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Skriven 2006-10-03 23:31:40 av Whitehouse Press (1:3634/12.0)
Ärende: Press Release (061003b) for Tue, 2006 Oct 3
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Remarks by the President at John Doolittle for Congress Reception
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For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
October 3, 2006

Remarks by the President at John Doolittle for Congress Reception
Serrano Country Club
El Dorado Hills, California



2:12 P.M. PDT

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you for coming. Thanks for the warm welcome. It's good
to be in El Dorado County. (Laughter.) I can see why you live here. It's a
beautiful part of the world. And I'm honored to be standing here with a man
who has done a fine job as a member of the United States Congress, John
Doolittle. (Applause.)

He was telling me on the way in you did a pretty good job filling the hat.
(Laughter.) And I want to thank you for doing that. He deserves your
support. (Applause.) He's a straightforward, honest, decent man with a lot
of common sense. That's what we need in Washington, D.C. -- a lot of common
sense. And I'm proud to be standing with John Doolittle. And I appreciate
Julie, and I appreciate his family.

I'm also proud to be here with the Congressman from the next district, and
that would be Dan Lungren. Dan, thank you for coming. (Applause.) And I'm
glad you brought Bobbi with you. I also appreciate Doug Ose, a former
congressman. Doug is with us, a good friend of mine -- I'm proud to be with
him. (Applause.)

The truth of the matter is, old John, when he's thinking about who could
come and speak, really didn't want me first. (Laughter.) He had somebody
else in mind for this event -- not Barbara. (Laughter.) Laura. (Applause.)
That shows good judgment. (Laughter.) Laura sends her best to the
Doolittles. She, like me, strongly believes John deserves to be reelected
to the United States Congress. And we want to thank you for doing that.
(Applause.)

By the way, and I know I'm not very objective, but I think Laura is a
fabulous First Lady. (Applause.) I know she's a great wife, and a fabulous
mother, and she's got to be the most patient woman in America. (Laughter.)

I believe strongly that our philosophy represents the philosophy that is
the most hopeful for all Americans. I believe our philosophy is one that
works, because we've seen it work. Take, for example, the economy. I want
you all to remember that the past five years, this economy has been through
a lot. It's been through a recession, corporate scandals; it's been through
a terrorist attack on the United States. The economy had to endure the fact
that I decided to protect this country by going on the offense against the
terrorists, and so we had a war in Afghanistan and a war in Iraq.
(Applause.) And natural disasters we had to deal with, high energy prices.
And, yet, the economy of the United States is the envy of the
industrialized world. People are working. The entrepreneurial spirit is
strong. Our farmers and ranchers are doing well. Small business are
growing, productivity is up.

Something happened -- and what happened was we cut the taxes on the working
people and the small business owners. (Applause.) Our philosophy is that
the more money you have in your pocket, the better off the economy is. We
like it when you've got more money to save, spend and invest. We know that
when you save, spend or invest, the economy grows.

That stands in stark contrast to our opponents, the Democrats. They believe
they can spend your money better than you can. And make no mistake about
it, one of the fundamental differences of this campaign is what will the
tax rates look like. If you vote Republican, we're going to keep the taxes
low. If the people vote Democrat, the government is getting into your
pocket and spend your money on your behalf. (Applause.)

Now, you might not -- listen carefully to the rhetoric in this campaign.
You see, we've got these tax cuts in place and a lot of them are going to
expire. So when you hear people say, well, we're not going to extend the
tax cuts, that really means they're going to raise your taxes. It's like
saying to somebody -- just giving them a raise and say, well, I'm going to
take the raise away from you. That's not a raise.

In order to make sure this economy continues to grow, in order to make sure
the entrepreneurial spirit remains strong, in order to make sure our small
business sector continues to lead economic growth, we need to make the tax
cuts permanent. (Applause.) And John Doolittle understands that. He knows
it loud and clear. (Applause.) He stands on principle in Washington, D.C.
He trusts you with your own money.

