[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 40, Number 43 (Monday, October 25, 2004)]
[Pages 2515-2521]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks in Hershey, Pennsylvania

October 21, 2004

    The President. Thank you all. Thank you all for coming. So he said, 
``A couple of hundred people might show up if you came.'' I came--
thousands are here, and I'm grateful. You know what this tells me. With 
your help, we will carry Pennsylvania on November the 2d.
    Listen, we have a duty in our country to vote. And I'm asking you to 
turn to your friends and neighbors, go to your coffee shops, your houses 
of worship, your community centers, and tell people that we have a duty. 
And as you get people going to the polls, don't overlook discerning 
Democrats, people like Senator Zell Miller from Georgia. Our message is 
for everybody. If you want a safer America, a stronger America, and a 
better America, put me and Dick Cheney back in office.
    Audience members. Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!
    The President. Thank you all for coming. I am so grateful so many 
came. It means a lot. My only regret is that Laura is not here to see 
this crowd. She was a public school librarian when I met her for the 
second time. See, we went to the 7th grade together, San Jacinto Junior 
High in Midland, Texas. When I met her the second time and I finally 
asked her to marry me, she said, ``Fine, just so long as I never have to 
give a speech.'' [Laughter] I said, ``Okay, you got a deal.'' 
Fortunately, she didn't hold me to that promise. She's giving a lot of 
speeches, and when she does, the American people see a compassionate, 
strong, great First Lady. She is not with me today, but one of our twin 
daughters, Barbara, has come. Thank you for coming, baby. There's 
nothing better than campaigning for a President with a daughter you 
love.
    I'm proud of my Vice President, Dick Cheney. Now, look, I admit it, 
he does not have the waviest hair in the race. [Laughter] I did not pick 
him because of his hairdo. [Laughter] I picked him because of his 
experience, his judgment. I picked him because he can get the job done.
    I am proud to have been introduced to this great crowd by Major Dick 
Winters, an American hero who commanded Easy Company in World War II.
    I want to thank Congressman Todd Platts for joining us today. I'm 
proud you're here, Congressman. I want to thank the folks who are here 
from the statehouse and local office. I'm here to say as clearly as I 
can that Scott Paterno needs to be the next Congressman from the 17th 
Congressional District. I appreciate Tom Corbett, who is going to be the 
next attorney general, and Jean Craige Pepper, who's running for 
treasurer.
    But most of all, I want to thank you all for coming. It's getting 
close to voting time. It's time to crank up the phones. It's time to put 
up the signs. It is time to carry Pennsylvania.
    In the last few years, the people have come to know me. They know my 
blunt way of speaking. I get that from my mother. They know I mangle the 
English language sometimes. I get that from my dad. [Laughter] Americans 
also know I tell you exactly what I'm going to do, and I keep my word.

[[Page 2516]]

