[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 42, Number 26 (Monday, July 3, 2006)]
[Pages 1235-1240]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at a Dinner for Senatorial Candidate James M. Talent in St. 
Louis

June 28, 2006

    The President. Thanks for coming. Thanks a lot. Thanks for the warm 
welcome.
    Audience Member. Four more years! [Laughter]
    The President. No more wife. [Laughter]
    Thanks for supporting Jim Talent. He is a decent, honorable, can-do 
man who deserves to be reelected to the United States Senate.
    Laura and I are very fond of Jim and Brenda. Jim is very fond of 
Laura, to the point where he was hoping she would be the keynote 
speaker. [Laughter] But the Senator and I both married very well. You 
know, you cannot succeed in this line of work unless you've got a 
supportive family. It's really important. And the Talents have the right 
priorities--their faith and their family and their country. And that's 
another reason why he's a great United States Senator. So not only do I 
want to thank Jim for his service, I do want to

[[Page 1236]]

thank Brenda for being such a fabulous partner to Jim. And I also want 
to welcome Michael and Chrissy, the Talent children. Thanks for coming.
    Laura sends her best. She not only sends her best to the Talents, 
she sends her best to Uncle Bucky and Aunt Patty. She sends her best to 
all our friends here in St. Louis. She is a fabulous First Lady, and I 
am proud to call her--proud she's my wife.
    I want to thank your Governor for joining us, Matt Blunt, and 
Melanie. Thank you for serving. Governors can make a big difference in 
the States--the State in which they live, and you are doing just that.
    Where's Branch? Yes. He was afraid he couldn't make it through the 
speech. [Laughter] It's good to see old Branch. I think I remember 
getting to know Branch kind of before Branch became Branch--[laughter]--
during the 2004 campaign. But thank you all for coming, and thanks for 
your service. I'll tell your old man you're doing all right. [Laughter]
    I thank the Lieutenant Governor, Peter Kinder, for being here. 
Governor, it's good to see you again. Thanks for your service. I thank 
all the statehouse folks who are here. Thanks for serving. It's not an 
easy job to serve the communities in which you live, but it's important 
jobs. And so thanks for setting a good example.
    I appreciate so very much my friend Jack Oliver, who happens to be 
the finance chairman for this effort. And Rachel--thanks for coming, 
Rachel. It's a pretty big sacrifice for you to be here tonight. Is there 
a doctor in the house? [Laughter]
    I want to thank you all for--for those of you who organized this 
event. This is a big, successful event, and it takes a lot of hard work. 
So for all of those who have helped organize this event, thanks a lot. 
It's important. You can't win without friends. And the Talent for Senate 
race is a vital race for the United States of America, and you're 
helping him.
    I want to thank the grassroots activists who are here. You're the 
folks who make the phone calls and put up the signs and turn out the 
vote. I want to thank you in advance for what you're going to do when 
we're coming down the stretch, which is to make sure that Jim Talent is 
not only backed financially but backed with your hard work and labor. He 
deserves your support. He has got a record to run on. He has made the 
people of Missouri proud, and he needs to be sent back to Washington, 
DC, for 6 more years.
    These are historic times in which we live, and it is essential that 
we have people in the United States Senate who are clear-eyed realists 
who see the world the way it is, not the way we would hope it would be. 
And the reason why it's important to have clear-eyed realists is because 
it's essential we do not forget the lessons of September the 11th, 2001. 
And one lesson is, is that in order to secure the homeland, we must 
defeat the enemy overseas so they do not hurt us here at home. And 
therefore, we must have a United States Senate who understands that we 
must stay on the offense in order to protect America.
    The second lesson is that when you see a threat, you must deal with 
that threat before it fully materializes. What that means is, is that 
oceans can no longer protect us, and if there's an enemy out there 
that's willing to do us harm, we must have United States Senators who 
are willing to take action to protect the homeland. And Jim Talent 
understands the world in which we live.
    Oh, I know some of them in Washington are trying to rewrite history. 
But we all saw a threat in Saddam Hussein. See, he had threatened his 
neighbors; he invaded his neighbors. He was a sworn enemy of the United 
States of America. He harbored terrorists. He had used weapons of mass 
destruction. He was hoping the world would look the other way so he 
could manufacture weapons of mass destruction, at the very least. He 
defied U.N. resolution after U.N. resolution. Republicans and Democrats 
looked at the same intelligence and saw a threat. And when he defied the 
U.N., we removed Saddam Hussein, and America and the world are better 
off for it.
    Iraq is a central front in the war on terror; it's not the only 
front. Today I went to the VFW hall and was able to thank in person men 
and women who have served in both Afghanistan and Iraq, two crucial 
fronts in the war on terror. But Iraq is now the central front, and 
we've got a plan to succeed, a plan

