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Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform => Straight, Inc. and Derivatives => Topic started by: Anonymous on February 18, 2006, 10:34:00 AM
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WASHINGTON, Feb. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- The following is a transcript of
remarks by President Bush on the global war on terror:
Port of Tampa
Tampa, Florida
1:26 P.M. EST
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all. Please be seated. Thanks for the warm
welcome. Thanks for the warm weather. (Laughter.) It's nice to be back
here. I just came from MacDill, where I was talking to General Abizaid and
General Brown, and one of the things that's clear is folks there at MacDill
really do appreciate the support that the citizens of the communities of Tampa
and St. Pete and the surrounding area provide them. So I want to thank you
all very much for being -- (applause.)
I'd like to share some thoughts with you, and then answer questions as
time allows, if you've got any. First, I send Laura's greetings. She's doing
great, by the way. She's a fantastic First Lady and -- (applause.) She's
obviously got to be a woman of enormous patience. (Laughter.)
I appreciate Congressman Adam Putnam, Bill Young, Mike Bilirakis, and
Katherine Harris for being here today. (Applause.) Oh, there they are.
Proud to give them a ride on Air Force One. (Laughter.) Some of them aren't
going back, by the way. (Laughter.) Mark Kennedy -- is Mark here with us,
from Minnesota? I think he was going to drop by -- he supposedly was going to
be here. You don't know him because he's from Minnesota, but I do and he's a
fine guy. (Laughter.)
I want to thank my buddy, Mel Sembler, Ambassador Sembler, who represented
our country so well, once in Australia under 41, and then Italy under 43.
(Applause.) And Betty. I want to thank the Chambers of both Tampa and St.
Pete. I want to thank the Mayors from Tampa and St. Pete -- Mayor Iorio and
Mayor Baker are with us. Thank you both for coming. Appreciate you being
here. (Applause.)
I didn't mean to take you away from your work. Any excuse is a good one
on Friday, right? (Laughter.) So long as I keep the speech short. I want to
thank members of the Statehouse who are here. I want to thank you all for
letting us use this beautiful facility. And thank you for coming.
First of all, the economy is in good shape. It's growing. (Applause.) I
guess that's an easy thing to say in the state of Florida, when the
unemployment rate is 3.3 percent. Pretty amazing, isn't it? (Applause.) I'm
sure the Governor is going to try to take credit for it, you know.
(Laughter.) I'm not going to because the role of government is to create an
environment where the entrepreneurs can flourish and small businesses can
grow.
And the fundamental question facing this country of ours is, how do we
keep ourselves to be the economic leader of the world. It's really an
interesting question. You know, in spite of the good economic numbers -- 4.7
percent unemployment around the country, our economy growing at over 3
percent, in the face of hurricanes, as well as high gas prices, home ownership
is an all-time high, small businesses are growing -- in spite of all that,
there's a certain sense of uncertainty. People are worried. They're worried
because they're changing jobs a lot; they're worried because of the
competition from India and China. There's a certain sense of uncertainty.
And so we have a choice to make about our economy: Do we retreat in the
face of uncertainty, or do we lead? And I -- I will be working with the
Congress, members from both political parties, to be the leader of the world.
And here's some ideas. One, keep taxes low. We can't be the economic leader
of the world if we run up your taxes. And so we're going to keep them low.
(Applause.)
And you'll hear a debate in Washington, D.C. that says, well, we've got to
run up your taxes to balance the budget. That's not the way it works in
Washington. They will run up your taxes and they'll figure out new ways to
spend money. The best way to balance the budget is to keep the taxes low and
be wise about how we spend your money. That's how we're going to balance the
budget. (Applause.)
In order for us to be competitive and lead in the world, we've got to get
-- we've got to get off of Middle Eastern oil. I know it shocks some of you
to hear a Texan say, we're addicted to oil. And we are, and it's a problem.
It's a problem. It's a national security problem, and it's an economic
security problem to be reliant upon oil from parts of the world that may be
unstable, or parts of the world that simply don't like us. And so the best
way to deal with that is to continue to foster new technologies because of
research and development that will enable us to use different fuels in our
cars, for example.
There's Kennedy right there. Good to see you, Kennedy. The reason I
thought of him is because he's from a part of the world that's growing a lot
of crops that can be converted into energy. We're close. We're close to
technological breakthroughs that will enable us to convert wood chips and
sawgrass -- we already convert sugar, corn and soy -- into fuel. And think
about that. If this technology comes true, which we believe it will, then
pretty soon a President is going to say, we're growing a lot of crops and
we're less dependent on Middle Eastern oil. There are 4.5 million cars today
that are flex-fuel cars that can either run on gasoline or ethanol. In other
words, the technology is available inside the automobile. And it's coming.
And we're making some great breakthroughs on battery technology. Next
week I'm going to travel around the country going to some of the most
innovative places around our country that are providing new technologies to
enable us to become less dependent on oil, which will keep us a leader in the
world.
Another thing we need to do is to make sure that our health care system is
modern. I want to talk real quick about Medicare here. First of all, I'm
aware there's a lot of seniors in this state that rely upon Medicare. The
federal government made a commitment to the seniors around the United States,
starting with Lyndon Baines Johnson, that we would provide good health care to
the seniors. And when I got to Washington, I found that we were not providing
modern medicine. I mean, we would provide the money for ulcer surgery in the
old Medicare, but not the prescription drugs necessary to prevent the ulcer
from happening in the first place. And that didn't seem to make sense to me.
It's an old, centralized system that was not modern and was not fulfilling
the promise we made.
And so I worked with Congress -- Republicans and Democrats -- to get a
new bill out of Congress that said we're going to provide a prescription drug
benefit, and as we do, we're going to give seniors more choices and more
options from which to choose.
About 25 million seniors have signed up for this new plan since January
1st. That's a lot of folks in a quick period of time. And needless to say,
when you make that kind of transition to a modern system, there's going to be
some glitches. And our job is to fix those glitches. And that's what the
Department of Health and Human Services under Mike Leavitt is doing. And it's
important for our seniors to take advantage of this new program. Call 1-800-
Medicare. Or if you've got a mom or a dad who's eligible for Medicare, sit
down with them and explain the new benefit. It is a really good deal for
America's seniors.
To make sure that health care works, we'll continue to take care of the
poor. In other words, the government has made a commitment to the elderly and
the poor, but the government has also got to understand, the best medicine is
private medicine. (Applause.) And we should not get in between the doctors
and the patients in America.
Finally, I want to spend a little time on education, briefly. First of
all, No Child Left Behind Act is working. It's a piece of legislation that
says we're going to raise the standards for every child, and we're going to
measure to make sure children are meeting those standards. Can you imagine --
you might remember the old -- well, I'll tell you. When I was governor of
Texas, we had a system that didn't measure right early on, and guess what
happened? We just shuffled kids through the system who couldn't read, and we
found out too late. And that is a terrible system. It lets people down. And
we're spending a lot of your money. It seems like to me, it makes sense to
say, when we spend your money we ought to insist upon results. Results are
good for the taxpayers; more importantly, they're good for the students. So
now we measure early, before it's too late, and we're correcting problems
before they're too late. And our kids are learning to read.
And we need to apply that same rigor to children in math and science,
particularly in junior high. Fourth grade tests, our kids are doing fine
compared to other countries. But there's a big drop-off when it comes to math
and -- mathematics, particularly in junior high. And so we need to apply that
same standard. We'll measure in junior high, and if you need help, we'll
provide it for you. And the reason why is the jobs of the 21st century are
going to require mastery in math and science and engineering. (Applause.)
And if we don't make -- and if we don't educate our kids, the jobs are going
to go elsewhere, whether we like it or not. So to make sure America remains
the leader in the world, we're going to stay on the leading edge of research
and development, and educate the young scientists of tomorrow today.
And so, look, my attitude about the future is this, when it comes to the
economy, and when it comes to foreign policy: We shouldn't fear it. Let's
shape the future. Let's be the leader tomorrow that we are today.
Now, we're living in historic times when you think about this world we're
in. It is a time of challenge, and it's a time of opportunity. We've got the
challenge to protect the American people. My most important duty is to
protect you from harm. And we have an opportunity to lay the foundation of
peace for generations to come.
I make a lot of decisions. My buddies in Texas, when they show up to
Washington, after they get over the initial surprise that I'm still there --
(laughter) -- or got there in the first place -- (laughter) -- say, like,
what's it like, you know? What is the job description? What's it like to be
President? And the best way to answer it is, I make a lot of decisions. And
part of the reasons -- my thinking was shaped on September the 11th, let me
put it to you that way. And I think it's important for you to understand how
the President thinks and why I make decisions I make, particularly decisions
relating to war and peace.
I knew we're at war when they attacked us. As a matter of fact, I was
down here in Florida. It didn't take long to figure out what was going on.
And I vowed that day that I would not rest, so long as I was the President, in
protecting the people. So a lot of my decision-making is based upon the
attack. And I know we're at war, see -- I knew it then, and the enemy has,
unfortunately, proved me right because they continue to attack. In order to
win the war against the enemy you got to understand the nature of the enemy.
First of all, these people are cold-blooded killers, people who will kill
the innocent in order to achieve a tactical objective and a strategic
objective. They have no conscience. You can't negotiate with these people.
You cannot reason with them. You must bring them to justice.
Secondly, they have an ideology, they believe in something. The best way
to describe what they believe in is to think about what life was like in
Afghanistan under the Taliban. These were people that saw to it that young
girls didn't get educated. If you didn't agree with their view of religion
you were whipped in the public square. They tolerated no dissent, no
different point of view, and they were tearing down the -- destroying the
culture from the past. They had no sense of history other than their dim view
of history. That's what they think.
And they have made it clear their objectives. You probably have read some
of Zawahiri's writings, admonitions to his fellow fighters. They've made it
clear that they believe the United States is soft and weak, and that they can
shake our will. They've made it clear that it's just a matter of time before
we vacate parts of the world which they can then occupy in order to be able to
plan, plot attacks against the United States of America. They have made it
clear they're interested in weapons of mass destruction. In other words,
they've laid out a strategy, you know, for the world to see.
And my job is to take that strategy seriously. My job is to see the world
the way it is, not the way some would hope it would be. If 9/11 affected our
thinking, then we've got to make sure when the enemy speaks, we take every
single sentence that they say seriously, and deal with it. And that's what
we're doing.
So I want to share some of the strategy in winning this war on terror.
Make no mistake about it, we're going to win the war on terror. We'll protect
the American people. (Applause.)
First, when we see threats, we've got to deal with them. When I was
growing up in West Texas, oceans protected us. You might remember some of
those days. Old Mayor Martinez, I know he remembers those days when we felt
pretty comfortable here in America. We could see a threat overseas, but
oceans made it pretty clear that -- to a lot of folks -- that nothing would
happen, you know. September 11th came along and made it clear that we are
vulnerable, that the enemy can hit us if they -- if they want to.
And therefore, when you see a threat, you've got to deal with it. You
can't take things for granted anymore. The best way to deal with this enemy
is to defeat them overseas so we don't have to face them here at home, and to
stay on the hunt. (Applause.) And that's what we're doing.
And we've got a coalition of countries. I spent a lot of time reminding
people about the nature of the war. Listen, the tendency for folks is to say,
well, this really isn't a war. I can understand that. Who wants to walk
around thinking there's a war about to hit us. I mean, that's -- that's my
job to worry about it, not yours. How can you have an economy recover from a
recession if people are afraid to risk capital because they're worried about
thinking something is going to happen? And the same thing happens overseas.
People kind of want to slip to the comfortable. They don't believe it's a
war, some of them, and I understand that. And so we spend a lot of time
reminding people that we've got to work together because the enemy can't stand
what we stand for, and that's freedom. They just hate freedom. And so we've
got a good coalition, and -- and we're on the hunt. We're keeping the
pressure on them. It's hard to plot and plan and execute attacks when you're
on the run.
And so the first step of our strategy is defeat them there so we don't to
have to face them here. And we've got some great special forces -- I met the
special forces command guy here -- and there's great intelligence officers and
wonderful coalition folks. We're cutting off their money. It makes it kind
of hard to operate when you can't get your bank accounts full of money in
order to -- we're just doing a lot of stuff. And it's important for citizens
to know that there's a constant, constant pressure. I think about it every
day.
And we're making progress -- Khalid Shaykh Muhammad, September the 11th
plotter-planner, is incarcerated; his successor brought to justice. Slowly
but surely, we're finding them where they hide, and they know we're on their
trail.
Secondly, we got to deny them safe haven. These people can't operate
without safe haven. It's an interesting war we're in. It's totally different
from what we're used to because we're not -- we're not facing nation-states;
we're dealing with an enemy that is international in nature, that hides in
states.
When the President says something like, if you harbor a terrorist, you're
equally as guilty as the terrorist, those words mean nothing unless you act
upon them. And I said that to the people of Afghanistan-- the Taliban. They
didn't listen. And so we acted. And removing the Taliban -- (applause) -- is
a clear signal that we won't tolerate safe haven. In other words, if you
harbor the terrorist, you're just as guilty as the murderers. And that's a
clear signal that the United States must continue to send in order to win the
war on terror.
We saw a threat in Saddam Hussein. Obviously, this issue is one that has
caused a lot of people to wonder about certain aspects, caused me to wonder
about the capacity of our intelligence services to provide good intelligence.
And that's why we're constantly working to reform the intelligence services,
to make sure we get the best intelligence, because I thought there would be
weapons of mass destruction -- and so did everybody else in the world; and so
did people in the United States Congress from both political parties --
thought that there would be weapons of mass destruction.
The United Nations and the United Nations Security Council thought there
would be weapons of mass destruction. After all, they passed a unanimous
resolution that said, disclose, disarm, or face serious consequences. In
other words, we worked the diplomatic front.
And so when Saddam Hussein chose war -- and believe me, he made the choice
-- the hardest thing for the President of the United States to do is commit
troops into combat. It's the last option, the very last option. Except
September the 11th taught me, and September the 11th taught me, that we got to
take threats seriously. And the world saw a threat. This man was harboring
terrorists. He was on a state sponsor of terrorists list. I didn't put him
on there, he was put on there by previous Presidents. He was firing at our
pilots. He had invaded countries. He was a threat. And the world spoke with
one voice, and said, disclose, disarm, or face serious consequences. And when
the United States says something, it must mean it. And we said, disclose or
face serious consequences. And when he wouldn't, he faced serious
consequences. Removing Saddam Hussein has made America safer and the world a
better place. (Applause.)
And we have a plan to achieve victory. Victory is a state -- a democracy
that can sustain itself and defend itself and join America in fighting the war
on terror. That's the goal of victory. That's the definition of victory.
First part of our strategy is a political strategy. I try to tell people
how I make decisions, and part of making good decisions is you've got to
believe something. You have a belief system that, by the way, can't alter
because of politics, or polls, or focus groups, or what somebody wants you to
think. And I believe that freedom is universal. I believe that deep in
everybody's soul is the desire to be free. That's what I believe. I don't
believe freedom or liberty is confined here to Methodists from Texas. I
believe everybody wants to be free -- white, black, brown, Muslim, Jew,
Christian, agnostic. I believe there is a deep desire for people to be free.
And if you believe that, then you have faith in people demanding freedom,
if given a chance. And the Iraqis proved that theory right. Eleven million
people went to the polls in the face of unbelievable terror, terrorist
threats, and said, I want to be free; let me vote; let me decide my future.
And so on the political front, they're making progress because of the courage
of the Iraqis.
And now the task at hand is to work with those who won votes in the new
parliament to set up a unity government; one that is -- can help deal with
the grievances of the past; one that unites under the fabric of democracy.
And that's what we're doing. I talked to the Ambassador, Zal Khalilzad, there
yesterday. He's spent a lot of time working with making our position known
that we want the government to be a unified government.
Secondly, we're helping the country rebuild itself after years of neglect,
so that people can see the benefits of democracy. And we started off
initially with kind of these grand projects. We got the Congress to
appropriate money, and we tried to build some great electricity-type
renovations, and the enemy kept blowing them up. And so we've altered our
strategy. One of the things that you've got to do in a situation like this is
constantly adjust. You can't just get stuck in one kind of response mode.
You've got to think and watch the enemy and adjust to the enemy in order to
achieve an objective. And we're doing that. And so now we've got much
smaller-scale projects that are yielding instant results for the people on the
ground, so people say, wait a minute, this democracy deal is a pretty good
thing, you know.
Businesses are flourishing in Iraq. Freedom is coming, freedom is
coming. There's a determined enemy trying to stop it, of course. They can't
stand freedom. I told you, they think the exact opposite we do. They don't
believe that everybody desires to be free. They want everybody to live under
their totalitarian thumb. That's what they want. Not America and our
coalition. We want governments to be responsible and responsive to the
people. That's what we believe in.
Thirdly, in order to achieve our objective, the Iraqis are going to have
to fight the enemy. They've proven their worth, in terms of defying the
terrorists when it comes to making the vote, and they're proving their desire
to defend themselves against the enemy, too. You know how I know? I'm
listening to the people on the ground. I talk to our commanders a lot.
They're the ones who are giving me the appraisal about how well these Iraqis
are being trained.
An interesting measurement, right off the bat, however, was how the Iraqis
responded to these attacks on the police stations and the recruiting
stations. You remember they had a series of attacks on the recruiting
stations? Guess what my question was to them out there -- are there still
people lining up to join up? If you're getting blown up standing in line, are
they still coming? And the answer was, absolutely. And we're training them,
and there's a command structure -- command and control structure getting in
place. And this military is getting better and better. We're turning over a
lot of territory to the Iraqis. They now have two divisions, which is a lot
of folks, that are capable of taking the fight nearly on their own. The
training mission is working.
So on the security side, we're on the hunt. We're after Zarqawi. See, he
wants us to leave. He believes we'll lose our nerve so he can establish a
safe haven in Iraq. And we're not going to let him do it. And so we've got
great special operators and U.S. forces and coalition forces on the hunt. And
at the same time, we're training the Iraqis.
There's a big debate in Washington about who gets to decide the troop
levels. Well, those troop levels will be decided by this administration. And
this administration is going to listen not to politicians, but to the
commanders on the ground, about what we need on the ground in order to win
this deal. (Applause.)
After I leave here, I'm going to go visit with a family of one of the
fallen troops. I have to be able to look that person in the eye, and say, the
cause is just. I believe it is just and necessary. And I have to look that
person in the eye and say that the sacrifice of your loved one will not go in
vain, that we will complete the mission. And that's what I want to assure my
fellow citizens. No matter what it looks like in Washington, D.C., I'm
committed to victory in Iraq so to achieve peace.
And so in the short-term, we're going to succeed in Iraq. We'll deny them
safe haven. We'll stay on the hunt. But there has to be a long-term
strategy, as well, to win. And that long-term strategy is to liberate people
and give them the chance to live under the greatest system of government ever,
and that's democracy -- because democracies respond to people.
You know, our foreign policy in the broader Middle East for a long period
of time was just kind of tolerate the status quo and hope for the best. It
didn't work. The surface looked placid, but beneath the surface was brewing
resentment and anger and fertile recruiting opportunities for those who have
got a dark vision of the future. And so we're working to help the Iraqis
develop a democracy.
Elections are only the beginning of democracy, not the end. Election is
the beginning of a process to -- where government listens to the people. In
order to make sure democracy works, there has to be institution-building, and
support for young, fledgling democracies. And that's what you're seeing.
This is an historic moment. The world is changing because freedom is on the
march. And we shouldn't be discouraged about setbacks -- short-term setbacks,
or the enemy's capacity to take innocent life, because we've seen democracy
change the world in the past.
I think about all the wars fought in Europe over the past 100 years. A
hundred years seems like a long time, probably, for the little guy there. Me,
too. It seems like a long -- I'm only 59 years old. But Americans shed a lot
of blood in Europe-- World War I and World War II. And yet, the continent is
-- Europe is peaceful. You know why? Because there's democracies living
side-by-side in peace. Democracies don't fight each other. Generally, people
in a democracy don't campaign and say, vote for me, I promise you war. They
say, vote for you -- vote for me, I work for the peace. I want your children
to grow up in a peaceful world. That's what people say to get elected.
Japan-- one of my favorite analogies and stories about this is, my friend,
Koizumi, Prime Minister of Japan. He's an interesting guy. I like him a
lot. We spend time talking about the peace. He understands that democracy in
the heart of the Middle East, democracy in a part of the world that is
desperate for freedom, is an important part of laying the foundation for
peace. And so he committed Japanese troops to help the Iraqis rebuild their
country and to provide security so they could rebuild their country.
What's amazing about this is that, like many whose relatives -- like many
here whose relatives fought against the Japanese, my dad did, too. Isn't that
interesting? Eighteen-year-old kid, Navy fighter pilot; country calls him;
like thousands, he goes overseas to fight the sworn enemy -- the Japanese.
And today, this guy's son is sitting down with the Prime Minister of Japan
working to keep the peace. And what happened in between was that a Japanese-
style democracy grew. Democracies yield the peace. And what the youngsters
here have to see that's happening is we're laying that foundation for peace.
Some day when you're old and -- older -- I know you never think it's going to
happen, but it does -- you look back and say, maybe old George W. Bush and the
United States Congress was right in keeping the faith that democracies can
yield the peace we all want. (Applause.)
I got two other things, two other things I want to tell you, then I'll
answer questions. We not only protect ourselves by keeping the pressure on
the enemy and defeating them over there so we don't have to face them here at
home, we've got to protect ourselves by doing smart things in America. I hope
-- I appreciate working with the Mayors on homeland security issues. We're
training a lot of first responders and getting people ready in case something
happens.
Secondly, in order to ask our folks on the front line of protecting
America to do the job, they got to have all the tools. And the Patriot Act
passed right after September the 11th -- had a little problem getting it out
of the United States Senate, got kind of hung up there. My reminder to those
senators is that the bill may -- about ready to lapse, but the threat isn't.
And if people in Washington expect those on the front line of protecting
America to do their job, they got to give them the tools. The Patriot Act
needs to be passed. (Applause.)
Finally, I made a decision that has been in the news lately, and I want to
share with you my thinking, because it's an important decision. September the
11th made it clear to me that an enemy would do anything it could to hurt us.
We're at war. I understand some don't think that, that we're at war. There
are good, decent Americans who believe that. I know that. This is not what I
-- I don't believe it, see. I got a different point of view. I asked our
people on the ground there in Washington, is there anything more we can do to
protect the American people? What can we do? The enemy wants to hit us,
they're planning to hit us. Is there anything we can do so I can go around
the country saying, go about your business, we're taking care of your security
for you. I think most people would ask that question.
And General Mike Hayden of the NSA -- he's a wonderful person -- said he
thought there was something more we could do. And he showed me the plans for
this country to pick up a conversation -- listen to conversations from people
outside the country, inside the country, who had an affiliation with al Qaeda,
or were al Qaeda. He said, I think we can design a program, Mr. President,
that will enable us to have quick response to be able to detect and deter a
potential attack.
I said, that's interesting, General. I said, that makes a lot of sense to
me. I said, you're not going to listen inside the country. No, this is calls
from outside the country in, or inside out, to people who we know or suspect
are affiliated with al Qaeda. And I remember some of those phone calls coming
out of California prior to the September the 11th attacks by the killers --
just thinking maybe if we'd have listened to those on a quick response basis,
you know, it might have helped prevent the attacks.
My second question was, is it legal? See, I take that oath of office
seriously -- I've taken it twice as your President -- to uphold the laws and
the Constitution. And so we got lawyers all over Washington, as I'm sure you
can imagine. (Laughter.) I'm not one. I said, is it legal? I'm asking this
to the Attorney General of the United States, the Legal Counsel in the White
House; NSA has got lawyers. I mean, a lot of lawyers looked at this, and they
said, you bet, Mr. President, it's legal. And they gave me the legal
ramifications. You'll see this all -- this is part of the debate.
Thirdly, I knew I needed to tell members of Congress. See, they like to
be a part of the process. They're a co-equal branch of government. And I
recognize that, and I honor that. And so we briefed members of the United
States Congress on the full program so that they would know -- appropriate
members of Congress -- leaders, Republicans, and Democrats, leaders of the
Intelligence Committee whose job it is to provide oversight on intelligence
operations. They were abreast. Like my old buddy called me, he said, you
know something? If you're trying to pull one over on them, if you're trying
to have an illegal program, why are you briefing the Congress? I said,
because I want people to know.
Unfortunately, we're having this discussion. It's too bad, because guess
who listens to the discussion: The enemy. If you don't think we're at war it
doesn't matter then, does it? I know we're at war. And the enemy is
adjusting. But I'm going to tell you something. I'm doing the right thing.
Washington is a town that says, you didn't connect the dots, and then when you
do connect the dots, they say you're wrong. In order to protect America, if
somebody is talking to al Qaeda, we want to know who they are and why they're
talking to them. (Applause.)
Okay. That's what's on my mind. Now, what's on yours? Yes, sir. Go
ahead and yell it.
Q Mr. President, I just wanted to take an opportunity to tell you I think
our country is blessed to have you as our President.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. (Applause.)
Q We are very thankful that you don't make your decisions based on the
polls, like previous Presidents have.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I appreciate that. (Applause.)
Q And my comment is, is that I'm a homebuilder. I'm very happy right
now.
THE PRESIDENT: You've got to be. (Laughter.)
Q But I wanted to just keep you apprised that things are good now, the
economy is good, interest rates are low. There are people that still can't
afford homes in our country today. Affordable housing is very important. We,
as homebuilders -- I served on the Board of Directors of the National
Association of Homebuilders.
THE PRESIDENT: Good.
Q We'll be up in Washington in about a month or so to see you guys.
But we're concerned with the environment just as much as anyone else is, and -
- but there's got to be a balance to make sure that we can develop land and
provide homes -- affordable homes. And also Congress is working on some
things now that has an effect on financing and interest rates for people
buying their first homes. And let's make sure that we have affordable homes
for people.
My daughter is a school teacher here in Tampa, and it's important to
people like her, people that protect us -- the fire department, the sheriffs,
they need homes. The times are good now, and I was a builder when your
friend, Jimmy Carter, was President, and interest rates weren't so good back
then, and those were tough times. And I just want to tell you that I'm
blessed to be here today with you in this room, and we all love you.
(Applause.)
THE PRESIDENT: Well, thanks. Let me talk about that. Thank you. You'll
be happy to hear, I don't set interest rates. (Laughter.) That's set by an
independent body. And I just named a new Chairman of the Fed to do that.
(Applause.) He's a good fellow. And so if I were you, I'd be worried about
interest rates -- because when the interest rates go up, it makes it harder
for your school teacher.
Well, there's help, to help certain folks who qualify with their down
payments. We want people owning their own home. See, that's -- we want this
to be an ownership society. We want people owning their own business, we want
people owning their own home, we want people owning their own health account
they can take with them from job to job like health savings accounts. And
home ownership is high right now. More minorities own a home than ever before
in our nation's history, which is a fantastic statistic.
But interest rates matter, as does good tax policy. Maybe you're hinting
at whether or not the mortgage deduction would be part of a plan. I don't
think you have to worry about the mortgage deduction not being a part of the
income tax law. But thank you for bringing that up.
Yes, sir. Go ahead and yell it.
Q Mr. President, you mentioned a trip next week to visit the sources of
renewable additional technology to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. We
have a not-so-renewable resource, which is our precious Florida coastline.
And because of your great brother, we do have an unemployment rate of 3.3
percent. How can you work with us to protect our Florida shoreline with
respect to offshore drilling?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I made a commitment that nothing is going to happen
within a hundred miles of this coastline, and I'm honoring the commitment. I
don't care what people might be saying -- I guess maybe they quit saying it
after the '04 campaign -- but it's a commitment that this government has -- at
least my government has made, and I'm going to honor it. When we say a
hundred miles off the coastline, we don't mean 99 miles or 89 miles, we mean a
hundred miles. So rest easy.
Now, the thing about -- look, we've got to get off of hydrocarbons. We
just do. And I'm a believer in nuclear power. (Applause.) I think it's a --
maybe some day, and I think we'll -- I'll figure out -- I'll find out how
close we are when I visit with some of these solar technology people, but it's
very likely that you'll become a little power generator in your own home, and
that the excess power that you do not use you feed back in the grid. Hybrid
batteries -- batteries for plug-in hybrid automobiles are pretty close, they
tell me. And I'm going to see firsthand -- sometimes the President gets the
cook's tour, I know it -- (laughter) -- but nevertheless, I'm going to see
firsthand.
Now, what's interesting is, is that a lot of people in urban areas are not
going to drive more than 30 miles a day. And so we're developing automobile
engines that can run on electricity for 30 miles, and then if you go more,
your gasoline kicks in. But it requires a battery that has got good storage
capacity and is easy to recharge. It's coming.
And so there's a lot of technologies that are coming on the market, and
we're spending money. And it's a good use of taxpayers' money, it seems like
to me, in order to achieve some big objectives.
I'm going to India on March the 1st, around that period of time, and I
believe that it's good policy for the United States to encourage these
emerging economies to use clean energy, nuclear power, so as to help reduce
demand for kind of non-renewables. And so I'm going to talk to them about
development of a civilian nuclear power industry. They're telling me China
has got about 34 plants on the market, which is good. But this expansion of
nuclear power -- which is in our interests, by the way; it's in our interests
because of the quality of the air, it's in our interests because it takes --
reduces demand, global demand -- is going to create another issue, and that
is, what are we going to do with the spent fuel? This country doesn't
reprocess spent fuel; we should. Reprocessing spent fuel means that we're
able to continue to reuse the base material that went through the burn the
first time in a plant, and reduce the amount that we have to then eventually
store. And we chose not to do that in the late '70s because of proliferation
concerns. I'm convinced we can work internationally to address those issues.
And so I'm just sharing with you -- we got a full strategy to help us make
us less dependent on energy -- on foreign sources of energy.
Yes, sir.
Q I'm from Winter Garden in the central part of the state.
THE PRESIDENT: Oh, yes, I know where you are.
Q Pressed into service by your brother, Honorable Jeb Bush.
THE PRESIDENT: Is that good or bad? If it's bad, take it up with him.
(Laughter.)
Q I thought about calling him to ask him if he'd like to have the job
back.
THE PRESIDENT: That's right. (Laughter.)
Q The concerns from the central part of the state is, we've got a
really unprecedented growth rate there in the middle part. The challenge is
for mass transportation to free us from the oil that you talk about.
Unfortunately, the proportionate share of funding that we're able to secure
seems to be tied into pork barrel like light rail, which -- Congressman Mica
needs to buy into the fact that it's not realistic. So how do we get free
from that so we can get direct funding for mass transit?
THE PRESIDENT: Yes. That will be something that you'll be able to effect
five years from now, because I signed the highway bill, and it's done. And
nobody wants to deal with it again until it expires, to be frank with you.
But I understand -- but what he's saying is, how come you just don't let
Floridians decide how to spend the money that's supposed to go back to them?
Why do you earmark parts of the bill? That's what you're saying. And I do
think Congress needs to work on earmark reform. I'm just not one of these
guys -- if there's no hope, I got to let you know, brother. There ain't no
hope. (Laughter and applause.) They're not going to -- they're not going to
revisit the highway bill. They're just not going to revisit the highway bill
until the highway bill expires. And then perhaps you can get the kind of --
they can get the kind of reforms. As you know, I ain't going to be around.
(Laughter.)
Yes, sir. I've heard from Jeb on this issue, by the way.
Q Mr. President, welcome back to Tampa.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you.
Q And my question is, you've talked a lot about our addiction to oil
today. You've also talked about advanced alternative fuel sources, in
particular for household vehicles as a potential mitigant to that dilemma.
But we have a very robust industrialized economy -- air, rail, shipping,
trucking -- that has depended on oil, frankly, for generations to be
successful and vibrant. So my question is, how do we maintain the most
advanced industrialized economy on Earth, and actually reduce our dependency
on oil going forward?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I believe -- first of all, natural gas has driven a
lot of our industrialized growth, as you know. And we are -- we need to have
-- import liquified natural gas if we're going to be modern and stay
competitive.
Listen, we're going to need oil. The question is, are we able to reduce
dependency from certain parts of the world. And I think that by relieving
pressure on how we drive our cars, we'll, in fact, help segments of our
economy that are going to take a while to diversify away from hydrocarbons, I
guess is the best kind of macro look.
