[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 40, Number 39 (Monday, September 27, 2004)]
[Pages 2085-2095]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks in a Discussion on Education in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania

September 22, 2004

    The President. Thank you all for coming. I appreciate so many people 
coming out to say hello. Thanks.
    So when I asked Laura to marry me, she said, ``Fine. Just so long as 
I don't have to give any speeches.'' [Laughter] Fortunately she didn't 
hold me to the promise. She's a woman of great compassion and decency. 
She understands education well. I'm proud to call her wife. I know 
you're proud to call her First Lady.
    I want to talk about my plans to make America and the world safer 
and to make this country a more hopeful place. Today we're going to 
emphasize education. We've got some experts up here on education. And in 
a little bit we're going to hear from them to help make the points that 
Laura and I are making around the country, that we can close an 
achievement gap, that every child can learn, we expect every school to 
teach. And we're making progress when it comes to our public schools.
    I also want to thank you for what you're going to do. See, what 
you're going to do is put up the signs and register the voters, bring 
people out to vote. Today you're going to leave here, hopefully, 
realizing that I have a reason to run again, that I've got a vision, 
that Laura and I are honored to serve our country. But I'm traveling the 
country giving people a reason why: Four more years will make the world 
a safer place, America a safer place, and the country a more hopeful 
place.
    I am not only out there campaigning with Laura, but I'm really 
pleased with the good work Vice President Cheney has done and is doing 
as well.
    I also want to thank you for training our Director of Homeland 
Security so well. [Laughter] Tom Ridge is doing a great job. He's a 
close friend. I'm really proud of the work he's doing on behalf of our 
country to better protect America from these evildoers that would like 
to continue to strike us. Tom is doing a wonderful job.
    I'm proud to be working with your U.S. Senators: Senator Specter--
put him back in for 6 more years, by the way. He's a good man. Senator 
Santorum, he's a good fellow too.
    I appreciate Melissa Brown, who's running for the United States 
House. Thank you for coming.
    Tom Corbett, the candidate for attorney general, is with us. Jean 
Craige Pepper is

[[Page 2086]]

with us. Thanks for coming, Jean. I'm proud you're here. Listen, I 
understand--understand Karen Stout, the president of the community 
college system--thank you for coming.
    Let me say something about community colleges.
    Audience member. [Inaudible] [Laughter]
    The President. Thank you. Community colleges are vital for the 
future of this country. You're going to hear me talk a little bit about 
the changing times in which we live and that institutions must change 
with the changing times. Our worker training programs must change with 
the changing times, and community colleges are a fantastic place, a 
wonderful opportunity for workers to gain the skills necessary to fill 
the jobs of the 21st century. And I appreciate you being here.
    Part of our vision for a more hopeful America expands community 
college--access to community colleges all across our country. Think 
about the community colleges: They're accessible; they're affordable; 
and they're able to adjust to the times. And we need to use community 
colleges more effectively to make sure, as the economy changes, as new 
jobs are created, the workers can gain the skills necessary to fill the 
jobs of the 21st century.
    I'm proud you're here. Thanks for coming. You've got a great system, 
I understand.
    Also met Shannon Hickey. Where are you, Shannon? Somewhere. Anyway, 
she's here, believe me. She came to the airport. Oh, there's Shannon. 
Thanks for being here. Hiding behind the pillar--or hiding in front of 
the pillar. Shannon meets me at the airport today. Shannon is a soldier 
in the army of compassion. She is a soul who started what's called 
Mychal's Message in 2002. She is a social entrepreneur. She heard a call 
and acted upon it. This program serves an outreach to the homeless in 
Philadelphia and other cities in the State of Pennsylvania. This young 
soul, inspired by the example of Father Mychal Judge, who is the 
chaplain of the New York City Fire Department who died on September the 
11th, 2001, heard a call, a universal call to love a neighbor like you'd 
like to be loved yourself, and started this program to help people who 
need help. Listen, the strength of this country is the hearts and souls 
of our citizens. That's the true strength of America. The strength of 
America is found in people like Shannon. I'm honored you're here.
    I particularly want the young who are here to look at Shannon as an 
example of what you can do to help change America, one heart, one soul, 
one conscience at a time. Proud you're here, Shannon. Thank you for the 
example you set.
    Later on today I'm going to travel your State and inspect the damage 
of the floods. I just want the people of this important State to 
understand that our Government is ready to help, that we'll provide 
whatever aid is necessary, whatever aid we're capable of providing, to 
the victims of these floods. Our prayers go to those families who've had 
their lives turned upside down, and God bless you all.
    A hopeful society is one in which the economy grows. See, you can't 
have a hopeful society if people can't find work. And our economy is 
growing, and it is amazing it is growing because we've overcome a lot of 
obstacles. When you're out gathering up the vote, remind people what 
we've been through in a brief period of time. We've been through a 
recession. When Vice President Cheney and I got sworn in, this country 
was heading into a recession. As a matter of fact, the stock market had 
been correcting about 5 months before the inauguration. In other words, 
the economy was beginning to change.
    And then as we began to get on our feet again, some corporate 
scandals affected the conscience of our country. One of the things that 
our society rests upon is confidence, and people--and the numbers on 
balance sheets, and some of our citizens weren't responsible citizens. 
They betrayed the trust. We got together and passed tough laws that make 
it clear we're not going to tolerate that kind of dishonesty in the 
boardrooms of America. But the corporate scandals affected us. Those 
scandals did affect us.
    Then, of course, the enemy attacked us on September the 11th, 2001. 
Some estimate it costs us a million jobs in the 3 months after the 
attack. These are major obstacles for any economy to overcome, yet we're 
overcoming them.

