President Bush was in Missouri on Friday reminding voters why a vote for Republican candidates is so important. It does make a difference in the bottom line for every American family. Here's an excerpt of his remarks:
Remarks by the President at Missouri Victory 2006 Rally
Missouri Southern State University
Joplin, Missouri
White House transcript
November 4, 2006
THE PRESIDENT: ...There are big differences between what we think and what the other bunch thinks. Perhaps the two biggest issues can -- two differences can be seen on two issues. One, what's going to happen to your taxes, and which party will take the necessary steps to defend you. (Applause.)
Let me start with taxes. (Laughter.) We have a philosophy: We believe you can spend your money far better than the federal government can. (Applause.) Democrats want to raise your taxes because they believe they can spend your money better than you can.
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Remind people of our record: We cut the taxes on everybody who pays income taxes; we doubled the child tax credit; we reduced the marriage penalty; we cut taxes on small businesses; we cut taxes on capital gains and dividends, and we put the death tax on the road to extinction. (Applause.)
You're a farmer here in Missouri, you need to remember which senator -- or which candidate strongly supports making sure that death tax stays dead. (Applause.) We don't think it's right that you pay taxes while you're alive and then you pay taxes after you die.
You might remember the debate. All the Democrats in Washington predicted the tax cuts would not create jobs. They predicted they would not increase wages, and they predicted the tax cuts would cause the federal deficit to explode. Well, the results are in. (Applause.) The tax cuts have led to a strong and growing economy. (Applause.)
Just this morning, we got additional good news. The unemployment rate around the United States has dropped to 4.4 percent. (Applause.) That's the lowest rate in five-and-a-half years. Our economy added 92,000 jobs in the month of October, and over the past three months, America has added 470,000 new jobs. (Applause.) People are working in the United States. The tax cuts have worked. Real wages went up 2.4 percent over the past year, which means an extra $1,327 for the typical family of four with two wage earners. (Applause.)
And finally, you might remember all the forecasts, but we have cut the deficit in half three years ahead of schedule. (Applause.) If the Democrat's election predications are as good as their economic predications -- (laughter) -- we're going to have a good day on November the 7th. (Applause.)
Now in this campaign, whether it's here in Missouri or anywhere else across the country, the Democrats don't want you to know their tax plans. Listen to the words of the top Democrat leader in the House, when she said, "We love tax cuts." Well, given her record, she must be a secret admirer. (Laughter.) She and her party voted against reducing the marriage penalty, against cutting taxes on small businesses, against lowering taxes for families with children, against reducing taxes on capital gains and dividends, and against cutting the death tax. I mean, time and time again, when they had their chance to show their love for tax cuts, they voted, no. Now, if this is their definition of love, I'd sure hate to see what hate looks like. (Applause.)
Now there's a difference of opinion in Washington, D.C. about what to do with your money. If these tax cuts are not extended or made permanent, your taxes are going up. You see, if the tax cuts are not made permanent, you can bet the federal government is going to be in your wallet.
And that's precisely what the Democrats want to do. They asked the man who would be the Chairman of the Ways and Means -- that's the tax writing committee in Washington -- could he think of any tax cuts he would extend. And he said, not a one. Not a tax cut. Make no mistake about it, they may not be admitting it on the campaign trail, but they're going to raise your taxes.
If the tax cuts aren't extended, think about what that does to the child tax credit. Right now, the tax credit is $1,000 per child. If those tax cuts are not extended, those tax credits go down to $500 a child, which means you've got yourself a $500 tax increase per child. So tonight, when you're sitting around the dinner table, just count the heads. (Laughter.) If you've got two children, you can count on a $1,000 tax increase. If you got three little heads there, you can count on a $1,500 tax increase.
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The enemy -- the enemy has to be right one time when it comes time to attacking us again. We have to be right a hundred percent of the time to protect you. And therefore, I made sure that our professionals had the tools necessary to protect you. There was a wall that separated the intelligence community from sharing information with the law enforcement folks.
It's hard to rationalize that that happened, but that is what happened prior to September the 11th. In other words, you had somebody had some intelligence about somebody who might be coming our way, and he couldn't share that information with somebody whose job it was to stop them. I know it doesn't make sense, but it's the reality of what we faced.
So I asked the Congress to pass the Patriot Act, which brought down that wall. (Applause.) The Senate Democrats tried to filibuster that re-authorization of that important bill. As a matter of fact, the Senate Minority Leader, the head Democrat in the Senate, bragged, "we killed the Patriot Act." See, there's a different mind-set. If our most important job is to protect you, we've got to make sure our professionals have the tools necessary to do so. (Applause.)
I guess, maybe if -- I'm just trying to guess the mentality, but they must not think there's an enemy that wants to hit us again. It's the only justification I can give you for not making sure those professionals had the tools.
I decided to institute another program. If al Qaeda or an al Qaeda affiliate is making a phone call into the United States from outside the United States, it seems like it makes sense to know why. (Applause.) They hadn't voted on this bill in the Senate, but they did in the House, and by far, the overwhelming majority of House Democrats voted against the program.
AUDIENCE: Booo!
THE PRESIDENT: We have got to understand what the enemy is thinking in order to be able to protect you. And that's why I authorized the program through the Central Intelligence Agency that would allow us to detain and question people we picked up off the battlefield.
And let me give you a reason why. See, we captured Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. Our intelligence services think he's the person that ordered and masterminded the September the 11th attacks. And so when I heard we captured him, I thought it made sense, common sense, to say to our professionals, if he knew the first attack, he might have information on another attack, and why don't you see if you can find out if he does. (Applause.)
Seventy percent of the Senate Democrats voted against that bill.
AUDIENCE: Booo!
