Never has the political class or the mainstream media that covers them been more out of touch with the American people than they are today.

When I'm president of the United States, we're going to have a VA that cares more about our veterans than about the bureaucrats who work at the VA.

Americans believe in the value of immigration. We are the most generous nation on earth to immigrants, allowing over one million people a year to come here legally.

I am privileged to be a citizen of the single greatest society in all of human history.

I have never voted for a tax increase.

I know in the past Republicans have agreed to minimum-wage increases that there's built-in protections for small and midsize businesses.

Conservatives aren't anti-immigrant - conservatives are pro-legal immigration.

We need to repeal and replace Dodd-Frank. We need to make America fair again for all businesses, but especially those being run by small business owners.

You know who a complicated tax code kills? The guy or gal trying to start a business out of the spare bedroom of their home. So we've got to simplify our tax code.

We are not going to round up and deport 12 million people, but we're not going to hand out citizenship cards, either. There will be a process. We will see what the American people are willing to support. But it will not be unconstitutional executive orders like the ones Barack Obama has forced on us.

I think there are many in the Democratic Party that want immigration to be unsolved issue at least for the time being, because it's more useful as a campaign issue than it is as a solved issue.

A key part of your sovereignty is the ability to control the influx and outflow of your people and is the ability to secure your border.

Big government helps the people who have made it. It doesn't help the people who are trying to make it; it crushes the people who are trying to make it.

We have built a government so large and so expensive here in Washington that not even the richest economy in the history of mankind can afford it. That's how big it's gotten.

Of course there are critics who believe that no matter what we do, the Florida dream is over. They claim that we must accept the idea that inevitably our future is one of high taxes and big government.

Whether the earth was created in seven days or seven actual eras, I'm not sure we'll ever be able to answer that. It's one of the great mysteries.

A lot of bad things happen in lame duck sessions.

Some unifying principles bind all Christians: that God became a man and died for our sins, and that without that sacrifice, all of us would be doomed.

My parents were just as smart as I am, just as hard working if not harder; I think my father and grandfather were probably better men, yet I've been able to accomplish things professionally that they were not able to.

I traveled the state of Florida for two years campaigning. I have never met a job creator who told me that they were waiting for the next tax increase before they started growing their business. I've never met a single job creator who's ever said to me I can't wait until government raises taxes again so I can go out and create a job.

This is the greatest society in all of human history, the greatest country ever. Many of the decisions being made in Washington today by both parties are threatening that greatness. And if we stay on this road we're on right now, our children are going to be the first Americans ever to inherit a diminished country.

Our leaders have to stop ignoring the impact that culture is having on our nation.

At its core, conservatism is not an anti-government movement, and it's not a no-government movement.

The problem is that we are trying to prepare people for the new economy using a higher education system built for the old economy. As a result, many high-skilled, high-paying industries suffer from a shortage of labor, while too many low-paying industries suffer from a surplus.

No economic system is perfect. But the American Free Enterprise system has empowered millions of people in the past. I know, because I saw it with my own eyes.

Every single one of us is the descendant of a go-getter. Of dreamers and of believers.

God has blessed me with the opportunity to be an American son.

We focus so much on how immigrants can change America that we forget that America has always changed immigrants even more.

For most of my life, I've been in a hurry.

But since her earliest days, America has inspired people from all over the world. Inspired them with the hope that one day their own countries would be one like this one.

You know what the fastest growing religion in America is? Statism. The growing reliance on government.

If you're the cashier at Burger King, of course you make less than the manager or even the CEO. The issue is whether you're stuck being a cashier for the rest of your life.

Hope and Change has become Divide and Conquer.

But America was founded on the principle that every person has God-given rights. That power belongs to the people. That government exists to protect our rights and serve our interests. That we shouldn't be trapped in the circumstances of our birth. That we should be free to go as far as our talents and work can take us.

The vast majority of a significant portion of Americans of Hispanic descent will vote - happen to be working class people who are desperate to not only achieve the American dream but leave their kids better off than themselves.

If my house was on fire, I can't compromise about which part of the house I'm going to save. You save the whole house or it will all burn down. We either save this country or we do not.

This opportunity - to make it to the middle class or beyond no matter where you start out in life - it isn't bestowed on us from Washington. It comes from a vibrant free economy where people can risk their own money to open a business.

Just because you have opposition doesn't make you a great leader.

If you know the only way to lose your seat is to get out-conservatived in a primary, you'll never let anyone get to your right.

We should be the pro-legal immigration party. A party that has a positive platform and agenda on how we can create a legal immigration system that works for immigrants and works for America.

My job in the Senate is not just to give speeches and do interviews, it's to solve problems.

People forget how dominant Public Enemy became in the mid '80s. No one talks about how transformative they were. And then that led to the '90s and the sort of East Coast v. West Coast stuff, which is kinda when I came of age.

I am prepared to discuss the things that I believe we need to do not just to raise the debt limit. Raising the debt limit is the easiest thing. That's one vote away. The hard thing is to show the world we are serious about putting our spending in order so we can show people we'll able to pay our bills down the road.

The reason why I'm here today is to explain why I am running and what I will do if you give me the honor and the privilege of representing you in the United States Senate. Now I'm running for the United State Senate for a simple reason, and that is... I want to win a Nobel Peace prize.

America is the story of everyday people who did extraordinary things. A story woven deep into the fabric of our society.

I do not believe that we have to destroy our economy in order to protect our environment. And especially what these programs are asking us to pass that will do nothing to help the environment, but will be devastating for our economy.

I'm a big believer in family-based immigration.

I run for president because I believe that we can't just save the American dream; we can expand it to reach more people and change more lives than ever before.

Our people want jobs. They don't want a safety net as a way of life.

You cannot give up on the American dream. We cannot allow our fears and our disappointments to lead us into silence and into inaction.