Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2004, Book III)

[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2004, Book III)]
[October 26, 2004]
[Pages 2719-2729]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

Remarks in Onalaska, Wisconsin
October 26, 2004

The President. Thank you all. What a great way to spend a Tuesday,
and that's to be on a bus traveling throughout the great State of
Wisconsin. Thank you all for coming out to say hello. It's such an honor
to be here. Laura and I are--our spirits are
lifted up because so many have come out to say hello. We're honored you
are here. I'm here to ask for your vote. I'm here to ask for your help.
There's no doubt in my mind, if we turn out our vote in Wisconsin, we'll
win a great victory on November the 2d.
I don't know if you know the history of me and Laura. We were in the seventh grade together in San Jacinto
Junior High in Midland, Texas, and then we became reacquainted years
later when she was a public school librarian. And I asked her to marry
me--I'm sure some of you can relate to this. She said, ``Fine, but make
me a promise.'' I said, ``What is it?'' ``Well, promise me I'll never
have to give a political speech.'' [Laughter] I said, ``Okay, you've got
a deal.'' [Laughter] Fortunately, she didn't hold me to that promise.
She's giving a lot of speeches, and when she does the American people
see a warm, compassionate, great First Lady. I have been traveling your
State a lot, talking about the

[[Page 2720]]

reasons why I think people ought to put me back into office. But perhaps
the most important one is so that Laura will be First Lady for 4 more
years.
I am proud of my runningmate, Dick Cheney.
In all due respect to those who are here who are follically challenged--
[laughter]--I readily concede my runningmate does not have the waviest
hair in the race. You'll be pleased to know I did not pick him because
of his hairdo. [Laughter] I picked him because of his experience and his
judgment and his ability to get the job done.
And I'm proud of your friend Tommy Thompson. He has done a great job. I gave him one of the toughest
jobs in Washington, DC, and he has responded. He has done a fabulous job
to help those who hurt. Just take the issue of Medicare. Tommy and I
went to Washington to solve problems, not to pass them on to future
Presidents and future generations. That's our job, to tackle the tough
problems. Medicare was a problem. See, Medicare hadn't changed, but
medicine had. For example, they pay nearly $100,000 for heart surgery,
but not one dime for the prescription drugs that could prevent the heart
surgery from being needed in the first place. Tommy recognized that
wasn't fair. I recognized it wasn't fair. We brought Republicans and
Democrats together. We did what other Presidents and other Secretaries
couldn't do: We modernized Medicare, and starting in 2006, our seniors
will get prescription drug coverage.
Let me say one other thing to our seniors here in Wisconsin. You
might remember the 2000 campaign, when they ran those ads that said,
``If George W. gets elected, our seniors are not going to get their
Social Security checks.'' Remember those? Yes. Well, I want you--as
you're gathering up the vote, remind your friends and neighbors that
George W. did get elected and our seniors did get their Social Security
check. And our seniors will continue to get their Social Security
checks. But we're also going to strengthen Social Security for our
younger generation. Our youngsters ought to be allowed to take some of
their payroll taxes and set up a personal savings account they call
their own, an account the Government cannot take away.
I want to thank Congressman Mark Green, who
is with us today. Congressman, I appreciate you coming. He's a fine,
good, young Member of the House of Representatives. I want to thank the
mayor of Onalaska with us today. Mr. Mayor,
I'm proud you're here. Thanks for coming. Fill the potholes. [Laughter]
I'm proud to be standing with the next United States Senator from
Wisconsin, Tim Michels. He married a lady named
Barbara. [Laughter] I know some Barbaras.
[Laughter] One of them is still telling me what
to do. [Laughter] And I'm still listening, I want you to know.
I'm very impressed by a candidate for Wisconsin's Third
Congressional District, a man I hope you support, the next Congressman,
Dale Schultz.
I want to thank the grassroots activists who are here, the people
who are putting up the signs, making the phone calls, the people who
helped turn out such a huge crowd here. I'm honored to have your
support. Now is the time to keep the work up. Now is the time to find
every single voter and tell them we have a duty, a duty in this country
to vote. When you get them headed to the polls, remind them if they want
a safer America, a stronger America, and a better America, to put me and
Dick Cheney back in office.
Audience members. Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!
The President. We're only one week away from the vote, and I'm
focusing on the big issues that are facing our country's families. This
election comes down to five clear choices for our families: your
family's security; your family's budget; your quality of life; your
retirement; and the bedrock values that are so critical to our country's
future.