[[Page 2087]]

    The economy is growing. The unemployment rate in this State is 5.6 
percent. That's down. People are working. I understand there are some 
pockets that still are lagging behind the national numbers, and we're 
going to keep working to make sure people can find work. The national 
unemployment rate is 5.4 percent. That's lower than the average of the 
1970s, 1980s, and 1990s.
    We've overcome these obstacles because we've got great workers. 
We've overcome these obstacles because the entrepreneurial spirit is 
strong in America. The small-business sector of our economy is thriving. 
We've overcome these obstacles because the farmers are--know what 
they're doing, and they're good at growing crops. We've overcome these 
obstacles because of tax cuts.
    And so the question is, how do we take this recovery and convert it 
into lasting prosperity? Here's how.
    First, America must be the best place in the world to do business. 
If you want to find jobs here in America, if you want people being able 
to realize their dreams by working, America must be the best place in 
the entire world for people to do business. That means less regulations 
on our businesses. That means we've got to do something about these 
lawsuits that are making it awfully hard for employers to expand.
    That means Congress needs to pass my energy plan. You want jobs here 
at home? If you want there to be jobs in Pennsylvania and in America, if 
you want our manufacturing companies to be able to thrive, we need 
reliable sources of energy. We need to modernize our electricity grid. 
We need to encourage conservation. We need to use renewables like 
ethanol and biodiesel. We need to use technology to make sure we can 
burn our coal as cleanly as possible. We need to use technology to 
explore for natural gas in our hemisphere. What I'm telling you is, in 
order to make sure these kids can find work and to make sure this job 
base continues to expand, we must be less reliant on foreign sources of 
energy.
    In order to make sure jobs are here in America, we must reject 
economic isolationism and open up markets to U.S. products. See, we are 
good at a lot of things here in America, and we ought to have a level 
playing field so that we can sell that which we're good at producing 
around the world. We open up our markets from goods from other 
countries, and it's good for U.S. consumers. I mean, if you've got more 
product to choose from, you're likely to find that which you want at a 
better quality and better price. So what I say to countries like China 
is, ``You treat us the way we treat you.'' We're going to open up the 
markets around the world. We'll create a level playing field. Americans 
can compete with anybody, anytime, anywhere, if the rules are fair.
    You want this economy to continue to grow, we've got to keep taxes 
low. And we have a difference of opinion in this campaign about taxes. 
My opponent thus far has proposed $2.2 trillion in new spending, and 
we've still got a month to go--[laughter]--$2.2 trillion. That's a lot 
even for a Senator from Massachusetts. [Laughter] So they say, ``How are 
you going to pay for it?'' They said, ``How are you going to pay for 
it?'' He said, ``That's easy. Tax the rich.'' Now, you've heard that 
before, haven't you?
    First of all, do you realize most small businesses pay tax at the 
individual income tax level? Think about that: 90 percent of small 
businesses are organized as Subchapter S corporations or limited 
partnerships. Therefore, if you talk about raising the top two brackets 
of the individual income tax, you're talking about taxing them. That 
makes no sense. Seventy percent of new jobs in America are created by 
small businesses. And when my opponent says he's going to tax the rich 
by raising the top two brackets, it means he's going to tax about a 
million small businesses that are creating new jobs. It makes no sense 
to tax the job creators when this economy is beginning to recover.
    Secondly, he says he's going to tax the rich. Rich hire lawyers and 
accountants for a reason--[laughter]--to stick you with the bill. We're 
not going to let him tax you because we're going to win in November.
    The work place has changed dramatically over the past 40 years. You 
know, it used to be, a person had one job, one career, one pension plan, 
one health care plan, and that person was generally a male. Today, 
workers--Americans change jobs and careers, and

