Raw Data: Bush Speech in Springfield
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,127583,00.html

The following is a transcript of remarks made by President Bush
during a campaign stop Friday in Springfield, Mo.:
BUSH: Thanks for coming.
It's great to be in the heartland of our country. And I want to thank
you all for being here this morning to help kick off our "Heart and
Soul of America" tour.
There'll be big differences in this campaign. They're going to raise
your taxes; we're not.
We have a clear vision on how to win the war on terror and bring
peace to the world.
They somehow believe the heart and soul of America can be
found in Hollywood. The heart and soul of America is found right
here in Springfield, Missouri.
I'm looking forward to the campaign. I'm looking forward to
getting out amongst the people. We're going to Michigan and
Ohio this weekend. Everywhere I've been going, the crowds are
big, the enthusiasm is high, the signs are good. With your help,
Dick Cheney and I will lead this nation for four more years.
I'm sorry Laura's not here. I know you are too. You probably wish
she was speaking and not me.
She is a great first lady.
Today, you'll have some ” hear some reasons why I think you
need to put me back into office. But perhaps the most important
reason of all is so that Laura will be first lady for four more years.
I appreciate my running mate.
BUSH: I tell you, he's not the prettiest man in the race. But he's
got sound judgment. He's got great national...
He's got great experience in national security. He's a steady man.
I'm proud to have him by my side for four more years.
I thank my friend Roy Blunt for his leadership and his great
introduction. Proud to be working with him.
I appreciate my friend Kit Bond. You need to send him back to
Washington, D.C.
Two years ago you sent a good one from Missouri in Jim Talent.
I appreciate you, Senator. Thanks for being here.
I'm honored that Kenny Hulshof and Jo Ann Emerson are with us:
two fine members of the House of Representatives.
Thank you all for coming. Proud you're here.
Speaker Catherine Hanaway, it's good to see you again. It wasn't
just but yesterday, it seemed like, we were in St. Charles,
Missouri, together. Thank you for coming. I appreciate your warm
introduction there.
I can't help but notice my friend Johnny Morris is here. Gosh, I
wish we were fishing. I was in the bass tracker (ph), I want you to
know, over the weekend in Crawford. It didn't sink.
It's great to see you friend. Thanks for coming.
I'm so proud so many citizens showed up here.
I appreciate the grassroots activists who are here. I'm here to ask
for your help. I'm not only traveling the country to ask for the
vote, I'm here to ask for your help. I'd like you to call up people on
the phone and encourage them to register to vote, encourage them
to do their duty on Election Day ” to vote. And when you get
them headed toward the polls, make sure you nudge them toward
that George Bush-Dick Cheney lever.
I'm glad Joe White's here. He runs Canacut Camps (ph).
Thanks for coming, Joe. I appreciate your coming.
I met a fellow named Charlie Grass. He's a volunteer with Stone
County food pantry. Let me tell you why I mention him. The
strength of America is in the hearts and souls of our citizens:
people who are willing to feed the hungry, provide shelter for the
homeless, love a neighbor in need.
Charlie, thank you for being a soldier in the army of compassion.
BUSH: Every incumbent who asks for the vote has to answer one
question: Why? Why should the American people give me the
great privilege of serving as your president for four more years?
In the past few years, we've been through a lot together. We've
accomplished a great deal. But there's only one reason to look
backward at the record and that is to determine who best will lead
the nation forward.
I'm asking for your vote because so much is at stake: prosperity
and peace. We have so much more to do to move this country
forward. Give me four more years, and America will continue to
march toward peace and better prosperity.
I'm asking for four more years to make our country safer, to make
the economy stronger, to make our future better and brighter for
every single citizen. From creating jobs to improving schools,
from fighting terror to protecting our homeland, we have made
much progress. And there is more to do.
BUSH: We have more to do to make America's public schools the
centers of excellence we all know they can be so that no child is
left behind in America.
When we came to office three and a half years ago, too many of
our children were being shuffled from grade to grade, year after
year, without learning the basics.
