[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 40, Number 37 (Monday, September 13, 2004)]
[Pages 1896-1903]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks in Colmar, Pennsylvania

September 9, 2004

    The President. Thank you all for coming. Thank you all very much. 
Please be seated. Thank you all for coming. Thanks for the welcome. It's 
good to be back in Pennsylvania--again. It just seems like I was here 
yesterday. [Laughter] I was--[laughter]--kind of. But I'm glad to be 
here. I really appreciate you all coming out. Spirits are high. I'm 
feeling great about life.
    I really appreciate being here at Byers Choice. Thank you all for 
your hospitality. You sure know how to make a President feel welcome. 
We're here because I want to talk about the economy some and a plan to 
keep this economy moving forward so people can realize their dreams. And 
it's such a wonderful place to come because the entrepreneurial spirit 
here is strong.
    This is a company that was formed by Bob and Joyce Byers----

[At this point, there was a disturbance in the audience.]

    Audience members. Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!
    The President. We are here--I appreciate you coming to Byers. It's 
such an honor

[[Page 1897]]

to meet Bob and Joyce Byers. They are--they had a dream, and they wanted 
to build a small company into a large company, and they've done so. They 
started their company in the 1960s. They found a good idea--they thought 
of the idea. Government didn't think of the idea. They did. They decided 
to take risk. They hired people wisely. They invested wisely, and their 
company is growing. And I appreciate the contribution they've made.
    They've got a fantastic customer base, because they----

[The disturbance continued.]

    Audience members. Boo-o-o!
    Audience members. Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!
    The President. We are here because the entrepreneurial spirit is 
strong, because there is an optimism in this room that says it can 
remain stronger. The Byers have got a significant customer base, which 
means they understand how to run a business, and my mother is one of 
their customers. [Laughter]
    And so what we're going to talk about today is our economy and how 
to keep it growing and how to make sure the entrepreneurial spirit is 
strong so people can realize their dreams. Today I want to discuss with 
you the plan I have to keep us on the path to growth and opportunity, a 
plan that I'm convinced that when Americans listen to, they'll put me 
and Dick Cheney back in office for 4 more years.
    So I told Laura I was coming here, and she said, ``Give everybody my 
best.'' She's great. She's a fantastic mom and a great wife. She is a 
wonderful First Lady. So when I asked her to marry me, she said, ``Fine, 
just so long as I don't have to give any political speeches.'' 
[Laughter] I said, ``Okay, you won't have to give a speech.'' 
Fortunately, she didn't hold me to that promise. She gave a great speech 
the other night. People got to see her heart and her compassion.
    I appreciate Congressman Jim Greenwood a lot. I must confess to you 
that when I heard he was retiring, I got a little mad at him, because 
I've enjoyed working with him. He is a good, decent, honorable man. And 
I appreciate you.
    I appreciate the fact that Arlen Specter is with us today. I hope 
you put him back into office for 6 more years. There he is. I enjoy 
working with Arlen. He's a good, independent thinker, and he's a good--
fine United States Senator, and we'll work well together during the next 
4 years.
    I want to thank Pat Toomey for joining us today as well. He's a 
class act. I appreciate--I told this to Pat on Air Force One, I said, 
``I appreciate the way he handled himself after a tough primary.'' He's 
coming together. He's working for the ticket, and that shows what kind 
of guy he is. And I'm honored you're here, Pat.
    Where is Mayor Joe? Mr. Mayor. Thank you for coming, Mr. Mayor. I'm 
proud you're here. [Applause] Yes. I always like to stay in touch with 
the local power. [Laughter] Sure enough, there he is. Thanks for coming, 
Mayor. I appreciate you being here.
    Mike Fitzpatrick is with us today. I appreciate you coming, Mike. 
Appreciate you being here. Tom Corbett is with us today. Appreciate you 
coming, Tom. Good luck. I want to thank all the candidates who are here 
and the grassroots activists. I'm traveling your State and traveling the 
country to ask people not only for the vote but for their help. And I 
hope you go register voters, find people to show up to the polls. We 
have a duty in America to vote and--so thanks for the work you're doing. 
And when you get them to the polls, headed to the polls, remind them, if 
they want a safer America, a stronger America, and a better America, to 
put me and Dick Cheney back in there.
    Eunice Sanchez is with us. Where are you, Eunice? There she is. 
Thanks. And you've got your son and daughter. Thanks for coming. I met 
Eunice. She works for the Amachi mentoring program in Philadelphia. I 
don't know if you've heard of Amachi. I have. I have been fortunate 
enough to be briefed by the people that run that program. Amachi is a 
mentoring program for children with incarcerated parents. I want you to 
think about what this good American citizen does. She takes time out of 
her life to mentor a child to show there's love, the possibility of 
love. I tell the people of this country that the great strength of our 
country is the hearts and souls of the American citizens. That's really 
the true strength of America. And the reason I've

