Governor Mitt Romney today delivers remarks to the National Rifle Association’s Annual Convention in Phoenix, Arizona.
The following are excerpts from the speech:
On the Second Amendment:
“In our day, some Americans take for granted the struggles and victories of the founding generation. Ronald Reagan said that “freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.” That is why we and the NRA meet here today: we are committed to fight for freedom, defend the Constitution, and pass on to our children a legacy of liberty.
No Constitutional protection is more often ignored, distorted, or disdained than the individual right to keep and bear arms.”
On President Obama’s spending binge:
“How many times have we heard the President blame our economic troubles on excessive borrowing – on the high-risk practices of overleveraged companies, banks, and consumers?
Yet somehow he thinks the solution is to overleverage the entire country. I disagree. The federal government should lead by example, with real responsibility and budget discipline, not by spending more trillions we don’t have.”
On health care:
“The liberal Democrats who control our government also want to put Washington in charge of healthcare. The rest of us want to reform healthcare to make sure that every American has insurance they can afford, and that cannot be taken away if they change or lose a job.
But the best path to health care reform is to let the American people make their own decisions, not have those decisions forced on them by government. Let Washington choose the stamps for the post office, but let the American people choose who we want for our doctor.”
On cap-and-trade:
“President Obama is anxious to impose a new cap-and-trade carbon tax on Americans. I wish he understood that if we unilaterally place a very substantial cap-and-trade burden on ourselves, the major energy-using industries will simply pack up and go elsewhere.
You don’t deal with global problems by penalizing only our own citizens. They don’t call it “America warming.” They call it global warming!”
Where the President is right:
“We have a duty to press on, to make sure that the principles of America’s founding will be the principles of America’s future. That’s our patriotic duty. It’s also our duty to stand with the President when he’s right.
I’m glad that he backed away from his campaign promise to pull the troops immediately out of Iraq. I’m glad he is going to get tough on the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. I’m glad he’s continuing to hold military tribunals for terrorists.
In fact, whenever he adopts the policies of John McCain and George W. Bush like this, I’m glad.”
Where the President is wrong:
“President Obama, however, is wrong to back away on missile defense. He was wrong to go on Arab TV and claim that America has dictated to other nations. America has sacrificed more than any other nation to free people from dictators. And of course, President Ahmadinejad of Iran seized upon that misstep by our President to call for an apology from America.
I think the President is going to learn very quickly that abject apologies are always welcomed by thugs and terrorists. But what they need to hear instead is a message of American confidence and American resolve . . .
He’s released top secret memos about interrogations, but we’re still waiting for other top secret memos that tell us about the attacks prevented by those interrogations. The President has also promised to close down Guantanamo, without giving the slightest indication of the next stop for the killers being held there now.
And for all of these decisions, he has received the predictable applause from the usual quarters.
But here’s the problem. That is the very kind of thinking that left America vulnerable to the attacks of September 11th. And the approval of left-wing law professors and editorial boards won’t be worth much if this country lets down its guard and suffers another attack.”
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Mitt Romney talked about the National Council for a New America, Sarah Palin, President’s Obama’s budget and the Chrysler bankruptcy in an interview today on the Laura Ingraham radio program.
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