For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
October 23, 2004
President's Remarks in Ft. Myers, Florida
City of Palms Park
Ft. Myers, Florida
10:10 A.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all. (Applause.) Thank you all for
coming.
AUDIENCE: Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!
THE PRESIDENT: It's getting close to voting time, and I am here to
ask for your help. (Applause.) Get your friends and neighbors to go
to the polls. Remind people we have a duty to vote. And when you get
them headed to the polls -- and by the way, don't overlook discerning
Democrats -- (laughter) -- people like Senator Zell Miller.
(Applause.) When you get them headed to the polls, remind them, if
they want a safer America, a stronger America, and a better America, to
put me and Dick Cheney back in office. (Applause.)
I want to thank you all for coming. It's a great way to start a
Saturday morning -- at the ballpark with a lot of great Americans.
(Applause.) I'm so happy that Laura is traveling with me today.
(Applause.) Today I'm going to talk about why I think you need to put
me back in office for four more years, but perhaps the most important
reason of all is so that Laura is the First Lady for four more years.
(Applause.)
My running mate, Dick Cheney, is out working hard. Listen, I
readily concede he does not have the waviest hair in the race.
(Laughter.) You'll be happy to hear I didn't pick him because of his
hairdo. (Laughter.) I picked him because of his judgment and his
experience and he's getting the job done for the American people.
(Applause.)
I'm proud of my brother, Jeb. (Applause.) When the hurricanes hit
this part of your state, I came by to try to lend my support, to remind
people that the federal government will do everything we can do to help
the people of this part of the world get their feet back on the
ground. But your Governor showed great compassion and great
leadership. (Applause.)
I want to thank Connie Mack for joining us today. He represented
this state and this district with such class and dignity. I'm proud
that his son, Connie Mack, IV, is running for the United States
Congress. Nothing -- (applause) -- there's nothing wrong with a son
following in a father's footsteps. (Applause.) When you're in there
voting for Connie, make sure you put Mel Martinez in the United States
Senate. (Applause.)
I want to thank my friend, Congressman Mark Foley, for joining us
today. I appreciate the Mayor of Fort Myers, being here. Mayor
Humphrey, thanks for coming. I want to thank the Attorney General for
joining us. I want to thank the House Speaker. Listen, I want to
thank all the people who are serving for coming here today.
(Applause.) I thank my friend, Daron Norwood, for singing to help
entertain you before the -- before we made it here. (Applause.)
Most of all, I want to thank you. I want to thank the people
putting up the signs, making the phone calls, doing all the hard work
at the grassroots level. With your help, we'll carry Florida again and
win a great victory. (Applause.)
We've just got 10 days to go in this campaign. And voters have a
clear choice between two very different candidates with different
approaches and different records. You know where I stand. (Applause.)
And sometimes -- and sometimes, you even know where my opponent
stands. (Laughter.) We both have -- we both have records. I am
proudly running on mine. (Applause.) The Senator is running from
his. (Laughter.) And there's a reason why. There's a reason why.
There is a mainstream in American politics, and my opponent sits on the
far left bank. (Laughter.) I'm a compassionate conservative and
proudly so. (Applause.)
This election comes down to five clear choices for American
families, five choices on issues of great consequence: your family's
security, your family's budget, your quality of life, your retirement,
and the bedrock values that are so critical to our families and to our
future. (Applause.)
The first clear choice is very important because it concerns the
security of our country and the security of your family. All our
progresses on every issue depends on the safety of our citizens. This
will be the first presidential election since September the 11th,
2001. Americans will go to the poll in a time of war and ongoing
threats unlike any we have faced before. The terrorists who killed
thousands of innocent people are still dangerous and determined to
strike us again. The outcome of this election will set the direction
of the war against terror. The most solemn duty of the American
President is to protect the American people. (Applause.) If America
shows uncertainty or weakness in this decade, the world will drift
toward tragedy. This will not happen on my watch. (Applause.)
