MADISON, Wisc. — In an interview with The Daily Caller before he gave his speech in Madison, likely 2012 presidential candidate Herman Cain said the budget fight in Wisconsin “isn’t about union busting. This is about saving the state of Wisconsin.”
The former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza said Madison is “Ground Zero” for the next chapter of American politics. “On November the Second, the people of this state overwhelmingly elected someone to lead,” Cain said in an interview. “And, that’s what [Wisconsin Republican] Gov. Scott Walker is doing. He is leading.”
Cain said he agrees 100 percent with Walker’s budget plans, and hopes governors around the country follow in his footsteps.
“I like all of the things in his plan,” Cain said. “To be perfectly honest with you, I do, because, what it’s going to do is reverse a trend. The trend has been, for too long, give more and more to the public sector workers because of collective bargaining and because of the unions, regardless of what it does to taxes and regardless of what it does to the deficit.”
Cain added Walker is “simply saying we cannot continue this. He’s absolutely right.”
Cain said the difference between Walker and President Obama is that Walker is “trying to do something about it [the budget crisis]. The leader in Washington, D.C., isn’t trying to do anything about it. He’s [Walker] trying to save this state.”
Cain said only 10 percent of the workforce is unionized, but their voice is louder in Madison right now because “their tactic is trying to intimidate legislators. It ain’t working. I’ve talked to some of the legislators just since I’ve been here.”
He also said the “liberal-supported media” will let them run “as big a noise as they can,” all over television, newspapers and radio around the country, which contributes to the unionized workers’ message crowding out the views of the other 90 percent of workers who are not unionized.