For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
October 20, 2004
President Discusses Rural America in Eau Claire, Wisconsin
J&d; Manufacturing
Eau Claire, Wisconsin
2:49 P.M. CDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all. Please be seated. (Applause.)
Listen, thanks for coming today. It's good to be back here in Eau
Claire, Wisconsin. (Applause.) We're getting closer and closer to
voting time. I'm here to ask for your help. (Applause.) I saw --
somebody has been helping -- I saw a lot of signs up coming in. I want
to thank you for putting up the signs. (Applause.) I know some of you
are making phone calls, reminding your fellow citizens to go to the
polls. (Applause.) I need your help. And with your help, we will
carry Wisconsin and win a great victory in November. (Applause.)
So today I'm here to talk about reasons why I think your fellow
citizens ought to put me in office for four more years. We're going to
talk about some issues, and got some fellow citizens up here to help
talk about the plans and policies of my administration. Perhaps the
most important reason for you to put me back in for four more years is
so that Laura will be First Lady for four more years. (Applause.)
She sends her best. She's doing great. She was a public school
librarian when I met her for the second time. The first time I ever
met her we were at San Jacinto Junior High, 7th grade in Midland,
Texas. The second time I met her she was a public school librarian.
She said, fine, I'll marry you, but you have to make me a promise. I
said, what's that? She said, I never want to have to give a speech.
(Laughter.) Well, fortunately, she didn't hold me to that promise.
(Laughter.) She is giving a lot of speeches, and when she does the
American people see a warm, compassionate, strong First Lady.
(Applause.)
I'm proud of my running mate, Dick Cheney. He's doing a great
job. (Applause.) And I'm proud of my Cabinet Secretary for Health and
Human Services -- that would be former governor Tommy Thompson.
(Applause.) He's doing a great job. I like to tell the people of
Wisconsin, you did a fine job of training him. He's a good man.
I want to thank the Redetzkes for letting us come here today -- Don
and Diana. I'm proud you -- (applause.) These are some of the
products they manufacture here. I said, how is your business doing?
He said, just fine. He said, we've added 30 employees this year.
We're thinking about adding more. There's an optimism around. Our
policies are working. And I want to thank the Redetzkes for letting us
come and visit this important plant. (Applause.)
I want to thank Jack Voight, the state treasurer, for joining us
today. Appreciate you being here, Mr. Treasurer. I want to thank
Scott Walker, from Milwaukee County. I'm proud Scott is here. I call
him Scott W. (Applause.) I want to thank John Gard for joining us
today. Speaker, where are you? Appreciate you, Speaker. Good to see
you again. (Applause.) I've been in your state a lot and he's been
there all the time, for which I'm grateful. I want to thank very much
Dale Schultz for being here. (Applause.) He is a good man. I know
him well. He will make a great member of the United States Congress.
(Applause.) And, finally, Tim Michels. (Applause.) Good to see you,
Tim. And Barbara. I know something about Barbaras. Thank you all for
coming.
We've been through some challenges together in this country, really
have been. And when you're out gathering up the vote, remind people
about what this economy has been through. Six months prior to my
arrival in Washington, the stock market was in serious decline. And
that foretold a recession. And then we had some corporate scandals,
and we passed tough laws and we made it abundantly clear to people in
this country that we will not tolerate dishonesty in the boardrooms of
America. We expect citizens to be responsible citizens. (Applause.)
And then we got attacked. We got attacked. And those attacks hurt
us, they really did. And we responded to those attacks with good
policy. We cut the taxes. And by cutting the taxes people had more
money to spend and more money to invest. When you increase
consumption, and increase investment, the economy tends to grow. The
recession we had was one of the shallowest in American history.
(Applause.)
Our economy has been growing at rates as fast as any in nearly 20
years. We've added 1.9 million new jobs since August of 2003.
(Applause.) The unemployment rate is at 5.4 percent. That's the
national unemployment rate -- lower than the average of the 1970s,
1980s, and 1990s. (Applause.) And your unemployment rate in Wisconsin
is 4.8 percent. Think about that. (Applause.) When people go to the
polls I want them to remember, the people of this state are working.
