[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

[[Page 1084]]

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.