    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2006, Book II)]
    [July 7, 2006]
    [Pages 1348-1354]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at a Lunch for Gubernatorial Candidate Judy Baar
    Topinka in Chicago
    July 7, 2006

        Thank you all. Go ahead; please be seated. Thanks for coming. I am
    honored to be here. I proudly stand with Judy Baar Topinka as the next
    Governor of the State of Illinois.
        Laura sends her best. Like Judy says, ``Sorry
    Laura didn't come.'' I say, ``Yes, most candidates say that.''
    [Laughter] I'm really lucky that Laura said yes when I asked her to
    marry me. And I think the country is lucky to have her as the First
    Lady. And she sends her very best to Judy. She, like me, hopes that Judy
    will win. And she, like me, knows that when Judy does win, she's going
    to be a fabulous Governor for the people of Illinois.
        I'm glad to be here with the Speaker.
    Mr. Speaker, I'm proud you're here. Thanks for coming. Somebody said,
    ``What is it like dealing with Hastert?'' I said, ``Solid as a rock.''
    [Laughter] He's predictable. You can count on him. He's doing a fine job
    as the Speaker of the House of Representatives. I love working with you.
    We're getting a lot done. And I want to thank you for being here.
        Jim Edgar, what a good man. Thanks for coming,
    Governor. I appreciate you being here. We're members of the ex-Governors
    club. [Laughter] And we got to know Jim and Brenda well during his time as Governor of Illinois, and he
    was a dandy. All you got to do is aspire to be as good as Jim Edgar, and
    you'll do a great job, Governor Topinka. He is--he set the standard,
    didn't he, for Governors here in Illinois. And I'm proud you're here,
    and thanks for helping Judy Baar.
        I want to thank all the candidates who are here. There's a lot here,
    so I'm not going to try to rip them all off, but I do want to thank you
    for running statewide--Lieutenant Governor candidate, attorney general candidate,
    treasurer candidate, comptroller
    candidate. Maybe I ought to say it just to see
    if I can get some ink

    [[Page 1349]]

    for you: Joe Birkett, running for Lieutenant Governor. [Applause] Yes,
    let's do it that way--Christine Radogno, running for State treasurer.
    Senator, thanks for coming. Senator Dan
    Rutherford, running for secretary of state--there he is. Senator Bill
    Brady, he's not running for anything statewide,
    but he's here. Senator, thank you.
        It's a good sign to see all the senators. When senators and members
    start to swarm around, it means they're smelling victory. [Laughter]
    They want to be close to the next Governor. Judy Baar, it's a good sign
    when you've got people like Tom Cross, the
    Illinois house minority leader. He's from your district, right,
    Speaker? Yes. Stu Umholtz is running for attorney general. Thanks for coming,
    Stu. Yes.
        I want to thank Andy McKenna and all the
    grassroots activists who are here. This has been an incredibly
    successful fundraiser. And I thank you for your hard work in supporting
    Judy Baar. It's hard to do a big fundraiser like this, and it takes a
    lot of good organizers and people willing to go out and pick up the
    phone and call and ask. And you've done a fantastic job. It's a good
    sign. People don't want to back somebody who can't win. And you're here
    to back Judy Baar because, one, you like her; two, you trust her; and,
    three, you know she can win and become the Governor of the State.
        So I thank you all for contributing mightily to her campaign, and I
    urge those of you who are involved in grassroots politics to kind of
    warm up and get ready to turn out the vote come November. She's going to
    need people putting up the signs and stuffing the letters and making the
    phone calls and urging the good people of this State--Republican,
    Democrat, and independent--to show up to the polls and do their duty and
    to vote for Judy Baar. She's going to do a fine job as your Governor.
    She's a good, fine, honest person who knows what she's doing. She's got
    a track record. She can get the job done.
        Having been a Governor, I know what it means to be a Governor. You
    got to have somebody who can set an agenda; somebody that doesn't try to
    be all things to all people; somebody that says, ``Here's what I'm
    running for, and here is what I intend to do,'' and then is going to do
    it. That's what the people of Illinois want. They don't want a bunch of
    fancy footwork and empty slogans. They want a practical person to say,
    let's make this State, for example, the best State in the country to be
    an entrepreneur. Let's make sure this is a progrowth economic policy in
    the State of Illinois.
        We share a philosophy: The role of government is not to create
    wealth; the role of government is to create an environment in which the
    entrepreneurial spirit flourishes. And Judy Baar wants to make sure
    Illinois is entrepreneurial heaven for people here.
        And so how do you do that? How do you do it? Well, the first thing
    you do is make sure you keep the people's taxes low. And it works. It
    works. We have been in Washington, the Speaker and I and others, working together, have proven that
    low taxes can increase economic vitality. We believe that when a person
    has more money in his or her own pocket to save, spend, and invest the
    way she or he feels fit, the economy grows.
        Remember what's happened in the last 5 years. We have faced a
    recession, a stock market correction, corporate scandals, an attack on
    the United States of America, two major military operations to defend
    ourselves, national disasters, high energy prices. And yet this economy,
    first quarter of 2006, grew at 5.6 percent. Today we found out we added
    another 121,000 new jobs. The national unemployment rate is 4.6 percent.
    The unemployment rate in Chicago is 4.3 percent. Productivity is high.
    More people own a home than ever before. Small businesses are being
    created. This economy is strong, and the reason it's