You'll hear these -- all kinds of excuses about why they want to raise your
taxes. Perhaps the one you hear the most of is, well, we just need to raise
your taxes to balance the budget. The problem is that's not the way
Washington, D.C. works. I've been up there long enough to know how it
works. They'll figure out new ways to spend your money when they raise your
taxes. They'll have more money to spend on pet projects. The best way to
balance the budget is to keep taxes low, grow the economy, which yields
more tax revenues, set priorities with your money, and be fiscally sound.
And that's what we're going to continue to do. (Applause.)

And the single biggest priority to spend with your money is to make sure
our troops have all the equipment, training, and support they need to do
their job. (Applause.) And Congressman John Doolittle understands that. And
I'm proud to say that, by working with people in the Congress like
Congressman Doolittle, our military is well funded and the esprit de corps
is high. I can't tell you how great it is to be the Commander-in-Chief of
such wonderful people, men and women who, in the face of danger, said, I
volunteer to serve the United States of America to protect our freedoms.
Our military is great, and we intend to keep it that way, for your sake.
(Applause.)

I couldn't help but notice there's a lot of farmers and ranchers in this
part of the world. (Applause.) I strongly suggest making sure you've got a
congressman in Washington, D.C. who understands how important it is to have
a strong agricultural sector. I personally believe that when the ag sector
is strong, our economy is strong. And I know full well we've got to have a
strong agricultural sector for national security reasons. John Doolittle
understands farming, and he understands ranching, and he's representing you
well in the United States Congress. (Applause.)

Speaking about national security, we got to make sure we become less
dependent on foreign sources of oil. There's a complacency, I'm sure,
that's going to start setting in here because gasoline prices are low. And
I'm glad they're going down. I'm glad for the sake of the working people in
the United States. I'm glad for the sake of the farmers and ranchers. I'm
glad for the sake of those who make a living on the highways that the price
of gasoline is going down. But that doesn't lessen the national security
consequences of being dependent on foreign sources of oil.

And so I look forward to working with John Doolittle to fund research and
development on technologies that will enable us to drive automobiles with
ethanol, or to be able to have new batteries that will enable you to drive
the first 40 miles on electricity, and your car is not going to have to
look like a golf cart. (Laughter.) Or eventually powering your automobiles
by hydrogen. And this is coming. We're spending a lot of your money on
research to enable this country to become less dependent on foreign sources
of oil, and in the meantime, we need to be exploring for oil and gas in
environmentally friendly ways right here in the United States of America.
(Applause.)

There's a lot of issues I look forward to working with Congress and
Doolittle on: making sure our education system continues to hold people to
account; making sure the health care system empowers patients and
providers, and not the federal government when it comes to making decisions
for you; making sure we get legal liability for our doctors. We got too
many junk lawsuits that are running good doctors out of practice, which is
running up the cost of your medicine. (Applause.) And I look forward to
working with John to make sure our faith-based and community-based
initiative still has support in the United States Congress.

Let me tell you something about this country. The great strength of America
is not in our military or not in the size of our wallets, but exists in the
hearts and souls of our fellow citizens. I am proud of and complimentary of
the fact that thousands of our citizens volunteer on a daily basis to feed
the hungry, find shelter for the homeless, without one single law. People
hear that call to love a neighbor just like you'd like to be loved
yourself. And it's changing our country and it's saving souls. And the
federal government ought not to fear the influence of faith in our society,
but we ought to welcome faith-based and community projects to help solve
America's most intractable problems. (Applause.)

There's going to be a lot of domestic issues we will be working on. But by
far the biggest issue of this campaign and the biggest issue confronting
the federal government is this: the security of you; the security of the
United States. Make no mistake about it, there's an enemy that still lurks,
an enemy that still plans, an enemy that still plots, an enemy that still
wants to hurt the United States of America. These are ideologues bound by a
hateful ideology. They can't stand what America stands for.

We believe strongly in the right of people to worship any way they see fit.
As a matter of fact, one of the great strengths of the United States of
America is you're equally American if you're a Muslim or a Jew or a
Christian or a Hindu or an agnostic or atheist. You have a right to choose
in the United States of America and that right is a sacred right. But
that's not the case with these ideologues. If you don't worship the way
they want you to worship, there's penalty, and harsh penalties at that.
They don't believe in the public square. They don't believe in people being
able to dissent. They're bound by this ideology and they've got objectives.
And their objective is to drive the United States from parts of the world
so they can spread their ideology throughout the Middle East in the form of
a caliphate.

