Oxon Hill, Maryland (CNN) - Republicans hoping to win a national election need to adopt an "optimistic" and "relevant" message, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker told an enthusiastic crowd of conservative activists Saturday.
The tea party favorite, who survived a recall election in 2012 after curbing collective bargaining rights for public employees, said the GOP's focus on fiscal issues like the federal debt and spending cuts ignore policies that have a real effect on Americans' lives. Instead, he argued Republicans should look beyond Washington to find a new direction for the party.
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"Real reform doesn't happen in our nation's capital. It happens in statehouses all over the country," Walker said, adding the nation's 30 Republican governors were enacting "real reform" around the nation.
"In states, to be successful, we have to be optimistic, we have to be relevant, and most important we have to be courageous," Walker told the Conservative Political Action Conference, being held in a Maryland suburb of Washington. The gathering of mostly young conservatives gave Walker one of the loudest receptions thus far in the three-day conference, which concludes later Saturday.
His biggest applause came at the end of his remarks, when he told the cheering crowd, "In America, we take a day off to celebrate the Fourth of July, not the 15th of April," the day federal income tax filings are due.
Walker's 2011 decision to limit power for labor unions drew intense nationwide focus, as public employees took over the state capitol to loudly protest the decision. The recall election, which took place in May 2012, drew millions in campaign cash from major political groups and thrust Walker onto the national political stage.
He was considered a potential running mate for Mitt Romney in last year's presidential election, and he hasn't ruled out a bid for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination.
In his speech Saturday, Walker took a decidedly different approach than that of his fellow Wisconsinite, Rep. Paul Ryan, the House Budget chairman. Ryan has led Republicans in Congress with an almost singular focus on the nation's debt and deficits.
That approach ignores the reality many Americans are living, Walker argued Saturday.
"As conservatives, we shouldn't take a back seat to anybody. We have a moral cause, and it's not just about balancing budgets," Walker said.
Pointing to his collective bargaining decision, Walker said changes being enacted in Republican-run states could become models for the nation.
"We're the ones who care about education," he said, after describing ways his new law ended tenure for public school teachers. "We're the ones who want our children to move forward. That's about being relevant. We're the ones who care about fixing things.”
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It is only a matter of time before the voters of Wisconsin terminate Gov Walker's tenure in office. His reforms were so divisive and damaging that they hardly serve as a model for the rest of the country,
Gov Walker and education .
We will have a truly uneducated America.
Why are the GOP so close-minded. is it greed or selfishness ?
And Scott Walker would be the las to ever come up with a 'relevant' conservative message
Geese Scott! You just said the same things your party has been saying for the last 4 years and it hasn't worked yet. You think the republican way is the only way and anybody else who has an idea is wrong unless they agree with you. You are still the party of no and will obviously stay the party of no until hell freezes over. You continue to confuse obstruction with obligation.
Gov, Scott Walker is the most intelligent Republican .......he needs to lead the Republican party and the Nation back to sanity.
Yea, all "redneck republicans" should take advice from the secound governor in US history to be recalled.. Iit's becomming real obvious that you think America is an arisctocracy, and you are part of the ruling class. That why you are always trying to tell us what we can and can't have. Walker pulled his hate stance after he got elected. He survived the recall because of 8 to 1 out of state funding.
i guess you will never understand that the POPULAR vote elects presidents. Therefore your hate agenda against all people groups, except the rich, are goona get you exactly what you deserve. More time to preach to your choir.. But please don't listen to the people.
"As conservatives, we shouldn't take a back seat to anybody. We have a moral cause, and it's not just about balancing budgets," Walker, well said
Ryan budget plan is like looking at a tall man and asking him; I can make you shorter in 1 hour if you give me a chance to cut you below your knee. That might not take even 20 minutes. Cutting is the easiest thing to do managing the consequence will be difficult.
Real reform happens in states like Michigan where cities are taken over and local elected officials and voters have no voice in government?
How about truth in packaging: Serfs are not allowed to vote, the entire tax burden will be placed on serfs, the Chosen may not be prosecuted for any crimes against serfs. The Koch family will be deemed rulers by divine right...
What b.s. – now they're saying exactly what Democrats have been saying for the past couple of election cycles and before that. Does it sound like they are maybe trying to break away from the extreme righties who would like to take our country back to pre-Civil War days? Are they finally realizing that the majority of Americans don't want to live in the past but more forward to the future? His "we're the ones who care about education . . ." – maybe he needs to talk to his buddy Rick Perry in Texas!
The sequester is a direct result of old-school Republicans pandering to the rich. Conservatives are okay with federal workers and their families losing over 20% of their paychecks but they worry about a White House tour? Really? Many of those workers are veterans who were serving in a war zone while the kids of the rich folks were climbing the corporate ladder. Do Republicans think missing a vacation tour is like missing a house payment or losing your savings? America is tired of the GOP and will finish the job in 2014/2016.
