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I knew the potential for our nation was boundless as long as we put America first. So I left behind my former life and stepped into a very difficult arena, but an arena, nevertheless, with all sorts of potential if properly done. America had given me so much and I wanted to give something back. Together with millions of hardworking Patriots across this land, we built the greatest political movement in the history of our country. We also built the greatest economy in the history of the world. It was about America first because we all wanted to make America great again. We restored the principle that a nation exists to serve its citizens. Our agenda was not about right or left. It was not about Republican or Democrat, but about the good of a nation, and that means the whole nation. With the support and prayers of the American people, we achieved more than anyone thought possible. We passed the largest package of tax cuts and reforms in American history. We slashed more job-killing regulations than any administration had ever done before. We fix our broken trade deals, withdrew from the horrible Trans-Pacific Partnership and the impossible Paris Climate Accord, renegotiated the one-sided South Korea deal. And we replaced NAFTA with the groundbreaking USMCA, that is Mexico and Canada, a deal that is worked out very, very well. Also and very importantly, we imposed historic and monumental tariffs on China, made a great new deal with China. But before the ink was even dry, we and the whole world got hit with the China virus. Billions and billions of dollars were pouring into the US but the virus forced us to go in a different direction. The whole world suffered, but America outperformed other countries economically because of our incredible economy and the economy that we built. Without the foundations and footings, it would not have worked out this way. We would not have some of the best numbers we have ever had. We also unlocked our energy resources and became the world's number one producer of oil and natural gas by far. Powered by these policies, we built the greatest economy in the history of the world. We reignited America's job creation and achieved record-low unemployment for African-Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, women, almost everyone. The American dream was restored and millions were lifted from poverty in just a few short years.

monologic

The stock market set one record after another, with 148 stock market highs during the short period of time, and boosted the retirements and pensions of hardworking citizens all across our nation. 401s are at a level they have never been at before. We have never seen numbers like we have seen, and that is before the pandemic and after the pandemic. We rebuilt the American manufacturing base, opened up thousands of new factories, and brought back the beautiful phrase Made in the USA. To make life better for working families, we doubled the child tax credit and signed the largest-ever expansion of funding for childcare and development. We joined with the private sector to secure commitments to train more than 16 million American workers for the jobs of tomorrow. When our nation was hit with the terrible pandemic, we produced not one, but two vaccines with record-breaking speed and more will quickly follow. They said it could not be done, but we did it. They called it a medical miracle. And that is what they are calling it right now, a medical miracle. Another administration would have taken three, four, five, maybe even up to 10 years to develop a vaccine. We did it in nine months. We grieve for every life lost and we pledge in their memory to wipe out this horrible pandemic once and for all. When the virus took its brutal toll on the world's economy, we launched the fastest economic recovery our country has ever seen. We passed nearly $4 trillion in economic relief, saved or supported over 50 million jobs, and slashed the unemployment rate in half. These are numbers that our country has never seen before. We created choice and transparency in healthcare, stood up to big pharma in so many ways, but especially in our effort to get favored nations clauses added, which will give us the lowest prescription drug prices anywhere in the world. We passed VA Choice, VA Accountability, Right to Try, and landmark criminal justice reform. We confirmed three new justices of the United States Supreme Court. We appointed nearly 300 federal judges to interpret our Constitution as written. For years, the American people pleaded with Washington to finally secure the nation's borders. I am pleased to say, we answered that plea and achieved the most secure border in US history. We have given our brave border agents and heroic ICE officers the tools they need to do their jobs better than they have ever done before and to enforce our laws and keep America safe.

monologic

We proudly leave the next administration with the strongest and most robust border security measures ever put into place. This includes historic agreements with Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, along with more than 450 miles of powerful new wall. We restored American strength at home and American leadership abroad. The world respects us again. We reclaimed our sovereignty by standing up for America at the United Nations and withdrawing from the one-sided global deals that never served our interests. And NATO countries are now paying hundreds of billions of dollars more than when I arrived just a few years ago. We were paying the cost for the world. Now the world is helping us. And perhaps most importantly of all, with nearly $3 trillion, we fully rebuilt the American military, all made in the USA. We launched the first new branch of the United States Armed Forces in 75 years, the Space Force. And last spring, I stood at Kennedy Space Center in Florida and watched as American astronauts returned to space on American rockets for the first time in many, many years. We revitalize our alliances and rallied the nations of the world to stand up to China like never before. We obliterated the ISIS caliphate and ended the wretched life of its founder and leader al-Baghdadi. We stood up to the oppressive Iranian regime and killed the world's top terrorist, Iranian butcher, Qassem Soleimani. We recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and recognized Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights. As a result of our bold diplomacy and principled realism, we achieved a series of historic peace deals in the Middle East. The Abraham Accords opened the doors to a future of peace and harmony, not violence and bloodshed. It is the dawn of a new Middle East, and we are bringing our soldiers home. I am especially proud to be the first president in decades who has started no new wars. Above all, we have reasserted the sacred idea that in America the government answers to the people. Our guiding light, our North star, our unwavering conviction has been that we are here to serve the noble everyday citizens of America. Our allegiance is not to the special interests corporations or global entities, it is to our children, our citizens, and to our nation itself. As president my top priority, my constant concern has always been the best interests of American workers and American families. I did not seek the easiest course. I did not seek the path that would get the least criticism.

monologic

I took on the tough battles, the hardest fights, the most difficult choices because that is what you elected me to do. Together, we put the American people back in charge of our country. We restored self-government. We restored the idea that in America no one is forgotten because everyone matters and everyone has a voice. We fought for the principle that every citizen is entitled to equal dignity, equal treatment, and equal rights because we are all made equal by God. Everyone is entitled to be treated with respect, to have their voice heard, and to have the government listen. You are loyal to your country and my administration was always loyal to you. We worked to build a country in which every citizen could find a great job and support their wonderful families. We fought for the communities where every American could be safe and schools where every child could learn. We promoted a culture where our laws would be upheld, our heroes honored, our history preserved, and law-abiding citizens are never taken for granted. Americans should take tremendous satisfaction in all that we have achieved together. Now, as I leave the white house, I have been reflecting on the dangers that threaten the priceless inheritance we all share. As the world's most powerful nation, America faces constant threats and challenges from abroad. But the greatest danger we face is a loss of confidence in ourselves, a loss of confidence in our national greatness. A nation is only as strong as its spirit. We are only as dynamic as our pride. We are only as vibrant as the faith that beats in the hearts of our people. No nation can long thrive that loses faith in its own values, history, and heroes for these are the very sources of our unity and our vitality. What has always allowed America to prevail and triumph over the great challenges of the past has been an unyielding and unashamed conviction in the nobility of our country and its unique purpose in history. We must never lose this conviction. We must never forsake our belief in America. The key to national greatness lies in sustaining and instilling our shared national identity. That means focusing on what we have in common, the heritage that we all share. At the center of this heritage is also a robust belief in free expression, free speech, and open debate. Only if we forget who we are and how we got here could we ever allow political censorship and blacklisting to take place in America.

monologic

In America, we do not insist on absolute conformity or enforce rigid orthodoxies and punitive speech codes. We just do not do that. America is not a timid nation of tame souls who need to be sheltered and protected from those with whom we disagree. For nearly 250 years in the face of every challenge, Americans have always summoned our unmatched courage, confidence, and fierce independence. These are the miraculous traits that once led millions of everyday citizens to set out across a wild continent and carve out a new life in the great West. It was the same profound love of our God-given freedom that willed our soldiers into battle and our astronauts into space. As I think back on the past four years, one image rises in my mind above all others. Whenever I traveled all along the motorcade route, there were thousands and thousands of people. They came out with their families so that they could stand as we passed and proudly wave our great American flag. It never failed to deeply move me. I knew that they did not just come out to show their support of me. They came out to show me their support and love for our country. This is a republic of proud citizens who are united by our common conviction, that America is the greatest nation in all of history. We are and must always be a land of hope, of light, and of glory to all the world. This is the precious inheritance that we must safeguard at every single turn. For the past four years, I have worked to do just that. From a great hall of Muslim leaders in Riyadh to a great square of Polish people in Warsaw, from the floor of the Korean Assembly to the podium at the United Nations General Assembly, and from the forbidden city in Beijing to the shadow of Mount Rushmore, I fought for you. I fought for your family. I fought for our country. Above all, I fought for America and all it stands for, and that is safe, strong, proud, and free. Now, as I prepare to hand power over to a new administration at noon on Wednesday, I want you to know that the movement we started is only just beginning. The belief that a nation must serve its citizens will not dwindle, but instead, only grows stronger by the day. As long as the American people hold in their hearts, deep and devoted love of country, then there is nothing that this nation can not achieve.

monologic

Have you been enjoying yourselves too much? There are too many distinguished Irish and Irish Americans here tonight to mention, so I will just offer a hundred thousand welcomes to the White House. Taoiseach Kenny and his lovely wife Fionnuala. I also want to take a moment to recognize those who do the hard work of waging peace. Theresa Villiers, the U.K.'s Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, is here. As is America's Consul General in Belfast, Greg Burton-yay, Greg-and Richard Haass, two men who helped bring the Stormont House Agreement to fruition, and we are very grateful to them. Two people who were going to be here-First Minister Peter Robinson and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness-are home hammering out the details to implement the agreement. So we wish them good luck and Godspeed so the people of Northern Ireland can finally enjoy the full fruits of a lasting peace. But let me just mention one. When Brendan Boyle ran for Congress last year, his campaign was followed closely by folks back in Ireland, not so much because of him, although he is an impressive young man, but because of his dad. Frank Boyle grew up in Donegal. He moved to America as a young man, married an Irish lass, had two sons. He supported his family by working as a janitor for the Philadelphia public transit authority. Today, one son, Kevin, serves in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. Brendan serves in the U.S. Congress. They have made people across two nations very proud. So when Irish and Americans get together, there is more than a diplomatic exchange. My eighth cousin, Henry, who has become a regular at this party, I mean--where is Henry the Eighth -he is , he is -there he is, he is back there. So is his good buddy, Ollie Hayes, who owns my favorite pub in Moneygall. And while many of you are far from home today, I am sure you have found plenty of green in the red, white, and blue because we have got 30 or 40 million family members here in the United States and millions more who wish they were. Now, Shaw said that an Irishman's heart is nothing but his imagination. And if there is any place that can set the imagination on fire, it is Ireland. I remember my own visit to Dublin and Moneygall and Belfast.

monologic

A people noted for bouts of great joy and the belt of a late-night song. the cities our ancestors helped build, the canals they dug, the tracks they laid, the shipyards and factories they labored in, enduring all manner of intolerance and insult to carve out a place for themselves and their children in this new world. They put their full hearts into their work, even as their hearts were far from home. In 1897, at an Irish Fair held in New York, dirt was shipped over from each of Ireland's counties and laid out on a map. At least one immigrant knelt in prayer, grateful to be back in Fermanagh again, even if only for an instant. Meanwhile, thousands of young Irish women moved to America to find work as domestic servants. Not a day goes by, one said, that I do not look at the Moon and say it is the same in Ireland. For the story of the Irish in America is a story of overcoming hardship through strength and sacrifice and faith and family. faith in the unseen, a belief in something better around the bend. And that is why the Irish did more than help build America-I am very impressed, by the way, whoever just shushed. . I was going to wait until the Taoiseach spoke to shush everybody, but Joe handled his business. I like that, Joe. the notion that no matter who you are, where you come from, what your last name is, in this country, you can make it. And today we revel in that idea. those who struggled in obscurity, those who rose to the highest levels of politics and business and the arts. friendship and family and hard work and humility, fairness and dignity, and the persistent belief that tomorrow will be better than today. Yeats is one of my favorite poets, and the Taoiseach honored me by giving me a slim volume of his favorite works. I have believed the best of every man. And find that to believe it is enough to make a bad man show him at his best-or even a good man swing his lantern higher. Prime Minister Kenny. Have fun, do not break anything, and you can take the paper napkins, but not the cloth ones. They do not belong to be, and I want my security deposit back.

monologic

For the last few days I have been traveling on a jet airplane. I have found that you have to adjust your schedule, even on an airplane, for the simple reason you get everywhere so rapidly that after you have allowed time for a breakfast or a lunch with a little nap, you have found that the work you were supposed to do has gone by the board and you have landed. The Ambassador does a tittle bit better than that, he takes you back to Italy from here in a matter of seconds. But on this trip I have been talking a lot about America's deep desire for peace, and I know that the peoples of all nations feel exactly as the people of America do. I have traveled in many countries of the world and I have never yet found a people that were belligerent, I know of no men that just long for the battlefield and I know of no women who want to see their men, their sons and their husbands, their sweethearts or their fathers, on the battlefield. So, as far as the longing and aspirations of peoples are involved, we know we are one. But governments have a habit of getting into the way of the sentiments and the feelings of people. It is the governments that conduct propaganda, that put out what they call information--and I am not so sure it always is--people that create problems and then at least say they are attempting to solve them. Now our problem is how do we get across from people to people, so that we can each try to fulfill our own destinies according to the methods of our own choosing? Now I think this is one of the problems and the jobs that people like yourselves help to perform. Political leaders--sometimes they like to call themselves statesmen--are apt to have to deal in generalizations. But you, each of you, with the understanding you display toward another, whether he be of another race or another religion, or different from you in his ideals, but no matter how much this individual may differ, if you are working together and you can understand him and you become friends, you are doing some of the practical work that statesmen and political politicians are talking about. The courtesies that you show to a visitor, no matter how meanly he is dressed or what kind of work he does, when you can show the natural, inborn courtesy and hospitality that is expected of one of God's creatures, because he is talking to another one, that is helping.

monologic

This of course is a very simple, homely example. In all of the hours of our daily lives, you people have an unusual opportunity to do this. Of course, the example you show here, as you work among yourselves, in itself is helpful. But as you go further afield, in your clubs, in your restaurants, and your places of recreation and places of work--the more that the American Embassy, whether its employees are Americans or Indians, the more that the American Embassy gets a name for being understanding and sympathetic, this is the stuff of which finally peace will be made. It is not going to be made by two or three people sitting in something that is called a summit, and after exchanging a lot of views that rarely agree, and probably are not pertinent to the subject particularly, anyway; you are not going to get peace that way. This is going to be people that do people talking to people. So I say to you that I believe you are not only having the opportunity to do something that for yourselves would be satisfying, in the sense that for your families, for your country, and for your world community, you are really doing something valuable, but it is the kind of thing that the whole world must be doing, if we are going to have the peace that we seek, a peace with justice and of durability. And when I take a look at the Cub Scouts and children of that age, and I stop to think what will be the year, what will be the year on the calendar, when they are my age--say they are 9 now and add 60 years to that, that is two thousand and nineteen--what is that world going to be then? What are we teaching these little fellows and girls--young Americans and young Indians--how to do these things better than we have done them? Because if we do not do it, by that time, two thousand and nineteen, then indeed this poor old world, I think, will be in a sick state. But the point is, if we do our work well, they will do theirs better-and we will have the kind of earth that is moving ahead, with a greater measure of happiness for all people, a greater satisfaction in the work we ourselves have done. So as I say, when I see this kind of crowd, I think of your opportunity to do practical work, where I go around just talking too much sometimes. You are doing work that is valuable.

monologic

At the outset, let me thank the Secretary of Defense for his more than generous comments, and let me simply reiterate the theme that he set forth. We are strong, we will continue to be strong, we will keep our commitments, and we will remain a great country. Only the United States of America can make a machine like this. We have witnessed the magic moment when an intricate mass of steel and cable and sophisticated marvels of engineering suddenly become a living thing with a unique personality. No matter how many commissionings you take part in, breaking the pennant and setting the first watch involves a special reward for all of us who love the sea and the United States Navy. I thank you very much, Captain Compton, and all of the ship's company for the privilege of being here. I congratulate all who helped build her and all who man her, as well as their loved ones who-as many of you know better than I will do a lot of waiting for the sake of our country and of freedom everywhere. Their allegiance and their service to the country is also in the very best tradition of this great Nation. We all regret that Mrs. Chester W. Nimitz, St., cannot share this proud hour with all of us, but I am happy that Mrs. Lay and other members of the admiral's family are here. It is also gratifying to have Admiral Rickover here, for without these two farsighted submariners, Fleet Admiral Nimitz and Admiral Rickover, we would have no nuclear Navy. Few of us remember that it was Admiral Nimitz, as he was completing his career as Chief of Naval Operations in 1947, who recommended to the then Secretary of the Navy that the Bureau of Ships and the new Atomic Energy Commission get together to design and to build a nuclear propulsion plant for a submarine. Admiral Rickover took it from there. I see this great ship as a double symbol of today's challenging times. She is first of all a symbol of the United States, of our immense resources in materials and skilled manpower, of our inexhaustible energy, of the inventive and productive genius of our free, competitive economic system, and of our massive but controlled military strength. Wherever the United States Ship Nimitz shows her flag, she will be seen as we see her now, a solid symbol of United States strength, United States resolve made in America and manned by Americans.

monologic

She is a movable part and parcel of our country, a self-contained city at sea plying the international waters of the world in defense of our national interests. Whether her mission is one of defense, diplomacy, or humanity, the Nimitz will command awe and admiration from some, caution and circumspection from others, and respect from all. There is no need for me to dwell on the importance of aircraft carriers in today's and tomorrow's defense planning though as an old carrier man myself, I might like that role. During recent days, I think it is worthy to note, we have seen the most convincing demonstration of their readiness and their flexibility in the successful execution of national policy. Without the five aircraft carriers which served as the nucleus of our forces operating off South Vietnam, without the skill and the heroic performance of Marine Corps and naval aviation and support personnel, without the Air Force helicopter crews who operated from the carrier decks, we could not have rescued all of the remaining American citizens and thousands of endangered Vietnamese from Saigon within 20 hours. And I congratulate, on behalf of all of you, the work that was done on that occasion. The Nimitz joins the fleet at an auspicious moment when our determination to strengthen our tics with allies across both great oceans and to work for peace and stability around the world requires clear demonstration. Along with our other forces worldwide, the Nimitz will make critically important contributions in our continuing quest for a peaceful planet, a planet whose surface is more than 70 percent ocean. As I see the United States Ship Nimitz as a symbol of the vast power, the protective or productive skill and economic strength of America, so will others around the world. To all, this great ship is visible evidence of our commitment to friends and allies and our capability to maintain those commitments. But for Americans, especially, she is also a symbol of the man whose name she bears. The grandson of a seafaring German immigrant, who grew up in the great State of Texas and never lost his pride in his native State, Chester W. Nimitz started from the smoke of Pearl Harbor and carried the fight to the enemy. His superb leadership and the valor of more than 2 million American fighting men culminated on the deck of the U.S.S. Missouri 4 years later, as he signed the Japanese surrender as commander in chief of the largest naval armada ever assembled.

monologic

Looking back on a period of my own life, one of the things of which I am the proudest is that I can say, I served under Admiral Nimitz in the Pacific. As a lowly lieutenant on the U.S.S. Monterey, a carrier you could probably stow on the hangar deck of the Nimitz, I saw very little of fleet admirals during World War II. But every watch officer could recognize the crisp CINCPAC dispatches that Admiral Nimitz obviously had written in his own hand. One biographer who did not know him or who, I should say, did know him Professor E. B. Potter of the Naval Academy, summed up Admiral Nimitz' qualities in simple words that well serve as a model for anyone who aspires to leadership in any line of endeavor. He surrounded himself with the ablest men he could find and sought their advice, but he made his own decisions. He was a keen strategist who never forgot that he was dealing with human beings, on both sides of the conflict. He was aggressive in war without hate, audacious while never failing to weigh the risks. Admiral Nimitz, of all the great American commanders of World War II, was one of the most self-effacing and, certainly, one of the most effective. He possessed great stamina, an abundance of common sense, and such immense inner strength that he felt no need to strut or to shout. Born near what today we would call the poverty level, he worked hard, he studied hard, and was a long, long time getting ahead. He spent his whole life training to serve his country in commanding men at sea, and when he was needed, he was prepared. He learned by his mistakes and was tolerant of others, but he was always in command. Those who had the good fortune to know Admiral Nimitz will say his fundamental honesty, intellectual honesty and integrity, enabled him to keep a steady course toward his ultimate objective without yielding to the tremendous pressures of his vast responsibilities. He did the job he was prepared to do, did it superbly, hung up his sword and filled his final years with quiet service to his country and to the cause of peace. Repeatedly urged to write his wartime memoirs, Admiral Nimitz just as repeatedly refused. To do so, he explained, would compel him either to hurt the reputations of some fine shipmates or tell some whopping lies.

