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Skriven 2007-02-26 23:32:30 av Whitehouse Press (1:3634/12.0)
Ärende: Press Release (0702269) for Mon, 2007 Feb 26
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President Attends the 2007 Republican Governors Association Gala
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For Immediate Release Office of the Press Secretary February 26, 2007

President Attends the 2007 Republican Governors Association Gala National
Building Museum Washington, D.C.

˙˙White House News


6:50 P.M. EST

THE PRESIDENT: Thanks for coming. Thank you all for being here tonight. I
am honored to join you. You might remember -- I am a former member of the
Republican Governors Association. (Applause.) And now I am a proud brother
of another former member. Now that he's out of office, I understand Jeb is
spending a lot of time on Florida's beaches. (Laughter.) He says people
still recognize him -- when he's out there in his Speedo, they come up and
say, "How you doing, Governor Schwarzenegger." (Laughter.)

He made a promise to me that when he left office he'd make sure that he had
a good man following him, and he kept his promise when Charlie Crist got
elected Governor of the great state of Florida. (Applause.)

And I also want to welcome some of the newly elected governors: Governor
Jim Gibbons of Nevada. (Applause.) Butch Otter, of Idaho. (Applause.) He's
out there getting a hors d'oeuvre. And Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska.
(Applause.) And I thank my friends, the governors who have joined us. I
really enjoyed our visit today. I appreciate the kindness you have shown to
me and I appreciate your hard work.

I particularly want to pay tribute to the spouses of the governors -- the
people who work hard to make sure the governors are capable of doing their
jobs. And speaking about spouses, Sonny took it a little far when he said
Laura was a courageous person -- I think he was referring to the fact that
she was courageous when she said "yes" when I asked her to marry me. But
I'm real proud of Laura. I love her dearly. I think she's a great First
Lady for the country and I -- (applause.)

And I thank Sonny Perdue and Mary. I appreciate my friend Matt Blunt and
Melanie. You know, this is a record setting evening and it took an
extraordinary leader from a great state to convince you to contribute. And
so I want to thank -- say thanks to my friend and my governor, Rick Perry
and the first lady of Texas, Anita. (Applause.) I want to thank the members
of my administration who have joined us today, and I appreciate you coming.

I think the thing that's important for you all to realize is that we are
the party of ideas. We're results oriented people. That's how we got the
majority and that's what it's going to take to get the majority back:
standing on principle, not worrying about polls and focus groups, but
saying what you think is right and acting on it. (Applause.)

In the battle of ideas, we stand with the American people. We believe in a
strong national defense. We believe in less government and lower taxes. And
we believe that you've got to trust the values and the good judgment of the
American people. (Applause.)

And I appreciate the innovative ideas that governors, Republican governors
are pushing all around this country. And that's why when I spoke to them
today I think I said it's very important for this administration to work
with our governors. The states are laboratories for reform. The states are
the place where some of the best innovation can take place to make sure the
entire country benefits.

I've set a big agenda here in Washington, D.C.; I want to share some of
that with you. But my political agenda is this: more Republican governors,
take back control of the House and the Senate, and make sure we keep the
White House in 2008. (Applause.)

And I want to thank you all for helping make those goals become reality.
And I appreciate contributing of your hard earned money. It means a lot to
candidates who are running for office. It means a lot to organizers, people
like Sonny, who are going to recruit good people to run for office, to know
that there's something besides the telephone call awaiting -- there's
support. And you're making a big difference and I appreciate it.

We've got a lot to do here in Washington. The most important job for the
federal government is to protect the American people from harm. (Applause.)
And the best way to do that is to stay on the offense against these
terrorists, is to defeat them overseas so we don't have to face them again
here in America. (Applause.)

And that's exactly what we're doing every single day. There are good and
decent people in my administration and around the country who are securing
this homeland. They are good, honorable people overseas chasing down these
killers and bringing them to justice. Part of our strategy is to keep the
pressure on them. The other part of our strategy is to defeat their hateful
ideology by spreading freedom around the world. I believe that freedom is
universal and I believe it's in the interest of the United States to free
people, so that the world will become a more peaceful place. (Applause.)

There are two major theaters in this global war against these extremists.
One is Afghanistan, and the other is Iraq. I'd like to spend a little time
on the subject of Iraq. As you know, I recently announced a plan for
victory in Iraq. I was confronted with a serious decision to make: did I
accept the status quo and hope that the capital of that young democracy
would somehow be able to regain its footing; or did it make sense for the
United States to gradually withdraw from that country, before democracy was
able to take hold; or did it make sense to reinforce our troops then in the
theater to make sure the capital city of Baghdad became secure. And I chose
the latter because I think it gives us the best chance to achieve our
objective, which is a democracy that can defend itself, sustain itself and
govern itself and serve as an ally in this war against these extremists.
(Applause.)

