    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2004, Book I)]
    [June 17, 2004]
    [Pages 1078-1084]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at a Reception for Senatorial Candidate George R.
    Nethercutt, Jr., in Spokane,
    Washington
    June 17, 2004

        Thank you all. Thanks for coming. And George, thanks for inviting
    me. I've come back to Spokane for one reason. I want to make it as clear
    as I possibly can that the right person to represent the State of
    Washington in the United States Senate is George Nethercutt.
        Thank you for helping him. Thank you for what you're going to do to
    help him--[laughter]--starting with voting and turning out others to
    vote. And while you're getting the vote for George, why don't you get
    them to vote for me as well. Both of us are going to carry this State,
    and we're going to because we've got optimistic plans to make this
    country safer, stronger, and better.
        There are a lot of reasons to be for George, but the best is the
    fact that he married well. [Laughter] Like me, he married above himself.
    [Laughter] He's got a wonderful family with Mary Beth and Meredith and
    Elliott. I want to thank them for joining
    us on the stage. You see, running for office is a family venture. You
    can't run unless you've got a good, strong marriage and a supportive
    family, and the Nethercutts are close. They love each other. They care
    for each other. And one of the reasons he's going to win is they set
    such a good example for people all across the State of Washington.
        And the good news for me is, Laura hadn't run
    me off yet. [Laughter] She sends her very best. As a matter of fact, she
    is going to host an event for George in Washington, DC, very soon. She
    knows a good man when she meets one. [Laughter] I'm really proud of
    Laura. She is--I don't know if you remember, 4 years ago when I came
    here--and by the way, I remember vividly running the river. [Laughter]
    Unfortunately, I can't run as well anymore. It just goes to show what
    the Presidency does to your knees. [Laughter] But I said I was a lucky
    man when Laura said yes to marry me. She was a public school librarian
    when I first met her. She didn't care for politics or politicians.
    [Laughter] And now she's the First Lady of the United States, and she's
    doing a heck of a job. I'm really proud of her, and she sends her best.
        I'm also really pleased that my friend Dirk Kempthorne is here, the great Governor of the State of Idaho. He is
    a--he's back in the corner, he and Patricia are back--I thought you'd get a better seat than
    that. [Laughter] But thanks for coming. He is a fabulous person and a
    great friend of mine, and I want to thank all the folks from Idaho who
    slipped across the border to say hi. And Governor, one of these days,
    I'm coming. [Laughter]
        I want to thank Secretary of State Sam Reed for
    being here. I appreciate you coming, Sam. I had the honor of meeting
    Mayor Jim West. I want to thank the mayor. I
    like to tell mayors when I see them, thanks for serving, and fill the
    potholes. It works every time. [Laughter]
        I appreciate saying hello to former Governor John
    Spellman. Thank you for serving your State.
    And I had the pleasure of saying hello to future Governor Dino
    Rossi. Dino is a good man. He's a good man. He's
    got a good, solid head on his shoulders, and he'll do a heck of a job as
    the Governor of this State.
        It's a strong ticket we're running on here in Washington, if you
    really think about it. You've got Dino Rossi, and
    you've got George Nethercutt. You're lucky to have two great, honorable,
    decent souls. You know George here. When I say ``decent,'' you know what
    I'm talking about. He is from Spokane. He grew up here. People know him
    well, and people can vouch for him. They can vouch for his integrity and

    [[Page 1079]]

