[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 42, Number 25 (Monday, June 26, 2006)]
[Pages 1184-1188]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at the President's Dinner

June 19, 2006

    Thank you all very much. Thank you. Please be seated. Thanks for the 
warm welcome.
    Jim, thanks very much for your introduction. Thanks for your 
leadership for this incredibly successful dinner. Thank you all for 
coming.
    I told Laura, I said, ``I'm going to the President's Dinner.'' She 
said, ``Cook it yourself.'' [Laughter] She's doing great, by the way. 
She is a--I'm a lucky man that she said yes when I asked her to marry 
me. She is a fabulous mom, a great wife, and she's doing a wonderful job 
as the First Lady of the United States.
    She sends her best. She, like me, understands that we're going to 
keep the House and we're going to keep the Senate thanks to you all. And 
there's a reason why we got to keep the House and the Senate. We got a 
fabulous Speaker and leadership team in the United States House of 
Representatives and a great leader in Bill Frist in the United States 
Senate.
    We're here for a reason. We're here to solve problems and not pass 
them to future Congresses and future Presidents. We're making a 
difference for the people of the United States of America. When we see 
problems, we solve them. The Democrats are good talkers; we're good 
doers. We get the job done. We understand the stakes to the world in 
which we live. We understand the most important responsibility we have 
in Washington is to defend the people of the United States, and that's 
exactly what we're doing.
    I appreciate the members of my Cabinet here tonight. Thank you all 
for coming. Don't stay too long; you got to get back to work. [Laughter]
    I'm thrilled that Speaker Denny Hastert is here, and Leader Bill 
Frist. [Applause] I want to thank the--must have a lousy seat. 
[Laughter] I want to thank Elizabeth Dole and Lamar Alexander. I want to 
thank Congressman Tom Reynolds. I want to thank Mitch McConnell. I want 
to thank John Boehner. I want to thank all the Members of the House and 
the Senate who've joined

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us tonight. I appreciate your service to our country, and I'm proud to 
serve with you.
    These are historic times in which we live, and these are times that 
require people to make hard decisions. I'm proud to be serving with 
people, here in Washington, DC, who make decisions on what's right, not 
what the focus groups say and what the polls say. And what is right is 
doing what it takes to defend the United States of America from attack 
again.
    I'm proud to be serving with people who understand the lessons of 
September the 11th. And here's what I've learned. I've learned that we 
must look at the world the way it is, not the way we hope it is. I've 
learned that in order to do our duty to protect the American people, we 
must understand the nature of the enemy we face. We face coldblooded 
killers who would like nothing more than to strike the United States of 
America again, and the only way to defeat them is to stay on the offense 
and bring them to justice before they hurt America again.
    When the President speaks, he better mean what he says, and when I 
said, ``If you harbor a terrorist, you're equally as guilty as the 
terrorist,'' I meant exactly what I said. And when the Taliban refused 
to cough up Al Qaida, we acted. In the United States Congress, we're 
strong supporters of upholding that doctrine. And as a result of our 
action, America is safer, Al Qaida no longer has training camps, and 25 
million people now live in freedom.
    I'm proud to be working with a Speaker and the Leader of the Senate 
and Republican Members of the House and the Senate who understand the 
stakes of the world in which we live. I am proud to be working with 
clear-eyed realists who understand that we can give no quarter to an 
enemy that would like to do us harm again.
    One of the lessons of September the 11th is that when this country 
sees a threat, we must deal with it before it fully materializes. When a 
lot of us were coming up, we thought oceans could protect us from harm, 
but the lesson of September the 11th is, oceans can no longer protect 
the United States.
    The best way to protect the United States is to take care of threats 
before they come to hurt us. In Iraq, Republicans and Democrats saw a 
threat. We saw Saddam Hussein who terrorized his neighbors, Saddam 
Hussein who killed his own people, a Saddam Hussein who used weapons of 
mass destruction, a Saddam Hussein who had funded terrorists, Saddam 
Hussein who defied U.N. resolution after U.N. resolution. And when he 
defied his last U.N. resolution, we removed him from power, and the 
world is better off for it.
    And I'm proud to be serving with Members of the United States 
Congress and the United States Senate who stand by their convictions, 
who don't try to change history in the midst of hard work. And that's 
what this world requires; it requires hard work by the United States of 
America. And right now we're doing hard work in Iraq. Iraq is the 
central front on the war on terror. And it's important we succeed.
    You know I just recently went to Baghdad, had an interesting 
experience there. I met the new Prime Minister and the new Cabinet of a 
unity government. And here's what I saw: I saw people dedicated to 
living out the--to living out the desires of the 12 million people who 
went to the polls in defiance of the car bombers and the killers. I saw 
people from different groups in that country coming together to say, 
``We want to succeed.'' And I saw people wondering whether the United 
States would have the nerve to stay the course and help them succeed.
    I went to Iraq, and I said, ``It's up to you. It's up to you to 
seize this moment.'' But I also told them this, ``When America gives its 
word, America will keep its word.'' And we will help this good country 
of Iraq become a thriving democracy in the heart of the Middle East.
    Now, we're going to win the war on terror if we don't lose our 
nerve. We will win the war on terror by bringing the terrorists to 
justice. We will win the war on terror by defeating the terrorists in 
Iraq, and we will win the war on terror by defeating their hateful 
ideology with freedom.
    You see, I want you to understand something loud and clear. I make 
my decisions based upon principles that just aren't going to change, and 
I'm proud to be standing with Members--Republican Members of the House 
and Senate who stand on the very

