We need to focus our energies there, not these broad, blanket, kind of statements that will make it harder for us to deal with ISIS. We need to deal with ISIS in the caliphate. We need a strategy to destroy ISIS there. You can't do that without the cooperation of the Muslim world because they're as threatened as we are.
— Jeb Bush
We should have a path to legal status for the 12 million people that are here illegally. It means, come out from the shadows, pay a fine, earn legal status by working, by paying taxes, learning English. Not committing crimes and earn legal status where you're not cutting in front of the line for people that are patiently waiting outside.
Our economy grew at double the rate of the nation. We created 1.3 million jobs. We led the nation seven out of those eight years. We were only one of two states that went to AAA bond rating. I cut taxes, $19 billion. If you do that and apply conservative principles the right way, you create an environment where everybody rises up.
We've created rules and taxes on top of every aspiration of people, and the net result is we're not growing fast, income is not growing.
Barack Obama became president, and he abandoned Iraq. He left, and when he left Al Qaida was done for. ISIS was created because of the void that we left, and that void now exists as a caliphate the size of Indiana.
I am my own man. I governed as a conservative, and I govern effectively. And the net effect was, during my eight years, 1.3 million jobs were created. We left the state better off because I applied conservative principles in a purple state the right way, and people rose up.
There is no other country that has the Cuban Adjustment Act; that's why it's called the Cuban Adjustment Act and not the Nicaraguan Adjustment Act.
Immigration is as much about the American experience and the values we share, and a lot more about economics than it is about politics.
Imagine Texas as a blue state: how hard it would be to carry the presidency or gain control of the Senate.
Our children can achieve great things when we set high expectations for them.
There are cultural reasons, economic competitiveness reasons. There are a lot of reasons why people are in poverty. The difference today is that increasingly they are in perpetual poverty.
If I decide to run for office again, it will be based on what I believe, and it will be based on my record. And that record was one of solving problems completely from a conservative prospective.
Public education must be viewed from the lens of providing each child with the learning environment that best meets his or her needs. If we can send a low-income child to a parochial school, knowing that his odds of attending college will increase as a result, then that should be our mission.
I'm a conservative - a practicing one. I'm not a talk-about-it one.
If I can help create an environment where the principles that I believe in can be implemented - to me, that's fulfilling.
Leaders lead. They don't divide; they don't create a climate that is poisonous.
I acted on my core beliefs on social issues as governor.
I have a proven record, a record of accomplishment, a record of cutting taxes, of shrinking the government, of reforming education, of challenging the status quo, eliminating career civil service protections, shrinking the government workforce by 11 percent, but leading the nation in job growth.
I released 34 years of tax returns and 300,000 e-mails in my government record. To get the information from Hillary Clinton, you need to get a subpoena from the FBI.
My record as a pro-life governor is not in dispute. I am completely pro-life, and I believe that we should have a culture of life. It's informed by my faith from beginning to end. And this not just as it related to unborn babies - I did it at the end of life issues as well. This is something that goes way beyond politics.
If we are going to compete in this world we're in today, there is no possible way we can do it with lowering expectations and dumbing down everything. Children are going to suffer, and families' hearts are going to be broken that their kids won't be able to get a job in the 21st Century.
There should be a path to earned legal status for those that are here. Not - not amnesty - earned legal status, which means you pay a fine and do many things over an extended period of time.
Treating people fairly and with civility is not a bad thing... It would be good for our country if political leaders actually took that to heart.
Life teaches you that you need to make decisions in the right time - not too early, not too late.
The GOP should be the GSP: the Grand Solutions Party. It should be about solutions, not talking points.
States are free to modify the Common Core State Standards or adopt their own individual standards, because academic standards are the prerogative of the states.
Low standards are a tactic that takes pressure off teachers' unions by accepting mediocrity and failure for kids.
If we don't empower families to be able to have a quality education, then their children - for the first time in American history, truly the first time - will not have the same economic opportunities.
I support high academic standards. Period.
We need to end the government monopoly in education by transferring power from bureaucracies and unions to families. The era of defining public education as allegiance to centralized school districts must end.
Immigrants create an engine of economic prosperity.
I want my voice to have purpose.
I think it was hard at first for my dad to transition to being immobile.
I think life is precious from beginning to end.
And we should be a welcoming nation. Our identity is not based on race or ethnicity, it's based on a set of shared values. That's American citizenship.
Look, I am in the establishment because my dad, the greatest man alive was president of the United States and my brother, who I adore as well as fantastic brother was president. Fine, I'll take it. I guess I'm part of the establishment Barbara Bush is my mom. I'll take that, too.
A four percent growth strategy means you fix a convoluted tax code. You get in and you change every aspect of regulations that are job killers. You get rid of Obamacare and replace it with something that doesn't suppress wages and kill jobs.
We had rising student achievement across the board because high standards, robust accountability, ending social promotion in third grade, real school choice across the board, challenging the teachers union and beating them is the way to go.
I believe that the great majority of people coming here illegally have no other option. They want to provide for their family. But we need to control our border.
There's a whole lot of America that looks at each other and says, 'Well, there's 340 million people living in America. Isn't there somebody other than a Bush or a Clinton who can be president in these modern times?'
Everything's viewed with a political lens in Washington, and that's just the nature of the beast, and it is what it is.
My wife is not a public person. She is uncomfortable with the limelight, which is why I love her. I don't want a political wife - I want someone who, when I get home, I can have a normal life with.
The Common Core State Standards are more rigorous standards than the great majority of states had in place previously.
I'm getting nervous to be called a centrist. Breaking out in a rash.
I get tired of hearing people, well-meaning people, talking about African-American kids or Hispanic kids as if they're all the same. Which isn't true. There is a very diverse group of people in both groups in terms of income, objectives in life, aspirations, cultural wants, habits, all the things that make us unique Americans.
I envision presenting parents with a marketplace of school choices - public, private, parochial, charter, virtual, blended, and home education. They then can choose the model that best equips their children for success.
It's hard to be a son of a candidate. It's hard to be a brother of a candidate. I think it may be the hardest thing to be the dad of the candidate.
Immigrants are more fertile.
There's a lot of obsession about people's personal ambitions.
I think my dad's post-presidency, he didn't miss a beat. He didn't get into any kind of 'Woe is me.' He dusted himself off and led an incredible life since 1993.
