For Immediate Release
Office of the Vice President
September 16, 2003
Remarks by the Vice President at a Luncheon for Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito
Charleston Marriott Town Center
Charleston, West Virginia
September 15, 2003
12:10 P.M. EDT
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Thank you. (Applause.) Thank you very much.
(Applause.) Thank you, Shelley. And let me thank all of you for that
warm welcome back to Charleston and West Virginia. I've been looking
forward to this event. It's gotten to be a regular item now -- every
two years, I come and spend some time with Shelley. But increasingly,
it looks like she doesn't need my help. But I am here today and want
to bring greetings to all of you from the President of the United
States, George W. Bush, the man you helped put in the White House.
(Applause.)
And I'm here, too, because we're all great friends of Shelley's.
And we want to make absolutely certain that she's reelected to the
United States Congress next November. (Applause.)
Shelley mentioned I did serve in the House. Now, of course, I'm
the Vice President. My only job is to preside over the Senate. And
I'd always aspired to be Speaker of the House of Representatives. Some
say I had to settle for second best now to be the President of the
Senate. (Laughter.) I don't say that in the Senate, only among our
House friends. But I loved my time in the House of Representatives.
It was a tremendous experience representing all the people of Wyoming.
As Shelley mentioned, it was a small delegation. We only had one seat,
but it was quality. (Laughter.) And it was a tremendous experience.
But the thing I enjoy about coming out to help someone like Shelley
is because she's done such a commendable job herself. And after you've
served in the House for over 10 years, as I did, especially from a
single-member state, where you're always out trying to find allies for
your cause, every once in a while you come across a member who's been
absolutely outstanding in what they do and you know is a tough and
effective ally -- great spokesman for the people of West Virginia, but
for all America. And Shelley is exactly that kind of member of
Congress.
She's helped lead the fight to control the skyrocketing costs of
medical liability insurance, which I know has been a problem here in
West Virginia, limiting access to medical care. She serves as the Vice
Chair of the House Prescription Drug Task Force, and has fought hard to
provide prescription drug relief for our seniors, and is dedicated to
improving the access to health care across the nation, and especially
in our rural communities.
She's given great support to the President in the jobs and growth
package designed to bring new long-term economic growth to the nation,
to create new jobs and greater investment for the people of West
Virginia.
I've been in politics a long time, and I've known people like
Shelley Moore Capito, the ones whose reputations grow with every
passing year. She works hard. She does her homework. She remembers
who she answers to, the hard working people of West Virginia. The
President and I badly need Shelley Moore Capito to stay in Congress so
she can help us confront the challenges of the 21st century. So
reelect her next November -- very important. (Applause.)
It's been about three years since the President talked to me about
becoming his running mate. When he asked me to sign on he said that it
wasn't because he was worried about carrying Wyoming. (Laughter.) He
got 70 percent of the vote in Wyoming. But from time to time, I point
out to him that those three Wyoming electoral votes came in pretty
handy. (Laughter.)
I think a lot of the pundits expected, since we had such a close
election, that the administration might trim its sails and move forward
with a more limited agenda once we got to Washington. But from the
very beginning, the President made it clear that he'd gone to
Washington to get something done, and he wanted to move aggressively on
all of our urgent priorities.
That very first year we achieved two of our biggest objectives: tax
relief and education reform. On the tax front, we lowered income tax
rates, reduced the marriage penalty, phased out the death tax. The
President also moved aggressively and successfully to build a
bipartisan coalition to reform our educational system, a milestone of
reform ushering in an era of high standards and accountability. I
believe it was truly a turning point, and we think we've set American
education on a much better course.
The defining moment, I think, for all us -- certainly for the
administration -- was the sudden attack on our country on 9/11, just
two years ago last week. That was a day none of us will ever forget.
Suddenly we understood how vulnerable we are as a nation, how it was
possible for terrorists to take advantage of our open borders and open
society and use them against us. We saw that it was relatively easy
for a small number of terrorists to launch an attack that killed some
3,000 of our fellow citizens in a couple of hours in New York and
Washington that day. It was truly a watershed event in American
history.
We also began to understand, particularly from the evidence that we
uncovered in the caves and the training camps in Afghanistan, that our
enemies are determined to acquire weapons of mass destruction --
chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons -- if they can. And we have
every reason to believe that if they're successful, they will try to
use these weapons in launching attacks far more deadly than anything
we've ever seen.
To counter these threats, we've been forced to think anew about
national security strategy, about how to defend our country and what's
important for us as a nation. We've come to realize that if we're to
protect the American people against determined enemies, the old Cold
War remedies won't work.