(Applause.) Because of good policy. Farm income is up. Home
ownership rates are at an all-time high. We're moving forward. We've
overcome these challenges, and we're not going to go back to the days
of tax and spend. (Applause.)
A good economic policy means good farm policy. I told the people
when I was running I understand that we've got to have good
agricultural policy in this country. And the agricultural sector of
our country is doing fine, is doing well. Income is up. As a matter
of fact, farm income is at a record high under my administration.
(Applause.)
We're going to talk to some farmers up here --
AUDIENCE MEMBER: -- (inaudible) --
THE PRESIDENT: But dairy farm income is up. We're selling more
and more of Wisconsin crops overseas. See, to make sure this economy
continues to grow we've got to continue to open up markets for U.S.
products. It's easy to say we're going to shut down markets, but
shutting down markets will hurt you. See, when you got more products
to choose from as a consumer, you're likely to get that which you want
at a better price and higher quality. That's how the market works. So
shutting down our markets, which would hurt you -- my policy is let's
open up everybody else's markets. We can compete with anybody, any
time, anywhere, so long as the playing field is level. (Applause.)
And farm exports are at an all-time high. We want to be using
Wisconsin farm products to feed the world. If you're good at
something, let's promote it, and we're really good at growing corn and
soybeans. (Applause.)
I signed a good farm bill, which is helping the agricultural
sector, and part of the farm bill is the conservation title, which
encourages farmers and landowners to set aside land for wildlife
restoration, for land protection. We're going to talk about somebody
who knows what he's talking about when it comes to good conservation
policy. I tell everybody, if you own the land, every day is Earth
Day. (Applause.) If you make a living off the land, the best person
to look after the long is the person making a living off of it, not
some bureaucrat in Washington, D.C. (Applause.)
Keeping jobs here means good energy policy. See, we got to become
less dependent on foreign sources of energy if we expect to keep this
economy growing. And I submitted a plan to the United States Congress
two years ago, and it's stuck, of course, because of politics. But
it's a plan that encourages conservation. It's a plan that uses our
technologies to be able to burn coal cleanly. It says we can explore
for natural gas in environmentally friendly ways. But it also
recognizes the valuable contribution that ethanol and biodiesel make to
the energy mix here in America. Congress needs to pass that plan.
We've got to become less dependent on foreign sources of energy.
(Applause.)
To make sure jobs stay here, we've got to have less regulations on
the job creators. To make sure jobs stay here, we've got to do
something about these lawsuits that are making it hard for the small
businesses all across our country. You see, these lawsuits make it
hard for a small business to expand. They're tending to having to
fight these lawsuits off and not hiring people.
To keep jobs here, we've got to be wise about how we spend your
money, and keep your taxes low. (Applause.) Taxes are an issue. I'm
running against a fellow who's promised $2.2 trillion in programs that
cost -- that's how much they cost the government, $2.2 trillion, that's
with a "T." That's a lot, even for a senator from Massachusetts.
(Applause.) So they asked him, how are you going to pay for it? He
said, oh, he's just going to tax the rich, going to raise the top two
brackets. Well, the only problem with that is it raises about $600
billion or $800 billion, depending on whose numbers you look at. In
either case, it's far short of $2.2 trillion, so there's a gap.
There's a gap between what he's promised and how he's going to pay for
it. Guess who usually fills that gap? Yes, you do. You understand
how tax policy works. (Applause.)
Let me tell you what else is wrong with raising the top two
brackets. We're going to talk to some small business owners. Most
small businesses are sub-chapter S corporations, limited liability
corps. They pay tax at the individual income tax rate. So you hear
him talking about running up the taxes, taxing the rich -- they're
taxing the job creators. And the third thing wrong with it, the rich
hire lawyers and accountants for a reason, to slide the tab and stick
you with it. We're not going to let him tax you. We're going to win
Wisconsin and win on November the 2nd. (Applause.)
AUDIENCE: Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Thank you. Before we get to our guests
here, I want to talk about a couple of other issues. We're in a
changing world. Times are changing. And in a changing world, it helps
to promote an ownership society in America to bring stability into
people's lives. And I told you, home ownership rates are at an
all-time high. We've got policies to continue to expand that. I can't
tell you how it warms my heart to know more and more Americans from all
walks of life are opening up the door where they live, saying, welcome
to my home, welcome to my piece of property. (Applause.)
