For Immediate Release
October 9, 2004
President's Radio Address
Record of Achievement Audio
THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. As your President, I have led this
country with principle and resolve. We have confronted historic
challenges and built a broad record of accomplishment. I have proposed
and delivered four rounds of tax relief, and our economy is creating
jobs again. We have added over 1.9 million jobs in the past 13 months,
more than Germany, Japan, Great Britain, Canada and France combined.
The unemployment rate is 5.4 percent, lower than the average rate of
the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.
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Thanks to our education reforms, math and
reading scores are increasing in public schools. We have strengthened
Medicare to help low-income seniors save money on their medicine. And
soon every senior will have the option of prescription drug coverage.
We have more to do. We will transform our systems of government to
fit a changing world and to help more people realize the American
Dream. We will expand health savings accounts and improve Social
Security to allow younger workers to own a piece of their retirement.
Because education is vital to our prosperity, we will raise
expectations in public schools and invest in community colleges.
And to make sure America is the best place in the world to do
business and create jobs, we will cut regulations, end junk lawsuits,
pass a sound energy policy and make tax relief permanent. Senator
Kerry takes a very different approach to our economy. He was named the
most liberal member of the United States Senate, and that's a title he
has earned. Over the past 20 years, Senator Kerry has voted to raise
taxes 98 times. He opposed all our tax relief, and voted instead to
squeeze an extra $2,000 in taxes from the average middle class family.
Now he's running on an agenda of higher taxes and higher spending and
more government control over American life. My opponent wants to
empower government. I want to use government to empower people.
Since September the 11th, 2001, I have led a global campaign to
protect the American people and bring our enemies to account. We have
tripled spending on homeland security and passed the Patriot Act to
help law enforcement and intelligence stop terrorists inside the United
States. We removed terror regimes in Afghanistan and Iraq, and now
both nations are on the path to democracy. We shut down a black-market
supplier of deadly weapons technology, and convinced Libya to give up
its weapons of mass destruction programs. And more than three-quarters
of al Qaeda's key members and associates have been detained or killed.
In the middle of a war, Senator Kerry is proposing policies and
doctrines that would weaken America and make the world more dangerous.
He's proposed the Kerry doctrine, which would paralyze America by
subjecting our national security decisions to a global test. He
supports the International Criminal Court, where unaccountable foreign
prosecutors could put American troops on trial in front of foreign
judges. And after voting to send our troops into combat in Afghanistan
and Iraq, he voted against the body armor and bullets they need to
win.
For all of Senator Kerry's shifting positions on Iraq, one thing is
clear: If my opponent had his way, Saddam Hussein would be sitting in
a palace today, not a prison, and Iraq would still be a danger to
America. As chief weapons inspector Charles Duelfer testified this
week, "Most senior members of the Saddam Hussein regime and scientists
assumed that the programs would begin in earnest when sanctions ended,
and sanctions were eroding." Instead, because our coalition acted,
Iraq is free, America is safer, and the world will be more peaceful for
our children and our grandchildren.
I will keep this nation on the offensive against terrorists, with
the goal of total victory. I will keep our economy moving, so every
worker has a good job, quality health care and a secure retirement.
Thank you for listening.
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