monologic

Senator and Mrs. Kennedy, the Kennedy family, Senator Mitchell and Members of the Senate, Congressmen, Congressman-to-be Patrick Kennedy, and Marvin Rosen, and all those who made this night possible , I thank you so much for your help for our friend. Chevy Chase, thank you for making us laugh. I will tell you a story about Chevy Chase. I never told this story in public before. I had never met Chevy Chase in my entire life, except on a movie screen. And in 1988 or '89, I went up to Long Island in the summertime. Hillary and I were up there visiting our friend Liz Robins, who is here tonight. And they asked me if I would be an umpire in this game. And once I realized there were some members of the press there and I'd be able to give them grades instead of the other way around, I eagerly accepted. Now, at that time a lot of you will not remember this; I hope, at least, you will not remember it, and I hope you will forget after I tell you tonight. I had given a speech for Governor Dukakis at the Democratic Convention, which I intend to complete here this evening. Anyway I cannot believe I said that. The announcer for the ball game was Jim Brady, the guy that does that Brady's Bits in Parade magazine every Sunday, you know? He is a delightful man, but when he saw me out there on the mound about ready to call balls and strikes, he saidhe introduced mehe said, This is Governor ENTITY from Arkansas. He is up here visiting, and if he takes as long to make the calls today as he did to speak in Atlanta, we will never get out of here. I really appreciated that. Anyway, so the game starts, and the next time the sides change, I look up in the stands, and this tall guy stands up and walks down, comes out to the pitcher's mound, shakes my hand, and says, I am Chevy Chase. And he said, I may be the only person in America besides your mother who feels this way, but I liked that speech. That is verbatim what he said. You just applauded for the next ambassador to Great Britain. Ladies and gentlemen, you know we all do a lot of these events, and a lot of you are the backbone of our party.

monologic

And sometimes we do them with great energy; sometimes we do them with interest; sometimes we do them because we know it is the right thing to do and we do them. I am here tonight because there is no place else in America I would rather be tonight than here in this cause for this good man. You know, before I got here I really did not understand how things so often came across in the country so different than they are up here. I was another alienated American, even though I was the Governor of my State. And I was terribly worried that this country was going in the wrong direction, that the people that were running our country were just telling the voters what they thought they wanted to hear and avoiding all the tough problemswe had had profound social problems building up for 30 years, we'd had serious economic problems building up for 20 yearsthat we had finally come to the end of the cold war, a time when we had an opportunity to take a fresh look at both the opportunities and the difficulties of this country at this time, and that we had a window here in which we could either secure the American dream for our children and our grandchildren and the strength of this country as we move into the 21st century, or we could walk away from the responsibilities of our generation. When I talked to Hillary about running for President, Iin a very personal way, I did not really want to do it. First of all, most of my friends thought it was a fool's errand because the incumbent President was at over 70 percent approval. Secondly, things were going pretty well for us at home, with our family, our friends, and our work. But I did it because I thought that we all have an obligation to try to make a difference and that we had to change the direction of the country. Tonight we come here to honor someone who has always fought to keep us going forward in the right direction, who has always fought for hope over fear, for reconciliation over division, to bring out the best in us instead of to bring out the worst in us. Well, when I came here I knew it would not be easy, but I was determined to see that we work together to move this country forward, to address our problems, to get things done for ordinary Americans. But you know, we have made a good start.

monologic

And now, as always happens in these midterm elections, with the issue hanging fire, the American people will have to decide whether we will continue this rigorous transition into tomorrow. Every time we reach a point in history where we are going through big changes and the future is not clear, we fight a battle within ourselves. In that sense, our Nation is very much like a person. If you think about your own life, whenever you did anything really different and took on a new challenge, it was always with a mixture of hope and fear, when you went to school the first day or first went off to college or had your first job or first sought elective office or married or had your first child. A delicate balance always has to be maintained between hope and fear. And every day we all get up and we see things that are happening that we do not like or we are unsure what will happen to us. And it is almost as if we have a scale inside us, with blind justice holding it, and hope is on one side and fear is on the other. And each day it may take a little different balance. The job we have between now and election day is to make sure that when people wake up on election day, they vote their hopes instead of their fears, they vote for tomorrow instead of yesterday, they vote to keep going forward, and they vote for Senator Ted Kennedy for reelection in Massachusetts. We still have a lot to do, but we have made a good start. And we have done some very important things by putting our economic house in order, giving the American people their first serious attack on crime in a long time, and beginning to make this Government work for ordinary citizens. If you look at the last 20 months, this CongressI might add, without one single, solitary vote from a member of the other partythe Democrats, who were so often attacked as being for big Government and spending, voted for a budget that cut $255 billion in Federal spending, that reduced the deficit by more than any plan ever adopted in the history of the country, that gave us 3 years of deficit reduction in a row for the first time since Harry Truman was President. I might add, they did it by raising tax rates on only the top 1.2 percent of Americans, including most of you in this room tonight. And we thank you for staying with us.

monologic

This administrationand it is a great rebuke to those who think people only vote their own short-term self-interests; all of you are. And I honor you for your presence here tonight and for caring about your country and the long-term health and discipline and economic direction of what we are trying to do. Our administration expanded trade by more than any in the comparable time period in the last 30 years. Exports are up, sales are up, and jobs are up in export-related areas. 4.3 million new jobs, 93 percent of them in the private sector, unlike the ratio in previous years when it is been mostly Government jobs created to try to help people deal with the problems of economic fallout. We have had 8 months of manufacturing job growth in a row for the first time in a decade. And just last week, at the annual vote of International Economists, for the first time in 9 years, it was the United States of America that was voted as having the most productive economy in the world. We have got a long way to go, but we have made a good beginning. And Senator Kennedy for years has been interested in this whole crime issue from his service on the Judiciary Committee. But Joe Biden will tell you they talked about crime around here for 6 years, but we finally passed the crime bill that is tough with punishment, tough in terms of putting 100,000 police on the street, but also smart in providing prevention and giving people a chance to turn away from lives of crime and giving our young people a chance to have something to say yes to. Also, for the first time in my memory we put together back-to-back victories with the Brady bill and the assault weapons ban, in spite of the ferocious opposition of the NRA. We have got a long way to go, but it is a pretty good beginning. If you look at what was done to make Government work for ordinary people, in the economic plan, we reformed the college loan program the Secretary of Education is here tonight making 20 million Americans, including over 840,000 in the State of Massachusetts, eligible for low-interest loans at longer repayment terms, a stunning benefit for middle class kids, not just poor kids, so that no one need ever walk away from the challenge of paying for a college education againyou can clap for that; Ted Kennedy was for it.

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We have 200,000 more children in Head Start; hundreds of thousands of people in Massachusetts alone affected by the family leave law which says that if you have got a sick parent or you are about to have a child, you can take a little time off work without losing your job. We are going to have 2 million more children immunized by 1996, so that all the kids under 2 will be immunized and parents can go to work not worrying about whether their children are going to be safe from preventable childhood diseases. Fifteen million working people and their children are going to get income tax cuts because they work hard and they raise their kids but they are hovering just above the poverty line, and we do not want them to fall into the poverty line and quit working and go on welfare. This is a pro-work, pro-family administration making this Government work for ordinary citizens again. Finally, let me say to our friends in the other party, I sat out there in the heartland of America as the Governor for years and years and years, and I heard them talk about how terrible the Federal Government was and how big and bloated it was. But we, the Democrats, voted to reduce the size of the Federal Government by 272,000, to make it the smallest it is been since President Kennedy was in office. We have already done over 70,000 of those reductions. And every last red cent of reduction in the Federal Government is going to local government and to local communities to help them fight crime. That is the record of the Democrats in the last 2 years. Now, if you compare that to what our opponents have done and what they have said, it is a pretty big difference. In the name of partisanship, they tried to stop the crime bill. They voted entirely against the economic program, a program that gave college loan breaks to millions of kids, a program that made 90 percent of the small businesses in this country eligible for tax cuts and gave tax reductions to 15 million working families. They have done everything they could to keep us from addressing the health care reform issue in a serious way.

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Congressman Grandy from Iowa saying that they had all been ordered not to cooperate and compromise on health care; a Republican Senator quoted in one of our big newspapers the other day saying, We killed health care, now if we can just not get our fingerprints on it ; their political adviser, Mr. Kristol, telling them the one thing they must not do is to cooperate to bring down health care costs, make health insurance secure for those who have it, and cover those who do not because that would be a political benefit for the other party. Now we know what they wish to do if they get the majority. They put out their Contract With America, and you know what they did? It looks like a contract; it looks like they took out a contract against the deficit, a contract against Medicare, a contract against paying for the crime bill, a contract against all the gains we have made for ordinary Americans in the last 2 years. They want to go back to the way they did it before, explode the deficit, tell people what they want to hear, and stick it to ordinary Americans. We can do better than that. We have to reelect the people and elect the people who want to keep going forward. If you just look at the things that Senator Kennedy has been involved in just since I have been Presidentthe Head Start program, 200,000 more children; reforming the education loans; working on changing the whole unemployment system to a reemployment system, something we have not finished yet; the Goals 2000 bill, which for the first time in the history of America commits us as a nation to world-class standards of educational excellence and commits the Federal Government not to have a bureaucracy but to give help to local grassroots efforts at reform; the national service program, which this year has 20,000 young Americans and 2 years from now will have 100,000 young Americans earning their way to a higher education by serving their communities at the grassroots level, not in a bureaucracy but in people power that can truly change the course of our country's futurehe led the way in all of those endeavors. And he deserves a lot of credit for it. But elections are about the future. If we do a good job, it is just what we were hired to do.

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Because if you ever want this country to be able to bring the deficit down without breaking the backs of our senior citizens; if you ever want to see a time when working people will be secure in their insurance, instead of the situation which exists todaythis is the only advanced country in the world where working families are losing ground in insurance coverage. There are 5 million Americans in working families today who had health insurance 5 years ago who do not have it today, even though we spend 40 percent more of our income than any other country on health care. If you want to preserve the integrity of our great medical institutions of higher learning, if you want to see health insurance for all Americans and stability in our economy long-term and in our Federal budget long-term, we have got to address the health care issue. So what if we could not do it in a year. It took 7 years to pass the Brady bill, 7 years to pass family leave, 7 years to pass motor voter, 6 years to pass the crime bill. I signed a banking reform bill today that they have been working on longer than anybody can remember. We can do this. We will do this. The people of Massachusetts, I do not believe, want to send a signal to Washington, DC, that they have abandoned health care. I think they want to tell us to keep at it until we get it right. And the only way to do that is to say, Senator Kennedy, stay on the job; keep doing it until we get it right. My friends, you will see this election everywhere in America played out. He is running against someone who signed the contract, a contract against health care reform, for cutting Medicare, for exploding the deficit, for putting the Federal budget in a place where they will not even be able to fund the crime billthe same old promises, tell them what they want to hear, bad-mouth Government, bad-mouth the people who are the instruments of change, and hope you do not get caught. I think the American people are smarter than that. You know, Ted Kennedy said tonight that he was not the youngest man in the Senate race. He was once the youngest man in the Senate for quite a long time. Well, I was once the youngest Governor in America by 9 years. Time has a way of curing those problemsand of changing your perspective. But I would like to say something about Senator Kennedy and about the United States. He is made enemies in his life because he has fought for things.

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But the things he has fought for are things that would help people who are very different from him. Ninety-five percent of the people that would have been given the things that he was given in life never would have spent their life trying to get all that for everybody else in the country. Most of us, given the opportunities he had, would have enjoyed them in a very different way. They would not have put themselves on the line day in and day out, year in and year out. This country is also very old as a democracy, but it is forever young. Why do you think the Israelis and the Arabs want to come here and have us work with them to end the decades of horrible fighting in the Middle East? Why do you think that after literally hundreds of years of fighting, the Catholics and the Protestants in Northern Ireland, and the British and the Irish wish the Americans to be involved in the peace process? Why did Mr. Mandela and Mr. de Klerk want the United States to spend a few million dollars of our tax money to help them develop an election that would really work? Even in the 11th hour of our crisis in Haiti a little over a week ago, when the delegation was down there meeting with the military leaders and they realized finally that we meant business, one of them said, Well, if the President is determined to do this and the United Nations is determined to act, at least we want the United States here; we trust them, we know they can be trusted. We know what they represent. And I was sitting here looking at Ted Kennedy give that speech tonight, and I saw it literally moving his entire being. And I said to myself, let the people who disagree with him disagree. Let the people who say he is wrong on the issues say that. But let no one doubt that he may be the youngest person running for the Senate in any State this year, because he believes in things that are forever young. Thank you, and God bless you all.

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Speaker, Madam Vice President, our First Lady and Second Gentleman good to see you guys up there members of Congress And, by the way, Chief Justice, I may need a court order. She gets to go to the game tomorr- next week. We got to work something out here. You know, I start tonight by congratulating the 118th Congress and the new Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy. Speaker, I do not want to ruin your reputation, but I look forward to working with you. And I want to congratulate the new Leader of the House Democrats, the first African American Minority Leader in history, Hakeem Jeffries. He won despite the fact I campaigned for him. And congratulations to Chuck Schumer, another you know, another term as Senate Minority Leader. You know, I think you only this time you have a slightly bigger majority, Mr. Leader. Nancy Pelosi. Folks, the story of America is a story of progress and resilience, of always moving forward, of never, ever giving up. It is a story unique among all nations. We are the only country that has emerged from every crisis we have ever entered stronger than we got into it. Look, folks, that is what we are doing again. I stand here tonight, after we have created, with the help of many people in this room, 12 million new jobs more jobs created in two years than any President has created in four years because of you all, because of the American people. Two years ago and two years ago, ENTITY had shut down our businesses were closed, our schools were robbed of so much. And today, ENTITY no longer controls our lives. And two years ago, our democracy faced its greatest threat since the Civil War. As we gather here tonight, we are writing the next chapter in the great American story a story of progress and resilience. possibilities. We do not think anything is beyond our capacity. But over the past two years, we proved the cynics and naysayers wrong. You came together to pass one in a gen- one-in-a-generation once-in-a-generation infrastructure law building bridges connecting our nation and our people. We came together to pass one the most significant law ever helping victims exposed to toxic burn pits. And, in fact it is important.

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And, in fact, I signed over 300 bipartisan pieces of legislation since becoming President, from reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act to the Electoral Count Reform Act, the Respect for Marriage Act that protects the right to marry the person you love. And to my Republican friends, if we could work together in the last Congress, there is no reason we cannot work together and find consensus on important things in this Congress as well. Fighting for the sake of fighting, power for the sake of power, conflict for the sake of conflict gets us nowhere. to restore the soul of this nation; to rebuild the backbone of America, America's middle class; and to unite the country. We have been sent here to finish the job, in my view. For decades, the middle class has been hollowed out in more than and not in one administration, but for a long time. Once-thriving cities and towns that many of you represent became shadows of what they used to be. pride, our sense of self-worth. I ran for President to fundamentally change things. To make sure the economy works for everyone so we can all feel that pride in what we do. Because when the middle class does well, the poor have a ladder up and the wealthy still do very well. I know a lot of you always kid me for always quoting my dad. But my dad used to say, Joey, a job is about a lot more than a paycheck. He really would say this. It is about a lot more than a paycheck. It is about your dignity. It is about respect. It is about being able to look your kid in the eye and say, 'Honey, it is going to be okay' and mean it. Well, folks, so let us look at the results. We are not finished yet, by any stretch of the imagination. But unemployment rate is at 3.4 percent -- a 50-year low. We have already created, with your help, 800,000 good-paying manufacturing jobs the fastest growth in 40 years. And where is it written where is it written that America cannot lead the world in manufacturing? For too many decades, we imported projects and exported jobs. Now, thanks to what you have all done, we are exporting American products and creating American jobs.

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Folks, inflation inflation has been a global problem because the pandemic dirup- disrupted our supply chains, and Putin's unfair and brutal war in Ukraine disrupted ener- energy supplied as well as food supplies, blocking all that grain in Ukraine. But we are better positioned than any country on Earth right now. But we have more to do. But here at home, inflation is coming down. Here at home, gas prices are down $1.50 from their peak. Inflation has fallen every month for the last six months, while take-home pay has gone up. Additionally, over the last two years, a record 10 million Americans applied to start new businesses. And, by the way, every time every time someone starts a small business, it is an act of hope. And, Madam Vice President, I want to thank you for leading that effort to ensure that small businesses have access to capital and the historic laws we enacted that are going to just come into being. Standing here last year, I shared with you a story of American genius and possibilities. Semiconductors small computer chips the size of a fingerprint that power everything from cellphones to automobiles and so much more. These chips were invented in America. They were invented in America. And we used to make 40 percent of the world's chips. In the last several decades, we lost our edge. We are down to only producing 10 percent. We all saw what happened during the pandemic when chip factories shut down overseas. Today's automobiles need 3,000 chips each of those automobiles but American automobiles could not make enough cars because there were not enough chips. So did everything from refrigerators to cellphones. That is why that is why we came together to pass the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act. Folks, I know I have been criticized for saying this, but I am not changing my view. We are going to make sure the supply chain for America begins in America the supply chain begins in America. And we have already created we have already created 800,000 new manufacturing jobs without this law, before the law kicks in. With this new law, we are going to create hundreds of thousands of new jobs across the country. And I mean all across the country, throughout not just the coast, but through the middle of the country as well. That is going to come from companies that have announced more than $300 billion in investments in American manufacturing over the next few years.

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Outside of Columbus, Ohio, Intel is building semiconductor factories on a thousand acres literally a field of dreams. It is going to create 10,000 jobs, that one investment; 7,000 construction jobs; 3,000 jobs in those factories once they are finished. They call them factors. Jobs paying an average of $130,000 a year, and many do not require a college degree. Jobs because we worked together, these jobs where people do not have to leave home to search for opportunity. So much more that is going to be needed to support those three thou- those 3,000 permanent jobs and the factories that are going to be built. Talk to mayors and governors, Democrats and Republicans, and they will tell you what this means for their communities. We are seeing these fields of dreams transform the Heartland. But to maintain the strongest economy in the world, we need the best infrastructure in the world. And, folks, as you all know, we used to be number one in the world in infrastructure. We have sunk to 13th in the world. The United States of America 13th in the world in infrastructure, modern infrastructure. But now we are coming back because we came together and passed the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law the largest investment in infrastructure since President Eisenhower's Interstate Highway System. Folks, already we have funded over 20,000 projects, including major airports from Boston to Atlanta to Portland projects that are going to put thousands of people to work rebuilding our highways, our bridges, our railroads, our tunnels, ports, airports, clean water, high-speed Internet all across America urban, rural, Tribal. I want to thank my Republican friends who voted for the law. And my Republican friends who voted against it as well but I am still I still get asked to fund the projects in those districts as well, but do not worry. I promised I'd be a President for all Americans. We will fund these projects. And I will see you at the groundbreaking. Look, this law this law will further unite all of America. And, folks, we have been talking about fixing it for decades, but we are really finally going to get it done. I went there last month with Democrats and Republicans in from both states to deliver a commitment of $1.6 billion for this project. And while I was there, I met a young woman named Saria, who is here tonight. Is she up in the box?

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Well, Saria for 30 years for 30 years I learned she told me she'd been a proud member of the Iron workers Local 44, known as known as the Cowboys in the Sky the folks who built who built Cincinnati's skyline. Saria said she cannot wait to be 10 stories above the Ohio River building that new bridge. God bless her. And that is what we are also building we are building back pride. Look, we are also replacing poisonous lead pipes that go into 10 million homes in America, 400,000 schools and childcare centers so every child in America every child in American can drink the water, instead of having permanent damage to their brain. Look, we are making sure we are making sure that every community every community in America has access to affordable, high-speed Internet. No parent should have to drive by a McDonald's parking lot to help their do their homework online with their kids, which many thousands were doing across the country. And when we do these projects and, again, I get criticized about this, but I make no excuses for it we are going to buy American. We are going to buy American. Folks and it is totally it is totally consistent with international trade rules. Buy American has been the law since 1933. But for too long, past administrations Democrat and Republican have fought to get around it. Tonight, I am also announcing new standards to require all construction materials used in federal infra- infrastructure projects to be made in America. I mean it. And on my watch, American roads, bridges, and American highways are going to be made with American products as well. Folks, my economic plan is about investing in places and people that have been forgotten. So many of you listening tonight, I know you feel it. So many of you felt like you have just simply been forgotten. Amid the economic upheaval of the past four decades, too many people have been left behind and treated like they are invisible. Maybe that is you, watching from home. You remember the jobs that went away. You remember them, do not you? The folks at home remember them. Well, that is why I get that. That is why we are building an economy where no one is left behind. Jobs are coming back, pride is coming back because of choices we made in the last several years. You know, this is, in my view, a blue-collar blueprint to rebuild America and make a real difference in your lives at home.

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For example, too many of you lay in bed at night, like my dad did, staring at the ceiling, wondering what in God's name happens if yo- if your spouse gets cancer or your child gets deadly ill or if something happens to you. What are you going are you going to have the money to pay for those medical bills? Are you going to have to sell the house or try to get a second mortgage on it? I get it. I get it. With the Inflation Reduction Act that I signed into law, we are taking on powerful interests to bring healthcare costs down so you can sleep better at night with more security. You know, we pay more for prescription drugs than any nation in the world. We pay more for prescription drugs than any major nation on Earth. For example, 1 in 10 Americans has diabetes. Many of you in this chamber do and in the audience. But every day, millions need insulin to control their diabetes so they can literally stay alive. Insulin has been around for over 100 years. The guy who invented it did not even patent it because he wanted it to be available for everyone. It costs the drug companies roughly $10 a vial to make that insulin. Package it and all, you may get up to $13. But Big Pharma has been unfairly charging people hundreds of dollars $4- to $500 a month making rec- record profits. So so many things that we did are only now coming to fruition. We said we were doing this and we said we'd pass the law to do it, but people did not know because the law did not take effect until January 1 of this year. We capped the cost of insulin at $35 a month for seniors on Medicare. I am sure you are getting the same calls I am getting. Look, there are millions of other Americans who do not are not on Medicare, including 200,000 young people with Type 1 diabetes who need these insulin need this insulin to stay alive. Let us finish the job this time. Let us cap the cost of insulin for everybody at $35. Folks and Big Pharma is still going to do very well, I promise you all. I promise you they are going to do very well. This law also this law also caps and it will not even go into effect until 2025. It costs out-of-pocket drug costs for seniors on Medicare at a maximum of $2,000 a year.

