebody would even try to get federal money for this.

If you just could share with us your, I guess favorite?

COBURN: Oh! Gosh, I’m picking from millions. Look, the bridge to nowhere was perfect.

We did that on purpose, because people could relate to that. But what we should be is astounded and the all others that are there.

In this bill, we have a $2 million in this $410 billion bill is going to be in the Senate. We got $2 million for pork odor next week, $2 million to study pork smell.

You know, you might want to study why pigs smell bad, I would tell you why. Look, where they live.

But the point is, is that a priority? Think of -- the thing we need to relate to is look into the eyes of your children and your grand children and what do you see.

In this country you see hope. You see expectation. You see -- a look at the brighter future.

And as we continue to do what Congress is doing, we’re dimming the glimmer in that eye of our children. It’s got to stop.

This grand experiment that has grown a society and a material increase in standard of living at 50 percent greater than every other society in the world for years, especially since post World War II.

When we have earmarks that are not priority for the country, I held assemble (ph) two week ago in Congress. I borrowed it from a lady downstairs in the actual Senate chamber.

That’s about how much common sense is there. And no, I am not kidding. And I want you to think about it.

Politicians are wonderful people, they care about this country whether they are Democrats or Republicans, but they lack a frame of reference to the real world. They haven’t signed at both sides of the paycheck.

They haven’t tried to negotiate a contract with the union, they haven’t try to pay the bills when their incoming money slowing down.

They haven’t stayed up all night worried and how they are going to take care of their employees.

What they have is the easiest of all joys -- jobs, and that is the wonderful pleasure of spending somebody else’s money.

And when you do that without any perspective, what you’re going to do spend it wrongly.

Next question, last one I am told.

QUESTION: Senator.

COBURN: Yes sir.

QUESTION: You are looking my way, thank you. I think it’s important we emphasize that the freedom that our all speakers are talking about is the freedom from our own government.

I don’t think that message has been made clear. Secondly...

(UNKNOWN): I agree.

QUESTION: ...all our speakers have said that we got to get the word out. How do we do it in a nation that is plagued and even dated by a press with whom I have had experiences since 1964 when I got Barry Goldwater elected in my pressings.

But the press is biased, prejudiced, not very intelligent, and will not report our message.

How do we get around the press with its love affair with the present administration? COBURN: Well, I think you are starting to see that. I mean that’s one of the reasons that the fairness doctrine needs to be opposed. Not only directly but indirectly as they are going to come through with licensing renewals and try to do it.

But you are starting to see it. In the wonderful age of the Internet, it’s going to make a big difference.

The daily newspaper is going to die, and the competitive channels on cable were starting to see some reflection at least there is two view points in this country today where there used to be only one.

You are also seeing the innovation with twitter and the e-mail messages, and text messages, and connections through that and YouTube and all these other things.

The Senate has this new YouTube Senate.hub where many of the senators are on there explaining the positions.

So, I think technology as usual is going to come back and benefit freedom from oppression of the government.

Let me just follow-up on your point. I was this week I talked with some people in the natural gas industry and I ask them, are we ever going to see -- our fertilizer sources are made from natural gas and we’ve lost 85 percent of that industry offshore.

And I asked -- with process low, are we going to see the fertilizer industry to will come back. They said, “Absolutely not.” And I said, well, why not.

They said because of the cost of regulation from the government is so onerous that no one would ever build a new fertilizer factory and hydrous ammonia or ammonium nitrate factory in this country of which if you think about, think about risk for us.

One of our greatest assets is our ability to produce agricultural products efficiently and massively, but we can’t do that without fertilizer.

Now, we’ve -- through government regulation, we have setup a limitation on our ability to do that if in fact we ever gotten a pinch.

So, your concept, our founders believed, our freedom was inherent in us, not inherent in the government and the government should be the least to impose against that freedom.

Final point: We only change America if all of us work to change it, and you can have great members of Congress, but if we are in the minority, we are not going to get it done.

We can be abolished for what you feel and know to be true about the foundational principles of this country.

And I know you -- I’m talking to the working crowd here. But the way we change it is each year one of you get a 100, and if each one of those 100 get a 100, and each one of those 100 get a 100 and we win our country back again.

We take it back. Thank you. God bless you.

END

.ETX

Feb 27, 2009 15:57 ET .EOF

Source: CQ Transcriptions

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