[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2006, Book II)]
[November 6, 2006]
[Pages 2046-2052]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]
Remarks at a Perry for Governor 2006 Rally in
Dallas, Texas
November 6, 2006
The President. Thank you all very much. Rick, thanks for the kind
introduction. Let me put it to you this way: Everything I learned, I
learned right here in Texas. All I've tried to do in Washington is what
you expected me to do when I was your Governor: Speak plainly, make
decisions based upon principles, and stand strong with Texas values.
And that is exactly what Rick Perry has done. I'm proud to be here
with him. You know, one of the great comforts that I had when I left the
State to head up to Washington was knowing that Rick Perry was going to
be the Governor. He's optimistic. He's done in office what he said he
would do, and he's got a record. He's got a strong record to run on:
Taxes are low, budgets are down, surpluses aplenty, fix the school
funding issue. People are working here in the State of Texas. He passed
tort reform. Rick Perry has got a record and deserves to be reelected
Governor of Texas.
Laura and I are honored to be with the
Perrys. You know, we've had quite a week, well,
quite a couple of days. First, we had Laura's birthday. I'm not going to
tell you how old she is, but we were born the same year. [Laughter] And
60 ain't all that bad. [Laughter] Then we had our 29th wedding
[[Page 2047]]
anniversary. And Tuesday is going to be a great victory for Republicans
here in Texas.
I appreciate Anita Perry, one of the fine
first ladies in our State's history. I'm proud to be here with the
Lieutenant Governor, David Dewhurst. He
deserves to be reelected. He's working on safe schools; he worked with
the Governor to do something about school funding. He's got a strong,
solid record to run on, and when you get in there to vote for Rick, make
sure you vote for Dewhurst as well.
I appreciate very much that the chairman of the Railroad
Commission is with us, Elizabeth Ames
Jones. A lot of people around the country think the Railroad Commission
has a lot to do with railroads. [Laughter] The Railroad Commission has
got a lot to do with whether or not this State has got wealth to invest
in our schools. And I appreciate her leadership, and I appreciate the
leadership of my friend Commissioner Michael Williams, who is with us. The speaker of the house, from Midland,
Texas, Tommy Craddick--thanks for coming,
Tommy.
Rick Perry knows what I know: That we need judges who strictly
interpret the law and not try to write law from the bench. I named two
fantastic judges for the Supreme Court, Sam Alito and John Roberts. Rick
Perry understands that, and we've got three important Supreme Court
nominees with us today, actually sitting on the bench: Justice Don
Willett, Justice David Medina, and Justice Dale Wainwright.
I appreciate the Members of the United States Congress who are here:
Michael Burgess, Jeb
Hensarling, and Michael Conaway. Thanks for coming.
But most of all, thank you all for being here. It warms our heart to
be with our fellow Texans. I must say, I miss it, living here in this
State. But I want you to know, for the next 2\1/4\ years, I'm going to
sprint as hard as I can to make this country as great as it can be.
We're in the home stretch of this campaign, and you all will play an
important part of making sure that our fellow citizens get to the polls.
When you send them to the polls, don't overlook those discerning
Democrats and wise independents, by the way, because we've got a
philosophy that's best for this country and for this State.
Laura and I have been traveling quite a bit,
and we're enthused by the enthusiasm we see. We're closing strong
because we're right on the issues. I understand you got the largest
phonebank in the country here in Texas. That's what I expect. I thank
you for manning it. My encouragement to you is to go out and keep
dialing and get people to the polls. Send Rick Perry back to the
Governor's office, and the State will be better off for it.
Oh, there's a lot of issues we differ on with the Democrats. I want
to talk about two of them today. First is taxes. And there are big
differences. We have a clear philosophy. We think you can spend your
money better than the Government can. We believe that when you have more
money in your pocket to save, invest, or spend, the entire economy
benefits. Democrats believe they can spend your money better than you
can. That's why they want more of it.
Audience members. Boo!
The President. But you didn't elect us just to be philosophers. You
elected us to get things done. Republicans have acted on that
philosophy. We delivered the largest tax cut since Ronald Reagan was the
President. You should have heard the debate. Democrats said the tax cuts
wouldn't create jobs; it wouldn't increase wages; and it would cause the
Federal deficit to explode. Well, the facts are in. The tax cuts have
led to a strong and growing economy. The unemployment rate has dropped
to 4.4 percent. People are working here in Texas, and they're working
around the country. Over the last 3 months, we added 480,000 new jobs.
Real wages are on the rise, and we cut the deficit in half 3 years ahead
of schedule. The tax cuts worked.