In order to make sure we're hopeful, we've got to promote ownership
when it comes to health care accounts. See, health care is an issue in
this campaign, too. There is a fundamental divide. My opponent is
proposing bigger government health care. Now, he looked in the TV
cameras the other night and said no government was involved. I could
barely contain myself. (Laughter.) I looked at the fine print of his
plan. Eight out of ten get signed up to a government health care
plan.
See, if you raise the Medicaid limits to 300 percent, it provides
incentives for small business owners to stop providing insurance for
their employees because the government will pay for it. And so you're
shifting people from the private sector to the public policy. And
government health care -- health care programs do not work. They may
sound good, but they have failed in every country that has tried them.
The quality of health care will decline. There will be rationing. If
you end up as a line item in the government budget, you can rest
assured there will be government controls over your health care.
I have a different point of view. (Applause.) We will take care
of those who cannot help themselves through community and rural health
centers. Those will be places where the poor and the indigent can be
primary and preventative care. That's a good use of your taxpayers'
money. It's best that people get care there and not in the emergency
rooms of local hospitals. (Applause.)
We will make sure that the program for children of low-income
families is fully subscribed. That makes sense. But to make sure
health care is affordable, we ought to allow small businesses to pool
risk, to join together so they can buy insurance at the same discounts
that big businesses get to do. (Applause.) To make sure health care
is affordable, we will continue to expand health savings accounts,
which will enable somebody to pay a low premium, high deductible, major
medical liability policy, coupled with a tax-free savings.
These health care plans will reduce the cost of health care for the
average citizen or the small business. They will be a health care plan
in which the decision-maker is the owner of the health care plan.
They're a health care plan that you own, you control, and you can take
with you from job to job throughout your entire life.
This is a way to make sure health care is more affordable. Also,
to make sure health care is more available and affordable, we've got to
do something about the junk lawsuits that are running up the cost of
medicine. (Applause.) See, I looked at the cost to the federal
government on these lawsuits. Lawsuits cause doctors to have to
practice defensive medicine. In other words, they're practicing
medicine in anticipation of getting sued because there's so many suits,
and that runs up the cost of health care. And the lawsuits run up the
cost of premiums for docs, which run good docs out of business.
I can't tell you the number of OB/GYNs I've met who are anxious and
upset by the fact that they, many times, cannot practice. And then,
you can imagine, if the OB/GYN can't practice, what it does to many
pregnant women. It is stressful. It is not right. These lawsuits are
a damage to our economy and to our society and to health care. You
cannot be pro-doctor, pro-patient, and pro-personal injury lawyer at
the same time. (Applause.) You have to choose. You have to choose.
My opponent made his choice and he put a personal injury lawyer on the
ticket. I made my choice. I'm for medical liability reform now.
(Applause.)
Let me talk about one other form of ownership, and that's Social
Security. See, the job of a President is to solve problems, not to
pass them on to future Presidents or future generations. At least
that's what I think it is. (Applause.) I think you come to
Washington, D.C., if you see a problem, you solve it as best as you
can. Now, others have chosen a different attitude. They just say,
we'll pass it on, let somebody else take care of it. We have a problem
with Social Security.
Now, I remember the 2000 campaign, particularly here in Wisconsin,
when they told the seniors, if old George W. gets in, you're not going
to get your check. You might remember that aspect of the 2000
campaign. (Laughter.) Well, I want you to remind your friends and
neighbors of all political parties, George W. got in and our seniors
got their checks. (Applause.) And our seniors will continue to get
their checks. (Applause.) The seniors have nothing to worry about
when it comes to the Social Security check. Neither do baby boomers,
like me. But our children and our grandchildren have got a problem
because of the nature of the Social Security system. There will be
more recipients than payers. More baby boomers like me retire with not
enough people putting money into the system. And therefore, the system
is going to be in trouble for our children and our grandchildren.