A lot of the spending issues could be resolved by revamping the criminal justice system. Thre problem is that there is not enough laws, the problem is that there are too many laws, and certain ones are enforced more than others.
The laws concerning drugs are excessive, too punitive, and these laws are mega-enforced at the expense of dealing with hardened violent criminals.
There is nothing in their message that is relevant to any normal American. If they were relevant they would have won presidential election and would be shoving their agenda of lower wages and benefits for workers and cameras in every bedroom down our throats rights now.
There's no way to make the conservative message "relevant," Conservative states have the highest rates of every negative social measurement – education, welfare rates, teen pregnancy rates....you name it. They may "care" about these issues, but their policies do nothing to help.
No such thing as a relevant conservative message.
"As conservatives, we shouldn't take a back seat to anybody. We have a moral cause, and it's not just about balancing budgets," Walker said.
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But Governor, what about the people? Their voices were quite loud in November, will you take a back seat to them Sir?
The hysterical notion that what ultra-radical GOPpers like Scott peddle is hardly "conservative". Just like the "socialist" banter the GOP so easily tosses out, they have no clue what they are saying. The GOP isn't "conservative" it is totalitarian- with a certain National-Socialist flavor. The second class status of women, minorities, the enslavement of the working poor make them little better that 1930s Germans. The GOP is rapidly trying to undermine essential rights (like voting, or equal protection under the law), access to medical care and more. CPAC is a relative cornucopia of super-radical ideology that is very, very un-American.
Scott Walker sounds like he is realizing that the right wing is focused on money and how to get more of it for themselves while the left has been (for a long time) the party that has been focused on true moral issues – how things affect the average Joe and Jane. He's a bit defensive, "Wait, WE'RE the moral party, WE'RE the ones who care (aren't we?)." Then realizing, "uh oh, I've been on the dark side all this time and didn't know it".
I don't understand these Republicans. They talk a good line but their actions are different and say much more about the party. When you pass voter id and other laws to make it difficult for people to vote and then brag about it, when you pass anti-abortion laws hidden as woman protection laws, when you try to rewrite electoral tradition, when you try to silence unions in the name of fairness to other workers, you show your true colors. I like the fiscal conservative message but each time I look at their social issues I feel nauseated. This is a nasty party who will only clean itself up by changing the way its does things and not just by its tone.
""We're the ones who care about education"
What a snob!!!
Reread the last paragraph...below are the facts -
Between direct reductions to school districts, reduced state aid to localities, cuts to the UW-System and tech colleges, Scott Walker's budget slashed nearly $2.6 billion from public education
Walker's budget slashed $250 million in support for the UW system and made a 30% reduction in investments in the technical college system.
• 73 percent of school districts in the state reported cutting teachers this year
• The 1,446 teacher position cuts represents a 75 percent increase over similar reductions made last year
• 74 percent of school districts to cut staff, including the largest, exorbitant cuts made to reading, special education, career and technical education teachers special education, career and technical
education teachers.
He has led the single biggest step backward in the history of public education in Wisconsin and the biggest cuts to education per pupil in the nation, according to a recent study by the nonpartisan Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
His comment about conservatives being "moral" rings hollow:
Six of his closest aides when he was the Milwaukee County Executive were found quiity of various crimes:
— Kelly Rindfleisch: Walker's deputy chief of staff. She was sentenced to six months in jail after pleading guilty to felony misconduct in office for doing campaign work on county time.
— Tim Russell: Walker's deputy chief of staff, Russell, was sentenced to two years in prison in January after he was convicted of stealing more than $20,000 from a nonprofit group Walker appointed him to lead.
— Darlene Wink: The former Walker aide pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor charges of working on Walker's gubernatorial campaign on county time. She was sentenced to a year's probation.
— Kevin D. Kavanaugh: Walker named Kavanaugh to the county Veterans Service Commission. Kavanaugh was found guilty of stealing more than $51,000 that had been donated to help veterans and their families. He was sentenced to two years in prison.
— William Gardner, president and chief executive officer of Wisconsin & Southern Railroad Co., was sentenced to two years' probation in July after being found guilty of exceeding state campaign donation limits and laundering campaign donations to Walker and other Wisconsin politicians.
— Brian Pierick: The longtime domestic and business partner of Russell was found guilty of contributing to the delinquency of a minor after investigators examined his and Russell's phones and computers. The criminal complaint said Pierick exchanged text messages with a 17-year-old boy and tried to entice him into his van, but the boy declined, according to the criminal complaint.
Yeah, he's a real poster boy for our next President.
This is the guy who cut 140 million from the technical college system quietly and then with loud fanfare and trumpets created a 15 million dollar tech training program claiming he is leading on skills training.
I hope the voters will not suffer this wingnut through another election. This is a party of wackos who worship at the feet of people like trump and palin. Get real time to listen to the majority of Americans and work to improve our lives not yours and your rich buddies.
All this wisdom from the Koch Bros. hand picked water boy!
.............I find it fitting, that Walker is as cross eyed, as the GOP............