The kind of strategy we used against the Soviet Union during the
Cold War, where we put at risk the things they valued in order to deter
them from ever launching an attack against the United States, simply
won't work where terrorists are concerned. There's nothing the
terrorists value highly enough that we can put at risk to keep them
from launching an attack against the United States. So no treaty, or
arms control agreement, or strategy of deterrence is likely to end this
conflict. We need a new strategy, and that's precisely what we've been
developing.
We've begun working aggressively to toughen our defenses here at
home, creating the Department of Homeland Security, the biggest
reorganization of the federal government since the Department of
Defense was created over 50 years ago. But good defense is not
enough. We all know the best defense is a good offense. And the
problem with terrorist organizations is that even if you build
successful defenses, 99 percent successful, the 1 percent that gets
through can still kill you. So we need a strategy that takes us on
offense, that lets us go after those states that pose a threat to the
United States, after those terrorists who pose a threat to the United
States and our friends and allies, a strategy that allows us to destroy
the terrorists before they can launch attacks against the United
States. We cannot wait to act until another day like 9/11, or a day
far worse.
And a good part of our new strategy is based on the President's
determination to think about the way we look at states who sponsor
terror or have sponsored terror in the past. Prior to 9/11, too many
nations tended to draw a distinction between terrorist groups and the
states that provided these groups with support, with sanctuary, or with
safe harbor. They were unwilling to hold those terror-sponsoring
states accountable for their actions.
After 9/11, President Bush decided the distinction between the
terrorists and their sponsors could no longer be permitted to stand.
The Bush doctrine makes clear, those states that support terrorists or
provide sanctuary for terrorists are just as guilty as the terrorists
themselves of the acts that are committed. So in addition to going
after the terrorists, in addition to dismantling their financial
networks and logistical support, we've also taken on states that
sponsor terror.
I'll never forget that Friday after the attack on 9/11, when the
President went to Ground Zero in New York. He stood up on a pile of
rubble with a bullhorn in his hand. And when the men in hard hats
working nearby said they couldn't hear him, he responded, "Well, I can
hear you. The rest of the world hears you. And the people who knocked
down these buildings will soon hear from all of us."
The President has been a man of his word. In Afghanistan, the
Taliban regime harbored al Qaeda and brutalized an entire population.
And that regime is no more. In Iraq, where a brutal dictator
threatened the peace and gave support to terrorists, the United States
launched one of the most extraordinary military campaigns in history.
And that regime is no more.
Some people have questioned the strategy, suggesting that, perhaps,
the United States should not strike an enemy before we're struck. But
I would argue that that already happened on 9/11. We lost more people
that day than we lost at Pearl Harbor. And I ask you, if we'd been
able, with preemptive military action, to defeat that attack before it
ever occurred, would we? And the answer is, you bet we would have.
Make no mistake, the President is acting to protect us against
further attacks, even when that means moving aggressively against
would-be attackers. So the war on terror continues. It is a war.
It's being fought all around the globe. Just look at the attacks that
have already occurred, not only in New York and Washington and
Pennsylvania, but in Bali, in Mombassa, in Riyadh, Casablanca, Jakarta,
Jerusalem, Bombay, Baghdad and Najaf. And the war will continue,
perhaps as long as we're in office -- perhaps even longer.
In this global war on terror, U.S. forces are heavily engaged when
and where they need to be, but especially today in Afghanistan and
Iraq. We will stay in Afghanistan and Iraq to make absolutely certain
the job is done before we move on. We will stay until we've wrapped up
all the weapons of mass destruction and eliminated all of those who are
enemies of the United States.
This war is not without sacrifice. Nearly 400 of our troops have
already given their lives since the war on terror began, and there will
surely be more casualties. But remember, we lost some 3,000 Americans
here at home on 9/11. We'll be much more secure long-term if we're
aggressively going after the terrorists and after the nations and
mechanisms that support them, than if we lay back and wait for them to
strike us again, here at home.
In the battles in Iraq and Afghanistan, and in other fronts of the
war on terror, we've depended on the skill and the courage of our men
and women in uniform. They've faced enemies who have no regard for the
rules of warfare or morality. They've carried out urgent and difficult
missions in some of the most remote and hostile parts of the world.
And they've done all of this with the bravery and the honor that we've
come to expect of them. As a former Secretary of Defense, I've never
been more proud of our men and women in uniform than I am today.
(Applause.)
But waging and winning the war on terror is only part of our
responsibility to other nations. There's a great work in this world
that only America can do. In the Middle East, we are encouraging free
markets, democracy, tolerance -- because these are the ideas and
aspirations that overcome hatred and violence and turn societies to the
pursuit of peace.