    [[Page 1350]]

    strong is because we cut the taxes on the American people.
        And the fundamental question is, can we keep them low to make sure
    the economy grows? Here's the interesting debate in Washington, and I'm
    proud that Dave McSweeney is here, because
    he gets it. He's running for the United States Congress. He understands
    what I'm about to say. Here's the trap: In Washington, they say, ``Oh,
    all we got to do is raise taxes to balance the budget.'' That's not the
    way Washington, DC, works. Yes, they'll raise your taxes, but they will
    figure out new ways to spend your money. The best way to balance the
    budget--and Judy Baar understands this--is to keep progrowth economic
    policies in place through low taxes and be wise about how we spend the
    people's money.
        Our progrowth policies are working. Pretty soon we're going to
    announce the new deficit projections. I told the people that if we're
    wise about spending the money and keep progrowth policies in place,
    we'll be able to cut the deficit in half by 2009. What's really
    interesting is that when you cut the taxes and your economy grows, guess
    what happens. You yield more tax revenues. It's working. And,
    Speaker, I think we're going to have a
    pretty good projection here in a couple of weeks that will remind the
    American people that it's good policy to let you keep more of your own
    money, that we got to set priorities with your money in Washington, DC,
    and we can grow our way out of our deficits.
        You know, the country has got some tough decisions to make. And that
    is, do we fear the future and try to wall ourselves off from the world,
    or do we welcome the competition the world provides and shape the
    future? And Judy Baar Topinka understands that we shouldn't fear the
    future. We ought to put good policies in place to keep us the most
    innovative, technologically advanced country in the world.
        And you start with making sure you've got a good education system.
    When I was Governor of Texas, I used to say, education is to a State
    what national defense is to the Federal Government. In other words, it's
    got to be the number-one priority of your Governor. And you got to have
    a Governor that's willing to set high standards and willing to challenge
    the status quo if you find mediocrity and failure.
        We've got too much stateism in public education, too much excuse-
    making, too much process. See, it's so simple to give up on an inner-
    city kid and say, ``Well, you're this age; you're supposed to be here,''
    or just kind of shuffling children through. It is inexcusable behavior.
    And therefore, we passed the No Child Left Behind Act, which says, we'll
    have high standards, and we expect people, in return for Federal money,
    to measure.
        And the reason we want people to measure is because we want to know.
    We want to know if the curriculum may need to be corrected; we want to
    know if a school is failing to meet standards; we want to know if
    children are simply being shuffled through the school system without
    regard to their capacity to read and write and add and subtract.
        And, Judy Baar, you're going to hear all the excuses for no
    measuring. You know, it's too much State interference; this--you're
    teaching to test. If we hold people to account, we will make sure
    children are not left behind.
        You know what's happening here in the city of Chicago? You're
    reading scores are up. And the reason why is because you measure and you
    correct problems early, before it's too late. I look forward to working
    with Governor Judy Baar Topinka to make sure we institute the No Child
    Left Behind Act so the great State of Illinois is on the leading edge of
    education reform.
        If you want to be a good State, in which people risk capital, and a
    competitive State, you got to make sure you use your community college
    system wisely. The community