    When I came into office, the stock market had been in serious 
decline for 6 months. And the American economy was sliding into a 
recession. To help families and to get this economy growing again, I 
pledged to reduce taxes. I kept my word. The results are clear. The 
recession was one of the shallowest in American history.
    Over the last 3 years, our economy has grown at rates as fast as any 
in nearly 20 years. The homeownership rate in America is at an alltime 
high. The past 13 months, we've added 1.9 million new jobs. The 
unemployment rate across our country is 5.4 percent--lower than the 
average rates of the 1970s, the 1980s, and the 1990s. Farm income is up. 
This economy is moving forward, and we're not going to go back to the 
days of tax and spend.
    To make sure jobs are here in America, to make sure people can find 
work, America must be the best place in the world to do business. That 
means lessregulations on our job creators. That means we've got to do 
something about these frivolous lawsuits that are plaguing small-
business owners.
    To keep jobs here in America, Congress needs to pass my energy plan. 
It's a plan that encourages conservation and encourages renewables. It's 
a plan that encourages clean coal technology. It is a plan that 
recognizes, to keep jobs in America, we must be less dependent on 
foreign sources of energy.
    To keep jobs here in America, we must open up markets for U.S. 
products. Listen, we can compete with anybody, anytime, anywhere, so 
long as the rules are fair.
    To make sure this economy continues to grow, we've got to be wise 
about how we spend your money and keep the taxes low. Taxes are an issue 
in this campaign.
    Now, my opponent has his own history on the economy.
    Audience members. Boo-o-o!
    The President. Yes. In 20 years as a Senator from Massachusetts, 
he's built a record of a Senator from Massachusetts. [Laughter] He's 
voted--he has voted to raise taxes 98 times.
    Audience members. Boo-o-o!
    The President. Yes. He voted to tax Social Security benefits.
    Audience members. Boo-o-o!
    The President. Ninety-eight times in twenty years--that's about five 
times a year. I would call that a predictable pattern. See, he can run 
from his record, but he cannot hide.
    Now he's promising not to raise taxes for anyone who earns less than 
$200,000 a year. He said that with a straight face. [Laughter] The 
problem is, to keep that promise he'd have to break all his other 
promises. He has promised $2.2 trillion in new Federal spending. That's 
trillion with a ``T.'' And so they said, ``How are you going to pay for 
it?'' And he said, fine, he's just going to raise taxes on the rich. 
Now, you've heard that before. When you try to raise taxes on the rich, 
that raises between 600 billion and 800 billion. There's a gap between 
what he's promised and how he says he's going to pay for it. And guess 
who usually gets to fill the gap?
    Audience members. Boo-o-o!
    The President. There's something else wrong with the ``tax the 
rich'' slogan. The rich hire lawyers and accountants for a reason: to 
slip the bill and pass it to you. We are not going to let him tax you; 
we will carry Pennsylvania and win on November the 2d.
    Audience members. Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!
    The President. When I came into office, our public schools had been 
waiting decades for hopeful reform. Too many of our children were being 
shuffled through school without learning the basics. I pledged to 
restore accountability in the school and to challenge the soft bigotry 
of low expectations. I kept my word. We passed the No Child Left Behind 
Act, and we're seeing results. Our children are making sustained gains 
in reading and math. We're closing achievement gaps all around this 
country, and we're not going to go back the days of low standards and 
accepted mediocrity.
    When I came into office, we had a problem in Medicare. Medicine was 
changing, but Medicare was not. For example, we'd pay hundreds--tens of 
thousands of dollars for heart surgery but not one dime for the 
prescription drugs that could prevent the heart surgery from being 
needed in the first place. That did not make any sense to our seniors. 
It wasn't right. I pledged to bring Republicans and Democrats together 
to strengthen

[[Page 2517]]

