Romney: "Obama has failed America"

Former Massachusetts Gov Mitt Romney will make his 2012 presidential run official on Thursday, saying President Obama has "failed America."

Fox News has obtained excerpts of Romney's speech, which will be delivered in the leadoff presidential primary state of New Hampshire."In the third year of his four-year term, we have more than promises and slogans to go by. Barack Obama has failed America," Romney will say.

With a career as a successful businessman before holding public office, Romney will stress economic issues.

"Government under President Obama has grown to consume almost 40 percent of our economy. We are only inches away from ceasing to be a free market economy. I will cap federal spending at 20 percent or less of the GDP and finally, finally balance the budget."

New Hampshire Democrats wasted no time attacking Romney, issuing a statement hours before the announcement.

"Since Mitt Romney bowed out of the Republican Primary in 2008, he and his handlers have been meticulously planning today's announcement - banking on a 2012 New Hampshire primary victory to slingshot him to the nomination," New Hampshire Democratic Party Chairman Ray Buckley said in a statement. "However, the problem for Mitt Romney is that the reason Granite Staters rejected him three years ago remains the same today: they believe he is a wishy-washy, flip-flopping politician who will say anything or take any position to suit his own immediate political needs."

The fact that Romney chose the Granite State to launch his White House run is no coincidence.

The 2008 presidential candidate owns a home in New Hampshire, and has spent considerable time and money courting Republicans in the crucial state over the past couple of years, while barely stepping foot in the other early states of Iowa and South Carolina.

The Romney announcement speech excerpts provided to Fox News:

"A few years ago, Americans did something that was, actually, very much the sort of thing Americans like to do: We gave someone new a chance to lead; someone we hadn't known for very long, who didn't have much of a record but promised to lead us to a better place. At the time, we didn't know what sort of a President he would make. It was a moment of crisis for our economy, and when Barack Obama came to office, we wished him well and hoped for the best. Now, in the third year of his four-year term, we have more than promises and slogans to go by. Barack Obama has failed America.

I visited with a family, Kathy and Dave Tyler, who live in a suburb north of Las Vegas, Nevada. You probably know families just like them. They're in their early forties, a couple who had worked hard, sacrificed to buy a home in a good neighborhood, the sort of place they wanted their daughter Allie to grow up. But now that neighborhood is being crushed by this Obama economy. First their neighbors started losing their jobs...and then their homes. And all around them now are abandoned houses... and abandoned dreams.

When the Tyler's wake up in the morning and get Allie off to school and then go to work and do everything they can to make it to the end of the month and hold their lives together, it doesn't matter if they are Republican or Democrat, Independent or...Libertarian. They're just Americans. An American family. And across the richest, greatest country on earth, there are millions of American families like the Tyler's. Folks who grew up believing that if they played by the rules, worked hard, that they would have the chance to build a good life, with steady work and always that possibility to work a little harder and get ahead.

Government under President Obama has grown to consume almost 40 percent of our economy. We are only inches away from ceasing to be a free market economy. I will cap federal spending at 20 percent or less of the GDP and finally, finally balance the budget. My generation will pass the torch to the next generation, not a bill. I will insist that Washington learns to respect the constitution, including the 10th amendment. We will return responsibility and authority to the states for dozens of government programs - and that begins with a complete repeal of Obamacare. From my first day in office my number one job will be to see that America once again is number in job creation."