[[Page 2088]]

a lot of women are working both in the home and outside the home. And 
yet----
    Audience member. ``W'' stands for ``Women.''
    The President. And so it--and yet, when you think about it, the 
fundamental systems of Government were designed for yesterday. The labor 
laws were designed for yesterday. The health care plans were designed 
for yesterday. The pension plans were designed for yesterday. The Tax 
Code was designed for yesterday. I'm running again because I want to 
change these fundamental systems to help people realize their dreams. 
See, the role of Government is to provide opportunity for people to 
realize their dreams, not to dictate to people, not to tell people, not 
to run the lives of the American citizens. And that's the fundamental 
difference of this campaign.
    A couple of points I want to make and explain to you what I'm 
talking about. Take Social Security: If you're a senior citizen on 
Social Security, you have nothing to worry about, about the Trust Fund 
providing the money the Government said it's going to pay you. That's 
just the way it is. Now, I understand how politics works, and I 
understand there's attempts in the political campaigns to scare seniors 
by saying if so-and-so gets elected, they're going to take away your 
check. But the reality is the Social Security Trust is solvent for those 
who are on Social Security today. You're going to get your check, in 
other words. Baby boomers, like me--I think we're in pretty good shape 
when it comes to the Social Security Trust.
    But we need to worry about our children and our grandchildren. We 
need to worry about these kids right back here, in terms of whether or 
not there's going to be a Social Security trust available to meet what 
the Government said it's going to do. I believe in order to strengthen 
Social Security, younger workers ought to be able to take some of their 
own money and set up personal savings accounts to get a better rate of 
return than the current Social Security Trust does, a personal savings 
account they call their own, a personal savings account they can pass on 
to another generation, a personal savings account that the Government 
cannot take away. We've got to think differently about our pension 
plans. They were designed for the past. Times have changed.
    Labor laws, for example--it is impossible for some business because 
of labor laws to give a mom flex-time or comp-time at her place of work, 
because the laws were designed for yesterday. I believe the labor laws 
ought to be designed for tomorrow and allow companies to let workers 
take time off so that they can juggle the needs of work and family. 
Listen, our labor laws ought to be family-friendly. Our labor laws ought 
to recognize that the work force has changed dramatically.
    A couple of things about health care right quick. I'm a big backer, 
believer in what's called health savings accounts. These are accounts 
where people can save tax-free, employer and employee can contribute 
tax-free--that helps cover catastrophic costs for the worker. But these 
health savings accounts are accounts that somebody calls their own. They 
own them, and they can take them from job to job, no matter what career 
they may be in.
    These accounts make sense. It helps hold down the cost of medicine, 
at the same time as it ensures that the health care decisions are made 
by doctors and patients, not by Government planners and bureaucrats. I 
believe that good health policy empowers people to make decisions, as 
opposed to empowering the Federal Government to make decisions on behalf 
of people. And that's the fundamental difference in this campaign on 
health care.
    Now, look, I believe Government should help those who cannot help 
themselves. That's why I believe in community health centers, places 
where the poor and the indigent can get good primary care and good 
preventative care. And I'm going to make sure in the second term that 
every poor county in America has one.
    I also believe we ought to continue to expand the children's health 
care program, to make sure that all who are eligible are covered by this 
health care initiative.
    But I am unalterably opposed to plans which move people from private 
insurance to Government insurance. I'm unalterably opposed to plans 
which mean the Federal Government will intrude into your decisionmaking 
process.

[[Page 2089]]