[[Page 1898]]

asked--and the reason that Eunice has kindly come today is for me to 
hold her up as an example for others--for others to recognize that they 
can help change America, one heart and one soul at a time as well, that 
our society is a compassionate society because people from all walks of 
life put their arm around somebody who hurts and says, ``I love you, and 
what can I do to help you?'' I appreciate you coming, Eunice. God bless 
you, and thanks for coming.
    I'm looking forward to this--I'm looking forward to the campaign. 
I'm--there's some things I want to do for the next 4 years. [Laughter] 
And I'm looking forward to telling the people of the country where I 
stand and where I believe and where I'm going to lead the country. I'm 
running with a clear and positive plan to build a safer world and a more 
hopeful America. I'm running with what I call a compassionate 
conservative philosophy, that Government should help people improve 
their lives, not try to run their lives.
    I believe it's the job of a President to confront problems, not to 
pass them on to future Presidents and future generations. In the last 4 
years, we have confronted economic problems. We have got some short-term 
challenges that came from an economic downturn and a national emergency. 
We've got some long-term challenges because our economy is changing. In 
all these areas, we've acted, and we're moving forward. Today I want to 
talk to you about some of the plans we have.
    Remember the history. When you're out rounding up the vote, remind 
the people what we have been through. When Dick Cheney and I took office 
in January--on January 20th of 2001, our economy was heading into a 
recession, and the stock market had been declining for 5 months prior to 
our arrival. Our Nation faced some corporate scandals that cost people 
jobs and savings and shook our confidence. Today, it is absolutely clear 
that we're not going to tolerate dishonesty in the boardrooms of 
America.
    America was attacked. Our economy lost nearly a million jobs after 
that attack in just 3 months. We acted with a clear strategy. We 
unleashed the energy and innovative spirit of America with the largest 
tax relief in a generation. The tax relief provided small-business 
owners the resources and incentives they need to expand and grow and 
hire more workers. The entrepreneurial spirit is strong. The small-
business sector of our economy is strong, and the tax relief helped 
strengthen it.
    We encouraged savings and investment by cutting taxes on dividends 
and capital gains. Tax relief put money in the hands of American workers 
so they could save for their retirement or for their home or for the 
education of their children. My philosophy is, Government sets 
priorities, funds its priorities, and lets the people keep as much money 
as possible. I think you can spend your money better than the Federal 
Government can.
    We increased the child credit and reduced the marriage penalty. The 
Tax Code ought to encourage marriage, not discourage marriage. And the 
results are clear. Our country has now seen 12 straight months of job 
gains. Over the past year, we've added 1.7 million jobs. That is more 
than Germany, Japan, Great Britain, Canada, and France combined. 
Unemployment is down to 5.4 percent. That is nearly a full point below 
the rate in the summer of 2003, and it is below the average of the 
1970s, the 1980s, and the 1990s.
    Interest rates and mortgage rates are near historic lows. Our 
economy is growing at rates as fast as any in the last 20 years. The 
manufacturing sector is improving. When I took office, manufacturing 
employment had been declining for almost 3 years. In the last 6 months 
of the prior administration, more than 200,000 manufacturing jobs were 
lost. We're turning that around. Since January, America has added 
107,000 manufacturing jobs, including 22,000 last month alone. We are 
making steady progress for American workers.
    Because of the tax relief, the middle class is paying less in 
Federal taxes. The average family of four with an income of $40,000 got 
nearly a $2,000 tax cut. Real after-tax incomes are up almost 10 percent 
since December of 2000. People have got more money in their pockets 
because of the tax relief. Our economy is stronger because people are 
keeping more of what they earn.