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You do not have to pay more than $2,000 a year, no matter how much your drug costs are. You all know it. Many of you, like many of my family, have cancer. You know the drugs can range from $10-, $11-, $14-, $15,000 for the cancer drugs. And if drug prices rise faster than inflation, drug companies are going to have to pay Medicare back the difference. And we are finally we are finally giving Medicare the power to negotiate drug prices. Bringing down bringing down prescription drug costs does not just save seniors money, it cuts the federal deficit by billions of dollars by hundreds of billions of dollars because these prescription drugs are drugs purchased by Medicare to make keep their commitment to the seniors. Instead of paying 4- or 500 bucks a month, you are paying 15. That is a lot of savings for the federal government. And, by the way, why would not we want that? Now, some members here are threatening and I know it is not an official party position, so I am not going to exaggerate but threatening to repeal the Inflation Reduction Act. As my coach that is okay. As my football coach used to say, Lots of luck in your senior year. Make no mistake, if you try anything to raise the cost of prescription drugs, I will veto it. And, look, I am pleased to say that more Americans health have health insurance now than ever in history. A record 16 million people are enrolled in the Affordable Care Act. And thanks thanks to the law I signed last year, saving millions are saving $800 a year on their premiums. And, by the way, that law was written and the benefit expires in 2025. Let us finish the job and make those savings permanent. Look, the Inflation Reduction Act is also the most significant investment ever in climate change ever. I visited the devastating aftermath of record floods, droughts, storms, and wildfires from Arizona to New Mexico to all the way up to the Canadian border. More timber has been burned that I have observed from helicopters than the entire state of Missouri. And we do not have global warming? In addition to emergency recovery from Puerto Rico to Florida to Idaho, we are rebuilding for the long term. New electric grids that are able to weather major storms and not prevent those fire forest fires. We are going to build 500,000 electric vehicle charging stations, installed across the country by tens of thousands of IBEW workers.

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And we are helping families save more than $1,000 a year with tax credits to purchase of electric vehicles and efficient and efficient appliances energy-efficient appliances. Let us face reality. The climate crisis does not care if you are in a red or a blue state. We have an obligation not to ourselves, but to our children and grandchildren to confront it. I am proud of how the how America, at last, is stepping up to the challenge. We are still going to need oil and gas for a while, but guess what no, we do but there is so much more to do. We got to finish the job. And we pay for these investments in our future by finally making the wealthiest and biggest corporations begin to pay their fair share. The tax system is not fair. Look, the idea that in 2020, 55 of the largest corporations in America, the Fortune 500, made $40 billion in profits and paid zero in federal taxes? But now, because of the law I signed, billion-dollar companies have to pay a minimum of 15 percent. God love them. Under my plans, as long as I am President, nobody earning less than $400,000 will pay an additional penny in taxes. But let us finish the job. We have to reward work, not just wealth. You know, there is a thousand billionaires in America it is up from about 600 at the beginning of my term but no billionaire should be paying a lower tax rate than a school teacher or a firefighter. No, I mean it. I mean, look, I know you all are not enthusiastic about that, but think about it. Have you noticed Big Oil just reported its profits. Last year, they made $200 billion in the midst of a global energy crisis. They invested too little of that profit to increase domestic production. And when I talked to a couple of them, they say, We were afraid you were going to shut down all the oil wells and all the oil refineries anyway, so why should we invest in them? I said, We are going to need oil for at least another decade, and that is going to exceed and beyond that. We are going to need it. If they had, in fact, invested in the production to keep gas prices down instead they used the record profits to buy back their own stock, rewarding their CEOs and shareholders. Corporations ought to do the right thing.

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That is why I propose we quadruple the tax on corporate stock buybacks and encourage long- long-term investments. They will still make considerable profit. Let us finish the job and close the loopholes that allow the very wealthy to avoid paying their taxes. Instead of cutting the number of audits for wealthy taxpayers, I just signed a law to reduce the deficit by $114 billion by cracking down on wealthy tax cheats. In the last two years, my administration has cut the deficit by more than $1.7 trillion -- the largest deficit reduction in American history. Under the previous administration, the American deficit went up four years in a row. Because of those record deficits, no President added more to the national debt in any four years than my predecessor. Nearly 25 percent of the entire national debt that took over 200 years to accumulate was added by just one administration alone the last one. How did Congress respond to that debt? They did the right thing. They lifted the debt ceiling three times without preconditions or crisis. They paid the American bill to prevent an economic disaster of the country. So, tonight I am asking the Congress to follow suit. Let us commit here tonight that the full faith and credit of the United States of America will never, ever be questioned. So my many of some of my Republican friends want to take the economy hostage I get it unless I agree to their economic plans. All of you at home should know what those plans are. Instead of making the wealthy pay their fair share, some Republicans some Republicans want Medicare and Social Security to sunset. I am not saying it is a majority Anybody who doubts it, contact my office. I will give you a copy. I will give you a copy of the proposal. Well, I am glad to see no, I tell you, I enjoy conversion. You know, it means if Congress does not keep the programs the way they are, they'd go away. Other Republicans say I am not saying it is a majority of you. but it is being proposed by individuals. I am not politely not naming them, but it is being proposed by some of you. Look, folks, the idea is that we are not going to be we are not going to be moved into being threatened to default on the debt if we do not respond. Folks so, folks, as we all apparently agree, Social Security and Medicare is off the off the books now, right? We got unanimity!

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Social Security and Medicare are a lifeline for millions of seniors. Americans have to pay into them from the very first paycheck they have started. So, tonight, let us all agree and we apparently are let us stand up for seniors. Stand up and show them we will not cut Social Security. We will not cut Medicare. Those benefits belong to the American people. They earned it. And if anyone tries to cut Social Security which apparently no one is going to do and if anyone tries to cut Medicare, I will stop them. I will veto it. Next month, when I offer my fiscal plan, I ask my Republican friends to lay down their plan as well. I really mean it. Let us sit down together and discuss our mutual plans together. Let us do that. I can tell you, the plan I am going to show you is going to cut the deficit by another $2 trillion. And it will not cut a single bit of Medicare or Social Security. how do we make keep it solvent. Well, I will not raise taxes on anyone making under 400 grand. by making sure that the wealthy and big corporations pay their fair share. They are not just taking advantage of the tax code, they are taking advantage of you, the American consumer. I have your back. We are already preventing Americans who are receiving surprise medical bills, stopping 1 billion dollar surprise bills per month so far. We are protecting seniors' life savings by cracking down on nursing homes that commit fraud, endanger patient safety, or prescribe drugs that are not needed. Millions of Americans can now save thousands of dollars because they can finally get a hearing aid over the counter without a prescription. Look, capitalism without competition is not capitalism. Last year, I cracked down, with the help of many of you, on foreign shipping companies that were making you pay higher prices for every good coming into the country. I signed a bipartisan bill that cut shipping costs by 90 percent, helping American farmers, businessmen, and consumers. Let us finish the job. My administration is also taking on junk fees, those hidden surcharges too many companies use to make you pay more. For example, we are making airlines show you the full ticket price upfront, refund your money if your flight is cancelled or delayed. We have reduced exorbitant bank overdrafts by saving consumers more than $1 billion a year. We are cutting credit card late fees by 75 percent, from $30 to $8.

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Look, junk fees may not matter to the very wealthy, but they matter to most other folks in homes like the one I grew up in, like many of you did. They add up to hundreds of dollars a month. They make it harder for you to pay your bills or afford that family trip. I know how unfair it feels when a company overcharges you and gets away with it. We have written a bill to stop it all. We are going to ban surprise resort fees that hotels charge on your bill. Those fees can cost you up to $90 a night at hotels that are not even resorts. We the idea that cable, Internet, and cellphone companies can charge you $200 or more if you decide to switch to another provider. We can stop service fees on tickets to concerts and sporting events and make companies disclose all the fees upfront. And we will prohibit airlines from charging $50 roundtrip for a family just to be able to sit together. Airlines cannot treat your child like a piece of baggage. Americans are tired of being we are tired of being played for suckers. So pass pass the Junk Fee Prevention Act so companies stop ripping us off. We are going to be we are beginning to restore the dignity of work. Thirty million workers have to sign non-compete agreements for the jobs they take. So a cashier at a burger place cannot walk across town and take the same job at another burger place and make a few bucks more. Well, they just changed it because we exposed it. That was part of the deal, guys. We are banning those agreements so companies have to compete for workers and pay them what they are worth. And I must tell you, this is bound to get a response from my friends on my left, with the right. I am so sick and tired of companies breaking the law by preventing workers from organizing. Because businesses have a right workers have a right to form a union. And let us guarantee all workers have a living wage. Let us make sure working parents can afford to raise a family with sick days, paid family and medical leave, affordable childcare. That is going to enable millions of more people to go and stay at work. And let us restore the full Child Tax Credit which gave tens of millions of parents some breathing room and cut child poverty in half to the lowest level in history. And, by the way, when we do all of these things, we increase productivity, we increase economic growth.

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So let us finish the job and get more families access to affordable, quality housing. Let us get seniors who want to stay in their homes the care they need to do so. Let us give more breathing room to millions of family caregivers looking after their loved ones. Pass my plan so we get seniors and people with disabilities the home care services they need and support the workers who are doing God's work. These plans are fully paid for, and we can afford to do them. Restoring the dignity of work means making education an affordable ticket to the middle class. You know, when we made public education 12 years of it universal in the last century, we made the best-educated, best-paid we became the best-education, best-paid nation in the world. But the rest of the world has caught up. Jill, my wife, who teaches full-time, has an expression. Any nation that out-educates is going to out-compete us. Any nation that out-educates is going to out-compete us. Folks, we all know 12 years of education is not enough to win the economic competition of the 21st century. If we want to have the best-educated workforce, let us finish the job by providing access to preschool for three and four years old. Studies show that children who go to preschool are nearly 50 percent more likely to finish high school and go on to earn a two- or four-year degree, no matter their background they came from. Let us give public school teachers a raise. We are making progress by reducing student debt, increasing Pell Grants for working and middle-class families. Let us finish the job and connect students to career opportunities starting in high school, provide access to two years of community college the best career training in America, in addition to being a pathway to a four-year degree. Let us offer every American a path to a good career, whether they go to college or not. And, folks folks, in the midst of the ENTITY crisis, when schools were closed and we were shutting down everything, let us recognize how far we came in the fight against the pandemic itself. While the virus is not gone, thanks to the resilience of the American people and the ingenuity of medicine, we have broken the ENTITY grip on us. ENTITY deaths are down by 90 percent. We have saved millions of lives and opened up our country we opened our country back up. And soon, we will end the public health emergency.

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But we will remember the toll and pain that is never going to go away. More than a million Americans lost their lives to ENTITY. Empty chairs at the dining room table constantly reminding you that she used to sit there. Remembering them, we remain vigilant. We still need to monitor dozens of variants and support new vaccines and treatments. So Congress needs to fund these efforts and keep America safe. And as we emerge from this crisis stronger, we are also got to double down prosecuting criminals who stole relief money meant to keep workers and small businesses afloat. Before I came to office, you remember, during that campaign, the big issue was about inspector generals who would protect taxpayers' dollars, who were sidelined. Many people said, We do not need them. Last year, I told you the watchdogs are back. Since then since then, we have recovered billions of taxpayers' dollars. Now let us triple the anti-fraud strike force going after these criminals, double the statute of limitations on these crimes, and crack down on identity fraud by criminal syndicates stealing billions of dollars billions of dollars from the American people. And the data shows that for every dollar we put into fighting fraud, the taxpayer will get back at least 10 times as much. Look, ENTITY left its scars, like the spike in violent crime in 2020 the first year of the pandemic. We have an obligation to make sure all people are safe. Public safety depends on public trust, as all of us know. Joining us tonight are the parents of Tyre Nicholswelcome who had to bury Tyre last week. As many of you personally know, there is no words to describe the heartache or grief of losing a child. But imagine imagine if you lost that child at the hands of the law. Imagine having to worry whether your son or daughter came home from walking down the street or playing in the park or just driving a car. Most of us in here have never had to have the talk the talk that brown and Black parents have had to have with their children. Beau, Hunter, Ashley my children I never had to have the talk with them. I never had to tell them, If a police officer pulls you over, turn your interior lights on right away. Imagine having to worry like that every single time your kid got in a car. Here is what Tyre's mother shared with me when I spoke to her, when I asked her how she finds the courage to carry on and speak out.

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With the faith of God, she said her son was, quote, a beautiful soul and something good will come of this. Imagine how much courage and character that takes. It is up to us, to all of us. neighborhoods free of violence, law enfircement law enforcement who earns the community's trust. Just as every cop, when they pin on that badge in the morning, has a right to be able to go home at night, so does everybody else out there. Our children have a right to come home safely. Equal protection under the law is a covenant we have with each other in America. We know police officers put their lives on the line every single night and day. And we know we ask them, in many cases, to do too much to be counselors, social workers, psychologists responding to drug overdoses, mental health crises, and so much more. In one sense, we ask much too much of them. And they risk and they risk their lives every time they put that shield on. But what happened to Tyre in Memphis happens too often. Give law enforcement the real training they need. Help them to succeed in keeping them safe. We also need more first responders and professionals to address the growing mental health, substance abuse challenges. All this can help prevent violence in the first place. And when police officers or police departments violate the public trust, they must be held accountable. With the support with the support of families of victims, civil rights groups, and law enforcement, I signed an executive order for all federal officers, banning chokeholds, restricting no-knock warrants, and other key elements of the George Floyd Act. Something good must come from this. All of us in the cha- in this chamber, we need to rise to this moment. Let us do what we know in our hearts that we need to do. Let us come together to finish the job on police reform. That was the plea of parents who lost their children in Uvalde I met with every one of them Do something about gun violence. Thank God thank God we did, passing the most sweeping gun safety law in three decades. enhanced background checks for 18- to 21 years old, red-flag laws keeping guns out of the hands of people who are a danger to themselves and others. Joining us tonight is Brandon Tsay, a 26-year-old hero.

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Brandon put his college dreams on hold to be at his mom's side his mom's side when she was dying from cancer. And Brandon Brandon now works at the dance studio started by his grandparents. And two weeks ago, during the Lunar New Year celebrations, he heard the studio door close, and he saw a man standing there pointing a semi-automatic pistol at him. He thought he was going to die, but he thought about the people inside. In that instant, he found the courage to act and wrestled the semi-automatic pistol away from the gunman who had already killed 11 people in another dance studio. He saved lives. It is time we do the same. I led the fight to do that in 1994. And in 10 years that ban was law, mass shootings went down. After we let it expire in a Republican administration, mass shootings tripled. Let us finish the job and ban these assault weapons. And let us also come together on immigration. We know we now have a record number of personnel working to secure the border, arresting 8,000 human smugglers, seizing over 23,000 pounds of fentanyl in just the last several months. We have launched a new border plan last month. Unlawful migration from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela has come down 97 percent as a consequence of that. If we do not pass my comprehensive immigration reform, at least pass my plan to provide the equipment and officers to secure the border and a pathway to citizenship for DREAMers, those on temporary status, farmworkers, essential workers. Here in the People's House, it is our duty to protect all the people's rights and freedoms. Congress must restore the right and Congress must restore the right that was taken away in Roe v. Wade and protect Roe v. Wade. The Vice President and I are doing everything to protect access to reproductive healthcare and safeguard patient safety. But already, more than a dozen states are enforcing extreme abortion bans. If Congress passes a national ban, I will veto it. But let us also pass let us also pass the bipartisan Equality Act to ensure LBG- LGBTQ Americans, especially transgender young people, can live with safety and dignity. Our strength our strength is not just the example of our power, but the power of our example. I spoke from this chamber one year ago, just days after Vladimir Putin unleashed his brutal attack against Ukraine, a murderous assault, evoking images of death and destruction Europe suffered in World War Two.

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Putin's invasion has been a test for the ages a test for America, a test for the world. Would we stand for the most basic of principles? Would we stand for sovereignty? Would we stand for the right of people to live free of tyranny? Would we stand for the defense of democracy? For such defense matters to us because it keeps peace and prevents open season on would-be aggressors that threatens our prosperity. One year later, we know the answer. And together, we did what America always does at our best. We united NATO. We built a global coalition. We stood against Putin's aggression. We stood with the Ukrainian people. Tonight, we are once again joined by Ukrainians' Ambassador to the United States. She represents not her just her nation but the courage of her people. Ambassador is our Ambassador is here, united in our we are united in our support of your country. Will you stand so we can all take a look at you? Because we are going to stand with you as long as it takes. Our nation is working for more freedom, more dignity, and more more peace, not just in Europe, but everywhere. Before I came to office, the story was about how the People's Republic of China was increasing its power and America was failing in the world. We made clear and I made clear in my personal conversations, which have been many, with President Xi that we seek competition, not conflict. But I will make no apologies that we are investing and to make America stronger. Investing in American innovation and industries that will define the future that China intends to be dominating. Investing in our alliances and working with our allies to protect advanced technologies so they will not be used against us. Today, we are in the strongest position in decades to compete with China or anyone else in the world. And I am committed I am committed to work with China where we can advance American interests and benefit the world. As we made clear last week, if China threatens our sovereignty, we will act to protect our country. Winning the competition should unite all of us. We face serious challenges across the world. But in the past two years, democracies have become stronger, not weaker. Name me a world leader who'd change places with Xi Jinping. America is rallying the world to meet those challenges from climate to global health to food insecurity to terrorism to territorial aggression. Allies are stepping up, spending more, and doing more.

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Look, the bridges we are forming between partners in the Pacific and those in the Atlantic. And those who bet against America are learning how wrong they are. It is never, ever been a good bet to bet against America. When I came to office, most assured that bipartisanship assumed was impossible. But I never believed it. That is why a year ago, I offered a Unity Agenda to the nation as I stood here. We made real progress together. We passed the law making it easier for doctors to prescribe effective treatments for opioid addiction. We passed the gun safety law, making historic investments in mental health. We launched the ARPA-H drive for breakthroughs in the fight against cancer, Alzheimer's, and diabetes, and so much more. We passed the Heath Robinson PACT Act, named after the late Iraq War veteran whose story about exposure to toxic burn pits I shared here last year. And I understand something about those burn pits. And we can do it together. Joining us tonight is a father named Doug from Newton, New Hampshire. He wrote Jill, my wife, a letter and me as well about his courageous daughter, Courtney. He shared a story all too familiar to millions of Americans and many of you in the audience. Courtney discovered pills in high school. It spiraled into addiction and eventually death from a fentanyl overdose. Describing the last eight years without her, Doug said, There is no worse pain. Yet, their family has turned pain into purpose, working to end the stigma and change laws. He told us he wants to start a journey towards American recovery. Doug, we are with you. Fentanyl is killing more than 70,000 Americans a year. Big Big you got it. So let us launch a major surge to stop fentanyl production and the sale and trafficking. Second, let us do more on mental health, especially for our children. When millions of young people are struggling with bullying, violence, trauma, we owe them greater access to mental health care at their schools. We must finally hold social media companies accountable for experimenting they are doing running children for profit. And it is time to pass bipartisan legislation to stop Big Tech from collecting personal data on kids and teenagers online, ban targeted advertising to children, and impose stricter limits on the personal data that companies collect on all of us. to equip those we send into harm's way and care for them and their families when they come home.

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Job training, job placement for veterans and their spouses as they come to return to civilian life. Helping veterans to afford their rent, because no one should be homeless in America, especially someone who served the country. Denis McDonough is here, of the VA. We had our first real discussion when I asked him to take the job. We were losing up to 25 veterans a day on suicide. Now we are losing 17 a day to the silent scourge of suicide. Seventeen veterans a day are committing suicide, more than all the people being killed in the wars. Folks, VA VA is doing everything it can, including expanding mental health screening, proven programs that recruits veterans to help other veterans understand what they are going through, get them the help they need. We got to do more. And fourth, last year, Jill and I reignited the Cancer Moonshot that I was able to start with, and President Obama asked me to lead our administration on this issue. Our goal is to cut the cancer death rates at least by 50 percent in the next 25 years, turn more cancers from death sentences to treatable diseases, provide more support for patients and their families. It is personal to so many of us so many of us in this audience. Joining us are Maurice and Kandice, an Irishman and a daughter of immigrants from Panama. They met and fell in love in New York City and got married in the same chapel as Jill and I got married in New York City. He wrote us a letter about his little daughter, Ava. And I saw her just before I came over. She was just a year old when she was diagnosed with a rare kidney disease cancer. After 26 blood transfusions, 11 rounds of radiation, 8 rounds of cheno chemo, 1 kidney removed, given a 5 percent survival rate. He wrote how, in the darkest moments, he thought, If she goes, I cannot stay. Many of you have been through that as well. Jill and I understand that, like so many of you. And he read Jill's book describing our family's cancer journey and how we tried to steal moments of joy where we could with Beau. For them, that glimmer of joy was the half-smile of their baby girl. It meant everything to them. They never gave up hope, and little Ava never gave up hope. They just found out Ava is beating the odds and is on her way to being cured of cancer.

