[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 40, Number 43 (Monday, October 25, 2004)]
[Pages 2493-2502]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks in a Discussion in
Eau Claire, Wisconsin

October 20, 2004

    The President. Thank you all. Please be seated. Listen, thanks for 
coming today. It's good to be back here in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. We're 
getting closer and closer to voting time. I'm here to ask for your help. 
I saw--somebody has been helping--I saw a lot of signs up coming in. I 
want to thank you for putting up the signs. I know some of you are 
making phone calls, reminding your fellow citizen to go to the polls. I 
need your help. And with your help, we will carry Wisconsin and win a 
great victory in November.
    So today I'm here to talk about reasons why I think your fellow 
citizens ought to put me in office for 4 more years. We're going to talk 
about some issues, and we've got some fellow citizens up here to help 
talk about the plans and policies of my administration.
    Perhaps the most important reason for you to put me back in for 4 
more years is so that Laura will be the First Lady for 4 more years. She 
sends her best. She's doing great. She

[[Page 2494]]

was a public school librarian when I met her for the second time. The 
first time I ever met her, we were at San Jacinto Junior High, seventh 
grade, in Midland, Texas. The second time I met her, she was a public 
school librarian. She said, ``Fine, I'll marry you, but you have to make 
me a promise.'' I said, ``What's that?'' She said, ``I never want to 
have to give a speech.'' [Laughter] Well, fortunately, she didn't hold 
me to that promise. [Laughter] She is giving a lot of speeches, and when 
she does, the American people see a warm, compassionate, strong First 
Lady.
    I'm proud of my runningmate, Dick Cheney. He's doing a great job.
    And I'm proud of my Cabinet Secretary for Health and Human Services; 
that would be former Governor Tommy Thompson. He's doing a great job. I 
like to tell the people of Wisconsin, you did a fine job of training 
him. He's a good man.
    I want to thank the Redetzkes for letting us come here today, Don 
and Diana. I'm proud you--these are some of the products they 
manufacture here. I said, ``How is your business doing?'' He said, 
``Just fine.'' He said, ``We've added 30 employees this year. We're 
thinking about adding more.'' There's an optimism around. Our policies 
are working. And I want to thank the Redetzkes for letting us come and 
visit this important plant.
    I want to thank Jack Voight, the State treasurer, for joining us 
today. Appreciate you being here, Mr. Treasurer. I want to thank Scott 
Walker from Milwaukee County. I'm proud Scott is here. I call him Scott 
W. I want to thank John Gard for joining us today. Speaker, where are 
you? Appreciate you, Speaker. Good to see you again. I've been in your 
State a lot, and he's been there all the time, for which I'm grateful.
    I want to thank very much Dale Schultz for being here. He is a good 
man. I know him well. He will make a great Member of the United States 
Congress. And finally, Tim Michels. Good to see you, Tim--and Barbara. I 
know something about Barbaras. Thank you all for coming.
    We've been through some challenges together in this country, really 
have been. And when you're out gathering up the vote, remind people 
about what this economy has been through. Six months prior to my arrival 
in Washington, the stock market was in serious decline, and that 
foretold a recession. And then we had some corporate scandals, and we 
passed tough laws, and we made it abundantly clear to people in this 
country that we will not tolerate dishonesty in the boardrooms of 
America. We expect citizens to be responsible citizens.
    And then we got attacked. We got attacked. And those attacks hurt 
us; they really did. And we responded to those attacks with good policy. 
We cut the taxes, and by cutting the taxes people had more money to 
spend and more money to invest. When you increase consumption and 
increase investment, the economy tends to grow. The recession we had was 
one of the shallowest in American history.
    Our economy has been growing at rates as fast as any in nearly 20 
years. We've added 1.9 million new jobs since August of 2003. The 
unemployment rate is at 5.4 percent. That's the national unemployment 
rate--lower than the average of the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. And your 
unemployment rate in Wisconsin is 4.8 percent. Think about that. When 
people go to the polls, I want them to remember the people of this State 
are working because of good policy. Farm income is up. Homeownership 
rates are at an alltime high. We're moving forward. We've overcome these 
challenges, and we're not going to go back to the days of tax and spend.
    A good economic policy means good farm policy. I told the people 
when I was running, I understand that we've got to have good 
agricultural policy in this country. And the agricultural sector of our 
country is doing fine, is doing well. Income is up. As a matter of fact, 
farm income is at a record high under my administration.
    Audience member. [Inaudible]
    The President. We're going to talk to some farmers up here, but 
dairy farm income is up. We're selling more and more of Wisconsin crops 
overseas. See, to make sure this economy continues to grow, we've got to 
continue to open up markets for U.S. products. It's easy to say we're 
going to shut down markets, but shutting down markets will hurt you. 
See, when you've got more products to choose from as a consumer, you're 
likely to get that which you want at a better price and

