Wendell Ford Dinner: May, 2011

Governor O'Malley knows that in order to move forward, we need leaders who bring people together to make the tough, but right decisions that allow us to balance budgets while expanding opportunity, investing in our future and creating and saving jobs. Please take a minute to read his remarks from the Wendell Ford Dinner as prepared below:

"Senator Ford, Governor Beshear, First Lady Beshear, Mayor Abramson, Mayor Fisher, Congressman Yarmouth, Chairman Lodgson, fellow Democrats, it’s great to be here with all of you. I bring you greetings from your friends at the second leg of the Triple Crown.

It is a great honor to be here with you tonight with two of the best leaders in America, Steve Beshear and Jerry Abramson. Let me say a brief word about each of these men.

I myself was once a mayor, and there is a certain camaraderie among mayors. One of the things I loved best about my job as Mayor is that you bring people together to get difficult, important things done. There is no Democratic or Republican way of filling a pothole or more efficiently collecting the garbage. There’s no way to hide whether you’re doing the job or not. Mayors see problems and they bring people together to tackle them, and get things done. That’s the sort of Mayor Jerry Abramson was, and that’s why all of us in the US Conference of Mayor’s elected him our leader, and that’s why Governor Beshear asked him to be your Lieutenant Governor

And that’s exactly the type of leadership that your Governor brings to the State House! Steve Beshear is one of the best governors in America. I know that while Steve and Jane have a real partnership, we know who the real boss is. Jane, as chair of the DGA, thank you for allowing Steve to run again!

I think that our states share a certain affinity:

You have Churchill Downs and the Kentucky Derby; we have Pimlico and the Preakness, which is only a week away. So how about we do this dinner again next week in Baltimore? Chairman Lodgson’s treat!

You’re the home of Louis Brandeis, we’re the home of Thurgood Marshall.

In Maryland, we’re known across United States for our crabs, in Kentucky, you’re represented in the United States Senate by that famous crab, Mitch McConnell!

We gave the world one of its kookiest rock n’ roll musicians in Frank Zappa; you gave us Rand Paul.

Seriously speaking, there is a real Bluegrass-Blue crab connection in this room tonight.

In both our States, we understand that leadership is about bringing people together to make the tough, difficult but right decisions that allow us to balance budgets, move our states forward, and invest in our future all at the same time.

And in both of our states, we understand that to move forward, we need to stay laser-focused on creating and saving jobs.

Because, America wins only when America creates jobs,… and America retires her deficit only when America employs her people.

Make no mistake about it, we are in a fight for our country’s economic future, and to win, every state has to make tough decisions to move themselves forward,… As Harry Truman said, when it comes to tough choices, “If it’s right, make it, and let the popular part take care of itself.”

But not every state is fortunate to have someone like Governor Beshear in their State House. For all their bombast and bluster, there is a group of ideological, narrow-minded, short-sighted, throwback, antique, FDR-hating, tea-partying Republican governors -- and Senator David Williams would like to join them -- who, when faced with these same tough times, have not been either willing or able to bring people together to make the right decisions that move us forward to a better economy with more jobs and more opportunity.

So tonight, I’d like to talk to you about the differences between Democratic governors and Republican governors on jobs,… on opportunity,… and on the tough choices we must make right now in order to move forward.

Jobs. Opportunity. Now.

Let’s have a show of hands. How many of you believe that you have a better quality of life than that of your parents and grandparents? … Second more troubling question: How many of you believe just as firmly that your children and grandchildren will enjoy a better quality of life than you have?

Virtually everywhere I go, far fewer hands go up on that second question, but don’t be embarrassed: there are reasons for your anxiety.

We are all entitled to our own opinions, but we are not entitled to flourish facts. Fact number one,...

Over the past decade -- thanks to the wrong minded policies of George W. Bush -- incomes have declined for 95% of Americans. For middle class families, it’s harder today to afford gas and groceries or to make that monthly mortgage or rent payment.