[[Page 2721]]

First and foremost, I've talked about the quality retirement. When
I'm talking about Medicare and making sure it exists and strong, that
helps our families. When I'm talking about Social Security and making
sure it's around today as well as around tomorrow, that helps our
families.
But the first, biggest concern of any President is your security.
Our Nation is at war against a terrorist enemy unlike any we have faced
before. The most solemn duty of the American President is to protect the
American people. We will be relentless, determined, steadfast, and
strong. We will not relent. We will stay on the offensive until the
fight is won.
Another big issue, of course, is our economy. It affects the quality
of life. It affects your budget. It affects how much money you have in
your wallet. We will expand and strengthen our economic recovery to make
sure opportunity spreads throughout every corner of this country. This
campaign offers a clear choice when it comes to the economy and our
vision for how to create jobs. My policies support and strengthen the
small businesses, which are creating most new jobs in America.
I'm going to spend a little time talking about the vision of
enhancing the entrepreneurial spirit. My opponent promises to raise your taxes.
Audience members. Boo-o-o!
The President. And unfortunately for our small-business owners,
that's a promise most politicians tend to keep. [Laughter]
Our economy has been through a lot. When you're out there rounding
up the vote, I want you to remind people that 6 months prior to my
arrival, the stock market was in serious decline. Our economy was
declining in the last half of the year 2000. We fell into a recession.
We had corporate scandals which affected our economy. By the way, we
passed tough laws. We have made it abundantly clear, we will not
tolerate dishonesty in the boardrooms of America.
We were attacked. And those attacks cost us about a million jobs in
the 3 months after September the 11th. But, see, I understand something.
I understand the engine of growth that this economy has found with the
entrepreneurs and workers of America. And that's why we passed the
largest tax relief in a generation, tax relief which encouraged
consumption and investment.
And it's working. The economic stimulus plan we passed is working.
This country created about 1.9 million jobs in the last 13 months. The
national unemployment rate is down to 5.4 percent. And let me remind you
of where that stands: That's lower than the average rate of the 1970s,
the 1980s, and the 1990s. The unemployment rate in Wisconsin is down to
5 percent. That is down almost a full point since the summer of 2003.
We're headed in the right direction in America.
Our farmers are doing well. Farm income is up, and that's good for
our economy. The homeownership rate is at an alltime high in America.
We're on the move. We're going forward, and we're not going to go back
to the days of tax and spend.
This is a time of fantastic opportunity. The job of Government is to
create an environment in which the entrepreneurial spirit can flourish,
in which people are willing to work hard to realize their dreams.
Government doesn't create wealth. Government creates the environment
that says, ``Take a risk. Start a business if you choose to. Own
something.''
Today Joan Shelley is with us. I want you
to hear her story. Joan is right there. First of all, she is a mom. She
and her husband have got eight children.
Listen to her story. She didn't think she was spending enough time--she
worked as a nurse--didn't spend enough time at home. First of all, she's
got her priorities straight. If you are fortunate enough to be a mom or
a dad, your most important responsibility is to love your child with all
your heart and all your soul.

