[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2004, Book III)]
[October 23, 2004]
[Pages 2679-2685]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]
Remarks in Melbourne, Florida
October 23, 2004
The President. Thanks for coming today.
Audience members. Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!
The President. Thank you all. Thanks for coming today. We're getting
close to voting time--actually, you already are voting here. We're
traveling your State not only asking for the vote, I'm here to ask for
your help. I'm asking you to get your friends and neighbors and remind
them they have a duty to vote in a democracy. And as you're getting
people to do their duty, don't overlook discerning Democrats, people
like Senator Zell Miller from Georgia. Remind
people that if they want a safer America, a stronger America, and a
better America, put me and Dick Cheney back in
office.
I really enjoy campaigning. I like to be out with the people. I like
to tell people why I'm running and what I intend to do as your President
for 4 more years. Perhaps the most important reason of all for you to
put me back into office is so that Laura will be
the First Lady for 4 more years.
Audience members. Laura! Laura! Laura!
The President. Listen, some of you all may appreciate this--I think
some of you will appreciate this. When I asked Laura to marry me--well, we'd been to the seventh grade
together at San Jacinto Junior High in Midland, Texas. We became
reacquainted later on. She was a public school librarian at the time.
And when I asked her to marry me, she said, ``Fine, but make me a
promise.'' I said, ``What is it?'' She said, ``Promise me that I'll
never have to give a political speech.'' [Laughter] I said, ``Okay, you
got a deal.'' 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 compassionate, warm, strong First Lady.
I'm proud of my runningmate, Dick Cheney. I
fully admit it, he doesn't have the most hair in the race. [Laughter] I
didn't pick him because of his hairdo. I picked him because of his
judgment, his experience. He's getting the job done for the American
people.
And I'm proud of brother Jeb. The thing I like
about him is you know where he stands. He's not one of these people that
takes a poll or a focus group to kind of find his way. And not only
that, when times were tough here in the State of Florida, I saw
firsthand his steady leadership. Though I came and tried to remind the
people of this State the Federal Government would do everything we can
to help the people, the truth of the matter is, Florida's great strength
is not only your Governor but the fact that neighbor loved neighbor,
neighbor helped neighbor. Florida showed great character during these
times of testing.
I'm honored to call Buzz Aldrin friend. I appreciate him being here today. He's one of
the great pioneers of America. I appreciate you, Buzz, coming. I want to
thank you for the example you have set for future pioneers.
I want to thank Congressman Dave Weldon for
his service to the great State of Florida. I appreciate you being here,
Dave. When you go to the polls, make sure you vote for Mel
Martinez. He'll make a great United States
Senator. I want to thank all the State and local officials who are here.
I want to thank my friends in Little Texas for having played for you all
today.
Most of all, I want to thank the grassroots activists who are
putting up the signs and making the phone calls, who have worked so hard
to make this rally such a fantastic rally. I want to thank you for what
you have done and what you're going to do, and that is turn out the
vote. And with your help, we'll carry Florida again
[[Page 2680]]
and win a great victory on November the 2d.
We have just 10 days to go in this election, and voters have a clear
choice between two very different candidates and dramatically different
approaches and records. You know where I stand, and sometimes, you even
know where my opponent stands. [Laughter] We
both have records. I am proudly running on my record. And the Senator is
running from his, and there is a reason why. There is a mainstream in
American politics, and my opponent sits on the far left bank. I'm a
compassionate conservative and proudly so. At a time when our country
has much to accomplish and much more to do, I offer a record of reform
and results.
This election comes down to five clear choices for America's
families, five choices on issues of great consequence: your family's
security; your family's budget; your quality of life; your retirement;
and the bedrock values that are so critical to our families and to our
future.
The first clear choice is the most important because it concerns the
security of your family. All our progress on every other issue depends
on the safety of our citizens. This will be the first Presidential
election since September the 11th, 2001. Americans will go to the polls
in a time of war and ongoing threats unlike any we have faced before.