We're challenging the soft bigotry of low expectations. We've
raised the bar. We're setting high standards. We're focusing on
results. We're insisting on accountability. We're empowering
parents. We're making sure local folks are in charge of schoolreal,
substantialprogress in reading and math.
When it comes to improving America's public schools, we are
turning the corner and we're not turning back.
This world of ours is changing. The jobs of the future will require
greater knowledge and higher-level skills. We'll reform our high
schools to make sure a high school diploma means something.
We'll expand math and science education, so our young people
can compete in a high-tech world. We will expand the use of the
Internet to bring high-level training into our classrooms.
With four more years, we'll help a rising generation gain the skills
and the confidence to achieve the American dream.
We have more to do to make quality health care available and
affordable. When we came to office, too many older Americans
could not afford prescription drugs. Medicare didn't pay for them.
Leaders in both political parties had promised prescription drug
coverage for years. We got it done.
More than 4 million seniors have signed up for drug discount
cards that provide real savings.
BUSH: And beginning in 2006, all seniors on Medicare will be
able to choose a plan that suits their needs and gives them
coverage for prescription drugs.
We've expanded community health centers for low-income
Americans. We've created health savings accounts, so families can
save tax-free for their own health care needs. When it comes to
giving Americans more choices about their own health care and
making health care more affordable, we are turning the corner and
we're not turning back.
This world of ours is changing. Most Americans get their health
care coverage through their work. Most of today's new jobs are
created by small businesses which too often cannot afford to
provide health coverage.
To help more American families get health insurance, we must
allow small employers to join together to purchase insurance at
discounts available to big companies.
To improve health care, we must limit the frivolous lawsuits that
raise the cost of health care and drive good doctors out of
medicine.
We must harness technology to reduce costs and prevent deadly
health care mistakes. We must do more to expand research and
development for new cures for terrible diseases.
In all we do to improve health care in America, and we will make
sure the health decisions are made by doctors and patients, not by
bureaucrats in Washington, D.C.
We have more to do to make America's economy stronger. We've
come through a recession, terrorist attacks, corporate scandals.
BUSH: We overcame these obstacles because of the hard work
and will of the American entrepreneur, the small-business owner,
the farmers and the workers. And we came through these
obstacles because of well-timed tax cuts.
We gave tax relief to every American who pays taxes. We didn't
play favorites with the tax code. We didn't try to pick winners or
losers. We made sure families with children and married couples
and small businesses got tax relief.
And this time the check really was in the mail.
Because we acted, our economy, since last summer, has grown at
a rate as fast as any in nearly 20 years.
Because we acted, America's added more than 1.5 million new
jobs since last August.
Because we acted, Missouri has added more than 82,000 jobs over
the past 11 months. Your unemployment rate is now 5.2 percent.
When it comes to creating jobs for America's workers, we are
turning the corner and we are not turning back.
Today I met a fellow named Kit Carson. He's a small-business
owner here in Springfield. You see, most new jobs in America are
created by small-business owners. That's why the cornerstone of
our tax relief plan said we were going to help the small-business
owners.
Here's what he said about tax relief. This is a fellow who's hiring
people right here in this area. It's a fellow who's making
investments. He said, "The effect is showing already. It's going to
get better. I'm an optimistic guy," he says. "I think we might see a
boom bigger than the '90s."
The tax relief we passed is working.
We will do more to make America more job friendly and
America's workplaces more family friendly.
To keep American jobs in America, regulations should be
reasonable and fair. To keep the jobs here at home, we must
lessen our dependence on foreign sources of energy.
To keep American jobs here, we must end the junk law suits that
hurt our small businesses.
BUSH: And to keep this economy growing so people can find
work, we will not overspend your money, and we will keep your
taxes low.
We'll offer America's workers a lifetime of learning, and help
them get training for jobs of the future at places like our
community colleges.
The education and training they offer can be the bridge between
people's lives as they are and people's lives as they want them to
be.
Today, I met Kristin Hite (ph). She's from Springfield, as well.
She used to be a bank teller.
With the tax relief she and her family had as a result of the tax
cuts, she went back to school. She's now a nurse. She completed
her program. She now makes three times the amount of money
she made before because of education.
