CQ Transcriptions, March 2, 2007

Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS)
Conservative Political Action Conference
Washington, DC
March 2, 2007

Great to join you. Thanks. (Applause)

More, more, more. Have a seat. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. It's a pleasure to join you today. And what an exciting crowd. Thank you guys for being here. (Applause)

And it's great to see a packed audience. And I would say for the television cameras, it looks like 75 percent under the age of 30. Young crowd. Young conservative crowd. Powerful ideas. Momentum to move forward and to win the country. (Applause)

And while we may have had a setback back in 2006, we're going to win in 2008. (Applause)

And let's move together. And with your young legs and your ideals, we're going to move forward.

I want to recognize at the very outset of this some of the people that have gone before us, that have made this movement possible. This is the largest CPAC that there has ever been in attendance-wise. Congratulations to you. But this movement is build on the shoulders of those that have gone before us, people like Barry Goldwater. (Applause)

Ronald Reagan. (Applause)

Who was my own impetus to get into politics when in 1976 he runs for president of the United States and I'm a student at Kansas State University and I campaigned for him because I said that guy is right. And he was true to principles, and he said it with a smile.

Conservatism with a smile, principled leadership that moves forward is what he did.

And then we have modern leaders that were there with him, that continue to lead, people like Phyllis Schlafly. (Applause)

A gentleman like Paul Weyrich, who I've worked with. Or how about Nelly Gray that has led the right-to-life march since 1974. (Applause)

Or David Keene here with CPAC, and leading it. And many, many others.

Our movement is built on the shoulders of giants, and we thank them, and we appreciate them.

I am Sam Brownback.

I am running for president of the United States. And I am taking the yellow brick road to the White House. (Applause)

I want to be known as the family president. I think we need to rebuild the family in America. I think we need to renew the culture in America.

And let me just spend a few minutes with you, telling you why I think those, centrally, are important and what we need to do in this society.

First, just as a philosophical format, in a healthy society, righteousness and justice travel together: righteousness the plum line, justice the level; righteousness, the knowledge of right from wrong, good from evil; justice its application.

Those are the two foundational principles that we move forward in a healthy society: the knowledge of what's right and what's wrong, what's good and what's evil and justice, its application.

It applies today. And I submit to you those are guiding principles that we should live with. It is right and it is just for us to oppose militant Islamic radicals who seek to kill us and to kill others. That is the right and the just thing for us to do. (Applause)

We must win this war on terrorism. We cannot lose this war on terrorism. (Applause)

We must pull together. We cannot cut and run from the front lines of this. We must stay in this and we must fight. It is both right and it is just.

And let me say, as well, here, that the war on terrorism, I believe, is a bit of a misnomer. Terrorism is a tactic. It's like planes; it's bombs. It's a tactic. It is who we're fighting that we really need to discuss.

The war on terrorism—that's a tactic, but who is it that's using this?

And it is a militant definition—radical, militant definition of Islam that we're confronting. And I think we have to recognize that and go on the Web sites of the people that seek to do this to us and just look and see what they say on their Web sites about us and about their objectives.

And it's very clear. It's a two-part objective that they have: number one, drive us out of the Middle East; and number two, establish an Islamic caliphate in the region. It's on their Web sites. If you don't believe me, go and look.

We must confront those who seek to do us harm and work with those who seek to work with us. It's not everybody that is involved in Islam, by any means. It's not a majority. But it is those—and there's some people that seek this radical definition and to attack us.

We must pull together here, in the confrontation that we have with war on terrorism. We must pull together here.

We must push a solution in Iraq. And we must support our troops who are fighting strongly, who are fighting well in this war on terrorism. (Applause)

We've got to stand with them. (Applause)

I was there six weeks ago. I was in Afghanistan. I was in Iraq. I was in Baghdad. I was in (Inaudible). I was in Ethiopia, in the latest front in the war on terrorism.

And our troops are fighting bravely. And they are the most courageous troops of our generation. And they are some of the most courageous, best troops that this country has ever seen.

And any time you seen one, please, I ask you, go up and just tell them thank you, and that you appreciate them. And God bless them for serving. (Applause)

And it's good that they're serving.

I have a nephew that's just finishing up Marine basic training, and joining. And he helped sign his sister up, who is also joining the Marines. And we're proud of them. They're the best and the finest we've got.

It is right and just... (Applause)

... it is right and just for us to control our borders and insist that people who enter America enter legally and not illegally. (Applause)

That is appropriate. It is right and just for us to do. (Applause)

I was just on the border, 10 days ago, between Mexico and Arizona and meeting there with border guards. And I applaud their efforts. I was meeting with National Guard members that were stationed on the border, watching and protecting our borders. And I applaud their work, day and night to secure our border. (Applause)

They are doing a great job. We need to back them up. We need to support a fence. We need to build a fence. It's not sufficient.

We also need to get involved, the Social Security system, so that when somebody applies for a job in the United States, everybody shows up with a Social Security number.

We should tell that employer immediately whether this is a good number or a bad number, a red light, green light, whether you can employ this person or can't.

And then if they do employee somebody that has a bad number, there should be immediate penalties in pursuit of this. (Applause)

We've got to help with the system. And I also want to say it is right and just for us to grow our economy. I want to show you something that is a monstrosity. This is the Internal Revenue Code. (Audience Booing)

Thank you. (Laughter)

This is a monstrosity. (Applause)

This should be taken behind a barn and killed with a dull axe. (Applause)

This doesn't work. It doesn't help us in the economy. (Applause)

Now, I'm serious about it. This is just the code. If I had the regulations here that interpret the code, it would stack this high. That's what it would be. That's how the manipulation of what you're doing in the economy is done by the federal government. It's through this.

