All In for Mitch Daniels

I am endorsing Mitch Daniels for President. I read and listened to most of Mitch Daniels at CPAC, Hat Tip: HotAir, where the entire text and a link to the video can be found. I was blown away. He walks the walk, has the right emphases, and slams Obama by comparison without displaying any mean spirit. Let me be clear, this is not a Tea Party endorsement, only my own. But for my Tea Party readers, how can you not like what this man says.

Some key quotes.

Spending: We believe it wrong ever to take a dollar from a free citizen without a very necessary public purpose, because each such taking diminishes the freedom to spend that dollar as its owner would prefer.

Health Care: We designed both our state employee health plans and the one we created for low-income Hoosiers as Health Savings Accounts, and now in the tens of thousands these citizens are proving that they are fully capable of making smart, consumerist choices about their own health care.

The Debt: I refer, of course, to the debts our nation has amassed for itself over decades of indulgence. It is the new Red Menace, this time consisting of ink. We can debate its origins endlessly and search for villains on ideological grounds, but the reality is pure arithmetic. No enterprise, small or large, public or private, can remain self-governing, let alone successful, so deeply in hock to others as we are about to be.

Education: . . . we intend to become the first state of full and true choice by saying to every low and middle-income Hoosier family, if you think a non-government school is the right one for your child, you’re as entitled to that option as any wealthy family; here’s a voucher, go sign up.

Tax code: . . . it’s time we had, in Bill Simon’s words “a tax system that looks like someone designed it on purpose.” And the purpose should be private growth. So lower and flatter, and completely flat is best. Tax compensation but not the savings and investment without which the economy cannot boom.

Regulation: The regulatory rainforest through which our enterprises must hack their way is blighting the future of millions of Americans. Today’s EPA should be renamed the “Employment Prevention Agency.” After a two-year orgy of new regulation, President Obama’s recent executive order was a wonderment, as though the number one producer of rap music had suddenly expressed alarm about obscenity.

Entitlement reform: We know what the basic elements must be. An affectionate thank you to the major social welfare programs of the last century, but their sunsetting when those currently or soon to be enrolled have passed off the scene.

Our Core Belief: All great enterprises have a pearl of faith at their core, and this must be ours: that Americans are still a people born to liberty. That they retain the capacity for self-government. That, addressed as free-born, autonomous men and women of God-given dignity, they will rise yet again to drive back a mortal enemy.

The whole speech is worth a listen, even if a little long. In this speech has captured both the historic context and a master of the details necessary to restore our nation. I know that he has a reputation for being an establishment Republican, but his record in Indiana and the policy positions he espouses make him the best candidate, in my opinion. I close with a great video, (H/T Dean and Left Coast Rebel):




The picture of Mitch Daniels with his Harley is posted to ensure that he gets Mrs. Daddy's endorsement as well.