Paul Ryan

A Romney-Ryan administration will protect and strengthen Medicare for my Mom's generation for my generation and for my kids and yours.

The moral case for individual initiative in a free economy holds that people have a God-given right to use their creativity to produce things that improve our lives.

I really don't have tremendous political ambition. I have policy ambition.

So here's the question: Without a change in leadership why would the next four years be any different from the last four years?

The debt and the deficit is just getting out of control and the administration is still pumping through billions upon trillions of new spending. That does not grow the economy.

That's what we do in this country. That's the American Dream. That's freedom and I'll take it any day over the supervision and sanctimony of the central planners.

Are we interested in treating the symptoms of poverty and economic stagnation through income redistribution and class warfare or do we want to go at the root causes of poverty and economic stagnation by promoting pro-growth policies that promote prosperity?

Class is not a fixed designation in this country. We are an upwardly mobile society with a lot of movement between income groups.

We're saying no changes for Medicare for people above the age of 55. And in order to keep the promise to current seniors who've already retired and organized their lives around this program you have to reform it for the next generation.

Look only in Washington is not raising taxes considered a tax cut. Nobody's getting a tax cut here. We're not cutting taxes. We're preventing tax increases from occurring.

The secret to understanding me is I'm not trying to be anybody other than who I actually am. People want candid refreshing leadership. And I've always tried to go with solutions. You know I've always tried to say here's how we get our economy growing here's why we get our debt under control. That's what Mitt Romney is offering.

There is a consensus of willing leaders from both parties coalescing around the right way forward in health care. Reform should address government-imposed inequities and barriers to true choice and competition.

We wonder if we will be the first generation in American history to leave our children with fewer opportunities and a less prosperous nation than the one we inherited.

I don't consult polls to tell me what my principles are or what our policies should be.

We believe that the government has an important role to create the conditions that promote entrepreneurship upward mobility and individual responsibility.

So in Europe they're cutting people's retirement and health benefits. And that's what we want to avoid from happening. They're raising taxes entering a recession. That's the kind of economic program that President Obama has put in place.

Look of course people are scared of entitlement reform because every time you put entitlement reform out there the other party uses it as a political weapon against you.

If we didn't propose these reforms we would not have proposed a budget that got the debt under control.

If borrowing and spending all this money led to more jobs, than we would be at full employment already.

Obama is trying to paint us as a caricature as if we're some bizarre individualists who are hardcore libertarians. It's a false dichotomy and intellectually lazy. Of course we believe in government. We think government should do what it does really well but that it has limits.

Since taking office, President Obama has signed into law spending increases of nearly 25 percent for domestic government agencies - an 84 percent increase when you include the failed stimulus. All of this new government spending was sold as 'investment.'

What I'm concerned about is endless borrowing which is going to compromise our economy not only today but in the future. Because we know the decisions we make right now really dramatically impact us in the future and the debt is literally getting out of our control.

I call crony capitalism where you take money from successful small businesses spend it in Washington on favored industries on favored individuals picking winners and losers in the economy that's not pro-growth economics. That's not entrepreneurial economics. That's not helping small businesses. That's cronyism that's corporate welfare.

Do we believe that the goal of government is to promote equal opportunity for all Americans to make the most of their lives? Or do we now believe that government's role is to equalize the results of peoples lives?

We need leadership. We don't need a doubling down on the failed politics of the past.

What did the taxpayers get out of the Obama stimulus? More debt. That money wasn't just spent and wasted - it was borrowed spent and wasted.

Activist government overreach and ongoing economic stagnation have shown us why Washington should not try to displace what is best left to civil society.

In government-directed economies the collective takes priority over the individual. The moral ideal is equal results. That approach could not be further removed from the real world.

The president has declared that the debate over government-controlled health care is over. That will come as news to the millions of Americans who will elect Mitt Romney so we can repeal Obamacare.

And to this day my Mom is my role model.

Before the math and the momentum overwhelm us all we are going to solve this nation's economic problems. And I'm going to level with you: We don't have that much time. But if we are serious and smart and we lead we can do this.

Behind every small business there's a story worth knowing. All the corner shops in our towns and cities the restaurants cleaners gyms hair salons hardware stores - these didn't come out of nowhere.

Conventional wisdom on government's role in inequality often has it backwards. Tax reforms have resulted in a more progressive federal income tax, government transfer payments have become less progressive.