I like to remind people that we're in the ideological struggle of the 21st
century. It's a struggle between good and evil. It's a struggle between
moderate people and extremists. It's a struggle between those who believe
in democracy and those who support tyranny. And the decisions that we make
today will affect the security of the United States, and affect the type of
world your children and grandchildren live in.

These are historic times, and they're tough times, and they require steady
leadership from the United States of America. And I need steady support in
the United States Congress to protect this country. After 9/11, I came to
these conclusions: one, that in order to protect you, in order to defeat
this enemy of hatred, that we must stay on the offense. We must defeat the
enemy overseas so we do not have to face them here at home. (Applause.) I
concluded that where we find people harboring these terrorists, they should
be judged equally as guilty as the terrorists. And the Taliban found out
what the United States meant when they refused to turn over al Qaeda. And
today, because of the actions of our coalition in Afghanistan, terrorist
training camps and safe havens have been eliminated; 25 million people now
live in freedom; and the world is better off for it. (Applause.)

And, of course, the great debate is Iraq. The debate you'll hear a lot of
talk about is, what should the United States of America do in Iraq? The
first thing I would ask the Democrats is, do they truly believe the world
would be better off with Saddam Hussein still in power? And if so, they
need to say it loud and clear -- because I know full well that this state
sponsor of terror, a person who had used weapons of mass destruction, a
person who invaded his neighbors, the sworn enemy of the United States,
someone who was shooting at U.S. pilots, someone who defied the United
Nations resolution -- removing him from power has made America safer and
the world a better place. (Applause.)

The debate is active and alive, and that's good. You hear people in
Washington, D.C. say that Iraq is a distraction from the war on terror. I
believe it is a central front in the war on terror, and I believe we must
defeat the enemy and help that young democracy succeed in order to make
sure this homeland is more secure. But don't believe me. Just listen to the
words of Osama bin Laden, or Zawahiri, the number two in al Qaeda. They
have loudly proclaimed that Iraq is central to their ambitions. They have
made it abundantly clear that they will continue their murderous ways to
drive us out of Iraq so they can establish safe haven from which to launch
further attacks.

They want a capacity to be able to topple moderate governments who do not
subscribe to their view of the world. Imagine a world 20 or 30 years from
now where moderate governments have been toppled, where extremists are
battling for power in the Middle East, where these killers have got control
of oil resources which they would use to punish the free world economically
if the free world didn't concede to their demands. Imagine that kind of
world in the midst of which was a country with a nuclear weapon aiming to
-- and vowing to destroy our close friend, Israel. If that world were ever
to exist because the United States of America lost its nerve during this
battle in Iraq, history would look back and say, what happened to them? How
come they couldn't see the problem? How come they lost their nerve and left
a generation of Americans to deal with a troubled world?

Now is the time to confront this group of killers and these extremists. Now
is the time to defend the United States of America by defeating the enemy
overseas. Now is the time to stand with the 12 million people who demanded
their liberty. Now is the time to help young democracies and moderates
around the world, so when history looks back they can say, they did their
duty and they laid the foundation of peace for a generation to come.
(Applause.)

The challenge of defending you here at home is immense, because we've got
to be right one hundred percent of the time, and the enemy has only got to
be right one time. And that's why, after 9/11, I called upon the Congress
to make sure that those responsible for defending you have got all the
tools necessary to do so. I worked with Congress to pass the Patriot Act,
to break down walls that prevented the intelligence services from talking
to the criminal justice, the law enforcement personnel. I can't explain
very well why that was the case. I'm sure you're wondering how come
somebody who gathered intelligence in the United States couldn't share that
same information with law enforcement, but, nevertheless, that's the way it
was.

You cannot defend this country unless all branches of government have the
capacity to talk to each other, to share information. This is a different
kind of war. This isn't a war measured by the number of platoons, or size
of a navy. This is a war in which we must find about the intentions of the
enemy and take care of them before they come and hurt us.

And so, therefore, our people need the tools necessary to protect you. And
that's why I established the Terrorist Surveillance Program, to monitor
terrorist communications coming into this country and out of this country.
Listen, after 9/11, we created the program with the Central Intelligence
Agency to detain and question key leaders that we picked up off the
battlefield. When I said we're going to give these people tools, those are
the kind of tools I was talking about.

