Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2006, Book I) - Remarks on the War on Terror and a Question-and-Answer Session in Tampa, Florida

[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2006, Book I)]
[February 17, 2006]
[Pages 265-283]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

Remarks on the War on Terror and a Question-and-Answer Session in Tampa,
Florida
February 17, 2006

The President. Thank you all. Please be seated. Thanks for the warm
welcome. Thanks for the warm weather. [Laughter] It's nice to be back
here. I just came from MacDill, where I was talking to General
Abizaid and General Brown, and one of the things that's clear is folks there at
MacDill really do appreciate the support that the citizens of the
communities of Tampa and St. Pete and the surrounding area provide them.
So I want to thank you all very much for being--[applause].
I'd like to share some thoughts with you and then answer questions
as time allows, if you've got any. First, I send Laura's greetings. She's doing great, by the way. She's a
fantastic First Lady and a--[applause]. She's obviously got to be a
woman of enormous patience. [Laughter]
I appreciate Congressmen Adam Putnam, Bill
Young, Mike Bilirakis, and Katherine Harris for
being here today. Oh, there they are, yes. Proud to give them a ride on
Air Force One. [Laughter] Some of them aren't going back, by the way.
[Laughter] Mark Kennedy--is Mark here with
us, from Minnesota? I think he was going to drop by--he supposedly was
going to be here. You don't know him because he's from Minnesota, but I
do, and he's a fine guy. [Laughter]
I want to thank my buddy Mel Sembler,
Ambassador Sembler, who represented our country so well, once in
Australia under 41, and then to Italy under
43--and Betty. I want to thank the chambers of
both Tampa and St. Pete. I want to thank the mayors from Tampa and St.
Pete--Mayor Iorio and Mayor Baker are with us. Thank you both for coming. Appreciate you
being here.
I didn't mean to take you away from your work. Any excuse is a good
one on Friday, right? [Laughter] So long as I keep the speech short. I
want to thank members of the statehouse who are here. I want to thank
you all for letting us use this beautiful facility. And thank you for
coming.
First of all, the economy's in good shape; it's growing. I guess
that's an easy thing to say in the State of Florida, when the
unemployment rate is 3.3 percent. Pretty amazing, isn't it? I'm sure the
Governor is going to try to take credit for it, you
know. [Laughter] I'm not going to, because the role of government is to
create an environment where the entrepreneurs can flourish and small
businesses can grow.
And the fundamental question facing this country of ours is, how do
we keep ourselves to be the economic leader of the world? It's really
the interesting question. You know, in spite of the good economic
numbers--4.7 percent unemployment around the country; our economy
growing at over 3 percent, in the face of hurricanes as well as high gas
prices; homeownership is an alltime high; small businesses are growing.
In spite of all that, there's a certain sense of uncertainty. People are
worried. They're worried because they're changing jobs a lot. They're
worried because of competition from India and China. There's a certain
sense of uncertainty.
And so we have a choice to make about our economy: Do we retreat in
the face

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of uncertainty, or do we lead? And I will be working with the Congress,
Members of--from both political parties, to be the leader of the world.
And here's some ideas. One, keep taxes low. We can't be the economic
leader of the world if we run up your taxes, and so we're going to keep
them low.
And you'll hear a debate in Washington, DC, that says, ``Well, we've
got to run up your taxes to balance the budget.'' That's not the way it
works in Washington. They will run up your taxes, and they'll figure out
new ways to spend money. The best way to balance the budget is to keep
the taxes low and be wise about how we spend your money. That's how
we're going to balance the budget.
In order for us to be competitive and lead in the world, we've got
to get off of Middle Eastern oil. I know it shocks some of you to hear a
Texan say, ``We're addicted to oil.'' And we are, and it's a problem.
It's a problem. It's a national security problem, and it's an economic
security problem to be reliant upon oil from parts of the world that may
be unstable or parts of the world that simply don't like us. And so the
best way to deal with that is to continue to foster new technologies
because of research and development that will enable us to use different
fuels in our cars, for example.
There's Kennedy right there. Good to see
you, Kennedy. The reason I thought of him is because he's from a part of
the world that's growing a lot of crops that can be converted into
energy. We're close. We're close to technological breakthroughs that
will enable us to convert wood chips and saw grass. We already convert
sugar, corn, and soy into fuel. And think about that. If this technology
comes true, which we believe it will, then pretty soon a President is
going to say, ``We're growing a lot of crops, and we're less dependent
on Middle Eastern oil.'' There are 4.5 million cars today that are flex-
fuel cars that can either run on gasoline or ethanol. In other words,
the technology is available inside the automobile. And it's coming.
And we're making some great breakthroughs on battery technology.
Next week I'm going to travel around the country going to some of the
most innovative places around our country that are providing new
technologies to enable us to become less dependent on oil, which will
keep us a leader in the world.
Another thing we need to do is to make sure that our health care
system is modern. I want to talk real quick about Medicare here. First
of all, I'm aware there's a lot of seniors in this State that rely upon
Medicare. The Federal Government made a commitment to the seniors around
the United States, starting with Lyndon Baines Johnson, that we would
provide good health care to the seniors. And when I got to Washington, I
found that we were not providing modern medicine. I mean, we would
provide the money for ulcer surgery in old Medicare, but not the
prescription drugs necessary to prevent the ulcer from happening in the
first place. And that didn't seem to make sense to me. It's an old,
centralized system that was not modern and was not fulfilling the
promise we made.
And so I worked with Congress--Republicans and Democrats--to get a
new bill out of Congress that said, ``We're going to provide a
prescription drug benefit, and as we do, we're going to give seniors
more choices and more options from which to choose.''
About 25 million seniors have signed up for this new plan since
January 1st. That's a lot of folks in a quick period of time. And
needless to say, when you make that kind of transition to a modern
system, there's going to be some glitches. And our job is to fix those
glitches. And that's what the Department of Health and Human Services,
under Mike Leavitt, is doing. And it's
important for our seniors to take advantage of this new program. Call 1-
800-MEDICARE. Or if you've got a mom or a dad who's eligible for
Medicare, sit down