[[Page 2495]]

higher quality. That's how the market works. So shutting down our 
markets, which would hurt you--my policy is let's open up everybody 
else's markets. We can compete with anybody, anytime, anywhere, so long 
as the playing field is level.
    And farm exports are at an alltime high. We want to be using 
Wisconsin farm products to feed the world. If you're good at something, 
let's promote it, and we're really good at growing corn and soybeans.
    I signed a good farm bill which is helping the agricultural sector, 
and part of the farm bill is the conservation title, which encourages 
farmers and landowners to set aside land for wildlife restoration, for 
land protection. We're going to talk about somebody who knows what he's 
talking about when it comes to good conservation policy. I tell 
everybody, ``If you own the land, every day is Earth Day.'' If you make 
a living off the land, the best person to look after the land is the 
person making a living off of it, not some bureaucrat in Washington, DC.
    Keeping jobs here means good energy policy. See, we've got to become 
less dependent on foreign sources of energy if we expect to keep this 
economy growing. And I submitted a plan to the United States Congress 2 
years ago, and it's stuck, of course, because of politics. But it's a 
plan that encourages conservation. It's a plan that uses our 
technologies to be able to burn coal cleanly. It says we can explore for 
natural gas in environmentally friendly ways. But it also recognizes the 
valuable contribution that ethanol and biodiesel make to the energy mix 
here in America. Congress needs to pass that plan. We've got to become 
less dependent on foreign sources of energy.
    To make sure jobs stay here, we've got to have less regulations on 
the job creators. To make sure jobs stay here, we've got to do something 
about these lawsuits that are making it hard for the small businesses 
all across our country. You see, these lawsuits make it hard for a small 
business to expand. They're tending to having to fight these lawsuits 
off and not hiring people.
    To keep jobs here, we've got to be wise about how we spend your 
money and keep your taxes low. Taxes are an issue. I'm running against a 
fellow who's promised $2.2 trillion in programs that cost--that's how 
much they cost the Government, 2.2 trillion. That's with a ``T.'' That's 
a lot even for a Senator from Massachusetts. So they asked him how he 
was going to pay for it. He said, oh, he's just going to tax the rich, 
going to raise the top two brackets. Well, the only problem with that is 
it raises about 600 billion or 800 billion, depending on whose numbers 
you look at. In either case, it's far short of 2.2 trillion, so there's 
a gap. There's a gap between what he promised and how he's going to pay 
for it. Guess who usually fills that gap? Yes, you do. You understand 
how tax policy works.
    Let me tell you what else is wrong with raising the top two 
brackets. We're going to talk to some small-business owners. Most small 
businesses are Subchapter S corporations, limited liability corps. They 
pay tax at the individual income-tax rate. So you hear him talking about 
running up the taxes, taxing the rich--they're taxing the job creators.
    And the third thing wrong with it, the rich hire lawyers and 
accountants for a reason: to slide the tab and stick you with it. We're 
not going to let him tax you; we're going to win Wisconsin and win on 
November the 2d.
    Audience members. Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!
    The President. Thank you. Before we get to our guests here, I want 
to talk about a couple of other issues. We're in a changing world. Times 
are changing. And in a changing world, it helps to promote an ownership 
society in America to bring stability into people's lives. And I told 
you, homeownership rates are at an alltime high. We've got policies to 
continue to expand that. I can't tell you how it warms my heart to know 
more and more Americans from all walks of life are opening up the door 
where they live, saying, ``Welcome to my home. Welcome to my piece of 
property.''
    In order to make sure we're hopeful, we've got to promote ownership 
when it comes to health care accounts. See, health care is an issue in 
this campaign too. There is a fundamental divide.
    My opponent is proposing bigger Government health care. Now, he 
looked in the TV cameras the other night and said no Government was 
involved. I could barely contain