Terrorists who killed thousands are still dangerous. They are determined
to strike us again. The outcome of this election will set the direction
of the war against terror. The most solemn duty of the American
President is to protect the American people. If America shows
uncertainty or weakness in this decade, the world will drift toward
tragedy. This will not happen on my watch.
Audience members. Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!
The President. Since that terrible morning of September the 11th,
2001, we have fought the terrorists across the Earth, not for pride, not
for power, but because the lives of our citizens are at stake. Our
strategy is clear. We've strengthened protections for our homeland.
We're reforming and strengthening our intelligence services. We're
transforming our military. We will not have a draft. We will have an
all-volunteer army. We're staying on the offensive. We are resolute, and
we are determined to protect the people.
And we're succeeding. More than three-quarters of Al Qaida's key
members and associates have been brought to justice, and the rest of
them know we're on their trail.
My opponent has a very different approach.
He says that September the 11th, quote, ``didn't change me much at
all''----
Audience members. Boo-o-o!
The President. ----end quote. And that's pretty clear. He considers the war on terror primarily a law
enforcement and intelligence gathering operation.
Audience members. Boo-o-o!
The President. His top policy
adviser has questioned whether it is
even a war at all, saying that, ``It's just a metaphor, like the war on
poverty.''
Audience members. Boo-o-o!
The President. Anyone who thinks we're fighting a metaphor does not
understand the enemy we face. You cannot win a war if you are not
convinced we are even in one.
Senator Kerry also misunderstands our
battle against insurgents and terrorists in Iraq. After voting to
authorize force against Saddam Hussein, after
calling it the right decision when I sent troops into Iraq, the Senator
now calls it the ``wrong war.''
Audience members. Boo-o-o!
The President. The Senator used to
recognize that Saddam Hussein was a gathering
threat who hated America. After all, the Senator said so. He used to
recognize that Saddam was a state sponsor of terror with a history of
pursuing and even using weapons of mass destruction. After all, the
Senator said so. He used to understand that Saddam was a major source of
instability in the Middle East. After all, the Senator
[[Page 2681]]
said so. And when he voted to authorize force, the Senator must have
recognized the nightmare scenario that terrorists might somehow access
weapons of mass destruction. Senator Kerry seems to have forgotten all
that as his position has evolved over the course of this campaign. You
might call it election amnesia.
I knew it then, and I know it now, that America and the world are
safer with Saddam Hussein sitting in a prison
cell.
Senator Kerry now calls Iraq a
``diversion.'' But the case of just one terrorist shows how wrong his
thinking is. A man named Zarqawi is
responsible for planting car bombs and beheading Americans in Iraq. He
ran a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan--until we arrived. And then
he fled to Baghdad, where he plotted and planned and where he's fighting
us today. He publicly announced his allegiance to Usama bin Laden. See, if Zarqawi and his associates were not busy
fighting American and Iraqi forces in Iraq, what does my opponent think
they'd be doing? Peaceful small-business men? [Laughter] Working for
benevolent societies? Our troops will defeat the likes of Zarqawi so we
do not have to face him in our own cities.
The choice in this election could not be clearer. You cannot lead
our Nation to the decisive victory on which the security of every
American family depends if you do not see the true dangers of the post-
September the 11th era. My opponent has a
September 10th point of view. At his convention, he declared his
strategy would be to respond to attacks after America is hit. And that
would be too late. America--in our debates, he said we can defend
America only if we pass a ``global test.''
Audience members. Boo-o-o!
The President. I'm not making that up. He
was standing about this far from me when he said it. Listen, I'll work
with our friends and allies. We'll build strong coalitions. But I will
never turn over America's national security decisions to leaders of
other countries.
I want to thank those who wear the uniform who are here today. Thank
you for your service. I want to thank the veterans who are here for
having set such a great example for those who wear the uniform. I want
to thank the military families who are here.
And I assure you, we will continue to support our troops in harm's
way. That is why I went to the United States Congress and proposed $87
billion in supplemental funding, to make sure our troops had that which
they need to complete their missions in Afghanistan and Iraq.