    [[Page 1351]]

    college system is a vital part of making sure America is able to compete
    in the global economy because the community colleges have the capacity
    to work with employers to help train people for the jobs which actually
    exist. And I know Judy Baar Topinka is going to be--wisely use the
    community college system here in Illinois to make sure this State
    remains competitive and a good place for the entrepreneurial spirit to
    flourish.
        I look forward to working with her to get rid of our dependence on
    oil, foreign sources of oil. We got a problem. When the demand for oil
    goes up in China or in India, it causes the price of crude oil to go up,
    which causes the price of gasoline to go up in Illinois. And we need
    people who have got good commonsense policies in place, and one
    commonsense policy is to make sure that we have the opportunity to grow
    ourselves out of dependence on oil.
        I love ethanol, and I intend to work with the Governor here to make
    sure that is widespread, not only throughout Illinois but throughout the
    United States of America. Thank you for your understanding that we need
    alternative sources of energy.
        One of the toughest jobs she's going to have is fight off all the
    lawsuits. I don't know if the trial lawyers are that tough here in
    Illinois. I suspect they are. [Laughter] They're real tough in
    Washington, DC, too. You know, I met an ob-gyn coming through the line
    here. First of all, I can't think of a more noble profession than being
    an ob-gyn. But there's a problem in the United States of America. We got
    these junk lawsuits running good doctors out of practice. You know,
    there's over 1,500 counties in America that don't have an ob-gyn because
    of all these junk lawsuits. And that's not right, and it's not fair, and
    it's inexcusable. And you better have yourself a Governor who's willing
    to look those trial lawyers right in the face and say, ``We need tort
    reform to make sure Illinois holds up the promise for all its
    citizens.''
        And by the way, I want to thank the Speaker. I think not one time but two times, he's passed
    medical liability reform out of the House of Representatives. When I
    first went to Washington, I thought it was a mistake for there to be a
    Federal medical liability bill. See, I thought the States can handle it.
    Then it was explained to me that all these lawsuits are costing the
    Federal Government and you an additional $28 billion a year.
        So we got some pretty big health programs. We got Medicare and
    Medicaid and veterans' benefits. And so when you get all these junk
    lawsuits out there, it's not only causing premiums to rise, which you
    pay for, it's also causing doctors to practice defensive medicine, which
    you pay for.
        And so they estimate the tab to the Federal Government is about $28
    billion a year. So medical liability reform is not just a State issue,
    it's a national issue. And I appreciate the Speaker's leadership on getting a good bill out of the House.
    It's time for the Senate to stop playing politics and pass good medical
    liability reform for the sake of the patients in the United States of
    America, for the sake of good, quality health care.
        These are historic times we're living in, and this country can make
    the decision to be confident about the future or to retreat from the
    future. And I believe we ought to be confident. Our entrepreneurial
    spirit is strong; this economy is good; and we can put good policies in
    place--good educational policies, good research and technology policies.
    The Speaker passed a good bill, by the
    way, that will double the amount of Federal research--Federal monies
    that go into research for basic science. It's a smart thing to do. It's
    a way to make sure America stays on the leading edge of change and
    technology.
        In order to make sure that this country is competitive, you've got
    to have Governors who understand the proper role of Government and how
    to properly stimulate

