For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
August 9, 2004
President's Remarks in Ask President Bush Event
Northern Virginia Community College
Annandale, Virginia
10:05 A.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you for being here.
THE AUDIENCE: Four more years! Four more years! Four more
years!
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all.
THE AUDIENCE: Four more years! Four more years! Four more
years!
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all. Okay. Thank you all for coming,
please be seated.
Thanks for coming. I appreciate the warm welcome. I want to thank
you all for giving me a chance to come and explain why I want to be
your President for four more years. (Applause.)
We've done a lot since I got elected. "We," the country have
worked together. It is -- and we've accomplished a lot and we've been
through a lot. It's been tough times. The only reason to look
backward is to best determine who to lead us forward. So today I'm
going to talk about some ideas as to how to make this country a safer,
stronger and better place for every citizen, for every single person
who lives in this country.
First, I'm sorry that Laura is not here. She's out campaigning.
(Laughter and applause.) I tell the people, in front of these
enthusiastic and large crowds we've been having, that, you know,
probably the wisest reason to put me back in there is so that she'll be
the First Lady for four more years. (Applause.)
I'm running with a good man. I admit it, that Dick Cheney is not
the prettiest face on the ticket. (Laughter.) But that's not why I
picked him. I picked him because of his sound judgment, his
experience, his ability to do the job. (Applause.)
I want to thank Dr. Bob Templin for allowing us to use this
important facility. I say important, it's because the community
college system is an integral part of making sure that this country is
a hopeful country. I'll tell you why. Part of the reason I'm seeking
the presidency again is because I understand that if we use our
community college system wisely people will be trained for the jobs
which will exist. See, in order to keep jobs here in America, we've
got to have a work force that is capable of filling the jobs of the
21st century. And one of the crucial links in making sure people have
the skills necessary to fill the jobs that are coming is the community
college system. And Bob understands that. I appreciate you being
here, Bob. Thanks for giving us a chance to come by. (Applause.)
I want to thank my friend, Senator George Allen, for being here. I
appreciate you coming. (Applause.) I want to thank Frank Wolf and Ed
Schrock. I appreciate Frank's concern and dedication for those who
need American help. He understands what I know, that we have a
responsibility in the world to help those who hunger and those who are
afflicted by disease and those who suffer under tyranny. And I
appreciate Frank's deep concern, not only about the citizens of this
state, and our country, but also the deep concern about those to whom
we can deliver help, and we are. (Applause.)
Just remember, when people talk about America, just remember
they're talking about a country which is leading the fight against
HIV/AIDS, not only here at home, but on the continent of Africa.
(Applause.) And I appreciate Ed coming over. Thanks for being here,
Ed. I appreciate your leadership, as well. The Attorney General is
with us today. General, I'm proud you're here. Thanks for coming.
(Applause.) We've got some of our citizens up here because we're going
to talk about a crucial aspect of our vision, which is how to encourage
an ownership society to flourish in America. I'm going to get to that
in a minute.
Before I do, I want to talk about a couple of other points. One is
that we're making progress in spreading the peace. See, we know that a
free society is going to be a peaceful society. We also know that
freedom is not our country's gift to the world, freedom is the Almighty
God's gift to each person in this world. (Applause.)
And that's why -- that's why over the next four years, we'll
continue to work to spread freedom, for our own security and for the
sake of others. We've done some hard work over the past three years.
We must never forget the lessons of September the 11th. First of all,
the enemy that we face is cruel. Unlike Americans, they don't have a
conscience. They're willing to kill innocent people in order to shake
our will and our resolve. As we work to secure our country, we must
never forget the nature of the people -- and those people cannot be
negotiated with, you can't reason with them. You can't -- can't sit
down and say, look, why won't you change your ways. That's not the way
they think. And your President must clearly understand that.
(Applause.) That's why it's important for us -- that's why over the
next four years, we will engage them in places like Iraq, Afghanistan
and elsewhere so we do not have to face them here at home. (Applause.)
Secondly, when this country speaks, it better mean what it says in
order to make the world a more peaceful place. In other words, when we
say things, we must mean what we say. And when I said that if you
harbor a terrorist, you're just as guilty as the terrorist, I meant
exactly that. (Applause.) And that's why we made the decision -- a
tough decision, by the way; nobody wants to commit kids to war. That's
what you got to understand. It's the hardest decision a President can
make. And you only do so if you're convinced it's going to lead to
peace. It's a different kind of war we're in, and, therefore, we had
to say clearly to those that we're providing safe haven that you're
going to be held accountable, as well. Because remember, al Qaeda was
training in Afghanistan. They had taken over the country. We could
not allow that to continue for our own security, and for the sake of
the people who lived underneath the brutal dictatorship of the
Taliban. And so thanks to our United States military, and our friends
and allies, Afghanistan is now free. Afghanistan is an ally.
(Applause.) Afghanistan is a -- is an ally on the war on terror.
I'll tell you something really interesting -- two things I want to
share with you about Afghanistan. I can remember earlier in the
spring, I think it was, people were talking about how maybe people
aren't going to vote. Don't you remember, there was some serious
terrorist attacks on women, in particular, that had got their
registration cards and were in the process. The world was kind of
predicting people weren't going to show up to vote. Turns out, over 8
million -- I think the number is 8 million -- Afghani citizens have
registered to vote, far exceeding expectations. People want to be
free. (Applause.) People want to be free. They want to live in a free
society. They want to be able to exercise their rights as a human
being. It's a universal desire and a universal love.
Secondly, when I was in Cleveland a while back, this is like the
last couple of weeks -- I've been traveling a lot, so it's kind of hard
for me to remember exactly where I've been. (Laughter.) I went to the
International Children's Games, I helped kick it off. And I was there
speaking to the athletes. And right to my right, I'll never forget it,
was the Afghan Girl's Soccer Team. (Applause.) Now, let me tell you
what's interesting about that. They would not have been in the United
States, they wouldn't even have been playing soccer under the Taliban.
These people were so brutal, so dark in their vision that many young
girls didn't have a chance to be educated.
