Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2004, Book III) - Remarks in a Discussion in Eau Claire, Wisconsin

[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2004, Book III)]
[October 20, 2004]
[Pages 2620-2630]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

Remarks in a Discussion in Eau Claire, Wisconsin
October 20, 2004

The President. Thank you all. Please be seated. Listen, thanks for
coming today. It's good to be back here in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. We're
getting closer and closer to voting time. I'm here to ask for your help.
I saw--somebody has been helping--I saw a lot of signs up coming in. I
want to thank you for putting up the signs. I know some of you are
making phone calls, reminding your fellow citizen to go to the polls. I
need your help. And with your help, we will carry Wisconsin and win a
great victory in November.
So today I'm here to talk about reasons why I think your fellow
citizens ought to put me in office for 4 more years. We're going to talk
about some issues, and we've got some fellow citizens up here to help
talk about the plans and policies of my administration.
Perhaps the most important reason for you to put me back in for 4
more years is so that Laura will be the First
Lady for 4 more years. She sends her best. She's doing great. She was a
public school librarian when I met her for the second time. The first
time I ever met her, we were at San Jacinto Junior High, seventh grade,
in Midland, Texas. The second time I met her, she was a public school
librarian. She said, ``Fine, I'll marry you, but you have to make me a
promise.'' I said, ``What's that?'' She said, ``I never want to have to
give a speech.'' [Laughter] Well, fortunately, she didn't hold me to
that promise. [Laughter] She is giving a lot of speeches, and when she
does, the American people see a warm, compassionate, strong First Lady.
I'm proud of my runningmate, Dick Cheney.
He's doing a great job.
And I'm proud of my Cabinet Secretary for Health and Human Services;
that would be former Governor Tommy Thompson. He's doing a great job. I like to tell the people of
Wisconsin, you did a fine job of training him. He's a good man.
I want to thank the Redetzkes for letting us come here today,
Don and Diana. I'm
proud you--these are some of the products they manufacture here. I said,
``How is your business doing?'' He said, ``Just fine.'' He said, ``We've
added 30 employees this year. We're thinking about adding more.''
There's an optimism around. Our policies are working. And I want to
thank the

[[Page 2621]]

Redetzkes for letting us come and visit this important plant.
I want to thank Jack Voight, the State
treasurer, for joining us today. Appreciate you being here, Mr.
Treasurer. I want to thank Scott Walker from
Milwaukee County. I'm proud Scott is here. I call him Scott W. I want to
thank John Gard for joining us today. Speaker,
where are you? Appreciate you, Speaker. Good to see you again. I've been
in your State a lot, and he's been there all the time, for which I'm
grateful.
I want to thank very much Dale Schultz for
being here. He is a good man. I know him well. He will make a great
Member of the United States Congress. And finally, Tim Michels. Good to see you, Tim--and Barbara. I know something about Barbaras. Thank you all for
coming.
We've been through some challenges together in this country, really
have been. And when you're out gathering up the vote, remind people
about what this economy has been through. Six months prior to my arrival
in Washington, the stock market was in serious decline, and that
foretold a recession. And then we had some corporate scandals, and we
passed tough laws, and we made it abundantly clear to people in this
country that we will not tolerate dishonesty in the boardrooms of
America. We expect citizens to be responsible citizens.
And then we got attacked. We got attacked. And those attacks hurt
us; they really did. And we responded to those attacks with good policy.
We cut the taxes, and by cutting the taxes people had more money to
spend and more money to invest. When you increase consumption and
increase investment, the economy tends to grow. The recession we had was
one of the shallowest in American history.
Our economy has been growing at rates as fast as any in nearly 20
years. We've added 1.9 million new jobs since August of 2003. The
unemployment rate is at 5.4 percent. That's the national unemployment
rate--lower than the average of the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. And your
unemployment rate in Wisconsin is 4.8 percent. Think about that. When
people go to the polls, I want them to remember the people of this State
are working because of good policy. Farm income is up. Homeownership
rates are at an alltime high. We're moving forward. We've overcome these
challenges, and we're not going to go back to the days of tax and spend.
A good economic policy means good farm policy. I told the people
when I was running, I understand that we've got to have good
agricultural policy in this country. And the agricultural sector of our
country is doing fine, is doing well. Income is up. As a matter of fact,
farm income is at a record high under my administration.
Audience member. [Inaudible]
The President. We're going to talk to some farmers up here, but
dairy farm income is up. We're selling more and more of Wisconsin crops
overseas. See, to make sure this economy continues to grow, we've got to
continue to open up markets for U.S. products. It's easy to say we're
going to shut down markets, but shutting down markets will hurt you.
See, when you've got more products to choose from as a consumer, you're
likely to get that which you want at a better price and higher quality.
That's how the market works. So shutting down our markets, which would
hurt you--my policy is let's open up everybody else's markets. We can
compete with anybody, anytime, anywhere, so long as the playing field is
level.
And farm exports are at an alltime high. We want to be using
Wisconsin farm products to feed the world. If you're good at something,
let's promote it, and we're really good at growing corn and soybeans.
I signed a good farm bill which is helping the agricultural sector,
and part of the farm bill is the conservation title, which encourages
farmers and landowners to set aside land for wildlife restoration, for
land protection. We're going to talk about somebody who knows what he's
talking about when it comes to good conservation policy.