[[Page 1899]]

    Listen, we also face long-term challenges in this economy. The 
workers of our parents' generation typically had one job, one skill, one 
career, often with one company that provided health care and a pension. 
That's the way it used to be. This world of ours is changing. By the 
way, most of those workers were men. Today, workers change jobs, even 
careers, many times during their lives. And in one of the most dramatic 
shifts our society has seen, two-thirds of all moms also work outside 
the home. This world of ours has changed. And yet, the institutions of 
Government haven't changed.
    Let me tell you what else has changed. Productivity has grown faster 
over the last 3 years than any time in more than 40 years, in part 
because technology is changing the way we do things. You'd rather use a 
computer than a typewriter. You'd rather use a backhoe than a shovel. 
[Laughter] That's productivity. But it also means that the same work can 
be done by fewer workers. And that creates a problem for someone looking 
for a job. That's why manufacturing still produces roughly the same 
share of our GDP but with a smaller share of the workforce. So these are 
some long-term challenges we face.
    But it's a time of great opportunity. A time of change creates great 
opportunity, so long as the Government takes the side of the workers and 
the families here in America, so long as Government recognizes this: Our 
fundamental systems, the Tax Code, health coverage, pension plans, and 
worker training, were created for the world of yesterday--think about 
that--not for tomorrow. I believe in the next 4 years, we've got to 
transform these systems to help our citizens, to help prepare our 
citizens, to help free citizens so they can realize the great dream of 
our country.
    And so you'll hear me talk a lot about changing systems to help 
people, not increasing Government to stifle dreams. Obviously, in order 
for people to realize their dreams, there has to be robust economic 
growth. In order to make sure that the productivity increases don't 
cause people not to be able to find a job, we got to grow this economy. 
And that's what I want to talk to you about right quick, a plan to make 
sure we continue to create jobs here in America.
    First of all, in order to have jobs here, America must be the best 
place in the world to do business. If you want people working here, it's 
got to be the best place to risk capital, the best place to expand, the 
best place to realize dreams. One way to make sure it's the best place 
to do business is to reduce the regulatory burden on small businesses. 
You fill out a lot of paperwork if you're a small-business owner in 
America. I can't promise you anybody in Government ever reads it. 
[Laughter]
    We want jobs here in the Philadelphia area. We want to make sure the 
manufacturing sector is robust. Congress needs to get an energy plan to 
my desk now. I submitted a plan 2 years ago. It's a plan that encourages 
conservation, expands renewables, uses clean coal technologies. Listen, 
we must become less dependent on foreign sources of energy if we want 
jobs to remain in America.
    In order to keep jobs here so people can realize their dreams, we 
must open up markets for U.S. products. Listen, we've opened up our 
markets, and it's good for consumers we've opened up our markets. If you 
have more choices in the marketplace, you're likely to get the product 
you want at a better price and better quality. And so what I'm saying to 
countries like China is, ``Treat us the way we treat you.'' I believe 
American farmers and manufacturers and businessowners can compete with 
anybody, anywhere, anytime, so long as the rules are fair. What we will 
do is reject economic isolationism. Economic isolationism will hurt 
America's workers.
    In order to make sure we create jobs here, we've got to do something 
about these junk lawsuits that threaten employers. I believe strongly in 
legal reform, because I understand personal injury lawyers should not 
get richer at the expense of hard-working Americans and American 
entrepreneurs.
    Finally, in order to keep jobs here, we've got to be wise about how 
we spend your money and keep your taxes low. Running up the taxes on the 
entrepreneurs in America is bad economic policy.
    I told you there's some systems that need to change. One system that 
needs to change

[[Page 1900]]

