[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2008, Book I)]
[March 12, 2008]
[Pages 361-366]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]
Remarks at the National Republican Congressional Committee Dinner
March 12, 2008
Thanks for the warm welcome. I don't know about you, but I'm excited
about the year 2008. I intend to finish strong with my head held high.
And I intend to work to see to it that we keep the White House and elect
John Boehner Speaker of the House of
Representatives. [Applause] And evidently, you feel the same way.
Now, I thank you all for coming tonight. I am really pleased that
this event has turned out to be as successful as it has been. I send--I
bring greetings from First Lady Laura Bush.
She's--[applause]--yes, thank you. She's doing great. She's wedding
planning right now, so I appreciate the invitation to be here.
[Laughter]
You know, I was just thinking about how next year's dinner is going
to be a little different from this one. First, you're going to be
welcoming a new keynote speaker, President John McCain. And President McCain will start this dinner by saying,
``Thanks for the introduction, Mr. Speaker.'' And I'll be watching it
all on TV in Crawford. [Laughter]
I do want to thank my friend John Boehner. He has been a great leader for the Republicans in the
House of Representatives. He's a good, solid, strategic thinker. I'm
proud to call him friend, and I thank you for your service.
I want to thank the House leaders who are here: Roy Blunt, Adam Putnam, Darrell Issa. Issa, you did a heck of a job tonight. Thank you for
doing this. I want to recognize my friend Tom Cole.
Tom Cole has the vision and determination to effect change, and that is,
elect Republicans to be the Speaker and leaders of the House of
Representatives. I appreciate you coming, Tommy.
I want to thank Eric Cantor, David
Dreier, Kay Granger,
John Carter. I appreciate Sam [Ralph] *
Hall, my fellow Texan, and Sam Johnson, my fellow Texan, and Ralph Regula for presenting the awards on all the veterans who are
serving in Congress tonight. That'll happen after I leave, but
nevertheless, I do want to extend my congratulations.
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* White House correction.
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I thank Trace Adkins for singing here
tonight. Trace wondered whether I was going to sing. I told him, no, I
didn't think
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I'd sing; I thought I'd just do a little tapdance. [Laughter] And I also
appreciate my friend, one of the great voices of
all time, Sam Moore. Thank you, Sam, for being here.
I also want to welcome all the candidates who are running for
office. You know, it's not an easy decision to make to run for the
United States Congress, but it's a noble decision. And it's a tough
decision for your families. And so I want to thank you for agreeing to
run; I want to thank your families for agreeing to support you. My
advice is, work hard, talk about what's in your heart, let the people
know your values, and win. And I think you will. I think 2008 is going
to be a fabulous year for the Republican Party.
And the reason why I believe that is because when the American
people look at our ideals versus the ideals of the Democrats, when they
look at what we believe versus what they believe, they're with us. We
represent the values of the American people. Our ideas are the ones
embraced by the folks. They may not be the ones that the pundits listen
to, but they're the ones who are out working every single day to make
America a great and hopeful place.
We believe in strong national defense, and we will do what it takes
to keep our Nation safe from a terrorist attack. We believe in limited
government. We believe in the collective wisdom of the American people
to make the decisions on behalf of the American Government. We would
rather trust you than the people in government to make the decisions for
what's best for you.
I'm optimistic about this year because I know John McCain. I've known him for many years. I've seen his character
and his leadership up close. I've campaigned with him, and I've
campaigned against him. [Laughter] And I can tell you this: He's a tough
competitor. I've seen in every decision he makes that he is guided by
the national interests of the United States, not by self-interest. I
know John McCain to be a man who will make decisions based upon sound
principles, not based upon the latest focus group or political poll.
John McCain is running on a clear,
consistent, and conservative agenda. He's a man of honor. He's a genuine
hero. He has the wisdom and the experience necessary to be the Commander
in Chief of our United States military forces. He loves this country.
He's ready to lead this country. I'm proud to be his friend. I'm proud
to be his supporter. And on Inauguration Day, I'll proud to be--say to
John McCain, ``Congratulations, Mr. President.''
And I can assure you he doesn't want a
lonely victory. He needs allies in the Congress to help enact his
agenda. And he's going to work hard alongside these candidates and the
incumbents to make sure we win. He'll be a great standard bearer. And
I'm confident--I hope you go forth from this meeting with confidence
because I am confident. I firmly believe that we can retake the House. I
know we'll hold the White House. And I know it's necessary for the
United States of America that we do both.
Let me talk about some of the issues and why I think we'll win. We
trust people. We Republicans believe you can make the best decisions for
your life. On health care, we trust patients to make decisions, not
bureaucrats in Washington, DC. When it comes to education, we trust
parents to make the right decisions for their children, and we believe
in strong accountability in our public schools. We refuse to accept
mediocrity. We refuse to accept the status quo when not every single
child in America is learning to read and write and add and subtract.
