Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush officially entered the 2016 presidential race Monday with a long-expected announcement, promising to get Washington "out of the business of causing problems."
"Our country is on a very bad course and the question is, 'What are we going to do about it?' The question for me is, 'What am I going to do about it?'" said Bush to a crowd at Miami Dade College in Miami, Fla., reported Time. "I've decided I'm a candidate for president of the United States of America."
The son and brother of former presidents filed his paperwork to run for president with the Federal Elections Commission early Monday.
During his speech, Bush, 62, focused on his experience as a two-term Florida governor. "I know we can fix this. Because I've done it," he said.
Bush served as governor of Florida from 1999 to 2007. He was born and raised in Texas, and moved to Florida in the early 1980s, where he was first elected to office in 1987, becoming the state's secretary of commerce.
Bush said his goal as president will be "4 percent growth, and the 19 million new jobs that come with it," pointing to his gubernatorial efforts that "made Florida number one in job creation and number one in small business creation.... I also used my veto power to protect our taxpayers from needless spending."
He continued: "Leaders have to think big, and we've got a tax code filled with small-time thinking and self-interested politics. What swarms of lobbyists have done, we can undo with a vastly simpler system—clearing out special favors for the few, reducing rates for all. What the IRS, EPA and entire bureaucracy have done with over-regulation, we can undo by act of Congress and order of the president. Federal regulation has gone far past the consent of the governed. It is time to start making rules for the rule makers."
As for foreign policy, Bush denounced the Obama administration for "leaving a legacy of crisis uncontained, violence unopposed, enemies unnamed, friends undefended, and alliances unraveling."
"This supposedly risk-averse administration is also running us straight in the direction of the greatest risk of all—military inferiority. It will go on automatically until a president steps in to rebuild our armed forces and take care of our troops and our veterans. They have my word—I will do it," said Bush.
He faces a crowded Republican field, with 10 contenders so far, but offered himself up as a counterpoint to a party that has struggled to connect with minority voters, an issue believed to have cost it the last two elections, according to the New York Times.
Bush took a veiled swipe at other GOP contenders by pledging to stay true to his principles, unlike some of his rivals, who have been criticized for changing their views to accommodate the party's conservative base. Two particular core beliefs Bush made clear he will remain committed to are his positions on immigration and education standards.
Further jabbing fellow Republicans, particularly Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, Bush said, "We are not going to clean up the mess in Washington by electing the people who either helped create it or have proved incapable of fixing it."
Over the past six months, Bush ran a de facto campaign, walking a fine line on campaign finance laws by raising tens of millions of dollars through outside spending groups, while all but officially announcing his campaign, reported AFP.
He plans to spend the next week campaigning in the early voting states of New Hampshire, Iowa, South Carolina and Nevada, according to NBC News.
