Editor’s Note: Ron Johnson received the Republican Endorsement for U.S. Senate (see Republican Convention speech on p. 7). Many requests about Ron Johnson’s background has prompted Reality News to publish this speech he gave at the Oshkosh Tea Party in October 2009.

Ron Johnson

Tea party, Oshkosh WI

October 10, 2009

Good morning fellow Patriots. It’s really great to see so many people here rallying to preserve our freedom. My name is Ron Johnson, and I own a business here in Oshkosh that I have been working hard to build for the last 30 years. As a businessperson, I’m here to represent the producers of America ..........because we are under attack.

How many times have you heard politicians attack “the rich” for not paying their fair share? Well, here are the facts: the top 50% of taxpayers pay 97% of all income taxes. If you earn $67,000, congratulations, you are part of the top 25% that pays 87%. Let me repeat that…25% of taxpayers pay 87% of all income taxes. If you are really fortunate, and trust me, if you’re in the top 1% you are fortunate, but you also are part of the group that gets to pay 40% of all income taxes. That’s right, 1% pays 40%.

These taxpayers are the producers of this country. These are the people standing here in this crowd this morning. You are the people that make this country great. And you are the people repeatedly attacked for not paying your fair share. Give me a break.

In a few minutes, you are going to meet Joe the Plumber who became famous for asking a simple question: “If I work hard to build a business, how much of what I earn will I actually be able to keep?” Well Joe, here’s the short answer. Depending on where you live, if you’re lucky, they’ll let you keep about 50%. If you’re not lucky, it might be because you have become the target of a frivolous lawsuit and are caught up in our judicial system. If this happens, all bets are off, and you could lose everything.

Folks, this is not a sustainable model for long term success. When the government claims 50% of every dollar you earn, you are only half free. Oh, and by the way, what did Joe get for asking this simple question? He got investigated and attacked, which only proves that Joe must be a producer.

How many times have you heard a politician attack Big Oil & Big Pharma as if these were some kind of evil enterprises preying on our society? Why do they do this? Well, I guess it sounds good to some people, and might help them get elected in some districts. But I can guarantee you, it does nothing to help our country.

I don’t know about you, but I want businesses to succeed. I want Pharmaceutical companies to be profitable so they are able to invest in the research and development of new life saving drugs. And I want access to these drugs. I want oil companies to make enough money to continue to explore, drill, refine, and deliver gas to virtually every corner of America.

Almost everyone’s 401k or retirement fund owns stock in these companies. And I hope everyone realizes that both the state and federal governments make more per gallon in gas taxes than the oil companies make themselves for doing all the work. So we all should want them to be successful. The fact is, we need these businesses to be profitable if we expect America to succeed.

What we don’t need is a bunch of politicians spending money they don’t have, trying to figure out new ways to tax us, and in their spare time, arrogantly attempting to take over the finest health care system in the world. And now, in their efforts to convince us we need them to save our health care system, they are demonizing doctors and our health care providers.

So let me tell you a personal story. Twenty six years ago, our daughter, Carey, was born with a serious congenital heart defect called Transposition of the Great Arteries. Her first doctor, Dr. Thomas, was called into the hospital at 1 a.m. to perform a procedure to keep her alive until corrective surgery could be performed. At the age of eight months, when her heart was only the size of a small plum, her surgeon, Dr. Foker, performed the operation.

The day of the surgery, Dr. Foker was already at the hospital when we arrived at 6 a.m. The surgery lasted over seven hours, and during that time Dr. Foker totally reconstructed the upper chamber of Carey’s heart. Think for a moment about the skill and training that that involved. That night, Dr. Foker didn’t leave the hospital until after 6 p.m., and we know he called in repeatedly, once at 3 a.m., to check on Carey’s condition. He was back in the hospital the next day at 6 a.m. to perform rounds and prepare for another life saving surgery.

The good news is that Carey has led a perfectly normal life ever since. She was inspired by her doctors to enter the health care profession as a nurse. She is working in a Neo-Natal Intensive Care unit taking care of little babies and studying to become a nurse practitioner. Oh, and by the way, do you know how much Dr. Foker’s entire bill was for saving her life? $1,200.

Now I really don’t begrudge Oprah, Barbara Streisand, or any other Hollywood actor for their financial success. But I will say, if anyone in this country deserves to be a millionaire, it is people like Dr. Foker and Dr. Thomas who have saved thousands of lives because of their lifetimes of hard work and their incredible dedication to their profession.

Folks, we just cannot let the politicians get away with stirring up this kind of class envy and warfare. We need the producers of America to be incentivized to achieve their maximum potential. This is what made America great. Don’t let the politicians and trial lawyers kill America’s Golden Goose.

As great as it is to see this many people here, we all need to recognize this is only the start. We have a lot of work to do. We need to out-organize the community organizers. We need to increase our numbers, geometrically. We need to identify like-minded voters and get them to the polls on Election Day. And if we can’t find politicians who will defend our Constitution, pledge to restrain spending, and actually respect the producers of America, then some of you in this audience will have to step up to the plate and become citizen legislators.

This is a Fight for Freedom, and it is a Fight that we absolutely must win.

So God Help us, and May God continue to bless the Greatest Country in the History of Mankind... America.