Chairman Michael Steele’s

Remarks at RNC Winter Meeting

Honolulu, Hawaii  – The Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Michael Steele delivered the following remarks today during the General Session of the RNC’s Winter Meeting:

Two very significant things happened in Washington this week: most folks think that the President’s State of the Union Address was of course the most significant event of the week in Washington. It was not. I’ll address the speech in a few minutes, but that was actually not the number one thing that happened in Washington this week. After all, that was just another talk, of which we have had an awful lot from this President. Talk is cheap…or rather…with this President talk is very expensive…but either way…it’s just talk.

No, the most significant thing that happened in Washington this week was another world record was set….for government debt. One day after the President stood up and incredibly, seemingly without shame, lectured the nation about fiscal responsibility, Senate Democrats prepared to vote to increase the nation’s debt limit to a record 14.3 trillion dollars. This is a world record by the way…a 1.9 trillion dollar increase in the debt ceiling. With Obama, Reid, and Pelosi at the helm… they might as well drop the phrase “debt ceiling”. There apparently is no ceiling on the debt they will saddle the American public with. This is not talk, this is action.  And it is action in a direction that does great harm to our nation.

Then, there was another thing that happened in Washington this week…it was the President’s State of the Union Address….all 71 minutes of it. I am still completely amazed by this speech, but the audacity of it.  This is not the audacity of hope; this is the audacity of arrogance. Everyone assumed, rightly, that the President would stand up and say—‘look’…he always starts with ‘look’ by the way… ‘look…this hasn’t been a good year, I made mistakes, I’m going to change some things, I’m going to start listening more closely to the American people.’

One thing about Americans, they are a forgiving lot.  They like it when a person owns up to their mistakes. But that’s not what this speech was.  This speech was a ‘stay the course’ speech if there ever was one. Well…you sure can’t accuse the President of being driven by the polls, that’s for sure.  But on the other hand, you also can’t accuse the President of listening to the American people either. The American people are talking…very loudly it turns out…but they have rightly deduced that the Democrats who run Washington, the people who control the government…they are not listening.

Never let it be said that Massachusetts hasn’t done its part.  The voters of Massachusetts sent a very clear message to the President, to Speaker Pelosi, and the Senator Reid. It was an unmistakable message—we are not happy with what you are doing.  We are so unhappy that we are going to take Senator Ted Kennedy’s seat from you and give it to a Republican. One would have thought that this message would wake them up.  But it clearly has not.Course correction needed.

The President needs a course correction….badly.  At a time like this…it’s best to take a step back…and look in the mirror.  It’s hard to do.  But that’s the only way to make a course correction. It’s not just that the President needs a course correction, America needs a course correction, but it can’t happen if the President doesn’t do it.  He didn’t do it in his speech, which tells me he’s not going to do it. The Democrats are in effect daring the American people to stop them. They are playing with fire, and they are going to get burned. Communications problem?  Hardly…

After a speech by President Obama everyone always says the same thing…that guy can give a speech.  But that’s the problem.  If the presidency was just about speechmaking he would be the most successful politician of all time. Talking about jobs doesn’t create jobs. The government doesn’t create jobs, Americans create jobs.

As Governor McDonnell pointedly said the other night in his SOTU response ‘we must enact policies that promote entrepreneurship and innovation, so America can better compete with the world. What government should not do is pile on more taxation, regulation, and litigation that kill jobs and hurt the middle class.’ The President said a few weeks ago that it’s a communication problem…that he needs to start ‘speaking directly to the American people.’ Um…hello?  He has given more speeches in a year than most Presidents’ do in a full term.  One reporter calculated that he has given 411 speeches, 158 interviews. And he says we need more talk?   Americans want action.  They want action that helps the private sector create jobs, not government jobs that we the taxpayers have to pay for. The President doesn’t have a communication problem….he’s got a directional problem.  He’s taking America in the wrong direction.  It’s as simple as that. Contradictions that are very puzzling.

The President’s speech will only make any sense inside the beltway in Washington….it will completely confuse the rest of the country. He called for bipartisanship…and then launched a pointed political attack on Republicans. He said we are going to work on the deficit and spending…but not till next year.   Yeah, and I’m going to go on diet…next year.

We are going to spend billions on another stimulus bill….oh, and we are going to freeze spending.   Only in Washington can you say stuff like that.  We are going to go backwards and forwards, in and out, up and down…all at the same time He said the deficit he inherited was because of wars, tax cuts and prescription drug benefit.  Ok.  But then he turned around and said he will exempt those very things from his spending freeze.  So the very things he blames for the deficit….he says he is going to do.  You need multiple personalities to figure all this out.Maybe he should try doing something Americans like?

I was listening to one of those talk shows the other day where everyone gets on TV and yells at each other.  And you can’t really tell what is being said. There were two Democrats hollering at each other arguing about what the real cause of their party’s meltdown in Massachusetts and what they need to do. One was saying he needs to be true to his liberal base….the other was saying he needs to ram health care though….Then, the lone Republican on the program spoke up and simply said — here’s an idea – maybe the President should try doing something that the American public agrees with.  Now that would be a novel approach.Very little was said about national security.

The country is also wondering why the administration read a terrorist his Miranda rights on Christmas day after he was caught attempting to blow up a plane and kill Americans.  Why would we treat this man like an American citizen with full rights?

Our new Senator Scott Brown had it exactly right when he said, and this is not a direct quote but a paraphrase — American’s want their tax dollars spent to kill terrorists…not to pay lawyers to defend them.  We have men and women overseas fighting for this country – and we are reading a terrorist with a bomb in his underwear his Miranda rights…bizarre. It’s never too late to change course.

Let me say this though…it’s not too late for him to change course.  One of the most powerful things a leader can do is be honest and admit a mistake when they have gone in the wrong direction…but we have 3 more years of this play…and it really needs to improve…and quickly. In the mean time however, I think it is pretty clear that Americans are going to do their part next November….there is a big message headed for Washington on Election Day. Republicans are the problem?

I heard Governor Jindal make a great point on TV last night. He noted that the President said that Republicans shouldn’t delay every bill just because they can.  Governor Jindal went on to say…however – Republicans should delay the President’s bills for different reason—because the President’s policies are harming the economy, limiting freedoms, prolonging the recession, and saddling our grandchildren with debt they cannot repay.What are we to do?

It’s simple really.  Our job is simply to give voice to the frustrations, the anger, the hopes, and the dreams of the American people. If we do that, we will continue to win. We must now readjust our thinking.  Something big is happening in America.  Americans want their government back. We now need to contest every seat, no matter how blue it may have been in the past. Throw out the old map.  Everything is on the table.

That is why today I am unveiling a new program – D2H – Delaware to Hawaii – D2H.  Republican state parties are going to be empowered to be active in every state from Delaware to Hawaii.  The governors, House & Senate Republicans have done a tremendous job recruiting candidates and together we will keep that momentum going and recruit qualified Republicans from D2H. Our Republican activists are ready to work and our state parties will have programs in place to harness that energy and win elections from D2H.

Today the old map has been thrown into the ocean. Starting today our state parties will be everywhere – missing no opportunity to listen to the voters, build the Republican Party, and win elections for a better and stronger America D2H.

I would like to conclude today with a video.  We are coming up on the 100th birthday of President Ronald Reagan.  We are also at a time where it ‘will be morning in America again.’  In this spirit we have a video to be played at your Lincoln day dinners. And in the spirit of President Ronald Reagan I suggest we call them Reagan Lincoln day dinners this year.  Let’s go win some elections from D2H!”