Gov. Tim Pawlenty at CPAC 2010, February 19, 2010

Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R-MN)
CPAC 2010
Washington, DC
February 19, 2010
[DEMOCRACY IN ACTION TRANSCRIPT]

Thanks a lot. I sure appreciate it. I want to thank Grover Norquist for that kind introduction as well as for his years, really decades, of advocacy and leadership in championing the conservative cause for limited government and lower taxes. We owe him a debt of appreciation. I'm thankful for that kind introduction. Grover Norquist.

Now some of you from this area know that Washington, DC has been experiencing a lot of challenges, and one of those of course is the epic snowstorm that blew through town about a week ago. Schools were closed. Businesses were closed. People couldn't come and go as they had hoped. Even the United States Congress was closed. And I say, and I know you agree, that any day, any day that Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi can't get to work is a good day for freedom, it's a good day for liberty and it's a good day for the American people's wallets.

Now you know that with these terrible weather conditions that this isn't President Obama's fault. He inherited these problems from President Bush. You know that. That's the line.

I'm delighted to be joined here this morning by the fabulous, wonderful, beautiful first lady of Minnesota, Mary Pawlenty. Amongst her life experiences, she was a judge for 12 years, and she's been a dedicated champion for great causes in our state of Minnesota, one of which is the support for families of members of the military. As you know when members of the military serve, their families serve too, so Mary has pulled alongside and put together these enormous efforts to try to encourage nonprofit organizations and community groups and individuals to support and to love and extend acts of kindness to the families of members of the military. She's gotten involved in women's heart health issues and so many other wonderful causes.

But I do want to share with you, and you can probably relate to this, if you have a spouse or a significant other, they do a pretty good job of keeping you grounded, keeping you on track, keeping you within the guard rails and making sure your expectations are about right. And so I had this experience very dramatically with Mary in 2001. I was the majority leader of the Minnesota Legislature, and I had pretty much decided I was not going to run for governor. I came home to our house in Egan, Minnesota, and was coming in the door and said, honey, I don't think I'm going to do it. You know Jesse Ventura looks like he's going to run again and this is such a blue state and leans so hard the other way, and you know it's really time to turn the page. I've been at this for a while. I've done what I can.

And she grabbed me literally by the lapels, she looked me straight in the eye, and gave me a speech that would be right out of a Rocky Balboa movie. I mean she said, we need you, Minnesota needs you, you be strong, you get in there, you fight, you can do this. I thought, man, alright, I'm in. So I ran. And in a state that really is an uphill battle for a Republican, much less a conservative, I won.

So a few months into my governorship I came home and we had a little tension, a little disagreement about my schedule and missing some commitments for the family, and so there was a little tension in the discussion. I said, but honey, remember you're the one who told me to do this. You gave me that great, inspiring speech. Don't you remember? And she looked at me and she said, yeah, but I never thought you'd win. She said I just told you that because I wanted you to get it out of your system so we could get on with the rest of our life.

Now when we were here a year ago at CPAC there were a lot of naysayers, not here in the room, not within CPAC, but on the outside. We had all these pundits and smart alecks saying the sun was setting on the conservative movement. We had people saying we might enter a thirty or forty year era of liberal government. We had people talking about how the new era of hope and change was sweeping aside our values and principles.

Hope and change and teleprompters. Did you see by the way the other day, did you see this? President Obama was in a grade school classroom, a grade school classroom speaking to elementary children and he was using teleprompters. You've got to be kidding me. That's not a joke, that's a real story. So even in the classroom--

But a lot has changed. When we were here last year, I mentioned to you in my speech that notwithstanding those who were trying to visit discouragement upon us, that the spirit of Ronald Reagan was alive and well in this room, that the energy and the values and the principles and the passion of the conservative movement was on the rise and on the march. And it worked. Those of you in this room, conservatives all across the country, did a great job igniting this nation, having your voices heard in Congress, having your voices heard in city halls, having your voices heard in legislatures, up and down Main Street, all across this country.

And you know what? The American people liked what they heard. They liked what they heard.

And you know why they liked it? They liked it because it was bold. They liked it because it was direct. They liked it because it was telling the truth. And they liked it because it was different than what they've been hearing for so many years, and particularly under the current administration. So I want to thank you for what you've done as a movement, for the leadership and the passion that you've poured into it. The comeback for conservatives in this country was a surprise or unexpected to just about everyone. Except us, except us. We knew that when freedom is attacked, when our freedoms, our principles and our values are attacked, a powerful movement will rise up and fight back. And that's what happened and I thank you for it.

Now at this very hour, or very shortly this morning a big event is happening in the United States of America. Tiger Woods is holding his press conference. At 11 o'clock Eastern. Now I think we can learn a lot from that situation. Not from Tiger, but from his wife. So she said, I've had enough. She said, no more. I think we should take a page out of her playbook, and take a 9 iron, and smash the window out of big government in this country. We've had enough.