Things don't happen instantly; I understand that. But, nevertheless,
there are some practical ways that we can reduce our dependency, and it seems
like to me the most practical way is to change automobiles, change how we
drive. In the short-term, ethanol and hybrid batteries makes the most sense
to me. It's the most practical way, and most economic way, to begin the
reduction of dependency.
Now, listen, we've got a large fleet -- I told you, there's four-and-a-
half flex-fuel cars [sic]. That's good, except there's about 200 million
cars. And it takes a while for fleets to renew. And so things don't happen
instantly, but they will happen quicker as we continue to press for innovation
and technology.
Ultimately, I believe that we're going to be using hydrogen to power our
automobiles. But that's 15 years down the -- for the technology to be
applicable is 15 years down the road. And I guess what I'm not only -- I
guess I am, what I'm telling you is that we see technological breakthroughs
pretty darn quick when it comes to ethanol and hybrid batteries, which is a
positive development for the people. And the interesting thing about ethanol
is that the barriers to entry are pretty low, when it comes to manufacturing -
- if the technology says that we can -- yields the capacity to convert
switchgrasses and refuses to ethanol, once that technological breakthrough
comes, the barriers to entry are pretty low when it comes to building the
manufacturing capacity that converts raw material to ethanol. Much different
from a big cracker refinery. And so that's positive. So we've got the car
technology, hopefully have the breakthrough technology on fuel, and then the
infrastructure will follow.
And so what I'm saying is, this is the most practical way to become less
dependent on oil. And the economy will continue to function. But things are
happening, by the way, in diesel. I don't know -- if any of you know
something about trucking, you know that diesel, clean diesel engines are
coming. We did a deal in my administration to work with diesel engine
manufacturers to come up with a very low-emission engine that is now being
applied in trucks, and it's going to make a difference -- on Caterpillar
tractors. We're getting there, we're getting there.
Thanks for the question. Yes, sir.
Q -- it seems to me that we are facing in this country -- I've had the
opportunity to interface with people of Muslim countries, and the war is bad
enough, and I applaud what you're doing, because freedom is important, but
what concerns me is if the youth in these nations are being taught that you
and I and us Americans are, in fact, the devil incarnate, or Satan, himself --
I guess my question is, what can we do about that, to win over the people, the
children, the youth, so that the next generation will not be facing the same
dilemma? I think this is an incredible problem.
THE PRESIDENT: I appreciate that. First is to support and work with
moderate governments, and there are a lot. The largest Muslim nation is
Indonesia. And we're working closely with the President there to help promote
a better understanding of different religions. I will be seeing President
Musharraf, who I like and he's a good fellow, who understands that moderation
is an important part of a hopeful future. And so we'll support governments
that practice moderation.
Secondly, provide assistance when assistance is needed. In my State of
the Union, I said, we've got to reject isolationism. Isolationism is the
tendency for a nation to withdraw and not feel an obligation to be involved in
the world. And we cannot defend ourselves if we're isolationist. I just made
the case. But I also believe, and part of my philosophy in the decision-
making is, to whom much has been given, much is required. And, therefore,
when we see suffering in places like Pakistan, or because of the tsunami, the
United States of America is leading the way in.
And it helps. It helped a lot in Pakistan, for example, to see those
choppers flying relief supplies up for poor folks who had been -- whose lives
had been just devastated. I can't remember the exact numbers, but President
Musharraf told me, we're talking hundreds of thousands of people either dead,
injured or displaced. And there was the United States of America military
flying in supplies. I believe, John Abizaid -- General Abizaid told me today
that we turned over our MASH unit to the Pakistani government to help so they
could continue to provide aid and comfort.
And so there are practical ways. One is to support moderation, and two,
help where help is needed. Our HIV/AIDS initiative, by the way, is a
fantastic initiative. It is -- I can't tell you how proud I am of the
American people for supporting this. It is necessary for the United States of
America to be taking the lead on this issue to save lives. If we say human
dignity matters and every life is precious, that that's part of a credo as a
country, which it is -- that's what we say. We say, people matter, every
human life is precious. Then those human lives apply not just here at home,
but on the continent of Africa, or in Muslim countries. And there's a lot of
Muslims in Africa who've seen the great compassion of the United States of
America when it comes to helping to battle HIV/AIDS. There's a pandemic
taking place. And you ought to be proud of this country, like I am, that
we're filling that void of compassion and need and hope. (Applause.)
Yes. Right here. Yes. You're next. Yes. Yes, ma'am.
Q I know that you and First Lady Bush have talked much about our
hurting generation of teens and our unproductive teens in our communities.
Just wanted you to talk a little bit about the efforts being made with the
work that you're doing in initiatives --
THE PRESIDENT: Thanks.
Q -- that will help that.
THE PRESIDENT: I appreciate that. First, there's positive news. Teen
pregnancies are down, teen drug use is down, and that's positive. That's
good. (Applause.) Because of people at the grassroots level -- people at the
grassroots level. I think one of the most important initiatives of this
administration is to -- is the faith-based and community initiatives, which
recognizes what de Tocqueville saw in the 1830s. He's a French guy who came
over here. (Laughter.) In case you don't remember. And he recognized that
the great strength of America was the capacity for individualists -- or the
willingness of individualists to work together in what he called voluntary
associations to make the community in which they live a better place. And he
saw that in the 1930s.
It's a -- what he saw is still the strength of our country, if you really
think about it. You know, government can hand out money, but government
cannot put a hope in a person's heart. A lot of people miss one of the basics
ingredients of life, and that is love. And love happens when somebody puts an
arm around a person and says, what can I do to help you, brother or sister.
And so part of our initiative in dealing with loneliness, discouragement,
lack of self-esteem, is to encourage faith-based programs -- which all exist
because they hear a universal call to love a neighbor, by the way -- to have
access to federal money, in other words, level the playing field for grant
money so that these programs -- which have been set up to love somebody and
provide love -- have got equal access to federal money. It's a really
important initiative.
There are targeted monies, of course. There's monies aimed at the
different community groups dealing with drug use. But I think the most
important initiative of all is to empower groups that really do provide
mentoring and care and decency on an individual basis for somebody who needs
it. And it's happening. It's happening in America. (Applause.)
Yes.
Q Mr. President, it's an honor to be here with you today, and I thank
you so much for the time that you take to share with us. I'm a 40-year-old
father of a three-year-old.
THE PRESIDENT: There you go.
Q And I'm also an adopted child. And it seems that, anymore, through
the results of legislation from the bench, that maybe the unsafest place for a
child in this country is in his or her mother's womb. And my question for you
is -- and I commend you for your Supreme Court picks. I thank you for your
bold stance in who you picked -- (applause) -- my question is, with my son,
this is the future of America. And my question is, where do you believe we're
headed? Long after your term of serving us has ended, long after we've had
other Presidents serve this country, where do you think we're headed in the
areas of abortion, the areas of traditional marriage, in the areas of faith
and the foundations that this country was founded upon that are so under
attack anymore? Where do you believe we're going?
THE PRESIDENT: I'm an optimist. I believe we're headed toward a period
of personal responsibility, where people understand that they're responsible
for the decisions they make in life.
I just gave you some statistics. Abortions are down in America, as well,
by the way. People are -- one of my jobs is to promote a culture of life.
And I just told you every life is precious, and I meant it, whether it be here
at home, or on the continent of Africa where somebody's suffering from
HIV/AIDS. And so I'm an optimist. I think people are -- I think people are
beginning to understand that there is virtue in being personally responsible
for the decisions you make in life.
And that -- there's a -- and cultures change and it takes a while for
cultures to change. All of us -- I'm not going to peg anybody a certain age
around here, but those of us born, like, around '46, '47, '48, we've seen a
culture change in our lifetime, if you really think about it. The culture
changed. And it can change again. And I think these statistics that show
that some problems that seemed incurable at one point in our history indicate
that there is a cultural shift. A lot of it has to do with people being
responsible. Some of it has to do with there's a religious awakening around
many communities in the country -- not just Christian religion, but Jewish
religion, Muslim religion. People are becoming religious in America. And
that, in itself, helps people realize that you've got to be conscious of the
decisions you make and mindful of the needs of others.
And -- but we still got challenges. One of the things that obviously
undermines good teaching at home is TV and some of the movies. But I remind
people, they put "off" and "on" knobs on TVs for a reason. (Applause.) You
don't have to go to a movie if you don't want to go to a movie. See, I think
you can promote responsibility at home and still live in a free society where
people are allowed to express themselves. And my advice to parents is, pay
attention to the Internet. Part of the problem we have in our society is
people aren't paying attention to their kids' habits. And when you've got
your child on the Internet, make sure you know what that child is looking at,
because that's your responsibility. It's not the government's responsibility
to take care of your child, it's your responsibility to take care of your
child. (Applause.)
Q Thank you for being our President. We are all way better off and
very safe --
THE PRESIDENT: Thanks. My high honor, by the way. (Applause.)
Q Thank you.
THE PRESIDENT: I'm glad I did it.
Q We appreciate it. How do you -- earlier you shared with us some
intimacy about how you make decisions, and I felt that was heartfelt. How do
you keep it together? What do you really think about when the biggest story
this week was Dick Cheney's hunting trip, and not Al Gore blasting our troops
and being treasonous in his regard to this war on terror in the Middle East?
(Applause.) How do you keep it together?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I appreciate that. That's a loaded question.
(Laughter.) I keep it in perspective. There's a lot of noise in Washington.
There's a lot of flattery, there's a lot of criticism, just a lot of noise.
And I keep it in -- I try to keep my life in perspective. I try to -- I don't
try to, I do, keep my life in perspective. And I am focused on achieving
certain objectives. Every day -- I said this, and I mean this -- every day I
think about how to protect America. Every day in the morning, first thing in
the morning, I get briefed by our intelligence officers about potential
threats. Every morning I'm aware of the world around us. And I told you that
it's -- 9/11 changed my thinking. My focus is there.
You know, I care deeply about troubled youth. I'm worried about Katrina
victims. I'm worried about people that got moved out of their home and they
ended up somewhere else. Put yourself in their perspective. I said home
ownership is valuable. We talked about home ownership here, how important it
is -- and somebody wakes up the next morning and their home is gone. And not
only that, they ended up out, somewhere else, you know. The good news is
those people found love, which is a wonderful thing about our country. And I
think about those kind of things.
So to answer your question -- and I appreciate that -- first, I'm wise
enough not to fall into your trap because -- (laughter) -- there are some keen
reporters paying attention to every word I'm saying. (Laughter.) But I
really don't let that bother me. I got my perspective, and I got my
priorities. My faith is a priority. My family is a priority. And --
(applause.) We got to deal with issues, of course, when they come up. That's
part of -- it's part of Washington. It's part of being the President.
There's -- issues come, they go, and they -- but I hope that when it's all
said and done, people see me as a strategic thinker, and that I'm able to stay
focused on a strategy that will leave behind peace and hope -- peace around
the world, and hope not only around the world, but equally importantly, here
at home, so people have this sense of the greatness of America. It's a --
we're a fantastic country.
Think about a country -- when you really put America in perspective, ours
is a country where somebody can come with nothing except drive and desire, and
end up being able to raise a family and realize dreams. It is a fantastic
land. And the great thing about America is it doesn't matter who you are, you
know, if you got the drive and the desire and the willingness, you can make it
in this country. And it's a powerful -- it's a powerful -- that's a powerful
statement to make. And that's the way we need to keep it, by the way. And so
-- I don't even know how I got there, but anyway. (Laughter.)
Yes, ma'am.
Q In light of national security, some of us baby boomers are going to
retire in the next three to five years.
THE PRESIDENT: There you go. I know how you're thinking, baby.
(Laughter.) I'm right there with you. (Laughter.)
Q And the number of people replacing us is only at about 63 percent.
So what are we going to do with immigration to make sure we have enough people
to fill those positions?
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, it's interesting, I thought you were going a
different direction. (Laughter.) I'm going to answer two questions. I
thought you were taking me down that Social Security route, because it's a
really interesting -- that's a really interesting way to frame the immigration
debate. Really is. I haven't heard it put that way.
Let me answer immigration first, and then talk about the unfunded
liabilities inherent in Medicare and Social Security as a result of baby
boomers like me and you retiring with not enough people to pay it, to pay the
bill.
First, immigration. There are a lot of people working here in America
doing jobs Americans will not do. And that is a fact. And it's a -- as I
told you, we deal with the way the world -- the way it is, not the way we hope
that it is, and therefore, how to deal with that issue, what do you do? You
got people working here, doing jobs Americans won't do.
My attitude is, you recognize it for what it is, and you say, you can do
this on a temporary basis. You say, if there's a willing employer and a
willing worker on a job an American won't do, then it's okay to fill that job,
so long as you're not here permanently, so long as this is not -- (applause.)
And so I believe there ought to be a temporary worker program. We've tried
this in America before -- pretty successful, at least in my own home state of
Texas. You got people -- Red Putnam over there, he's got people -- probably
have been bringing people in to pick oranges, I don't know. Agriculture
relies upon a lot of people willing to do the work that others won't do. And
it seems like to me that there ought to be a legal way to make this happen
without creating a sense of amnesty or permanency.
And so, one, I have to deal with immigration rationally. Now, we've got
an obligation to enforce our borders and our coastlines, and we're spending a
lot of money to do so. The Texas border is long and it's hard to enforce. I
mean, it's a lot of miles, a lot of empty country. And so we're using new
technologies -- drones, infrared, some mounds, some fencing in cities, to try
to make it harder for people to cross. But the truth of the matter is, a lot
of our Border Patrol agents are chasing people who are coming here to work,
see. And it seems like to me that if we could have a rational system that
would enable people to do this on a temporary basis, it would take the
pressures off the borders. People would be able to come in here in a
rational, legal way.
Now, as I told you, I'm not for amnesty. You got about 8 million-plus
people here illegally. My worry is if the -- all of a sudden legal citizens,
then another 8 million comes. And I don't think that makes any sense. So in
terms of immigration, I'm for border enforcement, and strong border
enforcement, with a rational guest worker program that's temporary in nature,
where it's understood that you're working here for a period of time, then
you're going back on home.
Now, I want to talk to you about what's happened as a result of the
current program. When you make something illegal, and there's a -- you know,
people coming here to work, people figure out ways around it. I'm not old
enough to remember the old whisky days of Prohibition, but I remember reading
about it -- people still made whisky, because people wanted to drink it.
And so guess what's happening today. We've got people getting stuffed in
the back of 18-wheelers, driving across hot desert to find jobs that most
often or not Americans won't do. There's a whole smuggling industry as a
result of making temporary work -- not making it legal. A whole smuggling
industry -- coyotes they're called -- and it's inhumane, it just is, any way
you look at it.
You know, family values don't stop at the Rio Grande River. If you've got
starving children and there's a job over here in America that pays you more
than it does in Mexico that an American won't do, you come and do that job and
get that money back to your family.
Secondly, one way to make immigration policy work is you've got to enforce
the law. And so you've got to go to employers. I'm not going to come to your
home building site -- but anyway. (Laughter.) You come to enforce the law,
right? And so you're a home builder out here in the Tampa area; a bunch of
people show up, roofers show up, and say, you know, we're legal, here's my
card. You're not in the business of telling me whether or not that's a forged
document, or not. You don't know. It looks real. An
-
How much do you think it costs to have your name mentioned by the Fuhrer?
-
My, my. What a well-stocked audience, scripted pukefest that was. ::puke::
-
What'd he say about our boy Mel?
-
On 2006-02-18 07:43:00, Anonymous wrote:
"What'd he say about our boy Mel?"
I want to thank my buddy, Mel Sembler, Ambassador Sembler, who represented
our country so well, once in Australia under 41, and then Italy under 43.
(Applause.) And Betty.
-
I want to thank my buddy, Mel Sembler, Ambassador Sembler, who represented
our country so well, once in Australia under 41, and then Italy under 43.
(Applause.) And Betty. I want to thank the Chambers of both Tampa and St.
Pete. I want to thank the Mayors from Tampa and St. Pete -- Mayor Iorio and
Mayor Baker are with us. Thank you both for coming. Appreciate you being
here. (Applause.)
-
Too fast for me.
-
so, basically, he said nothing about Mel... rendering this thread as useless as it is long.
-
I like to thank Mel for the use of his penis pump.
-
On 2006-02-18 11:00:00, Anonymous wrote:
"so, basically, he said nothing about Mel... rendering this thread as useless as it is long."
I agree.What a worthless thread!
-
On 2006-02-18 07:34:00, Anonymous wrote:
" WASHINGTON, Feb. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- The following is a transcript of
remarks by President Bush on the global war on terror:
Port of Tampa
Tampa, Florida
1:26 P.M. EST
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all. Please be seated. Thanks for the warm
welcome. Thanks for the warm weather. (Laughter.) It's nice to be back
here. I just came from MacDill, where I was talking to General Abizaid and
General Brown, and one of the things that's clear is folks there at MacDill
really do appreciate the support that the citizens of the communities of Tampa
and St. Pete and the surrounding area provide them. So I want to thank you
all very much for being -- (applause.)
I'd like to share some thoughts with you, and then answer questions as
time allows, if you've got any. First, I send Laura's greetings. She's doing
great, by the way. She's a fantastic First Lady and -- (applause.) She's
obviously got to be a woman of enormous patience. (Laughter.)
I appreciate Congressman Adam Putnam, Bill Young, Mike Bilirakis, and
Katherine Harris for being here today. (Applause.) Oh, there they are.
Proud to give them a ride on Air Force One. (Laughter.) Some of them aren't
going back, by the way. (Laughter.) Mark Kennedy -- is Mark here with us,
from Minnesota? I think he was going to drop by -- he supposedly was going to
be here. You don't know him because he's from Minnesota, but I do and he's a
fine guy. (Laughter.)
I want to thank my buddy, Mel Sembler, Ambassador Sembler, who represented
our country so well, once in Australia under 41, and then Italy under 43.
(Applause.) And Betty. I want to thank the Chambers of both Tampa and St.
Pete. I want to thank the Mayors from Tampa and St. Pete -- Mayor Iorio and
Mayor Baker are with us. Thank you both for coming. Appreciate you being
here. (Applause.)
I didn't mean to take you away from your work. Any excuse is a good one
on Friday, right? (Laughter.) So long as I keep the speech short. I want to
thank members of the Statehouse who are here. I want to thank you all for
letting us use this beautiful facility. And thank you for coming.
First of all, the economy is in good shape. It's growing. (Applause.) I
guess that's an easy thing to say in the state of Florida, when the
unemployment rate is 3.3 percent. Pretty amazing, isn't it? (Applause.) I'm
sure the Governor is going to try to take credit for it, you know.
(Laughter.) I'm not going to because the role of government is to create an
environment where the entrepreneurs can flourish and small businesses can
grow.
And the fundamental question facing this country of ours is, how do we
keep ourselves to be the economic leader of the world. It's really an
interesting question. You know, in spite of the good economic numbers -- 4.7
percent unemployment around the country, our economy growing at over 3
percent, in the face of hurricanes, as well as high gas prices, home ownership
is an all-time high, small businesses are growing -- in spite of all that,
there's a certain sense of uncertainty. People are worried. They're worried
because they're changing jobs a lot; they're worried because of the
competition from India and China. There's a certain sense of uncertainty.
And so we have a choice to make about our economy: Do we retreat in the
face of uncertainty, or do we lead? And I -- I will be working with the
Congress, members from both political parties, to be the leader of the world.
And here's some ideas. One, keep taxes low. We can't be the economic leader
of the world if we run up your taxes. And so we're going to keep them low.
(Applause.)
And you'll hear a debate in Washington, D.C. that says, well, we've got to
run up your taxes to balance the budget. That's not the way it works in
Washington. They will run up your taxes and they'll figure out new ways to
spend money. The best way to balance the budget is to keep the taxes low and
be wise about how we spend your money. That's how we're going to balance the
budget. (Applause.)
In order for us to be competitive and lead in the world, we've got to get
-- we've got to get off of Middle Eastern oil. I know it shocks some of you
to hear a Texan say, we're addicted to oil. And we are, and it's a problem.
It's a problem. It's a national security problem, and it's an economic
security problem to be reliant upon oil from parts of the world that may be
unstable, or parts of the world that simply don't like us. And so the best
way to deal with that is to continue to foster new technologies because of
research and development that will enable us to use different fuels in our
cars, for example.
There's Kennedy right there. Good to see you, Kennedy. The reason I
thought of him is because he's from a part of the world that's growing a lot
of crops that can be converted into energy. We're close. We're close to
technological breakthroughs that will enable us to convert wood chips and
sawgrass -- we already convert sugar, corn and soy -- into fuel. And think
about that. If this technology comes true, which we believe it will, then
pretty soon a President is going to say, we're growing a lot of crops and
we're less dependent on Middle Eastern oil. There are 4.5 million cars today
that are flex-fuel cars that can either run on gasoline or ethanol. In other
words, the technology is available inside the automobile. And it's coming.
And we're making some great breakthroughs on battery technology. Next
week I'm going to travel around the country going to some of the most
innovative places around our country that are providing new technologies to
enable us to become less dependent on oil, which will keep us a leader in the
world.
Another thing we need to do is to make sure that our health care system is
modern. I want to talk real quick about Medicare here. First of all, I'm
aware there's a lot of seniors in this state that rely upon Medicare. The
federal government made a commitment to the seniors around the United States,
starting with Lyndon Baines Johnson, that we would provide good health care to
the seniors. And when I got to Washington, I found that we were not providing
modern medicine. I mean, we would provide the money for ulcer surgery in the
old Medicare, but not the prescription drugs necessary to prevent the ulcer
from happening in the first place. And that didn't seem to make sense to me.
It's an old, centralized system that was not modern and was not fulfilling
the promise we made.
And so I worked with Congress -- Republicans and Democrats -- to get a
new bill out of Congress that said we're going to provide a prescription drug
benefit, and as we do, we're going to give seniors more choices and more
options from which to choose.
About 25 million seniors have signed up for this new plan since January
1st. That's a lot of folks in a quick period of time. And needless to say,
when you make that kind of transition to a modern system, there's going to be
some glitches. And our job is to fix those glitches. And that's what the
Department of Health and Human Services under Mike Leavitt is doing. And it's
important for our seniors to take advantage of this new program. Call 1-800-
Medicare. Or if you've got a mom or a dad who's eligible for Medicare, sit
down with them and explain the new benefit. It is a really good deal for
America's seniors.
To make sure that health care works, we'll continue to take care of the
poor. In other words, the government has made a commitment to the elderly and
the poor, but the government has also got to understand, the best medicine is
private medicine. (Applause.) And we should not get in between the doctors
and the patients in America.
Finally, I want to spend a little time on education, briefly. First of
all, No Child Left Behind Act is working. It's a piece of legislation that
says we're going to raise the standards for every child, and we're going to
measure to make sure children are meeting those standards. Can you imagine --
you might remember the old -- well, I'll tell you. When I was governor of
Texas, we had a system that didn't measure right early on, and guess what
happened? We just shuffled kids through the system who couldn't read, and we
found out too late. And that is a terrible system. It lets people down. And
we're spending a lot of your money. It seems like to me, it makes sense to
say, when we spend your money we ought to insist upon results. Results are
good for the taxpayers; more importantly, they're good for the students. So
now we measure early, before it's too late, and we're correcting problems
before they're too late. And our kids are learning to read.
And we need to apply that same rigor to children in math and science,
particularly in junior high. Fourth grade tests, our kids are doing fine
compared to other countries. But there's a big drop-off when it comes to math
and -- mathematics, particularly in junior high. And so we need to apply that
same standard. We'll measure in junior high, and if you need help, we'll
provide it for you. And the reason why is the jobs of the 21st century are
going to require mastery in math and science and engineering. (Applause.)
And if we don't make -- and if we don't educate our kids, the jobs are going
to go elsewhere, whether we like it or not. So to make sure America remains
the leader in the world, we're going to stay on the leading edge of research
and development, and educate the young scientists of tomorrow today.
And so, look, my attitude about the future is this, when it comes to the
economy, and when it comes to foreign policy: We shouldn't fear it. Let's
shape the future. Let's be the leader tomorrow that we are today.
Now, we're living in historic times when you think about this world we're
in. It is a time of challenge, and it's a time of opportunity. We've got the
challenge to protect the American people. My most important duty is to
protect you from harm. And we have an opportunity to lay the foundation of
peace for generations to come.
I make a lot of decisions. My buddies in Texas, when they show up to
Washington, after they get over the initial surprise that I'm still there --
(laughter) -- or got there in the first place -- (laughter) -- say, like,
what's it like, you know? What is the job description? What's it like to be
President? And the best way to answer it is, I make a lot of decisions. And
part of the reasons -- my thinking was shaped on September the 11th, let me
put it to you that way. And I think it's important for you to understand how
the President thinks and why I make decisions I make, particularly decisions
relating to war and peace.
I knew we're at war when they attacked us. As a matter of fact, I was
down here in Florida. It didn't take long to figure out what was going on.
And I vowed that day that I would not rest, so long as I was the President, in
protecting the people. So a lot of my decision-making is based upon the
attack. And I know we're at war, see -- I knew it then, and the enemy has,
unfortunately, proved me right because they continue to attack. In order to
win the war against the enemy you got to understand the nature of the enemy.
First of all, these people are cold-blooded killers, people who will kill
the innocent in order to achieve a tactical objective and a strategic
objective. They have no conscience. You can't negotiate with these people.
You cannot reason with them. You must bring them to justice.
Secondly, they have an ideology, they believe in something. The best way
to describe what they believe in is to think about what life was like in
Afghanistan under the Taliban. These were people that saw to it that young
girls didn't get educated. If you didn't agree with their view of religion
you were whipped in the public square. They tolerated no dissent, no
different point of view, and they were tearing down the -- destroying the
culture from the past. They had no sense of history other than their dim view
of history. That's what they think.
And they have made it clear their objectives. You probably have read some
of Zawahiri's writings, admonitions to his fellow fighters. They've made it
clear that they believe the United States is soft and weak, and that they can
shake our will. They've made it clear that it's just a matter of time before
we vacate parts of the world which they can then occupy in order to be able to
plan, plot attacks against the United States of America. They have made it
clear they're interested in weapons of mass destruction. In other words,
they've laid out a strategy, you know, for the world to see.
And my job is to take that strategy seriously. My job is to see the world
the way it is, not the way some would hope it would be. If 9/11 affected our
thinking, then we've got to make sure when the enemy speaks, we take every
single sentence that they say seriously, and deal with it. And that's what
we're doing.
So I want to share some of the strategy in winning this war on terror.
Make no mistake about it, we're going to win the war on terror. We'll protect
the American people. (Applause.)
First, when we see threats, we've got to deal with them. When I was
growing up in West Texas, oceans protected us. You might remember some of
those days. Old Mayor Martinez, I know he remembers those days when we felt
pretty comfortable here in America. We could see a threat overseas, but
oceans made it pretty clear that -- to a lot of folks -- that nothing would
happen, you know. September 11th came along and made it clear that we are
vulnerable, that the enemy can hit us if they -- if they want to.
And therefore, when you see a threat, you've got to deal with it. You
can't take things for granted anymore. The best way to deal with this enemy
is to defeat them overseas so we don't have to face them here at home, and to
stay on the hunt. (Applause.) And that's what we're doing.
And we've got a coalition of countries. I spent a lot of time reminding
people about the nature of the war. Listen, the tendency for folks is to say,
well, this really isn't a war. I can understand that. Who wants to walk
around thinking there's a war about to hit us. I mean, that's -- that's my
job to worry about it, not yours. How can you have an economy recover from a
recession if people are afraid to risk capital because they're worried about
thinking something is going to happen? And the same thing happens overseas.
People kind of want to slip to the comfortable. They don't believe it's a
war, some of them, and I understand that. And so we spend a lot of time
reminding people that we've got to work together because the enemy can't stand
what we stand for, and that's freedom. They just hate freedom. And so we've
got a good coalition, and -- and we're on the hunt. We're keeping the
pressure on them. It's hard to plot and plan and execute attacks when you're
on the run.
And so the first step of our strategy is defeat them there so we don't to
have to face them here. And we've got some great special forces -- I met the
special forces command guy here -- and there's great intelligence officers and
wonderful coalition folks. We're cutting off their money. It makes it kind
of hard to operate when you can't get your bank accounts full of money in
order to -- we're just doing a lot of stuff. And it's important for citizens
to know that there's a constant, constant pressure. I think about it every
day.
And we're making progress -- Khalid Shaykh Muhammad, September the 11th
plotter-planner, is incarcerated; his successor brought to justice. Slowly
but surely, we're finding them where they hide, and they know we're on their
trail.
Secondly, we got to deny them safe haven. These people can't operate
without safe haven. It's an interesting war we're in. It's totally different
from what we're used to because we're not -- we're not facing nation-states;
we're dealing with an enemy that is international in nature, that hides in
states.
When the President says something like, if you harbor a terrorist, you're
equally as guilty as the terrorist, those words mean nothing unless you act
upon them. And I said that to the people of Afghanistan-- the Taliban. They
didn't listen. And so we acted. And removing the Taliban -- (applause) -- is
a clear signal that we won't tolerate safe haven. In other words, if you
harbor the terrorist, you're just as guilty as the murderers. And that's a
clear signal that the United States must continue to send in order to win the
war on terror.
We saw a threat in Saddam Hussein. Obviously, this issue is one that has
caused a lot of people to wonder about certain aspects, caused me to wonder
about the capacity of our intelligence services to provide good intelligence.
And that's why we're constantly working to reform the intelligence services,
to make sure we get the best intelligence, because I thought there would be
weapons of mass destruction -- and so did everybody else in the world; and so
did people in the United States Congress from both political parties --
thought that there would be weapons of mass destruction.
The United Nations and the United Nations Security Council thought there
would be weapons of mass destruction. After all, they passed a unanimous
resolution that said, disclose, disarm, or face serious consequences. In
other words, we worked the diplomatic front.
And so when Saddam Hussein chose war -- and believe me, he made the choice
-- the hardest thing for the President of the United States to do is commit
troops into combat. It's the last option, the very last option. Except
September the 11th taught me, and September the 11th taught me, that we got to
take threats seriously. And the world saw a threat. This man was harboring
terrorists. He was on a state sponsor of terrorists list. I didn't put him
on there, he was put on there by previous Presidents. He was firing at our
pilots. He had invaded countries. He was a threat. And the world spoke with
one voice, and said, disclose, disarm, or face serious consequences. And when
the United States says something, it must mean it. And we said, disclose or
face serious consequences. And when he wouldn't, he faced serious
consequences. Removing Saddam Hussein has made America safer and the world a
better place. (Applause.)
And we have a plan to achieve victory. Victory is a state -- a democracy
that can sustain itself and defend itself and join America in fighting the war
on terror. That's the goal of victory. That's the definition of victory.
First part of our strategy is a political strategy. I try to tell people
how I make decisions, and part of making good decisions is you've got to
believe something. You have a belief system that, by the way, can't alter
because of politics, or polls, or focus groups, or what somebody wants you to
think. And I believe that freedom is universal. I believe that deep in
everybody's soul is the desire to be free. That's what I believe. I don't
believe freedom or liberty is confined here to Methodists from Texas. I
believe everybody wants to be free -- white, black, brown, Muslim, Jew,
Christian, agnostic. I believe there is a deep desire for people to be free.
And if you believe that, then you have faith in people demanding freedom,
if given a chance. And the Iraqis proved that theory right. Eleven million
people went to the polls in the face of unbelievable terror, terrorist
threats, and said, I want to be free; let me vote; let me decide my future.
And so on the political front, they're making progress because of the courage
of the Iraqis.
And now the task at hand is to work with those who won votes in the new
parliament to set up a unity government; one that is -- can help deal with
the grievances of the past; one that unites under the fabric of democracy.
And that's what we're doing. I talked to the Ambassador, Zal Khalilzad, there
yesterday. He's spent a lot of time working with making our position known
that we want the government to be a unified government.
Secondly, we're helping the country rebuild itself after years of neglect,
so that people can see the benefits of democracy. And we started off
initially with kind of these grand projects. We got the Congress to
appropriate money, and we tried to build some great electricity-type
renovations, and the enemy kept blowing them up. And so we've altered our
strategy. One of the things that you've got to do in a situation like this is
constantly adjust. You can't just get stuck in one kind of response mode.