    The cost of health care is affected by frivolous lawsuits. I 
strongly support medical liability reform. We must make sure good 
doctors stay in practice. This is an issue in this campaign. See, you 
can't have it both ways. You cannot be pro-doctor, pro-patient, and pro-
trial-lawyer at the same time. You have to make a choice. Listen, I 
understand what's happening to ob-gyns here in the State of 
Pennsylvania, because I've met them. I've met with those whose premiums 
are getting so high they cannot practice, and therefore, it hurts 
pregnant women. I understand what's taking place in your State. But you 
understand it better than I do. And therefore, I'm going to continue to 
talk about medical liability reform until the Senate and the House 
overcomes the obstacles of the trial lawyers and gets the job done.
    All right, we're here to talk about education. A hopeful world is 
one in which every child learns to read, write, and add and subtract. I 
went to Washington to fix problems and to challenge the status quo, if 
the status quo was--meant mediocrity. And I was worried about a public 
school system that sometimes gave up on kids. I went to Washington to 
challenge what I call the soft bigotry of low expectations. See, if you 
lower the bar, you're going to get lousy results. If you believe certain 
children cannot read and write and add and subtract, those children 
won't learn to read and write and add and subtract. We had a policy, if 
we're frank about it, where schools just shuffled kids through. Not 
every school, of course, but many children were being just shuffled 
through the system, and we hoped that we got it right in the end. And 
that's not fair. It's not fair to the child. It's not fair to the 
parents, and it's, frankly, not fair to the teachers and principals, 
either.
    And so, in return for increasing Federal spending, I said to 
Congress, ``Why don't we insist that States measure early? Why don't we 
insist that there be strong accountability measures so we can determine 
whether curriculum are working, so we can correct a child's learning 
problems early before that child just moves through grade after grade? 
Why don't we say we're going to challenge the soft bigotry of low 
expectations by raising the bar, allowing local folks to make the right 
decisions for their schools, and using an accountability system to help 
achieve excellence?'' And the Congress joined me in passing that piece 
of legislation, and it's working.
    It's working because there's an achievement gap in America that's 
closing. And I can say it's working because we measure. We used to say, 
``I think it's working.'' Now we say, ``It's working.'' More and more 
African American fourth graders are achieving what--that which we 
wanted, is being able to read at grade level. Those are facts. More and 
more Latino kids are learning to read and write, and that's a fact. And 
that's an important part of making sure this country has got a hopeful 
future.
    My opponent and I--he supported No Child Left Behind Act. Then, of 
course, he gets in a tough campaign--[laughter]--and starts talking 
about weakening the accountability standards. That makes no sense to 
weaken something that's working. We want to know--we want to know.
    And today we're going to talk about some educators--talk with some 
educators that understand the power of using accountability as a way to 
achieve excellence for every child, excellence for every child.
    Let me talk about one other thing before we talk to our guests, and 
that is, I'm going to ask Congress to set up a teacher incentive fund. 
It's a $500 million fund to allow States and school districts to access 
the money to pay teachers for a job well done. And if the accountability 
system shows progress, I think there ought to be a reward for that 
progress. The Federal Government is not going to decide who gets the 
money. I believe in local control of schools. Districts and States ought 
to making those decisions about how to use performance grant money.
    We're also expanding the, what we call the Adjunct Teacher Corps. 
It's to pay professionals, particularly in math and science, to come in 
the classrooms, because I know we need to be emphasizing math and 
science if we want our high school kids to have the skills necessary to 
fill the jobs of the 21st century.
    I believe very strongly that we ought to provide incentives for 
teachers to teach in a math, science, or special ed in low-income 
schools. It's a need that we have around the country. And therefore, I 
believe we ought

[[Page 2090]]

to increase student loan forgiveness from $5,000 to $17,500 to help 
teachers.
    Finally, I'm a big believer in teacher training programs. The 
Reading First program that we put in place provides a lot of money to 
teach teachers how to teach and use curriculum that works. See, if you 
measure, you can determine whether or not the curriculum you're using is 
working. And when you find a curriculum that does work, then we ought to 
make sure we provide enough teacher training money so these good souls 
have got the skills necessary to achieve excellence in the classroom.
    And so I'm joined today by Gene Hickok. He's a fellow Pennsylvania 
citizen. He is a former Pennsylvania secretary of education, a person I 
know well. I've worked with him a long time on achieving excellence in 
public schools.
    Gene, it's good to see you. Why don't you tell us what it's like to 
be involved with proposing, passing, and implementing an historic piece 
of legislation.

[Gene Hickok made brief remarks.]

    The President. Yes, I agree. Listen, here's the thing, that when 
Gene talks about a school full of children who some may think can't 
possibly learn, and they are learning, it basically says: One, there's a 
dedicated principal and great teachers; it also says that they're using 
the system to be able to solve problems today, as opposed to kind of 
ignoring the problems. And by that, it--for example, if a child falls 
behind in reading, there's extra Federal money, particularly for Title I 
students, to help that child with tutoring and after-school help. It 
provides money to make sure that child has an opportunity to get up to 
speed.
    So the accountability system doesn't punish. Frankly, it exposes 
problems. It's a diagnostic tool. I've always said to people, ``You 
can't solve a problem until you diagnose it.'' And we're diagnosing 
problems, and we're providing extra money to solve the problem.
    And what Gene is saying is, people are using this system to be able 
to achieve excellence in the classrooms, and it's happening. How do you 
know? Because we're measuring, is how we know. We're able to measure 
progress. We're able to watch. It's called annual yearly progress. 
That's kind of the key word. Progress toward what? Progress toward 
excellence. Thank you, Gene, for being here.
    Lou Ramos is with us. So why are you here, Lou? [Laughter] You're a 
member of the----
    Luis A. Ramos. I'm a member of the State board of education, Mr. 
President.
    The President. That's why you're here.
    Mr. Ramos. That's why I'm here. [Laughter]
    The President. Plus, you're a good man. That's why you're here.
    Mr. Ramos. I do want to thank you for the opportunity to let you 
know that Pennsylvanians do not fear the ``A'' word, accountability. 
We're here for that, and we recognize that. We're up to the challenge.
    But what's happening in Pennsylvania is that, in fact, we're making 
decisions based on data. We are, in a difficult times as far as funding 
education, and I do know that--I've studied the data, and you've 
increased funding for education by 37 percent. It could be a little 
more. We look for that. That has helped.
    The President. You mean to Pennsylvania.
    Mr. Ramos. In Pennsylvania.
    The President. It's 49 percent nationwide.
    Mr. Ramos. Forty-nine percent nationwide.
    The President. This looks like a funding gap--we've got to do 
something about it. [Laughter]

