“I think the success of a Presidency should be measured by how many fewer people need food stamps, how many fewer need disability, not how many more people are added to the rolls. I don’t want to take food stamps away from Americans in need. I want fewer Americans to need food stamps.

“Sometimes I wonder if President Obama shares that view. He and his economists keep saying that food stamps and unemployment benefits are a form of ‘stimulus.’ Well, we’ve sure had a lot of that kind of stimulus, and all we have to show for it are more people on food stamps and more people on welfare and more people looking for work. I think a real stimulus is a job, and I intend to help Americans create more of them.

“You’ve probably also heard some people—some even in my own party—divide Americans between ‘makers’ and ‘takers.’ As if half the country wants to live off the other half. I’ve never believed that. That’s no different from the kind of divisive politics that the President practices when he pits the wealthy against everyone else.

“We want a society in which one person’s success lifts everyone else. The job of government is to create the incentives and opportunity so everyone can become a maker. But too often government wants to take more from Americans so it can make more Americans dependent on government. That’s when we lose our way, and too many Americans lose hope that they can work and prosper.