ronald reagan developed an alliance margaret thatcher and led the west out of what eno'sullivan calledre years of the 1970's. together they literally changed the world for the better. today we honor president reagan's lifetime achieve ment and honor his legacy of political freedom. he fought to enact a set of tax cuts authored by a fellow conservative who would be honored to be here today, jack kemp. the tax cuts that president reagan enacted drop rates that were as high as 70%. this would allow to build, expand and create jobs. reagan's economic policies would inspire the growth predicated on free trade, low taxes, deregulation and curbing run away inflation. i recently had an opportunity to tour the reagan ranch in santa barbara. one of the great things i saw was the desk that president reagan used to sign the kemp-roth tax cuts into law. the free market policy set into motion on that very table were responsible for creating 35 million new jobs in america through 1999. this is another part of ronald reagan's legacy. this is a piece of rock from the berlin wall. those walls came down

country with a genuine free market opportunity and you are prepared to win the argument in the margaret thatcher phrase that first you in the argument and then the vote, and you go to the average small business, you want to reach out to african americans, koreans, vietnamese, chinese, indians, latinos, you go to every small business and say if we cut your social security tax by 50 percent and cut your match to the employer, would you have more money? would you like it more than having rahm emanuel spend it? you suddenly have a conversation when they could to their accountant and know how much money you are talking about, they will want to go to the second town hall meeting. we need the courage to offer america would be like that reported work, savings, investment, risk taking, and was prepared to take on corrupt politicians and their allies had on. that is the gap we need. [applause] some will say, how do you cut taxes when we have such a big deficit? big deficits on the left remain -- mean raise taxes. as our budget committee chairman who i believe is the next governor of ohio -- [applause] cou

there is one by a john o'sullivan margaret thatcher. did i read you have a statue of her on campus? >> yes, we do. the college had a relationship with her. she spoke at the college on several occasions. it just so happened that i knew her for a long time. so i had a crazy idea -- we have a great art department at hillsdale college, including a great painter and a great sculptor who is from an old sculpting family. i saw some of his work and thought there needs to be a great bust of winston churchill. i asked him about it, and he said he would love to. he told me he would just do it. later i found out it cost money. i went to the board and said i would like to do some statues, just a few. not only did they love the idea, but they put money up for four of them on the spot. they talked me into it to modern, recent people who have lived in our recent memories. one is thatcher and one is reagan. i was sort of against that. i think churchill is as modern as you should go. those people had particular connections to the college. we settle that up that way. >> how many total years did you wo

margaret thatcher said it best, you want something said, ask a man.omething done, ask a woman. [laughter] all you guys in the room, we'll let you stay here because next component, leaders are team-builders. and it requires that we be a team-builder and provide leadership for men and women. building a team that has a balanced approach, good opinions is going to help us solve problems. whether it is our family, our church, our business or our community. another thing and i think this is so important, leaders are lifelong learners. those that are most aggressive in reading and staying up-to-date, they generally end up making the best leaders. because they know that they don't know it all. and they know there's great value in what they have not yet learned. so leaders always commit to being lifelong learners. and leaders raise up other leaders. and how important this is for us to remember. for the things that we value that we are passionate about, where we want to place our life's work and put our energy into those passions, it is imperative that we bring

in the tradition of margaret thatcher and clare boothe luce and, yes, sarah palin, when we do that, we will bring other women to other movement. when we say we have nothing to be ashamed of and, in fact, we have so much to be proud of, the accomplishments, not just of conservative women but of the conservative movement and of our philosophy, we will bring other women to our beliefs. when i was chairman of the republican party in virginia, it was a few years ago, i honestly did not think a thing about being the first woman to be elected to that position. i have to say i thought it was silly all the reporters came running up to me afterwards and wanted to ask me, how does it feel to be the first republican woman being elected to the woman? i brushed them off. that's silly. i'm a person just like you and i worked hard and here i am. but i tell you, i was humbled after that because time and time again at party functions i was approached of women of all different ages telling me how wonderful they thought it was that a woman was head of the party. i had young women telling me that they were