The American people need us because we'll appoint judges who will
strictly interpret the Constitution and not use the bench from which to
write law, judges like John Roberts and
Sam Alito.
But I think the biggest issue in this campaign is going to be your
taxes. I think the biggest issue in this campaign is which
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side of the political divide is going to let you keep your money and
which side is going to raise your taxes. Now, we've got a record on
which side will not raise your taxes. We've been through some tough
economic times together. We've been through a recession and a terrorist
attack and war and corporate scandal and natural disasters. And up until
recently, this economy has been strong. We added jobs for 52 consecutive
months. It's the longest uninterrupted job growth in the Nation's
history. And the reason we did so in the face of these daunting
challenges: We trusted the American people, and we cut taxes on every
American who pays taxes.
And we're fixing to do so again. We've hit a rough patch, but we
took the lead. We anticipated the problems. And thanks to the leadership
of John Boehner and Roy Blunt, they helped shepherd through over $160 billion of tax
relief that will be reaching the mailboxes of the American people in the
second week of May. Tax relief has worked in the past, and tax relief
will work this time, when we get through this rough patch.
Now, apparently, the other side thinks this is a bad thing, because
they want to let the tax cuts expire. Let me be clear about this: Milk
expires, taxes increase. [Laughter] And we know the difference. And so
will the American people when they realize that 116 million households
will see their taxes rise by an average of $1,800 if the Democrats get
their way in the House of Representatives.
Our message is this: We need a Republican President and a Republican
Congress to prevent the Democrats from raising your taxes. We need to
make the tax cuts permanent.
There's no bigger issue than protecting our country from harm. It is
the most solemn responsibility that those of us who have been honored to
serve you have. We must do everything in our power to make sure the
enemy doesn't strike us again. And I fully understood that after
September the 11th, that the temptation would be to dismiss any threat;
the temptation would be that, ``Oh, perhaps since we haven't been
attacked, the threat doesn't exist.''
Well, the threat does exist, and it requires steadfast, strong,
clear-eyed leadership here in Washington, DC. One of the things that we
must do is to make sure that the hundreds of people that are out working
for you every night to protect you have the tools they need. If the
enemy, if the extremists who want to do America harm, if the radicals
who want to kill again, like they did before on our homeland, are making
phone calls into the United States of America, we need to know who
they're calling, what they're saying, and what they're planning.
The Congress came together last year and passed the Protect America
Act to give our professionals the tools they need. Unfortunately, that
act expired. But the threat to the United States of America has not
expired. Unfortunately, Democratic leaders in the House are continuing
to block bipartisan legislation that would give our intelligence
officials the tools they need to quickly and effectively monitor
terrorist communications.
And they are doing so despite the fact that legislation, good
legislation, to give our professionals the tools passed the United
States Senate by an overwhelming majority of 68 to 29. Instead of
holding a vote on this bill that would pass the House of
Representatives, House leaders have introduced a highly partisan and
deeply flawed bill of their own. Their bill would put in place a
cumbersome court approval process that would make it harder to collect
intelligence on foreign terrorists and could reopen dangerous
intelligence gaps that we experienced last year.
Their bill fails to provide liability protection to companies
believed to have assisted in protecting our Nation after the 9/11
attacks. Instead, the House bill would make matters worse by extending
litigation for
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years to come. In fact, House leaders simply adopted the position that
class-action trial lawyers are taking in billions of dollars of lawsuits
they have filed.
We're under threat, ladies and gentlemen, and yet the House leaders
blocked meaningful, substantial legislation that will help protect
America for the sake of class-action trial lawyers. Companies that may
have helped us save lives should be thanked for their patriotic service
and should not be subjected to billion-dollar lawsuits.
This bill would require the disclosure of state secrets during the
litigation process. This could lead to the public release of highly
classified information that our enemies could use against us. The
Democrat version of protecting America is a bad bill; it is
irresponsible. It casts aside the bipartisan consensus that was reached
in the United States Senate in favor of a partisan approach that has no
chance of becoming law. House leaders know this, yet they're pursuing
this anyway. This is bad public policy and another reason to elect
Republicans to the House of Representatives.
There's a lot of folks working to protect you at home. But the enemy
only has to be right one time, and therefore, the best way to protect
the American people from further harm is to defeat the enemy overseas so
we do not have to face them here at home. And that's precisely the
strategy that we're following.
We're on the offense. Wherever we can find a terrorist who would
harm the American people, we'll bring him to justice. We're constantly
pressing. And this war against the extremists is now being played out on
two major theaters.
First is Afghanistan. I laid out a doctrine that said, if you harbor
a terrorist, you're equally as guilty as the terrorists. The Taliban
and--didn't believe us, and so the United States of America, after
giving the enemy due warning, unleashed the fury of a great military.