and modernize Medicare. I kept my word. Seniors are getting discounts on 
medicine. And beginning in 2006, all seniors will be able to get 
prescription drug coverage under Medicare.
    We got more to do on health care. We've got to make sure health care 
is available and affordable. We'll have a safety net for those with the 
greatest needs. That's why I believe in community health centers for the 
poor and the indigent. We'll do more to make sure poor children are 
fully subscribed in our programs for low-income families.
    Most of the uninsured in America work for small businesses. Small 
businesses are having trouble affording health care. To enable small 
businesses to afford health care, we must allow them to pool together so 
they can buy insurance at the same discount big companies get to do. We 
will expand health savings accounts so workers and small businesses are 
able to pay lower premiums and people can save tax-free in a health care 
account they manage and call their own.
    To make sure health care is available and affordable, we have to do 
something about the frivolous lawsuits that are running up the cost of 
medicine and running good doctors out of practice. You have a problem 
here in the State of Pennsylvania because of these junk lawsuits. You're 
losing too many good docs. Too many ob-gyns are leaving the practice. 
Too many pregnant women are wondering whether or not they're going to 
get the health care they need in order to bring their child into this 
world. The system is broken. You cannot be pro-doctor, pro-patient, and 
pro-personal-injury-lawyer at the same time. You have to make a choice. 
My opponent put a personal injury lawyer on the ticket.
    Audience members. Boo-o-o!
    The President. He voted against medical liability reform 10 times. 
I'm standing with the doctors. I'm standing with the patients. I'm 
standing with the people of Pennsylvania. I'm for medical liability 
reform--now.
    I laid out a health care plan that's sensible and reasonable. Now, 
my opponent has got his health care plan of his own. And it's a plan for 
bigger Government.
    Audience members. Boo-o-o!
    The President. Now, the other day in the debate, he looked right in 
the camera again, and he said this about his health care plan: ``The 
Government has nothing to do with it.'' I remember him saying that. I 
was standing right there. [Laughter] I could barely contain myself. The 
Government has got a lot to do with his health care plan. Eight out of 
ten Americans would end up on a Government health insurance program. 
Eight million Americans would lose their private health insurance at 
work, and most would go on a Government plan. He says his plan helps 
small businesses. That's what--that's not what small-business groups 
think. They've called it an overpriced albatross that would saddle small 
businesses with 225 new mandates.
    I have a different view. We've got to help small businesses afford 
insurance, not saddle them with a bunch of rules and regulations from 
Washington, DC. In all we do to reform health care, I believe the health 
decisions need to be made by doctors and patients, not by officials in 
our Nation's Capital.
    I'll continue to set out policies for an optimistic and hopeful 
America. I believe this country should be an ownership society. You 
know, there's a saying, no one ever washes a rental car. [Laughter] 
There's a lot of wisdom in that statement. When you own something, you 
care about it. When you own something in America, you care about the 
future of our country.
    That's why we promote entrepreneurship in this administration. Every 
time a small business is started in America, somebody is achieving the 
American Dream. We're encouraging health savings accounts so people have 
the security of owning and managing their own health care account. We're 
encouraging homeownership. Listen, more and more people are able to open 
up the door where they live and say, ``Welcome to my home. Welcome to my 
piece of property.'' And America is better off for it.
    In a new term, we'll take the next step to build an ownership 
society by strengthening Social Security. Now, let me speak to the 
seniors who are here. You remember the 2000 campaign when they were 
running the TV ads that said, ``If George W. gets elected, the seniors 
will not get their checks.'' That's

[[Page 2518]]

old-style scare politics. I want you to remind your friends and 
neighbors, they got their checks. They'll continue to get their checks. 
And baby boomers like me are in pretty good shape when it comes to the 
Social Security trust fund.
    But we need to worry about our children and our grandchildren. See, 
we need to worry about whether or not the Social Security trust will be 
solvent when they need help in retirement. I think younger workers ought 
to be allowed to take some of their payroll taxes and set up a personal 
savings account that earns a better rate of return, an account they call 
their own, an account the Government cannot take away.
    When it comes to Social Security, as you heard the other night in 
the debates, my opponent wants to maintain the status quo.
    Audience members. Boo-o-o!
    The President. The job of a President is to confront problems, not 
pass them on to future generations or future Presidents. He's against 
the Social Security reforms I laid out, and he's against about every 
other reform that gives more authority and control to the individual. On 
issue after issue, from Medicare without choices to schools with less 
accountability to raising taxes, he takes the side of more centralized 
control and more Government.
    There is a word for that attitude. There is a word for that 
philosophy. It is called liberalism. Now, he dismisses that word as a 
label. He must have seen it differently when he said, ``I'm a liberal 
and proud of it.'' [Laughter] The others have noticed as well. There's a 
nonpartisan National Journal magazine that did a study and named him the 
most liberal Member of the United States Senate. That takes a lot of 
hard work in that bunch. [Laughter] Can you imagine being more liberal 
than Ted Kennedy?
    Audience members. No-o-o!
    The President. He can run--he can even run in camo--but he cannot 
hide.
    I have a different record. I have a different philosophy. I do not 
believe in big Government, and I do not believe Government should be 
indifferent. I'm what I call a compassionate conservative. I believe in 
policies that empower people to improve their lives, not try to run 
their lives. We'll continue to help men and women all across this 
country find the skills and tools they need to prosper in a time of 
change, skills and tools necessary to realize the great promise of our 
country. That's how I have led, and that's how I will continue to lead 
for 4 more years.
    Audience members. Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!
    The President. In this time of change, some things do not change. 
Those are the values we try to live by, courage and compassion, 
reverence and integrity. In changing times, we will support the 
institutions that give our lives direction and purpose, our families, 
our schools, our religious congregations. We stand for a culture of life 
in which every person matters and every being counts. We stand for 
marriage and family, which are the foundations of our society. We stand 
for the second amendment, which protects every American's individual 
right to bear arms. We stand for the appointment of Federal judges who 
know the difference between personal opinion and the strict 
interpretation of the law.
    My opponent's words on these issues are a little muddy, but his 
record is plenty clear. He says he supports the institution of marriage 
but voted against the Defense of Marriage Act.
    Audience members. Boo-o-o!
    The President. He voted against the ban on the brutal practice of 
partial-birth abortion.
    Audience members. Boo-o-o!
    The President. He called the Reagan years as a period of moral 
darkness.
    Audience members. Boo-o-o!
    The President. There is a mainstream in American politics, and my 
opponent sits on the far left bank. During this campaign, he can run, 
but he cannot hide.
    This election will also determine how America responds to the 
continuing danger of terrorism. I believe the most solemn duty of the 
American President is to protect the American people. If America shows 
uncertainty or weakness in this decade, the world will drift toward 
tragedy. This will not happen on my watch.
    Since that terrible morning of September the 11th, 2001, we have 
fought the terrorists across the Earth, not for pride, not for power,

