[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2004, Book III)]
[October 23, 2004]
[Pages 2665-2672]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks in Fort Myers, Florida
October 23, 2004

    The President. Thank you all. Thank you all for coming.
    Audience members. Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!
    The President. It's getting close to voting time, and I am here to 
ask for your help. Get your friends and neighbors to go to the polls. 
Remind people we have a duty to vote. And when you get them headed to 
the polls--and by the way, don't overlook discerning Democrats--
[laughter]--people like Senator Zell Miller. 
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.
    I want to thank you all for coming. It's a great way to start a 
Saturday morning, at the ballpark with a lot of great Americans. I'm so 
happy that Laura is traveling with me today. 
Today I'm going to talk about why I think you need to put me back in 
office for 4 more years, but perhaps the most important reason of all is 
so that Laura is the First Lady for 4 more years.
    My runningmate, Dick Cheney, is out working 
hard. Listen, I readily concede, he does not have the waviest hair in 
the race. [Laughter] You'll be happy to hear I didn't pick him because 
of his hairdo. [Laughter] I picked him because of his judgment and his 
experience, and he's getting the job done for the American people.
    I'm proud of my brother Jeb. When the 
hurricanes hit this part of your State, I came by to try to lend my 
support, to remind people that the Federal Government will do everything 
we can do to help the people of this part of the world get their feet 
back on the ground. But your Governor showed great compassion and great 
leadership.
    I want to thank Connie Mack for joining 
us today. He represented this State and

[[Page 2666]]

this district with such class and dignity. I'm proud that his son, 
Connie Mack IV, is running for the United 
States Congress. Nothing--there's nothing wrong with a son following in 
a father's footsteps. When you're in there voting for Connie, make sure 
you put Mel Martinez in the United States 
Senate.
    I want to thank my friend Congressman Mark Foley for joining us today. I appreciate the mayor of Fort 
Myers being here. Mayor Humphrey, thanks for 
coming. I want to thank the attorney general 
for joining us. I want to thank the house speaker. Listen, I want to thank all the people who are 
serving for coming here today.
    I thank my friend Daron Norwood for 
singing to help entertain you before the--before we made it here.
    Most of all, I want to thank you. I want to thank the people putting 
up the signs, making the phone calls, doing all the hard work at the 
grassroots level. With your help, we'll carry Florida again and win a 
great victory.
    We've just got 10 days to go in this campaign. And voters have a 
clear choice between two very different candidates with different 
approaches and different records. You know where I stand, and 
sometimes--and sometimes, you even know where my opponent stands. [Laughter] We both have records. I am proudly 
running on mine. The Senator is running from his--[laughter]--and 
there's a reason why. There's a reason why. There is a mainstream in 
American politics, and my opponent sits on the far left bank. [Laughter] 
I'm a compassionate conservative and proudly so.
    This election comes down to five clear choices for American 
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 very important because it concerns the 
security of our country and the security of your family. All our 
progresses on every 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 poll in a time of war and ongoing threats 
unlike any we have faced before. The terrorists who killed thousands of 
innocent people are still dangerous and 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.
    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 
our intelligence capabilities. To meet the changing threats in today's 
world, we are transforming our All-Volunteer Army--I will keep it an 
all-volunteer army. We're on the offensive. We will stay on the 
offensive. 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--he says that September the 11th, quote, 
``didn't change me much at all,'' end quote.
    Audience members. Boo-o-o!
    The President. 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 foreign policy 
adviser questioned it is even a war at 
all, saying, ``It's just like a metaphor, like the war on poverty.''
    Audience members. Boo-o-o!
    The President. Anyone who thinks we are fighting a metaphor does not 
understand

