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Skriven 2006-05-23 23:36:56 av Whitehouse Press (1:3634/12.0)
Ärende: Press Release (060523b) for Tue, 2006 May 23
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Vice President's Remarks at a Luncheon for Congressional Candidate Brian
Bilbray
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For Immediate Release
Office of the Vice President
May 23, 2006

Vice President's Remarks at a Luncheon for Congressional Candidate Brian
Bilbray
The Sheraton San Diego Hotel and Marina
San Diego, California



12:31 P.M. PDT

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. Thank you, Brian. I appreciate the
kind words and very warm welcome. It's almost enough to make me want to run
for office again. (Laughter.) Almost.

And as Brian mentioned, I was the Congressman from Wyoming for 10 years.
And back in the '80s, I taught Duncan Hunter everything he knows about the
business. (Laughter.) Duncan used to point out that he was from California
where they had a big delegation. I was from Wyoming where we had a small
delegation. We only had one congressman. But I pointed out it was quality.
(Laughter.)

And it is a pleasure to be here today to campaign, obviously, on behalf of
Brian Bilbray and the opportunity to serve and spend time on the stage, as
well, with Congressmen Issa, and with Duncan, as well. And I know my old
friend Pete Wilson is here. I saw him come through earlier. Pete?
(Applause.)

But this is a very, very important election we've got coming up here in the
50th district, and I've been looking forward to coming to spend some time
with the next congressman from the 50th district, Brian Bilbray.
(Applause.) In a sense the election here in the 50th is the first of the
campaigns that we're going to see from now through November 7th, and it is
extraordinarily important. The President wanted me to bring good wishes to
all of you, and I'm happy to do that, as well, too.

Just two weeks from today we're going to see the elections here in San
Diego, and the winner of this race will be the first member of Congress
elected in the year 2006. There's no doubt in my mind that Brian has the
experience and the qualifications to be a superb member for the 50th
district here in California. And I look forward to welcoming him in
Washington after a solid victory on the 6th of June. (Applause.)

I think all of you know, of course, that Brian has deep roots here in San
Diego. He is an experienced public servant. He's been an active citizen for
years. He's a person that clearly speaks with conviction. When he was first
elected to Congress, he went right to work to encourage economic growth and
the creation of jobs and insist on fiscal responsibility.

As many of you know, I consider the House of Representatives to be my
political home. The colleagues I respected most were the ones who took the
job seriously, who did their homework, who made a positive contribution to
the debate, and kept in touch with the folks back home. That's how Brian
operated as a member of Congress. He worked with members of both parties
for the good of the country, and he made a difference. And that's why he
belongs in the United States Congress once again. (Applause.)

It's important that we elect public servants like Brian because these are
times of incredible consequence for the nation. The last five years have
been marked by a series of unprecedented challenges. We've experienced war,
national emergency, economic recession, historic natural disasters. Yet
we've faced up to those challenges, and in the process we've shown our many
strengths as a people. Today, with George Bush as our leader, the U.S. is
moving forward with confidence and with hope. Americans have no fear of the
future -- because we intend to shape it.

Because we acted, the nation's economy today is healthy and vigorous, and
in 2005 grew faster than any other major industrialized nation in the
world. Since August of '03, America has created more than 5.2 million new
jobs -- more than Japan and the 25 nations of the European Community
combined. The national unemployment rate is 4.7 percent -- lower than the
average rate for the 1970s, the 1980s and the 1990s. Productivity is
strong. Household net worth is at an all-time record high. Real after-tax
income is up more than 8 percent per person since the beginning of '01.
President Bush's tax relief plan was right for America -- and it is
working. (Applause.)

To remain competitive, we need to keep the economy growing -- and growth is
more likely when Americans have more of their own money to spend, to save,
and to invest. In the last five years, we've cut taxes on individuals, on
families with children, on small businesses, on dividends, on capital
gains, and we've put the death tax on the path to elimination. The Bush tax
relief has left $880 billion in the hands of workers, investors, small
businesses, and families. And Americans have used it to help produce more
than four years of uninterrupted economic growth.

Last week we got even more good news, when the President signed a bill that
renewed the tax cuts on capital gains and dividends for another several
years. Those tax cuts have resulted in high levels of investment in new
plants and equipment, software, and R_

Yet even as revenue grows, we have a responsibility to be good stewards of
the taxpayer's dollar. Wise stewardship means taking a second look at the
way business has often been done in Washington. As the congressional
leadership has stated, we need reforms in the way projects are earmarked
for funding. And we look forward to working with responsible members on the
Hill on earmark reform. Government has a duty to spend taxpayer dollars
wisely, or not spend them at all. Brian understands this very well. He's
been a strong voice for spending discipline during years in Congress. We
need him back. (Applause.)

We have a full agenda for 2006 and beyond, and President Bush understands
that every decision he makes will affect the lives of millions of Americans
far into the future. He's going to lead the effort on comprehensive
immigration reform, to make the system rational and to get control of our
border. (Applause.) And he will continue appointing solid judges like John
Roberts and Samuel Alito to the federal bench. (Applause.)

Above all else, President Bush never loses sight of his most fundamental
duty -- to defend the nation and to protect the American people.

There is still hard work ahead in the war on terror, because we are dealing
with enemies who have declared an intention to bring great harm to any
nation that opposes their aim. Their prime targets are the United States
and the American people; so we have a responsibility to lead in this fight.