is the Federal Tax Code. It is too cumbersome. I tried to hold it the 
other day--[laughter]--when I was campaigning in Missouri. I'm in pretty 
good shape. It was hard to hold it. [Laughter] It's got a million words 
in it. It takes the American people 6 billion hours a year, every year, 
to file these forms. It is full of special interest loopholes. For the 
sake of economic growth and for the sake of fairness, we need to change 
the Tax Code. We need to make it simple and easy to understand.
    A changing world means that the skills necessary to fill the jobs of 
the 21st century are changing, and it's something we've got to 
recognize. And a changing economy is one that creates new opportunities. 
But sometimes there's a skills gap. And that's why I believe we ought to 
expand access to our community college systems, to make sure that the 
workers have the skills necessary to fill the jobs of the 21st century.
    As well most new jobs in a changing--this changing world require 2 
years of college. Yet only one in four of our students gets there. And 
so we need early intervention programs in our high schools to solve 
problems early, before they're too late. We need to have new focus on 
math and science. As the No Child Left Behind Act begins to fill the 
education pipeline with good readers, we will require a rigorous exam 
before graduation from high school. See, what I'm telling you is, by 
raising performance in high schools and expanding Pell grants for low- 
and middle-income families, we will help more Americans start their 
career with a college diploma.
    These are changing times, and our economy is changing. And there are 
communities around where manufacturing, textiles, and other jobs no 
longer exist. There are poor communities in our country that need help 
as well. And that's why, the other night at the convention, I announced 
American opportunity zones. These zones will provide tax relief and 
other incentives for new businesses to be created and to improve housing 
and job training and bringing hope. In other words, in changing times, 
there are ways to help communities that have suffered during changing 
times, with good tax policy, good regulation policy, and good housing 
policy.
    Listen, in order to make sure jobs stay here, we've got to do 
something about health care. We need to make sure health care is 
available and affordable. Do you realize more than half the uninsured 
are employees of small businesses? Small businesses are having trouble 
affording health care. One way to help small businesses afford health 
care is to allow small firms to join together to purchase insurance at 
the discounts available to big companies.
    We will offer tax credits to encourage small businesses and their 
employees to set up health savings accounts. We'll provide direct help 
for low-income Americans to purchase health savings accounts. These 
accounts give workers the security of insurance against major illness, 
the opportunity to save tax-free for routine health expenses, and the 
freedom of knowing you can take your account with you whenever you 
change jobs or careers.
    I'm a big believer in community and rural health centers. These are 
facilities where low-income Americans can get primary care. I believe 
every poor county in America ought to have one of these facilities in 
order to take the pressure off emergency rooms around the United States.
    In order to make sure health care is available and affordable, we've 
got to do something about these frivolous lawsuits that are running good 
doctors out of practice and running up your health care costs. I 
appreciate working with Jim Greenwood on this issue. He figured it out, 
and I hope the people of this country figure it out. These frivolous 
lawsuits are making it awfully hard for a lot of docs to practice 
medicine. You're losing good docs. Greenwood was telling me about the 
doctor that saved his dad's life, had to leave practice because his 
premiums were too high. Many doctors, in order to avoid litigation, 
practice defensive medicine. In other words, they run up the costs of 
health care so if they ever get caught--pulled in front of a court of 
law, they've got a defense. It's costing the taxpayers about $28 billion 
a year; the defensive practice of medicine costs 28 billion a year. We 
have a national problem, and it requires a national solution. I've 
submitted legislation that Greenwood got passed in the House. It's stuck 
in the Senate because

[[Page 1901]]