THE PRESIDENT: Look, I'm not saying these people are unpatriotic. I'm just saying they're wrong. (Applause.)
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And here's where the President really gets the crowd going:
THE PRESIDENT: On this important issue of Iraq and the global war on terror, the Democrats have taken a calculated gamble. They believe that the only way they can win this election is to criticize and offer no plan of their own. Here's how one senior Democrat describes their strategy: "The election is about them," talking about me and us. So far, they've refused to tell how they plan to secure this country. But there's still four days left. (Laughter.) There's still time. There's still time for them to tell us how they intend to prevail.
Listen, if you happen to bump into a Democrat candidate, you might want to ask this simple question: What is your plan? (Laughter.) If they say they want to protect the homeland, but opposed the Patriot Act, ask them this question: What is your plan? If they say they want to uncover terrorist plots, but oppose listening in on terrorist conversation, ask them the question: What's your plan? You know, if they say they want to stop new attacks on our country, but opposed letting the CIA detain and question the terrorists who might know what the plots are, ask them the question: What's your plan?
AUDIENCE: What's your plan?
THE PRESIDENT: If they say they want to win the war on terror, but called for America to pull out from what al Qaeda says is the central front in that war, ask them this question --
AUDIENCE: What's your plan?
THE PRESIDENT: They're not going to be able to answer that question. They have no plan. When you're rounding up the vote, remind people, harsh criticism is not a plan for victory. (Applause.)
Second guessing is not a strategy. You cannot win the war on terror if you don't have a plan to win the war. The most important duty we have is to protect you. We have a plan, a strategy that we're implementing every single day, and part of our plan to make sure that America does everything we can to protect you is to send Jim Talent back to the United States Senate. (Applause.)
Retreat from Iraq before the job is done would embolden the enemy, make our country more vulnerable to attacks. This is a different kind of war. It's unlike any other war we have fought. If we retreat from Iraq before the job is done, the enemy will follow us here. Leaving before the job is done would enable these extremists and radicals to recruit better. Leaving before the job is done would dash the hopes of millions of people who reject the ideology of hate, and who want to live a simple life that is a peaceful life. Retreating before the job is done would dishonor the sacrifice of the men and women who have worn the uniform of the United States of America. (Applause.) Retreating before the job is done would be felt for generations to come.
The enemy has said they expect us to retreat, and they want us to retreat. This is their words, not mine. In a time of war, you must take the words of the enemy very seriously. They would like to have another safe haven from which to plot and plan attacks similar to the safe haven they had in Afghanistan before we removed that safe haven. The enemy would like to be in a position to topple moderate governments. They would use any means necessary to do so. Can you imagine what the world would look like if they were able to get a hold of oil resources which they would then use to extract economic blackmail against those of us who want to protect ourselves, and, two, to help freedom expand.
See, imagine what would happen if they were able to control enough energy, if they pulled enough off the market to run the price of oil up, and then said, fine, we'll let the price back down unless you give up your alliance with Israel, or until you withdraw, so that they could establish their -- what they declared they want to do, which is a caliphate.
And in the midst, put a country that doesn't like us with a nuclear weapon. And what's going to happen 30 years from now is people will say, what happened to those folks in 2006; how come they couldn't see the impending danger; what clouded their vision?
I want to tell you all: my vision is clear. I see the threat. I understand the consequences of the world in which we live. America must lead. We will support our troops in Iraq. We will fight in Iraq, and we will win in Iraq. (Applause.)
If you got a second, I'd like to share one other story about the power of liberty.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: (Inaudible.)
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. (Laughter.) Recently, Laura and I took our friend, who was then the Prime Minister of Japan, to Elvis' place. You might remember that. Oh, they said, why did you go to Elvis's place? Well, I had never been there. (Laughter.) Prime Minister Koizumi wanted to go there -- he was an Elvis fan. I also wanted to tell a story. It's important for all people to understand this story, but particularly for people who are trying to figure out the world in which we live and the power of liberty.
See, after the Japanese attacked our country a lot of young Americans signed up. You've got relatives who signed up to fight the sworn enemy, the Japanese. So did I -- my dad. And then he, like thousands, went through a bloody battle. We lost a lot of Americans and the Japanese lost a lot -- it was a brutal war, brutal war. And yet, it's amazing, isn't it, that years later his son is on the airplane with the Prime Minister of the former enemy flying to Elvis's place. And guess what we talked about -- keeping the peace. Isn't that interesting? (Applause.)
We talked about working together to convince the North Korean leader to give up his nuclear weapons. We talked about the fact that Japan has a thousand -- had a thousand troops in Iraq. The Prime Minister and I understand that when you find a young democracy in this ideological struggle against reason versus extremists, you got to help those young democracies. It's in our long-term interests that we help people realize the blessings of liberty. We talked about the need to help fight the pandemic of HIV/AIDS on the continent of Africa, which the United States is doing. We talked about feeding the hungry. We talked about keeping the peace.
My dad fought the Japanese; his son is talking about keeping the peace with the Japanese. Liberty -- the lesson is this: Liberty has got the capacity to change an enemy into an ally, and liberty has got the capacity to change a region of despair and hopelessness into a region of light and hope. Liberty is the best way to defeat the enemies of freedom in the long run.
Someday, an American President will be sitting down with duly elected leaders from the Middle East talking about keeping the peace, and a generation of Americans will be better off. (Applause.)
These are the stakes in this election, and I'm asking you to go from the hall and find fellow Republicans, discerning Democrats, and open-minded independents and remind them about the stakes in this election. If you want your taxes low so you can have more money to spend and this economy continues to be strong, vote for Jim Talent. (Applause.) If you want the United States to do everything that we can to protect you and to lay the foundation of peace for generations to come, vote for Jim Talent. (Applause.)
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