NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. – Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker electrified the CPAC conservative audience on Thursday afternoon by asserting the victories he has achieved in his home state can be achieved on a national level.
"Our biggest challenge is in Washington, or, as I like to call it, 68 square miles surrounded by reality,'" Walker quipped.
"Let this be the time when we can tell future generations what we did to make America great again," he said.
"Today in Washington, we have a president who thinks we grow the economy by growing Washington," he said. "Six of the top 10 counties are right here in the Washington area. We believe in an America that is growing the economy in cities and towns all across America."
Walker said the way to measure success is not by the number of people who are dependent on government, but by the number of people who are no longer dependent upon government.
"We understand that true freedom and prosperity does not come from the mighty hand of the government," Walker insisted. "It comes from empowering people to live their own lives and to determine their own destinies. That's the American way."
Walker said that in America, "there is a reason we celebrate the Fourth of July instead of April 15, because in America we celebrate our independence from the government not our dependence upon the government."
Watch Walker's speech:
In 2009, he said, when he first thought about running for governor, he and his wife prayed about the decision.
"We knew it would be tough, but we were concerned that our sons would grow up in a state that might not be as great as the state we grew up in," he said. "And for us as parents, that was unacceptable. And so today, many years later, I'm proud to tell you because of the reforms we have enacted, our state is better than the state we grew up in.
"We took on the powerful special interests and we put the power back into the hands of the hard-working taxpayers," he said.
"In our state, teachers no longer have tenure. We can hire and fire teachers based on merit and performance, so we can put the best and brightest teachers in the classroom and keep them there."
Walker claimed his fight against the teachers' union has produced positive results.
"It's working," he said. "Today, the test scores of the students in our state are the second best in the country. Our graduation rates and our reading scores are up over the past four years, because we put the power back into the hands of the taxpayers and the people they elect to run their school boards."
He also cited improvement in Wisconsin's employment rate.
"We took a state where the unemployment rate was 9.2 percent at its peak in 2010, and it's now down to 5.2 percent," he noted.
"We were a state that was taxed and taxed and taxed. After four years as governor, I'm proud to say we've reduced the tax burden by nearly $2 billion," he said.
Walker pointed out a typical homeowner in Wisconsin is paying less in property taxes than he was four years ago, and by 2016, homeowners in the state will be paying less in property taxes than they paid in 2010.
"How many other governors in America can say that?" he asked.
"We've led the way with lawsuits to get regulatory reform," he explained. "We defunded Planned Parenthood and signed pro-life legislation. We passed a vote that says if you want to vote in our state, it should be easy to do so, but it must be done legally. In Wisconsin, you now need a voter ID to cast a ballot."
As of next week, he said, Wisconsin will be the 25th state that allows workers the right to choose, citing passage of Right to Work legislation.
"We want Wisconsin, a state that has not gone Republican for president since 1964, back when I was in high school, to vote Republican again in 2016," he concluded.
"We won the fight for governor because we won over independent voters, and in the 2016 presidential contest, we intend to do it again."
Walker criticized President Obama's foreign policy, including his failure to realize that "radical Islamic terrorism is a threat to our way of life."
"We need a leader who will stand with Israel, who understands that when the prime minister and leader of our longtime ally comes to the United States Congress to share his concerns about Israel, we show him our respect," the governor said.
"We need to show the world that in America, you can have no better ally and no greater enemy. In America, we will stand up for what is right and against what is wrong."
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