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Skriven 2006-07-11 23:34:40 av Whitehouse Press (1:3634/12.0)
Ärende: Press Release (060711b) for Tue, 2006 Jul 11
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Remarks by the President at "green for Wisconsin" Reception
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For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
July 11, 2006

Remarks by the President at "green for Wisconsin" Reception
Hilton Milwaukee City Center
Milwaukee, Wisconsin



5:51 P.M. CDT

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all. Please be seated. Thanks for coming. Thanks
for the introduction. Thanks for supporting the next Governor of Wisconsin,
Mark Green. (Applause.)

I know a little something about what it means to be a governor, and a chief
executive officer of government. Here is what you need: You need somebody
who knows how to set an agenda; you need somebody who knows how to achieve
the agenda; you need somebody who can get results without worrying about
public opinion polls; you need somebody who stands on principle; you need
somebody who shoots straight with the people. And that person is Mark
Green. (Applause.)

There is no doubt in my mind he will be a great governor for Wisconsin.
(Applause.) I got to know him; this isn't the first time I've been with him
before. I've seen him in action in Washington D.C. He is a highly respected
member of the United States Congress. People trust his word. When he says
something he means it. He is a positive influence in Washington, D.C. He
can bring people together, which is what you need in this state. He is an
honorable, decent man and I am proud to stand with him as he runs for
governor. I want to thank you all for supporting him.

I know something about running. You cannot win unless your friends step up.
And tonight you have stepped up. And I know Mark is grateful, and so am I,
for coming tonight. So, thanks for being here. (Applause.)

You can't run for governor unless you have a wife who loves you, and a
family standing with you. And the Green family is a fine, fine family. I
want to thank Sue for being here, and Rachel and Anna and Alex. (Applause.)

I was also proud to have met Jeremy and Elizabeth Green, the mom and dad.
The mom kind of reminded me of my mom. (Laughter.)

Constantly reminding Mark, you know, what to do, how to say it. (Laughter.)

I said, "Are you listening to her?" He said, "Yeah, all the time." I said,
"Then you're going to win." Thank you all for being here. And by the way,
Laura sends her love to the Greens. (Applause.)

If you really need help coming down the stretch, I suggest you invite Laura
to come here to Wisconsin. She'll help you win. She's a great First Lady.
(Applause.)

We're having the time of our lives, by the way, and it really helps to --
well, I have a 45 second commute.

(Laughter.) And it helps to commute to a home where there's somebody you
respect and love there. And she sends her best. She knows what I know, that
you can't win in politics alone. And so for those who have given money,
thanks. And for those of you who are kind of warming up for the campaign,
thanks in advance for what you're going to do; which is to put up the
signs, knock on the doors, get on the telephones; go to your churches,
community centers, your synagogues, your houses of worship and say you've
got a good, decent man in Mark Green who can lead this state.

So thanks for being here. It means a lot to Mark and it means a lot to me.
I'm traveling over from Washington, by the way, with another fine public
servant from Wisconsin, and that's Congressman Paul Ryan. (Applause.)

By the way, we're working on an important piece of legislation in
Washington. That is to give the President the opportunity to kind of take
some of these special interest spending out of these spending bills. We
call it the line-item veto. It's one way to bring some fiscal sanity to
Washington, D.C. It's one way to make sure that people don't play politics
with your money.

Interestingly enough, the bill passed the United States House of
Representatives and the bill sponsor was this fine member from Wisconsin,
Paul Ryan. I want to thank you for your leadership. (Applause.)

Green's leaving the House and he's going to be succeeded by speaker John
Gard and I want to thank you for running and I wish you all the very best
in your run for the United States Congress, Mr. Speaker. You'll make a fine
member of the House of Representatives. (Applause.)

I want to thank all the local officials who are here in the State House. By
the way, if you're a member of the State House, a Senator or
Representative, you're fixing to have a sea change when Mark wins the
governorship. You're going to find somebody that's going to be a joy to
work with, somebody who will make an agenda, a clear agenda, somebody who
is making decisions based upon sound principles. So, I look forward on your
behalf to get yourself a new governor for the State of Wisconsin. I want to
thank the grass-roots leaders who are here.

First of all, Margaret Farrow is here, former Lieutenant Governor --
Margaret, thank you for coming. I appreciate you being here. (Applause.)
Good to see you again. I've spent some quality time here in the state of
Wisconsin. Some of my most fond memories campaigning in 2000 and 2004 were
in this state. And I had the honor of getting to know Margaret. So, it's
great to see you. Thanks for coming. Thanks for helping the next governor.
He needs your help.