[[Page 2519]]

but because the lives of our citizens are at stake. Our strategy is 
clear. We are defending the homeland. I thank the first-responders who 
are here with us today. We're strengthening our intelligence. We're 
transforming our military. We will not have a draft. The All-Volunteer 
Army will remain an all-volunteer army. We are staying on the offensive. 
We will strike the terrorists abroad so we do not have to face them here 
at home. We will spread freedom and liberty. And we will prevail.
    Our strategy is succeeding. Think about the world, the way it was 
some 3\1/2\ years ago--think about this. Afghanistan was the home base 
of Al Qaida. Pakistan was a transit point for terrorist groups. Saudi 
Arabia was fertile ground for terrorist fundraising. Libya was secretly 
pursuing nuclear weapons. Iraq was a dangerous place and a gathering 
threat. And Al Qaida was largely unchallenged as it planned horrific 
attacks.
    Because the United States of America led, Afghanistan is an ally in 
the war on terror and is now a free nation; Pakistan is capturing 
terrorist leaders; Saudi Arabia is making raids and arrests; Libya is 
dismantling its weapons programs; the army of a free Iraq is fighting 
for its country's freedom; and more than three-quarters of Al Qaida's 
associates and members have been brought to justice.
    We are standing with the people of Afghanistan and Iraq. I want the 
youngsters here to understand what has taken place during a brief period 
of your life. It wasn't all that long ago that young girls couldn't go 
to school in Afghanistan. It wasn't all that long ago that their mothers 
were taken into the public square and whipped because they wouldn't toe 
the line of these ideologues of hate called the Taliban. It wasn't all 
that long ago that the people of that country lived in darkness. Because 
we acted in our own self-interest, because we acted to destroy the Al 
Qaida terrorists' training camps, because we worked to secure ourselves, 
25 million people live in freedom. They had Presidential elections a 
couple of weekends ago in Afghanistan. The first voter in Afghanistan 
was a 19-year-old girl. Freedom is on the march, and the people of 
Afghanistan have gone from darkness to light.
    The people of Iraq will be voting for a President in January. Think 
how far that society has come from the day of torture chambers and mass 
graves. It's in our interest that we spread freedom. Free societies will 
be hopeful societies which no longer feed resentments and breed violence 
for export. Free governments in the Middle East will fight the 
terrorists instead of harboring them. Freedom will help us keep the 
peace we all want. Freedom is on the move, and America is more secure 
for it.
    So our mission is clear--our mission is clear. We will help these 
countries train armies and police forces and security forces in 
Afghanistan and Iraq so they can do the hard work of defending their 
freedom, so they can stand up and fight these terrorists who are trying 
to stop the advance of freedom. We'll help the countries get on the path 
of stability and democracy as quickly as possible, and then our troops 
will come home with the honor they have earned.
    We have a great United States military because those who wear the 
uniform are people of such great character and service and duty and 
honor. And I want to thank the veterans who are here today for having 
set such a great example for those who wear the uniform. And I want to 
thank the military families who are here for the sacrifices you have 
made. And I assure you, we'll keep the commitment we have made to the 
troops and their families. They will have the resources they need to 
complete their missions.
    That's why I went to the Congress in September of 2003 and asked for 
$87 billion of supplemental funding to support our troops in harm's way. 
I received great bipartisan support. Your Senators, Senator Specter and 
Santorum, voted with me on that bill. It was an important piece of 
legislation. Most people up in Congress understood how important it was. 
As a matter of fact, only 12 Members of the United States Senate voted 
against funding for our troops, 2 of whom were my opponent and his 
runningmate.
    Audience members. Boo-o-o!
    The President. Now, I want to tell you another startling statistic. 
When you're out gathering the vote--I want to tell you another startling 
statistic, a true fact. There were only 4 Members of the United States

