Karl Rove, a Republican strategist, told a crowd at the University of Wisconsin Monday that Gov. Scott Walker was doing the right thing in pushing to limit the collective bargaining powers of public employees.
He heaped praised on the Republican governor, the
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported Tuesday.
“Your governor did an extraordinarily courageous thing by standing up," Rove told a crowd of hundreds.
Proposals similar to Walker's already have gained traction in other states, Rove said.
"Every state's facing the same issue," he said.
For decades municipalities and school districts across the country have "basically bought the peace" when they couldn't offer pay raises by increasing benefits that won't have to be paid for until long after local officials have left office, he said.
"We either have reform or we have systems that go bankrupt," Rove said.
Rove spent most of his address discussing the outlook for the GOP for the 2012 elections while lambasting Obama's domestic policy, particularly his economic stimulus package and health care reform bill.
"The government has attempted to do something that has never been accomplished in the history of humanity, and that is to spend our way to prosperity," he said.
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