Not only do we have an ally in the war on terror, there is a more
compassionate and decent society growing in Afghanistan, which is in
our interests, and it's in the world's interests. (Applause.)
As the American people look at this election, they must take a look
at the candidates and determine who best understands the lessons to be
learned from September the 11th. Another lesson is, is that we must
deal with threats before they fully materialize. (Applause.) In this
world of threats to our homeland, in this world where there are folks
who cannot stand our country and our way of life, we must deal with
threats. It used to be we didn't have to. Now you just can't hope
they go away. They must be dealt with -- hopefully, diplomatically;
hopefully, we can cure things, problems peacefully. That ought to be
the first priority of any President. However, if diplomacy fails, we
must be a country that is willing to take action to defend ourselves.
(Applause.)
I want you to remember -- Saddam Hussein was a threat, he was a
clear threat. He had used weapons of mass destruction against his own
people. He had terrorist organizations in his country. He was a sworn
enemy of the United States of America. He is a person that invaded
countries in his neighborhood. We all looked at the intelligence -- I
looked at it, members of Congress from both political parties looked at
it, my opponent looked at it. We all came to the same conclusion:
Saddam Hussein was a threat. (Applause.) The United Nations Security
Council -- the U.N. Security Council concluded Saddam was a threat and
passed a resolution unanimously which said, disarm, disclose or face
serious consequences. That's what the free world said.
And he deceived the world again. I say, "again," because that's
what he'd been doing for a decade. And then he deceived the
inspectors. Remember, with that period of time, we said, oh, let the
inspections work. We were all for that. We wanted the inspectors to
work. But it was clear that he was deceiving them. So I had a choice
to make, and that is, whether or not to trust a man who had used
weapons of mass destruction, somebody who had used -- somebody who had
defied the free world. My choice was, do I forget the lessons of
September the 11th, or do I take actions necessary to defend our
country. And given that very difficult choice, I chose to defend
America. I will do so every time. (Applause.) Thank you all.
We didn't find the stockpiles that we thought we would find.
Everybody thought they would be there. We haven't found them yet. But
he did have the capability of making weapons. Knowing what I know
today, I would have made the same decision. (Applause.) We couldn't
afford to take the chance that a sworn enemy of America would share
capabilities with an enemy which hates us. That's a chance we couldn't
afford to take.
I'll tell you an interesting story -- and by the way, I think the
candidates for President must say, "yes" or "no," whether or not they
would have made the same decision. (Applause.)
I tell the story about the seven men that came to see me in the
Oval Office. They had had their right hands cut off by Saddam Hussein
because his currency had devalued, and he was looking for a scapegoat.
And they had an "X" burned in their forehead, as well, to brand them as
enemies of the state, I guess. I don't know what the symbol was. But
they came to see me in the Oval Office. Needless to say, it was a
powerful moment. The fellows walked in, were just overwhelmed by the
majesty of a shrine to democracy. And it was -- imagine, seeing the
President of the United States. And I was emotional because the
contrast between what we believe and what Saddam Hussein did to his
people is just so amazing, because these people had just come from
Houston, Texas, where they had received new hands because of the
generosity of an American citizen named Marvin Zindler. (Applause.)
It was just a clear contrast between the brutality of a man who
whimsically could have somebody's hand cut off, and the great
generosity and love of compassion of the American citizens who are
willing to help heal somebody no matter their religion or where they're
from. A free Iraq is going to change the world.
For those of you with young kids, I want you to think about a world
that is going to be much more peaceful, a country more secure because
during these difficult days we're standing true to our firm belief and
our ideals that freedom equals peace. And it's hard work.
(Applause.) It's hard work. It's hard work, because there are people
in that -- in the Middle East that can't stand the thought of a free
society. It just scares them. And they don't scare us. They're
tough, but we're resolute because we understand the charge of history,
the charge that history has given us. We have a duty. We have a duty
to keep our word. We have told the Iraqi people and the people of
Afghanistan that, we're with you. And they're watching carefully.
They're watching carefully to determine whether or not they can take a
risk for freedom, or whether or not America's word doesn't mean
anything. I'm convinced that these are historic times. These are
times when people look back and say, thank goodness the American people
stood true to our belief, that liberty is a transforming moment in the
history of the world. (Applause.)
A couple of other points. I talk about a stronger and better
America, it means our economy needs to be strong. The economy is
growing and there's more to do. One of the things we better make sure
is we don't raise the taxes on the people. (Applause.) This is going
to be a campaign issue. I'm going to talk about good education policy
to help train workers. I'll talk about energy policy to make sure
we're not -- that we're less dependent on foreign sources of energy.
Of course, I'm going to talk about liability reform, medical liability
reform. (Applause.) I'll talk about tort reform, so our business
people can thrive and hire people.
I mean, the economy is strong, it's getting stronger. And there
are policies we need to put in place to make sure this is the best
place in the world to do business. If you want jobs to stay in
America, like I do, this better be a place where people feel
comfortable taking risks and expanding the job base. So I've spent a
lot of time talking about that in the course of the campaign.
Today, we're going to talk about how to encourage an ownership
society in America. Listen, these are changing times. If you really
think about it, they are much different from the times when we came
up. Most of our dads -- at least guys my age dads -- worked for one
company. Mine did move around a little bit, but -- (laughter.)
George's generally worked for one company. (Laughter and applause.)
At any rate, when we think about it, it was a different society
back a couple of decades ago because a person stayed with the same
company, had the health plan from the company, retirement plan from the
company. Now people are moving around. It's a different world. And
there is some uncertainty in that kind of world. Moms and dads are
both working, sometimes out of the house. And the economy is
changing. And, therefore, government policy ought to change with the
times. And one way to bring stability and security into a person's
life is to encourage ownership. See, if you own and control your own
health care plan, you can move from job to job without worrying as to
whether or not you're going to get health coverage for your family. If
you own your own home, and building equity in your own home, and you're
changing from job to job, it provides great security and relief.
And so we're going to talk about different forms of ownership
here. But the point here, is I want you to understand that over the
next four years we'll be working to build a culture of ownership in
America. We want more people owning things in this country.