After four years of getting the run-around, America needs a turnaround, and the man for the job is Governor Mitt Romney.

We have a plan for a stronger middle class with the goal of generating 12 million new jobs over the next four years.

We don't want to turn the safety net into a hammock that lulls able-bodied people into complacency and dependence.

We will not try to replace our founding principles we will reapply our founding principles.

Mr. Chairman delegates and fellow citizens: I am honored by the support of this convention for vice president of the United States. I accept the duty to help lead our nation out of a jobs crisis and back to prosperity - and I know we can do this.

When you take a look at the problems our country is facing debt is No. 1. The math is downright scary and the credit markets aren't going to keep on giving us cheap rates.

Obamacare comes to more than two thousand pages of rules mandates taxes fees and fines that have no place in a free country.

The people of Wisconsin have been good to me. I've tried to live up to their trust. And now I ask those hardworking men and women and millions like them across America to join our cause and get this country working again. When Governor Romney asked me to join the ticket I said 'Let's get this done' - and that is exactly what we're going to do.

My Dad a small-town lawyer was also named Paul. Until we lost him when I was 16 he was a gentle presence in my life. I like to think he'd be proud of me and my sister and brothers because I'm sure proud of him and of where I come from Janesville Wisconsin.

This is a government takeover of our healthcare system. It is the government basically running the entire healthcare system turning large insurers into de facto public utilities depriving people of choice depriving people of options raising people's prices raising taxes when we need new jobs.

What matters to me is that I do what I think is right and I see I'm a numbers guy that's my attitude. I know we have a debt tsunami coming we are bankrupting this country and I'm in a position where I can actually advance ideas to prevent that from happening. That's exactly what I should be doing.

To my great disappointment it appears that the politics of division are making a big comeback. Many Americans share my disappointment - especially those who were filled with great hope a few years ago when then-Senator Obama announced his candidacy in Springfield Illinois.

Throughout human history the American Idea has done more to help the poor than any other economic system ever designed.

We must promote upward mobility, starting with solutions that speak to our broken education system, broken immigration policy and broken safety-net programs that foster dependency, instead of helping people get back on their feet.

If we don't make tough decisions today our children are going to have to make much much tougher decisions tomorrow.

We are all representatives of the American people. We all do town hall meetings. We all talk to our constituents. And I've got to tell you the American people are engaged. And if you think they want a government takeover of health care I would respectfully submit you're not listening to them.

When I was waiting tables washing dishes or mowing lawns for money I never thought of myself as stuck in some station in life. I was on my own path my own journey an American journey where I could think for myself decide for myself define happiness for myself.

Mitt Romney and I know the difference between protecting a program and raiding it. Ladies and gentlemen our nation needs this debate. We want this debate. We will win this debate.

The rate of return on Social Security for people nearing retirement is about 1.5 percent. By the time young children like mine are ready to retire that rate of return will be a negative percentage.

I accept the calling of my generation to give our children the America that was given to us with opportunity for the young and security for the old - and I know that we are ready.

Millions of young Americans have graduated from college during the Obama presidency ready to use their gifts and get moving in life. Half of them can't find the work they studied for or any work at all. So here's the question: Without a change in leadership why would the next four years be any different from the last four years?

Hope and change? We're not doing that anymore. They're doing attack and blame. And so I just think people are going to see through this. They want real leadership. They want us to get this country on the right track.

This debt crisis coming to our country. The wall and tidal wave of debt that is befalling our nation. Medicare and Social Security go bankrupt within ten years we have a debt that is looming so high that in the last year of President Obama's budget just the interest payments on our debt is $916 billion dollars.

The perfection of our union especially our commitment to equality of opportunity has been a story of constant striving to live up to our Founding principles. This is what Abraham Lincoln meant when he said 'In giving freedom to the slave we assure freedom to the free - honorable alike in what we give and what we preserve.'

I learned a good deal about economics and about America from the author of the Reagan tax reforms - the great Jack Kemp. What gave Jack that incredible enthusiasm was his belief in the possibilities of free people in the power of free enterprise and strong communities to overcome poverty and despair. We need that same optimism right now.

Back in 2008 candidate Obama called a $10 trillion national debt 'unpatriotic' - serious talk from what looked to be a serious reformer. Yet by his own decisions President Obama has added more debt than any other president before him and more than all the troubled governments of Europe combined. One president one term $5 trillion in new debt.