On each of these programs -- the Patriot Act, and the Terrorist
Surveillance Program, and the legislation to authorize aggressive
interrogation of terrorists -- the Democrats say they share our goals, but
when it comes time to vote, they have consistently opposed giving our
personnel the tools they need to protect us. And this is an issue in this
campaign.

The issue in this campaign is which party, which group of individuals have
got the will and the foresight necessary to give our professionals the
tools necessary so they can do the most important job facing our
government, and that is to protect you from further attack. Time and time
again, the Democrats want to have it both ways. They talk tough on terror,
but when it comes time -- when their votes are counted, their softer side
comes out. (Laughter.)

You don't have to worry about Doolittle. (Laughter.) He understands the
stakes. He understands the cause. (Applause.)

If you've got a second, I'd like to review these three acts and the
legislative history in the hopes of clarifying the differences between how
we think and how the other people think. First, on the Patriot Act: In the
weeks after 9/11, we passed this vital law, and in the five years since, it
has proved invaluable to stopping further attacks. In other words, it's
worked. The law enforcement community has used the law to break up terror
cells or prosecute terrorist operatives in California, and Texas, New
Jersey, Illinois, North Carolina, Virginia, Ohio, New York, Oregon and
Florida.

In 2001, the vote in the United States Senate was 98 to 1. And then, five
years later, when the bill came up for renewal, the Senate Democrats
filibustered it. That's Washington talk for trying to kill it. They didn't
want it to go forward. As a matter of fact, the Senate Democrat leadership,
when they were filibustering, said, "We killed the Patriot Act." And a
reporter said whether that was something to celebrate -- does that really
make sense to celebrate that maneuver? And his answer was, "Of course, it
is."

See, there's a difference of opinion in Washington, D.C. It's a difference
of opinion in this campaign and campaigns around the country. As a matter
of fact, saying they were for the Patriot Act and then working to kill the
Patriot Act kind of reminds me of another campaign. (Laughter.) We may be
heading back to the old days.

Finally, the filibuster died, and I signed the law, and the United States
of America is safer because of it. (Applause.)

I know you're familiar with the program of the National Security Agency
called the Terrorism Surveillance Program that I installed. I did so to
protect you. The philosophy behind the program is pretty clear, pretty
simple to understand: If al Qaeda or an al Qaeda associate is calling into
the United States, we want to know why. We want to know their intentions.
We want to be able to prevent an attack.

People say, well, how do you know they're al Qaeda? Well, a lot of times,
we're picking up information on the battlefield -- say, one of these people
we pick up has got a phone number on their possession and it happens to be
a U.S. phone number. I think it makes sense -- I don't care whether you're
Republican or Democrat or independent -- for the United States --
(laughter) -- wondering why somebody would be calling that phone number.
(Laughter and applause.)

Last week, when the legislation providing additional authority for the
Terrorist Surveillance Program came before the House of Representatives,
177 Democrats voted against listening in on terrorist communications. See,
it's a clear position. It's a clear signal of how they view the world in
which they live. I'm not saying these people are not patriotic; they are.
I'm not saying they don't love America; they do. They just see the world
differently. And it's an important issue in this campaign as to how we see
the world.

I see the world as a dangerous place. I see the world with enemies coming
to try to hurt us. I see our most important job is to protect you. And,
therefore, we will give our folks on the front line of terror the tools
necessary to do so. (Applause.)

I want to spend a little time on this CIA program. I set up the program to
detain and question key terrorist operatives and leaders who were captured
on the battlefield. You see, a captured leader may have some information
that will help protect you. You know, they may know plans; they may
understand what plots are underway. And I know that our security depends on
getting this kind of information.

In the past five years, the good and decent professionals of the CIA have
worked tirelessly to get information from captured terrorists that enabled
us to stop new attacks on the homeland. In other words, we were able to get
vital information that we can act on to protect you. Every American has got
to understand the importance of this program. Information from the
terrorists questioned by the CIA helped break up a cell of Southeast Asian
terrorist operatives that had been groomed for an attack on the United
States. The program helped us stop an al Qaeda cell from developing anthrax
for attacks against the United States. It helped stop a planned strike on a
U.S. Marine camp in Djibouti; prevent a planned attack on the U.S.
Consulate in Karachi. It helped foil a plot to hijack airplanes and fly
them into Heathrow and London's Canary Wharf.