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same principles. We believe in the universality of freedom. We believe 
everybody desires to be free. And we believe that the spread of freedom 
will yield the peace this world wants. It is important to have Members 
of the United States Congress who will not wave the white flag of 
surrender in this war on terror.
    There is a debate here in Washington, and there should be. And I 
welcome the debate, and we should welcome the debate. But I want to 
remind you of the consequences if those who want to withdraw from Iraq 
happen to prevail in the debate. An early withdrawal would be a defeat 
for the United States of America. An early withdrawal would embolden the 
terrorists. Talk about a deadline before we've done the job sends chills 
throughout the spines of Iraqi citizens who are wondering whether or not 
the United States has the capacity to keep its word.
    An early withdrawal would embolden Al Qaida and bin Laden. An early 
withdrawal, before we completed the missions, would say to the United 
States military, ``Your sacrifices have gone to vain.'' There will be no 
early withdrawal so long as we run the Congress and occupy the White 
House.
    I want to thank the Members of Congress, Republican Members of 
Congress, for supporting the United States military. It's really 
important for our military to know that the United States of America 
supports them in Iraq. I'll tell you one of the things that just struck 
me when I was there in Baghdad. I looked in the eyes of our civilians 
who were there and I looked in the eyes of our troops, and I saw brave 
and honorable and decent and courageous souls. I saw the best of 
America. And this Congress and this White House will give them what it 
takes to win the war on terror.
    And here at home, Republicans in the House and the Senate, working 
with the White House, have dealt with some pretty tough times for our 
economy. I know it seems like a long time ago, but it wasn't all that 
long ago that we had to deal with a recession and a stock market 
correction and corporate scandals and attacks on our country and two 
wars and two major invasions as a part of the war on terror and natural 
disasters and high energy prices. Yet instead of talking, we acted, and 
we acted on principle.
    We Republicans believe that when you have more of your own money in 
your pocket to save, spend, or invest, it can overcome tough economic 
times. We believe that we ought to trust you with your money, and not 
trust Government on how to spend your money. And as a result of our 
progrowth economic policies, this economy is strong, and we intend to 
keep it strong.
    Our economy grew at 3.5 percent last year, and that's faster than 
any other major industrialized nation in the world. We added 5.3 million 
new jobs since August of 2003. The national unemployment rate is 4.6 
percent. That's below the average for every decade since the 1960s. The 
entrepreneurial spirit is strong in America because of Republican 
progrowth economic policies.
    And there is a clear record on this issue. And as people start going 
to the polls next November, I want them to remember who cut the taxes 
and who was against the tax cuts. Every single tax cut was opposed by 
the Democrat leadership, every tax cut: tax cuts for child--children, 
families with children; tax cuts to get rid of the death tax; tax cuts 
on capital gains and dividends; tax cuts for everybody who pays taxes; 
tax cuts for small businesses. We're the party of tax cuts, and we're 
the party of economic growth. And we intend to keep it that way by 
making the tax cuts permanent.
    If you want your taxes raised, vote Democrat. If you want your taxes 
low, keep Denny Hastert and Bill Frist as leaders of the House and the 
Senate.
    Oh, you hear all kinds of excuses for raising taxes here in 
Washington. The classic is, ``We need to raise the taxes to balance the 
budget.'' That's not how Washington works. I've been here 5\1/2\ years; 
I can tell you how it works. See, they're going to raise your taxes, and 
then they'll figure out new ways to spend your money.
    The best way to balance the budget is to be fiscally wise with your 
money and to keep progrowth economic policies in place, which is exactly 
what we're going to do. We're on our way to cutting this deficit in half 
by 2009, because our economy is strong as a result

