[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2006, Book II)]
[October 31, 2006]
[Pages 1963-1969]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]
Remarks at a Georgia Victory 2006 Rally in Perry, Georgia
October 31, 2006
The President. Thank you all very much. Thanks for coming. Thanks
for the warm welcome. It's great to be back in the State of Georgia.
Just seems like I was here yesterday. [Laughter] I must have Georgia on
my mind. [Laughter]
I got something else on my mind, and that is to make sure Mac
Collins becomes the next United States
Congressman from this district. I appreciate you coming. He's a self-
made guy. He's a no-nonsense fellow. He's got a lot of common sense,
just the kind of person you want representing you in Washington, DC.
You know, he kind of reminds me of a lot of
folks in my home State. See, they didn't start off as a Republican. He
was a Butts County commissioner, and he ran as a Democrat--a Reagan
Democrat. And then he saw the direction of where the Washington, DC,
Democrats were taking his party, so he came home. He came home to a
party--[applause]--he feels like I feel: We don't want Washington
Democrats running the House of Representatives.
And I appreciate you coming to express your support for
Mac. I'm honored you're here. With your hard
work, Mac Collins will be elected, and we're going to keep control of
the House and the Senate.
I'm proud to be here with Julie--that's
Mac's wife. She, like my wife, is a very patient person. Mac married above himself--
[laughter]--so did I. Laura sends her love. She sends her love to the
Collinses, but she also sends her love to your
Governor. You talk about a man who deserves to be reelected, and that's
Sonny Perdue. He's done in office exactly what he said he's going to do,
and the State of Georgia is better for it.
I'm proud to be here with two United States Senators who are making
a huge difference in the Nation's Capital, folks who represent your
State with a lot of class and a lot of dignity, Senator Saxby
Chambliss and Senator Johnny
Isakson.
It's a good sign when you've got sitting Members of the United
States Congress coming in to help one of their former colleagues, see.
It means they know him; they respect him; they like him. So please join
me and welcome Charlie Norwood, Phil
Gingrey, and Tom Price.
I'm proud to be here with the next Lieutenant Governor of the State
of Georgia, Senator Casey Cagle. I thank all the
other candidates, and I thank all the grassroots activists. You're the
people who put up the signs, make the phone calls, convince people to go
to the polls. I want to thank you in advance for what you're going to
do.
We're driving toward victory. Now I know up in Washington, they've
already decided the outcome of the election.
Audience members. Boo!
The President. They're measuring the drapes in their new offices.
Audience members. Boo!
The President. The same thing happened in 2004, you might remember.
In 2004, the movers never showed up, and they're not going to show up in
2006.
One reason we're going to win this election is because we've
accomplished a lot. We've done what the people expect us to do. We went
up and represented the people's interests. You know, for decades, the
public school system failed too many children, so we passed the No Child
Left Behind Act and demanded schools show results in return for money.
Test scores are rising; an achievement gap is closing; and we're
bringing America closer to the day when every single child gets a
quality education.
For decades, we've been growing too dependent on foreign oil, so we
decided to do something about it. We passed a good
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piece of energy legislation that encourages conservation, encourages
domestic production. But it does something else: It spends your money on
new technologies so that we can use Georgia crops to fuel and power
automobiles.
One thing you don't have to worry about Mac,
he understands what I know: If the farm economy is strong, the American
economy benefits. So for the sake of national security, we want our
farmers growing the fuel of the 21st century.
Medicare was an outdated program. It's an important program. If
you're a senior, you know how important Medicare is. But you might
remember, Medicare was becoming old, and it needed to be modernized. As
a result of legislation that I signed, 33 million seniors have more
choices and access to prescription drugs, but more importantly, the days
of poor seniors having to choose between food and medicine, they're
over.
For decades, we haven't had complete control over our southern
border. Illegal immigration has been on the rise, so we acted. I sent
the National Guard down on the border to help our Border Patrol. We're
in the process of modernizing that southern border. We're adding Border
Patrol agents. We'll reform our immigration system, and we will uphold
the immigration laws of the United States.