You've got to think and watch the enemy and adjust to the enemy in order to
achieve an objective. And we're doing that. And so now we've got much
smaller-scale projects that are yielding instant results for the people on the
ground, so people say, wait a minute, this democracy deal is a pretty good
thing, you know.
Businesses are flourishing in Iraq. Freedom is coming, freedom is
coming. There's a determined enemy trying to stop it, of course. They can't
stand freedom. I told you, they think the exact opposite we do. They don't
believe that everybody desires to be free. They want everybody to live under
their totalitarian thumb. That's what they want. Not America and our
coalition. We want governments to be responsible and responsive to the
people. That's what we believe in.
Thirdly, in order to achieve our objective, the Iraqis are going to have
to fight the enemy. They've proven their worth, in terms of defying the
terrorists when it comes to making the vote, and they're proving their desire
to defend themselves against the enemy, too. You know how I know? I'm
listening to the people on the ground. I talk to our commanders a lot.
They're the ones who are giving me the appraisal about how well these Iraqis
are being trained.
An interesting measurement, right off the bat, however, was how the Iraqis
responded to these attacks on the police stations and the recruiting
stations. You remember they had a series of attacks on the recruiting
stations? Guess what my question was to them out there -- are there still
people lining up to join up? If you're getting blown up standing in line, are
they still coming? And the answer was, absolutely. And we're training them,
and there's a command structure -- command and control structure getting in
place. And this military is getting better and better. We're turning over a
lot of territory to the Iraqis. They now have two divisions, which is a lot
of folks, that are capable of taking the fight nearly on their own. The
training mission is working.
So on the security side, we're on the hunt. We're after Zarqawi. See, he
wants us to leave. He believes we'll lose our nerve so he can establish a
safe haven in Iraq. And we're not going to let him do it. And so we've got
great special operators and U.S. forces and coalition forces on the hunt. And
at the same time, we're training the Iraqis.
There's a big debate in Washington about who gets to decide the troop
levels. Well, those troop levels will be decided by this administration. And
this administration is going to listen not to politicians, but to the
commanders on the ground, about what we need on the ground in order to win
this deal. (Applause.)
After I leave here, I'm going to go visit with a family of one of the
fallen troops. I have to be able to look that person in the eye, and say, the
cause is just. I believe it is just and necessary. And I have to look that
person in the eye and say that the sacrifice of your loved one will not go in
vain, that we will complete the mission. And that's what I want to assure my
fellow citizens. No matter what it looks like in Washington, D.C., I'm
committed to victory in Iraq so to achieve peace.
And so in the short-term, we're going to succeed in Iraq. We'll deny them
safe haven. We'll stay on the hunt. But there has to be a long-term
strategy, as well, to win. And that long-term strategy is to liberate people
and give them the chance to live under the greatest system of government ever,
and that's democracy -- because democracies respond to people.
You know, our foreign policy in the broader Middle East for a long period
of time was just kind of tolerate the status quo and hope for the best. It
didn't work. The surface looked placid, but beneath the surface was brewing
resentment and anger and fertile recruiting opportunities for those who have
got a dark vision of the future. And so we're working to help the Iraqis
develop a democracy.
Elections are only the beginning of democracy, not the end. Election is
the beginning of a process to -- where government listens to the people. In
order to make sure democracy works, there has to be institution-building, and
support for young, fledgling democracies. And that's what you're seeing.
This is an historic moment. The world is changing because freedom is on the
march. And we shouldn't be discouraged about setbacks -- short-term setbacks,
or the enemy's capacity to take innocent life, because we've seen democracy
change the world in the past.
I think about all the wars fought in Europe over the past 100 years. A
hundred years seems like a long time, probably, for the little guy there. Me,
too. It seems like a long -- I'm only 59 years old. But Americans shed a lot
of blood in Europe-- World War I and World War II. And yet, the continent is
-- Europe is peaceful. You know why? Because there's democracies living
side-by-side in peace. Democracies don't fight each other. Generally, people
in a democracy don't campaign and say, vote for me, I promise you war. They
say, vote for you -- vote for me, I work for the peace. I want your children
to grow up in a peaceful world. That's what people say to get elected.
Japan-- one of my favorite analogies and stories about this is, my friend,
Koizumi, Prime Minister of Japan. He's an interesting guy. I like him a
lot. We spend time talking about the peace. He understands that democracy in
the heart of the Middle East, democracy in a part of the world that is
desperate for freedom, is an important part of laying the foundation for
peace. And so he committed Japanese troops to help the Iraqis rebuild their
country and to provide security so they could rebuild their country.
What's amazing about this is that, like many whose relatives -- like many
here whose relatives fought against the Japanese, my dad did, too. Isn't that
interesting? Eighteen-year-old kid, Navy fighter pilot; country calls him;
like thousands, he goes overseas to fight the sworn enemy -- the Japanese.
And today, this guy's son is sitting down with the Prime Minister of Japan
working to keep the peace. And what happened in between was that a Japanese-
style democracy grew. Democracies yield the peace. And what the youngsters
here have to see that's happening is we're laying that foundation for peace.
Some day when you're old and -- older -- I know you never think it's going to
happen, but it does -- you look back and say, maybe old George W. Bush and the
United States Congress was right in keeping the faith that democracies can
yield the peace we all want. (Applause.)
I got two other things, two other things I want to tell you, then I'll
answer questions. We not only protect ourselves by keeping the pressure on
the enemy and defeating them over there so we don't have to face them here at
home, we've got to protect ourselves by doing smart things in America. I hope
-- I appreciate working with the Mayors on homeland security issues. We're
training a lot of first responders and getting people ready in case something
happens.
Secondly, in order to ask our folks on the front line of protecting
America to do the job, they got to have all the tools. And the Patriot Act
passed right after September the 11th -- had a little problem getting it out
of the United States Senate, got kind of hung up there. My reminder to those
senators is that the bill may -- about ready to lapse, but the threat isn't.
And if people in Washington expect those on the front line of protecting
America to do their job, they got to give them the tools. The Patriot Act
needs to be passed. (Applause.)
Finally, I made a decision that has been in the news lately, and I want to
share with you my thinking, because it's an important decision. September the
11th made it clear to me that an enemy would do anything it could to hurt us.
We're at war. I understand some don't think that, that we're at war. There
are good, decent Americans who believe that. I know that. This is not what I
-- I don't believe it, see. I got a different point of view. I asked our
people on the ground there in Washington, is there anything more we can do to
protect the American people? What can we do? The enemy wants to hit us,
they're planning to hit us. Is there anything we can do so I can go around
the country saying, go about your business, we're taking care of your security
for you. I think most people would ask that question.
And General Mike Hayden of the NSA -- he's a wonderful person -- said he
thought there was something more we could do. And he showed me the plans for
this country to pick up a conversation -- listen to conversations from people
outside the country, inside the country, who had an affiliation with al Qaeda,
or were al Qaeda. He said, I think we can design a program, Mr. President,
that will enable us to have quick response to be able to detect and deter a
potential attack.
I said, that's interesting, General. I said, that makes a lot of sense to
me. I said, you're not going to listen inside the country. No, this is calls
from outside the country in, or inside out, to people who we know or suspect
are affiliated with al Qaeda. And I remember some of those phone calls coming
out of California prior to the September the 11th attacks by the killers --
just thinking maybe if we'd have listened to those on a quick response basis,
you know, it might have helped prevent the attacks.
My second question was, is it legal? See, I take that oath of office
seriously -- I've taken it twice as your President -- to uphold the laws and
the Constitution. And so we got lawyers all over Washington, as I'm sure you
can imagine. (Laughter.) I'm not one. I said, is it legal? I'm asking this
to the Attorney General of the United States, the Legal Counsel in the White
House; NSA has got lawyers. I mean, a lot of lawyers looked at this, and they
said, you bet, Mr. President, it's legal. And they gave me the legal
ramifications. You'll see this all -- this is part of the debate.
Thirdly, I knew I needed to tell members of Congress. See, they like to
be a part of the process. They're a co-equal branch of government. And I
recognize that, and I honor that. And so we briefed members of the United
States Congress on the full program so that they would know -- appropriate
members of Congress -- leaders, Republicans, and Democrats, leaders of the
Intelligence Committee whose job it is to provide oversight on intelligence
operations. They were abreast. Like my old buddy called me, he said, you
know something? If you're trying to pull one over on them, if you're trying
to have an illegal program, why are you briefing the Congress? I said,
because I want people to know.
Unfortunately, we're having this discussion. It's too bad, because guess
who listens to the discussion: The enemy. If you don't think we're at war it
doesn't matter then, does it? I know we're at war. And the enemy is
adjusting. But I'm going to tell you something. I'm doing the right thing.
Washington is a town that says, you didn't connect the dots, and then when you
do connect the dots, they say you're wrong. In order to protect America, if
somebody is talking to al Qaeda, we want to know who they are and why they're
talking to them. (Applause.)
Okay. That's what's on my mind. Now, what's on yours? Yes, sir. Go
ahead and yell it.
Q Mr. President, I just wanted to take an opportunity to tell you I think
our country is blessed to have you as our President.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. (Applause.)
Q We are very thankful that you don't make your decisions based on the
polls, like previous Presidents have.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I appreciate that. (Applause.)
Q And my comment is, is that I'm a homebuilder. I'm very happy right
now.
THE PRESIDENT: You've got to be. (Laughter.)
Q But I wanted to just keep you apprised that things are good now, the
economy is good, interest rates are low. There are people that still can't
afford homes in our country today. Affordable housing is very important. We,
as homebuilders -- I served on the Board of Directors of the National
Association of Homebuilders.
THE PRESIDENT: Good.
Q We'll be up in Washington in about a month or so to see you guys.
But we're concerned with the environment just as much as anyone else is, and -
- but there's got to be a balance to make sure that we can develop land and
provide homes -- affordable homes. And also Congress is working on some
things now that has an effect on financing and interest rates for people
buying their first homes. And let's make sure that we have affordable homes
for people.
My daughter is a school teacher here in Tampa, and it's important to
people like her, people that protect us -- the fire department, the sheriffs,
they need homes. The times are good now, and I was a builder when your
friend, Jimmy Carter, was President, and interest rates weren't so good back
then, and those were tough times. And I just want to tell you that I'm
blessed to be here today with you in this room, and we all love you.
(Applause.)
THE PRESIDENT: Well, thanks. Let me talk about that. Thank you. You'll
be happy to hear, I don't set interest rates. (Laughter.) That's set by an
independent body. And I just named a new Chairman of the Fed to do that.
(Applause.) He's a good fellow. And so if I were you, I'd be worried about
interest rates -- because when the interest rates go up, it makes it harder
for your school teacher.
Well, there's help, to help certain folks who qualify with their down
payments. We want people owning their own home. See, that's -- we want this
to be an ownership society. We want people owning their own business, we want
people owning their own home, we want people owning their own health account
they can take with them from job to job like health savings accounts. And
home ownership is high right now. More minorities own a home than ever before
in our nation's history, which is a fantastic statistic.
But interest rates matter, as does good tax policy. Maybe you're hinting
at whether or not the mortgage deduction would be part of a plan. I don't
think you have to worry about the mortgage deduction not being a part of the
income tax law. But thank you for bringing that up.
Yes, sir. Go ahead and yell it.
Q Mr. President, you mentioned a trip next week to visit the sources of
renewable additional technology to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. We
have a not-so-renewable resource, which is our precious Florida coastline.
And because of your great brother, we do have an unemployment rate of 3.3
percent. How can you work with us to protect our Florida shoreline with
respect to offshore drilling?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I made a commitment that nothing is going to happen
within a hundred miles of this coastline, and I'm honoring the commitment. I
don't care what people might be saying -- I guess maybe they quit saying it
after the '04 campaign -- but it's a commitment that this government has -- at
least my government has made, and I'm going to honor it. When we say a
hundred miles off the coastline, we don't mean 99 miles or 89 miles, we mean a
hundred miles. So rest easy.
Now, the thing about -- look, we've got to get off of hydrocarbons. We
just do. And I'm a believer in nuclear power. (Applause.) I think it's a --
maybe some day, and I think we'll -- I'll figure out -- I'll find out how
close we are when I visit with some of these solar technology people, but it's
very likely that you'll become a little power generator in your own home, and
that the excess power that you do not use you feed back in the grid. Hybrid
batteries -- batteries for plug-in hybrid automobiles are pretty close, they
tell me. And I'm going to see firsthand -- sometimes the President gets the
cook's tour, I know it -- (laughter) -- but nevertheless, I'm going to see
firsthand.
Now, what's interesting is, is that a lot of people in urban areas are not
going to drive more than 30 miles a day. And so we're developing automobile
engines that can run on electricity for 30 miles, and then if you go more,
your gasoline kicks in. But it requires a battery that has got good storage
capacity and is easy to recharge. It's coming.
And so there's a lot of technologies that are coming on the market, and
we're spending money. And it's a good use of taxpayers' money, it seems like
to me, in order to achieve some big objectives.
I'm going to India on March the 1st, around that period of time, and I
believe that it's good policy for the United States to encourage these
emerging economies to use clean energy, nuclear power, so as to help reduce
demand for kind of non-renewables. And so I'm going to talk to them about
development of a civilian nuclear power industry. They're telling me China
has got about 34 plants on the market, which is good. But this expansion of
nuclear power -- which is in our interests, by the way; it's in our interests
because of the quality of the air, it's in our interests because it takes --
reduces demand, global demand -- is going to create another issue, and that
is, what are we going to do with the spent fuel? This country doesn't
reprocess spent fuel; we should. Reprocessing spent fuel means that we're
able to continue to reuse the base material that went through the burn the
first time in a plant, and reduce the amount that we have to then eventually
store. And we chose not to do that in the late '70s because of proliferation
concerns. I'm convinced we can work internationally to address those issues.
And so I'm just sharing with you -- we got a full strategy to help us make
us less dependent on energy -- on foreign sources of energy.
Yes, sir.
Q I'm from Winter Garden in the central part of the state.
THE PRESIDENT: Oh, yes, I know where you are.
Q Pressed into service by your brother, Honorable Jeb Bush.
THE PRESIDENT: Is that good or bad? If it's bad, take it up with him.
(Laughter.)
Q I thought about calling him to ask him if he'd like to have the job
back.
THE PRESIDENT: That's right. (Laughter.)
Q The concerns from the central part of the state is, we've got a
really unprecedented growth rate there in the middle part. The challenge is
for mass transportation to free us from the oil that you talk about.
Unfortunately, the proportionate share of funding that we're able to secure
seems to be tied into pork barrel like light rail, which -- Congressman Mica
needs to buy into the fact that it's not realistic. So how do we get free
from that so we can get direct funding for mass transit?
THE PRESIDENT: Yes. That will be something that you'll be able to effect
five years from now, because I signed the highway bill, and it's done. And
nobody wants to deal with it again until it expires, to be frank with you.
But I understand -- but what he's saying is, how come you just don't let
Floridians decide how to spend the money that's supposed to go back to them?
Why do you earmark parts of the bill? That's what you're saying. And I do
think Congress needs to work on earmark reform. I'm just not one of these
guys -- if there's no hope, I got to let you know, brother. There ain't no
hope. (Laughter and applause.) They're not going to -- they're not going to
revisit the highway bill. They're just not going to revisit the highway bill
until the highway bill expires. And then perhaps you can get the kind of --
they can get the kind of reforms. As you know, I ain't going to be around.
(Laughter.)
Yes, sir. I've heard from Jeb on this issue, by the way.
Q Mr. President, welcome back to Tampa.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you.
Q And my question is, you've talked a lot about our addiction to oil
today. You've also talked about advanced alternative fuel sources, in
particular for household vehicles as a potential mitigant to that dilemma.
But we have a very robust industrialized economy -- air, rail, shipping,
trucking -- that has depended on oil, frankly, for generations to be
successful and vibrant. So my question is, how do we maintain the most
advanced industrialized economy on Earth, and actually reduce our dependency
on oil going forward?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I believe -- first of all, natural gas has driven a
lot of our industrialized growth, as you know. And we are -- we need to have
-- import liquified natural gas if we're going to be modern and stay
competitive.
Listen, we're going to need oil. The question is, are we able to reduce
dependency from certain parts of the world. And I think that by relieving
pressure on how we drive our cars, we'll, in fact, help segments of our
economy that are going to take a while to diversify away from hydrocarbons, I
guess is the best kind of macro look.
Things don't happen instantly; I understand that. But, nevertheless,
there are some practical ways that we can reduce our dependency, and it seems
like to me the most practical way is to change automobiles, change how we
drive. In the short-term, ethanol and hybrid batteries makes the most sense
to me. It's the most practical way, and most economic way, to begin the
reduction of dependency.
Now, listen, we've got a large fleet -- I told you, there's four-and-a-
half flex-fuel cars [sic]. That's good, except there's about 200 million
cars. And it takes a while for fleets to renew. And so things don't happen
instantly, but they will happen quicker as we continue to press for innovation
and technology.
Ultimately, I believe that we're going to be using hydrogen to power our
automobiles. But that's 15 years down the -- for the technology to be
applicable is 15 years down the road. And I guess what I'm not only -- I
guess I am, what I'm telling you is that we see technological breakthroughs
pretty darn quick when it comes to ethanol and hybrid batteries, which is a
positive development for the people. And the interesting thing about ethanol
is that the barriers to entry are pretty low, when it comes to manufacturing -
- if the technology says that we can -- yields the capacity to convert
switchgrasses and refuses to ethanol, once that technological breakthrough
comes, the barriers to entry are pretty low when it comes to building the
manufacturing capacity that converts raw material to ethanol. Much different
from a big cracker refinery. And so that's positive. So we've got the car
technology, hopefully have the breakthrough technology on fuel, and then the
infrastructure will follow.
And so what I'm saying is, this is the most practical way to become less
dependent on oil. And the economy will continue to function. But things are
happening, by the way, in diesel. I don't know -- if any of you know
something about trucking, you know that diesel, clean diesel engines are
coming. We did a deal in my administration to work with diesel engine
manufacturers to come up with a very low-emission engine that is now being
applied in trucks, and it's going to make a difference -- on Caterpillar
tractors. We're getting there, we're getting there.
Thanks for the question. Yes, sir.
Q -- it seems to me that we are facing in this country -- I've had the
opportunity to interface with people of Muslim countries, and the war is bad
enough, and I applaud what you're doing, because freedom is important, but
what concerns me is if the youth in these nations are being taught that you
and I and us Americans are, in fact, the devil incarnate, or Satan, himself --
I guess my question is, what can we do about that, to win over the people, the
children, the youth, so that the next generation will not be facing the same
dilemma? I think this is an incredible problem.
THE PRESIDENT: I appreciate that. First is to support and work with
moderate governments, and there are a lot. The largest Muslim nation is
Indonesia. And we're working closely with the President there to help promote
a better understanding of different religions. I will be seeing President
Musharraf, who I like and he's a good fellow, who understands that moderation
is an important part of a hopeful future. And so we'll support governments
that practice moderation.
Secondly, provide assistance when assistance is needed. In my State of
the Union, I said, we've got to reject isolationism. Isolationism is the
tendency for a nation to withdraw and not feel an obligation to be involved in
the world. And we cannot defend ourselves if we're isolationist. I just made
the case. But I also believe, and part of my philosophy in the decision-
making is, to whom much has been given, much is required. And, therefore,
when we see suffering in places like Pakistan, or because of the tsunami, the
United States of America is leading the way in.
And it helps. It helped a lot in Pakistan, for example, to see those
choppers flying relief supplies up for poor folks who had been -- whose lives
had been just devastated. I can't remember the exact numbers, but President
Musharraf told me, we're talking hundreds of thousands of people either dead,
injured or displaced. And there was the United States of America military
flying in supplies. I believe, John Abizaid -- General Abizaid told me today
that we turned over our MASH unit to the Pakistani government to help so they
could continue to provide aid and comfort.
And so there are practical ways. One is to support moderation, and two,
help where help is needed. Our HIV/AIDS initiative, by the way, is a
fantastic initiative. It is -- I can't tell you how proud I am of the
American people for supporting this. It is necessary for the United States of
America to be taking the lead on this issue to save lives. If we say human
dignity matters and every life is precious, that that's part of a credo as a
country, which it is -- that's what we say. We say, people matter, every
human life is precious. Then those human lives apply not just here at home,
but on the continent of Africa, or in Muslim countries. And there's a lot of
Muslims in Africa who've seen the great compassion of the United States of
America when it comes to helping to battle HIV/AIDS. There's a pandemic
taking place. And you ought to be proud of this country, like I am, that
we're filling that void of compassion and need and hope. (Applause.)
Yes. Right here. Yes. You're next. Yes. Yes, ma'am.
Q I know that you and First Lady Bush have talked much about our
hurting generation of teens and our unproductive teens in our communities.
Just wanted you to talk a little bit about the efforts being made with the
work that you're doing in initiatives --
THE PRESIDENT: Thanks.
Q -- that will help that.
THE PRESIDENT: I appreciate that. First, there's positive news. Teen
pregnancies are down, teen drug use is down, and that's positive. That's
good. (Applause.) Because of people at the grassroots level -- people at the
grassroots level. I think one of the most important initiatives of this
administration is to -- is the faith-based and community initiatives, which
recognizes what de Tocqueville saw in the 1830s. He's a French guy who came
over here. (Laughter.) In case you don't remember. And he recognized that
the great strength of America was the capacity for individualists -- or the
willingness of individualists to work together in what he called voluntary
associations to make the community in which they live a better place. And he
saw that in the 1930s.
It's a -- what he saw is still the strength of our country, if you really
think about it. You know, government can hand out money, but government
cannot put a hope in a person's heart. A lot of people miss one of the basics
ingredients of life, and that is love. And love happens when somebody puts an
arm around a person and says, what can I do to help you, brother or sister.
And so part of our initiative in dealing with loneliness, discouragement,
lack of self-esteem, is to encourage faith-based programs -- which all exist
because they hear a universal call to love a neighbor, by the way -- to have
access to federal money, in other words, level the playing field for grant
money so that these programs -- which have been set up to love somebody and
provide love -- have got equal access to federal money. It's a really
important initiative.
There are targeted monies, of course. There's monies aimed at the
different community groups dealing with drug use. But I think the most
important initiative of all is to empower groups that really do provide
mentoring and care and decency on an individual basis for somebody who needs
it. And it's happening. It's happening in America. (Applause.)
Yes.
Q Mr. President, it's an honor to be here with you today, and I thank
you so much for the time that you take to share with us. I'm a 40-year-old
father of a three-year-old.
THE PRESIDENT: There you go.
Q And I'm also an adopted child. And it seems that, anymore, through
the results of legislation from the bench, that maybe the unsafest place for a
child in this country is in his or her mother's womb. And my question for you
is -- and I commend you for your Supreme Court picks. I thank you for your
bold stance in who you picked -- (applause) -- my question is, with my son,
this is the future of America. And my question is, where do you believe we're
headed? Long after your term of serving us has ended, long after we've had
other Presidents serve this country, where do you think we're headed in the
areas of abortion, the areas of traditional marriage, in the areas of faith
and the foundations that this country was founded upon that are so under
attack anymore? Where do you believe we're going?
THE PRESIDENT: I'm an optimist. I believe we're headed toward a period
of personal responsibility, where people understand that they're responsible
for the decisions they make in life.
I just gave you some statistics. Abortions are down in America, as well,
by the way. People are -- one of my jobs is to promote a culture of life.
And I just told you every life is precious, and I meant it, whether it be here
at home, or on the continent of Africa where somebody's suffering from
HIV/AIDS. And so I'm an optimist. I think people are -- I think people are
beginning to understand that there is virtue in being personally responsible
for the decisions you make in life.
And that -- there's a -- and cultures change and it takes a while for
cultures to change. All of us -- I'm not going to peg anybody a certain age
around here, but those of us born, like, around '46, '47, '48, we've seen a
culture change in our lifetime, if you really think about it. The culture
changed. And it can change again. And I think these statistics that show
that some problems that seemed incurable at one point in our history indicate
that there is a cultural shift. A lot of it has to do with people being
responsible. Some of it has to do with there's a religious awakening around
many communities in the country -- not just Christian religion, but Jewish
religion, Muslim religion. People are becoming religious in America. And
that, in itself, helps people realize that you've got to be conscious of the
decisions you make and mindful of the needs of others.
And -- but we still got challenges. One of the things that obviously
undermines good teaching at home is TV and some of the movies. But I remind
people, they put "off" and "on" knobs on TVs for a reason. (Applause.) You
don't have to go to a movie if you don't want to go to a movie. See, I think
you can promote responsibility at home and still live in a free society where
people are allowed to express themselves. And my advice to parents is, pay
attention to the Internet. Part of the problem we have in our society is
people aren't paying attention to their kids' habits. And when you've got
your child on the Internet, make sure you know what that child is looking at,
because that's your responsibility. It's not the government's responsibility
to take care of your child, it's your responsibility to take care of your
child. (Applause.)
Q Thank you for being our President. We are all way better off and
very safe --
THE PRESIDENT: Thanks. My high honor, by the way. (Applause.)
Q Thank you.
THE PRESIDENT: I'm glad I did it.
Q We appreciate it. How do you -- earlier you shared with us some
intimacy about how you make decisions, and I felt that was heartfelt. How do
you keep it together? What do you really think about when the biggest story
this week was Dick Cheney's hunting trip, and not Al Gore blasting our troops
and being treasonous in his regard to this war on terror in the Middle East?
(Applause.) How do you keep it together?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I appreciate that. That's a loaded question.
(Laughter.) I keep it in perspective. There's a lot of noise in Washington.
There's a lot of flattery, there's a lot of criticism, just a lot of noise.
And I keep it in -- I try to keep my life in perspective. I try to -- I don't
try to, I do, keep my life in perspective. And I am focused on achieving
certain objectives. Every day -- I said this, and I mean this -- every day I
think about how to protect America. Every day in the morning, first thing in
the morning, I get briefed by our intelligence officers about potential
threats. Every morning I'm aware of the world around us. And I told you that
it's -- 9/11 changed my thinking. My focus is there.
You know, I care deeply about troubled youth. I'm worried about Katrina
victims. I'm worried about people that got moved out of their home and they
ended up somewhere else. Put yourself in their perspective. I said home
ownership is valuable. We talked about home ownership here, how important it
is -- and somebody wakes up the next morning and their home is gone. And not
only that, they ended up out, somewhere else, you know. The good news is
those people found love, which is a wonderful thing about our country. And I
think about those kind of things.
So to answer your question -- and I appreciate that -- first, I'm wise
enough not to fall into your trap because -- (laughter) -- there are some keen
reporters paying attention to every word I'm saying. (Laughter.) But I
really don't let that bother me. I got my perspective, and I got my
priorities. My faith is a priority. My family is a priority. And --
(applause.) We got to deal with issues, of course, when they come up. That's
part of -- it's part of Washington. It's part of being the President.
There's -- issues come, they go, and they -- but I hope that when it's all
said and done, people see me as a strategic thinker, and that I'm able to stay
focused on a strategy that will leave behind peace and hope -- peace around
the world, and hope not only around the world, but equally importantly, here
at home, so people have this sense of the greatness of America. It's a --
we're a fantastic country.
Think about a country -- when you really put America in perspective, ours
is a country where somebody can come with nothing except drive and desire, and
end up being able to raise a family and realize dreams. It is a fantastic
land. And the great thing about America is it doesn't matter who you are, you
know, if you got the drive and the desire and the willingness, you can make it
in this country. And it's a powerful -- it's a powerful -- that's a powerful
statement to make. And that's the way we need to keep it, by the way. And so
-- I don't even know how I got there, but anyway. (Laughter.)
Yes, ma'am.
Q In light of national security, some of us baby boomers are going to
retire in the next three to five years.
THE PRESIDENT: There you go. I know how you're thinking, baby.
(Laughter.) I'm right there with you. (Laughter.)
Q And the number of people replacing us is only at about 63 percent.
So what are we going to do with immigration to make sure we have enough people
to fill those positions?
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, it's interesting, I thought you were going a
different direction. (Laughter.) I'm going to answer two questions. I
thought you were taking me down that Social Security route, because it's a
really interesting -- that's a really interesting way to frame the immigration
debate. Really is. I haven't heard it put that way.
Let me answer immigration first, and then talk about the unfunded
liabilities inherent in Medicare and Social Security as a result of baby
boomers like me and you retiring with not enough people to pay it, to pay the
bill.
First, immigration. There are a lot of people working here in America
doing jobs Americans will not do. And that is a fact. And it's a -- as I
told you, we deal with the way the world -- the way it is, not the way we hope
that it is, and therefore, how to deal with that issue, what do you do? You
got people working here, doing jobs Americans won't do.
My attitude is, you recognize it for what it is, and you say, you can do
this on a temporary basis. You say, if there's a willing employer and a
willing worker on a job an American won't do, then it's ok
-
On 2006-02-18 20:42:00, Anonymous wrote:
"
On 2006-02-18 07:34:00, Anonymous wrote:
" WASHINGTON, Feb. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- The following is a transcript of
remarks by President Bush on the global war on terror:
Port of Tampa
Tampa, Florida
1:26 P.M. EST
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all. Please be seated. Thanks for the warm
welcome. Thanks for the warm weather. (Laughter.) It's nice to be back
here. I just came from MacDill, where I was talking to General Abizaid and
General Brown, and one of the things that's clear is folks there at MacDill
really do appreciate the support that the citizens of the communities of Tampa
and St. Pete and the surrounding area provide them. So I want to thank you
all very much for being -- (applause.)
I'd like to share some thoughts with you, and then answer questions as
time allows, if you've got any. First, I send Laura's greetings. She's doing
great, by the way. She's a fantastic First Lady and -- (applause.) She's
obviously got to be a woman of enormous patience. (Laughter.)
I appreciate Congressman Adam Putnam, Bill Young, Mike Bilirakis, and
Katherine Harris for being here today. (Applause.) Oh, there they are.
Proud to give them a ride on Air Force One. (Laughter.) Some of them aren't
going back, by the way. (Laughter.) Mark Kennedy -- is Mark here with us,
from Minnesota? I think he was going to drop by -- he supposedly was going to
be here. You don't know him because he's from Minnesota, but I do and he's a
fine guy. (Laughter.)
I want to thank my buddy, Mel Sembler, Ambassador Sembler, who represented
our country so well, once in Australia under 41, and then Italy under 43.
(Applause.) And Betty. I want to thank the Chambers of both Tampa and St.
Pete. I want to thank the Mayors from Tampa and St. Pete -- Mayor Iorio and
Mayor Baker are with us. Thank you both for coming. Appreciate you being
here. (Applause.)
I didn't mean to take you away from your work. Any excuse is a good one
on Friday, right? (Laughter.) So long as I keep the speech short. I want to
thank members of the Statehouse who are here. I want to thank you all for
letting us use this beautiful facility. And thank you for coming.
First of all, the economy is in good shape. It's growing. (Applause.) I
guess that's an easy thing to say in the state of Florida, when the
unemployment rate is 3.3 percent. Pretty amazing, isn't it? (Applause.) I'm
sure the Governor is going to try to take credit for it, you know.
(Laughter.) I'm not going to because the role of government is to create an
environment where the entrepreneurs can flourish and small businesses can
grow.
And the fundamental question facing this country of ours is, how do we
keep ourselves to be the economic leader of the world. It's really an
interesting question. You know, in spite of the good economic numbers -- 4.7
percent unemployment around the country, our economy growing at over 3
percent, in the face of hurricanes, as well as high gas prices, home ownership
is an all-time high, small businesses are growing -- in spite of all that,
there's a certain sense of uncertainty. People are worried. They're worried
because they're changing jobs a lot; they're worried because of the
competition from India and China. There's a certain sense of uncertainty.
And so we have a choice to make about our economy: Do we retreat in the
face of uncertainty, or do we lead? And I -- I will be working with the
Congress, members from both political parties, to be the leader of the world.
And here's some ideas. One, keep taxes low. We can't be the economic leader
of the world if we run up your taxes. And so we're going to keep them low.
(Applause.)
