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Remarks by Speaker John
Boehner
Republican National Convention, Tampa, FL
August 28, 2012
As Prepared for Delivery
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you and welcome.
We begin tonight with a fundamental question: can we do better?
The answer, in my view, is obvious: you bet we can.
The American people are still asking ‘where are the jobs,’ but
President Obama
only offers excuses instead of answers. His record is a
shadow of his
rhetoric. Yet he has the nerve to say that he’s moving us
forward, and
the audacity to hope that we’ll believe him.
Allow me to illustrate.
I’m what you’d call a regular guy with a big job. I’ve got 11
brothers
and sisters. My dad and my uncles owned a bar outside of
Cincinnati.
I worked there growing up, mopping floors, waiting tables.
Believe me when I say I learned how to deal with every character who
walked in
the door…
So let’s say right now, a guy walked into our bar – full of guys
looking for
work, having a tough go of it – and said, “the private sector is doing
fine.”
Well, do you know what we’d do? That’s right: we’d throw him
out.
If a guy walked into our bar – full of people paying more for health
care, more
for gas, more for everything – and said, “we’re better off than we
would have
been.”
Do you know what we’d do? Throw him out.
If a guy walked into our bar – full of folks who couldn’t tell you the
last
time they got a raise or their house was above water – and said, “we
tried our
economic plan, and it worked.
Do you know what we’d do? Throw him out.
Now let’s say a guy walked into our bar, and before he could say
anything, he
overheard a regular telling his story. Turns out this man
runs a small
business. Got involved with it while he was still working his
way through
school. Then, out of nowhere, his business partner
died. They had
just one customer at the time. So he fought like
hell, through
sleepless nights and close calls. They made it, thank God,
paid their
dues, proud of what they managed to do.
Now if a guy walked into our bar, heard all that, and said, “if you’ve
got a
business, you didn’t build that.
You know what we’d do. Throw him out.
By the way, that small business guy at the bar: that was my
story. That
was our business. We DID build that.
It could just as easily have been the story of anyone who’s built
something
from nothing. No guarantees. No government there to
hold your
hand. Just a dream and the desire to do better.
President Obama just doesn’t get this. He can’t fix the
economy because
he doesn’t know how it was built.
So in 70 days… when the American people walk into the voting booth,
what should
we do? Throw him out.
Because we can do better. We can do a lot better.
It starts with
throwing out the politician who doesn’t get it, and electing a new
president
who does.
Mitt Romney comes from a family of builders. His father built
houses,
built businesses, built industry. George Romney was a can-do
kind of
guy. He was fond of the old saying that when things are at
their worst,
‘that’s just the place and time that the tide will turn.’
Delegates, this is that time and this is that place. We’re
here to
preserve this country the same way we built it: by exercising our
God-given
right to set a new course.
Who better to turn this tide than a man who has dedicated his career to
doing
just that – for states, for businesses, for the Olympic Games.
President Romney will keep his word and his courage, too.
He’ll keep
faith with the idea that government exists to serve the people, and the
people
build the economy.
Mitt’s jobs plan will build a stronger middle class through energy
independence
… schools where our kids - not the teachers unions - come first … free
trade …
the path to a balanced budget … and an end to the uncertainty – and the
tax
hikes – that threaten small businesses.
It’s a big job, so we’re fortunate that Mitt has chosen as his running
mate a
leader who is second to none when it comes to rooting out and fixing
Washington’s worst habits.
When I met Paul Ryan 22 years ago, he was a student at Miami of Ohio
volunteering on my campaign. Soon, he will be our party’s
nominee for
Vice President of the United States. Who says this
isn’t the
greatest country on Earth?
They call this ‘America’s comeback team.’ Well, any good
comeback needs
some true believers.
So if you believe we can do better, if you want to leave our children a
stronger, more prosperous America, then Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan need
your
help.
Because we can turn this tide, but only if all of us are all-in, all
the way to
the Sixth of November.
It starts here with a convention that will lead to victory for our
party – and
more importantly, victory for our people and the great cause of freedom
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