Remarks in Latrobe, Pennsylvania: September 22, 2004

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, Sept 27, 2004

The President. Thank you all very much for coming. I'm proud you all are here. Thanks for coming out to say hello.

How good does it get to be introduced by Arnold Palmer? What a fantastic citizen of our country. I'm proud to be here in his hometown. He said, "Have you ever heard of Rolling Rock?" I said, "I quit drinking." [Laughter]

But thank you all for coming out today. I'm asking for the vote, is what I'm doing here today in Pennsylvania. I like getting out amongst the people and letting them know I've got a reason for running--to serve you for 4 more years.

I'm here to tell you what my plans are for the future of our country, I'm also here to ask for your help. I'd like for you to register your friends and neighbors to vote. We have a duty in this country to vote. Call upon your friends and neighbors to exercise their responsibility. And when you're out registering people to vote, don't overlook discerning Democrats like Zell Miller. And when you get them headed toward the polls, tell them that if they want this to be a safer, stronger, better America, to put me and Dick Cheney back in office.

I'm sorry Laura is not with me today.

Audience members. Aw-w-w!

The President. I know it. I don't blame you. When I asked her to marry me, she said, "Fine, just so long as I never have to give a speech." I said, "Okay, fine, you'll never have to give a speech." Fortunately, she didn't hold me to my word. [Laughter] The people of this country got to see her in New York City giving a speech. They saw how compassionate, strong, and decent she is. She's a great mom, a great wife, a wonderful First Lady. I'm going to give you some reasons to put me back in, but perhaps the most important one of all is so Laura is First Lady for 4 more years.

I'm proud to be running with Dick Cheney. He's a good man. Now look, I admit it. I admit it, he doesn't have the waviest hair in the race. [Laughter] I didn't pick him for his hair. I picked him because he's a man of great judgment, sound experience, and he can get the job done on behalf of the American people.

Listen, you did a good job of training Tom Ridge. And I did a smart thing by picking him to run the new Department of Homeland Security.

I want to thank the United States Senators who are with me today. I'm here to ask you to put Arlen Specter hack in the United States Senate for 6 more years. I'm proud to be traveling with the other Senator, Rick Santorum. I want to thank Congressman Tim Murphy, the Congressman from this district. I call him Murph. I want to thank Congresswoman Melissa Hart from the great State of Pennsylvania for joining us.

I want to thank all the candidates who are here and local and State officials. Thanks for serving Pennsylvania and your communities.

I want to thank my friend Lynn Swann. He and I worked together to try to promote physical fitness. You need to walk. [Laughter] You want to stay healthy, get some exercise. And I appreciate my friend Lynn Swann for supporting my candidacy.

I want to thank John Michael Montgomery for singing here today.

I just came from Millvale, where I saw the devastation caused by the floods of Ivan. I assure you that we're helping as much as we possibly can to help people restore their lives, and that the prayers of the people of this country are with those who suffer.

I'm looking forward to this campaign. I like to campaign, because I like to be with people. I'm looking forward to telling people where I stand, what I believe, and where I'm going to lead this Nation for the next 4 years.

Audience members. Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!

The President, I went to Washington to solve problems, not to pass them on to future Presidents and future generations. I saw a problem with Medicare. See, Medicare was--is a very important program, but it wasn't changing with medicine. There was a problem. For example, Medicare would pay $100,000 to--for heart surgery for a senior but wouldn't pay for the prescription drugs to prevent the heart surgery from being needed in the first place. That's a problem. It's a problem for our seniors, who deserve modern medicine in Medicare. It's a problem for the taxpayers, So I brought Republicans and the Democrats together to strengthen Medicare. In 2006, our seniors will get prescription drug coverage. We're not turning back to the old days.

When we came into office, the economy was turning south. The stock market had been in decline prior to our arrival. The first three quarters of nay Presidency were a recession. We started to recover a little bit, and then we found out some of our citizens didn't tell the truth. Some CEOs forgot what it meant to be a responsible citizen in this country. By the way, we passed tough laws that now make it abundantly clear, we re not going to tolerate dishonesty in the boardrooms of our country. Then we got hit with an attack, and that hurt us. It cost us about a million jobs in the 3 months after September the 11th.

There was a problem. We're overcoming those problems. We're overcoming those obstacles because our workers are great, our farmers know what they're doing, the entrepreneurial spirit is strong. We're overcoming those problems because of well-timed tax cuts.