And you'll hear a debate in Washington, D.C. that says, well, we've got to
run up your taxes to balance the budget. That's not the way it works in
Washington. They will run up your taxes and they'll figure out new ways to
spend money. The best way to balance the budget is to keep the taxes low and
be wise about how we spend your money. That's how we're going to balance the
budget. (Applause.)
In order for us to be competitive and lead in the world, we've got to get
-- we've got to get off of Middle Eastern oil. I know it shocks some of you
to hear a Texan say, we're addicted to oil. And we are, and it's a problem.
It's a problem. It's a national security problem, and it's an economic
security problem to be reliant upon oil from parts of the world that may be
unstable, or parts of the world that simply don't like us. And so the best
way to deal with that is to continue to foster new technologies because of
research and development that will enable us to use different fuels in our
cars, for example.
There's Kennedy right there. Good to see you, Kennedy. The reason I
thought of him is because he's from a part of the world that's growing a lot
of crops that can be converted into energy. We're close. We're close to
technological breakthroughs that will enable us to convert wood chips and
sawgrass -- we already convert sugar, corn and soy -- into fuel. And think
about that. If this technology comes true, which we believe it will, then
pretty soon a President is going to say, we're growing a lot of crops and
we're less dependent on Middle Eastern oil. There are 4.5 million cars today
that are flex-fuel cars that can either run on gasoline or ethanol. In other
words, the technology is available inside the automobile. And it's coming.
And we're making some great breakthroughs on battery technology. Next
week I'm going to travel around the country going to some of the most
innovative places around our country that are providing new technologies to
enable us to become less dependent on oil, which will keep us a leader in the
world.
Another thing we need to do is to make sure that our health care system is
modern. I want to talk real quick about Medicare here. First of all, I'm
aware there's a lot of seniors in this state that rely upon Medicare. The
federal government made a commitment to the seniors around the United States,
starting with Lyndon Baines Johnson, that we would provide good health care to
the seniors. And when I got to Washington, I found that we were not providing
modern medicine. I mean, we would provide the money for ulcer surgery in the
old Medicare, but not the prescription drugs necessary to prevent the ulcer
from happening in the first place. And that didn't seem to make sense to me.
It's an old, centralized system that was not modern and was not fulfilling
the promise we made.
And so I worked with Congress -- Republicans and Democrats -- to get a
new bill out of Congress that said we're going to provide a prescription drug
benefit, and as we do, we're going to give seniors more choices and more
options from which to choose.
About 25 million seniors have signed up for this new plan since January
1st. That's a lot of folks in a quick period of time. And needless to say,
when you make that kind of transition to a modern system, there's going to be
some glitches. And our job is to fix those glitches. And that's what the
Department of Health and Human Services under Mike Leavitt is doing. And it's
important for our seniors to take advantage of this new program. Call 1-800-
Medicare. Or if you've got a mom or a dad who's eligible for Medicare, sit
down with them and explain the new benefit. It is a really good deal for
America's seniors.
To make sure that health care works, we'll continue to take care of the
poor. In other words, the government has made a commitment to the elderly and
the poor, but the government has also got to understand, the best medicine is
private medicine. (Applause.) And we should not get in between the doctors
and the patients in America.
Finally, I want to spend a little time on education, briefly. First of
all, No Child Left Behind Act is working. It's a piece of legislation that
says we're going to raise the standards for every child, and we're going to
measure to make sure children are meeting those standards. Can you imagine --
you might remember the old -- well, I'll tell you. When I was governor of
Texas, we had a system that didn't measure right early on, and guess what
happened? We just shuffled kids through the system who couldn't read, and we
found out too late. And that is a terrible system. It lets people down. And
we're spending a lot of your money. It seems like to me, it makes sense to
say, when we spend your money we ought to insist upon results. Results are
good for the taxpayers; more importantly, they're good for the students. So
now we measure early, before it's too late, and we're correcting problems
before they're too late. And our kids are learning to read.
And we need to apply that same rigor to children in math and science,
particularly in junior high. Fourth grade tests, our kids are doing fine
compared to other countries. But there's a big drop-off when it comes to math
and -- mathematics, particularly in junior high. And so we need to apply that
same standard. We'll measure in junior high, and if you need help, we'll
provide it for you. And the reason why is the jobs of the 21st century are
going to require mastery in math and science and engineering. (Applause.)
And if we don't make -- and if we don't educate our kids, the jobs are going
to go elsewhere, whether we like it or not. So to make sure America remains
the leader in the world, we're going to stay on the leading edge of research
and development, and educate the young scientists of tomorrow today.
And so, look, my attitude about the future is this, when it comes to the
economy, and when it comes to foreign policy: We shouldn't fear it. Let's
shape the future. Let's be the leader tomorrow that we are today.
Now, we're living in historic times when you think about this world we're
in. It is a time of challenge, and it's a time of opportunity. We've got the
challenge to protect the American people. My most important duty is to
protect you from harm. And we have an opportunity to lay the foundation of
peace for generations to come.
I make a lot of decisions. My buddies in Texas, when they show up to
Washington, after they get over the initial surprise that I'm still there --
(laughter) -- or got there in the first place -- (laughter) -- say, like,
what's it like, you know? What is the job description? What's it like to be
President? And the best way to answer it is, I make a lot of decisions. And
part of the reasons -- my thinking was shaped on September the 11th, let me
put it to you that way. And I think it's important for you to understand how
the President thinks and why I make decisions I make, particularly decisions
relating to war and peace.
I knew we're at war when they attacked us. As a matter of fact, I was
down here in Florida. It didn't take long to figure out what was going on.
And I vowed that day that I would not rest, so long as I was the President, in
protecting the people. So a lot of my decision-making is based upon the
attack. And I know we're at war, see -- I knew it then, and the enemy has,
unfortunately, proved me right because they continue to attack. In order to
win the war against the enemy you got to understand the nature of the enemy.
First of all, these people are cold-blooded killers, people who will kill
the innocent in order to achieve a tactical objective and a strategic
objective. They have no conscience. You can't negotiate with these people.
You cannot reason with them. You must bring them to justice.
Secondly, they have an ideology, they believe in something. The best way
to describe what they believe in is to think about what life was like in
Afghanistan under the Taliban. These were people that saw to it that young
girls didn't get educated. If you didn't agree with their view of religion
you were whipped in the public square. They tolerated no dissent, no
different point of view, and they were tearing down the -- destroying the
culture from the past. They had no sense of history other than their dim view
of history. That's what they think.
And they have made it clear their objectives. You probably have read some
of Zawahiri's writings, admonitions to his fellow fighters. They've made it
clear that they believe the United States is soft and weak, and that they can
shake our will. They've made it clear that it's just a matter of time before
we vacate parts of the world which they can then occupy in order to be able to
plan, plot attacks against the United States of America. They have made it
clear they're interested in weapons of mass destruction. In other words,
they've laid out a strategy, you know, for the world to see.
And my job is to take that strategy seriously. My job is to see the world
the way it is, not the way some would hope it would be. If 9/11 affected our
thinking, then we've got to make sure when the enemy speaks, we take every
single sentence that they say seriously, and deal with it. And that's what
we're doing.
So I want to share some of the strategy in winning this war on terror.
Make no mistake about it, we're going to win the war on terror. We'll protect
the American people. (Applause.)
First, when we see threats, we've got to deal with them. When I was
growing up in West Texas, oceans protected us. You might remember some of
those days. Old Mayor Martinez, I know he remembers those days when we felt
pretty comfortable here in America. We could see a threat overseas, but
oceans made it pretty clear that -- to a lot of folks -- that nothing would
happen, you know. September 11th came along and made it clear that we are
vulnerable, that the enemy can hit us if they -- if they want to.
And therefore, when you see a threat, you've got to deal with it. You
can't take things for granted anymore. The best way to deal with this enemy
is to defeat them overseas so we don't have to face them here at home, and to
stay on the hunt. (Applause.) And that's what we're doing.
And we've got a coalition of countries. I spent a lot of time reminding
people about the nature of the war. Listen, the tendency for folks is to say,
well, this really isn't a war. I can understand that. Who wants to walk
around thinking there's a war about to hit us. I mean, that's -- that's my
job to worry about it, not yours. How can you have an economy recover from a
recession if people are afraid to risk capital because they're worried about
thinking something is going to happen? And the same thing happens overseas.
People kind of want to slip to the comfortable. They don't believe it's a
war, some of them, and I understand that. And so we spend a lot of time
reminding people that we've got to work together because the enemy can't stand
what we stand for, and that's freedom. They just hate freedom. And so we've
got a good coalition, and -- and we're on the hunt. We're keeping the
pressure on them. It's hard to plot and plan and execute attacks when you're
on the run.
And so the first step of our strategy is defeat them there so we don't to
have to face them here. And we've got some great special forces -- I met the
special forces command guy here -- and there's great intelligence officers and
wonderful coalition folks. We're cutting off their money. It makes it kind
of hard to operate when you can't get your bank accounts full of money in
order to -- we're just doing a lot of stuff. And it's important for citizens
to know that there's a constant, constant pressure. I think about it every
day.
And we're making progress -- Khalid Shaykh Muhammad, September the 11th
plotter-planner, is incarcerated; his successor brought to justice. Slowly
but surely, we're finding them where they hide, and they know we're on their
trail.
Secondly, we got to deny them safe haven. These people can't operate
without safe haven. It's an interesting war we're in. It's totally different
from what we're used to because we're not -- we're not facing nation-states;
we're dealing with an enemy that is international in nature, that hides in
states.
When the President says something like, if you harbor a terrorist, you're
equally as guilty as the terrorist, those words mean nothing unless you act
upon them. And I said that to the people of Afghanistan-- the Taliban. They
didn't listen. And so we acted. And removing the Taliban -- (applause) -- is
a clear signal that we won't tolerate safe haven. In other words, if you
harbor the terrorist, you're just as guilty as the murderers. And that's a
clear signal that the United States must continue to send in order to win the
war on terror.
We saw a threat in Saddam Hussein. Obviously, this issue is one that has
caused a lot of people to wonder about certain aspects, caused me to wonder
about the capacity of our intelligence services to provide good intelligence.
And that's why we're constantly working to reform the intelligence services,
to make sure we get the best intelligence, because I thought there would be
weapons of mass destruction -- and so did everybody else in the world; and so
did people in the United States Congress from both political parties --
thought that there would be weapons of mass destruction.
The United Nations and the United Nations Security Council thought there
would be weapons of mass destruction. After all, they passed a unanimous
resolution that said, disclose, disarm, or face serious consequences. In
other words, we worked the diplomatic front.
And so when Saddam Hussein chose war -- and believe me, he made the choice
-- the hardest thing for the President of the United States to do is commit
troops into combat. It's the last option, the very last option. Except
September the 11th taught me, and September the 11th taught me, that we got to
take threats seriously. And the world saw a threat. This man was harboring
terrorists. He was on a state sponsor of terrorists list. I didn't put him
on there, he was put on there by previous Presidents. He was firing at our
pilots. He had invaded countries. He was a threat. And the world spoke with
one voice, and said, disclose, disarm, or face serious consequences. And when
the United States says something, it must mean it. And we said, disclose or
face serious consequences. And when he wouldn't, he faced serious
consequences. Removing Saddam Hussein has made America safer and the world a
better place. (Applause.)
And we have a plan to achieve victory. Victory is a state -- a democracy
that can sustain itself and defend itself and join America in fighting the war
on terror. That's the goal of victory. That's the definition of victory.
First part of our strategy is a political strategy. I try to tell people
how I make decisions, and part of making good decisions is you've got to
believe something. You have a belief system that, by the way, can't alter
because of politics, or polls, or focus groups, or what somebody wants you to
think. And I believe that freedom is universal. I believe that deep in
everybody's soul is the desire to be free. That's what I believe. I don't
believe freedom or liberty is confined here to Methodists from Texas. I
believe everybody wants to be free -- white, black, brown, Muslim, Jew,
Christian, agnostic. I believe there is a deep desire for people to be free.
And if you believe that, then you have faith in people demanding freedom,
if given a chance. And the Iraqis proved that theory right. Eleven million
people went to the polls in the face of unbelievable terror, terrorist
threats, and said, I want to be free; let me vote; let me decide my future.
And so on the political front, they're making progress because of the courage
of the Iraqis.
And now the task at hand is to work with those who won votes in the new
parliament to set up a unity government; one that is -- can help deal with
the grievances of the past; one that unites under the fabric of democracy.
And that's what we're doing. I talked to the Ambassador, Zal Khalilzad, there
yesterday. He's spent a lot of time working with making our position known
that we want the government to be a unified government.
Secondly, we're helping the country rebuild itself after years of neglect,
so that people can see the benefits of democracy. And we started off
initially with kind of these grand projects. We got the Congress to
appropriate money, and we tried to build some great electricity-type
renovations, and the enemy kept blowing them up. And so we've altered our
strategy. One of the things that you've got to do in a situation like this is
constantly adjust. You can't just get stuck in one kind of response mode.
You've got to think and watch the enemy and adjust to the enemy in order to
achieve an objective. And we're doing that. And so now we've got much
smaller-scale projects that are yielding instant results for the people on the
ground, so people say, wait a minute, this democracy deal is a pretty good
thing, you know.
Businesses are flourishing in Iraq. Freedom is coming, freedom is
coming. There's a determined enemy trying to stop it, of course. They can't
stand freedom. I told you, they think the exact opposite we do. They don't
believe that everybody desires to be free. They want everybody to live under
their totalitarian thumb. That's what they want. Not America and our
coalition. We want governments to be responsible and responsive to the
people. That's what we believe in.
Thirdly, in order to achieve our objective, the Iraqis are going to have
to fight the enemy. They've proven their worth, in terms of defying the
terrorists when it comes to making the vote, and they're proving their desire
to defend themselves against the enemy, too. You know how I know? I'm
listening to the people on the ground. I talk to our commanders a lot.
They're the ones who are giving me the appraisal about how well these Iraqis
are being trained.
An interesting measurement, right off the bat, however, was how the Iraqis
responded to these attacks on the police stations and the recruiting
stations. You remember they had a series of attacks on the recruiting
stations? Guess what my question was to them out there -- are there still
people lining up to join up? If you're getting blown up standing in line, are
they still coming? And the answer was, absolutely. And we're training them,
and there's a command structure -- command and control structure getting in
place. And this military is getting better and better. We're turning over a
lot of territory to the Iraqis. They now have two divisions, which is a lot
of folks, that are capable of taking the fight nearly on their own. The
training mission is working.
So on the security side, we're on the hunt. We're after Zarqawi. See, he
wants us to leave. He believes we'll lose our nerve so he can establish a
safe haven in Iraq. And we're not going to let him do it. And so we've got
great special operators and U.S. forces and coalition forces on the hunt. And
at the same time, we're training the Iraqis.
There's a big debate in Washington about who gets to decide the troop
levels. Well, those troop levels will be decided by this administration. And
this administration is going to listen not to politicians, but to the
commanders on the ground, about what we need on the ground in order to win
this deal. (Applause.)
After I leave here, I'm going to go visit with a family of one of the
fallen troops. I have to be able to look that person in the eye, and say, the
cause is just. I believe it is just and necessary. And I have to look that
person in the eye and say that the sacrifice of your loved one will not go in
vain, that we will complete the mission. And that's what I want to assure my
fellow citizens. No matter what it looks like in Washington, D.C., I'm
committed to victory in Iraq so to achieve peace.
And so in the short-term, we're going to succeed in Iraq. We'll deny them
safe haven. We'll stay on the hunt. But there has to be a long-term
strategy, as well, to win. And that long-term strategy is to liberate people
and give them the chance to live under the greatest system of government ever,
and that's democracy -- because democracies respond to people.
You know, our foreign policy in the broader Middle East for a long period
of time was just kind of tolerate the status quo and hope for the best. It
didn't work. The surface looked placid, but beneath the surface was brewing
resentment and anger and fertile recruiting opportunities for those who have
got a dark vision of the future. And so we're working to help the Iraqis
develop a democracy.
Elections are only the beginning of democracy, not the end. Election is
the beginning of a process to -- where government listens to the people. In
order to make sure democracy works, there has to be institution-building, and
support for young, fledgling democracies. And that's what you're seeing.
This is an historic moment. The world is changing because freedom is on the
march. And we shouldn't be discouraged about setbacks -- short-term setbacks,
or the enemy's capacity to take innocent life, because we've seen democracy
change the world in the past.
I think about all the wars fought in Europe over the past 100 years. A
hundred years seems like a long time, probably, for the little guy there. Me,
too. It seems like a long -- I'm only 59 years old. But Americans shed a lot
of blood in Europe-- World War I and World War II. And yet, the continent is
-- Europe is peaceful. You know why? Because there's democracies living
side-by-side in peace. Democracies don't fight each other. Generally, people
in a democracy don't campaign and say, vote for me, I promise you war. They
say, vote for you -- vote for me, I work for the peace. I want your children
to grow up in a peaceful world. That's what people say to get elected.
Japan-- one of my favorite analogies and stories about this is, my friend,
Koizumi, Prime Minister of Japan. He's an interesting guy. I like him a
lot. We spend time talking about the peace. He understands that democracy in
the heart of the Middle East, democracy in a part of the world that is
desperate for freedom, is an important part of laying the foundation for
peace. And so he committed Japanese troops to help the Iraqis rebuild their
country and to provide security so they could rebuild their country.
What's amazing about this is that, like many whose relatives -- like many
here whose relatives fought against the Japanese, my dad did, too. Isn't that
interesting? Eighteen-year-old kid, Navy fighter pilot; country calls him;
like thousands, he goes overseas to fight the sworn enemy -- the Japanese.
And today, this guy's son is sitting down with the Prime Minister of Japan
working to keep the peace. And what happened in between was that a Japanese-
style democracy grew. Democracies yield the peace. And what the youngsters
here have to see that's happening is we're laying that foundation for peace.
Some day when you're old and -- older -- I know you never think it's going to
happen, but it does -- you look back and say, maybe old George W. Bush and the
United States Congress was right in keeping the faith that democracies can
yield the peace we all want. (Applause.)
I got two other things, two other things I want to tell you, then I'll
answer questions. We not only protect ourselves by keeping the pressure on
the enemy and defeating them over there so we don't have to face them here at
home, we've got to protect ourselves by doing smart things in America. I hope
-- I appreciate working with the Mayors on homeland security issues. We're
training a lot of first responders and getting people ready in case something
happens.
Secondly, in order to ask our folks on the front line of protecting
America to do the job, they got to have all the tools. And the Patriot Act
passed right after September the 11th -- had a little problem getting it out
of the United States Senate, got kind of hung up there. My reminder to those
senators is that the bill may -- about ready to lapse, but the threat isn't.
And if people in Washington expect those on the front line of protecting
America to do their job, they got to give them the tools. The Patriot Act
needs to be passed. (Applause.)
Finally, I made a decision that has been in the news lately, and I want to
share with you my thinking, because it's an important decision. September the
11th made it clear to me that an enemy would do anything it could to hurt us.
We're at war. I understand some don't think that, that we're at war. There
are good, decent Americans who believe that. I know that. This is not what I
-- I don't believe it, see. I got a different point of view. I asked our
people on the ground there in Washington, is there anything more we can do to
protect the American people? What can we do? The enemy wants to hit us,
they're planning to hit us. Is there anything we can do so I can go around
the country saying, go about your business, we're taking care of your security
for you. I think most people would ask that question.
And General Mike Hayden of the NSA -- he's a wonderful person -- said he
thought there was something more we could do. And he showed me the plans for
this country to pick up a conversation -- listen to conversations from people
outside the country, inside the country, who had an affiliation with al Qaeda,
or were al Qaeda. He said, I think we can design a program, Mr. President,
that will enable us to have quick response to be able to detect and deter a
potential attack.
I said, that's interesting, General. I said, that makes a lot of sense to
me. I said, you're not going to listen inside the country. No, this is calls
from outside the country in, or inside out, to people who we know or suspect
are affiliated with al Qaeda. And I remember some of those phone calls coming
out of California prior to the September the 11th attacks by the killers --
just thinking maybe if we'd have listened to those on a quick response basis,
you know, it might have helped prevent the attacks.
My second question was, is it legal? See, I take that oath of office
seriously -- I've taken it twice as your President -- to uphold the laws and
the Constitution. And so we got lawyers all over Washington, as I'm sure you
can imagine. (Laughter.) I'm not one. I said, is it legal? I'm asking this
to the Attorney General of the United States, the Legal Counsel in the White
House; NSA has got lawyers. I mean, a lot of lawyers looked at this, and they
said, you bet, Mr. President, it's legal. And they gave me the legal
ramifications. You'll see this all -- this is part of the debate.
Thirdly, I knew I needed to tell members of Congress. See, they like to
be a part of the process. They're a co-equal branch of government. And I
recognize that, and I honor that. And so we briefed members of the United
States Congress on the full program so that they would know -- appropriate
members of Congress -- leaders, Republicans, and Democrats, leaders of the
Intelligence Committee whose job it is to provide oversight on intelligence
operations. They were abreast. Like my old buddy called me, he said, you
know something? If you're trying to pull one over on them, if you're trying
to have an illegal program, why are you briefing the Congress? I said,
because I want people to know.
Unfortunately, we're having this discussion. It's too bad, because guess
who listens to the discussion: The enemy. If you don't think we're at war it
doesn't matter then, does it? I know we're at war. And the enemy is
adjusting. But I'm going to tell you something. I'm doing the right thing.
Washington is a town that says, you didn't connect the dots, and then when you
do connect the dots, they say you're wrong. In order to protect America, if
somebody is talking to al Qaeda, we want to know who they are and why they're
talking to them. (Applause.)
Okay. That's what's on my mind. Now, what's on yours? Yes, sir. Go
ahead and yell it.
Q Mr. President, I just wanted to take an opportunity to tell you I think
our country is blessed to have you as our President.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. (Applause.)
Q We are very thankful that you don't make your decisions based on the
polls, like previous Presidents have.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I appreciate that. (Applause.)
Q And my comment is, is that I'm a homebuilder. I'm very happy right
now.
THE PRESIDENT: You've got to be. (Laughter.)
Q But I wanted to just keep you apprised that things are good now, the
economy is good, interest rates are low. There are people that still can't
afford homes in our country today. Affordable housing is very important. We,
as homebuilders -- I served on the Board of Directors of the National
Association of Homebuilders.
THE PRESIDENT: Good.
Q We'll be up in Washington in about a month or so to see you guys.
But we're concerned with the environment just as much as anyone else is, and -
- but there's got to be a balance to make sure that we can develop land and
provide homes -- affordable homes. And also Congress is working on some
things now that has an effect on financing and interest rates for people
buying their first homes. And let's make sure that we have affordable homes
for people.
My daughter is a school teacher here in Tampa, and it's important to
people like her, people that protect us -- the fire department, the sheriffs,
they need homes. The times are good now, and I was a builder when your
friend, Jimmy Carter, was President, and interest rates weren't so good back
then, and those were tough times. And I just want to tell you that I'm
blessed to be here today with you in this room, and we all love you.
(Applause.)
THE PRESIDENT: Well, thanks. Let me talk about that. Thank you. You'll
be happy to hear, I don't set interest rates. (Laughter.) That's set by an
independent body. And I just named a new Chairman of the Fed to do that.
(Applause.) He's a good fellow. And so if I were you, I'd be worried about
interest rates -- because when the interest rates go up, it makes it harder
for your school teacher.
Well, there's help, to help certain folks who qualify with their down
payments. We want people owning their own home. See, that's -- we want this
to be an ownership society. We want people owning their own business, we want
people owning their own home, we want people owning their own health account
they can take with them from job to job like health savings accounts. And
home ownership is high right now. More minorities own a home than ever before
in our nation's history, which is a fantastic statistic.
But interest rates matter, as does good tax policy. Maybe you're hinting
at whether or not the mortgage deduction would be part of a plan. I don't
think you have to worry about the mortgage deduction not being a part of the
income tax law. But thank you for bringing that up.
Yes, sir. Go ahead and yell it.
Q Mr. President, you mentioned a trip next week to visit the sources of
renewable additional technology to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. We
have a not-so-renewable resource, which is our precious Florida coastline.
And because of your great brother, we do have an unemployment rate of 3.3
percent. How can you work with us to protect our Florida shoreline with
respect to offshore drilling?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I made a commitment that nothing is going to happen
within a hundred miles of this coastline, and I'm honoring the commitment. I
don't care what people might be saying -- I guess maybe they quit saying it
after the '04 campaign -- but it's a commitment that this government has -- at
least my government has made, and I'm going to honor it. When we say a
hundred miles off the coastline, we don't mean 99 miles or 89 miles, we mean a
hundred miles. So rest easy.
Now, the thing about -- look, we've got to get off of hydrocarbons. We
just do. And I'm a believer in nuclear power. (Applause.) I think it's a --
maybe some day, and I think we'll -- I'll figure out -- I'll find out how
close we are when I visit with some of these solar technology people, but it's
very likely that you'll become a little power generator in your own home, and
that the excess power that you do not use you feed back in the grid. Hybrid
batteries -- batteries for plug-in hybrid automobiles are pretty close, they
tell me. And I'm going to see firsthand -- sometimes the President gets the
cook's tour, I know it -- (laughter) -- but nevertheless, I'm going to see
firsthand.
Now, what's interesting is, is that a lot of people in urban areas are not
going to drive more than 30 miles a day. And so we're developing automobile
engines that can run on electricity for 30 miles, and then if you go more,
your gasoline kicks in. But it requires a battery that has got good storage
capacity and is easy to recharge. It's coming.
And so there's a lot of technologies that are coming on the market, and
we're spending money. And it's a good use of taxpayers' money, it seems like
to me, in order to achieve some big objectives.
I'm going to India on March the 1st, around that period of time, and I
believe that it's good policy for the United States to encourage these
emerging economies to use clean energy, nuclear power, so as to help reduce
demand for kind of non-renewables. And so I'm going to talk to them about
development of a civilian nuclear power industry. They're telling me China
has got about 34 plants on the market, which is good. But this expansion of
nuclear power -- which is in our interests, by the way; it's in our interests
because of the quality of the air, it's in our interests because it takes --
reduces demand, global demand -- is going to create another issue, and that
is, what are we going to do with the spent fuel? This country doesn't
reprocess spent fuel; we should. Reprocessing spent fuel means that we're
able to continue to reuse the base material that went through the burn the
first time in a plant, and reduce the amount that we have to then eventually
store. And we chose not to do that in the late '70s because of proliferation
concerns. I'm convinced we can work internationally to address those issues.
And so I'm just sharing with you -- we got a full strategy to help us make
us less dependent on energy -- on foreign sources of energy.
Yes, sir.
Q I'm from Winter Garden in the central part of the state.
THE PRESIDENT: Oh, yes, I know where you are.
Q Pressed into service by your brother, Honorable Jeb Bush.
THE PRESIDENT: Is that good or bad? If it's bad, take it up with him.
(Laughter.)
Q I thought about calling him to ask him if he'd like to have the job
back.
THE PRESIDENT: That's right. (Laughter.)
Q The concerns from the central part of the state is, we've got a
really unprecedented growth rate there in the middle part. The challenge is
for mass transportation to free us from the oil that you talk about.
Unfortunately, the proportionate share of funding that we're able to secure
seems to be tied into pork barrel like light rail, which -- Congressman Mica
needs to buy into the fact that it's not realistic. So how do we get free
from that so we can get direct funding for mass transit?
THE PRESIDENT: Yes. That will be something that you'll be able to effect
five years from now, because I signed the highway bill, and it's done. And
nobody wants to deal with it again until it expires, to be frank with you.
But I understand -- but what he's saying is, how come you just don't let
Floridians decide how to spend the money that's supposed to go back to them?
Why do you earmark parts of the bill? That's what you're saying. And I do
think Congress needs to work on earmark reform. I'm just not one of these
guys -- if there's no hope, I got to let you know, brother. There ain't no
hope. (Laughter and applause.) They're not going to -- they're not going to
revisit the highway bill. They're just not going to revisit the highway bill
until the highway bill expires. And then perhaps you can get the kind of --
they can get the kind of reforms. As you know, I ain't going to be around.
(Laughter.)
Yes, sir. I've heard from Jeb on this issue, by the way.
Q Mr. President, welcome back to Tampa.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you.
Q And my question is, you've talked a lot about our addiction to oil
today. You've also talked about advanced alternative fuel sources, in
particular for household vehicles as a potential mitigant to that dilemma.
But we have a very robust industrialized economy -- air, rail, shipping,
trucking -- that has depended on oil, frankly, for generations to be
successful and vibrant. So my question is, how do we maintain the most
advanced industrialized economy on Earth, and actually reduce our dependency
on oil going forward?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I believe -- first of all, natural gas has driven a
lot of our industrialized growth, as you know. And we are -- we need to have
-- import liquified natural gas if we're going to be modern and stay
competitive.
Listen, we're going to need oil. The question is, are we able to reduce
dependency from certain parts of the world. And I think that by relieving
pressure on how we drive our cars, we'll, in fact, help segments of our
economy that are going to take a while to diversify away from hydrocarbons, I
guess is the best kind of macro look.
Things don't happen instantly; I understand that. But, nevertheless,
there are some practical ways that we can reduce our dependency, and it seems
like to me the most practical way is to change automobiles, change how we
drive. In the short-term, ethanol and hybrid batteries makes the most sense
to me. It's the most practical way, and most economic way, to begin the
reduction of dependency.
Now, listen, we've got a large fleet -- I told you, there's four-and-a-
half flex-fuel cars [sic]. That's good, except there's about 200 million
cars. And it takes a while for fleets to renew. And so things don't happen
instantly, but they will happen quicker as we continue to press for innovation
and technology.
Ultimately, I believe that we're going to be using hydrogen to power our
automobiles. But that's 15 years down the -- for the technology to be
applicable is 15 years down the road. And I guess what I'm not only -- I
guess I am, what I'm telling you is that we see technological breakthroughs
pretty darn quick when it comes to ethanol and hybrid batteries, which is a
positive development for the people. And the interesting thing about ethanol
is that the barriers to entry are pretty low, when it comes to manufacturing -
- if the technology says that we can -- yields the capacity to convert
switchgrasses and refuses to ethanol, once that technological breakthrough
comes, the barriers to entry are pretty low when it comes to building the
manufacturing capacity that converts raw material to ethanol. Much different
from a big cracker refinery. And so that's positive. So we've got the car
technology, hopefully have the breakthrough technology on fuel, and then the
infrastructure will follow.
And so what I'm saying is, this is the most practical way to become less
dependent on oil. And the economy will continue to function. But things are
happening, by the way, in diesel. I don't know -- if any of you know
something about trucking, you know that diesel, clean diesel engines are
coming. We did a deal in my administration to work with diesel engine
manufacturers to come up with a very low-emission engine that is now being
applied in trucks, and it's going to make a difference -- on Caterpillar
tractors. We're getting there, we're getting there.
Thanks for the question. Yes, sir.
Q -- it seems to me that we are facing in this country -- I've had the
opportunity to interface with people of Muslim countries, and the war is bad
enough, and I applaud what you're doing, because freedom is important, but
what concerns me is if the youth in these nations are being taught that you
and I and us Americans are, in fact, the devil incarnate, or Satan, himself --
I guess my question is, what can we do about that, to win over the people, the
children, the youth, so that the next generation will not be facing the same
dilemma? I think this is an incredible problem.
THE PRESIDENT: I appreciate that. First is to support and work with
moderate governments, and there are a lot. The largest Muslim nation is
Indonesia. And we're working closely with the President there to help promote
a better understanding of different religions. I will be seeing President
Musharraf, who I like and he's a good fellow, who understands that moderation
is an important part of a hopeful future. And so we'll support governments
that practice moderation.
Secondly, provide assistance when assistance is needed. In my State of
the Union, I said, we've got to reject isolationism. Isolationism is the
tendency for a nation to withdraw and not feel an obligation to be involved in
the world. And we cannot defend ourselves if we're isolationist. I just made
the case. But I also believe, and part of my philosophy in the decision-
making is, to whom much has been given, much is required. And, therefore,
when we see suffering in places like Pakistan, or because of the tsunami, the
United States of America is leading the way in.