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And she is watching from the White House tonight, if she is not asleep already. For the lives we can save for the lives we can save and the lives we have lost, let this be a truly American moment that rallies the country and the world together and prove that we can still do big things. Twenty years ago, under the leadership of President Bush and countless advocates and champions, he undertook a bipartisan effort through PEPFAR to transform the global fight against ENTITY/ENTITY. I believe we can do the same thing with cancer. Let us end cancer as we know it and cure some cancers once and for all. our democracy itself. It is the most fundamental thing of all. With democracy, everything is possible. Without it, nothing is. Over the last few years, our democracy has been threatened and attacked, put at risk put to the test in this very room on January the 6th. And then, just a few months ago, an unhinged Big Lie assailant unleashed a political violence at the home of the then-Speaker of the House of Representatives, using the very same language the insurrectionists used as they stalked these halls and chanted on January 6th. my friend, Paul Pelosi. We have to protect the right to vote, not suppress the that fundamental right. We have to uphold the rule of the law and restore trust in our institutions of democracy. And we must give hate and extremism in any form no safe harbor. Every generation of Americans have faced a moment where they have been called to protect our democracy, defend it, stand up for it. My fellow Americans, we meet tonight at an inflection point, one of those moments that only a few generations ever face, where the direction we now take is going to decide the course of this nation for decades to come. We are not bystanders of history. We are not powerless before the forces that confront us. It is within our power of We the People. We are facing the test of our time. optimistic, hopeful, forward-looking. A nation that embraces light over dark, hope over fear, unity over division, stability over chaos. We have to see each other not as enemies, but as fellow Americans. The only nation in the world built on an idea the only one. Other nations are defined by geography, ethnicity, but we are the only nation based on an idea that all of us, every one of us, is created equal in the image of God.

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I think you notice from the distinguished men and women on the steps with me the importance of the subject that we will be discussing this morning. We have had a briefing for interested persons from around the Nation on this new proposal which I am sure will be implemented without delay. Every American is concerned about crime and every American is a potential victim of crime. But that is only part of our concern. Crime destroys the essential fabric of our society in ways that go far beyond individual suffering and loss. In that sense, we are all victims. If our communities are to be vibrant and safe, our people cannot live in fear. We cannot let criminals control our lives. The primary responsibility for controlling crime rests with local and State officials, but the Federal Government can and does provide essential and effective support. Within the last year, we have made some progress in reducing crime. Crime rates in almost every category have gone down, but the rates are still too high and crime is still of grave concern to me and other Americans. There is clearly more that the Federal Government can and should do to solve this problem. Working in partnership with State and local governments, community organizations, and concerned citizens, we can make a safer America. Since its creation a decade ago, the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration, LEAA, has been the Federal Government's major tool to help local communities, local officials carry out this responsibility. But it has never yet realized its full potential, As part of our reorganization efforts, the Justice Department and the Office of Management and Budget have been working for the last 12 months, intensively reviewing LEAA. We have involved community leaders, public officials, and law enforcement specialists from throughout the Nation. We have also had valuable counsel and assistance from congressional leaders, such as Senator Kennedy and Congressman Rodino. The proposals that I am sending to Congress today will make the Federal Government a more effective and competent partner in the fight against crime. First, we will greatly simplify the grant process, eliminating 75 percent of the paperwork. For instance, cities now requiring 40 different applications per year will in the future only have to submit one application per year. Second, we will strengthen the partnership already enhanced by our urban policy between the Federal Government on the one hand and State and local communities on the other. For the first time hundreds of cities and counties will have the flexibility to decide how their LEAA funds can best be used to attack crime in their own communities and will receive fixed allocations of LEAA funds for that purpose.

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In addition, we will target resources to those areas of the country with especially severe crime problems. Third, we will consolidate and strengthen research and statistics programs within the Department of Justice. A National Institute of Justice will be created to replace several different research units now located in the Department of Justice. It will be charged with conducting independent studies to determine how we can best solve our criminal and civil justice problems. A Bureau of Justice Statistics will be created to provide for the first time a central focus for the gathering and analysis of statistics concerning crime and concerning our justice system. The Federal effort to help State and local governments solve their crime programs cannot be limited, however, to just improving LEAA. A sensitivity to the crime problem must be part of other Federal programs which affect the daily lives of our citizens. Several of the Federal agencies which have been involved in our urban policy will be pooling $32 million over the next year to develop, for instance, an improved anticrime program for public housing projects. Funds will be provided by the CETA program for training and education to hire local residents for such important, preventive jobs as manning elevators and patrolling unguarded areas where the crime rate has been very high. Recreation facilities will be built by Interior Department funds for the men, women, children who reside in these projects. And LEAA funds will be provided for counseling and for other services for juveniles living in public housing projects who might be influenced or tempted to resort to a life of crime. The programs I have announced today will have a beneficial effect on our crime problem. But if we are to be successful, we also need the support of each of the distinguished leaders who are here today from State and local governments, from community and neighborhood groups. We have the knowledge, the ability, the determination, the commitment, and the influence, and using these more effective programs, our common effort can continue to reduce the excessive crime rate in our Nation. I'd like now to call on the Attorney General for further remarks, and then we will hear from distinguished Members of the Congress, and then from the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. This is the third ceremony we have had in the Rose Garden that bears very heavily on our effort to do something about improving our criminal justice system. The first was a meeting just like this where we joined with the Senate and Home Judiciary Committees to sponsor the recodification of the criminal laws. That is now pending in the House, already passed the Senate

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The second was to do something about bringing the court system into our foreign intelligence efforts-we call that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. That has passed the Senate and is now pending in the House. We have been somewhat delayed on revamping and revising the LEAA because it is complex. And we started out, because of some of the things they'd done in the past, with the idea that maybe it should be abolished. We finally decided the thing to do was to refurbish it in a way to take out wasted overhead on local, State, and Federal levels, and on the Federal level we reduced the payroll by 15 percent since we have been here, number one. Number two, take the fat out, not spend any more money on boondoggles, but to be sure that the money goes to the process of deterring and eliminating crime. So, we are ending up with a three-pronged agency-research and development that will guarantee that our research is worthwhile and that it will produce something that can be developed; a Bureau of Justice Statistics, something badly needed. We oftentimes do not know what to do about the total system from police, courts, and corrections and prosecutions, without having some idea of what the statistical picture is in the country. We are bringing that together. And, of course, the grant part of the program will be a great deal better, became 70 percent of the money, as the President said, will go out almost as revenue-sharing, and the other 30 percent will be reserved for discretionary programs. I am quite pleased over the prospects, and I am more pleased than that by the fact that Senator Kennedy and Chairman Rodino and some of their colleagues will be sponsoring this legislation. We hope to have it in place by October of 1979, when the present authorization for the LEAA expires. At that time, we will be ready to move into the new system and, hopefully, both committees will agree with the President and me that we ought to go ahead and as much as possible put the new management concept in place now, because this is a managerial problem. And when I say that, I say serious managerial problem. And we need to go ahead and move to better management. I think that Mr. Gregg at the LEAA, who has been the Acting Administrator and is now, has done a wonderful job.

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I am so grateful that many from the diplomatic corps are here. This is a historic year for America. It is a year of great consequence. It is a year in which we have an opportunity to work with others to shape the future of our globe. We have a chance to achieve peace. We have a chance to achieve a more compassionate world for every citizen. America believes deeply that everybody has worth, everybody matters, everybody was created by the Almighty, and we are going to act on that belief, and we will act on that passion. You know, the world looks at us and say, They are strong. We are strong militarily, but we have got a greater strength than that. We have got a strength in the universality of human rights and the human condition. It is in our country's history. It is ingrained in our soul. And today we are going to describe how we are going to act, not just talk, but act, on the basis of our firm beliefs. I want to thank Tommy; he is the new chairman of the board of the Global Fund. He is also the Secretary of Health and Human Services, doing a great job for our administration. I want to thank so very much the Ambassadors from Guyana and Uganda for standing up here with us today. I appreciate the other ambassadors from the continent of Africa and the Caribbean for being here. With us as well is Bill Frist, a United States Senator, majority leader, passionate advocate of good health care for every citizen on the globe, a man with whom this administration will work, along with Russ Feingold, from Wisconsin, to make sure that the proposal becomes real. There is no doubt in my mind that when you have got the majority leader and a distinguished Senator like Senator Feingold teaming up together, that this will get done. It is just a matter of time. I am honored that Mark Malloch is here Mark Malloch Brown is here, who is the U.N. administrator of the U.N. Development Program. I want to thank the U.S. Surgeon General Carmona is here with us. Zerhouni of the NIH is with us. Tony Fauci is here with us. Les Crawford is the deputy commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration.

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And of course, a man who is on my staff who is going to make an enormous difference here and abroad as a direct adviser to the President, and that is Dr. Joe O'Neill, who is the director of National ENTITY Policy. He cares deeply, and his care has had he is got a lot of influence, let me put it to you this way, because of his convictions. As I mentioned, we are a strong nation, but we are also a blessed nation, and it is important for our citizens to recognize it. Richness is one thing; recognizing that we are blessed gives a different perspective, I think. I think it enhances the fact that we have a responsibility. If you are blessed, there is a responsibility to recognize your blessings in a compassionate way. We have got to understand in this country that if you value life and say every life is equal, that includes a suffering child on the continent of Africa. If you are worried about freedom, that is just not freedom for your neighbor in America; that is freedom for people around the globe. As I said in my State of the Union, freedom is not America's gift to the world; freedom is God's gift to humanity. Freedom means freedom from a lot of things. And today, on the continent of Africa, freedom means freedom from the fear of a deadly pandemic. That is what we think in America, and we are going to act on that belief. Our founding belief in human dignity should be how we conduct ourselves around the world and will be how we conduct ourselves around the world. I want you all to remember, and our fellow citizens to remember, that this is nothing new for our country. Human dignity has been a part of our history for a long time. We fed the hungry after World War I. This country carried out the Marshall plan and the Berlin airlift. Today we provide 60 percent over 60 percent of all the international food aid. We are acting on our compassion. It is nothing new for our country. But there is a pandemic which we must address now, before it is too late. And that is why I took this message to our fellow citizens, that now is the time for this country to step up our efforts to save lives. After all, on the continent of Africa, 30 million people have the ENTITY virus 30 million people. Three million children under the age of 15 have the ENTITY virus. More than 4 million people require immediate drug treatment.

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Yet, just about one percent of people receive drug treatment. I mean, there is a significant world problem that the United States of America can do something about. Tommy mentioned the images, the horrible images, that take place in Africa. It is important for our fellow citizens, as they listen to the dialog on this initiative, to understand that there are mass burials and unmarked graves on the continent of Africa. The pandemic is creating such havoc that there are mass burials, that there are wards of children that are dying because of ENTITY, not a ward, not some wards, but wards after wards full of dying children because of ENTITY, that there are millions of orphans, lonely children, because their mom or dad has died children left, in some cases, to fend for themselves. Because the ENTITY diagnosis is considered a death sentence, many folks do not seek treatment, and that is a reality. It is as if the ENTITY pandemic just continues to feed upon itself over and over and over again, because of hopelessness. This country needs to provide some hope, because this disease can be prevented and it can be treated. Anti-retroviral drugs are now dramatically more affordable in many nations, and these drugs are used to extend the lives of those with ENTITY. In other words, these drugs are really affordable. And when the treatment has come to Africa, it is also important for our citizens to understand the effect of that treatment. When one patient is rescued by medicine, as if back from the dead, many others with ENTITY seek testing and treatment, because it is the first sign of hope they have ever seen. We have the opportunity to bring that hope to millions. It is an opportunity for this Nation to affect millions and millions of lives. And so that is why I have laid out the Emergency Plan for ENTITY Relief. I called it in my State of the Union a work of mercy, and that is what I believe it is. With approval of Congress, we will devote $15 billion to the fight ENTITY abroad over the next 5 years, beginning with 2 billion in the year 2004. I have been asked whether or not we are committed to the Global ENTITY Fund. Well, first of all, I would not put Tommy as the head of it if we were not . And so we are still committed to the Global ENTITY Fund to fight disease. This program in no way diminishes our commitment to the fund. We will continue bilateral ENTITY programs in more than 50 countries.

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We have already got bilateral relations with 50 countries with whom we are working on ENTITY, and we will continue that program. But this plan that I have laid out in front of the Congress, and will work with Members of the Senate and the House on, will dramatically focus our efforts. You notice I did not say, focus our efforts, I said, dramatically focus our efforts. And that is important for the American people to understand, because we want to bring a comprehensive system. It is more than money that we bring; we bring expertise and compassion and love and the desire to develop a comprehensive system, work with people in Africa to do so, for diagnosis and treatment and prevention. We are determined to turn the tide against ENTITY. And we are going to start in 14 African and Caribbean countries, where the disease is most heavily concentrated. We whip it in those 15 or 14 we will show what is possible in other countries. We are going to be involved with the fund. We will continue to have bilateral aid. We want to have intense focus where the need is most severe and show the world what is possible not just show our fellow citizens or show the folks on the continent of Africa, but the world needs to see what we can do together. The model has been applied with great success in Uganda. Anybody who knows the issue of ENTITY on the African Continent appreciates the efforts of Uganda. Even though we are on 14 countries initially with this major focus, we understand there is suffering elsewhere. We want to encourage others to join us as well. The funding will initially go toward expanding existing hospitals and, of course, drawing on the knowledge and the expertise of local physicians. That makes sense. You have got a doc in place, we want to encourage that doc to be able to continue his or her healing. We will build satellite facilities that can serve more people. Of course, we will provide antiretroviral drugs and as well work with folks on the ground for education and care. It is important for our citizens to know that the infrastructure is it is hard for many Americans to imagine the lack of infrastructure that we are working with on the continent of Africa. So we use motorcycles, trucks, bicycles. We use nurses and local healers to go to the farthest villages and farms to test for the disease and to deliver medications that will save lives. Facilities across Africa and the Caribbean will have now the medicine. And our fellow citizens must understand that the reason they do is because of your generosity, the taxpayers of the country.

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I hope when our citizens absorb that knowledge the massive attempt to save lives that they feel proud of their country and proud of the compassion of America. We are going to work with other governments, of course, private groups there is all kinds of faith-based programs involved on the continent of Africa, and we welcome that, of course. And we encourage that. And we thank you for that. I thought you were Father Edward Phillips for a minute. He is in Kenya, works in Kenya. He is obviously followed his faith. He leads an organization that provides testing and treatment in Nairobi. He is helped thousands of people every year. He ought to be giving this speech, not me, because he knows what it must feel like to play a significant role in saving lives. And that is what we are here to talk about today, how best to save lives. that in this decade, we will prevent 7 million new infections; that we will treat at least 2 million people with life-extending drugs. We will provide humane care, of course, for those who suffer and, as importantly, for the orphans. To me, that is just the beginning. Most important thing is we are providing hope, which is immeasurable. How can you possibly measure the benefits of hope? There is no we cannot quantify that. But it certainly can be qualified by saying a hopeful society is a heck of a lot better society than what they found on the continent today. This project is urgent, and as we move forward on this program we will continue to call upon other nations to join. The United States does not mind leading, and we believe others have a responsibility as well, that we are not the only blessed nation. And we hope they join us. And as well we have got a lot of work to do here in America. It is important for our fellow citizens never to think that one initiative or a major initiative in Africa does not mean we are going to forget the 900,000 people living in America today who carry the ENTITY virus. Of course we will never do that. It is important for our citizens to understand that there is 40,000 new infections every year in this country. The ENTITY diagnosis still obviously brings tremendous grief and worries in parts of our society. And so the budget I have submitted and worked with Congress on will be a request for $16 billion for domestic ENTITY prevention and care and treatment; it is a 7 percent increase over '03. It is a $93 million increase for ENTITY research.

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I do not know about you, but I am excited about the year 2008. I intend to finish strong with my head held high. And I intend to work to see to it that we keep the White House and elect John Boehner Speaker of the House of Representatives. Now, I thank you all for coming tonight. I send I bring greetings from First Lady Laura Bush. She is yes, thank you. She is wedding planning right now, so I appreciate the invitation to be here. You know, I was just thinking about how next year's dinner is going to be a little different from this one. First, you are going to be welcoming a new keynote speaker, President John McCain. And President McCain will start this dinner by saying, Thanks for the introduction, Mr. Speaker. And I will be watching it all on TV in Crawford. I do want to thank my friend John Boehner. He has been a great leader for the Republicans in the House of Representatives. I am proud to call him friend, and I thank you for your service. Roy Blunt, Adam Putnam, Darrell Issa. Issa, you did a heck of a job tonight. I want to recognize my friend Tom Cole. Tom Cole has the vision and determination to effect change, and that is, elect Republicans to be the Speaker and leaders of the House of Representatives. I want to thank Eric Cantor, David Dreier, Kay Granger, John Carter. I appreciate Sam * Hall, my fellow Texan, and Sam Johnson, my fellow Texan, and Ralph Regula for presenting the awards on all the veterans who are serving in Congress tonight. That'll happen after I leave, but nevertheless, I do want to extend my congratulations. I thank Trace Adkins for singing here tonight. I told him, no, I did not think I'd sing; I thought I'd just do a little tap-dance. And I also appreciate my friend, one of the great voices of all time, Sam Moore. I also want to welcome all the candidates who are running for office. You know, it is not an easy decision to make to run for the United States Congress, but it is a noble decision. And it is a tough decision for your families. And so I want to thank you for agreeing to run; I want to thank your families for agreeing to support you. My advice is, work hard, talk about what is in your heart, let the people know your values, and win.

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I think 2008 is going to be a fabulous year for the Republican Party. And the reason why I believe that is because when the American people look at our ideals versus the ideals of the Democrats, when they look at what we believe versus what they believe, they are with us. We represent the values of the American people. Our ideas are the ones embraced by the folks. They may not be the ones that the pundits listen to, but they are the ones who are out working every single day to make America a great and hopeful place. We believe in strong national defense, and we will do what it takes to keep our Nation safe from a terrorist attack. We believe in limited government. We believe in the collective wisdom of the American people to make the decisions on behalf of the American Government. We would rather trust you than the people in government to make the decisions for what is best for you. I am optimistic about this year because I know John McCain. I have known him for many years. I have seen his character and his leadership up close. I have campaigned with him, and I have campaigned against him. He is a tough competitor. I have seen in every decision he makes that he is guided by the national interests of the United States, not by self-interest. I know John McCain to be a man who will make decisions based upon sound principles, not based upon the latest focus group or political poll. John McCain is running on a clear, consistent, and conservative agenda. He is a man of honor. He has the wisdom and the experience necessary to be the Commander in Chief of our United States military forces. He loves this country. He is ready to lead this country. And on Inauguration Day, I will proud to be say to John McCain, Congratulations, Mr. President. And I can assure you he does not want a lonely victory. He needs allies in the Congress to help enact his agenda. And he is going to work hard alongside these candidates and the incumbents to make sure we win. And I am confident I hope you go forth from this meeting with confidence because I am confident. I firmly believe that we can retake the House. I know we will hold the White House. And I know it is necessary for the United States of America that we do both. Let me talk about some of the issues and why I think we will win. We trust people. We Republicans believe you can make the best decisions for your life.

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On health care, we trust patients to make decisions, not bureaucrats in Washington, DC. When it comes to education, we trust parents to make the right decisions for their children, and we believe in strong accountability in our public schools. We refuse to accept mediocrity. We refuse to accept the status quo when not every single child in America is learning to read and write and add and subtract. The American people need us because we will appoint judges who will strictly interpret the Constitution and not use the bench from which to write law, judges like John Roberts and Sam Alito. But I think the biggest issue in this campaign is going to be your taxes. I think the biggest issue in this campaign is which side of the political divide is going to let you keep your money and which side is going to raise your taxes. Now, we have got a record on which side will not raise your taxes. We have been through some tough economic times together. We have been through a recession and a terrorist attack and war and corporate scandal and natural disasters. We added jobs for 52 consecutive months. It is the longest uninterrupted job growth in the Nation's history. We trusted the American people, and we cut taxes on every American who pays taxes. We have hit a rough patch, but we took the lead. We anticipated the problems. And thanks to the leadership of John Boehner and Roy Blunt, they helped shepherd through over $160 billion of tax relief that will be reaching the mailboxes of the American people in the second week of May. Tax relief has worked in the past, and tax relief will work this time, when we get through this rough patch. Milk expires, taxes increase. And we know the difference. And so will the American people when they realize that 116 million households will see their taxes rise by an average of $1,800 if the Democrats get their way in the House of Representatives. We need a Republican President and a Republican Congress to prevent the Democrats from raising your taxes. It is the most solemn responsibility that those of us who have been honored to serve you have. We must do everything in our power to make sure the enemy does not strike us again. And I fully understood that after September the 11th, that the temptation would be to dismiss any threat; the temptation would be that, Oh, perhaps since we have not been attacked, the threat does not exist.

