[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 42, Number 11 (Monday, March 20, 2006)]
[Pages 485-489]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at a National Republican Congressional Committee Dinner

March 16, 2006

    Thank you all. Please be seated. Thank you all for coming. Thank you 
for the warm welcome. Mr. Speaker, I can't tell you what a joy it is to 
work with you. America is very fortunate to have Denny Hastert as the 
Speaker of the House of Representatives. And I want to thank you all for 
coming tonight to make sure that he remains the Speaker of the House of 
Representatives.
    We're here to not only thank you but to remind you and our fellow 
citizens, we've got a lot of work to do to lay the foundations for 
peace, and we've got a lot of work to do to make sure this country 
remains a prosperous country so that every single citizen can realize 
the great promise of America.
    I bring greetings from the First Lady--that would be Laura. She 
sends her best regards to the Speaker and the leadership of the House of 
Representatives. She sends her best regards to you. I'm a lucky guy that 
she said yes when I asked her to marry me. She is a fabulous woman, a 
great mom, and she's doing a wonderful job as our Nation's First Lady.
    I also bring greetings from the Vice President of the United States, 
Dick Cheney. You know, mine is an interesting job. I get to make a lot 
of decisions, and I have to rely on people to give me good, sound, 
steady advice. And Vice President Dick Cheney

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gives me good, sound, steady advice. The country is lucky to have him as 
the Vice President of the United States.
    I want to thank my friend Tom Reynolds, Congressman Tom Reynolds 
from New York, for being the chairman of the NRCC. I thank Buck--and 
Patricia--for being such a fine chairman and supporting person for this 
event. This takes a lot of time and a lot of effort to put together a 
significant event like this. And Buck, I know you worked hard, and I 
want to thank you and the entire team of people for making this such a 
successful event.
    I welcome the House Majority Leader, John Boehner from Ohio. Thank 
you, John. The House Majority Whip, Roy Blunt from Missouri; I 
appreciate you being here, Roy. I thank all the leadership team for the 
House of Representatives who are here tonight. I want to thank all the 
Members of Congress. Thanks for coming. But most importantly, I thank 
our distinguished guests.
    We've got a lot of work to do. This Nation is a nation at war, and 
I'm proud to work with Members of the United States Congress who 
understand that. After September the 11th, I vowed to our country that 
we would remain firm in defeating an enemy that would try to hurt us 
again. And I appreciate the strong allies in the House of 
Representatives who understand the stakes in the world in which we live.
    Ours is a nation which is committed to making sure we defeat the 
terrorists overseas so we do not have to face them here at home. We 
understand that if somebody harbors a terrorist, feeds a terrorist, 
houses a terrorist, they're equally as guilty as the terrorist, and they 
will be held to account. You know, a President, when he says something, 
he better mean it, and when I told the Taliban, ``Cough up Al Qaida or 
we will hold you--we will bring you to justice,'' I meant what I said. 
Thanks to the United States military, Afghanistan is now free, and 
America is better off for it.
    I know the Members here share the great joy I have in knowing that 
we liberated 25 million people from the clutches of one of the most 
barbaric regimes in the history of man. Thanks to defending our Nation, 
thanks to upholding the doctrine that says if you harbor a terrorist--
today, young girls go to school in Afghanistan, women have a chance to 
succeed. Afghanistan is free, and the world is better off for it.
    I appreciate working with Members of the United States Congress who 
understand that one of the lessons of September the 11th is when this 
Nation sees a threat, we must take it seriously, before it materializes. 
I saw a threat in Saddam Hussein. Members of the United States Congress, 
both Republicans and Democrats, saw a threat. Members of the United 
Nations Security Council saw a threat. By removing Saddam Hussein from 
power, America is safer and the world is better off.
    We have a strategy for victory in Iraq. Part of that victory means 
that we will stand by the Iraqi people as a democracy unfolds. I hope 
you felt the joy in your heart that I felt when millions of Iraqis--75 
percent of voting-age population--defied the terrorists, defied the car 
bombers, surprised the world, and said loud and clear, ``We want to be 
free.''
    We've got a comprehensive strategy to help that country rebuild its 
economy, and we've got a strategy to train Iraqis so they can defend 
their freedom. We fight a terrorist, an enemy that has got only one 
weapon. They can't beat us on the battlefield, but they have the 
capacity and the willingness to kill innocent life. They know full well 
that our TV screens are full of images of the innocent dying, and they 
know full well it breaks our heart. The only way the enemy can defeat 
us, the only way that Iraq will not become a democracy is if we lose our 
nerve. I will not lose my nerve in the face of assassins and killers.
    I thank the Members of the United States Congress understanding that 
in order to achieve a victory in Iraq, that we will rely upon the wisdom 
of our commanders on the ground. As Iraqis stand up, we will stand down. 
And the troop levels in Iraq will not be decided by artificial 
timetables set in Washington, DC, but by our commanders on the ground.
    The work is hard in Iraq, but it's necessary. It's necessary for our 
security; it's necessary to lay the foundations of peace in a troubled 
part of the world. We believe that democracy