And it helps. It helped a lot in Pakistan, for example, to see those
choppers flying relief supplies up for poor folks who had been -- whose lives
had been just devastated. I can't remember the exact numbers, but President
Musharraf told me, we're talking hundreds of thousands of people either dead,
injured or displaced. And there was the United States of America military
flying in supplies. I believe, John Abizaid -- General Abizaid told me today
that we turned over our MASH unit to the Pakistani government to help so they
could continue to provide aid and comfort.
And so there are practical ways. One is to support moderation, and two,
help where help is needed. Our HIV/AIDS initiative, by the way, is a
fantastic initiative. It is -- I can't tell you how proud I am of the
American people for supporting this. It is necessary for the United States of
America to be taking the lead on this issue to save lives. If we say human
dignity matters and every life is precious, that that's part of a credo as a
country, which it is -- that's what we say. We say, people matter, every
human life is precious. Then those human lives apply not just here at home,
but on the continent of Africa, or in Muslim countries. And there's a lot of
Muslims in Africa who've seen the great compassion of the United States of
America when it comes to helping to battle HIV/AIDS. There's a pandemic
taking place. And you ought to be proud of this country, like I am, that
we're filling that void of compassion and need and hope. (Applause.)
Yes. Right here. Yes. You're next. Yes. Yes, ma'am.
Q I know that you and First Lady Bush have talked much about our
hurting generation of teens and our unproductive teens in our communities.
Just wanted you to talk a little bit about the efforts being made with the
work that you're doing in initiatives --
THE PRESIDENT: Thanks.
Q -- that will help that.
THE PRESIDENT: I appreciate that. First, there's positive news. Teen
pregnancies are down, teen drug use is down, and that's positive. That's
good. (Applause.) Because of people at the grassroots level -- people at the
grassroots level. I think one of the most important initiatives of this
administration is to -- is the faith-based and community initiatives, which
recognizes what de Tocqueville saw in the 1830s. He's a French guy who came
over here. (Laughter.) In case you don't remember. And he recognized that
the great strength of America was the capacity for individualists -- or the
willingness of individualists to work together in what he called voluntary
associations to make the community in which they live a better place. And he
saw that in the 1930s.
It's a -- what he saw is still the strength of our country, if you really
think about it. You know, government can hand out money, but government
cannot put a hope in a person's heart. A lot of people miss one of the basics
ingredients of life, and that is love. And love happens when somebody puts an
arm around a person and says, what can I do to help you, brother or sister.
And so part of our initiative in dealing with loneliness, discouragement,
lack of self-esteem, is to encourage faith-based programs -- which all exist
because they hear a universal call to love a neighbor, by the way -- to have
access to federal money, in other words, level the playing field for grant
money so that these programs -- which have been set up to love somebody and
provide love -- have got equal access to federal money. It's a really
important initiative.
There are targeted monies, of course. There's monies aimed at the
different community groups dealing with drug use. But I think the most
important initiative of all is to empower groups that really do provide
mentoring and care and decency on an individual basis for somebody who needs
it. And it's happening. It's happening in America. (Applause.)
Yes.
Q Mr. President, it's an honor to be here with you today, and I thank
you so much for the time that you take to share with us. I'm a 40-year-old
father of a three-year-old.
THE PRESIDENT: There you go.
Q And I'm also an adopted child. And it seems that, anymore, through
the results of legislation from the bench, that maybe the unsafest place for a
child in this country is in his or her mother's womb. And my question for you
is -- and I commend you for your Supreme Court picks. I thank you for your
bold stance in who you picked -- (applause) -- my question is, with my son,
this is the future of America. And my question is, where do you believe we're
headed? Long after your term of serving us has ended, long after we've had
other Presidents serve this country, where do you think we're headed in the
areas of abortion, the areas of traditional marriage, in the areas of faith
and the foundations that this country was founded upon that are so under
attack anymore? Where do you believe we're going?
THE PRESIDENT: I'm an optimist. I believe we're headed toward a period
of personal responsibility, where people understand that they're responsible
for the decisions they make in life.
I just gave you some statistics. Abortions are down in America, as well,
by the way. People are -- one of my jobs is to promote a culture of life.
And I just told you every life is precious, and I meant it, whether it be here
at home, or on the continent of Africa where somebody's suffering from
HIV/AIDS. And so I'm an optimist. I think people are -- I think people are
beginning to understand that there is virtue in being personally responsible
for the decisions you make in life.
And that -- there's a -- and cultures change and it takes a while for
cultures to change. All of us -- I'm not going to peg anybody a certain age
around here, but those of us born, like, around '46, '47, '48, we've seen a
culture change in our lifetime, if you really think about it. The culture
changed. And it can change again. And I think these statistics that show
that some problems that seemed incurable at one point in our history indicate
that there is a cultural shift. A lot of it has to do with people being
responsible. Some of it has to do with there's a religious awakening around
many communities in the country -- not just Christian religion, but Jewish
religion, Muslim religion. People are becoming religious in America. And
that, in itself, helps people realize that you've got to be conscious of the
decisions you make and mindful of the needs of others.
And -- but we still got challenges. One of the things that obviously
undermines good teaching at home is TV and some of the movies. But I remind
people, they put "off" and "on" knobs on TVs for a reason. (Applause.) You
don't have to go to a movie if you don't want to go to a movie. See, I think
you can promote responsibility at home and still live in a free society where
people are allowed to express themselves. And my advice to parents is, pay
attention to the Internet. Part of the problem we have in our society is
people aren't paying attention to their kids' habits. And when you've got
your child on the Internet, make sure you know what that child is looking at,
because that's your responsibility. It's not the government's responsibility
to take care of your child, it's your responsibility to take care of your
child. (Applause.)
Q Thank you for being our President. We are all way better off and
very safe --
THE PRESIDENT: Thanks. My high honor, by the way. (Applause.)
Q Thank you.
THE PRESIDENT: I'm glad I did it.
Q We appreciate it. How do you -- earlier you shared with us some
intimacy about how you make decisions, and I felt that was heartfelt. How do
you keep it together? What do you really think about when the biggest story
this week was Dick Cheney's hunting trip, and not Al Gore blasting our troops
and being treasonous in his regard to this war on terror in the Middle East?
(Applause.) How do you keep it together?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I appreciate that. That's a loaded question.
(Laughter.) I keep it in perspective. There's a lot of noise in Washington.
There's a lot of flattery, there's a lot of criticism, just a lot of noise.
And I keep it in -- I try to keep my life in perspective. I try to -- I don't
try to, I do, keep my life in perspective. And I am focused on achieving
certain objectives. Every day -- I said this, and I mean this -- every day I
think about how to protect America. Every day in the morning, first thing in
the morning, I get briefed by our intelligence officers about potential
threats. Every morning I'm aware of the world around us. And I told you that
it's -- 9/11 changed my thinking. My focus is there.
You know, I care deeply about troubled youth. I'm worried about Katrina
victims. I'm worried about people that got moved out of their home and they
ended up somewhere else. Put yourself in their perspective. I said home
ownership is valuable. We talked about home ownership here, how important it
is -- and somebody wakes up the next morning and their home is gone. And not
only that, they ended up out, somewhere else, you know. The good news is
those people found love, which is a wonderful thing about our country. And I
think about those kind of things.
So to answer your question -- and I appreciate that -- first, I'm wise
en
-
On 2006-02-18 20:42:00, Anonymous wrote:
"
On 2006-02-18 07:34:00, Anonymous wrote:
" WASHINGTON, Feb. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- The following is a transcript of
remarks by President Bush on the global war on terror:
Port of Tampa
Tampa, Florida
1:26 P.M. EST
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all. Please be seated. Thanks for the warm
welcome. Thanks for the warm weather. (Laughter.) It's nice to be back
here. I just came from MacDill, where I was talking to General Abizaid and
General Brown, and one of the things that's clear is folks there at MacDill
really do appreciate the support that the citizens of the communities of Tampa
and St. Pete and the surrounding area provide them. So I want to thank you
all very much for being -- (applause.)
I'd like to share some thoughts with you, and then answer questions as
time allows, if you've got any. First, I send Laura's greetings. She's doing
great, by the way. She's a fantastic First Lady and -- (applause.) She's
obviously got to be a woman of enormous patience. (Laughter.)
I appreciate Congressman Adam Putnam, Bill Young, Mike Bilirakis, and
Katherine Harris for being here today. (Applause.) Oh, there they are.
Proud to give them a ride on Air Force One. (Laughter.) Some of them aren't
going back, by the way. (Laughter.) Mark Kennedy -- is Mark here with us,
from Minnesota? I think he was going to drop by -- he supposedly was going to
be here. You don't know him because he's from Minnesota, but I do and he's a
fine guy. (Laughter.)
I want to thank my buddy, Mel Sembler, Ambassador Sembler, who represented
our country so well, once in Australia under 41, and then Italy under 43.
(Applause.) And Betty. I want to thank the Chambers of both Tampa and St.
Pete. I want to thank the Mayors from Tampa and St. Pete -- Mayor Iorio and
Mayor Baker are with us. Thank you both for coming. Appreciate you being
here. (Applause.)
I didn't mean to take you away from your work. Any excuse is a good one
on Friday, right? (Laughter.) So long as I keep the speech short. I want to
thank members of the Statehouse who are here. I want to thank you all for
letting us use this beautiful facility. And thank you for coming.
First of all, the economy is in good shape. It's growing. (Applause.) I
guess that's an easy thing to say in the state of Florida, when the
unemployment rate is 3.3 percent. Pretty amazing, isn't it? (Applause.) I'm
sure the Governor is going to try to take credit for it, you know.
(Laughter.) I'm not going to because the role of government is to create an
environment where the entrepreneurs can flourish and small businesses can
grow.
And the fundamental question facing this country of ours is, how do we
keep ourselves to be the economic leader of the world. It's really an
interesting question. You know, in spite of the good economic numbers -- 4.7
percent unemployment around the country, our economy growing at over 3
percent, in the face of hurricanes, as well as high gas prices, home ownership
is an all-time high, small businesses are growing -- in spite of all that,
there's a certain sense of uncertainty. People are worried. They're worried
because they're changing jobs a lot; they're worried because of the
competition from India and China. There's a certain sense of uncertainty.
And so we have a choice to make about our economy: Do we retreat in the
face of uncertainty, or do we lead? And I -- I will be working with the
Congress, members from both political parties, to be the leader of the world.
And here's some ideas. One, keep taxes low. We can't be the economic leader
of the world if we run up your taxes. And so we're going to keep them low.
(Applause.)
And you'll hear a debate in Washington, D.C. that says, well, we've got to
run up your taxes to balance the budget. That's not the way it works in
Washington. They will run up your taxes and they'll figure out new ways to
spend money. The best way to balance the budget is to keep the taxes low and
be wise about how we spend your money. That's how we're going to balance the
budget. (Applause.)
In order for us to be competitive and lead in the world, we've got to get
-- we've got to get off of Middle Eastern oil. I know it shocks some of you
to hear a Texan say, we're addicted to oil. And we are, and it's a problem.
It's a problem. It's a national security problem, and it's an economic
security problem to be reliant upon oil from parts of the world that may be
unstable, or parts of the world that simply don't like us. And so the best
way to deal with that is to continue to foster new technologies because of
research and development that will enable us to use different fuels in our
cars, for example.
There's Kennedy right there. Good to see you, Kennedy. The reason I
thought of him is because he's from a part of the world that's growing a lot
of crops that can be converted into energy. We're close. We're close to
technological breakthroughs that will enable us to convert wood chips and
sawgrass -- we already convert sugar, corn and soy -- into fuel. And think
about that. If this technology comes true, which we believe it will, then
pretty soon a President is going to say, we're growing a lot of crops and
we're less dependent on Middle Eastern oil. There are 4.5 million cars today
that are flex-fuel cars that can either run on gasoline or ethanol. In other
words, the technology is available inside the automobile. And it's coming.
And we're making some great breakthroughs on battery technology. Next
week I'm going to travel around the country going to some of the most
innovative places around our country that are providing new technologies to
enable us to become less dependent on oil, which will keep us a leader in the
world.
Another thing we need to do is to make sure that our health care system is
modern. I want to talk real quick about Medicare here. First of all, I'm
aware there's a lot of seniors in this state that rely upon Medicare. The
federal government made a commitment to the seniors around the United States,
starting with Lyndon Baines Johnson, that we would provide good health care to
the seniors. And when I got to Washington, I found that we were not providing
modern medicine. I mean, we would provide the money for ulcer surgery in the
old Medicare, but not the prescription drugs necessary to prevent the ulcer
from happening in the first place. And that didn't seem to make sense to me.
It's an old, centralized system that was not modern and was not fulfilling
the promise we made.
And so I worked with Congress -- Republicans and Democrats -- to get a
new bill out of Congress that said we're going to provide a prescription drug
benefit, and as we do, we're going to give seniors more choices and more
options from which to choose.
About 25 million seniors have signed up for this new plan since January
1st. That's a lot of folks in a quick period of time. And needless to say,
when you make that kind of transition to a modern system, there's going to be
some glitches. And our job is to fix those glitches. And that's what the
Department of Health and Human Services under Mike Leavitt is doing. And it's
important for our seniors to take advantage of this new program. Call 1-800-
Medicare. Or if you've got a mom or a dad who's eligible for Medicare, sit
down with them and explain the new benefit. It is a really good deal for
America's seniors.
To make sure that health care works, we'll continue to take care of the
poor. In other words, the government has made a commitment to the elderly and
the poor, but the government has also got to understand, the best medicine is
private medicine. (Applause.) And we should not get in between the doctors
and the patients in America.
Finally, I want to spend a little time on education, briefly. First of
all, No Child Left Behind Act is working. It's a piece of legislation that
says we're going to raise the standards for every child, and we're going to
measure to make sure children are meeting those standards. Can you imagine --
you might remember the old -- well, I'll tell you. When I was governor of
Texas, we had a system that didn't measure right early on, and guess what
happened? We just shuffled kids through the system who couldn't read, and we
found out too late. And that is a terrible system. It lets people down. And
we're spending a lot of your money. It seems like to me, it makes sense to
say, when we spend your money we ought to insist upon results. Results are
good for the taxpayers; more importantly, they're good for the students. So
now we measure early, before it's too late, and we're correcting problems
before they're too late. And our kids are learning to read.
And we need to apply that same rigor to children in math and science,
particularly in junior high. Fourth grade tests, our kids are doing fine
compared to other countries. But there's a big drop-off when it comes to math
and -- mathematics, particularly in junior high. And so we need to apply that
same standard. We'll measure in junior high, and if you need help, we'll
provide it for you. And the reason why is the jobs of the 21st century are
going to require mastery in math and science and engineering. (Applause.)
And if we don't make -- and if we don't educate our kids, the jobs are going
to go elsewhere, whether we like it or not. So to make sure America remains
the leader in the world, we're going to stay on the leading edge of research
and development, and educate the young scientists of tomorrow today.
And so, look, my attitude about the future is this, when it comes to the
economy, and when it comes to foreign policy: We shouldn't fear it. Let's
shape the future. Let's be the leader tomorrow that we are today.
Now, we're living in historic times when you think about this world we're
in. It is a time of challenge, and it's a time of opportunity. We've got the
challenge to protect the American people. My most important duty is to
protect you from harm. And we have an opportunity to lay the foundation of
peace for generations to come.
I make a lot of decisions. My buddies in Texas, when they show up to
Washington, after they get over the initial surprise that I'm still there --
(laughter) -- or got there in the first place -- (laughter) -- say, like,
what's it like, you know? What is the job description? What's it like to be
President? And the best way to answer it is, I make a lot of decisions. And
part of the reasons -- my thinking was shaped on September the 11th, let me
put it to you that way. And I think it's important for you to understand how
the President thinks and why I make decisions I make, particularly decisions
relating to war and peace.
I knew we're at war when they attacked us. As a matter of fact, I was
down here in Florida. It didn't take long to figure out what was going on.
And I vowed that day that I would not rest, so long as I was the President, in
protecting the people. So a lot of my decision-making is based upon the
attack. And I know we're at war, see -- I knew it then, and the enemy has,
unfortunately, proved me right because they continue to attack. In order to
win the war against the enemy you got to understand the nature of the enemy.
First of all, these people are cold-blooded killers, people who will kill
the innocent in order to achieve a tactical objective and a strategic
objective. They have no conscience. You can't negotiate with these people.
You cannot reason with them. You must bring them to justice.
Secondly, they have an ideology, they believe in something. The best way
to describe what they believe in is to think about what life was like in
Afghanistan under the Taliban. These were people that saw to it that young
girls didn't get educated. If you didn't agree with their view of religion
you were whipped in the public square. They tolerated no dissent, no
different point of view, and they were tearing down the -- destroying the
culture from the past. They had no sense of history other than their dim view
of history. That's what they think.
And they have made it clear their objectives. You probably have read some
of Zawahiri's writings, admonitions to his fellow fighters. They've made it
clear that they believe the United States is soft and weak, and that they can
shake our will. They've made it clear that it's just a matter of time before
we vacate parts of the world which they can then occupy in order to be able to
plan, plot attacks against the United States of America. They have made it
clear they're interested in weapons of mass destruction. In other words,
they've laid out a strategy, you know, for the world to see.
And my job is to take that strategy seriously. My job is to see the world
the way it is, not the way some would hope it would be. If 9/11 affected our
thinking, then we've got to make sure when the enemy speaks, we take every
single sentence that they say seriously, and deal with it. And that's what
we're doing.
So I want to share some of the strategy in winning this war on terror.
Make no mistake about it, we're going to win the war on terror. We'll protect
the American people. (Applause.)
First, when we see threats, we've got to deal with them. When I was
growing up in West Texas, oceans protected us. You might remember some of
those days. Old Mayor Martinez, I know he remembers those days when we felt
pretty comfortable here in America. We could see a threat overseas, but
oceans made it pretty clear that -- to a lot of folks -- that nothing would
happen, you know. September 11th came along and made it clear that we are
vulnerable, that the enemy can hit us if they -- if they want to.
And therefore, when you see a threat, you've got to deal with it. You
can't take things for granted anymore. The best way to deal with this enemy
is to defeat them overseas so we don't have to face them here at home, and to
stay on the hunt. (Applause.) And that's what we're doing.
And we've got a coalition of countries. I spent a lot of time reminding
people about the nature of the war. Listen, the tendency for folks is to say,
well, this really isn't a war. I can understand that. Who wants to walk
around thinking there's a war about to hit us. I mean, that's -- that's my
job to worry about it, not yours. How can you have an economy recover from a
recession if people are afraid to risk capital because they're worried about
thinking something is going to happen? And the same thing happens overseas.
People kind of want to slip to the comfortable. They don't believe it's a
war, some of them, and I understand that. And so we spend a lot of time
reminding people that we've got to work together because the enemy can't stand
what we stand for, and that's freedom. They just hate freedom. And so we've
got a good coalition, and -- and we're on the hunt. We're keeping the
pressure on them. It's hard to plot and plan and execute attacks when you're
on the run.
And so the first step of our strategy is defeat them there so we don't to
have to face them here. And we've got some great special forces -- I met the
special forces command guy here -- and there's great intelligence officers and
wonderful coalition folks. We're cutting off their money. It makes it kind
of hard to operate when you can't get your bank accounts full of money in
order to -- we're just doing a lot of stuff. And it's important for citizens
to know that there's a constant, constant pressure. I think about it every
day.
And we're making progress -- Khalid Shaykh Muhammad, September the 11th
plotter-planner, is incarcerated; his successor brought to justice. Slowly
but surely, we're finding them where they hide, and they know we're on their
trail.
Secondly, we got to deny them safe haven. These people can't operate
without safe haven. It's an interesting war we're in. It's totally different
from what we're used to because we're not -- we're not facing nation-states;
we're dealing with an enemy that is international in nature, that hides in
states.
When the President says something like, if you harbor a terrorist, you're
equally as guilty as the terrorist, those words mean nothing unless you act
upon them. And I said that to the people of Afghanistan-- the Taliban. They
didn't listen. And so we acted. And removing the Taliban -- (applause) -- is
a clear signal that we won't tolerate safe haven. In other words, if you
harbor the terrorist, you're just as guilty as the murderers. And that's a
clear signal that the United States must continue to send in order to win the
war on terror.
We saw a threat in Saddam Hussein. Obviously, this issue is one that has
caused a lot of people to wonder about certain aspects, caused me to wonder
about the capacity of our intelligence services to provide good intelligence.
And that's why we're constantly working to reform the intelligence services,
to make sure we get the best intelligence, because I thought there would be
weapons of mass destruction -- and so did everybody else in the world; and so
did people in the United States Congress from both political parties --
thought that there would be weapons of mass destruction.
The United Nations and the United Nations Security Council thought there
would be weapons of mass destruction. After all, they passed a unanimous
resolution that said, disclose, disarm, or face serious consequences. In
other words, we worked the diplomatic front.
And so when Saddam Hussein chose war -- and believe me, he made the choice
-- the hardest thing for the President of the United States to do is commit
troops into combat. It's the last option, the very last option. Except
September the 11th taught me, and September the 11th taught me, that we got to
take threats seriously. And the world saw a threat. This man was harboring
terrorists. He was on a state sponsor of terrorists list. I didn't put him
on there, he was put on there by previous Presidents. He was firing at our
pilots. He had invaded countries. He was a threat. And the world spoke with
one voice, and said, disclose, disarm, or face serious consequences. And when
the United States says something, it must mean it. And we said, disclose or
face serious consequences. And when he wouldn't, he faced serious
consequences. Removing Saddam Hussein has made America safer and the world a
better place. (Applause.)
And we have a plan to achieve victory. Victory is a state -- a democracy
that can sustain itself and defend itself and join America in fighting the war
on terror. That's the goal of victory. That's the definition of victory.
First part of our strategy is a political strategy. I try to tell people
how I make decisions, and part of making good decisions is you've got to
believe something. You have a belief system that, by the way, can't alter
because of politics, or polls, or focus groups, or what somebody wants you to
think. And I believe that freedom is universal. I believe that deep in
everybody's soul is the desire to be free. That's what I believe. I don't
believe freedom or liberty is confined here to Methodists from Texas. I
believe everybody wants to be free -- white, black, brown, Muslim, Jew,
Christian, agnostic. I believe there is a deep desire for people to be free.
And if you believe that, then you have faith in people demanding freedom,
if given a chance. And the Iraqis proved that theory right. Eleven million
people went to the polls in the face of unbelievable terror, terrorist
threats, and said, I want to be free; let me vote; let me decide my future.
And so on the political front, they're making progress because of the courage
of the Iraqis.
And now the task at hand is to work with those who won votes in the new
parliament to set up a unity government; one that is -- can help deal with
the grievances of the past; one that unites under the fabric of democracy.
And that's what we're doing. I talked to the Ambassador, Zal Khalilzad, there
yesterday. He's spent a lot of time working with making our position known
that we want the government to be a unified government.
Secondly, we're helping the country rebuild itself after years of neglect,
so that people can see the benefits of democracy. And we started off
initially with kind of these grand projects. We got the Congress to
appropriate money, and we tried to build some great electricity-type
renovations, and the enemy kept blowing them up. And so we've altered our
strategy. One of the things that you've got to do in a situation like this is
constantly adjust. You can't just get stuck in one kind of response mode.
You've got to think and watch the enemy and adjust to the enemy in order to
achieve an objective. And we're doing that. And so now we've got much
smaller-scale projects that are yielding instant results for the people on the
ground, so people say, wait a minute, this democracy deal is a pretty good
thing, you know.
Businesses are flourishing in Iraq. Freedom is coming, freedom is
coming. There's a determined enemy trying to stop it, of course. They can't
stand freedom. I told you, they think the exact opposite we do. They don't
believe that everybody desires to be free. They want everybody to live under
their totalitarian thumb. That's what they want. Not America and our
coalition. We want governments to be responsible and responsive to the
people. That's what we believe in.
Thirdly, in order to achieve our objective, the Iraqis are going to have
to fight the enemy. They've proven their worth, in terms of defying the
terrorists when it comes to making the vote, and they're proving their desire
to defend themselves against the enemy, too. You know how I know? I'm
listening to the people on the ground. I talk to our commanders a lot.
They're the ones who are giving me the appraisal about how well these Iraqis
are being trained.
An interesting measurement, right off the bat, however, was how the Iraqis
responded to these attacks on the police stations and the recruiting
stations. You remember they had a series of attacks on the recruiting
stations? Guess what my question was to them out there -- are there still
people lining up to join up? If you're getting blown up standing in line, are
they still coming? And the answer was, absolutely. And we're training them,
and there's a command structure -- command and control structure getting in
place. And this military is getting better and better. We're turning over a
lot of territory to the Iraqis. They now have two divisions, which is a lot
of folks, that are capable of taking the fight nearly on their own. The
training mission is working.
So on the security side, we're on the hunt. We're after Zarqawi. See, he
wants us to leave. He believes we'll lose our nerve so he can establish a
safe haven in Iraq. And we're not going to let him do it. And so we've got
great special operators and U.S. forces and coalition forces on the hunt. And
at the same time, we're training the Iraqis.
There's a big debate in Washington about who gets to decide the troop
levels. Well, those troop levels will be decided by this administration. And
this administration is going to listen not to politicians, but to the
commanders on the ground, about what we need on the ground in order to win
this deal. (Applause.)
After I leave here, I'm going to go visit with a family of one of the
fallen troops. I have to be able to look that person in the eye, and say, the
cause is just. I believe it is just and necessary. And I have to look that
person in the eye and say that the sacrifice of your loved one will not go in
vain, that we will complete the mission. And that's what I want to assure my
fellow citizens. No matter what it looks like in Washington, D.C., I'm
committed to victory in Iraq so to achieve peace.
And so in the short-term, we're going to succeed in Iraq. We'll deny them
safe haven. We'll stay on the hunt. But there has to be a long-term
strategy, as well, to win. And that long-term strategy is to liberate people
and give them the chance to live under the greatest system of government ever,
and that's democracy -- because democracies respond to people.
You know, our foreign policy in the broader Middle East for a long period
of time was just kind of tolerate the status quo and hope for the best. It
didn't work. The surface looked placid, but beneath the surface was brewing
resentment and anger and fertile recruiting opportunities for those who have
got a dark vision of the future. And so we're working to help the Iraqis
develop a democracy.
Elections are only the beginning of democracy, not the end. Election is
the beginning of a process to -- where government listens to the people. In
order to make sure democracy works, there has to be institution-building, and
support for young, fledgling democracies. And that's what you're seeing.
This is an historic moment. The world is changing because freedom is on the
march. And we shouldn't be discouraged about setbacks -- short-term setbacks,
or the enemy's capacity to take innocent life, because we've seen democracy
change the world in the past.
I think about all the wars fought in Europe over the past 100 years. A
hundred years seems like a long time, probably, for the little guy there. Me,
too. It seems like a long -- I'm only 59 years old. But Americans shed a lot
of blood in Europe-- World War I and World War II. And yet, the continent is
-- Europe is peaceful. You know why? Because there's democracies living
side-by-side in peace. Democracies don't fight each other. Generally, people
in a democracy don't campaign and say, vote for me, I promise you war. They
say, vote for you -- vote for me, I work for the peace. I want your children
to grow up in a peaceful world. That's what people say to get elected.
Japan-- one of my favorite analogies and stories about this is, my friend,
Koizumi, Prime Minister of Japan. He's an interesting guy. I like him a
lot. We spend time talking about the peace. He understands that democracy in
the heart of the Middle East, democracy in a part of the world that is
desperate for freedom, is an important part of laying the foundation for
peace. And so he committed Japanese troops to help the Iraqis rebuild their
country and to provide security so they could rebuild their country.
What's amazing about this is that, like many whose relatives -- like many
here whose relatives fought against the Japanese, my dad did, too. Isn't that
interesting? Eighteen-year-old kid, Navy fighter pilot; country calls him;
like thousands, he goes overseas to fight the sworn enemy -- the Japanese.
And today, this guy's son is sitting down with the Prime Minister of Japan
working to keep the peace. And what happened in between was that a Japanese-
style democracy grew. Democracies yield the peace. And what the youngsters
here have to see that's happening is we're laying that foundation for peace.
Some day when you're old and -- older -- I know you never think it's going to
happen, but it does -- you look back and say, maybe old George W. Bush and the
United States Congress was right in keeping the faith that democracies can
yield the peace we all want. (Applause.)
I got two other things, two other things I want to tell you, then I'll
answer questions. We not only protect ourselves by keeping the pressure on
the enemy and defeating them over there so we don't have to face them here at
home, we've got to protect ourselves by doing smart things in America. I hope
-- I appreciate working with the Mayors on homeland security issues. We're
training a lot of first responders and getting people ready in case something
happens.
Secondly, in order to ask our folks on the front line of protecting
America to do the job, they got to have all the tools. And the Patriot Act
passed right after September the 11th -- had a little problem getting it out
of the United States Senate, got kind of hung up there. My reminder to those
senators is that the bill may -- about ready to lapse, but the threat isn't.
And if people in Washington expect those on the front line of protecting
America to do their job, they got to give them the tools. The Patriot Act
needs to be passed. (Applause.)
Finally, I made a decision that has been in the news lately, and I want to
share with you my thinking, because it's an important decision. September the
11th made it clear to me that an enemy would do anything it could to hurt us.
We're at war. I understand some don't think that, that we're at war. There
are good, decent Americans who believe that. I know that. This is not what I
-- I don't believe it, see. I got a different point of view. I asked our
people on the ground there in Washington, is there anything more we can do to
protect the American people? What can we do? The enemy wants to hit us,
they're planning to hit us. Is there anything we can do so I can go around
the country saying, go about your business, we're taking care of your security
for you. I think most people would ask that question.
And General Mike Hayden of the NSA -- he's a wonderful person -- said he
thought there was something more we could do. And he showed me the plans for
this country to pick up a conversation -- listen to conversations from people
outside the country, inside the country, who had an affiliation with al Qaeda,
or were al Qaeda. He said, I think we can design a program, Mr. President,
that will enable us to have quick response to be able to detect and deter a
potential attack.
I said, that's interesting, General. I said, that makes a lot of sense to
me. I said, you're not going to listen inside the country. No, this is calls
from outside the country in, or inside out, to people who we know or suspect
are affiliated with al Qaeda. And I remember some of those phone calls coming
out of California prior to the September the 11th attacks by the killers --
just thinking maybe if we'd have listened to those on a quick response basis,
you know, it might have helped prevent the attacks.
My second question was, is it legal? See, I take that oath of office
seriously -- I've taken it twice as your President -- to uphold the laws and
the Constitution. And so we got lawyers all over Washington, as I'm sure you
can imagine. (Laughter.) I'm not one. I said, is it legal? I'm asking this
to the Attorney General of the United States, the Legal Counsel in the White
House; NSA has got lawyers. I mean, a lot of lawyers looked at this, and they
said, you bet, Mr. President, it's legal. And they gave me the legal
ramifications. You'll see this all -- this is part of the debate.
Thirdly, I knew I needed to tell members of Congress. See, they like to
be a part of the process. They're a co-equal branch of government. And I
recognize that, and I honor that. And so we briefed members of the United
States Congress on the full program so that they would know -- appropriate
members of Congress -- leaders, Republicans, and Democrats, leaders of the
Intelligence Committee whose job it is to provide oversight on intelligence
operations. They were abreast. Like my old buddy called me, he said, you
know something? If you're trying to pull one over on them, if you're trying
to have an illegal program, why are you briefing the Congress? I said,
because I want people to know.
Unfortunately, we're having this discussion. It's too bad, because guess
who listens to the discussion: The enemy. If you don't think we're at war it
doesn't matter then, does it? I know we're at war. And the enemy is
adjusting. But I'm going to tell you something. I'm doing the right thing.
Washington is a town that says, you didn't connect the dots, and then when you
do connect the dots, they say you're wrong. In order to protect America, if
somebody is talking to al Qaeda, we want to know who they are and why they're
talking to them. (Applause.)
Okay. That's what's on my mind. Now, what's on yours? Yes, sir. Go
ahead and yell it.
Q Mr. President, I just wanted to take an opportunity to tell you I think
our country is blessed to have you as our President.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. (Applause.)
Q We are very thankful that you don't make your decisions based on the
polls, like previous Presidents have.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I appreciate that. (Applause.)
