    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2005, Book II)]
    [December 9, 2005]
    [Pages 1831-1835]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at a Reception for Senatorial Candidate Mark Kennedy in Minneapolis, Minnesota
    December 9, 2005

        Thanks for coming. Thank you all. I appreciate the warm reception.
    [Laughter] This is a Senator Kennedy I can work with. [Laughter] I have
    come because I know Mark, and I know he is going to make a great United
    States Senator for the people of Minnesota.
        He's a down-to-earth fellow. After all, he was raised in rural
    Minnesota. He brings commonsense values to Washington, DC. He's not one
    of these kind of fancy guys; he's a guy that gets the job done. He
    focuses on results. He works on behalf of the people. He'll make a great
    United States Senator from Minnesota.
        Laura sends her love. Mark and I both married
    above ourselves. [Laughter] I'm proud to be up here with Debbie
    Kennedy as well. I met the--Sarah--the Kennedy family, if you don't know it,
    is quite large. [Laughter] If they all vote--[laughter]--it's a
    landslide. [Laughter] But Laura sends her very best.
        One of the important things about running for office is to have a
    family that stands with you. It can be a little lonely out there at
    times. But there's nothing better than coming home to a great wife, and
    in Mark's case, and a family that dearly loves him. One reason to send
    Mark Kennedy to the United States Senate is, he understands the
    importance of family in our society today.
        I want to thank the Governor of your great State, Tim
    Pawlenty, for being here. He's a fine man
    and doing a great job as Governor. I want to thank the Lieutenant
    Governor who is here. I want to thank all the
    State and local officials.
        I want to thank my friend Norm Coleman.
    Congressman Jim Ramstad is with us today. Jim,
    I appreciate you coming--newlywed, I might add. Mark and I flew over
    with Congressman John Kline--you talk about a
    patriot and a good man who needs to be reelected to the United States
    Congress.
        I want to thank a longtime family friend of ours, Rudy
    Boschwitz, for his great leadership. I
    appreciate the Boschwitz family for being here--all the Boschwitz boys.
    [Laughter] And they didn't ask for any advice, but I gave it, and I
    said, ``Listen to your mother.'' [Laughter] Mark, you need to be
    listening to yours too. [Laughter]
        I want to thank all the grassroots activists. Thank you all for
    coming. Here's the deal. It's important to contribute like you have. But
    your contributions are going to be needed to win this campaign, and
    these are contributions of talking to your neighbors, going to your
    community centers and houses of worship and places you work, and telling
    people that when you've got somebody who's honest and decent like Mark
    Kennedy, they need to send him to the United States Senate for the good
    of all people of Minnesota.
        So I want to thank you for what you have done for this good man and
    what

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    you're going to do. I know he's going to work hard. He was just telling
    me today how many parades he's marched in. [Laughter] That's a lot, by
    the way. [Laughter] Showed me that old football schedules that he passes
    out. [Laughter] He's a grassroots-type fellow, gets down to where the
    people are. He tells them what's on his mind, and when he says
    something, he does it. And that's the kind of people we need in
    Washington, DC.
        I also look forward to working with Mark. We're facing--we're living
    in historic times. These are dangerous times, and they're times of great
    opportunity. And I'm looking forward to working with Senator Mark
    Kennedy to secure this country, to do our duty in Washington, DC, and do
    everything we can to protect the people.
        Our lives and the life of our Nation changed on September the 11th,
    2001, and we must never forget the lessons of that day. We must deal
    with threats before they fully materialize. There's an enemy--
    [applause]. We have got to see the world the way it is, not the way we'd
    like it to be. There is an enemy which hates America. They hate us
    because we stand for what they don't believe in. We believe in freedom.
    We believe in the freedom for people to worship any way they want in the
    United States of America. We believe that people can speak their mind
    freely. We believe that people can write their editorials the way they
    want to write them. We believe in freedom, and we're not going to
    change.
        And we face an enemy that has got an ideology and a strategy and a
    tactical plan to achieve their strategy. These people have hijacked a
    great religion and turned it to their advantage--they think. They're
    trying to spread a totalitarian empire from Indonesia to Spain. How do I
    know? Because they've told us. They've told us pointblank what they're
    looking for. They're trying to drive the United States out of the Middle
    East so they can take over other countries to spread their dark view of
    the world. They want safe haven from which to launch attacks.
        Think about Afghanistan. They had achieved their objective for a
    short period of time. They had taken over Afghanistan so they could plot
    and plan their attacks, one of which was the September the 11th attack.
    I told the world--and I meant it--``If you harbor a terrorist, you're
    equally as guilty as the terrorist.'' Our troops liberated the people of
    Afghanistan and routed the Taliban. And that part of the world is better
    off, and our country is more secure because democracy has taken hold in
    Afghanistan.
        The enemy has made it abundantly clear that Iraq is a central front
    in their war against humanity. That's what they've said. And our Nation
    must understand that Iraq is the central front in the war against the
    terrorists. And that's why we have--we're there for one reason, and that
    is to achieve a victory, to make America more secure.
        We took the threat seriously, and we removed that threat. And now
    our strategy is twofold. On the one hand, we're helping the brave Iraqis
    establish a democracy. Any way you look at it, these people that lived
    under the brutal thumb of a tyrant have made
    incredible progress. They had January elections. They approved a
    Constitution. And next week, they're voting for a 4-year Government.
    Democracy is making progress because of the courage of the Iraqi people.
        And the second prong of our strategy is to train Iraqis so they can
    take the fight to the enemy, so they can bring people to justice. And
    we're making progress there as well. Of course, it's been uneven at
    times. But it's important for you to know that the Iraqis want to secure
    their democracy, and democracy helps make this world more peaceful.
        Now, there's a debate raging in Washington, DC. There are some who
    are arguing for a fixed timetable of withdrawal. I think it's the wrong
    policy, and so does