(Applause.)
Let me put it to you bluntly: In a changing world, we want more
people to have control over your own life. And that's a difference --
there's a difference in philosophy, when you think about it. A lot of
the government policies are, you know, as I like to put it: we'll give
you the orders and you pay the bills. (Laughter.) If you really think
about it, there's a philosophical divide here in this campaign. My
judgment is, government ought to be empowering people by giving them
more control over their lives. And we'll talk about some practical
ways to do that.
Now, look, one of the things we'll always work to do is to take
care of those people who cannot help themselves. As a matter of fact,
a proper policy of government is to give people the tools necessary to
be able to realize their own dreams. That's why education is vital.
(Applause.) That's why the No Child Left Behind Act must be
strengthened. It's making a big difference. I'm telling you, when you
start asking the question, can you read and write and add and subtract,
all of a sudden, people start learning better. There's
accountability. It holds people to account. (Applause.) It's a
mediocre system when you quit on kids basically because of the color of
their skin, you know? We're not going to do that anymore in America.
In terms of health care, there's some smart things we can do.
We've got to recognize there are people who can't help themselves.
That's why -- these health centers we've opened up around the country
make eminent sense -- so primary care for low-income people can be
delivered at these centers, as opposed to emergency rooms. There are
things we're doing throughout our administration, but all aimed at
encouraging people to help themselves and eventually being able to own
something, too. And so what I want to talk to you today about is some
interesting examples of what I'm saying.
We're going to start off with Sharon Rainey. She's sitting right
here. She's an entrepreneur. Isn't that a lovely word? You know,
entrepreneur -- we want entrepreneurs. See, the job of government is
not to create wealth, but to create an environment in which the
entrepreneurial spirit is strong and alive and well. And it is under
the Bush administration, and will continue to be. (Applause.)
Ready to go? All right. Sharon started her own business. True or
false?
MRS. RAINEY: True. (Laughter.)
THE PRESIDENT: This is a warm-up. I'm not even a lawyer, and here
I am leading the witness. (Laughter.)
MRS. RAINEY: She needs the leading. (Laughter.)
THE PRESIDENT: Tell us what you do.
* * * * *
THE PRESIDENT: See, let me stop you there. First of all, what
government cannot do is encourage Sharon to start her own business.
(Laughter.) We can't tell her to. I beg your pardon, we can encourage
her to by good policy. We can't tell her to. See, you can't make her
be an entrepreneur.
Secondly, she's got to design the product, herself. She's got to
be smart enough to figure out how to meet demand, which she did. But
one thing we can do is not over-tax her. (Applause.) Most new jobs in
America are created by small businesses. That's really important for
people to understand. I hope you know that.
The tax relief we passed, the well-timed tax relief we passed, I
might add -- (applause) -- recognized the importance of small
businesses in our society. See, most people probably do not understand
that, by far, the vast majority of small businesses are organized like
Sharon's business is organized, and pay individual income taxes.
They're called sub-chapter S's, or in this case, an LLC, or a sole
proprietorship.
And, therefore, when she files her business tax returns, she pays
individual income taxes. And, therefore, when you hear us talking
about providing tax relief to individuals, it ought to be providing tax
relief to individuals and to the small businesses sector of America.
See, we want taxes low for Sharon so her business, which has now gone
from not-for profit to for-profit -- that's always a good sign, by the
way, if you're a business person. (Laughter.) Isn't that right?
MS. RAINEY: Yes, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: You can say, for-profit. We want her business to
flourish. She hired a person recently, I understand -- or not?
MS. RAINEY: I've hired three people recently. It's now gone up
to six part-time employees. (Applause.)
THE PRESIDENT: Let me talk to you about -- see, she hired three,
and when the entrepreneurial spirit is strong in the country, the
Sharons of America hire three people here, three people there, and all
of a sudden it starts to amount to something. And it's -- that's why
the people are finding work, because the small-business sector of the
country is strong.
I asked Sharon to come because I think it's such a wonderful
example of somebody who created her own business, because of her own
ingenuity and her own drive. And now the role of government is not to
-- is to make sure that the environment is such that she can continue
to grow. She's got to figure out the right product, don't get me
wrong. There are no guarantees in the business world. But I can tell
you one guarantee -- if we run the prices up on -- run the taxes up on
Sharon, it's going to be hard for her to expand. That's why you've got
to be careful about this rhetoric, we're only going to tax the rich.
You know who the -- the rich in America happen to be the small business
owners. That's what that means. Just remember, when you're talking
about, oh, we're just going to run up the taxes on a certain number of
people -- first of all, real rich people figure out how to dodge
taxes. (Laughter.) And the small business owners end up paying a lot
of the burden of this taxation.
Third, I want to make another point. We shouldn't be taking more
than 35 percent of anybody's money, anyway, federal taxes out to be --
(applause.) Sharon is a small business owner. We want more people
owning their own small business. There's some incredibly helpful --
hopeful signs in this country. The number of minority small business
owners are increasing, is increasing. It's -- the number is going up.
And that's really important and hopeful. The number of women-owned
businesses is increasing, and that is, I think, really positive news
for the country. We want people to say, this is my business, I own my
business, just like we want people saying, I own my own home.
And, so, therefore, policies over the next four years will be to
encourage others to own their own home, to expand the home ownership in
America. Right now the home-ownership rate is the highest ever. We
want more people owning their own home. (Applause.)
And so we've got Kevin with us, Kevin Brault, first-time home
owner. He's a fellow that walks out for the first time, and says,
welcome to my home. So what's it like to say, welcome to my home?
MR. BRAULT: It feels great. So I purchased my home, first home in
November of 2001. And at that time, it was close to two months after
September 11th. So I was a little hesitant as to, you know, whether
the economy was going to stay strong, what was going to happen in this
area, because my home is just a couple miles away. So I went forward
and decided to take that step, to create my own ownership and create my
own net worth. And it's been a great decision. Since then, the net
worth of the home has increased over 50 percent. (Applause.) Then
with interest rates coming down last summer, I was able to refinance
from 6.5 percent to 5 percent, thus saving over $300 a month on my
mortgage.