Now, we need a flat tax, OK? (Applause)

We need to go to a different system. And I say this, and yet we've pursued that for some period of time as a Republican Party, as a conservative movement, and we haven't been able to get it done because everybody in this town has been working for years to get 6050-E or A, Subtitle 1 in the code.

They've worked to get their little nook and cranny in this thing. And we haven't been able to get it done.

So I said, OK, let's leave this code in place and let's provide an alternative flat tax that you can fill out one sheet. And then you pick.

Do you want to stay with this code or do you want to go with a flat tax, one rate, no exemptions, no deductions, no credits, that's it? (Applause)

You choose.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Right on!

BROWNBACK: You choose. This is a common-sense approach. It's an approach that you choose. And it will cause growth to take place. All the economists point to the fact that a flat tax pushes growth. Instead of a government manipulating your economic choice, you pick and the same tax rate applies to whatever it is you pick.

That will create growth. And I trust free, moral people to decide these issues, rather than centralized government planners to decide these issues. (Applause)

We can do it. And it's a key way for us to move forward.

On Social Security—and President Bush, God bless him, started this debate and discussion personal Social Security accounts. We need to move forward with these personal Social Security accounts, and providing you the choice and the option of what you would seek to do. (Applause)

The Social Security system worked great for my grandparents. It's working well for my parents. It's an OK deal for me, and I believe it stinks for my kids. (Applause)

It doesn't work for them, and they should be provided a choice. Again, you choose. Nobody would be forced out of the system at all. You choose. If you want to stay in the current system, please, God bless you. Go ahead. And everything you've been promised will be granted to you and be given to you.

But if you choose a personal social security account, you can do this, and you can have that, and the government won't be able to spend your Social Security money in a personal Social Security account. (Applause)

We can do this and we need to do it.

On spending, we have to get federal spending under control, and that's something that has not happened. I want to propose a systems change to you. I think Ronald Reagan got this one right as well when he said that "There's nothing so permanent as a temporary government program." It gets in place, it continues, and it has been very difficult, if not impossible to remove. So I say let's change the system.

I come from a farm, and if you go out in the field to farm a field, you want to take the right piece of equipment with you. If you go out to harvest a field of corn, you don't go with a cultivator. You come in with a combine to do that. If you go out with a cultivator, you're not going to pick much corn.

I say let's get the right tool in place, and the right tool has been the BRAC process for military base closing commissions, where we've been able to close military bases and put that money to higher priority. And BRAC reviews a whole set of military bases, this recommends this 100 should be eliminated, sends it to the president for his mark-off, then to the Congress.

One vote, without amendment, limited subject, limited on debate, do you agree, disagree? Eliminate all 100, keep all 100, deal or no deal? Let's take that process to the rest of government, a systems change that can reduce spending. (Applause)

On energy, we need to move forward with energy security, and I want to give you an example of something I've picked up in Iowa about energy security. I've been there a few times lately. It's delightful weather.

A little piece of carpet that I want to show to you. I got this from the Iowa Corn Grower's Association, and it's made of corn. Carpet out of corn. I don't think you can pasture it, but my point in showing this is most of these synthetic fibers are made out of an oil base. When oil gets up or around $50 a barrel, starch substitutes can substitute.

We can do things here to be dependent on Americans and be more dependent on the middle west than on the Middle East. (Applause)

We can do this, and we need to do this. (Applause)

We need to support ethanol. The Department of Energy announced the first plants yesterday of cellulosic ethanol. We have corn-based ethanol, and this would be cellulosic-based ethanol, grass to gas. And I'm not talking about marijuana, I'm talking about cellulosic material.

The first plant is being announced. We can get 10 percent of our fuel needs off of grain-based ethanol, 30 percent off of grass or cellulosic ethanol. We also need to expand nuclear energy production in this country. (Applause)

We're going to need to do that. We need, as well, in a conservation-minded and environmentally-sound fashion be able to drill in more places in the United States. (Applause)

We need to be able to do this, and we can do it, and we can do it environmentally sound and sensitive.

I say as well we need to take on some American-sized goals, like eliminating deaths by cancer in 10 years. Now, just think about this just for a moment, and I want your thoughts on this. Deaths by cancer have gone down in the last two years.

My dad has had cancer at an early age. I've had melanoma. If men here live a normal life expectancy, some of the numbers show that as many as one out of two men will get cancer sometime in their lifetime. It is the leading cause of fear in America today.

You know what number two is? Public speaking. (Laughter)

I point this out that this is an American-sized goal. What if we said, "Let's pull together, everybody, Republican and Democrat, and let's say we're going to put this killer to death. We're going to go at this. We're going to get earlier detection systems. We're going to put more effort into this. We're going to allow treatments to be tried at an earlier phase for those who have no hope. We can do this, and this would be a great gift that we could give to the rest of the public and to the world. We can do it."

It is right and it is just for us to rebuild the family in America. I am pro-life. I believe that life begins at conception. I believe that life should be protected. I believe that all life is sacred, period. (Applause)

And for the life of me, I find it hard to understand why it is that this is a controversial issue. Life begins at conception, biologically. This isn't a theological question. If any of you were killed at that very early phase, you wouldn't be here today.

And we stand for life. We believe it is sacred. It's unique. It's beautiful. It's the child of a loving God. That applies to the child in the womb, and it also applies to the child in Darfur. This is a full definition of life, and we fight for life.

Source: CQ Transcriptions

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