Q And my comment is, is that I'm a homebuilder. I'm very happy right
now.
THE PRESIDENT: You've got to be. (Laughter.)
Q But I wanted to just keep you apprised that things are good now, the
economy is good, interest rates are low. There are people that still can't
afford homes in our country today. Affordable housing is very important. We,
as homebuilders -- I served on the Board of Directors of the National
Association of Homebuilders.
THE PRESIDENT: Good.
Q We'll be up in Washington in about a month or so to see you guys.
But we're concerned with the environment just as much as anyone else is, and -
- but there's got to be a balance to make sure that we can develop land and
provide homes -- affordable homes. And also Congress is working on some
things now that has an effect on financing and interest rates for people
buying their first homes. And let's make sure that we have affordable homes
for people.
My daughter is a school teacher here in Tampa, and it's important to
people like her, people that protect us -- the fire department, the sheriffs,
they need homes. The times are good now, and I was a builder when your
friend, Jimmy Carter, was President, and interest rates weren't so good back
then, and those were tough times. And I just want to tell you that I'm
blessed to be here today with you in this room, and we all love you.
(Applause.)
THE PRESIDENT: Well, thanks. Let me talk about that. Thank you. You'll
be happy to hear, I don't set interest rates. (Laughter.) That's set by an
independent body. And I just named a new Chairman of the Fed to do that.
(Applause.) He's a good fellow. And so if I were you, I'd be worried about
interest rates -- because when the interest rates go up, it makes it harder
for your school teacher.
Well, there's help, to help certain folks who qualify with their down
payments. We want people owning their own home. See, that's -- we want this
to be an ownership society. We want people owning their own business, we want
people owning their own home, we want people owning their own health account
they can take with them from job to job like health savings accounts. And
home ownership is high right now. More minorities own a home than ever before
in our nation's history, which is a fantastic statistic.
But interest rates matter, as does good tax policy. Maybe you're hinting
at whether or not the mortgage deduction would be part of a plan. I don't
think you have to worry about the mortgage deduction not being a part of the
income tax law. But thank you for bringing that up.
Yes, sir. Go ahead and yell it.
Q Mr. President, you mentioned a trip next week to visit the sources of
renewable additional technology to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. We
have a not-so-renewable resource, which is our precious Florida coastline.
And because of your great brother, we do have an unemployment rate of 3.3
percent. How can you work with us to protect our Florida shoreline with
respect to offshore drilling?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I made a commitment that nothing is going to happen
within a hundred miles of this coastline, and I'm honoring the commitment. I
don't care what people might be saying -- I guess maybe they quit saying it
after the '04 campaign -- but it's a commitment that this government has -- at
least my government has made, and I'm going to honor it. When we say a
hundred miles off the coastline, we don't mean 99 miles or 89 miles, we mean a
hundred miles. So rest easy.
Now, the thing about -- look, we've got to get off of hydrocarbons. We
just do. And I'm a believer in nuclear power. (Applause.) I think it's a --
maybe some day, and I think we'll -- I'll figure out -- I'll find out how
close we are when I visit with some of these solar technology people, but it's
very likely that you'll become a little power generator in your own home, and
that the excess power that you do not use you feed back in the grid. Hybrid
batteries -- batteries for plug-in hybrid automobiles are pretty close, they
tell me. And I'm going to see firsthand -- sometimes the President gets the
cook's tour, I know it -- (laughter) -- but nevertheless, I'm going to see
firsthand.
Now, what's interesting is, is that a lot of people in urban areas are not
going to drive more than 30 miles a day. And so we're developing automobile
engines that can run on electricity for 30 miles, and then if you go more,
your gasoline kicks in. But it requires a battery that has got good storage
capacity and is easy to recharge. It's coming.
And so there's a lot of technologies that are coming on the market, and
we're spending money. And it's a good use of taxpayers' money, it seems like
to me, in order to achieve some big objectives.
I'm going to India on March the 1st, around that period of time, and I
believe that it's good policy for the United States to encourage these
emerging economies to use clean energy, nuclear power, so as to help reduce
demand for kind of non-renewables. And so I'm going to talk to them about
development of a civilian nuclear power industry. They're telling me China
has got about 34 plants on the market, which is good. But this expansion of
nuclear power -- which is in our interests, by the way; it's in our interests
because of the quality of the air, it's in our interests because it takes --
reduces demand, global demand -- is going to create another issue, and that
is, what are we going to do with the spent fuel? This country doesn't
reprocess spent fuel; we should. Reprocessing spent fuel means that we're
able to continue to reuse the base material that went through the burn the
first time in a plant, and reduce the amount that we have to then eventually
store. And we chose not to do that in the late '70s because of proliferation
concerns. I'm convinced we can work internationally to address those issues.
And so I'm just sharing with you -- we got a full strategy to help us make
us less dependent on energy -- on foreign sources of energy.
Yes, sir.
Q I'm from Winter Garden in the central part of the state.
THE PRESIDENT: Oh, yes, I know where you are.
Q Pressed into service by your brother, Honorable Jeb Bush.
THE PRESIDENT: Is that good or bad? If it's bad, take it up with him.
(Laughter.)
Q I thought about calling him to ask him if he'd like to have the job
back.
THE PRESIDENT: That's right. (Laughter.)
Q The concerns from the central part of the state is, we've got a
really unprecedented growth rate there in the middle part. The challenge is
for mass transportation to free us from the oil that you talk about.
Unfortunately, the proportionate share of funding that we're able to secure
seems to be tied into pork barrel like light rail, which -- Congressman Mica
needs to buy into the fact that it's not realistic. So how do we get free
from that so we can get direct funding for mass transit?
THE PRESIDENT: Yes. That will be something that you'll be able to effect
five years from now, because I signed the highway bill, and it's done. And
nobody wants to deal with it again until it expires, to be frank with you.
But I understand -- but what he's saying is, how come you just don't let
Floridians decide how to spend the money that's supposed to go back to them?
Why do you earmark parts of the bill? That's what you're saying. And I do
think Congress needs to work on earmark reform. I'm just not one of these
guys -- if there's no hope, I got to let you know, brother. There ain't no
hope. (Laughter and applause.) They're not going to -- they're not going to
revisit the highway bill. They're just not going to revisit the highway bill
until the highway bill expires. And then perhaps you can get the kind of --
they can get the kind of reforms. As you know, I ain't going to be around.
(Laughter.)
Yes, sir. I've heard from Jeb on this issue, by the way.
Q Mr. President, welcome back to Tampa.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you.
Q And my question is, you've talked a lot about our addiction to oil
today. You've also talked about advanced alternative fuel sources, in
particular for household vehicles as a potential mitigant to that dilemma.
But we have a very robust industrialized economy -- air, rail, shipping,
trucking -- that has depended on oil, frankly, for generations to be
successful and vibrant. So my question is, how do we maintain the most
advanced industrialized economy on Earth, and actually reduce our dependency
on oil going forward?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I believe -- first of all, natural gas has driven a
lot of our industrialized growth, as you know. And we are -- we need to have
-- import liquified natural gas if we're going to be modern and stay
competitive.
Listen, we're going to need oil. The question is, are we able to reduce
dependency from certain parts of the world. And I think that by relieving
pressure on how we drive our cars, we'll, in fact, help segments of our
economy that are going to take a while to diversify away from hydrocarbons, I
guess is the best kind of macro look.
Things don't happen instantly; I understand that. But, nevertheless,
there are some practical ways that we can reduce our dependency, and it seems
like to me the most practical way is to change automobiles, change how we
drive. In the short-term, ethanol and hybrid batteries makes the most sense
to me. It's the most practical way, and most economic way, to begin the
reduction of dependency.
Now, listen, we've got a large fleet -- I told you, there's four-and-a-
half flex-fuel cars [sic]. That's good, except there's about 200 million
cars. And it takes a while for fleets to renew. And so things don't happen
instantly, but they will happen quicker as we continue to press for innovation
and technology.
Ultimately, I believe that we're going to be using hydrogen to power our
automobiles. But that's 15 years down the -- for the technology to be
applicable is 15 years down the road. And I guess what I'm not only -- I
guess I am, what I'm telling you is that we see technological breakthroughs
pretty darn quick when it comes to ethanol and hybrid batteries, which is a
positive development for the people. And the interesting thing about ethanol
is that the barriers to entry are pretty low, when it comes to manufacturing -
- if the technology says that we can -- yields the capacity to convert
switchgrasses and refuses to ethanol, once that technological breakthrough
comes, the barriers to entry are pretty low when it comes to building the
manufacturing capacity that converts raw material to ethanol. Much different
from a big cracker refinery. And so that's positive. So we've got the car
technology, hopefully have the breakthrough technology on fuel, and then the
infrastructure will follow.
And so what I'm saying is, this is the most practical way to become less
dependent on oil. And the economy will continue to function. But things are
happening, by the way, in diesel. I don't know -- if any of you know
something about trucking, you know that diesel, clean diesel engines are
coming. We did a deal in my administration to work with diesel engine
manufacturers to come up with a very low-emission engine that is now being
applied in trucks, and it's going to make a difference -- on Caterpillar
tractors. We're getting there, we're getting there.
Thanks for the question. Yes, sir.
Q -- it seems to me that we are facing in this country -- I've had the
opportunity to interface with people of Muslim countries, and the war is bad
enough, and I applaud what you're doing, because freedom is important, but
what concerns me is if the youth in these nations are being taught that you
and I and us Americans are, in fact, the devil incarnate, or Satan, himself --
I guess my question is, what can we do about that, to win over the people, the
children, the youth, so that the next generation will not be facing the same
dilemma? I think this is an incredible problem.
THE PRESIDENT: I appreciate that. First is to support and work with
moderate governments, and there are a lot. The largest Muslim nation is
Indonesia. And we're working closely with the President there to help promote
a better understanding of different religions. I will be seeing President
Musharraf, who I like and he's a good fellow, who understands that moderation
is an important part of a hopeful future. And so we'll support governments
that practice moderation.
Secondly, provide assistance when assistance is needed. In my State of
the Union, I said, we've got to reject isolationism. Isolationism is the
tendency for a nation to withdraw and not feel an obligation to be involved in
the world. And we cannot defend ourselves if we're isolationist. I just made
the case. But I also believe, and part of my philosophy in the decision-
making is, to whom much has been given, much is required. And, therefore,
when we see suffering in places like Pakistan, or because of the tsunami, the
United States of America is leading the way in.
And it helps. It helped a lot in Pakistan, for example, to see those
choppers flying relief supplies up for poor folks who had been -- whose lives
had been just devastated. I can't remember the exact numbers, but President
Musharraf told me, we're talking hundreds of thousands of people either dead,
injured or displaced. And there was the United States of America military
flying in supplies. I believe, John Abizaid -- General Abizaid told me today
that we turned over our MASH unit to the Pakistani government to help so they
could continue to provide aid and comfort.
And so there are practical ways. One is to support moderation, and two,
help where help is needed. Our HIV/AIDS initiative, by the way, is a
fantastic initiative. It is -- I can't tell you how proud I am of the
American people for supporting this. It is necessary for the United States of
America to be taking the lead on this issue to save lives. If we say human
dignity matters and every life is precious, that that's part of a credo as a
country, which it is -- that's what we say. We say, people matter, every
human life is precious. Then those human lives apply not just here at home,
but on the continent of Africa, or in Muslim countries. And there's a lot of
Muslims in Africa who've seen the great compassion of the United States of
America when it comes to helping to battle HIV/AIDS. There's a pandemic
taking place. And you ought to be proud of this country, like I am, that
we're filling that void of compassion and need and hope. (Applause.)
Yes. Right here. Yes. You're next. Yes. Yes, ma'am.
Q I know that you and First Lady Bush have talked much about our
hurting generation of teens and our unproductive teens in our communities.
Just wanted you to talk a little bit about the efforts being made with the
work that you're doing in initiatives --
THE PRESIDENT: Thanks.
Q -- that will help that.
THE PRESIDENT: I appreciate that. First, there's positive news. Teen
pregnancies are down, teen drug use is down, and that's positive. That's
good. (Applause.) Because of people at the grassroots level -- people at the
grassroots level. I think one of the most important initiatives of this
administration is to -- is the faith-based and community initiatives, which
recognizes what de Tocqueville saw in the 1830s. He's a French guy who came
over here. (Laughter.) In case you don't remember. And he recognized that
the great strength of America was the capacity for individualists -- or the
willingness of individualists to work together in what he called voluntary
associations to make the community in which they live a better place. And he
saw that in the 1930s.
It's a -- what he saw is still the strength of our country, if you really
think about it. You know, government can hand out money, but government
cannot put a hope in a person's heart. A lot of people miss one of the basics
ingredients of life, and that is love. And love happens when somebody puts an
arm around a person and says, what can I do to help you, brother or sister.
And so part of our initiative in dealing with loneliness, discouragement,
lack of self-esteem, is to encourage faith-based programs -- which all exist
because they hear a universal call to love a neighbor, by the way -- to have
access to federal money, in other words, level the playing field for grant
money so that these programs -- which have been set up to love somebody and
provide love -- have got equal access to federal money. It's a really
important initiative.
There are targeted monies, of course. There's monies aimed at the
different community groups dealing with drug use. But I think the most
important initiative of all is to empower groups that really do provide
mentoring and care and decency on an individual basis for somebody who needs
it. And it's happening. It's happening in America. (Applause.)
Yes.
Q Mr. President, it's an honor to be here with you today, and I thank
you so much for the time that you take to share with us. I'm a 40-year-old
father of a three-year-old.
THE PRESIDENT: There you go.
Q And I'm also an adopted child. And it seems that, anymore, through
the results of legislation from the bench, that maybe the unsafest place for a
child in this country is in his or her mother's womb. And my question for you
is -- and I commend you for your Supreme Court picks. I thank you for your
bold stance in who you picked -- (applause) -- my question is, with my son,
this is the future of America. And my question is, where do you believe we're
headed? Long after your term of serving us has ended, long after we've had
other Presidents serve this country, where do you think we're headed in the
areas of abortion, the areas of traditional marriage, in the areas of faith
and the foundations that this country was founded upon that are so under
attack anymore? Where do you believe we're going?
THE PRESIDENT: I'm an optimist. I believe we're headed toward a period
of personal responsibility, where people understand that they're responsible
for the decisions they make in life.
I just gave you some statistics. Abortions are down in America, as well,
by the way. People are -- one of my jobs is to promote a culture of life.
And I just told you every life is precious, and I meant it, whether it be here
at home, or on the continent of Africa where somebody's suffering from
HIV/AIDS. And so I'm an optimist. I think people are -- I think people are
beginning to understand that there is virtue in being personally responsible
for the decisions you make in life.
And that -- there's a -- and cultures change and it takes a while for
cultures to change. All of us -- I'm not going to peg anybody a certain age
around here, but those of us born, like, around '46, '47, '48, we've seen a
culture change in our lifetime, if you really think about it. The culture
changed. And it can change again. And I think these statistics that show
that some problems that seemed incurable at one point in our history indicate
that there is a cultural shift. A lot of it has to do with people being
responsible. Some of it has to do with there's a religious awakening around
many communities in the country -- not just Christian religion, but Jewish
religion, Muslim religion. People are becoming religious in America. And
that, in itself, helps people realize that you've got to be conscious of the
decisions you make and mindful of the needs of others.
And -- but we still got challenges. One of the things that obviously
undermines good teaching at home is TV and some of the movies. But I remind
people, they put "off" and "on" knobs on TVs for a reason. (Applause.) You
don't have to go to a movie if you don't want to go to a movie. See, I think
you can promote responsibility at home and still live in a free society where
people are allowed to express themselves. And my advice to parents is, pay
attention to the Internet. Part of the problem we have in our society is
people aren't paying attention to their kids' habits. And when you've got
your child on the Internet, make sure you know what that child is looking at,
because that's your responsibility. It's not the government's responsibility
to take care of your child, it's your responsibility to take care of your
child. (Applause.)
Q Thank you for being our President. We are all way better off and
very safe --
THE PRESIDENT: Thanks. My high honor, by the way. (Applause.)
Q Thank you.
THE PRESIDENT: I'm glad I did it.
Q We appreciate it. How do you -- earlier you shared with us some
intimacy about how you make decisions, and I felt that was heartfelt. How do
you keep it together? What do you really think about when the biggest story
this week was Dick Cheney's hunting trip, and not Al Gore blasting our troops
and being treasonous in his regard to this war on terror in the Middle East?
(Applause.) How do you keep it together?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I appreciate that. That's a loaded question.
(Laughter.) I keep it in perspective. There's a lot of noise in Washington.
There's a lot of flattery, there's a lot of criticism, just a lot of noise.
And I keep it in -- I try to keep my life in perspective. I try to -- I don't
try to, I do, keep my life in perspective. And I am focused on achieving
certain objectives. Every day -- I said this, and I mean this -- every day I
think about how to protect America. Every day in the morning, first thing in
the morning, I get briefed by our intelligence officers about potential
threats. Every morning I'm aware of the world around us. And I told you that
it's -- 9/11 changed my thinking. My focus is there.
You know, I care deeply about troubled youth. I'm worried about Katrina
victims. I'm worried about people that got moved out of their home and they
ended up somewhere else. Put yourself in their perspective. I said home
ownership is valuable. We talked about home ownership here, how important it
is -- and somebody wakes up the next morning and their home is gone. And not
only that, they ended up out, somewhere else, you know. The good news is
those people found love, which is a wonderful thing about our country. And I
think about those kind of things.
So to answer your question -- and I appreciate that -- first, I'm wise
en
-
On 2006-02-18 20:43:00, Anonymous wrote:
"
On 2006-02-18 20:42:00, Anonymous wrote:
"
On 2006-02-18 07:34:00, Anonymous wrote:
" WASHINGTON, Feb. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- The following is a transcript of
remarks by President Bush on the global war on terror:
Port of Tampa
Tampa, Florida
1:26 P.M. EST
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all. Please be seated. Thanks for the warm
welcome. Thanks for the warm weather. (Laughter.) It's nice to be back
here. I just came from MacDill, where I was talking to General Abizaid and
General Brown, and one of the things that's clear is folks there at MacDill
really do appreciate the support that the citizens of the communities of Tampa
and St. Pete and the surrounding area provide them. So I want to thank you
all very much for being -- (applause.)
I'd like to share some thoughts with you, and then answer questions as
time allows, if you've got any. First, I send Laura's greetings. She's doing
great, by the way. She's a fantastic First Lady and -- (applause.) She's
obviously got to be a woman of enormous patience. (Laughter.)
I appreciate Congressman Adam Putnam, Bill Young, Mike Bilirakis, and
Katherine Harris for being here today. (Applause.) Oh, there they are.
Proud to give them a ride on Air Force One. (Laughter.) Some of them aren't
going back, by the way. (Laughter.) Mark Kennedy -- is Mark here with us,
from Minnesota? I think he was going to drop by -- he supposedly was going to
be here. You don't know him because he's from Minnesota, but I do and he's a
fine guy. (Laughter.)
I want to thank my buddy, Mel Sembler, Ambassador Sembler, who represented
our country so well, once in Australia under 41, and then Italy under 43.
(Applause.) And Betty. I want to thank the Chambers of both Tampa and St.
Pete. I want to thank the Mayors from Tampa and St. Pete -- Mayor Iorio and
Mayor Baker are with us. Thank you both for coming. Appreciate you being
here. (Applause.)
I didn't mean to take you away from your work. Any excuse is a good one
on Friday, right? (Laughter.) So long as I keep the speech short. I want to
thank members of the Statehouse who are here. I want to thank you all for
letting us use this beautiful facility. And thank you for coming.
First of all, the economy is in good shape. It's growing. (Applause.) I
guess that's an easy thing to say in the state of Florida, when the
unemployment rate is 3.3 percent. Pretty amazing, isn't it? (Applause.) I'm
sure the Governor is going to try to take credit for it, you know.
(Laughter.) I'm not going to because the role of government is to create an
environment where the entrepreneurs can flourish and small businesses can
grow.
And the fundamental question facing this country of ours is, how do we
keep ourselves to be the economic leader of the world. It's really an
interesting question. You know, in spite of the good economic numbers -- 4.7
percent unemployment around the country, our economy growing at over 3
percent, in the face of hurricanes, as well as high gas prices, home ownership
is an all-time high, small businesses are growing -- in spite of all that,
there's a certain sense of uncertainty. People are worried. They're worried
because they're changing jobs a lot; they're worried because of the
competition from India and China. There's a certain sense of uncertainty.
And so we have a choice to make about our economy: Do we retreat in the
face of uncertainty, or do we lead? And I -- I will be working with the
Congress, members from both political parties, to be the leader of the world.
And here's some ideas. One, keep taxes low. We can't be the economic leader
of the world if we run up your taxes. And so we're going to keep them low.
(Applause.)
And you'll hear a debate in Washington, D.C. that says, well, we've got to
run up your taxes to balance the budget. That's not the way it works in
Washington. They will run up your taxes and they'll figure out new ways to
spend money. The best way to balance the budget is to keep the taxes low and
be wise about how we spend your money. That's how we're going to balance the
budget. (Applause.)
In order for us to be competitive and lead in the world, we've got to get
-- we've got to get off of Middle Eastern oil. I know it shocks some of you
to hear a Texan say, we're addicted to oil. And we are, and it's a problem.
It's a problem. It's a national security problem, and it's an economic
security problem to be reliant upon oil from parts of the world that may be
unstable, or parts of the world that simply don't like us. And so the best
way to deal with that is to continue to foster new technologies because of
research and development that will enable us to use different fuels in our
cars, for example.
There's Kennedy right there. Good to see you, Kennedy. The reason I
thought of him is because he's from a part of the world that's growing a lot
of crops that can be converted into energy. We're close. We're close to
technological breakthroughs that will enable us to convert wood chips and
sawgrass -- we already convert sugar, corn and soy -- into fuel. And think
about that. If this technology comes true, which we believe it will, then
pretty soon a President is going to say, we're growing a lot of crops and
we're less dependent on Middle Eastern oil. There are 4.5 million cars today
that are flex-fuel cars that can either run on gasoline or ethanol. In other
words, the technology is available inside the automobile. And it's coming.
And we're making some great breakthroughs on battery technology. Next
week I'm going to travel around the country going to some of the most
innovative places around our country that are providing new technologies to
enable us to become less dependent on oil, which will keep us a leader in the
world.
Another thing we need to do is to make sure that our health care system is
modern. I want to talk real quick about Medicare here. First of all, I'm
aware there's a lot of seniors in this state that rely upon Medicare. The
federal government made a commitment to the seniors around the United States,
starting with Lyndon Baines Johnson, that we would provide good health care to
the seniors. And when I got to Washington, I found that we were not providing
modern medicine. I mean, we would provide the money for ulcer surgery in the
old Medicare, but not the prescription drugs necessary to prevent the ulcer
from happening in the first place. And that didn't seem to make sense to me.
It's an old, centralized system that was not modern and was not fulfilling
the promise we made.
And so I worked with Congress -- Republicans and Democrats -- to get a
new bill out of Congress that said we're going to provide a prescription drug
benefit, and as we do, we're going to give seniors more choices and more
options from which to choose.
About 25 million seniors have signed up for this new plan since January
1st. That's a lot of folks in a quick period of time. And needless to say,
when you make that kind of transition to a modern system, there's going to be
some glitches. And our job is to fix those glitches. And that's what the
Department of Health and Human Services under Mike Leavitt is doing. And it's
important for our seniors to take advantage of this new program. Call 1-800-
Medicare. Or if you've got a mom or a dad who's eligible for Medicare, sit
down with them and explain the new benefit. It is a really good deal for
America's seniors.
To make sure that health care works, we'll continue to take care of the
poor. In other words, the government has made a commitment to the elderly and
the poor, but the government has also got to understand, the best medicine is
private medicine. (Applause.) And we should not get in between the doctors
and the patients in America.
Finally, I want to spend a little time on education, briefly. First of
all, No Child Left Behind Act is working. It's a piece of legislation that
says we're going to raise the standards for every child, and we're going to
measure to make sure children are meeting those standards. Can you imagine --
you might remember the old -- well, I'll tell you. When I was governor of
Texas, we had a system that didn't measure right early on, and guess what
happened? We just shuffled kids through the system who couldn't read, and we
found out too late. And that is a terrible system. It lets people down. And
we're spending a lot of your money. It seems like to me, it makes sense to
say, when we spend your money we ought to insist upon results. Results are
good for the taxpayers; more importantly, they're good for the students. So
now we measure early, before it's too late, and we're correcting problems
before they're too late. And our kids are learning to read.
And we need to apply that same rigor to children in math and science,
particularly in junior high. Fourth grade tests, our kids are doing fine
compared to other countries. But there's a big drop-off when it comes to math
and -- mathematics, particularly in junior high. And so we need to apply that
same standard. We'll measure in junior high, and if you need help, we'll
provide it for you. And the reason why is the jobs of the 21st century are
going to require mastery in math and science and engineering. (Applause.)
And if we don't make -- and if we don't educate our kids, the jobs are going
to go elsewhere, whether we like it or not. So to make sure America remains
the leader in the world, we're going to stay on the leading edge of research
and development, and educate the young scientists of tomorrow today.
And so, look, my attitude about the future is this, when it comes to the
economy, and when it comes to foreign policy: We shouldn't fear it. Let's
shape the future. Let's be the leader tomorrow that we are today.
Now, we're living in historic times when you think about this world we're
in. It is a time of challenge, and it's a time of opportunity. We've got the
challenge to protect the American people. My most important duty is to
protect you from harm. And we have an opportunity to lay the foundation of
peace for generations to come.
I make a lot of decisions. My buddies in Texas, when they show up to
Washington, after they get over the initial surprise that I'm still there --
(laughter) -- or got there in the first place -- (laughter) -- say, like,
what's it like, you know? What is the job description? What's it like to be
President? And the best way to answer it is, I make a lot of decisions. And
part of the reasons -- my thinking was shaped on September the 11th, let me
put it to you that way. And I think it's important for you to understand how
the President thinks and why I make decisions I make, particularly decisions
relating to war and peace.
I knew we're at war when they attacked us. As a matter of fact, I was
down here in Florida. It didn't take long to figure out what was going on.
And I vowed that day that I would not rest, so long as I was the President, in
protecting the people. So a lot of my decision-making is based upon the
attack. And I know we're at war, see -- I knew it then, and the enemy has,
unfortunately, proved me right because they continue to attack. In order to
win the war against the enemy you got to understand the nature of the enemy.
First of all, these people are cold-blooded killers, people who will kill
the innocent in order to achieve a tactical objective and a strategic
objective. They have no conscience. You can't negotiate with these people.
You cannot reason with them. You must bring them to justice.
Secondly, they have an ideology, they believe in something. The best way
to describe what they believe in is to think about what life was like in
Afghanistan under the Taliban. These were people that saw to it that young
girls didn't get educated. If you didn't agree with their view of religion
you were whipped in the public square. They tolerated no dissent, no
different point of view, and they were tearing down the -- destroying the
culture from the past. They had no sense of history other than their dim view
of history. That's what they think.
And they have made it clear their objectives. You probably have read some
of Zawahiri's writings, admonitions to his fellow fighters. They've made it
clear that they believe the United States is soft and weak, and that they can
shake our will. They've made it clear that it's just a matter of time before
we vacate parts of the world which they can then occupy in order to be able to
plan, plot attacks against the United States of America. They have made it
clear they're interested in weapons of mass destruction. In other words,
they've laid out a strategy, you know, for the world to see.
And my job is to take that strategy seriously. My job is to see the world
the way it is, not the way some would hope it would be. If 9/11 affected our
thinking, then we've got to make sure when the enemy speaks, we take every
single sentence that they say seriously, and deal with it. And that's what
we're doing.
So I want to share some of the strategy in winning this war on terror.
Make no mistake about it, we're going to win the war on terror. We'll protect
the American people. (Applause.)
First, when we see threats, we've got to deal with them. When I was
growing up in West Texas, oceans protected us. You might remember some of
those days. Old Mayor Martinez, I know he remembers those days when we felt
pretty comfortable here in America. We could see a threat overseas, but
oceans made it pretty clear that -- to a lot of folks -- that nothing would
happen, you know. September 11th came along and made it clear that we are
vulnerable, that the enemy can hit us if they -- if they want to.
And therefore, when you see a threat, you've got to deal with it. You
can't take things for granted anymore. The best way to deal with this enemy
is to defeat them overseas so we don't have to face them here at home, and to
stay on the hunt. (Applause.) And that's what we're doing.
And we've got a coalition of countries. I spent a lot of time reminding
people about the nature of the war. Listen, the tendency for folks is to say,
well, this really isn't a war. I can understand that. Who wants to walk
around thinking there's a war about to hit us. I mean, that's -- that's my
job to worry about it, not yours. How can you have an economy recover from a
recession if people are afraid to risk capital because they're worried about
thinking something is going to happen? And the same thing happens overseas.
People kind of want to slip to the comfortable. They don't believe it's a
war, some of them, and I understand that. And so we spend a lot of time
reminding people that we've got to work together because the enemy can't stand
what we stand for, and that's freedom. They just hate freedom. And so we've
got a good coalition, and -- and we're on the hunt. We're keeping the
pressure on them. It's hard to plot and plan and execute attacks when you're
on the run.
And so the first step of our strategy is defeat them there so we don't to
have to face them here. And we've got some great special forces -- I met the
special forces command guy here -- and there's great intelligence officers and
wonderful coalition folks. We're cutting off their money. It makes it kind
of hard to operate when you can't get your bank accounts full of money in
order to -- we're just doing a lot of stuff. And it's important for citizens
to know that there's a constant, constant pressure. I think about it every
day.
And we're making progress -- Khalid Shaykh Muhammad, September the 11th
plotter-planner, is incarcerated; his successor brought to justice. Slowly
but surely, we're finding them where they hide, and they know we're on their
trail.
Secondly, we got to deny them safe haven. These people can't operate
without safe haven. It's an interesting war we're in. It's totally different
from what we're used to because we're not -- we're not facing nation-states;
we're dealing with an enemy that is international in nature, that hides in
states.
When the President says something like, if you harbor a terrorist, you're
equally as guilty as the terrorist, those words mean nothing unless you act
upon them. And I said that to the people of Afghanistan-- the Taliban. They
didn't listen. And so we acted. And removing the Taliban -- (applause) -- is
a clear signal that we won't tolerate safe haven. In other words, if you
harbor the terrorist, you're just as guilty as the murderers. And that's a
clear signal that the United States must continue to send in order to win the
war on terror.
We saw a threat in Saddam Hussein. Obviously, this issue is one that has
caused a lot of people to wonder about certain aspects, caused me to wonder
about the capacity of our intelligence services to provide good intelligence.
And that's why we're constantly working to reform the intelligence services,
to make sure we get the best intelligence, because I thought there would be
weapons of mass destruction -- and so did everybody else in the world; and so
did people in the United States Congress from both political parties --
thought that there would be weapons of mass destruction.
The United Nations and the United Nations Security Council thought there
would be weapons of mass destruction. After all, they passed a unanimous
resolution that said, disclose, disarm, or face serious consequences. In
other words, we worked the diplomatic front.
And so when Saddam Hussein chose war -- and believe me, he made the choice
-- the hardest thing for the President of the United States to do is commit
troops into combat. It's the last option, the very last option. Except
September the 11th taught me, and September the 11th taught me, that we got to
take threats seriously. And the world saw a threat. This man was harboring
terrorists. He was on a state sponsor of terrorists list. I didn't put him
on there, he was put on there by previous Presidents. He was firing at our
pilots. He had invaded countries. He was a threat. And the world spoke with
one voice, and said, disclose, disarm, or face serious consequences. And when
the United States says something, it must mean it. And we said, disclose or
face serious consequences. And when he wouldn't, he faced serious
consequences. Removing Saddam Hussein has made America safer and the world a
better place. (Applause.)
And we have a plan to achieve victory. Victory is a state -- a democracy
that can sustain itself and defend itself and join America in fighting the war
on terror. That's the goal of victory. That's the definition of victory.