    his decency and his compassion. And those are key ingredients to serve a
    group of people you care about.
        He--I'll tell you, he's been a strong ally in Washington, DC. We've
    had to make some tough decisions. The job of a President is to confront
    problems, not to pass them on to future Presidents and future
    generations. It's easier to confront problems and to solve problems when
    you've got people like George Nethercutt in Washington, DC, who are
    willing to work with you.
        Look, he doesn't agree with me 100 percent of the time. He's an
    independent thinker. That's the kind of person you want from the State
    of Washington, somebody who is independent. But when the big problems
    came up, we stood shoulder to shoulder on behalf of the American people.
        Think about what we have confronted. This country has been through a
    recession. That means the economy was going backwards. It's been through
    corporate scandals. We had some of our citizens in our country forget
    what it means to be a responsible--responsible--citizen. They didn't
    tell the truth to their shareholders and their employees. It wasn't
    right what they did. We passed tough laws. I appreciate George's
    support. It is now abundantly clear to corporate CEOs that we will not
    tolerate dishonesty in the boardrooms of America.
        We got attacked on September the 11th, 2001. I made a tough decision
    to defend the country, and we went to war in Afghanistan and Iraq. All
    of those events made it very difficult on our economy. These were
    hurdles we had to overcome.
        But we acted. We moved forward. And we moved forward on this
    principle: We have great faith that if the American people have more
    money in their pocket, it would help us overcome the obstacles that we
    confronted. We had great faith that if we could invigorate the
    entrepreneurial spirit in America, we could recover and people could
    find work. And I want to thank George for his strong and steady support
    for the economic stimulus plan that we got through the United States
    Congress, not once, not twice but three times, in order to make sure we
    overcame--[applause].
        There's a difference in his campaign, a clear difference when it
    comes to taxation. There's a clear difference about--there's a clear
    difference in the philosophy of government. See, we believe that people
    can spend their money far better than the Federal Government can. We
    understand how the economy works. When a small-business owner has a
    little more money in his or her pocket, she's likely to make a new
    investment. An investment means somebody has to produce a capital good
    or a service, and when somebody produces a good or a service, somebody
    is more likely to find work.
        The economic stimulus package we passed not only affected our
    citizens, the families of America--see, we raised the child credit,
    reduced the marriage penalty. And by the way, what kind of Tax Code is
    it that penalizes marriage? It's a lousy Tax Code that penalizes
    marriage. We ought to be encouraging marriage in our society. We created
    a new 10-percent bracket that will help lower income people.
        We put the death tax on the road to extinction. Look, I like giving
    speeches where there's cowboy hats. [Laughter] It kind of reminds me of
    home. I see them. [Laughter] But one thing is for certain. We got a tax
    system that makes it hard for people to pass their family farm from one
    generation to the next. We got a tax system that's lousy on small-
    business owners being able to pass their assets. We need to get rid of
    the death tax forever. That's the clear difference in this campaign.
        An integral part of the stimulus plan was to provide incentives to
    the small businesses to expand in America. See, 70 percent of new jobs
    are created by small businesses. And if your job base is lagging, it
    seemed to make sense to George and me that we would provide incentives
    to the small business. So we increased the amount of allowance for
    deductibility for capital

    [[Page 1080]]

    purchases. And by cutting individual taxes, we stimulated growth in the
    small-business sector, because most small businesses are Subchapter S
    corporations, and they pay tax at the individual income-tax rate.
        Now, people in Washington, DC, were griping about this plan. I
    suspect perhaps your opponent was saying, ``Oh, this is just rewarding
    the rich.'' We've heard that kind of class warfare language before, but
    look what's happened. The growth over the last year has been strong and
    steady. We've added 1.4 million new jobs since last August. The
    homeownership rate is the highest in American history. This economy of
    ours is strong; it is getting stronger. The tax relief we passed is
    working. The faith that George and I put into the American consumer, the
    American farmer, the American rancher, and the American entrepreneur is
    paying off.
        There is a clear difference of opinion about how to grow an economy.
    One group of people say, ``Let's raise your taxes and increase the size
    of the Federal Government and hope the economy grows.'' George and I
    believe that if you have more of your own money in your pocket, you make
    the decisions that help this economy grow, and the statistics and
    today's growth shows that our philosophy works.
        Some of these tax--some of this tax relief is set to expire now. And
    if the United States Senate lets these taxes expire, it means they're
    raising taxes on the American people at the wrong time. A big issue in
    this campaign is going to be the issue on taxes. It's a big issue.
    There's a clear difference between the two running for the United States
    Senate. George wants you to keep your money. He doesn't believe the
    taxes ought to go up. He's willing to stand on the side of the small-
    business owner and the rancher and the farmer and the individual
    consumer. I can't say the same for his opponent.
        See, the Senate needs to make sure that the tax relief that's set to
    expire doesn't expire. Otherwise, they're raising your taxes, and that
    will hurt our economy. We don't need to be raising our taxes right now.
    We've got plenty of money in Washington, DC, if we set our priorities.
    If we make sure we set our priorities, we can cut our deficit in half by
    5 years. The tax relief that we passed must remain the same if we want
    this economy to continue to grow.
        I'm running against a fellow who's already promised over a trillion
    dollars in new money, and we're just getting started. [Laughter] And he
    says he's going to pay for it by taxing the rich. There's not enough
    money to tax the rich to pay for a trillion dollars in new spending. You
    know who's going to end up paying for the new spending, don't you? You
    are, hard-working American people. Tax is an issue in this campaign.
    It's an issue, and the people of Washington must understand that by
    putting in George Nethercutt, he's not going to raise your taxes.
        A fundamental issue in this campaign is who understands how to make
    sure the environment for economic growth continues, not just this year
    but beyond. See, I want America and George wants America to be the best
    place to do business in the world. We live in a global economy, and if
    we can't compete, our people aren't going to be able to work. That's
    just the way it is. And here's some things we can do to make sure that
    we've got--that we can compete in a global economy.
        First, we need an energy plan. I submitted a plan 2 years ago.
    George supported it. His opponent voted against it. It's a plan that
    does a lot of things. One, it encourages conservation. It encourages
    alternative sources of energy. Look, I'd love to be the President that
    said, ``The harvest is up recently. The corn harvest is up, and we're
    less dependent on foreign sources of oil.'' We need more energy here at
    home, though, folks. We can do so in environmentally friendly ways as
    well. But when you go to your gas pump, the reason that the gasoline
    prices are high is because

