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Skriven 2006-05-31 23:57:24 av Whitehouse Press (1:3634/12.0)
Ärende: Press Release (0605318) for Wed, 2006 May 31
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President Attends Maryland Victory 2006 Reception
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For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
May 31, 2006

President Attends Maryland Victory 2006 Reception
BWI Airport Marriott
Baltimore, Maryland



6:25 P.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all. Thanks for coming tonight. (Applause.) Thank
you all. So he just gave my speech. (Laughter.) You know, when you have
somebody who accomplishes positive things, he's got a record of
accomplishment for everybody -- not just a handful, but everybody -- you
need to send him back as the Governor of the state of Maryland. (Applause.)

So in our line of work, there's a lot of big talkers. (Laughter.) And
sometimes you find a doer, somebody who knows how to set an agenda and lead
people to accomplish that agenda. Bob Ehrlich is a doer, he's a great
leader, and he needs to be reelected Governor of the state of Maryland.
(Applause.)

So the one thing he didn't take credit for was -- I think he should have --
was the Maryland Women's Basketball team. (Applause.) He can't even touch
the net. (Laughter.) Well, that's not true.

We both married really well. (Laughter.) He married a fabulous woman; the
First Lady of Maryland is doing a wonderful job. (Applause.) Laura and I
are very fond of Kendel and Bob. We consider them friends. We invited them
to come the Camp David once, which is, after all, in the state of Maryland.
So he arrived -- as did about 10 feet of snow. (Laughter.) So I said, come
on back in the summer. (Laughter.) But Laura sends her love to the
Ehrlichs.

And just a word on Laura. She's down in New Orleans today. She is a
fabulous First Lady. She is really -- (applause.) I'm really proud of the
job she does for our country.

I'm also proud to be here with Bob's parents, Bob and Nancy. Thank you all
for coming. (Applause.) I'm sure one of the reasons why your son is so
successful as the Governor is because you keep telling him what to do.
(Laughter.) And obviously, he's wise enough to listen. (Laughter.) I've got
the same problem in my family. (Laughter.)

Mr. Chairman, thank you for your leadership. I want to thank you all for
supporting the Victory Committee. I want to thank you for giving of your
money to help this good man and the party succeed. And I want to thank you
in advance for what you're going to do when we come down the stretch in
October-November, and that is turn out the vote. (Applause.)

So I want to thank all the grassroots activists who are here. (Applause.)
There's a couple of you out there, you know? Stuffing the envelopes, making
the phone calls, putting up the signs. That's how you win. When you've got
somebody as good as Governor Ehrlich, you need to get on the streets and go
to the coffee shops and houses of worship and tell the people, you've got a
good man; you've got a good man who has done a fabulous job for the people
of Maryland. (Applause.)

By the way, when you're getting him in as governor, make sure you put
Michael Steele into the United States Senate. (Applause.)

One of the things it's important to have in a chief executive officer,
whether it be at the state level or the federal level, is somebody who's
willing to take on problems, to confront problems. You know, a lot of times
in the political arena it's easy just to shuffle them along. You know, you
see a problem and say, well, let's just not deal with it, let's let
somebody else take care of it. I like Bob Ehrlich because he's not afraid
to take on problems. He understands that our jobs are to solve problems.
Bob Ehrlich is a problem-solver. He sets agendas, he makes decisions based
upon principles, he doesn't worry about polls and focus groups, and he
leads. And he's the right guy to be reelected to the state of Maryland.
(Applause.)

We're living in historic times. These are times that require steadfast
conviction. I just want to share some thoughts with you about the war on
terror. First of all, I want to thank the Governor for his strong support
for the men and women who wear the uniform of the United States.
(Applause.) As the Commander-in-Chief of a military full of incredibly fine
people, it is important to have people in elected office like the Governor
who know what it means to have -- to be able to stay strong words of
support. These kids need our support. They're doing hard work on our
behalf. My most important job and the most important job of the Governor is
to protect the American people.

And that job came home -- became very clear to us on September the 11th of
2001. It's a day that I'll never forget. Many of the decisions that I have
made as your President are based upon the lessons I learned on that day.
The first lesson I learned on that day is there are evil people in the
world who want to do harm to the American citizens. I learned that you
can't negotiate with these people, you can't rationalize with them, you
can't hope for the best, that we must -- in order to protect the country,
we must bring them to justice before they do harm again. (Applause.)