[[Page 2622]]

I tell everybody, ``If you own the land, every day is Earth Day.'' If
you make a living off the land, the best person to look after the land
is the person making a living off of it, not some bureaucrat in
Washington, DC.
Keeping jobs here means good energy policy. See, we've got to become
less dependent on foreign sources of energy if we expect to keep this
economy growing. And I submitted a plan to the United States Congress 2
years ago, and it's stuck, of course, because of politics. But it's a
plan that encourages conservation. It's a plan that uses our
technologies to be able to burn coal cleanly. It says we can explore for
natural gas in environmentally friendly ways. But it also recognizes the
valuable contribution that ethanol and biodiesel make to the energy mix
here in America. Congress needs to pass that plan. We've got to become
less dependent on foreign sources of energy.
To make sure jobs stay here, we've got to have less regulations on
the job creators. To make sure jobs stay here, we've got to do something
about these lawsuits that are making it hard for the small businesses
all across our country. You see, these lawsuits make it hard for a small
business to expand. They're tending to having to fight these lawsuits
off and not hiring people.
To keep jobs here, we've got to be wise about how we spend your
money and keep your taxes low. Taxes are an issue. I'm running against a
fellow who's promised $2.2 trillion in
programs that cost--that's how much they cost the Government, 2.2
trillion. That's with a ``T.'' That's a lot even for a Senator from
Massachusetts. So they asked him how he was going to pay for it. He
said, oh, he's just going to tax the rich, going to raise the top two
brackets. Well, the only problem with that is it raises about 600
billion or 800 billion, depending on whose numbers you look at. In
either case, it's far short of 2.2 trillion, so there's a gap. There's a
gap between what he promised and how he's going to pay for it. Guess who
usually fills that gap? Yes, you do. You understand how tax policy
works.
Let me tell you what else is wrong with raising the top two
brackets. We're going to talk to some small-business owners. Most small
businesses are Subchapter S corporations, limited liability corps. They
pay tax at the individual income-tax rate. So you hear him talking about
running up the taxes, taxing the rich--they're taxing the job creators.
And the third thing wrong with it, the rich hire lawyers and
accountants for a reason: to slide the tab and stick you with it. We're
not going to let him tax you; we're going to
win Wisconsin and win on November the 2d.
Audience members. Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!
The President. Thank you. Before we get to our guests here, I want
to talk about a couple of other issues. We're in a changing world. Times
are changing. And in a changing world, it helps to promote an ownership
society in America to bring stability into people's lives. And I told
you, homeownership rates are at an alltime high. We've got policies to
continue to expand that. I can't tell you how it warms my heart to know
more and more Americans from all walks of life are opening up the door
where they live, saying, ``Welcome to my home. Welcome to my piece of
property.''
In order to make sure we're hopeful, we've got to promote ownership
when it comes to health care accounts. See, health care is an issue in
this campaign too. There is a fundamental divide.
My opponent is proposing bigger Government
health care. Now, he looked in the TV cameras the other night and said
no Government was involved. I could barely contain myself. [Laughter] I
looked at the fine print of his plan. Eight out of ten get signed up to
a Government health care plan. See, if you raise the Medicaid limits to
300 percent, it provides incentives for small-business owners to stop
providing