    [[Page 1081]]

    we're dependent. We're dependent on other nations for our energy. For
    the sake of economic security, for the sake of national security, we
    need an energy bill out of the United States Congress.
        If we want to make sure our people work, we better make sure markets
    are open to U.S. products. There's some economic isolationists in
    Washington, DC, who believe the best way to deal with our economy is to
    shut it off from the rest of the world. I strongly disagree. I think
    that's too pessimistic. I'm confident we can compete with anybody. My
    job is to make sure the playing field is level. My job is to make sure
    other nations treat us like we treat them. And we're making progress
    there. Just ask your soybean growers and your wheat growers and your
    corn growers. We're selling products. Listen, if you're good at
    something, you ought to be selling it all around the world. We're good
    at making things. We're good at growing things. The best way to make
    sure we've got jobs out into the 21st century is to open up markets for
    U.S. products. America's producers and laborers can compete with
    anybody, anywhere, anytime if the playing field is level.
        In order to make sure we've got a good economy in the out-years,
    you've got to make sure you've got a man up in Washington, DC, who
    understands something about agriculture, particularly for this part of
    the State. George Nethercutt understands agriculture. We've talked
    together, and we've got the farm bill moving. The ag sector, by the way,
    is strong right now. People are making a good living, and that's good
    for the U.S. economy.
        Speaking about agriculture, you need to make sure you got the
    electricity to live out here in this part of the world. I told you when
    I came out here, we were going to be responsible when it came to the
    dams. I fully believed that we could make sure that the salmon runs were
    strong and that we could maintain the dams at the same time. I have
    fulfilled that promise. You better make sure he's in the United States
    Senate to keep it that way. I appreciated working with George on the
    Healthy Forest legislation, commonsense legislation.
        And one thing else I want to talk to you about--about the domestic
    economy--is that in order to make sure jobs are available, we need
    people who are willing to vote for tort reform in the United States
    Senate. I got up to Washington, and I thought for a while that medical
    liability reform was a State issue, and then I saw the effects of the
    practice of defensive medicine on the U.S. budget. I mean, think about
    what the frivolous and junk lawsuits do to our budgets. We've got
    Medicare and Medicaid budgets and veterans health budgets. And these
    lawsuits are running up the cost to the U.S. taxpayers, make it hard for
    people--small businesses, in particular, to stay in business. It's
    running docs out. We've got docs leaving the profession all over our
    country, and that's not good. Listen, the doctors are compassionate,
    decent people who are healing on a daily basis. And if they can't make a
    living because of junk and frivolous lawsuits, our system will hurt; our
    communities will hurt.
        And therefore, I decided that medical liability reform was a Federal
    issue and worked with the House of Representatives to put good
    legislation forward--good, sound legislation with real caps, legislation
    that will allow somebody who's been injured by a bad doc to have their
    day in court, but legislation which also will make sure we're not
    running good docs out of business. It passed the House. It is stuck in
    the United States Senate. Your Senator will not vote for medical
    liability reform. We need to get medical liability reform unstuck. One
    way to do is to put George Nethercutt in the United States Senate.
        I have a duty to name good judges to the Federal benches. I have
    honored that duty. I have honored--I have put forth fine names, fine
    nominees, people who will strictly interpret the law, not legislate from
    the bench. It's what I said I would do