[[Page 2048]]
Taxes are an issue in this campaign. See, I'm convinced that your
taxes go up when Democrats win. Now I know they don't want you to know
about it. Back in Washington, the Democrats will tell you, ``We love tax
cuts.'' But given their record, they must be secret admirers. They voted
against reducing the marriage penalty, voted against cutting taxes on
small businesses, voted against lowering taxes for families with
children, voted against reducing taxes on capital gains and dividends,
and voted against putting the death tax on the road to extinction. If
that's their definition for love, I'd sure hate to see what hate looks
like.
Here's how it's going to work. Unless these tax cuts are extended or
made permanent, your taxes go up. And the Democrat leaders have laid out
their position. They asked them about whether or not the tax cuts ought
to be extended, and they said they can't think of one of them, see. So
all they got to say is, ``Well, we're just not going to extend the tax
cuts.'' Really what they're saying is they're going to raise your taxes.
And I want you to think about what that means. For example, if the child
tax credit is not extended or made permanent, your taxes are going to go
up if you have children.
So, for example, anybody got four kids, here? Nelson has got five. Senator Nelson has got five children. So
when you're having dinner this evening, Senator, and you're sitting
around the table, just count those heads--1 child, 2, 3, 4, 5--and
multiply by 500; see, the tax credit goes from 1,000 to $500 a child if
the tax cuts are not extended. So you can just multiply 500 by 5, that's
$2,500. That may not sound like a lot of money to people in Washington.
But Rick Perry knows it's a lot of money, and I know it's a lot of
money, and that's why we're going to work to keep your taxes low.
This election is taking place in an historic time for our country.
And 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 win the war on terror? I wish I could report to you that
we're not at war, but we are. We face a brutal enemy. They're bound by
an ideology that's the opposite of our ideology. We believe in basic
freedoms, and they don't. They also have designs to spread their
ideology to the far corners of the world if they're able, and they
understand we stand in the way of that. And that's why they still want
to inflict harm on us.
I want to tell you something about these folks. You cannot negotiate
with them; you can't hope for the best with them. The best way to
protect this country is to stay on the offense and bring them to justice
so they don't hurt us.
That is part of our strategy. The other part of our strategy is to
protect you here at home. See, that's our most important job. Those of
us who are honored to serve you have got a vital job, and that is to
protect you from further attack. And so when I--after September the
11th, I reviewed the tools to see whether or not our folks had the tools
necessary to guard you. Let me talk about three items. It will give you
a sense about how people are thinking in Washington, and thinking around
the country, by the way.
First is, there was a wall that prevented our intelligence folks
from sharing information with law enforcement. Now I know that doesn't
make any sense to you, but that's what happened. See, in this new kind
of war, we can't protect you unless the intelligence folks whose job it
is to figure out the designs and thinking of the enemy can share the
information they have with the people whose job it is to stop the
attacks. It's called the PATRIOT Act. It's a vital piece of legislation.
It's a vital piece of legislation, but when it came up for
reauthorization, the vast majority of Democrats voted against it.
Audience members. Boo!
[[Page 2049]]
The President. There's just a different mindset. See, they must not
think we're at war, or they must think it's okay to respond after we're
attacked. Our view is, let's respond before we're attacked. Let's
prevent the attack from happening in the first place. If the most
important job of the Government is to protect you, I thought it was
vital to listen to Al Qaida or Al Qaida affiliates making phone calls
from outside the United States to inside the United States. The reason
why we did that is because we've got to understand what the enemy is
thinking in this new kind of war. When the terrorist surveillance
program was brought to a vote on the floor of the House of
Representatives, the vast majority of Democrats voted against it.
Audience members. Boo!
The President. When we pick somebody up on the battlefield, we've
got to be in a position to detain and question those folks. And let me
give you an example why. We picked up Khalid Sheikh Mohammed; in case you haven't heard of him, he's the
person our intelligence officers think masterminded the September the
11th attacks. So my attitude was, if he knew about one attack, he might
know about another attack. And therefore, we've got to question Khalid
Sheikh Mohammed in order to protect you. This bill came up for a vote in
the House and the Senate; the vast majority of Democrats voted against
it.
Audience members. Boo!
The President. It is important that our professionals have the tools
necessary to protect you, and I vow that so long as I'm the President,
we'll give them those tools.
This is a global war we're fighting, and we're facing the enemy on a
multiple of fronts. One of the lessons of September the 11th is, when we
see a threat, the United States must take those threats seriously,
before they come home to hurt us. And it's a lesson all Presidents must
remember. I saw a threat in Saddam Hussein;
Members of the United States Congress in both political parties saw the
same threat; the United Nations saw the same threat. My decision to
remove Saddam Hussein was the right decision.
