FORMER MASSACHUSETTS GOVERNOR MITT ROMNEY (R):  Thank you.  Thank you.  Thank you so much.  (Applause.)  Thank you.

 

Wow, a lot of old friends here.  Good to be so enthusiastically welcomed.  And thank you to Jay Sekulow.  Aren’t we lucky to have a treasure like that arguing our causes before the Supreme Court?  (Applause.)  And speaking of hitting it out of the park, how about that Bill Bennett?  Isn’t he something else?  (Applause.)

 

Now, I’ve been coming to this event for six years, and this is the biggest crowd yet.  For that, I suppose we should acknowledge President Obama.  (Laughter.)  He is, after all, the conservative movement’s top recruiter.  (Laughter, applause.)  It – you know, it turns out he really is a good community organizer.  You know that?  (Laughter.)  Although I don’t think this is the community he had in mind.  (Laughs.)

 

In almost every other way, President Obama has been a failure.  He faced a recession and he made it worse.  He announced a recovery summer.  A year and a half later, we’re still waiting.  Twenty-five million Americans are out of work or out of hope.  Chronic unemployment is higher than it’s ever been in recorded history.  Home values and retirement funds have been devastated.  And all this didn’t come cheap.  In one term, he has amassed or will have amassed more debt than all our prior presidents combined.  We needed stability and solvency.  We got Solyndra.  (Scattered laughter.)

 

President Obama likes to remind us of what he inherited, with one glaring exception.  He forgets to mention that he also inherited a AAA bond rating.  (Applause.)  But now the American people are starting to do some downgrading of our own.  Last November and in special elections across the country since then, Americans have rejected the president’s agenda.

 

And maybe you can think back.  Just after his inauguration, he was on the “Today” show, and he told the innovator – or the interviewer – (laughs) – no, not the innovator; the interviewer – he said if he couldn’t turn the economy around in three years, why, he’d be looking at a one-term proposition.  We’re here to collect.  We’re here to collect.  (Cheers, applause.)

 

The president has just unveiled his latest jobs stimulus, and he’s furious that we’re not enthusiastic about it.  But Mr. President, we remember your last stimulus, the one you promised that would hold unemployment below 8 percent.  It ended up costing over a quarter of a million dollars for every job you said it created or saved – a quarter of a million dollars a job.  And we also remember your Cash for Clunkers program.  That ended up costing $24,000 for every vehicle traded in.  At the rate you’re handing out government money, every Americans will end up having to pay your millionaire’s tax.  (Laughter.)

 

President Obama has proved that old maxim from Ronald Reagan.  It’s not that liberals are ignorant.  It’s just that what they know is wrong.  (Laughter, applause.)

 

You see, I think, to help create jobs, it helps to have had a job.  (Laughter, applause.)  I spent my career in the private sector.  I’ve met a payroll.  I’ve signed the front as well as the back of a payroll check.  I’ve actually saved jobs and created jobs.  I know what it takes to get America back to work.

 

Let me tell you some of the highlights of what I’ll do.  Beginning on day one of my presidency, I’ll take bold action to help grow our economy and create jobs.  I’ll issue an executive order that directs the secretary of health and human services to grant a waiver from “Obamacare” to all 50 states.  (Applause.)  “Obamacare” is a wolf in wolf’s clothing.  (Laughter.)  It’s expensive, it’s intrusive, and it’s unconstitutional.  And that’s why I’m going to fight to repeal it.  (Applause.)

 

I’ll put an end to every one of the job-killing regulations imposed by this Obama administration.  I will open production of energy across the country.  (Cheers, applause.)  I’ll remove the barriers to removing our coal and oil and gas, natural gas resources.  And, by the way, I welcome renewable energy.  But as an old venture capitalist myself, I can tell you this:  No more Solyndras.  (Applause.)

 

I’m going to promote free trade and open markets.  And for stealing our designs and our patents and our know-how, and for manipulating their currency to unfairly attack our industries and our jobs, I will finally clamp down on China.  (Cheers, applause.)

 

I’ll protect the right of American workers to vote by secret ballot.  And I’ll fight – (applause) – and I’ll fight to stop union bosses from using the dues of their union members to support those bosses’ favorite campaigns.  That’s got to end.  (Cheers, applause.)

 

Now, those are just a few steps.  I’m just getting started.  But the full plan I proposed, you can take a look at it.  You can download it for free on your Amazon Kindle or at my website.  It has 59 distinct action steps.  And these actions will do something that’s critically needed.  They’ll make America once again the most attractive place in the world for business and for investment and for jobs.

 

Did you read last week, the CEO of Coca-Cola said the business environment in China is better than that here in the United States?  China?  If that isn’t an indictment of this administration and of Washington, what is?  It’s time to let a conservative businessman take the reins of government to make sure that America, not China, is the economic powerhouse of the world.  (Cheers, applause.)

 

You know, there’s a growing chorus of people in the country who believe that America’s day is past.  They believe that we need to accommodate ourselves to a world of multiple, balanced powers.  But God didn’t create this country to be a nation of followers.  America must lead the world, or someone else will.

 

I’m guided by one overwhelming conviction and passion:  This century must be an American century.  (Applause.)  In an American century, America has the strongest economy and the strongest military in the world.  In an American century, America leads the free world, and the free world leads the entire world.

 

Let me make this perfectly clear.  As president of the United States, I will devote myself to an American century, and I will never, ever apologize for America.  (Applause.)