[Mr. Ramos made further remarks.]

    Mr. Ramos. So there's a lot I can share, and I want to do that, 
because I had my own story to share with you.
    The President. Let's hear it.
    Mr. Ramos. Well, actually, I'm always asked, ``Why are you so 
passionate about education, considering that you worked for a large 
energy company, and you take time to do that?'' And the answer is, as a 
young child, I came to the mainland from Puerto Rico, didn't speak a 
stitch of English. English was not my first language. It is today.
    The President. Some people say it's not my first language, either. 
[Laughter]

[[Page 2091]]

[Mr. Ramos made further remarks.]

    The President. What a great story. Let me tell you something about 
our country. Think about that, there's old Lou sitting next to the 
President of the United States, you know, talking about his dreams and 
aspirations.
    Mr. Ramos. Only in America.
    The President. It is only in America. And listen, and you know 
what--we want this story to be repeated neighborhood after neighborhood, 
school after school, by making sure no child is left behind. See, if you 
give the people the tools necessary, they can realize great dreams here 
in America. And the most important tool of all is to make sure every 
child has an education.
    One of the things I learned as Governor of Texas and know as 
President of the United States, that every school--successful schools 
have got strong leaders, and that strong leader is the principal. And 
today we've got Sharen Finzimer with us today. She is the principal of 
F.S. Edmonds School, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Thanks for coming. What 
kind of school have you got there?

[Sharen Finzimer made brief remarks.]

    The President. AYP means annual yearly progress. In other words, it 
is Government-speak for we're measuring to determine whether or not the 
children are heading toward excellence. Why--besides your brilliance, 
why?

[Ms. Finzimer made further remarks.]

    The President. Let me stop you right there. Notice she said 
``research-based.'' In other words, what that means is, people have 
actually looked at what works and have incorporated what works into the 
textbooks. That's what we want. We want curriculum that actually 
achieves our objectives. Remember the old reading debates--there was--
sometimes people had this notion about what might work, and we never 
knew whether it was or not until we started to measure. That's how you 
can say ``research-based'' textbooks.
    Keep going.

[Ms. Finzimer made further remarks.]

    The President. Interventions means, when they find the child 
beginning to slip behind what is expected, there's extra money to help. 
That's what this program is all about. When we say no child left behind, 
that's exactly what we mean, no child left behind. In other words, she's 
able to use technologies and to follow the progress of a child on a 
regular basis, which is a change from the past. The past used to be, 
they'd kind of just move them through. Now they're analyzing each 
child's progress and working to correct, if the child has a problem, 
working to correct his or her problem. I think that's what you're 
saying. And that's what you're doing, and it's working. It's making a 
difference.
    Tell me about your Saturday school.

[Ms. Finzimer made further remarks.]

    The President. You can understand why her school is doing well, 
right? She has a passion. And when she talks about Title I students, 
that's where our Federal Government has increased funding quite 
substantially, since I've been the President of the United States, 
nearly 50-percent increase in the funds for Title I, all aimed at making 
sure no child is left behind. You can't be a great principal unless 
you've got great teachers. We don't have one of your teachers here, but 
I know they're great teachers.
    But we do have Megan Schmidt with us, a teacher. What subject?
    Megan Schmidt. Mr. President, I teach English and creative writing 
at North Penn High School.
    The President. Thanks for teaching. Tell us what you've learned.

[Ms. Schmidt made further remarks.]

    The President. Let me pick up on one thing that Megan said. It makes 
the parents aware. It's a amazing--when Laura and I were honored to 
serve our State, we were traveling around, and people would say, ``Gosh, 
my school is doing great. At least I think my school is doing great.'' 
And all of a sudden, when we started to put out the accountability 
measures, people would say, ``Well, maybe it's not doing quite as 
great,'' when the test scores didn't measure up to the school in the 
community next door or another school in the same community. 
Accountability, allowing people to see results, really does encourage 
parental involvement.

