'Actually, we grow a lot of fruits and nuts'

Editor's note: Here is the text of U.S. Rep. Devin Nunes' address at the WND "Taking America Back Conference" in Miami Friday:

I know what you all are thinking. Here is this young guy from California. He must be a liberal. What is he doing here?

But please keep in mind: there are almost 40 million people in California. Not all of us come from Hollywood or San Francisco!

In fact, one of the largest areas in California is the great San Joaquin Valley.

That's where I was born and raised and that's the region I now represent in Congress.

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As a region, the San Joaquin has been labeled America's breadbasket.

However, it might be better described as America's produce stand because farmers there grow more than 300 different crops. Actually, we grow a lot of fruits and nuts – ours are not the kind you hide from your children.

I'm here today to share my perspective on the enormous challenges we face as a nation. But also to tell you there are solutions – bold plans that can renew and restore our great American republic.

We must start with some hard truths. Truths politicians fear. And when politicians fear something they ignore it – offering instead rhetoric and empty promises.

This has undermined public trust, demoralized voters, and made it hard to tell the difference between Republicans and Democrats.

As one of a small group of lawmakers who fought to kill the Wall Street bailout, I witnessed many conservative friends lured into the trap of big government. I look back on that vote reassured that my loyalty to our nation's founding principles was right.
At the time, members of Congress were told that we had to vote for the bailout. Most of these members had never read the bill. We were told there was no time to waste and that the democratic process would fail us for the first time.

Those who resisted were threatened, cajoled, and harassed. And finally, we were warned that if the bailout failed to pass, we would be the cause of another Great Depression.

Nearly two years have passed. We can now say with certainty that the bailout was an utter failure. The slush fund it created lacked all accountability and was exploited by a small minority of well-connected fat cats.

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The only real accomplishment of the bailout was to set the stage for a renaissance of socialism in our country – a fact recognized by Newsweek in early 2009 with a cover story that read "We are All Socialists Now."

Of course, we are not all socialists – at least, I don't think there are any socialists in this room.

But the underlying message from the bailout was clear. Our nation is on a dangerous path – a path paved by the relationships between big business, big government and the radical left.

Some may be surprised by my inclusion of big business as part of the problem. Perhaps you believe that corporate America is allied with freedom and conservative principles.

But make no mistake; big business is allied with whoever is in power.

And over the past several years, corporate America has linked arms with the left – providing enormous financial support to those seeking to take away American freedom.
We must never forget that big insurance and pharmaceuticals helped President Obama to pass the government takeover of health care or that big oil allied with environmentalists to promote global warming.

And even as we gather here today, powerful elements in corporate America are financing efforts to retain Democratic majorities in Congress.

While big business, big government and the radical left each have their own motives, they are allied in one important respect – they all desire the centralization of power.

Yet America was built on freedom, strong leadership, big ideas, and a willingness to take risks.

We are a free people nourished by the courage and sacrifices of others; Led by many men and women who understood that political victory was not for personal power but the preservation of American liberty.

At some point, things changed. Our leaders began to choose short term political victory over big ideas, hard decisions, and strong leadership.

As a result, America stands at the precipice.

Before us is the real possibility that we will lose our cherished freedoms – some of which have already been lost.

In their place will emerge a European style social democracy – or worse, we could see a resurgence of the nightmare of Soviet style communism.

To fight this change, restore our republic, and protect our freedoms, we must all understand what we are up against and who we are fighting. The masterminds of American socialism are experts at manipulating public opinion.

Many of these masterminds are California’s leading exports – left-wing activists who have tirelessly carried the torch of 1960's radicalism into 21st Century government.

The leader of this group is the current Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi. Many of her top lieutenants in Washington come from Hollywood and the Bay Area.

Together, they have worked to impose the worst of California's big government laws on the rest of the country.

Cap and trade, for example, became a California state law in 2006. It represented a tax increase of $3,900 for each resident and has forced energy rationing. Traditional big screen TVs, for example, can't be sold in California anymore because they consume too much energy.

You can be certain there are more restrictions on power consumption coming.
To add insult to injury, the state government has either banned – or virtually banned through regulation – every form of conventional power generation.

Only a handful of high cost technologies, defined as renewable, are permitted to be built. This ensures energy rates will remain high indefinitely.

You might ask yourself, "Why should I care about California's problems?"

My response is that you have to care because while Golden State residents are the original guinea pigs in incremental socialism, those responsible are working in Congress to transform our entire country.

What the left intends for America is clearly visible in what they have done to California. It is a warning sign we must learn from and it is a call to action we must heed.
As we speak, the Golden State is buckling under the weight of heavy regulation, high taxes, and relentless socialism. Yet state leaders continue to pursue reckless anti-growth policies – policies that can only be described as a race to the bottom.

A thumbnail sketch of California government includes a budget deficit of $20 billion – out of a $94 billion budget; government pensions that are underfunded by at least half a trillion; and a leadership paralyzed by the power of unions and other left-wing special interests.

