Gov. Scott Walker on Thursday accused challenger Donald Trump of using "talking points of Democrats" by going after his record in Wisconsin, saying those points haven't worked well in recent years.
"These points were disproven in the past three elections," the Republican presidential candidate told
Fox News' "Fox & Friends" program. "We had an unemployment rate of over 8 percent, and it's down to 4.6 percent. Our budget deficit was $3.6 billion. We fixed that and cut taxes by $2 billion. Our schools have the second-best SAT scores in the country."
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Last weekend, Trump, who is leading the Republican pack in several polls, claimed
Wisconsin saw a budget deficit and high borrowing under Walker, and called his state's hospitals and education system "a disaster."
Trump also complained that Walker, who has repeatedly visited neighboring Iowa, had supported the Common Core education standards that much of the GOP base now derides.
"Voters want to hear what you're for, not against," Walker said of Trump on Thursday's show. "I said consistently, Donald Trump could speak for himself. When he went after me, I said, 'Hey, he can speak for himself.'"
Walker also discussed his ideas for solving the national concern about homegrown terrorism, which has grown in recent years, and said that he believes the Patriot Act needs to be reauthorized, as the intelligence community needs the maximum amount of help it can get.
His views are in contrast to those of another GOP candidate, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, who complains the Patriot Act allows for surveillance that is too intrusive.
"I respect the senator for wanting a smaller reduced risk, but this is about collecting information that can only be used if there's reasonable suspicion," said Walker. "It's literally collecting the data. If there's a connection, it's not gone."
He also discussed the push to raise the minimum wage to $15, saying that he does not believe higher wages will improve the economy.
"I don't want to fight how low the minimum wage is," he said, noting that he believes it is better for Americans to get the education and skills that make them worth more to employers, and "then they'll make more than $15 an hour."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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