Rep. Cantor's remarks at campaign breakfast at Richmond Convention Center

[Congressman Eric Cantor – Remarks for Annual Campaign Breakfast at the Greater Richmond Convention Center – Richmond, VA - March 5, 2010]

Good Morning.

Diana and I greatly appreciate your support for you being here this morning. And I’d like to thank you for the tremendous honor of serving as your voice in Washington.

In the brief time we have together this morning, I want to talk to you about the challenges before us as a country and the importance of the times we are in.

We are truly at a critical point of decision making in this country. We are at a crossroads. I know politicians say that often, but this one is real.

Deficits, spending, higher taxes, energy security, health care – all of these are important. But we have a greater challenge before us. It’s the challenge of our generation.

It’s about what kind of country we want to be. Either we become a country we hardly recognize or one that will fulfill the American ideal and continue to be the most secure, most prosperous, freest country in the history of the world.

That is the challenge of our time… the challenge for our generation.

To all of us, the America we know, started right here in Virginia. It’s about the colonist that came upon the shores of Jamestown, some 400 years ago, seeking economic riches and opportunity for themselves and their family.

America is about the waves of immigrants like my grandmother that have passed through Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor.

In my grandmother’s case, like many others, her family fled Eastern Europe and the Czars of Russia in search of a better life. She and my grandfather eloped and ended up here in Richmond.

The family opened up a grocery store, just a few blocks from where we sit in Jackson Ward.

Becoming a widow at a young age, my grandmother raised her two sons living on the second floor just above that grocery store.

She didn't have a lot of money, but she worked hard, day and night, believing in the promise this country had to offer. She wanted her two sons to have the better life that she came here for.

And through hard work and sacrifice, she succeeded, putting my father and his brother through college at Virginia Tech and eventually law school right here at the University of Richmond.

My Dad is the embodiment of that American dream. And from the beginning his mission was to provide a better life for his kids. And in this country, he was able to succeed. Because for him, as for most of us in America, there are no limits.

Just look at the American people. For the past thirty years, in good times and in bad, 600,000 businesses are started every year. That's about one new business per minute. Where else in the world can someone start a business in his garage and five years later be the biggest hit on Wall Street? Only in America.

Where else could people from humble beginnings like Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton or Barack Obama grow up to become President?

There's a reason why you don’t see people in America running to escape and climbing into boats seeking refuge in some other land. It's the same reason that Canada doesn't find the need to erect a border fence to keep out unwelcomed Americans ... because America is the place of hope and opportunity -- the only land where everything is still possible.

But when you look around, there’s a lot of fear and uncertainty sweeping across America. Many folks in Washington have reacted by trying to seize more control over the economy and our lives. The agenda they propose takes shape in the form of cap and trade, card check, excessive spending and the government takeover of the health care and auto industries.

They want to replace free markets with layers and layers of bureaucracy. Then want to tell you how to run your small business through misguided tax policy and unprecedented mandates and regulations.

Instead of doing everything we can to encourage job creators, they have proposed to hit them with higher tax. They stand ready to seize control of 17% of the US economy and call it Health Care Reform.

And, of course, all of their new programs are being paid for with a mountain of debt which they are passing on to our children and their children. The Democratic agenda in Washington is a systematic attempt to remake America into the image of Europe.

And this begs the questions: Why would anyone want to become like countries where the shear guts and drive to push big ideas is not rewarded? Why would we want to be like countries where no matter how smart you are, or how hard you work, there are limits?

In these countries, your destiny can be controlled by a small group of elites or a massive bureaucracy.

Ronald Reagan would have been 99 last month. He once said that the meaning of life is to plant a tree you will never sit under. The goal of our lives should be to be a part of something that will long outlive us - to establish a legacy which will benefit people we will never meet.

So, when historians look back upon this trying period for our nation, the question is: What will they write about us? Will they write of the decline of our people, the end of the American dream?

Or will they write about the most prosperous land in the history of the world – the nation that summoned the strength of its people to regenerate?

I think it will be the latter. That’s what motivates me. That’s what motivates you. That’s why we’re here. And that’s why the upcoming November election is so critical.

America must grow, invest and innovate our way out of this recession. When we retake the majority, we will focus on jobs and implement common sense solutions to get this economy going again. We will cut taxes and reduce burdensome regulations on small businesses so that the entrepreneurs of this country can begin creating jobs again.

Let’s face it, the greatness of America lies not in the redistribution of wealth, but in the creation of greater and greater wealth benefiting all.

Washington needs to realize that we don’t need more and bigger government. It needs a strong dose of good old fashion fiscal discipline!

Simply put, we have to stop borrowing and spending so much money! As government shrinks, the private sector will grow, creating droves of new jobs. Think of the biotech park right across the street and the growth engine it has been for our region, and think of the potential there that remains untapped.

Just this week, many of us attended the dedication of a new corporate headquarters of Mead Westvaco here in Richmond ... proof positive that when the private sector leads the way we can provide new jobs in a tough economic environment.

One hundred years from now, I believe they will write of a Virginia and an America in which the generations that follow have an opportunity to live a better life than we have. As we head into November, we have an opportunity to stop the recklessness in Washington and put America back on the path to prosperity.

But we have to step up and seize the moment. It is really up to us. We have to engage our neighbors and our friends to join us in this mission.

I look forward to joining with you in the struggle ahead to insure a better tomorrow. Thank you. God bless.