[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2005, Book I)]
[January 28, 2005]
[Pages 107-108]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks to the ``Congress of Tomorrow'' Luncheon in White Sulphur 
Springs, West Virginia
January 28, 2005

    The President. Thank you all. Please be seated.
    Deborah, thanks for the kind introduction. I'm kind of warming up 
for the State of the Union--[laughter]--some verbal jumping jacks. 
Thanks for letting me come by. I'm going to have a few remarks, then 
I'll answer questions for a while.
    Mr. Speaker, thank you for your leadership. Thank you for your 
friendship. This country has had no better Speaker than Denny 
Hastert.
    Appreciate Senator Ted Stevens--
thank you for your tenure and your leadership as well. I'm glad you're 
here. I thank my friend from the great State of Texas Tom DeLay for his leadership. I appreciate you, Mr. Leader. Mitch 
McConnell, the Senate 
majority whip--Senator McConnell, thank you, sir, appreciate you. 
Congressman Blunt, the House whip. Thank you, 
Congressman, glad you're here, appreciate you. How is your son doing?
    Representative Roy Blunt. He's doing great.
    The President. Good, huh?
    Representative Blunt. He's taking a page out 
of your book.

[[Page 108]]

    The President. Yes, I like a guy who follows 
in his father's footsteps. [Laughter]
    Senator Kyl, who's the chairman of the 
Republican policy committee--thank you, sir. Deborah Pryce, who you know, and Rick 
Santorum--thank you both for organizing this event. Thank the members of 
my Cabinet who are here, John Snow and Josh 
Bolten. I'm looking forward to working with 
you.
    As you know, David Hobbs has handled 
legislative affairs for my administration for a couple of years. He's 
worked very closely with the leadership and the Members of both the 
House and the Senate. He has decided to move on. He will be replaced by 
Candi Wolff. I know you look forward to 
working with Candi. She is a fine soul. And we're going to miss David 
Hobbs, and I appreciate him for his--I appreciate his long service.
    A couple points I'd like to make. First, I think we've proven to the 
country we know how to set an agenda and work together to achieve it. In 
other words, people ought to view this team we've put together, the 
relationship between the executive branch and the legislative branch, as 
people who are--come to Washington, DC, to solve problems. And we have 
done so over the last 4 years, and we will continue to do so for the 
next 4 years.
    I look forward to addressing the Nation. I will remind the country 
we're still at war. And I want to thank the Congress for providing the 
necessary support for our troops who are in harm's way. I will also tell 
the people once again that I strongly believe that the way to defeat 
hatred and terrorism is to spread freedom. And I believe everybody in 
the world deserves to be free.
    I look forward to discussing ways to keep this recovery going so 
people can find work. I look forward to talking to the country about the 
need to address big reforms like Social Security. I will continue to 
articulate the faith-based agenda, the compassion agenda so that people 
can find hope in our country. I'll remind the people we're a great 
nation. We can achieve anything we set our mind to. And I will tell them 
like I'm telling you, it's such an honor to be the President of the 
United States.
    Thank you for letting me come. I look forward to answering your 
questions.

Note: The President spoke at 1:06 p.m. at the Greenbrier. In his 
remarks, he referred to Gov. Matt Blunt of Missouri, son of 
Representative Roy Blunt. The Office of the Press Secretary also 
released a Spanish language transcript of these remarks.