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is the right of every man and woman on this world. And we understand 
that history says loud and clear that democracies do not war.
    I want to read a letter from--to you, if you don't mind, from a 
mother of a courageous American named Sergeant William Scott Kinzer, Jr. 
I read this letter the other day, and I thought you might like to hear 
one mother's point of view of what we're doing. William Scott Kinzer was 
killed last year while securing election sites in Iraq. His mom, Debbie, 
wrote me. She said: ``These words are straight from a shattered but 
healing mother's heart. My son made a decision to join the Army. He 
believed that what he was involved in would eventually change Iraq, and 
those changes would be recorded in history books in years to come. On 
his last visit home, I asked him what I would ever do if something 
happened to him in Iraq. He smiled at me, and his blue eyes sparkled as 
he said, `Mom, I love my job. If I should die, I would die happy. Does 
life get any better than that?' ''
    His mom went on to say, ``Please do not let the voices we hear the 
loudest change what you and Scott started in Iraq. Please do not let his 
dying be in vain. Do not let my son have given his all for an unfinished 
job. Please complete the mission.'' My message to Debbie and the message 
from people here from the United States Congress is the same: We will 
complete the mission; we will secure this country; we will spread 
freedom for the sake of peace for our children and our grandchildren.
    I thank the Speaker and the leaders of the United States Congress 
who understand that when we ask our law enforcement officials and 
intelligence officials to protect us, they must have all the tools 
necessary to do their job. So we passed the PATRIOT Act right after 
September the 11th. It's an important act. It's an act that protected 
the civil liberties of the United States while giving law enforcement 
the tools necessary to protect us. Parts of the PATRIOT Act expired last 
year. It came up for reauthorization.
    I want to remind the people what the Democrat leader from Nevada 
said in the United States Senate. He boasted, the ``Democrats killed the 
PATRIOT Act.'' They didn't kill it for long. Thanks to the leadership of 
the people up here on this dais, the PATRIOT Act passed, and the 
homeland is more secure.
    The Speaker and I were sitting back there talking about some of the 
challenges we've faced over the past years. This economy of ours faced 
some serious challenges. We had a recession, a stock market collapse. 
There was terrorist attacks, corporate scandals, major natural 
disasters, rising energy prices. But we acted. We had a plan, an 
economic recovery plan. And by working together, we passed that plan. 
And the heart of that plan was this: We believe that when Americans have 
more money to save and spend or invest, the economy is better off. So we 
cut the taxes. We cut the taxes on working families; we cut the taxes on 
family with children; we cut the taxes on small businesses; we cut the 
taxes on dividends; we cut the taxes on capital gains.
    I remember clearly in 2003 when a Democrat leader attacked our 
economic growth plan and said of the tax relief, it is ``reckless and 
irresponsible;'' it's a ``reckless and irresponsible tax plan that will 
undermine opportunity in our country.'' Today, the United States economy 
is strong, and it's getting stronger. We grew last year at 3.5 percent, 
faster than any major industrialized nation. We added 243,000 jobs in 
February, almost 5 million jobs in the last 2\1/2\ years. The 
unemployment rate across the United States is 4.8 percent--that's lower 
than the average rate of the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s. Real after-tax income 
is up for working people. Productivity is high in America. Homeownership 
are at alltime levels; more minorities own a home today in America than 
ever before in our Nation's history. The economic recovery plan that we 
passed works.
    Today, many Democrats want the tax relief we passed to expire in a 
few years. Some even want to repeal it now. If the tax relief is not 
made permanent, the American people will get a mighty tax increase they 
do not want and they do not deserve. In order to make sure this economy 
of ours remains strong, we need to make the tax relief permanent.
    We have a plan to cut the deficit in half by 2009. Oh, you'll hear 
some in Washington say, ``Well, let's raise your taxes in order to