In order to make sure our children and grandchildren have got a
retirement system that works when they need it, we ought to allow
younger workers to set aside some of their own payroll taxes in a
personal savings account they call their own, a personal savings
account that will earn a better rate of return than the current Social
Security trust, a personal savings account that the federal government
can never take away. (Applause.)
My opponent says he's for the status quo in Social Security. I
think it -- I don't think that's leadership. We have a problem. In a
new term I'm going to bring Republicans and Democrats together and
solve the problem. (Applause.)
In times of change, some things do not change -- now, while I'm
here, I got something else I want to say, and then we'll talk to our
guests here. (Laughter.) The values we try to live by don't change --
courage and compassion, reverence and integrity. (Applause.) We stand
for a culture of life in which every person matters and every being
counts. (Applause.) Thank you all. We stand for marriage and family,
which are the foundations of our society. (Applause.) We stand for
judges who know the difference between personal opinion and the strict
interpretation of the law. (Applause.) Go ahead and sit down.
And we stand for the Second Amendment to the United States
Constitution -- (applause) -- which gives every American individual the
right to bear arms. And today I'm proud that Wayne LaPierre and Chris
Cox from the National Rifle Association, are with us. I appreciate you
all coming. (Applause.) They have endorsed my candidacy for President
of the United States, for which I'm grateful. I also am grateful for
their gun safety programs, as well as their understanding that the best
way to protect the American people is to firmly prosecute those who
commit crimes with guns, to hold them to account and bring them to
justice. (Applause.)
With us today is Bill Bruins. Bill, thank you for coming. What do
you do to make a living? Or do you make a living? (Laughter.)
MR. BRUINS: You'd have to check with my bookkeeper, my wife.
THE PRESIDENT: That's true. (Laughter.)
* * * * *
THE PRESIDENT: By the way, they set up their farm as a limited
liability corporation, which means, under Senator Kerry's plan, he's
going to get a tax increase. See, he's part of the -- when they raise
those top two brackets, if you've got income over $200,000 a year and
you're a limited liability corp or a sub-chapter S corp, you're taxed.
I don't think it makes any sense to be taxing our farmers right now, as
they're getting ready to make some money. I'd rather have him have the
money so he can expand his farm. (Applause.)
How are you doing? Are you making a living?
MR. BRUINS: Yes, we are. It's been a good year. It's been a good
year. Milk prices are strong. Beef prices are up. And it's just
really exciting, the possibilities that we're looking at, given the
climate that you've created here in Wisconsin. (Applause.)
THE PRESIDENT: Well, thanks. We met back there -- he asked about
supporting the MILK program -- I do. I'm for the extension of the MILK
program, which would help the dairy farmers here in Wisconsin.
MR. BRUINS: Absolutely. That little program that you have
endorsed and have endorsed extending, has already put $413 million in
the pockets of dairy farmers in the state of Wisconsin. (Applause.)
THE PRESIDENT: That's good, yes. Glad to help out. (Applause.)
What else are you concerned about? I can tell you what you're
concerned about because you told me, but why don't you tell the people
to make it look -- (laughter.)
MR. BRUINS: Well, because of your farm bill and the conservation
provisions and the counter-cyclical payments that are provided with it,
because of your lowering the taxes and because of your continued
commitment to making agriculture better, you have made a positive
difference on agriculture in the state of Wisconsin. And as President
of Wisconsin Farm Bureau, the largest farm organization in the state, I
am endorsing you for a second term as President of the United States.
(Applause.)
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. (Applause.) I accept.
(Applause.) Thank you. I appreciate that. Thank you all. I was
hoping that would come. (Laughter.) I'm proud to get the Farm Bureau
endorsement. It means a lot. It really does. In a state where it's
heavily agricultural, that's a big endorsement to get. And I'm proud
to receive it. Thank you, sir. (Applause.)
Doug Mueller is with us. Welcome. And what do you do to make a
living?
MR. MUELLER: I milk cows twice a day. We have a family
corporation --
THE PRESIDENT: Hopefully not by hand. (Laughter.)
MR. MUELLER: No, sir. Not anymore.
THE PRESIDENT: I would say there's some new technology that's come
along. (Laughter.)
MR. MUELLER: And I'm not old enough that I ever milked cows by
hand when I was younger either.