    [[Page 1352]]

    the entrepreneurial spirit. And I firmly believe Judy Baar Topinka is
    that right person, and I want to thank you for supporting her.
        Before the Speaker and I get on the
    helicopter and go see one of the incredibly advanced plants, I do want
    to talk about the war on terror. Before I do so, I do want to say a
    really cool place--if you're wondering where a good place is to
    celebrate your 60th birthday--[laughter]--yes, you ought to try--yes,
    okay, thank you. Thank you. I'm saying, come to Chicago. It's a good
    place to celebrate your birthday. That's all I'm trying to say. Had a
    fabulous night last night with the mayor.
    They asked me at a press conference about the mayor. I said, the mayor
    is a man of his word. He said, ``You're going to get clobbered in
    Chicago in 2000,'' and he kept is word. [Laughter]
        By the way, if you go to the Science Museum, take your kids. It is a
    special place. I know there are some members of the board who are here--
    it is really great. And I'm looking forward to shedding my entourage one
    of these days and spending a little quality time there at the museum.
    [Laughter]
        But at my press conference, they spent a lot of time talking about
    the world. And I told them today, like I'm going to tell you now, that
    my biggest job is to protect--is to work to protect the American people.
    And I think about it all the time. They ask, what's the job like, to be
    President. And the answer to that--job is, you make a lot of decisions.
    It's a decisionmaking experience. Governor, you'll find it to be a
    decisionmaking experience.
        Rule one on decisionmaking is you make decisions based upon
    principle, not based upon polls and focus groups. You can't make good
    decisions if you're chasing a poll. You can't make the hard decision
    necessary to secure this country and to yield peace if you're worried
    about whether somebody thinks you're popular. You got to stand for what
    you believe and do what you think is right. And after September the
    11th, I vowed that I would use our national assets to protect the
    American people. I think about it; I talk about it; I act on it every
    day of my Presidency.
        The enemy we face are a bunch of totalitarians. They have a
    philosophy. They believe that if you don't adhere to their view, that
    you ought to be punished. They don't believe in freedom of worship; they
    don't believe in freedom of speech. They're willing to kill innocent
    people in order to achieve their objectives. They have clearly stated
    their objectives, which are to drive the United States out of parts of
    the world so they can develop safe haven from which to launch further
    attacks.
        There are some people who want to see the world the way they'd like
    it to be, and I can understand that. My job is to see the world the way
    it really is. And therefore, so long as I'm the President, we will stay
    on the offense and bring these people to justice before they hurt the
    American people again.
        We must keep the pressure on all the time. And one of the central
    fronts in the war on terror, one of the theaters of the war--not the
    sole theater but a theater in the war on terror--is Iraq. And I know
    it's on your minds. It's on my mind. We're facing a group of killers
    there that can't stand the advance of freedom. It should say something
    about the nature of the people we face when they see a young democracy
    beginning to grow and they're willing to kill innocent people in order
    to try to stop the march of freedom. That's one way to describe the
    enemy.
        What is it about a free society that bothers these people? What's
    troubling about a society in which people are able to worship an
    Almighty freely if they choose to do so? How come you can't stand
    dissent in the public square? The reason why is because they have a
    vision that is opposite of that. And that's why they're doing--taking
    desperate measures to stop the advance of a democratic society.

    [[Page 1353]]

