Walker urges Romney to run as a fiscal reformer

Presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney and Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker wave together during a campaign event in Janesville, Wis. on June 18.

/ Joe Raedle/Getty Images

(CBS News) WILLIAMSBURG, VA-- Battle-tested Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker offered some advice Saturday to Mitt Romney: Forget all that Bain stuff, and campaign as a reform-minded fiscal crusader.

"For him to do well, the R next to his name has to stand for more than just for Republican, it has to stand for reformer," Walker said during a meeting of the National Governors Association here. "We got significant swing votes, independents, even some discerning Democrats voting for me ... because they like someone who's willing to take on the tough issues facing our state. I think those are the same sorts of voters that Gov. Romney at least has a shot with."

Walker provoked a furious backlash after he made deep cuts to his state's budget and sharply curbed collective bargaining rights for public employee unions. He survived a recall election last month.

(Watch Walker's remarks in the video to the left.)

While the news cycle has been dominated by the Obama campaign's aggressive claims that Bain Capital invested in firms that outsourced jobs while Romney was at its helm, Walker said voters have other more pressing concerns. He suggested more clarity from the Romney campaign about how he would curb spending and the national debt would resonate with Wisconsin voters.

"I think they don't see a lot right now. I think they need to see more of him, they need to hear more of that," Walker said. "What he needs to be most aggressive about is point out the fact that the president doesn't have a record to run on."

Walker said he is delaying a decision on whether to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act because he's counting on Romney winning the White House and rolling back the law. "Our focus is on repealing Obamacare by putting in place a new president, a new majority in the United States Senate," Walker said. "We're not going to make any decisions on that until after the election."

The Supreme Court last month ruled that governors could decline to participate in a huge Medicaid expansion in the law without losing the federal money they currently receive for Medicaid.

[marychgo]

Sorry, Scott, American voters have already figured out that, for you and Mitt Romney, "R" doesn't stand for "Reform" or "Republican"; it stands for the "Rich" whose interests you serve.

[occupy_cbs]

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. -- Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley, called on presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney to release his tax returns in order to show voters that he has "nothing to hide." "I just believe in total transparency," said Bentley.


"If you have things to hide, then maybe you're doing things wrong. I think you ought to be willing to release everything to the American people." -- Alabama's Republican governor, Robert Bentley

[lg144]

No republican president from Reagan on has balance the budget which means they ran deficits. And mind you, never NEVER ran deficits overspending to help average Americans. By design they ALWAYS empty the treasury on things not designed to benefit average Americans.

They do this for a number of reasons which are but not limited to...They NEVER want taypayers to think governemnt can be useful, helpful to them. Republicans know if average Americans see this they will no longer be able to con voters with the lie that government only cause problems. They also want to empty the treasury so that no money is availble for social programs to help average Americans. Emptying the treasury gives republicans plausible deniability when saying we do have money for this or that program to help average Americans. But notice, the put America in debt to China by borrowing from them to give tax cuts to corporations, bigoil and the super rich.

Yet they want the votes of average Americans. There is no good rationale to vote republicans if you are not a member of the one percent.

[TheFoundersLive]

Presidents dont balance budgets...Congress does.

Plus, we havent had a balance budget in decades.

[lg144]

Bill Clinton a Democrat did no republicans has.

[marychgo]

When I think of the word "reformer," the last person in the world who comes to mind is Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker!

Walker is a bought-and-paid-for tool of the Koch brothers and the Club for Growth. Their idea of "reform" is union-busting; trashing Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and every other element of the meager U.S. safety net; eliminating every type of regulation; permitting corporations to do whatever they please; and allowing the "job creators" (themselves) to keep every penny they steal from their employees and their customers.

Only if taking the U.S. back to the Gilded Age of the 1890s is now to be considered "reform" can Scott Walker qualify as a "reformer"!

[nonpolitico]

marychgo. As Pres Obama has been sliding to the LEFT since 2008, and also as he has put in place plans to allow military to control "Terror suspects" by indefinite detention and no evidence/charges, seems that the refurbishment of Gitmo has a reason behind it after all. Just think, all those patriotic America "terrorosts" that the socialist Mr Obama can now classify as terror suspects if they do not agree with the socialist ideas he has planned.
Under sociaobama the Constitution is already primed for being undermined.....Official!
Wake up USA we are all under surveillance, and Washington wants Julian Assange jailed for life or DEAD!!
(Just for embarrassing our secret government).
GOP doomed if Romney does not begin to answer Obama on Constitutional grounds.
The political war is not NOW about Right or Left.
Following the facts that the President has 1. Ignored a State Supreme Court subpena. 2. Rammed through a socialist tax dressed up as healthcare reform. 3. Vastly increased surveillance powers over citizens, unless average Americans WAKE UP, the US Constitution will be either a thing of the past, or will look like a fishing net....with very many holes in the protection it now affords citizens.
A slow motion coup has been under way with terrorism as its pretext since the Patriot Act was introduced.
Ronald Reagan, love him of loath him, declared his love of the American way of life in his speeches in the 1980s.
All Romney (or Obama) has to do is re-enact the vigor that Reagan showed and the November election is in the bag!
But neither side seems on the side of the people this year!
So we are stuck with mediocrity as a choice!
NOA could be a winner on a personal level in November.
Whatever happens, US Citizens are screwed, for neither party naor Washington is on the side of Joe Citizen!!

[audemus]

Speaking as a resident of the state of Wisconsin, I sincerely hope Romney selects Walker as his V.P., that way ( at least for awhile ), we can be rid of him.

[marychgo]

Please don't wish him on the rest of us, audemus!

[MIO42]

Mitt

Don't give up your Day job

[fiberglass3]

Can't the republican party find a candidate that is at least semi-electable material.
After a year of this primary crap, all I've heard is "9-9-9", "Oops" and now this Romney garbage of releasing only one year of his tax returns.
At least when McCain ran for President he released 30 years of his past tax returns.
It's a Presidential election year, come on GOP get with the program.

[Fox_Rush_Zombie]

William Koch (Koch brothers) is amassing tanks, anti-aircraft weapons, munitions and other military hardware at his 5000 acre 'Bear Ranch' outside of Paonia, Colorado. The weapons are being stored at various sites on this giant property. His spokesman has confirmed that these weapons are fully functional.