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Skriven 2005-06-14 23:33:14 av Whitehouse Press (1:3634/12.0)
Ärende: Press Release (0506145) for Tue, 2005 Jun 14
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Remarks by the President at 2005 President's Dinner
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For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
June 14, 2005

Remarks by the President at 2005 President's Dinner



REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT AT 2005 PRESIDENT'S DINNER

Washington Convention Center Washington, D.C.

7:30 P.M. EST

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all for coming. Thank you for the warm reception.
(Applause.) Thank you all. Thanks for coming. It's nice to have dinner with
a group of friends. I appreciate you all coming here. This is a very
important dinner because, through your generosity, we're going to keep
control of the Senate and the House, and America will be better off for it.
(Applause.)

I really appreciate you being here. I am sorry that the First Lady is not
here. She sends her love. Generally when I say that, people groan, and I
take it to mean they wish she'd have come and not me. I understand that.
I'll tell you something about Laura. She's quite the comedian, quite the
diplomat, she a heck of a First Lady and a great wife and mom. I love her
dearly. (Applause.)

I want to thank Senator Lamar Alexander for his leadership on this
incredibly successful dinner. I appreciate Speaker Denny Hastert. He is one
fine man. He's a great Speaker of the House. (Applause.) And through your
generosity, he's going to stay Speaker of the House. (Applause.)

I want to thank the Majority Leader of the United States Senate, Bill
Frist. He, too, is a great leader, and I appreciate calling him friend.
(Applause.) I want to thank Senator Elizabeth Dole, who is the NRSC
Chairman; Congressman Tom Reynolds, the NRCC Chairman. Those are initials
for, like, let's raise money and get the Senate in Republican -- keep the
Senate in Republican hands and House in Republican hands. Thank you for
supporting these causes. (Applause.)

I want to thank the members of the Senate and Congress for working so hard.
I want to thank the members of the -- all the members of the Congress
who've joined us tonight. I appreciate the members of my Cabinet who are
here.

I want to pay special tribute to the Republican National Committee
Chairman, Ken Mehlman, for the fantastic job he's doing on reaching out to
people from all walks of life. (Applause.) I want to thank the President's
Dinner leadership, especially Ken Thompson and his wife, Kathylee, for the
fantastic job you all have done, and everybody up here has done. I want to
thank the Duke Ellington School of the Arts Show Choir for being here
today. (Applause.)

I'm proud to be the head of a party that has a positive and hopeful and
optimistic vision for every single person who lives in this country.
(Applause.) And I'm proud to be a head of a party that is driving the
debate on all the key domestic and foreign policy issues. (Applause.)
Because of our achievements, the American people see us as the party of
reform and optimism and results -- the party that is moving this nation
forward. (Applause.)

All of us in Washington have a duty to the people who sent us here.
Political parties can take one of two approaches. One approach is to lead,
to focus on the people's business, to take on the tough problems. And that
is exactly what our party is doing. (Applause.)

The other approach is to simply do nothing -- to delay solutions, obstruct
progress, refuse to take responsibility. Members of the other party have
worked with us to achieve important reforms on some issues. Yet, too often,
their leadership prefers to block the ideas of others. We hear "no" to
making tax relief permanent. We hear "no" to Social Security reform. We
hear "no" to confirming federal judges. We hear "no" to a highly qualified
U.N. ambassador. We hear "no" to medical liability reform. On issue after
issue, they stand for nothing except obstruction, and this is not
leadership. (Applause.) It is the philosophy of the stop sign, the agenda
of the roadblock, and our country and our children deserve better.
(Applause.)

Political parties that choose the path of obstruction will not gain the
trust of the American people. If leaders of the other party have innovative
ideas, let's hear them. But if they have no ideas or policies except
obstruction, they should step aside and let others lead. (Applause.)

We're a party of getting things done. Because we acted to pass the largest
tax relief in a generation, our economy is growing again. We've created
more than 3.5 million new jobs during the last two years. More Americans
are working today than ever before in our nation's history. (Applause.)

To keep this economy growing and creating jobs, we need to make the tax
relief permanent. (Applause.) We need to get rid of the death tax forever.
(Applause.) And we can do something else about taxes -- I've appointed a
bipartisan panel to examine our incoherent, out-of-date tax code. When
their recommendations are delivered, I'm looking forward to working with
the United States Congress to give this nation a tax code that is
pro-growth, easy to understand and fair to all. (Applause.)

Our party is the party of economic growth, and our party is the party of
spending restraint. I've submitted the first budget to actually cut
non-security discretionary spending since Ronald Reagan was the President.
Now the Congress needs to act to hold non-discretionary spending below last
year's level. The budget we submitted adheres to an interesting principle;
it says taxpayers' money should be spent wisely, or not spent at all.
(Applause.)