Good education means workers can realize their dreams.
To make sure we continue to grow our economy, we will insist on
a level playing field when it comes to trade. We want Missouri
farmers selling Missouri crops all over the world.
And we'll make sure American families keep more of something
they never have enough of, and that's time: time to play with the
kids, time to go to the Little League games, time to care for
elderly parents or time to go to class themselves.
I believe Congress ought to enact comp time and flex time to help
America's families better juggle the demands of work and their
home.
The goals of the economic agenda are clear. After four more
years, our nation will have more small businesses, greater
opportunities, better jobs and higher wages for the American
people.
We have more to do to wage and win the war against terror.
America's future depends on our willingness to lead in the world.
If America shows uncertainty and weakness in this decade, the
world will drift toward tragedy.
BUSH: This will not happen on my watch.
The world changed on a terrible September morning. And since
that day, we've changed the world.
Before September the 11th, Afghanistan served as the home base
for Al Qaida, which trained and deployed thousands of killers to
set up terror cells in dozens of countries, including our own.
Today, Afghanistan is a rising democracy, an ally in the war on
terror, a place where many young girls go to school for the first
time. And as a result of our actions, America and the world are
safer.
Before September the 11th, Pakistan was a safe transit point for
terrorists. Today, Pakistani forces are aggressively helping to
round up the terrorists and America and the world are safer.
Before September the 11th, in Saudi Arabia, terrorists were
raising money and recruiting and operating with little opposition.
Today, the Saudi government has taken the fight to Al Qaida and
America and the world are safer.
Before September the 11th, Libya was spending millions to
acquire weapons of mass destruction. Today, because America
and our allies have sent a strong and clear message, the leader of
Libya has abandoned his pursuit of weapons of mass destruction
and America and the world are safer.
Before September the 11th, the ruler of Iraq was a sworn enemy
of America.
BUSH: He was defying the world. He was firing weapons at
American pilots and forcing the world's sanctions. He had pursued
and used weapons of mass destruction against his own people. He
had harbored terrorists. He invaded his neighbors. He subsidized
the families of suicide bombers. He had murdered tens of
thousands of his own citizens. He was a source of great instability
in the world's most vulnerable region.
I took those threats seriously. After September the 11th, we had to
look at the threats in a new light. One of the lessons of September
the 11th is we must deal with threats before they fully materialize.
The September the 11th commission concluded that our
institutions of government had failed to imagine the horror of that
day. After September the 11th, we cannot fail to imagine that a
brutal tyrant, who hated America, who had ties to terror, had
weapons of mass destruction and might use those weapons or
share his deadly capability with terrorists was not a threat.
We looked at the intelligence. We saw a threat. Members of the
United States Congress from both political parties, including my
opponent, looked at the intelligence and they saw a threat.
We went to the United Nations, which unanimously demanded a
full accounting of Saddam Hussein's weapons programs or face
serious consequences. After 12 years of defiance, he refused to
comply with the demands of the free world.
When he continued to deceive the weapons inspectors, I had a
decision to make: to hope for the best and to trust the word of a
madman and a tyrant, or remember the lessons of September the
11th and defend our country.
BUSH: Given that choice, I will defend America every time.
When it comes to fighting the threats of our world and making
America safer and promoting the peace, we're turning the corner,
and we're not turning back.
We have more to do. We will continue to work with our friends
and allies around the world to aggressively pursue the terrorists
and foreign fighters in places like Iraq and Afghanistan and
elsewhere.
See, you can't talk sense to the terrorists. You can't hope for the
best. You can't negotiate with them.
We will engage those enemies around the world so we do not
have to face them here at home.
We will continue to lead the world with confidence and moral
clarity.
We've put together a strong coalition to help us defeat the terrorist
threats. Over 40 nations are involved in Afghanistan. Some 30
nations are involved in Iraq. Over the next four years, I will
continue to work with our friends and build alliances.
But I will never turn over America's national security decisions to
leaders of other countries.
BUSH: We will keep our commitments to help Afghanistan and
Iraq become peaceful, democratic societies. These two nations are
now governed by strong leaders. They're on the path to free
elections.
