By MIke Householder
Associated Press
BIRMINGHAM, Mich. (AP) -- Indiana Rep. Mike Pence, the third-ranking Republican in the U.S. House, said Monday he'll make a decision after Jan. 1 about whether to run for president.
Pence won a sixth congressional term this month and then announced he would step down from his position as the House Republican conference chairman.
The decision sparked talk that Pence might consider a run for the White House, and he didn't rule it out Monday.
"With regard to the encouragement we've received from around Indiana and a little bit around the country (about) seeking higher office, my family and I are very humbled by that, and we're determined to take the next few months to pray about it, to be able to seek the counsel of people we respect and admire and make a decision sometime after the first of the year," he told reporters following a speech to the Detroit Economic Club.
Pence may not be an announced candidate, but he sounded like someone testing the waters Monday when he spoke to the business group in suburban Birmingham.
"For 75 years, the Detroit Economic Club has been the premier venue for leaders interested in saying something significant about the life of our economy," Pence said at the top of the speech.
He then outlined his economic vision, saying the U.S. needs to implement a flat tax, a spending limit amendment to the Constitution and other reforms designed to put the country's "fiscal house in order."
His plan could be summed up by five letters, he said: S-T-A-R-T, which stands for Sound monetary policy; Tax relief and reform; Access to American energy; Regulatory reform; and Trade.
"Detroit and America have seen better days, and I come to this storied podium to say that after years of runaway federal spending, borrowing and bailouts by both political parties, that there is a better way, a way we can renew American exceptionalism by returning our nation to the practice and principles that built this great city, that built this great nation and can build it again," he said.
Pence also reiterated his call to strip the Federal Reserve of its legal mandate to pursue low unemployment, saying the central bank should focus on its original goal: stabilizing prices.
And, he defended his opposition to the federal bailouts of the Michigan-based automakers, General Motors and Chrysler, saying that while he's pleased to see GM bounce back, it would have been better had the company gone through an "orderly reorganization bankruptcy without taxpayer support."
Pence's sojourn to Michigan was the latest in a series of out-of-state appearances for the former president of the conservative Indiana Policy Review Foundation and host of "The Mike Pence Show," a syndicated radio show throughout Indiana.
During the past election cycle, Pence visited candidates in Florida, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Michigan, Ohio, West Virginia and Maryland and raised more than $1 million for the National Republican Congressional Committee.
He also picked up an eye-opening first-place finish in a straw poll of social conservatives, another sign that he might throw his hat in the presidential ring.
Democratic National Committee spokesman Alec Gerlach had no immediate comment on Pence's speech.
Published: Wed, Dec 1, 2010
