    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2005, Book II)]
    [October 25, 2005]
    [Pages 1596-1602]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at the Republican National Committee Dinner
    October 25, 2005

        Thank you all. Thanks for coming. Please be seated. Thanks for the
    warm welcome. Mehlman didn't get the
    dress code--[laughter]--and neither did I. [Laughter] Thanks for having
    me. I'm proud to be here on the 30th birthday of the Eagles.
        For three decades, Eagles have given great parties--[laughter]--but
    more importantly, they've supported our party. And I'm grateful. I want
    to thank you for all your help in years past. I want to thank you for
    your help this year. I want to thank you for the help in years to come.
    And it's important because it helps us get our message out, which is an
    optimistic vision for our country. We have a hopeful philosophy. We
    understand that government ought to be limited and that we ought to
    trust people to make decisions for their lives. We understand that the
    best way to grow an economy is to allow small-business owners and
    entrepreneurs to keep more of their own money, so they can invest and
    create jobs. We understand that this country has a duty to take care of
    those who hurt and to lead the world in laying the foundation for peace.
    Ours is a party of vision, and ours is a party of accomplishment. And I
    want to thank you for supporting it.

        I gave a speech today, earlier, and I was reminded during the speech
    that Laura and I are fixing to have a wedding
    anniversary. Sometimes giving speeches helps kind of trigger the memory
    bank. [Laughter] I

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    asked the crowd there if they had any suggestions on what I ought to
    give her for the 28th wedding anniversary. Somebody yelled out,
    diamonds. And then, of course, I went straight to the speech. [Laughter]
        But the reason I bring her up is, she sends
    her love and her best to all of you all. She is a great wife and a
    fantastic First Lady for the country.
        I want to thank the chairman for the RNC, Ken Mehlman, for doing such a fantastic job. He's smart, and
    he's capable. He's taking our message all across the country. He's not
    afraid to go into halls where some might have an image of the Republican
    Party that isn't true. He knows what I know, that our philosophy is good
    for every American. And I want to thank you for your leadership, Ken,
    and I appreciate your service. And I also want to thank Jo Ann
    Davidson, who's the cochairman of the RNC.
    Thank you for being here.
        I know we've got a Member of the United States Senate with us, a man
    who ran a heck of a race, really decent and honorable fellow, John
    Thune of South Dakota--somewhere around.
        I appreciate Dwight Schar, the finance
    chairman of the RNC, and Martha. Thank you
    for your hard work, and thank you for your leadership. I appreciate Bill
    Paxon, who's the chairman of the RNC
    Majority Fund. I want to thank Bill for bringing his young
    daughter here tonight. I want to thank my
    friend Katie Boyd, who's the Eagles
    cochairman--thank you for being here, Katie--and Mike Duncan, who's the general counsel of the RNC.
        But most of all, thank you all for giving me a chance to come by and
    thank you and share some thoughts with you. First, I want to tell you
    that my job is to confront problems and not pass them on. My job is to
    make decisions on behalf of the people of this country. And I've got to
    tell you, I'm enjoying every minute of it. Our party is a party that is
    based upon sound principles. And one of the things I've learned here in
    Washington is you can't make good decisions unless you stand on
    principle. And that's exactly what I've done as your leader, and that's
    exactly what I'll continue to do.
        I've spent a lot of time thinking about this war on terror. I wish I
    could tell you it's over. It's not. We face a brutal enemy that has got
    an ideology and a strategy to impose their view on the world. They
    believe the exact opposite of what we believe in America. They believe
    that they should dictate religion. They believe that they ought to
    control the lives of all people. They are totalitarian in nature.
        We stand for freedom. We believe that every man, woman, and child in
    America should be free to worship as he or she feels. We believe that
    democracy is the best form of government to encourage progress and hope.
    We believe that women should be free. That's not what they think.
        They've got one weapon, and that is their willingness to take
    innocent life. They'll kill women and children in order to try to
    achieve their aims. One of their objectives is to run America out of the
    broader Middle East. And they want to do so because they want to take
    over countries. They want to try to not only impose their vision on a
    group of people but also to have safe havens for--to plot and plan, to
    kill in greater numbers.
        September the 11th was an important moment in the history of this
    country, and we still mourn for those who lost their lives. But I'll
    never forget the task at hand, and the task at hand is to find those
    enemies and bring them to justice before they hurt America again.
        These folks--we don't face a set of grievances that can be soothed
    or addressed. No act of ours invited the rage of the killers, and no
    concession, bribe, or act of appeasement would change or limit their
    plans for murder. Against such an enemy, there's only one effective
    response: We'll never back down; we'll never give in; and never accept
    anything less than complete victory on the war on terror.