[[Page 2623]]

insurance for their employees because the Government will pay for it.
And so you're shifting people from the private sector to the public
policy. And Government health care programs do not work. They may sound
good, but they have failed in every country that has tried them. The
quality of health care will decline. There will be rationing. If you end
up as a line item in the Government budget, you can rest assured there
will be Government controls over your health care.
I have a different point of view. We will take care of those who
cannot help themselves through community and rural health centers. Those
will be places where the poor and the indigent can get primary and
preventative care. That's a good use of your taxpayers' money. It's best
that people get care there and not in the emergency rooms of local
hospitals. We will make sure that the program for children of low-income
families is fully subscribed. That makes sense.
But to make sure health care is affordable, we ought to allow small
businesses to pool risk, to join together so they can buy insurance at
the same discounts that big businesses get to do.
To make sure health care is affordable, we will continue to expand
health savings accounts, which will enable somebody to pay a low-
premium, high-deductible major medical liability policy, coupled with a
tax-free savings. These health care plans will reduce the cost of health
care for the average citizen or the small business. They will be a
health care plan in which the decisionmaker is the owner of the health
care plan. They're a health care plan that you own, you control, and you
can take with you from job to job throughout your entire life. This is a
way to make sure health care is more affordable.
Also to make sure health care is more available and affordable,
we've got to do something about the junk lawsuits that are running up
the cost of medicine. See, I looked at the cost to the Federal
Government on these lawsuits. Lawsuits cause doctors to have to practice
defensive medicine. In other words, they're practicing medicine in
anticipation of getting sued because there's so many suits, and that
runs up the cost of health care. And the lawsuits run up the cost of
premiums for docs, which run good docs out of business. I can't tell you
the number of ob-gyns I've met who are anxious and upset by the fact
that they, many times, cannot practice. And then you can imagine, if the
ob-gyn can't practice, what it does to many pregnant women. It is
stressful. It is not right. These lawsuits are a damage to our economy
and to our society and to health care. You cannot be pro-doctor, pro-
patient, and pro-personal-injury-lawyer at the same time. You have to
choose. You have to choose. My opponent made
his choice, and he put a personal injury lawyer
on the ticket. I made my choice. I'm for medical liability reform--now.
Let me talk about one other form of ownership, and that's Social
Security. See, the job of a President is to solve problems, not to pass
them on to future Presidents or future generations. At least that's what
I think it is. I think you come to Washington, DC--if you see a problem,
you solve it as best as you can. Now, others have chosen a different
attitude. They just say, ``We'll pass it on and let somebody else take
care of it.'' We have a problem with Social Security.
Now, I remember the 2000 campaign, particularly here in Wisconsin,
when they told the seniors, ``If old George W. gets in, you're not going
to get your check.'' You might remember that aspect of the 2000
campaign. [Laughter] Well, I want you to remind your friends and
neighbors of all political parties, George W. got in, and our seniors
got their checks. And our seniors will continue to get their checks. The
seniors have nothing to worry about when it comes to the Social Security
check. Neither do baby boomers like me.

[[Page 2624]]

