Mitt Romney's Inauguration Speech

My fellow citizens: I am honored that you have chosen to elect me as the 45th president of this great country. I will strive to live up to the example set by my predecessors and to serve with wisdom and compassion.

Thank you, President Obama, for your leadership in the past four years, and for your help in this period of transition. I value your counsel. 

On this day, I accept the responsibility of leading this country for four years, and to do that, I will draw inspiration from the fact that I am an American. As Americans, we are a proud people. As Americans, we can do anything. We have freed the world from tyranny, visited the moon, and created prosperity for untold millions. We are a force for good, a wellspring of ideas, and an engine of growth and progress. 

Looking back on all that we have done, I can see all that we have yet to do. It is a big list. At home, we must repair our economy, invest in our future, and create jobs for all of our citizens, especially the middle class, which as been badly hurt. Abroad, we must reaffirm our friendships and renew our commitment to resisting the tyranny of our enemies.

I am confident that we will do these things and more. We are Americans, and we can do anything. 

The secret of our success is our enterprising spirit. The founders of America wanted a country where someone could succeed with nothing but an appetite for work and an eye for innovation. This is the American dream, and I want to tap its unlimited power.

I am thankful that I have been able to participate in the American dream. In the campaign, it was said that I worked in business, and that is true. But most of all, I worked as a private citizen. I participate in and benefitted from the dynamism that makes America a wonderful place to live and work.

I have a plan to tackle our list of problems and I can't wait to get started.

From the moment I step into the oval office, I plan to tap unlimited power of the American dream. That means getting the government out of the lives of ordinary people so that they can build and create. That means reducing the burden that the government puts on an economy, so that it can grow.

First, we will act to put America on track to a balanced budget by eliminating unnecessary programs, by sending programs back to states where they can be managed with less abuse and less cost, and by shrinking the bureaucracy of Washington. We will work to reform our entitlement programs to make sure that we help those who need help without taxing the life out of the economy.

Second, we will grow jobs by making America the best possible place for job creators, for entrepreneurs, for small business, for innovators, for manufacturers. This we will do by updating and reshaping regulations to encourage growth, by lowering tax rates while lowering deductions and closing loopholes, and by making it clear from day one that unlike the current administration, we actually like business and the jobs business creates. 

Third, as we create more opportunity, we also will make sure that our citizens have the skills to succeed. Training programs will be shaped by the states where people live, and schools will put the interests of our kids, their parents, and their teachers above the interests of the teachers’ unions.

We face big challenges. But we also have big opportunities. New doors are open for us to sell our ideas and our products to the entire world. New technologies offer the promise of unbounded information and limitless innovation. New ideas are changing lives and hearts in diverse nations and among diverse peoples. If we seize the moment and rise to the occasion, the century ahead will be an American Century.

As president of the United States, I will work with all my energy and soul to restore that America, to lift our eyes to a better future. That future is our destiny. That future is out there. It is waiting for us. Our children deserve it, our nation depends upon it, the peace and freedom of the world require it. And with your help we will deliver it. Let us begin that future together tonight. 

God bless you all and God bless America.