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Remarks before the Southern Republican Leadership Conference - April 10, 2010

U.S. Congressman Mike Pence, Chairman of the House Republican Conference, delivered the following remarks to the Southern Republican Leadership Conference:

Thank you, Congressman Scalise, for that overly generous introduction. It is great to be back in New Orleans. My last time here was the one-year anniversary of Katrina. Because of the character and resilience of its people and the generosity of the American people, it’s inspiring to see the city of New Orleans coming all the way back.

As Steve knows, we Hoosiers like a lot of things about this city: Cajun food, Mardi Gras and Peyton Manning. Other than the outcome of the most recent Super Bowl, there’s nothing we don’t like about New Orleans.

I am honored to be invited to address the largest gathering ever of the Southern Republican Leadership Conference.

Steve told you a little about me, but all you really need to know is that I’m the father of three teenagers (hence the white hair), been married for 25 years to a proud graduate of Butler University, and I’m a Christian, a conservative and a Republican in that order.

What a difference a year makes. Following our election losses in 2006 and 2008, most Republicans were still sure of our principles, but we were pretty uncertain about the future.

I mean, a year ago it seemed like there was only a remnant of people in this country unbowed by the glamour and the appeal of the new American left. We were under a seemingly unconquerable juggernaut of one-party liberal government in Washington, D.C. I mean, Barack Obama had a 120 percent approval rating, according to MSNBC. No, seriously, though, his approval rating was over 65 percent in all 57 states.

There were unprecedented Democrat majorities in both houses and an unchallenged liberal dominance in the media, our courts, our public schools and our universities. It's extraordinary. It was the force that seemed indomitable to everybody that didn't know you. Now look at us. Look at what you’ve done.

Historic elections in Virginia, in New Jersey and in the state formerly known as a Taxachusetts, we have a Republican member of the United States Senate! The Republican Party is on the march to win back America! As they say where I come from, "who'd a thunk it?" And your enthusiasm for freedom and limited government has been contagious. With your strong support, even Republicans in Congress have returned to the fight for fiscal discipline and reform.

Let’s be honest, three years ago, Republicans in Congress didn't just lose their majority, they lost their way. When I opposed No Child Left Behind, when I opposed the Medicare prescription drug bill, and when I opposed the Wall Street bailout, I knew that if we kept acting like big government liberals, the American people were eventually going to go with the professionals. And they did.

The truth is our party in Congress walked away from the principles that minted our national governing majority, and the American people walked away from us. But after a year that saw every single House Republican vote against the failed stimulus bill, every single House Republican vote against the budget-busting budget, and every single Republican opposed that government takeover of health care, Republicans in Congress are back in the fight and they're back in the fight on the right, especially when it comes to ObamaCare.

Now I know the Democrats think that’s over. They passed their bill and its time to move on. But let me be clear: Democrats may have had their way on the 3rd Sunday in March, but the American people are going to have their say on the first Tuesday in November, and House Republicans will not rest until we have repealed their government takeover of health care, lock, stock and barrel! The president doesn’t think we can repeal and replace his bill. On the first stop of the ObamaCare World Tour ‘10 he said advocates of repeal should, "Go for it." Mr. President, count on it.

We can repeal and replace ObamaCare with a law that will lower the cost of health insurance without growing the size of government by allowing Americans to buy health insurance across state lines.

We can repeal and replace ObamaCare with real malpractice reform, ending the scourge of junk lawsuits and defensive medicine.

To those who say it would be too difficult to repeal and replace ObamaCare, I say it’s a two-step process. We repeal the Pelosi Congress in 2010, and we replace the Obama Administration in 2012." So we’ve made great strides in the past year, but there’s a lot more to do. Men and women let me tell you, it’s only halftime in the locker room. We are ahead on freedom’s scoreboard this year, but there is a lot of time left on the clock, and as we saw on Monday night, you can fight them even all night long but you still have to be up when the buzzer sounds.

The bottom line is this isn’t over. We cannot rest. We cannot relent until we win back the American Congress for the American people. So how do we do it?

First, we've got to stay focused. Distraction is the enemy of our success. Politics and the airwaves are always filled up with speculation. Who’s up, who's down, who’s next, who’s perfect, who’s not? Friends, we’ve got to resist the temptation to look past the next election.

As Coach Brad Stevens told the Bulldogs on Monday night, "We’ve just got to focus on the next possession." Men and women, the next possession is Election Day. We've got to take that Hill in 2010! Second, to win back America we need to campaign as conservatives. To face the enormous challenges ahead, we don't just need a Republican majority, we need a conservative majority on Capitol Hill. We need men and women committed to fighting for a strong defense, to limit government, and for traditional moral values without apology and without acrimony. I have said for years, "I’m a conservative but I’m not in a bad mood about it." We need to find happy warriors who will take our message to every community, every neighborhood, and every American regardless of race or creed or color or income. Our ideals know no boundaries in America. Jack Kemp taught me that.