Since that terrible morning of September the 11th, 2001, with have
fought the terrorists across the Earth -- not for pride, not for power,
but because the lives of our citizens are at stake. Our strategy is
clear. We've strengthened protections for our homeland. We're
reforming our intelligence capabilities. To meet the changing threat in
today's world, we are transforming our all-volunteer army -- I will
keep it an all-volunteer army. (Applause.) We're on the offensive; we
will stay on the offensive. And we're succeeding. More than
three-quarters of al Qaeda's key members and associates have been
brought to justice, and the rest of them know we're on their trail.
(Applause.)
My opponent has a very different approach. He says that September
the 11th -- he says that September the 11th -- quote -- "didn't change
me much at all." End quote.
AUDIENCE: Booo!
THE PRESIDENT: And that's pretty clear. He considers the war on
terror primarily a law enforcement and intelligence-gathering
operation.
AUDIENCE: Booo!
THE PRESIDENT: His top foreign policy advisor questioned it is
even a war at all, saying, it's like a metaphor, like the war on
poverty.
AUDIENCE: Booo!
THE PRESIDENT: Anyone who thinks we are fighting a metaphor does
not understand the enemy we face. (Applause.) You cannot win a war if
you are not convinced we're even in one. Senator Kerry also
misunderstands our battle against the insurgents and terrorists in
Iraq. After voting to authorize force against Saddam Hussein, after
calling it, the right decision, when I sent troops into Iraq, the
Senator now calls it, the wrong war.
AUDIENCE: Booo!
THE PRESIDENT: The Senator used to recognize that Saddam Hussein
was a gathering threat who hated America. After all, he said so. He
used to recognize that Saddam was a state sponsor of terror with a
history of pursuing and even using weapons of mass destruction. After
all, he said so. He used to understand that Saddam was a major source
of instability in the Middle East. After all, he said so. And when he
voted to authorize force, the Senator must have recognized the
nightmare scenario that terrorists might somehow access weapons of mass
destruction. Senator Kerry seems to have forgotten all of that, as his
position has evolved during the course of the campaign. You might call
it election amnesia. (Applause.) I know then and I know now that
America and the world are safer with Saddam Hussein sitting in a prison
cell. (Applause.)
Senator Kerry now calls Iraq a diversion.
AUDIENCE: Booo!
THE PRESIDENT: But the case of just one terrorist shows how wrong
his thinking is. It's a man named Zarqawi. He's responsible for
planting car bombs and beheading Americans in Iraq. I want you to
remember, he ran a terrorist camp, a terrorist training camp, in
Afghanistan until our forces arrived to destroy that camp.
(Applause.) He then fled to Iraq. He recently publicly announced his
allegiance to Osama bin Laden. If Zarqawi and his associates were not
busy fighting American forces in Iraq, what does Senator Kerry think,
that he'd be a small businessman? (Laughter.) That he'd be living a
peaceful life, making positive contributions to society somewhere? I
don't think so. Our troops will defeat them there so we do not have to
face them in our own cities. (Applause.)
The choice in this election cannot be clearer. You cannot lead our
nation to the decisive victory on which the security of every American
family depends if you do not see the true dangers of the post-September
11th world. My opponent has a September the 10th point of view. At
convention -- at his convention, he declared that his strategy will be
to respond to attacks after America is hit.
AUDIENCE: Booo!
THE PRESIDENT: That would be too late. In our debates, he said,
with a straight face, we can defend America only if we pass a global
test.
AUDIENCE: Booo!
THE PRESIDENT: I'm not making that up. I heard him. He was
standing right there when he said it. (Applause.) I will work with
our friends and allies, but I will never turn over our national
security decisions to leaders of other countries. (Applause.)
I want to thank the veterans who are here. (Applause.) I want to
thank the military families who are here. (Applause.) I want to thank
those who wear the uniform who are here. (Applause.) You will have
the full support of our government. That's why I went to Congress and
proposed $87 billion of funding. I want -- as you gather up the vote,
I want you to remind your fellow citizens of this startling statistic.
Four members of the United States Senate voted to authorize the use of
force and then voted against funding for our troops in combat -- only
four members, two of whom were my opponent and his running mate.