THE PRESIDENT: That's good, yes. You know, when a home owner
starts talking about his own home -- in this case he starts talking
about, my value has gone up -- (laughter) -- that means his worth.
That means that in a changing time, it is helpful to know that your
portfolio, your asset base, that which you own has got a little more
value to it. It kind of changes your attitude, doesn't it, a little
bit. You know something, it changes it so much, he's getting married.
(Laughter and applause.) That's good. Where's Lisa?
MR. BRAULT: Right there in the blue shirt.
THE PRESIDENT: You've probably got some ideas about how to remodel
the home, don't you? (Applause.)
MR. BRAULT: Big time, absolutely.
THE PRESIDENT: That's a word we use in this administration a lot,
"big time." (Laughter and applause.) Anyway, this man got relief from
taxes, and I think it says you saved about $800 in '03, same amount in
'04, because when we provided tax relief, we said, if you pay taxes,
you get relief. That's not the way sometimes tax relief works in
Washington. Sometimes it's, we're going to make sure only certain
people get tax relief. If you're going to provide relief, it's only
fair that everybody ought to get relief. That's why we reduced all
rates, which seems to make sense. (Applause.) Good old Kevin Brault
here got him $800. I like to put it this way: Once you set priorities
at the federal level, Kevin Brault can spend his own money better than
the government can. (Applause.) Right, Kevin?
MR. BRAULT: That's right.
THE PRESIDENT: I was hoping that would be your answer.
(Laughter.) And if the tax relief isn't made permanent, his taxes go
up, and so do Sharon's. That's why we're having this debate. So does
yours, that's right. That's why we're having this debate in
Washington, D.C. See, when Congress passed the tax relief, parts of
the tax relief plan were set to expire. If Congress doesn't act, the
child credit is going to go down, which means you're going to -- if
you've got a child, you're paying higher taxes. The marriage penalty
goes up if Congress doesn't act, which means if you're married, you're
going to pay higher taxes. The 10 percent bracket goes away, which
means if you're benefitting from the 10 percent bracket, you're paying
higher taxes. We don't need to be raising taxes on the American people
right now. The taxes ought to be lower, to keep the economy growing.
(Applause.) Good job, Kevin.
Let me talk to you about savings for retirement. We've got Susie
and Chris Ensign with us today. They're savers. Good policy
encourages people to save. And one of the interesting questions that
we'll be confronted with in government when the baby boomers begin to
-- really begin to retire, is how to make sure the Social Security
system is strong so that the infants will be able to see something from
Social Security. This is a very important issue for young workers.
Old guys like me don't need to worry about it because the system is
solvent for those who have retired, or are near retirement. What we
need to worry about is younger folks, like the Ensigns. And so we're
going to talk a little bit about savings. I want them to share with
the people who might be listening, how they think about savings, what
savings means as a young couple. And maybe they've got some
suggestions on Social Security -- how to strengthen the system, how to
make it fulfill the promise -- better fulfill the promise that our
government has made.
Welcome, thank you all for coming. Which one of you going to lead
off?
MR. ENSIGN: My name is Chris, and this is my wife, Susie.
THE PRESIDENT: Right.
* * * * *
THE PRESIDENT: See, what you're hearing is -- that's a very
interesting -- (applause.) See, what -- what Chris just said is part
of an attitudinal shift towards Social Security that is taking place in
the country. When I was coming up, it was pretty well assumed that
Social Security would be all right -- until people began to calculate
the fact that there's a lot of baby boomers who are going to be on the
system relative to the number of payers into the system, like Chris.
And the fundamental question is, can we change the system by
strengthening it, so that Chris can realize there's something available
for him after he pays for me? That's really what we're talking about,
isn't it?
And what he just said was, he said, look, if you look at the rates
of return on the money in the Social Security trust fund, they are so
abysmally low, that it is impossible -- virtually impossible from a
fiscal perspective, to make the system work without raising taxes on
him and his family, to the point where it chokes productivity and
progress.
And then what he said was, he said, well, would government please
consider putting aside some of my own money -- at his choice -- in a
personal account, an account that he could manage under obviously
strict guidelines, but could get a better rate of return for his money
than that which we're now getting inside the Social Security trust.
And by the way, it would be an account that is his own -- or their own,
that they could then pass on to whomever they wanted to pass it on to.
I support the idea of creating a personal saving account for younger
workers in order to make sure the system is solvent. (Applause.)
By the way, tax relief provided this family $2,000 in '03 and '04.
I don't know it doesn't sound like a lot to people inside the Capital,
I guess, that doesn't sound all that much maybe. It's a lot to these
people, and it enabled them to take advantage of the increased
contribution levels for the IRAs, right? You went from $2,000 to
$3,000 for your IRA. That's helpful. In other words, these good folks
decided to take the tax relief and add to their savings accounts, which
provide security in a changing world.
And so we need to do two things. We need to help people save with
good policy on the current -- on current plans, perhaps simplify the
process. There's not a lot -- there's now a lot of savings
opportunities. There are IRAs, this kind of IRA, that kind of IRA.
And good policy will be to simplify it, and make the rules clear so as
to encourage more savings so people have got their own next egg to help
them in a changing world. And then, of course, we talked about Social
Security.
I want to thank you all for coming. Good job. You want to say
anything? (Applause.)
Okay, one other thing we're going to talk about today is health
care. I told you we're expanding community health centers so that
low-income folks can get primary care. That's important. The
government policy is because of helping states with waiver requests
have expanded SCHIP -- those are -- that's health care for low-income
children. That was an important policy. We changed Medicare for the
better. We strengthened Medicare. Remember, Medicare was a system
that said, we'll pay for your hospital stay, in case you've got a heart
problem, but we won't pay for the medicine necessary to prevent you
from going to the hospital in the first place. That doesn't seem to
make much sense, did it?