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        The killers have made it clear that Iraq is a central front in the
    war on terror, and we must understand that. They cannot stand the
    thought of a democracy evolving in the Middle East. They understand that
    freedom will lead to their defeat. And so we have a strategy. Our
    strategy is twofold: one, to pursue a security plan that says, we're
    going to find these killers and find these foreign terrorists and bring
    them to justice so they don't kill innocent people. And at the same
    time, we're going to train Iraqi forces so they can do the job
    themselves. As Iraqis stand up, America will stand down. And we're
    making good, steady progress.
        And at the same time that we help secure that society, we'll work
    with the Iraqis to help them develop a democracy. Ken mentioned a remarkable event that took place recently, and
    that is that millions of Iraqis went to the polls to vote for a
    constitution, which today was verified as having been approved by the
    Iraqi people.
        You know, writing a constitution is not an easy process. We had a
    little trouble ourselves here in America writing a constitution. And you
    might remember after our Constitution--and by the way, as I recall, two
    of the delegates from New York, the State of New York, stormed out of
    the Constitutional Convention. They weren't happy with what they saw.
        And then, right after our Constitution was approved, you might
    remember, we amended it with the Bill of Rights. In other words, the
    Constitution is a process that brings people together, that says, ``You
    can have a different point of view, but let's settle our differences
    peacefully, in the context of a democratic society.'' And that's what
    you're seeing in Iraq. We had elections in January. We had a
    constitution approved just last week, and there will be elections next
    December. Democracy is on the march, and that's important.
        One of the stories I like to share with people is my relationship
    with Prime Minister Koizumi of Japan. He's
    an interesting man. He's a bold leader, as we recently saw when he
    tackled postal reform in Japan. I like him a lot. He is a good friend.
    He's a good, strong ally when it comes to keeping the peace in the
    Korean Peninsula. He put troops in Iraq because he understands democracy
    leads to peace. He is a friend of the United States of America.
        Yet, 60 years ago, my dad and I'm sure
    some of your relatives, fought the Japanese. They were our bitter enemy.
    And so what took place between the time an 18-year-old Navy fighter
    pilot went to war and his son as President can say to a group of
    friends, he's got a great relationship with the Prime Minister of Japan?
    I'll tell you what took place: Democracy happened. Democracy has got the
    capability of helping keep the peace.
        Some say, ``Perhaps we ought to just pull out of Iraq.'' That is a
    foolhardy policy. It's a policy that would invite disaster, not only for
    the Iraqis but for the American citizens. We will not allow Iraq to
    become a safe haven for the terrorists. We will promote democracy in
    Iraq, and we will lay the foundation for peace for generations to come.
    [Applause] Thank you all.
        My biggest job--one of my biggest jobs is to defend our homeland.
    One way, as you can tell, the best way to do it is to stay on the
    offense, which we will do. We're dismantling Al Qaida, one person at a
    time. It doesn't matter how long it takes or where they hide, we will
    stay on the hunt. And at the same time, we're protecting the homeland by
    changing our homeland security operations, by strengthening our
    intelligence. Intelligence is an incredibly important tool in order to
    win this first war of the 21st century. And so we've reorganized our
    intelligence services to make sure the President and those around me
    have got the best information possible to be able to protect the
    homeland.
        We passed good laws like the PATRIOT Act. The PATRIOT Act is a very
    important

