We passed massive tax cuts to bring back jobs and factories home from other countries. We've cut a record number of job-killing regulation. We ended the war on American energy. And the United States is now the number-one producer of oil and natural gas anywhere in the world, by far.

This is one of the most important days, in my opinion, in American history. It's our declaration of economic independence.

It's time to shake the rust off America's foreign policy.

If our history teaches us anything, it is this lesson: so far as the economic potential of our nation is concerned, the believers in the future of America have always been the realists. I count myself as one of this company.

As with our military potential, our economic assets are more than equal to the task. Our independent farmers produce an abundance of food and fibre. Our free workers are versatile, intelligent, and hardworking. Our businessmen are imaginative and resourceful. The productivity, the adaptability of the American economy is the solid foundation-stone of our security structure.

To dole out relief in this way is to administer a narcotic, a subtle destroyer of the human spirit. It is inimical to the dictates of sound policy. It is in violation of the traditions of America.