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with them and explain the new benefit. It is a really good deal for
America's seniors.
To make sure that health care works, we'll continue to take care of
the poor. In other words, the Government has made a commitment to the
elderly and the poor, but the Government has also got to understand, the
best medicine is private medicine. And we should not get in between the
doctors and the patients in America.
Finally, I want to spend a little time on education, briefly. First
of all, No Child Left Behind Act is working. It's a piece of legislation
that says, ``We're going to raise the standards for every child, and
we're going to measure to make sure children are meeting those
standards.'' Can you imagine--you might remember the old--well, I'll
tell you. When I was Governor of Texas, we had a system that didn't
measure right early on. And guess what happened? We just shuffled kids
through the system who couldn't read, and we found out too late. And
that is a terrible system. It lets people down. And we're spending a lot
of your money. It seems like to me, it makes sense to say, when we spend
your money, we ought to insist upon results. Results are good for the
taxpayers; more importantly, they're good for the students. So now we
measure early, before it's too late, and we're correcting problems,
before they're too late. And our kids are learning to read.
And we need to apply that same rigor to children in math and
science, particularly in junior high. Fourth grade tests, our kids are
doing fine compared to other countries. But there's a big dropoff when
it comes to math and--mathematics, particularly in junior high. And so
we need to apply that same standard. We'll measure in junior high, and
if you need help, we'll provide it for you. And the reason why is, the
jobs of the 21st century are going to require mastery in math and
science and engineering. And if we don't make--and if we don't educate
our kids, the jobs are going to go elsewhere, whether we like it or not.
So to make sure America remains the leader in the world, we're going to
stay on the leading edge of research and development, and educate the
young scientists of tomorrow, today.
And so, look, my attitude about the future is this, when it comes to
the economy, and when it comes to foreign policy: We shouldn't fear it;
let's shape the future. Let's be the leader tomorrow that we are today.
Now, we're living in historic times. But when you think about this
world we're in, it is a time of challenge, and it's a time of
opportunity. We've got the challenge to protect the American people. My
most important duty is to protect you from harm. And we have an
opportunity to lay the foundation of peace for generations to come.
I make a lot of decisions. My buddies in Texas, when they show up to
Washington, after they get over the initial surprise that I'm still
there--[laughter]--or got there in the first place--[laughter]--say,
``Like, what's it like, you know? What is the job description? What's it
like to be President?'' And the best way to answer it is, I make a lot
of decisions. And part of the reason's--my thinking was shaped on
September the 11th, let me put it to you that way. And I think it's
important for you to understand how the President thinks and why I make
decisions I make, particularly decisions relating to war and peace.
I knew we're at war when they attacked us. As a matter of fact, I
was down here in Florida. It didn't take long to figure out what was
going on. And I vowed that day that I would not rest, so long as I was
the President, in protecting the people. So a lot of my decisionmaking
is based upon the attack. And I know we're at war, see--I knew it then,
and the enemy has, unfortunately, proved me right because they continue
to attack. In order to win the war against the enemy, you've got to
understand the nature of the enemy.

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First of all, these people are coldblooded killers, people who will
kill the innocent in order to achieve a tactical objective and a
strategic objective. They have no conscience. You can't negotiate with
these people. You cannot reason with them. You must bring them to
justice.
Secondly, they have an ideology; they believe in something. The best
way to describe what they believe in is to think about what life was
like in Afghanistan under the Taliban. These were people that saw to it
that young girls didn't get educated. If you didn't agree with their
view of religion, you were whipped in the public square. They tolerated
no dissent, no different point of view--tearing down the--destroying the
culture from the past. They had no sense of history other than their dim
view of history. That's what they think.
And they have made it clear their objectives. You probably have read
some of Zawahiri's writings, admonitions
to his fellow fighters. They've made it clear that they believe the
United States is soft and weak and that they can shake our will. They've
made it clear that it's just a matter of time before we vacate parts of
the world which they can then occupy in order to be able to plan, plot
attacks against the United States of America. They have made it clear
they're interested in weapons of mass destruction. In other words,
they've laid out a strategy, you know, for the world to see.
And my job is to take that strategy seriously. My job is to see the
world the way it is, not the way some would hope it would be. If 9/11
affected our thinking, then we've got to make sure when the enemy
speaks, we take every single sentence that they say seriously and deal
with it. And that's what we're doing.
So I want to share some of the strategy in winning this war on
terror. Make no mistake about it, we're going to win the war on terror.
We'll protect the American people.
First, when we see threats, we've got to deal with them. When I was
growing up in west Texas, oceans protected us. You might remember some
of those days. Old Mayor Martinez, I know he
remembers those days when we felt pretty comfortable here in America
that we could see a threat overseas, but oceans made it pretty clear
that--to a lot of folks--that nothing would happen, you know. September
11th came along and made it clear that we are vulnerable, that the enemy
can hit us if they want to.
And therefore, when you see a threat, you've got to deal with it.
You can't take things for granted anymore. The best way to deal with
this enemy is to defeat them overseas so we don't have to face them here
at home and to stay on the hunt. And that's what we're doing.
And we've got a coalition of countries. I spent a lot of time
reminding people about the nature of the war. Listen, the tendency for
folks is to say, ``Well, this really isn't a war.'' I can understand
that. Who wants to walk around thinking there's a war about to hit us. I
mean, that's my job to worry about it and not yours. How can you have an
economy recover from a recession if people are afraid to risk capital
because they're worried about thinking something is going to happen? And
the same thing happens overseas. People kind of want to slip to the
comfortable. They don't believe it's a war, some of them, and I
understand that. And so we spend a lot of time reminding people that
we've got to work together because the enemy can't stand what we stand
for, and that's freedom. They just hate freedom. And so we've got a good
coalition, and we're on the hunt. We're keeping the pressure on them.
It's hard to plot and plan and execute attacks when you're on the run.
And so the first step of our strategy is defeat them there so we
don't to have to face them here. And we've got some great Special
Forces. I met the Special Forces

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command guy here--and there's great intelligence officers and wonderful
coalition folks. We're cutting off their money. It makes it kind of hard
to operate when you can't get your bank accounts full of money in order
to--we're just doing a lot of stuff. And it's important for citizens to
know that there's a constant, constant pressure. I think about it every
day.
And we're making progress. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, September the 11th plotter/planner, is incarcerated;
his successor brought to justice. Slowly but surely, we're finding them
where they hide, and they know we're on their trail.
Secondly, we got to deny them safe haven. These people can't operate
without safe haven. It's an interesting war we're in. It's totally
different from what we're used to because we're not facing nation-
states; we're dealing with an enemy that is international in nature,
that hides in states.
When the President says something like, ``If you harbor a terrorist,
you're equally as guilty as the terrorists,'' those words mean nothing
unless you act upon them. And I said that to the people of Afghanistan--
the Taliban. They didn't listen, and so we acted. And removing the
Taliban is a clear signal that we won't tolerate safe haven. In other
words, if you harbor the terrorist, you're just as guilty as the
murderers. And that's a clear signal that the United States must
continue to send in order to win the war on terror.
We saw a threat in Saddam Hussein.
Obviously, this issue is one that has caused a lot of people to wonder
about certain aspects, caused me to wonder about the capacity of our
intelligence services to provide good intelligence. And that's why we're
constantly working to reform the intelligence services, to make sure we
get the best intelligence, because I thought there would be weapons of
mass destruction, and so did everybody else in the world, and so did
people in the United States Congress from both political parties--
thought that there would be weapons of mass destruction.
The United Nations and the United Nations Security Council thought
there would be weapons of mass destruction. After all, they passed a
unanimous resolution that said, ``Disclose, disarm, or face serious
consequences.'' In other words, we worked the diplomatic front.
And so when Saddam Hussein chose war--and
believe me, he made the choice. The hardest thing for the President of
the United States to do is commit troops into combat. It's the last
option, the very last option. Except September the 11th taught me--and
September the 11th taught me that we've got to take threats seriously.
And the world saw a threat. This man was harboring terrorists. He was on
the state sponsor of terrorists lists. I didn't put him on there; he was
put on there by previous Presidents. He was firing at our pilots. He had
invaded countries. He was a threat. And the world spoke with one voice
and said, ``Disclose, disarm, or face serious consequences.'' And when
the United States says something, it must mean it. And we said,
``Disclose, or face serious consequences.'' And when he wouldn't, he
faced serious consequences. Removing Saddam Hussein has made America
safer and the world a better place.
And we have a plan to achieve victory. Victory is a state, a
democracy that can sustain itself and defend itself and join America in
fighting the war on terror. That's the goal of victory. That's the
definition of victory.
First, part of our strategy is a political strategy. I try to tell
people how I make decisions. And part of making good decisions is you've
got to believe something. You have a belief system that, by the way,
can't alter because of politics or polls or focus groups or what
somebody wants you to think. And I believe that freedom is universal. I
believe that deep in everybody's soul is the desire to be free. That's
what I believe. I don't believe freedom or liberty