Under President Bush, America acts in the world according to both
our fundamental interests and our founding ideals. We believe in the
dignity of life and the right of all people to live in freedom. And
all who strive and sacrifice for the cause of freedom will have a
friend in the United States.
Here at home we will continue with an active and aggressive
agenda. We believe we've made major progress on the economy. When we
took office, America was sliding into recession. Too many people who
wanted to work couldn't find a job. To help create jobs and to get the
economy growing again, we've cut taxes each of the three years we've
been in office.
In the bill we passed this year, not only did we cut income taxes,
but we also significantly cut the taxes on capital gains and on
dividends -- fundamental reforms that will encourage long-term growth
in our economy. And we've delivered the largest tax relief since the
presidency of Ronald Reagan.
Some in Congress want to repeal the tax relief and raise taxes.
But raising taxes at this time will hurt the recovery and is exactly
the wrong medicine as we meet this stage of our economic cycle.
We've also had action, both in the House and the Senate, on an
energy bill. As Shelley mentioned, the people in New York, Ohio, and
Michigan experienced firsthand during the recent blackouts our nation's
electricity grid needs repair, upgrade and expansion. We're hopeful
that Congress will work swiftly to move the bill through the conference
committee and will produce a plan that will improve our nation's energy
infrastructure, promote energy efficiency and conservation, develop
cleaner technologies to help us explore for more energy in an
environmentally friendly way, and reduce our dependence on foreign oil
-- a must for the sake of our national security. We made our
recommendations to the Congress now two years ago last May. It's time
for Congress to act.
After many years of inaction, we're making progress, as well, on
bringing Medicare into the 21st century. Last January, President Bush
submitted a framework for Medicare reform to Congress that would give
seniors access to prescription drug coverage and offer them better
choices under Medicare. Both houses have taken historic action -- and
I want to thank Shelley for her leadership role in helping to modernize
our Medicare system. Now Congress must complete its work, and send a
bill to the President to provide seniors with better health coverage
and relief from the rising cost of prescription drugs. We're also
looking forward to working with Congress to help small businesses
provide affordable health care for their employees, as well.
In other areas, we also need to fix the judicial confirmation
process. Right now, far too many nominations for the federal bench are
being held up because of the threat of filibuster. Our friends on the
other side of the aisle refuse to allow nominees of great merit even to
have an up-or-down vote on the Senate floor. Well qualified nominees,
like Justice Priscilla Owen, of Texas, and Attorney General Bill Pryor,
of Alabama -- both of whom had outstanding credentials to serve on the
federal bench -- have been attacked by Senate Democrats who have
blocked an up-or-down vote on the Senate floor. Less than two weeks
ago, another outstanding nominee, Miguel Estrada, withdrew his name
from -- consideration after waiting more than two years for a vote.
The treatment of this fine man was truly disgraceful. Everybody who
has looked at it understands he's an outstanding candidate for service
on the federal bench. It's time now for us to restore dignity and
civility to the judicial confirmation process by making certain that
every person nominated to the federal bench gets a timely up-or-down
vote.
We've achieved a great deal in these two-and-a-half years, but
there's much left to do in Washington and around the world. We need to
enact Project BioShield to help protect America against the threat of
attacks with biological weapons. We need legal reform because the
strength of our economy is undermined by frivolous lawsuits. And while
there are encouraging signs the economy is picking up steam, the
President and I will not rest until everyone who wants a job can find a
job. (Applause.)
The campaign season will come in due course. When it does, we'll
run hard and take nothing for granted. President Bush and I know that
the key to victory is to do the work that we've been given and to do it
well. We intend to make good use of every day we have the honor of
serving the American people.
Long before I took this job I had the good fortune to work with
other Presidents that I greatly admire. As a White House Chief of
Staff in the aftermath of Watergate, I saw Gerald Ford restore
confidence in government by the sheer decency and force of his
character. As a congressman during the decisive years of the Cold War,
I saw the conviction and the moral courage of Ronald Reagan. And as a
member of the Cabinet, and Secretary of Defense, under former President
Bush, I saw the ideal of public service in its purest form and came to
know a leader of real honor and integrity. Along the way I learned a
few things about the presidency and about the kind of person it takes
to do it well. It takes the finest qualities of character: conviction,
personal integrity, good judgment, compassion, and courage in times of
testing for the nation. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is exactly the
kind of man we have in the White House today. (Applause.)
I'm honored to work with George W. Bush, and he and I are both
honored by your confidence in us, by your support for outstanding
leaders, like Shelley Moore Capito, and by your commitment to this
great and good country of ours, the United States of America. Thank
you very much. (Applause.)
END 12:30 P.M. EDT
|