I want the thank Rick Graber, who is the Chairman of the Republican party
Wisconsin. He is a good friend of mine and a good man. I want to thank Mary
Buestrin and I want to thank Klauser, Jim Klauser. I thank all the
grass-roots activists again for coming. (Applause.)

These are historic times in which we live. And I'm glad to have had
Congressman Green in Washington, D.C. during a time where the President has
had to make some tough decisions; and the country has been through some
tough times. We are a nation at war. I wish I could report differently. But
you need to have a President, and you need to have leaders who see the
world the way it is, not the way we would hope it would be. And my biggest
job, and the biggest job of people in Washington, D.C., is to protect the
American people from further attack. And the way to do that is to stay on
the offense, to give the enemy no quarter and to bring them to justice
before they hurt us again; and that's precisely what this Administration
will continue to do. (Applause.)

Iraq is a part of the war on terror. It's the central front in the war on
terror, and the reason it's a central front is because the enemy that
attacked us has made it clear they would like to have a safe haven from
which to attack us again. I didn't make this up. I'm just telling you what
the enemy has said. In order to make sure this country is secure you better
have a Commander in Chief who listens carefully to what the enemy says and
takes them seriously, which I do.

By the way, just so you know, when you're the Chief Executive Officer you
make a lot of decisions. And 9/11 affected my decision making a lot. I
vowed that the country would do everything -- we would do everything to
protect the country. I meant what I said. Iraq is part of protecting the
country. I'm about to revisit a lot of history.

But one of the lessons of September the 11th is when this nation sees a
threat it must take these threats seriously before they fully materialize.
That's a lesson we must learn. And we must not forget. And we saw a threat.
Republicans and Democrats saw a threat in Saddam Hussein. After all, he had
attacked his neighbors. He had used weapons of mass destruction. At the
very least, he had the capacity to make weapons of mass destruction. He had
terrorist connections. He was shooting at American pilots. The decision I
made was the right decision. America is safer, and the world is better off
without Saddam Hussein in power. (Applause.)

The enemy believes we're weak. That's what they say. They believe we'll
lose our nerve. They believe it's just a matter of time before we pull out
of Iraq. The stakes in Iraq are incredibly high. But we've got some things
going for us. We've got a fantastic United States Military. And I want to
thank Mark Green and Brian for supporting these men and women. Listen, any
time you have a man or a woman in uniform in harms way they deserve the
full support of the United States Government. And thanks to these good
congressmen and this administration we've given them the full support of
the United States Government. (Applause.)

We also have 12 million people in Iraq who say, "I want to live in
freedom." I know it seems like an eternity since the elections last
December. I guess it's because we've got too many TV channels that things
seem to move real quick.

It wasn't all that long ago that the people, when given the chance, went to
the polls and said we want to be free. We want to live in a Iraqi-style
democracy. Just give us a chance. That's what they said.

And there are a group of killers, cold-blooded killers, that are trying to
stop the advance of this young democracy. That's what they're trying to do.
You got to ask yourself what kind of people fear democracy? Who wouldn't
want people to worship freely? What is the mindset where you can't go to
the public square and express yourself openly? It's the same mindset that
wants to attack us for what we believe in.

We're not going to lose in Iraq. As a matter of fact, we will win in Iraq
so long as we stay the course. Twelve million people have voted. They've
now got a unity government. I went over there and saw the man. Prime
Minister Maliki.

You know what I was looking for? I was looking for, do we have someone
there who can set an agenda; somebody who can follow through; somebody who
is dedicated to a government of, by, and for the people. And I've found a
courageous man there. And he's wondering, he's wondering when he hears all
the rhetoric in Washington, D.C. and around the country, he's wondering
whether the United States can keep its word. And I told him this, I said,
so long as you're willing to make the tough decisions, so long as you're
willing to represent the people the United States of America will keep our
word.

It's in our interest if we succeed in Iraq. And we're going to succeed in
Iraq. And when we succeed in Iraq we'll be a powerful example of freedom in
the heart of the Middle East.

You know you might have noticed recently that I went to Graceland. That's
Elvis' place. (Laughter.) With Prime Minister Koizumi. I think that's
really interesting. I think we need to put that visit in perspective about
what we're talking about and the hard decisions we've made in Washington,
D.C.

You see, 60 ago my dad, and I'm sure some of your relatives, fought the
Japanese. They were the sworn enemy of the United States of America. A lot
of people lost their lives in that war, a lot.