[[Page 2496]]

myself. [Laughter] I looked at the fine print of his plan. Eight out of 
ten get signed up to a Government health care plan. See, if you raise 
the Medicaid limits to 300 percent, it provides incentives for small-
business owners to stop providing insurance for their employees because 
the Government will pay for it. And so you're shifting people from the 
private sector to the public policy. And Government health care programs 
do not work. They may sound good, but they have failed in every country 
that has tried them. The quality of health care will decline. There will 
be rationing. If you end up as a line item in the Government budget, you 
can rest assured there will be Government controls over your health 
care.
    I have a different point of view. We will take care of those who 
cannot help themselves through community and rural health centers. Those 
will be places where the poor and the indigent can get primary and 
preventative care. That's a good use of your taxpayers' money. It's best 
that people get care there and not in the emergency rooms of local 
hospitals. We will make sure that the program for children of low-income 
families is fully subscribed. That makes sense.
    But to make sure health care is affordable, we ought to allow small 
businesses to pool risk, to join together so they can buy insurance at 
the same discounts that big businesses get to do.
    To make sure health care is affordable, we will continue to expand 
health savings accounts, which will enable somebody to pay a low-
premium, high-deductible major medical liability policy, coupled with a 
tax-free savings. These health care plans will reduce the cost of health 
care for the average citizen or the small business. They will be a 
health care plan in which the decisionmaker is the owner of the health 
care plan. They're a health care plan that you own, you control, and you 
can take with you from job to job throughout your entire life. This is a 
way to make sure health care is more affordable.
    Also to make sure health care is more available and affordable, 
we've got to do something about the junk lawsuits that are running up 
the cost of medicine. See, I looked at the cost to the Federal 
Government on these lawsuits. Lawsuits cause doctors to have to practice 
defensive medicine. In other words, they're practicing medicine in 
anticipation of getting sued because there's so many suits, and that 
runs up the cost of health care. And the lawsuits run up the cost of 
premiums for docs, which run good docs out of business. I can't tell you 
the number of ob-gyns I've met who are anxious and upset by the fact 
that they, many times, cannot practice. And then you can imagine, if the 
ob-gyn can't practice, what it does to many pregnant women. It is 
stressful. It is not right. These lawsuits are a damage to our economy 
and to our society and to health care. You cannot be pro-doctor, pro-
patient, and pro-personal-injury-lawyer at the same time. You have to 
choose. You have to choose. My opponent made his choice, and he put a 
personal injury lawyer on the ticket. I made my choice. I'm for medical 
liability reform--now.
    Let me talk about one other form of ownership, and that's Social 
Security. See, the job of a President is to solve problems, not to pass 
them on to future Presidents or future generations. At least that's what 
I think it is. I think you come to Washington, DC--if you see a problem, 
you solve it as best as you can. Now, others have chosen a different 
attitude. They just say, ``We'll pass it on and let somebody else take 
care of it.'' We have a problem with Social Security.
    Now, I remember the 2000 campaign, particularly here in Wisconsin, 
when they told the seniors, ``If old George W. gets in, you're not going 
to get your check.'' You might remember that aspect of the 2000 
campaign. [Laughter] Well, I want you to remind your friends and 
neighbors of all political parties, George W. got in, and our seniors 
got their checks. And our seniors will continue to get their checks. The 
seniors have nothing to worry about when it comes to the Social Security 
check. Neither do baby boomers like me.
    But our children and our grandchildren have got a problem because of 
the nature of the Social Security system. There will be more recipients 
than payers. More baby boomers like me retire with not enough people 
putting money into the system, and therefore, the system is going to be 
in trouble for our children and our grandchildren.

