Remarks on strengthening Social Security in Columbia, South Carolina

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, April 25, 2005

April 18, 2005

Thank you all very much. Mr. Speaker, thank you for that kind and short introduction. [Laughter] I appreciate Governor Sanford being here. I want to thank the Lieutenant Governor. I appreciate President Pro Tem McConnell, Majority Leader Leatherman, members of the South Carolina legislature.

I appreciate my traveling party from Washington. Hope you appreciate them, too. That would be Senator Lindsey Graham, Senator DeMint, Members of the United States House of Representatives from the great State of South Carolina.

I appreciate the justices of the South Carolina Supreme Court being here. I thank those of you who have taken time to come and listen. I appreciate your warm welcome.

It is an honor to be speaking in this chamber. It is great to be back in the capital of South Carolina. The last time I came to this city, I gave the commencement speech at USC. I was proud to have received an honorary degree. When I told Laura about it, she said, "I thought your first degree was honorary." [Laughter] She sends her best, and she sends her love. She's, by the way, a fabulous First Lady. She is--[applause].

I appreciate our escort committee. I told the Members that this is the first time I have spoken to a legislative body, State legislative body since I was the Governor of Texas. So thank you for having me. It's--there's some differences, of course. There are a lot of cowboy hats back in Austin. [Laughter] And I'll be honest with you, a lot of us didn't know anything about dancing the shag. [Laughter] And I imagine we could have a pretty good debate about which of our States has the best barbecue. [Laughter] Now is not the time. [Laughter]

But one thing is, no matter whether you serve at the Federal level or the State level, we share serious responsibilities. See, our constituents have put us into office to solve problems now. That's what they've done. They said, "We've elected you to go to your statehouse"--or in my case, Washington, DC--"to solve problems." The people expect us to confront problems without illusion. They expect us to lead with conviction and confidence, not by reading the latest poll or listening to the latest focus group, and above all, they expect us to deliver results.

And here in South Carolina, you've delivered results. You've faced serious challenges, especially in your economy. Listen, we've had a stock market decline. We've had a recession. We've had corporate scandals. We had a terrorist attack on September the 11th, 2001. We've had the demands of war. And all these have tested our Nation's economy, and they hit particularly hard here in your State. South Carolina's economic growth slowed. Small businesses moved out or shut down. Workers lost their jobs, and State finances were headed toward a free fall.

The people of South Carolina looked to you and they looked to your Governor for leadership. And you delivered. You set clear priorities for your budget, and you made hard decisions when it came to spending. To rein in the rising costs of health care, you became one of the first States in the Nation to offer health savings accounts to State employees. To reward hard-working families and job creators, you refused to raise taxes on the working people of South Carolina. You've focused bipartisan actions. You've lifted your State out of fiscal crisis. You've erased a $155 million deficit, and you've done it 2 years ahead of schedule. Today, South Carolina families are planning for the future with confidence.

I found this to be an interesting statistic about your State: More than 76 percent of the people in your State own their own home, one of the highest rates in the United States. Small businesses are investing and expanding. Exports are on the rise. Thanks to your leadership, thanks to your hard work, thanks to your willingness to set aside partisan differences, jobs are coming back to the great State of South Carolina.

In Washington, we're moving forward with an ambitious agenda to keep this country safe, prosperous, and free. The war on terror goes on. There are still ruthless enemies that would like to do harm to our people. We will continue to keep the pressure on these folks. We'll work with our friends and allies to be unrelenting in our search to bring them to justice. We will not rest until America is safe.

We'll continue to work to improve security here at home, but in the long term, in the long run, the best way to protect America and to keep the peace is to change the conditions that give rise to hopelessness and extremism. And the best way to do that is to spread freedom around the world. I don't believe freedom is America's gift to the world. I believe freedom is the Almighty God's gift to each man and woman in this world.

And that is why the United States of America will stand strongly with people in Afghanistan to Iraq to Lebanon to the Ukraine, because we understand that as freedom advances, the American people will be more secure, and we'll be able to achieve the peace that we all want.