By the way, as you might recall, they attacked us at Pearl Harbor. We lost
more people on 9/11 than we did in Pearl Harbor. And yet, 60 years later,
after fighting this bloody war, I go to Graceland with Prime Minister
Koizumi. Something happened. And what happened in between that war and
today was the Japanese adopted a Japanese-style democracy.

Democracies yield the peace we want. And guess what we talked about after
we got passed talking about Elvis? (Laughter.)

We talked about North Korea. I congratulated Prime Minister Koizumi for
committing 1,000 troops into Iraq to help this young democracy. And he did
so because he knows what I know.

The best way to defeat the terrorists in the short run is to find them and
bring them to justice and to prevent them from having safe haven. The best
way to defeat them in the long run is to spread a liberty. Freedom yields
the peace we want. Freedom is able to convert. (Applause.)

Liberty has the capacity of converting an enemy into an ally, and some day
an American president will be talking with a duly elected leader of Iraq,
and talking about the peace.

We're doing the hard work necessary to protect ourselves and we're doing
the hard work of supporting young democracies. So we're laying the
foundation of peace for generations to come. And I appreciate the vision,
and strength, and courage of Mark Green on this tough issue. (Applause.)

So, today I had an interesting announcement to make, and that is that the
projected deficit of $423 billion is now down to $296 billion; in one year.
(Applause.)

It now means the deficit is 2.3 percent of GDP, which is about average over
the last 40 years. What's interesting about that announcement is that we
were able to achieve deficit reduction primarily because the revenues
increased in spite of the fact that we cut taxes.

You might remember the history of this Administration and working with
Mark, he understands that, and so does Ryan, that we've been through a
recession; and corporate scandals; a stock market correction; an attack on
the United States of America; two wars -- two battles in theaters to defend
ourselves, Afghanistan and Iraq; major natural disasters; high energy
prices; and yet this economy of ours is strong and we intend to keep it
that way.

And one of the reasons it's strong and one of the reasons it recovered, is
because we cut the taxes. We cut the taxes on small business people. We cut
the taxes on workers. We cut the taxes on families raising children. We cut
the taxes on dividends. We cut the taxes on capital gains.

I was at Allen Edmonds today; we accelerated depreciation, which caused him
to buy more equipment, which makes him an incredibly, productive,
competitive company. Cutting the taxes works. It makes this economy strong.
(Applause.)

You need a governor who will cut the taxes in Wisconsin.

(Applause.)

Mark Green is that governor. (Applause.)

You know, it's amazing the rhetoric in Washington is beyond belief at
times. They say in order to solve the deficit you've got to raise taxes. We
just proved them wrong. In order to solve the deficit you cut taxes, you
increase economic vitality which yields more taxes. That's how it works.
You need a tax cutter as your governor here. It's just a philosophical
difference, by the way, between people like myself and others -- me and
Mark and others. And it's this, we trust you with your money. Who best to
spend your money? You? Or the Government?

We believe that you can best spend your money. Do you realize the tax cuts
we passed left $1.1 trillion in the hands of workers and small business
owners and entrepreneurs and farmers.

I made the point today you have clearly shown that you can spend your money
better than the Federal Government can and, therefore, our economy is
strong. It's the envy of the world. One thing we've got to do in
Washington, D.C. is to make sure that we continue to grow. And one good way
to do that is to make the tax cuts permanent. (Applause.)

The other equation in reducing the deficit, by the way, is to make sure
we're wise about how we spend your money. You need a governor who knows how
to set priorities. I appreciate working with the Speaker, and the Leader in
the Senate; we've set priorities. I told you what the priorities are: It's
defending this country and giving our troops what they need to win the war
on terror. Beyond that, believe it or not, we've actually cut discretionary
spending on non-homeland and defense spending.

We're doing a good job about watching your money. And it's hard work.
Everybody's got a good idea. Every program sounds fantastic. You've got to
make sure you've got a good fiscal hog in your governor's seat. You've got
to have somebody who's willing to take on the sacred cow. Somebody's
asking, do these programs produce results? Somebody who is willing to look
beyond the title of the program to determine whether or not they're
delivering result for the people. Mark Green is that kind of guy. He's
going to do you a fine job as the governor when it comes to watching your
money. (Applause.)

This is a little off subject here, but the biggest problem we got in the
long term is dealing with these entitlement programs that we can't pay for,
that's Medicare and Social Security and Medicaid. If you're an older person
you're in good shape. If you're a younger person who is just working,
you're in lousy shape. And I can't wait to work with Congress to solve the
Social Security and Medicare issue.