And so we've begun to modernize the system, make it better for our
seniors, starting with the drug discount card. By the way, if you're a
senior, you need to look into the drug discount cards. They'll help
you save money. Next year we're going to have preventative screenings
for the first time in Medicare. Seniors signing up for Medicare will
be able to have a check-up, which seems to make sense for the
government. If you're interested in trying to save money through
national policy, you ought to be checking people early, before it's too
late. That's what we're going to start doing in Medicare. And then in
'06, seniors will have a prescription drug benefit attached to
Medicare, and they'll have the choice necessary to make -- to design a
program to suit their needs. This is good policy.
You might remember the issue of Medicare. Year after year after
year, politicians talked about it. This administration got it done.
(Applause.) Most people get their insurance through their business.
And
small businesses are having trouble paying for health care. That's
the problem we've got in the country today. A lot of it has to do with
frivolous and junk lawsuits that are running up the cost of health
care.
By the way, you can't be pro-small business and pro-trial lawyer at
the same time. (Laughter and applause.) You can't be pro-doctor and
pro-patient and pro-trial lawyer at the same time. (Laughter and
applause.) You have to choose. My opponent made his choice, and he
put him on the ticket. (Laughter.) I made my choice. I'm going to
work with Congress for liability reform and for tort reform.
(Applause.)
Health savings accounts are a new option for Americans to be able
to say, I own my own health savings account, and the doctor-patient
relationship is central to the decision-making process. That's the
core of our philosophy. (Applause.) I want -- we've got Roger Wells.
Rog is a vet who has looked into and utilized a health savings
account. I've asked him to come to explain how they work. Health
savings accounts are new. Anything new in society, when it comes to
health, requires a certain amount of education.
Now, if you're a small business like Sharon is, I want you to
listen to these accounts, because part of the problem we have in our
society is the cost of health care is too high. These accounts will
help reduce the cost of health care for small businesses, as well as
for individuals.
Roger, you have got a health savings account. Tell us about it.
* * * * *
THE PRESIDENT: Let me tell you what he just said, see if I can try
it. I appreciate it. (Applause.) He buys a catastrophic plan that
says the insurance company will pay for anything over $5,000 of health
care coverage. So he's got the comfort of knowing that if something
goes terribly wrong, he's -- he's taken care of by the insurance
company. He then contributes, tax-free, into his own account $5,000 --
so, in other words, he doesn't have to contribute anything, he can
come out of his pocket. But, nevertheless, there's a tax incentive to
do so, so that from zero to $5,000, he takes care of it.
Now, this is a small business owner. She can, for her employees,
buy a catastrophic plan with a lower deductible and help the employee
with the money for the incidentals, for the ongoing daily medical
expenses. But, anyway, in Roger's case, he puts the $5,000 in
tax-free; his money earns interest tax-free; and if he needs the money
to pay medical expenses in the year, up to $5,000, it comes out
tax-free.
Now, if he continues to make good choices -- he's from New
Hampshire -- if he continues walking those mountains of New Hampshire
so that he's healthy, and he only spends $1,000 of the $5,000, that
$4,000 is his. He can put another $5,000 in next year if he chooses.
He can use some of the $4,000 to buy another catastrophic plan.
Anyway, my point to you is, is that he gets to decide, as opposed to a
program where somebody else is making the health care decisions, an
insurance bureaucrat, for example, is making the decisions. And so
Roger is now in total charge on a tax-free basis.
These plans will change small businesses. And so small business
owners need to take a look at health savings accounts. It's a way to
provide good health coverage for employees at a much lower cost basis
than you're probably having to provide now.
So I want to thank you for sharing that with us. Go ahead.
(Applause.)
DR. WELLS: Can I say that there is one big problem with this
program?
THE PRESIDENT: Sure.
DR. WELLS: It didn't start 10 years ago. (Applause.)
THE PRESIDENT: That's right. Are you a big animal or a little
animal?
DR. WELLS: I do horses only.
THE PRESIDENT: Horses only?
DR. WELLS: Horses only.
THE PRESIDENT: I was going to say, Barney has got him a headache
and -- (laughter.) You know who Barney is, don't you? (Laughter.)
I hope you found this discussion interesting. I certainly did.
(Applause.) What we're talking about here is we want people -- when
you hear me talk about ownership society, that's what I'm talking
about, how to help people control their own lives. If you really think
about what we're talking about, we're talking about policies that say
to the American people, you're in control of your life, not the
government. The government is not dictating how you do things, you
are. (Applause.)
And I want to thank you all for sharing these with us. (Applause.)
I've got time to answer a couple of questions, if you might have some.
I'm not -- it kind of gives me a chance to warm up for press
conferences. (Laughter.)
I do want to say something about the faith-based initiative that I
talk a lot about. I understand the strength of this country is the
hearts and souls of our citizens. Over the next four years, I will
continue to rally what I call the armies of compassion, because I
believe that society can change, one heart and one soul and one
conscience at a time, when people who have got love in their hearts put
their arm around somebody in need, and says, how can I help you,
brother or sister; what can I do to help save your life?
Listen, there are wonderful government programs, and they will
continue to exist, so long as they're producing good results. But one
of the things we've got to recognize in this country is that coming out
of our churches and synagogues and mosques are programs all designed to
help save lives. And our society should not fear allowing faith-based
programs to competitively bid for social service grants, if we're
focused on changing the country. (Applause.)
I'm running again and asking for your help, because I've got a plan
to make the country safer. I know what we need to do. We've got a
plan to make the country stronger, and we've got a plan to make the
country better for every citizen. I'm not talking about a handful, I'm
talking about every one, in every corner of America. (Applause.)
I'll tell you what, let me answer some questions. I'll be glad to
answer a couple of questions, and then I've got to head back downtown
to get some work done.
Yes, ma'am.
Q Yes, education. I'm a 4th grade teacher.
THE PRESIDENT: First, let me stop you. Thank you for teaching.
(Applause.)
Q You're welcome. What can you do for our children in public
education, private education, that will make a difference in America
today?