A Democrat can't get elected in California without bowing to the demands of these groups. Once in power, they serve them without question.

Meanwhile, the people of California confront an unemployment rate statewide of 13 percent. In some communities, including my congressional district, the unemployment rate has been much higher – near 40 percent.

Socialism is transforming California into a failed state. At every opportunity, Democratic leaders have fought to centralize power and redistribute wealth.
This has sucked the lifeblood of entrepreneurship and industry out of California – forcing the left to grow increasingly militant in search of other peoples' money.

They have withheld tax refunds, raised taxes and fees, and taken huge bailouts from the federal government.

Yet despite their rush for cash, legislators are spending faster than their tax collectors can work. The result is an empty Treasury and an ever looming cash flow crisis that has forced the state to issue IOUs.

California's leaders and public employee unions have emasculated local governments, micromanaged education, and spread their control deep into the private sector – making small and large businesses less competitive.

The deeper the tentacles of government have reached, the more strangled the economy has become and the less revenue the state has collected.

I have described California as a state confronting an economic death spiral but given the fact that liberals refuse to change direction, it might be better understood as a state led by people with an economic suicide pact.

While California's reckless anti-growth agenda has no limits, the state's most egregious attacks on liberty are directed at rural communities.

For example, regulators frequently attack California’s farmers – who have consistently been the back-bone of the state's economy.

California's dairy farms are largely based in the San Joaquin Valley. The two counties I represent comprise the largest concentration of milk production in America – making them vital to our rural communities.

In an outrageous regulatory overreach, the California Air Board came to the conclusion that cows were causing global warming. Regulators, with the support of environmental extremists, actually claimed that a cow polluted more than a car.

A farmer who attended one of the air board's public meetings told the panel that he had a plan to settle the question in an overnight experiment. He asked, "Do cows really pollute more than cars?"

The farmer said that he would take one of his cows and lock himself in his garage overnight with it. At the same time, he proposed that a volunteer from the air board shut himself in his garage with his car running.

"We will see who comes out in the morning," he said.

Of course, the experiment never occurred for obvious reasons. Yet the air board continues to target farmers – extracting wealth and jobs from rural economies.

I have another example I like to share about big government excess – one that I wish was only a joke.

It seems that California's official state rock, called serpentine, has attracted the attention of legislative leaders.

They want to strip the rock of its status and brand it a cancer risk.

You heard me right, California is going bankrupt and yet the state's political leaders are literally playing with rocks.

Keep in mind, geologists and scientists aren't the ones making the cancer risk claim.
Trial lawyers and activists are. They see this law as the only cow they value – a cash cow.

Once signed into law, they will be able to file lawsuits across the state – and not just against businesses that have used the rock for landscaping, jewelry or other purposes.
Anyone with the rock on their property will be open to litigation.

I guess playing with rocks makes some sense – if you are a creative leftist in search of money.

For their part, legislative leaders must see the bill as a form of stimulus for trial lawyers.

Why else would such a ridiculous law be a priority in the midst of the state's worst economic crisis and highest unemployment rate in modern history.

California offers many chilling examples of government over-reach and the power of the left.

In the San Joaquin Valley of California, the government has created an artificial drought – drying up hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland. An area roughly equivalent to the state of Rhode Island is dead – dry dirt, tumble weeds and dead trees.
The feds explain the man-made drought as necessary to protect fish. But the history of water politics tell a much more sinister story.

The government-imposed drought is, in fact, politically motivated. In the socialist utopia of California, there is no room for rural farm communities or their conservative values – a view now shared by Democratic supermajorities in Congress.

In rare moments of honesty, environmental leaders have admitted their intention to transform the California countryside into its pre-human state.

Yet, their extreme views have consistently been sheltered by the media. In one case, a statement made by the Defenders of Wildlife called for the forced retirement of 1.3 million acres of farmland.

Should this happen, a vast swath of our nation's most diverse and productive farmland would become desert-like.

Now that you have heard the history of California and its decline and my warning about how our nation is being transformed you should know that there are solutions to these problems. After all, laws in America weren't written by God they were written by man.

I have always believed that we, as elected officials, have a responsibility to put before the American people solutions in the form of legislation not just vague ideas backed up with rhetoric and platitudes.

Let me outline some of those for you now.

I want to talk briefly about three very important issues; taxes, entitlements, and energy policy.

Anyone who really cares about our nation's future and jobs needs to think deeper than the oversimplified debate over extending the bush tax cuts. We need to chart a new course, not re-debate old ideas.

Real tax reform is recognition of the proper role of government – one that should not try to control the people through the tax code.

On a state-by-state basis, the problem of oppressive taxation must be dealt with. The Fair Tax offers an excellent opportunity in this regard.

The approach is simple and transparent. Best of all, it is an economically empowering way to raise the money needed for a slimmed down government.
The Roadmap for America’s Future, a proposal created by my friend Congressman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, offers another alternative.

Washington's complex tax system would be scrapped for a simple two-tier system. All special interest tax loopholes and deductions would be eliminated in favor of a one page tax return.