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Well, the threat does exist, and it requires steadfast, strong, clear-eyed leadership here in Washington, DC. One of the things that we must do is to make sure that the hundreds of people that are out working for you every night to protect you have the tools they need. If the enemy, if the extremists who want to do America harm, if the radicals who want to kill again, like they did before on our homeland, are making phone calls into the United States of America, we need to know who they are calling, what they are saying, and what they are planning. The Congress came together last year and passed the Protect America Act to give our professionals the tools they need. But the threat to the United States of America has not expired. Unfortunately, Democratic leaders in the House are continuing to block bipartisan legislation that would give our intelligence officials the tools they need to quickly and effectively monitor terrorist communications. And they are doing so despite the fact that legislation, good legislation, to give our professionals the tools passed the United States Senate by an overwhelming majority of 68 to 29. Instead of holding a vote on this bill that would pass the House of Representatives, House leaders have introduced a highly partisan and deeply flawed bill of their own. Their bill would put in place a cumbersome court approval process that would make it harder to collect intelligence on foreign terrorists and could reopen dangerous intelligence gaps that we experienced last year. Their bill fails to provide liability protection to companies believed to have assisted in protecting our Nation after the 9/11 attacks. Instead, the House bill would make matters worse by extending litigation for years to come. In fact, House leaders simply adopted the position that class-action trial lawyers are taking in billions of dollars of lawsuits they have filed. We are under threat, ladies and gentlemen, and yet the House leaders blocked meaningful, substantial legislation that will help protect America for the sake of class-action trial lawyers. Companies that may have helped us save lives should be thanked for their patriotic service and should not be subjected to billion-dollar lawsuits. This bill would require the disclosure of state secrets during the litigation process. This could lead to the public release of highly classified information that our enemies could use against us. The Democrat version of protecting America is a bad bill; it is irresponsible. It casts aside the bipartisan consensus that was reached in the United States Senate in favor of a partisan approach that has no chance of becoming law.

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House leaders know this, yet they are pursuing this anyway. This is bad public policy and another reason to elect Republicans to the House of Representatives. But the enemy only has to be right one time, and therefore, the best way to protect the American people from further harm is to defeat the enemy overseas so we do not have to face them here at home. And that is precisely the strategy that we are following. We are on the offense. Wherever we can find a terrorist who would harm the American people, we will bring him to justice. And this war against the extremists is now being played out on two major theaters. I laid out a doctrine that said, if you harbor a terrorist, you are equally as guilty as the terrorists. The Taliban and did not believe us, and so the United States of America, after giving the enemy due warning, unleashed the fury of a great military. And in so doing, we cleaned out the terrorist training camps from which they launched attacks on the United States and freed 25 million people from the clutches of a barbaric regime. This young democracy is struggling for its very existence against coldblooded killers, and it is in the interests of the United States that we stand strongly with these proud Afghan citizens, that we back them in their efforts, and that we make sure Al Qaida or any other extremist can no longer find a safe haven in the country of Afghanistan. And then, of course, the other theater is Iraq. Removing Saddam Hussein was the right decision early in my Presidency; it is the right decision now; and it will be the right decision ever. And the fight's been tough in Iraq. And for those of you here who are here who have served in that theater, I cannot thank you enough for your sacrifices and your service to the United States of America. After all, they wrote one of the most modern constitutions in the history of the Middle East. Iraqis braved the violence to vote. And yet nearly a year ago, the terrorists and extremists were succeeding in their efforts to plunge the country into chaos. So I had a tough decision to make. I reviewed our strategy. I fully understood that failure in Iraq would make America more vulnerable to attack, that failure in Iraq would create unbelievable chaos in a part of the world that has that produced suicide bombers in the first place.

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And so rather than retreating, I made the considered judgment to send reinforcements into the country, in a dramatic move that is now called the surge. Fourteen months after I ordered the surge of forces, sectarian killings are down, and Al Qaida is on the defense. U.S. and Iraqi forces have captured or killed thousands of extremists in Iraq, including hundreds of key Al Qaida operatives. Progress in Iraq is fragile, and there is no question, it is going to take strong determination to prevail. Yet even the enemy recognizes they are on the wrong side of events. When things were going poorly in Iraq early last year, Democrats called for withdrawal. Today, the situation has turned around, and Democrats are calling for withdrawal. retreat. You might even say that when it comes to withdrawing from Iraq, the Democrats' policy is, stay the course. If we followed their advice a year ago, Iraq would be far different and a much more dangerous place than it is today, and the American people would be at greater risk. And if we followed their advice now, we would put at risk all the gains our troops have made over the past year. The United States Congress does need to act when it comes to Iraq, and they need to stand with our brave men and women in uniform and give them all the resources they need to do their job. And it when it comes to standing with the United States military, there is no greater supporters than the Republicans in the House of Representatives. The struggle we are engaged in is difficult for the American some Americans to really understand the scope and the nature of the battle. We are involved in an ideological struggle between folks who murder the innocent to achieve political objectives, folks who have got a vision about what they would like to impose on the rest of the world, and particularly in the Middle East, and those of us who believe strongly in the power of liberty. I believe in the trans-formative power of liberty. I believe that if the United States of America does not lose its faith in the power of freedom to transform hopeless societies, that we will see the peace that we all want. I believe in the universality of freedom. I believe there is an Almighty, and I believe a gift of that Almighty to every man, woman, and child is freedom. I love to share the story, and I am sure some of you have heard this before but the story about my friendship with Prime Minister Koizumi of Japan.

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Only a few moments ago, I had the first opportunity of my life to look at the Old Man of the Mountain. The natural question asked me was, What did you think of it, ENTITY? Remarkable. what does the Old Man of the Mountain think of us? He has been there through time. In his lonely vigil up at the top of that mountain--let us not try to go back to what he may have been thinking through those ages before our civilization first discovered him--150 years ago he saw great ox carts going through these roads where now we travel in an instant. He saw the fastest means of transportation--the horse. Finally he saw stage coaches. He saw only here and there a habitation, a sparsely settled wilderness. He has seen mankind go from the sailing ship and from the horse and buggy to the jet airplane and the ability to cross the ocean in a few hours. He has seen the great sciences of radio and television come to us. He has seen every American have, with his morning breakfast, the day's news of the world. He has seen the great electronics industry--electric lights, telephones and telegraphy, and all the things by which we live today. All of these changes have come about. But can you believe, as he stands up there, almost in infinite majesty, that he thinks it is of great concern that we travel at a rate that multiplies the speed of our forefathers? I believe he thinks of something deeper than that. When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and assume among the powers of the earth that separate and equal status to which both the laws of nature and nature's God intended them, a decent respect for the opinions of mankind impel them to declare the reasons which have led to their separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights. Among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. These immortal words must mean a great deal to the Old Man of the Mountain. He must contemplate them from time to time. I think we--with him--understand life. We know the instinct of self-preservation, and we know what living means to us, in our separate capacities, in our separate areas.

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the individual right to do as we please as long as we do not infringe upon similar rights of others. But the pursuit of happiness--he must have noted that those writers did not create this government to give us happiness. Far better they knew than to try to define happiness for any one of us--the pursuit of happiness in liberty each according to his own desires, to the deepest aspirations of his own soul. Now, what have we done about it? Where do we find happiness? Possibly that is what he is wondering today. We know certain things. We know we would like to be at peace. We do not want to send our boys off into the Armed Services to serve in foreign lands. We do not want to dwell in fear. We do not want to contemplate the horrible things that could happen to us in a new war. At home we want to live comfortably. We want to have neighbors around us that we like. But as we pursue happiness, are we thinking only of these material things? Then how do we attain it? If we attain money to do certain things, then we want more money. If we attain a high office, we want a higher one. If there is no higher one we would like to invent it. We always want something more. Maybe the more is to try to discover what others around us find as their idea of the pursuit of happiness, what is it that mankind wants, instead of each of us separately? Can we integrate the desires, the aspirations, the hopes of our community, and then do our part to achieve that? In so doing, I wonder whether the Old Man would not approve of us more than he may at present? Because he well knows, if he has watched us, that each individual is made up of two sets of qualities. courage, readiness to sacrifice, love for our families, respect for others. And he knows also those other qualities, of selfishness and greed and ambition, and things that set men one against the other, and nations one against the other. He recognizes the right of a group, whether it be community, or whether it be nation, to protect itself, to make certain of its own security. a peaceful world in which each of us may continue to develop. Whether we do it through church, or through our schools, through any kind of community enterprise, through the family, through our own reading, we do not seek knowledge for itself.

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I look forward to going to the Panama Canal. I am most impressed by the management of the canal. Those who are responsible for the Panama Canal have done an excellent job, and this is beneficial to the world, and I congratulate you for that. And I am really looking forward to seeing it. I am also looking forward to paying our respects to, by laying a wreath. I am also looking forward to seeing some of the Panamanian baseball stars. People around here know how to play baseball, and I am looking forward to seeing some of your stars, Mr. President. We have had a very good discussion, and it is important we have discussions, because we are friends. And one of the matters we discussed was, how do we work together to improve the lives of our respective citizens? And one way is through trade. We are in the midst of negotiating a free trade agreement with Panama. And I told the President this free trade agreement is important for America, as he told me it is important for Panama. And we are close to coming to an agreement, and we will continue to work on that agreement for the good of our respective peoples. I also told him that I was pleased with the leadership of Panama and Argentina. Twenty-nine nations said, loud and clear, It is important for us to continue to advance a trade agenda that is positive for the people of this hemisphere. And I appreciated your Government's stance on that, Mr. President. You are acting in the interest of your people. And speaking about the interest of the people, I do want to say something about the tornadoes that recently hit America. I had the-I called the Governor of Indiana this morning and expressed my deepest condolences for the families who lost lives. I asked him if there was more Federal response needed. He felt like the response that we had given was appropriate at the time. And many Americans are now asking God's blessings on those who suffered through this natural disaster. President, I am fully aware that 25,000 of our citizens live in your beautiful country. I congratulate you for your fiscal reforms. I congratulate you for the strong growth of your economy. I appreciate your transparency. I appreciate your strong commitment to fighting corruption. It sends a clear signal not only to the people of this important country but also to people throughout the region. And it is noble, and it is important that you continue, which I know you will, your very strong leadership.

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Proclaiming Columbus Day is much more to me than just another ceremonial function. Because this event gives me a chance, along with all of my fellow countrymen, to reflect on the beginnings of this Nation-and on the men who began it. It reminds us that every citizen in this land is the descendant of men who were once foreigners--who were once strangers from afar. This is what our great President Franklin Roosevelt was thinking about one day in April when he addressed the Daughters of the American Revolution by saluting them as My fellow immigrants. the first in that long procession of strangers who, over the centuries, have come to enrich our lives, our statesmanship, and our culture here in America. Today we think of Columbus Day as a time for honoring not only that great explorer, but also all of those Italians whose gifts have been freely given to make this Nation great. Enrico Fermi, Frank Capra, A. P. Giannini, Fiorello La Guardia, Max Ascoli, Joe DiMaggio, Johnny Pastore. I would like to call the name of each of you, because you mean that much to me and you have made great contributions. Steve Martini, who cuts my hair here at the White House and has cut the hair of Presidents for several years, is one of my most influential counselors, believe it or not. He is also one of my most recognized comforters in moments of distress and depression. I just cannot resist adding Jack Valenti and Joe Califano, because in the period that I have been here, no two men have given their country greater or more rewarding service. In the past year, I am very proud that by all of us working together we have made it much easier for people of such ability to come here to the United States. You may remember it was on October 3, last year, standing beside the Statue of Liberty, that I signed a new immigration bill that we had been trying to pass for years and we had finally, successfully gotten it through both Houses. That measure ended, I think, once and for all, the discrimination-the discrimination which, for nearly 40 years, handicapped those who wanted to call our land their home. Under the old system, even Christopher Columbus would have found it difficult to come to this country--simply because Christopher Columbus was born in Italy.

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Under the old system, a person born in England was 12 times more welcome to America than a person born in Italy, and far more acceptable, Mike, than a Greek or a Portuguese or a Pole. Under that old system, countries like Italy had very small immigration quotas. They had long lists of persons who were waiting to emigrate to the United States. At the same time preferred nations were failing to even fill the very large quotas that were assigned to them. But the Immigration Act of 1965 has not opened the floodgates to immigration as its opponents claimed that it would. In fiscal year 1966 the State Department granted 309,000 visas--only 9,000 more than the year before. The increase is almost invisible when you consider that the internal growth of the United States was over 3 million, while we had an increase of 9,000 coming in. The Immigration Act of 1965 does assign quotas on a basis of equality. What skills can you perform? Italy was granted 9,987 immigration visas in fiscal year 1965. In 1966, under the new law, Italy received 24,967. Portugal was granted 1,798 visas in 1965; 9,017 in 1966. The list goes on through all the countries with citizens desiring to relocate here in America. So in its short life, this Immigration Act of 1965 has brought happiness to many homes, has reunited many families that have been kept apart very cruelly for a good many years. It has brought us capable people that wish to put their skills at the service of the United States. It has earned us the friendship of nations which had resented this unfair treatment under the unjust quota system. It has demonstrated the desire of the people in the United States to end discrimination and to end it in every corner of our national life. For years, America has been a beacon of change and progress to men who wanted to escape old lands, old ways, and old injustices. That is what brought our fathers here; it still brings people here. But to men across the world, we have been the land whose revolution did not end; we have been the land whose eyes are always forward. So today, all around the world, we hear the cry for change. And the cry for change is rising. It is rising in our own country. We welcome it--for we hear, in that sound, the echo of 1776. this echo of 1776, as I meet here with you in the Cabinet Room today to sign this proclamation.

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For too long, the people of Darfur have suffered at the hands of a government that is complicit in the bombing, murder, and rape of innocent civilians. genocide. The world has a responsibility to help put an end to it. Last month, I announced that the United States was prepared to take new steps if the Government of Sudan did not allow the full deployment of a U.N. peacekeeping force; if the Government did not begin living up to its many commitments, that the United States would act. I made clear that the time for promises was over, and that President Bashir had to do something to end the suffering. I held off implementing these steps because the United Nations believed that President Bashir could meet his obligations to stop the killing and would meet his obligations to stop the killing. Unfortunately, he has not met those obligations. President Bashir's actions over the past few weeks follow a long pattern of promising cooperation while finding new methods for obstruction. One day after I spoke, the military bombed a meeting of rebel commanders designed to discuss a possible peace deal with the Government. In the following weeks, he used his army and Government-sponsored militias to attack rebels and civilians in south Darfur. He is taken no steps to disarm these militias in the year since the Darfur Peace Agreement was signed. Senior officials continue to oppose the deployment of the U.N. peacekeeping force. The result is that the dire security situation on the ground in Darfur has not changed. And so today, at my instruction, the United States has taken the steps I announced in April. First, the Department of Treasury is tightening U.S. economic sanctions on Sudan. With this new effort, the United States will more aggressively enforce existing sanctions against Sudan's Government. As part of this effort, the Treasury Department will add 30 companies owned or controlled by the Government of Sudan to its list of Specially Designated Nationals. We are also adding an additional company to the list, a company that has been transporting weapons to the Sudanese Government and militia forces in Darfur. All these companies are now barred from the U.S. financial system. It is a crime for American companies and individuals to knowingly do business with them. Second, we are targeting sanctions against individuals responsible for violence. These sanctions will isolate these persons by cutting them off from the U.S. financial system, barring them from doing business with any American citizen or company, and calling the world's attention to their crimes.

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Third, I am directing the Secretary of State to consult with the United Kingdom and other allies on a new United Nations Security Council resolution. This resolution will apply new sanctions against the Government of Sudan, against individuals found to be violating human rights or obstructing the peace process. It will impose an expanded embargo on arms sales to the Government of Sudan. It will prohibit the Sudanese Government from conducting any offensive military flights over Darfur. It will strengthen our ability to monitor and report any violations. At the same time, we will continue to push for U.N. support, including funding for the African Union peacekeepers, who remain the only force in Darfur that is protecting the people. We will continue to work for the deployment of a larger, hybrid force of AU and U.N. peacekeeping troops. We will continue to support the diplomacy of U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. We will continue to insist on the full implementation of the Darfur Peace Agreement. We will continue to promote a broadly supported and inclusive political settlement that is the only long-term solution to the crisis in Darfur. Since this conflict began, we have provided more than $1.7 billion in humanitarian and peacekeeping assistance for Darfur. We are the world's largest single donor to the people of Darfur. We are working for the day when the families of this troubled region are allowed to return safely to their homes and rebuild their lives in peace. The people of Darfur are crying out for help, and they deserve it. I urge the United Nations Security Council, the African Union, and all members of the international community to reject any efforts to obstruct implementation of the agreements that would bring peace to Darfur and Sudan. I call on President Bashir to stop his obstruction and to allow the peacekeepers in and to end the campaign of violence that continues to target innocent men, women, and children. The United States will not avert our eyes from a crisis that challenges the conscience of the world.

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Tomorrow the House of Representatives faces a critical vote on the balanced budget amendment, and right now is the time for some straight talk about our national deficit. With our Federal debt averaging $65,000 for the typical American family of four, I understand why the American people are fed up and why you are looking for change. I share your frustration, and I am determined to see things changed. I am convinced that a balanced budget amendment is the only way to force the Federal Government, both the Congress and the executive branch, to live within its means. In fact, the very first address to Congress I made as President included a call for a balanced budget. I confidently presented a balanced budget constitutional amendment to the Congress. I asked our Nation's elected leaders to put America's best interests first and to join me in reaching a goal whose benefits will be measured in jobs and opportunity for ourselves and for our children. Government spending must be restrained and the budget balanced. Government is too big, and it spends too much. We are treating our national debt like the old fellow who borrowed money to pay off his loans. Inevitably, someone at some time must foot the bill. It is simply wrong to walk away from this mountain of debt and leave it to our kids. Forty-four of our States have some kind of a constitutional requirement for a balanced budget. It is time for the Federal Government to follow their lead. We must balance the Federal budget without shifting the funding burden along to the States. We must pay our own way. Our future is at stake. Now is the time to pass a constitutional amendment mandating a balanced budget. Let me caution Americans not to be taken in by bold blustering. We cannot wheel and deal the deficit away. There is no easy answer that we can jot out on a blank sheet of paper to wipe out a deficit of that magnitude. We should not be willing to risk our grandchildren's future on sound bites that merely sound real. A constitutional amendment mandating a balanced budget is what is needed. Pass this balanced budget amendment. There is no single action that we can take that will be any more important than doing this for our Nation's future. Thank you, and may God bless you, and may God bless the United States of America.

monologic

I COME before you at the opening of the Regular Session of the 73d Congress, not to make requests for special or detailed items of legislation; I come, rather, to counsel with you, who, like myself, have been selected to carry out a mandate of the whole people, in order that without partisanship you and I may cooperate to continue the restoration of our national wellbeing and, equally important, to build on the ruins of the past a new structure designed better to meet the present problems of modern civilization. Such a structure includes not only the relations of industry and agriculture and finance to each other but also the effect which all of these three have on our individual citizens and on the whole people as a Nation. Now that we are definitely in the process of recovery, lines have been rightly drawn between those to whom this recovery means a return to old methods and the number of these people is small and those for whom recovery means a reform of many old methods, a permanent readjustment of many of our ways of thinking and therefore of many of our social and economic arrangements Civilization cannot go back; civilization must not stand still. We have undertaken new methods. It is our task to perfect, to improve, to alter when necessary, but in all cases to go forward. To consolidate what we are doing, to make our economic and social structure capable of dealing with modern life is the joint task of the legislative, the judicial, and the executive branches of the national Government. Without regard to party, the overwhelming majority of our people seek a greater opportunity for humanity to prosper and find happiness. They recognize that human welfare has not increased and does not increase through mere materialism and luxury, but that it does progress through integrity, unselfishness, responsibility and justice. In the past few months, as a result of our action, we have demanded of many citizens that they surrender certain licenses to do as they please, in their business relationships; but we have asked this in exchange for the protection which the State can give against exploitation by their fellow men or by combinations of their fellow men. I congratulate this Congress upon the courage, the earnestness and the efficiency with which you met the crisis at the Special Session. It was your fine understanding of the national problem that furnished the example which the country has so splendidly followed. I venture to say that the task confronting the First Congress of 1789 was no greater than your own.

monologic

I shall not attempt to set forth either the many phases of the crisis which we experienced last March, or the many measures which you and I undertook during the Special Session that we might initiate recovery and reform. It is sufficient that I should speak in broad terms of the results of our common counsel. The credit of the Government has been fortified by drastic reduction in the cost of its permanent agencies through the Economy Act. With the twofold purpose of strengthening the whole financial structure and of arriving eventually at a medium of exchange which over the years will have less variable purchasing and debt paying power for our people than that of the past, I have used the authority granted me to purchase all American-produced gold and silver and to buy additional gold in the world markets. Careful investigation and constant study prove that in the matter of foreign exchange rates certain of our sister Nations find themselves so handicapped by internal and other conditions that they feel unable at this time to enter into stabilization discussion based on permanent and world-wide objectives. The overwhelming majority of the banks, both national and State, which reopened last spring, are in sound condition and have been brought within the protection of Federal insurance. In the case of those banks which were not permitted to reopen, nearly six hundred million dollars of frozen deposits are being restored to the depositors through the assistance of the national Government. We have made great strides toward the objectives of the National Industrial Recovery Act, for not only have several millions of our unemployed been restored to work, but industry is organizing itself with a greater understanding that reasonable profits can be earned while at the same time protection can be assured to guarantee to labor adequate pay and proper conditions of work. Uniform standards of hours and wages apply today to 95 percent of industrial employment within the field of the National Industrial Recovery Act. We seek the definite end of preventing combinations in furtherance of monopoly and in restraint of trade, while at the same time we seek to prevent ruinous rivalries within industrial groups which in many cases resemble the gang wars of the underworld and in which the real victim in every case is the public itself. Under the authority of this Congress, we have brought the component parts of each industry together around a common table, just as we have brought problems affecting labor to a common meeting ground. Though the machinery, hurriedly devised, may need readjustment from time to time, nevertheless I think you will agree with me that we have created a permanent feature of our modernized industrial structure and that it will continue under the supervision but not the arbitrary dictation of Government itself.