One reason I ran for office is to solve problems and not pass them on to
other presidents and other members of Congress. It's time for the United
States Congress to stop playing politics with Social Security and Medicare
so a young generation of Americans can look at these entitlement programs
and say I'm not putting my money into a black hole. And it's hard work.
(Applause.)

It's hard work, but I'm confident we can get it done. I'm going to keep
working it. That's what the people expect us to do. And I appreciate
Congressman Ryan. He's not afraid to take on the tough issues. That's the
kind of person you want in Washington, D.C. -- and neither is Mark Green.
You see, you've got to have somebody in the governor's chair who sees a
tough issue and says, I'm going to take it on, that's why I ran. You've got
too many people in politics who say, well, it might affect my poll numbers
and therefore, I'm going to duck it. I just can't imagine people running
for office and saying I'm going the duck the tough issue.

You've got to have you a governor who is willing to stand up and make the
tough calls. And Mark Green is that man. He also understands this -- I used
to tell people when I was the governor of Texas that education is to a
state what national defense is to the Federal Government. I really believe
that a governor has got to make education the number one priority of the
state. And Mark Green is going to do that. (Applause.)

I worked with him on passing the No Child Left Behind Act.

And this is a powerful piece of legislation; and necessary reform. Here's
the way it works: It says first of all, that we believe everybody can learn
to read and write, and add and subtract. And we refuse to accept a system
that doesn't hold people to account if they're not learning to read and
write, and add and subtract.

We said in Washington, D.C. if you're going to receive Federal money, which
states do, that we expect you, the state, to measure to determine whether
we are achieving certain objectives.

There was a huge howl, of course, when you lay that kind of initiative out
there. People said, how dare you measure. And my answer is, how dare we not
measure. How can you expect the school system to be good unless you're
willing to test to see whether or not children are learning to read and
write, and add and subtract. And guess what happens, by the way, in a
school system that has no accountability? Guess who loses? Generally
inner-city kids, or parents who don't speak English as a first language.

See, it's easy to quit on those kinds of children. It's easy just to
shuffle them through the grades; so when you're 10 you're supposed to be
here; if you're 11 you're supposed to be in this grade. We blew the whistle
on that kind of soft bigotry of low expectations. We said we were going to
measure to determine whether or not the schools are succeeding.

And if they're not succeeding we're going to make sure a child gets extra
help early before it gets too late.

I know there's a big debate here about school choice, and there should be a
debate. And it's an important debate. And my attitude is, when you find a
child trapped in a school that will not teach and will not change you have
got to give parents other options. (Applause.)

In Mark Green you'll have a governor who's willing to challenge the status
quo in education; a governor who's willing to insist upon high standards
and excellence in the classroom; a governor who will not rest if he finds
children trapped in mediocrity. He understands that the future of a state
depends upon the state's capacity to provide an excellent education for
every child regardless of what he or she looks like. And that's the
governor Mark Green's going to be. (Applause.)

I bet the doctors in this state can't wait to get yourself a governor who's
willing to support medical liability reforms.

(Applause.)

You can't have good healthcare, you cannot have affordable and available
healthcare, if you have a liability system that has run amok. And I know
how tough these trial lawyers are in some of these states. I took them on
in the state of Texas. And you need to have a governor for the sake of good
medicine, for the sake of affordable medicine, for the sake of patients,
and for the sake of needed professionals to stand up to the trial bar and
pass medical liability reform. And Mark Green is going to do that.
(Applause.)

I think you can tell I'm quite enthusiastic about him.

(Laughter.)

I do want to conclude by saying this about Mark: He and I understand that
government is limited in its capacity to love. I mean government -- you can
pass laws, you can hold people to account, and government is justice, as it
should be. Government is fairness. But government can't put hope in a
person's heart, or a sense of purpose in a person's life. That happens when
a loving person puts their arm around a lost soul and says, I love you,
brother. Or I love you, sister, what can I do to help?

I think the state of Wisconsin will benefit mightly from having a person as
governor who is willing to rally the faith-based community and community
center groups to do their duty to help change Wisconsin one heart, and one
soul, and one conscience at a time.

Our society should not fear the involvement of faith and helping to cure
some of the intractable social ills. We ought to have leaders who welcome
those who've heard the universal call to love a neighbor just like you'd
like to be loved yourself, to make your state as good as it can possibly
be. And that governor is going to be Governor Mark Green. Thank you all for
coming tonight. God bless.

(Applause.)

END 6:17 P.M. CST

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