But our children and our grandchildren have got a problem because of
the nature of the Social Security system. There will be more recipients
than payers. More baby boomers like me retire with not enough people
putting money into the system, and therefore, the system is going to be
in trouble for our children and our grandchildren.
In order to make sure our children and grandchildren have got a
retirement system that works when they need it, we ought to allow
younger workers to set aside some of their own payroll taxes in a
personal savings account they call their own, a personal savings account
that will earn a better rate of return than the current Social Security
trust, a personal savings account that the Federal Government can never
take away.
My opponent says he's for the status quo
in Social Security. I think it--I don't think that's leadership. We have
a problem. In a new term, I'm going to bring Republicans and Democrats
together and solve the problem.
In times of change, some things do not change--now, while I'm here,
I got something else I want to say, and then I want to talk to our
guests here. [Laughter] The values we try to live by don't change,
courage and compassion, reverence and integrity. We stand for a culture
of life in which every person matters and every being counts. [Applause]
Thank you all. We stand for marriage and family, which are the
foundations of our society. We stand for judges who know the difference
between personal opinion and the strict interpretation of the law. Go
ahead and sit down.
And we stand for the second amendment to the United States
Constitution, which gives every American individual the right to bear
arms. And today I'm proud that Wayne LaPierre
and Chris Cox from the National Rifle
Association are with us. I appreciate you all coming. They have endorsed
my candidacy for President of the United States, for which I'm grateful.
I also am grateful for their gun safety programs as well as their
understanding that the best way to protect the American people is to
firmly prosecute those who commit crimes with guns, to hold them to
account, and bring them to justice.
With us today is Bill Bruins. Bill, thank
you for coming. What do you do to make a living? Or do you make a
living? [Laughter]
Bill Bruins. You'd have to check with my
bookkeeper, my wife.
The President. That's true. [Laughter]

[At this point, Mr. Bruins made brief remarks.]

The President. By the way, they set up their farm as a limited
liability corporation, which means, under Senator Kerry's plan, he's going to get a tax
increase. See, he's part of the--when they raise those top two brackets,
if you've got income over $200,000 a year and you're a limited liability
corp or a Subchapter S corp, you're taxed. I don't think it makes any
sense to be taxing our farmers right now, as they're getting ready to
make some money. I'd rather have him have the money so he can expand his
farm.
How are you doing? Are you making a living?
Mr. Bruins. Yes, we are. It's been a good
year. It's been a good year. Milk prices are strong. Beef prices are up.
And it's just really exciting, the possibilities that we're looking at,
given the climate that you've created here in Wisconsin.
The President. Well, thanks. We met back there. He asked about supporting the MILC Program. I do. I'm for
the extension of the MILC Program, which would help the dairy farmers
here in Wisconsin.
Mr. Bruins. Absolutely. That little program
that you have endorsed and have endorsed extending has already put $413
million in the pockets of dairy farmers in the State of Wisconsin.
The President. That's good, yes. Glad to help out. What else are you
concerned about? I can tell you what you're concerned

[[Page 2625]]

about because you told me, but why don't you tell the people to make it
look--[laughter].
Mr. Bruins. Well, because of your farm bill
and the conservation provisions and the countercyclical payments that
are provided with it, because of your lowering the taxes, and because of
your continued commitment to making agriculture better, you have made a
positive difference on agriculture in the State of Wisconsin. And as
president of Wisconsin Farm Bureau, the largest farm organization in the
State, I am endorsing you for a second term as President of the United
States.
The President. Thank you very much. I accept. Thank you, I
appreciate that. Thank you all. I was hoping that would come. [Laughter]
I'm proud to get the Farm Bureau endorsement. It means a lot. It really
does. In a State where it's heavily agricultural, that's a big
endorsement to get, and I'm proud to receive it. Thank you, sir.
Doug Mueller is with us. Welcome. And what
do you do to make a living?
Doug Mueller. I milk cows twice a day. We
have a family corporation.
The President. Hopefully not by hand. [Laughter]
Mr. Mueller. No, sir, not anymore.
The President. I would say there's some new technology that's come
along. [Laughter]
Mr. Mueller. And I'm not old enough that I
ever milked cows by hand when I was younger, either.
The President. You boys have got big hands, though, I'll tell you.
[Laughter] What's on your mind? Tell me--tell the folks what's on your
mind about----
Mr. Mueller. Well, I think the energy
policy is one thing that really can be a benefit to agriculture and the
entire economy. The use of more--more use of ethanol, biodiesel I think
is great for farmers all over the country. And the use of the ethanol,
cleaner emissions and everything, too, has got to be positive for the
country.
The President. Yes, it is. See, it's interesting. What's happening
is that we're spending money on research and development so that we can
diversify away from old usage, old habits. We've got to get away from
dependency upon crude oil coming in from overseas. And one way to do so
is to better use ethanol and biodiesel. I mean, can you imagine someday
a President sitting in the Oval Office, they come in and say, ``On
crops, we've got a great corn crop,'' and the first reaction is, ``We're
less dependent on foreign sources of energy.'' And so we're spending a
lot of money on research and development to better use crops--soybeans,
like biodiesel, as well as one of--in the State of the Union Address I
talked about spending money to research--to develop a hydrogen-powered
automobile.
I mean, technology is going to enable us to evolve away from our
current energy usage. And one way to do so is through, as Doug mentioned, through the use of agricultural products. And
there's more to learn, and there's more research to be done. And that's
what we're promoting. But right now we're using ethanol in significant
quantities, and it's helping our farmers.
What else?
Mr. Mueller. Thank you. And the death tax
is an issue that is heavily on farmer and small-business owners' minds.