[[Page 2667]]

the enemy we face. You cannot win a war if you are not convinced we're 
even in one.
    Senator Kerry also misunderstands our 
battle against the 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, he 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, he said so. He used 
to understand that Saddam was a major source of instability in the 
Middle East. After all, he 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 of that, as his position has evolved 
during the course of the campaign. You might call it election amnesia. I 
know then and I know now that America and the world are safer with 
Saddam Hussein sitting in a prison cell.
    Senator Kerry now calls Iraq a 
``diversion.''
    Audience members. Boo-o-o!
    The President. But the case of just one terrorist shows how wrong 
his thinking is. It's a man named 
Zarqawi. He's responsible for planting 
car bombs and beheading Americans in Iraq. I want you to remember, he 
ran a terrorist camp, a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan until our 
forces arrived to destroy that camp. He then fled to Iraq. He recently 
publicly announced his allegiance to Usama bin Laden. If Zarqawi and his associates were not busy fighting 
American forces in Iraq, what does Senator Kerry think, that he'd be a 
small-business man? [Laughter] That he'd be living a peaceful life, 
making positive contributions to society somewhere? I don't think so. 
Our troops will defeat them there so we do not have to face them in our 
own cities.
    The choice in this election cannot 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 
11th world. My opponent has a September the 
10th point of view. At his convention, he declared that his strategy 
will be to respond to attacks after America is hit.
    Audience members. Boo-o-o!
    The President. That would be too late. In our debates, he said with a straight face, we can defend America only 
if we pass a ``global test.''
    Audience members. Boo-o-o!
    The President. I'm not making that up. I heard him. He was standing right there when he said it. I will work with 
our friends and allies, but I will never turn over our national security 
decisions to leaders of other countries.
    I want to thank the veterans who are here. I want to thank the 
military families who are here. I want to thank those who wear the 
uniform who are here. You will have the full support of our Government. 
That's why I went to Congress and proposed $87 billion of funding. I 
want--as you gather up the vote, I want you to remind your fellow 
citizens of this startling statistic. Four Members of the United States 
Senate voted to authorize the use of force and then voted against 
funding for our troops in combat--only four Members--two of whom were my 
opponent and his runningmate.
    Audience members. Boo-o-o!
    The President. My opponent is a person who 
said he actually did vote for the $87 billion, right before he voted 
against it. He then said, ``The whole thing was a complicated matter.'' 
There's nothing complicated about supporting our troops in harm's way.
    I believe in the transformational power of liberty. I want you to 
recognize what's

[[Page 2668]]

happened in Afghanistan. That country has gone from darkness to light. 
Young girls couldn't go to school some 3\1/2\ years ago. Their mothers 
were whipped in the public square if they didn't toe the line of these 
barbaric Taliban. Today, because we defended ourselves, freedom is on 
the march. Millions voted in a Presidential election. The first voter 
was a 19-year-old woman. And the world is 
better off for it.
    Despite ongoing violence, Iraq has an Interim Government. It's 
building up its own security forces. We're headed toward elections in 
January. You see, we're safer, America is safer with Afghanistan and 
Iraq on the road to democracy. We can be proud that 50 million citizens 
of those countries now live as free men and women. We must understand 
that free societies help us keep the peace. I believe strongly in 
freedom. 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. When I ran for President 4 years ago, I pledged to lower taxes 
for America's families. I kept my word. We doubled the child credit to 
$1,000 per child. We reduced the marriage penalty. Our Tax Code ought to 
encourage marriage, not penalize marriage. We dropped the lowest bracket 
to 10 percent to help our families. We reduced income taxes for 
everybody who pays taxes. As a result of these good policies, real 
after-tax income, the money in your pocket, the money you get to use, is 
up about 10 percent since I took office.
    Our economy has been through a lot. See, that stock market was in 
serious decline 6 months prior to my inauguration. That stock market 
decline foretold a recession. And then we had some corporate scandals. 
By the way, we made it clear, we're not going to tolerate dishonesty in 
the boardrooms of this country. And then we got attacked, and those 
attacks hurt our economy. We lost about a million jobs in the 3 months 
after September the 11th.
    But our economic policies have led us back to growth, and that's 
good for American families. Our economy is growing at rates as fast as 
any in nearly 20 years. We've added 1.9 million new jobs since August of 
2003. The national unemployment rate is 5.4 percent, lower than the 
average of the 1970s, the 1980s, and the 1990s. The unemployment rate in 
your great State is 4.5 percent. We're moving forward.
    My opponent has different plans for your 
budget. He intends to take a big chunk out of it.
    Audience members. Boo-o-o!
    The President. When I asked Congress to help grow this economy and 
help our American families, he voted against 
the higher child credit; he voted against marriage penalty relief; he 
voted against lower taxes. If he had had his way, the average middle-
class family would be paying 2,000 more a year to the Federal 
Government.
    Audience members. Boo-o-o!
    The President. It's kind of part of a pattern. He voted 10 times to raise taxes on gasoline as a United 
States Senator. And all told, during his 20 years in the Senate, he 
voted 98 times to raise taxes.
    Audience members. Boo-o-o!
    The President. Think about it. It's about five times a year 
he's voted to raise taxes. When a Senator does 
something that often, he must really enjoy it. [Laughter] And that's a 
warning. That's a predictable pattern. During the campaign, he's made a 
lot of big, expensive promises. He's promised about $2.2 trillion worth 
of new spending. That's with a ``T.'' [Laughter] That's a lot, even for 
a Senator from Massachusetts. [Laughter]
    So they said, ``How are you going to pay for it?'' And he said, ``Oh, I'm just going to tax the rich.'' We have 
heard that before. First of all, when you raise the top two brackets, 
you know who you're taxing;