the trial lawyers are powerful in the United States Senate.
    Audience members. Boo-o-o!
    The President. See, I don't think you can be pro-doctor, pro-
patient, and pro-trial-lawyer at the same time. I think you have to 
choose. My opponent made his choice, and he put him on the ticket. I 
made my choice. I am for medical liability reform--now.
    I'm looking forward to the debate on health care. I'm looking 
forward to it. In all we do to improve health care in America, we'll 
make sure that health decisions are made by doctors and patients, not by 
bureaucrats in Washington, DC.
    Our labor laws need to change. We've got a lot of moms who are now 
in the workplace. And yet, it's really hard for moms to find enough time 
to do their duty as moms, see, because the rules--the labor laws are 
stuck in the past. I think we need to have flex-time and comp-time to 
allow families to be able to have more quality time.
    In a changing world, ownership can bring stability to your life. One 
of the most hopeful statistics of the last year or two has been that the 
homeownership rate is at an alltime high in America. There's more 
minority families who are opening up the door where they live and say, 
``Welcome to my home. Come in to my house.'' It's a really important 
part of a future, when more and more people can own their home. We've 
got a plan to encourage homeownership in this country.
    And we've got to make sure that our pension systems work, the Social 
Security system works. If you're an older American, nothing will change. 
The Social Security trust will fulfill its promise to you. If you're a 
baby boomer, we're in pretty good shape when it comes to receiving the 
promise of Social Security. But we need to worry about our children and 
grandchildren when it comes to Social Security. I believe younger 
workers ought to be able to take some of their taxes and set up a 
personal savings account, to make sure the Social Security promise 
that's made to them--an account that they can call their own, an account 
that Government cannot take away, and an account that they can pass on 
from one generation to the next.
    In these proposals, we seek not to provide a Government program but 
a greater path to opportunity and more freedom for you to decide what's 
best for your life and, therefore, I believe, more opportunity for every 
citizen. And we got a choice in this race. I mean, it's a clear choice. 
See, I believe our opponent's philosophy is very different from ours. If 
you carefully listen, he wants to expand Government. Listen to the 
proposals. That's what he wants to do. What we want to do is expand 
opportunity. He wants to give more power to Washington by raising taxes 
and spending more money, and he's got a record to match his promises. 
[Laughter]
    Over two decades in Washington, he has voted for higher income 
taxes, higher taxes on Social Security benefits. That's part of his 
record. He repeatedly voted for higher taxes on small businesses, higher 
taxes on gasoline. He voted against tax relief for married couples, for 
increasing the child credit, and against expanding tax-free retirement 
savings. We have a difference of opinion when it comes to taxation. If 
you drive a car, Senator Kerry has voted for higher taxes on you. If you 
have a job, he's voted for higher taxes on you. If you're married or 
have children, he's voted for higher taxes on you. The good news is, on 
the 2d of November, you have a chance to vote.
    Audience members. Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!
    The President. There is a reason for supporting higher taxes, 
because he wants to dramatically increase Government spending. It's part 
of his platform. On the campaign trail, he's proposed more than $2 
trillion in new Federal spending so far. [Laughter] And we still have 54 
more days to go. Now, he says he's going to pay for all that by raising 
taxes on the wealthiest 2 percent of the population. There's just one 
problem with that. My opponent's tax increases would bring only about 
$650 billion in revenue over the next 10 years, see? And he wants to 
spend over 2 trillion. So you do the math. [Laughter] The plan leaves 
him more than $1.4 trillion short. And guess who would wind up paying 
the bill?
    Now, one of his key economic advisers--one of my opponent's key 
economic advisers is saying they won't give the details on how they 
would raise spending and lower the deficit until after the election. 
[Laughter] Well,

[[Page 1902]]

if they want to hold back information until the people vote, you can bet 
it won't be good news for the taxpayers. But America will reject the 
hidden Kerry tax plan.
    Raising taxes will be bad for our economy. Raising taxes will be bad 
for the small-business sector of America. And I'll tell you why. Ninety 
percent of small-business owners pay tax at the individual income-tax 
level. Ninety percent of small-business owners are Subchapter S 
corporations or sole proprietorship. Byers Choice is a Subchapter S 
corporation. Now, if you're organized as a Subchapter S or sole 
proprietorship, when you pay your tax, you fill out the individual 
income-tax forms. And so when you talk about raising the top two 
brackets in the individual taxes, you're talking about taxing companies 
like Byers Choice. I don't see--and by the way, 70 percent of new jobs 
in America are created by small businesses. Why does it make sense to 
tax the job creators? It doesn't make sense to tax the job creators.
    Bob said this, he said, ``That would hurt my company.'' When he 
heard the plan to raise taxes to pay for promises, political promises, 
he said, ``That would hurt my company. It would cut off jobs I plan to 
create.'' My opponent, by making political promises and by promising to 
tax small businesses such as Byers Choice, would hurt our economy. I 
believe in order to continue economic growth, we need an energy plan, 
good trade policy, good regulatory policy, good legal policy, good 
health policy, and we need to make the tax relief permanent.
    In order to make sure we have sustained economic growth, we will 
also continue to protect the homeland over the next 4 years. There's a 
lot of good people working hard on your behalf. And we reorganized the 
Department--departments to create the Department of Homeland Security so 
we can better talk to each other, better respond to crisis, better deal 
with emergency, better share intelligence. And we're getting better in 
Washington, DC, about doing what is necessary to protect you. And 
there's a lot of good people working hard to do so, and I appreciate it. 
As the 9/11 Commission said, ``America is safer but not yet safe.'' I 
agree. And so you just got to know there's some fine people at all 
levels of government working hard.
    But the best way to protect the homeland is to stay on the 
offensive, is to find the terrorists. You cannot talk sense to these 
people. You've seen how they behave. You saw the attacks of September 
the 11th. You saw what happened to those Russian schoolchildren. America 
must continue to lead the world. We will find them overseas so we do not 
have to face them here at home.
    We're making progress. We're making progress. Three-quarters of Al 
Qaida's known leadership has been brought to justice. Because we upheld 
doctrine that said, ``If you harbor a terrorist, you're equally as 
guilty as the terrorists,'' the Taliban are no longer in power in 
Afghanistan. Think about the progress in Afghanistan. It wasn't all that 
long ago that young girls weren't allow to go to school and their moms 
would be pulled in a public square and whipped if they didn't toe the 
line of these barbaric people. And today, Afghanistan is an ally in the 
war on terror. Over 10 million citizens have registered to vote in the 
upcoming Presidential election. Amazing, isn't it? Freedom is on the 
march in Afghanistan, and that's good for America.
    In Iraq, we removed a sworn enemy of America who had ties to terror 
and used weapons of mass destruction. Listen, I recognize we didn't find 
the stockpiles we all thought were there--all of us thought were there. 
But remember Saddam Hussein had the capability of making weapons. He 
could have passed that capability on to the enemy. And that's not a risk 
we could afford to take after September the 11th. Knowing what I know 
today, I would have made the same decision. America and the world are 
safer with Saddam in a prison cell.
    We're making progress there. I'm impressed by Prime Minister Allawi. 
He's a strong guy who believes that democracy is the future of Iraq, and 
he's got hard work to do. It wasn't all that long ago that people were 
brutalized by Saddam Hussein. But we're making progress. There will be 
elections in January of next year. It's amazing, when you think about 
it. They've gone from tyranny to elections in a brief period of time.