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for victory, a plan that will enable a new ally in the war on terror to 
govern itself, sustain itself, and defend itself as a free nation. The 
stakes are vital, and it is important that Missouri send a United States 
Senator who understands that retreat is not an option for the United 
States of America.
    One thing about old Jim Talent, he understands what I understand, is 
that when you put a man or woman in uniform and ask them to go into 
harm's way, they deserve the full support of the United States 
Government. We will complete the mission, and I will make my judgments 
as to the troop levels necessary to achieve victory not based upon 
political polls or focus groups but based upon the measured judgment of 
our commanders on the ground.
    Make no mistake about it: There's a group in the opposition party 
who are willing to retreat before the mission is done. They're willing 
to wave the white flag of surrender. And if they succeed, the United 
States will be worse off, and the world will be worse off. These are 
historic times. We will defeat the enemy by, one, bringing them to 
justice before they hurt us again, and we will defeat the enemy--we will 
defeat their hateful ideology by spreading liberty.
    There's an interesting debate in the world today--it's an 
interesting debate as to whether or not liberty is universal or not. Jim 
Talent and I understand there's an Almighty; we understand a great gift 
of the Almighty is freedom for every man, woman, and child on this 
Earth. I'm not talking about just for Methodists or Texans. [Laughter] 
I'm talking about the universality of freedom. Everybody wants to be 
free, and everybody is desirous to be free. And freedom yields the peace 
we're looking for. The way to win this war on terror is not only to 
defeat the enemy abroad, but it's also to defeat them by spreading a 
hopeful ideology, an ideology which has worked in the past.
    You see, tomorrow I'm going to have an interesting day--every day is 
interesting when you're the President. [Laughter] I'm going to welcome 
Prime Minister Koizumi from Japan. And so we'll have the deal tomorrow, 
which is going to be a lot of fun, there on the South Lawn. And then 
we'll meet and have the press conference and a nice dinner. And then on 
Friday--Friday, we're going to Graceland. [Laughter] The Prime Minister, 
my dear friend, loves Elvis. [Laughter] So what better place to go.
    Isn't it interesting, though, when you think about this moment in 
history compared to what life was like 60 years ago. You see, I 
guarantee you there's some folks here whose relatives were in combat 
against the Japanese, the sworn enemy of the United States, a nation 
which had launched an attack on our country, killing--by the way, we 
lost more on September the 11th than we did on Pearl Harbor. But, 
nevertheless, it was an attack on the Nation, and our Nation responded 
with force. President Roosevelt understood when you're going after an 
enemy, you use all your assets. That's what I understand too. If you're 
going to commit your military, you commit it, so we can achieve victory. 
That's what he understood.
    And yet 60 years later, I'm meeting with the Prime Minister of the 
former enemy. I find that to be really interesting. One reason why I'm 
able to is because a fellow from Missouri named Harry S. Truman had 
faith in the universality of liberty. He understood that people desire 
to be free. And the reason I'm able to call Prime Minister Koizumi 
friend and ally is because Japan became a democracy in her own image, a 
democracy that recognizes the traditions and history of the Japanese 
people. Democracies don't fight each other. Democracies work together to 
yield the peace. Liberty has the capacity to change an enemy into a 
friend.
    And what you're seeing today in the Middle East is the spread of 
liberty. And it's hard work. It's hard work to replace tyranny with 
democracy, but it's necessary work. We're laying the foundations for 
peace. Someday, an Iraqi leader will be coming to America to sit down 
and to help keep the peace, and generations of America will be safer for 
it. And Jim Talent understands the stakes.
    I also appreciate the fact that he understands the nature of the 
enemy, and he understands we've got to be smart about how we defend the 
homeland. I've sworn to uphold the Constitution, and I will. I'm also 
expected to defend the United States of America. And when we think 
somebody from Al Qaida is calling in to somebody in the

[[Page 1238]]

