Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) delivered his maiden speech on the Senate floor on Wednesday, declaring, “Americans Want This Nation Preserved, and They Are Counting On Us To Do Just That.” Johnson is a manufacturer* and accountant elected for the first time in 2010, and we appreciate his views on the size of government and economic freedom.

The Senator cited his manufacturing background in comments before the speech at the Heritage foundation’s weekly The Bloggers Briefing.

I’m a manufacturer, so I always go to the root cause. If you’ve got an engine that’s leaking oil, you can keep putting oil in that engine, but you’re better off changing the gaskets.

So to me, deficits, out of control spending, high unemployment , sluggish economy, those are all symptoms of the root cause. To me, the root cause absolutely is the size, the scope – I’m talking about all the things the government is involved in that should have never gotten involved in, all the regulatory overreach – and the cost of government. That’s the root cause.

So I’m looking for hard spending caps that actually address and attack that root cause.

The sound clip is here.

* From his official bio: “In July of 1979, Ron and Jane moved to Oshkosh to start a business with Jane’s brother. The company -PACUR- began producing plastic sheet for packaging and printing applications. Ron has been building the same business for the last 31 years. From operating the equipment, to keeping the company books, and selling its products, Ron has been involved in every function of the business. It is this body of experience and private sector perspective that he now brings to the Senate.”

The most puzzling of all the decisions that went into the legislative maneuvering that gave us the benighted Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act a year ago today was, why no acronym-inviting title? You would have thought if Congress was going to so dramatically expand the federal government’s control of health care and insurance, it would embrace a grandiose, if forced, title that would give us an acronym for the ages.

You know, like the PATRIOT Act, or RICO, or last year’s SPEECH Act (Securing the Protection of our Enduring and Established Constitutional Heritage Act). Give the law a name to remember it by.

No such luck. Democrats and other supporters usually drop the “Patient Protection” part to refer to the law as simply by the anodyne Affordable Care Act. Republicans deride it as Obamacare.

Such a missed opportunity for truth in acronymization. Is it too late? If not …

• The HEALTH Act — Helping Eliminate Affordable, Life-extending Treatments, Hospitalization Act
• The NANNY Act — The Not Affordable, Nope, Not Yet Act
• ABCDE Act — A Bill that Cost Democrats Election Act

Oh well. Some good commentary as the anniversary festivities subside…

• Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), a manufacturer, Wall Street Journal, “ObamaCare and Carey’s Heart: My daughter probably wouldn’t have survived in a system where bureaucrats stifle innovation and ration care.”
• Heritage Foundation, The Foundry blog, “Obamacare’s Failed First Year“
• Dr. Jason Fodeman and Dr. David Gratzer, The Washington Times, “Obamacare: One year later –Stripping patients and doctors of authority over care“
• Joe Trauger, National Association of Manufacturers, Shopfloor blog, “Health Care Law at One Year: Little Protection, Not So Affordable”
• Editorial, Washington Examiner, “Obamacare is even worse than critics thought“

Ron Johnson, a Wisconsin manufacturer elected to the U.S. Senate

The Associated Press has now projected Ron Johnson, a Republican, to unseat three-term Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin.

Johnson effectively highlighted his business background in his campaign, making the point in ads (pictured left, full video here) that while 57 lawyers served in the Senate, there were no manufacturers.

From his campaign bio:

In 1979, Ron and Jane moved to Wisconsin, where Ron started a business called PACUR with his brother-in-law. Ron was the accountant and a machine operator, and for most of the company’s first year, Ron traded 12 hour shifts with his brother-in-law until they could train other operators.

With the help and dedication of the fine people Ron had the privilege of working with, PACUR has grown from a company supplying a single customer to the largest producer in the world of a specialty plastic used in medical device packaging and high tech printing applications. PACUR sells its products all around the world, with one of its largest export markets being China. PACUR is still proud to say: “We don’t export jobs, we export plastic.”

Rich Lowry, editor of The National Review, covered a recent speech Johnson gave to a hometown Chamber of Commerce group and reports, “Why Ron Johnson Is Winning“:

Johnson is an outsider’s outsider in an outsider’s year. The head of an Oshkosh manufacturing firm, he talks to the Chamber crowd as one of them. The schedule that is e-mailed out to reporters doesn’t say Ron Johnson will be at a given event, but that “Oshkosh manufacturer and U.S. Senate candidate Ron Johnson” will be at a given event.

“Maybe what we really need in this country,” he tells the Chamber crowd, “are citizen-legislators. People who have led a normal life, an ordinary life, a full life. Who had a full career, raised a family, drove their kids to school, attended their events.”

PACUR’s website is here.  Congratulations, Senat0r-elect Johnson.