For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
October 11, 2004
President's Remarks at Coors for Senate Luncheon
Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum
Denver, Colorado
12:24 P.M. MDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all for coming. (Applause.) Thank you
all for being here. I appreciate you coming. Nice to be back in
Colorado. I've spent some quality time here in the past. I'm here
asking for the vote. I'm here also asking -- (applause.) I'm here to
say as clearly as I can say it, the right man for the United States
Senate from the state of Colorado is Pete Coors. (Applause.)
And I want to thank you all for being here to help him. I like his
judgment; I like his experience; I like his values; I like the fact
that he is -- will bring some common sense to the halls of the United
States Senate. (Applause.) Oh, I might not get him to vote every way
-- every time the way I want him to -- (laughter) -- he's kind of an
independent fellow. (Laughter.) But I know I'll be able to count him
on the big issues. (Applause.)
Laura sends her best. (Applause.) We spent the evening in
Crawford, which is a long way away from Washington, D.C. (Laughter.)
And she is -- she's resting up today and she's going to take to the
road tomorrow. She is a fabulous First Lady. I love her dearly.
(Applause.) You know, when I met her she was a public school
librarian. And she said, fine, I'll marry you -- after I asked her, of
course -- and she said, just so long as I never have to give any
speeches. (Laughter.) I said, you got a deal. (Laughter.)
Fortunately, she didn't hold me to that deal. She's speaking a lot,
and the American people know her as a compassionate, warm, great First
Lady. (Applause.)
And I'm proud of my running mate, proud of Dick Cheney. I like to
tell people, when he was debating John Edwards it was clear he didn't
have the waviest hair on the platform. (Laughter.) But I didn't pick
him for his hair. (Laughter.) I picked him because he's a man of
great judgment, excellent experience, and he's doing a really good job
as our Vice President. (Applause.)
And I appreciate Marilyn Coors for putting up with the race for the
Senate. (Applause.) It's not easy when you're out there campaigning
every day, but it's worthwhile, believe me. Public service, done the
right way, is necessary for a good country. So thanks for doing what
you're doing. It's good to see your mom, Pete. You and I share a
strong-willed mother. (Laughter.) Pete's going to take the place of a
good man in Ben Nighthorse Campbell. I like him, he's a good fellow --
a good solid citizen. (Applause.) And he'll service side-by-side with
another good man, in Wayne Allard. (Applause.)
I appreciate your Governor. Bill Owens is doing a fine job.
(Applause.) And Frances is one of our all-time favorites. Great to
see you, Frances. (Applause.) Thank you for being here. I appreciate
the fact that Congressman Joel Hefley is here, along with his wife,
Lynn. Thanks for coming. (Applause.) That would be State
Representative Lynn Hefley. (Applause.) Just don't challenge him in
the primary sometime. (Laughter.) Yes, that's right.
Tom Tancredo and Jackie are with us. Thanks, Tom and Jackie,
thanks for coming. (Applause.) Beauprez is here somewhere. Oh, there
he is, yes. (Applause.) And Claudia. Thank you all for coming. It's
good to see you all. I appreciate you're here. Finally got out of
town, didn't you? (Laughter.)
I want to thank all the state leaders who are here. I want to
thank Bruce Benson, the campaign chairman, for -- (applause) -- for
Pete. I wish Greg Walcher all the best in his race for the 3rd
District of Colorado. (Applause.)
Listen, thank you all for coming. I'm going to give a speech a
little later on this evening, so I don't want to get too repetitive.
But it's really time to start ginning up these voter turnout
organizations. It's time to make sure that people understand we have
an obligation in our society to vote. And I want to thank you all for
helping to turn out that vote. It matters whether or not people show
up to the polls. I mean, it -- and I'm confident in this state we'll
carry Colorado again. (Applause.)
I'm heading toward our final debate. I enjoy the debates. It's an
interesting experience. (Laughter.) It gives a chance to share ideas
and talk about the big differences. And there are big differences. He
-- he's a fellow that I think had some credibility problems in the
debates. He said with a straight face that he'd only had one position
on Iraq. (Laughter.) I could barely contain myself. (Laughter.)
AUDIENCE MEMBER: We noticed. (Laughter.)
THE PRESIDENT: You might remember in the spring of 2003 as I
ordered troops into harm's way, he said it was the right decision.