monologic

You recognized last spring that the most serious part of the debt burden affected those who stood in danger of losing their farms and their homes. I am glad to tell you that refinancing in both of these cases is proceeding with good success and in all probability within the financial limits set by the Congress. But agriculture had suffered from more than its debts. Actual experience with the operation of the Agricultural Adjustment Act leads to my belief that thus far the experiment of seeking a balance between production and consumption is succeeding and has made progress entirely in line with reasonable expectations toward the restoration of farm prices to parity. I continue in my conviction that industrial progress and prosperity can only be attained by bringing the purchasing power of that portion of our population which in one form or another is dependent upon agriculture up to a level which will restore a proper balance between every section of the country and between every form of work. In this field, through carefully planned flood control, power development and land-use policies in the Tennessee Valley and in other, great watersheds, we are seeking the elimination of waste, the removal of poor lands from agriculture and the encouragement of small local industries, thus furthering this principle of a better balanced national life. We recognize the great ultimate cost of the application of this rounded policy to every part off the Union. Today we are creating heavy obligations to start the work because of the great unemployment needs of the moment. I look forward, however, to the time in the not distant future, when annual appropriations, wholly covered by current revenue, will enable the work to proceed under a national plan. Such a national plan will, in a generation or two, return many times the money spent on it; more important, it will eliminate the use of inefficient tools, conserve and increase natural resources, prevent waste, and enable millions of our people to take better advantage of the opportunities which God has given our country. I cannot, unfortunately, present to you a picture of complete optimism regarding world affairs. The delegation representing the United States has worked in close cooperation with the other American Republics assembled at Montevideo to make that conference an outstanding success. We have, I hope, made it clear to our neighbors that we seek with them future avoidance of territorial expansion and of interference by one Nation in the internal affairs of another. Furthermore, all of us are seeking the restoration of commerce in ways which will preclude the building up of large favorable trade balances by any one Nation at the expense of trade debits on the part of other Nations.

monologic

In other parts of the world, however, fear of immediate or future aggression and with it the spending of vast sums on armament and the continued building up of defensive trade barriers prevent any great progress in peace or trade agreements. I have made it clear that the United States cannot take part in political arrangements in Europe but that we stand ready to cooperate at any time in practicable measures on a world basis looking to immediate reduction of armaments and the lowering of the barriers against commerce. I expect to report to you later in regard to debts owed the Government and people of this country by the Governments and peoples of other countries. Several Nations, acknowledging the debt, have paid in small part; other Nations have failed to pay. One Nation Finland has paid the installments due this country in full. Returning to home problems, we have been shocked by many notorious examples of injuries done our citizens by persons or groups who have been living off their neighbors by the use of methods either unethical or criminal. In the first category a field which does not involve violations of the letter of our laws practices have been brought to light which have shocked those who believed that we were in the past generation raising the ethical standards of business. They call for stringent preventive or regulatory measures. I am speaking of those individuals who have evaded the spirit and purpose of our tax laws, of those high officials of banks or corporations who have grown rich at the expense of their stockholders or the public, of those reckless speculators with their own or other people's money whose operations have injured the values of the farmers' crops and the savings of the poor. In the other category, crimes of organized banditry, coldblooded shooting, lynching and kidnapping have threatened our security. These violations of ethics and these violations of law call on the strong arm of Government for their immediate suppression; they call also on the country for an aroused public opinion. The adoption of the Twenty-first Amendment should give material aid to the elimination of those new forms of crime which came from the illegal traffic in liquor. I shall continue to regard it as my duty to use whatever means may be necessary to supplement State, local and private agencies for the relief of suffering caused by unemployment. With respect to this question, I have recognized the dangers inherent in the direct giving of relief and have sought the means to provide not mere relief, but the opportunity for useful and remunerative work.

monologic

We shall, in the process of recovery, seek to move as rapidly as possible from direct relief to publicly supported work and from that to the rapid restoration of private employment. It is to the eternal credit of the American people that this tremendous readjustment of our national life is being accomplished peacefully, without serious dislocation, with only a minimum of injustice and with a great, willing spirit of cooperation throughout the country. Self-help and self-control are the essence of the American tradition not of necessity the form of that tradition, but its spirit. The program itself comes from the American people. It is an integrated program, national in scope. Viewed in the large, it is designed to save from destruction and to keep for the future the genuinely important values created by modern society. The vicious and wasteful parts of that society we could not save if we wished; they have chosen the way of self-destruction. We would save useful mechanical invention, machine production, industrial efficiency, modern means of communication, broad education. We would save and encourage the slowly growing impulse among consumers to enter the industrial market place equipped with sufficient organization to insist upon fair prices and honest sales. But the unnecessary expansion of industrial plants, the waste of natural resources, the exploitation of the consumers of natural monopolies, the accumulation of stagnant surpluses, child labor, and the ruthless exploitation of all labor, the encouragement of speculation with other people's money, these were consumed in the fires that they themselves kindled; we must make sure that as we reconstruct our life there be no soil in which such weeds can grow again. We have plowed the furrow and planted the good seed; the hard beginning is over. If we would reap the full harvest, we must cultivate the soil where this good seed is sprouting and the plant is reaching up to mature growth. I know that each of you will appreciate that. I am speaking no mere politeness when I assure you how much I value the fine relationship that we have shared during these months of hard and incessant work. Out of these friendly contacts we are, fortunately, building a strong and permanent tie between the legislative and executive branches of the Government. The letter of the Constitution wisely declared a separation, but the impulse of common purpose declares a union. In this spirit we join once more in serving the American people.

monologic

I appreciate your enthusiasm. Chris Dodd has that effect on everyone. I really would like to say a special word of thanks to my neighbor Mel Carnahan. He helped me when I ran for President. He helped me even when he was in the midst of a tough primary when it could have done him no good at all to be for anybody running for President. But he survived me, and he got elected and then I got elected. We worked together fighting floods, reforming welfare, doing a lot of things, and I am honored to be his friend and his partner. I want to say a special word of appreciation, too, to the DGA vice chair, Governor Caperton, and Rachel. I have been their friend for a long time, and I am looking forward to working with them. I also want to say a personal word of appreciation to your outgoing chair, Evan Bayh, and to Susan. They did unbelievable work with the help of a lot of you in a very, very difficult year, and I will never forget all the efforts Evan Bayh made. And when the road turns, do not forget that Evan Bayh was there for us when it was tough, and he did his part. I thank Katy Whelan and Mark Weiner for the wonderful work that they have done for the DGA. I am sure glad to see all of you. You know, over New Year's I was talking to a lot of interesting people, and a lady came up to me who was a college president, and she said, You know, I really identify with you. There is a lot of people under you, but nobody's listening. Well, I have had that feeling for the last couple of years from time to time, but I think that also is beginning to change. Lord knows, I gave it a good test last Tuesday night in the State of the Union and it turned out the American people were listening. I want to express my appreciation also to Chris Dodd and to Don Fowler, to Debbie DeLee for leading our Democratic Party. I thank Chris and Don especially for being willing to come on at this time and to help us remember who we are and why we are Democrats and what it is we are supposed to do now, and I thank them. They have done a wonderful job. I loved it. I mean, we also had public housing and security, and people called us by something other than our first names.

monologic

But nobody ever sprayed the front of the Governor's mansion with an assault weapon or tried to land a plane in my back yard. But most days, I am profoundly happy to have the chance to wage these battles, and every day I am honored for the opportunity and the obligation to do it. You know, it is kind of fashionable now for our colleagues in the other party to quote Franklin Roosevelt. They like his words, you know; it is optimism and hope and everything. And when they do it, they have a little spin on it. They say, Now, Roosevelt was the right person for his time, and the Democrats were right for their time. If you really read between the lines, they basically say, Okay, okay, everything that was worth doing in the 20th century, the Democrats did. I agree with that. But their line is something like, Well, the reason that is so is that in the 20th century we had an industrial age dominated by large, powerful organizations, and we needed a Democratic Party that was the party of National Government to protect the common people and the little children and the elderly and others from abuse by large private organizations. But in the 21st century, the world will be very different. It will be more rapidly changing, more entrepreneurial, less bureaucratic, the age of the PC, not the mainframe. You have heard all that stuff. And therefore, we do not need the Democrats any more. But we like Roosevelt's words. Well, I say to them, I know the world is changing, and I know we need to reduce the size and reach of much of the Federal Government's activities. As a matter of fact, we started that. We are glad to have their help in going forward with it. But the issue facing America is the issue that has faced America from the beginning and, certainly, the issue that has faced America repeatedly in the 20th century, as we stand at the dawn of a new era. Can we really guarantee the American dream for all Americans willing to work for it? And can we find ways with all of our incredible differences to come together as a people to do what we have to do? If you go back through the 219 years of American history since the issuance of the Declaration of Independence, you find those challenges over and over and over again. Will we do what it takes to expand the American dream and keep it alive for all of our people?

monologic

Can we find a way, with all of our differences, to come together, because we know that is the only way we are ever profoundly strong? I say to you that there is still something for the Democratic Party to do. Consider what is good about what they want to do and what is good about what we want to do and what is sort of open to question, and you will see where we should go. Because there is no question that if we really want to guarantee the American dream in this new economy for all of our people, what we have to do is to empower people to make the most of their own lives, to find a way to continue to enhance opportunity even as we shrink the bureaucracy, and to strengthen our sense of citizenship and community as a fundamental condition of America's security, opportunity, and responsibility. Yes, yes, yes, we must change the Government. Yes, we have to shrink it. There is 100,000 fewer people working for the Federal Government than there were on the day I became President, and there'll be another 170,000 more leaving if no new laws are passed by this Congress. Which party wanted family and medical leave? Which party wanted to immunize all the children in this country against serious disease? Which party said, We cannot afford to keep wasting money on the college loan program. Let us cut the cost of it, make it available to more Americans, and make it cheaper for students ? The Democratic Party did that. Yes, we should reduce the tax burden on people that are paying all they can afford. You know, that is the only secret I kept from the press the last 2 years. We cut taxes on 15 million working families, kept it a total secret from the American people. I am still trying to figure out how we did it, but it is not too late to let them know. Our middle class bill of rights could more properly be called the bill of rights and responsibilities because you cannot get the tax break unless you are trying to raise your kids or educate them or educate yourselves or take care of your families. In other words, we reward, by reducing the tax burden, people who are carrying on the work of citizenship and making the country stronger for everybody. We lower people's taxes and raise their income in the short run in a way that will also raise their income in the long run. That is why we ought to have a tax deduction for education costs after high school.

monologic

That is why we ought to have an IRA that can be drawn on for education or health care or care of an elderly parent. That is why we ought to lower the cost of raising young children. That is why we ought to collapse all these terrible plethora of programs, and instead of letting people sign up for a Government program, give them a chit worth cash that they can take to the local community college when they are unemployed or they need job training. Yes, we have some good ideas. Let us cut the taxes, but let us do it in a way that raises the economic power of America in the long run and helps middle class families to build their lives. And while we are at it, let us not forget that the last time the country got in a total fever over tax cutting, we overdid it, and we wound up with a terrible burden. You can either share the responsibility and say both have to be responsible and move forward, or you can point the finger of blame and hope that everybody can escape responsibility. Well, we tried it the second way, folks, and it did not work out very well. Interest payments on the Federal debt will require the amount equal to 36 percent of your personal income tax. And 27 percent of it, 27 cents, more than a quarter of every dollar you pay to the Federal Government in personal income taxes, will be required to pay interest on the debt run up between 1981 and the day I became President. So yes, it is okay to cut taxes if we do it in the right way, but let us pay for these tax cuts with spending cuts. Let us do not put more debt on our children and more burdens in that budget. to empower people, pass the middle class bill of rights and raise the minimum wage and reform the welfare system so people can go to work. And we have an agenda to reduce Government more. The Vice President's coming back with another round of reinventing Government. Look at the way the emergency management programs work now. I just talked to the homebuilders today in Houston, and I reminded them that Henry Cisneros, since he is been head of the Housing and Urban Development Department, has reduced the size of that Department by 10 percent, eliminated all the regional offices, and cut the time for loan processing from 4 to 6 weeks down to 3 to 5 days. That is a Democratic way of reinventing Government that serves better with less.

monologic

Well, maybe it will not , but it is worked pretty well for 2 years. We have almost 6 million jobs more than we had 2 years ago. We have reduced the debt on our families by over $600 billion, about $10,000 a family. We have seen in the last week that 1994 was our best year economically in terms of growth and in terms of personal income increases in 10 years. And we also had the lowest combined rates of inflation and unemployment what President Reagan used to call the misery index the lowest in 1994 it is been in 25 years. But we have a long way to go, because we all know that our rising tide is not lifting all boats. We know that a lot of people are not doing better economically. What is best for the American people? Do what we can to give them a Government that offers more opportunity with less bureaucracy. And finally, let us not forget that for those who are willing to be responsible, this country is best when it works together, when there is a sense of partnership, a sense of citizenship, a sense of community. We have worked with innovative Governors in this room and their predecessors in health care, in welfare reform. We have worked with Governors like Governor Chiles, Governor Kitzhaber, Governor Dean on health care reform, and we are not through with that issue. We plead guilty to wanting to get the 40 million Americans, most of them in working families, who cannot have health insurance we think we ought to have it for them, and we think there must be a way to do it that all Americans can agree on. We plead guilty to believing that when people change jobs, they ought not to lose their family's health insurance. We believe that. That is what we believe. And we can do these things in ways that build our community. Should we require responsibility? Should we just give people a check forever and a day, no matter how they behave or what they do? But the focus ought to be on liberating people, moving them from welfare to work, moving them from having children to being the best possible parent. It should not be on punishing people because they are poor or because they made a mistake. If that were the criteria, a bunch of us were once poor, and all of us have made mistakes, and none of us want to be punished for either one. So, let us approach this welfare debate with a sense of excitement and determination but also a little bit of humility.

monologic

If anyone knew the answer to this problem, it would have been fixed by now. our worry that Government does not give us our money's worth; our fear that our profoundest problems are really cultural, not political or economic, that something is amiss in our society and we have got to get our values right again; our deep understanding that we do not really have anybody to waste and when people are not being as productive as they ought to be, it hurts the rest of us and our economic future as well. All of this is there in this debate. Now, Saturday we had a very good meeting with Republicans and Democrats from the Congress, from the Governors, from the local governments around the country. And on Friday, I got ready for that meeting by spending an hour with four women who had worked their way off welfare. And I am telling you, what I heard Friday is what I have heard now for 15 years. The people who know how broke the system is, best, are those who've been on it, who've been trapped by it, who regret it, who've resented it, who struggled and worked and slaved to get out of it. It is that that we should tap into. We are the party of change. We brought the deficit down. We reduced the size of the Government. We put welfare reform and health care reform and aggressive, expansive trade on the world's agenda and on America's agenda. It was our administration that first had a Commerce Secretary like Ron Brown that went around selling American products all over the world, not the Republicans. So I say, let us extend the hand of partnership to those in the other party. Let us say, We hear you. You want to reduce the size of Government? You want to reduce regulation? You want to give more authority to the States? You want to privatize those things which can be privatized? We want to create opportunity, not just bash Government. We want children to have a future no matter where they come from, what their roots are, what their disabilities are by virtue of their birth. We believe that America works best when everybody's got a chance at the brass ring. Thank you, and God bless you all.

monologic

One of the wonderful experiences that is enjoyed by the men who've lived in this house and served here is to meet outstanding people from around the world, and particularly from his own Nation. It is not possible to recognize in any tangible way the literally tens of thousands, even more, Americans who serve unselfishly and who serve with distinction and who garner, because of their service, the legitimate debt and thanks of their fellow citizens. A number of years ago President Harry Truman initiated the Presidential Medal of Freedom to single out a few distinguished Americans to represent that superb service. When a few are chosen, it is done without derogation of those not chosen. It is done as an exemplification of honor in a democracy among citizens who are all equal. I have been quite reticent, compared to some of my predecessors, about the number who have been selected. The first ceremony that I had in 1977 I honored Martin Luther King, Jr., and Jonas Salk; later, Arthur Goldberg, Margaret Meade, Ansel Adams, Rachel Carson, Lucia Chase, Hubert Humphrey, Archbishop Lakovos, Lyndon Johnson, Clarence Mitchell, Jr., Roger Tory Peterson, Admiral Hyman Rickover, Beverly Sills, Robert Penn Warren, John Wayne, Eudora Welty, and Tennessee Williams. As you listen to those names, one of the first questions that comes to mind is why were not they honored long ago? And I feel that way about some of those who will be honored today. Four of our honorees cannot be here, and I will explain to you why as their names are called. I would like now for the military aide to come forward to present the certificates to me, and I will read the citation and perhaps say a few extra words. Those who have representatives, come forward in their place, and I will award the medals at that time. These are done not in order of seniority or age, but according to alphabetical listing of the last names. From the government of science to the science of government, Harold Brown has served his country first and his principles always. As an advisor to Presidents, and a president of a community of scholars, he has helped bridge the gap between the world of theory and the world of reality. Adept at translating from the language of science to the language of statecraft, he excels in translating purpose into action. I have worked and served with Harold Brown for 4 years. He is a man of strength and a man of peace.

monologic

He is brought levelheaded judgment to one of the major departments of our country in times of testing, in times of potential war. But because of his sound judgment and the trust that others have in him, he has preserved our Nation as it should be, strong and peaceful. It is with a great deal of honor that I present the Medal of Freedom to Harold Brown. Zbigniew Brzezinski served his country and the world. An author and architect of world affairs, his strategic vision of America's purpose fused principle with strength. His leadership has been instrumental in building peace and ending the estrangement of the Chinese and American people. But above all, he helped set our nation irrevocably on a course that honors America's abiding commitment to human rights. I doubt that anyone in my own administration has been more controversial than Dr. Brzezinski. And the reason for it is manifold, but I'd like to make two reasons. One is that he is evocative; he is a person who explores constantly better ways to do things. His Eastern European origins have given him an almost unmatched understanding of the interrelationships among the cultural entities of the Soviet Union and the satellite countries. He came here early in his life seeking freedom. I do not know of a single time in the last 4 years when he has ever made a public statement of any kind, privately or publicly which was not compatible with my own policies. The other reason that he has been somewhat controversial is that he has never tried to take credit for a success, nor has he ever tried to blame me as President, or anyone else, for a failure. To me, this is a wonderful evidence of courage, because it is so easy for someone who works within the inner circles of the White House in particular and other places of leadership when something goes wrong, very quietly, very subtly to say, I recommended one thing; ENTITY or the Secretary of State or the Secretary of Defense did something else. Zbigniew Brzezinski has never done that. I am deeply indebted to him, and I think that the Nation shares that debt with me. It is with a great deal of pride and gratitude that I present the Medal of Freedom to Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski. I look around the room and people who know the alphabet and who work very closely with me are smiling with anticipation about the next award.

monologic

I might say that Warren Christopher is in Algiers working as he has for the last 14 months for the freedom of the American hostages. He is listening to my voice through an open telephone line, and I'd like to read this citation. Warren Christopher has the tact of a true diplomat, the tactical skills of a great soldier, the analytical ability of a fine lawyer, and the selfless dedication of a citizen-statesman. His perseverance and loyalty, judgment and skill have won for his country new respect around the world and new regard for the State Department here at home. Last week I was in Plains, and I was invited out to a small French restaurant between Plains and Americus by the press; it is one of the few French restaurants between Plains and Americus. And when I sat at the table eating supper, we had an informal off-the-record discussion, and the members of the press asked me, Of all the public servants with whom you have served as President, who would you rank number one? I said, Warren Christopher. I think that those others who are being honored here today and all those that have worked with me would agree that he is indeed outstanding. I am indebted to him, and so is the Nation, far beyond what the general public knows. And it is with a great deal of pleasure and pride and honor that I present this Medal of Freedom to his lovely wife for Warren Christopher, a distinguished American. For thousands of nights, the eyes and can of millions of Americans have been tuned in to the eyes and ears of Walter Cronkite. He has reported and commented on the events of the last two decades with a skill and insight which stands out in the news world, in a way which has made the news of the world stand out for all of us. There is probably not a single American who does not know Walter Cronkite, and of those tens of millions who know him, I do not believe there are any who distrust him. When our Nation has had great achievements, his voice has explained the significance of it, whether we have achieved peace when it was doubtful or when a man has landed on the Moon. And when our Nation has been in trouble or made mistakes and there was a danger that our public might react adversely or even panic on occasion, the calm and reassuring demeanor and voice and the inner character of Walter Cronkite has been reassuring to us all.

monologic

He is a man superb on his own, but who has exemplified in the finest way the profession which he represents. And on behalf of all Americans, I extend my congratulations and my appreciation to a distinguished American, a public servant, Waiter Cronkite. Acclaimed as a screen actor and director here at home, Kirk Douglas has often played a different role abroad. Acting as an ambassador of good will beyond our shores, he has travelled around the world for our State Department and the United States Information Agency. The son of Russian immigrants, he travels, too, for the opportunity to share with other peoples his love of film, and country. I have know Kirk Douglas personally and appreciate his friendship. But more than that, I have known how dedicated he is to using his talent as an actor and a director and the esteem with which he is held by his own people in spreading the good news about this country and explaining our purposes, our ideals, our commitments, and our achievements, our hopes, and our dreams to people around the world. He is done this in a sacrificial way, almost invariably without fanfare and without claiming any personal credit or acclaim for himself. And so, it is with a great deal of pleasure that I give him this recognition and admire his modesty and thank him for what he has meant and what he still means and will mean to the country which he loves. Margaret Craig McNamara saw a need in our society, and filled it. By creating the Reading is fundamental program, which has provided youngsters all over this country with millions of books, she has opened new doors in the minds of our young people and has given fresh meaning to the lives of the parents, teachers and volunteers who have joined her program. The other night, I think in this room, I spoke to a group of people who represented local and State government in an official capacity, and I reminded them that the things that occupy our mind and to which we are dedicated are the simple things of life-things like a mother, a baby, retarded children, love for the elderly, the quality of a classroom, gentleness, love, peace, the purity of air, quietness-those kinds of things are what we try to preserve and enhance. Margaret Craig McNamara has taken this kind of commitment very long ago, when she saw two young men, I believe; talked to them quietly, found that they had never owned a book, were not interested in reading.