[[Page 2722]]

So guess what happened? Six years ago, she
decided to start an online business selling cabinet hardware from the
basement of her home. How many times have you heard that story? You
know, ``I sat around the kitchen table and came up with an idea and
started a business.'' ``I started a business in my garage.'' She started
hers in her basement. Today, KnobGallery employs 20 people, most of them
moms who wanted more flexibility for their families. This administration
believes in flex-time. The world has changed. Our labor laws ought to
change with them. Moms and dads ought to be able to have the flex-time
in the workplace so they can balance family and the need to work.
KnobGallery is a thriving, $1.4 million business. Her family is
working in the business: Kristina, it turns
out, designs the company's web page. Joan is
living the American Dream. She has started her own business. She owns
her own company. And she--I said, ``Are you going to increase the
jobs?'' She said, ``I'm intending to add more people to work.'' See, the
more Joans that start up their own business, the more likely that
somebody is going to find a job in America. The role of the Government
is to create an environment for the Joan Shelleys to feel comfortable in
starting and expanding their business.
Ric Hartman is with us. There he is. Hi,
Ric. He managed at one time the in-house design shop of a large
packaging firm for 15 years. Last October, about a year ago, he learned
the company was going to close his operation. So guess what he did? He
got some of those people he worked with, put them in a van, went to a
local flour mill and said, ``This is where we're going to start our new
company.'' See, the entrepreneurial spirit must be strong if America is
going to be a hopeful place. Five came with him. Today, he runs a
profitable small business called Hartman Design. Here's what he said:
``Deep down, I think every design person wants to run their own shop.''
Deep down, a lot of people in America want to run their own shop. Deep
down, people have a desire to start their own business, and when they
do, somebody is more likely to find a job.
A hopeful America and one that's good for your budget is one in
which small businesses are thriving, in which people from all walks of
life feel comfortable about starting their own business. Do you realize
minority businesses are up in America? That is hopeful and positive for
the future of this country. Seven out of ten new jobs in America are
created by small businesses. And there is a source of upward mobility in
America that comes with ownership. When a woman owns her own business,
she's upwardly mobile. When a Latino or an African American starts his
or her own business, they become upwardly mobile. Ownership is a
powerful part of the American Dream.
And so the fundamental question in this campaign, who's got the best
strategy to make sure the entrepreneurial spirit is strong? Who's got
the idea, who understands, and who can best make sure that more small
businesses grow in America? First, in order to make sure the
entrepreneurial spirit is strong, America must be the best place in the
world to do business. If you want businesses to start, this must be the
best place in the world to do business. And secondly, to make sure this
is a hopeful world, we've got to make sure the workforce is the best
trained in the world. A lot of good jobs and a lot of good hopes start
with good education.
First, let me talk about how to make sure this is the best place in
the world to do business. One, we've got to keep your taxes low. We
passed good tax relief. We raised the child credit. That helps if you're
a mom or a dad. We reduced the marriage penalty. I believe strongly the
Tax Code ought to encourage marriage, not penalize marriage. We created
a 10 percent bracket. That helps the working families. But we also said,
``If you pay taxes, you ought to get relief.'' If you're going to have

[[Page 2723]]