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balance the budget.'' Folks, that's not the way Washington works. Here's 
how Washington works: They'll raise your taxes, and they'll figure out 
new ways to spend your money. The best way to cut the deficit is to keep 
our progrowth economic policies in place and be wise about how we spend 
your money. We set priorities in Washington, DC--[applause]. By the way, 
every single spending program sounds great. They've all got wonderful 
titles. We believe that it's important to set priorities. So long as 
we've got any troops in harm's way, they'll have all the equipment, all 
the support, the best pay, the best housing possible. And I want to 
thank the Members of the United States Congress who are here for 
supporting the troops of the United States military.
    I thank the Speaker, and I thank the leaders here who've helped us 
put austere budgets in place, budgets that have cut the rate of growth 
of nonsecurity discretionary spending every year since 2001. I put out 
another tight budget for 2007, and I look forward to working with 
Congress to be wise about how we spend your money, to make sure that the 
deficit is cut in half by 2009.
    I appreciate very much the work on the line-item veto. I look 
forward to working with the United States Congress, to join with them to 
make sure that when we spend money, it's money well-spent. Today I met 
with members of both political parties and both chambers of the United 
States Congress to strategize about how we can get a line-item veto 
passed, to my desk, so we can assure the American people their money is 
going to be spent in a way they want their money spent.
    We believe we should not fear the future, but we should shape the 
future. We believe we ought to put policies in place to make sure that 
America remains the economic leader of the world. And one way to do that 
is to make sure we have an economy which is flexible, where regulations 
are low, as are taxes. And one way to make sure this economy of ours 
remains strong and vibrant is to continue to work for meaningful, real 
tort reform.
    I know it shocks some of you to hear a Texan say that we're addicted 
to oil--[laughter]--and we are. And that's a problem. In order to make 
sure this Nation remains competitive, in order to make sure we're the 
leader of the world, I look forward to working with the Members of the 
United States Congress here to pass the Advanced Energy Initiative.
    Last year, thanks to the leadership of the Speaker, I was able to 
sign a comprehensive energy bill. There is more work to be done. We're 
going to harness technology to make sure the automobiles you drive 
consume less oil. We believe in plug-in hybrid batteries. It's the wave 
of the future. We believe in the use of ethanol. I love the fact that 
when our farmers are growing crops, it makes us less dependent on oil 
from the Middle East.
    Ours is a party that knows you got to challenge the status quo when 
it comes to energy. In order to make sure this country is less dependent 
on fossil fuels, we must promote safe and sound nuclear power. We must 
promote solar energy and clean coal technology and wind energy. Ours is 
the party that can see into the future. We don't fear it; we welcome it 
because we intend to continue to lead.
    We believe in a health care system that's run by doctors and 
patients, not by people in Washington, DC. Recently, working with the 
United States Congress, Members up here on the dias, we have kept a firm 
commitment to the Nation's elderly. Our Government said, ``We're going 
to take care of the elderly with good health care.'' And the Medicare 
system became stagnant and old. It wasn't meeting the requirements of 
our seniors. So we came together and did something that no Congress had 
been able to do for years, and that is modernize Medicare. But as we did 
so, we not only provided prescription drugs for our seniors but we had a 
uniquely Republican idea as a part of that bill, and it said that we 
ought to give our seniors choices. We believe that people ought to be 
given choices in the marketplace. We believe that Government shouldn't 
tell people the nature of their health care. We believe that Government 
ought to say, ``Here's some choices from which to choose.''
    So far, 25 million seniors have signed up for this program. 
Interestingly enough, because we've injected competition into Medicare, 
the projected costs for Medicare this

