[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 40, Number 42 (Monday, October 18, 2004)]
[Pages 2317-2318]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
The President's Radio Address

October 9, 2004

    Good morning. As your President, I have led this country with 
principle and resolve. We have confronted historic challenges and built 
a broad record of accomplishment. I have proposed and delivered four 
rounds of tax relief, and our economy is creating jobs again. We have 
added over 1.9 million jobs in the past 13 months, more than Germany, 
Japan, Great Britain, Canada, and France combined. The unemployment rate 
is 5.4 percent, lower than the average rate of the 1970s, 1980s, and 
1990s. Thanks to our education reforms, math and reading scores are 
increasing in public schools. We have strengthened Medicare to help low-
income seniors save money on their medicine. And soon every senior will 
have the option of prescription drug coverage.
    We have more to do. We will transform our systems of Government to 
fit a changing world and to help more people realize the American Dream. 
We will expand health savings accounts and improve Social Security to 
allow younger workers to own a piece of their retirement. Because 
education is vital to our prosperity, we will raise expectations in 
public schools and invest in community colleges. And to make sure 
America is the best place in the world to do business and create jobs, 
we will cut regulations, end junk lawsuits, pass a sound energy policy, 
and make tax relief permanent.

[[Page 2318]]

    Senator Kerry takes a very different approach to our economy. He was 
named the most liberal Member of the United States Senate, and that's a 
title he has earned. Over the past 20 years, Senator Kerry has voted to 
raise taxes 98 times. He opposed all our tax relief and voted instead to 
squeeze an extra $2,000 in taxes from the average middle-class family. 
Now he's running on an agenda of higher taxes and higher spending and 
more Government control over American life. My opponent wants to empower 
Government. I want to use Government to empower people.
    Since September the 11th, 2001, I have led a global campaign to 
protect the American people and bring our enemies to account. We have 
tripled spending on homeland security and passed the PATRIOT Act to help 
law enforcement and intelligence stop terrorists inside the United 
States. We removed terror regimes in Afghanistan and Iraq, and now both 
nations are on the path to democracy. We shut down a black-market 
supplier of deadly weapons technology and convinced Libya to give up its 
weapons of mass destruction programs. And more than three-quarters of Al 
Qaida's key members and associates have been detained or killed.
    In the middle of a war, Senator Kerry is proposing policies and 
doctrines that would weaken America and make the world more dangerous. 
He's proposed the Kerry doctrine, which would paralyze America by 
subjecting our national security decisions to a ``global test.'' He 
supports the International Criminal Court, where unaccountable foreign 
prosecutors could put American troops on trial in front of foreign 
judges. And after voting to send our troops into combat in Afghanistan 
and Iraq, he voted against the body armor and bullets they need to win.
    For all of Senator Kerry's shifting positions on Iraq, one thing is 
clear: If my opponent had his way, Saddam Hussein would be sitting in a 
palace today, not a prison, and Iraq would still be a danger to America. 
As chief weapons inspector Charles Duelfer testified this week, and I 
quote, ``Most senior members of the Saddam Hussein regime and scientists 
assumed that the programs would begin in earnest when sanctions ended, 
and sanctions were eroding.'' Instead, because our coalition acted, Iraq 
is free; America is safer; and the world will be more peaceful for our 
children and our grandchildren.
    I will keep this Nation on the offensive against terrorists, with 
the goal of total victory. I will keep our economy moving so every 
worker has a good job, quality health care, and a secure retirement.
    Thank you for listening.

Note: The address was recorded at 10:20 a.m. on October 8 at a private 
residence in St. Louis, MO, for broadcast at 10:06 a.m. on October 9. 
The transcript was made available by the Office of the Press Secretary 
on October 8 but was embargoed for release until the broadcast. In his 
remarks, the President referred to Charles Duelfer, Special Advisor to 
the Director of Central Intelligence. The Office of the Press Secretary 
also released a Spanish language transcript of this address.