tax relief, everybody who pays taxes ought to get relief. That's only
fair.
But guess what happens? What most Americans don't know, and
evidently what my opponent doesn't know, is
that most small businesses are either a Subchapter S corporation like
the two small businesses I just mentioned or sole proprietorships, which
means you pay tax at the individual income-tax rate. Ninety percent of
businesses in America pay individual income taxes, which says when you
cut the taxes on everybody who pays taxes, you're helping the small
businesses. See, there is a connection between good tax relief and
growth in the small-business sector.
And so to encourage small-business investment, not only did we say,
``You can have more money in your coffers so you can expand your
business or pay more money or better afford health care,'' but we
encouraged investment by increasing the small-business expensing
deduction from $25,000 to $100,000. See, I understand if you create the
demand for goods and services and provide incentives for investment, the
economy grows. That's what you've got to understand. It's a difference
of opinion. It's a difference of philosophy. My opponent believes the economy grows by growing the size of the
Federal Government. I believe the economy grows by growing the size of
the coffers of small businesses.
Here's what Paul Schoeneck of New Berlin,
Wisconsin, said. See, his business, like the other two, were Subchapter
S corporations. He said about tax relief, ``We have doubled our
workforce. We've increased pay. We have consistently paid out bonuses.
We've significantly increased our gross and net income. We've increased
our production lines by nine, remodeled our offices, and significantly
improved our infrastructure.'' That's what he said. Those aren't my
words. That is what a small-business owner from Wisconsin has said about
the tax relief. He said, ``Without tax relief, this would not have been
possible.''
I want you, when you hear these people talking about tax relief,
about how it only benefited certain people--this tax relief has helped
our small businesses grow and prosper, and this economy is on the move
because the entrepreneurial spirit is strong.
And taxes are an issue in this campaign. I'm running against a
fellow who's promised $2.2 trillion of new
Federal spending. That's with a ``T.'' That is--that's a lot even for a
Senator from Massachusetts. [Laughter] So they said, ``How are you going
to pay for it?'' He said, ``Oh, we'll just tax the rich.'' That means
raise the top two brackets. By raising the top two brackets, he's taxing
the small-business sector of America. That's bad economic policy. Just
as the economy is beginning to grow, just as the small businesses are
feeling confident--I talked to the two small-business owners here. I
said, ``Are you going to hire somebody?'' They said, ``We're thinking
about hiring new people.'' But running up the taxes on them would make
it less likely they'd hire somebody. It's bad economic policy to tax the
small-business owners of America, which is precisely what my opponent's
plan would do.
See, when you say you're going to run up the top two brackets, you
raise about $600 billion, maybe 800 billion, depending on whose
accountant you use. [Laughter] But the point is, in either case you're
far short of the $2.2 trillion that he has
promised. There is a gap. There is a gap between what he's promised and
what he can deliver. And guess who usually gets to fill the gap?
Audience members. We do!
The President. Yes, you do. But we're not going to let him tax you. We're going to win on November the 2d.
The bottom line about our economic visions is this: To pay for all
his new spending he's proposed, my opponent
will have to raise taxes not just on small-business owners but on
everyone who's ever worked for a small business, shopped at a small
business, or walked by a small business.

[[Page 2724]]

[Laughter] We're not going to let him tax you; we're going to win.
Audience members. Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!
The President. To make sure that this economy is strong and the
small businesses can flourish, we've got to do something about the
frivolous and junk lawsuits. These kind of lawsuits cost our economy
about $230 billion a year. This amounts to about $3,000 a year for the
average family. They're expensive, and they're really expensive on small
businesses. If part of the vision is to make sure the small-business
sector of our economy flourishes, we've got to do something about the
liability. The average cost of tort liability for a small business is
about $150,000. That's money that could be better used for employees,
worker training, health care, expanding the business, creating new jobs.
My opponent and I have a different
approach. He's sided with the personal-injury trial lawyers time and
time again. They're powerful in Washington, make no mistake about it.
It's hard to get good legal reform out of the United States Senate
because they're influential. As a matter of fact, he's raised more money
from lawyers than any other Member of the United States Senate. That's
about $22 million so far since 1989, and still counting. And there's a
reason why. He's voted five times against protecting small businesses on
punitive damages. He's made it clear where he stands. He's made it
abundantly clear. He's put a personal-injury trial lawyer on the ticket.
Audience members. Boo-o-o!
The President. Now, I'm going to stand with our small-business
owners and continue to be for legal reforms in Washington, DC.
We need less regulations on our small businesses. We need reasonable
regulations. I can't guarantee that anybody in Washington has ever read
the forms small businesses have to fill out. I wish I could say they
have; I doubt it. But one way to make sure we reduce the burden on our--
not only our small businesses but our--the working people here in
America is to reform the Tax Code. It's a complicated mess. It is too
complex. I'm going to bring people together. Listen, I recognize the--
first of all, the code is a million pages long. American workers and
small-business owners and families spend 6 billion hours a year filling
out the forms. We can do a better job. We can make this Tax Code pro-
growth, pro-family, and fair. And I will bring Republicans* and
Democrats together to do so.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
*White House correction.
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A couple of other quick points on how to make sure the environment
is good for business growth so that you've got more money, so that you
can manage your budget better, so that people can find a job. We need--
Congress needs to pass my energy plan. It's a plan that makes sense.
It's common sense. It encourages conservation. It encourages the use of
renewables like ethanol and biodiesel. It uses technologies to help us
burn coal more cleanly. It encourages exploration for natural gas in
environmentally friendly ways. To make sure that this environment for
growth is strong, we need to be less dependent on foreign sources of
energy.
Let me talk right quick about education, because I believe a good
economy requires this workforce of ours to be educated. I think the two
go hand in hand. I don't think you can have a hopeful environment for
growth if our people aren't educated. It all starts with the younger
kids. That's why I went to Washington, to challenge the soft bigotry of
low expectations. You know, this business about just shuffling the
children through, grade after grade, year after year, without learning
the basics was not good enough for America, as far as I'm concerned. I
believe every child can learn, and I believe every school must teach.
And so we increased funding, particularly for Title I students. But we
said, ``In return for extra funding, show us