[[Page 2520]]

Senate--4 out of 100--that had voted to authorize the use of force and 
then voted against the funding to support our troops in harm's way, 2 of 
whom are my opponent and his runningmate.
    Audience members. Boo-o-o!
    The President. So they asked him how he could have made that vote. 
They asked him how he could have made that vote. And you might remember 
perhaps the most famous quote of the 2004 campaign. Here is what he 
said: ``I actually did vote for the $87 billion, before I voted against 
it.''
    Audience members. Boo-o-o!
    The President. They kept asking him, and he kept answering. He must 
have given five or six different explanations. One of the most 
interesting ones of all is he finally said, ``The whole thing was a 
complicated matter.'' [Laughter] There's nothing complicated about 
supporting our troops in harm's way.
    All elections come down to a choice, and in this, America's first 
Presidential election since September the 11th, the security of our 
country is at risk in many ways different than we have ever faced 
before. We're in the midst of a global war against a well-trained, 
highly motivated enemy, an enemy that has no conscience, an enemy that 
hates Americans because of the very freedoms we love. The next Commander 
in Chief must lead us to victory in this war. Yet, you cannot win a war 
when you do not believe you are fighting one.
    Senator Kerry was recently asked how September the 11th had changed 
him. And he replied this: ``It did not change me much at all.'' End 
quote.
    Audience members. Boo-o-o!
    The President. His unchanged world becomes obvious when he calls the 
war against terror primarily an intelligence and law enforcement 
operation rather than a war which requires the full use of American 
strength. Senator Kerry's top foreign policy advisor questioned this is 
even a war at all. And here's what he said: ``We're not in a war on 
terror in a literal sense. It's like saying `the war on poverty'--it's 
just a metaphor.'' End quote. It's a different mindset, a different 
attitude. Confusing food programs with terrorist killings reveals a 
fundamental misunderstanding of the world we live in, of the world we 
face. And this is very dangerous thinking.
    Senator Kerry also misunderstands our battle against insurgents and 
terrorists in Iraq. He called Iraq a ``diversion'' from the war on 
terror. Let me talk about the case of one terrorist to show you how 
wrong this thinking is. The terrorist leader we face today in Iraq, the 
one responsible for car bombings and beheadings of Americans, is a man 
named Zarqawi. Zarqawi ran a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan 
until our military arrived. He then went to Iraq. He received medical 
care in Iraq. He plotted and planned in Iraq. To confirm where he's 
coming from, just the other day Zarqawi announced his allegiance to 
Usama bin Laden. If Zarqawi and his associates were not busy fighting 
American forces in Iraq, does my opponent think they would be living 
peaceful and productive lives? Course not. That's why Iraq is not a 
diversion but a central commitment in the war on terror.
    The Senator the other day talked about the need for America to pass 
a ``global test'' when it comes to committing our troops.
    Audience members. Boo-o-o!
    The President. I'm not making that up. He was standing right there 
when he said it. No, we'll work with our friends and allies. I'll 
continue to build alliances and strong coalitions. But I will never turn 
over America's national security decisions to leaders of other 
countries.
    Audience members. U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!
    The President. I believe in the transformational power of liberty. 
That's what I believe. I believe liberty can transform nations. One of 
our friends--Laura and my friends is Prime Minister of Japan. He's a 
friend. I saw him at the United Nations in New York. I said, ``Listen, 
I'm going to be talking about you on the campaign trail. Do you mind?'' 
He said, ``No, go ahead and talk about me.'' I said, ``Okay.'' What he 
didn't--I didn't ask him permission to tell you that Elvis is his 
favorite singer. [Laughter] We've gotten to know him quite well.
    It probably doesn't sound much to folks out there, that I would call 
him my friend. But remember, 60 years ago, we were at war with Japan. 
They were the sworn enemy of