We need to have a fiscally responsible highway bill that modernizes our
roads and bridges, and improves safety and creates jobs. We're on our way
to cutting this deficit in half in five years. And I want to thank the
members of Congress for holding the line and doing what's right for the
American taxpayer. (Applause.)

In order to make sure this economy grows, we need an energy bill. Four
years ago, I presented Congress with a comprehensive energy strategy that
encourages conservation, renewable sources of energy like ethanol and
biodiesel, that says we can use nuclear energy in a clean way, that
recognizes the need to spend money on clean coal technology. It's an energy
plan that will make us less dependent on foreign sources of energy. For the
sake of national security, and for the sake of economic security, Congress
needs to get a bill to my desk before the August recess. (Applause.)

We're proudly the party of free and fair trade. During my administration,
and thanks to the good works of Congress, we've opened up markets for
millions of consumers of U.S. products. And now we have an opportunity to
continue to open up new markets, with CAFTA, the Central American and
Dominican Republic Free Trade Act. Right now, most of the goods coming from
the Central American countries enter into our country duty-free. Yet our
goods are not received in their country duty-free. For the sake of free
trade, for the sake of fair trade, for the sake of good jobs, for the sake
of promoting young democracies in Central America, Congress must pass
CAFTA. (Applause.)

Ours is the party of the entrepreneur and small business. Ours is the party
of litigation reform. We're the party that continues to free our
entrepreneurs from needless regulations and protect honest job creators
from junk lawsuits. I applaud the Speaker and the Leader for getting
bipartisan class-action reform and bankruptcy reform through the Congress.
Now we need asbestos litigation reform. And to stop junk lawsuits that are
running good doctors out of practice, and running up the cost of medicine,
we need federal medical liability reform. (Applause.)

Ours is the party that challenges the soft bigotry of low expectations,
that worked to stop the practice of just shuffling kids through school,
grade after grade, without them being able to read and write. Ours is the
party that set high standards, believes in local control of schools, and
insists that every child learn to read and write, so no child is left
behind in America. (Applause.)

We set a clear agenda to make health care more affordable, and to give
American families greater access to coverage and more control over their
health decisions. In 2003, we strengthened Medicare by giving seniors more
choices and adding a prescription drug benefit. We have kept our commitment
to our nation's seniors, and now we must move forward with more community
health centers to help the poor, improved health information technology,
expanded health savings accounts and association health plans, so that
small businesses can pool risk and buy insurance at the same discounts that
big companies are able to do. (Applause.)

Ours is the party that set a goal to encourage ownership in America. We
want more people owning their own business. I'm proud to report more people
own a home than ever before in our nation's history, and more minority
families are owning a home today than ever before. (Applause.)

We need to expand ownership through our retirement system. Recently, I've
been spending time talking about an important issue -- and that's Social
Security reform. And the reason I have is because I believe the job of the
President is to confront problems and not pass them on to future Presidents
and future generations. (Applause.) We've got a problem when it comes to
Social Security. No, you don't have a problem if you're getting your check
now, or if you were born prior to 1950 -- you'll get your check. The
problem is for a younger generation of Americans who are paying payroll
taxes or getting ready to pay payroll taxes into a system that is going
broke.

Let me give you the math right quick, let you know why I'm talking about it
all across the country. There's a lot of us getting ready to retire. We're
called baby boomers. As a matter of fact, my retirement age is 2008 --
(laughter) -- quite convenient. There are about 73 million baby boomers
getting ready to retire. There are 40 million people retired today; another
33 million will be retired when the baby boomers fully retire. And we're
living longer and we've been promised greater benefits by Congress. And the
real problem is there's fewer people paying into the system. Today there's
3.3 workers per beneficiary; soon, there will be two workers per
beneficiary. In 2017, the system goes into the red. In 2027, it's $200
billion short. In 2041, it's bankrupt.

It is not right to sit here in Washington, D.C. knowing the system is going
bankrupt for younger Americans and not do anything about it. (Applause.) So
I'm going to keep talking about it and keep putting ideas out. I've laid
out some plans that would nearly fix all of the Social Security problem.

I'll tell you another idea we need to do is, we need to give workers the
option that Congress has given itself -- and that is to be able to take
some of their own money, some of their own payroll taxes and set it aside
in a personal savings account they call their own, a personal savings
account that will let them earn a better rate of return on their money --
(applause) -- a personal savings account they can leave to whomever they
want, a personal savings account the government cannot take away or spend
on special programs. (Applause.)

Ours is the party that believes in ownership. We want to extend the
so-called investor class to all walks of life. We believe everybody should
have an asset they can call their own. And we have a fantastic opportunity
to strengthen and save Social Security for a generation of Americans to
come, and to give more Americans the great pride of owning something they
call their own. Congress needs to act on this issue. Strengthening Social
Security requires honesty and courage. And the party I'm proud to lead will
do our duty. Our children's retirement security is more important than
partisan politics. (Applause.)