For decades, activist judges have tried to redefine America by court
order. I don't know if you paid attention recently to that New Jersey
case, another activist court issued a ruling that raises doubt about the
institution of marriage. We believe that marriage is a union between a
man and a woman and should be defended.
And I will continue to appoint judges who strictly interpret the law
and not legislate from the bench. When you're out rounding up the votes,
you remind people that America is better off with John Roberts and Sam Alito
as members of the Supreme Court. And I want to thank these two United
States Senators for helping these two fine men become confirmed.
We've got something to run on. We've got a record to run on. And
with Mac Collins back in the Congress, we're
going to build on that record. Obviously, there are big differences
between how Republicans think and Washington Democrats think. Perhaps
the two biggest areas of difference, though, come down to how much money
you're going to have in your pocket--that's taxes--and which political
party is going to take the necessary steps to defend you.
First, let me talk about taxes. Mac and I have a philosophy. It
says, you can spend your money better than the Government can. As a
matter of fact, we believe that when you have more money in your pocket
for you to save or spend or invest, the economy benefits. The Democrats
believe they need more of your money to spend because they can spend it
better than you can.
Audience members. Boo!
The President. But, you know, sometimes philosophers don't act. We
act. See, we say we're going to do something, and we do it. And we cut
the taxes on everybody who pays income taxes; we doubled the child tax
credit; we reduced the marriage penalty; we cut taxes on small
businesses; we cut taxes on capital gains and dividends; and for the
sake of our family businesses and farmers, we put the death tax on the
road to extinction.
Oh, you might remember the debates; I certainly remember them.
Democrats in Washington predicted the tax cuts would not create jobs,
would not increase wages, and would cause the Federal deficit to
explode. Well, the facts are in. The tax cuts have led to a strong
economy that's added 6.6 million new jobs since August of 2003. Real
wages are on the rise, and the deficit has been cut in half 3 years
ahead of schedule.
Tax cuts work, and Mac Collins understands
that, and the Democrats don't. I
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want the folks out there who are trying to make up their mind about this
election to understand that the Democrats don't want you to know what
their tax plans are. They just don't want you to know.
Recently the top Democrat leader in the House made this observation. She said, ``We love tax cuts.''
Given her record, she must be a secret admirer. [Laughter] She and her
party voted against reducing the marriage penalty, reduced--voted
against cutting taxes on small businesses, voted against lowering taxes
for families with children, voted against every single tax cut. If this
is her definition of love, I'd hate to see her definition of hate.
[Laughter]
See, it's important for you to understand, when you're out there
hustling for the vote, that if these tax cuts are not made permanent or
not extended, your taxes are going up. See, that's what happens. If they
don't extend the tax cuts or pass a law that says they'll be a permanent
part of the law, you can count on your taxes going up. I think it is
interesting to note that the person who
wants to be the head of the Ways and Means Committee for the Democrats
said that he can't think of one tax cut that he would extend. See,
that's code word for ``get ready.'' If the Democrats take the House,
your taxes are going up.
Audience members. Boo!
The President. And it's a fundamental issue in this campaign. They
may try to hide their intentions, but that's what's going to happen. And
I want you to think about it: If the tax cuts aren't made permanent or
not extended and you've got a child, your taxes will go up $500 a child.
The tax credit is now $1,000 per child, thanks to people like Mac
Collins.
The man who wants to be the head of
the tax committee said they're not going to extend those tax cuts, which
means the tax credit goes from $1,000 a child to $500 a child. So when
you get to dinner tonight and you're sitting around the table with your
children, you can just count heads--[laughter]--and multiply that by
$500. So if you're a family with four children, that's four times 500,
is 2,000. That's a $2,000 tax increase. That may not sound like a lot to
Washington Democrats, but it sounds like a lot to me and Mac
Collins, and we're going to keep your taxes low.
This election is taking place in an historic time. When our children
and grandchildren look back on this period, one question will overwhelm
all the rest: Did we do everything in our power to fight and to win the
war on terror? That's the fundamental question this generation faces.