We received great bipartisan support for that funding. As you gather
the vote, I want you to remind your friends and neighbors of this
startling statistic: Only 4 Members of the United States Senate--4 out
of 100--voted to authorize the use of force and then voted against
providing the funding necessary to supporting our troops in harm's way,
and 2 of those 4 were my opponent and his
runningmate.
Audience members. Boo-o-o!
The President. So they asked him, ``Why
did you make the vote?'' And you might remember the most famous quote of
the 2004 campaign, ``I actually did vote for the $87 billion, right
before I voted against it.'' They kept pressing him, and he finally
said, ``The whole thing was a complicated matter.'' There is nothing
complicated about supporting our troops in combat.
We will continue to protect America by spreading freedom and
liberty. I believe in the transformational power of liberty. Free
nations do not breed resentment and export terror. Free nations become
allies against these ideologues of hate.
Think about what's happened in Afghanistan. Because we acted to
defend ourselves, that society has gone from darkness to light. Three-
and-a-half years ago, young girls couldn't go to school. Their mothers
were taken to the public square and whipped if they did not toe the line
of the barbarians who ran that country. Because we
[[Page 2682]]
acted, millions voted in a Presidential election. The first voter in the
Afghan Presidential election was a 19-year-old woman. Freedom is on the march.
Audience members. Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!
The President. Iraq has a strong Prime Minister. They'll be holding Presidential elections in January.
Think how far that society has come from the days of torture chambers
and mass graves. I believe people in the Middle East want to be free.
Freedom is not America's gift to the world; freedom is the Almighty
God's gift to each man and woman in this world.
The second clear choice in this election concerns your family
budget, your wallet. When I ran for President 4 years ago, I pledged to
lower taxes for American families. I kept my word. We doubled the child
credit to $1,000 to help our moms and dads. We reduced the marriage
penalty. We believe the Tax Code ought to encourage marriage, not
penalize marriage. We dropped the lowest tax bracket to 10 percent to
help our working families. We reduced taxes on everybody who paid taxes.
As a result of these good policies, real after-tax income--that's the
money you have left in your pocket--is about--is up about 10 percent
since I've been your President.
When you're out gathering up the vote, remind the people what we
have been through in this country. Six months prior to my arrival, the
stock market was in serious decline--6 months before getting there. That
foretold a recession. Then we had some corporate scandals. Then those
attacks on our country cost us about a million jobs in the 3 months
after September the 11th.
But our economic policies are working. This economy is growing.
We're 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 5.4
percent. That's lower than the average rate of the 1970s, the 1980s, and
the 1990s. Farm income is up. The homeownership rate in America is at an
alltime high. And your unemployment rate in the great State of Florida
is 4.5 percent.
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*White House correction.
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My opponent has very different plans for
your family's budget. He intends to take a bigger chunk out of it.
Audience members. Boo-o-o!
The President. He voted against the higher
child tax credit. He voted against the marriage penalty relief. He voted
against lower taxes. If he had had his way, an average middle-class
family would be paying 2,000 more dollars a year to the Federal
Government.
Audience members. Boo-o-o!
The President. It's part of a pattern. See, he's voted 10 times to raise taxes on gasoline. All told,
during his 20 years as a United States Senator, my opponent has voted 98
times to raise taxes.
Audience members. Boo-o-o!
The President. That's about five times a year. When a Senator does something that often, he must really enjoy it.
[Laughter] During this campaign, he's also made a lot of big, expensive
promises. He's promised about $2.2 trillion of new Federal spending.
That's with a ``T''--trillion with a ``T.'' That's a lot even for a
Senator from Massachusetts. [Laughter]
So they said, ``How are you going to pay for it?'' He said, ``Well, oh, don't worry. We'll just tax the rich.''
You've heard that before, haven't you? See, there's a gap. When he says
``tax the rich,'' he can raise about 600 to 800 billion dollars. So
there's a gap between what he has promised and what he can raise, and
guess who usually gets to fill that gap?