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    Mark Kennedy. A fixed timetable of withdrawal would embolden the enemy,
    would confuse the Iraqis, and would send the wrong signal to our young
    men and women in uniform. The United States of America--[applause].
        We have got a strategy for victory, and we'll see that strategy
    through. We will defeat the terrorists in Iraq. We will not let Al Qaida
    take a stronghold--get a stronghold in Iraq. We'll help this country
    develop a democracy, which will send a powerful signal to people in
    Damascus and Tehran.
        Our short-term objective is to stay on the hunt and bring the
    killers to justice before they hurt us again. I'd rather be defeating
    them there than facing them here at home. And our long-term objective is
    to spread the power of democracy and freedom.
        You know, I recently went to the Far East, as you may know, and
    visited with my friend Prime Minister Koizumi of Japan. He's a good fellow, and he's a good
    friend. It struck me then, like it has in previous times, about how
    ironic it is, in a way, that the son of an 18-year-old Navy fighter
    pilot who fought the Japanese is now
    talking peace with the leader of a country that was our sworn enemy.
    Think about that for a minute. Sixty years ago, a lot of folks, a lot of
    your relatives, signed up to fight an enemy that attacked us. By the
    way, we lost more people on September the 11th than we did when Pearl
    Harbor was bombed. And a lot of people went and fought, and there was a
    lot of death and destruction. And yet, 60 years later--which seems like
    a long time when you're 59--[laughter]--but it's really not all that
    long in the march of history--I'm talking with Prime Minister Koizumi
    about how to keep the peace. So something happened between the time that
    my dad and your relatives signed up in World War II, and I'm talking
    peace with Koizumi. And what happened was, Japan became a democracy.
        These are historic times. We have an obligation and a duty to
    protect the American people. And we'll do just that. That's why Mark
    Kennedy needs to be in the United States Senate. And we have an
    opportunity--and we have an historic opportunity to lay the foundation
    of peace for generations to come. I'm absolutely convinced that someday,
    50 or 60 years from now, an American President will be speaking to an
    audience saying, ``Thank goodness a generation of Americans rose to the
    challenge and helped people be liberated from tyranny. Democracy spread,
    and the world is more peaceful for it.''
        And there's no doubt in my mind Mark Kennedy understands the stakes
    and shares the vision for laying that foundation for peace. He needs to
    be a United States Senator from the State of Minnesota.
        I've enjoyed working with Mark Kennedy on economic matters. We share
    a philosophy that says this: The role of government is not to create
    wealth; the role of government is to create an environment in which the
    entrepreneurial spirit is strong in America.
        We've been through some tough times in this country. As you might
    recall, we had a recession, some corporate scandals, an attack on our
    country, a war, major hurricanes. And yet the third quarter growth in
    2005 was 4.3 percent. We've added 4.5 million jobs since May of 2003.
    The unemployment rate in Minnesota is 3.7 percent. The unemployment rate
    nationally is 5 percent. Homeownership is at an alltime high. More
    minorities own a home than ever before in our Nation's history. This
    economy is strong, and it's going to be stronger.
        And one reason it's strong is we cut the taxes on the people. We
    understand that when somebody has got more money to spend or save, this
    economy is going to grow. And Mark Kennedy understands that. He also
    understands that we must have certainty in the Tax Code. We need to make
    the tax cuts we passed permanent. By the way, when you hear somebody
    say, ``Don't