THE PRESIDENT: You boys have got big hands, I'll tell you.
(Laughter.) What's on your mind? Tell me -- tell the folks what's on
your mind about --
MR. MUELLER: Well, I think the energy policy is one thing that
really can be a benefit to agriculture and the entire economy. The use
of more -- more use of ethanol, biodiesel I think is great for farmers
all over the country. And the use of the ethanol, cleaner emissions
and everything, too, has got to be positive for the country.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, it is. See, it's interesting, what's
happening is that we're spending money on research and development so
that we can diversify away from old usage, old habits. We've got to
get away from dependency upon crude oil coming in from overseas. And
one way to do so is to better use ethanol and biodiesel. I mean, can
you imagine some day a President sitting in the Oval Office, they come
in and say, on crops, we got a great corn crop, and the first reaction
is, we're less dependent on foreign sources of energy. And so we're
spending a lot of money on research and development to better use crops
-- soybeans, like biodiesel, as well as one of -- in the State of the
Union address I talked about spending money to research -- to develop a
hydrogen-powered automobile.
I mean, technology is going to enable us to evolve away from our
current energy usage. And one way to do so is through, as Doug
mentioned, through the use of agricultural products. And there's more
to learn, and there's more research to be done. And that's what we're
promoting. Right now we're using ethanol in significant quantities,
and it's helping our farmers.
What else?
MR. MUELLER: Thank you. And the death tax is an issue that is
heavily on farmer and small business owners' minds.
* * * * *
THE PRESIDENT: Let me talk about that right quick. It's an issue
in this campaign. I suggested that the members of the United States
Senate vote to repeal the death tax forever. Of course, I couldn't get
my opponent's vote. (Laughter.) We got quite a few votes. As a
matter of fact, we put the death tax on its way to extinction. The
problem is it pops back up in 2011, which is going to make some
interesting estate planning decisions at that point in time.
We need to get rid of the death tax totally. It's important for
our small business owners and our farmers and ranchers to get rid of
the death tax forever, so a person can pass their farm on from one
generation to the next without losing the farm. People talk about --
(applause.) If you got your assets tied up in land and inventory, in
his case, cows and equipment -- and you have to pay high death taxes,
there's nothing to liquidate except for the farm itself, and that's
unfair. I believe a person shouldn't be taxed twice, once during life
and once after life. (Applause.) And I believe a person ought to be
able to pass their assets on to whomever they want to pass it on to.
(Applause.)
Thank you, Doug.
MR. MUELLER: Thank you.
THE PRESIDENT: Lee Christenson is with us.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: -- (inaudible) --
THE PRESIDENT: You got a fan base out there. (Laughter.) I first
got to know him because he tied some bass fishing flies for me. The
flies did better than the fisherman. I was fishing, but I wasn't
catching. (Laughter.) He's got an interesting story to tell when it
comes to preserving land.
MR. CHRISTENSON: I have a small family farm that I live on in
rural Wisconsin, just south of Eu Clair*, and I took it over in 1994
from my parents. And I've converted that farm from a dairy farm into
kind of a wildlife preserve, where I've utilized a lot of the
government programs that you've helped us going. The CRP program is
just the greatest program in the world.
THE PRESIDENT: Conservation Reserve Program.
MR. CHRISTENSON: Yeah, Conservation Reserve Program. And that
program allows us to take the real highly erodible land, the steep
lands that are marginal farmlands and preserve them by putting them
into trees and to prairie planting and into solid vegetative cover that
keeps our streams a lot cleaner. And I've been able to get a WHIP,
which is the Wildlife Habitat Improvement grant, EQUIP, which is the
Environmental Quality Incentive Program grand through the government.
All sorts of assistance, technical assistance from the Fish and
Wildlife service. In fact, on our farm, we've taken the ditches,
plugged the ditches, pulled all the tiles out of the prior converted
farm fields that historically were wetlands at one time, and now we're
created, just on our little farm, over 15 acres of wetlands.
So, you know, that's great that you do that, and we're able to turn
the tides and create wetlands instead of having lost them in the past.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, see, one of the -- we used to have a policy of
no new net loss, no net loss. How could you have a new net loss? No
net loss of wetlands. I've now changed that policy to an increase in
the number of wetlands all across the country to three million acres.
