Over the last few decades, middle-class security had been slipping away for families who worked hard and played by the rules. Wages stagnated while costs soared. Fewer employers offered retirement and health benefits. College tuition costs skyrocketed. Then the Wall Street and housing market crashes cost 8.8 million jobs and sent the economy into a deep recession.

From day one, President Obama took immediate action to put Americans back to work, stopping the bleeding and reversing the trend. He also began laying the foundation for a real recovery that has strong roots and a job-creating economy that’s built to last.

We’re now at a make-or-break moment for the middle class. The President believes Americans should be able to earn enough to raise a family, send their kids to school, own a home and put enough away to retire. That can happen only when hard work pays off, responsibility is rewarded, and everybody plays by the same rules, does their fair share and has a fair shot at success.

President Obama is fighting for an economy that’s built to last and built from the middle out, not the top down. That’s why his plan invests in education, innovation, infrastructure and energy, and asks the wealthiest to pay their fair share again to help create American jobs and responsibly reduce the deficit in a balanced way.

We can’t afford to go back to the same failed policies that crashed our economy and devastated the middle class. We have to move forward.

We can't afford four more years of corporate rule in Washington. We must act now to build a just society in which every worker earns decent wages, every person has quality health care, Social Security is an unwavering commitment, college student debt is eliminated, and our children inherit a healthy environment.

Today nearly half of Americans are living in or near poverty. Wages are stagnant. Unemployment is devastating communities. And the super rich who collapsed the economy in 2008 are using the White House and Congress to enrich themselves at the expense of the rest of us. This is intolerable.

I stand for a Green New Deal that will create 25 million new jobs and end the nightmare of unemployment in America. I will bring debt relief to our college graduates. I will end the Wall Street bailouts and replace the "too big to fail" banks with public institutions. I will offer simple government mortgages to keep people facing foreclosure in their homes.

I will create green jobs to address pollution and climate change. And I will oppose trade agreements that destroy workers wages in America and move factories overseas.

Every vote cast for me and my running mate, Cheri Honkala, is a clear call for a new deal that replaces corporate corruption with the wise, caring, and accountable government we deserve. I urge you to learn about the Green New Deal and to join me at JillStein.org.

I'm running for president to get America back to work, protect our national security, and ensure our country remains the leader of the free world.

I’ve spent most of my life in the private sector, where I helped launch or rebuild more than 100 companies, including Staples, Bright Horizons, and The Sports Authority.

In 1999, the Winter Olympics were on the verge of collapse amid corruption allegations. I was asked to take over. I revamped the organization’s leadership, trimmed the budget, and restored public confidence. In the end, we staged one of the most successful games of all time.

As Governor of Massachusetts, I cut taxes 19 times while balancing the budget four years in a row. I cut red tape for small businesses, signed into law job-creating incentives, and fought to bring businesses to the state. By the end of my term, the state had amassed a $2 billion rainy-day fund.

As president, and with Paul Ryan as vice president, we’ll repeal the national healthcare law, get rid of job-killing regulations, open markets for American exports, and unlock America’s energy resources. We’ll reduce taxes and bring an end to runaway spending and borrowing in Washington. We’ll make the federal government simpler, smaller, and smarter. We’ll reverse defense cuts of the past three plus years, rebuild our military, and ensure that this century will be another American Century. Together we can create an Opportunity Society where hard work, education, and risk-taking allow people to achieve their dreams.

I believe:

We’re one nation under God.

The first sworn duty of every officer of government, at every level, in every branch, is to protect the God-given, unalienable rights to life, liberty, and private property of every person within their jurisdiction, from creation to natural death.

The God-given institution of one man-one woman marriage and the natural family must be protected.

The Right of the people to Keep and Bear Arms shall not be infringed.

Our national sovereignty, security, and borders must be defended.

Our republican form of representative self-government must be adhered to.

The oath of office to support and defend the Constitution of the United States must be fulfilled.

It is time for We the People to take our government back from those who are driving our once-free constitutional republic to destruction and bankruptcy. We must start now, for the sake of our children and grandchildren, who are being robbed of their God-given, unalienable right to government by consent by this generation’s creation of debts that we ourselves cannot possibly repay.

This is why I am asking you for your vote, so that together, for the sake of our posterity, we may take a giant step toward the restoration of moral, constitutional government of the people, by the people, and for the people.

Thank you, and may God save California, and America.

After having built a successful business, I entered public service by asking the people of New Mexico to give me an opportunity to bring common sense leadership to the Office of Governor. I pledged to reduce taxes, reduce the size of state government, and get government out of the way of job creation, individual freedom, and innovation. I was elected, and reelected to a second term. The size of state government was, in fact, reduced, tens of thousands of private sector jobs were created, and the state moved from operating in the red to having a billion dollar surplus.

During my eight years as Governor, taxes were reduced 14 times, and never raised. I vetoed approximately 750 bills passed by the state legislature, in keeping with my determination to reduce the size and cost of state government. When I left office, being term limited, New Mexico had a budget surplus and private sector job creation had increased substantially.

I am seeking the Office of President of the United States because the nation desperately needs that same kind of leadership today. Good government is easy when politics are put aside and common sense applied. I pledge to submit a balanced budget to Congress in 2013, to veto, as I did in New Mexico, any legislation that will result in deficit spending, and to create an environment of regulatory certainty that will allow the private sector to put Americans to work and let free people live their lives without fear of unnecessary government interference.

I am running for President because the so-called “two-party system” in this country prevents our government from representing the people and allows it to represent big money instead. I stand for the rights and interests of working people over the narrow interest of private profit.

Most people in this country believe that everyone should have access to health care and education. Access should not be decided by the profit of insurance companies and other private institutions. But the politicians in our government currently serve their donors instead of voters. I want people to vote outside the box that perpetuates wars, gives our public funds to the banks, and destroys our economy and environment. Say NO to wholesale theft and YES to a government for the people.

We have to start building alternatives now instead of submitting, time after time, to the threat of a “greater evil.” Remember that both evils have been doing the same evils once in office.

Through my TV show, I reached ordinary people with messages of empowerment and resistance through fun and humor. As a candidate, I am again reaching people to ask them to vote outside the dominant parties and start building alternatives that represent the people. The Peace & Freedom Party has been one of those alternatives for 45 years. Vote for me and support a new wave of politics beyond the tired old game.

Socialism – it’s not just for Wall Street, military contractors, or Congress anymore, but all Americans!