AUDIENCE: Booo!
THE PRESIDENT: My opponent is a person that said he actually did
vote for the $87 billion right before he voted against it. He then
said the whole thing was a complicated matter. There's nothing
complicated about supporting our troops in harm's way. (Applause.)
I believe -- I believe in the transformational power of liberty. I
want you to recognize what's happened in Afghanistan. That country has
gone from darkness to light. (Applause.) Young girls couldn't go to
school some three-and-a-half years ago. Their mothers were whipped in
the public square if they didn't toe the line of these barbaric
Taliban. Today, because we defended ourselves, freedom is on the
march. Millions voted in a presidential election. The first voter was
a 19-year-old woman, and the world is better off for it. (Applause.)
Despite ongoing violence, Iraq has an interim government. It's
building up its own security forces. We're headed toward elections in
January. You see, we're safer, America is safer with Afghanistan and
Iraq on the road to democracy. We can be proud that 50 million
citizens of those countries now live as free men and women.
(Applause.) We must understand that free societies help us keep the
peace. I believe strongly in freedom. 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.)
The second clear choice in this election concerns your family
budget. When I ran for President four years ago, I pledged to lower
taxes for America's families. I kept my word. (Applause.) We doubled
the child credit to $1,000 per child. We reduced the marriage
penalty. Our tax code ought to encourage marriage, not penalize
marriage. (Applause.) We dropped the lowest bracket to 10 percent to
help our families. We reduced income taxes for everybody who pays
taxes. As a result of these good policies, real after-tax income, the
money in your pocket, the money you get to use, is up about 10 percent
since I took office. (Applause.)
Our economy has been through a lot. See, that stock market was in
serious decline six months prior to my inauguration. That stock market
decline foretold a recession. And then we had some corporate
scandals. By the way, we made it clear, we're not going to tolerate
dishonesty in the boardrooms of this country. (Applause.) And then we
got attacked, and those attacks hurt our economy. We lost about a
million jobs in the three months after September the 11th. But our
economic policies have led us back to growth, and that's good for
American families. Our economy is growing at rates as fast as any in
nearly 20 years. We've added 1.9 million new jobs since August of
2003. The national unemployment rate is 5.4 percent, lower than the
average of the 1970s, the 1980s, and the 1990s. (Applause.) The
unemployment rate in your great state is 4.5 percent. (Applause.)
We're moving forward.
My opponent has different plans for your budget. He intends to
take a big chunk out of it.
AUDIENCE: Booo!
THE PRESIDENT: When I asked Congress to help grow this economy and
help our American families, he voted against the higher child credit,
he voted against marriage penalty relief, he voted against lower
taxes. If he had had his way, the average middle-class family would be
paying $2,000 more a year to the federal government.
AUDIENCE: Booo!
THE PRESIDENT: It's kind of part of a pattern. He voted 10 times
to raise taxes on gasoline as a United States Senator. And all told,
during his 20 years in the Senate, he voted 98 times to raise taxes.
AUDIENCE: Booo!
THE PRESIDENT: Think about it. It's about five times a year he's
voted to raise taxes. When a Senator does something that often, he
must really enjoy it. (Laughter.) And that's a warning. That's a
predictable pattern. During the campaign, he's made a lot of big,
expensive promises. He's promised about $2.2 trillion of new
spending. That's with a "T." (Laughter.) That's a lot even for a
Senator from Massachusetts. (Laughter.)
So they said, how are you going to pay for it. And he said, oh,
I'm just going to tax the rich. We have heard that before. First of
all, when you raise the top two brackets, you know who you're taxing --
you're taxing job creators. Most small businesses pay tax at the
individual income tax rate. Seventy percent of new jobs in America are
created by small businesses. Raising taxes on small businesses is
lousy economic policy. (Applause.)
When you talk about running up the top two brackets or taxing the
rich, you raise about $600 billion or $800 billion, depending on who's
counting, but remember, that's far short of the $2.2 trillion he
promised. So there's a gap, a gap between what he's promised and how
he's going to raise the money. And guess who usually gets to fill the
gap.