[[Page 2497]]

    In order to make sure our children and grandchildren have got a 
retirement system that works when they need it, we ought to allow 
younger workers to set aside some of their own payroll taxes in a 
personal savings account they call their own, a personal savings account 
that will earn a better rate of return than the current Social Security 
trust, a personal savings account that the Federal Government can never 
take away.
    My opponent says he's for the status quo in Social Security. I think 
it--I don't think that's leadership. We have a problem. In a new term, 
I'm going to bring Republicans and Democrats together and solve the 
problem.
    In times of change, some things do not change--now, while I'm here, 
I got something else I want to say, and then I want to talk to our 
guests here. [Laughter] The values we try to live by don't change, 
courage and compassion, reverence and integrity. We stand for a culture 
of life in which every person matters and every being counts. [Applause] 
Thank you all. We stand for marriage and family, which are the 
foundations of our society. We stand for judges who know the difference 
between personal opinion and the strict interpretation of the law. Go 
ahead and sit down.
    And we stand for the second amendment to the United States 
Constitution, which gives every American individual the right to bear 
arms. And today I'm proud that Wayne LaPierre and Chris Cox from the 
National Rifle Association are with us. I appreciate you all coming. 
They have endorsed my candidacy for President of the United States, for 
which I'm grateful. I also am grateful for their gun safety programs as 
well as their understanding that the best way to protect the American 
people is to firmly prosecute those who commit crimes with guns, to hold 
them to account, and bring them to justice.
    With us today is Bill Bruins. Bill, thank you for coming. What do 
you do to make a living? Or do you make a living? [Laughter]
    Bill Bruins. You'd have to check with my bookkeeper, my wife.
    The President. That's true. [Laughter]

[Mr. Bruins made brief remarks.]

    The President. By the way, they set up their farm as a limited 
liability corporation, which means, under Senator Kerry's plan, he's 
going to get a tax increase. See, he's part of the--when they raise 
those top two brackets, if you've got income over $200,000 a year and 
you're a limited liability corp or a Subchapter S corp, you're taxed. I 
don't think it makes any sense to be taxing our farmers right now, as 
they're getting ready to make some money. I'd rather have him have the 
money so he can expand his farm.
    How are you doing? Are you making a living?
    Mr. Bruins. Yes, we are. It's been a good year. It's been a good 
year. Milk prices are strong. Beef prices are up. And it's just really 
exciting, the possibilities that we're looking at, given the climate 
that you've created here in Wisconsin.
    The President. Well, thanks. We met back there. He asked about 
supporting the MILC Program. I do. I'm for the extension of the MILC 
Program, which would help the dairy farmers here in Wisconsin.
    Mr. Bruins. Absolutely. That little program that you have endorsed 
and have endorsed extending has already put $413 million in the pockets 
of dairy farmers in the State of Wisconsin.
    The President. That's good, yes. Glad to help out. What else are you 
concerned about? I can tell you what you're concerned about because you 
told me, but why don't you tell the people to make it look--[laughter].
    Mr. Bruins. Well, because of your farm bill and the conservation 
provisions and the countercyclical payments that are provided with it, 
because of your lowering the taxes, and because of your continued 
commitment to making agriculture better, you have made a positive 
difference on agriculture in the State of Wisconsin. And as president of 
Wisconsin Farm Bureau, the largest farm organization in the State, I am 
endorsing you for a second term as President of the United States.
    The President. Thank you very much. I accept. Thank you, I 
appreciate that. Thank you all. I was hoping that would come. [Laughter] 
I'm proud to get the Farm Bureau endorsement. It means a lot. It really

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does. In a State where it's heavily agricultural, that's a big 
endorsement to get, and I'm proud to receive it. Thank you, sir.
    Doug Mueller is with us. Welcome. And what do you do to make a 
living?
     Doug Mueller. I milk cows twice a day. We have a family 
corporation.
    The President. Hopefully not by hand. [Laughter]
     Mr. Mueller. No, sir, not anymore.
    The President. I would say there's some new technology that's come 
along. [Laughter]
    Mr. Mueller. And I'm not old enough that I ever milked cows by hand 
when I was younger, either.
    The President. You boys have got big hands, though, I'll tell you. 
[Laughter] What's on your mind? Tell me--tell the folks what's on your 
mind about----
    Mr. Mueller. Well, I think the energy policy is one thing that 
really can be a benefit to agriculture and the entire economy. The use 
of more--more use of ethanol, biodiesel I think is great for farmers all 
over the country. And the use of the ethanol, cleaner emissions and 
everything, too, has got to be positive for the country.
    The President. Yes, it is. See, it's interesting. What's happening 
is that we're spending money on research and development so that we can 
diversify away from old usage, old habits. We've got to get away from 
dependency upon crude oil coming in from overseas. And one way to do so 
is to better use ethanol and biodiesel. I mean, can you imagine someday 
a President sitting in the Oval Office, they come in and say, ``On 
crops, we've got a great corn crop,'' and the first reaction is, ``We're 
less dependent on foreign sources of energy.'' And so we're spending a 
lot of money on research and development to better use crops--soybeans, 
like biodiesel, as well as one of--in the State of the Union Address I 
talked about spending money to research--to develop a hydrogen-powered 
automobile.
    I mean, technology is going to enable us to evolve away from our 
current energy usage. And one way to do so is through, as Doug 
mentioned, through the use of agricultural products. And there's more to 
learn, and there's more research to be done. And that's what we're 
promoting. But right now we're using ethanol in significant quantities, 
and it's helping our farmers.
    What else?
    Mr. Mueller. Thank you. And the death tax is an issue that is 
heavily on farmer and small-business owners' minds.