I learned that when a President speaks he better mean what he says. I
understand to protect this country that we must deny safe haven to these
terrorists who'd like to do us harm. And so I said, if you harbor a
terrorist, you're equally as guilty as the terrorists. I meant what I said.
I gave the Taliban an opportunity to hand over al Qaeda. They refused to do
so. And because of the bravery of our troops and coalition troops,
Afghanistan is liberated and free, and is no longer a threat to the United
States of America. (Applause.)

I learned on September the 11th a lesson I'm never going to forget, that
we've got to take threats seriously before they come home to hurt us. It's
really important, if you think our duty is to protect the folks, to take
every threat seriously. You see, when we grew up, or some of us grew up,
baby boomers grew up, we felt pretty confident that America could be secure
from a foreign attack, except maybe by missile. And then that attitude
changed dramatically when we realized oceans couldn't protect us. And so
when we see a threat, we've got to take them seriously.

I saw a threat. As a matter of fact, the world saw a threat with Saddam
Hussein. See, he was a state sponsor of terror; he had used weapons of mass
destruction; he had the capacity to make weapons of mass destruction; he
invaded his neighbors; he was shooting at U.S. pilots. He was given a lot
of United Nations Security Council resolutions to change. He refused to
change. He chose war, and the world is better off without Saddam Hussein in
power. (Applause.)

And now we're doing the hard work of helping people who were suppressed by
a tyrant to understand the blessings of liberty. But we shouldn't be
discouraged when you see the car bombings and killings. It saddens us. But
remember that last December, 12 million Iraqis went to the polls, in
defiance of car bombers and killers and terrorists, and said, we want to be
free. (Applause.) We want to be free. We understand that freedom is a
universal principle. It is universal -- I believe in an Almighty, and I
believe one of the great gifts of the Almighty is freedom. Freedom isn't
just, you know, for Methodists or Texans or Americans. Freedom is for
everybody. And it shouldn't surprise us when 12 million are free.

And it shouldn't surprise us that there are killers and terrorists who are
trying to stop democracy. See, their ideology is the exact opposite of a
free society. They don't believe in dissent. They don't believe in the
freedom to worship. They don't believe women should have rights. Their
ideology is dark and backwards. And, yet, freedom brings light and hope.
What you're seeing is an historic -- history being made as societies are --
as two societies, Afghanistan and Iraq, have found the beauty of freedom
and they're establishing constitutional governments of, and by, and for the
people.

We're going to succeed in Iraq. (Applause.) We will succeed because we've
got a great military full of decent and honorable people. (Applause.) We
will succeed because the Iraqi people want us to succeed. And we will
succeed because the terrorists and killers offer no hope, whatsoever.

I want to tell you something about what's going on. I just talked today to
my buddy, Prime Minister Koizumi, on the phone. And we were talking about
peace. And every time I meet with him we sit down at the table and talk
about peace. We talk about North Korea. He's got a thousand troops in Iraq
because he understands the power of democracy to make the world a better
place. Yet, that wasn't necessarily going to happen after World War II. My
dad fought the Japanese -- I'm sure relatives of yours fought the Japanese.
They were the sworn enemy of the United States. I think it's amazing, don't
you, that the President of the United States sits at the table talking
about peace with the leader of an enemy, former enemy. You know what
happened? Japan adopted a Japanese-style democracy after World War II.
Fortunately, one of my predecessors, Harry S. Truman, believed in the power
of freedom to transform an enemy into an ally.

Some day an American President will be sitting down with duly elected
leaders of Iraq, keeping the peace. Freedom -- freedom causes people to
reach for hope. Freedom brings light into society. Democracies don't war.
What you're seeing today is the hard work of changing a society that was
under the brutal thumb of a dictator into one that is free. And we're
laying the foundation of peace for generations to come. (Applause.)

At home, if you're looking for work, you can find a job. Bob Ehrlich and I
believe that the role of government is not to create wealth, but to create
an environment in which the entrepreneurial spirit flourishes. That's the
principle by which we make decisions. (Applause.) And you might remember,
we've been through some pretty difficult times in this country when it came
to our economy. We've been through a recession and a stock market
correction, an attack on our country; we've been to war to defend
ourselves; we had some terrible natural disasters, energy prices are up.
Yet our economy is strong and it's getting stronger. (Applause.)

And the reason why our economy grew at 3.5 percent last year, it grew at
5.3 percent in the first quarter of this year, the reason why the national
unemployment rate is 4.7 percent and we've added 5.2 million new jobs since
August of 2003 is because we cut the taxes. (Applause.) We believe that
when someone has more money to save, spend or invest, the economy grows.