Then when the political heat gets on, he says it was the wrong war. He
can run from his positions, but he cannot hide. (Applause.) He said
with another straight face that when it comes to health care plan --
and I quote -- "the government has nothing to do with it."
Unbelievable statement. The facts are that eight out of 10 people who
get health care under Senator Kerry's plan would be placed on a
government program. He can run from his position, but he cannot hide.
(Applause.)
And then he said -- and then they asked him to look in the camera
and he promised not to raise taxes for anyone who earns less than
$200,000. The problem is to keep that promise he'd have to break
almost all his other ones. (Laughter.)
I'm looking forward to talking about taxes in this campaign. He's
going to raise your taxes, pure and simple. Raising your taxes would
be bad policy for our economy, bad policy as this economy is beginning
to grow. He can run, but he cannot hide. (Applause.) That's why
these debates are important. You know, after listening to all his
complaints and his dour pessimism, it took all I could do not to make a
face. (Laughter.) Yes. No, I'm looking forward to it. We have a
different philosophy, different way of looking at things. And one
reason I'm hopeful that Pete wins -- and I believe he will -- is that
we've got to put policies in place that keep the economy growing.
You know, when you're out there gathering up the vote, remind
people of what we've been through. This economy has been through a
lot. Six months prior to our arrival, the stock market was in serious
decline. And then we had a recession; and then we had corporate
scandals; and then we got attacked. And that attack on America cost us
one million jobs in the three months after September the 11th. We
faced some serious obstacles. But because we acted, because we cut the
taxes on the people, the recession was one of the shortest in American
history. And our economy is growing and it's getting stronger. And
the fundamental question -- (applause.) And the fundamental question
is, how do we keep it growing. It really is the issue, isn't it?
I think the best way to keep the economy growing is to make sure
America is the best place in the world to do business. That means less
regulations. That means less lawsuits. That means an energy plan that
encourages conservation, spends money on renewables and uses
technology, but it's an energy plan, as well, that recognizes we can
explore for natural gas in environmentally friendly ways. It's a plan
that says, in order to keep jobs here, we got to be less dependent on
foreign sources of energy. (Applause.)
I think trade is an issue in this campaign. I tell the American
people we've opened up our markets to foreign products, which is good
for the consumers. If you got more products to choose from, you're
likely to get that which you want at a better price and higher
quality. That's how the marketplace works. So rather than shutting
down our market and falling prey to economic isolationism -- which I
believe will hurt jobs -- I've got a different strategy, which is to go
to places like China and say, you treat us the way we treat you. You
open up your markets. And we're doing that all around the world.
(Applause.)
I believe Pete understands all this. I know he knows how to --
that the role of government is not to create wealth, but an environment
in which the entrepreneurial spirit flourishes. And the best way to do
that is keep taxes low, regulations down, and do something about these
trial lawyers that are running all over the business -- (applause.) I
don't think you can be pro- entrepreneur, pro-doctor and pro-trial
lawyer at the same time. (Laughter.) I think you have to choose. My
opponent made his choice, and he put a trial lawyer on the ticket. I
made my choice. I'm for legal reforms. (Applause.)
A more hopeful society is one in which we educate our people. It
starts with making sure the youngsters can read, write, and add and
subtract. I look forward to defending the No Child Left Behind Act.
At the heart of the No Child Left Behind Act is my fervent belief that
every child can learn in America. (Applause.) Think about a system
where the expectations are so low that all they do is shuffle kids
through, grade after grade, year after year, without teaching the
basics. That's not good enough for this country.
See, when you hear me say, we're going to challenge the soft
bigotry of low expectations, what I'm saying is, is at the heart of my
education reforms is the belief that everybody can learn and we should
expect everybody to learn. It's easy to quit on certain kids in
American schools. You go into inner-city America and it's easy to take
a classroom full of the hard-to-educate and just move them through. Or
somebody's parent doesn't speak English as a first language. That's
not the America I know. The America I know believes every child can
learn.
And that's why we now have got, in return for increased federal
spending, a system that says, why don't you measure early to determine
whether or not a child can read, and if not, we'll correct the problems
before it's too late. And we're closing an achievement gap in America,
and I need Pete Coors up there to make sure we don't go back to the old
days of mediocrity. (Applause.)