[Mr. Mueller made further remarks.]

The President. Let me talk about that right quick. It's an issue in
this campaign. I suggested that the Members of the United States Senate
vote to repeal the death tax forever. Of course, I couldn't get my
opponent's vote. [Laughter] We got quite a few
votes. As a matter of fact, we put the death tax on its way to
extinction. The problem is it pops back up in 2011, which is going to
make some interesting estate planning decisions at that point in time.
We need to get rid of the death tax totally. It's important for our
small-business

[[Page 2626]]

owners and our farmers and ranchers to get rid of the death tax forever,
so a person can pass their farm on from one generation to the next
without losing the farm. People talk about--if you got your assets tied
up in land and inventory, in his case, cows and equipment, and you have
to pay high death taxes, there's nothing to liquidate except for the
farm itself, and that's unfair. I believe a person shouldn't be taxed
twice, once during life and once after life. And I believe a person
ought to be able to pass their assets on to whomever they want to pass
it on to.
Thank you, Doug.
Mr. Mueller. Thank you.
The President. Lee Christenson is with
us.
Audience member. [Inaudible]
The President. You got a fan base out there. [Laughter] I first got
to know him because he tied some bass
fishing flies for me. The flies did better than the fisherman. I was
fishing, but I wasn't catching. [Laughter] He's got an interesting story
to tell when it comes to preserving land.
Lee Christenson. I have a small family
farm that I live on in rural Eleva, Wisconsin, just south of Eau Claire,
and I took it over in 1994 from my parents. And I've converted that farm
from a dairy farm into kind of a wildlife preserve, where I've utilized
a lot of the Government programs that you've helped us get going. The
CRP program is just the greatest program in the world.
The President. Conservation Reserve Program.
Mr. Christenson. Yes, Conservation
Reserve Program. And that program allows us to take the real highly
erodible land, the steep lands that are marginal farmlands, and preserve
them by putting them into trees, into prairie plantings, and into solid
vegetative cover that keeps our streams a lot cleaner. And I've been
able to get a WHIP, which is the Wildlife Habitat Improvement grant;
EQUIP, which is the Environmental Quality Incentive Program grant
through the Government; all sorts of assistance, technical assistance
from the Fish and Wildlife Service. In fact, on our farm, we've taken
the ditches, plugged the ditches, pulled all the tiles out of the prior
converted farm fields that historically were wetlands at one time, and
now we've created, just on our little farm, over 15 acres of wetlands.
So, you know, that's great that you do that, and we're able to turn
the tides and create wetlands, instead of having lost them in the past.
The President. Yes, see, one of the--we used to have a policy of no
new net loss--no net loss. How could you have a new net loss--no net
loss of wetlands. I've now changed that policy to an increase in the
number of wetlands all across the country to 3 million acres. Here's
part of the way we're able to do so.

[Mr. Christenson made further remarks.]

The President. See, good environmental policy doesn't mean you have
to be a lawyer in Washington, DC. Good environmental policy brings
conservation groups together, brings hunting and fishing groups
together, brings local community together, brings local environments
into play, brings farmers into play. It's a collaborative effort, so we
all work together to achieve national goals such as better air, cleaner
water, and more wildlife preserve areas. And we're doing that. We're
making very solid progress with a commonsense way of approaching
environmental issues.