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is confined here to Methodists from Texas. I believe everybody wants to
be free--white, black, brown, Muslim, Jew, Christian, agnostic. I
believe there is a deep desire for people to be free.
And if you believe that, then you have faith in people demanding
freedom, if given a chance. And the Iraqis proved that theory right.
Eleven million people went to the polls in the face of unbelievable
terror, terrorist threats, and said, ``I want to be free; let me vote;
let me decide my future.'' And so on the political front, they're making
progress because of the courage of the Iraqis.
And now the task at hand is to work with the--those who won votes in
the new parliament to set up a unity government, one that is--can help
deal with the grievances of the past, one that unites under the fabric
of democracy. And that's what we're doing. I talked to the Ambassador,
Zal Khalilzad, there yesterday. He's spent
a lot of time working with making our position known that we want the
Government to be a unified government.
Secondly, we're helping the country rebuild itself after years of
neglect, so that people can see the benefits of democracy. And we
started off initially with, kind of, these grand projects. We got the
Congress to appropriate money, and we tried to build some great
electricity-type renovations. And the enemy kept blowing them up, and so
we've altered our strategy. One of the things that you've got to do in a
situation like this is constantly adjust. You can't just get stuck in
one kind of response mode. You've got to think and watch the enemy and
adjust to the enemy in order to achieve an objective. And we're doing
that. So now we've got much smaller-scale projects that are yielding
instant results for the people on the ground, so people say, ``Wait a
minute--this democracy deal is a pretty good thing,'' you know.
Businesses are flourishing in Iraq. I mean, freedom is coming;
freedom is coming. There's a determined enemy trying to stop it, of
course. They can't stand freedom. I told you, they think the exact
opposite we do. They don't believe that everybody desires to be free.
They want everybody to live under their totalitarian thumb. That's what
they want. Not America and our coalition, we want governments to be
responsible and responsive to the people. That's what we believe in.
Thirdly, in order to achieve our objective, the Iraqis are going to
have to fight the enemy. They've proven their worth, in terms of defying
the terrorists when it comes to making the vote, and they're proving
their desire to defend themselves against the enemy too. You know how I
know? I'm listening to the people on the ground. I talk to our
commanders a lot. They're the ones who are giving me the appraisal about
how well these Iraqis are being trained.
An interesting measurement, right off the bat, however, was how the
Iraqis responded to these attacks on the police stations and the
recruiting stations. You remember that they had a series of attacks on
the recruiting stations? Guess what my question was to them out there:
Are there still people lining up to join up? If you're getting blown up
line--standing in line, are they still coming? And the answer was,
absolutely. And we're training them, and there's a command structure--
command and control structure getting in place. And this military is
getting better and better. We're turning over a lot of territory to the
Iraqis. They now have two divisions, which is a lot of folks, that are
capable of taking the fight nearly on their own. The training mission is
working.
So on the security side, we're on the hunt. We're after
Zarqawi. See, he wants us to leave. He
believes we'll lose our nerve, so he can establish a safe haven in Iraq.
And we're not going to let him do it. And so we've got great special
operators and U.S. forces and coalition forces on the hunt. And at the
same time, we're training the Iraqis.

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There's a big debate in Washington about who gets to decide the
troop levels. Well, those troop levels will be decided by this
administration, and this administration is going to listen not to
politicians but to the commanders on the ground of what we need on the
ground in order to win this deal.
After I leave here, I'm going to go visit with a family of one of
the fallen troops. I have to be able to look that person in the eye, and
say, ``The cause is just.'' I believe it is just and necessary. And I
have to look that person in the eye and say that the sacrifice of your
loved one will not go in vain, that we will complete the mission. And
that's what I want to assure my fellow citizens. No matter what it looks
like in Washington, DC, I'm committed to victory in Iraq so--to achieve
peace.
And so in the short term, we're going to succeed in Iraq. We'll deny
them safe haven. We'll stay on the hunt. But there has to be a long-term
strategy as well, to win. And that long-term strategy is to liberate
people and give them the chance to live under the greatest system of
government ever, and that's democracy--because democracies respond to
people.
You know, our foreign policy in the broader Middle East for a long
period of time was just kind of, tolerate the status quo and hope for
the best. It didn't work. The surface looked placid, but beneath the
surface was brewing resentment and anger and fertile recruiting
opportunities for those who have got a dark vision of the future. And so
we're working to help the Iraqis develop a democracy.
Elections are only the beginning of democracy, not the end. Election
is the beginning of a process where government listens to the people. In
order to make sure democracy works, there has to be institution-building
and support for young, fledgling democracies. And that's what you're
seeing. This is an historic moment. The world is changing because
freedom is on the march. And we shouldn't be discouraged about
setbacks--short-term setbacks or the enemy's capacity to take innocent
life, because we've seen democracy change the world in the past.
I think about all the wars fought in Europe over the past 100 years.
A hundred years seems like a long time, probably, for the little guy
there--me too. It seems like a while--I'm only 59 years old. But
Americans shed a lot of blood in Europe, World War I and World War II.
And yet the continent is--Europe is peaceful. You know why? Because
there's democracies living side by side in peace. Democracies don't
fight each other. Generally, people in a democracy don't campaign and
say, ``Vote for me; I promise you war.'' They say, ``Vote for you--vote
for me; I'll work for the peace. I want your children to grow up in a
peaceful world.'' That's what people say to get elected.
Japan--one of my favorite analogies and stories about this is my
friend Koizumi, Prime Minister of Japan.
He's an interesting guy. I like him a lot. We spend time talking about
the peace. He understands that democracy in the heart of the Middle
East, a democracy in a part of the world that is desperate for freedom,
is an important part of laying the foundation for peace. And so he
committed Japanese troops to help the Iraqis rebuild their country and
to provide security so they could rebuild their country.
What's amazing about this is that, like many whose relatives--like
many here whose relatives fought against the Japanese, my dad did too. Isn't that interesting? Eighteen-year-
old kid, Navy fighter pilot, country calls him; like thousands, he goes
overseas to fight the sworn enemy, the Japanese. And today, this guy's
son is sitting down with the Prime Minister of Japan working to keep the peace. And what happened in
between was that a Japanese-style democracy grew. Democracies yield the
peace. And what the youngsters here have to see that's happening is,
we're laying that foundation for peace. Someday, when