[[Page 2725]]

whether or not a child can read and write and add and subtract.''
See, I understand you can't solve a problem until you diagnose a
problem. You can't fix a problem until you fully understand the nature
of the problem. By measuring, we now know where the problems exist in
America, and we're providing the extra money to solve them. And guess
what's happening? Kids are learning to read and write and add and
subtract. Because we're measuring, we now know the benchmarks. We're
seeing progress. We're closing the achievement gap amongst minority
students in America. And we're not going to go back to the old days of
mediocrity and low standards.
I think one of the country's greatest assets is the community
college system. Community colleges are able to adjust their curriculum
to meet the needs of the job providers. I've met small businesses who
have told me about helping set up a curriculum in our community colleges
so our workers can gain the skills necessary to fill the jobs of the
21st century. You just heard about Joan's
company, where in her basement, she started a company over the Internet.
In other words, we need new skill sets as this economy of ours changes.
And a great place for America's workers to gain new skill sets is in the
community college system all across our country.
Most of the uninsured in America work for small businesses. Small
businesses are having trouble affording health care. That's why I
believe small businesses ought to be allowed to pool risk to join
together so they can buy insurance at the same discount that big
companies are able to do.
We'll expand health savings accounts to help our families and small
businesses to be able to better afford health insurance and, at the same
time, provide a health account that you can own and you can manage, you
can take with you from job to job. And we'll make sure we do something
about these frivolous lawsuits that are running up the cost of health
care. This is a national issue. I have met too many ob-gyns who are
being driven out of practice because the lawsuits are running up their
cost of doing business, their premiums. And I've met too many patients
of ob-gyns who are having to drive for miles, wondering whether or not
they and their child will get the health care they need.
Medical liability is a crisis in America, and it's a crisis because
we can't get anything done in the United States Senate because the trial
bar is too strong. My opponent has voted
against medical liability reform not once, not twice but 10 times. In a
new term, I'm going to bring people together and say, ``The people have
spoke. We need medical liability reform now to make sure health care is
affordable and available.''
We have a big difference when it comes to health care in this
campaign. And it is a big difference. I remember that debate when my
opponent stood up there with a straight face
and he said, ``The Government has nothing to do with it,''--``it'' being
his health care plan. I could barely contain myself. [Laughter] The
Government has got a lot to do with it--a lot to do with it. Eight out
of ten people would end up on the Government health care. Think about
this: When you run up the Medicaid, make Medicaid more eligible for
people, it's going to provide an incentive for small businesses to not
provide insurance for their employees because the Government will. That
doesn't make any sense, to be moving people from private insurance to
the Government. When the Government writes the check, the Government
starts setting the rules, and you don't want the Federal Government
making the rules when it comes to your health care.
I've come here to Wisconsin to tell the people I understand how this
economy works, and my policies are standing square with the workers, the
families, and the small-business owners of America. I also want to tell
you in changing times, some