I made some changes, nominated a good man to lead the cause there in
Baghdad, General David Petraeus. He recently went up for confirmation in
the United States Senate. He received a fair hearing and was approved
unanimously by the senators, and I appreciated them for their strong
support. During his testimony, General Petraeus strongly supported the idea
of sending reinforcements into Baghdad to help the capital city, to help
this new government find breathing space necessary to do the reconciliation
necessary after years of tyranny. And, yet, shortly after his unanimous
confirmation, the House of Representatives passed a symbolic resolution
that expressed disapproval of the very plan that he thought was necessary
to accomplish our objective.

I have no problems with debate -- as a matter of fact, one of the healthy
things about our society is the right for people to express their opinion.
I never question anybody's patriotism who disagrees with me. But soon the
United States Congress will have to make a decision that will have real
consequences: whether or not to fund the troops we have sent into harm's
way. Our men and women in uniform risk their lives to carry out our plan to
support this new democracy and to secure Baghdad. And wherever members may
stand on my decision, we have a solemn responsibility to give our troops
the resources and the flexibility they need to prevail. (Applause.)

This is tough work, but it's necessary work. It's necessary to help this
young government survive, because, you see, if we were to leave Iraq before
the job is done the enemy would follow us here. Failure in Iraq would
invite chaos, would embolden those who would do us harm again, would enable
them to recruit more of their fanatics that are willing to kill the
innocent. Failure in the Iraq would cause the extremists to rejoice, and
those who hunger for a better way of life to wonder about the resolve of
the United States of America. Failure in Iraq is unacceptable. It would
affect generations of Americans to come. And that is why I made the
decision I made -- a decision that will help us secure the peace for our
children and our grandchildren. (Applause.)

Our foreign policy is more than war and diplomacy. I believe to whom much
is given, much is required. And we're a blessed nation. Therefore, it is in
our national interests to defeat disease and hunger and poverty as best as
we can. I will continue to call upon the United States Congress to fund the
HIV/AIDS initiative on the continent of Africa, so we can save life. Do you
realize as a result of your generosity and the support of the Congress, the
PEPFAR initiative has now delivered anti-retroviral drugs, life-saving
drugs to more than 800,000 people in less than five years. (Applause.)

A robust foreign policy that reflects the heart of the American people is
one that recognizes that we can eliminate malaria in countries around the
world. And I thank Laura and others in this audience for leading the fight
against malaria, and I call upon other free nations of the world to join
the United States to do our duty, to save lives, no matter where they may
be. (Applause.)

We will challenge corruption where we find it. We will insist for freedom
where we can insist, in places like Cuba and Belarus and Burma. And we will
always remember that this great nation not only must take care of the
unfortunate in our own land, but help others realize the great blessings of
freedom. I'm proud of our foreign policy and for the next two years, I will
conduct it with all the -- with all my soul and with all my might, because
I believe it is in the best interests of the United States of America.
(Applause.)

Here at home the most important thing the government can do is to create
the conditions for the entrepreneurial spirit to flourish. Oh, I know they
don't talk too much about it, but I am -- and that's the economy. And it's
cooking. And we intend to keep it that way. (Applause.) We believe
government doesn't create wealth, but the environment in which small
businesses can grow to be big businesses, an environment where people can
realize their dreams. And the best way for the federal government to create
that environment is to cut taxes and to keep them low, which is precisely
what we did. (Applause.)

If the Congress wants to continue this economic vitality, the best gesture
they can make is to make the tax cuts we passed permanent. (Applause.) Oh,
I know you'll here them say up here in Washington, you cannot balance the
budget unless you raises the taxes on the American people. We're proving
them wrong. I set the goal of cutting the deficit in half in a five-year
period of time, and we exceeded that goal by three years. You know why?
Because when the economy is strong, it yields more tax revenues for the
U.S. Treasury. So when you combine that with fiscal austerity, we're on our
way to balancing the budget. And I just submitted a budget to the United
States Congress that says we'll balance the budget in five years so long as
they keep taxes low to keep the economy going and they're wise about how we
spend your money. (Applause.)

We've got a slight problem up here, what's called earmarks -- and I intend
to do something about it. And I intend to work with Congress to do
something about it. An earmark is a special interest item. It gets stuck
into one of these appropriations bills. A lot of times they never even see
the light of day. In other words, they don't debate them, they don't vote
on them, they just show up on my desk. Those days have got to end if we're
going to make sure we're wise about how we spend your money. You know what
Congress needs to do? They need to give me the same power many of these
governors have, and that's the line item veto. (Applause.)

I'm looking forward to working with both Republicans and Democrats on doing
something about Social Security and Medicare. It's tough -- it's tough
political work up here to do that. A lot of people don't want to deal with
that issue. My advice and my call is for people to bring their ideas to the
table. Come to the table with how best to save a generation from high taxes
or reduced benefits. You bring your ideas to the table, and so will I --
and we'll see if we can't do something good for the American people, set
aside politics and solve the Social Security issue once and for all.
(Applause.)