On the corporate side, all taxes would be replaced by a business consumption tax. This would free up capital and investment, create jobs, and spur economic prosperity.
The point I am making is that whether you move forward with a Fair Tax or something different, the existing system must end and the overall tax burden must decline. America cannot compete with the highest tax rates in the world and the American people cannot be free if their government places them in economic servitude.

The preservation of American freedom also demands healthcare reform.
Obamacare has to be repealed. There is no other responsible alternative.
My colleagues and friends in the Senate, Tom Coburn and Richard Burr, worked hard on a plan – The Patients Choice Act - which Paul Ryan and I championed in the House.
Our proposal was ignored by the Democratic leadership. But it can be a part of the debate when Obamacare is scrapped.

Real health-care reform empowers patients and doctors, not government bureaucrats or insurance companies.

It allows you to control your healthcare; is affordable; is not dependent on the good will of your employer; and cannot be rationed by unaccountable bureaucrats – whether they are paid by the government or large insurers.
The solution is best captured by the word "choice." And when I say choice, I mean real choice – not the promise of another failed government program that masquerades as choice.

If enacted, our reforms would not only end the growing control of government over health care but it would stamp down insurance company monopolies.
And for those who are low-income, we offer an escape from the ghetto medicine associated with broke government healthcare programs.

Today in this country, we spent about $11,000 for a single mother with three children to provide them health care. Something is wrong here. You can get a generous plan from the insurance company monopolies for about $8,000.

Those of us who believe in a Republic form of government believe that this woman is smart enough to select her own health plan and we want to help her do it. The left believes she needs a nanny state, controlled in Washington, because she isn't smart enough. Our way gives her better health care at a lower cost. Their way makes her health care the property of the state.

Now let me talk about energy and energy security.

This is an issue often overlooked and misunderstood.

Half of our trade deficit is buying oil from foreign countries; many of which are hostile to us.

This dependence on foreign oil has consequences.

Not only do we lose good energy jobs and send money overseas, but we face higher energy costs – which in turn forces more jobs out of the country.

A few years ago, Congress was deeply embroiled in a debate over whether or not the federal government would allow energy exploration on Alaska's Northern Slope.
The region sought for oil and gas development is part of a massive 19 million acre federal land reserve called the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge or ANWR.

During the debate, radical environmentalists and their friends in Congress told us that ANWR was environmentally sensitive, pristine, and teeming with wildlife that wouldn't survive if oil companies were permitted to drill.

To help Members of Congress understand the truth, Republican Leaders organized a trip to Alaska.

I was eager for the opportunity to see the drilling site and am one of a small handful of lawmakers who have actually been there.

I was shocked by what I found.

I can tell you that the place sought for drilling is nothing like what you would imagine.

It's a tiny section of land that occupies less than one half of one percent of ANWR'S total land area.

Just imagine a postage stamp on a football field for an idea of what that means.

The drilling site is completely flat and barren. There are no trees, hills, or mountains.
Nine months out of the year it is covered with snow and ice; it is virtually void of life.
Three of those months are in total darkness.

In the six weeks of summer, the area is dotted with thousands of lakes and is covered by a boggy tundra on permanently frozen ground.

I can tell you first hand that visiting this portion of ANWR was an unpleasant experience that I hope not to repeat

There was nothing there to justify special federal protections and there is certainly no reason to make the area off limits to drilling.

But you don't have to take my word for it. Just ask one of the people who live nearby.
During my visit, a native Eskimo who lives in the village of Dead Horse told me he couldn't understand why Congress wouldn't allow drilling.

I pressed him about wildlife and specifically asked about the caribou population – because caribou were often mentioned by drilling opponents.

The Eskimo testified that in his lifetime he had never seen a caribou anywhere near the Northern Slope.

He added that if he did see one, he would shoot it and eat it.

I came home from Alaska committed to sharing the truth about ANWR.

It is part of America's abundant energy reserves and should be a part of any sensible plan for American Energy Freedom.

But we can’t stop with ANWR.

Affordable, stable, and abundant American energy requires a significant investment in nuclear energy.

Embracing proven nuclear technology would reduce the cost of commercial and residential energy, create high paying American jobs, and allow our economy to grow.

However, the left has consistently opposed the use of nuclear power or any other plan that delivers America cheap energy. Those among them who are honest admit they are opposed to cheap energy because rising energy prices will help them transform and control America.

In response, I have offered a Roadmap to America's Energy Future – a bill that spells out how America can regain energy freedom. It's an all of the above solution – one that recognizes our national interest in developing new sources of energy.

Today, the environmental left has forced upon our nation a system whereby increasing energy prices force rationing. Expensive and ineffective technologies win government grants and political favor. This intentional attack on our economic development, our growth, and our family budgets is the left's way of exerting control.

The Energy Roadmap is how we fight back and regain our freedom.

During my short time here today I hoped to impress upon each of you that there are solutions available to us; solutions which I have barely done justice. I examine them in more detail in my book, Restoring the Republic. You can also find information on my website.

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