PRESS
RELEASE
from Romney for President
FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE
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CONTACT: Romney Press Office
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January 20, 2012
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ROMNEY PENS OPEN LETTER TO VOTERS IN SOUTH CAROLINA
Boston, MA – Today, Mitt Romney
wrote an open letter to voters in South Carolina. The full letter will
run in
The State and
The Post And Courier. The full text
of the letter is below:
An Open Letter to the Voters of South Carolina
It
is an election year and our country faces a momentous choice. We can
continue with the flawed policies of a failing president, or we can
embark on a fundamentally new direction.
“Hope”
and “change” were the watchwords we heard repeatedly from Barack Obama
back when he was a presidential candidate campaigning here in South
Carolina. Three years into his presidency, he hasn’t delivered much in
the way of hope. But we’ve seen a lot of change.
The
change has come in the size and shape and reach of Washington. Barack
Obama promised to fix our broken system. Instead, he’s grown it
massively.
We
have thousands of new regulations, many of them job-killers. We have
hundreds of billions in new federal spending. The government workforce
has grown by tens of thousands of new workers. The national debt now
totals a stratospheric $15 trillion. We have a brand new and enormously
expensive entitlement program known as Obamacare.
With
government swelling at a rapid pace, the private sector,
unsurprisingly, has stagnated. Nearly 24 million Americans are out of
work, struggling to find full-time work, or no longer even looking.
Here in South Carolina, unemployment is an appalling 9.9 percent. As
I’ve traveled this state and traveled the country, I’ve heard story
after story of heartbreak, of homes lost, of retirement plans replaced
by jobs at minimum wage, of dreams shattered.
If
we are going to undo the damage, this year’s election is critical. The
destiny of our country is at stake. We can choose to live in the
Entitlement Society that Barack Obama has been constructing, a society
built around dependence on government. Or we can return to the
merit-based Opportunity Society built by our Founding Fathers.
The
drafters of the Declaration of Independence wrote that the Creator
endowed us with unalienable rights, among them, life, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness. In America, we would be free to plot our own
course. Ours would be the land of opportunity, where people achieve
their dreams through hard work, education and daring.
Nearly
two-and-half centuries of American history demonstrate the brilliance
of our founding principles. America has produced pioneers and inventors
of distinction in every field. We have excelled in science and
industry. We have built an Opportunity Society that is prosperous and
free and strong.
Barack
Obama has taken us on a detour away from our founding philosophy. He’s
mismanaged our economy, weakened our military, and apologized for
America around the world. In October, I spoke at The Citadel, where
patriotism is a passion. The spirit of sacrifice I found there, the
love of our country and everything we stand for, only reinforces my
belief that we need change in Washington DC and change in the White
House. I want America to be respected around the world. I want to
return America to the path of greatness and I know how to bring us
where we need to go.
I’ve
spent most of my life in the private sector. I’m not a career
politician. I know how misguided government policies can choke off
investment and kill jobs. I also know how government can get out of the
way to foster economic growth.
My
administration will make America the best place in the world for
entrepreneurs, inventors, and job creators. I'll lower and simplify
taxes, especially for middle-income Americans. I will repeal every
unnecessary Obama-era regulation that kills jobs or hurts economic
growth. I will fight the union bosses who build their power at the
expense of the very workers they purport to represent.
I'll
open up new markets for American goods. I’ll press to exploit fully our
abundant energy resources. I will cut and cap spending, and lead us
toward a balanced budget. And I will repeal Obamacare. On my first day
as president, I will direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services
to grant waivers from Obamacare to all 50 states.
Let’s
not be under any illusions that change of the sort I am proposing will
be easy. Barack Obama, the Democratic machine, and the entrenched
interests behind them are going to fight to retain their power and
their privileges at every step of the way. We need to fight back.
Fortunately, we have a simple tool at hand: it’s called the truth. And
the truth is that President Obama has failed, and his vision for
America is wrong. Reversing that failure, and correcting our course, is
what the election of 2012 is all about.
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