James, thank you for that kind introduction, and thank you for that warm welcome.  It’s great to be here with you at CPAC, the largest annual gathering of conservatives in the country, and it’s an honor to join this year’s distinguished group of speakers.  A lot of people are watching this conference with great interest.  It’s only February of 2011, and we’ve already entered the season of speculation about November of 2012.  I’m hoping that 2012 will be the year we take back not only the Senate, but the White House as well.  

I’m honored to occupy the stage with so many of our party’s great leaders.  It’s fair to say that I don’t have the same national name recognition of some of my more famous Republican colleagues.

The truth is I’ve never held a book signing.

I’ve been to Iowa plenty of times, but it’s usually on my way to South Dakota.  

And the closest I’ve come to being on a reality show is CSPAN’s live coverage of the Senate floor.  

The truth is I spend most of my time either back in South Dakota talking with the people who elected me or in the Senate working hard on their behalf.  

Our family roots run deep in South Dakota.  Back in 1906, two brothers named Nicolai and Matthew Gjelsvik boarded a boat in Norway in search of the American Dream.  When they reached the shores of America, the only words they knew in English were “apple pie” and “coffee.”  The immigration officials at Ellis Island thought that their name, which was spelled G-J-E-L-S-V-I-K, would be too hard for people in this country to spell and to pronounce, so they suggested Nicolai and Matthew change it.  The two brothers picked the name of the farm that they had worked on near Bergen, Norway, which was the Thune Farm.  And so, Nicolai Gjelsvik became Nick Thune, my grandfather.

With his new name and his new country, my grandfather set out to build a new life.  He learned English and got a job building the railroad across South Dakota.  When he and his brother had saved up enough money, they started a small business:  first, a merchandising company and, later, a hardware store.  Norway was their homeland, but they made America their home.  

My grandfather had three sons, including my father.  And he instilled in his boys Midwestern values that my parents, in turn, passed along to me and to my four siblings:  

They taught us to live within our means, even if it means going without.

They taught us to help our neighbor and to serve our community, to work hard and to pull our own weight.

They taught us about the importance of family and the value of life.

And they taught us to appreciate our freedom and our liberty - gifts that come from being fortunate enough to live in the greatest nation on earth.

Because of my upbringing I believe in things like limited government, fiscal responsibility, and personal accountability.  I believe in the wisdom of our Founders and the sanctity of our Constitution.  And I believe that in order for our values to have meaning, our actions must match our words.  If you’re blessed enough to serve in public office, then you shouldn’t just talk a good game about your values; you should cast your vote according to them.

Back home in South Dakota, that’s not a radical agenda; that’s just common sense.  But for those of us who value liberty and freedom, Washington, DC has been a pretty lonely place the last couple of years.  

So I want to thank you for sending me some new friends this past November.

In the House, Republicans now hold 242 seats and the Speaker’s gavel.  

In the Senate, we may not have a majority yet, but we’ve got the kind of motivated and conservative minority that can make a big difference.

In November, you sent conservative leaders to Washington … and you sent the President and his allies a message:  The liberal party that they’ve been having on the taxpayer’s dime is over.  

Now, you’d think that after the elections in Massachusetts and Virginia and New Jersey … and our midterm victories across the country, President Obama would rethink his agenda and modify his approach.  I was listening for a sign of that in his State of the Union address last month.

As you know, we did things a little differently at the State of the Union this year.  Democrats invited their favorite Republican to sit with them, so I sat with Senator Gillibrand from New York and Senator Carper from Delaware.  Apparently I’m so conservative it takes two Democrats to balance me out.  But let’s be clear:  A new seating chart is not bipartisanship.  And new rhetoric is not a new agenda.

This year, the President talked a lot about supporting “clean energy,” and he started by recycling his speech from last year.  

For example, last year, the President talked about a three-year freeze on spending.  This year, he talked about a five-year freeze on spending.

Last year, he talked about pushing through trade agreements with South Korea, Panama, and Columbia.  This year, he talked about – you guessed it – trade agreements with South Korea, Panama, and Columbia.

Last year, the President talked about spending.  This year, he talked about “investment.”  For those of you who don’t have your Obama State of the Union decoder ring, “investment” is just Washington code for “more spending.”

When this administration talks about making an “investment,” I think a lot of us know by now what kind of “return” we can expect:  more government and more debt, fewer jobs and less freedom.  If the State of the Union is any indication, 2011 is shaping up to be more of the same.

