Tim Pawlenty Quotes

I have a message from the Tea Party, a message that is loud and clear and does not mince words. We've come to take our government back.

You know, when we get to a point in this country where dissent is extremism, we've turned, I think, a very dark page in our history. And I don't want us to go there. I encourage Americans and I'm - right now, to go to these town hall meetings, to - to talk to your Congressmen, the people that you elected.

Washington is horribly broken. We are encountering a day of reckoning and this movement, this Tea Party movement, is a message to Washington that we're unhappy and that we want things done differently.

It's time for an American comeback... where leaders in Washington listen to 'we the people.'

I am committed to working towards a more transparent, accountable, and ethical federal government worthy of the public's trust.

I ran for president in order to be able to try to change Washington D.C. from the inside. Our federal government is broken.

Today we must make a pact with each other to end this reckless conduct with the people's government.

What made me decide to run was the dire state of the economy and the non-leadership of President Obama. At that point in time, my campaign put a mustache on Obama as part of the national campaign drive.

If a huge number of people call for change, the government will have to react. If you want to avoid uprisings, or demonstrations, you need to respond to the people's desperate need for change.

Reforming is about curbing government power. It is a self-imposed revolution; it will require real sacrifice, and it will be painful.

The last four years under President Obama have been trying and troubling for this entire country. The tired big government policies of the past have failed us. We can't afford more disappointments. We need a new direction. We need a new president.

At the dawn of his administration, President Obama opined: 'A democracy requires accountability, and accountability requires transparency.' Magical rays of white-hot sunlight emanated from his media-manufactured halo. And then bureaucratically engineered darkness settled over the land.

I know how bad Albany is. I know it better than most. I understand why people are angry. I'm angry. The question is going to be, how do you change Albany, what is the plan for change, and then how do you actually get it done?

MoveOn loves government. It remains enamored of government spending as fuel for its liberal agenda; and anything that threatens to close that spigot in any degree is perceived as a dire threat - worthy of Chicken-Little warnings that the sky is going to fall.

People want a grounded government. They want a government that's going to be responsible to them.

In the sixties, for anybody to suggest that the government didn't have our best interests at heart and policemen sometimes killed people would have automatically made them a radical firebrand lefty. That's not the case anymore.

The federal government should only be providing services for emergencies. You and I, taxpayers, shouldn't be paying for cell phones so someone can have a social life. I just don't think it's appropriate.

We hope President Obama will now respect the will of the people, change course, and commit to making the changes they are demanding. To the extent he is willing to do this, we are ready to work with him.

The young in this country, and you fellows are young by my reckoning, have a right to be concerned about the course that our government, the Federal Government, is taking under President Bush.

As families and small businesses alike are tightening their belts to account for the worsening economy, they have every right to ask: 'Why isn't my government doing the same?'

So you know, I think that the federal government, the Democrats, and President Obama are selling a lot of hope and change, but no delivery of any of those promises.

I introduced the Transparency in Government Act, a multi-faceted transparency bill that would bring unprecedented access and accountability to the federal government.

You have educate the masses to exactly what their tax dollars are going to pay for. I think once people educate themselves and open up their minds to understand that on that really basic level, then you'll have some type of change in the way that Americans associate themselves and participate in their own political process.

I have kept a steady focus on restoring public faith in our state government since taking office July 1. Now it is time to make even bigger and bolder gains through legislative action.

During President George W. Bush's two terms, you couldn't drive far without seeing a particular bumper sticker: 'Dissent is the highest form of patriotism.'