[[Page 2669]]

you're taxing job creators. Most small businesses pay tax at the 
individual income-tax rate. Seventy percent of new jobs in America are 
created by small businesses. Raising taxes on small businesses is lousy 
economic policy.
    When you talk about running up the top two brackets or taxing the 
rich, you raise about 600 billion or 800 billion dollars, depending on 
who's counting, but remember, that's far short of the 2.2 trillion he 
promised. So there's a gap, a gap between what he's promised and how 
he's going to raise the money. And guess who 
usually gets to fill the gap?
    Audience member. We do!
    The President. That's exactly right. And finally, the rich hire 
lawyers and accountants during tax time for a reason; that's to slip the 
tab and stick you with the bill. We're not going to let him raise your taxes; we're going to carry Florida and win a 
great victory in November.
    Audience members. Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!
    The President. The third clear choice in this election involves the 
quality of life for our Nation's families. I believe a good education 
and quality health care are important to a 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 
the No Child Left Behind Act, meaningful education reforms to bring high 
standards to our classrooms and to make schools more accountable to our 
parents. We're making progress. Math and reading scores are rising. 
We're closing an achievement gap by helping all students. We will build 
on these reforms. We will extend them to our high schools so that no 
child is left behind in America.
    We will continue to improve life for our families by making health 
care more available and more affordable. We'll expand health savings 
accounts so more small businesses can cover their workers and more 
families will be able to get health care accounts they can manage and 
call their own. We will create association health plans so small 
businesses can join together to buy insurance at the same discounts big 
companies get.
    We will help families in need by expanding community health centers 
and making sure every eligible child is enrolled in our Government's 
low-income health programs. We'll help patients and doctors everywhere 
by doing something about the frivolous lawsuits that run up the cost of 
your practice and run good doctors out of business. We want our doctors 
focusing on fighting illnesses, not on fighting frivolous lawsuits. 
These lawsuits are a national problem that require a national solution. 
I am for medical liability reform.
    Senator Kerry has a different point of 
view on our schools and health care system. Listen, 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 or write or add and subtract.
    Audience members. Boo-o-o!
    The President. He voted against health 
savings accounts. He opposes association health plans. He has voted 10 
times against medical liability reform.
    Audience members. Boo-o-o!
    The President. You heard him in the 
debates the other day, mouth something about helping our docs and 
patients. Remember, he put a personal injury trial lawyer on the ticket. 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 private coverage 
they get at work and have to go onto a Government plan. Eighty percent 
of the people who get coverage under his idea would be enrolled in a 
Government program. In one of our debates, he tried to tell America that 
when it comes to his health care plan, and I quote, ``The Government has 
nothing to do with it.'' [Laughter] I could barely contain