[Mr. Christenson made further remarks.]

The President. All right, I want to talk about one other thing.
Thank you, sir. He doesn't hunt and fish all
the time. You actually have a business.
Mr. Christenson. Yes, I forgot about
that. [Laughter]
The President. What do you do?
Mr. Christenson. I have fun on the farm
making wetlands and habitat and all that stuff, but I have to pay the
bills. So I

[[Page 2627]]

have a small Subchapter S corporation with about 50 employees, and we
collect deer hides all across the United States and export them to
China. So we, you know, we're bringing some money back to the United
States. And with these great tax breaks that we've had in the last few
years, we've been able to buy more semis, more forklifts. We've put a
lot of good people to work. We've hired more people. And the interest
rates--my gosh, just look at what the interest rates have been the last
few years. They've really, really helped us by being able to expand our
credit lines and do a lot of beneficial things for business.
The President. See, the tax policy we passed, I want you to remember
what it was, which my opponent voted against
every aspect of the tax policy. We raised the child credit to help
people's families. We reduced the marriage penalty. We believe we ought
to encourage marriage, not discourage marriage through the Tax Code.
We said, ``If you pay tax, you ought to get relief,'' instead of
trying to pick and choose winners in the Tax Code. But we also provided
incentives for small businesses to invest. If you invest as a small
business, there is a--there's a benefit. You heard him say he bought forklifts. Good tax policy encourages
certain behavior, and one of the behaviors we're trying to encourage is
for people to invest more and to spend money, to spend capital, because
when he buys a forklift, somebody has got to make the forklift. When
somebody is making the forklift, it means somebody is going to get work.
That's how the economy works. It ripples throughout the economy.
He says he's a Subchapter S corporation.
He's adding jobs. It is bad policy to tax the job creators. Do you
realize 70 percent of new jobs in America are created by small
businesses just like this guy's? And my opponent, in order to pay for his promises, is, at the minimum,
going to run up the taxes on about 900,000 Subchapter S and LLC
corporations, going to tax the job creators. That is lousy economic
policy.
Let me talk about one other aspect of this campaign in your life,
and that is how to make sure we keep America secure. The most solemn
responsibility of the American President is to protect the American
people. If we show uncertainty or weakness in this decade, this world of
ours will drift toward tragedy. That's not going to happen on my watch.
I understand the world in which we live. This is an important issue
in this campaign. Let me tell you some of the lessons I have learned
about the post-September the 11th world in which we live. The first
lesson is, we face an enemy that is ruthless and has no conscience. They
will kill just like that, whether it be in airplanes on the World Trade
Center or in a schoolhouse in the Caucasus region of the world. That's
what they'll do, and therefore, you cannot negotiate with these people.
You cannot hope for the best with these people. You can't say, ``Well,
oh, gosh, we'll change the way we conduct foreign policy and hope they
change their ways.'' The only way to deal with them is to find them and
bring them to justice before they hurt us again.
Secondly, this is a different kind of war than we're used to, and
therefore, it's important to think differently about how to protect the
American people. One way to do so is to make it very clear that if a
country harbors a terrorist, they're just as guilty as the terrorist.
And when the President says something, it is important that the
President speak clearly, so everybody understands, and mean what he
says.
And I meant what I said to the Taliban in Afghanistan. See, they
were the ones harboring Al Qaida. Thousands of people were trained
there. It's kind of the classic case of the host and the parasite--the
Al Qaida was the parasite, and the host was becoming weaker and weaker
and--in the sense that Al Qaida had free will, doing what they wanted to
do inside the country. There was no restrictions whatsoever. And