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you're old and--older, I know you never think it's going to happen, but
it does--you'll look back and say, ``Maybe old George W. Bush and the
United States Congress was right in keeping the faith that democracies
can yield the peace we all want.''
I got two other things--two other things I want to tell you, then
I'll answer questions. We not only protect ourselves by keeping the
pressure on the enemy and defeating them over there so we don't have to
face them here at home, we've got to protect ourselves by doing smart
things in America. I hope--I appreciate working with the mayors on
homeland security issues. We're training a lot of first-responders and
getting people ready in case something happens.
Secondly, in order to ask our folks on the frontline of protecting
America to do the job, they've got to have all the tools. And the
PATRIOT Act passed right after September the 11th--had a little problem
getting it out of the United States Senate, it got kind of hung up
there. My reminder to those Senators is that the bill may--about ready
to lapse, but the threat isn't. And if people in Washington expect those
on the frontline of protecting America to do their job, they got to give
them the tools. The PATRIOT Act needs to be passed.
Finally, I made a decision that has been in the news lately, and I
want to share with you my thinking, because it's an important decision.
The--September the 11th made it clear to me that an enemy would do
anything it could to hurt us. We're at war. And I understand some don't
think that, that we're at war. There are good, decent Americans who
believe that. I know that. This is not what I--I don't believe it, see.
I got a different point of view. I asked our people on the ground there
in Washington, is there anything more we can do to protect the American
people? What can we do? The enemy wants to hit us; they're planning to
hit us. Is there anything we can do so I can go around the country
saying, ``Go about your business. We're taking care of your security for
you''? I think most people would ask that question.
And General Mike Hayden of the NSA--
he's a wonderful person--said he thought there was something more we
could do. And he showed me the plans for this country to pick up
conversation--listen to conversations from people outside the country,
inside the country, who had an affiliation with Al Qaida or were Al
Qaida. He said, ``I think we can design a program, Mr. President, that
will enable us to have quick response to be able to detect and deter a
potential attack.''
I said, that's interesting, General. I
said, that makes a lot of sense to me. I said, you're not going to
listen inside the country. ``No, this is calls from outside the country
in, or inside out, to people who we know or suspect are affiliated with
Al Qaida.'' And I remember some of those phone calls coming out of
California prior to the September the 11th attacks by the killers--just
thinking maybe if we'd have listened to those on a quick-response basis,
you know, it might have helped prevent the attacks.
My second question was, is it legal? See, I take that oath of office
seriously--I've taken it twice as your President--to uphold the laws and
the Constitution. And so we got lawyers all over Washington, as I'm sure
you can imagine. [Laughter] I'm not one. I said, is it legal? I'm asking
this to the Attorney General of the United States, the Legal Counsel in the White House; NSA has got lawyers. I mean, a lot of lawyers looked at
this, and they said, ``You bet, Mr. President, it's legal.'' And they
gave me the legal ramifications. You'll see this all--this is part of
the debate.
Thirdly, I knew I needed to tell Members of Congress. See, they like
to be a part of the process. They're a co-equal branch of Government,
and I recognize that, and I honor that. And so we briefed Members of the
United States Congress on

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the full program so that they would know--appropriate Members of
Congress, leaders, Republicans, and Democrats, leaders of the
Intelligence Committee whose job it is to provide oversight on
intelligence operations. They were abreast. Like my old buddy called me,
he said, ``You know something, if you're trying to pull one over on
them, if you're trying to have an illegal program, why are you briefing
the Congress?'' I said, ``Because I want people to know.''
Unfortunately, we're having this discussion. It's too bad, because
guess who listens to the discussion: the enemy. If you don't think we're
at war, it doesn't matter then, does it? I know we're at war. And the
enemy is adjusting. But I'm going to tell you something. I'm doing the
right thing. Washington is a town that says, ``You didn't connect the
dots,'' and then when you do connect the dots, they say, ``You're
wrong.'' In order to protect America, if somebody is talking to Al
Qaida, we want to know who they are and why they're talking to them.
Okay. That's what's on my mind. Now, what's on yours? Yes, sir. Go
ahead and yell it.

Homeownership

Q. Mr. President, I just wanted to take an opportunity to tell you
that I think our country is blessed to have you as our President.
The President. Thank you.
Q. That--we are very thankful that you don't make your decisions
based on the polls, like previous Presidents have.
The President. Well, I appreciate that.
Q. And my comment is, is that I'm a homebuilder. I'm very happy
right now.
The President. You've got to be. [Laughter]
Q. But I wanted to just keep you apprised that things are good now.
The economy is good; interest rates are low. There are people that still
can't afford homes in our country today. Affordable housing is very
important. We, as homebuilders--I serve on the Board of Directors of the
National Association of Homebuilders.
The President. Well, good.
Q. We'll be up in Washington in about a month or so to see you guys.
But we're concerned with the environment just as much as anyone else is,
and--but there's got to be a balance to make sure that we can develop
land and provide homes, affordable homes. And also, Congress is working
on some things now that has an affect on financing and interest rates
for people buying their first homes. And let's make sure that we have
affordable homes for people.
My daughter is a school teacher here in Tampa, and it's important to
people like her, people that protect us--the fire department, the
sheriffs--they need homes. And the times are good now, and I was a
builder when your friend Jimmy Carter was President, and interest rates
weren't so good back then, and those were tough times. And I just want
to tell you that I'm blessed to be here today with you in this room, and
we all love you.
The President. Well, thanks. Let me talk about that. Thank you.
You'll be happy to hear, I don't set interest rates. [Laughter] That's
set by an independent body. And I just named a new Chairman of the
Fed to do that. And he's a good fellow. And
so if I were you, I'd be worried about interest rates, because when the
interest rates go up, it makes it harder for your school teacher.
Well, there's help, to help certain folks who qualify with their
downpayments. We want people owning their own home. See, that's--we want
this to be an ownership society. We want people owning their own
business; we want people owning their own home; we want people owning
their own health account they can take with them from job to job like
health savings accounts. And homeownership is high right now. More
minorities own a home than ever before in our Nation's history, which is
a fantastic statistic.

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And--but interest rates matter, as does good tax policy. And, I
know--maybe you're hinting at whether or not the mortgage deduction
would be part of a plan. I don't think you have to worry about the
mortgage deduction not being a part of the income tax law. But thank you
for bringing that up.
Yes, sir. Go ahead and yell it. Let me get a mike for you.

