Mitt Romney
CPAC
Washington, DC
February 11,
2011
[REMARKS provided by
Free & Strong America PAC]
ANN ROMNEY: Thank
you. It feels good to be among so many friends.
David
Keene has been a special friend to us all these years. As we say thank
you to
him, we look forward to the many good things we can expect from
Castro’s
nemesis and our friend, Al Cardenas.
Next
month Mitt and I will have been married for 42 years. You know him for
a lot of
the things he has done as a business man, an Olympics leader and a
governor.
But
the most important things he has done have been as a husband and a
father.
When
the children were young and Mitt would call home from a business trip
on the
road, he would often hear a very tired and exasperated young mother,
overwhelmed by our rambunctious five boys.
His
consoling words were always the same: “Ann, your job is more important
than
mine. My work is temporary; you’re building a family that is forever.”
Later
in life, we faced another challenge when I was diagnosed with MS. As we
stood
together, fearing what diagnosis we would hear from the doctor, Mitt
simply
said this: “I can handle anything as long as it’s not terminal. I will
love you
no matter what.”
I
know Mitt as a person, a very good person. I have also seen him as a
leader.
And I, for one, would like to see him lead the country as President of
the
United States. Mitt…….
MITT ROMNEY: I’ve
been in Ann’s shadow ever since our first date in high school. Over our
years together,
she’s waged some pretty impressive battles. Among her many
accomplishments,
none is more important or rewarding—to us and to our country—than her
accomplishment as a successful mother of 5 and grandmother of 16.
Thank
you, Ann.
The
other night, from opposite coasts of the country, Ann and I watched
President
Obama’s State of the Union address. Ann figured out pretty fast what
was going
on. She sent me an email saying that it sounded like he was reading my
CPAC
speech from last year.
What
we were hearing was not just a new and improved Barack Obama; it was an
entirely different Barack Obama.
Saul
Alinsky was out; Jeffrey Immelt was in.
The
President went from “Change you can believe in” to “Can you believe
this
change?”
He
sounded like he was going to dig up the First Lady’s organic garden to
put in a
Bob’s Big Boy.
But
as the speech went on, it was clear that this was just the appearance
of
change: His answer for Americans out of work was more government
spending and
$50 billion for high speed rail.
He
replaced his Chicago politician chief of staff with a fresh face from
Chicago,
named Daley.
Make
no mistake: What we are watching is not Brave New World; what we’re
watching is
Groundhog Day!
Two
years ago, this new President faced an economic crisis and an
increasingly
uncertain world.
An
uncertain world has been made more dangerous by the lack of clear
direction
from a weak President. The President who touted his personal experience
as
giving him special insight into foreign affairs was caught unprepared
when
Iranian citizens rose up against oppression. His proposed policy of
engagement
with Iran and North Korea won him the Nobel Peace Prize. How’s that
worked out?
Iran armed Hezbollah and Hamas and is rushing toward nuclear weapons.
North
Korea fired missiles, tested nukes, sunk a South Korean ship and
shelled a
South Korean island. And his “reset program” with Russia? That
consisted of our
President abandoning our missile defense in Poland and signing a
one-sided nuclear
treaty. The cause of liberty cannot endure much more of his “they get,
we give”
diplomacy!
The
world – and our valiant troops – watched in confusion as the President
announced that he intended to win the war in Afghanistan….as long as it
didn’t
go much beyond August of 2011. And while the Taliban may not have an
air force
or sophisticated drones, it’s safe to say… they do have calendars.
I
surely hope that at some point in the near future, the President will
finally
be able to construct a foreign policy, any foreign policy.
Here
at home, the President’s response to the economic crisis was the most
expensive
failed social experiment in modern history.
He
guaranteed that unemployment wouldn’t go beyond 8%. As he watched
millions and
millions of Americans lose their jobs, lose their homes and lose their
hope,
his response was this: It could be worse.
It
could be worse? This is the leader of the Free World’s answer to the
greatest
job loss since the Great Depression? What’s next? Let them eat cake?
Oh,
excuse me. Organic cake.
It’s
often said that the Presidency of the United States is the toughest job
in the
world. Fair enough. Undoubtedly true.
But
how difficult is it to take office in the middle of a raging economic
crisis
and understand that the economy should be your number one priority?
The
President who took office on January 20th, 2009 should have had one
central mission – put Americans back to work! Fight for every job!
Because
every job is a paycheck and paychecks fuel Americans dreams.
Without
a paycheck, you can’t take care of your family. Without a paycheck you
can’t
buy school books for your kids, keep a car on the road or help an aging
parent
make ends meet.
President
Barack Obama has stood watch over the greatest job loss in modern
American
history. And that, my friends, is one inconvenient truth that will
haunt this
President throughout history.
Today
there are more men and women out of work in America than there are
people
working in Canada. And in the month of January, Canada created more new
jobs
than we did.