        And the enemy has got the capacity to kill on a daily basis, which
    clouds our TV screens. And therefore, some Americans are wondering
    whether or not we can win. And to those Americans, I say, not only can
    we win, we are winning. I want them to remember that 12 million people
    went to the polls in the face of incredible threat; 12 million people
    stood up and said, ``We want to be free.'' There's now a unity
    Government. Victory will be achieved when Iraq, a free Iraq, can sustain
    itself and govern itself and defend itself. And the mission of the
    United States of America is to help that Government succeed. It's in our
    national interests there be a free Iraq.
        People have often asked me, ``Would I have made the same decision I
    made before, knowing what I know today?'' And the answer is, I didn't
    have that luxury, but getting rid of Saddam Hussein has made America and the world a better and safer
    place.
        And now the question is, does this country have the will and the
    patience to stand by a new democracy so they can realize the benefits of
    liberty? And when I flew over to Baghdad to see Prime Minister
    Maliki, one of my missions was to determine
    whether or not he had the capacity to lead and to make the tough
    decisions. I came to the conclusion he does. And my other part of the
    mission was to tell the Iraqi people, when America gives her word,
    America will keep her word.
        You know, there's a lot of talk about troop levels. Let me just tell
    you this--and I spoke to a reporter today who asked about Illinois
    National Guard troops going overseas, and my answer to him was this--it
    was a long answer, but this is part of the answer: I'm going to make my
    mind up based upon the measured judgment of the commanders on the
    ground, and they will make their mind up about what is necessary to
    achieve victory in Iraq. We will not be set--determining troop levels
    based upon politics. I will be making the troop level decisions based
    upon what General George Casey
    recommends. We owe that to our troops; we owe that to their families; we
    owe that to the Iraqi.
        I do not want the enemy to think that we will withdraw because of
    politics. The enemy should not think that when they hear talk about
    artificial timetables for withdrawal, that's what the American people
    think, nor that's what the Congress will do. This United States Congress
    and this President will stand squarely behind our troops and stand
    squarely behind a strategy for victory.
        So our short-term strategy is to defeat the enemy overseas so we
    don't have to face them here at home. And we're keeping the pressure on
    them. And I appreciate the Speaker's
    steadfast support. The long-term strategy, we will defeat the ideology
    of hatred with an ideology that's hopeful and light. And that's the
    ideology of freedom. And it's worked. It's worked in the past. Freedom
    has been able to convert enemies into allies.
        I--one of my alltime favorite stories is to talk about my
    relationship with Koizumi. It was
    enriched, by the way--my relationship reached a new level of friendship
    when we went to Graceland. [Laughter] Isn't that interesting? It should
    be, when you really put that visit in the context of--in historical
    context.
        After all, my dad and his dad were both
    old enough to be participants in--observers of World World II. They were
    enemies. And yet, here his son is getting on the airplane--the son of
    the Japanese fellow getting on the
    airplane with George H.W. Bush's son, on Air Force One, to fly down to
    go to Graceland. And we were talking about the peace. That's what we
    were talking about. We were talking about the issue of North Korea and
    the need for Japan and the United States, as well as South Korea and
    China and Russia, to send a clear message to the leader of North
    Korea: Your behavior is unacceptable.

    [[Page 1354]]

        I was thanking him for the thousand troops he had in Iraq. It's
    pretty remarkable, when you think about it, that the Japanese Self-
    Defense Forces were sent to Iraq to help secure liberty for a new
    democracy. We talked about how to help people in Afghanistan. We talked
    about HIV/AIDS on the continent of Africa. We're talking about how to
    make the world a better place, yet 60 years ago we were at war.
        You've got to ask yourself what happened. How can that possibly be?
    Is it just circumstance? My answer is, no. One of my predecessors, Harry
    S. Truman, believed in the power of liberty to transform an enemy to an
    ally, and so he worked to see to it that the Japanese were able to adopt
    a Japanese-style democracy.
        Liberty has got the capacity to change the world. We shouldn't be
    surprised when 12 million people vote in Iraq because I believe--and I
    hope you do too--that the concept of liberty is universal; that it's not
    just a concept for Americans or Methodists, it's a concept that rests in
    the soul of everybody. That's what we believe in America. That's the
    basis of our founding.
        And so the idea of our enemy becoming a friend shouldn't be a
    surprise. The lessons of World War II and the aftermath should be
    lessons applied today in helping us chart our path to victory in the war
    against these terrorists. Someday, an elected leader of Iraq, a free
    Iraq in the heart of the Middle East, will be sitting down with an
    American President talking about keeping the peace. And generations of
    children will be better off for it.
        Thanks for helping Judy Baar. God bless.

    Note: The President spoke at 12:27 p.m. at the Drake Hotel. In his
    remarks, he referred to Andy McKenna, chairman, Illinois Republican
    Party; Mayor Richard M. Daley of Chicago, IL; former President Saddam
    Hussein and Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki of Iraq; Gen. George W. Casey,
    Jr., USA, commanding general, Multi-National Force--Iraq; Prime Minister
    Junichiro Koizumi of Japan; and Chairman Kim Jong Il of North Korea.