I'm looking [forward] to working with my friends, the governors, on health
care. I believe some of the most innovative ideas on health care are being
proposed by our governors. Michael Leavitt, who is head of HHS, is asking
Congress to give affordable grants -- in other words, the flexibility of
that federal money we're spending in the states so that these governors can
design programs all aimed at making sure our uninsured can afford private
insurance. And I emphasize "private insurance." Some in Washington believe
the best way to solve the health care issue is for the federal government
to solve it. I don't believe that. I believe the best solution in health
care is to empower consumers to make choices. The best way to do that at
the state level is to have flexibility in federal funding so they can
design programs for basic health insurance, coupled with this.

I believe that there ought to be a $15,000 standard deduction, if your
married, off your income taxes and payroll taxes to help you afford
insurance. If you're working uninsured or if you're working for a small
business who has no health insurance, you pay with after-tax dollars, and
if you work for a corporation, you can get your insurance free -- and that
is unfair. The tax code needs to be reformed. (Applause.)

Congress needs to pass association health plans to let small businesses
pool risk across jurisdictional boundaries so our small business owners can
better afford health insurance. We need to continue to promote health
savings accounts. We need medical liability reform in Washington, D.C., to
keep good docs in the practice and keep the cost of medicine reasonable. We
need information technology. And all I'm telling you, the best policy for
health care is to make sure that it's doctors and patients making the
decisions, not bureaucrats and insurance companies. (Applause.)

I'm looking forward to working with our governors on No Child Left Behind.
That bill comes up for reauthorization in Congress and Congress needs to
reauthorize it, and here's why: I believe strongly states ought to have
flexibility; I believe strongly in local control of schools. But I believe
in setting high standards for children, and I believe it is important to
measure to determine whether or not our children can read and write and add
and subtract early. And if they can't, there ought to be special help. And
when they do, we ought to thank our teachers and thank our governors and
thank the legislature for adequately funding education.

But one thing we can't do is we can't leave children behind by just
guessing whether or not they're learning. The best policies are to measure,
and when we find schools that will not change, then we've got to give
parents different choices so that no child is left behind in the United
States of America. (Applause.)

We need an immigration policy that holds the values of the United States of
America. We'll enforce our borders, but we need more than that. We need a
temporary worker program that will enable willing workers to do jobs
Americans are not doing, so that we can get the pressure off the border and
uphold the values of the United States of America. (Applause.)

I can keep going -- (laughter) -- but Laura is giving me the hook.
(Applause.)

I do want to talk about one other subject, though, before I leave, and that
is energy. (Applause.) This country -- and that's going to sound odd for a
Texan to say -- this country is too dependent on oil and we need to do
something about it right now. You see, dependency on energy from foreign
sources is a national security problem. Sometimes we get that oil from
countries that don't like us. Dependency on oil is an economic problem --
when a country like China demands more oil, relative supply, the price of
crude oil goes up and so does the price of gasoline at the pump. Dependency
on oil means we're not being good stewards of the environment. And,
therefore, we have spent $12 billion thus far in my presidency to promote
new technologies to enable us to say we're becoming less dependent on oil.
And I want to share with you a novel idea I threw out for the Congress and
asked for their passing.

I believe that we can reduce the gasoline we use by 20 percent over the
next 10 years. And I believe we can do so by promoting hybrid batteries and
ethanol. (Applause.) And so I laid out a mandatory fuel standard of 35
billion gallons of alternative fuels by 2017. It is a bold initiative, it
is a necessary initiative, and it's a practical initiative because of the
technological advances this country is going to make. We can only feed --
we can only fuel our automobiles with so much ethanol from corn, after a
while the hog growers begin to get nervous when that price of corn gets up.
And so, therefore, we're spending a lot of your money, and so is the
private sector, on developing ways to make ethanol out of wood chips or
switch grass or agricultural refuse. The whole purpose is for this Congress
to work with administration to make the difficult decisions now to fund
technologies that will enable us to say that we're less dependent on oil,
we're better stewards of the environment and we're conscious about our
national security, and that day is coming. (Applause.)

Good policy drives good politics. And the best policy is based upon solid
principles -- principles like the marketplace, principles like low taxes,
principles like trusting people to spend their money, principles like a
strong national defense is necessary to protect generations that are
coming; principles like the power of freedom to make the world a better
place.

I'm looking forward to working with the United States Congress on
principled policy. I've got to tell you, I'm really optimistic about our
country. I believe our future is a bright future. And the reason I do is
because I know the character and nature of our citizens. We're a decent
land, a courageous land and a compassionate land, and it is my honor to be
the President of such a fine group of people.

Thanks for coming, and may God bless you. (Applause.)

END 7:13 P.M. EST

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