Audience members. We do!
The President. We're not going to let him
tax you; we're going to carry Florida and win a great victory in
November.
The third choice in this election involves the quality of life for
our families. A good
[[Page 2683]]
education and quality health care are important to successful life. When
I ran for President 4 years ago, I promised to end the soft bigotry of
low expectations by reforming our public schools. I kept my word. We
passed education reforms to bring high standards to our classrooms and
to make schools accountable to our parents. We're seeing progress. Math
and reading scores are rising. We're closing an achievement gap amongst
minority students. We'll build on these reforms and extend them to our
high schools so that no child is left behind in America.
We'll continue to improve our lives--lives for our families, by
making health care more affordable and accessible. We'll expand health
savings accounts so small businesses can cover their workers and more
families are able to get health care accounts they own and manage
themselves. We'll create association health plans so small businesses
can join together and buy insurance at the same discounts that big
companies are able to do. We will help families in need by expanding
community health centers. We'll make sure every eligible child is
enrolled in our Government's low-income health insurance program to make
sure health care is available and affordable to you.
We will do something about these junk lawsuits that are running up
the cost of medicine and driving good doctors out of practice. I've met
too many ob-gyns who are being driven out of practice because of these
lawsuits. And I've met too many women who are worried about whether
they're going to get the quality health care they need to bring their
baby into life. We have a national problem with health care and these
lawsuits. You cannot be pro-doctor and pro-patient and pro-personal-
injury-lawyer at the same time. You have to choose. My opponent has made his choice, and he put a personal-injury
trial lawyer on the ticket.
Audience members. Boo-o-o!
The President. I have made my choice. I'm standing with the doctors
and patients. I am for medical liability reform--now.
Senator Kerry has a different point of
view on our schools. He voted for the No Child Left Behind Act but now
wants to weaken the accountability standards. He's proposed including
measures like teacher attendance to judge whether students can read and
write and add and subtract. He voted against health savings accounts. He
opposes association health plans. He voted 10 times against medical
liability reform. He can run from his record, but he cannot hide.
Now he's proposing a big-Government health
care plan that would cause 8 million families to lose the private
coverage they get at work, put them on the health--the Government plan.
Eighty percent of the people who would get coverage under his proposal
would be enrolled in a Government program.
In one of our debates, he tried to tell
Americans, when it comes to his health care plan, and I'd like to quote
him, ``Government has nothing to do with it.'' I could barely contain
myself. My opponent's plan would move America down the road to Federal
control of health care, and that is the wrong road for America's
families. He can run--he can run in camo, but he cannot hide.
In all we do to improve health care, we will make sure the decisions
are made by doctors and patients, not by officials in Washington, DC.
The fourth clear choice in this election involves your retirement.
Our Nation has made a solemn commitment to America's seniors on Social
Security and Medicare. When I ran for President 4 years ago, I promised
to keep that commitment and improve Medicare by adding prescription drug
coverage. I kept my word. Leaders in both political parties have talked
about strengthening Medicare for years. We got the job done. Seniors are
now getting discounts on medicine with drug discount cards. Our
[[Page 2684]]
low-income seniors are getting $600 this year and another $600 next year
to help pay for their prescriptions. And beginning in 2006, all seniors
will be able to get prescription drug coverage under Medicare.
My opponent voted against the Medicare
bill that included prescription drug coverage, even though it was
supported by AARP and other seniors groups. Campaigning, he said, ``If I
am the President, I am going to repeal that phony bill.'' Then a little
later on, he said, ``No, I don't want to repeal it.'' That sounds
familiar.
As your President for the next 4 years, I will defend the reforms we
worked so hard to pass, and we will keep the promise of Medicare for
America's seniors. And we will keep the promise of Social Security for
our seniors. And we will strengthen Social Security for a younger
generation.