United States from out of the country, we want to know why. We want to 
know why somebody is talking to Al Qaida, in order to protect the United 
States of America.
    I told the American people we would defend ourselves. I remember all 
the kind of recommendations that we were getting, by the way, after 9/
11. The 9/11 Commission took a look and said, ``You need to do more on 
cutting off the money of the terrorist organizations.'' Newspapers 
editorialized: Make sure you do what you need to do to cut off their 
funding. One way to win the war on terror is to starve the enemy of 
money. I thought that made a lot of sense.
    And so the Treasury Department launched a program to track the flow 
of terrorist money. See, we wanted to watch the money that the 
terrorists were moving around. It's one way to help protect the American 
people. It's one way for us to do the job that you've expected us to do. 
The program we put in place is legal. We got a lot of lawyers in 
Washington who scrutinize that which we do. It's legal. It has been 
briefed to the United States Congress. Like the terrorist surveillance 
program, this program of chasing terrorist financing was briefed to 
Members of Congress. We want them to understand what we're doing. We 
have an obligation in the executive branch to work with the legislative 
branch.
    This program has been a vital tool in the war on terror. Last week, 
the details of this program appeared in the press. There can be no 
excuse for anyone entrusted with vital intelligence to leak it, and no 
excuse for any newspaper to print it.
    The American people expect the Government to protect them. That's 
what you expect. It's our most important job. Jim Talent understands, 
our most important job is to protect the American people. And they want 
our people to have the tools necessary to achieve victory in the war on 
terror and to do our job. The disclosure of this valuable program makes 
it harder for us to identify terrorist cells and their activities. It 
makes it harder for us to build international cooperation. It makes it 
harder to protect the American people. It's tough enough to fight the 
terrorists; we shouldn't have to worry about news organizations 
revealing important information that makes it more important--makes it 
more difficult to protect our country.
    We'll uphold our values; we'll follow the law; and I will do 
everything in my power to protect the American people. And it's 
important to have a United States Senator like Jim Talent who 
understands the stakes.
    One of the issues in this campaign is going to be who best to spend 
your money--you or the Federal Government. [Laughter] That's right. You 
know, it's amazing--I would hope people, when they go to the polls, 
would take a look at the economic record that we've achieved, a record 
that is really pretty remarkable when you think about what the economy 
has been through. We've been through a recession, a stock market 
correction, corporate scandals, an attack on the United States of 
America, two major theaters in the war on terror to defend ourselves, 
natural disasters, and high energy prices. And yet the economic growth 
of the United States is the envy of the industrialized world. The 
national unemployment rate is 4.6 percent. We've created millions of new 
jobs in the last couple of years. The entrepreneurial spirit is high. 
Small businesses are flourishing. More people own a home than ever 
before in our Nation's history. Productivity is high.
    This economy is strong, and we intend to keep it that way. And one 
reason it's strong is because we cut the taxes on the American people. 
We didn't cut just some taxes; we cut taxes for everybody who pays 
taxes. Talent and I don't believe we use the Tax Code to play political 
favorites. We said, ``If you're paying taxes, you deserve tax relief.'' 
And guess who benefits? People with children; investors, because we've 
reduced the dividend--the taxes on dividends and capital gains; small 
businesses--most small businesses pay tax at the individual income tax 
rate because they're sole proprietorships or subchapter S's. When you 
hear them talking about, ``Oh, we're just going to tax the rich,'' what 
Talent's opponent is really saying is, ``We're going to tax small 
businesses,'' and that's bad for job creation in Missouri. Jim and I 
believe we need to get rid of the death tax once and for all.