[Mr. Mueller made further remarks.]

    The President. Let me talk about that right quick. It's an issue in 
this campaign. I suggested that the Members of the United States Senate 
vote to repeal the death tax forever. Of course, I couldn't get my 
opponent's vote. [Laughter] We got quite a few votes. As a matter of 
fact, we put the death tax on its way to extinction. The problem is it 
pops back up in 2011, which is going to make some interesting estate 
planning decisions at that point in time.
    We need to get rid of the death tax totally. It's important for our 
small-business owners and our farmers and ranchers to get rid of the 
death tax forever, so a person can pass their farm on from one 
generation to the next without losing the farm. People talk about--if 
you got your assets tied up in land and inventory, in his case, cows and 
equipment, and you have to pay high death taxes, there's nothing to 
liquidate except for the farm itself, and that's unfair. I believe a 
person shouldn't be taxed twice, once during life and once after life. 
And I believe a person ought to be able to pass their assets on to 
whomever they want to pass it on to.
    Thank you, Doug.
    Mr. Mueller. Thank you.
    The President. Lee Christenson is with us.
    Audience member. [Inaudible]
    The President. You got a fan base out there. [Laughter] I first got 
to know him because he tied some bass fishing flies for me. The flies 
did better than the fisherman. I was fishing, but I wasn't catching. 
[Laughter] He's got an interesting story to tell when it comes to 
preserving land.
    Lee Christenson. I have a small family farm that I live on in rural 
Eleva, Wisconsin, just south of Eau Claire, and I took it over in 1994 
from my parents. And I've converted that farm from a dairy farm into 
kind of a wildlife preserve, where I've utilized a lot of

[[Page 2499]]

the Government programs that you've helped us get going. The CRP program 
is just the greatest program in the world.
    The President. Conservation Reserve Program.
    Mr. Christenson. Yes, Conservation Reserve Program. And that program 
allows us to take the real highly erodible land, the steep lands that 
are marginal farmlands, and preserve them by putting them into trees, 
into prairie plantings, and into solid vegetative cover that keeps our 
streams a lot cleaner. And I've been able to get a WHIP, which is the 
Wildlife Habitat Improvement grant; EQUIP, which is the Environmental 
Quality Incentive Program grant through the Government; all sorts of 
assistance, technical assistance from the Fish and Wildlife Service. In 
fact, on our farm, we've taken the ditches, plugged the ditches, pulled 
all the tiles out of the prior converted farm fields that historically 
were wetlands at one time, and now we've created, just on our little 
farm, over 15 acres of wetlands.
    So, you know, that's great that you do that, and we're able to turn 
the tides and create wetlands, instead of having lost them in the past.
    The President. Yes, see, one of the--we used to have a policy of no 
new net loss--no net loss. How could you have a new net loss--no net 
loss of wetlands. I've now changed that policy to an increase in the 
number of wetlands all across the country to 3 million acres. Here's 
part of the way we're able to do so.

[Mr. Christenson made further remarks.]

    The President. See, good environmental policy doesn't mean you have 
to be a lawyer in Washington, DC. Good environmental policy brings 
conservation groups together, brings hunting and fishing groups 
together, brings local community together, brings local environments 
into play, brings farmers into play. It's a collaborative effort, so we 
all work together to achieve national goals such as better air, cleaner 
water, and more wildlife preserve areas. And we're doing that. We're 
making very solid progress with a commonsense way of approaching 
environmental issues.