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    piece of legislation, which enables our prosecutors and law enforcement
    to share intelligence to break up terror cells before they strike. We've
    used it to good success to protect the homeland. The PATRIOT Act--
    provisions for the PATRIOT Act are set to expire pretty soon. I will
    remind the Congress that the terrorists aren't going to be going away
    pretty soon. We need the PATRIOT Act. Congress needs to get the PATRIOT
    Act to my desk, so we can have the tools necessary to protect this
    homeland.
        I signed a Homeland Security bill the other day, and when I did so,
    I spent a lot of time talking about the need for this country to protect
    our borders. We have an obligation to the American people to increase
    manpower and technology, to increase retention space to secure our
    borders. That is a solemn duty of the United States, and it's a duty I
    take seriously.
        And at the same time we do so, we've got to be realistic about
    people crossing into our country to work. We need to match willing
    employer with willing employee for jobs that Americans will not do, on a
    temporary basis. We should not be granting amnesty, but we should be
    saying to willing worker and willing employer, ``Here's a reasonable way
    for you to be able to hire people.'' That will take pressure off our
    border. Step one is to secure the border; step two is to have reasonable
    immigration policies. That will mean our border control agents won't
    have to worry about people sneaking into the country to work and will
    have the time to stop drugs, guns, and terrorists from coming into
    America.
        I've spent a lot of time thinking about this economy. I want people
    to work. We want the small-business sector to remain strong. I want you
    to know, I understand that most new jobs are created by small
    businesses. And therefore, the policies we've implemented have been
    aimed at the small-business sector. And that started with good, solid,
    sound tax relief. The tax relief we passed is working, and Congress
    needs to make the tax relief permanent.
        Speaking about tax relief, we need to get rid of the death tax once
    and for all. I say it's working because the facts back me up. The
    unemployment rate is 5.1 percent. That's below the average rate of the
    seventies, eighties, and nineties. Our economy is the fastest growing
    economy of any major industrialized nation. Homeownership is at an
    alltime high. This economy is strong, and we need to make sure we don't
    foul it up here in Washington, DC, by spending too much of your money.
        Congress needs to get this message, that we will be wise with the
    taxpayers' money. If a program doesn't work, we ought to eliminate it.
    And if a program doesn't make sense, we ought to do away with it. And we
    need to set priorities, and a key priority is defending this homeland.
        Ken mentioned to you that the--
    because of our fiscal responsibility in Washington last year and because
    of the tax cuts and because of our economic growth, the budget was $108
    billion less than expected--the budget deficit was $108 billion less
    than expected. Our plan is working. And I'm absolutely confident, by
    being wise with your money, we can help the people in the gulf coast
    recover from Katrina.
        Here's our plan: To help offset the cost of Katrina we need to cut
    nonsecurity spending and achieve savings in mandatory spending. The
    House has got plans on the mandatory side that say $50 billion; the
    Senate has got plans that say $35 billion. I appreciate them working
    hard. It's a nice start. And there's more we can do together to say to
    the American people: We are setting priorities with your money, and
    we're going to spend it wisely, and we'll cut this deficit in half by
    2009.
        Yesterday, I made a decision that affects the economy. And that is,
    I named an outstanding individual to succeed another outstanding
    individual. Ben Bernanke's name has been
    sent up to the United States Senate to replace Alan
    Greenspan, and upon