(Applause.) Here's part of the way we're able to do so.
* * * * *
THE PRESIDENT: See, good environmental policy doesn't mean you
have to be a lawyer in Washington, D.C. Good environmental policy
brings conservation groups together, brings hunting and fishing groups
together, brings local community together, brings local environments
into play, brings farmers into play. It's a collaborative effort, so
we all work together to achieve national goals such as better air,
cleaner water, and more wildlife preserve areas. And we're doing
that. We're making very solid progress with a common-sense way of
approaching environmental issues.
* * * * *
THE PRESIDENT: All right, I want to talk about one other thing.
Thank you, sir. He doesn't hunt and fish all the time. You actually
have a business.
MR. CHRISTENSON: Yeah, I forgot about that. (Laughter.)
THE PRESIDENT: What do you do?
MR. CHRISTENSON: I have fun on the farm making wetlands and
habitat and all that stuff, but I have to pay the bills, so I have a
small sub-chapter S corporation with about 50 employees. And we
collect deer hides all across the United States and export them to
China, so we, you know, we're bringing some money back to the United
States. And with these great tax breaks that we've had in the last few
years, we've been able to buy more semis, more forklifts. We've put a
lot of good people to work. We've hired more people. And the interest
rates, my gosh, just look at what the interest rates have been the last
few years. They've really, really helped us by being able to expand
our credit lines and do a lot of beneficial things for business.
THE PRESIDENT: See, the tax policy we passed, I want you to
remember what it was, which my opponent voted against every aspect of
the tax policy. We raised the child credit to help people's families.
We reduced the marriage penalty. We believe we ought to encourage
marriage, not discourage marriage through the tax code. (Applause.)
We said if you pay tax, you ought to get relief, instead of trying
to pick and choose winners in the tax code, but we also provided
incentives for small businesses to invest. If you invest as a small
business, there is a -- there's a benefit. You heard him say he bought
forklifts. Good tax policy encourages certain behavior, and one of the
behaviors we're trying to encourage is for people to invest more and to
spend money, to spend capital, because when he buys a forklift,
somebody has got to make the forklift. When somebody is making the
forklift, it means somebody is going to get work. That's how the
economy works. It ripples throughout the economy.
He says he's a sub-chapter S corporation. He's adding jobs. It is
bad policy to tax the job creators. Do you realize 70 percent of new
jobs in America are created by small businesses, just like this guy's?
(Applause.) And my opponent, in order to pay for his promises, is, at
the minimum, going to run up the taxes on about 900,000 sub-chapter S
and LLC corporations, going to tax the job creators. That is lousy
economic policy. (Applause.)
Let me talk about one other aspect of this campaign in your life,
and that is how to make sure we keep America secure. The most solemn
responsibility of the American President is to protect the American
people. (Applause.) If we show uncertainty or weakness in this
decade, this world of ours will drift toward tragedy. That's not going
to happen on my watch. (Applause.)
I understand the world in which we live. (Applause.) This is an
important issue in this campaign. Let me tell you some of the lessons
I have learned about the post-September the 11th world in which we
live. The first lesson is, we face an enemy that is ruthless and has
no conscience. They will kill just like that, whether it be in
airplanes on the World Trade Center or in a schoolhouse in the caucus
region of the world. That's what they'll do. And therefore, you
cannot negotiate with these people, you cannot hope for the best with
these people, you can't say, well, oh, gosh, we'll change the way we
conduct foreign policy and hope they change their ways. The only way
to deal with them is to find them and bring them to justice before they
hurt us again. (Applause.)
Secondly, this is a different kind of war than we're used to, and
therefore, it's important to think differently about how to protect the
American people. One way to do so is to make it very clear that if a
country harbors a terrorist, they're just as guilty as the terrorist.
And when the President says something, it is important that the
President speak clearly so everybody understands, and mean what he
says. (Applause.)