[Mr. Christenson made further remarks.]

    The President. All right, I want to talk about one other thing. 
Thank you, sir. He doesn't hunt and fish all the time. You actually have 
a business.
    Mr. Christenson. Yes, I forgot about that. [Laughter]
    The President. What do you do?
    Mr. Christenson. I have fun on the farm making wetlands and habitat 
and all that stuff, but I have to pay the bills. So I have a small 
Subchapter S corporation with about 50 employees, and we collect deer 
hides all across the United States and export them to China. So we, you 
know, we're bringing some money back to the United States. And with 
these great tax breaks that we've had in the last few years, we've been 
able to buy more semis, more forklifts. We've put a lot of good people 
to work. We've hired more people. And the interest rates--my gosh, just 
look at what the interest rates have been the last few years. They've 
really, really helped us by being able to expand our credit lines and do 
a lot of beneficial things for business.
    The President. See, the tax policy we passed, I want you to remember 
what it was, which my opponent voted against every aspect of the tax 
policy. We raised the child credit to help people's families. We reduced 
the marriage penalty. We believe we ought to encourage marriage, not 
discourage marriage through the Tax Code.
    We said, ``If you pay tax, you ought to get relief,'' instead of 
trying to pick and choose winners in the Tax Code. But we also provided 
incentives for small businesses to invest. If you invest as a small 
business, there is a--there's a benefit. You heard him say he bought 
forklifts. Good tax policy encourages certain behavior, and one of the 
behaviors we're trying to encourage is for people to invest more and to 
spend money, to spend capital, because when he buys a forklift, somebody 
has got to make the forklift. When somebody is making the forklift, it 
means somebody is going to get work. That's how the economy works. It 
ripples throughout the economy.
    He says he's a Subchapter S corporation. He's adding jobs. It is bad 
policy to tax the job creators. Do you realize 70 percent of new jobs in 
America are created by small

[[Page 2500]]

businesses just like this guy's? And my opponent, in order to pay for 
his promises, is, at the minimum, going to run up the taxes on about 
900,000 Subchapter S and LLC corporations, going to tax the job 
creators. That is lousy economic policy.
    Let me talk about one other aspect of this campaign in your life, 
and that is how to make sure we keep America secure. The most solemn 
responsibility of the American President is to protect the American 
people. If we show uncertainty or weakness in this decade, this world of 
ours will drift toward tragedy. That's not going to happen on my watch.
    I understand the world in which we live. This is an important issue 
in this campaign. Let me tell you some of the lessons I have learned 
about the post-September the 11th world in which we live. The first 
lesson is, we face an enemy that is ruthless and has no conscience. They 
will kill just like that, whether it be in airplanes on the World Trade 
Center or in a schoolhouse in the Caucasus region of the world. That's 
what they'll do, and therefore, you cannot negotiate with these people. 
You cannot hope for the best with these people. You can't say, ``Well, 
oh, gosh, we'll change the way we conduct foreign policy and hope they 
change their ways.'' The only way to deal with them is to find them and 
bring them to justice before they hurt us again.
    Secondly, this is a different kind of war than we're used to, and 
therefore, it's important to think differently about how to protect the 
American people. One way to do so is to make it very clear that if a 
country harbors a terrorist, they're just as guilty as the terrorist. 
And when the President says something, it is important that the 
President speak clearly, so everybody understands, and mean what he 
says.
    And I meant what I said to the Taliban in Afghanistan. See, they 
were the ones harboring Al Qaida. Thousands of people were trained 
there. It's kind of the classic case of the host and the parasite--the 
Al Qaida was the parasite, and the host was becoming weaker and weaker 
and--in the sense that Al Qaida had free will, doing what they wanted to 
do inside the country. There was no restrictions whatsoever. And they 
ignored our demands until the Taliban no longer is in power. We took 
them out of power, thanks to a great United States military.
    I want the youngsters here to understand what has taken place. It's 
a phenomenal moment in history, phenomenal. See, it wasn't all that long 
ago--3\1/2\ years ago is hardly anything in the march of history--that 
the people in Afghanistan were living under a brutal reign of people 
whose vision is so dark and dim that it's hard for Americans to 
comprehend. And when you hear me talk about the ideologues of hate, I'm 
talking about the Taliban and the people like Al Qaida. Young girls were 
not allowed to go to school. See, that's their vision of the world. And 
if their moms didn't toe the line, they were taken into the public 
square and whipped, in some cases killed in the sports stadium. These 
people were grim.
    But because we acted in our own self-interest, because we acted to 
uphold doctrine and make this world a safer place and to protect the 
American people, millions of Afghan citizens went to the polls to vote 
for a President of their country. The first voter was a 19-year-old 
woman at the polls. It's amazing. Because we acted in our self-interest, 
the poor people living in that country have been liberated from the 
clutches. They no longer live in darkness. They live in light, because 
freedom is on the march.
    And that's important for our long-term security. It's important 
because free societies are peaceful societies. A free society will 
become an ally in the war on terror. A free society will set a 
incredibly hopeful example for others who long for freedom.
    Thirdly, when we see a threat, we've got to deal with it. You know, 
we used to think oceans could protect us. We'd see a threat overseas, 
and if we didn't deal with it, it could be okay because it wouldn't come 
home to hurt us. That all changed on September the 11th.
    I saw a threat with Saddam Hussein. I saw a threat because he was a 
sworn enemy of the United States. I saw a threat because we had been at 
war with him. I saw a threat because he invaded his neighborhood. I saw 
a threat because he was shooting missiles at our airplanes who were 
trying to enforce the