[[Page 2092]]

Sometimes educators don't particularly care the way the parent has been 
involved, like, ``How come you didn't tell us earlier? What are you 
doing about it?'' But nevertheless, it does encourage parents to get 
involved, doesn't it?
    Ms. Schmidt. Absolutely.
    The President. Keep going.
    Ms. Schmidt. Thank you.

[Ms. Schmidt made further remarks.]

    The President. Let me say something. I hope people, particularly 
young, consider becoming teachers. It is such a noble profession, and 
it's such an important profession. I want to thank you for being here, 
Megan.
    The temptation is to weaken No Child Left Behind. There's great 
temptation in Washington to say, ``Gosh, well, let's kind of ease up. 
Maybe we shouldn't measure. Maybe we ought to use different criterion to 
determine whether or not people are meeting AYP--annual yearly 
progress.'' The guy I'm running against for President actual suggested 
maybe school attendance ought to be considered as to whether or not 
we're making annual yearly progress. That doesn't make any sense. What 
we want to do is to continue to focus on each child's ability to learn 
and correct problems now so we don't just shuffle them through the 
system. We're making great progress. We're closing the achievement gap. 
We're going to continue to fund education. We'll continue to help 
teachers train. We'll continue to insist upon strong accountability, and 
we're not turning back.
    I want to talk a little bit about how to make America and the world 
safer. We have a solemn duty to protect the American people. I'd like to 
share with you a couple of the lessons I've learned from September the 
11th, 2001. First of all, we face an enemy that is coldblooded. They 
have no conscience whatsoever. And therefore--and they're smart, and 
they're capable, and they're patient, and they're tough. And therefore, 
our Government must never yield, must never try to negotiate with them, 
must never hope that--for the best, that they change their ways. We must 
stay on the offensive and bring them to justice before they hurt us 
again here at home.
    Audience members. Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!
    The President. Thank you all. Please. Thank you all. Thank you all.
    Audience members. Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!
    The President. Oh no, no, no, not yet. Not yet. Got a little more 
work to do here. [Laughter] Thank you, though.
    Secondly, when the President speaks, he must mean what he says. He's 
got to be clear and understandable. And when you say something, you've 
got to follow through. I said I recognize this is a different kind of 
struggle than we've ever been used to. And it's a struggle that we will 
win, so long as we're resolute and determined.
    I said that, if you provide safe haven for a terrorist, you're just 
as guilty as the terrorists. I meant that, because I understood that in 
order to find the kind of shadowy group of people, we had to rout them 
out of their safe havens. Remember, Al Qaida was training in 
Afghanistan. They had training bases. They literally trained thousands 
of people. They--the Al Qaida strategy in Afghanistan is clear. They 
were the parasite on a lenient host, and maybe at some point in time, 
had they been there long enough, they would have become the host. But 
their supporters were the Taliban, and these people were some kind of 
backwards. Here we are talking about--here we are--listen to this. 
Listen to this for a second. Here we are talking about education, and 
yet, they believed young girls shouldn't be educated. Think about 
growing up in a society like that, a society without hope, a society 
that said, ``You're condemned for failure because you're a female.'' 
That's the way the Taliban was. It's hard for any American to envision 
somebody whose vision is that dim and dark.
    I made it clear to the Taliban that they had to stop harboring Al 
Qaida. They didn't believe us. And so a great United States military 
went in and removed the Taliban from power. [Applause] Hold on a second. 
We're safer as a result of the actions that the U.S. military took, and 
the people of Afghanistan are better off.
    Yesterday I met with President Karzai. He's running for election. 
Could you ever imagine somebody from the Taliban saying,

[[Page 2093]]