More and more people in Afghanistan and Iraq are stepping up to
secure their own country from these killers. They understand the
benefits of a free society. Moms and dads in Afghanistan and Iraq
want their children to grow up in a peaceful world and so do we.
The people of these countries can count on our continued help.
When we acted to protect our own security, we promised to help
deliver them from tyranny, to restore their sovereignty, to set them
on the path of liberty. And when America gives its word, America
will keep its word.
In these crucial times, our commitments have been kept by the
men and women of our military.
I thank those who are here today who wear our uniform. And I
thank their families as well.
BUSH: I've seen the great decency and the unselfish courage of
those who wear our uniform. The cause of freedom is in good
hands.
And when these good folks are in harm's way, they deserve the
best pay, the best equipment, the best possible training.
That's why last September, when our troops were in combat in
both Afghanistan and Iraq, I proposed supplemental funding to
support them in their missions. The legislation provided for body
armor and vital equipment, hazard pay, health benefits,
ammunition, fuel, spare parts. In the Senate, only a handful of
what I would call out-of-the- mainstream folks ” that would be
12 senators ” voted against that legislation. Two of the 12 are my
opponent and his running mate.
(BOOING)
He tried to explain his vote by saying, "I actually did vote for the
$87 billion before I voted against it," end quote.
(LAUGHTER)
He's got a different explanation now. One time he said he was
proud he voted against the funding. Then he said the whole thing
was a complicated matter.
There is nothing complicated about supporting our troops in
combat.
In the long run, our security is not guaranteed by force alone. We
must work to change the conditions that give rise to terror:
poverty and hopelessness and resentment.
You see, a free and peaceful Iraq and a free and peaceful
Afghanistan will be powerful examples to a neighborhood that
needs the example of liberty. Free countries do not export terror.
Free countries do not stifle the dreams of their citizens.
By serving the ideal of liberty, we're bringing hope to others. And
that makes America more secure.
By being resolute and strong, by working for the ideal of liberty,
after four more years, America will be more secure and the world
will be more peaceful.
BUSH: These are still dangerous times. There's an enemy out
there that would like to hurt us and change our way of life and
shake our will and shake our confidence.
I agree with the conclusion of the September the 11th commission
when they said our homeland is safer but we are not yet safe.
We've started the hard process of reform. We've transformed our
defenses and created a new Department of Homeland Security.
We passed the Patriot Act to give law enforcement new tools to
track terrorists.
The mission of the FBI is now focused on preventing terrorism.
We're integrating intelligence and law enforcement better than we
have ever before. When it comes to better protecting America,
we're turning the corner and we're not turning back.
We will do more to better secure our ports and borders, to train
first responders, to dramatically improve our intelligence-
gathering capabilities.
Reform is not easy, and it never is. Achieving reform requires
taking on the special interests, requires challenging the status quo.
You see, it's not enough to advocate reform. You have to be able
to get it done.
When it comes to reforming schools to provide an excellent
education for all our children, results matter. When it comes to
health care reforms to give families more access and more
choices, results matter. When it comes to improving our economy
and creating new jobs, results matter.
When it comes to better securing our homeland and fighting the
forces of terror, results matter.
And when it comes to choosing a president, results matter.
AUDIENCE: Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!
BUSH: This week, members of the other party gathered in Boston.
We heard a lot of clever speeches and some big promises. My
opponent has good intentions, but intentions do not always
translate to results.
After 19 years in the United States Senate, my opponent has had
thousands of votes but very few signature achievements.
During eight years on the Senate Intelligence Committee, he voted
to cut the intelligence budget and he had no record of reforming
America's intelligence-gathering capability. He had no significant
record for reforming education and health care.
As a matter of fact, he and his running mate consistent opposed
reforms that limit the power of Washington and leave more power
in the hands of the people.
He's spent nearly 20 years in the federal government, and it
appears he's concluded that it's just not big enough.
(LAUGHTER)
He's proposed more than $2 trillion of additional federal spending.
BUSH: And he's just getting started.
The problem is he hasn't told us how he's going to pay for it. We
can figure it out, can't we? He's had a history of voting for higher
taxes. We're going to make it clear his prescription for America is
the wrong medicine.
