Rep. Tom Price: Thank you. Thank you. How we doing out there? Hasn’t it been a great two days here at CPAC so far? I tell you. What a wonderful, wonderful gathering. I’m so, so glad to be with you today. You’ve noticed that some of the snow is melting out there. You know the blizzard last week shut down the Federal Government for four straight days. And, we survived. Isn’t it amazing? We ought to take a lesson from that. I tell you. Let me thank Ed for his gracious introduction. Ed has been an institution. Truly, in and of himself for nearly forty years, from his work today at the Heritage Foundation. Yeah, give Ed a hand. From his work at the Heritage Foundation, to his vision to create the Republican Study Committee without Ed’s work the conservative movement would not be what it is today. So, we all owe Ed a great debt of gratitude.

As Ed said my name is Tom Price. I have the honor and privilege of representing the 6th Congressional District of Georgia and also serving as the chairman of the Republican Study Committee, a group that Ed founded in 1973. How many of you have heard of the Republican Study Committee? Good hands out there. I encourage all of you to go online and join our team at the Republican Study Committee. I like to describe the RSC as the good guys and the good gals in Washington; the true conservatives of the House of Representatives. The place where conservative solutions are produced and where battles are waged with the liberal majority in charge right now, and a battle we have had this past year. Haven’t we? What a year it’s been. Being at CPAC this year, can’t you feel the energy? The energy and the enthusiasm it’s absolutely incredible, and so much different than a year ago. There’s a sense that the ground is moving. There’s a sense that something historic is truly underway. To me, this has been one of the most important years in modern political history. It began with a new president, a fawning media, and a fawning media, and a fawning media. Liberals were emboldened. Do you remember what they said? Many happily declared they said that conservatism was dead. So over the last year conservatives in Washington and across this land have joined together to beat back the liberal agenda, fighting every single day, tooth and nail. We’ve seen the spawning of a new political movement in the Tea Parties that’s changed the face of American politics. And, we have even elected a Republican to the United States Senate from the State of Massachusetts. I believe that we are on the precipice of an historic political revolution. I stand here today wholly confident that next year we will be here at CPAC celebrating a conservative, republican majority in the House of Representatives and the removal of Nancy Pelosi from power.

Now what we have been reminded of over the last year is that when we apply principle to all of our actions, we will always have the American people on our side. You see our enduring principles, the eternal fire of conservative ideals, cannot be extinguished, but we’ve got to be honest, our light had dimmed. The influence of conservative thought had waned, as principle was abandoned. Even by some in our very own party but the fires of the conservative movement are burning brightly once again. Passionate conservatism has raged across this nation. Patriotic Americans have stood up at town halls and at tea parties. They’ve engaged in both protests and in prayer to say that we must take our country back. Absolutely. We must take our country back from a vile, liberal agenda that is threatening everything that we hold dear as Americans. And amazingly, it took an out-of-touch liberal elite in the White House to provide us that spark that allowed us to reignite our spirit, but it was the fuel inside of each and every one of you that has allowed it to remain ablaze. And, for this I want to thank you. I thank you for the inspiration that you have given to all of us fighting here in Washington. And, we are fighting because our nation has slipped into the hands of a party who’s liberal vision is incompatible with the America that most of us know and love, but with your help we will take our country back. Now, this is going to take a lot of work, all right. This is not going to be easy, but the danger of inaction is too great. Too much is at stake. Too great a price will be paid by our children and our grandchildren if we don’t seize this moment and change the course of America’s history. And, I am so confident that a new direction is possible because I see a political revolution that’s already in motion. The engagement and the political activism that took place in 2009 was incredibly heartening. All year long, Americans stood up and they voiced their concerns in a manner that would surely make our founding fathers proud. Democrats on the other hand, don’t even appreciate the fact that Americans are standing up against their agenda. During the August town halls when Americans united and they said that they reject the government takeover of health care, the White House responded that this anger was “manufactured” and Nancy Pelosi went so far as to write an op ed that said we were un-American. Do you remember? Well I want to say to the Speaker, don’t you fly over our country in your luxury jet and lecture us on what it means to be an American. Don’t you tell us about America.

America, America is a place where when the government doesn’t listen to the people, the people stand up and shout louder and they take the country back. America is a place founded in protest to oppressive government, and on the principle of the consent of the government. We’re a nation rooted in the awesome power, in the limit-less potential of free people, a place where dreams can be conceived and worked for and then realized, a place where we respect the values of life and family and religion; one that cherishes individual liberty and responsibility; one that embraces charity and equal opportunity but rejects equal outcomes. America is a place of hard-working people all looking to do the right thing for their families and their communities. America is too dynamic. America is too grand, and yes, it is too independent of community to be organized by any one man, especially the one in the White House right now.