[[Page 2726]]

things do not change, the values we try to live by, courage and
compassion, reverence and integrity. In changing times, we will support
and must support the institutions that give our lives direction and
purpose, our families, our schools, and our religious congregations. We
stand for a culture of life in which every person matters and every
being counts. We stand for marriage and family, which are the
foundations of our society. We stand for the appointment of Federal
judges who know the difference between personal opinion and the strict
interpretation of the law.
My opponent takes a different approach.
His words on these issues are a little murky, but his record is really
clear. [Laughter] He says he supports the institution of marriage but
voted against the Defense of Marriage Act, which overwhelmingly passed
with Democrat and Republican votes. My predecessor signed that bill into law, which defined marriage as a
union between a man and a woman, and my opponent voted against it. He
says--you know, he says he's got a personal view on the issue of life,
but he voted against the ban on the brutal practice of partial-birth
abortion.
Audience members. Boo-o-o!
The President. He's called the Reagan
years a time of moral darkness.
Audience members. Boo-o-o!
The President. There is a mainstream in American politics, and my
opponent sits on the far left bank. My fellow
Americans, he can run from his views, but he cannot hide.
All the progress we hope for in America and all the prosperity and
opportunity we want for every family and for our children ultimately
depends on the security of our Nation. We're in the middle of a global
war on terror. We face a determined enemy. In the war on terror, there's
no place for confusion, no place for weakness, no substitute for
victory. I believe 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 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're defending the homeland. We're strengthening our
intelligence services. We're transforming our military. There will be no
draft. The All-Volunteer Army will remain an all-volunteer army. We're
on the offensive. We will strike the terrorists abroad so we do not have
to face them here at home.
We're promoting democracy and liberty, the great alternatives to
despair and terror. I want you to tell your children about what took
place in Afghanistan. It wasn't all that long ago that young girls lived
under the reign of the Taliban, a brutal, barbaric people. They would
not let young girls go to school, and if their mothers didn't toe their
ideological line, they were taken in the public square sometimes and
whipped. These people were dark and dim. There was darkness in
Afghanistan. Because we defended ourselves, because we believe in
freedom, the Afghanistan people went by the millions to the polls to
vote for their President. The first voter--the first voter--was a 19-
year-old woman.
Iraq will have a Presidential election. Think how far that country
has come from the days of torture chambers and mass graves. Freedom is
on the march. Freedom is on the move, and our country is better for it.
A President must lead with consistency and strength in these
troubling times. In war, sometimes you change your tactics, but you
never change your principles. And Americans have seen how I do my job.
[Applause] Thank you. Even when you might not agree with me, you know
where I stand, what I believe, and what I intend to do. On good days and
on bad days, whether the polls are up or the polls are down, I am
determined to win this war

[[Page 2727]]

on terror, and I will always support the men and women of the United
States military.
My opponent has taken a different
approach. It's fair to say that consistency has not been his strong
point. [Laughter] Senator Kerry says we're better off with Saddam
Hussein out of power, except when he declared
that removing Saddam made us less safe. He stated in our second debate
that he always believed that Saddam was a threat except, a few questions
later, when he said Saddam Hussein was not a threat. [Laughter] He says
he was right when he voted to authorize the use of force against Saddam
Hussein, but that I was wrong to use force against Saddam Hussein.
[Laughter]
And now he's throwing out a wild claim
that he knows where bin Laden was in the
fall of 2001, and that our military passed up a chance to get him at
Tora Bora. It is unjustified criticism of the military commanders in the
field. It is the worst kind of Monday morning quarterbacking. Our
commander in Afghanistan at the time was General Tommy Franks, and he wrote this about Tora Bora, he said, ``The
Senator's understanding of events does not square with reality.''
[Laughter] That's what the man who was there said. He says the American
Special Forces were actively involved in the search for the terrorists
in Tora Bora, and that intelligence reports at the time placed bin Laden
in one of several countries. They didn't know whether he was here,
there, or otherwise. In other words, they didn't have hard intelligence.
Maybe my opponent has seen something we all haven't seen.
As a matter of fact, Senator Kerry, before
he got into political difficulty and revised his views, he said this
about Tora Bora on national TV, in the fall of 2001, he said, ``I think
we have been doing this pretty effectively, and we should continue to do
it that way.'' At the time, the Senator said about Tora Bora, ``I think
we have been smart. I think the administration leadership has done it
well, and we are on the right track.'' All I can say about that is, I am
George W. Bush, and I approve of that message.
My opponent's record on national security
has a far deeper problem than election-year flip-flopping. On the
largest national security issues of our time, he has been consistently
wrong. When Ronald Reagan was confronting the Soviet Union at the height
of the cold war, Senator Kerry said that President Reagan's policy of
peace through strength was making America less safe. History has shown
that Senator Kerry was wrong and President Ronald Reagan was right.
When former President Bush led a
coalition against Saddam Hussein in 1991,
Senator Kerry voted against the use of force
to liberate Kuwait, even though the United Nations had passed a
resolution and there was a strong coalition and agreement with U.S.
policy. History has shown that Senator Kerry was wrong, former President
Bush was right.
In 1994, just one year after the first bombing of the World Trade
Center, my opponent proposed massive cuts in
America's intelligence budget, so massive that even his Massachusetts
colleague, Ted Kennedy, opposed them.
History has shown that Senator Kerry was wrong--we've got to be fair--
Senator Kennedy was right. [Laughter]
The President must be consistent and strong in these difficult
times. Just last year, when American troops were in combat in
Afghanistan and Iraq, I proposed $87 billion of increased funding to
support our troops in harm's way. It was important funding. Bipartisan
support for that funding was very strong. As you round up 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 funding for
our troops in harm's way, and 2 of those 4 were my opponent and his runningmate.