When
Ronald Reagan ran for President, he hung the Misery Index around Jimmy
Carter’s
neck. Today’s misery is real unemployment, home foreclosures and
bankruptcies.
This is the Obama Misery Index—and it’s at a record high. It’s going to
take
more than new rhetoric to put Americans back to work—it’s going to take
a new
president.
Let
me make this very clear. If I decide to run for President, it won’t
take me two
years to wake up to the job crisis threatening America. And I won’t be
asking
Tim Geithner how the economy works—or Larry Summers how to start a
business.
Fifteen
million Americans are out of work. And millions and millions more can’t
find
the good paying jobs they long for and deserve. You’ve seen the
heartbreaking
photos and videos of the jobs fairs around the country, where thousands
show up
to stand in line all day just to have a chance to compete for a few job
openings that probably aren’t as good as the job they held two years
ago. These
job fairs and unemployment lines are President Obama’s Hoovervilles.
Make
no mistake. This is a moral tragedy—a moral tragedy of epic
proportion.
Unemployment is not just a statistic. Fifteen million unemployed is not
just a
number. Unemployment means kids can’t go to college; that marriages
break up
under the financial strain; that young people can’t find work and start
their
lives; and men and women in their 50s, in the prime of their lives,
fear they
will never find a job again. Liberals should be ashamed that they and
their
policies have failed these good and decent Americans!
The
President is trying to show that he finally gets it—that he really
isn’t a
liberal after all. But his idea of conservative economic policy is to
invite
some corporate CEO’s to the White House for an evening of table-talk.
I’m
sorry Mr. President, but that’s not a policy, it’s a dinner party.
We’ve
seen the failure of liberal answers before. Liberal welfare policies
condemned
generations to dependency and poverty. Liberal education policies fail
our
children today, because they put pensions and privilege for union
bosses above
the reading scores of our kids. Liberal social policies have failed to
protect
the unborn. And now, the hollow promises of liberal economic policies
have
failed to provide millions of Americans with the dignity of work.
Under
the pressure of a crisis, people turn to what they really believe. With
our
economy in crisis, the President and his fellow liberals turned to
Europe for
their answers. Like the Europeans, they grew the government, they
racked up
bigger deficits, they took over healthcare, they pushed cap and trade,
they
stalled production of our oil and gas and coal, they fought to impose
unions on
America’s workers, and they created over a hundred new agencies and
commissions
and hundreds of thousands of pages of new regulations. Theirs is a
European-style solution to an American problem. It does not work there
and it
will never work here!
The
right answer is not to believe in European solutions. The right answer
is to
believe in America—to believe in free enterprise, capitalism, limited
government, federalism—and to believe in the constitution, as it was
written
and intended by the founders.
My
father never graduated from college. He apprenticed as a lath and
plaster
carpenter, and he was darn good at it. He learned how to put a handful
of nails
in his mouth and spit them out, point forward. On his honeymoon, he and
Mom
drove across the country. Dad sold aluminum paint along the way, to pay
for gas
and hotels.
Dad
always believed in America; and in that America, a lath and plaster man
could
work his way up to running a little car company called American Motors
and end
up Governor of a state where he had once sold aluminum paint.
For
my Dad, America was the land of opportunity, where free enterprise,
small
business and entrepreneurs were encouraged and respected. The spirit of
enterprise propelled America’s economy and our standard of living past
every other
nation on earth.
I
refuse to believe that America is just another place on the map with a
flag. I
believe that America is an exceptional nation, of freedom and
opportunity and
hope.
The
America I believe in has goodness and a greatness that creates a unique
American genius. That genius has blessed the world, led the world and
yes, even
saved the world from unimaginable darkness.
We
didn’t originate the concept of liberty but our Founding Fathers
redefined it
and shared it with the world. From the brilliant sands of Omaha beach
to the
dark valleys of the Hindu Kush, we have fought with an unmatched
courage and
determination, not to conquer territory, but to give others the chance
to
experience the liberty that is humanity’s destiny.
Given
all that America has done to lift others from poverty, given the
millions of
afflicted we have helped to heal and comfort, and given the hundreds of
thousands of lives of America’s sons and daughters that have been, and
are
today, sacrificed to defend freedom, I will not apologize for America!
I
don’t apologize for America because I believe in America!
We
believe in freedom, in opportunity. We believe in free enterprise and
capitalism. We believe in the American dream. And we believe that the
principles that made America the leader of the world today are the very
principles that will keep America the leader of the world tomorrow.
These
last two years have not been the best of times. But while we’ve
lost a
couple of years, we have not lost our way.
This
is fundamentally what conservatism is all about. We sing for God to
bless
America. He already has, he does now and thanks to the greatness of the
American people and the principles that guide us, he will do so for
generations
to come.
Believe
in America. Freedom depends on it.
Thank
you.
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