Now even though we've made great progress over the last year, let's be candid with each other. We face sobering challenges as a nation. We love the United States of America. We love this country. We don't wish it ill will. We want to make sure that we rise up not just to highlight the problems and the challenges, but also that we offer solutions in a more positive and hopeful agenda going forward.

We may well be given as conservatives, the privilege and the responsibility to govern and lead this nation once again. And when we do this time we need to do what we say we're going to do. If we give our team members the jersey of "conservative" and they are going to lead and govern under the banner of "conservative," then they need to go to Washington, DC and walk the walk. They need to walk the walk. So if we're given that chance, let's remember where it starts.

We have a PAC, I've got a PAC, it's called the Freedom First PAC. Now we chose that name intentionally. We didn't call it the Freedom Last PAC; we didn't call it the Freedom in the Middle PAC; we didn't call it the Freedom Maybe Later On or Down the Road PAC. We called it the Freedom First PAC intentionally and purposely because this nation--its genius, its spirit, its soul, its success--is based upon the foundation of freedom, and that's where it starts.

I was so pleased to see the other day that the Mount Vernon Statement, the group that came together at Mount Vernon, the leaders of various conservative groups in this country signed a statement recommitting themselves and their organizations to the constitutional framework, the constitutional principles, and the constitutional values that made this nation great. They are the values of limited government, they are the values of the rule of law, they are the values of individual responsibility, they are the values of free markets, they are the values of respect for the sanctity of life, they are the values of respecting traditional marriages and families, and down the list. Those are the kinds of principles that this nation was founded on, those are the principles that made this nation great, those are the principles that will lead us forward as a conservative movement.

Now for me this is highlighted in the time and place where I grew up. For many of you I'm sure it's the same. We are defined in part by where we come from.

I grew up in a meat-packing town. It's the bluest of blue collar towns you can imagine. It was the home of the world's largest stockyards. The home of the world's largest meat-packing plants. My dad for much of his life was a truck driver. My mom was a homemaker. My brothers and sisters did things like work in oil refineries and work in grocery stores for their whole life and being one on one special aides in school districts and down the list. So in my family we learned some things that I think reflect those values and principles as they get played out on Main Street and neighborhoods all across this country.

And I want to share with you four ideas that I think should carry us forward. These are examples, but they're primary, they are foundational, as we move forward. And these aren't hard. This is not some sort of obscure undertaking by professors. This is basic constitutional principle and basic common sense.

The first one is this. God's in charge. God is in charge. There are some people who say, oh you know, Pawlenty, don't bring that up. You know it's politically incorrect. Hogwash. These are enshrined in the founding documents and perspective of our country in the Declaration of Independence. It says we are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights. It doesn't say we are endowed by Washington, DC or endowed by the bureaucrats or endowed by state government. It's by our Creator that we are given these rights.

And there are many, many examples of this. I'm proud that in my state, in the very first sentence in the very first paragraph of our Minnesota constitution it says this: We the people of Minnesota, grateful to God for our civil and religious liberties. And then it goes on from there to talk about the importance of all of us extending those privileges and benefits to others for their posterity and for their benefit down the road for future generations. So as we look forward, I say to those naysayers who try to crowd out God from the discussion, if it's good enough for the Founding Fathers, it should be good enough for each and every one of us.

There's another principle. We can't spend more than we have. We can't spend more than we have. So I remember my mom. She died by the way when I was 16 years old. She was 50 years old; she died of cancer. And when I was growing up, we didn't have a lot of money. But I remember very vividly my mom sitting at the kitchen table fretting over how that checkbook was going to balance, literally on the brink of tears trying to figure out how are we going to get the bills paid. But always saying, we've got to live with what we have. We're going to live within our means. It was hard and it was challenging.

That perspective has been lost on too many of our federal officials. That perspective is not reflected in the current administration. Barack Obama, President Obama does not share that commitment. If government spending were an Olympic sport he would be a repeat gold medalist.

Now I want to share with you--this is no longer a matter of right versus left, liberal versus conservative. We can prove our conclusion on this by basic mathematics. The United States federal government from all sources for all purpose takes in $2.2 trillion a year. Keep that number in mind: $2.2 trillion a year. We have total unfunded liabilities of $65 trillion. Two-point-two trillion in revenue; 65 trillion in total unfunded liabilities. That is more than 30 to 1 leverage. If the United States federal government were a bank, regulated by itself, they would shut themselves down.