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    make the tax cuts permanent,'' that's Washington, DC, code for saying,
    ``We're going to raise your taxes.'' [Laughter] That's what that is.
        And the other thing we've done is, we've worked hard to make sure
    that we've been wise about how we spend your money. Each year we've cut
    the rate of growth of nonsecurity discretionary spending. I'm hoping to
    sign a series of appropriation bills that will actually have negative
    growth in nondiscretionary--in nonsecurity discretionary spending, the
    first time since Ronald Reagan was the President. Mark Kennedy is a
    fiscal conservative. He is a CPA. It seems like to me we got enough
    lawyers in the United States Senate; why shouldn't we have a CPA in the
    United States Senate?
        I want to talk about a couple of more issues. We got a farm bill
    coming up. This is an important farm State. It seems like to me you want
    to have a United States Senator who can come in the Oval Office and talk
    to the President about Minnesota farmers. We passed a good farm bill. I
    want to thank Mark for working on it. And in that farm bill was not only
    a safety net for our farmers but a commitment to open up markets for
    Minnesota farmers. Here's what I think. I think if you're good at
    something, like the Minnesota farmers are, they ought to be given
    opportunity to sell product all across the world.
        In the farm bill, there was a strong conservation title called the
    CRP program. It's good for Minnesota ranchers and farmers. If you're
    interested in a strong ag economy like we got today, if you're a
    Minnesota farmer, there's only one man suited to be the United States
    Senator in this race, and that's Mark Kennedy.
        Health care is an issue. It's an issue for patients. It's an issue
    for docs. It's an issue for small-business owners. We intend to do
    something about it. There's a philosophical divide, however, and there
    will be one in this race. There are some who believe that the Government
    ought to be making all the decisions. And there's people like Mark and I
    who believe that the best decisionmaking in health care is between the
    patient and the doctor. And that's why we strongly support health
    savings accounts, associated health plans for small businesses,
    community health centers, a reformed Medicare program.
        But I want to talk about one other issue in health care. You cannot
    have affordable and available health care if your doctors are getting
    sued all the time. We got a problem in this country. We got too many
    docs being run out of the practice of medicine because of these junk
    lawsuits. And you're paying for it twice. You're paying for it as a
    result of higher doctor bills when you go to the office, and you're
    paying for it through higher--because the Federal Government has got a
    huge, huge share of health care spending.
        See, when I first went to Washington, I said, ``Well, this is a
    local issue. The Governors can take care of it.'' But then I realized
    all these frivolous lawsuits and the defensive practice of medicine and
    the increase of premiums for docs are costing us billions of dollars a
    year at the Federal level--through Medicaid, Medicare, and veterans
    spending, for example. So medical liability is a national problem that
    requires a national solution. And I look forward to working with United
    States Senator Mark Kennedy to make sure health care is available and
    affordable for Minnesota patients.
        There are three branches of Government, as you know. Well, some of
    them back there think there's four branches. [Laughter] The Constitution
    recognizes three branches. [Laughter] I'm proudly part of the executive
    branch. You'll be proudly part of the--he is a part of the legislative
    branch. And we've got to make sure that the judiciary--judicial branch
    of Government functions the way the framers of our Constitution wanted
    it to function, and that is to have people who serve on our bench who
    are not going to try to legislate but

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    who will strictly interpret the Constitution of the United States of
    America.
        I look forward to working with the United States Senator Mark
    Kennedy, who will make sure that the judges I name, those strict
    constructionists, those who will not try to legislate from the bench,
    are given an up-or-down vote on the floor of the United States Senate
    and confirmed--judges like John Roberts
    and Judge Sam Alito.
        So I've come to thank you for supporting a good man. I've come to
    lay out my opinion, and that is, he's the right person for the job. He
    thinks right. He acts right. He's not one of these kind of politicians
    that takes a poll and then tries to figure out what to believe. We got
    too many of those in Washington, DC. We need straight shooters, people
    of principle, and people who care deeply about the State of Minnesota.
    And that person is Mark Kennedy.
        Thanks for coming, and God bless.

    Note: The President spoke at 12:34 p.m. at the Hilton Minneapolis Hotel.
    In his remarks, he referred to senatorial candidate Kennedy's wife,
    Debbie, and his daughter, Sarah; Gov. Timothy Pawlenty and Lt. Gov.
    Carol Molnau of Minnesota; Rudy Boschwitz, head of the U.S. delegation
    to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights; and former President
    Saddam Hussein of Iraq.