Full Transcript: Kevin I want to thank... I wanna thank you, as a, a brother in Christ, but as a guy who I really admire for the work that you've done - Susie thank you for letting him do that. I know it's, that is a - my pastor told me - he said, 'listen you're fixing to go do some stuff and you're going to need to - you're going to need a little extra work. Go read 'Proverbs'. I know you're an Aggie(?), but it's only 31 chapters, he said, you know he said you can kinda get your way through this pretty quick. But actually I was reading and in Proverbs 13:15 it says 'a merry heart has a cheerful countenance.' And man, you're it. I mean if there is someone I have met who has that merry heart, that loves what he does and the countenance of a cheerful man comes out, and it is Kevin Smith. Thank you brother for what you do.

Shannon and you - I can't stand here in front of this crowd and not love on you a little bit, and thank you for what you do and those of you who put this great evening together - all of you. And I'm with her - write your checks. Um, Gold is good. If you've got any in the backyard - 'cause you know if they print any more over in Washington the Gold is going to be good. And she will take it. She will take it.

So uh, anyway, the work of Cornerstone Action and Cornerstone Policy Research, that really is the reason I'm here tonight. And to be part of of the ? of the Family and the Granite State. And uh this is such a cool state - I mean come on? Live Free or Die? You've gotta love that. I come - I come from a state where they had this little place called the Alamo and they declared 'Victory or Death!' You know we're kinda into those slogans man, you know it's 'Live Free or Die!', 'Victory or Death!', bring it!

And you know I love talking about 'freedom.' In fact, you know someone asked me over the course of the last 90 days as we were going through this process of getting involved in this presidential campaign; 'in one word tell us what your campaign is all about' - and it's 'freedom', I said 'man it's about freedom'. That's what our campaign is all about. Talking about freedom. And I happen to believe that government exists to protect our rights and the guarantee of our freedom. And our founding fathers were some of the first in the world to think about that concept and to put it into words. And they declared that 'our rights were endowed by our creator'. And among those were 'life' - I love it that they start with that one - 'life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.' And you know while liberty may be this gift from God, it's preservation requires the sacrifice of man. And Americans want freedom from a Federal Government that is oppressive in its size and very intrusive into our lives - this week I announced a tax plan. We were up in - or down in I should say - South Carolina and we laid out a tax plan, basically to get Washington out of our wallets and put money back into our hands and let us decide how best to spend those dollars. And I called it - everybody's gotta have a slogan you know - mine's 'cut, balance and grow.' Get that, yea. Cut the size of this government, balance that budget, grow the economy, and uh... It's pretty simple actually, um. Or you can stay in the old system that's out there... And Senator - the ones that want to stay in the old system - pay the lawyers, pay the accountants, all that money that's going on, orrr - [reaches in pocket pulls out postcard] - that! 20% flat tax, put it on there, take your deductions off, send it in. Even Tim Geitner can get his taxes in on time with this, I'm telling ya. He can.

If you think about it we spend a half a trillion dollars a year in tax preparation. I mean, if there's any accountants or tax lawyers out there I'm sorry, but that's too much money. A half a trillion dollars. And my plan is really pretty simple. It does deductions for the mortgage, deductions for charitable - yea, keep that in there - and uh your state and local taxes are in there, you can put those on; $12,500 for whatever dependents you have and just pretty easy math, subtract it and send it in. It's awesome. Why not?! Why not get it simple?!

That's what we've done in my home state. I tell people, I say 'we have governed in the state of Texas over the last decade by putting some simple principles in to place. Number one is don't spend all the money. You know having fiscal responsibility, fiscal restraint. Have a tax system in place that doesn't put a burden on the job creators. A regulatory climate that doesn't put the strain on those job creators. A regulatory climate that's fair, that's predictable. A legal system that doesn't allow for over-suing.

You know I have a great respect for the New Hampshire model. When you think about it, no state income tax, no state sales tax. You do that 'right to work' thing and you are going somewhere, let me tell ya. You could put those big signs up... big neon signs on the border of this state that says 'Open for Business' and they will come; they will come.

Now, the good news is, that little plan that I just shared with you doesn't force the Granite State to expand your tax footprint, you know what I mean? Like 9% expansion. [smiles smugly]. I love Herman [Cain]. Is he the best? I love to have fun with him; he is a great... Thank you Herman for having paid for this event tonight.

But in addition you don't have to worry about paying taxes on your social security when you retire with this plan. Under my plan the death tax expires before you expire. And you can waive goodbye to the Capital Gains tax - as well as tax on dividends.

And on the Corporate side, I not only propose a cut in the rate, but ending the loopholes, the carve-outs, the special things that the gravy train of lobbyists and tax lawyers who have their snout in the trough in Washington, D.C. I want to level the playing field - level the playing field in an open marketplace, free of the special deals that come too often in Washington, D.C., and I want a tax code that protects and strengthens the families. We talked about things that I believe in - why as you were looking around and you saw someone who understands that - not only some issues here that I'm going to talk about as I wrap up - but it's so important for us to have policies that make our families strong, and there's nothing that impacts our families more than those economic decisions that get made in Washington, D.C. or in state capitals.

American families shouldn't have to toil more, because Washington refuses to spend less. When parents are forced to work an extra job or to work extra hours just to make the ends meet, they spend less time with their children. Tax policy in American shouldn't play a role in breaking apart American families. The most basic unit of governance is the family, and as a conservative I believe that government closest to the people, governs best. There should not be a single policy - not a single policy - coming out of Washington, D.C. that interferes with decisions that are best made by the family, not one.

