Gov. Scott Walker: Have Courage To Articulate, Not Moderate Principles

During an interview Saturday on the Don Smith Show, Gov. Scott Walker told conservative talk radio host Don Smith that conservatives don’t need to moderate their conservative principles, they need to have the courage to articulate them in order to win in 2014, and beyond.

The Wisconsin governor was thrusted into the national spotlight when he fought the powerful Wisconsin labor unions to pass his Wisconsin Budget Repair Bill, not only closing a $3.6 billion deficit, but ending up with a surplus while improving public education and infrastructure. For his efforts, labor unions led a recall effort, which failed miserably when Walker survived the recall, even defeating his Democratic challenger by a larger margin than in his successful 2010 gubernatorial bid.

In his book, Unintimidated: A Governor’s Story and a Nation’s Challenge, Gov. Scott Walker details his experience in Wisconsin, an experience which he says will provide conservatives with a framework not just for winning elections, but helping the American people on issues that effect their lives.

“I think results do matter. There is optimism for those who want to do the right thing, but results ultimately do matter,” Walker told Don Smith.

Unemployment fell to 6.3 percent from a high of 9.2 percent when Walker prepared to take office, but a broad, ambitious series of reforms that were once deeply unpopular as a result of the Democratic Party attack machine, were beginning to take effect to the betterment of people’s lives. Gov. Walker said he knew that if they just had the courage to see those reforms through, then “we would prevail in the end,” because of the positive result they would have in people’s lives.

Prior to Walker taking office, a statewide Chamber of Commerce business survey found just 4 percent of businesses in the state thought Wisconsin was headed in the right direction, which has now skyrocketed to 94 percent since Walker took office. The governor cites the improved business climate as the key driver behind over 13,000 net new businesses being created in Wisconsin throughout his tenure.

Gov. Scott Walker also discussed his latest proposal to direct federal subsidies to the poor and uninsured in Wisconsin — which was previously covered on PeoplesPunditDaily.com — thereby allowing them to purchase coverage directly from the insurer, avoiding the online “exchange” created by ObamaCare, or the “Unaffordable” Care Act. Wisconsin, “for obvious reasons,” did not accept the Medicaid expansion, and is now having the courage to offer up a conservative alternative to help alleviate the damage the law will have on the health care of Wisconsinites.

While he admits that his proposal is only to address specific risks associated with ObamaCare, he believes “a long-term, patient-driven approach where the government doesn’t have any role in dictating what you or I or anyone does when it comes to our health care.” Gov. Walker favors a more comprehensive, market-based and patient-driven plan as the only way to lower cost.

“This isn’t the Affordable Care Act, this is the Un-Affordable Care Act,” he said, adding that it was always a false argument to reform health care coming from the left, because it was never a real free market-based system that was governing health care to begin with.

As far as the idea that holds Republicans should moderate their conservative views, which rose in stature after the 2012 presidential election cycle, Gov. Scott Walker fully rejects it.

He said that his experience in Wisconsin showed him that moderate voters want people to honestly tell them what they intend to do, and do it. For Walker, 2012 was a blown opportunity to define the difference between the right and the left.

“We don’t measure success based on how many people are dependent on the government, but how many people are no longer dependent on the government. And not because we want to kick them out to the street or the cold, but because we understand that true freedom and prosperity does not come from the mighty hand of government. It comes from the dignity you get from work, and empowering people to get jobs and stand alone in the private sector.”

Defining the difference between the right and left could be conveyed in a powerful way using what Walker calls “false choices,” because with government, people are given “false choices,” which he urges people to reject. Unlike the all or nothing government-centered solution, in the private sector, among We the People, we aren’t forced to accept such limitations and anything is possible.

The Wisconsin governor appeared on the final Don Smith Show for the year 2013 at about the 90-minute mark, which also included two other great interviews. Cure Care President, Adrian Pelkus, joined Don Smith to talk about a revolutionary medical treatment that is helping injured troops avoid amputations. They also discussed how ObamaCare is and will stifle innovation in the health care industry.

General Paul Vallely was the senior military analyst for the Fox News Channel from 2000 to 2007, and now is the Founder and Chairman of the organization Stand Up America. The group was created to be an educational forum based upon the values and principles that our Founding Fathers intended, and carries that mission at home and abroad.

The Don Smith Show, “where it’s ok to be a conservative,” airs every Saturday at Noon ET. Tune in to hear great interviews with people like Ted Nugent, Col. Allen West, Charlie Daniels, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, Pat Boone, Chuck Woolery, Ben Shapiro, Jon Voight, Deneen Borelli, NRA President Jim Porter, Victoria Jackson, and many more leading conservatives.