Every election, desperate politicians try to scare seniors about
Social Security. You might remember the campaign in 2000. They were
saying, ``If George W. gets elected, our seniors will not get their
checks.'' Remind your friends and neighbors that George W. got elected
and our seniors got their checks. You will continue to get your checks.
Baby boomers like me are in good shape when it comes to the Social
Security trust.
But we need to worry about our children and our grandchildren. We
need to make sure Social Security will be there when they need it. And
that is why I believe younger workers ought to be able to take some of
their own money and put it in a personal savings account, a personal
savings account they call their own, that the Government cannot take
away.
My opponent takes a different approach
about Social Security. He talks about protecting Social Security. But
he's the only candidate in this race who voted eight times for higher
taxes on Social Security benefits. That's his record. He can run from
it, but he cannot hide.
And when it comes to the next generation, he's offered nothing. American families have a clear choice. My
opponent wants to scare the seniors of today and do nothing to secure
the system for the seniors of tomorrow. I will keep the promise of
Social Security and Medicare and strengthen these great systems for our
children and our grandchildren.
The fifth clear choice in this election is on the values that are so
crucial to keeping our families strong. And here, my opponent and I are miles apart. I believe marriage is a sacred
commitment, a pillar of our civilization, and I will defend it. This
isn't a partisan issue. You know, when Congress passed the Defense of
Marriage Act, defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman, the
vast majority of Democrats supported it and my predecessor, Bill
Clinton, signed the bill into law.
Senator Kerry was part of an out-of-the-mainstream minority that voted
against the Defense of Marriage Act.
Audience members. Boo-o-o!
The President. I believe that reasonable people can find common
ground on difficult issues. Republicans and Democrats and many citizens
on both sides of the life issue came together and agreed we should ban
the brutal practice of partial-birth abortions. I proudly signed that
bill. But Senator Kerry was part of an out-of-
the-mainstream minority that voted against the ban.
Audience members. Boo-o-o!
The President. He voted against parental
notification laws.
Audience members. Boo-o-o!
The President. He voted against the Unborn
Victims of Violence Act.
Audience members. Boo-o-o!
The President. I'll continue to reach out to Americans of every
belief and move this goodhearted Nation toward a culture of life.
In the course of this campaign, my opponent has said that the heart and soul of America can be found
in Hollywood.
Audience members. Boo-o-o!
The President. Most American families don't look to Hollywood as the
source for
[[Page 2685]]
values. The heart and soul of America is found in communities like
Melbourne, Florida.
All of these choices make this one of the most important elections
in our history. The security and prosperity of our country, the health
and education of our families, the retirement of our seniors, and the
direction of our culture are all at stake. The decision is in the best
hands, because the decision belongs to the American people.
I see a great day for America. One of my favorite quotes was written
by a Texan named Tom Lea. He said, ``Sarah and
I live on the east side of the mountain. It's the sunrise side, not the
sunset side. It's the side that sees the day that is coming, not to see
the day that is gone.'' You know, my opponent
has spent much of this campaign talking about the day that is gone. I
see the day that is coming.
We've been through a lot together over the last 3\3/4\ years.
Because we've done the hard work of climbing the mountain, we see the
valley below. We'll protect our families and build on their prosperity.
We'll defend the deepest values of our country. We will spread freedom
and the peace we all want. We'll do everything I can to make America
safer.
Four years ago when I traveled this great State, I made this pledge,
that if I was honored with the office, I would uphold the honor and the
dignity of that office. With your help, I will do so for 4 more years.
Thanks for coming. God bless. On to victory. Thank you all.
Note: The President spoke at 1:39 p.m. at the Space Coast Stadium. In
his remarks, he referred to Senator Zell Miller of Georgia, who made the
keynote address at the 2004 Republican National Convention; Gov. Jeb
Bush of Florida; Apollo 11 astronaut Edwin ``Buzz'' Aldrin; Mel R.
Martinez, senatorial candidate in Florida; entertainers Little Texas;
Usama bin Laden, leader of the Al Qaida terrorist organization; and
Prime Minister Ayad Allawi of the Iraqi Interim Government.