Now, I don’t hold any personal grudge against this President. He’s a remarkably, talented politician. His story sells many papers the world over, and his assent is a wonderful inspiration for many in America, but his agenda is driving this nation off a cliff. And, while he says he won’t rest until the jobs are created, last night, he spent at a fundraiser in Las Vegas, at the Bellagio Hotel. So the President in that area and so many others has proven that talk is cheap, but we’ve seen what the President’s vision of job creation looks like, haven’t we? We’re one year into this stimulus package right now, a trillion dollars stolen from future generations so that we can weatherize homes, resurface tennis courts in Montana and buy road signs. At this point, I tell you the question has just got to be asked. How’s it working, Mr. President? Unemployment near 10 percent, we continue to lose jobs every single month. Is this the immediate job creation that you had in mind? Are you still happy with putting Joe Biden in charge of a trillion dollars?

Now, the reality is that this administration is a lost cause when it comes to job creation. They’ve got no appreciation for the economic principles that have made us the greatest nation in the history of the world. They reject free markets because they don’t understand them. They rely on government because that’s all that they know. This is an administration made up almost entirely of academics and lawyers and bureaucrats and career politicians. They can’t create private sector jobs because virtually known of them has ever run a business. They’ve never created a private sector job. They’ve never signed the front side of a paycheck. Yet, so much, so much of what scares us about those in charge is not the uncertainty of now because Americans will persevere. We’re resilient. We’ll overcome and prosper again in spite of the incompetence of this administration and this congress. No, what scares and concerns us is the lasting transformational damage that these idealizers of bureaucracy have in store for America. They seek a statist nation, leaving future generations indebted to and dependent upon government to achieve opportunity. There’s really no limit to the scale and scope of what they want Washington to control. There’s no limit at all. Private sector salaries, hiring CEOs, investment choices, medical decisions, when and where we may exercise our constitutional rights; the President’s agenda is one that will destroy the principles that we hold dear and it must be stopped.

Now as you know, as you know, their charge against Republicans is that we’re the party of No. It really is a little silly, isn’t it? We put forth positive, optimistic, upbeat principled solutions to all of the challenges we face, but still this charge of saying no really doesn’t bother me at all. In fact, I actually vote No a lot. In fact, in fact, in fact, I’m proud to vote No against a depression and this reckless destruction. When a bill steps all over the constitution, we don’t just say no, we scream it. When Democrats, when Democrats, borrow a trillion dollars for pork-filled stimulus, we stand up and shout no. When Democrats pass a national energy tax that will cost American families thousands of dollars, we yell no. When a bill takes away power from individuals and transfers it to Washington, we scream no. When they want to raise our taxes, increase our debt, take over our health care, what do we shout? No. And, we shout no. We shout no because we know there’s a better idea. There’s a better way. Because America, America needs real solutions. You know, you know that we cannot borrow and spend our way to prosperity. Nor can we appease our way to security. No, instead we got to provide true and principled and positive solutions. So, now, now is the time to lead. We’ve got to engage and we must turn the anger that we feel now into the passion to provide the answers to a nation that is screaming out for principle. Our nation needs leadership now more than at any point in our lifetime. And, it will be this passion for solutions that restores the influence of conservatism in America politics. It will be this positive vision that will allow us to move our nation in the right direction, but as I said taking back our nation won’t be easy, despite our recent success. It will require a willingness to work, a willingness to fight and appreciation that this is an historic moment in time. One that if we let pass, we just might bring to bear Ronald Regan’s warning that one day, one day we would look back and talk about an America when men were free.

So, in the months to follow I am implore you to embrace your conservatism. I implore you to wear your principles on your sleeve because this isn’t about party or politics; it’s about saving our nation for our children and our grandchildren. Liberals in the media will surely try to castigate and marginalize us but to that we must say I am a conservative and I’m proud of it because American solutions are conservative solutions. We’ve got to be united, we’ve got to be united in our beliefs and goals. Not divided by our allegiance to a particular politician or faction of the conservative movement. We all stand together for limited government and personal responsibility and opportunity and freedom and liberty. And, wherever conservatism is on the march, we must eagerly join in, and wherever conservatism is under attack, we must push back together as one movement. This is all about a nation built on certain ideals that are now under fire. It’s about what made this nation possible. The blood and sacrifice of patriots who fought for what they knew to be right and this nation now needs new patriots. Not those who take up arms, but those who take to the radio, to the Internet, to town halls and protests and to political campaigns, to fight for a return to common sense, a return to foundational principles, a return to the unmatched posterity that only our system of representative democracy and free market capitalism allows to flourish. We’ve got many battles ahead of us but I’m supremely confident in the power of our ideas and your great work to move this nation forward. Remember what Samuel Adams said, it doesn’t take a majority to prevail, but an irate and tireless minority keen on setting brush fires of freedom in the minds of men and women. I’m honored to stand with you and set those brush fires of freedom. God bless you, God bless America.

 

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