It’s disappointing, but it’s not surprising.  After all, these are the folks who took over auto companies, insurance companies, and banks.  

They jammed through Obamacare – a 2-and-a-half-trillion-dollar entitlement that we don’t want and can’t afford.

And when members of their own party won’t support this administration’s legislative schemes, they go around the People’s elected representatives and try to do it without them – through executive power grabs.

They couldn’t pass the cap and tax bill, so they’re letting the EPA do their dirty work.

They couldn’t pass the card check bill, so they’re using the National Labor Relations Board to take away a worker’s right to cast a secret ballot.

And now the Obama FCC is trying to regulate the Internet.

Since 2008, we have witnessed the largest expansion in the size of government since the 1960s.  All that government means a lot less freedom … and it comes with a hefty price tag.  

It took 43 presidents more than 200 years to rack up our first 5.8 trillion dollars of publicly-held debt.  Under the Obama administration’s last budget, we will double that in five years and triple it in ten.  And we’re paying for it with borrowed money.  Last year, over 40 cents of every dollar the federal government spent came from places like China.

President Obama likes to talk about winning the future.  But someone ought to tell him:  You can’t win the prosperity of tomorrow if you’re mortgaging it to pay for the big government programs of today.

Ladies and gentlemen, we live in a time defined by serious challenges.  

Unemployment stands at 9%.  We’re running huge deficits as far as the eye can see.  Our national debt stands at more than $14 trillion.  In fact, Admiral Mike Mullen, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the highest-ranking military official in this country, said a few months back that the greatest threat to our national security is our national debt.  That speaks volumes because the threats we face abroad are great and grave:  Islamic extremists, an unstable Middle East, a potentially nuclear Iran, an ascendant China with its rapidly growing military capability, and a delusional North Korea armed with nuclear weapons.

The only thing more alarming than these threats is the President’s weak response.  We can’t win the peace with apologies and reset buttons and deep cuts to our national defense.  And we can’t win the peace if we don’t tell it like it is:  An act of terrorism is, just that, terrorism.  Calling it a “man-caused disaster” doesn’t change the gravity of the threat; it only makes us question this administration’s will to defeat it.  

We face serious challenges that require serious solutions.  And if we lived in any other country in the world, I’d be worried about whether we were up to the job.  But the American way is to turn adversity into opportunity.  

Those who came before us – men and women like my parents and my grandparents – survived two world wars.  They weathered a Great Depression.  They took down an Evil Empire and they brought the light of freedom to the darkest corners of the world.  

They turned this country into the greatest nation the world has ever known, not by “reinventing” themselves, but by holding fast to America's most sacred values and defining principles.

We don't need to fundamentally transform America.  We need to stay true to who we are.

Despite what President Obama believes, we don’t need a “new foundation.”  Our old foundation works just fine.

You know, just a few days ago, we celebrated what would have been Ronald Reagan’s 100th birthday.  Reagan assumed the presidency at one of the most challenging periods in our nation’s history, but he knew that the challenges before us were no match for the good that resides within us.    

President Reagan showed us that there can be great hope in the midst of great despair.  There can be great joy in great sacrifice.  That if we stick to our convictions, good things can come from hard times.

What a contrast to our current President.  You know, for someone who claims to admire Reagan so much, President Obama understands very little about who he was.  Ronald Reagan knew that what makes America exceptional isn’t our government, but our people and our ideals.  And he knew that the truest measure of our success is not how much our government can do for us, but how much our people can achieve.  

Reagan’s leadership is a guiding example for today.  He once said, “There are no easy answers, but there are simple answers.  We must have the courage to do what we know is morally right.”  

We should take President Reagan’s sound advice, and we can start by reforming how we do business in Washington.  Let’s put an end to the backroom deals and big government ways that have become the hallmarks of this administration.  Congress is the People’s House, and the people have a right to know what goes on there.  And those elected to serve in Congress should respect the People’s money by spending less and saving more.  So, instead of freezing spending at the bloated levels of today - like the President proposes - let’s go back to the spending levels of 2008.

Let’s adopt a two-year budget that spends money in the odd-numbered years and saves money in the even-numbered years, when folks go home to run for re-election.  Let’s make elections about how much money we can save, not how much money we can spend.

Let’s create a new congressional committee whose sole purpose is to reduce the deficit by cutting spending.  There are 26 committees or subcommittees in Congress that spend your money; it’s high time we have at least one dedicated to saving your money.