We face an enemy that is brutal. There is no negotiation with these
people. You can't try to talk reason into these totalitarians. They have
an ideology. Make no mistake about it, they believe things. What they
really believe is, they believe freedom is bad. They can't stand the
thought of free societies. And that's why they hate what the United
States of America stands for: the ability for people to worship freely.
The ability for people to vote and to express their opinion freely is
something we hold dear. It's the exact opposite of what these ideologues
believe in and what they're trying to impose on other parts of the
world.
The best way to protect the American people is to bring the enemies
to justice before they hurt us again. And the best way to protect you is
to make sure our professionals have all the tools necessary to do their
job. When it comes time to protecting the homeland, the United States of
America must be right 100 percent of the time, and the enemy, which
desires to strike us again, only has to be right once.
And that's why I decided to work with the Congress and our
professionals to change some things. I decided it didn't make any sense
to have a wall between our intelligence and our law enforcement folks.
It may be hard for you to believe, but right around September the 11th,
2001, the folks in charge of protecting you couldn't share intelligence.
And so I asked Congress to pass the PATRIOT Act to tear
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down that wall--[applause]--that enabled people to share information.
This is a different kind of war. I know there's probably some World
War II vets out there. In those wars, you could measure progress by how
many airplanes you were able to shoot down, or you were able to measure
progress by how much landmass you took. This is a different kind of war.
This is a war that requires good information in order for this
Government to do its most important job, which is to protect you. And so
therefore, I felt it was important, if Al Qaida or an Al Qaida affiliate
was making a phone call into the United States, we better understand
what they're calling about.
In this different kind of war, we pick up people off the
battlefield. We captured people like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who our intelligence officers believe was the
mastermind of the September the 11th attacks. I felt it was important
for the Central Intelligence Agency to be in a position to question this
person to determine if he knew information that would be necessary to
protect you.
Now I want you to--when you're out rounding up the vote, and people
say, ``Well, there's no difference between them,'' or they're saying,
``Well, maybe I feel comfortable with the Washington Democrats,'' I want
you to remind them about these three votes we just recently had. There's
a clear pattern. When it came time to renew the PATRIOT Act, more than
75 percent of the Members--Democrat Members in the House of
Representatives voted no.
Audience members. Boo!
The President. When it came time to vote on whether to allow the CIA
to continue its program to detain and question captured terrorists,
almost 80 percent of the House Democrats voted against it.
Audience members. Boo!
The President. And when it came time to vote on whether the National
Security Agency should continue to monitor terrorist communications,
almost 90 percent of the House Democrats voted against it.
Audience members. Boo!
The President. On all these vital measures--measures necessary to
protect you--the Democrats in Washington follow a simple philosophy:
Just say no. When it comes to listening in on the terrorists, what's the
Democrats' answer? Just say no. When it comes to detaining terrorists,
what's the Democrats' answer?
Audience members. Just say no!
The President. When it comes to questioning terrorists, what's the
Democrats' answer?
Audience members. Just say no!
The President. When it comes to trying the terrorists, what's the
Democrats' answer?
Audience members. Just say no!
The President. So when the Democrats ask for your vote on November
the 7th, what's your answer?
Audience members. Noo!
The President. One thing is, the people in this district don't have
to worry about Mac Collins giving the professionals the tools necessary
to protect you. Those tools are necessary, no question about it. But the
best way to protect you is to stay on the offense, is to keep the
pressure on the enemy. It's hard to plan and plot attacks against
America if you're on the run, and that's exactly what our brave
professionals are doing.
It's important that the United States not forget the lessons of
September the 11th, 2001. I assure you I'm not going to forget them. And
one of the important lessons is that when we see a threat overseas,
we've got to take that threat seriously. When you see a threat, you just
can't hope for the best in this day and age where terrorists are capable
of inflicting damage on the homeland. I saw a threat in Saddam
Hussein. Members of the United States
Congress from both political parties saw that same threat. The United
Nations saw the
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threat. I made the right decision in getting Saddam Hussein out of
power.