No, there's a lot more we can do. On health care -- we'll have
intermediate programs for at-risk kids in high schools and emphasize
math and science, keep raising the bar, expand Pell grants for low- and
middle-income families, to make sure more of our kids are able to start
their careers with a college diploma. I'm a big believer in community
colleges, to be able to use the community college system to be able to
train workers for the jobs which actually exist. I mean, if we want to
be competitive in the 21st century, we've got to be right about
education. And this administration has got us headed in the right
direction, and we're not going to go backwards. (Applause.)
Health care is an issue. Health care is a big issue in the
country. I like to tell people I went up there to solve problems and
not just shuffle them on to other Presidents. And so I took on the
Medicare issue. It was called "Mediscare" for a long period of time.
You talked about it and you got whipped at the polls. But that's not
my style. My style is to take on issues head on. And Medicare wasn't
meeting the obligations to our seniors, it just wasn't. Medicine was
being modernized and Medicare was stuck.
Let me give you an example -- and I'll continue to cite these kind
of examples in our forums. (Laughter.) We would pay thousands of
dollars for a heart surgery in Medicare, but not a single dime for the
prescription drugs that could prevent the heart surgery from being
needed in the first place. That did not make any sense for our
seniors. It certainly didn't make any sense for our tax payers. So we
worked with Congress and we've now strengthened and modernized
Medicare. Seniors will get prescription drug coverage in the year
2006, and the health care for our seniors will vastly improve.
(Applause.)
But inherent in the new Medicare reform is my basic belief that our
seniors, as well as all people in America, ought to have more choices
when it comes to health care. One of the key reforms was to make sure
that seniors were able to choose different plans to be able to meet
their needs. And that's the fundamental difference between me and my
opponent. I told you he said the other day with a straight face the
government doesn't have anything to do with his health care. That's
wrong. He's going to expand Medicaid. That's a government program.
My fundamental -- my health care plan addresses the fundamentals, which
is availability and affordability.
Now, look, we need to take care of the poor in America, and that's
why I'm for expansion of community health centers, so the poor and the
indigent can get good preventative care, good primary care in places
other than emergency rooms in the hospitals. (Applause.) And I
believe we ought to make sure our children -- low-income children's
health care programs are fully subscribed to. These are common-sense
ways to take care of people who cannot help themselves.
But when it comes to overall health care, it's a vital mistake to
increase the role of the federal government. That's why I'm for
association health plans, to allow small businesses to pool together so
they can buy insurance at the same discounts big businesses can. I'm
for expanding health savings accounts which enable workers and small
businesses to pay low premium -- buy low-premium catastrophic plans,
and at the same time, set aside money on a tax-free basis. Many of the
young in America are uninsured because they can't find insurance that
fits their needs. A health savings account will allow a young worker
to be able to design his or -- own health care program that he or she
can save money, tax-free and take from job to job. (Applause.)
And finally, in order to make sure that health care works, we got
to do something about the lawsuits. I'm telling you, these lawsuits
are driving good docs out of business and driving up the cost of health
care. (Applause.) It's a big issue. It is a big issue. And it's one
that resonates. And my opponent got up there and said he's for it. My
only question is, why didn't you vote for it when it was on the floor
of the United States Senate? (Applause.) He's trying to run, but
we're not going to let him hide. (Laughter.)
I think value is an important part of this campaign -- values for
the presidency, as well as values for the Senate race. You know, in
changing times -- and they do change -- it's important to have people
understand certain things don't change, like the values we try to live
by: courage and compassion, reverence and integrity. I believe we
ought to stand for a culture of life in which every person matters and
every being counts. (Applause.) We need to stand up for institutions
like marriage and family, which are the foundations of our society.
(Applause.) And I need Pete in the United States Senate to make sure
that my judges are confirmed. (Applause.) Judges who will make
decisions not based upon personal opinion, but the strict
interpretation of the law.
And the other issue, of course, is how to make the world a safer
place, what to do to protect this country. Our most solemn duty is to
protect the American people. I'll tell people tonight like I've been
telling them all over the country, if we show uncertainty or weakness
in this decade, this world will drift toward tragedy. This isn't going
to happen on my watch. (Applause.) We will --
AUDIENCE MEMBER: We're with you, Mr. President!
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. We will continue to work to protect
this homeland. You know, we got to be right a hundred percent of the
time; the enemy has got to be right once. And that's a challenge we
face. So Pete will be working on smart ways to make sure the
intelligence system works better, and make sure the information flows
between our different law enforcement agencies is not disrupted.
