[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.