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Jeb Bush makes case for a governor in the White House

by Jonathan Easley - 04/30/15 7:46 PM ET

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush argued Thursday that a candidate with experience as governor of a state would be well-prepared to lead the nation in the White House.

He also slammed U.S. senators, who he said eschew leadership by hiding behind arcane legislative rules.

“I’m not a United States senator and thank God,” Bush said at the National Review Ideas Summit in Washington. “I live in Miami, I’m outside of Washington.”

{mosads}It’s the latest volley in the debate within the GOP over whether a governor or a U.S. lawmaker is better equipped to run the country.

Some believe governors have the advantage because they have executive experience running a state, although critics say they lack foreign policy expertise. For senators, the argument is reversed.

On Thursday, Bush cited Ronald Reagan as an example of a conservative governor who stepped in and immediately asserted himself on foreign policy.

“You can be prepared from Day One from being governor,” Bush said. “Governors actually have to make decisions. They have to say no to people. They have to speak in English. It’s a novel language. Once you leave Washington, you might actually hear it. They can’t hide behind the curtain and say, ‘Well I passed an amendment and the CBO said this and blah blah blah.’ ”

“Governors have to lead and make decisions,” he continued. “They have to persuade and convince. They actually have to compromise from time to time, and those skills apply directly to the presidency and there’s enough examples of governors that have been extraordinary in the area of foreign policy, starting with Ronald Reagan.”

So far, all of the declared Republican presidential candidates are senators. Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Rand Paul (R-Ky.), and Bush’s former political understudy, Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), were the first three to get into the race.

Bush is one of several current or former Republican governors mulling a bid, a list that includes Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and former Texas Gov. Rick Perry.

Bush took another swipe at the senators when asked whether he’d consider signing the Americans for Tax Reform pledge to never raise taxes.

Rubio, Paul and Cruz all signed the pledge last week, but Bush on Thursday reiterated he wouldn’t sign the pledge, and would let his record speak for itself.

“I cut taxes every year, $19 billion,” he said. “Nobody comes close to that record.”

“If you’ve served in the United States Senate over the last eight or six years, no tax cut has taken place,” he continued. “This president has raised taxes $1 trillion to fund ObamaCare. … Anybody associated with Washington, D.C., can talk about this kind of stuff, but in the places where taxes have been cut are places like Florida, where they were led by a conservative governor who thought this was important.”

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