Florida Coastline/Energy

Q. Mr. President, you mentioned a trip next week to visit the
sources of renewable, additional technology to reduce our dependence on
foreign oil. We have a not-so-renewable resource, which is our precious
Florida coastline. And because of your great brother, we do have an
unemployment rate of 3.3 percent. How can you work with us to protect
our Florida shoreline----
The President. Yes.
Q. ----with respect to offshore drilling?
The President. Well, I made a commitment that nothing is going to
happen within 100 miles of this coastline, and I'm honoring the
commitment. I don't care what people might be saying--I guess maybe they
quit saying it after the '04 campaign--but it's a commitment that this
Government has--at least my Government has made, and I'm going to honor
it. When we say 100 miles off the coastline, we don't mean 99 or 89, we
mean 100. And so rest easy.
Now, the thing about--look, we've got to get off of hydrocarbons. We
just do. And it's--I'm a believer in nuclear power. I think it's a--
[applause]--maybe someday, and I think we'll--I'll figure out--I'll find
out how close we are when I visit with some of these solar technology
people, but it's very likely that you'll become a little power generator
on--in your own home, and that the excess power that you do not use, you
feed back in the grid. Hybrid batteries--batteries for plug-in hybrid
automobiles are pretty close, they tell me. And I'm going to see
firsthand--sometimes the President gets the cook's tour, I know it--
[laughter]--but nevertheless, I'm going to see firsthand.
And what's interesting is, is that a lot of people in urban areas
are not going to drive more than 30 miles a day. And it's--so we're
developing automobile engines that can run on electricity for 30 miles,
and then if you go more, your gasoline kicks in. But it requires a
battery that has got good storage capacity and is easy to recharge. It's
coming.
And so there's a lot of technologies that are coming on the market,
and we're spending money. And it's a good use of taxpayers' money, it
seems like to me, to--in order to achieve some big objectives.
I'm going to India on March the 1st, around that period of time, and
I believe that it's good policy for the United States to encourage these
emerging economies to use clean energy, nuclear power, so as to help
reduce demand for, kind of, nonrenewables. And so I'm going to talk to
them about development of a civilian nuclear power industry. They're
telling me China has got about 34 plants on the market, which is good.
But this expansion of nuclear power--which is in our interests, by the
way; it's in our interests because of the quality of the air; it's in
our interests because it takes--reduces demand, kind of global demand--
is going to create another issue, and that is, what are we going to do
with this spent fuel? This country doesn't reprocess spent fuel; we
should. Reprocessing spent fuel means that we're able to continue to
reuse the base material that went through the burn the first time in a
plant and reduce the amount that we have to then eventually store. And
we chose not to do that in the late seventies because of proliferation
concerns. I'm convinced we can work internationally to address those
issues.
And so I'm just sharing with you--we got a full strategy to help us
make us less

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dependent on energy--on foreign sources of energy.
Yes, sir.

Transportation

Q. Commissioner Reynolds from Winter Garden in the central part of
the State.
The President. Oh, yes, I know where you are.
Q. Pressed into service by your brother, Honorable Jeb Bush.
The President. Is that good or bad?
Q.Well, it's been a riot, sir.
The President. If it's bad, take it up with him. [Laughter]
Q. I thought about calling him and asking him if he'd like to have
the job back.
The President. That's right. [Laughter]
Q. The concerns from the central part of this State is, we've got a
really unprecedented growth rate there in the middle part. The challenge
is for mass transportation to free us from the oil that you talk about.
Unfortunately, the proportionate share of funding that we're able to
secure seems to be tied into porkbarrel, like light rail which does--
Congressman Mica needs to buy into the fact that it's not realistic. So
how do we--can get free from that so we can get direct funding----
The President. Yes.
Q. ----for mass transit?
The President. Yes. That will be something that you'll be able to
effect 5 years from now, because I signed the highway bill, and it's
done. And nobody wants to deal with it again until it expires, to be
frank with you. But I understand--but what he's
saying is, how come you just don't let Floridians decide how to spend
the money that's supposed to go back to them? Why do you earmark parts
of the bill? That's what you're saying. And I do think Congress needs to
work on earmark reform. I'm just not one of these guys--if there's no
hope, I got to let you know, brother. There ain't no hope. [Laughter]
They're not going to revisit the highway bill. They're just not going to
revisit the highway bill until the highway bill expires. And then
perhaps you can get the kind of--they can get the kind of reforms. As
you know, I ain't going to be around. [Laughter]
Yes, sir. I've heard from Jeb on this issue, by
the way.

Alternative Sources of Energy

Q. Mr. President, welcome back to Tampa.
The President. Thank you.
Q. And my question is, you've talked a lot about our addiction to
oil today. You've also talked about advanced, alternative fuel sources,
in particular for household vehicles as a potential mitigant to that
dilemma. But we have a very robust, industrialized economy--air, rail,
shipping, trucking--that has depended on oil, frankly, for generations
to be successful and vibrant. So my question is, how do we maintain the
most advanced, industrialized economy on Earth and actually reduce our
dependency on oil going forward?
The President. Yes. Well, I believe--first of all, natural gas has
driven a lot of our industrialized growth, as you know. And we are--we
need to have--import liquefied natural gas if we're going to be modern
and stay competitive.
Listen, we're going to need oil. The question is, are we able to
reduce dependency from certain parts of the world? And I think that by
relieving pressure on how we drive our cars, we'll, in fact, help
segments of our economy that are going to take a while to diversify away
from hydrocarbons, I guess is the best kind of macro look.
Things don't happen instantly; I understand that. But nevertheless,
there are some practical ways that we can reduce our dependency, and it
seems like to me, the most practical way is to change automobiles,
change how we drive. In the short term, ethanol and hybrid batteries
makes the most sense to me. It's the most practical way and most
economic way to get--to begin the reduction of dependency.

[[Page 276]]

Now, listen, we've got a large fleet--I told you, there's 4\1/2\
[million]* flex-fuel cars. That's good, except there's about 200 million
cars. And it takes a while for fleets to renew. And so things don't
happen instantly, but they will happen quicker as we continue to press
for innovation and technology.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
*White House correction.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ultimately, I believe that we're going to be using hydrogen to power
our automobiles. But that's 15 years down the--for the technology to be
applicable is 15 years down the road. And I guess what I'm not only--I
guess I am, what I'm telling you is that we see technological
breakthroughs pretty darn quick when it comes to ethanol and hybrid
batteries, which is a positive development for the people. And it's an
interesting thing about ethanol, is that the barriers to entry are
pretty low, when it comes to manufacturing the--if the technology says
that we can--yields the capacity to convert switchgrasses and refuses to
ethanol, once that technological breakthrough comes, the barriers to
entry are pretty low when it comes to building the manufacturing
capacity that converts raw material to ethanol. Much different from a
big cracker refinery. And so that's positive. So we've got the car
technology, hopefully have the breakthrough technology on fuel, and then
the infrastructure will follow.
And so what I'm saying is this is the most practical way to become
less dependent on oil. And the economy will continue to function. But
things are happening, by the way, in diesel. I don't know visiting your
area--if any of you know something about trucking, you know that diesel,
clean diesel engines are coming. We did a deal in my administration to
work with diesel engine manufacturers to come up with a very low-
emission engine that is now being applied in trucks, and it's going to
make a difference--on Caterpillar tractors. We're getting there; we're
getting there.
Thanks for the question.
Yes, sir.