Bob Ehrlich and I understand this fact: 70 percent of new jobs in America
are created by the small business owners -- 70 percent. And so, if you can
stimulate small business growth, you stimulate job growth. And by cutting
the taxes, individual tax rates, we cut taxes on subchapter S's, and
limited partnerships and sole proprietorships. The tax cuts we passed have
helped make our small business sectors strong and robust, and America is
better off for it. (Applause.)

Ehrlich is going to fight to keep taxes low. (Applause.) It's not just low
on some, it's low on everybody. See, we're not these kind of people who
say, let's have selective tax cuts. We believe if you're going to cut
taxes, you cut taxes on everybody who pays taxes. Tax cuts are good, strong
economic policy.

And then there's the other thing in Washington, which Bob knows only too
well, that says, well, look, you got to raise the taxes to balance the
budget. But that's not the way Washington works. I suspect it's not the way
Annapolis works. They're going to raise your taxes, but they're going to
figure out new ways to spend your money. (Laughter.) That's the way
Washington works. I bet that's the way the Statehouse works, too. That's
why you've got to have a fiscally sound Governor as the Governor of the
state of Maryland. (Applause.)

And so the best way to cut the deficit, at least in Washington, is to keep
your taxes low so the economy grows. When the economy grows, it generates
more tax revenues for the treasury -- and then be wise about how we spend
your money.

We're going to cut the deficit in half by 2009. I told the Congress, I
said, look, if you bust the supplemental we've got coming up there, if
you're greater than $92.2 billion and -- plus some for the pandemic flu,
I'm going to veto the bill. I'm serious about it, you know. They've got to
understand that we're going to cut this deficit in half by 2009 by being
wise about how we spend your money and keeping pro-growth economic policies
in place.

Bob Ehrlich steps into office, as he told you -- you took some of my speech
away from me --(laughter) -- but the people of Maryland have got to
understand, he shows up in office and they have a $4 billion deficit. When
he shows up, you're in the hole $4 billion. Now he's standing up here
asking for reelection and he's able to say to the people of Maryland, we've
got us a $2 billion surplus. Don't you want that kind of guy back in
office? (Applause.)

Sometimes the temptation, when you get into government, is to grow it. A
good place to look is at the office of the Governor; see, that's a good
place to stat to determine whether or not you've got yourself a Governor
who knows how to manage. See, the chief executive officer not only has got
to set an agenda and call people to achieve the agenda, he's also got to be
a manager. He's got to be able to do a lot with less, if you're dealing
with the taxpayers' money.

Interestingly enough, he's decreased the size of Maryland's executive
branch by 7 percent. See, he's in charge of the executive branch. And so
the voters of Maryland -- I don't care whether you're Republican or
Democrat or independent -- need to say to yourself, who best to manage the
executive branch of the state of Maryland? Bob Ehrlich has got a strong
record. (Applause.)

The other thing that's interesting that probably doesn't get discussed a
lot here in Maryland, but should, is what could have happened had he not
been the Governor. See, we've discussed what he did as the Governor. We
know what happened since he's the Governor. The question is what would have
happened. Well, I'll tell you what would have happened. The legislature
would have raised $7.5 billion in tax increases had you not had this man as
the Governor of the state of Maryland. (Applause.)

I'll talk about three things real quick. One, education. I used to say when
I was the governor of Texas, education is to a state what national defense
is to the federal government. I think it's by far the most important --
should be the most important priority of any governor. I know it's a really
important priority of Governor Bob Ehrlich. You know why? I've been to
schools here in Maryland. I've seen him firsthand come into classrooms and
talk to teachers and parents. And he generally cares about making sure the
public school system -- the public school system does what it's supposed to
do, and that's educate everybody.

We had -- when I came to Washington, I was very concerned about a system
that just kind of shuffled people through -- social promotion. You know
we'd say -- oh, you're supposed to be -- you're X age, you're supposed to
be here. You know what happened under that system? Impoverished kids,
inner-city black kids, or kids whose parents don't speak English as a first
language just got moved through. That's the easiest thing to do. And so we
changed the attitude. And I'm proud to have a partner in Bob Ehrlich who
understands, one, you've got to set high standards, see, you've got to
believe every child can learn; and secondly, in return for money, we expect
people to measure.

Now, I believe in local control of schools and so does Bob. I'm a strong
believer in local control of schools. But I said, in return for increasing
federal money, particularly for poor students, I want to know. I want to
know whether a child can read and write and add and subtract. And I want to
know early.