First part of our strategy is a political strategy. I try to tell people
how I make decisions, and part of making good decisions is you've got to
believe something. You have a belief system that, by the way, can't alter
because of politics, or polls, or focus groups, or what somebody wants you to
think. And I believe that freedom is universal. I believe that deep in
everybody's soul is the desire to be free. That's what I believe. I don't
believe freedom or liberty is confined here to Methodists from Texas. I
believe everybody wants to be free -- white, black, brown, Muslim, Jew,
Christian, agnostic. I believe there is a deep desire for people to be free.
And if you believe that, then you have faith in people demanding freedom,
if given a chance. And the Iraqis proved that theory right. Eleven million
people went to the polls in the face of unbelievable terror, terrorist
threats, and said, I want to be free; let me vote; let me decide my future.
And so on the political front, they're making progress because of the courage
of the Iraqis.
And now the task at hand is to work with those who won votes in the new
parliament to set up a unity government; one that is -- can help deal with
the grievances of the past; one that unites under the fabric of democracy.
And that's what we're doing. I talked to the Ambassador, Zal Khalilzad, there
yesterday. He's spent a lot of time working with making our position known
that we want the government to be a unified government.
Secondly, we're helping the country rebuild itself after years of neglect,
so that people can see the benefits of democracy. And we started off
initially with kind of these grand projects. We got the Congress to
appropriate money, and we tried to build some great electricity-type
renovations, and the enemy kept blowing them up. And so we've altered our
strategy. One of the things that you've got to do in a situation like this is
constantly adjust. You can't just get stuck in one kind of response mode.
You've got to think and watch the enemy and adjust to the enemy in order to
achieve an objective. And we're doing that. And so now we've got much
smaller-scale projects that are yielding instant results for the people on the
ground, so people say, wait a minute, this democracy deal is a pretty good
thing, you know.
Businesses are flourishing in Iraq. Freedom is coming, freedom is
coming. There's a determined enemy trying to stop it, of course. They can't
stand freedom. I told you, they think the exact opposite we do. They don't
believe that everybody desires to be free. They want everybody to live under
their totalitarian thumb. That's what they want. Not America and our
coalition. We want governments to be responsible and responsive to the
people. That's what we believe in.
Thirdly, in order to achieve our objective, the Iraqis are going to have
to fight the enemy. They've proven their worth, in terms of defying the
terrorists when it comes to making the vote, and they're proving their desire
to defend themselves against the enemy, too. You know how I know? I'm
listening to the people on the ground. I talk to our commanders a lot.
They're the ones who are giving me the appraisal about how well these Iraqis
are being trained.
An interesting measurement, right off the bat, however, was how the Iraqis
responded to these attacks on the police stations and the recruiting
stations. You remember they had a series of attacks on the recruiting
stations? Guess what my question was to them out there -- are there still
people lining up to join up? If you're getting blown up standing in line, are
they still coming? And the answer was, absolutely. And we're training them,
and there's a command structure -- command and control structure getting in
place. And this military is getting better and better. We're turning over a
lot of territory to the Iraqis. They now have two divisions, which is a lot
of folks, that are capable of taking the fight nearly on their own. The
training mission is working.
So on the security side, we're on the hunt. We're after Zarqawi. See, he
wants us to leave. He believes we'll lose our nerve so he can establish a
safe haven in Iraq. And we're not going to let him do it. And so we've got
great special operators and U.S. forces and coalition forces on the hunt. And
at the same time, we're training the Iraqis.
There's a big debate in Washington about who gets to decide the troop
levels. Well, those troop levels will be decided by this administration. And
this administration is going to listen not to politicians, but to the
commanders on the ground, about what we need on the ground in order to win
this deal. (Applause.)
After I leave here, I'm going to go visit with a family of one of the
fallen troops. I have to be able to look that person in the eye, and say, the
cause is just. I believe it is just and necessary. And I have to look that
person in the eye and say that the sacrifice of your loved one will not go in
vain, that we will complete the mission. And that's what I want to assure my
fellow citizens. No matter what it looks like in Washington, D.C., I'm
committed to victory in Iraq so to achieve peace.
And so in the short-term, we're going to succeed in Iraq. We'll deny them
safe haven. We'll stay on the hunt. But there has to be a long-term
strategy, as well, to win. And that long-term strategy is to liberate people
and give them the chance to live under the greatest system of government ever,
and that's democracy -- because democracies respond to people.
You know, our foreign policy in the broader Middle East for a long period
of time was just kind of tolerate the status quo and hope for the best. It
didn't work. The surface looked placid, but beneath the surface was brewing
resentment and anger and fertile recruiting opportunities for those who have
got a dark vision of the future. And so we're working to help the Iraqis
develop a democracy.
Elections are only the beginning of democracy, not the end. Election is
the beginning of a process to -- where government listens to the people. In
order to make sure democracy works, there has to be institution-building, and
support for young, fledgling democracies. And that's what you're seeing.
This is an historic moment. The world is changing because freedom is on the
march. And we shouldn't be discouraged about setbacks -- short-term setbacks,
or the enemy's capacity to take innocent life, because we've seen democracy
change the world in the past.
I think about all the wars fought in Europe over the past 100 years. A
hundred years seems like a long time, probably, for the little guy there. Me,
too. It seems like a long -- I'm only 59 years old. But Americans shed a lot
of blood in Europe-- World War I and World War II. And yet, the continent is
-- Europe is peaceful. You know why? Because there's democracies living
side-by-side in peace. Democracies don't fight each other. Generally, people
in a democracy don't campaign and say, vote for me, I promise you war. They
say, vote for you -- vote for me, I work for the peace. I want your children
to grow up in a peaceful world. That's what people say to get elected.
Japan-- one of my favorite analogies and stories about this is, my friend,
Koizumi, Prime Minister of Japan. He's an interesting guy. I like him a
lot. We spend time talking about the peace. He understands that democracy in
the heart of the Middle East, democracy in a part of the world that is
desperate for freedom, is an important part of laying the foundation for
peace. And so he committed Japanese troops to help the Iraqis rebuild their
country and to provide security so they could rebuild their country.
What's amazing about this is that, like many whose relatives -- like many
here whose relatives fought against the Japanese, my dad did, too. Isn't that
interesting? Eighteen-year-old kid, Navy fighter pilot; country calls him;
like thousands, he goes overseas to fight the sworn enemy -- the Japanese.
And today, this guy's son is sitting down with the Prime Minister of Japan
working to keep the peace. And what happened in between was that a Japanese-
style democracy grew. Democracies yield the peace. And what the youngsters
here have to see that's happening is we're laying that foundation for peace.
Some day when you're old and -- older -- I know you never think it's going to
happen, but it does -- you look back and say, maybe old George W. Bush and the
United States Congress was right in keeping the faith that democracies can
yield the peace we all want. (Applause.)
I got two other things, two other things I want to tell you, then I'll
answer questions. We not only protect ourselves by keeping the pressure on
the enemy and defeating them over there so we don't have to face them here at
home, we've got to protect ourselves by doing smart things in America. I hope
-- I appreciate working with the Mayors on homeland security issues. We're
training a lot of first responders and getting people ready in case something
happens.
Secondly, in order to ask our folks on the front line of protecting
America to do the job, they got to have all the tools. And the Patriot Act
passed right after September the 11th -- had a little problem getting it out
of the United States Senate, got kind of hung up there. My reminder to those
senators is that the bill may -- about ready to lapse, but the threat isn't.
And if people in Washington expect those on the front line of protecting
America to do their job, they got to give them the tools. The Patriot Act
needs to be passed. (Applause.)
Finally, I made a decision that has been in the news lately, and I want to
share with you my thinking, because it's an important decision. September the
11th made it clear to me that an enemy would do anything it could to hurt us.
We're at war. I understand some don't think that, that we're at war. There
are good, decent Americans who believe that. I know that. This is not what I
-- I don't believe it, see. I got a different point of view. I asked our
people on the ground there in Washington, is there anything more we can do to
protect the American people? What can we do? The enemy wants to hit us,
they're planning to hit us. Is there anything we can do so I can go around
the country saying, go about your business, we're taking care of your security
for you. I think most people would ask that question.
And General Mike Hayden of the NSA -- he's a wonderful person -- said he
thought there was something more we could do. And he showed me the plans for
this country to pick up a conversation -- listen to conversations from people
outside the country, inside the country, who had an affiliation with al Qaeda,
or were al Qaeda. He said, I think we can design a program, Mr. President,
that will enable us to have quick response to be able to detect and deter a
potential attack.
I said, that's interesting, General. I said, that makes a lot of sense to
me. I said, you're not going to listen inside the country. No, this is calls
from outside the country in, or inside out, to people who we know or suspect
are affiliated with al Qaeda. And I remember some of those phone calls coming
out of California prior to the September the 11th attacks by the killers --
just thinking maybe if we'd have listened to those on a quick response basis,
you know, it might have helped prevent the attacks.
My second question was, is it legal? See, I take that oath of office
seriously -- I've taken it twice as your President -- to uphold the laws and
the Constitution. And so we got lawyers all over Washington, as I'm sure you
can imagine. (Laughter.) I'm not one. I said, is it legal? I'm asking this
to the Attorney General of the United States, the Legal Counsel in the White
House; NSA has got lawyers. I mean, a lot of lawyers looked at this, and they
said, you bet, Mr. President, it's legal. And they gave me the legal
ramifications. You'll see this all -- this is part of the debate.
Thirdly, I knew I needed to tell members of Congress. See, they like to
be a part of the process. They're a co-equal branch of government. And I
recognize that, and I honor that. And so we briefed members of the United
States Congress on the full program so that they would know -- appropriate
members of Congress -- leaders, Republicans, and Democrats, leaders of the
Intelligence Committee whose job it is to provide oversight on intelligence
operations. They were abreast. Like my old buddy called me, he said, you
know something? If you're trying to pull one over on them, if you're trying
to have an illegal program, why are you briefing the Congress? I said,
because I want people to know.
Unfortunately, we're having this discussion. It's too bad, because guess
who listens to the discussion: The enemy. If you don't think we're at war it
doesn't matter then, does it? I know we're at war. And the enemy is
adjusting. But I'm going to tell you something. I'm doing the right thing.
Washington is a town that says, you didn't connect the dots, and then when you
do connect the dots, they say you're wrong. In order to protect America, if
somebody is talking to al Qaeda, we want to know who they are and why they're
talking to them. (Applause.)
Okay. That's what's on my mind. Now, what's on yours? Yes, sir. Go
ahead and yell it.
Q Mr. President, I just wanted to take an opportunity to tell you I think
our country is blessed to have you as our President.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. (Applause.)
Q We are very thankful that you don't make your decisions based on the
polls, like previous Presidents have.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I appreciate that. (Applause.)
Q And my comment is, is that I'm a homebuilder. I'm very happy right
now.
THE PRESIDENT: You've got to be. (Laughter.)
Q But I wanted to just keep you apprised that things are good now, the
economy is good, interest rates are low. There are people that still can't
afford homes in our country today. Affordable housing is very important. We,
as homebuilders -- I served on the Board of Directors of the National
Association of Homebuilders.
THE PRESIDENT: Good.
Q We'll be up in Washington in about a month or so to see you guys.
But we're concerned with the environment just as much as anyone else is, and -
- but there's got to be a balance to make sure that we can develop land and
provide homes -- affordable homes. And also Congress is working on some
things now that has an effect on financing and interest rates for people
buying their first homes. And let's make sure that we have affordable homes
for people.
My daughter is a school teacher here in Tampa, and it's important to
people like her, people that protect us -- the fire department, the sheriffs,
they need homes. The times are good now, and I was a builder when your
friend, Jimmy Carter, was President, and interest rates weren't so good back
then, and those were tough times. And I just want to tell you that I'm
blessed to be here today with you in this room, and we all love you.
(Applause.)
THE PRESIDENT: Well, thanks. Let me talk about that. Thank you. You'll
be happy to hear, I don't set interest rates. (Laughter.) That's set by an
independent body. And I just named a new Chairman of the Fed to do that.
(Applause.) He's a good fellow. And so if I were you, I'd be worried about
interest rates -- because when the interest rates go up, it makes it harder
for your school teacher.
Well, there's help, to help certain folks who qualify with their down
payments. We want people owning their own home. See, that's -- we want this
to be an ownership society. We want people owning their own business, we want
people owning their own home, we want people owning their own health account
they can take with them from job to job like health savings accounts. And
home ownership is high right now. More minorities own a home than ever before
in our nation's history, which is a fantastic statistic.
But interest rates matter, as does good tax policy. Maybe you're hinting
at whether or not the mortgage deduction would be part of a plan. I don't
think you have to worry about the mortgage deduction not being a part of the
income tax law. But thank you for bringing that up.
Yes, sir. Go ahead and yell it.
Q Mr. President, you mentioned a trip next week to visit the sources of
renewable additional technology to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. We
have a not-so-renewable resource, which is our precious Florida coastline.
And because of your great brother, we do have an unemployment rate of 3.3
percent. How can you work with us to protect our Florida shoreline with
respect to offshore drilling?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I made a commitment that nothing is going to happen
within a hundred miles of this coastline, and I'm honoring the commitment. I
don't care what people might be saying -- I guess maybe they quit saying it
after the '04 campaign -- but it's a commitment that this government has -- at
least my government has made, and I'm going to honor it. When we say a
hundred miles off the coastline, we don't mean 99 miles or 89 miles, we mean a
hundred miles. So rest easy.
Now, the thing about -- look, we've got to get off of hydrocarbons. We
just do. And I'm a believer in nuclear power. (Applause.) I think it's a --
maybe some day, and I think we'll -- I'll figure out -- I'll find out how
close we are when I visit with some of these solar technology people, but it's
very likely that you'll become a little power generator in your own home, and
that the excess power that you do not use you feed back in the grid. Hybrid
batteries -- batteries for plug-in hybrid automobiles are pretty close, they
tell me. And I'm going to see firsthand -- sometimes the President gets the
cook's tour, I know it -- (laughter) -- but nevertheless, I'm going to see
firsthand.
Now, what's interesting is, is that a lot of people in urban areas are not
going to drive more than 30 miles a day. And so we're developing automobile
engines that can run on electricity for 30 miles, and then if you go more,
your gasoline kicks in. But it requires a battery that has got good storage
capacity and is easy to recharge. It's coming.
And so there's a lot of technologies that are coming on the market, and
we're spending money. And it's a good use of taxpayers' money, it seems like
to me, in order to achieve some big objectives.
I'm going to India on March the 1st, around that period of time, and I
believe that it's good policy for the United States to encourage these
emerging economies to use clean energy, nuclear power, so as to help reduce
demand for kind of non-renewables. And so I'm going to talk to them about
development of a civilian nuclear power industry. They're telling me China
has got about 34 plants on the market, which is good. But this expansion of
nuclear power -- which is in our interests, by the way; it's in our interests
because of the quality of the air, it's in our interests because it takes --
reduces demand, global demand -- is going to create another issue, and that
is, what are we going to do with the spent fuel? This country doesn't
reprocess spent fuel; we should. Reprocessing spent fuel means that we're
able to continue to reuse the base material that went through the burn the
first time in a plant, and reduce the amount that we have to then eventually
store. And we chose not to do that in the late '70s because of proliferation
concerns. I'm convinced we can work internationally to address those issues.
And so I'm just sharing with you -- we got a full strategy to help us make
us less dependent on energy -- on foreign sources of energy.
Yes, sir.
Q I'm from Winter Garden in the central part of the state.
THE PRESIDENT: Oh, yes, I know where you are.
Q Pressed into service by your brother, Honorable Jeb Bush.
THE PRESIDENT: Is that good or bad? If it's bad, take it up with him.
(Laughter.)
Q I thought about calling him to ask him if he'd like to have the job
back.
THE PRESIDENT: That's right. (Laughter.)
Q The concerns from the central part of the state is, we've got a
really unprecedented growth rate there in the middle part. The challenge is
for mass transportation to free us from the oil that you talk about.
Unfortunately, the proportionate share of funding that we're able to secure
seems to be tied into pork barrel like light rail, which -- Congressman Mica
needs to buy into the fact that it's not realistic. So how do we get free
from that so we can get direct funding for mass transit?
THE PRESIDENT: Yes. That will be something that you'll be able to effect
five years from now, because I signed the highway bill, and it's done. And
nobody wants to deal with it again until it expires, to be frank with you.
But I understand -- but what he's saying is, how come you just don't let
Floridians decide how to spend the money that's supposed to go back to them?
Why do you earmark parts of the bill? That's what you're saying. And I do
think Congress needs to work on earmark reform. I'm just not one of these
guys -- if there's no hope, I got to let you know, brother. There ain't no
hope. (Laughter and applause.) They're not going to -- they're not going to
revisit the highway bill. They're just not going to revisit the highway bill
until the highway bill expires. And then perhaps you can get the kind of --
they can get the kind of reforms. As you know, I ain't going to be around.
(Laughter.)
Yes, sir. I've heard from Jeb on this issue, by the way.
Q Mr. President, welcome back to Tampa.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you.
Q And my question is, you've talked a lot about our addiction to oil
today. You've also talked about advanced alternative fuel sources, in
particular for household vehicles as a potential mitigant to that dilemma.
But we have a very robust industrialized economy -- air, rail, shipping,
trucking -- that has depended on oil, frankly, for generations to be
successful and vibrant. So my question is, how do we maintain the most
advanced industrialized economy on Earth, and actually reduce our dependency
on oil going forward?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I believe -- first of all, natural gas has driven a
lot of our industrialized growth, as you know. And we are -- we need to have
-- import liquified natural gas if we're going to be modern and stay
competitive.
Listen, we're going to need oil. The question is, are we able to reduce
dependency from certain parts of the world. And I think that by relieving
pressure on how we drive our cars, we'll, in fact, help segments of our
economy that are going to take a while to diversify away from hydrocarbons, I
guess is the best kind of macro look.
Things don't happen instantly; I understand that. But, nevertheless,
there are some practical ways that we can reduce our dependency, and it seems
like to me the most practical way is to change automobiles, change how we
drive. In the short-term, ethanol and hybrid batteries makes the most sense
to me. It's the most practical way, and most economic way, to begin the
reduction of dependency.
Now, listen, we've got a large fleet -- I told you, there's four-and-a-
half flex-fuel cars [sic]. That's good, except there's about 200 million
cars. And it takes a while for fleets to renew. And so things don't happen
instantly, but they will happen quicker as we continue to press for innovation
and technology.
Ultimately, I believe that we're going to be using hydrogen to power our
automobiles. But that's 15 years down the -- for the technology to be
applicable is 15 years down the road. And I guess what I'm not only -- I
guess I am, what I'm telling you is that we see technological breakthroughs
pretty darn quick when it comes to ethanol and hybrid batteries, which is a
positive development for the people. And the interesting thing about ethanol
is that the barriers to entry are pretty low, when it comes to manufacturing -
- if the technology says that we can -- yields the capacity to convert
switchgrasses and refuses to ethanol, once that technological breakthrough
comes, the barriers to entry are pretty low when it comes to building the
manufacturing capacity that converts raw material to ethanol. Much different
from a big cracker refinery. And so that's positive. So we've got the car
technology, hopefully have the breakthrough technology on fuel, and then the
infrastructure will follow.
And so what I'm saying is, this is the most practical way to become less
dependent on oil. And the economy will continue to function. But things are
happening, by the way, in diesel. I don't know -- if any of you know
something about trucking, you know that diesel, clean diesel engines are
coming. We did a deal in my administration to work with diesel engine
manufacturers to come up with a very low-emission engine that is now being
applied in trucks, and it's going to make a difference -- on Caterpillar
tractors. We're getting there, we're getting there.
Thanks for the question. Yes, sir.
Q -- it seems to me that we are facing in this country -- I've had the
opportunity to interface with people of Muslim countries, and the war is bad
enough, and I applaud what you're doing, because freedom is important, but
what concerns me is if the youth in these nations are being taught that you
and I and us Americans are, in fact, the devil incarnate, or Satan, himself --
I guess my question is, what can we do about that, to win over the people, the
children, the youth, so that the next generation will not be facing the same
dilemma? I think this is an incredible problem.
THE PRESIDENT: I appreciate that. First is to support and work with
moderate governments, and there are a lot. The largest Muslim nation is
Indonesia. And we're working closely with the President there to help promote
a better understanding of different religions. I will be seeing President
Musharraf, who I like and he's a good fellow, who understands that moderation
is an important part of a hopeful future. And so we'll support governments
that practice moderation.
Secondly, provide assistance when assistance is needed. In my State of
the Union, I said, we've got to reject isolationism. Isolationism is the
tendency for a nation to withdraw and not feel an obligation to be involved in
the world. And we cannot defend ourselves if we're isolationist. I just made
the case. But I also believe, and part of my philosophy in the decision-
making is, to whom much has been given, much is required. And, therefore,
when we see suffering in places like Pakistan, or because of the tsunami, the
United States of America is leading the way in.
And it helps. It helped a lot in Pakistan, for example, to see those
choppers flying relief supplies up for poor folks who had been -- whose lives
had been just devastated. I can't remember the exact numbers, but President
Musharraf told me, we're talking hundreds of thousands of people either dead,
injured or displaced. And there was the United States of America military
flying in supplies. I believe, John Abizaid -- General Abizaid told me today
that we turned over our MASH unit to the Pakistani government to help so they
could continue to provide aid and comfort.
And so there are practical ways. One is to support moderation, and two,
help where help is needed. Our HIV/AIDS initiative, by the way, is a
fantastic initiative. It is -- I can't tell you how proud I am of the
American people for supporting this. It is necessary for the United States of
America to be taking the lead on this issue to save lives. If we say human
dignity matters and every life is precious, that that's part of a credo as a
country, which it is -- that's what we say. We say, people matter, every
human life is precious. Then those human lives apply not just here at home,
but on the continent of Africa, or in Muslim countries. And there's a lot of
Muslims in Africa who've seen the great compassion of the United States of
America when it comes to helping to battle HIV/AIDS. There's a pandemic
taking place. And you ought to be proud of this country, like I am, that
we're filling that void of compassion and need and hope. (Applause.)
Yes. Right here. Yes. You're next. Yes. Yes, ma'am.
Q I know that you and First Lady Bush have talked much about our
hurting generation of teens and our unproductive teens in our communities.
Just wanted you to talk a little bit about the efforts being made with the
work that you're doing in initiatives --
THE PRESIDENT: Thanks.
Q -- that will help that.
THE PRESIDENT: I appreciate that. First, there's positive news. Teen
pregnancies are down, teen drug use is down, and that's positive. That's
good. (Applause.) Because of people at the grassroots level -- people at the
grassroots level. I think one of the most important initiatives of this
administration is to -- is the faith-based and community initiatives, which
recognizes what de Tocqueville saw in the 1830s. He's a French guy who came
over here. (Laughter.) In case you don't remember. And he recognized that
the great strength of America was the capacity for individualists -- or the
willingness of individualists to work together in what he called voluntary
associations to make the community in which they live a better place. And he
saw that in the 1930s.
It's a -- what he saw is still the strength of our country, if you really
think about it. You know, government can hand out money, but government
cannot put a hope in a person's heart. A lot of people miss one of the basics
ingredients of life, and that is love. And love happens when somebody puts an
arm around a person and says, what can I do to help you, brother or sister.
And so part of our initiative in dealing with loneliness, discouragement,
lack of self-esteem, is to encourage faith-based programs -- which all exist
because they hear a universal call to love a neighbor, by the way -- to have
access to federal money, in other words, level the playing field for grant
money so that these programs -- which have been set up to love somebody and
provide love -- have got equal access to federal money. It's a really
important initiative.
There are targeted monies, of course. There's monies aimed at the
different community groups dealing with drug use. But I think the most
important initiative of all is to empower groups that really do provide
mentoring and care and decency on an individual basis for somebody who needs
it. And it's happening. It's happening in America. (Applause.)
Yes.
Q Mr. President, it's an honor to be here with you today, and I thank
you so much for the time that you take to share with us. I'm a 40-year-old
father of a three-year-old.
THE PRESIDENT: There you go.
Q And I'm also an adopted child. And it seems that, anymore, through
the results of legislation from the bench, that maybe the unsafest place for a
child in this country is in his or her mother's womb. And my question for you
is -- and I commend you for your Supreme Court picks. I thank you for your
bold stance in who you picked -- (applause) -- my question is, with my son,
this is the future of America. And my question is, where do you believe we're
headed? Long after your term of serving us has ended, long after we've had
other Presidents serve this country, where do you think we're headed in the
areas of abortion, the areas of traditional marriage, in the areas of faith
and the foundations that this country was founded upon that are so under
attack anymore? Where do you believe we're going?
THE PRESIDENT: I'm an optimist. I believe we're headed toward a period
of personal responsibility, where people understand that they're responsible
for the decisions they make in life.
I just gave you some statistics. Abortions are down in America, as well,
by the way. People are -- one of my jobs is to promote a culture of life.
And I just told you every life is precious, and I meant it, whether it be here
at home, or on the continent of Africa where somebody's suffering from
HIV/AIDS. And so I'm an optimist. I think people are -- I think people are
beginning to understand that there is virtue in being personally responsible
for the decisions you make in life.
And that -- there's a -- and cultures change and it takes a while for
cultures to change. All of us -- I'm not going to peg anybody a certain age
around here, but those of us born, like, around '46, '47, '48, we've seen a
culture change in our lifetime, if you really think about it. The culture
changed. And it can change again. And I think these statistics that show
that some problems that seemed incurable at one point in our history indicate
that there is a cultural shift. A lot of it has to do with people being
responsible. Some of it has to do with there's a religious awakening around
many communities in the country -- not just Christian religion, but Jewish
religion, Muslim religion. People are becoming religious in America. And
that, in itself, helps people realize that you've got to be conscious of the
decisions you make and mindful of the needs of others.
And -- but we still got challenges. One of the things that obviously
undermines good teaching at home is TV and some of the movies. But I remind
people, they put "off" and "on" knobs on T
-
On 2006-02-18 21:21:00, Anonymous wrote:
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On 2006-02-18 20:43:00, Anonymous wrote:
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On 2006-02-18 20:42:00, Anonymous wrote:
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On 2006-02-18 07:34:00, Anonymous wrote:
" WASHINGTON, Feb. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- The following is a transcript of
remarks by President Bush on the global war on terror:
Port of Tampa
Tampa, Florida
1:26 P.M. EST
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all. Please be seated. Thanks for the warm
welcome. Thanks for the warm weather. (Laughter.) It's nice to be back
here. I just came from MacDill, where I was talking to General Abizaid and
General Brown, and one of the things that's clear is folks there at MacDill
really do appreciate the support that the citizens of the communities of Tampa
and St. Pete and the surrounding area provide them. So I want to thank you
all very much for being -- (applause.)
I'd like to share some thoughts with you, and then answer questions as
time allows, if you've got any. First, I send Laura's greetings. She's doing
great, by the way. She's a fantastic First Lady and -- (applause.) She's
obviously got to be a woman of enormous patience. (Laughter.)
I appreciate Congressman Adam Putnam, Bill Young, Mike Bilirakis, and
Katherine Harris for being here today. (Applause.) Oh, there they are.
Proud to give them a ride on Air Force One. (Laughter.) Some of them aren't
going back, by the way. (Laughter.) Mark Kennedy -- is Mark here with us,
from Minnesota? I think he was going to drop by -- he supposedly was going to
be here. You don't know him because he's from Minnesota, but I do and he's a
fine guy. (Laughter.)
I want to thank my buddy, Mel Sembler, Ambassador Sembler, who represented
our country so well, once in Australia under 41, and then Italy under 43.
(Applause.) And Betty. I want to thank the Chambers of both Tampa and St.
Pete. I want to thank the Mayors from Tampa and St. Pete -- Mayor Iorio and
Mayor Baker are with us. Thank you both for coming. Appreciate you being
here. (Applause.)
I didn't mean to take you away from your work. Any excuse is a good one
on Friday, right? (Laughter.) So long as I keep the speech short. I want to
thank members of the Statehouse who are here. I want to thank you all for
letting us use this beautiful facility. And thank you for coming.
First of all, the economy is in good shape. It's growing. (Applause.) I
guess that's an easy thing to say in the state of Florida, when the
unemployment rate is 3.3 percent. Pretty amazing, isn't it? (Applause.) I'm
sure the Governor is going to try to take credit for it, you know.
(Laughter.) I'm not going to because the role of government is to create an
environment where the entrepreneurs can flourish and small businesses can
grow.
And the fundamental question facing this country of ours is, how do we
keep ourselves to be the economic leader of the world. It's really an
interesting question. You know, in spite of the good economic numbers -- 4.7
percent unemployment around the country, our economy growing at over 3
percent, in the face of hurricanes, as well as high gas prices, home ownership
is an all-time high, small businesses are growing -- in spite of all that,
there's a certain sense of uncertainty. People are worried. They're worried
because they're changing jobs a lot; they're worried because of the
competition from India and China. There's a certain sense of uncertainty.
And so we have a choice to make about our economy: Do we retreat in the
face of uncertainty, or do we lead? And I -- I will be working with the
Congress, members from both political parties, to be the leader of the world.
And here's some ideas. One, keep taxes low. We can't be the economic leader
of the world if we run up your taxes. And so we're going to keep them low.
(Applause.)
And you'll hear a debate in Washington, D.C. that says, well, we've got to
run up your taxes to balance the budget. That's not the way it works in
Washington. They will run up your taxes and they'll figure out new ways to
spend money. The best way to balance the budget is to keep the taxes low and
be wise about how we spend your money. That's how we're going to balance the
budget. (Applause.)
In order for us to be competitive and lead in the world, we've got to get
-- we've got to get off of Middle Eastern oil. I know it shocks some of you
to hear a Texan say, we're addicted to oil. And we are, and it's a problem.
It's a problem. It's a national security problem, and it's an economic
security problem to be reliant upon oil from parts of the world that may be
unstable, or parts of the world that simply don't like us. And so the best
way to deal with that is to continue to foster new technologies because of
research and development that will enable us to use different fuels in our
cars, for example.
There's Kennedy right there. Good to see you, Kennedy. The reason I
thought of him is because he's from a part of the world that's growing a lot
of crops that can be converted into energy. We're close. We're close to
technological breakthroughs that will enable us to convert wood chips and
sawgrass -- we already convert sugar, corn and soy -- into fuel. And think
about that. If this technology comes true, which we believe it will, then
pretty soon a President is going to say, we're growing a lot of crops and
we're less dependent on Middle Eastern oil. There are 4.5 million cars today
that are flex-fuel cars that can either run on gasoline or ethanol. In other
words, the technology is available inside the automobile. And it's coming.
And we're making some great breakthroughs on battery technology. Next
week I'm going to travel around the country going to some of the most
innovative places around our country that are providing new technologies to
enable us to become less dependent on oil, which will keep us a leader in the
world.
Another thing we need to do is to make sure that our health care system is
modern. I want to talk real quick about Medicare here. First of all, I'm
aware there's a lot of seniors in this state that rely upon Medicare. The
federal government made a commitment to the seniors around the United States,
starting with Lyndon Baines Johnson, that we would provide good health care to
the seniors. And when I got to Washington, I found that we were not providing
modern medicine. I mean, we would provide the money for ulcer surgery in the
old Medicare, but not the prescription drugs necessary to prevent the ulcer
from happening in the first place. And that didn't seem to make sense to me.
It's an old, centralized system that was not modern and was not fulfilling
the promise we made.
And so I worked with Congress -- Republicans and Democrats -- to get a
new bill out of Congress that said we're going to provide a prescription drug
benefit, and as we do, we're going to give seniors more choices and more
options from which to choose.
About 25 million seniors have signed up for this new plan since January
1st. That's a lot of folks in a quick period of time. And needless to say,
when you make that kind of transition to a modern system, there's going to be
some glitches. And our job is to fix those glitches. And that's what the
Department of Health and Human Services under Mike Leavitt is doing. And it's
important for our seniors to take advantage of this new program. Call 1-800-
Medicare. Or if you've got a mom or a dad who's eligible for Medicare, sit
down with them and explain the new benefit. It is a really good deal for
America's seniors.
To make sure that health care works, we'll continue to take care of the
poor. In other words, the government has made a commitment to the elderly and
the poor, but the government has also got to understand, the best medicine is
private medicine. (Applause.) And we should not get in between the doctors
and the patients in America.