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    confirmation, you'll know what I know, that he's a sound, solid thinker
    that will be a good steward at the Federal Reserve.
        We've got challenges to our economy, and one of those challenges is
    energy. I told the American people when I ran for office in 2000--and
    I've been telling them ever since--we need to become less dependent on
    foreign sources of energy. Now, first of all, I believe and I know that
    conservation can impact the energy supply situation. And so here at the
    Federal level, we're putting good, sound conservation measures in place.
        Secondly, it ought to be clear to the American people that we need
    more gasoline. Do you realize we haven't built a new refinery since the
    1970s? For the sake of national security and for the sake of our
    consumers, this country needs to expand our refining capacity. And we
    need more terminals for liquified natural gas. I mean, if you're worried
    about your heating bills--and you should be--one way to deal with it is
    to increase the supply available for consumers. And Congress must
    understand that. We need to get rid of needless regulations that hamper
    our capacity to increase the supply of energy to you all.
        And at the same time, this Government is spending money on--to
    develop new fuels, like biodiesel and ethanol. We've got a major
    hydrogen automobile project going forward. In other words, what I'm
    telling you is technology is going to help us achieve the objective of
    diversifying away from hydrocarbons so we're less dependent on foreign
    sources of oil.
        Health care--we need a market-based, transparent, patient-centered
    health care system, where the Government doesn't tell you what to do,
    where you get to make the decisions. That's why I'm such a strong
    believer in health savings accounts. It's an amazing opportunity for
    small businesses to be able to control the cost of health care and at
    the same time, put their employees in charge of their health care
    decisions. I believe in association health plans which will allow small
    businesses to pool risk across jurisdictional boundaries. Small
    businesses ought to be able to go into the marketplace just like big
    businesses do, to buy insurance for their employees.
        We're improving health information technology, which will help hold
    down the cost of medicine. We modernized Medicare, something no
    President or Congress has been able to do. You know, I've heard some
    say, ``Well, Medicare, you know, it's an entitlement.'' Well, you're
    right. The Federal Government decided to provide health care for the
    elderly, and I decided to make sure the health care we provided for the
    elderly, provided elderly choices as well as prescription drug coverage.
        And finally, when it comes to helping control the cost of health
    care, we need to do something about these frivolous lawsuits that are
    running good doctors out of practice. When I first came to Washington, I
    thought that medical liability reform was best left to the States until
    I saw the cost, at the Federal level, of these junk lawsuits, which not
    only run up premiums but also cause docs to practice defensive medicine.
    We spend a lot of money on health care in Washington, DC, and these junk
    lawsuits are running up the cost to you. Medical liability reform is a
    national issue that requires a national solution, and I call upon the
    United States Senate to get a good medical liability bill to my desk.
        And speaking about legal reform, we're making some progress in
    Congress. But I understand, and I hope you do as well, that it's one
    thing to have a good judicial system where you can take a legitimate
    claim to court; it's another thing for lawyers to try to get rich off of
    filing frivolous lawsuits. We did a good job when we passed bipartisan
    class action reform and bankruptcy reform. And now the Congress needs to
    get an asbestos legal reform to my desk.
        An issue that I've been talking about for quite a while is one that,
    oh, some said you probably shouldn't talk about. But I