And in so doing, we cleaned out the terrorist training camps from which
they launched attacks on the United States and freed 25 million people
from the clutches of a barbaric regime.
This young democracy is struggling for its very existence against
coldblooded killers, and it's in the interests of the United States that
we stand strongly with these proud Afghan citizens, that we back them in
their efforts, and that we make sure Al Qaida or any other extremist can
no longer find a safe haven in the country of Afghanistan.
And then, of course, the other theater is Iraq. Removing Saddam
Hussein was the right decision early in my Presidency; it is the right
decision now; and it will be the right decision ever. And the fight's
been tough in Iraq. And for those of you here--who are here who have
served in that theater, I can't thank you enough for your sacrifices and
your service to the United States of America.
There have been amazing gains made in that country. After all, they
wrote one of the most modern constitutions in the history of the Middle
East. Iraqis braved the violence to vote. And yet nearly a year ago, the
terrorists and extremists were succeeding in their efforts to plunge the
country into chaos.
So I had a tough decision to make. I reviewed our strategy. I fully
understood that failure in Iraq would make America more vulnerable to
attack, that failure in Iraq would create unbelievable chaos in a part
of the world that has--that produced suicide bombers in the first place.
And so rather than retreating, I made the considered judgment to
send reinforcements into the country, in a dramatic move that's now
called the surge. Fourteen months after I ordered the surge of forces,
sectarian killings are down, and Al Qaida is on the defense. U.S. and
Iraqi forces have captured or killed thousands of extremists in Iraq,
including hundreds of key Al Qaida operatives.
Progress in Iraq is fragile, and there's no question, it's going to
take strong determination to prevail. Yet even the enemy
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recognizes they're on the wrong side of events. They're disheartened,
they're demoralized, and they will be defeated.
When things were going poorly in Iraq early last year, Democrats
called for withdrawal. Today, the situation has turned around, and
Democrats are calling for withdrawal. It seems that no matter what
happens on the ground, the opponents of the war have only one answer:
retreat. You might even say that when it comes to withdrawing from Iraq,
the Democrats' policy is, stay the course.
If we followed their advice a year ago, Iraq would be far different
and a much more dangerous place than it is today, and the American
people would be at greater risk. And if we followed their advice now, we
would put at risk all the gains our troops have made over the past year.
The United States Congress does need to act when it comes to Iraq, and
they need to stand with our brave men and women in uniform and give them
all the resources they need to do their job. And it--when it comes to
standing with the United States military, there's no greater supporters
than the Republicans in the House of Representatives.
The struggle we're engaged in is difficult for the American--some
Americans to really understand the scope and the nature of the battle.
We're involved in an ideological struggle between folks who murder the
innocent to achieve political objectives, folks who have got a vision
about what they would like to impose on the rest of the world, and
particularly in the Middle East, and those of us who believe strongly in
the power of liberty. I believe in the transformative power of liberty.
I believe that if the United States of America does not lose its faith
in the power of freedom to transform hopeless societies, that we will
see the peace that we all want. I believe in the universality of
freedom. I believe there's an Almighty, and I believe a gift of that
Almighty to every man, woman, and child is freedom.
I love to share the story, and I'm sure some of you have heard this
before--but the story about my friendship with Prime Minister
Koizumi of Japan. He's the guy that we
went down to Elvis's place in Memphis with. He is a good pal. He's no
longer in power, but when he was in office, right after the attacks of
September the 11th, he clearly saw the dangers and the opportunities. He
saw the dangers that hopelessness was the only way that these ideologues
could recruit suicide bombers. And he knew that the United States of
America and our allies must be firm in our resolve to bring the
terrorists to justice and, at the same time, spread the blessings of
liberty.
And what's interesting about this story is that he was the leader of a country that my father fought against some 60 years prior. Think about
that. Eighteen-year-old Navy Ensign George H.W. Bush, like many of your
relatives, signed up to fight the Japanese. As a matter of fact, the war
was so bitter that our vocabulary had slur words in it about the
Japanese for years after the war ended. They were the hated enemy.
And yet 60 years later, his son, the
son of a Navy fighter pilot, was at the table talking with the Prime
Minister of the former enemy about the
peace. Something amazing took place. And what happened was, Japan
adopted democracy, a system of government with liberty at its core.
My friends, freedom is transformative. Freedom can transform an
enemy into an ally. And someday, an American President will be thanking
this Congress for its steadfast support of liberty, because he'll be
sitting down at the table talking about keeping the peace for
generations to come, and our children and our grandchildren will be
better off for it.
I thank you for coming. I thank you for your prayers. May God bless
America.
Note: The President spoke at 6:38 p.m. at the Hilton Washington Hotel.
In his remarks,
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he referred to entertainers Trace Adkins and Sam Moore.