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of low taxes and because we're working together to make sure we're wise 
about how we spend your money. I'll tell you one thing about spending 
your money, though. So long as we have got any soldier in harm's way, I 
look forward to working with the Congress to make sure he or she gets 
all the equipment, all the training, all the pay necessary to win this 
war on terror.
    We're willing to deal with tough issues, and we got a tough issue 
with immigration. This is an important debate for the United States of 
America, but I want all of us to remember one thing: We are a nation of 
immigrants, and we will treat people with respect, no matter what 
country they're from.
    The American people expect us to secure our borders, and we will. We 
will increase the number of Border Patrol agents, and I want to thank 
the Congress for passing strong measures to do just that. We will 
provide new technologies for our borders, to help our Border Patrol 
agents. We will end catch-and-release, so when we catch somebody trying 
to sneak in our country, they're going to go back home. We will send a 
clear message to people trying to sneak across our borders: The United 
States will secure our borders. But I also want you to understand that 
to secure our borders, we need a comprehensive immigration plan.
    We need a plan that says, instead of trying to sneak across our 
borders, you can come and work in our borders--in our country, on a 
temporary basis, for jobs Americans aren't doing. We need a temporary-
worker plan in order to make sure this border of ours is secure. We need 
to give those temporary workers a chance to come here and then go back 
home after they work, and give them a card, see. They need to have a 
tamper-proof card. And that's how you begin to have true enforcement.
    It's against the law to hire somebody who's here--who is illegally 
here, and we intend to make sure we uphold the laws against employers 
who are hiring illegal immigrants. We oppose amnesty. Amnesty is wrong 
for the United States of America. Amnesty sends the wrong signal to 
people here by--playing by the rules. On the other hand, it is 
unrealistic to expect the United States of America can deport 11 million 
people. And so my plan is, is that if you pay your fine, pay your dues, 
learn English, you can get at the end of the citizenship line, not ahead 
of those who are here legally.
    And finally, during this debate I want us to remember that this 
country has had an amazing capacity to assimilate people from different 
walks of life, and so a part of a comprehensive plan will not only be to 
secure our borders but to have an orderly work plan to be responsible on 
how we treat people who have been here--but as well as to help people 
learn English and learn the customs and habits of the United States of 
America.
    I love a country where someone can go from picking onions to owning 
the grocery store, when somebody can go from sweeping the floor of an 
office to running the office. I love a country where somebody can come 
and work in a small business and own the small business. America is one 
Nation under God, and the Republican Party must always stand for that.
    You know, ours is the party that came here to Washington, DC, and 
saw a Medicare system that wasn't working. The Democrats were great 
about talking about making Medicare work; they could never get anything 
done. And we did. People say, ``What did you care about Medicare for?'' 
I cared about it because the Government has made a commitment to the 
elderly to provide good health care. And once--my view is, once you make 
a commitment, you got to honor the commitment. And I saw a Medicare 
system that wasn't working, and so did a lot of the Republicans in the 
United States Congress.
    I'll give you an example of why it wasn't working. We had a Medicare 
system that would pay $25,000 for surgery but not one single dime for 
the prescription drugs that could prevent the surgery from being needed 
in the first place. The system was old. It was tired. It wasn't working. 
And Republicans came together to make sure we had a Medicare system that 
delivered modern medicine for our seniors. And if you're a poor senior 
in America, we give you help. The days from choosing between an 
electricity bill and medicine are over, thanks to the Republican Party.
    There is more work to be done when it comes to making sure health 
care is available