THE PRESIDENT: Here's what we're going to do: We're going to
continue to challenge the soft bigotry of low expectations, is what
we're going to do. (Applause.) And by that, I mean -- let me tell you
what that means. That means, if you set the bar low, you're going to
get lousy results. It starts with recognizing that every child can
learn to read and write and add and subtract, and that we must not
allow systems to develop that just shuffle kids through. That's what's
happening, let's be frank about it. We had systems -- school systems
around this country that evidently didn't think certain kids could
learn, so they just moved them on, you know? And guess what happened,
when they came out at the end, they couldn't read. And everybody went,
oops, what went wrong?
So we've changed that in Washington. We've increased federal
funding. Title I money is up by 52 percent since I became the
President. Elementary and -- elementary and secondary school programs
are up by 49 percent. Those are healthy increases in spending.
(Applause.) But -- well, there's more than just spending when it comes
to schools. Now we're asking the question: Show us. See, for the
first time the federal government is saying to school districts, we
expect to see results. We want our kids reading by -- at grade level
by the 3rd grade. There's nothing wrong with asking that. (Applause.)
It seems like a legitimate request.
And in this program, the No Child Left Behind Law, it says that if
you are not reading by grade level by the 3rd grade, there's extra
help. See, what we know -- and the Congressman and the Senator
understand this very well -- is that we know accountability systems can
be used to change lives, as opposed -- you don't use the accountability
system to punish people. You use the accountability system to
determine where you need extra help. It's a way to determine whether
or not the curriculum is working.
Listen, some of the reading programs around the country don't
work. They've got -- they use the wrong methodology. And we need to
know that, don't we? If we expect every child to be learning at grade
level, we need to know. And so first thing we've done is we've changed
the whole attitude toward public schools. It's an optimistic
attitude. It says, we know every child can read, and we expect every
child to read, and, therefore, why don't you show us? And if not,
there will be extra help.
We need to, by the way, bring that attitude to our pre-school
programs. I believe that -- I know there's curriculum available for
pre-schoolers that provide them the basics for reading. And I think
our Head Start programs ought to be encouraged to adopt very simple
curricula, but based upon the science of reading. My friend, Reed
Lyons, at the NIH, is a pro, an expert. He understands how kids learn
to read. And, therefore, it seems to make sense, since we're spending
federal dollars on Head Start, as part of the core curriculum of Head
Start, be to lay the foundation for little kids reading. We need
intensive reading programs. (Applause.) You got me started here and
I'm going to keep going. (Applause.)
I've laid out intensive reading programs for kids in junior high
and high school. We need to intervene now, before it's too late. We
can no longer say, gosh, let's hope for the best, because we're now
living in a world where if you can't think, it's going to be hard to be
a productive worker in the workplace. And so, therefore, this economy
is changing, education must change with it. By the way, we've added a
million kids over my administration who've received Pell grants to go
to college. That's an achievement I want to thank the Congress for
working with us on that. It says, basically, when you're coming out of
high school with the ability to go to college, and you're poor, we're
going to help you go. See, part of making sure kids work hard in high
school is that they realize there's help coming out of high school in
order to be able to continue to realize their dreams.
Now, we're making great progress on education. There's more to do,
and that's why I want to continue being the President.
Any other questions here? Yes, ma'am. (Applause.)
Q Hi, I'm a woman business owner, along with my husband. And
I'd like to know what encouragement you have for minority business
development at a federal and local level for contracting. Thank you.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes. No, I appreciate that. First of all, the SBA
is geared up to help small minority businesses. We've increased the
number of loans out of SBA by 40 percent, all aimed at spreading the
entrepreneurial spirit.
Secondly, the best thing that can happen -- I can't speak for local
government. You're going to have to call the mayor, or the governor or
something like that. Anyway -- (laughter.) But I can talk about
federal contracting. And the best thing -- I think federal contracting
ought to be used to enhance entrepreneurship and small businesses.
And, therefore, we've got to make sure that federal contracts are
broken down to small -- smaller contracts so small businesses have a
chance to participate. (Applause.)
By the way, good tax policy -- I can't emphasize enough the need to
have good tax policy. If you're a small business and your small
business is beginning to grow, and the government runs the taxes up on
you, it's going to make it harder to survive -- pure and simple. And
that's why -- that's why it's very important for us in this campaign --
for people listening to this campaign to remember that when you're --
you got about $2.2 trillion of new money promised to spend, and you've
got to figure out how to pay for it. Yes, I know he's going to pay for
it. You're going to pay for it. But we're not going to let him.
That's why we're -- that's why we're going to win the campaign.
(Applause.)
Yes.
Q I'm concerned about the nuclear threat coming out of Iran.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes.
Q I was just wondering if you could comment on that.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I appreciate that. He's concerned about
Iran, as am I. That's why early in my administration I talked about
Iran in vivid terms. First of all, you've got to understand that every
situation requires a different response when it comes to foreign
policy. And so we tailor our responses based upon the reality of the
moment. And, first, just to make it clear to the world that Iran must
abandon her nuclear ambitions. That's part of the role of the United
States, and to work with others to send that same message.
The IAEA is the agency principally responsible for the Iranian
nuclear program, we're working closely with them. We're making sure
that we ask the hard questions to the IAEA, so they ask the hard
questions to the Iranians. We got the Iranians to sign what's called
-- not "we," the world got the Iranians to decide -- to sign what's
called an additional protocol, which will allow for site inspections
that normally would not have been allowed under IAEA. In other words,
the groundwork, the ability to inspect, as best as possible, is in
place.
Secondly, the tactics of our -- as you know, we don't have
relationships with Iran. I mean, that's -- ever since the late '70s,
we have no contacts with them, and we've totally sanctioned them. In
other words, there's no sanctions -- you can't -- we're out of
sanctions. And so we've relied upon others to send the message for
us. And the foreign ministers of Germany, France and Great Britain
have gone in as a group to send a message on behalf of the free world
that Iran must comply with the demands of the free world. And that's
where we sit right now. And my attitude is, we've got to continue to
keep pressure on the government, and help others keep pressure on the
government, so there's kind of a universal condemnation of illegal
weapons activities.
