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| Photo: Fairfax Free Citizen |
Dr. Ben
Carson, the first speaker of the day, emphasized the need to reach minority
voters, to return control of education to the local level by abolishing the
federal Common Core standards, and the need to eliminate welfare dependency. “I’m
not interested in getting rid of the safety net. I’m interested in getting rid
of the dependency.”
Charlie Kirk,
Sen. Sasse (NE) and Mia Love (UT-4) discussed ways in which the American dream
can be reclaimed by millennials who are looking forward to their future.
Phyllis
Schlaffly of the Eagle Forum and Emmett McGroarty of the American Principles
Project looked at the many ways that the rotten Common Core destroys the
American education system, the American dream, and alters the fundamental
make-up and ideals of our nation.
Sen. John
Barrasso (WY), Rep. Marsha Blackburn (TN-7) and Jim Capretta of Ethics and
Public Policy Center offered a concrete conservative replacement to Obamacare.
Sen. Joni
Ernst (IA) and LTC Oliver North, USMC (Ret.) of the Freedom Alliance gave
speeches in support of our veterans, forgotten and ignored by this
administration.
A debate on
Obama’s initiative to reduce intellectual property rights highlighted Adam
Mossoff of George Mason University and a panel that looked at “patent trolls”
who file blanket lawsuits to target small businesses.
Departing
from the usual CPAC speeches, Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey was interviewed
on stage by conservative talk-show host Laura Ingraham who asked him pointed
questions.
In response
to Laura’s question that he signed New Jersey early onto Common Core and to
Race to the Top grants, Christie avoided a direct answer by emphasizing that local
control, parents, teachers, and others at the state level should set education
standards.
As a
pro-life advocate, Christie vetoed Planned Parenthood even though he is not a
social conservative. He has a passion in fighting for the people, speaking his
mind, and often tells people “to sit down and shut up.” “There is so much
ridiculous stuff coming out of the White House,” he said. He wants to reform
education and to save the pension system by being fiscally responsible but the
teachers’ union is fighting him.
He avoided
the question on illegal immigration by declaring that we must create
opportunities for unemployed Americans like the people in Detroit, however, “folks
want to come here” and we have “misdirected priorities.”
Carly
Fiorina, former CEO of Hewlett Packard, and Chairman of the American
Conservative Union Foundation, made pointed remarks about Hillary Clinton’s job
performance as Secretary of State. She joked about her own unmarketable Stanford
degree in Medieval History and Philosophy and how that “degree has come in
handy recently since the President is talking about the Crusades.” She
continued, “Yes, Mr. President, ISIS wants to drive the whole world back to the
Middle Ages, but the rest of us moved on about 800 years ago.”
Addressing
the Democrat-invented war on women and the faux inequality cries coming from
well-paid liberal academia and from millionaires in Hollywood, Fiorina
explained, and “I know that it is only in this country that a young woman can
go from secretary to CEO.”
“Life has
potential,” she said, and you have the right and opportunity in this country to
fulfill your potential. But you need a real education to fulfill that
potential, not just a handout and social justice indoctrination.
She
advocated ending this administration’s destruction of small businesses that create
half of the new jobs in this country; we need more small businesses, not large
crony capitalism. We have to retrain
America as more and more workers lose their jobs.
She criticized
the lack of leadership in this country giving as example Secretary Clinton’s
response to the Benghazi fiasco, who said, “What difference does it make?” Fiorina
continued, “Flying is an activity, not an accomplishment. Mrs. Clinton, please,
name an accomplishment! I have met Vladimir Putin and I know that his ambitions
will not be deterred by a gimmicky red reset button.” Referring to Hillary Clinton,
Fiorina concludes, “She does not know what leadership means.” Our country is “without
equivocation the greatest nation that the world has ever known” and it needs a
leader.
We have too
many failing high schools in this country, Fiorina said, and the President is
trying to distract us by offering two years of community college classes free.
Sen. Ted
Cruz (TX) rocked the house with his proposal to bring back a Reagan Coalition,
to promote life, marriage, economic growth, to fight ISIS, and a nuclear Iran.
Sean Hannity asked him several questions. “America is in jeopardy and we are
gathered here to fight for freedom in our country.” We must reignite America
and reassemble the Reagan coalition, he said.