And I meant what I said to the Taliban in Afghanistan. See, they
were the ones harboring al Qaeda. Thousands of people were trained
there. It's kind of the classic case of the host and the parasite --
the al Qaeda was the parasite and the host was becoming weaker and
weaker and -- in the sense that al Qaeda has the free will, doing what
they wanted to do inside the country. There was no restrictions
whatsoever. And they ignored our demands until the Taliban no longer
is in power. We took them out of power, thanks to a great United
States military. (Applause.)
I want the youngsters here to understand what has taken place.
It's a phenomenal moment in history, phenomenal. See, it wasn't all
that long ago -- three-and-a-half years ago is hardly anything in the
march of history -- that the people in Afghanistan were living under a
brutal reign of people whose vision is so dark and dim that it's hard
for Americans to comprehend. And when you hear me talk about the
ideology of hate, I'm talking about the Taliban and the people like al
Qaeda. Young girls were not allowed to go to school. See, that's
their vision of the world. And if their moms didn't toe the line, they
were taken into the public square and whipped, some cases killed in the
sports stadium. These people were grim.
But because we acted in our own self-interest, because we acted to
uphold doctrine and make this world a safer place and to protect
the American people, millions of Afghan citizens went to the polls to
vote for a President of their country. (Applause.) The first voter
was a 19-year-old woman at the polls. (Applause.) It's amazing.
Because we acted in our self-interest, the poor people living in that
country have been liberated from the clutches. They no longer live in
darkness, they live in light, because freedom is on the march.
(Applause.)
And that's important for our long-term security. It's important,
because free societies are peaceful societies. A free society will
become an ally in the war on terror. A free society will set a
incredibly hopeful example for others who long for freedom.
Thirdly, when we see a threat we've got to deal with it. You know,
we used to think oceans could protect us. We'd see a threat overseas
and if we didn't deal with it, it could be okay because it wouldn't
come home to hurt us. That all changed on September the 11th. I saw a
threat with Saddam Hussein. I saw a threat because he was a sworn
enemy of the United States. I saw a threat because we had been at war
with him. I saw a threat because he invaded his neighborhood. I saw a
threat because he was shooting missiles at our airplanes who were
trying to enforce the world's sanctions. I saw a threat -- he paid
suicide bombers; he harbored Abu Nidal and Abu Abbas. Terrorist
Zarqawi was in and out of his country. I saw a threat because he had
used weapons of mass destruction. Saddam Hussein was a threat.
The Congress looked at the same intelligence I looked at and
concluded he was a threat. My opponent looked at the very same
intelligence, the very same data, and concluded that Saddam Hussein was
a threat, and voted to authorize his removal. Now, before the
President ever commits troops into harm's way -- listen, I understand
the consequences. To commit our troops is the last option for me. To
put somebody in harm's way is the very last choice, not the first,
second, or third. It is the last. And so I went to the United Nations
in hopes that diplomacy would solve the threat. And as -- they passed
a resolution, 15 to nothing, and Saddam Hussein just ignored it, just
like he had done 16 different resolutions.
You know, we didn't find the stockpiles we thought we found -- that
we thought we would find, that everybody thought we'd find. But we did
find that he had the capability to restart a weapons programs; he still
hated us; that he was using the oil-for-food program to game the
system, to get the world the look the other way, to get rid of the
sanctions so he could restart his programs. The biggest danger we face
is a terrorist network ending up with weapons of mass destruction.
Knowing what I know today, I would have made the same decision.
(Applause.) Thank you.
My opponent was recently interviewed, and he said September the
11th, in quotes, his words, "did not change me much at all." See, and
it's reflected in his attitude and his policies. He says, well, this
is just a intelligence and law enforcement matter. No, this is a
matter that requires all the assets of the United States of America in
order to protect you.
He said that Iraq is a diversion from the war on terror. That's a
fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of the world in which we
live and it's a dangerous misunderstanding. Mr. Zarqawi, who is
fighting us in Iraq, was in Afghanistan, in terror training camps. He
then got run out of Afghanistan because of us and moved to Iraq. He
then was working with a poisons factory in northern Iraq. And now
we've got him on the run inside of Iraq, and he's fighting us. And he
says this is a diversion? Does he think if we weren't in Iraq that Mr.
Zarqawi would become a peaceful citizen of the world? (Laughter.)
