WASHINGTON, D.C., June 7, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Pro-life GOP presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty sent a blunt message to pro-abortion President Barack Obama on Friday, saying the president was ruining the United States and needed to leave.
“We’ve had enough of your broken promises or fluffy rhetoric,” said Pawlenty. “Lead the country or get out of the way.”*
The former Minnesota governor’s words were greeted with cheers by several hundred conservative activists gathered for the Faith and Freedom Coalition conference in Washington, D.C. The conference is the brainchild of Ralph Reed, leader of the former Christian Coalition; it seeks to unite people of faith and social and fiscal conservatives under a banner of “restoring America’s greatness and founding principles.”
Pawlenty, introduced to his audience as “unabashedly pro-life, and pro-family in leadership” as governor, said that making the United States great again requires some “common sense principles,” such as embracing faith in God, respect for life, and protecting the family.
“We need to be a nation that turns toward God, not away from God,” he told his audience.
Pawlenty cited the Minnesota state constitution, which includes in its preamble that its people are grateful to God for their rights and liberties.
Pawlenty also said that if conservatives are looking to restore a “quality of life” to citizens through economic uplift, they have to remember, “It’s really hard to have a quality of life if you don’t have a life.”
“So we need to stand as a conservative movement in respect for life; it’s foundational to our country.”
He added that after faith in God and the right to life, traditional marriage is the third principle on which restoring America’s greatness depends. Pawlenty observed that he authored Minnesota’s Defense of Marriage Act, and said that the defense of marriage is a national priority.
“We need to tell each other and the country that we need to keep traditional marriage elevated on a platform. All domestic relationships are not the same as traditional marriage. It needs to be protected,” he said.
He explained that marriage as the union of a man and a woman is “the cornerstone of our social fabric” in the United States, and that children need to have the opportunity to grow up with a mother and a father.
He also tackled pressing economic issues, saying that Obama’s “fluffy rhetoric” is neither filling Americans’ gas tanks nor paying their mortgages.
He predicted that the United States is facing an even bigger economic catastrophe in the years ahead if it does not deal with the federal government’s rate of borrowing, observing that there would be “$144 million more in debt within this next hour.”
“We are not just running out of money, we are running out of time,” said Pawlenty. “I’m afraid that if we don’t tell the truth we are going to lose our country.”
Pawlenty said that he wanted to start the discussion that painful cuts to government subsidies must come from every quarter in order to get the country on a financial track that will preserve a future for America’s children.
The GOP presidential candidate said that prosperity for the United States demands making that government budget within its means and stop borrowing trillions that future generations will have to pay off.
“You can’t do it as a family, you can’t do it as a business, and we can’t let the government do it either,” he said. “Just because we followed Greece into democracy, doesn’t mean we have to follow them into bankruptcy.”
*Correction: An earlier form of this article said that Pawlenty said Obama should “leave the country or get out of the way.” In fact, Pawlenty said Obama should “lead the country or get out of the way.