Republican strategist Karl Rove praised Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker Monday evening for pushing his plan to sharply limit collective bargaining for public employees.

"Your governor did an extraordinarily courageous thing by standing up," Rove told hundreds of cheering attendees at his address in the Wisconsin Room at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Student Union.

Proposals similar to Walker's, which is the subject of a court battle in Dane County, already have gained traction in other states, Rove said.

"Every state's facing the same issue," he said.

For decades municipalities and school districts across the country have "basically bought the peace" when they couldn't offer pay raises by increasing benefits that won't have to be paid for until long after local officials have left office, he said.

"We either have reform or we have systems that go bankrupt," Rove said.

Crossroads GPS, a conservative issues advocacy group affiliated with Rove, recently launched a $750,000 national cable television ad campaign that portrays government unions as self-serving bullies collecting mandatory dues to influence liberals such as President Barack Obama.

Rove spent most of his address discussing the outlook for the GOP for the 2012 elections while lambasting Obama's domestic policy, particularly his economic stimulus package and health care reform bill.

"The government has attempted to do something that has never been accomplished in the history of humanity, and that is to spend our way to prosperity," he said.

He said the nation's economic recovery has been slower than those after previous recessions and pointed to polls that show a lack of confidence in the stimulus bill and decreasing popularity for Obama.

He said the nation is in danger of becoming "a once great power that squandered its fiscal strength."

Rove also praised Republican Congressman Paul Ryan's budget plan while calling Obama's budget proposal "a disaster, which will sink our country."