I grew up on a farm. I grew up on a farm - I tell people - so far out in the country that everyone had their own TomCat. Some of you are not going to get that, but that is a long way away from any neighbors - 16 miles from the closest place that had a Post Office. A little place called ?. My mother and father were tenant farmers and we didn't have a lot in terms of material goods, but we were really rich, in spirit. There was an abundance of faith in my family and in my community. There was wonderful devotion to family and community and taking care of each other. We believe that we were blessed - we were blessed to live in the greatest country on the face of the Earth, and that we were fortunate to grow up where there was a strong sense of community and there was nothing - nothing that we couldn't achieve in the land of the free and the home of the brave.

This little school I grew up in - the mayor was called ? - it was very small, in fact the motto of the school was 'no dream too tall for a school so small.' [laughter] Yea, and by the way I graduated in the top 10 in my high school class. Was that on my resume? And some guy always busts me, 'well how many kids were in your graduating class?' 13.

But the fact is there are millions of Americans that were born into less ideal circumstances than I - there were people who were born into rank poverty, people who were born without a parent. But as a society, we have to stay in it for the principle that every life is worth living regardless of the circumstances. In American it's not where you're from, but where you're going that matters. And Americans - we must affirm daily the value of life - not just in our Declaration of Independence, but in the way we live our lives.

You know for some people - for some candidates - or election, the issue of life is a slogan for the campaign. It's how to get votes. For me it's an enduring principle. That innocent human life should be protected in all forms and in all stages of life. And that's why when you were doing your research and you were kind of running down that list of things of people that you wanted to bring here to speak, um - I have been consistently a pro-life legislator, a pro-life Governor. I have been engaged with pro-life policies such as -

- parental consent for minors seeking an abortion

- a ban on third-trimester abortion

- signing an informed consent law

- and I'm really proud to have fought for and signed a budget that defines Texas planned parenthood.

And I know ___ and ___ and Wieler have been up here, but again I want to take a moment to thank all of you and

Unfortunately this current administration has since provided one million dollars in Federal grant money to Planned Parenthood in direct conflict with this state's policy. And the bottom line is this - if you want to stop Washington's many violations of the 10th Amendment - especially when it comes to the most basic principle of protecting life, then we must make President Obama a one-term President. We must. Indeed we must.

As Conservatives, we believe in the sanctity of life. We believe in the sanctity of traditional marriage. And I applaud those legislators in New Hampshire who are working to defend marriage as an institution between one man, and one woman, realizing that children need to be raised in a loving home by a mother and a father.

Our obligation is not only to provide children with the best environment to nurture, but to insure that every child inherits a land full of opportunity. We must give our youngest generation the tool of self-sufficiency through jobs. See my economic message is based on the simple notion that government doesn't exist to guarantee outcomes, but instead to guarantee freedom. This happens when Washington gets out of the way of small businesses and entrepreneurs. My job plan not only reigns in that spending, it reigns in those job killing regulations. It was in Pembrooke, New Hampshire where I saw first hand those job killing regulations. During the first week of our roll-out we were at Epic Homes; the CEO there John ?; he had let go two-thirds of his work force because new construction is at a forty-year low in the Obama Administration. But instead of relieving the economic burden that employers like John face - you have your counter-part in the United States that is working on a bill that would make it worse for home builders. I mean under her scheme, Federal bureaucrats could take over the local building code enforcement in your city if so called 'green-mandates' are not complied with quickly enough. And this kind of aggressive regulation is just going to add to the cost of selling new homes, and I would say at the worst-possible time that you could be doing it. It is just simply bureaucratic over-kill. This has happened all over this country and Federal bureaucrats are doing all this bureaucratic rule making. Under my administration we're going to freeze all those regulations. We're going to pull those rules back - for the last 5-years we're going to pull those regulations back; test them to see if they do one of two things; are they actually beneficial or do they kill jobs, and if they kill jobs they'll be thrown out, it's that simple. The Federal government shouldn't stand in the way of good jobs for those 14 million americans that are out there longing to take care of their families. Some who are sitting around their kitchen table tonight and they're antagonized, they're full of angst about whether they're going to have the dignity of a job to take care of their family. There is a way to deal with this - a president who will stand up and say 'you know what? The idea that we're sitting on top of 300 years worth of energy in this country and we're not producing it is insanity. A President who will use the office with Executive Orders, with Executive Actions to open up Federal lands so that we can put people to work. Nothing I will - I look forward to the day when I can salute to the south to Mr. Chavez and say 'no thank you, we don't need any of your oil, we are doing it ourselves in America with domestic energy.' Or maybe I won't salute him.

Good jobs. Good jobs for the American economy. Why - why do we allow ourselves to be held hostage by countries that hate us when we have all of these energy resources - whether it is wind or solar or coal or nuclear or crude or natural gas? Other alternative energy sources. Why would we do that? Why would we jeopardize our children's future by creating a national debt that in the last three years we've spent almost as much as was created in America since we were founded.

My campaign is not about appealing to the Washington establishment, it's about appealing to Main Street. It's about looking people in the eye who are really afraid for the future of this country; they so want a President that they can have confidence in. A President that understands that the way that you build the economy in America is by trusting the entrepreneurs - that you allow the states to make their own decisions, whether it's about tax policy, whether it's about education policy, whether it's about environmental policy. I know the people of New Hampshire - you care more about your environment, your children's education than some bureaucratic in Washington, D.C. It is time to end the over-regulation, end the excessive litigation, end the bureaucratic intimidation that's going on and we need to get back to what we know works in America, and get this country working again. We've gotta cut the taxes and the spending, we gotta balance this Federal budget, we gotta grow our economy. We can unleash American ingenuity again for a new American Century, restore the hopes and the dreams of our people, renew our great promise and entrust the faith of this nation to the hands of the people, setting them free. And I'm for saying it loud and saying it proudly 'we are the land of the free; let's let America be America again and it will again be the land of the free'. God bless you and thank you all for coming and being with us tonight.