We're not turning back to the old days, the old Washington
mindset that says they will give the orders, you'll pay the bills.
We've turned a corner from that way of thinking and we're not
turning back.
These are exciting times for change. The economy is changing,
the world is changing.
In our parents' generation, moms usually stayed home while
fathers worked for one company until retirement. The company
provided health care and training and a pension. Many of the
government programs and most basic systems, from health care to
Social Security to the tax code, were based, and still are based, on
the old assumptions.
This is a different world. Workers change jobs and careers
frequently. Most of the jobs are created by small businesses. They
can't afford to provide health care or pensions or training. Parents
are working. They're not at home.
We need to make sure government changes with the times and to
work for America's working families.
You see, American workers need to own their own health care
accounts. They need to own and manage their own pensions and
retirement systems.
They need more ownership so they can take the benefits from job
to the job. They need flex time so they can work out of the home.
BUSH: All of these reforms are based on this conviction: The role
of government is not to control or dominate the lives of our
citizens.
The role of government is to help our citizens gain the time and
the tools to make their own choices and improve their own lives.
That's why I will continue to work to usher in a new era of
ownership and opportunity in America. We want more people
owning their own home. We want more people owning their own
business. We want more people owning and managing their own
health care system. We want more people owning and managing a
part of their retirement systems. When a person owns something,
he or she has a vital stake in the future of the United States of
America.
In this world of rapid change, some things will never change. Our
conviction that every life matters and every life counts will not
change.
Our belief in liberty and opportunity and the nonnegotiable
demands of human dignity will not change.
The individual values we try to live by, courage and compassion,
reverence and integrity, hard work and duty, won't change.
We'll always honor the institutions that give us direction and
purpose: our families, our schools, our religious congregations.
These values and institutions are fundamental to our future. They
deserve the respect of our government.
We stand for institutions like marriage and family, which are the
foundations of society.
We stand for a culture of life in which every person matters and
every person counts.
BUSH: We stand for judges who strictly and faithfully interpret
the law instead of legislating from the bench.
And we will work together to build a culture of responsibility. The
culture of this country is changing, from one that has said, "If it
feels good, let's go ahead and do it, and if you got a problem,
blame somebody else," to a culture in which each of us
understands that we're responsible for the decisions we make in
life.
If you are fortunate enough to be a mother or a father, you're
responsible for loving your child with all your heart and all your
soul.
If you're worried about the quality of the education in the
community in which you live, you're responsible for doing
something about it.
If you're a CEO in corporate America, you're responsible for
telling the truth to your shareholders and your employees.
And in a responsibility society, each of us is responsible for loving
our neighbor just like we'd like to be loved ourself.
For all Americans, these years in our history will always stand
apart. There are quiet times in the life of a nation when little is
expected of its leaders. This isn't one of those times.
None of us will ever forget that week when one era ended and
another one began. September the 14th, 2001, I stood in the ruins
of the twin towers. It's a day that I will never forget.
I remember the workers in hard hats yelling at me, "Whatever it
takes." I remember a fireman or a policeman ” I can't remember
which one ” looking me in the eyes and saying, "Do not let me
down."
And as those folks did that day, and like many other Americans,
we took it personally. I took it personally.
I have a responsibility that goes on. I wake up every morning
thinking about how to better protect our country. I will never
relent in defending America, whatever it takes.
We've come through much together. We've done some hard work.
We've turned the corner. We're moving America forward by
extending freedom and peace around the world. We're expanding
opportunity here at home. During the next four years, we will
spread ownership and opportunity to every corner ” every corner
of this country.
We'll pass the enduring values of our country to another
generation. We will lead the cause of freedom and peace, and we
will prevail.
With your support, and with your prayers, I will be a leader
America can count on in a world of change.
BUSH: Four years ago, as I traveled this great country asking for
the vote, I made a pledge to my fellow Americans that if you
honored me with this great responsibility, I would uphold the
dignity and the honor of the office to which I had been elected.
With your help, I will do so for four more years.
Thanks for coming. May God bless.

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