We live in a nation where not long ago our United States Secretary of State was on rhetorical bended knee in communist China pleading with the Chinese to continue to buy our debt, because if they don't buy our debt and other foreign soveriegn wealth funds don't buy our debt, our beloved United States of America can't pay its bills. The United States of America, my friends, is not a beggar nation. The United States of America is not a beggar nation.

This will not be easy but it can be done. In Minnesota--this is the land by the way of Eugene McCarthy, this is the land of Hubert Humphrey, this is the land of Paul Wellstone, it is the land of Walter Mondale, it is the land of United States Senator Al Franken--Minnesota, well let me put it this way. Forty-nine out of fifty states voted for Ronald Reagan, including Massachusetts. Guess which one didn't.

Minnesota.

In Minnesota, we have taken the spending curve down to about zero. For the first time in 150 year history of my state, we cut spending in real terms. And I just want to share with you. If we can do it in Minnesota--I would suggest to you probably the most liberal state or one of the most liberal states in the country--it can be done anywhere. So I know there's challenges in New England and other places, but believe me. If you can do it in my state, you can do it anywhere.

The next thing I want to share with you as a third of four principles is this. People spend their money differently when its their money. So this plays itself out on lots of different issues, but let me give you an example in one that's timely right before us right now, and that's health care. If I said to you today on your way home from CPAC, swing by a great Minnesota company. Go to Best Buy, go to Target. You buy any television set that you would like. Pick any size you'd like, any characteristics you'd like, qualities you'd like; don't even look at the price. Don't worry about it. Just send the bill to Mary and me at the governor's residence at 1006 Summit Avenue in Saint Paul. How many of you would show up back at your hotel room tonight with a 12-inch black and white? None of you would, of course.

And so if we're going to reform systems, the direction isn't to turn them into government-run monopolies, where the other side can declare that they're giving away quote unquote free stuff. the direction we need to head is to put consumers in charge in a marketplace in conjunction with their doctors, giving them good information about what stuff costs, what the quality measurements are, and let them decide what's right for them and their families, not the federal government.

In Minnesota we did this with great success. I'll just give you one example. We said to our state employees, I said to our state employees--by the way the costs of the program were out of control, breaking the financial backs of everybody involved--and I said look, we're going to have a new system. You can go anywhere you want, but if you choose to go somewhere that's extra expensive and has really poor results, you're paying more. And if you choose under this program the government's paying for to go somewhere with good results that's more efficient with better results, you'll pay less. Guess what they did? Ninety percent of our government employees in Minnesota, state government employees, migrated to higher quality, more efficient health care providers, and for five years in a row we've had almost no premium increases in the program, cumulatively. I mean it's an amazing development because people spend their money differently when at least some of it is their money in a marketplace with market principles around that.

And then lastly in terms of the four principles, bullies--we all know this, I learned this in South Saint Paul; you probably learned it in various ways--bullies prey on weakness, not strength. So you know I have a fondness for ice hockey. Some of you probably aren't from parts of the country where you--if you've got a really tough person on the ice, most people leave him alone. So if you look what's going on in national security policy for our country, we have now entered an era where the president of France, President Sarkozy, is lecturing the United States of America on the dangers of appeasement. We have entered a new era. That is like, you know AIG lecturing us on financial responsibility.

I have a message for President Obama, and my message is this. Mr. President. No more apology tours, and no more giving Miranda rights to terrorists in our country. Now as conservatives, we know there is a better way. The patriots in this room and patriots around this country are sounding the alarm and rising up. And we also have a message for liberals. We're planting the flag on constitutional ground and if you try to take our freedoms we will fight back.

President Lincoln, during the most challenging moments of the Civil War was encouraged to fire General Grant. A lot of his advisors and others said, you've got to get rid of him. You know he's scruffy, he's rough at the edges. His boots aren't always polished. You know he's kind of a little out there. And some even said he drinks to much.

Well when you listen to the elites and the pundits talk about the tea party movement, or they talk about us as conservatives, they may not always say it explicitly, but implicit in their comments are you know maybe they're not as sophisticated because a lot of them didn't go to the Ivy League schools. Or, you know they're from places like the heartland, not, you know, they don't hang out in our chablis-drinking, brie-eating parties in San Francisco. You know they're a little rough around the edges and they've got these homemade signs and they don't dress like us and they actually enjoy shopping at Wal-Mart and Target--Sam's Club Republicans. You know and the implication is we're kind of bumpkins; we're just not up to their standard.

Well here's something that I think will give us a great deal of encouragement going forward. History is on our side. The Constitution is on our side. We're on the side of freedom. We're on the side of individual responsibility. We're on the side of free markets. We're on the side of the rule of law. We're on the side of limited government. And like Grant, we fight.

So I want to encourage you. Never give in. Never give up. And let's take this country back and have conservative leadership once again for the United States of America. Thank you for being here. Have a great rest of the day.