[[Page 2501]]

world's sanctions. I saw a threat--he paid suicide bombers; he harbored 
Abu Nidal and Abu Abbas. Terrorist Zarqawi was in and out of his 
country. I saw a threat because he had used weapons of mass destruction. 
Saddam Hussein was a threat.
    The Congress looked at the same intelligence I looked at and 
concluded he was a threat. My opponent looked at the very same 
intelligence, the very same data, and concluded that Saddam Hussein was 
a threat and voted to authorize his removal. Now, before the President 
ever commits troops into harm's way--listen, I understand the 
consequences. To commit our troops is the last option for me. To put 
somebody in harm's way is the very last choice, not the first, second, 
or third. It is the last. And so I went to the United Nations in hopes 
that diplomacy would solve the threat. And as--they passed a resolution 
15 to nothing, and Saddam Hussein just ignored it, just like he had done 
16 different resolutions.
    You know, we didn't find the stockpiles we thought we found--that we 
thought we would find, that everybody thought we'd find. But we did find 
that he had the capability to restart a weapons programs--he still hated 
us--that he was using the Oil for Food Programme to game the system, to 
get the world to look the other way, to get rid of the sanctions so he 
could restart his programs. The biggest danger we face is a terrorist 
network ending up with weapons of mass destruction. Knowing what I know 
today, I would have made the same decision. [Applause] Thank you.
    My opponent was recently interviewed, and he said September the 
11th, in quotes, his words, ``did not change me much at all.'' See, and 
it's reflected in his attitude and his policies. He says, ``Well, this 
is just a intelligence and law enforcement matter.'' No, this is a 
matter that requires all the assets of the United States of America in 
order to protect you.
    He said that Iraq is a ``diversion'' from the war on terror. That's 
a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of the world in which we 
live, and it's a dangerous misunderstanding. Mr. Zarqawi, who is 
fighting us in Iraq, was in Afghanistan, in terror training camps. He 
then got run out of Afghanistan because of us and moved to Iraq. He then 
was working with a poisons factory in northern Iraq. And now we've got 
him on the run inside of Iraq, and he's fighting us. And he says this is 
a diversion? Does he think if we weren't in Iraq that Mr. Zarqawi would 
become a peaceful citizen of the world? [Laughter] He's a dangerous man. 
He hates what we stand for. He intends to inflict harm. It is best we 
defeat Zarqawi in Iraq so we do not have to face him here at home.
    You cannot win a war when you don't believe we're fighting one, and 
that's my opponent. The most solemn duty of the American President is to 
protect the American people. If we show uncertainty or weakness in this 
decade, the world will drift toward tragedy. It's not going to happen on 
my watch.
    The third lesson--fourth lesson is when we put somebody in harm's 
way, they deserve the full support of our Government. And that's why I 
went to the United States Congress and asked for $87 billion of very 
important funding, funding to support our troops in combat. And we 
received great support, strong bipartisan support. I want you to tell 
your friends and neighbors of this startling statistic. Of the 100 
Members of the United States Senate, only 4 voted to authorize the use 
of force and then did not vote for the funding to support the troops in 
combat, 2 of whom are my opponent and his runningmate.
    Audience members. Boo-o-o!
    The President. They asked him, they said, ``How did you make that 
vote?'' He said, ``Well, I actually did vote for the $87 billion, right 
before I voted against it.'' It may be the most famous quote of the 2004 
campaign. They then kept pressing him and pressing him, and he finally 
said, ``The whole thing is a complicated matter.'' There is nothing 
complicated about supporting the men and women who wear the United 
States uniform in harm's way. [Applause] Thank you all.
    I want to thank the family members of our military who are here. I 
want to thank the veterans who are here who have set such a great 
example for those who wear the uniform.
    I want to share one more thing with you that I think is important 
for you to know about me. I believe in the power of liberty