In this global war against extremists who use murder as a weapon,
Iraq is now the central front. Oh, I've heard all of the voices in
Washington, DC. They say--a lot of them say, ``It's just a distraction
in the war on terror,'' that it's not a part of the war on terror,
people in Washington--Democrats say. Well, all I ask if you're undecided
about this important issue is just listen to the words of Usama bin
Laden or Mr. Zawahiri, the number-two of Al Qaida. Usama bin Laden calls this fight
the third world war. He has said that victory for the terrorists in Iraq
will mean America's defeat and disgrace forever. It's important to
listen to the words of the enemy if you're in war.
Now I want you to listen to the words of a senior Democrat in the
House of Representatives. The reason I bring
this up is, I want you to understand there is a different mindset in
Washington. She said, ``The President says that fighting them there in
Iraq means it's less likely we will have to fight them here.'' I did say
that, and I strongly believe it. ``The opposite is true,'' she went on
to say, ``Because we are fighting them there, it may become more likely
we will have to fight them here.''
I want to remind that person that Iraq is
not the reason that the terrorists are in war against us. We were not in
Iraq when the terrorists bombed the World Trade Center in 1993. We
weren't in Iraq when they blew up the USS Cole or the Embassies in Kenya
and Tanzania. And we were not in Iraq on September the 11th, 2001, when
they killed nearly 3,000 citizens on U.S. soil. You do not create
terrorists by fighting the terrorists. The best way to protect you is to
find the terrorists where they exist and bring them to justice so they
can't hurt you again.
Our goal in Iraq is victory. Our goal is for a young democracy to be
able to sustain itself, govern itself, and defend itself and serve as an
ally in the war on terror. And the fighting is tough. No question about
it, it's tough. It's tough because we face a brutal enemy without
conscience. It's tough because the enemy kills innocent men, women, and
children. It is tough because they film the atrocities, and they
broadcast them for the world to see. You see, they believe that the
United States does not have the will necessary to complete the mission.
That's what they believe. They don't understand this country. We will
never run in the face of thugs and assassins. We will defend ourselves.
Our goals haven't changed, but our tactics constantly adjust. Our
commanders on the ground have what it takes to succeed. And if they
don't, I'll make sure they do. The enemy changes; we change. We got a
lot of good things going for us in Iraq, starting with one of the finest
United States militaries ever.
In the midst of a heated campaign season, there are some things we
should all be able to agree on. And one of the most important is that
every one of our troops deserves our respect and our gratitude.
Yesterday my opponent in 2004 Presidential race, Senator
Kerry, was speaking to a group of young people in
California.
Audience members. Boo!
The President. I want you to listen to what he said. He said, ``You know education, if you make the
most of it, you study hard, you do your homework, and you make an effort
to be smart, you can do well; if you don't, you get stuck in Iraq.''
Audience members. Boo!
The President. The Senator's suggestion that
the men and women of our military are somehow uneducated is insulting
and it is shameful. The members of the United States military are plenty
smart, and they are plenty brave, and the Senator from Massachusetts
owes them an apology.
Whatever party you're in, in America, our troops deserve the full
support of our Government. And I don't have any doubt that Mac
Collins will stand strong for the
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men and women who wear the uniform of the United States.
Something else is going for us when it comes to victory in Iraq, and
that is the Iraqi citizens. They've endured unspeakable violence, but
they are determined to repulse the extremists and the radicals. Nearly
12 million went to the polls and said, ``We want to be free.'' You know,
I was pleased with the turnout, but I wasn't surprised because I believe
there is an Almighty. And I believe one of the great gifts of the
Almighty to every man and woman on the face of the Earth is freedom.
We'll help the Iraqis build their economy. We'll help them make sure
their political system unites the country, and we'll help them defend
themselves. The only way we can lose in Iraq is if we leave before the
job is done. This is a vital issue for the security of our children. And
yet when you listen to the national Democrats in Washington for their
plan, if you listen for a plan, you will find they don't have one. They
do not have a plan for victory on this vital issue.
Iraq is a central front in the war on terror, but the only thing
they want to do is leave before the job is done. I want you to hear some
of the voices of leading Democrats. They say we should pull our troops
off the battlefield right away. My opponent in 2004 said there should be
a fixed date for withdrawal. Others suggest that we ought to move our
troops some 5,000 miles away to an island. Nineteen House Democrats
introduced legislation that would cut off all the funds for the troops
in Iraq.