That's why I believe we need to renew the Patriot Act. We'll make sure
the ports and borders are protected as well as they can be. But the
best way to defeat the terrorists is to stay on the offense. We got to
beat them overseas so we don't have to face them here at home.
(Applause.)
We have a fundamental difference in this campaign. My opponent
says it's all about law enforcement and intelligence. This war on
terror requires all of the might of the United States of America in
order to protect the American people. Let me tell you some of the
things I've learned since I've been your President. One, you cannot
negotiate with these people, these ideologues of hate. You cannot hope
for the best -- well, maybe if we only say some nice things, they'll
change their mind. That's not how they think. The only way to deal
with them is to find them and bring them to justice before they hurt us
again. (Applause.)
And we're making progress. We're making progress because
three-quarters of al Qaeda's -- and their associates have been brought
to justice. And as we speak, we're on the hunt, and we'll keep the
pressure on them, unrelenting pressure to protect you.
Secondly, this is a new kind of war, it's different from what we're
used to. And when we find somebody who harbors these people, they must
be held to account, as well. Now, let me tell you something about the
presidency. When you say something, you better mean what you say. And
when I told the Taliban that they need to get rid of al Qaeda, I meant
what I said. And when they didn't, we sent troops in and liberated the
people of Afghanistan. (Applause.) In liberating the people of
Afghanistan, we made ourselves safer. Remember, al Qaeda was training
in Afghanistan. It was like they were the parasite, and the Taliban
was a weak host. And the strategy of these ideologues of hate is to
eventually take over the host. They had just about done it. And so
we're safer.
We've also done something different, as well -- we've accomplished
something else, as well, and that is, in protecting our own security,
we've helped establish a democracy. One of the most remarkable things
happened this past weekend. Think about what life was like for people
under the Taliban. Young girls couldn't go to school. Their mothers
were whipped in the public square if they didn't toe the line on this
barbaric vision of mankind. Some were executed in sports stadiums.
And yesterday -- or two days ago, people showed up to vote for the
president of that country. (Applause.) And the first voter -- the
first voter was a 19-year-old girl. (Applause.) Isn't that
fantastic?
It's in our interests that freedom spread. Freedom is powerful.
If just given a chance, freedom is a powerful notion. Everybody wants
to be free, I think. I believe freedom is God's gift to every man and
woman in this world. At the heart of much of what I say to the
American people is that belief.
And then we went into Iraq. The biggest threat facing America is
that a terrorist network like al Qaeda could end up with weapons of
mass destruction. If you think the carnage was bad with airplanes,
imagine what it would be with a weapon of mass destruction. And I saw
a threat. Well, the second lesson of September the 11th is that when
we see a threat we must deal with it before it comes to hurt us.
Remember the old days of prior to September the 11th -- if we saw a
threat, we felt safe, because oceans seemed to protect us. That's all
changed. It's essential your President understand that. And we just
can't hope threats go away, we must deal with them.
And so I saw a threat in Saddam. Remember, I went to the Congress,
and the Congress saw the same threat. My opponent saw the same
intelligence I saw, and voted to authorize the use of force, something
he's not too clear about these days. (Laughter.) And I went to the
United Nations because committing our troops into harm's way is the
last option for the President. I fully understand the consequences of
war. You know, I wish I never had to commit troops. I was hoping
diplomacy would work.
But as it had for over a decade, diplomacy failed. The United
Nations passed a resolution after resolution after resolution, and
Saddam just ignored them. I think it is reflective of my opponent's
point of view when he says, well, what we should have done was passed
another resolution. (Laughter.) Precisely what Saddam was hoping
would happen. He was hoping the world would turn away.
Listen, we didn't find any weapons when we got in there. We all
thought there would be weapons. But let me tell you what we did find.
We found that he had the capability and the intent and the expertise to
reconstitute his weapons programs, and, as the Duelfer report pointed
out, that he was gaming the oil-for-food program, trying to influence
governments to get rid of the sanctions which were already weakening,
for one reason, to reconstitute his weapons. Knowing what I know
today, I would have made the same decision, and the world is better off
without Saddam. (Applause.)