In other words, from this program we got vital information that enabled us
to act to protect you. Were it not for this information from the terrorists
questioned by the CIA, our intelligence community believes that al Qaeda
and its allies would have succeeded in launching another attack against the
United States. (Applause.)

Last week, the Congress held a vote on the future of this program. The
choice before every member was clear: Should the CIA program continue, or
not? Congress voted to continue the program, thankfully, for the security
of the country. I'm looking forward to signing this bill into law.
(Applause.) And I thank John Doolittle for his strong support in helping
getting that bill out of the United States House of Representatives.
(Applause.)

In this campaign season, this vote tells us a great deal -- the vote on
this bill tells a great deal where the two parties stand. In other words,
you can get rid of all the rhetoric and you can look where the parties
stand. In the House of Representatives, 160 Democrats, including the entire
Democrat leadership, voted against continuing this program. Eighty percent
of House Democrats want to stop a program that has provided invaluable
intelligence that has saved American lives.

In the Senate, 32 Democrats, including every member of their Senate
leadership save one, voted to kill the program, which means that about
three-quarters of the Democrats in the Senate, including both of the
senators from the state of California, voted to stop the men and women of
the CIA from continuing a program to get information from terrorists like
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed about planned attacks on the United States of
America.

We just have a fundamental difference, and it's a key difference for all
Americans to look at and listen to. During the debate on the Senate floor,
one senior Democrat, their ranking member on the Judiciary Committee,
compared the brave Americans who question the terrorists to the Taliban and
Saddam Hussein. I believe this exposes a dangerous mind-set on the part of
Democrats in the United States Congress. You can't defend America if you
can't tell the difference between brave CIA officers who protect their
fellow citizens and brutal dictators who kill their citizens. (Applause.)

I'm not making any of this up. (Laughter.) Another Senate Democrat said
that allowing the CIA to go forward with its program to question the most
dangerous terrorists we have captured would, in this person's words,
"diminish the security and safety of Americans everywhere." We just have a
different mind-set, a different view of the world. If they feel safer
without this program, the Democrats in the Senate need to explain to the
American people which of the attacks that the CIA program stopped would
they have been willing to let go forward. (Applause.)

Protecting your country is the number-one priority as far as I'm concerned,
and it's the number one priority as far as Congressman Doolittle is
concerned. (Applause.) We must see the world the way it is, and stay on the
offense, and bring these people to justice before they hurt any American
citizen.

But there is a different point of view in Washington. The House Democratic
Leader, right here from the state of California, summed up her party's
approach to the midterm elections this way: She said, "This election
shouldn't be about national security." Well, I think it's about national
security, and I think when the people take a good look about the dangers
confronting the United States of America, they'll think it's about national
security. (Applause.) Democrats take a law enforcement approach to
terrorism that means America will wait until we're attack again to respond.
That's kind of a pre-9/11 mentality, and it's not going to make this
country any safer.

We believe that we're in a war, and that we must prevent attacks from
happening in the first place by staying on the offense. (Applause.) If you
want leaders in Washington who understand the enemy we face and will give
our folks the tools necessary to protect you, if you want people in
Washington who are not going to sit back and wait to be attacked again, you
make sure you send people like John Doolittle back to the United States
Congress. (Applause.)

I'm an optimistic fellow. I believe strongly in my heart of hearts that not
only will we secure this country, but we will do the hard work necessary to
help moderates and reasonable people and people who long for peace in the
Middle East achieve their dreams. When we find young democracies attacked
by extremists, we'll help them survive. When we find liberty challenged in
dark corners of the world, we'll stand with those reformers and those
reasonable people who are anxious to see the extremists defeated and
marginalized. This is the call of the 21st century. This is the challenge
for our generation. And I'm confident, I'm confident, that our generation
will rise to that challenge. And when history looks back, they will say,
job well done.

Thanks for coming. God bless. (Applause.)

END 2:45 P.M. PDT

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