[[Page 1903]]

    Our goal in Iraq is to--like it is in Afghanistan--is to help 
provide enough stability so the political process can move forward, is 
to train Iraqis and Afghan citizens so they can do the hard work of 
defending their country against the few who want to thwart the desires 
of the many, is to put those countries on the path to stability and 
democracy as quickly as possible, and then bring our troops home.
    I'm oftentimes asked what I tell those who--the loved ones of those 
who lost their life in combat. I tell them this, I say, ``Your son or 
daughter or wife or husband is serving during historic times.'' These 
are times that will help make this world a more peaceful place. It's a 
time for little children to be able to--when we get it right--for 
children to grow up in a peaceful world. I tell them that in order to 
honor their memory, we will complete the mission.
    I say this: I believe in the power of liberty to transform lives. 
That's what I believe. The core of my belief is that liberty has got the 
incredible capacity to convert enemies to friends, tyrannical societies 
to free societies. And that makes the world more peaceful, a peace we 
all want.
    You know, I tell people about my meetings with Prime Minister 
Koizumi, the Prime Minister of Japan, who is the Prime Minister of a 
country that my dad fought against, your dads and grandfathers fought 
against. They were the sworn enemy of America some 60 years ago. And 
today, I sit down at the table with him to discuss peace. He's an ally 
in peace. And I'm able to do so because my predecessor Harry Truman and 
other American citizens believed that the enemy could become a friend if 
democracy took hold in Japan.
    Now, there was a lot of skeptics and doubters during those days, and 
you can understand why. We'd just been fighting these people. But 
because they believed in the power of liberty to transform lives, they 
helped Japan develop a self-governing democracy. And today, Japan is an 
ally when it comes to keeping the peace. The Prime Minister and I talk 
about North Korea. We talk about Iraq. We talk about humanitarian needs 
around the world. Someday, an American President will be sitting down 
with a duly elected leader of Iraq, and they're going to be talking 
about the peace, and they're going to look back in history and say, 
``Thank goodness America never forgot the power of liberty to change 
lives.''
    I want to thank you all for giving me a chance to come by today. As 
you can see, I've got a plan to continue growing this economy so people 
can realize their hopes and dreams; that I know what needs to be done 
when it comes to securing this homeland and winning the war on terror; 
that I believe strongly in the values that make us a great nation; and 
that, with your help, we're going to win Pennsylvania and win a great 
election in November.
    God bless. Thank you all for coming. Thank you all.

Note: The President spoke at 12:35 p.m. at Byers Choice. In his remarks, 
he referred to Mike Fitzpatrick, candidate for Congress in 
Pennsylvania's 8th Congressional District; Tom Corbett, candidate for 
Pennsylvania Attorney General; Prime Minister Ayad Allawi of the Iraqi 
Interim Government; and Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi of Japan. He 
also referred to the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the 
United States (9/11 Commission).