``I'm running for election''? [Laughter] This guy is out running for 
election. Think about what's happened in Afghanistan in a brief period 
of time. Young girls are now going to school, and we're helping to 
rebuild schools. Their moms are no longer subjected to being whipped in 
the public square because they don't happen to agree with the ideology 
of hatred that was being professed by the Taliban. Ten million Afghan 
citizens have registered to vote, 41 percent of whom are women. An 
election is going to take place in October. It's an unbelievable 
statistic.
    People say, ``Well, there are certain people who really don't want 
to be free in the world.'' I strongly disagree with that concept. I 
believe everybody wants to be free, and the Afghan people are showing 
that they want to be free. There's a lot of intimidation there. A lot of 
people--remember, they pulled the poor women off the bus--``they'' being 
the Taliban--and killed them because they had, I think, voter 
registration cards. The Afghan people are not going to be stopped when 
it comes to freedom. They will defy these terrorists because freedom 
exists in their heart and soul. It's something they're willing to work 
for, and we have an obligation to help them. A free Afghanistan is in 
our Nation's interest. We're more secure because of the decision that we 
took in Afghanistan.
    Let me talk about Iraq. One of the lessons that changed--one of the 
lessons we learned or must have learned or must never forget about 
September the 11th, is that we've got to take threats seriously, before 
they come to hurt us. When I was your age, if we saw a threat overseas, 
we could deal with it if we felt like it or not, because we never really 
dreamt that an attack would occur on America again. And that's the 
fundamental shift of our life here in America. September the 11th makes 
us realize that an enemy can strike us. And if we see threats overseas, 
we must take them seriously, before they hurt us.
    Our hope, of course, is diplomacy works. That's why we're working 
with other nations to send a message to Iran and North Korea. There's 
more than one voice in saying to the North Koreans, ``Disarm, and join 
the world as a peaceful nation.'' China is involved. Japan is involved. 
South Korea is involved. Russia is involved, and the United States of 
America. We're all saying the same thing. We want there to be a nuclear-
weapons-free Korean Peninsula.
    We always must try to deal with threats diplomatically. Now, in 
Iraq, we saw a threat. The threat was, was that Saddam Hussein was a 
sworn enemy of America. He had used weapons of mass destruction. He had 
terrorist connections, Abu Abbas, Abu Nidal, Zarqawi. He paid the 
families of suicide bombers. And the greatest threat facing us was 
whether or not he would be able to share his capability of producing 
weapons, or weapons that we thought were there, with an enemy that would 
like to inflict more harm. It's why I went to the United Nations, to try 
to solve this problem diplomatically.
    I said, ``Listen, we've got a problem. We see a threat.'' The 
Congress spoke, by the way. They looked at the same intelligence I 
looked at and remembered the same history I did and voted overwhelmingly 
to authorize the use of force. My opponent made that same decision. He 
voted to authorize the use of force. He remembered--he said Saddam 
Hussein was a threat then. [Laughter]
    The United Nations passed a resolution 15 to nothing that said, 
``Disclose, disarm, or face serious consequences.'' As I said yesterday 
at the United Nations, when you say something, you better mean it. In 
order to keep the world more peaceful, when an international body says 
``face serious consequences,'' they better mean what they say. Saddam 
Hussein had no intention of disclosing or disarming, because he didn't 
believe there would be serious consequences. He had ignored the demands 
of the world in 2003 just like he had done for the last decade. They 
wanted to send inspectors into his country. He systematically deceived 
them.
    So I've got a choice. The choice is: Do I forget the lessons of 
September the 11th; do I hope for the best when it comes to Saddam 
Hussein; or do I take action to defend the country? If given that 
choice, I'll defend America every time. The world is safer with Saddam 
Hussein sitting in a prison cell, and so is America.
    A couple other points I want to make right quick. Anytime we put our 
troops in harm's