[[Page 2628]]

they ignored our demands until the Taliban no longer is in power. We
took them out of power, thanks to a great United States military.
I want the youngsters here to understand what has taken place. It's
a phenomenal moment in history, phenomenal. See, it wasn't all that long
ago--3\1/2\ years ago is hardly anything in the march of history--that
the people in Afghanistan were living under a brutal reign of people
whose vision is so dark and dim that it's hard for Americans to
comprehend. And when you hear me talk about the ideologues of hate, I'm
talking about the Taliban and the people like Al Qaida. Young girls were
not allowed to go to school. See, that's their vision of the world. And
if their moms didn't toe the line, they were taken into the public
square and whipped, in some cases killed in the sports stadium. These
people were grim.
But because we acted in our own self-interest, because we acted to
uphold doctrine and make this world a safer place and to protect the
American people, millions of Afghan citizens went to the polls to vote
for a President of their country. The first voter was a 19-year-old
woman at the polls. It's amazing. Because we
acted in our self-interest, the poor people living in that country have
been liberated from the clutches. They no longer live in darkness. They
live in light, because freedom is on the march.
And that's important for our long-term security. It's important
because free societies are peaceful societies. A free society will
become an ally in the war on terror. A free society will set a
incredibly hopeful example for others who long for freedom.
Thirdly, when we see a threat, we've got to deal with it. You know,
we used to think oceans could protect us. We'd see a threat overseas,
and if we didn't deal with it, it could be okay because it wouldn't come
home to hurt us. That all changed on September the 11th.
I saw a threat with Saddam Hussein. I saw
a threat because he was a sworn enemy of the United States. I saw a
threat because we had been at war with him. I saw a threat because he
invaded his neighborhood. I saw a threat because he was shooting
missiles at our airplanes who were trying to enforce the world's
sanctions. I saw a threat--he paid suicide bombers; he harbored Abu
Nidal and Abu Abbas. Terrorist Zarqawi
was in and out of his country. I saw a threat because he had used
weapons of mass destruction. Saddam Hussein was a threat.
The Congress looked at the same intelligence I looked at and
concluded he was a threat. My opponent looked
at the very same intelligence, the very same data, and concluded that
Saddam Hussein was a threat and voted to
authorize his removal. Now, before the President ever commits troops
into harm's way--listen, I understand the consequences. To commit our
troops is the last option for me. To put somebody in harm's way is the
very last choice, not the first, second, or third. It is the last. And
so I went to the United Nations in hopes that diplomacy would solve the
threat. And as--they passed a resolution 15 to nothing, and Saddam
Hussein just ignored it, just like he had done 16 different resolutions.
You know, we didn't find the stockpiles we thought we found--that we
thought we would find, that everybody thought we'd find. But we did find
that he had the capability to restart a
weapons programs--he still hated us--that he was using the Oil for Food
Programme to game the system, to get the world to look the other way, to
get rid of the sanctions so he could restart his programs. The biggest
danger we face is a terrorist network ending up with weapons of mass
destruction. Knowing what I know today, I would have made the same
decision. [Applause] Thank you.
My opponent was recently interviewed, and
he said September the 11th, in quotes, his words, ``did not change me
much at

[[Page 2629]]