    [[Page 1082]]

    when I was running for President of the United States. I said, ``These
    are the types of people I would nominate.'' And I put people from all
    walks of life up in front of the United States Senate. And
    unfortunately, some United States Senators are playing politics with my
    nominees, two of them right from this State. One of the reasons you
    ought to have George Nethercutt as the United States Senator is to make
    sure that good, honorable, decent judges are able to make it through the
    nominating process and the confirmation process of the United States
    Senate.
        We--it's very important to have somebody represent you who clearly
    sees the threats to the United States of America, has a clear vision of
    the problems we face and the opportunities before us. I believe George
    Nethercutt is such a man.
        The lessons of September the 11th must never be forgotten by any of
    us who have the honor of serving you. And here's the way I see the
    lessons: One, the nature of the enemy is such they'll kill
    indiscriminately in order to try to frighten the United States of
    America, in order to shake our will, in order to cause us to run from
    our duties. And therefore, it's very important for the United States to
    stay on the offense against these people. You can't negotiate with them.
    Therapy will not work. [Laughter] What is necessary is to use all the
    assets at our disposable to bring these people to justice before they
    hurt America again.
        It's also very important that when the United States says something
    we mean it. In order to make the world a more peaceful place, it is
    essential that a leader, when they speak, means what he says. And when I
    say something to the enemy or to allies, I mean it. I understand the
    duty I have. And I said, ``If you harbor a terrorist, you're just as
    guilty as the terrorist.'' And I meant that, and we acted on that. I
    want to thank George for his strong support.
        We first acted on that in Afghanistan. Afghanistan was a place that
    had been brutalized by the Taliban. The Taliban is an indication of the
    ideology of these killers, see. Let me just put it to you this way:
    Young girls don't get to go to school. They're so backwards and so
    barbaric, they--their society--their view of society is dark and dim. A
    whole class of--a whole group of people are totally written off by the
    Taliban. In this case, they were also providing safe haven for Al Qaida.
    They were training there, and we issued an ultimatum. They defied the
    free world, and they no longer exist. And as a result, people have been
    freed.
        They--there's individual Taliban moving around, and we're on the
    hunt with some really brave people. And I'm going to Fort Lewis tomorrow
    to thank a lot of the brave people on the hunt. But the government
    doesn't exist anymore. As a matter of fact, there's a--they're going to
    have elections in Afghanistan in September. They've got a modern
    constitution. They'll have women serving in their parliament.
        President Karzai came to America, spoke in
    front of the Congress--George heard him--and he said, ``I want to thank
    America. I want to thank America for your sacrifice. Thank you for your
    friendship. Thank you for standing with us.'' A free society in
    Afghanistan is going to make a difference for the peace of the world,
    and we're headed in that direction.
        One of the lessons of September the 11th is that when we see a
    threat, we must take it seriously. We can no longer assume oceans
    protect us. If we see a threat materializing overseas, we must take
    every threat seriously, before it's too late. That's one of the really
    important lessons of that day.
        I saw a threat in Iraq. I looked at the intelligence, and I saw a
    threat. The United States Congress, Republicans and Democrats, looked at
    the very same intelligence, and they saw a threat. The United Nations
    Security Council looked at the intelligence, and it saw a threat. And
    there's a reason why we saw threats. Saddam Hussein was

    [[Page 1083]]