And we're making progress. We're headed toward elections in
January. Think about how far that society has come from the days of a
brutal tyrant. I told the story about the seven men that came to see
me in the Oval Office. I think I said it at the convention. These
guys walk in, and they've all had their right hands cut off by Saddam
Hussein, and an X carved in their forehead. I'll tell you why. The
currency had gone down, the Iraqi dinar had gone down, and he needed a
scapegoat in order to, I guess, justify to other people who were
watching that he wasn't at fault. So he plucked these small business
merchants out of society. I asked one of them, I said, why you? He
said, well, he was a jeweler, and he happened to sell gold -- or sell
dinars to buy euros to buy gold in order to use to make jewelry. It
was just a bad day for him to have made that transition --
transaction. So Saddam pulls him out, cuts off his hand, carves an X
into his forehead and charges him for the operation.
This is Saddam Hussein. This is the kind of person that used to
run that country. Fortunately for them, citizens from around the
world, including people in Houston, Texas, saw their plight, flew them
to Houston, and they had the new hands put on, free. What a contrast
between a society as brutal as that run by Saddam and a compassionate
society like the United States of America. (Applause.)
The terrorists are fighting us in Iraq because they cannot stand
the thought of a free society in their midst. The fight in Iraq is
integral to the war on terror. It's an essential battle. And by being
resolved and firm, we will succeed in Iraq. And when we do --
(applause) -- and when we do, the world will be better off.
(Applause.)
A couple other points I want to make, and then we'll liberate you.
(Laughter.) First, any time we put our troops into harm's way, they
need to have the full support of the government. And we got good
support in September of 2003 for the $87 billion supplemental request.
And I'm telling you, this money was vital. It provided important
resources for troops in harm's way, not only in Iraq, in Afghanistan.
Twelve members of the Senate voted against it. Four members of the
Senate voted to authorize the use of force and not to fund the troops,
two of whom were my opponent and his running mate. I think that is
illustrative. I think it's a statement about this race for the
presidency.
And so was his answer to the first time he got asked the question
-- "I actually did vote for the $87 billion before I voted against
it." It's an astounding answer. (Laughter.) But it's been one of
seven explanations -- (laughter) -- as to why. One of them was, the
whole thing is a complicated matter. There's nothing complicated about
supporting our troops in harm's way. I will continue, as your
Commander-in-Chief, to make sure our troops have the best. (Applause.)
I tell people about my relationship with Prime Minister Koizumi. I
just did so in Hobbs, New Mexico, and I'm going to do so tonight here
in Denver, I'm going to do so tomorrow in Colorado Springs, for a
reason, because I want people to understand what liberty can do to
societies. I tell people, I believe in the transformational power of
liberty. The best way to make the case is to explain that one of my
friends, with whom I deal, is the Prime Minister of Japan, Koizumi. I
saw him in New York, and I said, listen, I'm telling everybody in the
country about you; do you mind if I continue doing it. He said, fine.
Of course, what I didn't ask him if I could tell you is his favorite
singer was Elvis. (Laughter.) The guys a good guy, I like him a lot.
But it wasn't all that long ago that we were fighting the
Japanese. We were at war. They were the sworn enemy of America. My
dad fought them; I'm sure your dads and granddads did, as well. After
we won, Harry S. Truman believed in the transformational power of
liberty, that liberty can convert an enemy into an ally. He believed
that. There was a lot of skeptics who said that that couldn't happen.
You can understand why. We had just fought them. Many lives had been
changed as a result of the carnage of World War II. I'm sure a lot of
moms and dads say, why even think about it; why worry about it?
But Harry Truman had that belief, as did a lot of other Americans.
And so after the war was over, we worked with Japan to help them build
a democracy. And today I sit down at the table with Prime Minister
Koizumi, talking about the big issues confronting the world, talking
about how to keep the peace we all want. Think about that: Sixty
years or so after we had fought these people I now sit down with the
leader of their country talking about peace, talking about North Korea,
talking about helping Iraq, talking about fighting terror -- all aimed
at keeping the peace. Someday an American President and a duly-elected
leader of Iraq will be sitting down at the table talking about the
peace in the greater Middle East -- (applause) -- talking about how to
help women in the greater Middle East realize a free society --
(applause) -- talking about how others have a chance to realize the
great benefits of democracy.
That's what's happened. These are historic times. The world is
changing for the better. I told the people in my convention speech,
we've done the hard work and climbed the mountain, we see the valley
below. It's a valley of peace, based upon freedom and liberty. And
make no mistake about it, make no mistake about it, if this country has
the right leadership and the right determination and the will to
succeed, we will. And future generations of Americans will be better
off for it. (Applause.)
Thanks for coming. God bless you all. (Applause.)
END 12:55 P.M. MDT
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