[[Page 2670]]

myself. [Laughter] He can run from his record, but he cannot hide.
    My opponent's plan would move America down 
the road to Federal control of health care, and that is the wrong road 
for American families. In all we do to improve health care in a new 
term, 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 our seniors on Medicare and 
Social Security. When I ran for President 4 years ago, I promised to 
keep that commitment. I promised to improve Medicare by adding 
prescription drug coverage for our seniors. I kept my word. You remember 
those endless debates; leaders on both political parties have talked 
about strengthening Medicare for years. We got the job done. Seniors are 
now getting discounts on medicine through drug discount cards. Low-
income seniors are getting $600 to help them this year and next year. 
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 senior groups. Later he said, quote, ``If 
I'm the President, we're going to repeal that phony bill.'' Then a 
little later, he said, ``No, I don't want to repeal it.'' Sounds 
familiar.
    As your President for the next 4 years, I will defend the reforms we 
have worked so hard to pass and keep the promise to America's seniors. 
And we will keep the promise of Social Security for our seniors, and as 
we do so, we will strengthen Social Security for generations to come. 
Every election, desperate politicians try to scare our seniors about 
Social Security. It's just predictable. You remember in the 2000 
campaign, they ran the ads telling our seniors, ``If George W. gets 
elected, you won't get your Social Security check.'' Well, when you're 
out gathering up the vote, remind our seniors that George W. did get 
elected and our seniors did get their checks. And our seniors will 
continue to get their checks. And baby boomers are in pretty good shape 
when it comes to the Social Security trust.
    But we all must be concerned about our children and our 
grandchildren. Someday, our youngest workers will retire, and we've got 
to make sure the Social Security system will be there when they need it. 
I believe younger workers ought to be able to take some of their own 
money and put it into a personal savings account, a personal savings 
account that will earn a better rate of return, a personal savings 
account they can call their own, an account the Government cannot take 
away.
    Once again, my opponent takes a different 
point of view. 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.
    Audience members. Boo-o-o!
    The President. And when it comes to the next generation, he has offered nothing. The job of the President is to 
confront problems, not to pass them on to future generations and future 
Presidents. In a new term, I will bring Republicans and Democrats 
together to strengthen Social Security for an upcoming generation of 
Americans.
    The fifth 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 is 
not a partisan issue. When Congress passed the Defense of Marriage Act, 
defining marriage as a union of a man and a woman, the vast majority of 
Democrats supported it. My predecessor, President Clinton, signed it into law. But Senator Kerry was part of 
an out-of-the-mainstream minority that voted against the Defense of 
Marriage Act.

[[Page 2671]]

    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 that we should 
ban the brutal practice of partial-birth abortion. 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. ----against the Unborn Victims of Violence Act.
    Audience members. Boo-o-o!
    The President. I will continue to reach out to Americans of every 
belief and move this goodhearted Nation toward a culture of life.
    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 do not look to Hollywood as a 
source of values. The heart and soul of America is found right here in 
Fort Myers, Florida.
    All 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 bright future for America. I see a better day for all of us. 
One of my favorite quotes was written by a fellow Texan, 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 is the side to 
see the day that is coming, not to see the day that is gone.'' If you 
listen carefully to this campaign, 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 in the last 4 years. Because we've 
done the hard work of climbing that mountain, we can see the valley 
below. We'll protect our families. We'll build their prosperity. We will 
defend the deepest values. We'll spread freedom in this world, and as we 
do so, we'll keep America safe and spread the peace.
    Four years ago, when I traveled your great State asking for the 
vote, I made this pledge. I said if I was elected, I would uphold the 
honor and the dignity of the office to which I had been elected. With 
your help, I will do so for 4 more years.
    God bless. Thanks for coming.

Note: The President spoke at 10:10 a.m. at City of Palms Park. 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; former Senator Connie Mack III of Florida; Connie Mack 
IV, candidate in Florida's 14th Congressional District; Mel R. Martinez, 
senatorial candidate in Florida; Mayor Jim Humphrey of Fort Myers, FL; 
State Attorney General Charlie Crist of Florida; Johnnie Byrd, speaker, 
Florida State House of Representatives; entertainer Daron Norwood; 
senior Al Qaida associate Abu Musab Al Zarqawi; and Usama bin Laden, 
leader of the Al Qaida terrorist organization.

[[Page 2672]]