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And she had just a simple idea of getting books and not lending them to people but letting them own their own. Since then tens of millions of books have been collected through her leadership and given to young people. It has transformed their lives. And she has marshaled tens of thousands of people to help in this program. She is done it quietly, because she loves others. She is dedicated a major part of her life to this effort, a simple thing of through reading, stretching the minds and the hearts of young people who would not otherwise know how great God's world is and would not know much about their fellow human beings. She is the kind of person who is an inspiration to all Americans who love others. And it is with a great deal of pride that I present this Medal of Freedom to Margaret Craig McNamara. Menninger, as you may have anticipated, is busy enhancing the mental treatment qualities of this Nation. He is on the west coast, and honored by this award, of course, he still asked that he be excused so he could continue his work uninterrupted. A not so valuable nephew, Dr. Roy Menninger- -has volunteered to come forward to accept the award for his uncle. And I would like to read the award now. Karl Menninger has taught us much about ourselves and our behavior. An acute observer and social critic, he has put into action what he has put onto paper. As an author and doctor, his works range from popular, written accounts of psychiatry to studies done in his own hospital, from creating homes for parentless children to reforming the penal system. All of those in this room who have been interested in improving the quality of mental health of this Nation have heard the name Karl Menninger since many years ago. He has been a pioneer, but as the closing phrase of this citation reminds us, he has never looked backward. His entire family has made the Menninger Clinic what it stands for, a powerful factor for a better life for Americans, not just in its own neighborhood but throughout the world. And with his research and with his writing, with his lecturing, with his training of other doctors, psychiatrists, psychologists, and others, he has literally transformed the mental health care attitudes of our great Nation. To Dr. Roy Menninger, I want to express my deep thanks for accepting this award on behalf of his uncle and express my thanks also to the entire Menninger family.

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It is with a great deal of pleasure that I present this award to Dr. Roy Menninger for Dr. Karl Menninger. As Senator and Secretary of State, candidate and citizen, Edmund S. Muskie has captured for himself a place in the public eye and the public's heart. Devoted to his nation and our ideals, he has performed heroically in a time of great challenge, with great fortitude in an era of change. If Ed were going to rewrite this citation, he would certainly insert the word Governor. I remember when we had the swearing-in ceremony in this room not too long ago, Ed pointed out that his love for the Governorship equaled my own, and I think those who have served in that position would agree that this is a wonderful opportunity for service before one comes to Washington to serve our whole Nation. Ed Muskie has been a man whom I have admired ever since I have been aware of his public service and been interested myself in going into the political arena. He has performed all of his official functions admirably with a quiet sense of inner strength and demonstrated courage. He has never yielded to temptation to lower his own standards or the standards which make all public servants proud. He is a man who has transcended in all his service any particular delineation of a political party, but has stayed a loyal Democrat at the same time. He is a man admired by all and the admiration is richly deserved. I am particularly grateful to Ed Muskie, because he was willing to leave a sure seat in the Senate to come and serve in a very difficult position as Secretary of State in this time of transition or change. But he did it with conviction that this was the best place for him to give his tremendous talents for the further service of his fellow Americans. He is a personal friend, as many of these honorees are, and personally and as President of our country, I am delighted and proud to award the Medal of Freedom to Ed Muskie. Once government's highest ranking woman, Esther Peterson still ranks highest among consumer advocates. She has advised Presidents and the public, and has worked for labor and business alike, always keeping the rights of all Americans to know and to be treated fairly as her highest priority. Even her staunchest foes respect her integrity and are warmed by her grace and sincere concern. You may be surprised that in the citation the word foes is mentioned in relation to this lovely American, but she has made some foes.

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And I would guess, knowing her, that she is prouder of the foes she has made- -if possible, 'than even some of the friends she has. She has never been afraid to address difficult issues even at the expense on occasion of personal harmony with those about whom she cares. She serves others with her entire dedicated life. She is come to the inner circles of the White House in a major position during these last few years to work with me to make sure that the average American is not cheated, that they are told the truth, that they are treated fairly, and that when they go into the marketplace they can have some inner sense of trust in the free enterprise system which she has served so well. She is a delightful person, a person with charm, a person who makes deep friendships and deep commitments. And her deepest commitment has been to those who do not know her and who will probably never see her or maybe not even hear her voice. She serves those who are most deprived and has done that with her whole life. I love her personally, and I congratulate her on receiving this award, the Medal of Freedom of our country. Gerard C. Smith has represented our country in many capacities-as the first U.S. Chairman of the Trilateral Commission, as chief U.S. delegate to the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks in 1969. In helping formulate our national security policy, in promoting a better understanding of foreign relations, he has helped us all to perceive that in this nuclear age security and peace are indivisible. In my farewell address the other night, I emphasized one subject perhaps greater than any other, and that is the control of nuclear weapons throughout the world. One way to control nuclear weapons is to have an agreement, a binding agreement, between ourselves and the Soviet Union, the other superpower, to control and to limit and hopefully to reduce, ultimately to eliminate nuclear weapons altogether. The other way is to make sure that the world understands the threat of nuclear weaponry and the threat of a nuclear war and that we can impose a policy of nonproliferation, to prevent the spread of nuclear weaponry to other nations around the world. Gerry Smith has been involved from the very beginning of our Nation's policy of nonproliferation. He is been a teacher of leaders in this country and around the world. He is put forward our own Nation's programs and policies with distinction and commitment and tenacity.

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He is a great negotiator, a very successful one, and he is responsible now for the SALT treaty which is binding upon and has been for many years binding upon our Nation and the Soviet Union. Our country is indebted to Gerry Smith. And as President, I am personally indebted to him as well. I want to say at this time that I congratulate him; I am honored to present the Medal of Freedom to a fine American who has served us well, Gerard C. Smith. For Americans politics is the art of the possible. Through intelligence, ability, and the many friendships earned during his service as the leader of his party and his Nation, Robert S. Strauss has refined that art into a science. With diligence, persistence, and wit, he successfully concluded the multilateral trade negotiations at a time when many believed that they were doomed for failure. For strengthening the system of trade which links the nations of our increasingly interdependent world he has earned our gratitude and respect. The first time I went to an international forum to meet with the leaders of other great Western nations-Japan, Canada, Italy, Great Britain, Germany, France-I asked them about the longstanding effort to conclude a multilateral trade agreement that would enhance the quality of life, the productivity, the exchange of goods, the enhancement of peace among all the nations of the Western world. Chancellor Schmidt, President Giscard d'Estaing, at that time Prime Minister Callaghan, all told me this was a fruitless wish, that the Multilateral Trade Negotiations were dead. I decided to ask Bob Strauss to give it a try. Not only did he succeed in bringing the multiple nations together in one of the most complex negotiating efforts that I have ever seen, but he came back and convinced the Members of Congress-Democrats, Republicans, House and Senate that the very complicated agreements that he had negotiated and which, I would guess, many of them never read, were in the best interest of our country, in the best interest of their constituents, and would do them credit on the next election day. And the Multilateral Trade Negotiation Act passed the Congress overwhelmingly. As a matter of fact, it passed so easily, that there were no violent altercations or major debates, and the event almost escaped the notice of the press, even CBS Evening News. But it was a notable achievement, and it was one that utilized the tremendous talents of this good man.

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Later, Bob Strauss helped to negotiate peace between Israel and Egypt, pursuing the Camp David accords and the treaty that had been signed. And I think everyone who knows him would say that his understanding of the people of this country, his ability to get along with people of diverse views, and his ability to bring people together in an agreement that enhances the quality of life of all Americans is indeed outstanding. He is a man, as the citation says, of wit and competence and integrity. And I am very proud to present the Medal of Freedom to Robert Strauss. At a time when it was unpopular to do so, he carried out the mandate of Supreme Court decisions and Congressional legislation to end racial discrimination in the Deep South. With steadfast courage and a deep love and understanding of the region, he has helped to make the Constitutional principle of equal protection a reality of American life. Those of us who have lived in the South during the time when racial discrimination was ended by the courts are perhaps the only ones here who can adequately appreciate the courage of a Federal judge like Elbert Tuttle. His decisions not only required the knowledge of the law and courage. They required a character and an earned degree of esteem from his fellow Georgians and his fellow southerners that would add additional weight to his decisions. When the people in my region would read that Judge Elbert Tuttle had ruled this way, we had a natural sense that even though some may not agree, it must be right. I am indebted to him personally. Both I and one of the honorees would probably never be here in the White House on this day had it not been for Elbert Tuttle and men like him. He is a man of brilliant mind. He can handle complex legal decisions easily, but he is a man of simple commitments and ideals. When he was interviewed at the time of his retirement from the Federal bench on national television, the interviewer said, Judge Tuttle, I understand that you have never drunk alcoholic beverages, and Judge Tuttle said, That is right. And the interviewer said, Would you mind telling our television audience why? And Judge Tuttle said, Because my mother told me not to. I have thought about that a lot. And a lot of people in this Nation did what was right because Judge Tuttle said, That is what we ought to do. I am honored to present to him the Medal of Freedom.

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Earl Warren led a unanimous court that in turn led the Nation in reversing a century of judicial and social history. Equal Justice For All. As governor, presidential candidate and Chief Justice, he has truly been a citizen for all seasons. As I stood here this afternoon, I tried to think of any man who has served in the White House as President who has benefited our Nation as much or more than Earl Warren-and I cannot think of anybody. There comes a time in the evolution of society when a certain quality of understanding and integrity and leadership is a prerequisite to further progress. When hopeless, perhaps, but courageous people are being frustrated, when the times call for change, but ordinary human beings cannot bring themselves to make the change because they might be criticized by their peers or those whom they would like to please, and when the trend of history must be modified or even reversed, I thank God that Earl Warren was the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in a time like that. And with his decision, he helped to realize the aspirations and ideals expressed in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of our Nation. His predecessors had not adequately done it. He departed from some longstanding decisions that they had made. I say that without criticizing them. But it took a special man to make those difficult decisions that Judge Tuttle and others followed in the administration of justice and the enhancement of equality of opportunity under the law for all the people of our Nation. Miss Nina has come here representing her late husband, and I am honored especially to present the Medal of Freedom to the beloved wife of one of the finest Americans who ever served in any capacity in the Government of our Nation, former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Earl Warren. I would like to say before I present the last medal here that Roger Baldwin, a great civil rights leader, is in the hospital in New Jersey. At 3 o'clock this afternoon, the same time as we began our ceremony here, he was presented with a Medal of Freedom by William Vanden Heuvel, Deputy Ambassador to the United Nations, on my behalf. Founder of the American Civil Liberties Union and the International League for Human Rights, Roger Nash Baldwin is a leader in the field of civil rights and a legend in the field of civil liberties. He is a national resource, and an international one as well, an inspiration to those of us who have fought for human rights, a saint to those for whom he has gained them. Andrew Young brought to diplomatic service a lifetime of dedication to human rights.

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He helped restore trust in the United States among Third World nations, especially in Africa, demonstrating to them that American foreign policy was based on our firm belief in justice, freedom, majority rule, and opportunity for all people. I first heard about Andrew Young when I read news reports that he was in jail along with Martin Luther King, Jr., and when I saw his photographs in the newspaper seeking, with danger to his own life, to prove that our Constitution and the rulings of Earl Warren and Judge Tuttle ought to be put into effect by human beings. He is a man of quiet demeanor, having served as a United States Congressman from my State. When I was elected President, one of my major goals was to enhance human rights and to strengthen the ties of friendship and understanding and mutual respect between our Nation and the small, sometimes weak, new nations of the world, those whose people might be black or brown or yellow and who in the past had sometimes distrusted our country because there was a lack of understanding on our own leaders' part of them. I asked Andy Young to leave the Congress and to serve as our U.N. Ambassador. He did it reluctantly. But when he went to the United Nations he served our Nation superbly. Sometimes I have to admit I was surprised by some of the statements that Andy made, and I do not agree with all of them and did not then. But if you listen closely to what he says, in the context of his statement, you see the wisdom and the continued purpose of his life expressed not just locally or domestically, but internationally. Throughout the Asian countries, the South American countries, the African countries, and many others, Andy Young is the brightest star in the American firmament. He is the man who represents integrity and understanding, humility, purpose, and who exemplifies the quiet teachings of his Saviour, whom he represents as a preacher of the gospel. He is carried on well along with Coretta and others the heritage of Martin Luther King, Jr., and I am deeply grateful for what Andy has meant to me personally, to me as President, and to our Nation. His beneficial service will help our Nation in many years ahead, and he is done it always with humility and with a quiet sense of calm, because he was sure that what he did was right for others. I have never known a person more unselfish than Andrew Young. And the respect that he enjoys around the world is well-deserved.

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The reason this is such a successful event is because people know that Bob Ehrlich will make a great Governor for Maryland. I believe it, and that is why I am here. I believe that is the reason why Democrats and Republicans support this good man-because he is honest, he is hard-working, and he is got a positive vision for everybody who lives in the State of Maryland. I am here because this man is somebody who wants to unite this State, not divide it. I appreciate Kendel, and I know Bob does as well. And I want you to know, I appreciate Laura, too. She is-you know, when I married her, she was a public school librarian. She was living in Texas, and so was I. The truth of the matter is she did not like politics then. And she was not too fond of politicians either. And here she is, married to me. But people, as they have gotten to know Laura, now know the reason why I asked her to marry me. A lot of her buddies are wondering why she said yes. But she does send her best and sends all her support to the Ehrlichs and wishes them all the best and joins me in urging the people of Maryland to give this good man a chance to be the Governor of this important State. I have known the next Lieutenant Governor for a while. He is a good, solid citizen of the State of Maryland. He will work well with Bob. It is an honor to be on the podium with the next Lieutenant Governor of the State of Maryland, Michael Steele. And I had the honor of meeting his good wife, Andrea, and I appreciate Andrea standing by her man during this tough campaign here. They are not easy on a family. But I appreciate- I appreciate her joining Michael in this race. I am honored to be back with former Congressman, soon-to-be Congresswoman Helen Bentley. I figure that when she wins, she will be telling me what to do. And those of you know, who know Helen, know that I'd better listen. It is great to see Helen. I love her spirit. I am also proud to be here with Ellen Sauerbrey, who is the national committeewoman. I want to thank Chairman Louis Pope of the Republican Party. I want to thank all the grassroots activists who are here. I want to thank you for-- I did not ask for any speeches; I just said-.

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Okay, let me tell you what you are going to have to do then. I want to thank you for what you are going to do, which is to turn out the vote. Listen, a lot of you never get thanked enough. I am thanking you. I am thanking you for dialing the phones and putting up the signs and for mailing the letters. I am thanking you for going to your community centers and your coffee shops. I am thanking you for supporting this ticket ahead of time, because they need your help, and they want your work. You have got to talk it up between now and election day. And you have got to find those Ehrlich voters and make sure they go to the polls, and this man will be your next Governor. You need somebody who can manage your government, somebody who knows how to balance the books without raising the taxes on the taxpayers-that is what you need. You need somebody who can make a tough decision who does not need a poll or a focus group to tell him how to think, somebody who stands on principle, somebody who will do in office what he says he will do. And when he says he will not raise your taxes, he will not raise your taxes. I appreciate the fact that Governor Ehrlich will set education as the number one priority for this State. The way I used to put it when I was a Governor, I said, Education is to a State what national defense is to the Federal Government. Education has got to be the number one priority of your Governor, and it will be Bob's number one priority. We share the same philosophy. That is what we believe. See, that is important to have in your Governor's office, somebody who is willing to challenge the soft bigotry of low expectations. You see, if you lower standards, if you lower the bar, you are going go get lousy results. And that is not fair for the children. Governor Ehrlich will raise the standards. He will trust the local people to manage their way to excellence. But he and I agree on this, and that is, we have got to know. See, as a society, we have got to measure to determine whether or not our children are learning to read and write and add and subtract. It is essential that you have a Governor who is strong on accountability.

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But in order to make sure no child gets left behind in the State of Maryland, you must have a Governor who uses the accountability system to praise those teachers and principals who succeed on behalf of the children but also someone who is willing to challenge the schools which will not teach and will not change. Bob Ehrlich will be a Governor who will make sure that no child is left behind in the State of Maryland. The job of a Governor is to create an environment in which people can find work and the economy grows. That is why he is insistent upon infrastructure, to be wise about the use of taxpayers' money, to expand the asset base which will encourage private sector growth. I love his vision about the Port of Baltimore and the Baltimore/Washington International Airport. He understands job creation. See, that is what he knows. And it is important to have somebody in the Governor's office who understands how jobs are created. The role of Government is not to create wealth. The role of Government is to create an environment in which the entrepreneur can realize his or her dreams, in which small businesses can grow to be big businesses. That is the kind of Governor you need. He is compassionate, and his record speaks to his compassion. He worked for tax credits for parents who adopt children. He worked hard to make sure there is equal health insurance benefits for the mentally ill. He works to have increased access to individuals in the workplace who may be disabled. See, that is the kind of Governor you want. You want somebody who is tough when it comes to the budget, making sure that it is balanced but compassionate when it comes to helping people who need help. There is no question in my mind that this man, when elected, will make Maryland a safer and stronger and better place for every citizen who lives in this State. And my job as the President is to make sure America is a safer and stronger and better country. A strong country is one in which people can find work. Anytime somebody is looking for work and they cannot find work in America, I think we have a problem. And we have got to do everything we can at the Federal level to make sure our economy grows. I worry about people who have lost value in their 401s. I worry about people looking for work who cannot find work. I worry about uncertainty. We are beginning to make progress because the foundations for growth are strong. The productivity of the American worker is the highest and best in the world.

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We have got a lot of strong things going for us. For a while there was a kind of an overhang in our economy because we had some of our citizens who thought they could fudge the books, who forgot what it means to be a responsible citizen, who got caught up in money, not in responsibility. I had the honor of signing, and Bob voted for, the most significant corporate reform since Franklin Roosevelt was the President. Our message to corporate America, to those citizens who think they can cheat, is, Those days are over with. And that is why I worked with Congressman Ehrlich and others to pass a significant tax cut, because I took a page out of this economic textbook. The page said if you let a person keep more of their own money-and notice I said more of their own money; it is not the Government's money, it is your money-if you keep more of your own money, if you have more money in your pocket, you are going to demand a good or a service. And when you demand a good or a service, in this marketplace economy, somebody's going to produce the good or a service. And when somebody produces the good or a service, somebody is more likely to find work. If you are interested in creating more jobs, you let people keep more of their own money. The tax cuts came at the exact right time in American economic history. We slashed the marriage penalty. We believe that the Tax Code ought to encourage families and encourage marriage, not discourage families and marriage. And we did something else to help the entrepreneur and the farmer and the rancher, and that is we put the death tax on the way to extinction. The rules in the Senate are such that that tax relief plan that we all worked so hard to enact goes away after 10 years. For the sake of job creation, for the sake of economic expansion, for the sake of those who want to find work- the Congress needs to make the tax cuts permanent. I worry about hardhats trying to find work. I worry about that. And so-I met, I guess it was yesterday-time flies up there--but I met yesterday with Members of the House and Senate, both parties, to urge them to pass a terrorism insurance bill. There is over $15 billion worth of projects, construction projects, which are not going forward because people cannot get terrorism insurance.