Spread of Democracy/America's Influence Abroad

Q. The dilemma, it seems to me, that we are facing in this country--
I've had the opportunity to interface with people of Muslim countries,
and the war is bad enough, and I applaud what you're doing because
freedom is important, but what concerns me is if the youth in these
nations are being taught that you and I and us Americans are, in fact,
the devil incarnate or Satan himself--I guess my question is, what can
we do about that, to win over the people, the children, the youth, so
that the next generation will not be facing this same dilemma? I think
this is an incredible problem.
The President. I appreciate that. First is to support and work with
moderate governments, and there are a lot. The largest Muslim nation is
Indonesia. And we're working closely with the President there to help promote a better understanding
of different religions. I will be seeing President Musharraf, who I like, and he's a good fellow who understands
that moderation is an important part of a hopeful future. And so support
governments that practice moderation.
Secondly, provide assistance when assistance is needed. In my State
of the Union, I said, we've got to reject isolationism. Isolationism is
the tendency for a nation to withdraw and not feel an obligation to be
involved in the world. And I--we cannot defend ourselves if we're
isolationist. I just made the case. But I also believe--and part of my
philosophy in the decisionmaking is that to whom much has been given,
much is required. And therefore, when we see suffering in places like
Pakistan or because of the tsunami, the United States of America is
leading the way in.
And it helps. It helped a lot in Pakistan, for example, to see those
choppers flying relief supplies up for poor folks who had

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been--whose lives had been just devastated. I can't remember the exact
numbers, but President Musharraf told me;
we're talking hundreds of thousands of people either dead, injured, or
displaced. And there was the United States of America military flying in
supplies. I believe John Abizaid--General Abizaid told me today that we turned over our MASH unit to the
Pakistani Government to help so they could continue to provide aid and
comfort.
And so there are practical ways. One is to support moderation, and
two, help where help is needed. Our HIV/AIDS initiative, by the way, is
a fantastic initiative. It is--I can't tell you how proud I am of the
American people for supporting this. It is necessary for the United
States of America to be taking the lead on this issue to save lives. If
we say, human dignity matters and every life is precious, if that's part
of a credo as a country, which it is--that's what we say. We say,
``People matter; every human life is precious.'' Then those human lives
apply not just here at home but on the continent of Africa or in Muslim
countries. And there's a lot of Muslims in Africa who've seen the great
compassion of the United States of America when it comes to helping to
battle HIV/AIDS. There's a pandemic taking place. And you ought to be
proud of this country, like I am, that we're filling that void of
compassion and need and hope.
Yes. Right here. Yes. You're next. Yes. Yes, ma'am.

Helping America's Youth Initiative

Q. I know that you and First Lady Bush have talked much about our
hurting generation of teens and our unproductive teens in our
communities. Just wanted you to talk a little bit about the efforts
being made with the work that you're doing in initiatives----
The President. Thanks.
Q. ----that will help that.
The President. I appreciate that. First, there's positive news. Teen
pregnancies are down; teen drug use is down. And that's positive. That's
good--[applause]--because of people at the grassroots level--people at
the grassroots level. I think one of the most important initiatives of
this administration is to--is the Faith-Based and Community Initiative,
which recognizes what de Tocqueville saw in the 1830s. He's a French guy
who came over here--[laughter]--in case you don't remember. And he
recognized that the great strength of America was the capacity for
individualists--or the willingness of individualists to work together in
what he called voluntary associations to make the community in which
they live a better place. And he saw that in the 1830s.
It's a--what he saw is still the strength of our country, if you
really think about it. You know, government can hand out money, but
government cannot put a hope in a person's heart. A lot of people miss
one of the basics ingredients of life, and that is love. And love
happens when somebody puts an arm around a person and says, ``What can I
do to help you, brother or sister?''
And so part of our initiative in dealing with loneliness,
discouragement, lack of self-esteem, is to encourage faith-based
programs will--which all exist because they hear a universal call to
love a neighbor, by the way--to have access to Federal money, in other
words, level the playing field for grant money so that these programs--
which have been set up to love somebody and provide love--have got equal
access to Federal money. It's a really important initiative.
There are targeted monies, of course. There's monies aimed at the
different community groups dealing with drug use. But I think the most
important initiative of all is to empower groups that really do provide
mentoring and care and decency on an individual basis for somebody who
needs it. And it's happening. It's happening in America.
Yes.

[[Page 278]]

Culture of Life

Q. Mr. President, it's an honor to be here with you today, and I
thank you so much for the time that you take to share with us. I'm a 40-
year-old father of a 3-year-old.
The President. There you go.
Q. And I'm also an adopted child. And it seems that anymore, through
the results of legislation from the bench, that maybe the unsafest place
for a child in this country is in his or her mother's womb. And my
question for you is--and I commend you for your Supreme Court picks. I
thank you for your bold stance in who you picked. My question is, with
my son--this is the future of America. And my question is, where do you
believe we're headed? Long after your term of serving us has ended and
long after we've had other Presidents serve this country, where do you
think we're headed in the areas of abortion, in the areas of traditional
marriage, in the areas of faith and the foundations that this country
was founded upon that are so under attack anymore? Where do you believe
we're going?
The President. I'm an optimist. I believe we're headed toward a
period of personal responsibility, where people understand that they're
responsible for the decisions they make in life.
I just gave you some statistics. Abortions are down in America as
well, by the way. People are--I--one of my jobs is to promote a culture
of life. And I just told you every life is precious, and I meant it,
whether it be here at home or on the continent of Africa where
somebody's suffering from HIV/AIDS. And so I'm an optimist. I think
people are beginning to understand that there is virtue in being
personally responsible for the decisions you make in life.
And that--there's a--and cultures change, and it takes a while for
cultures to change. All of us--I'm not going to peg anybody a certain
age around here, but those of us born, like, around '46, '47, '48, we've
seen a culture change in our lifetime, if you really think about it. The
culture changed, and it can change again. And I think these statistics
that show that some problems that seemed incurable at one point in our
history indicate that there is a cultural shift. A lot of it has to do
with people being responsible. Some of it has to do with there's a
religious awakening around many communities in the country, not just
Christian religion, Jewish religion, Muslim religion. People are
becoming religious in America. And that, in itself, helps people realize
that you've got to be conscious of the decisions you make and mindful of
the needs of others.
And--but we still got challenges. One of the things that obviously
undermines good teaching at home is TV and some of the movies. But I
remind people, they put ``off'' and ``on'' knobs on TVs for a reason.
You don't have to go to a movie if you don't want to go to a movie. See,
I think you can promote responsibility at home and still live in the
free society where people are allowed to express themselves. And my
advice to parents is, pay attention to the Internet. Part of the problem
we have in our society is people aren't paying attention to their kids'
habits. And when you've got your child on the Internet, make sure you
know what that child is looking at, because that's your responsibility.
It's not the government's responsibility to take care of your child;
it's your responsibility to take care of that child.