As well, the United States does have an opportunity to speak
clearly to those who love freedom inside of Iran, and we are. There is
a significant Diaspora here in the United States of Iranian Americans
who long for their homeland to be liberated and free. We're working
with them to send messages to their loved ones and their relatives,
through different methodology. And one method -- and very overt, I
might add, we've got radio broadcasts, a new radio broadcast system
going into Iran, say, listen, we hear your voice, we know you want to
be free, and we stand with you in your desire to be free.
I will tell you a free Iraq is going to send a clear message to
people in Iran, as well, that free societies are possible. That's why
I say this is an historic moment in our history, and it really is.
When you think about it, a free country in the midst of the Middle East
will send a very clear signal that freedom is possible. In other
words, there are reformers and people who want to be free watching
carefully as to whether or not this country, which is the beacon of
freedom, is strong enough not to wilt when the pressure gets
significant.
I tell this story a lot; I'll share it with you, about my friend,
Prime Minister Koizumi of Japan. And we were having Kobe beef one day
and -- it's quite good, I might add, and -- (laughter.) This was in
Tokyo. And you know what? We were talking about another subject that
I'm sure is a concern of yours, as well, and that's North Korea. And
it was an amazing conversation, when you think about it, wasn't it,
that I was talking to my friend, 55 years or so after World War II had
ended, about how to keep the peace in a troubled part of the world. We
made the decision -- I made the decision that, on North Korea, that the
kind of bilateral negotiations weren't working. If you might recall,
my predecessor thought he had an arrangement with the North Koreans
that they did not honor. And it's a lesson that it's important to
remember.
So I made the decision to bring other nations in to help send the
same message to North Korea. It's a more effective way of doing things
if there's more than one voice willing to say the same thing. That's
why China is very much involved in the process now, which is helpful.
And Japan is, too. And so Prime Minister Koizumi and I were talking
about how to make sure the six-party talks sent the same message to Kim
Jong-il, which is, get rid of your nuclear weapons program and there
will be -- in a verifiable way that gives us all confidence that he has
done so, and then perhaps there's a way to help them economically.
And during the course of the conversation, I became very thankful
because my predecessors believed that Japan could self-govern. If you
read some of the editorials and some of the writings right after World
War II, there was a lot of doubt as to whether or not a country like
Japan could self-govern, could be a democracy. But there was people
here who had great faith in the transformation power -- the
transformative power of liberty, and stood their ground. And there I
was talking to a duly-elected official of Japan about peace.
Some day, an American President is going to be talking to elected
officials, an elected official from Iraq, talking about how to keep the
peace. Free societies are peaceful societies. And free societies join
this fantastic alliance of those of us who long for peace deep in our
heart; an alliance of countries willing to work on the tough issues,
like Iran and North Korea, all aimed at bringing these difficult
solutions to a peaceful conclusion.
And, anyway, it's a long answer to an important question, but,
nevertheless, it's one -- (applause) -- let me finish, one other
thing. It says that good foreign policy works with other countries,
and we will. Remember now, one of the dangers of this world is the
proliferation of weapons and technologies. And there's over 60 nations
involved with the Proliferation Security Initiative, an initiative that
we helped put together during my administration. Some 40 nations are
involved in Afghanistan. Nearly 30 nations are involved in Iraq.
We've got good, strong alliances of people working together. I'm never
going to turn over our national security needs to leaders of other
countries, however. (Applause.)
Yes, sir. You look like a man with a question.
Q I drive a school bus, so I don't need your microphone.
(Laughter.)
THE PRESIDENT: Okay, good.
Q (Inaudible) -- concerned about the judicial nominees. I
watch it every day on C-SPAN. I'd like to know what -- (inaudible).
THE PRESIDENT: I appreciate that. Listen, his question is about
the judicial nominees, and the fact that they're road blocked in the
United States Senate by procedures that -- have they ever been used
before, George, the filibuster on judicial nominees? Never been used?
According to Allen, they've never been used before. (Laughter.) Not
to this extent, he qualified it. (Laughter.)
But it's a problem, because I think my nominees deserve an up or
down vote on the floor of the United States Senate. (Applause.) So I
guess, you know, they're playing politics. I appreciate your question,
because they're playing politics. That's all that is. And I'm picking
good people from all walks of life. I named a man to be on the D.C.
District Court, Miguel Estrada, first generation American citizen.
(Applause.) A brilliant man. What a story. He comes over from --
comes up from Honduras, learns the language, works hard, got a family
that loved him. He's now named for the circuit court, and gets turned
down. They wouldn't even get him a vote. And that's just pure
politics.
You know what the answer to your question is? We've got to elect
more senators who aren't going to play politics with my nominees.
(Applause.) I'm going to keep talking about it, too. They may think
they're going to wear me down, they're not. I'm going to keep talking
about it. (Applause.) I'm going to keep telling the people of this
country, they've got a clear choice when it comes to President. They
want people on the court who will strictly interpret the law, they
ought to put me back in. If they want somebody who is going to put
judges that will try to write the law from the bench, they got the
wrong man in George W. I'm not changing, either. (Applause.)
All right, last question. You've got one? Go ahead, and yell her
out. Oh, then he better take the mic then. Yes, put it up there --
say that again so everybody can hear it.
Q I'm from Southside, Virginia. And I've helped the volunteer
fire departments a number of years. We've had times raising money.
And since you've been in, the federal money that you appropriated to
us, we appreciate it a lot.
THE PRESIDENT: You bet, thanks. (Applause.) First of all --
(applause) -- he and I share a couple of things in common: We're both
voting for me. (Laughter.) And we both support volunteer fire
departments. I'm a proud supporter of the Crawford Volunteer Fire
Department. And you're -- what's your volunteer fire department?
Q Chase City.
THE PRESIDENT: Chase City. There you go. Chase City, Virginia.
Let me talk about rural life real quick. One of the things -- are
there any farmers here? Yes, there you go. The farm economy is
strong. You know why? One, good policy -- good tax policy. And,
secondly -- and, thirdly, because we're opening up markets. If you're
good at something like growing things, like people in Virginia are,
they ought to be selling their product overseas in different markets
around the world. (Applause.)