AUDIENCE: We do!
THE PRESIDENT: That's exactly right. And finally, the rich hire
lawyers and accountants during tax time for a reason. That's to slip
the tab and stick you with the bill. We're not going to let him raise
your taxes. We're going to carry Florida and win a great victory in
November. (Applause.)
AUDIENCE: Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!
THE PRESIDENT: The third clear choice -- the third clear choice in
this election involves the quality of life for our nation's families.
I believe a good education and quality health care are important to a
successful life. (Applause.) When I ran for President four years ago,
I promised to end the soft bigotry of low expectations by reforming our
public schools. I kept my word. (Applause.) We passed the No Child
Left Behind Act, meaningful education reforms to bring high standards
to our classrooms and to make schools more accountable to our parents.
We're making progress. Math and reading scores are rising. We're
closing an achievement gap by helping all students. We will build on
these reforms. We will extend them to our high school so that no child
is left behind in America. (Applause.)
We will continue to improve life for our families by making health
care more available and more affordable. We'll expand health savings
accounts so more small businesses can cover their workers and more
families will be able to get health care accounts they can manage and
call their own. We will create association health plans so small
businesses can join together to buy insurance at the same discounts big
companies get. (Applause.)
We will help families in need by expanding community health
centers, and making sure every eligible child is enrolled in our
government's low-income health programs. We'll help patients and
doctors everywhere by doing something about the frivolous lawsuits that
run up the cost of your practice and run good doctors out of business.
(Applause.) We want our doctors focusing on fighting illnesses, not on
fighting frivolous lawsuits. (Applause.) These lawsuits are a
national problem that require a national solution. I am for medical
liability reform. (Applause.)
Senator Kerry has a different point of view on our schools and
health care system. Listen, he voted for the No Child Left Behind Act,
but now wants to weaken the accountability standards. He's proposed
including measures like teacher attendance to judge whether students
can read or write or add and subtract.
AUDIENCE: Booo!
THE PRESIDENT: He voted against health savings accounts. He
opposes association health plans. He has voted 10 times against
medical liability reform.
AUDIENCE: Booo!
THE PRESIDENT: You heard him in the debates the other day mouth
something about helping our docs and patients. Remember, he put a
personal injury trial lawyer on the ticket. (Applause.) He can run
from his record, but he cannot hide. (Applause.)
Now he's proposing a big government health care plan that would
cause 8 million families to lose private coverage they get at work and
have to go onto a government plan. Eighty percent of the people who
get coverage under his idea would be enrolled in a government program.
In one of our debates, he tried to tell America that when it comes to
his health care plan -- and I quote -- "The government has nothing to
do with it." (Laughter.) I could barely contain myself. (Laughter.)
He can run from his record, but he cannot hide. (Applause.)
My opponent's plan would move America down the road to federal
control of health care, and that is the wrong road for American
families. (Applause.) In all we do to improve health care in a new
term, we will make sure the decisions are made by doctors and patients,
not by officials in Washington, D.C. (Applause.)
The fourth clear choice in this election involves your retirement.
Our nation has made a solemn commitment to our seniors on Medicare and
Social Security. When I ran for President four years ago, I promised
to keep that commitment. I promised to improve Medicare by adding
prescription drug coverage for our seniors. I kept my word.
(Applause.) You remember those endless debates -- leaders on both
political parties have talked about strengthening Medicare for years.
We got the job done. Seniors are now getting discounts on medicine
through drug discount cards. Low-income seniors are getting $600 to
help them this year and next year, and beginning in 2006, all seniors
will be able to get prescription drugs coverage under Medicare.
(Applause.)
My opponent voted against the Medicare bill that included
prescription drug coverage, even though it was supported by AARP and
other senior groups. Later he said -- quote -- "If I'm the President,
we're going to repeal that phony bill." Then a little later he said,
no, I don't want to repeal it. Sounds familiar. As your President for
the next four years, I will defend the reforms we have worked so hard
to pass and keep the promise to America's seniors. (Applause.)
And we will keep the promise of Social Security for our seniors.