    a brutal dictator who tortured his own people, who opened mass graves
    for innocent Iraqis and filled them, who harbored terrorists, who
    provided safe haven for people like Zarqawi who still kills in Iraq today, who used weapons of mass
    destruction on his own people. Yes, we saw a threat, and I remembered
    the lessons of September the 11th, that we must take threats seriously.
        So I went to the United Nations, and I said, ``Here's a threat.''
    And unanimously, they said, ``You're right. Mr. Saddam Hussein, disarm, disclose and disarm, or face serious
    consequences.'' When America speaks, we better mean what we say. When we
    say ``serious consequences,'' we mean serious consequences. Saddam
    Hussein once again defied the free world. I had a choice to make, to
    trust the judgment of a madman or defend America. Given that choice, I
    will defend America every time.
        And our troops have performed brilliantly. And I want to thank
    George Nethercutt for his strong support in making sure the President
    can look at the moms and dads and husbands and wives of those who serve
    in our military and say, we will make sure your loved one has everything
    he or she needs to defend the United States of America.
        We're doing hard work in Iraq. You've seen how hard it is on your TV
    screens. It's hard, but it's necessary. And I'll tell you why it's
    necessary. In a short term, we will defeat the terrorists by hunting
    them down and bringing them to justice. In the long term, we will defeat
    the terrorists by spreading freedom and democracy. The best way to
    defeat hatred and bitterness and the lack of hope is to spread hope
    through freedom. That's what we believe in America. We've seen it work
    before.
        Let me read you something I think you'll find interesting from the
    New York Times. [Laughter] Now, wait, wait a minute, wait. This was in--
    no--in 1946. [Laughter] It was a great year. [Laughter] I was born that
    year. [Laughter] Anyway, I just want you to read this--I mean, I want
    you to hear this as I read it: ``Germany''--this is 18 months after the
    fall of Berlin--18 months after the fall of Berlin--``Germany is a land
    in an acute stage of economic, political, and moral crisis. The basic
    elements of recovery and peace are lacking. European capitals are
    frightened by the prospect of a German collapse. In every military
    headquarters, one meets alarmed officials doing their best to deal with
    the consequences of the occupation policy that they admit has failed.''
        Now, that was a pessimistic view of the future for Germany.
    Fortunately, my predecessors were not pessimistic people. Fortunately,
    they had great faith in the power of freedom to change societies.
    Fortunately, they understood that even though times were difficult, that
    if they were determined and strong and clear-sighted in the vision of a
    free society, ultimately, a free society would emerge.
        At the G-8 at Sea Island, I was sitting at the table with not only
    Gerhard Schroeder, the Chancellor of
    Germany, free Germany, democratically elected Gerhard Schroeder; I was
    also sitting with democratically elected Prime Minister Koizumi of Japan. You see, because somebody was strong in
    their belief about the power of freedom, allies of the United States
    today are--were former enemies. Someday, an American President will be
    sitting, discussing world peace with a duly elected leader from Iraq.
        These are historic times we're in, and it's such an honor to serve
    the American people during these times. But with America's leadership in
    the world and by being true to our values, we can change the world. We
    can make the world a more peaceful, hopeful place. That's what's
    happening. And it's hard, because there are a group of people who are
    trying to stop us. They're trying to shake our confidence. They're
    trying to dim our vision. They want us to quit. They want us to be
    people who

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    say one thing and do another. But they'll fail because we're not going
    to change. They'll fail because we believe strongly in the future. They
    will fail because America will continue to lead the world toward peace
    and freedom.
        George understands what I'm talking about, and it's important to
    have him in the United States Senate to help us complete the missions.
        Finally, I want to say one thing about our culture. See, I think
    cultures can change. I know they change. Baby boomer--I've seen one
    change in my lifetime. [Laughter] The culture today is changing--I like
    to describe it this way--``If it feels good, go ahead and do it,'' and,
    ``If you've got a problem, blame somebody else''--[laughter]--to a
    culture in which each of us understands we are responsible for the
    decisions we make in life, that if you're a mom or a dad, you're
    responsible for loving your children with all your heart and all your
    soul. That's your responsibility. If you're worried about the quality of
    the education in the community in which you live, you're responsible in
    Spokane, Washington, for doing something about it. It's your
    responsibility. You know how I feel about corporate CEOs in the
    responsibility era. They're responsible for telling the truth to their
    shareholders and employees.
        Responsibility society is also one in which each of us loves our
    neighbor just like we'd like to be loved ourself. Government can hand
    out money, but Government cannot put hope in a person's heart or a sense
    of purpose in a person's life. That happens when a loving soul puts
    their arm around somebody and says, ``I love you. What can I do to help
    you?'' And it seems like to me that it's the responsibility of those of
    us in office to capture and rally the great strength of the country. And
    the great strength of America is in the hearts and souls of the American
    people. That's our true strength.
        See, I believe and George believes societies change one heart and
    one soul at a time. And while we recognize you can't be the full change
    agent, you can be a person helping to change those hearts and souls.
        And it's easy for George to say that because he's lived that kind of
    life. He helped people understand the joy of parenthood by promoting
    adoption. He founded a nursery to protect abused children. He's been a
    leader in diabetes research. He's an honorable, decent man who not only
    talks the talk, but he walks the walk and will make a great United
    States Senator.
        Thank you all for coming. God bless.

    Note: The President spoke at 6:30 p.m. in the International Agriculture
    Trade Center at the Spokane Center. In his remarks, he referred to Mr.
    Nethercutt's wife, Mary Beth, and their children, Meredith and Elliott;
    Gov. Dirk Kempthorne of Idaho and his wife, Patricia; Washington
    Secretary of State Sam Reed; Mayor Jim West of Spokane, WA; former Gov.
    John Spellman of Washington; Washington gubernatorial candidate Dino
    Rossi; President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan; senior Al Qaida associate
    Abu Musab Al Zarqawi; and Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi of Japan.
    Representative George R. Nethercutt, Jr., was a candidate for Senate in
    Washington.