As Americans, we’re no longer just competing for jobs with our neighbors in other states, we’re now competing in a new global economy. Thirty years ago, when I graduated high school, the United States ranked #1 in high school graduation rates among our global competitors. Today we’re 11th,… Thirty years ago, America ranked #1 in college completion. Today we’re at #12… As a nation, we now spend more on potato chips than we invest through our government into energy research and development.

These trends won’t reverse themselves. It’s not what other countries are doing to us – it’s what we’re not doing for ourselves.

The real challenge we face is not primarily financial or technological, it is political. – Do we still have the ability as a nation to govern ourselves well? To make the tough but right decisions and investments that expand opportunity and improve our children’s lives?

Fact number 2,...

A modern economy requires modern investments, the sort of smart investments that we can only make together. If we are going to create jobs again, if we are going to employ our people again, and if we are going to grow our middle class again by expanding opportunity, then we must balance and move forward all at the same time.

Across our country, Democratic governors, in the toughest of times, are doing just that: balancing budgets, making tough choices, creating jobs, and moving forward all at the same time.

Balancing a state’s budgets, but creating jobs is ALSO critically important.

Governor Beshear has proven here in Kentucky that you can balance budgets while bringing people together, making tough decisions, investing in the future, and making government work.

Forward Not Back

You have a big choice to make in Kentucky this year, and it comes down to one, timeless question: do we move forward, or do we slip back?

Governor Beshear knows what it takes to move Kentucky forward. His top priority in these tough economic times is creating and saving Kentucky jobs. Don’t just take my word for it. Ask Moody’s, which projects that Kentucky will have one of America’s top five highest job growth rates this coming year.

It’s not every day you have a Governor that’s actually bringing jobs from Mexico to America. But Governor Beshear is teaming with Simba USA, who are closing their plant in Mexico and expanding their plant in Rowan County…how about that? You’ve heard of outsourcing? Well, my friends, that’s insourcing!

You have a Governor who has balanced nine budgets without raising broad-based taxes on working families or businesses. You have a Governor who has been willing to take on the tough fights to reduce the size of state government to the smallest it’s been in nearly two decades. You have a Governor who has cut spending by $1.3 billion. And if you want to know just how serious Steve Beshear is about fiscal responsibility you can log into eBay, where he put two state airplanes up for sale.

But as Governor Beshear has balanced, he’s also made the right choices to move Kentucky forward. Choices like protecting public education while Senator Williams and the Republican senators tried to slash it by $50 million. Choices like modernizing Kentucky’s businesses incentive program to create and save Kentucky jobs. Choices like getting health care to 50,000 children.

Sen. David Williams wants to take Kentucky back,…Steve Beshear is moving Kentucky forward,.. and the choice is up to the people of Kentucky:

Do you want a Governor who protected the investments you make in public education,… or a candidate who tried to cut public education, even as he used taxpayer dollars to buy himself a $17,400 multi-media center, complete with a 60-inch plasma TV?

Do you want a Governor who gave himself a paycut,… or a candidate who spent more than $52,000 on cherry veneer wood paneling for his senate office?

Do you want to move forward with Governor Beshear? Or do you want to let Senator Williams take Kentucky back?

Wonderland

Senator Williams, Mitch McConnell, and Rand Paul would have us believe a lot of things that aren’t so. In their make-believe world, they would have us believe we can somehow eat cake and lose weight,… They would have us believe that unions cause recessions,... And they would have us believe that bridges are,… well, kind of like trees: if you leave them alone, they get taller and stronger with age! At their tea-party there is no need to pay bills, no need to get serious about spending, no need to invest in the future. Down is up. Up is down. Candy is a vegetable. And vegetables are candy.

But of course, we know that their type of tea party is more Alice in Wonderland than it is Sam Adams. It is more Mad Hatter than James Madison.

Conclusion

These are difficult and challenging times. There are no easy answers. But there is only one way to go, and that is forward; there is no progress without struggle, no victory without sacrifice. And America needs Kentucky, and America needs our generation -- as she has needed every generation -- to stand up together, face the challenges of our own day, and not only face them, but face them and win. Not just for us, but for the people who are watching that come after us.

Thank you, Kentucky -- for jobs and opportunity now, let’s move forward not back, with Steve Beshear and Jerry Abramson."