Scott Walker Quotes

We showed that when we say 'Wisconsin is open for business', we mean it.

The unions say 'last hired - first fired,', we say hire and fire based on merit.

We want the best and brightest in the classroom.

But I don't want massive layoffs of anyone - public or private.

We are planning on shrinking government through attrition and reform, not through random pink slips.

I've often heard the complaint from both Democrat and Republican voters alike that they hate the fact that politicians get into office and they - and they're fearful, they're fearful to make tough decisions because they think more about the next election than they do about the next-generation.

I still remember, as a kid, tying a yellow ribbon around a tree in front of my house during the 444 days that Iran held 52 Americans hostage. Iran is not a place we should be doing business with.

Looking at America's history, ordinary people did something extraordinary.

Leaders risked their lives for freedoms that we take for granted today.That's what instills confidence. That's us. We will move forward and prosper because that's who we are as Americans.

I'd like now and into the future to play a bigger role not only in Wisconsin and the Midwest, but nationally. I'd like to have an impact.

Collective bargaining isn't a right, it is an expensive entitlement.

Once and for all, we are giving the taxpayers a voice in this debate. We put the power back in the hands of the people.

So why am I facing a recall election? Simple: the big government union bosses from Washington want their money. They don't like the fact that I did something fundamentally pro-worker; something that's truly about freedom.

Like many places across the country, Wisconsin lost more than 100,000 jobs from 2008 to 2010. Unemployment during that time topped out at over 9%.

I'm certainly an imperfect man. And it's only by the blood of Jesus Christ that I've been redeemed from my sins. So I know that God doesn't call me to do a specific thing, God hasn't given me a list, a Ten Commandments of things to act on the first day. What God calls us to do is follow his will. And ultimately that's what I'm going to try to do.

You hear some people talk about border security and a wall and all that.

To me, I don't know that you need any of that if you had a better, saner way to let people into the country in the first place.

We are the ones looking out for the middle class.

Who do think pays for the endless expansion of government? Its middle class taxpayers. Our reforms protect middle class taxpayers.

I'm not so in with the prescriptive avant-garde agenda.

I can do that sort of thing, but I feel that I'm still interested enough in song structure. When I look at a lyric on the page, the lyric is alive to me, looking like soldiers in a field. I can move it around, and it's very black-and-white.

I believe that smaller government is better government.

But I also believe that in the areas where government does play a legitimate role, we should demand that it is done better.

In my teenage years I was as addicted to great pop as I was to free jazz, electronic music, and hardcore blues.

When I'm writing a lyric, I totally forget about the music.

I'm just looking at the lyric and thinking about it almost as a separate entity. And then I'll go to my keyboard with all the lyrics printed out and try to think of how to make this a complete musical thing. I've got a very basic keyboard with some presets.

Well, we’re going to start in a couple weeks with our budget adjustment bill.

The first step is we’re going to deal with collective bargaining for all public employee unions, because you use divide and conquer.

Melodies are far more interesting. They are there, in your face, in certain sections of the songs. People do complain about the melody thing, but we do hit patches of melody and beauty, as well as the other stuff.

The music has to be as interesting. It has to keep taking you into places that you're at least not used to.

In times of crisis what has made America amazing has been the fact that, throughout our history, throughout the more than 200 years of our history, there have been men and women of courage, who stood up and decided it was more important to look out for the future of their children and their grandchildren than their own political futures.

In Wisconsin, we understand people create jobs, not the government.

Those who choose to employ - be it one or many - are to be appreciated and encouraged, so as to prosper and increase employment for others in the future.

The people who are making you feel under attack is your union leadership, and they're doing it for politically intense reasons.

You have phantom income each year. No money is being put in your pocket, but you have to take some money out of your pocket to pay Uncle Sam because the tax is paid based on accretion.

Mitt Romney turned businesses around in the private sector. He saved the Winter Olympics.

About 70 percent of everything is really sketched out on my keyboard beforehand, because I do want accidents to happen in the studio.

I promised to empower the taxpayer - instead of a handful of big government union bosses.

Every time I bring an album it's like I'm bringing in the plague, once again.

I don't actually know what category it all falls into, but I've stopped worrying about it.

You should ask the president what he thinks about America.

When we win, it will tell every politician in America that if you are bold, if you do the right thing, if you tackle the tough issues, there will be people standing there right with you.

I have unbelievable support among Republicans.

The harder part of doing a real story is that there are real people and you have a responsibility to not just go crazy with their lives and have them do things which are not their character, that they then have to live with.

I hate big government, but I really hate a government that doesn't work.

So when 'they say we either have to raise taxes or cut core services,' it's actually a 'false choice.

If I can take on 100,000 protesters, I can do the same across the world.

And I think Governor Romney has a shot if the 'R' next to his name doesn't just stand for 'Republican,' it stands for 'reformer.

Governors should be defined not just by what they do and say, but who they surround themselves with.

My kids were targeted on Facebook by protesters.

Chief executives that are successful make good chief executives.

My problem with public sector union leaders, the bosses, has been they stood in the way of protecting the taxpayer.

Now things have changed for the better.

Our reforms end seniority and tenure so we can hire and fire based on merit and pay based on performance. That means we can put the best and the brightest in our classrooms - and we can keep them there.

One of the things I get amused by is when my opponent talks about the middle class.

You see, here in America there's a reason why we celebrate the 4th of July and not April 15th because in America we celebrate our independence from the government, not our dependence on it.

More people on unemployment benefits is not success in America, fewer people on not because we kicked them off but because they have been able to get a job in the private sector, because government got out of the way.

Washington, or as I like to call it, 68 square miles surrounded by reality.

Matching sounds in your head is made a lot easier with all the technology.

It is the nonelectronic noises that are challenging, as you have to find ways of communicating those to the people you're working with.

But Mitt Romney understands, like I understand, that people - not governments - create jobs.

Political leaders in Illinois kicked the can down the road, raised taxes, and ignored fiscal realities. Now, they're realizing the consequences of their actions: credit downgrades and negative outlooks.

It all starts from the lyric with me.

If I work really hard on the lyric and get it right, then it will tell me whatever else to do, where to go.

We for sure need to secure the border.

I think we need to enforce the legal system. I'm not for amnesty, I'm not an advocate of the plans that have been pushed here in Washington... we need to find a way for people to have a legitimate legal immigration system in this country, and that doesn't mean amnesty.