And on Sunday, we witnessed a landmark event in the history of Iraq.
Saddam Hussein was convicted. You're watching a country evolve from the
rule of a tyrant to the rule of law. And we congratulate the Iraqi
people. But I also want to remind our fellow citizens the reason this
verdict was able to happen in the first place was because of the skill
and the sacrifice of the United States military.
And now Iraq is a central front in this war on terror. You know
it's--I hear all the talk out of Washington where the skeptics say,
``Well, Iraq is a diversion from the war on terror,'' or, ``Iraq isn't
that vital to the war on terror.'' I don't think it's true; our troops
do not think it's true; and Usama bin Laden
doesn't think it's true. He has said the fight in Iraq is the third
world war. He has said that victory for the terrorists in Iraq will mean
America's defeat and disgrace forever.
Audience members. Boo!
The President. There's a different mindset that you just got to know
about. See, people have claimed that fighting the terrorists in Iraq
creates terrorists. I disagree. Fighting the terrorists in Iraq is not
the reason why the terrorists are fighting us. We weren't in Iraq in
1993 when they bombed the World Trade Center. We weren't in Iraq when
they bombed our Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. We were not in Iraq
when they bombed the USS Cole. And we were not in Iraq on September the
11th, 2001. You do not create terrorists by fighting the terrorists. The
best way to protect this country is to find the enemy overseas and
defeat them there so we don't have to face them here at home.
Our goal in Iraq is victory. And victory means a country which can
govern itself, sustain itself, defend itself, and be an ally in the war
against these extremists and killers. And we're on our way to victory,
but
[[Page 2050]]
it's a tough fight, and I know it's a tough fight, and so do you. We
face a brutal enemy that is willing to kill innocent men, women, and
children in order to achieve their objective. And one of their
objectives is to cause us to leave Iraq. They don't believe we have the
stomach for the fight. They believe that these images of carnage on our
TV screens will weaken our resolve. They don't understand this
administration, nor do they understand millions of our fellow citizens.
We're not going to run from thugs and assassins.
We have a plan to defeat them. I talk to our commanders on the
ground all the time. We give them whatever they need to achieve our
objective, and we make sure our tactics are constantly adjusting to
those of the enemy. So not only do we have a good plan, we've also got
unbelievable people carrying out that plan. We've got the greatest
military ever. And Rick Perry, who has worn the uniform, knows what I
know, that any time we have an American troop in harm's way, he or she
deserves all the support, all the help necessary to do the jobs I've
asked them to do.
And we've got something else going for us in this vital part of the
war on terror, and that is the Iraqi citizens themselves. They've
suffered unspeakable violence, yet they're still committed to a
government of, by, and for the people. When the nearly 12 million Iraqis
voted, I was pleased, but I was not surprised. And the reason I wasn't
surprised is because I believe a gift from the Almighty to each man,
woman, and child is the desire to be free. I believe in the universality
of freedom. I don't believe freedom is America's gift to the world; I
believe it is universal. And it doesn't surprise me when people demand
to be free.
It's hard work for Iraq to have a government that can defend and
govern itself, but we're on our way. We've got a political plan to help
them. Their economy will get help to improve, and we'll continue to
train the Iraqis so they can take the fight to the few who want to stop
the dreams of the many. And we will succeed. I want you to know this: If
I didn't believe the cause was noble and just and if I didn't believe we
can achieve our objective, I wouldn't have our troops there.
We're going to succeed, unless we leave before the job is done. And
this is an important issue for our citizens around the country to think
about. We've got a plan for victory. But if you listen to the debate
about Iraq from the Democrats, I don't hear their plan for victory. On
this vital issue, they don't have a plan. Oh, they've got some ideas.
Some of them say, ``Get out now.'' Some of them say, ``Have a fixed date
and get out even though the job hasn't been done.'' One fellow up there
said we ought to move our troops to an island 5,000 miles away. No, they
don't have a plan, but they got a principle, and the principle is, get
out before the job is done.
Audience members. Boo!
The President. I'm not saying these folks are unpatriotic; I'm
saying they're wrong.
If you happen to bump into a Democrat, you might want to ask this
simple question: What's your plan? If they say they want to protect the
homeland but oppose the PATRIOT Act, ask them this question: What's your
plan?
Audience members. What's your plan?
The President. If they say they want to uncover terrorist plots but
oppose listening in on terrorists' conversations, ask them this
question: What's your plan?
Audience members. What's your plan?
The President. If they say they want to stop new attacks on our
country but oppose letting the CIA detain and question the terrorists
who might know about the plots, ask them this question----
Audience members. What's your plan?
The President. Yes. If they say they want to win the war on terror
but call for America to pull out from what Al Qaida says is the central
front in the war on terror, ask them a simple question.