The terrorists were at war with our country long before the liberation of
Iraq, and long before 9/11. But for many years, they were the ones on the
offensive. They became convinced that if they killed enough Americans, they
could change American policy. In Beirut in 1983, terrorists killed 241
Marines. Thereafter, U.S. forces withdrew from Beirut. In Mogadishu in
1993, terrorists killed 19 American soldiers. Thereafter, shortly after
that, U.S. forces withdrew from Somalia. Over time, the terrorists
concluded that they could strike America without paying a price, because
they did, repeatedly: They bombed the World Trade Center in New York in
1993; murders at the Saudi National Guard training facility in Riyadh in
1995; the attack on Khobar Towers in 1996; the simultaneous attacks on our
embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998; and the attack on the USS Cole in
2000.

Believing they could strike us with impunity and that they could change
U.S. policy, they attacked us on 9/11 here in the homeland and killed 3,000
of our fellow citizens. Now they are making a stand in Iraq -- testing our
resolve, trying to intimidate the United States into abandoning our friends
and permitting the overthrow of a new Middle Eastern democracy.

We are on the offensive in Iraq, with a clear plan for victory. The work is
still difficult, and we can expect further acts of violence and destruction
by the enemies of freedom. But progress has been steady -- and there should
be no discounting the hopeful signs in that part of the world. In less than
two years' time the Iraqi people have regained their sovereignty, voted for
a transitional government, drafted a progressive, democratic constitution
in the heart of the Arab world, then approved that document in a national
referendum, and subsequently elected a new government under the provisions
of that new constitution. The most recent election had a voter turnout of
more than 70 percent -- better than we do here in the U.S. -- Iraqis defied
killers, assassins and the car-bombers and went to the polls in huge
numbers. Iraq now has a unity government that is committed to a future of
freedom and progress for all Iraqis. They've made a strong stand for their
own liberty, and the United States is proud to stand at their side.

Our coalition is also helping to build an Iraqi security force that is well
trained and well equipped. As that force grows in strength and the
political process continues to advance, we'll be able to decrease troop
levels without losing our capacity to defeat the terrorists. Going forward,
any decisions about troop levels will be driven by the conditions on the
ground and the judgment of our military commanders -- not by artificial
timelines set by politicians in Washington, D.C. (Applause.)

Issues of national security will clearly be at the top of the agenda in
this election year. The President and I welcome the discussion, because
every voter in America needs to know how the leaders of the Democratic
Party view the war on terror. Their leader in the Senate, Harry Reid, has
boasted publicly of his efforts to kill the Patriot Act. Their nominee for
President in the last election viewed terrorism mainly as a law enforcement
issue, and recently said that American troops are "terrorizing" Iraqis. The
Chairman of the Democratic Party is Howard Dean, who said the capture of
Saddam Hussein didn't make America safer. And those prominent Democrats who
advocate a sudden withdrawal from Iraq are counseling the very kind of
retreat that Osama bin Laden has been predicting and counting on. Yet these
Democrats will not -- and cannot -- make the case that somehow surrender in
Iraq would make our nation safer.

This is also the crowd that objects to the terrorist surveillance program
-- even though that program has helped prevent attacks and has protected
American lives. We've heard it said many times that our government failed
to connect the dots before 9/11. We now know that some of the hijackers
were in the United States, here in the San Diego area, and they placed
telephone calls to al Qaeda operatives overseas before that attack. But we
did not know about their plans until it was too late. To help prevent
another such attack, and based on authority given him by the Constitution
and by statute, the President authorized a surveillance program to
intercept a certain category of terrorist-linked international
communications. Let me emphasize that because on occasion you will hear the
press or our opponents talk about domestic surveillance. This is not
domestic surveillance. One end has to be outside the United States, and
therefore international, one end has to be affiliated in some fashion with
al Qaeda. It's hard to think of any category of information that could be
more important to the safety of the United States. The program is a wartime
measure, it's limited in scope to surveillance associated with terrorists,
and it is conducted in a way that safeguards the civil liberties of the
American people. Leaders of Congress have been briefed on this program more
than a dozen times on the program. I have personally presided over most of
those briefings. In addition, the entire program is reconsidered and
reauthorized by the President every 45 days. He has reauthorized it more
than 30 times since September 11th, because it has helped prevent attacks.
It has protected American lives. And that program remains essential to the
security of the United States. If there are individuals inside our country
talking with al Qaeda, we want to know about it because we will not sit
back and wait to be hit again. (Applause.)

This enemy is weakened and fractured, yet still lethal and still determined
to kill Americans. We have a duty to act against them as swiftly and as
effectively as we possibly can. Either we are serious about fighting this
war or we are not. And with George W. Bush leading the nation, we are
serious, and we will not let down our guard.

Ladies and gentlemen, in these five years we've been through a great deal
as a nation. Yet with each test, the American people have displayed the
true character of our country. We have built for ourselves an economy and a
standard of living that are the envy of the world. We have faced dangers
with resolve. And we have been defended by some of the bravest men and
women this nation has ever known. (Applause.) When future generations look
back on our time, they will know that we met our moment with courage and
clear thinking. And they'll know that America became a better nation --
stronger, more prosperous, and more secure -- under the leadership of our
President, George Bush.

We'll continue making progress for the American people -- and it's vital
that we have strong partners in that effort like Brian Bilbray in the
Congress of the United States. (Applause.) Right now the eyes of the nation
are on the 50th district of California, and when you send Brian Bilbray to
Washington you'll have a Congressman who speaks for your interests and your
values each and every day. I'm proud to join you in supporting Brian's
campaign. He'll do a fantastic job, and the President and I look forward to
welcoming him to Washington next month.

Thank you very much.

END 12:49 P.M. PDT

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