[[Page 2502]]

to transform societies. Let me tell you what I mean by that. Perhaps an 
example is the best way to make my point. Laura and I have a great 
friend in Prime Minister Koizumi of Japan. We like him. He's a fun guy 
to be around. He's a good friend. I saw him in New York at the United 
Nations in early September. I said, ``You know, I'm talking about you 
when I get out there on the campaign trail. I hope you don't mind.'' He 
said, ``Fine, go ahead and talk about me.'' I didn't ask him permission 
to tell you what I'm about to tell you, and that is, Elvis is his 
favorite singer--truthfully--[laughter]--and ``High Noon'' is his 
favorite movie. [Laughter]
    Anyway, so, you know, it doesn't sound that--must not sound--to some 
it probably doesn't sound that profound that the Prime Minister of Japan 
and I are friends. But remember this part of history: 60 years ago, they 
were the sworn enemy of the United States of America. We were at war 
with the Japanese. And a lot of relatives of yours, I'm confident, 
fought in that war. My dad did, and other dads and granddads did as 
well. And it was a tough war, and we lost a lot of folks.
    Yet, after we won the war, President Harry S. Truman believed in the 
power of liberty to transform an enemy into an ally. That's what he 
believed. So did a lot of other Americans. A lot of other Americans 
didn't agree with him, though. Why help the enemy? And the enemy 
couldn't become a democracy. You know, there was a lot of excuses and a 
lot of pessimism about the helping the Japanese. But fortunately, they 
stuck to it. Japan became a democracy. And today I sit down at the table 
with Prime Minister Koizumi, talking about how to keep the peace we all 
want, talking about keeping the peace.
    Someday, an American President will be sitting down with the duly 
elected leader from Iraq, talking about the peace in the greater Middle 
East, and our children and our grandchildren will be better off for it.
    I believe people in the Middle East want to live in freedom. That's 
what I believe. The people of Afghanistan showed what freedom can mean. 
Do you realize women stood in line for hours waiting to vote, after 
having lived in a society where they had no rights. And they stood in 
line to vote, even though the Taliban were threatening them with death 
and destruction. People want to be free. I believe women in the greater 
Middle East want to live in a free society. I believe moms and dads want 
to raise their children in a free and peaceful world. I believe all 
these things because freedom is not America's gift to the world; freedom 
is the Almighty God's gift to each man and woman in this world.
    It's the last time I'm going to be in Eau Claire before the 
election, but I do want to thank you for coming. And when I campaigned 
in your State in 2000, I said if you gave me a chance to serve, I would 
uphold the honor and the dignity of the office to which I had been 
elected. With your help, we will carry Wisconsin, and I will do so for 4 
more years.
    God bless. Thank you all for coming. Thank you for coming.

Note: The President spoke at 2:49 p.m. at J&D Manufacturing. In his 
remarks, he referred to Don and Diana Redetzke, founders, J&D 
Manufacturing; Scott K. Walker, Milwaukee County executive; John Gard, 
speaker, Wisconsin State Assembly; Dale Schultz, candidate for Congress 
in Wisconsin's Third Congressional District; Tim Michels, senatorial 
candidate in Wisconsin, and his wife, Barbara; Wayne LaPierre, executive 
vice president, and Chris W. Cox, Institute for Legislative Action 
executive director, National Rifle Association; former President Saddam 
Hussein of Iraq; senior Al Qaida associate Abu Musab Al Zarqawi; and 
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi of Japan.