Remarks in Erie, Pennsylvania

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, Sept 13, 2004

September 4, 2004

The President. Thank you all for coming. Thanks for being here, I appreciate you all coming out. There's nothing better than taking a bus trip on a Saturday with your family. [Laughter] Nothing better than ending the bus trip in Erie, Pennsylvania.

I'm so honored so many came out to say hello. Thank you. I'm here to ask for the vote. I believe it's important to get out amongst the people, tell them what's on your mind. And that's what I'm here to do. But perhaps--I'm going to give you some reasons to put me back in, but perhaps the most important one of all is so that Laura is the First Lady for 4 more years. Laura is a great mom, a great wife, and a great First Lady. I'm proud of the job she's doing. I'm also proud of our daughters, Barbara and Jenna. Thank you for coming.

I'm proud of my runningmate too. I'm running with a good man in Dick Cheney. I admit he's not the prettiest face on the ticket. [Laughter] I didn't pick him for his looks. I picked him because of his sound judgment, his experience. I picked him because he can get the job done.

It's good to be in old Tom Ridge's hometown. He's a good friend. He's a good man, and he's doing a heck of a good job in reorganizing the Department of Homeland Security. Thank you for raising him the right way. [Laughter]

Glad to be here with Senator Arlen Specter. I hope you put him back in the United States Senate. He's a good friend. I'm looking forward to working with him just like I look forward to working with Rick Santorum, the other Senator.

I'm proud to be in the district of another friend, Phil English, Congressman Phil English. Thought he'd have got a better seat. [Laughter] And Congressman John Peterson is with us as well. Thank you tot coming, John. I appreciate you being here.

Jean Craige Pepper to--she's running for treasurer of the State of Pennsylvania. My friend Jane Earll is with us today from right here in Erie. John Evans is with us.

I want to thank all the other State and local officials who are here. Thanks for stowing your State and your community. I thank my friend John Connolly, the country music singer, for being here today. I appreciate him coming. Most of all, thank you all for taking time out of your Saturday to come by and say hello. I appreciate you being here. It means an awful lot. Somebody said, "Well, maybe a couple hundred will show up to say hi." [Laughter]

I'm here also to ask for your help. I know many of you are involved in grassroots politics, which means putting up the signs or making the phone calls. I want to thank you for that, and I want to thank you for what you're going to do as we come down the stretch run here. I urge you to encourage your friends and neighbors to vote. We have a duty in this country to participate in the democratic process, to register people, convince people that we have an obligation in a free society to exercise our will at the ballot box. And when you're registering people, make sure you register independents and discerning Democrats, people like Zell Miller. And when you get them headed toward the polls, remind them 4 more years of George Bush and Dick Cheney will make this country safer, stronger, and better.

Over the next 2 months, I'm going to spend a lot of time here in Pennsylvania. Now, I know what the pundits say, but let me tell you something. There's no doubt in my mind, with your help, we're going to carry this great State. I'm going to tell you where I stand. I'm going to tell you what I believe, and I'm going to tell you where I'm going to lead this country for the next 4 years.

I believe every child can learn and every school must teach. We're making progress. We're challenging the soft bigotry of low expectations. We're raising standards. We're testing so we can solve problems early, before they're too late. We're empowering local people to make the right decisions for their schools, and the minority gap is closing in America. We're on our way to excellence for every child, and we're not turning back.

I believe we have a moral responsibility to provide good health care for our seniors. You might remember the old debate on Medicare. They called it "Mediscare." But I went to Washington to make sure that we provided good health for our seniors. See, the old system, we'd pay $100,000 for heart surgery but not the medicine necessary to set, to it that the heart surgery wasn't necessary. It didn't make any sense for you, the taxpayers. It didn't make any sense for our seniors. Starting in 2006, seniors will get prescription drug coverage in Medicare.

I believe in the energy and the innovative spirit of America's workers, small-business owners, farmers, and ranchers. And that's why we unleashed that energy with the largest tax cut in a generation. Because we acted, our economy is growing. Last--the jobs report yesterday showed that we increased jobs by 144,000 in the month of August. And when you couple that with the upward revisions of the two previous months, we added 200,000 new jobs, which is 1.7 million since August of '0.3. The national unemployment rate is 5.4 percent, 1 percent lower than last summer. The national unemployment rate is lower than the average of the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. Our economic recovery plan is working.