Finally, I want to spend a little time on education, briefly. First of
all, No Child Left Behind Act is working. It's a piece of legislation that
says we're going to raise the standards for every child, and we're going to
measure to make sure children are meeting those standards. Can you imagine --
you might remember the old -- well, I'll tell you. When I was governor of
Texas, we had a system that didn't measure right early on, and guess what
happened? We just shuffled kids through the system who couldn't read, and we
found out too late. And that is a terrible system. It lets people down. And
we're spending a lot of your money. It seems like to me, it makes sense to
say, when we spend your money we ought to insist upon results. Results are
good for the taxpayers; more importantly, they're good for the students. So
now we measure early, before it's too late, and we're correcting problems
before they're too late. And our kids are learning to read.
And we need to apply that same rigor to children in math and science,
particularly in junior high. Fourth grade tests, our kids are doing fine
compared to other countries. But there's a big drop-off when it comes to math
and -- mathematics, particularly in junior high. And so we need to apply that
same standard. We'll measure in junior high, and if you need help, we'll
provide it for you. And the reason why is the jobs of the 21st century are
going to require mastery in math and science and engineering. (Applause.)
And if we don't make -- and if we don't educate our kids, the jobs are going
to go elsewhere, whether we like it or not. So to make sure America remains
the leader in the world, we're going to stay on the leading edge of research
and development, and educate the young scientists of tomorrow today.
And so, look, my attitude about the future is this, when it comes to the
economy, and when it comes to foreign policy: We shouldn't fear it. Let's
shape the future. Let's be the leader tomorrow that we are today.
Now, we're living in historic times when you think about this world we're
in. It is a time of challenge, and it's a time of opportunity. We've got the
challenge to protect the American people. My most important duty is to
protect you from harm. And we have an opportunity to lay the foundation of
peace for generations to come.
I make a lot of decisions. My buddies in Texas, when they show up to
Washington, after they get over the initial surprise that I'm still there --
(laughter) -- or got there in the first place -- (laughter) -- say, like,
what's it like, you know? What is the job description? What's it like to be
President? And the best way to answer it is, I make a lot of decisions. And
part of the reasons -- my thinking was shaped on September the 11th, let me
put it to you that way. And I think it's important for you to understand how
the President thinks and why I make decisions I make, particularly decisions
relating to war and peace.
I knew we're at war when they attacked us. As a matter of fact, I was
down here in Florida. It didn't take long to figure out what was going on.
And I vowed that day that I would not rest, so long as I was the President, in
protecting the people. So a lot of my decision-making is based upon the
attack. And I know we're at war, see -- I knew it then, and the enemy has,
unfortunately, proved me right because they continue to attack. In order to
win the war against the enemy you got to understand the nature of the enemy.
First of all, these people are cold-blooded killers, people who will kill
the innocent in order to achieve a tactical objective and a strategic
objective. They have no conscience. You can't negotiate with these people.
You cannot reason with them. You must bring them to justice.
Secondly, they have an ideology, they believe in something. The best way
to describe what they believe in is to think about what life was like in
Afghanistan under the Taliban. These were people that saw to it that young
girls didn't get educated. If you didn't agree with their view of religion
you were whipped in the public square. They tolerated no dissent, no
different point of view, and they were tearing down the -- destroying the
culture from the past. They had no sense of history other than their dim view
of history. That's what they think.
And they have made it clear their objectives. You probably have read some
of Zawahiri's writings, admonitions to his fellow fighters. They've made it
clear that they believe the United States is soft and weak, and that they can
shake our will. They've made it clear that it's just a matter of time before
we vacate parts of the world which they can then occupy in order to be able to
plan, plot attacks against the United States of America. They have made it
clear they're interested in weapons of mass destruction. In other words,
they've laid out a strategy, you know, for the world to see.
And my job is to take that strategy seriously. My job is to see the world
the way it is, not the way some would hope it would be. If 9/11 affected our
thinking, then we've got to make sure when the enemy speaks, we take every
single sentence that they say seriously, and deal with it. And that's what
we're doing.
So I want to share some of the strategy in winning this war on terror.
Make no mistake about it, we're going to win the war on terror. We'll protect
the American people. (Applause.)
First, when we see threats, we've got to deal with them. When I was
growing up in West Texas, oceans protected us. You might remember some of
those days. Old Mayor Martinez, I know he remembers those days when we felt
pretty comfortable here in America. We could see a threat overseas, but
oceans made it pretty clear that -- to a lot of folks -- that nothing would
happen, you know. September 11th came along and made it clear that we are
vulnerable, that the enemy can hit us if they -- if they want to.
And therefore, when you see a threat, you've got to deal with it. You
can't take things for granted anymore. The best way to deal with this enemy
is to defeat them overseas so we don't have to face them here at home, and to
stay on the hunt. (Applause.) And that's what we're doing.
And we've got a coalition of countries. I spent a lot of time reminding
people about the nature of the war. Listen, the tendency for folks is to say,
well, this really isn't a war. I can understand that. Who wants to walk
around thinking there's a war about to hit us. I mean, that's -- that's my
job to worry about it, not yours. How can you have an economy recover from a
recession if people are afraid to risk capital because they're worried about
thinking something is going to happen? And the same thing happens overseas.
People kind of want to slip to the comfortable. They don't believe it's a
war, some of them, and I understand that. And so we spend a lot of time
reminding people that we've got to work together because the enemy can't stand
what we stand for, and that's freedom. They just hate freedom. And so we've
got a good coalition, and -- and we're on the hunt. We're keeping the
pressure on them. It's hard to plot and plan and execute attacks when you're
on the run.
And so the first step of our strategy is defeat them there so we don't to
have to face them here. And we've got some great special forces -- I met the
special forces command guy here -- and there's great intelligence officers and
wonderful coalition folks. We're cutting off their money. It makes it kind
of hard to operate when you can't get your bank accounts full of money in
order to -- we're just doing a lot of stuff. And it's important for citizens
to know that there's a constant, constant pressure. I think about it every
day.
And we're making progress -- Khalid Shaykh Muhammad, September the 11th
plotter-planner, is incarcerated; his successor brought to justice. Slowly
but surely, we're finding them where they hide, and they know we're on their
trail.
Secondly, we got to deny them safe haven. These people can't operate
without safe haven. It's an interesting war we're in. It's totally different
from what we're used to because we're not -- we're not facing nation-states;
we're dealing with an enemy that is international in nature, that hides in
states.
When the President says something like, if you harbor a terrorist, you're
equally as guilty as the terrorist, those words mean nothing unless you act
upon them. And I said that to the people of Afghanistan-- the Taliban. They
didn't listen. And so we acted. And removing the Taliban -- (applause) -- is
a clear signal that we won't tolerate safe haven. In other words, if you
harbor the terrorist, you're just as guilty as the murderers. And that's a
clear signal that the United States must continue to send in order to win the
war on terror.
We saw a threat in Saddam Hussein. Obviously, this issue is one that has
caused a lot of people to wonder about certain aspects, caused me to wonder
about the capacity of our intelligence services to provide good intelligence.
And that's why we're constantly working to reform the intelligence services,
to make sure we get the best intelligence, because I thought there would be
weapons of mass destruction -- and so did everybody else in the world; and so
did people in the United States Congress from both political parties --
thought that there would be weapons of mass destruction.
The United Nations and the United Nations Security Council thought there
would be weapons of mass destruction. After all, they passed a unanimous
resolution that said, disclose, disarm, or face serious consequences. In
other words, we worked the diplomatic front.
And so when Saddam Hussein chose war -- and believe me, he made the choice
-- the hardest thing for the President of the United States to do is commit
troops into combat. It's the last option, the very last option. Except
September the 11th taught me, and September the 11th taught me, that we got to
take threats seriously. And the world saw a threat. This man was harboring
terrorists. He was on a state sponsor of terrorists list. I didn't put him
on there, he was put on there by previous Presidents. He was firing at our
pilots. He had invaded countries. He was a threat. And the world spoke with
one voice, and said, disclose, disarm, or face serious consequences. And when
the United States says something, it must mean it. And we said, disclose or
face serious consequences. And when he wouldn't, he faced serious
consequences. Removing Saddam Hussein has made America safer and the world a
better place. (Applause.)
And we have a plan to achieve victory. Victory is a state -- a democracy
that can sustain itself and defend itself and join America in fighting the war
on terror. That's the goal of victory. That's the definition of victory.
First part of our strategy is a political strategy. I try to tell people
how I make decisions, and part of making good decisions is you've got to
believe something. You have a belief system that, by the way, can't alter
because of politics, or polls, or focus groups, or what somebody wants you to
think. And I believe that freedom is universal. I believe that deep in
everybody's soul is the desire to be free. That's what I believe. I don't
believe freedom or liberty is confined here to Methodists from Texas. I
believe everybody wants to be free -- white, black, brown, Muslim, Jew,
Christian, agnostic. I believe there is a deep desire for people to be free.
And if you believe that, then you have faith in people demanding freedom,
if given a chance. And the Iraqis proved that theory right. Eleven million
people went to the polls in the face of unbelievable terror, terrorist
threats, and said, I want to be free; let me vote; let me decide my future.
And so on the political front, they're making progress because of the courage
of the Iraqis.
And now the task at hand is to work with those who won votes in the new
parliament to set up a unity government; one that is -- can help deal with
the grievances of the past; one that unites under the fabric of democracy.
And that's what we're doing. I talked to the Ambassador, Zal Khalilzad, there
yesterday. He's spent a lot of time working with making our position known
that we want the government to be a unified government.
Secondly, we're helping the country rebuild itself after years of neglect,
so that people can see the benefits of democracy. And we started off
initially with kind of these grand projects. We got the Congress to
appropriate money, and we tried to build some great electricity-type
renovations, and the enemy kept blowing them up. And so we've altered our
strategy. One of the things that you've got to do in a situation like this is
constantly adjust. You can't just get stuck in one kind of response mode.
You've got to think and watch the enemy and adjust to the enemy in order to
achieve an objective. And we're doing that. And so now we've got much
smaller-scale projects that are yielding instant results for the people on the
ground, so people say, wait a minute, this democracy deal is a pretty good
thing, you know.
Businesses are flourishing in Iraq. Freedom is coming, freedom is
coming. There's a determined enemy trying to stop it, of course. They can't
stand freedom. I told you, they think the exact opposite we do. They don't
believe that everybody desires to be free. They want everybody to live under
their totalitarian thumb. That's what they want. Not America and our
coalition. We want governments to be responsible and responsive to the
people. That's what we believe in.
Thirdly, in order to achieve our objective, the Iraqis are going to have
to fight the enemy. They've proven their worth, in terms of defying the
terrorists when it comes to making the vote, and they're proving their desire
to defend themselves against the enemy, too. You know how I know? I'm
listening to the people on the ground. I talk to our commanders a lot.
They're the ones who are giving me the appraisal about how well these Iraqis
are being trained.
An interesting measurement, right off the bat, however, was how the Iraqis
responded to these attacks on the police stations and the recruiting
stations. You remember they had a series of attacks on the recruiting
stations? Guess what my question was to them out there -- are there still
people lining up to join up? If you're getting blown up standing in line, are
they still coming? And the answer was, absolutely. And we're training them,
and there's a command structure -- command and control structure getting in
place. And this military is getting better and better. We're turning over a
lot of territory to the Iraqis. They now have two divisions, which is a lot
of folks, that are capable of taking the fight nearly on their own. The
training mission is working.
So on the security side, we're on the hunt. We're after Zarqawi. See, he
wants us to leave. He believes we'll lose our nerve so he can establish a
safe haven in Iraq. And we're not going to let him do it. And so we've got
great special operators and U.S. forces and coalition forces on the hunt. And
at the same time, we're training the Iraqis.
There's a big debate in Washington about who gets to decide the troop
levels. Well, those troop levels will be decided by this administration. And
this administration is going to listen not to politicians, but to the
commanders on the ground, about what we need on the ground in order to win
this deal. (Applause.)
After I leave here, I'm going to go visit with a family of one of the
fallen troops. I have to be able to look that person in the eye, and say, the
cause is just. I believe it is just and necessary. And I have to look that
person in the eye and say that the sacrifice of your loved one will not go in
vain, that we will complete the mission. And that's what I want to assure my
fellow citizens. No matter what it looks like in Washington, D.C., I'm
committed to victory in Iraq so to achieve peace.
And so in the short-term, we're going to succeed in Iraq. We'll deny them
safe haven. We'll stay on the hunt. But there has to be a long-term
strategy, as well, to win. And that long-term strategy is to liberate people
and give them the chance to live under the greatest system of government ever,
and that's democracy -- because democracies respond to people.
You know, our foreign policy in the broader Middle East for a long period
of time was just kind of tolerate the status quo and hope for the best. It
didn't work. The surface looked placid, but beneath the surface was brewing
resentment and anger and fertile recruiting opportunities for those who have
got a dark vision of the future. And so we're working to help the Iraqis
develop a democracy.
Elections are only the beginning of democracy, not the end. Election is
the beginning of a process to -- where government listens to the people. In
order to make sure democracy works, there has to be institution-building, and
support for young, fledgling democracies. And that's what you're seeing.
This is an historic moment. The world is changing because freedom is on the
march. And we shouldn't be discouraged about setbacks -- short-term setbacks,
or the enemy's capacity to take innocent life, because we've seen democracy
change the world in the past.
I think about all the wars fought in Europe over the past 100 years. A
hundred years seems like a long time, probably, for the little guy there. Me,
too. It seems like a long -- I'm only 59 years old. But Americans shed a lot
of blood in Europe-- World War I and World War II. And yet, the continent is
-- Europe is peaceful. You know why? Because there's democracies living
side-by-side in peace. Democracies don't fight each other. Generally, people
in a democracy don't campaign and say, vote for me, I promise you war. They
say, vote for you -- vote for me, I work for the peace. I want your children
to grow up in a peaceful world. That's what people say to get elected.
Japan-- one of my favorite analogies and stories about this is, my friend,
Koizumi, Prime Minister of Japan. He's an interesting guy. I like him a
lot. We spend time talking about the peace. He understands that democracy in
the heart of the Middle East, democracy in a part of the world that is
desperate for freedom, is an important part of laying the foundation for
peace. And so he committed Japanese troops to help the Iraqis rebuild their
country and to provide security so they could rebuild their country.
What's amazing about this is that, like many whose relatives -- like many
here whose relatives fought against the Japanese, my dad did, too. Isn't that
interesting? Eighteen-year-old kid, Navy fighter pilot; country calls him;
like thousands, he goes overseas to fight the sworn enemy -- the Japanese.
And today, this guy's son is sitting down with the Prime Minister of Japan
working to keep the peace. And what happened in between was that a Japanese-
style democracy grew. Democracies yield the peace. And what the youngsters
here have to see that's happening is we're laying that foundation for peace.
Some day when you're old and -- older -- I know you never think it's going to
happen, but it does -- you look back and say, maybe old George W. Bush and the
United States Congress was right in keeping the faith that democracies can
yield the peace we all want. (Applause.)
I got two other things, two other things I want to tell you, then I'll
answer questions. We not only protect ourselves by keeping the pressure on
the enemy and defeating them over there so we don't have to face them here at
home, we've got to protect ourselves by doing smart things in America. I hope
-- I appreciate working with the Mayors on homeland security issues. We're
training a lot of first responders and getting people ready in case something
happens.
Secondly, in order to ask our folks on the front line of protecting
America to do the job, they got to have all the tools. And the Patriot Act
passed right after September the 11th -- had a little problem getting it out
of the United States Senate, got kind of hung up there. My reminder to those
senators is that the bill may -- about ready to lapse, but the threat isn't.
And if people in Washington expect those on the front line of protecting
America to do their job, they got to give them the tools. The Patriot Act
needs to be passed. (Applause.)
Finally, I made a decision that has been in the news lately, and I want to
share with you my thinking, because it's an important decision. September the
11th made it clear to me that an enemy would do anything it could to hurt us.
We're at war. I understand some don't think that, that we're at war. There
are good, decent Americans who believe that. I know that. This is not what I
-- I don't believe it, see. I got a different point of view. I asked our
people on the ground there in Washington, is there anything more we can do to
protect the American people? What can we do? The enemy wants to hit us,
they're planning to hit us. Is there anything we can do so I can go around
the country saying, go about your business, we're taking care of your security
for you. I think most people would ask that question.
And General Mike Hayden of the NSA -- he's a wonderful person -- said he
thought there was something more we could do. And he showed me the plans for
this country to pick up a conversation -- listen to conversations from people
outside the country, inside the country, who had an affiliation with al Qaeda,
or were al Qaeda. He said, I think we can design a program, Mr. President,
that will enable us to have quick response to be able to detect and deter a
potential attack.
I said, that's interesting, General. I said, that makes a lot of sense to
me. I said, you're not going to listen inside the country. No, this is calls
from outside the country in, or inside out, to people who we know or suspect
are affiliated with al Qaeda. And I remember some of those phone calls coming
out of California prior to the September the 11th attacks by the killers --
just thinking maybe if we'd have listened to those on a quick response basis,
you know, it might have helped prevent the attacks.
My second question was, is it legal? See, I take that oath of office
seriously -- I've taken it twice as your President -- to uphold the laws and
the Constitution. And so we got lawyers all over Washington, as I'm sure you
can imagine. (Laughter.) I'm not one. I said, is it legal? I'm asking this
to the Attorney General of the United States, the Legal Counsel in the White
House; NSA has got lawyers. I mean, a lot of lawyers looked at this, and they
said, you bet, Mr. President, it's legal. And they gave me the legal
ramifications. You'll see this all -- this is part of the debate.
Thirdly, I knew I needed to tell members of Congress. See, they like to
be a part of the process. They're a co-equal branch of government. And I
recognize that, and I honor that. And so we briefed members of the United
States Congress on the full program so that they would know -- appropriate
members of Congress -- leaders, Republicans, and Democrats, leaders of the
Intelligence Committee whose job it is to provide oversight on intelligence
operations. They were abreast. Like my old buddy called me, he said, you
know something? If you're trying to pull one over on them, if you're trying
to have an illegal program, why are you briefing the Congress? I said,
because I want people to know.
Unfortunately, we're having this discussion. It's too bad, because guess
who listens to the discussion: The enemy. If you don't think we're at war it
doesn't matter then, does it? I know we're at war. And the enemy is
adjusting. But I'm going to tell you something. I'm doing the right thing.
Washington is a town that says, you didn't connect the dots, and then when you
do connect the dots, they say you're wrong. In order to protect America, if
somebody is talking to al Qaeda, we want to know who they are and why they're
talking to them. (Applause.)
Okay. That's what's on my mind. Now, what's on yours? Yes, sir. Go
ahead and yell it.
Q Mr. President, I just wanted to take an opportunity to tell you I think
our country is blessed to have you as our President.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. (Applause.)
Q We are very thankful that you don't make your decisions based on the
polls, like previous Presidents have.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I appreciate that. (Applause.)
Q And my comment is, is that I'm a homebuilder. I'm very happy right
now.
THE PRESIDENT: You've got to be. (Laughter.)
Q But I wanted to just keep you apprised that things are good now, the
economy is good, interest rates are low. There are people that still can't
afford homes in our country today. Affordable housing is very important. We,
as homebuilders -- I served on the Board of Directors of the National
Association of Homebuilders.
THE PRESIDENT: Good.
Q We'll be up in Washington in about a month or so to see you guys.
But we're concerned with the environment just as much as anyone else is, and -
- but there's got to be a balance to make sure that we can develop land and
provide homes -- affordable homes. And also Congress is working on some
things now that has an effect on financing and interest rates for people
buying their first homes. And let's make sure that we have affordable homes
for people.
My daughter is a school teacher here in Tampa, and it's important to
people like her, people that protect us -- the fire department, the sheriffs,
they need homes. The times are good now, and I was a builder when your
friend, Jimmy Carter, was President, and interest rates weren't so good back
then, and those were tough times. And I just want to tell you that I'm
blessed to be here today with you in this room, and we all love you.
(Applause.)
THE PRESIDENT: Well, thanks. Let me talk about that. Thank you. You'll
be happy to hear, I don't set interest rates. (Laughter.) That's set by an
independent body. And I just named a new Chairman of the Fed to do that.
(Applause.) He's a good fellow. And so if I were you, I'd be worried about
interest rates -- because when the interest rates go up, it makes it harder
for your school teacher.
Well, there's help, to help certain folks who qualify with their down
payments. We want people owning their own home. See, that's -- we want this
to be an ownership society. We want people owning their own business, we want
people owning their own home, we want people owning their own health account
they can take with them from job to job like health savings accounts. And
home ownership is high right now. More minorities own a home than ever before
in our nation's history, which is a fantastic statistic.
But interest rates matter, as does good tax policy. Maybe you're hinting
at whether or not the mortgage deduction would be part of a plan. I don't
think you have to worry about the mortgage deduction not being a part of the
income tax law. But thank you for bringing that up.
Yes, sir. Go ahead and yell it.
Q Mr. President, you mentioned a trip next week to visit the sources of
renewable additional technology to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. We
have a not-so-renewable resource, which is our precious Florida coastline.
And because of your great brother, we do have an unemployment rate of 3.3
percent. How can you work with us to protect our Florida shoreline with
respect to offshore drilling?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I made a commitment that nothing is going to happen
within a hundred miles of this coastline, and I'm honoring the commitment. I
don't care what people might be saying -- I guess maybe they quit saying it
after the '04 campaign -- but it's a commitment that this government has -- at
least my government has made, and I'm going to honor it. When we say a
hundred miles off the coastline, we don't mean 99 miles or 89 miles, we mean a
hundred miles. So rest easy.
Now, the thing about -- look, we've got to get off of hydrocarbons. We
just do. And I'm a believer in nuclear power. (Applause.) I think it's a --
maybe some day, and I think we'll -- I'll figure out -- I'll find out how
close we are when I visit with some of these solar technology people, but it's
very likely that you'll become a little power generator in your own home, and
that the excess power that you do not use you feed back in the grid. Hybrid
batteries -- batteries for plug-in hybrid automobiles are pretty close, they
tell me. And I'm going to see firsthand -- sometimes the President gets the
cook's tour, I know it -- (laughter) -- but nevertheless, I'm going to see
firsthand.
Now, what's interesting is, is that a lot of people in urban areas are not
going to drive more than 30 miles a day. And so we're developing automobile
engines that can run on electricity for 30 miles, and then if you go more,
your gasoline kicks in. But it requires a battery that has got good storage
capacity and is easy to recharge. It's coming.
And so there's a lot of technologies that are coming on the market, and
we're spending money. And it's a good use of taxpayers' money, it seems like
to me, in order to achieve some big objectives.
I'm going to India on March the 1st, around that period of time, and I
believe that it's good policy for the United States to encourage these
emerging economies to use clean energy, nuclear power, so as to help reduce
demand for kind of non-renewables. And so I'm going to talk to them about
development of a civilian nuclear power industry. They're telling me China
has got about 34 plants on the market, which is good. But this expansion of
nuclear power -- which is in our interests, by the way; it's in our interests
because of the quality of the air, it's in our interests because it takes --
reduces demand, global demand -- is going to create another issue, and that
is, what are we going to do with the spent fuel? This country doesn't
reprocess spent fuel; we should. Reprocessing spent fuel means that we're
able to continue to reuse the base material that went through the burn the
first time in a plant, and reduce the amount that we have to then eventually
store. And we chose not to do that in the late '70s because of proliferation
concerns. I'm convinced we can work internationally to address those issues.
And so I'm just sharing with you -- we got a full strategy to help us make
us less dependent on energy -- on foreign sources of energy.
Yes, sir.
Q I'm from Winter Garden in the central part of the state.
THE PRESIDENT: Oh, yes, I know where you are.
Q Pressed into service by your brother, Honorable Jeb Bush.
THE PRESIDENT: Is that good or bad? If it's bad, take it up with him.
(Laughter.)
Q I thought about calling him to ask him if he'd like to have the job
back.
THE PRESIDENT: That's right. (Laughter.)
Q The concerns from the central part of the state is, we've got a
really unprecedented growth rate there in the middle part. The challenge is
for mass transportation to free us from the oil that you talk about.
Unfortunately, the proportionate share of funding that we're able to secure
seems to be tied into pork barrel like light rail, which -- Congressman Mica
needs to buy into the fact that it's not realistic. So how do we get free
from that so we can get direct funding for mass transit?
THE PRESIDENT: Yes. That will be something that you'll be able to effect
five years from now, because I signed the highway bill, and it's done. And
nobody wants to deal with it again until it expires, to be frank with you.
But I understand -- but what he's saying is, how come you just don't let
Floridians decide how to spend the money that's supposed to go back to them?
Why do you earmark parts of the bill? That's what you're saying. And I do
think Congress needs to work on earmark reform. I'm just not one of these
guys -- if there's no hope, I got to let you know, brother. There ain't no
hope. (Laughter and applause.) They're not going to -- they're not going to
revisit the highway bill. They're just not going to revisit the highway bill
until the highway bill expires. And then perhaps you can get the kind of --
they can get the kind of reforms. As you know, I ain't going to be around.
(Laughter.)
Yes, sir. I've heard from Jeb on this issue, by the way.
Q Mr. President, welcome back to Tampa.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you.
Q And my question is, you've talked a lot about our addiction to oil
today. You've also talked about advanced alternative fuel sources, in
particular for household vehicles as a potential mitigant to that dilemma.
But we have a very robust industrialized economy -- air, rail, shipping,
trucking -- that has depended on oil, frankly, for generations to be
successful and vibrant. So my question is, how do we maintain the most
advanced industrialized economy on Earth, and actually reduce our dependency
on oil going forward?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I believe -- first of all, natural gas has driven a
lot of our industrialized growth, as you know. And we are -- we need to have
-- import liquified natural gas if we're going to be modern and stay
competitive.
Listen, we're going to need oil. The question is, are we able to reduce
dependency from certain parts of the world. And I think that by relieving
pressure on how we drive our cars, we'll, in fact, help segments of our
economy that are going to take a while to diversify away from hydrocarbons, I
guess is the best kind of macro look.
Things don't happen instantly; I understand that. But, nevertheless,
there are some practical ways that we can reduce our dependency, and it seems
like to me the most practical way is to change automobiles, change how we
drive. In the short-term, ethanol and hybrid batteries makes the most sense
to me. It's the most practical way, and most economic way, to begin the
reduction of dependency.
Now, listen, we've got a large fleet -- I told you, there's four-and-a-
half flex-fuel cars [sic]. That's good, except there's about 200 million
cars. And it takes a while for fleets to renew. And so things don't happen
instantly, but they will happen quicker as we continue to press for innovation
and technology.
Ultimately, I believe that we're going to be using hydrogen to power our
automobiles. But that's 15 years down the -- for the technology to be
applicable is 15 years down the road. And I guess what I'm not only -- I
guess I am, what I'm telling you is that we see technological breakthroughs
pretty darn quick when it comes to ethanol and hybrid batteries, which is a
positive development for the people. And the interesting thing about ethanol
is that the barriers to entry are pretty low, when it comes to manufacturing -
- if the technology says that we can -- yields the capacity to convert
switchgrasses and refuses to ethanol, once that technological breakthrough
comes, the barriers to entry are pretty low when it comes to building the
manufacturing capacity that converts raw material to ethanol. Much different
from a big cracker refinery. And so that's positive. So we've got the car
technology, hopefully have the breakthrough technology on fuel, and then the
infrastructure will follow.
And so what I'm saying is, this is the most practical way to become less
dependent on oil. And the economy will continue to function. But things are
happening, by the way, in diesel. I don't know -- if any of you know
something about trucking, you know that diesel, clean diesel engines are
coming. We did a deal in my administration to work with diesel engine
manufacturers to come up with a very low-emission engine that is now being
applied in trucks, and it's going to make a difference -- on Caterpillar
tractors. We're getting there, we're getting there.
Thanks for the question. Yes, sir.
Q -- it seems to me that we are facing in this country -- I've had the
opportunity to interface with people of Muslim countries, and the war is bad
enough, and I applaud what you're doing, because freedom is important, but
what concerns me is if the youth in these nations are being taught that you
and I and us Americans are, in fact, the devil incarnate, or Satan, himself --
I guess my question is, what can we do about that, to win over the people, the
children, the youth, so that the next generation will not be facing the same
dilemma? I think this is an incredible problem.
THE PRESIDENT: I appreciate that. First is to support and work with
moderate governments, and there are a lot. The largest Muslim nation is
Indonesia. And we're working closely with the President there to help promote
a better understanding of different religions. I will be seeing President
Musharraf, who I like and he's a good fellow, who understands that moderation
is an important part of a hopeful future. And so we'll support governments
that practice moderation.
Secondly, provide assistance when assistance is needed. In my State of
the Union, I said, we've got to reject isolationism. Isolationism is the
tendency for a nation to withdraw and not feel an obligation to be involved in
the world. And we cannot defend ourselves if we're isolationist. I just made
the case. But I also believe, and part of my philosophy in the decision-
making is, to whom much has been given, much is required. And, therefore,
when we see suffering in places like Pakistan, or because of the tsunami, the
United States of America is leading the way in.
And it helps. It helped a lot in Pakistan, for example, to see those
choppers flying relief supplies up for poor folks who had been -- whose lives
had been just devastated. I can't remember the exact numbers, but President
Musharraf told me, we're talking hundreds of thousands of people either dead,
injured or displaced. And there was the United States of America military
flying in supplies. I believe, John Abizaid -- General Abizaid told me today
that we turned over our MASH unit to the Pakistani government to help so they
could continue to provide aid and comfort.
And so there are practical ways. One is to support moderation, and two,
help where help is needed. Our HIV/AIDS initiative, by the way, is a
fantastic initiative. It is -- I can't tell you how proud I am of the
American people for supporting this. It is necessary for the United States of
America to be taking the lead on this issue to save lives. If we say human
dignity matters and every life is precious, that that's part of a credo as a
country, which it is -- that's what we say. We say, people matter, every
human life is precious. Then those human lives apply not just here at home,
but on the continent of Africa, or in Muslim countries. And there's a lot of
Muslims in Africa who've seen the great compassion of the United States of
America when it comes to helping to battle HIV/AIDS. There's a pandemic
taking place. And you ought to be proud of this country, like I am, that
we're filling that void of compassion and need and hope. (Applause.)
Yes. Right here. Yes. You're next. Yes. Yes, ma'am.
Q I know that you and First Lady Bush have talked much about our
hurting generation of teens and our unproductive teens in our communities.
Just wanted you to talk a little bit about the efforts being made with the
work that you're doing in initiatives --
THE PRESIDENT: Thanks.
Q -- that will help that.
THE PRESIDENT: I appreciate that. First, there's positive news. Teen
pregnancies are down, teen drug use is down, and that's positive. That's
good. (Applause.) Because of people at the grassroots level -- people at the
grassroots level. I think one of the most important initiatives of this
administration is to -- is the faith-based and community initiatives, which
recognizes what de Tocqueville saw in the 1830s. He's a French guy who came
over here. (Laughter.) In case you don't remember. And he recognized that
the great strength of America was the capacity for individualists -- or the
willingness of individualists to work together in what he called voluntary
associations to make the community in which they live a better place. And he
saw that in the 1930s.
It's a -- what he saw is still the strength of our country, if you really
think about it. You know, government can hand out money, but government
cannot put a hope in a person's heart. A lot of people miss one of the basics
ingredients of life, and that is love. And love happens when somebody puts an
arm around a person and says, what can I do to help you, brother or sister.
And so part of our initiative in dealing with loneliness, discouragement,
lack of self-esteem, is to encourage faith-based programs -- which all exist
because they hear a universal call to love a neighbor, by the way -- to have
access to federal money, in other words, level the playing field for grant
money so that these programs -- which have been set up to love somebody and
provide love -- have got equal access to federal money. It's a really
important initiative.
There are targeted monies, of course. There's monies aimed at the
different community groups dealing with drug use. But I think the most
important initiative of all is to empower groups that really do provide
mentoring and care and decency on an individual basis for somebody who needs
it. And it's happening. It's happening in America. (Applause.)
Yes.
Q Mr. President, it's an honor to be here with you today, and I thank
you so much for the time that you take to share with us. I'm a 40-year-old
father of a three-year-old.
THE PRESIDENT: There you go.
Q And I'm also an adopted child. A
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