And as we do so, we will strengthen Social Security for generations to
come. Every election -- every election, desperate politicians try to
scare our seniors about Social Security. It's just predictable. You
remember in the 2000 campaign, they ran the ads telling our seniors, if
George W. gets elected, you won't get your Social Security check.
Well, when you're out gathering up the vote, remind our seniors that
George W. did get elected and our seniors did get their checks.
(Applause.)
And our seniors will continue to get their checks. And baby
boomers are in pretty good shape when it comes to the Social Security
trust. But we all must be concerned about our children and our
grandchildren. Some day, our youngest workers will retire, and we've
got to make sure the Social Security system will be there when they
need it. I believe younger workers ought to be able to take some of
their own money and put it into a personal savings account, a personal
savings account that will earn a better rate of return, a personal
savings account they can call their own, an account the government
cannot take away. (Applause.)
Once again, my opponent takes a different point of view. He talks
about protecting Social Security, but he's the only candidate in this
race who voted eight times for higher taxes on Social Security
benefits.
AUDIENCE: Booo!
THE PRESIDENT: And when it comes to the next generation, he has
offered nothing. The job of the President is to confront problems, not
to pass them on to future generations and future Presidents. In a new
term, I will bring Republicans and Democrats together to strengthen
Social Security for an upcoming generation of America. (Applause.)
The fifth choice in this election is on the values that are so
crucial to keeping our family strong. And here, my opponent and I are
miles apart. I believe marriage is a sacred commitment -- (applause)
-- a pillar of our civilization, and I will defend it. (Applause.)
This is not a partisan issue. When Congress passed the Defense of
Marriage Act, defining marriage as a union of a man and a woman, the
vast majority of Democrats supported it. My predecessor, President
Clinton, signed it into law. But Senator Kerry was part of an
out-of-the-mainstream minority that voted against the Defense of
Marriage Act.
AUDIENCE: Booo!
THE PRESIDENT: I believe that reasonable people can find common
ground on difficult issues. Republicans and Democrats and many
citizens on both sides of the life issue came together and agreed that
we should ban the brutal practice of partial birth abortions.
(Applause.) Senator Kerry was part of an out-of-the-mainstream
minority that voted against the ban.
AUDIENCE: Booo!
THE PRESIDENT: He voted against parental notification laws.
AUDIENCE: Booo!
THE PRESIDENT: Against the Unborn Victims of Violence Act.
AUDIENCE: Booo!
THE PRESIDENT: I will continue to reach out to Americans of every
belief and move this good-hearted nation toward a culture of life.
(Applause.)
My opponent has said that the heart and soul of America can be
found in Hollywood.
AUDIENCE: Booo!
THE PRESIDENT: Most American families do not look to Hollywood as
a source of values. The heart and soul of America is found right here
in Fort Myers, Florida. (Applause.)
All these choices make this one of the most important elections in
our history. The security and prosperity of our country, the health
and education of our families, the retirement of our seniors and the
direction of our culture are all at stake. The decision is in the best
hands, because the decision belongs to the American people.
(Applause.)
I see a bright future for America. I see a better day for all of
us. One of my favorite quotes war written by a fellow Texan, Tom Lea.
He said, "Sarah and I live on the east side of the mountain. It's the
sunrise side, not the sunset side. It is the side to see the day that
is coming, not to see the day that is gone." (Applause.) If you
listen carefully to this campaign, my opponent has spent much of this
campaign talking about the day that is gone. I see the day that is
coming.
We've been through a lot together in the last four years. Because
we've done the hard work of climbing that mountain, we can see the
valley below. We'll protect our families. We'll build their
prosperity. We will defend the deepest values. We'll spread freedom
in this world, and as we do so, we'll keep America safe and spread the
peace. (Applause.)
Four years ago, when I traveled your great state asking for the
vote, I made this pledge. I said if I was elected, I would uphold the
honor and the dignity of the office to which I had been elected. With
your help, I will do so for four more years. God bless. Thanks for
coming. (Applause.)
END 10:43 A.M. EDT
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