[[Page 2728]]

Audience members. Boo-o-o!
The President. You might remember, when they asked him about the vote, he said this, he said, ``I actually did
vote for the $87 billion, right before I voted against it.'' History has
shown that Senator Kerry was right, then wrong, then briefly right, then
wrong again. [Laughter] They finally kept pressing him. He said the
whole thing about the $87 billion was a complicated matter. My friends,
there is nothing complicated about supporting our men and women in
combat.
And speaking about those men and women, we have got a fantastic
military and I'm proud to be their Commander in Chief. And I want to
thank the military families who are here today for your sacrifice. And I
want to thank the veterans who are here today for having set such a
great example.
During the last 20 years, in key moments of challenge and decision
for America, Senator Kerry has chosen a
position of weakness and inaction. With that record, he stands in
opposition not just to me but to the great tradition of the Democratic
Party. The party of Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman and John Kennedy
is rightly remembered for confidence and resolve in times of war and
hours of crisis. Senator Kerry has turned his back on ``pay any price''
and ``bear any burden.'' He's replaced those commitments with ``wait and
see'' and ``cut and run.'' Many Democrats in this country do not
recognize their party anymore, and today I want to speak to every one of
them: If you believe America should lead with strength and purpose and
confidence and resolve, I'd be honored to have your support, and I'm
asking for your vote.
Our differences on keeping the security of the country and
protecting our families are vast. My opponent
says that September the 11th did not change him much at all.
Audience members. Boo-o-o!
The President. And his policies make that clear. He says the war on terror is primarily a law enforcement and
intelligence gathering operation. Well, my outlook was changed on
September the 11th. I'll never forget going to the Ground Zero on
September the 14th, 2001. There were workers in hardhats there yelling
at the top of their lungs, ``Whatever it takes.'' I'll never forget the
sights and sounds. I'll never forget the person looking me straight in
the eye and saying, ``Do not let me down.'' Ever since that day, I wake
up every morning trying to figure out how best to protect our country. I
will never relent in defending America, whatever it takes.
When I traveled your State 4 years ago, I made a pledge that if I
was elected, I would uphold the honor and the dignity of the office to
which I had been elected. With your help, with your hard work, I will do
so for 4 more years.
Thanks for coming. God bless. Thank you all.

Note: The President spoke at 8:30 a.m. at the Onalaska Omni Center. In
his remarks, he referred to Mayor James Bialecki of Onalaska, WI;
Kristina Shelley, daughter of KnobGallery owner Joan Shelley; former
President Saddam Hussein of Iraq; Usama bin Laden, leader of the Al
Qaida terrorist organization; and Gen. Tommy R. Franks, USA (Ret.),
former combatant commander, U.S. Central Command.

[[Page 2729]]