Our party will continue to support the faith-based and community groups
that bring hope to harsh places. We'll continue to promote a culture of
life in which every person is valued and every life has meaning. And we
will defend the institution of marriage from being redefined forever by
activist judges. (Applause.)

And speaking about judges, the American people made it clear they want
judges who faithfully interpret the law, not legislate from the bench.
(Applause.) I applaud Senator Frist and Senator Specter and Senator Hatch
and other members of the United States Senate in confirming some
outstanding nominees who have waited a long time for a vote: Priscilla Owen
and Janice Rogers Brown and Bill Pryor. I'll continue to urge the Senate to
fulfill its constitutional responsibility by giving every judicial nominee
an up or down vote on the Senate floor. (Applause.)

And speaking of confirmations, the Senate must promptly confirm John
Bolton, my nominee to be our ambassador to the United Nations, so we can
get on with the business of reforming that institution. (Applause.)

My most solemn duty, and the most solemn duty of those of us in government
here in Washington, is to protect the American people. Our strategy is
clear: We will be relentless; we will never tire in chasing down the
terrorists; we will confront them abroad, so we do not have to face them
here at home. (Applause.)

We carried out the largest reorganization of government in a half-century,
to form a single department with a single mission: protecting America from
attack. The tireless efforts of the men and women of the Department of
Homeland Security and federal and state and local first responders are
protecting our nation and making this country more secure. And as they do
so, they need to have all the tools to be able to help defend this country.
And that is why I call upon the United States Congress to renew all the
provisions of the Patriot Act. (Applause.) The Patriot Act is an important
piece of legislation. It gives those folks who are on the front line of
fighting terror the same tools -- many of the same tools that are used to
track down drug kingpins or tax cheats. If those tools are good enough to
track down drug kingpins, they ought to be good enough in this war on
terror to give to our law enforcement so we can better defend this country.
(Applause.)

And we're making progress. Since September the 11th, 2001, we've closed
down terrorist networks. We brought to justice many of the key leaders of
al Qaeda. We're disrupting their finances. There is no place they can hide
from the United States of America and our allies and friends.

The best way to secure this country in the long run, though, is to spread
democracy and freedom. (Applause.) We believe everybody deserves to be
free. We believe everybody has a deep desire in their heart to live in a
free society. We believe mothers all around the world want to raise their
children in a free and peaceful world. And the people of Afghanistan showed
clearly the desire of those who have lived under tyranny to take the risks
necessary to live in a free society.

Think about how far that country has come in a brief period of time. We
enforced doctrine that said, if you harbor a terrorist, you're just as
guilty as the terrorist. And by removing the Taliban, America and the free
world are safer. But at the same time, we gave the Afghan people a chance
to live in a free and democratic society. And for the first time in the
history of that country, for the first time in thousands of years, millions
of people went to the polls to vote. And the first voter was a 19-year-old
girl in Afghanistan. (Applause.)

Freedom is on the march from the Ukraine to Afghanistan to the Palestinian
Territory to Lebanon and to Iraq. (Applause.) By removing Saddam Hussein
from power, America and the free world are safer. By removing Saddam
Hussein from power, the people of Iraq have a chance to live in a free
society. And the United States of America will stand squarely with that new
democracy as it grows and flourishes and becomes a free society in the
heart of the Middle East. (Applause.)

I know many of you here have got relatives and friends who are serving in
the United States military. I can't tell you how proud I am to be the
Commander-in-Chief of such a great group of folks. America is more secure;
the world is more free; the foundations of peace are being laid because of
the brave men and women who wear the uniform of the United States military.
(Applause.)

The United States has a special obligation, in my view, to work with
freedom fighters all around the world, to stand squarely with the
reformers. I believe it's important for generations to come, because I
understand that democracies don't fight each other, that democracies are
the way to defeat hatred, that democracies provide the best hope for men
and women around the world. There's no doubt in my mind the policies that
this administration has taken will make the world more peaceful for
generations to come.

The American people have entrusted us with the leadership of this great
country at an historic moment. We've set big goals, and they're not always
easy to achieve. Otherwise they'd have been done already. But we're going
to continue to be the party that sets the big goals, the party that's
idealistic, the party of reform. We'll continue to lead, no matter how
tough the challenge might be. You see, the American people have given us
their trust. But the good news for the American people is, in our policies
we trust them. We trust their values; we trust their judgment; we trust
them with their own money. So long as we stay true to our values and our
ideas, we will do what Americans have always done. We will build a better
world for our children and our grandchildren.

It is such an honor to be the President of such a great nation. Thank you
for coming tonight. May God bless your families, and may God continue to
bless our country. (Applause.) Thank you all. (Applause.)

END 7:53 P.M. EDT

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