Cruz
pointedly remarked that Washington wants Obamacare but people want freedom, the
people don’t want amnesty pushed by Washington, they want the rule of law. “If
you like your Internet, you can keep your Internet.” Unfortunately Net
Neutrality was approved today and the Internet will be treated as a utility.
Cruz followed with, “Hillary Clinton embodies the corruption in Washington.” We
need to run a populist campaign, he said, and bring power back to the American
people, away from Washington.
The panel on
immigration asked the question if “Conservatives can reach a consensus?” I was speechless
since the American people do not want illegal immigration and certainly do not
want a consensus -- they want the law enforced and want legal immigrants that
are actually assimilating and contributing to the wellbeing of our exceptional nation.
The
discussion centered again on the legal immigration system being broken, the old
tired rhetoric from Washington. When asked what specific part was broken and
why the borders are not enforced, panel members were unable to give a credible
response.
Panel
members Alfonso Aguilar with the American Principles Project and Mario Lopez
with the Hispanic Leadership Fund voiced the opinion that these “folks,”
referring to illegal aliens, come here for work and we therefore need to bring
back a guest worker program similar to the Braceros in the 1960s that was
successful but it was pulled by the Mexican government.
Some of the
audience members disagreed that illegals come here just to work, they receive
full welfare benefits, giving examples of the $4.1 billion given to ITIN tax
filers in earned income tax credit for children who were not even living in the
United States and the 2011-2013 retroactive earned income tax credit that will
be given to illegal aliens who are going to be amnestied. Representative Jeff Duncan (SC-3) disagreed
with the other two panelists on some issues.
The panel “Climate:
What Tom Steyer Won’t Tell You,” focused on the climate change hoax and the
millions of jobs lost due to green energy legislation, regulations, and
subsidies to solar, wind, and biofuel power, and the billions lost in grants
and loans to failed renewables companies. Representative Bill Flores (TX-17)
focused on six points of the climate change agenda:
1. It kills jobs.
2. It costs trillions of dollars.
3. It is based on junk science.
4. It uses fantasy technology.
5. It manipulates the cost/benefit data.
6. It fails the smell test.
Myron Ebell
of the Competitive Enterprise Institute presented charts of actual temperature
data and CO2 data that have been manipulated to fit the climate change agenda
and their outlandish claims. Andrew Langer of the Institute for Liberty
presented more factual information on the true cost of the faux global warming.
Gary Broadband of the Murray Energy Corporation, a mining company in Ohio that
employs 7,500 people, presented sobering data on the number of coal mines that
have been closed or are in the process of closing due to the EPA excessive and
stringent regulations, leaving thousands of miners without jobs and contributing
to a shortage of electricity and higher utility prices.
When Gov. Scott
Walker took the stage, the room went wild. He was heckled again by a lone
person unhappy with his reforms that put Wisconsin on the path to financial
recovery, solvency, tax reductions, and accountability from unions. Unintimidated,
Walker said, “those voices can’t drown out the voices of hard-working
taxpayers.”
The most
salient point of the day was Walker’s statement that, what made America
exceptional throughout history, were Americans who had cared more about the
future of their children and grandchildren than they cared about their
political careers and re-elections. Today we have Washington, up the Potomac River,
he mused, “68 square miles surrounded by reality.”
We should
not measure success by how many people are dependent on government, he said. We
celebrate our independence from government, not dependence on government; that
is why we have 4th of July.
“We must
have a President that understands that radical Islamic terrorism is a threat to
our lives. We must take a fight to them, not wait until they bring the fight to
America. We need a leader who will stand with Israel” and a leader who will
show our allies respect.
Gov. Bobby
Jindal was received with tremendous enthusiasm and applause. He focused his
speech on the need to fight terrorism. He said, ISIS fighters must be “hunted
down and killed.” He criticized the administration severely for failing to
recognize the enemy and address the Islamist problem. He said, “We don’t need a
war on international poverty, we need a war on the evil radical Islamic
terrorism.”
Former Gov.
Sarah Palin (AK) and Nigel Farage, leader of the United Kingdom Independence
Party (UKIP) concluded the lineup of speakers for day one at CPAC 2015.
Copyright: Ileana Johnson 2015
Copyright: Ileana Johnson 2015
