Palin outlines plan to better America to rain-soaked crowd Saturday

Photo: Kelsey Kremer/Iowa State

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin speaks to the crowd during the Tea Party of America’s Restoring America event on Saturday, Sept. 3, 2011 in Indianola. Despite the rain, many people came to the event specifically to hear Palin speak.

Paige Godden

Addressing 1,500 rain-soaked tea partyers at a rally to restore America in Indianola on Saturday, Sarah Palin revealed her five-step plan to a better America but didn’t mention if she plans to joins the 2012 presidential race.

“My plan is a bona fide, pro-working man’s plan,” Palin said.

She said her first step is to enforce the 10th Amendment.

Second, Palin said, is to repeal “Obamacare,” “reign in burdensome regulations that are a boot on our neck” and let the private sector grow.

Palin said she wants to see unused stimulus funds canceled.

America needs to “have that come-to-Jesus moment, when we own up to our debt and have entitlement reform,” she said. 

She said either the government needs to fix the capital markets or the world capital markets are going to “throw it down our throats.”

Palin said it must be done in a way that honors a commitment to the esteemed elders today, and said the elderly are entitled to their money because they’ve been putting their money into the government for years.

“For the president to say we may not be able to cut their checks, well, where did all their money go?” Palin asked.

Palin’s last concern was for America to have robust and responsible domestic energy production.

“Drill here. Drill now. Let the refineries and pipeline be built,” Palin said.

Palin said lawmakers need to stop kowtowing to foreign countries and dictators, asking them to ramp up industry and production and promising, “Oh, we’ll be your greatest customer.”

She said a hardcore, all-of-the-above energy policy will bring real job growth, and energy and prosperity is the key to security.

A portion of her speech was spent criticizing the Obama administration.

“They spend, they print, they borrow, they spend more, then they stick us with the bill, then they pat their own backs and say they solved the debt crisis,” Palin said.

She referred to liberals as “crony capitalists” and said nothing is getting done because they have “a lot of mouths to feed,” referring to lobbyists and special interest groups.

She said Obama wants to create jobs through solar panels and high-speed trains.

“All aboard Obama’s train to bankruptcy,” Palin said. “The only future Barack Obama is trying to save is his own re-election.”

The Restoring America event

“Al Gore’s liberal rain hasn’t run us away yet.”

Tea Party Charlie yelled the statement to the crowd before Palin took the stage.

Several radio personalities made their political positions known before Palin spoke.

Most discussed how to achieve a balanced budget and the threat of the liberal leftists. The speakers also repeated Barack Hussein Obama’s full name several times throughout the event.

Sam Clovis said the Senate should pass a balanced-budget amendment and send it to the states for ratification.

He added that in order for the economy to balance out, the United States would need to see at least a 5 percent increase in jobs, and it would still take eight years to balance out.

Tony Katz, a radio personality out of California, discussed ad campaigns aimed at the tea party.

He said maybe the reason companies such as Kraft and why Madison Avenue is targeting the tea party is because “we’re the ones who have jobs.”

As for the Democrats, he said, “They will be crushed. They will be replaced in 2012.”

Political comedian Eric Golub also directed most of his comments toward leftists.

“Why the left hates our guts? It’s because we’re alive and breathe air. That’s it,” Golub said.

Golub said his dad was a Holocaust survivor, which taught him that no hardship was too difficult to overcome.

Golub said he once struggled with social studies, so he told his dad. His father replied by asking, “Did the teacher try to shoot you?”

Ryan Rhodes, an ISU alumnus and an Iowa tea party leader, was introduced as Iowa’s version of Joe the plumber.

“How do we negotiate with someone who isn’t negotiating with us in good faith?” Rhodes said.

He said the left believes the right is a group of terrorists to their agenda.

“God forbid for someone to make it … Spread the wealth around to us … That’s not the American dream,” Rhodes said, referring to the Obama administration.