Lastly, we've got to show the American people that we know what’s at stake in this election and offer them a compelling vision for a better America grounded in the timeless principles enshrined in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States of America. Despite the political gains of the last year, America is changing, and she is not changing for the better. A nation conceived in liberty has come of age in bondage to big government. We've lost respect in the world. We are going broke. And our social and cultural fabric is unraveling.

You know, I am told that officials in this administration will actually admit in private that they see their job as "managing American decline." The job of the American president is not to manage American decline. The job of the American president is to reverse it.

In the face of their failed leadership, our party must produce a vision for a better America that will return our national government to the common sense and the common values of everyday Americans.

So what does that look like? Well first, it means giving the American soldiers the resources they need to defend this nation at home and abroad.

It means keeping all our options on the table to deter our enemies and protect our people, including nuclear weapons. History teaches that weakness arouses evil. Telling our enemies what we will never do with our most powerful weapons is a prescription for disaster.

It means giving our intelligence communities the tools to fight the War on Terror like a war, ending the era where we put international public relations ahead of public safety. Khalid Sheikh Muhammad and his cohorts should not be tried in our civilian courts. They should be tried in the military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay.

It means being good to our friends and tough on our enemies, not the other way around. The recent bullying of Israel over construction in Jerusalem was appalling. I never thought I’d live to see the day that an American administration would denounce Israel for rebuilding Jerusalem.

Let the world know this, if nothing else: America stands with Israel.

And closer to home, a vision for a better America means presenting an effective pathway to restoring fiscal discipline to our national government. Since WWII, the federal government operated on an average of 20 percent of GDP. After runaway federal spending under both parties, federal spending is nearing 25 percent of our economy today, and left unchecked, accounting for no new programs, will double by the middle of this century.

Yesterday, CBO Director Doug Elmendorf said, "The nation’s fiscal path is unsustainable and the problem cannot be solved by minor tinkering."

We’ve tried everything from Gramm Rudman, to line item vetoes, to Paygo and they’ve all failed.

The time has come to limit federal spending to 20 percent of our nation’s economy in the Constitution of the United States.

Only a spending limit amendment to the Constitution will be strong enough to restrain the explosive growth of federal spending. If God can get by on 10 percent, Uncle Sam ought to be able to keep getting by on 20.

While we must end this era of runaway spending, fiscal discipline alone is not enough. We also need to renew incentives in America to create, to build, to achieve and excel.

Permitting people to enjoy the fruits of their labor built our cities, conquered our frontiers and is what made America the most powerful economy in the history of the world. We must return incentives to the American people.

But you know, that’s not the president’s approach. I was with him in Baltimore the other day. I had to ask him twice if he’d support across the board tax cuts the way John F. Kennedy did and the way Ronald Reagan did, and I think the President pretty much said that he’d support across the board tax cuts as long as they weren’t across the board.

To reverse economic decline we need fiscal discipline in Washington, D.C. and fast acting, across the board tax relief for working families, small businesses and family farms. Get government under control, get government out of the way and America will come roaring back!

And finally, to win back America we must recognize that our present crisis is not merely economic and political, but moral in nature. At the root of these times is the reality that people in positions of authority have walked away from the timeless truths of integrity, decency, an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay and the simple notion that you ought to treat the other guy the way you want to be treated.

We will not restore this nation with public policy alone. It will require public virtue that emanates from our traditional values of life, family and faith. I believe that ending an innocent human life is morally wrong.

But it is also morally wrong to take taxpayer dollars of millions of pro-life Americans and use them for abortions at home and abroad. The largest abortion provider in America should not also be the largest recipient of federal funding, and the time has come to deny any and all federal funding to Planned Parenthood of America. So, if you’re taking notes, that’s how we win back America.

Stay focused, elect a conservative Republican Congress, and win back the right to govern with a vision for a better America.

This is our moment. Now is the time. It’s time for us to do all that we can to preserve what makes this country great. If you can give, give. If you can speak, speak. If you can write, write. And if you can run, run. But do all you can. Now is the moment.

And as you take to the field in the next seven months to do freedom’s work, know this: you will not fight alone.

Engraved on the Liberty Bell are words of admonition from an ancient text. It reads, "Proclaim liberty throughout all the land and unto all the inhabitants thereof."

The old book also says, "Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." Translation: when we proclaim liberty, when we do freedom’s work, we make His work our very own.

Men and women of the Southern Republican Leadership Conference, the time has come to take our stand. We must not be afraid and we must fight for what has always been the source of American greatness: our faith in God and our freedom.

And if we hold that banner high, I believe with all my heart the good and great people of this land will rally to our cause. We will take this Congress back in 2010, and we will take this country back in 2012, so help us God.