And so we worked with Governor Ehrlich. He put in a very strong
accountability system -- that's uncomfortable for some people. Oh, I've
heard every excuse -- you know, teaching the test, or you're testing too
much. I don't accept that and neither does Ehrlich. You can't have a good
education system unless you determine early whether a child can read by
grade level, and whether or not, if you find a child not reading by grade
level you've got courage enough to change the curriculum and make sure that
child gets extra help. The No Child Left Behind Act is working in the state
of Maryland because you've got a strong education leader in Bob Ehrlich.
(Applause.)

And how do we know? We're measuring. You know, there's an achievement gap.
So you've got a Governor like Governor Ehrlich, who recognizes what I
recognize -- you can't have an achievement gap in America and have America
be a hopeful place. You can't have certain kids reading at the 4th grade
level and other kids not, and have a bright future for your country. You
just can't. And he understands that and so do I. So he said, the
achievement gap is narrowing. You know why we know? Because we're
measuring. High standards, strong accountability, local control of schools,
demanding change where you find the status quo is unsatisfactory is the key
to success -- and Maryland has an education Governor in Bob Ehrlich.
(Applause.)

Why are charter schools important? They're important because if the status
quo is unacceptable, you need to give parents alternatives. And that's what
the charter school movement is all about. It says, you don't trust
government to make decisions for people when it comes to education, you
trust the parents to make the decisions for the children. And if parents
are not happy with the status quo, they ought to be given other options.
The charter school movement is going to put Maryland on the leading edge of
educational excellence, and Governor Bob Ehrlich gets a lot of credit for
being the pioneer of the charter school movement in this state. (Applause.)

Our party is one that has proven that you can have economic growth and
sound environmental policy at the same time. Environmental policy and
economic growth are not zero sum. As a matter of fact, I happen to believe
that in order to have a good environment you've got to have a strong
economy so you can afford that which is necessary to protect the
environment. Bob Ehrlich has got a very, very strong record of
conservation. (Applause.)

He signed the most important legislation to clean up the Chesapeake Bay --
ever. That's leadership. Some of them talk a good game -- I'm sure they're
spouting all kinds of stuff about how -- (laughter.) This man has
delivered. (Applause.) The Chesapeake Bay Restoration Act -- the Bob
Ehrlich "I'm going to protect the Chesapeake Bay" Act -- (applause) --
upgrades the state's 66 largest waste water treatment plants, upgrade
sewage systems to increase nitrogen removal.

The Ehrlich-Steele administration has preserved nearly 60,000 acres of
fields, forests and open space and farmland. This man has got a record to
run on. And if you care about the environment here in the state of
Maryland, you need to put Bob Ehrlich back in as the Governor. (Applause.)

Finally, I proudly wear the label of compassionate conservative, and so
does Bob Ehrlich. Let me tell you what I think that means. I think it means
that government has got to recognize its limits in providing compassionate
care. See, government can hand out money, but it can't put hope in a
person's heart, or a sense of purpose in a person's life.

If you find somebody who hurts in society, it's best to rally a person
who's heard a universal call to love a neighbor like you'd like to be loved
yourself. There's nothing better than somebody putting their arm around a
lonely person and saying, how can I help you, brother or sister? There's
nothing better than having a church or a synagogue or a mosque take up the
cause of feeding the hungry and finding shelter for the homeless.
Government should not fear the involvement of faith in our society, we
ought to welcome faith to help solve some of society's most intractable
problems. (Applause.)

Ehrlich's got the Office of Community Initiatives. He's got a way to make
sure that bureaucracy gets out of the way of helping people who have heard
a universal call to help. I oftentimes remind the American people that --
who look at our country and say, well, our strengths are our military --
and it's part of our strength, but that's not the greatest strength for
America. The size of our wallets, that's important. We're a wealthy nation
and we can do a lot with our wealth -- which we're doing, by the way. We're
leading the world when it comes to feeding the hungry. We're helping fight
HIV/AIDS on the continent of Africa. This is a generous nation. We believe
to whom much is given, much is required. But the greatest strength of this
country lies in the hearts and souls of our citizens.

Alexis De Tocqueville recognized that when he came to America in 1832. He
recognized that one of the really unusual things about our society,
characteristics of our society, was the voluntary organizations all aimed
at helping someone who is down and out. That's what he recognized. Our job
is -- my job as President and Bob's job as the Governor is to recognize
that strength and to rally that strength, and to call people to serve; is
to help those who need help by calling on a fellow citizen to love a
neighbor like they'd like to be loved themselves.

You've got a good man as your Governor in the state of Maryland, and you
need to put him back in office, for the good of the people. Thanks for
coming. God bless. (Applause.)

END 6:50 P.M. EDT

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