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a bill, by the way, which does not reward trial lawyers and does reward working people in America. I want to assure you, we will not rest until people can find work. And I look forward to working with ways to create the environment for economic expansion. I want to work to make America more confident about our future. One way to make sure that Americans are more confident about the future and availability of capital is to make sure Congress does not overspend. And we have a problem in Washington, right around the corner from here. Every idea sounds like a brilliant idea. The problem is, they have all got billions of dollars attached to them as price tags. They could not pass a budget. You can imagine what that means. For the sake of economic vitality, for the sake of making sure people can find work, the Congress must fund our priorities and not overspend the people's money. We must be fiscally sound in Washington, DC, if we want our economy to grow. A stronger America is one in which people can find work. And while I am optimistic about our future, while I understand the spirit of the-the entrepreneurial spirit is strong, we have got work to do. We have got work to do on the economy. And we have also got work to do to make sure America is a safer place. Economic vitality and growth are a really important part of my job and what is on my mind, but nothing more on my mind than protecting the American people. That is my most important job now, is to make sure that the enemy does not hit us again. They are out there because of what we love and what they hate. They are out there because we love freedom. We love the fact that our fellow citizens can worship an almighty God any way he or she sees fit. We love that, and we are never going to relinquish that freedom. We love our diversity. We love the fact that people can realize their dreams in America, regardless of where their mom or dad was born. That is what we love. We love the fact that this great country-in this great country you can speak your mind freely. We love a free press. We love everything about our freedoms. And yet we face an enemy which hates freedom. They hate us because of what we love. We also value life in America. Everybody has worth in this country.

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And the enemy is nothing but a bunch of cold-blooded killers who are willing to take innocent life in the name of a hijacked religion. And that is who we fight. This is the first war of the 21st century, but it is a different kind of war. And therefore, I have spent a lot of time explaining to the American people how best we can keep the peace and what we must do to win this new war. It starts with making sure we do everything here at home to organize the agencies involved with the defense of the homeland. Before September the 11th, none of them really had as their number one priority the protection of the homeland. In order to make sure that we change culture and set priority, I have asked Congress to join me in the creation of a Department of Homeland Security. Listen, I readily concede my slogan was not , Vote for George. My slogan--what I want to have happen is, I want the Government to work. I want to be able to better do the job you expect me to do. And there-fore-and therefore, I call upon the Senate to join the House in creating a Department of Homeland Security which enables this President and future Presidents to be able to move people to the right place at the right time in order to protect America. I need the ability to manage the process. I do not need rules and regulations. I do not need micromanagement by the legislative branch. The House passed a good bill, and now the Senate must do so. They must get after it before they go home. I need a good bill, and I will not accept anything less. See, this is a chance to leave-for the Congress to leave a legacy for future people, future Presidents, future administrations, to deal with this real threat we face. But I want you to know, and you need to know, there are a lot of good folks working hard here in America to protect you; there really are. And we are doing a better job. We have got great police and fire, lots of FBI agents and CIA agents working hard. Anytime we get any hint about something might happen, a scintilla of evidence, we are moving on it; we are. We are making progress, all within the confines of the United States Constitution. But the best way to protect the homeland, short term and long term, is to chase the killers down, one at a time, and bring them to justice.

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This is the kind of war- we do not face people who have got tanks and destroyers and bombers. That is a different kind of war. Those are wars of the past. This is a war in which we are fighting resourceful, determined people who hide in caves or the dark recesses of certain cities, and then send youngsters to their suicidal deaths. That is the kind of people we fight. And therefore, we are on an international manhunt. And we are making progress. That is just what you have got to know. Sometimes it is hard to tell; it is hard to measure progress. If you are not destroying equipment, it is hard to tell. But we have captured over a couple of thousand of them. I say we -the doctrine that says, Either you are with us, or you are with the enemy, still stands. That doctrine is still a part of American foreign policy. We are sharing intelligence. We are disrupting their finances, and we are hauling them in. The other day we got the fellow-I forgot the guy's name-bin al-Shibh, or whatever his name was. And he popped his head up, and now he is no longer a problem. We are making progress. We are making progress. We are working with our friends. We have got a vast coalition of people who understand the stakes and understand the nature of the war. I said we hauled in a couple of thousand; a like number were not as lucky. Slowly but surely, we are dismantling this particular terrorist network. I want to thank those of you who have got loved ones in the United States military. I am proud of our military. They are making a huge difference. One, anytime our troops go into harm's way, they deserve the best pay, the best training, and the best possible equipment; and secondly, the defense spending should send a clear message to friend and foe alike that the United States of America is in this deal for the long haul, that when it comes to the defense of our freedom, when it comes to defending this country, there is no timeline until we get it right, that we are-that we will stay the course, we will stay-we owe that to our children. We owe it to our children and our children's children to defend freedom and to protect the homeland.

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We have new responsibilities in many ways-the same responsibilities, I guess, but new challenges to uphold those responsibilities, because we learned a tough lesson, and that is, oceans no longer protect us. It is a different war, with a different battlefield. And therefore, we must deal with threats as we see them, threats which may in the past have not been so frightening, but now in the new era we have got to deal with them, it seems like to me. In order to do our duty as Americans and leaders, we have got to defend our country and our friends and allies against the real threats that we face. This is a man who has gassed his own people, used weapons of mass destruction on his own citizens. Imagine what his intentions will be about a country that loves freedom like we do. This is a man who has attacked-and by the way, he used weapons of mass destruction in his own neighborhood, too, against countries on his border. This is a man who has attacked two countries in 22 years. This is a man who kills political dissenters in cold blood. This is a man who, 11 years ago, told the world that he would get rid of weapons of mass destruction, and yet, for 11 long years, he has defied resolution after resolution after resolution after resolution out of the United Nations. This is a man who would like nothing more than to team up with a terrorist network, a man who could use a terrorist network perhaps to use the weapons of mass destruction he is developed-and lies about-to harm countries that he cannot stand-America, Israel, countries in his own-immediately around him. And therefore, I thought it was time for us to deal with him, for the sake of freedom. So I went to the United Nations. We want you to succeed as a international body. We can do a better job if we work together through the United Nations, and here is your chance to succeed. You have a choice, and the choice is whether you will be an effective peacekeeping organization or whether you will be like the League of Nations-your choice. I also said to Mr. Saddam Hussein, You said you would disarm-your choice to disarm. He should do what he said he would do.

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But for the sake of freedom and for the sake of peace, for the sake of a world that does not fear the world's worst leaders with the first world's weapons- with the world's worst weapons, this country will be deliberate, we will work with others, but we will lead a coalition to disarm Saddam Hussein. And today I was joined on the steps of the Rose Garden with Members of the House and Members of the Senate, Republicans and Democrats alike, who have joined with us to pass-the desire to pass a strong statement to the world about the resolve and determination of the United States. We are going to have a very constructive debate in Congress, and there should be. I told them today, I thought the debate that was going on is going to be one of the most historic debates ever in the Hall of Congress. That sentiment was echoed by not only the Speaker but Richard Gephardt, who was there, not only Trent Lott but Joe Lieberman was there, not only John McCain but Democrat Evan Bayh was there. We love our peace; we want the world to be a better and more peaceful place. If the United States remains strong and tough and focused, we can achieve peace. We can achieve peace here at home. If we speak clearly and renounce terrorism and fight terrorism, we can achieve peace in the Middle East; we can achieve peace in South Asia. No, the enemy hit us. The enemy hit us. But they did not realize who they hit. Oh, they probably thought we'd file a lawsuit or two. But they hit a country which loves freedom, a country based upon solid values, a country which, when we need to be strong, is strong. I believe, sincerely believe, that out of the evil done to America can come incredible good, starting with peace. We can make sure to work- work hard to make sure our seniors get quality health care. For the sake of our seniors, let us modernize Medicare with prescription drugs. But we must remember, here in America, in spite of our plenty, there are pockets of despair-there just are. They wonder whether or not the American Dream means anything to them. And as a society, we must do everything we can to eradicate those pockets of despair. Now, listen-Government can hand out money. We are pretty good at it at times.

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But what Government cannot do is put hope in people's hearts or love in people's hearts or a sense of purpose in people's lives. Government cannot do that. That is done when our fellow Americans have heard the universal call to love a neighbor just like you'd like to be loved yourself. If you want to fight evil, do some good. If you want to fight evil, if you want to join in the war against terror, if you want to show the world what we are made out of-help somebody in need. See, our society will change-one heart, one conscience, one soul at a time-when a neighbor loves a neighbor in need. I look forward to working with Governor Ehrlich to unleash the true compassion of each society. I am a strong proponent of the Faith-Based Initiative. I want to unleash the power of love. I want people who go to church and synagogue and mosque, if they want to help a person in need, to be empowered by the Government to do so. Our Governments must not fear faith. We must welcome faith in our society. No, the enemy hit us, but they-in doing so, they have awakened a great spirit, an American spirit. And I want you all to help move that spirit forward. I know many of you already do this-but mentor a child, or help somebody in need. Continue doing the charitable works you do to help the communities in which you live. It will be a better place for all of us. One of the reasons I first ran for office is because I wanted to challenge the culture of our country, which has said, If it feels good, just go ahead and do it, and If you have got a problem, blame somebody else. My dream was to usher in a period of personal responsibility, to be a part of a cultural shift in which each of understands we are responsible for the decisions we make in life. If you are a mom or a dad, your most important responsibility is to love your child with all your heart. You are responsible for helping a neighbor in need. You are responsible for the quality of education in the community in which you live. If you are running corporate America, you are responsible to your employees and shareholders to tell the truth. The responsibility era is happening in America, probably most vividly displayed on Flight 93, when average citizens were flying across the country. They learned their plane was going to be used as a weapon- imagine.

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I am glad to be back in Mississippi. I thank the warm welcome for a former Texas Governor who is proud to be on stage with the future Mississippi Governor. I am here to remind the good people of this State-Republican, Democrat, or independent-if they are interested in good government, if they want somebody to call upon the best of Mississippi, if they are interested in every person being able to achieve their dreams in this State, they need to elect Haley Barbour as the Governor of Mississippi. Mississippi can do better. It says when he is your Governor, he will have an optimistic outlook for all the people of this State. He believes in high standards and raising that bar. He believes in the vast human potential of Mississippi. There is no doubt in my mind that when you elect Haley Barbour as Governor of Mississippi, Mississippi will do better. And I know him. I know him well. He recounted some of our history. We have been friends for a long time. So when I say, for example, he believes in personal responsibility, I know he believes that way. And when he says he is going to focus on education to make sure no child is left behind in Mississippi, I know he believes that. Whether it was in my conversations with him in Washington, DC, or in Austin, Texas, he always talked about Yazoo City. It is safe to say he never forgot his roots. No, there is no doubt in my mind this good man can do the job. If the people of this State give him a chance, they are going to realize that he is going to call upon the best of Mississippi. He and I share something else in common. We both married above ourselves. I am proud to be on stage with Marsha, had a chance to say hello to Sterling and Reeves. My only advice to those boys was, listen to your mother. I am still listening to mine. Laura sends her love. She sends her love not only to Haley and Marsha; she sends her very best to many of our friends out here today. She is a fabulous wife, by the way, and a great First Lady for America. Speaking about a guy who married well, Senator Lott is with us. Tricia and Trent are really good friends of Laura and mine. We both love our country, and we both love Scottish terriers. Mississippi is really, really lucky to have him as a United States Senator. You have got some pretty good Congressmen, too.

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I am proud to call Roger Wicker and Chip Pickering friends. These guys are doing a great job on behalf of this State. It is great to see Chip and his beautiful wife today. I do want you to do me a favor, if you do not mind, a little personal privilege from the ENTITY. I hope you give your dad my best, Judge Charles Pickering. I nominated him to a higher court because I believe in his character. I trust his judicial philosophy. He is a man who will interpret the law, not legislate from the bench. Some Senators are playing politics with American justice. They did this man and this country a disservice. It is time for some on the Senate floor to stop playing politics with people like Charles Pickering's good name. There is a lot of people here hoping Haley runs good at the top of the ticket, starting with the Lieutenant Governor, Amy Tuck. I am proud to have welcomed her to the Oval Office the other day. It is-along with Travis Little-they were up there to, oh, get a picture or two taken. But it was good to talk to Amy again. I had the honor of welcoming her to the Republican Party. I appreciate the courage of your decision, Amy, and I appreciate your willingness to lead. Of course, I did meet Senator Little. I also want to thank State auditor Phil Bryant for being here. I want to thank the-thank you, Phil. I appreciate Mike Retzer, my long-time friend, for working hard for the Bush-Cheney campaign. I also know you have got some candidates here running, and I always like to mention candidates who have decided to take on the task of a statewide race, because it is not an easy job. It is not easy to ask your family to run-have to ask your family to join you in running. But we have got Julio Del Castillo here, who is the candidate for secretary of state. We have got Scott Newton, the candidate for attorney general. We have got Max Phillips, the candidate for agriculture commissioner. And we have got Tate Reeves, the candidate for treasurer. Thank you all for running, I hope you help them. It is good to see your former Governor, Kirk Fordice, here today. I want to thank Jim Herring, the chairman of the Mississippi Republican Party, for his hard work. And I want to thank all the folks involved with grassroots politics here in Mississippi.

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I want to thank Cindy Phillips, who is the national committeewoman, as well. Finally, there is a special fellow here that my family has known for a long time. He is a really great American, great fellow from Mississippi. Laura and I occasionally slide across the street there in Washington, DC, to go to church at the little St. John's Church in Lafayette Square. One of our favorite things when we get to church is to shake hands and to say hello to one of the special Americans, and that is my friend Sonny Montgomery. It looks like they still remember you here, Sonny. I first want to thank you for your generosity but remind you that there is more to do in the campaign for an important race like Governor. You have got to turn out the vote. You have got to go to your coffee shops and tell the people that may not be quite as interested in politics as you are that there is a lot at stake for Mississippi. When they are just about to sip that coffee, you tell them that Haley Barbour has got a clear vision for the future of this State. He is not going to win it on his looks alone. He is going to win it because he cares about people. See, when he hears somebody is looking for a job, it bothers him. If somebody is looking for a job and cannot find work, it means you have got a problem here in Mississippi. That is the way I feel about the Nation. The role of Government is not to create wealth; the role of Government is to create an environment in which entrepreneurship can flourish, in which small businesses can grow to be big businesses. And that is why, for example, in Washington, I worked with the Congress to pass tax relief. When the economy goes slow, if you let people have more of their own money, they are likely to demand a good or a service. Haley understands that. He understands whose money we spend in Government. We are not spending the Government's money; we are spending the people's money. And you better have you a Governor who understands that when he gets you elected to represent this great State. This economy is beginning to pick up a little steam, but there are still some citizens who hurt. So long as they are hurting, we have got to keep creating an environment for economic growth. It will be important to have a Governor in Mississippi who understands that fiscal discipline is necessary at the State capital.

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If you are interested in job creation, Government has got to be fiscally disciplined. If you are interested in job creation, you have got to put policy in place that encourages small-business growth. After all, most small businesses-most new jobs are created by small businesses in America. Haley has got a plan. He is got good ideas. He comes with the right philosophy, and he is got a plan to create jobs here in Mississippi. For the people in Mississippi who are interested in job creation, the right man for the job is Haley Barbour. By the way, one way to make sure this is a good State in which to create jobs is to have a Governor who is willing to take off the-take on the plaintiffs' attorneys and fight for real, meaningful litigation reform. You do not want it said that the fastest growth industry in your State is the plaintiffs' bar. That is not good for attracting industry and creating jobs. You do not want the greatest wealth accumulation in any State to be in the hands of plaintiffs' attorneys. You need to get you a Governor who understands that, who is tough enough to stand up to the special interests that oftentimes dominate State politics, is willing to look those in the eye who are trying to ruin the condition for job creation, who are running your doctors out of your State, look them in the eye and say, I demand that we have reasonable tort reform in the State of Mississippi. Last time I came to your beautiful State, I was here because I was worried about docs getting run out of Mississippi. I will never forget meeting with the guy from the Delta. It was a fellow; he came down from the North. He heard a call. He is what you might call a faith-based doctor, practicing real medicine, but he was motivated by faith to help people who hurt, a fantastic person. The guy never grew up in Mississippi but heard there was a need for health care in this State, so he came here. He wanted to give of his time and talents so somebody might live a better life. And he told me the stories about what it is like to live in a State where the system is not fair anymore, where the lawyers have pushed too far. And he left your State of Mississippi because the premiums went up too high. You lost a good heart in your State because the system is awry.

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You need you a Governor who understands that health care must be accessible and affordable, a Governor that when he says he is going to get you medical liability reform, will get you real medical liability reform, not only for the sake of the docs but, more importantly, for the sake of the people who need good health care. In order for this State to reach its full potential, you need to have a Governor who understands the number one priority of any State is the education of the children of that State. Haley understands that. We passed good law in Washington, DC. It is an interesting change of attitude for the Nation's Capital. It used to be we just passed out money in Washington. And we are pretty good at that, by the way. But now we have said, if you are going to receive money for education purposes and elementary and secondary act money and Title I money within that title, is now we expect to see whether or not the children are learning to read and write and add and subtract. See, the State of Mississippi needs a Governor, just like our country needed a ENTITY, that was willing to challenge the soft bigotry of low expectations. When you lower the bar, you get bad results. If you believe certain children cannot learn, you will have a system that just shuffles the kids through. If you believe it is impossible to teach a certain type of child, guess what is going to happen? That type of child will never learn. I believe it is in the reach with every State and every school to teach the basics. And therefore, in return for Federal money, I expect the basics to be taught. And I want to thank Senator Lott and the Congressman here who stood with me on that important initiative. Now, in return for Federal money, States must show people whether or not our children are learning to read and write and add and subtract. We want concrete proof. And if it is not happening, we will use the measurement systems not as a way to punish the good teachers, but to correct the situation. Haley Barbour agrees with that philosophy. He believes about raising the bar. He believes, support the teachers. But most of all, he knows that we must correct problems early, before they are too late, to make sure that not one single child gets left behind in the State of Mississippi.

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I appreciate the fact that Haley understands that there are people who hurt in Mississippi; there are people who are lonely and addicted, people who are homeless, and people who are hungry. He also understands what I know, that the Government can hand out money, but it cannot put hope in people's hearts or a sense of purpose in people's lives. That is done when a loving soul puts their arm around somebody who hurts and says, I love you. What can I do to help you? The true strength of this country is the hearts and souls of the American people. And the job of people in positions of responsibility is to rally that spirit. That is why the Faith-Based Initiative that I proposed in Washington is so vital. It is an initiative that Haley fully understands. Listen, there are great programs that come out of Government, and sometimes they work, and sometimes they do not . But we ought to use all avenues, all our strengths, to achieve the common goal that everybody feels the great hope of America. When we find somebody who is lonely and addicted on drugs, we ought not to fear a faith-based program's involvement with that person. You see, sometimes it takes a change of heart to change a habit. And when we find effective programs based upon faith, Government at the Federal level and State level should not fear faith, we should welcome faith into the important delivery of human services to people who hurt. I had a chance to talk to Haley on Air Force One coming down. He came over to Fort Stewart, and I thought it might be okay if I shared some thoughts on the war on terror. I was in Fort Stewart; it is the home of the 3d Infantry Division. They are the troops who took it up the west side, from the south of Iraq to free Baghdad. What an honor it is to stand up in front of fantastically brave troops and to thank them on behalf of a grateful nation. It is important for me to continue to do this because this Nation still remains at war. It is a different kind of war. You saw how different it was on September the 11th, 2001. Instead of armies marching across plains or Air Forces bombing Pearl Harbor, we were attacked by coldblooded killers who took our own assets and flew them into the buildings without regard to the nature of the victim. These people did not care if they were young kids, women, men-no such thing in their mind as innocent or guilt. They are interested in one thing, death.

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On that day, this country decided that no matter how long it took, we would find those who would inflict harm upon America and bring them to justice. I will never forget the lessons of September the 11th, 2001, so long as I am your ENTITY. I have a solemn duty to protect America, and we are making progress. We are slowly but surely bringing the Al Qaida killers to justice. I remind people that over two-thirds of the known operatives and leaders are either dead or captured. And I can assure you, we are after the rest of them. No matter how long it takes, no matter what the cost, we will bring those who harmed America and want to harm America to justice. We owe it to future generations of Americans. We owe it to the peace and security of the world to use our strength to find the killers. Therapy will not work with these kind of people. Treaties make no sense. Get them before they get us, to stay on the offensive. Right after September the 11th, I laid out a new American doctrine that said, If you harbor a terrorist, if you feed a terrorist, if you house a terrorist, you are just as guilty as the terrorists. And the Taliban found out what the United States of America meant. Young girls now go to school for the first time, because the Taliban is no more. Girls go to school, thanks to the might of the United States of America. We believe and know that freedom is not America's gift to the world; it is the Almighty's gift to every individual in the world. And we have brought freedom to the people of Iraq in a military operation that was one of the swiftest and most humane military operations in history. We rid the world of Saddam Hussein, and we freed millions of people in Iraq. Terrorist groups will no longer find support in Iraq, and terrorist groups will not ever be able to get weapons of mass destruction in Iraq because Saddam Hussein is no more. But I understand this, that in order to make sure America is secure in the long run and the world is more peaceful, we must spread freedom. Free people do not attack their neighbors. Free people do not develop weapons of mass destruction. The truth of the matter is, the greatest security for America in the long term is the spread of liberty. And that is why it is so important in the heart of the Middle East that we establish a free society in Iraq.

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