Bush vows to run Washington like he did Florida when governor

Highlighting lobbying reforms he signed in Florida, Bush said he hoped to sign similar legislation in Washington, saying the definition of “lobbyist” should be expanded to those who work as “government relations” and “government affairs” specialists, and that their meetings with lawmakers should be publicly disclosed online.

Bush called for a balanced budget amendment, which would require changing the federal constitution, and giving the president the authority to use a line-item veto to reject federal spending initiatives.

On his plan to freeze federal hiring, he said he would replace just one worker out of every three federal employees who leave.

“In all of these reforms, it matters what example is set by those in elective office”, Bush said in his speech. And he said he likes military contracting reforms unveiled in March that would strip away numerous mundane hurdles faced by Pentagon contracting officers.

“I wasn’t a member of the club, and that made all the difference”, Mr. Bush said of his time as governor of Florida from 1999 to 2007.

“Jeb Bush is following the classic playbook of running against Washington and going after what most voters can’t stand – which is Congress”, said Ron Bonjean, a former congressional Republican communications adviser and now a government policy strategist in the private sector.

“That would be – and then go pursue your whatever your desires are, but showing up for work it’s what’s required of every American”, Bush added.

Bush panned Washington for operating on autopilot, ticking off a slew of pitches meant to push back against what he sees as a needless expansion of the federal footprint.

Bush called the current personnel system a “relic of the 1970s” under the Jimmy Carter administration, which “didn’t have the taxpayers’ interest foremost in mind”.

According to Politico, the former Florida governor said Monday he wants to stop ex-members of the House and Senate from becoming lobbyists until six years after they have left the Capitol. From the start, his campaign has touted Bush as having the experience needed to turn the nation around and believes that his conservative record will resonate with both the GOP establishment and base.

He added, “It might not pass Congress, but it would get them all there for a vote”.

But his numbers in some polls lag behind those of billionaire Donald Trump, who’s managed to take the spotlight off other Republicans through a series of controversies. “Spending on lobbying has risen by more than 45 percent over the past decade, translating to $12.5 million per member of Congress. Restrain federal spending and bureaucratic meddling, and we’ll disrupt the culture that thrives on big government”.

He said that the civil service system is “ruled by inertia” where “people are hired, promoted, and given pay increases often without regard to performance”.

He said Monday, he agrees with that sentiment by targeting deficit spending.

“As someone who truly understands the risk of standing up for something, I simply can not express in words how much I value their willingness to stand up against John Kerry”, Bush wrote in a letter dated January 19, 2005.