Announcement Speech
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ANNOUNCEMENT SPEECH 11/15/2001 Hello. I want to thank all of you for coming. I'm Ed Thompson and I am announcing my candidacy for Governor. For the past year, I have been on a listening tour from one end of this beautiful state to the other, and, when I ask people what their biggest concerns are, the answer is always the same -- taxes and spending, taxes and spending. Do you realize that we are the third highest taxed state in the nation? And now, on top of being one of the highest taxed states in the nation, our legislature passed the worst budget in the nation. And that is not just my opinion. It is also the opinion of Todd Berry, President of the Wisconsin Taxpayer Alliance, and Iris J. Lav from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a think tank in Washington. My approach to government will not be the same as the career politicians. My approach will be just plain common sense─the same common sense I learned working in my father's grocery store. I learned the value of hard work very young. I started working in my father's grocery store when I was in the fourth grade. I got a job shoveling blacktop for Mathy Construction the day after I graduated from high school. I worked at the G.M. auto plant in Janesville. I plowed snow for the county. I worked in a federal prison for five years. I bought my own business in Elroy when I was 24. I have been living by a budget ever since. In fact, I own the Tee Pee Super Club in Tomah where I have over 20 people who depend on me for a living. So I know how important it is to live within your means. If you can't afford it, don't do it! What could possibly the simpler than that?! But that simple philosophy seems to be entirely beyond the grasp of our career politicians, who apparently believe you can spend yourself to prosperity -- spend it now, pay for it later. How will they ever be able to control taxes when they spend more than they take in and they take in way too much? Taxes are way too much. Only a fool would believe such insanity─or a Republicrat. The most fundamental role, the most basic purpose, of government is to protect its citizens. Violent people who harm others intentionally belong locked up -- and locked up for a long time. But non-violent people do not all need to be locked up. I worked for five years in a federal prison. One thing I know for sure is that when you lock non-violent people up with violent people bad things happen. In Tomah, for instance, we have started a work release program for Monroe County. Instead of laying around jail all day, we have prisoners picking up litter in our streets and parks, painting our picnic tables and park benches, shoveling snow. This is our example of local control working with our justice system. Speaking of local control, it's high time we put local control back in our schools. Control must be in the hands of our parents, not Madison or Washington bureaucrats. I also believe less fortunate people should have the same opportunity to send their children to the same school that wealthy parents can. The high taxes are driving our industry out of the state─-and our family wage jobs right with them. The high taxes are causing the brain drain, the industrial drain, the cow drain. I think we need plumbers more than career politicians. This is the result of just plain mismanagement in Wisconsin government. Which brings us back to common sense. I am no big time Charlie. I'm just a common hard-working man who is dedicated to serving the hard-working people of Wisconsin. I'm a fighter. I've been in the ring many times as a boxer and there is nothing I like better than a good fight. This is the biggest fight of my life, and I plan on winning it. I'm asking the hard-working people of Wisconsin who are sick and tired of all this nonsense going on with their tax dollars -- the insane way they are spending our money -- I'm asking you to get in my corner. Join me in this fight --because together with you I cannot lose. Without you, I cannot win. |
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