Audience members. Boo!
The President. I thought it was illustrative to listen to a United
States Senator from the Democrat Party
say last week, ``We haven't coalesced around a single plan, but we're in
a general agreement on basic principles.'' She's right; they are in
agreement. They will leave before the job is done.
Audience members. Boo!
The President. However they put it, the Democrat approach comes down
to this: The terrorists win, and America loses. And that's what's at
stake in this election. The Democrats want to get us out of Iraq, and
the Republican goal is to win in Iraq. I'm not saying these good folks
are unpatriotic; I'm just saying they're wrong. You can't win a war if
you're not willing to fight it.
I want you to go home and think about what retreat from Iraq would
mean, before the job is done. It would embolden the enemy. It would
enable them to ridicule countries like the United States to folks who
are wondering where the balance of power will lay in the world. It will
embolden the extremists and radicals. It will enable them to gain a new
safe haven from which to launch further attacks on the United States. It
would strengthen the hand of the extremists and deny hope to millions
and millions of people who simply want to live a peaceful life. It would
dishonor the sacrifice of the men and women who have worn our uniform.
I want you to understand, in this different kind of war, if we leave
Iraq before the job is done, the enemy will follow us here. Envision a
world in which moderate governments have been toppled by the extremists
because we left; envision a world in which people use oil--extremists
use oil as blackmail to the Western World; envision a world in which a
country which can't stand America has a nuclear weapon. And people will
look back and say, ``What happened to them in the year 2006? How come
they couldn't see the impending danger to a generation of young
Americans? Why weren't they willing to defend our security at that
moment?''
I see the impending danger. I will use all assets at my disposal to
do the most important job of the Government, and that is defend you. We
will fight in Iraq, and we will win in Iraq. Oh, I know there are
Democrats and independents in a great State like Georgia who do not
share the
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views of the Democrat leadership in Washington. You may not agree with
Republicans on every issue, but you should also realize what voting
Democrat in this election would mean for the war on terror.
When you vote next Tuesday, your vote will determine more than who
is your local Congressman. It will also determine which party's
leadership will set the agenda on Capitol Hill. A vote to send a
Democrat to Congress is a vote for the liberal Democrat leadership in
Washington, DC. A vote to send a Democrat to Congress is a vote to make
the Senate majority leader a man who bragged
about killing the PATRIOT Act. A vote to send a Democrat to Congress is
a vote to make the chairman
of the Senate Intelligence Committee a man who said the world would be
better off if Saddam Hussein were still in
power.
Audience members. Noo!
The President. A vote to send a Democrat to Washington is a vote to
make the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee a man who has suggested cutting off funds for our troops
on the battlefield.
Audience members. Noo!
The President. A vote to send a Democrat to Congress is a vote to
make the Speaker of the House--the third person
in line for the Presidency--a woman who said that capturing Usama bin
Laden would not make America any safer.
Audience members. Noo!
The President. If you want leaders in the United States Congress who
will do what it takes to defend America and keep our country safe, then
vote for Mac Collins on November the 7th.
I can't thank you enough for coming. I hope you go forth from the
hall and round up our fellow Republicans, discerning Democrats,
discerning independents and remind them about the stakes in this
election. If you want your taxes low, if you want more of your own money
to spend the way you see fit, vote Republican and vote Mac
Collins. If you want this country to stay on the
offense, to do everything we can to protect you, to do everything we can
to do our most fundamental duty--and that is to protect the United
States of America--vote Republican and send Mac Collins to the United
States Congress.
I'm sure glad to be back in Georgia. I thank you for coming. May God
bless you, and may God continue to bless the United States of America.
Note: The President spoke at 5:09 p.m. at the Georgia National
Fairgrounds and Agricenter. In his remarks, he referred to former
President Saddam Hussein of Iraq; and Usama bin Laden, leader of the Al
Qaida terrorist organization. The Office of the Press Secretary also
released a Spanish language transcript of these remarks.