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way, they must have the full support of the Federal Government. This is 
an obligation of our Government to say to the troops and their loved 
ones, ``We'll give you the tools you need to complete your mission.''
    That's why a year ago I went to the Congress and asked for a 
supplemental funding of $87 billion. It was money to support our troops 
in Afghanistan and in Iraq. We're talking about spare parts, ammunition, 
fuel, body armor, hazard pay, health benefits. It was really important 
legislation. It received overwhelming support in the Senate and in the 
House. Only 12 Senators voted against it, 2 of whom are my opponent and 
his runningmate. [Laughter] As a matter of fact, those two, my opponent 
and his runningmate voted--were two of four people who voted for the 
authorization of force and against funding the troops in harm's way.
    Of course, you've heard the famous statement he made. They said, 
``Why did you do it?'' He said, ``Well, I actually did vote for the $87 
billion, before I voted against it.'' The President of the United States 
must speak clearly and mean what he says.
    We're doing hard work in Iraq right now. It's hard to help a country 
go from tyranny to elections to peace when there are a handful of people 
who are willing to kill in order to stop the process. And that's what 
you're seeing on the TV screens. These people cannot beat us militarily, 
and so they use the only tool at their disposal, which is beheadings and 
death, to try to shake our will. They understand the nature of America. 
American people value every human life. We believe in the dignity and 
worth of every human being. We have a conscience. We weep when we think 
about the families affected by those who have been brutalized by these 
terrorists. And they are hoping, these terrorists are hoping, to shake 
the will of the Iraqi people and of the American people. They know 
what's on our TV screens.
    I met yesterday with Prime Minister Allawi. He's the Prime Minister 
of Iraq. He said as clearly as he could to me that not only are we 
making progress, but the Iraqi people want to be free. They are not 
going to allow these thugs to intimidate them as they head toward 
elections and a free society. Everybody wants to be free, and we must 
not allow these thugs and killers to stop the advance of freedom in 
Iraq.
    These are critical times, and I'm glad the Prime Minister is here to 
reinforce the strategy we have in place. Listen, our military is working 
with the Iraqi Interim Government. They're flexible. They're changing 
their tactics on the ground to meet the tactics of the enemy. We're 
building--rebuilding Iraq. And it's tough, at times, because once you 
build something, they blow it up. But there is steady progress, in terms 
of reconstruction. For example, electricity is higher today than it was 
during--before our arrival to remove Saddam Hussein from power. More and 
more children are going to school. More and more children are being 
immunized. Hospitals are opening up. There is progress being made, and 
they're going to have elections in January.
    The way to prevail, the way toward the successful conclusion we all 
want, the way to secure Iraq and bring our troops home as quickly as 
possible is not to wilt or waver or send mixed signals to the enemy.
    My opponent is sending mixed signals. He has had many different 
positions on Iraq. Incredibly, this week he said he would prefer the 
dictatorship of Saddam Hussein to the situation in Iraq today.
    Audience members. Boo-o-o!
    The President. You cannot lead the war against terror if you wilt or 
waver when times get tough. You cannot expect the Iraqi people to stand 
up and do the hard work of democracy if you're pessimistic about their 
ability to govern themselves. You cannot expect our troops to continue 
doing the hard work if they hear mixed messages from Washington, DC. 
Mixed signals are wrong signals. I'll continue to speak clearly. I'll 
continue to lead. And I'm confident we'll achieve our objectives, and 
the world will be better off and more secure.
    One more point I want to make. Please sit down for a second. 
[Laughter] It's not going to be a long point. [Laughter] So I was with 
my friend Prime Minister Koizumi yesterday in New York City. I said, 
``You know I've been talking about you on the campaign trail.'' He said, 
``Keep talking about me.'' I said, ``Good. I will.'' [Laughter]

[[Page 2095]]

    And here's why I'm talking about him. He and I are friends, and 
Laura and the Prime Minister are friends as well. He's been to our 
ranch. We sat down at the--talking about different issues facing the 
world. Think about that for a minute, in the context of World War II. 
Really, 60 years ago, Japan was a sworn enemy of the United States of 
America. A lot of people lost their life in fighting against the 
Japanese in World War II. They had attacked our country, of course, the 
last major attack on our country since September--prior to September the 
11th.
    And after the end of World War II, Harry Truman, my predecessor, and 
other Americans believed that Japan could self-govern; it could be a 
democracy. That's what they believed. And they believed that because 
they believe every person desires to be free. And they believed that 
because--and they hoped that because they knew free societies would be 
peaceful societies. And there were skeptics, of course, just like there 
are in any society. People said, ``Well, gosh, you can't do that. How 
can you possibly believe that our enemy could become a friend? How could 
you possibly believe Japan could become a democracy?'' But they 
believed, and they worked hard, and Japan did become a democracy.
    And today, as a result of Japan becoming a democracy--today, as a 
result of liberty being spread to parts of the world where there was 
hatred--I sit down with the Prime Minister of Japan talking about 
keeping the peace we all want. And that's going to happen, so long as 
we're resolute and steadfast in our belief in liberty. It's going to 
happen in our day. It's going to make the lives of these folks a lot 
more peaceful, because someday an American President is going to be 
sitting down with a duly elected leader of Iraq talking about peace in 
the greater Middle East, talking about how to make this world a peaceful 
place.
    These are historic times. I'm driven by my desire to protect the 
American people. I'll be steadfast in my resolve to do everything I can 
to make you secure. But I'm also driven by my deep belief that every 
soul yearns for liberty. Listen, freedom is not America's gift to the 
world; freedom is the Almighty God's gift to each man and woman in this 
world.
    I want to thank you all for coming out. Thank you for your vote. 
Thank you for your support. May God bless you all.

Note: The President spoke at 11:50 a.m. at the Valley Forge Convention 
Center. In his remarks, he referred to Melissa Brown, candidate for 
Congress in Pennsylvania's 13th Congressional District; Jean Craige 
Pepper, candidate for Pennsylvania State treasurer; Karen A. Stout, 
president, Montgomery County Community College; President Hamid Karzai 
of Afghanistan; senior Al Qaida associate Abu Musab Al Zarqawi; Prime 
Minister Ayad Allawi of the Iraqi Interim Government; and Prime Minister 
Junichiro Koizumi of Japan. The transcript released by the Office of the 
Press Secretary also included the remarks of the First Lady, who 
introduced the President.