He's a dangerous man. He hates what we stand for. He intends to
inflict harm. It is best we defeat Zarqawi in Iraq so we do not have
to face him here at home. (Applause.)
You cannot win a war when you don't believe we're fighting one, and
that's my opponent. The most solemn duty of the American President is
to protect the American people. If we show uncertainty or weakness in
this decade, the world will drift toward tragedy. It's not going to
happen on my watch. (Applause.)
The third lesson. The third lesson -- fourth lesson -- is when we
put somebody in harm's way, they deserve the full support of the -- of
our government. And that's why I went to the United States Congress
and asked for $87 billion of very important funding, funding to support
our troops in combat. And we received great support, strong bipartisan
support. I want you to tell your friends and neighbors of this
startling statistic. Of the hundred members of the United States
Senate, only four voted to authorize the use of force, and then did not
vote for the funding to support the troops in combat, two of whom are
my opponent and his running mate.
AUDIENCE: Booo!
THE PRESIDENT: They asked him, they said, how did you make that
vote? He said, "Well, I actually did vote for the $87 billion right
before I voted against it." It may be the most famous quote of the
2004 campaign. They then kept pressing him and pressing him. He
finally said the whole thing is a complicated matter. There is nothing
complicated about supporting the men and women who wear the United
States uniform in harm's way. (Applause.)
Thank you all. I want to thank the family members of our military
who are here. I want to thank the veterans who are here who have set
such a great example for those who wear the uniform. (Applause.)
I want to share one more thing with you that I think is important
for you to know about me. I believe in the power of liberty to
transform societies. Let me tell you what I mean by that. Perhaps an
example is the best way to make my point. Laura and I have a great
friend in Prime Minister Koizumi of Japan. We like him, he's a fun guy
to be around, he's a good friend. I saw him in New York at the United
Nations in early September. I said, you know, I'm talking about you
when I get out there on the campaign trail, I hope you don't mind. He
said, fine, go ahead and talk about me. I didn't ask him permission to
tell you what I'm about to tell you, and that is, Elvis is his favorite
singer. (Applause.) Truthfully. (Laughter.) And High Noon is his
favorite movie. (Laughter.)
Anyway, so, you know, it doesn't sound that -- must not sound to
some -- it probably doesn't sound that profound that the Prime Minister
of Japan and I are friends. But remember this part of history -- 60
years ago, they were the sworn enemy of the United States of America.
We were at war with the Japanese. And a lot of relatives of yours, I'm
confident, fought in that war. My dad did, and other dads and
granddads did, as well. And it was a tough war and we lost a lot of
folks.
Yet, after we won the war, President Harry S. Truman believed in
the power of liberty to transform an enemy into an ally. That's what
he believed. So did a lot of other Americans. A lot of other
Americans didn't agree with him, though. Why help the enemy? And the
enemy couldn't become a democracy. You know, there was a lot of
excuses and a lot of pessimism about the helping the Japanese. But,
fortunately, they stuck to it, Japan became a democracy. And today I
sit down at the table with Prime Minister Koizumi, talking about how to
keep the peace we all want, talking about keeping the peace. Some day
an American President will be sitting down with the duly-elected leader
from Iraq, talking about the peace in the greater Middle East, and our
children and our grandchildren will be better off for it. (Applause.)
I believe people in the Middle East want to live in freedom.
That's what I believe. The people of Afghanistan showed what freedom
can mean. Do you realize women stood in line for hours waiting to
vote, after having lived in a society where they had no rights. And
they stood in line to vote, even though the Taliban were threatening
them with death and destruction.
People want to be free. I believe women in the greater Middle East
want to live in a free society. I believe moms and dads want to raise
their children in a free and peaceful world. I believe all these
things because freedom is not America's gift to the world, freedom is
the Almighty God's gift to each man and woman in this world.
(Applause.)
It's the last time I'm going to be in Eau Clair before the
election, but I do want to thank you for coming. And when I campaigned
in your state in 2000, I said if you gave me a chance to serve, I would
uphold the honor and the dignity of the office to which I had been
elected. With your help, we will carry Wisconsin and I will do so for
four more years.
God bless. Thank you all for coming. Thank you for coming.
(Applause.)
END 3:35 P.M. CDT
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