And if American families are making tough choices to live within their means, then the federal government should show some fiscal discipline and balance its books as well.  The time has come to finally pass a balanced budget amendment.

If we’re going to get our fiscal house in order and our economy up and running, we will also need to reform Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.  That requires bold leadership and a bipartisan approach.  President Obama talks a lot about both, but he doesn’t seem capable of either.  So, if we’re going to solve our entitlement problem, we’re going to need to solve our White House problem by electing a conservative president in 2012.

When it comes to Obamacare, it’s great to see the courts get this one right by recognizing this costly mess is also unconstitutional.  In Congress, my Republican colleagues and I are working hard to get the votes to repeal it and replace it.  But in the meantime, we can and should defund it.  And if this administration can grant waivers to its favorite friends, then we ought to allow every state in the Union to opt out as well.

When it comes to energy, let’s stop sending billions of dollars to foreign regimes for resources that we can and should develop here at home.  We need an energy plan that encourages all forms of American energy – one that produces American resources and creates American jobs.  

And when it comes to national security, let’s win the wars of today and prepare for the threats of tomorrow.  

Let’s stand by our troops and make sure that they have the resources they need to complete their missions.   

Let’s stand with those around the world who are risking their lives for freedom.

And let’s stand up for our allies, like Israel, and stand up to our enemies, like the radical Islamic extremists who seek to harm our friends and destroy our way of life.  You know, despite what some in this administration may think, our men and women in uniform are not engaged in an Overseas Contingency Operation; they are fighting a Global War on Terror.  That’s a fight that we need all elements of our national power to win.  We need to use lawful interrogation techniques to acquire actionable intelligence.  And when we’re done interrogating terrorists, we should give them their day in court – in a military tribunal, not an American courtroom.  

Ladies and gentlemen, we’ve got a tough road ahead if we’re going to get America back on track.  We face some hard choices and we need to make the right decisions.  And there will be strong opposition to our agenda and to our ideas.

But as I look out at what lies before us, I am reminded of my first Senate race back in 2002.   It was a tough, hard-hitting campaign and a close election.  I ended up losing by just 524 votes.  It was the kind of experience that could make you decide to pack it in, to sit it out next time around.   

In fact, I remember sitting in our living room in Sioux Falls, South Dakota having a conversation with my wife, and she said, “I’m not running again unless God himself comes to our front door and asks us to run.”  But then came 2004 and the opportunity to run against the Democrat leader in the Senate, Tom Daschle.  

I’ll never forget what my wife said the day we decided to run.  She said, “I finally concluded and realized that what we went through in that Senate race in 2002 wasn’t just about the winning.  It was about being in the race.”  I thought that was a pretty profound observation because, for me, it’s always about winning.  I’m a competitor and I’m in it to win it.  But she was saying that – win or lose – it’s important to be in the arena.  It’s important to be out there and fighting for what we believe in.  She was right then, and she’s right now.  

I know you understand that because you’ve chosen to get in the arena and fight.  You’ve made our conservative convictions your call to action.  In the battle between more government and more freedom, you’re fighting for freedom.  In the battle between liberty and dependency, you’re fighting for liberty.  Together, we’ve come a long way, but we still have much to do.  

We need to get this country back to the values that made my grandfather – and so many like him – risk it all to reach our shores.  We need to protect the principles that men like my father fought for on battlefields in far away places.  

Their legacy is our call to action.  We need to ask ourselves:  What sacrifices are we willing to make to secure America’s future?  What will we do to ensure that the great American Experiment does not end on our watch?

And the answer is that, come Monday, we’ve got to get back in the trenches and fight for the values and the ideals and the principles that made this the greatest country on earth.  For my part, I’ll be using every tool our Founders gave us to expand liberty, to expand freedom, and to stop the growth of government.  When the Democrats try to regulate what they can’t legislate, I’ll throw every obstacle I can in their path.  When they try to increase spending and push their liberal agenda, I’ll be on the front lines voting no.  

On Monday, after this CPAC celebration is over, I’m going back to work, and I hope you will too.  I hope you’ll go back to your communities and keep speaking out, keep holding Washington accountable, and keep making your voice heard.  

We may not win every battle every time, but as Winston Churchill said, “Success is not final.  Failure is not fatal.  It is the courage to continue that counts.”

So, let’s make our convictions our calling.  Let’s get back in the arena and have the courage to continue our fight.  Let’s expand our movement.  And, together, let’s make 2012 our moment.  

Thank you.  God bless you.  And may God continue to bless the United States of America.