 

American strength rises from a strong economy, from a strong defense, and from the enduring strength of our values.  Unfortunately, under this president, all three of those things have been weakened.  I’ve already spoken about the actions I’ll take to strengthen our economy.  To strengthen our military, I’ll reverse the president’s cuts to the defense budget.  (Applause.)

 

Time and again we’ve seen that attempts to balance the budget by weakening our military only lead to a far higher price - not only in treasure, but in blood.  I’m going to modernize our Navy and our Air Force, add active-duty soldiers, restore a robust missile-defense system, and give – (applause) – and I want to make sure we give our veterans the care they deserve.  (Applause.)

 

I also want to repair our alliances.  Our friends should never fear that we will not stand by them in an hour of need.  I’ll reaffirm our vital national interest in Israel’s existence as a Jewish state.  (Applause.)  I will count as dear our special relationship with the United Kingdom.  And I’ll begin talks – (applause) – I’ll begin talks with Mexico to strengthen our cooperation on our shared problems of drugs and of security.

 

This is America’s moment.  I will not surrender America’s role in the world.  It’s very simple.  If you do not want America to be the strongest nation on earth, I’m not your president.  You have that president today.  (Laughter, applause.)

 

Now, the foundation needed for a strong economy and a strong military is a people of strong values.  The values I learned in my home have enriched my life immeasurably.  I had a mom and a dad.  What a blessing that was.  My parents’ example led me to marry, to have children, and now to bask in the joy of 16 grandchildren.  (Applause.)

 

For the last 42 years, Ann has been my partner and joy.  And she’s done those things which have brought more happiness to our lives than anything I’ve done.  For she took the lead in raising our five boys.  Did you see that Steve Jobs was asked whether he was glad that he had children?  He said it’s 10,000 times better than anything I have ever done.  (Applause.)

 

But we know that marriage is more than a personally rewarding social custom.  It’s also critical for the well-being of a civilization.  That’s why it’s so important to preserve traditional marriage, the joining together of one man and one woman.  (Applause.)  And that’s why I will appoint an attorney general who will defend the bipartisan law passed by Congress and signed by Bill Clinton, the Defense of Marriage Act.  (Applause.)

 

Unfortunately, when it comes to marriage, our government’s policies are often out of step with our values.  If a couple have a baby, the government will actually give them more support in the form of food stamps, welfare, other benefits, than - if they do not marry than if they do.  Our safety-net programs penalize the decision to marry instead of rewarding it.  That’s just wrong.  And that’s why I’ll eliminate these marriage penalties.  And I will hold fathers financially responsible for their child, whether or not they married the mother.  They have to take responsibility.  (Applause.)

 

Our values must also encompass the life of an unborn child.  There are, of course, strong convictions on both sides of this issue.  Yet it speaks well of our country that almost all Americans recognize that abortion is a problem.  The law may call it a right, but no one ever called it a good.  And in the quiet of conscience, people of both political parties know that more than a million abortions a year can’t be squared with the good heart of America.  (Applause.)

 

I support the Hyde Amendment, which broadly bars the use of federal funds for abortions.  (Applause.)  As president, I’ll end federal funding for abortion advocates like Planned Parenthood.  (Applause.)  I’ll protect a health care worker’s right to follow their conscience in their work.  (Applause.)  And I will nominate judges who know the difference between personal opinion and law.  It is long past time – (applause) – it is long past time for the Supreme Court to return the issue of abortion back to the states by overturning Roe v. Wade.  (Cheers, applause.)

 

Because the good heart of America knows no boundaries, a commitment to protecting life shouldn’t stop at the water’s edge.  Taking innocent life is always wrong and always tragic, wherever it happens.  The compassionate instincts of this country should not be silent in the face of injustices like China’s one-child policy.  And if I’m president, you will never hear me or my vice president tell the Chinese government that we understand or won’t second-guess compulsory sterilization and forced abortion.  (Applause.)

 

Almost all Americans live for a purpose greater than ourselves.  Our heritage of religious faith and tolerance has importantly shaped who we’ve become as a people.  We must continue to welcome faith into the public square and allow it to flourish.  Our government – (applause) – our government must respect religious values, not silence them.  We will always pledge our allegiance to a nation that is under God.  (Applause.)

 

Now, one more thing.  Our values ennoble the citizen and they strengthen the nation.  We should remember that decency and civility are values too.  One of the speakers who will follow me today has crossed that line, I think.  Poisonous language doesn’t advance our cause.  It’s never softened a single heart nor changed a single mind.

 

The blessings of faith carry the responsibility of civil and respectful debate.  The task before us is to focus on the conservative beliefs and the values that unite us.  Let no agenda narrow our vision or drive us apart.  We have important work to accomplish.  (Applause.)

 

My friends, the 21^st century must be an American century.  It began with terror, war and economic calamity.  It’s our duty to steer it onto the path of freedom, peace and prosperity.  My hope is that our grandchildren will remember us in the same way that we remember the last generations of Americans who overcame adversity, that fought in world wars, that came through the Great Depression and that gained victory in the Cold War.

 

Let future generations look back on us and say they rose to the occasion, they embraced their duty, and they led our nation to safety and strength.  The greatest generation is passing.  But as their light fades, we must seize that torch they carried so gallantly at such great sacrifice.  It’s an eternal torch of decency, freedom and hope.  It’s not America’s torch alone, but it is America’s duty and honor to hold it high enough that all the world can see its light.  I believe in that America.  We believe in that America.

 

Thank you, and God bless the United States of America.  Thank you.

 

(Music.)

 

(END)