President's Personal Values

Q. Thank you for being our President. We are all way better off and
very safe----
The President. Thanks. It's my high honor, by the way.
Q. Thank you.
The President. I'm glad I did it.
Q. We appreciate it. How do you--earlier you shared with us some
intimacy about how you make decisions, and I felt that was heartfelt.
How do you keep it together? What do you really think about

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when the biggest story this week was Dick Cheney's hunting trip and not
Al Gore blasting our troops and being treasonous in his regard to this
war on terror in the Middle East? How do you keep it together?
The President. Well, I appreciate that. That's a loaded question.
[Laughter] I keep it in perspective. There's a lot of noise in
Washington. There's a lot of flattery; there's a lot of criticism;
there's just a lot of noise. And I keep it in--I try to keep my life in
perspective. I try to--I don't try to; I do keep my life in perspective.
And I am focused on achieving certain objectives. Every day--I've said
this, and I mean this--every day I think about how to protect America.
Every day in the morning, first thing in the morning, I get briefed by
our intelligence officers about potential threats. So every morning I'm
aware of the world around us. And I told you that it's--9/11 changed my
thinking. So my focus is there.
And, you know, I care deeply about troubled youth. I'm worried about
Katrina victims. I'm worried about people that got moved out of their
home, and they ended up somewhere else. Put yourself in their
perspective. I said homeownership is valuable. We talked about
homeownership here, how important it is--and somebody wakes up the next
morning and their home is gone. And not only that, they ended up out
in--somewhere else, you know. The good news is those people found love,
which is a wonderful thing about our country. And I think about those
kind of things.
So to answer your question--and I appreciate that--first, I'm wise
enough not to fall into your trap because--[laughter]--there are some
keen reporters paying attention to every word I'm saying. [Laughter] But
I really don't let that bother me. I've got my perspective, and I've got
my priorities. My faith is a priority. My family is a priority. Look, we
got to deal with issues, of course, when they come up. That's part of
the--it's part of Washington. It's part of being the President.
There's--issues come, and they go. And they and--but I hope that when
it's all said and done, people see me as a strategic thinker and that
I'm able to stay focused on a strategy that will leave behind peace and
hope--peace around the world and hope not only around the world but
equally importantly, here at home, so people have this sense of the
greatness of America. It's a--we're a fantastic country.
Think about a country--when you really put America in perspective,
ours is a country where somebody can come with nothing except drive and
desire, and end up being able to raise a family and realize dreams. It
is a fantastic land. And the great thing about America is it doesn't
matter who you are, you know, if you got the drive and the desire and
the willingness, you can make it in this country. And it's such a
powerful--it's a powerful--that's a powerful statement to make. And
that's the way we need to keep it, by the way. And so--I don't even know
how I got there, but anyway. [Laughter]
Yes, ma'am.

Immigration/Social Security Reform

Q. In light of national security, some of us baby boomers are going
to retire in the next 3 to 5 years.
The President. There you go. I know how you're thinking, baby.
[Laughter] I'm right there with you. [Laughter]
Q. And the number of people replacing us is only at about 63
percent. So what are we going to do with immigration to make sure we
have enough people to fill those positions?
The President. Yes, it's interesting. I thought you were going a
different direction. [Laughter] I'm going to answer two questions. I
thought you were taking me down that Social Security route, because it's
a really interesting--that's a really interesting way to frame the
immigration debate. Really is, I haven't heard it put that way.

[[Page 280]]

Let me answer immigration first and then talk about the unfunded
liabilities inherent in Medicare and Social Security as a result of baby
boomers like me and you retiring with not enough people to pay it, to
pay the bill.
First, immigration--there are a lot of people working here in
America doing jobs Americans will not do. And that is a fact. And it's
a--and as I told you, we deal with the way the world--the way it is, not
the way we hope that it is, and therefore, how to deal with that issue;
what do you do? You got people working here, doing jobs Americans won't
do.
My attitude is, you recognize it for what it is, and you say, ``You
can do this on a temporary basis.'' You say, if there's a willing
employer and a willing worker on a job an American won't do, then it's
okay to fill that job, so long as you're not here permanently, so long
as this is not--[applause]. And so I believe there ought to be a
temporary-worker program. We've tried this in America before--pretty
successful, at least in my own home State of Texas. You got people--old
Red Putnam over there, he's got people--probably have been bringing
people in to pick oranges for a while, I don't know. Agriculture relies
upon a lot of people willing to do the work that others won't do. And it
seems like to me that there ought to be a legal way to make this happen
so that--but without creating a sense of amnesty or permanency.
And so, one, I have a deal with immigration rationally. Now, we've
got an obligation to enforce our borders and our coastlines, and we're
spending a lot of money to do so. The Texas border is long, and it's
hard to enforce. I mean, it's a lot of miles, a lot of empty country.
And so we're using new technologies, drones, infrared, some mounds, some
fencing in cities, to try to make it harder for people to cross. But the
truth of the matter is, a lot of our Border Patrol agents are chasing
people who are coming here to work, see. And it seems like to me that if
we could have a rational system that would enable people to do this on a
temporary basis, it would take the pressures off the borders. People
would be able to come in here in a rational, legal way.
Now, as I told you, I'm not for amnesty. You got about 8 million-
plus people here illegally. My worry is if they--all of a sudden legal
citizens, then another 8 million comes. And I don't think that makes any
sense. So in terms of immigration, I'm for border enforcement, and
strong border enforcement, with a rational guest-worker program that's
temporary in nature, where it's understood that you're working here for
a period of time, then you're going back on home.
Now, I want to talk to you about what's happened as a result of the
current program. When you make something illegal, and there's a--you
know, people coming here to work; people figure out ways around it. I'm
not old enough to remember the old whisky days of Prohibition, but I
remember reading about it--people still made whisky because people
wanted to drink it.
And so guess what's happening today? We've got people getting
stuffed in the back of 18-wheelers, driving across hot desert to find
jobs that, most often or not, Americans won't do. There's a whole
smuggling industry as a result of making temporary work--not making it
legal. A whole smuggling industry--coyotes they're called--and it's
inhumane. It just is, any way you look at it.
You know, family values don't stop at the Rio Grande River. If
you've got starving children and there's a job over here in America that
pays you more than it does in Mexico that an American won't do, you'll
come and do that job and get that money back to your family.
Secondly, one way to make immigration policy work is you've got to
enforce the law. And so you've got to go to employers. I'm not going to
come to your home building site--but anyway. [Laughter] You come