Let me tell you real quick about trade policy -- there's a lot of
talk about it, and the temptation for the other side is to say, we'll,
I'll handle it by becoming economic isolationists. That's not good, to
kind of wall ourselves off from the rest of the world. That's
pessimistic. And that will make it harder for small businesses to
thrive and people to find good-paying jobs. Here's what -- here's the
reality of trade. Most Presidents believe that we should open up U.S.
markets for foreign goods. You know why? Because it's good for
consumers. The more opportunities consumers have to choose, the better
price they'll get at better quality. That's the way the marketplace
works. And that's the policy today. And opening up our markets has
been beneficial to U.S. consumers.
And so the fundamental question is, can we get other countries to
treat us the way we treat them. That's trade policy. And the answer
is absolutely, we will. One way you do so is through agreements -- is
you negotiate free trade agreements. And we've done so for the benefit
of U.S. farmers, and manufacturers, and entrepreneurs and, eventually,
workers. Because if you're selling product, for example, in Australia
-- we just got a new deal with Australia -- if you're selling products
in Australia, you're going to be working in order to make the product
that the Australians are buying.
And the second thing to do is to enforce laws. That's why we've
gone after China a couple of times, to say to China you must -- if
you're going to trade with us -- be fair about how you treat our people
and our products. (Applause.)
Now, you had a question? What is it? Both of you combine your
question, then I've got to go back to work. Okay, you've got two --
Q Yes, I am Taiwanese American and I am concerned about China
has more than 500 missiles against Taiwan. How do you be able to keep
the key area of peace for Taiwan and the world?
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, we just make it clear to both sides that our
policy hasn't changed -- one China policy based upon the three
communiqus, and neither side shall unilaterally change the
circumstances by which a peaceful resolution will be achieved. And
that's just where we'll keep working both sides to see if we can't see
that that very important issue be resolved peacefully. It's essential
that both sides understand my position as clearly stated, and I've
stated it publicly just like I just did, and I will continue to state
it. And I'm convinced this issue can be solved peacefully. It's just
going to take some time to do so. And we'll continue to work to see to
it that it does.
Where is the lady that wanted to ask a question? Do you have the
same question he did, or another one? Another one. Okay, this is the
last question.
Q Mine is sort of different. I am more concerned about the
government waste. How do you propose to control either domestic waste
within the spending, accountability for spending?
THE PRESIDENT: Yes.
Q And, also, especially foreign aid. I tend to develop
compassion fatigue when it comes to foreign aide, when I hear about the
U.N. Oil for Food program fraud. That's a very big concern.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes.
Q Because I pay taxes, and I expect it to be spent wisely.
THE PRESIDENT: I appreciate that. (Applause.) That's a good
question. I was hoping somebody would ask that question. (Laughter.)
Let me talk about budgeting and spending, and then I'll talk about
accountability when it comes to spending.
Let me -- I'll start with that. I just came from a meeting with
Clay Johnson, he's my close friend that -- he was my college roommate,
actually, who is the "M" in OMB, Office of Management and Budget. And
his job, as the "M" in OMB, is to say to agencies, we expect there to
be results-oriented systems throughout your agencies. And we've
actually got a scorecard, a management scorecard of how well agencies
are doing with, for example, responding to taxpayers through email, how
well they're doing to make sure their programs are actually delivering
results. And so we're working hard to see to it that these giant
bureaucracies become results-oriented. There are all kinds of ways to
measure, and we've got a good measurement system in place to do so.
There is a -- look, my job is to submit budgets that will bring
confidence to the marketplaces, as well as to the taxpayers. And that
means setting priorities and meeting those priorities without
overtaxing the American people. And we have done that. I want you to
know that -- let me put in the context of the deficit. Yes, we've got
a deficit, for three reasons. One, there was a recession. And a
recession costs the Treasury money, unless there's a corresponding cut
in spending. And there wasn't.
Two, there is a deficit because I made the decision to go after the
enemy, and we were going to spend whatever money was necessary to
defend ourselves. (Applause.) And the Congress supported me, by and
large. Some in the Senate didn't support the $87 billion. (Laughter.)
THE AUDIENCE: Boo.
THE PRESIDENT: But most of them did, guys like George Allen, who
said, if you're going to put people in harm's way, they deserve the
right pay and right equipment. (Applause.)
Thirdly, part of the reason we have this deficit is because I
believed in order to get the economy moving forward, there should be
tax relief. And it's working, the tax relief is working. It's going
to be one of the interesting arguments in the campaign. I will make
the case that it is working, and that you don't want to run up taxes.
Now, when I first came into office, non-homeland, non-defense
discretionary spending increased at 15 percent. This year, the budget
we've requested from the House and the Senate is non-defense,
non-homeland spending, discretionary spending is increasing at less
than 1 percent. (Applause.) And so the step one -- step one is to set
priorities, and hold Congress to working with those priorities. And
Congress has been very good. Speaker Hastert and Leader Frist have
worked very closely with the administration to achieve good top-line
budget numbers. So I can say to you that the deficit will be cut in
half over the next five years, and we've just got to keep working that
way.
And so there's two -- I kind of took two points from your
questions. One was, the overall budget numbers, how does it relate --
are we able to contain spending to the point where we can say to the
people that this deficit is beginning to decrease. Now remember, the
deficit, again, was caused by recession, we're coming out of that --
we're out of it. Secondly, it was caused by the war. We're still in
the war. And, thirdly, the tax relief helped us generate more
revenues.
And by the way, in the mid season -- mid-session review -- I don't
know if you saw this, George, or not -- but the projected deficit of
last February has already been decreased fairly significantly, because
the economy is getting stronger. And when the economy strengthens,
more revenues come into -- (Applause.)
I've got to go back -- listen, I've got to get back to the White
House and make sure we're spending money wisely. But I want to thank
you for your question. I want to thank you all for coming today.
(Applause.) I want to thank you for support. May God bless you, and
may God continue to bless our country. (Applause.)
END 11:27 A.M. EDT
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