[[Page 2521]]

the United States of America. My dad, like many of his generation, like 
many of the Band of Brothers, fought against the Japanese--people of 
that generation served. And your dads and granddads did the same, I'm 
confident.
    After we won the war, Harry S. Truman, President of the United 
States, believed that liberty could transform an enemy into an ally. 
That's what he believed. There was a lot of skepticism about that, a lot 
of doubt. There was a lot of anger because of the war, and you can 
understand why. Families' lives have been turned upside down because of 
death during the war. A lot of people just said, ``Well, the enemy can't 
possibly become a democracy.'' But our predecessors stayed with it. And 
as a result of that belief, I sit down at the table today talking about 
how to keep the peace with Prime Minister Koizumi.
    Someday, an American President will be sitting down with a duly-
elected leader of Iraq, talking about peace in the Middle East. And our 
children and our grandchildren will be better off for it.
    I believe that millions in the Middle East plead in silence for 
their liberty. I believe women in the Middle East want to live in a free 
society. I believe mothers and fathers in the Middle East 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.
    For all Americans, these years in our history will always stand 
apart. There are quiet times in the life of a nation when little is 
expected of its leaders. This isn't one of those times. This is a time 
that requires firm resolve, clear vision, and a deep faith in the values 
that makes us a great nation.
    None of us will ever forget that week when one era ended and another 
began. On September the 14th, 2001, I stood in the ruins of the Twin 
Towers. It is a day I will never forget. I will never forget the voices 
of those in hardhats yelling at me at the top of their lungs, ``Whatever 
it takes.'' I will never forget the police or firefighter coming out of 
the rubble who grabbed me by the arm, and he looked me square in the 
eye, and he said, ``Do not let me down.'' Ever since that day--ever 
since that day, I wake up every morning thinking about how to better 
protect our country. I will never relent in defending America, whatever 
it takes.
    Four years ago, when I traveled your great State asking for the 
vote, I made a pledge that if you gave me a chance to serve, I would 
uphold the honor and the dignity of the office to which I have been 
elected. With your help, with your hard work, I will do so for 4 more 
years.
    God bless. Thanks for coming. Thank you all.

Note: The President spoke at 4:20 p.m. at Hershey Park Stadium. In his 
remarks, he referred to Tom Corbett, candidate for Pennsylvania State 
Attorney General; Jean Craige Pepper, candidate for Pennsylvania State 
Treasurer; senior Al Qaida associate Abu Musab Al Zarqawi; Usama bin 
Laden, leader of the Al Qaida terrorist organization; and Prime Minister 
Junichiro Koizumi of Japan.