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to enforce the law, right? And so you're a homebuilder out here in the
Tampa area; a bunch of people show up, roofers show up, and say, you
know, ``We're legal; here's my card.'' You're not in the business of
telling me whether or not that's a forged document or not. You don't
know. It looks real. And that's all you're expected--but I'm telling
you, they're forging these documents. There's a whole underground
industry. They're smuggling people, and they're forging documents. And
our borders are being over--it makes it much harder to enforce. And so I
think by having a rational plan--temporary worker, no amnesty--will
expose these people runners and drug--document forgers for what they
are. So that's my answer on immigration.
Now, Social Security and Medicare--they're giving me the hook, by
the way; I've got another speech here in Florida. Laura said, ``Whatever you do, don't be too windy.''
[Laughter] I didn't listen to her.
You bring up a huge problem, and that is, she identified something
younger workers better be asking politicians to do something about, and
that is, just to put it blunt, Social Security is going broke. And the
reason why is a baby boom generation, like some of us here, are fixing
to retire. And there's a lot of us, and we've been promised greater
benefits than the previous generation, and there are fewer people paying
in the system. And it's difficult----
Audience member. [Inaudible]
The President. ----and we're living longer, yes, thank you.
[Laughter] Yes, cameras and everything, they're--leave your name with
them. [Laughter] She's right, and we're living longer. I wish I'd have
thought of that. [Laughter]
And we've got to do something about it, and I tried last year. The
job of the President is not to pass problems on but to confront them.
That's my job. That's what you expect people to do. And I'm going to
continue trying. And so they said, ``Well, we don't have a problem.''
Well, one thing people now have recognized is we got a problem. I
succeeded. Not only did I succeed, others succeeded too, in reminding--
we've got the issue, talking it up.
People are now beginning to realize what you realize and I realize,
that we're going to fine--it's just the people paying in the payroll
taxes. Can you imagine looking at youngsters in the eye, and say, ``Pay
in the payroll taxes,'' and you know the system is going broke? That's
not a good deal. And so in the State of the Union, I said, ``Look, I
tried it; I'm going to try it again,'' is basically what I said. This
time I believe that we need to have a table with Republican and
Democrats sitting around it, and sit down and get something done. This
isn't going to pass unless it's--people from both parties can come up
with something to do. There's just too much opposition one way or the
other, unless there's a bipartisan solution. I believe the American
people are pretty sick and tired of needless partisanship in Washington,
DC, and I know they expect us to get some stuff done.
And so I just want to assure you, I'm going to keep trying and keep
trying and keep trying because it's the right thing to do. It's the
right thing to uphold the honor of our offices by confronting these
problems now, and not saying, ``It's okay for another President,'' or
``It's okay for another Congress,'' and just keep shuffling it down the
path. Now is the time to get it done, because the longer you wait, the
worse the problem gets. Every year that goes by, the problem gets worse
for a next generation of Americans.
Okay, I've got the hook. Listen, let me conclude--yes, ma'am.
Anybody who makes that kind of noise----

Uganda/Sudan

Q. I did not do that.
The President. Okay, good. [Laughter]
Q. It's a small part of the world, but it's very important to me--
I'm concerned about the children in northern Uganda who are the
victims----

[[Page 282]]

The President. Yes, warlords.
Q. ----of the rebel Joseph Kony.
The President. Yes.
Q. And I'm wondering if you can bring any pressure to bear on
President Museveni to stop that 20-year war and free those children from
the bondage that they're under.
The President. Really interesting question. She's talking about
the--northern Uganda. There's a group called the Lord's Group that has
been terrorizing both northern Uganda and southern Sudan. I talked to
Mrs. Garang, John Garang's widow. John Garang
was the head of the Sudanese in the southern part of the country that,
by the way, became adopted by a church in Midland, Texas, my old
hometown, interestingly enough. And early in my administration, I got
Jack Danforth, a former United States
Senator, to go and negotiate an agreement between northern Sudan and
southern Sudan. And John Garang was a partner in peace. Unfortunately,
he died in a helicopter accident about a year ago, I think. And the
reason I bring this up is that there's no doubt it would be easier to
deal with the Lord's Group if we were able to achieve peace between
north and south Sudan. They take advantage of instability.
I have talked to this--I've talked about this issue with Mrs.
Garang, as well as--now, there are
peacekeepers in the region, by the way, U.N. peacekeepers on the north-
south accord. I hope they're effective at helping the people of southern
Sudan. I have talked to Museveni, President Museveni, about the issue as well, and I've been with him, I
think, two or three times. I know on two occasions we've talked about
this--and will continue to talk to him about it. It's--I'm very aware of
the issue.
My hope is that by having a southern Sudanese--having the peace
agreement negotiated between north and south so the southern Sudanese
can begin to get their lives back in order, get the oil money moving
that's guaranteed to them, will help provide--help drive them out of any
safe haven in the south, which will make it easier for all of us to
deal. It's kind of a roundabout answer, but I'm aware of the problem,
first of all. And secondly, I'm surprised that anybody in this audience
would bring it up, and I thank you for that.
We also have got a major issue in Darfur, Sudan. I presume if you're
worried about northern Uganda, you're also worried about western Sudan,
as am I. The strategy there was to encourage African Union troops to try
to bring some sense of security to these poor people that are being
herded out of their villages and just terribly mistreated. We need more
troops. It's--the effort was noble, but it didn't achieve the objective.
And so I'm in the process now of working with a variety of folks to
encourage there to be more troops, probably under the United Nations. I
talked to Kofi Annan about this very subject this
week. But it's going to require a--I think a NATO stewardship, planning,
facilitating, organizing, probably double the number of peacekeepers
that are there now, in order to start bringing some sense of security.
There has to be a consequence for people abusing their fellow citizens.
At the same time, part of the issue in the Darfur region is that the
rebel groups are not united in their objectives. And so politically or
diplomatically, we have to work to make sure there's one voice from
which to speak, so that we can then create kind of the same agreement
between Government in Darfur that was created between north and south. A
lot of talk, but we've got a strategy, and it's of concern, to the point
where our country was the first country to call what was taking place a
genocide, which matters--words matter.
And so thank you for bringing up that part of the world. That's very
interesting that you would have that on your mind. You're a decent soul,
a decent soul.
All right, I've got to go. Thanks for your time. God bless.
Appreciate it.

[[Page 283]]

Note: The President spoke at 1:26 p.m. at the Port of Tampa. In his
remarks, he referred to Gen. John P. Abizaid, USA, commander, U.S.
Central Command; Gen. Bryan D. Brown, USA, commander, U.S. Special
Operations Command; Betty Sembler, wife of U.S. Ambassador to Italy
Melvin Sembler; Mayor Pam Iorio of Tampa, FL; Mayor Rick Baker of St.
Petersburg, FL; Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida; Ayman Al-Zawahiri, founder of
the Egyptian Islamic Jihad and senior Al Qaida associate; former Mayor
Robert Martinez of Tampa, FL; U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad;
senior Al Qaida associate Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi; President Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono of Indonesia; President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan;
President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni of Uganda; and Secretary-General Kofi
Annan of the United Nations. A participant referred to Joseph Kony,
leader of the Ugandan rebel group the Lord's Resistance Army.