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year are going to be 20 percent less than projected. Competition works. 
Trusting people to make the decisions in their lives is the right thing 
to do. The Medicare modernization plan we passed is good for our 
seniors, and I'm proud that we're able to get the job done.
    We believe in health savings accounts, which puts consumers in 
charge of their health decisions. We believe in association health plans 
that enable small businesses to pool risk across jurisdictional 
boundaries so they can buy insurance at the same rates and same 
discounts that big companies are able to do. We believe in information 
technology to help control the cost. And we believe we've got to do 
something about these frivolous and junk lawsuits that are running good 
doctors out of practice and running up the cost of medicine for our 
consumers.
    We don't fear the future; we welcome it. And we understand that to 
make sure this country remains competitive, we've got to stay on the 
leading edge of technological change. And so therefore, I look forward 
to working with Congress to double the Federal commitment to the most 
critical basic research in the physical sciences over the next 10 years. 
I look forward to working with the United States Congress to make sure 
the research and development tax credit is a permanent part of our Tax 
Code. And I look forward to working with the United States Congress to 
make sure our children have got the skills necessary to become the 
scientists and engineers and chemists and physicists to keep the jobs of 
the 21st century right here in the United States of America.
    I can stand up here and tell you that we have delivered results for 
the American people, and we've got an agenda to continue to do so. One 
of the interesting things about working with these good folks is that 
they've got a proper perspective of the role of Government in our life 
as well. The way I like to put it is this: Government can hand out 
money, but it cannot put hope in a person's heart or a sense of purpose 
in a person's life. We understand that the great strength of America is 
not in the size of our military force or in the size of our wallets. The 
great strength of the United States of America lies in the hearts and 
souls of our citizens who all want to serve something greater than 
themselves. Ours is a compassionate nation; ours is a loving nation. And 
we understand the role of Government is not to crowd out our faith-based 
and community-based institutions but to welcome them in the providing of 
care and love and compassion for our fellow citizens who hurt.
    We believe in ushering in the responsibility era, when our citizens 
understand they are responsible for the decisions they make in life. If 
you are a mother or a father, you're responsible for loving your child 
with all your heart. If you're a corporate citizen, you're responsible 
for being a--for putting something back into our culture, and you're 
responsible for telling the truth to your shareholders.
    If you're a citizen who wants to help change America one heart and 
one soul at a time, you're responsible for mentoring a child, for 
feeding the hungry, for providing shelter to the homeless. The great 
strength of America is the compassion of America. And I look forward to 
continue to call people to service, to rally that strength so that every 
single citizen of our country realizes the great promise and the great 
hope of the blessed land we call home.
    It's an honor to be here. I'm proud to be your President. I'm proud 
to be working with these Members of the United States Congress. I want 
to thank you for keeping them in power in Washington. The Nation is 
better off with Denny Hastert as the Speaker and these leaders running 
the Congress.
    God bless, and God bless America.

Note: The President spoke at 7:12 p.m. at the Washington Hilton Hotel. 
In his remarks, he referred to Patricia McKeon, wife of Representative 
Howard P. ``Buck'' McKeon; and former President Saddam Hussein of Iraq.