all.'' See, and it's reflected in his attitude and his policies. He
says, ``Well, this is just a intelligence and law enforcement matter.''
No, this is a matter that requires all the assets of the United States
of America in order to protect you.
He said that Iraq is a ``diversion'' from
the war on terror. That's a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature
of the world in which we live, and it's a dangerous misunderstanding.
Mr. Zarqawi, who is fighting us in
Iraq, was in Afghanistan, in terror training camps. He then got run out
of Afghanistan because of us and moved to Iraq. He then was working with
a poisons factory in northern Iraq. And now we've got him on the run
inside of Iraq, and he's fighting us. And he says this is a diversion?
Does he think if we weren't in Iraq that Mr. Zarqawi would become a
peaceful citizen of the world? [Laughter] He's a dangerous man. He hates
what we stand for. He intends to inflict harm. It is best we defeat
Zarqawi in Iraq so we do not have to face him here at home.
You cannot win a war when you don't believe we're fighting one, and
that's my opponent. The most solemn duty of
the American President is to protect the American people. If we show
uncertainty or weakness in this decade, the world will drift toward
tragedy. It's not going to happen on my watch.
The third lesson--fourth lesson is when we put somebody in harm's
way, they deserve the full support of our Government. And that's why I
went to the United States Congress and asked for $87 billion of very
important funding, funding to support our troops in combat. And we
received great support, strong bipartisan support. I want you to tell
your friends and neighbors of this startling statistic. Of the 100
Members of the United States Senate, only 4 voted to authorize the use
of force and then did not vote for the funding to support the troops in
combat, 2 of whom are my opponent and his
runningmate.
Audience members. Boo-o-o!
The President. They asked him, they said,
``How did you make that vote?'' He said, ``Well, I actually did vote for
the $87 billion, right before I voted against it.'' It may be the most
famous quote of the 2004 campaign. They then kept pressing him and
pressing him, and he finally said, ``The whole thing is a complicated
matter.'' There is nothing complicated about supporting the men and
women who wear the United States uniform in harm's way. [Applause] Thank
you all.
I want to thank the family members of our military who are here. I
want to thank the veterans who are here who have set such a great
example for those who wear the uniform.
I want to share one more thing with you that I think is important
for you to know about me. I believe in the power of liberty to transform
societies. Let me tell you what I mean by that. Perhaps an example is
the best way to make my point. Laura and I have a
great friend in Prime Minister Koizumi of
Japan. We like him. He's a fun guy to be around. He's a good friend. I
saw him in New York at the United Nations in early September. I said,
``You know, I'm talking about you when I get out there on the campaign
trail. I hope you don't mind.'' He said, ``Fine, go ahead and talk about
me.'' I didn't ask him permission to tell you what I'm about to tell
you, and that is, Elvis is his favorite singer--truthfully--[laughter]--
and ``High Noon'' is his favorite movie. [Laughter]
Anyway, so, you know, it doesn't sound that--must not sound--to some
it probably doesn't sound that profound that the Prime Minister of
Japan and I are friends. But remember this
part of history: 60 years ago, they were the sworn enemy of the United
States of America. We were at war with the Japanese. And a lot of
relatives of yours, I'm confident, fought in that war. My dad did, and other dads and granddads did as well.
And it was a tough war, and we lost a lot of folks.

[[Page 2630]]

Yet, after we won the war, President Harry S. Truman believed in the
power of liberty to transform an enemy into an ally. That's what he
believed. So did a lot of other Americans. A lot of other Americans
didn't agree with him, though. Why help the enemy? And the enemy
couldn't become a democracy. You know, there was a lot of excuses and a
lot of pessimism about the helping the Japanese. But fortunately, they
stuck to it. Japan became a democracy. And today I sit down at the table
with Prime Minister Koizumi, talking about
how to keep the peace we all want, talking about keeping the peace.
Someday, an American President will be sitting down with the duly
elected leader from Iraq, talking about the peace in the greater Middle
East, and our children and our grandchildren will be better off for it.
I believe people in the Middle East want to live in freedom. That's
what I believe. The people of Afghanistan showed what freedom can mean.
Do you realize women stood in line for hours waiting to vote, after
having lived in a society where they had no rights. And they stood in
line to vote, even though the Taliban were threatening them with death
and destruction. People want to be free. I believe women in the greater
Middle East want to live in a free society. I believe moms and dads want
to raise their children in a free and peaceful world. I believe all
these things because freedom is not America's gift to the world; freedom
is the Almighty God's gift to each man and woman in this world.
It's the last time I'm going to be in Eau Claire before the
election, but I do want to thank you for coming. And when I campaigned
in your State in 2000, I said if you gave me a chance to serve, I would
uphold the honor and the dignity of the office to which I had been
elected. With your help, we will carry Wisconsin, and I will do so for 4
more years.
God bless. Thank you all for coming. Thank you for coming.

Note: The President spoke at 2:49 p.m. at J&D Manufacturing. In his
remarks, he referred to Don and Diana Redetzke, founders, J&D
Manufacturing; Milwaukee County Executive Scott K. Walker; John Gard,
speaker, Wisconsin State Assembly; Dale Schultz, candidate in
Wisconsin's Third Congressional District; Tim Michels, senatorial
candidate in Wisconsin, and his wife, Barbara; Wayne LaPierre, Jr.,
executive vice president and chief executive officer, and Chris W. Cox,
Institute for Legislative Action executive director, National Rifle
Association; former President Saddam Hussein of Iraq; senior Al Qaida
associate Abu Musab Al Zarqawi; and Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi of
Japan.