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    didn't come here not to deal with major problems. I guess that's in my
    nature. And so I've been talking about Social Security. And the reason
    I've been talking about it is because I understand the mathematics of
    Social Security. There's a lot of people like me. We're called baby
    boomers, and we're getting ready to retire. As a matter of fact, my
    retirement age happens to come in 2008, when I'll be 62. It's a
    coincidence. [Laughter] And there's a lot of people like me getting
    ready to retire. The problem is there's not a lot of young people paying
    in the system to pay ever-increasing benefits to my generation. And the
    system is going to go broke.
        When I travel around the country and look at hard-working people
    paying payroll taxes into a system that's going broke, I feel I have an
    obligation to give them a heads up. But I have a further obligation. I
    have an obligation to say to the United States Congress: ``Just don't
    mark time. Get a Social Security reform passed.'' And we can do it. It
    takes political will and courage from members of both political parties.
    And as we reform Social Security, we have a fantastic opportunity to
    increase ownership throughout our society. I believe a strong Social
    Security package must include personal savings accounts that will allow
    individuals to realize the advantage of compound rate of interest and,
    at the same time, have an asset they call their own. We want more people
    owning more assets in America, and now is the chance to provide that
    opportunity.
        I've had a chance to name two good people as nominees to the Court.
    And I take this obligation and responsibility very seriously. As you
    know, I named a good man in John Roberts to be the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, and I want
    to thank the United States Senate for confirming him. And I had another
    pick, and I named a really fine person in Harriet Miers to be considered by the United States Senate.
        I was looking for somebody who knew the law, somebody who had been a
    good practicing attorney. Harriet Miers has
    been a pioneer in my State of Texas. She ran a big law firm, as a matter
    of fact, the first woman to do so in that firm. She was the president of
    the Texas State Bar Association. She was consistently named one of the
    50 top women attorneys in the United States of America.
        I wanted somebody who hadn't been on the court. I thought it was
    important for the Supreme Court to have a fresh perspective, somebody
    who had been practicing the law in real life. But more importantly, I
    was interested in having somebody on the Court who understands the
    judicial philosophy that I believe is important, that we ought to have
    people on the Court that will not legislate from the bench but will
    strictly interpret the Constitution of the United States. And that
    person is Harriet Miers.
        Recently, you may have read where members of both parties have been
    demanding documents from the White House. See, it's very important for
    people to understand this issue. It's important for me to get good,
    sound advice in the Oval Office. It's important for people who work in
    the White House to be able to come in and tell me what's on their mind
    without fear of what they're having to tell me ends up in the
    newspapers. You see, in order to make sure that the President gets good
    advice, whether it be me or whoever is coming down the pike, there must
    be confidentiality in the White House. Asking for those documents is a
    redline, as far as I'm concerned, in protecting the White House and the
    ability to operate.
        I don't know if you've ever read de Tocqueville. You ought to. He
    wrote a book in 1832 about America. He came over to look at our country
    and realized one of the great truths of America, and that is that the
    strength of our country lies in the hearts and souls of our citizens and
    that

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    in America in the 1830s, citizens came together in what he called
    voluntary organizations to serve a cause greater than themselves.
        One of my jobs is to make sure we never lose that spirit in America.
    One of my jobs is to call upon our citizens to serve. For those of you
    who have got loved ones in the United States military, I want you to
    thank them on behalf of a proud Commander in Chief and tell them the
    American people stand squarely with those who wear the uniform.
        Service goes beyond the military. Service goes beyond Washington.
    You can serve our country by teaching a child how to read. You can serve
    our country by mentoring the lonely or feeding the hungry or providing
    shelter for the homeless. You know, one of the amazing things in the
    aftermath of Katrina was the incredible response. Citizens all across
    the country who opened their arms and welcomed a stranger in need--
    that's the true spirit of America.
        And those of us in Washington, DC, must constantly work to keep that
    spirit alive and strong. And one of the most important initiatives of my
    Presidency is the Faith-Based and Community Based Initiative. It
    recognizes that government is limited in its capacity to love. It's an
    initiative that says faith-based programs--people of all faith--can
    compete for Federal money to help us cure society's ills. We must not
    fear the involvement of faith in helping change America, one heart at a
    time. We must welcome faith in changing America, one heart at a time.
        I am amazed by the spirit of this country. It is strong, and it is
    resilient. And it is because we're a land of amazing people. We've got
    people who have newly arrived to our country who realize this is a land
    where you can dream the big dream and achieve security for your family
    if you work hard. We're a land where neighborhood healers step up and
    answer the universal call to love a neighbor, and they don't even need
    the Government to tell them to. We're a land where people bind together
    to achieve big things. That's America, and it is an incredible honor to
    be the President of such an incredibly strong and compassionate and
    decent country.
        I want to thank you for giving me a chance. I want to thank you for
    supporting our cause. May God bless you all, and may God continue to
    bless our country.

    Note: The President spoke at 6:55 p.m. at the Andrew W. Mellon
    Auditorium. In his remarks, he referred to Martha Schar, wife of
    Republican National Committee finance chair Dwight Schar; and Prime
    Minister Junichiro Koizumi of Japan.