Remarks in Wheeling, West Virginia

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, Sept 6, 2004

We live in a time of change, and change can be very unsettling. It's really a different time, when you think about it. Not all that long ago, moms stayed at home. Now, moms are working. Not all that long ago, a person would work for one company and retire with that company, and that company provided the health care and retirement. That's changing. These are changing times, and I fully understand that. And they can be unsettling times. And therefore, Government has a role not to dictate to people but to help people, to stand side by side with people.

And one way to do that is to promote an ownership society in America. One way to help people through times of change is to encourage ownership. That's why I support health care policies that people can call their own, manage their own, so they can take them from job to job. That's why I believe it's very important in the Social Security system to say to boomers like me, nothing's going to change. We're in good shape. But if you're a younger worker, you better listen very carefully to the Presidential debates on Social Security. The fiscal solvency of Social Security is in doubt for the young workers coming up. Therefore, I think young workers ought to be able to own a personal retirement account, a persona] savings account, in order for Social Security to work.

In times of change, it's really helpful for people to own their own home. There's nothing better than people opening that door up and say, "Welcome to my home. Welcome to my piece of property." Today, the home-ownership rate in America is at an alltime high. We want more people owning their own home. We want more people owning their own business. If you own something, you have a vital stake in the future of the United States of America.

Changing times--there are some things that won't change: the values we try to live by, courage, compassion, reverence, and integrity; our beliefs in liberty and opportunity and the nonnegotiable demands of human dignity. During changing times, we will support the institutions that give us direction and purpose, our families, our schools, our religious congregations.

We believe--and we stand for institutions like marriage and family, which are the foundations of society. We stand for a culture of life in which every person matters and every person counts. We stand for judges who faithfully interpret the law instead of legislating from the bench.

We stand for a culture of responsibility in America. See, the culture is changing from one that has said, "If it feels good, do it," and "If you've got a problem, blame somebody else," to a culture in which each of us understands we're responsible for the decisions we make in life. If you're a mother or a father, if you're fortunate enough to be a mother or a father, you are responsible for loving your child with all your heart and all your soul. That's your responsibility. If you're worried about the quality of the education in the community in which you live, you are responsible for doing something about it. If you're a CEO in corporate America, you're responsible for telling the truth to your shareholders and your employees. And in a responsibility society, each of us is responsible for loving our neighbor just like we'd like to be loved ourself.