Audience members. What's your plan?
[[Page 2051]]
The President. I want to remind you they don't have a plan. Harsh
criticism is not a plan for victory. Second-guessing is not a strategy.
We have a plan. Stick with us, and the country will be better off.
Retreat from Iraq before the job is done would embolden the enemy
and make this country less secure. In this new kind of war, if we leave
before the job is done, the enemy will follow us here. Retreating from
Iraq before the job is done will enable these extremists and radicals to
better recruit. Imagine their propaganda when they tell young recruits,
``We have conquered the great America; we have forced them to leave
before the job is done.'' If we leave before the job is done, millions
of people--who simply want to live a peaceful life in the Middle East--
hopes will be dashed. And if we leave before the job is done, it would
dishonor the sacrifice of the men and women who have worn the uniform of
the United States.
The consequences of retreat from Iraq will be felt for generations,
and that's important for our citizens to understand, because the enemy
has made it clear what their ambitions are: One, they believe we will
leave so they can establish safe haven from which to launch further
attacks, safe haven like they had in Afghanistan, from which they
trained--of which they launched the attacks after having trained
thousands of killers.
Secondly, they believe--they want us to leave so they can topple
moderate governments. They want to spread their totalitarian ideology as
far and wide as possible, starting in the Middle East.
Thirdly, imagine a world in which they controlled energy resources.
You can just imagine the demands of the radicals and extremists to the
West and to the United States. They would say things like, ``Abandon
Israel; otherwise, we're going to run your price of oil up and crater
your economy.'' Or they'll say, ``Withdraw, so we can establish our
caliphate.'' And you couple all that with--and a country that doesn't
like us with a nuclear weapon, and they will look back 30 years--they'll
look back and say, ``What happened to them in 2006?'' See, if that's the
world that we allow evolve, they'll look back and say, ``What happened
to those folks? Could they not see the impending danger? What clouded
their vision? What made it impossible for them to see--to do their duty
and see the threats?'' Well, I want you to know I clearly see the
threat. I understand the stakes. That's why we will stay in Iraq, fight
in Iraq, and win in Iraq.
If you got a second, I'd like to share one story with you. It's a
story about liberty. It happened recently when Laura and I took then Prime Minister of Japan
Koizumi to Elvis's place. People say,
``Why did you do that?'' And I said, ``Well, I had never been''--
[laughter]--``and I thought it would be fun to go, and so did Laura.''
Secondly, the Prime Minister wanted to go because he's an Elvis fan.
Thirdly, I wanted to tell a story about the power of liberty.
After Pearl Harbor was attacked, thousands of citizens signed up to
defend the country, one of whom was my dad,
and I'm sure some of your relatives did the same thing. And we fought a
bloody war against a sworn enemy, and thousands of people lost their
lives in this war. And yet I'm on Air Force One with the Prime
Minister of the former enemy talking about
keeping the peace. We talked about how to prevent the Korean Peninsula
from having a nuclear weapon. We talked about the fact that Japan had
1,000 troops in Iraq. The Prime Minister knows what I know: That we're
involved in a grand--in a great ideological struggle between extremists
and reasonable people and that when we find young democracies, we have
an obligation to help those democracies survive and thrive, for the sake
of peace. We talked about the admonition, to whom much is given, much is
required, and I assured him we'd continue to lead the fight against the
[[Page 2052]]
pandemic of HIV/AIDS on the continent of Africa.
I find it interesting that my dad
fought the Japanese and I'm sitting down talking about keeping the peace
with the Prime Minister of the very same
country. Something happened: Japan adopted a Japanese-style democracy.
The lesson for all to hear is that liberty has got the capacity to
change an enemy into an ally, and liberty has got the capacity to change
a region of the world that is full of hate and resentment, a region of
the world from which people were recruited to launch attacks against us
to a place of hope.
Someday an American President will be sitting down with duly elected
leaders from the Middle East talking about keeping the peace, and a
generation of Americans are going to be better off for it.
This is our last stop before voting, but it's been a tradition in
our family that we always end up the last stop in Texas. And there's a
reason why. And there's a reason why: Because Laura and I are inspired by our fellow Texans. We appreciate
the prayers that uplift us on a daily basis. We thank you for your
friendship. We encourage you to vote. Send Rick Perry back to the
Governor's office, please.
God bless you, and may God bless Texas and the United States.
Note: The President spoke at 7:09 p.m. at Reunion Arena. In his remarks,
he referred to Texas State Sen. Jane Nelson; former President Saddam
Hussein of Iraq; and Usama bin Laden, leader of the Al Qaida terrorist
organization.