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    You know, it's amazing when you listen to the debate up there in 
Washington about the budget. We've got a plan to cut the budget in half 
by--the deficit in half by 2009, and we're on our way to doing that. You 
know what's amazing is, when you cut the taxes, it causes the economy to 
grow. And when the economy grows, it yields more tax revenues than you 
anticipated. That's what's happening. That's what progrowth economic 
policies do for your budget.
    The problem in Washington is, is that sometimes they take those 
revenues and don't apply it to the deficit; they apply it to additional 
programs, see. And so one of the reasons I like Talent so much is, he 
understands that to get the deficit cut in half, you got to be wise 
about spending your money. And we're doing a fine job on it.
    Now, I recognize that the budgets have gone up--but for this reason: 
So long as we have a troops in harm's way, we're going to spend what is 
ever necessary to get he or she the equipment, the training, and the pay 
to win the war on terror. That's what we owe the folks. That's what we 
owe their families.
    But we have cut nonsecurity discretionary spending, last year, and 
we intend to do it again this year. And that's hard to do because every 
program sounds good. But if you listen to the debate about--the other 
side--how they want to balance the budget, they say, ``Let's just raise 
some taxes to balance the budget.'' That's not the way Washington works. 
If the other side gets in power, they will raise your taxes, and I 
promise you, they will figure out new ways to spend your money. The best 
way to balance the budget is to keep the taxes low and to set priorities 
with the people's money and to be wise and fiscally sound, just like Jim 
Talent is.
    And I need this tool to be able to do my job: the line-item veto. 
And Jim Talent is one of the Senate sponsors and leaders on the line-
item veto.
    Health care is an issue. And so we took a look at the Medicare 
program. My attitude is this--and I know Jim agrees with me: If you're 
going to provide health care for our seniors, let's make sure it's 
modern. Makes sense for the taxpayers and certainly makes sense for the 
seniors. And the Medicare system--which was signed by Lyndon Baines 
Johnson, by the way--had become stale and old. I will give you an 
example. Our system would pay for a ulcer surgery--20, $15,000, whatever 
it costs--but not a dime for the medicine that would prevent the ulcer 
surgery from being needed in the first place. In other words, medicine 
was changing, but Medicare didn't.
    And so we got together and said, ``How can we improve this for the 
seniors? How can we make it work?'' And we also added another feature to 
a new and improved Medicare. We said, ``If you're poor, you shouldn't 
have to choose between medicine and food.'' We said, ``If you're a poor 
senior, you shouldn't have to make that difficult choice of the medicine 
necessary to keep you going or the food necessary to keep you going.''
    And so we modernized Medicare. We improved the system. We delivered 
on behalf of the seniors. And Jim Talent gets a lot of credit for 
modernizing Medicare. And he's running against a person who said she 
would have voted against the bill, this bill that is positive for 
seniors, was necessary for our seniors. And I am proud to have signed 
it, and I am proud to have worked with Jim Talent to make the Medicare 
work better.
    We have got a national security and economic security problem when 
it comes to energy. We've got to do something about our addiction to 
oil. I know it sounds odd for some to think--a Texan to say, but that's 
the way I feel. [Laughter] I understand the consequences of living in a 
global economy. When the demand for hydrocarbons goes up in China and 
India, it affects the price of gasoline here in St. Louis, Missouri. 
That's the way it works. I'm worried about a situation where sometimes 
we get our hydrocarbons from people that don't like us, and that creates 
a national security problem.
    I'm proud to be standing side by side with Jim Talent and his 
efforts to promote alternative sources of energy like ethanol. He led 
the renewable fuel standard in the Halls of the United States Senate. He 
is more than a talker; he's a doer. He's getting stuff done for Missouri 
and the American people.
    I appreciate his work on methamphetamine eradication. He's a leader 
in the United States Senate. You've got a problem

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in Missouri, and we've got a problem around the country in 
methamphetamines. Jim Talent is working hard to deliver positive 
legislation and decent appropriations to fight methamphetamines. And I 
want to thank you for your fight and thank you for your struggle.
    He gets things done. There's a lot of noise in Washington. But, you 
know, when you find somebody who is a positive person, who is able to 
accomplish things, you've got to send him back to Washington, DC. Talent 
can deliver for the people of Missouri and for the people of the United 
States. He's got a proven track record. He deserves to be reelected. I 
love his values.
    I love the fact that he understands the judiciary needs to be filled 
with people who aren't going to legislate from the bench but will 
strictly interpret the Constitution of the United States. I'm proud that 
he stood up strong for Judge Roberts and Judge Alito, two really fine 
members of the Supreme Court. It's another issue in this campaign. Who 
do you want in the Senate to be able to confirm and battle for what kind 
of judges? You want judges that are--that understand the limitation of 
the judiciary. We got plenty of legislators in Washington. That's not 
the role of a judge. The judge is to interpret the Constitution of the 
United States. Jim Talent understands this. Most Missouri citizens 
understand the proper role of the judiciary. He's in tune with Missouri.
    He's in tune with Missouri when it comes to taxes. He understands 
the farm issue. He understands small businesses. He is in tune with the 
elders and seniors of Missouri. He's a good man who's delivered a lot 
for the people of this State. He stands on solid moral ground. You don't 
have to worry about his honesty. You never have to worry about his 
integrity. He's a decent, honorable person that deserves reelection to 
the United States Senate. Thanks for coming, and God bless.

Note: The President spoke at 5:24 p.m. at the Ritz-Carlton. In his 
remarks, he referred to Melanie Anderson Blunt, wife of Gov. Matt Blunt 
of Missouri, and their son William Branch Blunt; Rachel Oliver, wife of 
Jack L. Oliver III, finance chair, Jim Talent for U.S. Senate; former 
President Saddam Hussein of Iraq; and Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi 
of Japan.