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and affordable. That's why we support association health plans to help 
small businesses be able to afford health insurance. That's why we 
support health savings accounts, so you're in control of the health 
decisions. That's why we support the advent of information technology to 
help bring excess costs out of the systems. And in order to make sure 
health care is available and affordable, we strongly support medical 
liability reform. We got to make sure these junk lawsuits stop running 
good doctors out of practice and stop running up your bills.
    Ours is the party that understands we got to have a comprehensive 
energy plan to make us less dependent on foreign sources of oil. We 
strongly support conservation measures. We strongly support clean coal 
technologies and nuclear power. We strongly support hybrid vehicles, new 
battery technologies, ethanol. Ours is a party that is willing to work 
hard to say to the American people, soon, that we're less dependent on 
foreign sources of oil, and that's good for national security, and that 
is good for economic security.
    What I'm telling you is, we stand for some things, and we get things 
done for the American people. We stand on principles. We believe in 
human dignity of each and every person. We stand for a culture of life. 
We strongly stand for families in America. And we believe it is 
essential to make sure that we have a judiciary that understands its 
proper role in society.
    I want to thank the United States Senate for confirming two 
fantastic Supreme Court Justices in John Roberts and Sam Alito. And our 
pledge to you is that I will continue to nominate good judges, good 
honorable men and women, who will interpret the law and not legislate 
from the bench.
    Ours is a party that understands that Government can hand out money 
but cannot put hope in a person's heart or a sense of purpose in a 
person's life. And therefore we strongly support--we strongly believe in 
supporting faith-based and community programs that all exist to put an 
arm around a brother who is lost or a sister who needs help, and says, 
``I love you.'' We strongly believe that Government ought to support 
programs of faith in order to help lift the souls and the spirits of 
those who need something much greater than Government can provide.
    Ours is a party that believes in limited government and empowering 
the people of the United States. There's no question that this country 
of ours can accomplish anything we set our minds to. We can win the war 
on terror, and we will. We can make sure people are able to find work 
all around our country. We can help the homeless, help the addicted. We 
can help feed the hungry. We can lift up the souls of every person who 
is lucky enough to be a citizen of this great country, and we will.
    I want to thank you for your help. I want to thank you for giving us 
a chance to lead this great country. I want to thank you for helping 
make sure that Denny Hastert and Bill Frist remain in their positions in 
the Senate and the House, and I assure you of this: We will continue to 
lead this country with an optimistic, hopeful, positive vision that says 
to every American, opportunity belongs to you as much as your neighbor.
    May God bless you all, and may God bless the United States of 
America.

Note: The President spoke at 7:50 p.m. at the Washington Convention 
Center. In his remarks, he referred to Rep. James O. McCrery III of 
Louisiana; Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki of Iraq; and Usama bin Laden, 
leader of the Al Qaida terrorist organization.